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Media Lies About Hamas Harm the United States

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

JNS.orgFormer Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh explained why he has no problem when Palestinians in Gaza are killed: “The blood of the women, children and elderly … we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit.”

Haniyeh was recently assassinated in Tehran. Despite his monstrous deeds over the decades, some prominent media lamented the passing of what they called a “moderate.”

Likewise, many media attempt to whitewash Hamas terrorists and the group itself, which is designated by the United States, Canada, the UK, EU and Japan as a terrorist organization. Strikingly, mainstream media doggedly avoid the label, preferring to call Hamas terrorists “fighters,” “militants” or “gunmen.” Encyclopedia Britannica says felicitously that Hamas is a “militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement,” avoiding the terrorist designation.

But the word terrorism means something. It describes violent acts directed at innocent civilians to achieve a political or military objective. It’s the precise word for what Palestinians—and especially Hamas—do on a daily basis.

Indeed, Palestinians have honed their terrorism tactics over decades to a gruesome, deadly skill, which they’ve used to kill and injure thousands of Israelis in suicide bombings of public buses, restaurants and religious events.

But Hamas has taken terrorism to new levels—from their targeting of some 10,000 rockets at Israel’s civilian centers to the barbaric Oct. 7 massacre, in which they mutilated, raped and kidnapped some 1,500 innocent children, elderly, mothers and fathers.

When a media organization chooses not to describe such acts as terrorism but rather to use words like “resistance”—they are lying. But more than lying: Under the cover of “journalism,” they promote a radical-left political line, which in Hamas’s case is justification to kill Jews as part of a global Islamist jihad.

Indeed, much media coverage of Hamas supports the terrorist group’s false narrative that it is a liberation movement fighting for Palestinian independence, rather than for the Islamic state clearly described in its official charter.

The media’s whitewash of Haniyeh, Hamas and its savage terrorist minions openly serves to support campus radicals who call for genocide in Israel “from the river to the sea.” These media lies also falsely excuse the Biden administration’s restrictions on weapon shipments to Israel and its calls for an immediate ceasefire, preventing Israel’s destruction of Hamas.

Haniyeh was no “moderate.” For 30 years, he developed an organization of monsters. While media in the 1930s often made excuses for Adolf Hitler’s aggression, they never called him a moderate. But that’s exactly what the BBC and The Washington Post called Haniyeh. CNN called him a “moderating force,” while The Wall Street Journal described him as “the strongest voice advocating for a ceasefire.”

Yet Haniyeh bore responsibility for all Hamas’s evils—from expelling the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007 to throwing members of the Fatah ruling party from rooftops and bombing Israeli population centers to the Oct. 7 mass murder. Haniyeh is an undisputed war criminal for headquartering Hamas military forces in and under civilian residences, schools, hospitals and mosques. No wonder the US named him a “specially designated global terrorist.”

The media disguise Hamas as if they are not terrorists at all. Indeed, Al Jazeera describes the group’s genocidal acts as “armed resistance,” as does PBS, which used the same term to describe Hamas in an article published just three days after the Oct. 7 massacre.

The BBC justifies not calling Hamas terrorists by saying, “It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn—who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.” This moral agnosticism is arrogant nonsense. The dictionary definition of terrorism is not subjective; it does not take sides: The term applies unequivocally to Hamas’s actions, which are evil.

The Hamas Charter clearly defines the group as a genocidal terrorist movement. Its preamble reads: “Israel … will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” It continues: “There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by jihad.” Furthermore, “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them.” Hamas doesn’t only advocate “armed resistance.” It advocates armed genocide.

Hamas has the blood of thousands of innocents on its hands. Even before Oct. 7, Hamas terrorist attacks killed thousands of Israelis and citizens of other countries. The terrorist group purposely targets civilians with suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, car-rammings and thousands of rockets launched at Israeli communities.

Hamas ruthlessly oppresses its own people. Though Gazans are oppressed by the cruel tyranny of the Hamas dictatorship—with no civil liberties or rule of law, arbitrary arrests, torture, oppression of women, theft of humanitarian aid and use of human shields—the media unconscionably ignore these conditions. Nor do they mention that Hamas repeatedly provokes war against Israel and is responsible for tens of thousands of war dead in Gaza.

The media’s whitewash of Hamas and their crimes encourages the “ceasefire hoax.” Media coverage of Hamas promotes the terrorist group’s false narrative that they are fighting for Palestinian self-determination—and the lie that Israel is responsible for Gazans killed in the war that Hamas started. These myths also support the Biden Administration’s pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire and cutting off weapon supplies.

More than harming Israel, the media cover-up of Hamas’s monstrosities betrays the United States. Only a tiny minority of nations have democracies as strong as Israel’s; no nation so consistently supports US security interests on the ground in the Middle East and international forums; and few nations engender so strongly the political and religious values on which the United States was founded. Any narrative that portrays Hamas as the “good guy” and Israel as the “bad guy” is not just false, it betrays the US.

Whitewashing the evil of the Hamas terrorist group is not only a travesty and an injustice against the Jewish state, it’s a betrayal of America’s interests and values. As surely as Hamas opposes Israel, it’s also a proxy of global jihadist Iran and, as such, viciously wishes death to the United States.

The post Media Lies About Hamas Harm the United States first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Australia’s Spy Chief Warns Surge in Antisemitism Across Country Has ‘Not Yet Plateaued’

Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has revealed that five major terrorist plots were prevented over the past year, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents in recent months that has alarmed the country’s Jewish community.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), delivered his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, warning that Australia has never faced so many serious national security threats at once. The agency declassified its security outlook for the next five years, raising concerns about the increasing threat of state-sanctioned murder.

Burgess disclosed that his organization had identified “at least three” countries plotting to “physically harm people” living in Australia over the past 12 months.

“It goes without saying that plots like these are repugnant,” he said. “They not only involve plans to hurt people — obviously bad enough — they are shocking assaults on Australian sovereignty and the freedoms we hold dear.”

Based on the agency’s predictions, the coming years will be more volatile and dangerous as countries like Russia and Iran become increasingly aggressive, the spy chief asserted.

“Over the next five years, a complex, challenging, and changing security environment will become more dynamic, more diverse, and more degraded,” Burgess said during his speech at ASIO headquarters in Canberra on Wednesday night.

“If the spy game has a rule book, it is being rewritten. If there are red lines, they are being blurred — or deliberately rubbed out.”

When speaking about the shocking surge in antisemitic attacks that have been spreading across Australia since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Burgess warned these incidents might only get worse as extremists are increasingly self-radicalizing and “choosing their own adventure” toward potential terrorist activity.

“Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship, and prominent figures,” he said. “I am concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.”

Several Jewish sites in Australia have been targeted with vandalism and even arson in recent months, continuing a rise in antisemitism that began with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. A recent report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) found that antisemitism in Australia quadrupled to record levels following the outbreak of the Gaza war, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024.

Burgess described how narratives originally centered on “freeing Palestine” have expanded to include incitements to “kill the Jews.”

Last week, Australia experienced its latest scandal in which two nurses were caught on video vowing to kill Israeli patients, prompting outrage from authorities.

At Bankstown Hospital in Sydney, two nurses, Ahmad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, were seen making inflammatory statements in a video that surfaced online, during a night-shift discussion with Israeli social media personality Max Veifer.

The footage featured Lebdeh stating she would refuse to treat an Israeli patient and would instead kill them, while Nadir used a throat-slitting gesture when he confessed to having already killed many.

“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of s—t,” Lebdeh told Veifer. “One day your time will come, and you will die the most disgusting death.”

After the video went viral, both nurses were suspended and permanently barred from employment within the New South Wales state health system.

Following the incident, the health minister of the state of Victoria, Mary-Anne Thomas, directed health-care facilities across the state to remove anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian badges and markings, declaring that political displays in hospitals are “unacceptable” and “will not be tolerated.”

Jews in Australia have questioned their safety at hospitals across the country amid a flurry of anti-Israel and even anti-Jewish animus coming from health-care facilities.

Last year, ASIO raised the national terror threat level from possible to probable and warned Australian defense personnel about being targeted by foreign spies.

“Australia has entered a period of strategic surprise and security fragility,” Burgess said on Wednesday.

As the country’s federal elections approach in the coming months, the federal government warned foreign embassies about attempts to interfere, including planting news stories about candidates or instructing people on how to protest.

Burgess warned that “high-impact sabotage,” such as attacks on nuclear-powered submarines or major cyberattacks, is becoming more likely, along with “state-sponsored or state-supported terrorism.” He singled out Russia, which could target Australia due to its support for Ukraine, and Iran as potential threats to Australia and its allies.

“A small number of authoritarian regimes are behaving more aggressively, more recklessly, more dangerously,” he said. “More willing to engage in what we call ‘high-harm’ activities.”

Burgess’s comments came after law enforcement in Australia last month started an investigation into the origins behind the spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.

Burgess also revealed that cyber units from at least one nation-state “routinely try to explore and exploit Australia’s critical infrastructure networks, almost certainly mapping systems so they can lay down malware or maintain access in the future.”

The post Australia’s Spy Chief Warns Surge in Antisemitism Across Country Has ‘Not Yet Plateaued’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Singer Noa Kirel Leads New Rom-Com Series With Argentine Pop Star Agustin Bernasconi

Agustín Bernasconi and Noa Kirel co-star in the new series “NOA.” Photo: Provided

Israeli singer Noa Kirel is starring alongside Argentine actor and fellow pop singer Agustín Bernasconi in a new music-centered romantic comedy series that will begin filming in March, The Algemeiner has learned.

The 25-episode series “NOA,” which will be filmed entirely in Argentina, is a global co-production from Argentina’s FAM Contenidos and Israel’s entertainment studio Sipur.

In the series, Noa (Kirel) travels to Argentina to meet her boyfriend, after months of having a long-distance relationship, but things don’t turn out the way she thought they would. She then meets Tomy (Bernasconi), “a young man who tries to reconcile with his past and forge a new life away from music, all while Noa begins a journey of discovery in search of her musical identity, while dealing with pressure from her parents and her new reality in Buenos Aires,” according to a provided synopsis.

Kirel is a singer, rapper, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She competed on behalf of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 and finished third with her song “Unicorn.” She was also formerly a judge on “Israel’s Got Talent.”

Bernasconi is an Argentine actor, singer, composer, and musician, with over 100 million views on YouTube.

“It will be a great experience to star in the series with Noa,” said Bernasconi. “She is an exceptional artist, and we complement each other very well.”

“NOA” producer and Dori Media Group founder Yair Dori, who originated the series, said: “I am very proud to be part of this great project, which I believe will have a very solid performance worldwide.”

Sipur CEO Emilio Schenker added: “NOA marks the beginning of our co-financing and co-producing major IP franchises globally. I can’t think of a better team or first project to invest in outside of Israel. It fits perfectly with our mandate to bring high-quality fiction, documentary, and unscripted projects to the world through high-level strategic partnerships and the support of powerful investors.”

Sipur’s latest projects include the Hebrew-language scripted drama series “Bad Boy,” from original “Euphoria” creator and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Ron Leshem and Hagar Ben-Asher. Netflix acquired streaming rights for “Bad Boy” in November 2024. Sipur’s recent works also include the medical thriller series “Heart of a Killer,” starring “Tehran” lead actress Niv Sultan, the documentary “We Will Dance Again,” “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” and the documentary series “Munich ’72” about the Palestinian terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

The showrunners for “NOA” are Alejandro Cacetta and Mili Roque Pitt, and the director is Mauro Scandolari.

The post Israeli Singer Noa Kirel Leads New Rom-Com Series With Argentine Pop Star Agustin Bernasconi first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Freed Hamas Hostage Agam Berger Begs Trump to Help Get Israeli Captives Home: ‘Don’t Stop Until All Are Back’

Released Israeli hostage, Agam Berger, a soldier who was seized from her army base in southern Israel during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, is reunited with her parents following her release, in a handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 30, 2025. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Former Hamas hostage Agam Berger urged US President Donald Trump to continue pushing for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in a Hebrew-language video message that the president shared on his Truth Social app on Monday night.

A soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, Berger, 20, also thanked Trump for helping to secure her release from Hamas captivity in Gaza last month.

“I want to take this chance to say to you, President Trump: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you’ve done and continue to do for the hostages,” Berger said in the clip. “Thanks to you, we’re home. But we must remember there are still people who truly depend on you and are waiting for you to save them. They’re waiting for your help and you have the power to do it.”

Berger was kidnapped from the IDF’s Nahal Oz military base on Oct. 7, 2023, along with four other Israeli soldiers. Dozens of IDF soldiers were murdered at the military outpost. Berger was released from Hamas captivity in January a week after four of her fellow IDF soldiers, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the US-designated terrorist organization.

The ceasefire deal took effect the day before Trump entered office last month and it put a pause to the 15-month war in Gaza. The agreement was mediated by the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations, and the framework of the agreement was agreed upon last year.

“I beg you, don’t stop until all the hostages, both living and deceased, are brought back as quickly as possible,” Berger also told Trump in her video message. She then talked about her time in Hamas captivity, saying: “I went through many hardships there. The days didn’t pass. They stood still. Every night and day felt eternity. That’s how those [hostages] still feel there.”

“We must act fast to bring everyone home. They’re just waiting to be rescued,” she added.

Monday marked 500 days since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, slaughtered 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Seventy-three men, women, and children remain in Hamas captivity. The bodies of four deceased hostages will be returned to Israel on Thursday, two days before the next round of living hostages will be released.

The post Freed Hamas Hostage Agam Berger Begs Trump to Help Get Israeli Captives Home: ‘Don’t Stop Until All Are Back’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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