The Jerusalem Great Synagogue is one of the grandest synagogues in the world. On holidays and sabbaths, it typically has a magnificent choir which enhances prayer services. In July 2024, when Rosh Hodesh, the new month of Tamuz fell on Shabbat, the synagogue decided to have a special choir with prayers full of songs by a 50-person choir consisting of many young boys.
The Jerusalem Great Synagogue, July 2024
Shabbat Rosh Hodesh involves reading from two torah scrolls, rather than a single torah on a regular Sabbath. On this special sabbath, two men raised the torahs at the conclusion of the particular readings and sat holding the holy scrolls as Moshe Lion, the mayor of Jerusalem read the haftorah before a packed synagogue.
Before the torahs were returned to their places in the ark, the large choir came down from their podium and encircled the bima, the center of prayers in the heart of the synagogue. The two men holding the torahs rose, and the entire congregation with them, as the cantor and choir sang two special blessings, one for the government of Israel and one for the Israeli Defense Forces.
With the backdrop of the ongoing war, the choir used a variety of melodies in singing the two blessings, including Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, and Lu Yehi, a contemporary song of longing to arrive at the end of all wars.
For twenty minutes the choir sang the songs with the congregation’s participation. Many cried as both old and young thought about many family members who were serving in the armed forces to combat enemies in Gaza and Lebanon. Hundreds of people gathered in the centers of Israel, of Jerusalem, and of the Great Synagogue but hearts and minds were elsewhere.
A Wedding In The Jerusalem Forest
The next day a wedding was held in the Jerusalem forest. The sun was setting as the bride and groom took their places under the chuppah, the wedding canopy. Family and close friends gathered before them, watching the young couple sanctify their union.
The Jewish ritual of presenting a ring, reading the ketubah and reciting seven blessings were complete, but the happy couple was not ready to celebrate. First a friend took the microphone to recite a chapter of Psalms for the soldiers and families impacted in the current war. Everyone recited the lines responsively, and then all sang Im Eshkachech Yerushalyim, If I forget thee, Jerusalem.
The groom then crushed a glass beneath his feet, symbolizing the still unbuilt holy city of Jerusalem, before turning to hug his bride.
Groom ready to crush glass symbolizing the ongoing incompleteness of Jerusalem
Two men in a synagogue and a bride and groom under a canopy, stood at the center of attention, yet their focus was elsewhere. Thinking of young soldiers at the battlefront, hostages held in captivity and the unbuilt Temple, Jews turn their consciousness outward to the larger community beyond those present.
The focus of the Jewish gaze ultimately extends beyond line of sight.
The “Squad” of far-left American politicians pulled out all of the antisemitic dog whistles in their fight to defend the unpopular congressman Jamaal Bowman in the New York Democratic primary. In response to his resounding defeat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said “I think we need to have a real conversation about AIPAC,” the pro-Israel group supported by many Jews.
In truth, all the alt-left did was talk about AIPAC for the prior months and did so in the most vile and slanderous manner. As such, we must have a conversation about alt-left politicians’ repulsive antisemitism.
The smears were:
AIPAC is a bunch of White supremacist racist MAGA billionaires
AIPAC doesn’t want Black and Brown people to have positions of power
AIPAC supports genocide of Black and Brown people
The people behind AIPAC are operating in the shadows
AIPAC is buying off politicians and congress
AIPAC and backers are seeking to oppress minorities around the world
The Squad is operating to defend working class people from the AIPAC racist money machine
It’s a war of us versus them
This is repulsive and mimics Nazi propaganda against Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. These are carefully organized scripts to inflame a war against Jews in the United States and around the world.
White Supremacists and Racists
Bowman’s posts on X were replete with calling the backers of his opponent George Latimer, himself a progressive, as racists of the worst sort, who try to keep Black people down.
Comments included:
“White supremacists… targeting me, our first Black Representative with racist attacks & dog whistles… don’t want to see people like us in power.” [note that lower Westchester voted for Mondaire Jones, a Black gay progressive in 2020]
“Big-money groups like AIPAC don’t like seeing people like me in power.”
“AIPAC and their MAGA billionaires don’t want to see us in power. They don’t want to see Black and brown working class people rising up.”
“We’re fighting against AIPAC and their Republican billionaires… trying to buy NY-16… our communities are not for sale.”
Billionaires Buying Politicians
Bowman, AOC and Sen. Bernie Sanders made the fight about a handful of racist billionaires buying politicians, rather than discuss issues.
Comments included:
“AIPAC and their right-wing billionaires are trying to buy this district like they bought my opponent. They don’t want to see people in power.”
“AIPAC and their Republican billionaires are spending millions to try to buy our district… their money will never defeat the people.”
“My opponent sold out to AIPAC and their right-wing billionaires. They’re spending millions to try to buy our district.”
“He’s [Latimer] so bought out by AIPAC… pawns for special interests.”
“Fight back against AIPAC and right-wing billionaires.”
“AIPAC has already spent $6 million against us. Why? because we stand for peace and justice! MAGA Republicans are trying to buy NY-16… we decide the future of our district, not them.”
“Defeat MAGA billionaires trying to buy NY-16”
AOC wrote “Big money, from AIPAC to Wall Street have poured millions to buy this election.”
Bernie Sanders wrote “tell billionaires and their corporate PACs that no, they cannot buy our democracy.”
UAW wrote “The billionairess are coming for Jamaal Bowman because he stands up for the working class… they think they can buy off Congress.”
AIPAC Supports Genocide
Bowman and friends made clear that these wealthy racists are genocidal, coming for Black and Brown people in the U.S. and Israel.
Comments included:
“AIPAC’s attack campaign against us is breaking spending records every week… Our movement is scaring their pro-genocide, pro-Netanyahu, racist MAGA donors.”
“The Israeli government is committing a genocide and OUR taxpayer money is funding it. Why do we have billions to send to mass murder”
“This election is a working class educator… against a multimillionaire handpicked by MAGA to support genocide.”
“We won’t let AIPAC stop us from fighting for peace and justice.”
“Our struggles are all connected. The same evils harming our communities here are harming communities across the world.”
Comrade Rashida Tlaib shared “Palestinian liberation and Black liberation are interconnected. From Detroit to Cleveland to Gaza.”
AIPAC Is Coming After Black And Brown Communities
Bowman framed the primary race of two progressives, one Black who is extremist and anti-Israel, and the other White and pro-Israel, as an existential battle between peace-loving working class minorities against evil nefarious forces. It’s appalling and ridiculous as Latimer has decades of strong relationships and dozens of endorsements from Black and Brown politicians, and AIPAC is focused on Israel, not local race relations.
Comments included:
“AIPAC, a right-wing lobby… don’t care about us or our communities.”
“Big money doesn’t belong in our communities Reject AIPAC”
“Black and Brown communities have been left behind for too long. We don’t need more career politicians who only cater to their billionaire friends.”
Bowman retweeted “Thanks to funding from right-wing billionaires, AIPAC is targeting progressives of color”
The Working Families Party shared the article “No One Should Be Surprised a Black Politician Is the Canary in AIPAC’s Coal Mine”
Bowman added “The people are rising up against AIPAC and their republican billionaires. We won’t let them buy our communities in NY-16 or anywhere!”
Hiding In The Shadows
AOC made clear that these racist billionaires keeping minorities down are being funded by “dark money.”
Bowman retweeted AOC comments including:
“Dark money has spent the largest sum in history to unseat Jamaal Bowman… these lobbies don’t care about the Bronx and Westchester.”
“we rallied 1200 people in the Bronx to take on dark money”
“It’s time to fight back against AIPAC and their megadonors.”
The Alt-Left Against AIPAC
The far-left wing demonized a pro-Israel group as the epitome of evil: racist White supremacists who support genocide against minorities in the U.S. and Israel and who don’t care about anyone. They are agents who do not belong in the district or to have a voice in American politics.
Rep. Cori Bush said that these pro-Israel people “meddle in our Democratic elections,” meaning that they do not belong.
As such, they all ran under a banner of RejectAIPAC; to rally against a bipartisan organization that supports the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. To demonize the only Jewish state. To call anyone involved in pro-Israel activities pro-genocidal maniacs who should be cast from society. To strip the beleaguered Jewish State of all defenses.
No lobbying group is tarnished in such fashion by politicians. We don’t call Americans who are involved with the National Rifle Association or Planned Parenthood as “genocide supporters.” Elected officials do not slam teacher’s unions as “dark money” that “meddle” in the political process.
But the far-left has called open season on Jews loudly and repeatedly. It’s us versus them.
And it’s a completely manufactured lie. A vicious antisemitic campaign attempting to vilify Jews and push them from the public square.
We need to have a conversation about the vile antisemitism that is rife at woke colleges and among far-left politicians.
The single largest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict is the belief among those Arabs that they have a right to move into towns and houses where grandparents lived many decades ago. They call it a “right of return” and state that it is an individual right laid out in international law.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
As it relates to the first point, Palestine either was or was not a country before Israel declared itself a state in May 1948. If it was not a country, the UDHR right is irrelevant as it specifically relates only to countries. If it was a state, than the Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank are already part of such state and have no right to move based on the first clause. Their right to move to Israel under the second clause of moving “within the borders of each state” would mean negating the very existence of Israel, a member state of the United Nations, which would undermine the institution upon which the clause exists (rendering such notion impossible).
If Palestine were considered a state pre-Israel, then the descendants of refugees (DORs) in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan could relocate to Gaza or the West Bank (Palestine), but not to Israel.
So under broad international law, there is no right of return for Palestinian Arabs to Israel regardless of whether one thinks Palestine was a country in 1947.
Palestinian Arabs and their supporters therefore try to use a specific clause within a particular UN General Assembly resolution. UNGA Resolution 194, Article 11 states “Resolves that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
This resolution has multiple legal issues regarding applicability.
UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, but advisory at the most fundamental. Second, Resolution 194 includes many items including Articles 7 and 8 which places holy places – including those in Nazareth and Jerusalem – under UN control, which neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority desire. One cannot cherry-pick specific items which one side prefers to make a case; the entirety of that resolution is passed its expiration date.
Significantly, the clause itself demands that those refugees desiring to return to “homes” – which may or may not exist anymore – must live in peace with their neighbors. The many wars and pogroms by Palestinian Arabs, including their overwhelming support for Hamas and the October 7 massacre, show them to reject basic coexistence with Jewish neighbors.
Yet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres makes a mockery of reality and destroys a pathway to peace when he says the opposite. He often states “the need for tangible progress towards a two-State solution based on 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States, in line with UN resolutions and international law.” That clause makes Palestinian Arabs think that millions of Arabs will get to move to Tel Aviv and Haifa. Their frustration of not moving there leads to frustration and causes massacres as seen on October 7.
The United Nations must make clear that there is no “right of return” for any Palestinian Arab to Israel, full stop. The failure to do so causes bloodshed and suffering.
In a shocking display of partisanship for a terrorist organization over a member state, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres posted publicly that he is concerned about Hezbollah but not Israel.
On June 21, 2024, Guterres posted on X that “the people of the region & the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.” In other words, the world cannot allow a member state of the United Nations defend itself from Islamic radicals who are launching attacks. Specifically, the Jewish State must not be allowed to prosecute defensive wars that it never wanted, against foes dedicated to its destruction.
Guterres has shown himself to be completely unfit for the office he holds. The global agency should immediately fire him from office and put in place a person who prioritizes humanity over barbarism, and liberal nation states over jihadi terrorist groups.
In an environment of politicians and political organizations endorsing people running for office, it is noteworthy to see a grassroots-led initiative push for an organization to rescind an existing endorsement.
In one of the most-watched primaries in the country, residents of New York State’s 16th Congressional District have been writing to Planned Parenthood to rescind its endorsement of Rep. Jamaal Bowman. The impetus for people in the liberal district to call the women’s rights organization was the recently surfaced video of Bowman yelling at a crowd on the streets of White Plains that the October 7 rape of Jewish women in Israel was a “lie” and “propaganda.”
“I have been giving to Planned Parenthood for forty years. I send them money monthly, and I cannot believe that they would endorse a rape denier,” said Jackie Laub, a retired medical technician who lives in White Plains. “Do the leaders of the organization hate Jews and Israel so much that they would still endorse him?”
Rabbi Scott Weiner of New Rochelle used to be a board member of Planned Parenthood. He submitted the petition to the organization’s CEO and Chair last week, signed by six hundred people in just one week, the vast majority of whom are residents of the district. “I am deeply shocked,” Rabbi Weiner said. “I care deeply about the organization, and for it to have its brand tarnished by endorsing Bowman will likely cost them important donors.”
The video of Bowman denying the sexual assault of women in Israel came out in late March, even though it was filmed at a pro-Palestinian rally in November. When people began to question and criticize Bowman about his rape comments, he refused to discuss it, according to Politico.
Eventually, Bowman got around to condemning the sexual violence committed by Hamas but many of his constituents remain deeply troubled by his initial instinct to not believe women who are raped if they are Jewish.
Diane Katz, who raised her four children in the district said “I wrote to Planned Parenthood as soon as I learned that they had endorsed Bowman. The organization’s response was abysmal. How can they endorse someone who clearly denied the extremely well-documented evidence and testimony of Israeli women who were raped and sexually mutilated? Jewish women around the United States have been leaders in the pro-choice and reproductive rights movement for decades and this is a slap in the face to our community.” She added her name to the petition to not feel so alone and abused by the organization’s tepid response to her letter.
“They are endorsing a rape denier. Can you imagine that?” Katz asked. “A woman’s rights organization is endorsing a rape denier.”
Others had a similar road to signing the petition.
Dr. Rebecca Amaru of White Plains shared her initial email with Planned Parenthood. It led with “I write as a resident of NY-16, a woman, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist, an abortion provider, a proud activist on behalf of abortion access and rights, and a Jew.” She added “Jamaal Bowman does NOT stand for the values that Planned Parenthood represents. Mr. Bowman’s statements after October 7, 2023, included denials of the sexual violence propagated by Hamas terrorists against countless women in Israel. The denials by some progressive politicians of the well-documented crimes against women on October 7 are a stain on the Democratic Party. No matter what Planned Parenthood believes about the war in Gaza, you MUST come down on the side of women victimized by rape as weapon of war.”
After not getting a response from Planned Parenthood, she began to forward the petition to friends.
“It is not as though [Westchester County Executive] George Latimer is not pro-women. He is every bit as pro-choice as Bowman. Minus the rape denial,” added Amaru.
Dr. Sandra Weinstein of New Rochelle, a mother of three girls, was glad that the petition was being circulated. “Candidly, I wasn’t going to vote for Bowman anyway, so this has nothing to do with the race. This is about the normalization of rape denial if the victims are Jewish.”
The petition does not discuss the primary race and acknowledges Bowman’s stance on abortions. Specifically, the petition states that it is “deeply distressing to see Planned Parenthood continue to endorse Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16). While he has been a supporter of female reproductive rights, he has vocally denied the mass rape of Israeli women before a chanting crowd on the streets of his district. Women’s bodily autonomy is not limited to a right to abortion. It must include protections from sexual abuse and assault. Rep. Bowman’s disgraceful ridicule of raped women is beyond the pale and cannot be normalized as acceptable, which Planned Parenthood’s endorsement does.”
One Email sent by someone in District 16 to Planned Parenthood, and a QR Code which was used to get people to sign the petition
Dr. Tali Lando of White Plains was very direct, saying “I’m disgusted. How can my congressperson’s initial reaction not only be to mock the rape of Jewish women, but to incite a crowd that Jewish rape victims are liars? What kind of country are we in?” She continued that the entire premise of Planned Parenthood endorsing Bowman is a contradiction of being for abortion rights. “Planned Parenthood should be ashamed of itself. It cannot claim to be the leading advocate of women’s bodily autonomy while simultaneously aligning itself with a rape denier.”
Rabbi Weiner added that “this is not just a Jewish issue. When a leading national woman’s rights organization like Planned Parenthood affixes its name to person who denigrates the victims of sexual assault to a cheering crowd, every person is at risk.”
The group’s action is already costing them one donor. “After forty years, I am no longer giving to them. They’ve lost me,” said Laub.
Planned Parenthood has still not responded to the petition other than acknowledging that it was received on June 10.
In yet another bit of lying to its readership to convey an entirely fictitious narrative, The New York Times wrote an article on its front page that claimed that Gazans hate the ruling government of Hamas, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization.
It’s completely untrue as shown over and again in polls, including one released this week.
New York Times front page on June 16, 2024 print edition
The article in the print version was titled “Gazans Voice Their Distress Under Hamas.” The article claimed that “support among Gazans [for Hamas] has been low for some time.” It added that “the group and its leaders have remained broadly unpopular in the enclave. More Gazans have even been willing to speak out against Hamas,” and that the people “held Hamas responsible” for their miserable condition.
The Times ran this tale in a front page Sunday paper interviewing about ten people.
Out of a territory of 2.2 million.
The reality is that there is a credible Palestinian organization which polls the local population every three months and has done so for decades. It interviewed roughly 750 people in both Gaza and the West Bank at the end of May. It is called the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research (PCPSR) and it released its latest findings on June 12, just days before the Times piece.
The Times referenced the article but ignored its findings in favor of presenting its fake narrative.
The PCPSR poll clearly shows that a MAJORITY of 64% of Gazans supporting Hamas. This is a STEADY RISE from December 2023 when a small majority of 52% supported the government launching and carrying out a war against Israel.
The poll also showed increasing support among Gazans for Iran since the Islamic Republic launched missiles against Israel.
This isn’t news. Gazans have always supported killing Jewish civilians in Israel according to polls going back to 2000.
Decades of PCPSR polls consistently show Gazans supporting terrorist attacks inside of Israel against Jewish civilians
Which begs why The Times reported this fake news. Some things come to mind:
It knows / believes that its readership does not check any of its sources
It wanted to convey that its reporters went into Gaza for a handful of interviews
It wanted to tell a specific narrative that the people of Gaza are distinct from its leaders and army, painting them as twice-over victims of Hamas and the Israeli army
The Times concluded the cover story with precisely that last point: “While Hamas and even the Israeli hostages were in the underground tunnels, he said, Gazans were above ground with no protection from Israeli and U.S.-made bombs dropped over their heads every day. That is an oft-heard complaint by Hamas’s critics in Gaza.“There is uncontrolled anger against Hamas,” he said. “It threw the Palestinian people into the bottom of the well.”
Notice how The Times inserted “U.S.-made bombs” into the talk-track, a deliberate manipulation to add the United States to the cause of misery of every-day Gazans.
The Times portrayal is #FakeNews. The majority of Gazans support the October 7 massacre, support Hamas, support Iran, support the goal of destroying the Jewish State and support killing Israeli civilians.
Alas, we live in a world where facts are gaining irrelevancy. Social media has allowed societies to be overwhelmed by feelings and narratives. A single emotional interview – especially one doctored – carries more weight than reams of data and analysis.
The Israeli war against Gaza is a just war by any measure of analysis, yet is deeply vulnerable to ongoing support in a culture in which emotions and systemic antisemitism prevail.
The Times is giving red meat to that highly-charged, angry anti-Zionist mob as a near-term business matter and to influence American policy, even as it sacrifices the long-term credibility of its institution and the physical well being of American Jewry.
Roughly 3,500 Palestinians Arabs from Gaza stormed into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023. They went into civilian homes and killed children in front of their parents as well as parents before their children. They burned families alive. Roughly 1,200 Israeli civilians and hundred of security personnel were murdered.
Imagine that the Israeli army acted quickly.
Imagine that Israeli soldiers and drones quickly encircled the Palestinian terrorists and wiped all of them out. Imagine that the Israelis killed 3,500 Palestinians after the terrorists killed only 100 people in Israel, a 35-to-1 ratio.
Would the world have condemned Israel for the “disproportionate” slaughter of Palestinians? Would extremist American politicians like Jamaal Bowman have gone onto the streets of his district to rile up a crowd that Israelis have been brutalizing Palestinians “for 75 years [since the founding of Israel]” and that Israel “values certain lives over others“? Would protests on college campuses have become hotbeds of antisemitism calling to “Globalize the intifada [to kill Zionists everywhere]?”
Gazans started and are still engaged in a war intended to destroy the Jewish State and annihilate Jews. The fact that Palestinians are dying in much greater numbers than Israelis does not change the basic facts that Gazans are engaged in a genocidal war while Israel is fighting a defensive war.
On Saturday June 8, 2024, Israeli security forces rescued four of the Israeli hostages who were kidnapped to Gaza from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. In the action to bring everyone back to Israel, one of the Israeli vehicles got stuck and was surrounded by Palestinian terrorists. Israel called in the Air Force to provide protection and scores of Palestinians were reportedly killed.
Pro-Israel media portrayed the rescue operation as an enormous success. Israelis celebrated on the streets at the return of the seized peaceful party-goers who were held illegally in captivity for eight months by Gazans.
NY Post cover pageWall Street Journal cover page
The anti-Israel media lambasted the operation as it killed many Palestinians. It mocked the rescue as being inhumane because of the toll on Palestinians who were part of the Hamas infrastructure imprisoning the Israelis.
Pundits went on to speculate that Hamas would now likely move hostages from apartments to the underground tunnel network and embed them with Palestinian soldiers.
That is inverted logic.
Hamas has no possibility of militarily defeating Israel, a fact made abundantly clear over the past eight months. The only war Hamas is attempting to win is one of public opinion, which it tries to do by getting the woke anti-Israel media to see Israel as mercilessly killing civilians – ideally as many women and children as possible. Hamas watches the news, and celebrates the latest victory that so much of the media has not condemned it for keeping hostages in the heart of a residential neighborhood.
It will make the next attempt even more heinous.
After the daring rescue operation, Hamas is likely to move remaining hostages into nurseries, to force Israel to kill as many Arab infants as possible, should the Jewish State attempt another rescue. It would be a huge victory for Hamas, as it offers infant martyrs for the cameras.
The Israeli government and army were shocked as over 1,000 members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad invaded Israel and butchered babies, women, men and the elderly. They were totally unprepared for the abduction of 250 people to Gaza.
But the world didn’t voice shock that thousands of Palestinian Arab civilians from Gaza participated in the atrocities. The world remained silent.
The Israeli army has killed and captured thousands of Palestinian terrorists since October 7. The intelligence gathered from the Gazan soldiers provided information to launch rescue operations to free Israeli hostages.
On June 8, four Israelis were rescued from an apartment complex in the United Nations run-Nuseirat “refugee” camp in central Gaza. The camp is right next to the Izz ad Deen al-Qassam Mosque, named for a Syrian terrorist who hunted the British and Jews in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s.
The four Israelis included a 26-year old woman, held hostage in an apartment for eight months. The local Gazans said and did nothing the entire time but is not flagged in the media.
Freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani reunited with her father
It is being reported that the hostages were forced to read the Quran and learn Islamic teachings. Such activity evidences the religious nature of the war from Gaza is not a battle over land.
The Islamist war is not being discussed in the mainstream media.
It is also being reported that one of the people who kept the hostages, or lived next door, was Abdallah Aljamal, an employee of Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based media company aligned with Hamas, or more likely, Palestine Chronicle, another media outfit. Whether Aljamal was the guard overseeing the hostages or not, a journalist would certainly have known about hostages next door. And he said nothing, showcasing his allegiance to the terrorists over journalism.
The Gaza journalists complicit with terrorism is not being discussed in the mainstream media.
Polls of Gazans have long shown that they support Hamas and the goal of killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel. Recent polls show a majority of Gazans support the October 7 attack. They view the abduction of civilians as part of a war effort which they support and from which they will benefit.
And the world continues to say nothing about the desire of Gazans who want to see Jews murdered.
Many people had assumed that the hostages were being kept by the terrorist groups in underground tunnels with Gazans kept as human shields for the underground terrorist infrastructure. However, the recent rescue operation shows that assumption to be incorrect: the people of Gaza are keeping Jews as hostages in their homes and in their neighborhoods, under the watch of Hamas and the United Nations.
The Arabs of Gaza are not human shields for Hamas; they are an integral part of the infrastructure of antisemitic terror.
Nicholas Kristof is an opinion columnist for The New York Times. According to the paper, his beat is “Human rights, women’s rights, health, global affairs.”
Somehow, he is unable to comprehend blatant antisemitism.
In an opinion article called “Thinking Through The Moral Tangle in Gaza,” Kristof made himself sound like a well-read balanced observer of the conflict, seeing good and bad in both Palestinian Arabs and Israelis. He ticked through twenty points which he thought could lead to peace and a two-state solution and an end to the conflict.
Instead, he showed he lacks basic understanding of the situation to untangle the situation in Gaza.
In his fifth point he wrote “Hamas is an oppressive, misogynistic and homophobic organization whose misrule has hurt Palestinians and Israelis alike.” What an abysmal portrayal of the organization.
Yes, Hamas is oppressive, homophobic and misogynistic, but that doesn’t touch upon the crux of the conflict and the ongoing war. Hamas is an antisemitic genocidal group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State. It makes the point clearly in its foundational charter and in remarks by its leadership repeatedly.
How can Kristof talk about the situation in Gaza without clearly articulating that Hamas is built upon Jew hatred? Does he think that the “moral tangle in Gaza” is simply because Gaza leads the region in honor killings of women and beheads gay people?
Kristof places a red herring before readers in stating that Hamas is bad for Palestinians. The fact is that Hamas is extremely popular among Palestinian Arabs and those in Gaza in particular. A majority of Gazans support the Hamas massacre of 1,200 civilians and another 400 security personnel in Israel. Roughly two-thirds of Gazans have been in favor of slaughtering Jewish civilians inside of Israel since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007.
The moral failure of the NY Times did not start on October 7, but is increasingly painful to stomach since that date. The disgraceful articles and opinions continue to bury the rampant antisemitism in Hamas and among Gazans, as well as in the United States which emanates from jihadists and socialists.