Horrors on Video

Oct. 31 2023

On Friday, the Israeli consulate in New York City screened footage, recorded by Hamas operatives themselves, of the atrocities of October 7 for a group of journalists. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board describes what they saw. (Please note that the following description, while not graphic, is still very hard to read.)

Why did the Hamas men, upon confronting the dead body of a teenage girl, start cheering? Why did they argue over who would get to decapitate a Thai guest worker they had shot, then proclaim “Allahu akbar” with every swing at his neck?

“Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is most great,” was on their lips over and over as they shot defenseless civilians, dragged corpses, and pumped round after round into the dead. There it was again on the terrorists’ return to Gaza, “Allahu akbar” coming from crowds as a Hamas man pulled by the hair a battered hostage with pants bloodied around her groin.

One of the Hamas men called his parents using the phone of a murdered Israeli woman, unable to contain his pride. “Put Mom on the phone,” he said. “Your son is a hero. . . . I killed ten Jews with my own hands!” The phone recorded the call, so we can know his goal: “victory or martyrdom.”

Read more at Wall Street Journal

More about: Evil, Gaza War 2023, Hamas, Jihadism

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula