Izraelczycy i rodziny zakładników przetrzymywanych przez terrorystów Hamasu w Strefie Gazy protestują w Tel Awiwie przed spotkaniem przewodniczącej Międzynarodowego Komitetu Czerwonego Krzyża Mirjany Spoljaric Egger, 14 grudnia 2023 r. Zdjęcie: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

Hańba Czerwonego Krzyża, który znowu służy mordercom Żydów

Mitchell Bard
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska

Mitchell Geoffrey Bard -Amerykański analityk polityki zagranicznej, redaktor i autor, który specjalizuje się w polityce USA – Bliski Wschód. Jest dyrektorem wykonawczym organizacji non-profit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise i dyrektorem Jewish Virtual Library.

Adam Brody, Billy Crystal, Eugene Levy Among Jewish Celebrities Whose Homes Destroyed in Los Angeles Wildfires

Shiryn Ghermezian

Flames rise from a structure as the Palisades fire burns during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles, California, US, Jan. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

Adam Brody, Billy Crystal, and Eugene Levy are among the Jewish celebrities whose homes have been destroyed and reduced to rubble by the wildfires in Los Angeles County that started early Tuesday morning and have so far killed 10 people.

Brody and his wife, actress Leighton Meester, lived in the Pacific Palisades, where an out-of-control bush fire started Tuesday morning before spreading to other neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area with the help of strong winds.

Crystal lost the Pacific Palisades house where he had lived since 1979 and raised his children.

Levy also saw his house burn down in the same neighborhood. The “Schitt’s Creek” star told the Los Angeles Times that he was caught in gridlock traffic when trying to evacuate his neighborhood. Levy, who is Canadian, has been serving as Pacific Palisades’ honorary mayor since 2021.

“Top Gun: Maverick” actor Miles Teller, who is of Russian and Jewish descent on his father’s side, had pictures of his burning home shared by media outlets. American television host and actress Melissa Rivers, who is the daughter of the late Jewish comedian and media personality Joan Rivers, also had her home destroyed by the wildfires. She talked to CNN on Wednesday about the belongings she took from her home before evacuating, and said they included her mother’s only Emmy award — won in 1990 for Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host for her work on “The Joan Rivers Show.” Rivers also grabbed items such as passports, birth certificates, and medication before evacuating her home.

“I grabbed my mom’s Emmy, a photo of my dad [the late producer Edgar Rosenberg], and a drawing that my mother had done of me and my son … I went for a drawing of my mother’s rather than a photo, because I know I can find the photos,” she said, adding of the drawing, “I can’t replace [it].”

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center was decimated by the fire, but its 13 Torah scrolls were saved.

Other Jewish celebrities whose homes were destroyed in the wildfires include Diane Warren, Ricki Lake, and Jennifer Grey.

Warren and Levy have been honored by Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a pro-Israel nonprofit organization that is comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry dedicated to combating anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism in the industry. The organization shared its condolences to victims of the wildfires in a released statement.

“We are devastated by the unprecedented destruction in Los Angeles, which has forced members of the Creative Community for Peace’s advisory board, and broader community, and even our esteemed Ambassadors of Peace honorees, such as Eugene Levy and Diane Warren, to evacuate and face the loss of their homes,” CCFP said. “We are a community of strength and resilience. Together, we will rebuild and overcome.”

Lake’s home in Malibu was destroyed on Tuesday, and she chronicled in a series of Instagram posts her family’s failed efforts to stay behind and save the house, before they decided to evacuate and prevent themselves from being engulfed in the flames.

“Ross and I lost our dream home,” she wrote in one Instagram post, referring to her husband. “This description ‘dream home’ doesn’t suffice. It was our heaven on earth. The place where we planned to grow old together … This loss is immeasurable. It’s the spot where we got married 3 years ago. I grieve along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event. Praying for all of my neighbors, my friends, my community, the animals, the firefighters, and first responders.”

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who is the daughter of the late Jewish actor Tony Curtis, said she is donating $1 million toward the relief efforts for the wildfires in LA.

“As the fire still rages on and @calfire @losangelesfiredepartment and all the available first responders and agencies involved in fighting fire and saving lives are still hard at work and neighbors and friends are banding together to save each other, my husband and I and our children have pledged $1 million from our Family Foundation to start a fund of support for our great city and state and the great people who live and love there,” Curtis, who had to evacuate her LA home, wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “I’m in communication with [California] Governor [Gavin] Newsom and [LA] Mayor [KAren] Bass and Senator [Adam] Schiff as to where those funds need to be directed for the most impact.”

At least 70,000 people have been displaced by the wildfires since Tuesday morning, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said late on Thursday that he expects the death toll to increase. The Palisades fire between Santa Monica and Malibu and the Eaton fire in the east near Pasadena have been ranked as the most destructive fires in the history of Los Angeles for destroying more than 34,000 acres and nearly 10,000 structures, according to Reuters.

The Jewish organization Chai Lifeline is providing resources to support victims of the Los Angeles wildfire, and the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles has created a Wildfire Crisis Relief Fund to support its neighbors affected by the fires, while also helping to facilitate shelter, warm meals, and other needs for victims. BStrong — an initiative started by Jewish entrepreneur and former reality star Bethenny Frankel in partnership with the nonprofit organization Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) — is raising funds and also providing supplies and resources to help with the relief efforts.

Israel must win this war

Caroline B. Glick

Palestinians take control of an IDF tank after breaching the Israeli border fence from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis saw what the end looks like.

Thousands upon thousands of Palestinians invaded the country in wave after wave. They were unified in their barbaric hatred of Jews and bloodlust. The atrocities the Palestinians committed against their overwhelmingly Jewish victims were like nothing we had ever imagined. And they were made all the worse by the fact that everyone participated.

Roaring crowds handed torches to 10-year-olds, giving them the honor of lighting homes ablaze, burning entire families alive. The Palestinian hordes whooped and laughed in ecstasy as they raped, tortured and murdered their victims.

And when they arrived home to Gaza with their hostages—dead and alive—they were greeted by crowds of thousands as conquering heroes. Yes, Hamas planned the sadistic genocide. Yes, Hamas led the charge. But it was a whole-of-society endeavor.

Somehow, over the past two weeks of President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s dealmaking, the events of Oct. 7 seem to have faded from view. The deal he demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept is incomprehensible in the context of that day.

Ignoring Oct. 7, Witkoff and his Israeli cheerleaders present the deal as a step on the road to peace. When the ceasefire becomes permanent, he has said, the Saudis will rush to make peace with Israel. So will Qatar and everyone else. Indeed, Witkoff told Fox News on Wednesday, even Hamas would be welcomed at the table. And Trump will get a Nobel Peace Prize.

In the same Fox News interview, Witkoff explained that his deal is precisely the deal that former president Joe Biden tried to coerce Israel to accept last May. The Biden deal, at its core, was a ransom deal. Israel, Biden said, would pay Hamas “generously” for the release of some of the hostages. How generously? Well, it depended on which phase you were in.

The Biden/Witkoff deal is a three-phase deal, and each phase is essentially a separate agreement. The first involves massive Israeli concessions to Hamas that are rife with dire strategic consequences for Israel in exchange for 33 hostages—including all of the women hostages.

To receive the 33, Israel is required to free nearly 2,000 terrorists, hundreds of whom are convicted mass murderers. It must withdraw its forces from the cities of Gaza and from the Netzarim Corridor, permitting the mass return of Palestinians to northern Gaza. And it must permit the full resupply of Gaza, still under Hamas control. All told, Israel is paying for the 33 in a manner that risks all of its soldiers’ hard-won gains on the battlefield over the past 15 months of war.

While that is a steep price, it pales in comparison to the price of moving to the second phase. Under the terms of the Witkoff/Biden agreement, in the second phase, Israel is to withdraw all of its remaining forces from Gaza, including from the border separating Gaza from Egypt. In other words, Israel must cede control of Gaza to Hamas. In exchange, Hamas will return the remaining live hostages to Israel—but retain the bodies of the hostages it has murdered.

Phase 1 will make it difficult for Israel to restore its previous gains and go on to achieve victory in the war. Phase 2 secures Hamas’s victory. The implication of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is that Hamas wins the war. It survives not only intact, but in full control of Gaza, respected worldwide as the jihadist force that committed genocide and survived to rebuild and do it again and again.

Phase 3, if implemented, involves Hamas’s return of the bodies of the dead in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian proto-state controlled by Palestinian terrorists. So if implemented, Phase 3 ensures that Hamas will renew its genocidal assault on Israel sooner rather than later.

Biden’s administration sold this deal by ignoring the strategic implications of Oct. 7. He and his advisers abjectly refused to draw the necessary conclusion from what happened. The atrocities of that day showed that the Palestinian war against Israel is a zero-sum game—either Israel wins, ensuring its survival, and the Palestinians are defeated; or the Palestinians win and Israel’s countdown to destruction begins.

Instead of accepting that self-evident reality, Biden and his advisers talked about Israel as a “traumatized society.” A traumatized society is not one that needs to win. It is a society that needs a hug.

Israelis who demanded the destruction of Gaza were demonized as genocidal extremists rather than realists who understood the implications of the bloodlust. The administration refused to accept the legitimacy of Israel’s war goals of destroying Hamas and preventing Gaza from ever posing a threat in the future. They placed hostages at the center of the narrative instead. The Palestinians weren’t an enemy, they were victims of Israel, which was waging a war for no reason. Israel had the right to defend itself, but not to harm its enemy.

The hostage ransom deal as crafted by Biden administration officials was a means of joining Hamas in exploiting Israel’s anguish over the plight of the hostages to prevent Israel from winning the war. Israel, Biden and his advisers believed, would be ensnared in the deal as Phase 1 moved to Phase 2. The deal was structured in a way that would make it almost impossible for Israel to walk away. Negotiations for Phase 2 are to begin 16 days after implementation of Phase 1 begins. And if Israel walked away, the last of the 33 would remain behind.

Given the stakes, two questions arise. What does President Donald Trump intend to do with Biden’s agreement going forward; and what does Israel intend to do?

President Trump’s messaging regarding the deal has shifted several times over the first week of implementation. Initially, he said the deal will bring all of the hostages home—a statement that indicated he expects all three phases will be implemented. A couple of days later, the president said he is uncertain that the second and third phases will be implemented.

By adopting Biden’s framework, Trump placed himself in a box. Trump wishes to prevent new wars from happening in the Middle East. But if he maintains faith with this deal, he ensures that even larger wars will break out in the region during the course of his four years in office. He also guarantees that massive jihadist assaults in the U.S. and the West will occur. After all, if Hamas’s success in murdering 1,200 Israelis in a day gave rise to the avalanche of antisemitism and jihad worldwide, there can be little question what a Hamas victory over Israel in the war will bring.

This is doubly true if the reports that President Trump is insisting that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon next week and that he is urging Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear installations are true. Hezbollah has not withdrawn its forces north of the Litani River. And the Lebanese Armed Forces, which are supposed to force Hezbollah forces to decamp to the north, are helping them to remain in the south. Under the circumstances, an Israeli withdrawal projects weakness that invites a future invasion.

As for Iran, if Hamas survives and Hezbollah survives, then Iran will emerge as the victor in this war. If Iran, the victor, is also permitted to keep its nuclear installations, it will quickly cross the nuclear threshold.

The Iranian regime is not interested in a deal. It is interested in destroying Israel and the United States. That is why it has been trying to assassinate President Trump. And that is why it built terror armies all around Israel and has deployed thousands of Revolutionary Guard personnel to Central and South America, all while building nuclear weapons.

To win the peace of the Middle East, Trump must walk away from Biden’s failed policy of standing with Iran and its terror proxies Lebanon and the Palestinians in Gaza. He must restore his first term’s doctrine of supporting America’s allies against America’s enemies.

If Trump backs Israel in returning to the battlefield to secure Hamas’s defeat in Gaza, and maintaining its buffer zones in Gaza permanently to prevent the area from threatening the Jewish state in the future, then he will build the foundation for a long-term peace between Israel and the Arabs of the region.

If President Trump stands with Israel and backs its requirement for a security zone inside Lebanon that will prevent Hezbollah and other terror forces from invading northern Israel, and if he stands with Israel in its efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations and supports the Iranian people that have fought for their freedom from the regime for decades, then he will restore America’s standing as the only significant superpower in the region.

If he fails to do these things, then he will cede the U.S.’s position to China. China has been a beneficiary of Biden’s weakness and determination to realign the U.S. away from its allies and toward Iran and its terror armies.

As for Israel, the dilemma is whether to sacrifice its future collective security for the salvation of the hostages today, or to secure its national survival. Israelis who support the first option speak of the damage to Israel’s soul if we accept that the hostages may continue to suffer.

For those who receive their news from most Israeli media outlets, the dilemma isn’t too large. With a few notable exceptions, the Israeli media have been serving the public a diet of demoralization for nearly a year. Israel cannot win, they are told. There is no purpose to the fight. All it does is prolong the suffering of the hostages. The only reason we are still fighting is that the man they have spent the past decade demonizing—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—refuses to quit. He refuses to capitulate despite the futility of the fight, because fighting is the only way he stays in power.

The media—like the Biden administration— prefer to ignore the strategic ramifications of Oct. 7, which they prefer to present as a one-off. The Palestinians aren’t really the people who beheaded their victims, and who mutilated their bodies as they butchered them. That was a mistake, or something. And anyway, fighting is futile. Bring them home.

This week, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren wrote an article resonating this view. Oren admitted that the deal means that Hamas wins the war. But then he counters that Israel will save its soul by showing its devotion to the lives of its hostages by losing. “Our victory is moral, deep and long lasting,” he crooned.

The problem with Oren’s argument and the broader claim of the deal-at-any-price advocates is that the war is not futile. Our heroic soldiers are winning and can win. And they must win. Oct. 7 will only be a one-off if Hamas is annihilated and Gaza remains pacified forever. They are willing to pay a steep price to secure the freedom of 33 hostages, but the fight cannot be forsaken.

Hostage taking is the cruelest form of psychological warfare. And it is the most powerful weapon that Israel’s enemies have in their arsenal. They know that while they sanctify death, the sanctification of life is the foundational creed of the Jewish people.

Those who seek a deal at all costs are right about the soul of Israel. Our collective soul was bludgeoned on Oct. 7, and the wound remains unhealed every day the hostages remain in Gaza. As the years pass, the wound will become a scar that every Israeli and every Jew on earth will carry till the end of time. But our ability to carry those scars requires Israel to survive.

Oct. 7 showed us our enemy. And now that we have seen it, we cannot ignore the truth. For the nation of Israel and the State of Israel to survive, Israel must win this war no matter what the cost.

Caroline B. Glick is the senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate and host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS TV.
Glick is the diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Channel 14, as well as a columnist for Newsweek. Glick is the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington and a lecturer at Israel’s College of Statesmanship. She appears regularly on U.S., British, Australian and Indian television networks, including Fox, Newsmax and CBN. She appears, as well, on the BBC, Sky News Britain and Sky News Australia, and on India’s WION News Network. She speaks regularly on nationally syndicated and major market radio shows across the English-speaking world. She is also a frequent guest on major podcasts, including the Dave Rubin Show and the Victor Davis Hanson Show.