Guest Post: In war, accidents happen: the tragedy of the WCK aid workers

This is another guest post by frequent contributor Brian Goldfarb. He addresses the tragic accidental killing by the IDF of 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza – and it was indeed an accident no matter what the world thinks or says – or possibly a Hamas trap. Read on.

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A Palestinian inspects near a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen (WCK), including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike (credit: Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)

I would hope that we can all agree that the killing of the foreign aid workers in Gaza by the IDF (and admitted by them) is a tragedy that should never have happened. We should also note that either 2 or 3 (the numbers varies between reports that I have heard on the radio) senior officers have been relieved of their duties (at lest for the time being) presumably pending an inquiry/hearing/court martial. Which is as it should be.  Here is an excerpt from the IDF investigation at the link above:

The investigation’s findings indicate that the incident should not have occurred. Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees. The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures.

After being presented with, and considering the investigation’s findings, the IDF Chief of the General Staff decided that the following command measures will be taken: the brigade fire support commander, an officer with the rank of major, will be dismissed from his position. The brigade chief of staff, an officer with the rank of colonel in reserve, will be dismissed from his position. Additionally, the brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander will be formally reprimanded. The IDF Chief of Staff decided to formally reprimand the commander of the Southern Command for his overall responsibility for the incident.

We can note that this procedure is standard across any number of armed forces in the democracies. Allow me here to digress (but it is relevant to this situation): while still employed as an academic, I had a colleague, some 10 years older than me, who had done National  Service in the UK army. He had been stationed in Hong Kong as Headquarters company clerk in the early 1950s. One of his duties was to accompany any army patrol that was sent out to deal with any riots that occurred. As such, he had to record exactly what happened including any orders the officer in charge gave. If the officer felt it necessary to order shots to be fired (whether in the air or at rioters), on returning to barracks he placed himself under open arrest, pending an inquiry. In many former British colonies, the armed forces still follow this practice: it is part of their version of what in Britain is called “Queen’s/King’s Regulations”.

I understand  that he same is true of the IDF, and some version of this is what has happened to the IDF officers concerned, and the statement that the markings on the vehicles in which the aid workers were travelling were not as clearly identifiable as they should have been may be true, but does not necessarily excuse the resulting action.

However, and it is a massive however, the response of many in the media demanding that Israel and the IDF immediately scale back their efforts to consign Hamas to the dustbin of history so that this doesn’t happen again is to demand that Israel and the IDF effectively declare that Hamas have won. What this does, especially if the IDF were to do as these commentators demand, from the safety of their studios in unwar-torn Europe and North America, is to say that October 7 didn’t happen, or that it is irrelevant to what came after. It is to deny the reality of the last 6 months.

So, let’s go back six months. Who started this war? Did Israel attack itself on October 7 and say Hamas did it, so that the IDF could enter Gaza and start to flatten it? Yes.of course that last sentence is nonsense: Hamas did start this war and have stated, openly and often, that they would wish to do the same again and again and…Which is why the IDF is doing what it is in Gaza, so that Hamas can’t do it again and again, or at least not for a significant number of years. And in war, there are unintended consequences, at least by those responding to the aggression of others.

Let me take some examples, which are chewed over again and again (with no consensus as to the “proper”or “right”answer) from World War Two: the bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

First of all, who started the war in Europe, the Western Allies and Russia or Nazi Germany? Okay, we all know the answer to that one. Does that justify the virtual destruction of Dresden? There are those who argue that Dresden had no strategic significance, and thus the bombing was, in effect, a terror attack, made worse by the fact that many domestic buildings in Dresden were built of highly flammable materials. Others counter-argue that Dresden was a railhead, vital for supplying the German troops in Eastern Europe and Russia. But it was wartime, and total war at that.

Either way, it wasn’t the Republicans who, during the Spanish Civil War, bombed Guernica (a Republican city) but the German/Nazi Condor Legion: a foretaste of what the Luftwaffe would do to Amsterdam, London, Coventry and many other British cities.

Then there is my other case: again, who started the war in the Pacific? Did the Americans provoke the Japanese with acts of aggression? And before anyone comes up with some crazy conspiracy theory, the answer is no: the attack on Pearl Harbour was a totally unprovoked attack on a non-combatant in World War Two. Does that justify the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The general counter-argument is that without the A-Bombs, invading the Japanese Home Islands would have probably cost at least half a million allied troops lives, to say nothing of the cost in civilian lives in those islands. There are those who accept this argument, but suggest that the second bomb (on Nagasaki) was superfluous, because the Japanese were close to surrender after the first bomb.

Whether or not these counter-arguments are accepted, the major point is that in every case I’ve cited, it is the victims of the initial aggression who are being held to account for what might well be excessive responses or even genuine mistakes. And thus the fact that these are responses and not initial acts of aggression is of great importance. We always need to remember that the law relating to war and fighting between two powers short of formal war states unequivocally that a sufficient and proportional response to aggression directed towards a sovereign society by another organisation, whether a state or a non-state actor, is such as to stop the aggressor: not a bullet for a bullet, etc, but sufficient to stop them. In the case of Hamas (and similar terrorist organisations : are you listening, Nasrallah of Hezbollah), what the IDF are doing may well, with occasional (and they are occasional) slippages, come comfortably under this umbrella of “proportional responses”.

The eminent commentator on these matters, Natasha Haussdorf of UK Lawyers for Israel, believes so: do look out for her comments on these matters.

Here is a video of Natasha Haussdorf addressing the charges of genocide against Israel:

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Anne adds:

Brian, thank you for an excellent description and backgrounder of the reality of “collateral damage” and who is to blame for it in the context of war.

First of all I would advise everyone to read the Jerusalem Post article that I linked to at the top, it shows how Hamas deliberately acted to confuse the IDF and its drone operators, and lured them in to deliberately target the innocent aid workers. Here is the relevant extract:

The drone unit saw multiple suspicious actions, starting after 10 p.m. Monday.

First, the drone unit said it saw a Hamas terrorist climb onto one of the trucks and fire in the air at what it called action point two.

According to the IDF, this tactic is frequent and is used by Hamas to send signals to other Hamas fighters in the area regarding his position.

At action point three, the convoy split up.

At action point four, the convoy entered a hangar, which obscured which vehicles might be going in and out and who might be in the vehicles compared to who was in the vehicles before entering the hangar.

IDF unable to reach aid workers

In the first four action points, the IDF drone unit refrained from attacking the aid trucks, because they questioned their commanders and were ordered by Division 162 Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen not to, despite a suspicion of Hamas terrorists being involved. IDF tried to call aid workers, was unable to reach them.

At the fifth action point, the aid trucks had left the hangar.

As the events developed, the IDF tried to call the aid workers involved in the field and was unable to reach them.

Next, the IDF called the WCK headquarters. The WCK headquarters tried to call its own aid workers in the field, but they did not answer.

When vehicles left the hangar, the IDF drone unit believed that these were not the same vehicles and thought that these were Hamas vehicles or that around four Hamas operatives had joined or taken over the convoy.

According to the IDF, attacking the trucks after all of this was a mistaken identity issue but could not lead to criminal charges.

Accordingly, the drone unit believed the order not to attack no longer applied.

Around a kilometer later, around 11:09 p.m., the drone unit believed it had the right to engage the trucks.

Also, the drone unit had thermal imaging that did not see the WCK aid worker sign posted on the roof of the trucks.

When the drone unit attacked three separate times in succession, it believed that the “coast was clear” completely to attack what it thought were clearly Hamas targets.

As one commentator on Twitter wrote, “Hamas are playing the West like a violin”.

I have also come across a couple of excellent articles in the British press on this very issue and I highly recommend you all read them and share them widely.

From the Spectator: The truth about Israel’s “friendly fire” by the always excellent Brendan O’Neill.  A snippet:

It seems Israel is the only state not allowed to make mistakes. Where us decent Westerners kill friends in error, Israel does it intentionally, with malice at its heart. The double standards are staggering. It is hypocritical and ridiculous for the citizens of nations that have accidentally killed far more people than Israel to now lecture Israel about its wayward bombs.

It smacks of bigotry, too. We make mistakes, they commit crimes. We err, they murder. We should be forgiven, they should not. There’s an ironically neocolonialist bent to this fury with Israel, for it bigs up the West, despite its history of war crimes, as a suitable judge and jury of that uppity little state over there.

From the Daily Mail: The double standards in war are nauseating, by Richard Littlejohn:

An estimated 300,000 Iraqi civilians were killed after the 2003 Anglo-American invasion, and although there was widespread opposition to the war I don’t recall anyone credibly accusing the British or U.S. governments of committing ‘genocide’.

In 2011, a NATO-led bombing campaign in Libya, enthusiastically endorsed by then Prime Minister David Cameron, claimed countless innocent lives. After the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, Call Me Dave even went on a victory parade in Tripoli.

Yet today, the now Lord Cameron is condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza and demanding a ‘full, transparent explanation’.

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Both Cameron and Biden can legitimately be accused of self-serving hypocrisy, aimed at restoring their own, tarnished wartime reputations and, in the case of the U.S. President, seeking electoral advantage by sucking up to Muslim voters in swing states such as Michigan.

When British or U.S. troops accidentally kill innocent civilians, journalists or aid workers it’s ‘friendly fire’ in the heat of battle. When Israel does likewise, it’s a deliberate war crime. The double-standards are nauseating.

To summarise my own feelings on this tragedy, I get the strong feeling that the world, yes, even Israel’s ostensible allies in the West, have been standing in the wings almost drooling, waiting for Israel to make a mistake. Yes, the IDF killed 3 of our own hostages accidentally, but that doesn’t count because they are not “innocent Palestinians”. But FINALLY, the IDF did what everyone has waited for. They killed 7 aid workers. And the world pounced with glee.

I know I am exaggerating slightly but I simply cannot avoid this awful sensation of the world just waiting in fevered anticipation of Israel making a deadly mistake. It doesn’t matter that this has finally happened after 6 months of intense urban warfare, no one cares a hoot. And despite the casualty figures (where the Palestinian casualties cannot be relied upon since they were provided by the terrorists themselves), even if you relied on the fictitious numbers provided by Hamas, the civilian to combatant ratio is incredibly low, lower than any other army has achieved in war.

On this very subject – the charges that the IDF is killing civilians, read this article by war historian and military expert John Spencer in Newsweek: Israel has created a New Standard for Urban Warfare:

In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.

And that is in the end what angers and frustrates me to tears – the unfairness of it all, the lack of logic, the lack of historical analysis, and the pandering to the extremists in Western populations.

But we shall continue, and we shall fight on to victory because we have no other choice.

!עם ישראל חי

 

Guest Post: According to disgraced David Miller “It’s always the Jews”

This is another guest post by frequent contributor Brian Goldfarb. He is writing about the ongoing saga of the highly antisemitic Professor David Miller, (see blog posts here and here) who was sacked from Bristol University for his anti-Jewish bias. Miller appealed – and his sacking has been overturned!! However, there is more. Read on.

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It’s always the Jews, isn’t it?

Before I explain the title, let me say what this article is not about: It isn’t about the appeal itself, although I have read the Report, all 108 pages of it, nor is it going to be a complaint that due process failed to find that Bristol University had good cause to end David Miller’s employment (he was found to have been unlawfully dismissed, although the Tribunal does note, almost in passing, that social media posts Miller put up 2 months after his employment ceased would probably have given the University sound grounds to lawfully end his time there).

David Miller and his conspiracy theories in the chart behind him

That said, that is crystal ball gazing. Had Miller remained at Bristol, having, perhaps, been disciplined, within the University’s code of conduct, he might not have posted those comments. I say this because I am not a lawyer of any sort, let alone an employment lawyer and also because a friend, who is a former Employment Tribunal member and later Chair, implied that there does not appear to be anything wrong with the process nor the findings as reported. That said, one of the exchanges he reposted to me which was an exchange between him and another lawyer suggests that there are other lawyers in the field who might feel differently as to whether the last word has been said here. However, as a non-lawyer, I accept, whether or not this might be the case, that it is outside my area of expertise and I am not going down that road. My concerns lie elsewhere.

I promised to explain the title. Some years ago, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (on the South Bank of the Thames in London, and opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral on the North Bank) decided to mount a season of all Shakespeare plays, played by a huge number of different companies in, if their first language was not English, their native tongue. The Habima Theatre of Tel Aviv, Israel, were recruited (or offered) to perform The Merchant of Venice, in Hebrew (with English surtitles around the theatre). We (my wife and I) booked for one of the performances. So far so good. Then Mark Rylance, a British actor, objected and recruited  a number of theatrical colleagues to do likewise. What was their objection to Habima? They were subsidised by the Israeli Government. It seems to have escaped his notice that his career (at least, that of it on stage and, possibly, anything on television and radio) was similarly subsidised by the UK Government via the Arts Council of Great Britain. Either that hadn’t occurred to him or “that’s a different matter” or some other lame reason. In turn, this attracted the attention of the anti-Israel brigade across the spectrum, who attempted, with little or no success, to disrupt the performances. They were thwarted by The Globe employing highly efficient security staff.

The wonderful Maureen Lipman crossed (s)words with one of Rylance’s buddies on a morning BBC news and chat show. As they were faded out, Ms Lipman uttered the immortal phrase “It’s always the Jews, isn’t it?”

Thus the title: these days, it does seem a lot like that.

To return to the core of this article. I will note below that it is my belief that Bristol University (hereafter BU) missed a couple of (to me) obvious channels to demonstrate Miller’s unfitness to continue his employment at BU. Miller, like numerous commentators on the Middle East, refers to Israel as a “settler/colonial state”. This may, or may not, be an accurate academic description of Israel. But if it means that people not native to the country concerned have become the dominant population, to the detriment of the original inhabitants, then there are numerous other examples around the world of similar cases. Just, for example, the United States and Canada, most if not all of the Latin American countries and those in the Caribbean, the Antipodes, to say nothing of Africa, south of the Sahara; and all of this in the modern era, dating from around the 14th or 15th centuries AD (or, if you prefer, CE). So what makes Israel so different? Ah well, it’s always the Jews, isn’t it? And this is what starts to make this an issue: if so-called “settler-colonial” states are an issue with one, why is it only Israel that is the predominant example. [cue Maureen Lipman, again]

Actually, there is a major difference. There is historical evidence that there were Jews in the land from about 1000 B.C.E. The Assyrian chronicles, accepted by specialists in these things as accurate, report the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in the 6th or 5th Century BCE. Those deported from the land disappear from history.

And the Babylonian Chronicle record the Babylonian conquest of the southern kingdom of Judah a century or two later, and then the return of the Jews to the land under Cyrus the Mede. And neither conquest completely emptied the land of Jews. Any more than did the Roman expulsion in the early Common Era, when they destroyed the Second Temple after putting down the Bar Kochba revolt and again expelled many (but not all) Jews.

The point here is that at no time from around 1000 BCE were there never Jews in the land. And this remains true to the present day. Whereas, there were no Europeans in the “New World” (the Americas, etc) until relatively recently. This circles around, again, to the case in hand: why did BU not have access to experts who would point this out to them and to David Miller: essentially, if “settler-colonialism”is your thing, why Israel your only target? And more importantly, why are the Jewish students in your class the only ones targeted as, therefore, agents of a foreign power? Are there no other Europeans who might be so labelled? Do your non-Jewish students not have relatives in the US, Canada and the Antipodes?

It has to be further noted that there never was a “Palestine” in the area. This was the Province name given to the area by the Romans after they scattered most of the Jewish population across their empire, in order to destroy the historic link with the land that the Jews had. And that didn’t work either.

So we are back to considering David Miller’s mind set in focussing on Israel as THE example of “settler-colonialism”. Regular readers of Anne’s Opinions will know that I posted two articles which drew attention to David Miller 2021, (see blog posts here and here – Anne) when he first came to prominence. In preparation for that focus, I need to move slightly further back in time for context. In April 2015, it was proposed that there should be an academic conference at Southampton University, the title of which was “Internationalism and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility & Exceptionalism”. I will reduce the long-running debate on the then much more active EngageOnline website that followed, but suffice it to say that I was arguing (and eventually won over most other commenters) that the lack of a question mark in the title (whether a literal or figurative one) meant that could not be a proper academic conference. This demands debate, proposes, refutations, and so forth. There were further concerns in my mind: the wording implied that the topic of Israel was pre-determined as a prime example of a state born in blood. I argued long and hard that there were other examples: the USA and its War of Independence; the Russian and Chinese Revolutions: why only Israel. Eventually, most of my fellow commenters agreed that, as written (and as over half the papers to be presented showed), whatever else it was, this would not have been a proper academic conference. Southampton University eventually cancelled the conference anyway.

I have no idea if David Miller would have gone to that conference or not, but his focus on “settler-colonialism” and one example would appear to be akin to that cancelled conference. It is my contention (as in my previous articles featuring him) that his focus on singling out his Jewish students (presumably because of his focus on “settler-colonialism” in general and Israel in particular) and his view of them as, therefore agents of a foreign power led him into completely unprofessional conduct. The critical question is whether BU should have first subjected him to the full rigour of their internal disciplinary procedures and only then, had he overstepped the mark again, dismiss him. Given the conclusion that the Tribunal came to, that he had been unfairly dismissed, the answer is probably that doing it that way might have led to a more satisfactory outcome for those who abhor his attitude towards at least some of his students.

UPDATE: No sooner had I finished this article and sent it to Anne, than the (UK) Jewish Chronicle had a front page article reporting the response of  Lord John Mann, the UK Government’s Antisemitism Adviser. I have written about him before in these pages, recommending his edited book on antisemitism, a collection of essays from other authors.

His response (reflex action?) is to urge the Government, in the person of the Attorney General, given the Miller Employment Tribunal’s decision that Antizionism is “a protected philosophical belief”, to make Zionism “a protected philosophical belief”. This would stop the likes of David Miller dead in their tracks. He and those of his belief system could still argue that Israel is a “settler-colonial state”, but they couldn’t attack others who proclaimed that they’re Zionists (and thus entitled to proclaim their support for the continued existence of Israel) and accuse them of being agents of a foreign power just because they proclaimed themselves as Zionists, or, just as importantly, because they were Jewish.

That would solve the problem: either those like Miller could not attack those who proclaimed themselves as “Zionists” just because of that (now protected) belief, or if they did so, they might well find themselves not protected by the decision in the employment tribunal (or in other legal or quasi-legal situations).

Parliament should intervene over a “ludicrous” ruling that an academic who called Jewish students “pawns” of Israel was sacked unfairly and that anti-Zionism is a “protected characteristic”, Lord Mann has said.

Sociologist David Miller, 60, was sacked by Bristol University in 2021 after a string of provocative statements.

But this week, an employment tribunal awarded him compensation.

Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, told the JC: “The concept that an ideology needs protecting is totally ludicrous. What needs protecting are identities, not ideologies…

“The same logic could be applied to a white supremacist.” He added: “The ruling starts to undermine the protections that the Equality Act claims to guard.”

The antisemitism adviser also suggested that if anti-Zionism is labelled a protected characteristic then Zionism should be categorised in the same way, potentially collapsing the case.

The Attorney General should “reflect and come up with a solution,” he said. “There will be a consensus in Parliament that this needs ironing out.”

Masterstroke!

And, once again, thank you Teresa May for appointing him to this position.

Any legislation (probably in the form of a single paragraph) should sail through Parliament (both houses are overwhelmingly pro-semitic) and King Charles has already stated that he wishes to be known as “the defender of the faiths” and is thus likely to push his advisers aside to get to the Bill to sign it into law.”

Anne adds: Despite all their protestations to the opposite, anti-Zionism most definitely IS antisemitism, which I prefer to call old fashioned Jew-hatred. Here is a video from pro-Jewish activist and all-round heroine Heidi Bachram on the reaction of Miller’s fan-club to the overturning of his sacking. I feel sick watching this, and this is just a small example of the Jew-hatred prevalent in the streets and academia in the UK, the US and elsewhere in the so-called civilized world.

 

A packed room of pro-Palestinian activists hoot and cheer for the man who said Jews are not discriminated against. Who targeted Jewish students in his antisemitic conspiracy theories. Who invoked the “Jewish landlord” trope. They hoot and cheer. pic.twitter.com/Zrb6ml0chy

— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) February 13, 2024

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Anne adds: Brian, thank you for this thorough backgrounder on the convoluted case of disgraced Professor David Miller, a case which in my humble opinion should not have been convoluted at all. He is clearly a raging antisemite, using “Anti-Zionism” as a cover for his Jew-hatred. But the vagaries of UK employment law intervened.

Also thank you and kol hakavod on your potted history of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel throughout history back to Biblical times. This is such a necessary issue to press amongst the ignoramuses and haters.

And thank you for that last minute update about the wonderful Lord Mann and his proposal in Parliament. Let’s hope and pray it is accepted and passed.

 

IDF rescues two more hostages in Rafiah

In the last few days Hamas has been hysterically warning Israel against entering Rafah (Rafiah) in the south of the Gaza Strip. Strangely, their warnings have been accompanied by dire warnings from Egypt, the US and other western countries.

What – or who – were they hiding in Rafah??

Brothers-in-law Fernando Merman (60) and Luis Har (70) were taken hostage from Nir Itzhak on October 7.Courtesy of the family

We found out overnight – the IDF rescued two hostages in a daring raid which developed into an al-out firefight. Only one soldier was slightly injured in the operation.

Israeli special forces overnight rescued two hostages, brothers-in-law Fernando Merman (60) and Luis Har (70), during a complex targeted operation in Rafah, southern Gaza.

The men were kidnapped from Nir Itzhak on October 7, a kibbutz on the Gaza border, along with 3 other family members. Both are said to be in a good health condition.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Health, the former hostages were transferred to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv for medical examination and necessary treatment, including psychological support.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari gave a morning press briefing and revealed details of the operation, saying it had been prepared for a long time.

“Following an airstrike, at 1:49 a.m. (local time) the special forces broke into a building in Rafah and found Merman and Har on the second floor being guarded by armed terrorists,” Hagari said.

A firefight ensued, and Hagari said the soldiers used their bodies to shield the hostages from the gunfire.

Troops took Fernando and Luis to a safe zone where they underwent an initial medical inspection and were then transferred to Israel by helicopter. Hagari added  that the former hostages have already been “excitedly” reunited with their families.

Here is the IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari on the rescue:

Here is the video dubbed into English.

And here is the latests update from Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy. Scroll forward to the four minute mark, that’s when the video starts:

This post will be updated later as more information comes in.

May we continue to hear good news!

!הודו לה‘ כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו

!משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה

 

 

Chanukah Same’ach! – even during a war

It feels slightly surreal to celebrate Chanukah, one of the happiest festivals in the Jewish calendar, during wartime. However since Hamas ruined Simchat Torah possibly forever with their horrific massacre, rape and abduction binge, we cannot let them mar any more chagim of ours. Moreover, we are in a much different position since that terrible black day, the IDF are well on their way, with the help of G-d and our allies, to destroying Hamas and rooting out the viper’s nest of terror that has been sitting on our border for decades.

So since it is 1st day Chanukah, and we are heading into Shabbat Chanukah, I want to bring you, not exactly a Good News Friday post, but some moving and uplifting items from the battlefront and from around Israel.

Last night, at the central candle-lighting at the Kotel, an extra 138 Chanukiot were lit in honor of the 138 hostages still held in horrific conditions (according the 70 or so freed hostages of last week) by Hamas in Gaza, in order to keep their flame alive.

Families of hostages light Hanukkah candles

In a ceremony filled with hope and despair alike, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum lit a menorah in honor of the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza by Hamas.

The menorah was lit by recently-released hostage Amit Shani, 16, who shared a sense of excitement to be lighting the candles, along with a feeling of despair: “I am excited to light the first Hanukkah candle on Israeli soil. We will fight until the last hostage returns from Gaza.”

138 candles were lit on the “Hostages’ Menorah,” with a candle lit for each hostage remaining in captivity.

…

Raz Itamari and Shani Kaner, young women from Kfar Aza whose friends are held captive in Gaza, also spoke to the crowd. “We cry out and plead – return all the hostages home now, as soon as possible. You all know what happened on October 7th, you heard the horror stories in the news and read countless posts on social media.

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US Ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew was also in attendance and added: “Within this tragic war, we are reminding here tonight that light will always ultimately triumph over darkness. The United States stands by Israel now and always. We are committed to building here a future of lasting peace and security. We will not cease action until all 138 hostages return home.”

In a complete turnabout, almost a Purim-like ונהפוך הוא, the huge Menorah that stood on the roof of the Netzarim Synagogue in Gush Katif in Gaza, and which was removed at the time of the cursed “Disengagement”, the pullout of Israeli residents from Gaza in 2005, was returned from the Gush Katif Museum where it has been resting for 18 years, and was planted back in its rightful place. What could be a better sign that that?

On the left: an IDF soldier stands in front of the Menorah on the site of Netzarim in Gaza. On the right: Removing the Menorah from Netzarim Synagogue roof in 2005

An inventive IDF soldier decided not to let shell casings go to waste – and created a beautiful Chanukiah out of them!

Waste not want not! Rockets and shells into Chanukiyot. pic.twitter.com/VXrL36ZukC

— anneinpt אנחנו ננצח בעז״ה #JusticeforMalkiRoth (@anneinpt) December 8, 2023

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This reminds me of the Chanukiya that my late Grandfather created during the Second World War out of shell casings. We use it to this day in our family.

My late Grandfather Leo Strauss’s menorah made out of shell casings.

And to conclude this post, here is a beautiful drone show that took place last night in terror-struck Ofakim in the south of Israel for the enjoyment of its residents.

Wishing everyone Happy Chanukah, chag urim same’ach.

May Hashem protect our soldiers and citizens, and bring our hostages home safely and speedily.

Shabbat shalom!

עם ישראל חי!

On the hostage deal

Although it’s Friday, and we have already reached the first day of Chanukah I want to explain (or apologize) for my radio silence these last few weeks. The reason is that I simply get overwhelmed by the news, the emotions that flood me, the fear, the frustration… all of it. You don’t need me to tell you the news, and I can’t find the words to write down how I feel, certainly not in real time.

When the “hostage deal” (exchanging innocent Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas for vicious Palestinian would-be murderers) was announced I admit I was furious and terrified. Furious at once again being held over a barrel by the sadistic Hamas, and frustrated at an imposed ceasefire, which was clear would be violated very quickly by Hamas. But then again… we needed to get our hostages home.

In hindsight of course I was wrong on both counts. Yes, Hamas violated the ceasefire, no surprise there, but hearing the views of respected military experts who consistently insisted that the hostage deal was no bad deal, and extremely necessary, I calmed down. And my fears that the army would not go back in with full force into Gaza were unfounded. As you all know, the IDF has almost completely cleared out northern Gaza and are busy rooting out Hamas from the south.

Sadly every day brings news of more fallen and wounded soldiers. Israel being the small country it is means that nearly everyone knows or knows of a fallen or wounded soldier or civilian, knows or is acquainted with people who know the hostages and those murdered on Simchat Torah, 7th October 2023.

We must keep praying for the release of the hostages by any means necessary short of surrender by Israel. We must keep praying for refuah shlema, a complete recovery both physical and psychological, for the wounded soldiers, civilians and released hostages who underwent horrific treatment including phsyical and psychological torture at the hands of the Hamas sadist terrorists.

And we continue to pray to Hashem to protect our soldiers and our citizens who are still living under rocket fire all over Israel (although Baruch Hashem and thanks to the IDF’s successes in Gaza the rockets are more sporadic now).

I will close this with two short prayers: First for the hostages still being held in Gaza:

ושבו בנים לגבולם

The children will return to their borders

And secondly for the safety of our soldiers:

May Hashem protect our soldiers and defeat our enemies.

Kristallnacht 2023: Swords of Iron and an alarming rise in Jew-hatred

Here we go again. Tonight it is the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” when hundreds of synagogues were burnt down across Germany and thousands of Jews were arrested, some sent to concentration camps, others simply murdered. It is considered the start of the Holocaust although anti-Jewish laws had been in place for almost 5 years by then. You can read my father’s recollections of Kristallnacht when he was a 9 year old boy here.

The demonic virus of Jew-hatred (given the euphemistic name “antisemitism” by the antisemites themselves to disguise their very Jew-hatred) is rising at an alarming rate. Jewish communities worldwide are suffering an unprecedented onslaught featuring vicious assaults, daubing of Jewish houses in Paris and Berlin with a Magen David, taunts, discrimination and more.

As part of an intimidation campaign, some people in Berlin have started marking the buildings where Jews live pic.twitter.com/DapVPnIJ6v

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 14, 2023

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The daubings on a building in Paris (Image: Twitter)

A French Jewish woman was stabbed in her home and her door daubed with a swastika.

The presence of a mezuzah at her doorway, a traditional Jewish symbol, alongside the swastika points to a hate crime, prompting the Lyon public prosecutor’s office to suggest an “antisemitic motive” in their preliminary assessment, though not all authorities in France have yet to determine if it is considered an antisemitic attack.

Well, gee whiz, maybe the attacker just had a bad day at work! The stupidity and wilful blindness of the authorities enrages me!

In Dagestan, of all the obscure places in the world an antisemitic mob stormed a plane coming in from Israel “searching for Jews” (just like the Nazis and Hamas did).

Footage from the incident depicted a mob causing havoc within an airport terminal, fueled by information about the incoming flight from Israel. Dagestan, a region with a predominantly Muslim population, escalated as the mob reportedly moved from one plane to another, actively seeking Jewish passengers.

 

BREAKING:

A Lynch mob has stormed the airport in Dagestan, Russia and is now going from plane to plane looking for Jewish passengers.

A plane from Tel Aviv was landing.

In this video, they interrogate one of the plane technicians, asking him:

“tell us where the Jews are” pic.twitter.com/CEHrjrBmez

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 29, 2023

Across the world, anywhere where posters of the 240 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas have been posted on walls and lampposts, we have seen particularly nasty “pro-Palestinians” (again, these are Jew-haters, and are not pro anything) tearing the posters down. Posters of kidnapped children!! These haters cannot bear that Jews, Israelis even, are the victims in this situation. Palestinian victimhood MUST trump all. It’s juvenile and pathetic but evil and ultimately very dangerous.

Victoria Ruiz, a New York public defender, was filmed ripping down posters of Israeli hostages (Photo: StopAntisemitism/X/Twitter)

No matter how you feel about the war, you have to be an absolute demon to take a poster down of a 6 month old baby that’s been taken hostage by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/JQWNLxYnJd

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 5, 2023

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Even the police in both Germany (!) and the UK got in on the act on spurious points of law of “keeping social order”:

Berlin officials were accused of playing ‘bull**** bingo’ after trying to justify several of the city’s officers tearing down posters depicting images of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

At least three uniformed officers were videoed wordlessly taking down posters that share information about some of the roughly 200 civilians who were taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas following its deadly October 7 attack.

The video, shared to social media, comes after police in London and Manchester were severely criticised for taking down fliers depicting hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas.

In the US, Laura Woll, President of a synagogue in Detroit, was found murdered, stabbed to death, on her doorstep with no apparent motive, certainly not robbery. Are we being paranoid in suspecting Jew-hatred as the motive? Are the police investigating this crime properly? Or are they going to be as useless as their French colleagues?

Yesterday in Los Angeles, Paul Kessler, a Jewish man, was killed by a “protestor” at a “pro-Palestinian” (read: anti-Israel, anti-Jewish) demonstration. He was forcefully hit on the side of his head by a megaphone wielded by one of the protestors which caused him to fall and hit his head on the pavement. A few hours later he died in hospital. An autopsy showed the cause of death to be homicide by blunt force trauma.

The size and viciousness of the anti-Israel protests in the US are jaw-droppingly awful, and the situation on US campuses for Jewish students is even worse.

NEW YORK — Friction is continuing on college campuses a day after a tense moment between Jewish students and participants in a pro-Palestinian rally at Cooper Union, heightening safety concerns amid ongoing clashes over the Israel-Hamas war.

Jewish leaders and students gathered Thursday afternoon on the Manhattan campus to condemn the college’s handling of the incident. Advocates said several Jewish students in the campus library felt threatened by protestors who shouted pro-Palestine messages and appeared to be intent on breaking into the library room.

“This school is in violation of the civil rights of these students,” said New York City Council Member Inna Vernikov — who was recently charged with gun possession after she protested against a pro-Palestinian rally.

“It is their job to protect Jewish students. Could you imagine this happening to any other ethnic minority in New York City?”

The clash at Cooper Union is the latest example of conflict between students and faculty on college campuses. Anxiety surrounding campus safety has been growing as protests erupt across the country over the conflict in the Middle East.

Columbia University earlier this week postponed a major fundraising drive following an assault on an Israeli student after he confronted a woman for tearing down posters with names of photos of Israelis that Hamas took as hostages and dueling demonstrations on campus.

And following an anti-Israel protest at Binghamton University, a student declared that “Israel is worse than Nazi Germany.” Jewish students, faculty and alumni at New York University, meanwhile, signed onto a letter this week condemning the institution’s lack of response to the rise in antisemitism.

Students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., also projected pro-Hamas messaging onto campus buildings at night, with one reading “Glory to our Martyrs.”

And officials at Drexel University are investigating whether a Jewish student was the victim of a hate crime after the student’s dorm room door was set on fire.

There is so much more information out there, I’m sure you have all read and heard about all the protests and antisemitism ad nauseum.

Anti-Israel protests have taken place all around the world with increasing ferocity:

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli protesters rallied in London, Paris, Washington, Berlin and elsewhere on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as the intense fighting showed no signs of abating.

… Meanwhile, European capitals saw the latest of a series of rallies that have included both calls for a halt to the fighting and alleged praise for the Hamas terror group’s onslaught of southern Israel.

Moving on to the UK, similar vicious protests have been seen across the country, particularly in the big cities like London, Brighton, etc.

Protesters gather with placards and Palestinian flags during the “London Rally For Palestine” in Trafalgar Square, central London on November 4, 2023. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

There’s been a lot of sick stuff today. But this? A celebration of the bulldozer breaking down the fence that led to the rape, murder, beheading and mutilation of men, woman and children? In LONDON? Clear glorification of Hamas. Once again paging @metpoliceuk pic.twitter.com/d4cVx5T5PL

— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) November 4, 2023

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All this brings us to ask some deep questions. The main one is this: how is it that on Simchat Torah, 7th October 2023, Israel was attacked in a surprise invasion by Hamas who invaded dozens of border communities, and proceeded to rape, torture, murder, behead and mutilate 1,400 (one thousand four hundred) Israeli civilians! Like the Nazis 85 years ago, they searched inside closets, under beds, inside dustbins, everywhere, to find the hidden Jews and kill them. They then kidnapped another 240 or more Israelis and dragged them off, many of them severely wounded, 30 of them children including babies!, several of them very elderly, and have hidden them around Gaza.

And then… the world exploded in rage AGAINST ISRAEL!! I just don’t get it. Well, obviously I do get it. It’s antisemitism, Jew-hatred, bigotry, prejudice, indoctrination of thousands of years of “the Jews killed Jesus”, “the Jews poison the wells”, “the Jews control the banks, the economy, the weather, the New World Order” – take your pick.

There are several worthwhile articles I’ve come across in the last few weeks, from different standpoints. I would recommend you read them for your own information and to spread the word to your friends, family and contacts around the world.

First is this from Ynet: Decoding the Enigma: what’s behind the largest anti-Israel protests in Britain?

In the post-war period in England: There has been a 1,353% surge in the number of anti-Semitic incidents. The country has witnessed 533 anti-Semitic events. There have been 150 incidents targeting Jews on campuses, according to Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

…

Another aspect to consider is the history of England itself. According to Lederman, one of the focal points of the Western left in recent decades has been addressing the legacy of European colonialism. He notes, “there is a sense of guilt and a desire for historical rectification regarding the crimes of colonialism—such as the killing of indigenous people, territorial occupation, exploitation of natural resources, and even slavery, for which the British were no less culpable than the Americans.

“And how do they perceive our conflict today? Exactly in those terms. They see it as ‘superior whites’ governing another nation. Israelis are viewed as colonizers settling on lands belonging to others. For some, all Israelis are considered settlers, whether they are an innocent family in a kibbutz or young people enjoying a nature party”.

 

Nick Timothy in The Daily Telegraph warns that British Society will pay a terrible price for indulging extremism:

For this is about hatred, not peace. Many of those attending the protests are unembarrassed about supporting the rape and murder of Israeli civilians. Some were content to cry “Allahu akbar!” and chant for “jihad”, a term that the police are eager to explain might sometimes mean a peaceful inner struggle. Some shouted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a genocidal demand to destroy the state of Israel and cleanse the territory of its Jews.

…

The desire to play things down, to convince ourselves that this is all about a quarrel in a far away country, might be understandable, but it is profoundly wrong. The people chanting this hatred are almost certainly mostly British nationals. They are doing so in such huge numbers that the police have opted not to enforce the law for fear of wider public disorder. And while the hatred for now is targeted at Jews, it is also meant for the rest of us. One man yelled, “white trash!” at those who lined up to protect the Cenotaph from protesters. One speaker promised an intifada “from London to Gaza”.

And this is just what we can see on our streets. We now know the truth about the systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable white girls by gangs of mainly Muslim men,

… Meanwhile Islamist radicals, and organisations often set up and supported by foreign governments, have learned to exploit the absurdities of our modern politics. They operate the mechanics of our identity corporatism and competitive victimhood with skill. The Crown Prosecution Service, which helped to decide not to prosecute those chanting “jihad” last week, is advised on hate crime by the chair of Finsbury Park Mosque, who has praised Hamas as “martyrs of the resistance”. From the military to the prison service, the public sector is full of such examples.

…

We need a more muscular approach to end this culture of domestic separatism: in immigration, law enforcement, and public policy across the board. The police and CPS must be made to uphold the law, but the law should be tightened to clamp down on incitement, hate speech and extremism. There should be a register of imams and mosques, with unacceptable behaviour leading to preaching bans and closures.

TV channels that broadcast hatred must be shut. Charities that espouse extremist beliefs should be closed down. Foreigners who spread Islamist ideology should be deported. The burqa should be banned in public places, and the hijab banned for school children. Islamic supplementary schools should be regulated properly. The dual jurisdiction of our national law and sharia law must end, with sharia marriages criminalised. Public funding for mosques and Islamic centres must cease.

Some will say this amounts to picking on the Islamic faith, but the problem we face emanates from the Islamic world. Nothing will change until we tell ourselves the truth – and start to act accordingly.

The Wall Street Journal has a very important editorial on The Global War on the Jews (not Israel mind you). After listing the dozens if not hundreds of antisemitic attacks around the world they write:

Americans like to believe such things couldn’t happen in the U.S. They have. The Anti-Defamation League last week reported a 388% increase in anti-Semitic incidents from Oct. 7-23 compared with the same period a year ago. The 312 incidents the ADL recorded include a car carrying individuals with Palestinian flags allegedly swerving toward a Jewish family and several alleged assaults by pro-Palestinian protesters. The ADL tally counts 109 anti-Israel rallies that featured support for Hamas or violence against Jews in Israel.

These and too many other incidents to count put paid to the notion that one can distinguish anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism since Oct. 7. If protesters wanted to burn Israeli flags in a fit of wrong-headed pique about a two-state solution, that is one thing. Only anti-Jewish hate can explain how synagogues, children and airports are targets of this outrage.

Yet many Western intellectuals—and a growing number of politicians—insist on maintaining this false distinction. They’ve seen what Hamas has done to innocent Israeli civilians, and what pro-Hamas protesters have said and done in Western streets. They’d nonetheless forgive any violence by Hamas or Hezbollah against Jews as anticolonial defiance.

This is why Israel is fighting, and must fight, as hard as it is for its survival as a state. And why it’s inexcusable for any Western politician now to demand a cease-fire in Gaza. No leader who is demonstrably incapable of protecting Jews in his or her own country should try to prevent Israel from defending itself. This is how the West slips from “never again” into “nowhere is safe.”

This global war on Jews also clarifies what is at stake for Western societies in this fight. The West spent the decades after the civilizational catastrophe of the Holocaust vowing never again to allow itself to slide into such barbarism. What we see now in the attacks on Jews is how that slide began.

…

Today’s threats to democracy are different, but one lesson is the same and is crystal-clear: A Western society that can’t or won’t muster the will to defend its Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens won’t be able to defend itself.

And one more article which caught my attention by “Alan in Australia” who writes at his blog with the cute name C.R.A.P – Countering Racist Anti-Israel Propaganda.

He wrote a moving article “Something Evil This Way Passed” which I highly recommend:

Because multiculturalism remains an untouchable edifice in the West, that same progressive multiculturalism, for all the right reasons, has led to a wrong outcome where, in London for example, Mohammad Sawalha, a former Hamas terror leader was given British citizenship after he fled to the UK and now lives in a London house he bought on a municipal discount scheme.

In American universities, unchallenged statements by faculty professors labelling Israel a “fascist ideology”, a “genocidal machine”, a “settler-colonial invasion in Palestine”, left yet other lecturers feeling “invigorated” and “inspired” by the Hamas atrocities as they upended any moral decency and deleted agency by stating that “Hamas, unfortunately, has become a convenient scapegoat…”

The massive demonstrations of support for Hamas on the streets of European and American cities, with mobs calling for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews everywhere, and where the liberal, educated classes are either silent or are actually supporting barbarism under cover of supporting a “free Palestine from the river to the sea”, a term that doesn’t include the existence or security of a sovereign, legal Jewish state, continues to mystify and confound.

The false (and perhaps convenient) dichotomy of “Hamas bad, Palestinians good” ignores the fact that Gazans have brought the 2023 October war upon themselves.

…

For the tens of thousands of effectively Hamas supporters in the West, this empathy for the ghastly ideology as it were, points to a profound crisis of moral clarity for western democracies still unheeding of the slogan that “The West is Next”, an inexorable though bloodless erosion of Western values, ethics and, importantly, way of life.

The very concept of altruistic multiculturalism has been hijacked.

Read it all.

I don’t want to end this post on such a terrible note despite the desperate reality. Alan concludes his post with these stirring words:

But, the strength of Israel remains in its people, it survivors. The strength is its indomitable will to survive and re-calibrate its way forward.

And while its flesh was unforgettably ripped and scarred on October 7, 2023, the iron in its veins still courses strongly.

Am Yisrael Chai! The People of Israel lives!