ALERT Main Israel/Hamas/Gaza Thread
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More than a little truth in that comment
jward
passin' thru
Israel-Gaza: The Democrats' 'tectonic' shift on the conflict
Anthony Zurcher
10-12 minutes
Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcheron Twitter
image copyrightGetty Images
The latest clashes between Israel and the Palestinians has revealed exactly how much the political centre of gravity in the Democratic Party has moved on the conflict in recent years.
"The shift is dramatic; it's tectonic," says pollster John Zogby, who has tracked US views on the Middle East for decades. In particular, younger generations are considerably more sympathetic to the Palestinians - and that age gap has been on full display with the Democratic Party.
While President Joe Biden has expressed a more traditional view, repeatedly emphasising that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas rocket attacks, he's finding himself out of step in a party that is now at least as concerned with the conditions on the ground for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank - and Israeli policies viewed as contributing to their plight
Democratic diversity in Congress
To track the shift within the Democratic Party on Israel and the Palestinians, one can start by looking at that most representative US political institution, Congress. In the national legislature, US foreign policy sympathies have tended to tilt historically toward Israel's perspective in Middle East conflicts - in part because of the preferences of both Jewish voters (a key Democratic constituency) and evangelicals (important for Republicans).
As the US Congress has become an increasingly diverse body, however, that has had some serious consequences for US policy toward Israel. In 2021, a record 23% of members of the House and Senate were people of black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American heritage, according to a Pew Foundation study.
Two decades earlier, that number was 11%. In 1945, it was 1%.
A diversity of backgrounds has led to a wider diversity of viewpoints and a diffusion of power. The influential group of young liberal congresswomen, known informally as "The Squad", includes Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Somalian refugee Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, for instance.
image copyrightCQ Roll Call via Getty Images
image captionReps Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib are members of 'The Squad'
The most prominent member of this group, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, won her congressional seat by ousting a senior member of the Democratic congressional leadership, Joe Crowley, who consistently sided with Israel in past conflicts in the occupied territories.
Overall, the party - and its voters - look a lot more like the Puerto Rican descended 31-year-old Ocasio-Cortez than the 59-year-old Crowley - and that is making a difference.
They don't know Israel's early history and odds-defying triumph over adversity, he says.
"They know post-Intifada; they know the various wars, the asymmetrical bombing that have taken place, the innocent civilians that have been killed."
If the growing diversity in Congress is in part the result of the left-wing progressive movement that elected politicians like Ocasio-Cortez, that progressive movement owes a considerable debt to one man, Vermont Democratic-Socialist Bernie Sanders.
Early in his career,Sanders - who was raised Jewish and spent time in Israel in the 1960s - was generally sympathetic toward Israel's policies. By the time he first ran for president in 2016, however, he was expressing more support for Palestinian concerns - a view that set him apart from the rest of the Democratic field.
In a primary debate with Hillary Clinton, held during a March 2016 outbreak of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, Sanders spoke directly about the plight of Palestinians - their high unemployment, "decimated houses, decimated healthcare, decimated schools".
As noted by the Guardian's Ed Pilkington at the time, this broke an "unwritten rule" that talking about Palestinian suffering was a losing issue for politicians seeking higher office.
image copyrightPool via Getty Images
Sanders lost both his presidential bids, of course. The popularity of his expressed views, however, opened the door for down-ballot Democrats to take up the issue - as they also took up other parts of his progressive platform, including expanded healthcare, free college education, a higher minimum wage and environmental reform.
Since then, Sanders has hardened his condemnations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called a "desperate, racist authoritarian". And last week, he penned an opinion column in the New York times that, while pulling no punches, no longer seems a fringe Democratic view.
"The fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine," Sanders wrote, "and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control."
In that Times column, Sanders concludes by heralding the rise of "a new generation of activists" in the US.
"We saw these activists in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd," he writes. "We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories."
His final words lift a direct line from the Black Lives Matter movement: "Palestinian lives matter".
Sanders is noting what has become obvious during clashes between Israel forces and Palestinians over the past two weeks. Americans who found their political voice during last summer's activism in US cities are now turning their focus, and their rhetoric, on what they see as similar unchecked oppression in the Middle East.
media captionWatch: Biden accelerates away when asked about Israel
"St Louis sent me here to save lives," Congresswoman Cori Bush of St Louis - who unseated a long-time Democratic politician in a primary last year - said on the floor of the House on Thursday.
"That means we oppose our money going to fund militarised policing, occupation and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war, we are anti-occupation, and we are anti-apartheid. Period."
That has translated into growing calls to cut off US military aid to Israel - or at least use the threat of doing so to pressure Netanyahu to move away from his aggressive policies in the occupied territories.
The "defund the police" slogan now has a foreign policy companion: "defund the Israeli military".
Complicating matters for Israel's traditional backers in the Democratic Party is that US policy toward the Jewish state, like almost everything in national politics, has become increasingly polarised on partisan lines.
image copyrightPool via Getty Images
That, in no small part, has been helped along by long-time Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has forged closer ties with the American right over recent years. Obama-era Democrats have not forgotten Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress in 2015 at the invitation of Republicans, during which he made an unsuccessful attempt to torpedo congressional approval of the administration's signature diplomatic initiative, the Iran nuclear agreement.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump spent four years trumpeting his close relationship with Netanyahu and Israel's political right. He cut off humanitarian aid to the Palestinian authority, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and bypassed the Palestinians in his Middle East diplomatic negotiations.
That one-two political punch from Trump and Netanyahu was more than enough to have even some centrist Democrats rethinking their views on the Palestinian situation.
That trend could continue, in part because, Zogby says, Trump's efforts to cater to Israeli interests haven't translated into shifting support among Jewish voters for Republican candidates.
"That is wishful thinking on their part," Zogby says. "American Jews are fundamentally a liberal to progressive voting entity."
If Democrats can satisfy their progressive base without alienating their traditional Jewish voters, it becomes a much more comfortable political move.
If the Israel debate among Democrats in Washington is changing, the direction from the White House has only just begun to reflect that.
Biden and his top officials were slow to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - lagging behind even traditional Israel backers like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
image copyrightAnadolu Agency via Getty Images
image captionSmoke rises over Gaza City
They repeatedly blocked a UN Security Council resolution that also endorsed a ceasefire. The readouts of Biden's calls with Netanyahu have repeatedly noted that the president has emphasised Israel's right to self-defence, without little hint of criticism
There's been no talk of putting conditions on US military aid to Israel - and, in fact, before the most recent outbreak of violence, Biden authorised the sale of $735m (£518m) in arms to the Jewish state, much to the dismay of his party's progressives. During the 2020 presidential primary, he said calls to add conditions to US aid to Israel by Sanders and others were "bizarre".
The risk for Biden on this issue is clear, however. The president needs the backing of left-wing progressives in his coalition if he wants to pass his legislative agenda, including an ambitious infrastructure and social safety-net package.
Up until now, that support has been there. But if the Democratic left believes Biden is turning his back on what they view as Israel's gross human rights abuses, they could abandon him.
"We've seen a steady growth in support for Palestinians, but it's never really been a high-intensity issue," Zogby says. "It's becoming that. It's becoming a major wedge issue, particularly among Democrats, driven by non-white voters and younger voters, by progressives in general."
That this might happen in a foreign policy area, the Middle East, that has been a low priority for Biden so far in his presidency would be particularly stinging - and it's one of the reasons why Israel's advocates in the Democratic Party are concerned that Biden's support, which has been largely unwavering over decades of public service, may end up shaky.
Politician can only stay out of step with their political base for so long.
Posted for fair use
www.bbc.com
Anthony Zurcher
10-12 minutes
North America reporter
@awzurcheron Twitter
The latest clashes between Israel and the Palestinians has revealed exactly how much the political centre of gravity in the Democratic Party has moved on the conflict in recent years.
"The shift is dramatic; it's tectonic," says pollster John Zogby, who has tracked US views on the Middle East for decades. In particular, younger generations are considerably more sympathetic to the Palestinians - and that age gap has been on full display with the Democratic Party.
While President Joe Biden has expressed a more traditional view, repeatedly emphasising that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas rocket attacks, he's finding himself out of step in a party that is now at least as concerned with the conditions on the ground for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank - and Israeli policies viewed as contributing to their plight
Democratic diversity in Congress
To track the shift within the Democratic Party on Israel and the Palestinians, one can start by looking at that most representative US political institution, Congress. In the national legislature, US foreign policy sympathies have tended to tilt historically toward Israel's perspective in Middle East conflicts - in part because of the preferences of both Jewish voters (a key Democratic constituency) and evangelicals (important for Republicans).
As the US Congress has become an increasingly diverse body, however, that has had some serious consequences for US policy toward Israel. In 2021, a record 23% of members of the House and Senate were people of black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American heritage, according to a Pew Foundation study.
Two decades earlier, that number was 11%. In 1945, it was 1%.
A diversity of backgrounds has led to a wider diversity of viewpoints and a diffusion of power. The influential group of young liberal congresswomen, known informally as "The Squad", includes Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Somalian refugee Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, for instance.
image captionReps Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib are members of 'The Squad'
The most prominent member of this group, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, won her congressional seat by ousting a senior member of the Democratic congressional leadership, Joe Crowley, who consistently sided with Israel in past conflicts in the occupied territories.
Overall, the party - and its voters - look a lot more like the Puerto Rican descended 31-year-old Ocasio-Cortez than the 59-year-old Crowley - and that is making a difference.
They don't know Israel's early history and odds-defying triumph over adversity, he says.
"They know post-Intifada; they know the various wars, the asymmetrical bombing that have taken place, the innocent civilians that have been killed."
If the growing diversity in Congress is in part the result of the left-wing progressive movement that elected politicians like Ocasio-Cortez, that progressive movement owes a considerable debt to one man, Vermont Democratic-Socialist Bernie Sanders.
Early in his career,Sanders - who was raised Jewish and spent time in Israel in the 1960s - was generally sympathetic toward Israel's policies. By the time he first ran for president in 2016, however, he was expressing more support for Palestinian concerns - a view that set him apart from the rest of the Democratic field.
In a primary debate with Hillary Clinton, held during a March 2016 outbreak of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, Sanders spoke directly about the plight of Palestinians - their high unemployment, "decimated houses, decimated healthcare, decimated schools".
As noted by the Guardian's Ed Pilkington at the time, this broke an "unwritten rule" that talking about Palestinian suffering was a losing issue for politicians seeking higher office.
Sanders lost both his presidential bids, of course. The popularity of his expressed views, however, opened the door for down-ballot Democrats to take up the issue - as they also took up other parts of his progressive platform, including expanded healthcare, free college education, a higher minimum wage and environmental reform.
Since then, Sanders has hardened his condemnations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called a "desperate, racist authoritarian". And last week, he penned an opinion column in the New York times that, while pulling no punches, no longer seems a fringe Democratic view.
"The fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine," Sanders wrote, "and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control."
In that Times column, Sanders concludes by heralding the rise of "a new generation of activists" in the US.
"We saw these activists in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd," he writes. "We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories."
His final words lift a direct line from the Black Lives Matter movement: "Palestinian lives matter".
Sanders is noting what has become obvious during clashes between Israel forces and Palestinians over the past two weeks. Americans who found their political voice during last summer's activism in US cities are now turning their focus, and their rhetoric, on what they see as similar unchecked oppression in the Middle East.
media captionWatch: Biden accelerates away when asked about Israel
"St Louis sent me here to save lives," Congresswoman Cori Bush of St Louis - who unseated a long-time Democratic politician in a primary last year - said on the floor of the House on Thursday.
"That means we oppose our money going to fund militarised policing, occupation and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war, we are anti-occupation, and we are anti-apartheid. Period."
That has translated into growing calls to cut off US military aid to Israel - or at least use the threat of doing so to pressure Netanyahu to move away from his aggressive policies in the occupied territories.
The "defund the police" slogan now has a foreign policy companion: "defund the Israeli military".
Complicating matters for Israel's traditional backers in the Democratic Party is that US policy toward the Jewish state, like almost everything in national politics, has become increasingly polarised on partisan lines.
That, in no small part, has been helped along by long-time Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has forged closer ties with the American right over recent years. Obama-era Democrats have not forgotten Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress in 2015 at the invitation of Republicans, during which he made an unsuccessful attempt to torpedo congressional approval of the administration's signature diplomatic initiative, the Iran nuclear agreement.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump spent four years trumpeting his close relationship with Netanyahu and Israel's political right. He cut off humanitarian aid to the Palestinian authority, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and bypassed the Palestinians in his Middle East diplomatic negotiations.
That one-two political punch from Trump and Netanyahu was more than enough to have even some centrist Democrats rethinking their views on the Palestinian situation.
That trend could continue, in part because, Zogby says, Trump's efforts to cater to Israeli interests haven't translated into shifting support among Jewish voters for Republican candidates.
"That is wishful thinking on their part," Zogby says. "American Jews are fundamentally a liberal to progressive voting entity."
If Democrats can satisfy their progressive base without alienating their traditional Jewish voters, it becomes a much more comfortable political move.
If the Israel debate among Democrats in Washington is changing, the direction from the White House has only just begun to reflect that.
Biden and his top officials were slow to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - lagging behind even traditional Israel backers like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
image captionSmoke rises over Gaza City
They repeatedly blocked a UN Security Council resolution that also endorsed a ceasefire. The readouts of Biden's calls with Netanyahu have repeatedly noted that the president has emphasised Israel's right to self-defence, without little hint of criticism
There's been no talk of putting conditions on US military aid to Israel - and, in fact, before the most recent outbreak of violence, Biden authorised the sale of $735m (£518m) in arms to the Jewish state, much to the dismay of his party's progressives. During the 2020 presidential primary, he said calls to add conditions to US aid to Israel by Sanders and others were "bizarre".
The risk for Biden on this issue is clear, however. The president needs the backing of left-wing progressives in his coalition if he wants to pass his legislative agenda, including an ambitious infrastructure and social safety-net package.
Up until now, that support has been there. But if the Democratic left believes Biden is turning his back on what they view as Israel's gross human rights abuses, they could abandon him.
"We've seen a steady growth in support for Palestinians, but it's never really been a high-intensity issue," Zogby says. "It's becoming that. It's becoming a major wedge issue, particularly among Democrats, driven by non-white voters and younger voters, by progressives in general."
That this might happen in a foreign policy area, the Middle East, that has been a low priority for Biden so far in his presidency would be particularly stinging - and it's one of the reasons why Israel's advocates in the Democratic Party are concerned that Biden's support, which has been largely unwavering over decades of public service, may end up shaky.
Politician can only stay out of step with their political base for so long.
Posted for fair use
Israel-Gaza: The Democrats' 'tectonic' shift on the conflict
President Joe Biden has found himself out of step with parts of the Democratic base.
www.bbc.com
jward
passin' thru
Joe Truzman
@Jtruzmah
12m
Residents in different areas of the West Bank celebrating victory over #Israel in the latest conflict.
View: https://twitter.com/Jtruzmah/status/1395529827910750210?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Benjamin Weinthal
@BenWeinthal
The celebrations in Palestinian Authority territory, among Palestinians in Jerusalem, and in Gaza Strip re: Hamas's firing rockets at Israeli civilians recall the "Two Minutes Hate" in Orwell's 1984. Hamas and others are celebrating a totalitarian movement in Gaza.
7:06 PM · May 20, 2021·Twitter Web App
vector7
Dot Collector
BREAKING: Explosive device goes off during Palestine/Israel protests in NYC.
RT 05secs
View: https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1395527136757391363
RT 05secs
View: https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1395527136757391363
I get angry when people try to equate the way Israel and Hamas fight.
They are not the same at all.
This would never happen in any moslem country.
Try to imagine if this would ever happen in Syria, or Iran.
The woman receiving the kidney is an Arab Christian, but Jewish organs are donated all the time and go to the closest matched recipient who is most in need, regardless of their religion.
www.timesofisrael.com
Jewish riot victim’s kidney gives new lease on life to Arab woman
‘This Jewish kidney has now become part of me,’ says Randa Aweis, after transplant from Yigal Yehoshua, killed by Arab Israelis in Lod; ‘We’re just people, we need to live together
By NATHAN JEFFAY 20 May 2021, 2:50 pm 4
Randa Aweis, 58, an Arab woman who has just received a kidney from Yigal Yehoshua, a Jewish man killed by Arab rioters in Lod, May 2021. Dr. Abed Halaila, head of the transplant department at Hadassah Medical Center, is standing next to her. (courtesy of Hadassah Medical Center)
A kidney from a Jewish man killed by Arab rioters amid major unrest in mixed Jewish-Arab cities has been donated to an Arab woman at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.
Randa Aweis, 58, urgently needed a new kidney, and 56-year-old Yigal Yehoshua, who died on Monday a week after being pelted with rocks in Lod, was registered as a donor.
Aweis, a Christian woman from Jerusalem, is making a successful recovery after her transplant, and has now spoken to the donor’s wife to thank her. “We are like family now,” she said, lauding the “noble deed.”
Her daughter Niveen told The Times of Israel on Thursday that she is making a good recovery and looking forward to an easier life now that she has received the transplant.
Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died after being struck in the head with a brick while driving home in Lod. (Courtesy)
“We are so grateful to the Yehoshua family,” she said. “We feel, all at once, joy over mom’s transplant, and pain at their tragedy that brought it about.”
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFREE SIGN UP
She urged people to take a simple message from the story of the transplant.
“There is no such thing as Arabs and Jews,” she said. “Rather, we’re just people, and we need to live together.”
Her family now hopes to meet the Yehoshua family.
Aweis told Channel 12 news that she thought it was a prank when she received a call, after years of waiting, saying she had a new kidney ready for transplant.
Randa Aweis (Courtesy)
“This Jewish kidney has now become a part of me,” she said, offering condolences to Yehoshua’s family and declaring that she wants “peace between Jews and Arabs.”
On Thursday, Dr. Abed Halaila, head of the transplant department at Hadassah, visited Aweis and called the story of her new organ a symbol of hope.
He said: “We have just seen a woman receive a new organ, and a new lease of life, and I want to say a big thank you to the donor’s family.” He added: “I hope there will be peace and tranquility for all of us, and lots of good health.”
Yehoshua’s other kidney has gone to a Jewish man, Itzik Hodera, 67, and his liver has gone to a Jewish 22-year-old.
Yehoshua was buried on Tuesday in a large funeral where his family spoke of his belief in coexistence and of his decision to donate organs.
Family and relatives attend the funeral of Yigal Yehoshua on May 18, 2021, in Hadid. Yehoshua succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack during riots by Arab Israelis in Lod. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Efi Yehoshua told mourners that his brother Yigal would have been pained by the ongoing scenes of unrest in Jewish-Arab cities.
“You believed in coexistence,” he said, addressing his late brother. “You said, ‘It will not happen to me.’ You thought that everything would be fine.
“You have paid with your life — and given life to other people thanks to the donation of your organs,” he said.
They are not the same at all.
This would never happen in any moslem country.
Try to imagine if this would ever happen in Syria, or Iran.
The woman receiving the kidney is an Arab Christian, but Jewish organs are donated all the time and go to the closest matched recipient who is most in need, regardless of their religion.
Jewish riot victim’s kidney gives new lease on life to Arab woman
'This Jewish kidney has now become part of me,' says Randa Aweis, after transplant from Yigal Yehoshua, killed by Arab Israelis in Lod; 'We're just people, we need to live together
www.timesofisrael.com
‘This Jewish kidney has now become part of me,’ says Randa Aweis, after transplant from Yigal Yehoshua, killed by Arab Israelis in Lod; ‘We’re just people, we need to live together
By NATHAN JEFFAY 20 May 2021, 2:50 pm 4
Randa Aweis, 58, an Arab woman who has just received a kidney from Yigal Yehoshua, a Jewish man killed by Arab rioters in Lod, May 2021. Dr. Abed Halaila, head of the transplant department at Hadassah Medical Center, is standing next to her. (courtesy of Hadassah Medical Center)
A kidney from a Jewish man killed by Arab rioters amid major unrest in mixed Jewish-Arab cities has been donated to an Arab woman at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.
Randa Aweis, 58, urgently needed a new kidney, and 56-year-old Yigal Yehoshua, who died on Monday a week after being pelted with rocks in Lod, was registered as a donor.
Aweis, a Christian woman from Jerusalem, is making a successful recovery after her transplant, and has now spoken to the donor’s wife to thank her. “We are like family now,” she said, lauding the “noble deed.”
Her daughter Niveen told The Times of Israel on Thursday that she is making a good recovery and looking forward to an easier life now that she has received the transplant.
Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died after being struck in the head with a brick while driving home in Lod. (Courtesy)
“We are so grateful to the Yehoshua family,” she said. “We feel, all at once, joy over mom’s transplant, and pain at their tragedy that brought it about.”
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFREE SIGN UP
She urged people to take a simple message from the story of the transplant.
“There is no such thing as Arabs and Jews,” she said. “Rather, we’re just people, and we need to live together.”
Her family now hopes to meet the Yehoshua family.
Aweis told Channel 12 news that she thought it was a prank when she received a call, after years of waiting, saying she had a new kidney ready for transplant.
Randa Aweis (Courtesy)
“This Jewish kidney has now become a part of me,” she said, offering condolences to Yehoshua’s family and declaring that she wants “peace between Jews and Arabs.”
On Thursday, Dr. Abed Halaila, head of the transplant department at Hadassah, visited Aweis and called the story of her new organ a symbol of hope.
He said: “We have just seen a woman receive a new organ, and a new lease of life, and I want to say a big thank you to the donor’s family.” He added: “I hope there will be peace and tranquility for all of us, and lots of good health.”
Yehoshua’s other kidney has gone to a Jewish man, Itzik Hodera, 67, and his liver has gone to a Jewish 22-year-old.
Yehoshua was buried on Tuesday in a large funeral where his family spoke of his belief in coexistence and of his decision to donate organs.
Family and relatives attend the funeral of Yigal Yehoshua on May 18, 2021, in Hadid. Yehoshua succumbed to injuries sustained in an attack during riots by Arab Israelis in Lod. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Efi Yehoshua told mourners that his brother Yigal would have been pained by the ongoing scenes of unrest in Jewish-Arab cities.
“You believed in coexistence,” he said, addressing his late brother. “You said, ‘It will not happen to me.’ You thought that everything would be fine.
“You have paid with your life — and given life to other people thanks to the donation of your organs,” he said.
vector7
Dot Collector
We imported this crap through Obama's refugee resettlement programs.
RT 2:20secs
View: https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1395552516457304069
RT 2:20secs
View: https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1395552516457304069
jward
passin' thru
Israel Conflict News
@IsraelGazaICN
3m
IDF concludes Operation Guardian of the Walls: 100 km of tunnels destroyed - about 340 launch pits bombed
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ELINT News
@ELINTNews
31s
Operational update of Guardians of the Walls by IDF: IDF destroyed over 100 km of Hamas tunnels, hundreds of militants assassinated, about 570 strikes impacted militants rocket abilities, with 70 strikes on MLRS, strikes hit Hamas's weapons development and production bases
jward
passin' thru
EHA News
@eha_news
8m
#BREAKING #Turkey's President Erdogan: "The whole world needs to know what #Israel is, this state of terror." "All the world's oppressed people are waiting for the day when a strong Turkey will stand up and rise up."
View: https://twitter.com/eha_news/status/1395671337755189249?s=20
@eha_news
8m
#BREAKING #Turkey's President Erdogan: "The whole world needs to know what #Israel is, this state of terror." "All the world's oppressed people are waiting for the day when a strong Turkey will stand up and rise up."
View: https://twitter.com/eha_news/status/1395671337755189249?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Israel-Hamas ceasefire comes into force after 11 days of fighting
Text by:
7-9 minutes
An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Friday after the worst violence in years, with US President Joe Biden pledging to salvage the devastated Gaza Strip and the United Nations urging renewed Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Israeli aerial bombardment of the densely populated enclave killed 232 Palestinians, damaged thousands of homes and disabled critical infrastructure. Gaza rocket attacks killed 12 people in Israel and wounded hundreds.
Palestinians who had spent 11 days huddled in fear of Israeli shelling poured into Gaza’s streets, embracing one another in celebration in front of bombed out buildings and along streets covered in wreckage.
Mosque loud-speakers feted “the victory of the resistance achieved over the Occupation (Israel)". Cars driving around East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah at dawn flew Palestinian flags and honked horns, echoing the scenes in Gaza.
In the countdown to the 2am (23:00 GMT Thursday) ceasefire, Palestinian rocket salvoes continued and Israel carried out at least one air strike.
Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Egypt said it would send two delegations to monitor the ceasefire.
The violence erupted on May 10, triggered by Palestinians’ anger at what they saw as Israeli curbs on their rights in Jerusalem, including during police confrontations with protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.
The fighting meant many Palestinians in Gaza could not mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at Ramadan’s conclusion. On Friday, postponed Eid meals were held throughout Gaza.
In Israel, radio stations that had carried around-the-clock news and commentary switched back to pop music and folk songs.
Reporting from Jerusalem, FRANCE 24’s special correspondent Gallagher Fenwick said the immediate response had been “a lot of relief” on both sides of the conflict, but particularly in Gaza where the devastation of Israeli air strikes “has been huge”, both in terms of infrastructure and lives.
“On the Palestinian side, a very exhausted and desperate population welcomes this truce with open arms,” Fenwick said.
In Israel, Fenwick said “sirens were ringing up until the very last minute [before the ceasefire took effect], forcing people back into the bomb shelters – which have been quasi constantly open for the past 11 days".
But Fenwick added there was also frustration, with some Israelis wanting the operation to continue “because they consider that full deterrence has not yet been fully achieved”. Others, he said, have openly said that they have not understood “the angle of this Israeli operation”.
'A lot of relief'
Death toll, reconstruction
Gaza health officials said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, cast the fighting as successful resistance of a militarily and economically stronger foe.
“It is true the battle ends today but Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
El-Reshiq told Reuters in Doha the movement’s demands included protecting the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and ending the eviction of several Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
In Israel, relief was bittersweet.
“It’s good that the conflict will end, but unfortunately I don’t feel like we have much time before the next escalation,” Eiv Izyaev, a 30-year-old software engineer, said in Tel Aviv.
Amid growing global alarm, Biden had urged Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, while Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations sought to mediate.
In a televised address on Thursday, Biden extended condolences to bereaved Israelis and Palestinians and said Washington would work with the United Nations “and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance” for Gaza and its reconstruction.
After days of Israeli air strikes that destroyed residential towers and damaged electricity lines, Gaza officials said some 16,800 homes were damaged and residents were getting three or four hours of power compared with 12 hours before the fighting.
The Israeli military says its air strikes destroyed tunnels used by Hamas, militant commanders’ homes, rocket launching sites and weapons production and storage facilities.
Palestinian officials put the cost of Gaza reconstruction in the tens of millions of dollars, while economists said the fighting could curb Israel’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden said aid to Gaza would be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority – run by Hamas’ rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – “in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal”.
Hamas is deemed a terrorist group in the West and by Israel, which it refuses to recognise.
Power struggle
Analysts say a goal of the Hamas rocket campaign was to marginalise Abbas by presenting itself as the guardian of Palestinians in Jerusalem, whose eastern sector they seek for a future state.
Making the link explicit, Hamas named the rocket operation “Sword of Jerusalem”.
Abbas, 85, remained a marginal figure during the 11-day conflict. He secured a first telephone call with Biden during the crisis – four months after Biden took office – but his Western-backed Palestinian Authority exerts little influence over Gaza.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, an Abbas appointee, said: “We welcome the success of the international efforts led by Egypt to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in Gaza Strip.”
In perhaps a worrying sign for Abbas in his West Bank heartland, some Palestinians waved green Hamas flags in Ramallah, the seat of his government.
Hamas previously demanded that any halt to the Gaza fighting be accompanied by Israeli drawdowns in Jerusalem. An Israeli official told Reuters there was no such condition in the truce.
The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken planned to travel to the Middle East, where he would meet Israeli, Palestinian, and regional leaders to discuss recovery efforts.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had a “responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to address the root causes of the conflict”.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
Posted for fair use
Please see source for video
www.france24.com
Text by:
7-9 minutes
An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Friday after the worst violence in years, with US President Joe Biden pledging to salvage the devastated Gaza Strip and the United Nations urging renewed Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Israeli aerial bombardment of the densely populated enclave killed 232 Palestinians, damaged thousands of homes and disabled critical infrastructure. Gaza rocket attacks killed 12 people in Israel and wounded hundreds.
Palestinians who had spent 11 days huddled in fear of Israeli shelling poured into Gaza’s streets, embracing one another in celebration in front of bombed out buildings and along streets covered in wreckage.
Mosque loud-speakers feted “the victory of the resistance achieved over the Occupation (Israel)". Cars driving around East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah at dawn flew Palestinian flags and honked horns, echoing the scenes in Gaza.
In the countdown to the 2am (23:00 GMT Thursday) ceasefire, Palestinian rocket salvoes continued and Israel carried out at least one air strike.
Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Egypt said it would send two delegations to monitor the ceasefire.
The violence erupted on May 10, triggered by Palestinians’ anger at what they saw as Israeli curbs on their rights in Jerusalem, including during police confrontations with protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.
The fighting meant many Palestinians in Gaza could not mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at Ramadan’s conclusion. On Friday, postponed Eid meals were held throughout Gaza.
In Israel, radio stations that had carried around-the-clock news and commentary switched back to pop music and folk songs.
Reporting from Jerusalem, FRANCE 24’s special correspondent Gallagher Fenwick said the immediate response had been “a lot of relief” on both sides of the conflict, but particularly in Gaza where the devastation of Israeli air strikes “has been huge”, both in terms of infrastructure and lives.
“On the Palestinian side, a very exhausted and desperate population welcomes this truce with open arms,” Fenwick said.
In Israel, Fenwick said “sirens were ringing up until the very last minute [before the ceasefire took effect], forcing people back into the bomb shelters – which have been quasi constantly open for the past 11 days".
But Fenwick added there was also frustration, with some Israelis wanting the operation to continue “because they consider that full deterrence has not yet been fully achieved”. Others, he said, have openly said that they have not understood “the angle of this Israeli operation”.
'A lot of relief'
Death toll, reconstruction
Gaza health officials said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, cast the fighting as successful resistance of a militarily and economically stronger foe.
“It is true the battle ends today but Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
El-Reshiq told Reuters in Doha the movement’s demands included protecting the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and ending the eviction of several Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
In Israel, relief was bittersweet.
“It’s good that the conflict will end, but unfortunately I don’t feel like we have much time before the next escalation,” Eiv Izyaev, a 30-year-old software engineer, said in Tel Aviv.
Amid growing global alarm, Biden had urged Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, while Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations sought to mediate.
In a televised address on Thursday, Biden extended condolences to bereaved Israelis and Palestinians and said Washington would work with the United Nations “and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance” for Gaza and its reconstruction.
After days of Israeli air strikes that destroyed residential towers and damaged electricity lines, Gaza officials said some 16,800 homes were damaged and residents were getting three or four hours of power compared with 12 hours before the fighting.
The Israeli military says its air strikes destroyed tunnels used by Hamas, militant commanders’ homes, rocket launching sites and weapons production and storage facilities.
Palestinian officials put the cost of Gaza reconstruction in the tens of millions of dollars, while economists said the fighting could curb Israel’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden said aid to Gaza would be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority – run by Hamas’ rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – “in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal”.
Hamas is deemed a terrorist group in the West and by Israel, which it refuses to recognise.
Power struggle
Analysts say a goal of the Hamas rocket campaign was to marginalise Abbas by presenting itself as the guardian of Palestinians in Jerusalem, whose eastern sector they seek for a future state.
Making the link explicit, Hamas named the rocket operation “Sword of Jerusalem”.
Abbas, 85, remained a marginal figure during the 11-day conflict. He secured a first telephone call with Biden during the crisis – four months after Biden took office – but his Western-backed Palestinian Authority exerts little influence over Gaza.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, an Abbas appointee, said: “We welcome the success of the international efforts led by Egypt to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in Gaza Strip.”
In perhaps a worrying sign for Abbas in his West Bank heartland, some Palestinians waved green Hamas flags in Ramallah, the seat of his government.
Hamas previously demanded that any halt to the Gaza fighting be accompanied by Israeli drawdowns in Jerusalem. An Israeli official told Reuters there was no such condition in the truce.
The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken planned to travel to the Middle East, where he would meet Israeli, Palestinian, and regional leaders to discuss recovery efforts.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had a “responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to address the root causes of the conflict”.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
Posted for fair use
Please see source for video
Israel and Hamas both claim victory as fragile ceasefire ends 11 days of fighting
Israel and Hamas both claimed victory on Friday after their forces ended 11 days of fighting, but a clash between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem underscored the fragility of the…
www.france24.com
danielboon
TB Fanatic
This is my "favorite one"
jward
passin' thru
Israel Radar
@IsraelRadar_com
1h
IDF on alert for rocket attacks from the north; heavy fighter jet traffic over northern #Israel at this time,
@amirbohbot
reports via Hamal news service.
danielboon
TB Fanatic
It is a "BAR"
jward
passin' thru
AFP News Agency
@AFP
12m
#UPDATE Fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police broke out at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday, in the latest unrest at the sensitive religious site, AFP journalists and police said
View: https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1395708670474915841?s=20
Right now : unconfirmed reports that rioting began on the Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa compound, police deployed stun grenades
View: https://twitter.com/ignis_fatum/status/1395696604695379969
View: https://twitter.com/ignis_fatum/status/1395696604695379969
IDF Home Front Command lifts (almost) all of the restrictions that were issued due to the rocket fire from Gaza.
View: https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1395617776350412800
View: https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1395617776350412800
PM Netanyahu: "If Hamas thinks we will allow rocket 'drizzles' -- it is wrong. We will respond with intensity to any rocket fire. What was, is not what will be."
View: https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1395684988180471812
View: https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1395684988180471812
jward
passin' thru
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/898153945721339904/O****PfR_bigger.jpg
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
47m
JUST IN - Hamas leader Haniyeh thanks Iran for supplying weapons to Gaza in a TV statement.
View: https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1395725477415899136?s=20
jward
passin' thru
FJ
@Natsecjeff
4m
Palestinian Islamists have expelled the Mufti of Jerusalem from al-Aqsa and are raising chants in favor of Hamas. Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein is a moderate Muslim who has been appointed by Mahmoud Abbas.
View: https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1395708670474915841?s=20
jward
passin' thru
humm. Dougie may be right that they're not going to let the genie go back into the bottle.
SPIEGEL English
@SPIEGEL_English
1m
Middle East Crisis Ratchets Up Anti-Semitism in Germany http://dlvr.it/S07Wnq
View: https://twitter.com/SPIEGEL_English/status/1395760312851197955?s=20
SPIEGEL English
@SPIEGEL_English
1m
Middle East Crisis Ratchets Up Anti-Semitism in Germany http://dlvr.it/S07Wnq
View: https://twitter.com/SPIEGEL_English/status/1395760312851197955?s=20
Countrymouse
Country exile in the city
Israel-Hamas ceasefire comes into force after 11 days of fighting
Text by:
7-9 minutes
An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Friday after the worst violence in years, with US President Joe Biden pledging to salvage the devastated Gaza Strip and the United Nations urging renewed Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Israeli aerial bombardment of the densely populated enclave killed 232 Palestinians, damaged thousands of homes and disabled critical infrastructure. Gaza rocket attacks killed 12 people in Israel and wounded hundreds.
Palestinians who had spent 11 days huddled in fear of Israeli shelling poured into Gaza’s streets, embracing one another in celebration in front of bombed out buildings and along streets covered in wreckage.
Mosque loud-speakers feted “the victory of the resistance achieved over the Occupation (Israel)". Cars driving around East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah at dawn flew Palestinian flags and honked horns, echoing the scenes in Gaza.
In the countdown to the 2am (23:00 GMT Thursday) ceasefire, Palestinian rocket salvoes continued and Israel carried out at least one air strike.
Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Egypt said it would send two delegations to monitor the ceasefire.
The violence erupted on May 10, triggered by Palestinians’ anger at what they saw as Israeli curbs on their rights in Jerusalem, including during police confrontations with protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.
The fighting meant many Palestinians in Gaza could not mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at Ramadan’s conclusion. On Friday, postponed Eid meals were held throughout Gaza.
In Israel, radio stations that had carried around-the-clock news and commentary switched back to pop music and folk songs.
Reporting from Jerusalem, FRANCE 24’s special correspondent Gallagher Fenwick said the immediate response had been “a lot of relief” on both sides of the conflict, but particularly in Gaza where the devastation of Israeli air strikes “has been huge”, both in terms of infrastructure and lives.
“On the Palestinian side, a very exhausted and desperate population welcomes this truce with open arms,” Fenwick said.
In Israel, Fenwick said “sirens were ringing up until the very last minute [before the ceasefire took effect], forcing people back into the bomb shelters – which have been quasi constantly open for the past 11 days".
But Fenwick added there was also frustration, with some Israelis wanting the operation to continue “because they consider that full deterrence has not yet been fully achieved”. Others, he said, have openly said that they have not understood “the angle of this Israeli operation”.
'A lot of relief'
Death toll, reconstruction
Gaza health officials said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, cast the fighting as successful resistance of a militarily and economically stronger foe.
“It is true the battle ends today but Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
El-Reshiq told Reuters in Doha the movement’s demands included protecting the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and ending the eviction of several Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
In Israel, relief was bittersweet.
“It’s good that the conflict will end, but unfortunately I don’t feel like we have much time before the next escalation,” Eiv Izyaev, a 30-year-old software engineer, said in Tel Aviv.
Amid growing global alarm, Biden had urged Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, while Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations sought to mediate.
In a televised address on Thursday, Biden extended condolences to bereaved Israelis and Palestinians and said Washington would work with the United Nations “and other international stakeholders to provide rapid humanitarian assistance” for Gaza and its reconstruction.
After days of Israeli air strikes that destroyed residential towers and damaged electricity lines, Gaza officials said some 16,800 homes were damaged and residents were getting three or four hours of power compared with 12 hours before the fighting.
The Israeli military says its air strikes destroyed tunnels used by Hamas, militant commanders’ homes, rocket launching sites and weapons production and storage facilities.
Palestinian officials put the cost of Gaza reconstruction in the tens of millions of dollars, while economists said the fighting could curb Israel’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden said aid to Gaza would be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority – run by Hamas’ rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – “in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal”.
Hamas is deemed a terrorist group in the West and by Israel, which it refuses to recognise.
Power struggle
Analysts say a goal of the Hamas rocket campaign was to marginalise Abbas by presenting itself as the guardian of Palestinians in Jerusalem, whose eastern sector they seek for a future state.
Making the link explicit, Hamas named the rocket operation “Sword of Jerusalem”.
Abbas, 85, remained a marginal figure during the 11-day conflict. He secured a first telephone call with Biden during the crisis – four months after Biden took office – but his Western-backed Palestinian Authority exerts little influence over Gaza.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, an Abbas appointee, said: “We welcome the success of the international efforts led by Egypt to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in Gaza Strip.”
In perhaps a worrying sign for Abbas in his West Bank heartland, some Palestinians waved green Hamas flags in Ramallah, the seat of his government.
Hamas previously demanded that any halt to the Gaza fighting be accompanied by Israeli drawdowns in Jerusalem. An Israeli official told Reuters there was no such condition in the truce.
The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken planned to travel to the Middle East, where he would meet Israeli, Palestinian, and regional leaders to discuss recovery efforts.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had a “responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to address the root causes of the conflict”.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
Posted for fair use
Please see source for video
Israel and Hamas both claim victory as fragile ceasefire ends 11 days of fighting
Israel and Hamas both claimed victory on Friday after their forces ended 11 days of fighting, but a clash between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem underscored the fragility of the…
I somehow expected to find more on this ceasefire today than this one post---given that it's all that all the conservative radio stations are talking about.
I even thought it might have its own thread....but....
I'd like to hear what the current status is, and future speculation:
1. IS is holding?
2. Do you think it WILL hold?
(I personally, do not, and wish Israel would pound Gaza into the ground and take it back..........)
evenso
Veteran Member
If *we* are weary by this never-ending back and forth between Israel and Arabs, imagine how weary the Israelis are! I too wish they would just end this, once and for all and stop cow towing to the media. Israel never has been and never will be accepted by the rest of the world!
northern watch
TB Fanatic
The Revolution Comes for Israel
Column: What makes this war different—and disturbing
Getty Images
Matthew Continetti
Free Beacon
May 21, 2021 5:00 am
Israel has battled Hamas four times since the terror organization seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Each battle unfolds the same way: Hamas launches rockets at Israel’s civilian population, Israel bombs Hamas targets, and the fighting continues until terrorist infrastructure is sufficiently degraded so that the rocket fire stops for a few years.
Israelis call it "mowing the lawn." The last major clash was in 2014. In its origins, order of battle, and strategy and tactics, Operation Guardian of the Walls, which began May 10, resembles these previous flareups.
So what’s different? Just about everything.
The region has changed. In 2014 the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, legitimizing the nuclear program of Israel’s archenemy Iran, was a gleam in John Kerry’s eye. Its adoption the following year, and America’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018, realigned the Middle East along the axis of Iranian power. The result was an Arab-Israel détente formalized in the 2020 Abraham Accords. From a regional perspective, the Palestinian cause is less important than Iran’s ambitions.
Israel has changed. In 2014 Benjamin Netanyahu was at the outset of his third term and led from a position of strength. His indictment on corruption charges in 2019 initiated a political crisis that has led to four elections (and most likely a fifth) in the space of two years. On the eve of the latest violence, Israel’s bewildering politics became even more surprising when two of Netanyahu’s rivals enticed an Arab Islamist party to join a coalition government.
That effort collapsed when the rockets blazed. The subsequent outbreak of intercommunal violence in cities with large Arab-Israeli populations is a reminder of Israel’s pressing domestic challenges. The security issue unites Israel. Just about everything else divides it.
America has changed. In the summer of 2014, Barack Obama was a lame duck, the Republicans controlled the House and were on the verge of winning the Senate, and Donald Trump was the host of Celebrity Apprentice.
Obama’s dislike of Netanyahu and willingness to expose "daylight" between the United States and Israel was no secret. But anti-Israel invective was limited to the fringe. And anti-Israel media bias was nowhere near as bad as it is today.
Then came the Great Awokening. The dialectic of Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump drove the nation into its current obsession with race, culminating in the protests, riots, vandalism, cancellations, and iconoclasm that followed the murder of George Floyd one year ago. The Trump years brought a revolutionary fervor to American politics, radicalizing the left and burdening the rest of us with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her anti-Israel, socialist "Squad" of congressional Democrats.
The Squad shares an all-encompassing woke mindset that collapses individuals and events into a reductive binary of oppressor and oppressed. When the Squad looks at Israel and Hamas, it cannot see anything other than Critical Race Theory. And so this emboldened left draws disgustingly false equivalences between American racial minorities and Palestinians. It slanders Israel as an apartheid state. It demands America stop a planned weapons sale to Israel in the middle of our ally’s offensive against terrorists supplied by Iran. It says President Biden is "taking orders" from the Jewish prime minister.
What the Squad lacks in numbers it makes up for in noise. Its members exploit social media, show up on MSNBC, and amplify the hostility to Israel already thick on college campuses and in progressive enclaves. Its allies fill the op-ed pages with similar dreck, catering to the audience for politically correct, left-wing clickbait. The polemical onslaught is false and obnoxious. But it gets results, driving an Israel-shaped wedge into the Democratic Party and forcing Biden to step up his calls for a ceasefire.
This unappeasable hostility is a problem for Israel, for America, and for the Democratic Party. It makes me wonder if the head of the DNC has checked in lately with his British counterpart. There hasn’t been a Labour prime minister since 2010 and Labour just experienced another drubbing in local elections. Labour’s current leader has been trying to salvage his party’s reputation from the wreckage of his far-left anti-Semitic predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. It’s a struggle.
Explanation? Under Corbyn, Labour went hard left, abandoning its traditional working-class constituency for progressive social and cultural issues that appeal to the university crowd and the Very Online but turn off everyone else. Corbyn opposed Brexit, supported high levels of immigration, embraced political correctness, and tolerated the worst sort of anti-Semitism in his campaigns against Israel. The Socialist International became the Socialist Intersectional (Jews excluded).
The same process is well underway here. Not content with tearing down America, and energized by the cultural revolution of 2020, the Jackal Bins turn their gaze on the Jewish State. Anti-Semitism dogged the anti-Trump Women’s March. Black Lives Matter, which recently tweeted its advocacy for "Palestinian liberation"—no mention of Hamas’ genocidal intent—supports the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib require no introduction. Comedian Trevor Noah irresponsibly likens Hamas to a powerless four-year-old. The haters can’t believe their success.
Someone needs to disappoint them. As long as Hamas remains in power, Israel will be forced to defend itself. The Jewish State’s position in American politics can’t be allowed to deteriorate further. Not just for Israel’s sake. For ours.
The Revolution Comes For Israel (freebeacon.com)
Column: What makes this war different—and disturbing
Getty Images
Matthew Continetti
Free Beacon
May 21, 2021 5:00 am
Israel has battled Hamas four times since the terror organization seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Each battle unfolds the same way: Hamas launches rockets at Israel’s civilian population, Israel bombs Hamas targets, and the fighting continues until terrorist infrastructure is sufficiently degraded so that the rocket fire stops for a few years.
Israelis call it "mowing the lawn." The last major clash was in 2014. In its origins, order of battle, and strategy and tactics, Operation Guardian of the Walls, which began May 10, resembles these previous flareups.
So what’s different? Just about everything.
The region has changed. In 2014 the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, legitimizing the nuclear program of Israel’s archenemy Iran, was a gleam in John Kerry’s eye. Its adoption the following year, and America’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018, realigned the Middle East along the axis of Iranian power. The result was an Arab-Israel détente formalized in the 2020 Abraham Accords. From a regional perspective, the Palestinian cause is less important than Iran’s ambitions.
Israel has changed. In 2014 Benjamin Netanyahu was at the outset of his third term and led from a position of strength. His indictment on corruption charges in 2019 initiated a political crisis that has led to four elections (and most likely a fifth) in the space of two years. On the eve of the latest violence, Israel’s bewildering politics became even more surprising when two of Netanyahu’s rivals enticed an Arab Islamist party to join a coalition government.
That effort collapsed when the rockets blazed. The subsequent outbreak of intercommunal violence in cities with large Arab-Israeli populations is a reminder of Israel’s pressing domestic challenges. The security issue unites Israel. Just about everything else divides it.
America has changed. In the summer of 2014, Barack Obama was a lame duck, the Republicans controlled the House and were on the verge of winning the Senate, and Donald Trump was the host of Celebrity Apprentice.
Obama’s dislike of Netanyahu and willingness to expose "daylight" between the United States and Israel was no secret. But anti-Israel invective was limited to the fringe. And anti-Israel media bias was nowhere near as bad as it is today.
Then came the Great Awokening. The dialectic of Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump drove the nation into its current obsession with race, culminating in the protests, riots, vandalism, cancellations, and iconoclasm that followed the murder of George Floyd one year ago. The Trump years brought a revolutionary fervor to American politics, radicalizing the left and burdening the rest of us with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her anti-Israel, socialist "Squad" of congressional Democrats.
The Squad shares an all-encompassing woke mindset that collapses individuals and events into a reductive binary of oppressor and oppressed. When the Squad looks at Israel and Hamas, it cannot see anything other than Critical Race Theory. And so this emboldened left draws disgustingly false equivalences between American racial minorities and Palestinians. It slanders Israel as an apartheid state. It demands America stop a planned weapons sale to Israel in the middle of our ally’s offensive against terrorists supplied by Iran. It says President Biden is "taking orders" from the Jewish prime minister.
What the Squad lacks in numbers it makes up for in noise. Its members exploit social media, show up on MSNBC, and amplify the hostility to Israel already thick on college campuses and in progressive enclaves. Its allies fill the op-ed pages with similar dreck, catering to the audience for politically correct, left-wing clickbait. The polemical onslaught is false and obnoxious. But it gets results, driving an Israel-shaped wedge into the Democratic Party and forcing Biden to step up his calls for a ceasefire.
This unappeasable hostility is a problem for Israel, for America, and for the Democratic Party. It makes me wonder if the head of the DNC has checked in lately with his British counterpart. There hasn’t been a Labour prime minister since 2010 and Labour just experienced another drubbing in local elections. Labour’s current leader has been trying to salvage his party’s reputation from the wreckage of his far-left anti-Semitic predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. It’s a struggle.
Explanation? Under Corbyn, Labour went hard left, abandoning its traditional working-class constituency for progressive social and cultural issues that appeal to the university crowd and the Very Online but turn off everyone else. Corbyn opposed Brexit, supported high levels of immigration, embraced political correctness, and tolerated the worst sort of anti-Semitism in his campaigns against Israel. The Socialist International became the Socialist Intersectional (Jews excluded).
The same process is well underway here. Not content with tearing down America, and energized by the cultural revolution of 2020, the Jackal Bins turn their gaze on the Jewish State. Anti-Semitism dogged the anti-Trump Women’s March. Black Lives Matter, which recently tweeted its advocacy for "Palestinian liberation"—no mention of Hamas’ genocidal intent—supports the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib require no introduction. Comedian Trevor Noah irresponsibly likens Hamas to a powerless four-year-old. The haters can’t believe their success.
Someone needs to disappoint them. As long as Hamas remains in power, Israel will be forced to defend itself. The Jewish State’s position in American politics can’t be allowed to deteriorate further. Not just for Israel’s sake. For ours.
The Revolution Comes For Israel (freebeacon.com)
Last edited:
TammyinWI
Talk is cheap
I would like mossy oak camo, with a little pink.
TammyinWI
Talk is cheap
BLM, US Progressives, Depict Israel as White Oppressor vs. Hamas as Black Victims
By David Israel - 8 Sivan 5781 – May 19, 2021
Demonstration for BLM and 'Free Palestine' in Minneapolis, December 3, 2015.
Black Lives Matter this week posted a tweet that connects US Blacks and Palestinians in one struggle: “Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. (always have. And always will be).”
Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter
Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. ( always have. And always will be ). #freepalestine
8:52 AM · May 17, 2021
This linking of race and nationalism exposes both movements as inherently racist. The fact that Progressives in the US are flocking to this dark corner of political activism exposes them as being driven by the same unholy sentiments.
But on the outside, Progressive discourse on this latest round of violence prominently frames Israel as the white oppressor in a social justice conflict. According to this month’s issue of the Reut Group “Trend Detector,” titled “Shifting Democratic grounds on Israel – The recent round of violence and discourse dynamics on the U.S. political left.”
The author, Daphna Kaufman, explains that “Progressive prisms frame the logic and language of activity on the left in opposition to the Israeli side of the conflict. Specifically, this is evident in conflating the conflict with the struggle for Black lives in the US, and in challenging the very existence of a special US-Israel relationship; A robust progressive organizational infrastructure and prominent progressive policy voices play a central role in mainstreaming on the left and in the Democratic Party the progressive brand of activism in opposition to the Israeli side of the conflict; Increasing doubt and uncertainty about Israel’s future is reflected in the current progressive discourse, particularly among Jewish groups.”
Kaufman found that “the pro-Palestinian bloc of lawmakers respectively contextualized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians through their own respective lenses—ranging from their religious heritage, their experience encountering militarized policing and US military funding, to human rights abuses abroad.”
She cites Rep. Ayanna Presley (D- Mass) who drew direct parallels between white and police brutality against Blacks in the US and Israeli dynamics vis-a-vis the Palestinians. She notes NY-Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s tweet that lumps together downtrodden African Americans with the Arab squatters of Sheikh Jarrah: “Enough of Black and brown bodies being brutalized and murdered, especially children. Enough of the inhumanity. The White House must act.”
And there’s Se. Bernie Sanders’ New York Times op-ed: “… we are seeing the rise of a new generation of activists … in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories … We must recognize that Palestinian rights matter. Palestinian lives matter.”
Yes, it was only a matter of time before BLM became PLM (despite the difficulties most Arabs have in pronouncing the P sound).
Kaufman cites Marya Hannun’s report in Slate, How Black Lives Matter Changed the American Conversation About Israel and Palestine, where she says that “not only does the US government give billions of dollars in military aid to Israel each year, but US metropolitan police forces receive training in Israel. The same surveillance technologies and security contractors engaged to quell protests in the US are also used by the Israeli military.”
Yes, it was Israel that trained Minnesota cops to place their knees on the necks of Black suspects for ten minutes while said suspects are turning blue and expiring.
There’s a segment on discourse on Jewish support for Israel as complicity with racism, citing the report, Dozens of US rabbinical students sign letter calling for American Jews to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses.
Kaufman argues that “by imposing blanket categorizations, progressive discourse can fail to capture, or actively distort, the Jewish experience, including that its vulnerability tracks differently. This flattening of identity and context can result in a failure to distinguish the pillars underlying the U.S.-Israel relationship, or Israel’s unique circumstance within the region, in conducting engagement.”
Arguing that there emerges a mainstreaming of anti-Israel policy rhetoric on the Democratic left, Kaufman points to the Squad platform that attributes policy prominence to anti-Israel rhetoric, combined with pushback against support for Israel from powerful progressive voices. This connection links disapproval of the Israeli campaign in Gaza to demands to restrict US aid to Israel. Since recent events in Israel have exploded, discourse opposing Israeli actions has frequently connected the issue to aid restriction, she says.
The most worrisome outcome, says Kaufman, is the growing rift between the liberal segment of US Jews – which may be as big as 70% of Americans who self-identify as Jewish – and Israel. She cites an article by James Zogby on the recent success of pro-Palestinian advocacy, where he admits that “if it weren’t for young, Jewish progressives … we would be in a very different place right now.”
According to Zogby, “the emergence of a vocal and organized community of Jewish Israel critics, ranging from the moderate group J Street to more radical factions, like IfNotNow and Jewish Voices for Peace, has created space for Arab Americans and other non-Jews to criticize the Israeli government with less fear of being brand an anti-Semite.”
I recommend Shifting Democratic grounds on Israel – The recent round of violence and discourse dynamics on the U.S. political left. It’s a sober read, but Kaufman managed to compile a wealth of anecdotal evidence about a trend you have been terrified by for several years now.
www.jewishpress.com
By David Israel - 8 Sivan 5781 – May 19, 2021
Demonstration for BLM and 'Free Palestine' in Minneapolis, December 3, 2015.
Black Lives Matter this week posted a tweet that connects US Blacks and Palestinians in one struggle: “Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. (always have. And always will be).”
Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter
Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. ( always have. And always will be ). #freepalestine
8:52 AM · May 17, 2021
This linking of race and nationalism exposes both movements as inherently racist. The fact that Progressives in the US are flocking to this dark corner of political activism exposes them as being driven by the same unholy sentiments.
But on the outside, Progressive discourse on this latest round of violence prominently frames Israel as the white oppressor in a social justice conflict. According to this month’s issue of the Reut Group “Trend Detector,” titled “Shifting Democratic grounds on Israel – The recent round of violence and discourse dynamics on the U.S. political left.”
The author, Daphna Kaufman, explains that “Progressive prisms frame the logic and language of activity on the left in opposition to the Israeli side of the conflict. Specifically, this is evident in conflating the conflict with the struggle for Black lives in the US, and in challenging the very existence of a special US-Israel relationship; A robust progressive organizational infrastructure and prominent progressive policy voices play a central role in mainstreaming on the left and in the Democratic Party the progressive brand of activism in opposition to the Israeli side of the conflict; Increasing doubt and uncertainty about Israel’s future is reflected in the current progressive discourse, particularly among Jewish groups.”
Kaufman found that “the pro-Palestinian bloc of lawmakers respectively contextualized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians through their own respective lenses—ranging from their religious heritage, their experience encountering militarized policing and US military funding, to human rights abuses abroad.”
She cites Rep. Ayanna Presley (D- Mass) who drew direct parallels between white and police brutality against Blacks in the US and Israeli dynamics vis-a-vis the Palestinians. She notes NY-Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s tweet that lumps together downtrodden African Americans with the Arab squatters of Sheikh Jarrah: “Enough of Black and brown bodies being brutalized and murdered, especially children. Enough of the inhumanity. The White House must act.”
And there’s Se. Bernie Sanders’ New York Times op-ed: “… we are seeing the rise of a new generation of activists … in American streets last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. We see them in Israel. We see them in the Palestinian territories … We must recognize that Palestinian rights matter. Palestinian lives matter.”
Yes, it was only a matter of time before BLM became PLM (despite the difficulties most Arabs have in pronouncing the P sound).
Kaufman cites Marya Hannun’s report in Slate, How Black Lives Matter Changed the American Conversation About Israel and Palestine, where she says that “not only does the US government give billions of dollars in military aid to Israel each year, but US metropolitan police forces receive training in Israel. The same surveillance technologies and security contractors engaged to quell protests in the US are also used by the Israeli military.”
Yes, it was Israel that trained Minnesota cops to place their knees on the necks of Black suspects for ten minutes while said suspects are turning blue and expiring.
There’s a segment on discourse on Jewish support for Israel as complicity with racism, citing the report, Dozens of US rabbinical students sign letter calling for American Jews to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses.
Kaufman argues that “by imposing blanket categorizations, progressive discourse can fail to capture, or actively distort, the Jewish experience, including that its vulnerability tracks differently. This flattening of identity and context can result in a failure to distinguish the pillars underlying the U.S.-Israel relationship, or Israel’s unique circumstance within the region, in conducting engagement.”
Arguing that there emerges a mainstreaming of anti-Israel policy rhetoric on the Democratic left, Kaufman points to the Squad platform that attributes policy prominence to anti-Israel rhetoric, combined with pushback against support for Israel from powerful progressive voices. This connection links disapproval of the Israeli campaign in Gaza to demands to restrict US aid to Israel. Since recent events in Israel have exploded, discourse opposing Israeli actions has frequently connected the issue to aid restriction, she says.
The most worrisome outcome, says Kaufman, is the growing rift between the liberal segment of US Jews – which may be as big as 70% of Americans who self-identify as Jewish – and Israel. She cites an article by James Zogby on the recent success of pro-Palestinian advocacy, where he admits that “if it weren’t for young, Jewish progressives … we would be in a very different place right now.”
According to Zogby, “the emergence of a vocal and organized community of Jewish Israel critics, ranging from the moderate group J Street to more radical factions, like IfNotNow and Jewish Voices for Peace, has created space for Arab Americans and other non-Jews to criticize the Israeli government with less fear of being brand an anti-Semite.”
I recommend Shifting Democratic grounds on Israel – The recent round of violence and discourse dynamics on the U.S. political left. It’s a sober read, but Kaufman managed to compile a wealth of anecdotal evidence about a trend you have been terrified by for several years now.
BLM, US Progressives, Depict Israel as White Oppressor vs. Hamas as Black Victims
Black Lives Matter this week posted a tweet that connects US Blacks and Palestinians in one struggle: "Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We are a movement committed to ending
www.jewishpress.com
northern watch
TB Fanatic
The Jews vs. The World
Men pray on Jerusalem's Western Wall, 2019 (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)
Washington Free Beacon Editors
May 21, 2021 4:55 am
As a weak and sclerotic Democratic leadership cowers before the anti-Israel zealotry of the Squad and its acolytes in the House of Representatives, American Jews are getting a glimpse of what the future may hold: a return to a not-so-distant past in which Jews stood alone to face either slaughter or survival.
There are differences between now and then, of course. The Jews now have a state and an army, facts that provide the fig leaf for the new anti-Semitism now exhibited by left-wing Democrats, academics, and Jewish radicals. The old hatred has found new life in characterizing Jews as oppressors and the genocidal Hamas as victim.
In a kind of provincial stupidity the left would abhor in almost any other context, the liberal elite has conflated caricatures of the Palestinian experience with that of the minority experience in the United States.
The left-wing congressman Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), his anti-Semitism cloaked in the argot of the social justice warrior, has called on Israel to stop brutalizing and murdering "Black and brown bodies."
Members of the Princeton University faculty on Tuesday released a similar statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people that rejects what they call "Jewish supremacy"—an inartful attempt to liken Jews to their tormentors in the Ku Klux Klan.
The faculty statement will have no impact on world events, but it sends a clear message to Jewish students at the university. It will be familiar to any Jew who managed to sneak into Princeton between its founding in 1746 and the infamous "dirty bicker" of 1958, in which Jews were systematically excluded from the school's social clubs. University-sanctioned anti-Semitism has been the rule, not the exception, at Princeton.
Finally, there are the Jews who will give cover for this Jew-hatred. Many signed the Princeton letter. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), who made a name for herself arguing that congressional support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins," has a Jewish spokesman. Hamas has retained a Jewish lawyer, too.
We don't despair for two reasons.
First, the enmity of the world around us is the strand that connects the Jews of today to their ancient ancestors.
The brief moment in which the majority of the world's remaining Jews found safety in Israel and the United States is a historical aberration, but Jewish culture has well preserved the outsider mentality that will be necessary as we brace for the return to normalcy.
Second, Zionism was incubated and refined for moments just like this. The good will of the United States was a blessing for Israel; it was not, however, a prerequisite for Zionism's success. The very premise of the movement was that the Jews could rely on no one but themselves for their own survival.
And for American Jews who can imagine no other home and no other life, we still have righteous and stalwart allies, from our Evangelical Christian friends to Republicans in Congress (with the notable and ignoble exception of Indiana senator Todd Young) to the vast majority of the American people.
Despite a steady diet of anti-Israel invective by the media, Americans seem largely immune to the prejudices and fads of the country's elite: The latest Economist/YouGov poll shows that 63 percent of Americans have the decency and common sense to say that protecting Israel should be either "very important" or "somewhat important" to the United States.
The future may yet be as dark as the past, but not yet. Hamas and its many sympathizers here and around the world will have to endure at least another day of unrepentant Jewish survival.
The Jews vs. The World - Washington Free Beacon
Men pray on Jerusalem's Western Wall, 2019 (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)
Washington Free Beacon Editors
May 21, 2021 4:55 am
As a weak and sclerotic Democratic leadership cowers before the anti-Israel zealotry of the Squad and its acolytes in the House of Representatives, American Jews are getting a glimpse of what the future may hold: a return to a not-so-distant past in which Jews stood alone to face either slaughter or survival.
There are differences between now and then, of course. The Jews now have a state and an army, facts that provide the fig leaf for the new anti-Semitism now exhibited by left-wing Democrats, academics, and Jewish radicals. The old hatred has found new life in characterizing Jews as oppressors and the genocidal Hamas as victim.
In a kind of provincial stupidity the left would abhor in almost any other context, the liberal elite has conflated caricatures of the Palestinian experience with that of the minority experience in the United States.
The left-wing congressman Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), his anti-Semitism cloaked in the argot of the social justice warrior, has called on Israel to stop brutalizing and murdering "Black and brown bodies."
Members of the Princeton University faculty on Tuesday released a similar statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people that rejects what they call "Jewish supremacy"—an inartful attempt to liken Jews to their tormentors in the Ku Klux Klan.
The faculty statement will have no impact on world events, but it sends a clear message to Jewish students at the university. It will be familiar to any Jew who managed to sneak into Princeton between its founding in 1746 and the infamous "dirty bicker" of 1958, in which Jews were systematically excluded from the school's social clubs. University-sanctioned anti-Semitism has been the rule, not the exception, at Princeton.
Finally, there are the Jews who will give cover for this Jew-hatred. Many signed the Princeton letter. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), who made a name for herself arguing that congressional support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins," has a Jewish spokesman. Hamas has retained a Jewish lawyer, too.
We don't despair for two reasons.
First, the enmity of the world around us is the strand that connects the Jews of today to their ancient ancestors.
The brief moment in which the majority of the world's remaining Jews found safety in Israel and the United States is a historical aberration, but Jewish culture has well preserved the outsider mentality that will be necessary as we brace for the return to normalcy.
Second, Zionism was incubated and refined for moments just like this. The good will of the United States was a blessing for Israel; it was not, however, a prerequisite for Zionism's success. The very premise of the movement was that the Jews could rely on no one but themselves for their own survival.
And for American Jews who can imagine no other home and no other life, we still have righteous and stalwart allies, from our Evangelical Christian friends to Republicans in Congress (with the notable and ignoble exception of Indiana senator Todd Young) to the vast majority of the American people.
Despite a steady diet of anti-Israel invective by the media, Americans seem largely immune to the prejudices and fads of the country's elite: The latest Economist/YouGov poll shows that 63 percent of Americans have the decency and common sense to say that protecting Israel should be either "very important" or "somewhat important" to the United States.
The future may yet be as dark as the past, but not yet. Hamas and its many sympathizers here and around the world will have to endure at least another day of unrepentant Jewish survival.
The Jews vs. The World - Washington Free Beacon
TidesofTruth
Veteran Member
If I were a younger man with no family . . .
Texican
Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
The war between Israel and Hamas has cooled down some, but with the next Hamas missile barrage this will start all over and when will it turn into a world wide conflict/
The stench of war has not gone away. Sad.
Texican....
jward
passin' thru
Megh Updates
@MeghUpdates
In a Precision Air Strike , Israeli Air Force Targets & Neutralizes Iran Backed Hizbollah Commander traveling in a Car along Syria-Iraq Border
1:45 PM · May 22, 2021·Twitter for Android
@MeghUpdates
In a Precision Air Strike , Israeli Air Force Targets & Neutralizes Iran Backed Hizbollah Commander traveling in a Car along Syria-Iraq Border
1:45 PM · May 22, 2021·Twitter for Android
1-12020
Senior Member
Uh that will piss them off and might make things more interesting.
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
Ain't that special. Hezzbollah will HAVE to respond to that kind of provocation. Missile salvo into northern Israel on the deck. Israel just violated Syria and Iraq and has now sucked in the Shia, Assad of Syria, Hezzbollah, Iran and Iraq plus maybe Russia.
Super dooper
time. And you all thought they had a ceasefire. 
Super dooper
time. And you all thought they had a ceasefire. 
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
LOL! My Mossberg is black with a camo pink strap and a pink feather hanging off the end! Yeah, I like it!
jward
passin' thru
O goodie. More interesting. Coz it was so boring before eh?
:: too tired to be alarmed face. Crawls back under covers. ::
:: too tired to be alarmed face. Crawls back under covers. ::
jward
passin' thru
No one told me we could have FEATHERS :: pouts :: Bet that'd make a lovely gift though ifin anyone wonders
what I still need
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
jward
passin' thru
Joe Truzman
@Jtruzmah
The military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Saraya al-Quds, claimed responsibility for an attack against IDF soldiers in Hebron on May 18. The militant is Islam Ghayad Zawahideh from Hebron. He was killed in the attack by IDF soldiers. #Israel
View: https://twitter.com/Jtruzmah/status/1396192305145540608?s=20
The militant group stated that he was killed as a part of the recent conflict with #Israel. In other words, he was sent on a mission in the West Bank as a planned attack during the fighting in
@Jtruzmah
The military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Saraya al-Quds, claimed responsibility for an attack against IDF soldiers in Hebron on May 18. The militant is Islam Ghayad Zawahideh from Hebron. He was killed in the attack by IDF soldiers. #Israel
View: https://twitter.com/Jtruzmah/status/1396192305145540608?s=20
The militant group stated that he was killed as a part of the recent conflict with #Israel. In other words, he was sent on a mission in the West Bank as a planned attack during the fighting in
TammyinWI
Talk is cheap
LOL...sounds great. A feather, too! But, lol, that reminded me of those "roach clips" that a person could win as a prize at a carnival eons ago- think it was a few neon-color feathers that were on leather strings...lol.
jward
passin' thru
Amichai Stein
@AmichaiStein1
#BREAKING: A factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel has downed an armed Iranian drone that crossed into Israel -
@patrickwintour
scoop
10:25 AM · May 23, 2021·Twitter for Android
@AmichaiStein1
#BREAKING: A factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel has downed an armed Iranian drone that crossed into Israel -
@patrickwintour
scoop
10:25 AM · May 23, 2021·Twitter for Android