Ben Shapiro: EXCLUSIVE: Excerpt From Ambassador Nikki Haley’s Upcoming Book, Slamming Media And Obama Administration
On Thursday, The Daily Wire obtained an excerpt from Ambassador Nikki Haley’s upcoming book, With All Due Respect. Haley is widely perceived to be among the leading Republican candidates in 2024 and beyond; her approval numbers as of April 2018 were unprecedentedly high, with a 75/9 split among Republicans, 55/23 split among Democrats, and 63/19 split among independents. The excerpt demonstrates just why Haley was so popular with Americans across the political spectrum: she was extraordinarily willing to speak hard truths to countries with malign practices and intent, and she stood strongly with American allies in her position as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The excerpt opens with Haley explaining that when she first arrived in her new position, she made sure to break with foreign policy tradition by taking her first meetings with the members of the U.N. Security Council. Instead, she writes, “We decided to send a message by going another way. I thought it was important to visit our friends first.” After meeting with the British and French ambassadors, therefore, she next “ditched protocol and met with the ambassador from Israel, Danny Danon.” Haley explains:
Seeing Danny in person gave me an opportunity that I had wanted for some time: to know what the passage of Resolution 2334 had been like from his perspective. Danny said he knew something was going on in those last weeks of the Obama administration, he just didn’t know what. He and his colleagues tried for days to reach out to Ambassador Power and everyone they knew in Washington. No one would take their calls. No one would return their messages. The United States had literally stopped talking to Israel.
The most painful part of our conversation was Danny’s recounting of the vote itself. When a non–Security Council member country, like Israel, is the subject of a Security Council vote, its ambassador sits at the huge C-shaped table with the Security Council members. So when Resolution 2334 was passed, Danny was right there. Disgustingly, all the ambassadors at the table stood up and applauded after the vote was tallied. The audience cheered. And in the middle of it all was the Israeli ambassador, remaining seated while the council applauded his country’s humiliation. As Danny told me about it, all I could think was how that feeling was all too familiar to me. I know what it feels like to be different, humiliated, and ostracized for being who you are.
Greenblatt's Legacy: The Administration's Peace Vision
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason D. Greenblatt will leave his post at the end of October.The Balfour Declaration and the Jewish Threat that Made Britain Honor It
Greenblatt repeatedly took the Palestinian Authority to task over its duplicity, such as over its "pay-to-slay" policy of paying Palestinian terrorists and their families.
He asked the UN Security Council, "How is it that we can't find an international consensus that the Palestinian Authority rewarding terrorism and the murder of Israelis using public funds, some donated by countries in this very room, is abhorrent and must be stopped?"
"There is no easy answer as to how to balance the absolute imperative of protecting Israel's security - a principle on which the United States will never compromise - with Palestinian aspirations," he said in June. "Yesterday's peace plans have been unable to create a path to a brighter and more prosperous future while addressing the many challenges to overcome."
One of his legacies is a semantic shift in the vocabulary of U.S. negotiators. Greenblatt has refused to use the word "settlements" for Israeli communities beyond the Green Line, and has instead called them "cities" and "neighborhoods."
Greenblatt told the UN Security Council, "It is true that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority continue to assert that east Jerusalem must be a capital for the Palestinians. But let's remember: An aspiration is not a right....Aspirations belong at the negotiating table. And only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can resolve the issue of Jerusalem if it can be resolved."
November 2 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, about which I have previously written at length in Mosaic. There, I focused on how the actors who brought the declaration into being assured it would have international legitimacy, and on the tragic failure of Britain and the international community to keep their promise to the Jewish people in the aftermath. Here I want to reflect on an overlooked rationale proposed by the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann to give the declaration some staying power after the world war would finally end.
Historians have long been preoccupied by this question: why did the war cabinet of Prime Minister David Lloyd George issue the November 2, 1917 declaration in the first place? After all, it seemed so improbable, both at the time and in retrospect. That sense of improbability was well expressed by the Hungarian Jewish writer Arthur Koestler, who called the declaration “an act dangerously outside the cautious routine of diplomacy. The whole thing was unorthodox, unpolitic, freakish.” Given that impression, the document quickly invited obsessive speculation as to the real motives behind it, and initially the speculation ranged very widely.
The guesswork would subside when Britain opened its archives in the 1970s. We now know that, far from being “unpolitic,” the Balfour Declaration was very politic indeed. The bottom line was this: the British war cabinet thought a declaration supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine would make for good propaganda among the Jews of Russia and America, who had been tepid in their support of the Allies in a war that had been dragging on for three long years. The Jews, so the reasoning went, would be fired by the prospect of a Jewish Zion, and would use their influence to keep Russia firmly in the fight and persuade the United States to step up.
The war cabinet also thought that official British sponsorship of Zionism would give England an edge over France in the inevitable postwar wrangle over the disposition of the territories of the Middle East. By assuming the noble burden of helping the Jews, Britain would extricate itself from its promise to share Palestine with France as stipulated in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement—a deal that Lloyd George wanted to break for reasons of postwar imperial strategy.
To summarize: the Balfour episode was a matter of realpolitik all along. True, some have argued with surface plausibility that both Lloyd George and foreign minister Arthur Lord Balfour were motivated at least in part by religious sentiment. That they held such sentiments is not in doubt; but no evidence of this shows up in the cabinet papers themselves. Rather, British officials debated Palestine as they debated India or Egypt, that is, as an element in their thinking about how best to preserve and, if possible, expand the presence of the British empire on the world map.
The Myths Indulged by Israeli Advocates of a Palestinian “Right of Return”
In 2018, two books appeared in Hebrew on the subject of the so-called Palestinian “right of return,” which, if recognized, would allow for the influx of the descendants of Arab refugees from the Israeli War of Independence into an Israel that has already surrendered control over the West Bank. The War over the Right of Return, by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf, explains why there is no legal, moral, or historical basis for such a right, and why recognizing it would be a disastrous mistake. In Nakba in Hebrew: A Political Journey, Eitan Bronstein-Aparicio and Eleonore Merza-Bronstein—both professional self-hating Jews—make the opposite case. Reviewing both books, Emmanuel Navon writes of the latter:Israel, US seek tighter UN scrutiny of Palestinian refugee agency
Bronstein describes at length his efforts to identify the remnants of Arab villages abandoned in 1948 and to make Israelis feel guilty about their erasure. . . . Bronstein lists villages whose names were Hebraized after Israel’s independence, such as Beit Guvrin (formerly Bait Jibrin) and Ein Ayala (formerly Ain Azal). But a similar list could be made of villages with Arabized names: Saffuriya (formerly Tzippori in Hebrew), Nablus (formerly Neapolis in Greek), and Latrun (formerly Le Toron in medieval French), for example. . . . The renaming of conquered cities is hardly an Israeli invention.
Bronstein’s “solution” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is the practical implementation of the Palestinian “right of return,” [of which] the inevitable outcome would be a binational state with a Jewish minority. Anyone familiar with the Middle East, and with the history of the Jews in Arab lands, knows that such a state would not resemble Canada, Belgium, or Switzerland—but rather Lebanon, Iraq, or Syria. Fortunately, for Bronstein and Merza, they have foreign passports that would allow them to run for their lives after “solving” the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Back in his native Argentina, Bronstein will undoubtedly look for the remnants of former Inca villages destroyed by the Spanish. But then, the Incas themselves were an empire, one that colonized the Diaguitas in the mid-15th century. Bronstein could decide instead to do justice on behalf of the Mapuches. But they, too, conquered other tribes, such as the Puelches and the Querandis. In other words, Bronstein’s Manichean theory of “colonized” versus “colonizers” does not stand the test of historical scrutiny, and is therefore a myth.
Washington is once again siding with Jerusalem in its efforts to compel the United Nations to subject the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to tighter scrutiny.HRC Op-Ed In TorStar Papers: “UN Palestinian Agency Doesn’t Reflect Canadian Values”
Next week, a committee named by the UN General Assembly is set to begin discussions on the renewal of UNRWA's mandate. The move traditionally garners an automatic majority, which prevents the agency's shuttering. This year, Israel and the United States have partnered to make the UN increase its oversight of the agency, which is grossly anti-Israel.
The Trump administration has been pushing for reforms in UNRWA and has even sanctioned the agency over its failed financial practices, withholding over $100 million in funding.
In preliminary discussions between the Israeli and US missions to the UN, and with the support of several other countries, it was decided to present the General Assembly with two demands: The first – cutting UNRWA's mandate short, so that it is renewed annually rather than every three years; and the second, compelling UNRWA to increase its financial transparency.
These demands are posed against the backdrop of recent allegations that the agency's actions are tainted by corruption.
The Israeli Mission to the United Nations hopes that the power the US wields in the international body, as well as the growing demand by donor states to know exactly what their money is used for, will lead the UNRWA to instate a much-needed reform.
Israeli Ambassador to UN Danny Danon issued a statement saying "UNRWA is a burden to the international community. It utilizes the world's funds for the dissemination of false narratives against Israel and systematically avoids fulfilling the mission for which it was established. Until such time as UNRWA is permanently closed, we will use all tools at our disposal to increase the oversight to which it is subjected."
In the TorStar newspapers the Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Record today, HRC Research Analyst Noah Lewis argues that Canada should put a moratorium on funding UNRWA, the corrupt UN Palestinian relief agency tarred for having ties to terrorists, whose staff author and distribute virulently antisemitic materials, and which perpetuates the conflict by promising that all refugees (and their descendants) will one day “return” to Israel.Six Middle Eastern Countries Join The US In Sanctions Against Hezbollah-Linked Iranian Financial Network
The so-called “right of return” is a code word for the Palestinian’s aspirational dream of destroying Israel and the Jewish state through a demographic ticking bomb with the influx of millions of Palestinian Arabs into Israel.
Read our op-ed in full below:
UNRWA in no way embodies our Canadian values
Earlier in October, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer announced that a Conservative government would decrease foreign aid spending by 25 percent, asserting that Canadian foreign aid should only be used to “support the Canadian values we hold dear,” rather than to support “anti-Semitic organizations and prop up foreign dictatorships.”
Included in this cut would be Canada’s funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN organization responsible for supporting the Palestinian “refugees”, to which Canada was the thirteenth largest donor in 2018, contributing over $26 million USD.
Despite Ihmayed Ali’s attempt to justify Canada’s continued funding of UNRWA, through his own experiences as a Palestinian refugee, the fact of the matter is that UNRWA is a corrupt organization which indoctrinates Palestinian youth with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel, terrorist propaganda, further perpetuating Palestinian suffering and has been criticized for employing and having close ties to Hamas terror operatives.
Six Middle Eastern countries have joined the U.S. in sanctioning an Iranian financial network linked to the Iranian military and Hezbollah, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Wednesday.US rebukes Germany for refusal to say Iran's threat to destroy Israel is anti-Semitic
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. are all part of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), “a collaborative approach to confronting new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing,” according to the Treasury Department.
Mnuchin said in a Wednesday statement that he is meeting with officials “from across the region” during his tour of the Middle East to “bolster the fight against terrorist financing” through the TFTC, which was created in May 2017.
“It is a bold effort to expand and strengthen the cooperation amongst seven countries … to counter the financing of terrorism. The TFTC coordinates disruptive actions, shares financial intelligence information, and builds member state capacity to target activities posing national security threats to TFTC members,” Mnuchin continued.
U.S. officials view the collaboration as crucial to continue President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, the fifth largest oil producer in the world, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Mnuchin said the TFTC’s sanctions against Iran’s financial networks used to “fund terrorism” demonstrates unity among Gulf countries and the U.S., adding that “Iran will not be allowed to escalate its malign activity in the region.”
“We are proud to join forces with our TFTC partners to expose and condemn the Iranian regime’s gross and repeated violations of international norms, from attacking critical oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia to fomenting strife in neighboring countries through regional proxies such as Hizballah,” he continued.
Threats by Iran to obliterate Israel have been played down by Germany, prompting the Trump administration’s highest-profile ambassador to criticize Chancellor Angela Merkel government’s attitude towards Tehran.Shame on Germany for Denying the Iranian Regime’s Antisemitism
“Threatening the destruction of Israel is something that should not be dismissed, especially when the threats come from Iranian regime officials who regularly use terrorism as a weapon of intimidation. When someone shows you who they are, believe them,” Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told Fox News Tuesday.
Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in Iran’s Majlis legislature, said in October: “If Israel or America make a mistake, Israel won’t live for longer than 20 or 30 minutes.”
According to U.S. organization the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Zonnour delivered his threat on Iran’s Channel 5. He said Iranian drones are tracking activity in American military bases as far as the island of Diego Garcia, a British overseas territory in the central Indian Ocean that is more than 3,000 miles away from the Islamic Republic.
Weeks before Zonnour threatened the destruction of Israel, Major General Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), delivered a call to exterminate the Jewish state that was publicized by the state-funded IRNA agency as well as other Iranian regime outlets.
Salami, speaking to an audience of IRGC leaders, declared, “This sinister regime [Israel] must be wiped off the map and this is no longer… a dream [but] it is an achievable goal.”
With all of these antisemitic actions that have been carried out by the Iranian regime or its thugs, as well as the antisemitic statements from the regime’s leaders, perhaps the most outrageously antisemitic actions by the Iranian regime have been their full support for vile Holocaust denial.Normalization – the ultimate betrayal, or the path to peace?
In December 2006, the Iranian regime proudly hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by many American and European antisemites. In 2015 and 2016, the Iranian regime’s state-run Sarcheshmeh Cultural Institute organized the country’s official Holocaust Cartoon competition in Tehran that offers up to $50,000 to the cartoonist who featured the most “interesting Holocaust denial cartoon.”
But the antisemitism and Holocaust denial garbage spewed by the Iranian regime is nothing new. This disgusting behavior has a long and proud tradition dating back to the inception of the Islamic Republic. The regime has always maintained warm relations with notorious antisemites, including former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and other American neo-Nazi groups who frequently appear on the regime’s state-run English language news platform Press TV to spew their messages of Jew-hatred.
Furthermore, the Iranian regime has a long history of ties to European neo-Nazi groups and Holocaust deniers. For example, the Iranian regime proudly announced many years ago that it paid for the legal defense in France of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, who was convicted and fined $80,000 in 1998 for denying the Holocaust. Garaudy was subsequently welcomed in Tehran as a hero and met with the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The list of antisemitic actions and statements from the Iranian regime that are not related to Israel is quite long, and it is utterly ridiculous for the current German government to deny it. That Merkel and members of her government continue to maintain diplomatic and economic relations with the Iranian regime that so proudly denies the Holocaust is shameful.
German laws prohibit denying the Holocaust, but German government officials are hypocrites for failing to apply that same law and standard when it comes to the Iranian regime’s officials who do so. The failure of Merkel and her government to oppose the Iranian regime’s open and proud antisemitism is caused either by their desire for economic ties with the regime or a sinister tradition of antisemitism in Germany. The German nation and people should be among the first and most vocal critics of the Iranian regime’s antisemitism, instead of being its apologists.
For the hard-line supporters of the Palestinian cause, “normalization” (or “tatbia” in Arabic) is the worst political sin any Palestinian can commit. It has been adopted as a term of abuse by the Palestinian leadership and by organizations that support them – including the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement – to stigmatize any form of joint Palestinian-Israeli activity.Israeli forces re-arrest senior PFLP member in Ramallah
In June, the Palestinian Authority (PA) sacked a man from its Education Ministry and removed him as council chief of the West Bank village of Deir Kadis after a social media video showed four Israeli neighbors joining in the celebration at his son’s wedding.
In December 2018, a Palestinian court in Ramallah sentenced a Palestinian-American to life imprisonment for brokering the sale of a house in the Old City of Jerusalem to an Israeli organization.
In September 2016, the PA arrested four Palestinians for sharing a cup of coffee with Jewish community members in the West Bank town of Efrat, claiming that it was a crime for Palestinians to meet socially with Jewish settlers because it promoted normalization.
In short, in the view of the anti-normalizers, no form of joint activity, cooperation or dialogue with Israelis is acceptable, even engaging with Israeli peace activists who have the best of intentions toward them. All such undertakings must be viewed as collaboration with the enemy, the “colonial oppressors” of the Palestinian people.
The elephant in this room is that every day some 130,000 Palestinians cross into Israel from the West Bank to work for some 8,100 employers. They engage in a whole variety of jobs, and their employment is an important part of the West Bank economy. Palestinians working in Israel bring home about NIS five billion ($1.4 billion). Their average salary is two-and-a-half times the average salary in the Palestinian autonomous areas.
In addition to the Palestinians who work in Israel, around 36,000 are employed in Israeli firms in the West Bank, many earning up to three times the average Palestinian wage. Israel has established several industrial zones there, comprising around 1,000 businesses in all.
Israeli security forces arrested Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), early Thursday morning, less than a year after she was released from prison.Hezbollah shoots at Israeli drone over southern Lebanon
Security forces collared Jarrar, 56, in her home in Ramallah at approximately 3 a.m., her husband Ghassan Jarrar said.
An Israeli security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that troops arrested Jarrar.
The official added that she was being held on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.”
Jarrar, who has long advocated for Palestinian prisoners, is a former PFLP lawmaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Authority parliament.
Israel, the United States and the European Union consider the PFLP, one of several member parties of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to be a terrorist organization.
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, asked the international community to intervene on behalf of Jarrar.
“We demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar, a leader in Palestinian political and social work and women right’s issues. We call on the international community to pressure the Israeli government to free her,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Hezbollah terror group fired an anti-aircraft missile at an Israeli drone flying over southern Lebanon on Thursday, officials in both countries said.Dual Canadian-Lebanese arrested for spying for Israel
The Israel Defense Forces denied the Iran-backed terror group’s claim that the aircraft had been shot down over the Lebanese village of Nabatieh.
“A short while ago, anti-aircraft fire was detected from Lebanese territory at an IDF unmanned aerial vehicle. The aircraft was not damaged,” the army said in a statement.
Hezbollah later confirmed that it fired on the aircraft, saying in a brief statement, “At 2:05 p.m. Thursday afternoon, fighters of the Islamic resistance confronted a hostile drone in southern Lebanon’s skies with the appropriate weapons and forced it to leave [the area].”
Footage from Nabatieh that was shared on social media (above) appeared to show an anti-aircraft missile being fired into the air. An explosion was also heard in the area, residents told local media.
The exchange occurred amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, and amid a rapidly deteriorating political situation in Lebanon, where nearly two weeks of nonstop protests have paralyzed the country.
A Lebanese-Canadian dual national was arrested in Beirut on suspicion of spying for Israeli intelligence, Lebanese authorities said.Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel Over Arrest of Two Citizens
The man, identified as 41-year-old Tabet Tabet by Lebanon’s LBCI television network, was arrested by officers of the General Security Directorate at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport Tuesday, on “suspicion of collaborating with Israel.”
According to LCBI, the General Security Directorate had 303 intelligence reports showing that Tabet collaborated with Israel. He was referred to the judiciary for investigation, the statement added.
In a video filmed from his detention at the airport, Tabet called on the Canadian government to get him released.
“I have been held hostage by the corrupt Lebanese government. I am Tabet Tabet and I am at Beirut’s airport. I want the Canadian embassy and government to do her job,” he is heard saying before repeating the message in Arabic.
Israel and Lebanon remain in a state of war, and the Lebanese government has detained hundreds of people on suspicion of spying for Israel since 2009.
Father of Jordanian citizen Hiba al-Labadi, apprehended in Israel on suspicion of recruiting agents for Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, discharged on Wednesday charges against his daughter. Speaking to Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 12, the father said, “she is a victim of the political situation between Israel and Jordan, [but] she didn’t do anything.
Khaled Abu Toameh: What Are Palestinian Leaders Afraid Of?
Hamas justified the arrest of Qatoush by accusing him of "leaking security details." It is not clear how a complaint about economic hardship has turned into a security-related case. In the eyes of Hamas, however, it seems that any Palestinian who dares to complain about the bad economy in the Gaza Strip is a "traitor" and a "security threat."PMW: Palestinian PM sees mother of 6 terrorist murderers as role model, Ramallah Governor lauds terror mom as "symbol for Palestinian women"
From all accounts, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas are neck-and-neck in their competition to crush freedom of expression and crack down on the media.
"It is certain that the Arab Spring will arrive, sooner or later, to Palestine... The [ruling] Palestinian elite is mostly corrupt and tyrannical. With the exception of a few, the [Palestinian] elite is corrupt and incompetent -- or both." — Hani al-Masri, a prominent Palestinian political analyst, samanews.ps, October 22, 2019.
Criticism is fine, of course -- if it is directed at the Palestinians' arch-enemy, Israel. Otherwise, Palestinian journalists had best keep their criticism to themselves -- lest the PA and Hamas decide to leave them in critical condition.
There is no doubt Palestinian Authority leaders value terrorists and murderers, and go to great lengths to show their support for them: The PA pays them generous salaries while in Israeli prison and after, ensures them jobs upon their release, and even rebuilds their houses free of charge when Israel demolishes them as a deterrent to discourage others from attacking Israelis.
The most recent show of this infinite endorsement has come from the very top of the PA - from the Prime Minister himself - to Um Nasser Abu Hmeid who is the mother of 6 terrorists responsible for at least 10 murders.
In May 2018, Islam Abu Hmeid threw a marble block from the roof of the Abu Hmeid family house, murdering Israeli staff sergeant Ronen Lyubarsky. In response, as part of its deterrent policy, Israel demolished the family's house. Immediately afterwards, the PA committed itself to rebuilding it. Despite the financial crisis the PA was in, work on the construction progressed and just a few weeks ago, Palestinian media announced that the new structure was taking form. Enforcing the original decision, Israel destroyed the structure being built.
This prompted PA PM Muhammad Shtayyeh to visit the mother, Um Nasser, and promise her the PA will rebuild the family's house once more. Shtayyeh also praised the terror mom as a role model, calling her "a school for patience," stating that Palestinian society "learn from her":
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh with his arm around terror mom Um Nasser Abu Hmeid.
"The prime minister said: 'I convey to you the blessings of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, and emphasize to you that wewill remain loyal to our commitments to our prisoners and Martyrs and their families, and this is at the heart of our priorities and concerns and we will build what the occupation destroyed.' He added: 'Um Nasser is a school for patience and we learn perseverance and resolve from her, and Allah willing the day will come when we will visit you in your home in Jerusalem.'" [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 25, 2019]
MEMRI: Family of Female Palestinian Suicide Bomber Hanadi Jaradat: Hanadi's Father Handed Out Sweets In Celebration Of Her Martyrdom, Wanted Congratulations Instead Of Condolences
On October 8, 2019, Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Palestine – Islamic Jihad) aired a report about Hanadi Jaradat, a Palestinian woman from Jenin who carried out a suicide bombing in a restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003. Hanadi's mother, who was interviewed in the report, praised Allah for having given Hanadi what she had asked for, and Hanadi's brother said that his father had handed out sweets upon hearing about the operation and wanted people to give him congratulations instead of condolences. Women's issues activist Umm Ahmad said that Israel arrogantly thinks that women who carry out attacks are uneducated and ignorant, but that many of them are doctors, teachers, and lawyers. She ends by saluting Palestinian male and female martyrs.Khaled Abu Toameh: PA police arrest, harass members of LGTBQ community
"When My Father Was Told That His Daughter Carried Out The Operation, He Started Handing Out Sweets, He Said That He Wants Congratulations, Not Condolences"
Hanadi Jaradat's Brother: "When people came and said that it was Hanadi Jaradat who carried out the operation, it was like watching a scene on TV. It was like watching [a report about] an operation on TV. My father, may he rest in peace, would always say: 'May Allah protect the bellies of the mothers of those who carried out the operation.' At the end of the day, it is a matter of venting one's anger."
Hanadi Jaradat's Mother: "Praise be to Allah. This is what she asked for and Allah did not disappoint her. Praise be to Allah for honoring her and giving her [what she wanted]."
Hanadi Jaradat's Brother: "When my father was told that his daughter carried out the operation, he started handing out sweets. He said that he wants congratulations, not condolences.
The Palestinian Authority’s persecution of the Palestinian LGBTQ community in the West Bank has continued with greater frequency and intensity, notwithstanding protests from human rights organizations, the alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society group said on Wednesday.Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Backed by Iran, Seeks Rocket-Launchers in West Bank
Members of the Palestinian LGBTQ community have in recent weeks been violently targeted and harassed by PA officers, the group revealed.
“Alarmingly, we have witnessed more than a dozen cases of targeting and harassment that have led to numerous arrests – or rather abductions – in recent weeks,” it said. “We believe there are many more cases that have not reached us.”
In August, the PA police spokesperson issued a statement banning the east Jerusalem-based alQaws’ activities in the West Bank. The statement said that the PA police would prohibit any event organized by the group on the pretext that its activities go against “traditional Palestinian values.”
The PA police called on Palestinians to report any “suspicious” activities and threatened to persecute alQaws staff and activists. The ban came after alQaws held an event in Nablus for its members.
“Although the harassment and persecution disappeared from public discourse, it had not – and still has not – ceased. The violent aftermath of the PA police statement has continued and reached its peak in recent weeks,” alQaws said.
Since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Palestinian terror factions have turned Gaza into a major rocket production zone, and they’re trying to replicate some of those activities in the West Bank, so far without success.Moroccan Activist Arrested for Protesting Against Israel's Participation in Exhibition
On Sept. 23, Channel 12 news in Israel reported that Palestinian Authority security forces thwarted an attempt by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) cell to assemble rockets in the West Bank.
PIJ is backed by Iran and loyal to the Islamic Republic.
Quoting sources in Ramallah, the Channel 12 report said terror operatives were seeking to build the rockets with Iranian instructions, but that the projectiles were not sophisticated in nature.
It appears as if Palestinian terror factions have sought to develop rocket and mortar attack capabilities in the West Bank for several years, though they have not gotten far due to Israel’s tight intelligence grip and its ability to send security forces in to break up plots.
As a result, their ability to produce such weapons is severely hampered, though this has not stopped them from trying again and again.
This is in stark contrast to Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, and which has developed an extensive domestic-weapons industry. In Gaza, Hamas and PIJ have in excess of 20,000 rockets pointed at Israeli cities.
The trial of the head of the Moroccan Observatory against Normalization (non-governmental), Ahmed Wehman, who is currently under arrest, will begin next Thursday, following his protest against the participation of an Israeli company in international dates fair in the kingdom, stated a Moroccan activist.Mordechai Kedar: The mask is off: Lebanon is Hezbollah
The general secretary of the observatory Aziz Hanawi told the Anadolu Agency that the prosecution in the city of Rashidiya decided, Monday, to keep Wehman in custody arrest.
Hanawi added that “the arrest and Wehman came after his protest at the international dates’ fair, organised by the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, last Saturday, against the participation of an Israeli company, which prompted the authorities to intervene and halt the protest.”
He explained that the representative of the Public Prosecution in Rashidiya charged Wehman of “insulting an employee and exerting violence.” Thus, Wehman’s trial will take place next Thursday.
“Our main battle is against normalisation and Zionist infiltration, and nothing will stop us from doing so”, Hanawi said.
I have some news for my readers: there has been no state of Lebanon for some time now. The entity to the north of us is nothing but a mask covering up the bitter reality – the state is a state of Hezbollah, and its ruler is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Its agenda is dictated by Tehran, Hezbollah's army is stronger than the official Lebanese army, and the economy is designed to serve Nasrallah's goals.JPost Editorial: Hariri’s resignation
The Lebanese parliament, government, president, and all other state institutions are nothing more than a façade for players directed by Nasrallah, who also decides on what they will be paid for "good behavior" and whether his collaborators can collect favors from the corruption that is running rampant.
The public is well aware of the situation and is furious about it. Two weeks ago, the people took to the streets to protest "corruption" and demand that the government resign. The unifying slogan has been "Everyone – as in, everyone," meaning – get rid of all the ministers because they are all corrupt, including the ministers that Hezbollah has placed in the government.
Nasrallah and his Iranian sponsors are afraid that the mask will fall off, break, and expose the country's true face – which is the face of Hezbollah – to the world at large. If that happens, the world will stop selling weapons to the Lebanese army ("We have to strengthen the Lebanese army for the challenges facing it," say French weapons manufacturers and others) and stop lending the country money that just goes to support the thieving regime Hezbollah has put in place.
What are the ramifications of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday for Lebanon, the region and especially Israel?Lebanon In Crisis
Itzhak Levanon, a former ambassador and head of the North Africa and Lebanon desk at the Foreign Ministry, told Jerusalem Post diplomatic reporter Herb Keinon that the move is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Israel.
“There is no great significance from this for Israel, because no one – at this time – is touching Hezbollah or its military strength,” he said. “The time might come, but no one is talking about it now.”
But other Israeli officials voiced concern, off the record, that Lebanon could be plunged into chaos. They noted that Hariri’s resignation was triggered by a Hezbollah rampage through the main protest camp in Beirut, and warned that a Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon could pose a serious threat to its southern neighbor.
While Hariri, they say, was not exactly a friend of Israel, Hezbollah is an openly hostile terrorist organization bent on destroying the Jewish state; and if Lebanese President Michel Aoun hands over the reins to Hezbollah, Israel could face a major escalation on its northern border.
Hariri stepped down after two weeks of growing antigovernment protests amid the country’s worst economic crisis since its civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990. As Aoun deliberated over whom to appoint in his place, or whether to call new elections, the political uncertainty in the troubled country is a cause for concern.
“I’m at a dead end,” Hariri said in his resignation speech. “Jobs come and go, but what’s important is the country. No one’s bigger than the nation.”
The protests in Lebanon have dominated the world news. But what is actually going on and how will the aftermath of these countrywide protests impact the future of the people in Lebanon and the Middle East as a whole?
JCPA: Iraqis Take to the Streets to Oppose Iran’s Involvement in their Country
Iran continues to monitor closely and “with great sensitivity” the demonstrations in Iraq and the increasing calls for the cessation of Iranian involvement in Iraq, demanded in the latest round of protests. As expected, the Iranian foreign ministry is pointing a finger at “certain groups” who are exploiting the legitimate calls of the Iraqi people to change and improve living conditions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said he was confident that the Iraqi government and the country’s Shiite religious leadership could overcome the obstacles to move Iraq forward with unity. Mousavi emphasized, “Iran has always supported the government and the Iraqi people and helped them in times of crisis through friendship and good neighborliness.”German gov't company may be working with Iranian terrorist group IRGC
Iran’s state media – The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) and Radio Iran – reported that foreign influences were behind the riots and reported that Iraq temporarily suspended Saudi television broadcasts of Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya after they took “provocative measures” like quoting Shiite militant Hadi al-Amari, who claimed that both Israel and the United States are inciting the protesters. Also, Qais Khazali, who heads the pro-Iranian Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia, blamed Israel for the situation in Iraq.2
Iranian media also refrained from reporting the burning of Iranian flags at the Iranian consulate in Karbala. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the consulate building with the cries of “Iran, Get Out, Get Out from Iraq … Baghdad Will Remain Free.” They burned Iranian flags and caused heavy damage to the consulate building.4 The protesters also trampled on the pictures of Al-Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani (a grave insult in the Arab world).5 The Iranian consulate building in the port city of Basra was also set ablaze despite attempts by Shi’ite militias to protect it. With cries of “Stop the Persian Occupation of Arab Iraq,” the protestors set ablaze the building.6
In Arab social networks, the use of the term “Intifada” also trended during the protest in Lebanon, during which there were also sporadic calls to reduce Iranian involvement in the country through Hizbullah. In this context, Nasrallah’s acknowledgment of Iranian aid in weapons, funding, food, and more (“As long as Iran has money, we have money”) has drawn criticism on social networks. The statement portrays Nasrallah as an Iranian agent and as “working for the Iranians.”7
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration and a semi-government company are organizing trade affairs in the Islamic Republic of Iran that are circumventing US sanctions and may expose the German business to American economic penalties due to terrorism.US envoy: Iran has spent $16 billion on militias in Iraq, Syria
The European organization Stop The Bomb said in a Tuesday statement that businesses “involved in those fairs were in the past also companies that are affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] and the Iranian military. Those companies hold responsibility for the repression in Iran, destabilizing the region and threatening Israel. Through IMAG’s [International Trade Fair Service] fairs they gain recognition, profit and the possibility to initiate business deals globally.”
The United States government classifies the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. Stop the Bomb seeks to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program and improve human rights in the Islamic Republic.
Stop the Bomb spokeswoman Ulrike Becker said, “We think it’s unbearable that the German government and German companies are a leading actor in establishing business with the only regime which considers the annihilation of Israel a linchpin of its foreign policy. We call upon both the government and the companies: Stop your activities in Iran! There must not be any business with Iran until the regime stops the threats against Israel, its support of terrorism in the region, and globally and of course, its constant violations of human rights.”
Jerusalem Post press queries to IMAG’s managing director Peter Bergleiter, senior executive Gabriele Kraus, and the company’s public relations director Claudia Grzelke were not answered.
IMAG played a role in organizing the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago last year. IMAG is slated to organize Conexpo CON/AGG, “North America’s largest construction trade show,” which is held every three years at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada. The next Conexpo CON/AGG event is scheduled for March 10-14, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last year, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur in connection with German companies, “If you are doing business with Iran, you are giving money to the Iranian regime, which spends massive amounts of money on terrorist activities.”
The US envoy for Iran said Thursday that Tehran has funded militia groups in Syria and Iraq to the tune of $16 billion.Tehran Is Sinking at Alarming Rate
US State Department Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, who made the comments in an interview with Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya, did not specify over what time period the money was sent.
Iran has longstanding ties to a number of armed Shiite groups in Iraq and was a key backer of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a paramilitary group that fought against the Islamic State jihadist organization.
In Syria, Iran supports militias fighting on behalf of its ally Syrian President Bashar Assad in that country’s civil war.
Tehran also backs other armed factions such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and the Houthis in Yemen.
Israel has accused Iran of seeking to place advanced weaponry in Iraq and Syria that could be used to target the Jewish state. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was trying to launch precision-guided missiles at Israel from Yemen and elsewhere in the region.
On Wednesday, Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin said the military’s multi-tiered network of air defense systems was “on alert” amid a general threat of attack by Iran.
As years of drought and water mismanagement have depleted underground water reservoirs, Tehran is sinking by 8-10 inches a year.Iran's Revolutionary Guards honor Jewish soldiers who died in Iran-Iraq War
On Oct. 30, Yahya Jamour, the technical deputy of the Mapping Organization, told ISNA that some electricity towers have tilted as a result of the land subsidence.
Jamour estimated the rate of subsidence in Tehran at 18 cm. or 8 inches a year, while areas around Tehran are sinking at a rate of 26 cm. or 10 inches.
Nowadays, mentioning the words “Iran” and “Jews” together might bring thoughts of the Iranian regime, its attitudes toward Israel and the animosity that exists between the two countries. However, a ceremony was held in Iran this week in honor of Jewish soldiers who died during the Iran-Iraq war, which took place between 1980-1988, Mako reported.
During the ceremony, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers saluted to the sound of Jewish prayer made in honor of the fallen. Later these soldiers helped clean the soldier’s graves.
In 2014 Iranian authorities inaugurated a new memorial for the Jewish soldiers who had died in the war. Of the Iranian Jews who fought during that war as conscripted soldiers, about 15 were killed.
Over 100,000 people were killed during the eight-year long conflict, although other estimates place that figure much higher.