https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
Read in Fox News: https://apple.news/A7duYlOo-
Biden's mouth may open on occasion but his brain is totally shut.
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NY Times calls on Biden to drop out of 2024 presidential race ‘to serve his country’ after abysmal debate performance
By Samuel Chamberlain
The New York Times editorial board called on President Biden to step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential race Friday, one day after his abysmal performance in a debate against Donald Trump.
While insisting that Biden, 81, had been an “admirable president,” the liberal Grey Lady concluded the incumbent appeared on the debate stage as “the shadow of a great public servant” and would be engaging in a “reckless gamble” by continuing his candidacy.
“There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden,” the board wrote. “It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.”
“Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for,” the Times concluded. “But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is — and we agree with him that the danger is enormous — then his dedication to this country leaves him and his party only one choice.”
The editorial was published two hours after Biden arrived in New York City for the first of a two-day fundraising swing, which will include a high-dollar event in the Hamptons on Saturday.
The liberal Grey Lady said that Biden appeared on the debate stage as “the shadow of a great public servant” and would be engaging in a “reckless gamble” by continuing his candidacy. Shutterstock / Tada Images
It followed a day of chaos and confusion among Democrats after Biden repeatedly froze, misspoke and lost his train of thought during the first of two scheduled debates against his predecessor in Atlanta.
At one point, Biden gazed down at his lectern for nearly 10 whole seconds before popping up again to say that he “finally beat Medicare.”
The Times editorial board noted that Biden had “challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules, and he insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible.”The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.”
“Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for,” the Times concluded over the incumbents performance against Donald Trump. AP
Even before the Times editorial board weighed in, two of the paper’s most prominent columnists had called on Biden to step aside. “The Democratic Party has some prominent figures who I think would be in a good position to defeat Trump in November,” Nicholas Kristoff wrote late Thursday following the debate. “This will be a wrenching choice.”
“But, Mr. President, one way you can serve your country in 2024 is by announcing your retirement and calling on delegates to replace you,” he said, “for that is the safest course for our nation.”
Thomas Friedman, who called Biden “my friend” said that watching the debate “made me weep” and acknowledged that “Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”
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Ordman Good News - Edited.
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If you want to be depressed by stories about violence, tragedies, and lies about Israel, there are many websites you can link to and email groups you can join. But if you want the truth about the positive achievements of the only Jewish State, then Read It Here!
In the 30th Jun 24 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- A huge Israeli flag is a defiant symbol of Israel resilience.
- Israeli scientists have developed technology for early detection of pancreatic cancer
- Israel is the best country for creative thinking, raising a family, and retiring.
- An Israeli spray makes fruit and vegetables even healthier.
- If you smash special Israeli glass, it can repair itself.
- Israeli elastic material aims to bounce higher.
- More Israeli medals at the European swimming championships.
- A major victory in the Six-Day War took place at the site of a Biblical miracle.
- Please click here, to donate (a small or large amount) to help me publicize VeryGoodNewsIsrael
- If someone wishes to be added to the free email subscription list, they should either click here or send a request (with their name, and the subject “Subscribe”) to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.
com
POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
Israel’s largest flag. (TY Yanky) 50 meters above Moshav Netiv HaAsara flies is probably the biggest flag in Israel at 17 meters wide and 12 meters tall. It is visible from Gaza, as a symbol of defiance to the Hamas terrorists who tried to overrun the Moshav on Oct 7. https://www.ynetnews.com/
CAM-supported volunteers honored. Members of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) received Presidential Volunteer Medals in Jerusalem for helping those impacted by Oct 7. They included Yahaloma Zechut (Ofakim Resilience Center), Racheli Tadesa Malkai (Ethiopians), and Wahid Alhuzeil (Bedouins).
https://www.jns.org/herzog-
Volunteers learn resilience. Some 100 US college students just completed the Jewish National Fund-USA’s “Alternative Break” week, supporting families in southern Israel impacted by the Oct 7 attacks. They repaired houses, worked on farms, and made food packages for IDF soldiers and admired the spirit of all the Israelis.
https://www.jns.org/wire/
Cooking for soldiers. (TY Yanky) Yehudit and a group of volunteers make Shabbat food for IDF soldiers. An online order mix-up resulted in a donation to pay for the food. She blogged the story and got more donations. Soldiers love it when she brings the food to the bases. They are hungry for home cooking.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.
How does a comedian deal with Oct 7? (TY UWI) Israeli standup comedian Modi was flying to Paris on Oct 7 to perform to European audiences. In this interview on Israeli Internet TV channel I24 he relates how Jewish humor can give respite in times of crisis. (see also Seinfeld below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
IDF rescue tortured Gazan donkey. The IDF found a donkey in Gaza that had been tortured and tied up and released it. Earlier in the war, the IDF rescued dogs, cats and exotic birds (see here previously). They even took care of a neglected lion from a Gazan Zoo.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Taking research to heart. As cells age, they stop dividing. Our immune system removes them, but they build up as we age. Scientists say that all these “senescence cells” must be removed to prevent aging, but scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that those formed after heart injury are needed, to protect the heart.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.nature.com/
Candida gets the blue-light treatment. Israel’s Zero Candida has developed a device to treat candidiasis – an infection that affects hundreds of millions of women per year worldwide. It uses high-energy blue light to destroy the fungus quickly and without side effects. The device has been patented in South Africa!
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
https://zero-candida.com/
Cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. Israel’s Biond Biologics (see here previously) has begun multi-center trials of BND-35. It is already trialing BND-22. Both are immunotherapy treatments for solid tumors.
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
https://www.biondbio.com/
https://www.clinicaltrials.
https://www.clinicaltrials.
Shining light on pancreatic cancer. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to illuminate previously undetectable pancreatic tumors. They injected deuterium-enriched glucose into the bloodstream. The tumors eat the glucose and excrete lactate that MRIs can reveal.
https://www.
Med-tech and fast response saves mother’s life. After giving birth to her second child in Israel, Nofer’s vital signs plummeted. Her midwife alerted emergency teams who found multiple blood clots and a heart defect. A cardiologist then used advanced ultrasound technology and minimally invasive surgery to save Nofer’s life.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
The youngest doctor? Doron (31) was only 25 years-old when he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technion in 2018. Today he is a fourth-year Technion medical student and intends to combine his expertise in mathematics with medicine to help people with mental illness. As a child, Doron “operated” on his toy animals.
https://ats.org/our-impact/
Kidney exchanges save lives. (TY Nevet) Israeli Ronit and a kidney transplant recipient in Czechia (Czech Republic) underwent a kidney exchange thanks to Israel’s National Transplant Center. Ronit’s friend Yair donated his kidney to the Czech recipient, whose wife donated her kidney to Ronit. https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.gov.il/en/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Donations help extinguish fires. 30 crews of Israeli firefighters are battling fires in northern Israel caused by Hezbollah rockets using trucks donated by Jewish National Fund-USA. 10 more are using KKL-JNF trucks. Since 2006, JNF-USA has raised nearly $16 million for Israel’s firefighters and provided 200+ fire trucks.
https://www.jns.org/wire/
Visa waiver agreement with Kosovo. Citizens of Kosovo and Israel will be able to visit the other nation without a visa following an agreement between the two governments. The visa waiver will go into effect in September. Kosovo is the first Muslim-majority country to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.
https://www.
Still supporting disaster victims. Despite the war, Israeli humanitarian teams are still aiding victims of disasters overseas. IsraAID volunteers are in Papua New Guinea following the deadly landslide (see here previously) and Israel’s SmartAID has sent a team to Brazil, where floods have affected 2.3 million Brazilians.
https://www.israel21c.org/
5 million lives. Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa, is celebrating a significant milestone. It has just opened the taps in the Nyamphanza Village in Zambia, bringing the number of people whose lives have been transformed with access to clean water, light and electricity since its inception in 2008 to more than 5 million people.
https://www.jns.org/wire/
The earliest shipwreck. (TY WIN) The oldest ship ever found in the deep sea has been discovered off Israel’s northern coast. The 3,300-year-old ship’s cargo included hundreds of intact ceramic jars (amphorae), used to transport oil, wine and other agricultural products. The finds will be displayed to the public in Jerusalem.
https://www.jns.org/shipwreck-
Creative thinkers. The OECD’s 2022 study into student creative thinking was published recently. Israeli students ranked 11th of the 63 countries. Those at Hebrew-speaking schools achieved even higher levels. The Palestinian Authority school system ranked 59th.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
The highest birthrate in the OECD. A new Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report shows Israel has the highest birthrate among the top 38 industrialized nations. Israel’s 2.9 is followed by Mexico and France at 1.8. South Korea has only 0.7. OECD birthrates have fallen 50% in the last 50 years.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.jns.org/israel-
The second-best country to retire to. (TY UWI) If you don’t fancy living in Iceland then Israel is the best country to relocate to when you retire. So says UK’s ConfidenceClub in its “Aging Gracefully Index,” of 39 countries, compiled after Oct 7. Its categories included health care, life expectancy, safety, and life satisfaction.
https://www.algemeiner.com/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Cracking the code – a better egg without the chicken. Brilliant article about Israel’s Eggmented Reality (see here previously). It describes why its vegan egg-alternative is better than its competitors. It then said that US-FDA approval and partnerships with food companies is a “kind of chicken and egg situation”! It cracked me up!
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
Probiotics inside. Israel’s Wonder Veggies has found a way to make fruit and vegetables even healthier. They have developed a spray that infuses fresh produce with probiotics. The process protects the probiotics from stomach acids until they are released inside the microbiome of the intestines to generate “good bacteria”.
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
https://www.foodbev.com/news/
Lower sugar fruit sorbets. Israel’s Better Juice (see here previously) has created sorbets with 50% – 70% less sugar than regular sorbet. Their calorific value is reduced by 40% and have a lower glycemic index. Other products such as ice cream, jams, and fruit roll-ups, are also in the pipeline.
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
Unmanned electric cargo plane is unveiled. Israel’s AIR has unveiled its new unmanned AIR ONE Cargo electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. It can carry a payload of up to 250kg at speeds comparable to its manned passenger version (see here previously).
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
New toolkit to make websites more accessible. Israel’s User1st (see here previously) has launched its U1 toolkit to help companies make their websites and apps accessible for people with disabilities. It saves over 80% of time and resources by automated scanning, fixing and suggestions on repairing complex issues.
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
Make your video speak. Israel’s Artlist (see here previously) provides high quality, royalty-free licensed music, stock video clips and sound effects for digital professionals. It has launched an AI voiceover generator for video makers, making external voiceovers unnecessary, while enhancing content creation and storytelling.
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
Self-repairing adhesive glass. (TY Ron M) Researchers from Tel Aviv University have manufactured a new type of glass made from peptides. It is recyclable, self-healing, optically transparent, and can also act as a glue. If cracked, it will repair itself on contact with moisture. It can be used for spectacle lenses and much more.
https://www.jpost.com/science/
https://www.nature.com/
Quantum vortices when photons collide. (TY UWI) This article is included to show the fundamental science being researched by Israelis at the Weizmann Institute. They have discovered a new type of vortex formed when photons collide. It could open important new avenues in the application of quantum computing.
https://tps.co.il/articles/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Angel investor clubs selected. Israel’s Innovation Authority (IIA) has selected eight proposals (from 40 bids) for organizations to manage schemes whereby members can invest in early-stage startups seeking funding. Each club will receive NIS 900,000 per year for a 3-year period. Originally only 3 clubs were planned (see here).
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
Tel Aviv is more affordable. Mercer’s annual Cost of Living City Ranking has dropped Tel Aviv from the 8th most expensive city for foreign employees to a mere 16th. Lower rental costs are the main reason, with Dubai (15) and London (8) overtaking it. The 226 cities listed are headed by Hong Kong, Singapore, and Zurich.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Agrifood tech startups are thriving. (TY Nevet) Despite the war, Israel’s agrifood tech sector is thriving with 400 companies and nearly $100 million oof private funding in Quarter 1, 2024. Many companies have relocated from Northern Israel to the center and food security has become a major focus.
https://tps.co.il/articles/
Crop spraying in Nebraska. Israel’s Greeneye Technology has opened a dealership in Nebraska – its first in the US. Greeneye’s precision spraying reduces chemical use in farming by an average of 88%. Local partner Boeck Seeds says that weed control is the biggest challenge that Nebraska farmers are facing.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Ready to leap higher. Gilad Lando, CEO of Israel’s Smart Resilin (see here previously), explains the unique process to make 500 grams a month of its revolutionary elastic material. He hopes that by partnering with Acies Bio of Slovenia this will increase to a ton of resilin per month by the end of 2026. That could be stretching it!
https://nocamels.com/2024/06/
https://www.smartresilin.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Rising startups. (TY Yanky) Two Israeli startups won the 2024 Asper Prize - the Hebrew University’s “Rising Startup” Award and NIS 100,000 prize money. GynTools’ GYNI is an AI system to diagnose female infections. Hydro X converts hydrogen into a safe, non-toxic water-based liquid for inexpensive storage and transportation.
https://en.huji.ac.il/news/
https://www.gyntools.com/ https://www.youtube.com/
https://hydrox.earth/ https://www.youtube.com/
Israeli workbench is “Pro’s Pick”. (TY Laura B) The professional woodworker from Family Handyman magazine who reviewed the Folding Work Table from Israel’s Keter was most impressed. So were others.
https://www.familyhandyman.
https://www.amazon.com/Keter-
https://il.keter.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?
ChatGPT creator to set-up in Israel. Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI co-founder and creator of ChatGPT, plans to establish a research and development center in Tel Aviv for his new startup Safe Superintelligence Inc. He believes that Israel has the talent necessary to responsibly control AI and transform the world.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Exits, acquisitions and mergers to 30/6/24: “Frog” eats “Duck” Israel’s JFrog has acquired Israel’s Qwak for $230 million.
Startup investment – to 30/6/24: Fetcherr raised $90 million; Sensi.ai raised $31 million; Illumex raised $13 million.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Fresh Paint 2024. Israel’s largest art event, Fresh Paint will take place in Tel Aviv (July 3-8). It will comprise 40 exhibits set in gyms and outdoor tennis courts, showcasing the works of dozens of participating artists.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Seinfeld deals with hecklers. Audiences at Jerry Seinfeld standup shows probably look forward to the way he handles anti-Israel protestors. He got laughter and applause for quips such as “It’s a comedy show, you moron. Get out of here.” and “tell who’s ever running your organization, ‘We just gave more money to a Jew.’”
https://israfan.com/p/jerry-
Check out JR’s entertainment sites. Jacob Richman has updated several of his websites guaranteed to keep up your spirits during these difficult times. They include Hebrew songs and commercials, Funny English videos, Jewish cartoons, Clever humor, and the 48th anniversary of the Entebbe rescue. Plus prayers for the hostages.
Tour de France. The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team is preparing for its fifth Tour de France competition beginning this weekend. The team won three stages in previous events. Team owner Sylvan Adams presented Israel’s President Herzog with a team jersey that will proudly display “Israel” to the billions watching the race.
https://www.jns.org/sylvan-
Bring them home. The car that Israel’s top NASCAR racer Alon Day will drive on July 6 will display “Chai” (Hebrew for “Life”) and feature a striking blue-and-white wrap. For promotional events, his car is inlaid with a Star of David and the phrase “Bring them home”, but NASCAR regulations prohibit religious symbols.
https://israfan.com/p/israeli-
Ruling the waves. (TY Hazel) Israel won gold and silver in the women’s 200-meter individual medley at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade. Anastasia Gorbenko took first place – her 4th gold at the event. Teammate Lea Polonsky, 22, was 2nd and qualified for the Olympics. Israel was 8th in the medal table.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
THE JEWISH STATE
Assyrians destroyed at iconic site. An analysis has been made of a stone carving on the walls of the palace of King Sennacherib of Assyria in Nineveh (now modern Mosul in Iraq). It reveals that in 701 BCE, the King’s army was stationed at what is now Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill. See 2 Kings 19:35 to read what happened.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Positivity on the streets. (TY Sharon) Jerusalem is busy; offices are full; athletes are preparing for the Olympics; volunteers were honored; so were those with disabilities; and Hebrew Book Week (12-days) is back.
https://rjstreets.com/2024/06/
Astronaut’s diary restored. For the past 20 years, the diary of Ilan Ramon (z”l), Israel’s first astronaut, has been undergoing complex restoration at the Israel Museum. It has now been transferred to Israel’s National Library where it has been digitally scanned and will be preserved to honor the memory of its author.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Science with Torah study. The Jerusalem College of Technology has received a $1 million donation from David and Debra Magerman to expand JCT’s International Program for English Speakers. The JCT combines high-level academic degrees and Torah study, reinforces religious Zionist values and promotes integration.
https://www.jns.org/wire/
How to help Israel. Here are some sites where newsletter readers can donate to Israeli organizations that provide vital help to Israelis at this difficult time. Many thanks to those who have already contributed and to those who are helping by donating their own valuable time and resources.
Friends of the IDF (US donors): https://www.fidf.org/
or IDF Soldiers Fund in Israel: https://www.ufis.org.il/en/
American Friends of Magen David Adom (US donors): https://afmda.org/
or Magen David Adom (Israel): https://www.mdais.org/en/
Zaka (US donors): https://donate.zakatelaviv.
or (Canadian donors): https://www.canadahelps.org/
United Hatzalah: https://israelrescue.org/
Leket Food Israel: https://www.leket.org/en/
JNF USA - https://my.jnf.org/gaza-
Orthodox Union - https://www.charidy.com/
Schneider Children’s Hospital: https://www.fos.org.il/en/
https://system.smartgiving.
https://chaischneider.org/
Rambam Medical Center (Haifa) https://aforam.org/ways-to-
https://www.rambam.org.il/en/
Hadassah Hospital Israel: https://www.hadassah.org/
Laniado Hospital (Netanya) https://my.israelgives.org/en/
And many more charities here:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Buy Israel Bonds to support the Jewish State. (TY Larry B)
https://www.
USA - https://www.israelbonds.com/
Europe - https://israelbondsintl.com/
Canada - https://www.israelbonds.ca/
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Israel Struggles Against Global Amnesia
Even friends of the Jewish state press it to forget the lessons it learned from Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
By Elliot Kaufman
“We pray that one day there will be peace,” says Nina Tokayer, half of the Israeli musical duo Yonina, after a candle is extinguished to bring the Sabbath to a close. “Sometimes that means eliminating our enemies, who hate peace and want to destroy us. For some reason, a lot of people around the world don’t understand that.”
Israelis don’t understand what the world doesn’t understand about Oct. 7. Hamas is the Palestinian majority party, and Oct. 7 was its apotheosis. It will try it again if Israel quits Gaza too early, and it will do worse if Israel surrenders the West Bank. Yet the world demands both, leaving Israelis to conclude that the world has little problem subjecting them to more massacres. Israelis feel as if a mandatory form of amnesia is being imposed on them: Thou shalt not remember what actual Palestinian nationalism looks like.
The struggle for memory has strategic significance. Micah Goodman, a leading intellectual of the Israeli center, says the first lesson of Oct. 7 is: “When we leave territory, we’re not protected from that territory.” This has become a national consensus.
“We had Oct. 7 before—in 1929,” Mr. Goodman says. Then, Arab mobs massacred more than 100 Jews across Hebron, Safed, Jerusalem and Jaffa and left more than 300 wounded. “Jews were attacked in the streets, in their homes, with all the terrible atrocities that we saw on Oct. 7. This was before the nakba of 1948, before the occupation of 1967.”
I thought of the struggle for memory on a visit to an Israeli military base, home to an elite combat unit whose members’ full identities are kept secret. “The world doesn’t understand the pain,” says Maxim, a young soldier, “and I don’t think it cares.” He allows that people may have forgotten Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Roi, his comrade, doesn’t buy it: “They know what happened, but they don’t give a s—. Or they support it and call it ‘resistance.’ ”
Asaf, a 21-year-old fighter, says, “The Arabs win because they are patient. We can defeat Hamas, but if we leave, they’ll rebuild it all and in 10 years they will attack again.” In his view, as one soldier, “the only way we win is if we take the land.”
He shouldn’t say that. What could be more repulsive to foreign ears than an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza? Much less repulsive to the world is Asaf’s other scenario: Hamas keeps Gaza and plots the next Oct. 7.
In the border kibbutz of Kfar Aza, Chen Kotler works to prevent Oct. 7 from being forgotten. She tells of terrorists on her roof and in her sister’s house. “Along this pavement, eight people were murdered,” she says at one spot. Hamas still holds hostage five of her neighbors: Gali and Ziv Berman, Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher and Keith Siegel, a 65-year-old U.S. citizen. Buildings have been wrecked, and the community will have to fight to survive.
But aren’t more people dying in Gaza? The media is happy to obscure the relevant distinctions. Activists promoted the “genocide” lie even before the war. Eylon Levy, until recently Israel’s government spokesman, explains, “The slanders of Israel today are preparing the response to the next Oct. 7: ‘The Jews had it coming.’ ”
Perhaps Israel can’t satisfy the Western gaze. A sign on one destroyed home in Kfar Aza reads: “Aviad Edri was brutally murdered in this house.” But the West wants to see the body left out on the ground. Israelis won’t—and shouldn’t—cooperate. Some of Ms. Kotler’s surviving neighbors even oppose the tours and don’t allow photos. “This will soon be history,” she says. “The tractors will come to repair. So, you’ll have to carry it for your whole life.”
The world is unwilling to bear the weight for long. While President Biden made clear after Oct. 7 that Hamas must not remain in power, by February he wasn’t so sure. He called Israel’s counterattack “over the top.” At a Holocaust remembrance event in May, he urged the world to “never forget” Oct. 7 while withholding arms from Israel to prevent an attack on Hamas’s stronghold.
Thomas Friedman now writes what is implicit in Biden policy: It’s OK to leave Hamas in power. Maybe there will be a power-sharing agreement. Maybe the people of Gaza will restrain Hamas. Or maybe the West has learned nothing from Oct. 7.
There’s a story the West tells itself: After the massacre, Israel had the world’s sympathy and support. But Israel went too far, and the world turned against it. Right-thinking Westerners like this story because right-thinking Westerners are its stars. They are moved by the plight of Kfar Aza and the Nova festivalgoers to denounce Hamas, but not so much that, like those vengeful Israelis, they lose their impartiality and humanitarian instinct.
The truth is darker. Much, perhaps most, of the world didn’t condemn Oct. 7 or repudiate Hamas. Qatar and Egypt, the mediators, both blamed Israel on Oct. 7. On Oct. 8, China called on Israel to “immediately end the hostilities.” Russia still hosts Hamas delegations. None of Hamas’s patrons have abandoned it or been seriously pressured to do so.
The big human-rights groups equivocated on Oct. 7 about “civilians on both sides.” Ever since, they have pretended the war began on Oct. 8, representing the Israeli effort as pure malevolence. The campus left cheered the attack. The United Nations General Assembly still hasn’t condemned it.
U.S. support for Israel has been essential, but it has strings attached. “If the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive and overwhelming,” Mr. Biden said on Oct. 10. But at every stage of the war, he has worked to slow and scale down Israel’s military response. U.S. generals advised Israel not to invade Gaza, senior Israeli officials say. The Americans insisted that raids from the perimeter would defeat Hamas.
By January the Biden administration was pressing hard for a Palestinian state, which it described as the only real solution, just as it had thought on Oct. 6. Never mind that polls show two-thirds of Palestinians support the Oct. 7 attack.
Over hummus in Tel Aviv, the right-wing intellectual Gadi Taub puts it provocatively: “Biden’s plan to end the war is for Netanyahu to fall and Sinwar to stay.” The U.S. president has spent months pushing a deal to end the war, and his deputies insist Israeli troops leave Gaza afterward. Since no one else but Israelis will fight and die to keep Hamas down, Hamas rule would quickly be restored.
“Oct. 7 killed not only the dream of peace,” says Mr. Levy, the former Israeli spokesman. “It killed the dreamers” of the border kibbutzim. But Mr. Biden and his team, the none-too-quiet Americans, are still dreaming. They call it a peace process, but an Israeli withdrawal that returns Gaza to Hamas is the first step to the next massacre, the next war.
Eran Massas, an Israeli lieutenant colonel in the reserves, says, “Hamas are not people, they are animals.” In response, the liberal Western instinct is to worry about dehumanization. When Mr. Massas tells of how he rescued civilians on Oct. 7, and how he remains haunted by one woman he found, her green clothing left beside her butchered corpse, the same Western instinct is to look away—anywhere but his eyes.
Mr. Kaufman is the Journal’s letters editor.
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TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined a blueprint for postwar Gaza that calls for it to be administered by local Palestinian officials free of links to militant groups and for Israel to conduct security operations in the strip indefinitely.
By David S. Cloud, Jared Malsin and Vivian Salama contributed to this article.
Most of the ideas have been publicly discussed by Netanyahu and other Israeli officials before, and, though few new details were provided, the blueprint appears at odds in significant ways with both U.S. plans and those of Arab governments in the region. It was presented for the first time to Israel’s security cabinet Thursday night.
Taken together, Netanyahu’s ideas describe a demilitarized Gaza that would face a continued heavy Israeli security presence after combat operations end, with a buffer zone off limits to Palestinians along Gaza’s perimeter and Israeli control of the Egypt-Gaza border that would seek to seal off the strip in the south.
The plan underscores the wide gap between Netanyahu’s government and the Biden administration, which has backed Israel’s war goals in Gaza but warned repeatedly against making changes in its territorial boundaries. Its lack of specificity also leaves open the possibility that Netanyahu will move closer to Washington on key issues if Israel achieves its initial goals of defeating Hamas and bringing home an estimated 130 hostages.
Several proposals have been made to resolve the Israel-Hamas conflict, but disagreements over Gaza’s governance are blocking progress. Here is where the key players stand and why they are struggling to find common ground. Photo illustration: Ryan Trefes
“Israel will maintain operational freedom of action in the entire Gaza Strip, without a time limit, for the purpose of preventing the renewal of terrorism and thwarting threats from Gaza,” the document says, adding that Israel intends to continue the war until Hamas and other militant groups are defeated in Gaza.
There are signs of growing tensions between Israel and the White House. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an Israeli announcement this week that it intends to build new housing in the occupied West Bank “is inconsistent with international law.”
It was a shift back to a four-decade-old formulation for the U.S. The Trump administration said in 2020 that it no longer viewed Israeli settlement building in the West Bank as a violation of international law.
“Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment this only weakens, doesn’t strengthen Israel’s security,” Blinken said at a news conference in Buenos Aires.
Netanyahu has said that Israel has no interest in occupying Gaza once the combat phase of the war is over, but he is under political pressure from far-right members of his government. Some have called for ejecting Palestinian residents from the strip and for re-establishing Israeli settlements there.
The Israeli prime minister presented the blueprint to his security cabinet ahead of a crucial meeting in Paris among intelligence chiefs from Israel, Egypt and the U.S., and the prime minister of Qatar. The officials are racing to negotiate a deal that would implement a cease-fire in Gaza and free Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli officials have set a deadline of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10 for Hamas to release hostages the group seized during the Oct. 7 attack, or else Israel will launch a military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million Palestinian civilians are sheltering.
The meeting in Paris on Friday came after Israeli officials said there was a chance of progress in the talks. Egyptian officials said Thursday that Hamas had indicated potential flexibility in its demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for Israeli hostages.
Saudi Arabia has said that agreement on a renewed diplomatic pathway toward a Palestinian state is a key precondition before it will agree to seriously consider postwar plans, including possible diplomatic normalization with Israel. But the blueprint offers little indication Netanyahu is prepared to move ahead with talks on a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank soon.
The plan doesn’t mention a role for the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs the West Bank. It says, “civil administration and responsibility for public order in the Gaza Strip will be based as much as possible on local officials” and “will not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism.”
Israeli officials say they are exploring whether they can establish interim government bodies headed by residents not linked to Hamas who would assume responsibility for distributing aid and other limited functions in small areas of Gaza.
“It will lead us to disaster,” said Omer Zanany, head of the joint department for security and peace of the Mitvim Institute and Berl Katznelson Center, two Israeli think tanks. He noted that the local officials Israel says it will rely on will inevitably be viewed as collaborators.
Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that ran Gaza and whose deadly attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 sparked the war, received financial backing from Qatar and weapons and other assistance from Iran. Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, ejecting the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu and other Israeli officials also accuse the Palestinian Authority of inciting terrorism, citing payments to families of Palestinians killed by Israel and a school curriculum that they claim promotes hatred.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry called the release of the Netanyahu plan “official recognition of the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the imposition of Israeli control over it.”
The blueprint says reconstruction of the shattered strip will be possible only after the defeat of Hamas and “a comprehensive deradicalization program” involving assistance from Arab countries, which have so far shown little interest in helping Israel in Gaza.
The Biden administration has been pushing its own postwar plan, built around giving a governing role in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority once it agrees to bring in new leadership, retrain security forces and address corruption. Netanyahu has publicly rejected turning over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, though he has left open the possibility he could accept its revamped version.
In the Biden administration’s thinking, a return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza would lay the groundwork for more sweeping long-term changes in the region. Key features of Washington’s proposals include a revived process to create a Palestinian state, security guarantees for Israel and the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations.
U.S. officials are hopeful the prize of Saudi recognition of Israel will help move Netanyahu closer to their own postwar blueprint.
But Netanyahu’s plan puts off any possible negotiations on a “settlement” with the Palestinians as a long-term issue, warning against “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” an apparent reference to fears that the U.S. might take such a step.
Among the most controversial aspects of the plan will likely be its call for a “southern closure” of the Egypt-Gaza border, a step it says is necessary to halt smuggling through underground tunnels and the aboveground border crossing.
The closure, it says, would be carried out “as much as possible” with the assistance of the U.S. and Egypt, neither of which has publicly backed closing the border.
The blueprint also calls for closing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization that for decades has provided schooling, healthcare and other assistance to Palestinian refugees in Gaza. It notes Israel’s findings that 12 Unrwa staffers were involved in the Oct. 7 attack and says Israel will work to replace the agency with “responsible international aid organizations.” The agency fired the employees and said it was investigating the allegations.
Jared Malsin and Vivian Salama contributed to this article.
Write to David S. Cloud at david.cloud@wsj.com
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