JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
FEMALE IDF TANK CREWS RAN DOWN DOZENS OF COCKROACH TERRORISTS ON OCT 7.
REVELATION VERESE BY VERSE BY DR JACK AND REXELLA VAN IMPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIYtJAUUx0o&list=PLQ6QjtBzr5_eln4Wwdyqw8niA97w7bpv6
TAPE 1 - REV CH 1 - 4:6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4egxDQbC-Po&list=PLQ6QjtBzr5_eln4Wwdyqw8niA97w7bpv6&ind
TAPE 2 - REV CH 4:7-8 TO 9:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAHF8qRW_0c&list=PLQ6QjtBzr5_eln4Wwdyqw8niA97w7bpv6&index=3
TAPE 3 - REV CH 10:1 TO 14:1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8nvow7gDsI
TAPE 4 - REV CH 14:2 TO REV 18:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jzejO8qr1g
TAPE 5 - REV CH 19:1 TO REV 22:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSaL7wuOZU&list=PLQ6QjtBzr5_eln4Wwdyqw8niA97w7bpv6&index=6
TAPE 1 - REVELATION RUMBLINGS
DANIEL VERSE BY VERSE BY DR JACK AND REXELLA VAN IMPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvrylU6E2A
TAPE 1 - DAN 1:1 TO DAN 3:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dySOniNlbjA
TAPE 2 - DAN 4:1 TO DAN 6:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPlfIHcQVrE
TAPE 3 - DAN 7:1 TO DAN 9:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHB_jtS6NF8
TAPE 4 - DAN 10:1 TO DAN 12:13
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
GAYS MARRYING-EVERYBODY CAN JOIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/pope-francis-opens-meeting-on-future-of-catholic-church-by-saying-everyone-must-be-allowed-in/
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=POPE+FRANCIS+ANYBODY+CAN+JOIN+THE+CATHOLIC+CURCH+VIDEO&t=newext&atb=v387-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMKh2nNVjV24
JVI THE FINAL POPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIY8wdebNqo
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
STRONGS CONCORDANCE FOR VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE-SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES.
2554. chamas - Strong's Concordance - chamas: to treat violently or wrong - Part of Speech: Verb - Transliteration: chamas -Phonetic Spelling: (khaw-mas') - Definition: to treat violently or wrong - make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong -A primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat -- make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
SECOND ANGEL: The Middle East DR DOCTORIAN
Then Isawthat the second angel had a sickle in his hand,such asis used in harvesting. The second angelsaid, “Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the wayto Iran.” Isawthose countriesin a fewsplitseconds. “All of Turkey and those other countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another.” I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries.I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia – Iraq, Syria,Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor – full of blood. Isaw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear weapons were used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words, “Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come.”The angel said, “The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.” I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said, “This is the final judgment My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Watershall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.” The angelshowed me that the United Nationsshall be broken in pieces because of the crisisin the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
ISAIAH 54:3
03-King James Bible-For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
The right hand was a symbol of strength-Exodus 15:6, ” Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.”
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
8 Assyria (SYRIA) also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah
9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon,
10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.”
13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!
14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,
15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be [e]confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.
Senior Fatah official justifies Oct. 7 massacre as ‘defensive war’ against Israel-Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee, says Hamas terror group that carried out onslaught is part of Palestinian ‘political and social fabric’By Gianluca Pacchiani Today, 3:46 pm 0-NOV 26,23
Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee, on Sunday justified the October 7 massacre by Hamas that killed over a thousand people in Israel, mostly civilians, as an act “in the context of the defensive war our people are waging.”In a speech he delivered in a meeting with journalists in Kuwait, Rajoub also said that Israel is responsible for causing October 7, the worst single-day killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust, due to its “aggression on all the Palestinian lands.”He said the Hamas onslaught “thwarted the goal of the Israeli right to integrate Israel into the region without resolving the Palestinian issue, based on the principle of peace in exchange for peace,” referencing the Abraham Accords that Israel signed in recent years with several Arab nations, and ongoing talks to normalize relations with other Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia.Rajoub, who is also head of the Palestinian Football Association, added in his speech that “Hamas is part of our political and social fabric and of our struggle, and their involvement is important,” but reiterated that the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is the Palestinian Authority.On October 7, Hamas launched a devastating cross-border attack with over 3,000 terrorists breaching the border from the Gaza Strip and rampaging through southern regions, overrunning communities and slaughtering those they found. The attackers murdered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, butchering entire families as they huddled together in their homes, in some cases burning them alive. The terrorists raped and tortured victims, including children, mutilating some. Babies were beheaded and 360 people were killed at an outdoor music festival. In the attack, which came under the cover of thousands of rockets fired at Israel, the terrorists also abducted roughly 240 people of all ages and took them to Gaza.Israel responded with an air, sea, and land military campaign. It has vowed, along with securing the release of the hostages, to destroy Hamas and remove it from power in Gaza, where the Islamist group — which openly seeks Israel’s destruction — has ruled since 2007 after seizing power from the PA, which is dominated by Fatah, in a coup. Hamas and Fatah have remained split ever since.PA officials have so far refused to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. The PA Foreign Ministry even went as far as to falsely claim on November 19 that Israel fabricated evidence of the October 7 killings by Hamas to justify its attack on Gaza – a statement that was later retracted after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as “preposterous.”Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah chairman, has repeatedly indicated that the PA is willing to take control over the Gaza Strip after Hamas is removed from power there — on condition of the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.US President Joe Biden has also said that a “revitalized” PA should rule the Gaza Strip following the war, something Israel has repeatedly rejected, pointing to its refusal to condemn the October 7 onslaught.Israel has not yet given a clear idea of what it intends to do after destroying Hamas rule. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the war could go on for months, and would include an intermediate stage during which the IDF will begin to seek out new leadership for the battered enclave while rooting out “pockets of resistance.” Only after this lower-intensity conflict, which is also expected to take several months, Gallant has said, will Israel transition to its final phase: disconnection from the Gaza Strip.
Op-ed: Day 51 of the war-Hamas’s hostage manipulations show how much control it continues to hold over Gaza-The amoral, barbaric terror-government plays cynical games with the families, with Israel, and even forces Biden to get involved. Of course it does. And it must be dismantled-By David Horovitz Today, 3:34 pm 1-NOV 26,23
The trouble with trying to do deals with an amoral, savage terrorist regime that has just slaughtered over 1,000 of your people, abducted over 200 to its underground hell, and is trying to destroy your country, is, well, precisely that you are dealing with an amoral, savage terrorist regime that has just slaughtered over 1,000 of your people, abducted over 200 to its underground hell, and is trying to destroy your country.Israel’s political leaders gradually internalized that doing everything possible to achieve the return of as many of those hostages as possible was the most urgent priority of its fightback against Hamas after October 7. They realized that there could be no victory, no matter how successful the IDF’s assault on Hamas, without the return of all of the hostages or at least without the government being recognized by the people of Israel as having done everything in its power to get all the hostages back. Otherwise, even the demolition of Hamas and the deterring of Israel’s other enemies would not be sufficient to restore public faith in the political and military leadership that so failed them on October 7 by ignoring Hamas’s open preparations for its monstrous assault on our people.But as expected, Hamas is exploiting Israelis’ love of life to extract every possible advantage from the current four-day lull in the IDF’s war on its Gaza killing machine. The first day’s scheduled release of hostages, on Thursday, didn’t happen at all. Postponed to Friday, it only went ahead amid further delays. Saturday’s phase two was an exercise in orchestrated psychological terror, with Hamas first stating that it had transferred the hostages to the Red Cross, immediately saying it hadn’t, and then issuing spurious accusations against Israel for not supplying as much fuel and humanitarian aid as promised and releasing the wrong Palestinian security prisoners.Toying not just with Israel, and especially the families of those who had been told to expect their loved ones’ releases, Hamas also made fools of the Qatari and Egyptian interlocutors, and even compelled the leader of the free world to get directly involved, with US President Joe Biden working the phones to get the process back on track. With Israel reportedly threatening to resume the ground offensive if the hostages were not in Israeli hands by midnight, Hamas deigned to go through with Saturday’s phase, while breaching a reported commitment not to release hostage children without their hostage mothers.As of this writing, there’s no knowing how Sunday’s phase three of the releases will play out, if at all. As IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday night, “nothing is final until it actually happens.” Or to quote Biden on Friday, “I don’t trust Hamas to do anything right. I only trust Hamas to respond to pressure.”Not halfway done-For now, it would seem, seven weeks into the Israeli effort to tear it apart, Hamas seems to be holding together quite effectively. The best estimate is that perhaps 4,000-5,000 of its gunmen are dead; that leaves another 20,000-25,000 who are not.Israel controls much of northern Gaza, and has destroyed much of Hamas’s infrastructure there, but most of the Hamas tunnel network in the north may well still be intact. According to former generals including Amos Yadlin, Yisrael Ziv and Giora Eiland, the ground operation is certainly not even half-completed, with central and southern Gaza yet to be tackled, notably including Hamas strongholds such as Khan Younis. And the logistics of fighting in southern Gaza, now unprecedentedly populated with its own residents and hundreds of thousands of evacuees from the north, will present immense challenges to the IDF, even as almost all of the international community steps up pressure for a permanent ceasefire.Yahya Sinwar, the presumed orchestrator of both October 7 and Hamas’s viciously cynical self-preservation tactics since — including the sacrifice of any and all Gazan noncombatants to the cause of his Jew-killing, Israel-destroying, Islamist death cult — would appear to remain in highly effective control of much of the Strip. And if it’s not him, then it’s others in the leadership.Since the truce went into effect, and as of this writing, it has been near-impeccably maintained — by Hamas and every other terrorist outfit in the Strip — belying widely cited assessments in Israel that Hamas might prove unable to impose the halt in fighting on all the armed Israel-haters in Gaza.Saturday night’s grim theatrics also suggested a leadership managing events, pushing psychological terror to the limits, and knowing when to climb down.And the mechanics of the deal itself show tactical and strategic cunning. There is an emphasis on fuel entering the Strip — fuel that Israel knows will be subverted for the Hamas war machine — as part of a wider humanitarian aid influx that the US has been pressuring Israel to allow throughout the war.Meanwhile, the daily releases of West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinian security prisoners — albeit not convicted murderers, but many would-be murderers, several of them notorious figures — have seen scenes of celebration that point to rising popularity for Hamas, at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, as the liberator of freedom fighters.Unfathomably, unconscionably and catastrophically surprised by Hamas on October 7, the IDF says it has held the upper hand in every confrontation with the terrorist army since the ground operation began, and appears to have anticipated at least some of Hamas’s planned deadly surprises.Troops have been astounded by the sheer quantity of deadly weaponry used and prepared for use against them — the endless rows of booby-trapped homes, the huge quantities of anti-tank rockets, the vast tunnel network — but they have tackled it resolutely.The ruins left behind as they have proceeded through the north of the Strip will take years to rebuild, the IDF acknowledges. Given the high stakes — the imperative to dismantle a terrorist army that fully intends to regroup and massacre Israelis again and again if allowed to — the military is ordering airstrikes in circumstances it would not have done in the past, with consequent noncombatant casualties, while insisting it is acting within the laws of war and the framework of proportionality.Back to the war-Hamas is widely expected to seek to string out the current pause in fighting, under a four-day deal for 50 hostages that can be extended an extra day for every 10 more hostages that it releases. The longer the pause, the more complicated for the IDF to resume the ground offensive — especially if Hamas can encourage and force large numbers of northern Gazan evacuees to return to that part of the war zone — and the greater the international pressure for a full ceasefire.Israelis are not united behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but they are near universally supportive of the war’s mission to dismantle Hamas and get back the hostages. That certainly remains the plan: As IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said on Saturday, “We will return immediately, at the end of the ceasefire, to attacking Gaza, to maneuver in Gaza. We will do it to dismantle Hamas and also to create great pressure to return as quickly as possible and as many hostages as possible, down to the last one of them… We have an obligation to fight and also to risk our lives so that [Israeli citizens] can return to live in safety.”To put it in the starkest terms, Israelis know this country has no future if the fighting ends with Hamas still a threat, Sinwar still standing, Hezbollah laughing from across the northern border with 10 times the military muscle, and Iran arming, training and inspiring its proxies while proceeding toward the bomb.“Dismantling” Hamas, to Halevi, is understood to include neutralizing as many of those gunmen as possible, neutralizing Hamas’s commanders, and destroying Hamas’s weaponry, control systems and infrastructure. It is no small task, and even if achieved, is not the end of the challenge.Support for the antisemitic, anti-infidel ideology predates Israel, and will not be destroyed even if Hamas is defanged as a fighting force. But a post-war Gaza would be one in which terror groups do not rule and cannot rearm — as Hamas was able to do these past years with truckloads of weapons from across the Egyptian border — and in which those many regional players who detest Hamas and fear Iran should be encouraged to play a role.But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Right now, there’s a lull in fighting that Hamas is determined to exploit. An Israel yearning for its hostages to be home — with the families whose loved ones have not been freed, and may not be for a long time, showing astounding nobility and solidarity. International pressure for a permanent ceasefire. A wide, essential determination in Israel to ensure the campaign indeed demolishes Hamas. And a key figure, amid pressures of his own, providing moral clarity and support.In his remarks on Friday, Biden said he saw a “real chance” that the current pause could be extended — not into a long-term ceasefire but to enable more hostages to be released. He was explicit in supporting Israel’s effort, under Netanyahu, to destroy Hamas: “I’ve encouraged the prime minister to focus on trying to reduce the number of casualties while he is attempting to eliminate Hamas, which is a legitimate objective he has,” said the president. “That’s a difficult task, and I don’t know how long it will take.”
Concealing kippahs in public, hiding mezuzahs: Europe’s Jews worry about antisemitism-The fallout from the Israel-Hamas conflict ripples through Europe, shaking a continent all too familiar with deadly anti-Jewish hatred-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 2:34 pm 1-NOV 26,23
Living in Geneva, Michel Dreifuss does not feel all that far away from the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza. The ripples are rolling through Europe and upending assumptions both global and individual — including those about his personal safety as a Jew.“Yesterday I bought a tear-gas spray canister at a military-equipment surplus store,” the 64-year-old retired tech sector worker said recently at a rally to mark a month since the Hamas killings. The purchase, he says, is a “precaution,” driven by a surge of antisemitism in Europe.War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly.The murderous rampages represent the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, while health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since October 7. However, those figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires.The fallout from the conflict has extended to Europe, shaking a continent all too familiar with centuries of deadly anti-Jewish hatred.The past century is of particular note, of course. Concern about rising antisemitism in Europe is fueled in part by what happened to Jews before and during World War II, and that makes it particularly fearsome for those who may be only one or two generations removed from victims of riots against Jews and Nazi brutality.What most chills many of the Jews interviewed is what they see as a lack of empathy for the Israelis killed during the massacre and for the relatives of the hostages — about 30 of whom are children — suspended in an agonizing limbo.“What really upsets me,” said Holocaust survivor Herbert Traube at a Paris event commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 government-backed pogroms against Jews in Germany and Austria, “is to see that there isn’t a massive popular reaction against this.”Acts of antisemitism – and how that’s defined-Antisemitism is broadly defined as hostility or prejudice towards Jews. But a debate has been raging for years over what actions and words should be labeled antisemitic.Criticism of Israel’s policies have long been conflated with antisemitism by Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some watchdog groups. Critics say that blurring helps undermine opposition to the country’s policies and amps up perceptions that any utterance or incident against Israeli policy is antisemitic.Some language — whether for or against Israel or the Palestinians – “makes it sound like a football match,” says Susan Neiman of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. “We are perpetuating the idea that you’ve got to be on one side or the other instead of being on the side of human rights and justice,” she said.Others argue that antisemites often use criticism of Israel as a placeholder for expressing their views.The list of examples of anti-Jewish sentiment since the October 7 attacks is long and documented by governments and watchdog groups across Europe.Little more than a month after the attack in Israel, the French Interior Ministry said 1,247 antisemitic incidents had been reported since October 7, nearly three times the total for all of 2022.Denmark’s main Jewish association said cases were up 24 times from the average of the last nine months.The Community Security Trust, which tracks antisemitic incidents in Britain, reported more than 1,000 such events — the most ever recorded for a 28-day period.That all comes despite widespread denunciations of anti-Jewish hatred — and support for Israel — from leaders in Europe since the attack.Some of Europe’s Jews say they see it on the streets and the news. Jewish schoolchildren face bullying on their way to class, or — in one instance — have been asked to explain Israel’s actions, according to Britain’s Community Security Trust. There’s been talk of blending in better: covering skullcaps — yarmulkes, or kippot in Hebrew — in public and perhaps hiding mezuzahs, the traditional symbol on doorposts of Jewish homes.In Russia, a riot broke out at an airport in which there were antisemitic chants and posters from a crowd of men looking for passengers who had arrived from Israel. A Jewish woman was stabbed twice in the stomach at her home in Lyon, France, according to her lawyer. In Prague’s Little Quarter last month, staffers at the well-known Hippopotamus bar refused to serve beer to several tourists from Israel and their Czech guides, and some patrons served up insults. Police had to step in. In Berlin,Jews are still reeling from an attempted firebombing of a synagogue last month.“Some of us are in a state of panic,” said Anna Segal, 37, the manager of the Kahal Adass Jisroel in Berlin, a community of 450 members.Coming to grips with a feeling of dread-Some community members are changing how they live, Segal said.Students no longer wear uniforms. Kindergarten classes don’t leave the building for field trips or the even playground next door. Some members no longer call taxis, or they hesitate to order deliveries to their homes. Speaking Hebrew in public is fading. Some wonder if they should move to Israel.“I hear more and more from people from the Jewish community who say they feel safer and more comfortable in Israel now than in Germany, despite the war and all the rockets,” Segal said. “Because they don’t have to hide there.”And in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, some protesters are shouting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Some say that’s a call for Palestinian freedom and is not anti-Jewish but anti-Israel; the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea includes not only Israel, but also the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. Many Jews, though, say the chant is inherently anti-Jewish and calls for the destruction of Israel.Faced with fears that antisemitism will spread, communities are taking action. A hotline has been set up in France to help provide psychological support for Jews. In Britain, the Community Security Trust, which aims to protect the Jewish community and foster good relations with others, has joined with the government to distribute primers on how to address antisemitism in primary and secondary schools.Peggy Hicks, a director at the UN human rights office, says the actions of governments and political movements are fair game for criticism but warned against discrimination, which the Geneva-based office has long battled. In the chaos of the past weeks, she sees reason to hope.“I’ve been amazed in the course of my working in human rights about the amount of compassion and the resilience of of human beings,” Hicks said.“People who have lost children and come together on both sides of a conflict, who have shared a loss — but from opposing sides — and who have found a way to get past the fact that they should actually be enemies.”She added: “I don’t think everybody has the ability to show that kind of courage. But the fact that it exists, I think, gives us all something to aspire to.”
Jewish groups ask Pope Francis to clarify Israel ‘terrorism’ comments-Criticism from European, US groups comes after ambiguous comment last week: ‘We have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism’By JTA and ToI Staff Today, 11:40 am 5-NOV 26,23
Jewish groups have criticized Pope Francis for appearing to accuse both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism” in their ongoing war that started on October 7, sparked by the terror group’s murderous attack on Israeli communities in the south.“This is what wars do,” the pope had said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. “But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.”Francis’ comments followed separate meetings with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza on Wednesday. His remarks came a month after he called on Hamas to free the hostages being held in Gaza, and weeks after calling for a ceasefire and for more Palestinian aid.Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Italy, issued a statement Wednesday saying that she would have preferred Francis had issued a clear condemnation of October 7.“Certainly we cannot equate the responsibilities of those who have a design of extermination and terror versus those who are defending themselves and defending an entire country and a community that includes both Muslims and Palestinians,” Di Segni said.In a statement published on the official website of the Jewish community of Milan, the Council of the Assembly of Italian Rabbis (ARI) charged the pope with “publicly accusing both sides of terrorism.”In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the American Jewish Committee expressed gratitude for the pope’s meeting with families of the hostages and calling for their release, while also criticizing his other remarks.“Hamas’ butchering and kidnapping of civilians is terrorism. Israel’s self-defense is not,” the AJC wrote. “Vatican, please clarify.”Grateful @Pontifex met today for the first time with hostage families and for his repeated calls to free the hostages. Later in the day, he described the Israel-Hamas war as “beyond war,” as “terrorism.” Hamas’ butchering and kidnapping of civilians is terrorism. Israel’s… pic.twitter.com/Ww0iaJju9s— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) November 22, 2023-Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna, defended Francis on Thursday.“The pope is careful,” Zuppi told reporters. “And look, this does not mean putting everyone on the same level… It is not that he does not understand the motivations of the Israeli government,” Zuppi added.Following Francis’s meeting with 10 Palestinians on Wednesday, a dispute also arose as to whether he used the word “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza, Reuters reported. Palestinian participants in the news conference say they heard him use the word, while a statement sent by Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said he did not.War erupted with Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 360 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.
Chinese-owned illegal bio lab uncovered in California, hidden viruses found-By - TIMESOFINDIA.COM-Created: Nov 17, 2023, 22:00 IST
An illegal biolab owned by China in California was discovered to be hiding pathogens labelled as HIV and Ebola. The authorities found this secret lab in December 2022, where they believed dangerous viruses were being handled. The discovery was accidental when a police officer patrolling the area noticed a green garden hose inside a hole in a warehouse.This hidden Chinese lab contained thousands of vials with various bio-substances, some specifically labelled as "HIV," and a freezer marked "Ebola." The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had previously refused to investigate the warehouse, as stated in a committee report from November 15.Is Covid a bio-weapon? The illegal lab came to light when Officer Jesalyn Harper noticed the garden hose near the vacant warehouse, which had been empty for more than a decade. The lab she found contained alarming evidence, including lab equipment, vials, medical freezers, and even lab rats. The containers were labelled in either English or Mandarin, using a code language that has yet to be deciphered.Harper observed individuals claiming to be Chinese nationals wearing lab coats. This discovery shocked officials, leading to a nine-month investigation. Representative Jim Costa became involved after the FBI and CDC ignored the case.A select committee in the Chinese community reported shocking findings in the alleged research lab, stating, "Local officials spent months trying to get answers from the CDC, but it refused to communicate with them. On several occasions, local officials reported that the CDC hung up on them."When locals reached out to federal agencies like the FBI, they received no assistance, as the FBI claimed to have already closed the investigation, considering the property not "dangerous."With additional help, CDC officials eventually located a lab containing 20 containers of alleged virus-carrying substances, including SARS-CoV-2, Chlamydia, HIV, E. coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Hepatitis B and C, Dengue Virus, Rubella Virus, and Malaria.The report concluded that CDC officials refused to test the samples or check vials without labels, despite city officials offering to cover the costs.
Troops arrest Palestinian suspected of killing Israeli father, son in terror attack-Osama Bani Fadl suspected in shooting of Shay Silas Nigreker and son Aviad Nir at carwash in West Bank town of Huwara; 8 Palestinians reported killed in clashes-By Emanuel Fabian Today, 11:04 am-NOV 26,23
Israeli troops arrested Osama Bani Fadl, a Palestinian wanted on suspicion of killing an Israeli father and son in a terror attack in the West Bank town of Huwara in August, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement Sunday.Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir, residents of Ashdod, were gunned down at a carwash in the town, south of Nablus.The arrest came during 24 hours of intense clashes in the West Bank in which eight Palestinians were killed, according to Palestinian health officials.Bani Fadl was arrested in the Jenin refugee camp during an hours-long operation. The IDF and Shin Bet said he was armed and hiding in an apartment used by local terror operatives.Troops were searching a home in Jenin when they found Bani Fadl hiding in an attic space, above a door hidden behind a double wall, footage released by the IDF showed. He was found hiding with an M-16 rifle, magazines, and a Hamas flag.The suspected terrorist’s home in Aqraba, near Nablus, was mapped out for demolition days after the shooting attack.Nigreker, a native of India, and son Nir, were shot dead by a terrorist who approached on foot and opened fire from close range with a handgun. The gunman then fled.Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank, with a main thoroughfare running through the town also being used regularly by Israelis to travel to and from settlements.In a separate statement, the IDF said other operations were carried out in Jenin. Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and rioters who threw explosive devices. There were also firefights between local gunmen and security forces.The Jenin raid was spearheaded by soldiers of the 646th Reserve Brigade. Reservists have been used in the West Bank rather than troops of the standing army, as many of Israel’s frontline soldiers are participating in the war that erupted last month against the terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The IDF said that in Jenin, troops killed five Palestinian gunmen, wounded others, and arrested 21 wanted Palestinians. It also said a drone strike was carried out against a group of armed Palestinians that had “endangered our forces.”The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in Jenin, and three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning. One of those killed, in al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.Palestinian media reported that one person was killed in a drone strike on a house in the Damaj neighborhood of the Jenin refugee camp that also injured four other people. The Wafa news agency reported Sunday that another Palestinian man was shot dead during an IDF raid in the village of Yatma, south of Nablus.During the Jenin operation, an explosive laboratory was destroyed, the IDF said. Engineering troops also uncovered explosive devices hidden at the sides of and beneath roads. The troops also seized weapons, explosives, and other military and surveillance equipment, the IDF said.The Palestinian Authority’s Jenin Governorate called for a general strike on Sunday as a mark of mourning, local media reported.Tensions in the West Bank have been high since October 7, when Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a cross-border attack from Gaza on Israel that killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists also abducted around 240 people of all ages as captives in the Gaza Strip. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at destroying Hamas a removing if from power in Gaza.Since Hamas’s devastating attack on Israel and amid the ensuing war, troops have arrested some 2,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,100 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 200 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and in some cases settlers.Jenin has been the focus of a previous large-scale raids by the military during the recent unrest.The IDF is preparing for a possible escalation of violence following the release of Palestinian prisoners in the exchange deal for abducted Israeli hostages that began over the weekend. A major concern is rioting in villages and cities leading to clashes with security forces as well as possible terror attacks on Israelis traveling on roads in the West Bank.So far, 26 Israeli hostages have been released from Hamas captivity, along with 14 foreign citizens. In exchange, Israel released Palestinian women and underage prisoners held in security cases. The deal also includes a temporary lull in fighting in the Gaza Strip. More hostages are scheduled to be released in the coming days, but the arrangement will still leave most in captivity.The intensified violence follows more than a year of escalating raids and arrests in the West Bank and deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Before the Hamas assault, 2023 already was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in over two decades.Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Trump assails Biden as no US citizens released yet from Gaza in current deal with Hamas-Former president and GOP frontrunner says terror group has no respect for America or its leadership, predicts hostage deal ‘is not going to end well’-By ToI Staff Today, 12:42 pm 1-NOV 26,23
Former US president Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration for not ensuring that US citizens were among the initial group of hostages released from captivity in the Gaza Strip as part of a deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group.“Has anybody noticed that Hamas has returned people from other Countries but, so far, has not returned one American Hostage?” Trump wrote on his Truth social media platform Saturday.“There is only one reason for that, NO RESPECT FOR OUR COUNTRY OR OUR LEADERSHIP. This is a very sad and dark period of America!”Twenty-six Israeli hostages — women, children, and elderly people who were among the hundreds of people abducted by Hamas-led terrorists last month during a devastating attack on Israel — were set free over the weekend in two groups.Another 14 Thai nationals and one Filipino were also freed as part of a separate deal negotiated by Egypt with the involvement of Qatar and Iran.The Israeli hostages were handed over following intense talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, as part of a four-day truce deal whose terms called for a pause in fighting in Gaza in exchange for Hamas freeing a total of about 50 Israeli hostages overall, in groups of roughly a dozen per day, by Monday.Some of the 17 hostages released from Gaza late on November 25, 2023. (Social media used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)-Meanwhile, the Israel Prison Service has released 78 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal with Hamas.“Hamas now wants a better deal for hostages,” Trump wrote without elaborating. “This is not going to end well!”The hostage deal went into effect with a pause in fighting Friday at 7 a.m., followed by the release of the first group of 13 Israeli hostages on Friday afternoon, after 49 days in Gaza.The deal incentivizes additional hostage releases, with Israel agreeing to an additional day of a truce for every 10 additional hostages released by Hamas.The released hostages are only a fraction of the some 240 held in Gaza since they were abducted on October 7, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, amid shocking acts of brutality.Washington officials believe around ten US citizens are among those being held.US President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed the release of the initial group of hostages and said that he expects US citizens to be returned to Israel.“We don’t know when that will occur, but we expect it to occur,” Biden said in prepared remarks to the press in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he was celebrating Thanksgiving.The US president highlighted the three American citizens who fit the criteria for release in the current agreement, including Avigail Idan, who turned 4 on Friday and whose parents were murdered on October 7 by Hamas terrorists.Two dual Israeli-US citizens were previously released on October 20 from captivity in Gaza. The circumstances of their release have not been made public.Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, also criticized Biden, writing on X, formerly Twitter, that “Hamas is refusing to release the American citizens they have taken hostage.”“What is the President of the United States doing about this?” Boebert tweeted Saturday. “He’s continuing to enjoy his holiday vacation in a $40 million dollar mansion.”Hamas is refusing to release the American citizens they have taken hostage. What is the President of the United States doing about this? He’s continuing to enjoy his holiday vacation in a $40 million dollar mansion.— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) November 25, 2023-Earlier this month, Trump, the current GOP frontrunner for the 2024 presidential elections, gave an interview with Univision in which he said of the Israel-Hamas war, “You’re probably going to have to let this play out.”He also claimed the Hamas attack would never have happened while he was president because of his tough approach to Iran, which backs the terror group.Trump earlier this month sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; faulted Israel’s intelligence agencies, saying they needed to “step up their game”; and referred to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group that has been skirmishing with Israeli forces along the Lebanese border throughout the war in Gaza, as “very smart.”Agencies contributed to this report.
Israel’s valiant Lone Soldiers have given their lives for the Jewish state since 1948-Among the casualties of the current war with Hamas are 18 brave volunteers who came from abroad to defend the country. Their history spans back to Israel’s foundation-By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am Today, 9:37 am 3-NOV 26,23
The Jerusalem Light Rail was unusually full when we entered at one of the very first stops. And although more and more people got on the train as we continued on our way, no one got off downtown at the city’s famous Mahane Yehuda market, or even when we reached the Central Bus Station.No, the hundreds of souls packed together on the train exited, with us, at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, headed for the funeral of a young woman not one of us had ever met. She was Staff Sgt. Rose Ida Lubin, who was visiting a kibbutz on the border with Gaza during the Hamas massacre on October 7 that saw 1,200 killed, mostly civilians, and some 240 kidnapped. Lubin survived the onslaught but was stabbed to death by a terrorist while on patrol in Jerusalem a month later. She was 20 years old.Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lubin immigrated to Israel soon after graduating high school. Her goal: To serve the Jewish people by joining the IDF. Because she had no family in Israel offering both practical and emotional support, she was a Lone Soldier. That’s why thousands of Israelis of all ages and from every possible walk of life thronged to her funeral to pay their respects and mourn her passing — as they do for the funeral of every fallen Lone Soldier.At the moment there are nearly 7,000 lone soldiers in Israel. Half of them come from 50 countries — mainly Ukraine, Russia, the United States, France and South America. They all left their homes abroad and bravely set out for the Holy Land to enlist in the Israeli army. The other half consists of Israelis who have no immediate families on which to depend.One of the earliest Lone Soldiers was Pvt. David Livingston. Born in Germany in 1919, he moved with his mother and stepfather to the United States in 1935 and became an American citizen. While he served in the American navy during World War II, he dreamed of defending the Jewish people in Palestine.In 1946 he joined the Haganah — the Jewish paramilitary force that would become the IDF upon Israel’s establishment — and became part of a clandestine effort to bring Jews to Palestine by sea in violation of British policy. Livingston was working in the engine room of the Haim Arlozorov when, on February 27, 1947, the ship was caught by the British. Almost everyone on board, including Livingston, was sent to the Displaced Persons camps in Cyprus.As soon as he was able to get to Palestine, in early spring of 1948, Livingston joined the Yiftah Infantry Brigade in the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah.When Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek was attacked by Arab forces on April 4, 1948, Livingston’s unit was ordered to help in the kibbutz’s defense. He was killed in battle on April 13, 1948, at the age of 28. It is not known where he was buried.Livingston is remembered in the Garden of the Missing in Action on Mt. Herzl, where a stone monument, called a “pillow” in Hebrew, is inscribed with his name, birth date, and the day on which he fell. His name is also written on a wall in a memorial put up by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) for those who have fallen in battle. His name appears, as well, at the Mahal memorial honoring 119 overseas volunteers who were killed or went missing in action during Israel’s War of Independence in 1947-1948.Pvt. David Livingston, killed in action on April 13, 1948. (Izkor)-First Lieutenant Alexander (Alex) Singer, a Lone Soldier from New York, was born on September 15th, 1962. When he was 11, his parents decided to take a sabbatical in Israel, arriving just a few short weeks before the Yom Kippur War in October of 1973. In the end, the family extended its stay for another three years, with Singer attending local schools.Back in the United States, Singer finished high school and continued his studies at Cornell University. Because he demonstrated unusual promise, he was chosen for a special, individualized program that included Russian and Jewish studies. In the context of his constant search for a way to make his life count for something, he immigrated to Israel in 1984. In one of his letters home, he wrote that he preferred the challenges of Israel to the easy life in America.At the beginning of February 1985, Singer joined the Israeli army. As a new immigrant, and because of his age, he was only required to serve for a year and a half. But he refused to take the easy way out — besides, he was adamant about seeing combat. After completing his officer’s training, he joined the Givati Infantry Brigade and was sent to Israel’s northern border. On his 25th birthday, September 15, 1987, he was killed in a battle with a large group of terrorists who had been planning a major attack on civilian targets in Israel.Singer is remembered on the AACI memorial wall, at the Yoav Fortress, as one of the schools he attended in Jerusalem and on a memorial monument in Kibbutzim Forest.The IDF memorial by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel. (Shmuel Bar-Am)-In the summer of 1970, Jerusalemite Judy Brown was put in charge of the dance program at a Jewish summer camp in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains. It was during her many decades there that she met a young camper named Michael Levin for the first time.Levin later immigrated to Israel, enlisting in 2004 as a Lone Soldier and volunteering for the Paratroopers’ Brigade. Like other Lone Soldiers, Staff Sgt. Levin was allowed “home leave” each year. He popped into the camp on visitors’ day in 2006, where he was approached by Brown. She asked him when he was returning to Israel.The Second Lebanon War had just broken out (the first one, Shalom Hagalil, took place in 1982). “I go back to Israel tomorrow,” he told Brown, “because my unit is being sent to up north and I want to be with them.”Alex Singer, Michael Levin, and Max Steinberg, three fallen IDF lone soldiers, who were commemorated at a ceremony in Jerusalem on April 17, 2018. (courtesy)-Levin’s unit was ordered to the Lebanese village in which Hezbollah forces were holding two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Twenty-two year old Levin was killed on August 8, during fierce battles that raged inside the village.On his last visit to Philadelphia he had told his parents that if anything should happen to him, he wanted to be buried on Mount Herzl. And so he was, at a funeral attended by thousands.The funeral of lone soldier Michael Levin at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, August 2006. (Courtesy)-His name is inscribed on the memorial walls of the Paratrooper Monument, and the AACI monument. And he is remembered, of course, at the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center.A fourth Lone Soldier, Sgt. Max Donald Steinberg, was born in Los Angeles in 1989. When he turned 23, Steinberg went on Birthright Israel, a 10-day Jewish heritage program for young adults. Although he returned home after the trip, he came back to Israel a few months later in order to join the IDF. He served as a sharpshooter in the famed Golani Brigade.Hamas terrorists had been firing rockets at Israel for years, but in 2014 their frequency increased. As a result, on July 8, Israel began Operation Protective Edge. It commenced with the Israel Air Force bombing Gaza, and nine days later the infantry moved in.Steinberg fell in Gaza on July 20, 2014, along with six of his comrades in arms. He is remembered at the Golani Museum, and his name is inscribed on the memorial wall of the AACI monument.Sgt. Nathanel Young. (Courtesy of the Young family)-Eighteen Lone Soldiers have fallen during the current war against Hamas in Gaza. Among them is 20-year-old Sgt. Nathanel Young, a Lone Soldier from England who even as a youngster announced his intention of protecting the State of Israel and the Jewish people.Young had come to Israel for a short stay in 2021 but ended up remaining an entire year. Full of love for Israel, he then joined the IDF’s Golani Brigade. High-spirited, the life of every party, he loved music and was a talented DJ. Young fell on the Gaza border while defending the towns and kibbutzim that were invaded by Hamas terrorists on Saturday, October 7, 2023.Staff Sgt. Valentin (Elie) Ghnassia was a Lone Soldier from France who moved to Israel after completing a law degree at Montpellier University. Several years prior he had visited Israel with the Taglit-Birthright Israel program; now he planned to realize his dream of serving in the IDF. Fired by a strong sense of mission and a fierce attachment to Israel, he volunteered for the Paratroopers’ Brigade.Ghnassia, who learned Hebrew in three short months, preferred to be called by his Hebrew name of Eli, and not by the French Valentin. His family remembers him as always smiling, as well as constantly demanding more of himself, and of others.Valentin Elie Ghnassia, a 22-year-old French national, killed in action by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri, October 7, 2023. (Courtesy/Facebook)-On that horrific Saturday, Ghnassia fought Hamas terrorists who had invaded Kibbutz Be’eri with staunch and extraordinary courage that saved countless lives. He fell in battle just a few days short of his 23rd birthday.Lone Soldier Rose Ida Lubin was visiting at a kibbutz on the Gaza border when it was attacked on that black Saturday, but the terrorists were repulsed. Tragically, only a month later, she was stabbed to death while on duty next to the Old City walls by a teenage terrorist. Her hometown rabbi, in Israel for her funeral, had known Rose almost her whole life. “Anyone that knew Rose, anyone that had an interaction with Rose, remembers that interaction,” he said in his eulogy, noting that “Rose was color, Rose was music… she was light itself.” He added that “Rose didn’t have to come here — but she did.”Sgt. Rose Lubin, speaking at an FIDF dinner in April 2023, in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. (Courtesy)-During his army service, Michael Levin spoke about his dream of a center for lone soldiers, where they could get meals, support and advice. That dream was realized in 2009, three years after he fell in battle, with the establishment of a non-profit in his memory. Over the years the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center has provided over 15,000 Lone Soldiers with physical and emotional support both before they enlist, during their army service and for the next five years.The center offers housing for Lone Soldiers, along with Sabbath meals, ongoing support that can include accompaniment to induction centers, social events, and even laundry services. Lone Soldiers have the opportunity to rest and unwind in clubhouses located in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Beersheba. Steinberg, Lubin, Ghnassia and Young were all involved with the center, which offers a home away from home to 3,500 of Israel’s Lone Soldiers.A new plot of graves in Jerusalem’s Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery for soldiers killed since the October 7 Hamas atrocities. (Shmuel Bar-Am)-As yet there are no monuments and memorials in honor of the brave soldiers who fell in the current Gaza rar: their graves are still fresh. May their memories be a blessing.Aviva Bar-Am is the author of seven English-language guides to Israel.Shmuel Bar-Am is a licensed tour guide who provides private, customized tours in Israel for individuals, families and small groups.
Hamas onslaught was originally planned for first night of Passover – report-Assault reportedly called off after Israel caught wind; intel officers outlined a mass invasion one month before October 7, but top officers waved off manual showing detailed plans
By ToI Staff Today, 9:00 am 5-NOV 26,23
Hamas had initially planned its October 7 cross-border onslaught for the eve of Passover, but canceled the attack after Israel raised the alert level, according to a Saturday report.Military intelligence caught the early signs of an attack on Passover, which this year fell on April 5, and raised the alert, leading Hamas to cancel and the IDF to consider the incident a false alarm, Channel 12 reported, citing unnamed soldiers in the IDF’s 8200 signal intelligence unit.In the period after that attempt, Hamas, fearing it had Israeli informants in its ranks, raised its internal security and kept most of its members unaware of subsequent plans and of the new timing for the incursion, the report said.On the morning of October 7, on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. Nearly 50 of the hostages have since been released, including 26 women and children as part of a Qatar-led deal, and 15 foreign nationals.The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and some 360 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.Saturday’s exposé on the planned Passover attack followed several others in the past month that revealed IDF intelligence on a possible invasion, including reports filed by surveillance soldiers on the Gaza border who detailed unusual Hamas training exercises three months before October 7.Soldiers in the 8200 unit reportedly warned senior officers before the October 7 atrocities that Hamas was preparing a highly organized and meticulously planned mass invasion of Israel, but were told their concerns were “fantasies.”A senior and experienced non-commissioned officer as well as a junior officer in 8200 alerted senior IDF officers well in advance that a major operation was being planned by Hamas, but their warnings went unheeded, according to Thursday reports.Channel 12 reported that the NCO in Unit 8200 put together a report from an range of raw intelligence data detailing a scenario that essentially predicted the October 7 invasion.Together with the junior officer, she also pointed to a Hamas drill a month before the attack, noting that it included preparations for a mass invasion with multiple entry points into Israel. “They were told in real-time. There were so many things that should have set off red flags,” an unnamed source from the 8200 unit told the network.The Kan public broadcaster reported similar details, noting that the non-commissioned officer stated that the Hamas drill included the use of vehicles to carry out the attack and terrorists practiced taking over Israeli towns. The NCO also warned that the assault Hamas was planning was on such a large scale that it could spark an all-out war.The senior officer briefed by the NCO reportedly agreed that the information she had was substantive, but said a distinction needed to be made between what Hamas could drill for and what it could accomplish in reality.Separately, Kan reported that before October 7, the IDF had come into possession of a Hamas terror manual that described ways to capture the Gaza border region in southern Israel.The manual described taking over IDF positions, capturing kibbutzim and towns in the region, killing and kidnapping residents, and attacking and capturing the three regional cities of Sderot, Ofakim and Netivot. It described how pickup trucks would be used to stage the invasion along with motorbikes and hang gliders, as well as the use of anti-tank missiles under the cover of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza — in much the same way that events unfolded on October 7.Unconfirmed reports of at least one paraglider attempting to infiltrate southern Israel during rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/GerPyGkFw1 — Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 7, 2023-The manual also described a strategy to lull Israel into complacency by holding negotiations for some form of long-term arrangement, while at the same time staging frequent drills and small security incidents on the border on Saturdays and Jewish holidays to lull the IDF into a false sense of security when Hamas forces turned up en masse at the border fence.The plan was reportedly drilled with two companies of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, which was responsible for the October 7 attacks, and included capturing an imitation kibbutz.Kan reported that the plans detailed in the manual were passed along to senior ranks in the IDF, who dismissed it on the grounds that Hamas did not have the operational capabilities to carry out such an attack.Responding to the report, the IDF said it was “operating and fighting in these very days against the murderous terror organization Hamas in the Gaza strip. All of the [IDF’s] commanders and soldiers are focused on this mission alone in order to complete the goals of the war. When the war is finished, a detailed and thorough investigation will be conducted clarifying every last detail.”In late October, an opinion poll published by the Maariv newspaper found that the vast majority of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should publicly accept responsibility for the staggering failures that led to Hamas’s devastating onslaught on October 7.
Female IDF tank crews ran down dozens of Hamas terrorists on October 7-Channel 12 interviews soldiers from all-woman company within mixed-gender battalion who say there was no time for fear or hesitation, battled terrorists for 17 hours-By ToI Staff Today, 1:03 am 29-NOV 26,23
When a group of young Israeli women were woken up at 6:30 a.m. on October 7, they had no idea they would be making history as the first female armored crews in Israel, and perhaps the world, to participate in active battle.In an interview with Channel 12 this week, the combat soldiers spoke of thundering along main roads to get to some of the 20 southern Israeli communities that came under massive assault that morning, running down terrorists, and securing breaches on the border with the Gaza Strip.One of the officers in the unit, identified as Hagar, told Channel 12: “[My commander] comes into our room at 6:30 a.m., wakes me up and tells us that there’s a terrorist infiltration. We didn’t really understand the enormity of the event.”The soldiers are part of a company of all-women tank operators, which was made permanent in the Israel Defense Forces in 2022 after a two-year pilot program. The company, in the Caracal mixed-gender light infantry battalion, usually operates along the Egyptian border — not in wars or in fighting behind enemy lines.On the morning of October 7, they left their base at Nitzana, on the Egyptian border, and drove north as fast as they could, in tanks and an armored Humvee. In one of a number of highly irregular decisions IDF commanders were forced to make that day, the tanks were given the okay to drive on civilian roads — at speeds far higher than recommended.At first, they discovered breaches along the border with Gaza, along with dozens of terrorists. Leaving a tank there to protect the border and prevent more Gazans from flooding into Israel, they headed to Kibbutz Holit, while also sending a tank to battle Hamas terrorists at Kibbutz Sufa.#EPIC #BREAKTHROUGH These are the female tank warriors who saved an entire community on Oct 7.Israel is the first country that incorporate women as warriors in tanks. via Keshet 12 News pic.twitter.com/9HgmQowGkv — Niv Calderon (@nivcalderon) November 26, 2023-Another of the armored crew commanders, Karni, spoke of the devastation they witnessed on the approach to Kibbutz Holit: “We realized we’re at war.”“They told me there were terrorists in all the trees around me, so we just started firing. We started firing bunker busters at the terrorists that were up close, and then mortar shells at those further away,” Michal, another officer in the unit, said in the Channel 12 report.“I could see the hits, I saw [the terrorists] fall down,” she added.Hila, also a commander, told Channel 12 that none of them had been trained on the weapons system installed on the armored Humvee. “Within 10 minutes, we’d all become experts: how to run it, how to fire, how to slam the brakes,” she said.“We approached the border and saw burned bodies of terrorists hiding in the trees. We were still firing as we went through to make sure we got everyone,” Michal said.Another commander, also called Michal, described her experience at one of the border breaches at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. “As we continued we realized that those 50 terrorists — that was just the beginning. Then we started getting eyewitness reports from Kibbutz Holit, so I left a tank at the border, told [the operator] she had permission to fire at will, and then set out for Holit.”“We saw terrorists everywhere, and I told the driver — just run them down… We get there and the gate is closed, a shell-shocked soldier runs out shouting “terrorists, terrorists!… So we smashed through the gate,” she said.Asked about their first time shooting at terrorists, the soldiers were stoic.“I feel like it’s exactly what we trained for. We were really prepared for everything,” a commander identified as Tamar told Channel 12. “We just did what our brains and our hands knew how to do.”“In the moment you don’t think, ‘Am I saving that person, or that home?’ You understand — there’s a terrorist and I have to kill him before he gets into one of the border communities,” she added.The newly appointed commander of the Paran Brigade, Col. Shemer Raviv, couldn’t be prouder of his female armored crews, who battled terrorists for some 17 hours straight on that day.“When the tanks arrived, they broke up the battles,” Raviv told Channel 12. “Once they took those two positions… the terrorists understood they could either run or they would die. And the girls in those tanks, the warriors, with three tanks at that point in the attack, they fought in a most impressive way. They operated in such a way that they were seemingly not trained for. They fired inside Israeli communities, drove on main roads, and I believe that thanks to their actions in that area, we prevented the attack from moving further south.”But these soldiers weren’t quick to accept accolades for their “historic” battle.“So what? What does it matter? Did the terrorist know there were girls in the tanks? No. You think they saw Michal’s hair sticking out of the helmet? No. Boys, girls — what does it matter?” Hila said.Tamar agreed. “You keep saying ‘heroines’ and ‘historic’… I don’t feel like a hero. I feel like I’m a soldier that was given a job, and I did my job. I think anyone would have done that.”“This was not a battle with human beings. There was no humanity here, and my aim is to protect people. Their aim was to kill people,” Hila added.For her part, Hagar said that there was no time to be scared. “You think about the civilians trapped in their homes and the people that needed us. You understand that there was no room for fear.”Critics of gender integration in the military often decry it as a dangerous social experiment with potential ramifications for national security, while defenders generally trumpet it as a long-needed measure, one that has already been implemented in many Western countries.Detractors note that some requirements for female combat soldiers have been lowered — which they say is a sign that effectiveness is being sacrificed — and that servicewomen suffer stress injuries at a higher rate.The army insists that it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions out of practical considerations, not due to a social agenda, saying it requires all the woman- and manpower available to it.For Raviv, the battle was proof that female combat soldiers are in the IDF to stay.
Tens of thousands march in pro-Palestinian London rally calling for Gaza ceasefire-One arrested with Nazi placard as 1,500 police officers deployed; additional rallies take place in Paris and other French cities-By AP and ToI Staff 25 November 2023, 9:14 pm 5
LONDON — A protester was arrested Saturday in London on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, as tens of thousands of people turned out on central London’s streets for a pro-Palestinian march calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.The National March for Palestine, which aimed to finish in Whitehall, central London, was the latest in several huge protests staged in the British capital every weekend since the Israel-Hamas war began last month after the terror group’s October 7 atrocities.Saturday’s protests came on the second day of a precarious four-day lull in fighting that has allowed humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.The Metropolitan Police said it arrested a man on suspicion of inciting racial hatred “near the start of the protest.”“Officers spotted him carrying a placard with Nazi symbols on it,” police said.Officers handed out leaflets at the march that sought to clarify what would be deemed an offense, after the force faced pressure from senior government officials to be tougher on displays of antisemitism at the protests.“Anyone who is racist or incites hatred against any group should expect to be arrested. As should anyone who supports Hamas or any other banned organization,” said Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Ade Adelekan.“We will not tolerate anyone who celebrates or promotes acts of terrorism – such as the killing or kidnap of innocent people – or who spreads hate speech,” he added.The force said 1,500 officers were deployed to police the march.Earlier this month, the UK’s former interior minister, Suella Braverman, came under heavy criticism when she described pro-Palestinian protesters as “hate marchers.” Critics accused her of inflaming tensions, and she was sacked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak soon after.New UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, a former prime minister, made a trip to Israel this past week and visited Kibbutz Be’eri, among the southern Israeli communities hit hard by Hamas’s shock October 7 onslaught in which thousands of terrorists invaded Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians in their homes and at an outdoor music festival.They also took some 240 hostages, 24 of whom were freed Friday in two separate deals. Some 50 Israeli hostages — children, their mothers and other women — are set to be freed overall over the four days, during which the IDF is halting its military campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza, with three Palestinian security prisoners to be freed in exchange for each hostage.Hamas freed 13 Israeli hostages Friday, and another 11 foreign nationals from Thailand and the Philippines in a separate deal, Hamas’s backers.According to the Israel-Hamas deal, the truce can potentially be extended for one extra day for each additional group of 10 more hostages freed by Hamas.On Saturday, Hamas delayed the release of the slated second group of Israeli hostages as the fragile truce deal hung in the balance.In Paris on Saturday, a march staged for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women drew both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli activists, as well as other groups.Some protesters, waving Palestinian flags and posters reading “Free Palestine,” walked in a show of solidarity with “Gaza and Palestine’s women who are being murdered.”A group of Jewish women also joined the march to denounce crimes committed by Hamas, including rapes and killings, chanting, “We are women, we are proud, we are Jewish and we are angry.”Meanwhile, some pro-Palestinian protests were organized over the weekend in France’s major cities including Strasbourg, Lyon and Marseille.Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group, also protested Saturday outside the Egyptian Embassy in London.Tens of thousands of people are also expected to take part in a march organized by the Campaign Against Antisemitism organization on Sunday to show solidarity with the Jewish community in the UK.
