Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu Sets Date for Rafah Invasion, Rejects Ceasefire Deals that Don’t Include Victory over Hamas
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that a date has been set to invade Rafah, Hamas’ last stronghold.
- The prime minister insists Israel won’t accept a ceasefire deal that prevents such an invasion and the achievement of total victory over Hamas.
- He made the announcement Monday, declaring, “We are working all the time to achieve our goals – primarily the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas. This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.”
- The U.S. has also reportedly proposed a new ceasefire deal. It would seek a six-week halt in the fighting, exchange 40 of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas for 900 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, including some who have murdered Israelis.
- Hamas is expected to respond to this latest proposal by Tuesday night. If they agree, the truce could begin as soon as Wednesday.
- The White House indicated President Joe Biden has assured Israel the U.S. will stand with it if Iran launches directly at the Jewish State.
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Important Takeaways:
- “We [have been] dealing with Iran since the 7th of October, and [on] every single front possible – Houthis in Yemen, militias in Iraq, militias in Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas… so, Israel is in full readiness for any scenario”
- Israel has also suffered widespread GPS disruptions on applications, which Israeli outlet Haaretz reported as deliberate attempts to confuse Israeli drone threats.
- “We are in a multi-front war. We are looking not only at Hamas but all our enemies. We look at all fronts and all threats in order to be ready for any scenario.”
- McInnis argued that any success Iran finds in drawing support and condemnation over the attack is “not likely to translate into much international support for Iranian action against Israel, the United States or anyone else they hold accountable for the strike.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu CANCELS Israeli diplomatic trip to Washington after the US refuses to veto United Nations resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire over Ramadan
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced that he is canceling the planned visit of a delegation to Washington after the United States refused to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Minutes before the resolution was carried by 14 votes to zero, Netanyahu told Israeli news media that the visit would not happen if Washington failed to veto it.
- ‘In light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided the delegation would not leave,’ his office said after the vote, calling the decision a ‘clear retreat’ from its previous stance.
- highlights how the relationship between the U.S. is breaking down amid the bloodshed in Gaza
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu Renews Israel Victory Pledge as Biden Calls for Ceasefire, Two-State Solution
- The U.S. and Israel stand at a diplomatic and military crossroads.
- Israel says it needs to finish the war against Hamas in the key Gazan city of Rafah, yet the U.S. is threatening that Israel won’t be able to use American weapons if Israel launches its military campaign against the Hamas stronghold.
- On the northern border, Hezbollah continues to fire rocket volleys on Israeli communities.
- In his State of the Union address, President Biden put the burden on Israel to protect Gazans.
- “Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population like cowards under hospitals, daycare centers, and all the like. Israel also has a fundamental responsibility, though, to protect innocent civilians in Gaza,” Biden declared.
- He added what he says is the solution: “As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution (between Israel and the Palestinians) over time.”
- To increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, the administration announced plans to construct a port in Gaza
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Important Takeaways:
- How the US Abandoned Israel under Biden
- “Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be.” — US President Joe Biden, October 18, 2023.
- It did not take long, however, for the Biden administration to completely turn that promise on its head. The reversal began with US demands on Israel to scale down military operations, which were already scaled down….
- “Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history…. Israel’s use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented.” — John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point, newsweek.com, January 31, 2024
- The only relevant country that has apparently not been invited to the “urgent” discussions [to reward terrorists unilaterally with a soon-to-be-militarized Palestinian State] is Israel.
- Biden, clearly, seems not that intent on making Israel or the Free World a safe place again. At least not if it might compromise his reelection.
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Important Takeaways:
- U.N. Chief Guterres Warns Israel: Rejection of a Two-State Solution Threatens World Peace
- Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a two-state solution indefinitely prolongs a conflict that threatens world peace and emboldens extremists everywhere, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday.
- AP reports Guterres told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state must be recognized by all, and a refusal to accept the two-state solution by any party must be firmly rejected.”
- The alternative of a one-state solution “with such a large number of Palestinians inside without any real sense of freedom, rights and dignity … will be inconceivable,” he further warned, adding to his previous comments on the matter.
- On Sunday the European Union’s top diplomat claimed a two-state solution for Israel-Gaza has “the whole international community” behind it, as Breitbart News reported.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas Cuts Off Hostage Negotiations; Refuses to Talk Under Fire
- The Times of Israel reported:
- A Hamas statement claims that it will not agree to free any more hostages or even negotiate over them until the end of fighting.
- The stance, which has been trotted out by the terror group before, comes amid intense talks for a possible deal that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinian inmates in Israeli prison. The group already claims it won’t accept a temporary truce.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would continue the war to “eliminate” Hamas even if negotiations continued.
- Pressure for talks rose last weekend, after the tragic deaths of three Israeli hostages who managed to escape their Hamas captors. Israeli soldiers mistook them from afar for terrorists.
- The Israeli public, however, remains committed to the fight, even though there is also support for talks to free the hostages.
- Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel continue: a large salvo was fired from a Hamas-controlled area of central Gaza toward Tel Aviv and central Israel on Thursday, but caused no injuries.
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Important Takeaways:
- After initial videos of women’s nearly-naked corpses being paraded through Gaza, and eyewitness accounts of rape, more and more evidence has been emerging of Hamas gang-raping and torturing women — and even men — during their attack. Though Israeli investigators were often unable to collect forensic evidence, due to ongoing fighting, those who examined the bodies of Israeli victims found evidence of sexual abuse and torture, and more eyewitnesses have emerged in Israel’s investigation.
- UN Women, the main United Nations organization for women’s equality, did not react to allegations of sexual violence against Israeli women until late last week, nearly eight weeks after the attack. “Progressive” Democrats have equivocated on the issue, pushing back against allegations by noting that Israel, too, has been accused (often falsely) of (other) rights violations.
- Israel’s mission to the United Nations held a special session on Monday and in a press conference Tuesday, Netanyahu blasted the hypocrisy of the world’s human rights groups and women’s groups.
- In Hebrew, he said:
- I must say that until recent days, I haven’t heard the international human rights organizations, I haven’t heard the women’s organizations, I haven’t heard the women’s organizations in the United Nations — I have not heard their cry. And I say to them: Where are you? You went silent because we’re talking about Jewish women?
- Switching to English, he said:
- I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations: You’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation? Where the hell are you? I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity.
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Important Takeaways:
- Quick Facts
- Over 1,400 Israelis (392 soldiers) have been killed, and over 7,000 have been injured.
- The IDF has notified families of 240 being held hostage in Gaza.
- The IDF has struck over 15,000 Hamas targets.
- Over 9,500 Rockets have been fired by Hamas toward Southern and Central Israel from Gaza (over 500 failed launches have fallen inside Gaza), with Lebanon and Syria also firing from the north.
- His visit came during the four-day fire pause in the fighting, part of a deal with Hamas to release Israeli hostages.
- “We are here in the Gaza Strip with our heroic soldiers,” Netanyahu said.
- “We are making every effort to return our hostages, and in the end, we will return them all. We have three goals in this war: Eliminate Hamas, return all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza will not go back to being a threat to the State of Israel.”
- These comments came just hours before seventeen more hostages were released by the terror organization Hamas on Sunday evening and transported by the International Red Cross to the Israeli border.
- One of the hostages, 84-year-old Alma Abraham, was evacuated by a helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba directly from the border, reportedly in serious condition.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Beat that f**kin’ Jew!’ UCLA students batter Netanyahu piñata
- Pro-Hamas University of California Los Angeles students concealed their faces Wednesday to batter a blue piñata bearing an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Several students wearing keffiyeh scarves on their heads and over their faces took turns pummeling it with a wooden stick.
- “Beat that f**kin’ Jew!” a woman yelled into a bullhorn as the crowd chanted, “Free, free Palestine.”
- At one point, a man grabbed the pinata and began punching it, ripping it off the rope and destroying it.
- Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA were demanding the U.S. “end funding to Israel”.
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