Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Ghazi Hamad

Hamas

Israel-Palestine

20011215

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinian-US political activist operated key backchannel in Edan Alexander’s release

2025-05-14

[IsraelTimes] Bishara Bahbah passed messages between Witkoff and senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, and succeeded in convincing terror group to free the American-Israeli hostage unconditionally

Paleostinian-American political activist Bishara Bahbah was the third-party mediator between US President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
’s administration and Hamas
Hamas

..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
who succeeded in convincing the terror group to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander on Monday, four officials familiar with the matter confirmed to The Times of Israel

The Times of Israel revealed the existence of the backchannel on Sunday, but did not disclose Bahbah’s identity, as he was not ready to go public at the time.

Bahbah headed an organization called Arab Americans for Trump, which helped the president make major inroads with Arab Americans in last year’s election, particularly by highlighting his pledge to end the war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip. But Bahbah broke with the president over the latter’s February call for the US to take over Gaza and clear the Strip of its Paleostinians. Bahbah changed his organization’s name to Arab Americans for Peace, but continued engaging with Trump officials and officials from governments in the region.

Earlier this year, the late Paleostinian Authority president Yasser Arafat’s wife Suha gave Bahbah the phone number of Hamas’s Ghazi Hamad, initiating contact with the bigwig based outside of Gaza, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Last month, Hamad reached out to Bahbah, seeking his assistance in connecting with US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff in order to discuss efforts to bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

"I was called by someone from Hamas who said that they are interested in releasing all the Israeli hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza. They asked me to communicate that message to American officials, which I did," Bahbah told Channel 12 in a Tuesday interview about how the backchannel came about.

"Obviously, if I were in Steve Witkoff’s position, I would have said to myself, ’Who the hell is he to be talking to me?’ And I can understand that," he said.

"Steve suggested that they should release [Alexander] as a gesture of goodwill... toward the president of the United States, knowing that [Trump] would then be using his influence for a ceasefire and to allow the aid to come into Gaza, that is desperately needed by people," Bahbah said.

Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza since March 1, arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas has diverted much of that aid. IDF officials, however, have acknowledged in recent weeks that humanitarian assistance is drying up and that Gazooks are on the brink of starvation.

While Bahbah told Hamad that an end to the war would start with Hamas releasing the last living American hostage, Alexander, the terror organization for weeks sought to extract concessions from Israel in exchange for the 21-year-old IDF soldier.

Hamad subsequently spoke with one of his superiors, Khalil al-Hayya, to further convey the urgency of the issue, according to a source familiar with the matter and another Paleostinian official.

Last week, Bahbah passed along a message from Witkoff to Hamad, warning that time was not on Hamas’s side and calling for Alexander’s release before Trump departed for the Mideast on Monday.

Over the weekend, Hamas informed Bahbah that it agreed to release Alexander unconditionally but wanted Witkoff to know that the step should not be viewed as a one-off, the sources said. Hamad stressed to Bahbah that Hamas was ready to work with the Trump administration to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, with security arrangements to ensure a years-long calm until a final settlement of the conflict is reached, the sources said.

On Sunday, Hamad told Bahbah that Hamas was prepared to move ahead with Alexander’s release, saying it had located him after claiming to have lost contact with his captors.

More taqqiya.

Bahbah, in turn, told Hamas to inform Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani of the decision. The Qatari premier then called Witkoff to confirm that Alexander’s release would be moving ahead.

Alexander was released on Monday evening. On Tuesday, Israel dispatched a negotiating team to Doha for another round of hostage talks, at the request of the Trump administration.

But the sides face an uphill battle, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still insisting that he will only agree to a temporary ceasefire, whereas Hamas is demanding a permanent end to the war sparked by its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the families of hostages held in Gaza earlier today that Hamas is “afraid of Donald Trump” and “should be.”

In brief footage from the lengthy meeting he and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with the families in Tel Aviv, broadcast on Kan TV, Witkoff relates that newly released hostage Edan Alexander is “doing better than I would have thought. They actually treated him better. So for those who have relatives who are alive, I think that’s an important data point.”

Witkoff elaborates: “Edan told me that when the president was elected, he began to get treated well. And that’s a really interesting data point — that people evidently are being treated better there, because Hamas is afraid of Donald Trump. And the truth is, they should be.”

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Senior Hamas official: I wouldn’t have backed Oct. 7 if I’d known outcome for Gaza

2025-02-25

[IsraelTimes] Moussa Abu Marzouk says ‘impossible’ to call Gaza war a victory for terror group, says he’s open to discussing its disarmament; Hamas: Words taken out of context, don’t represent us

Senior Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
politburo member Moussa Abu Marzouk said he would not have backed the October 7, 2023, invasion and onslaught in southern Israel if he had known what the consequences would be for the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, in an interview with The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
that was conducted on Friday and published on Monday.

The October 7 attack — in which thousands of Hamas-led faceless myrmidons burst across the Gaza-Israel border, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid rampant acts of brutality and sexual assault — sparked the subsequent war in Gaza, which has devastated the enclave, seen tens of thousands killed, and prompted the US president to call for the forced relocation of the more than 2 million residents of the Strip.

The war has also, through fighting on other fronts, significantly weakened Iran’s so-called "Axis of Resistance®," devastating the Hezbollah terror group in Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
, and indirectly contributing to the collapse of the Iran-backed Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
regime in Syria.

"If it was expected that what happened would happen, there wouldn’t have been October 7," Abu Marzouk said, asserting that — though he claimed to not have been privy to the exact details of the planned assault — he could not have brought himself to approve it, knowing what he knows now.

Y’all assumed that naturally Allah would protect his best beloveds from any serious repercussions, and thus President Biden’s America, the EU, and the Moslem governments would force Israel to surrender. But it turns out Allah just isn’t that into you, and after what you and your little friends did on 10/7, the Israelis gave up on the idea that there was anyone on your side worth bargaining with. Though they were willing to work with you if you’d learnt anything from the experience, the stupid games you played these past two weeks means once the hostages are recovered, you’re toast.

The statement of regret marked a departure from previous statements by Hamas officials. A few weeks after the invasion, for example, politburo member Ghazi Hamad publicly declared that October 7 was "just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth," saying, "we are ready to pay" the price, and vowing to continue until Israel was totally annihilated.

A fatal misjudgment, that.

In the weeks since a hostage release-ceasefire deal was reached last month, Hamas and its allies have also repeatedly called the war a "victory" for their cause.

Indeed, Abu Marzouk’s remarks were quickly countered by Hamas front man Hazem Qassem, who said: "The occupation’s aggressive and destructive behavior is the cause of the destruction in Gaza. The October 7 epic marks a strategic turning point in the Paleostinian national struggle."

In a statement issued a short while later by the group itself, Hamas claimed Abu Marzouk’s comments were "incorrect and taken out of context."

Oh well. It was nice to think learning had happened, but clearly that’s not permitted. Now we know.

"The interview was conducted a few days ago and the published statements did not reflect the full content of the answers," the terror group contended.

In the interview, Abu Marzouk said Hamas’s survival, despite Israel’s campaign in Gaza, constituted a "kind of victory." He compared the terror group, which has been the de facto government of Gaza since ousting the Paleostinian Authority’s main Fatah faction in a 2007 coup, to a regular person who has survived a boxing match with heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. But he said that in absolute terms, it would be "unacceptable" to call the war a win for the terror group.

"We’re talking about a party [Israel] that lost control of itself and took Dire Revenge against everything," Abu Marzouk claimed. "That is not a victory under any circumstances."

Sez you. We disagree.

ABU MARZOUK SAYS OPEN TO TALKING DISARMAMENT
In the interview, Abu Marzouk also said he was open to discussing the potential disarmament of the terror group in Gaza, saying that, "We are ready to speak about every issue," and, "Any issue that is put on the table, we need to speak about it." He declined, however, to answer specific questions about what a compromise on disarmament might look like.

The comments seemed to contradict more hardline statements from other public leaders of late, such as politburo member Osama Hamdan, who said this month that "the weapons of the resistance" were non-negotiable.

Asked about Hamdan’s remarks, Abu Marzouk told The New York Times that no one leader could set the organization’s agenda.

Qassem, the Hamas front man, also rejected the idea of disarmament, saying: "We hold onto our resistance weapon as a legitimate right, and what was attributed to Moussa Abu Marzouk does not represent the movement’s stance. Resistance® in all its forms is a legitimate right for our people until liberation and return."

Asked about the ongoing, fragile hostage release-ceasefire deal, which has paused fighting in the Strip as Hamas has freed captives who were mostly kidnapped on October 7 and Israel has set free over a thousand Paleostinian security prisoners, including many terror convicts, Abu Marzouk said he was open to extending the three-part deal’s first phase, which is currently slated to end on Saturday.

He said, however, that the group would demand far more security prisoners released in exchange for each of the remaining hostages than it had for those released in the past, noting that Hamas considers all the remaining living captives — including those who are in fact civilians — to be soldiers.

Abu Marzouk suggested 500-to-1 and 1,000-to-1 as possible prisoner-to-hostage ratios for the remaining captives, which are likely to be rejected out of hand by Israel.

The interview was conducted before Israel’s decision on Saturday to freeze the release of 602 security inmates in exchange for six living hostages, after five of those hostages were released in propaganda ceremonies that the state called "humiliations."

Abu Marzouk added that Hamas is also open to releasing all the hostages at once, in exchange for an end to the war and the release of all Paleostinian prisoners — terms which Israel has rejected.

IDF RESPONDS TO ROCKET FIRE, AS CEASEFIRE UP IN THE AIR
With the first phase of the deal set to end Saturday, negotiations are ongoing for the second phase, which envisions Hamas releasing all remaining living hostages — believed to be at least 24 of the 63 captives — in exchange for several thousand Paleostinian security prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and a permanent end to the war.

US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that, "We will get to phase two... I think it’s going to happen," but called any Hamas role in the postwar government of the Strip a "red line."

Israeli leaders have repeatedly stressed in recent days that there are battle plans ready in the event that the deal should collapse and fighting resume.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces struck a rocket launching site in Gaza, from which a rocket had been fired at Israel but fell short in the Strip, the military said. It added that a second rocket launch site in the area was also targeted.

Link

The Grand Turk

US slaps fresh sanctions on six senior Hamas officials

2024-11-20

[IsraelTimes] Targets include terror group’s representatives abroad, operative who aided deadly 1997 bombing at Tel Aviv café, and financiers funneling money into Gaza, West Bank

Washington imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
officials, the US Treasury Department said Tuesday, in further action against the Paleostinian terror group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the terror group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts and weapons smuggling into Gaza.

"Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza," Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.

"Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account."

Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, the Treasury said. It accused him of being involved in "multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks," including the 1997 Café Apropo bombing in Tel Aviv.

Ghanimat was previously sentenced to five life sentences in prison but was one of 1,027 Paleostinian security prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held at the time by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Two other Hamas officials based in Turkey were also among those targeted by the sanctions, the Treasury said, charging that Musa Daud Muhammad Akari and had been involved in facilitating the transfer of funds from Turkey "into Gaza and the West Bank for Hamas."

Akari was previously convicted by Israel for taking part in the 1992 murder of Israeli police officer Nissim Toledano. He was released from prison as part of the Shalit deal in 2011.

Ankara has denied that it has become the new base of Hamas’s politburo operations although Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
said Tuesday that the Hamas leaders involved in negotiations for a hostage release-ceasefire deal with Israel were "not in Doha" anymore.

In addition to the three Turkey-based Hamas officials, the US Treasury Department said that it was imposing sanctions on Gaza-based officials Basem Naim and Ghazi Hamad.

It charged that Naim has "participated in Hamas’s engagements with Russia and been a part of Hamas delegations to other countries," while Hamad has "served as the editor of Hamas propaganda outlets and is authorized to speak publicly on behalf of Hamas."

Hamad was also involved in the past with overseeing Gaza’s border crossings, which the Treasury said were "one of the primary ways Hamas smuggled weapons into Gaza," and were also used by the terror group to smuggle in the equipment it used to build its "extensive tunnel network they intentionally interspersed among Paleostinian civilians."

The final Hamas official included in Tuesday’s sanctions list was Mohammed Nazzal, whom the Treasury said has "provided support to the terrorist group for over 30 years. Nazzal, who has previously lived in both Jordan and Syria, is a big shot on Hamas’s Council on International Relations, the Treasury said.

The sanctions freeze any US-based assets owned or controlled by the named individuals. They also block financial transactions with those designated and prohibit the contribution of funds, goods and services to them.

Tuesday’s action marked the ninth time that the Treasury has imposed sanctions on Hamas entities and backers since the October 7, 2023 terror onslaught enacted by the group in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages.

Most recently, on October 7, 2024, the Treasury imposed sanctions on a "sham charity" in Italia that it said had been fundraising for the Paleostinian terror group, and on two senior Hamas representatives in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
— one in Germany and the other in Austria.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

NYT: Much of Hamas’s explosives comes from IDF fire that failed to detonate — report

2024-01-29

[IsraelTimes] New York Times says bully boyz in Gazoo cut open Israeli-fired duds to create rockets; theft from IDF is also major source of weapons

What say you, dear Reader? Is this a real and significant problem, or are the New York Times’ overpaid fantasists making stuff up again?

Hamas
...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
steals a "significant number" of its weapons from Israel, and much of its material for explosives from IDF duds, reported The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
on Sunday, citing Israeli and Western intelligence officials, and a former senior Israeli police officer.

Intelligence gleaned during the ongoing war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
has helped Israel understand that it badly underestimated the number of rockets and other explosives Hamas was able to create from munitions fired from Israel that failed to detonate. One Western military official claimed that most of Hamas’s explosives used in the war have come from unwent kaboom! IDF shells and missiles.

An Israeli intelligence officer told The New York Times that the failure rate for IDF munitions fired into Gaza could be as high as 15 percent.

Another major source of weapons is theft from IDF bases, which often reach the West Bank or Gaza via the Sinai desert.

Hamas has also been able extract explosives from warheads of up to 2,000 pounds and repurpose them, according to the report. A single 750-pound bomb that doesn’t explode could provide material for hundreds of rockets, the newspaper reported.

Hamas was estimated to possess up to 20,000 rockets before October 7, around half of which it has since fired at Israel.

Hamas maintains a range of additional sources of weapons, including domestic manufacture and smuggling through the Egypt-Gaza border.

An Israeli military official familiar with Hamas’s arsenal told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the group also uses a combination of smuggled "off-the-shelf" weaponry, including AK-47s, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as a large collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials.

"We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money," Hamas front man Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the AP, declining to discuss specifically who has been providing its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Senior Hamas officials flee Lebanon after killing of terror group deputy Arouri – report

2024-01-15

Sensible. They’ll just die tired, but still sensible.

[IsraelTimes] Several Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
officials who were living in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
have fled to neighboring countries and other allies after Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an alleged Israeli strike, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Following the killing of al-Arouri in Beirut on January 2, some Hamas officials relocated to ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
and Syria, the report states, while the terror group’s front man Ghazi Hamad has been in Cairo, Egypt since al-Arouri’s death and has supposedly not made any plans to return to Lebanon.

The explosion that killed al-Arouri has been widely attributed to Israel, while Israeli officials have declined to comment.

In addition to al-Arouri, six others were killed in the blast, including Hamas officials Mahmoud Shaheen, Muhammad Bashasha, Muhammad al-Rayes and Ahmed Hammoud.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas 'rejects' offer for one-week pause in exchange for hostages

2023-12-22

[GEO.TV] A report by the Wall Street Journal citing Egyptian officials says Hamas has rejected an Israeli offer to stop fighting for one week in exchange for dozens of captives, saying the group will not discuss any releases until a ceasefire first takes hold.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, told intelligence officials in Cairo during a visit on Wednesday that he was in the Egyptian capital to obtain a cease-fire and more humanitarian aid for Gaza, according to the officials.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said that the group’s “priority” was for the war to stop.

“Our vision is very clear: We want to stop the aggression,” he said. “What is going on in the ground is a big catastrophe,” added Hamad, referencing the “mass destruction and mass killing” caused by the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The member of Hamas’s political bureau said “some people” are looking for brief pauses in fighting of a few days or weeks but added that the group would not agree to that.

“Israel will take the card of the hostages and after that they will start a new round of mass killing and massacres against our people,” he said. “We will not play this game.”

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

This Time Israel Will Finish The Job

2023-11-07

[American Greatness] There are many reasons for any sane person to regret the existence of Hamas, the savage Sunni Muslim militia that controls the Gaza Strip in Southern Israel. Founded in 1987, the group has specialized in terror attacks against Israelis while maintaining vigorous side-concessions fomenting anti-Western sentiment and keeping their own populace in a state of wretched poverty.

Such are the convoluted workings of providence, however, that the world may eventually find itself grimly grateful for what one percipient observer called "the Sabbath Massacres": the barbaric slaughter perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which left some 1,400 dead, thousands wounded, and more than 200 kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza.

The main reason to be grateful for this horrific carnage follows from the revelation it afforded. In the first place, by acting with such savage and sanguinary abandon—deliberately targeting the young and helpless, the old and infirm, raping, mutilating, beheading—Hamas in effect signed its own death warrant.

We’ve seen all the usual suspects fulminating against Israel, "the Zionists," "the Jews." A prominent Hamas spokesman called Ghazi Hamad said in an interview that the Sabbath Massacre of October 7 was only the start, that there would be many more and similar attacks "until Israel is annihilated."

But that is idle, impotent imprecation, of a piece with King Lear’s aposiopetic rant against his daughters [I somehow wrote "sisters": thanks to an alert reader for that correction]:

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas leader's Gaza home destroyed by airstrike

2023-11-05

[NYPOST] The home of Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
’ senior political leader was destroyed in an alleged Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
Saturday, officials said.

The family residence of Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, located in the Shati refugee camp on the northern outskirts of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
City, was hit Saturday morning, according to the Hamas-run media outlet in Gaza.

There were no immediate details about possible casualties or the true extent of the damage.

At the time of the strike, Haniyeh’s home was being used by his two sons, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said.

Haniyeh was elected Hamas’ political chief in 2017, and has lived in luxurious "exile" in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
since 2019.

News of the latest strike came amid ongoing calls for a ceasefire as the number of Paleostinians killed topped 9,200, less than one month after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is horrific," United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
said late Friday. "An entire population is traumatized, nowhere is safe."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

MEMRI: Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated

2023-11-02

Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We Will Repeat the October 7 Attack Time and Again Until Israel Is Annihilated; We Are Victims - Everything We Do Is Justified #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians pic.twitter.com/kXu3U0BtAP
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2023

Aim for the dirt bump

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas official storms out of BBC interview when pressed on slaughtering Israeli civilians

2023-10-28

[NYPOST] A top Hamas
Hamas

...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
official stormed out of a TV interview after he was asked how his bloodthirsty terrorist group justifies slaughtering innocent Israeli civilians in their sleep.
"Boys will be boys!"
Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, used a Thursday interview with the BBC’s Hugo Bachega to try to downplay the Oct. 7 massacre of at least 1,400, mostly civilians, including burned and butchered babies.

“There was no command to kill any civilians,” Hamad claimed, attempting to brush off the mass murders as the result of “clashes and confrontations” after terrorists crashed through barriers and paraglided into Israel.

His interviewer refused to accept his ludicrous claim, telling Hamad: “It’s not confrontation — you invaded houses.”

“I can tell you that we didn’t have any intention or decision to kill the civilians,” the Hamas official again claimed despite the overwhelming mass of evidence.

The BBC’s Middle East correspondent again pushed back, asking again: “How do you justify killing people as they sleep, families? How do you justify killing hundreds of people in …?”

The BBC’s correspondent pushed back instead of trumpeting the Hamas party line? I may expire from shock. Truly we live in an age of miracles!

At that point, Hamad interrupted his interviewer, pulling off the microphone attached to his jacket and throwing it to the side.

“I want to stop this interview,” he said to avoid being challenged further.

Israeli officials have previously provided evidence suggesting Hamas terrorists had indeed planned to kill civilians in their surprise attack.

Link

Government Corruption

$6B Prisoner Swap Was ‘Just a Drop in the Bucket' for Iran. Here's How Much Tehran Has Raked in Under Biden.

2023-10-19

[DailySignal] Republicans have castigated President Joe Biden’s administration for freeing up $6 billion in funds for Iran’s Islamist regime, money that likely contributed to Tehran’s funding of Hamas, the genocidal terrorist group that slaughtered more than 1,400 Israelis and took about 200 hostage Oct. 7.

Yet the Biden administration’s policies freed up far more than $6 billion for Iran.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” Robert Greenway, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)

Greenway led a team to plan and execute the most significant U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. He served as a principal architect of the Abraham Accords, working as deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and senior director of the National Security Council’s Middle East and North African Affairs Directorate.

Referring to Iran, Greenway described the released $6 billion as “a fraction of the overall revenue that the Biden administration consciously has allowed them to have.”

He said Biden’s policies, by relaxing Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign and signaling his willingness to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran, has emboldened Tehran and signaled other countries in the region that they should work with Iran.

“We’re encouraging everyone else to do this. Everybody in the region is paying Iran not to attack them,” Greenway warned.

He urged that the U.S. stop paying Hamas through funds ostensibly for Palestinian aid.

“This is extortion. I pay so Gaza won’t attack again,” Greenway said. “We should stop writing checks.”

While Greenway acknowledged Biden’s strong rhetoric in support of Israel, he said Americans and Israelis should see through that facade.

“I literally paid the people who attacked you,” Greenway said, speaking as though he were Biden. “No one should be defending this. No one in Israel can think that Biden is their friend.”

According to The Daily Signal’s calculations, Iran has received approximately $70 billion more under Biden than it would have under Trump.

Biden repeatedly has said that there is no “specific evidence” showing that Tehran had any involvement in the Hamas terrorist attack, but Iran has funded Hamas for years.

Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad told the BBC that Iran gave the green light for the attack. The Wall Street Journal reported that “senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah” confirmed that “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land, and sea incursions.”

Furthermore, Greenway and another Heritage Foundation national security expert, Victoria Coates, wrote: “Absent significant training, equipment, and intelligence capabilities supplied by Iran, Hamas would never have been able to have carried out such an operation.”

The $6 billion figure traces back to 2018, when the Trump administration granted a waiver to South Korea, among other nations, to continue buying Iranian oil after the U.S. left the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Trump administration canceled these exemptions in 2019, diverting payments for already-delivered oil into escrow accounts. Biden agreed to release the $6 billion South Korea owes Iran as part of a prisoner exchange in August.

The Biden administration has insisted that the $6 billion would fund only humanitarian projects, but money is fungible. Even if that money would support only infrastructure, health care, or education, it would free up funds for Tehran to send money to Hamas. Even if none of that money had been spent before Oct. 7, as the Biden administration has insisted, Tehran may have spent money elsewhere, expecting those funds to materialize.

Perhaps in response to criticism regarding the unfrozen funds, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told House Democrats that the U.S. and Qatar agreed to prevent Iran from accessing the $6 billion. It remains unclear whether any of that money had made it back to Tehran, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken said none had.

Even if Tehran doesn’t receive a penny from South Korea, the Biden administration has allowed more funds to flow to Iran from other sources.

Subsequent headings:

$10 Billion From Iraq

$52.2 Billion in Extra Oil Revenues

$3.8 Billion in Petrochemicals

$1.6 Billion in Steel

$3.42 Billion in Special Drawing Rights

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Just in Case You Couldn't Figure It Out On Your Own

2023-10-09

[blaze] Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad told BBC that the militant group had received support from its ally Iran for its murderous onslaught on Israel.

The Wall Street Journal reported, "Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group."

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