Wednesday, July 06, 2022

07/06 Links Pt1: In Highland Park’s Jewish Community, Few Are Untouched by Deadly Mass Shooting; The bullet that doesn't matter; Iranian Pulls Out of Jiu-Jitsu Competition After Refusing to Play Against Israeli Opponent

From Ian:

In Highland Park’s Jewish Community, Few Are Untouched by Deadly Mass Shooting
Bright Bowls was open for July 4 in Highland Park’s main commercial district, and its owners, Lindsay and Matt Meltzer, were prepared for a busy day.

Lindsay had left her job at the Jewish United Fund of Chicago to open her dream business, a vegetarian smoothie shop and wellness studio, in June 2020. This would be the first year since the pandemic began that her suburb would hold its annual Independence Day festivities, including a parade, and the Meltzers were eagerly anticipating lots of foot traffic.

The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band began playing in the parade lineup, performing the joyful Jewish standard “Freylekhs fun der Khupe” (Happiness under the Chuppah). A parade observer, local Jewish entrepreneur Candice Crane, laughed and took pictures with her husband and two of her young children.

“We were joking, ‘Only in Highland Park does the Klezmer band come,’” Crane said.

Then everything changed.

“I was standing at the register, and all of a sudden, I see the Highland Park High School band running up the street,” Lindsay Meltzer said. “The first thought I had was that there was an active shooter.”

Moments later, a police officer rode up on his bicycle and told everyone to get off the street.

“We just opened our door,” Lindsay said. “We have a basement that’s about the size of our entire store, and we were able to house over a hundred people safely, away from windows.”

Her husband stood at the front door, keeping watch, while Lindsay guided everyone else, mostly families with young children, to hide downstairs. A teacher with some active shooter training, herself Jewish, played games with the children and helped keep everyone calm.

Meanwhile, Howard Prager, a tuba player in the band, said he thought he saw the shooter flee the scene. “We saw a lot of people running,” he said. “We saw the panic and terror in their eyes.”
Jewish toddler orphaned at Highland Park Fourth of July parade massacre
A deadly massacre at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb has left a Jewish toddler an orphan. The parents of a two-year-old found wandering alone after Monday's attack were among the victims of the latest US mass shooting.

At least two Jewish community members, including the boy's mother, were among the seven fatalities in the mass shooting that took place in Highland Park, Illinois.

Irina McCarthy (Levberg), 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 37, were killed when a rooftop shooter fired on the July Fourth parade on Monday. About 50 people also suffered gunshot wounds and related injuries, police and hospital officials said.

The toddler, Aiden, survived because his father shielded him with his body, local media reported. He was eventually separated from his parents in the ensuing chaos and was later returned to grandparents by police, according to a fundraising page.

"He will have a long road ahead to heal," said Irina Colon, who organized the GoFundMe page with the family's permission, adding that Aiden's grandparents Misha and Nina Levberg will raise the boy.

The Levbergs are immigrants from Russia who raised Irina, their only child, in the Chicago area, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

Misha told the Times that Irina met her husband Kevin – who worked for a gene therapy startup – through her job in pharmaceuticals. He said that he picked Aiden up at the police station after a neighbor showed him a photo of a lost boy.

The fund has raised over $827,000 by Tuesday night.

Along with Irina, the other Jewish victim identified in Monday's attack was Jacki Sundheim, 63, the events and b’nei mitzvah coordinator at a nearby Reform synagogue, North Shore Congregation Israel. She had attended the synagogue and worked there for decades.


The bullet that doesn't matter
According to the Oslo agreement, the PA is required to disband all terrorist groups, seize their weapons and outlaw them – in other words, to put them out of business. But they never did it.

The PA never outlawed terrorist groups. It has never made a serious effort to arrest their members or confiscate their weapons in Jenin or anywhere else. It could crush the terrorist groups if it wanted to: The PA has one of the largest per-capita security forces in the world. But it just doesn't want to. It treats terrorists in Jenin and other areas under its control like brothers, not enemies.

Even sources that are unsympathetic to Israel occasionally admit that terrorists roam free in PA cities. On March 23, 2014, for example, The New York Times reported that Israeli troops were forced to enter the Jenin refugee camp in pursuit of terrorists because although Jenin is under the "full control" of the PA, "the Palestinian [security forces] did not generally operate in refugee camps."

That is why those Israeli soldiers went into Jenin; the PA, by its deliberation policy of inaction, forced them to do it. The Israelis could not halt their pursuit when the fleeing terrorists reached Jenin; that would have left the terrorists free to murder more Jewish women and children. The Israeli soldiers had to chase them. It was their moral and legal obligation, even if it meant briefly entering a PA-run city.

That makes the PA partly responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.

The terrorists were the ones who were directly responsible for causing the specific circumstances that led to her death. When confronted by Israeli soldiers, they could have surrendered.

It's just like when a criminal is confronted by police officers in the United States. The criminal has a choice. He or she can surrender peacefully, or they can start shooting. If an innocent bystander is killed in the shooting – whether the fatal bullet is fired by the criminal or the police – it is the criminal who caused it. The police would not have shot their guns if the criminal had peacefully surrendered.

Likewise in Jenin. The only reason Israelis were shooting was that the terrorists were shooting at them. Obviously, the Israelis weren't aiming their guns at reporters in the vicinity. Israeli soldiers have never deliberately shot at journalists.

If the particular bullet that killed Abu Akleh came from a Palestinian terrorist's gun, then the terrorists are to blame. And if the bullet came from Israeli soldiers who were responding to the terrorists' gunfire, then the terrorists are to blame. Either way, the origin of the much-ballyhooed bullet really doesn't matter at all.
US demands accountability in Abu Akleh killing, no criminal probe held
The Biden administration called for accountability in the shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh only a day after it determined she had likely been killed by gunfire from an IDF position in Jenin on May 11.

“We do want to see accountability. We would want to see accountability in any case of wrongful death. That is especially the case in the wrongful death of an American citizen, as was Shireen Abu Akleh,” US State Department Spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

“Our goal and the collective goal of the parties is to see to it that something akin to this, the killing of a journalist in a conflict zone, must not happen again,” Price said. “The IDF as a professional military outfit is in a position or soon will be in a position to consider steps to safeguard non-combatants.”

He stopped short of holding Israel directly responsible – even as he spoke of steps he expected the IDF to take to ensure that civilians were protected in combat zones.

"Not Intentional"
Price clarified that the Biden administration believed that the shooting was “not intentional, but rather the result of tragic circumstances.”

“We will probably never know how [Abu Akleh] was killed,” said a senior diplomatic source. “Israel has a responsibility to ensure journalists can do their jobs. This government believes in freedom of speech.”
After the Bullet: Re-Examining the Media’s Reporting on the Death of Shireen Abu Akleh
In all cases of media investigations into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, the media presented their analyses as being composed of a wide variety of puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly in painting a picture of Israeli culpability.

But without the vital evidence of the bullet’s ballistic analysis, these investigations were incomplete at best and based on both speculation and conjecture.

CNN’s investigation explicitly expressed the allegation that “Abu Akleh was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces.”

Along similar lines, The Washington Post, while not explicitly accusing Israel of deliberately targeting Abu Akleh, did call into question the IDF’s assertion that if she was killed by an IDF soldier, it was in error and not intentional.

Now that the US State Department has published its conclusions and has found that Shireen Abu Akleh was not targeted by the IDF, CNN must have surely updated the findings of its own investigation, right?

Evidently not: in its reporting on the July 4 announcement, CNN continues to claim that Abu Akleh was killed in a “targeted attack by Israeli forces.”

So, now that the bullet has been analyzed and Israel and the United States have published their conclusions, some of which fly in the face of the media’s investigative reports, what lessons can be drawn from the way in which the media handled Shireen Abu Akleh’s death?

Perhaps most importantly, the media should exercise prudence and discretion when reporting on events that are mired in foggy details. While an incident is still under official investigation and not all the details are yet available, it shows a lack of journalistic integrity to publish “probes” that claim to be conclusive.

Second, the media needs to be able to admit lapses in judgment. Now that the US has found that Shireen Abu Akleh was not killed in a deliberate targeting by Israel, it’s unbecoming of such a news outlet as CNN to continue to peddle its false theory that Israel targeted the Al Jazeera journalist.

Failure to do so decreases confidence in the media’s ability to correctly report on fast-moving stories that feature a wide variety of conflicting viewpoints.
Counterbalance PodCast | Ep. 44: Interpreting Israel’s Domestic Politics
On June 20, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced their intention to dissolve the Knesset, teeing up the fifth round of elections in four years and setting the state on a course for the formation of a new government. Until the elections, Yair Lapid will serve as Interim Prime Minister while parties attempt to cobble together another governing coalition, including, perhaps, one that sees former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reclaim his former post. Jonathan Schachter, a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute’s Peace and Security in the Middle East and a former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu, joins Mike to discuss what to expect from the upcoming elections, how Israeli foreign policy, especially with respect to Iran, might change, and the significance of President Joe Biden’s impending trip to Saudi Arabia.

Counterbalance is a foreign policy podcast that embodies Hudson’s tradition of challenging conventional wisdom. The Trump era attacked the elite consensus regarding several key issues, including the rise of China, American policy toward the Middle East, and the compartmentalization of domestic and foreign policy. Many observers in the media and in establishment foreign policy circles are presenting the advent of a Biden presidency as a total repudiation of President Trump’s policies and a return to “normalcy.” But, regardless of how one feels about the Trump era or any of his specific policies, there is no turning back the clock. The elite foreign policy consensus will never be the same. Counterbalance will reckon with what’s next.
Jewish business leaders receive warm welcome in Saudi Arabia
Jewish tourists to Saudi Arabia report a warming of attitudes towards the community, which has a long history in the region.

Peace activist Loay Al-Shareef tells us the changing winds are thanks in large part to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's 2030 vision for the country.




Republican candidate’s plan to fight Biden’s anti-Semitic appointees
In this week’s “Mideast News Hour,” Caroline Glick hosts Matthew Foldi, a 25-year-old candidate in the Republican primaries for Maryland’s 6th Congressional district, to discuss his plans for fighting anti-Semitism and other diseases of the Biden administration.

Foldi is also Glick’s nephew.

Glick and Foldi discuss how Congress can combat rising anti-Semitism on university campuses and throughout the United States, particularly in progressive enclaves. They also talk about how Foldi’s experience as an investigative reporter and as a student activist fighting the BDS movement will serve him as a member of Congress.

If elected, Foldi will be charged with protecting the civil rights of Jews and of all groups that find themselves beyond the bounds of progressive politics. He will also have to fight the increasingly endemic corruption of senior members of the Biden administration.

Glick charged that anti-Israel groups on campuses use free speech rights as the justification for harassing Jewish students.
Caroline Glick: GOP candidate Matthew Foldi’s plan to fight Biden’s anti-Semitic appointees | Mideast News Hour
In this week’s “Mideast News Hour,” Caroline Glick hosts Matthew Foldi, a 25-year-old candidate in the Republican primaries for Maryland’s 6th Congressional district. They discuss his plans for fighting anti-Semitism and other diseases of the Biden administration.

If elected, Foldi will be charged with protecting the civil rights of Jews and of all groups that find themselves beyond the bounds of progressive politics. He will also have to fight the increasingly endemic corruption of senior members of the Biden team.


Biden’s Jewish transgender deputy health secretary decries ‘bullying,’ lauds Israel
Speaking at an Israeli embassy Pride event, Rachel Levine, the openly transgender Jewish deputy secretary of health in the Biden administration, called on people to “stand together against bullying” of trans people.

“The past few months have been a difficult time for our LGBTQI-plus community in the United States,” Levine, dressed in uniform as the admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, said Wednesday in a prerecorded video screened at the embassy’s pride event.

“Attacks on the health and well-being of trans youth and trans adults have driven a political wedge into what should be a private, strictly medical conversation,” Levine said. “Now we all need to stand together against bullying in public. We see that kind of emotional abuse in our communities. No one deserves that kind of treatment. Certainly not a young person or teenager who’s already more likely to face bullying at school.”

Levine did not give specific examples, but a number of Republican politicians have sought bans on gender-related medical treatment for anyone under age 18 and have sought to inhibit the availability of materials about LGBTQ and trans issues in schools. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued orders that would classify gender-affirming care as child abuse, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a law prohibiting instruction about LGBTQ issues, including gender identity, in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not “age-appropriate” in other grades.

Additionally, LGBTQ events have been subject to threats of violence and harassment recently.

Israeli officials have emphasized freedoms for LGBTQ people in the country, which Levine recognized. “I commend everyone here today for your commitment to equity, to diversity and inclusion,” she said, and called on support for young people facing what she said was bullying.

“We must strongly advocate for the most underserved and marginalized in our LGBTQ plus community, including our trans youth, and trans women of color,” Levine said. “You should all be able to live your lives no matter who you are, or who you love.”


Russian authorities investigated Jewish Agency for three years Russia has been inspecting the Jewish Agency for three years before ordering it to stop operations in the country.
The Jewish Agency has been under investigation by Russian officials for the past three years, during which information and hardware from their offices were examined closely.

In a letter sent to the Jewish Agency this week, revealed exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the Agency received a list of what the Russian Justice Ministry sees as violations of the law and the consequences of these violations.

As reported on Tuesday, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said that “Russia has claimed that the Jewish Agency illegally collected information about Russian citizens.”

As every organization would do, especially ones that promote immigration to another country, the Jewish Agency’s offices in Russia collect information about people who apply for aliyah or who participate in their activities.

According to DLA Piper, a multinational law firm, amendments to the Russian Data Protection Act were adopted and came into force in 2015. The amendments require all personal data operators to store and process any personal data of Russian individuals within databases located in Russia (subject to few exceptions).

According to the amendment, the penalty for violation of this requirement is ultimately the blocking of websites involving unlawful handling of Russian personal data.

According to the Russian law, in order to transfer personal data outside Russia’s borders, the operator has to ensure that the rights of personal data subjects will have a high level of protection in the new country destination – before actually transferring the data.

The ministry indicated that the agency officials in Russia have violated the law, since the information gathered there is shared with its offices in Jerusalem or with Israeli government offices in order to proceed with immigration.
Report: Ukraine Recalling Ambassador to Germany Who Praised Nazi Collaborator
Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk will leave office this fall, go back home to Kiev and become Deputy Foreign Minister, the Bild reported Monday, citing sources in the Ukrainian capital (Melnyk verlässt Deutschland).

Last Friday, Melnyk defended in an interview the good name of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera (Was Putin Wrong? Ukrainian Ambassador in Hot Water for Praising Nazi Collaborator).

After maintaining media silence, on Tuesday, the Ukrainian ambassador denied the accusations that he had denied Bandera’s role in the Holocaust and played down the Holocaust altogether. On Tuesday, he tweeted, with images of himself in the company of happy Lubavitchers: “I DETERMINATELY reject these absurd accusations! Everyone who knows me knows that I have always condemned the Holocaust in the strongest terms! The Nazi crime of the Shoah is a common Jewish and Ukrainian tragedy.”

“The Holocaust was and remains a deadly blow to the heart and soul of every Ukrainian!” the ambassador tweeted some more. “My speech [on August 28, 2019] was about the Shoah during the German Nazi occupation of Ukraine & today’s tribute to their victims in Ukraine.”

In the interview he gave German reporter Tilo Jung, Melnyk said that reports of Bandera’s involvement in the mass murders of Poles and Jews are lies and a “Russian narrative.”
Qatar World Cup Offers Lessons for Human Rights Struggles
It’s a good time, almost 12 years after the world soccer body, FIFA, awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup hosting rights — and five months before the tournament — to evaluate the campaign to reform the country’s erstwhile onerous labor system and accommodate fans whose lifestyles violate Qatar’s restrictive laws and/or go against deeply rooted cultural attitudes.

Ultimately the balance sheet shows a mixed bag, even if one takes into account that Qatari autocracy has proven to be more responsive and flexible in responding to pressure by human rights and labor groups than its Gulf brothers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

On the plus side, the initial wave of condemnation of the country’s repressive kafala labour system that put employees at the mercy of their employers persuaded Qatar to become the first Gulf state, if not the first Arab state, to engage with its critics.

Engagement meant giving human rights groups and trade unions access to the country, allowing them to operate and hold news conferences in Qatar, and involving them in drafting reforms and World Cup-related model labor contracts. This was unprecedented in a region where local activists are behind bars, or worse, and foreign critics don’t even make it onto an inbound flight.

The reforms were imperfect and not far-reaching enough, even if Qatar introduced significant improvements in the conditions for unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

Furthermore, on the plus side, the hosting rights sparked limited but nonetheless taboo-breaking discussions that touched on sensitive subjects such as LGBT rights and the granting of citizenship to non-nationals.


Top AP brass attend reopening of Gaza bureau after building destroyed in 2021
Top executives from the Associated Press launched the news agency’s new office in the Gaza Strip more than a year after Israel gave AP staff an hour’s notice to leave before bombing the building it said also housed a Hamas intelligence unit.

The importance the agency attached to reopening the bureau was signaled by the presence of Daisy Veerasingham, the AP president, and executive editor Julie Pace at the dedication of the new office on Tuesday. Israel is already under intense scrutiny of how it handles the international media following the shooting death in May of a popular Palestinian American journalist.

“AP’s resilient Gaza team has never wavered, even in the moments our bureau collapsed and in the weeks that followed,” Veerasingham said in a release. “The Associated Press has operated in Gaza for more than half a century and remains committed to telling the story of Gaza and its people.”

The reopening comes after multiple news outlets, including the Associated Press, published analyses blaming Israeli troops for the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin. The State Department on Monday said Israeli troops were the likely shooters, but also said the killing was unintentional.

Last year during the Israel-Gaza conflict, Israel bombed a 12-story building in Gaza City known as a center for journalists covering the region, including some working for the AP and Al Jazeera. IDF officials warned journalists to leave the building an hour before the attack.
Israeli Soldiers Targeted in Drive-By Shooting in West Bank
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday that suspects fired at soldiers from a passing vehicle at the entrance to the Homesh community in the northern West Bank.

Israeli security forces are currently searching for the vehicle and suspects, according to the IDF statement.

“The soldiers responded with live fire. No IDF injuries were reported. The soldiers located bullet casings during searches of the area,” the statement said.

Earlier on Tuesday, IDF announced that Israeli forces arrested six individuals suspected of terrorist activities during an overnight operation in the West Bank. Illegal weapons were confiscated during the raid in several Palestinian towns.
PMW: PA message to kids: “Palestine belongs to the Palestinians from the river to the sea”
In a recent speech, a top PA official made it clear that the PA and Fatah are dishonest when they tell Israel and the international community that they want to live side by side with Israel and “only” aspire to a Palestinian state in the “1967 borders.”

Addressing a conference in Jenin, the region’s District Governor Akram Rajoub instructed Palestinians to teach their children that “Palestine” is exclusively for “the Palestinians.” He stressed that the message to “be sown in the minds of children” is that “Palestine” stretches “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” Rajoub further clarified that while the Palestinians may have “agreed” to a “Palestine” in the “1967 borders,” what they really believe is that the entire area “belongs to the Palestinians”:
Jenin District Governor Akram Rajoub: “The Palestinian narrative that needs to be sown in the minds of our children in all fields, in economy, culture, heritage, struggle, and in raising the flag is: ‘Palestine for the Palestinians.’ Yes, Palestine for the Palestinians. From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. Yes! From the river to the sea. Your national responsibility is to pass this from generation to generation to our children: That Palestine belongs to the Palestinians from the river to the sea… We agreed to the 1967 borders, to establish our state in them, but in our minds and in the minds of our [future] generations, it needs to be established that Palestine [from the river to the sea] belongs to the Palestinians.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, June 15, 2022]

Rajoub’s remarks are in stark contrast to a recent statement by PA and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking to EU Representative to the PA Sven Kuhn von Bergsdorff and other ambassadors and representatives of European countries at the signing of a €224 million financing agreement for the year 2021, Abbas first mentioned that “Europe recognizes the vision of the two-state solution on the 1967 borders.” He then defined the PA’s desired “Palestine” as only 22% of “historic Palestine,” before upping the ante to 45%. He mentioned that he had also made this clear to “the American envoys.” His message to the international community: The Palestinians will be content with part of “historic Palestine”:
PA denies Jewish history in the land: “The occupier in our land has no memories. We remain here”
Visual shows an ancient building in a field with an olive tree in the foreground.

Official PA TV narrator: “Our memories in this land are too long to be counted in years, and the occupier in our land has no memories. We remain here.”

The Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period, while abundant evidence proves Jewish history in Israel.

Visual shows Israeli houses on a hill in the West Bank.

Visual shows an ancient building in a field.

[Official PA TV, broadcast several times a week since Nov. 24, 2017 - May 6, June 25, July 2, 2022]




Iran’s former FM Zarif reveals Iran deal intrigue, anti-Israel views -analysis
ZARIF BELIEVES that Israel is an oppressive state but he notes that it has successfully proven one of its narratives, which is that it is invincible. This is what he says. He believes that Jerusalem sells this narrative via film. “Zarif went on to say that there is no film against the usurping Israeli regime in Hollywood, saying… every movie Hollywood makes shows the Israeli and American soldiers as invincible.” He said that one of the only threats to Israel today is population and demographics, noting the “increase in the Arab population in Israel.”

The former foreign minister also claims that he enjoyed his talks with John Kerry. He even narrated “jokes” the two had together, according to Fars News. “Kerry used to say ‘if you sign the JCPOA, they will come to Iran so much… They will invest [so fast] that you won’t have time to issue visas for them.’” Zarif responded, “we have an expression in Farsi – we say 'don't put watermelon under our arms.' From now on whenever you want to say something to make me laugh, I say 'don't put watermelon under our arms'! I know what investment products are in Iran, don't tell me they are lining up to invest.”

This bizarre exchange appears to show the US trying to sell Iran on the deal with images of wealth flowing to the Islamic Republic. This is strange because Iran could have simply not developed an illegal nuclear program and rather behave like other states – and then it would have received investment. Iran chose the extremism factor.

Zarif also critiques claims that he could have saved the JCPOA by not relying on the White House to implement it. He argues that the nuclear deal’s real power was in the “snapback” clauses, and asserts that “our nuclear situation in September 2021 is better than in September 2013.”

The former foreign minister also slammed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear program leader and scientist who was assassinated allegedly by Israel in November 2020, for not adhering to his security detail’s requests. This claim is interesting but it is hard to verify. “Fakhrizadeh didn't listen, which means Israel could hit him whenever it wanted,” Zarif is quoted as saying. He says the nuclear scientist's death was a setback to the Iran deal.

The full details of the Fars News report are hard to verify and it remains to be seen if it is accurate and if the shocking details were indeed said in such a manner by Zarif. For now, the report is a window into the regime's infighting and differing worldviews in Tehran.
IDF chief of staff candidate suggests ramping up assassinations of IRGC leaders
Eyal Zamir, one of the leading candidates to take over as the next chief of the Israeli military, warned in a lengthy report that Iran has managed to establish a significant foothold in Syria and called for more assassinations of Iranian military officials to curb such efforts.

In a 74-page document published as part of his current position as a research fellow at the Washington Institute, Zamir said Iran has managed to establish a comprehensive military infrastructure within Syria and has deployed missiles and UAVs that are a direct threat to neighboring Israel.

The report, titled “Countering Iran’s regional strategy” and dated May 8, was released Tuesday.

“Some of the Iranian militias base themselves in special camps in Syria, and in the case of an Israeli campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, they could conceivably fire missiles from deep within Syria at Israeli targets,” Zamir wrote.

Last month, the IDF held a major military exercise in Cyprus, simulating a ground offensive deep inside Lebanon in a potential war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The exercise was part of the military’s largest drill in decades, simulating all-out war with an emphasis on Israel’s northern frontier.

Hezbollah alone has long been a significant adversary for the IDF, with an estimated arsenal of nearly 150,000 rockets and missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel. Israeli troops hold a major drill in Cyprus, in an image published by the military on June 2, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

According to Zamir and other recent military assessments, other Iranian militias based in Syria would join in a potential battle alongside Hezbollah, not just with missile fire.


Iran, Russia, China To Run War Drills in Latin America
Iran, Russia, and China are gearing up to run a series of major war drills in Latin America in a show of force meant to signal how these militaries can reach the United States.

Venezuela, under the leadership of anti-U.S. socialist president Nicolás Maduro, is scheduled to host the war games in mid-August, according to a report by the Center for a Secure Free Society, a think tank that tracks malign regimes. Along with 10 other nations, Russia, China, and Iran will move their militaries into the Western Hemisphere for war drills that will "preposition forward-deployed military assets in Latin America and the Caribbean."

The war games, known as the Sniper Frontier competition, show that these malign regime from across the globe are uniting and "getting ready to make a loud statement that the region is ready to embrace the multipolar force," according to the think-tank report, which focuses on Latin America's embrace of authoritarian regimes. A key portion of Russia's "military is prepping to bring, for the first time, some of these military games to the Western Hemisphere"—even as Moscow is bogged down with war in Ukraine.

The war drills are one of the starkest signs to date that Latin America's coalition of anti-U.S. regimes is working to boost relations with Russia, China, and Iran. Maduro recently wrapped up a diplomatic tour of the Middle East in which he inked a 20-year strategic deal with Iran that laid the groundwork for an Iranian oil tanker to dock in Venezuela and offload Tehran's illicit crude. "The strategic deal between Iran and Venezuela is meant to mirror similar strategic agreements that the Islamic Republic signed with China and Russia in recent years," according to the think-tank report. Latin American regimes also are inking military pacts with Russia.

"Russia and its allies Iran and China are about to make a major show of force with the army games competition in August in Venezuela. But it's important to understand that this force is molded by cyber-enabled, digital disinformation that is at the heart of how this kind of joint military exercise is used to legitimize authoritarian states and delegitimize democracies in the Western Hemisphere," Joseph Humire, a national security analyst and executive director of the think tank, told the Washington Free Beacon. "By normalizing military movements of U.S. adversaries in the Caribbean, we run the risk of weakening the moral legitimacy of democracies in Latin America."

There are also signs that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the country's paramilitary fighting force, is boosting its presence in Latin America.


MEMRI: Strong Opposition In Jordanian Press To Kingdom’s Participation In Regional Military Alliance With Israel Against Iran
Recently, ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, there have been many reports that the U.S. administration intends to promote the establishment of a NATO-like military alliance in the region in order to confront various security threats, chief of them Iran. According to the reports, this alliance is meant to include the moderate Arabs states, among them Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, as well as Israel, and will be discussed at the July 16 summit in Jeddah between Biden and by the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

So far, no official from any of these countries has addressed the issue, with the exception of Jordanian King ‘Abdullah II. Asked whether Jordan would join such an alliance in an interview on the American CNBC network, the King said: “I would be one of the first people that would endorse a Middle East NATO. But the vision of such a military alliance must be very clear, and its role should be well defined. The mission statement has to be very, very clear. Otherwise, it confuses everybody.”[1]

The King’s statements, which were understood in the media as an expression of Jordan’s willingness to join a military alliance against Iran that would include Israel, evoked many responses. Apparently sent to clarify the King’s statements, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi denied this, telling Al-Jazeera on June 28 that “there has been no discussion of a military alliance of which Israel is a part, and we have heard no such proposal to date.” The King, he explained, had expressed Jordan’s keenness to support any proposal for organized and joint Arab action to address challenges such as terror, food security and economic security.[2]

Articles and analyses in the Jordanian press assessed that an Arab alliance will soon be formed to confront the existential threats facing the region and the world, including the threats posed by the Iran-backed militias in the region and by Israel, as well as the energy and food crises caused by the war in Ukraine and the changes in the international arena.[3]

Many other articles in the Jordanian press expressed strong opposition to Jordan’s participation in a military alliance with Israel. The authors of the articles, who included Jordanian former ministers, newspaper editors and senior journalists, stated that Jordan has no interest in joining such an alliance with Israel, which threatens Jordan’s interests in the context of the Palestinian issue and Jerusalem and is a source of trouble and concern in the region. Despite the peace agreements signed by several Arab countries with Israel, they said, the latter “was and still is the criminal enemy of the Arabs,” and no world power will compel the Arabs to form a military alliance with it until it respects the Palestinians’ rights. One of the writers, former information minister Samih Al-Ma’ayta, stated that the Jordanian establishment was well aware of the public’s opposition to ties with Israel and would therefore avoid entering into an alliance with it. He added that, although Jordan opposes Iran’s policy in the region, there is a big difference between this and preparing to start a war with it. Others wrote that, amid the food and energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, it is the economic challenges that are currently at the top of the agenda, and it is paramount to promote economic integration among the Arabs, rather than a military alliance against Iran.


Belgium Provisionally Clears Contentious Iran Prisoner Swap Treaty
Belgian lawmakers gave initial clearance on Wednesday to a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to the release of an Iranian diplomat convicted of planning to bomb a rally of an exiled opposition group.

The foreign relations committee of Belgium’s lower house debated the treaty for more than six hours over two days before finally approving it.

The measure still needs to be put before the full 150-member lower house of parliament, most likely in the next two weeks, but the chamber normally follows votes of its committees, given they have similar party compositions.

The prisoner exchange might secure the release of a Belgian aid worker who was detained in Iran in February and could help Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who has taught in Belgium and been sentenced to death in Iran.

Iran has called for the release of Assadollah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2021 over a foiled 2018 bomb plot. His was the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

It is not clear when a prisoner exchange might happen.

Several lawmakers voiced concern that the treaty, as proposed, might lead to “hostage diplomacy” and put other Belgians at risk of detention.

The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose 2018 rally near Paris had been the bomb plot’s target, called the treaty “shameful” and said Assadi should remain in jail.
Iranian Pulls Out of Jiu-Jitsu Competition After Refusing to Play Against Israeli Opponent
An Iranian athlete withdrew his participation in an international jiu-jitsu competition in the United Arab Emirates to avoid facing an opponent from Israel, reported Iran’s Press TV reported.

Hamid Amraei was originally scheduled to go head-to-head against a competitor from Brazil in the men’s 77-kilogram weight class in the AJP Tour Fujairah International Pro Jiu-Jitsu Championship, which took place in the UAE from July 2-3.

However, officials changed the draw, and he was matched to go against an Israeli competitor.

In protest of the decision, Amraei decided to pull out of the international tournament to avoid competing against the Israeli athlete, according to Press TV.

In May, Kuwaiti wheelchair fencer Kholoud al-Mutairi withdrew from the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation World Cup in Thailand after a draw placed her in a match-up against an athlete from Israel.




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