Friday, June 03, 2022

06/03 Links Pt1: Why the US won't stop appeasing the Palestinians; Blinken promotes an immoral Israeli-Palestinian moral equivalence; Demonization of Jews, not flag march, at fault for Jerusalem unrest

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Why the US won't stop appeasing the Palestinians
Although such incitement has recently reached a crescendo, the P.A. routinely promulgates Nazi-style blood libels and "evil Jew" conspiracy lunacies; instructs its children that their highest calling is to kill Israelis and steal their land; and continues to pay terrorists' families a reward for murdering Israeli Jews.

In any sane and morally functioning universe, such people would therefore be treated as social and political pariahs, and be held to account for their murderous agenda.

So why is the Biden administration so determined instead to elevate them? Of course, there are elements within the administration of gross anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish hatred. Such bigotry marks many Palestinian supporters in progressive circles throughout the West.

But there is also a lethal refusal to face reality in the Middle East that has characterized American administrations, as well as governments in Britain and Europe, for many decades.

This has been fed by a fundamental misconception that the war of extermination waged against Israel is instead a conflict between two rival claims to the same area of land. To those wearing such blinders, the solution must therefore be a compromise between the two sides in which the land has to be shared.

But since this is in fact a war of extermination by the Palestinian side against Israel, all such attempts at compromise serve instead to legitimize, incentivize and reward its aggression – while punishing and weakening Israel for refusing to surrender to its existential foe.

The great fallacy of American and Western liberals is that this insistence on compromise is proof of their even-handedness.

The idea of equality, and thus moral equivalence, is a supposedly cardinal precept of liberal thought. In reality, it results in grotesque and amoral inequality. By insisting on equivalence between victim and aggressor, it always ends up favoring the aggressor and placing the victim in even greater jeopardy.

It's not possible to support the Palestinian cause without harming Israel. Palestinian supporters tell themselves they are helping those who have been deprived of a state of their own. In fact, they are aiding the potential invasion and theft of someone else's country.

Western liberals don't seem to realize it, but their support constitutes the Palestinians' last chance of destroying Israel. For the Arab world has largely deserted them, and instead of trying to destroy Israel, the Arab states are increasingly "normalizing" relations with it.

In short, the murderous Palestinian train has left the station. The Biden administration and other Western liberals – clinging to their ideologically twisted fantasies about creating a new world – are apparently the last people to know.
Biden Is No Friend of Israel
The real crime, one that represents a serious breach of the long-standing intelligence-sharing arrangements between the US and Israel, is that one of President Joe Biden's senior officials has been willing to betray the trust of such a close ally.

At a time when tensions are already running high between Iran and the West over the stalled nuclear talks, there are quite justifiable concerns in Israel that the leak will prompt Iran to exact revenge by attacking Israeli targets, even if it later transpires that Israel was not responsible for the assassination.

The timing of the leak also indicates an underlying willingness on the part of the Biden administration to undermine Israel when, in public, the White House is seeking to portray itself as an ally of Israel, as indicated by its recent seeming decision not to remove the IRGC from the US list of designated terrorist organisations.

As for motivation, it is unclear if the leak was deliberate, to harm Israel, or from not fully appreciating the jeopardy it could potentially cause Israel, an act which would reflect the Biden administration's profound lack of understanding as to what is at stake with the entire Iran issue.
The alternative universe of Palestinian 'sovereignty'
The real concern, then, is that a great many people are unwilling to learn, discern, analyze and evaluate our situation. It is much easier to just believe what the "underdog" has to say.

Realistically, though, what can come of such a delusional mindset?

H.L. Mencken, the cynical 20th-century American journalist and commentator, once famously said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." I would suggest that no one is about to go broke overestimating the willingness of the Palestinians to depict an alternative universe in which their control of Jerusalem is blocked and thwarted by settler thugs.

We have heard rumors, for example, that the EU plans to construct a contiguous belt of structures that will link eastern Jerusalem (which includes the Old City) with Palestinian-controlled areas. Part of the reason for this is likely that the EU has adopted the Palestinians' delusional claims. The Europeans believe they will build on what is already "Palestine" – or, at least, ought to be "Palestine."

It is difficult for rational people to understand true irrationality, so I suspect that the Israeli leadership laughs off the sheer lunacy of the Palestinian vision. But there is a method to the Palestinians' madness, which is to formulate a false reality that the rest of the world buys into, and then insists Israel buy into it as well.

One of the challenges of true sovereignty is to do whatever it takes in order to protect that sovereignty. Israeli leaders will have to learn how to expose the delusions of the Palestinians and disabuse the world of their fantasies.

We have no choice but to enter their alternative universe and bring it back to reality.


Biden must help bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords - opinion
Instead, the Biden administration rapidly announced a “recalibration” of US-Saudi relations (i.e., a downgrading of ties), and appointed a special envoy tasked with withdrawing US support for the Saudi battle against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

Washington also removed the Houthis from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, even as the Houthis were firing rockets at Saudi civilian and oil infrastructure. A terrible decision! This, too, relates to the administration’s helter-skelter rush into another bad deal with the Iranians.

Beating-up on Saudi Arabia (and Egypt) for their human rights records is a Biden administration sport, too – while being silent on Iran’s more egregious human rights violations. In fact, Biden has thus far refused to meet with or talk to MBS (whom the US blames for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul).

At the same time, Biden has cozied-up to Qatar which sits securely in Iran’s regional camp, even extending non-NATO major ally status to Doha. In sum, Biden administration behavior casts a pall over the Abraham Accords and engenders doubt that the “Abrahamic narrative” can grow beyond its current contours.

All this comes at the expense of so much important work that Israel and Saudi Arabia ought to be doing together with the US, like reinforcing Jordanian stability and improving the flow of oil to the West.

US policy must change. Despite “Trumpian residue” on the Abraham Accords and Palestinian dissatisfaction with the Abraham Accords dynamic – things that clearly bother Biden’s people – doubling-down on the Accords should be a priority US foreign policy goal, a “no brainer.”

In any case, kowtowing to Iranian preferences by distancing the US from Saudi Arabia (and to an extent from Israel, too) has not softened Tehran one bit. The US is no closer to signing a good accord with Iran than it was 18 months ago.

Expansion of the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia would have important side benefits too, such as signaling Palestinian leadership that the time to compromise with Israel has come. Perhaps MBS could help convince Palestinians to accept the Jewish People’s historic rights in Israel. Perhaps Riyadh can bring Palestinians to see Israel as a force for good, knowledge, prosperity, and stability in the Middle East – which it surely and demonstrably is – leading to an amicable settlement with Israel.

For this and so many other reasons, Biden administration officials and mainstream Democrats in Congress ought to move beyond their Trump traumas and Iran illusions to get behind the Abraham Accords, bringing Riyadh into the regional peace revolution.
Biden said due in Israel on June 23, will meet PM, Abbas, tour E. Jerusalem hospital
US President Joe Biden will arrive in Israel on June 23 as part of a planned trip to the Middle East, Hebrew media outlets reported Friday.

The White House has yet to release the dates for Biden’s trip, which was announced after a phone call with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in April.

According to the Ynet news site, Biden will tour an Iron Dome anti-missile battery after touching down at Ben Gurion Airport, before heading to Jerusalem. In the capital, he is expected to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and hold meetings with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Isaac Herzog.

The next day, he is reportedly going to visit a hospital in East Jerusalem before heading to the West Bank city of Bethlehem to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

He will then continue on his trip, which will include a stop in Saudi Arabia.

The planned visit will come as the Israeli government teeters after losing its parliamentary majority, though the White House reportedly informed the Prime Minister’s Office that the trip was still on despite the political turmoil in Israel.

Preparations for the trip are already underway, including security coordination between Israeli and US officials. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a US delegation would be dispatched to meet with Palestinian officials to discuss Biden’s trip.

Biden last visited Israel as vice president in 2016. Bennett met with Biden at the White House in August.
Ruthie Blum: Blinken promotes an immoral Israeli-Palestinian moral equivalence
The PA is propagating the absurd claim that Abu Akleh was targeted by Israeli snipers. Israel is attempting to complete an investigation, requesting neutral American assistance in the endeavor. But the PA is refusing to hand over the bullet that killed her.

Blinken and his buddies overseas have been urging Israel to complete a probe into the incident as soon as possible. What they don’t appear to grasp, or would rather gloss over, is that a ballistic examination cannot be performed without the ammunition.

WAFA chronicled Blinken’s comment to Abbas on this matter as an expression of the US administration’s “keenness to conduct an investigation… with the aim of prosecuting and holding [Abu Akleh’s] murderers accountable.”

It is implausible that Blinken referred to “murderers” in this context, as remarks by State Department spokesman Ned Price suggested. This is undoubtedly due to the assumption that Abu Akleh was caught in crossfire.

WHEN GRILLED about it during his daily briefing on Tuesday, Price replied: “Well, I can tell you what we have urged of our Israeli partners, and Secretary Blinken even over the weekend had another opportunity to reinforce this message with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Lapid. As he told… Lapid, we urge the Israeli government to swiftly conclude their investigation… We expect full accountability for those responsible for [Abu Akleh’s] killing, and… have urged that the sides share their evidence with each other to facilitate that investigation. And we continue to call on all sides to maintain calm and to prevent further escalation.”

To avoid the wrath of the Al Jazeera reporter questioning him on why the US isn’t getting involved when the Palestinians “don’t really trust any investigation by the Israelis,” Price then shifted the topic to press freedom.

“We stand with journalists around the world who are doing their jobs in situations that sometimes are unfortunately dangerous, where they are often in a position of putting themselves in dangerous situations to do a job, to fulfill a task that is indispensable,” he said.

What Price and his boss conveniently omitted this week is that Israel – whose forces were in Jenin due to a sharp spike in deadly terrorist attacks – asked for American help with the investigation, while the PA has been refusing to cooperate. But admonishing Abbas would disrupt the Biden administration’s false narrative about the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and the nonexistent “two-state solution” to it.

Such moral equivalence from Washington is simply immoral.
PodCast: Ambassador Ron Dermer and Ed Husain: The first steps on the road to what became Abraham Accords
This was no ordinary occasion and I won’t forget hosting it. StandWithUs UK welcomed Ambassador Ron Dermer and Ed Husain to address a live audience in Central London. What you’re about to hear is an in-depth review of world affairs from an Israeli and Arab perspective, with two great men who were in and around the genesis of what led to the Abraham Accords. Ed flew in specially from Washington where he now lives and teaches at Georgetown University and Ambassador Dermer joined us from Jerusalem. These two friends were instrumental in creating the environment which led to the Accords. This is my own recording of this public event. Incredibly some of it found it’s way onto a Middle Eastern television network, AlSyaaq almost immediately - with full Arabic subtitles as Ambassador Dermer spoke about Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel. We talk about Israel’s relationships with Russia, the Jews in Ukraine even Russian coordination with Israel over security in Syria. Then there’s Iran and the JCPOA nuclear treaty, BDS and diaspora Jewry, Jeremy Corbyn and a growing theme of Jonny Gould‘s Jewish state, the religious relationship between Islam and Judaism and how it binds people in a region where religion is so important, a specialism of the great Ed Husain. Ed quotes the Koran and what it says about Moses. Sit back and enjoy a gripping conversation with two of the worlds most well-informed men on the biggest diplomatic breakthrough of our age.


Ben-Dror Yemini: Demonization of Jews, not flag march, at fault for Jerusalem unrest
There has always been incitement against Jews.

The claim that the Jerusalem Day flag march in the capital serves as the catalyst for violence among Muslims in general and the Palestinians in particular, is simply outrageous. All the more so considering this sentiment is often echoed by highly educated and well informed individuals.

Yes, the Palestinians are fuming, but they did not need the march to get there. In a stark contrast to years prior, the Muslim world had remained mostly indifferent to the march this year - apart from Jordan's condemnation and Al-Jazeera's usual attempt to incite the region.

This specific brand of incitement and hate is nothing new. It began way before the flag march ever existed, and even way before the Six Day War in 1967 - which saw Israel expand its borders considerably.

We can go as far as the 1930s to the time of Sheikh Mohammed Amin al-Husseini. Back then, the rule in land, parts of which would in the future become the State of Israel, was entrenched in Islam.

This fact did not stop the renowned Muslim leaders from claiming the Jews want to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and erect the third temple in its place.

Going even further back, we will find that Jerusalem was one of the most neglected cities in the Muslim world. It is true that it is the third most holy city in Islam - and yet, for centuries they thought nothing of it and paid it very little attention.

The eyes of the Muslim world fell on Jerusalem only after the Jews - who were persecuted everywhere, even in Muslim countries - demanded a national home to call their own.

The Jews did not seek to take over the holy mosque, and yet violent riots against the Jews would break out regularly.


Israel Prefers Diplomacy on Iran But Could Act Alone, Bennett Tells IAEA Chief
Israel told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Friday it would prefer a diplomatic resolution to the standoff over Iran‘s nuclear program but it could take independent action, reiterating a long-standing veiled threat to launch a preemptive war.

The warning to visiting International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi followed calls by Western powers on the IAEA Board of Governors to rebuke Tehran for failing to answer questions on uranium traces at undeclared sites.

That dispute has further clouded so far fruitless attempts by negotiators to resurrect a 2015 Iran nuclear deal that former US President Donald Trump quit in 2018.

Since Washington’s walkout and its reimposition of sanctions against Iran, Tehran — which says its nuclear designs are peaceful — has stepped up uranium enrichment, a process that could produce fuel for bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett “stressed (to Grossi) the importance of the IAEA Board of Governors delivering a clear and unequivocal message to Iran in its upcoming decision,” a statement from Bennett‘s office said.

“While it prefers diplomacy in order to deny Iran the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, Israel reserves the right to self-defense and action against Iran to stop its nuclear program if the international community fails to do so within the relevant time-frame,” it added without elaborating.
Seth Frantzman: Can more advanced helicopters help Israel confront Iran?
Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted drills over the Mediterranean this week. These were designed to simulate long-range flights and the striking of distant targets, the IDF said. “Dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft simulated a long-range flight, aerial refueling and striking distant targets.” The drill is part of the Chariots of Fire exercise, which is the biggest in decades and addresses “preparations for multi-arena combat scenarios both near and far.”

A central challenge for Israel facing any conflict with Iran or its proxies is that it could be a multi-front war. The major drills over the last month seem to be a nod to this new dilemma. US Central Command officials have been to Israel and observed some elements of the drills, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz has gone to the US. Meanwhile, Israel also sent forces to Cyprus this week to simulate a conflict with Hezbollah or a Hezbollah-like force.

But there is an elephant in the room in all this training. Israel has been slow in procuring the systems it may need to fight a multi-front war. While it is leading in air defenses, including new lasers that the prime minister heralded this week, the Jewish state needs more refuelers and helicopters to replace aging platforms.

In Cyprus, Israel did simulate evacuating wounded troops by helicopter and also delivering equipment via transport squadrons, so helicopters are part of the drill. Yet some of Israel’s are aging and new ones will take time to arrive.

Meanwhile, Israel appears to have fumbled in 2015 when it came close to acquiring the V-22 Osprey helicopter that fits well into the needs of inserting commandos on raids far from home. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that this key helicopter, which uses a tiltrotor, was ideal for Israel’s needs.
Iran regime's 'Jewish Studies Center' published over 1,000 antisemitic articles
Iranian news organization IranWire published an eye-popping deep dive analysis into more than 1,000 articles on an antisemitic website with the misleading name “Jewish Studies Center” that is backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Australian Islamic studies academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held hostage by Iran’s regime from 2018-2020, tweeted on Thursday about the IranWire exposé: “An important and frightening window into the horrific antisemitism promoted by the regime in Iran.

I can't tell you how many times I rolled my eyes in disdain at many of these anti-Jewish conspiracy theories from my IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] captors. Sickening.”

She added that "by the way, the very same IRGC who are promoting this ‘Jewish Studies Centre thinktank’ told me that all think tanks are covers for espionage."

IranWire correspondent Behnam Gholipour authored the article titled The Bone Chilling Insanity of Iran's 'Jewish Studies Center.’

The analysis states that "within the nexus of unaccountable bodies that make up the Iranian state, the Revolutionary Guards, the foreign ministry, Religious Endowments Organization and a number of others are also supporters of a virulent antisemitic supposed thinktank by the name of the Jewish Studies Center. “
Two Jewish asylum seekers in Germany to be returned to Iran?
Two siblings from Iran who claim to have proof that they are halakhically Jewish and who have sought asylum, first in Sweden and then in Germany, are anxiously awaiting their threatened deportation to Iran, where they say they will face execution.

Pourya, 31, and Tala Heydariaref, 34, left Iran in October 2019 and arrived in Sweden on tourist visas. Their initial goal was to move to Israel from Sweden. That plan, however, failed when they did not receive a positive response from the Jewish Agency for Israel for reasons unknown to this writer. They thus had to apply for political asylum in Sweden on grounds that they have no freedom of religion in Iran.

Pourya claims: “We are Jewish from our mother's side and we believe in Judaism. We couldn't follow our beloved religion in Iran because our father was Muslim and according to Sharia of Islam that Iran practices, anyone who has a Muslim father has to follow Islam. And if not, they will get executed. So we decided to leave Iran to live as free individuals as Jews.”

Pourya said that he has letters from rabbis in Iran that confirm him and his sister as Jewish: “We also have letters by rabbis in Sweden and the US that confirm us as Jewish from our mother's side. My grandmother from my mother's side was a Jewish refugee from Russia and I have her passport picture as well. I also have a letter from the Tehran Central Jewish Committee stating that our Jewish great grandmother, Hava Mina Zadeh, who died in 1985, is buried at Tehran's Jewish cemetery.”

However, the Swedish immigration office in Stockholm tried to force them to sign a letter to deport them to Iran, said Pourya. “We refused and they gave us a letter urging us to leave Sweden in three weeks.”

Then the two siblings arrived in Germany and applied for asylum there.

“Now Germany wants to send us back to Sweden. They told us that they would deport us to Sweden on June 20. But they have not even assessed our asylum case. They just gave a letter to our lawyer that said that we had to go back to Sweden although we had told them that our life would be in danger in Sweden as well. We know Sweden will deport us to Iran.”
Microsoft blocks Lebanese cyberattacks on Israeli firms, possibly directed by Iran
Microsoft has suspended over 20 OneDrive accounts for abusing the file hosting service in order to carry out cyberattacks on Israeli companies across numerous industries, including defense and financial services

Company officials wrote Thursday that they had high confidence the organization behind the attacks, which it dubbed “Polonium,” is based in Lebanon, and said they had moderate confidence that it was collaborating with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

“Such collaboration or direction from Tehran would align with a string of revelations since late 2020 that the government of Iran is using third parties to carry out cyber operations on their behalf, likely to enhance Iran’s plausible deniability” of direct cyberattacks, Microsoft said.

The company said Polonium has targeted organizations previously targeted by Mercury, an identified “subordinate element” within MOIS, and has used similar tactics to those of Iranian cyber groups “Lyceum” and “CopyKittens.”

Microsoft suggested that these factors point to possible “hand-off” operations, whereby MOIS provides Polonium with access to previously compromised victim environments in order to execute new activity.

Microsoft has not linked any of Polonium’s attacks to those of other groups based in Lebanon, including Volatile Cedar, a cyber espionage group.
Report: Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer executed on suspicion of spying
A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was killed after he was suspected of espionage, a Saudi report published Thursday said.

The Saudi-backed Iran International cited sources who said a member of IRGC's elite Quds Force Unit 840, Col. Ali Esmailzadeh, died after falling off the roof of his home in Karaj on May 30.

Esmailzadeh was a close colleague of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, the Quds Force leader who was killed by two motorcyclists on May 22.

Esmailzadeh was taken to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

IRGC officials told his family that the death was a suicide, noting the psychological toll of his separation from his wife. Esmailzadeh also left a note, they said.

Iran International's sources said that Khodaei was killed, the IRGC investigated possible security leaks from within the Quds Force.

After Esmailzadeh raised suspicions, the IRGC decided to eliminate him by staging his suicide.

Some reports placed the blame for Khodaei's killing on Israel, which was echoed by Iranian leaders. Threats against Israelis spiked after the killing, with Israel warning its citizens against traveling to Turkey due to threats from Iran.




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