Jeannette Bougrab’s partner was murdered at Charlie Hebdo 10 years ago—in the name of values, she said, ‘that we’ve forgotten to defend.’

FREE PRESS
Things Worth Remembering: ‘He Died Standing Up’
Douglas Murray
January 5, 2025

This has been a week of mourning for the families of the Americans who lost their lives to Islamism in New Orleans. The attack bears all the hallmarks of the atrocities that have taken place in European capitals in the past decade. Indeed, in a disturbing coincidence, this coming week marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most appalling acts of terrorism seen in modern times. It was on January 7, 2015, that two Islamists went into the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, murdering a caretaker on their way in, and burst into the weekly editorial meeting. Calling for the editor, Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, and four other cartoonists by name, they proceeded to murder them all—as well as three other members of the editorial staff, one of Charb’s police bodyguards, and a guest at the meeting. While fleeing the scene, the two terrorists, who turned out to be brothers, shot and killed a Muslim police officer at point-blank range. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Charlie Hebdo won’t back down: 10 years after attack, mag provokes with ‘God caricature’ competition French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is set to publish a special God-mocking edition next week to mark 10 years since an attack on its offices by jihadist gunmen that left eight staff members dead. The anniversary of the shocking attack on freedom of expression is being used by the atheist publication to send a message of defiance to the extremists who burst into its offices on January 7, 2015, then fled shouting they had “killed Charlie Hebdo”.

STEYN ONLINE The Ghosts of Charlie Hebdo Exactly a decade ago – January 7th 2015 – two Muslim fanatics burst into the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed a dozen people, including the bulk of the senior editorial staff and some of France’s best known cartoonists…Throughout the very bad ten years for free speech that followed, I have thought often of Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, the editor of Charlie Hebdo and a great cartoonist in the French style. Two years before his death, he said: It may seem pompous, but I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.

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Reminiscent of anti-Israel reporting: “If you’re finding improvised explosive devices — whether they’re viable or not — why would you declare that it is not a terrorist event?”

FREE PRESS
Has Europe’s Islamist Threat Come to America?
Madeleine Kearns
January 1, 2025

Two suspected terror attacks on New Year’s Day signal a new worry for Americans that Europe has long faced: a deadly threat from our own citizens…The New Orleans massacre should be a wake-up call to those who see Islamism primarily as a problem far away from home, Hannah E. Meyers, director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute, told The Free Press…Though there is much still to be learned about the New Orleans attacker, “clearly, he was an American,” Weiss said. “That’s what frightens me more, to be honest.” READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG Mark Tapson: Is the New Orleans Attack Going to Be Our New Normal? Contrary to what the multiculturalists of the Left obstinately insist, cultural diversity is fine when you’re talking about restaurants, but is not inherently a societal strength. A burgeoning Muslim population anywhere in the Western world ultimately means the spread of no-go zones and sharia law, including the supremacist contempt for, and surging aggression against, our willfully oblivious, tolerant and inclusive host culture. 

NATIONAL REVIEW Jim Geraghty: A Bloody, Fiery Start to 2025 When you detonate a truck made by the company of Elon Musk in front of a hotel with Donald Trump’s name on it, I think the political message of the attack is awfully darn clear. Nonetheless, the New York Times reports that as of yesterday, the FBI was still attempting to determine whether placing gas canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large firework mortars in a car associated with Musk, and in front of a building associated with Trump, meets their technical definition of “terrorism.”

JEWISH INSIDER Two Israeli men remain hospitalized in New Orleans after terrorist attack Two Israeli men in their mid-20s remain hospitalized — one in critical condition — after a driver intentionally rammed a pickup truck into a crowd during New Year’s celebrations on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring at least 30 in Wednesday’s terror attack.   Both men were tourists from Israel, traveling through several American cities and expecting to end their jaunt in Florida.

FUTURE OF JEWISH Daniel Greenfield: White House says Muslims were the real victims of October 7th. On October 7th, Islamic terrorists invaded Israel and murdered over 1,000 people. They raped, looted, and burned families alive in their home. Those whom they did not kill, they took hostage. According to the U.S. President Joe Biden administration’s newly announced Islamophobia strategy, however, Muslims in America were the real victims of October 7th — just like they were the real victims of 9/11.

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“A U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear program during the lame duck period would be an enormous gamble from a president who promised he would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon”

AXIOS
Biden discussed plans to strike Iran nuclear sites if Tehran speeds toward bomb
Barak Ravid
January 2, 2025

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented President Biden with options for a potential U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities if the Iranians move towards a nuclear weapon before Jan. 20, in a meeting several weeks ago that remained secret until now, three sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios…The sources said some of Biden’s aides, including Sullivan, think that the degrading of Iran’s air defenses and missile capabilities, along with the significant weakening of Iran’s regional proxies, would improve the odds of a successful strike and decrease the risk of Iranian retaliation and regional escalation. READ MORE

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The report documented widespread abuse of returned hostages, including sexual abuse, beatings, starvation, and isolation.

JPOST
Health Ministry report exposes horrific experiences hostages endured in captivity
Shir Perets
December 29, 2024

The medical and psychological conditions of hostages who returned from Hamas captivity in Gaza were revealed in a Saturday Health Ministry report, which will be submitted to the United Nations this week. The report described aspects of abuse inflicted on the hostages and the consequences on their physical and mental health based on conversations with personnel who treated the hostages upon their return to Israel…According to the report, women, men, and children who returned from captivity were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, such as beatings, isolation, deprivation of food and water, branding, hair-pulling, and sexual assault. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Teens forced to perform sexual acts on each other: Report to UN details Hamas torture Government document compiles grim details of abuse of hostages, including whipping, branding with heated iron, isolation, binding, starving, maltreatment and psychological torment

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At least one driver is shot each day in Gaza by looters forcibly stopping aid trucks to pull off whatever they can to make a profit in the middle of the devastated war zone

NEW YORK POST
Humanitarian aid stacks up at Gaza border as relief organizations won’t deliver out of fear of Hamas, violent looters
Caitlin Doornbos
December 26, 2024

Thousands of pallets of humanitarian aid stacked at the Gaza border — from sacks of flour to blankets and canned food — are awaiting delivery by relief organizations that are unwilling to send supply trucks likely to be looted by Hamas terrorists and other street criminals. The aid, coming in on trucks from Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank, has already been inspected by the Israel Defense Forces before entering Gaza, where the international community and humanitarian organizations are in charge of delivering the assistance to Palestinians. But the path from the Israel-Gaza border to where the aid is needed in the central and north is long — and repeatedly targeted by violent thieves. READ MORE

COMMENTARY Seth Mandel: The Truth About That Famine Report This week, a group of USAID-funded famine researchers went rogue, knowingly publishing false statistics in a politicized attempt to sway U.S. foreign policy and calling into question its ability to conduct independent research. Employees with the Famine Early Warning Systems compiled a report warning that northern Gaza would soon sink into famine. USAID, in reviewing the report, noted that FEWS’s numbers were wildly inflated and demonstrably false, rendering the conclusions unreliable.

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Carter: The truth is that historians have not been harsh enough

NATIONAL REVIEW
Jimmy Carter Was a Terrible President — and an Even Worse Former President
Philip Klein
December 29, 2024

After being booted out of office in landslide fashion, the self-described “citizen of the world” spent the rest of his life meddling in U.S. foreign policy and working against the United States and its allies in a manner that could fairly be described as treasonous. His obsessive hatred of Israel, and pompous belief that only he could forge Middle East peace, led him to befriend terrorists and lash out at American Jews who criticized him…Carter’s friendship with Arafat was part of a pattern in which he would chastise Israel in the most extreme terms while ignoring or minimizing the actions of terrorists and dictators whose enemies happened to be Israel. On a Middle East trip in 1990, he visited Syria to meet with Hafez al-Assad and had nothing to say about the brutal dictator’s violations of human rights, but then he went to Israel and blasted its human rights record as it was trying to form a government. READ MORE

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“Israeli authorities have indicated that Prime Minister Netanyahu will not attend the ceremony to avoid potential arrest”

JPOST
Holocaust Memorial Mission to Poland canceled due to threats of arrest of Israeli PM
January 1, 2024

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) announced on Monday the cancellation of its Holocaust Memorial Mission of a group of leading academics and policymakers to Poland, which was set to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The decision comes in response to the Polish government’s announcement that it could arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he attended the January 27 commemoration event at the concentration camp, citing the flawed and contentious International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant. READ MORE

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“In a truly astounding statistic, Forbes revealed that the top 15 donors to the Kamala Harris campaign were all Jewish”

COMMENTARY
The Jewish Vote in 2024: Trump did better. But not much better
Jay P. Lefkowitz
January 2025

…Even after Hamas’s murder of approximately 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, the Democratic Party has continued to distance itself from Israel. A study by the Brookings Institute found that notwithstanding, or perhaps because of, President Biden’s strong statements in support of Israel at the start of the war, 44 percent of Democrats running for Congress in 2024 did not even mention Israel in their campaign materials. Seven percent of Democratic candidates even declared that Israel is committing genocide and/or that the United States must stop supporting Israel in the war. READ MORE

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He told police he chose AIPAC as his target because of its “political influence” and location, saying he was frustrated with the “status quo”

THE HILL
FBI says it thwarted apparent plot against AIPAC
Julia Shapero
January 1, 2025

The FBI thwarted an apparent plot to harm employees at a Florida office of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to court documents filed Monday. Law enforcement arrested Forrest Kendall Pemberton after he allegedly traveled to Plantation, Fla., in search of AIPAC’s office with several firearms, including an AR-15 rifle. Pemberton told police he went to the site, a former AIPAC office, to “scout” out the location before returning with the firearms, according to an affidavit signed by FBI special agent Taylor Nicklin. He was intercepted in a ride-share vehicle carrying the guns on Dec. 25, the first night of Hanukkah. READ MORE

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Except for Israel: “There’s never been a war in the history of war … where any nation has been asked, ‘But what’s your civilian-to-combat ratio?’ Because that’s just not how the law of war works”

JNS
The Gray Lady’s latest anti-Israel hit job
Ruthie Blum
December 30, 2024

It’s hard to imagine The New York Times stooping any lower than usual in its coverage of Israel’s defensive war in Gaza. Yet the Gray Lady seems to have managed to outdo itself on this score once again. Its latest hit job took the form of a lengthy news feature on Thursday, titled “Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians.” The article, marked by as many bylines as anonymous sources, attempted to lull readers with a neat trick: using the Israel Defense Forces’ self-imposed “purity of arms” doctrine, a stricter code of ethics than that of any other military in history, to highlight the Jewish state’s allegedly unacceptable behavior on the battlefield. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Public support for conscripting ultra-Orthodox has surged throughout war Public support for doing away with sweeping army exemptions for military-age ultra-Orthodox men has risen sharply over the past year, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute. Support for drafting eligible Haredim either en masse or incrementally, complete with economic penalties for those who do not comply, stood at 84.5 percent, compared to 67% in January 2024, the survey showed. Only 9% of the Israeli public supported exempting the ultra-Orthodox from mandatory military service.

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