Friday, May 27, 2022

05/27 Links Pt1: Palestinian Arabs Never Qualified as “Refugees”; Ruthie Blum: The Abu Akleh report is CNN's latest anti-Israel hit job; The Real Purpose of the Iran Nuclear Deal

From Ian:

Mark Regev: Do Palestinians prefer united Jerusalem under Israeli rule?
THE PALESTINIAN leadership sees all of formerly-Jordanian Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, as territory illegally occupied by Israel and demands recognition of east Jerusalem as its capital, while contending that the status of west Jerusalem is a matter for permanent status peace talks. And although the Palestinians have signaled a theoretical willingness to accept west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, whenever the issue arose in actual negotiations – Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert tabling concrete ideas to redivide the city – such proposals never proved acceptable.

To buttress its position, the Palestinian leadership claims that Jerusalem’s Palestinians are united in demanding an end to Israel’s rule. But though widely accepted across the globe, this narrative is not reflected in a series of public opinion surveys of Palestinian Jerusalemites.

In December 2021, the Palestine News Network (SHFA) released a poll that found an astonishing 93% of Jerusalem’s Palestinians prefer Israeli to Palestinian rule.

These results were significantly higher than a previous survey done by the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion released in August 2015, which found that 52% of Jerusalem Palestinians would choose “Israeli citizenship with equal rights,” while only 42% would want to become citizens of a future Palestinian state.

Do Palestinians want to move to Jerusalem?
A November 2011 poll by the same organization discovered that an amazing 42% of Jerusalem Palestinians would want to relocate into Israel if their present neighborhood became part of a Palestinian state.

Considering that the hegemonic political environment among Palestinians would tend to discourage the overt expression of such views, these results speak to a grossly under-reported reality. Though by no means Israeli patriots, Jerusalem’s Palestinians – like Arab Israelis – see the advantages of living in a successful, pluralist democracy with a Western standard of living and social services, over those of the authoritarian, corrupt and poorer Palestinian alternative.

In contrast to the much-propagated narrative, while not publicly celebrating 55 years from to the unification of the city, most Palestinian Jerusalemites would nonetheless elect to remain under Israeli jurisdiction. Of course, those who champion Palestinian rights are under no obligation to take into account the views of Jerusalem’s Palestinians.

Happy Jerusalem Day!
Caroline Glick: Time to stop lying to ourselves about Qatar
On the one hand, Doha plays a pivotal role in waging the global jihad against the US and the free world. On the other hand, it showers them with gifts. Qatar opened campuses for US universities and think tanks in Doha. It opened factories that hire thousands of American workers in key states. It regularly invites influential communal and thought leaders on all-expenses paid luxury tours of Doha. It spends millions on lobbyists in Washington.

During the George W. Bush administration, the US's dependence on Al Udeid base saved the regime from criticism and sanction after the 9/11 attacks and during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the Obama administration, ties reached new heights as Barack Obama and his advisors worked to realign the US towards the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran and away from the US' traditional allies, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Trump administration had a golden opportunity to cut off ties with Qatar. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain cut off ties with Qatar and blocked all air and land traffic to the emirate due to its alliance with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, which both pose existential threats to those countries. Rather than side with its allies, the Trump administration first sat on the fence and later mediated "peace" between the sides. The Biden administration, which is restoring the Obama administration's sought for realignment towards Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood is also expanding US-Qatari ties.

This brings us to Israel. This month, Al Jazeera used the death of its journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a firefight between Palestinian terrorists in Jenin and IDF forces to create a new blood libel against the Jewish state. The network's actions served as a reminder of the just how poisonous a role Qatar plays in the war against Israel. Yet rather than respond with a full-throated assault on the jihad network and at the regime that controls it, Israel's government is following the Biden administration's lead and treating Qatar as a "moderating force" in relation to Hamas and more generally.

Later this year, Qatar will host the World Cup Soccer Championship. Qatar allegedly paid FIFA officials millions in bribes to buy their votes to beat the US in the contest to host the games. Rather than tell Israeli soccer fans that with all due respect to their love of the game, Qatar is Hamas' headquarters and Iran's best friend, and they should watch the games on TV rather than risk a trip to the terror capital, Israel is trying to organize direct flights to Doha during the games. Moreover, government official enthusiastically parrot the absurd claim that Qatar may soon join the Abraham Accords, despite the fact that the Qataris have done everything possible to undermine Israel's peaceful ties with its neighbors.

Reaboi notes, "But for Qatar's sponsorship, the Muslim Brotherhood movement would be dead in today's Islamic world."

It's all as clear as day. Qatar is a bitter enemy and a danger to Israel. It is time that we see the light and act accordingly.
Palestinian Arabs Never Qualified as “Refugees”
An Obama-era report found that, years ago, there were only about 20,000 Palestinian Arab refugees from the 1948-1949 Arab war against Israel – instead of the 5.3 million that UNRWA was falsely claiming at that time, by fraudulently padding numbers and improperly including descendants. (See “U.S. Report Finds Only 20,000 Palestinian Refugees in the World,” Israel Hayom, July 18, 2018.) The alleged numbers are even fewer or non-existent today – yet Rashida Tlaib’s resolution now absurdly claims that there are 7 million Palestinian Arab refugees today – including 5.7 million (illegitimately) supported by UNRWA. (See also “Morton Klein: Trump Wisely Ends U.S. Funding to UNRWA,” by Morton Klein, Breitbart, Sept. 6, 2018.)

Tlaib’s resolution also ignores the Egyptian, Syrian, Algerian and other Arab national origin of “Palestinian Arabs.” Arabs flooded into Israel in pre-state years to enjoy Jewish pioneers’ development of the previously barren land; to escape Egyptian military drafts and Algerian wars; and to work for the British mandatory government (which discriminated against Jews and instead imported Arab workers). Common “Palestinian” Arab last names are al Masri (meaning from Egypt) and Mughrabi (meaning from North Africa).

Under the U.S. and International Definitions of “Refugees,” Palestinian Arabs Never Qualified as “Refugees”: UNRWA’s unique definition of Palestinian Arab “refugees” counted any Arab who lived or worked in Israel for a mere two years as a “refugee.” UNRWA’s definition is contrary to U.S. law (8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)) and all other international definitions, which require that a refugee must have “habitually resided” in a country to count as a refugee; two years of residence or work does not qualify. In addition, corrupt UNRWA added to its relief rolls hundreds of thousands of Arabs who never lived or worked in Israel, to try to justify contributions to UNRWA and protect thousands of UNRWA jobs. Under a normal definition of refugees, which does not include descendants, there are virtually no Palestinian Arab refugees today.

In addition, the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act’s “persecutor exception” (also known as the “persecutor bar”) declares that “The term ‘refugee’ does not include any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a)(42). International refugee law contains a similar persecutor bar. Thus, no Arab who participated in, incited or assisted in persecuting, attacking or inciting hatred against the Jewish people, at any time, qualifies as a refugee. Arab rioters who attacked their Jewish neighbors in pre-state Israel; government officials, Imams, and teachers who incite or pay Arabs to murder Jews cannot legally be refugees. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who fire rockets at Jews indiscriminately cannot be refugees. Nor can tens of thousands of Hamas-incited Gazans who attempted to breach the border fence with knives and maps showing the routes to Jewish kindergartens in their hands, who were attempting to slaughter Jewish children.

Further, in order to legally qualify as a refugee, one must have left a country due to “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution.” (8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)) Because Palestinian Arab refugees left Israel at the request of Arab leaders and governments, to enable the slaughter of Jews, and because while Israel urged the Arabs to remain and live together in peace, the “Palestinian refugees” also do not meet this legal requirement.

In sum, there are no valid Palestinian Arab refugees today.


Dr. Martin Sherman: The fatal flaw in Israeli strategic thinking
Grudgingly accepted or greatly feared?
Consequently, as a clash of collectives, whose outcome will be determined by collective victory or defeat, it cannot be personalized. The fate of individual members of one collective cannot be a deciding determinant of the policy of the rival collective—and certainly not a consideration that impacts the probability of collective victory or defeat.

Thus, Israel’s survival imperative must dictate that it forgo the pursuit of warm and welcoming approval from the Arabs. For the foreseeable future, this seductive illusion will remain an unattainable pipe-dream. Rather, Israel must reconcile itself to the stern, but sober, conclusion: The most it can realistically hope for is to be grudgingly accepted; the least it must attain is to be greatly feared.

Any more benign policy goals are a recipe for disaster.
To underscore the crucial importance of this seemingly harsh assessment, I would invite any prospective dissenter to consider the consequences of Jewish defeat and Arab victory. Indeed, a cursory survey of the gory regional realities should suffice to drive home the significance of what would accompany such an outcome.

Accordingly, only once a decisive Jewish collective victory has been achieved, can the issue of individual injustice and suffering in the Arab collective be addressed as a policy consideration. Until then, neither the individual well-being nor the societal welfare of the opposing collective can be considered a primary policy constraint or

After all, had the imperative of collective victory not been the overriding factor of the Allies’ strategy in WWII, despite the horrendous civilian causalities that it inflicted on the opposing collective, the world might well have been living in slavery today.

In weighing the question of the fate of individual members of the opposing collective, it is imperative to keep in mind that, while there are doubtless many Palestinian-Arabs with fine personal qualities and who wish no one any harm, the Palestinian-Arab collective is not the hapless victim of radical terror-affiliated leaders. Quite the opposite. It is, in fact, the societal crucible in which they were forged, and from which they emerged. Its leadership is a reflection of, not an imposition on, Palestinian-Arab society.

The conclusion is thus unavoidable: The Palestinian-Arab collective must be considered an implacable enemy—not a prospective peace partner…and it must be treated as such.
Two Senior US Officials Visited Saudi Arabia for Talks This Week
Two senior US officials visited Saudi Arabia this week for talks that included global energy supplies, Iran and other regional issues, the White House said on Thursday.

Meeting senior Saudi officials in Riyadh were Brett McGurk, Biden’s top White House adviser on the Middle East, and Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s energy envoy.

“I will confirm that Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in the region to follow up on conversations on a range of issues including Iran’s destabilizing activities, ensuring stable global energy supplies and other regional issues,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

She said the trip was to “review engagement with Saudi Arabia on energy security” and that the US officials were not asking for an increase in Saudi oil exports.

“Asking for oil is simply wrong. That’s the way that we see it and a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue as well as our multi-faceted discussions with the Saudis,” she said.
Report: Israel-linked deal talks underway in Riyadh

Iraq passes law making contact with Israel punishable by death
Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill criminalizing normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel. The legislation says that violation of the law is punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment.

The law was approved with 275 lawmakers voting in favor of it in the 329-seat assembly. A parliament statement said the legislation is “a true reflection of the will of the people.”

Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections last year, called for Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this ”great achievement.” Hundreds later gathered in central Baghdad, chanting anti-Israel slogans.

It was unclear how the law will be implemented as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country’s formation in 1948; the two nations have no diplomatic relations.

The legislation also entails risks for companies working in Iraq and found to be in violation of the bill.

Earlier this year, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles towards the northern city of Erbil in the Kurdish-run north, saying it was targeting an Israeli intelligence base.

The home of Baz Karim, the CEO of the oil company KAR GROUP, was heavily damaged in the attack. KAR has been accused in the past of quietly selling oil to Israel.
Israel condemns new Iraqi law criminalizing normalization with Jewish state
The Foreign Ministry condemned a new Iraq law that criminalizes any attempt to normalize relations with the Jewish, at a time when Israel is pushing to expand its ties in the Arab world under the rubric of the Abraham Accords.

"This is a law that puts Iraq and the Iraqi people on the wrong side of history and disconnected from reality," Foreign Minister spokesman Lior Haiat tweeted on Friday.

"Israel condemns the decision by the Iraqi parliament to pass legislation against normalization with Israel and that imposes the death penalty on one who has contact with Israel," he said.

"The changes in the Middle East and the peace and normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states, which are bringing stability and prosperity to the peoples of the region, are the future of the Middle East," Haiat said.

"Leaders who choose a path of hate and incitement hurt their own people first of all. We call on the Iraqi people not to support this extremist position," he added.
US Condemns Iraqi Law Criminalizing Contact With Israel
The United States has strongly condemned the passage of new legislation in Iraq that criminalizes contact between Iraqi citizens and Israelis on pain of death.

The bill, titled “Criminalizing Normalization and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity,” was passed by the Iraqi parliament on Thursday. Its provisions outlaw “contact and communication of any kind and means with the occupying Zionist entity, its nationals, and representatives, whether individuals or institutions or organizations, for any reason.” Also prohibited are any “financial or moral assistance” to the State of Israel or Israeli organizations, alongside the “promotion of any ideas, ideologies, principles, or Israeli or Zionist conduct, in any form.” Those found guilty of breaching the law would face “execution or lifelong imprisonment.”

In a statement issued following the bill’s passage, the US State Department reiterated its support for Israel and urged other countries in the region to forge peace agreements with the Jewish state.

“The United States is deeply disturbed by the Iraqi Parliament’s passage of legislation that criminalizes normalization of relations with Israel,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. “In addition to jeopardizing freedom of expression and promoting an environment of antisemitism, this legislation stands in stark contrast to progress Iraq’s neighbors have made by building bridges and normalizing relations with Israel, creating new opportunities for people throughout the region.”

Price emphasized that “the United States will continue to be a strong and unwavering partner in supporting Israel, including as it expands ties with its neighbors in the pursuit of greater peace and prosperity for all.”


End the WHO’s Unhealthy Obsession With Israel
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual World Health Assembly (WHA) will kick off later this month in Geneva. The WHA will put Israel under the microscope—just like it did last year and the year before that. The purpose, of course, is not to praise Israel’s early success with Covid-19 vaccinations, the fact that almost half of its new doctors are Arab or Druze Israelis, or that Israel trained Gazan medical professionals to deal with the coronavirus. The purpose is to damage Israel’s reputation. This year, the assembly should finally put aside this double standard and just focus on public health.

The WHA began its annual tradition of singling out Israel in 1968, at the first meeting after the Six-Day War. The assembly called on the WHO director-general to report on individuals displaced by the war. Since then, the WHO’s Executive Board has submitted agendas annually ensuring resolutions and reports on the matter. Amid a global pandemic, this agenda item consumed a full day of last year’s eight-day conference.

The agenda item’s current formulation, “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan,” decidedly omits Palestinians in Syrian-held territory, Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere from its purview. Only those Palestinians whose suffering can be attributed to Israel are included.

The mandate’s inclusion of the Golan Heights forced the WHO to note in its 2021 report that individuals in that territory have “full access to universal health care.” This stands in stark contrast to Syrians suffering through a decade-long civil war and the hospital-bombing Bashar al-Assad regime.

The WHO’s 2021 report on Israel, like ones before it, made no mention of Hamas’ deleterious effects on Palestinian health care. During the 2014 war, Hamas operated out of Gaza’s Shifa hospital, turning its doctors into human shields. While Gaza was in a Covid-19 lockdown in August 2020, Hamas launched numerous incendiary devices at Israel, thereby increasing Israel’s restrictive measures on the coastal enclave. Hamas has a long history of abusing medical travel permits to Israel to conduct terrorist attacks. And Hamas diverts Palestinian funds that could have provided for healthcare to instead provide for deadly weapons. None of this made the cut.


MEMRI: Jordanian Islamic Scholar Bilal Al-Qasrawi: A Nuclear Attack By The Infidels Against The Future Islamic State Is Not A Concern; We Can Afford To Lose Two Million People, They Cannot
Jordanian Islamic scholar Bilal Al-Qasrawi said in a May 20, 2022 show on the Hizb-ut-Tahrir-affiliated Al-Waqiyah TV (Lebanon) that when an Islamic caliphate is reestablished, the infidels might use nuclear weapons against Muslim countries, but that the Muslims nonetheless will not surrender. He said that if the infidels kill a million or two million Muslims, the Muslims will kill as many infidels, adding: "We can afford to lose a million [lives], but can they? No. That's it." For more information about Bilal Al-Qasrawi, see MEMRITV clip no 4559.

"Let [The Infidels] Use Nuclear Weapons; We Will Not Surrender"

Interviewer: "The infidels' war against the Muslims can assume a different form. Is it not possible that they will use nuclear weapons against the Muslim countries, when the second caliphate in the path of the Prophet Muhammad is established?"

Bilal Al-Qasrawi: "And what if they do? Let them use nuclear weapons. We will not surrender. It's as simple as that.

"We Can Afford To Lose A Million [Lives], But Can They? No"

"If they kill a million of us, we will kill a million of them. If they kill two million of us, we will kill two million of them. We can afford to lose a million [lives], but can they? No. That's it."


Did the experiment fail? 70% of Israelis don’t want Arabs in future coalition - JPost poll
An overwhelming majority of Israelis do not want to see an Arab party in a future government that would be formed after the next election, according to a poll taken for The Jerusalem Post.

In addition, the groundbreaking poll found that in three different scenarios – of the current list of parties and different configurations of politicians and mergers – Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud comes out on top but would consistently fall short of the 61 seats needed to form a coalition.

According to the poll conducted by Panels Politics Research following a year of Ra’am (United Arab List) being in the coalition, 69% - almost three quarters of the country - do not want an Arab party in the government next time, 22% would be in favor, and nine percent said they do not know. The number of people opposed to an Arab party in the coalition includes 40 percent of Israeli-Arabs.

Elections with existing parties
Although the poll predicted a significant rise in support for Likud from 30 seats to 35, Netanyahu would still not be able to form a government. His bloc of Likud, Religious Zionist Party, Shas and United Torah Judaism would win 59 seats if an election would be held now. The parties in the current coalition would win 54 seats, and the Joint List seven.

The past two and a half years of political chaos would continue, with no possibility of forming a government without major ideological compromises.
Ruthie Blum: The Abu Akleh report is CNN's latest anti-Israel hit job
Anyone with half a brain realizes that Abu Akleh was caught in a crossfire, regardless of the origin of the bullet, and that Jerusalem, not Ramallah, wishes to get at the truth, whatever it is.

FURTHERMORE, as recently appointed Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization of Israel Noa Tishby explained in a TikTok video-gone-viral, Abu Akleh wasn’t the first war reporter killed on the job in the past three decades. She is simply the one who instantly became a household name for the wrong reasons.

“Here are some facts you may not know,” she began, in a minute-and-a-half clip that circulated on all social-media platforms. “The International Federation of Journalists, the IFJ, conducted a report about the number of death cases of journalists in war zones between 1990 and 2020. According to the report, 2,658 journalists have been killed in that period of time. Three hundred forty were killed in Iraq, 178 in Mexico, 160 in the Philippines, 138 in Pakistan and 116 in India. Twelve of the cases were Al Jazeera journalists. Seven of them were killed in Syria, two in Iraq, one in Yemen, one in Libya and one case from last week.”

She went on: “Each one of these deaths is horrific, but you can’t name the other 2,657 journalists. You can only name the one [who] was killed in clashes between Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli army. In any of the other deaths, we did not see such vitriol, hateful, horrific reactions and rhetoric as we’ve seen by the international community, social media, celebrities and the United Nations towards Israel.”

This, she reminded viewers, “is what we call a double standard… and it’s purely rooted in sometimes subconscious antisemitism, anti-Jewish racism. So, please, just think about that for a minute, as well. Okay? And rest in peace, Shireen.”

Amen. Abu Akleh didn’t deserve to die. Not so CNN, which merits a painful and humiliating demise.
Gantz: PA Probe’s Claim That Israel Targeted Al Jazeera Reporter Is ‘Blatant Lie’
The Palestinian Authority said Thursday that its investigation into the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh showed she had been deliberately killed by IDF troops, a claim Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz rejected as a “blatant lie.”

The 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist was fatally shot in Jenin, in the West Bank, on May 11, while covering IDF counterterrorism operations that followed a deadly string of terror attacks in Israel. Palestinian leaders quickly accused Israeli forces of killing her, while Israel has said it remains unclear whether she was shot by inadvertent Israeli or Palestinian fire during a gun-battle, and has condemned the PA for refusing to make the bullet found in her body available for a ballistics examination.

“The IDF is conducting an ongoing investigation into the matter in order to reveal the truth,” stated Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “Any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians, is a blatant lie.”

In a press conference earlier Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s attorney general claimed that Abu Akleh was intentionally shot in the head by an Israeli soldier as she was trying to flee from a barrage of fire. Citing interviews with witnesses, an inspection of the scene and a forensic medical report, the PA held that there were no Palestinian militants at the scene of the shooting.

The IDF has said that there was an intense exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces in Jenin at the time, and has repeatedly sought the PA’s cooperation for a joint probe, with US oversight, to reconstruct the events, a request the Palestinians have refused.

“Investigations and briefings are not carried out at press conferences, but rather in closed rooms, and while transmitting information,” said Gantz.

“The Palestinians refuse to cooperate, which raises the question of whether they really want to uncover the truth. Anyone who conducts counterterrorism operations while avoiding harm to civilians, would want to know the truth and would consider what can be done to save human lives,” Gantz lamented. “Even today, I call on the Palestinian Authority to hand over the bullet and all their findings.”

“To this day, we are prepared and willing to conduct an investigation in collaboration with international actors,” he added.


Col. Richard Kemp: Nothing in CNN report proves IDF killed journalist
Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan, spoke to Israel National News on Thursday about the report by CNN accusing IDF soldiers of deliberately targeting Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, who was killed during a shootout with terrorists in Jenin earlier this month.

Col. Kemp criticized CNN's conclusions, stating that the report contains "zero credible evidence" to back them up.

"In my view, the CNN report is rife with highly questionable assertions from their experts. Many of their assessments that suggest unequivocally that an IDF sniper deliberately targeted the journalist are very much open to question and in some cases could suggest the opposite of what they are saying. Equally, reliance on eye-witness statements in such an environment and presenting them as fact shows a lack of understanding or a simple desire to incriminate the IDF. In short, CNN produce zero credible evidence to support their inflammatory conclusion," he said,

"With my knowledge of the IDF, I do not believe it is likely that an IDF sniper deliberately targeted the journalist. Accidental killing by an IDF soldier is a possibility, as is the possibility that she was deliberately or accidentally killed by a Palestinian gunman. I have no doubt that if the IDF conclude from evidence available to them that she was killed by their soldiers that they will make this public and if appropriate bring charges against the individuals concerned. However, in the absence of conclusive video evidence or reliable witness statements, unless the bullet is produced by the PA and matched to the gun that fired it, we are unlikely ever to gain evidence as to who killed the journalist," He added.


Al Jazeera says it’ll go to ICC over reporter’s killing, bombing of Gaza office
The Al Jazeera news network said Thursday that it would submit a case file to the International Criminal Court on the death of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.

The Qatar-based network and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately killing her. Israel rejects those allegations as a “blatant lie.” It says she was shot during a firefight between soldiers and Palestinian terrorists, and that only ballistic analysis of the bullet — which is held by the PA — can determine who fired the fatal shot.

An AP reconstruction lent support to witnesses who say the veteran Palestinian-American correspondent was killed by Israeli fire, but any final conclusion may depend on evidence that has not yet been released.

Al Jazeera said it has formed an international legal team to prepare a case dossier to be submitted to the ICC. The court launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel is not a member of the ICC and has rejected the probe as biased against it.

Al Jazeera said the case file would also include the Israeli bombing of the building housing its offices in Gaza City during last year’s war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, “as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Israel said the building — which also housed the Gaza office of The Associated Press — contained Hamas military infrastructure but has not provided any evidence. The AP was not aware of any purported Hamas presence in the building and condemned the strike as “shocking and horrifying.” No one was hurt in the strike, which came after an Israeli warning to evacuate.


Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh must go
I sensed that Palestinian businessman and politician Mohammad Shtayyeh would be an obstacle to peace when I first met him in 2013. He came to brief a Jewish leadership delegation at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, and swiftly let loose a barrage of accusations against Israel.

He lost my sympathies with a harangue about “settler swimming pools” in Judea and Samaria that “were stealing the Palestinian Authority’s water.”

When he was challenged by a Canadian Jewish leader about some of his more blatant and easily disproven lies, Shtayyeh threw a hissy fit, turning red with anger, banging on the table, and spitting out his disdain for “Zionist apologists.”

Shttayeh wouldn’t let up even when the session ended. He came after me and my colleague on the sidelines, still smoking and fuming. Saved on my home computer is a photo of Shtayyeh jabbing my chest with his finger, insisting that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank was as evil as Nazi occupations in World War II.

That was in 2013. Since becoming prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2019, Mohammad Shtayyeh has gone from bad to worse – from a brake on peacemaking efforts to an active saboteur of any cooperation with Israel; from a minor Palestinian propagandist to a major, malicious defamer of Israel.

Shtayyeh is the father figure of the Palestinian “no cooperation with Israel” policy. He tells every international interlocutor that he wants complete Palestinian economic disengagement from Israel. No cooperation and no integration.

The PA prime minister even rejected Israeli assistance in battling the coronavirus in the West Bank. (Israeli hospitals that offer training to Palestinian doctors are forced to operate on the sly, without PA involvement or backing.)
IDF: 2 Gazans armed with grenades, knife captured along border
Israeli troops detained two Palestinians attempting to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip early Friday morning, the military said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the pair were found with two grenades and a knife when they were captured near the southern section of the border.

The military did not clarify whether the suspects had successfully passed through the fence when they were captured.

The two were later taken for questioning.

In March, three Palestinians carrying knives, bottles of gasoline and lighters, were captured by troops after attempting to cross the border.

Israel has a high-tech series of fences and walls guarding its frontier with Gaza, both above and below ground, but a number of gaps remain in the steel fencing surrounding the Strip.

These gaps have been used by Palestinians in Gaza to illegally enter Israeli territory, often with hopes of fleeing the beleaguered enclave.


The Real Purpose of the Iran Nuclear Deal
Many analysts argue that the nuclear deal — original and revised — is primarily about legitimizing Iran's nuclear program. The deal, they say, is designed to strengthen, not weaken, the Islamic Republic.

Statements by Obama and his senior foreign policy advisors, the same people who are now advising President Biden, reflect a belief — a naïve one, many say — that if Iran were stronger, and traditional American allies — Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — were weaker, the Middle East could achieve a new balance of power that would result in more peaceful region.

"The catch to Obama's newly inclusive 'balancing' framework was that upgrading relations with Iran would necessarily come at the expense of traditional partners targeted by Iran — like Saudi Arabia and, most importantly, Israel. Obama never said that part out loud, but the logic isn't hard to follow: Elevating your enemy to the same level as your ally means that your enemy is no longer your enemy, and your ally is no longer your ally." — Lee Smith, Middle East analyst, Tablet magazine.

"The Realignment rests on, to put it mildly, a hollow theory. It misstates the nature of the Islamic Republic and the scope of its ambitions. A regime that has led 'Death to America' chants for the last 40 years is an inveterately revisionist regime. The Islamic Republic sees itself as a global power, the leader of the Muslim world, and it covets hegemony over the Persian Gulf — indeed, the entire Middle East." — Tony Badran and Michael Doran, Middle East analysts, Tablet magazine.

"After oil, the Islamic Republic's major export item is the IRGC-commanded terrorist militia — the only export that Iran consistently produces at a peerless level. Malley and Sullivan got it exactly wrong when they argued, in effect, that allies are suckering the United States into conflict with Iran. It is not the allies but the Islamic Republic that is blanketing the Arab world with terrorist militias, arming them with precision-guided weapons, and styling the alliance it leads as 'the Resistance Axis.' It does so for one simple reason: It is out to destroy the American order in the Middle East." — Tony Badran and Michael Doran.
Disclosed: How Obama Administration Officials Conducted Shadow Diplomacy With Iran To Undermine Trump
Senior Obama administration officials engaged in a secret meeting with Iran in 2018 as part of an effort to undermine the Trump administration's diplomatic push to isolate the hardline regime, according to an internal State Department document.

As the Trump administration worked to increase economic pressure on Iran in 2018, a delegation of "U.S. former ambassadors held a secret, "off-the-record" meeting with former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif at his residence in New York City, according to a State Department memo unearthed this week as part of a lawsuit brought to compel the release of this information. The meeting took place around the same time John Kerry was reported to be working behind-the-scenes with Iranian officials to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord.

The internal memo, which is marked unclassified, details how these former U.S. ambassadors conducted shadow diplomacy with Iran's top envoy surrounding "nuclear weapons, potential prisoner swaps, [the] Afghanistan withdrawal, and negotiations with the Taliban," according to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a legal advocacy group that sued the State Department to obtain the internal memo.

The document is the firmest proof to date that Obama-era officials were engaged in back-channel efforts to keep negotiations with Iran alive, even as former president Donald Trump and his administration worked to isolate the regime, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo told the Free Beacon in exclusive remarks. Pompeo, who was not aware of these meetings while leading the State Department, said the memo corroborates reports from the time about Kerry's efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal through back-channel powwows with Iranian officials.

"This memo reflects even more than we already knew about former State Department officials continuing on as if they were still in office," said Pompeo, who is now senior counsel for global affairs at the ACLJ. "Trying, at every turn, to work with the foreign minister for a terrorist regime, Iran, to undermine the very sanctions put in place by America. It's worse than not knowing when to get off stage. Actively seeking to protect the terrible deal they struck, these former officials—two years after Obama left office—were signaling that Iran should stand firm against America."
Top Iran diplomat says IRGC listing not holding up nuke deal, but ‘Zionist lobby’ is
Iran’s Foreign Minister said Thursday that the continued US designation of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group was not holding up stalled nuclear talks as much as disagreements over the lifting of financial sanctions.

Speaking on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also accused US President Joe Biden of keeping his predecessor’s hardline policies in place, claiming that Israel and its supporters are holding US foreign policy “hostage.”

“The most important thing is that the economic sanctions need to be lifted in an effective way,” Amir-Abdollahian told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “The most important thing is that the maximum pressure policy of the Trump era — the factors, the elements there — need to be removed.”

The comments came days after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Biden had informed him that the US would not take the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps off the US’s list of foreign terror organizations. Iranian demands for the removal of the IRGC had been a key sticking point in talks, but on Wednesday, the US point man on Iran, Rob Malley, said Iran’s refusal to make concessions in kind had made the removal impossible.

“What has caused the cessation in the talks is [the issue of] economic guarantees,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “We have not come to the point where we can trust the American side. We have not seen that the behavior is different from Trump’s approach.”


Iran Summons Swiss Envoy Over US Seizure of Iranian Oil: Media
Iran on Friday summoned the envoy of Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran, to protest against the US seizure of Iranian oil from a Russian-operated ship near Greece, the foreign ministry said in a statement quoted by Iranian media.

The ministry called for the immediate release of the ship and its cargo, the IRNA state news agency quoted it as saying.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice declined to comment on the oil seizure.

“The Isl>amic Republic expressed its deep concern over the US government’s continued violation of international laws and international maritime conventions,” IRNA and other media quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

A source at Greece’s shipping ministry told Reuters on Thursday that the US Department of Justice had “informed Greece that the cargo on the vessel is Iranian oil.”

It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian links. Iran and Russia face separate US sanctions.

Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday that the US plans to send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel.




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