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Posted
On 4/5/2024 at 8:46 PM, statsman said:

Funny. Iran feels the same way about the USS Vincennes shooting down a plane full of civilians. 
 
The US also killed an innocent family of ten with a drone strike, in a screwed up retaliation at ISIS, two years ago. 
 
Mistakes happen. They’re awful. Decent nations acknowledge them (Russia, on the other hand, still claims to not be at fault for shooting down the Dutch 777 or the Korean passenger plane)

US drone strikes have killed thousands across Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan over the years.  The US won't release civilian casualty numbers, and the foreign numbers are always inflated, but if you land somewhere in the middle the numbers are alarming 

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Posted

Famine Has Begun in Northern Gaza, U.S. Official Says

Samantha Power, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has said that a famine is underway in northern Gaza, which has been devastated by six months of Israeli military operations and is the part of the territory most cut off from aid.

Ms. Power is the first senior American official to say publicly that famine has begun in the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies and global experts have warned for months that nearly all 2.2 million Palestinians would soon face extreme hunger.

Northern Gaza, which was the first part of the territory that Israeli forces invaded last October, has been heavily damaged by the war and is far from the two open border crossings in the south through which nearly all aid is arriving.

Aid agencies say that it has become all but impossible to deliver relief supplies to the north amid continuing attacks. UNICEF said on Wednesday that one of its vehicles waiting to enter northern Gaza had been “hit by live ammunition,” and that it had raised the matter with the Israeli authorities. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about the report.

Ms. Power’s comments came during congressional testimony on Wednesday, when she was asked by Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, about news reports that staff members from her agency had sent a cable to the National Security Council that said famine had begun in parts of the Gaza Strip. The cable was first reported by HuffPost.

“Do you think it is plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and in particular northern Gaza, are already experiencing famine?” Mr. Castro asked.

Ms. Power replied that that appeared to be the case, and cited an assessment by the global Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, whose methodology she described as sound. She did not specify what assessment she was referring to. Last month, the initiative said in a report that the food shortage in Gaza had become so severe that “famine is imminent” for the northern part of the enclave.

“That is their assessment, and we believe that assessment is credible,” Ms. Power said.

“So famine is already occurring there?” Mr. Castro replied.

“That is — yes,” Ms. Power said.

She said later in her testimony that the rate of severe malnutrition among Gazan children had become “markedly worse” since Oct. 7, when a Hamas-led terrorist attack prompted Israel to launch its military offensive in Gaza.

“In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to Oct. 7 was almost zero, and it is now one in three kids,” she said. She added: “In terms of actual severe acute malnutrition for under-5s, that rate was 16 percent in January and became 30 percent in February. We’re awaiting the March numbers, but we expect it to continue.”

Ms. Power urged Congress to “press our Israeli partners to actually follow through with the commitments they have made” to allow more humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

She also said that the United States had seen no evidence from its partner organizations that Hamas was seizing food aid on a significant scale. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid meant for Gazan civilians, a claim that Hamas officials have denied.

In February, the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East, David Satterfield, also said Israel had failed to provide evidence that Hamas was stealing aid shipments.

“We are not seeing Hamas dictating where food is provided,” Ms. Power said on Wednesday. “I can assure you that if the government of Israel saw Hamas doing that,” she added, “we would be hearing about it.”

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
Quote

She also said that the United States had seen no evidence from its partner organizations that Hamas was seizing food aid on a significant scale. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid meant for Gazan civilians, a claim that Hamas officials have denied.

In February, the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East, David Satterfield, also said Israel had failed to provide evidence that Hamas was stealing aid shipments.

There is a slight incongruence here, the US has seen no evidence that Hamas was taking the aid at a significant scale, and Israel has failed to show there is any evidence of this.   

But that is probably just me being pedantic.  It seems to me the solution to the theft would be to overwhelm the thieves with more shipments if there are indeed any thieves at all.  

Posted
13 minutes ago, Nivek said:

There is a slight incongruence here, the US has seen no evidence that Hamas was taking the aid at a significant scale, and Israel has failed to show there is any evidence of this.   

But that is probably just me being pedantic.  It seems to me the solution to the theft would be to overwhelm the thieves with more shipments if there are indeed any thieves at all.  

I mean.....in a chaotic environment with no legal authority exercising control (you know....like most war zones), there is absolutely going to be a "loss rate" to theft etc.  Every time, all the time.  You don't stop providing aid because some of it got stolen. 

Unless, of course, your goal is to stop all aid to force the people to flee to accomplish your goal of ethnic cleansing.  Which is Israel's plainly stated goal here.

Posted

ethnic cleansing of Gaza would benefit Jews and Arabs provided the Gazans get a golden ticket to EU / US . Rebuilding Gaza will cost billions, no one is ready for that, which contractors would get rich.  It's quicker and better all around to GTFO ASAP.  Let Israel have it.

Posted (edited)

Jews were ethnically cleansed from the Middle East and North Africa over the last 100 years.  Weird how so few people or entities like the UN complained about that.

 

Edited by Frank Drebin
  • Like 1
Posted
2 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Jews were ethnically cleansed from the Middle East and North Africa over the last 100 years.  Weird how so few people or entities like the UN complained about that.

 

Ahh yes, the "two wrongs make a right" rule.

Seriously, the anti-jewish bullshit of multiple Arab states over the past century is a fucking atrocity.  I am anti-ethnic cleansing.

I don't care who is doing the cleansing.  I don't care who is the cleansed.  I am against ethnic cleansing.  Are you?

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Ahh yes, the "two wrongs make a right" rule.

Seriously, the anti-jewish bullshit of multiple Arab states over the past century is a fucking atrocity.  I am anti-ethnic cleansing.

I don't care who is doing the cleansing.  I don't care who is the cleansed.  I am against ethnic cleansing.  Are you?

was a reaction, a very bad overreaction, to the creation of Israel.  I'm sure almost all of Jewish expulsion from Arab states was 1948 - 1955.

Posted
31 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Ahh yes, the "two wrongs make a right" rule.

Seriously, the anti-jewish bullshit of multiple Arab states over the past century is a fucking atrocity.  I am anti-ethnic cleansing.

I don't care who is doing the cleansing.  I don't care who is the cleansed.  I am against ethnic cleansing.  Are you?

He only thinks its wrong when the brown people do it.

Posted
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Ahh yes, the "two wrongs make a right" rule.

Seriously, the anti-jewish bullshit of multiple Arab states over the past century is a fucking atrocity.  I am anti-ethnic cleansing.

I don't care who is doing the cleansing.  I don't care who is the cleansed.  I am against ethnic cleansing.  Are you?

I disagree Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.  They turned it over to them 15+ years ago.  And would be glad to live in peace with their neighbors just like they do with Egypt and Jordan.  But their neighbors don't believe Israel has a right to exist.  And have repeatedly attacked them.  And then invaded Israel on October 7.  It is terrible Hamas makes such poor decisions.  Oh well, less tall buildings for them to toss gays off of now.

Jews were ethnically cleansed from the Middle East and North Africa.  There is no dispute about that.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

ethnic cleansing of Gaza would benefit Jews and Arabs provided the Gazans get a golden ticket to EU / US . Rebuilding Gaza will cost billions, no one is ready for that, which contractors would get rich.  It's quicker and better all around to GTFO ASAP.  Let Israel have it.

Bin Laden Construction is tanned, rested, and ready.

  • Haha 3
Posted
23 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

was a reaction, a very bad overreaction, to the creation of Israel.  I'm sure almost all of Jewish expulsion from Arab states was 1948 - 1955.

This is false. You need to look around you and read. Jews are still being expelled and expelled in Muslim countries. One of the stans just did a little cleansing this year.

 

Contemporary attitudes

Israeli Arabs

In 2003, Israeli-Arab Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel published the following poem in the Islamic Movement's periodical:

You Jews are criminal bombers of mosques,
Slaughterers of pregnant women and babies.
Robbers and germs in all times,
The Creator sentenced you to be loser monkeys,
Victory belongs to Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates.[36]

During a speech in 2007, Salah accused Jews of using children's blood to bake bread. "We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children's blood," he said. "Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread."[37]

Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement, referred in one of his speeches to the Jews as "fleas".[38]

Of all groups surveyed, a 2010 Pew Research global poll found that Israeli Arabs have the lowest rate of anti-Jewish attitudes in the Middle East.[39]

Egypt

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef has denounced what he called "the myth of the Holocaust" in defending Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of it.[40]

The Egyptian government-run newspaper, Al Akhbar, on April 29, 2002, published an editorial denying the Holocaust as a fraud. The next paragraph decries the failure of the Holocaust to eliminate all of the Jews:

With regard to the fraud of the Holocaust. ... Many French studies have proven that this is no more than a fabrication, a lie, and a fraud!! That is, it is a 'scenario' the plot of which was carefully tailored, using several faked photos completely unconnected to the truth. Yes, it is a film, no more and no less. Hitler himself, whom they accuse of Nazism, is in my eyes no more than a modest 'pupil' in the world of murder and bloodshed. He is completely innocent of the charge of frying them in the hell of his false Holocaust!!

The entire matter, as many French and British scientists and researchers have proven, is nothing more than a huge Israeli plot aimed at extorting the German government in particular and the European countries in general. But I, personally and in light of this imaginary tale, complain to Hitler, even saying to him from the bottom of my heart, 'If only you had done it, brother, if only it had really happened, so that the world could sigh in relief [without] their evil and sin.'

In an article in October 2000 columnist Adel Hammoda alleged in the state-owned Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram that Jews made Matza from the blood of (non-Jewish) children.[41] Mohammed Salmawy, editor of Al-Ahram Hebdo, "defended the use of old European myths like the blood libel" in his newspapers.[42]

In August 2010, Saudi columnist Iman Al-Quwaifli sharply criticized the "phenomenon of sympathy for Adolf Hitler and for Nazism in the Arab world",[43] specifically citing the words of Hussam Fawzi Jabar, an Islamic cleric who justified Hitler's actions against the Jews in an Egyptian talk show one month earlier.[43][44][45]

In an October 2012 sermon broadcast on Egyptian Channel 1 (which was attended by Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi) Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, the Head of Religious Endowment of the Matrouh Governorate, prayed (as translated by MEMRI😞

O Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels. O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. O Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them.[46][47][48][49]

Jordan

Jordan does not allow entry to Jews with visible signs of Judaism or even with personal religious items in their possession. The Jordanian ambassador to Israel replied to a complaint by a religious Jew denied entry that security concerns required that travelers entering the Hashemite Kingdom not do so with prayer shawls (Tallit) and phylacteries (Tefillin).[50] Jordanian authorities state that the policy is in order to ensure the Jewish tourists' safety.[51]

In July 2009, six Breslov Hasidim were deported after attempting entry into Jordan in order to visit the tomb of Aaron / Sheikh Harun on Mount Hor, near Petra, because of an alert from the Ministry of Tourism. The group had taken a ferry from Sinai, Egypt because they understood that Jordanian authorities were making it hard for visible Jews to enter from Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of the issue.[52]

Saudi Arabia

Hostility toward Jews is common in Saudi Arabian media, religious sermons, school curriculum, and official government policy.

Indoctrination against Jews is a part of school curriculum in Saudi Arabia. Children are advised not to befriend Jews, are given false information about them (such as the claim that Jews worship the Devil), and are encouraged to engage in jihad against Jews.[53]

Conspiracy theories about Jews are widely disseminated in Saudi Arabian state-controlled media.[54]

According to the U.S. State Department,[55] religious freedom "does not exist" in Saudi Arabia, and therefore, Jews may not freely practice their religion.

Syria

170px-Zeibak.jpg Clockwise from top left: Fara Zeibak, Mazal Zeibak, Eva Saad and Lulu Zeibak

On March 2, 1974, the bodies of four Syrian Jewish women were discovered by border police in a cave in the Zabdani Mountains northwest of Damascus. Fara Zeibak 24, her sisters Lulu Zeibak 23, Mazal Zeibak 22 and their cousin Eva Saad 18, had contracted with a band of smugglers to flee Syria to Lebanon and eventually to Israel. The girls' bodies were found raped, murdered and mutilated. The police also found the remains of two Jewish boys, Natan Shaya 18 and Kassem Abadi 20, victims of an earlier massacre.[56] Syrian authorities deposited the bodies of all six in sacks before the homes of their parents in the Jewish ghetto in Damascus.[57]

In 1984 Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass published a book called The Matzah of Zion, which claimed that Jews had killed Christian children in Damascus to make Matzas (see Damascus affair). His book inspired the Egyptian TV series Horseman Without a Horse (see below) and a spinoff, The Diaspora, which led to Hezbollah's al-Manar being banned in Europe for broadcasting it.[58]

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke visited Syria in November 2005 and made a speech that was broadcast live on Syrian television.[59]

Tunisia

For a personal account of the discrimination and physical attacks experienced by Jews in Tunisia the Jewish-Arab anti-colonialist writer Albert Memmi wrote:[60]

At each crisis, with every incident of the slightest importance, the mob would go wild, setting fire to Jewish shops. This even happened during the Yom Kippur War. Tunisia's President, Habib Bourguiba, has in all probability never been hostile to the Jews, but there was always that notorious "delay", which meant that the police arrived on the scene only after the shops had been pillaged and burnt. Is it any wonder that the exodus to France and Israel continued and even increased?

On November 30, 2012, prominent Tunisian imam Sheikh Ahmad Al-Suhayli of Radès, told his followers during a live broadcast on Hannibal TV that "God wants to destroy this [Tunisian] sprinkling of Jews and is sterilizing the wombs of Jewish women."[61] This was the fourth time incitement against Jews has been reported in the public sphere since the overthrow of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, thus prompting Jewish community leaders to demand security protection from the Tunisian government.[61] Al-Suhayli subsequently posted a video on the Internet in which he claimed that his statements had been misinterpreted.[62]

On January 18, 2021, Tunisian president Kais Saied was caught on video telling a crowd that "We know very well who the people are who are controlling the country today. It is the Jews who are doing the stealing, and we need to put an end to it."[63] Saied's office responded that the president's words had been misheard and that he meant to say something else instead of Jews.[64] Two days later, Saied publicly apologized for his statements, holding a phone call with Djerba's chief rabbi, Haim Bitan in which he expressed regret for his statements.[65]

The history of the Jews in Tunisia goes back to Roman times. Before 1948, the Jewish population of Tunisia reached a peak of 110,000. Today it has a Jewish community of less than 2,000 people.[66]

The El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba has twice been the target of terrorist atrocities: in 2002 an al-Qaeda suicide bomber killed 20 and injured dozens more, while in 2023 a lone gunman killed two worshippers and two police and injured several others.[67]

Palestinian territories

220px-Antisemitic_graffiti_in_Huwara.jpg Swastikas next to Palestinian flags in Huwara

The Hamas, an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has a foundational statement of principles, or "covenant" that claims that the French revolution, the Russian revolution, colonialism and both world wars were created by the Zionists. It also claims the Freemasons and Rotary clubs are Zionist fronts and refers to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[68] Claims that Jews and Freemasons were behind the French Revolution originated in Germany in the mid-19th century.[69]

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the PLO, published a Ph.D. thesis (at Moscow University) in 1982, called The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement.[70] His doctoral thesis later became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, which, following his appointment as Palestinian Prime Minister in 2003, was heavily criticized as an example of Holocaust denial. In his book, Abbas wrote:

It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.[71][72][73]

Lebanon

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel has often been accused of airing antisemitic broadcasts, blaming the Jews for a Zionist conspiracy against the Arab world, and often airing excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,[74][75][76]

Al-Manar recently aired a drama series, called The Diaspora, which is based on historical antisemitic allegations. BBC reporters who watched the series said that:

Correspondents who have viewed The Diaspora note that it quotes extensively from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious 19th-century publication used by the Nazis among others to fuel race hatred.[77]

In another incident, an Al-Manar commentator recently referred to "Zionist attempts to transmit AIDS to Arab countries". Al-Manar officials deny broadcasting antisemitic incitement and state that their position is anti-Israeli, not antisemitic. However, Hezbollah has directed strong rhetoric both against Israel and Jews, and it has cooperated in publishing and distributing outright antisemitic literature. The government of Lebanon has not criticized continued broadcast of antisemitic material on television.[78]

Due to protests by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jews regarding allegations of antisemitic content, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called for a ban on Al-Manar broadcasting in France on December 2, 2004, just two weeks after al-Manar was authorised to continue broadcasting in Europe by France's media watchdog agency.[79] On December 13, 2004, France's highest administrative court banned Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station on the grounds that it consistently incites racial hatred and antisemitism.[80]

Yemen

The 1940s and the establishment of Israel saw rapid emigration of Jews out of Yemen, in the wake of anti-Jewish riots and massacres. By the late 1990s, only several hundred remained, mainly in a northwestern mountainous region named Sa'ada and town of Raida. Houthi members put up notes on the Jews' doors, accusing them of corrupting Muslim morals. Eventually, the Houthi leaders sent threatening messages to the Jewish community: "We warn you to leave the area immediately.... We give you a period of 10 days, or you will regret it."[81]

On 28 March 2021, 13 Jews were forced by the Houthis to leave Yemen, leaving four elderly Jews the only Jews still in Yemen.[82]

Horseman Without a Horse

In 2001–2002, Arab Radio and Television produced a 30-part television miniseries entitled Horseman Without a Horse, starring prominent Egyptian actor Mohamed Sobhi, which contains dramatizations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The United States and Israel criticized Egypt for airing the program, which includes racist falsehoods that have a history of being used "as a pretext for persecuting Jews".[83]

Opinion polling

In 2008 a Pew Research Center survey found that negative views concerning Jews were most common in the three predominantly Arab nations polled, with 97% of Lebanese having unfavorable opinion of Jews, 95% in Egypt and 96% in Jordan.[84]

Posted
3 minutes ago, Bevo said:

This is false. You need to look around you and read. Jews are still being expelled and expelled in Muslim countries. One of the stans just did a little cleansing this year.

 

Contemporary attitudes

Israeli Arabs

In 2003, Israeli-Arab Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel published the following poem in the Islamic Movement's periodical:

You Jews are criminal bombers of mosques,
Slaughterers of pregnant women and babies.
Robbers and germs in all times,
The Creator sentenced you to be loser monkeys,
Victory belongs to Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates.[36]

During a speech in 2007, Salah accused Jews of using children's blood to bake bread. "We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children's blood," he said. "Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread."[37]

Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement, referred in one of his speeches to the Jews as "fleas".[38]

Of all groups surveyed, a 2010 Pew Research global poll found that Israeli Arabs have the lowest rate of anti-Jewish attitudes in the Middle East.[39]

Egypt

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef has denounced what he called "the myth of the Holocaust" in defending Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of it.[40]

The Egyptian government-run newspaper, Al Akhbar, on April 29, 2002, published an editorial denying the Holocaust as a fraud. The next paragraph decries the failure of the Holocaust to eliminate all of the Jews:

With regard to the fraud of the Holocaust. ... Many French studies have proven that this is no more than a fabrication, a lie, and a fraud!! That is, it is a 'scenario' the plot of which was carefully tailored, using several faked photos completely unconnected to the truth. Yes, it is a film, no more and no less. Hitler himself, whom they accuse of Nazism, is in my eyes no more than a modest 'pupil' in the world of murder and bloodshed. He is completely innocent of the charge of frying them in the hell of his false Holocaust!!

The entire matter, as many French and British scientists and researchers have proven, is nothing more than a huge Israeli plot aimed at extorting the German government in particular and the European countries in general. But I, personally and in light of this imaginary tale, complain to Hitler, even saying to him from the bottom of my heart, 'If only you had done it, brother, if only it had really happened, so that the world could sigh in relief [without] their evil and sin.'

In an article in October 2000 columnist Adel Hammoda alleged in the state-owned Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram that Jews made Matza from the blood of (non-Jewish) children.[41] Mohammed Salmawy, editor of Al-Ahram Hebdo, "defended the use of old European myths like the blood libel" in his newspapers.[42]

In August 2010, Saudi columnist Iman Al-Quwaifli sharply criticized the "phenomenon of sympathy for Adolf Hitler and for Nazism in the Arab world",[43] specifically citing the words of Hussam Fawzi Jabar, an Islamic cleric who justified Hitler's actions against the Jews in an Egyptian talk show one month earlier.[43][44][45]

In an October 2012 sermon broadcast on Egyptian Channel 1 (which was attended by Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi) Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, the Head of Religious Endowment of the Matrouh Governorate, prayed (as translated by MEMRI😞

O Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels. O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. O Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them.[46][47][48][49]

Jordan

Jordan does not allow entry to Jews with visible signs of Judaism or even with personal religious items in their possession. The Jordanian ambassador to Israel replied to a complaint by a religious Jew denied entry that security concerns required that travelers entering the Hashemite Kingdom not do so with prayer shawls (Tallit) and phylacteries (Tefillin).[50] Jordanian authorities state that the policy is in order to ensure the Jewish tourists' safety.[51]

In July 2009, six Breslov Hasidim were deported after attempting entry into Jordan in order to visit the tomb of Aaron / Sheikh Harun on Mount Hor, near Petra, because of an alert from the Ministry of Tourism. The group had taken a ferry from Sinai, Egypt because they understood that Jordanian authorities were making it hard for visible Jews to enter from Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of the issue.[52]

Saudi Arabia

Hostility toward Jews is common in Saudi Arabian media, religious sermons, school curriculum, and official government policy.

Indoctrination against Jews is a part of school curriculum in Saudi Arabia. Children are advised not to befriend Jews, are given false information about them (such as the claim that Jews worship the Devil), and are encouraged to engage in jihad against Jews.[53]

Conspiracy theories about Jews are widely disseminated in Saudi Arabian state-controlled media.[54]

According to the U.S. State Department,[55] religious freedom "does not exist" in Saudi Arabia, and therefore, Jews may not freely practice their religion.

Syria

170px-Zeibak.jpg Clockwise from top left: Fara Zeibak, Mazal Zeibak, Eva Saad and Lulu Zeibak

On March 2, 1974, the bodies of four Syrian Jewish women were discovered by border police in a cave in the Zabdani Mountains northwest of Damascus. Fara Zeibak 24, her sisters Lulu Zeibak 23, Mazal Zeibak 22 and their cousin Eva Saad 18, had contracted with a band of smugglers to flee Syria to Lebanon and eventually to Israel. The girls' bodies were found raped, murdered and mutilated. The police also found the remains of two Jewish boys, Natan Shaya 18 and Kassem Abadi 20, victims of an earlier massacre.[56] Syrian authorities deposited the bodies of all six in sacks before the homes of their parents in the Jewish ghetto in Damascus.[57]

In 1984 Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass published a book called The Matzah of Zion, which claimed that Jews had killed Christian children in Damascus to make Matzas (see Damascus affair). His book inspired the Egyptian TV series Horseman Without a Horse (see below) and a spinoff, The Diaspora, which led to Hezbollah's al-Manar being banned in Europe for broadcasting it.[58]

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke visited Syria in November 2005 and made a speech that was broadcast live on Syrian television.[59]

Tunisia

For a personal account of the discrimination and physical attacks experienced by Jews in Tunisia the Jewish-Arab anti-colonialist writer Albert Memmi wrote:[60]

At each crisis, with every incident of the slightest importance, the mob would go wild, setting fire to Jewish shops. This even happened during the Yom Kippur War. Tunisia's President, Habib Bourguiba, has in all probability never been hostile to the Jews, but there was always that notorious "delay", which meant that the police arrived on the scene only after the shops had been pillaged and burnt. Is it any wonder that the exodus to France and Israel continued and even increased?

On November 30, 2012, prominent Tunisian imam Sheikh Ahmad Al-Suhayli of Radès, told his followers during a live broadcast on Hannibal TV that "God wants to destroy this [Tunisian] sprinkling of Jews and is sterilizing the wombs of Jewish women."[61] This was the fourth time incitement against Jews has been reported in the public sphere since the overthrow of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, thus prompting Jewish community leaders to demand security protection from the Tunisian government.[61] Al-Suhayli subsequently posted a video on the Internet in which he claimed that his statements had been misinterpreted.[62]

On January 18, 2021, Tunisian president Kais Saied was caught on video telling a crowd that "We know very well who the people are who are controlling the country today. It is the Jews who are doing the stealing, and we need to put an end to it."[63] Saied's office responded that the president's words had been misheard and that he meant to say something else instead of Jews.[64] Two days later, Saied publicly apologized for his statements, holding a phone call with Djerba's chief rabbi, Haim Bitan in which he expressed regret for his statements.[65]

The history of the Jews in Tunisia goes back to Roman times. Before 1948, the Jewish population of Tunisia reached a peak of 110,000. Today it has a Jewish community of less than 2,000 people.[66]

The El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba has twice been the target of terrorist atrocities: in 2002 an al-Qaeda suicide bomber killed 20 and injured dozens more, while in 2023 a lone gunman killed two worshippers and two police and injured several others.[67]

Palestinian territories

220px-Antisemitic_graffiti_in_Huwara.jpg Swastikas next to Palestinian flags in Huwara

The Hamas, an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has a foundational statement of principles, or "covenant" that claims that the French revolution, the Russian revolution, colonialism and both world wars were created by the Zionists. It also claims the Freemasons and Rotary clubs are Zionist fronts and refers to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[68] Claims that Jews and Freemasons were behind the French Revolution originated in Germany in the mid-19th century.[69]

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the PLO, published a Ph.D. thesis (at Moscow University) in 1982, called The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement.[70] His doctoral thesis later became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, which, following his appointment as Palestinian Prime Minister in 2003, was heavily criticized as an example of Holocaust denial. In his book, Abbas wrote:

It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.[71][72][73]

Lebanon

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel has often been accused of airing antisemitic broadcasts, blaming the Jews for a Zionist conspiracy against the Arab world, and often airing excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,[74][75][76]

Al-Manar recently aired a drama series, called The Diaspora, which is based on historical antisemitic allegations. BBC reporters who watched the series said that:

Correspondents who have viewed The Diaspora note that it quotes extensively from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious 19th-century publication used by the Nazis among others to fuel race hatred.[77]

In another incident, an Al-Manar commentator recently referred to "Zionist attempts to transmit AIDS to Arab countries". Al-Manar officials deny broadcasting antisemitic incitement and state that their position is anti-Israeli, not antisemitic. However, Hezbollah has directed strong rhetoric both against Israel and Jews, and it has cooperated in publishing and distributing outright antisemitic literature. The government of Lebanon has not criticized continued broadcast of antisemitic material on television.[78]

Due to protests by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jews regarding allegations of antisemitic content, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called for a ban on Al-Manar broadcasting in France on December 2, 2004, just two weeks after al-Manar was authorised to continue broadcasting in Europe by France's media watchdog agency.[79] On December 13, 2004, France's highest administrative court banned Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station on the grounds that it consistently incites racial hatred and antisemitism.[80]

Yemen

The 1940s and the establishment of Israel saw rapid emigration of Jews out of Yemen, in the wake of anti-Jewish riots and massacres. By the late 1990s, only several hundred remained, mainly in a northwestern mountainous region named Sa'ada and town of Raida. Houthi members put up notes on the Jews' doors, accusing them of corrupting Muslim morals. Eventually, the Houthi leaders sent threatening messages to the Jewish community: "We warn you to leave the area immediately.... We give you a period of 10 days, or you will regret it."[81]

On 28 March 2021, 13 Jews were forced by the Houthis to leave Yemen, leaving four elderly Jews the only Jews still in Yemen.[82]

Horseman Without a Horse

In 2001–2002, Arab Radio and Television produced a 30-part television miniseries entitled Horseman Without a Horse, starring prominent Egyptian actor Mohamed Sobhi, which contains dramatizations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The United States and Israel criticized Egypt for airing the program, which includes racist falsehoods that have a history of being used "as a pretext for persecuting Jews".[83]

Opinion polling

In 2008 a Pew Research Center survey found that negative views concerning Jews were most common in the three predominantly Arab nations polled, with 97% of Lebanese having unfavorable opinion of Jews, 95% in Egypt and 96% in Jordan.[84]

the issue was Jewish expulsion, not recent attitudes, which obviously hostile because of treatment of Palestinians. 

Posted
14 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

I disagree Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.  They turned it over to them 15+ years ago.  And would be glad to live in peace with their neighbors just like they do with Egypt and Jordan.  But their neighbors don't believe Israel has a right to exist.  And have repeatedly attacked them.  And then invaded Israel on October 7.  It is terrible Hamas makes such poor decisions.  Oh well, less tall buildings for them to toss gays off of now.

You say you "disagree that Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza"....then proceed to type multiple sentences justifying....Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  Seriously, WTF?

Senior Israeli leadership has stated plainly that they want all Palestinians -- combatants, civilians, ALL of them -- driven out of Gaza.  That's ethnic cleansing.  Oh, and they also have stated that they'll use famine to achieve that goal, so a war crime achieved with a war crime.  Nope.  IDGAF how justified Israel was and is in a military response to Oct. 7th, "drive every Palestinian out of Gaza, including civilians, by any means, including war crimes" doesn't pass muster.  It never has, it never will.

And finally, if the concern is "there's a group of people who hate Israel so much they don't think it has a right to exist," then the cure of "so let's treat them with perfect cruelty and subject them to war crimes" is not exactly a recipe for solving that problem.

Posted
4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You say you "disagree that Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza"....then proceed to type multiple sentences justifying....Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  Seriously, WTF?

Senior Israeli leadership has stated plainly that they want all Palestinians -- combatants, civilians, ALL of them -- driven out of Gaza.  That's ethnic cleansing.  Oh, and they also have stated that they'll use famine to achieve that goal, so a war crime achieved with a war crime.  Nope.  IDGAF how justified Israel was and is in a military response to Oct. 7th, "drive every Palestinian out of Gaza, including civilians, by any means, including war crimes" doesn't pass muster.  It never has, it never will.

And finally, if the concern is "there's a group of people who hate Israel so much they don't think it has a right to exist," then the cure of "so let's treat them with perfect cruelty and subject them to war crimes" is not exactly a recipe for solving that problem.

It makes sense if you believe, as the post expressly does, that all 2 million Gazans are Hamas. If that were true, then they all deserve to be wiped out, and its true to them, so it's all deserved.

Posted
13 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

the issue was Jewish expulsion, not recent attitudes, which obviously hostile because of treatment of Palestinians. 

Why is it obvious that Jews should be mistreated in Muslim countries because of Israel Palestinian issues? Are Muslims hostile to Egyptians?

Posted

 

9 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You say you "disagree that Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza"....then proceed to type multiple sentences justifying....Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  Seriously, WTF?

Senior Israeli leadership has stated plainly that they want all Palestinians -- combatants, civilians, ALL of them -- driven out of Gaza.  That's ethnic cleansing.  Oh, and they also have stated that they'll use famine to achieve that goal, so a war crime achieved with a war crime.  Nope.  IDGAF how justified Israel was and is in a military response to Oct. 7th, "drive every Palestinian out of Gaza, including civilians, by any means, including war crimes" doesn't pass muster.  It never has, it never will.

And finally, if the concern is "there's a group of people who hate Israel so much they don't think it has a right to exist," then the cure of "so let's treat them with perfect cruelty and subject them to war crimes" is not exactly a recipe for solving that problem.

sack gonna sack

Posted
27 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You say you "disagree that Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza"....then proceed to type multiple sentences justifying....Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  Seriously, WTF?

Senior Israeli leadership has stated plainly that they want all Palestinians -- combatants, civilians, ALL of them -- driven out of Gaza.  That's ethnic cleansing.  Oh, and they also have stated that they'll use famine to achieve that goal, so a war crime achieved with a war crime.  Nope.  IDGAF how justified Israel was and is in a military response to Oct. 7th, "drive every Palestinian out of Gaza, including civilians, by any means, including war crimes" doesn't pass muster.  It never has, it never will.

And finally, if the concern is "there's a group of people who hate Israel so much they don't think it has a right to exist," then the cure of "so let's treat them with perfect cruelty and subject them to war crimes" is not exactly a recipe for solving that problem.

I disagree I am justifying ethnic cleansing.  I am justifying Israel defending themselves.

Tens of thousands of rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel with Hamas using civilians as human shields.  Then there was October 7.  How do you propose Israel respond?

Posted
7 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

I disagree I am justifying ethnic cleansing.  I am justifying Israel defending themselves.

Tens of thousands of rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel with Hamas using civilians as human shields.  Then there was October 7.  How do you propose Israel respond?

#1 on the list of how not to respond would be "deny food from reaching starving civilians."

"But Hamas is really, really bad" (a proposition with which I agree without reservation) does not = "so driving every breathing human out of Gaza, including civilians" is justified.  It doesn't.  It won't.  It never will.

Israel has a hard job.  They have to be somewhat methodical, and patient in target selection.  E.g., I have no problem with them blowing up the children of Hamas leadership....and I acknowledge that innocent civilians (children) were killed in that strike.  "Collateral damage" can be okay.  "Purposefully targeting civilians" and "cleansing the area of all of them" are not.

Posted
2 hours ago, Bevo said:

Why is it obvious that Jews should be mistreated in Muslim countries because of Israel Palestinian issues? Are Muslims hostile to Egyptians?

Arabs have been mistreated by the Israeli Jews, interestingly not so much the Israeli Arabs, but those in the territories. Then the question of the Nakba itself. My point was the Jewish expulsion was caused by the creation of Israel, don't you think?

Posted
11 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

Arabs have been mistreated by the Israeli Jews, interestingly not so much the Israeli Arabs, but those in the territories. Then the question of the Nakba itself. My point was the Jewish expulsion was caused by the creation of Israel, don't you think?

Did the Arabs align with Hitler in WWII prior to the creation of Israel for the same reason?

It's almost like they don't like Jews for other reasons.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

You say you "disagree that Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza"....then proceed to type multiple sentences justifying....Israel's ethnic cleansing of Gaza.  Seriously, WTF?

Senior Israeli leadership has stated plainly that they want all Palestinians -- combatants, civilians, ALL of them -- driven out of Gaza.  That's ethnic cleansing.  Oh, and they also have stated that they'll use famine to achieve that goal, so a war crime achieved with a war crime.  Nope.  IDGAF how justified Israel was and is in a military response to Oct. 7th, "drive every Palestinian out of Gaza, including civilians, by any means, including war crimes" doesn't pass muster.  It never has, it never will.

And finally, if the concern is "there's a group of people who hate Israel so much they don't think it has a right to exist," then the cure of "so let's treat them with perfect cruelty and subject them to war crimes" is not exactly a recipe for solving that problem.

I don't know why you're confused by Johnny Sack acting like Johnny Sack.

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Posted

Again Palestinians have been mistreated by Egypt yet I don’t see all Muslim countries aligned against Egyptians. Why is it that all Middle Eastern countries have been hostile to Jews living in their countries? These are Jews who in pretty much 100% of cases had never been to Israel and in no way shape or form could be called Israelis. 

Posted
Just now, Bevo said:

Again Palestinians have been mistreated by Egypt yet I don’t see all Muslim countries aligned against Egyptians. Why is it that all Middle Eastern countries have been hostile to Jews living in their countries? These are Jews who in pretty much 100% of cases had never been to Israel and in no way shape or form could be called Israelis. 

Because most middle eastern countries are shit.  Shitty leaders, shitty history, trying to hold onto power, needing an easy "external enemy," all kinds of stuff.

"Iran and Egypt are shitty too" still doesn't excuse Israeli war crimes.  The tu quoque logical fallacy is still a logical fallacy.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Because most middle eastern countries are shit.  Shitty leaders, shitty history, trying to hold onto power, needing an easy "external enemy," all kinds of stuff.

"Iran and Egypt are shitty too" still doesn't excuse Israeli war crimes.  The tu quoque logical fallacy is still a logical fallacy.

I'm having a difficult time following where you are in this discussion:

You asked make em eat taco bell if he was against all ethnic cleansing and he stated that it "was a reaction, a very bad overreaction, to the creation of Israel.  I'm sure almost all of Jewish expulsion from Arab states was 1948 - 1955". In other words, he wasn't against ethnic cleansing. Moreover, he was wrong about his supposition. The Middle East has been anti-Jew for a long time. And antisemitism against Jews in primarily Muslim countries did not begin in 1948 nor did it end in 1955.

Make them eat taco bell disagreed and stated that the issue in the Muslim World has been the the creation of Israel and the hate is directed at Israel rather than at Jews. Further, he stated that mistreatment of Arabs in Gaza has led to the Arab world's hatred of Jews. To reinforce his wrongness, I asked Make them eat Taco Bell: Again Palestinians have been mistreated by Egypt yet I don’t see all Muslim countries aligned against Egyptians. Why is it that all Middle Eastern countries have been hostile to Jews living in their countries? These are Jews who in pretty much 100% of cases had never been to Israel and in no way shape or form could be called Israelis. 

Eventually, we would get around to Iran not wanting peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia and using Hamas to create a wedge in Israel-Saudi Arabian relations. But we won't get there until we resolve your question to him about whether he is against ethnic cleansing of Jews and whether he is against ethnic cleansing of Israelis. Further, I haven't  gotten past his reasoning that hatred against Jews is simply the creation of Israel and if Israel did not exist then Jews in Muslim countries would be treated well. Obviously, history does not support this and the testing of his theory would be the ethnic cleansing of a good portion of Jews in the world today.

Edited by Bevo
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Posted

Israel was no threat to Gaza after disengagement in 2005.  Gaza has fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel.  There wasn’t a single Jew in Gaza after disengagement.  If Mexico was launching thousands upon thousands of rockets into Texas, I’d expect us to take actions to stop it by any means necessary.  Gaza elected Hamas.  They don’t want to Israel to exist and have acted accordingly.  I really don’t know what you people think Israel should do given these facts.  

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Posted
1 hour ago, Bevo said:

I'm having a difficult time following where you are in this discussion:

You asked make em eat taco bell if he was against all ethnic cleansing and he stated that it "was a reaction, a very bad overreaction, to the creation of Israel.  I'm sure almost all of Jewish expulsion from Arab states was 1948 - 1955". In other words, he wasn't against ethnic cleansing. Moreover, he was wrong about his supposition. The Middle East has been anti-Jew for a long time. And antisemitism against Jews in primarily Muslim countries did not begin in 1948 nor did it end in 1955.

Make them eat taco bell disagreed and stated that the issue in the Muslim World has been the the creation of Israel and the hate is directed at Israel rather than at Jews. Further, he stated that mistreatment of Arabs in Gaza has led to the Arab world's hatred of Jews. To reinforce his wrongness, I asked Make them eat Taco Bell: Again Palestinians have been mistreated by Egypt yet I don’t see all Muslim countries aligned against Egyptians. Why is it that all Middle Eastern countries have been hostile to Jews living in their countries? These are Jews who in pretty much 100% of cases had never been to Israel and in no way shape or form could be called Israelis. 

Eventually, we would get around to Iran not wanting peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia and using Hamas to create a wedge in Israel-Saudi Arabian relations. But we won't get there until we resolve your question to him about whether he is against ethnic cleansing of Jews and whether he is against ethnic cleansing of Israelis. Further, I haven't  gotten past his reasoning that hatred against Jews is simply the creation of Israel and if Israel did not exist then Jews in Muslim countries would be treated well. Obviously, history does not support this and the testing of his theory would be the ethnic cleansing of a good portion of Jews in the world today.

no, i am against the Jewish expulsion from Arab lands. Not only is that immoral against innocent people, that strengthens Israel's hand with more people.  The expulsion was a reaction to the creation of Israel.

the mistreatment started before the Nakba, even though Jews and Arabs were killing each other, but the Nakba 1948 defined Israel as a western colonialist entity in the midst of the Arab world. The mistreatment is not just about Gaza, the West Bank mistreatment is much worse in fact. Nevertheless , the fixation of anti-semitism as the root cause is not correct, it's the Zionists are/were foreigners who screwed over the native population.  

The war with Japan was not about racial hatred of Asians. 

 

Posted (edited)

@Frank, this is a hardline liberal board unfortunately. It is not worth your time. There are many of us that believe just like you. This isnt the place for open honest discussion in the same way the cloak room here isnt open for honest disc.

Edited by HotSauce
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Posted
18 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Israel was no threat to Gaza after disengagement in 2005.  Gaza has fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel.  There wasn’t a single Jew in Gaza after disengagement.  If Mexico was launching thousands upon thousands of rockets into Texas, I’d expect us to take actions to stop it by any means necessary.  Gaza elected Hamas.  They don’t want to Israel to exist and have acted accordingly.  I really don’t know what you people think Israel should do given these facts.  

it's about the seige on Gaza but West Bank is Palestine also. Meaning the desecration of the Al aqsa mosque, relentless home demolitions for ethnic cleansing, thousands of prisoners held without charges or made up shit, etc etc. That's why they fire rockets. I thought this was obvious to everybody.  

Posted
41 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Israel was no threat to Gaza after disengagement in 2005.

Please consider an alternative perspective of the "disengagement" in 2005. 

Video and short thread. Full video is also linked in a subsequent post. 

 

 

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Posted
35 minutes ago, HotSauce said:

Watching the same people here punish the russian people for the govts actions but not punishing the people who elected and still support hamas for their actions is........FUCKING WILD 

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/over-70-percent-of-palestinians-support-hamass-october-7-terror-attack-poll/

70% of Palestinians support Oct 7th

Palestinians live under Israeli dictatorship, Russians do not live under Ukranian dictatorship.

Posted
4 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

Palestinians live under Israeli dictatorship, Russians do not live under Ukranian dictatorship.

Ah, the justification Chef's kiss. I would say they live under Hamas dictatorship. I would also probably call you a fucking loser to your face. Coward.

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Posted
13 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

I thought this was an interesting breakdown of the numbers, comparing to Mosul and the implications.

 

 

 

 

That you GruHorn?

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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

explanation of what is happening on the ground there. Take it as you will. 

You mean after Palestine broke a cease fire and murdered, raped and kidnapped several hundred people? 

Edited by HotSauce
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Posted
8 hours ago, Brian Fantana said:

Yeah I wonder why they might lob rockets into Isreal and more importantly why the vast majority of those rockets are made from unexploded Israeli munitions and how they got there.

Vast majority? You believe that? Also, isn’t this the news thread? 
 

 

Posted
1 minute ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

explanation of what is happening on the ground there. Take it as you will. 

We don't need nun of dem damn liberal explanations, we just need moar c130s full of the booms booms delivered to Tel Aviv. These are apparently core conservative values. Reckless spending of American taxpayer dollars to facilitate war crimes and humanitarian catastrophes committed by foreign nations that will thumb their fn nose at us and laugh at the dumbasses talking about the American rules-based order. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

no, for decades before Oct 7th, the obvious backstory that few know. 

You mean the one where every Arab country tried to exterminate the Jews?

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Da Fino said:

Paywalled. I’m honestly curious about the numbers. Do they give an estimate? 

I managed to open it in reader mode. Pretty crazy to think that this stuff being fired over is so unreliable. 
 

They are cutting open bombs from Israel, artillery bombs from Israel, and a lot of them are being used, of course, and repurposed for their explosives and rockets.”

Posted
9 minutes ago, Da Fino said:

Paywalled. I’m honestly curious about the numbers. Do they give an estimate? 

Behind the tags.

Spoiler

Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons? Increasingly, From Israel.

The very weapons that Israeli forces have used to enforce a blockade of Gaza are now being used against them.

Share full article

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Israeli soldiers standing in what they say is a rocket factory that was photographed in January during an escorted tour by the military for international journalists in the central Gaza Strip.Credit...Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

By Maria Abi-Habib and Sheera Frenkel

Maria Abi-Habib reported from London, and Sheera Frenkel from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Published Jan. 28, 2024Updated Jan. 29, 2024

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Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself.

For years, analysts have pointed to underground smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli military blockade of the Gaza Strip. But recent intelligence has shown the extent to which Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza, according to weapons experts and Israeli and Western intelligence officials. Hamas is also arming its fighters with weapons stolen from Israeli military bases.

Intelligence gathered during months of fighting revealed that, just as the Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’s intentions before Oct. 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms.

What is clear now is that the very weapons that Israeli forces have used to enforce a blockade of Gaza over the past 17 years are now being used against them. Israeli and American military explosives have enabled Hamas to shower Israel with rockets and, for the first time, invade Israeli towns from Gaza.

“Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” said Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division and an Israeli police consultant. “They are cutting open bombs from Israel, artillery bombs from Israel, and a lot of them are being used, of course, and repurposed for their explosives and rockets.”

Image

Explosives engineers in 2021 removing an unexploded Israeli missile in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.Credit...Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Weapons experts say that roughly 10 percent of munitions typically fail to detonate, but in Israel’s case, the figure could be higher. Israel’s arsenal includes Vietnam-era missiles, long discontinued by the United States and other military powers. The failure rate on some of those missiles could be as high as 15 percent, said one Israeli intelligence officer who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

By either count, years of sporadic bombing and the recent bombardment of Gaza have littered the area with thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance just waiting to be reused. One 750-pound bomb that fails to detonate can become hundreds of missiles or rockets.

Hamas did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Israeli military said in a statement that it was committed to dismantling Hamas but did not answer specific questions about the group’s weapons.

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Israeli officials knew before the October attacks that Hamas could salvage some Israeli-made weapons, but the scope has startled weapons experts and diplomats alike.

Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing.  The latest news about the conflict. Get it sent to your inbox.

Israeli authorities also knew that their armories were vulnerable to theft. A military report from early last year noted that thousands of bullets and hundreds of guns and grenades had been stolen from poorly guarded bases.

From there, the report said, some made their way to the West Bank, and others to Gaza by way of Sinai. But the report focused on military security. The consequences were treated almost as an afterthought: “We are fueling our enemies with our own weapons,” read one line of the report, which was viewed by The New York Times.

The consequences became apparent on Oct. 7. Hours after Hamas breached the border, four Israeli soldiers discovered the body of a Hamas gunman who was killed outside the Re’im military base. Hebrew writing was visible on a grenade on his belt, said one of the soldiers, who recognized it as a bulletproof Israeli grenade, a recent model. Other Hamas fighters overran the base, and Israeli military officials say some weapons were looted and returned to Gaza.

Image

An Israeli police officer in Ashkelon, Israel, carrying part of a mangled rocket fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel on Oct. 9.Credit...Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters

A few miles away, members of an Israeli forensic team collected one of the 5,000 rockets fired by Hamas that day. Examining the rocket, they discovered that its military-grade explosives had most likely come from an unexploded Israeli missile fired into Gaza during a previous war, according to an Israeli intelligence officer.

The Oct. 7 attacks showcased the patchwork arsenal that Hamas had stitched together. It included Iranian-made attack drones and North Korean-made rocket launchers, the types of weapons that Hamas is known to smuggle into Gaza through tunnels. Iran remains a major source of Hamas’s money and weapons.

But other weapons, like anti-tank explosives, RPG warheads, thermobaric grenades and improvised devices, were repurposed Israeli arms, according to Hamas videos and remnants uncovered by Israel.

Israel-Hamas War: Live Updates

Updated 

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Rockets and missiles require huge quantities of explosive material, which officials say is the most difficult item to smuggle into Gaza.

Yet Hamas fired so many rockets and missiles on Oct. 7 that Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system could not keep up. Rockets struck towns, cities and military bases, giving cover to the militants who stormed into Israel. One rocket hit a military base believed to house part of Israel’s nuclear missile program.

Image

Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile system intercepting rockets launched on Oct. 20 from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon, in southern Israel.Credit...Amir Cohen/Reuters

Hamas once relied on material like fertilizer and powdered sugar — which, pound for pound, are not as powerful as military-grade explosives — to build rockets. But since 2007, Israel has enforced a strict blockade, restricting the import of goods, including electronics and computer equipment, that could be used to make weapons.

That blockade and a crackdown on smuggling tunnels leading into and out of Gaza forced Hamas to get creative.

Its manufacturing abilities are now sophisticated enough to saw into the warheads of bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds, to harvest the explosives and to repurpose them.

“They have a military industry in Gaza. Some of it is above ground, some of it is below ground, and they are able to manufacture a lot of what they need,” said Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel’s national security adviser and head of its National Security Council before stepping down early last year.

One Western military official said that most of the explosives that Hamas is using in its war with Israel appear to have been manufactured using unexploded Israeli-launched munitions. One example, the official said, was an explosive booby trap that killed 10 Israeli soldiers in December.

The military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, has flaunted its manufacturing abilities for years. After a war in 2014 with Israel, it established engineering teams to collect unexploded munitions like howitzer rounds and American-made MK-84 bombs.

These teams work with the police’s explosive ordnance-disposal units, allowing people to safely return to their homes. They also help Hamas gear up for the next war.

“Our strategy aimed to repurpose these pieces, turning this crisis into an opportunity,” a Qassam Brigades commander told Al Jazeera in 2020.

Image

A Hamas explosives expert at a local police precinct in Khan Younis in 2021 laying out unexploded projectiles from the aftermath of a conflict with Israel that May. Credit...Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Qassam’s media arm has released videos in recent years showing exactly what they were doing: sawing into warheads, scooping out explosive material — usually a powder — and melting it down to reuse.

In 2019, Qassam commandos discovered hundreds of munitions on two World War I-era British military vessels that had sunk off the coast of Gaza a century earlier. The discovery, Qassam boasted, allowed it to make hundreds of new rockets.

Early in the current war, a Qassam video showed militants assembling Yassin 105 rockets in a sunless manufacturing facility.

“The most essential way for Hamas to obtain weaponry is through domestic manufacture,” said Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East policy analyst who grew up in Gaza. “It’s just a tweak of chemistry and you can make pretty much whatever you want.”

Image

Rockets being fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct 7.Credit...Fatima Shbair/Associated Press

Israel restricts the mass importation of construction materials that can be used to build rockets and other weapons. But each new round of fighting leaves behind neighborhoods of rubble from which militants can pluck pipes, concrete and other valuable material, Mr. Alkhatib said.

Hamas cannot manufacture everything. Some things are easier to buy from the black market and smuggle into Gaza. Sinai, the largely uninhabited desert region between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, remains a hub for arms smuggling. Weapons from conflicts in Libya, Eritrea and Afghanistan have been discovered in Sinai, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.

According to two Israeli intelligence officials, at least a dozen small tunnels were still running between Gaza and Egypt before Oct. 7. A spokesman for the Egyptian government said its military had done its part to shut down tunnels on its side of the border. “Many of the weapons currently inside the Gaza Strip are the result of smuggling from within Israel,” the spokesman said in an email.

But the besieged streets of Gaza itself are increasingly a source of weapons.

Israel estimates that it has conducted at least 22,000 strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7. Each often involves multiple rounds, meaning tens of thousands of munitions have likely been dropped or fired — and thousands failed to detonate.

“Artillery, hand grenades, other munitions — tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance will be left after this war,” said Charles Birch, the head of the U.N. Mine Action Service in Gaza. These “are like a free gift to Hamas.”

Vivian Yee contributed reporting from Cairo, and Zakaria Zakaria from Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Image

An Israeli soldier standing near armaments during an official media tour organized by the military where it displayed a variety of weapons recovered from areas hit by the Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 attack.Credit...Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Maria Abi-Habib is an investigative correspondent based in Mexico City, covering Latin America. She previously reported from Afghanistan, across the Middle East and in India, where she covered South Asia. More about Maria Abi-Habib

Sheera Frenkel is a reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area, covering the ways technology impacts everyday lives with a focus on social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Telegram and WhatsApp. More about Sheera Frenkel

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 28, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Hamas Stocks Its Arsenal With Duds Fired by Israel. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

 

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