One of the pitfalls that Jewish journalist must struggle to avoid is the temptation to seek a Jewish angle on absolutely every story, no matter how tenuous. Yet the Jewish angle to the story of the princess of Wales’s mysterious disappearance from the public eye, while hardly a major piece of news, at the very least contains an interesting bit of history. It arose from the rumor—as unfounded as so many others on this subject—that Prince William is having an affair with his wife’s close friend Rose Hanbury. Philissa Cramer writes:

Hanbury’s husband David, the marquess of Cholmondeley, is the grandson of Sybil Sassoon—a member of the influential Baghdadi Jewish family and also a member of the Rothschilds, the prominent Jewish banking family.

Rose and David live in Houghton Hall today, surrounded in part by the design choices made by his grandmother. Sassoon, an avid art collector, was known for restoring the Cholmondeley estate to its former glory. David, too, made headlines more recently by revamping the estate’s public gardens. And this week, with Rose squarely in the Internet’s sights, the interior of the estate returned to public view when royals-watchers discovered photographs from 2013 and 2016 featuring the couple and their lushly decorated home.

The decor, Chinese Internet users quickly realized, includes furniture and art from the Qing Dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty, which reigned from 1644 to 1912.

The Sassoon family’s ties to China were long and complicated. After Britain forced the flow of opium into China in the 19th century, during what are known as the Opium Wars, the Sassoon family became the dominant trader sending the narcotic from India to China. Victor Sassoon, who lived from 1881 to 1961, shifted much of the family’s wealth to Shanghai, where he was both crucial to the city’s modern development and to its role as a haven for Jews during the Holocaust.

While there is some unclarity about the provenance of Chinese artwork, calling it “an unsavory Jewish secret,” as one headline did, is surely sensational.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.