Friday, December 03, 2021

12/03 Links Pt1: Stop saving UNRWA from itself; Abraham Accords momentum isn’t fading; it’s soaring; Group financing Breaking the Silence also funding PFLP

From Ian:

Dr. Martin Sherman: You couldn't make this up!!
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad—Anonymous ancient dictum—misattributed to Euripides.

Israel is a country of many paradoxes and colliding opposites—many of which make it one of the most fascinating and dynamic countries on the face of the globe; a country that has overcome almost impossible odds to drive its way to the forefront of virtually every realm of human endeavor—including medicine, agriculture, cybertechnology, arts, and entertainment—with the jarring exception of the functioning of its body-politic.

"Incentivizing the murder of civilians is barbarism."

This is particularly true regarding the paradox embedded in Israel's perverse, perilous and puerile approach to what has become known as "the Palestinian problem". Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to state that it is a patently self-contradictory policy, in which certain elements thereof manifestly contradict and annul other elements of it.

Thus, in 2018, Israel passed a law—with disconcerting reluctance—mandating the reduction of payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by deducting a sum equivalent to the amount the PA pays to imprisoned terrorists and the families of deceased terrorists, killed while perpetrating acts of terror. This legislation reflected a compelling rationale that Israelis should not be complicit in compensating their Judeocidal Arab assailants…or their dependents.

Oddly, rather than spearheading such a measure itself, the Israeli government found itself belatedly echoing the punitive initiative—taken over a year previously—by the US Congress, known as the Taylor Force Act. The bill provides for ending US aid to the PA unless and until it ceases to pay stipends to the incarcerated terrorists and to the families of deceased terrorists, including the families of suicide bombers.

Indeed, one prominent legal expert, Professor Thane Rosenbaum, designated these payments for terror as "lavish incentives to commit violence", which, in effect constitute "a bounty system…enshrined in Palestinian law, provided for in the Palestinian Authorities budget and indirectly supported by foreign aid…"
Stop saving UNRWA from itself
UNRWA claims to advocate for a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but in practice the agency has overlooked terrorist group activity in some of its camps, allowed its schools to be used as human shields for Hamas military tunnels, allowed members of Hamas and other terrorist groups to hold UNRWA staff positions, falsely presented images that stir up hatred against Israel and continues to teach children to demonize and delegitimize Israel using violent propaganda. In short, UNRWA spends more to do less, while perpetuating a problem it was meant to resolve and undermining the peace process itself. That is why some countries, like Germany and the UK, have cut their funding in the first place.

The UN is often, and deservedly, criticized for singling out the State of Israel. But if the nations of the world want to actually help solve the Middle East conflict, they need to stop singling out the Palestinians as well.

Perhaps the UN should support the resettlement of Palestinian refugees – but they should do so only within a framework that would: a) not falsely blame the situation entirely on Israel, and b) involve even trying to accomplish the goal of resettling actual refugees from the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1948, using the internationally recognized definition of refugees that applies in every other instance. Doing so is far from impossible. As an example of how this might realistically look, take the 2000 Clinton Peace Parameters in which Israel agreed to allow 100,000 refugees to return – more than three times the estimated number of actual refugees under the definition, but still a reasonable amount. All other “refugees” were to be resettled in their present places of residence, the future Palestinian state, or in third-party countries, with Israel contributing $30b. to fund their resettlement.

In the meantime, it’s not surprising that it’s becoming more difficult to raise money for a corrupt agency whose culture the Palestinians themselves consider “highly problematic” and full of “entitlement and abuse.” A policy of support without accountability for an organization that has long done nothing but disservice to the very population it was meant to protect helps exactly the same amount of people that UNRWA itself does – no one.


Fleur Hassan-Nahoum: Abraham Accords momentum isn’t fading; it’s soaring
If anything, the accords have given Israel permission to call its Arab neighbors cousins again. What has for decades been discreet is now out in the open.

Everything about how peace was forged this time around—from four landmark agreements being reached in the space of five months, to the business framework through which negotiations were held—was different, and the hope is that this model can one day be extended to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that have eluded history’s best statespersons and diplomats. Indeed, the best brokers for lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace may very well be not in Washington D.C., but in Manama, Rabat, Abu Dhabi or Khartoum.

The accords helped create a model of peace that is rarely seen in the Middle East—one based not just on closed-door diplomacy, but on culture, business and deep person-to-person friendships. The accords should not—and do not— purport to replace the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but they demonstrate the viability of alternative methods of peace-building.

Palestinians and Arab Israelis will benefit from these regional normalization agreements, and the city of Jerusalem can serve as a key bridge to the Gulf states since 40 percent of its population is Arab. The hope is that the accords herald a new era of Muslim tourism to Jerusalem, eventually becoming the research-and-development heart of the Middle East.

Peace agreements are inked by leaders, but they are forged by everyday people. Israel and its neighbors are now building a model for peace in the Middle East, one spearheaded by entrepreneurs and environmentalists who envision a better region for their children
The Tikvah Podcast: Judah Ari Gross on Why Israel and Morocco Came to a New Defense Agreement
Last week, the Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz visited Morocco, where for the first time he was accompanied by uniformed Israeli military personnel. Gantz’s visit comes on the heels of visits in the last year by Israeli national-security advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat and Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid, both of whom prepared the way for full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Building on Israel and Morocco’s burgeoning diplomatic relations, the purpose of Gantz’s recent visit was to negotiate a memorandum of understanding focused on their security cooperation. Judah Ari Gross, the military correspondent for the Times of Israel and this week’s podcast guest, accompanied Gantz on his trip. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, he explains here how this historic agreement happened, what it means, and how it serves each nation’s interests.


19 countries drop support for UN resolution omitting Jewish tie to Temple Mount
Nineteen countries dropped their support for a resolution at the United Nations on Wednesday that ignores Jewish ties to the Temple Mount holy site.

The resolution pertaining to Jerusalem was one of three that make up what has become known as the “Palestinian Package” — varied versions of which are passed by the UN General Assembly every year.

The other two resolutions condemn the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights and call for intensified efforts by the Israelis and Palestinians to end the conflict between them through a two-state solution, respectively.

All three resolutions passed by overwhelming margins, as they did when they were brought before the General Assembly last in 2018. However, the resolution on Jerusalem, which includes a call for “upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif” holy site, saw a notable drop in its support.

On Wednesday, 129 countries voted in favor of the resolution (with 11 against and 31 abstentions), compared to 148 in 2018. The Czech Republic and Hungary, which voted in favor of the resolution three years ago switched sides entirely in order to oppose it. Meanwhile, 20 countries that voted in favor in 2018, chose to abstain this year, including, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Kenya, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Several of the countries attributed their changed vote to the resolution’s failure to use a more neutral identification of the Jerusalem holy site, which is known as Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews, though the same language had been used in the past.


US strongly opposed to settlement advancement, Blinken tells Bennett
The United States "strongly emphasized" its objection to Israeli settlement advancement in a conversation Secretary of State Antony Blinken had with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday.

Blinken "strongly emphasized that Israel and the Palestinian Authority should refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution, including advancing settlement activity," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in describing the conversation.

The two men discussed Iran, the Omicron variant, the Iron Dome system and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The conversation comes amid sharp policy disagreements between the two longstanding allies on Iran and West Bank settlements.

At issue in particular is a project for 9,000 new homes that is slated to be built on the site of the former Kalandia Airport in Atarot, which was in operation from 1924 to 2000.

According to officials, Israel last week had told the US it would not advance the project which is slated to be debated by the Interior Ministry's District Planning Committee on December 6.

The Atarot project was temporarily removed from the schedule but then returned to it. One official had said that Israel had told the US that the project would go through the planning committee process but would not move forward to the upper echelon for over a year.
The Israel Guys: The Hatred is Increasing | Israel News
The leader of the Arab party currently sitting in Israel’s government recently said that Jews had no right to pray on the Temple Mount. He said that the Temple Mount is a place that should be only for Muslim worship. He forgot to mention that the Dome of the Rock is actually the third holiest site in Islam and that worshippers face away from the Dome when praying.

Also, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield came down hard on Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. In the meantime, the US is making plans to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians, whether Israel likes it or not.


Biden's Two-Faced Agenda on Turkey
U.S. President Joe Biden's increasingly hypocritical policy on NATO's increasingly difficult ally, Turkey, is badly zig-zagging between the U.S. leader's self-declared advocacy for universal democratic values and Biden's secret agenda, which he prefers dishonestly to hide: appeasing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan behind closed doors and condemning Turkey's democratic deficit in public. In less than two years Biden has swung from a pledge to oust Turkey's autocratic leader to appeasing him behind closed doors.

In a December 2019 interview, then-presidential candidate Biden said that Erdoğan should be ousted from power through a democratic process and that support for the opposition was crucial. Turkey's human rights record has gone downhill from there. The Council of Europe has said that if Turkish courts keep ignoring rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, it would start infringement proceedings against Turkey at the end of November.

All the same, on October 31, Biden and Erdoğan apparently had a 70-minute meeting in a "very positive atmosphere" on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome. They reportedly agreed to form a joint mechanism to improve ties. "During the meeting," an Erdoğan aide told this author, "Biden's lecture on human rights did not exceed two minutes." It seems that a U.S. delegation will soon arrive in Ankara to work on that joint mechanism.

Since the summer, everything on the Washington-Ankara axis seems to have gone wrong. During a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing in July, Republican and Democrat Senators criticized Turkish government policies and demanded more action from the Biden administration. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and other Senators expressed concern over the Turkish government's efforts to ban the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). "That's like if President Biden banned the Republican party from participating," Menendez said.
In Turkey, Hamas leader calls for 'plan to bring down' Abraham Accords
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh urged the terror group on Thursday to fight against the normalization agreements Israel has established with neighboring states.

Last year's Abraham Accords brought about a series of agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and others, where states agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Haniyeh spoke out against the deals during a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and called to take action to undermine them.

"We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization, which, unfortunately, has taken the character of military and security alliances with some countries," he said, according to a Hamas press release.

In November, Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed a memorandum with Morocco's defense chief, which would establish a foundation for security cooperation between the two states.

His visit marked the first official trip by an Israeli defense chief to the country – a visit made possible after Morocco normalized ties with Israel through a deal that followed the Abraham Accords.
How did 12 Jewish New Yorkers end up vacationing in Syria?
Last month, reports bubbled up on Arabic social media about a group of Jews that had traveled to the Syrian capital Damascus.

Swirling rumors said the visitors were invited by the Syrian government, or they were propaganda props, or connected to Israel, or even that they went to get discounted dental treatment.

The ongoing Syrian Civil War, past persecution of the country’s Jews and fraught relations with Israel made the visit seem improbable.

One member of the group, however, told The Times of Israel the trip was an “extremely normal” family vacation to the group’s ancestral home.

“There’s a lot to see in Syria. For me, I’m eating foods that I know, I’m speaking the language I know, I feel comfortable around the people,” Joe Jajati said. “I actually do feel at home, I actually do get that feeling so it was a very nice experience.”

Jews have a long history in the area that is now Syria, even though only a few remain there today.

Jews lived in Damascus and Aleppo 2,000 years ago, and tradition says there were Jews in the area long before that. The Dura Europos Synagogue found in the eastern part of the country dates back to circa 240 and may be the world’s oldest existing synagogue.
US Senators Seek Sanctions on Iran Over Alleged Plot to Kidnap Journalist
Democratic and Republican US senators announced legislation on Thursday that would impose sanctions over an alleged plot by Iranian intelligence agents to kidnap Iranian-born US journalist Masih Alinejad.

Democrat Ben Cardin and Republican Pat Toomey said their legislation would seek to hold Iran accountable for the plot and prevent any further attempted kidnappings on US soil by imposing mandatory sanctions on those involved and authorizing secondary sanctions on banks doing business with them.

US prosecutors charged four Iranian operatives in July with plotting to kidnap Alinejad, a journalist who was critical of Tehran. Iran has called the allegation “baseless.”

“If you dare to attempt to come to our nation and kidnap an American citizen, there will be dire consequences,” Cardin told a news conference with Toomey and Alinejad, who said she came out of hiding for the event at the US Capitol.

The US Treasury department said in September it had sanctioned the four Iranian intelligence operatives behind the failed plot.


Report: Group financing Breaking the Silence also funding PFLP
A right-wing organization has demanded Defense Minister Benny Gantz outlaw both the Palestinian NGO Development Center over its alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

An investigation by Ad Kan into the funds the NCD transfers to various organizations in the Palestinian Authority and Israel point to the NDC's maintaining close connections with the terrorist group. According to Ad Kan, its research pointed to the NDC promoting radical anti-Israel ideology, including support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement as well as campaigns against the normalization of Israel ties, among other things.

The NDC further requires organizations its funds both commit to and act to advance its ideology. NDC representatives confirmed the demand in a conversation with Ad Kan representatives shared with Israel Hayom in which they also confirmed NDC's funding of left-wing organization Breaking the Silence.

Ad Kan further found the NDC to be transferring funds to Shafaq, a network of cultural organizations in sovereign Israeli territory in east Jerusalem with ties to the PFLP that it fears is operating as a cover for the PFLP.


2 Border Police officers wounded in Umm al-Fahm car-ramming; 1 suspect shot dead
Two Border Police officers were injured in a car-ramming in Umm al-Fahm on Friday morning, after a night of violence in the northern Arab town following the murder of a resident.

Police said in a statement that one of the officers was in a light-to-moderate condition, while the second was lightly hurt.

Officers on the scene opened fire toward the vehicle used in the attack, which had two occupants.

Medics later confirmed the death of one of the suspects, a man in his 20s. The second suspect was lightly hurt and arrested on the scene, police said.

Security officials believe there was a criminal motive behind the ramming rather than nationalist, and that it was connected to disputes between families in the town.

The suspects were known to police, and officers said they found a gun in the vehicle when they carried out a search.
Tayibe woman convicted of spying for Hezbollah
A woman in her 20s from the Arab-majority city of Tayibe has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for spying for Hezbollah.

Maibat Masarwa was convicted by a Lod District Court on charges of contact with a foreign agent and passing information to an enemy after she admitted to photographing defense sites and passing the information to a Hezbollah operative.

According to the indictment, a Lebanese Hezbollah operative contacted Masarwa on Facebook in 2018 and asked her to take pictures from inside Israel.

Masarwa provided the operative with 12 images of military vehicles, the border fence near Rosh Hanikra, and Iron Dome batteries, among other things. According to the indictment, Masarwa went out of her way, driving to far-off destinations, to take the pictures in question.

Masarwa also sent the operative pictures of Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa following an incident between the IDF and Hezbollah on the country's northern border.

According to Masarwa, she initially believed the operative to be an Israeli citizen as he had communicated with her in Hebrew. She said the operative later presented himself as a Lebanese journalist looking for information and images for a story he was writing on the status of the countries' relationship. She said she cut off all contacts with the operative when his requests grew suspicious and had acted out of ignorance.
‘Nuclear Blackmail’: Israel Calls for End of Iran Talks in Vienna After IAEA Revelations
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the United States to “immediately” halt ongoing indirect talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers, following fresh revelations of Tehran’s uranium enrichment violations.

“Iran is carrying out ‘nuclear blackmail’ as a negotiation tactic and this must be met with an immediate cessation of negotiations and by concrete steps taken by the major powers,” Bennett told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a phone conversation.

During the call, Bennett cited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report released on Wednesday, which stated that Iran has begun the process of enriching uranium to the level of 20 percent purity with advanced centrifuges at its Fordow underground facility.

In reaction to Israel’s demand, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted: “As Vienna talks advance, the Israeli regime shows its true colors again, calling for immediate halt of negotiations. Not surprising. Dialogue is always despised by the regime whose genesis is based on war, tension & terror.”

“Delegates in Vienna won’t take instruction from Beit Aghion,” Khatibzadeh continued, referring to the Israeli prime minister’s residence.
Europeans express dismay as Iran walks back compromises at Vienna nuke talks
European diplomats expressed “disappointment and concern” on Friday after five days of international negotiations in Vienna on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as Iran submitted two draft proposals that appeared to undo months of dialogue.

Senior diplomats from the E3 group of Britain, France and Germany expressed “disappointment and concern after thoroughly and carefully analyzing Iranian proposed changes to the text negotiated during the previous six rounds,” which took place earlier this year.

“Tehran is walking back almost all of the difficult compromises crafted after many months of hard work,” they said, adding that the Iranian delegation had demanded “major changes.”

They went on to say it was “unclear how these new gaps can be closed in a realistic timeframe.”

The latest round of talks began on Monday between the E3, Iran, China and Russia, with the United States participating indirectly.

Diplomats were aiming to revive the 2015 deal, which began unraveling in 2018 when then-US president Donald Trump pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions, prompting Iran to start exceeding limits on its nuclear program the following year.









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