Reviewing Israeli discourse since October 7 on the roots of the intelligence fiasco conjures up a bleak, at times even exasperating, picture. At its center is the difficulty of pointing to the true malfunctions, tinged with doubt over the ability to change following this colossal failure.

 

The war as an intelligence lab, understanding the failure leading to Hamas massacre

 

Analysis: The roots of the present catastrophe are not limited to the events of the night between October 6 and 7 but reflect an extreme and long-lasting lack of understanding of the enemy

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An IDF tank overtaken by Gaza residents during the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7

by Taboola

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The current discourse is nothing more than a fervent search for keys under the streetlight. The point of departure is that intelligence experts have sharp minds, and therefore, the search for flaws and suggested solutions should focus primarily on this aspect. 

 

Thus, ideas are raised for improving thinking and assessment formulation designs and processes (particularly the groupthink challenge), as well as for developing new methodologies, enhancing control systems, revisiting technology’s dominance in intelligence work, or optimizing the relations between various intelligence organizations.

 

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The analysis of the defects does not include two other aspects that are viewed as secondary. The first – the behavioral/personality dimension that plays a key role in all modern-day intelligence failures, including October 7. 

 

Intelligence work is spearheaded by people with extraordinary qualities, but they are not immune to the fundamentals that are often found to underlie any disaster: self-assuredness; arrogance; dogmatism; difficulty in doubting and encouraging pluralism; as well as profound knowledge gaps with regard to the nature and logic of their objects of study.

Senior intelligence officers spoke of the lessons learned from the past, primarily the need for humility and caution, while being blind to the fact that they themselves were symptomatic of the same disease

This point is further accentuated in view of the October 7 fiasco occurring precisely half a century after that of the Yom Kippur War. In the weeks that led up to October 7, events were held to mark 50 years to the 1973 War, during which senior intelligence officers spoke of the lessons learned from the past, primarily the need for humility and caution while being blind to the fact that they themselves were symptomatic of the same disease that soon swept them up in a whirlwind no less shocking than the Yom Kippur War. One possible solution is commanders and consultants who alert to personal behavioral patterns that impact professional work.

 

The second aspect that has been overlooked is far more grievous, and pertains to the portrait of intelligence officers, as well as to the world of knowledge with which they are charged. Limited familiarity with the basic characteristics of their objects of study, who operate in a culture very different from our own, is an issue that has already been raised in the inquiry into the 1973 debacle. But although understood, it was not addressed, and so – as overlooked malfunctions tend to do – was preserved, enhanced, and ultimately erupted with great force. In recent decades, fewer Israelis are fluent in Arabic and proficient in the region’s culture and history, but, while true for Israeli society as a whole, this issue is of particular significance among intelligence officers tasked with cracking the logic that drives “the other side.”

 

This state of affairs reflects a severe crisis few are aware of or discuss with which the intelligence profession has been contending in recent decades in Israel and worldwide. Over the years, intelligence has transformed from a vivacious experience that centers primarily on people, and should therefore rely on the tools essential to analyzing their psyche, to a form of science reliant upon complex methodologies and philosophical conundrum-cracking, which gradually steered clear of focusing on individuals, especially those affiliated with other cultures. 

 

It is against this backdrop that the portrait of intelligence officers has been shaped, including the skills they are required to possess, the assignments they are required to complete, and how they are to be trained. Their minds are sharp and they are far more knowledgeable now due to information explosion, but their understanding of the reality that they are researching has diminished.

When the roots of a failure remain untouched, it is no surprise that past flaws resurface, headed by the tendency to impose our own logic on our object of study

The roots of the present catastrophe are not limited to the events of the night between October 6 and 7. This failure reflects an extreme and long-lasting lack of understanding of the enemy. The intelligence inquiry cannot end with a description of the roots of the misconception, but must proceed to analyze how it was formed, why it had endured for as long as it did, and why it was so widely held as a “solid truth.” The lessons raised thus far with regard to the roots of the intelligence fiasco can be likened to the advice of a plastic surgeon pursuing aesthetics when the touch of a geneticist is needed to break down the intelligence officers’ DNA and critically examine its effectiveness in view of the assignments they are required to complete.

 

When the roots of a failure remain untouched, it is no surprise that past flaws resurface, headed by the tendency to impose our own logic on our object of study, as reflected in the economic arrangement conception vis-à-vis Gaza, as well as the notion that Hamas is undergoing an “evolution” that is lessening its adherence to its extreme ideological vision. This problem is reflected in a document recently drafted by Israeli military intelligence on the roots of the misconception, arguing that the intelligence misunderstood that the enemy was not driven by “rational logic” but by “jihadi instinct.” The same was said of Yahya Sinwar in the years that led to October 7, exempting the intelligence agencies from the need to deeply analyze the enemy’s logic by claiming it is irrational.

 

The ongoing war serves as an intelligence lab for identifying gaps and validating competence: October 7 revealed a flaw in the ability to alert to war founded on the difficulty of understanding the enemy; the Israeli surprise in view of the Iranian attack in April 2024 – following the strike against the consulate in Damascus – also reflected a gap in assessing the enemy’s logic; and the surprising collapse of Assad’s regime revealed a lack of understanding of in-depth processes and formation dynamics.

 

A poignant analysis of the roots of October 7 must cause unease among intelligence officers, not only because they had failed to alert to the enemy’s intentions and had misread the latter, but because many of them are not well-versed in the enemy’s language and cultural codes – essential components in the toolbox of those who engage in cultures that are not their own, such as historians, journalists, and, of course, intelligence officers. The latter must recognize that technology and methodology cannot make up for profound understandings. 

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkon8jskkl?IsApp=true

Talkline With Zev Brenner with Rabbi Pini Dunner- Was the Chaim Walder story mishandled? Who is to blame? Failure In Leadership & "Daas Torah" Lies!

Chaim Walder & the Cover-Ups in Our Communities --- Exposing the Lie of the Nile River -- and the Lies in Our System. Redemption Begins When We Expose the Toxicity inside and outside.

This is the story of a controversy that shook the world of Torah study and academic research 120 years ago. “The truth is that I forged it. I did not find a manuscript, but everything I wrote was composed from the words of the sages that I gathered from various sources.”

 

Did It Exist or Not? The Missing Order of the Jerusalem Talmud

 

Discoveries and disappointments, rumors and accusations, fraudsters and conspiracies—along with an adventurous journey across the dusty roads of Turkey. This is the story of a controversy that shook the world of Torah study and academic research 120 years ago.

Jewish booksMedieval Jewish CultureRare Jewish Books

As if the early decades of the 20th century weren’t turbulent enough—especially in the Jewish world—a storm that erupted in 1905 sent shockwaves through the community of Torah scholars for years. It was a global controversy, brimming with drama, and if you aren’t already familiar with this story, it’s about time you heard it!

Before diving into the details, let’s set the stage. The Mishnah, compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince around 200 CE, is divided into six orders (shas): Zera’im (Seeds), Mo’ed (Festivals), Nashim (Women), Nezikin (Damages), Kodashim (Holy Things), and Taharot (Purities). Each order is further divided into tractates.

About 150 years later, in the Land of Israel, the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled. Later, in Babylonia, the Babylonian Talmud was written. Both Talmuds expand upon and explain the Mishnah, documenting legal discussions and the evolution of Jewish law as debated by the sages of their time. However, not every tractate of the Mishnah is included in the Talmud (Gemara), and some tractates appear in only one of the two Talmuds. For instance, the Babylonian Talmud contains tractates from parts of Kodashim, but the Jerusalem Talmud lacks the order of Kodashim altogether.

Or at least, that’s what was believed—until 120 years ago. And thus, the controversy was born.

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A Lost Manuscript or a Fabrication?

For centuries, scholars debated whether the Jerusalem Talmud once included the order of Kodashim and was lost over time, or if it was never compiled in the first place. According to Maimonides and several other authorities, a Jerusalem Talmud for Kodashim did exist nearly 1,700 years ago. Others argue that it never did.

Manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud, Leiden 1289

In 1868, Rabbi Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach claimed he had heard that a manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud on Kodashim was hidden in the Vatican Library in Rome. This rumor attracted fraudsters, who, in 1873, attempted to collect money from unsuspecting Jews to fund a trip to Rome, where they would supposedly retrieve and publish the lost text. However, they were exposed before any damage was done, and Vatican experts confirmed that no such manuscript existed in their collection.

Fifty years later, in the 1920s, Rabbi Mordechai Farhand, a dayan (rabbinical judge) from the Nitra community, traveled to the Vatican to search for the manuscript. He found nothing.

The Vatican Library, image from the Vatican Library website

But in fact, the Vatican episode was one of the milder chapters in the saga of the missing tractate.

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A Dramatic Announcement

In 1905–1906, an electrifying proclamation spread across the Jewish communities of Europe. According to the announcement, Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Elgazi S”T (Sephardi Tahor, or “pure Sephardi”), also known by the Ashkenazi surname Friedländer, from the city of Satmar, had discovered the lost Jerusalem Talmud order of Kodashim. He intended to publish it, complete with his own original commentary, as a continuation of his earlier work Cheshek Shlomo, which covered other orders of the Jerusalem Talmud.

Excitement swept through the world of Torah study. Leading rabbis endorsed the printing of the long-lost text. A year later, the first volume, containing the tractates Chullin and Bekhorot, was offered for sale.

Seemingly overnight, contradictions that had puzzled scholars for centuries—regarding laws of ritual slaughter, Temple service, and sacrificial offerings—were resolved. Difficult halakhic questions found clear answers, all thanks to Friedländer’s newly printed Talmud.

A letter written by Friedländer to the scholar Shlomo Buber regarding the Jerusalem Talmud. From the Shwadron Collection, the National Library of Israel.

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A Treasure Hunt Across Turkey

Where had Friedländer found the lost order of Kodashim?

In his introduction to Tractate Chullin, he described the discovery in vivid detail. According to his account, his brother, Eliyahu Elgazi, traveled to Izmir on business and purchased books from the estate of Rabbi Yehoshua Benveniste, who had died in Turkey 250 years earlier. Among the volumes were first-edition printings of the Jerusalem Talmud, annotated by Benveniste himself. Eliyahu, knowing his brother was writing a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud, sent the books to him.

In one of the volumes, Friedländer allegedly found two old letters that deepened the mystery.

One letter, signed by the Chief Rabbi of Constantinople, expressed support for publishing Rabbi Benveniste’s annotations on the Jerusalem Talmud for Kodashim. This suggested that such a manuscript did indeed exist. The letter detailed how a converso named Don Abraham HaLevi, who lived in Lisbon, had befriended a priest from Barcelona who was also a former converso. The priest entrusted Don Abraham with a bundle of manuscripts, which he then carried with him to Turkey. There, he gifted them to Rabbi Benveniste, who had helped him return to Judaism. Among the documents, Rabbi Benveniste was astonished to find the long-lost Jerusalem Talmud on Kodashim.

But the second letter painted a different picture. According to this letter, Rabbi Benveniste ultimately decided not to publish the manuscript, fearing that it would be seen as heretical. At the time, the Jewish world—especially in Turkey—was still reeling from the false messianism of Shabbetai Tzvi, whose radical teachings had led to the abolition of many religious commandments. The discovery of a “new” Jewish text, especially one as significant as a missing section of the Talmud, might have raised suspicions and been used as justification for further religious upheaval.

Friedländer was captivated by these letters. He had to find the manuscript.

His brother Eliyahu and their friend, Rabbi Yaakov Kobi, embarked on an adventure across Turkey, searching for descendants of Rabbi Benveniste in the hopes that one of them still possessed the treasure. Eventually, they tracked down a villager named Suleiman Benveniste, who showed them an amulet wrapped in silk, claiming it was the missing Talmud. To their disappointment, the manuscript was in terrible condition, with large sections missing.

Eliyahu and Yaakov convinced Suleiman to send the manuscript to Friedländer in Hungary, promising him a share of the profits from its publication. According to Friedländer, a colophon at the end of the text revealed that the scribe, Yitzhak Bar Yosef Albergloni, had copied the Talmud in the year 1212 from a carefully edited manuscript once owned by Hai Gaon, the leader of Babylonian Jewry at the time.

If true, this was a stunning discovery. The lost Jerusalem Talmud had finally been revealed.

The War for the Truth

But the euphoria was short-lived. The first to dampen the excitement of Torah scholars and talmudic researchers was Rabbi Dov Aryeh Ritter of Rotterdam, who, in an article, described his initial joy at hearing about the discovery—only to later express disappointment upon realizing it was a forgery. Soon, other rabbis across Europe began questioning the authenticity of the book. Rabbi Dov Baer Ratner of Vilna published a series of articles exposing Friedländer’s fraud.

Rabbi Ritter’s article (Der Israelit, June 1907).

Friedländer, however, did not sit idly by. He fiercely responded to anyone who suggested that the text was a forgery. One of his students, Avraham Rosenberg, wrote a scathing rebuttal in his book Aneh Kesil (Answer a Fool), directly attacking Rabbi Ratner.

Aneh Kesil (Answer a Fool), Avraham Rosenberg, 1908.

Another prominent critic of Friedländer was Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzky, who, in his book She’alu Shalom Yerushalayim, systematically analyzed the text and demonstrated that it was fraudulent. Another of Friedländer’s students, Yosef Ben Mahar”i, came to his teacher’s defense in his book Herev Nokemet (Avenging Sword), launching personal attacks on Rabbi Plotzky but failing to address the substantive evidence of forgery.

She’alu Shalom Yerushalayim and Herev Nokemet

Despite mounting skepticism, Friedländer published another volume of the so-called Jerusalem Talmud—this time on the tractates Zevachim and Arakhin.

Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Zevachim

Meanwhile, the Rebbe of Gur and many others demanded to see the original manuscript, which Friedländer claimed was kept by Suleiman Benveniste. But Friedländer repeatedly evaded such requests. No one ever saw the manuscript or the letters he claimed to have discovered in Turkey.

The Mask Falls

Jewish Europe was in turmoil. Some were thrilled by the discovery, while others decried it as an elaborate fraud. At the height of the controversy, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Halevi Horowitz of Hermannstadt published damning information on another deception by Friedländer: He had claimed to have received an amulet from a Zurich museum, allegedly written by Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz, from which he supposedly deduced that Eybeschutz was a Sabbatean. Rabbi Horowitz’s investigation, however, revealed that no such amulet existed—Friedländer had fabricated the entire story to bolster his supposed expertise in deciphering manuscripts. With this revelation, many concluded that his “students” Avraham Rosenberg and Yosef were fictitious as well, and that Friedländer himself had authored the books defending his fraudulent claims.

The final blow to Friedländer’s reputation came from the rabbis of Dvinsk—Rabbi Yosef Rosen, known as the Rogatchover Gaon, and Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk—who officially declared the Jerusalem Talmud on Kodashim a forgery. It remained unclear, however, whether Friedländer had personally forged it or had acquired the forgery from another source.

Over time, pieces of real information about Friedländer surfaced. He had claimed to have studied at the famed Volozhin Yeshiva and to have served as deputy rabbi of Frankfurt, head of a rabbinical court in western Germany, assistant rabbi of Satmar, and head of a yeshiva. None of this was true.

So, who was he, really?

He was born in Belarus under the name Zusia. A gifted and intelligent young man, but certainly not a Sephardi named Elgazi. He married a woman, abandoned her during his wanderings, and later married another without ever divorcing the first. He was a talented scholar, impressing rabbis with his knowledge and articles published in Torah journals.

---

“The Truth Is That I Forged It”

There is no doubt that Friedländer had a unique talent. He crafted a complex and intricate story about discovering the manuscript, and if he indeed wrote it himself, he must have possessed deep knowledge of rabbinic literature and persuasive writing skills. According to Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Yanovsky in his 1913 pamphlet Tzaid Ramaiah (Hunting for Fraud), Friedländer relied heavily on the book Yafeh Einayim by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Yellin. This book compiled Talmudic discussions from across rabbinic literature, making it an excellent resource for inserting relevant citations—or even fabricating new ones.

Friedländer also exploited legal rulings by Maimonides and his contemporaries that lacked explicit sources. Conveniently, he “found” those missing sources in his own forged Jerusalem Talmud. In response to Rabbi Yanovsky’s accusations, Friedländer published a rebuttal pamphlet titled Letz Hayayin (The Wine Jester), predictably attacking his critic rather than addressing the evidence.

Tzaid Ramaiah (Hunting for Fraud), by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Yanovsky, 1913

Years after Friedländer’s death, the truth came to light. In a 1951 article published in HaPardes, Rabbi Yekuthiel Yehuda Greenwald described his encounters with Friedländer in Khust and later in Satmar. As a young man, Greenwald had been impressed by Friedländer’s charismatic and mysterious persona, supporting him during the Jerusalem Talmud controversy. But in the article, written nearly 40 years after the scandal, Greenwald revealed what Friedländer had once admitted to him: “The truth is that I forged it. I did not find a manuscript, but everything I wrote was composed from the words of the sages that I gathered from various sources.”

Many books and articles have been written about this strange affair. Today, it is widely known that the Jerusalem Talmud order of Kodashim is a forgery, and yet it was reprinted in facsimile edition in Israel in 1996 and in the United States in 2003. But does anyone actually want to study it?

More recent printings of the forged Jerusalem Talmud order of Kadoshim

If you still have your doubts, come visit the National Library, order a copy from our rare books collection, and see for yourself!

https://blog.nli.org.il/en/lost_kodashim_jerusalem-talmud/?

Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine.

 

The End of ‘Palestine’

 

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu speak during a meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 4, 2025

Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike, who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.

Palestine was a misshapen idea from the beginning, engendered by an act of pure negation. The Arabs could have gone along with the U.N.’s partition plan like the Jews did, and chosen to build whatever version of Switzerland or Belgium on the eastern Med in 1948. Instead, they resoundingly chose war. That’s the storied “Nakba” at the core of the Palestinian legend—the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land and hung a key around the neck of a nation waiting to go home. The Arabs chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.

Yet despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.

Trump said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode.

Gazans waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.

What if they won’t go, or if the Egyptians and Jordanians won’t take them? They’ll take them, said Trump. Ah, he’s talking big, but it’s not real, say the experts—after all, he’s a real estate guy, and he’s pretending it’s just another property deal to pressure Hamas—Mar-a-Gaza. You can’t move a million people just like that, says an American electorate that elected Trump because he promised to deport tens of millions of illegal aliens who crossed the U.S. border in the last four years. He’s nuts says the D.C. foreign policy crowd: He’ll destabilize Egypt and Jordan, and undermine America’s best Arab friends and allies in the region.

Yet Trump is right to see both Egypt and Jordan as paltry constructions with little-to-no ability to project force on America’s behalf, and whose survival depends month to month on American aid. Cairo is useful to the United States only insofar as it, one, makes sure the Suez Canal is open and, two, observes the peace treaty with Israel—i.e., continues its campaign of repression against a populace of 112 million people who can barely afford to buy bread, and many of whose dreams are filled with the same insanity that drives Hamas. The only antidote to this misery that Egypt’s rulers have found is blaming the Zionists next door for the ills of their own society, while torturing religious extremists in their prisons. Maybe when Elon Musk is finished fixing Washington he can conduct an audit of where American money goes in Egypt. Somehow, I doubt he’d get in the door.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for. From the perspective of Trump, an American president keen to enforce treaty obligations, Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as a friend of America and not a grafting liar by adding a million Gazans—who in the past have been ruled by Egypt and have family names like al-Masri (“the Egyptian”)—to Egypt’s existing population of 112 million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal immigrants that the United States accepts per year. Sisi can deal with the Hamas members among the Gazan immigrants the same way he deals with Muslim Brotherhood militants in his own society—or he can give them all medals for their service. It’s up to him.

And if not? Well, he might remember that Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed not because of Muslim Brotherhood-led street protests during the 2011 Arab Spring but because Barack Obama withdrew his support from the longtime U.S. ally.

With money from the Gulf states, or even Israel, Sisi can afford to absorb Palestinians and might even volunteer to take all of Gaza—the average salary in Egypt at present being the equivalent of $5,000 per year. He can then leave Jordan’s King Abdullah responsible for the rest of the Palestinians in the likely event that Trump, as he did in his first term, encourages Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley, or goes a step further and acknowledges Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Since the CIA has long treated the Hashemite Kingdom as a key asset, we can expect within the next week The Washington Post’s David Ignatius to publish an article based on intelligence sources—i.e., U.S. and Jordanian spies—concocting a story about Trump’s rationale for “destabilizing Jordan.” The reality is that the Jordanians, with U.S. help, put down a Palestinian rebellion in 1970. The country of a little more than 11 million is already estimated to be two-thirds Palestinian, the rest Jordanian tribesmen, and it’s hard to see how adding another 500,000 Palestinians will make it harder for Jordan’s notoriously effective security services to contain their neighbors, especially if the offer includes a few dozen more Black Hawk helicopters. After all, no one will expect the Jordanians to allow Hamas to build a giant tunnel-city stuffed with rocket factories beneath their encampments while giving them billions in foreign aid to pay for it all.

Again, the key players here aren’t Jordan and Egypt but the oil rich Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and of course Qatar. Trump might make Saudi largesse in resettling the Gazans a precondition for the much-hyped prospect of normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Given the fact that Israel regularly attracts nine- and 10-figure investments from Silicon Valley’s biggest funds, the reality is that the Saudis have little to offer Israel except for money applied to exactly this type of local purpose. Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.

The Arabs and Democrats are only the most vocal of the many opposed to Trump’s initiative. Left-wing governments from Europe to Australia are lining up to pledge their allegiance to the fantasy of a Palestinian state, in the hopes of propitiating Muslim and Arab constituencies at home—whose understanding of “peace” means eliminating Israel. But even leaving the patent bad faith of those professing “peace” aside, moving Gazans out of Gaza is the only sane option 14 months after they initiated a campaign of rape, murder, and hostage-taking that brought their own house down on their heads.

After all, what’s more fanciful, moving 1.7 million people out of Gaza, a large portion of whom would simply be required to board air-conditioned buses or walk across the nearby Egypt border, or compelling them to live in a giant rubble field booby-trapped by an Iran-backed terrorist group? Estimates vary as to how long it would take to clear Gaza of explosives—half a decade or more? Fifteen years? Twenty? Are the Gazans supposed to live quietly in tents for the next decade or two while their homes are rebuilt next door? Where? In “temporary cities” made of Dwell Magazine-like rehabbed shipping containers built by graduates of Birmingham University? In Hamas’ tunnels?

Regardless, should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the European Union, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on the toxic sand castle built over the past two decades with billions of Western aid money. Proof the Palestinians can’t and won’t keep the peace is that even after they won a reprieve when Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff forced the Biden administration’s cease-fire on Jerusalem, Hamas and its NGO-supported human shields celebrated in the streets as if the Hamas space program had successfully landed Palestinians on Mars. Even as Israel released jailed murderers, the Gazans paraded Israeli hostages through the ruins of Gaza like trophies of war.

The Saudis, Qataris, Emiratis and others who now rend their clothes while lamenting the likely fate of their ant-farm death cult might well have counseled: Quiet brothers, you have been spared. Don’t bring attention to yourselves. For the winds of Gaza shift on a whim and who knows if you are not next to be swept away by fate—or the American president.

Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.

Trump’s generous offer to the Gazans therefore signals a return to history, but with a twist. Trump has not only spared them, but vowed to provide them with new lives, better lives, work, new homes, a chance to raise their families in peace, an existence not premised on total and permanent war with a more powerful adversary destined to rout them entirely, and would have already done so if not for the objections of other powerful global players.

Trump, in his innovative mercy, has offered to save the Palestinian people from their own history, and give them a new idea to live by. They should thank their maker for the chance to start anew—and give thanks as well to the American president, who realistically promises them a better future, backed by U.S. global power. Given the repeated failure of the multi-decade-long dream of eliminating and replacing the Jews of Israel, it seems unlikely that the Palestinians will receive a better offer.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/end-of-palestine

MANIC DON STUNS MIDEAST!

 

😜
TRUMP: PALESTINIANS OUT OF GAZA
USA TO SEIZE LAND
PENTAGON WILL ENFORCE
'WE WILL OWN IT'
MANIC DON STUNS MIDEAST
NEW TEMPLE ON MOUNT?

המשיח מעודד "יחי אדוננו"- מעריב ג' שבט ה'תשנ"ג --- THE FILTHY GANGSTERS BEHIND THE CHABAD CURTAIN THAT RUN THE "FRAUD FRANCHISE" 770 MONEY MACHINE UNTIL TODAY! --- (There Are Many Wonderful People Who Got Taken In By The Cultish Messianic Fever At Chabad, Some Are Just Not Willing To Accept That Their Rebbe Was Human, Got Ill, & Yes, He Died)

Hamas: Grotesque Hostage Theater Goes Global

A globally recognized A+ commentator and analyst on the Israel-Hamas conflict and more—Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (Res.). He spoke on Saturday evening—after a very busy day doing media in Israel and abroad. The hostage release has been a spectacle unlike any other—when an Islamist terror group commands center stage on media worldwide—showcasing their grotesque propaganda machine and what appears to be surprising military prowess after 16 months of war. Hamas, which produced and choreographed three of the four release “ceremonies” to date, has shown the world that it remains a strong fighting force with discipline, might, and well-fed and outfitted terrorists—sartorially and in terms of weapons. Its smaller ally—Palestinian Islamic Jihad—demonstrated that they are far less “together.” During the release they organized last Thursday, two Israeli hostages, who had been held in isolation throughout their captivity, were nearly lynched by a braying mob that surged towards them. Conricus and I get into it all: who won, who lost, and what this all might mean for the rest of the hostages and the horrible war that never seems to end. And we also discuss the unfortunate reality that for months the Government of Israel rebuked its citizens for gathering at weekly rallies in support of the hostages and their families. It showed weakness, we were told, and the rallies played into the hands of Hamas. I never understood that analysis, but here’s what we know today: that those rallies were covered on Arabic radio and TV—and many hostages knew about them. And that advocacy was an invaluable morale booster for those in Hamas dungeons. It’s always fascinating speaking with Mr. Conricus. I expect you will find it so as well.

Below is a link to our YouTube version of the podcast; you can watch it there if you prefer the audio-visual thing. The introductions to the podcast and YouTube versions are different but otherwise the same content. We aim to please. If you appreciate our work, please take a moment to like us on your podcast platform, YouTube, or wherever. And if you would subscribe to YouTube, that would be very helpful. Numbers and algorithms—that’s what they tell me. Thanks for being here. 

https://substack.com/@stateoftelaviv

“Why the Hamas Deal Could Lead to More Hostage Taking — And Why No One Is Talking About It,” - Death penalty for terrorists?

 

Trading Innocents for Murderers

 

How many Palestinian terrorists will promptly return to terrorism?

The ceasefire that is now in force between Israel and Hamas has left many supporters of Israel aghast. 

For It was the IDF that had battered Hamas, not the other way round, yet Israel found itself having to sue for peace, granting Hamas concession after concession and leaving the terror group able to claim that it is still standing. Israel has agreed in this first phase to pull the IDF forces from Gaza’s main cities, including Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City, thus allowing Hamas operatives inside those cities to reappear from their hideouts, both above and below ground, to regroup, rearm, and also to recruit new members. Israel has agreed to give up the east-west Netzarim Corridor, which allowed the IDF to prevent Hamas operatives moving from south to the north, or north to south of the Strip, in attempts to evade IDF attacks that focus now on one, and now on another part of Gaza. Israel will also withdraw its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Egypt-Gaza border, which has allowed the IDF to prevent weapons from being smuggled from the Sinai into Gaza.

Veteran Israeli journalist Nadav Shragai discusses the lopsided — in both quantity and quality — hostage-for-criminal exchange that Israel has agreed to here: “Why the Hamas Deal Could Lead to More Hostage Taking — And Why No One Is Talking About It,” JNS.org, Jan. 19, 2025:

…Those who insist may naively believe that after the deal, we can resume the war against Hamas at our discretion. However, we must simultaneously recognize the deal’s devastating repercussions and damage.

It is imperative to cling to the truth, no matter how painful, and to pose relevant questions—questions we have long avoided. We must confront the harsh realities we have whitewashed and repressed. This reckoning must occur now, mere moments before the first phase of the deal, and only then can we make an informed decision.

We must question aloud why the discourse surrounding the deal’s cost has focused for months solely on Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor (on the southern border with Egypt), the Netzarim axis (in the middle of the Strip), the return of Gazans to the northern Strip, and the war’s conclusion.

Meanwhile, the release of hundreds of terrorists—hundreds of potential “Sinwars”—remains absent from the conversation, accepted as a fait accompli and an inescapable fate we must simply “deal with” and contain.

We should challenge the assessments of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces that they can “manage” the released terrorists. On the eve of the Shalit deal, they made similar assurances and misjudged the reality.

We must ask them directly: Could you be mistaken again? Might Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar be wrong in 2025, just as Yoram Cohen was in 2011?

It is crucial to remember that since 1985, Israel has released thousands of terrorists through various deals, gestures and diplomatic frameworks. About half of them returned to terrorism and murdered Jews. Hundreds were killed or wounded by these released terrorists long before the Simchat Torah massacre on Oct. 7, 2023….

How many hundreds of Palestinian terrorists that Hamas demands be let loose in this latest, most regrettable exchange, will promptly return to terrorism, and how many Israelis will die as a result? And why did the Israeli leaders not show that they had learned the lesson of the Shalt debacle, and insist that no terrorist murderers should be included in the exchange?

 They could have listed a number of the most vicious of the killers that Hamas has demanded be freed, such as those responsible for the attack on the Passover service at the Park Hotel in 2001, including Abdullah Barghouti, a bomb expert who was sentenced to 67 life terms; Abbas Sayed, the planner of the Passover Seder, when 30 elderly Israelis were killed and 130 wounded, Ibrahim Hamed, commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Judea and Samaria during the Second Intifada, the man responsible for attacks including the double suicide bombing on Ben-Yehuda Street and at Cafe Moment in Jerusalem, and Ahmed Mughrabi, the Fatah-Tanzim commander in Bethlehem.

 Imagine the effect of listing these men, and their intolerable crimes, whom Israel is supposed to free but could still appeal to the world’s conscience: “are these people who, if they had been murdering your people in similar ways, you would have agreed to free?”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trading-innocents-for-murderers/?

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Death penalty for terrorists?

In the context of the release of convicted Palestinian mass murderers, ToI’s senior analyst delves into the charged issue of capital punishment and how it may shift the conflict

Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

This week, we answer a slew of listeners’ responses to our conversation last week, “Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released,” about the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

We received dozens of emails from listeners who asked how an Israeli implementation of the death penalty for mass murderers may shift future terrible negotiations as the nation currently reels from the reality that terrorists with blood on their hands are being freed.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-matters-now-to-haviv-rettig-gur-death-penalty-for-terrorists/?

Kibbutzniks Make Us Jews Proud ---- While Agudaniks (Torah-True) Celebrating Pesach in Cancun Stuffin' Their Faces (With Mexican Mashgichim Supervising) ----‘We didn’t eat bread on Passover, tried to fast on Yom Kippur’: How ex-hostages clung to faith

 

The IDF observers from Nahal Oz made a conscious effort to observe Jewish traditions even while being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Agam Berger reunited with her family

(photo credit: IDF)

After 482 days in Hamas captivity, Israeli hostages Arbel Yehud, Gadi Moses, and Agam Berger returned home on Thursday, revealing harrowing details of their ordeal—including how they clung to their faith, refusing to eat leavened bread on Passover and attempting to fast on Yom Kippur, despite their captors’ cruelty.

The IDF observers from Nahal Oz, including Agam Berger, made a conscious effort to observe Jewish traditions even while being held underground and in Hamas-controlled apartments in Gaza, Ynet reported.

Despite the dire conditions, they refused to eat chametz (leavened bread) on Passover and attempted to fast on Yom Kippur, a difficult task given the severe malnutrition they suffered.

Berger, the last IDF observer to be released, said that holding onto faith gave her strength. She had remained in captivity alone for a full week after her comrades Liri, Daniella, Naama, and Karina were freed. She reportedly took comfort in knowing they had been released and held onto hope that she would be next, according to Kan News.

Families of four released hostages reunite with the returned hostages, January 25, 2025.

482 days of isolation

For nearly 16 months, Arbel Yehud was held in complete isolation, underground for extended periods. She suffered from severe malnutrition, had minimal food, and endured cruel treatment from her captors.

According to Kan News, Yehud was informed during her captivity that her brother, Dolev Yehud, had been murdered in the October 7 attack on Nir Oz. Still, she remained unaware of the full scale of the massacre. "I was mostly alone," she reportedly said after her release.

"What you saw today—the armed men escorting me—that is just a fraction of the horror,” she said of the thousands of terrorists whom surrounded her in Khan Yunis, while being transferred to the Red Cross on her way back to Israel.

Gadi Moses: ‘I never broke, I never cried’

80-year-old Gadi Moses spent his captivity focusing on the day he would return home to rebuild his community. "I never broke, I never cried—I just waited for the moment I would be free," he told his family, as reported by Kan News.

Moses saw his relatives on TV, including footage on Al Jazeera, but had no contact with them. Like Yehud, he was mentally and physically tested throughout his captivity but refused to give up hope.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-840045?

Hostage-taking is an illegal crime against humanity. It should not be a bargaining tool! The singling out of Israel for selective opprobrium and indictment, coupled with indulgence of Hamas demands, only prolonged the painful process, and the pernicious paradigm that underpinned it.

 

Freeing hostages should be a standalone imperative

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A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages who were released after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect, in Gaza City, on Sunday

The release of three Israeli captives marks an important milestone in the implementation of the agreement for the return of hostages to their loved ones.

Hostages Romi, Doron and Emily were taunted and tormented by howling mobs — broadcast live on Qatari state media Al Jazeera — as they were transferred by Hamas to the custody of the Red Cross, the first time the international aid organization had seen them in their 470 days of captivity.

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It is the first stage of a three-stage process towards the release of 94 more hostages in exchange for the continued release of nearly 2000 security detainees and terrorists, many with blood on their hands. The asymmetry of paradigms — rescue and recovery of hostages, versus clemency for convicted mass murderers — rewards terrorist criminality and extortion while incentivizing further acts of terror.

In announcing the agreement, Hamas leaders reiterated, yet again, their intention to commit the heinous crimes of October 7 all over again. The mass murderers being released by Israel to secure the return of innocent civilians taken hostage could therefore be the architects and perpetrators of another atrocity.

In pursuing a ceasefire and hostage release, the convicted killers emerging from Israeli jails might well breach the ceasefire, take more hostages, and start another war. Indeed, the previous release of over 1,000 terrorists in the Gilad Shalit exchange included Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders who went on to perpetrate the crimes of October 7.

No country should be put in such a painful and impossible position, and every country should have condemned this dangerous paradigm imposed by terrorists, while simultaneously supporting the agreement.

Every life is a universe, and saving a single life is like saving an entire universe. For each hostage ripped from their home who is now returning to their loved ones alive, it is a whole world that has been rescued. For all the lives that would otherwise be lost to the war, the ceasefire offers life-saving protective cover. And for the cause of peace and security that Hamas and their state backers sought to so desperately disrupt with their October 7 assault, the agreement will allow for the continued expansion of the Abraham Accords and regional peace agreements, changing the world as a whole for the better.

Despite the very real risks and painful sacrifices presented by the agreement, it deserves global support.

But there are important lessons to be learnt.

A hostage recovery and ceasefire agreement could have likely been achieved earlier — and many lives saved — and at lower cost with less risks, had the world held Hamas accountable and more clearly and unequivocally called for the release of the hostages as a standalone humanitarian principle and international legal obligation.

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Indeed, the current agreement reflects the framework for a hostage release and humanitarian ceasefire that was first proposed in December 2023, and an exact replica of what was proposed in May by the U.S. and supported by Israel, but rejected by Hamas. Its August reformulation was similarly rejected by Hamas.

The singling out of Israel for selective opprobrium and indictment, coupled with indulgence of Hamas demands, only prolonged the painful process, and the pernicious paradigm that underpinned it. In not condemning Hamas’ outrageous demands, the international community delayed a ceasefire and thereby contributed to the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

The Canadian government was missing in action, thereby prejudicing this process and the cause of the hostages. As a major G7 country and founding nation of the rules-based international order and its multilateral institutions like the UN, Canada’s foreign policy positions matter in influencing other countries and shaping the global narrative.

The government could have more clearly called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages,” without referencing any other considerations in the same statement. While negotiations are the means through which this would be achieved, the rhetoric surrounding it matters, and “unconditional and immediate” underscores the illegality of hostage-taking and reinforces international norms against it, while increasing pressure on Hamas. Many others, such as the U.K. government, have effectively done so.

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Far too often, the Canadian government linked the recovery of hostages to other considerations or conditions including a ceasefire, two-state solution (which we otherwise support), and the broader situation in the Middle East, thereby encouraging other countries to do the same and emboldening Hamas intransigence.

In echoing false accusations against Israel like the Al-Shifa hospital bombing — where the evidence revealed that the bombing was by Palestinian Islamic Jihad — and becoming the first G7 country to ban sales of defence materials to Israel, Canada further marginalized Israel amidst hostage negotiations, strengthened Hamas, and was marginal amongst major allies. Even Hamas issued a statement thanking the Canadian government for its positions.

As counsel to families of hostages and victims of October 7, we have been supporting the ongoing investigations by U.S. law enforcement, which led to the issuance of indictments against Hamas perpetrators. While Canada had initiated criminal investigations for Russian crimes against Ukrainians, ISIS crimes against Yazidis and others, and Canadian victims of terrorism and kidnapping abroad, the government has opted not to pursue justice and accountability for the Jewish Canadian victims of Hamas.

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This did not only hurt Israelis and Palestinians, but also Canadians, who are at increasing risk of being abducted abroad. As hostage-takings rise around the world, Canada’s words and deeds inadvertently normalized the largest international hostage-taking in history, thereby undermining the international norms against it and putting all Canadians abroad at risk.

As the hostage recovery and ceasefire agreement is implemented, all Canadian public officials and parliamentarians can support its success by continuing to emphasize the standalone nature of the hostage crisis, and the need for the return of all the hostages, including human remains being illegally held captive. Particular reference should continue to be made to Toronto-native Judi Weinstein, who deserves a dignified burial and her Canadian family the closure of a funeral and gravesite. As well, specific support should be extended to hostages with close Canadian connections, such as Omer Neutra, Agam Berger, and Hadar Goldin.

The current hostage crisis and concomitant rise of other global hostage-takings — and Canada’s insufficient leadership therein — demonstrates the need for a new approach.

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When Parliament resumes in March, it should adopt Bill C-353, the Foreign Hostage Takers Accountability Act, which makes important improvements to the legislative framework to combat hostage-taking.

Canada should also establish a standalone office for freeing hostages with a dedicated staff and an integrated whole-of-government approach, headed by a Special Envoy or Ambassador. This would be in line with our major allies, where the U.S. already has a Special Envoy — the cornerstone of a bipartisan foreign policy priority — and the U.K. is in the process of establishing one, after having already appointed an ambassador and team specifically for the October 7 hostages.

Grounded in the Canada-led Declaration on Arbitrary Detention in State to State Relations endorsed by 79 states — and wherein hostage-taking by terrorist state proxy would logically be within its mandate — Canada should convene a global task force of states against hostage-taking with concrete collective actions against hostage-takers and their state backers.

The return of hostages must continue to be urgently pursued as a humanitarian imperative until all are free. It is a legal obligation of the first order, as every day hostages remain in captivity is an ongoing Crime Against Humanity. Canada can now help free the captives in Gaza while combating the global scourge of hostage-taking by exercising global leadership.

Irwin Cotler is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime parliamentarian. Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer and Director of Policy and Projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. They serve as counsel to families of Hamas hostages and Canadian victims of October 7.

 

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-freeing-hostages-should-be-a-standalone-imperative?