Gaza hospital director describes how Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382211

Ahmed Kahlot, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya, Gaza, confessed to the Shin Bet that the Hamas terrorist organization used his hospital as a military facility.

During his interrogation, Kahalot describes how Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes, including hiding its operatives, carrying out military activity, moving around Hamas members, and even bringing a captured soldier to the hospital.

"They hide in hospitals because for them a hospital is a safe place. They won't be targeted when they are inside a hospital," Kahalot said.

Judge Engoron Tears Donald Trump to Shreds

 https://www.newsweek.com/judge-engoron-ruling-donald-trump-fraud-trial-1853587

While rejecting Trump's argument to rule in his favor, Engorn highlighted some of the "fatal flaws" in the former president's defense, including the testimony from one of their expert witnesses in the trial, New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov.

During his testimony, Bartov told the New York court that there is "no evidence whatsoever" that Trump or his family committed fraud with their financial statements. It was later revealed that Bartov was paid $1,350 an hour for his services to defend the former president, putting his total at $877,500.

IDF suspends several troops for singing Hanukkah songs into Jenin mosque loudspeakers

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-suspends-troops-for-singing-hanukkah-songs-into-jenin-mosque-loudspeakers/

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday suspended several soldiers who appeared on video singing Hanukkah songs over the loudspeaker system in a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The incident came as the military continued a three-day operation in the city, a hotbed for terrorism, during which troops detained hundreds of suspects and seized weapons.

Footage circulating online showed the soldiers singing Hanukkah songs and the Jewish prayer “Shema Yisrael” (Hear, O Israel).

Edah HaChareidis Rabbis denounce journalists who praise soldiers

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382192

Rabbis of the Edah HaChareidis, a conservative haredi organization with anti-Zionist views, published a strongly worded letter yesterday against haredi journalists they believe to be promoting nationalism and combined enlistment of men and women. The Rabbis were led by Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, a member of the organization's rabbinical court.

The Complicated Relationship Between Screen Time and Depression

 https://www.chconline.org/resourcelibrary/the-complicated-relationship-between-screen-time-and-depression/

Dr. Ramsey Khasho, chief clinical officer at Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto, who works with youth in crisis, argues that it’s reductive to begin and end discussions of mental illness among youth by talking about smartphones and social media. According to Khasho, one of the reasons we see a rise in youth hospitalizations for mental health is because we’ve increased awareness of mental illnesses, making it more acceptable for parents to access treatment for their children.

Nearly half of British Jews considered leaving UK due to antisemitism

 https://www.jpost.com/international/article-778447

Nearly half of British Jews have considered leaving the UK since October 7 due to antisemitism, according to polling data collected by the Campaign Against Antisemitism. Four out of five Jews surveyed identified as Zionists.

The polling was conducted from November 12-17 among 3,744 respondents.

Based on the CAA survey data, 69% of UK Jews agree (40% of them strongly) that they were less likely than they were before the October 7 massacre to show visible signs of their Jewishness, such as wearing a Star of David or kippah. Another 15% disagreed, and the rest did not say.

Think Strategy, Not Tactics

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/strategy-not-tactics-israel-hamas-war/675863/

Both sides are driven by total objectives. For Hamas, this is nothing new: In its 1988 covenant, it committed itself to the annihilation of the state of Israel, and then and since, to the extermination of as many of its citizens as possible. Like most extreme Islamist movements, it distinguishes only loosely, or not at all, between Jews and Israelis. This objective justifies in its view the ultimate in violence, all of which was horrifically on display in the October 7 massacre, accompanied by the murder of children, rape, torture, beheading, and kidnapping. Behind its strategy is a long-term theory of victory: that such attacks, coupled perhaps with strikes by Hezbollah and Iran, or the risings of Palestinians in the West Bank, will cause Israel to collapse. In Hamas’s view, Israeli counterattacks on Gaza, which will inevitably kill many civilians, contribute to its objectives because they undermine support for Israel abroad, and inflame its many enemies.

Is rape and sexual assault part of the Hamas tactic of war?

 https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4365815-is-rape-and-sexual-assault-part-of-the-hamas-tactic-of-war/

In the Israel-Hamas war, the horror of the act of rape grips us and shocks the consciousness. The idea that these mass rapes were not simply the spoils of war but a tactic intended to instigate the current Israeli response must be realistically considered. Hamas has shown itself to be capable of playing a deadly long game and proven itself implacable, cruel and single-minded. As Hamas seeks to crush Israel from the river to the sea once and for all, it draws Israel into the predictable response that will see tens of thousands of Gazans killed. Hamas appears willing to make that sacrifice. The undecided question is whether Hamas will rise out of the rubble that remains of Gaza, however miserably, by this “risk it all” bet. 

Hamas, Gen Z and the 'River to the Sea'

 https://www.newsweek.com/hamas-gen-z-river-sea-1853419

The majority of young Americans are the only age group where the majority does not want a two-state solution, which is heavily favored by older Americans. More than half of 18- to 24-year-olds want Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians, while 32 percent favor two states.

But the poll also showed there were strong anti-Hamas and pro-Israel sentiments among Gen Z, suggesting the conflict is much more complicated than simply siding with Israel or Palestinians.

Trump Doubles Down On Anti-Immigrant ‘Blood’ Slur—Despite Widespread Criticism He’s Quoting Hilter

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/12/17/trump-doubles-down-on-anti-immigrant-blood-slur-despite-widespread-criticism-hes-quoting-hilter/?sh=755d267978b7

Earlier Saturday at a rally in New Hampshire, Trump said illegal immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase that closely mirrors one used several times in Hilter’s “Mein Kampf” to describe the “influx of foreign blood” as “poison.”

Trump on Saturday also quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin and praised dictators Hungarian President Viktor Orban and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Trump said “even Vladimir Putin” says that President Joe Biden has led “politically motivated prosecution of his political rival.”

An Antisemitic Occupation of Harvard’s Widener Library

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-antisemitic-occupation-of-harvards-widener-library-politics-anti-israel-bias-e4cea52a?mod=hp_trending_now_opn_pos2

My thoughts then turned to Harvard undergrads. Imagine if you were an 18-year-old Jewish or Israeli student, or even a pro-Israel Catholic like me, and you wanted to study for your chemistry final in the Widener Reading Room on a Sunday morning. Imagine being confronted by this protest, obviously condoned by Harvard’s leadership and commandeered by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the group behind the notorious statement that holds “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.

U.N. Calls for Investigation of Deaths at Hospital That Israel Says Was Hamas Command Center

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-n-calls-for-investigation-of-deaths-at-hospital-israel-says-was-hamas-command-center-7c02ac1d?mod=hp_lista_pos3

United Nations officials called for an investigation into an Israeli military raid on a Gaza hospital during which patients died and the armed forces said they detained scores of Hamas militants and recovered a trove of weapons and other military equipment, some of which officials said was hidden inside an infant incubator and a resuscitation station for newborns.

Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday after entering the facility on Tuesday. The U.N. Human Rights Office said it was calling for an investigation of what transpired during the raid, citing allegations from medical staff that patients had died because of the conditions in the facility.

How One Jewish American Family Wrestles Over Israel

 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/jewish-american-family-wrestles-over-israel-2b8019f1?mod=hp_lista_pos2

Emanuelle Sippy, a 20-year-old junior at Princeton University who heads the campus’s Alliance of Jewish Progressives, came to believe in recent years that Israel is an apartheid state guilty of committing human-rights abuses. The war in Gaza has reinforced her views, and she has responded by participating in vigils, walkouts and other actions demanding a cease-fire.

Sippy’s father, David Wirtschafter—a Reform rabbi in Lexington, Ky., who attended rabbinical school in Jerusalem—aches when he hears some of her harshest criticisms of Israel. And Sippy’s grandmother, Carol Wirtschafter, who lived with her husband and children in Jerusalem during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, laments that Sippy has lost hope for the country.

“I think she’s given up on Israel,” she said. “That makes me sad.”

Language – At a Loss for Words

 https://hamodia.com/columns/language-at-a-loss-for-words/

Among the casualties of the war are the very words used to describe it. As the words get repeated, the meaning drains out of them. Even words like brutal, heinous, horrific, monsters and atrocities have become anemic, feeble, lifeless …