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Monday, March 14, 2022

03/14 Links Pt1: BHL: Ukraine and the Jews; Natan Sharansky: Putin will go as far as the world lets him; The Winner in Ukraine Won’t Be Russia or America. It Will Be China

From Ian:

Bernard-Hemri Levy: Ukraine and the Jews
And finally, President Volodymyr Zelensky, the descendant of a family decimated by the Holocaust and a living symbol of mourning done right. The first time I met him, on the eve of his election, I asked him by what turn of history might the Ukraine of the extreme-right Azov Battalion place in its highest office a Jew from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. With his customary dry humor, leavened at that moment with unusual gravity, he replied as follows (and how well later events would prove him right!): “There remains a far right in Ukraine, of course; but you will soon see that it carries less electoral weight here than in Russia or even in France …”

Today it is Putin who threatens the city of Uman, which the Jews of Galicia brightened with their sabbaths, their Talmudic studies, their radiant Hasidism, and their modernity.

It is Putin’s missiles that, in destroying Kyiv’s television tower, barely missed Babi Yar and the 33,000 souls buried in the sandy ravine, whose guardians are the Ukrainians.

It is Putin who is pounding the Jews of Bucha, Irpin, and Borodyanka, who had been living peacefully with their fellow citizens of all faiths.

And that is why, despite the provocations that isolated bands of rogue soldiers may commit, as they do in all wars, we should be guided by a simple compass.

If there is a leader who urgently needs denazifying, it is Vladimir Putin, with his fetish for brute strength, his Slav Anschluss, and his talent for bringing back from the shadows of the 20th century the specter of total war.

Among those whom his demoniacal prestidigitation is taking hostage and victimizing with his cynical lies are the survivors—and the children and grandchildren of the survivors—of the most monstrous crime of all.

And for them, for all the world’s Jews, for Israel’s leaders who know better than anyone where the will to annihilate a people and a state can lead, there is a single categorical imperative: Refuse to be blackmailed; resist the supposed constraints of shortsighted realpolitik; and, in standing with the Ukrainians as they are bombed, starved, and massacred, remain faithful to an ancient human vocation.
'Israel could pay steep diplomatic price for Ukraine policy,' Sharansky warns
Natan Sharansky, a former prisoner of Zion and deputy prime minister, is convinced that Israel made a mistake by trying to stay neutral regarding the war in Ukraine. "We of course have interests when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, but we should have said from day one that the Russian attack and unjustified targeting of the civilian population are unacceptable."

It's not just the moral consideration that should have led Israel to adopt a clearer position, says Sharansky. The diplomatic calculation also supports this view: Ukraine is going to play an important role in the global balance of power structure, and it's in Israel's interest that Ukraine remember Israel for standing by its side and helping it in its time of need.

"How can it be that the Ukrainians beg us for a field hospital, Israel throws around promises for an entire week, and in the end, the finance minister says we don't have the funds?" wonders Sharansky.

He recalls how he acted as a minister in former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first government to thwart a supply of Ukrainian and Russian-manufactured nuclear industrial equipment earmarked for Iran. "Russia refused to listen to the Israeli case at the time, while in Ukraine we were able to convince then-President [Leonid] Kuchma not to fulfill his commitments to the Iranians and not sell them turbines for a nuclear power plant," says Sharansky.

Sharansky blames the Americans, namely the Obama administration, for teaching Russian President Vladimir Putin that he can blackmail the world in general and Israel in particular.

"Because of Obama and the West's weakness, Russia was handed the keys to Syria, and the Iranians received billions of dollars. The West's basic weakness is patently obvious: It is afraid of confronting Putin. Recently he even raised the stakes with implicit threats of using nuclear weapons, and what was the West's response? It actually canceled the annual test of the intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead. In the eyes of the West, this step was meant to avoid exacerbating tensions. In the eyes of Putin, this was a sign of weakness. In Soviet prison, I learned who controls the cell. Not the strongest, but the person willing at any given moment to fight the other, and even kill. Putin is exactly like this, and the West, instead of being a deterrent, it deterred," he said.

"Two factors woke the free world up," Sharansky continued, "Ukraine's heroism and Putin's barbarism. The methodical and brutal way he is erasing entire cities in the heart of Europe is causing alarm. Of all people, the man who claims Ukrainians are not a nation is the one making the world care about Ukraine and hold it in high regard. Just as importantly, Putin delivered a gigantic blow to Russia and its place as an influential player straddling the East-West divide. It will take Russia a very long time, perhaps hundreds of years, to restore its moral legitimacy and its place in human civilization.

"The Ukrainians' readiness to fight for their liberty surprised both Putin and Western leaders. The sanctions imposed on Russia are not enough to change Putin's course of action, but they still reflect unprecedented solidarity from the free world with a nation fighting evil. The question remains whether the West will uphold sanctions over time."
Natan Sharansky on Vladimir Putin: He will go as far as the world lets him
Famed Jewish dissident, human-rights activist and former Knesset member Natan Sharansky provided his opinion on the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday, analyzing what could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations for the invasion into Ukraine, as well as the moral obligation Israel and the West have to support Ukraine.

In a Zoom session hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and moderated by JINSA president and CEO Mike Makovsky, Sharansky said that he believed that Putin is looking to recreate the Russian Empire, rather than the Soviet Union since Putin is not interested in bringing back Communist ideology. Instead, as one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, he considers his heroes Tsar Peter the Great, Empress Catherine the Great and former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan late last year and showed what Sharansky called great weakness in its dealings with Syria during the country’s civil war, Putin began to believe that the United States was too weak to respond to an invasion in Ukraine just as the world did not respond to the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Putin has also used his nuclear weapons as a deterrent against the west’s intervention, even though Sharansky thinks he won’t use them.

“I think Putin doesn’t want to use nuclear weapons. He’s not an Iranian leader who thinks about the next world,” said Sharansky. “He wants to rule this world. But to use the threat? That’s his main weapon, and it does work.” Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

But according to Sharansky, Putin underestimated that Ukraine is also a proud nation and that Russia’s onslaught has contributed to the strengthening of Ukrainian will, having been thrust into the center of history.

Putin may also have underestimated the resolve of the rest of the world, which has united in its condemnation of the invasion, possibly believing the old Soviet saying that capitalists are never united when their profits are threatened.
The Winner in Ukraine Won’t Be Russia or America. It Will Be China.
In addition to the crimes, the heroism, and the heavy toll in blood, the struggle for Ukraine may also come to represent one of the most strategically significant events of this century, or any other—the one that established China, not America or Russia, as the dominant power in Europe.

Most Western observers have taken Beijing’s professed readiness “to play a constructive role to facilitate dialogue for peace” as a sign that Ukraine is somewhere between a headache and a disaster for Xi Jinping, who announced a Sino-Russian partnership with “no limits” at the Beijing Olympics only last month. The assumption is that Xi is now in danger of looking complicit or credulous (or both), and that the Communist Party—having argued incessantly for the sanctity of China’s own territorial integrity—may now stand accused of hypocrisy. Xi’s support of Putin is also seen as having put Beijing at risk of igniting anti-Chinese sentiment in Europe, of squandering the many investments it made and trade relationships it built in the European Union, and of pushing otherwise friendly EU capitals closer to Washington.

Triangulation between Russia and Europe will no doubt require a degree of finesse for which China’s Wolf Warriors are ill-prepared, and providing Putin with liquidity to fund his war machine, for example, is not a cost-free decision. But anyone taking pleasure in China’s supposed bind probably has it backwards. In the wake of its partial expulsion from the global trade and financial system, Russia—with its vast supply of raw materials—is likely to become a Chinese economic dependency. That is a good thing for China, and if Xi can successfully position himself as the only world leader capable of restraining Putin, it will go a long way toward extending his hegemony all the way to Lisbon, as China starts to displace the United States as Europe’s most important global partner.

After all, would a seat at the European table really be too much to ask for the man who saves Europe from nuclear war? Reading the recent statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry that promised “China’s mediation efforts for a ceasefire” in Ukraine, and the EU foreign policy chief’s concurrence that the broker of peace “must be China,” it’s not hard to see the request being made, and being answered in the affirmative—with Washington reduced to second fiddle on a continent it spent the better part of a century defending and holding together.


The invasion of Ukraine and Iran's missile attacks are geopolitical omens
The attack on Erbil was meant to send a message to the US and the West: “Ukraine is not your only headache – remember us. Remember us, and complete the new nuclear deal. Otherwise, we can cause trouble.”

In other words, Iran is falling back on its time-tested modus operandi: When all else fails, sow chaos.

It is ironic that Russia is holding up the agreement while looking for guarantees from the US that the newly clamped sanctions on it won’t apply to its dealings with Iran – guarantees the US will not supply. The Iranians badly want the deal, and the US is very keen on signing it. But now Russian demands – born of its invasion of Ukraine – are holding it up.

And what is Iran going to do against Russia for holding up the deal? Absolutely nothing, afraid of the consequences that could trigger. But to act against the US – using Israel as an excuse – is far less risky.

While Washington may not respond militarily to this most recent Iranian provocation, that does not mean it will not have some ripple effect.

US Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia), already very skeptical of the emerging deal, on Sunday tweeted she was continuing to monitor reports of an attack on the consulate in Erbil.

“If reports are accurate, the Biden Administration must withdraw its negotiations with Iran,” she tweeted. “We cannot re-enter a failed JCPOA [the Iranian nuclear agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] to further empower Iran and threaten global security.”

Luria put her finger on the problem: If this is how Iran behaves in the region now, imagine what they will do flush with billions of dollars in sanctions relief cash.

Even before the attack on Erbil, Luria spearheaded a bipartisan letter of 21 fellow representatives, 12 Democrats and nine Republicans, sent to Biden last week, warning that they cannot support an agreement “along the lines being publicly discussed.”
Why Did Vladimir Putin Invade Ukraine?
Those who believe Putin is trying to reestablish Russia as a great power say that once he gains control over Ukraine, he will turn his focus to other former Soviet republics, including the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and eventually Bulgaria, Romania and even Poland.

"The Eurasian Empire will be constructed on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, the strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us." — Aleksandr Dugin, Russian strategist, "Foundation of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia."

"Make no mistake: For #Putin it's not about EU or NATO, it is about his mission to restore Russian empire. No more, no less. #Ukraine is just a stage, NATO is just one irritant. But the ultimate goal is Russian hegemony in Europe." — Jan Behrends, German historian.

"Normally wars that take place between states are about conflicts they have between them. Yet this is a war about the existence of one state, which is denied by the aggressor. That's why the usual concepts of peacemaking — finding a compromise — do not a apply. If Ukraine continues to exist as a sovereign state, Putin will have lost. He is not interested in territorial gain as such — it's rather a burden for him. He is only interested in controlling the entire country. Everything else for him is defeat." — Ulrich Speck, German geopolitical analyst.

"Because the primary threat to Putin and his autocratic regime is democracy, not NATO, that perceived threat would not magically disappear with a moratorium on NATO expansion. Putin would not stop seeking to undermine democracy and sovereignty in Ukraine, Georgia, or the region as a whole if NATO stopped expanding." — Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and Robert Person, a professor at the United States Military Academy.

"I don't think that this war is about NATO; I don't think this war is about Ukrainian people or the EU or even about Ukraine; this war is about starting a war in order to stay in power. Putin is a dictator, and he's a dictator whose intention is to stay in power until the end of his natural life. He said to himself that the writing's on the wall for him unless he does something dramatic. Putin is just thinking short-term ... 'how do I stay in power from this week to the next? And then next week to the next?'" ­— Bill Browder, American businessman and head, Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.
Col. Kemp: Ukraine the Fight Moves West
The Yavoriv military complex near Lviv, close to the border with Poland, was an inevitable target for Putin’s forces which need to interdict troop reinforcements and combat supplies — especially anti tank and air defence missiles — coming from outside the country. The base is a logistics hub and assembly centre for foreign volunteers travelling to join the fight for Ukraine.

This attack serves two other purposes. First, it is a message to NATO to cease sending in weapons. On Saturday Russia’s deputy foreign minister warned that convoys shipping munitions from the west are legitimate targets for attack. The Yavoriv strike fits with Putin’s nuclear threats, aimed to deter NATO leaders from direct military intervention in the conflict. The proximity to Poland underlines that warning. Putin already considers NATO’s supply of weapons as well as economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia as acts of war. Putin does not believe that NATO will deploy troops or air power. Counter-intuitively however, it is possible he is trying to provoke some form of limited Western engagement against Russia as a means of shoring up support at home.

Second, Putin knows that expanding the war westward, even if only from the air at the moment, will further terrorise the Ukrainian population. Lviv has been a place of refuge and a staging point for civilians fleeing the country. In line with his original strategy, he still hopes that intensifying fear will pressure the government to capitulate to his demands. President Zelenskiy’s comments five days ago that Ukraine is no longer pressing for NATO membership and that he is prepared to compromise on the status of the two Donbas breakaway territories will have encouraged him.

Russian forces continue to close on Kiev, with progress impeded by fierce Ukrainian resistance as well as hard-going terrain and logistic challenges, including supply of fuel, ammunition and rations, that prevent rapid movement over long distances. There is no doubt Putin does not want a street by street fight through the capital that would result in severe losses of armour and fighting troops. He will hope that the destruction of the small town of Volnovakha in the east, which the governor of Donetsk says ‘no longer exists’, contributes to a collapse in Ukrainian morale.


MEMRI: Vladimir Putin And Defense Minister Shoigu Endorse Plan To Recruit Middle East 'Volunteers' To Fight Alongside Russia In Ukraine, But Not Everyone Shares Their Enthusiasm
The fighting in Ukraine is beginning to resemble the Spanish Civil War with foreign fighters taking part in the battle. Ukraine boasted of its International Legion of foreign fighters. Now the Russian side claims that it has received numerous applications to join the fighting on behalf of Donbass. The idea has received the endorsement of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Russian Ministry of Defense reports that the plan is taking concrete shape. From the tasks envisioned for these volunteers, it is possible to receive some confirmation about the difficulties that Russia is encountering in the fighting.

Not everyone is supportive of the idea. Military historian Yevgeny Norin believes that fighting ISIS is not the same as fighting troops lavishly equipped with modern Western arms. Moreover, he expects that the use of such volunteers would play into the hands of Ukrainian propaganda and its claims that Russian manpower is on the verge of exhaustion necessitating the use of foreigners.

MEMRI's report on the issue of involving foreign volunteers or mercenaries in the Russian battle against Ukraine follows below:
Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the Security Council, supported the idea of ​​sending foreign volunteers to participate in what Russia calls the Special Operation in Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that numerous applications totaling 16,000 people had already been received, most of them from the Middle East.

“We receive a huge number of applications from all sorts of volunteers from different countries who would like to come to the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in order to participate in what they consider to be a liberation movement."

Putin supported this proposal, especially as "Western sponsors of Ukraine" were already sending mercenaries to the war zone, while openly, "flouting all the norms of international law." “Therefore, if you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and lend support to people living in the Donbass, well, you need to meet them halfway and help them move to the war zone” said Putin.[1]
MEMRI: Russian Blogger El-Murid: Russia's Sputtering Ukraine Campaign Is Déjà Vu Of Syria; Russia Failed To Act Quickly Enough In Both Invasions
The celebrated blogger Anatoly Nesmiyan aka "el-Murid" has acquired a reputation as a Syria expert as well as a military scholar. He is unimpressed by the Defense Ministry briefings and reports of the myriad Ukrainian targets destroyed by Russia. In his appraisal, the progress of the fighting is eerily reminiscent of Russia's inconclusive 2015 Syrian campaign. There they were advised by the late Iranian General Qasim Soleimani that speed was of the essence. The Russian forces, however, did not move with the required speed thus allowing Turkey to recover its footing and take countermeasures. Ever since, Russia has been stalemated in Syria.

In Ukraine, Russia did not immediately attack all along the border, and had not amassed the necessary resources for the campaign. As a result, Russia is becoming stuck in the mud, and will soon face a munitions shortage. This too will allow Russia's opponents to retake the initiative.

Nesiman's blogpost follows below:
"Analogies to the Syrian war are becoming discernible in the current "special operation" [in Ukraine]. And the further the events develop, the more the plot begins to structurally repeat itself.

"Let me remind you that the cajoling on the part of Iranian General [Qasim] Soleimani provided the direct impetus for the Syrian invasion [by Russia in 2015]. Soleimani understood perfectly that the conflict between the Gazprom company and Turkey over the two pipelines of Turkstream had reached a boiling point by May 15.[2]

"Therefore, Soleimani's proposal looked extremely enticing: You [Russia] go in quickly, win quickly, and then dictate terms to Turkey by threatening it with two million refugees. Naturally, I was not present at those meetings, but there was nothing else Soleimani could've said. The key factor of this entire story was [the word] "quickly."
Israel Will Not Serve as Route to ‘Bypass’ Biting World Sanctions on Russia: Lapid
Israel will not be used to circumvent sanctions levied on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid pledged during a visit in Slovakia.

“Israel will not be a route to bypass sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other Western countries,” Lapid stated. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is coordinating the issue together with partners including the Bank of Israel, the Finance Ministry, the Economy Ministry, the Airports Authority, the Energy Ministry, and others.”

In a Friday interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland had urged the Jewish state to do as much as possible to join the Western sanctions effort — lest it become the “last haven for dirty money” fueling Russia’s war.

As part of a tour of countries neighboring Ukraine, the Israeli foreign minister on Monday met his Slovakian Ivan Korčok at the Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs in the capital of Bratislava, to discuss the ongoing cooperation at the Vyšné Nemecké crossing between Ukraine and Slovakia to make it easier for Jews and Israelis remaining in areas of conflict to leave.

“We are focused on the effort to assist the Ukrainian people, and refugees from the war,” Lapid said. “Israel and Slovakia are cooperating in getting humanitarian aid into Ukrainian territory.”

This month, Israel sent over 100 tons of medical equipment, generators, and other goods into Ukraine.

Lapid reiterated Israel’s condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and called for an end to the fighting.

“There is no justification for violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and there is no justification for attacks on a civilian population,” Lapid stated. “Israel will do everything it can to assist mediation efforts, to stop the shooting and restore peace.”
Stop Using Ukraine to Repeat Lies About the Number of Palestinian ‘Refugees’
Using the plight of Ukrainian refugees who have been forced to flee their besieged homeland as a narrative hook, CBS News published an article about the growing numbers of displaced people worldwide. The news outlet’s list included a claim that there are 5.7 million displaced Palestinians in the world today.

However, in January of last year, the US State Department unambiguously refuted that number.

The March 8 CBS piece titled, “Ukrainian refugees add to millions displaced around the world,” describes how at least two million people have been displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) described as “the fastest exodus of people in Europe since World War II.”

Referencing the available UN data, the article’s author, Li Cohen, lists the numbers of global refugees who have been uprooted as a result of conflicts around the world, including in Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan.

Among those who Cohen says have been displaced are 5.7 million Palestinians:
Many regions struggle with large populations of displaced people, even if they don’t meet the U.N. definition of refugees.

Palestinians are not considered refugees under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But more than 5.7 million Palestinians are listed under the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, which operates in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Cohen is quite right in noting that Palestinians do not meet the UN definition of refugees. However, except for hyperlinks that take readers to the UNHCR’s website, she neglects to mention why.


Pregnant woman injured in shelling of Ukrainian maternity ward dies, baby stillborn
A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth, The Associated Press has learned. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher had circled the world, epitomizing the horror of an attack on humanity’s most innocent.

In video and photos shot Wednesday by AP journalists after the attack on the hospital, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble in the besieged city of Mariupol, her blanched face mirroring her shock at what had just happened. It was among the most brutal moments so far in Russia’s now 19-day-old war on Ukraine.

The woman was rushed to another hospital, yet closer to the frontline, where doctors labored to keep her alive. Realizing she was losing her baby, medics said, she cried out to them, “Kill me now!”

Surgeon Timur Marin found the woman’s pelvis crushed and hip detached. Medics delivered the baby via caesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life,” the surgeon said.

Then, they focused on the mother.

“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said Saturday. “Both died.”

In the chaos after Wednesday’s airstrike, medics didn’t have time to get the woman’s name before her husband and father came to take away her body. At least someone came to retrieve her, they said — so she didn’t end up in the mass graves being dug for many of Mariupol’s growing number of dead.

Accused of war crimes, Russian officials claimed the maternity hospital had been taken over by Ukrainian extremists to use as a base, and that no patients or medics were left inside. Russia’s ambassador to the UN and the Russian Embassy in London called the images “fake news.”
Kyiv Apartment Block Shelled but ‘Hard’ Ukraine Peace Talks Go Ahead
Ukraine said it had begun “hard” talks on a ceasefire, immediate withdrawal of troops and security guarantees with Russia on Monday, despite the fatal shelling of a residential building in Kyiv.

Both sides suggested at the weekend some results could be in sight after earlier rounds have primarily focused on ceasefires to get aid to towns and cities under siege by Russian forces and evacuate civilians; those truces have frequently failed.

Firefighters tackled the remains of a blaze at the damaged apartment block in the capital, where a stunned young resident described the chaos of the previous night in a city targeted by the Russian advance but so far largely spared bombardment.

Officials said at least one person died in the shelling and a second person was killed by falling debris after a missile strike on another part of the Ukrainian capital.

“The staircase was not there anymore, everything was on fire,” Maksim Korovii told Reuters, describing how he and his mother had first hid inside their dust and smoke-filled apartment, thinking Russian forces were breaking down the door.

“We didn’t know what to do. So we ran out to the balcony. We managed to put on whatever clothes we had at hand and made our way from balcony to balcony and in the end we climbed down by the next building’s entrance,” he said.

Russia denies targeting civilians, saying it is conducting a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice.


With Haredi volunteers, an Israeli entrepreneur, 28, rescues Jewish refugees in Lviv
Western Ukraine’s major city of Lviv has thus far escaped the bombardments suffered by Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and other urban centers that the Russians are trying to pound into submission.

Still, the effects of the war can be felt across the city, as soldiers patrol the quiet streets and sandbags block the windows of government buildings. And it is nowhere more apparent that Lviv’s train station, where thousands of Ukrainians from cities and towns further east wait for long hours for a train out of the country.

Outside, a variety of Ukrainian charities and aid organizations have opened tents to provide food and medical care to the refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.

As I walked through the chaos outside the station last Tuesday, I was astounded to stumble across an Israeli flag banner stretching across a fence, and Haredi men in orange vests with Hebrew writing standing next to steaming pots and talking amicably with passersby.

The men were from the ZAKA rescue organization, a major element of Israel’s emergency response services at home and abroad.

The group of 12 Israelis in the delegation had only been informed about they’d be flying here the previous Friday, and, with Shabbat intervening, had mere hours to pack and make arrangements with their families before taking off from Israel on the Sunday morning. They landed in Hungary, and after a long drive across the border, finally made it to Lviv that night.


PMW: “Martyrdom is a call of Allah… Kidnap a soldier for my children” - Palestinians chant at rally
At a recent rally in Ramallah in support of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, the choice of song by the Palestinian crowd doesn’t leave much to the imagination in terms of what the Palestinians want:
Crowd: “Hey come on, Martyrdom is a call of Allah,
Martyrdom is a call of Allah…
O prisoner, worry not!
Your young ones drink [their enemies’] blood,
your young ones drink blood…
The prisoner’s mother calls:
Kidnap a soldier for my children, kidnap a soldier for my children …
Put the sword against the sword,
We are the people of Muhammad Deif (i.e., Hamas terrorist leader)”

[Official PA TV, Feb. 27, 2022]

In other words, according to the message of the song, Allah wants Palestinians to die as “Martyrs” while using violence and terror against Israel – “drink blood” and “put the sword against the sword.” And Palestinians are willing to comply. They are also in favor of kidnapping Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for the release of imprisoned terrorists. This is what the Hamas terror organization did when it kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and held him captured for 5 years until Israel ultimately agreed to release 1,027 of soldiers in exchange for him.

Another recent chant, this time led by Fatah Jenin Branch Secretary Ata Abu Rmeileh and answered by the participants in a Fatah rally in Jenin, also encourages and calls for sacrificing one’s souls and blood, presents death for “Palestine” as an ideal, and repeats the well-known saying by Arafat: “Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem.”

Fatah Jenin Branch Secretary Ata Abu Rmeileh leads chant, crowd answers: “With our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, O prisoner
With our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, O Martyr
Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem
We will die and Palestine will live”

[Official PA TV, Feb. 27, 2022]


"We will die and Palestine will live” - chant led by Fatah official at Fatah rally

Among Fatah's heroic women - a child murderer and a plane hijacker

“I want to die as a Martyr and meet the Creator” - terrorist who shot at Israeli forces





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