Tag Archives: Gaza Strip

The Numbers Tell The Story

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The media tells us that Israel is unmercifully killing civilian Palestinians, but is that really the truth? First of all, Israel invites the civilians to leave an area before it attacks. It recommends safe zones for them to go. Secondly, there are very few Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who do not support Hamas.

On Monday, Pamela Geller reported the following on the Geller Report:

Don’t say “Hamas’ massacre.” Say “the Palestinian massacre.” That’s the way Palestinians see Oct. 7.

Every poll of Palestinians since October 7, 2023, by both AWRAD – Arab World for Research and Development, and PSR – Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians supported and continue to support the rapes, torture, beheadings, and murder of more than 1,100 people in southern Israel led by Hamas, and their kidnapping of 250 hostages.

Significantly, the polls found that the support in the West Bank was higher than the that the Gaza Strip. Asked if they supported the attack on Oct 7, the first poll in November 2023 found West Bank support at 83%. Half a year later, in June 2024, after the destruction in Gaza, 73% still said that the decision to attack Israel was correct. In the Gaza Strip, two months into the war support had already dropped to 63% and continued to fall to only 31% in March 2024, saying it was correct to attack. Astonishingly, the joy over the rape, torture, beheadings, and murder of Israelis was so great that even after much of Gaza was in rubble following Israel’s counter attack, for West Bank Arabs that one day of horror inflicted on Israelis, made the destruction of Gaza an acceptable price to pay.

Israel did not start this war. They did not wantonly murder innocent women and children. From what I have read, the October 7th invasion by Hamas was supposed to happen at a later date simultaneously with an invasion in the north of Israel by Hezbollah. Thank God that Hamas got impatient and started without Hezbollah. The only path to peace in the Middle East is through the elimination of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the leaders of their sponsor nation, Iran. A regime change in Iran will begin to bring peace to the region.

Isn’t This Racist?

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On Wednesday, The Jewish News Syndicate reported that the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution declaring Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line. That’s interesting. Israel is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Jews, Christians, and Muslims have the same rights and are allowed to participate in the government of the nation. Why is the United Nations picking on the a non-racist country in the area rather than the countries where Jews are not allowed? Why–because there are now enough Muslim countries in the United Nations to begin to take over the organization and to align with the non-Muslim tyrants to attempt to make Sharia Law and Muslim dominance a feature of the United Nations.

The article reports:

More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year.

The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within 12 months, which means evacuating all Jewish communities beyond the armistice line, including Jerusalem’s Old City.

It also bans arms sales to the IDF of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.

The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

Just for the record, this is the land given to Israel by the Balfour Declaration”

These are the borders for the Jewish state set up by the League of Nations:

The Arabs do not have a legitimate claim to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, or the Gaza Strip. Historically, all of these lands are Jewish and play a major role in both Jewish and Christian history.

The article at the Jewish News Syndicate concludes:

Arsen Ostrovsky and Nadav Steinman, CEO and board chair, respectively, of the International Legal Forum, stated that “today, simply put, the United Nations has become the diplomatic arm of Hamas” and that the resolution “is just the latest in a litany of obscenely one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. since Oct. 7.” 

“All it does is reward the murderers, rapists and abductors of Hamas while pouring further fuel on worldwide antisemitism and eroding whatever remaining credibility of the already problematic and politicized International Court of Justice, upon which this resolution is meant to be based,” they added. “Ultimately, peace will only prevail when Hamas is defeated and the hostages are released, not through tiresome antics and pyrrhic Palestinian ‘victories’ at the U.N.”

Giving land to terrorists has never worked in the past. There is no reason to believe that it will work in the future.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You

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On June 18th, The Gatestone Institute posted an article that illustrates the difference between the Israeli and Palestinian cultures. First of all, the Palestinians are simply another Arab tribe. They have never had a country, and if they want one, it would behoove the Arabs to give them one–they have no claim to Israel. The cultural differences between the Palestinians and the Israelis are significant.

The article reports:

    • Prior to the October 7 massacre, more than 170,000 Palestinians were working in Israel, constituting an important source of income for the Palestinian economy…. The Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were permitted to work in Israel received many of the same rights as Israeli workers, including health insurance and pension plans.
    • “I will be able to earn about $120 dollars a day [in Israel], while I cannot even earn $250 dollars a month in Gaza. Due to the difficult political and economic conditions, the people of the Gaza Strip suffer greatly from poverty and are unable to build a future for their children like their parents.” — Mohammed Kamal, a 38-year-old father of four from the Gaza Strip, newarab.com, March 24, 2022.
    • It appears that the murderers and rapists from the Gaza Strip saw Israel’s goodwill gestures as an indication of Israel’s weakness. In addition, they apparently saw the controversy in Israel surrounding the Israeli government’s judicial reform plan as a sign that Israel had become extremely weak, especially when anti-government protesters threatened to boycott military reserve service.
    • The October 7 atrocities serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about improving the living conditions of the Palestinians or strengthening their economy. Instead, the conflict is about the desire of the majority of Palestinians to slaughter Jews and destroy Israel.
    • Pre-and post-October 7 public opinion polls have consistently demonstrated that the majority of Palestinians back Hamas and believe that the atrocities committed on that day were “correct.”
    • Now, Palestinians can blame Hamas not only for dragging them into a disastrous war with Israel, but also for having left tens of thousands of families jobless in the wake of their loss of permits to work in Israel.
    • Instead of brainwashing and indoctrinating their people against Israel and Jews, Palestinian leaders need to be required to focus on creating job opportunities and boosting the Palestinian economy, which the flow of international handouts have relieved them from doing.
    • The Palestinians would also greatly benefit if they would realize that there are actually dire repercussions when they “bite the hand that feeds them.”

The attack of October 7th illustrates the damage that propaganda can cause. The people in Gaza was so indoctrinated with hate for Israel that they did not fully consider the consequences of their actions. There was no consideration of how to support their families once they killed their employers and their families.

There was a post today on Twitter that suggested that all we need to do to bring peace to the Middle East is replace the government of Iran with a western-leaning republic. I think that makes sense.

Good News From Israel

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On June 8, The Jerusalem Post reported the following:

The IDF released the following statement on Saturday:

“It has been cleared for publication that in a complex operation by the IDF, Shin Bet, and the Yamam unit of the Israel police four Israeli hostages were rescued this morning (Saturday). The hostages, Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40), were kidnapped by Hamas to the Gaza Strip from the ‘Nova’ party on October 7th.

The hostages were rescued by Shin Bet and Yamam fighters from two different locations in an operation in the heart of Nuseirat.

Their medical condition is stable, and they have been transferred for further medical examinations at the ‘Sheba’ Medical Center in Tel HaShomer.

Security forces will continue to make every effort to bring back the hostages.”

Later, in a televised statement, IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari  spoke on the heroic operation, saying:

“The IDF and Yamam infiltrated two facilities while under fire by Hamas terrorists. A Yamam soldier was seriously injured in the operation and has just reached the hospital. We pray for his well-being.

…When asked by KAN 11 if there were other hostages with them, “We cannot answer this intelligence questions about other hostages. We must be careful with information security. This operation could have ended very differently.”

It is wonderful news that these four hostages were rescued. It also reassures us that at least some of the remaining hostages held are still alive. Israel needs to keep fighting to free the hostages and to free Gaza from the tyrannical grip of Hamas.

 

I Have No Doubt This Is The Result Of American Meddling

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Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz wants to be Prime Minister of Israel. The Biden administration is working with him to make that happen. Mr. Gantz has visited America numerous times recently to meet with top Biden administration officials. He has gotten so wrapped up in his own ambition that he has forgotten his loyalty to his own country. He is reported to support the idea of an eventual two-state solution. He has forgotten that the residents of the Gaza Strip were sending missiles into Israel before Hamas took over. Why does he think a new state in Gaza would be any different?

On Saturday, MSN reported:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war with Hamas.

Gantz told a press conference he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by June 8. If his expectations are not met, he said, he will withdraw his centrist party from the conservative premier’s broadened emergency coalition.

…Gantz said his proposed six-point plan would include bringing a temporary U.S.-European-Arab-Palestinian system of civil administration for Gaza while Israel retains security control.

It would also institute equitable national service for all Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are now exempted from the military draft and have two parties in Netanyahu’s coalition determined to preserve the waiver.

We have already seen the corruption and takeover of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Why would anyone be willing to allow anyone other than Israel to control Gaza? When Israel controlled Gaza before 2005, the greenhouses of Gaza fed Gaza and Israel and Gaza prospered. When the Israelis left Gaza, the residents destroyed the greenhouses and shortly thereafter began firing rockets into Israel. The residents destroyed their own infrastructure and used aid money from other countries to build tunnels and buy weapons. It is telling that Israel has air-raid shelters throughout the country for civilians, and Gaza has tunnels to protect its military and no air-raid shelters for civilians. That alone tells you how much the people in control of Gaza value human life. Israel is the only country in the world that truly cares about Israel’s security. If we want Israel to continue to exist, we need to let Israel control Gaza. Just as Arabs have more freedom in Israel than in any other country in the Middle East (there are Arabs in the Israeli government–there are no Jews in the governments of any Arab countries), the citizens of Gaza will have more freedom under Israel (and Israel will be more secure and the Middle East more stable) if Israel controls Gaza.

 

When Actions Speak Louder Than Words

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A lot of nations have been pressuring Israel for a cease-fire, despite the horrors of October 7th. Evidently the world community thinks it’s okay to allow Hamas to be in a position to commit the atrocities of October 7th again. Worse than that, the world community intentionally or otherwise is enabling Hamas to survive the attack by Israel.

On May 20th, The Jewish News Syndicate reported the following:

The Hamas terrorist organization has profited at least $500 million off humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to a report that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 last week.

Veteran analyst Ehud Yaari, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the broadcaster on Thursday that, according to a calculation he made with “a friend—I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention his name,” Hamas earned “no less” than half a billion dollars from the aid.

“We provide [this] for them,” said the Arab affairs analyst, adding: “We need to start creating reality, instead of this fruitless discussion about what will happen the ‘day after’ [the war with Hamas ends].”

The Tzav 9 (“Order 9”) movement, which has led protests against Jerusalem’s decision to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Strip freely, said that while “the hostages are groaning in captivity, IDF soldiers are risking their lives and the children of the [Gaza] Envelope do not sleep at night,” the terror group “continues to exist and enjoy financial prosperity.”

“With a weak government and lax leadership, it is up to the entire nation to stand up so that this miserable and intolerable reality will end,” stated the organization. “No aid should go in until the last hostages return.”

How is the humanitarian aid being used? Is it used to barter with other Arab countries for weapons? Does any of the food supplies go to ordinary citizens or hostages? Until these questions are answered, it is a mistake to send anything into Gaza.

Sending aid to Hamas is like feeding a crocodile in the hopes that it will not eat you. Gaza was a terrorist state and does not need to be recreated as a terrorist state.

Lest We Forget

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the five Americans who are still being held hostage by Hamas. These are the names of the five Americans–Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, Omer Neutra, 22, Edan Alexander, 20, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.

The article includes a brief biography of each:

The last time Goldberg-Polin’s parents saw him, was on October 6, the night before Hamas’ attack on Israel, right before he left to go camping with a friend, Aner Shapira.

His mother, Rachel Goldberg, last heard from her son the next morning, receiving two texts from him. In one, he told his parents that he loved them. The other text message said: “I’m sorry.”

…Keith Siegel and his wife Aviva Siegel, 62, were taken hostage by Palestinian civilians from their home in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza. After being driven to Gaza in their own vehicle, the couple was then sold to Hamas terrorists.

Aviva Siegel was later released during a truce in November 2023 and has since spoken out about her time in captivity.

…The son of Connecticut-born Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen lived on the Nir Oz kibbutz with his wife, Avital, and their children. Sagui’s parents also live on the same kibbutz.

In an interview with the Times of Israel, Sagui’s father explained that his son and others had sounded the alarm in their kibbutz after seeing “heavily armed and precisely organized” Hamas terrorists going through their community.

…Edan Alexander was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey. After graduating from high school, he went on to join the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.

At the time of Hamas’ attack, he had been stationed near the Gaza Strip, and a little after 6:30 a.m., he had informed his mom, Yael Alexander that he was safe.

However, around 7:00 a.m., she was not able to reach her son and a week later the family discovered Edan was among those taken hostage by Hamas.

…At the time of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, Omer Neutra had been serving as a tank commander near Gaza.

After graduating from high school in New York City, Omer went to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.

He went there for the right reasons, you know, he felt that he wanted to protect, and he’s not the kind of guy that was looking for a war,” Omer’s mom, Orna Neutra explained.

The last time Omer’s parents heard from him was the day before Hamas’ attack.

Let’s not forget who started the war in Gaza and the barbarism of the attack on Israel.

Another Reason Not To Trust Much Of Middle East Reporting

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about an Al Jazeera journalist secretly worked for Hamas.

The article reports:

Adraee (IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee) said the IDF found the journalist’s laptop inside a Hamas camp in the northern Gaza Strip. “A laptop belonging to someone named Muhammed Samir Muhammed Wishah, born in 1986 from Bureij, was seized,” Adraee said. “It is clear from the documents that Muhammed Wishah is a prominent commander in the anti-tank missile units in the military wing of Hamas.” 

Adraee said the IDF found the journalist’s laptop inside a Hamas camp in the northern Gaza Strip. “A laptop belonging to someone named Muhammed Samir Muhammed Wishah, born in 1986 from Bureij, was seized,” Adraee said. “It is clear from the documents that Muhammed Wishah is a prominent commander in the anti-tank missile units in the military wing of Hamas.” 

The article concludes:

The IDF, calling out the Qatari state-owned news network, reposted Adraee’s post and wrote, “Hey @AlJazeera, we thought your journalists were supposed to give unbiased reports on situations, not actively participate in creating them on the front lines as Hamas terrorists.”

In January, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari revealed evidence showing that two Gazan journalists killed by the IDF belonged to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization.

I had not realized that AlJazeera was Qatari owned. This is one more reason to question the role of Qatar as mediators in negotiations about the Israeli hostages. It is amazing what the IDF is discovering as they dismantle Hamas in Gaza.

Things That Stand In The Way Of Freeing The Israeli Hostages

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On Tuesday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about another planned terrorist attack on Israel that was stopped because of good intelligence and military action.

The article reports:

Perhaps Hamas has not received the memo. Using hospitals as cover and human-shield strategies while plotting terrorist attacks no longer works, at least according to the IDF and Shin Bet. Acting on intelligence that Hamas’ leadership abroad had coordinated weapons distribution from a cell embedded in a Jenin hospital, the IDF conducted a raid and killed its leader and two other operatives.

Hamas had planned to run another October 7-style massacre out of the West Bank using the Ibn Sina hospital as its command center, Israel claims:

According to the Jerusalem Post:

According to a joint statement by the IDF, Israel Police’s YAMAM counterterrorism forces, and the Shin Bet, Hamas terrorist Mohammad Jalamna was killed during the operation, along with two fellow terrorists who hid alongside him at the hospital.

27-year-old Jalamna, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, held direct communications with Hamas leadership abroad. According to the statement, he was responsible for transferring weaponry and ammunition to Hamas terrorists across the West Bank for shooting attacks targeting Israelis. …

Furthermore, Jalamna used the Jenin hospital as a secret base of operations as he was planning an infiltration attack akin to and inspired by the October 7 massacre, it added.

At some point, we have to admit that the only solution to terrorism is to kill all of the terrorists.

The Times of Israel reported:

“This is not another round, not another exchange of strikes, not another operation – a complete victory,” he tells the Bnei David military academy in Eli. “Nothing less than that. I am committed to it, our fighters are committed to it, and the absolute majority of the people are committed to it. We will not settle for less than total victory.”

Turning to reports of a hostage deal, Netanyahu says that Israel “will not end this war with less than the achievement of all its goals. This means the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages, and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”

“We will not remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists,” he pledges. “None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory!”

Most Israelis understand that they live in a dangerous neighborhood. They need to let the Netanyahu government finish what Hamas started on October 7.

Bad Reporting Creates Misplaced Blame

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Secretary of State Blinken is visiting Arab countries in the Middle East, supposedly working to end the war in the Gaza Strip. Actually, he is attempting to encourage Israel’s neighbors to put pressure on Israel to stop fighting Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile some relatives of the hostages are trying to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war and bring home the hostages. Have they forgotten October 7? Nearly everyone wants to end the war and bring home the hostages, but at what cost?

According to some reports, Israel has offered a two-month cease-fire in exchange for the return of the hostages. That offer has been refused. So who is the problem?

The Gaza Strip operated as an independent entity before October 7. The residents of Gaza were free to commute to Israel to work–Gaza did not have jobs for them–humanitarian aid money was used to build tunnels and buy weapons. Any poverty in Gaza was the result of the people governing Gaza–not the fault of Israel. Some of the people in Gaza who worked in Israel were among those who attacked Israel on October 7. Now they no longer have jobs.

Many in America and worldwide have been misled into thinking that the war in the Middle East is Israel’s fault. I wonder if those chanting “From the river to the sea” actually have any idea that they are calling for a new holocaust. Anyone who does not support the elimination of Hamas does not understand that Hamas has never changed its Charter, which calls for the elimination of Israel. Hamas is supported and financed by Iran and Qatar. Iran freely chants “Death to America.” Do those in America supporting Hamas realize that they are the next target? We need to teach our children the story of the woman who rescued the dying poisonous snake and nursed it back to health. It didn’t end well.

Slowly Uncovering The Spider’s Web

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On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about the tunnels the Israeli Defense Forces are uncovering in Gaza.

The article reports:

Hamas’ sinister network of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip may be over 350 miles long – or hundreds of miles more than initial estimates, sources said this week.

The tunnels may run for anywhere between 350 to 450 miles, and boast a staggering 5,700 entrance shafts, senior Israeli officials told The New York Times.

The new estimates – which could not be confirmed – are over 100 miles longer than the original numbers, which placed the tunnel network at around 250 miles long, the outlet noted.

The tunnels’ vastness is “extraordinary” given that Gaza’s longest point only stretches about 25 miles, the Times said.

…There are believed to be about 130 hostages left in Gaza – many of whom are suspected to be held somewhere in the vast tunnel network.

Thanks to new intelligence gathered during the campaign, the IDF can now quickly detect a single tunnel – a task they previously took up to a year, one anonymous official told the Times.

Some of the crucial information was found on the computers of Hamas operatives who were involved in digging the tunnels, as well as a list of families that “hosted” the tunnel shafts underneath their homes, the insider said.

The money used to build the tunnels was given to Gaza to create infrastructure that would result in the prosperity of its citizens. Obviously, those ruling Gaza had no concern for their citizens. That alone is reason to refuse to allow Gaza to rule itself–it has proven to be incapable of successful self-government.

Why A Two-State Solution Is Impossible

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On December 27th, Prophecy News Watch posted an article about the Biden administration’s push for a two-state solution to the Gaza War. I wonder if America would be willing to set up a terrorist state on its border. It’s very hard to coexist with people who have stated that they want to kill you, eliminate your country, and drive you into the sea. These are not people who are negotiating for peace.

The article notes:

One fundamental problem with the two-state solution, from Biden’s perspective, is that the PA is too weak, corrupt, and incompetent to hold the government together. “The Palestinians have been not governed well at all,” Biden admitted.

These factors combine to make it quite unpopular. In polling conducted during the recent Thanksgiving ceasefire, 88% of Palestinians wanted the PA’s longtime leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to resign, and nearly 60% said the PA should be dissolved entirely. In a hypothetical electoral matchup, the polling showed Abbas would be trounced in a two-way race by exiled Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, while both men would lose a three-way race to an imprisoned paramilitary leader, Marwan Barghouti.

Another problem that complicates the PA’s weakness is that terrorism is surprisingly popular in the Palestinian territories. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2006 and Palestinians held their first and only free elections, Hamas won a parliamentary majority (before seizing complete power in 2007 in a bloody coup).

Nearly two decades later, a new generation of Palestinians have grown up in Hamas-run schools with pro-terror textbooks; it turns out that many Palestinians are still pro-terrorism. Only 10% of Palestinians told pollsters they believed Hamas had committed war crimes against Israel in its October 7 attack, while 57% of Gazan respondents and 82% in the West Bank believe the attack was justified.

One thing to be aware of is how much land in the Middle East is controlled by Arabs (or Persians) and how much is controlled by Israel. Why haven’t any of the Arab countries (or Iran, which is Persian) been willing to take in the ‘Palestinians’ after they have been ‘refugees’ for more than half a century. Could there be another agenda at work?

Israel Needs To Finish What Hamas Started

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On Thursday, Townhall posted an article about the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The article reports:

Speaking to his country and the world Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a choice to Iranian backed terrorist organization Hamas: Surrender or die. 

“We will continue the war until the end. Until the elimination of Hamas – until victory. Those who think we will stop are not connected to reality. All Hamas terrorists, from the first to the last, are mortal. They have only two options: surrender or die,” Netanyahu said. 

The article notes:

Meanwhile, Israel has offered Hamas a temporary pause in the fighting in exchange for another hostage release. That deal has been rejected by the terrorist organization, which continues to hold 150 people – including Americans – hostage in the Gaza Strip. 

Notice that it has been a while since the mainstream media has talked about the hostages. Possibly because talking about people who have been held hostage for more than two months goes against the mainstream narrative that Hamas is simply a group of oppressed people.

If Israel wants to survive as a nation, it needs to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah (and stop Iran from funding both terror groups). Unfortunately, the Biden administration is so desperate for an Iranian nuclear deal, they will not support a total Israeli victory. Look for the attitude of the Biden administration toward Israel to begin to change gradually in the very near future.

Sad News From Israel

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On December 22nd, The New York Post reported the following:

An elderly American Israeli with deep ties to New York has become the first US citizen confirmed to have died while being held hostage by Hamas terrorists, it was announced Friday.

Gadi Haggai, 73, was murdered by the terrorists who are still thought to be holding his 70-year-old wife, Judi Weinstein, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum representing the families.

“Gadi was a man full of humor who knew how to make those around him laugh,” the families group told the Times of Israel.

“A musician at heart, a gifted flautist, he played in the IDF Orchestra and was involved with music his whole life.”

Kibbutz Nir Oz also said Friday the Israeli Defense Forces informed Haggai’s family that he had been murdered.

His body is still in the Palestinian territory.

The article concludes:

According to Israel’s official tally, 129 people are still in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Of those, 22 are dead, the Israeli government says.

The forum said that between five and 10 of the hostages hold US citizenship. The US Embassy had no immediate comment.

Israel needs to finish what Hamas started.

Common Sense

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

Netanyahu Opposes Biden: No Way Palestinian Authority Runs Gaza Again

No kidding.

In August 2005, Israel evacuated (some forcibly) it’s citizens from the Gaza Strip and turned the territory over to the Palestinian Authority. Since that time many thousands of rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip onto southern Israeli towns and villages, terrorizing and destabilizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens. It became very obvious very quickly that the Gaza Strip was not going to be a peaceful partner to a two-state solution. I can’t imagine any country in the world putting up with a neighbor who is constantly raining rockets down on its population. If Mexico were lobbing rockets into Texas on a regular basis, would America tolerate that? Then why do we expect Israel to tolerate it? Israel has been more than patient with its terrorist neighbor, and that patience probably would have continued were it not for the events of October 7.

The article at Breitbart notes:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his opposition Saturday night to a proposal by U.S. President Joe Biden to restore control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority (PA) once Hamas is removed from power and destroyed.

On Saturday, Biden published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he supported Israel, though once again joining the Israeli cause to the Ukrainian one, putting Hamas and Russia in the same category as enemies of the United States.

Biden also reiterated his support for a “two-state solution” as the only answer to the conflict, and added: “As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”

However, Netanyahu emphatically rejected that idea.

The article concludes:

Despite the loss of U.S. aid under the Taylor Force Act, which President Donald Trump signed in 2018 to prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding the PA as long as it continues “pay-to-slay,” the PA has not changed its policy.

The PA also continues naming public parks and monuments after terrorists, and Palestinian educational materials are frequently filled with anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.

The PA ran Gaza from 1994 to 2007, when it was ousted by Hamas in a violent coup. Rocket attacks against Israeli civilians began years before it was ousted, and especially from 2001 onwards, despite a unilateral withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and civilians in 2005.

The Palestinian Authority may look better on the surface than Hamas, but they are cut of the same cloth. As long as the schools in the Gaza Strip continue to educate children to grow up and kill Jews, the Gaza Strip cannot be trusted as a peaceful part of a two-state solution.

 

The History Explains A Lot

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Obviously there will be a lot of refugees from the war in the Gaza Strip. The infrastructure has been destroyed and peoples’ homes have been destroyed. So why are the other Arab nations in the area unwilling to take in the Palestinian refugees?  The history of the refugees explains a lot. Understand that the refugee problem began in 1948 when Arabs who were living peacefully in Israel were told that if they left their homes to fight Israel they would get their land back plus land owned by the Jews who would be ‘driven into the sea.’ Well, it didn’t work out that way. The refugee problem was further exacerbated in 1967 when Israel reclaimed more of the land it had been promised in agreements with the League of Nations.

On Sunday, Townhall posted an article that explains some of the reasons the neighboring Arab countries are unwilling to take in the refugees from the Gaza Strip.

The article notes:

As the Left rages against Israel, hurling antisemitic slurs and chanting for more Jews to die, some might want to consider why the civilians have nowhere to go. Okay, maybe these folks do know but don’t care, but liberals are historically illiterate, so who knows? It goes beyond geography. The Palestinians bring trouble and have a long, sordid history of fomenting mayhem and terrorism in other Arab nations. 

…Egypt is the logical destination for these Palestinians, but Cairo doesn’t want them, and for good reason: terrorism. The border crossing at Rafah remains closed, with tanks now deployed to ensure their border is secure. Egypt’s prime minister even said his country is willing to sacrifice millions to ensure no Palestinians ever enter Egypt en masse (via WSJ):

The article concludes:

If Hamas and the Palestinians aren’t freely moving into Egypt, they’ll be okay with it. Also, Israel has resisted ceasefires and has continued to chip away at the terror group’s infrastructure in Gaza, but a humanitarian crisis could still emerge. 

As the tweet above mentioned, the Palestinians tried to take over Jordan in the 1970s, leading to the late King Hussein declaring war on them and driving them out. They were booted from Kuwait after collaborating with Saddam Hussein’s forces before the Gulf War. They set off a powder keg in Lebanon, a nation that has yet to recover from its brutal civil war that lasted 15 years. No Arab country wants these people because they bring instability and trouble. They’re not importing terrorism; that’s what we’re doing wholesale.

What country wants to import a bunch of dedicated terrorists?

A Short History Lesson

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On Thursday, The Federalist posted the following headline:

If Palestinians Wanted Peace And Prosperity, They’d Already Have It

The article notes:

In 2005, Palestinian Arabs were given autonomy over the Gaza Strip for the first time in their history. To make it happen, the Israeli government forcibly removed thousands of Israelis from the area. Without military protection, Jews would be murdered by Palestinians, who prefer their land Judenfrei.

As Jews were being evicted from their homes, some began to dismantle the farms and hothouses they’d built, reluctant to hand over years of hard work. In the name of peace, however, American Jewish donors purchased the 3,000 remaining greenhouses that stood over 1,000 acres for $14 million and gave it to the Palestinian Authority, gratis. A large portion of the donations were earmarked for “crucial equipment like computerized irrigation systems” and other modern farming systems for Palestinians.

As soon as the Jews were gone, mobs of Palestinians showed up and broke windows, stole irrigation hoses, water pumps, and everything else they could get their hands on, destroying everything they could, as “police” stood by and watched. This happened before Hamas came to power. Before any blockades.

At that point the mobs destroyed the hope of continuing the prosperity that had just been handed to them.

The article also reports:

By 2007, the unity government between the PLO and Hamas had fallen apart after the latter won a landslide election in 2006 and began defenestrating its political opponents. It was a warning. There has not been a real election in the West Bank since. And it’s a good thing because Islamists would surely grab power there as they had in Gaza. Joe Biden likes to say that Hamas doesn’t speak for Palestinians, but the ugly truth is that Hamas is a far better ambassador of the Palestinian people than the “moderate” Fatah party, which we prop up with billions of dollars.

The article notes that the only way to create a successful society in the Gaza Strip would be for Israel to take it over and set up civic institutions. However, that does take into consideration the children who have been trained almost from birth to hate Jews and to fight them.  In the end, “liberating” the Gaza Strip from Hamas would probably be about as successful as liberating Afghanistan from the Taliban was.

There Seems To Be Some Confusion Here

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On Thursday, The Daily Wire reported the following:

UPDATE: Israel Refutes White House Claim About ‘Humanitarian Pauses’

The article reports:

On Thursday morning, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that starting today Israel will implement daily, four-hour humanitarian pauses in its attack on the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. However, following the widely reported claim that Israel had agreed to four-hour humanitarian pauses beginning today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed the White House’s statement.

Kirby said the Israeli government stated they will suspend military operations during the four hours and they will announce three hours before the pause begins when it will start, CBS News reported, adding, “President Biden told reporters Thursday morning that he has asked Netanyahu for a pause even longer than three days for the release of hostages.” Israel has reportedly already been “implementing these pauses since Sunday, opening a daily four-hour humanitarian corridor on Salah a-Din road for Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza to its south,” The Times of Israel reported.

Following the announcement from the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying, “The fighting continues and there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages. Israel is allowing safe transit corridors from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, as 50,000 Gazans did just yesterday. We once again call on the civilian population in Gaza to evacuate to the south.”

Israel has been under a tremendous amount of pressure both from the United States and the European Union to declare a ‘pause’ in the fighting in Gaza. Why in the world should Israel declare a ‘pause’ when Gaza has made no effort to release the hostages they are holding or to inform the world of the condition of the hostages?

The article concludes:

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with the 252nd Sinai Division, which is operating in the northern Gaza Strip and was clear about Israel’s objectives.

“We must remember that in Beit Hanoun (city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip) is the battalion from which the terrorists came to murder and kidnap in Kibbutz Erez, Netiv Ha’Asara, and Sderot,” Gallant said, “This battle has meaning beyond the symbolic aspect. We need to ensure that all terrorist infrastructure in Beit Hanoun is destroyed. We will not stop, we will continue with all our might until we eradicate the Hamas organization – we will strike the entire chain of command, military depots, communications channels, tunnels, bunkers, and headquarters, everything.”

Referring to the horrific October 7 massacre executed by Hamas on the Israeli civilian population, he continued, “The answer to these brutal and barbaric acts is to wipe out Hamas. From here we will move on. If we don’t wipe out Hamas in Gaza, we will have ten more of these [massacres] from other places.”

The Israel government is the one who gets to determine how to handle the terrorists on its border. I can’t imagine any other country putting up with the terror attacks that Israel has put up with since it became a nation. Any other nation would have obliterated the Arabs who support terrorism by now.

Both Sides Are Not Playing By The Same Rules

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I wonder if the people who are supporting Hamas understand that Hamas views their country’s civilians as shields in time of war and the enemy country’s civilians as legitimate targets. That has been illustrated by the attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th and Hamas’ use of their citizens as shields and for propaganda purposes.

On November 4th, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Hamas has been holding up efforts to get Americans and other foreign nationals out of Gaza and into Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing by putting its own wounded fighters on departure lists meant for Americans, dual citizenship holders, Palestinian civilians, and other foreign nationals, according to a senior Biden administration official.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas first invaded Israel, people holding dual, American, or some other foreign citizenship have been trying to leave through Gaza’s southern border and into Egypt, but their efforts have been blocked by Hamas, who officials have said were making unreasonable demands in order to let them cross into Egypt.

The senior administration official provided insight into these demands during a background call with reporters on Friday. The official explained that Hamas provided the United States, Israel, and Egypt with multiple departure lists that included injured Palestinians who were wounded during the war and should be allowed to leave with Americans and other foreign nationals, which is not objectionable, the official said, but after vetting the individuals on the list, it showed many of them were injured Hamas fighters.

The review found that nearly a third of the wounded Palestinians on the first list were actually Hamas fighters and that it would be unacceptable to allow them to exit Gaza, the official said. While the administration would be happy to let injured Palestinian civilians out of Gaza, they just couldn’t let Hamas fighters leave on the departure list.

A deal was eventually worked out to let civilians (not fighters) exit the Gaza Strip, but this is an example of how Hamas is fighting this war. Israel is doing its best to limit civilian casualties, but when civilians are used to shield rocket launchers, there will be casualties.

A Tweet That Says It All

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On November 5th, Hot Air shared the following Tweet:

Has the Department of State not heard the chants of “from the river to the sea”? Do they not understand what those chants are saying? Are they not aware that Hamas wants a one-state solution–a world without Israel?

The article at Hot Air includes the following quote:

[I do believe Hamas has made it very clear they’re on the “one state” team, and that state is NOT Israel. I have never seen such consistently malevolent, ignorant buffoons in such high places before. ~ Beege]

A two-state solution will not work. We also need to remember that before October 7th, there was a truce between Israel and the Gaza Strip. We have seen how well that worked out.

Unfortunately, we are faced with an evil we have not seen since Nazi Germany, and out only option is to destroy it.

We’ve Seen This Play Before

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The Muslim quest to drive Israel into the sea has a pattern that is followed every time the neighboring nations or terrorists attack Israel. When Israel fights back and the attackers run low on ammunition and other supplies, they call for a cease-fire and ask for the global community to support their efforts for peace. They then use that cease-fire to re-arm, build tunnels, and prepare to attack again (see article here). Those cries for a cease-fire have already begun, and Israel has the perfect response.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy reacted to calls for humanitarian pauses by Israel by pointing out that, according to reporting by The New York Times, Hamas has ample supplies of fuel and other supplies for itself and calling on those pushing for a pause to demand Hamas release its own fuel.

Host Andrea Mitchell asked if Israel is concerned about the White House getting frustrated over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Levy said that Israel welcomes “the very solid support that we have received from President Biden, his moral clarity and material support as well, in explaining that Israel is dealing with a terror organization that is worse than ISIS and the U.S. will make sure Israel has everything it needs to win this war.”

He continued that Israel wants to see humanitarian aid go to Gaza and is working to increase it, but with the conditions that the resources not go to Hamas and Hamas not use humanitarian corridors to re-arm.

The article concludes:

He (Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy) added, “Hamas has been drip-feeding fuel to these hospitals in order to keep them operational. Why has Hamas been drip-feeding fuel to the hospitals? Because it wants to continue using innocent Palestinians as human shields in order to shield the military targets that are located underneath those hospitals. That is, of course, a grave breach of international law under the Geneva Conventions, for any army — not to mention a brutal ISIS-like terror organization — to use human civilians in that way as human shields. The fuel exists in the Gaza Strip for all of the humanitarian needs, but it’s controlled by Hamas, the same Hamas that we’re concerned, if we allow more fuel into the Gaza Strip, is going to requisition those supplies anyway. And you don’t have to take our word for it, The New York Times published just yesterday or the day before, an article stating clearly, there is one group in the Gaza Strip that remains well-stocked in terms of fuel and food and all other sources, Hamas.”

We have seen this play before. I hope it ends differently this time and Israel defeats the terrorists. That would make all the world a safer place.

 

 

America’s Actions Are Not Helping End Terrorism

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On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about Israel’s delay in its attack on the Gaza Strip.

The article reports:

The story about why Israel has yet to make a ground invasion of Gaza is becoming clear, and it is yet another embarrassment for the United States under Joe Biden.

Israel has been prepared to enter Gaza to eliminate Hamas, but the ground invasion keeps getting delayed. The reason why?

The US is unprepared to defend US military installations in the area.

If that is true, then every one of our current military leaders ought to be relieved of command.

On October 23rd, The National Review reported the following:

The IDF is getting antsy that further delaying the ground invasion of Gaza could hinder its goal of destroying Hamas, while the Biden administration is putting pressure on Israel to wait even longer for ongoing hostage negotiations to play out.

A ground invasion of Gaza has been reported as “imminent” for weeks following the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, leading to swirling speculation about what the hold-up was; but a clearer picture is starting to emerge.

The Times of Israel on Monday reported that

the Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the objectives of the war against Hamas, laid out by government officials, the military must begin its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip sooner rather than later. . . .

After 16 days of airstrikes, the IDF has told the government that it is fully prepared for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, and believes it can achieve the goals set out for it, even at the risk of heavy casualties to soldiers, and amid repeated attacks by Hezbollah in the north, The Times of Israel learned.

The new excuse by the Biden Administration looks utterly pathetic because it is an admission that despite decades of having troops and assets in the region, our military is not prepared to defend our interests.

That is quite the reality if true, and quite the message to our enemies if either true or false.

Do we want Israel to deal with the terrorists in Gaza or do we want more terrorism around the world?

Please follow the link to read the entire article. We need a new President.

You Get More Of What You Subsidize And Less Of What You Don’t Fund

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On Tuesday, The Gatestone Institute posted an article about the European funding of Hamas.

Here are some of the highlights of the article:

    • Israel had not even buried its dead from the horrifying jihadist pogrom that Hamas terrorists unleashed on Israeli civilians in south Israel — beheading babies, burning them alive, torturing, raping, kidnapping, murdering — before the European Union decided to reward the terrorists by tripling its assistance to Gaza.
    • “The Commission will immediately increase the current humanitarian aid envelope foreseen for Gaza by 50 million euros,” European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen said. “This will bring the total to over 75 million euros. We will continue our close cooperation with the UN and its agencies to ensure that this aid reaches those in need in the Gaza strip.”
    • Oh really? How? The terrorist group Hamas, a proxy of Iran, the “worst state sponsor of terrorism,” is wholly in control of Gaza and will take what shows up and dribble it out slowly to a chosen few, mainly in their military. The idea that any of it will reach the million displaced souls who were urged by the Israelis to flee to southern Gaza to save their lives is charming, but woefully starry-eyed. Food and water — if that is really what is in the uninspected trucks, rather than weapons — will go to the Hamas foot soldiers to make sure they stay fit and loyal.
    • “Hamas are trying to prevent people leaving northern Gaza. And that is the point… Of course we want to minimize Palestinian casualties. We want to minimize Israeli casualties. We want everybody to respect civilians. But the real clear distinction is Israel are trying to get civilians out of danger; Hamas are trying to put civilians into danger, and that is a fundamental difference between the two.” — UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, October 15, 2023.
    • Sadly, massive injustices were done by the international media which, without checking, wrongly blamed Israel for firing at a hospital in Gaza, supposedly killing hundreds. Video evidence and a voice recording revealed that the real cause of the explosion at the hospital was a rocket, launched toward Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that landed in the hospital parking lot. The media, it seems, could not wait to stick it to the Jews.

The European Commission will be working with the UN to make sure that the aid reaches only those in need in the Gaza Strip. Really, how? When it was suggested that the aid be stopped because of the terrorist attack on Israel, the Commission claimed, “The suspension of the payments – punishing all the Palestinian people – would have damaged the EU interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists.”

Common sense is obviously on vacation.

What Are We Aiding?

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On Thursday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about aid to Gaza.

The article reports:

Israel’s ground assault on the Gaza Strip has yet to begin, but already, politicians and liberals are demanding Israel pause its assault to enable humanitarian relief to flow into Gaza. Speaking on the floor of the Canadian Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, “Canada is calling for unimpeded humanitarian access and a humanitarian corridor so that essential aid like food, fuel, and water can be delivered to civilians in Gaza. It is imperative that this happen.”

…The problem in Gaza, however, has seldom been a lack of aid. Beyond apocalyptic claims, Gaza was never a prison or concentration camp. Its population was not barely sliding by. It outperformed many countries such as India, Bosnia, Brazil, and oil-rich Azerbaijan in key health and welfare indicators. The Gaza Strip is dense, with around 15,000 people per square mile, but that is less dense than Tel Aviv (21,000 people per square mile), at which Hamas regularly launches missiles.

There are other reasons to be wary about international aid. Hamas rules Gaza with an iron grip. To channel assistance into Gaza while Hamas remains empowered is akin to trusting the North Koreans to distribute oil and food to citizens rather than to fuel their military. Then, there is the diversion of assistance in other ways. Hamas videos openly bragged about digging up water pipes to convert them to rocket launchers, and the Japanese aid logo marks Hamas sandbags. To bail Hamas out simply signals there will be no consequence for such diversion.

This brings us to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, founded in 1949. The UNRWA helped settle Palestinian refugees displaced in Israel’s War of Independence. Israel settled a near equal if not larger number of Jewish refugees, who today are fully integrated into the Jewish state. In 1951, UNRWA reported, “There must be a firm goal of terminating relief operations. Sustained relief operations inevitably contain the germ of human deterioration.”

Hamas is not interested in forming a viable state–they are simply interested in driving Israel into the sea. Until they stop training kindergarten children to hate Jews and be terrorists, they will not be a contributing member of the world community. Giving them aid only reinforces bad behavior.

Where Did The Weapons Come From?

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The attack on Israel this weekend was well-supplied and well-funded. Many of us believe that (unfortunately) America unintentionally supplied and funded part of that attack. I hope it was unintentional. I don’t even want to consider the possibility that it was intentional.

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article talking about the source of some of the weapons and some of the money.

The article reports:

A claim in a news report that American weapons seized in Afghanistan have ended up in the hands of Palestinian groups operating in the Gaza Strip has taken on renewed significance after Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group, launched an attack on Israel on Saturday.

According to a Newsweek report published in June, an Israeli commander said some of the US. small arms seized in Afghanistan have already been observed in the hands of Palestinian groups operating in the Gaza Strip.

The report began recirculating on social media, amid accusations that the Biden administration funded Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel by releasing $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran, the main backer of Hamas.

The Biden administration has pushed back on these charges, saying that the money is controlled by a Qatari bank, and only will be used for humanitarian purposes.

The Conservative Treehouse posted an article on Sunday explaining exactly what has happened to the $6 billion.

The article reports:

You want to go deep weeds, let’s go deep weeds.  Almost all of the conversations about the $6 billion given back to Iran have focused on the fungible aspect of money.  While true, that focus misses the key and essential point, where the money was delivered.

The captured $6 billion was held in a South Korean bank, the result of sanctions violations.  What the Biden/Blinken crew did, was move the money from South Korea to a bank in Qatar.

Now, many people may not at first understand the nature of how that makes such a significant difference.  The lack of understanding is the result of people not fully grasping what Qatar does in the Middle East.   Qatar is the financial center for Islamic extremist operations.  Qatar is the banking center for the Muslim Brotherhood.  The Brotherhood is the political umbrella for a host of Islamic extremist groups.

Qatar is well known to CTH readers and those who follow the deep weeds of geopolitics.  Qatar has historically been the financial center and funding mechanism of the Muslim Brotherhood.  In many ways Qatar is to the U.S. State Dept, CIA and political elements of the Intelligence Community in the Middle East, as Ukraine is to those same entities in Europe.

Please follow both links for further details. We have played a much bigger negative role in the war against Israel than is being reported. That is NOT a good thing.