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In-Depth Issues:
Sinwar Surrounds Himself with Israeli Hostages for Protection - Elon Perry ( Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Hamas holds only around 20 Israeli hostages and these are being kept in handcuffs as human shields around Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, intelligence sources say.
Israel has already had several opportunities to eliminate him after locating the tunnels in which he was hiding, but the attack was not authorized because of the danger to the hostages.
The rest of the captives are believed to be in the hands of smaller terror groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PFLP, Mujahideen Brigades, al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
While Sinwar is demanding the release of Hamas prisoners as a priority,
these groups want prisoners from their own ranks on the list.
They insist that any deal includes the release of all terrorists from Israeli jails, including 1,236 murderers who have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Top Hamas Official Mashaal Urges Resumption of Suicide Bombings Against Israel ( Times of Israel)
Top Hamas official Khaled Mashaal called on Wednesday in Istanbul for a resumption of suicide bombings, saying that Hamas wanted to "return to [suicide] operations."
"I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the actual resistance against the Zionist entity."
In the early 2000s, hundreds of Israelis were killed in a series of deadly suicide bombings.
Israeli security authorities have identified attempts by Hamas and other terror groups in the West Bank to return to carry out such attacks.
See also Hamas's Renewal of Suicide Attacks inside Israel - Yoni Ben Menachem ( Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs)
Pro-Hamas Protesters Ignored at Democratic National Convention - Mitchell Bard ( JNS)
Pro-Hamas protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago called for an arms embargo on Israel but were largely ignored.
Protesters were kept far from the convention center so that delegates didn't have to see or hear them.
Estimates of their number ranged from 2,000 to 5,000. Most of the events drew a few hundred or less.
Seven delegates from the "Uncommitted" movement held a sit-in demanding a speaking slot for a Palestinian American and were rebuffed.
Dana Milbank wrote in the Washington Post about the "comically small" crowds that reporters outnumbered.
"If the whole world was watching, they were seeing a once-powerful protest movement devolve into buffoonery."
See also DNC Anti-Israel Protests Devolve into Farce - Dana Milbank ( Washington Post)
Organizers anticipated there would be 30,000 to 40,000 protesters on hand for the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago who would
"shut down the DNC for Gaza."
But only a few thousand showed up; police estimated 3,500.
As the group assembled in Union Park, hundreds of signs reading "Victory to the Palestinian Resistance" were left stacked and unused.
Follow the Jerusalem Center on:
A Burning Oil Tanker in the Red Sea - Editorial ( Wall Street Journal)
Last week Iran's Houthi proxies in Yemen attacked a Greek tanker heading from Iraq to Greece.
Does Mr. Biden or either of the candidates running to replace him have a plan to revive order in a global shipping lane now controlled by Houthi terrorists?
The Pentagon said Tuesday the ship is now "immobilized in the Red Sea where it is currently on fire and appears to be leaking oil, presenting both a navigational hazard and a potential environmental catastrophe."
The ship contains a million barrels of crude, and the State Department has warned the mess could end with an oil spill four times the size of Exxon Valdez in 1989.
The Houthis continue to hold global shipping hostage because the U.S. is tolerating it, instead of obliterating the group's radar and missile stores with military strikes.
The consequences of failing to deter the Houthis will radiate to other parts of the region and the world.
U.S.-Iranian National Indicted for Attempting to Export Military Aircraft Parts to Iran ( U.S. Justice Department)
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment on August 14 charging U.S.-Iranian national Jeffrey Chance Nader, 68, with crimes related to the illicit export of U.S.-manufactured military aircraft components to Iran in violation of U.S. economic sanctions and other federal laws.
Beginning at least in 2023, Nader, acting on purchase orders he received from Iran, reached out to U.S.-based suppliers, falsely identifying himself and his company, California-based Pro Aero Capital, as the end user.
Once Nader obtained the components, he attempted to export the items on multiple occasions to the United Arab Emirates for transshipment to Iran.
However, the items were detained by a Special Agent with the Department of Commerce, and none were successfully exported from the U.S.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- White House: U.S. Remains Committed to Help Defend Israel from Iranian Attack
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told Israel's Channel 12 on Tuesday: "We believe that [the Iranians] are still postured and poised to launch an attack [on Israel] should they want to do that, which is why we have that enhanced force posture in the region."
"Our messaging to Iran is consistent, has been and will stay consistent. One, don't do it. There's no reason to escalate this. There's no reason to potentially start some sort of all-out regional war. And number two, we are going to be prepared to defend Israel if it comes to that."
The U.S. maintains two aircraft-carrier strike groups in the Middle East, as well as an extra squadron of F-22 fighter jets.
Kirby said the force will remain "as long as we feel like we need to keep it in place to help defend Israel and defend our own troops and facilities in the region." (Reuters)
- Gen. McMaster: To Make Any Progress toward Peace, "You've Got to Destroy Hamas" - Lt.-Gen. (ret.) H.R. McMaster interviewed by Christiane Amanpour
Q: Some have been saying they believe Israel has done as much damage as they can right now to Hamas in Gaza and that this is a time to really try to nail down a ceasefire.
McMaster: "I would disagree with that, Christiane. I think they've got to hunt down the leaders. I think they've got to kill Sinwar or capture Sinwar....You've got to think back to what happened October 7th. We have a reminder, right, that there are still hostages."
"And even despite the gains that the Israel Defense Forces have made against Hamas, it's Hamas still who has the guns in Gaza. So, if you hope to get to any kind of progress toward an enduring peace or a two-state solution, you've got to destroy Hamas, right? Because Hamas is the organization that is committed to destroying Israel and killing all the Jews."
H.R. McMaster is a former U.S. national security advisor who served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for 34 years, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan. (CNN-Aug. 27, 2024)
- UN Security Council Renews Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon - Michelle Nichols
The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to extend the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established in 1978, that patrols Lebanon's southern border with Israel. The mandate for its operation is renewed annually, and its current authorization was due to expire on Saturday.
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Wednesday: "I have a message for the Lebanese people: You and your government have a choice to make. Confront Hizbullah today, or watch as your country is dragged into chaos and destruction. Do not let Hizbullah and Iran dictate your future. If you fail to act, the devastation that follows will be on your hands. Israel does not seek war, but as we demonstrated this week, we will not hesitate to defend our people."
Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council:
"Going forward, we need to address the ways in which Hizbullah and other malign actors in Lebanon prevent the full implementation of Resolution 1701, constrain UNIFIL's ability to operate freely, and threaten UN peacekeepers' safety and security." (Reuters)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israeli Bedouin Hostage Rescued in Gaza - Yael Ciechanover
Farhan al-Qadi, 52, a Bedouin Muslim Arab-Israeli from Rahat, was rescued after 326 days in Hamas captivity. He had lost significant weight but was in good overall condition. Al-Qadi was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Magen, where he worked as a security guard. His rescue was carried out by the IDF and Israel Security Agency. IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the rescue was made possible by precise intelligence.
(Ynet News)
See also Rescued Israeli Bedouin Hostage Witnessed Hamas Murder Captive
Farhan al-Qadi, who was rescued from Hamas captivity on Tuesday, revealed details from his captivity, N12 reported Wednesday. Al-Qadi shared that he was shot in the leg by terrorists on Oct. 7 and, while in captivity, underwent surgery to remove the bullet. "The surgery was done with almost no anesthesia, and it was extremely painful. Initially, I was held in an apartment with other hostages, and there was very little food."
A few weeks after he was taken hostage, terrorists filmed other hostages held with him. He recounted that in the video, one could see the hostage dying, which was filmed but never released by the terrorists. He shared how he witnessed the murder of the hostage beside him.
"After about two months, the terrorists moved me to a tunnel. There, I was alone, surrounded only by the terrorists. I couldn't tell the difference between day and night. The terrorists were masked and mostly gave me slices of bread to eat - there was very little food. It was pitch black." (Jerusalem Post)
- IDF Conducts Major Anti-Terror Operations in Samaria and Jordan Valley - Yoav Zitun
Hundreds of soldiers, including undercover units and Border Police forces, with significant air support, are conducting an extensive counterterrorism operation in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Three Palestinian terrorists were killed in an airstrike in Jenin, where two more were killed by undercover Border Police units.
(Ynet News)
See also IDF Kills Five Terrorists in Tulkarm
Five Palestinian terrorists who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm were killed by Israeli security forces on Thursday. They included Muhhamad Jabber, the head of a terrorist network in Nur Shams, who was involved in the murder of Israeli Amnon Muchtar in June. The IDF also arrested Muhammad Qassas, a senior terrorist operative in Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to Palestinian reports, IDF soldiers entered the area dressed in civilian clothes and proceeded to the mosque, where a shootout took place.
The IDF also discovered a laboratory for manufacturing explosive devices and a terrorist operations room inside the Abu Bakr al Siddiq Mosque in Far'a in the Jordan Valley. While searching the facility, the IDF found explosive devices which it deemed "too dangerous to use or even move," and destroyed them.
(Jerusalem Post)
- IDF Kills Palestinian Islamic Jihad Commander Who Took Part in Oct. 7 Attack, Dozens More Gunmen in Gaza - Emanuel Fabian
Osama Gadallah, who served as a commander in Islamic Jihad's military intelligence unit, and also participated in the Oct. 7 onslaught, was killed in a drone strike in Gaza's Rafah on Wednesday, the IDF said. Dozens more gunmen were killed in Rafah in the past day. In Khan Yunis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, IDF troops also killed dozens of gunmen in clashes and by directing drone strikes in the previous 24 hours.
(Times of Israel)
- IDF Assigns Senior Officer to Oversee Gaza Relief Operations - Yoav Zitun
IDF Brig.-Gen. Elad Goren has been appointed to oversee humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza as Israel prepares for prolonged responsibility over the area. His role parallels that of the head of the Civil Administration in the West Bank. "Dealing with Gaza will occupy us significantly in the coming years, even more than it does now," a senior defense official said.
Israel's defense establishment is grappling with the challenge of ensuring that humanitarian supplies do not end up in the hands of Hamas, and efforts are underway to find alternative supply routes.
(Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- "Don't Shoot! I'm Farhan": Israeli Hostage's Captivity Ends - Dov Lieber
Over 326 days as a hostage in Gaza, Farhan al-Qadi survived mostly on bread and dates, often underground. His captors moved him from tunnel to tunnel, never staying in one place very long. Then on Tuesday, hearing Israeli soldiers approaching, al-Qadi's guards suddenly fled. "Don't shoot! I'm Farhan," he called out.
He lost nearly 45 pounds. He was kept with other hostages at times. One elderly Jewish captive [Aryeh Zalmanovich, 86] died beside him. Ata Abo Mdegm, a former mayor of the Bedouin city of Rahat, said, "He was treated just like a Jewish hostage. They didn't give him any privileges for being a Muslim Bedouin."
There are still three Bedouin hostages believed to be alive, and another who was previously declared dead by Israeli officials. Around 20 Bedouin were killed during Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Mdegm said. (Wall Street Journal-Ynet News)
- A Muslim Liberated from Heroic Hamas by the Zionists - David Horovitz
This can't be right. The brutal Jewish state, deep into its genocidal assault on the Palestinians of Gaza, diverts hundreds of its murderous special forces into valiant Hamas's underground network to save a middle-aged Muslim man?
The extricated Muslim, a Bedouin father of 11, Farhan al-Qadi, had been abducted by mighty Hamas on Oct. 7. Why would Hamas - champion of the Islamic cause - abduct gentle, God-fearing Muslims? Al-Qadi was working that day as a security guard at an Israeli kibbutz at a Zionist packing plant? The Arab-hating Jews trusted and paid a Muslim to protect them?
Now he's being reunited with his family at a Zionist hospital, filled with Jewish and Muslim doctors and nurses, treating Jewish and Muslim patients? Now
they're claiming he's on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu?
(Times of Israel)
- Saudi Arabia Does Not Support Hamas - Haisam Hassanein
Saudi policy since Oct. 7 seeks to dissociate Riyadh from Hamas.
Saudi government-funded media describe Hamas operatives killed by Israel as terrorists. Local clerics state that Hamas is committing not "jihad" but a "devilish act." Neither a royal family member nor a foreign ministry official has issued a statement mourning the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Immediately after the massacre, when Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal appeared on the Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya, an anchor asked him, "Would you apologize for what was done to Israeli civilians on Oct. 7?" When he refused to give a clear answer, the anchor pressed him: "You say this is legitimate resistance in your view, but what the people saw on Western TV screens were transgressions by Hamas against civilians."
Pro-regime intellectuals blame Hamas for the radicalization sweeping the region. The CEO of Al-Arabiya, Mamdouh Al-Mhuainy, argued that Palestinians who die in Gaza should not be called "martyrs."
The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
Iran
- Iran's Efforts to Promote Gaza Protests - Jason M. Brodsky
Iran has multiple nodes of influence that it uses to interfere in Western democratic policy debates. Tehran has been actively engaged in encouraging American and European protest activity after the Oct. 7 massacre - both physically and online. Like Russia, Iran has a long track record of attempting to create societal fissures in its adversaries.
Iran has also built an extensive online disinformation apparatus that is used to both amplify content promoting its anti-American and anti-Israel worldview and aggravate political and social tensions in democratic societies. Iran's Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are the key implementers of these online influence campaigns.
For example, the IRGC cyber group Cotton Sandstorm (operated by a company sanctioned for attempting to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election), ran an X account branded as "Jewish Peace Advocate," according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence. A pro-IRGC Telegram channel called "Resistance News Network" regularly shared posts from channels linked to U.S. college campus demonstrations.
As the campus protests peaked in May, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei welcomed American students into the Axis of Resistance, saying in an open letter that they have formed a new branch alongside Hizbullah and other terrorist groups whose flags have appeared in major Western cities.
The writer is policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. (TIME)
- How Much Support Is Iran Giving to Campus Protesters? - Danielle Pletka and Stephen Ailinger
On July 9, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines assessed that the Iranian regime is "providing financial support to [American] protesters" against the war in Gaza.
Haines's statement is a bleak warning about Iran's ability to manipulate American civil society and underscores the imperative to declassify intelligence about Iran's influence operations in the U.S. CIA director William Burns has written that "strategic declassification" of intelligence can "undercut rivals and rally allies."
Defenders of the antisemitic outpourings on elite campuses last spring insisted that the protest movement was wholly "organic" in nature. Far from it. The protests quickly became antisemitic breeding grounds, backing U.S.-designated terror groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah, and parroting Iran's call for the elimination of the Jewish state.
There's already ample evidence that campus protests have been orchestrated by an opaque network of well-funded "anti-Zionist" - read antisemitic - actors, many with ties to Arab states and terrorist organizations. There is also a long history of U.S.-based "pro-Palestine" nonprofits with ties to Iran-backed terrorist groups.
If the intelligence community identifies individuals or nonprofit organizations that have received Iranian funding to support campus protests, the Department of Justice should follow with indictments.
Danielle Pletka is a distinguished senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where Stephen Ailinger is a government-relations associate in foreign and defense policy.
(National Review)
Palestinian Arabs
- Preventing the Re-emergence of Terrorism in Gaza - Herb Keinon
One lesson Israel can learn from the Oct. 7 catastrophe is that it is imperative to deal with security challenges and problems early instead of waiting until they metastasize into something much larger and more dangerous. This is what the IDF is doing this week in northern Samaria to degrade an emerging Palestinian terrorist infrastructure before it takes on monstrous proportions.
When the intense fighting stops in Gaza, the continuous war against preventing their resurrection will continue for years, if not decades. In Judea and Samaria, 22 years after the IDF reentered the territory following the Netanya Park Hotel massacre where a suicide bomber killed 30 people at a Passover seder, the IDF is still "mowing the lawn" to prevent the re-emergence of terrorism. (Jerusalem Post)
Observations:
- At the beginning of the war, some in the Israeli defense establishment and government sought to avoid a ground maneuver in Gaza. Similar advice was offered by American officials who frequented Israel. Their reasons for this hesitation were primarily due to doubts over the ability of ground forces to operate effectively in Gaza's complex environment.
- Another factor prolonging the conflict - one that is still in play - is the issue of humanitarian aid. From the start, Israel faced intense American pressure to transfer humanitarian aid and fuel to Gaza, despite knowing that much of it would reach Hamas and enhance its ability to survive.
- This undermined one of Israel's key leverage points to obtain the return of the hostages, and prolonged Hamas's military and civilian survivability. Hamas's control over humanitarian aid gives it breathing room and maintains its influence and power among the population.
- An additional factor contributing to the prolonged conflict is the hostage issue. The IDF has acted cautiously throughout the conflict and continues to do so to avoid harming the hostages.
- A delay of some four months was caused by American and international pressure to avoid operations in Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, primarily by concerns over harm to civilians and actions that could hinder potential hostage negotiations.
- It now seems clear that these concerns were in fact an excuse by the U.S. and elements in the international community to impose a ceasefire on Israel. Precious time was lost before the IDF began operations in this area under a format acceptable to Washington.
The writer was director of the military and strategic affairs program of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) from 2006-2020.
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