| DAILY ALERT |
Sunday, September 8, 2024 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday dismissed reports that negotiators were close to agreeing on a Gaza ceasefire deal. "There's a story, a narrative out there that there's a deal out there...that's just a false narrative," Netanyahu told Fox News. He stressed that Israel has agreed to several deals proposed by negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, but that each time the deal lapsed because Hamas "has consistently said no to every one of them." "They don't agree to anything: Not to the Philadelphi Corridor, not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists....[They] just want us out of Gaza so they can retake Gaza and do as they vowed to do....The report that there's a deal out there, that the only thing holding it up is the Philadelphi Corridor, is not merely not true, it's just a direct falsehood." Keeping control of the Philadelphi Corridor "prevents Gaza from becoming this Iranian terror enclave again, which can threaten our existence, but it's also the way to prevent them from smuggling hostages that they keep through the ceasefire into Egypt, into the Sinai, where they could disappear, and then they'll end up in Iran or in Yemen, and they're lost forever. So if you want to release the hostages and you want to make sure that Gaza doesn't pose a threat to Israel again, you've got to keep the Philadelphi Corridor." (Fox News) During a press conference for the foreign media on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas was planning to smuggle hostages out of Gaza using the Philadelphi Corridor. "If we leave the Philadelphi corridor, it will be impossible to prevent Hamas not only from smuggling weapons, but also from smuggling hostages," he said. Intelligence sources have told the Jewish Chronicle that Sinwar planned to smuggle himself and the remaining Hamas leaders along with Israeli hostages through the Philadelphi Corridor to Sinai and from there to Iran. This was revealed during the interrogation of a captured senior Hamas official, as well as by information obtained from documents seized on Aug. 29 in Gaza. However, the Israelis are not even considering withdrawing from Philadelphi. Within both the Security Cabinet and the army, it is assumed that giving in to Sinwar's demand for Philadelphi would be seen as weakness and a message to Hamas that killing hostages is profitable, and that such a concession would lead to further demands and more concessions, strengthening Hamas and endangering Israel's security. At a meeting to discuss the murder of the six abductees, most members of the Cabinet agreed that a withdrawal from Gaza, including the Philadelphi Corridor, could reinstate Hamas rule, which has proven over the last decade that its focus is on the elimination of Israel. Netanyahu informed President Biden of this in a classified internal document back on May 27 and again on August 16, when he responded to Hamas's demands during the failed negotiations. (Jewish Chronicle-UK) A Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested on Sept. 4 in Canada for planning "a terrorist attack in New York City around Oct. 7 of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible," U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Friday. "Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody." Khan attempted to travel from Canada to New York City, where he intended to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn. (U.S. Department of Justice) Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released FBI records on Thursday revealing that Iran potentially targeted "politicians, military people or bureaucrats," including President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. "Bad actors are determined to wreak havoc on our country, and American political leaders across both parties are sitting squarely in the crosshairs," he said. A native of Pakistan with ties to Iran, Asif Merchant, has been charged for his involvement in the assassination plot. Merchant communicated with Iran via English language notes smuggled in packages for different extended family members. (Fox News) Police officers in Munich killed a gunman not far from the Israeli Consulate on Thursday, the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the 1972 Olympic Games in the city, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed. According to the authorities, the gunman, an 18-year-old Austrian, drove up in a car, got out and started shooting at patrolling officers with a rifle fitted with a bayonet. The police returned fire. News agencies in Germany and Austria reported that the man, who is from a Bosnian family, was known to the Austrian authorities because of connections to Islamic radicalization. (New York Times) After Aviva Siegel was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza and held prisoner in Gaza, her captors would film her for hostage videos, telling her exactly what to say in order to apply pressure on the Israeli government. Israeli officials and hostage advocates have called the videos a form of psychological terror. Production of hostage videos, made under duress, can be a war crime under international law. (Wall Street Journal) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Three Israeli civilian workers were killed in a shooting attack near the Allenby Crossing in the Jordan Valley on Sunday. The terrorist, a truck driver who arrived from the Jordanian side, opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle on workers at the crossing before being killed by security guards. (Israel Hayom) Israeli officials said Saturday that the U.S. should have demanded more pressure on Hamas from the mediators in Qatar and Egypt as ceasefire and hostage release deal negotiations stall. They said Qatar should expel Hamas leaders living there and freeze the terror group's bank accounts, but instead the Americans are applying their pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu. A senior Israeli official said Hamas has hardened its position and is not really interested in a deal. Hamas increased the number of convicted murderers they demand be freed from Israeli jails in exchange for wounded and sick men held hostage. (Ynet News) See also Israel Preparing for Prolonged War as Hopes for U.S. Mediation Fade - Ron Ben-Yishai Israel's political and defense establishment has reached a consensus that the chances of securing a breakthrough deal leading to a six-week ceasefire are slim to nonexistent. In light of the stalled talks, Israel is preparing for an intense and prolonged military campaign, including potential escalations in the north and the West Bank. With a growing need to return displaced northern Israel residents to their homes, Israeli officials estimate that a broad military offensive in Lebanon will soon be necessary to achieve militarily what Hizbullah is unwilling to concede through U.S. mediation. Meanwhile, Israel has made notable progress in drone interception, with a growing percentage of Hizbullah's drones being successfully shot down due to improved detection systems. (Ynet News) The IDF reported on Saturday that dozens of terrorists had been killed in Tel Al-Sultan near Rafah as part of ongoing "precise, intelligence-based targeted operations" in southern Gaza. (Jerusalem Post) The IDF strike on Iran's S-300 antiaircraft missile system on April 19, in retaliation for Tehran's launching over 300 missiles and drones at Israel on April 13-14, significantly deterred Iran throughout August, top sources told the Jerusalem Post. It took Tehran a decade to get Russia to sell the system, which was located in close proximity both to Iran's Natanz nuclear facility and a key military airport. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei understood that Israel could have easily destroyed those sites. This was augmented when Israel and its allies shot down 99% of the aerial threats launched by Iran in April, and the return of that coalition in August. (Jerusalem Post) Farhan Alkadi, 52, a Bedouin Israeli abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 who was rescued from Gaza on Aug. 27, told Israel's Channel 12 that he was shot by the invading terrorists for refusing to tell them "where the Israeli Jews were." "Hamas saw I was really a Muslim," he said. They tested his knowledge of Islam and his Arabic. "They said: 'Take us in your car and show us where the Jews are.' I said...no one is here. I played dumb. Even if they killed me, I wasn't ready to do it (to help Hamas)." (Jerusalem Post) Ziad Abu Haya, a Palestinian activist, was seen on the Saudi Al-Arabiya network last month asking the world to "save us from Hamas." Sources in Gaza told Al Arabiya that Abu Haya was severely beaten and tortured last Friday after armed men affiliated with Hamas stormed his tent in Khan Yunis. Gaza Palestinian Mahmoud Khallas wrote on X, "Ziad Abu Haya, a citizen from Khan Yunis, lost his son at the beginning of the war and said, 'Save us from Hamas.' Two days ago, Hamas attacked him and broke his bones. What's happening in Gaza on a daily basis, far from the eyes of the media, is a crime against humanity. Hamas's remnants in Gaza are abusing, beating and oppressing the displaced." (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War It has been intensely frustrating to see the fate of the Israeli hostages too often ignored in media stories and political discourse, as if any government of any country can simply allow its citizens to be held and not react. Israel is portrayed as the bad guy for killing people while rescuing hostages who Hamas could, after all, have released without anyone dying. The consequence of a ceasefire is that Hamas retains part of its military structure and is able to regroup and attack again. There can never be peace in the Middle East while this holds. Defeating Hamas is the purpose of this awful war, the argument for persisting. Freeing the hostages is part of this, but it cannot be the endgame. Because if it is, Hamas will simply take more hostages. Israel has long made a policy of making huge concessions in exchange for those its opponents kidnapped. And the result, I'm afraid, has been more kidnapping. The writer is associate editor of The Times-UK. (Jewish Chronicle-UK) Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Moti Almoz, 57, argues for a buffer zone of about 2.5 to 6 miles west of the Gaza fence under Israeli control. "This depth is critical for protecting our communities. It's been clear since day one that this is necessary. We need to send a clear message: anyone planning future attacks will lose territory. That's what victory looks like, not images of surrendering enemies." Almoz dismisses the idea of quick peace solutions, arguing that Israel must prioritize security over peace negotiations in the short term. "We're preoccupied with terms like 'innocents' and 'uninvolved civilians.' But...it wasn't just the armed groups; civilians came to loot, assault, and kill. Young people bragged about killing with their bare hands, even elderly people joined in. There are two million Palestinians in Gaza. If we hadn't stopped them, they would have reached more communities, killing and looting. This calls into question the concept of 'uninvolved civilians.'" "To anyone speaking about peace with Gaza, I say: consider the risk to your daughter. This is the area we live in, we'll live by the sword forever. But as they say, it's better to live by the sword than to live in illusions." (Makor Rishon-Israel Hayom) Hizbullah According to Lt.-Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, in August 2024 there were 281 attacks on Israel's northern communities. These included 176 rockets and mortars, 62 drone attacks, and 43 attacks involving other weapons. Additionally, there were 8 anti-tank guided missile attacks, 2 anti-aircraft missile attacks, and 1 sniping incident. On Sept. 2, Hizbullah carried out two attacks involving at least 30 Grad rockets targeting the communities of Ein Ya'akov, Ga'aton, and Yehiam. Hizbullah has suffered significant losses, including the deaths of over 45 senior commanders, but it remains a powerful adversary with an arsenal of over 150,000 rockets and missiles. "Hizbullah's capabilities were damaged but not eliminated," she said. Over 80,000 Israelis from over 40 communities within 5 km. of the border with Lebanon have been displaced. "Oct. 7 taught us that we cannot predict the intentions of our enemies because we cannot understand them. They think so differently than us. They have different values, different perceptions. My conclusion is that Israeli intelligence should look at the capabilities, should listen to the ideologies, and combine that with goals. That way, we can understand where the enemy is heading. We should be prepared for the worst-case scenario. I think this is something we all forgot." (Israel Hayom) U.S.-Israel Relations The anti-Israel U.S. sanctions regime, pitched as picking off a few bad actors, has expanded rapidly. The latest target is Hashomer Yosh ("The Guardians of Judea and Samaria"), a large volunteer group that protects West Bank farming outposts from theft, arson and other attacks. From January to June, Israelis faced 109 shootings, 299 IEDs, 456 Molotov cocktails and 1,868 stonings from Palestinians, according to Rescuers Without Borders. In the West Bank, the attacks killed 13 Israelis and injured 155. The U.S. is now debanking their security guards. Hashomer Yosh isn't accused of violence. The logic is that the State Department earlier sanctioned a few West Bank farms, which are among those that Hashomer Yosh's volunteers serve. Oct. 7 proved the necessity of community defense. Removing the Israeli defenders is asking for a repeat of the slaughter. Meanwhile, the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party took responsibility for two car bombings last Friday, contending with Hamas for credit. Any new sanctions on Fatah officials? Nope. (Wall Street Journal) Palestinian Arabs The Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel for initiating a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank. Israel's counterterrorism operation targets numerous Iran-backed armed terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that have been operating freely in PA-controlled territories. The main objective of Israel's operation is to thwart Iran's intention to turn not only Gaza, but also the West Bank, into another terror base as part of the Islamists' Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel. The PA should applaud Israel's security forces for pursuing the terrorists, rather than criticizing them. These armed groups pose a direct threat not only to Israel, but the PA as well. The gunmen have created their own state within a state in the areas under PA administration, openly contesting the PA's legitimacy and making a mockery of its security forces. The PA is reluctant to crack down on these groups because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public. The Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank could have been avoided, had the PA fulfilled its duty of combating terrorism by dismantling the armed groups. Many Israeli and Palestinian lives could have been spared had the PA done its job and taken action against the gunmen. The writer, a veteran Israeli journalist, is a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs. (Gatestone Institute) At the end of World War II in 1945, around one million Jews lived in Arab countries. They had resided in the region for around 2,500 years. Approximately one million Jews were expelled from Arab countries following the establishment of the State of Israel and its subsequent wars. The UN did not assist the Jewish refugees; instead, the young state of Israel, with its minimal resources, managed to absorb them. Following the outbreak of war after Israel's establishment on May 14, 1948, many Palestinian Arabs heeded their leaders' calls to leave the land for a few weeks until the Jews were slaughtered and the land was "cleansed." The UN Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East recommended resolving the Palestinian Arab refugee issue by resettling them in Arab countries through integration into industrial and agricultural projects. This is how the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was born. The UN has two refugee agencies. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) deals with refugees worldwide, while UNRWA deals exclusively with Palestinian refugees. The 20th century witnessed hundreds of millions of people displaced and resettled elsewhere. But unlike refugees in the rest of the world, for Palestinians, refugee status is inherited, even for those absorbed into other countries. Thus, the number of refugees has grown from around half a million in 1948 to 5-6 million today. This stems from the desire to fuel hatred against Israel and sustain the Palestinians' dream of flooding Israel and destroying it through what they call the "right of return." The UN is responsible for this disgrace. UNRWA has not and will not solve the refugee problem. Were it not for the desire to harm the Jews, after a generation, the Palestinian refugees would have been absorbed into their new homes and forgotten. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Italy. (Israel Hayom) Iran Unlike other senior Iranian officials, the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian doesn't hide the enormous damage sanctions have caused and are still causing the Iranian economy. According to estimates released by the Iranian parliament's research center, about a million students dropped out of the school system at every level in 2023.The Education Ministry said the schools are short 176,000 teachers. The parliament's Education Committee said many students are forced to go to work instead of going to school. Since August 2, nurses have been on strike in most Iranian cities. They want their salaries adjusted for inflation, which is currently over 40%. According to the Supreme Council of the Nursing System, 150-200 nurses emigrate from Iran every month. (Ha'aretz) An Iranian firm paid at least $3 million in ransom last month to stop an anonymous group of hackers known as IRLeaks from releasing individual account data from 20 domestic banks in what appears to be the worst cyberattack the country has seen. The mid-August breach forced banks to shut down cash machines across the country. People familiar with the Iranian banking hack said IRLeaks is affiliated with neither the U.S. nor Israel, suggesting the attack may have been the work of freelance hackers driven primarily by financial motives. (Politico) Antisemitism The muted reaction to the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas "tragically confirms" liberal Jewish French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy's view that the Jewish state and "Jews around the world" are alone, as reflected in the title of his new book, Israel Alone. In an interview in Paris, Levy draws attention to one of the hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23. "Hersh was executed for being a Jew. He was also American. Where is the collective rage in the USA? The collective grief?" It is "fashionable to be anti-Jew in America. Jews have been assimilated into the box of oppressors." After Oct. 7, everyone realized "that there is no place in the world where Jews are safe." Rather than provoke sympathy and compassion for the Jews, Hamas's massacre liberated hate. "I expected at least a moment of real solidarity in the face of this enormous crime." Instead, the murderers were "blessed, excused and praised." The victims were "accused, cursed and held responsible for their fates." "A big part of the world was longing for something like Oct. 7, dreaming of it. People danced in the streets...after Oct. 7. They loved the humiliation of...Israel." There was a craving among the "antiliberal, antidemocratic, anti-Western, antisemitic crowds" for "someone to do this." Yet Levy wrote his book to "instill courage and pride in the Jews, and to galvanize their many non-Jewish supporters in America." He concludes that "the soul, mind, and genius of Judaism are standing firm amid tumult and torment." He's confident Jews will emerge stronger. The Jews "don't disarm themselves. They fight back. They behave as they should. They are proud." The writer is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and at New York University Law School's Classical Liberal Institute. (Wall Street Journal) Other Issues Six Israeli hostages were killed in cold blood last week. They survived captivity for over 300 days, yet when the IDF was close by, Hamas terrorists slaughtered them. The whole Jewish world is broken-hearted. I am also brokenhearted. But I am not surprised. When I heard the news of the death of the hostages and found out they were shot, I thought: Thank God they weren't beheaded like Daniel Pearl. Thank God they weren't stoned to death with rocks like my son Koby and his friend Yosef, murdered in 2001 when they were 13 years old. This cruelty is not new. For many who grew up in a post-Holocaust America when antisemitism was on the wane - when Jews were not just accepted, but celebrated - Jew-hatred comes as a shock. For many of us, though, we know the cruelty and evil of the enemy. They are sworn to our destruction. They do not want any Jew to live in this land. They would exterminate us all if they could. Children were murdered in their beds during the Intifada. To retreat from Rafah before Hamas is eradicated and to release Palestinian prisoners puts our future in danger. At the Koby Mandell Foundation, we have worked with too many families of terror victims who were killed by released Palestinian terrorists. The price of releasing terrorists only for them to murder again is too high. We allowed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Oct. 7, his freedom in a prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit. We don't want to have to pay that price again. If I were the mother of a hostage, I would fight with every breath to bring them home; and if I were the mother of a fallen soldier who gave his life so that terrorists in Gaza would not be able to strike again, I would probably be against any prisoner release and retreat from Gaza. We need to destroy the evil of the Hamas regime so that they lose their power - so they are crushed and unable to attack us ever again. The writer is co-founder of the Koby Mandell Foundation, which runs programs for children and families whose loved ones have been murdered by terrorists. (eJewishPhilanthropy) The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines 1,553 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war, according to an analysis of the first four months of the BBC's output by a team of 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson. Israel was associated with genocide 14 times more than Hamas in coverage of the conflict. The BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism while presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive nation. Some journalists used by the BBC in its coverage of the conflict had previously shown sympathy for Hamas and even celebrated its acts of terror. "Hamas members filmed and publicized themselves committing acts which appear to constitute war crimes," the report said, including the taking of hostages, willful killing or murder, torture or inhuman treatment and rape or sexual violence. But despite this, Israel was associated with war crimes four times more than Hamas (127 versus 30), with genocide 14 times more (283 versus 19) and with breaching international law six times more (167 versus 27). (Sunday Telegraph-UK) See also BBC Impartiality? - Trevor Asserson (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2008) See also The BBC: A Public Monopoly Abusing Its Charter through Bias Against Israel - Trevor Asserson (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2004) The EU's dangerous bias on the Gaza conflict, where it constantly backs Iranian-backed terrorist groups at the expense of a democracy, Israel, has been exposed yet again by the latest anti-Israel stance adopted by Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign minister. Borrell wants the bloc's members to impose sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers for "hate messages" against Palestinians. His initiative was unlikely to succeed as it would require unanimity among all 27-member states, and many EU nations, such as Italy, were strongly opposed to the measure. The fact that the EU's foreign policy chief has even suggested imposing punitive measures against Israel when it is involved in a desperate fight defending itself against the world's largest sponsor of state terrorism, Iran, and its proxy terrorist groups - Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iraqi militias, as well as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - on at least seven fronts, shows a woeful lack of understanding of the conflict. Europe is just as much in danger as Israel, should Iran move to a nuclear weapons breakout. Borrell's constant articulation of anti-Israeli views raises questions about his suitability to continue holding such an important position in the EU. As for IDF raids to tackle terrorists in the West Bank, Danny Danon, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, explained that Iran is "actively working to smuggle sophisticated explosive devices" into the West Bank "intended for use in suicide bombings in the heart of Israeli cities." Israel would not sit idly by and "wait for scenes of buses and cafes exploding in city centers. The IDF's operations in Judea and Samaria have a clear goal: preventing Iranian terror-by-proxy that would harm Israeli civilians." The writer is defense and foreign affairs editor of the Daily Telegraph (UK). (Gatestone Institute) Observations: Beware False Moral Equivalence between Israel and Hamas - Lt.-Col. (ret.) Geoffrey Corn and Lt.-Gen. (ret.) George Smith (Newsweek)
Geoffrey Corn is Director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University School of Law and a Distinguished Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. George Smith is the former Commanding General of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. |
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