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In-Depth Issues:
Israel Raided an Iranian Missile Facility in Syria in September ( Jerusalem Post)
Israel conducted a commando raid on an underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria in September, Israel's Channel 11 revealed on Sunday.
The raid targeted the Syrian defense industry's Scientific Studies and Research Center, and an underground missile production facility run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Iran had transferred components for a precision missile project into the facility and the operation against it was deemed urgent to prevent the facility from reaching full production capacity.
Israel had informed the U.S. about the operation in advance.
Hamas Gathered Intelligence on Gaza Border Towns for 7 Years before Oct. 7 ( Times of Israel)
Hamas was monitoring local Israeli leaders, security officers, and individual communities near the border with Gaza for at least seven years before the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Israel's Channel 12 revealed Sunday.
One document seized from Hamas computers, dated November 2020, showed the IP addresses and serial numbers of all the security cameras in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council and Ashkelon beach areas.
Another document featured a list of security guards working in the Sha'ar Hanegev area, with their phone numbers.
The report showed pages of case files on each community, with assessments of the status of the attack plan for each one.
The Hamas terrorists involved in the Oct. 7 attack were selected from among hundreds of elite commandos and underwent training for several years.
Israel Denies Hamas Claims that Troops Set Fire to Gaza Hospital ( Times of Israel)
The IDF on Saturday denied Hamas allegations that Israeli troops had set fire to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
IDF spokesperson Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani said, "While IDF troops were not in the hospital, a small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control." An investigation had found "no connection" between military activity and the fire.
Protests Break Out in Tehran's Grand Bazaar ( Iran International)
Business owners and employees in Tehran's historic bazaar staged a strike on Sunday against runaway inflation and currency devaluation, spurring protests in other commercial hubs in the capital.
In 1979, protests in the bazaar heralded the onset of the Islamic Revolution which toppled Iran's monarch.
"With the dollar now above 810,000 rials, our expenses have skyrocketed," one merchant said. "Many workshops have shut down, and even those still running are struggling to sell goods in such a sluggish market."
Indian Workers Slowly Replacing Palestinians in Israeli Construction Industry ( AFP)
Tens of thousands of Palestinian construction workers have been barred from entering Israel since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Indian construction workers are part of Israel's effort to fill the void. Some workers can make three times what they would back home.
16,000 workers have come from India over the past year - and Israel has plans to bring thousands more.
How the International Community Funds the Hamas War Machine - Natan Galula ( JNS)
According to Eyal Ofer - a former government adviser and an expert on "Hamas economics" - shortages of food in Gaza are not due to a lack of foreign aid.
Israel has opened at least five crossings into Gaza, enabling the entry of thousands of aid trucks per month, Ofer told JNS on Thursday.
Images of thousands of Palestinians outside a bakery in central Gaza pressing inwards for a bag of pita bread "were completely orchestrated by Hamas," he said.
"Every bakery in Gaza produces tens of thousands of bags of pita bread per day, and yet the bakery distributes only 300 bags per hour."
The rest is "smuggled" to Hamas-controlled markets. Instead of selling for three shekels ($0.82) - the typical price at the bakeries - it sells for 50 or 60 shekels ($16).
"Hamas intentionally created a situation of scarcity."
"The wheat is sent into Gaza for free in the form of international aid. Even the cooking gas used by the bakeries, I believe, is supplied by the World Food Program."
Hamas hoards the supply to "create artificially high demand and thus cut higher profits than if they sold everything for lower prices."
"This is how you got photos on CNN of large groups of people pushing each other...for one bag of pita bread for three shekels."
Ofer says Hamas exploits its power to plunder the international resources delivered into Gaza, which it uses to sustain its dictatorship.
Irish Comments on Israel Leave Scottish Jews Terrified as Identity Comes Under Attack - Sammy Stein ( Scottish Daily Express-UK)
Israel is completely justified in its decision to close its Embassy in Dublin. It seems to me that repeated Irish governments have a fundamental prejudice against Israel.
Moreover, the Scottish Government is refusing to talk to Israel.
The Scottish government has come under considerable criticism for their anti-Israel actions, including from the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and from Colin Cowan, whose brother Bernard was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists in the Oct. 7 attacks.
All this fills me with an immense sense of sadness and worry of what the Scottish-Israeli relationship would look like in a would-be independent Scotland.
Israel plays a key role in one's Jewish identity, as the overwhelming majority of Scotland's Jews identity as Zionist - believing in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, just like any other people.
That means that when Israel is unfairly treated or attacked, it is acutely felt by Scottish Jews.
Therefore, when the Scottish Government has a blanket policy on refusing to meet with the representatives of a democratic country like Israel, which is also a key ally of the UK, while meeting with representatives of authoritarian regimes such as Turkey or dictatorial China, it is indicative of a glaring double standard.
The writer is chairman of the Glasgow Friends of Israel.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- UN Security Council Discusses Houthi Missile Attacks on Israel - Daphne Psaledakis
Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on Monday warned Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants to halt missile attacks on Israel. The Houthis repeatedly have fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they say are acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
(Reuters)
See also U.S. Condemns Houthi Attacks on Israel
Amb. Dorothy Shea, Deputy U.S. Representative to the UN, told the Security Council on Monday:
"The United States condemns the Houthis' latest attacks on Israel and supports Israel's right to self-defense. The Houthis launched an intense wave of attacks against Israel in December with no regard for civilian lives."
"In view of the Houthis' continued attacks, the United States reiterates our call for this Council to consider additional actions to respond to the growing threats from the Houthis and to hold Iran to account. We can all see clearly that the Houthis are fully enabled by Iran to launch long-range and deadly attacks on Israel, including civilian infrastructure....It is the responsibility of this Council to respond to Iran's flagrant violations of its resolutions and arming of terrorist groups." (U.S. Mission to the UN)
See also UK Condemns Houthis' Reckless Missile Attacks on Israel (UK Foreign Office)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Houthi Missile Fired at Israel Intercepted on Monday - Corinne Baum
A ballistic missile fired by Houthis in Yemen was intercepted before it entered Israeli territory on Monday night. Alarms were triggered across central Israel out of concern for falling shrapnel. Fragments of the missile were found in Beit Shemesh. Takeoffs and landings were temporarily delayed at Ben-Gurion Airport, but they resumed within the hour.
(Jerusalem Post)
- IDF Kills Dozens More Terrorists in Jabalya - Emanuel Fabian
IDF troops spotted and killed "many dozens of terrorists" in Jabalya in northern Gaza in ambushes Sunday night, following intelligence on plans by operatives to flee the area. The IDF released footage showing armed terrorist squads running from the area after the IDF raided Kamal Adwan hospital. (Times of Israel)
- Hoard of Hasmonean Coins Discovered during Hanukkah in Jordan Valley - Gavriel Fiske
A University of Haifa team on Friday discovered a hoard of 160 coins dating from the Hasmonean period during a dig in the Jordan Valley, the university said Sunday. The coins were discovered near a road that ascended to the Alexandrion Fortress, also known as Sarbata, north of Jericho.
They were dated to 80/79 BCE, during the reign of Judah Maccabee's grand-nephew King Alexander Jannaeus, who had built the fortress. On one side, the coins have the inscription: "King Alexander Year 25" in Aramaic. 40 other Hasmonean-period coins were also discovered. (Times of Israel)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Inside the Operation to Take Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya - Yonah Jeremy Bob
The northernmost half of northern Gaza has been progressively emptied of most Palestinian terrorists and civilians since early October. Last week, the IDF targeted Hamas's latest attempt to reconstitute itself in northern Gaza, embedded within the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya.
In the weeks before the operation, the IDF cleared improvised explosive devices in the vicinity of the hospital as well as for most of the pathways and potential escape routes to and from the hospital. The IDF also engaged in a few targeted attacks on smaller Hamas cells near the hospital, but was careful to avoid attacking the hospital itself. This was part of a strategy to lull the Hamas terrorists hiding in the hospital into a false sense of security.
When the IDF finally attacked on Friday, it needed only an hour to control all routes to and from the hospital to lock down and block any Hamas terrorist escape attempts. There was a short initial battle between Hamas terrorists and IDF soldiers, but all of the terrorists were quickly killed. Two groups of terrorists also tried to escape in two different directions, but they were also killed by IDF forces.
As hundreds of Palestinians emerged from the hospital, in the first ambulance of "patients," the IDF found that 13 out of 21 passengers were uninjured and were terrorists pretending to be patients.
The arsenal of weapons found in the hospital was smaller than in other Hamas-run hospitals, as Hamas had moved much of its weaponry to apartments across the street from the hospital. These weapons were also confiscated. No IDF casualties were reported during the mission. Over 240 terrorists were arrested. (Jerusalem Post)
- How Hamas Exploits Gaza Hospitals - Jude Taragin
"From the first day of the Israel-Hamas War, Hamas left no hospital untouched for terrorist purposes," Maj. (ret.) John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, told Maariv in an interview published on Monday. "Hospitals receive special protection under international law as places of refuge. However, the law explicitly prohibits the use of hospitals to shield military objectives from attack."
"Under the laws of war in international law, if a hospital is found to be used for warfare by the enemy, one of the primary requirements is to notify the enemy in advance that if they do not vacate the hospital, the military will attack. The main problem is that after notifying the enemy of an impending attack, the enemy naturally exploits this to escape or prepare for the attack."
"In almost every hospital the IDF entered, there was evidence of Hamas's military use of the facility, which the army revealed and publicized. At Shifa Hospital, evidence was found of hostages being held, weapons and ammunition stored, and an extensive tunnel with command and control infrastructure. In other cases, Hamas operatives were documented firing from within Sheikh Hamad Hospital, while others fired rockets near Al-Quds Hospital before running inside."
To address this challenge, "the IDF often surrounds the hospital and calls on the terrorists to come out while simultaneously using advanced facial recognition techniques to identify Hamas operatives attempting to 'blend in' with civilians....Hamas operatives often try to appear as the most vulnerable patients - using wheelchairs, crutches, or carrying a sick baby." (Jerusalem Post)
Syria
- Syria's Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: Will He Renounce or Restore Assad's Bloody Legacy? - Dr. Dan Diker and Issam Zeitoun
Hayat Tahrir a-Shams (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, today known as Ahmad al-Sharaa, has taken pains to Westernize his image. Yet his intentions are unclear. He and Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu have stated they are not interested in direct conflict. However, he has recently met with fellow Islamists from Turkey and Egypt.
Jolani has sought UN intervention and censure of Israel's move into Syria's Mount Hermon territory. He declared that "Israel's excuses for entering Syria no longer exist. After the Iranians' departure, no more justifications exist for any foreign intervention in Syria." Israel has entered the buffer zone to prevent hostile forces from infiltrating areas near the Israel-Syria border. Prime Minister Netanyahu insisted that Israeli decisions are tied to "the emerging reality on the ground."
Dr. Dan Diker is President of the Jerusalem Center. Issam Zeitoun is a Syrian German national and the founder of the Syrian Peace Initiative, which seeks to achieve peace between Syria and Israel. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
- Syria's al-Julani Refuses Erdogan's Demands to Move Against Syrian Kurds - Dr. Harold Rhode
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is encountering significant difficulties with Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his forces in Syria. Erdogan had initially supported Julani's group, providing training, arms, uniforms and resources.
Over the years, al-Julani shifted his rhetoric and public image, claiming to have abandoned his Islamist extremism. However, his forces continued to act with brutality against non-Sunni populations, casting doubt on his claimed transformation. Al-Julani's forces have carried out atrocities against Christians, Alawites and Druze populations in Syria.
Erdogan's support for al-Julani was partly driven by his desire to weaken the American-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. However, al-Julani has refused Erdogan's demands to redirect his forces against the Syrian Kurds, citing exhaustion and overstretched resources. This refusal is a direct affront to Erdogan, who expected al-Julani to act as an extension of Turkish influence in Syria.
Erdogan's vision of a neo-Ottoman sphere - with Turkey at its center - clashes with al-Julani's apparent ambition to restore the Umayyad Caliphate, which historically ruled from Damascus. For now, Erdogan faces the consequences of empowering an ally whose ambitions may ultimately undermine his own.
The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, served as an adviser on the Islamic world for the U.S. Department of Defense for 28 years. (JNS)
- Syria's Rebel Leader Is No Moderate - David Adesnik and Bill Roggio
Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani is leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that overthrew Bashar al-Assad this month. Once head of al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, Jawlani supposedly broke with the organization in 2016. The U.S. shouldn't consider removing the terror designation and associated sanctions unless Jawlani publicly denounces al-Qaeda, rejects jihadism and ensures Syria doesn't become a sanctuary for terrorists.
That is unlikely to happen, as Jawlani is no moderate. In 2016, during the address in which he supposedly broke with al-Qaeda, Jawlani expressed his gratitude to Ayman al-Zawahiri, who helped plan the 9/11 attacks and succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaeda's leader after 2011. Jawlani extolled Zawahiri for putting into practice the principles taught by bin Laden.
Few have paid attention to the jihadist outfits, mainly Central Asian fighters, that were part of Jawlani's coalition during the march from Idlib to Damascus. Among these is the Turkistan Islamic Party, whose leader sits on al-Qaeda's main advisory council. Five other groups within the coalition are on the U.S. terror blacklist.
Washington should wait and see whether the new government continues offering sanctuary to foreign terrorist organizations and surrenders the last of the Assad regime's chemical weapons.
David Adesnik is vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Bill Roggio is a senior fellow at the foundation and editor of its Long War Journal.
(Wall Street Journal)
The Houthis
- The Houthis Are a Strategic Threat - Prof. Eyal Zisser
Following Oct. 7, the Houthis attacked Israeli ships in the Red Sea and launched drones and missiles toward Israel. At first, the Yemeni threat was dismissed as a nuisance, especially given the immediate threats Israel faced from Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon. However, it has become clear that Yemen is a significant battleground where Israel must establish dominance to restore deterrence. The Houthis have become a tangible and escalating danger. Disrupting shipping in the Red Sea has shut down Israel's Eilat Port.
The Houthis are rooted in Yemen's Zaidi Shiite minority, which constitutes 30% of the country's population. This demographic similarity mirrors Hizbullah in Lebanon, another Shiite minority that wields outsized power.
Although the Palestinian cause holds little genuine interest for the Houthis, they exploit it to bolster their regional influence and rally support across the Arab world, including among Sunni populations. Nevertheless, their stated goals include an uncompromising fight against their enemies in the Arab world, the West, Israel, and even Jews globally.
Merely targeting the Houthis is not enough; their rule must be toppled entirely.
Effectively countering the Houthis requires escalating military pressure while forming a local coalition, akin to the approach used against ISIS, built around the 70% of Yemenis who oppose the Houthis.
The writer is a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University. (Israel Hayom)
Other Issues
- Jimmy Carter, the Lower Creek Indians, and the Jews - Dr. Joel Fishman
Former President Jimmy Carter's 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, reflects his Georgia background. He writes: "I have to admit that, at the time, I equated the ejection of Palestinians from their previous home within the State of Israel to the forcing of Lower Creek Indians from the Georgia land where our family was now located; they had been moved west to Oklahoma on the 'Trail of Tears' [ca. 1838] to make room for our white ancestors." (pp. 27-28)
The history of the American government and the Lower Creek Indians was one of dispossession and broken treaties. A great injustice took place, and if Carter really wanted to do his part in setting things right, he would have to locate the descendants of the Lower Creek Indians, beg their forgiveness, and give their land back. The problem, of course, is that if he ever did so, his neighbors would tar and feather him.
But the dispossession of Native Americans, an injustice in its own right, has little to do with Israel and the Jews. Carter's comparison is wrong. It was the Jews - and not the Arabs - who were originally driven off the land. They have come back to claim what rightfully belongs to them. It is the Jews and the Israelis who are the "Native Americans" of the Middle East, and their tribe has a name. It is Judah.
The writer is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Jewish Political Studies Review)
- The Cult of the Keffiyeh - Brendan O'Neill
Whatever happened to the sin of cultural appropriation? The idea was that no member of the majority group should ever appropriate the cultural habits of a minority group. It's offensive, apparently. It's racial theft. It's parody disguised as authenticity. Yet today, visit any campus in the West and you'll see white youths dressed as Arabs.
Keffiyeh chic is all the rage. You're no one unless you have one of these black-and-white scarves that are widely worn in the Palestinian territories. A scarf that has its origins among the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula has become the uniform of the politically enlightened, the must-have of the socially aware.
The cult of the keffiyeh falls outside the traditional realm of solidarity. This scarf that is coveted with such relish points to a performative streak in pro-Palestine activism. Pitying Palestine, and by extension hating Israel, has become the "luxury belief" du jour, the means by which one's social worth is measured.
The best description of the fad for keffiyeh-wearing is people with privilege taking a custom of a foreign people and turning it into the "hot new thing." The prime role of this garment is as a signifier of virtue. It communicates to your fellow travelers in the universe of luxury beliefs that you, too, have contempt for Israel and compassion for Palestine - an entirely requisite credo for access to the cultural establishment in the 21st century.
Finally, there is only one Palestinian weavery left that makes keffiyehs.
The keffiyehs we see in the West are mass-produced in China, likely made by hyper-exploited workers in the world's largest unfree state.
(Spiked-UK)
- Happy Hanukkah - the Jewish Nation Lives - Jon Levin
Zionism is the modern enactment of Hanukkah's assertion of the right to Jewish independence, and the necessity of the Jewish state even for Jews outside of Israel.
The deep Zionism of the Hanukkah story resonates especially in this era of endemic anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Hanukkah celebrates Jews' successful assertion of their right to live freely in their ancestral homeland with Jerusalem as its capital, and warns that without Israel, Jews cannot be truly free anywhere. Only an independent Jewish state can guarantee Jewish wellbeing.
This necessity has never been more obvious. Around the world, governments turn a blind eye as their Jewish residents are attacked in the streets, pushed out of intellectual, civil, and artistic institutions, and see their religious and communal institutions vilified, vandalized, and burned. Meaningful consequences for the perpetrators have been sparse. And efforts to prevent attacks or combat incitement against Jews seem ineffectual at best.
The intellectual elite feigns ignorance and helplessness, declares neutrality, or outright supports attacks on Jews in the name of a circuitous system of morality in which all Jews are collectively guilty because some Jews commit the crime of defending themselves. Despite the intervening centuries, Jewish acceptance, safety and wellbeing outside of the Jewish state are still contingent; Jews might be treated well by their neighbors and protected by the government, but only if it's politically prudent, Israel behaves, and the Jews aren't too Jewish. Israel's existence ensures Jews always have a place to go.
(National Review)
Observations:
- The Islamic regime's desperation to survive has fueled an unprecedented antisemitic discourse targeting Jews inside Iran. Mosque hate speech has transferred into mainstream television programming.
- Religious leaders, military officials, intellectuals, artists, and celebrities have moved beyond "anti-Zionist" invective to anti-Jewish slander. Mohammad Khazali, the son of a prominent ayatollah, in a recent debate, blamed Jews for regime woes. The imam of the city of Qazvim excoriated Jews on a regime prime-time television talk show.
- Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Gen. Mohammed Jafar Assadi told a regime news station that the "cursed Jews" had wronged the entire Middle East since Oct. 7. When the interviewer asked, "Don't you mean Zionists?" He replied, "No, there is no difference between them."
- Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted on X: "They say that the Islamic Republic has lost its proxies in the region. Islamic Republic doesn't have proxy forces. Yemen fights due to their faith. Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad fight because their beliefs compel them to do so."
- To mask regime failures and vulnerabilities, the mullahs play on the public's fears.
Regime manipulation and antisemitism signal a last-ditch effort to mobilize the Iranian public against its vulnerable Jewish community - as Iran stands more vulnerable and more desperate than at any time since the mullahs' rise to power in 1979.
The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
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