News Round-Up

• “Israel unleashes ‘bunker buster’ bombs to destroy Hamas’ network of tunnel in Gaza: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows to ‘completely eliminate evil’ terror group and ‘bring back’ hostages” – In a press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was fighting its “second war of independence” and it would be a “long war”, reports the Mail.
• “Keir Starmer’s authority threatened as frontbenchers demand Gaza ceasefire” – Sir Keir Starmer faces a growing challenge to his authority after a dozen frontbenchers defied his position on the Israel-Gaza war and demanded an immediate ceasefire, reports the Times.
• “Watch: Pro-Palestine protesters call for ‘intifada from London to Gaza’” – Pro-Palestinian protesters called for an intifada from “London to Gaza” at a huge rally in the capital on Saturday, prompting warnings that permitting such inflammatory language posed a “serious danger” to Britain’s Jewish community.
• “Arabs and Bedouins join Israel’s war on Hamas despite accusations of ‘treachery’” – The Telegraph reports that a growing number of minorities are volunteering for the fight against the terror organisation, in part to improve their own career prospects.
• “Is Israel’s response to Hamas’s attacks justified under international law?” – International lawyer Guglielmo Verdirame offers a nuanced defence of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Telegraph.
• “Crackdown on extremism to tackle ‘permissive environment’ for anti-Jewish hate” – Michael Gove and Suella Braverman have ordered a crackdown on extremism amid warnings that Britain has become a “permissive environment” for anti-Jewish hate, according to the Telegraph.
• “Israeli Ambassador debates ‘From the River to the Sea’” – UnHerd‘s Freddie Sayers confronts Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely over her apparent double standards in backing a one-state solution for Israel but saying calls for a ‘free Palestine’ are genocidal.
• “The dangers of ‘decolonisation’” – Spiked‘s Doug Stokes on why the academic Left has sided with Hamas’s antisemitic barbarism.
• “Yes, Hamas imperils our values. But smug celebrities and the virtue-signalling Left are the biggest threat to Western civilisation” – Many celebrities have condemned Israel, oblivious to the fact that it is on the front line of a broader conflict of values, argues Professor Doug Stokes, this time in the Mail.
• “London jihad demo leader is NHS doctor” – An NHS family doctor who spent more than 20 years practising has been revealed as the leader of an extremist Islamic group, reports the Mail.
• “The Decolonisation Narrative Is Dangerous and False” – It does not accurately describe either the foundation of Israel or the tragedy of the Palestinians, says Simon Sebag Montefiore in the Atlantic.
• “Jewish group accuses Greta Thunberg’s climate movement of ‘demonising Israel’” – The movement started by climate activist Greta Thunberg has been accused of “demonising Israel” after it claimed Western Governments had brainwashed citizens into backing the country, the Telegraph reports.
• “Should scientists be allowed to tell the truth?” – Thorsteinn Siglaugsson in TCW on a recent video by U.S. Government vaccine adviser Paul Offit titled ‘‘Should scientists openly debate vaccine policies?’
• “My New Normal” – Laura Dodsworth with an anonymous story of one woman’s descent into fear during lockdown.
• “What’s Wrong with Mandating Tests?” – Respect others and do not try to infect them, but do not submit to mandatory testing for disease, says Brownstone’s Alan Lash.
• “The mystery of the Covid Inquiry’s missing WhatsApps” – Scottish officials’ pandemic WhatsApp messages are conveniently absent, says Iain Macwhirter in the Spectator.
• “The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames” – The NHS spent millions of pounds on a flawed AI chatbot whose creator used aggressive sales techniques and overpromised what it could do, former staff have claimed, according to the Times.
• “Forbes: Climate Policy Hurts the Poor More than Climate Change” – WUWT wonders if we have “all just entered a parallel universe where mainstream media publishes articles which make sense”.
• “Academic caught on camera tearing down LTN protest poster cleared by university” – An academic who wrote reports praising low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) but was caught tearing down a petition opposed to one near her home has been cleared by her university of “research misconduct”, reports the Telegraph.
• “British Museum in Benin Bronzes row over African kingdoms ‘benefiting from slavery’” – The British Museum has been asked by slave descendants to install signs explaining how African kingdoms benefited from slavery in a row over the Benin Bronzes, according to the Telegraph.
• “The UN has become a sick joke” – It’s not just on Israel that the organisation has shown its true face, but on China too, says Zoe Strimpel.
• “Gender-critical books ‘treated like Mein Kampf’ by public library” – The library service of Calderdale council has barred six books that understand human biology from being promoted in displays in order to “protect the public from offence”, the Telegraph reports.
• “Why are Cambridge University’s librarians judging ‘problematic’ books?” – Librarians across Cambridge University are looking out for ‘problematic’ books in its libraries, warns David Abulafia in the Spectator.
• “The debanking of Farage was a watershed moment” – Patrick West in Spiked argues the incident shows we must defeat cancel culture, once and for all.
• “Keeping out the boat people? Only if they’re Albanian” – Non-Albanian illegal immigration is up on last year, says Alp Mehmet in TCW.
• “Black Britons don’t need black history” – Efforts at redefining our national story are usually elite-driven, argues Ralph Leonard in UnHerd.
• “Don’t let the ‘misinformation’ thought police strangle free speech” – Michael Shellenberger in the Telegraph argues that user moderation provides a compelling alternative to Government regulation.
• “Liz Truss is slowly winning the argument” – Her presentation may have been catastrophic but she remains a champion of growth, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “It’s Starmer versus the Sourdough Socialists: Foot battled Bennites. Kinnock fought Militant. But the current Labour leader faces the oddest Left-wing cult yet” – Sir Keir Starmer faces a clash with possibly the oddest Lefty cult ever to rise up in the Labour Party, what Brendan O’Neill in the Mail calls the Sourdough Socialists.
• “Sue Gray’s son applies to stand as Labour candidate for London seat” – Liam Conlon, whose mother is Partygate investigator Sue Gray, is in the running to be selected as Labour’s candidate for the Beckenham and Penge seat in South-East London, the Mail reports.
• “Antisemite in NYC confronted by non-Jews after he’s caught tearing down posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas” – Watch the video from the Stop Antisemitism X account.

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