Hopefully, naivety will be a casualty of the Hamas War. Children in a playground can be naive – but our world is no playground.
By Howard Rotberg Dec 22, 2023,
“It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.”– Anatole France
The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines “naive” as “lacking knowledge, experience of life, or good judgment, and willing to believe that people always tell you the truth”. To this, I, a son of a Holocaust survivor, would add “willing to believe that people are good”. Every morning, after reading the newspaper, I am reminded that this is a world of Good versus Evil, and people who don’t understand that are naive.
And so, after the Shoah, naivety should have died. Or maybe it just faded a bit and has revived itself,
By Majid Rafizadeh, GATESTONE 23 December 2023
“According to the report, the Defense Ministry is launching a crash program with Israel’s military industries and major industrialists to make Israel independent in everything related to ordnance. In the initial phase, Israel will begin producing bombs for its aircraft. Jerusalem also intends to expand its production of tank and artillery shells, as well as assault rifles and bullets. Separately, there is increased discussion regarding the establishment of a missile force as an independent arm of the IDF. The force would reduce reliance on the air force and develop more versatile, more easily defended missile launch platforms and massively expand Israel’s missile and drone arsenals.”
It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States
Caroline B. Glick (December 22, 2023 / JNS)
U.S.-made MIM-23 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles on display at a military parade in Tel Aviv in 1965. Credit: Avraham Amir via Wikimedia Commons.
Two underlying assumptions guided Israel’s security establishment for the past generation. The first asserted that with the end of the Cold War, the era of conventional wars had ended. In the present age, brains, rather than brawn, would rule the roost.
The primary author of the “small and smart IDF” doctrine was Ehud Barak, who served as Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces when the Berlin Wall crumbled. In later years, the slogan was finessed.
Peloni: More data. It would appear from this survey that support among American Jews is almost uniformly and unequivocally in favor of Israel’s war on Hamas regardless of age, politics or religiosity.
The Israel on Campus Coalition survey found 81% backing for Israel’s war, but Gen Z Jews are a bit less supportive
By Haley Cohen, Jewish Insider December 21, 2023
The Maccabeats perform during ‘March For Israel’ at the National Mall on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The large pro-Israel gathering comes as the Israel-Hamas war enters its sixth week following the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
American Jews are overwhelmingly united in support of Israel continuing its ground operation in Gaza and also approve of President Joe Biden’s response to the war, according to a new survey commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition.
The poll, conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research (SCR), found that 81% of American Jews support Israel continuing its military operation to “recover all Israeli hostages and remove Hamas from power.” Only 12% of respondents said they preferred “an immediate ceasefire to save Palestinian lives, even if that means “Israeli hostages aren’t recovered and Hamas remains in power.”
T. Belman. First of all, the recitals at the beginning of a resolution are not binding. They provide context. The operative clauses are binding but not enforcable by the UN unless they are Chap VII reslutions rather than Chap VI resolutions. I have highlighted what I think is important. A number of demands are directed to both parties. No doubt the UN will try to enforce them on Israel and ignore violations by Hamas. Israel will argue that either both sides need to comply or no one does. But as we know, the UN is biased. This is the just the first of many resolution to come. Hamas will continuye to comandeer the supplies and the coordinator will not be able to do anything about it.
Of course if Israel refuses to comply with a UNSC resolution demanding a cessation of hostilities, she can be expelled from the UN.
Vote is 13-0 with US, Russia abstaining; seeks ‘urgent steps to immediately allow’ more aid, free all hostages, and create conditions for ‘sustainable cessation of hostilities’
T. Belman. Included was “7. Demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address medical needs of all hostages;”
OAN’s Brooke Mallory Friday, December 22, 2023
A resolution calling for emergency aid for Gazans was approved by the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Friday by a vote of 13-0, however, it did not ask for a halt to the warfare.
Both Russia and the United States chose not to exercise their veto authority and did not participate in the voting. The resolution’s phrasing had reportedly prompted the United States to object.
T. Belman. This is crazy. I do not believe the results. . The WSJ refered to the poll and said “However, supporters of Netanyahu’s governing coalition prefer Trump over Biden by a 49-14 margin.” One cannot reconcile these numbers.
Poll finds Jewish public opinion has sharply swung in incumbent’s direction following support for Israel in wake of Oct. 7, after overwhelming 2020 support for Republican rival
By JACOB MAGID 22/12/23
US President Donald Trump (L) and Democratic Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden on September 29, 2020. (Jim Watson and Saul Loeb / AFP)
Forty percent of Jewish Israelis want US President Joe Biden to be reelected in the 2024 presidential election, compared to just 26.2% who back Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, a poll conducted on Wednesday found.
The results of the poll indicated a massive swing in Israelis’ support for the current president, who has made a series of gestures to the Jewish state since the Hamas onslaught of October 7 while his predecessor has spent time at rallies mocking the intelligence failure that led to the devastating attack and criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By MEMRI 21 December 2023
Jordan has recently foiled repeated attempts by Syrian cells to smuggle weapons and drugs into its territory. According to reports, these cells are operated by the Syrian security apparatuses, as well as Hizbullah and Iran, and the weapons are intended for Palestinian elements in the West Bank. On December 18, 2023, the Jordanian army announced that it had foiled a large-scale attempt to smuggle drugs, machine guns and – for the first time – rockets into the country, after several days in which the number of smuggling attempts had dropped.
The army reported that, early in the morning that day, severe clashes had broken out on the Syrian border between Jordanian border guards and the armed cells that were trying to bring in the contraband, and that Jordanian border guards had been wounded. In response, Jordan reportedly carried out several airstrikes in southern Syria in areas along the border where the smugglers were operating.
T. Belman. David Israel suggests that rejection of the Palestinian state is the defining issue. Also he points our that the earlier poll had a small sample.
Channel 14 on Thursday night released the first Direct Polls survey since the start of the war, showing Benny Gantz and his National Unity Party with 28 mandates (currently only 12), if elections were held this week. Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party are right behind him, with 27 mandates (currently 32).
Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid lags in third place with only 14 mandates (currently 24); Avigdor Liberman’s Israel Beiteinu with 11 (6); Aryeh Deri’s Shas with 10 (11); Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit with 8 (6); United Torah Judaism with 7 (7); Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am with 6 (5); Ayman Odeh’s Hadash-Ta’al with 5 (5); and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism with 4 (7).
Read more…
Eve R. In this interview, Avi Abelow interviews Joshua Philipp of Epoch Times, identifying the historic role of China in the Palestinian jihad movements.
By Avi Abelow, PULSE OF ISRAEL 21 December 2023
T. Belman. Sherman has been banging this drum for over a decade. He argued that Israel should invest at least $1 B/yr in public diplomacy arguing it was as important as investing in the defense budget.
Events today show how right he was. Our failure to do so has resulted in the massive success of Palestinian propaganda. The whole world has turned against us.
The first order of business would be to devise and deploy a political “Iron Dome” to protect Israel from the incoming barrages of delegitimization and demonization.
By MARTIN SHERMAN OCTOBER 31, 2013
The State of Israel, the country that represents Jews throughout the world as much as its citizens, is slowly but surely abdicating its role by its action or perhaps better said inaction vis-a-vis public diplomacy. What has happened to the leadership of the past, men and women who were not afraid to state their minds and fight for what has always been rightfully ours? We are no longer respected and are at the mercy of a leftist faction and media who will stop at nothing to help in our destruction. – Naomi Romm, in a Facebook response to my previous column, “Dereliction of Duty”
The administration, and many who claim to back Israel, still favor a two-state solution the Palestinians don’t want. Unlike the Israelis, they’ve learned nothing from Oct. 7.
(December 21, 2023 / JNS)
It’s a debate the Israeli government neither wants nor thinks it needs to engage in right now. But as much as Jerusalem would like to postpone any discussion about who will govern or be responsible for security in Gaza until the war with Hamas is finished, it’s increasingly becoming clear that is impossible. U.S. President Joe Biden is already pushing hard for the revival of a peace process that’s been dead in the water for more than two decades, as well as for Israel to accept that the eventual outcome of negotiations will be the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside it.
T. Belman. According to this article “the resolution is expected to also call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”. I doubt it because Israel would rightly say when the hostages are released, we will take “urgent steps “for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
This will render it meaningless.
Proposal said to call for ‘creating conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities,’ unhindered humanitarian access, immediate release of all hostages;
The United States has signaled its support for a draft resolution in its current form on the war between Israel and Hamas, with the United Nations Security Council set to hold a vote on the proposal later Friday, diplomatic sources said.
This marked the fourth time the Security Council delayed a vote this week as diplomatic efforts were being made to get the US — a veto-wielding permanent council member — on board with the resolution.
T. Belman. These countries want Israel to choke on the Palestinians. They see them as a fifth column that will bring Israel to her knees. This is why UNRWA was created. Its mission is to maintain them, not resettle them.
Israel National News Dec 22/23
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told ABC News on Thursday that Egypt, as well as “pro-Hamas countries” such as Qatar, Iran and Turkey, should take in Palestinian Arabs who flee the war in Gaza.
Asked where Gazans who flee the fighting should go, Haley responded, “They should be going to the Rafah gate and [have] Egypt take them. But I’ve always said that what you should have is that they should go to pro-Hamas countries — Qatar, Iran, Turkey… send them there… Those are pro-Hamas countries.”
An Israeli soldier operates in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in this handout picture released on Dec. 20, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The Israel Defense Forces has killed over 2,000 Hamas terrorists since the end of a temporary ceasefire on Dec. 1, according to IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
Hagari’s announcement brings the total number of eliminated Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip during the current war to around 8,000. Another 1,000 Hamas terrorists were killed in Israel on Oct. 7 and 8 after the Palestinian terror group’s brutal invasion of the Jewish state. These figures do not include wounded and captured terrorists.
“…if we remove [the ballots in question], all races are in question at that point.”
Shelby Busch, cofounder of We The People AZ
‘State of Denial’ tells the behind-the-scene story about the state of elections in Maricopa Co., AZ. The movie brings the receipts and shows the evidence! The question then becomes, why are they doing this? If you like this movie, please consider visiting www.state-of-denial.com/keepitfree to help support future films.
By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY, NATIONAL REVIEW November 25, 2023
After the jihadist barbarities of October 7, Israel responded with aerial bombardments of Hamas havens in Gaza, in preparation for the now-ongoing ground invasion. As the bombs fell, Hamas heavyweight Mousa Abu Marzook was asked about the elaborate network of tunnels that the organization has built under the territory it has governed since being popularly elected in 2006. It is a virtual underground city stretching over 300 miles, constructed with untold billions of dollars in foreign-aid money diverted for the purpose (not to be confused with the aid money diverted to make billionaires out of Marzook and his fellow Hamas emirs).
Ezri ToBe responds to President Biden for his libel against the Jewish settlers of Judea and Samaria@whitehouse pic.twitter.com/77MSrMeymO
— ???? ??? (@YinonMagal) December 18, 2023
