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In-Depth Issues:
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Recruiting Sleeper Cells in Britain - Paul Baldwin ( Daily Express-UK)
Men of Middle Eastern and Eastern European origin living in Britain are being recruited as would-be terrorists by Iranian military operatives who groom them online.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has used the internet and social media to put in place an informal mosaic of sleeper cells and lone-wolf operatives across the country, ready to act at the behest of the regime.
Their role is chiefly to spy, intimidate and harass, but MI5 agents have uncovered at least one major bomb plot.
Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Security Studies at Kings College in London, said that in Britain, "it's more the co-ordination of useful idiots...a lot of people who like the regime in Iran and want to do their dirty work for them."
"The biggest threat from Iran is not a nuclear missile, it is on Britain's streets....These people are...all likely to be Shia Muslims with a grudge against the West, America and Israel."
Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum, confirmed that since 2022, MI5 along with police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.
IDF Reveals Footage of Hamas Fighters Dining Lavishly Underground - Pesach Benson ( TPS-Jerusalem Post)
The IDF on Thursday published photos showing Hamas Rafah Brigade commander Muhammad Shabana dining underground with fellow operatives in March.
The images depict them enjoying a Ramadan iftar meal inside a tunnel, with platters of falafel, grilled meats, fish, vegetables, flatbreads, and fried foods.
"Luxurious breakfast and lavish meals during the war: This is what the life of the terrorist commander of Hamas's Rafah Brigade looked like over the past year," wrote Lt.-Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF's Arabic-language spokesperson, on X.
While "residents of the sector were forced to break their Ramadan fast with the scraps left by Hamas, the organization's leaders were celebrating in the tunnels with a grand feast."
"With one hand, Hamas runs a media campaign about 'starvation' in the sector, and with the other, it plunders food to feed its leaders and their families. Time and again - the images...do not lie."
Israel to Move 100,000 Tents to Southern Gaza Humanitarian Zones - Amir Bohbot ( Jerusalem Post)
Israel is preparing to transfer 100,000 tents to southern Gaza, a security source said Sunday.
The tents will be moved to a new humanitarian area near Khan Yunis for people evacuated from Gaza City.
The source told Walla: "We will create a kind of humanitarian prioritization of aid to the south in order to draw the population there."
The IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is also working to restore infrastructure in southern Gaza.
This includes establishing humanitarian corridors connected to the health system, expanding hospitals, renovating existing hospitals, and enlarging existing field hospitals.
Former Hostage Eli Sharabi Tells His Story - Michael M. Rosen ( Commentary)
In Hostage, the fastest-selling book in Israeli history, Eli Sharabi lays bare the 491-day ordeal he suffered at the hands of Hamas, beginning when he was abducted by murderous terrorists from his safe room in Kibbutz Be'eri.
Unbeknownst to him, his wife Lianne and teenage daughters Noiya and Yahel were executed shortly thereafter.
But despite the horrors Sharabi suffered, what emerges is a portrait of a man miraculously unbroken and unbowed by his torment.
Sharabi's remarkably dignified comportment offers an example of resilience for Jews around the world.
Lockheed Martin to Sell Israeli Spike Missiles to U.S. Army - Dean Shmuel Elmas ( Globes)
U.S defense giant Lockheed Martin has successfully completed a trial for the U.S. Army of Rafael's Spike non-line of sight (NLOS) anti-tank missile.
The missiles were launched from an American armored vehicle at a base in Utah, hitting three targets.
Spike NLOS is the sixth generation of Rafael's anti-tank missile series.
Rafael has sold 50,000 Spike missiles, and 10,000 of them have been fired on the battlefield and in tests. 42 countries use Spike missiles, including 20 NATO members.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Israel Bombs High-Rise Buildings in Gaza City Used for Terrorist Activity - Phoebe Hennell
Israel bombed several high-rise buildings in Gaza City where Hamas had installed cameras, war rooms, snipers and anti-tank missiles. The buildings were being used to direct attacks against Israeli forces operating in northern Gaza, the IDF said Friday.
The 18-storey Mushtaha Tower in the Zeitoun district was being used for terrorist activity, with intelligence-gathering equipment and an underground escape tunnel nearby. Israel warned the building's residents on Friday morning in an effort to mitigate harm to civilians.
IDF Arabic spokesman Lt.-Col. Avichay Adraee urged Gaza City residents to "take this opportunity to move early to the [Al-Mawasi] humanitarian zone and join the thousands of people who have already gone there."
The IDF said the zone had essential "infrastructure such as field hospitals, water pipelines, and desalination facilities, alongside the continued supply of food, tents, medicines and medical equipment." (Telegraph-UK)
See also IDF Demolishes Three Gaza City Towers - Yoav Zitun
The IDF demolished three high-rise buildings in Gaza City over the past 24 hours. The Al-Rawiya building in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, destroyed Saturday, was notable for the large number of solar panels covering its roof, believed to be connected to a nearby terror tunnel. The IDF said Hamas had installed intelligence-gathering equipment and observation posts in the tower and had planted numerous explosive devices nearby.
The Al-Susi tower was also demolished. Heavy traffic was reported on Gaza's coastal Al-Rashid road Saturday as residents moved south from Gaza City.
(Ynet News)
- Hamas Believes It Can Hold Out and Ensure Its Survival - Adam Rasgon
Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, taken out most of its senior military command, and destroyed much of its arsenal and underground tunnel network. Yet Hamas has refused to surrender. Hamas leaders have said that, eventually, Israel will be compelled to realize that its policies are not sustainable, and Hamas will be able to secure its future in Gaza.
"Surrender, as Israel and America are calling for it, is not in Hamas's dictionary," said Khaled al-Hroub, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar. Hamas has firmly rejected ending the war on terms set by Israel, which has demanded the group disarm and send its leaders into exile. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has rebuffed any deal on the end of the conflict that would leave the group intact.
(New York Times)
- U.S. Sanctions Three Palestinian NGOs Engaged in ICC's Illegitimate Targeting of Israel
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday:
"I am designating three foreign NGOs - Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)....These entities have directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent."
"This administration has been clear: the United States and Israel are not party to the Rome Statute and are therefore not subject to the ICC's authority. We oppose the ICC's politicized agenda, overreach, and disregard for the sovereignty of the United States and that of our allies."
"The ongoing actions of the ICC set a dangerous precedent for all nations and we will actively oppose actions that threaten our national interests and infringe on the sovereignty of the United States and our allies, including Israel."
(U.S. State Department)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- U.S. Warns Hamas Leadership Abroad Could Be Targeted If Israeli Hostages Are Killed - Danny Zaken
According to American and Arab diplomatic sources, direct talks between the U.S. and Hamas resumed in recent days after Egypt and Qatar failed to produce a formula that would restart negotiations. The Americans made it clear that they would not stop Israel from advancing into Gaza City, stressing that the only way to halt the fighting would be to reach an agreement for ending the war and returning all the hostages.
However, Hamas refuses to commit to disarming or relinquishing control of Gaza. Encouraged by Iran, it is seeking to apply the "Hizbullah model," maintaining a strong armed group alongside a weakened civilian authority.
The Americans also warned Hamas that if hostages are murdered, Hamas leadership abroad would face the threat of immediate targeted killings. The U.S. also demanded updated information on the condition of the hostages as well as the entry of food and medical assistance.
(Israel Hayom)
See also 8-10 Israeli Hostages Believed to Be Alive in Gaza City - Danny Zaken
Between 8 and 10 Israeli hostages are believed to be alive in Gaza City. Israeli defense officials believe Hamas is unlikely to endanger them, since the hostages are considered "its strongest bargaining chip." (Israel Hayom)
- Palestinian Terrorist Who Boasted of Killing 10 Israelis on Oct. 7 Eliminated - Noa Lutsky
Mahmoud Afana, who phoned his parents on Oct. 7 to boast about killing 10 Israelis in Kibbutz Mefalsim, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Thursday in Deir al-Balah, Gaza officials reported Saturday. "I'm speaking to you from a Jewish woman's phone. I killed her and her husband. With my own hands I killed 10," Afana told his father in a recorded conversation. "Open my WhatsApp now and see all the dead. See how many I killed with my own hands. Your son killed Jews." (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Exposing the Distortion of Law and Truth in the Accusation that Israel Is Committing Genocide - Maj. (ret.) John Spencer and Arsen Ostrovsky
Recycled accusations of "genocide" are once again hurled at Israel by activists masquerading as "scholars."
We have interviewed IDF commanders and soldiers on the ground, visited aid staging and distribution centers, and studied operational orders. From this vantage point, the accusation of genocide is not only false but obscene, a distortion of truth and complicity in Hamas's propaganda campaign.
Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide is not a vague political term but a tightly defined legal crime: acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
The critical element is specific "intent to destroy." Nothing we have seen in Gaza remotely approaches proof of genocidal intent or action.
The war is ugly, painful, and devastating, but it is fought by Israel in self-defense and in accordance with the laws of armed conflict. Israel's objective has never been to wipe out the Palestinian people. Its stated and demonstrated aim has been to dismantle Hamas's military and governing capacity, prevent further terrorist atrocities, and return the hostages.
Unable to prove genocidal intent, accusers instead point to the tragic effects of war: civilian deaths, destroyed buildings, food insecurity. They then argue that these outcomes prove genocide. But that is not how international law works. If devastation or high casualties alone proved genocidal intent, nearly every war in history could be branded genocide - stripping the word of meaning.
Israel has implemented measures unmatched by any modern military to mitigate civilian harm: advance warnings, leaflets, phone alerts, humanitarian corridors, pauses for evacuation, and canceling legitimate strikes when civilian risk was too high. At the same time, Israel has facilitated unprecedented humanitarian assistance while Hamas still governs territory, fires rockets into Israeli towns, and holds hostages.
On the battlefield, the IDF has employed precision munitions, aborted strikes when children were visible, and deployed ground forces at great risk to its own soldiers precisely to minimize harm to civilians. This is the opposite of genocide.
John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. Arsen Ostrovsky is an Israeli-based human rights lawyer who is CEO of the International Legal Forum and a Senior Fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security. (Substack)
Israel and the West
- Publishing Fake News about Israel Is Endangering Lives - Jake Wallis Simons
In July, the BBC interviewed Anthony Aguilar after he was sacked by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Aguilar accused Israeli troops of the most lurid crimes. International editor Jeremy Bowen failed to ask the obvious question: Why would Israel go to the effort and expense of feeding the Palestinians only to gun them down?
In another interview, Aguilar claimed that a 10-year-old boy was "gunned down" by the IDF.
Although pictures showed the boy looking pretty healthy, Aguilar said he was "emaciated" and "starving."
Fox News worked with the GHF to track down the boy and his mother. Turns out his name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden and he is not dead.
He and his mother Naja were extracted from Gaza on Thursday after Aguilar's version of his story had gone viral. There were concerns that, to preserve the propaganda victory handed to them, Hamas was trying to track down the boy and commit the crime that the IDF had not. This is just the latest example of apparently fake news finding a huge and enthusiastic audience among a public that has fallen victim en masse to its own growing confirmation bias.
Given the extensiveness of the tunnel network in Gaza, every single civilian could have found refuge from bombardment underground, as they did in London during the Blitz. Yet Hamas prevented them from entering. It wanted them dead. Why? Because it wanted you to see those pictures. It is striking how often policymakers across Europe cite "the pictures coming out of Gaza" when explaining their latest Israelophobic stance.
The appalling truth is that millions of people across the West have been manipulated into supporting the very forces of jihad that would have them dead, along with their civilization of disbelievers. With our help, the jihadis are winning the propaganda war. (Telegraph-UK)
- As Pro-Palestinian Flotilla Heads to Gaza, Israel Should Counter by Sending Survivors, Hostage Families and Border Residents - Ben-Dror Yemini
Greetings to all those sailing on the flotilla to Gaza. We are convinced that if you truly knew the reality, the honest among you would join protests against the Islamo-Nazism that threatens you just as much as it threatens us. Hamas broadcasts have aired explicit calls "to kill all Jews and Christians to the last one."
On Hamas's children's television programs, they repeatedly teach - sometimes through a Mickey Mouse lookalike - that their ultimate vision is "the extermination of all Jews." Israel is not committing genocide; Israel is trying to prevent the genocide Hamas openly declares.
Fathi Hammad, a senior Hamas leader, admitted: "We use women and children as human shields." Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's former leader, said: "We need the blood of women, children and the elderly." These are Hamas's stated policies. Israel regrets deeply that civilians are harmed - but they are harmed because of Hamas, not Israel.
Hamas and other jihadist groups represent Islamist imperialism that murders primarily Muslims who refuse to submit to its rule. Their vision is to impose strict sharia-based laws, which allow the total erasure of basic human rights. They themselves say, "raise the flag of Islam over the Vatican" while destroying Christianity and Christians worldwide. Is that truly the cause you want to help?
Survivors of the Nova music festival massacre, residents from Gaza border communities, families of hostages, and freed hostages should board Israeli boats to meet the flotilla, armed with their personal stories. (Ynet News)
- The Impact of Radical Legal Ideology: From the Classroom to the International Forum - Tirza Shorr
Radical ideologies inform academic legal activism against Israel and the West.
Critical International Legal Theory (CILT) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) are academic schools of thought that seek to radically transform the Western post-World War II international law traditions that guided the establishment of the United Nations. "Third Worldist" thought is popular in progressive circles, yet fails to provide tools to uplift the developing world. The "Third World" is an outdated, contestable Cold War-era relic that radicals weaponize to subvert the international community system and advance terrorist agendas.
The writer is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center.
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Observations:
- The resolution approved Aug. 31 by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) declared that "Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide." It reflects one of the most egregious examples of the dereliction of scholarly responsibility in recent history.
- The opening paragraph cites UN statistics for the total number of adults and children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, without making any differentiation between combatants and non-combatants. Any discussion of the Gaza war that fails to separate the number of justly-killed Hamas terrorists from overall fatality statistics is irredeemably flawed.
- Indeed, except for two brief subordinate clauses, Hamas does not appear at all in the resolution - not for its own genocidal acts; not for its policy of maximizing its own civilian casualties; not for its systemic embedding within civilian population and infrastructure; not for its failure to provide civilians with access to the underground shelters that protected its fighters; and not for its confiscation and hoarding of food designated for civilians.
- The resolution reflects not one iota of original or independent research; its findings are totally derivative of the work of others. Those "others" include Francesca Albanese, the notorious "UN special rapporteur on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories" accused by the U.S. government of "virulent anti-semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias."
- Those "others" also include Navi Pillay, the disgraced former chair of the UN Human Rights Council whose Commission of Inquiry on Israel was roundly rejected by the Biden administration for its extreme bias.
- The IAGS resolution made things up out of thin air. For example, the resolution accused Israel of endorsing "the current U.S. President's plan to forcibly expel all Palestinians from Gaza," linking to a BBC report that makes no mention of the forcible expulsion of Palestinians.
- A scholarly organization has lent its reputation to an indictment of Israel that more closely resembles a lynching than a judicious academic inquiry. On closer inspection, only 28% of IAGS' 500 members participated in the vote on the resolution. How shameful, given that the image that graces the homepage of the IAGS website is the Hall of Names in Israel's Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority, Yad Vashem.
The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute.
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