#BRINGTHEMHOME “The footage reveals the violent, humiliating and traumatizing treatment the girls endured on the day of their abduction, their eyes filled with raw terror”

JNS
Video shows Hamas abduction of female IDF spotters on Oct. 7
Joshua Marks, Amelie Botbol
May 22, 2024

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Wednesday evening released a video of Hamas terrorists abducting female Israel Defense Forces spotters on Oct. 7. Footage taken by body cameras of the terrorists reveals the violence and trauma experienced by five of the seven spotters captured alive from the Nahal Oz base. Another 15 field observers serving there were murdered during the attack. The video running time is three minutes and 10 seconds. It was edited and censored to exclude the most disturbing scenes, including the corpses of those murdered at Nahal Oz and inside the bomb shelter where the soldiers were captured…“The video has been released by the brave families and we continue to offer them all our strength and love. Liri, Karina, Agam, Daniella, and Naama are all still in Hamas captivity and we are fighting to bring them home as well as all other hostages—128 in total!” READ MORE

TRIGGER ALERT: BEAR WITNESS AND VIEW VIDEO HERE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Mother of hostage Liri Albag: Terrorist said ‘these are the girls that can get pregnant’ The mother of Liri Albag, a female soldier abducted on October 7 who is seen in a harrowing video set to be released this evening, says that one of the terrorists can be heard saying “here, these are the girls who can get pregnant.” Shira Albag says she is one of the only mothers to have watched the video. “Most mothers have not watched it. It is very difficult to watch,” she tells the Ynet news site.

THE ATLANTIC How do the families of the Hamas hostages endure the agony? They’ve been at this now for more than half a year. “We both struggle with the challenge of self-care,” Jon [Polin] said. “My head says to me, You’ll be more successful on the mission if you eat well, if you get your sleep. And I know that to be true, but it’s so hard to do. I tried four or five times over the last 222 days to get some exercise, but when I’m in the middle of it, I think, No, I’ve got to answer three emails and make two phone calls.” “The only time I feel okay is when I’m working to help save Hersh [Goldberg-Polin] or the other hostages,” Rachel [Goldberg] said. “I’m not feeling good, but I’m feeling like I’m doing what it is that I’m supposed to be doing.”

TIMES OF ISRAEL In first, UN Security Council holds meeting solely focused on hostages held by Hamas The US centered the meeting — the first held at the UN solely focused on the hostages captured by Hamas — on “condemning hostage-taking in Israel on October 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism.” Ayelet Samerano, whose son was killed on October 7 and his body taken by Hamas, and Gili Roman, whose sister was taken hostage and released in November as part of a week-long truce deal, also addressed the gathering.

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

“Hamas has been stealing up to 60% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip and they have made at least $500 million in profit off humanitarian aid since the start of the war on Oct. 7”

GATESTONE
Nearly 70% of Gaza Aid from US-Built Pier Stolen
Joshua Marks
May 22, 2024

Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Eleven trucks “were cleaned out by Palestinians” on the journey to the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in the central Strip, with only five truckloads making it to the destination. “They’ve not seen trucks for a while,” a U.N. official told Reuters. “They just basically mounted on the trucks and helped themselves to some of the food parcels.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Leave a comment

“The ICC prosecutor’s blood libel is part of the pincer movement for Israel’s destruction”

MELANIE PHILLIPS SUBSTACK
Courting infamy
May 21, 2024

The decision by the International Criminal Court prosecutor, the British lawyer Karim Khan KC, to request arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, is a wickedly perverse and deeply troubling move. He has also requested arrest warrants for Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Deif, commander-in-chief of Hamas’s military wing and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau. He has accused the Hamas leaders of murder, extermination, torture and rape which are crimes against humanity, and of taking Israelis hostage which are war crimes. Khan presents this as a display of even-handedness. This itself is morally bankrupt. There can be no equivalence between a genocidal attempt at extermination and a country’s defence against it. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Mrs George Clooney helped convince ICC prosecutors to issue arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas leaders Clooney announced on the Clooney Foundation for Justice website Monday that she was asked by the ICC to join a panel of international legal experts to evaluate evidence of suspected war crimes. Clooney, 46, an accomplished Lebanese British human rights lawyer, co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice with her husband, Academy Award winner George Clooney.

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

“Spencer argues that US is inadvertently paving the way for a Hamas victory”

CNN
A military expert on why the US view on Israel’s fight against Hamas is a turning point for the world
Hilary Krieger
May 17, 2024

Since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, military expert John Spencer has been carefully observing the Israel Defense Forces’ war against the terror organization, including on two trips he made to the Gaza Strip as an embed with the IDF over the winter. Spencer tells CNN Opinion that he sees a military with the capability to rapidly eviscerate Hamas’ army being held back by the international community. He feels that the US bears some of the responsibility for the devastation in Gaza because of how it’s slowed down and limited Israel’s ability to win the war. It’s a restraint that he says the US hasn’t imposed on its own military campaigns, and it has the effect of increasing Palestinian casualties and suffering by dragging out the fighting. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Israel Is Succeeding in Gaza As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducts another assault in the north of Gaza, they face significant criticism from Western officials and analysts who are asking why the IDF is repeatedly going into areas they have already cleared and conducting further operations. Critics claim this behavior reflects a flaw in operational design, or is even proof that Israel’s campaign against Hamas has failed. The flaw, however, lies in their own assumptions…In the case of the 2023-24 Gaza war, Western critics have almost comically misunderstood what the Israeli military is trying to do. The flaw in Western analysis is always the same: “We wouldn’t do it that way.” Yet the IDF has absolutely no intention of using the clear-hold-build COIN tactics the West tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why would it? Those tactics were an unmitigated disaster in both campaigns, which ended in humiliating defeats at the hands of technologically inferior armies.

NATIONAL REVIEW Soeren Kern: Germany’s Woke Government Wavers as Islamists Declare Holy War The demonstration, organized by a fast-growing Islamist group called Muslim Interaktiv, was allowed to proceed after left-wing parties in Hamburg’s legislature rejected a petition by right-wing parties to prohibit the event. During the April 27 march in Hamburg’s multicultural Sankt Georg district, the Islamists — mostly young men, but also women in chadors, hijabs, niqabs, and jilbabs — complained about an alleged surge in “Islamophobia” in Germany since October 7, when Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,000 Israelis. Amid shouts of “Allahu Akbar” and “There is no God but Allah,” the protesters reminded German authorities of their constitutional obligation to ensure justice for everyone. READ MORE

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

“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to consulting firm led by anti-Israel activist working on behalf of groups linked to Palestinian terrorist faction

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Rashida Tlaib has paid $435,000 to firm of anti-Israel activist for terrorism-tied groups
Gabe Kaminsky
May 21, 2024

…Tlaib, who often faces criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for her anti-Israel rhetoric and defense of a phrase calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, has delivered more than $435,000 in payments earmarked for “fundraising consulting” since 2020 from her campaign and leadership PAC to Unbought Power, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Florida-based limited liability corporation is operated by Rasha Mubarak, a close ally of Tlaib’s who recently held key roles for terrorism-tied organizations in the United States.  The routine cash transfers from Rashida Tlaib for Congress and Rooted in Community Leadership PAC to Unbought Power underscore how the congresswoman has aligned herself with activists helping to coordinate operations for entities sharing connections to Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist factions. READ MORE

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

“I used to hate Jews. Hopefully my story can help people acknowledge profusely misguided errors of the antisemitic way”

FUTURE OF JEWISH
Confessions of a Former Antisemite
Amir Pars
May 4, 2024

…One thing was consistent, regardless of where I went: We all hated Jews. In the cultures we grew up in — even when there was very little else in common (Shia versus Sunni, Arab versus Persian, Religious versus Atheist, Theocrat versus Monarchist, et cetera) — Jew-hatred is omnipresent. We were born with it, we grew up with it, we were indoctrinated in it. It is in our bone marrow. In my late teens I, like so many other teenagers, was infatuated with Marxism, which only served to fuel my antisemitism. I suddenly belonged to two tribes hating the most persecuted people in history, and where my fellow “svartskallar” only expressed a visceral, sadistic hatred of Jews, my comrades took a more diplomatic approach. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Do You Actually Hate Jews?: A simple test to check ‘criticism of Israel’ for antisemitism But it’s people like my fellow soldier on X who trouble me more. When you know that Israel is the freest, most liberal state in the region; when you know that war is hell and civilians die in all wars; when you know that the IDF engages in state-of-the-art mitigation measures to protect innocent civilians; when you know all of these things and still engage in the blood libelish lies of “Israel is committing genocide,” No. 2 is the only logical conclusion. The only stain is the one on that person’s soul—a black stain of Jew hatred that goes back millennia.

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

Yishai Fleisher destroys Israel-hater Norman Finkelstein on Piers Morgan Uncensored

Yishai debates Norman Finkelstein on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” program on the subject of the Gaza War and Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7th terror massacre of Israeli civilians. Yishai lays out a vision for winning the war in Gaza, stabilizing the region, and achieving prosperity for Jews and Arabs in the Abrahamic Region.

Click here to watch the debate which begins at the 15:30 mark

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

Highland Park City Hall Shakespeare

A Shakespearean drama at Highland Park’s City Hall. Click here to watch video.

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

In the great global battle for power, the elites are losing. Why? Martin Gurri explains.

FREE PRESS
The Revenge of the Normies
Martin Gurri
May 20, 2024

A fierce political conflict is raging over much of the democratic world. On one side we find the normies: ordinary people who defend, naively, the historic principles of democracy such as freedom of speech and assembly, the separation of powers, etc. On the other side stand the elites, masters of the great institutions of wealth, knowledge, and power, who insist that extraordinary measures must be taken to save a depraved and self-destructive society from its own history and its own people—that is to say, from the normies. The elites are driven entirely by the impulse to control. They detest democracy, which keeps getting in their way, and much prefer a golden ideal they possessively call “Our Democracy”—their own rule in perpetuity. Individual rights are unfortunate legacies from a simpler era. The First Amendment, for example, they see as “hamstringing the government in significant ways.” READ MORE

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Five Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire in Jabalia, northern Gaza on Wednesday

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Diverse backgrounds give way to shared fate as Gaza friendly-fire victims eulogized
Canaan Lidor
May 16, 2024

The deaths of five soldiers in a Gaza friendly fire incident affected diverse communities from Tel Aviv to a Haredi community in Tiberias to two West Bank settlements and the Jewish community of Argentina. Four of the five fatalities – all men in their twenties who were killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday when an Israel Defense Forces tank mistook them for terrorists – were buried Thursday afternoon. The funeral of the fifth fatality, Sgt. Ilan Cohen, is scheduled to take place in the coming days, once his parents arrive in Israel from his native Argentina, the Ynet site said. Seven additional soldiers were hurt in the friendly fire incident in Jabaliya Wednesday, three of them seriously. READ MORE

JNS Five IDF soldiers mistakenly killed by tank fire in Jabalia  The casualties were identified by the IDF on Thursday morning as Capt. Roy Beit Ya’akov, 22, from Eli; Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, 22, from Karnei Shomron in Samaria; Sgt. Daniel Chemu, 20, from Tiberias; Sgt. Ilan Cohen, 20, from Carmiel; and Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah, 21, from Tel Aviv. The incident brings the Gaza death toll since the start of the ground invasion on Oct. 27 to 273 and to 621 on all fronts since the start of the war on Oct. 7.

JPOST Yonah Jeremy Bob: Israel is winning the war if you ignore original unrealistic goals set by the gov’t Israel is indeed winning the war – just not the way you might think. In October, the government set unrealistic goals. It would have been wiser to be more modest with those military objectives. But the fact remains that if the government had set more reasonable goals, and if one were to ask if these goals were desirable and achievable, Jerusalem would have quite a few triumphs to date. With or without Rafah, the IDF has taken apart 19 out of the 24 existing Hamas battalions, killed around 14,000 terrorists, wounded potentially close to a similar number, and arrested thousands more.

JNS Yaakov Lappin: IDF gradually tightens grip on Hamas’s last bastion in Gaza Developments in Rafah signify that the Israeli military is implementing a gradual expansion of its operation in Hamas’s last fortress.The Israel Defense Forces is engaged in intensive operations in central and northern Gaza as well, where on Thursday, a tragic friendly-fire incident involving the Paratroopers’ 202 Battalion led to five IDF casualties.

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