GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 209

Hamas Won’t Budge

Hamas Isn’t Relenting

Just in case you haven’t heard me tell you this, but it appears Hamas won’t be accepting any hostage deal that also doesn’t include a permanent ceasefire as we see in a report from i24news.tv:

As diplomatic efforts intensify to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the leader of the Gaza-based militant group, Yahya Sinwar, has outlined key demands that must be addressed before an agreement can be reached.

According to reports from Channel 12 news, Sinwar's demands are being discussed by Egyptian mediators with the assistance of the United States.

What is the one thing they want? The report tell us:

First and foremost, Sinwar is insisting on a guaranteed and unconditional end to the ongoing conflict.

This demand, a consistent priority for Hamas, seeks to amend the proposed clause that calls for negotiations on a sustainable calm to begin after an initial 40-day truce phase. Instead, Sinwar is pushing for a written commitment ensuring an immediate cessation of hostilities, without any conditions attached.

Another condition concerns any prisoners released in exchange for hostages:

In addition, Sinwar opposes Israel's proposal to prevent certain Palestinian security prisoners, particularly those involved in violent attacks, from returning to the West Bank.

Instead, Israel would have the authority to send them to Gaza or into exile. Sinwar is challenging this provision and is seeking alternative arrangements for the handling of these prisoners.

Hamas fully wants to survive and build their network again as noted in another demand:

Furthermore, Sinwar seeks clarification on the materials that will be permitted for reconstruction efforts in Gaza.

This demand aims to ensure that Hamas can access resources necessary for rebuilding its military infrastructure, including tunnels and other defensive structures, according to experts.

As I predicted, Hamas doesn’t want Israel to go into Rafah because that’s where they and most likely the remaining hostages are. While those wanting the war to end now live in relative security, Israelis know that they can’t have peace and safety unless terrorists are eliminated or they surrender.

Could Iran And Hamas Be Behind The Protests?

According to an article found in CBN.com the backing for protests cropping up on United States campuses may be coming from the very same people fighting Israel:

Within just a few weeks, anti-Israel protests have expanded to occupy U.S. campuses coast to coast.

Given the overall coordination, officials are questioning whether these demonstrations go beyond a spontaneous student movement to a more well-funded outside operation.

Jack Landstein described what it's becoming like to be a Jewish student on one campus.

"Being a Jewish student at the University of Michigan right now, it's definitely a scary and uncomfortable time. There's a lot of antisemitism on our campus and it's extremely unsettling," he admitted.

Landstein described some of what he's witnessed.

"So it's a lot of chants, 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' 'intifada, intifada'; bullhorns going through the school of business, go through the undergraduate library, making it very challenging for students to do work and focus. I sometimes worry about wearing my Star of David outside of my shirt," he explained.

Landstein is not alone.

But where are they getting the tents and other things which all look the same from protest to protest? The article explores that:

Dr. Jay Greene, a senior research fellow and an educational policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told CBN News the protesters have an unmistakable goal. "What they're clearly doing is they're very clearly signaling to Jewish students that they're not welcome on campus, that they're not being protected by the university leaders in a way that they would protect any other group on campus," Greene stated.

He sees clues pointing to a more professional, organized effort behind these protests.

"We only get little hints of it, and the hints are that the funders include the Soros Open Society Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. And there are also some links to foreign organizations as well," Greene noted. "We've seen that people linked to foreign organizations have been involved in training and that there are shared talking points and documents as well. So it's pretty clear that this is an externally funded and organized effort."

Iran and Hamas openly support these protests:

While polls show most Americans don't support the demonstrations, protesters are getting positive reinforcement elsewhere.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemns reports of protesters being arrested, although the Islamic regime has traditionally arrested, imprisoned, and even killed student protesters within its borders.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani declared, "The Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign ministry in no way accepts violent and militarized response to students and their demands in America's universities. It rejects this approach and deems it concerning. It's necessary that the international community takes notice of this issue."

On social media, Hamas has praised the protests while warning the Biden administration.

Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat al-Rishq posted on Telegram, "Today's students are the leaders of tomorrow. The consequence of today's repression will be a heavy electoral price that the Biden administration will pay sooner or later."

Antisemitism Building In The World

While some may not see it in the Bible, Jesus told His disciples that just before He returned that hatred for His followers would increase, but also hatred for Jews. We’ve seen periods of such antisemitism through the years since He made that warning and right now it is blowing up on college campuses from one coast of America to the other. The vast majority of these schools of higher learning should be places where peacefully protesting should be a hallmark of free speech but instead they have become havens for violent protests with many calling for the death of Jews. According to one post on X a student from UCLA was beaten until she went limp and had to be pulled away from protestors by other Jewish students. She was treated at a hospital sustaining a concussion and didn’t recognize her parents when she regained consciousness. Another student had her eye poked with a Palestinian flag at the Yale campus according to an article from the New York Post. And the protestors who took over a building on the Columbia University campus were finally arrested by the New York City police as we read in another New York Post article:

NYPD cops stormed onto Columbia University’s campus on Tuesday night after finally being given the green light to oust a pro-terror mob that illegally took over an academic building – and to clear out an anti-Israel encampment that brought campus life to a halt.

Hundreds of officers swooped inside the gates of the Morningside Heights campus shortly after 9 p.m. — as other officers also descended on an “intifada’ encampment at the nearby City College of New York.

Protesters outside the building decided to block the entrance, but found that the police were fully prepared for them:

Several protesters appeared unbothered as they stood in the doorway with only a glass pane between them and the officers — as their comrades on the streets shouted “Pigs!”

The NYPD then brought in its Mobile Adjustable Ramp System vehicle and scores of riot-gear clad cops carrying zip-tie handcuffs entered Hamilton Hall through the second-floor window in a dramatic scene.

According to officials, cops used four distraction devices — described by Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves as a “very loud bang to distract people” — to infiltrate the academic building.

Unfortunately, these violent, vocal, and vicious protests are the natural progression of rioting gone unchecked for years. You can’t turn a blind eye to people rioting, burning buildings and beating innocent people and expect peace and calm to just magically appear. As Christians we need to storm the gates of Hell and push back his plans to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan is, after all the father of all lies and a great deal of these young people and those that support them believe that this is a noble cause due in large part to the lies he promotes about Israel. The war in the Middle East is not just confined there as we see daily in the United States.