FDD | Jan 30, 2025

Latest Developments

• Trump Signs Executive Order Combatting Antisemitism: President Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 29 to combat antisemitism, pledging to deport individuals who publicly supported Hamas following its October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel. The order cites the “unprecedented wave of vile” antisemitism witnessed at American universities throughout 2024 and expands on the president’s previous order targeting antisemitism, which was issued in 2019 during his first term in office.
• Order Seeks to Stem Hamas Support in United States: Trump’s latest order outlines a federal plan to quell what the administration called a “campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence” in support of Hamas throughout America in the wake of the October 7 attacks. Actions in the report include directing the attorney general “to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism, and violence against American Jews,” along with deporting “resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests,” to which Trump added, “we will find you, and we will deport you.” The president also vowed to “cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.”

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Palestinian statehood has become almost a religion in which no new developments will ever make those who support it reconsider their unshakeable, almost fanatical faith.

Moshe Phillips

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is backing away from his previous support for Palestinian statehood, saying that the Hamas-led assault in his country on Oct. 7, 2023, changed his thinking.

Speaking on Jan. 21 at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Herzog said he still favors “a political move forward on the Palestinian front,” but he pointedly did not repeat his longtime promotion of a Palestinian state. That’s significant.

Instead, he explained to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, a journalist and political commentator of an eponymous weekly Sunday-morning news show, afterwards that he needs to see real evidence that the hearts and minds of Palestinian Arabs have changed.

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Peloni:  Great article!

Cherie Zaslawsky | Jan 30, 2025

On January 21^st, 2025, California’s Silicon Valley residents awakened to a glorious morning—a bright blue sky with nary a trace of cloud or even chemtrail, just dazzling sunshine—and, for some of us, the indescribable happiness to know that the nightmare of the past four years is over at last, and Trump is our President once again.

Joy cometh in the morning!

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by Frank J. Gaffney  • Gatestone Institute • January 28, 2025

The Trump 2.0 presidency is scarcely a week old and a number of political appointees who do not share the president’s agenda are now in key positions in his administration. President Donald J. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – and our country – must not be represented, and undermined, by subordinates who disagree. Pictured: Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Hegseth (right) attend the 125th Army-Navy football game on December 14, 2024 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

• The Trump 2.0 presidency is scarcely a week old and a number of political appointees who do not share the president’s agenda are now in key positions in his administration. An epic struggle, it seems, is already underway to subvert the Trump administration from within.

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A new age now begins?

J.E. Dyer, a retired Naval Intelligence officer, blogs as The Optimistic Conservative | Jan 27, 2025

[I try to avoid using eye cues to call out significant points, but that’s the readiest way in this case to just get done the job of outlining a new way of thinking. – J.E.]

There’s no question President Trump disappointed a whole lot of people and lost a lot of momentum with some supporters when he appeared to knuckle under to a ceasefire-for-hostages plan as an operational interruption to the Gaza war.  It can’t help looking Biden-like.  It has the essential elements of what Biden had been incessantly pushing since the 10/7 attack:   ceasefire for its own sake, which everyone expects Hamas to duly break, as always; negotiating with terrorists for hostages, which invariably produces wildly disproportionate personnel exchanges; grand, vague, and misdirected posturing on “solutions” for “peace” and who should be in charge of directing the world at ramming speed to a “Palestinian state.”

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Well-known Al Jazeera journalist proposed to orchestrate cynical release ceremonies

All Israel News Staff | Published: January 30, 2025

Four Israeli female soldiers are present as members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Hamas sign documents for exchanges under the ongoing Gaza ceasefire agreement in Gaza City, Gaza, on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Momen Faiz/NurPhoto)

Over the past few weeks, Hamas has elaborately orchestrated the hostage releases of the ceasefire’s first stage, using them as a show of force and to humiliate the hostages live on TV.

Now, i24 News revealed that Hamas hired a Qatar-based Al Jazeera journalist to professionally direct the hostage release ceremonies from afar.

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Peloni:  Why is Mike DiMino in Trump’s White House?

My scumbag of the week on #TheQuad: Mike DiMino who argued among other things that the U.S. should halt providing “defensive support” for Israel against Hezbollah attacks and claimed the Abraham Accords was a “mistake”

? @JNS_org @FleurHassanN @skjask pic.twitter.com/bO146e1eiD

— Emily Schrader – ????? ?????? ????? ????? (@emilykschrader) January 29, 2025

Jonathan Feldstein

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is set to go out of business this week, in Israel at least, none too soon. RIP.

From its inception in 1949, UNRWA has been a controversial organization, criticized for policies and actions that have harmed both Israel and Palestinian Arabs. In the wake of Israel’s war of Independence, UNRWA was ostensibly set up to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian Arab refugees. Yet its unique and disturbing mandate and political entanglements have made it an obstacle to peace rather than a solution; perpetuating refugee status for people who should have been settled in the countries in which they are, making this the only ethnic group in the world among whom refugee status is inherited from generation to generation, fostering and even emboldening radicalization for future generations, and maintaining an unsustainable and dangerous status quo that ultimately harms both sides.

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Peloni:  The Lebanese have no agency. They have no control over their own future. Like other nations, the power is concentrated in the hands of the powerful, and in Lebanon, the powerful are Hezbollah and their Shia backers, even though the Shia represent a minority within the country. This is where the power will forever reside in Lebanon, so long as the Mullahs reside in Iran and the West fails to act to eliminate their stranglehold over the Lebanese people.

By David Daoud | January 29, 202

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem’s last speech, delivered on Monday, was his most defiant to date. Qassem spoke one day after the expiration of the November 27 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal’s 60-day timetable for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from south Lebanon.

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Eitan Fischberger tweeted the following:

? Breaking: Senior Al Jazeera Journalist Produced Hamas’ Hostage Release Ceremonies ?

According to @BaruchYedid in an exposé for @i24NEWS_HE, the Qatari network’s Tamer Mishel produced the ceremonies as well as the recent documentary, “What is Hidden is Greater,” in which Al… pic.twitter.com/SAyCG3CAdC

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) January 29, 2025

Senior Al Jazeera Journalist Produced Hamas’ Hostage Release Ceremonies According to @BaruchYedid in an exposé for @i24NEWS_HE, the Qatari network’s Tamer Mishel produced the ceremonies as well as the recent documentary, “What is Hidden is Greater,” in which Al Jazeera aired exclusive footage of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar sneaking around Gaza like a rat.

Full transcript of the clip

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Peloni:  This is a disgusting caveat to the Surrender Deal.  The world is going to award the chief coordinator of terror with the Nobel Peace Prize.  Having coerced its influence over Trump’s envoy to manipulate the Israeli govt into concessions which will be devastating over the coming years, they are now to gain world renown for their influence peddling among Trump’s inner circle and call it peace making.

Natalie Ecanow | Jan 29, 2025

A Qatari diplomat recently suggested that the emir of Qatar deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the war in Gaza that Doha effectively abetted. In a statement to The Jerusalem Post, Qatar’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani, claimed that Qatar “played a pivotal role in ending the war” and that “in recognition of its sacrifices and leadership,” Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sheikh Abdullah’s congratulations to his uncle are deceiving. Qatar has pumped upwards of $1 billion into Hamas-run Gaza, provided a haven for Hamas leaders and financiers, and legitimized Hamas propaganda on its state-owned media network Al Jazeera. Doha released a statement on October 7, 2023, holding “Israel alone responsible” for Hamas’s massacre. Yet despite its leverage over the terrorist group, Doha repeatedly failed to exert pressure on Hamas during months of negotiations.

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Tik Tok and REDnote – “Spiritual Fentanyl”

Peloni:  As per usual, Avi is right on the money!  Barbarism does not distinguish between Israel and its Western allies.  They seek to subdue and destroy us all!

Instead of Witkoff pressuring Hamas, Iran, Qatar, and Egypt, who were all complicit in the October 7 atrocities, the pressure was placed on Israel. While Trump expels terror supporters from the US, Israel is forced to release terrorists into our midst.

Avi Abelow | Jan 28, 2025

Trump shakes hands with relatives of hostages   REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The Israeli government recently revealed the disturbing fact that released hostages Romi, Emily, and Doron were held in United Nations shelters in Gaza, structures meant to house the homeless Gaza civilians.

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Peloni:  Ukraine should have agreed to peace terms instead of invading Kursk last summer.  The extended lines only complicated Ukraine’s already low manpower, low munitions, and low morale.  Such disasters as this is not how you Russia might be coerced into accepting a frozen conflict – something which I have noted is not in their interest.

By Col. (res.), Shay Shabtai | BESA | January 26, 2025

ESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,326, January 26, 2025

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israel, the US, and other international and regional actors are faced with a dilemma. They are unwilling to invest too many resources in countries/regions with poor governance, but need to prevent negative developments like famine and terrorism from arising. One possible approach to this problem is “Semi-Self Governance” (SSG), which allows local forces to take accountability and improve the lives of their civilian populations while allowing for external intervention when problems develop. This principle could align with President Trump’s strategic vision.

Israel, together with key countries around the world and in the Middle East and led by the United States, is debating the policy it should adopt toward countries or regions in its vicinity where there is no proper governance. The current challenges are the post-war Gaza Strip and the denial of the possibility of Hamas’s continued control; the “new” Syria, whose sovereignty over its territory and new regime’s characteristics are in question; and Lebanon, the central government of which is still weak in the face of the military and political dominance of the Hezbollah terrorist organization despite that group’s pummeling by Israel. Other countries or regions where proper governance does not exist are Yemen, Sudan, and Libya, as well as parts of Iraq and the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria.

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Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | January 28, 2025

*Ending wars and terrorism is a noble aspiration, which confronts the reality of NO intra-Muslim peaceful coexistence during the last 14 centuries. In fact, since 1948, intra-Muslim wars have featured a toll of mega-million fatalities (e.g., 3 million killed during two civil wars in the Sudan, 3 million during the Pakistan-Bangladesh war, over 1 million during the Afghan civil war, close to 1 million Syrians killed by Hafiz and Bashar Assad, 1 million killed during Iran-Iraq war, 350,000 in Yemen’s civil wars, etc.) compared with some 130,000 Arabs killed in Arab wars against Israel.

*Ending wars and terrorism must contend with the 14-century-old reality of intra-Muslim unpredictability, violent intolerance, ethnic and religious fragmentation, despotism, tenuous regimes-policies-accords, intrinsic terror and subversion. Not an “Arab Spring,’ but an “Arab Tsunami!”

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Peloni:  There is no positive consequence of the Biden turned Trump deal.  Trump and Bibi should both void this deal, evict the so-called ‘non-combatants’ and in a serious manner return tothe process of de-Hamasing Hamastan.

And billions in reconstruction costs for “Palestinian” nation-building.

by Daniel Greenfield | Jan 29, 2025

American soldiers are headed to Gaza.

They’re not there to fight Islamic terrorists, but to secure the disastrous Biden deal that saved Hamas by monitoring and inspecting the Gazans traveling across the ‘Netzarim corridor’.

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