Ittay Flescher

A relative of the hero who risked his life to grab the weapon off one of the gunmen during the Bondi Beach terror attack has spoken to 7NEWS, revealing the man was shot twice. Speaking outside hospital, Mustafa revealed it was his cousin, 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed who likely saved countless lives when he wrestled with the gunman.

A program for the mutual de-radicalization of Israelis and Palestinians is urgently needed as we enter, hopefully, a post-war era. @prohumanC blogs.timesofisrael.com/mutu…

BREAKING | Hamas issued a statement on President Trump’s plan to end the war: 1- Appreciates President Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the war. 2- Agrees to release all hostages to achieve a permanent ceasefire. 3- Ready to enter immediate negotiations through mediators to discuss the details. 4- Agrees to transfer the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent, unaffiliated figures.

Announcing the longlist finalists for the 2025 Walkley Book Award, supported by Bookoccino. walkleys.com/2025-walkley-bo…

I understand that you built a career, and probably income, too, off the October 7 tragedy and became a commentator for the Bibist camp in the American Jewish community, so you feel compelled to weigh in. But you should have stopped after your first sentence. If you want to comment on our internal affairs, ethos, and social contract, then move to Israel, conscript to the IDF or national service, learn our modern language, culture, society, and ethos, and maybe live on the border with your life and your family’s life on the line. Until then, your opinions on our domestic discourse are entirely misplaced. Irrespective of your reductive framing, which betrays a complete lack of understanding of how Prime Minister Netanyahu and the government you defend operate (and their critics come from both right and left), we do, in fact, do everything else you mentioned. We pressure Hamas, we engage internationally, and we support the application of military pressure when appropriate. But none of that erases our duty, as Israeli citizens (you're not one so you wouldn't understand) to pressure our own government. That is the essence of democracy. Your assertion that “the onus is on Hamas” is simplistic to the point of dishonesty. Of course, the onus is on Hamas. They are the kidnappers. They are also sabotaged the negotiations many times, and even though they were reduced militarily and financially, alongside their chief sponsor, Iran, they keep sacrificing Gaza for their political survival. But the onus is also on our government to prioritize bringing our citizens home, preserve our social contract, and also not send soldiers to the battlefield with no viable strategy and goals. Prime Minister Netanyahu did not simply accept a ceasefire deal. Israel’s position has been for a phased release of hostages in return for temporary pauses in fighting. It has never agreed to permanently end the war or withdraw the IDF from Gaza in order to secure the release of all remaining hostages and some of its senior ministers stated publicly that they prevented hostage deals. To claim otherwise is either uninformed or deliberately misleading. It was also the policy of successive Netanyahu governments that allowed Hamas to grow into the threat it became on October 7, 2023. That lack of accountability and the absence of empathy from today’s leadership are precisely what fuel these massive demonstrations. Furthermore, framing this as a left-wing protest is a deliberate distortion, most likely catering to a specific audience and propagating the lie promoted by the government and its messengers that these demonstrations are politically motivated. The truth is that over 70% of the public consistently supports ending the war in order to bring the hostages home according to nearly every poll since May 2024, with low trust levels in the government's efforts to secure it in good faith. To suggest we should only protest in front of the Qatari embassy (a country Israel asked to be fund Hamas for years), Washington, or at the UN, is absurd. Israel is a sovereign country with elected leaders who make decisions that directly determine the fate of the hostages. We hold them accountable here at home, just as Americans hold their leaders accountable when they fail. We, as families, will keep pressuring Hamas, their accomplices, and their sponsors to let our people go. We will keep demanding that our government do everything in its power, with integrity and urgency, to bring them home. Your role, as an American citizen, is to focus on the former.