In-Depth Issues:
Israel's Mossad Aims to Thwart Terrorist Attacks Abroad by Released Palestinian Terrorists - Yoni Ben Menachem ( Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affair s) Some 230 dangerous Palestinian terrorists will be deported abroad as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza. The Israeli security establishment fears that many will return to terrorist activities against Israel, including attacks on Jewish and Israeli institutions abroad, kidnappings of Israelis, smuggling operations to Iran, establishing terrorist infrastructures abroad, and directing terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, as well as within Israel itself. In Istanbul, the "West Bank headquarters" of Hamas's military wing, primarily composed of terrorists expelled in the Shalit deal, operates under the full protection of Turkish intelligence and President Erdogan. The large-scale release of high-profile terrorists will place an immense burden on Israel's Mossad, requiring extensive surveillance to thwart potential attacks. Although tracking and eliminating them would be easier within Judea and Samaria and Gaza, their removal abroad would sever direct contact with the Palestinian population. The Israel Security Agency assesses that many of the released terrorists are highly motivated to resume terrorist activity.
EU Ministers Agree to Revive Rafah Border Mission ( Reuters) The European Union will restart a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. A civilian EU mission to help monitor the Rafah crossing was agreed to in 2005 but suspended in 2007 after Hamas's takeover of Gaza. Italian Carabinieri officers, Spanish Guardia Civil officers and French gendarmes will join the interna tional force.
IDF Identifies Explosive Drone in West Bank ( Jerusalem Post) A drone rigged with a pipe bomb was identified outside Yitzhar in Samaria, the IDF announced on Jan. 22. See also Explosive Drone in Samaria a Wake-Up Call for Israel - Yehoshua Kalisky ( Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) The explosive drone that fell near Yitzhar is the second drone launched in the same area within a short period - indicating an improvement in the technical capabilities of the terrorists in Judea and Sam aria. UAVs can be directed at a target and drop their payload with high precision. Due to their low costs and operational simplicity, there is growing concern that terrorists in Judea and Samaria will increase the use of drone swarms to attack Israeli civilian or military infrastructure. It requires creative thinking to counter and neutralize this emerging threat.
"2 Million Terrorists" in Gaza, Released Hostage Tells Family ( JNS) Liri Albag, the Israel Defense Forces lookout released on Saturday after 477 days as a captive of Hamas in Gaza, told her father, "Dad, there are two million terrorists there, make no mistake. I sat with children aged 8 and 4 who were cursing 'the Jews,'" Israel's 103FM Radio reported on Monday.
Returning Gazans Take Stock of Destruction after Ceasefire - Abeer Ayyoub ( Wall Street Journal) Across swaths of Gaza, the extent of destruction from 15 months of war is so vast that many Palestinians, able to survey the damage for the first time since the fighting stopped, say they don't think they will be able to return to their homes soon. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened. There is no running water or electricity in much of the strip. The scale of the damage will weigh heavily on efforts to rebuild in Gaza and likely cast a long shadow over postwar recovery. &n bsp; Over the weekend, President Trump said Gaza "is literally a demolition site right now."
Keeping Hizbullah Out of Southern Lebanon - Yaakov Lappin ( JNS) Eyal Zisser, professor of contemporary history of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University, told JNS that he was skeptical about the Lebanese Armed Forces enforcing control over southern Lebanon or countering Hizbullah. "The Lebanese Army cannot, and likely does not want to, assert its authority or force Hizbullah to withdraw from the area, let alone dismantle its military infrastructure." "They simply hope that we will withdraw and leave matters alone - until the next war, hoping that in the meantime Hizbullah will main tain a low profile." Should continued airstrikes against Hizbullah's infrastructure be required, "on the ground, it's more problematic because the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL are there, requiring creative solutions to overcome such obstacles."
Experts Underestimated Israel's Wartime Economic Resilience - Ran Kivetz and Jonathan M. Barnett ( Jerusalem Post) Throughout 2024, analysts sounded a steady drumbeat of gloom and doom about Israel's economy. In September, Moody's downgraded Israel's credit rating by two notches. The pessimists were wrong. The Israeli stock market went up more than 30% in 2024, outperforming the major stock indices. In 2024, Israel also enjoyed the third-highest level of venture capi tal investment on a per capita basis, trailing only Singapore and the U.S. Many analysts had focused on dramatic headlines that portrayed Israel as alone and trapped within a "ring of fire" of hostile neighbors, while ignoring its military prowess, technological capacities, and population's resolve (as Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran have since learned). They overlooked evidence of Israel's underlying economic, geopolitical, and demographic advantages. The U.S., Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan form an elite group of innovation leaders that consistently outperform other developed economies in the percentage of GDP invested in R&D ("innovation input") and U.S. patents issued per capita ("innovation output"). Industry observers have long recognized the unconventional perseverance, creativity, and can-do attitude of Israelis - qualities rooted in Jewish history. Ran Kivetz is a professor at Columbia University Business School. Jonathan M. Barnett is a professor at the University of Southern California School of Law.
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| News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: - White House Announces Three-Week Extension of Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire - Barak Ravid
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon will be extended until Feb. 18, the White House said on Sunday. The extension will allow Israel's military to finish its withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to finish its deployment along the border.
The White House said Lebanon, Israel, and the U.S. will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese Hizbullah militants captured by Israel. (Axios)
See also Lebanon Says It Will Respect Feb. 18 Ceasefire Deal Extension with Israel (AFP) - Lebanese Army Chief Leaked Military Secrets to Hizbullah - Gabrielle Weiniger
Suhil Bahij Gharb, the head of Lebanese army intelligence for southern Lebanon and a Shia Muslim, leaked sensitive information to Hizbullah from inside a security control room run by the U.S., France and UNIFIL, according to intelligence sources. Gharb is one of dozens of officers in the Lebanese army who have leaked information to Hizbullah, giving them advance warning of raids or patrols, allowing them to remove weapons and evade detection.
The leaks raise concern over the ability of the Lebanese army to effectively take over the south of the country, where Hizbullah has been dominant for years. Leaks by Gharb and other officers had enabled Hizbullah fighters and their weapons to remain close to the Israeli border. (Sunday Times-UK) - U.S. and Egyptian Contractors Screening Vehicles at Gaza Checkpoint - David Gritten
U.S. and Egyptian security contractors are screening Palestinian vehicles traveling from southern to northern Gaza under the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian security official says. The contractors are operating two scanners to ensure the vehicles carry no weapons through the checkp oint. At the same time, tens of thousands of pedestrians walked up the coastal road without screening. (BBC News)
See also Israel Allows Palestinians to Return to Northern Gaza - Einav Halabi (Ynet News)
See also Hamas Says 90 Percent of Gazans in North Have No Homes to Return to - Einav Halabi (Ynet News)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: - IDF K ills 15 Terrorists in Jenin
Israeli soldiers eliminated 15 terrorists and arrested 40 wanted persons in Jenin over the last few days, the IDF announced Monday. Soldiers confiscated or destroyed dozens of weapons, including a bomb found inside a washing machine and dozens of bombs that had been planted on roads in order to harm Israeli forces. (Jerusalem Post) - Syria's New Regime Stops Weapons Shipment to Hizbullah in Lebanon - Emanuel Fabian
Syrian authorities seized a shipment of weapons heading to Hizbullah on the Lebanon-Syria border, the official SANA news agency reported on Sunday. Images showed assault rifles, RPG launchers, and ammunition. (Times of Israel) - Palestinian President Abbas Congratulates Released Terrorist Who Murdered Israeli Infant - Shachar Kleiman
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas reached out to congratulate released life-term prisoner Yasser Abu Bakr, a former member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, who had served 23 years in prison. Abu Bakr was convicted for orchestrating an attack in Netanya in March 2002 that claimed the lives of an Israeli civilian and an infant. He was also found guilty of murdering police officer Konstantin Danilov during the same month. He planned multiple additional attacks, resulting in several life sentences. (Israel Hayom)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Hamas May Be Cheering, But It Is Writhing in Pain - Ehud Yaari
All the stories about how Hamas has swiftly recovered, replenished its depleted ranks with new recruits, and resumed governing contradict the realities on the ground. Hamas has not renewed any of its military capabilities and has not yet reestablished its battalions. Nor has it resumed rocket production or tunneling work. The new recruits in the displaced persons camps have not been given any real training. Its civilian apparatuses are operating on a very limited scale.
Countless tweets and videos show that the local population has learned that it can both hate Israel and despise Hamas. Several clans in southern Gaza have formed armed gangs that are prepared to clash with Hamas operatives. Hamas may have a large amount of money, but it has gotten that money by scalping goods at the civilian population's expense. Everyone knows this.
It is clear to Hamas officials that no serious sum of money is going to be given to rebuild devastated Gaza as long as they remain in control. They have been practically begging PA President Mahmoud Abbas to assume responsibility for administering Gaza, but the PA won't enter unless Hamas first disarms. Neither the Emiratis nor the Saudis will open their wallets, and Israel isn't about to let Qatar sneak its way in.
For those who have already begun to weep bitterly because Hamas survived and supposedly emerged with the upper hand, they should think again.
The writer, a Fellow at the Washington Institute, is a Middle East commentator for Israel's Channel 12. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) - Freed Israeli Hostages Still Had Shrapnel in their Bodies from Oct. 7 Attack - Anat Peled
Some of the Israeli women released by Hamas over the past two weeks still had shrapnel in their bodies from untreated wounds they suffered in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an Israeli medical official, as the first details emerged on the condition of hostages held for 15 months. Col. Avi Benov, the deputy chief of Israel's military medical corps, added that some of them spent eight months in tunnels. The three civili ans and four soldiers are suffering from malnutrition and metabolic problems.
In the days leading up to their release, they were given better food and access to showers. "They tell us it was horrible for the past few months," said Benov. "And just a few days before going back, it gets a little bit better." At least one Israeli female soldier was held in prolonged isolation and emerged whispering because she wasn't used to speaking to people. (Wall Street Journal) - Freed IDF Lookouts Share Ordeals - Yael Ciechanover
Since their release from Hamas captivity on Saturday, the four IDF lookouts have been telling their families about the long months when they were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. People around them said they spoke of watching their friends slowly die or be murdered. The girls have picked up Arabic language skills and occasionally drop a word in Arabic in their sentences. (Ynet News) - Nutritional Deficiencies of Hostages in Gaza: Medical Concerns for the Released - Dr. Itay Gal
The prolonged captivity of hostages in Gaza has raised significant concerns about their health. Reports indicate their diet consisted mainly of bread, limited portions of rice, and even suspicions of being forced to drink seawater in place of potable water. Hostages endured harsh hygienic conditions, complete lack of sunlight, and insufficient basic nutrition.
A lack of sunlight over an extended period results in severe vitamin D deficiency. A diet limited to bread and rice provides little to no B vitamins, leading to severe deficiencies.
Upon arrival at a military base in Israel, hostages are given tea, three biscuits, and vitamin B1. This is followed by a balanced diet and full nutritional supplementation to restore missing proteins, vitamins, and minerals. (Jerusalem Post)
The Gaza War - Legal Aspects
- Freeing Hostages Should Not Be a Bargaining Tool - Irwin Cotler and Brandon Silver
The rescue and recovery of hostages, versus clemency for convicted mass murderers, rewards terrorist criminality and extortion while incentivizing further acts of terror. The mass murderers being released by Israel to secure the return of innocent civilians taken hostage could b e the architects and perpetrators of another atrocity. No country should be put in such a painful and impossible position, and every country should have condemned this dangerous paradigm imposed by terrorists, while simultaneously supporting the agreement.
But there are important lessons to be learned. A hostage recovery and ceasefire agreement could have likely been achieved earlier - and many lives saved - and at lower cost with less risks, had the world held Hamas accountable and unequivocally called for the release of the hostages as a standalone humanitarian principle and international legal obligation.
The singling out of Israel for selective opprobrium and indictment, coupled with indulgence of Hamas demands, only prolonged the process. In not condemning Hamas's outrageous demands, the international community delayed a ceasefire and thereby contributed to the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
While Canada had init iated criminal investigations for Russian crimes against Ukrainians, ISIS crimes against Yazidis and others, and Canadian victims of terrorism and kidnapping abroad, the government has opted not to pursue justice and accountability for the Jewish Canadian victims of Hamas. Canada's words and deeds inadvertently normalized the largest international hostage-taking in history, thereby undermining the international norms against it and putting all Canadians abroad at risk.
Irwin Cotler is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Brandon Silver is Director of Policy and Projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. (National Post-Canada)
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
- Will We Continue Giving Moral Credibility to Voices Who Say Israel Is the Villain for Refusing to Die? - Elisha Wiesel
Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago Monday. The world told itself they were doing all they could - even as the railroad tracks to Auschwitz were not bombed; as the St. Louis ship, full of Jewish refugees, was turned back from Florida to Europe; as Britain froze European Jewish immigration to the British Mandate for Palestine, preventing the escape of hundreds of thousands who could have been saved.
It is hard to look evil in the face. To see the jihadists in Gaza fire rifles in the air as 90 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for three Israeli women. One of the terrorists set to be released b y Israel is Abu Warda, who was responsible for killing 45 civilians in the 1996 bus bombings in Jerusalem. Does he occupy the same moral universe as these women?
It is easier to believe that this militant mob wants their own state than to hear, really hear, what they shout: that their mission is the eradication of Israel. Americans must not forgive Hamas. We must confront evil when and where we see it.
Will we continue explaining away the images of non-uniformed Palestinian civilians celebrating - and actively aiding Hamas - in the Oct. 7 attacks? Will we continue confusing the concepts of perpetrator and victim? Will we continue giving moral credibility to voices who say that the tiny nation of Israel is the villain for refusing to die?
The writer is the son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. ( USA Today) - The Holocaust Cannot Be Hijacked to Describe Other Conflicts - Charles Moore
Nowadays, the Holocaust is often hijacked as a rhetorical tool to describe other conflicts. Yet, there is something unique about antisemitism. No other racism is so persistent or so virulent. The Holocaust was not an act of war. It was the "final solution" of a political theory that the Jews are the source of evil in the world.
Evidence that this belief still exists and still kills is in front of our faces. The Hamas massacres of Oct. 7 in Israel were not a military land-grab. They were an attempt to murder, or kidnap for further torment, any Israeli they could find. In the talk recorded on the body cameras of the exultant assassins, it was explicitly "the Jews" they were after: they were not soldiers fighting a military enemy.
The writer, a member of the House of Lords, is a former editor of the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, and the Sunday Telegraph. (Telegraph-UK) - Irish President Attacks Israel at Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony - Ronan McGreevy
Irish President Michael D. Higgins referenced the conflict in Gaza during his speech in Dublin on Sunday marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. As he spoke, a number of people walked out and others turned their back on the President.
&n bsp; Lior Tibet, a PhD student at University College Dublin who has been living in Ireland for seven years, was forced out of the event by security personnel, while four other protesters who turned their backs during the President's speech were asked to leave. She told the Irish Times, "The last 15 months have been unbearable here. We feel like we are talking to the walls when we talk about antisemitism. It is really disheartening to us to see no one gives us a voice." (Irish Times)
See also Video: Israeli Woman Forcibly Removed from Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in Dublin - Nissan Shtrauchler (Israel Hayom) - 80 Years Later, We Forget the Lessons of Auschwitz at Our Peril - Greg Schneider and Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat
Jan. 27 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 1 million Jewish men, women, and children were killed by the German Nazis solely because they were Jewish. The Auschwitz killing center was just one part of the Nazis' vast effort to eliminate European Jewry.
An advanced, educated nation succeeded - with the help of collaborators across Europe - in killing two of every three European Jews, a genocide so unprecedented in its ambition and scale that it is now called the Holocaust.
Greg Schneider is Executive Vice President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Amb. Stu art E. Eizenstat is Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. (Newsweek)
Other Issues
- Russia Is Losing Its Status in the Middle East - Georgy Poroskoun
Russia emerged as the most dominant political and military force in Syria when it sent its troops to support the Assad regime in September 2015. However, with the downfall of the Assad regime, Russia now finds itself in a weakened position.
Until recently, Russia had launched airstrikes against rebel forces. Now it is dependent on the same rebels to ensure the security of its soldiers and its remaining military assets in Syria, while hoping that the new regime will allow it to retain at least som e presence in the country.
Since the downfall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, the Russian forces deployed in Syria have withdrawn from positions in the south, north, and northeast, as well as the Syrian desert and cities such as Damascus, Aleppo, and Deir al-Zur. This withdrawal has been carried out under the protection of the rebels who have seized power.
At the same time, Russia is removing significant amounts of military equipment from Syria, evidenced by a marked increase in large cargo flights at the Khmeimim Air Base and the movement of military and civilian vessels capable of carrying heavy loads toward the Tartus naval base. Russia is gradually losing its ability to freely use the infrastructure of Tartus port. Vessels sent to evacuate Russian equipment were forced to wait for weeks outside the port.
For the rebel forces, memories of Russian airstrikes are still fresh, and they may find it difficult to justify why those same Russian forces are allowed to remain on Syrian soil. While Russia and the new Syrian regime may eventually negotiate an agreement for some kind of presence, the new regime no longer sees itself as dependent on or committed to Moscow.
Israel, which has meticulously taken the Russian component into account when formulating its policy regarding Syria, now has significantly less reason to do so. (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) - Israel Isn't an "Apartheid State" - and I Should Know - Prof. Raymond Wacks
While Israel's critics say it is an apartheid state, as someone born and bred in apartheid South Africa, I may be able to shed some light on the deficiencies of this increasingly pervasive analogy. The reckless invective that labels Israel an "apartheid state" is a grotesque injustice - and an affront to those who suffered the long years of discrimination and persecution in South Africa.
Apartheid in South Africa was not merely racial segregation. It was an elaborate project enforced by an authoritarian regime that relied on an unaccountable security force with sweeping powers, a mostly supportive legislature, and a generally pliant judiciary. South Africa's legal system under apartheid disenfranchised every "non-white" person, and the law discriminated against them in almost every facet of social and economic life.
There is little substance to the comparison of Israel and South Africa. Where is the "institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination" by one race over another, as specified in the Rome Statute? Israeli Arabs are enfranchised, are elected to the Knesset, and serve in the judiciary. They have the freedom to attend any hospital, school, or university. They are not denied access to beaches, cinemas, theaters, libraries, or sporting facilities.
Even Richard Goldstone, the former South African judge who headed the censorious inquiry into Israel's 2009 operation in Gaza, conceded that in Israel "there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute."
The writer, emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong, was previously Head of the Department of Public Law at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. (Spectator-UK)
Observations:
On January 27, 2025, Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed the UN General Assembly on International Holocaust Memorial Day. - In the massacre of October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists attacked our people. They murdered, raped and mutilated women, tortured, beheaded and burned innocent people and entire families, and kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children.
- Although the Israeli people have been overcome with emotion seeing seven of our daughters at last emerge heroically from hell - still, 90 Israelis and foreign nationals remain in Hamas captivity.
- I call on all representatives in this General Assembly, all who consider themselves part of the civilized world, to throw your weight to ensure our hostages return to their homes - every single one of them. Bring them home now! The hostages are enduring subhuman conditions, without essential primary health care, without Red Cross visitations, and without any compliance with international law, treaties, or agreements.
- The Holocaust was the single most catastrophic disaster in the history of our people, and the history of all humanity. Yet from this unthinkable wreckage emerged a voice that led to the establishment of the State of Israel, an act supported by the family of nations, an act of historical justice.
- Today, rather than fulfilling its purpose, and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadist, murderous, and abhorrent terror, time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy. International forums and institutions such as the International Criminal Court opt for p rotection of the perpetrators of the atrocities. They blur the distinction between good and evil, creating a distorted symmetry between the victim and the murderous monster.
- How is it possible that the moral compass of so many in the family of nations has become so disoriented that they no longer recognize the clear truth: that terrorists weaponize the international institutions, undermining the most basic, fundamental reason for their establishment?
- How is it possible that the same institutions established in the wake of the greatest genocide in history - the Holocaust - are manipulating the definition of genocide for the sole purpose of attacking Israel and the Jewish people?
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