Hamas deputy leader, Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, and two of Al-Qassam’s leaders killed in Beirut. In other Hamas-related news, Claudine Gay resigns.
Drone Strike Kills Senior Hamas Official
Axios reports Drone Strike Kills Senior Hamas Official
Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and the commander of the group’s military wing in the occupied West Bank, was killed in a drone attack in Beirut on Tuesday, Hamas has confirmed.
The big picture: The killing of al-Arouri is a serious blow to Hamas, which called the commander “one of the architects” of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel. He is the most senior Hamas leader killed since the war in Gaza began. The strike, which took place near Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, could push the Lebanese group to escalate its attacks against Israel.
Driving the news: According to press reports in Lebanon, al-Arouri and five others were killed in the attack on a Hamas office in Beirut.
What to watch: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly warned Israel several weeks ago against trying to kill Hamas leaders in Beirut. He threatened a strong response if that happened.
The lead image is a translation of this Tweet.
Wall Street Journal Comments
Israel’s leaders have vowed to go after all Hamas leaders around the world involved in the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that it said killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and Tuesday’s attack appeared to be the first deadly result of the campaign outside the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s Army Radio attributed the strike to Israel, and Danny Danon, an Israeli lawmaker who served as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, praised his military and spy agency for carrying out the attack.
The blast sent shattered glass and car parts flying through the suburban Beirut neighborhood.
Danny Danon Comments
Danon is Israel’s 17th Permanent Representative to the UN | Member of Knesset | Chairman of the World Likud.
Translation from Hebrew: “I congratulate the IDF, the Shin Bet, the Mossad and the security forces for killing senior Hamas official Salah al-Aaruri in Beirut. Anyone who was involved in the 7/10 [October 7] massacre should know that we will reach out to them and close an account with them.“
Long Line of Hamas Leaders Killed
- Yahya Ayyash, the group’s alleged chief bomb maker – dubbed “the engineer” -who was assassinated in 1996 with a booby-trapped mobile phone.
- Salah Shehadeh, among the founders of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, who was killed in 2002 when F-16 warplanes bombed his house, burying him and at least 11 other Palestinians, including seven children, beneath the rubble of a four-storey block of flats.
- Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the wheelchair-bound co-founder of Hamas, who was assassinated by an Israeli helicopter gunship in 2004.
- Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi, a co-founder of the group, who was assassinated in an attack on his car in 2004.
- Leader of the military wing Nabil Abu Selmeya, who died along with his wife and seven sons and daughters aged seven to 19 in 2006, in an attack on a residential building near Gaza City.
The above list from Aljazeera.
Harvard President Resigns
Under continual attack for plagiarism and antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attack, Claudine Gay resigns.
Bloomberg reports Harvard President Claudine Gay to Quit After Months of Controversy, Crimson Says
Claudine Gay will step down as president of Harvard University, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure marred by allegations of plagiarism and a campus controversy over antisemitism, according to the Harvard Crimson, which cited a person with knowledge of the decision.
Her exit is a dramatic about-face from her acclaimed start in July as Harvard’s first Black president. Even as recently as Dec. 12, she enjoyed the unanimous backing of Harvard Corp., the university’s governing council. Since then, however, new questions have surfaced about her academic work, and a donor revolt over the school’s handling of antisemitism has only worsened.
Gay’s abrupt downfall, the second departure in recent weeks of an Ivy League president, underscores the furor on campus following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
How Will Hezbollah Respond to the Assassination?
That is the key question of the day. A three-front war could escalate.
The Times of Israel reports Israel Bracing for Response to Killing of Hamas Deputy Leader in Lebanon
Israel is anticipating a response to the alleged assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
The Walla news site and Channel 13 news say that Israel expects a retaliation, including possible long-range rocket fire on Israel.
This evening, a clip from an August speech given by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has resurfaced.
“Any assassination on Lebanese soil against a Lebanese Syrian, Iranian or Palestinian will be met with a decisive response. We will not tolerate this, and we will not allow Lebanon to become a new killing field for Israel.”
Nasrallah is slated to give a nationally televised address tomorrow.
Also from the Times of Israel, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati issues a statement responding to the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, condemning the “new Israeli crime” and warning that Jerusalem is aiming to drag Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations.
Wrt 72 virgins:
Does each martyr get her/his own exclusive 72 virgins, or are they shared across other martyrs?
What if the martyr is a strait woman, gay, trans, non-binary, gender fluid, etc. ?
Palestine is a made-up idea… the popualtion of the Elayat of Hejaz had a few bedouin, and most of the Arab population was relocated north from what is now Saudi Arabia. There is no real difference between a Hashemite Jordanian and “Palestinian”.
Most countries are “made-up ideas”….
…except maybe countries which are islands, like Australia…. God made their boundaries… 😉
Israeli terrorists arrested!
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/turkey-arrests-34-suspsected-mossad-spies-over-abduction-plot-aimed-foreigners
In case anyone doesn’t read the article, I’ll quote:
“Turkey arresting what are alleged to be Israeli spies and putting them on trial has been somewhat of a recurring event, going back to well before the current Gaza war. “
So not new news. Erdogan just wants a little media attention.
Mish, are we going to get some articles about equities or fixed-income markets ever again? Or just perpetual politics and electric vehicles? Judging by the number of comments, I guess these polarizing topics are good for views, but how about some investing fodder for old times sake? I’ve been a loyal reader since before the GFC and we’ve even exchanged a few emails, but it’s getting tougher to hang in there. Belated Happy New Years, all!
Boring!
He would have had a warm reception at the Chicago Welcoming Center at Des Plaines and Clinton Street. Next time take the bus … and leave the driving to us!
Palestinian comedian.
https://youtu.be/cSo7c-Tvkso?si=fNCLfpEx38MT2E6w
There Is No Such Thing As ‘Palestinians’
Rabbi Michael Barclay | 8:53 PM on October 14, 2023
(This column is Part 1 of a series of articles explaining the fallacies that have led to the world’s leftists supporting Palestine, Gaza, and Hamas’ horrors.)
The patterns of the anti-Semitic/Marxist/”Palestinian”/LGBTQ/BLM/hate-filled alliance are nothing if not predictable. After expressing shock and dismay that their Palestinian friends in Gaza specifically targeted civilians, in under a week, they have quickly shifted back to their repeated old rhetoric. They are now blaming Israel for the horrific attacks from Hamas, calling Israel’s counter-attacks on Hamas a “terrorist siege,” blitzing the media with images of wounded from Gaza, and attacking Israel in all ways as an ‘apartheid state’ and, as Ocasio Cortez defined Israel, a nation devoted to “ethnic cleansing”.
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We cannot let them try to control the narrative with their blatant lies.
The best way to dismiss falsities is to educate. And so the purpose of this piece is to do just that: to give accurate information that is in direct contradiction to the lies of the Marxist alliance that seeks to destroy Israel, the United States, and Western Culture. The spiritual implications and religious components will be left for another article. This is about what we in Judaism call tachlis: simple, practical understandings that are useable in any dialogue.
Let us start with a brief history lesson. Despite what the media has been preaching for almost 60 years, there is no historical Palestinian state or people. Over 4,000 years ago, there were small tribes living in Canaan, such as Moabites, Amalekites, etc. There was no Palestine of people or land. Then around 3,200 years ago, the 12 tribes of Israel, united under King Saul into the first kingdom in the region, a Jewish theocracy called “Israel.” That split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (both Jewish), which were conquered by the Babylonian empire a little over 2,500 years ago. This became the Persian Empire, which was defeated by Alexander the Great, and Israel was controlled by the Greeks.
…
https://pjmedia.com/rabbi-michael-barclay/2023/10/14/there-is-no-such-thing-as-palestinians-n1735136
What a crock! Why are you trying so hard to disenfranchise these people who are undergoing such pain and suffering?
Why are you such a bleeding heart apologist for terrorists?
” Anyone who was involved in the 7/10 [October 7] massacre should know that we will reach out to them and close an account with them.“ I wonder if this will also apply to those responsible for the massacre in Gaza? Also, since many of the dead on Oct 7 were from friendly fire does that imply the IDF will commit hari kari? Of course not! That would imply the IDF had honor.
Glad to provide a different perspective for all you rubes.
Israel is having severe difficulties with the war in Gaza. Expanding the war with Hezbollah would be a serious problem for Israel. Israel is assuming the US will step in and save their bacon. Is the US stupid engough to be manipulated into this war? Unfortunately the answer is yes.
Severe difficulties – Hamas apologist comedian
Israel has managed to change a relatively minor incident into an existential threat by over reaction and callousness. Except for the US and a few European lapdogs, the rest of the world is against Israel. The US is suffering a tremendous blow to its moral prestige by being complicit in Israel’s crimes. The US’s prestige was already badly damaged over Ukraine. The evil Netanyahu is trying to entangle the US in a wider war and neocons like Lindsey Graham and John Bolton are out there cheerleading for it. Hopefully Tom’s will be shipped to the front lines.
“Relatively minor incident” by what standard? You presumably live in a country that restrains its mullahs and demands minimum civil behavior from everyone. Yet you apologize for barbaric losers whose primary agenda is not freedom but, decade after decade, hatred of prosperous Jewish neighbors. (Sort of like what you see in the mirror, maybe?) Israel is justified in treating these enemies as ruthlessly as American “settlers,” “colonialists,” “oppressors” (what-have-you’s) treated our Indians: with ruthless repression; it’s why your scalp is safe today atop your head. Finally, as Mish doesn’t think the economics of the area are of interest, I’ll make an economic observation: Israel’s nominal per capita GDP is above $50,000. Find a neighbor that tops $5,000 and ask yourself why.
Um, because the neighbors are not stealing land from the natives, then subjecting them to slavery . . . reaping something for nothing in the manner of armed robbers and slave-owners? Very doubtful that per capita GDP in the Israel territories of Gaza and West Bank is greater than $50,000. Thank you for your economic observation, Nobel Prize winner!
Absolutely awful when reality doesn’t fit your fantasy. You must do well in the financial markets.
More satisfied than Papa Dave on the finance front, thank you – the secret is reserving moral judgement for political and civil sectors while prioritizing profits in the domain of finance and investment.
Who the blazes is Papa Dave?
Speaking of Nobel Prize winners… Jews have won about 154 scientific Nobel Prizes, while Arabs, who outnumber the Jews about 32 to one, have won one – and he was an American of Arabian descent.
The Jews have turned the Israeli desert into a garden and an economic powerhouse due to being smart and having a culture of hard work – nothing to do with your bizarre accusation of enslavement of others.
Actually, 16 Nobel Prizes to Arab Muslims, only 13 to Israel Jews. Good for all of them, this regional evidence of some intelligence makes it more obvious that only embedded systems of repression could explain the violence erupting today.
Good News on two fronts!
Hamas leader dead and 29% of Gaza housing useable. Tune in for tomorrow’s weepfest. (An aside: If some of Mish’s anti-Israel shriekers happen to be American, I wonder if they understand why our Indians no longer take scalps.)
Hair Club For Men.
Answer: American natives no longer (for the most part) take scalps because tribes now mint money through their casino’s and other business ventures. Indigenous communities are being encouraged and becoming integrated into American society. Praying IDF can get at least two more Hamas members before wantonly slaughtering another 30,000 women and children in Gaza. Genocide is bad for the Israel brand, already Israel has dropped ‘the Jewish state’ from their byline.
Or Hamas could surrender in the interest of its civilians.
Right . . . because civilized people butcher civilian women and children until martial forces surrender? Thank you for your posts, genocide supporter Adolf.
Adolf, huh? Civilians are always the hostages of their leaders. In March 1945, long after the war had turned in its favor, the US killed approximately 100,000 Japanese civilians in a single night’s bombing of Tokyo. A month earlier, allied forces killed some tens of thousands civilians in several nights’ bombing of Dresden. In August, it was a couple hundred thousand dead non-combatants in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By what reasonable standard does some sniveling, name-caller demand Israelis enable Hamas by letting it hide behind civilians (who elected the jihadists)? Israel’s only fault, in my view, is sending young soldiers into Gaza to die in a ground war rather than bombing the place to dust, imposing all the human cost where it belongs: on the enemy.
Reasonable Standards for Demanding Israel Stop Civilian Slaughter & Genocide:
1. Gaza is a caged slum manufactured inside Israel territory under complete Israeli control. It is not an enemy nation. The butchered women and children victims of this outlandish daily bombing are not a civilian population in an enemy state, they are dispossessed fellow civilian neighbors inside the state of Israel.
2. The ‘human shield’ excuse for civilian slaughter is a preposterous lie invented to rationalize blaming the victims. Were the civilians in fact ‘shields,’ they would be alive. The Hamas fighting forces were known to be deep underground, in tunnels, long before commencement of the simple revenge bombing performed by Israel forces and having virtually no strategic value.
3. This is year 2024, 1945 was 79 years ago. The rules of warfare have been completely rewritten to prevent the long recognized atrocities against civilians perpetrated by all sided during World War Two.
4. Adolf, John Wayne movies are wildly inaccurate and can cause testosterone poisoning, clouding thought. Consider getting history lessons from better, more informed sources. White settler’s did much more ‘scalping’ of natives in the ‘wild west’ and were paid bounties for the native scalps collected.
Thank you again for your posts.
When Hamas started their campaign of launching an estimated 30,000 missiles into civilian areas of Israel many years ago, they forfeited the right to complain when Israeli started sending rockets back.
Hamas celebrates every Palestinian death as it gives them propaganda leverage. That’s why they fail to pass on Israeli warnings of imminent strikes, and have even blockaded evacuation routes to prevent the civilians from leaving.
Hamas found a way to provoke the exact type of war they wanted, so you should maybe butt out and let your friends get on with the business of trying to kill the Jews who they hate so much….
I note that Hamas allegedly still has majority support in Gaza….
We cannot allow a criminal politician to drag our children into another killing field. The Israeli actions are breeding another million children ready to become martyrs. And Americans don’t, and should never, support wholesale slaughter of women and children in the name of revenge. If we don’t learn to resolve issues through diplomacy, we are destined to suffer the consequences. Only Raytheon comes out on top.
You should try and run for political office. See if anyone votes for a pacifist wimp. I doubt it.
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How Hamas brainwash children to become jihadis: Terrorists teach Gazan kids how to shoot guns, launch anti-tank missiles and stage suicide attacks against Israel at summer camps – after indoctrinating them with anti-Semitic Mickey Mouse knock-off
– Palestinian children are brainwashed with anti-Semitic TV programmes
– Farfour the mouse, a knockoff of Mickey Mouse, was a mainstay on Gazan TV
– He would regularly blame Jewish people for the world’s problems
By Perkin Amalaraj
Published: 06:12 EST, 31 December 2023
For months, the Palestinian children of the Gaza Strip would tune in to watch an adult in a knockoff Mickey Mouse costume blame Jewish people for the misery and sins of the world.
Farfour the Mouse, a costumed character with an eerie, high-pitched voice who captured the attention of children, was broadcast on Al-Aqsa, the Hamas-run TV channel at the centre of the terror group’s propaganda operation.
The channel is currently directed by Fathi Hammad, a former interior minister for the Hamas government in Gaza who, in 2016, was designated a terrorist by the US for his role as Al-Aqsa’s chief.
The US described the TV channel as a ‘ primary Hamas media outlet with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.’
…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12914133/How-Hamas-brainwash-children-jihadis-Terrorists-teach-Gazan-kids-shoot-guns-launch-anti-tank-missiles-stage-suicide-attacks-against-Israel-summer-camps-indoctrinating-anti-Semitic-Mickey-Mouse-knock-off.html
I nominate Ben Shapiro!
What do you suggest? Letting Hamas and Hezbollah kill people and get away with it? Calling terrorists martyrs is an interesting statement, so in your opinion the Muslims who killed more than three thousand Americans are also “martyrs”?
What do you suggest mass murder of innocent people? Wake up from the propaganda from neocon central.
Muslim terrorists are all uneducated losers. Their brethren call them martyrs and promise them 72 virgins in their heaven because it works to recruit more simple-minded candidates willing to kill themselves. Only Muslims where suicide vests and blow themselves up to make a statement. You don’t see this in any other culture. That should tell you something.
If there is anyone that is the poster child for the ignorant its Jojo.
Not in the name of revenge, but in the name of destroying the social structure that created and cultivated this type of barbarity that is Hamas.
Don’t forget the financing from Israel.
Israel did that by the way it treated the Palestinians. Learn some history.
Well I hope that you meant “Israel” when you talk about “the social structure that created and cultivated this type of barbarity that is Hamas“.
How many people in Gaza have lost relatives? 200k? 500k? They’re ripe for Hamas recruitment now, don’t you think?
Israel is trying to shut Rafa tunnels to prevent Sinwar from escaping to Sinai.
Israel/Egypt ceasefire agreement prevent tanks and guns from entering Rafa 8 miles
strip. Today Israel blew up another underground Hamas command & control center.
Hamas used blindfold slaves to dig tunnels for several years. The Sinwar bros enslaved Gaza to build their underground pyramids.
Not a word of truth about the slaves, volunteer diggers were blindfolded to prevent torture from causing them from revealing anything
This is just great, a new age of drone assassinations is about to begin. Soon new assassin drones will be all the rage, just small enough to fly below the radar, filled with arbitrary payload.
Hope Bibi is safe in his deep bunker wearing a gas mask.
If Netanyahu is offed, there will be someone to replace him. And it might not be a more liberal person. Be careful what you wish for.
Where did I make any wish or is it your usual standard talking?
The Israeli supreme court hit Bibi. Hamas was hit. Obama was hit.
Harvard decided to distract the public from the Anti-Semitic comments its President made to Congress by firing/getting her to resign for plagiarism. I don’t think Harvard’s public relations problem is resolved since large donors took issue with the Anti-Semitic comments, not plagiarism.
I don’t understand how, with all the clear evidence of plagiarism, they are apparently allowing her to return to teaching at Harvard? Is she going to be a teaching a course on how to steal research from others?
——–
What Harvard Should Learn From Claudine Gay’s Resignation
Jan. 2, 2024, 2:26 p.m. ET
By Bret Stephens
I had written and filed a column about Harvard and its president, Claudine Gay, when news of her resignation broke on Tuesday afternoon after fresh allegations of plagiarism in her published work. I’d like to record what I wrote: “Cancel culture is always ugly and usually a mistake. If Gay is to go, let it be after more deliberation, with more decorum, and when pundits like me aren’t writing about her.” Oh, well.
The point may now be moot, but the important question for Harvard was never whether Gay should step down. It was why she was brought on in the first place, after one of the shortest presidential searches in Harvard’s recent history. How did someone with a scholarly record as thin as hers — she has not written a single book, has published only 11 journal articles in the past 26 years and made no seminal contributions to her field — reach the pinnacle of American academia?
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/opinion/harvard-claudine-gay-resignation.html
“How did someone with a scholarly record as thin as hers — she has not written a single book, has published only 11 journal articles in the past 26 years and made no seminal contributions to her field — reach the pinnacle of American academia?”
Equity. Equal outcomes. Under equity, anyone qualifies to be the president of Harvard, even someone without the academic achievement of a high school diploma. Equity.
The problem was she got it backwards; to quote from her departure speech,
“it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor-”
but what she did was uphold hate and confront scholarly rigor, and she has no clue she had them mixed up.
There was a cartoon the other day, a job applicant hands over his resume. It has one entry check marked, “Did not attend Harvard.”
Only if it’s racist, only then should Anti-Semitism be a reason to condemn anyone.
Because… people are equals, right?
No need to worship any specific race or group.
Calling for murdering race/group X is always racism, no need for that extra word. Otherwise, why not call it “Anti-Iberism” if it’s against Spaniards etcetera etcetera?
If you can say something about Italians or Chinese or Mexicans, you should be able to say the same thing about Israelis.
The people in Lebanon and Gaza should rise up to rid the world of these psychotics. When they fail to do so, the job is left to Israel or the US to do it.
The only error here was waiting until after the Hamas attacks.
Israel will have a much more proactive terror leader assassination program going forward. The US should too.
You can’t kill terrorism. You absolutely can kill enough terror leaders to make their organizations ineffective.
Yes, indeed! Stand-up and make themselves better targets.
Had Israel behaved like Nazis – mass murder and genocide, there would be no Arabs in the Holy Land. Instead, population of Arabs is up ten fold in the last several decades
Netanyahu did more damage to the Jews than Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri. The world and his dog have the same opinion of Jews and necrophiliacs. And the war is only just beginning. Two years minimum.
A dozen epizootics infect Gaza. How long before some creative military introduces a biological warfare agent to Israel? Agents Israel has not immunized against could be Onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, ascariasis, oxyuriasis, strongyloidiasis, taeniasis, amebiasis, giardiasis, anthrax, trypanosomiasis, Marburg, tuberculosis, and scabies. Genocide is a two way street.
damn
And it says so explicitly in the Quran! That is why there are calls of “Genocide” where there is no genocide to be found. The commandment to take an Eye for an Eye in the Quran is more brutal than found anywhere else and history tells that this is the approach taken by many of it followers.
People following that book with violent intention are scum.
Thankfully, Israel always breeds thousands more, just look at Gaza and the West Bank, Israel murdered 25,000 men, women, and babies, but bred millions more Hamas and PLO types. I can’t begin to guess how many antisemites there are in America now….
Anyone who believes becoming a terrorist accomplishes much of anything is a fool.
I think you’ll find that Israel was founded because of terrorism. But then your definition and mine could be different (depending on who we support?).
100% correct. Hamas is winning. Israel is reducing the troop presence in Gaza because they are taking a serious mauling. Seems like they are only good at dropping bombs on schools and hospitals.
The womb of the Arab woman is my greatest weapon against Zionism.
Let’s play find the author of that quote. . . They have more interest in “breeding” than Israel does as evidenced by a 10x increase in the population of Gaza since 1970.
All for the purpose of multigenerational war.