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ISRAEL

Gaza Part One: The Situation Hamas wages war through terror and propaganda, while Israel is blamed for crimes it did not commit—facts ignored as the world embraces a false narrative. By Thaddeus G. McCotter and Andrew Zack

https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/16/gaza-part-one-the-situation/

This is the first installment of a three-part series on the Gaza situation, political fallout, root causes, and real-world ramifications.

The movement among key members of the international community to recognize a Palestinian state must be seen in the broader context of the war between Israel and Hamas—beginning with an analysis of the facts on the ground, free from the deceits of propaganda.

First and foremost, Hamas is a radical Islamist terrorist organization that continues to hold both living hostages and the bodies of those they have already slain—a reality far too many in the feckless international community ignore.

Hamas is a radical Sunni Muslim organization that has repeatedly declared its intent not only to destroy the State of Israel but also to murder as many Jews as possible, regardless of nationality. As a confirmed proponent of Islamic jihadism, Hamas also seeks to recreate a second Caliphate, in which Islam would reign supreme over the entire world. Hamas, therefore, also seeks to subjugate Christians (dhimmitude) and will kill as many of them as is necessary to attain this aim. As the jihadist slogan goes, first the Saturday people (the Jews), then the Sunday people (the Christians).

A barbarous cog in the global jihad movement, Hamas has evidenced its rejection of Western values of democracy and human rights through murder, rape, and kidnapping in pursuit of power.

Hamas launched the war on October 7, 2023, when it invaded Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreign residents, and kidnapping 250 people. Hamas murdered its victims in incredibly barbaric ways, including burning families to death, beheading babies, and raping and mutilating women before slaughtering them. Hamas filmed their vile atrocities and broadcast them on public media so the world could witness their crimes and cruelty, and either cower or celebrate in the face of them.

The attacked and aggrieved nation, Israel, didn’t immediately counterattack. When it did, the Israel Defense Forces (“the IDF”) made an unprecedented attempt to protect Gaza’s citizens. Before attacking certain areas, the IDF called Gazans on their cell phones and dropped leaflets announcing where the attacks would take place and where the Gazans should go to avoid being caught in a war zone. While civilians have died, the civilian-to-soldier death ratio has been historically low. Expert military historians, including John Spencer, have hailed the IDF for its efforts to minimize civilian casualties.

The Importance Of Israel: Why All Free People Should Support The Jewish State A new hard-hitting Freedom Center pamphlet by Robert Spencer.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-importance-of-israel-why-all-free-people-should-support-the-jewish-state/

This new hard-hitting pamphlet by Robert Spencer is a brisk and readable summary of answers to some of the chief objections that are commonly made against Israel’s war effort, legitimacy, and very existence.

It makes the powerful case for why the U.S. should continue and strengthen its alliance with Israel, and why that alliance is beneficial to both countries.

This pamphlet is increasingly necessary as the public square continues to turn against Israel. The Importance Of Israel is an effective antidote to the anti-Israel venom of the establishment media, and a handy guide to enable you to answer the common reasons that leftists raise for why Americans should not support Israel.

Hamas Has Left Netanyahu with No Option but to Occupy Gaza by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21831/hamas-israel-occupy-gaza

Hamas’s terrorist leadership has demonstrated unequivocally it has no interest in agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

One of the main sticking points in the Qatar talks was Hamas’s insistence that it remains in control of Gaza, despite a number of Arab states issuing a joint declaration for the terrorist organisation to disband and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas’s terrorist leadership was encouraged to adopt this hard-line position after a succession of naive Western leaders announced their intention to recognise a Palestinian state at next month’s meeting of the UN Security Council, even though there is actually no such Palestinian state in existence.

The pitfalls of this completely unnecessary diplomatic grandstanding, which may well effectively cause the murder of the remaining 50 hostages who might still to be alive, were clearly evident when Hamas responded to Starmer’s pledge by publicly hailing it as a “victory.”

It is unclear how recognizing a terrorist state committed to obliterating its neighbour will bring about any kind of “peace.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, alluding to the novel Frankenstein, responded to Macron’s declaration: “Macron’s unilateral ‘declaration’ of a ‘Palestinian’ state didn’t say WHERE it would be. I can now exclusively disclose that France will offer the French Riviera & the new nation will be called ‘Franc-en-Stine.'”

Hamas’s intransigence has left Netanyahu with little option but to maintain military operations in Gaza until Israel has achieved its ultimate objective in the war — namely the complete destruction of the terrorist organisation’s military and political infrastructure in Gaza.

The international condemnation Israel has received after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plan to assume control of Gaza overlooks one critical fact. Netanyahu has no option other than to embark on this course of military action because Hamas’s terrorist leadership has demonstrated unequivocally it has no interest in agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

From the moment he returned to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump had made resolving the Gaza crisis one of his key foreign policy objectives. To this end, his negotiating team, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, engaged in lengthy and extensive discussions in the Gulf state of Qatar with the express intention of implementing a lasting ceasefire.

The futility of compassion for those who want to kill you Jonathan Tobin

https://www.jns.org/the-futility-of-compassion-for-those-who-want-to-kill-you/?utm_campaign=

Palestinians cheered the atrocities of Oct. 7, have been complicit in the fate of the hostages and support Israel’s destruction. Do Jews owe them aid?

As far as most American Jews are concerned, it’s probably the most Jewish thing any of the numerous organizations that represent them could do. UJA-Federation New York has announced the intended donation of $1 million to help Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip. This humanitarian gesture was widely applauded by many of its donors and community members.

Eric Goldstein, the group’s CEO, was careful to note that blame for the suffering of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza belongs to the Hamas terrorists who led the attacks on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, which many Palestinian civilians joined. And he echoed the frustration that friends of Israel feel about the way mainstream media coverage of the conflict generally omits that fact while instead seeking to put the onus on the Jewish state for the suffering caused by the ensuing war. He also refuted the false claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

A moral compass

Still, Goldstein acknowledged that although much of the world has “lost its moral compass” when it comes to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Jews shouldn’t also lose theirs.

That’s why the umbrella organization of Jewish philanthropies in greater New York—home to the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel—felt itself obliged to come to the aid of the people of Gaza who have been caught in the crossfire. The money will go to IsraAID—Israel’s largest nongovernmental humanitarian aid organization—to provide food, medicine and the installation of filtration systems to enable safe drinking water for displaced families in Gaza.

Helping people in need is in keeping with Jewish traditions that treat tzedakah—acts of justice and charity—as among the most important obligations and virtues to which Jews should aspire. According to Goldstein, the imperative is: “We must hold tight to what has always anchored the Jewish people: the belief that all human life is sacred.”

The media’s Ponzi scheme of lies Al Jazeera is the Islamists’ principal weapon in the war of information to destroy Israel and the west Melanie Phillips

http://melaniephillips.substack.com

In the Gaza war, journalism has become a veritable Ponzi scheme of lies. It uses terrorists posing as journalists to tell lies, it lies about the evidence that they were terrorists and it lies about those lying about the lies.

Israel said it had conducted a targeted killing of the al Jazeera ‘‘journalist” Anas al Sharif because he was also a Hamas commander. It produced screen shots identifying al Sharif as a leader in a Hamas rocket-launching squad and member of the Nukhba force, the stormtroopers who led the depraved attack on Israelis on October 7 2023. It showed that he had joined Hamas in 2013 and even revealed his military ID number.

It further emerged that al Sharif was named in a lawsuit by American victims of October 7 against al Jazeera for providing “substantial assistance” to Hamas. The lawsuit quotes messages al Sharif posted on Telegram on October 7 as the massacre of 1200 Israelis developed. He wrote in one message:

Nine hours later and the heroes are still roaming the country, killing and capturing… God, God, how great you are.

He wrote in another:

It is a jihad, a jihad of victory and martyrdom. Allahu akbar and thank God.

Before the attack, Sharif posted photos of himself smiling alongside Hamas leaders, including the eliminated October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.

None of that cut any ice with Western media outlets that vilified Israel for targeting a journalist. Instead, the media dismissed all this evidence with declarations that Israel’s claims couldn’t be verified and that it had provided “no proof”.

In other words there is simply no evidence, however overwhelming, that is allowed to challenge the foundational lie pumped out by the media echo-chamber that the Israelis are brutal killers mowing down the innocent for daring to resist.

So the media went into mourning for their slain champion of “truth”, presenting that view of al Sharif as unchallengeably correct while ignoring or rubbishing as an Israeli cover-up the evidence that he was a senior Hamas operative.

Israel, Protector of the West, Treacherously Undermined by France, UK and Canada by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21826/israel-protector-of-the-west-treacherously

The Druze, who are Arabs descended from Shia Islam, do not consider themselves Muslim. Therefore the other Arabs in Syria do not consider them Muslim either. For months “government forces” have been slaughtering them. Islamic terrorists appear to believe that they are obligated to slaughter anyone not Muslim:

Something appears wrong with this picture. Al-Sharaa promised Trump that he would protect Syria’s minorities; so far, he does seems to be doing everything but that (here, here and here) . The situation sems increasingly reminiscent of an old Soviet KGB recommendation to just keep telling them what they want to hear, then do anything you want.

In the latest of these opposition demonstrations, on July 21, dozens of protestors shouted “Hamas Out.” There is still strong reason to doubt, however, however, if Gazans would be more favorably inclined toward Israel if Hamas were gone.

Israel is already over-extended in defending virtually every minority in the area – while receiving nothing but opprobrium from most of the insensate media and many in Europe. They seem not to realize that they are the beneficiaries of Israel’s actions, even as they keep on giving away their continent to newcomers who seem intent on replacing Europe’s values with their own.

The question remains, however, if Al-Sharaa in Syria is not still just a terrorist, but in a suit and tie.

Israel has not only been protecting virtually every persecuted minority in the Middle East; it has, with the help of US President Donald J. Trump, also been protecting the West itself. Has anyone heard a breath of gratitude? On the contrary, many leaders in the West — most prominently President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, followed closely by Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway — have doubled down on the side of terrorists, this time Hamas. Macron’s announcement to recognize a fantasy “Palestinian state” not only demolished the negotiations that were reportedly nearing completion for a ceasefire and the return of the 50 remaining hostages; it also might cause the death by starvation, shooting or explosives possibly strapped to them, of the 20 hostages believed to be alive. In so doing, they are betraying not only the sole tiny country that is sacrificing its own people to protect them, but their own increasingly abused citizens as well.

The Power of Propaganda and the Silence of the West Moral inconsistency and global leaders. by Marziyeh Amirizadeh

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-power-of-propaganda-and-the-silence-of-the-west/

Recently, Hamas released horrific videos depicting two Israeli hostages, Evytar David and Rom Braslavski, in inhuman conditions. One particularly harrowing video shows David, visibly emaciated, being forced to dig what appears to be his own grave in a Hamas tunnel beneath Gaza. These images evoke painful historical parallels, reminiscent of the Holocaust and the brutal conditions of Nazi concentration camps. Jews were rounded up throughout Europe and forced to dig their own graves before they were executed along with their family, neighbors, and entire communities. Jewish concentration camp survivors were so emaciated that they were little more than skin and bones, and some left for dead who were actually still alive.

The release of these videos followed controversial announcements by world leaders including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, declaring their intention to recognize a Palestinian state. Many critics argue that this political move only emboldens Hamas and other terrorist organizations, offering them a dangerous form of legitimacy and encouragement to continue their atrocities. Certainly it does not give them reason to moderate, or release the 50 hostages still held in the hell of Gaza’s tunnels.

What’s particularly troubling is the moral inconsistency demonstrated by these purported global leaders. True leaders should act with wisdom, resolve and moral clarity. These “leaders” have instead displayed naivety that even an ordinary parent would avoid, rewarding bad behavior, thereby reinforcing it.

The Eurabian Push for a Hamas State By Janet Levy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/08/the_eurabian_push_for_a_hamas_state.html

The hostility toward Israel in Europe is matched only by the enthusiasm for establishing a Palestinian state controlled by Hamas. Leading this effort is France: President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 25 that his country would recognize a Palestinian state later this year. Knesset member Dan Illouz rightly opposed such a state as “a gift to the terrorists of October 7.”

Four days later, at a U.N. conference, France and Saudi Arabia led the New York Declaration, aiming for a “tangible, time-bound and irreversible” step toward the creation of Palestine. The 26-page document, a study in mendacious one-sidedness, is the latest sign of Europe’s anti-Israel sentiment, which has been prevalent since the founding of the Jewish state.

On the same day, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK too will officially recognize the Palestinian state in September. More than 90 countries, including those in the EU and the Arab League, and many U.N. member states, support the declaration.

Writer Michael Snyder warns that this is the “biggest international push for the establishment of a Palestinian state.” The new initiative, he says, could spread quietly, and by September, the recognition of Palestine might become a reality. Unless the world wakes up now to the danger of an openly jihadist and terrorist regime, it could be too late.

In the declaration, all references to Israel are accusatory. But Hamas is never once referred to as a terrorist group, though its charter calls for the killing of Jews everywhere and the establishment of a worldwide Islamic government through jihad. Nor is there any mention of Hamas using Gazans as human shields, firing rockets from schools, hospitals, and mosques, and stealing aid—some of which comes from Israel!—to sell it to Palestinians at exorbitant prices.

“Palestine” Invades the U.K. by Rafael Medoff

https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/383351/palestine-invades-the-u-k/

 A recent chance encounter in London’s Heathrow Airport offered a troubling glimpse of the extent to which anti-Israel hate is penetrating youth culture in the United Kingdom.

    The encounter in question was not with a person, but rather a newspaper—the latest issue of The Skinny. Distributed free to the more than 200,000 travelers who pass through Heathrow daily—and many others, elsewhere—The Skinny is the second largest magazine of culture and listings in the United Kingdom. Its format and radicalism—political as well as cultural—are reminiscent of The Village Voice.

    The anti-Israel trend in the UK music scene has been in the news in recent weeks. The rappers Kneecap and Bobby Vylan stirred controversy at England’s Glastonbury Festival by leading the crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF.” The new issue of The Skinny makes clear that those ugly appeals for violence were far from isolated phenomena in the UK.

    The August edition features a two-page spread about “Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine,” which is billed as “a four-day mini-festival of theatre, dance, comedy, food, storytelling, music and poetry created by Palestinians.” The reviewer emphasizes that “each piece [of the festival] is unapologetically political” and promotes “Palestinian resistance” against “Zionist occupation and genocide.” The festival’s approach of “art as politics” is urgently needed “in a moment where international conversations on Palestine are policed, sanctioned, [and] sanitized by mainstream institutions,”  the reviewer asserts.

UN Admits 95% of its Gaza Aid Trucks Were “Intercepted”Daniel Greenfield

https://www.danielgreenfield.org/

Over the past few weeks, the UN, the EU, the media and Hamas banded together to demand that aid deliveries shift back from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to the United Nations. The campaign played out with Hamas kidnapping, torturing and killing employees of the U.S. aid group, while the media spread false claims that Israel was using GHF distribution sites as ‘death traps’ for killing Gazans, and world leaders demanded that the UN be put back in charge of aid.

Back when the UN had been in charge it had faked its own famine by refusing to deliver food and letting it pile up instead. Since then the UN’s food aid has kept on piling up even while GHF, an American Christian aid group, has managed to deliver millions of meals to Gaza residents, despite being smeared by the media as “controversial” for feeding those whom the UN wouldn’t.

Whom was the UN actually delivering aid to back when it even bothered trying to deliver it?

The UNOPS ‘Mechanism for Gaza’ revealed that of the around 2,600 aid trucks entering Gaza, only 300 made it to their destination. 2,310 trucks or 88% of them were ‘intercepted’.

Much of the ‘aid’ being brought in by the UN and its allies, including the UN’s WFP, UNICEF, the International Red Cross, the International Medical Corps and the World Central Kitchen, whose founder Jose Andres, has been constantly attacking Israel in the media, was ‘intercepted’.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has been front and center in the media, crying for more money and denouncing Trump and Israel, only successfully delivered 1,864 pallets of aid since May while losing 29,673 pallets or 93% of it to “interceptions”.

The UN’s WFP recently claimed that it has run out of food stocks and needs $265 million for just the next 6 months to feed Gaza. Where did its food stocks go?

Certainly not to aid stations.