Tuesday, July 13, 2021
The erasure from historical memory of Israeli statehood offers and Palestinian rejections is badly distorting today’s debate about Middle East peace
The erasure from our historical memory of Israeli attempts to achieve peace by agreeing to Palestinian statehood, and of the serial Palestinian rejections, is now standard practice. This erasure sustains the libel that Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ seeking ‘permanent occupation’ and underpins a ludicrously uncritical attitude to the Palestinian national movement, its leadership, and aspects of its political culture. From Human Rights Watch to Nathan Thrall, Peter Beinart to the Carnegie Endowment, the debate now proceeds as if those offers were never made and never rejected. Bringing those offers back in, and those rejections, we get a more realistic picture of the obstacles standing in the way of achieving two states for two peoples.Israel Isn’t Going Anywhere
‘Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past’ is the slogan of the fictional English Socialist Party led by Big Brother in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Orwell understood that the erasure of history is a useful tool to control the present narrative and to influence the future. While perhaps an exaggerated analogy, there are Orwellian parallels in how anti-Israel organisations and thought leaders now treat some of the key historical elements of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
This is clearly evident in relation to the multiple offers of statehood made by Israel to the Palestinians in the 2000 to 2008 period (the ‘Statehood Offers’). These events do not fit the fictional narrative of those who portray Israel as a colonial-settler enterprise that seeks to dominate the Palestinians in an endless occupation that has been characterised by some as ‘apartheid’.
A central element of this viewpoint asserts that Israel’s control of the West Bank has always been designed to be permanent. (It also considers Gaza to be occupied, despite not a single Israeli being present in the area, but this topic is beyond the scope of this article.) Thus, the notion that the West Bank and Gaza are semi-autonomous entities that may eventually become a sovereign Palestinian state is a fallacy and the whole region between ‘the river and the sea’ must be considered one entity under two systems that by design discriminates against Palestinians.
The concept of ‘permanent occupation’ as Israeli policy is demolished once we undertake a full and honest accounting of the Statehood Offers. Over this period Israel, with the assistance of the Americans who facilitated negotiations in 2000 and 2001, offered the Palestinians a full independent state that according to most Western observers contained all the elements of what a final-status deal should look like. The Clinton Parameters were a set of core positions provided to the Israelis and Palestinians in December 2000 as a vast improvement over the statehood offer in Camp David during the Summer of 2000. The key elements of the parameters were:
- Creation of an independent Palestinian state with contiguity on nearly 100 per cent of the West Bank with land swaps, 100 per cent of Gaza and a dedicated link between the two areas.
- Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine divided under the principle that existing Arab areas would be Palestinian and Jewish ones Israeli. This would also apply to the Old City, which would also be divided.
- Palestinian control of the Temple Mount/Haram and Israeli control of the Western Wall.
- The ‘Right of Return’ for Palestinians would be allowed into the new Palestinian state.
- End of conflict agreement that would end all claims and satisfy all relevant U.N. resolutions.
For the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the majority of the world’s Jews live in Zion.The Sand Curtain Has Fallen
Whether forced from Arab lands, fleeing persecution in Russia and eastern Europe before World War Two, or survivors of the Holocaust, these people and their children and grandchildren aren’t going anywhere. They are home. They have nowhere to go. Christian Europe and Muslim lands made it abundantly clear that they would suffer the presence of the Jews from time to time, but they would not hesitate to remind them, through expulsions, forced conversions, and pogroms, that they were guests in other people’s lands, and only sometimes welcome ones.
So they went to Israel, where there has been a continuous Jewish presence for 2,000 years, since the conquest by the Romans in 70 CE.
The Israeli novelist Amos Oz wrote that the graffiti in Europe before World War Two said “Jews get out. Go to Palestine.” The graffiti in Palestine said “Jews go back to Europe.” Oz concluded that if you can’t be here and you can’t be there, the clear message is, “Don’t Be.”
Well, the Jews are a stubborn lot and they refused to disappear, much to the consternation of many. Their mere existence is an affront. But this time, they aren’t going anywhere because they have nowhere to go.
The Sand Curtain, like the Iron Curtain 30 years ago, has fallen. Israel and its “Abrahamic” partners are enjoying a lightning-fast peace bonanza. But some Westerners have difficulty rejoicing in the breakthrough. The Left assiduously seeks to poke holes in the Abraham Accords, and makes sourpuss faces whenever advances in Gulf-Israel ties are mentioned. The good news is that the accords easily survived the recent Hamas-Israel conflict. How a renewed JCPOA accord will affect ties remains an open and troubling question.David Singer: Abdullah-Biden meeting will not help resolve Jewish-Arab conflict
Falling in Love
The speed with which Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have taken off (and with Morocco and Sudan to a degree as well), and the genuine warmth experienced by every Israeli business delegation and tourist group to have visited these countries, is astounding. It is a speed of light peace bonanza, a whirlwind of almost Biblical proportions.
Venture capitalists from Tel Aviv and Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Manama are scouting out joint investment opportunities in cybersecurity, fintech, aggrotech, food security, educational technology, and healthcare. Bilateral business chambers have been established, including a Jewish-Muslim women’s business council and a youth council. One Emirati investment house executive enthused to The New York Times, “It’s like falling in love!”
Trade between Israel and the UAE already has exceeded $354 million. According to the Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zayoudi, the two countries have signed approximately 25 agreements in more than 15 sectors. Academics from the Emirates and Israel are participating in each other’s conferences. Israel’s two main strategic think tanks, INSS and JISS, each have signed research partnerships with leading Emirati institutes.
Tourist packages for Israelis and for Jews everywhere to the Gulf are sprouting like mushrooms, and Gulf tourists to Israel are coming soon too. Three Emirati and three Israeli airlines are operating or planning daily flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi (slowed only by lingering effects of the COVID-19 crisis), as is Bahrain’s Gulf Air. Emirati Airlines times its flights from Ben-Gurion Airport to connect with Emirates flights from the Gulf to the Far East, giving Israelis new routes to China, Japan, Thailand and more.
Hundreds of Israelis in kippas and Emiratis in long white robes and kanduras gathered in early June at a Global Investment Forum in Dubai, co-sponsored by The Jerusalem Post and The Khaleej Times. This, despite the fierce mini war that Israel had just fought with Hamas in Gaza and with Palestinian radicals in Jerusalem.
The meeting between Jordan’s King Abdullah and President Biden at the White House on 19 July seems set to achieve absolutely nothing towards resolving the 100 years-old conflict between Jews and Arabs.
Biden’s Press Secretary - Jen Psaki – has claimed:
“It will be an opportunity to discuss the many challenges facing the Middle East and showcase Jordan’s leadership role in promoting peace and stability in the region.”
The King has shown no leadership in resolving the conflict between Jews and Arabs over sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (aka "West Bank") [“Disputed Territory”] and Gaza – comprising the remaining 5% of the territory of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine where sovereignty still remains unallocated (“Unallocated Territories”).
Sovereignty in the remaining 95% of the Mandate territory was divided between:
Jordan - 78% – upon the establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946
Israel - 17% – upon its establishment in 1948.
Concerted attempts over the last 25 years to create an additional Arab State in the Unallocated Territories for the first time in recorded history (“two-state solution”) have all failed. Abdullah has been a principal protagonist for this solution.
Jordan’s failure to take a leadership role in agreeing to an alternative solution - division of the Unallocated Territories between Jordan and Israel within the framework of their existing 1994 Peace Treaty – has gone begging during Abdullah’s 22 year reign.
The following historic, geographic and demographic realities bind Jordan with the Disputed Territory:
Transjordan in 1948 conquered and occupied the Disputed Territory until 1967 – renaming the newly-merged territorial entity “Jordan” in 1950.
The Arab residents of the Disputed Territory were Jordanian citizens between 1950 and 1988 and elected their own representatives to the Jordanian Parliament in Amman.
Statements made by Arab leaders over decades have attested to the territorial and population ties between Jordan and the Disputed Territory:
"Jordan and Palestine until 1945 were one state, actually. After the Second World War Churchill himself said ‘This is Transjordan and this is Palestine’. Before that, Jordan was an emirate, completely part of Palestine." – Yasser Arafat New York Review of Books 25 June 1987
Solidarity with ‘Palestine’ Means Kalashnikovs for Kids
Middle East–studies specialists are even more culpable because they understand the abuse of Palestinian children better than most non-specialists. So the Middle East Studies Association deserves special opprobrium for its solidarity with “Palestine.”Want peace? Stop hateful incitement of Palestinian youth
Teachers’ unions should have an especially keen interest in matters of child safety. Will any of the teachers who have pledged solidarity with “Palestine” also reprimand the child abusers of Hamas and PIJ?
Psychologists should be even more attuned to child abuse. Yet a group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility, whose mission statement boasts of “the ethical use of psychological knowledge, research, and practice,” issued a declaration of solidarity with “Palestine.” It should denounce just as unequivocally the psychological abuse of Palestinian children at the Hamas and PIJ camps.
Scholars of Palestinian descent may be the most culpable. From the safety of her tenured position at Rutgers University, Noura Erakat, assistant professor of Africana studies and criminal justice, is always willing to overlook Palestinian violence and slander Israel. Hers is the third signature on the Rutgers statement, and she knows firsthand the consequences of child abuse in the Palestinian territories, as her cousin Ahmed Erekat was killed after he rammed his car into a group of IDF soldiers at a checkpoint near Jerusalem on June 23, 2020. He spent his formative years imbibing the normalization of violence as dozens of Palestinians used vehicles to attack Israelis, while his uncle, PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, rewarded their families and justified their attacks as “self-defense.”
Every one of the thousands of virtue-signaling academics who signed a petition or letter expressing solidarity with “Palestine” should watch the MEMRI videos and look at the pictures from the Hamas and PIJ summer camps. Those who have children should contemplate the disparity of sending their own children off for a week or two to sing around the campfire and play “Capture the Flag” while the children of Gaza will sing songs of martyrdom and play “Butcher the Jews.”
I call on all the institutions and individuals that wrote, circulated, or signed a petition or letter of solidarity with “Palestine” to condemn with equal fervor the children’s summer camps run by Hamas and PIJ. I challenge them to prove that their solidarity amounts to something more than hatred of Israel.
Why is there no peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Last week, the U.S. State Department criticized Israel for destroying a terrorist’s home—an action the State Department said serves to “undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.”Emily Schrader: Palestinian anti-normalization culture against Israel is immoral
Surely the brutal murder of an innocent 19-year old Israeli man and the wounding of two others—which is what the Palestinian terrorist did—abundantly undercuts the prospects for peace. Surely rewarding that terrorist for his bloody act through the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay for Slay” program undercuts efforts for peace more than demolition of a terrorist’s house.
But the State Department’s is just one of many false justifications for the failure to attain an Israel-Palestinian peace (let alone a “two-state solution”). To find the real reason, we would best look at the root causes of Palestinian terrorism, which have been baked into Palestinian society for generations.
Unfortunately, many mainstream media and world leaders who claim to care about ending the conflict assert that the real obstacles are, variously, Israeli settlements, Israel’s “occupation” or Israel’s unification of Jerusalem.
In truth, none of these issues can be the root cause of the conflict—because the conflict predates each of them.
In short, the conflict began because of Palestinian Arab refusal to accept the right of Jews to create a state in their indigenous homeland—a land where no other states existed. This violent Arab rejectionism has been the cause of the conflict and its singular driving force for more than 100 years.
The fuel perpetuating Palestinian rejectionism over all these decades is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement—hateful propaganda that at its worst is animated by a cult of death.
For years, the Palestinian Authority has been paying lip service to an anti-normalization policy which has repeatedly proven to lead to worse situations for the Palestinian people in a variety of ways. Even while other Arab states reject anti-normalization, the Palestinians continue to dig their heels in, even cutting off their nose to spite their face.Taylor Force Act needed for UN, says new report exposing funding to terror-linked NGOs
Just days ago, anti-normalization efforts in the West Bank picked up, with Abdullah Kmeil, PA governor of the Salfit region, ordering all Palestinian businesses to remove Hebrew signs. The “strict order” came down as a result of Palestinian cities near Israeli settlements that were appealing to Jewish customers, and the PA stated that the signs were contributing to “obliterating the features of the Palestinian identity.”
Meanwhile, in Israel, Arabic language is more popular than ever, public services are available in Arabic and Hebrew, road signs are in Arabic, political campaigns are in Arabic, businesses proudly display Hebrew and Arabic signs, and thousands of people, both Arabs and Jews, are working together to enhance cooperation, despite historical tensions.
Language, like music and the arts, is a tool for communication and understanding. When we begin censoring or shutting down tools of communication, we are actively pushing peace further away. This is what anti-normalization does.
The fundamental problem with anti-normalization is that if we cannot come together to resolve problems – and if both sides are giving the “silent treatment” – neither side achieves anything. There is an inherent contradiction in using that which is intended to bring people together, like the arts or language or even business, to sow bigotry. Any artist who thinks they are promoting justice by signing on to division is doing the opposite. The State of Israel isn’t going to suffer from BDS, and the racist movement is never going to achieve its ultimate agenda of destroying the State of Israel.
If we want justice for Palestinians, we must pursue accountable leaders on both sides of the conflict, and encourage more cooperation with Israel, not less.
A new report by pro-Israel NGO Im Tirtzu reveals that over the last five years, U.N. agencies have funneled at least $40 million to radical anti-Israel groups, some with terror ties. It also offers a prescription: a Taylor Force Act applied to the United Nations.Czech Republic becomes ninth state to boycott Durban conference
Passed by Congress in 2018, the Taylor Force Act, named after a U.S. war veteran and graduate student killed by a terrorist while visiting Israel, conditions U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority on its halting payments to terrorists. The P.A. puts such a high premium on these payments that its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in July 2018: “If we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs.”
The law led the Trump administration to cut more than $200 million to the P.A.
Eytan Meir, Im Tirtzu’s director of external relations and development, tells JNS that a U.S. law holding the U.N. accountable for funding malevolent NGOs will lead the United Nations to become more transparent and take greater care in its review of its “implementing partners,” the U.N.’s term of art for organizations to which it channels funds to carry out in-country projects.
Czech Republic will not participate in the Durban Review Conference in New York in September, Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek said Monday, citing concerns about antisemitism and targeting Israel.
“I’ve taken this decision due to historic concerns regarding antisemitism and the misuse of the platform for attacks against Israel,” he tweeted. “We will continue to fight racism and discrimination and promote human rights.”
The conference in September, also known as Durban IV, is meant to mark the 20th anniversary of the World Conference on Racism in the South African city.
Antisemitism was rife at the 2001 Durban Conference’s NGO forum, where copies of the anti-Jewish conspiracy theory The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion were distributed, Israel was accused of genocide, and participants considered whether Hitler was right.
Israel was the only country singled out for racism in the statement made by UN member states participating in the conference. The US and Israel walked out.
In 2009, 10 countries boycotted Durban II, and 15 opted out of Durban III in 2011. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust an “ambiguous and dubious question” at Durban II in 2009 and a “pretext” for oppressing Palestinians.
Durban IV is an #antisemitic conference.
— David Collier (@mishtal) July 13, 2021
The US, UK, Australia, Austria, Canada, Netherlands, Israel, Hungary & Czech Rep have withdrawn.
Germany is still attending!!
In 2021 Germany is going to help demonise Jews.
How sickening.
Tell @GermanyDiplo what you think of that.
So angry that Germany are going to attend the antisemitic Durban conference. @GermanyDiplo
— David Collier (@mishtal) July 13, 2021
Nazi Germany created a graveyard of Jewish people throughout Europe.
In Sep 2021 the 'new' Germany will help to delegitimise the Jewish state- #Israel
There is a lot to be angry about.
Oh right. Because the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is made up of such beacons of liberty and human rights as Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, is an authority on this? That’s where @KenRoth seeks his endorsement? https://t.co/PcskBibj50
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 13, 2021
Seth Frantzman: Taliban win in Afghanistan could fuel Hamas, Hezbollah - analysis
There was a time when countries supported various proxy groups during the Cold War. However, the end of that war led to a brief interlude in international affairs where a hegemonic US and liberal world order appeared to reduce the number of militant movements being treated as states.Hezbollah airs new footage from 2006 attack that triggered Second Lebanon War
Now, global chaos is back – and the rise of various authoritarian regimes that want a multi-polar world and are all opposed to the US means that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah can thrive.
The big question is how much more respect can Hamas and Hezbollah gain? Hamas held a high-level meeting with Russia in March. It has been hosted by Turkey, although Ankara also hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently. The question is whether a Taliban victory might make countries more willing to be flexible on hosting senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
So far, the international community has put almost no pressure on these groups to lay down their weapons. Hezbollah not only possesses 150,000 rockets but also appears to conduct foreign and military policy for Lebanon, slowly supplanting the state; perhaps it has already become more wealthy and powerful than the state that hosts it.
Hamas also recruits child soldiers and conducts illegal rocket fire against Israel. The fact that these organizations appear to thrive and receive financing indicates that no price is exacted from them.
The more than 4,000 Hamas rockets that were fired at Israel did not lead to widespread global condemnation. This means that the Taliban appearing to consolidate gains could have the unintended global effect of fueling Hamas and Hezbollah and their danger to the Middle East – as well as the wider danger that militant groups pose to world order.
On the 15th anniversary of the start of the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah on Monday released previously unseen footage from the 2006 border attack on Israeli soldiers that sparked the armed conflict.How the 2nd Lebanon War Led to Creating the Iron Dome
The footage broadcast by the al-Manar outlet associated with Hezbollah shows the terror group members moving through a wooded area near the border before the attack on a jeep used by patrolling Israeli troops.
The Hezbollah operatives then head to the vehicle, surround it, and drag out Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, then flee with the hostages back across the border and load their bodies onto a vehicle.
Three other soldiers were killed in the attack and five more IDF troops were killed shortly thereafter in a failed Israeli rescue attempt.
Goldwasser and Regev were assumed by Israeli authorities to have been killed in the initial attack, but their bodies were not returned until 2008. The footage released Monday was the first time the capture of the Israelis was shown.
The clip was released on Monday as Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group, attempts to assert itself amid Lebanon’s spiraling economic crisis.
Gantz conditions Gaza development on prisoner exchange deal
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Deputy Minister Alon Schuster on Tuesday participated in the "Strengthening the Residents of the Gaza Envelope" conference for retired Histadrut state employees at the Eshkol Regional Council.Israel Wants Voucher System for Foreign Aid to Gaza: Minister
During the conference, Gantz said in a speech that "We are in a place that allows the IDF a strong home front. In parallel with security actions, we are committed to strengthening the civil resilience in the localities of the region and in the entire south."
"We have built the barrier, we are promoting an advanced plan for the protection of houses, and we are anchoring the 'respite' plan that will allow an intermediate option of evacuation for residents who want to leave the area temporarily during a military operation," he added.
"At the same time, we are also providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza," Gantz continued, saying that "We will continue to do so, in cooperation with our Egyptian partners, the United Nations and other international bodies."
"However, we demand peace and we will allow the development of the Gaza Strip only after the boys return home," he said, referencing the two Israeli citizens held captive by Hamas for the past seven years, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, along with the remains of two kidnapped IDF soldiers, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
Israel wants foreign aid to Gaza disbursed through a voucher system, as a safeguard against donations being diverted to bolster the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers and their arsenal, a government minister said on Tuesday.How Palestinian Leaders Are Deceiving Americans
Humanitarian agencies put the latest reconstruction costs for the impoverished Gaza Strip at $500 million following 11 days of cross-border fighting in May.
Qatar bankrolled more than $1 billion worth of construction and other projects in Gaza, some of it in cash, after a war in 2014. The payments were monitored and approved by Israel, and Doha pledged another $500 million in late May.
New Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wants a shift in policy, Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev said.
“The Qatari money for Gaza will not go in as suitcases full of dollars which end up with Hamas, where Hamas in essence takes for itself and its officials a significant part of it,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.
He said Bennett envisaged “a mechanism where what will go in, in essence, would be food vouchers, or vouchers for humanitarian aid, and not cash that can be taken and used for developing weaponry to be wielded against the State of Israel.”
Hamas, which has previously denied using Gaza aid for its military, did not immediately comment.
The Palestinian Authority does not want the world to know that it has a law that prohibits the sale of property to the Israeli "enemy."Dr. Mamdouh Akar: Arafat Would Be Rolling in His Grave if He Knew What Was Happening in Palestine
This is the same Palestinian leadership that is now telling the Biden administration that it is keen on resuming the peace process with Israel.
It is also safe to assume that the Congressmen are not aware of the Islamic religious decrees banning Muslims from even attempting to engage in such deals [selling land to Jews].
The Congressmen do not know about these matters because the mainstream media in the West rarely reports about the apartheid policies of the PA leadership, including the ban on selling properties to Jews.
Abbas knows that if he makes such concessions, he will never enjoy the privilege of being buried in a Muslim cemetery, according to the ruling of his mufti and Islamic religious bodies.
In the meantime, Abbas has no problem telling the Biden administration and members of the Congress what they like to hear (about a peace process with Israel and the so-called two state solution) in order to receive US financial aid.
Abbas will take the money while at the same time his security forces are chasing Palestinians who do business with Jews.
Dr. Mamdouh Akar, a Palestinian politician and human rights activist said that Yasser Arafat would be rolling in his grave if he knew what was happening in Palestine. His remarks were made in a Ramallah press conference about the Palestinian Authority’s security forces’ violence against protesters, which was posted on the Watan News Agency’s YouTube account on July 6, 2021. Dr. Akar said that the day Palestinian activist Nizar Banat was murdered by the PA’s security forces was a black day, but this day is even darker, because ensuing events have shown that the PA has become a police state. He said that Palestinians want a regime that respects them and for that they need elections.
Dr. Akar said that the murder of Nizar Banat was a message from the PA, that anyone who dares to open their mouths would face a similar fate. Shawan Jabarin director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, said that the PA and the police should be ashamed that people were attacked and dragged on the ground right in front of his eyes. He added that this is not the conduct of a police force, which is supposed to protect the people and enforce the law. Jabarin continued to say that such conduct reflects the “essence of this authority and this leadership.” He warned that this would lead to blood on the Palestinian street. For more about the protests following the killing of Nizar Banat, see MEMRITV clip no 8946.
Anti-Zionists are trying to get #saveeyad trending.
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) July 12, 2021
So who is Eyad?
Iyad Hreibat is a jailed al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist.
They claim he's being mistreated, in reality, he was able to acquire several college degrees while in jail.#SaveIyad #SaveIyadHaribat pic.twitter.com/qjEzbZpPLb
Her mother was also a member of the terror group ‘Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’ (PFLP), but of course just minor fact @hrw omits! https://t.co/B7BsrhRUj0
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 13, 2021
Of course what @RashidaTlaib neglects to mention is that Khalida Jarrar is a member of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terror group - including by the United States! https://t.co/lenrzb216p
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 12, 2021
Hamas-affiliated news agency's page removed from Facebook
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency's Facebook page was deleted on Tuesday for "repeatedly violating" Facebook community standards.Islamic Jihad claims it called off rockets attacks on areas with children
Shehab's Facebook page was originally created in 2011. Nearly 7.5 million people liked the page before it was taken down.
A spokesperson for Facebook stated that the page was removed after Shehab continued to violate community standards despite being notified. "Despite recent outreach to its administrators regarding our policies, we have had to disable the Shehab News Agency Facebook page for repeatedly violating our community standards," said the spokesperson. "We have previously explained to the Shehab News team that, in order to keep our community safe and prevent harm, we do not allow praise or support for groups, leaders or individuals who have engaged in violence." At about the same time that the Facebook page was removed, Shehab's website became inaccessible, with attempts to access the website showing an error page saying that the site was "temporarily unavailable or under maintenance."
This isn't the first time Shehab has been removed from Facebook.
In 2015, the page was removed by Facebook for featuring "graphic violence," according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. The page had about 2.5 million followers at the time.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization claimed on Monday that it called off missions during Operation Guardian of the Walls when it found out that children were in areas they planned on targeting, despite the terrorist group firing hundreds of unguided rockets that it cannot precisely aim towards civilian areas.
PIJ spokesperson Abu Hamza stated in an interview with Al-Jazeera that when the terrorist organization found out there were children present at targets, "these missions were stopped," adding "the enemy knows very well what I am talking about."
Abu Hamza also claimed that the Iron Dome was not able to intercept 90% of rockets and that the PIJ has produced rockets that have not yet been revealed. The spokesperson added that the PIJ managed to work around the Iron Dome by launching concentrated and intense bursts of rocket fire. Two Israeli children were killed by rocket fire from Gaza during the operation, including five-year-old Ido Avigal and a 16-year-old Nadin Awad.
The rockets which Gaza terrorist groups possess are unguided, meaning that the terrorist organizations cannot target specific locations with much accuracy. During Operation Guardian of the Walls, which Palestinians referred to as Operation Sword of Jerusalem, over 4,000 of these rockets were fired indiscriminately towards civilians in Israel.
The terrorist spokesperson's statement echoed statements the IDF often makes during operations to explain its policies to avoid civilian casualties. The IDF often calls off missions if civilians are spotted at the targeted location.
Mujahideen Brigades military summer camp for children and teenagers held its graduation ceremony today. The attendees displayed the military skills they learned at the camp. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/8mEllPXvvK
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 12, 2021
Biden and the Mullahs: "Feeding the Crocodile"
Have the Biden administration and the European Union already forgotten the disastrous outcome of appeasing the mullahs in 2015...? US President Barack Obama pledged at the time that he was "confident" the deal would "meet the national security needs of the United States and our allies".
Throughout that time, the EU and the Obama administration not only initiated and expanded appeasement policies, they made unprecedented concessions in an attempt to dissuade the ruling mullahs from their internal and external aggression. The US and the EU met the Iranian mullahs with generosity and flexibility every step of the way.
After sanctions against the mullahs were lifted, instead of bringing peace and curbing Iran's malign behavior at home and abroad, those appeasements... generated billions of dollars in revenue for Iran's military institution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for Iran's militia and terror groups. Tehran used that influx of revenues to expand its influence throughout the region, especially in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
Iran's aggressive expansion campaign proved immensely successful. The Iranian-armed Houthis ratcheted up efforts to cause death and destruction in Yemen, and Hezbollah escalated its involvement and control of large swathes of Syrian territory. The region also saw a greater propensity for Houthi rocket launches at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, the deployment of thousands of Hezbollah foot soldiers in Syria, and the constant bombardment of southern Israel by Iranian-funded Hamas rockets.
The present Western strategy is no different from enriching the Nazi Germany during WWII or Soviet Russia during the Cold War. For the rogue state, concessions and appeasements mean weakness. It would have been so much less costly in life and treasure to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.
