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Tuesday, September 14, 2021

09/14 Links Pt1: Afghanistan and the Left’s Moral Inconsistency; Palestinians make anti-US statement on Durban as Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia boycott; How murderers become ‘political prisoners’

From Ian:

Palestinians make anti-US statement on Durban as Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia boycott
The Palestinian Authority slammed countries boycotting the upcoming Durban Conference anniversary event, with an emphasis on the US.

Meanwhile, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia confirmed they also would not be attending the event in New York on September 22, bringing the number of countries boycotting to 19.

The 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was marked with antisemitism and anti-Israel events. Israel was singled out for opprobrium as racist in the declaration released by UN member states participating, a declaration that accuses no other specific countries and that next week’s conference is meant to reaffirm. The parallel NGO forum accused Israel of apartheid, and organizations taking part gave out copies of the antisemitic canard The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and materials saying Hitler was right.

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry tweeted in a statement on Tuesday that it “strongly objects to inimical statements and tendentious attacks against the upcoming Durban Conference... Such iniquitous calls to boycott the conference display an alarming level of deficit in morality and expose a hypocritical approach. The State of Palestine calls on all states and international organizations to attend the conference and adopt a political declaration for the full and effective implementation of its principles and values,” referring to the statement in which Israel is the only country designated a perpetrator of racism. “Palestine rejects morally corrupt and politically sinister attempts to disconnect the Palestinian struggle to freedom from this global cause” against racism.

In a thinly veiled reference to the United States, the statement adds: “It is not a coincidence that the same States that have long opposed the inclusion of acts of slavery in its current and past manifestations as a crime against humanity are now boycotting this past year’s conference on reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent.”


Emily Schrader: How murderers become ‘political prisoners’
Israel was shaken last week with the news of six Palestinian terrorists escaping from the high-security Gilboa prison. But potentially even more disturbing was the concerted effort by activists – and even the press in some cases – to whitewash their crimes and present the terrorists as heroes against oppression. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. The inability of some to differentiate between actual political prisoners, the likes of whom suffer every day in places like Evin prison in Iran, and convicted Palestinian terrorists serving a sentence for actions they took, is inexcusable.

Immediately after news broke of the Palestinian terrorists’ miraculous escape, by digging a tunnel under the prison, Palestinian social media began celebrating. In addition, there were widespread celebrations in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank over the Israeli security failure. In one case, the Palestinian village of Beita celebrated by burning an effigy of a Jew and uploading the video to social media. Of course as expected, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas celebrated the escape of the prisoners as well. But even more disturbing were the activists, organizations and public figures, in some cases even journalists, who defended the terrorists and their activities.

Jewish Voice for Peace, known for their extremist viewpoints, had previously raised eyebrows for endorsing the intifada in their promotional materials. But in this instance they raised (or should I say lowered) the bar by comparing the Palestinian terrorists who escaped to Holocaust victims who attempted to dig their way out of concentration camps. In a similarly repulsive statement, Director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Ghada Majadli, explicitly endorsed the violence of the six terrorists, calling it “freedom fighting” and calling them “political prisoners.”

In the academic realm, there was no shortage of whitewashing terror: political analyst Yousef Munayyer tweeted in praise of the escape repeatedly, and even retweeted Harvard PhD candidate Randa Wahbe, who praised the terrorists as “heroes” and “political prisoners.” Noura Erekat, a professor at Rutgers University, also praised the terrorists and called for all Palestinian prisoners to be released.
Why Didn’t Palestinians or Israeli Arabs Rally in Support of Fugitive Terrorists?
When 6 terrorists escaped from an Israeli prison Islamic Jihad called for Israeli and Palestinians Arabs to take to the streets to interfere with efforts to recapture them.

The grand total number of Palestinians across all of Judea and Samaria who answered the call of Islamic Jihad numbered well less than a thousand with the largest incident accounting for half the total. Only around ten Arabs were seen chanting their support at Al Aqsa Mosque after Friday prayers.

Ten!

As for Israeli Arabs, when four of the terrorists we recaptured thanks to Israeli Arabs who tipped off the police, we learned that the terrorists couldn't find any Israeli Arab who was willing to help drive them across the Green Line.

Security officials remained concerned that the Palestinians would lash out in support of the terrorists and recommended that Jewish New Years movement restrictions from Judea and Samaria be extended until after Yom Kippur. Prime Minister Bennett overruled them and those Palestinians employed inside Israel returned to work on Sunday, So far nothing has happened.

Why did the security experts get it so wrong?

I suspect that they took the terrifying riots earlier this year as their model.

But, apparently, there is a key difference between the two situations.

The rioting took place because the street bought the line that "al Aqsa is in danger".

The escape of 6 terrorist had NOTHING to do with al Aqsa.

How do we use this insight?


JPost Editorial: US pressure on Palestinian Jerusalem consulate is a step back - editorial
The consulate issue was raised by Biden in his meeting with Bennett in Washington earlier this month. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also called for the consulate to be reopened.

The pressure puts Israel in a difficult position. Unlike the governments led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Bennett-Lapid government wants to repair ties with the Democrats and work closely with the Biden administration on issues of mutual concern, such as Iran’s continued pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.

On the one hand, Israel should listen to US concerns and suggest innovative ways to engage positively with the Palestinians without the need for a consulate. A special envoy or some other form of diplomatic post at the US embassy in Jerusalem could, for example, serve the interests of the Palestinians.

But Israel also needs to clearly articulate its opposition to a consulate. It undermines the chances for peace, threatens the stability of the government and erases the accomplishment of getting the embassy moved from Tel Aviv.

In the past, the Palestinians used their claims to half of Jerusalem as a way to blackmail Israel. If the issues of Jerusalem and other “final status” issues weren’t solved, they said, then Israel would be stymied in its efforts to forge relations with countries in places like the Gulf. That has proven to be a false threat.

It is important that Israel explain all of this to the Biden administration. The opening of the consulate is not a technical matter: it undermines Israel’s sovereignty in the city that has served as the Jewish people’s capital for 3,000 years – and is about ideology, rights to this land and the meaning of the Zionist movement.
Noah Rothman: Afghanistan and the Left’s Moral Inconsistency
That sort of elision—one predicated on the assumption that American citizens are owed more from their government than U.S. residents or our wartime allies—would prompt white-hot denunciations of the former administration, and deservedly so. Joe Biden’s White House isn’t being deliberately coy about the number of eligible evacuees they left behind due to any sort of discriminatory impulse. Rather, to be honest about the mess they’ve made would be politically inopportune. That’s a distinction with a difference, but not one that makes this disaster any more palatable.

And as for what the State Department admitted was “the majority” of the Afghans who helped American forces and are now at risk of reprisal by the Taliban, they shouldn’t look to the U.S. for further assistance. As National Review’s Jim Geraghty revealed, State is advising Afghans that they are “unable to provide consular services” for immigrant visas, including the Special Immigrant Visas provided to Afghans on the U.S. payroll. Though the State Department is “considering” and “developing additional processing alternatives,” you’re on your own for now. Those Afghans are advised to seek out the assistance of the United Nations—a remote prospect, Geraghty observes, as the UN cannot even provide for its own personnel in Central Asia.

Quite unlike the Trump administration, Joe Biden’s White House is seeking ways to accommodate the Afghans who managed to scramble aboard an outbound plane from Kabul last month. They’ve made requests of Congress for billions in funding to put toward an Afghan refugee resettlement effort. But the administration has confessed that only a small number of those refugees qualify for a Special Immigrant Visa. It will take legislation to speed them through the system, as well as to properly vet their backgrounds to ensure we’re not importing foreign nationals with ties to terrorist organizations. But individual Afghans are not interchangeable. The resettlement of some Afghans in the West, no matter how deserving those refugees may be, does not satisfy the debt we owe the tens of thousands of Afghan allies the U.S. sacrificed to the Taliban.

“We inherited a deadline,” Sec. Blinken told Congress on Monday, “we did not inherit a plan.” That is not true. Not only did the Biden White House renegotiate the so-called deadline for withdrawal in Afghanistan, they did have a plan to execute that withdrawal. Indeed, they stuck with it well after it had become clear that it would produce a historic disaster and an unprecedented betrayal of our wartime allies.

A moral consistency would compel those who were incensed by the Trump administration’s sacrifice of American values to be just as outraged by the Biden administration’s failure to see to America’s responsibilities. The lack of that consistency today is instructive.
What Makes Israel “Iran’s Arch-Enemy”: How the Sunni–Shiite Divide Became a Revolutionary Mission
At the root of the ancient rift between Sunni and Shiite (literally, the tradition vs. the faction) lies a dispute over political history: Who should have been the rightful inheritor of the Prophet. With the Shiites loyal to the claim of his son in-law ‘Ali and his progeny, the Prophet’s grandsons Hasan and Husayn, their faction’s defeat at the hands of the Umayyads in the battle of Karbala in 680 became a cataclysmic event, an emblem of a history gone wrong. It was a wrong to be redressed in the fullness of time, with the return of the Imam: but until the twist it took under Khomeini in the last quarter of the 20th century, this Shiite mourning about the state of the world was not necessarily translated into a call to arms.

What Khomeini did—perhaps inspired, at least, to some extent, by Frantz Fanon and his “Third-Worldly” Marxist creed aimed at “the Wretched of the Earth”—was to translate the ancient Shiite grievance into a modern revolutionary agenda. The redress of the shattering wrong of the 7th century became synonymous with the overthrow of the existing order of the late 20th.

As it happened, the coming to power of the Islamic revolution in Iran coincided with the event that symbolized the final collapse of the secular (and socialist) pan-Arab nationalist agenda: Sadat’s peace with Israel, signed in March 1979, within weeks of Khomeini’s triumphant return to Tehran. This, in turn, gave Iran’s position on Israel a unique twist, which grew and persisted now for more than four decades: namely that while the treasonous Sunni regimes have laid down their arms, it is now the duty of the true faith of Islam—the Shiite version of revolutionary Islamism—to prove itself by remaining, alone if necessary, “in the business” of destroying Israel. Thus, despite the chasm separating Sunni and Shiite radicals (later erupting into bloody conflict in post-2003 Iraq), Tehran saw fit to honor Sadat’s assassin, al-Islambuli, with the naming of a major thoroughfare in Tehran.

In other words, the mullahs’ regime upholds the struggle that others have surrendered (including, today, much of the Arab world, and particularly the UAE, with whom Iran does have a concrete territorial dispute). This, in turn, becomes a legitimizing factor, abroad and more importantly, at home. Having failed to deliver for the Iranian people in any other respect—the country, once three times richer than Turkey, is now four times poorer; corruption, drugs, prostitution are rampant; brutal repression of dissent is the norm—at least the regime can stake its claim to fame (and legitimacy) on violently waving the anti-Zionist flag.

It does not end there. By its very existence, Israel—born in 1948—signifies and symbolizes the post-1945 dispensation in world affairs. It is this dispensation that the Shiite revolutionary agenda seeks to undo altogether, calling it “hegemonism” or “arrogance” and obviously linking it to the role of the “Great Satan,” the United States. In his day, Ahmadinejad managed to convey to the unamused German leadership his sympathies—he clearly thought the wrong side had won World War II—and in this respect, the exterminatory intent toward Israel indeed fits in well with a broader reading of history that tries to undo what went wrong, whether in 661 (‘Ali’s assassination), 680 (Husayn’s assassination), 1945 or 1948. Such meta-historical motivations are much more difficult to undo by “normal” diplomacy—unless it is backed by significant force—than practical conflicts revolving around specific interests.
UN Ambassadors Gather in New York to Mark Abraham Accords’ One-Year Anniversary
The United Nations ambassadors of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco on Monday marked one year since the signing of the Abraham Accords at a ceremony in New York City.

The historic agreement, by which Israel normalized relations with the UAE and Bahrain, was signed at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020. Later, Sudan and Morocco joined the accords.

“The Abraham Accords are the best representation of practicing tolerance and living in peace with our neighbors,” said Israel’s Ambassador to the UN and the United States Gilad Erdan. Erdan was the first dignitary to address the audience gathered at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, which included about 70 ambassadors.

“I strongly believe that as others in the region see the fruits of our partnerships and feel this transformation, they will join our circle of peace,” he added.

Also speaking at the event was the UAE Ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibeh, Bahrain Ambassador to the UN Jamal Al Rowaiei and Moroccan Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale. They stressed the growing ties between their countries and Israel.

Joining them on stage was US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
One Year Anniversary of the Abraham Accords

David Friedman Reflects on Historic Abraham Accords

‘A great honor’: Bahrain’s first-ever envoy to Israel presents credentials
Bahrain’s first-ever ambassador to Israel Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma presented his credentials to President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

Jalahma gave his letter of credence to Herzog in a formal ceremony, a day before the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords at the White House, which normalized ties between Jerusalem and Manama.

Jalahma held a diplomatic meeting with Herzog after the presentation ceremony, which was followed by joint statements to the press in Hebrew and Arabic.

“Brave states take brave steps,” Herzog said to Jalahma. “The Abraham Accords were the fruit of both vision and power.”

The president called the relationship “a model for the whole Middle East” and expressed his hope that other countries will follow Bahrain’s example.

Herzog also stressed the threat Iran poses to both nations.


UAE Sees $1 Trillion in Trade With Israel Over Next Decade, Says Minister of Economy
The United Arab Emirates expects economic activity with Israel to grow to more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

“We have $600 to $700 million dollars of bilateral trade happening, we have funds of billions of dollars that have been announced jointly between the two countries, we are moving into so many areas of economic opportunities,” said UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq. “We are looking to create over $1 trillion dollars of economic activity over the next decade.”

Talking at a public event marking the one-year anniversary of the normalization of ties between Israel and the UAE, Bin Touq said that the Gulf power has signed over 60 memorandums of understanding with the Jewish state. The UAE and Bahrain last year agreed to formalize their diplomatic ties with Israel under the so-called “Abraham Accords” brokered with the help of the Trump administration.

One of the investments cited by Bin Touq was the $1 billion stake in an Israeli gas field by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum. The UAE also sees renewable energy opportunities in Israel as well as investments coming from a recently signed agreement on food and agritech technologies.

According to figures from the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce (FICC), the trade volume between Israel and the UAE jumped to $523.2 million in the first six months of this year from about $189 million during the full-year of 2020. Since the normalization of ties between the two nations, about 200,000 Israelis have visited the UAE.


UAE marks year since Abraham Accords on billboards in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Israel commemorated a year since the Abraham Accords with billboards in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Tuesday touting peace.

“Peace is the future of our children,” the billboards read in Hebrew and Arabic, along with Israeli and Emirati flags and “Embassy of the United Arab Emirates Tel Aviv.”

One of the billboards is on The Jerusalem Post offices in central Tel Aviv.

On September 14, 2020, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords at the White House, making peace and normalization of relations between the Gulf states and Israel official.

To mark the occasion, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat aimed to break a world record of most consecutive media interviews.

In an operation called “Talking Peace,” Haiat planned to give over 100 interviews to news outlets worldwide about the year of peace over 15 hours, beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.


Abraham Accords' success highlights cold Egypt ties
The festivities marking one year to the anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords with the Arab Gulf states are far from over, and on Monday, we learned there was yet another cause for celebration: the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to Egypt in years and the first public meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Add to that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's visit to Jordan two months ago, and we have three positive events, the importance of which cannot be underestimated. This is particularly true given the bleak Middle Eastern climate of increasing threats to Israel: Iran's race toward nuclear weapons, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the pro-Iranian militias in Syria, as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the south.

Israel's thriving peace with the United Arab Emirates, which is gaining speed by the day, reflects the natural process of the normalization of ties, which were once conducted behind the scenes. Although treaties have been signed, the peace that exists between Israel and Jordan and Egypt, however, is not exactly normal.

The reasons for this are well-known. We do not share a border with the Arab Gulf states, nor have we fought any wars against them. A majority of these states accepted the State of Israel's existence as a legitimate entity in the region and recognized its necessity as the sole power in the region capable of taking on the common enemy of Iran. Peace with Jordan and Egypt, who have gone to war with us, is the result of agreements signed between leaders. In both those countries, deep hatred toward us continues to bubble over.
The Egypt-Israel Common Strategic Agenda
At the regional level, Jerusalem and Cairo share a concern about Iran's aggressive policies, although Israel's threat perception is greater. Yet, they are fully in sync about Turkey's promotion of Islamic extremism (with Qatar) and its neo-Ottoman aspirations. Egypt and Israel also are in alliance against growing Turkish assertiveness in the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt is a key member of the strategic alignment embodied in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), alongside Greece, Cyprus and Israel – an alignment which is designed inter alia to contain Turkish quest for hegemony in the region.

Israel lends substantial support to Egypt in the latter's efforts to suppress an Islamic insurgency in Sinai. Gaza is sandwiched between Egypt and Israel and ruled by Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the archenemy of the Egyptian regime. Hamas has assisted the Islamists in Sinai. While not averse to bleeding the Jewish state a bit, Egypt is interested in lowering the flames of Israel-Hamas confrontation and has acquired an important role in the mediation between the two sides. This diplomatic role gains Egypt points in Jerusalem and Washington, and gives it leverage over Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Egyptian and Israeli interests also converge in Libya. Both countries side with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, while Turkey intervened in 2020 in the civil war to prevent the fall of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli that includes Islamist elements. Israel's new partner, the UAE, also has assisted Haftar.

Even in Syria, Israel and Egypt seem to have the same preferences. Egypt opposed the efforts of Sunni rebel groups to depose Bashar Assad, while also Israel has been careful not to destabilize Assad's regime – to preserve Israel's freedom of action against Iranian targets in Syria in line with the quid quo pro reached between Israel and Russia after the in September 2015 Russian military intervention. Egyptians often call their country umm ad-dunya, the mother of the world, expressing self-importance. However, ever since the heyday of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's regional weight has declined. Cairo's focus is primarily domestic, like most Arab countries. Nevertheless, Egypt is the most populous and important Arab state with the strongest military among Israel's neighbors. Therefore, Egypt is an important strategic partner for Israel that rates high priority on Israel's foreign policy agenda.
Israel-Egypt relations, not Palestinians, at the center of Bennett-Sisi meeting - source
The exact date of Bennett’s trip had been censored in Israel and Israeli media was not able to accompany the prime minister, because of very tight security arrangements.

As such, in a rare move, the Egyptian Presidency put out a statement to the press about the visit before the PMO did. The public nature of the trip added to previous indications of a warming of ties, like when Egypt and Israel’s energy ministers held a press conference in Egypt early last year.

When it came to discussions about Gaza, the emphasis was on stopping smuggling of arms into Gaza through the Rafah crossing in Egypt. “The fact that Hamas is on a trajectory of turning into Hezbollah is intolerable and will bring the next round of fighting fast,” the diplomatic source said. “We have to make sure weapons don’t enter Gaza.”

When it comes to allowing Qatari funds into Gaza without it reaching terrorists, the government still has not found a solution, the source said.

Captives negotiator Blum met with Egyptian intelligence chief Kamel to discuss the matter of Israeli civilians and soldiers’ bodies held by Hamas in Gaza.
After Sissi summit, Bennett meets family of Israeli held by Hamas in Gaza
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday met with the family of Avera Mengistu, an Israeli man who has been held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2014, his office said.

The meeting with Mengistu’s family on Tuesday at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem followed a summit Bennett held the day before in Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in which the two discussed the ongoing indirect talks between Israel and Hamas regarding the Israeli captives being held in Gaza.

However, the Prime Minister’s Office implied that the meeting was not an indication of a major breakthrough, saying it was “part of the periodic update meetings that the prime minister holds with the families of captives.”

Also at the Mengistu meeting were National Security Adviser Eyal Hulta, Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, and the government’s point person on the issue of captives, Yaron Blum. The Kan public broadcaster on Monday reported that Blum had attended the Monday summit with Sissi, despite his name being left off official communiques about the visit.

“The prime minister told the Mengistu family that he is committed to returning the soldiers and civilians held in the Gaza Strip, and that his door is always open to them,” Bennett’s office said.


Israel’s Media Reports ‘Major’ Attack Recently Thwarted by Authorities
Israeli security forces allegedly thwarted a “major” attack this week as hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians escalate, Israel’s Channel 12 and Channel 13 reported on Monday.

Israeli media reported that the Shin Bet security services and the country’s police foiled a number of attacks, but did not provide further details.

Authorities are on high alert, fearing further violence in Jerusalem during the Yom Kippur holiday, which begins Wednesday evening.

According to Channel 13, nearly 2,000 police officers have been deployed to the city.

This week, several alleged attacks and attempted stabbings have been reported in Israel and the West Bank

Both Israelis and Palestinians have claimed that the perpetrators of the violence were galvanized by the escape of prisoners from the Gilboa Prison last week.

“I don’t know if we are on the verge of escalation,” Public Security Minister Omer Barlev told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

“It is certain that we are in a very sensitive period: the recent attacks, the escape of terrorists from prison and the two that have not yet been found, as well as our problems with Hamas,” he stated.

“Any incident could set fire to the whole region, so we are preparing for an escalation in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza,” he said, using an alternative name for the West Bank.
Hamas ordered to pay NIS 38 million to families of 3 teens murdered in 2014
An Israeli court on Monday ordered Hamas to pay millions in compensation to the families of three teenagers who were kidnapped and murdered by members of the Palestinian terror group in 2014.

The Jerusalem District Court ruling requires the Gaza-ruling Hamas and Hussam Qawasmeh, the convicted mastermind the abduction and killings, to pay NIS 38 million ($11.8 million) to the families of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach.

Fraenkel, 16, Shaar, 16, and Yifrach, 19, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on the night of June 12, 2014, at a hitchhiking post in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.

Their bodies were discovered June 30, in Halhul, near Hebron, after an 18-day search, and it emerged that they had been murdered hours after the kidnapping.

Tensions were further ratcheted up following the subsequent murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammed Abu Kdheir by Jewish extremists in an apparent revenge attack. The events were a major catalyst of the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that started on July 8.

“The fact that the youths were murdered around the time of the kidnapping and the murderers concealed the youths’ tragic fate shows their cruelty was also aimed directly at the relatives, who remained uncertain during this period” of their children’s fates, Judge Ilan Sela wrote in the ruling.
Hamas to pay $11.8M to families of teens killed in 2014

The Israel Guys: Why Was This 12 Year Old Palestinian Boy Killed?
You’ve seen them. The headlines are full of stories about the IDF beating and sometimes killing Arab women and children. Unfortunately, no one bothers to go behind the headlines to find out the real story. Today, Josh lifts the curtain and brings you the truth.


PMW: Fatah calls for “popular uprising” – Palestinians respond with 3 stabbing attacks
Yesterday, two Palestinian terrorists carried out stabbing attacks against Israelis. One used a kitchen knife to stab and wound two Israeli teenagers in central Jerusalem, while another attempted to stab Israeli soldiers with a screwdriver at the Gush Etzion junction. A few days earlier, another terrorist used a knife to try and stab an Israeli security officer in the Old City of Jerusalem. All three attacks followed the call by Abbas’ Fatah Movement for “an urgent popular uprising in all the Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps,” which the movement issued following the recent escape of the 6 terrorists from prison. The official PA daily found this message so important that it printed it two days in a row:
“The Palestinian National Liberation Movement – Fatah called on the masses of our people to come out for an urgent popular uprising in all the Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps as a sign of support for the prisoners. It emphasized that it ‘will stand together with the masses of our people alongside our heroic prisoners and will not leave them alone in the battle.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 9 and 10, 2021]

As Palestinian Media Watch has documented “popular uprising” is a term used by Palestinians that also refers to violence and terror. The PA repeatedly called the “knife intifada” of 2015 – 2016 in which 40 people were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, a “popular uprising.”

Similarly, at a procession in Jenin organized by Fatah, “the speakers called on the masses of our people to carry out a comprehensive popular uprising in all the districts of the homeland”:
“Hundreds of civilians participated in a procession yesterday evening [Sept. 9, 2021] for the sake of the prisoners… The procession, which was organized by Fatah in partnership with the forces in Jenin… the participants waved the Palestinian flag and pictures of… the prisoners who succeeded in achieving their freedom from Gilboa Prison…

The speakers called on the masses of our people to carry out a comprehensive popular uprising in all the districts of the homeland.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 10, 2021]
Im Tirtzu Exposes TV Channels Watched by Imprisoned Terrorists

UN resolution allows Palestinians to engage in “armed struggle,” lies Fatah official

Mother of terrorist “Martyr”: “My son had nothing called a funeral, rather it was a wedding”

PA National Knowledge Competition tests students in identifying terrorists

Muslims will “purify” the Temple Mount and “liberate the land and the people” says PA preacher

“Russia, China, and the forces of good” are “Heaven’s gift to all of humanity,” says Fatah official



New Houthi Attacks on Strategic Targets in Saudi Arabia and Yemen
Houthi rebels in Yemen have intensified attacks since late August with weaponized drones and ballistic missiles against civilian and military strategic targets in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

On September 11, 2021, the Associated Press reported that the United States removed its most advanced missile defense system (THAAD) and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

A combined ballistic missile and explosive drone attack on September 4 on the giant Aramco facility near Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia (and close to Bahrain) is an apparent Iranian warning against Bahrain’s rapprochement with Israel.

On September 11, 2021, a ballistic missile and five explosive drones – believed to be Houthi – hit al-Mocha, a Red Sea port in Yemen, and destroyed humanitarian aid warehouses.

Iran will try to rally the Resistance Camp to press for proactive and reactive political and military activity. Israel, the Arab countries, and the United States must prepare to deal with this trend.
Seth Frantzman: Iran’s goal in Lebanon: Push the Americans out, like Afghanistan - analysis
Iran has a goal in Lebanon and it involves sending tankers with fuel to Syria that will help make Lebanon appear less dependent on the West. Like many Iranian policies, such as enriching uranium, the actual policy is more complex than western media portray it. Iran likes to play foreign relations with a mix of threats, attacks and diplomatic and economic initiatives. It does this in a chess-like manner. Iran openly boasts of its complex multi-layered approach.

When it comes to Lebanon the appearance of a tanker or several tankers off the coast of Syria in coming days and weeks, may actually be just the tip of the iceberg of what is actually happening. The tankers may be a distraction. We know that Hezbollah has boasted of these Iranian tankers arriving off the coast of Syria.

TankerTrackers.com tweeted on September 14, “visual confirmation: The Iranian handysize tanker FAXON (9283758) is discharging 33,000 metric tons of gasoil. Unable to deliver directly by sea to Lebanon due to sanctions, the vessel went instead to Baniyas, Syria for land transfer. Shall require 1,310 truckloads.”

Now we know that one of the tankers of interest is off the coast of Syria. But what is Iran saying? Pro-Iranian media such as Al-Mayadeen are boasting that Iran is evicting the US and US partners from the region through its “axis of resistance.” This resistance includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranian forces in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and pro-Iran militias in Iraq.

An article at Al-Mayadeen details how Iran views this success story. “It is assumed that the US administration’s decision to allow the Lebanese government to communicate with the Syrian state in order to import Egyptian gas was not classified as exceptional or in response to the demand of the Lebanese state that it should be exempted from complying with the sanctions of the Caesar Act.
West appeases Iran for ‘pitifully little’ as it races to the bomb — analysis
In 1938, after the UK and France tried to appease Hitler by giving Germany the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, Winston Churchill said to British prime minister Neville Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.”

The famous quote came to mind this week, after the West backed down from considering taking the tiniest of stands against Iran – which, like the Nazis, does not hide its aspiration to kill millions of Jews – in exchange for an insignificant concession from Tehran in relation to its rapidly-advancing nuclear program.

There have been two tracks of nuclear negotiations with Iran this year.

First, there are the indirect talks with the US to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, which limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The US has agreed to remove all sanctions former President Donald Trump put on Iran after leaving the nuclear agreement, in exchange for Iran returning to the terms of the JCPOA.

Six rounds of negotiations took place in Vienna between April and June, at which point Iran said it needed time for its presidential election last month and for its new government to enter office. That new government is much more skeptical about the JCPOA, which was negotiated by its predecessor, and has only made vague statements about returning to talks.

The second track is negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, under the terms of the JCPOA.

In February, Iran withdrew from the “additional protocol,” which gave the IAEA greater surveillance capabilities. The UN nuclear watchdog reached a three-month agreement with Tehran at that time, which it renewed once, to allow cameras to record information at Iranian nuclear sites. However, the IAEA would not have access to that information. After three months, the IAEA would have to change the cameras’ batteries and memory cards, which it was allowed to do in May, but not in August.
'Iran 1 month away from breakout to nuclear weapon,' think tank warns
Iran is just one month away from having enough nuclear material to produce its first atomic weapon, according to a new International Atomic Energy Agency report detailed in The New York Times. According to The New York Times, however, US administration officials believe Iran is still a few months away from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Although the Iranians know how to manufacture cruise missiles, it may take them some time to produce a nuclear warhead regardless of whether they have the nuclear material necessary.

Nevertheless, the IAEA report has raised concerns as this is the closest the Shiite country has come to acquiring a nuclear weapon since former US President Barack Obama signed the US onto the 2015 nuclear deal.

According to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security released Monday and reported by The New York Times, Tehran's decision to increase uranium enrichment to 60%, just below weapons-grade, means Iran now has the ability to produce the fuel necessary to manufacture its first bomb in "as short as one month." To produce enough fuel for a second weapon, Iran would need three months, while enough fuel for a third weapon could be produced in under five months, according to the report.

Senior officials in US President Joe Biden's administration have declined to comment on the report.
Iranian guards sexually assaulted female IAEA inspectors - report
Iranian security guards made female International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors remove clothing and then inappropriately touched them at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, according to The Wall Street Journal.

At least four separate incidents of harassment were reported since early June, one diplomat told The Wall Street Journal, while another diplomat said that there had been five to seven. The most recent incident was reported in the past few weeks.

"What I understand is that there was touching in different places, sensitive places and so on," said one diplomat to the newspaper. A paper circulated by the US among IAEA members ahead of a board meeting of the agency's member states this week demanded an end to the conduct.

"Harassment of IAEA inspectors is absolutely unacceptable, and we strongly urge you to make clear in your national statement at the Board meeting that such conduct is deplorable and must end immediately, and that the Board should take appropriate action if further incidents are reported," read the paper, according to the report.
Germany Arrests Man for Shipping Equipment for Iran’s Nuclear Program
German police arrested a German-Iranian man suspected of exporting equipment to be used in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs in breach of European Union sanctions, Germany’s federal prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Police searched 11 locations, including apartments and offices in the states of Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein, and North Rhine-Westphalia linked to the suspect, the prosecutor said.

The suspect, identified only as Alexander J. due to privacy rules, had shipped equipment worth 1.1 million euros to an Iranian whose company in Iran was blacklisted by the EU as a front to procure equipment for nuclear and rocket programs.

The GBA general prosecutor’s office said the suspect was approached in 2018 and 2019 to procure laboratory equipment. He shipped two spectrometers procured for 166,000 euros ($196,510.80) to Iran in Jan. 2020, and six months later shipped another two, procured for 388,000 euros.
Activist Group Accuses New York Times Reporter of Pro-Iran Bent
The National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) lodged a formal complaint with the Times late last week that says reporter Farnaz Fassihi routinely publishes "inaccuracies, falsehoods, and denials of basic truths" that empower Iran's anti-U.S. leaders.

The letter, sent to Times executive editor Dean Baquet and the paper's editorial board, comes on the heels of an open letter issued last week by Iranian journalists, dissidents, and victims of the regime's crimes leveling similar charges against Fassihi. "Farnaz Fassihi's professional infractions … include normalizing the Islamic Republic's brutality through the obfuscation of truth in her journalism over the course of several years," the group of Iranians wrote alongside a detailed list of reports they claim are factually inaccurate and slanted in favor of the Iranian regime.

"Farnaz Fassihi is an accomplished reporter who has covered Iran for several decades," a Times spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon. "We are confident in the accuracy of her reporting for the New York Times."

Fassihi says she has been subjected to misogynistic vitriol online in the past several months, leading the Times to issue a blanket condemnation and defense of the reporter's work in early August. NUFDI, in its letter, condemned vitriolic attacks, but said it has substantial concerns with Fassihi's work.

The group points to Fassihi's reporting on the assassination last year of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. In one piece from January 2020, for instance, Fassihi claimed that Soleimani "had near cult figure status" and was "almost universally admired" by Iranians. The report quotes several individuals who bolster this characterization.

Fassihi's "commentary was so positive that the Islamic Republic's state propaganda services repeatedly cited Ms. Fassihi's writings as global recognition of Mr. Soleimani’s popularity," NUFDI writes. "The selection of these particular quotes, which all endorse a single viewpoint, ignore any and all opponents of Mr. Soleimani and those who supported his elimination."







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