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Wednesday, August 25, 2021

08/25 Links Pt1: Two-states is so dead, it isn't on the Bennett-Biden agenda; The Afghanistan Catastrophe Is an American Humiliation; Into the Heart of a Hezbollah Terror Tunnel

From Ian:

Two-states is so dead, it isn't on the Bennett-Biden agenda
The Biden administration also seemed to downgrade expectations on that score. On Monday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said of the coming parley that “we seek to see to it that Israelis and Palestinians alike can enjoy equal measures of what is important to both people: prosperity, freedom, and importantly, dignity.”

It was almost as if, even before the meeting took place, the Biden administration had written out acceptable talking points Bennett could get behind that did not address Palestinian statehood or self-determination.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post that Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were as committed as their predecessors Barack Obama and John Kerry, to a two-state resolution to the conflict. But they are not going to “go down that road” now because they fear it would bring down Bennett’s government.

Instead, Oren speculated, the conversation would focus on small steps, in which the US would ask Bennett to make gestures to the Palestinians. If two-states is mentioned, it will be the US that speaks of it, he said.

The stumbling block here, however, is not just the policy difference between Bennett who opposes Palestinian statehood and Biden who believes in two states at the pre-1967 lines.

At issue is the acute financial and leadership crisis within the Palestinian Authority itself, that would make it impossible to move forward on statehood.

The question, these days, is less about how to make peace than how to prevent violence.

The conversation will likely focus on economic gestures Israel can take to help the Palestinians or steps in can refrain from taking in the West Bank's Area C.

Bennett’s public silence on the Palestinians is less about the topic’s unimportance than about the absence of any possible horizon. The harsh reality is that ‘two states’, once a standard bearer of the US-Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, has been buried so deep that the best one could hope for is a series of gestures to prevent violent explosions.
Hamas' latest antics in Gaza are aimed at Washington
Hamas has in the past few days organized several particularly violent riots ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and U.S. President Joe Biden, set to take place on Thursday in Washington.

The leaders of the terror group that rules Gaza hope that this will push the issue of the enclave's rehabilitation following the 11-day May war to the top of the meeting's agenda.

Hamas expects the United States to both pressure Israel to advance the issue and be an active partner in the reconstruction of the Strip. This means that any attempts on Israel’s part to reconcile with Hamas by easing restrictions on the Strip are doomed to failure.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza over the past week - mainly its failure to retaliate for the rocket fire and lax response to violent riots on the perimeter fence - could only be described as a military blunder. It was only meant to contain the riots and avoid casualties on the Palestinian side in order to not exacerbate the situation.

Mainly, it was a strategic failure on the part of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Both of them utterly failed to properly read the diplomatic map.

Israel thought it would be able to buy some peace of mind with money, while failing to understand that Hamas sees violent border riots as an opportunity to achieve much more than a few economic perks. For instance, it seeks to force the Americans to pressure Israel into reaching a long-term agreement with Hamas that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Hamas will never voluntarily agree to peace with Israel.
David Singer: The ghost of Trump's Peace Plan hovers over the White House
Biden’s seven months tenure as President has already seen unprecedented chaos and confusion in America’s internal and external relations following Biden’s unilateral dumping of three major Trump policies without consulting individuals, state or foreign Governments affected by such changes:
Ceasing construction of Trump’s security fence on America’s southern border - facilitating increased unauthorised and illegal entry of aliens into the US.

CNN reported on this continuing crisis on 13 August:
“The Biden administration is facing a "serious challenge" at the US southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday, saying the US has encountered an "unprecedented" number of migrants illegally crossing the border.

During a news conference in Brownsville, Texas, Mayorkas stressed the sharp increase of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border, many of whom are fleeing deteriorating conditions in their home countries.”

- Blocking completion of the Keystone XL pipeline (costing 11000 jobs) and reviewing oil-exploration leases granted by Trump in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - reversing hallmark policies of Trump’s administration championing the oil industry by promoting oil-exploration projects in the interests of securing US energy independence.

- Ditching Trump’s plans for a conditions-based orderly American withdrawal from Afghanistan and replacing it with an unconditional withdrawal - leaving behind billions of dollars of American sophisticated and highly-secret military equipment, up to 15000 American civilians, and thousands of Afghani civilians who helped the US military – and their families - at the mercy of the anti-US Taliban terrorist militants taking over Afghanistan.

Biden cannot – after these disastrous unilateral policy decisions – dump Trump’s Plan without Bennett’s approval.

Trump’s Plan is the most comprehensive and detailed plan ever prepared by an American President for dividing sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between Arabs and Jews.

Trump’s Plan – and his vision for peace - will surely be hovering over Biden and Bennett when they face-off in their White House meeting this week.


MEMRI: Former Arafat Advisor In Open Letter To Hizbullah Leader Nasrallah: Oh Courageous And Beloved Commander, We Are Waiting For You To Act To Liberate Palestine, Drive The Israelis Out Of Our Land
In his column in the online daily Raialyoum.com, Palestinian politician Bassam Abu Sharif, a former advisor of Yasser Arafat and a founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, wrote an open letter to Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, in which he lavished praise on Nasrallah, stating that the light in his face “reminds us of the light of the face of the Prophet Muhammad.” Adding that Nasrallah is a “courageous commander,” a source of hope, strength and inspiration whom the Palestinian and Arab peoples follow and salute, Abu Sharif noted that today, after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is possible to “uproot the Zionists from our land.” He therefore urged the operations room of the resistance axis, headed by Nasrallah, to draw up a fighting plan that will “deliver painful blows” to Israel and cause the Israelis to flee back to the countries from which they came. Addressing Nasrallah, he emphasized: “You are our commander and we await [you] at the gates of the blessed Al-Aqsa to pray together there... Our enemy will be destroyed… when the arrows reach its neck."

The following are translated excerpts from his article: [1]
"Oh courageous commander, I greet you in the name of the people of Palestine, Jerusalem, and every city, village, town, and refugee camp on Palestinian land, and address you with words of truth that express our intention to continue the struggle to liberate the Holy Land and the blessed Al-Aqsa [mosque] and [also] liberate Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and every Arab country that bows under the new imperialism of the Americans and their allies – the racists in Israel and the traitors who normalized [with Israel] in several Gulf states.

"Commander, I address you with words of truth: Do you know that our Palestinian people awaits you? Do you know that the Arab peoples everywhere look on you with pride and draw strength from your words, your deeds, your steadfastness, and your determination to defeat the enemy, and [that all these] elevate their morale and determination to continue the resistance to the enemy and to attack it with the aim of uprooting it from our land?

"Do you know that when they announce that you are about to give a speech, people wait by their radios or televisions, or near any [other] media that will bring them your voice? The sight of the people crowding around the television screen to see you is like the sight [we once saw] of people crowding around the radio to listen to [the late Egyptian president] Gamal ‘Abd Al-Nasser.


‘The Women of Afghanistan Must Be Heard’: Israel’s Ambassador to UN Demands Equal Rights for Afghans at Human Rights Council
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva urged member states to safeguard the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan following the takeover of the country by the Taliban.

“Israel remains deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan. We are extremely concerned about reports of violent crackdowns against civilian population and human rights defenders,” Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar said at special session by the Human Rights Council on Afghanistan. “The women of Afghanistan must be listened to. They must be heard.”

Eilon Shahar said that Israel has also been alarmed by reports of targeted killings of those defending women’s rights, and that it condemns violence against women and girls.

“Women and girls should not be scared to walk the streets, they should not be intimidated when they go to school, and they should not be subjected to violence for what they wear,” she added.

Also speaking at the special meeting on Afghanistan, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for close monitoring of the evolving human rights situation in the country.


The Afghanistan Catastrophe Is an American Humiliation
On the menu today: The situation in Afghanistan is so catastrophic, with so many dire and far-reaching ramifications — humanitarian ramifications, geopolitical ramifications, national-security ramifications — that it will take this entire newsletter to lay it all out.

Our President Chose National Humiliation

Before the country settles into the blame game, let’s get a clear perspective on where we stand.

Per the Washington Post editorial board: “The Taliban set up a new blockade of the airport road in Kabul to prevent more Afghans from leaving. If Mr. Biden opposes that, he did not say so in his speech.” As Rich has observed, the president no longer criticizes the Taliban, because his decisions have left him entirely at the mercy of one of the most barbaric and brutal forces in the world.

According to the New York Times:
U.S. officials believe that thousands of Americans remain in Afghanistan, including some far beyond Kabul, without a safe or fast way to get to the airport. Tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government over the last 20 years, and are eligible for special visas, are desperate to leave.

And refugee and resettlement experts estimate that at least 300,000 Afghans are in imminent danger of being targeted by the Taliban for associating with Americans and U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom helped the U.S., its allies, and international NGOs, are being left behind to be tortured and executed by the Taliban.
McMaster warns U.S. ‘creating hostage crisis’ with Afghanistan deadline
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster warned that the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan could lead to the largest American hostage situation in history, should the Biden administration hold to the August 31 deadline to withdraw all forces from the country. Speaking on Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast,” McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, predicted the loss of life could outpace that of the September 11th attacks, which left nearly 3,000 dead in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

“We’re gonna leave American citizens in Afghanistan if we adhere to this capitulation agreement. August 31, that means we just have to start scaling down like tomorrow.” McMaster said. “We’re gonna leave Americans behind. We’re creating a hostage crisis. We’re creating maybe even potential for losses greater than 9/11 on our way out. And nobody’s talking about that.”

President Joe Biden reiterated his commitment to the deadline in remarks at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, but admitted the timeline could be adjusted “should that become necessary.”

Even with an extension of the deadline, McMaster argued that increased U.S. military action might be required, including the retaking of additional airfields in Afghanistan to continue moving evacuees out. “We have military units that are designed specifically to do that, you know, to take airfields,” McMaster told podcast co-hosts Richard Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein. “I mean, they’re ready to go right now. But, sadly, I think we lack the will to do what’s necessary to get our own citizens out, let alone the courageous Afghans who have helped us and who are now at risk along with their families. And it’s going to be just heart-wrenching.”

McMaster drew a direct line between the U.S.’s handling of Afghanistan and Pakistan, arguing that a lenient approach to Pakistan led to a stronger Taliban. “The Pakistani army has been supporting not only the Taliban, but a whole range of jihadist terrorist organizations, who are great threats to all humanity,” he said, describing the U.S. policy as “serial gullibility.”


‘The definition of gaslighting’: As chaos unfolds at Kabul airport, Biden team projects calm
Already there have been reports of violence against Americans by the group, which is manning checkpoints outside the airport. Austin, the defense secretary, acknowledged in a phone call with lawmakers on Friday reports of Americans being beaten by Taliban members, saying the administration had relayed to Taliban leadership that such behavior was “unacceptable.”

American officials have held high-level meetings with the Taliban in recent days to discuss security at the airport. CIA Director William Burns met in secret with the Taliban’s de facto leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Kabul on Monday, The Washington Post reported.

The situation is becoming increasingly dire for those who have not yet been able to get out. American citizens are routinely being turned away by Afghan guards at the airport despite showing U.S. passports, according to five sources familiar with the situation. In one instance, a guard told a group to leave the area or he would shoot them. In another, an Afghan interpreter and his family were beaten by Afghan guards after being rejected at the gates, and are now sleeping in their car because the Taliban burned down their house.

One video provided to POLITICO showed citizens holding blue U.S. passports who were stuck outside the gates, with a soldier of unknown nationality watching from the wall. They shared the video with the media through an intermediary because they wanted to raise awareness of the difference between the rhetoric and reality.

Americans and Afghan allies are having so much trouble getting into the airport that informal groups comprising people in Kabul, congressional staffers, military veterans and even citizens across America have cropped up to help coordinate meeting points and “snatch and grabs,” where U.S. troops briefly open the gates to bring in a small group of people.

While the administration tries to take credit for top-line evacuation numbers, many outsiders — veterans, diplomats, NGOs and others — have been frantically coordinating to help American citizens and Afghan allies escape because the normal channels are chaotic. One such group of veterans has taken to calling themselves “digital Dunkirk” or “Task Force Dunkirk,” referring to the mass evacuation of allied troops from France in 1940.


Republicans Call for Formal Pentagon Investigation Into Bungled Afghanistan Withdrawal
Republicans are calling on the Pentagon's inspector general to launch a formal investigation into the Biden administration's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, including its decision to abandon scores of American-made weapons that are now in the Taliban's possession.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R., Fla.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is spearheading legislation that would direct the Defense Department's inspector general to determine how the Biden administration's pullout from Afghanistan endangered scores of American citizens who are trapped in Taliban-controlled Kabul and begging for rescue by U.S. forces.

Giménez's bill is the first in what is likely to be a series of Republican efforts to investigate the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The administration has faced criticism at home and abroad over its failure to plan for an immediate Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The administration, including the Pentagon and State Department, is struggling with its evacuation effort and has avoided answering questions about whether it had a plan to deal with the Taliban's return to power. It is likely that Democrats will be forced to go along with these investigations, even as party leaders defend the Biden administration's decisions.

Giménez told the Washington Free Beacon that Congress must begin investigating the ongoing disaster, particularly given the administration's refusal to answer questions.

Biden and his senior advisers have "made categorically false statements to the American people, including lies that the American embassy in Kabul was secured and prepared for the withdrawal, that there are no al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, that America's allies are not questioning the president's judgments, and even changed transcripts and readouts with our most important allies," Giménez said.


Taliban seat on UN Commission on the Status of Women is 'likely,' John Bolton says
The Taliban, who have a notorious history of oppression and violence toward women, are poised to seat a representative on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women should they form a recognized Afghan government, a former U.N. ambassador says.

After a swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban terror group, as well as deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's escape to the United Arab Emirates, the future of Afghanistan's leadership, and by extent its representation in global organizations, is uncertain, says John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

"You have a new crew that comes in, and the U.N. has to decide, 'Do we accept the credentials of a new ambassador?'" Bolton told the Washington Examiner Tuesday. "It's certainly possible to challenge that and deny them a seat. You can say they're not legitimate."

However, incoming governments, even those that were established in less-than-diplomatic methods, typically inherit their predecessor's posts, the former ambassador added, noting rejection is rare.

"It's unusual and hasn't often been successful," Bolton, a controversial figure who served as U.N. ambassador under former President George W. Bush and national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, continued. "I think the most likely outcome is the Taliban gets seated."

Of particular concern is the Afghan seat on the Commission for the Status of Women. Afghanistan secured the seat in 2020 , receiving a sufficient 39 votes.
Nikki Haley won't 'put it past' UN to 'promote the Taliban' with credentialed membership
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that she believes the U.N. may recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, citing the organization's "horrendous track record" of legitimizing "the world's worst regimes."

Haley, who served as ambassador to the U.N. under the Trump administration, told the Washington Examiner that she hopes the U.N. will refuse any attempts by the Taliban to represent Afghanistan internationally, calling the terror group "barbaric."

"The U.N. should refuse to allow the Taliban to represent Afghanistan," Haley said. "The U.N. already has a terrible track record when it comes to giving human rights abusers a seat at the table, but this would be a new low. A barbaric group like the Taliban that harbors some of the world’s worst terrorists and sets off suicide bombs in marketplaces has no place in an organization founded to maintain international peace and security."

But the former South Carolina governor expressed skepticism that the international body would refuse to recognize the Taliban due to its willingness to recognize other regimes accused of human rights abuses.

"The U.N. has a horrendous track record of putting human rights violators on human rights committees, so I don't put it past them to promote the Taliban," Haley added. "If a group that throws acid on schoolgirls and is known for rape, abduction, and forced marriage is placed on the Commission of the Status of Women, we should have nothing to do with it. It would be yet another disgrace for the U.N. That's why it's so important we make sure they never get a seat at the table."

The overthrow of the Afghan government on Aug. 14 was met with widespread condemnation and concern from nations around the world. Despite the near-universal criticism, the former ambassador stated that her time in office leads her to believe that the U.N. will be diplomatic with the Taliban, their record of human rights violations and terrorism notwithstanding.


Abraham Accords Are Solid
The real shadow hanging over the future of Abraham Accord-type peace treaties in the region, if there is one, comes from the incipient reconciliation between Washington and Tehran in the form a renewed nuclear deal.

If Washington goes soft on Iran's nuclear program and dials-back its commitment to countering Iran's regional hegemonic ambitions, it seems logical that Gulf countries will seek to further strengthen their security and diplomatic ties with Israel. Israel will remain actively engaged in a long-term shadow war and in an increasingly public war against Iran's designs. And Israel quietly but determinedly will help protect its Gulf allies from Iranian machinations too.

But if the US takes itself out of the frontline against Iran, it also is possible that Gulf countries reluctantly will move in the other direction and bandwagon with Iran. At the very least, they may hedge their bets by minimizing open ties to Israel and the US. To a certain extent, the latter process may be underway already. For the first time in many years, the Saudis and Emiratis recently held direct and public talks with Iranian leaders.

Then there is the question of Israeli leadership. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu personally played a key role in cultivating relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, as well as unofficial ties with Saudi Arabia. The leaders of those countries knew Netanyahu well enough to talk to him about key defense and intelligence issues. They knew that his commitment to aggressively countering Iran was absolute.

Will the same level of trust pertain to Israel's new coalition government led by prime minister Naftali Bennett, foreign minister Yair Lapid, and defense minister Benny Gantz?

Lapid has made statements supporting the JCPOA. Gantz demurred from Netanyahu's comments about countering Iran even if the US decides to back away from confrontation. It is unclear whether Bennett will make Abraham Accord partnerships a priority. Of course, he should do so, and work to gain the confidence of Gulf leaders.
Bennett: Israel will not negotiate with 'fractured and rudderless' Palestinians
Just ahead of his departure for Washington on Tuesday for his first meeting with US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to the New York Times and stressed that the Bennett-Lapid government would neither annex nor form a Palestinian state.

Peace talks would not happen partly because the Palestinian leadership is "fractured and rudderless," he told the Times.

"I'm prime minister of all Israelis, and what I'm doing now is finding the middle ground – how we can focus on what we agree upon," Bennett said.

"Israel will continue the standard policy of natural growth," Bennett said, adding that his government would expand construction in Judea and Samaria, but declining to discuss American pressure to open a reopen a consulate in east Jerusalem to provide services to the Palestinian population.

"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Bennett said. "It's not the capital of other nations."

As far as the escalating security situation on Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, Bennett declared he was prepared to continue fighting Hamas, even if coalition partner Ra'am opposed this approach.
Palestinians: Bennett exposed his ‘anti-peace’ policy
Palestinians on Wednesday strongly denounced Naftali Bennett for his statements on the eve of his visit to the US and said they did not expect anything to come out of the first meeting between an Israeli prime minister and President Joe Biden.

Bennett’s statements show that there is no real difference between him and his predecessor, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Palestinian officials, who accused the prime minister of “sabotaging” efforts to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Bennett, in an interview with The New York Times, said there would not be resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians for the foreseeable future. He said that his government will neither annex any part of the West Bank nor establish a Palestinian state.

Peace talks will not happen, partly because the Palestinian leadership is fractured and rudderless, he said.

“This government is a government that will make dramatic breakthroughs in the economy. Its claim to fame will not be solving the 130-year-old conflict here in Israel.”

Bennett said the government will continue the standard policy of “natural growth” in the settlements, adding that “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s not the capital of other nations.”
Lebanon: Dr. sentenced for helping Arabs get treatment in Israel
A Lebanese military tribunal has sentenced a Lebanese-Australian doctor in absentia to ten years in prison for being a "traitor," ABC News Australia reported.

His crime - helping Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon seek medical treatment in Israel.

"I was informed by my brother that a journalist close to Hezbollah in Lebanon made an announcement that the Lebanese military tribunal sentenced me to 10 years' imprisonment for being a collaborator and a traitor with the enemy," Dr. Jamal Rifi told ABC News.

According to Dr. Rifi, the conviction is related to his work with Project Rozana, a Nongovernmental Organization which provides medical training to Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon and facilitates the transfer of Palestinian Arab patients to Israeli hospitals.

"We have Palestinian volunteers who pick up the patient and their [guardian] and they take them from their home to the checkpoints or the border, they cross the checkpoint or border, and they will be picked up by an Israel volunteer who will take them to the hospital," he said.

He described the ventilators the organization procured for the Palestinian Authority last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as "worth their weight in gold."

Dr. Rifi blamed the Hezbollah terrorist organization and the corruption in Lebanon for his trial and conviction in absentia.

"This is a reflection of the Lebanese corrupt system, which failed to protect their own citizens in Lebanon and now they are chasing expatriates outside of Lebanon for doing a good deed, for speaking the truth and for standing our ground by exposing their failures," he said.
Turning Terrorists Into ‘Activists’: HonestReporting Tweet Calling Out Associated Press Goes Viral
An August 23 article from the Associated Press, Officials: Egypt closes Gaza border amid tensions with Hamas, details how the Rafah crossing between the Sinai Peninsula and the coastal enclave was closed following violent Palestinian rioting on Saturday night.

The piece describes developments two days later:
Activists in the Gaza Strip on Monday launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel, setting off at least three fires across the border, Israel’s national fire service said….

The statement followed a a violent Hamas-organized protest along the Israeli border Saturday in which a Palestinian activist shot an Israeli sniper in the head at point-blank range. The soldier remained in critical condition Monday.”

HonestReporting tweeted about this article, calling out AP on its egregious use of the word “activists” to describe individuals who fired explosives at Israel, as well as someone who, armed with a deadly weapon, attempted to murder an Israeli soldier.

The tweet went viral, with numerous international news organizations citing it in articles that highlighted AP’s linguistic distortion of the reality of attacks against Israel.


IDF Arabic Spokesperson Urges Gazans Not to Heed Hamas Calls for Border Riots
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division of the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit, warned the residents of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday not to heed Hamas’ call to riot along the border with Israel.

Tweeting a photo of two young children, dressed in military garb with war paint on their faces and mock assault rifles in their hands, Adraee wrote in Arabic: “A picture I’d like to share with you of kids at the [recent] ‘peaceful’ demonstration … Isn’t it forbidden to educate them to take up arms? Gaza residents! Today, Hamas is again inviting you to risk your lives. Don’t get close to the fence and don’t use tools of violence and terrorism.”

Adraee’s appeal came four days after hundreds of Palestinians, at the behest of Hamas, staged riots along the border fence in northern Gaza, hurling explosives and firing at Israeli forces, as well as attempting to scale the security barrier.

In response to the riots, which lasted some three hours—and during which Israeli Border Police officer Sgt. Bar-El Hadaria Shmueli suffered a critical head injury from Palestinian gunfire—IDF warplanes struck four Hamas weapon depots and production facilities. The IDF on Monday then instituted certain changes in its border deployment, such as the expansion of a buffer zone between Gazan rioters and Israeli soldiers.


PMW: A prank bigger than the BBC’s “spaghetti tree” hoax or a colossal failure of the Israeli Prison Service?
On April 1, 1957, a well respected BBC documentary show broadcast a three minute section on a Swiss family harvesting spaghetti from the family "spaghetti tree". At the time spaghetti was relatively new to the UK and most people did not know how it was made. The following day hundreds of viewers contacted the BBC to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC reportedly told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." Years later, CNN would crown the BBC "spaghetti tree" broadcast as "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled."

Is the Palestinian Authority out-doing even the BBC?

According to the PA there are literally hundreds of terrorist prisoners studying for academic degrees, under the auspices of the Al-Quds Open University, while serving their sentences within Israeli prisons. Every year there are grandiose ceremonies to award the degrees to the graduating prisoners, with PA officials explaining how the prisoners “have turned the prison and the cells into seminars and courses through their perseverance in studying.”

While no ceremony was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Aug. 11, the PA held a combined graduation ceremony for both the 2020 and 2021 graduates.

Introducing the event, the broadcaster on official PA TV news opened saying:


“Under the auspices of His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas and in cooperation with the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs, Al-Quds Open University organized a graduation ceremony in Ramallah for prisoners who are in the occupation’s prisons.”

[Official PA TV News, Aug. 11, 2021]

Younes Amr, the Al-Quds Open University President said that the university provided all the educational materials but was unable to provide the terrorist prisoners access to the university TV channel:


EU delays PA funding; salary payment in doubt as crisis deepens
The European Union has delayed by ten months this year’s funding to the Palestinian Authority in a move that has deepened the PA’s financial crisis and raised doubts about the payment of August’s civil servant wages.

“The crisis is very serious, and at this stage we don’t know if we will be able to pay this month’s salaries,” a Palestinian official cautiously told The Jerusalem Post.

The European Union has been the largest single donor to the PA, providing 150 million euros for social allowances, including salaries for employees such as teachers and health care workers.

This year, for the first time the EU has not provided its traditional 150 million euros for those salaries in a timely fashion, referencing technical reasons.

The EU might provide funds by October, leaving the PA scraping the barrel in an effort to fund August wages.

The payment of civil servant salaries for June and July were delayed by several days due to the crisis, the official pointed out.


A Strategy to Contain Hezbollah: Ideas and Recommendations
Since securing a parliamentary majority, the group has consistently prioritized its own interests over those of the Lebanese people through practices such as illicit drug production, sex trafficking, and the buildup of its military arsenal.

When Lebanese took to the streets in October 2019 to rail against government corruption, a lack of accountability, and runaway consumer prices, they coalesced around the chant “All of them!”—meaning that every political actor in the country held some blame for the national meltdown. But the slogan glossed over the important fact that one group in particular, Hezbollah, deserved the most blame. Since notching a parliamentary majority in 2018, the Iran-backed military-political organization has consistently prioritized its own interests over those of the Lebanese people through practices such as illicit drug production, sex trafficking, and—of course—the buildup of its military arsenal.

In this Policy Note, Hanin Ghaddar, an expert on Lebanon who worked for years as a journalist in the country, explains why Hezbollah poses such a menace and what the international community can do about it. Foremost, she recommends that the United States and its partners intensify pressure on Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsor while simultaneously engaging with a new generation of Lebanese who want to free themselves from the group’s stranglehold.
Into the Heart of a Hezbollah Terror Tunnel
The Arabic language desk of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit marked 15 years since the Second Lebanon War by inviting Israeli media commentators to visit a Hezbollah terror tunnel on the border with Lebanon. I was one of the participants.

Hezbollah terrorists have spent years carving tunnels out of hard rock, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, under the homes of innocent Lebanese men, women, and children with the purpose of murdering and kidnapping Israeli civilians. Thanks to an invitation from the Arabic language desk of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, which was marking 15 years since the Second Lebanon War, I was able to enter one of these tunnels and report on it from the inside.

The visit was organized by the remarkable Capt. Ella, a female Muslim IDF officer. The IDF’s object was to expose Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure to the wider Arab world.

Invited into the tunnel were a number of Israeli social media influencers and media commentators who are fluent in Arabic. These individuals, including myself, regularly appear on television and radio in the Arab world, and have large Arab followings on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In recent years, thanks to those networks, Arabic-speaking Israelis of various ages and fields have been getting the Israeli narrative out in the Arabic language. What they have in common is the desire to defend the State of Israel against incitement conveyed in Arabic on social media. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit brought us to the tunnel because we constitute “power multipliers” for Israel’s official public relations efforts.

The group included Shlomo Ganor, director of Israeli television in Arabic, and Eli Nissan, a TV personality and veteran commentator. Both are regularly interviewed on Arab television and radio. The group also included social activists Tzachi Fenton, Dr. Meir Masri, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, and others active on social networks and in the Arab media, who collectively reach millions in the Arab world.
MEMRI: Nasrallah Lashes Out against the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon in Several Consecutive Statements
Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that the U.S. administration is running an economic and media war in Lebanon from within its local embassy. He made these remarks in a public address that was posted on Spot Shot on YouTube on August 19, 2021. Nasrallah said that U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea meets with “so-called NGOs” and makes demands of them, incites, and bankrolls them. He said that the American embassy colludes and conspires against the Lebanese people. In an address from August 17, which was aired on Al-Manar TV (Lebanon), Nasrallah said that Ambassador Sheah, whom he referred to as a “crone,” dictates policy such as demarcation of borders, treatment of the resistance, and succumbing to Israel in meetings with NGOs.

On August 22, 2021, he said in an address that aired on Al-Manar TV as well that the embassy interferes with fuel and drug companies in Lebanon. Nasrallah added that the U.S. has been working with Saudi Arabia to cause civil war in Lebanon but has failed, so it is working to cause disintegration in the country. He explained that while in a civil war it is groups and political parties that fight each other, in Lebanon it is individuals that fight each other. He added that soon we will see people shooting and stabbing each other over fuel in gas stations, at bakeries, and over groceries.


Israel is accelerating operational plans to take action against Iran - IDF chief Kohavi
Israel’s military is accelerating its operational plans against Iran due to the progress of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi has warned.

“The progress of the Iranian nuclear program has led the IDF to accelerate its operational plans and the recently approved defense budget is earmarked for that,” he said.

Kohavi commented as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in the United States ahead of a visit with US President Joe Biden and other senior officials. Bennett is expected to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran and drop efforts to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during his first visit to the White House.

“When we began to plan the visit, a return to the agreement seemed certain,” Bennett said ahead of his departure on Tuesday. “Since then, the time has passed, the president in Iran has changed, and things seem far less certain. In our view, it may be that there is no return to the agreement.”

With no diplomatic options likely to push Tehran to stop its nuclear program, Israel’s military believes that the Islamic Republic needs to be aware that should it continue with its program, it will face harsher sanctions and a true military option to stop it.







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