Israeli troops adopt a ‘back to basics’ approach in their cat-and-mouse battle with Hezbollah near the Lebanon border
The shockwave from the Israeli gun shatters the peace of the abandoned kibbutz, just a mile from the Lebanon border.
A second comes a few seconds later, followed quickly by a third.
The bangs arrive simultaneously with the punch of the blasts – it suggests the artillery is close.
But you’d have to work hard to spot them.
The impact of the terror attacks in Israel on October 7 has been so severe that there are now “before October 7” and “after October 7” eras. The world is not the same. The issue of jihad war, and the evidence of 1,400 years of expansionary jihad violence, is in focus. What Hamas did on October 7 may be new to the West, but it has many historic antecedents. It is part of what jihad is. In the recent past, we saw it with the Islamic State; even now, Christians in Africa are experiencing a genocide at the hands of brutal jihadists. But now jihad has, once again, struck Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.
Expanding the offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ would threaten all of our free speech.
Many have been shocked by the unwillingness of London’s Metropolitan Police to intervene in the ongoing pro-Palestine demos, despite the hate that is so often spewed on them.
According to Met commissioner Mark Rowley, this is because protesters calling for ‘jihad’ or chanting ‘From the river to the sea’ (a coded call for the destruction of Israel) have not committed any crime. Neither chant amounts to the criminal offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’ – that is, to the direct encouragement of terrorist acts or support for a proscribed organisation, such as Hamas. If the UK government wants to tackle such speech, Rowley argues, our terror laws ‘may need redrawing’.
Two men accused of spying for Israel were executed in the West Bank, with their bodies dragged through alleys before being hung from a pylon by a cheering mob.
The two men were shot dead in the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Friday by members of Palestinian armed groups.
A Palestinian journalist in the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the men were beaten and stomped on by residents before being hung up from an electrical tower and then dumped in a skip.
🚨BREAKING:
Tulkarm camp The terrorist organizations in the camp have now executed 2 “Spies” who they claim collaborated with Israel.#HamasTerrorist #GretasupportsISIS #IStandWithIsreal pic.twitter.com/IuB3AByLbO
— Miss Goldie (@MisGoldy) November 24, 2023
… What we are seeing in Canada is not merely a dramatic rise — or rather a reveal — of antisemitism at all levels of society, it is a horrifying (and annoying) revelation for many Jews my age that our parents were right. This stuff doesn’t just go away with the passage of time. It is always there under the surface and it comes up for air when people are hurting — whether the source of that hurt is a recession, a global pandemic, or a war.
Still hoping the crocodile will eat her last.
It’s time to impose a moratorium on the allocation of public funds to non-profit organizations in the United States that support Hamas, the designated terror organization responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre that resulted in the murder of more than 1,400 Israelis. Not only is the organization an inveterate enemy of Jews, Israel, and the United States, but Hamas also currently holds at least nine American citizens hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Israel on Saturday confirmed the identities of 13 Gaza hostages released from Hamas captivity on Saturday, bringing the total of hostages released as part of the truce deal to 26.
Late in the afternoon on Friday (morning here in Canada), as the sun was setting over the Gaza Strip, 13 hostages kidnapped by Hamas were handed over to the Red Cross, loaded into ambulances and transported safely to Egypt, before making their way back to Israel. In exchange, 39 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom participated in stabbing attacks against Israelis, gain their freedom. Despite appearances that Hamas is coming out on top here, it is a necessary sacrifice on the part of the Israelis.
Hamas delays release of second group of hostages; Israeli security sources warn ground operations will resume if hostages are not released by midnight.
Israeli security sources have warned that if Hamas delays the release of the second group of hostages, Israel will resume ground operations in Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas’ military arm said that it decided to delay the release of the second group of hostages, until Israel “meets the terms of the agreement to allow humanitarian aid trucks into northern Gaza.”
According to the security sources, on Friday as well “Hamas played during the last moments, and changed the route by which the hostages would be transferred, in opposition to what had been planned.”
h/t Linda1000
Canada’s role in responding to Palestinian refugee crisis a potential ‘minefield’, says former ambassador
With Israel’s war on Hamas focusing international attention on the plight of Palestinians, some in Canada are pressing Ottawa to help. But experts say this country has long struggled to find the right approach to assisting Palestinian refugees.
The issue came to the fore earlier this month, after a leaked Israeli intelligence memo identified Canada as a potential mass resettlement destination for Palestinians. The prospect of a large-scale relocation at Israel’s direction drew condemnation from Palestinian groups, and Ottawa was quick to dismiss the proposal.
Why No Arab Government Wants Gaza, the West Bank, or Palestinians
With Israel well on its way to controlling all of Gaza, talk is turning to who will control it after the fighting stops. While Israel may retain control for the foreseeable future, Israel wants no part of Gaza. Its government left Gaza in 2005, taking with it every Jew residing in Gaza and even every Jew buried there. And Israel isn’t alone.
Egypt also wants no part of Gaza, which it ruled until Israel took it in the 1967 Six-Day War. For Egypt, ruling Gaza once was enough. Despite pressure from the United States to take Gaza back, even temporarily after Israel rids it of Hamas terrorists, Egypt has refused. Egypt has also refused to provide refuge to Palestinians fleeing the war in Gaza.
And Israel had better drop that damn idea.
Behold the Palestinians the Trudeau government would like to bring to Canada.
Never forget what happened on Oct 7th.
Thousands of Palestinian civilians lined the streets of Gaza to spit on the body of German-Israeli woman Shani Louk.
Civilians hit her body with wooden planks, punched and slapped her naked body as they cheered with joy.
Never forget. pic.twitter.com/JbJPLot4KH
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) November 20, 2023
An online petition urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas closed Thursday with a record-setting 286,719 signatures — the most of any parliamentary e-petition since they began in 2015.
Initiated by Montréal resident Maëva Gaudrault and sponsored by Quebec NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, the petition also calls on the prime minister to ask Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and to urge Israel to meet its commitments under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
Sure thing. The world’s gonna stop turning because Junior demands it.
So much hate out there. So much hurt out there.
Which are not the same thing. The law can’t prevent anyone from saying hurtful things, words that cut to the bone, and that is how it must be in a democracy that enshrines free speech. But a lot easier said when the invective isn’t aimed at you. When it is targeted, instead, at gays and Muslims and, most commonly over these past many weeks since the massacre raids by Hamas into Israel, at Jews.
The contrast between the august library at the Royal United Services Institute and the 43-minute film screened within it was acute. RUSI is an independent think tank devoted to fostering measured research and civilised debate, men and women employing humankind’s best attributes to try to solve differences and problems. The images screened in RUSI’s Whitehall headquarters last night, however, showed our species at its absolute rock-bottom worst.
How did we reach a point where so many Western leftists see Hamas as a ‘progressive’ movement? Its terrorist slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and others on 7 October is already being downplayed or forgotten entirely. Meanwhile, few mention Hamas’s intolerance towards political opposition, its curtailment of women’s rights, its criminalisation of homosexuality or its persecution of Christians. Human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was even barred from the anti-Israel march in London on Armistice Day for a placard that criticised Hamas.
Now is not the time for progressive infighting
While Jews often seem clannish to outsiders, the reality is somewhat different: we have always suffered from a divisive streak of self-destructiveness. As far back as the levelling of the Temple and the expulsion from the homeland, Jewish unity has been undermined by both class divisions and theological disagreements. Two thousand years later, though General Titus’s legions may be forgotten, fissures and infighting remain.
Since October 7, there has been a very real upsurge in antisemitism in Europe and America. Some members of my own synagogue openly discuss whether they should attend services, or events such as menorah lightings; others are considering buying guns.
