“Oct 7 2023”

A poll published last week highlights the sharp divide between what New Yorkers want and what advocates demand. The survey found that 75 percent of New York voters support banning face-masking as a disguise to terrorize, hurt people, and commit crimes.

Two such bans, one Democratic and one Republican, are making their way through the state legislature—something Governor Kathy Hochul neglected to mention in her recent State of the State address. Nonetheless, opponents of New York’s ban insist that such laws offer no public-safety benefits, and that they will prevent ordinary citizens from masking for health. These arguments are not only wrong; as the recent poll shows, they’re also out of step.

For a few moments on Sunday, it looked like the Israel-Hamas ceasefire might not have gone forward, thanks to a nearly three-hour delay caused by the terrorist organisation. Then, when it did begin and three hostages made their way back to Israel, Hamas made sure that it got the last laugh over those held captive.

Emily Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who were captured during the October 7th terror attacks, 471 days ago, were given what have been described as “gift bags” by Hamas.

Last April Gabriel Epstein, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, pointed out that something was amiss. He found that the deaths attributed to “reliable media sources” were almost entirely women and children. Of the 6,629 media-attributed victims, 1,941 were women, 4,678 were children, and only 10 were men. Of the nearly 11,000 deaths reported between January 1 and March 31, adult males accounted for just 9 percent of the victims, even though Gaza’s gender ratio is close to parity and more than half of its residents are adults.

Our universities are doing just fine — so long as we overlook the misalignment of degrees to labour markets, administrative bloat and budget shenanigans, the foreign student debacle, discriminatory hiring and, of course, the ideological monoculture that’s tolerated the heckler’s veto for decades, advanced a cadre of antisemitic profs and nurtured a subset of pro-Hamas students.

The ceasefire in Gaza, scheduled to begin this morning, has been anything but straightforward. As the agreement unfolds, many have rushed to declare who are the winners and who are the losers. Yet victory does not lie with those who made the most military gains or acted most morally – it leans, perversely, towards those ruthless enough to exploit suffering without moral restraint. In this grim theatre of war the truth is far bleaker, that among the civilized, there can only be losers.

No.

Those who think that the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will abandon its Jihad (holy war) to murder more Jews and destroy Israel in the aftermath of the recent ceasefire-hostage agreement are mistaken.

Although the agreement may put an end to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, it does not, in any way, reflect a shift in the radical and dangerous ideology of the Islamist group, as outlined in its 1988 Covenant. The document quotes Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization (of which Hamas is an offshoot), as saying: “Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam abolishes it, as it abolished what went before.”

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold at the Gaza Strip on Sunday, ushering in an initial six-week period of calm and raising hopes for the release of dozens of hostages and an end to a devastating 15-month conflict. A last-minute delay by Hamas put off the start of the truce by nearly three hours and highlighted its fragility.

Israel said the first three hostages have been handed over to the Red Cross and are on their way back to Israel. The truce, which started at 11:15 a.m. local time, is just the first step toward ultimately ending the conflict and returning nearly 100 hostages abducted and still held by Hamas terrorists.

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you “agreed” to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.

So the proper description of what occurred is that Israel, pressured by the United States, capitulated to the unlawful and extortionate demands of Hamas as the only way of saving the lives of kidnapped babies, mothers and other innocent, mostly civilian, hostages.

Israel’s security cabinet voted Friday afternoon to recommend the government approve the outline for the hostage deal after “understanding that the proposed deal supports the achievement of the objectives of the war,” the Prime Minister’s office announced.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted against the deal. Likud MK Dudi Amsalem also expressed his opposition.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire welcomed but protests in Canada will not stop, groups say

Pro-Palestinian groups in Canada say a newly negotiated ceasefire deal to pause the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip will not end their regular demonstrations in cities like Toronto, while a national Jewish advocacy group says it “will not rest” until every hostage held by Hamas is released.

While a ceasefire in the 15-month war is welcome news, “there will be no pauses, no breaks, no rests” in protests that have endured for more than a year, said Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for the Jews Say No to Genocide coalition.

“We’re all praying that this deal comes through for the sake of the people on the ground in Gaza who have been suffering one of the most horrific and brutal atrocities,” Tsabar said Wednesday.

h/t Patti Jo

Here’s a pretty good rule for international affairs: if a deal pleases neo-fascists, it’s probably a bad deal. If an agreement gets an army of anti-Semites dancing in the streets, it’s likely a poor agreement. That was my first thought upon seeing the Jew-killers of Hamas emerge from their tunnels in Gaza last night to celebrate the ceasefire deal struck with Israel: if they like it, then those of us who side with civilisation over the regressive tyranny of such merciless Islamists probably will not.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a “last-minute crisis” with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited ceasefire that would pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. Israeli airstrikes, meanwhile, killed at least 72 people in the war-ravaged territory.

Netanyahu signaled there were issues with the deal shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden and key mediator Qatar announced it was complete. That created a dual reality: War-weary Palestinians in Gaza, the relatives of hostages held there and world leaders all welcomed an agreement, expected to begin Sunday, even as Netanyahu said it was not yet finalized.

Hamas jihadis and their supporters are out in force on the streets of Gaza, celebrating the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal as a massive victory for the jihad terrorist group over Israel and the United States. And they have ample reason to believe that the deal is indeed a victory for them.