“Oct 7 2023”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar remains at large but in the wasteland of Khan Younis, IDF commanders pledge ‘when we see him, we will kill him’

Less than a mile away from where we are standing, the constant rattle of gunfire is broken only by the occasional bone-shaking explosion. Here in an outer neighbourhood of Khan Younis, the Gazan city that has been gripped by the bloodiest street battles of this bloodiest of conflicts, the devastation of war is obvious.

The ground has been flattened, except for huge piles of rubble where grand villas, owned by the Palestinian elite, have been demolished. A combination of Israeli bulldozers and explosives has laid waste to Khan Younis’s fanciest suburb.

About 70 people had gathered inside a small meeting hall in Atlanta on Jan. 23 to watch a movie none of them was looking forward to seeing.

Israel put together an official video of the atrocities committed by Hamas in its Oct. 7 terrorist attack. More than 900 Israeli civilians and 300 soldiers were killed that day, and 240 more were taken to the Gaza Strip as hostages.

The attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war in that 141 square miles of territory, now in its fourth month.

Britain’s Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is not famed for its astuteness. These omnipresent public-school leftists, who rock up to every radical demo to holler facile chants in fake accents they learnt from EastEnders, are about as far from scholarly as you can get. Yet a few years ago they did something that was world-beatingly dumb, even by their famed low standards. They handed out a leaflet about the Holocaust that described it as an unspeakable tragedy in which ‘thousands of LGBT people, trade unionists and disabled people were slaughtered’. Spot the omission?

In November, Toronto police arrested 11 people – the so-called “Indigo 11″ – on charges of hate-motivated mischief for allegedly postering Indigo founder and chief executive Heather Reisman’s face over a fake quote on the company’s flagship store in downtown Toronto and smearing the windows with blood-red paint. In early January, the first of the defendants arrived in court, and it has turned out that most of them are, for lack of a better word, intellectuals – many with PhDs, and many employed by universities, schools and other cultural institutions.

Their trial, therefore, is about more than an act of vandalism: It is a painfully clarifying reflection on the ideological state of the Canadian establishment.

Shock and sadness in Fredericton today after a local synagogue was vandalized.

In photos widely shared on social media, broken windows could be seen at the Sgoolai Israel Synagogue(opens in a new tab) on Westermorland Street.

Anti-semitic vandals today defaced a memorial in Milan depicting the Simpsons being sent to Auschwitz just hours before Holocaust Memorial Day – by scrawling ‘f*** Israel’ and ‘Viva Hitler’ on it.

The mural in central Milan, titled ‘Track 21, The Simpsons Jews deported to Auschwitz’ by Italian artist aleXsandro Palombo, was today defaced by racist vandals for a fourth time, a year after it was first painted at the Shoah Memorial in Milan.

Substantiated. So very substantiated. https://t.co/xmkRgOJci7

— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) January 27, 2024

Just when you thought you might have seen everything comes a Toronto rape clinic helping to organize a pro-Hamas march just months after the systemic Oct. 7 raping of women.

The Toronto Rape Crisis Centre has said nothing about the horrific sexual violence committed by Hamas.

Nothing about the rape of Israeli women being held hostage.
Not one word.

Imagine being a Jewish woman who needs to use their services? pic.twitter.com/neRHNfFFP3

— Ariella (@ariellakimmel) January 25, 2024

Israel’s conflict with Hamas is set to be a long one—with both sides struggling to accomplish their fundamental aims and no clear path to any kind of enduring peace.

Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas as a significant military and political force. Hamas is committed to the long-term goal of erasing the Israeli state.

The irreconcilable stakes are existential for both. And that means that even if a cease-fire halts the current round of fighting in Gaza, the struggle between Israel and Hamas will continue.

As lively sounds of music, cheers and laughter rang out in celebration of the New Year, there was another sound I couldn’t ignore. A familiar sound. A deeply uncomfortable sound. The deafening sound of silence from our political and societal leaders.

Today, there is silence as Hamas declares its intention to destroy Israel. But this sound has rung out before. It rang out in the 1930s in the face of another evil focused on the elimination of an entire race.

Canada is suspending funding to a controversial UN agency in Gaza after allegations this week that its employees participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel.

This follows an announcement by the U.S government Friday that it was immediately pausing funding for the the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), after evidence presented by the Israeli government this week alleged 12 of the agency’s employees took part in the Hamas-led attack, in which terrorists murdered over 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians.

The Liberals knew they were connected to Hamas.

Liberals restore funding to controversial Palestinian aid agency

The federal Liberals are providing $25 million to a UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees that was cut off by the previous Conservative government for alleged ties to Hamas.

International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau made the announcement at a news conference and also during question period in the House of Commons — news that was greeted by cries of “shame” from the opposition benches.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, also known as UNRWA, lost federal funding in 2010 amid allegations it was tied too closely to Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Canada and others.