Sunday, November 07, 2021

11/07 Links: Anti-Israel bias in one of America’s biggest newspapers matters; A Blurred Line Between Civil Society and Terrorism; Howard Jacobson: Advice to a Jewish Freshman

From Ian:

Palestinian Schools Have a Problem—and Are Running Out of Time
Nearly 60 percent of UNRWA’s roughly $1 billion annual budget is allocated to education programs which claim to teach children values of peace, tolerance, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Yet according to various studies of the Palestinian curriculum, which is taught by UNRWA in the Palestinian territories, the agency is falling far short of that goal. Textbooks depict Jews as enemies of Islam, glorify so-called martyrs who have died while committing terror attacks, and promote jihad for the liberation of historic Palestine, including areas firmly within Israel’s pre-1967 borders, such as Jaffa and Haifa. Maps of the region do not include the state of Israel, which throughout the curriculum is referred to as “the Zionist Occupation.”

A comprehensive report released in June, financed by the European Union and conducted by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, examined 172 Palestinian textbooks used in UNRWA schools. It found “ambivalent—sometimes hostile—attitudes toward Jews and the characteristics they attribute to the Jewish people,” noting “frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people in, for example, textbook exercises [that] suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded within the current political context.”

The only mention of peace with Israel was in one 10th grade history book, which quotes a speech delivered by late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and letters of mutual recognition exchanged between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1993. “The recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security documented in the letters by [former Palestinian leader] Yasser Arafat to [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin stands in contrast to the questioning of the legitimacy of the State of Israel expressed in other passages and textbooks,” the report states. It also determined that although textbooks focus heavily on human rights, they “do not apply these notions to Israel” or “to the rights of Israelis.”

A 5th grade Islamic education lesson “asks students to discuss the ‘repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the Prophet’ and then asks them to think of ‘other enemies of Islam.’” The report goes on: “It is not so much the sufferings of the Prophet or the actions of the companions that appear to be the focus of this teaching unit but, rather, the alleged perniciousness of the Jews.”

Another troubling example is a 5th grade lesson about Dalal Mughrabi. A perpetrator of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, she carried out one of the worst terror attacks in Israeli history, killing 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The lesson about her reads, “our Palestinian history is full of many names of shuhada (martyrs) who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, including the shahida (martyr) Dalal Mughrabi whose struggle took the form of defiance and heroism, which made her memory immortal in our hearts and minds.” The report found that “no further portraits of significant female figures in Palestinian history are presented,” so “the path of violence implicitly appears to be the only option for women to demonstrate an outstanding commitment to their people and country.”

A 7th grade social studies textbook propagates the conspiracy theory that Israel removed stones from ancient sites in Jerusalem and “replaced them with stones bearing ‘Zionist drawings and shapes.’” A 9th grade Islamic education textbook features passages on jihad and “the wisdom behind fighting the infidels.”

In addition to criticism of its education system, UNRWA has also been roiled by other scandals. During the 2014 Gaza War, the agency discovered rockets stored in its schools and, on at least one occasion, returned them to Hamas. In 2019, the head of UNRWa resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, including abuse of power and suppression of dissent within the organization. Long accused of lacking transparency, a leaked ethics report that year led several European countries to suspend their funding.




Jonathan Tobin: Anti-Israel bias in one of America’s biggest newspapers matters
The question is, does this matter? Some pro-Israel activists and most Israelis will say “no.”

Israelis have always considered worrying about international opinion to be not in keeping with their goal of making their actions more important than what other people say about them. American friends of Israel say they stopped reading the Times years ago and that doing so is a waste of time.

Still, it’s a mistake to ignore what remains one of the most widely read publications in the world.

While the trend that Tracy’s article inflates into an “unraveling” is discussing the opinion of only a small minority, the support it gets from the newspaper that is still viewed by liberal Jews as the flagship of journalism can only strengthen it. Undermining Israel’s image by negative articles serves to help those trying to transform the Democratic Party from one with an increasingly vocal anti-Israel element to one in which that faction dominates.

That’s why it’s important that the calumnies of the Times never be allowed to go unanswered. If that answer can be in the form of mass mockery, as is the case with #SadSadIsrael, then all the better.

Ignoring the danger of allowing the “apartheid Israel” lie to gain traction in popular culture or even in Jewish forums is folly. Nor should Jewish organizations be shy about speaking up in condemning the sorts of actions that the seminary letter represents since it is providing cover for anti-Semites elsewhere.

While the vast majority of Americans remain steadfast friends of Israel and are generally unaffected by media bias, the one group that is impacted by it—and especially, at the Times—are American Jews. Fighting for Jewish opinion in this country means that no one who cares about Israel can afford to not care about what the Times publishes, no matter how wrongheaded or biased it might be.
Howard Jacobson: Advice to a Jewish Freshman
If all this seems more than enough to be going on while you are endeavoring to concentrate on your studies, there is, I am afraid, one more stratagem those who don’t want you to enjoy a quiet life have up their sleeve. This is Holocaust Denial, not the original Alpha or Beta Strains but the more recent Omega Variant.

In its early, primitive forms, Holocaust Denial was mainly a matter of macabre geometry. That many bodies could never have been processed in so few rooms, etc. The spectacle of the deniers scampering over what was left of the camps with their rulers and drafting triangles rendered them ultimately absurd. Their conclusion, that 6 million Jews could not possibly have been gassed in that space and in that time, still makes an appearance on pro-Palestinian marches, but it looks increasingly cranky.

What came next was less actual Holocaust Denial, more Holocaust Relativization. Yes, it happened, but who hasn’t it happened to? Your best bet when confronted with this is to concede that Jews are not the only people who have faced extermination; but you could try adding that few have faced quite so determined and thoroughgoing a version of it, or the ambition to have all trace and memory of them removed from the face of the earth for all time, and this as a consequence and fulfillment of centuries of Christian loathing, to say nothing of a fair amount of dislike from elsewhere. But, but, but, suffering the Holocaust was not a competition, and, if it had been — hand on heart — Jews would be more than content not to have been proclaimed the winners.

Uglier by far, and more sinister by virtue of what it concedes and why, is the new Omega Variant, which allows the horrors of the Holocaust but shakes its head over the failure of Jews to have learnt its lessons. By this reasoning, the Holocaust was a sort of University of Compassion into which Jews were, for their own benefit, enrolled, but where, as witness their subsequent hard-heartedness to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza, they paid scant attention and flunked their exams. The next time you see the Holocaust figured as a University at which, uncharacteristically, Jews were the worst students, inquire politely,


A Blurred Line Between Civil Society and Terrorism
The Israeli evidence could reveal a troubling reality wherein groups publicly defend the human rights of some people while supporting acts of terrorism targeting others.

On October 19, Israel designated six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist groups affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, causing a firestorm among international civil society and human rights organizations. While such action is inherently controversial, any assessment must consider the underlying evidence, which here emerged from a series of investigations pointing to massive fraud. The effort drew on various sources, including classified intelligence, seized materials, and statements made by arrested employees. And it cast light on high-profile cases such as the August 2019 murder of Israeli teen Rina Shnerb, whose killers were employed by one of the designated groups.

In this groundbreaking Policy Note, counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt closely analyzes Israel’s NGO designations. In doing so, he validates U.S., European, and international requests for an explanation, but simultaneously cautions that the evidence—if proven even partially true—could reveal a troubling reality wherein Palestinian NGOs publicly defend the human rights of some people while supporting terrorist acts against others. Download PDF
IDF blacklists Palestinian rights groups, enabling Israel to act against them
The Israel Defense Forces outlawed five Palestinian rights groups in the West Bank on Sunday, following a decision by Defense Minister Benny Gantz last month, despite international criticism against the move, the military said.

A sixth group that was declared a terrorist organization by Gantz had already been banned by the IDF last year.

With these official designations, the military was granted the power to shutter the organizations’ offices and arrest their members, among other moves. The IDF has been known to enforce such classifications at its discretion or, as some critics argue, arbitrarily. For instance, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, is also officially banned, though the ban is largely ignored by the IDF.

Israel maintains that the six newly blacklisted Palestinian organizations — Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees — serve as fronts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, which the groups have repeatedly denied and which has been questioned by their European and international funders.

Gantz’s designation of the groups as terrorist organizations last month had comparatively little immediate impact, as they operate within the West Bank and are thus officially outside of Israel’s jurisdiction. Still, the terrorist classification has caused some of the groups’ funders to pull their financial support out of concern that they could be targeted with banking sanctions.
Antisemitism row forces Royal Court theatre to change name of character
Al Smith may not be the first British playwright to ask “What’s in a name?”, but this weekend he had cause to ponder Shakespeare’s famous line.

Smith, the author of a new play coming to the Royal Court theatre this week, had given a lead character the name of Hershel Fink. But publicity for the production prompted angry complaints about Jewish stereotyping. In response, the famous venue on Sloane Square in London has now apologised and agreed to change the name, admitting that it was “unconscious bias” that had led to the Silicon Valley billionaire in the work being given this identity.

In an official statement, the theatre management added that the character in Smith’s play, Rare Earth Mettle, which stars former Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill, is not Jewish and that there is no reference to his faith or Jewishness in the show.

Among those to question the planned use of the name Hershel Fink were Adam Lenson, the director and producer, and David Baddiel, the writer and comedian.

“The Royal Court claims they didn’t realise ‘Hershel Fink’ was a Jewish name. Hmmm. Somehow it just sounded so right for a world-conquering billionaire,” Baddiel posted on Twitter. This February, Baddiel’s new book, Jews Don’t Count, argued that antisemitic bias is the one prejudice that remains largely unpoliced in the “culture wars”.
Muslim Council of Britain Loses Telegraph IPSO Complaint
Humiliation for the Muslim Council of Britain, as their media spokesperson has lost an IPSO complaint against the Telegraph. Miqdaad Versi had made a complaint that an op-ed entitled “We’re not drifting into segregation, we’re hurtling perilously towards it”, written by Nick Timothy, breached Clause 1 (accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. The complaint has now been thrown out.

In the article, Timothy referenced a letter to schools from Gavin Williamson, “warning that while pupils are allowed to express political views, anti-Semitic language and threats must not be tolerated”, going on to state:
“In response to the Williamson letter, Miqdaad Versi, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, complained that the Government was being ‘one-sided’. The letter, of course, was not about events in Israel, but the harassment of British Jews. In suggesting there might be two sides to racism, Versi revealed more than he intended about why the Government refuses to engage with the MCB.”

Versi argued that Timothy’s interpretation of his views was “based on misinterpretation of a Twitter thread he had posted” and claimed “he was calling on the government to also take action on the discrimination and racism encountered by Muslim children”

In the end neither party disputed that the alleged breach of Clause 1 had appeared in the context of the op-ed, merely disputing whether the alleged breach was presented as fact or comment within the comment piece. The body ultimately commended the Telegraph for publishing a letter from Versi, allowing him to put his point of view across…
Fringe left's push to delegitimise Israel a 'slow moving terrorist attack': Noa Tishby
People on the far left have been brainwashed into holding strong anti-Israeli views by "nefarious forces" that seek to dismantle Israel, according to Israeli actress and author Noa Tishby.

"It's not by accident – it's by design," Ms Tishby told Sky News Australia.

Ms Tishby said the movement on the "fringe left" had failed over the years with different methods to "dismantle" the state of Israel.

"About 20 years ago they actually concluded the American people, the American youth, are naive and uneducated and they shifted their attempt to dismantle Israel to branding it an apartheid state.

"To actually delegitimise the state of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state – and that is extremely dangerous.

"I call this in my book a slow moving terrorist attack."


Im Tirtzu: Zionist Saloon with Naomi Kahn
Naomi Kahn, Director of the International Division of Regavim, discusses with Im Tirtzu’s Eytan Meir the Palestinian Authority's illegal building in Area C, the lawlessness in the Negev, and more.


InterviewGOP senator: Flipping House and Senate will let Republicans pass anti-BDS laws
Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida predicted Friday that if Republicans retake the US House and Senate in the 2022 midterm election, Congress will for the first time be able to pass legislation targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

While dozens of states have passed their own laws against the Israel-targeting BDS movement, legislation at the federal level has stalled due to objections from Democrats and even some Jewish organizations that say it goes too far and encroaches on free speech rights.

“I think what’ll happen is we’ll finally get BDS legislation passed out of both the House and Senate,” Scott told The Times of Israel during a joint interview with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference in Las Vegas.

Scott spoke optimistically of the GOP’s chances of building on key victories attained earlier in the week, namely Republican Glenn Youngkin’s defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race.

But he admitted being unsure as to whether US President Joe Biden would sign anti-BDS legislation, even if Republicans manage to get it through Congress after the 2022 midterm.

The Biden administration insists that it “firmly rejects the BDS movement which unfairly singles out Israel.”
Nikki Haley Attacks AIPAC for Taking Bipartisanship Too Far
Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who is considered a top runner for the Republican party’s presidential nomination in 2024, on Saturday night told the crowd at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual leadership conference in Las Vegas that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is taking its outreach to Democrats too far.

“There’s one thing I don’t get about AIPAC, and I’m not saying anything to you that I haven’t said to their leadership,” Haley told the RJC crowd, after saying that she loved AIPAC: “Why do they invite politicians to their conference who strongly support the Iran nuclear deal? Stop rewarding bad behavior. It only gets you more bad behavior,” she said. Haley, who served as UN Ambassador from 2017 to 2018, was a strong defender of Israel at the UN Security Council and led the effort to withdraw the US from the United Nations Human Rights Council over its biased treatment of the Jewish State.

AIPAC has been under attack by progressive Democrats who, on occasion, resorted to using anti-Semitic tropes about rich Jews controlling the world.

“Bipartisanship is important,” Haley told the assembled Republican Jews, adding: “But if you make bipartisanship your whole reason for existence, then you lose sight of the policies you’re fighting for in the first place. If a politician supports the disastrous Iran deal, opposes moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, and is embraced by anti-Semites who support the BDS movement, then a pro-Israel group should have absolutely nothing to do with him or her.”
Palestinian Leaders Consider All of Israel a ‘Settlement’
The Biden administration issued what one news report called the “sharpest rebuke yet to Israel over settlements” late last month. Ned Price, a US State Department spokesperson, said on Oct. 26 that the United States “strongly opposes” the “expansion of settlements,” labeling it “inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions” and damaging to “the prospects of a two-state solution.” Some press outlets and policymakers have claimed that Israeli settlements are illegal. But this claim, while commonly made, is false.

Indeed, it is worse than misleading; it is a distraction from the crux of the problem: Palestinian leaders consider all of Israel to be a “settlement” — a fact that has been amply documented, but which many media outlets and self-styled “human rights” defenders ignore.

The United Nations and many European countries, among others, have long said that Israeli “settlements” are “illegal.” Indeed, no fewer than 13 European governments have recently called on Israel to halt its plans to construct 1,300 homes in Judea and Samaria, commonly known for the last half-century as the West Bank.

The Biden administration’s remarks seem to be a reversion to the positions of the Obama administration.

After leaving office, former President Barack Obama went one step further, asserting in 2018 that Israeli settlements have “no legal validity,” violate “international law” and are a “major obstacle” to achieving a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In fact, there is a strong legal basis for the construction of “settlements,” which are simply Jewish homes being built in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland.


PMW: Palestinian self-determination means no partition, no Israel, says official PA TV
Official PA TV narrator: “The right to self-determination is closely connected to the injustice against the Palestinian people. The UN General Assembly thwarted the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination in its Resolution [181] on partitioning Palestine. It did not respect the Palestinian people’s clear and declared desire to end the British Mandate on its homeland and to establish its independent state. Rather it chose to partition Palestine into a Palestinian Arab state and another that became known as Israel."

UN Resolution 181 (the UN partition plan for Palestine) was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947. It called for the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity under the rule of a special international body. The Arab state was meant to be comprised of the western Galilee, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the remaining territory of the Mandate west of the Jordan River would be the state of Israel - Jordan (known at the time as Transjordan) had already been established in what had been the part of the Mandate that was east of the Jordan River. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and launched a war to destroy Israel.


Palestinians pan Israel for opposing US consulate in Jerusalem
The Palestinians on Sunday slammed Israel for resisting the promised reopening of the US consulate in Jerusalem, a move that would restore Washington’s main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the city.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said late Saturday there was no room in Jerusalem for another American mission.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to reopen the consulate, but the issue has been a sticking point between Israel and the US, as well as among some members of Congress. The consulate was shuttered by then-US president Donald Trump in 2019 and its staff was folded into the US embassy — which had been moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a year earlier — in what the Palestinians view as a downgrading of their ties with the US.

Though reopening the consulate, which is located in the west of the capital and not East Jerusalem, could help mend US ties with the Palestinians ruptured under Trump, Israel says such a move would challenge its sovereignty over the city.

In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it views the reopening of the consulate as part of the international community’s commitments to ending Israel’s decades-long occupation of territories the Palestinians seek for their future state.

“East Jerusalem is an inseparable part of the occupied Palestinian territory and is the capital of the state of Palestine. Israel, as the occupying power, does not have the right to veto the US administration’s decision,” the statement said.
PMW: When did making a religious and historical site disabled accessible became “Judaization”?
The decision of the Israeli authorities to make the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron accessible for the disabled has infuriated the Palestinian Authority. Just recently, a PA Presidential Committee for Church Affairs condemned the move saying that it would “harm the Ibrahimi Mosque”- the name the Palestinians use for the site – and that the renovation is an attack on the exclusive right of the Muslims to enter the site:
“The [PA] presidential committee for church affairs in the State of Palestine condemned the recurring violations, crimes, and acts of Judaization that the occupation authorities are committing against the Ibrahimi Mosque … and the falsification of its Islamic and cultural nature by building an elevator for settlers as part of its declared plan to take control of it and strengthen its settlement in Hebron.

In a statement issued by its President [and] Director-General of the Palestine National Fund (PNF) Ramzi Khouri yesterday, Friday [Aug. 13, 2021], the committee emphasized that harming the Ibrahimi Mosque is an attack against the Muslims’ pure right to it.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 14, 2021]

As part of its campaign to prevent making the site disabled accessible, the PA controlled Municipality of Hebron, together with others, even appealed to the Israeli courts against the decision. After the Jerusalem District Court rejected their appeal, the Municipality then appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court (Administrative Petition Appeal 1883/21 municipality of Hebron Et. al v The [Israeli] Minister of Defense).

In a decision handed down on November 4, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, paving the way for finally providing for the needs of the disabled to visit the site.

Presenting the accessibility issue, the court noted that at present the Cave of the Patriarchs is inaccessible to people with disabilities. To access the outside courtyard to the site one must first go up 3 sets of stairs, each with 8 steps. From that courtyard, one must then alight another 59 steps. The areas subject to the appeal would serve to build a ramp alongside the first 3 sets of stairs and an elevator into the building itself.
Israel, Hamas said nearing prisoner swap deal, may include proof-of-life tape
Sources speaking to Arabic-language media say Israel and the Hamas terror group that rules the Gaza Strip are nearing agreement on a long-sought prisoner swap deal.

Palestinians are expected to hand over a recording testifying to the condition of two Israeli captives apparently held by Hamas in Gaza, whose returns are sought alongside the repatriation of the remains of two soldiers killed in 2014, the UK-based Al-Arab news outlet reported Saturday.

Sources speaking to al-Arab and UK-based newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed indicated that a visit to Israel by Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel planned for the end of November was linked to progress made in the talks, which may also include a comprehensive long-term ceasefire meant to end repeated rounds of tit-for-tat fighting.

“The deal’s steps and the full picture are ready and just awaiting the Israeli green light,” a source told al-Araby al-Jadeed.

The sources indicated that the deal had been held up in the past by lower-level representatives of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades armed wing needing to consult with their leadership, and was only resolved once the terror group sent a senior official from its military unit to talks with Egyptian mediators.

A deal is expected to include the release of some number of Palestinian prisoners, in the mold of past swaps. Kamel hinted at the release of Palestinian prisoners when he told an Israeli journalist on the sidelines of the world climate summit in Glasgow last week that a deal should start with the release of elderly prisoners, along with women and adolescents.
Foreign Ministry evacuates Israeli diplomats' families from Ethiopia
The Foreign Ministry began evacuating the families of Israeli diplomats from Ethiopia on Saturday, Hebrew media reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat said Israeli diplomats were staying at the embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

This evacuation follows the recent escalation in Ethiopia in the year-long conflict between Tigrayan forces and the Ethiopian military. According to reports, rebel forces intended to occupy the capital, home to a large number of Ethiopian Jews.

The recent security issues that are taking place in the country raise questions about the fate of those who plan on immigrating to Israel, Maariv reported.

Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata sent a letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last week begging for an urgent discussion, with the aim of promoting Ethiopian-Jewish immigration to Israel.
Cyprus charges six with terror for alleged plot to kill five Israelis
Cypriot authorities filed charges Friday against six suspects for allegedly planning to attack Israeli targets on the eastern Mediterranean island.

Among those charged was the main suspect, Orkhan Asadov, a 38-year-old Azerbaijani national. He and three Pakistanis indicted in the case are accused of plotting to visit Cyprus to commit acts of terror.

All but one of the suspects allegedly planned to kill five Israelis who live in Cyprus, according to the Politis daily.

The vast majority of the charges in the indictment are against Asadov, including for using forged passports and money laundering. The indictment alleged he received $40,000 earlier this year to carry out terrorism.

According to Politis, in an interview with police before he received legal representation, Asadov reportedly told investigators that he received the money from a man named only as “Mohammed,” who told him to go to Cyprus and intimidate Israeli businesspeople who owed him large sums of money.

However, Asadov also was allegedly found to have images on his phone relating to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

One of the Pakistani suspects, who allegedly helped recruit the others, was accused of having links to an Iran-backed militia of Shiite Pakistanis fighting on behalf of the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war. Both Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are closely aligned with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Hamas and Iran Join Forces to Encircle Israel
A senior Hamas delegation that visited Iran in October — and met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei — is the latest sign of the close partnership between the Sunni Palestinian terror organization and the Shiite Islamic Republic.

Hamas has an important role to play in Iran’s scheme to surround Israel with Islamist, heavily armed forces, said Col. (res.) David Hacham, a former Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers. However, Hacham said that there isn’t a clear consensus within Hamas over just how far it should align with Tehran.

“There is no doubt that in recent years, there has been an improvement in Hamas-Iran ties,” Hacham said. In 2011, a rift developed over the Syrian civil war, with Hamas backing Sunni Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated rebels against Iran’s ally, the Assad regime.

Following that split, the former head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, was expelled from Damascus. He moved to Qatar, where he re-established an overseas Hamas headquarters.

Iran suspended military and economic ties to Hamas.

In 2017, new attempts were made to bridge the gap between the two sides, and Iran renewed its financial aid to Hamas. “Since 2017, the money has been flowing in without stop, and the sum is estimated to be many tens of millions of dollars per year,” Hacham added.

The reconciliation was enabled partly because Hamas’ current head of the political bureau, Ismael Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, and the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar — whose roots lie in Hamas’ military wing — have a positive view of Iran.
In first, government approves small quota of tech work permits for Palestinians
The Israeli government approved a pilot project on Sunday that would see Israeli work permits issued to 500 West Bank Palestinian tech employees over a period of three years.

Until now, the Israeli government has largely only approved permits for Palestinian workers in construction and agriculture. Around 130,000 Palestinians work in Israel and West Bank settlements, according to Defense Ministry statistics.

Some Palestinians are already employed in Israel at technology firms, but largely on a case-by-case basis, rather than as a matter of government policy.

“There are plenty of young Palestinians from the West Bank at Google and Amazon and Mobileye… so the phenomenon already exists, but on an individual basis,” said Palestinian entrepreneur Mahmoud Khweis, who runs two startups in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The Israeli technology sector is facing a serious labor shortage, leading firms to seek programmers abroad in Eastern Europe and India. Khweis said that Palestinians could fill some of that gap, and that some Israeli firms already outsource labor to Palestinian coders in the West Bank and Gaza.

“In the West Bank, we have 3,000 to 4,000 tech graduates every year. Many work for Palestinian firms that contract with Israeli companies,” said Khweis, who called Palestinians “more culturally close” to Israelis than other potential partners.
PMW: Female terrorists are studying without the Israeli prison’s knowledge, says senior PFLP official
PA Parliament Member and Senior PFLP Official Khalida Jarrar: “There are seven female prisoners who are engaged in academic studies without the [Israeli prison] management knowing it. I know that when I say this it might lead to persecutions of them or me, as if we are doing something forbidden. But I say: No, we also need to talk about the other side, which is the female prisoners’ attempts to gain their rights, for example to study.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Oct. 26, 2021]

Khalida Jarrar – PA MP and senior member of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Jarrar was arrested by Israeli authorities on April 12, 2015, for being a member of the PFLP, for inciting to kidnap Israeli soldiers, and for inciting to terror. On Dec. 6, 2015 she was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and was released in June 2016 following an international campaign on her behalf. She was rearrested in July 2017 and held in administrative detention before being released from detention on Feb. 28, 2019. Jarrar was rearrested in October 2019 after PFLP terrorists murdered 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, and was held in administrative detention until being sentenced to 2 years in a plea bargain on March 1, 2021




Seth Frantzman: Is Iran behind the drone attack against Iraqi PM?
Reports on Sunday of a drone attack on the home of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi represent a major escalation in the region.

It represents the increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles, primarily by Iranian-backed groups, to spread terror throughout the Middle East. It also represents the increased use of drones as a strategic weapon, in this case, with the goal of intimidating the Iraqi prime minister just days after security forces clashed with pro-Iranian protesters.

It’s likely that the attack was carried out by pro-Iranian militias as there are probably no other culprits in Iraq who have drones that could or would attack the Iraqi prime minister.

While ISIS has used drones in the past, it’s not clear why they would suddenly emerge now to target the Iraqi leader and that leaves Iran-backed groups firmly in the frame.

While official reports have not yet specified what group was behind the attack and no one has yet taken responsibility for it, the trend of such attacks in the region points to Iranian-linked groups.

A drone was used to attack a US garrison at Tanf in Syria in October. In July, a drone was used to attack a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Oman, killing two crew members. In both instances, the US and other countries have pointed the finger at Iran.

In May, a drone was launched from Iraq, or possibly from Syria, targeting Israel during the 11-day war with Hamas. It is believed that Iran was also behind this attack.
Iraqi PM survives assassination attempt

Haley: 'Israel should not count on Biden to stop Iran nuclear program'
Israel should not count on the Biden administration to stop the Iran nuclear program, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, a staunch ally of the Jewish state, tweeted on Saturday.

"The Iranian nuclear threat is existential for Israel. If Israel makes the grave decision that its security depends on removing that threat, it should not wait for an American green light that might never come," she added.

Halley also lambasted the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Saturday for hosting politicians who support the Iran nuclear deal.

"There's one thing I don't get about AIPAC, and I'm not saying anything to you that I haven't said to their leadership," she began in her speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership conference in Las Vegas.

"Why do they invite politicians to their conference who strongly support the Iran nuclear deal?" she continued as the conservative crowd applauded. "Stop rewarding bad behavior. It only gets you more bad behavior."

She added at the conference: "Bipartisanship is important. But if you make bipartisanship your whole reason for existence, then you lose sight of the policies you're fighting for in the first place.
Biden Admin Silent as EU, Iran and China Freely Violate US Sanctions
The Trump administration sent a robust message that violating sanctions would not be tolerated. But since the Biden administration came to power, it seems that almost everyone has been violating the US sanctions in Iran, China or wherever, and no one is being held accountable.

The Biden administration appears not to be taking any action against countries such as China or Iran, which continue freely to violate sanctions while using the revenues to bulk up their war machines.

This US passivity seems due an emerging pattern from the Biden administration of serial surrenders, as seen recently in Afghanistan, on the pretext that "We still believe diplomacy is the best path forward" -- without the threat of an alternative outcome.

This US inaction also seems due to the false belief and myth, which the Obama administration seems to have held as well, that if you appease predatory regimes -- if you side with the mullahs rather than your old regional allies such as Israel -- then the ruling mullahs will suddenly change their behavior and become constructive players in the Middle East. The eight years of appeasement towards them by the Obama administration only further empowered the Iranian regime and happily bankrolled their military adventurism and nuclear program.
Fred Maroun: As an Arab, I am disgusted by the Jews who oppose Google’s Israel contract
The open letter’s claim that Israel “attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” is particularly indicative of the authors’ ignorance. Israel totally evacuated Gaza in 2005 and is engaged with Gaza only to defend its own citizens against terrorism and to provide daily supplies to Gazans so that they can survive even though they are led by terrorists.

Do Jews like Koren and Schubiner know these facts and choose to ignore them, or do they simply know nothing about a conflict on which they pretend to take a moral stand?

In addition to attempting to harm Israeli Arabs, Koren and Schubiner also actively harm the Palestinians by encouraging a false narrative. The only way that the Palestinians will achieve statehood is by recognizing reality, by accepting that contrary to the false narrative that they have been fed for far too long, Israel is the Jewish home, and that the Jews have absolutely no intention of going anywhere. The Palestinians need to accept reality so that they can build their future on a solid foundation. By encouraging a false narrative, Koren and Schubiner are working against the best interests of the Palestinians.

As an Arab, I wish that Koren and Schubiner would learn the history of the people that they claim to belong to. Individuals who don’t understand history and yet try to judge it are taking a phony moral stand that causes more harm than good. If they think that they’re only playing a game and therefore do not need to put the required effort to become informed, they should find a less harmful game to play.

As an Arab, I’d like Koren, Schubiner, and all the others who play this game, to know that Arabs aren’t their toys.


Pro-Israel Readers Swarm New York Times Comments Section After Article Blames Israel for Gaza Wedding Debt
Vocal pro-Israel commenters are dominating the comments section of a New York Times dispatch that blames Israel for the wedding-related debt of a resident of the Gaza Strip.

Usual the Times online comments section is virulently representative of the newspaper’s hard-left anti-Israel paying subscriber base. This story, though, is an exception, as the paper’s blame-Israel-for-anything-bad-that-happens-to-anyone approach is being met with reader comments assertively calling out the Times bias.

The New York Times article, by error-prone Jerusalem bureau chief Patrick Kingsley and Iyad Abuheweila, is headlined “Long Walk From Freedom: Indebted Gazan Trudges to Jail 17th Time. Or 18th.” Sure enough, the Times manages to find a way to blame Israel for the plight of this Gazan man: “Since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, Israel and Egypt have heightened pressure on the militant group by enforcing a blockade on the strip. That has helped damage the Gazan economy and is one of the major causes of an unemployment rate of more than 40 percent. For young Gazans, one result of this is that they often cannot afford a wedding ceremony.”

The Times readers weren’t buying it. “Hamas is a clan-based kleptocracy. International aid money is routinely diverted to relatives of the leadership. Very little gets through to the needy. There is plenty of money, however, for tens of thousands of rockets and hundreds of underground tunnels to attack Israel. If Hamas ever stops shooting rockets at Israel, they will have peace,” wrote one New Jersey-based commenter, winning 148 upvotes.
Kamala Harris to say that singling out Israel is ‘antisemitism’ in ADL speech
The Biden administration pledges to “fight antisemitism and hate of all kinds, and call it out wherever it exists,” according to the text of an address Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver tonight at the Anti-Defamation League’s virtual Never Is Now conference.

“I want to be very clear about this: When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred: that is antisemitism, and that is unacceptable,” Harris is set to say, according to a copy of her speech obtained by Jewish Insider.

The speech marks Harris’s first public event with a Jewish organization following criticism she received from some Jewish leaders in September, after she did not challenge a George Mason University student who accused Israel of “ethnic genocide” in a question addressed to the vice president. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted at the time that he had spoken with Harris’s office and was “looking [forward] to a clearing of the record so there’s no ambiguity that what that student said was hateful/wrong.”

Harris met with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Washington last month, where she expressed America’s commitment to the “security of the people of Israel.” Lapid called Harris “one of the best friends Israel has in Washington.”

Harris is the most senior administration official participating in the conference, which will also feature sessions with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, actress Tracee Eliss Ross and WNBA athlete Sue Bird.

“In two days,” Harris plans to say, “we will mark 83 years since Kristallnacht, a night of unthinkable evil that foreshadowed more evil to come.”

“We know that antisemitism is not a relic of the past,” according to Harris, who makes note of the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue three years ago. “In recent years, the Jewish-American community has faced an alarming rise in hate crimes.”
$10K Reward for Info on Man Who Attacked Pregnant Jewish Woman in Crown Heights
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for the reported antisemitic attack of a pregnant Jewish woman on the Eastern Parkway between Nostrand and Rogers on November 3 in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

According to police and reports, a man directly approached the woman, attempted to hit her and threw a bottle at her.

“We are appalled and outraged by the vileness of this attack,” said Scott Richman, ADL NY/NJ Regional Director.

“ADL is offering this award to send the unmistakable message that hate-motivated violence and harassment is unacceptable. No one should be threatened by attack while going about their daily life.”
Two men arrested following West Ham fans antisemitic chants
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime after a video emerged showing West Ham fans subjecting an Orthodox man to a barrage of hateful chants.

An investigation was launched after video footage revealed supporters who had travelled to Belgium to watch West Ham in the Europa League chanting on board their plane: “We’ve got a foreskin, how about you,” to a visibly Jewish man making his way to his seat.

Essex police said they arrested a 55-year-old man on Friday as he stepped off a flight from Belgium.

On Saturday, a 26-year-old man was also arrested as he left a flight from the Netherlands.

Both and are suspected of committing a hate crime on the November 4 flight from Stansted airport on which the racist chants took place and have been released on bail until the December 1.

Essex Police Chief Superintendent Tom Simons, who is leading the investigation, said: “Essex Police will not tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind


Surprise NJ Senate winner apologizes for likening vaccine mandates to Holocaust
A truck driver who ousted the powerful New Jersey Senate president in the election previously posted online calling Islam “a false religion,” comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust and defending rioters at the US Capitol.

Republican Edward Durr apologized on Friday after media outlets highlighted the posts. His victory over Steve Sweeney, widely regarded as the second-most powerful Democrat in state government, in Tuesday’s election shocked the state’s political establishment. Durr spent a paltry sum on his campaign.

On Thursday and Friday, media reports highlighted posts Durr had made on Twitter and Facebook, including some critical of immigrants, boasting of defying state COVID-19 mask mandates, and making misogynist attacks on Democratic elected officials like then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Durr issued a statement Thursday night to radio station WHYY, and Friday to the website New Jersey Globe apologizing for the posts.

“I’m a passionate guy and I sometimes say things in the heat of the moment,” Durr said in identical comments to both outlets. “If I said things in the past that hurt anybody’s feelings, I sincerely apologize.”
Israeli swimmer Gorbenko takes gold at European Short Course Championships
Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko took home the gold on Saturday in the 2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships, in the 200-meter individual medley.

Gorbenko won first place in Kazan, Russia, with a result of 2:05.17 minutes. Maria Ugolkova of Switzerland came in second with 2:06.41, while Viktoriya Zeynep Güneş of Turkey was third with 2:07.67.

Gorbenko made history earlier this year when she became the first female Israeli swimmer to advance to an Olympic final. The 18-year-old, then 17, eventually finished in eighth place in the 100m backstroke final, but was hailed in Israel for her performance.

Gorbenko said then that she brings everything she has to every race: “My goal is always to advance as far as possible, and to break my own personal records.”
Chess grandmaster Kasparov talks masterclass, Israel, Queen's Gambit
Garry Kasparov is considered to be one of the greatest chess players ever and in a recent wide-ranging interview with the Syrian-born American journalist Hayvi Bouzo and Benjamin Weinthal, Kasparov covered his new chess masterclass series, The Queen’s Gambit Netflix series, Israel and power politics across the Middle East and in Russia. These are edited extracts of that interview.

BW: In Israel, the policy is that no country in the region should have a nuclear weapons program. But what you’re saying is that the alternative to the JCPOA would be a military strike to stop the atomic weapon?

GK: I don’t believe any deal signed by dictators has any value. I have read enough history books and lived long enough to know how dictatorships respond to an opportunity to advance their agenda. The [nuclear] deal helped Iran buy time. And we all know that Iran is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago. That’s it, and since we are in 2021 we can cry over spilled milk, over mistakes made by the Obama administration. I just want to be realistic. I don’t see how at the current time, looking at oil prices and looking at the level of enriched uranium in Iran and at the lack of appetite in America and Europe to do anything dramatic, you can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, at the time of their choosing. Or at the time when they decide it’s safe enough to make this declaration.

HB: Many Arab countries signed peace agreements with Israel, the Abraham Accords, and more countries are expected to join. What are your views on this historical development in the Middle East?

GK: A historic development. We have all been waiting with great anticipation for the moment when Israel will be able to break the blockade, the joint Arab policy to strangle Israel. It failed. Because Israel proved to be more than resilient it thrived, even with the sanctions and all these policies and the massive antisemitic lobbies all over the world, maybe less in America, of course, but more in Europe. You can hardly find a country without prominent antisemites pushing this agenda, even in the US today. And I think the fact that the leading Arab countries accepted this reality, that Israel is here and that it should be a partner, not an enemy, that’s a big step forward.

I hope that all Arab countries, eventually, will follow and it will be all normalization of relations and hopefully it will dry up the funding for terrorist groups that still rely on some Arab support, though unfortunately, we see that these terrorist groups, they always find new patrons. So they are not just relying on Saudi money or money from the Gulf. Now there is Iran and I would be surprised if they didn’t find other sources of funding to help these terrorist groups to continue their operations. But again I’m very excited to see the fruits of this cooperation. While I’m critical of the political regimes in the Gulf countries, it is far more, I would say, kosher, for Israel to deal with these countries than with Putin.
Holocaust survivor meets first cousin he never knew existed in Israel
An orphaned octogenarian Holocaust survivor whose parents and most of his extended family were murdered by the Nazis, has been united for the first time in his life with a blood relative, his first cousin whom he never knew existed.

Bernard Krutz and his cousin, Esti Kissilov, were brought together in an emotional meeting on Thursday afternoon in Modiin following the efforts of Bernard’s daughter, Lisa Baron, who worked to locate family members who may have survived the Holocaust.

Bernard, who doesn’t know when he was born, but is approximately 82 years old, was born in Poland and was hidden in an orphanage during the war.

His original name, Boleg Szczycki, was badly misspelled by the orphanage making it impossible for relatives to find him when the war had ended, and due to his young age, he was unable to search.

He remained in Poland after the war and eventually married there but he was forced to leave in 1968 and immigrated to the US where he settled, and has lived ever since.

In 2019, Lisa decided she wanted to try and find some relatives of her father, but because she had almost no information about her father, she opted for a DNA test in hope of finding someone.

Then, with the help of Jewish genealogical organizations and going on Bernard’s original but misspelled name, and through the Yad Vashem archives, several possible relatives were eventually identified.









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