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Life of defiance: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political boss, killed

Life of defiance: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political boss, killed

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh has been assassinated in Tehran at the age of 62 in what the Palestinian group has described as “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence”. Haniyeh, who briefly served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority’s government in 2006, was killed early on Wednesday along with a bodyguard when the house he was staying in was targeted, nearly 10 months into Israel’s war on Gaza. Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Tuesday. The Hamas leader had emerged as a major force in the Palestinian liberation movement and, like his colleagues and generations of Palestinian politicians and activists, had long been in Israel’s crosshairs. While Israel has not formally claimed responsibility for the assassination, an Israeli minister celebrated Haniyeh’s death in a post on X. Haniyeh was born in the Shati refugee camp on the coast of Gaza City to parents displaced from their town of Asqalan (now known as Ashkelon) when Israel was formed in 1948. As a young man, Haniyeh was a student activist at the Islamic University in Gaza City, where he studied Arabic literature. While at university in 1983, he joined the Islamic Student Bloc, an organisation widely seen as the forerunner of Hamas. As a Palestinian uprising broke out in December 1987 against the Israeli occupation, known as the first Intifada, Haniyeh was among the youth taking part in protests. That was also the year that Hamas was founded — with Haniyeh among its younger members. Israel imprisoned Haniyeh at least three times. After serving his longest sentence, a three-year stint, he was deported to Lebanon in 1992 along with hundreds of other members of Hamas, including senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi and Mahmoud Zahhar, and members of other Palestinian resistance groups. But Haniyeh returned to Gaza a year later after the signing of the first Oslo Accord and became a close confidant of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, Hamas’s spiritual leader and founder. After Israel released Yassin from prison in 1997, Haniyeh was appointed as his assistant. That high profile meant that Haniyeh became a target for assassination. Israel had by then established a long pattern of killing Palestinian leaders over the years. Together, Haniyeh and Yassin survived an Israeli assassination attempt in September 2003 by narrowly escaping a building in Gaza City seconds before it was hit with an Israeli air strike. However, months later, Yassin was killed by Israeli forces as he left a mosque after dawn prayers. The following month, al-Rantisi was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter missile strike on Gaza City. “After 2003, Haniyeh gained a lot of popularity among Hamas people simply because of his stance, position and media appearances,” Hassan Barrari, analyst and professor at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera. “He remained a prominent figure until his assassination.” Haniyeh’s stature within the Palestinian movement grew further in 2006 when Hamas ran in the Palestine legislative elections for the first time since its establishment. In a shock result, the group won the most votes, delivering a blow to Fatah and making Haniyeh the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The outcome caught the United States, which had called for the elections, unprepared. Then-New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said in leaked recordings after the elections: “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” Unhappy over Hamas’s central role in Palestinian governance, Western governments halted aid to the PA, placing the body under severe financial strain. The US and many other Western governments view Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation. Amid Western pressure and heightened tensions between Hamas and Fatah, PA President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh and dissolved his government. This resulted in an independent Hamas-led government in Gaza in 2007, headed by Haniyeh. As Hamas took over governance, Israel, in cooperation with neighbouring Egypt, imposed a siege on the enclave, which has continued for 17 years. “This siege should not break our will and should not turn this conflict into an internal Palestinian conflict, and that conflict should be against the parties that imposed the siege against the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh said in a news briefing in 2006. Appointed as head of Hamas’s political bureau in 2017, replacing Khaled Meshal, Haniyeh led Hamas’s diplomacy from a number of locations, including Turkey and the Qatari capital, Doha, serving as a negotiator in ceasefire talks or engaging in talks with Iran, a key supporter of Palestinian liberation. “Haniyeh was a political figure and a pragmatic one,” Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh told Al Jazeera. “He was known for maintaining very positive relations with Palestinian leaders from all factions.” After the October 7 attacks on southern Israel, the government of Israel made it clear that senior Hamas leaders were in effect on its hit list. Many of Haniyeh’s close relatives have been killed in Gaza since then. In April, three of his sons were killed in an Israeli air strike that struck their vehicle. Four of his grandchildren were also killed – three girls and a boy. In all, Haniyeh said, 60 of his relatives have been killed in the past 10 months. “All our people and all the families of Gaza residents have paid a heavy price with the blood of their children, and I am one of them,” he said in an interview. His assassination marks the latest killing of a senior Hamas leader. Most recently this year, senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Beirut. But Barrari said Israeli assassinations have “never finished Hamas” in the past and wouldn’t now. “It’s not like Israel is fighting a mafia. These people represent Palestinian resistance,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)

Delaware Republican running for governor aims to flip one-party rule in Biden’s home state after three decades

Delaware Republican running for governor aims to flip one-party rule in Biden’s home state after three decades

A Republican primary candidate for governor of Delaware, Mike Ramone, said in a conversation with Fox News Digital that he intends to beat what he called one-party rule in President Biden’s home state.  Currently serving as the minority leader of the state House, Ramone said he intends to flip the governor’s office red for the first time in more than three decades come November.  “Delaware has been controlled by one party for 32 years. And I am here to give Delaware a choice,” Ramone said. “Balance brings discussion and discussion brings vetting, and vetting avoids unintended consequences…. There is the far red and the far blue that both will be out to vote. But I believe that many far-blue might even consider that they can do better also in the state of Delaware.”  Under Democratic leadership, Ramone argued that Delaware has morphed into one of the worst states when it comes to education, health care, safety, traffic, and business friendliness.  He said it’s the only state in the nation that had negative GDP.  “We need to go back to line item reviews of every single expense we make because we’re spending people’s taxes. It’s not our money. It’s their money. And I do think Ronald Reagan had it best, you know, ‘Are you better off today than you were then?’ And if people feel they’re better off, we won’t have a Republican,” Ramone said. “But if they feel that they’re tired of the drama in politics, if they feel they want to have a leader who leads from the front but supports from the back, if they feel that it’s time to move into the technology and the job development in fintech, in pharma, in other aspects like Pete DuPont did for our state when he moved us into being the corporate capital of the world, then they’re going to vote for Mike Ramone. They’re going to vote for a business person.” Ramone, who has more than 40 years of experience in the business sector, said Delaware voters need to consider “management style” when electing their leaders. KAMALA HARRIS EYES GOVERNORS FROM BATTLEGROUND STATES AS POSSIBLE VP PICKS “The way we manage our state currently is dysfunctional. Our education system is one of the highest funded and one of the lowest in results. Our health care system is absolutely havoc-ridden,” he said. “I do not believe digesting hatred or negativeness or tainting facts is something I will ever be part of … I just think there are so many things we can do better. We need to stay focused. We need to create a vision.”  According to latest voter registration data available this month, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one in the state. Delaware also has about 16,600 more independent voters than registered Republicans, and Democrats currently control nine statewide offices. Additionally, Ramone’s campaign comes at a pivotal point nationally after Biden exited the presidential race.  “Joe Biden. We are all proud of Joe. I’m a Republican, and I can say that because he’s the first Delawarean to ever become a president of the country,” Ramone said. “And I think that’s just wonderful. However, I don’t think the style of leadership we watched in the last years of presidential campaigns and so forth are what’s indicative of Delaware.”  Ramone, who first went into business at age 20, taking out an $8,000 loan to open his first flower shop, said he’s willing to put his reputation on the line to run the state in a way that’s “fiscally responsible” again.  Delaware lost the three c’s – credit cards, chemicals and cars – when two major car manufacturers, the juggernaut DuPont, and MBNA closed their doors, Ramone said.  He argued the state has the ideal location to become a fintech hub with Silicon Valley-esque initiatives to bring higher-paying jobs in different sectors to the state, not what he called the “$15 Amazon jobs.”  Ramone described education as a “catastrophe” in the state, arguing that most funding gets tied up in administration in the state’s 19 school districts and department of education, rather than being used in classrooms. First elected to the state House 16 years ago, Ramone has survived eight separate elections to hold onto his district, which has more registered Democratic voters per capita than the state has as a whole.  DEMOCRAT GOVERNORS REEL FROM BIDEN’S PUTIN-ZELENSKYY GAFFE, IMPLICATIONS FOR US LEADERSHIP ON WORLD STAGE “My belief is simple. My district is 8,000-something Democrats,” Ramone said. “It’s somewhere around 5,000 Republicans and around 5,200 independents. I’m the only elected official lucky enough to be reelected eight times in the state of Delaware, representing the third party, not the second party. I was in the minority minority. There’s more independents than Republicans, so I think I have a pretty good feel of building relationships. I think I have a pretty big feel of listening, and I think I have my fingers on the pulse of what Delaware is about. Delaware is a state that has an enormous amount of people who are fiscally reasonable, financially conservative, and socially moderate to liberal. In other words, leave people alone. Let them live their lives. But don’t clobber me for taxes and have overzealous government.”  A father and grandfather, Ramone said he intends to make Delaware a state where younger generations can afford to live and prosper, instead of having to move elsewhere.  Delaware’s last Republican governor was Mike Castle, who served in the position from 1985 to 1993. Despite running during a presidential election year, Ramone said he believes his resume and business acumen will win him the governor’s office.  “When I ran in my district, Mike Ramone signs were right next to a lot of Joe Biden signs, Mike Ramone signs right next to a lot of Donald Trump signs and Mike Ramone signs were in a lot of yards with no signs. So Delaware is small enough that I believe the national rhetoric may involve a higher level of turnout.

Gillibrand, Hawley lead bipartisan bill to create mental health hotline for police, first responders

Gillibrand, Hawley lead bipartisan bill to create mental health hotline for police, first responders

FIRST ON FOX: A Democrat and Republican senator duo are looking to take on higher rates of mental health issues among first responders with new legislation.  Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., partnered to introduce the First Responders Wellness Act on Wednesday, which would create a grant program that would help provide mental health resources and services to law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and public safety telecommunicators. It would also establish a mental health hotline devoted to assisting first responders.  SCHUMER SILENT ON BIDEN OIL PURCHASE AFTER BLASTING TRUMP FOR ‘BAILING OUT BIG OIL’ “I’m proud to work with Senator Hawley on this important legislation and look forward to getting it across the finish line,” Gillibrand said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our first responders put themselves in extremely challenging and life-threatening situations in order to keep us safe. Unfortunately, it takes a toll; first responders face higher rates of PTSD and suicide compared to the civilian population.” “We must support the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting ours. The bipartisan First Responders Wellness Act would create a new grant program to provide professional and culturally competent mental health services to law enforcement officers and establish a mental health hotline for the first responder community,” she added. GOP, DEM SENATORS UNITE TO CONDEMN ‘HORRIFYING’ TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Hawley said in a statement, “I’m proud to partner with Senator Gillibrand on another piece of vital legislation. Our first responders put their lives on the line every day for us. The least we can do is support them in the halls of Congress.”  The bill would put $125 million toward the new grant program over the next five fiscal years. An additional $50 million would be put toward establishing the support hotline over the same time frame. SCHUMER WON’T COMMIT TO SENATE VOTES FOR BIDEN’S LONG-SHOT RADICAL SCOTUS OVERHAUL The lawmakers cited research by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which indicated that first responders are by nature “at great danger of being exposed to potentially traumatic situations that pose risk of harm to them or the people under their care.” “This constitutes a great risk for the behavioral health of first responders, putting them at risk for stress, PTSD, depression, substance use, and suicide ideation and attempts,” the SAMHSA report stated. TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: NEW TEXTS SHOW LOCAL POLICE SCRAMBLE TO ASSIST WITH COVERING RALLY Gillibrand notably represents New York, where the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil occurred in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, as hijackers deliberately flew two airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Another plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while a fourth hijacked plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought to regain control. The attack killed a total of nearly 3,000 innocent people and injured roughly 6,000 more. Many of the emergency and law enforcement personnel who responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11 have dealt with significant and enduring physical and mental health effects for more than two decades since the terrorist attack.

Watchdog group launching ‘Hate Map’ to track ‘political violence perpetrated by leftist organizations’

Watchdog group launching ‘Hate Map’ to track ‘political violence perpetrated by leftist organizations’

EXCLUSIVE: A new conservative watchdog group is launching an interactive map that tracks instances of political violence “perpetrated by leftist organizations” in the U.S., it claims. New Tolerance Campaign (NTC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, announced the launch of its “Hate Map,” an interactive system that will allow users to track instances of political bias through an “unbiased, detailed account of incidents, ensuring a more balanced and thorough perspective.” “There are organizations and individuals across the country on the left today who are promoting, inspiring and, in some cases, directly engaging in physical violence against those with whom they disagree,” Gregory T. Angelo, president of New Tolerance Campaign, told Fox News Digital in an interview.  NTC created a catalog of left-leaning groups with a history of events that turned violent, such as protests, vandalism, physical assaults, threats and intimidation. HARRIS’ BACKING OF BAIL FUND DURING GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS DAMPENS TRUMP ‘PROSECUTOR’ CAMPAIGN PITCH Angelo specifically called out the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit they say “has become something of a partisan cudgel.” HOUSE REPUBLICANS REPLACE AMERICAN FLAGS AT UNION STATION AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS “Whether it’s corporate boardrooms that have been infected by the woke mind virus, whether it is colleges and universities that continue on an ever leftward drift, or activist nonprofits like the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, who have basically just started carrying water for America’s progressive left, the institutions have been taken over by leftist forces going back decades,” Angelo said. The NTC president said some examples of recent violent incidents include the 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council, the 2017 shooting at a Republican practice session for the Congressional Baseball Game, and the attempted assassination of former President Trump this month. “These were not isolated events. They’re part of a larger pattern of hate and violence promoted by the left,” Angelo said. “We are going to continue to catalog hate and the promotion of violence on the left,” he said. “Sadly, I don’t think that that number is going to be going down anytime soon. If anything, it’s going to be going up, and we will be here as a resource for members of the media, for elected officials, for everyday Americans and people in academia to use this in their research when it comes to calling out hate across the country.” NTC said the map will consist of a wide range of coverage, be updated regularly and be a user-friendly interface, according to a press release obtained by Fox. Efforts to reach the Southern Poverty Law Center for comment were unsuccessful at press time.

Emhoff hobnobs on Nantucket while fishermen reel from wind turbine ‘disaster’

Emhoff hobnobs on Nantucket while fishermen reel from wind turbine ‘disaster’

A New England fishermen’s association is calling attention to second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s fundraising trip to Nantucket as the Massachusetts island wades through the aftermath of a wind turbine disaster.  Emhoff stepped in to headline fundraisers this week originally set for first lady Jill Biden before President Biden dropped out of the presidential race just over a week ago and endorsed Vice President Harris. One such fundraiser took place Tuesday on the island roughly 30 miles off the Massachusetts mainland. Emhoff was a special guest at “an island reception hosted by Laura DeBonis, a business and nonprofit technical consultant who previously worked for Google, and Ken Jarin, partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm, at an unspecified location on the island,” a local outlet reported.  His visit comes two weeks after an offshore wind turbine blade the length of a football field snapped off into the ocean, which sent shards of fiberglass ashore, temporarily closing six of the island’s beaches and creating an ongoing safety hazard for fishermen.  ‘RUINED BY NEGLIGENCE’: DAVE PORTNOY BLASTS NANTUCKET WIND FARM AFTER BROKEN BLADE SHUTS DOWN BEACHES “The Vineyard Wind blade disaster has confirmed fishermen’s worst fears about offshore wind. Massive fiberglass shards remain a huge navigational hazard for our members,” Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, told Fox News Digital. “We remain gravely concerned that micro-particles from fiberglass debris could poison local marine life. Worse still, we are still awaiting answers from the developer.” SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH FISHERMEN IN LANDMARK CASE DECIDING FATE OF ADMINISTRATIVE STATE “We hope Mr. Emhoff learns about the effects this disaster has brought to coastal communities during his visit to Nantucket,” he said. Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between foreign entities Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which built wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts. The company is a beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the signature domestic policy achievement of the Biden-Harris administration.  In October, Vineyard Wind boasted of a $1.2 billion “first-of-its-kind tax equity package” for commercial scale offshore wind with three U.S.-based banks, calling it “the largest single asset tax equity financing and the first for a commercial scale offshore wind project.”  Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., praised the announcement at the time, tying it directly to the “impact” of the IRA. LOCAL FISHERMEN SLAM BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S NEWLY UNVEILED PLANS TO INDUSTRIALIZE GULF OF MAINE Vineyard Wind 1 began on-site construction in late 2021 and completed the nation’s first offshore substation in July 2023. It is an 800 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and is the first commercial scale offshore wind project in the United States. When the blade fell last month, Leeman said, “the scariest thing” about it is that “it could happen again.” “As a fisherman, I know how powerful and volatile the North Atlantic is. If this blade fell off on a beautiful summer day, what would happen during a winter squall or a hurricane?” he told Fox News Digital. The Harris campaign and the White House did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.