| DAILY ALERT |
Thursday, March 27, 2025 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
A secret group chat of top U.S. officials, disclosed after the mistaken addition of an Atlantic journalist, provided an unfiltered look at the decision-making process behind the U.S. strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen this month. Vice President JD Vance said the attacks would send "a message," while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces were the "only ones on the planet" who could restore freedom of navigation for ships passing through the Suez Canal. Vance also provided counter arguments on why the U.S. should not strike, including his belief that an attack would amount to "bailing Europe out again." Hegseth said this is "not about the Houthis." It is about: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence." National security adviser Michael Waltz said the U.S. was "unfortunately" the only one with capability, so "it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes." (Washington Post) See also Houthis Launch Missiles at Central Israel on Thursday Two ballistic missiles were launched from Yemen at Israel on Thursday, causing sirens to sound across central Israel and the Jerusalem area. Both missiles were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory, the IDF said. (Times of Israel-Ynet News) Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza marched through neighborhoods reduced to rubble chanting against Hamas for a second day Wednesday. Videos show some people chanting: "Hamas out," amid wider calls from hundreds of demonstrators for an end to the war. Saeed Kilani, one of the protesters, said, "The chants of 'Hamas out' does not mean that we want to eliminate Hamas, nor that we have the ability to do so, nor that we are against Hamas. Hamas exists in every family, even among those in the streets - some of whom are members of Hamas....[But] Hamas's management of the negotiations is flawed, inadequate and has not brought us security or safety. We demand that this responsibility be transferred to another party. We do not care who that party is." Ibrahim Hajjaj, 22, a freelance videographer, said he saw "intense anger" on display in Shejaiya on Wednesday. "It seems that the protesters, although called for by notables and mukhtars, were completely spontaneous and express the voice of the people on the Gazan street." They "expressed their rejection of Hamas's approach to negotiations and demanded to stop the bloodshed at all costs." (Washington Post) See also Second Day of Protests Against Hamas Rule Sweeps Gaza - Einav Halabi Growing protests erupted across Gaza on Wednesday as thousands of Palestinians called for an end to the war with Israel and demanded that Hamas relinquish power. The demonstrations expanded to Gaza City's Shejaiya and Sabra neighborhoods, the Nuseirat refugee camp, and the central city of Deir al-Balah. (Ynet News) See also Hundreds of Gazans Demand an End to the War on Tuesday - Einav Halabi (Ynet News) Groups with ties to U.S.-designated terrorist groups Hamas, Hizbullah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are raising funds in the United States. U.S. tax-exempt organizations are providing and enabling funding for terror-linked NGOs. They include the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Open Society Foundation, Grassroots International, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Cultures of Resistance Network. (NGO Monitor) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel killed more than 150 Hamas terrorists since the renewed fighting in Gaza began, defense officials said on Tuesday. The IDF is working according to a structured plan and in stages, approved by the government, taking into consideration the need to avoid harm to the hostages. The IDF continued to operate in Syria, including strikes near Damascus and the T4 airbase in Homs. At least five armed men were killed in southern Syria on Tuesday after the group opened fire at Israeli troops across the border in the Golan Heights. Over the past week, the Houthis in Yemen launched five missiles toward Israel within six days. All were intercepted. (Ynet News) Israeli jets bombed Syria's Latakia port area on Wednesday night, striking military positions used by foreign factions linked to the Syrian Defense Ministry, including from Chechnya and Uzbekistan. Video shared on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the sky. Israeli airstrikes were also reported on Hizbullah operatives in Lebanon. (Times of Israel) The IDF on Tuesday confirmed the elimination of Hamas operative Hossam Shabat, who worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera and had millions of social media followers. Shabat was "a sniper terrorist from the Beit Hanoun Battalion," the IDF said. "In October 2024, the IDF and ISA exposed the terrorist's direct affiliation with the military wing of Hamas. Internal Hamas documents revealed that he participated in military training conducted by the Beit Hanoun Battalion of Hamas in 2019." (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War As the path of negotiations with Hamas has reached a dead-end, Israel cannot accept a situation where its war aims are not being advanced at all. This is why we are now returning to war against Hamas. Some have suggested that another military campaign is futile and unjustified. But the strategic environment is dramatically different from where we were a few months ago. For the first time since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, Israel has the resounding support of the U.S. in word and action. The White House has given Israel the green light to act forcefully and effectively in Gaza, provided the diplomatic backing in international institutions, and, crucially, supplied the necessary arms, ammunition, and equipment in recent weeks. This time, the IDF war effort will be different. It will entail the full-out conquest of Gaza, effective military control of the territory, and will prevent Hamas from receiving the humanitarian aid that sustained it. The defeat of Hizbullah and the Assad regime on Israel's northern border also facilitates the return to war. Another factor is that the majority of the hostages have been rescued or released (192 of the 251 taken on October 7), enabling the IDF to operate more freely. These strategic and tactical conditions allow Israel to finally defeat Hamas. The writer is a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. (Jerusalem Post) Israel and the UN The UN's 1948 recognition of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in the State of Israel symbolized hope and triumph over genocidal oppression. Yet today, the world body has tragically inverted this narrative, portraying Israel as a villain, while rationalizing the actions of genocidal terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hizbullah and the Houthis, which share aims akin to those of the Nazis. The UN has evolved into a platform on which the legitimacy of Israel is consistently undermined. Resolutions and declarations emerging from various UN bodies often paint Israel as an aggressor while propping up and legitimizing the actions of groups that threaten its existence. Bias against Israel can be traced back to UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975, which equated Zionism and racism. That resolution was shelved in 1991. Since 2015, the UN General Assembly has delivered 140 resolutions condemning Israel - far more than the number of resolutions against all other nations combined. The UN Human Rights Council, whose members frequently include authoritarian, repressive regimes such as North Korea and Iran, has also passed an overwhelming number of resolutions against Israel. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have served as additional forums enabling "lawfare" campaigns against Israel. Moreover, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which purportedly supports Palestinian refugees, has been implicated in supporting terrorism. There is a pressing need for the UN to confront its embedded biases and its acceptance of jihad and collective Jew hatred. A different framework must emerge, one that prioritizes accuracy, fairness, and a commitment to uphold human rights without prejudice. The UN and its associated agencies are accomplices to terror organizations, defaulting on their mission set in the UN's founding charter of pursuing peace and defending the sovereignty of nations. The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Jerusalem Post) The World Health Organization has made a systematic effort to obscure Hamas's exploitation of hospitals in Gaza. The evidence of Hamas's commandeering of Gaza's medical infrastructure is overwhelming and beyond dispute. Hamas transformed hospitals into command centers, weapons stockpiles, and active combat zones. Yet WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus churned out hundreds of public statements and social-media posts decrying Israel's supposed "assault" on Gaza's health-care system. WHO clings to a narrative that casts Gaza's hospitals as innocent civilian sanctuaries unjustly targeted by Israeli forces. Yet Hamas's transformation of hospitals into terrorist bastions and dungeons for Israeli captives is a flagrant violation of international law. (National Review) Iran In February Iran's revolution turned 46. Today, the government is drowning in corruption. The system is riddled with nepotism, where family members of influential mullahs get lucrative state contracts, pay no taxes, and adhere to no regulations. The Revolutionary Guards have taken control of key industries such as telecommunications, construction, and banking, at a time when 30% of Iranians live below the poverty line. Clerical leaders routinely call on the masses to sacrifice and endure hardship for the sake of the regime. No Middle Eastern nation has killed more Americans than Iran. The Marine and embassy bombings of 1983, the attack on a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia in 1996, and the relentless assault on American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed and wounded thousands. In the early decades of this century, Iran created the so-called axis of resistance, a concatenation of Shia militias and Arab militants that did Iran's bidding. Then came Oct. 7 and the great undoing. Iran's imperial strategy succeeded only because there was little pushback. Successive American administrations did not want to tangle with Tehran. But then Jerusalem flipped the script. It rejected Washington's calls for restraint as it destroyed Hamas and decapitated Hizbullah, which presaged the collapse of the Syrian regime. In its own scrimmage with Iran, Israel demonstrated its military prowess by easily penetrating the Islamic Republic's air defenses. The Islamic Republic has been humbled in the region by Jews. Its citizenry now routinely mocks the theocracy. Nuclear weapons may not save the Islamic Republic, since the rot is too deep and popular disaffection too widespread. But the bomb may be the last thing Khamenei can do to sustain his government. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the CIA, is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. (National Review) Egypt Recently, questions have been raised in Israel regarding the expanded Egyptian military presence in the Sinai Peninsula and near the international border with Israel, in addition to the significant buildup of the Egyptian army during the years of President el-Sisi's rule. Egypt is committed to the peace treaty with Israel. This is conveyed unequivocally to Israel and is also stated publicly by President al-Sisi and other senior officials. Al-Sisi told the Arab League summit in Cairo on March 4 that the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is a worthy example of turning hostility, war, and the desire for revenge into lasting peace and diplomatic relations. The commitment to the peace treaty effectively eliminates Egyptian motivation to initiate war against Israel. Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, and since then, Egyptian sovereignty has been maintained and respected by Israel. Egyptians are well aware of the consequences of war and the extensive destruction it entails. The national vision of channeling resources into economic development that President al-Sisi has formulated and is advancing for Egypt could be destroyed in a few days of fighting with Israel. The Egyptians repeatedly remind themselves of the heavy price Egypt paid for the Palestinian cause during the rule of Abdel Nasser. In their view, that era has passed; Egypt now prioritizes its own interests and welfare. Escalation with Israel would only occur if Egypt were to conclude that Israel poses a direct and concrete threat to Egyptian national security. The writer, a senior researcher at INSS, served as Israel's Ambassador to Egypt (2020-2024). (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Terrorism in the U.S. Masked criminals attacked several Citibank locations in New York City last September. They squeezed epoxy on debit-card readers, damaged door locks, and vandalized windows with profanities and threats of future violence. The marauders filmed their work and posted it to their Instagram page - Unity of Fields - the recently rebranded group formerly known as Palestine Action US. Since Hamas massacred Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, this type of organized criminal mayhem has increasingly become part of American life. Today's agitators deploy random acts of lawlessness designed to inconvenience and disrupt as many civilians as possible, hoping to pressure them to get the government to change course - engaging in civil terrorism. Anti-Israel demonstrators have blocked several of the busiest highways in Illinois, California, and Washington, D.C., and have shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. All those actions are crimes. In a democracy, political movements aim to win support through argument, not by disrupting fellow citizens' lives. The 1960s civil rights movement remained within democratic norms, persuading officials to amend laws by winning citizens to the side of reform. What today's organizations do is not civil disobedience. The current civil-terror movement includes groups that openly support foreign terror organizations and hostile regimes. This is indisputable - they regularly say so. Hamas, Hizbullah, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flags, headbands, symbols, and keffiyehs bearing particular colors linked with the groups feature prominently in actions meant to intimidate Americans - especially Jews. Anti-American radicals seek to terrorize the American people into doing what foreign terror groups want, starting with reversing our long-standing support for Israel. The practitioners of civil terrorism are trying to destroy the West, not fix it. But we have a cure for anti-American and antisemitic criminal behavior: put the criminals who act unlawfully in prison, confiscate their funds, uproot their criminal networks, deter their would-be imitators, and give public spaces back to the American people. The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. (City Journal) Antisemitism I recently had the honor of speaking to the Jewish community in England's north to express my solidarity and discuss the ongoing conflict. It always comes as a surprise to British Jewish audiences when I make the point that very few people in the UK actually care about the Israel-Gaza conflict. To the majority, this is just another war in the Middle East. While they think it is sad many children have died, and "isn't it awful about the hostages," their priorities are not what a load of Levantines are doing to one another. However, this gives the Jewish community an opportunity to focus on the 90% who do not really care about the Gaza War. The strategy should focus on identity realignment, symbolism, and common cause narratives. Instead of framing protests as being in favor of Jewish or Israeli interests, frame them as a British issue - concern for public safety, rule of law, and national values. We have traditionally been a country that prides itself on tolerance. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) marches are a shocking example of intolerance. The brain processes images far more quickly and easily than it does text or nuanced argument. At protests, Israeli flags may reinforce group status, but Israel is a foreign nation. Waving British flags instead of Israeli flags asserts belonging and aligns British Jews with national identity rather than foreign policy disputes. In the context of fighting British antisemitism, Israeli flags are unhelpful. British flags move the protest from being a Middle Eastern problem to a British one. Instead of framing counterprotests as "against pro-Palestinian marches," frame them as against extremism and antisemitism, which threaten British society as a whole. Of course, there is a place for Jewish distinctiveness, but in this specific context we are trying to create an in-group mentality with the uncommitted. Instead of saying, "Support British Jews," the narrative should shift to "Support British Communities Against Hate." We should emphasize "our streets," "our safety," and "our shared future" rather than "Jewish safety." Remember, the British Jewish community is so small that unless one lives in London or certain northern cities, many British people are unlikely to have ever met a Jewish person in real life. This is about creating a connection where it does not exist. The writer, who served in the British Army in 2005-21, is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. (Substack) Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to process and generate human-like text by analyzing vast amounts of data utilizing deep learning techniques. ADL research shows that four leading LLM tools display bias against Jews and Israel. This report evaluates anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in GPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and Llama (Meta). All four models have concerning answers in response to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias questions. Llama exhibits significant bias on a range of Jewish and Israeli topics. GPT and Claude show particularly high anti-Israel bias. (Anti-Defamation League) Israel in the Media "The British Jewish community has long been sounding the alarm regarding BBC misreporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; not just for years, but for decades," the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, told the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, last week. Rosenberg called for a "thematic review into the Corporation's reporting on Israel-Gaza since October 7, 2023," introducing a "one-strike" policy for BBC staff found to have "egregiously breached its rules of impartiality and/or antisemitism," and stopping its editorial practice of translating the Arabic word "Yahud," meaning Jew, as "Israeli" when used by Palestinians - all measures which the BBC should indeed implement immediately. But it would need far more than a series of new processes and editorial checks to change the culture that is the real cause of the BBC's bias against Israel and Jews. The problem is the mindset of those involved. The vast majority of the journalistic pool from which the BBC, Sky, ITV, and other news media draw their teams hold a default attitude toward Israel that it is a rogue state which kills Palestinians with impunity, with mainstream Israelis complicit, an issue that stretches far beyond the BBC. The writer was editor of the Jewish Chronicle (2008-2021). (Jewish Chronicle-UK) Observations: How Should Israel Deal with Qatar? - Yoel Guzansky (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
The writer, who formerly coordinated Iran and Gulf affairs at Israel's National Security Council, is a senior researcher at INSS. See also U.S. Approves $2 Billion Arms Sale to Qatar - Daniel Edelson The U.S. State Department has approved an arms sale to Qatar which includes advanced drones, a weapons system and associated equipment with an estimated value of almost $2 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the U.S. Congress. The package includes eight MQ-9B drones, radar systems, and 300 BLU-111 bombs weighing 500 pounds. (Ynet News) |
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