Hostage Release Update

• Arbel Yehud is a civilian who was supposed to be released as part of the agreement this past weekend (female civilians were to be released prior to any female soldiers). She will now be released on Thursday, along with the last remaining surveillance soldier, Agam Berger and a living male hostage (probably American-Israeli Keith Siegal, whose wife Aviva was freed from captivity in the 2023 exchange).
  • According to the Times of Israel, Yehoud is being held by Islamic Jihad, which was reportedly falsely describing her as a soldier and demanding more prisoners be released in return for her. The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening that PIJ agreed to classify her as a civilian, helping resolve the crisis.
  • To confirm her health condition, The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released a propaganda video Monday evening of civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud. In the video, Yehoud says the date is January 25, meaning it was apparently filmed on Saturday. The family asked that the media not broadcast the clip or images from it, so I will not do so here.
• Hamas was supposed to release a list on Saturday of detailing the conditions of the remaining hostages. Hamas did not produce that list, but on Sunday it did. 18 of the 26 remaining hostages still to be freed are alive and eight are dead, but did not specify which are alive or dead.
• Three more living men are to be freed on Saturday, and we will know their names on Friday
• Per the agreement, Israel allowed Palestinians to cross the Netzarim Corridor and return to northern Gaza starting at 7 a.m. Monday morning. According to Hamas, “more than 300,000 displaced” Palestinians returned to the north throughout the day.

Hostages

• There are now currently 87 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 90 hostages in total)
  • There are three female hostages remaining from the original list of 33 to be released in the first phase of the hostage ceasefire deal.
    • Two Civilians: Arbel Yehud, 29, and Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33 (Bibas’s two young sons Ariel and Kfir, now aged 5 and 2, are also held and are on the list, as is her husband, Yarden Bibas. It is assumed that the children are not alive, but this has not been confirmed)
    • One Female Solider: Agam Berger
  • For each of the female soldiers, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences.

In total, there are now 26 remaining hostages on the list for release during the first stage of the ceasefire. The women and children will be released first, followed by men over the age of 50. The release of those kidnapped by Hamas will be spread out over 42 days, six weeks, with at least three hostages being released each week.

• 18 of the 26 remaining hostages still to be freed are alive and eight are dead
• Two civilian woman: Shiri Silberman Bibas and Arbel Yehud
  • Shiri’s children, Ariel (4 years old when taken hostage) and Kfir (9 months old) are also on the list and are the only remaining children in Gaza. It is assumed that they are not alive, but this has not been confirmed.
• One female IDF soldiers: Agam Berger
• Men over 50: Ohad Ben-Ami, Itzhak Elgarat, Yair Horn, Tsahi Idan, Ofer Kalderon, Oded Lifshitz, Shlomo Mansur, Gadi Moses, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Ohad Yahalomi.
• Link: These are the hostages to be released (and left behind) in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

• 7 hostages are Americans: Meet the Seven American Hostages Still Held By Hamas
• On October 7^th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
• During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
• 165 hostages in total have been released or rescued
  • The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
• 8 hostages have been rescued by troops alive
• Of the 90 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
  • At least 35 confirmed bodies are currently being held in Gaza
  • 28-46 hostages are assumed to be dead and held in captivity.
  • Thus, at most, 41-59 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
  • Hamas is also holding 2 Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015 (civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held in Gaza for a decade), as well as the body of 1 IDF soldiers who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)

Situational Update

• YNet reports: President Donald Trump has invited Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House on February 4, according to an official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday night. The statement noted that Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House since the start of Trump’s second term.
• The Times of Israel reports: New Zealand’s government immigration authority has begun to require Israelis applying for a visa to report details of their military service as a condition for entry, and at least one person has been denied admission after doing so, The Times of Israel has learned.

Casualties (+1)

• 1,845 Israelis have been killed including 841 IDF soldiers since October 7th (+1 since Sunday)

• Jacob (Kobi) Avitan, 39, a civilian Defense Ministry contractor was killed in an incident of so-called “friendly fire” in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning. Avitan was contracted to operate an excavator to clear structures in the Netzarim Corridor area of central Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces has been withdrawing from in recent days amid a ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.
• The South: 405 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed (+1 civilian defense contractor since Sunday)
• The North: 131 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel (no change since Sunday)
• Additional Information (according to the IDF):
  • 2,570 (no change since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 495 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
  • 5,667 (+5 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 840 (+1 since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
    • The increase in injuries is attributed to ongoing operations in the West Bank

• The Gaza Casualty Count:
  • According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 47,354 (+71 since Sunday) people have been killed in Gaza, and 111,563 (+91 since last Sunday) have been injured during the war.
  • [MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
  • On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
  • Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
  • The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza Health Ministry.” The analysis found that “9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data” and that “an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates.”
• The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.

Watch

Israel’s i24 news reports: Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, notifies that UNRWA will be barred from operating in sovereign Israeli territory within 48 hours, and must vacate properties in Jerusalem, after the agency failed to address infiltration of the agency by terrorists

Israeli TV (Keshet 12) airs an interview with released hostage of Hamas, Amit Soussana, who opens up about her harrowing kidnapping on October 7th, 2023, revealing how she fought to survive. She shares how 19-year-old Liri Albag, freed after 477 days, saved her life during a life-threatening encounter with a Hamas terrorist (in Hebrew with English subtitles)

• [WARNING: GRAPHIC TESTIMONY] This link will take you to the video where Amit describes what she called a “serious sexual assault” on her.

Listen

[PODCAST] Call Me Back with Dan Senor: The Deal and its Political Fallout – with Amit Segal

• Amit Segal is the chief political correspondent and analyst for Channel 12 News, and for Yediot Ahronot (YNet), the country’s largest circulation newspaper.

Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch posts:

Left Image: Suheil Al-Hindi, ex-UNRWA official who oversaw 8,000 teachers in Gaza, worked at UNRWA for 27 years

Right Image: Al-Hindi in Cairo now with fellow Hamas terror chiefs to welcome released terrorists

Antisemitism

StopAntisemetism posts: Students for Justice in Palestine at Ohio State University is demonstrating outside the Chabad Jewish student center during their Holocaust Remembrance Day tribute where IDF soldiers who survived the 10/7 massacre were scheduled to speak. Protesters chanted “Allahu Akbar,” “From the river to the sea,” “baby killers,” and told Jewish students to kill themselves.

[REPORT] Half of Americans Can’t Name a Single Nazi Concentration Camp, New Survey on Holocaust Knowledge Finds by David Swindle with Algemeiner

The Claims Conference, a nonprofit organization that secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors and their heirs around the world, on Thursday released the results of an eight-country survey investigating Holocaust knowledge across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania.

The Americas:

• The United States: 76% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 48% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 21%. 15% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 44% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood the highest at 95%.

Western Europe

• UK: 69% percent of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 25% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 20%. 11% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 24% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 92%.
• Germany: 61% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 18% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 18%. 13% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 12% of respondents aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust. 34% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 87%.
• France: 63% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 25% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 21%. 33% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 46% of respondents aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust. A striking 20% of French adults overall said that they had not heard or weren’t sure if they had heard of the Holocaust prior to taking the survey. 38% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 91%.

Central Europe

• Austria: 62% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 10% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 21%. 21% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 14% of respondents aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust. 27% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 84%.
• Hungary: 52% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 18% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 27%. 22% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 45% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 88%.

Eastern Europe

• Poland: 54% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 7% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 24%. 14% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 20% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 93%.
• Romania: 44% of respondents said a similar genocide could occur today. 25% of those surveyed could not name a single concentration camp used by the Nazis. The number of people believing that 2 million or fewer Jews died reached 28%. 53% agreed that the Holocaust happened but that the numbers killed have been greatly exaggerated. 15% of respondents aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust. 24% were those most likely to report that Holocaust denial was common in their countries. Support for teaching students about the Holocaust stood at 78%.
• The study showed that support for Holocaust education remained high, with 90% or more saying it was important: 96% in the US and Poland, 94% in the UK and Germany, 93% in France and Romania, 91% in Hungary, and 90% in Austria.
• Link: Half of Americans Can’t Name a Single Nazi Concentration Camp, New Survey on Holocaust Knowledge Finds

Wikipedia Bars Prominent Anti-Israel Accounts, But Systemic Manipulation Persists, by Jewish Onliner

• Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee (ArbCom)—the platform’s highest dispute resolution body—has penalized eight editors for disruptive behavior, including non-neutral editing and edit warring, in the Israel-Palestine topic area, according to the Jewish Journal’s Aaron Bandler and the Jerusalem Post. These editors, who have manipulated content to promote anti-Israel narratives, now face indefinite topic bans.
• According to “Wiki Bias,” a watchdog account on X that monitors antisemitic and anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia, “While the ban of toxic editors spreading anti-Israeli narratives is a step forward, the question remains as to how the platform’s administration allowed this for years.
• Ashley Rindsberg, writing in Pirate Wires, has detailed how influential actors, including wealthy organizations, have used their resources to shape narratives on the platform.
• He notes that Wikipedia has become an ideological battleground, vulnerable to those with the patience and funding to mold it. Moreover, Ashley points to the involvement of the Soros Family and its Open Society, which has garnered infamy for its funding of numerous anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations. Specifically, Rindsberg notes that “Soros-linked operatives have spent the past eight years embedding themselves in top roles at Wikimedia Foundation”—the nonprofit overseeing Wikipedia—“and transforming the site into a tool for radical social engineering.”

• To fulfill its mission as a reliable and unbiased source of information, critics say Wikipedia must take stronger, more proactive measures to safeguard against manipulation. Until then, they argue, it remains vulnerable to those seeking to distort its content and influence public discourse.
• Link: Wikipedia Bars Prominent Anti-Israel Accounts, But Systemic Manipulation Persists

Israel/Middle East Related Articles

[HIGHLY RECOMMEND] The IDF in Gaza: an assessment by Andrew Fox

• As the dust settles, and with time allowed for reflection and consideration, it is a good time to take stock of where things stand. In doing so, we may draw conclusions about the IDF’s strategic and operational performance in Gaza since October 2023.

• It is fairly clear that the operational design has gone almost perfectly according to plan – up to Phase C and D, where no alternative to Hamas has been found. Indeed, no matter what the ceasefire deal says, they are unlikely to be removed in the short term. They are too entrenched, too hidden amongst the local population to annihilate everything militarily. They will not be removed from administration by force. They have too many levers of control over the Gazan population, such as arms and aid—not to mention a significant degree of continued local support.
• The IDF’s stated strategic goals, however, were to 1) restore Israel’s territorial integrity; 2) dismantle Hamas, and 3) recover the hostages. Here’s the thing: 3) was never going to happen but at the expense of 1) and 2). You cannot both destroy Hamas completely, and recover the hostages. They are mutually exclusive.
• The IDF were set three strategic tasks, and their operational plan has arguably delivered on all three. Israel’s borders are secure, for now. Hamas has been degraded far beyond the conventional definition of “defeat” (enemy reduced to 50-69% of initial strength) – although admittedly, since the Gaza City phase of the operation in 2023, this has arguably not been a conventional war as Hamas moved to asymmetric tactics of “shoot and scoot” (take a shot then bugger off) and Improvised Explosive Devices.
• Here is the thing, though: from 7 October 2023, IDF operations were constrained by the presence of the hostages. They would not strike where they knew hostages were. To achieve all three goals, even in part, was always going to require a compromise on some of them.
• They cleared what Hamas infrastructure they found in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah. They swept in to smash Hamas wherever they coalesced. They inflicted 20,000 fatalities on the enemy and countless more injured, at the cost of only (just over) 500 fatalities and 2,500 casualties of their own.
• Now there is a ceasefire, and Hamas has the huge strategic win of survival, they no longer need the “victim” narrative. Now, it is all about projecting strength.
• Hamas’s disinformation campaign about war crimes, starvation, freezing and genocide did its job. No matter what these disinformation victims see now, their minds will not be changed. The propaganda brainwashing has done its trick.
• …Hamas can move on to their new message: “We are still strong; we withstood everything Israel had to throw at us. We can still humiliate them.”
• That is the reason for the scenes at the hostage release, and all the social media messaging beforehand of Hamas fighters celebrating in uniform. It is Hamas showing the world that they can still play games and torture the Israeli general population, whilst putting on a show of strength.
• This tells us that Hamas is now done talking to the West. Their audience now is the Arabic world, where strength is all. To thrive again, Hamas needs to show its allies in Qatar, Egypt and Turkey that there is plenty of fight left in them.
• Hamas has had an ally in this: and what an ally they have proven to be. Qatar has been batting for Hamas for 15 months, and they have done one hell of a job.
• So we’ve had evidence Hamas has been lying to the world for 15 months, but the world does not care. Minds are made up.
• But that is not to say the IDF was defeated. Yes, they were forced to ceasefire prematurely, by American presidential factors far beyond their control. But, they have achieved most of their strategic goals, thanks to masterful operational design, and that is a damned sight better than NATO did in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
• Link: The IDF in Gaza: an assessment

Yet more proof that the Gaza health ministry lies about casualties: The vast majority of amputees are adult males by Elder of Ziyon

• According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics citing the health ministry, some 64% of those killed in Gaza are women and children.
• How is it possible that 64% of those killed in Gaza are women and children, but 70% of the amputees are adult males? Those losing limbs would certainly be a representative sample of those who lost their lives and have similar demographics – bombs cannot be calibrated to kill mostly women and children but to maim mostly adult men, which is what the health ministry is claiming.
• Roughly half of the population of Gaza is under 18, and roughly half of the remainder are women. If Israel’s bombings were indiscriminate, we would see over 70% of the amputees to be women and children and less than 30% to be adult males, not the other way around.
• Statistically speaking, the chances that a similar population would have such different results for fatalities and amputations (p-value) is less than 0.01%.
• Unless Gaza doctors deliberately choose not to perform amputations on women and children, preferring that they die instead, those two statistics cannot be reconciled. Even I don’t think the doctors are that monstrous. This is yet additional proof that the Gaza health ministry lies about fatalities.
• Link: Yet more proof that the Gaza health ministry lies about casualties: The vast majority of amputees are adult males

Diplomacy and Airstrikes Haven’t Stopped the Houthis. What Will? by Ari Heistein with Mosaic Magazine

• Over the past few months, Israelis have been repeatedly awakened at night by sirens, sending them running for shelter from ballistic-missile attacks. The attacks were carried out by the Houthi regime in Yemen, which has been sporadically launching ballistic missiles and drones at Israel and at maritime traffic in the Red Sea for over a year. The Houthis have since been hit by hundreds of airstrikes launched by the U.S., the UK, and Israel, but show no signs of losing the capability or will to attack. As we stand in the critical moments of an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, it is important to understand how the Houthis got to this point, what the cease-fire means for their trajectory, and what the U.S. and its allies should do next to cope with the threat.
• The Houthis are simultaneously a religious group, a political-military movement, and a tribal configuration with longstanding ties to Iran. In 2011, they seized on the disruptions of the Arab Spring to help unseat Yemen’s long standing ruler and initiated a process which culminated in their conquest of Yemen’s key population centers. They captured the capital city of Sanaa in 2014, and in doing so took control of many organs of the Yemeni state; by 2015 their forces had reached the outskirts of Yemen’s second city of Aden. They now rule over a large swath of the northwestern part of the country, and their conflicts with the internationally recognized government of Yemen and the Saudi-led coalition supporting it remain unresolved. Thus, while the Houthis are often referred to in the press as “rebels” or “terrorists,” it is important to realize that they have for some time constituted a regime, ruthlessly administering a sizeable territory, levying taxes, running schools, and orchestrating the distribution of international aid.
• Exploiting Houthi access to the sea, Iran funneled advisers and materiel to the group. In a few short years, the Houthis went from using small arms and the remnants of the previous regime’s rusting arsenal to being the first military force to launch anti-ship ballistic missiles in an operational scenario. Iran brazenly violated the UN Security Council’s arms embargo on the Houthis, and there are few documents which highlight this as clearly as the latest report from the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen. The word “Iran” appears exactly 471 times in this document, noting Tehran’s role in providing advanced weaponry, sheltering the ring responsible for smuggling these weapons into Yemen, and coordinating Houthi attacks.
• The overall trends in the pace of Houthi attacks on Israel and international shipping would be difficult to attribute to any single factor. These attacks fluctuate significantly from month to month; for instance, nearly 50 attacks occurred in June 2024, compared to fewer than 20 per month from September to November of that year, and then increased again in December. Some changes in tempo may stem from successes or failures in arms procurement and production; others may reflect responses to global events; and still others may be tied to Yemen’s internal dynamics. But one thing is clear: after more than a year of trying, the U.S.-led coalition has failed to compel the Houthis to cease their attacks, nor has it consistently and significantly diminished the Houthis’ will or ability to continue them.
• In December 2024, Houthi officials stated that “they will confront any Israeli aggression against [Yemen] with more precise military operations and that their support operations for the Palestinian people will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
• In the longer-term, too, it appears highly unlikely that Houthi policies will tow a more moderate line whether there is a cease-fire in Gaza or not. In part this is because there is a mass indoctrination campaign under way in Yemen at a scale that may be unprecedented in recent decades.
• But the Houthi regime is expected to face greater difficulties in 2025 than it has in previous years due to four major factors.
  • The axis of resistance has suffered devastating military setbacks over the past year. Hizballah has been severely weakened by the loss of its entire leadership, and Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Syria, and Iran itself have significantly degraded its capabilities.
  • The international community has grown more aware of the dangers posed by Houthi expansionism. Consequently, anti-Houthi forces in Yemen are likely to receive increased international support.
  • The Saudi-Houthi deal was expected to provide the regime in Sanaa with a much-needed financial windfall. It now seems increasingly remote in the near-term. Previously, Saudi Arabia negotiated under relentless military pressure from the Houthis, but that dynamic has since been reversed as the Houthis are now the ones under attack.
  • The change of leadership in Washington has Iran and its proxies scrambling to figure out how to proceed. President Trump’s inauguration may have already emboldened key U.S. allies in the region, like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, while Tehran worries about the possible reimposition of a “maximum-pressure” sanctions campaign to cripple the Iranian economy.
• President Trump’s newly appointed national security advisor Mike Waltz was absolutely correct when he explained that engaging with Iran-backed groups like Hamas (and I would argue the Houthis as well) is unlikely to yield meaningful results, and we should not distinguish between them and other jihadist groups like Islamic State or al-Qaeda. In this zero-sum game, almost any agreement the terrorist group will accept is likely one the West would be better off rejecting.
• A more effective strategy should focus on dismantling key components of the Houthi regime that cannot be easily replaced. Even if the Houthis halt their attacks, the U.S., Israel, and their allies should not make the mistake of easing the pressure and giving them a chance to rebuild and prepare for their next offensive. Weakening the regime’s core pillars—its key leadership, financial lifelines, and propaganda machinery—would significantly increase the likelihood of its collapse.
• Link: Diplomacy and Airstrikes Haven’t Stopped the Houthis. What Will?

Polling reveals Americans’ widespread, bipartisan support for Israel by Douglas Schoen and Carly Cooperman in The Hill

• …although 78 percent said they support the hostage for ceasefire deal, just 15 percent say they are “very optimistic” that both sides will follow through on their pledges.
• …there is widespread skepticism that this deal will bring lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as only 34 percent of U.S. respondents felt that way. And even that may be overstated, as only 11 percent were “very optimistic” that true peace will be the result.
• We found that 57 percent felt that a “final deal” should require Hamas’s removal from power, whereas only 10 percent believed that Hamas should be allowed to continue ruling Gaza.
• …Americans would support (56 percent) rather than oppose (19 percent) Israel resuming its military campaign in Gaza to remove Hamas, should Hamas violate the ceasefire deal.
• As far back as November 2023, we found that Americans overwhelmingly (70 percent) believe that “Hamas is a terrorist organization that wrongly attacks, kidnaps, and murders innocent civilians.” Only 8 percent agreed with the statement that “Hamas is a freedom-fighting organization committed to liberating the Palestinian people and ending Israeli occupation.”
• Seventy percent of U.S. adults support Israel’s right to defend itself, and the support is consistently high among Republicans (79 percent), Democrats (65 percent) and independents (65 percent).
• Majorities of Republicans (76 percent), independents (57 percent) and Democrats (53 percent) agree that “the U.S. should remain a steadfast ally of Israel and fully support it in a war with Iran.”
• …three-quarters (74 percent) of Republicans along with majorities of Democrats (62 percent) and independents (59 percent) support college administrations tightening rules around these protests
• Link: Polling reveals America’s widespread, bipartisan support for Israel

Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel