A vital point made about the need to disarm Hamas

Donald Trump made a vital point that the Hamas must surrender and disarm:

US President Donald Trump addressed the next phases of the Gaza peace plan, which began with a ceasefire and the return of all of the living hostages who remained in captivity yesterday.

Speaking to the media today (Tuesday), President Trump stated that "they will disarm because they said they are going to disarm. And if they don't disarm, we will disarm them."

"They know I'm not playing games," he added of Hamas.

Addressing the release of the hostages, he stated: "We did something monumental - we got the hostages back. That was the first thing we had to do, above all else, get the hostages back. They misrepresented, because we were told that they had 26-24 of dead hostages, if we can use those terms. It seems they don't have that, because we're talking about a much lesser number. That's a very tough subject. I want them back."

Even the bodies of dead victims must be returned. Last time I looked, only 4 had been. That's going to have to be the next serious step taken.

Update: here's also an important article where one of the hostages recalls how he was tortured by the jihadists when he was in their clutches:

Avi Ohana, the father of Yosef Haim Ohana, who was released from Hamas captivity, shared his emotions with the Moreshet channel, following his son’s return and spoke about the spiritual strength that sustained the family throughout the past two years.

“I am walking on cloud nine, in the sky,” he said emotionally. “For two years I could not sleep because of the pain, and now I cannot sleep because of the joy. This miracle is something beyond nature. As the days go by, I realize how much greater it is. The verse from Psalms is being fulfilled: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.’”

According to Ohana, after the signing of the latest deal, his son was transferred - together with about seven other hostages - to a deep, narrow pit, where they were held under extremely harsh conditions.

“They couldn’t sit, only stand and lean against the wall. There was no oxygen. A person could die just from that alone, God forbid. It was literally, ‘And Joseph was brought down to Egypt’ - Joseph in the pit,” he said.

“The miracle was tremendous,” he added. “He told me many things we didn’t know. After the deal was signed, we thought they were probably being taken out of the tunnels and organized for release. I asked him, ‘Was it really like that?’ He said, ‘Dad, after the deal was signed, they put me with six other guys and took us down the stairs - down, down, down. We thought we were going to another tunnel.’ But they ended up in a pit so small that seven men could barely stand, unable to sit, leaning against the wall. The lack of oxygen alone could have killed them.”

Ohana emphasized that what kept his son alive was faith and the thought of family. “Only one thing - family. The thought of dad, mom, brothers, friends. That’s what gave him strength.”

He's definitely lucky to have survived. And if his captors could be wiped out, they'll deserve to be sent to hell for what they did to him, period.

What 15 hostages went through at the hands of Hamas rapists

At least 15 rescued hostages opened up about the horrifying sexual violence they went through when Hamas imprisoned them:

Fresh testimony from survivors and witnesses demonstrates that Hamas terrorists systematically employed sexual violence during their October 7 assault on Israel, according to a comprehensive new investigation that documents previously unreported accounts of rape and sexual abuse. The Sunday Times revealed that the upcoming Dinah Project report presents evidence from 15 returned hostages who experienced sexual violence in captivity, with only one having spoken publicly before now.

The investigation, conducted by Israeli gender and legal experts with partial funding from the British government, found that sexual violence was "widespread and systematic" during the attack that killed approximately 1,200 people. According to The Sunday Times, the report establishes that rape and gang rape occurred in at least six different locations, though most victims were "permanently silenced" – either murdered during the assaults or left too traumatized to speak.

The Sunday Times reported that the Dinah Project will be published Tuesday in Jerusalem, representing the most comprehensive documentation of sexual violence during the October 7 attack. The report draws from first-hand testimony of 15 returned Gaza hostages, a survivor of attempted rape at the Nova music festival, and interviews with 17 people who witnessed or heard the attacks, along with therapists treating traumatized survivors.

The project aims "to counter denial, misinformation and global silence" regarding what researchers describe as "one of the most under-reported dimensions of the attacks." The report states its mission "to set the historical record straight: Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war."

Read more at the article. October 7, 2023 was by far one of the worst cases of mass sexual violence in history.

2 Israeli embassy employees in District of Columbia were murdered by Hamas-PLO sympathiser

The antisemitic incitement over the past year and a half since October 7, 2023, has now cost the lives of 2 workers at the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C:

At least two staffers with the Israeli embassy were reportedly shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.

Reporter Josh Kraushaar of Jewish Insider broke the story on X.

“There was an event for young Israeli diplomats being held at the DC museum this evening,” said Kraushaar.

“Two Israeli Embassy staff killed, per source familiar with the shooting outside the DC Capital Jewish museum,” he added.

One witness claimed that the individual who committed the killing shouted, “Free Palestine,” repeatedly while being escorted out by police.

“After the shooting a guy came inside [the museum] saying he saw it and needed water and a safe space, then whipped out a keffiyeh and yelled free Palestine a bunch before being escorted out by police,” the witness told Kraushaar.

Israel's ambassador at the UN says it's the result of tons of anti-Israeli incitement you can hear at bad universities:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reacted to the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers on Wednesday by saying, “When people are spreading lies, blaming us [for] genocide, calling for intifada, for like armed revolt against Israel, that is the consequence that we saw tonight.” And “We have seen the incitement on campuses. We have seen the incitement in many places.”

The victims were an Israeli-Christian couple who worked at the embassy. And now this incitement has also cost the lives of defenseless Christian adherents as well, before they could even marry. Condolences to the families of the victims.

Update: Donald Trump's announced he's devastated this terrible incident happened, and more info's come out that the terrorist was a far-left activist. Here's more about a manifesto the terrorist scrawled.

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.

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.

Limor Son Har-Melech files complaint against Border Patrol officers who illegally restrained and sexually assaulted her

Otzma Yehudit MK Har-Melech has ideally filed a police complaint against 4 Border Patrol officers who acted like utter perverts against her in Samaria:

MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) filed a complaint with the Department of Internal Police Investigations against four Border Police officers who formed a tight human chain around her to keep her from moving towards the site where the demolition of a Jewish-owned orchard in Samaria was taking place yesterday (Wednesday).

According to the complaint, MK Son Har-Melech accuses the officers of violating her parliamentary immunity as a member of the Knesset and of assaulting her.

She stated that she is also filing a complaint against the two officers who were in command of the demolition.

Yesterday, the MK accused one of the officers of sexually assaulting her when she attempted to get out of the human chain.

One of the most offensive things about the act was that the commanding officer involved acted like she was stupid. Which seems to be an open example of how male sexists think. None of these men belong in the positions they're working in. More to the point, they should not be on the police/army payroll in any way, shape or form, and they most definitely should be in prison.

What makes this incident additionally offensive is that it comes after a horrifying incident in Gedera, where a mother was raped by a Muslim, and Har-Melech proposed a law to deal with rape as a form of terrorism:

A bill to double the sentence for nationalistically-motivated rape will be submitted on Monday by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech following the brutal rape of a Gedera woman in front of her children on Thursday.

Son Har-Melech explained on Sunday that other politically motivated crimes in the penal code double the punishment. Victims are entitled to additional compensation for nationalistic crimes.

"The shocking case of rape that took place in Gedera joins the series of horrific cases of rape committed in recent years by Arab terrorists with a clear nationalistic motive, using rape as another tool in the war on Israel," said Son Har-Melech. "This is terrorism in all respects and should be treated as such."

So what those Border Patrol officers did added insult to injury, and suggests they sympathise with tyrants. As a result, they should be imprisoned, and ostracized by wider society. If they apologize, they'd do well not to ask for forgiveness simultaneously, because it doesn't help.

Israeli police must stop confiscating weapons of Jews defending themselves against Muslim attackers

Ariel Kahana brought up a very disturbing tactic by the leftists running the Israeli police that's actually been in use for decades:

Amichay Ben Saadon is not alone. There are thousands just like him in Israel. Attacked, usually by Arabs, tried to defend themselves with the weapons the State of Israel authorized them to use for precisely such a situation. As Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said just a few weeks ago, "Whoever has a license to carry a weapon, this is the time to carry it."

While the diplomatic echelon has encouraged civilians to defend themselves, the Israel Police has done the exact opposite. It has systematically punished those facing attacks and constantly backed up the attackers. It is hard to believe, but this is the twisted approach.

I personally know of dozens of cases in which the Jews who were attacked were taken into custody and their weapons were seized for a prolonged period of time. This is because when both sides filed a complaint, the Israel Police chose to adopt the Arabs' version of events. When the law enforcement system automatically believes an abused woman but not an abused man, it will also prefer the Arab attacker's version to that of the Jewish victim.

And why? Because these are mainly leftists who're running these double-standard policies that're meant to put the right to self-defense on trial, and always view the adherent to the Religion of Peace as the "victim". Read more of it to know why this must be addressed, and put to a stop. Not to mention that the government must make a call for the bias to cease as well. It's very similar to the propaganda the left in the USA was pushing, "believe all women", as though a woman supposedly can't lie about sexual assault. Yet when the Religion of Peace is involved, past conduct in Europe, for example, takes the side of Islamofascists over rape victims. This kind of victimology has to stop.

5 FOOLISH SOMALI PIRATES CAPTURED AFTER MISTAKING FRENCH NAVY SHIP FOR COMMERCIAL

Somali jihadist pirates return to the news with the following:

PARIS (AP) - Somali pirates in two skiffs fired on a French navy vessel early Wednesday after apparently mistaking it for a commercial boat, the French military said. The French ship gave chase and captured five suspected pirates.

No one was wounded by the volleys from the Kalashnikov rifles directed at La Somme, a 3,800-ton refueling ship, French military spokesman Rear Adm. Christophe Prazuck said.

La Somme "was probably taken for a commercial ship by the two small skiffs" about 250 nautical miles (290 statute miles) off Somalia's coast, Prazuck said.

"They understood their mistake too late," he said.

One skiff fled, and La Somme pursued the second one in an hour-long chase.

"There were five suspected pirates on board. No arms, no water, no food," Prazuck said.

Uh, earth to AP, you might want to correct that likely miscontexting there. Those crappy pirates DID have arms in the form of Kalashnikovs.

France is a key member of the EU's naval mission, Operation Atalanta, fighting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It has aggressively tracked and caught suspected pirates and handed over at least 22 to Kenya. An additional 15 suspects were brought to France for prosecution after allegedly seizing boats belonging to French nationals.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tougher action against piracy last year after dozens of attacks.

Now, lock those pirates up and send them to a psychiatrist.

IRELAND PUTS ITSELF IN DANGER

The Irish government has agreed to take in 2 Guantanamo inmates:

DUBLIN – Ireland has agreed to accept two inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba within the next two months, Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern announced Wednesday.

Ahern said the two men belong to a group of about 50 prisoners who are "no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries." The United States has appealed to European Union countries to give most or all of those men sanctuary, but until now only France has stepped forward to accept a specific detainee.

Whoops, looks like even France may have put themselves in more danger than need be too. For how do we know these men really aren't deadly anymore?

In January after taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama announced his intention to close the 7-year-old military prison. He specifically appealed to European countries such as Ireland — long critical of the Guantanamo prison and demanding its closure — to shelter inmates who have been cleared as terrorist suspects but would face prison, torture or execution if deported to their homelands.

Ireland is the second EU member to reach agreement with the Obama administration on the issue. France received one Algerian ex-inmate in May in a gesture timed to an Obama visit.

Several other European governments say they are willing in principle to take ex-Guantanamo inmates eventually. But they stress that any delays are down to the Obama administration, which has struggled to forge a plan to close Guantanamo that resolves legal and political obstacles — particularly grassroots opposition to permitting any resettlements on American soil.

Portugal, which was the first nation to call for a coordinated EU role in helping to close Guantanamo, said last month it still plans to take two or three prisoners, but has no agreement yet with the U.S.

The only group of Guantanamo inmates to receive enthusiastic third-country offers for resettlement are Chinese Muslim separatists called Uighurs.

Albania took five Uighurs in 2006, Bermuda took four more in June, and the tiny Pacific island of Palau has offered to take the 13 remaining in Guantanamo. The U.S. has yet to accept that offer.

Most of the approximately 230 men still locked up in Guantanamo are from Yemen, which the United States says lacks reliable prisons and terror "rehabilitation" programs. Negotiations are continuing to transfer most or all of the Yemenis to neighboring Saudi Arabia instead.

Ahern said the two Uzbeks coming to Ireland would receive permanent residency rights and would not be treated as refugees, a legal status that would allow them to work and move freely.

But how do we know they wouldn't plot behind the scenes to commit more acts of terrorism within these European countries? The reason why many of them are being sent to European ones and not released in the US/Canada is because the controversy that would result there is already clear. But what about in Europe? Do the citizens there not care enough to protest this? And think of the costs it could take to keep these terrorists under surveillance.

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS WERE ON AIR FRANCE FLIGHT

BREAKING: Doomed Air France flight had Islamic Terrosists on flight.READ IT HERE.

UPHOLDING AN IMPORTANT LAWSUIT

The JTA reports that a $116 million lawsuit against the PLO has been upheld:

(JTA) -- A U.S. judge would not rescind his decision ordering the PLO to pay $116 million to the family of victims of a terrorist attack.

Ronald Lagueux, a federal judge in Providence, R.I., said Wednesday that the Palestine Liberation Organization was liable because of its refusal during the trial early in this decade to mount a defense; PLO leader Yasser Arafat refused to recognize U.S. sovereignty in the matter.

Yaron Ungar, a U.S. citizen, and his wife Efrat were shot dead as they traveled with their infant son near Beit Shemesh, a town near Jerusalem that also adjoins the West Bank.

In recent filings, the PLO blamed Hamas for the attack, saying it sought to sabotage Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The lawsuit targeted Hamas and the PLO, saying that the PLO was responsible as well because it gave the terrorists safe harbor. Hamas has never contested the suit.

It was not clear if the PLO planned an appeal.

But they could. Don't be surprised if they'll appeal all the way to Obama if that's what it takes for them not to pay the money they owe.

COULD ISRAELI ELECTIONS BE DELAYED?

David Bedein has some interesting info in the Bulletin on the possibility that elections could be delayed because the Hamas is planning an attack on February 10:

Ashkelon, Israel — The Middle East Newsline has learned from Israeli security sources that there is a distinct possibility that Hamas has achieved the capability to torpedo Israel’s parliamentary elections on Feb. 10.

Israeli government sources confirm that Hamas could fire salvos of missiles and rockets that would prevent hundreds of thousands of people in central and southern Israel from voting in Knesset elections.

They're absolutely correct to be concerned. Does this signal the possibility that next week's election could end up being postponed because of the danger the Hamas is now imposing? We'll have to wait and see.

THERE GO THE RETREATISTS

The IDF has begun withdrawing from its posts in Gaza, without having even actually obliterated Hamas. And if they haven't, then the chances they'll resurrect themselves still holds.

Obviously, and disgustingly, no lesson was learned from the second Lebanon war almost 3 years ago.

Here's an important analysis from Natan Sharansky on why terrorism needs to be removed.

Update: Netanyahu says it right: job unfinished. And the Shin Bet warns that the Hamas could rearm in just months.

DISENGAGEMENT LED TO SMUGGLING TUNNELS

Here's what Ariel Sharon's act of cowardice led to:

(IsraelNN.com) As the Israel Air Force continues to seek out and destroy arms-smuggling tunnels, a senior IDF figure confirms that it was Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza that enabled the Arabs to dig them in the first place.

“Because of the Disengagement,” a senior security official told correspondent Haggai Huberman on Monday, “the Palestinians were able to increase the number of tunnels, because they were able to dig in areas that the IDF had previously occupied.”

No More Need to Hide in Houses
The officer said that before 2005, when Israel unilaterally retreated from Gaza, the tunnels were dug only in the three-kilometer-long strip along the city of Rafah - because the tunnel openings were able to be camouflaged inside houses. Ever since the IDF left, however, tunnels began to be dug all along the entire 13-14 kilometer Egyptian-Gaza border.

The officer further estimated that the destroyed tunnels will not be able to be rebuilt. However, he said, terrorists still have the ability to dig new ones, and continue to try to smuggle in weapons and explosives via the existing tunnels.

Charles Krauthammer would do well to consider this next time before he goes the bizarre knee-jerk route and condones retreatism.

FREE THE TAPE!

There's going to be a protest today at the LA Times building over the suppressed Obama/Khalidi tape. Michelle Malkin has the details:

I just got word that there is a planned protest to try and force the LATimes to release the video of Obama/Rashid Khalidi. If people cannot physically attend the protest at the LATimes Headquarters building in downtown Los Angeles, they are encouraged to call the offices at (213) 237-5000, fax a request to release the video or complaint against their current stance to (213) 237-7679.

Your participation in this is of the highest priority to provide information to the voters in time to present a clear picture of the Democratic candidate’s coziness with individuals possessing extreme views in direct opposition to US foreign policies.

For more information, please go to the website of the organization leading the protest effort -
www.freedommarch.org

LA Times Headquarters
202 W. First St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
main phone 213-237-5000
fax 213-237-7679

There's also a petition here.

Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has a very good view of this:

I understand that the tape was leaked to the Times by a source or sources unknown, and that an agreement was struck with that source to keep the tape hidden, but the tape has been described in a Times story already, and it quite obviously contains no state secrets. I also suspect that the tape could be posted in such a way as to obscure its origins. The Times, however, won’t discuss in detail why it’s keeping the tape from its readers, and the newspaper’s “readers’ representative,” Jamie Gold, has lined up against the readers, and argued against the release of the tape.

There is another reason why the tape should be posted: It might actually create interest in the L.A. Times. From what I understand, the mainstream media is in a bit of trouble these days. Perhaps — this is just a thought here — the L.A. Times could better its position in the world by drawing readers to its website.

Smart thinking. I fully agree.

MUSLIM IN EAST JERUSALEM INDICTED FOR PLOTTING SHOOTING

This seems to be related to this story, as the culprit in this case was a friend of the BMW villain, who tried to buy a gun with which to carry out an assault:

An east Jerusalem Arab was indicted on Wednesday in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court for connection with acts of terror.

Hadad Ja'abis, 28, of Jebl Mukaber, was a friend of Kassem Mughrabi, who was killed when he rammed his BMW into a group of soldiers and civilians at Jerusalem's Kikar Tzahal two weeks ago.

The 28-year-old was accused of attempting to purchase a hand gun in order to carry out a terror attack in the city, allegedly in either the suburb of Neve Ya'akov, or at the Haas Promenade in Armon Hanatziv, also in Jerusalem.

According to the charge sheet, Ja'abis went to console mourners at the Mughrabi house, and was asked to acquire a weapon "to murder Jews." He apparently made the decision to plan an attack shortly after his friend perpetrated the Kikar Tzahal attack.

The court ordered Ja'abris to house arrest on Tuesday, and he was remanded again on Wednesday until proceedings continue next week.

I think I can guess how "sequel crimes" can occur if we let down our guard.

SHIN BET SUPPORTS MILITARY OPTION FOR SHALIT'S RELEASE

Shin Bet gets it:

(IsraelNN.com) According to the London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq al-Awsat, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) has reached the conclusion that Hamas does not intend to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit even if its demands are met. The group is using Shalit to reinforce its reputation as a group capable of causing Israel to release terrorist prisoners, ISA sources said, but it does not intend to let Shalit go.

Israel and Hamas have been negotiating Shalit's release in exchange for terrorist prisoners with the help of Egyptian intermediaries. Hamas has repeatedly added new demands, ISA agents said.

In what appears to be an unusual leak from the ISA to an Arab newspaper, the sources said the ISA had created a plan that would put military pressure on Hamas in order to obtain Shalit's release.

Yes, it is kind of unusual for a newspaper like that to file such a report. But it shows that Shin Bet certainly understands the real nature of terrorist organizations like Hamas, and that truly, they don't want to release prisoners whom they consider valuble.

NEWSWEEK ONCE AGAIN PROVES ITSELF AN ENEMY

According to this news clip, Newsweek is blaming Israel one-sidedly for the tractor attacks in Jerusalem.

I think this is just more proof why nobody need waste their hard-earned money on their awful magazine.

AS DUBYA VISITS, ISLAMIC JIHAD FIRES MORE ROCKETS

As I said there, that's what happened:

JERUSALEM - A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, rescue officials said.

At least two women and one girl were seriously wounded and several other people were slightly hurt, said Leah Malul, an official at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said 14 people were wounded — three seriously — and all the casualties had been evacuated from the site of the attack.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Web site.

Witnesses told Israeli radio stations that the rocket caused considerable damage and rescue service director Eli Bean said at least two people had been trapped under the rubble. The two were rescued and taken to hospital, Army Radio reported.

Army Radio said the rocket hit the third floor of the Hutzot mall. The report said a clinic takes up part of the floor.

The rocket attack came as President Bush wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Israeli leader said at the end of the talks that Israel would not tolerate attacks from Gaza militants.

Two people have been killed in recent days in attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli communities outside Gaza.

The homemade rockets militants usually fire at Israel do not have enough range to reach Ashkelon. Militants use longer-range rockets to hit the city of 100,000, 9 miles from the Gaza-Israel border.

Doesn't this signal that they've been able to smuggle in more advanced rockets in the past year? There is every chance they have worse weapons now.

Note also the predictable use of the word "militants" instead of terrorists by the AP, which is atrocious as usual.