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Tuesday, October 12, 2021

10/12 Links Pt1: Israel’s critics have a new slogan; Do the EU and the UN Know They Are Supporting Scholarships for the Children of Terrorists?; Ben & Jerry suffered an AOC moment

From Ian:

Israel’s critics have a new slogan
Every couple of years, critics of Israel come up with a new slogan that they hope will pressure the Israelis into making more concessions to the Palestinian Authority. They’ve just trotted out their latest model: “Shrinking the conflict.”

Such slogans are usually invented to try to overcome some obstacle that’s interfering with the left’s campaign to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state in its back yard. The current obstacle is that it’s been more than seven years (!) since Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been willing to negotiate with Israel.

If Abbas won’t talk, there’s no way to talk Israel into surrendering half its country. So, Israel’s leftwing critics figure they will wait him out—after all, Abbas, now in the 16 th year of his four year term of office, is 85 and facing various domestic problems. He can’t last forever. While they wait, the pressure-Israel crowd is looking for other ways to engineer Israeli concessions. Hence “shrinking the conflict.”

The Israel-critics think they’re being very clever with this one, because it actually comes from a phrase that was spoken by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But of course, they’ve taken it out of context and tried to turn it into a weapon against him.

The concept that Prime Minister Bennett has mentioned is that since there’s no way of ending the conflict, then all that’s possible is to “shrink” it somewhat, through small steps aimed at economic improvement for the Palestinian Arabs.

But critics of Israel see “shrinking the conflict” differently—they see it as a new formula for building a Palestinian state, just more gradually. So, they’ve seized on the phrase and are running with it.
Do the EU and the UN Know They Are Supporting Scholarships for the Children of Terrorists?
A promotional flier for a course run by an internationally-funded Palestinian NGO shows how the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian NGOs abuse international donors, duping them into funding ostensibly worthy causes, but at the same time supporting terror.

While Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) welcomes European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) funding for training courses for Palestinians, the problem arises when the courses offer full scholarships to the children of terrorist prisoners and dead terrorists, thereby rewarding the terrorists for their crimes.

A new flier — posted by Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the former PA Minister of Education and current advisor for communications and information technology to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas — promotes a Digital Academy for Scientific Innovation (DASI) program run by the Palestinian NGO Al-Nayzak.

According to the flier, while the children of law-abiding Palestinian families are potentially entitled to a 65% discount for the course, the children of “Martyrs and prisoners” are entitled to a full scholarship.

In other words, children of terrorists and murderers — be they imprisoned, released, or dead (so-called “Martyrs”) — are rewarded and can study for free.
Text on image: “Hurry to register at the following link:
Dasi.ps/register
With a possibility to receive a full scholarship for the children of Martyrs and prisoners.
And a discount of up to 65% for the rest of the recipients.”
[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, Sept. 18, 2021]
This means that Safa, the daughter of Abdullah Bargouhti, an imprisoned Palestinian terrorist convicted for the murder of 67 people in multiple terror attacks, and the children of Marwan Barghouti, convicted for his part in the murder of 5 people, are entitled to special privileges, simply because their fathers are mass murderers.
Ben & Jerry Struggle to Defend Israel Boycott Decision in Sanctimonious Interview
Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of the eponymous ice cream brand, sat down for an interview with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond as part of an Emmy Award-winning docuseries.

The in-depth conversation saw the famously progressive duo grilled about the Vermont-based firm’s divisive decision to end sales of its products in “Occupied Palestinian Territory” — that is, the disputed West Bank — as well as the subsequent fallout that included numerous US states divesting funds from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever.

After acknowledging they were aware of having waded into an “emotional issue,” Greenfield was quizzed by McCammond on why the company only took a stance on the issue recently when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for many years.

Greenfield replied:
The policy of the Israeli government has been to endorse these settlements in the occupied territories that keep on making it harder and harder to actually have a two-state solution.”

In fact, Israeli peace plans have been rejected repeatedly by Palestinian leaders, including those that would have seen the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

If anything, it is the actions of the Palestinian Authority that have stymied the peace process, not those of the Israeli government.

Greenfield later described the steps taken by US states to divest from Unilever as “largely based on misinformation,” before clarifying, “I think Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever are being characterized as boycotting Israel, which is not the case at all. It’s not boycotting Israel in any way.”

However, a noteworthy point of contention that is conspicuously absent in this exchange is that the Ben & Jerry’s independent board did want to boycott Israel in its entirety.


Ben & Jerry suffered an AOC moment - comment
Like AOC, Cohen hooked onto the settlements, because that’s easy, because it takes a very complicated issue and reduces it to one source of all the problems. Because it’s acceptable and in vogue and “progressive” to bash settlements.

And how is the boycott of settlements good for business? Greenfield hinted at this when he said that Ben & Jerry’s “publicly supported Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, but over the years the company continues to sell more ice cream and thrive.”

Perhaps the “but” here is out of place. Perhaps he should have said, “Ben & Jerry’s publicly supported Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and as a result, over the years, the company continues to sell more ice cream and thrive.”

Might that also have been one of the rationales for the company taking its move now on settlements? Get behind an issue seen as cutting edge ‘woke,’ in the hopes that by virtue signaling on a popular Progressive issue, it may boost sales.

Or, as Nick Kostov wrote in the Wall Street Journal piece last month about various states divesting from Unilever stocks because of the Ben & Jerry/settlements brouhaha, the fallout for Unilever “comes as more companies take public stands on societal issues, an approach Unilever has put at the heart of its strategy. For decades, companies largely tried to avoid wading publicly into social and political debates, preferring to influence policy through lobbying efforts, campaign contributions and membership in industry groups. But in a reversal for many big businesses, brands have embraced what has become known as purpose marketing, which many believe helps to drive sales growth.”

What Israel-supporters opposed to Ben & Jerry’s move are seeking to do, is show that when it comes to the Jewish state, this type of “purpose marketing” will have the opposite effect.


Friedman: A US retreat from world stage could doom Abraham Accords
The retreat of the United States from the world stage could doom the Abraham Accords, former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference on Tuesday, in a warning to the Biden administration.

“This won’t work if America retreats from the world stage and fails to project its values in the region,” said Friedman as he spoke with the paper’s senior contributing editor and diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.

He spoke of the deal brokered by the former Trump administration under whose rubric Israel normalized ties with four Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

As a Trump administration envoy in the region, Friedman was a part of the process from its infancy. On Monday, he launched the Friedman Center for Peace through Strength to help continue to advance the accords. He has just completed a documentary on the process and is authoring a book on the initiative.

The accords, he said, were possible because they were backed by a strong US that guided and encourages ties between Arab nations and Israel, offering political, economic and security support.

Friedman never mentioned the US President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, but he appeared to reference it when he said that the Biden administration needs to convince Arab states that it can be depended on as a strong regional ally.
Kushner at Knesset Inaugurates Abraham Accords Caucus to Expand Peace Pacts
Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who helped forge peace treaties between Israel and Arab states, said Monday that the so-called Abraham Accords “create a new paradigm in the region.”

Speaking at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset marking the one-year anniversary of the historic agreements and the inauguration of the Abraham Accords Caucus, Kushner, who was accompanied by his wife Ivanka Trump, emphasized that “high expectations” should be set. The Caucus will focus on the promotion of the US-brokered normalization deals, and the advancement of future agreements with other countries.

The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco last year agreed to formalize their diplomatic ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords brokered with the help of the Trump administration.

“The Abraham Accords entail a real opportunity to bond people, and opens for us all a wealth of opportunities in the fields of economics, science and technology,” said MK Ruth Wasserman Lande, who co-leads the parliamentary group. “The caucus for the advancement of the Abraham Accords will produce fruitful and significant cross-border initiatives with its counterparts in Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE.”

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid thanked Kushner and Ivanka Trump for helping turn the agreements into “reality” when few thought it was possible.

“You have already entered history, already changed history. History won’t forget you. The people of Israel won’t forget you,” Lapid said.


Jordan and Israel Sign Countries’ ‘Largest Water Sale’ Deal
Israel formally agreed Tuesday to double the amount of freshwater it provides to neighbor Jordan, one of the world’s most water-deficient countries.

The agreement is proof that “we want good neighborly relations,” said Karine Elharrar, Israel’s infrastructure, energy and water resource minister.

Elharrar travelled to Jordan for a signing ceremony between representatives to the Joint Water Committee, which manages bilateral water relations.

The two countries agreed that Israel would sell 50 billion liters of water a year to Jordan, doubling what it already supplies.

“This represents the largest water sale in the history of the two countries,” said Israeli Director of EcoPeace Middle East Gidon Bromberg.

He said that the deal “reflects the growing understanding that the climate crisis already heavily impacting the region must lead to increased cooperation.”

Jordan’s cooperation with Israel on water predates their 1994 peace treaty.

Israel is also a hot, dry country, but desalination technology has opened opportunities for selling freshwater.
‘Jewish supremacy’ conspiracy theory spread on Irish parliament floor
Israel is trying to “accomplish Jewish supremacy,” deputy chairperson of the lower house of Ireland’s parliament Catherine Connolly wrote in a parliamentary question this month.

The term “Jewish supremacy” is an accusation lobbed at Israel by its opponents, with ties to centuries-old antisemitic accusations of Jews trying to take over the world, similar to the notorious libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Connolly presented Israeli “Jewish supremacy” as a fact, asking Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney if by his ministry’s “indicating support for the Jewish character of the Israeli state agrees with the treatment by Israel of Palestinian communities in its attempts to accomplish Jewish supremacy.”

She also asked Coveney “his views on whether these attempts to perpetuate the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians amount to apartheid, and if he will make a statement on the matter.”

Coveney said he “respect[s] the strong connection between the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

“By their very nature, all states have certain inherent characteristics,” he added, bringing “socialist, democratic, united, Islamic, Arab or Jewish” as examples, but said that those states should have “full respect for the equal rights of all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or other similar factors.”


PMW: Fatah officials threaten to use terror: “resistance in all its forms, with all means”
Following Israel’s September raid on a Hamas terror cell in the West Bank, which resulted in 5 terrorists being killed and dozens arrested, a Fatah official threatened that Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement will return to terror, using “resistance in all its forms”:
Fatah Jenin Branch Secretary Ata Abu Rmeileh: “We’ll continue the resistance in all its forms, with all means, and with all our power to defend our Palestinian people and continue this resistance to realize the dream of the Martyrs and take revenge for the pure blood that flows every morning throughout our Palestinian areas.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Sept. 30, 2021]

Terms such as "all means,” "all means of resistance," “all forms,” are ‎used by PA leaders to include using all types of violence, including deadly terror ‎against Israeli civilians such as stabbings and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov Cocktails.

A much stronger and completely straightforward terror threat was made by a member of the terror organization PFLP, which is a member of the PLO. Praising arch-terrorists and murderers, PFLP Political Bureau member Maryam Abu Daqqa stated that “our rifles” are directed against “the enemy”:
PFLP Political Bureau member Maryam Abu Daqqa: “Our compass is clear, our rifle is clear, in one direction. The enemy is one, the homeland is one, the people is one, our path and our rifles are clean and pure against the enemy… [Former PFLP Sec.-Gen.] Abu Ali [Mustafa] is the Martyrs, the prisoners, and the loyalty. We’ve always said: Whoever follows us, whoever follows our path, what do they see? Either Martyrdom-death or blessing. Our path is known, O Abu Ali, loyalty is our custom…”

Newsreader: “How is it possible to restore [this unity] and restore its spark, as Martyr commander Abu Ali Mustafa aspired to do?” …

Maryam Abu Daqqa: “[Through] loyalty to the Moon of the Martyrs [PFLP leader] Martyr Abu Ali, to [Fatah leader] Martyr Yasser Arafat, to [Hamas leader] Ahmed Yassin, to [Islamic Jihad leader Fathi] Shaqaqi, to Haidar Abd Al-Shafi, [Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Marwan] Barghouti, and all the Martyrs.”

[Official PA TV News, Aug. 27, 2021]
Abbas consoles families of terrorist “heroes,” proud of “the Martyrs of Palestine”

Children delegitimize Israel's existence, say Nazareth is “an occupied Palestinian city”



Iran hacked US and Israeli defense tech companies - Microsoft
The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) announced on Monday that Iranian hackers successfully targeted US and Israeli defense technology companies.

More than 250 Microsft Office 365 accounts linked to the US, EU and the Israeli government were hacked into through extensive password spraying.

In addition, Persian Gulf ports of entry and global maritime transportation companies with business presence in the Middle East were also targeted.

The hacking "likely supports the national interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Microsoft said.

The companies hacked included defense companies that support US, EU, and Israeli government partners producing military-grade radars, drone technology, satellite systems, and emergency response communication systems.

Microsoft assessed that Iran's targeting of these defense tech companies "supports Iranian government tracking of adversary security services and maritime shipping in the Middle East."
US Officials Call Talks With Taliban ‘Candid and Professional’
The United States said on Sunday the first face-to-face meeting between senior U.S. and Taliban officials since the hardline group retook power in Afghanistan was "candid and professional" and that the U.S. side reiterated that the Taliban would be judged on their actions, not just their words.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. delegation at the weekend talks in Doha, Qatar, focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghans, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society.

He said the two sides also discussed "the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people."

"The discussions were candid and professional with the U.S. delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words," Price said in a statement.

It did not say if any agreements were reached.

The foreign ministry in Kabul said the two-day meeting went well. It welcomed the U.S. offer of humanitarian assistance and said local authorities would facilitate delivery and cooperate with aid groups but said such assistance "should not be linked to political issues".

"Detailed discussions were held during the meeting about all relevant issues. And efforts should be exerted to restore diplomatic relations to a better state," the ministry said in a statement, adding that similar meetings would be held in future if required.


Ami Horowitz: Think students would donate money to the Taliban to kill Americans? Watch and find out!!
I went to UC Berkeley to see if students would give me money to finance terrorist attacks against America. You must see it to believe it!!!







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