Michael Starr
@StarrJpost
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Diaspora affairs correspondent for the @Jerusalem_Post. Opinions are my own.
Joined October 2018
🔴 I’ve just retuned from serving as a reservist infantryman in Gaza for a second time. Here are my ten takeaways from the experience👇.
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🔴🧵What has been found at the Shifa hospital so far?. As the goal posts for what constitutes proof continue to be moved even as more Hamas infrastructure is uncovered and cleared for safety, it’s worth reviewing what has been found so far 👇.
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4️⃣ The IDF is not conducting a genocide. The factors for how a genocidal force operates aren’t there. There are no orders for mass killing, we oversaw humanitarian corridors, and had use of force ethical debates. Civilian deaths are tragic — that’s why war needs to be avoided.
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The problems of misinformation and disinformation regarding conflict between Israel and Gaza, are unfolding out of the pages of the New York Times. The slow leak of corrections also shows the issues with understanding a conflict from the amount of bodies, and without context.
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1️⃣ The IDF is winning, but the war isn’t over. Hamas’s capabilities have been severely degraded since last time I was in Gaza. The group seems only able to field tactical attack + PR stunts. That said, without decisive action, this weakness will not translate into victory.
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3️⃣ Reservists are frustrated with domestic squabbles. While IDF soldiers are risking their lives, they are frustrated to see constant infighting in the political echelons. Right and left, it seems politicians are distracted by their own interests.
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Today the IDF revealed further tunnels under the Qatari building in the Shifa hospital compound. Video showed tunnels intersecting with underground rooms with air conditioning, toilets, and a kitchen. Rifles, magazines, and drones can be seen gathered from throughout the site.
A first look into Hamas’ underground city, underneath the Shifa Hospital complex:
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2️⃣ Gaza has suffered severe damage. The damage to Gaza is extensive. Whole neighborhoods have been levelled during combat and operations. Local, regional, and international leadership need to begin joint planning now so that they can rebuild after the war.
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Why aren’t western students who wear keffiyehs ever accused of “cultural appropriation?” Or is that a principle not in the radical left canon anymore?.
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Kan news reported from the site, noting that a bag from Kibbutz Beeri had been found in the belongings, as well as an IDF rifle and vest.
בתוך המנהרות - מתחת ל"שיפא": כרמלה מנשה ואיתי בלומנטל עם תיעוד מיוחד מהמתחם התת-קרקעי ששימש את חמאס לטרור | הכתבה - הערב ב-#חדשותהערב ומחר ב-#הבוקרהזה בכאן רשת ב.@ela1949 | @ItayBlumental
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For those who are still in denial, and think they have answers for every one of these finds, ask yourself what your threshold for proof is. You may be able to explain away some items, but there is an overlap of many different items that makes it hard to ignore.
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On Sunday, the army released security camera footage that it found showing two hostages, Nepali and Thai citizens, forced into the Shifa hospital by gunmen. They were kept in a room and placed under guard.
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Happy to announce my return to @Jerusalem_Post after 120 days of reserve duty, and my shifting of gears to the Diaspora affairs correspondent. In my new role, I hope to cast light on the antisemitic radicalism and violence that has spawned since the October 7 attacks.
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Amnesty International, not exactly known for its pro-Israel bias, reported almost a decade ago how dissenters were tortured at the hospital.
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He and his cousin went on a stabbing rampage in the middle of the city. He stabbed a 12 year old. What about that boy’s childhood? Likely impacted. The lack of context here is very misleading.
Ahmad Manasra has lost his childhood in Israel's prison system, @Israelgov, @naftalibennett, @NitzanHorowitz, @omerbarlev, @gidonsaar, @shabasisrael, don't make him lose his health too. #FreeAhmadManasra now!.
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The newly discovered Hamas tunnel allegedly runs through the hospital grounds.
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Want to start your own Intifada? Follow these easy steps:. 1. Spread rumor about Jews taking over holy site.2. Gather stones at holy site to throw at Jews and police.3. Clash.4. Praise “defenders” fighting police.5. Cry about worshippers (“defenders”) police attacked.6. Outrage.
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According to @HenMazzig, there were multiple hospitals that the hostages could have been taken to closer to the attack sites, but they instead took them to Shifa.
Every possible route Hamas terrorists could have taken the hostages into Gaza would have passed through at least 5 other hospitals before reaching Shifa Hospital. They didn't take them there for "medical treatment"; they brought them specifically to Shifa because it's their
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Another mistake in NY Times cover was that a 17 year old was actually a member of a terrorist organization.
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Security footage also showcased captured IDF vehicles that had been brought to Shifa. Stills show a hummer and defender.
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A British doctors who worked at Shifa gave testimony that he could not access certain parts of the hospital out of fear of being shot.
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In addition to the footage of live hostages, the bodies of two hostages were found in close proximity to the hospital. Corporal Noa Marciano’s body was announced found on Friday. Yehudit Weiss‘a body was announced found Thursday, in a building with rifles and RPGs.
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Happy to announce that I’ve been promoted and will now serve as The Jerusalem Post’s legal correspondent.
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Interrogations of captured Hamas fighters reportedly shows them admitting that Shifa and other hospitals were used to conceal senior Hamas operatives.
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Rifles, pistols, magazines, vests, masks, uniforms, and Hamas headbands were announced found in the MRI department in the hospital, the IDF said last Wednesday.
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On Sunday the IDF and Shin Bet said that executed hostage Corporal Noa Marciano was likely killed at the hospital. She had also been injured by IDF munitions, but the injury was non-life threatening.
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On Sunday another tunnel shaft entrance was showcased on the far east end of the hospital compound. It reportedly had a hatch and firing slit. The shaft is reportedly 55 meters long and about ten meters deep.
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An armoury of rifles, grenades, RPGs, other combat gear and a pickup truck was found nearby on Thursday.
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The US has also said that it’s intelligence indicates that Shifa served as a Hamas headquarters.
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More findings will likely be revealed. What people don’t seem to understand is that Shifa is a large complex, and it takes time to search and secure a site. Multiple sweeps need to be done by different types of teams. It took multiple clearings for us to fully secure Kisuffim.
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This is just some of the testimony given about the use of Shifa as major Hamas site.
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The IDF noted on Wednesday that it had to fight terrorist squads to access the hospital compound.
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People may be used to instant information and services on social media and on the internet, but this isn’t going to follow the pace that you may be used to. It’s a matter of safety, intelligence, and investigation.
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Want to spread false info on the Internet? A good case study is @cjwerleman's claim that 40% of Palestinian minors detained by Israeli security forces are raped, almost 100% tortured. Emulating this process, you too can also spread false info. Thread >>>.
(NEW):. 40% of Palestinian children in Israeli custody are raped, and almost 100% are tortured. Then there’s the settlers. Watch new episode @CJWerlemanShow here:. 👉
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Documents, grenades, and magazines were also found in another department, the IDF showcased last Wednesday.
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My unit served 110 days during this war, encountering death and hardship as we worked to prevent another October 7 from ever happening again. It is impossible to summarize everything we’ve done in just a few words, but this is some of our story: . #Israel.
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@KarolBrookskim This isn’t a real picture. The guns aren’t real, and the way they are held indicates unfamiliarity with rifles. Those undershirts would never be worn. No belts. No vests. Chains would never be used like that. Zip ties are used for arrests.
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The New York Times published a front page with a collage of child casualties of the recent Gaza-Israel conflagration. Slowly, we are discovering errors and misrepresentations in the piece, which actually serves as a microcosm of the information problems with Gaza.
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Can’t help but notice that the same people saying that there’s no such thing as an Israeli civilian and all Israelis are valid military targets are often the same people that call armed terrorists killed in gunfights unarmed, innocent, and murdered for no reason.
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What is a provocation ritual? . No such ritual exists. Why make it up, and cast Jewish religious practice as aggressive and alien to the setting?. Posts like this are part of the attempt to delegitimize Jewish identity, religion, and history for cynical political gain.
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A Vancouver protest on Friday: "Long live October 7."
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The idea that the IDF is creating more terrorists by fighting Hamas is yet another double standard against Israel. The US wasn’t concerned about creating more enemies when it fought the Nazis and ISIS. Leaving Hamas in power is what creates more terrorists.
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These aren’t fireflies. This is the sky above Tel Aviv, Iron Dome interceptors flying up at a Gazan rocket barrage.
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Every single person who broke into Sde Teman should be arrested. Soldiers were within their right to use force to repel attackers. I haven’t fought for this country for these radicals to undermine the military’s rule of law and the rule of law of the country at large.
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A title only has so much room, and the Washington Post used their precious space to romanticise and downplay the actions of an archterrorist.
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One of the first problems to come out the NYT front page was the use of false images. Below is a picture that was used in the collage by NYT and was purported to be one of the child casualties.
@nytimes @MonaBoshnaq This is not a photo of Rahaf Al Masry, it is a photo of a girl from Ramallah, it was taken in October 2015 by Photographer Maiar Abu Shalback.
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It should first be noted that there is nothing wrong with mourning the death of civilians, especially children. There is nothing wrong with listing all children killed in war, it IS horrific.
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@abierkhatib What is it about Jewish prayer at a shared holy site that you find so threatening?. I imagine the same issue that prevents Jews from praying at the Temple Mount and causes people to riot because of a rumor that Jews would be practicing Judaism there.
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“All Israelis are settlers”. “Settlers aren’t civilians”. “Settlers are valid military targets”. I see how it works.
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Use of child soldiers is nothing new for Palestinian terrorist organizations. When the time comes for casualties to be counted, they are listed as minors, which is correct, but the fact that they are combatants is glossed over.
Anas Qandil was a 17 year old #soldier in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was KIA in 2014. We can save countless kids like him. Send an email demanding change: . #KidsNotSoldiers #NoWayToTreatAChild
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The death of Palestinian children is tragic. However the use of their bodies by terrorist organizations as tools for propaganda is ghoulish, and must be fought.
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False use of cute children, gore, and tragic imagery is done to inflame passions, and instil hatred toward Israeli forces. Here is an example from the recent conflict, in which pictures from Syria are presented as being from Gaza.
.@LadyVelvet_HFQ I am sorry to see you play into and disseminate a lie
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@KimIversenShow What would be enough evidence for you to constitute a military headquarters hidden within a hospital?. You’ve created imagined objectives, but the goal here is removing military threat, and Shifa appears to be a dual-use military object.
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🔴🧵 The last few days of demonstrations at Columbia University have revealed a shocking affinity for terrorism, violence, and antisemitism among student activists. Here are some of the most troubling sentiments and slogans -- which could escalate and appear at other campuses.
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@IfNotNowOrg Thank you for your support of rock throwing, riots, and calls for genocide and the bombing of Tel Aviv. Your toxic narrative which completely ignores violence of one side is not helping, it’s making matters worse. But then at least if things get worse, you’ll have more to tweet.
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🔴🧵Have you seen this video? . With millions views, the aptly named Propaganda and Co claims to be breaking the narrative. They’re doing so with lies, misrepresentation of others, and lazy copying to establish a their own narrative. This thread exposes the falsehood👇.
⚡️𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 .𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗔𝗟𝗟 ⚡️𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 ⚡️. "Before they launch missiles, they launch propaganda campaigns. Before they roll out tanks, they roll out narratives." . - Caitlin Johnstone
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There were an estimated 680 Hamas and PIJ rockets to fall in the Gaza Strip. Many appeared to have fallen in populated areas.
Fact: Of the 4,300+ rockets that Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired at Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls, 680 misfired and exploded inside Gaza, killing and injuring their own civilians.
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🔴🧵 What the hell has been going on in Montreal, Canada?. Just over Monday and Tuesday the city has seen troubling expressions of extremism: Nazi salutes, calls for “death to Jews,” calling Jews “fakes,” and calling for Intifadas and revolutions. Here are some of the things 👇.
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This problem is not unique to the NYTs, though others likely do it out of malice. False representations like this one were circulated throughout the recent operation.
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There’s no right in international law to kill civilians because they reside on disputed territory. Civilians don’t just lose their protected status because of a principle you made up to justify your “team’s” actions.
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In 2014, the Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas and controls the information on casualties, misrepresented a 9 year old auxiliary as a 24 year old soldier. Similarly, there are examples of soldiers in their 20s being listed as 13 year old non-combatants.
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“I went there to stab Jews,” - Ahmad Manasra reportedly said after committing a terrorist attack. Manasra is a victim of being used as a child soldier. Blaming the Israeli Justice system for addressing a crime is ridiculous.
🚨 20-year-old Ahmad Manasra is one of many victims of #IsraeliApartheid’s discriminatory justice system, where torture is routinely used against Palestinians. His health is now at stake.
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Among operations, this one stands out for accuracy. Over 1000 airstrikes, vast majority of 230 casualties were 160 enemy combatants, not civilians. It’s important to keep this context in mind, just as it’s important to keep in mind the worst cost of war.
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This tweet shows how Amnesty International can’t be taken seriously as a moral authority on rights.
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Note that all the California politicians are now reacting around the same time, hours after the incident at the synagogue.
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sourcing is another issue. Besides Gaza health ministry, outlets often rely on NGOs for information. However, some have links to terrorist organizations or even active members terrorists within their ranks. This is the case with a source of NYT’s story.
The @nytimes front page story on the children killed in Gaza was based on info from an NGO w/ known ties to the PFLP- a recognized terror group in the US. 1/6
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People like @cjwerleman seem to insist on rejecting, rewriting and delegitimizing the Jewish connection to sites in Israel and demonizing Jewish religious practice because the truth is inconvenient to their political narratives.
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Another issue was on the first day of the fighting,a family was killed in Beit Hanoun area, where IDF was not operating. according to IDF spokesman they were killed by an errant Gazan rocket. The two most likely families that this was were included in the NYT article.
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This also extends to other forms of terrorism such as knife attacks, firebombs, and yes, stone throwing. Child terrorists are killed, hurt, or arrested, but their militant actions are whitewashed, and only their age or body are listed.
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Looking for a meaningful and respectful way to commemorate 9/11?. How about a panel featuring supporters of terrorism and airplane hijackers?. No? Well, departments at Rutgers and SFSU thought it was an appropriate thing to sponsor.
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Even with Iron Dome, emergency warning, and shelters, and a dozen civilians were killed in Israel, and around 1325 buildings and 738 cars were damaged by less successful rocket fall. It is unlikely that there was only one incident of damage within Gaza by errant rockets.
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The above doesn’t capture all the problems or the scale in which they occur. Not does it address the problem of context. The IDF conducted an operation to remove a military threat, not to kill children.
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This is far from the first time shady NGOs have been used as sources of information. It happens all the time.
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Where are you supposed to learn history and geopolitics, if not from celebrities and memes?.
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@cjwerleman The site is shared by both Jews and Muslims. Muslims visit it regularly, as with Temple Mount. Jews making pilgrimage to a holy site isn’t intended provocation, it’s to celebrate at a holy site and religion. Your framing was intentionally misleading.
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The people cheering on the harassment of Israeli journalists in Qatar are often the same people who were outraged about the harassment of one France 24 journalist in Israel.
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Before commenting, people should do research. As usual, this started with wild rumors about Jews taken over and praying at joint holy sites, which by design erupted into riots. celebrities only start paying attention at the end of the story, when the narrative is primed.
“Starting on Friday, almost 500 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities from Al-Aqsa Mosque, and, as you said, 170 were injured, several of whom were in critical condition and several of whom were journalists…targeted by design by the Israeli soldiers.”.
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I don’t believe that the NYT acted maliciously or intentionally misled. There is an active campaign to warp and misrepresent information that comes out of Gaza, and to appeal to those that think that can understand a conflict solely by amount of children dead.
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Daily Beast calls the IDF “genocidal” in Mayim Bialik hit piece. The thing that really seems “sketchy” is this article.
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That’ll show Putin. If only we had hashtags back in the 1930s, a lot of tragedy could have been avoided.
To echo @BarackObama today-proud to stand #UnitedForUkraine World should stand together with one voice http://t.co/VeMt578UdY.
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Dangerously wrong. Iron Dome prevents the conflict from becoming more intense.
@MairavZ Also: Iron Dome is a system that perpetuates conflict & injustice, by enabling Israel/Israelis to ignore Palestinians (except when rockets are fired & then Israelis see themselves, exclusively, as the victimized party).
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Added context to this is that these children are not the targets, they are in close proximity to military targets. It is still a tragedy that innocents lose their lives. However it must be noted the IDF employs multiple tactics to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible.
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Jews on Twitter: Have you ever been told this?.
"We've been told that the only way Jews are safe is if Palestinians are not safe." . @IsraelismFilm Coming soon to a city near you.
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Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attended a conference in which individual terrorists were praised and quoted, a terrorist group member is set to speak, the wife of a dead terrorist gave the keynote speech, and terrorism was justified.
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To all those who have organized support for IDF soldiers, as an infantry reservist currently serving in one of the towns that was attacked, I want you to know that we greatly appreciate your donations. They do make a difference in our capacity to secure and protect these places.
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The “provocation ritual” is actually the practice of dancing with a Torah, which is done on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which is a celebration of the Jewish bible and the beginning of a new cycle of readings.
Under protection from Israeli occupation forces, Jewish settlers perform provocation rituals inside Ibrahim Mosque in occupied Palestine.
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Imagine crying about an issue that you know almost nothing about.
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How would you feel if people were handing out candy to celebrate your loved one’s murder?. In this video, reportedly from a town near Ramallah, candy is being handed out to celebrate the death of five civilians in a terrorist attack in Ramat Gan, Israel.
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Interesting how the same people that will contort themselves to justify why a civilian was a legitimate target in a terrorist attack are often the same people that are outraged when terrorists are killed using decisive force.
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The issue of the enemies’ interference in the recent street riots in Iran is recognized by everyone. Even impartial non-Iranian experts have explicitly stated this.
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They told you they would escalate. They told you that violence was the only solution. They praised not just terrorists abroad, but arsonists in US. They say they want to destroy US & Israel. Yet US society and establishment hasn’t taken them seriously. It will only get worse.
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@cjwerleman Your objective is to make a claim that is politically/ideologically useful. But what's useful isn't always supported by reality. How to get useful info? Good false information is based on previous false info, which is as well. You essentially make Matryoshka dolls of false info.
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After leading protestors in chants of “long live October 7” and praising various terrorist groups, Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates has been arrested and is under investigation for hate crimes offences.
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Additional note: The Shahid poster for the child soldier mentioned above was available already by May 22.
Here’s the poster released by Mujahideen Brigades. Was released on the 22nd May.
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The dancing with the Torah is often done are Jewish religious sites. While it is correct that the Ibrahim Mosque is in the same location, the site, the Cave of the Patriarchs, is divided and has a synagogue as well. The site is the second holiest in many Judaic traditions.
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