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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

02/22 Links Pt1: On Amnesty’s car-crash interview in Israel; Anti-Israel Bias and NGO Links of UNHRC’s Gaza Committee of Inquiry Members; Israel crosses grim 10,000 death mark

From Ian:

Amnesty International’s Problematic Israel Report
Eugene Kontorovich, director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Scalia Law School, believes “there is clearly a coordinated campaign by far-left NGOs to mainstream the apartheid accusation, with an eye o[n] getting it adopted and ‘made official’ by the ICC [International Criminal Court] and the UNHRC.” Kontorovich continued, “Having a U.N. agency, even a discredited one like the UNHRC, accuse Israel of apartheid will certainly give diplomatic momentum to those who seek to destroy Israel.”

Herzberg sees Amnesty’s report as “timed to feed into a March 2022 report where U.N. Human Rights Council Rapporteur Michael Lynk will accuse Israel of apartheid, which in turn will serve [as] the basis for the Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Israel levying of the charge. They also hope their reports will influence the ICC to indict Israelis for a crime against humanity.”

Schanzer said, “This [report] was designed to be ammunition, and it will be.” Schanzer concluded, “All of this could potentially build in a dangerous direction.”

That direction isn’t an entirely new one. This effort recalls the United Nations’ declaring in 1975 that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” While the United Nations finally repealed that resolution in 1991, Soviet-style anti-Zionism lives on.

Izabella Tabarovsky, senior associate with the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center and research fellow with ISGAP, told me, “Soviet antizionist propaganda deeply influenced [the] Western left back [in] the 1960s-1980s. Soviet propaganda was comparing Israel to South Africa already in the 1960s and applying the apartheid label regularly ... These comparisons were as baseless then as they are today, but they fulfilled a political purpose.”

Anti-Israel activism remains a popular and unifying cause among leftists; it can also imperil local Jews. Tabarovsky observed: “Demonization of Israel and Zionism creates an atmosphere of antisemitic incitement that endangers Jews in the diaspora in very real ways—we saw it last May. ... In my research, numerous people told me that demonization of Israel by Soviet press in the run-up to the Six Day War created such an antisemitic atmosphere that they feared for their personal safety. ... They were sure that there would be pogroms,” because inflammatory rhetoric has consequences.

Even before releasing this report, Amnesty was an organization whose members voted against actively combating rising antisemitism in Britain in 2015. So Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty USA, can’t be taken seriously when he tweets, “We want to be very clear—it is unacceptable and inappropriate for this report to be used as justification for any recrimination against the Jewish people. We condemn antisemitism in the strongest possible terms.” Indeed, that tweet’s no more credible than Amnesty’s report on Israeli “apartheid.”


On Amnesty’s car-crash interview in Israel
Their responses to simple questions were, for the most part, a mix of exasperation, ignorance, self-contradiction, and conspiratorial magical thinking. Luther in particular was almost comically unprepared for the most obvious of questions, and he seemed genuinely resentful at being asked them.

The most obvious question, of course, is why the obsessive and disproportionate focus on Israel in the human rights community. There are a few coherent, even if not terribly persuasive ways, to deal with the question. One would be to argue that all of the attention of Amnesty, HRW, the UNHRC and others is completely justified because Israel truly is a unique evil on the global scene and much worse than all other countries combined. Another would be to deny completely that there is a disproportionate focus on Israel. And a third would to be acknowledge it, maybe claim that it is a problem of other organisations, but argue that in this specific case it is not what is happening.

What is incoherent is trying to do all three, which is precisely what Luther does. He wants to ‘push back’ on the idea that there is a large focus on Israel. Two sentences later, he tacks in the other direction: ‘I’m not sure what the problem is.’ And later again ‘I don’t think there evidence for that.’ When confronted with the specific example of the UNHRC, which year after year passes more resolutions against Israel than all other countries combined, Luther is flatfooted. He avoids the question, isn’t sure about the facts. He seems unaware of the ‘permanent item’ dedicated to Israel on the Commission’s agenda, when no such item exists for any other country.

No one expects an Amnesty director to sound like AIPAC speaker. But it is not expecting too much for someone whose entire professional life is dedicated to the topic of human rights in the Middle East to have an opinion of some kind on the matter.

And it’s jarring that people who believe so fervently in human rights don’t see something amiss in this. Let’s imagine a village with 193 families in it, and the local police assigns one of its only cops to follow only one family’s car and constantly measure its speed, and the tax department goes over every receipt of this same family looking for irregularities, and a grand jury sits permanently to investigate any possible crimes of this same family, and the local paper has a reporter permanently assigned to sniff out any infidelities or disputes inside the family. You don’t need to be an expert with 20 years experience (as Luther reminds us in the interview he has) in the field of human rights to understand what is wrong with this situation.

When Berman comes back to the UN issue one last time, Luther gives perhaps the most astonishing response. He says Israel has actually managed to ‘shut down scrutiny using the power of its relationships’ and charges that the UN is actually a locus of inaction because Israel ‘has influence over powerful allies who then manage to stop it, stop the scrutiny.’

And that of course is the appeal of anti-Israel activism in the West: the sincerely held belief that by engaging in it you are somehow standing up to dark powerful forces at home. There’s a word for this pathology.


NGO Monitor: Anti-Israel Bias and NGO Links of UNHRC’s Gaza Committee of Inquiry Members
This review highlights the chosen panel members’ conflicts of interest and prejudicial backgrounds, including long histories of anti-Israel activism and highly inflammatory rhetoric. Many of their statements and associations directly relate to topics under the COI mandate, suggesting that the Commission members have already formed their conclusions, prior to any investigation. These appointments demonstrate that the goal of the COI is not to conduct an impartial and objective investigation, but rather, to manufacture evidence, recycle allegations of apartheid, and demonize Zionism and Jewish self-determination. In fact, it appears these individuals were chosen specifically for their prejudicial stances. Such extreme bias, a violation of international and UN fact-finding requirements (p. 19), is typical of UN inquiries into Israel, and countries should refuse to cooperate with this panel and to provide it funding.

Navi Pillay, appointed to head the COI, is well known for her bias towards Israel while UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in 2008-2014. In this position, she empaneled four fact-finding missions targeting Israel, more than any other country; oversaw the discredited Goldstone Report, which was later rejected by its primary author; permitted the appointment of the notoriously antisemitic Richard Falk as the Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians; and convened the 2009 Durban II conference, which was boycotted by most democracies, and provided Iranian President Mahmud Ahmedinejad a prominent platform to disseminate antisemitic vitriol. Because of this record, on February 14, 2022, UN Watch filed a brief calling for her recusal from the COI.

Chris Sidoti has been described as a “close friend and ally” to the PA framework known as the Independent Commission for Human Rights and sits on the advisory council of AJIC, an Australian NGO that calls Israel a “settler colonial apartheid regime” and has accused Israel of committing crimes during the May 2021 conflict. His position with AJIC, a group that has taken extreme positions on matters directly under investigation by the COI, and his role with a PA entity, present clear conflicts of interest disqualifying him under UN rules and international fact-finding standards.

Nearly 20 years ago, Miloon Kothari entered Israel under false pretenses in order to prepare a UN report (also in cooperation with radical NGOs). That publication erases the context of mass Palestinian suicide bombings that killed and wounded thousands of civilians, whitewashing terrorism and other war crimes as “Palestinian resistance.” It also employs highly inflammatory rhetoric, accusing Israel of “massacring” and “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians and falsely asserting that “the basic theocratic character of the Israeli legal system establishes ethnic criteria as the grounds for the enjoyment of full rights” (report available here: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/473611?ln=zh_CN). Kothari’s troubling statements relating to Palestinian terrorism and his reliance on false NGO claims suggest he is unable to fulfill the COI mandate in accordance with UN standards.
No UN agency was set up for Jewish refugees
In reaction to an article by the historian Benny Morris mentioning Palestinian refugees, CEO of the American Jewish Committee David Harris notes in the Wall street Journal the double standard operating at the UN with regard to the world’s actual refugees, and Jewish refugees from Arab countries:

Unrwa’s mission made no reference to refugee resettlement, and its definition of a Palestinian refugee included future generations without any time limit.

Meanwhile, some 20 million non-Palestinian refugees are under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose mandate is limited to actual refugees, whose aim is to resettle as many as possible in countries where they can find safety and opportunity, and whose workforce is smaller than Unrwa’s. This triggers the question of why Unrwa operates on its own, rather than under the UNHCR structure, and how long its open-ended mandate will continue.

Finally, it should be noted that there were also some 850,000 Jewish refugees as a result of persecution and violence in Arab lands, beginning largely in the 1940s. No special U.N. agency was set up for them. They eventually found new homes in Israel, Europe and North and South America, and their trauma has largely been ignored by history.
Mansour Abbas tells Jewish leaders he wants to expand ties with US Jews
Deepening relations between Arab society and Jewish communities abroad is important, Ra’am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the Knesset on Tuesday.

Abbas said he has met with many groups of American Jews since entering Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition last June and appreciates the willingness of American Jews to help Israeli Arab communities economically.

“We Arabs in Israel are the bridge that can create hope for the two peoples living together in the holy land, based on the vision of Jews and Arabs living together in security, peace and mutual respect,” he said. “This can bring light to the entire world.”

Abbas took credit for the end of political paralysis in Israel and received repeated applause from the Jewish leaders, who also met with Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy.

Levy apologized to the Jewish leaders for what he called the recent deterioration in relations between Israel and American Jews.
Seth Frantzman: The most important takeaways of Putin’s Ukraine speech
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a long and important speech on February 21 as tensions with the US over Ukraine reached new heights. While the media focused on certain aspects of the speech, particularly Russia recognizing two separatist areas in Ukraine as sovereign independent states, there is much more there to unpack.

Let’s begin at the end. “I consider it necessary to make a long-overdue decision to immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic [DPR] and the Luhansk People's Republic [LPR],” he said. These are two areas in eastern Ukraine that declared independence in April of 2014. Their decision was clearly motivated by a sense they had Moscow’s backing. They are in one of several small areas similar to this that have sought to become their own states with Russian backing.

Moscow usually does this as a way to keep its hands on the scales inside a former Soviet country. In Georgia, there is South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which sought independence in the 1990s – and there are other areas, such as Transnistria near Moldova.

Putin’s decision was made after years of trying to manage a conflict in Ukraine. He claims the necessity of recognition now, apparently to do away with the pretense that these are just separatist areas. Russia cares about international laws and norms; even if it exploits them for its own needs, it cares to have an appearance of doing things by the book.

That is why Russia’s Tass reported today that “Putin later ordered the Russian Foreign Ministry to establish diplomatic relations with the DPR and LPR and the Defense Ministry to maintain peace in the republics. According to one of the presidential decrees, the Defense Ministry was ordered to make sure that ‘the Russian Armed Forces maintain peace in the Donetsk People’s Republic’ until a treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance is concluded. The Russian Defense Ministry received similar instructions in a decree recognizing the LPR.”

The point here is that Russia is exploiting the situation that it helped create in 2014 by now creating a legal fiction for sending troops into these areas. This will lead to the “peacekeeping” troops being on the line of potential contact with a Ukrainian army that Moscow says has sent 120,000 troops to the borders of these breakaway regions. Ukraine has called the operations against the separatists an “anti-terror” campaign.
Christians, wake up: Stop Putin - NATO, Israel are next
WILL PUTIN THREATEN ISRAEL?
Once Putin has seized Ukraine and the Baltics, will any small country be safe from his grasp?

Will Israel?

No. Putin’s lust for power and wealth will be unstoppable at this point.

How long would it be until Putin’s allies in Tehran and Damascus ask him: Which side are you on, ours or Israel’s?

Why do let Israel keep attacking Iranian positions in Syria?

Why do you let Israel keep threatening to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities?

You are the new Master of the Universe, why don’t you show Israel who’s boss?

Remember: Putin has sold the Iranians and Syrians billions of dollars in advanced military hardware.

Putin has sent military forces into Syria to save the Bashar Al-Assad regime.

Putin is building a huge naval base in Syria.

Putin has also provided continual political cover for Iran and Syria at the UN.

Yet Putin has simultaneously maintained a working and even friendly relationship with Israeli officials over the past 22 years in office.

How much longer do you think that will last if the West surrenders to him in Ukraine and the Baltics?
Ukrainian Rabbi: We Will Ensure All Those Who Want to Make Aliyah Can
“After a tense Shabbat, tonight was relatively quiet, and I hope this is a sign of things to come, despite the fact that gunfire has already resumed,” said Aryeh Schwartz, a Chabad rabbi and Jewish community activist in Donetsk, Ukraine.

“Tonight, artillery fire was felt on the outskirts of the city, but not to the same extent as in previous days,” he said. “On Shabbat, for example, there was constant artillery fire …. . It’s encouraging that in the city, some car traffic was also heard this morning. But right now, the gunfire has resumed, and I am trying at this time to rescue someone who is in a shelter in the area of the gunfire,” he added.

The individual in question was located about a mile from his location, he said.

According to Schwartz, the 5,000-strong local Jewish community is trying to remain calm despite the tense and complicated situation.

“What helps us on a day-to-day level is the support of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, the former Soviet Union. That includes, among other things, assistance in the event of an evacuation, if necessary,” he said.

Should the situation demand it, he continued, “We will contact community members, including those who do not go to synagogue [which is situated in the separatist area], and we will contact all of their friends.”


Israel crosses grim 10,000 death mark as Omicron wave continues to wane
The death toll from the COVID pandemic in Israel crossed the 10,000 mark on Monday evening; two years after the pandemic first erupted – including some 1,600 Israelis since the onset of the Omicron wave.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 12,930 new Covid-19 cases with 753 people hospitalized in serious condition as the fifth wave of the pandemic continued to recede.

The percentage of positive tests over the previous 24-hour period was 13.55% out of 95,425 tests administered to detect the virus.

As of Monday evening, there were 120,713 active COVID cases in the country.

The reproduction rate, or R-value, continued its downward trend at 0.66, indicating that the outbreak driven by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was waning. A number below one indicates that each infection causes less than one new infection.

Meanwhile, the downward trend of Israeli seeking to get vaccinated has also continued, as just 150 people received their first vaccine dose on Monday, 321 received a second dose, 381 their third dose, and 1,271 their fourth dose. Altogether, nearly 4.5 million Israelis have received three vaccine doses, while almost 721,000 have been jabbed four times.

According to the Health Ministry, 52% of all COVID deaths in Israel were among those over age 80, and 76.6% were among those over age 70.
Second IDF court ruling undermines gov’t campaign against Palestinian NGOs
For the second time, the Judea Military Court has issued a ruling nominally convicting a Palestinian of terror activities, but also undermining the government’s broader October declaration of six Palestinian NGOs as terror groups.

Last week, Palestinian activist Khatam Saafin was convicted in a plea bargain for membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group, after earlier more severe charges were dropped, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Originally, the IDF Prosecution had accused her of being part of the leadership of a group of dual-hat actors performing both humanitarian work and secretly siphoning off funds to the PFLP.

She was sentenced to 16 months in prison following an indictment filed in June 2021. She is expected to be released in May given that she has been detained since November 2020.

Saafin was initially placed in administrative detention, which was extended three times.

She had been director-general of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), one of the six NGOs declared to be terrorist groups, and the original indictment included charges that this group was a money-laundering front for the PFLP.
WATCH: Arab Woman & Kids Rip Out Fruit Trees Planted by Efrat Residents
An Arab woman and four children were seen on security cameras late Monday afternoon working hard to rip out trees that were planted in a new park that is under development outside the fence surrounding the Dagan neighborhood in the Jewish community of Efrat, just ten minutes south of Jerusalem.

Last Friday residents of Efrat planted 50 citrus fruit trees and 30 more trees of different types, a spokesperson for the Dagan Slopes Project told JewishPress.com. Over the past six weeks, he said, a total of 150 to 200 trees have been planted in the area.

The Arab woman and the four children with her succeeded in tearing out eight trees. The saplings have disappeared.

Security personnel who witnessed their actions alerted the Efrat patrol and the IDF, but “by the time everyone showed up, they had disappeared,” the spokesperson said.

“But on the security footage you can see them ripping out the trees, you can see where they went, and even which house they entered,” he notes. “So when the soldiers came they actually went down to the house and knocked on the door. Obviously, no one answered the door,” he added.
Al-Jazeera Report On 'Night Disturbance Unit' In Palestinian Authority's Jenin Refugee Camp
AJ+, the online platform of Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar), posted a report about the "night disturbance unit" in the Jenin refugee camp in the Palestinian Authority on February 15, 2022. In the report, masked members of the unit explain that their unit consists of three teams: a surveillance team that monitors the movements of the IDF in the Jenin area, an engineering team that manufactures simple homemade explosive devices, and a "special unit" that hurls the explosive devices at Israeli soldiers and their vehicles. A member of the unit described an incident in which the unit hit four or five Israeli soldiers with their devices, and the soldiers screamed. The man said that one of the soldiers was crying out for his mother.


Fmr. Lebanese FM: Demarcation of Maritime Border with Israel Enables Extraction of Oil, Gas from Sea
In an interview that was uploaded to the Lebanon On website on February 17, 2022, former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil discussed the demarcation of the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon. Bassil said that if a maritime border agreement that preserves Lebanon's rights is reached with Israel, Lebanon will be able to start extracting oil and gas to benefit the Lebanese economy. He explained that this would be beneficial even if Lebanon has to share the oil and gas fields with Israel, and he said that the exact dimensions of the maritime borders are not as important as access to and ownership of the resources. Bassil qualified that only the president, parliament, and government can make such a decision.


MEMRI: Palestinian Writer: Peace And Coexistence Are The Only Way To Resolve The Conflict With Israel; This Requires Israeli Concessions And Palestinian Recognition That Jews Are Entitled To Live Beside Them
In a February 7, 2022 column titled "Peace Is No Longer an Option, But a Necessity" on the Saudi news website Elaph, Palestinian journalist Fadel Al-Manasfeh wrote that peace and coexistence are the only way to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and that this requires concessions by Israel but also a sincere Palestinian recognition of the Jews' right to live by their side. In the column, which was also published two days later on the Palestinian news site Amad Media, Al-Manasfeh suggested to make Jerusalem an apolitical religious capital of peace and coexistence, and did not rule out the option of establishing a binational Israeli-Palestinian state called Isratine, as Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi proposed in 2002.

The following is a translation of his column:
"We can no longer contemplate a comprehensive solution in Palestine without speaking of a peace that will satisfy both sides and allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The discourse of exclusion and force of arms will only exacerbate the suffering on both sides.

"The war of racial oppression and apartheid in South Africa lasted a long time, [but] the policy of enslavement and of maintaining the status quo, practiced by the whites against the Africans, brought [the whites] nothing but shame and disgrace. The machine guns and rifles in Congo-Brazzaville,[2] in Sudan and in the two Koreas managed only to divide each of these countries into two states who share the same identity and the same fate.

"Although the situation of the Israelis and Palestinians is different, since they do not share the same [national] identity, religion or fate, Jerusalem was and remains a central issue that prevents reaching a comprehensive peace between the Palestinian Authority and the [Israeli] occupation. Another factor is that the war will not end as long as Hamas refuses to recognize the [state] called Israel, and as long as Israel sees Hamas as nothing but a terror organization that must be firmly [opposed], for otherwise it will not let a single Israeli live in peace, whether [this Israeli] is a fanatic or a human being who is entitled live wherever he wants.

"What if the two sides agree to turn Jerusalem into a religious capital, without determining who it belongs to and involving the political, sectarian, ethnic and theological factors [in this issue]? Can't we imagine Jerusalem – or Al-Quds – as a joint capital of peace and human coexistence, which ensures everyone's rights? Can't we realize the dream of 'Isratine,' advocated by [the late Libyan leader Mu'ammar] Qadhafi [in 2002], which everybody mocked even though it is an idea that has merit?
PMW: The vile PA Jew hatred
Since its creation, Palestinian Media Watch has documented the vile Jew hatred spouted by the Palestinian Authority and its leaders, as presented to the Palestinian people through the official PA media. While Jew hatred is common place in PA discourse, occasionally even the PA organs and mouthpieces outdo themselves.

In an article recently published in the official PA daily, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, one of the paper’s regular columnists, presented his overview of the creation of Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust as a “colonialist state” created to “establish a swamp for the savages who were massacred.” Al-Ghoul continued his diatribe, following the general PA narrative that the “Palestinians” granted the Jews shelter from the “barbaric Nazi, and fascist western and eastern Europe and against the American cowboy” but that the Jews betrayed that kindness:
“The Zionist colonialist project brought its tools and its women from the states of western and eastern Europe in order to steal from a people its homeland, to establish its colonialist state of occupation and exile on the ruins of its Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), and to establish a swamp for the savages [the Jews] who were massacred and burned by those who brought them from Europe and from among their various peoples and agreed to be a cheap colonialist pawn at the expense of a people that only provided solidarity, aid, and hospitality to those who arrived in the Palestinian homeland. But they committed betrayal and acts of evil against the people that gave them shelter from the barbaric, Nazi, and fascist western and eastern Europe and against the American cowboy, housed them, and fed them the delicacies of its land. However, ‘genes work in hidden ways,’ as the Palestinian idiom says.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 5, 2022]

While portraying Israel as a foreign, European implant to “get rid” of the Jews of Europe is a common PA theme, referring to the Jewish refugees as “savages” is a new level of depravity, even for the PA.
PLO, Fatah, and Abbas want “popular resistance,” like the first Intifada
PLO, Fatah, and Abbas want “popular resistance,” like the first Intifada “when we were masters of the roads… and the settlers were like hiding rats”

Director-General of Popular Activity in the PA-controlled Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall Abdallah Abu Rahma: “The main point of the [PLO] Central Council meeting yesterday was popular resistance. All the sessions, meetings, and conferences, whether of the Fatah Movement or of the other factions, and also His Honor [PA] President [Abbas calls] in all his speeches to initiate popular resistance… We cannot enjoy peace and security without popular resistance actually spreading. The method of the popular [first] Intifada of 1987 (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence, 1987-1993) is the best proof of this, when we actually were the masters of the roads and did not cease to be so, moving freely, and the settlers were like hiding rats moving under the [Israeli] army’s large security protection, and despite this they came across blows and confrontations. Therefore, I again say that we need to initiate popular resistance…The right is taken by force from the occupation, and what was taken by force will only be returned by force, we need to act.” [Official PA TV, Feb. 8, 2022]


West Bank Militants Reorganize, Establish Joint Operations Room
A newly formed Joint Operations Room (JOR) called Hizam al-Nar has been established in the West Bank. The JOR is made up of members of Katibat Jenin (Jenin branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah).

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have operated in the West Bank since the second intifada. However, Katibat Jenin appears to be a relatively new formation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters or a rebranding of its already long-established presence in the West Bank, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp.

Ziyad Nakhalah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s secretary-general, first mentioned Katibat Jenin in a speech lauding the “mujahideen” of the West Bank shortly after the escape of six militants from Gilboa prison in Sept. 2021. The prison escape led to a short-lived revival of a PIJ-Hamas-Fatah-led JOR that was originally established in 2002 during the second intifada.

A detailed look into the nascent organization shows that in late January, a Telegram channel was created to establish the group’s online presence. Video publications of claimed attacks soon followed, however, the recordings did not clearly identify Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) soldiers being engaged by Hizam al-Nar fighters.

A Feb. 14 claim by the JOR spokesperson, Abu Mua’ad, took credit for attacking IDF vehicles with a “new device” called “Tawalbeh 25.” Although the organization did not provide additional information, the “device” is likely named after Mahmoud Tawalbeh, a locally revered Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander killed by the IDF in 2002.

It is noteworthy to mention that reports from local Palestinian media outlets do corroborate some attacks claimed by the JOR.


16 hurt as drone targets Saudi airport; Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis blamed
Saudi Arabia’s state-run news agency said 16 people of different nationalities were wounded Monday at an airport in the south as a result of the interception and destruction of a drone carrying explosives launched from Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition that’s battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels was quoted as saying that the bomb-laden drone was targeting King Abdullah Airport in the Saudi city of Jizan, near the border with Yemen. Saudi defense forces allege the drone was launched from Sanaa’s airport in the Yemeni capital.

Saudi state TV reported three travelers were in critical condition. It aired a short video clip of the aftermath that showed glass shattered across the floor inside the airport near a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store. The state-run Ekhbariya news channel later showed travelers moving about within Jizan’s airport and reported that flights were back to operating normally.

Saudi Arabia has been involved in Yemen’s civil war since 2015, fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthis who overran the capital of Sanaa and ousted the internationally recognized government from power. Despite seven years of fighting and war, the Houthis remain in control of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen.

The attack against Jizan, a region near Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, comes on the eve of a patriotic day in the kingdom as the nation prepares to celebrate its first-ever Founding Day. The date, which is different from the traditional national day, is meant to symbolically commemorate the founding and unification of the Saudi state by its Al Saud rulers. Nationwide celebrations have been planned and the king has deemed it a holiday for both the private and public sectors.

The incident also comes less than two weeks after a similar attempted drone attack and interception resulted in 12 people wounded at an airport in the southern Saudi region of Abha, also near the kingdom’s border with Yemen.
What Exactly Does Hezbollah Have in Their Arsenal, and How Dangerous Is It?
What does the Hezbollah terror organization have in its arsenal? Does Hezbollah really have 150,000 missiles and rockets as it claims? An in-depth analysis by the Israeli Alma Research and Education Center shows Hezbollah’s weapons cache is less threatening than the terror organization claims.
On February 16, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah spoke on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of his predecessor Abbas Moussaoui, who was eliminated by Israel in 1992, and referred to Israel’s activities against the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria and from there to Hezbollah. He also referred to the Hezbollah project to convert regular rockets into precision missiles and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) that it possesses.

According to Nasrallah, Hezbollah is constantly receiving high-quality weapons from Iran, and the transfer of these weapons has not been compromised. Hezbollah can convert the thousands of missiles it possesses into precision missiles and has begun to do so years ago.

On the issue of the accuracy project, Nasrallah claimed that Hezbollah no longer needs Iran’s help. “Many missiles have already been converted into precision missiles,” Nasrallah declared. He also noted that Israel had also tried to undermine the ability to transfer UAVs into Lebanon, but Hezbollah managed to establish a production system on Lebanese soil.

Contrary to Nasrallah’s remarks, Hezbollah appears to be having a very difficult time utilizing its precision missile project, Alma estimates.

Hezbollah possesses precision missiles, mostly medium-range Fatah 110 (M600), received directly from Iran or missiles assembled in Syria and transferred to Lebanon. It is estimated that Hezbollah possesses several dozen precision missiles, possibly over 100.
The Affair that is Driving Lebanon Crazy – Who is Painting the Star of David on the Roads in...
The Lebanese army’s intelligence chief has launched an investigation following the appearance of Star of David symbols spray-painted on the main road near the town of Zahala and is trying to locate the vandals.

The appearance of the Jewish symbols is driving the Lebanese army crazy, and after sending a unit to erase the symbols on the asphalt, unknown individuals re-painted them, in a cat-and-mouse game that has been going on for three days.

The bizarre affair is causing a stir on social media in Lebanon with a long line of guesses, and it is believed that the appearance of the paintings on the roads is meant to mock Hezbollah.

The appearance of the Star of David paintings in Lebanon comes a few days after Hezbollah published a video about its alpinist unit’s training who are seen firing at targets bearing the Star of David emblem. Hezbollah’s elite unit, Radwan, which according to various sources is supposed to occupy parts of the Galilee in an upcoming war in the north, is also training on targets bearing the Star of David.


Jonathan S. Tobin: Can We Trust the Media to Report the Truth About a New Iran Deal?
In the spring of 2016, The New York Times Magazine published an article that was the Rosetta Stone for understanding media coverage of foreign policy during the presidency of Barack Obama. In a profile of then-Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, the piece let the failed novelist turned speechwriter turned faux international-relations expert explain how the Obama administration helped sell a skeptical public and Congress on its signature foreign-policy accomplishment: the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

While the portrayal of Rhodes’s trademark arrogance was the main takeaway from the feature, it also illuminated the process by which the White House marketed an indefensible policy. Rhodes boasted that the national press was so ignorant of the topic and so eager to parrot administration talking points that he had little trouble manipulating accounts of the negotiations with Iran and portrayals of what even its supporters had to admit was a flawed agreement.

Casting aside any pretense that what went on could be confused for actual journalism, what he described went beyond the usual process by which officials try to “spin” the news to the press. Instead of merely persuading writers to mimic pro-deal arguments, Rhodes did something that was referred to in the article as more akin to “ventriloquism.” What another Obama White House colleague called their press “compadres” were the puppets in a shadow play that largely controlled how the accord was portrayed in mainstream outlets. The result was the creation of a “media echo chamber” in which Obama’s narrative about the pact being the best possible option for the West and that the only alternative to what an honest media would have labeled appeasement was a war that no one wanted was blindly accepted.

Given all that has happened since then, the events of 2015 may seem like ancient history. But a discussion of the process that Rhodes was candid enough to reveal is just as, if not more relevant today than it was then.
Iran Appears Ready to Swap Prisoners With US as Talks Approach ‘Finish Line’
Talks on restoring a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program and ease sanctions are near conclusion, a Russian envoy said on Tuesday, and sources close to the negotiations said a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States is expected soon.

“Apparently the negotiations on restoration of #JCPOA are about to cross the finish line,” Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter, using the 2015 agreement’s full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Reuters reported last week that a US-Iranian deal was taking shape in Vienna after months of talks between Tehran and major powers to revive the nuclear deal pact, abandoned in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump, who also reimposed extensive sanctions on Iran.

A draft text of the agreement alluded only vaguely to other issues, diplomats said, adding that what was meant by that was unfreezing billions of dollars in Iranian funds in South Korean banks, and the release of Western prisoners held in Iran.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the Islamic Republic was ready for an immediate prisoner exchange with the United States.

“Iran has always and repeatedly expressed its readiness to exchange prisoners. Months ago we were ready to do it but the Americans ruined the deal,” a senior Iranian official in Tehran told Reuters, without elaborating.
From 1979 to 2021: A Timeline of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program
The US is currently engaged in nuclear talks with Tehran, as part of the Biden administration’s plan to breathe life back into the Iran nuclear deal from which the US withdrew in 2018. While Israel and America’s Gulf allies have voiced objections to the deal — also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — the White House sees a deal with Tehran as the best chance to curb Iran’s rising nuclear capabilities.

An HonestReporting timeline of the progress of nuclear negotiations with Iran since 1979 is below, and should shed some light on the challenges that lie ahead.

February 1979: Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran result in a severing of diplomatic relations with the US.
January 1984: The US State Department adds Iran to its list of state sponsors of terrorism, imposing sweeping sanctions on Tehran.
2002
August: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami acknowledges the existence of nuclear facilities in Iran after an exiled opposition group, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, reveals Tehran’s nuclear plans during a press conference.
2006
February: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors refers Iran to the UN Security Council (UNSC) after Tehran starts producing uranium hexafluoride gas, a chemical essential to enriching uranium. The resolution deemed it “necessary” that Iran suspend its enrichment-related activities, reconsider the construction of the Arak heavy-water reactor, ratify the Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement, and “fully cooperate with the agency’s investigation.”
June: The P5+1 — the five members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) plus Germany — propose a framework agreement for Iran to halt its enrichment program.
Netanyahu warns US Congress members: No accord will stop Iran’s nuclear program
Opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of visiting members of the US House of Representatives that no signed agreement would ever stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and insisted that only stiff sanctions and military action would be effective.

Dozens of Congress members from both the Republican and Democratic parties are in Israel this week, meeting with local officials on a trip organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation.

Western officials have indicated that negotiations between world powers and Iran to restore the faltering 2015 nuclear deal could produce an agreement within days. The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action has unraveled since the US unilaterally pulled out of it in 2018, in a move supported by Israel when Netanyahu was still prime minister.

Netanyahu told the US lawmakers Monday that history has shown that other countries in the region seeking nuclear weapons were only stopped when Israel took military action and bombed reactor sites before they became operational, citing the attacks on Iraq’s reactor in 1981 and a Syrian reactor in 2007.

“The way to stop the arming of such regimes with military weapons is not, then, through agreements. It is important to understand that it just does not work,” Netanyahu said.

“The only thing that has worked in the past is one of two things or both: either crippling sanctions or a credible military response or both — preferably both,” he said. “Nothing else has worked and in my judgment, nothing else can work.”
'You don’t want Ayatollahs with nuclear weapons,' says Benjamin Netanyahu in an exclusive interview

PreOccupiedTerritory: Biden Looking For Ways To Send Pallets Of Cash To Putin Also (satire)
White House officials acknowledged today that the president is exploring avenues to reward Russian aggression in Ukraine by following the formula that his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama did in 2016 with Iran: shipping billions of dollars in hard currency to the rogue regime, and thus to encourage further imperialism in a strategic region where such expansionism threatens important US allies.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters today that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s current military incursions into Ukrainian territory, in addition to the occupation of several eastern regions of the country that began while Obama held office, has prompted Joe Biden to look for ways to duplicate Obama’s achievement regarding the mullahs of Tehran: remove sanctions, supply liquidity, and generally make life easier for a bad actor with a proven track record of attacking or intimidating neighbors who dare oppose the bad actor’s hegemonical ambitions.

“It’s one of several options the president is considering as we speak,” stated Psaki regarding pallets of cash to fly to Moscow in the dead of night. “Now that it looks like the option of not imposing sanctions on [Russian natural gas pipeline] Nordstream 2 cannot continue, the president has sought other paths to appeasement, surrender, and abandonment of key allies that heralds more weakness down the road and invites continued aggression on the part of anti-American and anti-Western forces from China to Pakistan to Iran to Qatar and beyond. It will also serve to demoralize nations that have come to rely on the US as a staunch ally, which is a central pillar of this administration’s foreign policy.”




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