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For the Sake of Israelis and Palestinians, Israel Must Completely Defeat Hamas in Gaza

Former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar looks on as Palestinian Hamas supporters take part in an anti-Israel rally over tension in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, in Gaza City, Oct. 1, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

It is fitting that Israeli soldiers finally killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the period between the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack, and the Hebrew calendar anniversary on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

The terrorist leader’s death marks a major milestone in the conflict. But it does not — and cannot — mark the end of Israel’s war in Gaza, or beyond. Those who would urge Israel simply to “move on” fail to understand the sheer brutality that Sinwar orchestrated, and the subsequent necessity of Israel’s operations to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages.

Both of us witnessed Hamas’ brutality as part of programming organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), including an annual trip to Israel for retired senior US military officers.

Yet, even given our background, we were horrified by the raw footage of the attack, much of which Hamas terrorists filmed themselves, and a somber walk about and firsthand observation of one of the many devastated kibbutzim, Kfar Azza.

More alarming is that the full scope of the October 7 atrocities still has not reached the American public. The coordinated air, land, and sea invasion, and the barbaric violence against civilians, including rape, sexual violence, and mutilation, indicated this was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence — but a prepared assault fueled by the conditioned hatred of Jews.

Beyond the death and destruction, the October 7 attack also overturned Israelis’ sense of security and eroded deterrence against enemies even beyond Gaza.

But Sinwar also terrorized his own people. He served 22 years of four life sentences in Israeli prison for murdering Palestinians in his role as a brutal Hamas enforcer, until he was released in 2011 as part of a hostage release deal. Under his rule, life in Gaza even before 10/7 was subverted to Hamas’ military goals. Money and supplies were diverted, and civilian structures were appropriated to build “fortress Gaza” — turning the entire territory into a series of above- and below-ground fortified positions designed specifically for fighting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Sinwar wanted to bring the fight to the streets of Gaza because he knew they housed a potent weapon against Israel — not any of the tunnels or hidden bombs, but the Palestinian civilians that Hamas would ensure were caught in the crossfire.

Recognizing that Hamas cannot defeat Israeli forces militarily, Sinwar’s strategy sought to maximize the number of civilian casualties in Gaza to rally international pressure against Israel.

With this strategy, Sinwar intentionally sacrificed the lives of thousands of Gazans, and turned that of hundreds of thousands into a living hell. As we detailed in a JINSA report following our trip, Hamas has serially violated international law by turning the civilian population of Gaza into human shields to hide its fighters and weapons inside hospitals, schools, humanitarian zones, and United Nations facilities. It tried to force civilians to remain in harm’s way, attacking those who sought to flee. For those lucky to escape, Hamas nevertheless ensured their suffering by repeatedly stealing humanitarian aid, preventing it from reaching the civilians who need it.

Hamas then weaponized this suffering against Israel, waging a disinformation campaign to blame Israel for civilian deaths and insufficient aid. Indeed, Hamas’s disinformation has generated public pressure that has led to widening public tensions between the United States and Israel, including pauses of key US weapons transfers and threats of an arms embargo.

One senior IDF officer told us that international pressure against Israel was more challenging to Israeli success than any battlefield complexities.

With Sinwar’s death, that pressure is already mounting again, urging Israel to declare victory and end in the war in Gaza. To be sure, the death of Sinwar, the man responsible for the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust, sends a clear message that anyone who threatens Israeli lives will face justice. But it does not mark the end of the war in Gaza, nor the start of a new, more secure future for either Israelis or Palestinians.

This war is not about punishing the man responsible for 10/7. It is about ensuring that 10/7 can never happen again. It is about bringing home the remaining 100 hostages that were taken from their homes and kept, inhumanely, in tunnels for the last year. And it is about dismantling the remaining military capability of Hamas so that Gazans do not, once again, live under a terrorist regime. As long as Hamas persists in Gaza, these goals are not met and this war will continue.

The end of Sinwar is not the end of the war. Hamas will survive Sinwar unless Israel finishes its mission in Gaza. The United States should redouble its support for Israel to prevent the terrorist group’s next leader from rebuilding and not avoid pursuing victory for short term domestic political gain.

Rear Admiral (ret.) Paul Becker served as Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and participated in JINSA’s 2024 Generals and Admirals Program. Ari Cicurel is Assistant Director of Foreign Policy at JINSA.

The post For the Sake of Israelis and Palestinians, Israel Must Completely Defeat Hamas in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’

Zohran Mamdani Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.

In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.

At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.

Nearly half  of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.

The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.

Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.

“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”

Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.

Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.

The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events

A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.

The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.

Incidents reported by the group include:

  • At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
  • A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
  • In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”

CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”

The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”

Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.

A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”

CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”

In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.

Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”

The post Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.

Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.

Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.

“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.

Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.

Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.

The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.

That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.

As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.

“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.

The post IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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