RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21777/taybeh-church

There is no evidence… that Jews were behind the alleged arson.

[US Ambassador to Israel Mike] Huckabee should be commended for understanding that the Palestinians had lied to him when they claimed that Jews were behind the arson.

“In recent days, a despicable and false blood libel has been raging around the world against the settlements, reminiscent of dark periods in Europe, and it has so far managed to deceive quite a few lovers of Israel in the US… No ‘nationalist crime’ event by Jews was carried out, no church was set on fire, and no cemetery was desecrated. Exactly the opposite—Christian Arabs from the village of Taybeh set fire to open areas four times in one week to prevent Jews from grazing there.” — Elisha Yered, a Jewish father of three living in the West Bank, X, July 21, 2025.

“Throughout the entire event, no damage was caused in any way to the church or the cemetery, and they certainly weren’t ‘completely set ablaze’ or ‘suffered heavy damage’—thanks in part to the residents who fought the fire with their bare hands. This is a fact, not an interpretation.” — Elisha Yered, X, July 21, 2025.

“I have my Masters in archeology. I remember it’s a Byzantine church. Let’s go see how one burns down an ancient church made of stone. So, we’re walking in. I don’t see any signs of a fire. I don’t see a church burned down…. And even on the outskirts or the outer walls there are no signs of fire. I can’t find any. So, it doesn’t look like the church has been burned down… So who has the interest to display this bonfire as the settlers burning down the church?” — Eliana Passentin, tour guide and archeologist, X, July 21, 2025.

“Contrary to the widely reported accusations, TPS-IL found evidence of firefighting efforts by local Jewish residents and raised serious doubts about the fire’s origin – casting a shadow over the political motivations behind the allegation made by a promising Christian leader in the Holy land.” — The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL), July 20, 2025.

However, [Huckabee], like many in the media and the international community, does not appear to be familiar with the Palestinians’ long-time practice of spreading lies and fabrications with the purpose of vilifying Israel and demonizing Jews.

Last week, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, where he was told by local leaders that Jewish settlers had burned down the ancient Church of Saint George. There is no evidence, however, that Jews were behind the alleged arson. In fact, Jews living near the village actually helped extinguish a fire that was lit by Palestinians to prevent Jewish shepherds from grazing their cattle.

https://www.jns.org/french-court-orders-release-of-terrorist-behind-murder-of-israeli-us-diplomats/

Israel, through its embassy in Paris, expressed its “regret” over the decision of a French appeals court on Thursday to release Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 74, who served 40 years of a life sentence for his role in the murder of Israeli and American diplomats in 1982.

Abdallah is a “terrorist responsible for the murders of the Israeli diplomat Yaacov Barsiman-Tov, killed in front of his wife and daughter, and the American diplomat Charles Ray. Such terrorists, enemies of the free world, should spend their lives in prison,” the embassy said.

The Paris Appeals Court agreed to release Abdallah on July 25, arguing that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts,” Reuters reported.

The decision upholds an earlier one from Nov. 15, 2024, by a French court, which ordered Abdallah to be released on Dec. 6 of last year. That ruling was suspended when the prosecution appealed, Le Monde reported.

The United States and France’s general prosecutor opposed Abdallah’s release. Although he had been eligible for parole since 1999, all his past applications had been turned down, except in 2013, when he was granted release if he left France. Then-Interior Minister Manuel Valls refused to enforce the order and Abdallah remained behind bars, Le Monde reported.

Abdallah, former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group, was detained in 1984 and convicted in 1987 for complicity in the murder of the aforementioned U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ray and Israeli diplomat Barsiman-Tov. Both men were 43.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/arab-clan-leader-in-gaza-declares-open-war-on-hamas/

Yasser Abu Shabab is the leader of one of the largest clans in Gaza, and is fighting against Hamas. More on him can be found here: “‘No stopping a civil war against Hamas,’ Gaza militia chief Abu Shabab tells KAN,” Jerusalem Post, July 7, 2025:

Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of the allegedly Israel-backed, anti-Hamas Popular Forces group, revealed to Israeli public broadcaster KAN on Sunday that his militia is actively working against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, particularly operating in the Rafah area.

“There is no stopping a civil war against Hamas,” Abu Shabab said in the interview.

He told KAN that those who comprise his militia do not belong to any political or organizational ideology. However, Abu Shabab told Army Radio in an interview last month that he denied working with Israel and confirmed his group’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority. In that interview, he said that he wouldn’t rule out cooperating with the IDF on issues such as humanitarian aid distribution in the future….

Abu Shabab may deny working with Israel, but he is believed to have accepted weapons from the IDF; for obvious reasons, he keeps quiet about that. And he knows that his forces, and the IDF, share a common goal: to fight against and destroy Hamas. He has also said that he could see his group cooperating with the IDF on the distribution of humanitarian aid and similar issues, no doubt including the rebuilding of hospitals and schools. He claims to be open to people of all ideologies — except for Hamas, which is the Gazan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He also said that he has a relationship to the Palestinian Authority, which is Hamas’ bitter enemy, but offered no details.

He’s blaming Hamas, not Israel, for the Gaza War, and the misery that the war that Hamas started on October 7, 2023 has brought to so many people in Gaza. The “aggression” he deplores is that of Hamas, not the IDF. It’s a remarkable statement from a Palestinian leader in Gaza.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21759/scam-hamas-political-party

Abbas cannot have forgotten the atrocities Hamas committed against his men during the 2007 coup. Some of his loyalists were dragged to the streets and lynched, while others were thrown from the high floors of tall buildings.

In addition to the 2007 coup, Hamas, a few years later, was caught planning a second coup to try to take over the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.

The calls for Hamas to “join political action” actually aim to legitimize the terror group and present its leaders as a bunch of politicians seeking seats in parliament and jobs in government, when the reality is anything but that.

The international community, including the Trump administration, must not fall for this scam. Hamas was not established to serve as a “political party.” Rather, the terror group was established with the main objective of murdering Jews through Jihad (holy war) and replacing Israel with an Islamist terror state.

Instead of inviting Hamas to engage in political action, Abbas and other Palestinian leaders… should have outlawed Hamas a long time ago. That would send a message to all Palestinians that there is no room for genocidal Jihadist groups in Palestinian society. Apparently, Abbas and Rajoub’s desire to destroy Israel is even stronger than their decades-long hatred of Hamas.

Destroying Hamas’s military capabilities is not enough. The group must also cease to exist as a “political” entity. The only politics Hamas is interested in is Jihad, destruction and death.

According to reports in some media outlets, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the Iran-backed Hamas terror group to “surrender its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.”

Abbas was quoted as saying: “Hamas will not rule the Gaza Strip.” His comment came long after the current war, which began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas terrorists and “ordinary” Palestinians invaded Israel, and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and wounded thousands. Another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 50 – alive and dead – are still held captive.