LLX News

AFP Fact Check via Yahoo News; factcheck.aft.com

An image of a man carrying children through rubble has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media in posts linking it to the bombing of Gaza amid a war triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel. But experts say the image shows signs of artificial intelligence and it was not published by news organizations with photographers in the region.

“Today’s best photo 27-October -2023,” says the text of a Facebook post shared 82,000 times. It includes an image that appears to show a man helping five children away from the scene of a destroyed building.

The image circulated widely on social media, as early as October 21 in an Instagram post using the hashtags “Gaza_under_attack” and “Free Palestine.” It was also amplified by the official X — formerly Twitter — account of the Chinese embassy in France.

“This image will symbolize the West for decades to come. They will not forgive and will not forget and those children (if they survive) will grow up angry, very angry,” an X post, on October 27 says.

cont’d…

https://www.yahoo.com/news/image-palestinian-carrying-children-rubble-162659625.html

Hamas’s slaughter of Israelis, a people who are saddled with trauma from the Holocaust, “opened the gates of hell on the Palestinian people.”

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

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder, slammed the terrorist organization and its Western supporters on English broadcaster Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” talk show on Thursday.

Also known as the “Green Prince,” Yousef appeared after a slew of other Palestinian guests who had been invited to give their perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war.

Hamas’s slaughter of Israelis, a people saddled with trauma from the Holocaust, “opened the gates of hell on the Palestinian people,” demonstrating the willingness of Hamas to sacrifice Palestinian children and civilians, Yousef said.

“This is my message as an ex-Hamas member, as a son of one of Hamas’s founders: enough of this. If we don’t stop them now, the next war is going to be deadlier.”

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-770520

By: Michael Brown – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

The news created shockwaves around the world. Those evil, genocidal Israelis bombed a hospital in Gaza, resulting in hundreds of deaths. And this was not just a hospital caring for the sick and the wounded. It was a hospital where civilians were taking cover, including many children. Yet these monstrous Israelis targeted it for destruction, causing outrage and cries for vengeance around the globe, especially in the Muslim world.

Of course, that’s not what happened.

First, Israel doesn’t do that. Israel does not target hospitals and schools. Israel does not single out and destroy innocent non-combatants, especially women and children and the sick and elderly. And especially, at a time like this, Israel would not possibly do something like this. The backlash would be massive, and rightly so.

In stark contrast, Hamas does do these very things. Hamas takes delight in slaughtering the innocent in the most grotesque, barbaric ways imaginable, filming it for the world to see. Israel does not.

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-myth-of-israel-bombing-a-hospital-will-live-on-for-decades.html

By: All Israeli News Staff – All Israel News; allisrael.com

We unite in this prayer, firmly believing that our God listens to our voices, as we read in James 5:16: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Congregations and individual believers worldwide are uniting in sessions of prayer over Israel’s war against Hamas.

We understand the significance of providing our readers with more specific prayer requests and have, therefore, compiled a list of topics that you and your church can use when interceding in prayer during the ongoing situation.

cont’d…

https://allisrael.com/prayer-guide-10-essential-prayer-requests-related-to-israel-s-ongoing-war?cx_testId=4&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=1&cx_experienceId=EXP3Q9EVPAQM#cxrecs_s

By: Samantha Kamman – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

Missiles rained from the sky above the Tribe of Nova Festival in Re’im, Israel, last weekend, said two survivors who managed to escape as the terrorist group Hamas killed hundreds of attendees while taking others hostage.

During a Thursday webinar hosted by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, Almog Senior and Alon Marek recalled how they fled for their lives on Oct. 7 after attending what was supposed to be an all-night dance party in celebration of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday.

According to Israeli rescue service Zaka, at least 260 bodies were recovered from the music festival site in the Negev desert about 3 miles from the Gaza-Israel border, and many other attendees were taken hostage by armed terrorists.

Before the attack, Senior remembers driving to the Nova Festival with a friend and how excited they were to attend. Senior shared that he loves to dance, revealing that he frequently participates in the activity alongside Palestinians, Russians and Ukrainians, with each person setting aside their differences to just “celebrate life.”

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/israeli-music-festival-survivors-reveal-how-they-survived-hamas.html

The scenes of horrifying violence and trauma coming from Israel have galvanized Jewish communities and others worldwide to join aid efforts. Here are some of the groups in need:

By: JTA & TOI Staff – timesofisrael.com

For many worldwide, Jews and non-Jews, watching the scenes of horrifying violence and trauma emerging from Israel has awakened an impulse to help or give to the sweeping aid effort underway now.

We’ve rounded up some of the needs that nonprofits and individuals have shared, as well as organizations working to address them. Please note that you should always do your own research before donating to any organization.

Israeli hospitals are dealing with a surge of wounded patients and some have been damaged by rockets or by fighting. Many depend on donations even in normal conditions, making the need more acute now.

cont’d…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/where-people-abroad-can-donate-to-israels-hospitals-troops-survivors-and-more/

Israel’s fight is our fight as well

By: R. Albert Mohler, Jr. – WNG; wng.org

The terrorist attack on Israel started early Saturday morning, with a massive barrage of rockets, men riding parasails, and others moving swiftly over Israeli territory. Within hours, thousands of rockets would be launched and hundreds of Israeli citizens would be dead, while others were taken hostage back to the Gaza Strip. The massacres were horrifying, with women, children, young people, and the elderly murdered—many in their own homes. The murderers killed one grandmother and then used her own phone to take photos of her body, leaving the phone for family to find. At least 260 people attending a music festival were massacred and many were taken hostage. The attack was undertaken by Hamas, a well-known Islamist terror organization that also functions as the governing power in Gaza. Just as a major Jewish holiday was about to end, Israel found itself at war with Hamas.

The carnage in Israel produced dancing in the streets of Gaza and Hamas called upon fellow Islamic terror organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon to join the attack, hoping to put Israel between one terrorist force to the north and another to the south. The United States and other allies announced solidarity with Israel, and Israel declared a state of war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for his nation in pledging to avenge the massacres and put an end to Hamas as an operational force. This will not be a short war, but Israel must win it, and the nation knows it.

cont’d…

https://wng.org/opinions/rachel-weeps-for-her-children-1696899145

The bottom line is that the reason the cabinet has not carried out any of options is that all of them have huge downsides and unpredictable upsides.

By: Yonah Jeremy Bob – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Though at press time, most of the nation was focused on individual battles and hostages in the 22 Gaza border communities which the IDF was still retaking, the fateful question is what the security cabinet will decide to do against Hamas.

That cabinet decision could frame Israeli-Palestinian relations and many other issues in the region for years to come.

A wide variety of options have existed since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority, including everything from: 1) a permanent reconquest of Gaza; 2) toppling Hamas completely, but then handing Gaza back to the Palestinian Authority and/or a multinational force. 3) Occupy Gaza for weeks or months with the goal of killing most of the current Hamas leadership and its military commanders, but then allowing it to retake control afterwards in the hope that such a deep wound will restore deterrence; or 4) a more limited ground invasion similar to the 2008/09 or 2014 Gaza wars.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-763174?utm_source=jpost.app.apple&utm_medium=share

Although alarming, the depth of Iran’s infiltration into the foreign-policy and media establishments exposed in this week’s reports isn’t surprising.

By: Caroline Glick – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

There is something terribly disturbing about the current state of Washington’s foreign-policy establishment.

Tuesday [09/26/2023] we were hit with the blockbuster reports by Semafor and Iran International exposing the depth of Iran’s infiltration of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment and the Biden administration. The two simultaneously published reports revealed how beginning in 2014, Iran’s Foreign Ministry established a circle of agents in Washington and Europe, which it referred to as the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI). Members of IEI were comprised of Iranian emigres sympathetic to the regime and its nuclear-weapons program.

The experts routinely submitted their drafts to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for comment before publication and generally sought guidance from Iran’s Foreign Ministry in relation to various pro-Iran activities, including providing sympathetic testimony before Congress.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/what-irans-penetration-of-washington-means/

Excavations in Jordan offer compelling evidence for the authenticity of the biblical tale of the destruction of Sodom, but by an asteroid impact, says theologian Dr. John Bergsma.

By: WALLA! – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

An ancient city that met a fiery end in what could be described as an asteroid impact more powerful than an “atomic explosion” has been identified as the biblical city of Sodom, according to a biblical studies expert. Dr. John Bergsma, a prominent theologian, contends that excavations in Jordan provide substantial proof that one of the Bible’s most dramatic and improbable narratives may indeed be factual.

Bergsma asserts that archaeological findings in Jordan corroborate the existence of the biblical city of Sodom. Prior research had already indicated that the ancient city of Tell el-Hammam, located in the southern Jordan Valley, suffered a catastrophic fate—a revelation that Dr. John Bergsma, a theology professor at Ohio’s Franciscan University, believes aligns with the biblical account.

As per the Book of Genesis, God unleashed brimstone and fire upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in response to the sins of their inhabitants, resulting in their complete obliteration. Similar destruction patterns were uncovered at Tell el-Hammam, leading Bergsma to reevaluate the credibility of the biblical narrative. He pointed to signs of extreme heat detected on skeletons and pottery fragments unearthed by archaeologists, suggesting a possible impact from an asteroid. 

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-760462