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In this mailing:
* Bassam Tawil: Palestinian 'Civilians': Complicit in Hamas Crimes
* Amir Taheri: Talisman of Great Expurgation


** Palestinian 'Civilians': Complicit in Hamas Crimes ([link removed])
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by Bassam Tawil • June 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
* If ruling regimes such as Hamas do not want their civilians killed during hostage rescue operations, they should not start unprovoked wars, then complain when they are hit back. They also should not take hostages, then hide them among the civilian population. It is not complicated.
* The Palestinian families can hold only themselves accountable for the scores of Gazans who died during the rescue operation. Those families were not coerced or threatened into keeping the hostages inside their homes. The exact opposite is true: They were delighted to help Hamas because they support the terrorist group.
* Unsurprisingly, Abdallah Al-Jamal [a Gazan journalist who imprisoned three hostages in his home] also worked for the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network, which has long been serving as a de facto mouthpiece for Hamas and other Islamist terror groups.
* Al-Jamal's most recent article, dated June 3, was headlined: "My House Will Always Be Open – Stories from the Gaza Siege."
* Indeed, the Palestinian journalist's house was open – but only for hostages kidnapped by Palestinian murderers, thugs and rapists from an Israeli music festival on October 7.
* The Biden administration and those in the West who have been crying about the "innocent" and "uninvolved" civilians killed and injured since the beginning of the war initiated by Hamas should direct their anger towards the Palestinians, not Israel, for aiding and abetting murderers, rapists and kidnappers.
* "Even if they were [coerced and threatened], what would it have taken to get into contact with anyone from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and say, 'I'm being forced to hold hostages in my house; please come get them out and take my family with them.' These families made the same choice hundreds of thousands of Gazans made and continue to make daily. They choose to help Hamas, they choose to hate Jews, they choose to participate in the killing and torture of Israelis, and they continue to support a murderous terrorist organization even if it means the death of them and their entire families." -- Raylan Givens, X, June 9, 2024.
* We must also not forget the thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians, to many of whom Israel had given work permits, who crossed the border into Israel on October 7 and took part in the crimes against Israelis.
* The Israeli rescue operation serves as a reminder that Israel is continuing to do everything possible to save its citizens, while Hamas – with the help of many "ordinary" Palestinians -- is doing its utmost to save itself, including sacrificing its own citizens.

Andrei Kozlov, one of the four Israeli hostages rescued on June 8, is brought to Sheba Hospital by helicopter minutes after Israeli police and soldiers rescued him. Kozlov and two of the other hostages were imprisoned in Gaza, in the family home of Palestinian "journalist" Abdallah Al-Jamal, who worked for The Palestine Chronicle and the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera television network. (Photo by Gideon Markowicz/AFP via Getty Images)

The courageous Israeli operation that resulted in the rescue of four Israeli hostages on June 8 has confirmed what many Israelis and Palestinians have known for some months: that Palestinian civilians were, and continue to be, complicit in the crimes carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas prior to October 7, 2023, and onward.

The four hostages, Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, were abducted, together with more than 250 Israelis, during the Hamas-led attack -- backed by Qatar and Iran -- on Israel eight months ago.

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** Talisman of Great Expurgation ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • June 10, 2024 at 4:00 am
* US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Hamas has been so degraded that it won't be able to repeat the October massacre against Israel.
* Maybe.
* The Biden plan is part of a pattern of the US behaving as a terzo incomodo [third wheel] in vaudeville, a bothersome third party crashing into a twosome quarrel to prevent a clear outcome and foment confusion to its own advantage.
* The US, often with support from the usual suspects including the United Nations and European "allies" did just that in all wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors, thus preventing war from doing its work, which is establishing a victor and a vanquished. The cold peace between Egypt and Israel was made possible when Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin realized that it was unwise to cherish their antagonism more than the object of their hostility.
* Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Rostam-Ali Rafi'i says Biden "sent us a written message" saying Iran is right to attack Israel in revenge, but "should keep the revenge limited."
* Tehran is heating up the Lebanese front, thus helping Netanyahu claim that having "degraded" Hamas he should focus on the threat from Hezbollah.
* As always by keeping the knife in the wound in the name of peace, the ultimate losers of this latest peace plan will be the Israelis and their Palestinian adversaries-cum-co-sufferers.

As always, by keeping the knife in the wound in the name of peace, the ultimate losers of US President Joe Biden's peace plan will be the Israelis and their Palestinian adversaries-cum-co-sufferers. Pictured: Biden speaks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the White House on April 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Barring the usual hitches in any plan related to the Israel-Palestine saga, what Washington is marketing as Biden's peace proposal may soon well become reality.

Presented in the classical style of a diplomatic plan, the proposal suggests three phases for its implementation.

In the first phase a six-week ceasefire, described as "full and complete" will be installed with Israeli forces withdrawing from "populated areas" of Gaza. It is not clear why should a ceasefire need six weeks to be established. Normally a ceasefire is announced for a precise hour on a precise day at which, well, firing ceases. The adjectives "full and complete" are also redundant, since a partial and incomplete ceasefire isn't one.

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