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Monday, June 08, 2020

06/08 Links Pt1: Bringing the Middle East Back Home; Annexation vs. sovereignty: Words matter; The investigation that caught the killer of Amit Ben-Yigal

From Ian:
Bringing the Middle East Back Home
Of course, the AOCs [American Orientalist Class] haughtily reply, it’s Trump who turned America into a third-world country—not us! But in fact, Trump, for all his flaws, was clear in his desire to perpetuate American uniqueness—hence his calls to overhaul immigration policy and border security. In response, the AOCs cried racism—advertising their own superiority to Trump and to their missionary predecessors.

Except, while racism is a discredited 19th-century pseudoscience, cultural differences are entirely real. They are also hugely important in shaping everything from social structure to personality to political culture.

Yet America’s leveling ideologues are happy to ignore the mountain of evidence that contradicts their dogma—especially in the service of opposing Trump. The shunning of assimilation and the celebration of grievance-based tribalism as the core American value—which they attempt to enforce by judicial fiat, education, and social pressure—is both a threat to American democracy and a source of progressive political power. Instead of liberation from third world norms—the norms of the societies they came from—immigrants and their children are shackled to them and told that their value to American society resides in these continuing attachments. In school, their children are taught that America is sinful, and that the noxious communal grievance politics of their parents’ societies can be applied to America and layered onto the historical American rights based political culture. On the low end, this means conditioning a new generation of young Americans into sectarian competition and resentment, and block voting within the structure of the Democratic Party. On the elite level, thanks in part to the AOCs and their use of “voices from the region,” this validation is sharpened further and made into a source of authority that torques both American foreign policy and increasingly the lens through which American domestic politics is presented to Americans.

For the AOCs—and for Obama, who incarnated their tendency to see American uniqueness as shameful and vulgar—exceptionalism is a misguided relic of the sinful American past, which “can discourage comparisons with other countries, suggesting that the United States cannot learn from others.” Hence, the exultation in the notion that America’s street action is a mirror image of the mass protests of the Middle East. In fact, the idea of America as the Middle East allows the AOCs to bring all of the conflicting emotions that drew them to the region into harmony. America offers a new canvas on which the guilt and pity—and even the erotic attraction—that this class of Americans feel for those societies in which they’ve lived and worked can be re-enacted.

Perhaps more important than the chance for a do-over of the failed Middle Eastern adventures and thought experiments is the opportunity that applying Middle Eastern thought categories to America offers the AOCs for reconciling feelings of frustration with and contempt for their own country. Take, for instance, the leveling language in this tweet by a think tanker who works on Syria and al-Qaida, in reaction to his Syrian friend participating in protests in Washington, D.C. The Syrian friend’s participation becomes a “fight for our rights in #America—just a few years after he was forced to flee #Syria while demanding the same.” What better way to transcend the bitterness and depression of helplessly covering and identifying with the third-world societies where they've lived and worked, in which virtually all mass protests ended in failure? Now it can play out in America, and this time, it will succeed, against our own Trump-Assad!

The identification of Obama and the AOCs with ugly third-world security regimes like Iran and the failed societies of the region points to a larger leveling process that is currently at work in America. That process makes me anxious about the future of the great country to which I immigrated—in the hope of leaving the sickness of my former society behind me.

As Americans, we’ve gone from glorifying the politics of crowds, to celebrating the tribalization of American society and the elevation of the culture of grievance and self-pity. We accept that the function of the media is not to provide objective accounts of events but to act as a put-through mechanism for security agencies. We have entrenched the culture of conspiracy and turned institutions of government into instruments to paralyze the opposite party and disrupt the peaceful transition of power. These all are hallmarks of the politics of the Third World.

9/11 gave birth to a lost generation that threw itself into the Third World in search of redemption. Now, tragically, they have brought the Third World back home.
Arsen Ostrovsky and Richard Kemp: Annexation vs. sovereignty: Words matter
Those who use the above rulings to argue against Israel’s plan to “annex” parts of Judea and Samaria omit three crucial points, however.

First, all apply to territory acquired by force or in an offensive war. The Six-Day War, in which Israel was compelled to defend itself from neighboring Arab armies seeking the Jewish state’s destruction, was defensive.

Second, in 1967, there was no “state of Palestine,” nor does such an entity exist today under international law. Therefore, Israel is not, and cannot, be annexing the territory of “another state.”

Third, and perhaps most importantly, all of the above negates the Jewish people’s inextricable connection to Judea and Samaria, which is rooted both in historical rights, and in undeniable legal ones.

One hundred years ago in April, after World War I, the allied powers gathered in San Remo, Italy and adopted an unprecedented resolution, for the first time ever entrenching the Jewish people’s pre-existing historical rights to the land as unequivocal legal rights under international law.

The San Remo Resolution, which followed the 1917 Balfour Declaration that called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, formed the basis in 1922 of the adoption of the Mandate for Palestine.

The Mandate for Palestine, adopted by the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine” and the “grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

Even Article 80 of the U.N. Charter enshrined the guiding principles of the San Remo Resolution—notwithstanding the dissolution of the Mandate—by holding that “nothing in this chapter shall be construed in or of itself to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.”

Therefore, even after the adoption in 1947 of the U.N. Partition Plan, and since then with all subsequent U.N. resolutions, the legal rights granted to the Jewish state at San Remo have been retained.
David Singer: European Union shamefully denies Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria
The frenzied rush by the European Union (EU) to condemn Israel’s restoration of Jewish sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) reflects poorly on an organization which has adopted an exceptionally confrontational approach to the Jewish State.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has led the charge:
“We strongly urge Israel to refrain from any unilateral decision that would lead to the annexation of any occupied Palestinian territory and would be, as such, contrary to International Law”

So many false statements appearing in such a short sentence by this high-ranking EU official is breathtaking:
Israel’s action is not unilateral

Such action is being taken in tandem with President Trump following the outright refusal by the PLO to enter into negotiations with Israel on the basis of Trump’s detailed plan released on 28 January 2020.

70% of Judea and Samaria awaits the PLO – or any other Arab interlocutor such as Jordan – prepared to step up and negotiate on its future sovereignty.
Israel will not be annexing occupied Palestinian territory contrary to international law
“Annexing occupied Palestinian territory” means taking territory belonging to someone else to which Israel has no entitlement.
“Contrary to international law”: Israel will be applying sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria pursuant to vested legal rights to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in this specific area conferred on the Jewish people by:
The San Remo Resolution and the Treaty of Sevres 1920
The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine 1922
Article 80 United Nations Charter 1945

The EU’s attempt to trash these existing Jewish legal rights in Judea and Samaria is extremely disturbing – since 20 of the 27 current member States of the EU – plus former member the United Kingdom – were among the 51 member States of the League of Nations that had unanimously included Judea and Samaria as part of the area in which the Jews were entitled to reconstitute their biblical Jewish homeland after 3000 years.



Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The Problem with 'Peace'
As far as the Palestinian leadership is concerned, Israel and the US administration are now the main enemies of the Palestinians. It is prohibited to talk to any Israeli or US official. It has also become taboo for any Palestinian to talk about holding meetings with Israeli or US officials.

When you radicalize your people against Israel and the US in such a way, how can you expect Palestinian leaders not to veto meeting with Israelis?

Moreover, as Malki is also under attack also from the "moderates," one can only ask what the "non-moderates" could have in store for the besieged foreign minister -- or for any leader who might dare to return to a negotiating table with Israel?


PMW: PA calls for murder of Jews in suicide bombings and stabbings to “restore honor”
The PA is creating an atmosphere of terror and war for the Palestinian street, so that the population will be prepared to use violence and terror against Israel, should the leadership want it. This follows Abbas’ ending all cooperation with Israel.

An endless stream of music videos and fillers calling for murder and violence, and including footage of Palestinian violence and riots are being broadcast on one of the TV stations the PA controls. The following four terror incitement videos are but a few examples among many that were all broadcast on PA TV Live during the last two weeks:

PA calls for murder of Jews: “Restore the glory of Khaibar, The Sons of Zion are in my land violating my honor”

This song calls for murder of Jews in that it asks to “restore the glory of Khaibar.” Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were murdered in the battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see this event as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At extremist gatherings and rallies, this slogan is often chanted as a threat to Jews, warning them that they should expect their coming defeat and slaughter by Muslims. The song justifies its call for murder with the claim that the Jews – “the Sons of Zion” – are “violating my honor”:
Lyrics: “O Arabs, Al-Aqsa has a request,
Light the fire of rage, this obligation is necessary...
The Zionists have become arrogant.
They attack and behave tyrannically
Call out Allahu Akbar and restore the glory of Khaibar
The Sons of Zion are in my land violating my honor today.
O people of Allah, respond! We will continue on the path of Allah…
The night of the occupation is growing long – prepare for the call!
We are the men of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, we cannot be humiliated.”
[Official PA TV Live, June 1, 2020; Official PA TV Facebook page, March 25, 2014]

Accusing Israel and Jews of “violating my honor” is very significant. Palestinian Media Watch reported last week that a top PA religious official, Head of the PA’s Islamic Courts Mahmoud Al-Habbash, recently included attacks on Palestinian “honor” as capital crimes for which there is an “obligation” to fight and permission to kill Israelis. He cited the Quran: “Kill them wherever you find them.”
PA calls for murder of Jews: “Restore the glory of Khaibar”


PA urges Palestinians to die for Al-Aqsa, redeem its soil with their blood


Annexing the West Bank, 53 years since the Six Day War – opinion
When the Six Day War broke out I was in Canterbury in the UK, accompanying a troupe of pantomimists from Prague. I immediately contacted El Al to try and book a flight back home, but El Al was giving priority to reservists. The only other airline flying to Israel in those days was Swiss Air (take note that this was the name of the Swiss national airline at that time), which started flying Israelis from all over the world to Zürich, and then on to Lydda airport (today’s Ben-Gurion airport) in a sort of airlift.

I landed in Israel on June 8. The airport had been taken over by the air force, and passport control was makeshift. It was only after landing and finding transportation to Tel Aviv that I informed my parents in Haifa that I was in Israel.

Several days later, I drove with two friends to Jerusalem, and spent the following month as a volunteer in the neurosurgery department at the Hadassah hospital. There were many soldiers (and several prisoners of war) with serious head wounds, and as one young surgeon said to me “after
we finish operating all that is left to do is pray.”

During the weeks before the outbreak of war the Egyptians and Syrians had been brazenly warmongering and threatening to raze Israel to the ground. During the first days of the war they kept bragging that they had bombarded Tel Aviv and Haifa, while Israel kept its mouth shut. A few days after the war ended in a glorious Israeli victory, almost everyone was both in a state of euphoria and relieved.

Many believed, that the new situation opened the way to a permanent peace settlement between us and our neighbors, including the Palestinians. There were, as yet, no Jewish settlements in the territories occupied by the IDF, and the defeat of the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians was so absolute and convincing that it seemed unthinkable that they would reject immediate negotiations towards a permanent peace settlement.
Yes to sovereignty, unrelated to the ‘Deal of the Century’ – opinion
Recognizing the right of the interlopers who robbed the land from its rightful owners is a fatal blow to morality and justice. This recognition continues to inflame the hope of those Arab interlopers that they will gain more and more by means of terrorism, until we are forced to the Mediterranean and beyond, to the countries of the Diaspora. They do not attempt to conceal their intentions; they are blatantly on the table.

We must apply sovereignty in all of Judea and Samaria unrelated to the “Deal of the Century”
A perusal of the Trump plan reveals its objective is the establishment of a Palestinian state, with restrictions. However, it is clear when the Trump era concludes, what will remain of the program is the Palestinian state, while the restrictions will evaporate. The right-wing Knesset members and government ministers must remove the issue of a Palestinian state from the negotiating table. No foreign entity has a right to the Land of Israel. We must adhere to the principle that the Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, and act in accordance with that guideline.

Israel must act solely on the basis of its own interests. Sovereignty can not be contingent on a dangerous political compromise. Israel must not restrict Jewish settlement or freeze the expansion crucial in preparation for the absorption of hundreds of thousands of new olim from throughout the world and for the growth of the people residing in Zion. In the near future, with God’s help, we will be required to disperse the population and establish new cities and new communities (see the Sovereignty Movement’s Tama 100 National Outline Program, which appears on the Sovereignty website).

The day of the application of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria will be the seventh day of the Six Day War. Application of sovereignty and its implementation will conclude that war with determination of the true status of the Land of Israel as the land of the Jewish people.
Our generation was chosen for this momentous time because it has the special abilities required for this historic challenge. With faith and conviction, we will construct this latest link in the chain of Zionism, the link of sovereignty. This is our mission and, with God’s help, we are capable of accomplishing it.
In show of support for PM, settler leaders give sovereignty bid green light
As Israel moves closer to applying sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and parts of Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Blue and White leader Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Sunday evening to discuss the Trump administration's outline for peace. The two former IDF chiefs of staff presented a united position on the matter, saying the sovereignty initiative must be implemented in such a way as to garner broad consensus within Israel, international support and doesn't harm diplomatic relations with Jordan and Egypt.

Prior to his discussion with Gantz and Ashkenazi, Netanyahu met with representatives of 12 localities in Judea and Samaria. Also in attendance was Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin. The settler leaders arrived with a message of support for the Trump plan and the sovereignty initiative Netanyahu is spearheading. Among the settlement leaders in attendance were the mayors of Ariel and Modiin Ilit, and the heads of the regional councils of Efrat, Oranit, Alfei Menashe, Karnei Shomron, Emmanuel, and others.

The mayors and regional council heads, who represent around a quarter of a million Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, lent Netanyahu their support and voiced their confidence that he would secure a good plan for Israel and the settlement enterprise. They noted that the Trump plan includes components that just a few short years ago were considered fanciful, chief among them sovereignty.

The settlement leaders also denounced Yesha Council leader David Elhayani's recent comments calling the Trump plan a "scam," saying the US president's vision for peace was unprecedentedly favorable to Israel.

"Representatives of the US government are [attempting to] sell Plan A under the guise of Plan B. There is no greater scam than this," Elhayani said, claiming that Washington was trying to use its support for sovereignty to force Israel to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Pinhas Wallerstein, among the founding fathers of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and a former director of the Yesha Council, who was also at the meeting, said he was shaking with excitement over the prospect of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Foreign Ministry concerned Germany will downgrade ties over annexation
Berlin may find ways other than sanctions to downgrade its relations with Jerusalem should Israel apply sovereignty with the West Bank, Foreign Ministry sources said on Monday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday, making him the first major foreign visitor since the new government was sworn in last month. Mass will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.

Mass is expected to express Germany’s concerns over Netanyahu’s intention to extend Israel’s laws to the West Bank in July, as part of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan. This would coincide with Germany becoming president of the Council of the European Union for six months, starting in July, as well as of the UN Security Council for a month.

A Foreign Ministry source said that while ties with Israel are important to Germany, the relations between the countries will likely suffer as a consequence of Israel moving forward with annexation.

Berlin is unlikely to support EU sanctions on Israel or to recognize a Palestinian state outside the framework of an agreement with Israel, but may be more reticent to help Israel in various international matters and downgrade ties in other ways, the source posited.

Mass is also expected to discuss Horizon Europe, a seven-year multi-billion European initiative for scientific research cooperation. Israel received a billion Euros in the previous seven years and is negotiating its role in the cycle beginning in 2021.


In first, Israel names female ambassador to Egypt
The government on Sunday approved the appointment of Amira Oron as Israel's ambassador to Cairo. Oron is the first woman to represent the Jewish state in Egypt, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

Previously stationed in Ankara, Turkey, Oron will succeed Ambassador David Govrin, who took office in 2016, but was recalled with his staff in 2017 for eight months due to unspecified security threats.

The government has also confirmed the appointment of Bat Eden Kite as head of the Israeli Embassy in Turkmenistan, the statement added.

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"I welcome the appointment of the two ambassadors," Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said.

"They are experienced, professional, and valued diplomats and I am confident that they will advance bilateral relations between Israel and the countries to which they have been assigned," he added.
Netanyahu appoints controversial adviser who trashed Obama and Biden
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden should be concerned about colluding with Russia and former President Barack Obama treated Israel "like it was a shithole" are some of the controversial comments made by a new strategic adviser Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hired last week.

Aaron Klein, a former journalist for Breitbart, was hired by Netanyahu as a strategic and communications consultant for the Likud Party.

“Klein left a full-time successful career as a reporter to help Israel, as it finds itself facing unprecedented challenges during the
coronavirus pandemic, amid the international debate on the issue of applying sovereignty and other pressing matters,” a Likud source said.

The Jerusalem-based Klein worked on strategy during the Likud’s campaign in the last election and his role was praised by the campaign chairman and current Finance Minister Israel Katz. During that time, he became especially close to Netanyahu.
The investigation that caught the killer of Amit Ben-Yigal
The killer of IDF First Sergeant Amit Ben Yigal, Nizmi Abu Bakar, who killed Ben-Yigal during a Golani Reconnaissance Battalion operation in Ya'bad by throwing a stone from the roof of his house, was caught by security forces on Sunday.

Abu Bakar's investigation came with one particular complication, as it was difficult to find which of three other suspects was with him on the roof while he threw the stone.

He was arrested by IDF and Shin Bet forces during an operation which took place in his house and the village immediately following the incident, only three hours after the attack was done. The arrests were done by Golani troops and the Shin Bet.

Due to the complication involving the three other suspects, only now could the army confirm that it was Abu Bakar, who threw the stone conclusively.

Security forces have said that the difficulty did not come from getting the confession from the attacker, who has no prior security incidents under him, but rather to try and reach the definitive truth that it was his stone that killed Amit Ben Yigal.

"The Menashe regional regiment has been in operation to find the terrorist at all hours of the day," Menashe regional regiment commander Yair Palie has said on Sunday after the reveal of the terrorist's identity. "This operation was performed in cooperation of the security forces, and led by The Golani Reconnaissance Battalion,"
Police detain Fatah activists for 'illegal' activities in Jerusalem
Israeli security forces on Monday detained 25 activists belonging to the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction in Jerusalem on suspicion of carrying out activities on behalf of the PA and its security forces in the city.

The activists are suspected of acting in violation of the Law for the Implementation of the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area – Restriction on Activity – 1994, which prohibits the Palestinian Authority from carrying out political, governmental or similar activity within the area of the State of Israel, including east Jerusalem.

Palestinian sources said the latest crackdown came after Israeli authorities issued orders banning more than 20 east Jerusalem residents from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount). Last week, the authorities extended an order banning former Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sabri from entering the compound for another four months.

The sources identified the Fatah activists detained on Monday morning as Mohammed al-Shibel, Ahmad Khweis, Talal al-Sayyad, Eyad al-Hidreh, Khaled Abu Ghannam, Muaz al-Ashhab, Amjad Abu Asab, Jihad Oweida, Ehab Abu Sbeitan, Ahmad Arafat, Nidal Afaneh, Fardi al-Basti, Samer Shanak, Hazem Ghrabaleh, Mazen Bader, Wassim al-Risheq, Fawzi Sha’ban, Tawfik Abu Sbeitan, Ahmad Khway, Naji Abu Juma’ah, Rania al-Ashhab, Zuheir Eid, Ashraf Obeif, Ahmad Mustafa, and Mahmoud a-Sayyad.

Fatah officials condemned the detention of the east Jerusalem activists and claimed the move was aimed at “punishing” the Palestinians because of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s May 19 decision to renounce all agreements and understandings with Israel, including security cooperation.


Senior Fatah Official: Fatah and the PLO Preparing on All Levels for Armed Confrontation with Israel
Fayez Abu Aita, the Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said in a June 1, 2020 interview on Palestine Today TV (Islamic Jihad – Gaza) that the current situation that Palestinians find themselves in cannot be pinned entirely on the Oslo Accords and that Fatah and the PLO are preparing on all levels for a real confrontation and battle with the Israeli occupation.




Tributes from Iran pour in as PIJ leader buried in Damascus
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad buried its former leader Ramadan Shalah in Syria on Sunday, a day after he died in hospital in neighboring Lebanon following a struggle with an unknown illness.

Shalah, who was 62 years old, led the Iran-backed terrorist group from 1995 until 2018. The United States first put Shalah on its terrorism blacklist in 1995. In 2006, the FBI listed him among its "most wanted terrorists," offering $5 million for information leading to his apprehension.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was "deeply affected" by the loss of Shalah following "a life spent fighting for the holy Palestinian cause" and Jerusalem.

In a message from his office to "the brave Palestinians," Zarif hailed Shalah as a "pragmatic, intellectual, serious and intelligent person" who sought "unity between people from different backgrounds, between Palestinian groups and within the Muslim world."

Dozens of mourners gathered on Sunday around his coffin draped in the group's banner in Damascus, having received special permission to gather despite the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

A funeral procession then headed to a cemetery in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of the capital.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as saying the Palestinian people had "lost a great national figure."






Report: April Attack on Israel’s Water Infrastructure Was Culmination of Year-Long Cyber-Warfare Campaign
A major Iranian cyber-attack on Israel’s water infrastructure was part of a year-long campaign of similar attacks, Israeli news website Walla revealed on Sunday.

In April, Israel narrowly headed off the massive cyber-attack, which was later attributed to Iran.

In a statement released shortly after, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate described “attempted attacks on command and control systems of wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations, and sewage.”

A few weeks later, a cyber-attack shut down the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaee. The incident was widely seen as an Israeli retaliatory attack.
June 7, 2020 2:04 pm
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Israeli Army Arrests Killer of 21-Year-Old Soldier Following a Month-Long Manhunt

The Israel Defense Forces have arrested the killer of Israeli soldier Amit Ben-Yigal, who died last month in a stone-throwing...

According to Walla, the April attack was, in fact, the culmination of a series of cyber-attacks on Israel’s water infrastructure that took place at various times throughout 2019.

As a result, the threat of cyber-warfare on Israel’s water supply and essential infrastructure in general is now being taken much more seriously.
After IAEA Report, Netanyahu Calls on International Community to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday: "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determined that Iran had refused to allow IAEA inspectors access to clandestine sites at which Iran had carried out secret military nuclear activity. Iran has systematically violated its commitments by hiding sites and enriching fissionable material, and has committed other violations. I believe that the time has come...in the light of these revelations, for the international community to join the U.S. and reimpose paralyzing sanctions on Iran."

"The coronavirus has not lessened by one iota our determination to act against Iran's aggression. I reiterate: Israel will not allow Iran to achieve nuclear weapons and will continue to act methodically against Iran's attempts to militarily entrench on our borders."
Mossad Iran Op. still paying dividends with IAEA – sources
The Mossad’s operation to appropriate Iranian nuclear secrets in 2018 is still paying dividends deep into 2020 by bringing the IAEA into a standoff with Tehran, sources with knowledge have told The Jerusalem Post.

The Post has also learned that almost all of the evidence upon which the IAEA bases its claims and its probe of the Islamic Republic stem from the secret Iranian nuclear archive obtained by the Mossad in January 2018.

The already mythical operation proved beyond any doubt that Iran’s nuclear program until 2003 had been military in nature. It also proved that Iran took significant measures to try to cover up and store its nuclear military research and progress even after the 2015 nuclear deal.

Western intelligence had speculated that Iran was looking into nuclear test sites, but the Mossad operation revealed the exact locations of the five sites – two in the Semnan Region in the northern center of the country and three in the Lot Desert in the country’s central eastern region.

In September 2019, the Post learned that the mapping out of additional potential Iranian clandestine nuclear sites was probably the greatest continuing achievement of the Mossad operation.
Exclusive: Congressional Republicans to Unveil Largest Iran Sanctions Plan in History
Congressional Republicans will unveil this week the largest package of Iran sanctions in history, an unprecedented plan that aims to cripple Tehran’s global terrorism enterprise and bankrupt the cash-strapped regime, according to a copy of the legislative package exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest caucus of GOP lawmakers in Congress, will on Wednesday release a massive legislative proposal targeting malign regimes across the globe, including Russia, China, and Iran. The policy proposal includes more than 140 new initiatives intending to reassert Republican leadership on the foreign policy stage.

The Iran portion includes "the toughest sanctions that have ever been proposed by Congress on Iran," according to Rep. Mike Johnson (R., La.), the RSC’s chairman. It would greatly expand the Trump administration’s "maximum pressure" campaign and force the removal of several contested policies that Republicans argue have kept the Iran nuclear accord on life support since President Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018.

The legislative proposal specifically tackles some of the thorniest issues in U.S. foreign policy: contested American taxpayer aid to Lebanon and other Middle Eastern nations controlled by Iran, sanctions waivers that have kept Tehran’s nuclear program alive, and the 2002 authorization for use of military force in Iraq, which Republicans view as severely outdated given the rise of numerous new terror factions.

Johnson and Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), head of the RSC’s foreign affairs and national security task force, told the Free Beacon that their proposal is more than a conservative wish list. Some Democrats could support many of the priorities, including foreign policy leaders such as Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Rep. Ted Deutch (D., Fla.), and Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.)—all of whom have expressed concerns about the Iran nuclear deal and Tehran’s regional ambitions.

"We’re not doing this for messaging purposes," Johnson said. "Many of these things we would expect and should be bipartisan because this is one of these issues that every person who looks at the situation objectively should agree to."
Iran Blocks Access to Nuclear Sites, IAEA Says in New Report
Iran is blocking international access to critical nuclear sites and has quickened the pace of its uranium enrichment program, shortening the time it would take the country to build a nuclear weapon, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and U.S. experts.

In violation of international accords, Iran continues to stockpile enriched uranium, the key component in an atomic weapon, and is blocking access for international inspectors seeking to provide oversight of several sites believed to be part of Iran’s clandestine program, according to a nonpublic IAEA report distributed to partner nations on Friday.

The IAEA report indicates that Iran is in breach of safeguards enacted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is overseen by the international agency. By blocking access to several nuclear sites, Iran is preventing the agency from accounting for undeclared nuclear materials currently in use by the regime.

Iran also has made a sizable increase in the amount of low-enriched uranium it keeps in the country, another violation of U.N. mandates barring Tehran from stockpiling nuclear material. Because of this, Iran has shortened the time it needs to successfully build a nuclear weapon.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed that Iran is expanding its nuclear endeavors describing it as a "transparent attempt to generate negotiating leverage and extort the international community."
Former Iranian Diplomat Amir Mousavi: U.S. Must Extradite Soleimani's Killers or Leave Iraq
Former Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi said in a June 1, 2020 interview on Afaq TV (Iraq) that there is a conflict between the U.S. and Iran and that Iran will not remain silent over the “terrorist” attack that America carried out against IRGC Qods Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani. Mousavi said that America must extradite Soleimani’s killer to Iran or leave the region. He said that the American forces in Iraq will be a target for Iran sooner or later – regardless of the position of the Iraqi government – since Iran has the right to exact revenge against the United States. He added that Iran has the right to chase down American “terrorists” throughout the world.


State Department Marks 40th Anniversary of Judicial Murder of Prominent Iranian Jewish Businessman
The United States State Department on Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the judicial murder of a prominent Iranian Jewish businessman by the Islamic Republic.

State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus tweeted, “40 years ago, the Iranian regime tortured and executed Jewish community leader Albert Danielpour.”

“They made up several charges fueled by antisemitism,” she wrote.

“The regime has executed hundreds of Iranians because of their beliefs,” Ortagus added. “We condemn all targeting and killings based on religion.”

A successful businessman and philanthropist, Danielpour was arrested and tortured by the Iranian regime on charges of espionage and collaborating with “Zionism.”

Following a lengthy series of attempts by his family and supporters to gain his freedom, Danielpour was executed on June 5, 1980 at the age of 52. The Iranian government swiftly seized all his property.


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