NZFOI: Modus vivendi
New Rule: From the River to the Sea | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Israel admits shooting three hostages dead in clash with Hamas – Stuff
NZFOI: Tragic news, indeed.
Israel’s army has said it accidentally shot three hostages dead after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat.
“During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result, fired toward them, and the hostages were killed,” Israel Defence Forces said in a statement.
The victims include Yotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Samer Talalka, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Am on October 7. [NZFOI: Jerusalem Post names the third hostage victim as Alon Shamriz].
More plain speaking: Segregation is not OK
Some really profound statements in his introductory remarks.
My Meeting with Young Progressive Jews – Aish
We have failed to properly educate the next generation about Jewish history, Jewish values, and the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
[NZFOI: Thought-provoking. The same could be said by most of us in the Western world! We haven’t taught the next generation about our history, values and what made the freedoms we cherish today, possible.
Where did we get the idea that all people are equal? We didn’t get it from the Greeks or Romans! Where did we get the idea that there should be a rest day in every seven? Where did we get the idea of freedom of speech? Where did we get the idea that slavery was wrong?]
I recently spent an evening conversing with a group of left-wing progressive Jews in Brooklyn who are deeply bothered by what is happening in Gaza. They blame the conflict squarely on Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. They were open to meeting a rabbi and having a heated exchange of ideas.
They all identify as politically progressive, and as one person told me, “Everyone I know is anti-Zionist.” I gained a number of valuable insights from our encounter which I am still mulling over. Here are a few of the key takeaways.
Bring them back – Get in behind the Billboard Campaign
A Billboard campaign has been put together to highlight the plight of the hostages.
Politicians instead of exercising leadership, often follow voter sentiment. The Billboard campaign is therefore also a tangible way for our politicians to see that there is a constituency that supports Israel.
Above is an example of what has been put up in Wellington.
Please support this worthy campaign:
If you’re in New Zealand donate to
NZFOI’s BNZ account 02 0820 0569411 00 and put “Billboards” in the “code” field and your initials and surname in the “particulars” field.
If you’re outside NZ make your donation via Paypal below.
If you’d like a tax receipt, please send us your contact details and we’ll match it up to the donation deposit. Once matched, we’ll send you a tax receipt.
NZ Friends of Israel is a registered charity: CC 43880.
Photos of other sites with Billboards in Auckland below:
and
Sheryl Sandberg on accusations against Hamas: ‘Rape should never be used as an act of war’
Accounts of Sexual Violence by Hamas Are Aired Amid Criticism of U.N.
A meeting at the U.N., organized in part by Sheryl Sandberg, accused the body of ignoring the rape and mutilation of women in the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, and heard gruesome details from witnesses.
Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta executive who, along with Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, was among the event’s primary organizers.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Katherine RosmanLisa Lerer
By Katherine Rosman and Lisa Lerer
Published Dec. 4, 2023
Updated Dec. 5, 2023, 12:10 a.m. ET
The body of one woman had “nails and different objects in her female organs.” In another house, a person’s genitals were so mutilated that “we couldn’t identify if it was a man or a woman.”
Simcha Greinman, a volunteer who helped collect the remains of victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel, took long pauses as he spoke those words on Monday at an event at the United Nations.
“Horrific things I saw with my own eyes,” he said, “and I felt with my own hands.”
Shari Mendes, a member of an Israeli military reserve unit tasked with preparing the bodies of fallen female soldiers for burial, said her team saw several who were killed on Oct. 7 “who were shot in the crotch, intimate parts, vagina, or were shot in the breast.” Others had mutilated faces, or multiple gunshots to their heads.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, during which more than 1,200 people were killed and some 240 people were kidnapped, Israeli officials have accused the terrorists of also committing widespread sexual violence — rape and sexual mutilation — particularly against women.
Yet those atrocities have received little scrutiny from human rights groups, or the news media, amid the larger war between Israel and Hamas — and until a few days ago, they had not been specifically mentioned or condemned by UN Women, the United Nations’ women’s rights agency, which has regularly spoken out about the plight of Palestinian women and girls.
Israelis and many Jews around the world say they feel abandoned by an international social justice community — women’s groups, human rights groups, liberal celebrities, among others — whose causes they have supported in crises around the world.
On Monday, some 800 people, including women’s activists and diplomats representing about 40 countries, crowded into a chamber at U.N. headquarters in New York for a presentation laying out the evidence of large-scale sexual violence, with testimony from witnesses like Ms. Mendes and Mr. Greinman.
“Silence is complicity,” Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta executive, told those assembled. She, along with Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, was among the event’s primary organizers. “On Oct. 7, Hamas brutally murdered 1,200 souls and in some cases, they first raped their victims,” Ms. Sandberg added. “We know this from eyewitnesses, we know this from combat paramedics, we would know this from some victims if more had been allowed to live.”
Hamas has denied that its fighters committed sex crimes, which it said would violate Islamic principles.
But ample evidence has been collected, like the bodies of women found partially or fully naked, women with their pelvic bones broken, the accounts of medical examiners and first responders, videos taken by Hamas fighters themselves, and even a few firsthand witnesses like a woman, in a video made public last month by police officials, who said she had watched Hamas terrorists take turns raping a young woman they had captured at a music festival, mutilate her and then shoot her in the head.
Meni Binyamin, the head of the International Crime Investigations Unit of the Israeli police, said in an interview that it had documented “violent rape incidents, the most extreme sexual abuses we have seen,” on Oct. 7, against women and some men. “I am talking about dozens.”
Israeli officials have not estimated how many women were sexually assaulted or mutilated. They say that overwhelmed forensic scientists had to focus at first on identifying bodies, rather than collecting perishable evidence of rape. Few victims or eyewitnesses survived, and fewer have spoken publicly.
At the United Nations on Monday, Yael Richert, a superintendent with the Israeli police, presented video of witness interviews, including with a paramedic who said, “Shooting was targeted at sexual organs, we saw that a lot.”
Outside, hundreds of protesters accused the United Nations of a double standard when it comes to sexual violence; some chanted, “Me too, unless you are a Jew.”
The United Nations, and UN Women in particular, have become a primary focus — though hardly the only one — of mounting anger for their silence. Secretary General António Guterres immediately condemned the Hamas massacre, but not until late November did he issue a statement that the related sex crimes specifically must be “vigorously investigated and prosecuted.”
Dr. Cochav Elkayam Levy, an Israeli law professor and founder of a commission on Oct. 7 crimes against women and children, said that on Nov. 1, she sent a letter to UN Women, signed by dozens of scholars, calling for an “urgent and unequivocal condemnation of the massacre committed by Hamas,” including the use of rape as a tool of war. “They didn’t even respond,” she said.
Mr. Erdan, the Israeli ambassador, said he sent two letters about the use of rape by Hamas militants, appended with photographs of victims’ bodies, to Sima Sami Bahous, the executive director of UN Women. “I got no response whatsoever,” said Mr. Erdan, “not even, ‘We received your letter.’”
On Nov. 25, UN Women first addressed the issue on social media, saying it was “alarmed by reports of gender-based violence on 7 October,” but the post did not mention Hamas.
In a statement on Monday, UN Women condemned “the abhorrent attacks by Hamas against Israel” and said it had been “closely following reports of brutal acts of gender-based violence against women in Israel since they first came to light.”
The agency added, “We believe a full investigation is essential, so that perpetrators at all sides can be held accountable and justice can be served.”
Last week, a bipartisan group of more than 80 members of Congress released a letter calling the agency’s response “woefully unsatisfactory and consistent with the UN’s longstanding bias against Israel.”
Since the start of the war, UN Women has focused its advocacy on bringing attention and humanitarian relief to girls and women in Gaza, and to push for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes resulted in thousands of Palestinian casualties.
Several supporters of Israel in Congress expressed outrage at the silence from international and domestic organizations.
“I’ve been internally raging for about two months,” said Representative Lois Frankel of Florida, who heads the Democratic Women’s Caucus. “There is antisemitism involved and there are some folks who are more interested in portraying the loss of life in Gaza than highlighting the complete inhumanity and viciousness and brutality of Hamas.”
Ms. Frankel plans to introduce a House resolution later this week condemning the use of sexual violence in war and has been pushing for congressional hearings on the topic.
Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, called out UN Women for its “failure to immediately and unequivocally stand up for Israeli women.” She said that international organizations “including several on the far left, have chosen to dismiss, downplay or outright deny Hamas’s widespread use of sexual violence and rape against Israeli women on Oct. 7.”
At the United Nations Monday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, gave an emotional address, speaking of “raw footage” she had been shown that “takes your breath away with the sheer level of evil it depicts.”
“When I saw the list of women’s rights organizations that said nothing, I nearly choked,” Ms. Gillibrand said. “Where is the solidarity for women in this country and in this world to stand up for our mothers, our sisters and our daughters?”
After the event, in the U.N.’s Flag Hall, Ms. Sandberg stood in front of Israel’s white and blue banner, and as she talked about the devastating realization that most of the victims had been killed, her voice began to crack.
“I don’t know how to talk about this and not,” — she paused, taking a deep breath before apologizing. She never finished her sentence.
Reporting was contributed by Jeffrey Gettleman, Adam Sella and Anat Schwartz.
A correction was made on Dec. 4, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated the home state of Representative Lois Frankel. She represents Florida, not California.
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at
nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Katie Rosman is a reporter for the Metro desk, contributing narratives and profiles about people, events and dynamics in New York City and its outer reaches. More about Katherine Rosman
Lisa Lerer is a national political correspondent, covering campaigns, elections and political power. More about Lisa Lerer
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 5, 2023, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Amid Criticism of U.N., Reports of Sexual Violence By Hamas Are Presented.
Three-quarters of Palestinians Support Hamas’ Attack on October 7, Says New Poll. Why? – Haaretz
Since October 7, it has been impossible to truly understand Hamas’ motives and intentions. It can be just as hard to understand Palestinian public opinion right now. After the first few weeks of chaos, two Palestinian polls became available last week – and there is no good way to spin the results.
Fake babies, real horror: Deepfakes from the Gaza war increase fears about AI’s power to mislead – NZ Herald
NZFOI: We suspected it. Now others are seeing it too.
Among images of the bombed-out homes and ravaged streets of Gaza, some stood out for the utter horror: Bloodied, abandoned infants.
Viewed millions of times online since the war began, these images are deepfakes created using artificial intelligence. If you look closely you can see clues: fingers that curl oddly, or eyes that shimmer with an unnatural light — all telltale signs of digital deception.
The outrage the images were created to provoke, however, is all too real.
Pictures from the Israel-Hamas war have vividly and painfully illustrated AI’s potential as a propaganda tool, used to create life-like images of carnage. Since the war began last month, digitally altered ones spread on social media have been used to make false claims about responsibility for casualties or to deceive people about atrocities that never happened.
Father describes how his young daughter Emily Hand survived Hamas captivity – CNN
Just so poignant and moving.
Emily Hand had to run from house to house, forced to move by Hamas as Israeli forces attacked Gaza, her father Thomas Hand told CNN.
“That’s terrifying. Being pulled, dragged, pushed … under gunfire probably,” he said on Tuesday.
It’s one of the details that his daughter is slowly sharing of what happened after she was kidnapped on October 7 and taken to Gaza, a place she now calls “the box.”
“She’s coming out slowly, little by little,” Hand said.
“We’ll only know what she really went through as she opens up,” he told CNN. “I want to know so much information … but you have to let them, when they are ready, come out with it.”
85-year-old Israeli hostage told Hamas chief he should be ‘ashamed of himself’
Inspiring stuff and ICYMI: An 85-year-old Israeli peace activist, who was abducted by Hamas and released in October, said she told Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar he should be “ashamed of himself” in a Gaza tunnel.
Prior to the current series of hostage and Palestinian prisoner releases, Yocheved Lifshitz met Sinwar where she was being held captive – a Hamas tunnel she described as an extensive warren.
