Haifa Diary
Haifa is on the "front line" in any action in the north but this blog looks at life in the shadow of danger to all of Israel
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Gullible Students Indoctrinated to Hate Jews
Friday, May 3, 2024
Iran Is Not so Secretly Infiltrating Europe
Robert Williams • For full article see https://tinyurl.com/4kvn7fkf
"Hamas sees Western countries such as Germany as a
refuge in which the organization can concentrate on collecting donations,
recruiting new supporters, and spreading its propaganda." — Germany's
domestic intelligence service, apnews.com, November 23, 2023.
- In February, Belgium's justice minister
confirmed that Hamas operates in Brussels... through a network of front
companies raising funds for the terrorist organization... Belgian
authorities nevertheless continue to allow Hamas to operate there.
- "Hamas has been in Europe for about
30 years. It's an open secret. Of course, they don't call themselves
Hamas... They will have names like Conference of Palestinians Abroad,
Palestinians in (country name), Palestinian Students Abroad, and so on. But
when you dig a bit, you find out who the people are behind these
associations, and what their connections are back home. It's always the
same cluster of 20-25 people. Their propaganda, their social media
patterns, everything is Hamas." — Lorenzo Vidino, director of the
program on extremism at George Washington University, April 12, 2024.
- "This is a typical Muslim Brotherhood
tactic. They come up with a million different names for their
organizations, for two reasons: Firstly, they want to give the impression
that it's a broad movement, so that when they organize a public event,
there will be 50 participating organizations, or if they publish a public
letter, there will be 50 signatory groups. Secondly, if one of these
groups is taken down by law enforcement, well, there's all the other
ones." — Lorenzo Vidino, April 12, 2024.
- In all of this, Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a central actor. As stated by the US
Congress, the IRGC "trains, funds, arms, and shares intelligence with
dangerous proxy forces throughout the Middle East and abroad" and has
targeted both European and American civilians.
- The US Congress, Israel and
thousands of Iranians have urged the European Union to designate the IRGC
as a terrorist organization. Nevertheless, the EU refuses to designate the
IRGC as a terrorist organization.
Friday, April 26, 2024
IDF SUPPORTS U.S. INITIATIVE TO ENHANCE HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA
The IDF spokesperson confirmed: The IDF, through the coordination of COGAT,(Coordinator of Govt Activities in the Territories) has approved collaborative efforts for the new Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) initiative led by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). The initiative will create an enhanced ship to shore distribution system to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The
IDF will operate to provide security and logistics support for the JLOTS
initiative, which includes the establishment of a temporary floating pier to
deliver humanitarian aid from the sea into Gaza.
The
IDF's involvement in the JLOTS initiative is one of many humanitarian aid
efforts, further demonstrating the IDF's commitment to working with the
international community to ensure the continuous entry of humanitarian aid to
the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
The
IDF is assigning an entire reserve brigade to secure the work on the pier, and
later also to allow the introduction of humanitarian aid through it. (( There is already an excess of aid arriving
by truck, but sure - forcing Israel to secure a pier in the middle of Gaza that
can easily be attacked by Hamas is a good plan, and certainly won’t cost any
Israeli or American lives (that is quite a sarcastic statement). Appeasing American idiocy is getting
our soldiers killed. ))
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Know the Truth, Let's Attack the Jews
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
Israel Retaliates
For full article see https://tinyurl.com/muh4p7mr
Israel retaliated overnight against Iran’s massive drone and missile attack on its territory, people familiar with the matter said—with what appeared to be a limited strike aimed at avoiding an escalatory cycle that could push the countries closer toward war.
The strike targeted the area around Isfahan in central Iran, one of the people said. Iranian media and social media reported explosions near the city, where Iran has nuclear facilities and a drone factory, and the activation of air-defense systems in provinces across the country after suspicious flying objects were detected.
Iranian state television repeatedly played down the episode in its broadcasts, saying three small flying objects had been downed by air-defense systems and suggesting they had been launched from within the country.
The attack appeared to be similar to earlier drone strikes attributed to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, said Ronen Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst in Israel.
He said the attack signaled to Iran that Israel’s Mossad could covertly hit a nuclear or military site without overtly using the Israeli military or its aircraft. Israel likely wanted to avoid an attack on nuclear sites, or a broader assault, because Israeli officials were concerned Iran would use strikes as an excuse to move ahead with its nuclear program, he said.
The Israeli action was a response to an unprecedented direct attack by Iran that involved more than 300 drones and missiles aimed at Israeli territory. That attack itself was retribution for a strike attributed to Israel that killed top Iranian officers in Damascus.
Israel has remained officially silent about the strike.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Palestinian Christians grateful for Israel’s missile defense system
For full article see https://tinyurl.com/yzpweap7
In the aftermath of Saturday
night’s Iranian missile attack, Palestinian Christians living in the Bethlehem
area expressed gratitude for Israel’s air defense system.
“I said, ‘Thank God for the
presence of the Iron Dome system.’ It absolutely saved lives here. We don’t
have any safe rooms to guard us, so if a rocket would fall here, there would be
a great number of casualties,” an eyewitness from the Christian community of
Beit Jala, near Bethlehem.
The resident, a middle-aged man who
is married with children, spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears his
family and business will be targeted by Palestinian Muslims.
“In the beginning, we thought it would be like
usual, Iran just talks,” he recalled. “Then in the middle of the night, I went
to the balcony and saw the rockets of Iron Dome were coming out. I live in the
area near some Jewish residences on one side and on the other are all Arab
residences, and the rockets were coming right towards them. That’s when I
witnessed the interception.”
The missile defense he saw was not
the well-known Iron Dome system, but the Arrow-3, which is designed to
intercept ballistic missiles at high altitudes, even outside the earth’s
atmosphere.
“As a Christian, we are a minority
group here, and one loss equals thousands because of the statistics and the
ratio against the Muslims in the area, so the damage I imagine could have been
even greater,” he insisted.
Elias Zarina, a Jerusalem-based
Christian activist, said he looked at the high-tech protection through the lens
of coexistence. “David’s Sling guards
the City of David,” Zarina remarked, referring to the name of Bethlehem from
the Christian Bible.
Palestinian Christians
in Judea and Samaria have been facing discrimination and harassment for years,
forcing members of the community to leave the Middle East.
The population has been dwindling
ever since the Oslo accords brought the Palestinian Authority into power. Using
Bethlehem as an example, in 1993, when the accords were signed, Christians made
up 88 percent of the city’s population. Three decades later, Christians now
make up just 12 percent of Bethlehem’s population of roughly 29,000. Most
Christians have emigrated in the face of Muslim extortion