Latest Developments

The third-most senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed on January 2 in a Beirut blast that Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel. Arouri was among at least four people who died in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas media office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, authorities said. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

After Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Arouri was the top-ranked Hamas official. He pursued an especially aggressive Palestinian terrorism strategy, with a focus on the West Bank, where he ordered the 2014 abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, sparking a Gaza war. After a period of being headquartered in Turkey, Arouri relocated to Lebanon, where he spearheaded Hamas coordination with Hezbollah and their shared Iranian patron.

Expert Analysis

“Israel has openly vowed to take the Gaza war to all leaders of Hamas, no matter where they are. That Arouri apparently thought he might be immune in the Hezbollah heartland suggests a major miscalculation on the part of Hamas. The question now is how Hezbollah will calculate the risks of stepping up its own attacks on Israel in retaliation.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“Israel sent a message to all terror allies of Iran that no matter where they hide, they will never be secure. Whether Hamas leaders reside in Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, or another country, they should assume their days are numbered. Hezbollah’s leadership must also factor this escalation into the group’s next move.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“The elimination of Saleh al-Arouri stands as a significant blow to Hamas and a considerable victory for Israel in its current war against Palestinian terrorist groups. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that this accomplishment is merely one of many goals Israel must achieve in order to dismantle Hamas and its partners.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Source: FDD

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Much like its ideological counterparts at HispanTV (Iranian-owned) and Actualidad RT (Russian-owned), Telesur wraps its incitement into a sophisticated and slick twenty-four-hour news platform through its website, broadcasts, and social media presence. Though it is difficult to gauge its influence, numbers suggest that Telesur’s message is impactful. Telesur has two million followers on its Spanish X account, 117,500 on its English X account, and more than half a million on Instagram. Its YouTube account has over 1.7 million subscribers, with 100,000 new subscribers and almost 7.4 million video views since October 7 (It also posts its videos on the Daily Motion).

The network traditionally pushes out conspiracy theories, fake news, “whataboutism,” and disinformation that serve a common agenda: demonize the West, undermine the credibility of Western news outlets, paint Western leaders as hypocrites, and promote a narrative of global resistance against America and its allies. Aware that a worldwide audience of half a billion Spanish speakers—including almost sixty million in the U.S.—could be receptive to its anti-imperialist spin, Telesur began broadcasts in 2005. Since then, Telesur has routinely packaged its allies’ imperialism as resistance, their terrorism as anti-terrorism, and their authoritarianism as democracy. It has platformed conspiracy theorists, like Thierry Meyssan, the French author of the 2002 screed, 9/11: The Big Lie, the earliest 9/11 “truther” libel, accusing the United States of orchestrating the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. It has also peddled anti-Semitic tropes, insinuating that “the Zionist Lobby” manipulates and controls U.S. media, falsely accusing Israelis of trafficking children and Israel of supporting ISIS.

Telesur news coverage since October 7, then, is hardly surprising. However, it has gained a new obsessive intensity, broadcasting a daily media diet of hatred. In its breaking news report on Hamas’ October 7 massacre, Telesur news anchor described that morning’s atrocities as an operation by the Hamas “resistance movement” in response to “continued Israeli aggressions.” The broadcast defined the event as “a new stage in the Palestinian struggle against Zionist occupation.” It then showed its viewers a news segment produced by their Syria-based correspondent, which made no mention of atrocities or Israeli civilian casualties. Telesur’s initial denial and distortion set the stage for the ensuing news coverage, which amplified a pro-Hamas narrative.

For example, after Western media corrected their reporting about Palestinian claims that on October 17, Israel bombarded the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people, Telesur doubled down, relying on a report from Al Jazeera.

Opinion pieces have been even more inflammatory than news segments, consistently espousing bigotry. Telesur commentators have routinely compared Israel to Nazism, denying and, at the same time, justifying the October 7 massacre. On October 9, as the gory details of Hamas atrocities were emerging, a blog entry celebrated them as a “very special page” in the history of the great battles for freedom. On October 15, TeleSur’s special envoy in Lebanon wrote a column entitled “Agony of a macabre implant,” where, after defining Israel as a European colonial-settler “implant” and accusing it of committing genocide, he proceeded to dismiss Hamas’ atrocities, lamenting a “Western media narrative, which focuses on Hamas, and not on the unprecedented fact of the united action of all Palestinian resistance organizations.”

After denial comes the systematic demonization of Israel through the casual recourse to antisemitic tropes, with Israel described as a worthy successor of Nazi Germany. 

On October 16, another blog post accused Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of pursuing a final solution in Gaza and pleaded that the international community should not allow “the Jews to continue murdering the Palestinians in their land.”

On October 21, another commentator evoked the old Antisemitic canard of Jewish control of world media to denounce what its author considered a global media coverup of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Those controlling the “spiral of silence” in the mainstream media were, according to the author, “the transnational Jewish lobby.” On November 3, the theme of a conspiracy of silence orchestrated by Israel, the United States, and “the hegemonic media” recurred in another column. Its goal, thundered the author, was to enable Israel to turn Gaza into “a Palestinian cemetery.” The next day, Telesur published another blog post accusing Israel, whose creation the author described as the machinations of the “international Zionist oligarchy,” of committing “the third largest genocide in history.” And on November 7, Chilean columnist Pablo Jofre Leal (an author frequently posting on HispanTV as well and a government advisor to Gabriel Boric’s ministry of health in Chile) attacked what he labeled “the Ukraine-Israel national socialist-national Zionist alliance,” called the Hamas massacres a “legitimate action of the Palestinian resistance,” and described Israel’s response as a modern version of 1942 Wannsee Conference, the Nazi gathering that finetuned Hitler’s final solution.

Telesur, whose broadcast includes an English language channel and a Washington, DC, based correspondent, continues to spread misinformation and incitement through the ether, the internet, and social media. Washington, whose battle against disinformation has taken multiple steps to curb Russia’s and Iran’s misinformation channels in the anglosphere, seems mostly oblivious to Spanish language propaganda by Maduro’s Venezuela, despite its ability to shape public opinion in Latin America.

Downplaying the importance of the battle of ideas in Spanish will have long-term implications, especially in Latin America, where the Maduro regime continues to leverage a long history of anti-Americanism to its own advantage. Commenting on Russia’s Spanish language propaganda in Latin America, Southern Command’s General Laura J. Richardson recently said, “In 2020, Russia Today (RT)’s Spanish-language media outlets more than doubled their social media followers from 7 million to over 18 million. These disinformation campaigns are just one part of Russia’s broader efforts to influence national elections throughout the region this year.”

With much of the region’s political winds blowing leftward, the pro-Iran and pro-Hamas echo chamber of the Maduro regime should draw as much urgent attention from the White House and State Department as Russia’s disinformation does.

If Washington does wake up to the threat, it can take three initial steps to address it. First, it can slap sanctions against Telesur, much like it did against Iran’s Press TV, for its key role in supporting censorship and televising forced confessions, and Russian state-owned propaganda outlets for their role in Russia’s disinformation campaign. Second, it can lobby the telecom private sector to have Telesur de-platformed. Third, it can appeal to U.S.-based social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, X, the Daily Motion, and YouTube, to ensure they restrict Venezuelan regime disinformation.

The pro-Hamas, pro-Iran disinformation that Telesur spews daily is inflammatory, inciteful, and rife with antisemitic hatred. Telesur should be treated as a foreign state influence operation of the Maduro dictatorship for its continued rhetoric inciting hatred against Jews and driving global antisemitism. It should not be given free rein. Washington has sanctioned similar media disinformation campaigns before. Telesur should not be an exception.

Source: FDD

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed Palestine-Israel developments, as Erdoğan highlighted that it is necessary to take steps to de-escalate tensions as soon as possible, a statement made by the Presidential Communications Directorate said Monday.

The two leaders held a phone conversation, in which they exchanged views on regional and global developments, especially the Palestine-Israel conflict, the directorate said.

Erdoğan told Mitsotakis that Türkiye has been striving to end the crisis, which may have regional and global consequences, and will continue to do so. He also said it is necessary for regional countries to strive to immediately halt the violence and human rights violations and that the countries should take steps to de-escalate tensions, rather than to further exacerbate them.

At least 2,750 Palestinians, a quarter of them children, died in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, according to the besieged enclave’s Health Ministry. Some 9,700 others were injured and 1,000 others are thought to be trapped under the rubble, according to civil defense units.

Türkiye is among the few vocal opponents of Israel’s attacks targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip and urges a two-state solution to permanently end the conflict. It also spearheads efforts for humanitarian aid for Gazans trapped in the enclave amid the ongoing conflict, especially after Israel cut off electricity and other vital resources.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Upon returning from an Arab League-OIC summit, President Erdoğan said Türkiye remains a key actor in resolving regional crises, including the Palestine-Israel conflict, as he pushes for more diplomatic and concrete efforts and criticizes support for ‘baby killer’ Israel

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan joined heads of state at an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organisaton for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The summit, focusing on the Palestine-Israel conflict, was a highlight in Türkiye’s tireless efforts for a permanent solution to the conflict and a push for an immediate cease-fire.

Speaking to journalists while returning home, Erdoğan stressed that his country was a key actor in resolving regional crises and criticized “baby killer” Israel.

“Palestine, which fights for its very existence in the face of decades of occupation and pressure, is going through an unspeakable oppression for 36 days. Innocent civilians in Gaza lose their lives through indiscriminating heavy bombardment and are forced to leave their lands. Israel, right before the eyes of the world, commits war crimes by targeting hospitals, schools and places of worship without discrimination. They target ambulances carrying patients and the deceased and refugee camps. Western countries also watch this savagery,” he lamented.

Erdoğan said people with a conscience cannot stand silent. “Since day one, I tried to be the voice of the Palestinian cause and make the world see the massacre in Gaza. I am engaged in phone diplomacy and visit other countries to that extent,” he said.

Erdoğan stated that Türkiye has been engaged in diplomacy and dialogue since the beginning of the new stage of the conflict on Oct. 7 to ensure a humanitarian cease-fire and delivered some 230 tons of humanitarian aid to Egypt for delivery to Gaza. He noted that a large Turkish vessel was also on its way to Egypt for more aid.

The Turkish president said the international community needs to take concrete action in the face of massacres. “But once again, we see the United Nations Security Council is dysfunctional,” he said while hailing 121 countries voting yes at the Oct. 27 session of the U.N. General Assembly for a cease-fire and unconditional humanitarian aid delivery.

“I find it valuable that the majority of the international community adopted this approach. To ensure it, the Islamic world should be one voice. I stressed it at Saturday’s summit. I highlighted that the OIC, whose original purpose of foundation was the Palestinian cause, has a great responsibility. I told the summit and my counterparts I met on the sidelines of the summit that any steps would not be lasting unless the Palestinian issue is fully resolved,” he said. He added that the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital was key to permanent peace in the region.

“I noted that everyone should make a contribution to ensure it,” he said.

Erdoğan voiced his appreciation for Egypt under the leadership of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for keeping the Rafah border crossing with Gaza open. He said they confirmed plans to remain in touch.

“As Türkiye, we renewed our commitment to a solution and taking responsibility as a guarantor country,” he said.

“We will do what we can do to stop bloodshed, in coordination with our friends in the OIC,” he stated.

Settlers, nuclear threat

Erdoğan acknowledged that the OIC used to limit its action to condemning such crises in the past and states used to abstain from taking steps for various reasons. “But this time, we had a clear picture, and Türkiye’s proposals made it to the joint declaration of the summit. We now have a declaration containing a myriad of actions and things that have not been said before, such as the recognition of (Israeli illegal) settlers as terrorists, a declaration that generated a geostrategy. For the first time, we proposed a nuclear nonproliferation conference, given Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons,” he said.

The declaration “condemned the hateful, extremist and racist acts and statements made by ministers in the Israeli occupation government, including the threat by one of the ministers to use nuclear weapons against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, being a serious threat to global peace and security, which requires supporting the conference to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, held within the framework of the United Nations and its objectives to confront this threat.”

The issue of denuclearization is very significant in terms of revealing which actors are supporting Israel, Erdoğan told journalists. “Now, it is of great importance that both the OIC and the Arab League came together and took this step (resolution) because this is the first time in the history of the two organizations that such a meeting took place,” he added.

Last Sunday, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, told Israeli media that dropping a “nuclear bomb” on the Gaza Strip was “an option.” Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the statement and, according to media reports, suspended Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings until further notice, Eliyahu’s statement caused an international uproar because it was seen as admitting Tel Aviv possesses nuclear weapons and can use them against any country.

Erdoğan said progress was also made regarding the delivery of aid in the declaration’s final text. “For instance, there was a call for breaking the blockade of Gaza for delivery of aid. Some member states inquired whether all actions mentioned in the declaration would be fulfilled. We told them that we need words to be written first to be followed by action. This declaration will be a reference for any country looking to do something. More importantly, the West will see that our distance from them grows because of their stance on the Palestine issue. (French President Emmanuel) Macron, for instance, has started to change his rhetoric. He visited Israel and voiced his support to them but when he saw that the number of deaths increased and the size of the massacre grew, he started to develop a policy against it,” he said.

“This was not a summit where people convened, talked and went their separate ways. On the contrary, we have a list of actions that will be carried out,” Erdoğan said.

On a question about Türkiye’s road map for a solution to the conflict, Erdoğan said they were working on various aspects, such as convincing the 40 countries that abstained from a vote on an immediate cease-fire at the U.N. General Assembly to vote in favor. “We are planning to concentrate our diplomatic efforts on this matter. For example, Hungary is among the countries that abstained from the vote. We are wondering whether we can persuade them,” he said.

He added that he would be more engaged in phone diplomacy after the summit and would host Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Nov. 28. “I believe we can convince countries that supported Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They cannot remain silent about the killings of thousands of people. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, we did not discriminate against any side and even mediated grain deals to Africa and Europe. Now it is the turn of those countries supporting Ukraine to raise their voice (for Palestine),” he said.

Erdoğan noted that first lady Emine Erdoğan would also host a meeting of first ladies in Türkiye on Nov. 15 on the issue. He said he would visit Germany on Nov. 17 and convey “messages” to the West. “Germany is the most powerful country in Europe and our messages will definitely be heard,” he said.

Erdoğan said he would also visit Algeria and said Algeria was a country with influence in Africa and could pave the way for convincing more African countries to adopt a stance for the resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

He also pointed out that the European Union has failed in the face of Israel’s massacres and lamented the absence of a clear stance against Israel from EU members. “I wonder where Germany stands and will have a chance to see it in my Germany visit,” he said.

“The EU views Hamas as a terrorist group just like Israel did. We don’t view Hamas as such and will never do so. Hamas is a political party. They (the EU) want us to recognize it as a terrorist group. No, they are not. They are people fighting for their lands,” he said.

“All heads of state, including leaders of Muslim countries, marched together in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo incident. But they don’t raise their voice now despite some 13,000 people being killed in Gaza. This is because those who died in Gaza are Muslims. Those killed in Paris were the French,” he said.

“For us, people dying are people, not people of this religion or that religion. Don’t you see children are dying? You see parents kissing their dead children. You see bodies of children lined on the ground before their burial. You see mothers embracing the bodies of their children. These should move your conscience,” he said.

Erdoğan reiterated that everyone knows Türkiye is a key country in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean and in the wider region. “Making plans despite Türkiye’s objections in this region is impossible. Everybody knows our clear stand, our principles and our values. We work to protect people’s lives, to ensure peace, end conflicts and wipe the tears of the innocent. We have solutions for every conflict and we offer them to anyone willing to listen. Our door is open to anyone valuing our stand. We always talk to anyone contacting us for a sincere solution, and we will continue working to save the dignity of humankind. Türkiye is the only country offering the most applicable solutions,” he said, noting that Türkiye was the only nation with contacts in every country in the region and could bring warring sides to the table in conflicts.

“We have to hold talks with the Gulf countries, with Egypt to exert pressure on the United States so that it can exert pressure on Israel,” he said, noting Gulf countries’ relations with the West can help press Israel to stop the bloodshed.

On comments on whether this will be a “religious” war, a war of the “crescent and cross,” Erdoğan assured that would not be the case. “Because this is a war of good and evil, lies and truth, oppressor and the oppressed,” he said.

“I believe, in the end, the good, people siding with the truth, the oppressed and their defenders, in other words, Palestinians, will win,” he said.

Referring to his confrontation with then-Israeli President Shimon Peres at a Davos summit years ago over Israel’s atrocities toward Palestinians, Erdoğan said that he was continuing to take steps to raise the voice of ignored Palestinians.

Erdoğan famously accused Israel of killing children during a panel where he was sitting next to Peres. “With its latest Gaza attacks, Israel lost international public support. Though their administrations embrace Israel for their imperialist interests, people of most countries view Israel as a country murdering babies,” he said.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Hamas is sheltered in a sea of civilians. Ostensibly a Palestinian political and military organization established in 1987, Hamas “governs” on the basis of having won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections – defeating Fatah, another Islamist terror combine – before forming a government in the Gaza Strip, described as “…the world’s largest open-air prison” for its Palestinian inhabitants.

So why don’t the Palestinians, having been robbed of their ancient lands, simply up and move somewhere else? It is telling that none of the Islamic nations surrounding Israel care to admit any more Palestinian settlers. Neither Egypt, Jordan or Syria will take them. Why is that? Because those nations are not fools: they understand that the bellicose, fractious Palestinians will bring them trouble, permanently.

A government is presumably supposed to “govern”. That presumably does not include torturing, maiming and killing those who voted for you. Acknowledged internationally as a terrorist organization, Hamas, cynically calling itself a “freedom fighter group” treats the average inhabitants of the west bank, Gaza and Lebanon as human meat shields.

It hides weapons among schoolchildren, deploys weapons from crowded areas, fires upon Israelis from trees and then melts back into crowds of noncombatants. Try and escape the war zone? Anyone now trying to flee the area is in danger of being murdered by Hamas and Hezbollah. Their “asymmetrical warfare” is not just wreaked on Israelis – they will torture and kill anyone not supporting their cause.

What cause is that? The Palestinians’ overt declaration, contained in the Hamas charter, is that Israel has no right to exist and must be destroyed. Its plainly-stated intention is to “wipe Israel off the map.” That is hardly a viable pre-condition for a serious negotiation to settle this ancient quarrel.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” How do you negotiate with such fanatics? Well, by now it becomes clear that you do not. The reality is they don’t care about average people, Muslim, Jew or Christian. They are hell-bent on the elimination of Israel at all costs, regardless of what happens to everyone else living there, including fellow Arabs and Muslims.

The provocation of 7 October, killing 1400 in attendance at a “Peace Festival” (the irony thickens) and kidnapping several hundred more, should have opened the eyes of the world to the fact that there is a larger, well-organized pogrom funded and carried out by Jew-hating fanatics who could care less about the plight of Palestinians and don’t want any compromise when it comes to eliminating every last Jew and Christian from the Middle East.

Once Israel goes, you can bet the Christian minority in Middle Eastern countries will be next.

Proof?

Just ask the millions of Christians who were “ethnically cleansed” from lands that they inhabited for centuries. It happened after World War Two, when Arab nations expelled their Christian and Jewish minorities in retaliation for the establishment of Israel.

In fact, this is a war is between Western Enlightenment, represented by Israel, and 14th Century theocratic despotism, represented by the Islamic nations surrounding it.

And the west is being held hostage: just as Europe is being deindustrialized, companies going bankrupt, since the Americans blew up the Russian gas pipeline, the “good life in suburbia” of America, Canada and Australia is not viable without affordable oil. Arab oil.

Israel, meanwhile, has already installed over 600,000 settlers in the West Bank, in violation of international agreements. How about the Palestinians who are being chased into the desert by Israeli ( = American) firepower? The US and Israel will find 3rd countries to take them. The US will pay a couple of billion in “aid” to bribe them. Just like the US bribed Egypt to make peace with Israel.

And Hamas? A legally-recognized government?

It is said that people truly get the government they deserve. God, let’s hope that’s not so in this case.

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A ship laden with medical supplies set out for Gaza from western Türkiye as officials coordinate with Egypt for deliveries and pulling patients out of the enclave amid Israeli strikes

Türkiye has sent a ship carrying life-saving humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip amid relentless Israeli strikes.

Medical supplies and ambulances were loaded onto the cargo ship, which docked at the Aegean province of Izmir’s Alsancak Port late Thursday.

After the loading was completed, the ship left port early Friday to head to Al Arish, Egypt, close to Egypt’s Rafah border crossing into the embattled enclave. It’s expected to arrive at Al Arish by Saturday.

Nearly 500 tons of aid equipment, including medicine, medical devices, eight field hospitals, 20 ambulances and medical consumables, will be delivered to the Gaza Strip through Egypt as announced by Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Thursday.

Already hit by a 16-year Israeli blockade, since the start of the current conflict over a month ago, Gaza has been cut off from water, electricity and fuel supplies, with many hospitals having to shut down as a result.

This makes aid deliveries from countries like Türkiye a critical lifeline to Gaza, which has been under relentless bombing campaign by Israel since Oct. 7, in the wake of an unprecedented incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Israel.

Türkiye already sent eight planeloads of medicine, medical consumables, devices and generators to Gaza via coordination with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Thursday’s batch includes more generators to power the medical facilities, field hospitals, intensive care units and operation rooms.

Türkiye discussed increasing the daily number of aid trucks to at least 500 for Gaza with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Ankara, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday.

Koca also said the patients of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital would be transferred through the Rafah crossing to Al Arish and Sheikh Zuweid Hospitals in Egypt.

Koca and his Egyptian counterpart will visit the Palestinian children with cancer there.

Israel bombed the enclave’s only hospital for cancer patients less than two weeks ago, drawing Ankara’s “strongest” condemnations. The facility went out of service last week after running out of fuel.

Koca assured Friday that Turkish medical teams and their Egyptian colleagues would work to treat the Gazan patients.

The second phase of the plan includes bringing both cancer patients and others in need of emergency help to Türkiye.

“As a result of diplomacy efforts for patient transfers through Rafah, Turkish, Egyptian and Israeli health ministers have formed contact and set up a health coordination team,” Koca informed.

Additionally, Turkish nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and relief institutions have sent food parcels, blankets, hot meals, hygiene kits, diapers, clothes, medical supplies and fuel support while Turkish citizens raised funds and similar materials for Gazans.

At least 10,812 Palestinians have been killed in brutal Israeli strikes, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women. The Israeli death toll is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

Since Oct. 7, Ankara has been vocal in its support of Gaza as Erdoğan slammed Western countries for “watching the massacre from afar”, urging them to put pressure on Israel to cease its attacks and human rights violations in the blockaded city.

He has spoken with 27 world leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Palestinian and Israeli presidents Mahmoud Abbas and Isaac Herzog, as well as other region’s prime ministers and presidents in the past month.

Unlike Western countries, Türkiye doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization and argues the issue isn’t limited to the resistance group, citing over seven decades of “Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

“For a full 22 days, Israel has been overtly committing war crimes. We are working on it and will introduce Israel as a war criminal to the world,” Erdoğan said on Oct. 28.

Subsequently, he announced Türkiye would take Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Since 2002, Turkish diplomacy has adopted a stance that recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to independence and to establish their own state.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Paris, Frankfurt (13/10 –  42)

Twenty-First Century technology has a way of speeding everything up – often overdriving events beyond human control. Exhibit “A”: the internet. Hamas and its supporters were undoubtedly aware of the multiplication impact of social media when they mounted their recent murderous attack on a “peace party” along the Israeli border (twist the irony dial); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, intent on a blanket reprisal on the Palestinians, apparently does not care what the internet thinks, says or reports.

It is perplexing to the simple-minded when there are no “good guys” in a fight. Note how the vociferous left, long championing what they condemn as “disinformation” or “misinformation”, is now caught in their own web, as barrages of anti-Israel – not to mention pro-Hamas terrorist attack – flood the Web.

Go back a bit. Betar “pioneers” infiltrating British-controlled Palestine in the 1930s harassed the inhabitants by “occupying” ancient water sources and springs – thus preventing the Bedouins and farmers from accessing them. No water = no life.

This is related in detail in the memoir of Moshe Arens.

A video clip of an Arab man and his elderly father confronting an Israeli settler, explaining patiently that the newcomer had stolen and now occupied the old man’s land. The Arab showed the Israeli the deed. The settler responded by stating that God had given him the land.

A situation without a resolution.

An ugly history leads up to the present impossible conundrum. The Haavara Agreement, signed in 1933 by an unlikely collaboration between Zionists and German Nazis, facilitated the emigration of German Jews to Palestine, taking assets pointedly used to purchase German goods for export to that sad land. Most of the Jewish population of Germany, comfortable and prosperous, declined to move to the desert (which the British controlled, in any case, and did not welcome settlers). They had no idea of what lay in store for them, as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the main Zionist organization there at that time, played a key role in organizing illegal immigration of Jews from Europe.

Technology exacerbates the hostility, by stoking rumors, conjectures, info and disinfo. Was Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu aware of the impending attack – considering little Israel has the most advanced military intelligence capability on the planet? Did the Egyptians not pass urgent warnings to Israel of a likely Hamas military move? Was the attack a “false flag” event laid by Netanyahu to shore up his political position? We’ll likely never know. What we do know is the furious backlash of the authorities to the media blitz.

As BLM supporters gloried in the terrorist attack, and supporters of Israel battled back in the media, the European Commission piled in, warning billionaire-joker Elon Musk that “X”, née “Twitter”, that allowing what the EC ceremoniously deemed “hate speech” was unacceptable.  According to guidelines set up by the “Digital Services Act”, rules were being breached, by jaw-snapping, foaming-at-the-mouth rabid commentors on all sides of the current matter. This dictum from “Europäischer Kommissar” Thierry Breton, wielding a whip over the reckless social media site.

“Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.”

Musk comes back and challenges the saucy Info-Eurocrat with “What are you talking about? Give me examples” but the Kommissar won’t step into that trap, instead primly hand-waving with “Vu, merci. You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence.

“Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk.” [The gent means “…walk the walk…” and not just “…talk the talk…”] Idioms, Thierry, idioms!

He signs off with an unctuous “My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.”

A challenge to which Mr. Musk promptly replied, X’ing it out:

“We take our actions in the open.

“No back room deals.

“Please post your concerns explicitly on this platform.”

 – Elon Musk

Now do you see why he shelled out the billions to buy this nonsense social media site? What fun, to tease and tickle the hypocritical Eurocrats.

What is actually accurate or fake in this kangaroo court of social media? Are we to only accept the government stamp-of-approval-issued content? Think Pravda, think Izvestia (wink, wink). Ditto for the corporate media, obedient and in league with the Official Party Line.

Deep State undoubtedly has its feelings hurt that there are no longer direct lines, offices, perks and money for FBI, CIA and other “truth agents” in the TwitteRealm.

For that matter, why are millions of previously-trusting consumers now justifiably wary of their governments cajoling, threatening and mandating the so-called “vaccine”, untested mRNA “single-stranded RNA … in a growing protein chain” into their bloodstreams? Tens of thousands crippled, thousands dead maybe? You won’t see a single case of vaccine injury on CNBC, and no hospital will ever admit to such a possibility. It’s all over the internet.

Did the Israeli authorities, and military, just stand by and allow their citizens to be kidnapped and murdered? Were they simply incompetent, unaware, distracted? Is there a “back-story”?

Will we ever know? The media barrage is intense. Advertisers are perplexed. The world is being dragged into an unending domestic disturbance in the Middle East, one with no solution, across an ancient land poisoned by hatred and greed.

The Israelis declare “This is our 9/11.” Considering the enormous doubts raised about that spectacle, their statement may be truer than they imagine.

The post “The King’s New Clothes – Hamas, Israel, Censorship” appeared first on Ankara Haftalik.