Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Jason Greenblatt: Care About Gaza? Blame Hamas
Hamas has left Gaza in shambles. Life there is difficult, sad and abnormal. Only buildings with generators actually maintain steady power. The lack of power affects everything from preserving fresh food to treating sewage. If a person in Gaza falls ill, he is likely to find trained medical professionals unable to help because of the lack of equipment and medicines. The people there — even the talented and educated — can’t find jobs. The store shelves are empty. The shoreline, which in many other places in the Mediterranean would be filled with beach resorts, is covered in the raw sewage and debris from successive wars. The cost of conflict is seen in all aspects of life in Gaza.
If you ask why such hardships exist in Gaza, the answer will almost always be the same: the Israelis.
Really? The Arabs in Israel generally live normal lives and, in many cases, thrive. In fact, Arab citizens of Israel live freely compared with Arabs in many other countries in the region. The Palestinians in the West Bank are largely progressing in stable cities and communities. Educated workers are finding jobs (though there is much room for improvement — something the Trump administration has tried to help Palestinians with, only to be blocked by the Palestinian Authority). Trade both with Israel and abroad is providing employment and possibilities. Infrastructure has progressively improved. Power is available 24 hours every day in most communities.
Why are others moving forward while Gaza sinks further into despair and disrepair? Because Hamas, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, has made choices. Hamas professes violence and the destruction of Israel as a method of gaining a better life for Palestinians. This “defense” of Palestinians has led to the problems experienced today: a decimated economy, hundreds killed in violence each year and one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Hamas is to blame for Gaza’s situation.
The countries of the world have attempted to help the people of Gaza repeatedly since 2007, when Hamas violently seized power there from the government led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Donors have offered to build the infrastructure and the economy, but are set back years every time Hamas and other terrorist organizations fire rockets into Israel. Hamas has instigated three wars with Israel since 2007, each time leaving its infrastructure in greater disarray.
Jonathan S. Tobin: Who denied the Palestinians an independent state? Not Israel
According to The New York Times, the re-election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left Palestinian families seeing “no light at the end of the tunnel.”Khaled Abu Toameh: The Persecution of Palestinians No One Mentions
A feature published on the front page of the paper, Monday, focused on the despair felt by Palestinian families over the current stalemate in the peace process. They know that the Palestinian Authority that rules over their cities, towns and villages is horribly corrupt and unable to reach a peace deal with Israel. And they understand that Israelis have no more faith in the prospects of peace than they do.
The piece shows that some Palestinians are rethinking the ideology that has fueled a century-long war on Zionism. But they fail to mention a basic fact that defines the current situation: The Palestinian leadership has repeatedly rejected compromises that would have given them the statehood they claim to want. It’s interesting that nowhere in the 1,000-word article does The New York Times make note of this fact.
This omission speaks volumes not only about the ignorance and obtuse nature of the criticism of Israel that emanates from the paper, but also about the chattering classes and foreign-policy establishment that take their cues on the Middle East from its pages.
Arabs living in the West Bank have good reason to distrust their current leaders. In a few moments of rare clarity on the situation that are mentioned only in passing, some of the piece’s sources admit that life was better for them before the Oslo peace process that created the Palestinian Authority.
In Lebanon, Palestinians have long been facing discriminatory and "Apartheid laws" that deny them basic rights, including access to dozens of skilled professions, health-care and education services. According to some reports, thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing Lebanon in recent years as a result of the dire economic conditions and government regulations that deny them basic rights.
In 2015, a Saudi court sentenced Palestinian artist and poet Ashraf Fayadh to death by beheading for "apostasy." Later, however, the court overturned the death sentence and replaced it with an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes. The "evidence" against Fayadh was based on poems included in his book Instructions Within, as well as social media posts and conversations he had in a coffee shop in Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian leaders do not seem to care about the suffering of their people at the hands of Arabs. Yet, these same leaders are quick to condemn Israel on almost every occasion and available platform. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are so busy fighting each other (and Israel) that they seem to have forgotten about the Palestinians in Arab countries, being killed, wounded and arrested every day.
Bipartisan bill urges Congress to publish annual report on PA incitement
A bipartisan bill has been proposed in Congress that would require the secretary of state to submit annual reports reviewing the educational material used by Palestinian Authority and UNRWA schools in Palestinian territories.Alan Baker: The ICC's Decision Not to Investigate the U.S. in Afghanistan
The bill was introduced last Thursday by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY) is cosponsored by four other congressional representatives, two from each party.
In 2016 and 2017, the PA published modified curriculums for school-aged children in grades one through 11. “The new Palestinian curriculums fail to meet the international standards of peace and tolerance in educational materials established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,” the bill states. “Textbooks used by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA encourage war, and teach children that Palestinian statehood can be achieved through violence.”
The legislation also includes a sense in Congress that the PA and UNRWA have not eliminated content that encourages violence, antisemitism, hate and intolerance toward other nations or ethnic groups from the curriculums used in their schools.
The proposed legislation is a result of a report by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) which monitors values of peace and tolerance in textbooks across the Middle East from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, including Israel and the Palestinian territories. “We have spent a lot of time over the last three years focusing on the PA new curriculum,” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff told The Jerusalem Post.
“We have been looking at it since 2000, and we were hoping this was going to be an opportunity to improve the standards of peace and tolerance in the textbooks. Unfortunately, the opposite was true.”
On April 12, 2019, a pretrial chamber of the International Criminal Court rejected a request by the ICC prosecutor to proceed with an investigation of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes by American military and intelligence professionals who served in Afghanistan.Entering the Twilight Zone in the Middle East
Clearly, this decision has important implications regarding the general functioning of the ICC and of its prosecutor in their handling of requests to open investigations against Israel. Many requests and complaints are regularly submitted by the Palestinian leadership to the prosecutor, alleging crimes by Israeli military personnel and political leaders.
The court is being abused or manipulated by the Palestinians as part of a political campaign of delegitimization of Israel, and, in fact, the Palestinian leadership appears to have adopted the ICC and its prosecutor as its own "backyard" tribunal for harassing Israel, its leaders and military.
In light of the important jurisdictional and substantive issues set out in the decision by the pretrial chamber regarding the Afghanistan case, the ICC will need to review a number of significant points regarding the Palestinian referrals regarding Israel.
Since the ICC's Statute is open to "states parties" only, the assumption that there exists a Palestinian state is wrong and legally flawed, and thus cannot constitute grounds for accepting referrals of Palestinian complaints. Moreover, the ICC cannot agree to the Palestinian demands that it establish its jurisdiction over territory that is the subject of an ongoing peace negotiation process based on the Oslo Accords.
So the left has a strategy of rebalancing the Middle East by distancing from Riyadh and drawing closer to Tehran, and in practice this means demonizing the former and appeasing the latter.
This strategy, an idealistic fantasy masquerading as hard-nosed realism, is deeply flawed for several reasons. Most importantly, it misses an obvious point: Iran is an enemy of the United States, and Saudi Arabia is an ally. The regime in Iran is fundamentally, to its core, anti-American. That is why the chants of "death to America" and labels of the "great Satan" have never gone away. Indeed, for the last 40 years, Iran has seen itself at war with the United States, and does so today. Saudi Arabia is of course a problematic ally, but it also helps the United States fight Islamist terrorism—despite what Sanders and Co. say on television, Riyadh has taken important steps to stop promoting extremism. The Saudis also buy American arms and are essential to the global oil market. Not to mention that the House of Saud is a pillar of Middle Eastern stability. (Yes, the region could still become far less stable.)
The chief reason why Iran and Saudi Arabia are enemies now is because the Saudis are friends of the United States. This is the key point that so many observers do not seem to understand. The two countries do not fight proxy wars mainly because the regime in Iran is Shi'ite and the House of Saud is Sunni. Tehran has no problem working with Sunni terrorist groups—from al Qaeda, to Hamas, to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and beyond. If Saudi Arabia were hostile to America, then Iran would gladly join with them to drive the Americans out of the Middle East. It is precisely because the Saudi government is pro-American that Iran opposes it—and yet the left thinks tilting toward Iran will actually pacify the situation! The whole concept is nonsense.
The fact is distancing the United States from Saudi Arabia will invite more Saudi recklessness, not less. Recall that Riyadh launched its war in Yemen at a time when it felt Washington, during the Obama administration, would not support it. Furthermore, drawing closer to Iran will do absolutely nothing to change the regime's view of America. The only way to do that is to change the regime—otherwise, deterrence and pressure are the ways to counter Iranian belligerence.
Above all, the Saudis welcome an American-led order in the Middle East, and the Iranians want to upend that order. One supports American interests; the other opposes them. So what is this enlightened strategy that makes friends into foes, and foes into friends? Only in the Twilight Zone would such a policy make sense.
At its core, the left's strategy for the Middle East is an indictment of American power, and of the American-led regional and global order. That system is based on American supremacy, which is anathema to progressives. To many on the left, the Saudis, like the Israelis, represent an outdated outpost of an American empire that is not meant for the 21st century. Does it make sense that the Islamic Republic, a country ruled by murderous, anti-Semitic totalitarians, would be better at fostering a stable, peaceful Middle East? Of course not, but that is precisely the point: the strategy's math does not add up.
PM Netanyahu: "The decision of @POTUS @RealDonaldTrump and the American administration to increase the sanctions against Iran is a decision of very great importance. This is how to deal with Iran's aggression and this is how to block it." pic.twitter.com/iHWiC8N9Kt
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 22, 2019
U.S. Offers $10 Million Bounty on Hezbollah Operatives
The Trump administration announced on Monday that, in a global first, it is offering up to $10 million in rewards for information leading to the disruption and arrest of terrorist operatives working for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon.Haaretz: Jewish reparations claims could 'derail' Trump plan
"The U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of the global terrorist organization Lebanese Hezbollah," the State Department announced. "This announcement marks the first time that the Department has offered a reward for information on Hezbollah's global financial networks."
The financial reward will be provided to any person providing information leading to the "identification and disruption" of Hezbollah's financial networks, its donors, business associates, front companies, and criminal allies.
Hezbollah has been increasing its presence not only in regional hotspots such as Syria, but also across Latin America, where the group enjoys close ties to socialist and communist leaders known for their anti-American positions.
"Hezbollah generates about a billion dollars a year from a combination of direct financial support from Iran, international businesses and investments, donor networks, and money laundering activities," according to information provided by the State Department.
The State Department named three leading Hezbollah operatives as examples of those individuals they are seeking information on.
Long Haaretz article by Eeta Prince-Gibson controversially suggesting that reparations claims for Jews from Arab countries could derail the Trump peace plan. The article gives prominence to voices on the left like Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who has form in delegitimising Jewish claims, while privileging Palestinian claims. The issue of reparations is portrayed through the classic leftist lens of Israel's 'discriminatory treatment and manipulation' of Mizrahim for political purposes. My comments appear in italics in the text. (With thanks: Edward, Imre)PLO to discuss revoking Israel recognition, ending security coordination
Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal last month by a group of Iraqi Jews demanding to be recognized as victims of the Nazis.
While acknowledging that the Nazis had been heavily involved in creating the anti-Jewish atmosphere that led to the pogrom known as the Farhud (which took place in Iraq in June 1941), the court determined that they could not be recognized as victims of the Nazis under existing Israeli legislation. Such recognition would have allowed the group to receive pensions and other monetary benefits. The court’s decision marked the final stage in a case that had been ongoing since 2011.
But it does not put an end to the issue of compensation to Jews from Arab lands, including Iraq, who fled their homes after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. At the time of the state’s foundation, almost a million Jews lived in Arab and Muslim countries and Iran. Some of these communities dated back to ancient times. Although in some countries they had experienced intermittent anti-Semitism and persecution throughout the ages, many of the communities and individual Jews were prosperous.
The PLO Central Council (PCC) will convene in Ramallah on May 15 to discuss suspending all relations with Israel, including security coordination between Palestinian Authority security forces and the IDF in the West Bank.Shtayyeh to senator: U.S. 'punishing' and 'blackmailing' Palestinians
PA President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit several European Union, Arab and Islamic countries before the meeting to brief leaders on the decisions the Palestinians are planning to take ahead of the announcement of US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “deal of the century.”
Abbas will also seek worldwide support for Palestinian opposition to Trump’s upcoming plan, a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post. On the eve of the PCC meeting, Abbas will also hold meetings with several Palestinian officials to discuss future steps by the Palestinian leadership, the official added.
In a speech before Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday, Abbas hinted that the PA was considering rescinding all signed agreements with Israel. Abbas accused Israel of failing to implement the agreements, including the Oslo Accords, and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not believe in peace between us.”
The upcoming meeting will focus on Trump’s plan and Israeli measures against the Palestinians, especially the decision to deduct from tax and tariff revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, those payments made by the PA to families of prisoners and “martyrs,” the official said.
The PCC is a key decision-making body belonging to the Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO’s legislative body responsible for formulating its policies.
Last year, the PCC called on the PA to end its security coordination and suspend Palestinian recognition of Israel until it recognizes a Palestinian state.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh criticized the Trump administration on Tuesday for “punishing” and “blackmailing” the Palestinians because of the stalemate in the peace process with Israel.Did the NY Times Just Pick the Perfect Metaphor for the Barriers Against Peace?
Shtayyeh, who was speaking during a meeting in his Ramallah office with US Senator Ron Wyden, reiterated the Palestinians' rejection of Trump’s unseen plan, also known as the “deal of the century.” The Palestinians, he added, will not accept the continuation of the status quo.
The decisions taken by the US administration, including cutting US financial aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are worse than what’s written in its upcoming peace plan, he said on Tuesday.
Last week, Shtayyeh was quoted as saying that the "deal of the century" was "born dead."
This was the first meeting of its kind between Shtayyeh and a US representative since the establishment of the new PA government last week.
The PA has been boycotting the Trump administration since December 2017, when the US president announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. However, contacts between the PA and US Congressmen, senators and representatives of various American organizations have continued.
On occasion, clichés emerge which offer the best description of reality, and one such case is Sunday’s report by the NY Times’ correspondents in the Palestinian Authority, David M. Halbfinger and Miriam Berger, headlined (I had to look twice to make sure I read it right): “For Palestinian Families, ‘No Light at the End of the Tunnel.’”
Yes, absolutely, I wanted to holler, for once the Times got it right: these Arab families will never, ever be redeemed by terror tunnels, nor by rockets, suicide bombing, random shooting, stabbing, car ramming – thank you, the newspaper of record, for finally realizing why these people have been suffering without a chance for ever attaining the life so freely enjoyed by their brothers and sisters on the other side of the green line: it’s because they are being led by violent, murderous, professional thugs who become rich at their expense. Remove the tunnel, this fortunate glitch of a headline suggests, and there’ll be light, a lot of it.
The article is a post-election report, describing how depressed the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza have been since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s monumental victory on April 9, his own personal best – 35 or 36 Knesset seats – and the demise of the leftwing opposition in Israel, which is stuck at 55 seats compared to the right’s 65.
“The people in the West Bank who have taken up arms, gone to jail or spent their lives working, praying or waiting for self-determination are now asking whether all that time, effort and emotion were for naught,” the sad Halbfinger and Berger report says, noting that “in Hizma, a crowded village near Jerusalem almost completely ringed by Jewish settlements, Jahd Abu Helew, 42, has begun to contemplate what giving up on a state would mean for his five children.”
Two @NYTimes reporters pen a detailed piece on Palestinian fears. Not once are Israelis fears mentioned. No mention of Israeli willingness to make peace. It's as if history started in 1967 and decades of violence aiming to destroy Israel never happened. https://t.co/MAitHhFg6Z
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 23, 2019
Islamic State claims responsibility for Sri Lanka bombings that killed 321
Islamic state has claimed responsibility for coordinated bombings in Sri Lanka which killed 321 people and injured about 500 others, the group's AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday.
A Sri Lankan official said on Tuesday that the bombings in Sri Lanka were retaliation for attacks on mosques in New Zealand
Islamic State's claim, issued on its AMAQ news agency, came shortly after Sri Lanka said two domestic Islamist groups, with suspected links to foreign militants, were believed to have been behind the attacks at three churches and four hotels, which wounded about 500 people.
Islamic State gave no evidence for its claim. The government has said at least seven suicide bombers were involved.
"The initial investigation has revealed that this was in retaliation for the New Zealand mosque attack," junior minister for defense Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament.
He did not elaborate on why authorities believed there was a link to the killing of 50 people at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch during Friday prayers on March 15. A lone gunman carried out those attacks.
1. The refusal of the UN's top human rights body to say or do anything on Sri Lanka's Easter massacre underscores yet again how the UN treats innocent slaughtered Christians worse than it treats terrorists.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 22, 2019
Three examples illustrate the double standard:https://t.co/xlz4tjJw83
4. Yet 44 hours after the slaughter of nearly 300 people & 500 wounded, in attacks on 3 churches on Easter Sunday as well as 3 hotels, UNHRC response:
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 22, 2019
0 resolutions
0 urgent sessions
0 commissions of inquiry
Why does the UNHRC care more for terrorists than innocent Christians?
Poland’s Catholic Church condemns Jewish effigy ritual
The Catholic Church in Poland poured scorn Monday on an anti-Semitic ritual enacted over the Easter holiday that involved an effigy of Judas, represented by a stereotypical Jew being hanged, burned and beaten.PA: 300 Gazan Christians permitted to enter Jerusalem for Easter as of Tuesday
Residents, among them children, beat and burned the effigy in Pruchnik, a small town in southeast Poland, on Good Friday. The figure represented Judas, the disciple of Christ who betrayed him according to the New Testament.
“The Catholic Church will never tolerate manifestations of contempt towards members of any nation, including the Jewish people,” Bishop Rafal Markowski, chairman of the church’s Committee for Dialogue with Judaism, said, describing his view as the church’s position.
After the church’s statement, Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski called the ritual “idiotic, pseudo-religious chutzpah,” and asked why “Satans” revived the abandoned tradition.
The statements came after the World Jewish Congress on Sunday expressed its “disgust and outrage.”
“Jews are deeply disturbed by this ghastly revival of medieval anti-Semitism that led to unimaginable violence and suffering,” Robert Singer, CEO of the New York-based group, said.
Poles also expressed their disgust at the revival of the anti-Semitic ritual. Some posted photos online of the same ritual being carried out before World War II.
After failing to issue permits to Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem on Sunday, Israeli authorities have decided to allow some 300 of them to travel to Jerusalem and the West Bank to mark Orthodox Easter, a high-ranking Palestinian Authority official said on Monday. The permits will allow the Christian Gazans to cross the border starting on Tuesday.Hamas has infiltrated PA security forces, recruited officers as spies — report
Although many Christian sects marked Easter on Sunday, Orthodox Christian communities observe the holiday on April 28. Many Christians in Gaza belong to the Greek Orthodox community and will mark the holiday on the latter date.
“The Defense Ministry originally did not issue permits, which unfortunately meant Christians from Gaza who wanted to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem on Sunday were not able to do so,” Saleh al-Ziq, a senior Gaza-based official in the PA Civil Affairs Commission, told The Times of Israel in a phone call.
“But following our intervention, it has now issued 300 permits for those wishing to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank and celebrate Orthodox Easter early next week,” Ziq said.
An Israeli security official who requested anonymity confirmed that the permits would be issued.
The official said Israeli authorities will allow Gaza Christians with permits to exit the coastal enclave through the Erez crossing, the sole pedestrian passageway across the border.
Hamas has managed to recruit members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces into the terrorist group over the past year, including some in sensitive units that work alongside Israel to thwart Hamas terror activity in the West Bank, according to a newspaper report on Tuesday.Hamas officials claim Netanyahu set to advance aid projects in Gaza — report
The Palestinian Authority’s intelligence agents caught wind of the breach, launching a covert crackdown on the Hamas spies several months ago that saw several security officers jailed after confessing to working for the terror group, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, which cited Palestinian sources.
The report said Palestinian security officers were reeled in to work for Hamas either through bribes and financial incentives, or through the jailing of their relatives in Gaza.
Leaders of Hamas in Gaza and abroad oversaw the recruitment of the PA security officers, the report said.
The officers were asked to convey sensitive intelligence to the Gaza leaders on PA security operations, including against Hamas cells in the West Bank. Some were told to plant false information to mislead the PA forces.
Hamas managed to infiltrate various units, including the Preventative Security Service that works with Israel to foil terror attacks (and is the equivalent to the Shin Bet security service in Israel), intelligence, and the Palestinian police, among others, the report said.
Hamas officials on Tuesday claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed willingness, through international mediators, to advance humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip, including improving the enclave’s electricity infrastructure, according to a Lebanese report.
Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar recently brokered ceasefire understandings between Israel and Hamas, which Hebrew media reports have said include an end to violence emanating from Gaza in exchange for the Jewish state easing some of its restrictions on the movement of people and goods into and out of the coastal enclave.
Sources in the Gaza-based terror group told Al-Akhbar on Tuesday that “the Egyptian and Qatar interlocutors delivered messages that Netanyahu has renewed his commitment to the understandings and approved the implementation of the humanitarian projects that were delayed until after the elections, including the projects to improve the electricity sector and build industrial zones along the Gaza Strip’s borders.”
The report also said Qatari cash handouts will resume next month in the Gaza Strip, with some $100 apiece granted to 100,000 poor families in Gaza.
Another 10,000 temporary jobs in Gaza, through the UN, will be announced next month as well, according to Al-Akhbar.
A propaganda film on #Gaza...but looks like there will be some nuggets of truth there https://t.co/FSGdQsvzy4
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) April 22, 2019
Four Killed in Failed Attack on Saudi State Security Building
Four alleged Islamic State militants were killed on Sunday when authorities thwarted an attack on a state security building in Saudi Arabia’s central Riyadh province, authorities told state media.MEMRI: Former ISIS Child Fighter: I Would Assist My Father With Decapitations
The four had helped carry out the attack at the Mabaheth (domestic intelligence) station in Zulfi, a small city about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital Riyadh, a spokesman for Saudi state security said.
Three security force members were injured in the attack, the spokesman said, adding that security services were dealing with “explosive materials” and other items left behind during the incident.
Online videos, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a car at a checkpoint with its doors open and two bloody corpses splayed on the ground nearby. Gunshots could be heard.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said the attackers had been carrying machine guns, bombs and Molotov cocktails.
Islamic State’s official news agency Amaq claimed responsibility for the attack in a video later on Sunday in which four masked assailants pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM).Israeli Arab woman helped IS plan terror attacks on US water sources, festivals
Al-Arabiya Network interviewed Mustafa, a 15-year-old former ISIS child fighter who is currently at a rehabilitation center. Mustafa tells the interviewer that he is the son of an ISIS emir, his father took him to several ISIS training camps, where he trained with weapons and attended shari'a lessons. Mustafa became a full-fledged ISIS member at 12 years old. As an ISIS emir, Mustafa's father carried out decapitations of regime members and Mustafa would assist him by removing the bodies and taking pictures. Mustafa also participated in several battles, although he claims that he never killed anyone in battle. The interviewer asks Mustafa about the Yazidi women who were slaves of his father, about their living conditions and the treatment they received. Mustafa confirms his father had three Yazidi slaves although he claims not to know any other details about them. According to Mustafa, his father would beat him and forced him to go back to the frontline when he would go home. Mustafa says he has not thought about what he would like to do in the future. The interview was aired on April 15, 2019.
Interviewer: "What did you do when you were in the battalion?"
Mustafa: "I was just in the battalion and then I moved to a checkpoint in Rif Hama and then my father came and I started working with him in decapitations."
Interviewer: "When you would see them decapitate people, what would you say?"
Mustafa: "I didn't say anything."
Interviewer: "You weren't scared the first time?"
Mustafa: "Yes."
Interviewer: "And when you were scared what did they tell you?"
Mustafa: "Nothing. I didn't tell them I was scared."
Interviewer: "Why not? You didn't perform decapitations. What did you do?"
Mustafa: "I would just remove them."
Interviewer: "You remove them and do what? Take pictures? How many heads were decapitated in front of you, do you remember?"
Mustafa: "Six."
An Arab Israeli woman living in the United States pleaded guilty on Tuesday to assisting in the planning of attacks on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
Forty-six-year-old Waheba Issa Dais, a Jerusalem native currently living in Cudahy, Wisconsin, was charged last year with attempting to provide material support to IS. Officials said she coached potential attackers on how to cook up ricin and kept a library of books on making bombs, poisons and suicide vests.
Dais, a legal US resident since 1992, signed a plea deal admitting she tried to help the potential attackers poison water sources and carry out terror attacks at crowded festivals.
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As part of her agreement with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support for terrorists instead of the two counts with which she had initially been charged.
The mother of six faces up to 20 years in prison with sentencing scheduled for September 12, Fox News reported.
In a statement responding to the plea deal, Wisconsin’s Eastern District US Attorney Matthew Krueger said “these cases demonstrate the continuing and evolving terrorism threat posed by foreign terrorism organizations.”
Dais had been the first person in six months to be arrested on charges of supporting a violent jihadist group.
Yesterday, #Iran appointed THIS man to be the new commander of the #IRGC. Recently, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami called to "cleanse the planet from the filth of the existence" of the US, Israel, their partners & allies. To many of those reading this, that means you. pic.twitter.com/odOda8yVez
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 22, 2019
Antisemitic Remarks by Egyptian Hebrew Professor Abou Al-Azayem Farjallah: Zionists Collaborated with Nazis; Gas Chambers Could Not Have Killed Millions pic.twitter.com/1RFJ4hPDC8
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 23, 2019
