The Butcher of Khan Younis has been eliminated. What next?

BY ALAN STEIN

Published in the Waterbury Sunday Republican on October 27, 2024.

 
The war Yahya Sinwar started has been devastating for the Gazans in what de facto has been an independent state since Israel completely left in 2005. Sinwar embedded Hamas' infrastructure throughout the world's most massive underground complex, locating terror tunnels under almost every school, mosque and hospital along with countless homes. This makes him responsible for the massive destruction throughout Gaza.

The tens of thousands of rockets Hamas accumulated were stored and launched from the same places, which also contained Hamas bases and command centers.

With Sinwar and virtually every other Hamas leader eliminated, we're hearing voices, including from our American government, asserting it's time to end the war, with many repeating Hamas' false allegations of massive civilian deaths.

In modern urban warfare, the United Nations expects almost 9 civilian casualties for every combatant death; in Gaza the ratio has been in the neighborhood of 1 to 1, with Hamas privately admitting that 80% of the casualties were Hamas or members of their family.

Perhaps the most astounding aspect of Sinwar's war is how historically low Israel has kept the proportion of civilian casualties.

After Sinwar was taken out, President Biden issued a written statement praising his elimination but including the words "There is now the opportunity for a 'day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike."

Similarly, Vice President Harris said "It is time for the day after to begin."

Their words are premature. The way this war ends is more important than when it ends. We should have learned that lesson. Each of the Gaza wars since the first one Hamas started in 2008, including those in 2014, 2021 and the current one, were made inevitable because the previous one was ended prematurely.

Hamas must be vanquished the way the Germans and Japanese were in World War II and Hamas' entire terror infrastructure must be destroyed. This includes its tunnels, its rockets, its weapons and its ammunition. The Philadelphi Corridor, the border between Gaza and Egypt, must be secured so that rockets and other weapons cannot again be smuggled across, over or under it.

Otherwise the end of this war will be a prelude to the next war, with all the funds invested in rebuilding Gaza once again being wasted.

There is the question of who can be trusted to take those steps necessary to prevent Hamas from resurrecting itself and starting yet another war.

It can't be the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah and rewards terrorists with its infamous pay-to-slay program. The PA's leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is also the leader of both the PLO and Fatah. Fatah used its Facebook page to proudly boast of its participation in Oct. 7 and officially mourned the elimination of Sinwar. The PLO issued a statement including "The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization expresses its condolences to the Palestinian people and all national factions on the martyrdom of the great national leader Yahya Sinwar."

It can't be the United Nations, which is institutionally hostile to Israel and whose agencies have been complicit with both Hamas and Hezbollah.

UNRWA allowed its facilities, including schools and hospitals, to be used to shield Hamas rockets, bases and control centers. Hamas' main data center was located directly beneath UNRWA's Gaza headquarters, which also supplied the data center with power. Thousands of its employees are Hamas terrorists, including an UNRWA teacher who served as one of Sinwar's bodyguards and was killed along with Sinwar.

The Europeans can't be trusted.

After the 2014 war, because of the way Hamas was known to steal so much of the aid sent to Gaza, they assured Israel they would put procedures in place guaranteeing Hamas couldn't steal any of the aid they sent. Those assurances proved worthless, as Hamas succeeded in stealing an estimated 90% of the cement sent to Gaza for reconstruction and used it to construct its enormous complex of terror tunnels.

Even the United States can't be trusted. Eleven days after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, President Biden said "Let me be clear: If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance [he pledged to send to Gaza], they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people and it will end." It quickly became clear Hamas was stealing most of the aid, yet Biden not only didn't stop sending aid, but kept increasing it and pressuring Israel to allow even more, supplying and providing a lifeline to Hamas.

This leaves Israel as the only party with both the ability and willingness to do what's needed to prevent the end of this war from setting the stage for yet another war.

Israel has provided an opportunity to end this war in a way that will end the role of Gaza as a mini-terror state bringing misery, death and destruction to the people in Gaza while constantly attacking Israel.

A year ago, President Biden said Hamas had to be eliminated. America needs to stand firmly with Israel and let it complete that task.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., is a former longtime resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.

Palestinian leader lies to United Nations

Palestinian leader lies to United Nations

By Alan Stein

Published in the Waterbury Republican-American October 2, 2024

An expanded version is available on the Times of Israel blog as The Mendacity of Mahmoud Abbas in His UN Speech.

When a person or an organization points to Israel and proclaims "j'accuse," the accusation is almost invariably false but, almost as invariably, would be true if it was directed at the Palestinian Arabs. This has occurred with increasing frequency since the horrendous, barbaric terror attack perpetrated last Oct. 7, primarily by Hamas but with the assistance of other terror groups in Gaza and thousands of ordinary Gaza "civilians," with weapons, expertise and financing largely provided by Iran and Qatar.

A graphic example is provided each year when Mahmoud Abbas, in the 20th year of his four-year term as head of the Palestinian Authority, addresses the United Nations General Assembly as "His Excellency, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the (non-existent) State of Palestine."

Here's just a small sample of the lies and cultural appropriation which permeated Abbas' speech Sept. 26.

He began by proclaiming "Palestine is our homeland, it is the land of our fathers, our grandfathers, it will remain ours" and closed by proclaiming "Our people will live on the land of their fathers and grandfathers as they have done for more than 6,000 years."

It was not 6,000 years, but merely 1,400 years ago when Arabs first began arriving, as settler colonialists, in the Land of Israel, fully half a millennium after an earlier groups of settler colonialists, the Romans, ethnically cleansed what was then called Judea of most of its indigenous Jewish residents and renamed the area Syria Palaestina. Most of those now calling themselves Palestinians come from families that migrated to the Land of Israel far more recently and only adopted the identity of Palestinian in the 1960s.

Abbas appropriated the historical connection of the Jewish people to their holiest site, the Temple Mount, and falsely accused Israel of changing its status quo when it has been the Palestinians who have repeatedly done so.

He said "the al Aqsa mosque and its surroundings, ladies and gentlemen, is the exclusive property of Muslims." The al Aqsa mosque was deliberately built on the ruins of the Jewish Temple 1,600 years after King Solomon built the First Temple there. It is, by far, the holiest site in the world for the Jewish people. For Sunni Muslims, it is a distant third to Mecca and Medina and has no religious significance for Shiite Muslims.

Related to Abbas' lies about the Temple Mount is his assertion that Israel does not deserve to be a member of the U.N., claiming it has violated a commitment to adhere to UN Resolutions 181 and 194.

UN Resolution 181 was the Partition Plan, which called for giving the Arabs nearly 90% of Palestine. While the Zionists accepted the proposal, the Arabs not only rejected it, but launched a genocidal war aimed at destroying Israel the day after David Ben Gurion declared the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in a small portion of the Land of Israel.

Resolution 194 did have a provision calling for the repatriation of "refugees wishing to return to their homes." But that was contingent on their willingness to "live in peace." Not only were the actual refugees never willing to meet that condition, but on Oct. 7 their descendants barbarically demonstrated their continued rejection of that requirement.

Resolution 194 also insisted that "religious buildings and sites in Palestine should be protected and free access to them assured."

Jordan allowed Jews absolutely no access to the Temple Mount during the nineteen years it occupied the eastern portion of Jerusalem.

Israel has also violated the free access provision since it reconquered the Old City after Jordan attacked again in 1967. Subject to unavoidable security precautions, it provides free access to the Temple Mount for Arabs, but severely and increasingly restricts access for Jews. When I first visited Jerusalem in 1980, I was able to enter both the al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. That is no longer allowed. While Muslims have unfettered, 24/7 access to the entire Temple Mount through ten gates, Jews have access only a few hours a day, a few days a week, through just one gate, are greatly restricted as to where on the Temple Mount they may go and are prohibited from praying.

Meanwhile, whereas in 1967 there was just one mosque on the Temple Mount, since then the Muslim Waqf has, illegally, built four more.

Mahmoud Abbas inverted that truth by referring to Jerusalem as "our eternal capital al-Quds" and saying it "is being subjected to entrenched campaigns to change its nature, to Judaize it, and to agress it and its holy sites and landmarks, to change its historic and legal status."

Disturbingly sobering is the way the mendacious Mahmoud Abbas received a standing ovation when he finished his litany of lies, while the next day many diplomats made a show of walking out of the chamber when the prime minister of Israel came and did something rarely done in the United Nations, speaking truthfully.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., is a former longtime resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu Gave a Master Class

Benjamin Netanyahu Gave a Master Class

By Alan Stein

I had been preparing to write about the context of the Gaza war in the global conflict between Western democracies and today's expanded version of what President George W. Bush had dubbed the Axis of Evil in 2002. That task became easier when on July 24 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress included a master class in geopolitics within what was arguably the most pro-American speech ever given by a foreign leader.

Say what you will about the prime minister of Israel, he has an unmatched grasp of international relations and the nature of the strategic threats facing America and our democratic - and some not so democratic - friends and allies.

Netanyahu began his speech by describing the global conflict not as one between civilizations but as "clash between barbarism and civilization," saying "it’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life."

(If you didn't see his speech live, I recommend viewing it now. Videos may be streamed from C-Span's YouTube channel as well as those of the major networks. The text is also available from many sources, including https://www.timesofisrael.com/were-protecting-you-full-text-of-netanyahus-address-to-congress/. I particularly recommend it to Vice President Kamala Harris, who along with some members of Congress irresponsibly boycotted Netanyahu's speech.)

Hamas certainly glorifies death, both of Jews and of Palestinian Arabs. Article 7 of its charter contains the exhortation "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.'"

On October 7, Hamas (and other terrorists, including some from Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah) didn't just murder Israeli Jews. As Netanyahu noted, "they butchered 1,200 people from 41 countries, including 39 Americans" and "they raped women, they beheaded men, they burnt babies alive, they killed parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents." They certainly earned the description of being barbarians.

Netanyahu also noted the recent boast of a senior Hamas official that Palestinian Arab women and children "excel at being human shields!" He was referring to Hamas' infamous "dead baby strategy" of using civilians to shield their terrorists, knowing how much Israelis try to avoid harming civilians.

As Netanyahu said, "For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. For Hamas, it’s a strategy."

The way Israelis value life rather than death is exemplified by the Gilad Shalit deal, in retrospect probably the worst decision Netanyahu made during his term as prime minister. In order to save the life of a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, then held hostage by Hamas, he agreed to release no fewer than 1,027 Palestinian terrorists, including Yahya Sinwar. That Hamas leader took advantage of his undeserved freedom by masterminding October 7. The fact that Israeli doctors had saved his life after discovering he had an aggressive brain tumor mattered not one whit to that psychopath who is a hero to so many Palestinian Arabs.

Hamas is just one of many Iranian proxies spreading terror in the Middle East. As Netanyahu observed, "in the Middle East, Iran is virtually behind all the terrorism, all the turmoil, all the chaos, all the killing." Lest we feel complacent in America, as Netanyahu noted, "When he founded the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini pledged, 'We will export our revolution to the entire world.'" For Iran, America is the greatest enemy, the "Great Satan," because America is the world's greatest power and the guardian of western civilization.

No wonder the foreign minister of Iran's Hezbollah terror proxy last month said "This [the Gaza war] is not a war with Israel. Israel is merely a tool. The main war, the real war, is with America."

Netanyahu emphasized this:

"But Iran understands that to truly challenge America, it must first conquer the Middle East. And for this it uses its many proxies, including the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas. Yet in the heart of the Middle East, standing in Iran’s way, is one proud pro-American democracy—my country, the State of Israel."

"For Iran Israel is first, America is next. So, when Israel fights Hamas, we’re fighting Iran. When we fight Hezbollah, we’re fighting Iran. When we fight the Houthis, we’re fighting Iran. And when we fight Iran, we’re fighting the most radical and murderous enemy of the United States of America."

Iran began attacking America even before it started financing and arming terror proxies to attack Israel. Shortly after President Carter helped them bring about the downfall of the Shah of Iran, in some ways a brutal dictator but a strong American ally and Mother Theresa in comparison to the ayatollahs, the Iranian revolutionaries "stormed the American embassy" and "held scores of Americans hostage for 444 days." As Netanyahu further noted, "Iran’s terrorist proxies have targeted America in the Middle East and beyond. In Beirut, they killed 241 U.S. servicemen. In Africa, they bombed American embassies. In Iraq, they supplied explosives to maim and kill thousands of American soldiers. In America, they actually sent death squads. They sent death squads here to murder a former secretary of state and a former national security adviser."

Iran's tentacles extend even beyond what Netanyahu had time to mention.

The ayatollahs have armed the Houthis, who recently just narrowly miss succeeding with a drone attack on the American consulate in Tel Aviv. The Houthis have succeeded in bringing shipping through he vital Red Sea corridor to a standstill. A few years ago, they hit the Saudi oil fields and incapacitate about half of them, causing a worldwide oil shortage and a spike in oil prices.

The ayatollahs are helping arm Russia as it keeps attacking Ukraine and they cooperate militarily with North Korea, not just endangering South Korea but increasing the threat from both countries to Europe and even, eventually, to America.

Netanyahu understands these dynamics as well as any world leader and clearly better than our own policymakers in America, which apparently creates jealousy and resentment and was a factor leading some to boycott his speech, which was delivered very diplomatically and with great appreciation for the partnership between America and Israel. The pro-American aspect was exemplified by the way he ended:

On behalf of the people of Israel, I came here today to say: Thank you, America. Thank you for your support and solidarity. Thank you for standing with Israel in our hour of need. Together, we shall defend our common civilization. Together, we shall secure a brilliant future for both our nations.

May God bless Israel.

May God bless America.

And may God bless the great alliance between Israel and America forever.

An abridged version was published in the August 4, 2024 Waterbury Sunday Republican with the headline "Netanyahu's master class before Congress."

For Israel, double standards are deadly

For Israel, double standards are deadly

BY ALAN STEIN

From the beginning of the war Hamas launched with its barbaric Oct. 7 massacre, Israel has been subject to strong pressure and double standards.

According to the United Nations, the expected ratio of non-combatant to combatant casualties in modern warfare is 9 to 1. In Gaza, the ratio has been no more than 1.3 to 1 and has likely been less than 1 to 1 given that Hamas lately admitted it did not have documentation for half the deaths of women and children it had claimed!

According to John Spencer, America's most respected expert on urban warfare and former chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, the IDF has done more than any other army in history, including our American army, to prevent civilian casualties. Despite that, even President Biden has kept insisting too many civilians in Gaza have been killed and Israel must do more.

It's virtually unheard of for a country at war to provide food and other aid to its enemy. Yet almost immediately after Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, President Biden insisted such aid be sent to Gaza, while saying the aid would stop if he found Hamas was stealing any of it. Even though it was quickly determined that Hamas was stealing 60% of the aid, President Biden kept pressing for Israel to help send increasing amounts of aid to Gaza and effectively strengthen Hamas.

By early February, Israel was preparing for the most critical operation of the war, rooting Hamas out of Gaza and cutting off its supply lines from Egypt. It wound up putting that operation off for nearly four months because of heavy pressure from President Biden.

President Biden initially pressured Israel to respect the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and put off any operation there until after the Ramadan holiday, a period during which attacks on Israel traditionally increase dramatically. The most prominent of those attacks was in 1973, on Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day.

The pressure continued after Ramadan, with Administration officials arguing Israel had no credible plan for moving civilians out of Rafah and it would take four months to move civilians out of danger if it was even possible. President Biden even cut off the resupply of some arms.

Finally, in early May, Israeli officials could delay no longer. They warned civilians to move from Rafah to safe areas. Rather than four months, it took a week for Israel to help 800,000 civilians get out of harm's way.

The Israeli army then carefully moved into Rafah, neutralizing numerous terrorists with very few civilian casualties. It quickly found and began destroying numerous rockets, tunnels, and other terror infrastructure, much of it in and below UNRWA facilities, including schools and hospitals.

At least 20 tunnels were discovered underneath the border with Egypt, used to smuggle weapons to Hamas. This explained why Egypt was so adamantly opposed to Israel entering Rafah and taking control of the critical Philadelphi corridor.

Delaying the operation in Rafah nearly four months had a number of negative consequences.

It, minimally, lengthened the war in Gaza by nearly four months, causing four extra months of misery for the people in Gaza.

It meant four months with no pressure on Hamas to release hostages, four extra months of torture for those hostages, four months during which Hamas murdered an unknown number of hostages.

It meant four months during which pressure was put on Israel to stop putting pressure on Hamas, enabling Hamas terrorists to resume operating in areas where Israel had established control, leading to more battles and more deaths of Israeli troops, of Hamas terrorists and of civilians in Gaza.

It meant four months during which Hamas was able to organize itself in Rafah, strengthen itself with additional weapons smuggled in from Egypt through those tunnels underneath the Philadelphi corridor and booby trap buildings and tunnels in Rafah.

While I have been composing this, eight soldiers were killed by an explosive likely smuggled in during those four months.

It meant four more months during which the Houthis effectively kept the Red Sea shipping lanes closed, continually attacking merchant ships and the naval forces sent to protect them with no effective response.

It meant four more months during which Iranian terror proxies escalated their attacks on Israel with rockets, along with Iran itself conducting the largest single day missile and drone attack by one country on another in history. After Israel respected Ramadan by putting off its necessary operation in Rafah, Hezbollah celebrated the Jewish holiday of Shavuot by firing more than 250 rockets at Israel.

It meant four more months during which the world has ignored the way Iran has been installing more centrifuges and greatly increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons grade levels.

In a gross understatement, the double standard applied to Israel has been devastating for the people in Gaza, deadly for Israelis, a horrendous crime against the hostages being held in Gaza and made the world a far more dangerous place.

The lost lives can never be regained, but our government needs to stop doubling down on its mistakes.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., is a former longtime resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.

Published in the Waterbury Sunday Republican on June 23, 2024.

Iran’s attack: Observations the morning after

The following was published in the Waterbury Republican-American on Wednesday, April 18, 2024. Unfortunately, it already appears the current American government is doubling down on the disastrous strategies that were instrumental in bringing about the various attacks and wars mentioned below, most recently the massive Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, and has successfully pressured Israel to avoid appropriately responding to that attack. We will all pay a heavy price for that unforced error.

Iran’s attack: Observations the morning after

BY ALAN STEIN

I am writing this in Netanya right after Iran launched a massive attack of more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles overnight, with additional missiles launched by Iran or its terror proxies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. With assistance from America, Britain, France and Jordan, the attack was almost completely thwarted, with just one serious injury, suffered by a seven-year-old girl asleep in her bed.

Growing up and living most of my life in America, I am proud that the United States has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world. Now living much of the year in Israel, I also understand harsh realities about the Middle East which most Westerners, including American leaders, do not.

That lack of understanding led President Jimmy Carter to abandon the Shah of Iran, transforming Iran from a harsh but friendly and relatively progressive dictatorship into a fanatical theocracy that murders young women who allow stray hairs to escape their hijabs and whose leaders chant “Death to America.”

In 1990, that lack of understanding helped give Saddam Hussein the impression he had a green light to occupy Kuwait. During the ensuing war, when Saddam Hussein started launching missiles at Israeli cities, President Bush pressured Israel to not retaliate. It marked the first time Israel was attacked and did not defend itself, dealing a serious blow to Israeli deterrence, an existential necessity in the Middle East.

Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, American pressure forced Israel into a premature ceasefire every time Hamas started another war, inevitably leading to another bloodier and more destructive war.

When Barack Obama was president, we had Iran over a barrel, with its economy in shambles, its foreign currency reserves almost exhausted and barely able to support its terror proxies. Perversely, President Obama negotiated as if Iran was the superpower holding all the cards and we were powerless.

With an estimated $150 billion signing bonus and the elimination of sanctions worth many billions each year, Iran became an evil rags-toriches success, lavishly funding its many terror proxies while never actually adhering to the terms of the nuclear deal. We again had Iran on the ropes after Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement, until President Biden came into office promising to get Iran to agree to a longer and stronger deal and immediately removed the reimposed sanctions. When he couldn’t even get Iran to agree to a much shorter and weaker deal, President Biden kept giving Iran multi-billion-dollar waivers on sanctions.

We inexplicably removed the Houthis from our list of terror organizations.

We perversely declared Qatar — a close friend of Iran, major funder for Hamas, and owner of Al Jazeera — a “major non-NATO ally.”

We barely responded to well over 100 attacks on us and our friends, even when attacks killed American soldiers.

We left billions of dollars worth of sophisticated weapons for the Taliban and abandoned American citizens and allies in Afghanistan.

President Obama stood by helplessly when Russia took Crimea away from Ukraine.

While President Biden coordinated the supply of weapons to help Ukraine when Putin invaded again, responses to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s desperate pleas have often been very slow and the most needed weapons often withheld.

Immediately after Oct. 7, President Biden recognized Israel was fighting an evil enemy that had to be eliminated, and he pledged “rocksolid” and “unwavering” support.

Unfortunately, while Israel and its army proved they deserved that support, Biden’s rock-solid support has turned to jelly. He has even strongly pressured Israel to not enter the last remaining Hamas stronghold, hand Hamas a victory and let them murder the remaining hostages, including several Americans.

Russia’s takeover of Crimea, its recent invasion of Ukraine, the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 and the recent Iranian attack are all connected to those errors.

Regardless of President Biden’s position, Israel has no alternative but to retaliate against Hamas. Any other response guarantees future attacks.

We need to recognize America is the free world’s indispensable nation and act like it.

We need to reimpose and enforce all the sanctions on Iran. We need to make clear we actually mean it when we say we will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.

We need to respond strongly whenever we or any of our friends and allies are attacked, whether or not the attack is successful.

If we don’t, Israel will pay a price, Ukraine will likely lose and China will likely invade Taiwan. America and the entire free world will suffer while Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and their allies of convenience are likely to impose a new Dark Age on this planet.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., was formerly a longtime resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.

October 7 provided a brief moment of clarity

An abridged version of the following appeared as an op-ed in the Waterbury Republican-American on February 21, 2024 

How soon we forget

October 7 provided a brief moment of clarity

By Alan Stein

The October 7 Massacre led by Hamas provided a fleeting moment of clarity.

Peace-loving Israelis were disabused of the misconception that it was possible to live next to a de facto terror state ruled by Hamas. They realized providing food, fuel, water and power and transferring massive amounts of goods and providing well-paying jobs for thousands of Gazans would never moderate Hamas.

Israelis realized there is no alternative to rendering Hamas incapable of keeping its leaders' pledge to repeat the October 7 massacre again and again.

Israelis recognized the need for good to prevail over evil.

Most leaders of democratic nations also understood their need for Israel to prevail.

President Biden quickly became the first president ever to travel to Israel during a war, asserted Hamas must be eliminated and pledged to stand with Israel forever.

We have since learned the barbarity of the Gaza terrorists was far worse than initially realized. Unfortunately, memories fade, support has waned and Israel is under increasing pressure to stop short of victory and let Hamas survive.

Early on, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby praised Israel for the lengths it was going to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, doing more than even America would.

This is borne out by the historically low proportion of civilian casualties. The United Nations expects nine non-combatant deaths for every enemy combatant killed in urban warfare. The ratio in Gaza has been less than a quarter of that norm.

Hamas' network of tunnels is more extensive than the New York City subway system and cost Hamas a billion dollars. The underground labyrinth presents a challenge no other military in history has faced. Military academies will study and learn from the innovative methods Israel developed to deal with it.

Thousands of entrance shafts are deliberately located inside homes, schools, mosques and hospitals in order to make it impossible for Israel to defend against Hamas without Gaza's infrastructure being damaged and civilians getting killed. It's called Hamas' "dead baby strategy." 

Here are two examples.

A woman pushing a baby carriage called out to Israeli soldiers for help. As a soldier came to help, she signaled a terrorist, who emerged from a nearby shaft, shot and killed the soldier, and escaped down the shaft.

A boy asked an Israeli soldier for water. As the soldier approached with the water, the boy detonated the suicide belt he was wearing. The soldier was fortunate. Although seriously injured, he survived. The boy who blew himself up is now counted among those children Hamas claims were killed by Israel.

John Spencer, the Chair of Urban Studies Warfare at the Modern War Institute at West Point and one of the world's leading experts on urban warfare, recently wrote "Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that's fought an urban war" and "Israel has taken precautionary measures even the United States did not do during its recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." (Israel Implemented More Measures to Prevent Civilian Casualties Than Any Other Nation in History, Newsweek, January 31, 2024)

Despite those facts, Hamas' "dead baby strategy" has been effective in subverting support for Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken now keeps repeating the mantra "far too many Palestinians have died and Israel must do a better job."

During his generally positive speech in Israel on October 18, Biden announced he had prevailed on Israel to agree to the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, even though Hamas has traditionally stolen much of the aid delivered to Gaza. Hamas used stolen aid to build its underground network of tunnels. Recognizing this, President Biden said "Let me be clear: If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people and it will end."

Sixty percent of that aid has been stolen by Hamas. Yet rather than ending the aid, as he said he would if Hamas stole it, President Biden keeps pressuring Israel to allow even more.

The world quickly loses interest in most wars.

Not so when Israel is attacked. The world is losing interest in the 134 innocent Israelis still being held. Many of those not already murdered are being brutalized by Hamas, but many obsesses over the plight of the people in Gaza even though 98% say they're more proud of being Palestinian after the October 7 Massacre!

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when he was kidnapped by Hamas, along with his four year old brother Ariel and their parents, Shiri and Yarden. Shiri's parents were murdered. Kfir is now thirteen months old and nobody has any idea of whether he and his brother and parents are dead or alive.

How many people who obsess about the suffering of Gazans ever think about the Bibas family?

That Israel is fighting against evil hasn't changed, even as memories have faded.

For good to prevail over evil, Israel must render render Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza incapable of resurrecting themselves and repeating their barbaric slaughter.

This remains a necessity for America as well.

Published in the Waterbury Republican-American on January 24, 2024:

Everyone values some lives more than others

BY ALAN STEIN

There's a question I've been pondering since Sky News reporter Kay Burley, referring to the impending hostage deal calling for Israel to release 150 terrorists in exchange for 50 of the innocent Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, asked a visibly stunned Eylon Levy "Does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives."

It was clearly a trap, meant to elicit an answer that would be used to call Levy a bigot for valuing Palestinian lives less than Israeli lives. He avoided her trap, but in truth everyone values some lives more than others.

Like most Americans, I value American lives more than lives of people in other countries. Most of us pay more attention to a murder in London than one in N'Djamena. A shooting in Waterbury is far more likely to be on the front page of the Republican-American than one in London or even Hartford.

The way that question was posed to Eylon Levy is an example of the double standard routinely applied to Israel. Has anyone heard a similar question ever being asked of a representative of any other country?

It would be abnormal for Israelis to not value the lives of their brethren more than those of others, particularly others dedicated to Israel's destruction.

What's abnormal is how their own demands for that lopsided exchange indicate Palestinians themselves value Israeli lives more than their own.

Rabbi Shmuel Reichman reports hearing a Hamas leader saying "Hamas values death, while Israel value life; that is their greatest weakness."

CNN's Sam Kiley reported that Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, told him "Israelis love life" while "we celebrate the greatest gift of martyrdom for our children. Every mother wants that for her child."

In 2011, Israel released 1,027 terrorists to free a single Israeli, Gilad Shalit.

Israelis rejoiced in the release of Shalit, but many opposed the deal, correctly believing it would lead to more fatal terror attacks. One of the terrorists released in that deal, Yahya Sinwar, was the mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre.

While he was in custody, Israeli doctors had saved Sinwar's life, curing him of an aggressive strain of brain cancer.

Israel saves the life of a Palestinian terrorist and he masterminds the slaughter of more than a thousand Israelis! Israel's humanity often gets repaid with terror.

The support Israel had on Oct. 7 predictably started ebbing even before Israel began defending its people. The unavoidable casualties in Gaza now get massive attention while the mass murders of Israelis and the plight of the Israelis held hostage are virtually ignored. That the proportion of civilian casualties in Gaza has been far below what the United Nations expects in modern warfare and what our American army considered acceptable in Iraq does nothing to protect Israel from constant criticism.

Mainstream American media rarely reports that Israeli forces find terrorists and weapons in every hospital, along with entrances to terror tunnels below, or that the IDF found weapons hidden behind MRI machines and RPGs in incubators for premature babies.

My wife and I had plane tickets leaving for Israel on Oct. 8. The Oct. 7 massacre changed our plans, but we finally arrived in Israel a few weeks ago.

Superficially, life for us in Netanya is almost normal, but no family in Israel has been unaffected. The hotels are filled with families displaced from their homes thanks to attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Almost everyone is worried about close friends and relatives fighting in Gaza. Almost everyone knows someone who was murdered in the Oct. 7 massacre, after being taken hostage or killed while serving in Gaza.

Nobody wants the war to end more than Israelis, but they also understand it must be ended in a way that ensures Hamas will not be able to carry out its pledge to repeat its Oct. 7 atrocities "again and again." They know each previous war ended with a ceasefire during which Hamas took aid meant to help civilians, used it to enrich its leaders, build its elaborate terror tunnel system and strengthen itself, then broke the ceasefire with more terror, war, death and destruction.

Israelis recognize they have no alternative to what they are doing. They will not be able to live in peace unless they win this war.

In contrast, the terrorists in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority controlled portions of Judea and Samaria do have a choice. They can continue the path of terror and mass murder of Israelis and catastrophe for Gazans. Or they can choose the path of peace, raising their children to grow up and live normal lives rather than die as shahids.

While the Israeli Defense Force is doing what it must, in Netanya we see people trying to live their lives as normally as possible. Every time they enjoy a walk, or sit in a cafe, or visit friends, or play tennis - I've done that a few times since getting to Israel - they deprive the terrorists of a victory and make a small contribution to the victory of good over evil.

Hamas thinks the Israeli love of life is Israel's weakness, and in a sense they're right, but it's also Israel's great strength.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., was formerly a long time resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is President Emeritus of PRIMERConnecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.

South Africa's genocide allegation against Israel by Yale Zussman

Posted with the permission of the author.

Last evening's program on South Africa's allegation of genocide against Israel left out more issues than it addressed. 

The Palestinians have charged Israel with genocide for decades, whether there was a conflict or not.  I am a retired math professor, and I hope you will agree that if party A is pursuing genocide against party B, the number of people in party B will go down over time.  For example, during the Holocaust, the number of Jews in Europe was reduced by half.  By contrast, there are about eight times as many Palestinians today as when they started claiming Israel was engaged in genocide against them.  Maybe UNRWA-run schools just don't do a good job teaching basic mathematics, but for journalists to be unfamiliar with the difference between "increase" and "decrease" is inexcusable.

 

Second, the authors of the Genocide Convention never contemplated how the target of an intended genocide could defend itself against a people dedicated to its annihilation.  Since its creation, that has been the sole purpose of the Palestinian movement; in the case of Hamas, genocide against the Jews is written into its Charter.  Unless the option of totally destroying a genocidal movement is permitted, the Convention would enable groups committed to genocide to keep trying until they succeed. That would be self-defeating, and as a matter of policy, makes no sense.  To prevent genocide, the Convention must permit targets of intended genocides to undertake the destruction of any group that pursues genocide.

 

That begs the question of defining the membership of a genocidal entity, like Hamas, or more broadly the Palestinian movement.  Polls show that Hamas's popularity rose after engaging in the October 7 genocidal atrocity.  There's no evidence that Gazans have ever resisted Hamas's control of them or objected to Hamas turning the entire strip into one vast military base.  Gazan civilians constructed Hamas's tunnels and allowed Hamas to use schools, mosques, hospitals, and homes as entry points and sites from which Hamas routinely fired rockets at Israeli civilians.  Perhaps most telling is that Gazans who were trusted enough to get permits to work in Israel provided much of the intelligence Hamas used to plan the atrocity.  While there are undoubtedly innocent Gazans, Hamas has made a point of obscuring who they are.

 

That brings us to the question of civilian deaths.  NPR, like much of the media, has been reporting for more than two months that starvation and disease are immanent, but even the Hamas, woops, Palestinian Health Ministry's official numbers don't reflect this.  

 

Since early in the conflict, the percentage of combatant deaths to total claimed civilian deaths has remained fairly constant.  Using recent numbers, when the Palestinian Health Ministry was reporting total "civilian" deaths as around 22000, the IDF was reporting combatant (Hams plus PIJ) of around 10000.  If the 10000 are included in the 22000, the percentage is about 45%, if not, it is about 31%; these numbers have inched up over the last few weeks.  

 

Two observations:  1) If there was starvation and or disease killing people in significant numbers, the percentages should go down, possibly precipitously.  They haven't, so there is no basis for the starvation/disease claims.  2) In Afghanistan and Iraq both the United States and Britain considered a 10% combatant death ratio good.  By this standard, the IDF's handling of Gaza should be considered remarkably good.

 

Considering that South Africa has had more murders in the past year than there have been deaths in the Gaza War, the only way to describe what it is doing is the Israeli word,"Chutzpa."

In the midst of the Gaza nightmare, a light flickers, then dies

This was published as a Viewpoint in the CT Mirror on Monday, December 4, 2023. It is an updated version of an op-ed published a week earlier in the Waterbury Republican-American.

In the midst of the Gaza nightmare, a light flickers, then dies

by Alan Stein, Ph.D.

On Friday morning, Nov. 24, I watched live as 13 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza were released seven weeks after being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

They were the first of four groups to be released during a four-day pause in the war Hamas started on Oct. 7, with an agreement that it could be extended an additional day for every 10 hostages Hamas released, up to five more days. Ultimately it lasted just a week, punctuated each day by drama orchestrated by Hamas. It ended with Hamas crossing too many red lines, refusing to release a group of hostages as agreed and firing 45 rockets when the ceasefire was still in effect.

The deal was a double-edged sword.

On the plus side, a handful of hostages were freed each day.

On the minus side, three terrorists were released for each freed hostage, large amounts of "aid" was sent into Gaza knowing much would stolen by Hamas and used to rearm, lengthen the war and kill more people.

Israel also agreed to stop its aerial surveillance of southern Gaza, by aircraft, drones and balloons, and also stop its surveillance of northern Gaza for six hours each day. One does not need much imagination to figure out why Hamas made that demand: to give it the opportunity to move the hostages around, eliminating the value of any intelligence about their location Israel might have gained from the hostages who got released and making further rescue far more difficult. And, each day, the pressure increased on Israel to agree to another "permanent" ceasefire that would again let Hamas survive, rearm, and perform more atrocities.

Although efforts continue to be made to forge a new hostages-for-terrorists agreement, I think a new agreement is unlikely in the near future. Hamas will be trying for an even more one-sided deal, while Israel will be trying to make sure Hamas can't again violate it with impunity. Israel also can't keep stopping, restarting and dragging out a war while hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens remain displaced (Hamas doesn't care about its citizens) and its economy is stalled because so many workers are on reserve duty.

On that first day, I watched as some children were released with their mothers while their fathers were still being held hostage. Some are now orphans traumatized by seeing their parents slaughtered in front of them; some have just one parent because Hamas murdered their other parent on October 7. In several cases, in violation of the agreement, Hamas released children without their mother. Hila Rotem Shoshani, a 13-year-old girl, was released late that Saturday night - itself a violation of the agreement, since the hostages were supposed to be released around 4 p.m. - without her mother, Raaya. Hamas falsely claimed they did not know where her mother was, even though, as Hila told her relatives, they had been held together until two days earlier.

In a complicated procedure, Hamas gathered the hostages and brought them to International Red Cross ambulances on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt. The Red Cross brought them into Egypt and drove to the border with Israel, where they were transferred to the Israeli military and brought into Israel and then to Israeli hospitals.

That first transfer to the Rafah crossing into Egypt was delayed because the Red Cross needed to provide urgent care that couldn't wait for the short ambulance ride to the Rafah crossing. On November 24, 84-year-old Elma Avraham was hours from death when she was released. She'd been in good health when taken hostage, but needed medications that were withheld from her by Hamas. Upon her release, she had a weak pulse, low blood pressure, a body temperature in the 80's and had to be rushed by helicopter to Soroka Medical Center, where she fell into a coma.

The children were not immediately told whether their parents were alive or dead; that waited until they were in the care of trained professionals, and then only if it was known whether their parents were alive or dead.

Those traumatized children are the "lucky" ones.

They are not among those who were beheaded on Oct. 7, or burned alive, or had their limbs torn off so their Hamas torturers could enjoy watching them bleed to death.

Similar scenes, with cruel variations forced by Hamas, were repeated six more times. Each day relatives were still wondering whether their children, wives, sisters or mothers would be returned and in what condition. Hamas was required to provide a list each day of who would be released the next day. Each time, Hamas delayed providing the list, or provided one violating the agreed upon criteria. On the second day, hours after the transfer to the Red Cross was supposed to take place, Hamas still hadn't provided an acceptable list, at which point Israel announced that unless the hostages reached Israel by midnight - itself eight hours after they were supposed to be transferred to the Red Cross - it would resume the war. Hamas cruelly kept the suspense going for hours more, with the hostages reaching Israel just two minutes to midnight.

The only concession by Hamas in the agreement besides the release of some of the hostages it kidnapped in violation of international law was to permit the International Red Cross to visit the hostages, give them emergency medical care and give Israel a list of their names and conditions. This is all also required under international law. Not surprisingly, Hamas reneged on that commitment. When the pause was extended, Hamas again committed to allowing Red Cross access and again reneged.

The most problematic parts of the deal were the cease fire and its timing, coming when Israel was days away from clearing the terrorists from northern Gaza.

Pausing operations halted Israel's momentum and, as noted, predictably led to increased pressure on Israel to agree to a permanent cease fire, leaving Hamas intact and able to rebuild. The prime ministers of Belgium and Spain came to the Rafah crossing before any hostages crossed, bizarrely criticized Israel and called for a permanent cease fire while uttering neither a single word of criticism of Hamas nor welcome for the release of hostages.

The freed hostages have revealed some of the cruel treatment by their terrorist captors and accomplices.

When 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi was dragged into Gaza, residents - often referred to as innocent civilians living in Gaza - beat him. Hamas forced him, at gunpoint, to watch videos of the atrocities they committed on 10/7.

Women were held in cages.

When 9-year-old Emily Hand was in captivity, she was conditioned to not speak above a whisper, so much so that upon her release her father could not hear what she said without putting his ear right next to her lips. Emily's mother had died from cancer when she was 2 years old and her stepmother was murdered on October 7.

Kfir Bibas was 9-months-old and in diapers when he was kidnapped, along with his 4-year-old brother Ariel, mother Shiri and father Yarden. At one time, Hamas has said it couldn't release him because it didn't know where he was. On November 28, Israeli officials revealed Hamas previously claimed it had given the entire family to another terror group. On November 29, Hamas claimed that Kfir, Ariel and Shiri had been killed by an Israeli airstrike. Three cruel assertions by Hamas, each contradicting the other two. If he's still alive, he's now 11 months old and has spent a fifth of his life underground without seeing a single ray of natural light.

Early on, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed Hannah Katzi had been killed by an Israeli airstrike. She turned out to be alive, being among the first group of hostages released.

The cruelty extends to the ordinary, innocent "civilians" in Gaza for which so much "humanitarian aid" is being provided.

Roni Kriboy, released as a favor by Hamas to Vladimir Putin and the only adult male released, managed to escape when the building he was in collapsed. After spending four days trying to avoid recapture and find his way back to Israel, a group of ordinary Gaza civilians captured him and promptly brought him to Hamas.

One hostage was held for nearly 50 days by a teacher from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, while another was held hostage by a physician!

When Hamas ended the ceasefire with its barrage of rockets on December 1, the terrorists were still holding nearly 140 hostages, underground, not knowing the fate of their children, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, parents, grandparents.

There can be no doubt but that we must stand with Israel and, for the good of Israel, for the good of America, for the good of the democratic world and for the good of the Gazans themselves, ensure Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and allies can terrorize no more.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., is President Emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel. A version of this commentary was published in the Waterbury Republican-American on November 29, before Hamas ended the hostage-for-terrorists deal.

A flickering light in the middle of a nightmare

 This was published in the Waterbury Republican-American on November 29, 2023. I have updated it with a few comments placed in parentheses.

A flickering light in the middle of a nightmare

BY ALAN STEIN

I am writing this on Friday morning, Nov. 24, while watching live the apparent release of 13 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza for seven weeks after being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. They are the first of four groups scheduled to be released during a four day pause in the war Hamas started on Oct. 7. (There have now been seven groups released, each time with some drama orchestrated by Hamas, and efforts are being made to extend the pause even more. Each day it is extended is a double-edged sword, with more terrorists being released, more aid sent into Gaza to be stolen by Hamas and used to extend the war and kill more people, more pressure being exerted on Israel for a permanent ceasefire that would let Hamas survive, rearm, and perform more atrocities.)

Some children are being released with their mothers while their fathers are still being held hostage. Some children are now orphans who saw their parents slaughtered in front of them; some still have one or both parents still held hostage by Hamas, perhaps one parent murdered and the other held hostage. (In  several cases, in violation of the agreement, Hamas has released children without their mother. In at least one case, they claimed they didn't know where the mother was, but it was determined the mother and daughter had been held together until they were separated two days before the daughter's release, meaning the mother had been separated AFTER the ceasefire agreement.)

This first transfer to the Rafah crossing into Egypt was apparently delayed because when they were transferred to the Red Cross some were in such need of urgent care that it couldn’t wait for the short ambulance ride to the Rafah crossing. (In a later release, one elderly woman was released in critical condition because she wasn't given medication she needed to stay alive and lapsed into a coma soon after being hospitalized in Israel.)

At this moment, they have just passed the into Egypt and are receiving additional urgent care before being transferred Israel, where they will be evaluated and transferred to hospitals.

The children are not yet being told whether their parents are alive or dead; that will not happen until they are in the care of trained professionals, and then only if it is known whether their parents are alive or dead.

And they are the “lucky” ones.

They are not among those who were beheaded on Oct. 7, or burned alive, or had their limbs torn off so their Hamas torturers could enjoy watching them bleed to death.

They are in the first group, with the scene to be repeated on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, while their relatives are still living wondering whether their children will be returned and in what condition.

They are not among the nearly 200 innocents who will remain held hostage in Gaza, underground, not knowing the fate of their children, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, parents, grandparents.

If the lopsided deal doesn’t fall apart, 50 Israelis will be released over four days — along with a handful of Thai and Filipino citizens whose release was arranged separately through agreements between their governments and Hamas, but at a very heavy price even without the inevitable violations by Hamas, which started immediately. (Hamas has at least once attacked Israeli troops during the ceasefire and exploded at least two IEDs.)

All Israel was supposed to get according to the agreement was the release of 50 women and children and the International Red Cross being allowed to visit the remaining 190 or so hostages, give them emergency medical care and give Israel a list of their names and conditions. Not surprisingly, Hamas is not allowing that access to the International Red Cross. (When the ceasefire was extended, Hamas again committed to allowing Red Cross access and again reneged.)

Besides a temporary cease fire, which Hamas quickly violated with a volley of rocket fire for the first 15 minutes, Israel agreed to allow massive amounts of “humanitarian aid” into Gaza, including fuel. We can be sure much, if not most, of that “aid” will be stolen by Hamas and used to regroup, rearm and keep firing rockets at Israeli cities and towns, just as the massive terror tunnel complex used by Hamas was built using cement transferred to Gaza for humanitarian purposes.

Israel also agreed to stop its aerial surveillance, by aircraft, drones and balloons, of southern Gaza and also stop its surveillance of northern Gaza for six hours each day. One does not need much imagination to figure out why Hamas made that demand: it will give Hamas the opportunity to move the hostages around, eliminating the value of any intelligence about their location Israel might gain from the hostages who get released and making their rescue far more difficult.

Plus Israel will be releasing 150 terrorists, three terrorists for every innocent Israeli released. One of the terrorists to be released stabbed her next door neighbor; that Israeli woman survived but will now live in the fear that she try again, or go after her children. One must pray the Israeli security forces will keep a very close eye on all the released terrorists.

Perhaps the most problematic part of the deal is the cease fire and its timing, coming when Israel was days away from taking complete control of northern Gaza and being in a position to completely destroy the terror infrastructure there.

Pausing operations halts Israel’s momentum and will undoubtedly lead to pressure on Israel to agree to a permanent cease fire, leaving Hamas intact and able to rebuild. Already, the prime ministers of Belgium and Spain came to the Rafah crossing not to welcome today’s release of a handful of hostages but bizarrely to criticize Israel and call for a permanent cease fire.

There is also the provision that if Hamas releases more hostages, Israel will release 30 more terrorists and extend the cease fire another day for every ten additional hostages released by Hamas. As Yogi Berra observed, it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future, but it would be surprising if Hamas didn’t decide to drag out the release of more terrorists in order to extend the cease fire and attempt to make irresistible the pressure on Israel to not destroy Hamas. (This has actually happened, with dramatics orchestrated by Hamas each time.)

We must stand with Israel and, for the good of Israel, for the good of America, for the good of the democratic world and for the good of the Gazans themselves, make sure Israel resists that pressure and help it put an end to the rule of Gaza by terror groups.

Alan Stein, Ph.D., was formerly a long time resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Massachusetts. He is President Emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.