Israel – Hamas War

• Ceasefire for Gaza reached. Following a series of last-minute snags, a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached, after negotiators from Israel and Hamas formally signed the truce on Thursday. The ceasefire has since been approved by Israel's full cabinet, with a end to hostilities due to begin on Sunday (19th Jan), bringing an end to 15 months of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas. Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to quit Netanyahu’s government over the ceasefire, calling it a “reckless deal”. The deal sets out a three-phase agreement “on the exchange of hostages and prisoners and restoring a sustainable calm,” and provides for the release of 33 Israeli hostages in the first phase. Few are unaware that while the ceasefire may temporarily stop the killing, it is highly unlikely to end the conflict. Read also here.

Antisemitism

• 50% of world’s population is anti-Semitic, poll finds. Research by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - the world’s leading anti-hate organisation – has found that nearly half of people worldwide (46%) hold anti-Semitic views. That’s a truly disturbing estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide - twice the 1.09 billion identified in 2014. The figure for the UK is 12% (6.7 million adults). The survey has led ADL directors to warn of a “global emergency” and to call on governments to act. The highest levels of hatred towards Jews were found in the West Bank and Gaza, and Kuwait (97%), followed by Indonesia (96%). In the Middle East and North Africa the figure was 76%. The lowest was Sweden (5%), while Norway, Canada, and the Netherlands were at 8%.
• Less than half the world’s population believed the Holocaust happened. Globally, younger respondents showed higher levels of anti-Semitic beliefs, with 40% of those under 35 believing “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars” and 47% agreeing that “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” compared with 23% and 28% respectively among those aged 65 and over. Pollsters also found that less than half (48%) of respondents believed “the Holocaust happened, and the number of Jews who died has been fairly described by history,” falling to 39% among 18 to 34-year-olds. 20% claimed to be unaware of the Holocaust, down from nearly half in 2014.

World Events

• LA fires as 'judgement' from God. Some Christian outlets are claiming that the fires in Los Angeles are the result of 'God’s judgement' on corruption in the entertainment industry – with LA having more of an impact on the culture of the world than any other city, by a wide margin. On top of all that, L.A. is the epicentre for the global pornography industry. Scores of celebrities are among those who have lost their homes. It was also noted that the entertainment industry was mocking God at the Golden Globe awards just 48 hours before the fires hit. Others are regarding the fires as a ‘wake-up call’ in the hope that there will be “a spiritual awakening on the other side of this”. Read also here.
• Prophecies and 'Government plots'. Some US ‘prophets’ have already been issuing ‘prophetic warnings’ in regard to the fires, while typically failing to predict the outbreak of the fires in the first place. Predictably, the infernos have also sparked a slew of theories that the fires were deliberately orchestrated by high-office authorities – to, among other things, enrich billionaires, to hasten high speed rail in California, or to hasten 15-minute city plans for LA. Read also here and here.

Rape Gang Scandal

• Grooming Gangs Inquiry told not to investigate senior officers. Investigators who examined police failings in the Rotherham grooming gangs scandal were told not to investigate senior officers, and no one lost their jobs, a whistleblower has said. “There was just no passion or desire within the IOPC (The Independent Office of Police Conduct) to understand what went wrong in Rotherham and find out why those girls were let down.” The IOPC found that police did not make crime records even when rapes and sexual assaults were reported, did not question older men found in the presence of young drunk girls, and viewed vulnerable children as troublesome problems instead of victims.
• Rotherham – the UK’s rape gang capital. A staggering 1,400-plus young girls were raped or sexually exploited by gangs of men of predominantly Pakistani heritage in the Yorkshire town of Rotherham alone. Council bosses in Rotherham who were criticised for failing to protect girls from grooming gangs have gone on to become Government advisers, bankers and an “executive coach and mentor”. Meanwhile, the Labour MP who represents Rotherham, Sarah Champion, has performed a U-turn and is now demanding a national inquiry into the scandal. Indeed, polls suggest that 73% of the British public also want a national inquiry. Under pressure, the government announced plans for a nationwide review of grooming gang evidence and five government-backed local inquiries on Thursday. All the while, some publications continue to show British Muslims as the victims. Read also this fascinating piece.

Covid and the Vaccines

• Most vaccine-injured denied compensation. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is at last focusing on the development of Covid-19 vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme. The inquiry has heard that two-thirds of people injured by Covid jabs have been denied compensation, as they have to prove how disabled they are to get a payout – an assessment that has been branded ‘offensive’.
• Royal College of GPs conflict of interest over children’s Covid vaccine. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Royal College of GPs has been accused of failing to declare payments from Pfizer when advocating for a children’s Covid vaccine during the pandemic. It has further been disclosed that the payment scheme for people injured by vaccines has cost taxpayers more to run than it has paid out to victims, fuelling calls for “urgent reform”.
• Facebook forced to censor vaccine side effect info. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a recent interview that the Biden Administration pressured Facebook to suppress information about potential vaccine side effects – further stating that Biden officials would “scream” and “curse” at Facebook staff and demand they remove Covid-19-related posts that didn’t toe the line on the government narrative.

Archaeology

• Major archaeological find in Jerusalem’s Old City. A shrine carved into the rock near Temple Mount in ancient Jerusalem has recently been discovered. The structure comprises eight rooms, containing an altar, a sacred standing stone, and presses for olive oil and wine. Eli Shukron, excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, has sensationally dated it to Hezekiah's reign, some 3,000 years ago. It marks the first such find of a religious site practically down the street from where the biblical First Temple stood.

Society and Politics

• BBC editor may sue Owen Jones over Israel bias claim. Raffi Berg, the BBC’s Middle East online editor, himself a Jew, Owen Jones says he may sue Guardian columnist Owen Jones after Jones accused him of Israel bias in his coverage of the Gaza conflict, which led to him receiving death threats. Jones noted that a BBC employee claimed Berg’s “entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel”. The BBC denied any suggestion of a ‘lenient stance’ towards Israel or Palestinians.
• Torrent of anti-Semitic abuse against BBC editor. Jones’ investigation has led to a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse against Berg, the worst case of targeted abuse one BBC insider said he had ever seen at the BBC, including death threats. Several petitions calling for Berg’s suspension, the organiser of one of which, Tamara Abood, a former Channel 4 news commissioner, said: “Raffi is the tip of the iceberg. Scratch the surface of the BBC and you will find it packed to the rafters with Zionists who will frame the reporting on Gaza to centre Israeli interests.”

Bite-Size News

• Carol Wimber-Wong, wife of the late John Wimber and co-founder of the influential Vineyard movement, has passed away at the age of 87.
• Bill McCartney, the founder of the Christian men's ministry Promise Keepers, has died at the age of 84.