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Video shows Ukraine HIMARS take out Russian drone team

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Video shows Ukraine HIMARS take out Russian drone team

Ukraine’s armed forces have released a video of Kyiv’s Special Operations Forces purportedly taking out a Russian drone crew using a U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

The video, shared to Telegram, shows aerial footage of what Ukraine claims is a Russian “BPAK” ZALA crew, or an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) unit. The Moscow soldiers in the video are shown retrieving a drone from a wide-open area and moving indoors to a small structure. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said that the unit was found while their forces conducted “reconnaissance operations in the southern direction.”

“Our soldiers conducted observations, and then adjusted the fire of the HIMARS jet installation according to the enemy’s calculations,” read the Telegram post. “One hit— and the occupiers have reduced UAVs.”

The 30-second video also shows the moment the small structure is hit with a HIMARS, erupting into flames. As smoke starts to billow out of the area, two individuals—presumably Russian soldiers—are seen fleeing on foot.

Newsweek could not independently confirm the events in the video, and the Russian defense ministry has been contacted via email for comment.

It is unclear where the Russian ZALA unit in the video was stationed, but Ukraine has focused on reclaiming Moscow-occupied territory in the southern and eastern directions since launching its counteroffensive in June. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Sunday that Ukraine made marginal advances south of the city of Bakhmut and toward the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, citing geolocated footage.

HIMARS systems have allowed Kyiv’s military to extend its striking capabilities against Russian bridges and supply and ammunition depots since first arriving in Ukraine in June 2022. The Pentagon has since kept a steady stream of ammunition for the rocket launchers, including additional artillery in its latest $200 million aid package for Ukraine announced last week.

Videos circulated online have shown a piece of the HIMARS’ impact since the launch of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Earlier this month, pro-Ukrainian account WarTranslated on X, formerly Twitter, shared a video of what it claimed was a Ukrainian HIMARS striking a Russian Giatsint-S artillery system in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

A Russian soldier also shared the aftermath of a Ukrainian rocket strike on two Russian 2S9 Nona-S self-propelled guns reportedly destroyed in the Donetsk region in late September. The video, shared to X by Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko, shows the self-propelled guns burnt to a crisp.

Polish election offers hope to Ukraine

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Polish election offers hope to Ukraine

Polish voters called time on Jarosław Kaczyński’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) this weekend, with the right-wing party failing to win a majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election that may mark the beginning of the end of its eight-year stint in power.

The liberal opposition Civic Coalition (KO)—led by former Polish prime minister and former European Council president Donald Tusk—appears, with the cooperation of two smaller parties, to have a path to power.

PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his party is also ready to try to form another government if asked to do so by President Andrzej Duda.

The outcome of the nascent coalition bargaining will decide the political trajectory of a fulcrum of the European Union-NATO response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at a time when American and European voices are warning that political and military assistance for Kyiv is finite.

Easing Tensions

Officials in Kyiv were perturbed by rising Polish acrimony in the run-up to this weekend’s election, with a dispute over Ukrainian westward grain exports devolving into a wider spat with PiS leaders.

The standoff came as a shock given PiS’ role as one of Kyiv’s most hawkish backers during Russia’s invasion, with Poland serving as a key provider of military aid, a conduit for NATO weapons heading east, and a loud pro-Ukrainian voice within the EU.

The ruling party’s acrimony was interpreted by some observers as an effort to stave off the electoral threat of the far-right Confederation party, which has been explicitly hostile to the Ukrainian government and around 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.

But Ukraine-skeptic PiS-Confederation rhetoric does not appear to have swayed enough Polish voters, among whom there was record turnout. An Ipsos exit poll published on Monday showed PiS with 36.6 percent of the vote, which would translate into 198 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament. Confederation is on course to win a lower-than-expected 6.4 percent of the vote.

Though PiS is set to emerge as the largest single party, Tusk’s KO coalition has a path to a parliamentary majority with the cooperation of the center-right Third Way and the leftist Lewica parties.

Tusk was critical of the PiS’ disputes with Ukraine ahead of the election. The former prime minister said maintaining good relations with Ukraine was “an existential issue” for Warsaw. Though Tusk acknowledged the difficulty of the agricultural export issue, he added: “There is no alternative to a pro-Ukrainian policy.”

Poland’s long suffering under, and opposition to, Russian imperialism—whether tsarist, Soviet, or 21st century—meant there is no danger of a pro-Russian administration coming to power in Warsaw.

“Both of those forces support Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression, and they favor Ukrainian European integration,” Yurii Banakhovych, a correspondent with Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, said about the PiS and KO at a Monday briefing.

Any Tusk-led coalition, Banakhovych said, “will probably be trying to smooth those sharp edges that emerged in relations between Ukraine and Poland during the elections campaign.”

Poland’s role in EU expansion, Piotr Buras—the head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)—told Newsweek, could prove an important foreign policy litmus test for a new liberal administration.

“I would expect that this government would significantly improve relations with Brussels, with Germany, with other European powers, and it could potentially become an important player in this debate about the EU reform and enlargement in general,” Buras said.

Poland under PiS has spent more time fighting with its EU partners than coordinating with them on the bloc’s future shape. “Poland is in fact quite indispensable for this debate to move forward,” Buras said. “And I think the Ukrainians probably know it quite well.”

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry by email to request comment.

No Guarantees for Kyiv

Still, a hypothetical Tusk government is not necessarily good news for Kyiv. “To us, if the PiS leaves government it’s not good news,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek.

“I hoped that after the elections, if PiS stayed in power, it would restore relations prior to the emergence of the grain issue,” said Merezhko, who is a member of Ukraine’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and, along with PiS politicians, is part of the body’s European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance.

“I’m biased,” Merezhko said, noting his work with PiS colleagues at PACE. However, Merezhko added he is not yet convinced that Tusk will be as strong in supporting Ukraine as the PiS administration has been.

“Of course, we would like to keep ‘bipartisan’ support of Ukraine in the Polish parliament,” Merezhko said. “At the same time, PiS was very supportive of Ukraine from the first hours of the full-scale invasion. I’m not sure that [Tusk’s Civic Platform—or PO—party] would have been supportive in the same way as PiS.”

Tusk’s ties with Germany formed a key plank of the PiS attack strategy against the opposition in the election. Tusk made clear his intention to repair Warsaw-Brussels and Warsaw-Berlin ties damaged by eight years of PiS anti-EU agitation.

“To me, PiS is pro-American, whereas PO is pro-German,” Merezhko said. “I prefer pro-American…If Germany someday changes its policy towards Ukraine, I don’t know where the PO will go.”

“PiS wants the U.S. to take leadership on the Ukrainian issue and is ready to support the U.S. efforts, whereas PO will be much more EU-oriented on this issue,” Merezhko said. “I saw the difference between PiS and PO in the PACE. PiS was much more resolute in the struggle against Russia.”

Some bilateral issues will not be resolved by a change in leadership. Morawiecki’s September announcement that Poland would no longer send weapons to Ukraine prompted a flurry of headlines but was more a reflection of Poland reaching the end of its export capacity rather than a sudden drop-off in support.

And on the issue of agricultural exports, Tusk will have to be seen as standing up for Poles and the country’s influential farming sector, regardless of any sympathy with Kyiv.

Polish election authorities are still counting the votes cast this weekend. Coalition negotiations will have already begun, though it may take some time before there is any significant resolution. As the single party with the most votes, PiS will likely be offered the chance to form a government first. Tusk will only get his chance if PiS fails.

“This means that the PiS will likely remain in power at least until mid-December as a caretaker government with full control over state institutions,” Buras said. “The real test of whether and how the power will be transferred to the new government will come at the end of the year.”

A fall of stagnation might prove problematic for Ukraine as it seeks to shore up Western backing ahead of another difficult winter. The next administration in Warsaw will have to juggle difficult economic and political questions, particularly if it is led by Tusk and his allies, who have made clear their intention to overhaul many of PiS’ anti-democratic policies.

“The problem is also that after this election and having high polarization, Poland might plunge into internal political struggle and pay less attention to Ukraine,” Merezhko said.

A PiS in opposition will bring its own challenges, Buras said, especially if supported by Confederation. The party, he explained, “was actually quite skeptical about Ukraine even before the war, but it became for Ukraine because of the Polish security interests in the first place, and also because of the fact that this Ukrainian stance and Poland’s central role in supporting Ukraine elevated Poland’s position in Europe, and especially in relation to the U.S.”

“That was the foundation of the strong Polish-American bond in the last two years,” Buras added. With PiS out of government and ties with the White House no longer its problem, “its position could evolve,” Buras said.

“It will not affect the government’s position and policy so much, but it will affect the overall political debate on Ukraine in Poland with indirect consequences for the government.”

Families of Russian troops urge Putin in new video: "Bring our men back"

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Families of Russian troops urge Putin in new video: "Bring our men back"

Family members of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine recently posted a video in which they call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to remove their loved ones from the front lines.

The relatives spoke from a location in the Russian republic of Tatarstan in a clip originally posted on Telegram. WarTranslated, an independent media project that translates materials about the war into English, shared the video on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

Monday marked the 600th day of the invasion that Putin launched on Ukraine in February 2022. According to the latest tally from Ukraine’s General Staff, Russia has lost more than 288,000 soldiers in the war, with around 6,000 of those losses coming in the past week. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify Ukraine’s figures, and other estimates tend to be more conservative than Kyiv’s.

The main speaker in the video posted by WarTranslated referenced the high casualty rate suffered by the Tatarstan battalion, saying it had experienced “colossal losses.”

The video opens with the speaker identifying himself and a group of people standing behind him that appears to number more than two dozen as being “close relatives” of the Russian military‘s 2nd Battalion of the 1234th Regiment.

“We’re begging to help and save our Tatarstan battalion. For two years, our battalion operated as territorial defense in the Svatove direction,” the speaker said, per WarTranslated’s phrasing. “As of today, a large part of the battalion is assaulting. The rest are waiting to be sent [to assault] any day.”

He continued: “They are taking colossal losses. Every minute, we receive information about the wounded and dead.”

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email for comment Monday.

According to the speaker, whose name was not given, the battalion from Tatarstan does not wish to disobey orders and is willing to defend Russia in the war against Ukraine. However, the relatives directly appealed to Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the mobilized Tatarstan fighters be moved away from offensive positions.

“The mobilized must be in defense, not on the zero line,” the speaker said, using the Russian term “zero line” for the front line.

The clip ends with the entire group shouting in unison: “Bring our men back!”

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank on Saturday reported of two other recent instances of Russian soldiers’ relatives making public complaints about the war.

Wives of servicemen in a tank regiment in the Kupyansk direction recently claimed to the Astra Telegram channel, which is a project of independent Russian journalists, that 42 troops from the unit were placed into a basement after a failed assault, according to the ISW.

The U.S.-based think tank also wrote that relatives of Russian “Storm Z” units—which are often comprised of former convicts—complained to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian service Sever Realii in a story published Saturday that Moscow officials have not been routinely returning the bodies of their family members who died in the war.

Putin’s Avdiivka calamity

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Putin’s Avdiivka calamity

Russia’s offensive on the symbolic Ukrainian town of Avdiivka is running out of steam, new analysis suggests, after Moscow’s assaults marked the first major Kremlin clap back at Ukraine’s grinding counteroffensive.

Russian forces pushed on with offensive operations “aimed at encircling Avdiivka” on Sunday, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in its latest update. However, Moscow is “yet to make further gains amid a likely decreasing tempo of Russian operations in the area,” it added.

Russian forces likely faced “initial high losses” and a slower-than-hoped pace of advance around Avdiivka, the ISW said. Reports from open-source intelligence accounts had suggested that Russia sustained heavy equipment losses in its assault on Avdiivka.

Moscow’s forces began a major push around the eastern town on October 10, thought to involve at least three battalions. As the assault got underway, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s office, said that Avdiivka was “under mass attacks of Russian artillery and aviation.”

Late on Saturday night local time, Zelensky placed Avdiivka at the top of the list of fighting hot spots, saying: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops.”

Avdiivka has long felt the effects of the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow. Around 1,600 residents are still living in the town, Vitaliy Barabash, who heads up its military administration, has previously estimated. It had a pre-war population of around 30,000.

Russian and Russian-backed forces have been trying to wrestle control of Avdiivka away from Kyiv for nine years, said Major Viktor Trehubov, who serves in Ukraine’s military. “Their current offensive is severe, but still not successful, mostly because of unprecedented effectiveness of Ukrainian combat and reconnaissance UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles),” he told Newsweek on Monday.

In the week between October 9 and October 16, Ukrainian drones destroyed 88 armored vehicles, 75 tanks, 101 howitzers and cannons and two Russian air defense systems, Ukrainian vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said on Monday.

Uncrewed technology “proved to be very efficient in the defense of Avdiivka,” he wrote in a post to X.

Avdiivka is a “notoriously well-fortified and defended Ukrainian stronghold,” the ISW said back on October 11, meaning Russia would have a tough time capturing it.

Yet it is not surprising that Russia would try to take control of Avdiivka, which falls into what is known as a “salient,” that cuts into Russia’s lines, said Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Hague Center for Security Studies.

Russia tried to seize control of the territory earlier in the war, and it “makes solid military sense,” he told Newsweek.

If Russia took control of Avdiivka, it would be a notable win for Moscow’s troops that have been facing off against Ukrainian counteroffensive attacks since early June.

“If Ukraine were to lose Avdiivka, it would be an important Russian defensive victory,” largely because it would make Donetsk better defended against future Ukrainian offensives, Mertens said.

But Russia has likely also zeroed in on Avdiivka to distract Ukrainian forces from other points along the front line, Michael Clarke, professor at the War Studies department at King’s College, London, told Newsweek last week.

Russia looks to be attacking “all across the front while they play for time until the weather turns,” he said.

“If you are looking for a spot where you might launch a counteroffensive to draw in troops from the still-ongoing Ukrainian summer offensive, this would theoretically be a perfect spot,” Mertens said.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin “may be trying to temper expectations of significant Russian advances around Avdiivka,” the ISW said on Sunday.

“Russian forces are unlikely to make significant breakthroughs or cut off Ukrainian forces in the settlement in the near term,” the think tank evaluated.

Ukraine has been battling to push back the Russian front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine for months, with some successes coming at a high cost and at a slow pace. As Ukraine enters the tougher, muddier fall and winter months, Kyiv has vowed to continue the push despite the worsening conditions.

Russia did not mention Avdiivka in its daily update on Sunday, but Ukraine’s General Staff said on Monday that it had faced more than 15 Russian attacks on Avdiivka in the past day.

Ukraine had seen the Russian attack on Avdiivka coming, a spokesperson for Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said last week, and there are indications that it had prepared for the assault, such as by laying mines, the ISW said in an earlier assessment.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.

Update 10/16/2023 10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comment from Major Viktor Trehubov.

Update 10/16/2023 at 11:47 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Frederik Mertens.

This Moment Will Determine the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Alliance

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This Moment Will Determine the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Alliance

Following the heinous terrorist attacks on Israel, the world is watching the United States. Our allies question whether they should trust us and our enemies question whether they should fear us. At this perilous moment, we cannot afford to leave any doubt about American resolve. That means standing not just with Israel but also our closest allies around the world.

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. and South Korean alliance, which was formalized by the signing of the Mutual Defense Treaty. Over seven decades, our partnership has flourished through great challenges, providing great benefits to both countries.

However, we are at a critical turning point for our alliance. As war rages in the Middle East and Europe, the threat of conflict in Asia with North Korea and China looms. The next few years could determine whether the alliance, trilateral relations, and our Indo-Pacific strategy collapses under the weight of toxic politics or flourishes for decades to come.

Fortunately, we have a committed partner in South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, who campaigned on closer ties with the United States and arguably has staked the success of his tenure on the bet that this approach will deliver results at home.

Just this year, President Yoon is slated to visit the United States four times. President Joe Biden‘s recent trilateral Camp David summit with the leaders of Korea and Japan prove that President Yoon is willing to take the political risk of forging with another key U.S. ally despite long-standing historical grievances between Japan and Korea. Meanwhile, President Yoon has expanded our military alliance and is actively encouraging South Korean companies to invest billions of dollars in the United States.

In key areas such as cyber, space exploration, energy, and pandemic preparedness, cooperation with South Korea is essential for our economic and security future. Not only will increased economic cooperation create jobs and growth here at home while reducing the dependence of our supply chains on our adversaries, but the unity will send a clear message of strength that the United States remains a Pacific power that they should not test.

Despite this positive momentum, there are numerous frustrations on both sides of our relationship that could simmer into a boil. Many of our South Korean partners were apoplectic about protectionist measures in the Inflation Reduction Act that excluded Korean firms from qualifying for electric vehicle tax credits, even as these same companies invest billions building new car production plants in the United States. At a time when the United States Navy is now significantly smaller than China’s, posing an imminent danger to our national security, South Korean companies that can build vessels at far lower costs are excluded from the market. Meanwhile, many Korean companies are unable to get visas for the highly-skilled workers they need to make their American investments successful.

The Koreans also have their work cut out for them in making sure not to alienate important constituencies in the United States. Just like their American counterparts, many Korean companies have significant exposure to China. Korean companies will have to explain to potential American partners how they plan to reduce this dependency and appeal for enough time to get the job done. There’s also the risk that all this increased investment in the United States will spark backlash from their American competitors. As many younger Americans have little memory of the Korean War, we can’t afford to assume they will automatically be aware of why our alliance is so important.

In April of next year, South Korea will hold its legislative elections. If the Korean people do not conclude that President Yoon’s efforts with the United States are bearing fruit, it’s possible he will feel the pain at the ballot box, putting future progress at risk. Then there’s the potential impact of our upcoming elections. During his time in office, former President Donald Trump made his somewhat inexplicable disdain for the South Koreans clear, falsely accusing them of not contributing to the cost of housing American forces. If re-elected, he’s “suggested imposing a universal tariff” on all imports, which would treat South Korea like they were an adversary and greatly set back our relationship.

As a result of my family’s relationship with South Korea, I feel a unique responsibility to help make sure our alliance grows stronger, not weaker. My wife was the first Korean American first lady in U.S. history. Her life is a testament to the enduring friendship between our countries, and I’m proud to often be called the “Hanguk Sawi,” or “Son-in-Law of Korea.” That’s why I will join my Korean friends in celebrating the last 70 years of partnership. If we want to ensure another successful 70 years, we should not ignore the storm clouds on the horizon.

Larry Hogan served as the 62nd governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. His wife, Yumi Hogan, is the only Korean American first lady in American history.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

Azerbaijan Must Be Held Accountable

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Azerbaijan Must Be Held Accountable

During President Joe Biden‘s remarks commemorating the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, he told members of the world body, “If we abandon the core principles of the United Nations Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected?” By answering his own question with an emphatic no, he then went on to say that, “We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”

What Biden failed to mention in that same speech is that days before delivering it, Azerbaijan, a country led by one of the world’s leading autocrats, Ilham Aliyev, launched a military attack against ethnic Armenians living in their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh in a final attempt to end their three decades of de facto self-rule as a burgeoning democracy. The offensive followed months of unprovoked attacks by Azerbaijan and a nine-month road blockade that Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, called a genocide.

For Armenian Americans like myself, Biden’s speech at the U.N. was a stark reminder that human rights and autocrats are not all created equal. For close to a year, Azerbaijan tried to force Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh by making living conditions unbearable by limiting access to food, medicine, gas, electricity, and other critical supplies through their illegal closure of the Lachin Corridor, which had been part of Baku’s campaign to ethnically cleanse the Armenian people from the region.

And for more than two years, Armenian American community and coalition leaders pleaded with the Biden administration to uphold Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which bans foreign aid to Azerbaijan. Instead of keeping Azerbaijan in check, Biden emboldened Baku to continue their reckless and vicious behavior toward Armenians by issuing feeble and empty statements calling for both sides to resolve all issues through direct dialogue.

While the U.S. State Department was working with European Union officials to negotiate a settlement, Biden’s words were not met with any action.

Biden has overlooked Aliyev’s rising authoritarianism and egregious behavior by turning to Azerbaijan’s vast oil resources and proximity to Iran as a geopolitical trade-off. This type of transactional diplomacy sends the wrong message to would-be aggressors and gives cover to despots like Aliyev who feel that they can say and do whatever they want with impunity.

The lack of accountability has led to one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises currently taking place, as more than 120,000 Armenians have fled their homes while upending a thousand-year-old culture and civilization overnight.

Since then, we have seen a barrage of diplomats express their concerns for the Armenian people but hardly a word about Azerbaijan’s role and responsibility in causing this human tragedy.

Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, recently visited Armenia where she continued to play the “bothsidesism” game and refused to condemn Azerbaijan. She embarked on a photo-op tour making stops at the Armenian Genocide Memorial (Tsitsernakaberd) after months of silence and inaction on the genocide happening today.

U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary Yuri Kim also accompanied Power on her trip, where she too avoided questions on sanctioning Azerbaijan despite Baku using military force days after testifying before Congress that such an attack would warrant punishment by the United States.

Make no mistake, Azerbaijan’s aggression will not stop with Nagorno-Karabakh.

In recent speeches and statements, President Aliyev has unequivocally claimed that Armenia is part of Azerbaijan’s historical lands, while calling Armenia “Western Azerbaijan.” He even said Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, belongs to his country.

This is the same leader who plants the seeds of hate to children by enacting a state policy that fuels animosity toward the Armenian people in schools across Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is promoting a culture of hate and fear and is breeding a whole new generation of anti-Armenian sentiment. It is dangerous. It is irresponsible. And it needs to stop.

And in an act of symbolism and defiance, Aliyev invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijan’s cultural and ethnic ally, for a one-day-visit to Nakhchivan, another contested enclave in Azeri control that borders Armenia, days after the offensive for talks on bilateral ties and regional issues.

For a president who entered the White House claiming that human rights would be at the crux of his foreign policy, Biden has fallen short of that promise, particularly for Armenians. What he and others in his administration fail to understand is that this is a human rights issue and not a geopolitical one. Realpolitik should play no role in this discussion.

The United States has a long history of inaction on genocide. If Biden wants to change that narrative and live up to the principles of the U.N. Chater, then he will do what is right and hold Azerbaijan accountable.

Until then, we can expect more violence and hostility in the South Caucasus.

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s a first-generation Armenian American and grandson to survivors of the Armenian genocide.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

It’s Only a War Crime if Israel Is Doing It

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It’s Only a War Crime if Israel Is Doing It

Once again self-proclaimed international law experts are throwing around terms that they do not understand to accuse Israel of atrocities as it responds to a vicious attack from the terrorist group Hamas.

Today, these “experts” are concerned about the war crimes of “forcible transfer” and “deportation” as Israel tries to save innocent Palestinian civilians by warning them to leave Hamas strongholds.

Here is another short primer on international law: Saving civilian lives is not a war crime. Terms matter, and there is a difference between an evacuation and a forcible transfer. Saving innocent people is what any army is supposed to do and literally the opposite of what Hamas has done and continues to do.

But don’t take my word for it, let’s ask the United Nations what the war crimes “forcible transfer” and “deportation” mean when the entity involved is not Israel (emphasis added):

What are the crimes of deportation and forcible transfer? Forcing persons to leave the area where they reside can be a crime against humanity, a war crime or both. If they occur in the context of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population, deportation and forcible transfer are crimes against humanity. Deportation and forcible transfer occur when individuals are forced by expulsion or coercion from the place they were lawfully present, and there was no basis under international law for their displacement. When persons are displaced across an international border, it is called deportation. When such displacement occurs within a national boundary, it is called forcible transfer. Forced displacement does not require physical force and can be caused by the threat of force or coercion, duress or psychological oppression. A person is lawfully present in an area if they have a right under domestic or international law to be there, including refugees and stateless persons. International law allows the involuntary removal of persons only where it is strictly for the security of the persons or for imperative military reasons, but only for as long as the removal is necessary.

This is not, in fact, a close call.

Israel is attacking Hamas, not targeting the civilian population.

Israel has an overwhelming imperative military reason to ask civilians to leave (stopping a genocidal terrorist organization) and is doing so for the security of those persons. Not a war crime—quite the opposite. This is what just war looks like.

Actually, Israel is quite literally following the letter of international human rights law.

Per the Geneva Conventions, Article 58(a) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I: the parties to the conflict shall, to the maximum extent feasible, “without prejudice to Article 49 of the Fourth Convention, endeavor to remove the civilian population, individual civilians and civilian objects under their control from the vicinity of military objectives.”

Per Article 57, 1(c) “effective advance warning shall be given of attacks which may affect the civilian population, unless circumstances do not permit.”

To review—Israel is engaging in a lawful, proportionate attack against a genocidal enemy force. The war crimes of forcible transfer require evidence of illicit intent; the opposite is true here. Israel has already evacuated hundreds of thousands of its own citizens to keep them out of harms’ way; now Israel is desperately trying to save the lives of Palestinian civilians as well ,even at the expense of telegraphing its own attacks. Meanwhile, Hamas is ordering people to stay in harms’ way, as human shields, so they can then complain to an undiscerning media about how many civilians Israel killed.

By any definition, Israel’s warnings are an act of morality, if not grace. But once again, when it comes to Israel, somehow the rules are different.

Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. is director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

It’s Not Just Big Cities—Rising Crime Is a Problem Everywhere

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It’s Not Just Big Cities—Rising Crime Is a Problem Everywhere

Earlier this month, a member of the U.S. Congress, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), was carjacked by armed attackers near Capitol Hill. Not long before, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was physically assaulted in her apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

Stories like these help explain why crime in major cities like Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago receive the most press coverage. Yet communities throughout the country are forced to deal with that same reality in cities large and small, with little national attention.

A new Crime and Safety Impact Report from Our America reveals that homicides, assaults, robberies, carjackings, and shoplifting are overwhelming cities of all sizes, where families fear for their safety each day. This chaos and uncontrolled violence is having cascading negative effects, with residents finding it difficult to wait for the bus to get to work or walk outside late at night.

According to the report, homicide investigations in Atlanta increased by 60 percent from 2019 to 2020, and then peaked in 2022. Likewise, burglary and shoplifting increased last year. Pittsburgh, for example, experienced 71 homicides in 2022, the city’s highest number in a decade. In fact, the Major Cities Chiefs Association reports that Pittsburgh is suffering from a year-over-year increase in rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults as of mid-2023. Pittsburghers likewise saw a 46 percent rise in shootings between 2020 and 2021.

These trends are common even among smaller cities, such as Henderson, Nevada, where FBI crime statistics show that the number of robberies rose by more than 90 percent in the first half of 2022 compared to the same time period in 2021. If that sharp uptick sounds unbelievable, you’re not alone in thinking so. The rise in thefts was so high that the FBI contacted the city itself to verify the increase.

Some inner-city residents have no choice but to pay for ride-sharing services to avoid walking down dangerous streets. These necessary but added expenses for security make it difficult for Americans to attain the American Dream in an already sluggish economy. Meanwhile, it’s nearly impossible for many to rest at night knowing that one of their loved ones could, at any moment, be taken away by homicide or lost to a stray bullet.

These fears are even more keenly felt by our nation’s minority communities, who are most affected by violent crime. African Americans, for example, who make up only 14.2 percent of the U.S. population, are victims of nearly 33 percent of all violent crime and more than half of homicides.

Fortunately, unprecedented crime rates in American communities can be reduced if lawmakers at every level enact policies that strengthen the rule of law, both within and outside crime hubs from Los Angeles to New York City.

Placing more officers at crime “hot spots” would reduce serious crime in communities suffering from rampant shoplifting and shootings due to understaffed and underpaid police forces. Adding just 10 to 17 officers to a police department is enough to prevent one murder and reduce other violent crimes.

Increasing officer pay can also help reverse our nationwide police force shortage and protect inner-city Americans. Higher pay not only would encourage more qualified applicants to join law enforcement, but evidence also suggests that higher pay means better performance on the job. By increasing officer pay, departments can recruit talented potential officers who may otherwise choose a different profession.

It’s likewise vital that district attorneys carry out their responsibility to prosecute crimes, a duty many are neglecting. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, for example, refused to prosecute two-thirds of arrests in 2022, including cases involving gun possession, drug possession, and burglary charges. That means repeat offenders are having a heyday with the knowledge that they can get away with crimes punishment-free.

Strengthening sentencing guidelines would instantly protect more Americans by putting recidivists in custody. California saw felony arrests for people with two strikes decline by 20 percent when the state passed a “three strikes” law to strengthen sentencing for criminals’ third offenses.

Families all across the country have been faced with growing crime rates that have gone unaddressed and in some cases been exacerbated by local and state officials. To maintain the health and safety of every American city, local officials need to put violent criminals behind bars and community heroes must receive the support and the resources necessary to effectively carry out their jobs.

Gabriel Nadales is the national director of Our America.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

Colleges Must Support Their Jewish Students Without Equivocation

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Colleges Must Support Their Jewish Students Without Equivocation

The heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians have been devastating. We can’t even begin to express the pain being felt across the Jewish community as we watch the endless and mounting stories of the more than 1,300 children, teenagers, parents, grandparents, and entire families who have been murdered, kidnapped, and held hostage simply for being Jewish. Depending on the moment, we feel simultaneously caught between anguish and anger, horror and despair.

It’s the same complex and debilitating swirl of emotions being felt by hundreds of thousands of Jewish students on college and university campuses across the country, and around the world. Students who for years have been marginalized and ostracized because they expressed their authentic connection to and love for Israel, even as antisemitism in the U.S. has risen to historic levels. Students who have, far too often, not received enough support and leadership from their campus administrations.

Faced with the news that Hamas intentionally targeted civilians in such vile and brutal ways, committing numerous crimes against humanity, Jewish students need—and deserve—to have their university leaders and others on campus recognize the trauma that’s been inflicted on them, and provide them with the space and support to process and to grieve for their Israeli families, friends, and loved ones. Instead, they have too often heard from those university leaders misplaced platitudes about cycles of violence and the need for unity and understanding, effectively gaslighting one of the most heinous acts of terrorism against civilians that the world has ever seen.

Let us be clear: There is no way to justify Hamas’ war crimes and unconscionable atrocities. These Israeli civilians were not collateral damage caught in the crossfire. They were the direct target of a regime designated by the United States, the European Union, and dozens of other nations as an international terrorist organization. A regime whose charter calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state. We need you to unequivocally support our students and to take urgent action to eliminate and prevent the increasingly hostile environment for Jewish students on campuses today. To suggest otherwise insults the memories of those who were murdered, and the plight of 150 hostages whose lives continue to hang in the balance.

Some campuses are getting this right. Emory President Gregory Fenves denounced the war crimes committed by Hamas, and wrote, “The reality of Jews being senselessly murdered and taken as hostages will not soon leave my mind, and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.” President Ben Sasse at the University of Florida said, “I will not tiptoe around this simple fact: What Hamas did is evil and there is no defense for terrorism. This shouldn’t be hard.” And University of Miami President Julio Frenk noted the community’s deep ties to Israel, and offered the full mental health support resources of the university to support all students experiencing anxiety or stress, including Jewish students. Condemning terrorist atrocities and showing compassion for Jewish students in a statement as these universities have done should be the lowest common denominator for supporting the Jewish community.

So, what do our Jewish students need from you?

First, they need to hear their campus leaders like you speak upand unequivocally condemn this heinous terrorist attack against Israeli civilians. Equivocating statements bemoaning the “cycle of violence” inherently blame the victims and fail both Jewish students and the wider campus community. This is too important a moment to fall back on platitudes and false moral equivalencies. Your Jewish students deserve better.

Second, campus leaders like you need to show up for your students and be a visible presence at vigils and other solidarity events bringing together Jewish students and their allies on campus. Let Jewish students know they are not alone, that they are not being asked to hide who they are, and that they are not in danger when they express their connections to and support for Israel—the Jewish homeland and the largest Jewish community in the world.

Third, campus leaders must take concrete steps to protect Jewish students and Jewish student organizations who are already being subjected to increasing incidents of harassment, intimidation, and vandalism. At a time when other students and student groups on campuses across the country are actively demonizing and blaming Israel for the wanton violence that has been inflicted upon Israeli civilians and celebrating Hamas’ violence as justified acts of “resistance,” campuses have both a moral and a legal obligation to act. Universities need to work with Hillels and other Jewish student groups to ensure their safety in the face of these threats before an antisemitic incident or attack occurs on your campus.

While the above steps are critical in this moment, they are not sufficient for the future. Administrations must also take steps consistent with the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism to root out the underlying issues that contributed to the antisemitic rhetoric we are seeing on many campuses the past few days.

That means developing clear and transparent non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies that protect against the harassment or exclusion of “Zionists”; promoting clear and transparent mechanisms for students to report hate incidents and acts of antisemitism to campus administrators; and ensuring clear and transparent communication from campus leadership regarding steps taken in response to reported incidents.

It will also require the urgent creation of cross-disciplinary task forces or advisory councils, in consultation with Hillel and other Jewish campus partners, to review, address, and improve Jewish student life on campus. Participating in programs like Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative, which works directly with university administrators to educate them on the history and modern manifestations of antisemitism, is critical.

And it will require university leadership to remain nimble and proactive in responding to and preventing antisemitism, to keep open lines of communication with Jewish organizations on campus to respond to needs in real time, and to regularly evaluate whether additional proactive steps are needed to ensure a safe, inclusive, and equitable learning environment for all students, including Jewish students.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to serve as a resource and partner to you in this critically important and urgent work. And we are watching for and counting on your leadership in this challenging moment.

Adam Lehman, the President and CEO of Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and National Director of ADL, the leading anti-hate organization in the world.

The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.

House prices are falling. Here’s where

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House prices are falling. Here’s where

The typical U.S. home value edged lower by 0.1 percent from August to September, according to the latest Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) data, marking the first month-over-month decline since February.

Despite the apparent good news for aspiring homebuyers, who have been facing skyrocketing prices for the past few years, homes were on average still 2.1 percent more expensive than in September 2022.

Fewer homes around the country have been selling above their list price—37.7 percent in August, compared to July’s 40.2 percent—and there were slightly more homes on the market, with the pool of inventory (the number of listings active at any time during the month) expanding by 0.2 percent in September. The number of new listings was down, however, by 9.3 percent compared to this time last year.

The residents of some cities have more reasons than others to be concerned over the latest Zillow index, with a total of 32 major metro areas reporting a monthly drop in home prices.

The largest monthly declines in house prices from August to September were reported in Austin, Texas (-1.4 percent), New Orleans (-1.4 percent), San Antonio (-0.9 percent), Portland (-0.6 percent), and Minneapolis (-0.6 percent).

Some of those cities also reported the biggest drops in prices year-on-year compared to 2022, with Austin recording a drop of 10 percent, New Orleans a decline of 8.8 percent, and San Antonio a slide of 2.5 percent.

What these cities have in common is that they used to be—and for some, they still are—among the most overheated markets in the country, having experienced the highest home-price appreciation in recent years during the pandemic, when many decided to move there because of the quality of life, or the weather, as in the case with Austin and San Antonio.

Between January 2020 and June 2022, home prices in Austin, for example, surged by 78 percent.

Residents of other cities have not experienced the same drop in home prices. According to Zillow, home values climbed on a monthly basis in 14 of the 50 largest metro areas in September. The cities that experienced the biggest increases in home prices were San Diego (0.8 percent), Miami (0.5 percent), Hartford (0.3 percent), Los Angeles (0.3 percent) and San Jose (0.3 percent).

A correction of the housing market predicted by experts in late summer 2022 materialized earlier this year and may still be ongoing, despite the fact that lingering low inventory and high demand have softened its impact on the market.

Newsweek contacted Zillow for comment by email on Monday.

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