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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 14h

From 2019 to 2021, Assad’s govt carried out a secret operation to move tens of 1000’s of bodies from the exposed Qutayfah mass grave to a hidden site in the desert east of Damascus.The goal of the clandestine reburial was to hide evidence of atrocities as Assad tried to regain international standing

Exclusive: Assad government secretly moved mass grave to cover up killings, Reuters investigation finds

From 2019 to 2021, Syria’s authoritarian government carried out a secret operation to move tens of thousands of bodies from the exposed Qutayfah mass grave to a hidden site in the desert east of Damascus. The goal of the clandestine reburial was to hide evidence of atrocities as Bashar Assad tried to regain international standing

www.reuters.com

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 14h

Drone warfare’s new old era: A new aerial war is being fought over Europe, just as it was fought during the Second World War. It, too, is reliant on cutting-edge technology, whose potential has yet to be fully realised engelsbergideas.com/essays/drone... By Peter Caddick-Adams #RussiaUkraineWar

Today a new aerial war is being fought over Europe. It, too, is reliant on cutting edge technology, whose full potential has yet to be realised. The undeclared war is most obviously witnessed in daily attacks by drones striking far into Russia and Ukraine. Some devices are unarmed decoys to deflect attention. Others, such as those of Kyiv's 14th Regiment of Unmanned Aviation, carry an increasingly heavy payload to disable railway lines, industrial plants, pipelines, power networks and oil refineries. The same concepts have spread to sea, with remotely-guided, unmanned speed boats deployed against Russian shipping, harbours and bridges. Ukraine's choice of targets echo those bombed by the Allied strategic bombing forces in 1944.

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 1d

What this past year has revealed is that Trump likes Israel. That the special relationship between the two countries is still there, still holding on, despite the woke right’s attempt to sabotage it… www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/...

A few days ago, after the announcement of the deal to bring home the Israeli hostages, Trump said on Fox News: "I told Netanyahu that the most important thing is for people to love Israel again." He reiterated the sentiment in his speech before the Israeli Knesset this morning: "The world is loving Israel again," and he acknowledged that the war was taking a toll on the Jewish state's reputation. Getting the world to "love Israel again" was clearly one of his war aims. That is worth noting on its own.
But it is especially worth noting in light of the obvious psychic pain all this love and affection is causing Steve Bannon and the other knights of the isolationist, anti-Israel right. Some in that group are silent today, hoping to slink off-stage unnoticed while the celebration of Israel's victory over Hamas, and Trump's proud declaration of that victory, reverberates among the friends of the free world.

Not Bannon. His insanity would not be otherwise worth highlighting except for the contrast it draws with the president and his foreign-policy team. Bannon described the atmosphere between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "clearly icy," a strange way to characterize mutual ear-to-ear grins. Bannon was hallucinating this alternate reality in which, he declared, seemingly without irony: "This is a catastrophic defeat for the Israel First crowd," a common anti-Semitic trope about disloyal Jews.
Why was it a "catastrophic defeat"? Because, Bannon said, the Israelis "pushed this Greater Israel project and it came crashing down around them." He then ranted about the Mossad for a while and got angry on behalf of the Qataris, par for the woke-right
course.

One reason is the way Trump described the Gaza deal today at the Knesset: "What a victory it's been, all right, what a victory." That victory is not just Israel's but America's, and therefore it is a victory for the alliance of democracies. American victory is the isolationists' kryptonite, as it vindicates the idea that America has an important role to play in the world and that it is fully capable of doing so.
Another way of saying "American victory" is "American success," and the Bannon-Tucker-Owens wing of the right cannot abide American success. They can only tolerate American humility.
The other reason has to do with the sentimental nature of Trump's attachment to Israel. Bannon and Tucker Carlson and the rest obviously lost their fight against the pro-Israel contingent within the administration, that's not exactly news. But they could handle their defeat better if the president's support for Israel in a military conflict at least required him to hold his nose. Instead, Trump is having the time of his life. He loves it when Israel wins. Bannon is the one who is tired of all the winning.

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 1d

Ukrainian intelligence estimates several thousand Cubans have been recruited, many of them tricked into fighting alongside Russian units. An internal US State Department cable seen by Reuters put the number of Cubans fighting in Ukraine around 5,000… www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukr... #RussiaUkraineWar

Who’s Recruiting Cubans To Fight In Ukraine? A Travel Agent In Provincial Russia For One.

Thousands of Cubans have been recruited to travel to Russia—and many have ended up fighting in Ukraine, possibly under false pretenses. A 41-year-old, multi-lingual travel agent from Russian provincial city is among those involved in a shady recruitment network, Systema found.

www.rferl.org

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

Why it matters that Hamas’s crimes on 10/7 were meticulously planned and matched their stated intentions in every particular. @sethamandel.bsky.social ‘s latest on the NYT intel bombshell: www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/... #Islamism #antisemitism #Hamas

"Two or three operations, in which an entire neighborhood, kibbutz, or something similar will be burned, must be prepared, the memo said.
"In an echo to the memo, just before 10 a.m. on Oct. 7, a commander from a Gaza City battalion referred to as Abu Muhammed told subordinates: 'Start setting homes on fire?
"Burn, burn, he said, according to the intercepts. I want the whole kibbutz to be in flames."
"Set fire to anything, a commander in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya referred to as Abu al-Abed said around the same time."
What about the mass slaughter of civilians?
"Kill everyone on the road," a Hamas commander called Abu Muath ordered.
"Kill everyone you encounter."

"It needs to be affirmed to the unit commanders to undertake these actions intentionally, film them and broadcast images of them as fast as possible," the Sinwar memo instructed.
What about the genocidal nature of the attack?
"Document the scenes of horror, now, and broadcast them on TV channels to the whole world," a commander from Gaza City instructed fighters at a kibbutz.
"Slaughter them. End the children of Israel."
So that's it-riddle solved, question answered. Every Gazan who stormed through the destroyed border fence that day was a participant in an explicitly genocidal attack with specific encouragement toward heinous crimes against humanity and to document it all so there could be no confusion, no denial, no debate: "Undertake these actions intentionally."

Why does it matter that the Hamas attacks were so meticulously organized? Because the idea of "disorganization" has been used by some in the "pro-Palestinian" chorus to claim that the very worst crimes were unintended. Gazans kidnapped and murdered and then mutilated the body of a baby. They were following instructions.
Gazans abused defenseless women and children in horrific ways. They were following instructions. Gazans dragged elderly people in failing health across the sand into hellish captivity. They were following instructions.

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

A coordinated squeeze forced Hamas to accept a deal it didn’t want: Under pressure from its overseas hosts and increasingly reviled at home, the militant group had little choice but to relent archive.ph/rLOgT

The plan, heavily amended by Israel and presented to Hamas by the Qatari prime minister and Egypt's spy chief, looked nothing like what Hayya had been led to expect, officials familiar with the discussions said. Hayya, who less than a month earlier had been a target of Israel's audacious attack on Hamas in Qatar, told his visitors the group would keep its Israeli hostages until it had enforceable guarantees the war would end.
But two days later, Hamas came back to Arab mediators with a yes. The deal hadn't changed.
The pressure on Hamas had.
Egypt and Qatar told Hayya the deal was his last chance to end the war, according to the officials.
They pressed Hamas to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability, giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting.
The next day, joined by Turkey, they warned him that if Hamas didn't approve the plan it would be stripped of all political and diplomatic cover;
Qatar and Turkey would no longer host the group's political leadership, and Egypt would stop pressing for Hamas to have a say in Gaza's postwar governance, the officials said.
It was enough to get Hamas to agree to release all its hostages in Gaza and sign on to the first part of Trump's peace deal, giving up what had been its most important bargaining chip to keep a seat at the table. While modifying its acceptance with heavy caveats that reflected its concerns about the deal, Hamas had given Trump an opportunity to declare victory and set the stage for a hostage release early this week.

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

China has come out swinging in response to Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs on China’s imports in response to Beijing’s new export curbs on rare earths. In its first official reaction to that warning, 🇨🇳 signaled that it will retaliate against any new levies that the Trump administration may impose.

Trump’s 100% tariff threat sparks defiance from Beijing

Beijing defends its new rare earth export curbs and warns its readying “corresponding measures” to counter any new U.S. tariffs.

www.politico.com

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

Hamas has set up checkpoints, engaged in gun battles with rivals and meted out violent beatings to Palestinians it suspects of having collaborated with Israel just hours after agreeing to a ceasefire to end a two-year conflict in the Gaza Strip. www.ft.com/content/ab1e... #Islamism

Hamas reasserts control and settles scores in Gaza Strip

Militant group battles rivals and punishes suspected collaborators hours after agreeing ceasefire

www.ft.com

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and yet there is Nazi-looted art seized between 1933 and 1945 that still hasn’t been returned to the heirs of their rightful owners. And up to 100,000 of those works might be housed at U.S. museums… news.artnet.com/art-world/mu...

Museums Aren't Doing Enough to Identify Nazi-Looted Art, Report Finds

A new report from the World Jewish Restitution Organization found that U.S. museums aren't doing enough to help identify Nazi-looted art.

news.artnet.com

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 2d

Afghanistan said Sunday it killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight border operations, in response to what it called repeated violations of its territory and airspace. Pakistan’s army gave far lower casualty figures, saying 23 troops were killed. apnews.com/article/paki...

Afghanistan says it has killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight border operations

Afghanistan says it has killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight border operations, in response to what it called repeated violations of its territory and airspace.

apnews.com

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 3d

U.S. military officials have publicly acknowledged the existence of the partnership but have not spoken about the extent of Israeli-Arab cooperation in those efforts. In 2022, Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, then Centcom's commander, described the partnership in congressional testimony as an effort "building on [the] momentum of the Abraham Accords," the agreement establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The documents show how the centerpiece of the construct, an air-defense plan to combat Iran's missiles and drones, moved from theory to reality over the past three years. Israel and the Arab countries signed on to the plan at a 2022 security conference, agreeing to coordinate military exercises and procure the equipment to make it possible. By 2024, Centcom successfully linked many of the partner states to its systems, according to the leaked documents, allowing them to provide radar and sensor data to the U.S. military and, in turn, to view the combined data of the
partners.
A briefing document stated that six of the seven partner nations were receiving a partial air picture of the region through Defense Department systems, and that two countries were sharing their own radar data through a U.S. Air Force squadron. Partner nations were also being onboarded to a U.S.-run secure chat system so that they could communicate with each other and the U.S. military.

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 3d

Even as key Arab states condemned the war in the Gaza Strip, they quietly expanded security cooperation with the Israeli military. Those military ties were thrown into crisis after Israel’s September airstrike in Qatar, but could now play a key role in overseeing the nascent ceasefire in Gaza.

archive.ph

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 4d

Came across this monument to the Italian sailors in Brindisi. cc @citizenwald.bsky.social

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 4d

Winning a small war is a big deal:
Israelis have much to be proud of. Included on that list is their willingness and ability to defend their country until the conditions for ending the war had been met. www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/...

In his 2003 book How Democracies Lose Small Wars, Israeli political scientist Gil Mirom wrote that democracies "are restricted by their domestic structure, and in particular by the creed of some of their most articulate citizens and the opportunities their institutional makeup presents such citizens." The institutions of a democracy, in other words, tend to elevate public opinion, which is often critical of war. Small wars require more prolonged periods of fighting among and around civilian populations, and adversarial press and activism aren't repressed in a democracy, so they turn the tide of public opinion in their direction.
Democracies therefore tend not to have the stomach for winning small wars. They do, however, tend to win big wars, when the perceived stakes are higher and armed combat is more traditional.
Indeed, democracies spent the 20th century reshaping global politics by winning world wars.

We don't have to go back nearly that far to see how this plays in Israel. When Iran opened state warfare against Israel this past year, the IDF crushed the Iranians with little pushback from the public in Israel or abroad. Democratic leaders felt more comfortable defending Israel's role against Iran. But even though Iran was ultimately behind decades of small wars in Lebanon and Gaza that built up into the October 7 conflagration, public opinion in Israel and abroad had far less appetite for what was required to win in those places.
Small wars are usually insurgencies, which means they are often directed against an occupying power that will pick up and leave if the cost gets too high. Israel's small wars are the opposite, hence that Golda Meir quote: There is nowhere to go. The Jews have reconstituted their state on the same land where they have done so for thousands of years. There's no place for the Land of Israel to go. So it either survives or is destroyed.

Hamas chose the nature of the war: the kind for which democracies quickly lose their nerve. And indeed, many democracies did: Only the president of the United States and the chancellor of Germany seemed to understand the threat that would be unleashed if they surrendered to the most evil force the world has seen since the Nazis.
In this atmosphere, Israel's refusal to back down should be a great point of pride. Even after thousands of years, the Jews are still told by the world that they have a place among the nations only as a subservient minority population. The pressure to conform was immense, the moral and psychological blackmail was taken to obscene levels, and still the Jewish state held to its demands.

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 5d

Hamas’s depravity toward the hostages shocked the hostages and even some of their Hamas guards. The remaining captives now return from hell www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/... #Islamism #antisemitism #terrorism

Prisoners of War was an Israeli series that inspired the U.S. series Homeland. Its original title was Hatufim. Here's what Hale wrote about it: "The show that inspired 'Homeland' turned out to be something quite different: tense but in a quiet, leisurely, realistic style; a taut and intelligent political thriller that was above all a melancholy, at times heartbreaking character study of soldiers and families damaged by war."
The plot concerned a couple of Israeli hostages who have finally been freed as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah in Lebanon after 17 years in captivity. The show was adapted in Russia and India as well as the U.S., but there was one element of the original version that was hard to replicate: In Israel, redeeming hostages is paramount, and thus the captives themselves become household names.
When they return home alive, they must transition from being national symbols to flesh-and-blood citizens.

"I look at their faces. It's an emotionally charged moment. There are young women I don't recognize, some very elderly people, a young woman with a little ginger toddler and a little ginger baby girl. I think it's a girl. I point at the baby immediately and ask Tippy: What's that? Did you kidnap a baby?'
"No, he says. 'The baby was born in captivity?
"I stare at him. 'You kidnapped a pregnant woman?'
"I get no answer."

Even Israelis, however, have been forced into new territory by the scale of Hamas's atrocities. In April, the New York Times wrote a story titled: "A New Medical Discipline in Israel: How to Receive Hostages." It is, as the headline suggests, a new frontier in physical and mental health: "There were few precedents to learn from, officials said, especially as the captives ranged in age from infants to octogenarians."
Indeed, in his memoir of his time in Hamas captivity, Eli Sharabi recounts a brief conversation he had with a Hamas official, nicknamed Tippy, overseeing Sharabi's release. The conversation took place after Tippy showed Sharabi a laptop screen with the faces of dozens of hostages:

They did, in fact, kidnap a baby. Surely Sharabi was seeing a picture of Kfir Bibas, along with his slightly older brother and mother. All three were murdered in captivity. Hamas's atrocities on and after October 7 stretched the bounds of worldly evil. Even the Hamas commander wouldn't admit it to Sharabi's face. No one wanted to believe an entity this evil existed
-even, at times, the entity itself.

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 5d

Contrary to his claims, the president has not yet brought peace to the Middle East. But if his Gaza peace plan succeeds, he might decide he is just getting started.
How far is the president willing to go to achieve his promised peace in the Middle East?
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Trump’s Plan to Finally End the Gaza War

How far is the president willing to go to achieve his promised peace in the Middle East?

www.theatlantic.com

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 5d

Peace requires hard work, sacrifice, and yes often military action. This, along with the importance of Israeli victory for the security of the free world, are the key lessons from Trump's ceasefire deal: www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/... By @sethamandel.bsky.social

The tangible achievement is Israeli victory. Militarily, of course, Israel has defeated Hamas. But in chess, the most common stalemates occur when one player has only his king left on the board. It is precisely that stalemate that Hamas and its backers, as well as some European leaders, tried to bring about.
From the beginning, Israel sought the war's end—not just the end of this round but the end of Hamas's ongoing decades-long war.
The return of the hostages, an agreement that requires Hamas's own financial and diplomatic patrons to force it out of government, and the demolition of the terror group's military patrons can plausibly end the war. And that is what has happened: Israel defeated Hamas, wrecked Iran, and Trump convinced Qatar and Turkey of the need for regime change in Gaza.

The second, and more ideological achievement of the deal is the vindication of a concept that never used to need vindication among the men and women of the free world: that peace requires sacrifice, that it comes at a cost, that it must be earned.
Brief periods of calm while the enemy decides when next to carry out mass murder is not peace, it is captivity. Peace is when the enemy cannot simply decide to carry out mass murder.
The European leaders' approach to "peace" was, essentially: Please stop fighting for a fer minutes so I can get reelected. The shame of France's Emmanuel Macron, of the UK's Keir Starmer, of Spain's Pedro Sanchez and others cannot be understated.

In fact, peace requires hard work. In this case, it required an Israeli and American military alliance willing to neutralize threats emanating from Iran. It required American support for Israeli actions in Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria. And it required the mobilization of U.S. military assets in the Gulf region.
Peace is possible at this point only because the president of the United States ignored the isolationists chirping in his ear that the days of American strength were over. Whatever happens now, we are at least closer to ending the conflict than we have been, and that was made possible by military action.

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 6d

he United States said on Wednesday it was adding 15 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list for facilitating the purchase of American electronic components found in drones operated by Iranian proxies including Houthi and Hamas militants. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p... #terrorism

www.reuters.com

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 6d

Serbia arrests 11 for vandalizing Paris Jewish sites at behest of foreign intelligence: Serbian authorities say a foreign intelligence service ordered attacks on Jewish and Muslim sites, including synagogues and the Shoah Memorial in May. www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...

Serbia busts cell behind Paris antisemitic attacks | The Jerusalem Post

Serbian authorities say a foreign intelligence service ordered attacks on Jewish and Muslim sites, including synagogues and the Shoah Memorial in May.

www.jpost.com

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 7d

For many British Jews, university life feels like the front line of ‘new antisemitism’ – never more so than on the anniversary of 7 October, when ‘Time for dessert’ bake sales and demonstrations are being organised by their fellow students
archive.md/ttD3F By @nicolelampert.bsky.social #antisemitism

archive.md

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 7d

The false claim that Israel is committing genocide is a modern blood libel: The driving aim of the grotesque 'genocide' libel is to attempt to portray Israel - and by extension, Jews - as modern-day Nazis,and to treat them accordingly
www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-the-... By David Hirsh #antisemitism

www.jewishnews.co.uk

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 8d

#Miluim: Israel’s Forgotten Army. As reservists went to war with expired armor and broken helmets, the Friends of the IDF imploded in allegations of misconduct. But the real scandal was ideological, and rooted in a U.S.-Israel relationship that undermined Israel’s security from within.

Israel’s Forgotten Army - Tablet Magazine

As reservists went to war with expired armor and broken helmets, the Friends of the IDF imploded in allegations of misconduct. But the real scandal was ideological, and rooted in a U.S.-Israel relatio...

www.tabletmag.com

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glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 8d

A very stupid and dangerous mistake: The assumption that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” may not be true. Sometimes my enemy’s enemy is also my enemy. melaniephillips.substack.com/p/a-very-stu... By Melanie Phillips #antisemitism #FarRight

Robinson is not a British patriot. He is a former member of the neo-Nazi British National Party. He is also a former football hooligan; his real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and he adopted "Tommy Robinson" as his nom-de-guerre in homage to a football hooligan of that name. While it's possible for people with even such a history to eventually see the light and reform themselves, Robinson's personal history displays recurrent violence, intimidation, incitement and contempt for the rule of law.
He has numerous criminal convictions, including one for assault. In 2021, he was handed a five-year stalking ban after he turned up at the home of a journalist - who was writing about his alleged misuse of donations from supporters - falsely branded her partner a pedophile and threatened to return to her home. The magistrate said Robinson had sought to
"coerce and control" the journalist to "stop her going about her lawful business" and that he "clearly poses and continues to pose a risk to the complainant's physical and psychological wellbeing".
Robinson is not "on the front line against radical Islam". He incites hatred of all Muslims. His inflammatory rhetoric and frequent false allegations have reportedly helped incite dysfunctional people to commit acts of violence against them indiscriminately.

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 8d

After Heaton Park things cannot go on as they did before. This is also a country where antisemitism has risen to unacceptable levels in recent years… everydayhate.substack.com/p/after-heat... ⬇️ #antisemitism

...It is a country where antisemitic slurs and violent rhetoric are allowed to pass unchallenged on the streets and are cheered from the stage at the Glastonbury Festival. Where a doctor can spread Nazi-style hatred about
"Jewish supremacists" and call for Jewish communities to be held to account and is cleared to continue practicing. And it is a country where, within hours of the terror attack in Manchester, anti-Israel protestors were back on the streets, chanting for an
"Intifada".
, with all the associations of car rammings and stabbings that term brings to mind.

glykosymoritis @glyko.bsky.social · 8d

A hostage's account of his starvation in captivity illuminates the failures of the 'international community' and reveals that food reached everyone in Gaza except the hostages. Yet a remorseless world marches on, unchanged, failing the captives anew every day: www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/...

At one point in his captivity, Sharabi and his fellow captives are moved to a new tunnel and their food rations practically disappear. "For the first three days in this tunnel, we eat nothing but biscuits. Two or three in the morning. Two or three at night. Biscuits and water. That's it.
"After three days, they bring us some raw ful beans. I start feeling weak. My body needs real food. I think it takes them nearly two weeks to get pitas into the tunnel. They're stale, probably foraged from the street. I don't care. I savor the single pita bread I'm given and devour it slowly. Besides the pitas, they give us a can of cream cheese. I break my pita into pieces, dip each one into the cheese, and chew slowly. I save the last morsel for the end of the day, just to fall asleep with something in my stomach."

Soon they are moved again, however, and the brief trip outside is revelatory: "The streets are full of people. Stores are open.
Some selling groceries, others meat. I can smell food being cooked, being fried, and I'm desperate for a bite."
Another captive, Elia, notes that kids were walking around with iPhones and the stores are open and Gazans are out and about. In the new tunnel, the hostages' maltreatment only worsens, and the taunting increases. No doubt all of this is made more bitter by the discovery that the hostages weren't starving because Hamas was starving; the hostages were starving because Hamas wanted them to starve.

Sometimes the Hamas captors would cook sweets for themselves right in front of the captives, but Sharabi acknowledges that there were likely shortages of supplies all around Gaza, and that Hamas isn't exactly feasting. But as punishment, the captives' meager rations are soon reduced and then reduced again:
"As the days go by, we begin to notice malnutrition taking its toll. Looking at each other, we start to see the extreme thinness, the gaunt faces, the flesh wasting away. I feel my body weakening, sense the dizziness, see my belly caving inward. The single meal we get each day has no set time. One day it might come at 13:00, the next day suddenly at 15:00, another day at noon. We live with zero certainty as to when the next meal will arrive. The meal consists of either one and a half dry pitas per person, or a tray of flavorless pasta, or a tray of rice. Besides the pita rations, sometimes we also get a can of cheese or fava beans."

This is only reinforced when UN aid boxes start arriving: "Big white crates brimming with food. Our captors eat and are merry, leaving us with a few miserable crumbs from the whole feast, but hey, we're still happy these boxes are here. First of all, it's good that there's food. When there's food, there's something to ask for, something to beg for, and you might even get something. And when our captors have food, when they feel full, they are more satisfied and less disgruntled, and that makes them more amicable and less irritable. So supplies are a good thing."
Yet again, here is the travesty of the modern UN in all its sliminess. The resumption of aid, and the UN's collaboration with Hamas to dole it out, fed everyone but the Jews kept in Gaza's dungeons. That's not what the public were told-the narrative repeated ad nauseum was that the hostages will starve because Gazans were starving. It was all a lie.