Saturday, May 23, 2020

05/23 Links: IHRC Al Quds 2020 – terrorists, extremists, antisemites and violence; UN coronavirus aid going to Palestinian terror-linked groups; Abbas's Precious Gift to Iran: Hamas

From Ian:
David Collier: IHRC Al Quds 2020 – terrorists, extremists, antisemites and violence
The IHRC Al Quds Day 2020 was like no other. If you doubt that the BDS movement supports violence, seeks to destroy Israel and wants to rid the Middle East of Jews, then you should sit through the whole toxic 150 minutes of this online event like I did.

Each year, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) are given permission to hold a radical Islamist event calling for the destruction of Israel as they wave their flags through the streets of London. They play a game in which they wave their extremism in our faces and laugh at the foolishness of those that permit them to recruit on our streets.

It is a pro-Hezbollah, radical Islamist event, that until the terrorist organisation was proscribed in the UK, would regularly see the flag of Hezbollah proudly on display.

Al Quds 2020 was different because it was online. There were no police to monitor their words. Instead the IHRC were allowed to invite whomever they liked and freely speak their mind. Before any British Government official ever gives these terrorist supporters another chance to walk through London – they should be forced to watch this event.
IHRC 2020 – Not just the usual suspects

Because of the importance of some of the content, I am not going to write up every speaker – but rather focus on those I believe need special attention. However, given some of what occurred it is important to remember the names of all those who participated.
Nazim Ali (host and Director of the IHRC)
Raza Kasim (co-host, IHRC)
Ramzy Baroud ( Editor, Palestine Chronicle)
Ramon Grosfoguel (academic, UC Berkeley)
Reverend Daniel Burton (Area Dean, Anglican Church)
Rabbi Elhanan Beck (Neturei Karta, UK)
Marzieh Hashemi (Press TV Journalist, Iran)
– read message from – Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini (daughter of Ayatollah Khomeini)
Yisroel David Weiss (Neturei Karta, US)
Roshan Muhammed Salih (5 Pillars)
Mizanur Rahman (Mizan the Poet)
Michel Warschawski (headed Israeli Marxist Revolutionary Communist League)
Hashem Al Haydari (Deputy Commander – Kataib Hezbollah)
Suhaila El -Zakzaky (Daughter of Sheikh El Zakzaky, leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria)
Ilan Pappe (Academic, Exeter University)
Mohammad Al Asi (Islamic 9/11 truther and extremist)
Haim Bresheeth (academic, SOAS)
Mick Napier (toxic extremist, head of SPSC)
Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour (Islamic cleric, speaker and extremist)
Narjis Khan (Lawyer at [UK] Goverment Legal Department and Islamic poet)
Masoud Shajareh (Chair of IHRC)

The IHRC video you have to see
According to his introduction, Mohammad Al Asi has been banned from the UK because of his extremism. During his speech Al Asi spoke about the fact that most Jews would need to be ethnically cleansed after the resistance successfully destroys Israel. Bringing back shadows of the Holocaust, Al Asi mentioned the need to ‘separate’ the Jews into groups – those that might be allowed to stay, and those that would need to be forced (violently) to withdraw (face expulsion). Just as he began to talk about ‘dezionising elites’, he ran out of time:

The Government Legal Department Lawyer
After 2 hours and 20 minutes Nazim Ali introduces an ‘accomplished poet’ by the name of Narjis Khan. The poem she recites is an anti-Israel, anti-western rant – in rhyme. During the poem Khan comments that ‘Palestine’ teaches ‘the meaning of resistance,’ and apparently refers to all resistance (she does not differentiate) as ‘self-defence’.

Khan also has a blog on the IHRC website. Her most recent contribution appears to be an eulogy to Qasem Soleimani the Iranian General killed in a targeted US strike. Soleimani was head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force and responsible for bloodshed throughout the region, often through terrorist proxies.

All this is bad enough. Participating in an event alongside rabid extremists that call for Israel’s destruction and writing poems for a man who helped sponsor terrorism throughout the Middle East. But aside from being a poet, Narjis Khan is also a lawyer who works for the Government Legal Department (GLD).

The Government Legal Department are the government’s principal legal advisers. Their core purpose ‘is to help the government to govern well, within the rule of law.’

It is surely beyond all logical reasoning to accept that ANY government employee in ANY government department should in ANY way be associated with the radical Iranian Islamist Al Quds day – and an event that also contains leading members of Kataib Hezbollah.
Axis of Resistance honors ‘International Quds Day’
On May 20, leaders of the Axis of Resistance and pro-Axis clerics published videos commemorating International Quds Day with the central theme being the liberation of Palestine.

International Quds Day, which was introduced by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, is held every year on the last Friday of Ramadan. The day is marked by protests against Israel across the region. Protesters burn flags of Israel and the United States as a way to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh addressed viewers by deriding the Trump peace plan and Israel’s possible annexation of settlements in the West Bank.

“Today, as we commemorate the International Day of Jerusalem, Jerusalem lives in a most dangerous stage as we follow the American-Zionist talk about implementing the so-called Deal of the Century, which is based on the liquidation of the Palestinian cause,” Haniyeh said.

Furthermore, Haniyeh warned Israel “From here I salute our people stationed in the blessed al Aqsa Mosque, and in their name and in the name of our people and our nation, we warn the Zionists against committing any foolishness against the blessed al Aqsa Mosque. We seek not only to liberate al Aqsa, but the whole of occupied Palestine.”

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah commemorated Quds Day by addressing viewers about the strengthening of ties between members of the Axis of Resistance. Nasrallah also affirmed the Axis of Resistance was “closer than ever to liberating al Quds.”

“Thanks to the cooperation of between countries and the forces of the Axis of Resistance of the Arab and Islamic world, we find ourselves closer than ever to al Quds and its liberation,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah also noted “The Israeli authorities are afraid and terrified by the victories of the Axis of the Resistance. They are also disappointed by the defeats suffered not only by this regime [Israel] but also by the United States and its allies in the Middle East.”

Another Axis leader, Abdul-Malik al Houthi, used his address to touch on several subjects regarding Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Al Houthi maintained his movement’s position regarding relations with Israel saying “We condemn and reject all attempts to normalize relations that some Arab countries, especially the Saudi regime, have attempted with the Israeli enemy.”
UN coronavirus aid going to Palestinian terror-linked groups
Millions of dollars of international funding for the Palestinians’ coronavirus emergency response, coordinated by the World Health Organization and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have gone to organizations with links to terrorism, a new report by NGO Monitor found.

The research institution focused on the funding of non-governmental organizations found that several of the groups funded by OCHA and the WHO are tied to the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Israel, the EU, US and Canada, and had staff members arrested and indicted late last year for the murder of 17-year-old Israeli Rina Schnerb.

Among OCHA’s NGO partners with ties to the PFLP are the Health Work Committees (HWC), Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

HWC’s Financial and Administration Director Waleed Hanatsheh bankrolled the PFLP that murdered Schnerb, and is currently standing trial for the murder, as is Samer Arbid, UAWC’s financial director. UHWC was identified by USAID as “the PFLP’s health organization.”

The NGO Monitor report also pointed out that OCHA stated that the aid money was meant to “respond to the public health needs and immediate humanitarian consequences of the pandemic in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” but many of the activities funded do not appear to be vital or lifesaving. Rather, anti-Israel advocacy ventures were relabeled COVID-19 without substantive contributions to humanitarian aid.

For example, the OCHA coronavirus response includes a “Joint Statement on Israel’s Obligations vis-a-vis West Bank and Gaza in Face of Coronavirus Pandemic” by 18 NGOs, calling for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza to let medical supplies in. OCHA notes in the very situation report in which this statement is listed that Israel does allow medical supplies into Gaza.

Friday, May 22, 2020

05/22 Links Pt2: Fighting the academic demonisation of Israel in schools; Who Really Represents America’s Jews?; Jerusalem: 1948, 1967, 2020; Latma 2020, Episode 8

From Ian:
David Collier: Fighting the academic demonisation of Israel in schools
How do you deal with historical distortion in academic textbooks and propaganda in schools and universities? I would argue that if you want to really fight this fight, then you have to begin by understanding just how widespread the problem really is.

(On Wednesday I spoke as part of a panel on anti-Zionist, antisemitic propaganda in schools. The event was organised and chaired by UK Lawyers for Israel. Also on the panel were Noru Tsalic, Marcus Sheff and Nomi Benari. You can now view a recording of the event online.)
A battle for academic minds

The issue of historical distortion in academic textbooks and propaganda in schools and universities is as important – if not more important – than any of the other battles taking place for accuracy and truth. The children sitting in school will have their minds shaped by the information they are given. And if we take all the classrooms in the UK – including the universities – then sitting in those rooms is almost every single politician who will be lawmaking in the coming generations, alongside every future councillor, union leader, lawyer and teacher.

If lies are told to them unchecked, then we lose the battle for minds even before it is started.

How big a problem is it
In the last few months, two seperate UK textbooks (1 , 2) were checked and were removed from the shelves because of historical innacuracies and anti-Israel bias.

If we seek to put all the blame on the academic author or the publisher we are missing the point. These two books were written by different authors, did not rely on the same source material and went through the editorial checks of two seperate publishing houses.

We are dealing with an ideology, a narrative, a world vision – and much of the modern academic landscape has been swallowed whole.

Whilst I have access to some of what is taking place on campus – much of what is occuring in schools is beyond me. Not only are Jews a tiny minority group in the UK – but we are also highly concentrated in certain areas. This means that outside of our bubble are 1000s of schools which have no Jewish presence at all. Our eyes and ears simply do not reach very far.

What we see is only the tip of the iceberg and the problem extends far beyond textbooks.
Jonathan S. Tobin: Who Really Represents America’s Jews?
The notion that any single organization could represent the views or the interests of American Jews on Israel—or any other issue—has always been risible. Yet this dubious assertion has been the raison d’être of one of the more successful experiments in political activism in American Jewish history.

Born seven decades ago out of a hostile administration’s impatience with the myriad Jewish groups lobbying the State Department about Israel, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has thrived by claiming to be the central address for American Jewish political interests.

But while the Conference has enjoyed a unique perch in the organized Jewish world, many of the groups who compose its membership are neither “major” in any real sense or, by themselves, particularly influential—let alone representative of American Jewry.

Nor can it be considered the public face of the pro-Israel community. That distinction belongs to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Unlike AIPAC, the Conference can’t mobilize tens of thousands of activists to lobby Congress, attend an annual conference, or help direct campaign donations to friends of Israel or foes of the Jewish state’s critics.

Despite its title, the Conference has also lacked the ability to command its member groups to take action on even the most anodyne issues. All 53 organizations retain complete autonomy of action and are divided along political and ideological lines that allow little room for cooperation.

Yet by cloaking itself in a mythical consensus, the Conference has skillfully inserted itself into policy discussions at the highest level both in Washington and abroad. Its ability to not merely be heard but to have its bland but still assertive brand of advocacy be treated as an important factor in rallying support for the State of Israel in Washington has made it the go-to place for anyone—especially foreign governments—who wishes to sound out the views of American Jewish influencers.

Under the leadership of Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, who assumed the role in 1986, the Conference became less of a club of organizational leaders and more of an aggressive collective putting forward the views of the Jewish community on issues concerning Israel and anti-Semitism at home and abroad.
Gerald M. Steinberg: Jerusalem: 1948, 1967, 2020
As a Jerusalemite, the degree to which the modern history of our city is mangled, distorted, and rewritten by journalists, foreign politicians and diplomats, and less-than-rigorous academics is a major source of frustration, particularly around the celebration of Jerusalem Day.

Almost inevitably, we are told that “East Jerusalem” and the “Old City were captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 war, without reference to the status of this city between 1948 and 1967. Outside of Israel, the false narrative portraying Palestinians exclusively as victims and Israel as “occupiers” has replaced the actual history, and substituted propaganda for justice.

The continuing impact of the 1948-1967 Jordanian occupation is central to understanding the broad Israeli rejection of grand peace plans to re-divide this city, including the mirages of “shared sovereignty” and internationalization. While such creative political architecture may sound good, the history of this period should remind us that in practice, such visions will return us to the bad old days,

Jews have lived in Jerusalem continuously, and were the majority population in the decades before the 1948 war. The destruction and ethnic cleansing of the ancient Jewish Quarter in the Old City began following the UN Partition Resolution on November 27 1947. Arab forces blocked the access road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and numerous Israeli efforts to end this blockade failed, with major casualties. As a result, few reinforcements were available, and on May 28, the Jordanian army (also known as the “Arab Legion”) completed the capture of the Jewish Quarter.

The Jordanian commander, Abdallah el-Tal, boasted that “The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion… Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become a graveyard.” (Disaster of Palestine, Cairo 1959) All of the Jewish inhabitants were exiled — the ethnic cleansing was complete. Jews were prohibited from accessing the Temple Mount, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 AD, or at the Western Wall, which survived the destruction. (These were and remain the holiest sites in the Jewish religion.)

Even after the fall of the Jewish Quarter, the conquerors systematically desecrated all remnants of 3000 years of Jewish Jerusalem. 57 ancient synagogues, libraries and centers of religious study were ransacked and 12 were totally and deliberately destroyed. Those that remained standing were defaced, and turned into barns for goats, sheep and donkeys. Appeals were made to the United Nations and in the international community to declare the Old City to be an ‘open city’ and stop this destruction, but there was no response.

  • Friday, May 22, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

EoZ tweets you may have missed this week

  • Friday, May 22, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Here’s a map of Palestine from 1895

Anti-Israel activists love pointing to coins and stamps and maps from before 1948 showing the existence of Palestine.

A reader sent me this one, from a school atlas from 1895:

satch1

 

satch2

 

Well, it does say “Palestine,” but there is nothing Arab about this map. It is all quite…Biblical.

 

(h/t DS)

05/22 Links Pt1: Israel-bashers fail to see the Arab train leaving the station; Could his protests over annexation be Mahmoud Abbas’s last whimper?; Palestinians: Eating with a Jew is a Crime

From Ian:
Melanie Phillips: Israel-bashers fail to see the Arab train leaving the station
It’s a busy time for Israel-haters. So what’s new? Well, a lot.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the Democratic congresswoman who has a lengthening record of lies about Israel, last week tweeted the boiler-plate falsehood that Israel’s foundation in 1948 had entailed the “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian Arabs who were “indigenous” to the land.

The Jews, of course, are the only people for whom the land of Israel was ever their national home. And the Palestinian Arabs’ displacement took place in the war of extermination against the nascent State of Israel, waged by Arab states who told them to leave on the basis that they would return as conquerors.

Yet Tlaib’s ahistorical rubbish is standard discourse among western Israel-bashers. In Britain, more than 130 MPs have signed a letter drafted by the Council for Arab-British Understanding calling for sanctions against Israel if it proceeds with its proposal to extend Israeli law over parts of the disputed territories.

Their claim that this “annexation” is contrary to international law is also demonstrably untrue. It would actually belatedly enforce international law, by restoring the legal right to settle these territories that in the 1920s the international community gave to the Jews alone.

Nevertheless, the European Union (with objections from Hungary and Austria) has repeatedly condemned Israel for the plan. The British government has denounced it. Liberal American Jews fulminate against it.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he would “reverse” U.S. President Donald Trump’s Israel policies that he claims damage the chances of a peace agreement, while hedging this with enough caveats to render deniable his hostility to Israel’s best interests.

At the same time, the man they all refuse to condemn for his record of supporting terrorism, inciting mass murder and breaking his undertakings — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas— declared that the Palestine Liberation Organization was now absolved of all its agreements with Israel and the U.S. over the proposed “annexation.”

Even his followers realized the absurdity of this latest such empty bombast. An exasperated P.A. official said: “How many times can you repeat the same threat? How can you renounce the same agreements you said you renounced five years ago?”

Ruthie Blum: Could his protests over annexation be Mahmoud Abbas’s last whimper?
WHILE ISRAELIS of all persuasions are engaged in a political and ideological debate over elements of the plan – which enables the Jewish state to extend sovereignty over its heartland but also allows for the establishment of a Palestinian state – Abbas is busy igniting another intifada.

And why wouldn’t he be when faced with a document that calls for the empowerment of Palestinians through economic progress and clean governance? Having a state that he doesn’t really want is bad enough. One that is “of the people, by the people and for the people” is his worst nightmare.

This is probably why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no trouble embracing the plan. Experience has taught him two things: One is that Palestinian signatures on peace deals are meaningless; the other is that Trump keeps his promises.

Abbas couldn’t argue there.

His only recourse under the circumstances, then, is to try to stir a commotion – or, in this case, cry wolf – in the hope that Netanyahu’s and Trump’s foes will come running to his rescue. Take Joe Biden, for example, the US Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential contender against Trump in November.

On the very day that Abbas declared all agreements with Israel and America null and void, Biden held a conference call with Jewish donors, during which he said, “Israel needs to stop the threats of annexation, stop settlement activity, because it will choke off any hope of peace.”
If his suggestion that Palestinians “end incitement in the West Bank and rocket attacks in Gaza” caused Abbas any ill ease, it was likely fleeting. A presidential hopeful who creates moral parity between Israel and the PA is a lot better than a president actually in the Oval Office whose compass can’t be manipulated by a terrorist in a tie.

It is not immediately apparent what Abbas hopes to accomplish by making threats that everyone considers empty. If anything, the 84-year-old author of The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and Zionism is setting himself up to go out, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Jonathan S. Tobin: The Abbas comedy and ongoing Palestinian tragedy
Even more important, Abbas's vows to end security cooperation with Israel are even less credible than his other histrionics.

Although Israel benefits from being able to coordinate with the PA's various intelligence agencies, the real beneficiary of the scheme is Abbas. Without Israeli security to fend off both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PA leader's life would be in jeopardy. He needs Israel a lot more than Israel needs him.

But there's one more good reason to treat this subject with skeptical derision.

Far from having abided by the 1993 Oslo Accords that Abbas now threatens to abrogate, the Palestinians have made a mockery of them from the moment they were signed on the White House Lawn in September 1993.

Though the late Yitzhak Rabin made the argument for the peace process by saying that Arafat would fight Palestinian terror, he was tragically wrong. Arafat was never against terror; quite the contrary, he was inciting, planning and funding it. His successor Abbas carries on the tradition of paying for terrorism through the pensions and salaries the PA gives those who commit violence against Jews and Israelis with higher amounts going to those who shed the most blood.

That's why Israelis are so disillusioned with the sort of mindless talk about peace and a two-state solution that passes for informed comment on the situation by people like Biden and the op-ed writers at the Times.

The tragedy of the Palestinians is that they could have had peace and an independent state if their leaders been willing to give up the illusion that Israel could one day be eliminated. Instead, they have chosen corruption, fantasies about the end of Israel and more comedic relief from Abbas. It's a poor bargain, but until Palestinians decide they want something better from their leaders, it's all they'll ever have.

Recent developments in getting Jordan to extradite a child killer to the US (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

It has been an uphill battle to bring Ahlam Tamimi to justice. Tamimi masterminded the terrorist attack that killed 15 people, including 8 children. Among the dead were 2 American citizens -- 15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year-old Judith Greenbaum, who was pregnant. Another American, Chana Nachenberg, has been in a permanent vegetative state ever since. There were 121 people wounded. After Israel submitted to the Hamas hostage demands in exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, Tamimi was one of  1,027 terrorists that were prematurely freed in October 2011. She had been sentenced to 16 life terms and should have spent the rest of her life in prison. Yet now she lives in Jordan as a celebrity, popular among Jordanians. Tamimi was born there and most of her family is now, and was then, based there. The US has pressed the Jordan to hand Tamimi over to face trial for the Americans she murdered in the Sbarro massacre. The outrage over the injustice did not immediately produce results. Neither the media nor government officials were responsive at first. But over the past few years, some in the media and government who have given exposure to the celebrity status the Hamas terrorist enjoys in Jordan and are looking for ways to get Jordan to send Tamimi to the US to stand trial. The foundation for the efforts to bring Tamimi to justice is the extradition treaty between the US and Jordan that in 1995 led to Jordan extraditing Jordanian national Eyad Ismoil to the US for his part in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

2017

Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant For Ahlam Tamimi

But it was not until 2017, that there were indications the US government was beginning to consider taking action. That is when the criminal complaint against Tamimi, first issued by a Federal judge in 2013, and for political reasons kept secret, was unsealed:
Read the whole thing.

The US Department of Justice

The US Department of Justice issued a press release, announcing that Ahlam Tamimi was being charged with "conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals outside the US, resulting in death."

Ahlam Tamimi Makes The FBI Most Wanted List

The FBI put Tamimi on its "Most Wanted" list that same day. A $5 million reward was added by the relevant agency -- a unit of the US State Department, 9 months later.
Tamimi and the legal issue of extradition began to draw attention, as Jordan's highest court -- just days after the unsealing of the charges -- declared the extradition of the murderer to be unconstitutional under Jordanian law, and therefore prohibited. There was no official response from the United States for the next two and a half years.

The Legal Angle

In October 2017, the National Security Law Brief -- a publication of the Washington, DC-based American University, published a paper by Michelle Munneke entitled, Pressure on Jordan: Refusal to extradite mastermind of deadly 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem contravenes international law and agreements Munneke notes a second treaty between the US and Jordan that establishes mutual assistance in matters of law enforcement.
The article points out and rebuts the claim, made by advocates for Tamimi (but not the Jordanian judges) of double jeopardy. It also addresses the issue of international comity, according to which "the law governing some cases should be that law of which country has a higher interest in the outcome of that case." Munneke also notes the precedent Jordan itself established in 1995 when it extradited Jordanian national Eyad Ismoil.

2018

The State Department Issues A Reward

In January, the Rewards for Justice Program, which is the U.S. Department of State’s Counter-Terrorism Rewards Program, offered a $5 million reward:

Jordan Reacts

At this point, 2 months later, there was a response from Jordan in the form of an article in Al Ghad, which according to Wikipedia is "the first independent Arabic daily national newspaper published in Jordan." Translated by Google Translate as Jurists comment on Tamimi's extradition request: There is no trial for a person who did twice, the article quotes 3 Jordanian lawyers who defend why Jordan has refused to honor its extradition treaty with the US. The article summarizes the arguments in the first paragraph:
Lawyers considered that extraditing the freed prisoner Ahlam Al-Tamimi to America is “not permissible”, citing that “the laws of the world do not allow anyone to be tried twice, and they are also in Jordan,” in addition to the absence of an agreement to exchange criminals between the two countries.
The Munneke article above deals with the Double Jeopardy issue, rebutted in a previous post here. Similarly, that article deals with the claim that there is no treaty.

2019

Congressional Letter To Secretary of State Pompeo

In March 2019, the first of 3 letters from Congressmen appeared. In a bipartisan effort, 20 Congressmen sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo, urging him to extradite Tamimi to the US:
Read the whole thing.

State Department: The Extradition Treaty Is Valid

Later in the year, when the State Department delivered its annual "Country Report on Terrorism" to Congress, there was a change in the section on Jordan from previous years. In the 2017 report, the report merely mentioned in passing that Jordan claimed their constitution does not allow for the extradition of Jordanian nationals:
But the report for the year 2018, submitted in 2019, responded to that point:

Rep. Jerrold Nadler Sends A Letter to Attorney General Barr

In August, in response to a June letter from Rabbis asking him to seek the enforcement of US-Jordanian extradition treaty, Rep. Jerrold Nadler -- Chair of the House Judiciary Committee -- sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr, asking him for answers:
Nadler and Collins wrote in their joint letter to the Justice Department that “we understand that the government of Jordan has argued that a 1995 extradition treaty between the United States and Jordan is not in effect, and that Jordan’s constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals.” They asked the department to provide “information regarding the current status” of the efforts to “overcome these objections.”

Haaretz Article Draws A Response

The whole issue of bringing Tamimi to justice has generally not been picked up in the media. That changed on November 7, when the English-edition of Haaretz featured an article describing how U.S. Rejects Jordan's Refusal to Extradite Hamas Terrorist Wanted for Trial. It was a high-profile article, based on an interview with Arnold Roth himself. And it drew a response from the Arab world For example, just 4 days later, Yahya Al-Saud -- the Jordanian MP and chairman of Palestine Committee in the Jordanian Parliament -- spoke out publicly that the Jordanian government should not extradite Tamimi, adding that "she did not commit a crime, but defended her country." Also in November, the Jordanian news site JO24.net featured the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ayman Hussein Abdullah Al-Safadi who spoke publicly about the Jordan's refusal to extradite Tamimi:
Jordan 24 - 
Ayman al-Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Affairs, affirmed that several American bodies requested Jordan to extradite her, Jordanian citizen Ahlam Al-Tamimi, noting that Jordan respects and abides by the law, “and the law does not allow this.”
On his blog, This Ongoing War, Arnold Roth thoroughly debunks al-Safadi's defense of Jordan's refusal in a post entitled Thank you, Mr Foreign Minister

2020

It has been a busy year so far.

Congress Responds to Jordan's Refusal to Extradite

Though actually signed in December 2019, Congress's H.R.1865 - Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, includes a provision for withholding funds from countries that refuse to extradite:
Extradition Sec. 7055. (a) Limitation.—None of the funds appropriated in this Act may be used to provide assistance (other than funds provided under the headings “International Disaster Assistance”, “Complex Crises Fund”, “International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement”, “Migration and Refugee Assistance”, “United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund”, and “Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Assistance”) for the central government of a country which has notified the Department of State of its refusal to extradite to the United States any individual indicted for a criminal offense for which the maximum penalty is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or for killing a law enforcement officer, as specified in a United States extradition request. [emphasis added] (b) Clarification.—Subsection (a) shall only apply to the central government of a country with which the United States maintains diplomatic relations and with which the United States has an extradition treaty and the government of that country is in violation of the terms and conditions of the treaty. (c) Waiver.—The Secretary of State may waive the restriction in subsection (a) on a case-by-case basis if the Secretary certifies to the Committees on Appropriations that such waiver is important to the national interest of the United States.

Fox News Covers the Story

In another high-profile article, on January 29, Fox News reported Most wanted female terrorist lives in freedom in Jordan despite extradition request for bombing that killed Americans, based on an interview with Arnold Roth, giving more exposure to the search for justice.

More Congressmen Speak Out

Earlier this month, Congressman Greg Steube sent a letter to Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar, demanding Tamimi's extradition. It is signed by 6 other Congressmen -- all Republicans.
The letter does more than urge the government to push for extradition. The Congressmen directly confront Jordan's refusal to extradite:
The mention that "Jordan had extradited terrorists to the United States multiple times" is a reference to Mohammad Zaki Amawi and Nader Saadeh -- dual citizens of both the US and Jordan -- whom Jordan turned over to the US in 2006 and 2015 respectively. The letter also discusses H.R.1865, mentioned above, and the possibility of utilizing that option.

More Reactions From Jordan

On May 14, Arnold Roth wrote a post, In Jordan, they're standing with confessed bomber Tamimi but worried. He reviews 19 different responses in the Arab media to the recent pressure. A number of them repeat the claim that the original extradition treaty is not valid -- without addressing the fact that Jordan has in fact extradited terrorists to the US in the past. On May 16, in a post The friends of Jordanian fugitive Ahlam Tamimi, including her lawyers, are speaking up. But not all of them, he notes that despite the claim that Jordan is defending its refusal to extradite based on its adherence to "the law" --
Neither the clever lawyers nor the Islamist spokesperson bother to address what Tamimi happily confesses to doing at Sbarro. They have nothing to say about the people murdered there that day (or daughter Malki among them) or about any of the simple, well-framed questions that Jordan's ambassador in Washington has not yet mannaged to answer.
He concludes that while in years past Ahlam Tamimi was supremely confident of her position in Jordan, she shows signs of being just a bit uneasy:
Evidently with all the media activity going on in her support, Tamimi is still waiting for the people who count, those in Jordan's royal palace a short distance from her home, to step up. And as we point out here, she gives the impression of someone who's running out of patience.

The Times of Israel Article

On May 5, The Times of Israel came out with an article Failed by Israel, Malki Roth’s parents hope US can extradite her gloating killer, written by David Horovitz -- the founding editor of Times of Israel.
His article stands out not only for its breadth and attention to detail, but also how Horovitz interviewed not only Arnold Roth and his wife Frimet, but also insiders who offer insight into the roadblocks that the Roth's have had to deal with and are still dealing with in their quest to bring Tamimi to justice. A Hebrew edition is due out in the coming days, marking the first serious engagement by any part of Israel's Hebrew-oriented media with the Roth's battle to see their child's killer extradited.
There is finally enough exposure and attention paid to Jordan's protecting a terrorist to generate action from Congress and government bodies. In turn, there is increased coverage even in the Arab media and the Jordanian government itself has felt the need to respond. But there is still a long way to go. The US government clearly has the means to apply pressure on Jordan to comply with its extradition request. However, it has yet to show a readiness to do what is necessary. The question remains as to how dedicated the US government is to seeing justice done for American victims of terrorism.
  • Friday, May 22, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Obsession: Israel’s occupation of Iranian media is nearly complete

Israel isn’t the topic of 100% of the articles in Iranian media today, but it is damned close.

The amount of mind-space that Israel takes up in Iran’s leaders’ minds is something to behold.

 

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  • Friday, May 22, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Hanan Ashrawi says why the PLO pretends to be against terror; claims AIPAC told Dem candidates to drop out; "settlements stole ancient Palestinian village names"

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Earlier this week, Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO spoke to CAABU, the Council for Arab British Understanding. In front of her friendly audience she revealed her ugly hate and antisemitism yet again.

She described why the PLO has officially embraced non-violence.


Of course the Palestinians will resist. There is one thing that has been constant regardless of the degree of pain and victimization, the Palestinians have never accepted this enslavement, have never accepted to be held captive and they have always resisted using a variety of means. We have adopted the nonviolent or popular resistance as a means of resistance because, of course, the violent resistance is going to play into Israel’s hands but it also in many ways will not get to anywhere and we will get labeled as terrorists.

She doesn’t say that blowing up Jews is immoral or wrong. On the contrary, all means of “resistance” are valid, but for tactical reasons the PLO doesn’t want the world to know that it embraces terror so it has, for now, abandoned that method. Meaning, if tomorrow the political calculation changes, the PLO can easily move back into suicide bombing.

It is of course absurd to say that an organization that turns terrorists into heroes and that literally pays salaries to those whose only accomplishments in life were to kill Jews has embraced nonviolence. It is purely a result of the West’s disapproval that they have chosen to let Hamas and Islamic Jihad take the terror role at this time.

Ashrawi also discussed how she thinks that AIPAC instructed the Democratic candidates to withdraw from the race - of course, why else would they abandon campaigning except to obey their Jewish masters? -  and how, she says, AIPAC was behind Elizabeth Warren not endorsing Bernie Sanders.


We felt that for the first time there was the courage to stand up: to stand up to AIPAC,to stand up to all attempts at intimidation. And look what happened: when AIPAC decided to raise funds to stop Sanders, and they called it the “Stop Sanders movement,” and then they managed to get most of the other candidates to drop their candidacy, and to endorse Biden and then even Elizabeth Warren did not endorse Sanders she stayed silent, and sometimes silence is the recourse of the cowardly.

There are a lot of lies in this talk – pretending that a Palestinian state would be democratic and give equal rights to Jews and Christians, for example. But this one was so ridiculous it deserves to be highlighted: 



In the Old City of Jerusalem the transformation of the character of the city by creating a forgery of the city, the negation of our own narrative our own history our own culture. Even the the settlements that they built, they steal the name of a village next to it so they can compete over the history! The settlements adopt the names and appropriate the names of ancient Palestinian villages and then they can say ‘we were there before.’

Those Jews, rebuilding the ancient Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, are “forging” the city. uh-huh.

And the settlements are taking the names of “ancient Palestinian villages”? Virtually every Jewish community takes its name from a Biblical source! It is the Palestinian towns that have stolen the Hebrew names, such as

Beit Jalla is the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, Jenin was Ein Ganim, Silwan was Shiloach, Selum was Shilo (one of the first capitals of ancient Israel), Tequa is Tekoa (the Prophet Amos’s hometown), Anata was Anatot (the Prophet Jeremiah’s hometown), Batir was Beitar,  Beitin was Beit El (as named by Jacob himself), Jaba was Geva, Mukhmas is Michmash (King Saul’s fortress), and El-Jib was Giv’on (where the sun stood still).

Not to mention that Jerusalem preceded “Al Quds,” Hebron and Kiryat Arba preceded “Al Khalil,” Shechem preceded “Nablus.”

Ashrawi is an antisemitic liar.


(h/t iTi)

  • Friday, May 22, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

EoZTV: Interview with Raymond Ibrahim about Islam

I thoroughly enjoyed last night's EoZTV interview with historian and scholar Raymond Ibrahim, whose provocative views on Islam have gotten him labeled a "white supremacist" by CAIR - even though his family is Egyptian Copt.

We spoke about the Muslim view of Jerusalem, why Muslims are more upset over Jews controlling land in Israel than Christians having regained Spain,  the violent spread of Islam through North Africa and Europe through its early centuries , Muslim "unity," whether there is any real Muslim legacy in philosophy, arts and science, and most provocatively whether Islam's violent mindset as prescribed in the later teachings of the Quran can be changed.

Check it out!

Thursday, May 21, 2020

05/21 Links Pt2: 'Har Habayit Beyadenu' - The Temple Mount is in our hands!; Democratic senators release letter warning Israel against annexation; Dan Aykroyd’s Love of Vodka and Israel

From Ian:
'Har Habayit Beyadenu' - The Temple Mount is in our hands!
In March 1968, J. B. Priestley, an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster, asked Weisgal the same question. Weisgal told Priestley about a cartoon in the Israeli press by the cartoonist Dosh showing Yisrolik, a little guy with a cap, who had become a symbol of the young state, explaining to King Hussein of Jordan how he might get back parts of Jerusalem. “Do what we did,” he told the king. “Say over and over again for two thousand years’ Next year in Jerusalem.’”

The phrase Next Year in Jerusalem “has been the umbilical cord which has tied the Jews of the world to the land of Israel for two thousand years,” Weisgal explained. “Jewish religious ritual and liturgy and biblical, medieval and modern literature is pervaded with longing for Zion. Agricultural and meteorological conditions in Israel are also a fundamental part of this identification."

-During January, when the cities in the Northeast might be covered with snow, Jewish children plant saplings because in Israel, it is the New Year of the Trees, when the almonds blossom for the first time. Even though the streets might be soaked from torrential rains in October, Jews pray that it should rain in Israel. The harvest has ended and the fields are parched. No other space on earth arouses such fervor and passion among the Jews, and infinite sacrifice to bring back the land to life. [1]

-When the Jews began to rebuild the land, they found the Valley of Jezreel infested with malaria. Today it is the agricultural heartland of the country. Reclamation cost the lives of hundreds of Jewish pioneers. No one forced them to engage in this dangerous work, yet they did so because it was their land. (Ibid)

-Observant Jews believed that simply by inhabiting the land, they were guaranteed a place in the world to come, while anyone who permanently left “is like a man who has no G-d.” [2[

On the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar ( June 7 in 1967) Israeli paratroopers captured the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, the portion of the Western supporting wall of the Temple Mount that remained since the destruction of the Second Temple (70 C.E.) When they reached the Wall, many of the secular soldiers who were not observant were overcome with emotion. One soldier remembered looking around at the officers and the other soldiers:

“I saw their tears, their wordless prayers, and I knew they felt as I did: a deep feeling for the Temple Mount… a love for the Wall on whose stones so many generations have wept. I understood that it wasn’t only I and my religious friends who sensed its greatness and sanctity; others felt it too, no less deeply and strongly.”
The Holy Six Day War
During the annual Yom HaAzmaut celebration at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem, some three weeks before the Six Day War, the Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, gave a powerful and prophetic speech to the students and gathered guests, describing his initial anguished reaction when he had heard the news, some twenty years previously, that the United Nations had voted to partition the Land of Israel in approving the creation of a truncating Jewish State. While joyous Israelis danced outside on the streets, he sat at home, stunned by the announcement that the Inheritance of Hashem and Jerusalem had been cut into pieces and divided. Raising his voice, he shouted, “THEY DIVIDED OUR LAND!” Everyone in the hall was silent. “AND WHERE IS OUR HEVRON? AND OUR SHECHEM? WHERE IS EVERY METER OF THE LAND WHICH HASHEM BEQUEATHED TO US ALONE?! HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THAT ALL OF THE LAND IS OURS?!”

One of the yeshiva’s students, that late HaRav Yehuda Hazani wrote down his teacher’s words. “Yehuda had a phenomenal memory,” his wife, Hannah, told the Jewish Press. “After he made a neat copy of his scribbled writing, he showed it to HaRav Tzvi Yehuda for final editing, and then arranged for its publication in the HaTzofet newspaper. At the time, no one in the country spoke about our returning to Judea and Samaria, nor about capturing the Temple Mount. The idea was like a science fiction. Then, three weeks later, it came true.”

At the same time, in the late spring of 1967, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi of Tzahal, was in Australia, raising money for Israel Bonds, when he read in a local newspaper that Egypt’s President Nasser had closed down the Straits of Tiran leading to Eilat. At Nasser’s request, United Nations Peace Keeping Forces abandoned the Sinai Peninsula, and vast numbers of Egyptian tanks and infantry units were stationed along the Israeli border. Certain that the belligerent actions would lead to war, Rabbi Goren decided to fly back home to Israel. “In a matter of weeks, I will pray at the Kotel and on Mount Sinai as well,” he prophesied to the large crowd at his farewell appearance in Australia.

In Israel, the population was seized with worry and despair. Nasser’s promises to drive the Jewish State into the sea had unnerved the country. The armies of Syria and Jordan were mobilized to join Egypt in a devastating attack. Israel’s top military echelon advised Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, the acting Defense Minister, to strike first before Israel’s forces received a deadly blow, but the cautious and aging politician wanted to give the Administration in Washington time to convince Nasser to withdraw his forces and allow the UN troops to return to their positions. The IDF brass disagreed, not wanting to put the fate of the country in foreign hands, by counting on America to save it from extinction.
Remembering the "Road of Heroism"
Only one road supplied the people of Jerusalem in 1948 and suddenly they faced a dire situation. In the fourteen day old State of Israel, the future of the New City of Jerusalem hung in the balance. It was a week since vital supplies had arrived. The people of Jerusalem faced starvation. They needed medicine. Weapons were required to repel attacks.

A hastily constructed makeshift bypass road saved the city and perhaps the newly reborn State of Israel.

Following the passage of UN resolution 181, which divided the land into a proposed Jewish and Arab state, irregular Arab forces took control of the hills overlooking the road to Jerusalem from the coast and often attacked the road, firing upon convoys bringing supplies, causing heavy losses. Food shortages in Jerusalem were acute.

From April 4-20, the Haganah launched Operation Nachshon which succeeded in forcing through convoys of supplies. On May 8, for the next week, the Haganah launched Operation Macabi against Arab irregular troops occupying towns along the road threatening convoys.

Following the establishment of Israel on May 14, the situation facing the supply line to the New City of Jerusalem became even more perilous.

Three days after the May 15th exit of British forces from the strategically vital area of Latrun and its fortifications, which overlook the road to Jerusalem, it was seized by the Jordanian Arab Legion which then prevented convoys from reaching the road to the Holy City..

Costly attempts by Jewish forces to regain the strategic site over the next two weeks failed.

  • Thursday, May 21, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Iran's insane view of the world comes out for Quds Day

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The Tehran Times has an article for "International Quds Day" that is delusional.

I'll post the whole article, but fisking the entire thing would be way too time consuming. A few comments will suffice.

The decades-old crisis surrounding Palestine is universal. The crisis has not only imposed its negative impacts on the Palestinian geographical territory and the West Asian region, it has also badly affected the entire Islamic world and other world nations.

When your curriculum and media are filled with articles on how Jews and Israelis are the worst people in the world, it tends to affect those who learn that.

Prolongation of the occupation of Palestine has influenced the involved societies in various social, cultural, economic, security, military, and humanitarian aspects. The main reason behind such a devastating prolonged occupation is a plot engineered by the hegemonic powers. Such a conflict could only be materialized via the establishment of the military regime of Israel in the region as well as the occupation of Palestine.
The Zionism, using its media power and its influence on the hegemonic powers, has tried through history to create this view in the world public opinion that the mentioned crisis is restricted to the Palestinian geography or finally Muslim nations. But Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, called such a plot by the Tel Aviv regime global arrogance of global Zionism.

"The Zionism" uses "its media power" "through history." Uh-huh.

Colonialism has experienced a bitter confrontation with the Islamic civilization. Following the emergence of Islam and its spread across the region, a powerful civilization was formed with its own cultural, scientific, military, and economic characteristics. Wherever the newly-formed civilization arrived it was welcomed by the hosting nations. The West, which was seemingly Christian but in fact was materialistic and profit-seeking had found the new civilization as an obstacle to its colonial projects.

When Western ideas spread, it is colonialism. When Islam spreads, it is welcomed by the people being brutally conquered. Good to know.

Also good to know that the West was colonialist in the 9th century.

   
The West further resorted to getting the world involved in two great devastating wars to undermine the influence of Islamic civilization. In 1916, during World War I, the Great Ottoman Empire was broken down within the framework of a colonial plot named the Sykers-Picot plan which ended in the formation of a variety of political factions and movements in the West Asia region.

   And you thought those two world wars had something to do with Germany, and not a western war against Islam. Silly you.


At the same time, the establishment of the military regime of Israel in Palestine assisted the West to prevent revival of any new Islamic civilization via escalating tensions, insecurity, and disputes in the region.

Following the plot for establishment of Israel and occupation of Palestine and the creation of the Zionist regime, the Islamic world has been involved in continuous tensions that have inflicted heavy losses on regional nations.

This is hilarious. For decades, Israel was the one thing that kept the Muslim nations even a little unified!


West Asia enjoys rich resources of crude and natural gas, tourism capacities, and wonderful geographical status. But regrettably the entire region is suffering from an old problem. The wealth produced in the region is invested in Western countries or deposited in Western banks due to lack of sustainable security in regional countries.
According to a World Bank report, the oil-producing Arab countries have invested over $4,000 billion in the United States. This is a hefty amount of money that can cover a large number of industrial, scientific, and research projects in the U.S. and provide a situation for Washington to grant $4 billion to Israel annually.

Hold on - are you telling me that Israel only gets one tenth of one percent of the amount the the Arab world invests in the US? That is a pretty bad return on investment!

If we look at the Zionist regime's damages to the entire region from the above-mentioned viewpoint, we admire Imam Khomeini's wise and accurate view which called the Zionist regime a “cancerous tumor”. Imam Khomeini called for the elimination of Israel and initiated the International Quds Day in efforts to remove this tumor.
As Imam Khomeini wished, the International Quds Day will unite the entire oppressed people worldwide to form a global movement to settle international disputes.
In fact, Imam Khomeini, via initiating the International Quds Day, offered the people around the globe to think about a world without Zionism, without colonialism, and without hegemonic powers.
The growing mystery behind opposing Israel and honoring the International Quds Day have their roots in the deep pleasure of thinking about a world without Israel and arrogant powers.

If the thought of a world without Israel brings you deep pleasure, then be prepared to pleasurably dream about it for many, many more years.

Arab Demonization Of Israel An Israeli Plot To Keep Out Arabs Fleeing Arab Tyranny (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.


horse stampedeTel Aviv, May 21 - Document leaks from within an Israeli intelligence organization revealed this week that longstanding animosity from surrounding Arab states, by those states' own accounts an expression of opposition to Jewish sovereignty on land they consider Arab Muslim, in fact occurs as the intentional product of a secret Israeli propaganda campaign to prevent people from those neighboring countries from wanting to get to the Jewish state to escape the oppression and misery they face in their own lands.

Journalists obtained documents on Wednesday that appear to describe a decades-old program to fan the flames of anti-Israel sentiment in neighboring states, through measures that appear to mesh seamlessly with those countries' own official propaganda, but in fact are calculated to maintain a level of Israel-hate in those populations high enough to ensure that residents of those Arab countries never consider escaping to Israel to enjoy freedoms and rights they could never experience in their native lands.

Selections from documents from the Mossad, among with at least one other organization that does not officially exist, reached reporters yesterday, documents that refer to an initiative called Operation Repulse. Sketchy details from several of the documents point to operations going back at least to 1965 in which government-controlled media in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, and at least four other countries not named directly, were co-opted or deceived into exaggerating anti-Israel sentiment beyond the level each respective regime had prescribed. Unsuspecting broadcasters, publishers, pundits, and other figures in those countries played into Israel's scheme to make the Jewish state such an unappealing place in Arab eyes that few fugitives from those lands would aim for refuge or absorption there - despite Israel's comparative freedom, prosperity, tolerance, and general welfare, a gap that has only increased through the decades. Israeli leaders feared becoming overwhelmed by Arab refugees whose sheer numbers would negate the country as a Jewish state, the only one in the world and thus the only guaranteed refuge for Jews themselves fleeing persecution.

Political and bureaucratic superiors of the Arab figures carrying the overstated vitriol seldom suffered for their apparent excess gusto in conveying it to their audiences; in at least four documented cases those figures found career advancement as a result of what their superiors interpreted as welcome enthusiasm for the task at hand.

Security officials declined to comment or to answer questions whether Repulse has continued into the twenty-first century, even to today, but one acknowledged that it became increasingly difficult to generate the level of hate necessary to stay unwelcoming in Arab eyes as Israel's economy, culture, safety, and stability surged in the last thirty years.

05/21 Links Pt1: Abbas cries wolf again, and Israel stays silent; Hungary, Austria stand against rest of EU blasting Israel; Iran has banned all use of Israeli tech. Really? That would set it back 50 years

From Ian:
Lee Smith: How Russiagate Began With Obama’s Iran Deal Domestic Spying Campaign
Meanwhile, Flynn continued to do the job the president had chosen him for. After Iran conducted a ballistic missile test and its Yemeni proxies attacked a Saudi naval ship, he announced in the White House press room: “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.” Former Obama aides fumed: The Trump administration had no choice but to stay in the JCPOA. Then they flipped through the dog-eared pages of the Iran Deal playbook and pushed into the press rumors regarding the loyalties of a combat veteran who served his country in uniform for more than three decades. Had Michael Flynn sold out his country to Russia?

On Feb. 9, Entous finally got his chance to publish the leaked intercept of the Kislyak call. He and Washington Post colleagues Greg Miller and Ellen Nakashima found nine current and former U.S. officials to confirm that Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian. It went unremarked that the article provided evidence of yet another leak of Flynn’s name from a classified intercept, and thus proof of a massive spying operation targeting the Trump team.

Trump had been warned. Obama was serious when he told him not to bring on Flynn. The new president’s hand was forced, and the national security adviser left the White House on Feb. 13. Within the year, prosecutors from Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation threatened to charge Flynn’s son with lobbying violations if he didn’t plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI.

By then, Russiagate was in overdrive—one of the most destructive conspiracy theories in U.S. history was well on its way to poisoning minds around the country. It appeared to cast an even deeper spell on the elite urban classes whose peers in the press and government had fueled it in the name of “resisting” Trump. And yet only a small fraction of those who imagined themselves to have the inside story of the Trump team’s secret collusion with Russia to defeat Clinton understood the origins of the fantasy world they had been engulfed by.

Russiagate was not a hoax, as some conservative journalists call it. Rather, it was a purposeful extension of the Obama administration’s Iran Deal media campaign, and of the secret espionage operation targeting those opposed to Obama’s efforts to realign American interests with those of a terror state that embodies the most corrosive forms of anti-Semitism.

It’s not hard to see why the previous president went after Flynn: The retired general’s determination to undo the Iran Deal was grounded in his own experience in two Middle Eastern theaters of combat, where he saw how Iran murdered Americans and threatened American interests. But why Obama would choose the Islamic Republic as a partner and encourage tactics typically employed by third-world police states remain a mystery.
PA refuses UAE aid sent via Israel, won’t be ‘tool for normalization’ – report
The Palestinian Authority government has refused to accept medical aid from the United Arab Emirates after it arrived on the first known direct commercial flight between Israel and the UAE, PA sources told multiple Arab media outlets.

The UAE-based airline made history Tuesday, as the plane loaded with 16 tons of coronavirus aid for Palestinians flew directly from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.

Palestinian media, as well as Russia Today Arabic, quoted a government source Thursday saying the aid had been rejected, explaining Ramallah was refusing to be used as a “tool for normalization” between Israel and the UAE. The two countires do not have diplomatic relations.

The source reportedly said the transfer of the medical aid had only been coordinated with Israel and the World Health Organization (WHO), and not with the Palestinian Authority which governs Palestinians in the West Bank.

That, the source claimed, indicated that the UAE intended to use the aid to improve its ties with Jerusalem on the “pretext” of aid to Palestinians.

The source said any assistance to the Palestinian people must be provided through coordination with Palestinian authorities.

The Etihad cargo jet, painted in all white and lacking any marking, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport after seemingly flying a roundabout route through Iraq and either Jordan or Turkey.

Etihad, a state-owned long-haul carrier, confirmed the flight to Ben Gurion Airport. Emirati government officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Shtayyeh: UAE did not coordinate with us delivery of medical supplies
The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that it was unaware of the arrival of a United Arab Emirates (UAE) plane carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinians at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Earlier, Palestinian sources said that the PA refused to receive the UAE aid because it was being transmitted through Israel.
According to the sources, the PA was outraged because the UAE chose to deliver the aid through Israel, and not directly to the Palestinians. Some PA officials and political activists accused the UAE of “promoting normalization” with Israel by allowing the plane to land at Ben-Gurion Airport.

The Etihad Airlines flight, direct from Abu Dhabi, landed in Israel on Tuesday night and was the first flight ever from the UAE to Israel. The cargo flight carried humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 16 tons of medical supplies, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators. The aid is in line with the United Nations COVID-19 Response Plan for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shatayyeh told reporters in Ramallah that the Palestinians were unaware of the arrival of the UAE aid at Ben-Gurion Airport.

“We have heard in the news that there is a United Arab Emirates plane carrying medical supplies to the Palestinians,” Shtayyeh said. “This issue has never been coordinated with us and we have never been notified about it. Our ambassador in the United Arab Emirates does not know about it. It was not coordinated with us at all.”

Relations between the PA and UAE have been strained over the Gulf state’s embracing of former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, an arch-rival of Abbas.


  • Thursday, May 21, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Iran's Supreme Leader: "I'm not against Jews - I just want to ethnically cleanse six million of them"

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The Ayatollah Khamenei said Wednesday on Twitter, "Eliminating the Zionist regime doesn’t mean eliminating Jews. We aren’t against Jews. It means abolishing the imposed regime & allowing Muslim, Christian & Jewish Palestinians to elect their own govt & expel foreigner thugs like Netanyahu. This is “Eliminating Israel” & it will happen."

But Netanyahu was born in Israel. How can he be a "foreigner thug?"

The answer comes from our post yesterday where Iran says that all Jews who came to he area after 1917 are not considered to be residents, but foreigners. Netanyahu's father Ben Zion only came to Palestine in 1920, so - according to Iran - some six million Jews who have lived in Israel their entire lives are foreigners who must be expelled.

So Khamenei is saying that six million Jews in Israel whose ancestors were not there over a hundred years ago, including millions who were born and spent their entire lives in Israel, are "foreigner thugs" who  be ethnically cleansed in his "final solution."

But he's not against Jews!

  • Thursday, May 21, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

If all agreements with Israel are void, then the Palestinian Authority should disappear

Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday that "The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones."

This image pretty much demonstrates how the Palestinian leadership is built on lies.

shtayy

 

Mohammad Shtayyeh's job is the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The PNA was created by....an agreement between Israel and the PLO, in the Gaza-Jericho Agreement:

ARTICLE III

TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY

  1. Israel shall transfer authority as specified in this Agreement from the Israeli military government and its Civil Administration to the Palestinian Authority, hereby established, in accordance with Article V of this Agreement, except for the authority that Israel shall continue to exercise as specified in this Agreement.

If all agreements between Israel and the PLO are null and void, Shtayyeh is out of a job.

But he is on the phone with world leaders - including the leader of Norway, which hosted the Oslo Accords that Abbas just claimed he has ended.

Now, the PLO would claim that Shtayyeh is prime minister of the "State of Palestine," which they claim the Palestinian Authority became in 2013.

But as usual, the Palestinians will make contradictory claims, based on the circumstances and who they are talking to.

In 2016, way after the supposed change of the PA/PNA to the "State of Palestine," Mahmoud Abbas said, “The Palestinian Authority exists and it is here. It will be followed by a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority is one of our achievements and we won’t give it up."

So even he admits there is no "State of Palestine" and that the PA is the current government.

Either way, the government only exists because of the Oslo process. If all agreements are null and void, then Israel no longer has to send over tax revenue to the PA. It doesn't have to provide electricity to the PA. It can close the borders, or take over land, or do anything it wants as the "occupying power."

Obviously Abbas doesn't want to lose the land, money and other power he controls. It is all a sham meant to frighten the West into pressuring Israel. And all the proof you need is Mohammad Shtayyeh on the phone in a job he should no longer have if Abbas was telling the truth.

  • Thursday, May 21, 2020
  • Elder of Ziyon

Palestinian Authority refuses COVID-19 aid FROM ARABS - because it came through Israel

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On Tuesday, the news broke that a Etihad Airways plane loaded with tons of COVID-19 aid from the UAE landed in Israel, the first known time a commercial flight from the UAE ever came to Ben Gurion Airport.

Today, Israeli media reports that the Palestinian Authority has refused to accept the aid.

Kan News reports that the PA refused the medical aid,  saying the Abu Dhabi authorities have not coordinated the shipment with them at all, and the manner in which aid is sent is not acceptable to the PA.

"If the UAE wants to normalize with Israel, then it shouldn't be on our backs," a Palestinian source told Kan.

In fact, the aid was coordinated with the UN. The aid was sent through the UN's World Food Program and was facilitated by the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO.)  it included included 16 tons of medical supplies, including 10 ventilators and protective equipment.

For months now, anti-Israel activists have been falsely accusing Israel of withholding COVID-19 aid to Palestinians as a political tool. As is always the case, this is projection on their part: the only side refusing aid for political purposes are the Palestinians. And the Palestinian Authority has been limiting medical aid to Gaza as well.

Western observers cannot wrap their heads around those who would sacrifice their own people's lives for "honor" reasons.  Yet it is honor and shame that drives virtually all decisions in the Arab and Muslim worlds, more than human life, far more than the desire for peace. Every "expert" who says that there would be peace if only Israel would do more - more concessions, allowing descendants of refugees to "return," releasing terrorists from prison, dividing Jerusalem - is ignorant, because Israel's existence is the real issue, and the shame that the weak, dhimmi Jews overpowered the combined armies of the mighty warrior Arab world is too much for the Palestinians to overcome. Generations brainwashed by "Nakba" propaganda are not going to accept peace with Israel, because peace is not as important as pride, and Jews controlling land in the region is too shameful.

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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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