#Hamas leaders don’t really care about #Palestinian lives, and see the sacrifice of them as politically useful.

Ismail Haniyeh is the ‘Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau,” and as such is supposedly the chief officer of that terrorist group. On October 7, 2023, he gave a televised speech from Istanbul, telling the world that the October 7th attack was fully justified, which he “highlighted threats to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the continuation of the blockade on Gaza and Israeli normalization with countries in the region.” Safely living in Qatar, Mr Haniyeh is once again rejecting a ceasefire proposal which does not give Hamas complete victory. Continue reading

The Golden Rule

Have you heard of the Golden Rule? “He who has the gold makes the rules!”

We have noted, many times, how deep-pockets donors have reacted very badly to the tolerance of anti-Semitism on campus. Several major corporate CEOs have said that they would not hire Harvard students who signed a stupid document blaming Israel for Hamas’ October 7th attack, and at least one CEO has said he will never again hire anyone from Harvard, MIT, or Penn following the three presidents’ debacle. Continue reading

Israel busts yet another Hamas tunnel and weapons cache

Hamas weapons captured, photo by IDF. Click to enlarge.

It was not quite two weeks ago that President Joe Biden threatened to withhold American weapons shipments to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent the Israel Defence Force into Rafah. The obvious question becomes: did Hamas have weapons stockpiled in Rafah, or did them move some from elsewhere into Rafah, hoping that Israel would kowtow to the dummkopf from Delaware’s demands?

IDF troops raid Hamas compound, seize weapons cache from hidden tunnel in Rafah

IDF troops say they eliminated ‘dozens’ of Hamas members

By Anders Hagstrom, Fox News | Tuesday, May 21, 2024 | 1:40 PM EDT

Israeli forces conducted a raid against a Hamas compound in Gaza on Tuesday, uncovering a tunnel and a significant cache of weapons and explosives. Continue reading

Hamas delendum est Concern for the hostages should not stop Israel from doing what is necessary

My New York Times subscription is less expensive than my subscription to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The New York Times, one of the few newspapers which continues to engage in serious journalism these days, had a very long article on Yahya Sinwar, the senior Hamas official in Gaza:

Yahya Sinwar Helped Start the War in Gaza. Now He’s Key to Its Endgame.

Hamas’s leader in Gaza is considered an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks that prompted Israel to retaliate. As mediators seek a cease-fire, a deal depends on Mr. Sinwar as well as his Israeli foes.

By Patrick Kingsley, Julian E. Barnes and Adam Rasgon, Reporting from Jerusalem and Washington, the reporters spoke to officials from Hamas, Israel and the United States about Mr. Sinwar. | Mother’s Day, May 12, 2024

After Hamas attacked Israel in October, igniting the war in Gaza, Israeli leaders described the group’s most senior official in the territory, Yahya Sinwar, as a “dead man walking.” Considering him an architect of the raid, Israel has portrayed Mr. Sinwar’s assassination as a major goal of its devastating counterattack. Continue reading

Holding their breath until they turn blue

The Princeton Princess, her neckbearded ally, and the girl who really needed to go on a hunger strike.

The only real weapon a hunger striker has is the concern of those against whom he is striking that the hunger strikers might actually die, bringing negative repercussions on those the striker opposes. If the hunger strikers are not actually prepared to die for their cause, they have no power at all. And, as I previously noted, a hunger strike is only effective if someone actually cares if you starve yourself to death.

Many people, including me, mocked the Princeton princess and her whining about the rigors of the students’ hunger strike, because it showed the unseriousness of it. Now we have this:

Princeton University students end anti-Israel hunger strike ‘due to health concerns’

The end of the ‘hunger strike’ came after members initially vowed not to eat or drink again

by Lawrence Richard | Monday, May 13, 2024 | 4:14 AM EDT

Students at Princeton University protesting Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza have called an end to their hunger strike after just 10 days.

Princeton Divest Now, the student protest group that is calling for the New Jersey Ivy League university to divest from America’s Middle Eastern ally due to the high civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip, said additional strikers would be continuing their efforts. Continue reading

What part of “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” don’t they understand? Hamas are not peaceful, so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that their collegiate supporters have not been either

Gaza Rally, May 1, 2024, photo by Abbey Cutrer, Kentucky Kernel. How many were there supporting the rally, and how many were just spectators?

No one has been more supportive of the right of the pro-Hamas demonstrators to exercise their freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble to proclaim their positions than The First Street Journal has been. We have pointed out how the keffiyeh-wearing activists — and I regard wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh as qualitatively indistinguishable from wearing a Nazi swastika armband — had their demonstration at the University of Kentucky, made their points in a rally in front of the school’s main library, waved their Palestinian flags, and, when it was over, picked up their stuff and went home. I have supported the right of the Princeton University hunger strikers to starve themselves to make their point, even as I mocked them, because I unequivocally support Israel in their war against Hamas and I support freedom of speech. I have even said that it’s a bit pointless to use force to break up the protest encampments, because, with the semester ending, these encampments will just wither away.

As it happened, the powers that be at the University of Pennsylvania decided against just leaving the encampments alone, and the Philadelphia Police broke it up and arrested some of the campers. They were definitely the Usual Suspects, as Fox 29 News reported that only 7 of the 33 people arrested for ‘defiant trespassing’ were actually Penn students. Continue reading

A hunger strike is only effective if someone actually cares if you starve yourself to death

Do you know who Aaron Bushnell was? Perhaps the name is familiar, but most people would be forgiven if they didn’t remember who he was or why they had heard his name. Senior Airman Bushnell, an enlisted man in the United States Air Force, poured an inflammable liquid on himself and committed suicide via self-immolation outside of the gates of the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest American support for Israel in their war against Hamas. SrA Bushnell was famous for a couple of days, but, let’s be honest here, while people do remember the event, the late Mr Bushnell personally wasn’t famous for long.

As we previously reported, Khader Adnan was a long-time Palestinian Arab activist, and at one point a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Arrested many times, Mr Adnan’s weapon of choice in detention was the hunger strike. His first hunger strike, ten days long, occurred in 2000, when he was locked up not by the Israelis, but the Palestinian National Authority. In 2011, he began another hunger strike, one which lasted 66 days. In 2015, he undertook a 56-day hunger strike, which resulted in Israel releasing him. He kept getting himself arrested, and finally, after another, much longer 87-day hunger strike, died in prison on May 2, 2023.

We also reported, in February, how several Brown University students went on an eight-day-long hunger strike, and then mocked the quaint story that 30 Harvard students went on a 12 hour hunger strike in solidarity with their fellow Ivy Leaguers.

And now? Roughly 15 pro-Hamas students have gone on a hunger strike at Princeton, and hunger strikes are serious things, but they’ve opened themselves up to justifiable mockery. Continue reading