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We Need a Ceasefire Based on Reality, Not Fantasy
A supporter of Hamas demonstrates outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Photo: Reuters/Piroschka van de Wouw
The prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have issued a joint statement calling on Israel not to enter Rafah, saying the “military operation would be devastating.” Instead, they are pushing for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.” In doing so, they have joined many other international voices calling for Israel to stop its defensive actions against Hamas, arguing that Israel “must listen to the international community.”
While their statement does eventually call for Hamas to “lay down its arms and release all hostages immediately,” this part only appears in the fifth paragraph, making Israel the focus of opprobrium and criticism.
This statement — and the similar calls for a ceasefire made by so many over the past few weeks — betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation in Israel, and blames Israel for the actions it is taking to defend its people from murder and mass destruction.
This war only came about because Hamas broke the “ceasefire” that existed on October 6, when it launched a genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 that included rape, mutilation, torture, and the murder of 1,200 men, women, and children as well as kidnapping more than 240 people.
Every single death that has occurred since that day in Gaza is directly attributable to Hamas’ actions.
Yet, despite the abundance of evidence, including interviews with Hamas officials, testimonies of survivors, and video of the atrocities taken by the terrorists themselves, much of the world still quite inexplicably fails to understand and accept the true nature of Hamas and its intentions.
The very idea that a genocidal terror organization can sit down with a democratic, free country and negotiate some kind of lasting truce — leading to a peaceful outcome — is so preposterous and ludicrous that it defies common sense.
There is zero-chance that Hamas will listen to Western governments and lay down its arms permanently. And there is zero-chance that Hamas will free all the hostages, unless faced with overwhelming coercion.
Hamas’ very existence is predicated on the condition that Israel and its Jewish residents must be annihilated, as stated clearly in its founding document. Hamas’ fundamentalist and extremist ideology doesn’t allow for long-term compromise, and those who think it does are kidding themselves.
Yet those who call for ceasefires ignore this reality, effectively placing the onus on Israel alone to halt its activities and initiate an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in order to save lives — knowing that Hamas will never do the same.
Israel is implored to “listen” to the international community. Yet that same international community refuses to listen to Hamas itself, which has shown quite unequivocally through its human shield strategy, and genocidal actions against Israel, that it does not care about saving civilian lives.
Israel does indeed want a ceasefire, but one that is based on the reality of the threat it faces, not the fantasy of those whose “virtuous” calls for peace actually invite and encourage more conflict and death — both in Israel and in Gaza.
It is shameful and morally repugnant that Israel is expected to stop defending its citizens and abandon its hostages, allowing Hamas to survive to commit genocidal acts again and again, as it has promised it will do.
The world can be extremely generous with Jewish lives. But Israel cannot.
For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy, but for Hamas, every civilian death is a strategy. The world cannot be allowed to ignore the fact Hamas has turned Gaza into the largest terror state in history, where so many buildings, schools, and hospitals are terror structures designed to wage war on Israel. What the world refuses to acknowledge is that a structure of terrorism has been embedded into all aspects of Gazan society and infrastructure. And Hamas did this right under the nose of the international community, which continued to pump money into the terror enclave through corrupt United Nations organizations and others.
Israel is on the front-lines of the global battle for peaceful coexistence, human rights, and the sanctity of life. Just as the Nazis and ISIS had to be destroyed, so too must Hamas. The future of Israel — and the free world — depends on it.
Justin Amler is a Policy Analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
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Iran Executes Man Accused of Spying for Israel Amid Rising Crackdown, International Outcry
An Iranian protester waves an Iranian flag while participating in an anti-Israeli multinational rally at the holy mosque of Jamkaran near the holy city of Qom, 156 km (97 miles) south of Tehran, Iran, on April 15, 2025. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters Connect.
Iran has executed a man accused of spying for Israel despite international condemnation over what human rights groups called an “unfair trial,” marking the latest escalation in the regime’s crackdown on dissent.
On Wednesday, a 41-year-old man named Pedram Madani was hanged outside Tehran following his transfer earlier this week from a prison in the capital.
“After identification, arrest, and judicial proceedings against Pedram Madani, who was spying in favor of the Zionist regime, and following the complete process of criminal procedure and the final confirmation and upholding of the verdict by the Supreme Court, he was brought to justice and executed,” a report from the Iranian judiciary news outlet Mizan stated.
Arrested in 2020, Madani was accused of transmitting classified information on strategic Iranian sites to Israel and obtaining money through illicit means.
He is the second individual Iran has executed on espionage charges linked to Israel in just two months, with activists warning that the rising executions are part of a broader campaign to intimidate the population.
Human rights groups and Madani’s family have condemned the case against him as deeply flawed, emphasizing that he was even denied the right to appoint his own lawyer throughout the legal proceedings.
Madani “was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court without access to a lawyer of his choice, through an unfair and non-transparent process orchestrated by security agencies,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights (IHR) — a Norway-based NGO which tracks the death penalty in the country — told AFP.
“The Islamic Republic’s goal in executing Pedram Madani and others who are hanged daily is solely to instill fear within society and to conceal the regime’s widespread corruption and systemic failures,” he continued.
According to IHR, there have been at least 478 executions in Iran this year, including more than 60 hangings in the past 10 days. Most of those executed were accused of collaborating with Mossad — Israel’s national intelligence agency — and aiding covert operations in Tehran, such as assassinations and sabotage targeting the country’s nuclear program.
Among other activists condemning Madani’s trial, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, currently on temporary release from prison, also denounced the regime’s escalating repression.
“The Islamic republic uses the death penalty as a tool to instill fear and intensify repression against the people,” Mohammadi said in a video statement.
“There was not even a chosen lawyer on the case. Pedram’s cellmates testified he confessed falsely and under pressure. In Revolutionary Courts, these false confessions serve as the basis of death sentences,” she continued.
The regime’s growing crackdown unfolds amid rising tensions with Israel over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran — the chief international backer of Hamas and Hezbollah, providing the terrorist groups with weapons, funding, and training — has consistently pledged to destroy Israel.
For its part, Jerusalem has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
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Monroe Milsten, Founder of Burlington Coat Factory, Dies at 98
Burlington Coat Factory exterior. Photo: Flickr
Monroe Milstein, the enterprising businessman who transformed a modest New Jersey coat store into the national retail powerhouse Burlington Coat Factory, passed away earlier this month at the age of 98 from dementia.
Monroe Gerald Milstein was born on Jan. 14, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, to his mother, Ann Milstein, and father, Abe Milstein — founder of Amherst Fashions. When Monroe was 11, the family moved to Manhattan. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from New York University in 1946.
In 1949, Milstein married Henrietta Haas, an elementary school teacher who had fled the Holocaust. Henrietta later played an integral role in shaping Burlington’s children wear division. She passed away in 2001.
In 1972, Milstein and his wife purchased a defunct factory in Burlington, New Jersey, for $675,000 with the goal of transforming it into a retail destination. The venture became Burlington Coat Factory, selling discounted designer and brand-name coats for women, men, and children. Eventually, the store’s offerings grew to include home linens, menswear, baby clothes, and shoes, laying the foundation for a nationwide retail empire.
Three years after the initial purchase, Burlington Coat Factory opened its second location in Copiague, Long Island. According to Family Business Magazine, Milstein’s eldest son, Lazar, was the store manager and, as an Orthodox Jew, would not open the store on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.
In 1982, Milstein shut down Burlington’s wholesale operations and reoriented the company’s focus entirely to discount retail. Just a year later, in 1983, he took the company public when it operated only 32 stores — injecting the capital needed to fuel a rapid retail expansion.
In 2006, Bain Capital bought the company for $2.06 billion, with the Milstein family cashing out its stake for $1.3 billion. Milstein exited the business., and two of his sons, Andrew and Stephen, continued in executive positions for a period. The company returned to the public market in 2013.
“I’m a very average fella,” Milstein said on his 80th birthday regarding his business ventures. “I got lucky.”
During Milstein’s tenure, Burlington Coat Factory carved out a niche in the retail world by delivering brand-name goods at significant discounts. By the early 2000s, when he transitioned out of day-to-day management, the business had evolved into a national chain with hundreds of stores and a customer base numbering in the millions annually.
Burlington has grown to become the third-largest off-price retail chain in the US, following industry leaders TJX Companies (which operates TJ Maxx and Marshalls) and Ross Stores. Today, Burlington operates around 1,100 locations across the US, raking in roughly $10.6 billion in sales over the past 12 months.
He is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, many of whom continue to carry forward his values of hard work and integrity.
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Trump Says He Told Israel’s Netanyahu Not to Act Against Iran
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Feb/ 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week not to take actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran.
“I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution now,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. “That could change at any moment.”
Israel earlier rejected a report in the New York Times that Netanyahu has been threatening to disrupt talks on a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran by striking Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities.
Citing officials briefed on the situation, the newspaper said Israeli officials were concerned that Trump was so eager to reach a deal with Iran that he would allow Tehran to keep its nuclear enrichment facilities, a red line for Israel.
Israel was particularly concerned about the possibility of any interim deal that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear facilities for months or even years while a final agreement was reached, the paper reported.
US officials were concerned Israel could decide to strike Iran with little warning and said US intelligence estimated that Israel could mount an attack on Iran in as little as seven hours, the paper reported.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in response to the article which said simply: “Fake news.”
The New York Times said it stood by the report.
“The New York Times reporting on this matter is thorough and based on discussions with people directly familiar with the matter. We remain confident in what we published,” a spokesperson said in an email.
The paper said Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, and David Barnea, head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad, met Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome on Friday.
The two then traveled to Washington for a meeting on Monday with CIA director John Ratcliffe, before Dermer met Witkoff again on Tuesday.
One of the main sticking points in the talks between US and Iranian officials has been US insistence that Iran give up its nuclear enrichment facilities, a demand Iran rejects.
On Monday, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said she had a “very candid conversation” with Netanyahu on the negotiations with Iran.
She said she told the Israeli prime minister that Trump had asked her to convey “how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.”
Trump bypassed Israel on his trip to the Middle East this month and has made policy announcements that have shaken Israel‘s assumptions about its relations with the US.
Netanyahu has dismissed speculation about a falling out with the US administration, while Trump has also brushed off any suggestion of a break.
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