Advisers gather physical and digital artifacts related to the Hamas massacre, and get advice from curators who undertook a similar task after 9/11

Posted on January 27, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
How—and Where—to Build an Oct. 7 Memorial
Hillel Kuttler
January 29, 2025

…In a country speckled by plaques, stones, gardens, overlooks, hiking paths, rooms, buildings, and entire communities honoring lives taken by terrorism and war, Israel is tackling perhaps its most gargantuan, sorrowful task: memorializing the calamity of Hamas’ invasion and its murder of 1,200 people. The mission is vast, encompassing not only how to mark the trauma but where to do so. That could mean a national museum-memorial or a series of sites linked thematically throughout the Eshkol regional council (akin to an American county), where Hamas infiltrated more than 20 communities—or a combination of these approaches. The undertaking is complex, those involved explained, because the period beginning Oct. 7 hasn’t concluded, given that the wars instigated by Hamas near the Gaza Strip and by Hezbollah in northern Israel are ongoing…READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Iran threat to Israel through Hamas and Hezbollah has been cut off, and it has also lost Syria as a weapons smuggling route for its proxies”

Posted on January 27, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

THE TELEGRAPH
Iran’s supreme leader forced to wear flak jacket as fears of existential threat grow
Steve Golddie
January 25, 2025

Iran has ordered its proxy forces across the Middle East to exercise caution as the Islamic Republic fears an existential threat following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, The Telegraph has learned. Officials have told commanders of Iran-backed militias to avoid provocative actions that could escalate regional tensions. Commanders have also been instructed to maintain defensive positions while avoiding any actions that could be interpreted as aggressive by US forces or regional allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, even appeared to be wearing a flak jacket at the funeral of two judges who were gunned down in Tehran last weekend – reportedly over fear of attacks. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“The ban is by far the most robust step ever taken by Israel against UNRWA, whose largest donors have been the United States and the EU”

Posted on January 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
UNRWA activities become illegal in Israel
Canaan Lidor
January 30, 2025

Laws that ban UNRWA in Israel went into effect on Thursday, barring the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians from maintaining a presence or activities in that country, and prohibiting Israeli officials from engaging in contact with it. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel welcomed the development. “UNRWA lies at the heart of the Arab-Jewish conflict. It has always been a non-neutral political organization, and it actually paved the way for October 7th. Any other country in the world would have shut down such an organization within 24 hours of its employees having massacred civilians. I will continue to do everything in my power to bring about the complete closure of the organization,” she tweeted. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Indonesian Holocaust Museum initially sparked fierce opposition from influential Islamic organizations

Posted on January 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

STUDY FINDS
Holocaust museums in Muslim countries offer ray of hope amid rising antisemitism
January 28, 2025

As antisemitism surges globally in the wake of October 7, an unlikely phenomenon provides grounds for cautious optimism: the emergence and continued operation of Holocaust museums and exhibitions in Muslim-majority countries. A new report from Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry documents this development, highlighting how these institutions are working to combat Holocaust denial and antisemitic propaganda in parts of the world where such beliefs often flourish unchallenged. The report, titled “For a Righteous Cause,” examines three notable examples: Indonesia’s first Holocaust museum on the island of Sulawesi, a permanent Holocaust exhibition in Dubai, and two museums under construction in Albania. READ MORE

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Zero tolerance for empty words of Holocaust remembrance
This is just another example of how much of the world likes dead Jews but is utterly intolerant of live ones, who are prepared to fight for their rights and their existence. As proof of that, in many of these ceremonies, there will be not a word said about the Nazis of our own day who wish to fulfill Adolf Hitler’s goal of the genocide of the Jews. And by that, I don’t mean the hateful though small, isolated and politically powerless neo-Nazis that dwell in the fever swamps of the far right in Western societies. Instead, I’m referring to Hamas and other Islamist terror groups that have as their goal the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet and the genocide of the more than 7 million Jews who live there.

NEW YORK POST Israeli mom dragged out of Holocaust memorial event for protesting Irish president’s Gaza remarks An Israeli mother of two was dragged out of a Holocaust Memorial Day event in Dublin on Sunday after protesting the Irish president’s mention of Gaza during his speech. Viral video of the event shows a woman grabbing Israeli Lior Tibet, 37, and forcibly removing her from Dublin’s Mansion House, where President Michael Higgins was giving his speech marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“While acknowledging the joy of reunited families, Rabbi Eliyahu turned to those still drowning in pain – the families forced to watch their loved ones’ killers walk free to heroes’ welcomes”

Posted on January 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

THE ISRAEL BIBLE
Where is your heart ?
Rabbi Elie Mischel
January 26, 2025

Hillel Fuld stared at his phone in disbelief last week, reading the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. There, among the names, was his brother Ari’s murderer – the terrorist who stabbed him in the neck from behind while he was grocery shopping. Though mortally wounded, Ari Fuld had managed to chase down and shoot his attacker before he could claim another victim. Now that killer would walk free. “Is there a user guide somewhere on how to navigate this?” Hillel wrote on social media. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER ‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free While the release of three Israeli hostages on Thursday brought relief and elation across Israel, it also triggered a wave of mixed emotions, especially among victims who saw the terrorists responsible for their suffering set free. One of them is Oran Almog, who was just ten years old when a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a pregnant woman blew up the restaurant he was in, killing five members of his family and leaving him blind.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Abramowitz: “Why was Israel forced to accept such a bad deal when a much better deal could have been negotiated one month later, aided by the threat of force?”

Posted on January 25, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

SAVE THE WEST
Special Envoy to the Middle East Undermines America First Agenda
Kenneth Abramowitz
January 25, 2025

…Why was Israel forced to accept such a bad deal when a much better deal could have been negotiated one month later, aided by the threat of force? Why did America push Israel to accept a deal that is so unfavorable to America’s long-term interests? Why did America push for a deal designed by the failed Biden administration, which was also favorable to radical Muslim Brotherhood countries such as Qatar and Turkey? What mistakes were made by the American negotiators, particularly by Steve Witkoff? READ MORE

JEWISH PRESS Did Witkoff Just Push Détente with Hamas? What’s worrisome about the event above is not so much that the man Trump trusts [Steve Witkoff] to represent him in the Middle East is in favor of negotiating with Hamas, but that [FNC pundit] Mark Levin should have to go out of his way to explain why it’s a bad thing, because of, you know, the atrocities and stuff.

GATESTONE Khaled Abu Toameh: Qatar’s ‘Day After’ Plan for Gaza: Keeping Hamas in Power The Qataris do not want the PA in the Gaza Strip to rein in Hamas and other terrorist groups, or to prevent attacks against Israel. Instead, they want the PA to act as a front to maintain Hamas’s hold on power — as a cover for keeping Hamas in power. Qatar has one main purpose: to safeguard its friends in Hamas, continue promoting radical Islam, and deceive Westerners into believing that the Jihadists are a better alternative to the Arab world’s present regimes

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

“A peace between Lebanon and Israel may be no warmer than the ones Egypt and Jordan have with Israel…It doesn’t matter”

Posted on January 24, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

THIS IS BEIRUT
It Is Time for Israeli-Lebanese Peace
David Hale
January 21, 2025

A window for peace between Israel and Lebanon just unexpectedly opened…Now, that equation has changed, with Hezbollah on its knees, Assad gone for good, and Tehran’s fortunes in reverse. There is no objective reason why Israel and Lebanon cannot proceed to the next logical phase, formal peace. Lebanon is no longer held hostage to the geo-strategic needs of the Assad family. Unlike the situation between Israel and the Syrians and Palestinians, there is no territorial issue. Shebaa Farms is a border anomaly. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Benjamin Anthony: “An enfeebled Hamas cannot be trusted to safeguard the hostages in the face of a baying crowd. Israel’s leaders must do more to secure them”

Posted on January 23, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The unspoken perils of the hostage release deal
Benjamin Anthony
January 23, 2025

…..Four more women are expected to be released on Saturday, and Israel has but a few days to safeguard them from having to straddle similar, unfathomable danger. The sole partition that stood between the hostages and the throngs of Palestinian-Arabs who had flocked to the site of their convoy to witness their release, was a one-man-deep picket-line of gun-toting, black-and-green clad Hamas terrorists who, if the mob had decided to swarm the hostages, would have been woefully outnumbered and ill-equipped to fend them off, assuming, that is, that they would have wished to do so. Had the crowd ridden a whim to attack, those three hostages, having endured and survived captivity for so very long, may well have met their end in a slaughter by the masses. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Betar US: “One of Trump’s day-one executive orders on immigration directs officials to revoke the visas of people who “advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists” on U.S. soil”

Posted on January 23, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY CALLER
Jewish Group Gives Trump Admin List Of ‘Pro-Hamas’ Foreign Students, Faculty To Deport
Hudson Crozier
January 22, 2025

A “loud proud Zionist” organization sent the Trump administration documents on dozens of allegedly pro-terrorist college students and faculty, hoping President Donald Trump will deport them…Activist group Betar US confirmed to the DCNF Wednesday that it sent the information to officials in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the White House. The Jewish organization says it documented 100 students and 20 faculty and staff members with visas in the U.S. whom Trump should deport for supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas. READ MORE

JEWISH PRESS Trump Signs Order Expelling Pro-Hamas Foreign Students President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order permitting the deportation of students and other foreign nationals who express support for terrorist organizations that are officially designated as such by the US government.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Harvard settles lawsuits over antisemitism on campus Harvard University has agreed to provide additional protections for Jewish students to settle two lawsuits accusing the Ivy League school of becoming a hotbed of rampant antisemitism. Under a settlement announced on Tuesday, Harvard will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism when evaluating whether alleged discrimination or harassment violates the university’s non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Leave a comment

Matti Friedman: “To free its people, Israel negotiates with terrorists and releases murderers. Is that a strength or a weakness?”

Posted on January 22, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Israel’s Prisoner’s Dilemma
Matti Friedman
January 17, 2025

In Israel, news of an imminent hostage deal with Hamas grips the country. Fifteen months after the attack of October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists seized 250 civilians and soldiers from Israeli territory, nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza. The oldest is 86. The youngest is 2. Most seem to be dead, murdered by their captors, or killed inadvertently by Israeli forces, but Hamas refuses to divulge how many. The hostages’ faces have become familiar to everyone in Israel. They’re on posters in bus stops, on telephone poles, hanging from highway bridges. We all feel we know them. Even though not all details of the deal are clear, Israelis are broadly behind it—a poll on January 15 put the number at 69 percent, with 21 percent unsure and only 10 percent opposed. READ MORE

FUTURE OF JEWISH Joshua Hoffman: The Cruel Math of Palestinian Prisoners for Israeli Hostages In the cynical calculus of global expectations, one nation stands out as an aberration: Israel, a country that has repeatedly freed hundreds of convicted terrorists — responsible for the cold-hearted killing of civilians — in exchange for the safe return of a single soldier or citizen.

JAKE WALLIS SIMONS SUBSTACK Why did Israel release so many murderers? Three innocent Israeli women. Ninety Palestinian terrorists. Such were the terms of the grim human transaction that took place last weekend. Granted, this was a very different deal from October 2011, when 1,027 prisoners – including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the pogroms that darkened the globe 12 years later – were traded for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. But many around the world looked on in bewilderment. Hamas has been on the ropes. Why did Israel, by far the stronger party, make such concessions?

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Leave a comment