1) Toby Dershowitz and Eitan Fischberger examine the question “Is Al Jazeera Providing Material Support to Hamas?”
“On January 25, the world watched in revulsion as Hamas paraded four young Israeli female hostages through a Gaza square. […] On stage, the hostages, flanked by militants, held “certificates” and “gift bags” from their captors as part of an elaborate faux ceremony to depict them as women returning from a vacation-like trip, masking the brutality they endured for 477 days.
One would expect nothing less of Hamas, designated as a terrorist entity by the U.S. and a dozen other countries. But an exposé on Israel’s i24 News alleged that it was actually an Al Jazeera employee who masterminded this theatre of horror for Hamas.”
2) UKLFI has published a detailed examination of reports of famine in Gaza.
“These errors have led to an exaggerated portrayal of the food security situation in Gaza, which has been used to influence international opinion and policy. While the humanitarian situation in Gaza requires aid and attention, the evidence does not support claims of famine or emergency as defined by international standards. Future assessments should strive for greater accuracy and objectivity to ensure that international responses are proportionate and based on factual realities.”
3) At the Algemeiner, Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen looks at ‘The Historical Roots of President Trump’s Gaza Relocation Plan’.
“The documented evidence shows that the Arab countries, since the very beginning of the Palestinian refugees’ tragedy, have never been interested in any kind of solution to the refugee problem but solely in their return to their homes within Israel. Using this rationale, all the Arab states, with the exception of Jordan, refused to grant citizenship to any Palestinian refugees residing within their borders. Most Arab leaders reasoned that resettling the Palestinians was tantamount to renouncing Arab claims to Palestine. Out of an overt hostility toward Israel, they deliberately refused to resettle Palestinian refugees in an effort to maintain their refugee status and keep the Palestinian issue alive in the world’s consciousness.”
4) The Alma Center explains why ‘Israel Remains in Five Key Areas in Southern Lebanon’.
“The presence of IDF forces in these five areas allows for better monitoring of Hezbollah’s activities. Israel cannot allow Hezbollah to regain strength and pose a threat to border settlements as it did before October 7, 2023. Hezbollah, with Iranian support, is determined to restore its military capabilities and regain the support of its Shiite base in southern Lebanon, against the known helplessness of the Lebanese army, which cannot ensure the complete disarmament of Hezbollah and security at the Israeli border.”
5) At the INSS, Dolev Cfir and Yochai Elani analyse ‘Influence Operations Against Israeli Economic and Security Interests Abroad’.
“Since October 7, 2023, attempts have been made by many entities in the international arena to leverage the public atmosphere to harm the economic, security, and national interests of the State of Israel around the world in a targeted manner. In this article, we will present an analysis of two case studies—one in the United Kingdom and the other in Japan—highlighting the familiar operational patterns of BDS organizations alongside a new pattern of support for these hostile operations by entities operating large groups of accounts on social media. […]
In the operation discussed here, a small group of organizations collaborated with a coordinated network of numerous accounts on X (previously known as Twitter), primarily driven by the organization Palestine Action UK. The coordinated social media activity significantly expanded the exposure of these organizations and their activities, achieving an unprecedented reach of 30 million views of the relevant posts on X. The number of proactive user engagements on this issue by X users surged from an average of about 12,000 interactions in the month before October 7, 2023, to an average of 112,000 interactions in the following month.”
