Friday, December 15, 2023

Wishing you all wonderful holidays, merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year!

Please note these Updates will be on hold until mid-January. 

Hostage Update: This week, Eden Zacharia (27) and Ziv Dado (36), taken by Hamas on October 7, their bodies were recovered by Israeli Special Forces this week in a tunnel deep in Gaza. Joshua Loitu Mollel (21) was kidnapped to Gaza and confirmed murdered, with his body currently held by the Hamas terror group.  Hamas is still holding 135 hostages captive, including 19 who are presumed dead.

EmojiEgypt: Bribing Your Way Out of Gaza  (Ha'aretz) Reports reaching Ramallah in the West Bank say the fee for arranging an exit from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing runs $6-7,000 per person

EmojiIran has accessed $10b it received under sanctions waiver, US official https://www.jns.org/iran-has-accessed-10b-it-received-under-sanctions-waiver-us-official/
EmojiIran’s Grand Strategy to Destroy Israel Is Proceeding Apace https://jcpa.org/article/irans-grand-strategy-to-destroy-israel-is-proceeding-apace/
EmojiThe Biden administration is considering re-designating Iran's Houthi proxies as terror organization https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2023-december-1/

Netanyahu: "Gaza Will Be Neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan"  (Jerusalem Post) "Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan....After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism, and finance terrorism,"  particularly in light of Fatah's policy of providing monthly financial stipends to terrorists and their families.
 

 Emoji'They're So Cruel': How Oct. 7 Destroyed an Israeli Peace Activist's Faith in the Palestinians - Gazan women and children as young as 10 years old had followed Hamas terrorists into the kibbutz, looting, helping the armed terrorists, and apparently enjoying themselves. https://freebeacon.com/israel/irit-lahav-nir-oz-survivor/
EmojiDuring the past two months, the following war crimes were committed by Hamas: 
EmojiPalestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh: We Defended Hamas in the U.N. against Terrorism Accusations https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinian-pm-mohammad-shtayyeh-defend-hamas-un-end-rift-fatah
EmojiWhere in the world... Hamas leader Naji Zuhair, in recent weeks has been in Pakistan

In a close vote Switzerland: Council of States wants to continue supporting UNRWA; the lower house voted to stop. They now have to re-discuss the budget with the National Council https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/schweiz-staenderat-will-unrwa-weiter-unterstuetzen-ld.1768146

UK and US target Hamas with new sanctions to isolate terror group 

All the headlines I see in the papers/on the news say Biden Admin is warning Israel to end it's efforts to get Hamas to surrender, but actual White House press releases seem to show full support for Israel.
White House: Israel Taking Steps to Protect Gaza Civilians that Even U.S. Might Not Have Done  (White House)
President Biden: "Nobody on God's Green Earth Can Justify What Hamas Did; They Have to Be Eliminated" (White House)

Humanitarians?
EmojiHas the United Nations completely lost control of UNRWA, the Palestinian Refugee Agency? (French) Atlantico https://atlantico.fr/article/decryptage/les-nations-unies-ont-elles-totalement-perdu-le-controle-de-l-unrwa-l-agence-pour-les-refugies-palestiniens-vincent-chebat

On Campus 
EmojiColumbia - though SJP is banned, they're still holding events on campus without any response from administration. https://jewishinsider.com/2023/12/columbia-university-anti-israel-protests-sjp-jvp/
EmojiGWU Medical School seems to support Hamas attack of 10/7 as "right of resistance"
EmojiCAMERA Report: Anti-Israel Extremism and Corrupt Scholarship at Brown University  https://www.camera.org/article/camera-report-anti-israel-extremism-and-corrupt-scholarship-at-brown-university/
EmojiThe Lawfare Project, together with co-counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, filed a lawsuit against Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the Western District of Pennsylvania on behalf of a Jewish student https://www.columbusjewishnews.com/jns/lawfare-project-files-suit-against-carnegie-mellon-university/article_4b44dc47-9a13-5f90-882c-6c1f3136fe01.html
EmojiRutgers U suspends Students for Justice in Palestine amid further campus uproar over Israel https://www.jta.org/2023/12/12/united-states/rutgers-u-suspends-students-for-justice-in-palestine-amid-further-campus-uproar-over-israel
EmojiHouse passes resolution condemning university presidents over antisemitism testimony https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4359042-house-antisemitism-harvard-upenn-mit/
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