“Israel believes that Wednesday’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital will put pressure
on Hamas to finish a deal to trade dozens of Israeli captives for Palestinian
prisoners, according to two senior Israeli officials. Negotiations for a deal
are underway, with the various players working on a framework of an agreement,
according to the two Israeli officials, who are involved in the Israeli effort
to release the hostages through a deal, as well as a third with knowledge of
the matter. Under the proposal, Hamas would release 50 women and children
abducted during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks for roughly the same number of
Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. The three officials
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations as did
two other Israeli officials who discussed the hostage negotiations. The deal,
being negotiated by Qatari, Egyptian and American officials, would also include
the cessation of hostilities for several days, a so-called humanitarian pause,
four of the officials said. Hamas confirmed the broad outlines of this
agreement on Tuesday but blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for
delaying it.”











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Eye on Extremism



November 16, 2023



The New York Times: Israel And Hamas Appear To Be Near Hostage Deal, Officials
Say
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“Israel believes that Wednesday’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital will put pressure
on Hamas to finish a deal to trade dozens of Israeli captives for Palestinian
prisoners, according to two senior Israeli officials. Negotiations for a deal
are underway, with the various players working on a framework of an agreement,
according to the two Israeli officials, who are involved in the Israeli effort
to release the hostages through a deal, as well as a third with knowledge of
the matter. Under the proposal, Hamas would release 50 women and children
abducted during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks for roughly the same number of
Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. The three officials
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations as did
two other Israeli officials who discussed the hostage negotiations. The deal,
being negotiated by Qatari, Egyptian and American officials, would also include
the cessation of hostilities for several days, a so-called humanitarian pause,
four of the officials said. Hamas confirmed the broad outlines of this
agreement on Tuesday but blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for
delaying it.”



Reuters: France Issues Arrest Warrant For Syria's President Assad - Source
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“French judges have issued arrest warrants for Syria's President Bashar
al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and two other senior officials over the
use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria, a judicial source
said on Wednesday. The arrest warrants -- which refer to charges of complicity
in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes -- follow a criminal
investigation into chemical attacks in the town of Douma and the district of
Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, attacks which killed more than 1,000 people. It
is the first international arrest warrant that has been issued for the Syrian
head of state, whose forces responded to protests that began in 2011 with a
brutal crackdown that U.N. experts have said amounts to war crimes. These are
also the first international arrest warrants that have been issued over the
chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, said Mazen Darwish, lawyer and founder of
the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), which filed the
case in France. Syria denies using chemical weapons but a previous joint
inquiry of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons found that the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in
an April 2017 attack and has repeatedly used chlorine as a weapon.”



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Listen to the Fighting Terror Podcast

Fighting Terror is a podcast that brings together counterterrorism experts and
practitioners from Europe, the United States, and beyond to address different
approaches to combating terrorism in our society. Our frank discussions cover
the lifecycle of terrorism from propaganda and recruitment, to financing,
action, and failure. Listenhere
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or wherever you get your podcasts.




United States



Reuters: U.S. Political Violence Driven By New Breed Of ‘Grab-Bag’ Extremists
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“Before he committed mass murder in Colorado late last year, Anderson Lee
Aldrich was a lively presence among a group of friends who regularly assembled
online for hours to chat, play video games and trade internet memes. The four
irreverent young men shared a desire to mock “cancel culture” and laugh over
“dumb, silly stuff,” Gilbert Arroyo, one of the friends, told Reuters. But over
the roughly three years of their gatherings, the memes and quips Aldrich shared
grew increasingly racist, homophobic and violent, according to three of the
gamers and a Reuters review of online content that Aldrich assembled. Despite
his vitriol, the friends said, Aldrich’s jokes were more scattershot humor than
ideological manifesto. They never perceived him to be espousing any particular
belief system or aligning with specific hate groups or political causes. They
were shocked, then, when Aldrich, wielding an assault rifle and a handgun,
entered Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, and opened fire last
November. The 22-year-old, who once dreamed of joining the military, killed
five people and injured 22. He pleaded guilty in June to murder charges and is
serving five consecutive life terms in state prison.”



The New York Times: More Migrants On Terrorism Watch List Crossed U.S. Border
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“An increasing number of migrants arrested at the southern border over the
past year are on the United States’ terrorist watch list, according to
government data. From October last year to this September, officials at the
southern border arrested 169 people whose names matched those on the watch
list, compared with 98 during the previous fiscal year and 15 in 2021,
according to government data. But that is a minuscule fraction of the total
number of migrants who were apprehended at the border over the past year, more
than two million. The increase appears to reflect at least two factors, a surge
in illegal crossings and the number of people arriving from a wider variety of
countries than in previous years. Still, Republicans have seized on those
numbers to assail President Biden for border policies that they say make
Americans unsafe. Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee and
chairman of the House committee on homeland security, pointed to the arrests on
Wednesday during a hearing on global threats to the United States. “Why would
these individuals, who under the previous president, only 11 attempted to cross
and were caught, suddenly feel like they could try and succeed?” he asked.
(During the 2017-2019 fiscal years, under President Donald J. Trump, a total of
11 migrants on the watch list were arrested at the southern border.)”



ABC: A 'Rogue's Gallery' Of Threats Made Against US Since Hamas Attack On
Israel, FBI Director Christopher Wray Says
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“Since Hamas' surprise terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7, law
enforcement has seen a "rogue's gallery" of calls for attacks against the U.S.
from Hezbollah to Al Qaeda, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
"Given those calls for action, our most immediate concern is that individuals
or small groups will draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to
carry out attacks here at home," he said in testimony before the House Homeland
Security Committee. "We are keeping a close eye on what impact we have on those
terrorist groups intentions here in the United States and how those tensions
might evolve." Wray told the committee during the "Worldwide Threats to the
Homeland" hearing that the "biggest chunk of the threats" reported to the FBI
are "threats to the Jewish community, synagogues, Jewish prominent officials,
things like that." Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Christine
Abizaid testified that "terrorists and violent extremists are exploiting
multiple core grievances to fuel violence."”



Afghanistan



Washington Post: Deported Afghans Return Home By The Thousands To Unexpected
Welcome
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“At Pakistan’s main border crossing with northern Afghanistan, the narrow
path into an uncertain future runs between two rusty iron fences and ends
beneath a black-and-white flag of the Taliban-run government. Many of the
returning Afghan refugees who arrived here last week expected the worst as they
stepped onto muddy Afghan soil amid torrential rain. Caught up in a major
deportation drive and forced to leave their homes in Pakistan, some had never
been to the war-ravaged country their parents were born in. Others assumed they
would barely recognize the cities they fled after the Taliban takeover in
August 2021, where schools are now closed for many girls and music is
prohibited. But as they entered their transformed country, many refugees
appeared puzzled. There was a poster wishing them a “good and comfortable
life.” Rifle-wielding soldiers handed out food and wore bright garlands to
celebrate the refugees’ return. Trucks stood ready to transport the returnees
and their belongings to sprawling tent cities where 30,000 have found shelter
and most families receive a $140 cash payment from the government. “We wish we
had returned sooner,” said Sardar Ali, 35, a laborer who was born in Pakistan
to Afghan parents and who most recently worked in Rawalpindi.”



Pakistan


Associated Press: Taliban Minister Attends Meeting In Pakistan Despite
Tensions Over Expulsions Of Afghans
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“A Cabinet minister from Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government attended a
trade meeting in Pakistan despite tensions over the expulsion of Afghans living
in the country illegally, officials said Wednesday. Around 300,000 Afghans have
returned home since last month, when Pakistan launched a nationwide crackdown
on undocumented foreigners. The crackdown mainly affects about 1.7 million
Afghans who fled during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of their country and
after the Taliban takeover in 2021. The Taliban-led administration in
Afghanistan has denounced the crackdown. However, this week the Taliban
government sent Commerce and Industry Minister Nooruddin Azizi to Islamabad for
a meeting of commerce and trade ministers from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and
Pakistan. Aziz met separately with Pakistani officials to discuss trade issues
and the expulsion of Afghans. In a statement on X, previously known as Twitter,
the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said the three sides agreed to expand trade,
improve transit facilities, increase joint investments and enhance
transportation. Pakistan this week opened three more border crossing points to
expedite the deportation of Afghans, many of whom are unable to take their
belongings with them.”



Middle East


Associated Press: Their Families Wiped Out, Grieving Palestinians In Gaza Ask
Why
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“The night a blast struck his family’s home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed al-Naouq
was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with
inexplicable panic. He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had
written — and then deleted — a message. Al-Naouq called him from London. The
words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering
blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed. Four nights later, Ammar al-Butta was
startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of
his bedroom collapsed over him. A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment
and exploded one floor below. He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of
his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives. “Anyone
there?” he cried. There was only silence. Entire generations of Palestinian
families in the besieged Gaza Strip — from great-grandparents to infants only
weeks old — have been killed in airstrikes in the Israel-Hamas war, in which
the Israeli army says it aims to root out the militant group from the densely
populated coastal territory. Attacks are occurring at a scale never seen in
years of Israel-Hamas conflict, hitting residential areas, schools, hospitals,
mosques and churches, even striking areas in southern Gaza where Israeli forces
ordered civilians to flee.”



Associated Press: Israel Signals Wider Offensive In Gaza’s South, Where
Hundreds Of Thousands Have Fled
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“Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning Palestinians to flee parts of
southern Gaza, residents said Thursday, signaling a possible expansion of their
offensive to areas where hundreds of thousands of people who heeded earlier
evacuation orders are crowded into U.N.-run shelters and family homes.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued searching Shifa Hospital in the north, in a raid
that began early Wednesday. They displayed guns they say were found hidden in
one building, but have yet to release any evidence of the central Hamas command
center that Israel has said is concealed beneath the complex. Hamas and staff
at the hospital, Gaza’s largest, deny the allegations. Broadening operations to
the south — where Israel already carries out daily air raids — threatens to
worsen an already severe humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. Over
1.5 million people have been internally displaced in Gaza, with most having
fled to the south, where food, water and electricity are increasingly scarce.
It’s not clear where else they could go, as Egypt refuses to allow a mass
transfer onto its soil.”



Reuters: Israeli Military Strikes House Of Hamas Leader Haniyeh In Gaza
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“Israeli fighter jets have struck the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in
Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Haniyeh's house was "used as
terrorist infrastructure and often served as a meeting point for Hamas' senior
leaders to direct terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (Israel
Defence Forces) soldiers," the military said.”



Germany



Associated Press: Suspected German Anti-Government Extremist Convicted Of
Shooting At Police
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“A suspected anti-government extremist was convicted of attempted murder in
Germany on Wednesday for firing at police who had come to search his home for
an unauthorized weapon. The Stuttgart state court sentenced the 55-year-old
German citizen, whose name it didn’t release, to 14 1/2 years in prison. He was
convicted of several counts of attempted murder, along with attacking and
resisting officers and bodily harm. The court said the defendant had for years
been writing letters to authorities that were typical of the Reich Citizens
scene, which rejects the legitimacy of Germany’s postwar constitution and has
similarities to the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon movements in the United
States. In 2021, he moved to a farm in Boxberg in southwestern Germany, where
he lived along with others with similar views in an isolated community. He
showed signs of increasing radicalization. Earlier that year, his weapons
license was revoked, and he didn’t respond to demands that he give up a pistol
that he had owned legally. In April 2022, police were sent to the farm to
search the defendant’s apartment and secure the weapon. As police approached,
he fired a total of 45 shots, the court said. One officer was wounded in the
leg.”



Technology



The New York Times: Antisemitic And Anti-Muslim Hate Speech Surges Across The
Internet
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“On Oct. 7, the day Hamas attacked Israel, the hashtag #HitlerWasRight
appeared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Over the next month,
more than 46,000 posts featured the hashtag, often alongside language that
called for violence against Jews. At the same time, the hashtag #DeathtoMuslims
also spiked on X and was shared tens of thousands of times, according to a
review by The New York Times. Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has
surged across the internet since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke
out. The increases have been at far greater levels than what academics and
researchers who monitor social media say they have seen before, with millions
of often explicitly violent posts on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Antisemitic content soared more than 919 percent on X and 28 percent on
Facebook in the month since Oct. 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a
Jewish advocacy group. Anti-Muslim hate speech on X jumped 422 percent on Oct.
7 and Oct. 8, and rose 297 percent over the next five days, said the Institute
for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based political advocacy group.”



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