“If you oppose the deal because it endangers future Israelis, you are right. And if you support the deal because we owe a duty to these hostages and their families, you are also right”

Posted on February 1, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
The angst of the ‘ceasefire’ in Israel
Micha Danzig
January 31, 2025

Many, particularly those not well-versed in Israeli history, are surprised that for most Israelis, me included, this deal was met with a mix of joy, dread, and concern. Joy—because every Israeli wants our hostages back. Dread—because every Israeli wants every one of our hostages to come home, and this deal doesn’t do that. Concern—because most Israelis know that many terrorists exchanged for hostages (on average, over 40 convicted terrorists for each hostage) will return to killing Jews, and because of the danger of Hamas reconstituting itself and once again using Gaza as a launching pad for mass murder, rape, and kidnappings. READ MORE

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Mandel: “To be clear: The process of dragging hostages through the crowds is not just morally abominable; it is legitimately dangerous. You are lucky to survive being freed by these psychopaths”

Posted on January 30, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Arbel Yehoud, Gadi Mozes, 5 Thais, freed amid mayhem in Khan Younis; Agam Berger released
Emanuel Fabian, Amy Spiro and Elana Kirsh
January 30, 2025

Eight hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel were released by Palestinian terror groups on Thursday under an ongoing ceasefire deal with Hamas, returning to Israel after 482 days in captivity in Gaza. Seven of them were freed in a long, chaotic process in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis that prompted fury in Israel. The three Israelis are IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80. The Thai nationals are Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak. Yehoud, Mozes and the five Thais were released in an uncontrolled and dangerous handover early Thursday afternoon, outside the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, surrounded by hundreds of masked gunmen and large, seething crowds. READ MORE

I24NEWS VIDEO: Arbel Yehud released amid seething Khan Yunis mob

COMMENTARY Seth Mandel: You’re Lucky To Survive Being Freed By Hamas But when Israeli hostages are released by Hamas, Gazans first film themselves hungrily getting in their last war crimes before the coming drought. It is dangerous business, this getting freed by Hamas. So the emotions begin not at relief but at horror: The price of freedom is one last, live torture session.

JPOST Bibas family remain captive in Gaza, as Israel hopes against hope for their return As world awaits news of the Bibas family during the Gaza ceasefire, supporters don orange clothing to honor the red-headed children who have become symbols of the hostage crisis…Itamar Lippner, a Tel Aviv attorney, might have been speaking for an entire nation when he posted on social media this week, “All the signs point to bad news.”

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Israel demanded the mediators who brokered the deal with Hamas — Qatar, Egypt and the United States — take steps to ensure the safety of Israeli hostages during their release from Hamas captivity, including those to be freed this coming weekend

Posted on January 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH PRESS
Israel Retaliates for Maltreatment of Hostages During Release from Gaza
Hana Levi Julian
January 30, 2025

The State of Israel retaliated Thursday for the maltreatment of its hostages during their release from captivity in Gaza, slow-walking the release of 100 terrorist prisoners — including 33 serving life sentences — over the issue. The prisoners were to be released once the freed hostages reached Israeli territory, but instead the buses were ordered to turn around and return to Ofer and Ketziot prisons. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with Defense Minister Israel Katz, has ordered that the release of the terrorists slated to be released today be delayed until the safe exit of our hostages in the next phases is assured,” read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. “Israel demands that the mediators see to this.” READ MORE

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“Trump, as a candidate, called for deporting pro-Hamas students who are in the US on visas”

Posted on January 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Trump ordering review to identify, punish and deport antisemites — including students on visas
Steven Nelson
January 29, 2025

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday instructing all federal agencies to identify civil and criminal authorities available to combat antisemitism — including finding ways to deport anti-Jewish activists who violated laws, The Post has learned. The order requires agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days and outlines plans for the Justice Department to investigate pro-Hamas graffiti and intimidation, including on college campuses, according to a document describing the order. The executive order calls for the deportation of resident aliens — including students with visas — who broke laws as part of anti-Israel protests following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that sparked the invasion of Gaza…READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Trump insists: Egypt and Jordan will do it, they will take in Gazans US President unfazed by Egypt and Jordan rejecting his plan which would see them taking in Palestinian Arabs from Gaza: They’re going to do it. We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it. [US annual aid to Jordan is $1.7 billion; to Egypt $1.5 billion] On Wednesday, Sisi responded publicly for the first time to Trump’s proposal, stating that Egypt will not take part in the displacement of Palestinian Arabs, an action he described as an “act of injustice” that could endanger Egyptian security.

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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

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“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

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“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

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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. 

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“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.

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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

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