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The World’s Lies About Israel Encourage Worse Conduct by Other Countries
Members of the United Nations Security Council meet on the day of a vote on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a permanent ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, March 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
In six months of fighting in Gaza, Israel has produced the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratio in history.
Nonetheless, the Jewish State has found itself subject to accusations ranging from being overly aggressive to outright genocide — accusations that are flatly contradicted by well established data. To accuse a country that is being so incredibly careful sends a dangerous message to the world: that being careful doesn’t matter, and that terrorism works.
A case-in-point is the recent statement by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) spokesman Tarek Abu Shaluf, who admitted that terror groups (such as PIJ and Hamas) have taken over all of the hospitals in Gaza, and are using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks.
Shaluf was speaking while under interrogation by Israeli intelligence, a situation that public audiences typically find non-credible. However, in this case, Shaluf’s statement coincides with multiple international intelligence findings, including by the United States and Europe, not to mention a mountain of specific evidence publicly disclosed by Israel.
Nonetheless, Israel has garnered a general and baseless reputation for being overly aggressive and even malicious. Last week, for example, senior Democrat, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, signed a letter calling on President Biden to withhold arms sales from Israel. This move is especially notable because Pelosi does not represent a niche faction of the party, but is considered to be a senior and mainstream leader within the US political establishment.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board said that Democrats were “play[ing] into Hamas’s hands,” and that, “Cutting off weapons to an ally in wartime would be the definition of betrayal.” There is also opposition to supporting Israel on the political right, though it has yet to reach levels that are quite as senior and mainstream as those represented by last week’s letter.
Internationally, Israel is fighting accusations of genocide in the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Meanwhile, Nicaragua — which for years has been closely tied to both Iran and Hezbollah — brought a similar suit last week against Germany based on the country’s support for Israel. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the United States, in a notable shift of policy, did not exercise its veto power to prevent it.
Notwithstanding the accusations against Israel, which are often dramatic and deeply emotional, the numbers tell a different story.
Currently Hamas claims a total of some 33,000 casualties. It is well established that Hamas’ casualty figures are wildly inaccurate, including such faults as counting combatants and also counting civilians that Hamas itself has killed.
The IDF states a combatant casualty count of some 14,000, putting the civilian to combatant casualty ratio at slightly over 1:1, even if one accepts Hamas’ figures. This 1:1 ratio is nine times lower than the UN published global average, and 4 to 5 times lower than numbers produced by the US and its allies (such as in Iraq and Afghanistan).
In fact, the figure is lower than any urban warfare scenario that has ever been recorded in history. Even now, conflicts are raging in places like Syria and Yemen with death tolls in the hundreds of thousands, with abysmal civilian to combatant ratios, and yet they are receiving precious little global attention.
On the humanitarian aid front, Israel has facilitated the transport of more than a quarter million tons of food and over three million cubic meters of clean water into Gaza since October 7. Hamas habitually steals this aid to supply its military machine at the expense of Gaza’s civilians, a leading factor behind much of the food insecurity in the region. However, Hamas’ food theft has gone mostly unnoticed by international critics.
The global publicity campaign against Israel is no accident: Hamas has little chance of defeating Israel militarily, and their leadership is well aware of this reality. The terror organization has therefore publicly stated that it intends to use public pressure to stop Israel’s military campaign prematurely, and thus achieve an overall victory even despite losing every physical battle. Such tactics are nothing new, but if recent changes in American policy are any measure, it seems that this time, the tactic may actually stand a chance of working.
Israel has lost more than 600 soldiers since October 7, many of whom fell precisely because of Israel’s historic caution in protecting civilians, and the world is watching.
On the one hand, world leaders see the price Israel is paying to protect civilians and they see that this sacrifice goes unacknowledged. On the other hand, terror groups are also watching: they see that hiding behind civilians works, that placing military bases inside hospitals works, and that a campaign of global defamation works as well. If we publicly malign the very caution we wish to see in the world by Israel, if we permit the very abuse of civilians we wish to prevent, then we build the very kind of future we should rationally wish to avoid.
Daniel Pomerantz is an expert in international law, an adjunct professor at Reichman and Bar Ilan Universities in Israel, and the CEO of RealityCheck, an nonprofit NGO dedicated to clarifying global conversations with verifiable data. Daniel lives in Tel Aviv, Israel and can be found on Instagram at @realitycheckresearch or at www.RealityCheckResearch.org.
The post The World’s Lies About Israel Encourage Worse Conduct by Other Countries first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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