By Tal Beeri, ALMAY REC 26 December 2023
On December 25th, 2023, Iranian Brigadier General Reza Mousavi (known as “Sayed Reza”) was killed in Damascus by an airstrike. He served as Iran’s logistical liaison (Revolutionary Guards/Quds Force) in Syria and was active in Syria for many years, possibly since the 1990s.
Oct 12/23
The Sinai Peninsula comprises one of the most suitable places on Earth to provide the people of Gaza with hope and a peaceful future.
By Joel Roskin, JPOST, DEC 25/23
The 365 km² Gaza Strip has remained a hot potato in Israel-Egypt relations since its conquest by the Egyptian Army in 1948 as part of Egypt’s failed attempt to annihilate the newly-born State of Israel. Egypt invaded Israel along two main axes, reaching the outskirts of Jerusalem and only 20 km. short of Tel Aviv, but the Israel Defense Forces pushed off this offensive. These battles generated a wave of refugees that found haven in the Gaza Strip, which remained under Egyptian military control until 1967.
Ron Dermer on Nov. 6, 2021. Photo: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is expected in Washington on Tuesday for meetings at the White House and State Department about Israel‘s plans for eventually scaling down the war and transitioning to a low-intensity operation in Gaza, two Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios.
THIS COMES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
LET THE ADS PLAY OUT
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with author, philosopher, and app developer Sam Harris. They discuss the benefits of routine meditation, deleting X (twitter), the issue of defining a Higher Good, the reality of evil, and the difficulty in establish…
By Alexander G. Markovsky, AM THINKER SEPT 30/23
No president, other than Richard Nixon, has ever faced a united front of Republicans and Democrats bringing him down; no president has ever been subjected to years of frivolous investigations by his political opponents; and no president since George Washington has sacrificed his personal and business interests, as Donald J. Trump, even working with no pay to serve this country.
After a protracted period of political assault by the Democrats that included the Russia collusion hoax and the Ukrainian phone call hoax, a futile impeachment failed to remove Donald Trump from office. The COVID-19 crisis became Democrats’ desperate attempt to render the President ineffective and ultimately defeat him in November 2020.
Read more…
TOM NASH REPORT
By Emmet Barry, WORTHY NEWS 25 December 2023
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they executed ‘wide-scale’ strikes against Hezbollah targets on Sunday in response to a series of rocket attacks from Lebanon that targeted various communities in northern Israel.
The IDF reported that their fighter jets targeted and struck military structures, rocket launchers, and additional assets owned by the Iran-supported terrorist organization in retaliation to the rocket assaults. They also mentioned initiating gunfire in various border regions to neutralize perceived threats.
By Andrew Bostom, MD, MS, 17th December 2023
—For two decades, ADL has been documenting, then downplaying, this uniquely Muslim scourge
I was introduced to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)’s global Antisemitism survey data, indirectly, in 2006. An analysis of ADL’s 2004 Western European data was published August, 2006, in the The Journal of Conflict Resolution. The study authors confirmed their rather mundane a priori hypothesis: Anti-Israel sentiment was a strong, independent predictor of Antisemitism. De-emphasized, and noted only in passing by these authors, was a much more original, and striking finding: In a controlled comparison to Western European Christians, Western European Muslims were nearly 8-fold more likely to evidence extreme Antisemitism, as gauged by agreement with at least 6 of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes. More disturbing, and auguring a pattern of deliberate minimization which persists to this day, the original 2004 34pp. ADL survey report of 2004 made no mention of the Muslim sample at all!
As long as aid gets into Gaza, and as long as Israel is killing fewer civilians, the U.S. is in less of a hurry when it comes to Israel moving toward a lower-intensity phase in the fighting and, eventually, withdrawing from Gaza? Cairo floats new hostage deal proposal
By Amos Harel, HAARETZ DEC 25/23
Israeli soldiers near the border with Gaza, on Saturday.Credit: Ariel Schalit / AP
Christmas has arrived and the IDF is still fighting on the ground in Gaza. The early forecasts in Washington, and to some extent in Jerusalem, were that the Biden administration would demand that Israel end the high-intensity phase of the ground offensive against Hamas by the close of the year, and that at most the Americans would agree to only a further few weeks of fighting in the current format.
In the meantime, the U.S. is on its Christmas-New Year vacation like the rest of the Western world, and the administration in Washington will be working on a limited basis over the next 10 days or so.
Peloni: This is a remarkably important invention.
“Three minutes of a simple instruction given by Omer Levin, the manager of the company’s operational team, and immediately after – shooting at body targets from a distance of 200 meters, with 100% success.”
The SMASH smart fire control system has successfully countered drones and terrorists in Gaza; Smart Shooter CEO Michal Mor shares her journey of creating a revolutionary combat system now embraced by elite units in militaries worldwide
By Navit Zomer, YNET |
The phone of Michal Mor, founder and CEO of Smart Shooter, who is sitting in front of me, does not stop receiving congratulatory messages, even from abroad. The reason: on the day we met, it was announced that Israeli forces in Gaza managed to eliminate a swarm of seven attack drones using the SMASH smart fire control system, developed by the company.
T. Belman. Why is Israel so ready to rebuild Gaza together with the international community? Her starting position should be that we are taking back Gaza for our use.
Only if Gaza is completely razed can the thought of returning there be entertained. Response to a letter in Arabic by Israel’s NSC head.
By Dr. Aaron Lerner, INN Dec 25, 2023
I’m going to be sending this message out in English and Hebrew so that it is easy to forward.
I am taking this unusual step because there is talk that we are going to buckle to American pressure to allow Gazans to return to areas north of Wadi Gaza without properly processing those areas.
The best solution for Gaza is for the world that so supports it to take in its residents, as Nikki Haley suggested. But if that does not happen:
T. Belman. The corollary to this argument is that if Russia chose instead to support Israel and condemn Hamas, she would have made herself more relevant in today’s Middle East.
On Dec 6, Putin made a state visit to UAE and Saudia Arabia and received a warn welcome according to WSJ
By Alexander G. Markovsky, AM THINKER NOV 12/23
Vladimir Putin recently stated, “We have always advocated for the implementation of the decisions of the United Nations Security Council, which involve the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.”
Moscow’s endorsement of a Palestinian state has been met with skepticism among Russia’s historians and supporters in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. Moscow’s ill-conceived policy of supporting the Palestinian cause not only undermines its position vis-à-vis Ukraine but also erodes its standing in the Middle East.
Read more…
Israel must also lower its dependency on the US for arms. On the bright side, the Abraham Accords are still intact
By Efraim Inbarr, TOI DEC 23/23
The US has displayed great support for vanquishing Hamas, and this has enhanced Israel’s position as a valued American ally. Yet, the American motives are suspect. The Biden administration’s support is predicated by an obsession with the Two-State paradigm, which requires eliminating Hamas from Gaza and restoring the moribund and corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA) there. Moreover, the American embrace aims to restrain Israel from attacking Iranian proxies, a move that could lead to a regional escalation – something Washington is eager to avert. This has been the major motive for sending aircraft carriers to the region.
Northern Command chief Ori Gordin provides first reference from an army official to the fear of Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanese territory near the northern border; the IDF is working to eliminate all threats emerging along that border, aiming to weaken Hezbollah’s capabilities
By Yair Kraus, YNET 24 December 2023
IDF Major General Ori Gordin
IDF Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the Northern Command chief, addressed the concerns of residents living on the northern border due to the threat of Hezbollah tunnels, following the exposure of Hamas’ massive tunnel in the Gaza Strip.
Peloni: As Alex Grinsberg noted earlier this year, Russia and Iran are each driven by their respective national interests which are not mutually aligned.
Iran International Newsroom, December 24, 2023
Russia’s support for the United Arab Emirates in its dispute with Iran over the ownership of three Persian Gulf islands has turned into a controversy in Tehran.
The Iranian leadership, typically reticent about Russia’s double standards, has, for the second time this year, heightened its response to Moscow’s stance. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s most senior foreign policy adviser, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, implicitly criticized Russia’s behavior by stating, “Iran will not allow any foreign entity to intervene in its internal affairs.”
No, no, antisemitism is not, only, a phenomenon of the political extremes. It lies just beneath the surface in the hearts and minds of all too many “moderates” in the “civilized” west, as well as all around the planet.
By Alan G. Futerman and Walter E. Block, ISRAEL HAYOM 24 Dec 2024
Many people thought that antisemitism was all but a thing of the past. Oh, well, yes, out there in the fever swamps of extremism, it still lurked; this could be acknowledged. The white supremacists of the right and the woke cultural Marxists of the left still basked in this evil. But, surely, among moderates, any such viewpoint is summarily dismissed. (Who says that the proper political spectrum is a straight line? Perhaps it is more of a circle, where the two supposedly opposite philosophies meet, albeit in some cases for different reasons.)
By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS 24 December 2023
The Direct Polls survey that was published last Thursday (Direct Polls: Gantz and Bibi Neck-and-Neck, Smotrich Beats the Threshold) included the question: “To what degree do you support encouraging the voluntary emigration of Gaza Strip residents?”
The response of 1,487 adults (18+) who are a representative sample of the general population in Israel, with a statistical sampling error of ± 3.9%, at a 95% probability, was overwhelmingly in favor of the idea.
Peloni: There is no need for the US to raise an international alliance to protect shipping against the Houthi menace, and doing so will only serve to institutionalize the ongoing piracy being waged against the world, as it would take very little to restore deterrence needed to end the Houthi aggression and/or deplete its capabilities to hold the world hostage. Given that the US is intent upon funding Iran’s terror regime and protecting its hubs of terror, there seems to be a failing interest in aiding the Americans in their charade because these nations who use to be reliable US allies are more concerned about the consequences coming from Iran than those coming from Washington.
by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge Dec 23/23
Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon’s Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect commercial vessels along the critical maritime trade route from Iran-backed Houthi.
Defense Minister Richard Marles told Sky News that Australia’s military would not send a “ship or a plane” to the Red Sea but would triple the number of troops for the US-led maritime force.
