Ambassador Erdan ripped the UN Security Council vote for giving "hope" to Hamas.

"Releasing the hostages should be the first priority of the Council. Your demand for a cease-fire without making it conditional on the release of our hostages harms the efforts to release them and gives Hamas hope of achieving a cease-fire without releasing them. All council members should have opposed this resolution," Erdan said.

So now what will the left say? Israel was willing to agree to a bad deal, but once again, it's Hamas throwing a wrench into a ceasefire deal. It's Hamas who is always the problem in this equation, yet the Biden administration and the left will continue to attack and blame Israel, while essentially helping Hamas in the process.

What isn't important here is that any of what Putin says is plausible, but, rather, that he says it. In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.” //

A Ukrainian attack on a soft target like a concert, while not on the scale of the Russian attack on a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 16, 2022, that killed up to 600 civilians, could possibly create the national outrage needed to support increased mobilization.

Given the laser-like focus of the Russian government on blaming Ukraine, you can't help but recall the apartment block bombings in 1999 in Russia that killed over 300 and injured nearly 1,000. Those attacks were immediately blamed on Chechen guerillas, but it became clear that the FSB had carried out the bombings to create casus belli for the Second Chechen War.

To the extent this propaganda campaign is intended for the West, it will be used to justify increased attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.

Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield—that is, Ukraine—and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change.

Even after Israel cleared the hospital complex of Hamas, Hamas returned and started using the hospital again, leading to an Israeli raid last night. The intitial reports were that a “Senior” Hamas official was the target, but until this morning, his identify was not released: //

The hostpital complex was infested with terrorists, with fierce firefights from within, leading to many dead Hamas terrorists: //

Today the IDF revealed the identity of the target, Faiq Habhoud, the head of the Operations Directorate of Hamas’ Internal Security:

The number of civilian casualties in Gaza has been at the center of international attention since the start of the war. The main source for the data has been the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which now claims more than 30,000 dead, the majority of which it says are children and women. //

Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.

If Hamas’ numbers are faked or fraudulent in some way, there may be evidence in the numbers themselves that can demonstrate it. While there is not much data available, there is a little, and it is enough: From Oct. 26 until Nov. 10, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry released daily casualty figures that include both a total number and a specific number of women and children.

The first place to look is the reported “total” number of deaths. The graph of total deaths by date is increasing with almost metronomical linearity, as the graph in Figure 1 reveals.

This regularity is almost surely not real. One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day. In fact, the daily reported casualty count over this period averages 270 plus or minus about 15%. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less. //

Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily. We know this because the daily totals increase too consistently to be real. Then they assigned about 70% of the total to be women and children, splitting that amount randomly from day to day. Then they in-filled the number of men as set by the predetermined total. This explains all the data observed.

There are other obvious red flags. The Gaza Health Ministry has consistently claimed that about 70% of the casualties are women or children. This total is far higher than the numbers reported in earlier conflicts with Israel. Another red flag, raised by Salo Aizenberg and written about extensively, is that if 70% of the casualties are women and children and 25% of the population is adult male, then either Israel is not successfully eliminating Hamas fighters or adult male casualty counts are extremely low. This by itself strongly suggests that the numbers are at a minimum grossly inaccurate and quite probably outright faked. Finally, on Feb. 15, Hamas admitted to losing 6,000 of its fighters, which represents more than 20% of the total number of casualties reported. //

The truth can’t yet be known and probably never will be. The total civilian casualty count is likely to be extremely overstated. Israel estimates that at least 12,000 fighters have been killed. If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1. By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians.

“The food shortage and use of the word ‘hunger’ have been exaggerated,” a senior Israeli defense official told me on Thursday during a briefing. “There is no hunger in Gaza,” he said, explaining that most of the food that Israel has been sending into the Strip has “immediately been taken by Hamas terrorists, who then sell some of the supplies for ten times more than what it’s worth.”

The official further noted that “Every family has enough food to survive…We have been supplying them with aid as well as the US, but unfortunately, it wasn’t distributed to the citizens themselves.”

A former senior Israeli defense official who I spoke to on condition of anonymity has also said that “there is no food shortage in Gaza; there are those who are hungry since Hamas has taken all of the food and they don’t have enough money to pay Hamas on the black market.”

According to this former official, the food does not reach those who need it most since Hamas controls approximately 70-80% of the area. What happens is that Israel and foreign countries bring food and aid into Gaza. Then gangs take the supplies at gunpoint, and a significant portion of the population is left unable to afford necessities.

The UN has confirmed these accounts of necrophilia as part of a broader report, UN Report: “sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations … including rape and gang rape”. //

Eylon Levy @EylonALevy
·
Hamas committed acts of necrophilia against murder victims, then its spokesman went on TV and said it was teaching Israelis a lesson and would do it again & again.

I don't understand what part of "this war will end when Hamas is defeated or surrenders" people don't understand.
7:36 AM · Mar 6, 2024

Hillel Neuer
@HillelNeuer
·
Follow
BREAKING: Terror tunnel discovered right below UNRWA HQ, hiding Hamas intelligence data center, with electrical room, industrial battery power banks, living quarters for Hamas server operators. Electric cables from UNRWA powered the Hamas servers. UNRWA chief: “We had no clue.”

Jennifer Griffin
@JenGriffinFNC
·
Follow
And all of those IRGC commanders have already left Syria and gone into hiding leaving those bases. The Pentagon usually does not telegraph so much if it wants the element of surprise.
Shashank Joshi
@shashj
"U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria." https://cbsnews.com/news/us-strikes-iran-personnel-facilities-in-iraq-syria-approved-jordan-drone-attack/
10:15 AM · Feb 1, 2024 //

Thanks, Joe Biden, foreign policy genius!

Griffin told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that some of the IRGC commanders were now back in Tehran. She asked a blunt question, "Has there been too much telegraphing or is the point not to kill any Iranian commanders?" //

In terms of answering the telegraphing question, he just said he wouldn't "speculate." Thanks, another non-answer from Austin.

Recognition of a Palestinian State after what Hamas did, with the help of Iran no less, is enabling terrorism in the Middle East and across the world. Hamas started this war with a terror attack that killed hundreds. They raped women, defiled the bodies of those they killed, took and later killed hostages, and have routinely stolen from their own people in order to create weapons to launch more terror attacks. These are not the actions of people who deserve statehood in the international community. They are the actions of a group of terrorists who should be eradicated.

Recognizing Palestinian statehood is just one of a "big menu of options," according to the sources who spoke to Axios. But it should not be an option. They should not be rewarded for routinely targeting Israeli civilians in their attacks. They should not be given recognition over an area they don't so much control as much as they rob. The people of Gaza live in poverty because the ruling class, Hamas, takes all resources meant for their citizens and uses those resources to take part in terrorism.

A responsible State Department would hear this suggestion of recognizing Palestinian statehood and dismiss it immediately. But if there is one thing the Biden administration is not, it's responsible.

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan
·
“about 10 members of Israeli special forces dressed in civilian clothes went to the third floor [of the hospital], where they killed the men using weapons fitted with silencers”

In any other country, we’d call this a government death squad. Sheesh.
bbc.com
Israeli forces kill three Palestinian militants in West Bank hospital raid
8:42 AM · Jan 30, 2024

I mean, yes, it was a "death squad" in the sense that it was sent to kill dangerous terrorists. Special operations against enemy combatants are not a new concept. Hamas could simply surrender if this is all too messy for people like Mehdi Hasan. //

I've been told repeatedly that Israel must cease all attacks that result in civilian casualties. Well, this was an attack that resulted in no civilian casualties. It's almost as if Hasan and people like him weren't actually concerned about that but just support terrorism. Who could have guessed?

Do you know what I noticed the most about this operation? No one was raped. No one was beheaded. No innocent people were gunned down. Instead, those involved operated as a professional force should. That some find that more upsetting than the October 7th attacks is telling. //

Boblo
3 hours ago
Looked surgical to me! Haha! Get it? Surgical, hospital, no?

Granny Cuyler -> Boblo
3 hours ago
The operation was a success!

Hawkdriver -> Boblo
2 hours ago
Their policies evidently covered the procedures. //

emptypockets
2 hours ago
"They executed the three men as they slept in the room," the hospital's director, Dr. Naji Nazzal, told Reuters. "They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated."

Which was mercy none deserved. They weren't raped or stabbed repeatedly or tortured or made to watch their child cooked in an oven.

Though they say they've suspended funding, that only applies to new projects. Projects the Biden White House is supporting today will continue to be funded. It would be a safe bet that all the other funding suspensions are precisely the same.

The UNRWA isn't being defunded now, and when the war ends, you can bet it will be back in business with even more of your tax dollars supporting Hamas terrorism.

A Houthi terrorist-fired anti-ship ballistic missile hit a petroleum tanker in the Gulf of Aden, and the crew was forced to abandon the ship on Friday. The British-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged 110,000-ton tanker M/T Marlin Luanda was carrying a cargo of Russian naphtha from Greece to Singapore. A second ship, the Panama-flagged 109,000-ton tanker M/T Achilles (ownership is unknown), loaded with petroleum products taken on in Prmorsk, Russia, with no revealed destination, was also targeted but completed its transit safely. //

The crew of the M/T Marlin Luanda tried to save the ship but were overwhelmed and, according to reports, abandoned the ship. The Indian destroyer INS Visakhapatnam was first on the scene to render assistance. Since then other coalition warships have responded.

As the tale goes, Hamas and Palestinians have no agency, and it's Israel that has committed "genocide" by daring to try to take out a terrorist group that invaded and murdered well over a thousand people while taking hundreds hostage.

The Spectator Index @spectatorindex
·
BREAKING: Hamas has rejected an Israeli offer of a two-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of all Israeli hostages
9:26 AM · Jan 23, 2024 . //

there can be no ceasefire with an entity like Hamas. There is only its total surrender or Israel's surrender. That's what's so mind-numbing about the "ceasefire now" crowd. If there's not an actual partner for peace on the other side, then you can't have peace. Hamas continues to say it will attack Israel until every last drop of Jewish blood is spilled and the nation no longer exists. You can't have a ceasefire with that, and that's been proven by the fact that there was a ceasefire in place on October 6th. //

anon-0a84
37 minutes ago
cease fire protestors = antifa protestors = BLM protestors = occupy wall street protestors = funding by soros

This gives more of an impression that Iran is attempting to capitalize on the success of its Houthi proxies in closing the Red Sea and trying to make the point that it is the regional power center and will do as it damn well pleases. //

Laocoön of Troy
19 minutes ago
"... This gives more of an impression that Iran..."

Correctomundo. This also illustrates how deep the rivalry is between the Sunni world and Shi'ia Iran. Pakistan went from a polite joint naval operation with Iran direct to combat ops against Iran in what? A coupla days?

It just occurred to me that for the right price, the Pakistanis may be willing to intervene in Yeman and put boots-on-the-ground to remove the Houthis as an irritant. The Pakistanis respond well to Saudi cash.

The Israeli military now believes there are far more tunnels under Gaza.

In December, the network was assessed to be an estimated 250 miles. Senior Israeli defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, are currently estimating the network is between 350 and 450 miles — extraordinary figures for a territory that at its longest point is only 25 miles. Two of the officials also assessed there are close to 5,700 separate shafts leading down to the tunnels. //

According to the report, every single civilian and humanitarian facility in Gaza, such as schools, hospitals, and mosques, doubles as an opening for Hamas terror tunnel shafts: //

Marc Zell @GOPIsrael
·
🚨New COGAT Post

“A Hamas chemical lab for weapon production located deep underground in a terror tunnel.

The expertise needed for this operation and the amount of resources are mind-blowing. Gaza could've been a great place if Hamas would invest it all in the civilians…

10:45 PM · Jan 8, 2024 //

mailman | January 16, 2024 at 3:00 pm
How is it no one in the media is asking how much better off Palestinians lives COULD have been had Hamas invested those tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid in improving the lives of the people that are under their care instead of investing all that money in trying to kill Jews. //

JohnSmith100 in reply to mailman. | January 16, 2024 at 3:46 pm
Even worse is that if Pales had made peace they could have prospered riding Israel’s coattails. And if they had not had so many children solely to outnumber Jews, their children could have prospered. This is in my opinion the most damning thing about Pales.

I reported earlier this week how Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) blasted South Africa for filing a case against Israel for genocide in Gaza when he spoke at a luncheon of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center.

He told South Africa that they should just "sit this one out" and focus on its own country. Some interpreted that also as calling out South Africa over its own problems with the alleged genocide of white farmers. //

But he had a lot more to say, ripping into the activists, and demanding to know why weren't they asking about the hostage and protesting Hamas' actions?

"They're blocking tunnels, they're blocking roads," Fetterman said. "Why? Why aren’t they protesting, ‘When will we get the hostages back home?’ Why aren’t they protesting Hamas? Why aren't they protesting systemic rape and torture of Israeli women and children?

"I don't get it." //

atrocities committed against Israel, Fetterman said Wednesday, "I have a 12-year-old daughter. If someone did that to my daughter, would you want me to sit down at a table and negotiate with them? Never. I would never ask for Israel to do that as well."

Taking his support for Israel further, Fetterman said the country has the right to fully take on Hamas and noted that every Hamas terrorist that is killed is "one more step" toward peace. //

Recognizing the "blowback" he has received from some members of his party for his support for Israel, Fetterman said, "Great. I welcome the smoke then."

This is a massive scandal that will unfortunately never be treated as such. American news agencies were paying these men to participate in terrorist acts against innocent people. In fact, as mentioned in the report, one of Reuters' "photos of the year" was the picture of an Israeli soldier being dragged out of a tank and lynched. The guy on that video bragging about participating in that act was paid for his photo of it.

As has been said many times, there are no journalists in Gaza. There are simply terrorist sympathizers who are allowed to cosplay as journalists.

While nearly everyone agrees that it was a colossal intelligence failure on the part of Israel and its allies that led to the slaughter on October 7, the ensuing war in Gaza, and other instability in the region, the little-known truth is that it was US military aid to Lebanon provided by Joe Biden's national security brain trust that effectively prevented Israeli intelligence from sniffing out the plan and preventing the attack.

To understand this, one has to look at our history with Lebanon since the Bush (43) administration. If you find yourself asking how the United States ended up funding the internal security apparatus that rolled up Israel's intelligence networks and blinded them to the coming storm, the answer is a lot like the character Mike Campbell in his novel "The Sun Also Rises" explaining how he became bankrupt: "Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” //

In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a nasty little war. Even though Lebanon was a virtual Iranian satrapy under the de facto control of Hezbollah, the Diplomatic SmartSet® reasoned that we needed to try to retain some influence. As a result, we began a program of providing training and equipment to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and their Internal Security Forces (ISF). It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what would happen. Still, the logical and foreseeable consequences of training the ISF when Iran politically dominated the country were beyond the grasp of a Harvard Kennedy School grad.

The training and equipment paid immediate dividends to Hezbollah as the ISF began trading Israeli agents and sources to Hezbollah in return for survival. This is from an account of a 2009 Lebanese operation.

The chief of Lebanon’s domestic security forces had a warning for the Hezbollah commander: “You’ve been infiltrated.”

With that, Achraf Rifi, head of the U.S.-backed Internal Security Forces, handed over evidence showing that two trusted, mid-ranking Hezbollah commanders were working as informants for Israeli military intelligence, said a high-ranking Lebanese security official with knowledge of the April 2009 meeting. //

With the rise of ISIS and the effective dissolution of Syria, more money was directed to the LAF and ISF because they were viewed in Foggy Bottom as the glue that was holding Lebanon together. Money to supply the LAF and ISF with equipment and training continued under Obama and grew under Trump. By 2020, the US was spending $242 million annually in Lebanon, up from $213 million in Obama's last year in office.

The training and equipment were excellent because the ISF rolled up 15 Israeli espionage networks in their next round of arrests that took place in December 2021. //

The above report places the beginning of planning and training for the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians in the late summer of 2022. This was carried out while a US-trained, equipped, and funded Lebanese counterintelligence service provided operational security for the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran planning and training period. As if to underscore the abject failure of the "retain influence" and "glue that holds Lebanon together" crowd, no one in the ISF, which we had trained and equipped for over a decade and whose salaries we were paying, dropped a dime to US intelligence or diplomatic personnel.

None of this is to say that the Biden national security goat rope knew the attack was coming, but it is hard to see how the outcome differed from being an active participant. Had we not been overawed by our cleverness and let Lebanon descend into its natural state, which is chaos and violence, Hamas would not have had a secure area in which to plan and to train, and the coming attack would probably have been discovered and prevented. //

Author's Note: My primary resource for this story is "Eyeless in Gaza" https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/america-leaves-israel-eyeless-in-gaza

Few of the facts seem to matter as international organizations and the press ignore documented evidence of al-Shifa Hospital’s military use. //

Israel is entitled to win this war, morally and legally. The horrible reality is that many combatants and innocent people have died, largely due to the nature of urban warfare combined with Hamas’ abuse of Palestinian civilians. //

In this current war, neither attacks on terror facilities masquerading as humanitarian facilities nor the number of casualties should detract from Israel’s lawful and just effort to liberate the region from this stain on humanity.