Friday, December 11, 2020

12/11 Links Pt1: A rich Jewish past, and present: Why Israel’s deal with Morocco is so resonant; Abbas’ Fatah threatens Arabs selling land to Jews in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Raphael Ahren: A rich Jewish past, and present: Why Israel’s deal with Morocco is so resonant
Thursday’s surprise announcement about Morocco agreeing to establish diplomatic relations with Israel was not a Hannukah miracle, as many Israeli politicians gushed when they lit their holiday candles, though the timing was indeed brightly appropriate. Rather, it had been a long time coming, as the North African kingdom has deep cultural and religious ties with the Jewish state, and had long been expected to join the current wave of Arab countries normalizing ties with Israel.

As opposed to Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago, and in contrast to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, three Arab nations that normalized relations with Israel this year, Morocco and Israel have a profound and ancient Jewish connection, and the Moroccan Jewish community, though small, still thrives today.

Moroccan Jewry’s origins date back 2,000 years, to the destruction of the Second Temple and exile. In the modern era, the community reached a high of some 250,000 in the early 1940s, when Sultan Mohammed V resisted Nazi pressure for their deportation. Numbers dwindled with the establishment of Israel, and today only some 2,000-3,000 Jews remain, but hundreds of thousands of Israelis are proud of their Moroccan origins. US President Donald Trump’s senior envoy Jared Kushner on Thursday put that number at “over a million.”

The mimouna party, which the community traditionally celebrates right after Passover ends, has become a fixture on the Israeli cultural calendar, with countless people barbequing in parks and politicians rushing to as many mimouna celebrations as possible, eating mufletot and other Jewish-Moroccan delicacies.

While Israeli tourists have begun discovering the Gulf only very recently, they have been flocking to Rabat, Marrakech, Casablanca, Tangiers and Fez via third countries for many years. Once the two countries establish diplomatic relations and open direct air-links, that number can be expected to increase dramatically.

Following the 1995 Oslo Accords, Morocco and Israel opened mutual “liaison offices,” but they were closed a few years later after the Palestinian Second Intifada broke out in 2000.

Both Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the long and deep ties binding Morocco and Israel in their statements on the historic agreement.
Seth Frantzman: Are Morocco-Israel relations a surprise, or natural next step? - analysis
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump is gambling here because President-elect Joe Biden is supposed to take office in a bit over a month. It’s one thing for the US to push peace, because peace is always good, but recognizing Western Sahara will likely anger Team Biden, which is for preserving some of these international multilateral status quo issues.

The general feeling in the UAE and other states in the region, which have been watching peace deals closely, was that when Trump lost the election, many states would wait on peace. The theory was that had Trump won, then Oman, Qatar, Morocco and other states could follow suit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised eyebrows when he went to Saudi Arabia in November and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke via video at the Manama Dialogue Conference this year.

However, comments by Saudi Arabia’s Turki al-Faisal, a key figure in the kingdom, were critical of Israel at the Manama conference. Was that due to daylight with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or due to a perceived slight by Ashkenazi? The crown prince of Saudi Arabia has appeared keen on warmer relations with Israel for years but has wanted something in return – and is cognizant of Riyadh’s role in the region, the Saudi initiative, the Iranian threat, the changes in the US and also the position of his father, King Salman. These are complex webs of relations and realities that mean one change can lead to a domino effect that leads to peace with countries like Morocco.

These deals can be tenuous. Israel is supposed to send an agriculture delegation to Sudan, but it wonders if Israel and the US are serious. Abu Dhabi also wants Israel to take the Palestinian issue seriously. Morocco will still want more from Israel on the Palestinian issue and its civil society will pressure the government on this issue.

Nevertheless many things are happening in the region. US B-52s have flown to the region as part of a show of force to Iran. Tehran is building tunnels at its Natanz nuclear facility to hide centrifuges. The US is withdrawing from Somalia and the Senate has not blocked the F-35 sale to the UAE.

It’s almost natural that breaking news from Morocco could mean one more deal before the US administration changes.
Moroccan Jews laud peace deal as 'Hanukkah miracle'
President Donald Trump's announcement that Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalize relations may have astounded the world, but the news comes as no surprise to the Jewish community in the north-African country.

"There was a lot of talk about this subject last year," says Kobi Yifrach, an Israeli who has lived in Morocco for the past five years and runs a local museum in Marrakesh.

"There used to be an Israeli Embassy here between 1995 and 2000, and even after that, the relationship between Israel and Morocco remained friendly. Time has finally come to build the relationship [between the two countries]. Until now, it was behind the scenes, and now it's time to bring it to the forefront, with pride and love.

"My Muslims friends have been calling me for hours to congratulate the Jewish community on the announcement," says Jacky Kadosh, leader of the Moroccan Jewish community. "We heard the news immediately after lighting the first Hanukkah candle. It's a Hanukkah miracle."

Ilan Hatuel, an Israeli businessman in Morocco who is close to André Azoulay, senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, added that the news was accepted in Morocco with "great excitement."

"The royalty has preserved Jewish history in Morocco for over 500 years. We have worked very hard to reach this moment. From now on, there will be direct flights from Marrakesh to Casablanca and Rabat. The Jewish community is in the seventh heaven, and the Moroccans are very excited too," Hatuel said.

Orin Avraham, a local yeshiva student, also spoke of the joyful celebrations that followed the announcement. "The decision will lead to the strengthening of the Jewish community in Morocco." He added that there is no anti-Semitism in the country, saying that "everyone [in Morocco] says 'hello' to the Jews and loves them.


Biden hopes to deprioritize Israel-Palestinian conflict but might not be able to
Unlike his predecessors, US President-elect Joe Biden is not entering office with plans to launch a major Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative.

There’s no talk of reaching the “ultimate deal,” as Donald Trump described it in 2016, and there’s no intention to appoint a special envoy for the Middle East on his first day in office as Barack Obama did in 2009. No marathon peace negotiations like the ones led by Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry in 2013 and 2014 and no Vision for Peace like the one unveiled by Trump and his son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner in 2019 and 2020.

“This isn’t 2009, it’s not 2014 and it’s not 2017. The parties are far from a place where they’re ready to engage on negotiations or final status talks,” Biden’s nominee for secretary of state Tony Blinken told The Times of Israel days before the presidential election.

Blinken clarified that the incoming administration wouldn’t forgo the issue altogether, “because ignoring Israel-Palestine won’t make it go away.”

But when shielded by assurances of anonymity, some Biden aides have been more willing to admit that Israel, and even the Middle East more broadly, is not going to receive the amount of attention that it has enjoyed during the tenures of recent presidents.


The danger behind Russia's apparent misunderstanding of Israel, Iran
His words raise questions about whether they are his own sentiments, or if they reflect the thinking in the Kremlin. And if they do reflect sentiments in Moscow, that is a source of much greater concern.

The Kremlin, it is important to keep in mind, is not monolithic. Just as in the US the White House has traditionally been more sympathetic to Israel and its concerns than the State Department, so too in the Kremlin, Putin is considered as more friendly toward Israel and understanding of its issues than elements within his defense and foreign ministries.

Much has understandably been said and written in Israel since the US presidential election last month and what a Joe Biden presidency will mean for Israel. Would the president-elect reverse Trump’s policy on Israel and the Middle East? Will he rush headlong back into the Iranian nuclear deal?

The Russian ambassador’s remarks make one wonder, however, whether the focus of concern over a possible change of policy should be Moscow, not Washington.

Russia, through its engagement in Syria – where it is essentially camped out on Israel’s front porch – is now very much an active player in the Mideast. As such, coordination and understanding between Moscow and Jerusalem is critical in ensuring that Russia does not intercept Israeli planes or missiles reportedly hitting Iranian assets in Syria from time to time, and that there is no accidental clash between Israeli and Russian pilots in the skies above Damascus.

Netanyahu has rightly highlighted his relationship with Putin as one of his major foreign policy achievements, and the public has been led to believe that even if Israel and Russia do not see eye-to-eye on everything, there is a basic understanding in Russia of Israel’s concerns and what it is up against.

The ambassador’s words, however, seem to belie that sentiment. To put those concerns to rest, Viktorov, beyond saying that his words were taken out of context, should clarify that Moscow does not see Israel as the aggressor in the Mideast and the root cause of all the region’s problems – bad misconceptions that are a reflection of stale thinking we hoped were a relic of a different era in ties between Moscow and Jerusalem.
UN Targets Israel in Seven Different Resolutions
The UN General Assembly targeted Israel on Thursday with seven different resolutions.

The language condemns Israel for “repressive measures” against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights and renews the mandates of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as well as the United Nation’s “special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.”

The seven resolutions were previously adopted on Nov. 4 by the UN General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee, known as the Fourth Committee.

The first resolution, adopted with 169 votes in favor, two against and seven abstentions, was about “expressing grave concern at the especially difficult situation of the Palestine refugees under occupation, including with regard to their safety, well-being and socioeconomic living conditions … .”

The second, adopted with 162 votes in favor, four against and nine abstentions, was about “calling upon Israel to ensure the expedited and unimpeded import of all necessary construction materials into the Gaza Strip and to reduce the burdensome cost of importation of Agency supplies … .”

The third, adopted with 160 votes in favor, five against and 12 abstentions, “reaffirms that the Palestine refugees are entitled to their property and to the income derived therefrom, in conformity with the principles of equity and justice … .”
UN support drops for speaking of Temple Mount as solely a Muslim site
Support has dropped slightly at the United Nations for a General Assembly resolution that referenced the most holy site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, as solely the Muslim site al-Haram al-Sharif.

Liberia changed its vote from absent, to “no,” when the UNGA voted on the annual resolution in New York late Thursday afternoon.

This placed Liberia in a small group of ten countries, including Israel that opposed the text, which condemned Israeli practices against the Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The other eight countries who opposed the measure, which passed 147-10, were: Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and the United States.
In 2019 the resolution was approved by 157-9. This year there were 16 abstentions, compared to 13 last year, with Austria and the Czech Republic, Uruguay and Slovakia, changing their votes in Israel’s favor from “yes” in support of the Palestinians, to “abstain.” The other 14 countries that abstained were: Belarus, Cameron, Columbia, Haiti, Honduras, Kiribati, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Togo, Uruguay and Vanuatu.
Defense Bill Targets Wallets of Rogue States, Terrorists
Congress is weighing new disclosure laws to close a financial loophole that has been exploited by the United States' enemies to fund terrorist and trafficking operations.

The National Defense Authorization Act before the Senate includes a measure that would require shell companies to identify owners and store their names in a private database. Previously, rogue states and terrorists used lax disclosure requirements to circumvent U.S. sanctions, allowing Chinese, Russian, and terror-related entities to conduct transactions within the United States and with American dollars.

The U.S. financial system is regularly ranked among the largest tax havens in the world, allowing terrorists and regimes to bankroll extensive operations at the expense of American consumers. Adversaries such as Iran, China, Russia, Hezbollah, and trafficking organizations regularly use this to their advantage to move billions of dollars in U.S. markets. Scott Greytak, advocacy director of the nonprofit Transparency International, said that new registration laws would strike a direct blow against illicit finance.

"A lot of that money that is connected to and funding authoritarian regimes is parked in the United States," Greytak told the Washington Free Beacon. "This is something that hits every part of the economy, every part of American life."

As early as 2011, federal authorities discovered that Hezbollah employed used-car sales as a front to launder money for drug trafficking operations and terror financing. Chinese drug traffickers pumped the lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States through shell companies, leading to millions of dollars in profit and the deaths of scores of Americans by drug overdose.
Trump and Netanyahu have made history in the Middle East
One by one, Israel is normalizing ties with Arab states at the same time as the vaccines set to help eradicate a pandemic that has ravaged our country and the world are set to arrive.

One person has successfully led both processes of peace and processes of war, efforts to contain the epidemic, and deflect attacks from the wolves and jackals who sought to undermine political stability in the country. That person is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As the number of Arab states forging official ties with Israel grows, so too does the pressure on Iran and the Palestinians. In the US, President Donald Trump's detractors seek to depict him as someone who mangled things for Washington in every international arena, but the very opposite is true. For 40 years, the US did not have one foreign policy achievement in the Middle East to speak of. Ever since Israel signed an accord with Egypt, we have seen nothing but failed and bloody moves on Washington's part.

Trump's predecessor former US President Barack Obama contributed to the chaos that continues to reign supreme in the region. He is responsible to a great extent for the Middle East's collapse and in particular the ongoing slaughter in Syria. US President-elect Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state Antony Blinken said himself that anyone who had a hand or foot in Syria needs to look in the mirror and admit they failed. Those words are directed first and foremost at Obama.
Kushner: Saudi normalization ‘inevitable’; TV: Another deal may come within days
Israeli-Saudi normalization is an “inevitability,” senior White House adviser Jared Kushner declared Thursday against the backdrop of Morocco’s decision to forge full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state at the Trump administration’s behest.

“Israel and Saudi Arabia coming together and having full normalization at this point is an inevitability, but the timeframe… is something that has to be worked out,” Kushner told reporters in a briefing following Trump’s announcement of the fourth Arab-Israel agreement in four months.

Kushner added that an Israeli-Saudi agreement would require “strong US leadership in the region.”

“If you look at where we’ve come in last six months, the region has essentially gone from a solid to a liquid and it feels like there’s a lot more fluidity,” he said.

Also following the Moroccan announcement, a senior Israeli official told Kan news that an additional unnamed country could announce a normalization deal with Israel within days.

Meanwhile, an Israeli diplomatic source told Channel 12 that Jerusalem is in normalization talks with Muslim states in both Africa and Asia.

Neither report could be independently verified.
Could peace deal with Morocco herald impending accord with Saudi Arabia?
Morocco and the sovereignty it wishes to apply in Western Sahara are reminiscent of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And herein lay Morocco's tremendous diplomatic victory, because the international community doesn't recognize its sovereignty in Western Sahara – similar to the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Rabat, however, was swayed by more than Washington's important and dramatic recognition of Morocco's sovereignty rights in Western Sahara. Morocco, whose economy is largely based on tourism, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, but it will now receive generous economic aid from the US. King Mohammed VI was prudent enough to realize that president-elect Joe Biden's administration wouldn't offer anything close and that now was the time to take the leap and join the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan before the door slams shut.

The peace deals are received with mixed emotions

Full diplomatic relations with Israel should provide Morocco a broad range of Israeli know-how in the fields of technology, agriculture and drinking water – where Morocco is desperate for help – and this is even before mentioning the security and intelligence cooperation the countries' security services have secretly maintained for decades already (ever since the immigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel in the 1950s and the sinking of the Egoz immigrant ship). This cooperation is now expected to expand and flourish in light of the mutual security challenges both countries face.

Just as the Abraham Accords and the normalization treaty with Sudan were received with mixed feelings by their respective Arab publics, in Morocco, too, there are many who support peace with Israel but also more than a few who oppose it.

André Azoulay, a senior adviser to the Moroccan king, prominent member of the country's Jewish community, and a key architect of the peace agreement told Israel Hayom: "This is a dramatic and important initiative, the ramifications of which will lead other Arab and Muslim countries to normalize relations with Israel."
Dubai, UAE’s pathbreaking city of the future, is on display for Israelis
The city seems so natural as a destination for Israelis and Jews that it seems plausible Israelis will be part of the fabric of the UAE, and Dubai especially. From taxi cabs to the malls I heard Hebrew and saw men in kippot in a way that felt safe and welcoming more than most European countries are to Jewish men who wear a kippah or Star of David. The past exclusion has given way to a rapid embrace.

In retrospect this seems obvious. Not only should Israelis be welcomed in every country in the world, and should Jews be safe everywhere, but normalization is the basic aspect of engagement between countries; even hostile countries have relations. The Abraham Accords came about as a result of unique circumstances and pathbreaking vision by the UAE and Bahrain, as well as a push from the Trump administration.

Israel has always been open for these relations, and average Israelis want to play a greater role in the region and contribute to the success of places like the Gulf. Now it can happen. Credit is due to many people.

In the end, those who gain the most are average people and local businesses, from taxi drivers waiting in the queue at Dubai Mall, to the Sal restaurant at the Burj al-Arab, and the Shisha lounge at Ninive at the Emirates Towers; from hi-tech entrepreneurs to properties like Sobha Hartland, where Israelis can now consider a second home that offers them a unique, welcoming, safe place to enjoy all the Gulf has to offer. When you go to Dubai, you’ll find a new world awaiting. Go with respect and to listen and enjoy.
Pakistani Christians call on their gov't to recognize Israel
Will the next normalization agreement be with a non-Arab Muslim country?

In September, British-Pakistani analyst Noor Dahri analyst told Israel Hayom that "Pakistan has never considered the Jewish state as its enemy but may establish conditional relations with it in the future, after the Arab agreements." Shortly after, one of the few remaining Jews in Pakistan, Fishel Khalid, from Karachi, told Israel Hayom in a rare interview: "I'm a Pakistani Zionist."

And on Thursday, a small group of Karachi residents held a rare demonstration calling on the Pakistani government to recognize Israel.

At the demonstration, which coincided with International Human Rights Day, the small group of Christian Pakistanis also asked their government to allow them to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, "as other Muslim countries have already done."

They expressed their anger that as citizens of Pakistan they are prohibited from visiting Israel.

"Ever since the establishment of Pakistan, no one has addressed the longstanding aspirations of the local Christians to pilgrimage to the great city [Jerusalem]," God's Peoples Fellowship of Pakistan, a Karachi-based Christian organization that seeks diplomatic ties with Israel, said in a statement. According to the group, "If [the Pakistani government] abolished the ban on YouTube, there's no reason not to abolish the prohibition on visiting Israel."
UAE sheikh buying half of Beitar Jerusalem signals bad news for bigots
Realizing La Familia’s racism was a strategic problem for his asset, Hogeg first confronted it by buying Nigerian midfielder Ali Mohamed, son of a Christian mother and Muslim father.

Now the riffraff will have to undergo a brain transplant. “It’s as if my son would tell me he wants to marry a Muslim,” said one of them on Radio 103, as if reading from one of Kahane’s dusted Knesset bills.

Just how things will now develop between such fans and the club they adore remains to be seen. Hopefully, they will revise their views and rewrite their slogans.

For its part, this column today happily revises what it wrote in the past, not about racism, but about soccer (“Reform soccer,” July 14, 2006). Back then, following a particularly dull World Cup, this writer argued that globalization deprived soccer of the national harmony and patriotic drive that fueled great teams like Italy of 1982, Brazil of 1970, England of 1966 or Hungary of 1954, squads whose players played in their homelands, and therefore knew each other well and played in majestic synchrony.

Now, with money buying and selling players and clubs like stocks and bonds, and with local clubs morphing into foreign legions, national soccer lost its glue, and all of soccer lost its flavor, went my argument.

Well, Beitar Jerusalem’s purchase by an Arab shows this trends’ other side – the dilution of nationalist vanity; the reminder that sports should be about sportsmanship and nationalism should be about harmony, not only between brethren, but also between nations.

Having inked the deal, Sheikh bin Khalifa said: “I am thrilled to be a partner in such a glorious club... in such a great city, the capital of Israel and one of the holiest cities in the world.” We too are thrilled, Sheikh, welcome in our midst.
UAE Public Shifts Toward Peace With Israel—and with Qatar
When the United Arab Emirates signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in September, there was much speculation about the popularity of the deal among Emirati citizens themselves. Now, a poll commissioned by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy documents the population’s split view of the Abraham Accords—but with support growing, just since June of this year, for sport and business ties with Israelis.

Also in the news are reports of an imminent thaw in Saudi Arabia’s intense feud with Qatar. And while there are no signs that the Emirati government is willing to follow suit, its public is supportive of such a move. The majority of Emiratis now support compromise to end the Emirati rift with Qatar, as is also the case for citizens of all involved parties polled. 59% of Emiratis agree that the way forward is for “both sides to compromise in order to reach an agreement,” with little change since the question was last asked in June 2020. But these sentiments have moderated somewhat since the boycott began in 2017, when 46% agreed that “the GCC and Arab countries should boycott Qatar until it accepts their demands.”

Public Split on Peace, Warming Fast Towards Business Ties with Israelis

When asked to give their opinion on the Abraham Accords, Emirati attitudes were evenly divided: 47% said the accords were positive while 49% saw them in a negative light. Of the seven countries polled, Emiratis and Bahrainis were unsurprisingly the most positive about their countries’ normalization agreement. Emiratis were slightly more likely to be “strongly” in favor of the accords than their Bahraini counterparts, at 19% versus 15%.


Confirming Israel ties, Morocco’s king also calls PA’s Abbas to stress support
Morocco’s ruling monarch King Mohammad VI confirmed Thursday that the country intends to establish official relations with Israel for the first time in nearly twenty years, soon after US President Donald Trump announced the breakthrough.

At the same time, the king stressed his country’s unshakeable commitment to the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution. His office said he spoke by phone Thursday evening with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which has previously castigated the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan for announcing normalized relations with Israel in recent months, calling such moves acts of betrayal.

“[Morocco will] resume official bilateral contacts and diplomatic relations [with Israel] as soon as possible,” King Mohammad said in a statement.

The statement followed an announacement by outgoing US President Donald Trump that Israel and Morocco had agreed to “full diplomatic relations a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!”

In a separate but likely closely-tied statement, the US said it would recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a former Spanish North African territory that has been the focus of a long-running dispute that has confounded international negotiators for decades.

“His Highness thanked President Trump for the frank and absolute support for the Moroccan Sahara. It is a position that enhances the strong strategic partnership between the two countries and elevates it to a true alliance that includes all fields,” King Mohammad said.
PA silent as Hamas, Islamic Jihad condemn Morocco-Israel ties as ‘betrayal’
News of an American-backed agreement for Israel and Morocco to normalize ties quickly made headlines around the world on Thursday evening. But viewers of official Palestinian Authority television heard nothing about it on the hour-long nightly news broadcast, as officials in Ramallah stayed mum on the story.

By contrast, the PA’s main rivals, terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, lambasted Morocco’s decision to normalize ties with Israel in a deal brokered by outgoing US President Donald Trump.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad both branded Morocco’s decision to normalize ties with Israel — the fourth Arab state to do so in recent months — a “betrayal.”

“Normalization by Morocco with the ‘Israeli’ occupation is a betrayal of Jerusalem and of Palestine,” Islamic Jihad said. “We trust that the Morrocan people will utterly refuse this normalization.”

“Hamas condemns the Moroccan-Zionist declaration of normalization of relations between them, in an odious move that is not befitting of Morocco, and does not express the brotherly Moroccan people who have stood and are still with Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa in all circumstances and stations,” Hamas said.
Iranian official: Moroccan normalization with Israel ‘betrayal’ of Palestinians
An adviser to Iran’s parliamentary speaker said Friday that Morocco’s decision to normalize relations with Israel was a “betrayal and a stab in the back” of the Palestinians.

“Morroco announcing normalizing relations with the fake entity occupying Jerusalem is a betrayal and a stab in the back of Palestinian resistance,” tweeted Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an adviser on international affairs and a former deputy foreign minister.

Amir-Abdollahian added that “the Zionist will not have a future in the region.”

His comments marked a rare example of a country in the region opposing the agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump on Thursday. So far, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman have all praised the deal, while other governments — including the Palestinian Authority — have remained silent. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups in Gaza have vehemently opposed the announcement.

Among those that lauded the ties, Oman is the only one that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. In recent months, Muscat has been rumored as a potential candidate for doing so and even sent its ambassador to the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House in September. However, the country’s leadership — like that in Saudi Arabia — has insisted that its commitment to Palestinian statehood is sacrosanct.

Nonetheless, Oman’s foreign ministry issued a statement Thursday welcoming “US recognition of Western Sahara as part of Morocco and King Mohammed VI’s announcement about normalization with Israel.”

Muscat expressed hope that the latest agreement would “strengthen efforts toward a lasting and just peace in the Middle East.”


Israel to join International Energy Agency
Members of the International Energy Agency unanimously voted in favor of accepting Israel's request to join the organization, Thursday.

The process to have Israel join the independent agency began in December when Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz met with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol at the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid in December 2019. Later on, the Foreign Ministry and Israel's mission to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development enlisted in efforts to have Israel join the Paris-based group.

"In 2010, as finance minister, I brought the State of Israel in the most prestigious organization of developed nations – the OECD – and now, in 2020, I am proud to announce that Israel is taking another significant step on the path to becoming a fully-fledged member of the International Energy Agency. This reflects Israel's new status as a regional energy power, as a world leader in rapidly reducing and weaning ourselves off coal and fossil fuels in favor of natural gas and solar energy, to make it the world's second greatest producer of solar power. This [decision to accept Israel as a member of the IEA] is an expression of the world's faith in and recognition of the strength and innovation of the Israeli energy market."

Founded in 1974 to meet industrialized nations' energy needs following the 1973 oil crisis, the IEA is a leader in international energy discourse.


PMW: Abbas’ Fatah threatens Arabs selling land to Jews in Jerusalem
According to Palestinian Authority law, it is a criminal offence for Palestinians to sell land to Jews. The punishment for committing such an offence is life in prison with hard labor.

Fearing that even the draconian law is insufficient to prevent Palestinians who live in Jerusalem from selling their land to Jews, Fatah, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, released a clear threat saying that Israel will not be able to prevent Fatah from reaching and punishing these people:

“Fatah will come out with full force against anyone who has sold their conscience and allows themselves to abandon their values, their religion, and their faith and to pursue money and the illegal transfer of their property to the settler associations that are active in Jerusalem…
Regardless of which means of oppression are at its disposal, the occupation state [Israel] will not be able to prevent Fatah from reaching this handful [of people] who have prioritized money over the homeland.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 26, 2020]

The basis for the PA's prosecution of Palestinians for selling land to Jews is article 114 of the Jordanian Criminal Code (1960), which the PA has adopted. The original Jordanian provision stated that a person who attempts to sever any part of the Jordanian territory in order to annex it to a foreign state will be subject to at least five years of hard labor.

Palestinian Media Watch has reported that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in 2014 passed an amendment to the law - Government Decision with Legislative Effect (No. 20), 2014 - in which he raised the maximum sentence to life imprisonment with hard labor. Earlier this year, PMW exposed that PA had instructed its police force to “take the firmest steps” against anyone selling land to Jews.
MEMRI: Sheikh Of Al-Azhar Provides Support For Extremist Islamists In Europe: Muslims Must Give Their Souls In Defense Of The Prophet; Islam Commands Us To Love Muhammad And Jihad More Than Our Own Families
Reactions in the Muslim world to the recent publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo were very harsh, and included pointed criticism of France and its president Emmanuel Macron. The cartoons were denounced as an insult to the Prophet's honor and to the sentiments of Muslims that is not legitimate, including as part of France's commitment to the values of secularism, liberalism and freedom of speech.

Not even the beheading of the French teacher Samuel Paty by a Muslim refugee, after Paty showed the cartoons to his pupils as part of a discussion on freedom of speech quelled the Muslim outrage. The denunciation of the murder was accompanied by criticism of Paty for showing the cartoons to his pupils, and of French authorities for expressing support for the magazine's freedom of speech.

At first, the protests appeared to be led by the Islamist currents, whose influence in France Macron is trying to curb in his struggle against "Islamic separatism." Especially prominent were statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a patron of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who said that Muslims in Europe are facing "a lynch campaign similar to that against Jews in Europe before World War II," and called Macron an Islamophobe who "needs mental treatment." Erdogan also called for a boycott of French products.[1] Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also used strong language, accusing Macron of "attacking Islam,"[2] and former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad stated, in a tweet subsequently removed by Twitter, that "Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past."[3]

Unexpectedly, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the most important religious establishment in Egypt and the entire Sunni world, joined in the criticism, but made conflicting statements. Despite denouncing Paty's murder, he explicitly encouraged martyrdom for the sake of the Prophet Muhammad, at an October 27, 2020 event marking the Prophet's birthday – thus implicitly justifying terrorism in response to the cartoon crisis. He called love for the Prophet the "personal duty" of every Muslim and said that Muslims must sacrifice their souls, their family, and all that is precious to them in order to defend him. He also quoted Quran 9:24, which states that the Muslims' love for Allah, Muhammad, and jihad must be greater than their love for their family and possessions.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Hezbollah's Great Diversion
Many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port "massacre." They are also demanding an end to Iran's occupation of Lebanon.

Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons." — Nizar Salloum, Lebanon, Twitter, December 7, 2020.

The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel.

The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.
UN court gives Hezbollah killer of Lebanon’s Hariri life in prison, in absentia
An international court on Friday sentenced a fugitive Hezbollah member to life imprisonment for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and 21 other people.

Salim Ayyash, 57, was found guilty in absentia of murder and terrorism on August 18 by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon over the suicide bombing that killed the Sunni billionaire politician and 21 others and injured 226.

Ayyash remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, refusing to hand him over, alongside three other defendants who were eventually acquitted.

Mr. Ayyash participated in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder, “chief Judge David Re told the UN-backed court.

“In the circumstances, the trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment to be served concurrently.”
Hezbollah slams Beirut port charges against Lebanese PM as ‘political targeting’
Lebanese terror group Hezbollah on Friday criticized charges filed by a prosecutor against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers over the massive explosion in Beirut’s port, describing it as “political targeting.”

The Iran-backed Shiite movement called on investigating judge Fadi Sawwan to reconsider his decision, saying it lacked legal and constitutional basis and that the four were being selectively charged.

Similar criticism was voiced by Lebanon’s grand mufti, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who said the charges against caretaker premier Hassan Diab targeted the office of the prime minister as a position and were a violation of the constitution. The prime minister in Lebanon must be a Sunni Muslim, according to the country’s sectarian-based power-sharing system.

It was not clear what impact the criticism could have on Sawwan. In a surprise move, he filed charges against Diab and three former ministers on Thursday, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people.

The four are the most senior officials to be charged in the investigation and are set to be questioned as defendants next week by Sawwan.
US set to slap sanctions on Turkey over S-400 deal with Russia — report
The United States was reportedly set to announce sanctions against Turkey as early as Friday over the country’s acquisition last year of S-400 air defense systems from Russia, likely worsening bilateral ties in the tail-end of US President Donald Trump’s term.

The sanctions will target Turkey’s Presidency of Defence Industries and its head, Ismail Demir, and will be “damaging but narrower than the severe scenarios some analysts have outlined,” the Reuters news agency reported Thursday night, citing five unnamed sources, including three US officials.

The move would further batter Turkey’s economy, which is already struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and battling double-digit inflation. The report said the Turkish lira lost some 1.4 percent in anticipation of the sanctions.

The US contends that the S-400 missiles pose a threat to fellow NATO members. It has previously removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program over the matter. However, it has also sought to avoid pushing Turkey even closer to Russia.

Trump has given his blessing for the sanctions, the report said, even though some of the sources noted that the decision ultimately wasn’t entirely up to him.

Trump, who developed a working relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has long opposed sanctions against Turkey over the S-400 deal, the report said, even though officials internally recommended such measures as early as July 2019.



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