Tuesday, June 16, 2020
US mulls withholding aid to Jordan to force extradition of Palestinian terrorist
The United States is considering withholding aid from one of its closest Arab partners, Jordan, in a bid to secure the extradition of a woman convicted in Israel of a 2001 terror bombing that killed 15 people, including two American citizens.'Groups behind ICC suits against Israel, US have terrorist ties'
The family of one of those US citizens, 15-year-old Malki Roth, has been leading a campaign to extradite the terrorist to the US, after Israel imprisoned and then freed her.
The Trump administration says it’s weighing “all options” to press Jordan to extradite Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, who is wanted by the US on a charge of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against American nationals. The charge was filed under seal in 2013 and announced by the Justice Department four years later.
The extradition issue is likely to be raised this week when Jordan’s King Abdullah II speaks to several congressional committees to voice his opposition to Israel’s plans to annex portions of the West Bank.
Malki Roth’s father Arnold on Tuesday said the new “reports of US officials challenging the Jordanians over their sheltering of Ahlam Tamimi are encouraging” and “a meaningful step forward.” He told The Times of Israel: “We long for the day she faces justice in a US court.”
The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who approved the 2011 Shalit prisoner deal in which Tamimi was released from 16 life terms, declined to comment.
Related: Failed by Israel, Malki Roth’s parents hope US can extradite her gloating killer
Tamimi is on the FBI’s list of “most wanted terrorists” for her role in escorting the suicide bomber from Ramallah to the crowded Jerusalem pizzeria where he struck. It was one of the deadliest terror attacks during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising. She has expressed no remorse and has been seen gloating that she managed to kill Israeli children.
The organizations that have sued Israel and the US in the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes against the Palestinians and in Afghanistan, respectively, have ties to each other, as well as to terrorist organizations, new research from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reveals. Trump Must Hold Hamas' Terror Proxies Accountable
According to the JCPA's work, prominent activists in the campaign to delegitimize Israel, who are also connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – which is listed as a terrorist organization in the US and the European Union – play a key role in the cooperation between all these entities.
The research also reveals that ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has close ties to one of these organizations.
The groups that sued the US in the ICC in 2017 include the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose headquarters is in New York. In 2019, a panel of ICC judges rejected a request by Bensouda to launch an investigation against the US based on the suits that had been filed. The organizations behind the lawsuits increased pressure on the ICC, and a month ago, the court gave Bensouda the green light to launch an investigation against the US, which prompted the US to step of its sanctions against ICC functionaries involved in that investigation.
The organizations that have tried to bring suits against Israel in the ICC include Al Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, and Al-Dameer. The JCPA research states that these groups have links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and that "they are far from being human rights group, as they falsely represent themselves."
Al-Haq, the PCHR, and Al-Mezan are members of the International Federation for Human Rights, of which Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin is the general secretary. In the past, Jabarin held a senior position in the PFLP and was sentenced to prison terms in Israel a number of times. Israel's Supreme Court defined Jabarin as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" because he disguises his terrorist activity as human rights work.
Raji Surani, director general of the PCHR, formerly served as deputy director of the International Federation for Human Rights. Nada Kiswanson, a Swedish lawyer of Palestinian descent, and Katherine Gallagher, who represented the plaintiffs in the ICC suit against the US, helped the Palestinians reach out to the ICC against Israel. Kiswanson is the former director of Al-Haq office in The Hague, and in that role filed complaints against Israel with the ICC.
The balloons near an Israeli playground in February should have been a welcome sight. Instead, they were carrying bombs intended to kill, maim, and terrify. Panicked teachers hurried their students inside.
The explosives were part of a Palestinian campaign to attack Israeli population centers with bombs and incendiary devices that float to their targets with the aid of balloons, inflated latex gloves, and even condoms. One group responsible for such attacks is Humat al Aqsa (HAA), or the Defenders of al Aqsa. This small but violent organization is a proxy of the Hamas terrorist group, which itself is a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. HAA is not yet sanctioned by the U.S. government, but it should be.
Humat al Aqsa was reportedly founded in April 2006. According to Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Fathi Hamad, a senior Hamas official who is subject to U.S. sanctions, established and funded the group. HAA has identified Muhammad Naji, also known as “Abu Naji,” as its secretary-general.
By employing HAA as a proxy, Hamas can carry out terrorist attacks while maintaining plausible deniability. Hamas seeks deniability because it has sought to rebrand itself as a pragmatic, moderate force despite its oppressive rule in the Gaza Strip and its commitment to destroying Israel. HAA lets Hamas pursue its genocidal aspirations without being held to account.
No one should be fooled by Hamas’ ruse, however. HAA’s most famous terrorist attack demonstrated the close ties it enjoys with Hamas. In 2008, HAA attacked the convoy of Israeli Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter. Ahmed Jabari, then-commander of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military arm, advised HAA on this attack. Though Dichter escaped unscathed, HAA and the Qassam Brigades published videos glorifying the assault.
HAA’s depredations didn’t stop there. The group has repeatedly threatened Israelis with violence and carried out numerous attacks. HAA also disseminated several videos of its fighters prepping and launching rockets and mortars against Israel. In one video, a fighter in a ghillie suit aims his .50 caliber sniper rifle at Israeli soldiers. In May 2019, HAA published martyrdom posters for Imad Muhammad Nasir, who was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in the northern Gaza strip as he was firing mortars at Israel. And in January 2020, HAA posted a banner of thirteen “martyred” fighters on its social media.
As disturbing as the videos are, the clips are even more sinister because HAA is operating out of civilian areas. This effectively turns nearby Palestinians into human shields. The use of human shields is a war crime and is sanctionable pursuant to the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018.
NYC Authorities Weld Brooklyn Playground Shut One Day after Massive ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ Protest
New York City workers were seen welding shut the gates of a playground in Brooklyn on Monday, one day after a demonstration in the borough saw thousands of attendees.
On Sunday, thousands gathered at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza for a Black Trans Lives Matter rally. Despite the protests, New York City remains under the “phase 1” stage of the state’s reopening plan, allowing retail businesses to operate curbside pickup while large gatherings are still technically banned.
Local observers filmed city park workers welding the gates of Middleton Playground, which is frequented by members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg.
“Every playground in the City is closed. This is a matter of health and safety,” Jane Meyer, deputy press secretary for the New York Mayor’s Office, told National Review in an email.
“In recent weeks, people have broken the locks and chains at this playground and breached the site multiple times,” a spokesperson for New York City Parks and Recreation told National Review. “This morning, we had to secure the location and did not have our typical resources available so as a short term fix we welded one of four entrances shut. This is a reversible procedure, and we plan to unweld this entrance today and replace the locks and chains.”
State Assemblyman Joe Lentol, whose district includes Williamsburg, criticized the decision to close the playground.
“Welding the doors shut at Middleton Playground during a time when our children need the open space to run and play is UNACCEPTABLE,” Lentol wrote on Twitter. “I will be calling upon Mayor de Blasio to open the gates at the Middleton Playground to allow children to play.”
The park lock cut open with a bolt-cutter. pic.twitter.com/UZTFrQbQyg
— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) June 15, 2020
Breaking: Elected officials representing Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, @KalmanYeger, @NYSenatorFelder, @SEichenstein, are going around from park to park in Brooklyn breaking open the locks after @BilldeBlasio’s targeted discriminatory behavior against the Jewish community. pic.twitter.com/mAXFZgzvPs
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 16, 2020
Israel said to ink deal with Moderna for potential purchase of COVID-19 vaccine
Israel signed a deal Tuesday with US biotech firm Moderna to supply it with a vaccine against COVID-19 if the company’s drug development is successful, Hebrew-language media reported.Coronavirus vaccine candidate can be applied like band-aid
The company announced last week that it will enter the third and final stage of its clinical trial in July with 30,000 participants.
The reports come as countries jostle to ensure that they will be among the first to receive vaccines when they are developed.
The reports did not divulge any of the parameters of the deal, which was reached following negotiations reported Sunday by Channel 13.
A Health Ministry source was quoted by the Israel Hayom daily as saying the deal “isn’t the last word” on the vaccine front.
“No country is putting all their eggs in one basket, and it is expected that deals will also be signed with other companies,” the unnamed source said. “That is the correct approach and it distributes the risk.
“It is important to remember that if Israel doesn’t ‘buy’ its place now, we could have to wait one or two years after the vaccine is approved. Regarding cost considerations it is important to remember that a single day of closure costs the economy billions.”
A new coronavirus vaccine candidate from the University of Pittsburgh that can be applied to the skin like a band-aid is now ready for human trials, NBC affiliate Click2Houston reported.FDA approved: Israeli tech to warn doctors before COVID-19 patients deteriorate
Called “PITT-CO-VACC” – Pittsburgh Coronavirus Vaccine – the vaccine would be given to patients via a small patch, around the size of a postage stamp, which is put on the same way one puts on a band-aid. However, this patch comes with tiny needles that dissolve into the skin.
This works using a new technology known as a dissolving microneedle array, according to Prof. Dr. Louis Falo, Jr., chairman of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
An Israeli-made system programmed to alert doctors eight hours before coronavirus patients deteriorate has been approved for deployment in US hospitals.Israel, Italy to develop coronavirus test using speech analysis
A hospital command and control system made by Netanya-based CLEW, which has helped to keep the computer and telemedicine networks at two central Israel hospitals running through the pandemic, has now received an Emergency Use Authorization from America’s Food and Drug Administration.
CLEW CEO Gal Salomon said that his is the only FDA-cleared system to provide early warning on patients who are likely to experience respiratory failure or blood complications associated with COVID-19.
It draws on records from thousands of coronavirus patients, mostly US-based, whose data was analyzed by Salomon’s team, using artificial intelligence to understand what changes take place in patients in the hours before a deterioration.
The approval comes with doctors needing artificial intelligence more than ever, because with COVID-19, a new disease, they have limited ability to draw on their experience, Salomon told The Times of Israel.
“Normally, doctors try to use their knowledge and experience, but they don’t have experience — they didn’t study COVID-19 in medical school,” he said. “The fact that our system allows you to deal with data, which is hard evidence, is very powerful. It means that they can work on the basis of correlations and patterns.”
Learning institutions in Tel Aviv and Rome have begun collaborating on a new and faster way to diagnose coronavirus through speech analysis technology.Netanyahu, Greek PM announce travel between countries will resume August 1
On the Israeli side, the Afeka Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv's Center for Language Processing will head the project, while a parallel center from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart will head the project in Rome.
The initial outline for the project was agreed upon on Tuesday between the Italian ambassador in Israel Gianluigi Benedetti and President of the Afeka College Prof. Ami Moyal. The aim of the project is to develop tools to help with the international fight against the coronavirus during the interim period between the first and second wave of the pandemic.
"The collaboration between these two centers of excellence is one of the several fruitful results of the long-term intensive contacts between the Italian and Israeli scientific communities, further strengthened since the very first stage of the pandemic," Benedetti said.
New technological tools, allowing pre-diagnostic detection of potential carriers of corona through the analysis of patients’ voice, speech and coughing will be subjected to clinical trials sharing the same protocol.
"The expected result of the collaboration should provide us tools for dealing with future outbreaks of corona and other viruses," Moyal said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Tuesday in Jerusalem and announced travel between the countries would resume in August.Caroline Glick: The UAE ambassador has no business threatening Israel
Mitsotakis arrived in Israel Tuesday for a one-day visit planned to include wide-ranging talks covering energy and controversial Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
The Greek leader is leading the largest high-level delegation to Israel since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with six ministers in tow including defense, foreign and tourism.
In a joint press conference at the capital’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Netanyahu said Israel was looking to open up to Greek and Cypriot visitors starting August 1.
The date is later than the July 1 target that had been bandied about, and the current list of countries whose citizens would be allowed in is also smaller than a larger roster suggested in previous reports.
“This all depends on the coronavirus pandemic, but if the numbers allow it this is the target date for opening up the skies,” Netanyahu said.
Many Israeli media outlets hailed United Arab Emirates' US Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba's decision to publish an article in Yedioth Ahronoth last Friday. Otaiba's media fans proclaimed his piece – reportedly the brainchild of former Israeli and current top Democratic Party donor Haim Saban – a testament to the friendship and friendly ties that have developed and grown between Israel and the Sunni Arab states of the Persian Gulf over the past decade.
Alas, the cheers are misplaced. Otaiba's article was not a testament to his country's fellow feelings towards the people of Israel. It was a threat to the people of Israel. And he didn't beat around the bush. He stated the threat outright.
Otaiba wrote, "Annexation, [that is, Israel's plan to apply its laws to its communities in Judea and Samaria and to the Jordan Valley in accordance with President Donald Trump's vision for peace] will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with the UAE."
Maybe in Abu Dhabi, people begin friendships by threatening one another. But in Israel, as in most places in the world, that isn't how friendships begin. It's how they end.
Otaiba's threat to downgrade UAE-Israel ties naturally begs the question, what is the basis of those ties?
Did the UAE declare Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organizations as a favor to Israel? Did the Emirates cooperate with Israel against Iran because they felt sorry for the poor Jews and wanted to help them? Did they support Israel against Hamas during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 out of the kindness of their hearts?
Of course not.
All of the cooperative ties Israel and the UAE have developed in recent years are a product of shared interests. The two governments began working with one another because it is good for both sides. No one is doing anyone any favors. And if we're already on the subject of favors, the stronger side in this partnership is Israel. The Israeli economy is much more robust that the oil economies of the Persian Gulf. Who does Otaiba think he's scaring with his threats when oil is selling at $37 a barrel?
You can't invoke international law even as you breach it. By what legal authority do the UNHRC experts mandated to examine leprosy, hazardous wastes & foreign debt—or the monitors for human rights in Somalia, Myanmar & North Korea—sign a joint statement about the Palestinians? https://t.co/iadjAIrVcD
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) June 16, 2020
Amb. Dore Gold: The Debate over the Future of the Territories
Why is the future of the West Bank such a critical issue for Israel? The first reason is the geo-strategic location of this territory. It is adjacent to Israel's coastal plain, where 70% of our population and 80% of our industrial capacity are located.Israeli Expert: U.S. Peace Plan Says Palestinian Narrative Must Change to Give Peace a Chance
It was thought in the past that our territorial withdrawals would reduce the hostile intent of our adversaries, but we learned in the Gaza Disengagement in 2005 that withdrawal can actually increase the hostility on the other side. The number of rocket launches from Gaza into Israel mushroomed in the year after we pulled out - from 179 to 946.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) defines "annexation" as "a unilateral act of a state through which it proclaims its sovereignty over the territory of another state." But did the West Bank belong to "another state"? Only the UK and Pakistan recognized Jordanian sovereignty there after the end of the British Mandate.
According to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), annexation is a war crime. It is a subset of aggression. Back in 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank, it was plain as day that it was not an aggressor, but rather it was a victim of aggression and acting in self-defense.
Another fault in the current debate is to call this a "unilateral act." This is an American plan in which both sides gain. We get 30% of the West Bank, the Palestinians get 70%. It is not a unilateral gain for Israel. It is ultimately a territorial compromise.
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior intelligence and security expert, and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, responded to concerns over the potential fallout from Israel's plan to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley. He told the Jerusalem Press Club: "The Arab world, including Jordan, will make some noise, but they will not do much beyond that because they will not risk their relationship with Israel or this U.S. administration. They also know that Israel is not going anywhere."UN Security Council to devote meeting to Israel's sovereignty bid
"The U.S. peace plan offers an opportunity to move forward. There is no peace process, and the reason is the Palestinians themselves. The Palestinian narrative rejects the idea that the Jewish people have any historical rights to this land....If we wait for the Palestinians to accept it, we will wait forever." For the first time, "the Palestinians are being told the truth." The Trump administration is telling the Palestinians, "'If you do not make a decision and continue to say no, you will pay a price.'"
The U.S. plan "is the first peace proposal that is based on the understanding that the Palestinian narrative must change," he said. "If there is enough pressure from the international community and Arab countries, then we will have a chance to achieve peace. Israel is not doing anything that will harm the prospects for peace. Rather, Israel is doing something that will give peace a chance."
The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on June 24 to discuss Israel's plans to extend sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and settlements in Judea and Samaria, the Middle East Monitor reported on Monday, citing Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour.UN experts: Israel must be held accountable for annexation
Mansour told Voice of Palestine radio that he had invited foreign ministers from different countries, including members of the Arab League, to the scheduled meeting.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is also expected to take part in the meeting, Mansour said.
He voiced hope that "the Security Council will assume its responsibilities, and will ask the [Israeli] government to suspend all activities ... in the occupied Palestinian territories."
Meanwhile, a diplomatic official said Monday that Israel was aware that the application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria might harm "its emerging ties with the Gulf countries," Army Radio reported.
"It is obvious to us that the nascent relations between Israel and the Gulf states will be interrupted in the event of annexation," the unnamed official added.
Israeli annexation would be “a vision of a 21st century apartheid” that must be stopped with “accountability,” a group of 47 United Nations human rights experts stated on Tuesday, as they called on the international community to take action.UN Human Rights Council doubles down on anti-Israel 'blacklist'
“Criticism without consequences will neither forestall annexation nor end the occupation,” they stated.
There is a “broad menu of accountability measures that have been widely and successfully applied by the UN Security Council in other international crises over the past 60 years,” the experts said.
Such measures should be selected with an eye to maintaining international law and human rights, they said, adding that it must “undo the annexations and bring the occupation and the conflict to a just and durable conclusion.”
The statement was immediately lauded by the Palestinians, including PLO Executive Committee secretary-general Saeb Erekat and the US-based international left-wing organization Human Rights Watch.
The first meeting of the UN Human Rights Council since the onset of the coronavirus crisis picked up its focus on the Palestinians, with members saying that a list of companies that do business with Israeli companies in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Golan Heights – all areas that lie outside the 1967 borders – should be updated annually.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet told the UNHRC that a group of independent experts should be established for the specific purpose of updating the list, which was first published in February of this year.
After the "blacklist," as Israel terms it, was released, the Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli consulates to reach out to the governors of states where the companies listed are located and ask them to denounce the initiative.
Companies featured on the list include travel firms AirBnB and Expedia, both of which offer listings in Israeli settlements.
Israel argues that the list provides fodder for the BDS movement, whereas the UNHRC claims it will help make businesses aware that their activity in those areas is "illegal," a claim Israel rejects.
"Whoever boycotts us will be boycotted. The UN Human Rights Council is a biased body that is devoid of influence," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February.
"Not for nothing have I already ordered the severing of ties with it. It was also not for nothing that the American administration has taken this step together with us," he added, referring to the Trump administration's June 2018 decision to leave the council, citing its "chronic bias against Israel."
Some of the bastions of ‘human rights & democracy’ speaking at abhorrent Jew-bashing Israel-hating Antisemitic Item 7 at @UN_HRC #HRC43:
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 16, 2020
Iran 🇮🇷
Syria 🇸🇾
Venezuela 🇻🇪
North Korea 🇰🇵
Cuba 🇨🇺
Turkey 🇹🇷
Yemen 🇾🇪
China 🇨🇳
Palestinian Auth. 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/psckijlZau
EU foreign minister Borrell calls on the US to join his peace initiative that does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, does not require Palestinians to recognize the Jewish State, stop paying jailed terrorists, and rule out refugee return. Fair to say it’s a non-starter.
— Michael Oren (@DrMichaelOren) June 15, 2020
HonestReporting's CEO Speaks on ILTV on Israel's Annexation.
HonestReporting's Daniel Pomerantz speaks on ILTV on Israel's annexation. Does it violate international law? Will it harm Israel? What does it mean for prospects for peace?
Wow, I don't recall seeing a more one-sided pro-Palestinian anti-Israel editorial than this from @FT. Is as if Ramallah drafted this.https://t.co/58UzsAjyiH
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 15, 2020
PreOccupiedTerritory: Abbas Threatens To Abrogate Agreements He Never Kept Anyway (satire)
This de facto Palestinian capital city once again felt political and diplomatic waves after the Palestinian Authority president warned for the eighty-fifth time in fifteen years that if Israel continues to refuse to hand over control of territory that was never before under autonomous Palestinian Arab rule, he will revoke the accords that established Palestinian self-rule, accords to which his administration and the one before it did not adhere in the first place.BESA: Israel and the Precision-Guided Missile Threat
Mahmoud Abbas threatened again Tuesday to abrogate the Palestine Liberation Organization’s 1993 agreements with Israel that provided for Palestinian governmental autonomy in certain majority-Palestinian areas of territory Israel took from Jordanian occupation in 1967. The Oslo Accords set up the Palestinian National Authority, part of whose obligations include coordination of security functions with the Israeli military to prevent attacks on Israelis, but in practice those obligations have become token as Abbas’s political clout has waned and only Israeli military might keeps him in power. Even before Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as head of both the PLO and the PA, Palestinian leadership engaged in incitement to murder Israelis and played a prominent role in the Second Intifada, a 2000-2005 campaign of terrorism that left more than a thousand Israelis dead.
Abbas has issued the threat before, most of the time as a tactic to pressure on Israel into concessions. Palestinian leaders and negotiators have never put forth final status agreement proposals of their own, always relying on Israel or outside parties to produce such documents for the Palestinians to reject as insufficient, or to point to with righteous indignation as they claim Israel does not negotiate in good faith by accepting certain irreversible compromises as preconditions for talks.
Iran is currently converting all its older missiles into precision weapons, and is supplying its allies in the region with expertise and materials with which to build their own precision missile capabilities. Israel is anxious to frustrate Hizbullah's precision project because once it is achieved, Hizbullah's missiles will be able to paralyze any vital installation or terrorize any civilian population center in Israel.Construction begins on ‘American Road’ linking Jerusalem-area settlements
One of the biggest advantages of ground-launched missiles is their small footprint: their launchers are small, stealthy, and hard to find and destroy. Air power, by contrast, relies on huge air bases with long runways. The vulnerability of giant air bases to precision missile strikes was demonstrated during the January 2020 Iranian missile strike on the U.S.-operated Ein Assad air base in Iraq.
Once Hizbullah is equipped with precision missiles, it could fire salvoes to paralyze Israel's air bases. Israel's defense systems will probably be able to destroy most incoming missiles, but not all of them. Israel should do everything in its power not only to prevent defeat by precision-guided missiles but to use them itself to defeat its enemies. The writer, founding director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, which managed the Arrow program, is a senior research associate at the BESA Center.
Israel has begun building a bypass road linking West Bank settlements to Jerusalem, in a project dubbed “The American Road” that is set to cost over $250 million, according to a new report.PA security confirms shredding documents, fearing Israeli raids amid volatility
The road will connect settlements north and south of the capital to the city, as well as cut travel times for East Jerusalem neighborhoods, city officials told Reuters on Monday. It is poised to be completed in the summer of 2021, according to the report.
The project is named for an incomplete decades-old road worked on by a US company in the 1960s that winds through southeast Jerusalem. Construction was abandoned following the Six Day War in 1967.
Fadi Al-Hidmi, the Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, told the news agency the project “cuts off Palestinian neighborhoods within the city from one another.” Jerusalem officials counter that it will benefit both Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem.
“It doesn’t unite the settlements. It’s not about uniting borders or municipal lines,” said Deputy Mayor Arieh King, a far-right council member. “But it does connect them more on the daily level — whether it’s studies, tourism or commerce. And then in practice you create a huge Jerusalem metropolis.”
Critics say the road undermines the possibility of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, cutting off these parts of the city from the West Bank.
Palestinian security services have been destroying secret documents, fearing possible Israeli raids on their offices as the Jewish State weighs annexing parts of the West Bank, Palestinian security sources confirm.PA threatens Israel: “What you’ll taste is the sword!” – in music video
“We have been ordered to destroy confidential documents in our possession and we have obeyed this order,” a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity, saying that the instructions came from “high up.”
The statement confirmed reports on Monday of the planned move.
During the Second Intifada, which erupted in the early 2000s and included waves of suicide bombings, Israeli security forces repeatedly stormed offices of the Palestinian security services and removed confidential documents.
Several Palestinian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the services are concerned that this could happen again if Israel moves ahead with annexation.
Announced at the end of January in Washington, US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan envisions the annexation by Israel of its settlements and of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
One Palestinian security source, who did not describe the nature of the documents, said the security services began destroying them a month ago, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he was ending security coordination with Israel.
PA: All of Israel is “Palestine,” “Palestine in its entirety [is] from the Upper Galilee to Eilat”
Official PA TV host: We are always talking about the word “Palestine” and the return to Palestine. Palestine – we are dreaming and living it as Palestine in its entirety, from the Upper Galilee to Eilat (i.e., all of Israel, north to south), from Gaza to Jericho, with Jerusalem as its capital…
President of the PLO Supreme National Committee to Commemorate Nakba Day Muhammad Alyan: Nakba Day and the activities [represent] “Returning to Palestine.” It is true that we [in the West Bank] are in Palestine. But we are living far from our lands (i.e., in Israel) from which we were expelled… and we cannot reach them. Therefore the situation of the Palestinian people – whether it has been inside the homeland (i.e., West Bank, Gaza or Jerusalem) or outside of it (i.e., abroad) – Allah willing, [we] are united in returning to Palestine (i.e., Israel).
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, May 11, 2020]
Fatah loyal to stabbers, suicide bombers, all IL is Palestine, PA TV 110220
What happens when the reality does not fit your narrative, and you have no moral compass https://t.co/E2GaLAFXpj @TheMossadIL #Gaza #fautxography
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) June 16, 2020
Iraqi Researchers React to EU Baghdad Embassy's Flying the Rainbow Flag: In Islam, Homosexuals Should Be Decapitated, Burned Alive, Or Thrown off a Mountain pic.twitter.com/rmFFtFk9O0
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 16, 2020
UN Atomic Watchdog Head Asks Iran for "Prompt Access" to Blocked Nuclear Sites
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mariano Grossi said Monday that Iran must provide inspectors access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. Grossi told the agency's board in Vienna that for more than four months, "Iran has denied us access to two locations and that, for almost a year, it has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities."German intel report lays bare Iran's attempts to obtain nuclear proliferation technology
Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said, "There is one conclusion: that Iran is violating the agreements. The IAEA must hand this over to the UN so that it can set sanctions against Iran."
Iran remains hell-bent on developing the deadliest weapons on the planet, according to a damning German intelligence service report released Monday.Iran warns IAEA not to take action based on 'Zionist regime' information
In a section titled “Proliferation,” the 181-page Baden-Württemberg state intelligence agency document reviewed by Fox News states that Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Syria are "still pursuing" such efforts.
“They aim to complete existing arsenals, perfect the range, applicability and effectiveness of their weapons and develop new weapon systems,” the report said. “They try to obtain the necessary products and relevant know-how, among other things, through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.”
“The term ‘proliferation,’” the report continued, “refers to the further spread of atomic, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction – or the products and know-how required to manufacture them – and corresponding delivery systems.”
North Korea and Pakistan currently have nuclear arsenals. Tehran, in a 2015 deal with world powers, promised to curb its nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief.
President Hassan Rouhani announced at the end of 2019 that his country "would no longer implement some agreements,” the German intelligence officials wrote. The report documented the mullah regime’s illicit activities during the year 2019.
The intelligence report covers security and terrorism threats to the heavily industrialized southern German state of Baden-Württemberg — a target-rich region for Iran’s network due to its numerous advanced engineering and high-tech firms.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Monday warned the International Atomic Energy Agency against making decisions based on information from the "Zionist regime."
Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Mousavi criticized the nuclear agency for what he said were "anti-Iranian claims" founded upon documents provided to it by Israel.
Israel covertly obtained some 55,000 pages of documents and 55,000 files on CD relating to Iran's nuclear program in 2018. The IAEA is reportedly seeking access to at least one site mentioned in the intelligence trove.
"We urge the agency (IAEA) to be a little realistic about it, to pose its question [from Iran] on a legal basis, and not to get entangled in marginal issues," the spokesman said, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency.
"We do not deem such an approach of the agency constructive. Our cooperation with the agency continued even when it [the IAEA] reduced commitments. If such a process goes on, the interaction with the organization [IAEA] will become difficult," he added.
Earlier this month, the IAEA called on Iran earlier this month to immediately provide access to several locations that it believes may be related to the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
Seriously, the award is granted in the categories of "struggle & resistance", "people & society", "culture & art", "politics", "education & research", "media" & "sports". Judging panel incl. Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis & Iran FM Zarif.https://t.co/rYQso5nj8V
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 15, 2020
