Blazingcatfur

As awful events unfold in Israel and Gaza, it’s likely that historians will view Hamas’s surprise attack as analogous to the epic failure of France’s Maginot Line in World War II. Immediately following the surge of terrorists across the border on October 7 came the question: How did it happen, especially given that Israel’s “Iron Wall” on the Gaza border was considered the most technologically advanced barrier in the world and was paired with the similarly high-tech “Iron Dome” anti-missile defense?

Israel says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is their BIN LADEN and that IDF won’t stop hunting him until he’s dead

Israeli troops on Saturday were hunting a Hamas commander described as Palestine’s Osama bin Laden, vowing to find him wherever he was hiding and insisting his days were numbered.

Yahya Sinwar, 60, is the current head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

He has been arrested by Israel multiple times and spent 24 years in Israeli prisons: he was freed in 2011, as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The countries of the European Union are divided over whether to continue aid to Gaza. However, the question of whether it is possible to help the civilian population there without strengthening Hamas is not part of the current debate.

Most international aid to Gaza is channeled through UNRWA, a UN agency dedicated exclusively to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump stopped US funding for UNRWA, but the Biden administration resumed funding, with $222 million in 2022, and the United States is once again the leading contributor. With 44% of donations, the European Union and its member countries contribute almost half of the UNRWA budget.

Unfortunately, UNRWA’s very existence and modus operandi directly reinforce Hamas. For this international organization, though there are only a handful of surviving refugees from 1948, supposed “refugee status” is passed down from father to son, so there are now around five times as many “refugees” in Gaza as there were originally.

Israel is one of only nine global nuclear powers and boasts one of the world’s most advanced and interconnected air defense systems. Israel’s “Iron Dome” has been largely successful at repelling air attacks from Hamas for years.

But on October 7, Hamas — an Islamist militant group and de facto governing authority in Gaza that is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US, Germany and other governments — succeeded in overwhelming those defenses, firing more than 2,000 rockets into Israel from inside the Gaza Strip.

How did Hamas gather the resources for such a sophisticated attack against one of the world’s most well-prepared militaries? According to analysts, cryptocurrencies played a significant role.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the leaders of the world’s western democracies have been stalwart in supporting Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on innocent civilians, past experience suggests it won’t last indefinitely.

You hear this all the time from the critics of Israel’s bombing of Gaza as if it is proof that Israel is a cruel bloodthirsty country.

My response: why not? It’s not like Hamas hasn’t been the recipient of billions of dollars in Western aid, no less the blood money they get from their allies in Iran and other outlaw regimes.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray has revealed the bureau has seen an increase in domestic threats since last weekend’s attacks in Israel.

Wray, 56, made the comments while speaking to a gathering of police chiefs in San Diego Saturday, where he urged citizens to be vigilant and share intel to stop ‘lone actors’ inspired by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

With those attacks fresh in mind, the Trump appointee acknowledged an increase in stateside threats due to a so-called ‘heightened environment’, and called for an increase of vigilance.

Judging by the size of the Hamas support rallies in the US there’s an awfully large pool of ‘lone actors’ out there.

Conflict in Gaza brings strife to Canadian campuses

York University condemned what it described as an inflammatory statement from its student unions on the attack in Israel last Saturday and called on student leaders to reject acts of violence or discrimination against Jewish students.

It was the latest in a series of controversial statements by Canadian student groups that have provoked outrage. Administrators, mindful of a university’s role as a place of free expression and respectful debate, drew a line at the celebration of violence.

The U.S. has held back-channel talks with Iran in recent days to warn the country against escalating the conflict in Israel, as Israeli forces prepare an expected ground assault in response to last weekend’s surprise attack by Hamas.

“We have means of communicating privately with Iran, and we have availed ourselves of those means over the past few days to make clear privately that which we have said publicly,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CBS News’s Face the Nation.