Arson and terrorism suspected in forest fire on Israel's main highway

As Israel's Independence Day comes about, many festivities had to sadly be cancelled because of a huge forest fire that broke out on the highway to Jerusalem, which is now suspected to have been terrorist-based arson:

Large brushfires were blazing Wednesday in the Eshtaol Forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem, forcing the evacuations of some communities and the closure of roads.

It was the second time in the space of a week that fires in the hills to the west of the capital have led to the evacuation of residents.

The Fire and Rescue Service reported fires were raging in at least five places in the Jerusalem hills.

It's very disturbing and disgusting. Breitbart notes:

Posts on social media showed the fire advancing on the outskirts of Jerusalem, as residents abandoned cars.

מטורף האש הגיע לכביש 1 כשהכביש עמוס, איבוד שליטה באזור כלל הכוחות מפונים למקום. pic.twitter.com/CPa4icQ3fN

— שלמה ⛈️ מזג אוויר (@MezgAvirIL) April 30, 2025

No injuries were reported, other than smoke inhalation, though the fires interrupted ceremonies marking Israel’s annual Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day, which commemorates fallen soldiers throughout the years.

Though the rehearsal of the special soldiers' march for the occasion was specially recorded and can be broadcast, this is still a terrible incident that had to happen. As the Jerusalem Post notes, terrorism is suspected:

Terrorism is suspected in the wave of massive fires that have triggered a national emergency across parts of Israel, according to an unnamed Israeli security source speaking to The Media Line. The fires erupted on Tuesday, as the country marked Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism and prepared to transition into celebrations for its 77th Independence Day.

The source confirmed that several arrests have been made in connection with the suspected arson attacks, but declined to provide further details due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.

[...] “This is being treated as a national emergency,” the source said, pointing to evidence that suggests the fires were set deliberately and in a coordinated manner. The timing—on a day of national mourning followed immediately by celebrations of statehood—has raised concerns that the attacks were intended to provoke panic and undermine the national morale.

Hamas calls to set fires in Jerusalem, West Bank

Hamas posted a message encouraging Palestinians to "burn whatever you can of groves, forests, and settler homes," on Telegram on Wednesday.

"Youth of the West Bank, youth of Jerusalem, and those inside Israel, set their cars ablaze... Gaza awaits the revenge of the free," the terrorist organization wrote.

Earlier, the Jenin News Network Telegram channel called on Palestinians to "burn the groves near the settlements" in a post on Telegram on Wednesday.

As the wildfires continue to burn across central Israel, the channel posted a photo of a masked person setting fire to a field as a town burns in the background, with the text "Settlers' homes will be ashes under the feet of the revolutionaries" and the hashtag "Burn settlers' houses."

Well, if this is what Telegram allows to take place on their network, then I don't think I want to make use of their services. Anybody sane who's running a social media network should not allow jihadists to exploit their services. Who knows how much damage has also been caused in Europe as the result of the Telegram staff's incompetence? Anybody with common sense who realizes Telegram could be a bad influence should cancel their subscription immediately.

ICC threatens Israeli leaders with arrest warrants, uses moral equivalence as justification

The Intl. Criminal Court's again proving useless by threatening to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, and it's entirely possible that by sharp contrast, they won't do the same with Hamas leaders, no matter what moral equivalence they're using to shield their plans for Israeli politicians:

Prosecutor Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally requested arrest warrants on Monday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several leaders of the genocidal Hamas terrorist organization.

Khan equated Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas in Gaza to the widespread atrocities committed in Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, explicitly calling the self-defense operation to uproot Hamas from Gaza, a territory it has controlled since 2007, “criminal.”

[...] Khan requested warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant as well as several high-ranking Hamas terrorists: terror chief Yahya Sinwar, “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh, and the “commander-in-chief” of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri.

Despite what's stated above, it's unlikely they'll actually follow through seriously on warrants against Hamas overlords. This is offensive in the extreme how differences are being blurred between Israel and the Islamofascist enemy, and all via a man who may have visited the site of the tragedy last year, yet clearly was not changed one bit by what he saw. Khan should not enter Israel again if this is how he behaves.

His positions have already drawn condemnations for the damage they've caused millions of years ago:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday to seek warrants against him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.

Khan also announced that he would pursue indictments against three Hamas leaders. Still, the unprecedented prosecution would place Israel on a morally equivalent level with Hamas and delegitimize defenes against terror.

Netanyahu posted videos in Hebrew and English. The English version follows below (via Prime Minister’s Office):

Mike Pompeo's also responded:

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that President Joe Biden should restore President Donald Trump’s 2020 sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which Biden reversed soon after taking office, in April 2021.

The sad thing, however, is that not all foreign governments are opposing this kangaroo court act, and even the USA's under Joe Biden can't be trusted to actually oppose this convincingly, even though the ICC's more than willing to go after American military officials over similarly trumped up accusations. What the European governments supporting this move are doing hurts European citizens too by extension. That aside, this all makes clear why the ICC is worthless, and has doubtless been for a long time. No sane person should support them in any way, and it's entirely possible the ICC could go after 911 Families too, given the chance.

Hamas exploits children for terrorist acts

The IDF destroyed tunnels leading to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, and also noted that Hamas is using child soldiers for their evil deeds too:

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that it had completed demolishing a Hamas tunnel network to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, while the military continued to focus operations on the enclave’s central and southern areas.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military accused Hamas of using child soldiers, including to deliver explosive devices and to “assess the damage” on battlefields and report it to Hamas gunmen.

[...] Further proof of Hamas’s entrenchment in Gazan society was presented to international media outlets Wednesday.

In a briefing, the IDF showed reporters footage recovered from the Gaza Strip showing what it says is the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups indoctrinating young people into their terrorist ideology.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have for years openly run and promoted summer camps in the Gaza Strip where children undergo military training.

The IDF said at the summer camps, children learn to fire weapons, use tunnels, fight against tanks, and kidnap soldiers as part of early training for the terror groups’ military wings.

Citing intelligence, the IDF said “a large number of minors are active” in Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Even during the war, the Hamas terror organization uses minors for various tasks, for example sending children for the purposes of conveying messages and ammunition,” the IDF said.

The IDF said the interrogation of a Hamas commander revealed that the terror group had used children to deliver explosive devices under the guise of bags of vegetables.

It also said children had been sent by terror groups to battlefields in Gaza after an attack “to assess the damage and report it to the terrorists who are hiding in shelters.”

To indoctrinate and exploit children for jihadism is another unspeakable evil the Hamas organization has committed. Of course, the children themselves, if taken into custody, must be given psychological counseling and deprogrammed. This is another horrific revelation made during the war against the 2nd most evil terror organization after the PLO.

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.

Joe Sacco's anti-Israel graphic novel is going back to press

The UK Guardian, a very bad MSM outlet themselves, published a puff piece about Joe Sacco's GN titled "Palestine", which was intended as anti-Israel propaganda, and is now seeing new print, clearly for the sake of obscuring the Hamas' savagery on October 7, and pandering to the crowd of creeps supporting them:

An acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism”, has been rushed back into print after surging demand since the fresh outbreak of the conflict two months ago.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, was originally released in comic book form by the American publisher Fantagraphics 30 years ago, then published as a single volume by the company, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2003.

It was created by Sacco, a Maltese American journalist and cartoonist from Portland, Oregon, as a record of his own journeys around Gaza in 1991, and has since then won a clutch of awards and been included on university courses as a primer for the whole conflict. Edward Said, the Palestinian American academic and critic, said in his introduction to the book: “With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco.”

Gary Groth, the co-founder of Fantagraphics, said that after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the subsequent bombing of Gaza demand for the book had soared.

He said, “We blew out of our inventory of several thousand copies quickly and are reprinting now. Retailers and wholesalers began ordering the book in far greater quantities than in the recent past, which indicates that every element down the chain – consumers and retailers – are expressing demand for it.”

Well, this is certainly telling about Groth to boot, the same disgrace and shame who did a sugarcoated interview with Maurice Sendak years ago. Of course, one must also wonder where any and all comic retailers stand on a subject involving Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Will Eisner and Gil Kane's Israeli brethren. If any are seeking to capitalize on the tragedy that struck many Jewish women and children in particular, that's offensive in the extreme, and they have no business associating even remotely with the creations of famous Jewish artists. Sacco, along with the article writer, makes clear he remains sympathetic to followers of Islam, and shows no sign of horror over what followers of the Religion of Peace in Gaza did to innocent and defenseless women and children. That's what really makes this Guardian article repulsive. Unshockingly, they didn't even see fit to mention that Edward Said falsified his history. None of which matters to Sacco, sadly, nor to Groth. I absolutely do not want to buy from Fantagraphics if this is the kind of graphic novels they're going to market.

And Sacco's GN didn't so much pioneer comics journalism as it did propaganda, and exploiting the medium for that specific goal. It's sickening to think how many GNs of this sort came down the pike in the past 2 decades that did more harm than good for the comics medium's image overall regarding political issues.

Battle against Hamas has officially resumed

After at least a few acts of violence that violated the cease-fire agreements, the IDF has resumed its raid on Hamas enclaves:

The IDF has announced the renewal of fighting in Gaza, after the Hamas terror organization violated the terms of the operational pause.

An IDF spokesperson said that IAF aircraft are attacking Hamas targets in Gaza. A diplomatic source said, "We are renewing the fighting with all our might. There are no negotiations for the release of hostages."

At the same time, the IDF's Home Front Command updated the guidelines for the Israeli public, and in most cities in central Israel, schools will be open only in locations where a protected space is accessible within the required amount of time.

The pause was set to expire at 7:00a.m. Friday morning, but reports by the Wall Street Journal claimed that an agreement was reached on extending the ceasefire by a day. This report was not confirmed by Israel, and by Friday morning, Israel had not yet received a new list of hostages to be freed.

Based on the violence of the rocket attacks, and what happened at Jerusalem's main entrance road the other day, that's why there's no choice but to continue the combat against the monsters.

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.

What took place at the NY Jewish Comics Experience

The JTA/New York Jewish Week covered the new Jewish Comics Experience convention at Manhattan's Jewish History Center:

More than 400 comic book lovers flocked to Manhattan’s Center for Jewish History on Sunday for the first-ever Jewish Comics Experience, a pop culture convention that was billed as the “ultimate comics and pop culture event.”

Some 35 comics creators participated in the inaugural JewCE, including “Sin City” creator Frank Miller and underground comics legend Barbara “Willy” Mendes. Others participating were artists who specialize in depicting Torah stories, creators of Jewish superheroes, autobiographical writers who just happen to be Jewish and non-Jewish authors and artists who create Jewish content.

Seeing that Miller attended this convention, it raises some important and relevant queries: does this mean he's willing to own and defend Holy Terror once again, recalling how 5 years ago, he kowtowed to the far-left by not only expressing regret for conceiving Holy Terror in the first place, he even apologized for condemning the Occupy movement, and added insult to injury by attacking Donald Trump, all in the pages of a paper as anti-Israel as the UK Guardian. And despite the incredibly stupid apology, he was still disinvited from a British convention. It remains to be seen if he's sorry he acted so stupidly now. Otherwise, what's the use of his attending this convention? Lack of courage is exactly what leads to all these tragedies, including 9-11, and even the terrorist attacks in France back in 2015. Similarly, if the convention doesn't have the courage to raise the issue of Islamofascism itself, that'll be a serious weakness.

“It’s high time that Jewish creators are recognized for their contribution to comic culture, a culture that was for the most part created by Jewish people,” JewCE co-founder Fabrice Sapolsky told the New York Jewish Week.

Though the event was planned long before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war, the continued violence in the Middle East and its reverberating effects was resonant across the convention. In myriad panel conversations and in one-on-one discussions, the situation in Israel, increased antisemitism across the globe and the acute need for Jewish joy were frequent themes. For many creators and attendees, “showing up” and supporting the Jewish community was at the top of mind, while others noted the camaraderie among individuals who all shared a a love of Jewish culture.

According to Miriam Mora, the co-founder of JewCE and the director of programming at the Center for Jewish History, the difficult moment made a Jewish comic convention more relevant than ever. “Comics are worth paying attention to because there’s no better way to lift up our community and to fight antisemitism than to educate people about Jewish contributions, Jewish identities, Jewish stories than to celebrate them,” she said.

Indie “comix” icon Mendes, best known for the classic comic “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” agreed. “We just need people to know how wonderful we are because there’s a lot of propaganda out there that we’re terrible,” she told the New York Jewish Week. “We need to counteract that with proof that Jews are wonderful, and that’s what this is all about — and that’s why I’m so happy to be part of the convention.”

On this, those attending did the right thing. After such a horrifying bloodbath that the Hamas jihadists committed, it's vital to convey a message of solidarity with the Jewish people, and uphold the memories of famous creators like Siegel/Shuster/Lee/Kirby. However, this convention, unfortunately, has traces of PC to be found in the coverage, if anything:

The history of Jews and comics is a long and rich one, beginning with the earliest comic book creators — nearly all Jews — to the continued presence of Jewish stories in both popular comics and more esoteric ones. For example, Marvel briefly had a Jewish Black Panther character, while, more recently, author Yehudi Mercato drew upon his Mexican-Jewish family for his middle-grade graphic memoir, “Chunky.” Meanwhile, some traditional Jewish texts have gotten the graphic novel treatment, including Mendes’ recent takes on the weekly Torah portion. [...]

That creativity was on full display Sunday as creators spoke at panels such as “Jewish Folklore in Comics,” “Queering Jewish Comics” and “Getting Past Ashkenormativity and Secularism in Comics.” Jewish publishers sold a variety of books and individual creators signed their work and mingled with fans. One table was run by the mother of a writer of a Holocaust education comic who couldn’t make the trip from Los Angeles.

It's regrettable they've continued sugarcoating BP material that builds on some atrocious storytelling, right down to Ta-Nehisi Coates' own propaganda. And Coates is one of the worst far-leftists to ever be welcomed into the entertainment industry. If he could speak as abusively as he did about 9-11, there's no telling what he could say about Jews. I wouldn't want to own any of his comics based on what a far-left ideologue he happens to be. And that part about "queering" is quite telling on its own. It echoes what only so many far-leftists have been pushing and indoctrinating at schools, even going so far as to distort the Bible with it. Does that sit well with them?

Now since we're on the subject, The Forward followed up on the news about Arnon Shorr and Joshua Edelglass's Brother's Keeper. I hope this GN's been highlighted at the convention, because, as noted again by the Forward:

“One of my friends pointed at the screen and he said, ‘We need this. We need this now. We need this yesterday,’” Shorr recalled. “I was too close to it, I think, to see it or to recognize it,” he said. But his friend helped him realize that “this is a reminder that we’ve been here before and we’ve survived this before.”

As Edelglass kept pace with the drawings and Tomić with the colors, Shorr tried to figure out how to make the book widely available sooner rather than later. They’d bring copies to JewCE as planned, but they also made the comic available to order in hard copy online and to purchase as an e-book. Shorr is also working with his parents to translate the story into Hebrew and is looking into options for sharing Brother’s Keeper in Israel. [...]

But sitting down to draw night after night in the days and weeks following Oct. 7 was therapeutic for Edelglass. “The story moves from battle and turmoil to great hope,” Edelglass said. And he and Shorr hope it can be a source of comfort and hope for readers as well.

Let's hope it'll be translated into Hebrew, and practically as many other languages as possible; everyone and anyone the world over who's a realist needs to know this kind of history. And again, let's hope the convention at Manhattan's History Center stands solidly by it. That said, it's still a shame said convention is pushing leftist propaganda, and the JTA once again sugarcoated how the Jewish Black Panther was crafted.

A history comic whose subject is even more relevant today

Arnon Shorr, a screenwriter and author originally from Haifa, wrote a column for Jewish Boston telling about a graphic novel he developed about Israel's war of indepdence in 1948, discussing how the armies of the Arab Legion attacked the country, and points out that, in the aftermath of the horrific jihad bloodbath the Hamas committed on October 7, it's even more relevant a subject than ever. The title of the GN he's publishing is "Brother's Keeper":

It sat on a hard drive for several years, until this summer, when an opportunity arose to collaborate once more with Joshua M. Edelglass, the illustrator of “José and the Pirate Captain Toledano.” I shared several story ideas with Josh, who immediately gravitated toward “Brother’s Keeper.” We decided we’d work together to reimagine the story as a single-issue (or “one-off”) comic book. The goal was to have something ready to debut in mid-November, at the Jewish Comics Experience, a new and exciting convention of Jewish comics at the Center for Jewish History in New York. So, in August, with only a few months to get the job done, I began to write.

I went back to old interviews that my uncle Yoav had recorded. My grandfather’s accounts of the battle and its aftermath are riveting, and revealed surprising details that I had forgotten over the years. I also found this very detailed description of the battle. I drew from every account that I could find to create a composite representation of this small piece of that old war. [...]

Ramat Rachel is a small kibbutz on a strategically significant hilltop just south of Jerusalem. In 1948, its residents found themselves surrounded on three sides by three very powerful Arab armies. The Egyptian army approached from the west, the Arab Legion came up from the south, and the Jordanian army, along with local Arab fighters, applied pressure from the east. They all wanted to drive the Jews out so they could attack Jerusalem from this high ground.

My grandfather was sent to help defend this kibbutz, and when that appeared impossible, he oversaw the evacuation and retreat.

When I wrote these scenes, they were fascinating pieces of history. It was hard to imagine an army attacking a kibbutz, with bullets and artillery shattering the bucolic quiet.

And then I was confronted by the grim horrors of Oct. 7, 2023.

What I wrote as history had suddenly become current events. A terrorist army rampaging through Israel, attacking kibbutzim along the Gaza border. Residents, once again, forced to flee.

The book was already written, and Josh was working hard on the illustrations. For him, the experience was even more surreal. He was drawing an attack on a kibbutz while watching one unfold on the news.

Initially, all of this seemed like a horrible coincidence. “Brother’s Keeper” is supposed to be historical. It’s supposed to reflect on something that happened a long, long ago. Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine that it would become contemporary again.

And yet, here we are.

We continued our work on the book. With the Jewish comics convention about a month away, we had some hard print deadlines to meet.

But I felt as though the book we were working on had fundamentally changed. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but it seemed suddenly more significant. A friend who stopped by for coffee one morning was able to articulate what I couldn’t. When he saw a few of the illustrations, he declared, “We need this. Now!”

He went on to explain: Most of us weren’t born the last time a kibbutz was attacked. Many of our parents weren’t born yet, either. Part of the pain of the Oct. 7 attacks was that we had never experienced anything like it before.

Then my friend pointed at the illustrations I had shown him. He said, “But we have been through this before. We’ve survived this before.”

The moment he pointed that out, I realized that my grandfather’s story was no longer “just a story from a war.” It suddenly had meaning.

It wasn’t the meaning I intended. It certainly couldn’t have been my grandfather’s meaning. How could we have imagined we’d need such a reminder again?

And yet, there it is.

My grandfather, surviving an attack on a kibbutz in 1948, reminds us of what we can overcome in 2023.

Josh and I had no plans for an immediate wide release of this comic book. We expected to print a bunch of copies to sell at the convention, and then to figure out a release plan from there.

But now, the story carries a new, urgent purpose. We are working very hard to make the book available as broadly as possible when it debuts in New York on Nov. 12, 2023.

The guy's doing the right thing to raise the issue at a time when a horrifying incident struck Israel anew. Surely most important, however, is that the publishers and the conventions had better make absolutely certain they stand by his production rock solid, and not cower in the face of any threats that could be made against them by antisemitic sources. The same could be said regarding comics and GNs discussing September 11, 2001.

I'm very glad Mr. Shorr made the effort to develop a GN like this. There's been far too much censorship of subjects involving Islamofascism ever since 9-11, and that includes subjects involving Israel. The time's come for more of all concerned to prove they have the guts to produce comics tackling these vital issues and focus upon them convincingly. For now, let's hope the aforementioned convention along with the publishers are going to stand by Mr. Shorr from A to Z.

Veteran actress laments the sorry state in the USA after the Hamas massacre

Veteran actress Mayim Bialik spoke about the terrible antisemitism that's now poisoned the USA following the Hamas bloodbath on October 7:

Mayim Bialik said that “nothing has prepared” her for the anti-Semitism she’s seeing across America — and made it clear that there was “no excuse” for any of it — following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Israelis.

The 47-year-old actress posted an emotional 10-minute video on TikTok — which was shared on X — in which she speaks out as a Jewish American against the anti-Semitism she’s witnessing, blasting it as “unacceptable.”

“Imagine if there was a massacre of an ethnic group or a religious group, the equivalent of 50,000 Americans,” she said. “And imagine if what happened after that was that all over the world, there were marches of tense of thousands of people calling for further massacre of those people … That’s what it feels like right now as a Jewish person.”

“There has not been an experience in my lifetime that has prepared me for this,” she added. “I have heard from many people my whole life that anti-semitism is growing. That the Holocaust, while we say we’ll never forget, many have forgotten. And the swiftness with which the global population has seized upon the massacre of Jewish civilians living inside of a border. The swiftness with which the world has stepped up to redefine terrorism, to redefine statehood, to redefine the right of a people to exist.”

“Nothing has prepared me or any of us for this,” the “Jeopardy!” host continued. “Because it is clear, we get it. It is clear that there is a strain of antisemitism that is alive and well. It is thriving at my Alma Mater where the chant ‘We want a Jewish genocide’ was echoed in the quad in front of Royce Hall.”

Bialik, who got her doctoral from UCLA, said students of all backgrounds were chanting on that very campus, calling for a “Jewish genocide” — and she responded, calling it “unacceptable” and “not normal.”

“We should not normalize it,” the actress said. “There is no excuse for calling for a genocide of an entire people. Period. Full stop.”

Her son wants to go to college, yet there's only so many that're epically failing to condemn antisemitism, let alone Islamofascism, and as a result, very few that'd make a good choice, if at all. But now that there's younger folks who're studying without getting college degrees as a way to start a career, do folks like him really need to go to college at all? Something to ponder.

And, when it comes to said colleges, some of the terrible cases included Cornell, where a student was arrested and charged with making threats of violence:

A student who allegedly made threats of a mass shooting and antisemitic violence at Cornell University has been criminally charged, Fox News reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, court documents show that 21-year-old Patrick Dai, a junior at Cornell, has been federally charged in connection with the threats following an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Earlier it was reported that a suspect is in custody for posting the threatening statements.

The menacing messages, posted over the weekend on a forum about fraternities and sororities, alarmed students at the school in upstate New York and led to students being advised to stay away from the school’s kosher dining hall.

“We can confirm that a subject has been identified as a suspect in the antisemitic threats made against our Jewish students on Sunday and is currently in custody,” Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, said in a statement.

[...] Notably, the threats to Jewish students at Cornell came amid an escalation in anti-Israel sentiments and incidents on campuses in the US.

Last Wednesday, Jewish students at Cooper Union College in New York City were forced to lock themselves inside the library as a mob of anti-Israeli protesters blocked the doors.

About 40 minutes later, security escorted the students out of the building via a tunnel.

According to this followup news, the student is now facing 5 years in prison for his horrific behavior:

Patrick Dai, 21, a junior student at the university originally from Pittsford, New York, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York.

The complaint against Dai alleges he posted threatening messages to the Cornell section of an online discussion site, which included calling for the deaths of Jewish people and carrying out a mass shooting of the 104 West building, which is a Cornell University dining hall that caters predominantly to Kosher diets, located next to the Cornell Jewish Center.

“In another post, Dai allegedly threatened to ‘stab’ and ‘slit the throat’ of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and to behead any Jewish babies,” authorities said in a news release. “In that same post, Dai threatened to ‘bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.'”

Dai faces a maximum term of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of up to three years if convicted.

He's apparently a Chinese-American student, and one could wonder if he's also sympathetic to China's communist party. Of course, let's consider that one of the reasons he got where he is now could be due to indoctrination at colleges themselves. If they're capable of disseminating propaganda that bad, there's no telling how much worse it gets anywhere.

Update: another case of evil university staffers to ponder is a woman calling herself "non-binary", working at CUNY, who tore down posters of kidnapped Israelis:

A “non-binary” college educator went viral after attacking a bystander who recorded her ripping down posters of Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas.

Callen Zimmerman, a biological female who identifies with “they/them” pronouns, was listed as an adjunct professor within the City University of New York (CUNY) system until backlash resulted in her online biography being taken down.

The disturbing footage, taken by a couple of onlookers, shows Zimmerman tearing down signs of missing civilians who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attack on Israeli soil. In the video, she tells them to “go colonize somewhere else.”

When the camerawoman attempts to follow Zimmerman across the street to capture what she is doing, the academic can be seen reaching and hitting her.

This serves as another example of how only so many LGBT ideologues are antisemitic, and ironically have no issue with Islam's opposition to their lifestyles. And the woman is even desensitized to violence, in addition to clearly hating her own gender.

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.

Hamas planned to use chemical weapons

Israeli president Isaac Herzog reported details were found of plans by Hamas to use poisonous chemicals:

Israeli security forces found instructions for producing cyanide gas on the body of one of the Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed on Sunday.

Speaking with Sky News, Herzog said that troops found a USB flash drive with instructions for preparing a device to disperse the poisonous gas, once used for mass murder in Nazi gas chambers.

"This is material that was found on the body of one of those sadistic villains. It's Al-Qaeda material, official Al-Qaeda material," Herzog told the British TV network.

"When dealing with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Hamas, this is what we're dealing with," added the Israeli head of state.

Late last week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's weapons of mass destruction non-proliferation department informed embassies around the world of "Hamas's intention to use chemical weapons" in a classified cable, according to Axios.

The cable reportedly instructed ambassadors to share the file with their host governments privately. "This discovery indicates that Hamas intended to use chemical warfare agents as part of its series of terrorist operations against the civilian population," read the missive.

Cyanide is one of the most dangerous chemicals around, and it's to be hoped the authorities now have a grip on this situation, and will make sure such evil plans cannot be committed.

Dave Chappelle was not worth supporting at all

A few years ago, the comedian Dave Chappelle came under attack for a show where he wanted to do jokes about LGBT ideologues. Now, it's clear that, if his career is still intact, it's because of ideologies considered ranking above even that:

Comedian Dave Chappelle went on a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rant at a show in Boston on Thursday evening — and was cheered by the crowd, causing Jews present in the audience to walk out.

A source posted on Facebook:

Hello my friends. This is my first FB post in nearly 7 years. With that said, it is also the only social media platform I have, so I hope people still use FB.

I would like to share with you an experience I had last night. [My wife] and I went to the Dave Chappelle-Standup Comedy show at TD Garden with three other couples. What started out as a funny and joyful evening for the 8 of us ending with disgust and fear.

Towards the end of his act, Chappelle mentioned the war in Israel and how he as a Muslim denounces Israel for its treatment of the people in Gaza and started to add in lots of false and unsubstantiated claims. A gentleman towards the front yelled out “You should shut the F up”. Chappelle lost it on the man yelling, “You do not tell me to shut the F up at MY show”. Chappelle then started on a tirade of his beliefs leaving comedy behind and focusing purely on the politics.

While that was awful in itself, what made my heart sink and started to invoke fear was when the crowd of nearly 20,000 people started yelling out “Go Palestine. Go Hamas.” and other related hatful jargon. The audience was cheering Chappelle on during his tirade. I was sick. We were sick. I turned to my friends and wife and said I think it is time to go. We walked out and met up with many other Jews leaving the show. Never in my life have I felt so unsafe and so fearful of what I was witnessing. The words alone were horrific, but we were vulnerable in a public forum. How could we know what would happen? Could violence against the Jewish members in the audience break out?

Here in Boston, how was there so much hate for Jews. How could a comedy show provide such a mechanism for people to verbally shout our their hatred for Jews? The unfortunate icing on the cake was that all cell phones and communication devices had to be locked up so there is no video or audio evidence. With that, I am hoping social media can spread this word.

If you have made it this far and know how to use social media better than me, please share and see if we can get this to the Boston Globe. Thank you.

Unfortunately, chances the Globe will say anything about this are minimal, and if memory serves, they're owned by the awful New York Times. The Wall Street Journal did give a report though:

Chappelle first condemned the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, but criticized what he said were war crimes in Gaza, according to people in attendance.

The comments came up when Chappelle said he didn’t think students should lose job offers for supporting Palestinians. An audience member’s command for the comedian to shut up drew an emotional response from Chappelle, who criticized the Israeli government for cutting off water and other essentials to Gaza and accused it of killing innocent people, according to the attendees.

Some audience members cheered Chappelle on and shouted “Free Palestine,” while others yelled, “What about Hamas,” the attendees said. Some in the crowd got up and left.

Boston is becoming one of a number of places in the USA where I once wanted to visit, and no longer do. Chappelle's vulgar tirade also explains why he opposed Donald Trump 5 years before. The Netflix management said they screwed up defending Chappelle because of his alleged stance on LGBT issues. No. This latest atrocity in Boston is why. When somebody takes the side of the barbarians - and the audience takes his side in turn - it destroys everything, because he makes himself no different - and easily worse - than the perverts.

More disturbing details about pseudo-creators who've supported anti-Israelism

Some more clues have turned up as to the vile conduct of at least a few of the comics writers previously mentioned here, such as past posts on X/Twitter by Saladin Ahmed. For example, as discovered through here, here and here, and seen in the following screencap:

There's also a bit more involving Nadia Shammus, which appears to be from more recently, before she shut her page, and it even includes people who interacted on the same thread:

This is some of the most truly repulsive stuff I've ever seen littering social media, and again beggars the queries how much longer the Big Two, along with any indies employing these 2, in example, will continue to associate with them. Already, Playboy parted ways with a Lebanese-American "media influencer" named Mia Khalifa, and Marvel would do well to follow their example by parting ways with Ahmed. Lest we forget, all other comics creators who recognize the seriousness of the issues here must also end any and all contact they've had with Ahmed and Shammus until now. In view of the savagery the Hamas committed, this is exactly why no self-respecting comics creator should ever associate with people like them again. Also, lest we forget, Ahmed injected some bad stereotypes into Daredevil.

The Hezbollah in Lebanon is just as dangerous as Hamas

Rick Moran reminds everyone that Hezbollah's bound to willing and ready to attack Israel, just like the Hamas did this weekend:

The Hamas invasion of Israel is the most significant military action against the Jewish state ever carried out by a terrorist group. The planning for this attack must have begun months ago in Tehran where the bulk of the funds used to arm and train fighters for the attack originated.

Anyone who refers to Hamas as “freedom fighters” should have their head examined. The terrorists kidnapped dozens of civilians — infants, old people, women — and are holding them somewhere in Gaza. As the IDF looks to turn back the terrorists who have invaded seven different areas in the South of Israel, they must contend with the eventuality of a Hezbollah attack in the North.

Already, Israel has exchanged artillery fire with Hezbollah, and the terrorist’s masters in Tehran have given fulsome praise to Hamas for the attack.

Might Hezbollah join Hamas and hit Israel in the North while the IDF is occupied in the South?

Sarit Zehavi, the founder of the Alma Center, which is a research center in Israel dedicated to understanding their national security situation, told the Washington Examiner that there’s a chance Hezbollah could soon attack Israel with the country’s attention focused on the south.

“It’s just a matter of decision for Hezbollah, whether it wants to join in or not. I believe this decision was not made yet, and that’s why we’re not there yet, but maybe we’re not that far from this place,” she said.“Here in Israel, we are preparing for the scenario of war also from the north because we understand it was within the interest of Iran and Hezbollah to escalate the Israeli-Lebanese border. We see what is happening in the south as a part of a bigger plan to attack Israel and weaken the state of Israel from multiple fronts, and I guess this is what the Iranians now are trying to create.”

Iran’s motives are clear. They want to disrupt the movement toward peace between Israel and their Arab neighbors, begun by Donald Trump. Tehran sees peace — quite rightly — as a massive loss of influence for Iran.

Obviously, they want to destroy chances of peace with Saudi Arabia (though lest we forget, even today, the House of Saud can still be very shady), along with quite possibly other such countries. But that's still nothing compared to the hostage crisis caused by the kidnappings of Israelis by Hamas that's now causing a serious issue. We must hope that won't deter the government from taking serious ground action in Gaza.

Update: Melanie Phillips addressed the crisis, and she makes some vital points:

How could this possibly have happened? Clearly, there has been a massive Israeli intelligence failure. It’s hard not to see a connection with the enormous anti-government protests over the past nine months, which saw Israelis trying to undermine the economy and even refusing to do army reservists’ duty.

Such a paralysing internal battle may have taken official eyes off the security ball. What’s undeniable is that the ferocity and length of these internal convulsions sent a signal that Israel was weakened. Many Israelis have been wondering over these past difficult months just when Israel’s mortal enemies would seize this opportunity to take advantage of this weakness. Now we have the dreadful answer.

And this barbarism has been paid for by the US and EU. What did they think all the money they were channelling into Gaza for “humanitarian” purposes would actually be used for? Now we have the answer.

What did the Biden administration think would be the result of appeasing, grovelling to and funding Iran, the paymasters of Hamas and Hezbollah? Now it has its answer.

America, the EU and Britain have consistently undermined Israel’s attempt to defend itself against attack. For the past century, the west has incentivised exterminatory Palestinian Arab terror against Israel by rewarding it with the promise of statehood — which the Palestinians always made plain they wanted only as a staging post towards Israel’s destruction — and punishing Israel for objecting to this existential threat.

The whole notion army reservists would refuse service over petty issues like judicial reform certainly damaged morale, and from a local perspective, also has to shoulder blame. Why, those would-be reservists should be fired by the army and not welcome to serve ever again, if that's their way of thinking.

Update 2: more news on the issue of kidnap victims.

Update 3: here's information on how the IDF smashed targets in Gaza. There's extra information here too.

Biden administration's terror funding cost an Israeli schoolteacher her life

Daniel Greenfield describes how fraud-in-chief Joe Biden's government has enabled Islamofascists to murder Israelis like a schoolteacher who recently fell victim to terror attacks:

Last year, Biden met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and boasted that, “I reversed the policies of my predecessor and resumed aid to the Palestinians — more than a half a billion dollars in 2021.”

Batsheva Nigri, a preschool teacher, was riding in a car with her six-year-old daughter when Islamic terrorists from the Palestinian Authority’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade cut them off and riddled the car with 22 bullets. Batsheva’s six-year-old daughter watched her mother die.

The Palestinian Authority’s terror group hailed the murder of a 42-year-old preschool teacher as a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation” and as revenge for Denis Michael Rohan, a non-Jewish Australian tourist, starting a fire in the Al Aqsa occupation mosque in 1969.

Look how they even scapegoat Gentiles for the sake of their jihadist mindset. That's also very offensive.

The number of terror victims fell every year Trump was in office, from 15 in 2017, to 12 in 2018, 10 in 2019 and then only 3 in 2020. And the number of terror victims shot up every year Biden was in office from 17 in 2021, to 31 in 2022, and there is every sign that 2023 will top that.

Twice as many Israelis were killed in one month of Biden than in one year of Trump.

It’s only August and already 26 Israelis have been killed by Islamic terrorists. Last year at this time 18 Israelis had been killed by terrorists making for a 40% increase in 2023.

What made all the difference? As Rep. Ilhan Omar once said, “It’s all about the ‘benjamins’”.

In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, named after an Iraq War veteran who was stabbed to death by a terrorist in Jerusalem, which cut off most aid to the Palestinian Authority. In 2019, President Trump went even further with a nearly total cutoff of aid to the Palestinian Authority. Biden not only restored aid, he sharply increased the flow of cash to the terrorists.

Biden’s half a billion dollars helped fuel a massive surge in Islamic terrorism. While the money is officially listed as humanitarian aid, injecting money into terror zones funds terrorism.

An alarming amount - $6 billion - was also paid to Iran by Biden's bunch, supposedly to ransom out hostages. And last month, things were made worse even in the USA when the "administration" told 9-11 Families that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could be spared the death penalty (H/T: Secure America Now). This is exactly what's dragging down the entire world, as Islamofascism is being practically funded on the one hand, and guilty prisoners are being spared serious punishment on the other.

Israel's "hasbara" service is fouling up again

There was a recent incident around the same time as the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, where some Jewish shephards were attacked by Islamists with rocks, and one of the Jews had to kill in self-defense, but was badly injured. Yet he's made out to be the villain here, and the US government drew a moral equivalence, calling the Jews "terrorists", not unlike how parents in Virginia concerned about transsexuals committing violence in schools were called "domestic terrorists" by the US government too. The Arab suspects were arrested, but moral equivalence still seems to dominate:

Five Palestinian Authority Arab suspects were arrested Sunday night by IDF forces on suspicion of involvement in a lynch attack on Jews.

In the Friday lynching, one of the Arab mob was killed when a Jewish victim defended himself.

On Sunday, the arrests of Elisha Yered and Yehiel Indor were extended by five days, on suspicion that they were involved in the death of the 19-year-old Arab.

Indor opened fire since he was concerned that his life was in danger, but later found himself arrested, despite having suffered injuries to his head during the lynching. As a result of his injuries, he was not present at the hearing and was not interrogated.

In addition to suspicions of involvement in the Arab's death, Yered is also suspected of disrupting the process of investigation. He is a former spokesperson for MK Limor Son Har-Melekh (Otzma Yehudit).

During the court hearing on whether to extend the arrests of Indor and Yered, the police representative said that the crime of murder was "entered into the system automatically at the start of the investigation." Following the interrogation it was decided that the crime which they are suspected of is "manslaughter." The representative also said that "there is no claim that there wasn't violence from both sides."

According to him, the Palestinian Authority Arabs who were involved in the incident were not interrogated, despite the fact that it is "important," but he noted that "there is an intention to arrest them." He could not say whether Indor fired before he was injured, and the police file does not include a photo of the crack to Indor's skull, though it includes a medical document.

Indor's attorney slammed the police for not including a photo in the file despite the fact that police representatives have been at Indor's bedside throughout his entire hospital stay. He also claimed that family was not allowed to remain in the room during the operation. The police representative countered that the family was in fact given the opportunity to remain in the room.

They attorneys and others are rightfully concerned at all the resources that've been focused on the 2 shephards. And one can only wonder if one of the guy's connection with a right-wing Knesset member had to do with this persecution, which must cease.

Ariel Kahana addressed the PR failures here:

The killing of Muhammad al-Durrah has gone down as one of Israel's most colossal hasbara failures ever. After the incident, which took place at the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Palestinians claimed that IDF soldiers killed the boy in Gaza, and then-IDF spokesperson quickly assumed responsibility and issued a public apology on Israel's supposed targeting of the 12-year-old.

When it transpired, several months later, that he was actually killed by Palestinian fire, it was too late: Public perception had already been cemented; the world was convinced that the Jews killed him and there was no fact, video, or investigation could change that false impression.

The IDF repeated its grave mistake from 2000 over the weekend, after the dust settled following the deadly clash between Jewish herders and dozens of Arabs in Burqa – a village off Nablus. The clash ended with one Palestinian dead and one Jew gravely injured. Although the facts were blurry, and despite one side's version of events taking hold, the IDF and the entire defense establishment were quick to label this incident as "Jewish terrorism." This narrative is what was communicated to the Israeli media and the US.

"We are greatly concerned about all the attacks that we saw in Israel, in the Palestinian territories over the weekend. We strongly condemn those attacks," US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said this week. He added that "the IDF spokesperson called the attack in Burqa 'nationalist terrorism'."

Practically all those dealing with the incident – from the IDF, the Shin Bet security agency, and the Israel Police – have denied making a definitive determination that this was Jewish terrorism, or that they communicated as much to the Americans. In that sense, it appears that someone is lying. Part of Communications 101 is never to make your views clear until you have checked the facts with all sides of a story. In this case, Israel provided a version that adopted the account of only one side before it had the actual information of what unfolded; in fact, it is still unclear what really transpired.

Such conduct inflicts major harm that ultimately hurts Israel's image the world over. Rather than rely on the Palestinians for this incident, Israel should have simply said the following: This is an open investigation; the facts are not clear, but we will hold those responsible accountable. In fact, the cautious approach is all the more necessary in light of the judge's decision to let the main suspect in the killing, the settler Elisha Yered, be released provisionally on house arrest (pending appeal), and said the evidentiary material did not meet the minimum threshold to establish that crimes had been committed. His friend, Yehiel Indore, who sustained severe wounds in the incident, is still hospitalized and has yet to be interrogated due to his condition. The Shin Bet is no longer part of the investigation, suggesting this is no longer considered a Jewish terrorism case.

While it's lucky if they're stopping that narrative and angle, there's only so many more staffers who shouldn't continue to be employed at taxpayers' expense if this is how they're going to operate. They've caused only so much gigantic damage to Israel's reputation, and the worst part is they were probably doing it deliberately. Exactly why they don't belong in such positions. We must hope the injured shephard is cleared and recovers.

7 murdered in Neve Yaakov by Islamofascist from east Jerusalem, and 2 injured near City of David

A tragedy's struck the Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, leaving 7 murdered:

At least seven people were killed and several others were injured, including one critically, in a shooting attack on the Ateret Avraham Synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem on Friday evening.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated five injured people to hospitals, including three who were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, and two who were evacuated to Shaare Zedek Hospital. These include a man about 30 years old in critical condition and a woman about 60 years of age in moderate condition.

Initial reports indicate that a terrorist got out of a vehicle and opened fire at people who were gathered outside the synagogue, opened fire at them, and then continued to pursue frightened worshipers who were fleeing the scene.

The terrorist eventually fled the scene in a white Toyota and was met by police officers who shot him dead.

The terrorist has been identified as Alkam Khairi, a 21-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem.

He should go to hell. Now we have to contend with terrorist attacks in neighborhoods like these that could've been prevented. And to make matters worse, there was another terrorist attack near the City of David area:

A father and son were injured in a shooting terror attack near the City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem.

The attack to place this morning, the shooter, reportedly a 13-year-old resident of east Jerusalem, was shot by two civilians.

MDA EMTs and Paramedics treated and conveyed two patients to the Shaare Tzedek Hospital. A 23 year old male in serious condition and his fatger, a 47 year old male, in moderate to serious condition, with gunshot wounds to their upper bodies.

MDA paramedic Fadi Dekidek: "We were quickly on scene and saw two gunshot victims. A 47 year old male and 23 year old male. They were fully conscious and had gunshot wounds to their upper bodies. We quickly moved them to the MICUs and conveyed them to Shaare Tzedek Hospital, with the young male in serious condition and the other male in moderate to serious condition."

So this one appears to have been the doing of a young teen. Which shows even younger kids indoctrinated with the Religion of Peace can be extremely dangerous, and that it's possible for them to be trained with firearms. Utterly horrific.

Update: the way the White House press secretary spoke about this, laced with moral equivalence, is also atrocious.