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Monday, October 25, 2021

10/25 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: The "human rights" terror laundry; Folly of the “Economy for Peace” Thesis; Is the decision to renew US funding to UNRWA conducive with US law?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The "human rights" terror laundry
One of the things that has fried the western brain over the last few decades is the hijack of language to present evil as good and to reverse oppressor and oppressed, victimiser and victim.

One of the principal mechanisms of this moral inversion has been the culture of so-called “human rights,” which has been used to extinguish actual human rights in support of certain agendas. To be more precise, the agenda to destroy the State of Israel. To that end, “human rights” has become in effect a laundromat for terrorism.

In the Middle East, the vehicles for this agenda have been certain “human rights” NGOs. These conduct systematic campaigns of defamation and delegitimisation against Israel — the only upholder of human rights in the Middle East — while downplaying, sanitising or ignoring the real human rights abuses by tyrannical regimes. These include Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which perpetrate or support war crimes and terrorist outrages against Israel as well as committing human rights abuses and /or war crimes against their own people.

Now, the Israeli government has identified six Palestinian “human rights” NGOs that it says go further and work for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been declared a terrorist organisation by the United States, Israel, Canada, and the European Union.


Ben-Dror Yemini: Israel's peace activists must back terror tags for Palestinian rights groups
The Union of Agricultural Work Committees - which is one of the six groups with a terror label on it - sounds like a name of an organization delightfully innocent and pedestrian.

Two of the activists working for this organization - Summer Arabid and Abd a-Razak Farage - not only happen to be members of the PFLP, but were also accused of being involved in the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in August 2019, who was killed by a roadside bomb while hiking with her father near Dani's Spring.

The former head of the prisoners' rights group "Addameer," another outlawed organization, Khalida Jarrar, is also a PFLP member.

The list of members of these EU-funded rights groups who are connected to terror organizations goes on and on.

Nevertheless, shortly after Gantz’s declaration, Meretz MK Gaby Lasky posted a tweet in which she stated that “human rights organizations are not terrorist organizations. The defense minister must reverse his decision.”

Meretz head and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, meanwhile, demanded proof before labeling the six organizations illegal, same as Labor MK Naama Lazimi.

Their demands are weird, to say the least, considering detailed proof has been published not only in the 2019 report , but also, repeatedly, by the NGO Monitor organization - which promotes accountability on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the regards to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

Serious peace and rights organization should have built a wall between them and the organizations and bodies that celebrate terrorism and work to delegitimize Israel, but the opposite is true.

And when politicians and "rights organizations" in Israel stand up to defend these bodies, they are basically killing what was supposed to be Israel’s "peace bloc.”


NGO Monitor: 13 NGOs, 70 Staff and Board Members Linked to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Al-Haq: Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq's General Director, was convicted in 1985 for recruiting and arranging training for PFLP members. In 2008, he was referred to by Israel's Supreme Court as a "senior activist" in the PFLP.

Addameer: Abdul-Latif Ghaith, Addameer's Founder and former Chairperson, has been identified as a PFLP "activist." Khalida Jarrar is Addameer's former Vice-chairperson. In March 2021 she was sentenced to 2 years in prison for membership in the PFLP. Bashir Al-Khairi, a member of Addameer's Board of Directors, is a member of the PFLP's National Council.

Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCI-P): Hashem Abu Maria was coordinator of DCI-P's community mobilization unit and was hailed by the PFLP as a "leader." Nassar Ibrahim, former President of DCI-P's General Assembly, was former editor of El Hadaf - the PFLP's weekly publication. Mary Rock was a DCI-P board member and PFLP candidate for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Bisan Center for Research and Development: Ubai Aboudi, Bisan's Executive Director, was sentenced in 2020 to 12 months for membership in the PFLP. Itiraf Hajaj (Rimawi), Bisan's previous Executive Director, was responsible for clandestine PFLP operations. In 2020, he was sentenced to 42 months. An Israeli High Court of Justice decision referred to Rimawi as a "PFLP member" who "posed a security threat."

Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC): Suhair Khader, UPWC's Vice President, is a member of the PFLP Central Committee. Board member Samira Abdel-Alim, UPWC head in the Rafah area, is a member of PFLP Central Committee. Ismat Shakhshir, head of UPWC operations in the Nablus district, ran for the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the PFLP.

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC): The group was identified by USAID as the "agricultural arm" of the PFLP. Abdul Razeq Farraj was UAWC Finance and Administration Director at the time of his arrest in 2019 for recruiting members of the PFLP. Samer Arbid, UAWC's accountant, was arrested for commanding a PFLP terror cell that carried out a bombing that murdered an Israeli civilian. (NGO Monitor)


The smoke and mirrors of Palestinian rights groups
Defense Minister Benny Gantz's designation of six Palestinian groups linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as terrorist organizations is a courageous and revolutionary step for Israel.

The six organizations claim to be "civil society" or "human rights" groups but are, in fact, an integral part of the Palestinians' war strategy against the Jewish state.

In many ways, it is these organizations, that do not engage in a physical warfare, that are more successful in the fight against Israel. They pretend to stand up for justice, but in reality act as a frontline to the enemy organizations that seek to destroy the Jewish state.

Washington's demand from Jerusalem to explain why it backlisted the six groups only attests to how much the Palestinian's combined action of war and propaganda has permeated the American establishment.

The most well-known among the six groups is Al-Haq, which calls itself a "human rights organization." The Defense Ministry had no trouble declaring it as a terror group as its officials are members of the PFLP and are known to have participated in terrorist activities.

The groups were also allegedly recruitment centers for terrorists. However, the physical war against Israel has become a secondary component.

Top Israeli security officials and confirmed that a war is being waged against the Jewish state. These institutions take advantage of the legal system and use psychological warfare and propaganda to achieve their goals.


Palestinian NGO ban lays bare divisions in coalition
Left-wing parties expressed discomfort with the government’s decision to ban six Palestinian NGOs over their ties to a terrorist organization, laying bare divisions in the coalition just two weeks before the vote on the budget it needs to pass in order to survive.

Transportation Minister and Labor leader Merav Michaeli and Health Minister and Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz demanded, following the NGOs announcement and plans to build 3,000 homes in settlements, that they be told in advance about controversial moves the government plans to make, in a meeting of coalition party leaders on Sunday. Defense Minister Benny Gantz, whose ministry released the information about the organizations’ proscription, was not in the meeting.

Michaeli said at Monday’s Labor faction meeting that "the way the decision was made about human rights organizations in the territories caused damage to the State of Israel in the world, mostly among our greatest allies."

Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev agreed with Michaeli, saying "there are ways to do it, not to wake up in the morning and read it in the newspaper."

Blue and White responded that they "suggest that Merav Michaeli, who doesn't know the details, not get in the way of the war on terror."
BBC Radio 4 news bulletin framing of PFLP linked NGO designations
Yolande Knell began her report by describing an order issued by the Israeli government’s minister of defence as a “military order”. She too framed two of the NGOs concerned (Addameer and Al Haq) as “human rights organisations”.

Knell: “This change was issued by a military order and effectively outlaws the activities of the groups. The Israeli defence ministry says that all have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: a left-wing political faction with an armed wing that’s carried out deadly attacks on Israelis. The organisations include Palestinian human rights organisations Al Haq and Addameer which highlight alleged rights violations by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In a joint statement, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which work closely with several of the groups, described the decision as outrageous.”

Interestingly, Knell made no mention of the fact that the PFLP (which has had a BBC profile with an inaccurate illustration for seven years) is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia. Instead she chose to euphemistically characterise it as “a left-wing political faction with an armed wing”, with the word terror conspicuously absent from her vague reference to its long history of attacks that, contrary to her claim, were actually not only “on Israelis”.

Unsurprisingly, Knell chose to amplify a statement quickly put out by two political NGOs regularly quoted and promoted by the BBC but failed to inform listeners that Al Haq’s director general Shawan Jabarin sits on Human Rights Watch’s MENA advisory committee.

Significantly, Knell failed to explain to listeners that those six foreign funded NGOs had been shown to be involved in terror financing.
Guardian downplays PFLP terror, dismisses their ties to 'human rights' NGOs
The Guardian then includes three quotes attacking Israel’s decision to designate the six NGOs as terror groups: the Palestinian Authority, B’Tselem and Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq (one of the proscribed groups). In the case of Jabarin, the Guardian fails to reveal that he was convicted in 1985 for recruiting and arranging training for PFLP members and, in 2008, was referred to by Israel’s Supreme Court as a “senior activist” in the PFLP.

Now, here’s the Guardian’s penultimate sentence:
The Israeli government has previously cracked down on Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organisations by clamping down on funding, denying entry to employees, and raiding offices.

The source imbedded in the sentence leads to a Guardian article on an NGO Transparency bill passed by the Knesset in 2016. The law doesn’t “clamp down” on funding, but merely requires NGOs receiving more than 50% of their funds from foreign governments to note this on their publications. NGOs failing to do so would be fined. Though there were of course critics of the law, it can’t reasonably be characterised as a “crackdown” on human rights groups, and, in fact, Freedom House’s yearly reports on civil liberties and political rights consistently lists Israel as the only truly “Free” country in the region.

Instead of engaging in serious reporting, and thoroughly investigating the charges against these NGOs, Harriet Sherwood did what she did consistently from 2010-2014 whilst serving as the Guardian’s regional correspondent, copying and pasting criticism from anti-Israel groups and dutifully providing her readers what they expect: a story based on the assumption of Israeli bad faith and Palestinian innocence.
Folly of the “Economy for Peace” Thesis
Twenty years after the collapse of the political process, Israel is now insisting on repeating exactly the same perceptual error vis-à-vis Hamas, with the idea that an “economic settlement” will take the place of a political settlement. Economic easing and a partial relaxation of the so-called Israeli “siege” of the Gaza Strip are meant, like the spurned territorial concessions of the 1990s, to inspire Hamas and all the other Palestinian terrorist elements in Gaza to lay down their arms and make peace with Israel.

In recent years, this notion has become a cornerstone of Israel’s policy toward Gaza, comporting as it does with Israel’s reluctance to engage in further military campaigns in the Strip. So great has Israel’s attachment to this misguided idea become that it has begun to misrepresent Hamas terrorism as “disobedience” that has nothing to do with the organization’s official goal of destroying the Jewish state, which Hamas makes no attempt to conceal.

Not even the violence of the Gaza war in May could change this outlook among Israelis. On the contrary: it anchored the assumption that an economic settlement was possible. This perception reveals that Israelis have not yet internalized the fact that like the PLO, which was unwilling to accept the existence of Israel in any shape or form and expressed that view with violence even as it pretended to negotiate, Hamas’s strategy is based on a combination of negotiations and terrorism. This combination of a false willingness to negotiate and constant violent behavior also characterizes Iran in its relations with the US as it attempts to forge a path toward a nuclear weapon. This approach works well for terrorist entities because their Western enemies, be they American or Israeli, remain committed to the idea of “either/or”—either war or concessions are the pathway to peace.

There is no fundamental difference between the PLO and Hamas. As far as Israel is concerned, they feel the same way: the goal is Israel’s total destruction. Yet Israel repeats its mistakes by artificially imposing Western thought patterns on its enemies.

Political folly is not fate, however. It’s time for Israel to sober up and recognize that economic regulation carries no promise whatsoever of a secure peace.
PMW: Is the decision to renew US funding to UNRWA conducive with US law?
The Biden administration recently announced that it will contribute an additional US$135.8 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN body that exclusively serves the Palestinian refugees. According to the announcement, the latest sum will be additional to the initial US$150 million pledged by the US in April and the US$33 million pledged following the May war. The contribution was made possible after the signing of a new framework agreement between the US and UNRWA. While the process would appear to be a reflection of good governance and diligence, in practice, the decision to renew US funding to UNRWA raises a number of pressing issues.

While US law does not limit the amount of aid the administration can give to UNRWA, the law requires that prior to the initial obligation of funds the Secretary of State report to the Appropriations Committees on a number of subjects. Of the different requirements, two subjects are of particular importance.

What materials are being taught in UNRWA schools?
One of the preconditions for US aid to UNRWA, set out in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, requires the Secretary of State to report to the Committees on Appropriations on whether UNRWA is “taking steps to ensure the content of all educational materials currently taught in UNRWA-administered schools and summer camps is consistent with the values of human rights, dignity, and tolerance and does not induce incitement.”

There is no objective way that the Secretary of State could have certified that the materials taught in the UNRWA schools in the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority meet the standard set or that UNRWA was taking the steps necessary to ensure meeting the standard.

In 2017, a dispute arose between UNRWA and the PA regarding the new school textbooks the PA had released. Having reviewed the textbooks, UNRWA approached the PA pointing to concrete examples of content included in the new books that breached the agency’s duty of neutrality. UNRWA then suggested specific changes.

The PA rejected all of UNRWA’s reservations and suggestions and demanded that the agency use the PA materials, without making any changes.

When UNRWA did not immediately agree to the PA dictates, the PA Ministry of Education decided to suspend all its relations with the agency. Instead of standing its ground, UNRWA capitulated and agreed to continue using the PA schoolbooks without any changes. A later additional attempt by UNRWA to mitigate the content of the schoolbooks was also rejected by PA
In landmark visit, UAE air chief in Israel to observe ‘Blue Flag’ exercise
The head of the Emirati air force arrived in Israel this week in a landmark first visit to observe the military’s massive biennial Blue Flag exercise, an international aerial drill being held this month over the Negev desert, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Israeli Air Force is billing this year’s Blue Flag as the largest and most advanced aerial exercise ever hosted by Israel, with some countries participating for the first time or in more significant ways than in the previous four exercises.

“We have 80 fighter jets here of different varieties, and 1,500 foreign personnel who have been dispatched here, under the ‘canopy’ of the coronavirus. For the past year, we’ve been working to host the exercise and bring it to the standard we expect,” said Brig. Gen. Amir Lazar, head of the IAF’s Training and Doctrine Division, who organized the exercise.

“We believe that holding the exercise has great strategic value for the Israeli Air Force and the State of Israel. As part of the exercise, we are hosting a day for senior officials on Tuesday, in which 11 air force chiefs from around the world will take part, including — for the first time — the head of the United Arab Emirates air force,” he said.

The UAE did not take part in the drill, but sent its air force commander, Ibrahim Nasser Muhammed al-Alawi, to observe a portion of the exercise, marking al-Alawi’s first official visit to Israel since the signing of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement between the two countries last year. Earlier this year, Israeli and Emirati pilots also flew together in an exercise hosted by Greece, and have taken part in US-led air force drills in the past.
Direct flight from Saudi Arabia to land in Israel on Monday evening
A direct flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will land at Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday evening, according to KAN news. The flight will be 737 VIP (A6-AIN) aircraft owned by the Emirati Royal Jet airline.
Israeli official: Sudan military leader's takeover likely to boost normalization
An Israeli official voiced indirect criticism over the US reaction to the apparent coup in Sudan after the special US special envoy to the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman called the military takover "utterly unacceptable" and threatened to cut off financial assistance to the country.

The Israeli official told Israel Hayom that due to the current state of affairs in the African country, Israel should support the military and its head, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, rather than the prime minister,, Abdalla Hamdok, who has been arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

The official said that "the coup was all but inevitable because the prime minister has been at odds with the military for several years and it was obvious that this would reach a decision point."

The official further said that the situation in Sudan "is very much like what Egypt experienced after former strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, who had ruled the land of the pyramids for decades before stepping down during the popular uprising known as the Arab Spring.

"The country [Sudan] is not democratic as it was ruled for 30 years by the authoritarian regime of Omar al-Bashir. While we understand why the US would like to see the democratization of Sudan, between the two Sudanese leaders, it is Burhan who is more inclined to bolster ties with the US and Israel," the official said.

The official further added that "in light of the fact that the military is the stronger force in the country, and since Burhan is its commander in chief, the events of Monday night increase the likelihood of stability in Sudan, which has critical importance in the region, and it increases the chances of stronger ties with the US, the West, and Israel in particular."
Seth Frantzman: Sudan ‘military coup’ sparks concern - analysis
Reports also noted that the incident took place after the visit of the US envoy and that the home of Hamdok’s media advisor was stormed by troops. On October 2, Feltman was also in Sudan and the US State Department said that “in his meetings with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the members of the Cabinet, Sovereign Council Chairman Abdelfattah al-Burhan and members of the Sovereign Council, and other political stakeholders, Special Envoy Feltman expressed the United States’ dedication to continued political and economic support as Sudan’s transition proceeds. He also underscored that such support depends on Sudan’s adherence to the agreed transitional order as established in the 2019 Constitutional Declaration and the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement. Deviation from this path and failure to meet key benchmarks will place at risk Sudan’s bilateral relationship with the United States, including significant US assistance, as well as the prospect of security cooperation to modernize the Sudanese armed forces and U.S. support in the International Financial Institutions and for debt relief.”

On October 24, Voice of America reported the second recent Feltman visit. It noted that hundreds of thousands had been protesting for civilian rule. The US “envoy underlined Washington's support for a democratic transition to civilian rule in Sudan on Saturday during talks with the head of its ruling council and the prime minister, the US embassy in Khartoum said.”

In the VOA report, Feltman was said to have “urged all sides to recommit to working together to implement Sudan's constitutional declaration, signed after a 2018-2019 uprising that resulted in the removal of president Omar al-Bashir.” Feltman had met with the generals and head of the Sovereignty Council. “Tensions between the civilian and military leaders who now share power have soared in the wake of an attempted military coup in September, which the army said it had foiled.”
Palestinians renew threat to nix agreements with Israel
Palestinian leaders have renewed their threats to rescind all signed agreements with Israel, especially the Oslo Accords, saying they are also disappointed with the US administration’s “lack of interest” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Authority officials have, meanwhile, stepped up their rhetorical attacks on the Israeli government, a move that is threatening to end an apparent thaw in relations between the PA and Israel.

In recent weeks, a number of Israeli ministers and officials, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz, visited Ramallah, where they met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian representatives.

Additionally, the PLO Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society has over the past few weeks hosted several delegations of Israeli academics, writers, journalists, political activists and former government officials as part of an effort to encourage dialogue between the two sides.

On Sunday evening, Abbas chaired an emergency meeting of PLO and Fatah officials in Ramallah to discuss the latest developments surrounding the Palestinian issue and the Palestinians’ relations with Israel and the US.


Gaza Violence Makes Headlines — But Media Silent on Israeli Captives
September 7, 2021, marked the seventh anniversary of when Avera Mengistu was taken captive by the Hamas terrorist group. The then-32-year-old, who had immigrated to Israel with his family from Ethiopia, developed severe schizophrenia following the death of his older brother and crossed into the Gaza Strip of his own volition.

Since then, he has not had access to treatment for his mental illness, or been afforded the privileges guaranteed by international law.

Kidnapping an innocent civilian is an egregious human rights violation; yet, even with all the recent media coverage about the confrontation between the IDF and Hamas, there has been little, if any, attention paid to Mengistu’s plight.

From a media standpoint, securing the release of hostages has over the past few years been big news. In 2020, Peter Bergen, a vice-president of the Washington, DC-based New America think tank, who has written extensively on terrorism, has described the Trump administration’s efforts to rescue hostages as “an area of significant foreign policy success.”

Much of the public has been following these stories closely, with media organizations generally providing information about any relevant developments. However, when it comes to Mengistu, these same outlets focus almost exclusively on the recurring tit-for-tat military exchanges between Israel and Hamas without raising the latter’s gross disregard for international norms.
Jewish protesters storm Hotovely speech, protest her 'racist views'
Left-wing Jewish protesters on Thursday stormed a talk held by Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely in protest of her "racist views."

The protesters, who are members of the organization Na'amod, had come to the Zionist Federation event honoring Hotovely's first year as an ambassador with banners reading "racism isn't kosher" and "stop hosting Hotovely," as well as handing out pamphlets highlighting her "racist views," accusing her of "Nakba denial" and of supporting the right-wing extremist organization Lehava.

The organization, whose members call themselves Na'amodniks, tweeted videos of the incident.

"We reject our communal institutions' continued platforming of Hotovely despite her racist words and actions," the organization said on Twitter.

"We know most of our community opposes racism and we must challenge it together."

The organization noted that most communal institutions in the UK Jewish community had pledged to combat racism following the recent Black Lives Matter protests, but noted that "these commitments are meaningless when these organizations continue to host anti-Palestinian racists like Tzipi Hotovely."
IDF drops leaflets outing Syrian Arab Army officers as working for Hezbollah
The Israeli military dropped leaflets accusing the Syrian Arab Army of cooperating with Hezbollah and explicitly named operatives working for the terror group on the Golan Heights just hours after it carried out airstrikes in the area.

The pamphlets were dropped shortly after Israel was accused by opposition sources of striking targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Golan File near al-Ba’ath and al-Krum in the southern Syrian province of Quneitra.

Syria’s SANA news agency later confirmed the strikes saying that “Zionist occupation forces committed a new aggression in the southern region at dawn today, as part of their repeated aggression against the sanctity and sovereignty of the Syrian territories.”

The source quoted by SANA added that “Syria affirms its right and ability to respond to these attacks and curb the aggressive tendency of the occupation authorities.”

Syrian opposition sources said that among the targets of the attacks were the offices of Bashar Hussein, the commander of the Reconnaissance and Observation company in the 90th brigade in the Syrian Arab Army.
Israel Attacks Southern Syria Region, Syrian State Media Says
The Syrian government said Israel carried out an attack in southern Syria on Monday, state media reported, in a frontier zone where Israel has long been concerned about the presence of Iran-backed groups.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

A Syrian foreign ministry source said Israel had committed “a new aggression in the southern region” at dawn, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. It did not say what was hit or whether there were any casualties.

Israel has mounted regular strikes against what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s war.

A pro-Assad source familiar with the incident said an Israeli drone had struck several sites including a base operated by Hezbollah in al Baath city in Quneitra province and a second target. A third missile hit a reconnaissance tower near a Syrian army base, the source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization which reports on the war, said an Israeli aircraft had fired rockets at two positions held by Syrian government forces and their allies in Quneitra province.

The attack had caused material damage and there was no information yet about casualties, it said.
Turkey reveals photos of 15 alleged Mossad spies arrested
Turkish media revealed the photos of 15 alleged Mossad spies arrested last week.

The report on Monday identified a key figure among the spies as M.A.S., who reportedly studied at Konya University.

The senior Mossad official described in the report was given the name A.Z., supposedly a Germany-based officer in charge of this alleged network.

One of the main spies, identified as A.B. by the report, allegedly collected information about what kind of facilities Turkey provides in the country for Palestinians opposed to Israel. A.B. entered Turkey in late 2015, and was reported as a missing person in June of this year, according to the report, intended to divert attention from the cell, which was already under surveillance by then, the Sabah newspaper claimed. Other supposed agents described in this report included B.U.T., a 21-year-old German-based officer who gathered information on Palestinians in Turkey; A.J.A., a 29-year-old who transferred money and allegedly worked as an emissary for Mossad officers; N.A., 29, who wired money through Western Union; R.A.A., 46, the oldest in the network who allegedly received funds for meetings at the Israeli consulate and supposedly met with Mossad officials in Israel and Zagreb, Croatia; A.R.A., 29, who was paid in bitcoin for collecting information on Arabs in Istanbul and met with Mossad officials in Nairobi, Kenya; and others whose roles in the network were not clear.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Prisoners No One Talks About
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad prisoners, who have been convicted of terrorism against Israel, received wide coverage because they are being held in Israeli prisons. They are being held in prison because many of them were involved in major terror attacks against Israel, including murder. The international media and the Palestinian Authority (PA), however, refuse to call the prisoners terrorists. Instead, they call them "militants" or "political detainees."

While the world's attention remains focused on the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, there is hardly any mention of prisoners and detainees held by the PA security forces in the West Bank

A Palestinian who goes on hunger strike in a Palestinian prison can only dream of being noticed by a foreign journalist or a human rights organization in the US and Europe. A Palestinian who declares a hunger strike in an Israeli prison, on the other hand, has nothing to fear. He or she knows very well that within minutes the whole world will learn about his "grievances."

A report by the Committee of the Families of Political Detainees revealed that the Palestinian security forces committed 217 "violations" against Palestinians just during September.

If Abbas cares so much about Hamas and PIJ prisoners, why is he ordering his security forces to arrest and beat Palestinians for being affiliated with the two groups? If he thinks that these prisoners should be released from Israeli prisons, why doesn't he first release those who are being held in Palestinian prisons?

A final, damning question: Why are the Palestinian security forces arresting or interrogating prisoners shortly after their release from Israeli prisons? How can the PA condemn Israel for arresting these men, but later arrest them on suspicion of belonging to Hamas or PIJ?

In public, Abbas demands that Israel free all the prisoners; but when Israel complies, he rushes to arrest them for "security reasons." The Palestinian prisoners were lucky when they were in Israeli prisons: they attracted the attention of human rights organizations and journalists around the world.

Those who are now being held in Palestinian prisons are undoubtedly wishing that they could be sent back to Israeli prisons, where they would be better treated and win international sympathy.


JCPA: Iran’s Bellicose Message to the United States and Israel
What Messages Does Iran Want to Convey?
1. Iran will no longer remain silent about Israeli airstrikes in Syria, and if the United States does not stop them, its base in Tanf will become the target of Iranian attacks.
2. Pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq have the operational capability to attack with drones. The United States will have difficulty dealing with Iranian drone weapons, especially considering the apparent lack of U.S. air defense systems in the region.
3. A message to Israel: the bombardment of the Tanf base is only a prelude. Later there will also be drone attacks on Israeli bases if Israel continues to attack Syrian territory.

The Iranian action against the Tanf base comes as Russia and Turkey continue political efforts to bring about a full U.S. withdrawal from Syria. Turkey claims that the U.S. military in Syria protects the Kurds, while Syria claims that the U.S. military presence is an “occupation.”

In a television interview recently, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad said that the U.S. military presence in Syria was “an act of occupation.” Because, he continued, “all free countries support the war against the occupation, we have many ways to convince the United States to withdraw from our country.”

The ball is now in the U.S. court: failure to respond militarily to the rocket and drone salvo against the Tanf base will be interpreted as weakness and will invite further Iranian attacks because Israel does not intend to stop airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria.

Following the attack on the Tanf base, Washington must carefully consider the policies it has adopted recently, which have eased the economic sanctions imposed on Syria.
IAF to start training for strike on Iran nuke program in coming months
The Israeli Air Force will begin practicing for a strike on Iran’s nuclear program beginning next year, having set aside funding and updated its training schedule for the mission, The Times of Israel has learned.

In light of growing uncertainty regarding a return by Iran to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, amid long-stalled negotiations with the United States, the Israel Defense Forces in recent months has ramped up its efforts to prepare a credible military threat against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Following the signing of the JCPOA in 2015, Israel put the issue of a military strike on the Iranian nuclear program on the back burner, allowing the IDF to invest its resources into other areas. But following the US abrogation of the nuclear deal in 2018 and Iran’s subsequent violations of the agreement since then — which picked up considerably ahead of and during the stalled talks — the matter has taken on renewed importance to Israel, which sees an Iranian nuclear bomb as a near existential threat.

In the beginning of this year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced he had instructed the military to begin drawing up fresh attack plans, and last week the government reportedly allocated billions of shekels toward making those plans viable.

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that “Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning… We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”







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