By: David Isaac – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

The Islamist group’s about-face is in part driven by fear of destruction as the IDF closes in, says one expert on the Arab world.

Hamas on Sunday released a statement denying its members committed atrocities on Oct. 7.

The denial is a complete reversal for the terrorist group and a total disavowal of its own footage, after it supplied GoPro cameras to its operatives so that they could capture for posterity their horrific deeds on that day.

“Avoiding harm to civilians, especially children, women and elderly people, is a religious and moral commitment by all the Al-Qassam Brigades’ fighters,” Hamas stated in the 16-page document, claiming it only targeted Israeli military sites. (The Al-Qassam Brigades is Hamas’s so-called military wing.)

“We reiterate that the Palestinian resistance was fully disciplined and committed to the Islamic values during the operation and that the Palestinian fighters only targeted the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people,” it added, saying that its members were “keen to avoid harming civilians” and that any such targeting was by accident.

The claim is astonishing given the hours of footage taken by the organization’s members in which they’re seen shooting innocent Israelis throughout Oct. 7.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/hamas-denies-it-slaughtered-civilians-on-oct-7/

However, UNRWA officials sounded the alarm on the presence of tunnels under U.N. facilities twice in 2017, and again in 2021 and 2022.

By: Mark Wagenheim, Jewish News Syndicate (reprinted by United with Israel; unitedwithisrael.com)

Despite the presence of a Hamas terror tunnel system in the Gaza Strip now thought to be larger in scale than the London Underground, the United Nations insists it had no idea the tunnels were being built.

Asked on Wednesday whether, given the United Nations’ sizable presence in Gaza via a variety of agencies, there had been any indication to the global body that tunnels were being constructed underground, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “No is clearly the answer for that.”

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that “it seems to me that all this infrastructure was built in a highly secretive way.”

However, officials from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) sounded the alarm on the presence of tunnels under U.N. facilities twice in 2017, and again in 2021 and 2022.

UNRWA alone has 13,000 employees in over 300 facilities across Gaza. At least a dozen other U.N. agencies operate in Gaza. It has been well documented that many U.N. employees in Gaza have professional and personal ties to Hamas.

Still, Dujarric insisted that the United Nations was unaware of the sophisticated labyrinth of tunnels being dug and fortified throughout Gaza.

“I mean, just to see it as an observer, to think that the U.N. had any understanding of what was…any information about those operations, I think, is: No is clearly the answer for that,” he said.

cont’d…

https://unitedwithisrael.org/un-denies-knowledge-of-hamas-tunnels-despite-gaza-presence/

Giving the enemy a platform for its propaganda.

The New York Times wants you to weep for the people of Gaza, and for what Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, which Gazans cheered in large numbers, has brought upon them. In service of that goal, on Christmas Eve the Paper of Record ran a weepy piece by a prominent Gazan, someone who has witnessed the Israeli incursion firsthand. Did the Times give this plumb editorial space to a “moderate” Gazan, a known foe of the Hamas regime, one of those “innocent Palestinians” who have nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with Hamas? Uh, not quite.

“I Am Gaza City’s Mayor. Our Lives and Culture Are in Rubble,” was written by Yahya R. Sarraj and published in the Times on Sunday. The Times identifies the author in terms that make him sound like an airy, inoffensive intellectual: “Dr. Sarraj is the mayor of Gaza City and a former rector of the University College of Applied Sciences there. He wrote from Gaza City.”

Yahya R. Sarraj, you see, is no terrorist, he’s a mild-mannered professor. But what the Times doesn’t bother to remind its hapless readers about is the fact that Hamas controls Gaza, and no one can hold the position of being mayor of the largest city in the Gaza Strip without being either an active Hamas member or entirely sympathetic with the terror group’s outlook and goals. Sarraj even alludes to this matter-of-factly in his piece, writing: “One of my major goals after the Hamas administration appointed me mayor in 2019 was to improve the city’s seafront and foster the opening of small businesses along it to create jobs.”

cont’d…

300 Christian students march to the U.S. Capitol to pray for the safe return of the Israeli hostages.

By: Israel National News; israelnationalnews.com

Around 300 Christian students marched towards the U.S. Capitol on January 7, wearing shirts that read: “Christians Stand With Israel.” They held signs with pictures of Israeli hostages and prayed together for their safe return.

“We are here in our nation’s capital to demonstrate that there are young Christians in America who stand with Israel and the Jewish community,” CEO of Passages Scott Phillips said. “We will always equip our thousands of alumni to stand against the evils of antisemitism and to build lasting bridges of friendship with Israel.”

The march took place after a weekend of Israel engagement for the students, when Passages alumni, partners and staff, and students whose winter trips to Israel were canceled due to the Israel-Hamas war gathered for Israel engagement programs.

Because many young people couldn’t travel to Israel this winter, Passages brought Israel to them through an educational experience in Washington, D.C. in which young Christians were equipped as advocates for their faith and for Israel and the Jewish community.

In a session about the connection between the Christian faith and advocacy for Israel and the Jewish people, Vice President of Marketing and emcee of the conference Mattanah DeWitt said: “The definition of what’s right came from God through the Jewish people. God promised Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless all the nations of the world through his family. And God promises us today, that those who bless the descendants of Abraham will also be blessed.”

cont’d…

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/383249

By: Noam Dvir – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il

An interview with three who left family and friends behind to defend the Jewish state.

Some 100 young Jewish men and women from around the world have decided to make Aliyah and enlist in the IDF as Israel wages war against the Hamas terrorist organization.

In a month they will put on their uniforms. Meanwhile, they are completing a preparatory course run by the Defense Ministry’s Defense and Society Department. The course is taking place at an immigrant absorption center in Karmiel, in the Galilee—an area where strikes by the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror group are a daily occurrence and the threat of a major confrontation looms.

During the four-week program, the participants will prepare physically and mentally for their service, study Hebrew and get to know Israeli society.

“About 100 Jewish youngsters from the Diaspora chose to leave their families, friends and work to come to Israel and volunteer for the IDF,” Udi Dror, head of recruitment at the Defense and Society Department, said. “They do this at a time of war to take part in the defense of Israel. This is not taken for granted. We support them upon their arrival in Israel and will continue to do so throughout their entire military service.”

cont’d…

By: Jonathan Feldstein – Israel 365 News; israel365news.com

Reports are circulating in Israel of high-level talks involving negotiations to release more of the hostages brutally kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and held captive in Gaza since. Reports of the hostages’ conditions from the 100+ who have been released are horrifying. They have suffered physical and psychological torture, and starvation, were held in underground cages in complete darkness, and suffered violent sexual assaults including gang-raping women. Speculation is that many are dead, as some of the hostages’ bodies have been found, littered across Gaza as if trash rather than human beings. 

When Israel launched its military operation, it had two goals: to eradicate Hamas and remove it and its leaders from any ability to ever control Gaza and its population or threaten Israel, and to free ALL the hostages. Over a week last month, Israelis were glued to the TV every night as Hamas paraded out more hostages, mostly women and children, under the voyeurism of the world media. But some 130 hostages remain in captivity: Arab and Jewish Israelis, and non-Jews of other nationalities. Still, many of the hostages are women and children, one of whom is 10 months old, doesn’t even know his name, and has spent nearly a third of his life in captivity. 

While Israelis celebrated the return of all the hostages, we were impacted by the psychological warfare that Hamas inflicted. Manipulating the hostages until the last moment, armed and masked terrorists “escorted” the hostages, instructing them to wave for the camera. 

The terrorists handed off the hostages to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as if batons in a relay race, a scene rehearsed night after night. Israelis who watched the spectacle understood that Hamas was trying to appear humanitarian and that the Red Cross was inept, playing the role of useful idiot or complicit partner to Hamas’ evil. They did nothing until that point to see or assess the well-being of all the hostages, not providing needed medical care, or anything else that is not only their mandate but their responsibility.

cont’d…

https://www.israel365news.com/381003/the-shame-of-the-red-cross/

By: Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

“Has she said anything about rape and sexual violence being used against the Israeli women as a tool of war,” asked journalist Megyn Kelly.

The 2023 Time magazine “Person of the Year,” Taylor Swift, attended a comedy event earlier this month that benefited an anti-Israel nonprofit.

Proceeds from a Dec. 8 performance by stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef went to American Near East Refugee Aid, which NGO Monitor calls “biased” and “anti-Israeli.”

“Its publications erase the context of terrorism and promote the Palestinian narrative while falsely claiming to work with ‘all people living in impoverished communities,’” according to the watchdog group. “Such activity is inconsistent with ANERA’s proclaimed objectives.”

Swift attended the benefit with fellow pop music star Selena Gomez. Model and actress Cara Delevingne, actress Anya Taylor-Joy, and actress and singer Zoë Kravitz were also present.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/mum-on-hamas-attacks-on-jewish-women-taylor-swift-attends-anti-israel-benefit/

After Israeli forces eliminated a Hamas cell in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaia, they located a tunnel shaft inside of a classroom, the IDF said.

By: Sam Halpern – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Israeli forces on Saturday found a teddy bear packed with ammunition and a hidden sniper rifle, the IDF said.

As part of the 551st Brigade’s operations across the Gaza Strip, the teddy bear packed with weaponry was discovered during a raid of a school used by Hamas for terror purposes. In addition, more weaponry hidden in classrooms was found in UNRWA bags in an adjacent school.

The IDF engaged in close-quarters fighting with a Hamas terror cell in the area of a school compound in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaia, the IDF said on Friday evening.

According to the Israeli military report, the fighting took place between the Hamas fighters and soldiers of the 74th Battalion of the army’s 188th Brigade along with LOTAR special forces, an elite counterterrorism unit.

The IDF said that despite an attempt by Hamas to bait the IDF personnel into an ambush, the Israeli forces successfully eliminated the Hamas attackers.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-777286

By: Aish.com

Safety first, except when it comes to the Jews.

It’s not a great time to be a president of an Ivy League university. But don’t feel too bad enjoying the slow-mo downfall of these ivory tower bastions because it’s even worse to be a Jew at one of these campuses.

The presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT stumbled over their legalese and lost sight of the big picture that it’s indeed harassment to call for genocide of the Jews.

To her credit, Liz Magill, the president of Penn, resigned, and there is intense pressure for the other two to do the same.

Drawing the line between free speech and harassment is, in fact, tricky. But what is crystal clear is the hypocrisy and maddening double standard that is on full display.

cont’d…

These boys are the real deal.

By: Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Fifteen American Christian cowboys with their wide-brimmed hats, denim shirts, tight Wrangler jeans, leather belts with large buckles, and well-worn boots have come to Israel to protect the Jewish residents of the biblical heartland – Judea and Samaria.

“We want to live for Israel; that is our goal,” said 24-year-old Yosef Strain from Montanna [sic], his voice carrying a subtle twang.

The young men, mostly in their early 20s, hail from across the South: Tenessee [sic], Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, and Montana. They join other faith-driven volunteers in Israel through Hayovel. For 20 years, this organization has been bringing several hundred Christians to Israel each year to help harvest the grapes of the biblical heartland. These Evangelical Christians are usually focused on restoring Christian-Jewish relations and confirming Israel’s right to their ancestral homeland.

However, after the October 7 Hamas massacre, “we understood the morbid reality that we are facing a serious enemy and the world does not recognize it,” explained Hayovel Director of Operations Joshua Waller. “If we did not say yes [to helping Judea and Samaria], no one was.”

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-772559