Trump's Gaza Plan: What Do Americans Think and Does Biased Messaging Influence Opinion? - Irwin J. Mansdorf and Tirza Shorr (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
    President Trump has recently raised the possibility of "relocating" Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries while Gaza is "cleaned up."
    We tested two matched random groups of 255 Americans for their opinions on the plan. We also provided each group with an introduction that either was biased for the plan or against it.
    Prior to being presented with the plan, both groups were queried on their sympathy toward Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinians.
    Results showed strong sympathy for Israel versus Hamas but more nuanced sympathy when asked about "Palestinians, but not Hamas" and sympathy for "both sides" equally.
    The group that received the biased pro-plan message showed a considerable uptick in agreement for the plan than did the group that received an anti-plan message.
    Results indicate that Trump's plan potentially has substantial support in the U.S. and that messaging promoting it can bolster that support.
   Dr. Irwin J. Mansdorf is a senior fellow and analyst in political psychology at the Jerusalem Center, where Tirza Shorr is a senior researcher and program coordinator.

Netanyahu Presents Trump with Golden Beeper at Washington Meeting (Jerusalem Post)
    Prime Minister Be njamin Netanyahu presented President Donald Trump with a golden beeper during their meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
    Trump responded by noting that Israel's beeper sabotage attacks on Hizbullah in September was a "grand" operation.

U.S. Withdraws from UN Human Rights Council, Ends Funding for UNRWA (White House)
    On Feb. 4, President Trump signed an Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council, which has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately.
    It also prohibits any future funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has consistently shown itself to be anti-Semitic and anti-I srael.
    See also Israel Announces Withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council - Ariel Kahana (Israel Hayom)
    Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar declared Wednesday that Israel will withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, aligning with the U.S. stance.
    Saar said the council systematically undermines Israel's diplomatic standing while protecting human rights violators.
    The council has passed over 100 resolutions against Israel, representing more than 20% of all council resolutions - a number that surpasses the combined total of resolutions against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela.

Trump Says He Left Instructions to "Obliterate" Iran If It Assassinates Him - David E. Sanger (New York Times)
    President Trump said on Tuesday that he had "left instructions" for Iran to be "obliterated" if its assassins killed him.
    Just after he was elected, the Justice Department indicted several men who it said had been heard plotting to kill Trump in September.
    One of the plotters said he was assigned to carry out the plan by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
    Experts say a president cannot leave instructions for military action after his death. That decision would have to be made by his successor.

Most Palestinian Families Come from Immigrants from the Past Two Centuries - Dr. Harold Rhode (JNS)
    Prior to 1948, practically the only people who referred to themselves as Palestinians were the Jews.
    Modern Palestinian identity was largely invented in 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created.
    Throughout history, family and tribal ties in the Middle East have often been defined by economic and trade networks rather than geographical borders. The concept of borders, as we understand them in the West, was irrelevant.
    Identity in the region has historically been fluid, shaped by social and economic relationships rather than by modern political boundaries. And they still are.
    In the 19th century, much of what is now the West Bank and Gaza was sparsely populated and underdeveloped.
    The Ottoman Empire sought to repopulate and develop the region by bringing in Muslim migrants from Albania, Bosnia and the Caucasus.
    In the 1840s, Egyptian forces occupied the region, prompting many Egyptians to settle there.
    Construction of the Haifa branch of the Ottoman railway linking southern Tu rkey to Mecca attracted laborers from Jordan and Syria, many of whom remained in the area.
    During the British Mandate period, as Jewish immigration increased, Arab workers from across the Jordan River streamed westward, drawn by employment opportunities and improved health care provided by the Jews. They did not perceive themselves as Palestinians.
    The historical connections between the people of Gaza, the West Bank and British Mandate Palestine are shaped by centuries of migration.
    They are not one people, but a hodge-podge of peoples with no prior connection to pre-1948 Palestine, who settled there during the past two centuries.
    In this context, Trump's plan to resettle the people of Gaza in other parts of the Muslim world fits in perfectly with the normal patterns of migration in the region.
    The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Forei gn Affairs, served as an adviser on the Islamic world for the U.S. Department of Defense for 28 years.
    See also Egyptian Emigres in the Levant of the 19th and 20th Centuries - Prof. Reuven Aharoni and Prof. Gideon M. Kressel (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
    A large part of the Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to this area but rather immigrated from surrounding countries.

Gaza Is Not a Victory for Hamas - Zina Rakhamilova (Jerusalem Post)
    Since the beginning of the recent ceasefire, Hamas and its supporters in the West are trying to convi nce the rest of the world that Hamas has achieved a "victory."
    Yet anyone with common sense understands that nothing about Gaza right now resembles a victory.
    Gaza lies in ruins, its infrastructure shattered. Hamas's leadership is crippled, half of its fighters have been killed.
    They are not victors; they are the architects of their own people's misery.

Video: $8 Million Super Bowl Ad to Combat Antisemitism - Daniel Edelson (Ynet News)
    The Robert Kraft Foundation to Combat Antisemitism will return to the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 with an $8 million ad featuring rapper Snoop Dogg and former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who agreed to participate pro bono.