by Alan M. Dershowitz, GATESTONE  •  January 28, 2024 at 5:00 am

• Critics of Israel almost never cite comparable data from other military encounters. This omission creates the false impression that the civilian death tolls in Gaza are among the highest in history, when they are in fact among the lowest.
• The New York Times’ conclusion that the new data suggests that it is “wrong to accuse [Israel] of wanting to maximize civilian deaths” is highly relevant to the false charges of genocide that are being considered by the International Court of Justice.

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Families of Righteous Among the Nations urge Gaza residents to save hostages’ lives.

Israel National News  Jan 27, 2024, 9:03 PM

Click photo for video (English portion begins at 1 min.)

Families of Righteous Among the Nations sent a message to Gaza residents, urging them to act to save the lives of those taken hostage by Gaza terrorists.

At a massive rally held this January 27th in the Hostages Plaza under the banner “NEVER AGAIN IS NOW,” video messages were screened from families of Righteous Among the Nations directly appealing to Gaza residents, asking them to be on the right side of history.

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This comes amid reports that the tense relationship between Israel and Egypt is on the verge of collapse following weeks of a ‘deepening chill’ amid the IDF’s war on Hamas.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF JANUARY 27, 2024 21:06

Smoke rises amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 21, 2024.  (photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)

Israel informed Egypt on Saturday evening of its intention to send troops into Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, despite Egypt’s firm opposition to such a decision, Maariv reported, citing Sky News Arabia.

According to the report, Egypt rejected the request.

Head of the State Information Services (SIS) Diaa Rashwan said earlier this week, “It must be strictly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations.”
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Episode 9: Gadi and Mike discuss the maneuvering against Bibi, and how the Biden administration now plans to sell the Iran deal to American Jews.

by Michael Doran and Gadi Taub, TABLET Jan 25

It seems like former IDF chief of staff, and member of the war cabinet, General Gadi Eisenkot, has been chosen by the anti-Bibi forces as the battering ram with which to take down Netanyahu—with American assistance.

Mike and Gadi discuss how the left and the right in Israel view Eisenkot’s recent maneuvering in very different terms, and for different reasons. The right views it as pure cynicism, while the adherents of the two-state solution have come to think – or so Gadi believes – that Israel should be prevented from winning this war, so that it becomes sufficiently chastened, and Bibi-free, to allow the Biden administration to impose the solution favored by the left, but which the majority of Israelis have clearly rejected.

Also on this episode: Mike explains how the Biden administration has tricked Israelis and American Jews into thinking the disastrous “regional integration” policy (i.e. the appeasement of Iran) is somehow in Israel’s interest. Here’s a clue: Saudi Arabia.

The Israeli public has made clear that it opposes cutting a deal for the hostages that will enable Hamas to survive the war. Its leaders should listen.

Caroline Glick, JNS  (January 26, 2024 / JNS)

Shortly after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, its sadistic massacre of 1,200 Israelis and kidnap of 246 men, women and children from southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government declared war on Iran’s Palestinian proxy. The government set four war goals: the military eradication of Hamas; the eradication of Hamas’s civilian regime in the Gaza Strip; the return of all the hostages; and the permanent pacification of Gaza to ensure that it will never pose a threat to Israel again.

Almost immediately thereafter, anonymous “senior IDF sources” began grousing to the media about the government’s war goals. “Sources in the General Staff” have been regularly cited advocating for replacing the goals of the war with others that rule out Hamas’s eradication and the permanent pacification of Gaza.

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LBC International  2024-01-27

Peloni:  The following is an extract from an article published by TOI, “Amid widening spat, Smotrich accuses Qatar of impeding hostage talks to serve Hamas” in which Gen. Avivi describes his vision of the Day After during the Conference of the Israel Defense and Security Forum in Ashkelon.

By Jeremy Sharon and Michael Bachner, TOI  January 25, 2024

Founder and Chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi addresses a conference put on by his organization in Ashkelon, January 25, 2024. (Israel Defense and Security Forum, Israel’s Security Summit/Daniel Stravo)

..Speaking at the Ashkelon conference, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi laid out what his organization, a right-wing group with a hawkish stance on military and security strategies, believes should be the policies adopted towards Gaza by the government.

Avivi opined that Israel should take control of the Gaza Strip for a lengthy period of time, and also establish settlements there which, he said, would help secure the territory and Israel as a whole.

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Associated Press   December 15, 2023

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and one other warship to remain in the Mediterranean Sea for several more weeks to maintain a two-carrier presence near Israel as its war with Hamas grinds on, U.S. officials said.

It would be the third time the Ford’s deployment has been extended, underscoring the continued concerns about volatility in the region during Israel’s war in Gaza. Having two U.S. aircraft carriers in the region has been a rarity in recent years.

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The Pakistani attack on Iran shattered the myth of the Islamist Regime’s invulnerability.Op-ed.

By Reza Parchizadeh, INN                                              26 January 2024

Pakistan

In reaction to the Revolutionary Guards’ rocket attack on Pakistani territory on January 16, in which Tehran claimed to have targeted separatist Baluchis, Pakistan retaliated on January 18 by bombarding what it said to be Baluchi separatists deep into Iranian territory. As such, Pakistan became the first foreign country to openly attack Iran since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.

The attacks, although ostensibly against the opposing Baluchis in the neighboring country, are in fact a reflection of the larger conflict in the Middle East. They closely correlate with the Israeli war against Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the American and British attacks on the Houthis, and can prove the harbinger of a larger invasion of Iran by its age-old enemies. In this article we will see how that might turn out.

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BARI WEISS, FREE PRESS   JAN 27/24

Christopher Rufo, left, and Yascha Mounk. (Illustration by The Free Press; photos via Getty)

In the past few months, many people were shocked to see the moral rot that has taken hold inside American universities.

For example, they were surprised to learn that:

• A tenured Columbia professor praised Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel as “awesome.”
• At UC–Irvine, a professor said “the Zionists have been exposed for the criminals and bloodthirsty animals that they are. This is a gift from Allah to the world.”
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L, Goudsmit. Man-made climate change is the biggest humanitarian hoax ever perpetrated. Its sole purpose is the imposition of globalism’s managerial Unistate, which awards totalitarian control to the globalist elite. In the first 10 minutes Dr. Happer explains the difference between real pollution and the political fiction of man-made climate change. It is simply Orwellian that anyone still believes this climate hysteria. But Globalism vs. Nationalism is an information war, and disinformation is a weapon of war.

By Majid Rafizadeh, GATESTONE                               27 January 2024

• In a noteworthy development, for the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a warning, signaling that Iran now holds a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium capable of producing multiple nuclear warheads.

• Read more…

DickMorris.com on January 26, 2024

T. Belman. Israel is in a stronger position than you might think. Contrary to Blinken’s threat, Israel has no obligation to rebuild Gaza. It is the Americans that want Gaza rebuilt. In fact, it is an imperative for them because they want the Palestinians to remain in Gaza. If Gaza is not rebuilt, the World must take them in.

A movement is afoot in Israel to reesatablish the Jewish settlements that were abandoned in 2005.

This conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is not about the absence of a Palestinian state, but about the existence of the Jewish state, he said.

TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST   JANUARY 19, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked his political future with the prevention of a Palestinian Authority-run Palestinian state, precisely as the Biden administration has been pressuring Israel to return to a two-state diplomatic process.

“I can say something about what they call the day after Netanyahu. I do not love to speak of myself in the third person. But those who speak of the day after Netanyahu are talking about the creation of a Palestinian state led by the Palestinian Authority,” the Prime Minister told reporters during a press briefing in Tel Aviv.

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T. Belman.  I find it odd the the Israel military should prepare a plan  for the day after.

MENA – The New Arab Staff   02 January, 2024

In a plan reportedly drawn up by the Israeli military, unspecified local ‘clans’ would rule a post-war Gaza in separate ’emirates’.

Under the plan, Israel’s current invasion force in Gaza would assume military control of the territory [Getty]

The Israeli military is due to present a post-war scenario to the government war cabinet on Tuesday, which will reportedly suggest dividing Gaza into different sectors or “emirates” ruled by local clans or tribes rather than a single political entity.

According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, the military plan, informally referred to as “the day after”, would see these unspecified clans and tribes take the reins of civil government away from Hamas.

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 After 12 staffers accused of involvement in Oct. 7 attack

By Barak Ravid, AXIOS

The State Department on Friday said it is pausing additional funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

The big picture: It’s the first step by the Biden administration against UNRWA since renewing U.S. funding to the agency after the Trump administration completely cut it off.

• State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. is “extremely troubled by the allegations” and the administration has “temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”

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The “cause” is the process of finding those willing to kill.

By Daniel Greenfield, FRONT PAGE                          24 January 2024

E. Rowell:  This brilliant analysis explains how the Democrats are holding tryouts for future killers.  It also helps to understand the Israeli left.

After Hamas supporters were caught screaming “shame on you” at children receiving cancer treatment at a Manhattan hospital (“make sure they hear you, they’re in the windows”) some people wondered what they were trying to accomplish.

Questions like that only reveal the vast gap between the pro-Hamas mob and everyone else.

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by Andrew Tucker, thinc.

Today the International Court of Justice issued its ruling on “provisional measures” in the case brought in The Hague by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide of the Palestinian people.

The Court did not grant South Africa’s request for a cease-fire in Gaza. But the Court did accept there is a possibility that Israel is committing genocide, and it has ordered Israel to ensure genocide is not committed, and to grant humanitarian aid.

Nevertheless, the carefully-worded ruling leaves Israel a lot of scope to continue the military campaign.
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T. Belman. The court did not accuse Israel of Genocide as the sub-title asserts. It merely claimed that “At least some of South Africa’s complaints appear to be capable of falling within the Genocide Convention.”

As I understand the law, Israel has the obligation to feed the people and provide medical care once they are “in occupation” but not during a war.  Israel is not yet “in occupation.” .I wonder if the court considers them in occupation at this stage.

The Court ordered Israel to abide by the law. Everybody has to abide by the law. Nothing new there.

But I am far from an expert. I look forward to reading what legal experts have to say about the interim order.

International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues ruling on South Africa lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide.

Israel National News   Jan 26, 2024, 3:07 PM

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday afternoon began a hearing during which it would announce its decision on the case.

At the start of the hearing, the court said, “At least some of South Africa’s complaints appear to be capable of falling within the Genocide Convention.”

For this reason, the court claims, it has refused to dismiss the case.

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