Pages

▼

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

07/15 Links Pt1: Douglas Murray: What is the point of the New York Times?; Gil Troy: Lies my anti-annexationists allies told me; Turkey is increasingly becoming a threat to Israel

From Ian:
Douglas Murray: What is the point of the New York Times?
Some time ago I became aware that I no longer trusted it even on issues that I didn’t know about. Because on every issue I did know about, I discovered that the paper was spreading untruths and lies. Take the bizarre animus against Britain (which I have written about a number of times here). It appears that the NYT at some stage made a decision that Brexit had something to do with Trump, and since the NYT hated Trump, it must not just report negatively against Brexit Britain, but campaign against it. Its London ‘correspondents’ must be among the least informed and most campaign-minded journalists in the paper’s history. The misinformation that the NYT has now published against this country is so extraordinary that nobody who actually knows the UK could possibly trust its coverage. And if you see that this is the case with things you do know about, then why would you remotely trust the NYT on things you don’t know about? And at that stage, what is the point of the paper? It’s not as though it is worth reading for the wit.

Anyhow – after recent sackings at the paper (relating to the publication of a perfectly reasonable opinion piece by Senator Tom Cotton) it became clear that Bari Weiss was one of the last couple of liberal voices (in the true sense) left at the paper. And as you could see from the deranged online behaviour of her colleagues towards her, it was clear she was not going to be long for the role.

Her resignation letter is damning. She alleges ‘constant bullying by colleagues.’ And in a memorable line she says, ‘Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.’ Ouch.

Of course there will doubtless now be more bullying and hectoring. All once again done by ‘liberal’ voices presuming that they are acting in the name of good. It is an extraordinary thing this, and in some ways emblematic of the age. Publications like the NYT, who profess to be most opposed to ‘fake news’, continuously turn out to have been the era’s biggest purveyors of the thing they complain of. And campaigning journalists, imagining that they are acting in the name of decency, turn out to behave so indecently that they bully out a minority, dissenting opinion from their ranks.

Bari Weiss has a bright future ahead of her. The same cannot be said of the paper she has just left.
Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Resignation Heard Round the Woke World
New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss has resigned her post and, in so doing, indicted the entire enterprise of modern journalism and its woke arbiters. The podcast on that and the epistemological crisis afflicting the left.


Josh Hammer: Bari Weiss is a casualty of the Left’s woke culture war
In a sense, I am a rather unusual spokesperson for the idea that a morally neutral discursive pluralism is an inherently valuable end unto itself. Indeed, I have spent no shortage of (digital) ink arguing, in accordance with the natural and common law traditions, for the imperative of making moral judgments based on the underlying substantive content of a certain modality of speech.

But, again, I am a conservative. Bari Weiss is a liberal. And all of us, outside the echo chambers of oppressive “wokeness” that constitute the Left’s self-congratulatory institutional bastions, have an acute interest in aiding the liberals mount a comeback in their civil war struggle.

A viable Right and a viable Left have historically existed in a relationship that is, ironically, simultaneously adversarial and symbiotic. Partisans of both camps have not shied away, when need be, from the grueling work required by intellectual fisticuffs in the public square. But, crucially, both camps have also depended upon one another to refine their arguments. There is to be no argumentative refinement, alas, when the Left is overrun by the Jacobins. Robespierre was not known to take kindly to heterodoxy.

For traditional liberals, the choice is clear. As Yoram Hazony frames it, liberals can either submit to the Left or make common cause with conservatives, traditionalists, and nationalists in our struggle against the successor ideology.
Liberals have two choices:
1 Submit to the Left.
2 Alliance with nationalists, conservatives, and Christians.
There are no other choices.— Yoram Hazony (@yhazony) June 13, 2020

In making such a choice, liberals should bear in mind that they, too, will be made to care. For liberal Jews, like Weiss, the choice is even clearer. The successor ideology mollycoddles inveterate Jew-haters, peddles an intersectionality that is inherently at loggerheads with the very notion of Jewish particularism, and cavils when a proud Jewish commentator “writ[es] about the Jews again.” The successor ideology has no tolerance whatsoever for Zionism, the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination in their ancient homeland.
Cory Booker Talking by the Forward

Perhaps a more pluralistic, intellectually diverse “mainstream media” opinion will emerge from the ashes of this rock bottom. For now, the Jacobins have found the proverbial guillotine. And in forcing out Weiss, an anodyne, centrist Jewish woman, the radicals have clarified for all to see the battle lines now drawn in the fight for a nation’s soul.

Je suis Bari Weiss.
Judith Miller: The Illiberal Liberal Media
In her letter, Weiss wrote that she had joined the paper to help publish “voices that would not otherwise appear in the paper of record, such as first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of the Times as their home.” She had been hired, she wrote, after the paper failed to anticipate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory because it “didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers.” But after three years at the paper, she wrote in her open letter, Weiss had concluded, “with sadness,” that she could no longer perform this mission at the nation’s ostensible paper of record, given the bullying that she had experienced within the newsroom and the almost daily attacks on her, often from Times colleagues, on social media. She deplored the paper’s unwillingness to defend her or act to stop the online intimidation. “They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again,’” she wrote.

Her criticism of Sulzberger rang true to several Times veterans, who note that he has been accused before of yielding to disgruntled liberal staff members. A publisher said to have intervened often in the paper’s news decisions, Sulzberger initially defended James Bennet and the decision to publish the Cotton op-ed, for instance. But faced with a staff revolt, he criticized the essay and the paper’s publication of it, saying that the editorial process had been too “rushed” and that the essay “did not meet our standards.”

Weiss’s departure was quickly hailed by her many critics within and outside of the paper on social media, among them Glenn Greenwald, who has called her a “hypocrite” for her alleged efforts to suppress Arab professors while in college, and for her defense of Israel and some of its controversial policies as a newspaper writer. But her stinging letter rang true to many others, among them former presidential aspirant Andrew Yang and talk-show host Bill Maher. “As a longtime reader who has in recent years read the paper with increasing dismay over just the reasons outlined here, I hope this letter finds receptive ears at the paper. But for the reasons outlined here, I doubt it,” Maher wrote on Twitter.

Her resignation was also lamented by such leading right-of-center thinkers as Glenn Loury. “What a shame—for the country, and on the Times,” wrote Loury, an economics professor at Brown University, in an email. Calling Weiss “courageous,” he added that while the climate she described at the paper was “no surprise,” that it had “driven her to this point is, indeed, shocking.” He also noted that Weiss was one of the few Times writers to sign the controversial “Harpers letter,” which he speculated might have been “the last straw” for the paper.




JPost Editorial: Turkey is increasingly becoming a threat to Israel
Turkey has quietly sought to make inroads via Hamas in Gaza as well as through religious groups in east Jerusalem, to grow its influence. The Jerusalem municipality recently had to remove a plaque that Turkish-backed groups put up in east Jerusalem. The goal of the plaque was a quiet campaign to assert Turkey’s Ottoman-era claims to Israel’s capital city.

The larger threat is also felt in the region. Turkey bombs with impunity in Syria and Iraq. It has now sent Syrian mercenaries and its naval and air force assets to Libya. While this campaign seems far from Jerusalem, Turkey is in fact trying to take over a swath of the Mediterranean to prevent an Israeli-Greek energy pipeline deal signed earlier this year. At home, Ankara has silenced opposition, becoming the largest jailor of journalists in the world, and it uses the lack of dissent at home to push an unchecked agenda in the region.

This US administration has so far had a blind spot when it comes to Turkey. Pro-Ankara elements in the State Department have appeased Turkey’s extreme agenda, coddling its embrace of Hamas and other terrorists. Israel has been reticent to say anything.

Evidence shows that an unchecked extremist power in the region will always eventually set its eyes on attacking Israel. Gamal Abdel Nasser filled that role in the 1950s, which later shifted to the Iranian ayatollahs. In the long term, this may shift to Turkey - if its increasing attacks on neighbors, crushing of dissent and anti-Israel rhetoric goes unchecked by the Western world.
MEMRI: Following Hagia Sophia's Reversion To Mosque, Turkish Office Of The Presidency Tweets Message Of Openness – While Tweets In Arabic By President Erdogan Stress Turkey's Active Pan-Islamic Role, Liberation Of Al-Aqsa
In a July 10, 2020 decree, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reversed the 1934 law that converted the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum, thereby turning it back into a mosque. He also placed the historic structure, which had been under the authority of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, under the authority of the country's Ministry of Religious Affairs.[1]

Tweets issued by the Office of the Turkish Presidency and on Erdoğan's personal Twitter account emphasized different aspects of a half-hour speech President Erdoğan gave that day. The Presidency's tweets, in both Turkish and English, conveyed a message of tolerance and pluralism, stressing that Hagia Sophia will continue to be open to the members of all faiths. Conversely, a tweet in Arabic on Erdoğan's personal Arabic-language page presented Turkey as an active player working tirelessly for the Muslim nation – from Bukhara, Uzbekistan in the east to the Andalusia region of Spain in the west – and for the liberation of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Some news channels in Turkey have already begun to echo Erdoğan's rhetoric about Al-Aqsa.[2]

The Hagia Sophia was completed in 537 as a church under the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It was converted into a mosque in 1453 after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II, and was converted into a museum in 1935 under the secularist government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey.

In practice, the building has been serving some religious functions for decades: The Islamic call to prayer has reportedly been given from the building since as early as 1980,[3] and noon and afternoon prayers have been held in the Hünkar Kasrı section of the building since 1991.[4] In October 2016, Turkey's Ministry of Religious Affairs appointed an imam for the mosque in the Hünkar Kasrı section, which from then on was open for Friday services and all five daily prayers.[5]

In his July 10 speech, President Erdoğan said that the building's main space would be used for worship beginning with Friday prayers on July 24.[6] It has been reported that the mosaics and frescoes on the walls of the Hagia Sophia will be covered with curtains or by technological means while Islamic prayers are performed in the space, and uncovered for viewing at other times.[7] Turkey's Ministry of Religious Affairs announced that two imams and four muezzins would be appointed to the Hagia Sophia.[8] It is estimated that under normal conditions, 3,000-4,000 people will be able to perform Islamic prayers there.[9]


Gil Troy: Lies my anti-annexationists allies told me
There’s a reasonable case against annexation: Netanyahu’s too distracted; Jordan’s too weak; the Gulf states are too opposed; Palestinian rights are too important; and the status quo is too advantageous to risk. But I keep reading more infuriating, delegitimizing statements from supposed allies – anti-annexationists – and wincing.

The Zionist case against annexation should not validate the Palestinians’ false claim of exclusive rights to the West Bank – ignoring Jews’ legitimate stake in biblical Judea and Samaria.

Yet many anti-annexationists swallow this Palestinian lie that the artificial areas defined in green pencil to suspend the 1948 war are all theirs, while others follow through on that conclusion’s delegitimizing implications. Negating Israel’s historic and legal rights to settle everywhere in the British Mandatory territory of Palestine – west of Transjordan – undermines Jews’ rights to settle anywhere in that region.

The historically authentic, legally accurate, and fairer position recognizes Jews’ rights to settle anywhere, even if we don’t exercise them everywhere, for pragmatic, diplomatic, or idealistic reasons. (And consider, who loves peace more – someone who says, “I have rights to settle here but I respect others’ rights, too, so I won’t,” or those who say, “We have no rights there, we’re land-grabbers” – what concession for peace have they made?)

The hater-hijackers shout during anti-annexationist “days of rage”: “Genocide since ’48, we don’t want your Jewish state” and “We want it all.” That’s expected. But beware forked-tongue allies, Trojan horses who try mainstreaming anti-Zionist libels while claiming to be Zionists.

If you question the annexation, great, but it’s unfair to accept Palestinian land claims blindly while scrutinizing Jewish claims harshly.

If you think Israel should relinquish its ’67 gains, let’s debate. But it’s misleading to pretend there ever was an Arab entity called Palestine, or deny that Israel won the territory in 1967 legitimately in a defensive war and had rights granted under the British Mandate to settle west of Transjordan.
Tear it down! Anti-Zionism as cancel culture writ large
Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland begins his Jewish Chronicle op-ed, “What next, if the two state dream is dead?” July 10, thusly:
Though annexation itself seems to be up in the air, one of annexation’s expected consequences is already materialising: a crisis of faith among those whose Zionist belief in the legitimacy of a Jewish state depended on there being at least the possibility of an eventual two-state solution, but who now see that prospect vanish before their eyes.

Freedland’s op-ed was addressing a recent 7000 word piece by Peter Beinart calling for Jews to embrace a one-state, non-Zionist future, published at Jewish Currents – a shorter version of which was published at the NY Times.

You can read CAMERA’s response to Beinart’s call for the end of a Jewish state here, but Freedland’s framing of the crisis is interesting, as it – correctly we think – casts the (former) Zionism of Beinart and his allies as contingent upon a particular political outcome with the Palestinians. This contingent Zionism suggests that the very legitimacy of Israel is not, as with all other countries, to quote Abba Eban, “axiomatic and unreserved”, but is permanently “suspended in mid-air” awaiting others’ moral approval.

Contingent Zionism negates and erases the fact that Israel is, by any objective measure, a dynamic, successful and democratic state, and demands, as the condition for political and moral international legitimacy, that it facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state. Conversely, this political calculus appears to conclude that no moral demands should be made of Palestinians to be granted the right to statehood and legitimacy.

Whereas, for contingent Zionists, Israeli leaders must reject annexation and continually work to keep the two-state solution alive, less they forfeit their very right to exist, nothing whatsoever is asked of Palestinian leaders. They aren’t asked to create, as Zionists leaders did in the decades before 1948, the apparatuses of statehood – healthy proto-state political and civil institutions which would inspire faith that Palestine won’t become a failed state.

They aren’t asked to promote a culture of peace within Palestinian society, nor to eradicate the PA’s violence and antisemitism-promoting culture, and terror-incentivizing schemes like pay for slay – measures that would inspire Israeli confidence that Palestine wouldn’t become, like Gaza, a terror state.
Coronavirus Resurgence Sidelines Israel’s West Bank Annexation Plans
A coronavirus resurgence in Israel and divisions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have sidelined its plans to annex parts of the West Bank, officials said.

Although the conservative Netanyahu and Defence Minister Benny Gantz, his centrist coalition partner, agreed the government could begin moving on annexation as of July 1, there has been “close to zero” cabinet-level discussion on the issue, one senior minister told Reuters.

And with no agreement with Washington yet on the modalities of the move under a peace proposal announced by President Donald Trump, any step soon to extend Israeli sovereignty to its West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley seems unlikely.

The Palestinians have rejected the Trump plan. European and Arab powers have warned of diplomatic blowback if Israel unilaterally annexes land Palestinians seek for a state.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, is preoccupied with new coronavirus transmissions that aides said could necessitate renewed lockdowns. Unemployment has hit a record 21% and anti-government protests have turned increasingly violent.

A poll by the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute on Tuesday found only 29.5% of the public trust Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis.

There has been open opposition from Gantz’s Blue and White party, which makes it hard to persuade Washington that any annexations would enjoy sweeping Israeli support.

“It’s a matter of right plan, wrong time,” a senior Blue and White minister said. “We are in the middle of the biggest crisis Israel has seen in decades…and it would be irresponsible and insensitive to tend to anything else at the moment.”
Christians United for Israel opposes the Van Hollen amendment
The Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Action Fund on Monday announced it opposes Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D-Maryland) amendment to the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment would prohibit Israel from using US security assistance funds for the annexation of parts of the West Bank.

“Senator Van Hollen’s proposed amendment would endanger Israelis and Palestinians who both rely on Israel having the necessary operational freedom to protect against terrorist activities in the West Bank,” CUFI Action Fund chairwoman Sandra Parker said in a statement.

By limiting systems such as the Iron Dome from being deployed in Judea and Samaria, this legislative language “would only ensure that any future military conflict in the area would result in a much bloodier confrontation,” she said.

“Despite focusing this amendment on the discussion over the extension of Israeli sovereignty to Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria,
Senator Van Hollen and several of the amendment’s backers seem to consistently find a reason to undermine key elements of American support for the Jewish state,” she added.

“This amendment should never see the President’s desk, but it is very unfortunate that a small but vocal minority in Congress feel the need to seemingly seek out opportunities to attack our strongest ally in the world,” Parker said.

Last week, Van Hollen filed the amendment, which was joined by senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), among others.
EU ministers said seeking list of deterrents to warn Israel off annexation
Eleven European foreign ministers have reportedly asked the European Union to provide them with a list of possible actions that can be taken if Israel’s government moves ahead with plans to annex parts of the West Bank, in a bid to add heft to threats of “consequences” that members of the bloc have already brandished in front of Jerusalem.

According to the Guardian, the ministers wrote to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and asked about possible “legal consequences” if Israel unilaterally annexes some 30 percent of the West Bank, as well as any possible ramifications to agreements between Jerusalem and the 28-member bloc.

The letter, seen by the newspaper, was signed by the foreign ministers of Belgium, Ireland, Italy, France, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Finland.

“The possible annexation by Israel of parts of the occupied Palestinian territory remains a matter of grave concern for the EU and its member states,” the letter read, positing that warning of actions could “contribute to our efforts to deter annexation.”

The ministers referenced a meeting with Borrell on May 15, saying they were repeating a request made then to draw up an “options paper” of possible responses to annexation.

“We understand that this is a sensitive issue and timing is important, but time is also short. We are concerned that the window to deter annexation is fast closing,” the letter said.



Edelstein says Israel could face total corona lockdown within four days
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that the country could have to take steps toward a closure within the next three or four days if the coronavirus does not stop spreading.

"If we can take steps before the closure, we will not get there, if we sit idly by in the coming days, reality will bring us to a closure," he said following a tour at Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem. "I think we have three or four days left to see if there is any result to those minimal steps - much less than we wanted. If a medical miracle happens to us and we see a change in trend, then maybe we won't get" to a closure either.

"I say this in a simple way: From my first day in office I said and did everything not to allow us to get to a general closure," he continued. "Whenever there is any restriction, a broad public protest against that restriction begins. We must understand once and for all: if no additional tools are available to us, we will eventually have a total lockdown."
Coronavirus hotels to stay open through the end of 2021 - Gantz
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel’s state-run “coronavirus hotels” are likely to remain open and active through the end of 2021.

Speaking Tuesday on a calls with the commanders of the hotels, members of the Home Front Command and Defense Ministry representatives, he said that, “the working assumption should be that the [hotels] will need to be active until the end of 2021 - that is to say, the entire work year next year will also center on this crisis.”

He added that, “In this campaign you are at the forefront and this is a campaign that requires ‘exponential creativity.’ This is a life-saving service that also allows us to continue to run the economy.”
Most of those detained at anti-Netanyahu rally freed, as row grows over violence
The majority of the protesters detained at a demonstration outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence were freed by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Two individuals were released outright, three more were released on condition they stay away from the premier’s residence for two weeks, and a further three were placed under house arrest until Sunday. Most of the 50 people that police said they had arrested were freed overnight after the protest.

Several thousand people gathered Tuesday evening in Jerusalem, calling on Netanyahu to quit over his indictment on corruption charges. Some of the demonstrators attempted to break through security barriers at the scene and clashed with police. As the protest ended, hundreds moved downtown, where they blocked the light rail system.

Police then turned water cannons on the demonstrators and mounted officers charged up and down the light rail tracks on Jaffa Street, sending protesters scattering to the sides before regrouping. Some protesters pushed garbage dumpsters and chain-link fences into the streets as makeshift barricades, and several dumpsters were set on fire.

Police said one officer was lightly wounded.
Orthodox rapper Nissim Black hospitalized with coronavirus
Orthodox rapper Nissim Black confirmed Tuesday night that he has been hospitalized with the coronavirus, but denied reports that he was in critical condition.

"Thanks for all the tefillos [prayers -ed.] everybody. I am currently getting oxygen and meds in the Hospital and I AM NOT in critical condition. Still need tefillos for a speedy recovery. Thank you all," Black wrote on Twitter in response to reports about his condition.

Nissim Black made his first impression nationally in 2008 as D.Black, on producer Jake One’s label, White Van Music, with the song “God Like.”

As D.Black he teetered on the verge of becoming a household name in the underground music scene, but he knew something was missing, and the man who would become Nissim eventually found himself in the midst of a spiritual crisis after a friend of his was killed in a shootout in 2008.

After a two-year hiatus and converting to Orthodox Judaism, Nissim dropped his former moniker and adopted a new name. He began a new journey - in his own words “to make music that inspires and elevates this world to the world of spirituality and Divine purpose.”

Black, along with his family, made aliyah to Jerusalem in 2016.
Over 12,000 mistakenly quarantined by phone tracking, Health Ministry admits
Thousands of Israelis were mistakenly forced into quarantine by a contact tracing program that gives the Shin Bet security agency access to the phones of confirmed coronavirus carriers, a Knesset committee heard Tuesday.

In the first week of the renewal of the Shin Bet tracing system last month, tens of thousands of people in Israel received text messages warning them that they had been in contact with a confirmed carrier of the coronavirus.

Under Israeli law, those in contact with a confirmed carrier must quarantine for two weeks or face hefty fines or even jail time.

Tens of thousands of Israelis attempted to appeal after the phone tracking system identified them as needing to quarantine and about half the appeals were upheld, Ayelet Grinbaum, who was representing the Health Ministry at the hearing, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“We approved 54% of them to leave solitary confinement, close to 12,000 people,” Grinbaum said.

She said almost all calls to a Health Ministry hotline were by people seeking to appeal the quarantine order.
Hebrew U. scientist: Drug could eradicate COVID-19 from lungs in days
Researchers at Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center believe they could potentially downgrade COVID-19’s severity into nothing worse than a common cold.

New research by Hebrew University Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias and Sinai’s Dr. Benjamin tenOever revealed that the FDA-approved drug Fenofibrate (Tricor) could reduce SARS-CoV-2’s ability to reproduce or even make it disappear.

“Viruses are parasites,” Nahmias explained to The Jerusalem Post. “They cannot replicate themselves. They cannot make new viruses. They have to get inside a human cell and then hijack that cell.”

As such, Nahmias and tenOever spent the last three months studying what SARS-CoC-2 is doing to human lung cells. What they found is that the novel coronavirus prevents the routine burning of carbohydrates, which results in large amounts of fat accumulating inside lung cells – a condition the virus needs to reproduce.
Arab educator flooded with offers after report on racism she faced in job hunt
A woman who featured in a Monday news report on the racism faced by some Arab women trying to gain work as teachers and daycare workers has been inundated with work offers.

Ranin Lala, 29, from Jaffa had applied for multiple jobs in kindergartens in the center of the country, but was rejected or told to send a resume with a photo attached.

“They always want a photo when they hear I have an Arab name,” Lala said.

However, after the broadcast of Lala’s story, work offers came in from around the country and from the Education Ministry, Channel 13 news reported.

“Ranin, you have moved me,” said Ruti Davidovich from the Gan Ruti kindergarten in Petah Tikva. “I would be happy for you to contact me and come to work.”

Itai Bershadsky of the Pashut Gan in the central town of Ramat Hasharon sent Lala a video in which he decried what had happened to her and asked her to come meet with him.
Palestinian Authority refuses to pick up corona aid waiting in Israel
The second wave of coronavirus is here, and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is concerned about the PA's serious lack of vital medical equipment and corona testing kits – one of the reasons for which is a decision by the PA leadership not to collect a shipment of medical supplies and testing kits sent by the UAE that has been waiting at Ben-Gurion Airport for two months.

The PA has stopped coordinating with Israel and refuses to cooperate with "signs of normalization" with Israel that Arab countries have been showing.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon has announced that due to the continued spread of coronavirus in Judea and Samaria, Israel has decided to keep Palestinian workers employed in Israel from crossing back and forth. The workers will be allowed to return home to celebrate Eid al-Adha, which begins on July 30, with their families. However, workers who do travel to the PA for the holiday will not be permitted to return to Israel.

COGAT has also decided that as Eid al-Adha approaches, it will assess the matter of Palestinian workers being allowed into Israel and will issue updates as necessary.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced 293 new cases among Palestinians in a 24-hour period. Tuesday saw another four Palestinian deaths from the virus and 59 Palestinian coronavirus patients recovered. Another 18 were in intensive care.

As of Tuesday, the number of active or symptomatic cases in the PA stood at 6,372, while 1,317 patients have recovered. The death toll from coronavirus among the Palestinians stood at 45 as of Tuesday.
Gunmen attack Christians near Ramallah after dispute involving PA official
Residents of a predominately Christian village in the West Bank have appealed to the Palestinian Authority to provide protection for them after they were attacked by a group of Palestinian gunmen.

The residents of Jifna, north of Ramallah, said the attack came following a dispute between a woman from the village and the son of a prominent Palestinian figure affiliated with the PA’s ruling Fatah faction.

The dispute erupted after the woman filed a complaint with the PA police in which she accused the son of the Palestinian personality of assaulting her and her children while she was driving her car in the village.

After the police summoned the man for questioning, his father and scores of gunmen arrived at the village and began hurling insults at the Christian residents. Some of the gunmen, villagers said, also fired into the air and demanded that the Christians pay the Jizyah – a per capital annual tax – called the dhimmi - levied on non-Muslim subjects living under Islamic rule.

According to some eyewitnesses, the gunmen who ran amok in Jifna were Fatah activists from the Al-Am'ari refugee camp.

Villagers said that although they called the police, the PA security forces arrived at the scene three hours later.

“The village witnessed scenes of anarchy and lawlessness,” residents of Jifna said in a statement. “Women and children were terrorized by the shooting, and houses were targeted with Molotov cocktails and rocks. The attackers were part of an unruly mob lacking any sense of patriotism. They were led by an influential personality from the Ramallah district.”
CENTCOM chief: A war with Israel would not end well for Hezbollah
CENTCOM head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said it would be a great mistake for Hezbollah to try to carry out operations against Israel. “I can’t see that having a good ending,” he said at a briefing during a major trip to the Middle East this week. McKenzie has visited Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait. The US general also acknowledged continuing tensions in Syria and with Iran across the region.

This is McKenzie’s first trip to the region since February. He visited Israel in November last year during the rising tensions between the US and Iran. Since February, US forces in Iraq have faced repeated rocket attacks by Iranian-backed groups, and the US retaliated with airstrikes in March. McKenzie has helped bring air defense to protect those troops in Iraq and has called the situation with Iran “contested deterrence,” meaning that the Islamic Republic is deterred from further major attacks, but harassment by Iranian-backed groups continues.

“I’ve had the opportunity also to visit US troops in eastern and southern Syria," he said. "This trip also gave me my first opportunity to meet the new prime minister of Iraq. It was very important for me to get back into the region because some things just can’t be seen on a video teleconference, and I think face-to-face engagement is very critical."


Iran’s Quds Force Commander: ‘Tough Times Await US, Zionist Regime’
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, said on Tuesday that “tough times” await Israel and the United States.

Ghaani’s remarks broke the Iranian regime’s silence regarding a series of explosions that have recently occurred at Iranian industrial facilities.

“Tough times lie ahead for the United States and the Zionist regime. Major events are about to strike you,” said Ghaani, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.

The Quds Force commander hinted that a fire that broke out Sunday on the amphibious assault vessel USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego was Iranian retaliation for the recent blasts.

“The Americans should not look for who is responsible for what is happening to them. The fire they see now is a fire they themselves set. It is a response to the crimes your people have committed,” said Ghaani.

The Navy on Tuesday reported significant progress combating the blaze.
Seven ships catch fire at port near Iranian nuclear reactor
At least seven ships have caught fire at the Iranian port of Bushehr, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of unexplained incidents around nuclear and industrial installations since late June.

No casualties have been reported, the agency said.

According to the Iranian Mehr agency on Wednesday, the fire started near the northern installations of the city's port. Pictures from the incident showed a big pillar of smoke billowing from the area.

The agency said that "many firefighting crews are in the area to stop the blaze from spreading." Social media users expressed concern that the residents of Bushehr may be threatened if the fire expands further.

The city houses Iran's nuclear reactor, which has been ostensibly for peaceful purposes only.

There have been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June, including in Natanz, where its main uranium enrichment center was badly damaged in what the New York Times described as a deliberate effort by the US and Israel.
MEMRI: Tehran University Professor: There Is a Schism between the State and the People
On May 30, 2020, an interview with Sadegh Zibakalam, a political science professor at Tehran University, was uploaded to the Iranian website etemadonline.com – a reformist site, founded by Mehdi Karoubi, one of the leaders of the Green Movement who has been under house arrest since 2009. Professor Zibakalam said that the Iranian government had seriously exceeded its budget even before the coronavirus crisis, and that in light of the economic and oil sanctions against Iran, the government has no way to pay for its expenses. He criticized the government’s emphasis on military capabilities and said that there is a dangerous schism between the state and the Iranian people because the state ignores their beliefs and convictions. “In the long run, no regime can survive” such schism, he added. Professor Zibakalam also said that he had never imagined that the regime would fire live ammunition at demonstrators, who took to the streets in Iran during the fall of 2019. The interviewer – editor-in-chief of etemadonline.com Mojtaba Hosseini – said he wished Iran could be more like Northern European countries, which have minimal involvement in global conflicts and provide social services and welfare to their people. Zibakalam answered that it took Western Europe 500 years to reach its current state, and that in Iran it should take less. He added that the protests of 2009 and 2019 are not enough to facilitate reforms and change in Iran. He said that the Iranian Guardian Council and the IRGC need to be held accountable and that the need for reform must be “inserted by force” into the minds of the regime. Zibakalam referred to Iranian involvement in the Syrian conflict and said that the seven million Syrian refugees should be the judges of the actions of the Iranian regime. Furthermore, he said: “Show me one case in the past 41 years – just one – in which our anti-American attitude has achieved anything for us.” Extensive parts of the interview were censored – apparently self-censorship by etemadonline.com to avoid repercussion. Out of the 2:20 hours interview, about half an hour was muted and the title "These moments of the conversation could not be aired" appeared on the screen. “


Five Years On, Iran Nuclear Deal Hangs by a Thread


MEMRI: Texas-Based Shi'ite Scholar Shamshad Haider: Imam Khomeini Is Not Just Any World Leader Like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin; Islam Should Dominate The World And Bring Justice To Humanity
Shi'ite Islamic scholar Molana Shamshad Haider of the Islamic Education Center in Houston, TX was featured in a two-hour-long tribute to the leader of Iran's Revolution Imam Khomeini in honor of the 31st anniversary of his death, the tribute was streamed live on the AIM Islam YouTube channel on June 6, 2020. He said that Imam Khomeini had been an international leader for all the Muslims of the world, and that this enabled him to inspire Muslims to support the people of Palestine, Kashmir, Yemen, and elsewhere. Haider elaborated that his role was greater in scope than leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, and Stalin, and he added that Islam should dominate the world and bring justice to humanity. The AhlulBayt Islamic Mission (AIM) is a Shi'ite Islamic organization, which is based in the UK and is endorsed by representatives of Ayatollah Khamenei in the UK and the Red Crescent.

"Khomeini Is... A Global Leader For All The Muslims Of The World"

Shamshad Haider: "If we use the word 'imam,' we will be reinforcing that idea that yes, for example, Khomeini is an international leader and a global leader for all the Muslims of the world.
[...]
"If we call [Khomeini] a 'leader,' then he stands with the rest of the leaders, like Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, Stalin, and other leaders of the world. [That would] bring him down and compare him - limit his role - and compare him with the rest of the leaders.
[...]
"[Islam] Should Dominate In A Real Sense And Bring Justice To Humanity"

"If one part of the [Islamic] nation is under attack, it becomes the duty of the rest of the Muslims to come to their help and support. But if Ayatollah Khomeini is a leader [only] of Iran, then the people of Iran wouldn't feel obligated to go out and support the people of Palestine, Kashmir, Yemen, or elsewhere.
Iran Says It Has Executed Iranian Agent Linked to CIA
Iran has executed a former Defense Ministry worker who sold information to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Iranian judiciary said on Tuesday.

Reza Asgari had linked up with the CIA during his last years serving at the Defense Ministry and sold the agency information about Iran’s missile program, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said, quoted by its Mizan website.

He retired from the ministry four years ago. Esmaili said Asgari was executed last week.

Separately, Esmaili said a death sentence for Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, an Iranian accused of spying for US and Israeli intelligence, is among those still to be carried out.

Last year, Iran announced it had captured 17 spies it said were working for the CIA.


We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
at