Friday, July 08, 2022

07/08 Links Pt1: Former PM Shinzo Abe Assassinated, Was Friend of Israel; The defeated do not make demands, the victors do; What Were the Abraham Accords Keys to Success?

From Ian:

Israeli Prime Minister Lapid Leads Jewish World’s Tributes to Assassinated Former Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid led a slew of tributes from Israel and the Jewish world to the former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe following his shock assassination on Friday.

“The State of Israel mourns the death of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe following today’s horrific attack,” Lapid tweeted. “He was a fierce and distinguished leader and a key architect of modern Israel-Japan relations. Sending condolences to his family, loved ones and the Japanese people.”

The 67-year-old Abe was shot in the back as he gave an election speech while on the campaign trail in the city of Nara in western Japan. Doctors were unable to revive the former premier, who was taken to hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and showing no vital signs. He was declared dead at 5:03 p.m. (0803 GMT), about five and a half hours after being shot. The accused assassin, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, was taken into police custody and has admitted to shooting Abe with a homemade gun.

The longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history, Abe was widely regarded in Israel and by Jewish leaders internationally as a pioneer of improved relations between Japan and the Jewish people. During his second term in office, from 2012-20, trade between Israel and Japan grew from $20 million to over $6 billion, bolstered by two official visits by Abe to the Jewish state.

Abe was also devoted to commemorating the memory of the Nazi Holocaust, energetically raising awareness of the actions of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, the country’s wartime consul in Lithuania who defied the authorities in Tokyo by issuing transit visas to thousands of Jews who escaped Nazi persecution by fleeing eastwards.

“The courageous and humanitarian action of Mr. Sugihara provides us with guidance as to how to we should survive in this world, where rule-of-law-based international order is being challenged in various forms,” Abe told reporters while on an official visit to Lithuania in 2018. During a visit the following year to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust, Abe spoke of his “great solemnity in the face of your forefathers, who overcame profound grief to found the nation of Israel.”

Gilad Cohen, Israel’s Ambassador to Japan, said on Friday that he had been shocked by the news of Abe’s assassination.

“Being one of the most prominent leaders of Japan, Abe san was amongst the architects of modern relations between Israel and Japan, [who] served as a major catalyzer for the flourishing ties we see today,” Cohen tweeted.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had been “horrified” by Abe’s “despicable murder.”

“We met when I chaired Israel’s opposition and I was deeply impressed by his leadership, vision and respect for Israel. Grieving with his family and the whole Japanese people,” Herzog tweeted.


Japan’s Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Assassinated, Was Friend of Israel
During his time in office Abe visited Yad Vashem in Israel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the former home of Sugihara Chiune, “the Japanese Schindler,” in Kaunas, Lithuania. Abe’s administration made a concerted effort to publicize the story of Sugihara, a diplomat who served as an imperial consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania during World War II, and helped some 6,000 Jews escape German-occupied Poland and Lithuania.

During his visit to Kaunas, Abe said in his remarks, “The courageous and humanitarian action of Mr. Sugihara provides us with guidance as to how we should survive in this world.”

During his visit to Yad Vashem, Abe said, “Today I find myself [fully] determined. Ha-sho’a le’olam lo od. The Holocaust, never again … I felt great solemnity in the face of your forefathers, who overcame profound grief to found the nation of Israel.”

Abe backed up those words. When Japan’s population re-elected Abe as prime minister in 2012, Japanese investment in Israel totaled about $20 million. By 2019, investments had surged to over $6 billion. The number of Japanese businesses in Israel increased three-fold.

In 2020, despite the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, there were 18 new investment deals by Japanese financiers, adding another $853 million, following two official visits, in 2015 and 2018, during which Abe encouraged senior Japanese industry leaders to do more business in the “Start-Up Nation.”

Abe told his business leaders that he saw “no reason for Japan, which positions ‘innovation’ as the engine of economic growth, not to cooperate with Israel, which produces innovative technologies.”

Dylan Adelman recalled a few years ago that in February 2014, more than 300 copies of Anne Frank’s diary and other books pertaining to the Holocaust were vandalized in Tokyo public libraries. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described the antisemitic incident – a rarity in Japan – as “extremely regrettable and shameful.” The following month, then-prime minister Shinzo Abe visited the Anne Frank House Museum, making him one of the most prominent world leaders to have ever done so. Abe shared that he had read the diary of Anne Frank as a child and said he he wished to “reiterate lasting and profound friendship between Japan and the Jewish people around the world.”


The defeated do not make demands, the victors do
Israeli leaders should say to the Palestinians, ahead of Biden’s arrival, that the Palestinians must clearly and publicly recognize the legitimacy and permanence of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. The P.A. should disarm terrorist groups, stop all incitement and rid its education system of anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel. It must also cease payments to terrorists and their families and end all BDS activities against Israel in the international arena, including at the International Criminal Court.

Nothing less than this will end the conflict with Israel.

Once these steps are taken, the war will be over, Israelis will live in peace and security and the Palestinian people will be free of the burden of war. Then public funds can be used to build governmental, social welfare, education and healthcare systems.

For Palestinians to succeed, their leaders must accept Israel’s terms and their own defeat in the struggle to end Jewish sovereignty.

This is what Israeli leaders mean when they say, “We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

If the Palestinians reject Israel’s terms, which they most certainly will, Israel will need to enforce them. Israel needs to apply pressure—economic, military and diplomatic—until its demands are met.

Israel needs to take control and put a stop to enemy tactics that are costing Israel lives and livelihoods.

This is the path to victory.

The defeated do not make demands, the victors do.
A 'Marshall Plan' for the PA won't work
Lauder appears to believe that giving entrepreneurs the wherewithal to create businesses in the PA will shift the climate to one more receptive to cooperation with Israel. But the Palestinian people themselves have no say in this matter, because the PA is not a democracy. Its ruling Fatah Party governs with an iron fist.

What is more, a recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research indicated that most residents of the Palestinian Authority do not believe in the two-state solution, and would prefer to be governed by the more militant Hamas.

Most telling was Lauder's assertion that helping Palestinian entrepreneurs will give the PA "all the things that made Israel … financially viable." Perhaps this, more than anything else, is the heart of the matter: Whatever aid we may have received from others, in the end the Jews of the fledgling State of Israel became "financially viable" through our own enormous determination and effort. It is regrettable that the same is not expected of the PA.

In fact, the Palestinians have already received more donations per capita than any other group in the world. It's time for them to show their own determination and effort. Further handouts, even if monitored, are counterproductive. Yet again and again the world seems prepared to grant perks and largesse to the PA without demanding accountability.

Lauder appears to believe that providing people with money will enable them to be self-reliant, but billions of dollars in aid have only created a situation of perpetual entitlement. The PA doesn't make requests; it demands.

For the situation to truly change, two things must happen: First, the PA must come to understand that its ideology ill serves its people. They cannot defeat Israel. Period. And then, having come to terms with this truth, it must show a sincere desire to build something positive. At the moment, its only desire is negative: to destroy Israel.

All of this is critically important at this juncture precisely because Biden will soon arrive and make requests or demands from Israel in order to accommodate the PA.

It is frightening that Yair Lapid, who is now prime minister, will be the one to greet Biden. Lapid is in favor of the two-state solution and there is great concern about what he might agree to. Rumors abound, as usual. The results remain to be seen.
Melanie Phillips: Biting the bullet
Two things were notable about this statement. The first was that, even though the State Department couldn’t establish who had killed Abu Akleh, it stated it was “most likely” that the IDF was responsible. But since neither the PA nor the IDF investigations to which the statement referred had reached any conclusion either, their reports were no more than speculation.

Having reached no definitive conclusion from reading these two inconclusive reports which had failed to establish responsibility, the State Department nevertheless pinned the “likely” responsibility on the IDF. This baseless statement was malevolent, created in the full knowledge that this was what would be headlined by the venomous anti-Israel media (whose own deeply tendentious and distorted claims about this have been exposed here, here, here, here and here ).

The second notable thing, however, was much more significant. The statement said that the bullet was “badly damaged”. How could this have been? This was allegedly the bullet that had entered Abu Akleh’s neck or head and killed her. So how could this bullet have been damaged? Given that the Palestinian Authority had for weeks refused to hand over for objective inspection the bullet that had killed her, was this “damage” not intensely suspicious?

No-one in the media saw fit to ask this elementary question. But in Israel, some were not only asking — but apparently discovering the answer.

Precisely who inspected the bullet, which the PA refused to show the Israelis but eventually handed over to the Americans for analysis, has been a source of controversy. On Monday, the Israeli army said in a statement that Israeli experts had done forensic analysis on the bullet in an Israeli laboratory. Two days previously, IDF spokesman Ron Kochav claimed that, after the bullet was transferred to the US embassy in Jerusalem, US officials would merely be observing the Israeli analysis of the bullet.


Ruthie Blum: Abbas' real motives in the Abu Akleh investigation - opinion
Abbas' relationship with his constituents
The PA populace, on the other hand, has good reason to buy the blood libels that he feeds them daily, from the time that they’re born. Apparently, he didn’t figure that this would come back to bite him in the form of a widespread desire to side with his rivals in Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In this respect, Jenin is as much of a challenge for him as Gaza, which is why his outcry about Abu Akleh has less to do with a broken heart on her behalf than it does with the desire to exploit her death for his political purposes.

Which brings us back to Jenin, the site of the stray bullet that has been the focus of endless attention at home and abroad. As Palestinian Media watch reported on Wednesday, the West Bank city’s district governor, Akram Rajoub, declared last month at a conference, “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.”

As the story of Abu Akleh illustrates, the effort has been successful.
Shireen Abu Akleh's family asks to meet Joe Biden during Israel trip
The family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has accused the United States of providing impunity for Israel over her killing and asked to meet President Joe Biden in person during his trip to Israel next week.

In a letter to Biden posted on Twitter on Friday, the family said the administration simply adopted the Israeli government's conclusions over her death, which it described as an extrajudicial killing, while falling short of its own stated goal of ensuring full accountability.

"Your administration's engagement has served to whitewash Shireen's killing and perpetuate impunity," said the letter, signed by her brother Anton Abu Akleh on the family's behalf.

"It is as if you expect the world and us to now just move on. Silence would have been better." The family asked to see all the information the administration has collected on the issue.
Biden coming to a ‘different Middle East’ after peace deal: Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor
The Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem has said that US President Joe Biden will be visiting a “very different Middle East” when he makes his tour to Israel and Saudi Arabia later this month after the historic Abraham Accords paved the way for a “new atmosphere in the region.”

In an interview with Al Arabiya English, Israeli politician Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who is in charge of the country’s foreign relations, international economic development and tourism, said the Abraham Accords, brokered by former US President Donald Trump and which led to UAE and Bahrain forging ties with Israel, has transformed the landscape of the Middle East.

“We are very excited about President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel as part of his tour to the region,” said Hassan-Nahoum, who is also the co-founder and founding member of the UAE - Israel Business Council. “Biden is coming to a very different Middle East than the one he visited as Vice President of the (Barack) Obama administration.”

The US president will stop in the West Bank and Israel from July 13 to 16, before taking a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia from July 15 to 16, where he will meet Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“As my work with the administration’s delegation in Israel, I know they (the US) are very keen to continue developing the Abraham Accords and we are working on all levels to continue that work that has realigned the Middle East to what we have today,” said Hassan-Nahoum.

“In the wider context of both Saudi and Israel, we are very excited that the US are here to discuss common interests and be an interesting convener.”
Will Biden's visit challenge Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem?
US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel is a tremendous opportunity for Israel to develop and strengthen relations with the US, our long-term ally, as well as the moderate Arab countries of the region. However, it already seems that due to the current government’s weakness, this visit could end in a big miss at best and extreme political damage at worst.

This Wednesday, US President Joe Biden will land in Israel in his first trip to the country as president of the United States. We always welcome every American president, with each visit considered an important and meaningful event. However, it already appears that Biden’s visit will include two unprecedented political concessions.

First, Israel’s consent to Palestinian Authority representation at the Allenby crossing with Jordan, and second, tacit consent, and perhaps even encouragement by Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his team, for Biden’s visit to symbolic PA institutions in east Jerusalem. These concessions are likely to cost Israel heavily for years to come.

Biden is visiting Israel as part of his trip to the Middle East where he will also visit Saudi Arabia and meet with representatives of Arab countries. His visit comes at a particularly bad moment for Israel. The Knesset recently dispersed, Israel is at the beginning of its fifth election cycle in three and a half years and Israel’s prime minister is a transitional prime minister, lacking solid political experience who attempts to seek every ounce of legitimacy and the appearance of a leader at every possible opportunity to strengthen his position in the election campaign.

In this situation, and in the wake of US administration pressure for political concessions that comes along with a president’s visit, Israel has a severe lack of means and capability to stand up and speak out for its own interests. The US administration recognizes the weakness of the transitional government, and the teams that have already arrived in the country are requesting compromises from Israel that they would never have dared to ask if Israel had a strong right-wing government. Lapid, it turns out, is willing to surrender to many requests, simply to please Biden.
Iron Dome, Yad Vashem, Maccabiah, Bethlehem: Biden’s 2 days in Israel and West Bank
The schedule for US President Joe Biden’s upcoming two-day trip to Israel and the West Bank was all but finalized on Thursday, and while it will be the longtime lawmaker’s 10th trip to the Jewish state, the itinerary will include a number of firsts for the US leader.

Biden will land Wednesday afternoon at Ben Gurion Airport, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Yair Lapid in an official welcome ceremony.

While Lapid may only be a caretaker prime minister, and only met Biden once in 2013, he will be looking to build rapport with the US president in order to strengthen his political bona fides ahead of the November 1 election.

Biden will then tour several Israeli security systems with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, likely at the Palmachim air force base in central Israel, near the airport. The show-and-tell will include an Iron Dome missile defense battery, in a nod to US efforts to grant Israel an additional $500 million in replacement batteries for the system after last year’s Gaza war.

Biden’s tour will include the Iron Beam laser rocket defense system, which is designed to work in tandem with systems like Iron Dome and shoot down smaller projectiles.

The president will also announce his approval for the US military-industrial complex to begin talks with Israeli counterparts about purchasing Iron Beam, a senior US official told The Times of Israel Wednesday.
What Were the Abraham Accords Keys to Success?
he following essay is an excerpt from Aryeh Lightstone's new book, Let My People Know: The Incredible Story of Middle East Peace—and What Lies Ahead (Encounter Books, July 12).

It was widely believed that the materialization of the Abraham Accords was basically just luck, but that could not be further from the truth. There were particular reasons for this foreign policy success.

One key was the absence of a public process, because the only good that comes from such processes in a volatile region like the Middle East is job security for the people involved. Previous attempts at Middle East peace involved a myriad of public confidence-inducing measures, and then pundits from across the political spectrum and around the world would dissect every word and action. As a consequence, words and actions became more carefully scripted and rehearsed, with an eye to what the next media take might be. Analysis then came pouring forth with all the brilliance of the neighborhood fantasy football fanatic, while peace remained ever elusive. So the Abraham Accords team took a very different approach.

There would be no public negotiations and no strategic leaks through the press. The Accords would be announced only when they were completed. While the media speculated, fished, and occasionally made stuff up, there were never any consequential leaks, let alone any that derailed plans. Everyone involved in the peace plan had a high-level security clearance, which meant that discretion was mandatory. What's more, the people involved in the Abraham Accords were all pleased to keep the necessary discretion rather than backstab colleagues, hurt allies, and damage the prospects for peace by selective leaks to certain media outlets. I believe this was crucial to success.

Another key was relying upon leaders of countries involved to be—wait for it—leaders. Instead of treating them as whipping boys or obstacles to progress, the White House empowered them, giving them broad leeway and public encouragement. They know their own countries and the needs of their people better than an assistant secretary of state who studied international affairs at an Ivy League school. The White House gave those leaders as much space as possible to negotiate on their own countries' behalf. That is a reason why each principal and senior staff member who participated kept the necessary discretion and secrecy.

Finally, the Abraham Accords came about because the United States under President Donald Trump had a clear Middle East policy that let the world know who our friends and foes are, and the metrics for moving from one status to another. It was not a romantic Middle East policy, but a practical one. When there was a question of what we should do, the first consideration was not what the rest of the world would think, but what was in the best interest of the United States.
Lapid, Abbas speak ahead of Biden visit
Prime Minister Yair Lapid with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. This was the first call between a sitting Israeli premier and the Palestinian leader in five years.

The two leaders reportedly discussed cooperation between the PA and Israel, and the need to maintain stability in the region, as well as US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel and the PA next week.

Lapid extended his best wishes to Abbas and the Palestinian people on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha holiday, which begins this Saturday.

Separately, President Isaac Herzog also spoke with Abbas to convey his best wishes ahead of Eid al-Adha, the second and biggest of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday.

The two discussed various security issues, as well as Biden's visit.


MEMRI: Liberal Pakistani Writer And Nuclear Scientist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy: 'European Jews Fleeing Hitler Were Far Less Welcome Than Muslims Are In Today's America'; 'There Is Only One Muslim Country That Israel Truly Fears – Iran'
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a noted Pakistani nuclear scientist and respected columnist and academic known for his liberal views, recently wrote an article, titled "Israel's Secret Weapon," stressing the importance of education in the advancement of nations while criticizing a range of conspiracy theories against Israel prevailing in the Islamic world.[1]

In the article, Hoodbhoy said: "Conspiracy theorists have long imagined Israel as America's overgrown watchdog, beefed up and armed to protect American interests in the Middle East. But only a fool can believe that today."

While rejecting conspiracies against Israel and Jews, Hoodbhoy also stressed that the Jewish religious orthodoxy was behind declining academic standards among Israeli children, and somewhat similar "ideological poisons continue to circulate in the national bloodstream [of Pakistan]. Until flushed away, Pakistan's intellectual and material decline will accelerate."

Following are excerpts from the article:
"One Of My Scientific Heroes, Richard Feynman, Was Rejected In 1935 By Columbia University For Being Jewish; Fortunately, MIT Accepted Him"

"[...] European Jews fleeing Hitler were far less welcome than Muslims are in today's America. That Jewish refugees posed a serious threat to national security was argued by government officials in the State Department to the FBI as well as President Franklin Roosevelt himself. One of my scientific heroes, Richard Feynman, was rejected in 1935 by Columbia University for being Jewish. Fortunately, MIT accepted him.

"What changed outsiders into insiders was a secret weapon. That weapon was brain power. Regarded as the primary natural resource by Jews inside and outside Israel it is an obsession for parents who, spoon by spoon, zealously ladle knowledge into their children. The state too knows its responsibility: Israel has more museums and libraries per capita than any other country. Children born to Ashkenazi parents are assumed as prime state assets who will start a business, discover some important scientific truth, invent some gadget, create a work of art, or write a book. Brain power makes teeny-tiny Israel a technological giant before which every Arab country must bow.

"In secular Israel, a student's verbal, mathematical, and scientific aptitude sets his chances of success. By the 10th grade of the secular bagut system, smarter students will be learning calculus and differential equations together with probability, trigonometry, and theorem proving. Looking at some past exam papers available on the internet, I wondered how Pakistani university professors with PhDs would fare in Israeli level-5 school exams. Would our national scientific heroes manage a pass? Unsurprisingly, by the time they reach university, Israeli students have bettered their American counterparts academically.

"There is a definite historical context to seeking this excellence. For thousands of years, European Antisemitism made it impossible for Jews to own land or farms, forcing them to seek livelihoods in trading, finance, medicine, science, and mathematics. To compete, parents actively tutored their children in these skills. In the 1880s, Zionism's founders placed their faith solidly in education born out of secular Renaissance and Enlightenment thought."
Israel and Turkey Sign Civil Aviation Agreement
Israel and Turkey signed a civil aviation agreement on Thursday as part of a deal to broaden bilateral ties.

The agreement is part of a decision to expand and develop bilateral relations made by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu at their recent meetings in Jerusalem and Ankara.

It is the first of its kind to be signed since 1951 and will allow Israeli airlines to resume flights to Turkey.

Israeli Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli expressed her thanks to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry, as well to the head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Joel Feldschuh, for their roles in promoting the agreement.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Economy and Industry Minister announced the reopening of Israel’s economic office in Istanbul on Aug. 1 after the office’s activities were drastically reduced in 2019.

The return of an Israeli economic attaché in Istanbul will affect about 1,540 Israeli companies currently exporting to the Turkish market and help strengthen their business operations within this market, the ministry said in a statement.

“Turkey is the fourth most important trading partner in the Israeli economy and the fifth most important export destination in 2021,” it added.
Gantz: Israeli Arms Exports to Arab States Surged After Abraham Accords
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz revealed on Wednesday that arms sales to Arab countries spiked since the signing of the Abraham Accords in the fall of 2020.

Israeli defense and military officials have held more than 150 meetings with regional allies and signed defense deals worth more than $3 billion since then, reported Ynet.

Meanwhile, Gantz and other senior members of the defense ministry, in addition to Air Force officials, plan to present “Iron Beam”—Israel’s new laser-based missile-defense system—to US President Joe Biden during his visit to Israel next week.

Gantz has committed to allocating more than $143 million to complete the system, which could become operational within two years.

In June, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the system could block enemy rockets and drones and cost just $2 per interception.
‘I Couldn’t Remain Silent:’ Moscow Chief Rabbi Resigns Over Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The chief rabbi of Moscow has resigned from his post, declaring that he “could not remain silent” in the face of the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and claiming that the Jewish community in the Russian capital would have been “endangered” had he stayed in the position.

In a statement issued on Friday in his capacity as president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt remarked that as “the terrible war against Ukraine unfolded over the last few months, I could not remain silent, viewing so much human suffering, I went to assist the refugees in Eastern Europe and spoke out against the war.”

Continued Goldschmidt: “As time progressed, despite re-electing me to the position of Chief Rabbi last month, it became clear that the Jewish community of Moscow would be endangered by me remaining in my position. Sad as I am, in the circumstances, it is clearly in the interest of the future of the community that I now leave my post.”

The rabbi expressed gratitude for having been “given the opportunity to take part in the historic renaissance of Russian Jewry for the last 33 years from the time of the fall of the Soviet Union.” He said that he and his wife Dara “did our best to navigate and build the community through the tumultuous 1990s and in the increasingly authoritarian Russia under the current president,” Vladimir Putin.

Goldschmidt is reported to have left Russia just two weeks into the invasion, moving first to Hungary and then to Israel. At the time, Goldschmidt cited the illness of his father, who lives in Jerusalem, as the reason for his absence.


Study: UNRWA materials urge Palestinians to take up ‘hobby’ of killing Israelis
Educational materials produced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) contain content that encourages jihad, violence and martyrdom, in addition to promoting anti-Semitism, according to an analysis by IMPACT-se.

The Israeli NGO—which monitors curricula to assess whether young people are being indoctrinated with hate—focused on materials labeled for use in the Palestinian territories in 2022 that did not appear on UNRWA’s new education portal as is required.

Among the examples cited by IMPACT-se was a grammar exercise teaching that “the Palestinians sacrifice their blood to liberate Jerusalem.” Spelling and vocabulary exercises cited include sentences involving “jihad warriors” fighting against “the occupier [Israel],” as well as a commitment to “resisting the enemy courageously.”

One poem describes dying as Palestinian martyrs by killing Israelis in terrorist attacks as a “hobby.”

IMPACT-se noted that the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, recently discussed anti-Semitism in UNRWA education at a House Appropriations Committee budget hearing, calling it “a red line for all of us.” She asserted that the Biden administration was working “very closely” with UNRWA, has “monitored their work,” and “will be watching what they [UNRWA] do with these textbooks.”

IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff stressed that Washington is currently financing UNRWA to the tune of $338 million annually, the majority of which goes to education.


Senior Hamas Officials at Conference: ‘We Must Open Up to Russia, China and Iran’
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, political bureau member Moussa Abu Marzouk and other officials addressed changes in the world with a focus on Russia’s war in Ukraine during a June 19 conference titled“Palestinian Sovereignty, the Strategic Variables and Future Paths.”

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the speakers at the conference, held at Al-Umma University in the Gaza Strip, assessed that post-war, the United States is likely to lose its global hegemony, leading to a multipolar world order.

As such, the Hamas officials stressed the importance of opening up to Russia and China, and of forming strategic alliances with all forces that support the resistance in order to attain the liberation of Palestine and the so-called right of return.

“This is the broadest and most significant war in the struggle between the world’s camps since the end of World War II,” stressed Haniyeh. “After this war, the world will no longer be the same. It will undoubtedly become a multipolar world, and the currently prevailing unipolar era in international and global policy will end.”

“This will certainly be a very important change, and it will impact both our Arab and Islamic region, and our [Palestinian] cause and our struggle with the occupation,” he added.


MEMRI: Editor Of Egyptian Daily: In The Absence Of Functional Political Life In Egypt, Social Media Has Become The Country's Strongest Opposition Party
An Egyptian national political dialogue is expected to begin in the coming days, with the participation of representatives from political parties, civil society organizations, professional associations and human rights organizations, as well as journalists, intellectuals, writers, artists and economic and social figures.[1] The dialogue is an initiative of Egyptian President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi, who on April 21, 2022, during a tour in Aswan province, had spoken of "the need for a national dialogue to coordinate the idea of building or establishing the 'new state' or the 'new republic.'"[2] A few days later, on April 26, Al-Sisi officially launched the initiative, ordering the start of a national dialogue "with all the [political] forces, without exception."[3]

National Dialogue coordinator Diaa Rashwan, who chairs Egypt's Journalists Syndicate, said that others invited to participate in the dialogue included members of the Egyptian opposition who live abroad,[4] but at the same time refrained from addressing the questions that arose in the Egyptian media about whether representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) would be participating.[5] However, in early July, Al-Sisi clarified that the MB would not be participating. In statements to media on July 3, during the inauguration of the Adly Mansour Central Station and the launch of the LRT electric train, and marking the ninth anniversary of the end of the MB rule of Egypt, Al-Sisi said that "the aim of the National Dialogue is to gather all thinkers and intellectuals, associations, and political forces, without exception, except for a certain faction" – i.e. the MB. Describing how in July 2013 the MB had rejected his proposal for early presidential elections and chose instead to take to the streets and fight, he added: "This proves that common ground uniting us all – [that is,] dialogue and discussion – does not exist [with them, and they] only want to take over the country by force."[6]

Other opposition parties in Egypt, among them Al-Karama, Al-Dustour, the Egyptian Socialist Party, and the Arab-Nasserite Party, welcomed Al-Sisi's call for a dialogue and declared their intent to participate in it, and began to draw up a joint position for political reform in the country.[7]

This initiative may be an attempt by Al-Sisi to soften the intense criticism directed at him in the recent years by the U.S. and the West regarding issues of democracy, human rights and the treatment of the opposition. Whatever the intent behind it, the President's call for national dialogue sparked a lively debate in the country regarding the performance of the political system and the need for a significant socio-political reform. As part of this debate, the editor of the Egyptian daily Al-Shurouq, 'Imad Al-Din Hussein, who has been appointed to the Egyptian National Dialogue's board of trustees,[8] published an article in which he decried the weakness of political life in Egypt. He wrote that, despite the large number of registered parties, the political arena is very brittle, and many parties do not function and there is nothing behind them except posters and empty headquarters. In the absence of active political life, he said, social media has essentially begun to fulfill the function of Egypt's political opposition. It serves as an informal political platform with power and influence over public opinion and even over government decisions. Hussein expressed hope that the impending National Dialogue would strengthen the status of Egypt's political parties and promote pluralism and freedom.
Female influencers in Iran targeted by cyberattacks blame Iranian govn't
Abdollahi said that the Iranian government supports demonstrations of anti-feminist men, and devote an entire budget to their activities in the name of supporting activities associated with the “family institution.”

“I think that Iranian anti-feminist groups supported by the government are targeting us to make Instagram a place like the streets of Iran. A place that is not safe and secured for women,” she said.

Afzali said that, also, some of Instagram’s workers have been bribed by the Iranian government to remove some of the content that does not suit its agenda, including some of these women’s posts, stories and accounts.

“This happened so many times to our page. Stories and posts that had nothing wrong and are 100% based on the rules and regulations of Instagram were deleted,” she said.

The BBC reported on May 27 that a Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said that Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove the Instagram accounts of journalists and activists.

In addition, these women reported constantly receiving threatening messages for publishing their content.

Farvardin said that she received messages threatening her life and the life of her parents, and messages such as: “we are coming, we know where you live, we will come and kill you,” or “don't think that because you left Iran you are safe, we can find you everywhere.”

She added that sometimes she receives pictures of men beheading women, with messages that say: “we are going to do exactly this to you and to your family.”

Farvardin noted that these scary messages remind her of the importance of what she is doing. “Otherwise, they would not spend so much money and time on trying to scare us. It's giving us power to continue and try to change everything,” she said.

She added that women in Iran are finally being empowered by the content that these accounts publish, and she says that she believes that the next revolution in Iran will be the “female revolution.”

The women have urged Meta to help them combat these attacks so that they can continue transmitting their messages.

Abdollahi says that the most important message transmitted by her social media pages is “Iranian women have the same equal rights as the Iranian men to occupy space in public and stay safe.”

“But after all these attacks I can’t transmit my message no longer,” she added.




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