MIDEAST UPDATE: 5.29.21 - Iran and the Fourth Gaza War

Iran and the Fourth Gaza War - https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306698 Much has been written about the Fourth Gaza War, as I call it, but less about the Iranian role in it. In fact, Iran played a crucial role in instigating the war and the preparations for it by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei incited the Arab masses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria in the weeks leading up to the war, calling upon Palestinian Arabsto “defend” the al-Aqsa mosque and denouncing Israel as a “terrorist base”. Iran upped its funding of Hamas during the war and is now paying $30 million per month to Hamas alone. Aside from the money, Iran is giving other forms of aid to Hamas aswe will see below. PIJ receives even more and not only in terms of money. The Iranian proxy receives weapons, training, money, and even food from the Quds Force of the Islamic RevolutionaryGuards Corps, said PIJ leader Ramez al-Halabi, one of the leaders of PIJ during an interview with al-Ahd TV in Iraq. PIJ leader Ziad al-Nakhala was similarly blunt when he told the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV Channel the following: “all the conventional weapons reached Gaza via (assassinatedQuds Force commander) al-Hajj Qassem Soleimani. Hezbollah, Syria, and the entire resistance axis played a part in transporting them.” Iran tried to become directly involved in the latest war with the Palestinian Arab terror groups by again sending a drone full of explosives from Syria across the Jordanianborder with Israel last week. Just as some years ago, when Iran for the first time sent a drone into Israeli airspace, the latest UAV was downed by the Israeli army in the vicinity of the Israeli townof Beit Shean. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that the downed drone was Iranian during his meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas last week. Iran was more than instrumental when it comes to the build-up of the rocket and missile arsenals of Hamas and PIJ. It is true that today the Gazan terrorist organizationsare able to build their own projectiles. Even the Ayyash, Hamas’ medium-range missile with a range of 250 kilometers was built in Gaza, but Iranian assistance was crucial in this process. Hamas’ representative in Iran, Khaled Qaddoumi, told Al-Monitor that “The Islamic Republic of Iran has helped a lot in transferring knowledge and expertise on one side,and transporting rockets on the other.” He added that Iran helped Hamas to depend on its own local capabilities to produce such advanced technology. In September last year, Al-Jazeera aired a documentary showing footage taken in Gaza of Hamas terrorists reassembling Iranian rockets with ranges of up to 80 kilometers(50 miles) and warheads packed with 175 kilograms of explosives. Hamas and PIJ also used the Iranian-made Sejjil and Badr-3 missiles during the eleven-day war against Israel. The same counts for the Kornet anti-tank missile that Hamas used at least two times during the war resulting in the death of IDF Sgt. Omer Tabib. These missiles were smuggledinto Gaza after Iran shipped them to Sudan and from there they found their way to Gaza via the Sinai Peninsula. The second time Hamas used the Kornet, was on the last day of the war when it shot the missile at an IDF bus. The missile destroyed the rear of the bus but nobody was hurtexcept for one soldier who was hit by shrapnel but wasn't seriously wounded. The driver of the bus later said that a miracle had happened as he had let off about thirty IDF soldiers near the Gaza border a couple of minutes before the Kornet hit hisvehicle. The so-called ‘Metro,’ the underground tunnel complex that Hamas and PIJ built across the territory of Gaza, wouldn’t have materialized without the help of Iran and Hezbollahin Lebanon. Hamas’ and PIJ terrorists and engineers received training from Hezbollah and the Quds Force in both Lebanon and Syria and then returned to Gaza to use their new-found knowledgeto advance the tunnel project and the production of better missiles which had to have a longer range. The Iranians also assisted the Gazan terrorist organizations in developing attack drones. During the latest conflict with Israel, the so-called Kamikaze drones were useda couple of times but were downed by the IDF. Iran has a large drone program and just revealed it has a new type of attack drone by the name of ‘Gaza’. The UAV has a range of 2,000 kilometers. So, the bigger picture of this latest Gaza War is that Israel was not only fighting two Palestinian terror groups. The real battle here was against Iran that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state and is trying to achieve this in different ways. It is done by providing assistance to its proxies in Israel and by stirring up unrest among Palestinian Arabs living in Judea and Samaria as well as among Israeli Arabs.Social media was very instrumental in getting the Arabs in Israel to fight their Jewish neighbors In addition, Iran – via Hezbollah- has been caught trying to create new terror groups in Judea and Samaria as well in northern Israel. -------------------------------------------------------- 10 Takeaways from the Latest Conflict Between Israel and Hamas � Alex Traiman - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4746 Over this past weekend, Arabs were shooting fireworks in the sky, supposedly in celebration of holding Israeli population centers hostage for 11 days with more than 4,000rockets. Fireworks shooting upwards represented a dramatic improvement over the previous week, during which the celebratory projectiles were being shot horizontally at police within Israeli cities, and Hamas rockets and Israel missile defenses lit the nightskies. If sending Israelis in and out of bomb shelters for nearly two weeks is a victory for Palestinian factions, so be it. Israelis came out virtually unscathed. 1. Israel's military is among the world's best The star of the latest conflict was Israel's Iron Dome. While Hamas placed their military fortunes in unsophisticated rockets fired indiscriminately towards Israeli populationcenters, Israeli missile defense demonstrated just how deep the gap is between fighting units. Israel's Iron Dome system shot down nearly 90 percent of the rockets identified in real time as flying toward Jewish civilians. Meanwhile, Israel pounded Hamas infrastructure day after day, striking at 1,000-plus strategic targets with precision accuracy. Such strikes could not possibly have occurredwithout superior intelligence. Included in those targets were Hamas intelligence and operational centers, rocket caches, missile-launchers, drones, naval installations and a sophisticated underground tunnel network. Israel brilliantly manipulated Twitter and mainstream media to announce a ground invasion early on into the Gaza Strip to serve as a decoy to lure Hamas fighters into thetunnels. With terrorists inside, Israel destroyed the entire tunnel network before alerting the media that the announcement had been a mistake. The number of Palestinian civilian casualties at the hands of an Israeli military that struck those 1,000 targets was unmistakably and near-impossibly low for wartime conditions.Unlike previous operations in 2006 in Southern Lebanon and 2014 in Gaza, the 2021 operation was not highlighted by any lack of preparedness, military miscues, cross-border infiltrations, kidnappings or killing of Israeli soldiers. Despite what critics of Israel's government might state, the Israel Defense Forces did its job admirably. Malign actors across the region from Hezbollah in Southern Lebanonto Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran are sure to have taken notice. The military achievement is a continuation of ongoing successful Israeli airstrikes in Syria, as well as covert operations inside Iran. 2. Hamas suffered a military humiliation Well more than 4,000 rockets and 62 miles of tunnel networks that took years of development and cost hundreds of millions if not billions to construct killed a grand totalof 12 people in Israel before being utterly decimated. Furthermore, some 650 of the rockets fired at Israel landed inside the Gaza Strip. It is believed that at least 60 of the casualties inside Gaza were caused by Hamas rockets, including an entire family of eight. To put it into better perspective, Hamaskilled more Gazans with their rockets than they killed Israelis. Despite the celebratory fireworks, Hamas was completely humiliated. In terms of military strategy, Hamas is an unmitigated disaster. Israelis know it, as do Palestinians.It will take Gaza and its terror gang Hamas years to recover. 3. Gaza is not the most dangerous Palestinian battlefront While Israel did all it could to focus attention on Hamas inside Gaza, the southwestern Palestinian enclave is only one front in a larger battle against the Jewish state.Gaza is relatively easy to bombard from the air, while Gazans beyond a border fence cannot commit individual acts of terror inside Israel. In the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank--known in Israel as Judea and Samaria--factions including Fatah and Hamas are jockeying for power, as agingkleptocrat Mahmoud Abbas continues to lose his grip on a fed-up Palestinian street. One tried-and-true method for gaining popularity among the Palestinian public has been launching terror campaigns against Israel. Within Israeli territory, more than a million Arabs hold Israeli identity cards. Many are registered voters. Yet with the exception of a few mixed cities, most live in segregatedenclaves, as is the situation in Jerusalem. Rioting and lynching attempts in cities such as Lod, Bat Yam, Jaffa, Ramle, Akko, Haifa, Tiberias and Jerusalem leading up to and during the Gaza conflict demonstrate thatinternal hostilities remain a risk. Though incidents have not reached top headlines, there has been an increase in attacks, including a recent drive-by shooting that killed one and seriously wounded two otherIsraelis two weeks ago in Samaria. Two Israelis were stabbed during a terror attack at a Jerusalem light-rail station on Monday. Just because a ceasefire has been declared in Gaza does not necessarily mean all Israeli-Palestinian hostilities are over. Cooler heads may prevail and calm may be restored,but a new intifada may be lurking around the corner. The IDF and an understaffed police force may not be as well-equipped to handle a surge in urban domestic terror. 4. Narrative warfare: It all started when he hit me back Regardless of measures Israel may have futilely attempted to reduce and avoid hostilities, Hamas--with aid from Western media--had already constructed its narrative: Hamashad no choice but to fire rockets from Gaza once Israeli police had "stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque." It makes no difference in the narrative war that Israeli police entered the complex to break up riots, where Arabs were tossing Molotov cocktails, shooting fireworks andthrowing stones at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall prayer complex some 70 meters below. The narrative claims that an annual Jerusalem Day parade is now a "far-right nationalist" event that "stoked tensions." Similarly, the narrative insists that a war was necessitatedover the eviction of 13 families from the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The neighborhood is also home to the Jewish holy gravesite of "Simon the Righteous" ("Shimon HaTzadik"). The property dispute in question was about to be heard in Israel's left-wing Supreme court, had been circulating through the court system for 30 years, and the hearing wasultimately postponed. Either way, according to the narrative, any eviction is the justification for war. Nobody seems concerned that Israel evicted as many as 10,000 Jews from 21 fully-developed Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip in 2005 specifically in an attempt to avoidfuture wars and has evicted Jews from their homes on several other occasions. According to the narrative, evicting Jews is appropriate, while evicting Palestinians, even in the case of outright private property theft, is not. As long as Hamas can sell a narrative--one that most Western media can easily parrot--then there can be justification for an attack. This has happened countless times inthe past and will undoubtedly happen again in the not-too-distant future. 5. Narrative warfare: The battle for hearts and minds The reason that Palestinians claim victory has nothing to do with the exceedingly minor physical damage inflicted on Israel. Rather, it is because Palestinians perceivethat they scored points the greater battle fought in the minds and hearts of Israelis, Palestinians and the international community. Palestinians are convincing themselves and others that Israel has been weakened in an era in which facts, details and context are less relevant than ever before; truth andlies are regularly interchanged in the media; and opinions and buy-ins are what matter most. Israelis don't necessarily see it that way. Anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian sentiments, and accusations from the international community, are nothing new. Israelis are amongthe thickest-skinned citizenry in the world, and well-versed in overcoming biases and handling adversity. The opinions that matter most to Israelis are those of Israelis themselves. The only doubts that Israelis have about the recent flare-up is whether theyinflicted enough damage against Hamas before the world begged them to stop. 6. #PalestinianLivesMatter Israelis watched from afar with amazement as violent riots enveloped American cities this past year under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Race became the most important issue.Members of the anti-Israel community in the United States had long ago linked up with progressive causes--an irony considering how far from progressive Palestinian society is. It appears that Palestinians have successfully adopted the BLM mentality and are being welcomed in with open arms. It doesn't matter that Israel is the most liberal countryin the Middle East by far and one of the most liberal in the world. According to the narrative, Israelis are the white, oppressive colonialists, regardless of the fact that more than 50 percent of Israelis are of Middle Eastern descent (meaningbrown-skinned) whose families were forcibly evicted from their homes out of nearly every Muslim country in the region after living in those countries as second-class dhimmi citizens. Plus, there are a sizable number of Ethiopian immigrants (black-skinned), many of whom arrived as refugees. Among the remaining Israelis of European descent, a large portionare descendants of survivors of the Holocaust--an actual genocide. Yet as long as Palestinians will succeed to remain the step-sister of #BlackLivesMatter, Israel will be in for a bumpy period in the court of public opinion. 7. Does the Democratic Party still support Israel? For decades, Democrats were the party that supported Israel--n large part, because Jews, with roots as an immigrant minority class in America, have overwhelmingly supportedDemocratic candidates. Israel, however, pushed to make support for its defense a bipartisan issue and largely convinced Republicans to begin supporting Israel as well. Evangelical Christians began increasing their support for Israel, further encouraging Republicansto be increasingly supportive. But America has become polarized. In age where there are virtually no bipartisan issues, Israel found itself in a bad spot. With religious evangelical fervor behind supportfor Israel, Democrats have all but dropped the baton. And while the old guard of the Democratic Party has long supported Israel, the younger, more progressive group does not hold Israel in the same regard. They know Israelonly through the prism of the failed Oslo Accords. This young guard has taken over the momentum of the party to the fear of the old guard losing their seats (see: Eliot Engel) in upcoming primaries to younger, more progressive upstarts. As such, even some members of the old guard were hesitant to back Israel with the same intensity that they have in the past, if at all. It's not clear if Israel will beable to count on Democrat Party support in future conflicts. 8. The money trail: towards peace or violence? The Trump administration was charting a new course toward peace in the Middle East. The principles were simple: punish malign actors with sanctions, financially incentivizepeace and solve the Middle East conflict from the outside-in. Iran was sanctioned harder than any nation in history. The Palestinian Authority, as well as U.N. agencies that supported their agenda, such as UNRWA, was defunded. Andnormalization agreements were signed between Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The approach worked. The four years of the Trump administration were by and large among the quietest years in Israel's modern history. Yet the approach was a slap in theface of the U.S. State Department establishment that has long posited that there can never be peace anywhere in the region until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved. The latest flare-up puts the Israeli-Palestinian issue back on center stage in the familiar territory of the authors and supporters of the Oslo Accords, who are beginningto come back to the forefront after a now-brief four-year exile. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is now headed to Israel, in part to renew ties with Palestinian leaders. The international community is now pledging funds to "rebuild Gaza." When funds were being withheld from malign actors like Iran, the P.A. and Hamas, and financial incentives were being given to moderates in pursuit of normalization, peacefulconditions were prevailing. Now that the flow of funds has reversed, terrorism is back on the agenda. 9. Iran, Iran, Iran Iran has played a key role in the current conflict. In the past several years, months and weeks Israel has been covertly striking Iranian nuclear infrastructure, attackingcommercial vessels and striking Iranian-made weapons transferred into Syria. Iran has tried repeatedly to strike back, recently targeting Israeli commercial sea-bound vessels. Despite recent Israeli airstrikes, Iran has already succeeded in stockpiling more than 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. Andunlike Hamas's rocket arsenal in Gaza, many of the missiles held by Hezbollah are long-range and precision-guided. In a "victory speech," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly praised Iran for its support during the conflict, stating: "I cannot but thank those who brought forth moneyand weaponry to the valiant resistance, the Islamic Republic of Iran; who did not hold back with money, weapons and technical support. Thanks." A recent report in The Wall Street Journal noted that Hamas rockets are made from Iranian designs, and Iranians have provided Hamas with additional assistance. Almost allmalign activity in the Middle East today has Iranian fingerprints. Iran is attempting to negotiate a return to the nuclear deal with the United States and Western powers. This just-ended conflict should give the West pause regarding Iranianambitions. Tragically, it likely will not. 10. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew Over the past several years, the American Jewish communal establishment has been increasingly critical of Israeli policies in private and in public. The community is overwhelminglyliberal and supportive of Democrats, and less religious than ever before. Many Jewish leaders jumped on board to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Now that BLM appears to be siding with Palestinians, American Jews are being pushed into a choice. Side with BLM and Palestinians, or with Israel--the sole liberal democracyin a often-violent and illiberal region. Sadly, there are signals that many American Jews are not choosing Israel. To those anti-Israel activists now wreaking havoc in Jewish communities across America, disappointing statements by American Jews alienating Israel may not matter. To theenemies of Israel, who are committing violent antisemitic acts at an alarming rate, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. Israel must do more to repair rifts with the American Jewish community and to fully activate those American Jews who stand proudly with the world's only Jewish state. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did Israel Just Sabotage an Iranian Drone Factory? � Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - https://www.israel365news.com/191137/did-israel-just-sabotage-an-iranian-drone-factory/ When you take the field against your enemies, and see horses and chariots�forces larger than yours�have no fear of them, for Hashem your God, who brought you from the landof Egypt, is with you. Deuteronomy 20:1 (The Israel BibleTM) While rockets from Gaza rained down on Israel and Arab rioting filled the streets, another story of the conflict between Israel and Iran was quietly unfolding. The story began last Monday night when six rockets were fired at Israel from southern Lebanon. All fell short of the border and landed inside Lebanese territory and theIDF responded by targeting the source of the rocket launch in Lebanon with tank and artillery shells. There were no reports of casualties or damage and the incident seemed over, with no lasting repercussions. At around 4 AM on Tuesday, the IDF shot down a drone that was approaching the northern section of the Israeli-Jordanian border near the Israeli city of Bet Shean. �The UAV was being monitored by IDF air control units. The fragments of the UAV were collected by security forces,� the military said. On Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the drone was determined to be manufactured in Iran and it was armed with explosives. The suspected launch site forthe drone was either Iraq or Syria. In a similar case in 2018, a drone was flown from Syria into northern Israel before it was shot down by an Israeli helicopter. Coincidentally, on Friday, a post on the website of Iran�s Revolutionary Guards announced the production of a new combat drone dubbed �Gaza� in a tribute to Palestinians.The new drone is purported to be able to carry13 bombs while flying at over 35,000 feet at a speed of almost 200 mph for 20 hours. In a seemingly unrelated incident, Iran announced an explosion and fire at a chemical and fireworks factory in the central province of Isfahan in Iran early Sunday morning.Nine people were hurt in the incident. The Mehr state news agency reported that �the reason for the explosion at the Sepahan Nargostar chemical industry is under investigation.� Post on social media by local residents reported that the ground shook from the explosion at the chemical factory. The Guardian reported on Sunday that the complex reported as a chemical factory was, in fact, a factory for producing drones. �The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (Hesa), which produces a variety of aircraft and drones for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in the complexowned by Sepahan Nargostar Chemical Industries,� the Guardian wrote. �There was no independent confirmation of the cause of the explosion or the precise factory hit.� Israel has been accused of sabotaging Iranian facilities in the past, most notably the Natanz nuclear site in April. The incident took place one day after a chain of 164advanced IR-6 uranium enrichment centrifuges went online at the site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolerating or standing against hate - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com The recent terrorist attack on Israel has brought out the haters of Jews in America. Like roaches from that darkest dankest places, they emerged, stirring up violence witha common chant, �Kill the Jews.� This is like Nazi Germany history repeating itself, except this time it is in the land of the free and home of the brave. People, we need to denounce this hate speech, this horrible sentiment, in no uncertain terms. The entirecountry is ablaze with nasty people saying nasty things. They have gone over the top with weaponizing race, ethnicity, politics�you name it, if there is a way to hate, the haters are making it and taking it. These are the same people who go overboard withslogans like �Hate doesn�t live here.� What we are seeing is that people are protesting by channeling their hate toward groups of people under the mask of a political belief. Both are very dangerous. This goesfar beyond the right to free speech, which they have a right to express, but it doesn�t make them right. It goes to the heart of a civilization. The most concerning thing about the riots we have witnessed and tolerated, still ongoing, is that they are destroyingproperty, occupying areas and are violent against others because they are upset about a social ill. In reality, they are advocating an overthrow of the government, which means they demand nothing less than replacement of freedom and liberty with the chainsof anarchy and Marxism. They are pawns of a greater cause, but are too blinded by their hate to see it. We are witnessing elected officials using sly words to espouse and incite hate, and it is actually being tolerated. The recent protests and harassment against Jews by supportersof terrorists are an example. This is how it starts. The seeds of hate are being watered by the words of the haters. It must stop. You see, all the hate is causing such vitriol that if it doesn�t stop, we risk the historic outcome of death and ultimate destruction.There is a right and a wrong. When the head of Hamas, for example, is bragging about how Hamas targeted groups of Jewish civilians with rockets, and a President of the United States demands Israel cease its defense against it, the cry �Never Again� has renewedmeaning. When the actions of Hamas are celebrated in the streets of America and our leaders do not denounce them or it takes days after such a hate-filled protest for the Presidentof the United States to even acknowledge the issue, we have a deep problem as a society. This weaponization of race and ethnicity must stop before it goes systemic deadly. As in the Psalm of David, Psalm 26:3-5, �For your lovingkindness is before my eyes;and I have walked in your truth. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evildoers: and will not sit with the wicked.� There is right and wrong. And these days the wrong is being not only tolerated,but hailed as just. Pray, speak, stand against it that it may not engulf us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biden's Disastrous Plan to Rebuild the Terrorist State in Gaza � Jonathan Tobin - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4747 In the aftermath of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of fighting that left 12 Israelis and 248 Palestinians dead, and approximately 77,000 Gazans homeless,the Biden administration now wants to help. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East this week but his purpose is not, as he claims, to revive the dead-in-the-water peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Rather, it's to ensure that the truce holds. According to President Joe Biden, Blinken will do so while simultaneously reaffirming "our ironclad commitment to Israel's security"while also continuing "our administration's efforts to rebuild ties, and support for, the Palestinian people, and leaders, after years of neglect." There's a lot to unpack in that sentence. Biden's words signaled a shot at the administration of former President Donald Trump's closeness with Israel and attempt to holdthe Palestinian Authority accountable for its support of terrorism. It also reflected a policy shift to a more "even-handed" approach to the conflict, while at the same time also attempting to claim that its support for Israel is unshaken. Any statement that seeks to reassure both the sector of his party's base that is anti-Israel and Americans who support the Jewish state can't be said to amount to much.That's especially true since the administration's foreign-policy priority until last week was its ongoing efforts to reach a rapprochement with Iran, which would enable Tehran to have even more resources to give to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad embeddedin Gaza. As Biden talks out of both sides of his mouth about the Middle East, it's clear that the one thing the administration is definitely intent on doing is to lead an internationalhumanitarian effort to "rebuild" Gaza. Doing so will be a way for Biden to show that he means what he says about supporting the Palestinians in such a way as to get credit from the growing faction of leftistDemocrats who falsely think that Israeli counter-terror strikes in Gaza are the moral equivalent of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck. Biden clearly wants a policy that will appear to neither openly punish Israel nor reward Hamas. "Rebuilding" Gaza is, he thinks, the way to do it while advancing the creationof an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Blinken and the other foreign-policy establishment luminaries that staff his administration still believe a two-state solution is the only way to prevent future outbreaks of fighting. The fundamental mistake here is not just the notion that America can maintain its alliance with Israel while also being good friends with a Palestinian nationalist movementcommitted to the Jewish state's destruction. Rather, the immediate problem is that Biden and Blinken think they can aid the people of Gaza without helping or even rewarding Hamas. They cannot. What's more, not only is that impossible, anything done to advance such an objective won't be just a tactical error that will give Hamas a short-term advantage.It will also send a message to all Palestinians that the long-term objective of Hamas--namely, the elimination of Israel--is not only still on the table, but a realistic future option towards which they should work. As the international community learned after it devoted many billions of dollars to aid to reconstruct Gaza after the 2014 war, it was virtually impossible to ensure thatthe money helped ordinary Palestinians rather than their Hamas tyrants. There has never been an example in history of cash pouring into a totalitarian regime--exactly what the Islamist-ruled, independent Palestinian state in all but name that exists in Gazatruly is--that could be kept out of the clutches of the rulers in one way or another Some homes destroyed because of Hamas's policy of using civilians as human shields were indeed rebuilt after 2014. But most of the building material that was let into thecoastal enclave went into rebuilding the terrorist group's military infrastructure, including hundreds of kilometers of tunnels used for storing their armaments and providing shelters for their military personnel, though not civilians. There is no reason to believe the next round of rebuilding will go any differently. Nor are there any grounds for believing that United Nations officials tasked with thejob of guaranteeing that civilian needs are dealt with rather than those of Hamas, will do that. While administration officials say they will try to force Hamas to choose between--in veteran peace processor Dennis Ross' words, "their rockets and the well-being of Gaza"--toeven suggest that they would ever choose the latter over the former is to take leave of reality altogether. This attitude always results in foreign officials allowing money and material to pour into Gaza, where it will be used by Hamas to make it an even moreformidable military target. The problem is that Biden, Blinken, the foreign-policy establishment, the liberal media that echoes their arguments and even those left-wingers who are pressuring the administrationto be tougher on Israel still don't understand what Hamas is after. Blinken repeated this past weekend the pious hope that "there has to be" a prospect for a peaceful solution between Israel and Hamas. Some claim that Hamas is actually muchmore pragmatic than their Islamist ideology and wants a modus vivendi with the Jewish state, citing their willingness to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But while Hamas is always practical when it comes to their survival and day-to-daytactics, their goals are unchanged. As deputy chairman of the Hamas "political bureau" Musa Abu Marzouk stated in an interview last week (translated by MEMRI), this latest conflict is just one more among manyother "wars" to come in pursuit of their ultimate goal: Israel's elimination. Saying that his group was not composed of "dreamers," he said that Israel will go the way of the Berlin Wall and the apartheid-era South African government. "We are no dreamers. Until recently, they mocked Hamas's rockets and called them children's toys. I do not believe anyone is saying this today. Until recently, the wholeworld supported the white government in South Africa, but things have changed. Where did the Soviet Union go? Where did the Berlin Wall go? The day will come when people ask: 'Where did Israel go?' " He's serious. So are Hamas supporters and those in the West Bank who would prefer it to Abbas. And every step towards normalizing Hamas, rather than isolating and defeatingit, is a signal to a Palestinian people who have been sold such fantasies for the last 100 years that their long war to defeat Zionism is not yet lost. Rebuilding Gaza may help some Palestinians, but it will also enable Hamas to assert that there were no long-term consequences for their actions. By repeating the mistakesmade by every administration prior to that of Trump, and reinforcing expectations that the West will not punish the Palestinians for terrorism and rejecting peace, Biden is not advancing a two-state solution. To the contrary, he will be making peace even more impossible by indicating to the Palestinians that they don't have to surrender to reality and accept Israel's permanenceand legitimacy. So-called humanitarian policies that are rooted in the pretense that the people there can be aided without requiring them to overthrow their Islamist masters is money spent on enabling Hamas, not peace or the welfare of the Palestinians. It's hard to resist arguments that appeal to our sympathy for those who are caught in the crossfire created by Hamas terrorism, even when they are not made in the contextof appeals to delegitimize Israel's right to exist or to defend itself. Nevertheless, the best thing Biden can do to actually advance the cause of peace is to not spend a cent on rebuilding the terrorist state in Gaza. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nazi trend in America, say it isn�t so � Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com This country is experiencing years of prolonged derision by loud bullies who label everyone who disagrees with them with terrible accusations. Ignoring any semblance ofconstructive civil conversation, they have weaponized sex, race, and politics, using them as justification to foment violence, defy the civil protections of law, and censure the speech of those who do not share their views. Now, we are witnessing before usthe demonization of Jews by the Hollywood elite, elected officials, and tech giants who censure speech on behalf of Israel, but not hate speech against Israel. It took the American president five days to condemn violence against Jews, but he didn�t condemnthose who committed the violence. The Hill reports that The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says reporting of antisemitic incidents has jumped 63 percent since the start of the 11-day conflict between Israeland Hamas. Even more disturbing is the trend on social media. ADL reports over 17,000 Tweets with variations of the phrase �Hitler was right� from May 7-14. ADL says that there is extreme content calling for the destruction of Israel and posts saying �Gasthe Kikes race war now.� There has been violence committed against Jews across the nation�Los Angeles, Skokie, Il., Chicago, New York, and in other small towns. The ADL reports that many of these incidents were done by flag-waving, pro-Palestinian protestorswho video recorded their attacks. Reports indicate that Hamas, the US-designated terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip, fired more than 4,400 rockets into Israel from May 10-21, killing at least 13and sending millions into bomb shelters. Yet, the Biden Administration is supporting Hamas with your tax dollars. Biden said in a statement that the Secretary of State �will continue our Administration�s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinianpeople and leaders, after years of neglect. And he will engage other key partners in the region, including on the coordinated international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza in a way that benefits the people there and not Hamas, and on reducingthe risk of further conflict in the coming months.� This ignores the fact that all financial aid in Gaza must pass through Hamas, which distributes the aid. Those accusing others of being like Nazis are themselves behaving like Nazis. It is not just the vitriol against Jews, although this is prophetically explicit, it is anoverall assault on law-abiding, peace-loving, God-fearing Americans. It is an offensive against the American ideal and way of life. We in America, who love God and His liberty, need to stand up to this most dangerous trend. The censorship of ideas; the weaponizationof disagreement; the hate for fellow citizens; are all ingredients of destruction. We are better than this. As Ephesians 6:10 says, �Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might.� Verse 13 exhorts us to take up the whole armorof God, that �you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand.� Yes, we must. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whatis Hamas? By Hal Lindsey A surprising number of American organizations and politicians have come out against Israel in the recent fighting. They almost always say they are standingwith Palestinians, not Hamas. But that�s like coming out against the United States in World War II, claiming you only support Germans, not Nazis. Hamas runs Gaza. In the month of May, Hamas fired more than 4,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza. But Israel did not return fire with an all-out assaulton the Palestinians of Gaza. They struck military targets. And, yes, they struck them hard. In a matter of days, Israel substantially degraded Hamas�s ability to wage their war of terror. For that, millions now blame Israel. What is Hamas? Why have Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, and the United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization? Why have other nations,such as Australia, New Zealand, Paraguay, and the United Kingdom, designated Hamas�s military wing a terrorist organization? And remember, it was their military wing firing rockets at Israeli children. These nations designated Hamas a terror group because terror is the organization�s chief tactic, and violence is its mode of operation. Hamas�s violencegoes back to its very beginning. The preamble to their charter says, �Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.� The eradication of Israel is their goal. They don�t just want to win a military victory over Israel or carve out a Palestinian state. Hamas wants nothingless than the destruction of the Jewish people. Genocide is their aim and reason. How could you describe Hamas as anything but a terror group? In Article 32 of their charter, they say that the Jew�s �scheme has been laid out in the �Protocols of the Elders of Zion.�� The protocols are a hoaxfirst published in Russia in 1903. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, the protocols began to be taught in German schools. But it was proven false early on. For one thing, you can trace much of the source material to known works of fiction. But for Hamasand its supporters, anything against Jews must be true. The Hamas charter depicts Jews using old stereotypes. Article 22 blames the Jews for World Wars I and II, as well as the French and communist revolutions.This illustrates yet again that their hatred is not for Israel alone, but for Jews generally. Article 7 says, �The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks andtrees will cry out: �O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.�� Hamas stands firmly against a negotiated peace in the Middle East. Article 13 says, �So-called peaceful solutions and international conferences arein contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives,proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.� Article 11 says, �The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [meaning �Holy Possession�] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day.No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.� Hamas stands for unending violence, war, and terror. To those Americans who have placed themselves in solidarity with Hamas, I have to ask, �Are youfor peace or for never-ending jihad?� ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM