“Oct 7 2023”

The war in Gaza may soon be winding down, but the war against Israel and Jews won’t stop. A coordinated wave of boycotts, disinvitations, and street intimidation continues to target Israel and Jewish communities across Europe, North America, and Australia.

Nope. Islam compels its adherents to murder in the name of Allah.

All 20 hostages still thought to be alive are expected to be released. Israel is expected to free about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in return

h/t INGENUI

The increase in antisemitism has been alarming. Now that peace appears to be on the horizon it needs to be studied for what it really is. It has revealed a familiar but poorly understood aspect of human behavior. It is not so much a matter of hatred and evil as you might think. It’s a lot more complicated. It’s ugly, sure enough but so many of the mob seem to be nice normal people in other ways. Nice normal people, though, often are the ones that do the worst things. Certainly, they have been inflamed and insensate – that is what a mob is. But a mob is nothing without the participation of the people who will regret it later.

From Taybe to Tucker Carlson, Palestinians are trying to drive a wedge between the Christian world and Israel, while Israel’s government appears to be asleep on guard duty.

In recent months, we have witnessed a well-timed campaign led by the Palestinian Authority, civil society organizations and anti-Israel Christian elements – some of them declared anti-Semitic – to undermine the relations between the State of Israel and Christian communities around the world, especially evangelical and pro-Israel Christians whose long-standing support for Israel is not self-evident.

But terror group refuses to disarm calling into question key points in US president’s peace deal

Hamas will relinquish control of Gaza but won’t disarm, a source close to the terror group’s negotiation committee said.

Israel is bracing to receive all 20 hostages as part of the initial deal to end the war, with the vice-president JD Vance saying they could be handed over “any moment now”.

Israel says the exchange will happen on Monday morning, when Donald Trump is due to arrive in Israel before flying to Egypt for a truce ceremony.

Cyrus The Great – Big on diversity?

This was always a war that Israel could not afford to lose but could never decisively win. It remains to be seen whether the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas represents a successful outcome for the Jewish State or a Pyrrhic victory.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, was right to say yesterday that ‘the world is witnessing a historic moment’. But his claim that the deal opens ‘a door of hope for the peoples of the region for a future defined by justice and stability’ sounds like wishful thinking.

Despite the Israel-Hamas war dominating Canadian political discourse in recent years, two new polls find that a significant number of Canadians don’t know or care much about the conflict.

And even among the Canadians who claim to be well-informed, they often fail to correctly answer basic follow-up questions about the issue.

On Oct 7, 2001, the United States began an ill-fated campaign to ‘nation build’ Afghanistan.

Now 24 years after that anniversary and 2 years after the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas, we may be on the cusp of an even worse nation-building program in Gaza that seems to have learned absolutely nothing from the disastrous nation-building operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The principal of Earl Haig Secondary School in North York has issued a letter to families following backlash over the Arabic-language version of O Canada being played during morning announcements on Oct. 7, the second anniversary of the 2023 Hamas terror attacks in Israel.

In the letter, dated Thursday, Principal Steve Yee acknowledged the timing of the broadcast was painful for many in the school community and apologized, stressing that the incident was not intentional.

(Incognito)

Israeli troops are withdrawing from Gaza as the first phase of a peace deal to end the war with Hamas begins, the military says.

The ceasefire agreement came into effect at midnight on Thursday, Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X. Since then, troops have been “positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines in preparation for the ceasefire agreement and the return of hostages.” There are still troops deployed in the area, it said, who will “continue to remove any immediate threat.”

Well, that’s it then. The hostages are to be released, the Israel Defence Forces will withdraw from Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian war is over. Except Hamas is still armed to the teeth, the IDF will remain in Gaza, and the war is not over.

But there was jubilation in Gaza, and dancing and cheering in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and all justifiably so. Hamas negotiators and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed to a ceasefire, the return of the 20 living hostages still held captive by Hamas and the release of at least 1,700 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The Israel Defense Forces will pull back to an agreed-upon line within Gaza, and Hamas will hold fire.

Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza after fifteen months of war, Qatari officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The full details of the deal are yet to be announced by the mediators. A draft of the agreement outlined that the first six-week stage will involve the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza strip and the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.