Sinwar tells negotiators: “Don’t let Israel kill me”

ALGEMEINER
‘Sinwar Insists’: Hamas Leader Reportedly Wants Guarantee in Gaza Ceasefire Deal He Won’t Be Assassinated
Jack Elbaum
August 22, 2024

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wants a guarantee he won’t be assassinated by Israel included in a hostage and ceasefire deal, even as he sacrifices Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to reports. A senior Egyptian official told Ynet that Sinwar, the mastermind of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, wants to be protected from the prospect of an Israeli assassination as a condition of agreeing to a deal that would return Israeli hostages who Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7 and implement a ceasefire in Gaza. “Sinwar insists on guarantees for his safety and life,” the official said. In recent months, Israel has taken out numerous top Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Gaza and Lebanon. READ MORE

FDD U.S. Carrier Strike Group Arrives in the Middle East The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on August 21 amidst the continued threat of a potential Iranian attack against Israel and the risk of a wider regional war. The Lincoln, equipped with F-35C and F/A-18 Block III fighters, is accompanied by Destroyer Squadron 21, consisting of three guided missile destroyers. 

FUTURE OF JEWISH Israel is fighting the hardest war in modern history — and winning. Despite all these hurdles in front of Israel, the Jewish state has been whooping those who started this war. The war in and of itself, on the battlefields, is not even close. Israel is rather easily having their way with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and, ultimately, the Islamic Republic of Iran. At the same time, it has become painstakingly obvious that there are three types of countries in the world: developed, developing, and Israel.

JPOST IDF confirms signs of bullet wounds found on hostage bodies recovered from Gaza Evidence of bullet wounds was found on the bodies of the hostages who were recovered from the Gaza Strip earlier this week, the IDF confirmed on Thursday. These are preliminary findings, the army stressed. The captives may have been killed by friendly fire. Alternatively, they may have been shot dead by their captures. … The bodies of six men taken captive on October 7, all of whom were killed in captivity, were brought back to Israel for burial. They were Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtab, Yoram Metzger, Haim Peri, Alexander Dancyg, and Avraham Munder all found in the Khan Yunis area in Gaza.

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Parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin speak at 2024 DNC; both parents wore a piece of tape with “320” written on it, marking the number of days Hersh has been in captivity.

COMMENTARY
The Fight Over Having a Palestinian Speaker at the DNC
Seth Mandel
August 22, 2024

After the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin were given a gracious reception at the Democratic National Convention last night, demands that a Palestinian-American speaker be added to the program went into overdrive. The Uncommitted movement—which has been pushing voters to punish the Democrats for being too friendly toward Israel—is especially agitated, though it remains unclear why they think they should be rewarded by a party for trying to sabotage that party. Chutzpah and hypocrisy aside, though, there’s a very clear reason such a speech hasn’t happened: The Democrats don’t cultivate relationships with Palestinians whom they trust to handle a prime-time convention speech. READ MORE

YOUTUBE Parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin speak at 2024 Democratic National Convention Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, American-Israeli parents whose son Hersh was abducted by Hamas from a music festival during the attack on Oct. 7, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday. Rachel told a hushed crowd inside United Center that Hersh’s left forearm was blown off by a grenade in the attack before Hamas loaded him onto a pick-up truck, “stolen from his life – and me and Jon – in Gaza.” “Since then, we’ve lived on another planet,” she said. “Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring.” Click here to watch video.

TABLET MAG The Democrats in Chicago  The radicals who actually matter have been brought back into the Democratic fold in order to project party unity. The Harris-Walz campaign is simultaneously courting the party’s pro- and anti-Israel constituencies in an effort to delay intra-party debates until after the election. The people on the outside of the convention are the leftovers. They have no power of their own now that their patrons within the party establishment have withdrawn their support, and their protests are, in effect, media pseudo-events, misleading even when they depict something “real.”

ARUTZ SHEVA Anti-Israel protesters confront Vivek Ramaswamy in Chicago: Racist go home! Anti-Israel protesters swarm former Republican presidential primary candidate blocks from DNC, tell him he has no right to be there unless he calls out Israel over “genocide” in Gaza.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Israeli diplomat hails platform adopted by DNC, decision not to platform Palestinian representative An Israeli diplomat at the Democratic National Convention hails the platform adopted by the party this week along with organizers’ decision not to offer a speaker slot to a representative of the Palestinian-American community.

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“Hamas has become obsessed with rooting out traitors in their midst, but Israel keeps finding new informants”

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
How Israel recruits Gazans inside the heart of Hamas to risk their lives for the Jewish State
Elon Perry
August 20, 2024

There is one phenomenon that worries Hamas almost as much as the Israeli military in Gaza: the thousands of informants who risk their lives for Israel. Without their work, none of the operations to kill senior Hamas officials would have worked or the hostages been rescued. So why do they do it – and how are they recruited? An informant’s fundamental mission is to locate targets such as senior Hamas leaders, weapons production tunnels and Hamas operatives who travel throughout the Gaza Strip dressed in civilian clothing. The informant passes this information to his Israeli handler – but never, usually, by phone or any other device, lest he be exposed. It is always done in a meeting at one of the kibbutzim in southern Israel, near the border with Gaza. READ MORE

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“Numerous media files were found on the Israeli’s phone, including executions, beheadings, and mutilated bodies”

JPOST
Israeli doctor who cared for wounded IDF soldiers pledges allegiance to ISIS
Darcie Grunblatt
August 22, 2024

A doctor at Soroka Medical Center who pledged allegiance to ISIS was arrested by the Israel Police and the Shin Bet in a joint operation, and an indictment has been filed against him, Israel Police reported Thursday morning. The Shin Bet arrested the Israeli citizen for questioning in July on suspicion of engaging in activities inspired by ISIS The Beersheba resident, Muhammad Azzam, 34, originally from Nazareth, works as a doctor at Soroka Medical Center…Following October 7, Azzam decided to join ISIS officially and pledged allegiance to Abu Hafs al-Hajri al-Qurashi, the new caliph of the organization. Furthermore, following October 7, Azzam sent his friends footage of October 7 atrocities with a tone of mockery and joy, according to the indictment. READ MORE

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“Envy is the sin of Cain and leads naturally to murder. The question put repeatedly to a free people, ultimately their Israel Test, is between envy and admiration of excellence”

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Israel: Leader of the Free World
George Gilder
August 14, 2024

For eight decades after the end of World War II, America’s proudest title was “Leader of the Free World.” Today, both on grounds of practical leadership and grasp of what it means to be free, we are yielding the title to Israel…A self-governing people does not whine. They do not expect to be catered to like children. Unlike the so-called “Palestinians” who depend entirely on funds from Western “charities” – billions annually from the U.S. through the UN – the Israelis give back far more than they take. They assume responsibility for their own fate and flourishing. Israelis don’t complain; they fight. The very essence of Zionism is that no Jew should ever again be a pet, dependent on the forbearance of some alien elite for survival. READ MORE

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Mohsen Sazegara: “Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, in the heart of Tehran, was a humiliation for Iran’s intelligence organizations”

JPOST
IRGC founder to ‘Post’: Iran unable to sustain long-term war with Israel
Alex Winston
August 20, 2024

Iran is in no position to fight a long-term war with Israel and even asked the US to intervene to prevent a possible large-scale Israeli retaliation to any Iranian attack, according to Mohsen Sazegara, founder of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post “[Khamenei’s] first reaction was that we retaliate and don’t stop. But when he referred to his military commanders and the experts in the IRGC, and they should present the options of what to do, they told him that Iran is not in a position to fight Israel. They don’t have any strategic balance. They can send missiles toward Israel, especially hypersonic missiles that can reach Israel in six to eight minutes.‘ But when Israel retaliates, then we can’t defend the country, especially air defense,’…READ MORE

THE HILL Iran is weaker than we think. It’s time to take advantage. Haniyeh’s killing while under maximum protection by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tells Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, that Israel has deeply infiltrated the ayatollah’s intelligence and security establishment. Furthermore, unlike in previous years, Israel is now prepared to use its power to strike the Islamic Republic at the highest levels within Iran.

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October 7: “Israeli intelligence officers reportedly determined Hamas was incapable of carrying out an assault of such a large scope, or possibly unwilling, and dismissed concerns about it”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
IDF leaders didn’t know intel chiefs obtained Hamas battle plan in April 2022
Staff
August 18, 2024

IDF intelligence chiefs never told Israel’s most senior military and political leaders that Unit 8200 had in April 2022 obtained a document setting out Hamas’s plans for what proved to be the October 7 invasion and slaughter in southern Israel, Channel 12 reported on Saturday. The existence of the document, which Israeli military intelligence codenamed “Jericho Walls,” was first reported in The New York Times in November 2023. The 40-page plan, the Times reported at the time, laid out almost exactly how Hamas eventually wound up carrying out the attack: “The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.” READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Outgoing Intelligence Chief: ‘Responsiblity for failure is mine, I beg your forgiveness’ Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the outgoing head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, accepted responsibility for the intelligence failures of October 7 in his farewell address Wednesday evening. “We did not live up to our sacred oath,” Haliva said in his tearful address…Taking responsibility is not words, it must be actions. My decision to end my role and resign from the IDF is the norm in which I was educated.”

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Why does it take a federal judge to tell UCLA that it’s unlawful for Jewish students to be blocked from attending classes or be harassed because of their faith?

LA TIMES
Judge orders UCLA to ensure equal campus access to Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests
Jaweed Kaleem
August 13, 2024

A federal judge on Tuesday admonished UCLA for its handling of pro-Palestinian encampments and ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students, three of whom alleged in a lawsuit that the university enabled protesters to block Jews from parts of campus because of their faith. In issuing his preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi sided with the students, whose June suit said the university helped to enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus during pro-Palestinian protests when UCLA erected bike rack barriers around an encampment. Also, the suit alleged that UCLA hired security guards who allowed protesters to cross into the encampment, but not Jewish students. READ MORE

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“When Hamas talks about the “liberation,” it is referring to its declared goal of eliminating Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state, as affirmed in its own charter”

GATESTONE
Hamas ‘Politicians’ and Terrorists: No Difference Between Them
Bassam Tawil
August 13, 2024

The Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has chosen arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, atrocities against thousands of Israelis, as the chairman of its “political bureau.” Sinwar, who has been hiding in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led attack, will take over from Ismail Haniyeh, the former chairman of the group’s “political bureau,” who was killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran on July 31. The fact that Sinwar was elected shows that Hamas’s political and military branches are the same. It also demonstrates that when it comes to Islamist terrorist organizations, there is no difference between a political and military leader. By electing Sinwar as its “political” leader, Hamas itself is stating that it does not distinguish between a politician and terrorist. READ MORE

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A Palestinian who condemned the Hamas massacre: Now, his life is in danger. ‘I’m scared as hell. But this is how change happens.’

FREE PRESS
The Palestinian ‘Traitor’ Risking Everything to Speak Out
Bari Weiss
August 15, 2024

His story is one of setbacks, hardships, and discrimination, but also of hard work, perseverance, unlikely friendships, and in the end—against all odds—success. But then his life was ruined. . . by a social media post. On October 7, he woke up in his home in the West Bank to the news of the massacre happening inside Israel. While some people in his community celebrated, he was horrified. He posted online how he felt: “What sad and horrible news to wake up to and out of words and unable to digest what’s going on right now. I’m Palestinian and firmly stand against this terror. I pray for the safety of my friends, colleagues, their loved ones and everyone else affected.” He continued to post about how he felt—six posts in total. READ MORE

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