“Hamas and their jihadi allies, including Hezbollah and Iran, don’t have professional armies, are weak and cowardly and haven’t won a single battle”

NAOMI RAGEN
Gaza War Diary
June 25, 2024

…And now, all the brilliant pundits are asking: Can Israel win this war? Excuse me? In case you haven’t noticed, we have taken over Gaza. It is rubble. Have the rockets stopped? Almost completely. When the war started eight months ago, thousands were fired all over the country. Now it’s close to zero. Has the southern border been secured? Absolutely. Gaza is split in two with the IDF deployed deep inside the country. That’s not a victory? But that’s not good enough for those asking the question. Because we haven’t destroyed the “idea” of Hamas. And I say, who cares? Our children weren’t killed by an “idea.” Our citizens weren’t kidnapped by an “idea.” The Allies didn’t destroy the idea of Nazism either. It still exists. But they destroyed the people in power who acted according to its philosophy. READ MORE

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“The antisemitism of the Palestinian cause is not a bug; it’s a feature of the new politics in America”

MELANIE PHILLIPS BLOG
Is anti-Zionism antisemitism?
June 19, 2024

Two days ago, a gripping debate took place in Toronto.  The latest in the Munk Debates on major policy issues run by a Canadian charitable foundation, Monday evening’s event advanced the motion “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism”. It was proposed by the writer Douglas Murray and international lawyer Natasha Hausdorff, and opposed by the Guardian journalist Mehdi Hasan and Israeli anti-Zionist Ha’aretz writer Gideon Levy. In an audience vote before the start of the debate, 61 per cent supported the proposition with 39 per cent opposed. In the final vote, the proposition had 66 per cent support with 34 per cent opposed. READ MORE

Click here to view Natasha Hausdorff

Click here to view Douglas Murray

TABLET MAG Hussein Aboubakr Mansour: Liberal Jews Deluded Themselves on Palestine As Obama’s Democratic Party transformed itself into a big tribal sectarian tent, traditionally Democratic American Jews found themselves under the same roof with elements that were antisemitic and anti-Zionist, but whose grievances had now been granted higher status. There were now exigencies that demanded flexibility—intersection, if you prefer. Everyone would now pretend that anti-liberal progressive dogmas being incubated on campuses were the natural evolution of the liberal causes that many American Jews had long supported by way of achieving greater equality and liberation from prejudice. Groups like the ADL and other American liberal Jewish institutions were often at the forefront of endorsing the same progressive ideas and intersectional jargon that are central to the current self-conception of the anti-Israel movement. READ MORE

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Dem Senator Fetterman: “I didn’t support withholding any of those large bombs because they have to fight an enemy that hides in tunnels…I trust Israel’s judgment”

JNS
Recognizing Palestinian state rewards Hamas, Fetterman says in Israel: ‘What’s wrong with you?’
Alex Traiman
June 27, 2024

A two-state solution is something for which Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) hopes in theory, “but certainly not at this—not right now,” he told reporters in an intimate gathering in Jerusalem on Thursday. “I was appalled when our allies, whether it’s Ireland or Spain or others, were calling for recognizing that—that’s outrageous,” he said of some countries opting to recognize an independent Palestinian state. “Why would you give Hamas that kind of a reward when you have Israeli citizens still held hostage, and you’re in the middle of a war?”…Asked what he thought of reports that the White House has been slow-tracking weapons shipments to the Jewish state, Fetterman said that he disagrees on the matter with U.S. President Joe Biden. READ MORE

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#BringThemHome #ReleaseTheHostages Images – extracted from a Hamas video found by Israel – are being released for the first time tonight by the families of the three hostages

i24NEWS
Hostage families publish video of Hamas kidnapping Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen
June 24, 2024

On Monday evening, the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters released new footage documenting the kidnapping of Eliya Cohen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and Or Levy on October 7. The release was made at the request of the families of Cohen, Goldberg-Polin, and Levy. The video comprises three parts, with the first two having been previously published, while the third part has recently been cleared for publication by the IDF. In the first segment, Hamas terrorists are seen attacking the site where the hostages were hiding after the assault on the Nova music festival, a location now referred to as the ‘Death Shelter’ due to the numerous casualties there. The footage shows a terrorist repeatedly firing into the shelter with a rifle. READ MORE

TRIGGER WARNING. Click here to view video on Twitter.

Chicago truck driver raises awareness for childhood friend held hostage in Gaza  The box truck was parked beside a quiet sidewalk in Chicago’s West Loop. A few people stopped, glancing curiously at the image flashing on its rear door: a young man, his expression resolute but tinged with sadness. Below his figure was a message in bold letters: “Chicagoan kidnapped by Hamas.” “He’s always up there,” said the truck’s driver, Jeremiah Smith, 27, as he stared at the image. “I always know that.” Twelve hours a day, six days a week, Smith drives the truck through the Chicago area, raising awareness for the scores of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas. But the man on the screen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, is more than a distant figure. To Smith, he’s like a brother. When Smith was 6 years old, he met Hersh’s grandmother [Chicagoan Marcy Goldberg], a tutor at his elementary school, and was taken under her wing. 

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The act of misogyny is a grotesque means for men to remind women of their physical power. It’s also an act of dehumanization, like it was on Oct. 7

JNS
A rape in Paris
Ben Cohen
June 21, 2024

Antisemitic violence is horrifying wherever it takes place, but in France, as we’ve learned time and again over the last two decades, a disturbing intimacy defines many of the worst incidents in that the victims were known to the perpetrators, and in some cases, even socialized with them. In 2003, for example, a young Jewish DJ named Sebastien Salem was murdered by Adel Amastaibou, a Muslim neighbor with whom he’d been friends since childhood. The murder itself was shocking in its brutality, as Salem’s body was found with multiple stab wounds caused by knives and forks. After Amastaibou was arrested by police shortly after the murder, he told them: “I’m happy if he died, that bastard, if he’s dead, I’m too happy, this f**king Jew, dirty Jew.” READ MORE

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“Downplaying the Lebanese terrorist group puts Israel in peril”

THE DISPATCH
The Hezbollah Time Bomb Is Ticking
David Daoud and Jonathan Schanzer
June 20, 2024

Let’s not mince words: The Middle East is on the precipice of the most destructive war of the region’s modern history. This war did not begin on October 7. It actually began one day later, when Hezbollah, the most powerful proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, began attacking Israel. The Israelis, already on their back foot from the Hamas assault in the south of their country, struggled to gain equilibrium. The Israeli Defense Forces began with proportional responses to Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks. But when that failed to deter the Lebanese terror group, the IDF steadily stepped up its retaliatory strikes. This, too, has done little. READ MORE

JPOST Strikes on Haifa and Tel Aviv: Hezbollah’s plan of attack if war erupts with Israel After the IDF announced that it had approved operational plans for an attack on Lebanon, Hezbollah quickly clarified that the Shi’ite terrorist organization is also preparing for the possibility that Israel will declare war on the Cedar State, as reported on Thursday by Lebanese newspaper Elnashra. According to the report, Hezbollah plans to attack Haifa if Israel expands the fighting and, in the next stage, additional cities, including Tel Aviv.

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“Hamas battalions in Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis were told not to participate in fighting”

JNS
Hamas to preserve two battalions for use after war, according to report
June 18, 2024

Hamas is attempting to counter Israel’s war goal of wiping it out as a military and governing force in Gaza by instructing two battalions to stay out of the fighting, Kan News reported on Tuesday. Sources in the Strip told the Israeli public broadcaster that the terror group was strategizing for its own “day after” scenario that would see these forces pave the path towards re-establishing control over the coastal enclave. One battalion in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and another one in Khan Yunis in the south were reportedly given orders not to participate in fighting as much as possible during the war, which entered its 256th day on Tuesday. Per the report, the Khan Yunis battalion moved south to Rafah under civilian cover during the Israeli incursion there with terror operatives assimilating into the local populace. READ MORE

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“Biden Administration is effectively blackmailing Israel by withholding the needed munitions as did then-President Obama (under whom Biden served as then-VP) in 2014 when Israel faced a similar situation”

JEWISH PRESS
White House Cancels US-Israel Meeting on Iran After Bibi Exposes Arms Embargo
Hana Levi Julian
June 19, 2024

The Biden Administration has canceled a meeting on Iran between Israeli and American high-ranking officials over a video message by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, exposing a quiet arms embargo against Israel imposed by the White House over IDF military operations in Rafah. Netanyahu released the video message on Tuesday, saying the White House has been withholding deliveries of arms and ammunition needed to fight Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Hezbollah’s terror army in Lebanon — both of which are Iranian proxies. Top advisers to President Joe Biden were apparently enraged over the video. “The Americans are fuming. Bibi’s video did a lot of damage,” an Israeli official told Axios. READ MORE

AXIOS White House cancels meeting, scolds Netanyahu in protest over video The White House canceled a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting on Iran that was scheduled for Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday claiming the U.S. was withholding military aid, two U.S. officials tell Axios

TIMES OF ISRAEL US vexed, disappointed by Netanyahu claim of arms holdup: ‘No one has done more for him’ White House expresses fresh displeasure over Tuesday video as top aides Hanegbi, Dermer meet with Blinken, Sullivan; PM: I can take criticism as long as we get bombs

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For decades, Israel has said that it will not be “the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel modernizing nuclear capabilities, upgrading production facilities
June 18, 2024

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) believes that Israel has been working to modernize its nuclear weapons systems in recent months and has upgraded production facilities in southern Israel amid a worldwide trend of weakening nuclear diplomacy. Israel has never publicly acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons, but is widely believed to have around 90 in its arsenal, SIPRI assessed Tuesday in its annual report on the state of global armament and security, which examined developments throughout 2023 and until January 2024…In addition to reportedly modernizing its nuclear arsenal, SIPRI claimed that there was evidence Israel was in the process of upgrading its nuclear reactor in the southern town of Dimona. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Iran takes major step toward nuclear capability at key site About 1,400 Iranian-made new centrifuges and machinery could potentially triple Fordow’s capacity to produce enriched uranium.

AXIOS Barak Ravid: U.S. and Israel assessing new intelligence about Iran nuclear models U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies are looking into new information about computer modeling by Iranian scientists that could be used for research and development of nuclear weapons, two U.S. officials plus one current and one former Israeli official told Axios. The purpose of the modeling is unclear. Some U.S. and Israeli officials said the intelligence is a worrying signal about Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, but other officials on both sides said it as a “blip” that doesn’t represent a shift in Iran’s policy and strategy towards weaponization. Iran has repeatedly denied wanting nuclear weapons. Senior U.S. and Israeli officials will meet at the White House on Thursday for the U.S.-Israel strategic consultative group (SCG) to discuss the state of the Iranian nuclear program and other issues [which seems to have been canceled due the just-released Netanyahu video].

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According to Wikipedia, ADL is now to be treated the same as National Inquirer, Newsmax, and Occupy Democrats

JEWISH NEWS
ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism
Asaf Elia-Shalev
June 18, 2024

Wikipedia’s editors have voted to declare the Anti-Defamation League “generally unreliable” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding it to a list of banned and partially banned sources. An overwhelming majority of editors involved in the debate about the ADL also voted to deem the organization unreliable on the topic of antisemitism, its core focus. A formal declaration on that count is expected next…Moreover, in a near consensus, dozens of Wikipedia editors involved in the discussion said they believe the ADL should not be cited for factual information on antisemitism as well because it acts primarily as a pro-Israel organization and tends to label legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism. READ MORE

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