Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 02, 2020

10/02 Links Pt1: David Singer: The door is open for Jordan and Egypt to negotiate with Israel; ‘Jerusalem is our city,’ Turkey’s Erdogan declares; Report: Jordan Expels Nizar Tamimi, Husband of US-Wanted Terrorist

From Ian:

David Singer: The door is open for Jordan and Egypt to negotiate with Israel

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has once again publicly repudiated the Trump Peace Plan, this time internationally, telling the United Nations (UN) in his annual address:

"The Palestinian people have placed their hope in the United Nations, the historical witness of their Nakba, to provide support to their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence. And we continue to await the UN to fulfill its responsibility to achieve a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine in accordance with its resolutions.”

The PLO will have a long wait - as Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu told the UN in his annual address:

“I will be ready and I’d be willing to negotiate on the basis of the Trump plan to end our conflict with the Palestinians once and for all.”

In justifying the PLO‘s decision to jettison the Trump Plan - Abbas stated:

"The declaration we are adopting today reflects the belief of the State of Palestine that upholding international law is the guarantee for achieving justice, that the UN Charter remains the basis for a more just, peaceful and prosperous world and that international law is imprescriptible and its respect more pressing.”

The PLO long ago consigned itself to irrelevancy when it became the arbiter of what international law it was prepared to accept or fabricate and which to simply ignore - as exemplified by: - The “State of Palestine” not being a state under article 1 of the Montevideo Convention. - The PLO refusing to accept two foundational pillars of international law under article 18 of its 1964 Charter:

“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate system and all that has been based upon them are considered fraud.” - Article 20 in the revised 1968 Charter seeing the PLO going even further:

“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.”

Report: Jordan Expels Nizar Tamimi, Husband of US-Wanted Terrorist

Jordan has reportedly expelled the husband of US-wanted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi.

Nizar Tamimi, 46, arrived in Qatar after the Hashemite Kingdom refused to renew his residency and asked him to leave within 48 hours, reported the pan-Arab publication Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday.

Ahlam Tamimi, 39, has been accused of being the mastermind behind the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, that killed 15 people, including seven children, and wounded 130 others. Among those killed were two American citizens, 15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year-old Judith Greenbaum, who was pregnant at the time. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, has remained in a permanent vegetative state ever since.

Nizar Tamimi was sentenced to life imprisonment for being involved in the 1993 murder and subsequent burning of Chaim Mizrahi.

Both Tamimis were released from prison in 2011 in an exchange between Israel and Hamas for captured Israel Defense Forces’ soldier Gilad Shalit. They married after their release.

Joe Truzman: Hezbollah’s Precision Guided Missile project under renewed scrutiny

Recent events in Lebanon have brought about renewed attention to Hezbollah’s Precision Guided Missile (PGM) project after an arms depot belonging to the Iranian-backed proxy exploded in Ayn al-Qana last week and Tuesday’s reveal by Prime Minister Netanyahu of Hezbollah ‘missile factories’ located in three Beirut neighborhoods.

On Sept. 22, a large explosion at a Hezbollah arms depot was reported in the southern Lebanese town of Ayn al-Qana. Shortly after the explosion Hezbollah commented to Al-Jazeera saying the cause of the explosion was a ‘technical error’.

“This explosion was at a house that stored weapons – result of technical error. No one was killed or injured. The building belonged to a Hezbollah affiliated de-mining association,” Hezbollah stated.

However, doubts about Hezbollah’s statement arose when the group announced a week later that one of their militants had recently been killed.

“The Islamic Resistance announces the martyred fighter Ali Najib Marwa, “Haji Abu Hassan Sajid” from the town of Zararia in southern Lebanon, who ascended while performing his jihad duty,” the statement said.

Although Hezbollah never specifically stated how the fighter died, a ‘security source’ stated to Lebanon’s Daily Star the militant had died from ‘wounds sustained in the Ayn al-Qana blast’.

Additionally, the explanation that weapons stored in Ayn al-Qana belonged to a ‘de-mining association’ is doubtful due to previous accusations of Hezbollah concealing its arsenal throughout the Beqaa valley and southern Lebanon.

("Democratic Palestine" flag in between two terrorist leaders)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Palestinians need to choose a leadership willing to hold a dialogue for peace in a recent interview on Fox News.

Fatah Media Office head Munir al-Jaghoub responded angrily, saying "When will you realize that our people choose its leadership and that Palestine, although it is a state under occupation, is not one of the banana republics? "

The people choose their leadership? Since when? The last elections were in 2006. Since then, elections have been promised in 2014, 2018, 2019, and now 2021.

This is deceptive, though. The Palestinian Authority does not serve the people. It reports to the PLO, whose leadership has never been elected.

And even if elections are held in 2021, what choice will the Palestinians have? According to Al Quds al al Arabi, Hamas and Fatah are negotiating running as a joint list - meaning that the people will have no choice at all, and the government will be negotiated between the two parties without the people having the slightest say.

The world likes to pretend a Palestinian state would be a liberal democracy. All available evidence shows it would be a brutal dictatorship.

The "pro-Palestinian" crowd doesn't seem too concerned.

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Egypt's Supreme Council of Culture commemorated the 50th anniversary of Gamal Abdel Nasser's death with a conference that was in many ways a direct attack on Israel, employing "Protocols"-type antisemitic tropes.

The conference, held under the direction of Minister of Culture Dr. Enas Abdel Dayem, employed the slogan “Jerusalem is the capital of Arabism.”

Historian Assem El Desouki spoke at the conference and described Israel as a "colonial ghoul" with a "greed for riches" which he says is "the root of a grand scheme created to break up the Middle East.”

Another attendee, previous Vice President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Tahani al-Gebali, said, “Egypt is the heart of Arabism and the grand prize for which its enemies awaits for its fall to announce the success of the Zionist-American project for Israel’s hegemony over the region, and weakening any potential resistance from its roots; it can still restore the Arab ranks to face the danger that is slowly creeping in. History is proof of that.”

(h/t DL)

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Hamas stages photos of its masked terrorists handing out...masks

Even terrorists like public relations. Here's a particularly bizarre example from Al Resalah, showing masked Hamas terrorists handing out masks to the public in Gaza.

Do women wearing burqas need masks? And if so, how do they hook it around their ears?

Here, an able-bodied driver needs help from his Hamas friend to learn how to put on a mask six months after the pandemic hit.

Obligatory elderly man.

Obligatory elderly woman.

Of course, kids. And...

The nice terrorists are so good to the disabled!

Pallywood 2020.

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10/01 Links P2: A look back at the Muhammad al-Dura affair, 20 years later; Jpost Editorial: Trump is no antisemite. Drawing comparisons with Hitler is just crass

From Ian:

Richard Landes: A look back at the Muhammad al-Dura affair, 20 years later

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of one of the most disastrous events in the year 2000, an event that cast a long shadow over the unhappy early decades of a troubled new millennium. On September 30, 2000, a Palestinian cameraman clumsily filmed what he claimed was footage of a boy who came under fire and was killed by Israelis. A French-Israeli journalist then edited the brief fragments, cutting the last contradictory scene, and broadcast the accompanying narrative on France2.

The image of Muhammad al-Dura via the narrative that the IDF had targeted him became the global symbol of Palestinian suffering at the hand of Israeli cruelty. It rapidly became an “icon of hatred” that had a greater immediate and long-term effect on the new century than any other such vehicle of incitement.

A cry arose, for some of pain, for some of rage, but for all a clear sign that the Infidel, led by the twin Satans Israel and USA, were making war on Muslims. Indeed, no single event so far has done more to arouse the spirit of jihad against the West than this footage, which, as Bin Laden quickly pointed out in his recruiting video for global jihad, demanded vengeance against al Yahud and their allies. Vengeance justified suicide attacks on civilians (two previously “forbidden” practices).

The sentiment so resonated, that even “conservative” al Azhar had to yield before the sanctification of their combination martyrdom operations. While itself not apocalyptic, the Muhammad al-Dura icon fed an apocalyptic jihadi narrative: to #GenerationCaliphate Israel was the Dajjal (Antichrist).

The West followed suit. Lethal journalists like Robert Fisk quickly affirmed the charge of deliberate murder. Where before such comparisons were considered ugly if not worse, now comparing Israel to the Nazis became common. A prominent French news anchor, speaking for many, declared that al-Dura “erased, replaced the image of the boy in the Warsaw Ghetto.” It was a new, post-modern “replacement narrative.”

Instead of Christians or Muslims replacing Israel as the true Chosen People, it was the former chosen people replacing the Nazis, and the poor Palestinian victim suffering the fate of the Jews. The progressive refrain, “Israel has lost the moral high ground.” Nobel Peace Prize winners, politicians, diplomats, award-winning playwrights and journalists, prominent academics, UN officials, Jews and non-Jews, all joined in the chorus, aligning with the jihadi apocalyptic narrative. Israel was the new Nazi secular Antichrist.

Jpost Editorial: Trump is no antisemite. Drawing comparisons with Hitler is just crass

We do not believe – based on Trump’s very positive track record on Israel and steps his administration has taken to combat antisemitism in the US, as well as by the number of Jews in his immediate family and in his inner circle – that the US president is an antisemite.

Those opposed to Trump have enough ammunition to use against him, having to do both with his behavior and his policies, without having to stoop to saying that he is an antisemite or a neo-Nazi sympathizer, or drawing comparisons between him and Hitler.

Unfortunately, the Jewish Democratic Council of America released a political advertisement on Tuesday, even before the debate – that will run in swing states with large Jewish populations – drawing a direct comparison between Trump’s America and the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany, and hinting at comparisons between Trump and Hitler.

“History shows us what happens when leaders use hatred and nationalism to divide their people,” a narrator solemnly stated over pictures of German shops dabbed with the word “Jude,” and a US synagogue defaced with graffiti.

The ad juxtaposes film of Nazi parades in Germany with footage of neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville. It places images of German masses giving the sieg heil salute on one side of the screen, with Trump speaking on the other.

“As antisemitism and white nationalism rise to dangerous levels in America, we are all less secure,” the narrator intoned. “It is time to show that we have learned from the darkest moments in history. Hate doesn’t stop itself: It must be stopped.”

The advertisement – likening Trump to Hitler and 1930s Germany to 2020 America – is over the top, out of line and a gross misappropriation of the absolutely darkest period of Jewish history for momentary political gain.

Disagree with Trump, even vehemently if you wish. Criticize his behavior and his policies. Jump all over him, deservedly so, for not being able to unreservedly condemn white supremacists in America. But don’t compare Trump to Hitler, or the situation facing America’s Jews to that which faced German Jewry in the 1930s. To do so is as much an over-exaggeration as it is wrong.

Left Fascism

In the end, does the left-fascist shoe fit our current culture moment? Consider the list: programmatic silencing of dissenters, purging of editorial pages, growing fear of transgressing murky viewpoint prohibitions, while university leaders generally refuse (there are some exceptions) to offer a full-throated defense of academic freedom, but instead embrace the stereotypical language of the social justice movement in its opposition to “the system.” They sound more like Heidegger promoting the Nazi revolution in the universities in 1934 than Edward R. Murrow in 1954 pushing back against Joe McCarthy. A lot of that is just cowardice. Equally reminiscent of fascism is the de facto coordination between the crowds in the streets and the pronouncements from corporate boardrooms, as well as the monitoring of political opinion by powerful social media. This imposed conformism, this Gleichschaltung, is playing out against the backdrop of attacks on the rule of law and across-the-board denunciations of all law enforcement.

Yet in one respect, the diagnosis of “left fascism” does not go far enough. It misses a key element of the moment, alluded to in Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech: the obsessive effort to suppress history and erase memory. Not only Confederate statues have been toppled but anti-Confederate ones as well, and the Emancipation Memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln and paid for by freed slaves has come under attack. In San Francisco the Board of Supervisors voted to conceal a New Deal era mural that included a critical depiction of slavery. Any symbol of the past has become suspect, as we hurtle into a brave new world robbed of the orientation that historical self-awareness might provide. At root there is only a nihilistic refusal of any positive identification with the shared project to achieve a “land of the free.”

This constellation of riots, lawlessness and social amnesia recalls another moment in American oratory with another American president. When the young Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, in 1838, he was responding to mob violence, attacks on African Americans and on abolitionists, when “bands of hundreds and thousands ... burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity.” Lincoln saw this “mobocratic spirit” leading to a general alienation from the government, a loosening of the bonds of affection for the republic, as the direct memory of the struggle for independence waned. It was that loss of a historical awareness of the origins and rationale for the United States which, in Lincoln’s view, threatened political stability. The “scenes of the revolution” were disappearing into forgetfulness, as the “silent artillery of time” erased the national past with every passing generation. Lincoln’s alternative: “General intelligence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the constitution and the law.”

One-hundred-eighty years after the Lyceum Address, we find ourselves even further away from the founding. In today’s America, even Habermas’ notion of a “constitutional patriotism,” safely removed from the dangerous temptations of nationalism, is under assault, let alone any deeper love of country. National history has all but disappeared from our curricula, and when it is still taught, it is poisoned with adversarial revisionism, an education for ressentiment and guilt. The failings alone matter: We are always only at 1619 and never at 1865 or 1945 or 1989, a distorted perspective that leads to tearing down, never building up, and embarrassing public rituals of pledging disallegiance. Describing these events as “left fascism,” Trump names the constellation of verbal progressivism mixed with a moralistic vitriol to harass dissenters and indulge in irrational violence, but the worst of our crisis is the contemptuous ignorance of the accomplishments of the nation. It is time to reclaim the history.

New 'Gen Z' Siddur Includes Translation Into Emoji (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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smileys New York, October 1 - Educational and communal institutions continue to struggle to reach and attract young people, but one such organization has hit on a novel way to engage the youth in the liturgical aspects of Jewish tradition: a prayer book that contains concise the visual imagery of online chat media to convey what the ancient, sometimes abstruse, text means.

The Modern Online Jewish Institute (MOJI) introduced its Emoji Siddur today, aimed at late Millennials and "Generation-Z" youth whose twenty-first-century upbringing has rendered them more comfortable in the language of online communication than of the traditional printed variety. The book contains the liturgical text on one page, while the facing page features the same text rendered in emoji so that today's youth will find it more accessible and meaningful, a MOJI spokesman asserted in an interview.

"Each generation's needs are different," explained Rabbi Mendel Now. "Vernacular English was good enough for the last few editions of Jewish texts in America, but that's not the case anymore. Today's young Jews are more fluent in smileys, memes, and gifs than in the stodgy verbiage of the Birnbaum, Artscroll, Koren, or even Sim Shalom siddurim. With no disrespect to the august personages behind those volumes, we sensed the need to adapt our ancient prayers to a language more suitable for the emerging Jewish polity."

The Emoji Siddur is available in both hard copies and downloadable as an app; the hard copy opens from top to bottom in the manner of a traditional checkbook or notepad, instead of the typical right-to-left orientation of a siddur. This configuration allows the user to "scroll" with his or her finger to the next page, in the manner that one does on a device. Rabbi Now called the innovation one of a series of "enhancements" the product offers.

"Obviously the hard copy edition can't include animated gifs or emoji," he noted. "Still, the app even includes visual instructions, such as a smiley covering its eyes right before the recitation of Sh'ma, and a figure taking three steps back, then forward, before the Amidah, as is customary. One of the advantages of the emoji format is that a single image can convey a set of complex ideas, whereas even in a concise language such as Hebrew the same idea might take several words or sentences to communicate."

Rabbi Now also remarked that the emoji translation represents as much an advance as a return to the roots of human written communication, hieroglyphics.

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It's getting tougher to live as a Jew in Europe

From Euronews:

Over the course of a single summer in 2020, Jewish graves in Worms, Germany, were vandalised, an Austrian Jew was attacked in the street and a calendar published in the Czech Republic that glorified Nazi leaders. It came in a year during which Europe and the world marked 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Meanwhile, Belgium, Denmark and Poland have either proposed bans or actually banned ritual slaughter, the method by which millions of Jews and Muslims in Europe require their meat to be killed. In Iceland, Denmark and Norway, a furore has erupted over circumcision, with critics arguing that the practice is inhumane and should be banned for those under the age of 18.

“It is very frustrating, there is no question,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association, told Euronews from his office in Brussels.

“You just think, [...] why do we have to [do this] again [...]. Three weeks ago it was the circumcision issue in Belgium [...]. Two weeks ago it was circumcision in Denmark, this week it is ritual slaughter in Poland, I mean what is next?”

Poland’s ban on kosher meat was pushed through by the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) earlier in September against the objections of its two minority coalition partners, potentially bringing down the Polish government and paving the way for new elections.

The ban on kosher meat was part of a wide-ranging law on animal welfare, which will similarly outlaw Muslim halal slaughter and the production of fur. It is currently in a 14-day review period, but the fact that the PiS was willing to let its coalition collapse to pass it suggests it could stand.

Speaking to Euronews last week when the law was passed, Margolin told Euronews that the campaign for the animal welfare law had distinct antisemitic overtones, presenting the supporters of the law as "good Polish citizens" and its opponents, among them the Jewish community, as bad. But there will also be a practical impact on Europe’s Jewish community.

“Limiting the export of kosher meat from Poland will immediately impact Jewish people from all over Europe because many Jewish people from Europe consume kosher meat coming from Poland,” he said.

People who want to persecute Jews always have such moral arguments behind them - animal welfare, child safety, human rights, international law. Yet they all have in common the desire to punish and limit the rights of Jews.

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10/01 Links P1: Merkel’s government is ‘undermining solidarity with Israel’; To the Washington Post, Palestinians Can Only Be Victims; How the Abraham Accords Are Making Iran Desperate

From Ian:

The UN must recalculate its route

In my capacity as a minister in various Israeli cabinets, I dealt extensively with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. I have come to know firsthand the bias and decades-long anti-Israel sentiment in the United Nations.

But despite this, I decided to begin my U.N. ambassadorship with a clear determination to fight for Israel’s reputation, to get rid of the hatred toward Israel there and to make sure that an automatic majority against it is no longer a preordained fate. I believe that now, with Arab countries embracing peace with Israel as a boon and Iranian brutality being exposed on a daily basis, there is a fighting chance at achieving this goal.

As soon as I arrived in New York, I began working alongside our friends in the Trump administration to restore the U.N. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted following the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran’s windfall due to the sanctions relief has armed its terrorist tentacles in Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and of course in Lebanon.

One would think that the United Nations, as an institution that has championed peace and security, would join the struggle against the largest terrorist regime in the world, which has continued to openly call for the annihilation of Israel. Unfortunately, the Security Council has chosen excuses over actions.

While Iran executes protesters, including wrestler Navid Afkari, a majority of Security Council members have shamefully refused to join the U.S.-led effort against Tehran, effectively choosing to reward such murderous action. There is no better proof for the disconnect between the theoretical ideas expressed by the U.N. Charter and their failed implementation in reality.

Merkel’s government is ‘undermining solidarity with Israel’

Germany has an anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, according to Uwe Becker, the commissioner to combat antisemitism in the German state of Hesse.

Following Germany’s abstention last week at the UN on an anti-Israel resolution, he told The Jerusalem Post: “Even in times of rapprochement between Israel and the Arab states, interested countries continue their smear theater at the United Nations and once again pillory the Jewish state. Now there must be an end to the ducking away. Germany’s abstention only strengthens Israel’s enemies at the UN and weakens the efforts for peace in the region.”

“I am very disappointed about Germany’s vote after a new resolution on the alleged violations of women’s rights by Israel,” said Becker, who is also president of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association.

“Germany is undermining solidarity with Israel if it does not finally take a clear and unequivocal stand at the United Nations against the politically staged permanent condemnation of Israel,” he added. “Neutrality is inappropriate when the moral verdict of guilt is passed on Israel.”

Becker is widely considered the most forceful German political advocate for the security of the State of Israel.

“Attitude and backbone are required, not passivity and diplomatic kowtowing,” he said. “If, at the end of a vote, Israel is the only country in the world accused of violating women’s rights, and countries decide to do so where women have virtually no rights, then the German side should finally wake up.”

Incoming Belgian government on collision course with Israel, local Jews say

Members of Belgium’s Jewish community this week expressed great concern at their country’s incoming government, saying some of its members are known for being extremely critical of Israel.

Even before the final cabinet lineup was set to be announced on Wednesday evening, friends of Israel familiar with the Belgian political scene predicted increased tensions with Jerusalem and the local Jewish community, pointing to what they said were several harsh Israel critics likely to be appointed to key positions in the government.

“Israel will find that this government will try to shut down all little dialogue left between both countries,” said Brussels-based Jenny Aharon, who advises Israeli officials and Jewish organizations on matters related to EU-Israel relations.

However, she added, the newly formed government, which will be sworn in by King Philippe on Thursday morning, “does not represent a Flemish majority. Therefore it would be inaccurate to consider its adopted anti-Israel policies as a sentiment shared by the Belgian people as a whole.”

Belgium is considered among Israel’s toughest critics in Europe, with Jerusalem and Brussels at odds over the Palestinian question.

In February, the Belgian ambassador in Tel Aviv was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a dressing down over what Israeli officials called “a systematic campaign to demonize the Jewish state” after the country’s embassy to the United Nations invited a pro-Palestinian activist to address the Security Council.

Since 2014, the UN - in cooperation with Israel and the PA - put together a process called the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, or GRM, which allowed construction materials to flow into Gaza after Operation Protective Edge.

The UN has a webpage showing, very transparently, how much cement and other materials go into Gaza and to which projects (all of which are approved by Israel.)

Since this is a point of cooperation between Israel and the PA, I was curious as to whether the PA's decision to stop coordination with Israel affected this work.

It did - quite a bit.

In the first two months of this year, 15000 tons of cement were imported into Gaza for approved reconstruction projects.

Over the past two months the amount of cement imported into Gaza has plummeted to less than 500 tons - a reduction of 97%!

We read a lot about how Israel's "siege" of Gaza is "strangling" ordinary Gazans, how it is collective punishment for the entire population, how utterly horrible it is.

Yet since May, the Palestinian Authority has done far more to hurt Gazans - not only in importing construction materials but also in helping patients leave the territory to get medical attention. Babies have died because of this negligence on the part of Mahmoud Abbas.

The "pro-Palestinian" voices are completely silent. The "fair" media isn't covering the story. Anti-Israel bias remains one of the bulwarks of NGOs and the international media.

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For many years, Lebanon has been refusing to negotiate with Israel over the maritime border between the two countries, leaving a swath of about 1000 square kilometers in dispute in the natural-gas rich Mediterranean.

Last year Lebanon made noises that it would allow the UN to help mediate the dispute, but that effort went nowhere.

Now, it appears that Lebanon has finally agreed to indirect negotiations, under the auspices of the US and the UN:

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly will announce the framework agreement representing the basis for the launch of indirect negotiations with Israel on demarcating the land and maritime borders, under the auspices of the United Nations and American mediation, al-Akhbar daily reported Thursday.

A high-ranking American delegation led by David Schenker will arrive in Beirut in mid October to start negotiations, it said.

The maritime border is fully within areas controlled by Hezbollah. This means that the main obstacle to these negotiations, Iran, is becoming less relevant in Lebanon in the wake of the public anger at the Beirut explosion.

Allowing the US to lead the mediation efforts is what is truly stunning, though. It indicates not only a weakening of Iranian influence over Lebanon bit a tentative willingness to acknowledge the US role in creating a new Middle East as seen by the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

There are obvious advantages to Lebanon to end this dispute. Any natural gas fields found in Lebanon's waters would be a bonanza for Lebanon's wrecked economy. That has always been true, but up until now Lebanon's position seems to have been that anything that also benefits Israel must never be done even if it is good for Lebanon as well - classic win/lose thinking of the honor/shame psyche. In the new Middle East, such thinking is quickly going from mainstream to distasteful.

Commenters on Naharnet are very cynical towards their Lebanese leaders:

phillipo
Direct, indirect, what difference does it make. In the end some agreement on the sea borders will be reached and signatures of Lebanese and Israeli officials will appear on the same document.
So why can't this happen on a land border agreement?

thepatriot
It is about time. The world is moving forward, our neighbors are moving forward, and we keep moving backwards, and towards darkness...
I pray that we demarcate those borders, and end up Ebola's [Hezbollah - EoZ] pathetic excuse of a "Resistance"..

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Western media darling and PLO spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi was the guest at a webinar hosted by the Arab America site last Saturday.

According to the synopsis of the discussion, Ashrawi was in rare form with lie after lie:

Israel is still taking land, Ashrawi reported, and she cannot even travel from her hometown of Ramallah to Jerusalem.[1] She further insists that Israel expects to get its own way without any words spoken between the two entities, while most of the rest of the world’s nations want a negotiated settlement.[2] Ashrawi reminds us, in any case, that “negotiations are just a means to an end.” The United Nations must be the place where peace is made, she suggested since that’s where international law prevails.[3]

1. The decision of not being able to travel from Ramallah to Jerusalem is from an agreement that the PLO signed. Before the first Intifada, under "occupation," Jews and Palestinians both traveled freely throughout the Land of Israel. Restrictions only started with Palestinian violence. Imagine that.

2. Israel had sought a negotiated settlement since 1993. The Palestinians refused to negotiate and tried to push the entire issue to the anti-Israel UN to avoid any compromise for peace.

3. She here seems to admit that she doesn't want negotiations, and that the situation should be unilaterally decided by the UN. She contradicted herself and no one even cares.

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Vic Rosenthal's weekly column

I got up a few minutes before 0400 this morning to watch the American presidential debate. Things have changed a great deal since the previous campaign, because I can’t recall anything even close in verbal viciousness from the candidates themselves. Biden called Trump a clown, a racist, and a liar, and told him to shut up. Trump, for his part, continually interrupted Biden and talked over him, somewhat like political discussions on Israeli TV.

More immediately relevant for Israel is what PM Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly (text and video) in a ten-minute pre-recorded speech yesterday. There was a dramatic disclosure of the location of a Hezbollah missile depot or factory (in pictures and with GPS coordinates) in the middle of a civilian neighborhood in Beirut, next door to a gas company’s tanks. A similar installation in southern Lebanon exploded just last week, following the massive Beirut explosion, which was caused by explosives-grade ammonium nitrate kept at the port by Hezbollah. Bibi suggested that the folks who live around there might try to pressure Hezbollah to dismantle it before it, too, blows up. Unfortunately, nobody in Lebanon can stand up to Hezbollah.

Lebanon is a tragedy. It’s suffering from a rapidly growing outbreak of Coronavirus, although it is still behind Israel in serious cases and deaths. Its economy was already in flames before the explosion that destroyed its largest port, most of its grain reserves, and a third of its capital. Like Covid-19, Hezbollah is a parasitic organism that, in this case, is killing its host.

This parasite, however is controlled and nourished from Iran, as Bibi noted in his speech. It is the perfect remote weapon. By embedding its weapons in the midst of the population, the Iranian regime protects them from the IDF – and unlike Hamas, which also uses human shields, it doesn’t even have to endanger its own population to do so!

The other important thing that Bibi said was that in our estimation – and Israel’s intelligence in this area is quite good – Iran is expected to have enough enriched uranium in “a few” months to build not one, but two, nuclear bombs. Iran has been working on the rest of the technology for bombs for years, as well as missiles capable of delivering them. This is a real threat that must not be minimized, and – I must remind those who so strongly criticize Netanyahu – he has focused on this danger. We will not be taken by surprise by Iran.

The US under the Trump Administration has proven to be a valuable ally against Iran. By ending the JCPOA and re-imposing American sanctions, Trump has increased the pressure on Iran and made it harder for the regime to fund Hezbollah. Trump’s support helped enable the normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain, and perhaps others yet to come. Trump approved the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s “Quds Force.” Soleimani controlled Iranian operations around the world, and especially in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, as well as being active in suppressing internal dissent. His loss was very painful to the regime.

When I watched the debate this morning, with its insults and posturing, I wondered if the Iranian leaders were watching as well. I am sure they were. And I am sure that they are rooting for Biden, who has promised to re-enter the JCPOA, reduce sanctions, and engage in further negotiations with Iran (which made fools of Obama’s negotiating team). Worse, Biden will likely pick up some of the same advisors that guided the Obama Administration. Wendy Sherman and Jake Sullivan may be back talking to the Iranians. And of course Biden supports the failed two-state solution with the Palestinians, which guarantees that there will be no progress and continued terrorism on that front.

But maybe the Iranians are making a mistake. On the one hand, a Trump victory will probably see a continuation of the policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. In the long term, it may succeed in weakening the regime enough that it can be persuaded to back down on its nuclear weapons project. Israel will continue monitoring Iranian activities and working with its new Arab allies to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran.

On the other hand, if Biden wins it may become clear to Israeli planners that there is a very short window of opportunity to pursue a military solution to the problem of Iranian nukes. Once Biden comes in, any Israeli actions would be off the table, just like in the days of the Obama Administration.

So either Trump wins, or the Iranians should expect a very warm November or December.

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