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Amid Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel Persecution, We Can Find Hope in Our History
I have always tried to live my life by the Hanlon’s Razor rule: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
This pithy observation, attributed to Professor Robert J. Hanlon of Thompson Rivers University, is a modern, tongue-in-cheek derivative of its more famous predecessor, Occam’s Razor. The latter, a philosophical rule proposed by 14th-century English monk William of Ockham, states: “If an event has two possible explanations, the one that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.”
The problem is that this week, I find myself caught between the two. The seemingly stupid decision by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to propose arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, alongside Yihya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders, is far too malicious to be adequately explained by stupidity.
While the simplest assumption should be that someone representing international law is solely interested in upholding justice, this decision by Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC to tarnish the reputation of the leader of a democratic country — a country with a robust judiciary that has previously convicted both a prime minister and a president — suggests motivations other than justice. It certainly demands more than a blind assumption that Khan is fair-minded.
Is it simply a coincidence that just last week, Khan faced strong criticism at a UN Security Council meeting from Libya for not issuing arrest warrants for those responsible for alleged “massacres” in the Gaza Strip?
Denouncing Khan for his inaction, Libyan envoy Taher M. El-Sonni said, “The world wants you to discover those involved in the mass graves, mass crimes against children, the genocide, the ethnic cleansing perpetrated in the ‘holocaust’ of the 21st century, the Gaza holocaust.”
Just to be clear: Libya is a country where war crimes are perpetrated often, and where tens of thousands have died in the endless and brutal civil war that has raged since 2011. Yet now this country has become the impetus for an international legal body to issue spurious, unfounded accusations against Israel?
Does it make any sense that criticism from a country mired in its own atrocities has seemingly pressured the ICC prosecutor into targeting a democratic nation with a strong judiciary that is in the middle of a defensive war against self-declared genocidal terrorists?
And then, in an interview with Piers Morgan a day after the ICC prosecutor announced the arrest warrants, the ever-urbane President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, revealed that on the very day that Khan made his announcement, ICC representatives had been slated to arrive in Israel — with Israel’s ready agreement, despite not being part of the 1998 Rome Statute which binds countries to the ICC. But just hours before Khan publicized the warrants, Israel was informed that the ICC delegation wasn’t coming to Israel.
“It shocked all of us, because we act in good faith,” Herzog told Morgan. “We are willing to have a dialogue with any international body that is relevant, honest, and can have a dialogue.” But it would appear that Khan and the ICC fail on all three counts.
In early December, Khan issued a statement at the conclusion of his visit to the scenes of devastation in southern Israel and meetings with the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. His opening sentence should have forewarned the world of his political position, and of where he was headed with his investigations: “I have just concluded my first visit to Israel and the State of Palestine.” [emphasis added]
Surely Khan knows that there is no “State of Palestine”? For him to use an official statement as the platform to promote a nonexistent entity, particularly during a conflict initiated by terrorists seeking exactly such concessions, was unconscionable.
So, notwithstanding Khan’s declaration that his visit had been “to ensure that the protection of the law is felt by all,” his sneaky inclusion of politically loaded terminology in the opening words of his statement said it all.
What is particularly galling is that Khan had been invited to Israel by family members and friends of Israeli citizens who were either killed or taken hostage by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups on October 7th.
In his statement, Khan said that in both Kibbutz Beeri and Kibbutz Kfar Azza, as well as at the site of the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, he “witnessed scenes of calculated cruelty” and that it was clear that the terrorists who perpetrated these atrocities were guilty of “some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes which the ICC was established to address.”
Khan continued: “In my meeting with the families of the victims of these attacks, my message was clear: we stand ready to work in partnership with them as part of our ongoing work to hold those responsible to account.”
But with his decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, Khan has betrayed those families, along with the memory of every victim who died or was kidnapped at the sites he visited.
In the Haftarah for Parshat Behar, the prophet Jeremiah is confined within King Zedekiah’s royal compound, prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people. Yet, even amidst these dire circumstances, God reveals to Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel will offer him ancestral land, and instructs him to purchase it. Jeremiah follows God’s directive, transferring money and documenting the purchase in the presence of witnesses — even as he continues to predict doom and gloom.
Jeremiah’s transaction is laden with symbolism. Through Jeremiah, God proclaims that “houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land” (Jer. 32:15) — a message of hope and redemption even as prevailing circumstances seemed dire. Despite the hardship, the Jewish people were assured that their land is and will remain theirs, and that no enemy could ever sever the irrevocable bond between the Jews and Eretz Yisrael.
Today, in the face of bias from prosecutor Khan and the ICC, and the relentless efforts of those who wish to undo any Jewish connection to Israel “from the River to the Sea,” we find strength in our proud heritage and in the powerful prophecies of Hebrew Scripture. Just as Jeremiah’s purchase symbolized hope amidst despair, so too does our presence in Israel as a Jewish sovereign state after two millennia of bitter exile represent a fulfillment of ancient prophecies and the unbreakable bond with our land.
Despite the challenges and the malign intentions of detractors and haters, our future — both short term and long term — is firmly rooted in the country of our heritage. In the darkest of times, the promise remains: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased again in this land.”
Kfar Aza, Beeri, Re’im, and Sderot — as well as the many empty towns on the northern border that have been evacuated to avoid Hezbollah rockets raining down from Lebanon — will flourish again soon, fully free of the terrorist threat that has caused and is causing so much suffering.
The Jewish story is one of resilience and unyielding hope, and it is this unwavering faith that will continue to guide us through the pain of unfounded accusations and unforgivable attacks, towards a future where our connection to our ancestral homeland remains unbroken and triumphant. This is not just hope; it is reality.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post Amid Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel Persecution, We Can Find Hope in Our History first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Releases New Hostage Body It Claims Is Shiri Bibas
Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of deceased hostages, identified at the time by Palestinian terror groups as Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, were handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itay Cohen
Hamas released a body on Friday it claimed to be that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover this week threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Israeli medical authorities said forensic teams were preparing to examine the body, which Hamas transferred via the Red Cross, and confirm its identity.
The Palestinian terrorist group had agreed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth hostage on Thursday under the ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.
Four bodies were delivered and the identities of the Bibas boys and the other hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed.
But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians.
“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.
The failure to hand over the correct body and the staged public handover of the four coffins on Thursday caused outrage in Israel and drew a threat of retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.”
But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the boys were killed by the terrorists “with their bare hands,” but gave no details.
The UN Human Rights Office said it had no information of its own on the hostage deaths and called for an effective investigation into the causes.
“The return of the remains of the deceased is a basic humanitarian goal,” the office said.
The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with US backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.
SATURDAY EXCHANGE
Six living hostages were due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, according to Hamas, and the start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire was expected in the coming days.
“Hamas must return the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire – the living and the deceased,” Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said in a statement on social media platform X. “They have to bring Shiri back, and they have to release the 6 living hostages expected tomorrow.”
Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had been officially informed of the names of the six hostages to be released, which Hamas sources said was expected at around 8:30 am (0630 GMT).
As the tension over the Gaza ceasefire rose, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify operations in another Palestinian territory, the West Bank, after a number of explosions blew up buses standing empty in their depots near Tel Aviv.
No casualties were reported but the explosions were a reminder of the campaign of suicide attacks on public transport that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.
‘THEY MAKE A JOKE OF US’
Both Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations, with Hamas threatening to delay the release of hostages over what it said was Israel‘s refusal to allow housing materials and other aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied.
The Red Cross told Reuters it was “concerned and unsatisfied” that the handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.
“It’s like they make a joke of us,” said 75-year-old Israeli Ilana Caspi. “We are so in grief and this is even more.”
One of the main groups representing hostage families said it was “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’ body had not been returned but called for the ceasefire to continue to bring back all 70 hostages still in Gaza.
“Save them from this nightmare,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Despite the outrage over Shiri Bibas, there was no indication that Israel would not take part in talks over a second phase of the ceasefire deal.
The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators were considering seeking an extension of the 42-day ceasefire, to delay moving to a second phase, which would involve talks over hard-to-resolve issues including an end to the war and the future of Hamas in Gaza.
The post Hamas Releases New Hostage Body It Claims Is Shiri Bibas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has lambasted fellow Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her previous suggestions that the United States cut funding to Israel for humanitarian purposes.
Mace posted on social media that she is currently visiting Israel to witness the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks which left roughly 1,200 dead and 250 abducted.
“I’m in Israel where last night 3 buses were bombed. I’m here to see the evil that invaded Israel and deeply harmed her Jewish people on 10/7,” Mace wrote.
“We gave $9 billion in humanitarian and disaster aid for Gaza last year – at least half of which, $4.5 billion since AOC can’t count, ended up funding terrorism. Our resources have enabled mass terrorism in Gaza and elsewhere. See UN and USAID as additional examples,” Mace continued. “Also – what’s democracy to terrorists who want to kill all Jews and Christians. Move to Gaza since you and your caucus love Hamas so much.”
Observers have argued that humanitarian funding for Gaza, including money from the US, often ends up going to the Hamas terrorist group, the most powerful and organized faction in the Palestinian enclave. Many countries, including the US, have paused funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is responsible for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, for harboring close ties to Hamas terrorists. The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed staff, including teachers and school principals, directly participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Mace was responding to an April 2024 clip from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” in which Ocasio-Cortez accused Israel of inflicting a famine on Gaza as revenge for Oct. 7. The firebrand progressive accused Israel of “human rights” violations in Gaza and argued that the Jewish state has undermined Palestinian “civil rights.” Ocasio-Cortez lamented that “US taxpayer assistance” has helped facilitate what she considers a dereliction of American values.
“It’s not just about Israel. It’s not just about Gaza. This is about us, because this is US taxpayer assistance and what is being financed with our resources, and if any conflict is going to have US resources, then it does become a matter of our values,” Ocasio-Cortez said to Stephen Colbert.
She then called on the United States to reaffirm its “commitment to human rights, to the sanctity of civil rights, to the rules of war” by canceling arms transfers to Israel.
Over the past year, Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly condemned the Jewish state’s response to the Hamas terrorist group’s brutal Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel. She has accused the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, arguing that the conflict has been “generationally radicalizing” for young Americans. She has also boasted of leading a “whip operation” to garner votes from fellow Democrats to block aid to Israel.
Since entering Congress in 2021, Mace has often defended Israel. Earlier this week, Mace repudiated Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid for holding a map that depicts the elimination of Israel. In May 2024, Mace defended Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as “biblical warfare,” and she has slammed her Democratic colleagues for not being more outspoken about the widespread rapes of Israeli women during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 rampage.
“I can’t think of anything more shameful than to see these women’s groups, to see women on the left, women in the House, my colleagues on the left who refuse to say what this is, which is shameful. It’s disgusting. It’s barbaric,” she said. “And we ought to be condemning it from every corner of our country. Every woman should be condemning this. And I think it’s shameful.”
The post US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Swarthmore College Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Over Building Takeover
Illustrative: 2023-2024 anti-Israel encampment installed on the Swarthmore College campus in Pennsylvania. Photo: Screenshot
Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has temporarily barred Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from operating on its campus while school officials investigate the group’s surprise but unsuccessful attempt to take over an administrative building earlier this week.
“We cannot ignore the ways in which some of the behavior we experienced Wednesday put the safety and well-being of our community at risk,” college president Valerie Smith, the school’s highest ranking official, said in a statement. “Wednesday’s actions constitute significant, numerous violations of the Student Code of Conduct, and individuals found responsible for violating college policies will be held accountable.”
She continued, “We have notified Swarthmore’s SJP chapter that the group is on an interim suspension effective immediately. During this interim period, SJP will be unable to access college funs, schedule or host events on campus, or access any other college resources available to student organizations.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, SJP raided the college’s Parrish Hall dressed like Hamas fighters, their faces wrapped with and concealed by keffiyehs. The move came as a surprise. While the group had announced an “emergency rally” scheduled for noon that day, there was little indication that it planned on commandeering the building and remaining inside of it indefinitely.
By the time the college formally warned the students that their behavior would trigger disciplinary measures, they had shouted slogans through bullhorns, attempted to break into offices that had been locked to keep them out, and pounded the doors of others that refused to admit them access. Meanwhile, SJP collaborators reportedly circumvented security’s lockdown of the building to smuggle food inside. Several students then grew impatient and attempted to end the lockdown themselves by raiding the building, and in doing so caused a physical altercation with security, whom they proceeded to pelt with expletives and other imprecations.
“What the f—k is your problem?” a female student, captured in video shared by The Phoenix, the official campus newspaper, can be heard screaming at an official who used his body to block a protester from forcing his way inside. “B—ch! F—k you! Stop f—king touching people, bruh!”
The protest lasted 11 hours, according to The Phoenix, after which communications vice president Andy Hirsch suggested that no one would be punished over the incident because SJP evacuated the building before an 11pm deadline set by student affairs vice president Stephanie Ives.
Smith’s latest statement on the incident walked back Hirsch’s, stressing that SJP committed egregious infractions of the school’s code of conduct.
“SJP organized and led the actions described above, creating an untenable learning, living, and working environment that no member of our community should have to endure. The group’s alleged behavior runs counter to the college’s values and our commitment to inclusivity and well-being,” she said. “As we uphold and promote the important role of peaceful protest and dissent, I hope we will do so in ways that result in meaningful, productive dialogue rather than deeper divisions.”
Swarthmore College is not the first US college or university to see the attempted takeover of school property this semester, and it is one of several to levy sanctions against either an entire chapter or its individual members.
Earlier this month, SJP installed an encampment inside Bowdoin’s College Smith Union to demand a boycott of Israel and signal its opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposing that Gazans be resettled elsewhere while the Palestinian enclave is transformed into a hub for tourism and job creation under American control. Bowdoin, moving quickly to quell the disruption, persuaded its students to abandon the effort after just four days by levying interim suspensions on several dozen of them and notifying their families.
Days before, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suspended both Students for Justice in Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine following their vandalizing the home of a Jewish member of the Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California system.
According to The Daily Bruin, on Feb. 5 roughly 50 of the groups’ members amassed on the property of UC Regent Jay Sures and threatened that he must “divest now or pay.” As part of the demonstration, the students imprinted their hands, which had been submerged in red paint to symbolize the spilling of blood, all over Sures’ garage door and cordoned the area with caution tape.
The behavior crossed the line, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in an email, portions of which were quoted by The Bruin and can be found online, sent to the entire student body.
“Rigorous, healthy dialogue is central to everything we do to advance knowledge,” he explained. “What there should never be room for is violence. No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work, and live — much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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