“Oct 7 2023”

Eight years after his execution, the name of Mahmoud Ishtiwi is still whispered in the Gaza Strip by those in Hamas who oppose the iron rule of ­Yahya Sinwar, its chief in the territory.

Executions within Hamas are hardly rare, but that of Ishtiwi was different. He was no ordinary operative accused of “immoral” acts or passing on information to the Israelis but the commander of the Zeitoun battalion, one of the battle-hardened units in Hamas, and came from a family whose members had all been prominently active in the movement for decades.

Michael Gove has been warned he must name Islamist groups or his crackdown on extremism will not work.

The Communities Secretary has been told by senior Tories and a leading anti-Islamist campaigner that the Government would be seen as “weak” if it failed to “call out” the extremist groups trying to subvert democracy.

Mr Gove has come under pressure ahead of an announcement this week of a new official definition of extremism that will enable the Government and bodies such as universities and councils to ban funding for or engagement with Islamist and far-Right groups.

As Joe Biden spends millions to drop free food onto Gaza amid Hamas reports of mass starvation, the question arises as to whether the Gazans actually are starving.

Israel says they aren’t, but no need to take their word for it. More about that later.

Gaza’s denizens themselves have decided to let us know.

After Old Joe Biden’s ranting, rabidly partisan declaration of war against half the country, also known as his State of the Union address, the figurehead Commander-In-Chief huddled with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and another sycophant, and boasted about the pressure he was putting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.” Calculated disrespect? Galloping dementia? We’ll likely never know, for, as usual, the leftist press corps is too busy propping up Old Joe to look into anything that might cast him in a negative light.

When can we expect an apology?

These three arrests plus the infamous nail gun assaulter, Ilan-Reuben Abramov, 27, of Vaughan, Ont., and another arrest, mean that five (5) pro-Israeli protestors were arrested this past week.

No arrests from the po-Palestinian camp this past… https://t.co/dHketuOdSV

— TheMuslimLawyer (@faisalkutty) March 10, 2024

“In his study on this subject, David Elber demonstrates that the UN has no possession of territorial sovereignty and therefore cannot decree the allocation of a territory over which it has no sovereignty (on the basis of the universal principle of law nemo dat quod non habet — no one can give what he does not possess), especially when this decision violates previous treaties endorsed by the UN itself. Resolution 181 only made suggestions to avoid the threat of war from the Arabs.”

Pausing military action during the Islamic holiday could embolden Hamas.

As the March 10 start of Ramadan nears, international pressure has significantly increased on Israel to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. While the idea of advocating for a ceasefire with a genocidal terrorist organization is fundamentally misguided, the notion that Israel should halt its military efforts to respect Ramadan is even more perverse.

I don’t see a ceasefire upside.

‘United by music” is the Eurovision Song Contest’s motto. It’s never quite been true, of course: political squabbles are part of what makes the annual jamboree such a guilty pleasure. But usually the camp fun and wacky performances end up taking centre stage.

This year may be rather different. The contest, to be hosted by Sweden in May, has already been swept into the vortex of the war in Gaza. For the organisers, preventing their beloved contest from being engulfed by acrimony is proving more challenging than Cyprus giving a maximum douze points to any country but Greece.

President Joe Biden has said he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in how he is approaching its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The US leader expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas after the October 7 attack, but said of Mr Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions take”.