Monday, January 10, 2022
Daniel Gordis: "The Massacre That Never Was"
Eliezer Tauber’s fascinating book reveals, therefore, the critical details of what did and did not happen in Deir Yassin on that fateful day, details that should (but undoubtedly will not) put to rest claims of massacre. There was killing, but not a massacre.Hamas lauds Sydney Festival boycotters
No less important, though, is Tauber’s illustration of how exaggerations of the carnage—intentionally concocted by the Palestinian press and others—led to widespread Palestinian flight and thus contributed to the Palestinian refugee problem. That is almost never discussed. Does that lessen the moral urgency of addressing the Palestinian problem? Probably not. But it should, at least, add nuance to the conversation about how to do so by highlighting that the causes of the problem are far more complex than many would like to acknowledge.
Other “massacres” that probably didn’t happen
Finally, it bears mention that Tauber’s book is part of a wider trend among some Israeli scholars who are upending long-held assumptions about massacres during the War of Independence and beyond. Another example is Martin Kramer’s masterful re-evaluation of the question of “What Happened at Lydda?”
You may recall that years ago, when Ari Shavit published a chapter of his (in many ways excellent and lyrical) book, My Promised Land, in the New Yorker, the chapter published was the one about the “massacre” at Lydda, also during the War of Independence, about which he wrote,
“In thirty minutes, two hundred and fifty Palestinians were killed. Zionism had carried out a massacre in the city of Lydda.”
That latter sentence infuriated many, since even if there was a massacre in Lydda, what did it meant to say that “Zionism” (rather than bad soldiers, for example) had committed the massacre?
That controversy festered for years, but it was only when Martin Kramer, the noted Israeli historian, began to look into the sources, that he, too, raised many doubts about whether there had been a massacre. Many deaths? Without question. An intentional massacre? In this case, very likely not.
With the publication of Tauber’s The Massacre that Never Happened, Tauber’s account of Deir Yassin and Kramer’s work on Lydda are now both available to the English speaking public. With the evidence so accessible, are those who accuse Israel of massacres going to read and re-think, or will they continue full steam ahead in accusing Israel of crimes that may well never have been committed?
That’s not the sort of question that Tauber nor Kramer address.
But then, again, we already know the answer.
THE terrorist group Hamas has praised the artists who have chosen to boycott the Sydney Festival.The Critical Role of Demography in the Middle East
Comedians Judith Lucy, Tom Ballard and Nazeem Hussein, the Darlinghurst and Belvoir Street theatre companies and First Nations dance company Marrugeku are among more than 20 artists who have pulled out of the festival due to the Israeli Embassy providing $20,000 in sponsorship for the dance performance Decadance – created by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin – which opened at the Opera House to rave reviews.
According to the Palestinian Information Center, Hamas said in a statement late last week, “We commend and appreciate this decision that came in solidarity with the Palestinians’ legitimate rights, and in opposition to the Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people.
“We declare our solidarity with the participants who have withdrawn from the festival, and we call on all participants to raise their voices in face of oppression and injustice.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said it was “now plain” that the boycotters have “unwittingly furthered the cause of the misogynists and homophobes of Hamas in seeking the obliteration of Israel”.
“A more accurate description of the ends their actions are serving would be ‘Artists for Genocide’,” he said.
Hamas perpetuated dozens of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada and since taking over Gaza in 2006 has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli population centres.
The Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is stronger than ever, among other factors because of immigration from Russia and Ethiopia, and rising birth rates in the Jewish sector.
In Syria, Sunnis represented 60% of the population on the eve of the civil war, compared to President Assad's Alawite sect, which comprised 12%. The Assad regime and its allies, Russia and Iran, carried out an ethnic cleansing during which nearly 1/3 of the population - 8 million people, the vast majority of whom were Sunnis - were either expelled or fled. 10 million Syrians currently reside under Assad's control, and the percentage of Alawites has doubled to 25%, if not more.
In Iraq, the percentage of Shiites who rule the country has grown to 65%, with the remainder comprising Kurds and Sunni Arabs who have been relegated to secondary status and many of whom have fled to Jordan and even Syria.
In Lebanon, the Shiites have become the largest sect in the country, nearly 1/3 of the population, while the Christians represent 1/4,and the Sunnis and the Druze represent 1/3 of the population. One in every three Lebanese (2 million out of a population of 6 million) is a Syrian or Palestinian.
In Jordan, 1/3 (4 million out of a population of 11 million) are refugees from Iraq or Syria.
The Fertile Crescent is no longer as Sunni as it was for a thousand years. This serves the hegemonic interests of Iran.
MEMRI: 'Irrelevant Religious Stuff'? No, All Terrorism Is Faith Based, Whether Religious, Political, Social, or Other – Part I
IntroductionWhen Elites Betray Us
February 26, 1993 was my last day in service as Advisor on Countering Terrorism to two Israeli prime ministers, first Yitzhak Shamir and then Yitzhak Rabin. On that day, I gave a final briefing at the Pentagon to the office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SOLIC).
My 45-minute briefing was about the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. I cited a series of Muslim religious leaders in various countries urging their followers to attack the U.S., and I concluded: "Islamic fundamentalism is an imminent threat to the United States today."
My American counterparts, with whom I had been liaising for five years, thought that my briefing was exaggerated. One colleague said to me: "You may be more aware of the threat because you are from Israel." What he meant was: "Don't confuse your situation with ours – this threat is not here in the U.S."
Two hours and 24 minutes later, as I was on my way to JFK to fly home to Jerusalem, a truck bomb was detonated by radical Islamists below the North Tower of the World Trade Center, in what would become known as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The West's Denial of Terrorists' Islamic Motivation
Everyone would agree that people's actions are led by their beliefs. But in the case of Islamically-motivated terrorism, the West reflexively pretends that the terrorists aren't motivated by their beliefs.[1]
Perhaps the most prominent example of this denial is former U.S. President Barack Obama's refusal to use the term "Islamic terrorism," opting instead to refer to it as "violent extremism" to create the impression that the attacks are not religiously motivated, but rather a thoughtless phenomenon. President Obama said: "There's no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do."[2]
Here are three additional examples, though there are many other cases.
Less than three weeks after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, in which U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he shot and killed 13 fellow U.S. servicemembers, European and U.S. editions of Time magazine featured a cover photo of Hasan with the title "Terrorist?" over his eyes.[3] The U.S. Department of Defense's 2010 report "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood" would later classify the attack as "workplace violence," and makes no mention of Hasan's religious beliefs.[4] In 2013, a U.S. Army judge would even limit prosecutors from introducing evidence that would establish Hasan's motives as "jihadi."[5]
After the 2015 San Bernardino, California attack, in which married couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and wounded 24 at a Christmas party held for county officials, investigators hesitated to refer to the attack as an act of terrorism even after it was known that the attackers had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on social media on the day of the shooting.[6]
Yet another example is the May 22, 2017 attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, in which a Muslim suicide bomber named Salman Abedi killed 22 people and wounded over 1,000. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack almost immediately, but in her statement the following day, British Prime Minister Theresa May referred to the attack only as an act of "sickening cowardice."[7] Some media outlets even reduced the Manchester attack to a misogynistic attack on women and did not mention the bomber's religious motives at all.[8] U.S. President Donald Trump, who had bucked political correctness by using the term "radical Islamic terrorism" during his campaign, referred to the people behind the Manchester attack as "evil losers."[9]
Part I of this article will focus on this phenomenon of the West's denial of the fact that Islamic terrorism is an act of faith, will address the reasons for this phenomenon, and will substantiate the fact that Islamic terrorism really is religiously motivated.
One of the great maladies afflicting Western democracies today is the decoupling of national elites from their own people. This was the background story to Brexit in the United Kingdom and also to the rise of Donald Trump in the United States.Israel should declare "Three Nos"
Here in Israel, with its breathtaking ethnic and religious diversity, we expect our leaders, political and social, to show a fundamental empathy and identification with our citizens, regardless of any particular issues involved. So, when Deputy Economy Minister Yair Golan recently called Samaria settlers “subhuman,” we considered him to have crossed a red line that cannot be erased nor should be forgiven.
Not only was Golan channeling the same Nazis whom he alluded to Israel’s resembling in his notorious 2016 Holocaust Remembrance Day speech; not only did he commit a blood libel against his own people; he broke faith with them.
For a country so dependent on social cohesion in the face of rampant differences, Golan committed the cardinal sin of disloyalty — of a lack of identification and affinity, not to mention empathy, with his fellow citizens.
His attempt to walk his statement back only made things worse, since he tried to contextualize it. If there were any question that this man is unfit for a leadership role in a Jewish state, this “clarification” should have been the decisive proof.
The irony is that Israel’s current government prides itself on being something for everybody, a big tent encompassing the spectrum of Israeli society. Golan, thus, has no business being part of it. Conversely, if Golan’s libel is allowed to fade into the woodwork, it will put the lie to the government’s claims of inclusivity and universal respect.
At Im Tirtzu, the organization I am proud to serve as board chairman, we have become used to being called fascists. But even our worst detractors have not crossed the line into Der Sturmer rhetoric. Indeed, Golan has taken demonization to a whole new level. In the name of social cohesion and human decency, it must be rejected wholeheartedly, and the only way to do that is to thank him for his prior military service, and to show him the door.
In June 1967, Israel defeated five Arab armies in what became known as the Six Day War. That war actually began when the Arabs invaded Israel immediately after her Declaration of Independence in 1948. The Arabs had hoped to destroy Israel and “drive the Jews into the sea”.Congress launches bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus
Three months later, on September 1, 1967, the Arab League met in Khartoum and declared their "Three Nos" resolution; no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel, Also included was their insistence on the rights of the "Palestinian people" in their own country.
Thereafter they resorted to a different battlefield. They began a diplomatic war against Israel in which they used propaganda, extortion and terror to achieve their desired goal. Eventually, they managed to get most of the world to back their false narrative and to support their cause. In particular, the world now believes that the land in question is Occupied Palestinian Land and that international law supports them and holds that the settlements are illegal. These beliefs are supported by the US, the EU and the UN among others.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. For the truth, read International Law and the State of Israel and The Legality of Israel Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria According to International law.
It is long past time for Israel to declare its own Three Nos; no to a nuclear Iran, no to the two-state solution, no to a bi-national state.
Why so? Because nothing is to be gained by negotiating.
At a time when Congress appears increasingly fractured along party lines and between chambers, a group of eight House and Senate lawmakers will come together this week to launch a bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus, focused on supporting and promoting the normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states.
The caucus’s co-chairs will be Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), David Trone (D-MD), Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Brad Schneider (D-IL). Lankford described the new group as a “cheerleading squad” for the Accords in an interview with Jewish Insider last week.
“The bipartisan, bicameral Abraham Accords Caucus will provide a unique opportunity for world leaders to come together in our common pursuit of creating a better, safer and more prosperous world for our children and grandchildren,” Rodgers told JI. “I am encouraged by the progress we have made, and I look forward to the amazing things we can accomplish together through our shared commitment to a better future in the name of peace.”
Lankford and Trone said the group came together around a shared goal of supporting the Accords, which were signed in September 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, working to expand the agreements and promoting economic activity among the countries in the agreement.
“In just one year, the Abraham Accords have already transformed the Middle East by contributing to regional peace and stability, promoting U.S. interests, and enhancing Israel’s security,” Rosen added. “The Abraham Accords Caucus will build on that success by providing bipartisan leadership to strengthen existing partnerships and widen the circle of peace to new countries.” Since the signing of the Accords, Sudan and Morocco have also normalized relations with Israel.
Lankford said that the group can also help keep the executive branch focused on adding more countries to the agreement, both during the Biden administration as well as those of future presidents.
Ambassador Tom Nides @USAmbIsrael was even beautifully serenaded by three incredibly talented #Israeli girls, singing ‘Hallelujah’ in English, Hebrew and Arabic! https://t.co/tmeHZeKSjo pic.twitter.com/DSnTq1oSd1
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 10, 2022
When Anti-Israel Bias Meets Cancel Culture
The radical left’s rise to power in Chile shows just how things have changed on the world stage when it comes to hatred of Israel. It should serve as a warning sign for North America as well.Polish envoy to Jews fired after calling Holocaust law ‘one of stupidest ever’
The winner in Chile’s recent presidential election is the leader of the country’s radical left, Gabriel Boric, whereas the loser is José Antonio Kast, a conservative right-winger who is the son of a former SS officer. At first glance, they are total opposites. But if you take a closer look, the two share quite a few commonalities.
The fact that the Palestinian issue has become so central in the newly elected Chilean president’s platform should be of great concern. It’s not just pro-Palestinianism, but mainly anti-Israelism. Boric believes Israel is perpetrating genocide. Just like the Holocaust deniers in Tehran, who want to replicate the liquidation of the Jewish people, his statements on the so-called genocide Israel is carrying out are a reflection of the ideological desire to destroy Israel.
The conventional wisdom is that this stance is a product of the massive presence of Arabs and Palestinians in Chile (in the hundreds of thousands). This may have been a factor, but it is not the source of Boric’s anti-Israeliness.
The anti-Israeli sentiment in the South American left — which spread from Argentina to other Latin American countries — comes from a unique fusion of Marxism and Nazism. The linchpin is the Tacuara Nationalist Movement, a fascist movement formed in the 1950s. The ideology of the South American old left, which produced figures such as Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who was toppled by Augusto Pinochet—can be traced to the communists and the Spanish Civil War. The ideological stance of today’s radical left, on the other hand, can be traced to the fascist movements of the 1950s, which split in the 1960s.
A Polish diplomat charged with improving contacts with Jews worldwide has been fired after he criticized his own government’s approach to regulating Holocaust speech, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.Meet the SMASH Dragon: An armed drone to take out hostile UAVs airborne
Jaroslaw Nowak, the plenipotentiary for contacts with the Jewish diaspora, described a Holocaust speech law passed by his country’s ruling party as “stupid,” in an interview last week with Jewish News, a weekly newspaper published in the UK.
Nowak also said Poland should pass a law on property restitution, a statement implying further criticism of the ruling authorities, who recently passed a law cutting off the chances for restitution or compensation for those who had properties seized by the communists. Among those affected are Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
This law has led to a crisis in ties with Israel, whose leaders have sharply criticized the legislation.
Nowak said he believed that Poland would at some point “have to do something about” restitution.
Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau fired Nowak on Saturday, the ministry spokesman, Lukasz Jasina, announced Monday on Twitter. He didn’t give a reason.
The development comes days after Poland recalled its new ambassador to Prague after that diplomat criticized his own country in an interview — in that case, in relation to Poland’s approach to a dispute with the Czech Republic over a state-run coal mine. Ambassador Miroslaw Jasinski spoke of “arrogance” on the Polish side, something the government spokesman called “extremely irresponsible.”
With hostile, weaponized drones bringing a whole new assortment of security threats to the forefront, Israeli small arms manufacturer Smart Shooter has released the SMASH Dragon, an armed drone system to accurately hit static and moving targets while flying.‘My Whole Face Was Bloodied,’ Latest Victim of Palestinian Stone Throwing Attack Recounts
The SMASH Dragon, which incorporates the company’s combat-proven SMASH technology that ensures precision targeting of hostile objects and people, is an advanced robotic weaponry payload that can be mounted on various drones and other unmanned aerial platforms.
The “extremely lightweight” system that is remotely operated has long mission endurance and “integrates a unique stabilization concept” that allows it to hit targets while flying, the company said. It has sophisticated computer vision capabilities and can be used with various types of assault rifles, sniper rifles, 40mm and other ammunition.
While it is not yet operational, it has successfully completed live-fire tests and is currently under advanced stages of development, it said. “We are now happy to offer the same precise, combat-proven target engagement technology mounted on an unmanned aerial platform that can be controlled from a distance," he said. "When it comes to drones, platform weight is a critical factor as it impacts mission endurance and cost, and we are proud to announce that the extremely lightweight SMASH Dragon meets this criterion.”
Palestinian rock throwing attacks against Israeli drivers have been on the rise in the West Bank, Israeli outlet Ynet reported Sunday, prompting victims to draw attention to the escalation and call for improved security.
In one such incident, an Israeli woman was driving to her home in Elazar, south of Jerusalem, around midnight on Thursday, when a block weighing around nine pounds suddenly “flew towards me, penetrated the windshield and hit my forehead.”
“By a miracle I kept on driving, and called my father in order to tell him I’m on the way home,” recounted Hila Lehm, whose face was visibly injured during the interview with Ynet. “Blood was pouring from my forehead, glass and blood were in my mouth, my whole face was bloodied.”
“I managed to drive another ten minutes to Efrat,” after which she was met by the military and evacuated to a hospital, where she received stitches.
Another vehicle was also attacked at the same spot on Thursday, shortly past midnight. In the car were married couple Tam and Malahi Zamir and their young neighbor, who were returning to Gush Etzion, an Israeli settlement bloc in the Judean Hills, after a performance in Jerusalem.
The rock-thrower “stood at the side of the road, in the dark,” recounted Tam on social media. “For a fraction of a second, I noticed him, and wanted to warn Malahi [the driver] to pay attention, in case he crossed the road.”
Certain bad faith foreign media outlets in Israel were promoting a partial edited video footage that is purporting to show an Israeli assaulting a "Palestinian" journalist. A review of the video and audio recordings makes it clear that it is another case of misleading propaganda. pic.twitter.com/DGHsJVp5Uc
— DigFind (@DigFind_) January 10, 2022
A deadly trash trade is poisoning Palestinians in the West Bank
When Israa’s four-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, she spent little time wondering why. The answer was all around her: the acrid, toxic smog created by Palestinians burning Israeli electronic waste to extract valuable raw metals.
“There isn’t a house on our street without someone who’s had cancer or passed away,” said Israa, who lives in Beit Awwa, a small town near Hebron.
In the rolling hills west of Hebron, Palestinians live amid clouds of billowing black smoke caused by their neighbors setting fire to discarded waste, almost all of it from Israel, in order to glean the prized copper within.
The lucrative industry supports thousands of Palestinians and their families, bringing millions of shekels into the local economy. But Palestinians also pay a high price for the burners’ pollution.
Cancer rates in nearby towns are sky-high, with children falling ill with the destructive disease at four times the rate of the rest of the West Bank, according to research by Israeli environmentalist Yaakov Garb.
Beit Awwa, with a population of 8,000, buried four cancer victims in just one week in mid-November, most of them young, a local health official said.
“We’re living on poisoned ground,” said Shadi Sweity, a resident of the small town. His brother, Mohammad, died from liver cancer in late November, at the age of 48.
Daughter replaces father same day he retires. #CORRUPTION https://t.co/ymZGtS0KcA
— Fadi Elsalameen ???? ???????? (@Elsalameen) January 9, 2022
Israel Not Bound by Any Nuclear Deal With Iran, Bennett Says
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Israel would not be bound by any nuclear deal with Iran and would continue to consider itself free to act “with no constraints” against its arch-foe if necessary.Iran rules out prospect of an interim nuclear agreement in Vienna
Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed a week ago in Vienna. France’s foreign minister said on Friday that progress had been made, although time is running out.
“In regard to the nuclear talks in Vienna, we are definitely concerned … Israel is not a party to the agreements,” Bennett said in public remarks, in a briefing to a parliamentary committee.
“Israel is not bound by what will be written in the agreements, if they are signed, and Israel will continue to maintain full freedom of action anywhere any time, with no constraints,” he said.
Israel has called on world powers to maintain a credible military option against Iran while they pursue an agreement.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday ruled out an interim agreement with world powers, as the sides continue their talks in Vienna aimed at returning to the 2015 nuclear accord.Daniel Greenfield: While Biden negotiates, Iran keeps trying to kill Americans
A spokesman for the ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said Tehran is “looking for a lasting and credible agreement, and no agreement without these two components is on our agenda.”
He added: “We all need to make sure that the return of the United States [to the deal is accompanied by verification and the receipt of guarantees, and that a lifting of sanctions must take place. These are not achieved by any temporary agreement.”
On Sunday Iran’s foreign minister said talks with world powers to revive the nuclear accord were approaching a “good agreement” but reaching one soon depends on the other parties.
“The initiatives of the Iranian side and the negotiations that have taken place have put us on the right track,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
“We are close to a good agreement, but to reach this good agreement in the short term, it must be pursued by the other side,” state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
Negotiations to restore the nuclear deal resumed in late November after they were suspended in June as Iran elected a new, ultra-conservative government.
Six years after Obama signed off on the nuclear sellout deal with Iran, diplomats are once again meeting with representatives of the Islamic terror state in Vienna’s lavish Palais Coburg.US Warns Iran of Severe Consequences if Americans Attacked
One thousand five hundred miles away from the white columns of the former palace turned five-star hotel, American forces are under fire once again. On Jan. 3, two suicide drones were aimed at the State Department’s Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center near Baghdad International Airport. Two more terror drones targeted American forces deployed to fight Islamic State at the Al Asad air base. The base has been repeatedly hammered by Iran-backed rocket attacks over the past year, most notably when 14 rockets struck the base over the summer causing several injuries.
While American forces were able to shoot down the terror drones, these latest acts of Iranian diplomacy came complete with the words “Soleimani’s revenge” scrawled on the drones. The latest Iranian attacks on Americans forces have used Soleimani’s death as a pretext, but the attacks began before the Iranian terror boss was killed, and have sharply escalated under Biden in response to his appeasement of the Islamic terror regime.
There were repeated Iran-backed rocket strikes against Americans in Iraq throughout the last year, totaling an estimated 25 separate attacks under the Biden administration.
These attacks have mostly gone unpunished.
While Iran and the media eagerly link the latest wave of Iranian attacks on American forces to the death of General Soleimani, they conveniently forget that the United States took him out in response to multiple attacks such as these, including the 2019 rocket attack that killed an American contractor and wounded four American servicemen, and the attempt by Iranian proxies to recreate Benghazi with an attack on our embassy in Baghdad.
The Trump administration decided to send a clear message to Iran after that. The Biden administration has sent an equally clear message to Tehran, of a very different kind.
Iran will face severe consequences if it attacks Americans, the White House said on Sunday, including any of those sanctioned by Tehran for the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Iran’s sanctions on Saturday came as Tehran’s proxy militias continue to attack American troops in the Middle East.
“We will work with our allies and partners to deter and respond to any attacks carried out by Iran,” Sullivan said in a statement. “Should Iran attack any of our nationals, including any of the 52 people named yesterday, it will face severe consequences.”
Iran on Saturday imposed sanctions on dozens more Americans, many of them from the US military, over the 2020 killing of Soleimani.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said 51 Americans had been targeted for what it called “terrorism” and human rights violations. The step lets Iranian authorities seize any assets they hold in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets means it will likely be symbolic.
It was not clear why Sullivan’s statement referred to 52 people when Tehran said it had sanctioned 51.
Iran’s sanctions included US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also included former White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
Yesterday Iran imposed sanctions on 52 Americans. Make no mistake: the U.S. will protect and defend its citizens. As Americans, we may disagree on politics or Iran policy. But we are united in our resolve against threats and provocations. https://t.co/2j4jqvpNPe
— Jake Sullivan (@JakeSullivan46) January 9, 2022
Especially since there have never been severe consequences for the plot to blow up a restaurant in Georgetown and the plot to kidnap an Iranian dissident and refugee in Brooklyn. https://t.co/exqOqXz87D
— Clifford D. May (@CliffordDMay) January 9, 2022
Princeton Faculty Member Brags About Death Threats Against Trump Admin Envoy
A former Iranian official who is a faculty member at Princeton University recently bragged in an interview about how his hardline government’s death threats against a former top Trump administration official had him and his family "trembling" with fear.
Hussein Mousavian, a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team who works as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University, said in a recent interview that the Iranian regime’s threats to murder Brian Hook, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran, have heavily impacted Hook’s family life.
"I went to America and an American told me that Brian Hook’s wife can’t sleep, she cries and trembles, she told Brian, ‘They’ll kill you,’ since Hook was a partner in the death of Haj Qassem [Soleimani], that’s how much they were trembling," Mousavian said, referring to Iran’s vow to kill Hook for his role in the Trump administration’s drone strike that killed Iranian terror leader Soleimani two years ago. Mousavian’s comments were made in a documentary produced and released this month by a company tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps titled 72 hours. His Farsi language remarks were independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.
Mousavian’s comments have renewed focus on his employment at Princeton, which Iranian dissidents and activists have long criticized due to the former official’s alleged role in Iranian human rights abuses. Mousavian, who regularly travels between Iran and the United States, has been working at Princeton since 2009 and has served in senior roles for the Iranian regime. Mousavian’s knowledge about Iran’s threats toward Hook, which the U.S. government has taken very seriously, according to sources familiar with the situation, demonstrates how Tehran has been able to mainstream its allies into prominent positions at U.S. universities and other American outposts, such as D.C.-based think tanks.
"It’s simply dangerous for any university to employ Mousavian, as he has directly celebrated death threats against Brian Hook and has been implicated in the death of Iranian dissidents in the 1990s," Alireza Nader, a veteran Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank, told the Free Beacon.
I’ve said it over and over again. Never underestimate the capacity for desperate, ideological US officials committed to an appeasement policy to find a way to give Tehran everything it wants. Get ready. https://t.co/bhRDObtK3P
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) January 9, 2022
Iran Regime’s Terrorism in 2021, A Summary
Iran’s human rights violations and terrorism are intertwined, and both are gaining new dimensions. Terrorism has a direct impact on human rights abuses, trampling on the victim’s right to life, liberty, and physical integrity.
In addition, over the past decades, the regime’s terrorism has destabilized many governments in the region while taking thousands of lives of foreign nationals.
The regime undermines civil society, jeopardizes peace and security, and threatens social and economic development. Examples can be seen in countries like Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Due to the regime’s interference, these countries are now suffering from many difficulties, most importantly, a lack of security.
The regime’s terrorism has a long history. It should be separated into two parts to have a clearer vision of the regime’s actions.
The first is the regime’s previous terror acts now under investigation in the different courts. And the second is the regime’s terrorist operations in 2021.
There are four active cases in this regard, which have made the headlines:
- The first case relates to the trial of Assadollah Assadi, a senior Vienna-based diplomat. He was ordered to bomb the annual “Free Iran” Summit held by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Paris in 2018. The German, Belgian, and French security services arrested Assadi and his three accomplices, Amir Saadouni, Nasimeh Naami, and Mehrdad Arefani. The three were convicted and received 15 to 20 years of prison terms.
- The second case relates to the assassination of Dr. Kazem Rajavi on April 24, 1990, near his home in Coppet, Switzerland. A 13-member hit- squad commissioned by the then Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, carried out the cowardly assault. In a ruling on September 23, 2021, The Swiss Federal Criminal ordered the Federal Prosecutor to pursue this case as a crime against humanity and genocide.
- The third case is the court of a Lebanese national and a former senior Iranian diplomat at the regime’s embassy in Oslo accused of involvement in the assassination of the Norwegian publisher William Nygaard. The Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service has been investigating the attempted assassination of William Nygaard for 12 years since it resumed in 2009. Nygaard was targeted in 1993 by several fanatics for publishing Salman Rushdie’s novel.
- The fourth case is a proceeding in a court in Istanbul in connection with the assassination of Massoud Molavi in Ankara in 2019. The assassination was planned and carried out by the Iranian embassy. Although the perpetrators escaped, Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh an Iranian diplomat was determined to be an accomplice in this case, and at present, the court is investigating the assassination.
The fact is that in each case, the Iranian regime’s embassies, their staff, and ambassadors have played a prominent role in these assassinations.
IRGC Deputy Chief Admiral Ali Fadavi: At the Right Time, When We Strike America, the Great Satan, and Israel, It Will Be with Great Force; If Israel Acts Against Us, We Will Turn Tel Aviv into Dust #Iran #IRGC #JCPOA pic.twitter.com/z90L1Nz4LQ
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 10, 2022
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