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Vitamin A: Deficiency Symptoms, Health Benefits, Optimal Sources, and Side Effects

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Vitamin A is found in foods such as beef liver, sweet potato, carrots, and spinach. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

This fat-soluble vitamin helps keep your eyes healthy, supports immunity, fights free radicals, and is critical for fetal development.

By: Mercura Wang

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin with multiple vital functions in the body. It supports normal cellular reproduction and is essential for optimal vision. In addition, vitamin A plays a critical role in the proper development of an embryo and fetus.

Vitamin A deficiency is prevalent in developing nations but rare in developed countries. Less than 1 percent of the American population was deficient in 2013. Some experts believe vitamin A toxicity from synthetic supplements is more common in the United States than deficiency.

 

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Vitamin A Deficiency?

A prolonged vitamin deficiency within the diet causes primary vitamin A deficiency. Secondary vitamin A deficiency can result from reduced bioavailability of provitamin A carotenoids (a particular food’s normally absorbable fractions of vitamin A) or from interference with the normal absorption, storage, or transport of vitamin A. Medical conditions such as celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, pancreatic insufficiency, duodenal bypass, chronic diarrhea, bile duct obstruction, and cirrhosis may lead to interference with the absorption or storage of the vitamin. Prolonged protein-energy undernutrition can also contribute to deficiency due to both dietary insufficiency and impaired vitamin A storage and transport. Zinc deficiency in alcoholics may also result in secondary vitamin A deficiency.

Limited research indicates genetic variability in the conversion rates of beta carotene into vitamin A. Specific variations (polymorphisms) in the BCMO1 gene have been identified, which can reduce the activity of the BCMO1 enzyme in humans.

Mild deficiency symptoms include fatigue, vulnerability to infections, and reproductive challenges. More notable vitamin A deficiency signs and symptoms include:

Night blindness: Night blindness is often the initial indication of vitamin A deficiency. Since vitamin A plays a critical role in regenerating visual pigment, insufficient levels can result in night blindness due to impaired regeneration of visual pigment in retinal rods.

Conjunctival xerosis: This is the dryness of conjunctiva, the clear, thin membrane that protects our eyes.

Corneal xerosis (corneal dryness).

Bitot’s spots: Bitot’s spots are irregular and foamy patches formed by the buildup of keratin on the white of the eyes. They typically manifest in children between the ages of 3 and 6.

Keratomalacia: Keratomalacia occurs when the cornea becomes ulcerated and begins to liquefy. It is one of the most severe signs of deficiency and has the potential to penetrate and destroy the cornea within days. It also portends to the death of children in developing countries, with 50 percent dying within a year of losing their vision.

Retinopathy: Retinopathy refers to a group of disorders affecting the retina. It’s the leading cause of preventable blindness.

Dry skin or hair.

Complications

The complications of vitamin A deficiency include:

Xerophthalmia, the collection of signs and symptoms of vitamin A deficiency related to the eyes (listed above).

Poor immunity: The lack of vitamin A generally leads to impaired immunity.

Stunted growth.

Thickened organ linings: The linings of the lungs, intestines, and urinary tract become thicker and less flexible.

Anemia.

Higher risk of respiratory illness.

Permanent vision loss or blindness: Many symptoms of vitamin A deficiency can lead to blindness.

Infertility.

Death: Over 50 percent of children experiencing severe vitamin A deficiency may not survive.

 

What Are the Health Benefits of Vitamin A?

When we consume foods with vitamin A (in the form of retinyl esters, a combination of fatty acid and retinol), our body absorbs it mainly in the small intestine, where these retinyl esters are broken down into retinol. A small part of the vitamin A we consume is also converted into retinoic acid in the cells of the small intestine.

We also consume foods with carotenoids, such as orange and yellow vegetables and fruits. After being absorbed, some carotenoids are converted into vitamin A (retinaldehyde) in different organs and tissues.

Around 90 percent of the vitamin A we obtain from our diet is stored in the liver. When our body needs vitamin A, the vitamin is taken from this storage in the form of retinol. Once released from the liver, retinol travels in the bloodstream, and about 95 percent of it attaches to a protein called retinol-binding protein (RBP), which helps transport vitamin A to different parts of the body.

After being used by various organs and tissues, vitamin A is removed from the body through feces and urine. Retinol can be further converted into retinoic acid, which exits the body through bile and feces. The time it takes for half of the retinol (i.e., half-life) to be removed can vary, ranging from two to nine hours. However, the overall half-life of vitamin A (including all its forms) is about 12 days.

 

Vitamin A is essential for the following functions:

Vision health: The retina has two types of light-sensitive cells called rods and cones. When light particles enter the lens, rods and cones turn them into electric signals for the brain to understand. In low-light conditions, retinaldehyde (vitamin A compound) permeates rod cells, where it combines with a protein to make a visual pigment. Light hitting it triggers a reaction, leading to an electric signal that travels to the brain through the optic nerve, creating the sensation of sight. After doing its job, the retinaldehyde converts back into retinol to start the process again. Similar cycles occur with cone cells, which help us see different colors. Vitamin A is crucial for this entire process, as well as for eye development.

Cellular differentiation: Vitamin A is essential for normal cell differentiation—which occurs during cell renewal—especially in tissues such as the skin and mucous membranes. Vitamin A also has widespread effects on metabolism, interacting with hormones such as thyroid, insulin, and corticosteroids. This interaction is especially important for wound healing, as it boosts the growth and reproduction of skin cells, blood vessels, and collagen.

Gene regulation: In our cells, vitamin A takes different forms, such as retinoic acid. This acid acts like a hormone, affecting gene expression and various body processes. The active forms of vitamin A bind to specific proteins, which act as on-off switches for genes. These switches can pair up or mix and match, regulating gene activity. Vitamin A can also interact with other hormones, including vitamin D and steroids, thus influencing a broad range of genes. Vitamin A’s involvement in cellular processes affects over 500 genes. It’s also linked to insulin resistance and has implications for lipid metabolism and heat production in fat tissue.

Reproduction function: Retinoic acid is critical for the proper development of embryos and plays a key role in shaping their limbs, hearts, eyes, and ears. Imbalances in vitamin A levels, both excessive and deficient, are recognized for their potential to induce birth defects.

(TheEpochTimes.com)

NYC Anti-Israel Activist Group Hosts ‘Tots for Ceasefire,’ ‘Kids Seder in the Streets’ and Hosted Previous Event with Registered Sex Offender

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TJV news
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AP

By Emma-Jo Morris (Breitbart) 

A New York City leftist anti-Israel activist group — which calls itself “Jewish” despite not having anything to do with Judaism — hosted an event called “Tot Shabbat for Ceasefire” in March and plans to host similar “Kids Seder in the Streets” in April, after previously hosting an event honoring a registered sex offender, which also included childcare.

“Jews for Racial and Economic Justice” (JFREJ) — which claims to somehow represent Jews, despite boasting that “some of our most active members aren’t Jewish” — has been vocal in opposing Israeli military operations in Gaza, following the slaughter of around 1,200 in Israel and the kidnapping of hundreds of Jewish hostages on October 7, and keeps holding activist events geared toward children:

Instagram/Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

JFREJ is a leftist activist group in New York City that has gained prominence in recent years, hosting notable people at its events, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) in December 2018 — where she said she was of Jewish heritage, claiming people from Puerto Rico are “an amalgamation” — and Mara Gay, of the New York Times editorial board, in December 2019. The group has accused Israel of “genocide,” and is calling for a “permanent ceasefire,” where Israel would have to lay down arms after the October 7 pogrom by terrorists residing on its border.

On March 30, the organization held a “Tot Shabbat for Ceasefire” in Brooklyn, which had “activists” ranging in age “from infancy to 6” participating in a “mini Shabbat service and ceasefire march geared toward families with young children,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

The report said this was the fourth such event, all taking place at various locations around Brooklyn, New York, and described them as “ritual spaces imbued with activism.”

At the event, children reportedly sang “Shalom Aleichem,” followed by a march chanting “Ceasefire … Now!”

The invitation to the tot Shabbat event, aside from demanding “ceasefire,” also called for “an end to Israeli apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and the occupation of the Palestinian people.”

JFREJ is planning another event for April 27, called “Kids Seder in the Streets.” Children participating are supposed to protest Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and demand, “Our tax dollars should be going towards education, housing, shelters, healthcare, libraries, public transit, parks, and all of the essential services New Yorkers desperately need, NOT more bombs on the children of Gaza or the West Bank,” according to a post on the group’s Instagram:

Instagram/Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

 

These child-centered political protests come after JFREJ previously hosted an event honoring a convicted child rapist, Douglas Powell, for his work with homelessness advocacy group Vocal-NY Action Fund.

On September 12, 2023, JFREJ hosted their annual “Mazals” event, where it honored Vocal-NY, and had Powell on stage accepting a framed certificate. Powell served time in prison after being convicted of manslaughter and of raping a 12-year-old girl. Powell was also written up in the New York Post in 2022, for launching into a racist tirade at a city council meeting, saying his Queens neighbors of Asian ethnicity were “from China, they’re from Hong Kong.”

Instagram/Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

JFREJ advertised “childcare” being provided at the event, despite contact with minors being prohibited under Powell’s conditions for release. It described the event as “one big, delicious, queer, Jewish rent party.”

Following the “big, delicious, queer, Jewish rent party,” JFREJ faced backlash from sex abuse victim advocacy group “Za’akah,” and claimed it was “in a process of contacting parents who signed up for childcare,” pledging to work with Za’akah to “find a way forward that fully incorporates our shared values of community safety, support for survivors, and restorative justice.” The group also said that it remains “proud to have honored Vocal-NY’s homelessness union:

Instagram/Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

JFREJ did not respond when reached for comment by Breitbart News.

JFREJ has an infant onesie that says “Jews for Racial & Economic Justice” on it for sale on its website.

Emma-Jo Morris is the Politics Editor at Breitbart News. Email her at  or follow her on Twitter.

Amid Antisemitic Anarchy at Columbia, Seders to Go On with Joy, Confidence and Extra Security

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TJV news
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Despite scenes of antisemtism at Columbia University, Rabbi Yuda Drizin hands out shmurah matzah to Jewish students before the start of the Passover holiday. Photo: Chabad-Lubavtich at Columbia

By Jacob Scheer-Chabad.org

For Jewish students at Columbia University, there is fear in the air. A cloud of blatant anti-Jewish hate has cast its ugly pall over the campus.

In the face of fears, Rabbi Yuda Drizin, who co-directs Chabad-Lubavitch at Columbia with his wife Naomi, this means holding a larger Passover Seder than he’d originally planned.

Columbia University has seen its fair share of scrutiny in the wake of Oct. 7, with the school administration accused of doing little to protect Jewish students who faced a barrage of antisemitic incidents, both on campus and online in the months following the attacks. While this specter of antisemitism has loomed over the lives of Jewish students on campus for the past six months, it came to a head on Saturday, April 20.

Following a week of hate-filled protests that saw more than 100 students arrested by the New York City Police Department after setting up tents on the campus’s South Lawn, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators amassed outside Columbia University’s campus gate.

The group that gathered for the Saturday evening protest included both Columbia students, as well as a large number of people from outside the university. “The protests included chants of ‘Bomb, Bomb Tel Aviv’ and ‘Long Live the Intifada’ said David F., a sophomore from Woodmere, N.Y., who witnessed the protests.

As the tensions escalated on Saturday evening, David and his brother decided they wanted to have their voices heard, and they quickly organized a pro-Israel rally at the Sundial in the center of campus.

“We set up a speaker and were dancing and playing songs of peace, like ‘Heveinu Shalom Aleichem,’ ‘Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu’ and ‘One Day,’ by Matisyahu,” David said.

It did not take long for anti-Jewish protesters to take aim at them. Videos showing the Jewish students’ harrowing experience quickly went viral, clearly showing pro-Palestinian demonstrators harassing, berating and insulting Jewish students as well as stealing their Israeli flags and attempting to burn them.

Anti-Israel protesters harrassed and taunted Jewish students holding a rally for Israel on Saturday evening, April 20. - Photo: Chabad-Lubavitch at Columbia
Anti-Israel protesters harrassed and taunted Jewish students holding a rally for Israel on Saturday evening, April 20.
Photo: Chabad-Lubavitch at Columbia

When Rabbi Drizin heard about the situation, he immediately left home and walked over to the campus, standing with the students to ensure their safety. He stayed with the students until they all returned safely to their dorms.

In the viral videos, one can hear shouts and taunts telling the Jewish students to “go back to Europe” and “you have no culture.” The shouting got more violent, and fueled and emboldened by the antisemitism, chants could be heard saying “all you do is colonize.”

The Jewish students rushed away from the campus. On their way home, they could not escape the vitriol, where rioters continued to scream at them, more explicitly this time: “Yahoodim [Jews], f**k you” and “stop killing children.”

Not deterred by the previous evening’s protest, the rabbi went out on campus on Sunday morning to hand out shmurah matzah to students and faculty and to put tefillin on passersby, as he does weekly.

“Jewish students walking through campus shouldn’t feel like they need to scurry. They see a rabbi handing out matzah proudly with a smile, and they feel like they are not alone; that someone is standing up for them,” Drizin said.

Despite the climate and with many students now choosing to spend the Passover holiday at home, Chabad at Columbia has planned seders, holiday prayer services, and festive kosher-for-Passover barbecue lunches throughout the next week.

To ensure that Jewish students attending the events feel safe and secure, Chabad has hired additional security guards to chaperone students from the Chabad house to their dorm rooms.

“We refuse to yield to the forces of hate. Instead, we’ll raise our voices in song and dance throughout the nights of Passover 2024,” the rabbi said of the resolve to continue celebrating as Jews and not letting evil win. “They want us to back down, to cower and hide. Instead, we will continue as proud Jews.”

David F. told Chabad.org that “the words of ‘Vehi Sheamda’ [the prayer recited on Passover saying that in each generation a nation rises up against the Jewish people, but each time the Jews are victorious] are so potent right now. Amidst all the uncertainty and hate, there’s one thing that I know, that ‘G‑d will save us.’”

While David. is choosing to go to his parents home in Woodmere for the Seders, many students are remaining on campus despite the turmoil.

“We expect over 100 students to come to the campus Seders,” said Naomi Drizin.

“Matzah, as described in the Zohar, is the ‘bread of faith and healing,’” the Drizins wrote in a statement issued today by Chabad at Columbia. “Let us hold fast to our faith, knowing that with G‑d Almighty at our side, we will emerge stronger from these challenges, and bring healing to this world.”

What happens when children seize the wheel

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TJV news
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U.S. President Joe Biden meets with member of the national security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks on Israel from Iran on April 13, 2024, in the White House Situation Room. Credit: Adam Schultz/White House.

(JNS) BY Caroline B. Glick

Three reports published since Iran’s April 13 combined missile and UAV assault on Israel stand out for what the tell us about the nature of U.S. policy in relation to the war.

First, on Sunday Reuters reported that Turkey mediated between Iran and the United States to agree on the size and scope of Iran’s assault on Israel before Iran carried it out. A Turkish diplomatic source told the news agency that, “Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel…[and] Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took had to be ‘within certain limits.’”

 

The Turkish diplomat told Reuters that the mediation was conducted by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

“Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with Blinken, and they [the U.S.] conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits,” the official said.

The second story, reported widely by the U.S. and Israeli media, revealed that the United States is pressuring Israel to suffice with a “symbolic” counterattack against Iran. In other words, U.S. President Joe Biden and his team are telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government that Israel can conduct a bit of a sound and light show over Iran, but it may not do any meaningful damage to Iran’s military, missile, nuclear, energy, or regime targets. Blinken reportedly went so far as to tell Minister Benny Gantz and Jewish leaders in the United States that it isn’t in Israel’s interests to attack Iran.

Finally, on Thursday morning, Qatari media reported that the United States has agreed that Israel may attack Hamas’s final redoubt in Rafah, along the Egyptian border, but only if Israel’s strike against Iran is little and mild.

\
The most startling feature common to all three stories is the sense that for the administration, everything that is happening here is a game. It isn’t a war. At best, it’s a playground fight, or a video game. The reports indicate that as the Americans see things, Iran and its terror armies in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq are children. And they’re ganging up on Israel—another child. It’s Uncle Sam’s job to be the grownup and set rules for their fight that give everyone a chance to get his licks in—but only so hard, and only so many.

The rules Biden and his team have set are fairly straightforward. Iran and its proxies are permitted to attack Israel as hard as they can. Israel is allowed to defend against their attacks. Israel is permitted to carry out limited—preferably covert—raids to counterattack.
Israel is not allowed to defeat its foes.

Consider the administration’s narrative about Iran’s April 13 strike on Israel. The U.S. version of events asserts that Iran attacked Israel in response to the April 1 airstrike in Damascus, attributed to Israel, which took out Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Iran’s terror master in Syria and Lebanon. Zahedi was killed along with six other top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers and Hezbollah terrorists, including his deputy in an IRGC military compound adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Zahedi was reputedly the mastermind of Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion and slaughter in Israel that left 1,200 Israelis dead and 246 taken hostage in Gaza.

The problem with the U.S. narrative is that Israel and Iran are in an active state of war across multiple battlefields, including Damascus. Zahedi was not merely a legitimate military target—his role as commander of all Iranian operations in Lebanon and Syria made killing him an operational imperative. To see the Iranian strike against Israel as a simple response to a lone attack is to ignore the fact that a war is raging.

The U.S. narrative also ignores the substance of Iran’s assault on Israel.
Iran combined missile and drone assault against Israel—which included 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones—was the largest such assault in the history of war. As retired General Kenneth McKenzie, who commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East until 2022, explained to The Washington Post, Iran expended “maximum effort” in amassing the force of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles with which it attacked Israel. There was “nothing moderate” about Tehran’s aggression, which he assessed included most of the missile arsenal that the regime had based in western Iran.

 

Not only was it unprecedented in scope. It was unprecedented in nature.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has been waging a proxy war against Israel. The goal of the war is to annihilate Israel. To this end, Iran encircled Israel with proxy armies and is nearing completion of its nuclear weapons program, that together with its missile arsenal will give Iran the capacity to wipe Israel off the map, as its leaders have consistently promised to do. Given the goals and actions of Iran and its proxies, it is obvious that Israel’s counterstrikes are in fact a war for national survival.

The assault last Saturday was a watershed event because in the midst of the highest intensity proxy war Iran has ever fought, and as Iran is widely reputed to be a threshold nuclear power, the mullahs stepped out from behind the curtain for the first time and attacked Israel directly, and did so with an assault unprecedented in scope.
The fact that a hundred ballistic missiles were either duds or fell far short of Israel, and that Israel intercepted 99 percent of the missiles that got through does not diminish the scope and breath of the attack.

The question is, why did Iran choose to attack now? Given the scope, the notion that it was a tit for tat in response to the Zahedi hit is absurd. You don’t shoot all your available missiles and drones at your sworn enemy in one night out of pique. You use the Zahedi strike as a justification to do something you had planned for a long time.

Iran decided to step out from behind the curtain for the first time in 45 years and directly enter the high intensity war it has been waging against Israel for six months through its proxies because it is confident that it is winning. Israeli weakness isn’t the source of its confidence. Israel’s brilliance on the battlefields of this war has made the likes of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah stutter. Before the IDF launched its ground operation in Gaza in November, Nasrallah was certain that his Radwan forces, comprising veterans of the Iranian wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, were far better than Israel’s largely untested soldiers. He stopped bragging months ago.

Iran attacked Israel on Saturday night for the first time in history because it feels confident that the United States has its back, not Israel’s back. Iran believes that the United States is not going to permit Israel to win, and therefore, will enable Tehran and its proxies to expand their war to annihilate Israel—as Iran did last Saturday.

Last week, Nasrallah stated this outright. On April 1, IDF forces in Gaza mistakenly attacked an aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven foreign aid workers. On April 4, Biden gave Netanyahu an ultimatum in a phone conversation. The president demanded that Israel massively expand the resupply of Gaza or lose U.S. support. Faced with the ultimatum, Netanyahu complied. Massive quantities of good have been flowing into Gaza ever since, much to Hamas’s delight. Shortly after this conversation, Hamas rejected the hostage deal offer.

Reacting to the turn of events, Nasrallah said on April 8, “The recent call from Biden [to Netanyahu] proves…that if the Americans want to stop something, they can make it stop. The claim that the Americans cannot force Israel to do something is nonsense.”

Nasrallah concluded gleefully, “According to some theories, Israel controls America. No sir. It is America that controls Israel.”

Since Saturday night, U.S. officials and supportive commentators have played up the “international coalition” that came together to prevent Iran’s missiles from causing harm to Israel. This ad hoc group, which included Jordan and Saudi Arabia, it is said, are proof that Israel can depend on America and that if Israel follows Washington’s directives, it will enjoy peace and security even as Iran grows in power, and its proxies prevail, thanks to America’s protection.

But the truth is far different. The Saudis and the Jordanians are directly threatened by Iran. Unlike the children running U.S. policies, the Jordanians and Saudis were aghast at Iran’s assault, which they rightly understood was not a tit for tat, but an unprecedented escalation of Iran’s war. They realized that the attack was a sign that Iran believes that thanks to the Biden administration, it is now immune from counterattack, to the point where it dares to attack Israel directly. Their intervention wasn’t on Israel’s behalf, per se. It was self-defense, as officials from both countries have stated.

The U.S. posture in this war has rattled Israel and the U.S.’s Sunni allies to their core. Like Nasrallah, all of them now understand that while the United States is the most powerful actor in the region, it is also delusional. It fails to understand the reality of what is happening. Washington’s policies for contending with the war that Biden and his top officials refuse to acknowledge are just making things worse.

If Israel fails to defeat Hamas in Gaza, then there will no longer be any restraints on Iranian and Iranian-proxy aggression against Israel. And there will also be no restraints on Iran’s efforts to overthrow the regimes of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. If the United States successfully forces Israel to stand down in the face of Iran’s shocking attack, then that attack will be the baseline for future assaults—conventional and unconventional—against Israel and the Sunni Arab states.

Iran itself is so certain that this is the case that its top officials are now speaking openly about using nuclear weapons. As the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported, on April 7, Iranian nuclear scientist Mahmoud Reza Aghamiri said in an interview with Iranian television that Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei can change his religious ruling forbidding the production of an atomic bomb whenever he wishes. Aghamiri said that Iran’s nuclear capabilities “are high,” and that once a country has nuclear capabilities, making a nuclear bomb “is not complicated.”

 

The administration’s refusal to recognize the existential nature of the war Iran and its proxies are now waging against Israel places Israel in an existential dilemma.

Israel today is compelled to decide between two options. It can fight the war to win it, in Iran and Gaza, first and foremost, and risk a rupture of relations with the United States.

Or, it can lose the war and accept the position of a U.S. protectorate, with the full knowledge that the United States will not permit its protectorates to challenge Iranian hegemony.

In other words, if Israel fails to risk a rupture in relations with the United States, it will accept a position that will lead to its destruction.

MSNBC Legal Analyst Predicts Chance Of ‘Mistrial’ In Trump’s Bragg Case

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screenshot

(DCNF) MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos predicted on Monday that there is a possibility for a mistrial in the case Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought against former President Donald Trump.

Trump is currently on trial for 34 felony counts pertaining to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence regarding an alleged affair, and all 12 jurors were selected on Thursday. Two jurors were initially excused before the full jury was seated, which Cevallos on “Morning Joe” said indicates the possibility of forthcoming issues that could cause a mistrial.

“So here’s the thing. I think juror attrition could be a real problem in this case,” Cevallos said. “I mean, just do the math. Last week, we lost two jurors before the trial even began. When you think about it, you do lose jurors during a trial. I’ve lost them. They fell asleep. They don’t follow the judge’s orders. But you don’t normally lose a juror after the moment they’re selected and between that and the time that the trial actually begins because, ordinarily, nothing happens during that time.”

 

“But in this case, you have an example where a juror goes home, they start really thinking about their duty and what this is going to entail, and they come back and say, ‘you know what, I don’t want to do this anymore.’ By the way, that’s also something that happens from time to time,” Cevallos added. “I’ve had it in organized crime cases. You have jurors who come up to the judge and say, ‘I’ll do anything. Please, I do not want to be on this jury. I’m afraid.’ That’s not obviously the same situation here, but you do have jurors who are going to have second thoughts.”

One of the jurors was dismissed after expressing concern about her ability to be impartial following friends and colleagues asking if she was on the jury based on press reports. Another was excused after prosecutors expressed concern that he may not have honestly answered jury selection questions about whether he or a relative had been convicted of a criminal offense.

“And the question becomes, will six alternates be enough to cover this trial?” he asked. “I hope so. But if what we’ve seen so far, if that’s the rate of loss of jurors, two before we even start the trial, that could be a real problem and that could lead to a mistrial, which in, I think, the defense’s view, is a win.”

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IDF intel chief resigns over Oct. 7 failure

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Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva. (Twitter Screenshot)

By JNS

Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate head Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva on Monday announced his resignation over his failure to prevent Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Haliva decided to retire months ago following the intelligence failures that contributed to the massacre of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of more than 253 hostages to Gaza, but asked IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to postpone the announcement.

Haliva’s announcement comes after the IDF withdrew almost all ground troops from the Strip, leaving only one brigade remaining in the enclave.

“On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel, the consequences of which are difficult and painful. The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not live up to the task it was entrusted with,” Haliva wrote to Halevi.

Haliva, who served in the army for almost four decades, asked Halevi to relieve him of his duties following the conclusion of an internal investigation and after an “orderly learning and transition process.”

Earlier this year, Halevi announced an internal probe into the military’s failures leading up to Oct. 7, calling the investigation a “duty and not a privilege.”

In January, Israel’s Walla news site cited military sources as claiming that while the IDF was aware of Hamas’s repeated attempts to blow up the security fence on the Gaza border in preparation for the Oct. 7 attacks, it opted to dismiss the rehearsals as a “provocation.”

Hours before Hamas’s attack, IDF intelligence learned that hundreds of terrorists in Gaza activated Israeli SIM cards in their phones, the Military Censor cleared for publication in February.

The activations were detected around midnight on the night of Oct. 6, some six and a half hours before thousands of Palestinian terrorists breached the fence.

In October, The New York Times reported that Unit 8200, the IDF’s signals intelligence unit, stopped listening to Hamas’s handheld radios a year before the attacks, deciding it was a “waste of effort.”

 

3 wounded in Passover Eve car-ramming; police arrest terrorists

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Police special forces looking for the terrorists who carried out a ramming terror attack in Jerusalem, a few hours before the Jewish holiday of Passover, April 22, 2024. (Flash90/ Chaim Goldberg)

By World Israel News Staff

Police in Jerusalem are searching for two terrorists who plowed their car into pedestrians, then attempted to carry out a shooting attack, before fleeing the scene.

UPDATE: The terrorists were arrested

The terror attack occurred in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood on Monday morning, just before the start of the Passover holiday.

According to eyewitness accounts, the pair intentionally drove their car, a white Kia, into a crowd of people near a synagogue. The terrorists then exited the vehicle and attempted to shoot more victims with a submachine gun.

The gun, an improvised assault rifle often manufactured in PA-controlled areas known locally as a “Carlo,” jammed. The terrorists were unable to shoot using the weapon, and abandoned it at the scene. An axe was also found nearby.

The only wounds victims sustained in the attack came from the car-ramming.

According to a statement from Sha’arei Tzedek hospital, three people were transported for treatment.

A 21-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were listed as being in good condition, while a third pedestrian was treated and released.

A man identified only as Yehuda, who is the brother of the one of the victims, told Ynet that the terrorists’ gun jamming was a “miracle.”

Magen David Adom paramedic Nadav Arzi said “we were called to Yermiyahu Street, near the place where the car hit the pedestrians. We saw a young man who was fully conscious, walking around. He told us that a vehicle had sped up” and intentionally hit him and other pedestrians.

“The attack was near the ‘Nachlat Akiva’ [synagogue], where thousands of people pray every day,” Simcha, a local resident, told Ynet.

“On the morning of the holiday, people get up early to pray, it’s a huge miracle” that more people were not wounded in the attack, he said.

A manhunt is ongoing for the perpetrators of the attack, with police forces using helicopters and other resources to locate them.

 

Police Make 45 Arrests at Yale University Pro-Palestinian Protests

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FILE - New York City police in riot gear stand guard outside the Columbia University campus after clearing the campus of protesters, April 18, 2024, in New York. Columbia University canceled in-person classes Monday, April 22, 2024 and police arrested several dozen protesters at Yale University as tensions on U.S. college campuses continue to grow over the war in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

By Simon Kent (Breitbart)

At least 45 people were arrested Monday at Yale University after police in riot gear moved onto the campus to break up a pro-Palestinian protest. In-person classes were also canceled for the day.

The arrests came after nearly 200 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to urge Yale to divest from military weapons manufacturers, the Yale Daily News reports.

The protesters have been camped out on Beinecke Plaza on the university’s campus for three days, as Breitbart News reported.

The anti-Israel mob tore down an American flag on Friday night as they occupied the campus in what Jewish students have called an act of intimidation against them and against the university.

The video circulated on social media on Saturday and Sunday, with kaffiyeh-clad activists whooping and cheering as they tore down the Stars and Stripes.

Responding police officers began by warning protesters they risked arrest if they didn’t clear out before handcuffing and arresting people including students, the student paper reported.

Those arrested were removed on Yale University shuttle buses.

Journalists from the Yale Daily News were also threatened with arrest if they did not move from the plaza, according to its reports.

File/A woman walks by a Yale sign reflected in the rainwater on the Yale University campus, Aug. 22, 2021, in New Haven, Conn. Columbia University canceled in-person classes Monday, April 22, 2024 and police arrested several dozen protesters at Yale University as tensions on U.S. college campuses continue to grow over the war in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

The protesters are being charged with trespassing in the first degree, Yale Daily News laid out.

Yale president Peter Salovey sent students an email on Sunday warning the school “will pursue disciplinary actions according to its policies” amid ongoing demonstrations.

“Israeli Columbia Professor Shai Davidai Barred from Campus Amid Anti-Israel Protests

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(TJV) Shai Davidai, an Israeli-born assistant professor at Columbia Business School known for his vocal support of Israel, found himself locked out of the university’s main campus on Monday. As he attempted to enter the Morningside Heights campus and swiped his key card, it displayed “deactivated,” leading to a chorus of pro-Israel protesters rallying for his entry, chanting “Let him in!” and “Shame!”

Addressing the crowd, Davidai revealed that Columbia’s Chief Operating Officer, Cas Holloway, informed him, “You are not allowed on campus because we cannot ensure your safety.” Davidai, however, pointed out the irony that his key card still granted access to the university’s Manhattanville campus uptown on West 130th Street, where he teaches at the business school.

“They are willing to use Jewish brains, but they don’t want to let Jewish people in,” Davidai remarked, highlighting the apparent contradiction.

Davidai criticized the administration for prioritizing the safety of anti-Israel protesters while neglecting the concerns of Jewish students. “We know whose safety they can ensure—for the past five days, they’ve been ensuring the safety of the students who are calling on Hamas to target Jewish students,” he asserted.

Encouraging other pro-Israel supporters to exercise caution amid the protests, Davidai urged them to document any instances of Jewish individuals being denied access to campus.

The incident occurred as in-person classes were canceled at the Ivy League university ahead of Passover, amidst ongoing anti-Israel protests. University President Minouche Shafik addressed the situation in an email to students, acknowledging the strain on campus unity and emphasizing the need for a reset.

“I am deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus. Our bonds as a community have been severely tested in ways that will take a great deal of time and effort to reaffirm,” Shafik wrote, announcing additional security measures to address safety concerns.

Expressing similar sentiments, a prominent rabbi at the school urged students to go home and stay there until tensions on campus subside, echoing the fears expressed by many Jewish students amidst the protests.

Deport the Hamas occupation of the Ivy League

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By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

Hamas is a sanctioned Islamic terrorist organization. It’s illegal to provide aid to it. And for non-citizens, especially foreign students on visas, supporting terrorists is a deportable offense.

And yet after six months of pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses and in major cities, not a single foreign student appears to have been deported.

The latest Hamas occupations at Yale and Columbia U have stopped even pretending to be anything other than outright support for an illegal terrorist group and its ongoing murder of Jews.

Jewish students have been assaulted. Campus rabbis have told Jewish students to stay home for their safety.

The Hamas supporters have been recorded on video threatening Jewish students and shouting antisemitic slurs.

The media has continued to cover up what’s happening while insisting that Columbia had “peaceful protesters against genocide” arrested

Pro-Israel groups and Jewish organizations opposed to antisemitism have focused on the mistreatment of Jewish students.

 

And that’s important.

But this goes well beyond Jews.

Students walking by the main library, Butler, might have heard “From the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab!” or “There is no god but Allah, and the martyr is Allah’s beloved!” Anyone walking near the gates on Broadway and 116th probably heard them yelling, “Al-Qassam make us proud, kill another soldier now!”

 

Widespread support for any Islamic terrorist group, even one that isn’t focused on terrorizing a particular minority group in America, whether it’s Jews, Hindus or anyone else, should not be tolerated.

Period.

We learned that lesson the hard way with the Blind Sheikh and the original World Trade Center bombing along with larger plans to target everything from the Statue of Liberty to bridges and tunnels.

There’s no room for enemy agents in America. The terrorists we harbor will eventually turn on us whether it’s the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group at the heart of Al Qaeda and its various early attacks in America) or other Islamist operations around the world like the one that led to the Manchester concert bombing in the UK.

 

Everyone who publicly supports Islamic terrorist groups who is not a citizen should be deported.

Everyone who publicly supports Islamic terrorist groups who is a naturalized citizen should be denaturalized and then deported.

It’s the plain and simple law. No administration has chosen to enforce it. But that needs to change.

A few arrests followed by desk appearance tickets are not going to make the Hamas occupations of the Ivy League go away.

Start deporting the campus terrorists and suddenly the occupations will go away.

Anti-Israel NGO behind impending US sanctions on IDF battalion

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Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces Netzach Yehuda Battalion, May 19, 2005. Photo by Abir Sultan/Flash90.

JNS)
DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now), a U.S.-based NGO that has sought “arrest warrants against Israelis” in international fora, has provided the so-called evidence driving the U.S. State Department’s anticipated sanctions against an Israel Defense Forces battalion, NGO Monitor reports.

“The reported sanctions to be imposed by the U.S. State Department on IDF combat units and individuals stem directly from a coordinated campaign by extreme political NGOs,” said Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor, in a statement provided to JNS.

 

“Currently, the leading NGO is DAWN, a U.S.-based tax-exempt organization that has intensified its legal attacks against Israeli officials since October 7,” he said.

In October 2022, DAWN submitted to the State Department a Leahy Law referral against the Netzach Yehuda Battalion for alleged “systematic and widespread abuses.”

(The Leahy Law refers to two provisions prohibiting assistance by the United States to units of foreign forces implicated in the commission of human rights violations.)

On Sunday, the IDF said that it’s not yet aware of Biden administration-imposed sanctions against the battalion, but is monitoring the situation.

However, Israeli leaders reacted sharply to the reports with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz, both members of the War Cabinet, criticizing any sanctions move.

“Sanctions must not be imposed on the Israel Defense Forces,” Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew on social media on Saturday.

“In recent weeks, I have been working against the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with senior U.S. government officials,” he said.

“At a time when our soldiers are fighting terrorist monsters, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low,” the prime minister added. “The government I head will act by all means against these moves.”

 

If Washington sanctions the IDF unit, it would be the first time the United States has taken such a step against the Israeli military.

Netzach Yehuda is an exclusively male, haredi battalion which, until late 2022, served in the Jordan Valley and Samaria. It has faced accusations of abuse, most notably in the 2022 death of 78-year-old Palestinian-American Omar As’ad, who died after he was initially detained by the battalion.

Under the sanctions, Netzach Yehuda would be barred from receiving U.S. weaponry, training with U.S. soldiers or taking part in any U.S.-funded activities.

The reported sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion by the @StateDept is the result of a coordinated campaign by DAWN and other extreme political NGOs. DAWN has an extensive list of targets and won’t stop after an IDF unit or few individuals. > https://t.co/JFBwm4wFkn pic.twitter.com/nF2OaSoFv8

— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) April 21, 2024
DAWN has in the past requested State Department sanctions against other Israelis, including a reserve military judge. It also urged a visa ban against IDF Brig. Gen. Naama Rosen-Grimberg, military secretary to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

In September 2023, DAWN was a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to block Israel’s entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver program.

“We know that DAWN has an extensive list of targets and is not interested in stopping with one IDF unit or few individuals,” Steinberg said.

DAWN was launched in 2022, the brainchild of Jamal Khashoggi, the Muslim Brotherhood-supporting Saudi journalist killed in 2018 on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a 2021 U.S. intelligence report.

 

Khashoggi had a history of antisemitic posts, to the point of suggesting belief in the infamous antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.“

The current executive director of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, signed an open letter dated Jan. 17 titled “Global Support for Brazil’s Backing of South Africa’s ICJ Petition.”

“Whitson previously served as director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch (HRW) from 2004-2019. Working closely with executive director Ken Roth, she played a central role in HRW’s antisemitic obsession with Israel,” NGO Monitor reported in March.

Esam Omeish, a member of DAWN’s board, is a former national president of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which according to federal prosecutors “was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

Another, Nihad Awad, was co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front group and named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation trial.

“DAWN has officials connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as to the most notorious antisemitic and anti-Israel groups,” Steinberg said.

The funding for DAWN is murky but NGO Monitor was able to identify several sources, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Arca Foundation.

 

“The fact that only 44% of DAWN’s $2.1 million income is transparent raises questions regarding the remaining 56%. It cannot be ruled out that it comes from foreign government sources,” Steinberg said.

“Any decision based on these unreliable sources will not withstand examination based on due diligence. It would be advisable for any government entity to refrain from relying on such groups, as they misuse their influence and authority to politically target the only Jewish state,” he added.

Palestinian Ruling Party Admits: Hamas Steals Aid, Kills Aid Workers in Gaza

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Palestinian mourners and gunmen wave the green Hamas flag at the funeral of a Palestinian terrorist who was killed in an Israeli military raid in Nur Shams, October 20, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90

By Joel B. Pollak

Fatah, the “moderate” ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, has admitted on live television that Hamas steals humanitarian aid and kills aid workers in the Gaza Strip.

The admission, captured by Palestinian Media Watch, confirms what Israel has been saying all along — and goes further, stating that Hamas is not only responsible for endangering aid workers by hiding among them, but also asserts that Hamas has been killing aid workers directly.

Palestinian Media Watch reported (original emphasis):

In an incredible and rare admission, Fatah has corroborated what Israel has been saying all along: that Hamas is responsible for turmoil connected to distribution of the humanitarian aid sent into Gaza. A Fatah TV anchor reported that throughout the war, Hamas has been committing what is essentially a triple crime—it has attacked and killed aid workers in order to control aid distribution, stolen the food and water for itself, and caused food prices to skyrocket.

Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “Hamas’ persecution of any party who is a source for distributing the [humanitarian] aid or securing it began from the start of the war (i.e., 2023 Gaza war), as Hamas persecuted well-known figures and teams of volunteers on the ground in mid-October [2023]. It attacked them and killed some of them for two reasons: Firstly, preventing any activity by any [other] party in the Gaza Strip; and secondly, ensuring Hamas control over the aid and its storage, which of course leads to these crazy and unreal prices that no one can pay in the shadow of this destruction. After the occupation (i.e., Israel) bombed storehouses controlled by Hamas, the accumulation of tons of various food and aid products that Hamas had taken exclusivity over became clear, at a time when the Gaza Strip is suffering from hunger.”

…

This is a damning indictment by Fatah, exposing Hamas’ heinous actions against humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian civilians in need of food. World powers were quick to decry Israel for an inadvertent tragedy that killed several World Central Kitchen personnel. These same authorities and media outlets must now condemn Hamas with equal vigor for its intentional murder of aid workers. A failure to condemn Hamas for intentional murder by the countries and frameworks who condemned Israel for accidental killing would expose once again a glaring double standard by international bodies, and especially the media, that unfortunately has accompanied this entire war.

The Biden administration has blamed Israel for the death of aid workers, with President Joe Biden claiming this month that “Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

 

Bklyn’s Pratt Institute Under Scrutiny for Planned Vote on Israeli Boycott During Passover 

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Bklyn’s Pratt Institute Under Scrutiny for Planned Vote on Israeli Boycott During Passover 

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Brooklyn’s prestigious Pratt Institute has come under scrutiny for its planned vote on an “academic and cultural boycott of Israel,” sparking significant controversy and allegations of anti-Semitism, as was reported in The New York Post. The timing of the vote, scheduled during the Passover holiday, has heightened tensions and raised questions about inclusivity and fairness in the institution’s decision-making processes.

The vote by the Pratt Institute’s Academic Senate was set for Tuesday, coinciding with the first full day of Passover, an eight-day period during which observant Jews abstain from work and engage in religious observance with family and friends. According to the information provided in the Post report, this scheduling has led to accusations that the timing effectively excludes Jewish faculty and staff from participating in a decision that has direct implications for them and the broader Jewish community on campus.

Rory Lancman, senior counsel at the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish legal civil-rights advocacy group, has been vocal in his criticism of the proposed resolution and its timing. The Post report said that Lancman has described the scheduling of the vote during Passover as “positively obscene” and akin to condemning the historical liberation of Jews, which Passover commemorates.

The resolution, as reported, is not only controversial due to its content—calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel—but also in how broadly it is written. According to Lancman, the proposal could potentially lead to significant restrictions on campus, possibly affecting Jewish community groups such as Hillel and Chabad, which play crucial roles in supporting Jewish students on campus, as per the Post report. Such outcomes would likely intensify feelings of isolation and discrimination among Jewish students and faculty.

The Pratt Academic Senate, described as a “shared governance body” that represents faculty and advises the school’s board of trustees on academic matters, is at the center of this controversy. The decision to hold a vote on such a divisive issue during a significant religious holiday suggests a gap in the Senate’s consideration of the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds of its members.

In an April 19 letter addressed to Pratt’s board of trustees Chairman Garry Hattem, President Frances Bronet, and Academic Senate President Uzma Rizvi, Lancman expressed his outrage and called for reconsideration of the vote’s timing and the resolution itself, as was noted in the Post report.

Lancman also argued that the resolution, if passed, would contravene federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws, particularly affecting Jewish faculty and students who might feel targeted by such a measure.

The institution’s eventual response revealed that the scheduling conflict with the Jewish festival of Passover was unintentional. The Post reported that Pratt’s spokesman stated that the discussion initially set for April 23 was inadvertently planned on the first full day of Passover, leading to its removal from the meeting’s agenda. However, the institution did not specify when the discussion and vote would eventually take place.

The resolution, which calls for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, has been criticized not just for its content but also for its potential violation of anti-discrimination laws.

Lancman’s communication also warned of potential legal action against Pratt, emphasizing that the law would support actions to ensure that Jewish staff and students had a fair opportunity to voice their opinions on the resolution, as was reported by the Post.  He urged the school to either withdraw the resolution or postpone the debate and vote until after Passover, to allow full participation.

The content of the Pratt resolution itself is a point of contention. It alleges that Palestinians have suffered “six months of genocide” at the hands of Israel, claiming over 33,000 deaths in Gaza—a figure that contributes to the heated nature of the debate.

This resolution also calls for comprehensive measures against Israeli institutions and has raised legal and ethical questions regarding discrimination and academic freedom, the Post reported.

The resolution put forward at Pratt seeks a complete cessation of engagement with Israeli cultural and academic institutions. Specifically, it demands that Pratt sever ties with Israeli entities such as the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, cease participation in events or activities involving Israeli groups, and divest from Israeli companies and other entities that are perceived to benefit from the occupation of “Palestine, “ according to the Post report. This includes a broad prohibition on projects that might normalize Israel’s status in the global cultural sphere or obscure the state’s alleged violations of international law and Palestinian rights.

Critically, the resolution does not acknowledge the violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians. Over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas during the October 7th massacre, and dozens of Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza, the report in the Post said. The omission of these facts from the resolution’s narrative has contributed to accusations of bias and a one-sided approach to a complex international issue.

The resolution has garnered support from several faculty members at Pratt, including individuals affiliated with Faculty for Justice in Palestine and various professors across different departments. This group of academics argues that the boycott is a necessary stance against what they view as ongoing injustices facilitated by Israeli policies.

Lancman also argued that scheduling the resolution’s vote during Passover discriminately impacts Jewish students and staff, potentially violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the Post report, This act requires that educational institutions receiving federal funding ensure their programs are free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Lancman highlighted a New York state executive order, first issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo and continued by Governor Kathy Hochul, which prevents the state government from conducting business with any institution that supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

 

Palestinian arrested in Israeli youth’s terror murder

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Binyamin Achimeir, 14, was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack on April 12, 2024. Credit: Israel Police.

(JNS)
Israeli security forces arrested a Palestinian suspect in the April 12 terrorist murder of 14-year-old shepherd Binyamin Achimeir following an overnight raid in the Binyamin region of Samaria.

“Overnight, in a joint operation of the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the IDF, Ahmed Duabsha, 21 years old, a resident of the village of Duma in the Binyamin Brigade [area of deployment], was arrested by the soldiers of the Yamam [Border Police National Counter-

Achimeir’s body was found by a drone on April 13 following a 24-hour-long search, after he went missing while working as a shepherd based in Gal Farm, located just under two miles south of Duma.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned “the heinous murder” of Achimeir, according to a rare statement released by his office on the Jewish day of rest.

“We will get the murderers and those who helped them, as we do to all who harm the citizens of the State of Israel,” the prime minister said.

The security services said on Monday that “during the past day, there was a significant development in the investigation, and during the night, the forces raided the village of Duma and arrested the suspect.”

The statement noted that Duabsha tied himself to the attack during initial questioning. He was taken into Shin Bet custody for further investigation.

According to data collected by Israeli authorities, Arab aggression and terrorism against Jewish shepherds have been on the rise in recent months.

“Jewish farmers are grazing their sheep in open areas; Arabs don’t like that, even if it happens in Area C [of Judea and Samaria, where Israeli communities are located]. They’re trying to stop them by using violence,” a Judea and Samaria local official told JNS last year.

Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 15 alone, Hatzalah Judea and Samaria recorded more than 2,600 terrorist attacks against Israelis in the area, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults.

Israel’s urban warfare experience in Gaza can benefit allies

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F Armored Corps soldiers drill near Moshav Aniam on the Golan Heights, Feb. 14, 2023. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

The Israel Defense Forces’ experience in fighting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, an area described by observers as the most challenging urban warfare environment in history, likely holds important benefits for Israel’s allies.

One of the key lessons, according to Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, is the IDF’s use of what he described as “three-dimensional warfare.”

This concept relates to creating an unprecedented capability to generate a 3D picture of the battlefield in real-time, one that shows available friendly firepower sources in the air and the ground, and the location of enemy targets.

This data is then pushed to ground forces and the Israeli Air Force, enabling new levels of cooperation.

“This means that when IDF soldiers enter an alleyway, they can see what’s behind the house because someone gives them the picture of what’s in front of them,” said Lerman.

“This is definitely the most significant and heaviest complex military campaign conducted to date under these conditions, to my understanding,” Lerman, a former deputy director for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and an ex-IDF Military Intelligence officer, told JNS.

Lerman said that the IDF and the U.S. Armed Forces have been engaged in a process of mutual learning for years, adding that “the Americans had their share of urban battles. It’s not that we invented the wheel, but it seems to me that there is one central component that was implemented in combat in Gaza by the IDF with very great effectiveness, and it is three-dimensional warfare.”

The unparalleled degree of integration between advancing ground forces and the air force accompanying them from above, all working on the basis of a common battlefield picture featuring continuous updates on enemy and friendly force positions, meant that the IDF gained a major advantage against “an enemy that under normal conditions would be invisible,” said Lerman.

IDF ground forces have visual assistance through tablet-like devices that inform their combat needs at any given moment, and work more closely than ever with fighter jets, combat helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as the navy.

The ground forces’ “control of the battlefield is exceptional,” said Lerman, “both at the tactical level and at the micro-tactical level. This compensates to a great extent for the advantage that Hamas had within its own territory, which Hamas is familiar with, and where it was hiding.”

A battle management system, made by Israeli defense company Elbit Systems and called Torch 750 (also known in the IDF as Digital Ground Army), played a central role in generating this ability.

“This battle picture also prevents many friendly fire incidents, though not entirely, to our sorrow,” said Lerman. “I think these are things that will be learned.”

Israeli combat history

A glance at the casualty ratio between the IDF and Hamas reveals that in many battles, the average was around 50 terrorist casualties to one IDF casualty.

Some operations, such as the IDF’s second raid on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March, saw some 200 terrorists killed versus three Israeli combat casualties.

This wouldn’t be the first time that battle lessons were shared between Israel and its allies.

While Israel is heavily dependent on American military supplies, it has also exported products developed in the wake of lessons from Israeli combat history.

In 2018, the U.S. Army purchased the Israeli-made Trophy active-protection system for four brigades of its Abrams tanks.

Trophy, which is made by Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, has proven to be a revolutionary system for Israel’s own Merkava 4 tanks because it can instantly detect and intercept lethal armor-penetrating threats such as anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.

It can also share the location of enemy threats with others.

The system was developed out of the lessons learned by Israel’s defense establishment from the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when Israeli tanks were vulnerable to Hezbollah cells armed with anti-tank missiles.

In the realm of passive armor, Plasan Sasa, an Israeli company, has played an important role in boosting the survivability of the U.S. military’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

In 2008, Plasan was chosen to provide armor for 1,955 vehicles of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Allied and adversary military doctrine

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former U.S. Army officer who taught at West Point, stated, “I think there’s much to learn for foreign militaries from the experience in Gaza. I’m confident that the United States and its allies are taking copious notes.”

Bowman, a former national security adviser to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, added, “Unfortunately, many of our adversaries are also learning.”

These lessons will shape allied and adversary military doctrine, training, and operations, he assessed.

“The degree to which militaries learn from this experience will have direct consequences on future battlefields,” said Bowman.

“The U.S. military is the most powerful military in the world, arguably the most powerful military in human history, but we make mistakes and have shortcomings. We can learn much from our allies and partners, including our Israeli allies,” Bowman continued.

He described the ongoing war in Gaza as “one of the most significant urban warfare battles in recent history,” arguing that it would be a mistake to assume it is such an anomaly that few lessons are transferable.

“If there’s a ground warfare component, there’s very likely to be an urban warfare component. Why? Because a large portion of humanity lives in cities, and because the seats of government are in cities and many military objectives are in or near cities. And some military bases and headquarters themselves are essentially urban warfare environments,” Bowman said.

WATCH: IDF ENGAGES IN INTENSE FIREFIGHT WITH TERRORIST NEAR SHIFA HOSPITAL
He drew attention to the IDF’s impressive achievements in detecting and destroying tunnels in Gaza.

“I think part of the reason for that is because they had a running start. They’ve been working on terror tunnel detection and destruction for many years with U.S. cooperation and support, but primarily focused on tunnels designed to come underneath the borders of Israel, to infiltrate Israel, to kill men, women and children in the night.”

While such detection technology previously required the IDF to be above or near the ground where the tunnel was located, the IDF in this war was able to bring tunnel detection capabilities into enemy territory, he said.

The IDF’s ability to call up large numbers of reserve forces and send them on successful missions was also notable, Bowman added, saying that partners such as Taiwan could learn from Israel’s experience with reservists.

Hezbollah, for its part, will likely learn from the Gaza war that it needs to double down on its human-shield tactics.

An additional key lesson is the sheer magnitude of munitions required in such conflicts, Bowman said. That lesson remains relevant to Israel’s operations in Gaza, Bowman said, “but even more relevant to stockpiling the weapons Israel needs for the bigger fight that’s coming sooner or later with Hezbollah and Iran.

“And if I’m Israel, what do I do with that information? I prioritize, above all else, the stockpiling of weapons that Israel will need for a major war with Hezbollah and Iran. The weapons, the munitions—particularly the air-launched precision-guided munitions that could be cut off in the future by the U.S. Congress—as Hezbollah learns from Hamas’s use of human shields to increase civilian casualties and create concern in Washington to create political pressure to deprive Israel of the means of self-defense,” he said.

“Israel should get those weapons and munitions it needs now and stockpile them so that Israel has what it needs, when and if things get much worse,” Bowman warned.

‘Assume Hamas leaders receive UNRWA funding’

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UNRWA employee outside the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, Nov 17, 2020. (Majdi Fathi/TPS)

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

Critics of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, have long noted its unique approach among United Nations agencies in granting perpetual refugee status to Palestinians, while other U.N. agencies seek to resettle those displaced by war or violence.

A JNS investigation reveals another manner in which UNRWA is an apparent aberration at the global body: It does not revoke refugee status of Palestinian terrorists.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees oversees the global body’s services to all refugees worldwide, except for Palestinians, who fall under the purview of UNRWA.

The latter is being investigated following Israeli charges that some of the U.N. agency’s staff participated directly in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel and that a larger number of UNRWA employees are tied to Palestinian terror organizations.

Those involved in acts of terrorism under globally-defined criteria are subject to exclusion from refugee status at UNHCR, which also may exclude refugees who belong to organizations that carry out or incite violence.

JNS sought comment several times from UNRWA and from the office of António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, about whether the agency also excludes terrorists as refugees.

 

Hillel Neuer, executive director of the nonprofit U.N. Watch, told JNS that for many years, Suhail al-Hindi, a school principal elected to chair UNRWA’s Palestinians’ workers union, was on Hamas’s Gaza politburo with the terror group’s Gaza head Yahya Sinwar.

Al-Hindi was eventually forced out of UNRWA not due to a violation of agency policy, but because UNRWA suffered too much embarrassment, Neuer said.

“They asked him to resign, meaning he’s probably still collecting pension,” Neuer said. “He’s now in Turkey, and he’s regularly quoted endorsing the atrocities of Oct. 7. It’s not only that they don’t deny them aid, but they allow them to serve in leadership capacity.”

“To the extent that UNHCR does have this exclusion clause, with UNRWA it would be the opposite,” Neuer said of the U.N. agencies’ approach to refugee status of terrorists.

JNS sought clarity from the United Nations and UNRWA several times about whether the agency would strip the refugee status of staff members that the U.N. investigation corroborates were involved in or connected to terrorism.

When Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, terminated the contracts of UNRWA staff members whom Israel accused of participating in the Oct. 7 massacre, he said publicly that the reason was “to protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance.”

 

People can be excluded from refugee status if they violate the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, per UNHCR’s Resettlement Handbook.

More specifically, those about whom there are “serious reasons” to believe they committed a “crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity” or a “serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge” prior to being admitted to that country as a refugee or who have “been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,” can be excluded.

Elsewhere in the handbook, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees notes that most acts of violence commonly called “terrorism” qualify, “particularly if they indiscriminately endanger or harm civilians.”

The 1951 convention, which the handbook cites, states that “This convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.”

The United Nations has come to interpret that clause very broadly to include Palestinian “refugees” as “not only persons displaced at the time of the 1948 and 1967 hostilities, but also the descendants of such persons.”

Funding terror

“If UNRWA were truly applying universal principles, they would certainly remove anyone who belongs to Hamas from their employment from their staff but, in addition, deny them refugee status,” Neuer, of U.N. Watch, told JNS. “I’m not aware that’s ever happened.”

UNRWA has only suspended or removed an employee for belonging to Hamas in very rare instances, according to Neuer.

“I’ve never heard of anyone, though, including some of the chief terrorists, who are denied refugee status or denied aid,” he said.

“We can assume that many, if not all, of the Hamas leaders are on the rolls as UNRWA refugees and are receiving funding in one form or another from UNRWA.”

 

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