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The UN finally released a report, yesterday, compiled by a team of experts sent to Israel and the West Bank, led by Pramila Patten, the secretary general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict. In their full report, the experts said they found “reasonable grounds” to believe that sexual violence occurred during the Hamas-led incursion into Israel, including rape and gang rape in at least three locations. But the experts could not determine who was responsible for the sexual assaults.

If you stop reading right here, you’re probably in a fit of rage at how the report minimizes the enormity and barbarity of the horrific sexual crimes committed against scores, if not hundreds, of innocent women, girls and young men by Hamas terrorists and their civilian supporters, many of whom were captured on their own video cams.

The report goes on to state that it found “clear and convincing information” based on firsthand accounts of released hostages that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, was inflicted against some women and children during their time in captivity, and that the abuse was still taking place against hostages still in Gaza.

Finally, perhaps a glimmer of hope that the UN is going to galvanize the nations of the world to demand, or even force, Hamas to release these hostages from their ordeal of rape and torture?

Not a chance.

But wait…there’s more.

The UN report that was supposed to expose and confirm the horrific sexual crimes against innocent civilians by Hamas also said that it heard accounts of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israeli security forces. Palestinian officials and civil society representatives told the U.N. team of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches, threats of rape, and prolonged forced nudity, as well as sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids and at checkpoints.”

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters yesterday that Palestinians interviewed by UNRWA reported a “broad range of ill-treatment” from the Israeli soldiers, including being forced to strip naked, verbal and psychological abuse, threats of electrocution, sleep deprivation, extreme noise and the use of dogs to intimidate people.

And there you have it — unsubstantiated threats of rape against Palestinian terrorists or terror suspects, based on unconfirmed allegations, is the equivalent of Israeli female corpses raped and mutilated, video footage of sexual atrocities and eyewitness testimony of rape and sexual assault by the actual victims. Verbal and psychological, sleep deprivation, extreme noise used against captured terrorists vs. rape and mutilation against innocent girls attending a music festival.

Not a single allegation of rape has been brought against even one IDF soldier in this war against Hamas. Stripping down terrorists to make sure they are not strapped with explosives, or in an effort to extract information of impending terror attacks might be traumatizing, but it certainly cannot be equated on any level with the brutal gang rapes, mutilations and barbaric tortures perpetrated against innocent civilians by Hamas. To cite them side by side in the same report is simply reprehensible.

Can the UN’s anti-Israel bias be any clearer?

Just as expected.

On October 7th, Hamas had 30,000 armed terrorists. Today, around five months after that, Israel has reportedly killed between 10,000 and 12,000 terrorists. That means Hamas has anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000 armed terrorists still active in Gaza. They also have hundreds of miles of tunnels still active, which is where these terrorists are hiding.

Hamas has changed its tactics. At first, at the outset of the war, Hamas attempted to fight Israel in the open, and that’s when most of its terrorists were killed, because Hamas doesn’t stand a chance against the most powerful military in the Middle East in open warfare.

Now, Hamas has changed its tactics, and they are not engaging against Israel other than in sporadic terrorist acts, where groups of one, two, or three terrorists will come out of hiding, fire an RPG or some sort of weapon, and then retreat. In many cases, these terrorists are eliminated, but the brunt of the force remains in hiding.

Why is this?

Hamas leader in Gaza, Sinwar, has made it very clear. He said that his plan is to wait out Israel and let civilian casualties mount, which they inevitably have to in the midst of this warfare, and let the international community come in and stop Israel. When that happens, Hamas emerges from its tunnels with at least 15,000 armed terrorists, and it’s very easy for them to recruit more terrorists. They claim victory against mighty Israel, and they still have the hostages.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like Israel has a lot of options other than continuing a very long-term fight and occupying Gaza, keeping troops there to make sure that these terrorists don’t attack again. At some point, they will run out of food. They’ll have to emerge from their tunnels, and then they can be eliminated. But of course, the international community does not want Israel to occupy Gaza.

So, it looks like Israel is in a tough spot. The only solution is to continue and wear them down, and it could take years.

But there is one other solution that the world used against another terrorist organization, ISIS.

When ISIS conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria, the United States led a coalition along with many other free countries to defeat ISIS. They fought either with their own troops or supported allied Arab troops and Kurd troops to finally defeat ISIS. They did not quit until they defeated ISIS, because everyone understood that ISIS is a threat to freedom. Their tactics were just barbaric and inhuman. So, the world said, we have to destroy them.

The same thing should be happening here against Hamas. There’s no difference between Hamas and ISIS. They’re as barbaric, as vicious, and they proved that on October 7th.

But what’s the difference? Why isn’t the world forming a coalition to defeat Hamas, even diplomatically, to try to stop Hamas, cut off all their funding, cut off all their supplies, cut off all their support, and bring them to their knees? Why isn’t the world doing that?

Instead, it seems like the world is supporting Hamas, because they are engaging in negotiations. They’re supporting negotiations with them. They’re condemning Israel. They’re demonstrating against Israel. And they are trying to force Israel to cease fire, to let Hamas continue as a viable terrorist organization that can repeat the attacks of October 7th.

Why is the world doing that?

The only answer I can think of is because, in this case, it’s the Jews that are on the other end of this barbarity.
And when Jewish lives are at stake, apparently Jewish lives don’t matter.

We need to stand up against this and recognize that the world doesn’t care about Jewish lives. The only ones that are going to care about Jewish lives are us and our state of Israel.

That’s why we have to just stand strong, support Israel, and stand strong together, united, to protect ourselves wherever we are, whether it’s in Israel or the diaspora, because it’s clearly the world is not on our side. In fact, the world is in many ways supporting Hamas.

So let’s stand firm. Let’s stand together. Let’s stand united. And let’s pray that Hamas finally gets destroyed and Israel can live in peace once again.

The biggest problem that Israel faces today is not Hamas or the Palestinians. It is Israel’s 2 million Arab citizens.

I believe that the primary reason that Hamas decided to attack Israel now was to unleash the growing unrest within Israel’s Arab community and to cause them to unite with the Palestinians.

I also think that the main reason Israel agreed to a ceasefire, before it could inflict more damage on Hamas, was not as a result of international pressure, which actually wasn’t that great at this time, but because it felt that more fighting in Gaza would cause greater unrest by Israel’s Arabs.

Israel can protect itself from the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by building walls and barriers. But Israel’s Arabs live throughout the country. In some places, like the Triangle in the Galilee, they are the overwhelming majority. Israeli Arabs play an integral role in Israel’s economy, particularly in jobs that many Jewish Israelis shun. They also run businesses, staff schools and hospitals, and work for the government. While many live in exclusively Arab cities, towns and communities, there are tens of thousands who live alongside Jews in cities like Acco, Lod, Ramle, Haifa, Jaffa and others.

The Arabs in Israel, especially the younger generation, are identifying more closely with the Palestinians. This became clear during the recent riots and unrest in mixed Jewish-Arab areas. And if 2 million Arabs in Israel decide to side with the Palestinians and create unrest, it could be disastrous for Israel. Having to deal with a united front of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs will create an untenable situation. It will be an internal and external war with unthinkable consequences for both Jews and Arabs.

There is really only one civilized solution to this problem. While Israeli Arabs have the same legal rights as any Jewish citizen of the country (No Apartheid), Israel needs to provide its Arab citizens with better opportunities to succeed financially, professionally and socially. It needs to provide more funding to improve social services, infrastructure, education and policing in Arab communities. When people are happy and secure and working, they are much less likely to revolt or cause unrest.

I hope it’s not to late to save the Israeli-Arab community from being pushed into unifying with the Palestinians and Hamas.

This music video of the Revivo Project brings a large group of Israeli musicians singing Mizrachi – Sephardic Shabbat songs. Super fun!

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