GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 206

Take The Deal

Hamas Encouraged To Take Deal

As an Israeli delegation heads to Cairo to meet with negotiators concerning the rush to get a hostage deal done and avoid the Rafah offensive, the US Secretary of State wants Hamas to agree to what’s already on the table. We read about this in a report from The Times Of Israel:

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas on Monday to swiftly accept Israel’s latest and “extraordinarily generous” proposal for a Gaza truce to secure a release of hostages, amid a diplomatic drive to halt the Israel-Hamas war.

Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal Israel presented at the weekend, ahead of a threatened Israeli assault on the southern border city of Rafah.

The report goes on to note something that I, for one find suspicious and concerning:

A senior Hamas official said Sunday the Palestinian terror group had no “major issues” with the most recent truce plan.

Does this mean Israel is willing to completely stop the war as we heard in another article? Regardless of my concerns, Blinken hopes Hamas accepts the current offer:

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said at a special meeting of the World Economic Forum held in the Saudi capital Riyadh. “And in this moment the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas.”

“They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he added. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

We get more of the details from Britain’s David Cameron:

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, described the Israeli proposal as “generous.”

It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal,'” Cameron said.

What do I think? Hamas will turn it down if they are consistent and blame Israel for it in the process. But I could be wrong and if it means getting back more hostages to their families, well I am happy to see that occur.

More IDF Troops Under Fire

As we see in an article from i24news.tv the United States may be ready to put sanctions on more IDF units:

The United States State Department determined that five Israeli security units committed "gross violations of human rights" prior to the outbreak of the war with Hamas, deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said Monday.

Washington is still deciding whether to restrict military assistance to one of the units - reportedly, ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion. The other four “have effectively remediated these violations,” noted Patel.

The violations happened before war broke out in Israel:

“We continue to be in consultations and engagements with the Government of Israel. They have submitted additional information as it pertains to that unit, and we’re continuing to have those conversations,” he added.

“All of these were incidents much before October 7, and none took place in Gaza."

Israel is working to correct any actions that caused the violations:

Israel told the U.S. in recent weeks about previously undisclosed actions troops took and Washington is reviewing those actions to examine whether they are sufficient enough to hold off restricting aid.

Under the Leahy Law, the U.S. cannot provide assistance to foreign security units, credibly implicated in human rights abuses.

It is interesting that American troops have done the same things in other countries and much worse, but who holds them accountable? But I digress.

Campus “Will Burn”

In an article from The Jerusalem Post we are told that Columbia University issued an ultimatum to the pro-Palestinian student protestors that evoked a passionate and troubling response:

Columbia University has issued a final notice to pro-Palestinian student protesters: dismantle their encampment by 2 p.m. on Monday and commit to university policies until June 2025, or face suspension, according to reports in American media.

The demand came as universities, including Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, have been dealing with similar protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas conflict.

These protests have resulted in numerous arrests and have significantly disrupted campus activities as the academic year ends. Columbia's approach, which includes transitioning to remote classes and setting multiple deadlines, has also led to a class-action lawsuit from Jewish students and a request for a civil rights investigation.

Columbia University has threatened the students in the Gaza solidarity encampment with mass suspensions if they do not sign waivers by 2pm today.

As we could expect, the students were not willing to comply:

The protesters, as expected, didn't respond positively: "Columbia University has threatened the students in the Gaza solidarity encampment with mass suspensions if they do not sign waivers by 2pm today," Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), one of the organizations on campus responded on social media.

They shared the letter from Columbia president with red marker responses on them: "Columbia will burn," or "I aint reading all that - Free Palestine."

Without pointing out the obvious spelling error written by supposedly educated students, a representative of an NGO had this to say about the response:

Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti Defamation League (ADL) National Director and CEO tweeted in response: "PYM is one of the orgs behind the anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across America. After Columbia President Shafik spent weeks negotiating with them, here is how they responded to her entreaty today. As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words."

US Voters Want Rafah Offensive – Poll

In two separate reports from The Times Of Israel a recent poll of Americans shows high support for Israel and going into Rafah to complete Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas:

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe Israel should go ahead with an offensive in Rafah in order to end the war against Hamas, according to a new Harvard CAPS Harris poll.

The question posed to respondents is “should Israel move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties, or should it back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza?”

In response, 72% say Israel should move forward with the operation while 28% say it should back off and allow Hamas to keep ruling Gaza.

Overall, 78% of poll participants say Hamas show be removed from power but are divide don what should come after, with 30% saying Israel should administer Gaza, 35% the Palestinian Authority and the other 35% a new authority established with Arab countries.

The articles go on to show very strong support for Israel overall in the poll:

Eighty percent of all respondents also said they support Israel more over Hamas, including 57% among those aged 18-24, about 70% for those aged 25-44, 80% of 45-54 year olds, 90% of those 54-65, and 93% of those over 65.

The breakdown of views on the terrorist attack varied by age but fully thought it a terrorist attack:

In the poll, 83 percent of respondents said October 7 was a terror attack, while 17% said it was not. Broken down by age group, 94% of respondents aged over 65 said the attack — in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage — was terrorism, while 74% of those aged 18-24 said the same.

Overall positives and negatives showed support for Israel and not for Hamas:

The survey asked if respondents had a favorable or negative view of Israel, with 52% saying the former and 28% the latter, versus 12% and 67% respectively for Hamas. Poll participants did not give high marks to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, which the Biden administration and much of the international community is pushing to govern Gaza after the war, with 17% approving and 50% disapproving.

Apparently these people see something that college protestors don’t which makes you wonder why. Regardless, we need to continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem both at home and abroad. To some, these college protestors are being groomed to be terrorists which highlights the reason to pray for them that they will get good counsel on what is really going on.