French court rules all Gazan Muslims can have asylum in their country

In another example of the French establishment's dhimmitude, the French court for asylum gave their backing to allowing Muslims from Gaza to have asylum in a country that's already become a nightmare:

All Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will be eligible for the first time to apply for asylum in France, a court ruled on Friday.

Deciding on a case brought by a Palestinian mother seeking asylum in the wake of the Islamist Hamas October 7th terror attacks on Israel, France’s National Court of Asylum (CNDA) ruled in her favour given the “war methods” of the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza, which the court found were “serious enough to be regarded as methods of persecution.”

The decision overturned a previous rejection from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Effrusion (OFPRA) in November, which noted that the Palestinian woman was not specifically being “persecuted” and therefore could only be eligible for “subsidiary protection”, a lesser form of asylum which only allows for a four-year temporary residence permit rather than the ten years of protection guaranteed to refugees.

The case paved the way for the CNDA to declare that all Palestinians living in Gaza should be entitled to asylum protection in France, Le Figaro reports. The court based its decision on the Geneva Convention, which says that people who face “persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” should be considered refugees. [...]

Although the ruling was hailed by leftist groups such as Amnesty International, others expressed concern about allowing more Palestinians into France, including a former Muslim turned anti-Islamist activist and female rights campaigner, Henda Ayari.

“While France is already grappling with explosive community tensions, it chooses today to unconditionally welcome refugees from Gaza, even though more than 30 Muslim countries refuse to take them in. Why should France, once again, play the role of humanitarian substitute while others categorically refuse to host these populations in their countries?” she questioned.

“We’re talking about a region where Hamas recruits, where Islamist ideology and anti-Semitic, anti-Western hatred are deeply rooted, where many celebrated the massacres of October 7. We cannot pretend to believe that they are all ‘innocent victims.’ Some of these individuals who will arrive in France may have participated in, supported, or condoned terrorism. And tomorrow? They will be housed, fed, and supported at the expense of French taxpayers… while our retirees are dying and our neighbourhoods are exploding,” Ayari lamented.

This is utterly horrific, and in addition to importing antisemitism that'll hurt the Jewish community even more, it'll also be importing more misogyny and rape, more jihadism that'll affect regular French as well, and above all, precipitate the way for a European caliphate. This cannot go unopposed.

New graphic novel about October 7, 2023 features moral equivalence

The Times of Israel reported about a graphic novel being developed with a Canadian academic, and it looks like this product, unfortunately, relies on moral equivalence, blurring the differences between Jewish victims and Islamic aggressors, despite any claims to the contrary:

In the annals of graphic novels being written about the stories of those affected by the Hamas terror onslaught of October 7, 2023, “Echoes of October” may be the first in which the creators wish to remain mostly anonymous.

The fictional, kids-geared upcoming graphic novel has four child narrators — from Gaza City, Toronto, Tel Aviv, and the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel — each one telling their stories leading up until October 7, the day on which each of their fathers was killed.

The Jewish Israeli father from Tel Aviv was killed at the Nova desert rave, where he was working as a DJ, while the Druze boy’s father, an elite IDF soldier, was killed fighting near Gaza, defending the kibbutz communities.

The Palestinian girl’s father was killed as part of the wave of Gazan civilians who entered Israel on that day through the security fence to join the brutal assault, and the Canadian girl’s father — they’re not Jewish — was murdered during the onslaught at the kibbutzim, where he had been staying to help aid Palestinians.

So we're supposed to care about somebody who's father participated in a mass jihadist attack on defenseless women and children, not to mention also men, and, in allusion to what's further discussed below, we're also supposed to believe quite literally that he was dragged into this? I'm sorry, but this entirely obscures what influence the Islamic religion had in the whole tragedy, and how severe its indoctrination was all these years in the Hamas/PLO enclaves. Not to mention how taqqiya (deception) and naive conduct of specific victims made it possible for the jihadists to betray many of said victims.

To that end, and to avoid bias as much as possible, three of the four creators — including one of the two writers, the artist and the colorist — have opted to remain anonymous and together chose a pseudonym, Ami Adan, as the author name.

“We wanted to have as few preconceived notions as possible and we chose the name Ami Adan as an amalgamation of identities,” said Omri Rose, a professional voice actor who is Israeli and is one of the novel’s two writers, the only team member who opted to identify himself.

The idea for the graphic novel came about after October 7, when a Jewish Canadian academic who had previously been in touch with Rose began reaching out to him in solidarity following the Hamas terrorist attack.

“He wanted to do something, especially because things were so tough in Canada,” said Rose.

Rose’s Canadian co-creator particularly wanted to create something that would represent all sides affected by the conflict, but without authors whose names and origins would lead readers to draw their own assumptions.

“He sees this as a labor of importance,” said Rose.

The two began tossing around ideas for a graphic novel based on children, but with the focus on multiple perspectives and authenticity.

“It is pro-peace,” said Rose. “We firmly believe in Israel’s right to exist and also that the Palestinian people deserve respect and their own say, free of Hamas. It is anti-Hamas.”

Unfortunately, this just sounds like another effort to legitimize the whole fabrication of a Palestinian Moslem/Arab state at Israel's expense, obscure that many of the Gazan Islamists had nothing but hatred for the hostages, kept Arabic-translated copies of Mein Kamph in their households, don't accept Israel's existence no matter what they think of the Hamas, and "multiple perspectives" is little more than clue of defeatism involved. Not to mention that again, if they won't question whether the Religion of Peace had any influence in the horror of October 7, 2023, then what good will this GN be? The following notes that:

None of the deaths are explicitly explained, including the Gazan father, who is not a member of Hamas and instead is described as someone pulled into Hamas activities, without much say in the matter. [...]

Rose said that he and the other writer spoke with Gazan journalists and other Palestinians, as well as members of the Druze community, to create authentic storylines.

Umm, is that meant to imply he was merely coerced? Because as surviving hostages have testified, there were even journalists who were involved in the evil, and do the artists and writers of this GN take anything by Islamists in Gaza at face value? I'm sorry, but there's many clues here that this GN, if any, will not offer any meat-and-potatoes perspective, and will toe a PC line that forbids any objective view of the issues involved. Such moral equivalence is simply unacceptable.

Egypt willing to relocate Gazan Muslims

If this information has anything to it, then it looks like Egypt's premier is willing to take in Muslims from Gaza:

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that his country was ready to temporarily host half a million Gazans who would be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, according to a Friday report by Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

According to the report, the Gazans would be allocated a city in the North of the Sinai Peninsula.

The comment reportedly came during a conference held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the situation in the Middle East, in which the Egyptian leader was present, among other attendees.

Let's hope this is correct, because such a barbaric community has no place anywhere in or near civilized societies. If El-Sisi's willing to do this, then he's coming around to agreeing with Donald Trump, whose own plan for the Gaza strip is the more positive one.

Jordan's king agrees to take in Gazans

It looks like Donald Trump's efforts to get a country like Jordan to take in Gazans is beginning to bear fruit:

King Abdullah II of Jordan visited President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, where the Jordanian king agreed to accept refugees into his country.

The meeting comes after Trump made repeated demands for Jordan and Egypt to take in refugees, despite both countries declining. Trump and Abdullah met to discuss issues including Trump’s Gaza proposal, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ISIS and al-Qaeda, and economic cooperation.

The king and crown prince of Jordan arrived at the White House around noon Tuesday afternoon, where they both attended a bilateral meeting and lunch with the president. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended the meeting — the first official encounter between the King of Jordan and the President of the United States since Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire. [...]

King Abdullah said he is open to coming up with solutions that serve the interests of all parties.

“I think the point is how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody. Obviously, we have to look at the best interests of the United States, of the people in the region, and especially my people of Jordan.”

Abdullah offered to take 2,000 sick children from the Gaza Strip almost immediately.

Trump called the gesture “beautiful.”

“We really appreciate it,” Trump said. “It’s music to my ears.”

King Abdullah said he wants to wait for the Egyptians to present their plan on how to address the challenges in Gaza.

Trump said he believes there is a 99% chance he will work something out with Egypt. The president previously threatened to withhold aid to the two countries unless a deal could be made, but backed down during the meeting, stating “I do think we’re above that.”

So far, Egypt's premier, Al-Sisi, has been balking at cooperating. But hopefully, that too will be worked out, and Egypt should by all means start accepting Muslims in Gaza into their country. And if aid needs to be withheld to make clear what they should do, then perhaps that's the best thing to do.

Another hostage rescued

A man of Bedouin descent who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, was rescued from captivity:

One more Israeli hostage has been rescued.

The Israel Defense Force and Israel Security Agency announced Tuesday that another hostage taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack has been rescued.

"The IDF and ISA have rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi from Gaza where he was held hostage, and brought him to his family in Israel. This operation was part of the IDF’s daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza strip," said Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

"This operation joins a series of actions taken by the IDF that bring us closer to achieving the goals of this war," Gallant continued. "I would like to reiterate and emphasize: Israel is committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages home to Israel."

Qaid Farhan Alkadi from Rahat was reportedly rescued by a mixed company of Israeli combatants, including members of the 401st Brigade, 162nd Division, and Shayetet 13.

Here's more of the rescued hostage's account:

President Isaac Herzog spoke this evening with Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, a resident of Rahat who was abducted on October 7th and rescued today by security forces from captivity in Gaza. Qaid Farhan is currently receiving treatment at Soroka University Medical Center.

The President emotionally said to him: “Dear Farhan, how moving it is to hear your voice! Our brother has come home. Our brother has returned!”

Farhan thanked the President and responded: “I am grateful to the State of Israel, to the army, who came. People are suffering there. Do everything you can to bring people home. Work 24 hours, don’t sleep until they return. People are really suffering, you can’t imagine. Suddenly, I heard someone speaking Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it. I thank you very much. This is thanks to our army, they are doing a sacred duty, risking their lives. Thank you very much, Mr. President.”

The man is fortunate to be rescued after nearly a year in captivity. This is a prime example of how people of Arabic background aren't immune to Islamic tyranny, no matter their own religious upbringing. Now, this man's lucky to return to his family alive.

4 hostages rescued in Gaza

Some very fortunate news has just come up, as at least 4 hostages were rescued from the Gaza area:

On Saturday morning, in a joint IDF, ISA and Israel Police (Yamam) complex, special, daytime operation in Nuseirat, four Israeli hostages were rescued.

Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40), were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization from the 'Nova' music festival on October 7th.

The hostages were rescued by the IDF, ISA and Yamam counterterrorism forces from two separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat.

They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the Sheba Tel-Hashomer Medical Center for further medical examinations.

"The security forces will continue to make every effort to bring the hostages home," the statement stressed.

Thank goodness and the Lord for bringing about this rescue. Now, let's hope others will turn up alive and be saved from captivity as well.

Update: more information to consider:

Argamani, has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since she was abducted from a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

Let's hope that now, she can see her daughter and have a good reunion.

Did the Biden regime approve of ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu?

According to Robert Spencer, it looks like a recent report is warning that approval could've been given by Biden for what even the ICC could be planning:

If a Wednesday report in the Israeli media is accurate, this is one of the most, if not the most, craven betrayal of an ally in American history, and in the entire world’s history.

The Israeli journalist Amit Segal published a Hebrew-language story in the popular Israeli news outlet Mako that reveals an American betrayal of Israel of stupefying magnitude. “Very senior officials associated with the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” wrote Segal, “have spoken about Israel’s fear of arrest warrants for senior officials in the context of the war in Gaza. The officials told N12 [Mako’s broadcast channel] that the intention to issue such orders would not have been possible without American consent.”

The threat of arrest from the International Criminal Court is not hanging over the heads of minor officials only. “Last week,” Segal reports, “the Prime Minister’s Office held an urgent discussion on the issue, in which serious concerns were raised about allowing the issuance of arrest warrants against senior Israeli security and political leaders, including against Netanyahu himself.” This could all happen quickly: “Reports that have recently arrived in Jerusalem,” Segal continues, “indicate that the chance of issuing arrest warrants has increased dramatically, possibly as soon as next month.”

Segal noted that this was happening with American approval: “Regarding the intention to issue arrest warrants for senior Israelis, the sources at The Hague said that it is impossible that the chief prosecutor would have decided on such a dramatic step, in a war that is still ongoing, with very little evidence, if he had not at least had a ‘green light’ from the Americans. If this is true, this is another and unprecedented low in relations between Israel and the US, at a very sensitive time, on the eve of the ground entry to Rafah.”

Let's also remember Biden's "administration" refused to oppose a UN resolution against Israel a number of weeks ago, so this is no shock either. It's just another disgusting moment in a world that's eroding under political correctness and Orwellianism.

Update: foreign minister Yisrael Katz warns there'll be a wave of antisemitism if the ICC issues arrest warrants.

Update 2: Meir Ben-Shabbat makes clear the planned raid on Rafah must take place, even without the approval of the USA and the ICC.

50 creators who worked on Batman call for release of Israeli infant hostage whose family wore T-shirts of the Masked Manhunter, & Doonesbury cartoonist depicts Hamas properly

Something most remarkable was performed by quite a few comics contributors, old and new, who've had writing/art/editing credits on Batman over past years, as the Times of Israel reports:

Fifty creators of the iconic Batman superhero character signed a petition urging the governments of Egypt and Qatar to press for the release of Yarden and Shiri Bibas along with their two red-haired sons, Ariel and Kfir. All four family members have been held hostage in Gaza since October 7.

The family was kidnapped from Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists on October 7, a day that saw 3,000 terrorists infiltrate southern Israel to massacre 1,200 Israelis — most of them civilians — and kidnap 253 people into the Strip. Mother Shiri and her sons were captured separately from her husband Yarden.

One of the iconic images of the family that has been circulated since their capture shows the four wearing Batman apparel. Ariel, 4, is a dedicated fan of the Gotham City protector.

The petition was sent to Egyptian and Qatari ambassadors in Washington, DC, on April 12. The effort was organized by Dr. Rafael Medoff, historian and director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

“These comics creators have spent decades developing a hero who fights for the innocent and stands as a beacon of hope for his community, and we’re trying to channel that spirit through this effort,” Medoff told The Times of Israel. [...]

Some of the Bibas petition’s high-profile signees include Mike Carlin, DC’s head of animation; longtime DC publisher Paul Levitz; and former president of Warner Animation Sander Schwartz.

The petition was also signed by some of Batman’s veteran writers, including Chip Zdansky and Mark Waid. Leading artists from the franchise who signed include Mark Bagley, Dan Jurgens, Denys Cowan and Amanda Conner, the celebrated artist behind the Joker’s girlfriend, Harley Quinn.

“As members of the community of Batman writers and artists, we are contacting you concerning the young Batman fan who was taken hostage by terrorists and held in Gaza since last October 7,” said the creators.

“Moved by the many anecdotes of Ariel’s affection for the iconic character who has become a symbol of hope and justice for so many, we implore your governments to exercise all possible leverage on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to immediately release the Bibas family, and all the Israeli hostages, from captivity,” said the petition.

Well this definitely is amazing, considering how quite a few of these same creators, even the veterans, have taken such a lenient position on Islam in the past, and on that note, maybe it'd be a good idea to remind everyone why they still have fences to mend, and not just in the sense they've acted as apologists for the Religion of Peace in some way or other.

For example, Levitz, when he was in charge of DC comics, vehemently refused to greenlight Frank Miller's story that later became Holy Terror, yet Levitz had no issue going ahead with a collaboration with the Kuwaiti publishers of a propaganda comic called The 99. Waid was once involved in the writing of the storylines that led to Age of Apocalypse in X-Men, which drew a bizarre moral equation between Israel's officials and the PLO. Zdarsky's quite a woke leftist ideologue himself, as is writer Andrew Farago, the museum curator who attacked Comicsgate and blocks even Jewish X posters who could support the hashtag. Jurgens once wrote an apologia tale for Islam in the pages of Superman, as did Mike Grell in Iron Man during the early 2000s, and should it be mentioned it's ludicrous and offensive how a lethal villainess like Harley Quinn is being depicted with a Jewish background? After all, chances they'd do something similar with a Moslem character are next to nothing.

The writers who signed onto Wyman Institute's petition who do impress me more are Chuck Dixon, Ann Nocenti and even Steve Englehart. The latter 2 are leftist, to my knowledge, but unlike a lot of modern ones, seem to recognize the advantage of avoiding divisive statements, on social media or otherwise.

No stranger to Batman lore, Medoff penned an essay for a book called “Theology and Batman.” One of the book’s central themes is the theodicy — or sense of redemption — Batman brings to the world by vindicating goodness over evil.

Many of the creators of Batman, Superman and other superheroes were of Jewish descent. Quite a few books and essays have been written about how these creators were influenced by Jewish history while at their drawing boards.

Yes, but whatever the background of the creators, those of more recent times aren't exactly helping matters, if the latter of these 2 examples says something:

Earlier in 2024, an issue of DC’s “The Penguin” remembered that Bruce Wayne — Batman’s alter-ego — is Jewish. The moment came when Bruce Wayne referenced his handkerchief as being a Hanukkah gift from his father to his mother.

In a “Batwoman” reboot released in 2006, the character Kate Kane — Batwoman’s alter-ego — was reintroduced as a Jewish, lesbian cousin of Batman, demonstrating how comic artists both shape and reflect their times.

And they don't think this is even remotely insulting to the intellect the Kane character's depicted as lesbian solely for woke brownie points? And implying Wayne could have some Jewish ancestry (in some past renditions, it was established his ancestry was from Scotland), will not work if the writing is as woke as it's become lately. To imply Bruce is even bisexual only damages the character's image/reputation all the more, and is an embarrassment to Bill Finger and Bob Kane's legacy. Let us be clear. Those writers and artists who've joined Dr. Medoff's petition did the right thing. But unless they can prove they're repentant, and writers like Jurgens and Grell won't boomerang back on apologia for Islam tomorrow, what good is this project going to do in the long run? Add to this the unlikely scenario any of these creators will show the courage and altruism to work on a comics project tackling Islamic terrorism, and that's another frustrating issue right there.

Besides the above news, Dr. Medoff tells on Israel National News how Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Truedeau's acknowledged that Hamas is evil, and mocked them in his newspaper strips:

One of America’s most beloved newspaper comic strips has dared to poke fun at Hamas. Get ready for controversy!

In the latest Sunday installment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Doonesbury strip, a fictional anti-terrorist fighter—known as “the Red Rascal”—bursts into the bedroom of an actual Hamas leader, Ismail Haniye, who is living in Qatar.

The cartoon shows Haniyeh enjoying luxurious accommodations, and identifies him as “one of three Hamas leaders worth billions, who enriched themselves with donor money intended for impoverished Gazans!”

Garry Trudeau, the writer and artist of Doonesbury, has dared to acknowledge a fact about the Hamas leadership that most of the mainstream news media prefer to ignore. [...]

What makes this Doonesbury strip even more interesting is that Trudeau has been strongly critical of Israel in the past. His view of Hamas is not motivated by any kind of built-in pro-Israel bias.

Not only that, but Trudeau has been extra sensitive concerning Muslim reactions to controversial cartoons, such as the one about Mohammed that was published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Islamist terrorists responded to that cartoon by massacring twelve members of the magazine’s staff.

Trudeau accused Charlie Hebdo of engaging in “hate speech.” He argued that the magazine's publication of the cartoon was unjustified because it constituted "attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority."

But the Doonesbury creator can’t count on any of his past statements to protect him from a furious reaction to his criticism of Hamas. Pro-Hamas extremists in the United States are not known for their ability to calmly and rationally discuss differing points of view—especially when somebody reveals uncomfortable facts about their heroes.

Obviously, it's to be unfortunately expected Islam's sympathisers will react poorly and horrifically. Why, they could act the same way towards any and all of the above Batman contributors, and that too will be terrible, if God forbid it happens. Of course, one must wonder at this point if creators like Trudeau are repentant for the harm they caused by blaming the victims in horrible incidents like that in France. If not, then while it's amazing on the surface he'd attack Hamas as the evil entity they are, any failure to acknowledge he was wrong to blame Charlie Hebdo and other victims of Islamofascism in France ruins everything. I do vaguely recall at least a few Doonesbury strips that were negative to Israel, and so it sure has taken Trudeau a lot of time to show the courage to acknowledge that jihadist organizations like Hamas and PLO are barbaric evil incarnate.

So far, if there's one notable name connected with Batman stories whom I couldn't find on the Wyman petition, it's Frank Miller. How odd. Is he really that stupidly regretful for penning Holy Terror back in 2011 that he doesn't have the guts to participate in a project like Medoff's now? Well it's honestly disgraceful, IMO. Come to think of it, when even far-leftists like Kurt Busiek, Ron Marz, Dan DiDio, Joe Quesada, Gail Simone and Axel Alonso can't even contribute, that too has got to be saying something. This isn't just something that should involved Batman contributors, but all sorts of comics creators, even those more into independent productions. I'd strongly suggest Medoff try to contact them as well, and try to convince them to put aside all their vehement leftism and recognize why the message he's sending here is important for all to uphold, not just anybody who's worked on the Masked Manhunter. Calling for release of the hostages - many of whom have doubtless been subjected to torture and sexual violence - is surely the most important part of this whole tragedy.

Israel may have to consider not relying on the USA anymore

Fraud-in-chief Joe Biden continues to do what he and the Democrats can to damage Israel's ability to rescue hostages:

President Joe Biden, in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded that Israel enact an “immediate ceasefire” in its war against Hamas and threatened that the U.S. would change its support for Israel if it does not meet the administration’s demands.

Biden attacked Israel for the humanitarian situation inside Gaza, calling it “unacceptable,” even though Israel has worked to allow aid to flow into the area, but has had to do so in a manner that prevents weapons from entering.

“[Biden] made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a readout of the call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

“He underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home,” the statement continued.

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby confirmed at the White House press briefing shortly after the readout was published that Biden did threaten Israel if it did not meet his demands.

He also seems to blame Israel for the hostages' continued situation. And that's reprehensible. Joel Pollak says Israel may have to consider whether becoming a pariah is for the best:

Biden, like Barack Obama before him, is trying to appease the Iranian regime that funds and arms most of the terror groups in the Middle East. He also believes a Palestinian state is the key to peace, despite evidence to the contrary.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes these policies, as do most Israelis, from right to left. So Biden is trying to do everything he can — overtly and covertly — to push Netanyahu aside and hope for a more pliant leader.

The result is that Israel finds itself alone. Biden is emphasizing Israel’s isolation by using tragedies like the World Central Kitchen deaths to accuse Israel, falsely, of being responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Biden, like Hamas, is demanding an “immediate ceasefire,” and may let the UN declare a Palestinian state.

If Israel wants to defeat Hamas by destroying the last Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah in Gaza, it may have to do so without U.S. support.

Likewise, if Israel takes on Iran — directly, or in Syria and Lebanon — it will be on its own. The White House is hinting that Israel can claw back support by dumping Netanyahu, but Israel would do so at the cost of its independence.

That's simply unacceptable terms. So, Pollak has a point.

Israel government releases an initial report on Hamas' sexual violence

The Israeli government's released a special report investigating the sexual violence committed by the Hamas on October 7, 2023:

Israel released an initial report Wednesday into sexual violence committed by Hamas during the October 7 terror attack.

The report, compiled by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI), was carefully compiled from eyewitness testimonies and the available forensic evidence. As Breitbart News reported in November, accusations of rape, sexual assault, and other acts of sexual violence were initially difficult to compile because Israeli authorities were focused on stopping the Hamas attack.

However, in the weeks that followed, eyewitnesses began to come forward and to describe sexual violence, much of it deeply sadistic, against both women and men, both during the October 7 attack and against Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

What follows in the descriptions is severely graphic, and anybody who overlooks that is not suited to work in political positions, that's for sure. As has been noted, it will be difficult to determine how many of these horrors were committed, but already, it most definitely looks repulsively severe.

IDF rescues 2 hostages in Gaza's Rafah neighborhood

The IDF has thankfully and successfully rescued 2 men who were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza:

Two Israeli hostages Louis Har, 70, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, were rescued at around 2 a.m. on Monday from the second floor of a building in the center of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the Israel police’s Yamam anti-terror unit, Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The men were flown by helicopter to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, where they are in good condition. One soldier was slightly injured during the rescue.

Har’s son-in-law Idan Bejerano, said that he and his wife met with his father-in-law briefly before he was taken for medical examinations.

“We were called at 3:30 a.m. and jumped out of our beds in joy. We were told, ‘We have them in our hands,’ and instructed to get to the hospital. It took us nearly an hour to get there, and I am not sure my wife was breathing at all during that time. This is a great relief,” he said.

Asked about their condition, Bejerano replied, “They are both in bed in the hospital. Whether they are healthy in spirit, in body, is still hard to know, but they look whole. It seems they had the strength of spirit of these 128 days to remain strong and come back to us.”

The men were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on Oct. 7, when terrorists from Gaza murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands and took 253 hostage in a murderous rampage near the Gaza border. Marman and Har were taken captive along with Marman’s sisters Clara, 62, and Gabriela Leimberg, 59; and Gabriela’s daughter, Miam Leimberg, 17. They were visiting Har at the kibbutz for the Simchat Torah holiday weekend. The five were hiding in their sealed room during the attack before they were taken hostage. The women were freed as part of an earlier hostage release.

This is very fortunate, but only a small part so far in rescuing any more hostages who're hopefully still alive. For now, we must thank God these 2 men were saved from the awful situation they were in, and now reunited with their families. Let's hope they'll be able to recuperate as best as possible along with their families.

The ICJ is a tool for evil, as is the government of South Africa

Joseph Klein looks at how the Intl. Court of Justice has become the tool of anti-Israeli activists, here being primarily the South Africa government:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided in its January 26th provisional ruling to move forward with a peculiar case that South Africa brought against Israel, alleging that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza. South Africa claimed that it was simply enforcing rights protected by the international Genocide Convention to which both countries are signatories.

The ICJ is enabling South Africa to weaponize against the Jewish State of Israel the Genocide Convention, which was enacted in 1948 when the genocide of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust was still fresh in peoples’ minds. To hurl an accusation of genocide against Israel, where at least one of the nearly 150,000 Holocaust survivors still living in Israel was killed during Hamas’s October 7th attack, is obscene.

Hamas initiated the war with Israel when it invaded Israel on October 7th and went on a genocidal rampage against Israeli civilians. Israel’s military operations in Gaza following that attack are a legitimate exercise of Israel’s inherent right of self-defense, which is recognized in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter when “an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations.”

The ICJ deferred making a final judgment on the merits of South Africa’s genocide claims, which could take months or even years to decide. However, the ICJ issued provisional orders to take immediate effect, which are prejudicial to Israel’s inherent sovereign right of self-defense. Fortunately, the ICJ has no mechanism to enforce its ruling, although technically it is legally binding. Nevertheless, the ICJ’s decision that South Africa has presented a plausible case of genocide against Israel will put increased pressure on Israel to quickly wind down its military operations in Gaza.

To make matters worse, South Africa's government has practically celebrated evil:

A mere ten days after the October 7th attack, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor had a phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The Jewish News Syndicate reported Hamas’s claim that Pandor had called to congratulate Hamas for the success of its October 7th rampage.

Last December, just weeks after Hamas’s horrific October 7th genocidal attack, senior Hamas officials visited South Africa to participate in the Fifth Global Convention of Solidarity with Palestine.

South Africa is not an objective party benevolently seeking to protect a group of people from genocide, as it has falsely portrayed itself to the ICJ. The South African government is advocating for a savage terrorist group, whose founding genocidal mission, repeated by its leaders on multiple occasions, is to destroy the Jewish State of Israel and kill as many Jews as possible.

The actions of the South Africa government are repulsive, and are equally hostile to other countries that suffered Islamic terrorist attacks. One can only wonder what their position is on al Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in the USA.

The behavior of the South Africa government could also explain why business is collapsing there, and citizens are even emigrating:

A new white paper from payroll services group Playroll, in partnership with tech and developer jobs marketplace OfferZen and executive recruitment firm Aims International, shows that South Africa’s skills crisis runs deeper than industry-specific shortages portray.

The group’s research found that close to 80% of all business leaders it surveyed consider the emigration of skills one of the critical risk factors facing their organisations.

This comes at a time when emigration appears to be accelerating, it said.

Playroll noted that over 900,000 South Africans have already left the country – a number that was most recently published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ 2020 International Migrant Stock report in 2022.

According to the UN report, by the end of 2020, 914,901 South Africans were living in other countries and territories, up from 786,554 in 2015.

Worryingly, three times as many people emigrated from South Africa between 2015 and 2020 – over 128,000 people – than between 2010 and 2015 (43,000 people), the data showed.

The UK has the most migrant stock from South Africa, with almost a quarter of a million residents listing RSA as their birth country. This is followed by Australia, the USA and New Zealand.

Playroll said that the problems around the emigration of critical skills run deeper than even these numbers show because, increasingly, young people are the ones leaving.

The group noted that those aged between 25 and 40 are the most likely to leave the country – and possibly more concerningly, over half of South Africa’s graduates have the potential to emigrate in the future.

Senior employees are also more likely to relocate, probably because they have the financial means to do so, it said.

[...] According to Simonetta Giuricich, Chief Operating Officer for Playroll, remote work arrangements that were fuelled by Covid-19 means that many skilled South Africans are not available for local employment because they can access high-paying work opportunities with international companies while still staying in the country.

For example, the group’s research showed that an alarming number of local software developers are working for overseas companies while still being based in South Africa. It estimated that 40% of the 120,000 developers in the country are working remotely for foreign companies.

So even though emigration may be slowing down in certain sectors, this doesn’t necessarily mean good news for local businesses.

Giuricich said that the loss of employees to emigration not only creates immediate gaps in the skills and qualifications required by an organisation but could also lead to entrenched competitive challenges in the longer term.

One can only wonder if the South Africa government's become so obsessed with backing evil, they've practically ignored the crisis facing their business industry, to say nothing of how folks are emigrating because clearly, business prospects in South Africa aren't what they could be. Let's hope most of those who've emigrated are people with common sense, and they'd be the ones more deserving of the country than those current running the government into the ground. South Africa's tragically made themselves look very, very bad, mainly based on their associations with jihadists.

Holocaust survivor explains how the Hamas bloodbath is much worse

A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor says the Hamas bloodbath on October 7, 2023 is worse in many ways, because of the savagery involved:

In the run-up to International Holocaust Day, Arutz Sheva - Israel National News spoke with Miriam Schlisser, the heroine of the children's book 'Papusha', on her feelings since the heinous October 7th massacre.

She believes that what the Hamas terrorists did on the morning of October 7th was even more atrocious and horrific than the Holocaust.

"The murderous Germans were intelligent and gentle. Yona, my husband, carried his brother on the Death March. They would walk at night and rest during the day. He weighed thirty kilos and carried another thirty kilos. If he had put him down, the Germans would not have beaten him, but fired a bullet through him and left him on the side of the road, where someone would collect him and transfer him to a mass grave."

On the other hand, Miriam says, the Hamas terrorists "got their hands dirty, cut off the head of a soldier and sold it. This is sadism. This is worse than the Holocaust," she says and recounts that when her brother found himself in Birkenau without any family members with him, he asked a Polish Jew where his parents were, and this person pointed towards the chimney. "They didn't shoot them. They poisoned them with gas and then pushed them into the crematorium to be burned. But they didn't get their hands dirty like the Hamas. To open a pregnant woman's stomach and take out the fetus is not something done by any human being."

She's got a vital point. While what the National Socialists did was abominable, anybody who'd commit graphic gore is taking mass murder to a whole new level. The Hamas has thus made themselves into the National Socialists of the 21st century, as has anybody who supports their barbarism. Of course, a century before that, there was also a massacre in Hebron in 1929, which preceded what happened on October 7, 2023. And that too must be pondered.

Virtually every school and mosque in Gaza has weapons around

While the IDF operates in Khan Yunis, they found what they've practically discovered everywhere and anywhere else in Gaza:

Guided by precise intelligence, the forces conducted a targeted raid on terror infrastructure where dozens of rocket launchers, explosive devices and intelligence documents were located. The rocket launchers were dismantled.

The IDF emphasized, "There is no area without a tunnel shaft, no school or mosque without weapons."

All these years since Yitzhak Rabin/Shimon Peres/Ariel Sharon enabled these horrors to build up, and now, look at what astonishing damage that enabled by extension. Thankfully, the IDF is now destroying much of it.

After October 7, some leftists hopefully changed their view of Muslims

In this Wash. Free Beacon article, they interview a leftist "peace activist" who appears to have changed after her experience with the jihadists from Gaza who also invaded her household on October 7:

Irit Lahav, 57, was a peace activist who believed in the decency of the Palestinian people. Then, on Oct. 7, ordinary Gazans joined in a terrorist attack that left more than one in four of her neighbors in Kibbutz Nir Oz dead or abducted.

For many members of Nir Oz and other Israelis, the atrocities of Oct. 7—and particularly the broad participation of the Gazan public in the day—destroyed their faith in coexistence with the Palestinians.

Lahav, a manager at a travel company, long participated in peace demonstrations. In recent years, she volunteered for an Israeli charity called Road to Recovery, driving Palestinian children from the border of the Gaza Strip, less than two miles from her home, to Israeli hospitals for life-saving medical care.

"We thought that Palestinians are good people. All they want is peace and prosperity," Lahav told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview from a hotel in this Red Sea resort city where she and most of her community were temporarily relocated. "It's just that Hamas is forcing them to be in this aggressive situation."

When terrorists first shook the door of her safe room on Oct. 7, Lahav was sure that she and her 22-year-old daughter were about to be killed. But a makeshift lock she had fashioned out of an oar and a vacuum cleaner thwarted three separate break-in attempts. The women lay in the darkened room for about 10 hours listening to sounds of automatic gunfire and grenade explosions. At one point, they heard a group of teenagers robbing their house.

Later, Lahav learned from other Nir Oz survivors that Gazan women and children as young as 10 years old had followed Hamas terrorists into the kibbutz, looting, helping the armed terrorists, and apparently enjoying themselves.

"Basically it was sort of an invasion of a community," Lahav said. "That's why for me, I cannot say this was a Hamas action. No, for me, this was a Palestinian action. A whole community had come to our kibbutz, took our things, stole stuff, killed people, and kidnapped others."

"Am I thinking about myself being foolish until now?" Lahav added. "Maybe. But more is that I'm disappointed in them, that they're so cruel, have no values, really lost their human values."

During Israel's ongoing war to destroy Hamas, 40 of the hostages taken from Nir Oz have been released, while 30 remain in Gaza. Several other hostages have been declared dead in recent weeks, bringing the total number of people killed from Nir Oz to 46.

While it's good to know she's changed her mind about what people like her still call a "palestinian people", it remains to be seen if any of these presumably no-longer-peace-activists recognize that Islam played a very horrific major role in the bloodbath of October 7. And what would Lahav say if "settlers" of background more religious than hers were the victims? Lahav should publicly renounce all associations with anyone who until now supported Islamic savages. And she'd do well to consider how many women in Europe, in example, have fallen victim to Islamofascism as well. Many on the left now owe a serious apology.

More than 150 Hamas jihadists surrender to IDF in Khan Yunis

An important accomplishment made by the IDF in capturing a significant number of terrorists in the city of Khan Yunis:

Over 150 Hamas terrorists surrendered to the IDF in Khan Yunis on Thursday. Footage of the incident was published on social media.

The terrorists were checked by the IDF soldiers and transferred for initial questioning by the security forces.

This is a very good achievement. There'll be plenty of jihadists to put on trial soon, and hopefully, they'll be given the death sentence, something that's being debated now in the Knesset.

Amazingly enough, veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg has commented on the issue:

Acclaimed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg spoke out on the Hamas massacre of October 7 for the first time last week.

In an address published by the USC Shoah Foundation last Friday, Spielberg said that he "never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime."

Spielberg, who is Jewish, founded the Shoah Foundation in 1994 to gather and preserve testimony from survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust. The Foundation has begun gathering testimony from survivors of the October 7 massacre under its Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection program, which documents antisemitism in the post-Holocaust era.

According to Spielberg, this initiative is part of “an effort that will ensure that the voices of survivors will act as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of antisemitism and hate.”

“Both initiatives — recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing collection of Holocaust testimony — seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to preserve history and to work toward a world without antisemitism or hate of any kind,” he said.

“We must remain united and steadfast in these efforts,” he said.

But does this means he's willing to produce films and/or documentaries in the forseeable future about this tragedy? Because if he doesn't, then he won't be accomplishing anything. Nor will it avail if he takes the same morally equivalent approach he did with Munich nearly 2 decades ago, which ultimately came at the expense of the Jewish victims of the terrorist attack in 1972 at the Olympics. If memory serves, he even sought approval from CAIR, whom it turns out is celebrating the October 7 horror:

Video emerged Thursday of Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), celebrating the October 7 terror attack by Hamas in which 1200 people were murdered in Israel and more than 240 were abducted as hostages.

Awad’s speech on November 24 to the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) convention in Chicago was reported at the time, but was largely overlooked; it resurfaced Thursday when shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

[...] The Biden administration also worked with CAIR, despite its radical and antisemitic history, in shaping the so-called “strategy” on antisemitism earlier this year. As Breitbart News reported, CAIR boasted that it helped protect extreme criticism of Israel within the White House’s strategy, which was a reversal of existing policy under previous administrations of both parties.

Will Spielberg be willing to condemn CAIR for their repulsive behavior, and even pan Biden's associations with them? Let's hope he and his institutions realize what a terrible PR error they'd be making if they didn't.

Update: the White House now says it's severing ties with Awad. Something they could've done long ago, and they surely knew CAIR was a repellent lot.

Update 2: Andrea Widburg at the American Thinker comments on the photographs of the jihadists who've surrendered, ideally stripped to underwear.

Update 3: also vital to note is that, as a doctor's revealed, at least 10 hostages of the Hamas were sexually abused in the tunnels:

At least 10 of the Israeli civilians released by Hamas, both men and women, were sexually assaulted or abused while in captivity, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

In a report detailing allegations of severe and widespread sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists during their October 7 onslaught and later against hostages, a doctor who treated some of the 110 hostages released from captivity told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused.

He did not provide further details, and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.

The doctor’s comments corroborated similar accounts shared at a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting, held between the Israeli war cabinet and a group comprising recently freed hostages and family members of those still held in Gaza, featured firsthand testimonies from some of the released captives. These individuals detailed their experiences of sexual abuse during their captivity, participants said.

Read more if you have the stomach for it. This is exactly why the Hamas has to be brought down altogether, and all sane people must strongly condemn their savagery.

Hamas treated hostages poorly

Families of the rescued hostages told the press that the Hamas had unshockingly been nasty to them:

Family members of released Israeli hostages told reporters Sunday that the hostages had been forced to sleep on benches during their seven-week captivity; that they had to endure waits of up to two hours for the bathroom; and that they were sometimes denied food.

Adva Adar, granddaughter of freed Holocaust survivor Yaffa Adar, 85; and Merav Mor Raviv, cousin of Keren Munder, 54, spoke to reporters in a press conference organized by MediaCentral Jerusalem.

Repulsive, but unsurprising. One more reason why, besides hopefully saving all hostages, we must hope the IDF rids Gaza of the jihadist vermin.

Here's some more news:

The third group of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza on Sunday evening includes a four-year-old child whose parents were murdered by the Palestinian Hamas terrorists who attacked their community on October 7.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, the group of 14 hostages — 13 Israelis, plus one dual Russian-Israeli national — include ten of the 18 hostages taken from Kfar Aza, a community in which Hamas murdered 100 innocent people. Mothers and their children were among those released.

But four-year-old Avigail Idan — who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship — will not be returning with her mother or her father, who were killed.

She is now an orphan. It is not clear if she knows what happened to her parents.

And this is another serious abomination. A child has been orphaned - she's not the only one - by monsters whom, lest we forget, both the Labor party representatives of the past and Ariel Sharon, made possible to take over Gaza.

First Israeli hostages of Hamas released from captivity

At least 13 of the Israeli and even several Thai/Filipino hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza were released and returned to families:

Images and video of the first reunions between the first group of Israeli hostages released on Friday and their families has been released by the Schneider Children’s Hospital near Tel Aviv.

The hostages, all women and children, as old as 85 and as young as two years old, were released by the Palestinian Hamas terror group as part of a deal after being brutally kidnapped amid the murder of their relatives and neighbors in the October 7 terror attack.

In one video released by the hospital, father Yoni Asher asks his daughter: “Did you think about Daddy? Did you think about good things?” She replies: “I dreamed about going home.” He replies: “Your dream came true! … Soon, we’re going home.” [...]

The Jerusalem Post reported that most of the freed hostages were in good physical condition, and had not been abused after the initial physical abuse of their capture, though they had to sleep on plastic benches. They received some news from Israel during their captivity, including news about the murder of their relatives in the October 7 terror attack.

Many of the first group of hostages were from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of the population of 400 was murdered or kidnapped. 11 foreign nationals workers, including 10 Thai and one Filipino, were released along with the initial group of 13.

A second group of 13 hostages is set to be released Saturday, reportedly mostly from Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 100 were murdered.

These people are very fortunate to be released. Mainly because, as the following indicates, Joe Biden is not helping the situation. Here's more on the hostages who were freed. Now, we must hope that all hostages will be released, and that the IDF will be ready to continue combat accordingly.

Update: some more over here about the subject.

Update 2: a second group of hostages is now on their way home too.

The official entry begins, and could last a considerable amount of time

The IDF's official entry into Gaza has begun, and will obviously not end within a fortnight:

They’re heading into Gaza. Israeli forces, which have been amassing along the border for days, finally went into the Hamas-controlled area to wipe out the terror group. This operation goes beyond past ground assaults—Israel seems poised for the long haul, occupying the area until every Hamas terrorist is eliminated.

The IDF announced today that the next phase has begun and that ground troops are now operating in Gaza.

Make no mistake, this will be a long war. It could last years, as there are reportedly 40,000 Hamas terrorists waiting in terror tunnels to attack IDF forces. Israeli military units had conducted raids into Northern Gaza ahead of the main assault, taking out terrorists, defensive structures, and anti-tank positions. The latest incursions involved tanks and heavy equipment that laid the groundwork for the larger invasion force. This massive operation comes in the wake of Hamas' brutal invasion earlier this month.

With Iran's assistance, the invasion comes after Hamas launched a devastating and barbaric terror attack from Gaza on October 7. Over 1,000 Israelis were murdered. Torture, rape, and kidnapping were also inflicted upon the civilian population, where we saw whole families slaughtered by these radical Islamic animals. Babies were beheaded and set on fire.

It's firmly clear this operation will last a considerable length of time. But the end result will hopefully be one we can be relieved and proud of, and the tunnel network is one of the biggest problems other than the troglodytes dwelling there that must be eliminated. And we must avenge the sadistic murders that occurred on October 7.

A very difficult military campaign ahead

A vital point is made why destroying the Hamas, and freeing hostages, if possible, will be very hard:

Israel is preparing to invade Gaza, a task that will require its military to engage in grinding warfare through an urban setting and defeat a Hamas organization that is stronger than ever, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Israel’s objective is to wipe out all remnants of the Iran-backed terrorist organization whose members brutally murdered 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, in an unanticipated intrusion on Oct. 7, Israel’s leaders say. While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is better armed than Hamas and has trained for exactly the kind of operation it plans to execute in Gaza, the coming fight will present new challenges it has not yet dealt with in combat, experts said.

Michael Knights, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), explained the challenges the IDF will face before achieving its war aims. Gaza is packed with secretive tunnels, deteriorating buildings that can be used as strongpoints for attack and thousands of “fanatical” fighters, he said, not to mention civilians.

“Any environment like this — ruins, dents, building quality, lots of civilians— it’s complicated. Then you’ve got hostages, then the three dimensional component [of] tall buildings and really extensive underground spaces,” Knights said. “And then you’ve got an enemy that is probably more advanced than anything we’re seeing outside of the Ukraine environment.”

Hamas is a “fanatical defending force that is actually very well armed,” Knights told the DCNF.

The operation will be like “moving through a minefield” while under fire the entire way through the city, he said.

Without any doubt, it'll be severely dangerous. But for the sake of safety, that's exactly why the enemy's reign can't be allowed to continue.

Update: in the meantime, Naomi Ragen makes a sad point that nothing will be the same now.