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Thursday, August 11, 2022

08/11 Links Pt1: The ‘Fix’ Is In: How Hitler-Praising Palestinians Are Warping Gaza Conflict Coverage; Progressives for jihad; A look back at the first disastrous ‘Two-State Solution

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: The ‘Fix’ Is In: How Hitler-Praising Palestinians Are Warping Gaza Conflict Coverage
New York Times’ Fady Hanona Urges Missile Attacks on Israel
Out of the eight articles produced by The New York Times during the three-day PIJ-initiated conflict, six credit Fady Hanona as having contributed from Gaza City (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Hanona, a freelance producer and fixer who has also been hired by the BBC, The Guardian, and VICE News, appears to be working to further the anti-Israel narrative promoted by Palestinian terror organizations that seek the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.

For one, he supports arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, having backed him repeatedly on Facebook (here, here, and here). Prior to his incarceration, Barghouti co-founded and headed the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an organization that murdered dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and shooting attacks during the Second Intifada (2000-2005).

Hanona moreover made light of the escape from prison of members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in September of last year (see here and here). Most of the escapees were serving life sentences for their roles in attacks on Israeli citizens. Ayham Kamamji, for example, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering teenager Eliyahu Asheri.

Indeed, Hanona makes no attempt to hide his desire that Israel be removed from the map, referring to the country’s sovereign territory as the “[19]48 lands,” while putting “Israel” in scare quotes.

During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, the New York Times freelancer took to social media to threaten the murder of Ghassan Alian, an Israeli Druze who commanded the IDF’s Golani Brigade at the time.

Then, on August 18, 2014 — days before a ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hamas — Hanona urged the Palestinian “resistance” to reject a truce and continue its missile attacks on Tel Aviv, which had at that point already cost the lives of five civilians.

In another online post from the same month, he went as far as invoking Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to support his point about the strength of Gazan fighters. “As Hitler said, give me a Palestinian soldier and a German weapon, and I will make Europe crawl on its fingertips,” Hanona’s post read, citing an unconfirmed quote attributed to the man responsible for the murder of six million Jews.

Furthermore, the NYT fixer shared a now-deleted propaganda video of terrorist groups in Jenin on Facebook, telling his followers that Palestinians should return to “the culture of fighting and killing Israelis.”

“I don’t accept a Jew, Israeli or Zionist, or anyone else who speaks Hebrew. I’m with killing them wherever they are: children, elderly people, and soldiers,” Hanona asserted, adding: “The Jews are sons of the dogs… I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler did. I will be so happy.” According to his Twitter feed, Israel’s security services subsequently flagged his name when he applied for a permit to travel to Jerusalem.
Brendan O'Neill: Progressives for jihad
Remember when progressives were opposed to hardline religious movements that use violence to try to destroy democratic states? Islamic Jihad is a thoroughly regressive movement that says it will settle for nothing less than the obliteration of Israel. It wants to create an Islamic State of Palestine in which Sharia would rule and all who fall foul of it - uppity women, homosexuals, atheists - would suffer.

Islamic Jihad is not a national liberation movement. It is a violent and extremist religious organization generously funded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. It rejects the political process and has executed numerous acts of indiscriminate slaughter in Israel in recent years, massacring hundreds of Israeli citizens in restaurants, at supermarkets, on buses.

Name me one nation on Earth that would turn a blind eye to such existential threats? If there was a well-armed group of religious fundamentalists a few miles from Britain that had sent suicide bombers to slaughter British men, women and children, we would act, no? And yet Israel is always condemned for acting.

Islamic Jihad is not good for the Palestinian people. Its activities in recent years have in part been designed to weaken the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Mahmoud Abbas-led government of the West Bank. It wants to dislodge the PA. That will help the Palestinian people, will it?
A look back at the first disastrous ‘Two-State Solution
To fully understand its origins, we must go back to the early years of the 20th century.

In 1920, Great Britain was given the responsibility by the League of Nations to oversee the Palestine Mandate after the ending of the 400-year-old Ottoman Turkish Empire’s occupation of much of the Middle East. Britain was to uphold the League’s express intention of reconstituting within the Mandatory territory a reborn Jewish national home.

The League of Nations created several articles in line with the original intent of the Balfour Declaration of November 29, 1917. At the last minute, however, a new article was introduced by the British Colonial Office: Article 25.

It became apparent that its inclusion directly enabled Great Britain in 1921-22 to tear away all the vast Mandatory territory east of the river Jordan and give it away to the Arab Hashemite tribe: The territory to become Trans-Jordan, led by the emir Abdullah.

British officials claimed that the gift of Mandatory Palestine east of the Jordan River was in gratitude to the Hashemites for their contribution in helping defeat the Turks. However, T.S. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) described in derisory terms the Hashemite role as “a side show of a side show.”

Ironically, Britain was aided far more by the Nili underground movement in defeating the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which had ruled geographical Palestine for 400 years.

This was the first partition of the non-state geographical territory known as Palestine and the first two-state solution. It created a new Arab entity some 100 years ago called Trans-Jordan, covering some 35,000 square miles, or nearly four fifths of the erstwhile Palestine Mandate. Immediately,

Jewish residence in this new Arab territory was forbidden in an act of Islamic apartheid (which no one protested on US college campuses...), and it is thus historically correct to state that Jordan is Palestine. Note too that Jordan’s population is comprised of well over 75% Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.

In 1923, the British and French colonial powers also divided up the northern part of the Palestine Mandate. Britain stripped away the Golan Heights (with its ancient Biblical Jewish roots) and gave it to French-occupied Syria.

The Balfour Declaration issued by Lord Balfour, British foreign secretary, never envisaged that the Jordan River would be the eastern boundary of the reconstituted Jewish homeland.

As early as September 19, 1919, the London Times newspaper had thundered in an editorial: “The Jordan will not do as the eastern frontier of Palestine … Palestine must have a good military frontier east of the river Jordan … Our duty as Mandatory is to make Jewish Palestine not a struggling state but one that is capable of vigorous and independent life.”

During its administration of the remaining Palestine Mandate’s tiny territory, between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, (a mere forty miles in width) Britain severely restricted Jewish immigration and purchases of land while turning a blind eye to massive illegal Arab immigration into the territory from neighboring stagnant Arab territories. This had been Britain’s policy since it was given the Mandate from 1921/22 up until 1947 and Israel’s subsequent independence in 1948.

Britain’s sorry record of appeasement of the Arabs, at the expense of Jewish destiny in the remaining tiny territory, culminated in the infamous 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration to a total of just 75,000 souls over the next five years. This draconian policy, coming as it did on the eve of the outbreak of World War 2 and the Holocaust, was a deathblow to millions of Jews attempting to flee extermination by Nazi Germany.


Melanie Phillips: Hamas shows reporters its iron fist
This institutionalised repression of Gaza’s journalists was a factor behind a toxic claim made by the Palestinians about the IDF’s operation in Gaza last weekend, called Breaking Dawn, that was aimed at neutralising the PIJ.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, 46 Palestinians were killed during Breaking Dawn, among them 15 children and four women. When the Palestinians claimed that these children were being killed by Israel’s air-strikes, citing four who had been killed in Gaza’s Jabaliya district, Israel rapidly and effectively pushed back.

It produced footage that went viral of a PIJ missile fired at Israel but falling short in that very area, while the Israel Air Force had not conducted any strikes there for several hours.

As a result, western media outlets stopped uncritically parroting Palestinian claims that Israel had caused the children’s deaths and started reporting the Israeli counter-claim, eventually conceding that some PIJ rockets had indeed fallen short into Gaza and probably caused Gazan casualties. Israel now says that at least 12 of the 15 children were killed by PIJ’s own rockets falling short.

As has been amply demonstrated, the malice of the western media towards Israel knows no bounds. But these journalists generally speak no Arabic; and no Palestinian would have told them about the missiles falling short because Hamas rules Gaza’s journalists with an iron fist. They will report nothing that conflicts with the Hamas narrative.

And so, as the AP story noted, even though the new rules were officially withdrawn — probably because Hamas got cold feet about going on the record — they could still have a chilling effect on any critical coverage because they indicated how Hamas actually expects journalists to behave.

What is intriguing, however, is this. Not only did these new rules go much further than existing Hamas restrictions, but for the first time Hamas had seen fit to set them out in a public document. The Interior Ministry distributed a written copy of the rules to Palestinians applying for entry permits on behalf of foreign media outlets, with instructions to communicate them to the foreign journalists in their “own local way”.
Caroline Glick: Israel’s Biggest Problem is American Appeasement of Iran
Was the IDF's latest conflict with Palestinian Islamic Jihad part and parcel of Israel's ongoing "war between wars" against Iran?

And how does this tie into the “ideological war” being waged over who controls the levers of power in America?

To dissect the recent fighting between the Jewish state and terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and what it reveals about the Israel-U.S. relationship, Caroline Glick on this week’s episode of “Mideast News Hour" hosts Michael Doran, a former senior member of the National Security Council under George W. Bush who is now at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.


Liz Truss: My pledge to Britain's Jews
Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has promised to “eradicate the scourge of antisemitism” in an exclusive interview with the JC.

Speaking as she visited a synagogue near Manchester, the Foreign Secretary spoke of her determination to ensuring all schools and universities are safe for Britain’s Jews.

Her pledges also include an assurance that the UK will do all it can to stop Iran building a nuclear weapon; action to change civil service “woke” culture, including within the Foreign Office; and trying to slash exorbitant roaming phone charges UK visitors pay in Israel.

The frontrunner in the race to succeed Boris Johnson also revealed her long-standing personal relationship with the Jewish community going back to her school days in Leeds.

Speaking after meeting the congregation at Hale synagogue in Trafford, just to the south of Manchester, she said she had been “absolutely appalled” by last month’s JC survey revealing that antisemitic incidents in schools have tripled in the past five years, while only 3.6 per cent of schools have policies to deal with it. She said: “I want to see the scourge of antisemitism eradicated. That means driving it out from our culture, starting with the schools.”

She said she had been “particularly disturbed” to read that Jewish children have been hissed after attending classes on the Holocaust, in imitation of the sound of the gas chambers — and yet many staff seem not to know what this means.

“There have to be mandatory policies in place and we need to make sure staff are educated to understand that. On the other hand, the rise of antisemitism isn’t only a problem for schools. We have to eradicate it in our wider society as well.”


Lessons from a Short War in Gaza
After the three-day war between U.S.-designated terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Israel, we learn that the fate of "Palestine" is in the hands of the most extreme elements in Palestinian politics. Hamas, the terror group that controls Gaza, has been hard put to govern; its popularity has shrunk as the group has failed to deliver any tangible improvements. Hamas blames the Jews; Hamas' subjects are quietly unsure whether the Jews are to blame, or just Hamas. They don't dare say so.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been behind a continual stream of killings in recent years, and its sponsors in Iran have been pleased. As a result, the Israeli government decided to take out PIJ's top two leaders. Tehran's efforts to elevate PIJ should not go unnoticed in Washington. Iran is not interested in the fate of Palestine; it is interested in the eradication of Israel. That's why concentrating only on nuclear Iran, and not on terrorist Iran, missile-proliferating Iran, human rights-denying Iran, is a mistake.

Here's the bottom line: It won't matter how much land Israel gives up, because Palestinian maximalists own the decision-making, and they and their sponsors' goal is the destruction of Israel.
What is proportionality in international law when it comes to Israel? - opinion
IN WAR, civilians often die and property is damaged. When Israel fights the terrorists in Gaza, it would appear that more Gazan civilians than Israeli civilians die, and more Gazan property than Israeli property is destroyed or damaged.

This result has nothing whatsoever to do with the legality of Israel’s warfare. The ostensibly high civilian casualty toll in Gaza, is usually merely a function of the Israel-haters denying reality and accepting that the Gazan terrorists are legitimate targets.

According to this argument, if the Gazan killed wasn’t wearing a uniform, he was clearly a civilian. This lie ignores the fact that the terrorists, while not necessarily wearing uniforms, are still considered to be legitimate targets.

The deaths of legitimate civilians and ostensibly high level of destruction in urban neighborhoods do not reflect Israel’s disregard for the principle of distinction or proportionality, but rather are reflective of the fact that terrorists intentionally use civilians, including women and children, as human shields and intentionally place their military infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population.

While the death of every non-combatant is unfortunate, the people who bear the responsibility for each and every one of those deaths, are the terrorists.

From personal experience, I can attest to the extensive precautions Israel and the IDF take when engaging in urban warfare. We do that because we are fighting not only a just war but also to maintain our high moral standards. For the terrorists, on the other hand, IHL is irrelevant. All they care about is murdering Jews.

In Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty famously says, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

As much as the Israel haters may opt to distort its meaning, Proportionality in IHL is very clear and its meaning does not change into what they would like you to believe it means.
WSJ ($): Don't Allow the Terror Organizations in Gaza to Rebuild between Rounds of Fighting
In the latest round of fighting in Gaza, more than 1,000 rockets were fired at Israel. Millions of Israelis found cover and relative safety thanks to the phenomenal Iron Dome, which intercepted more than 96% of the lethal rockets aimed at Israeli civilians. Almost the entire chain of command of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was eliminated in pinpoint strikes, as at least 20 PIJ operatives were killed in action and scores more were wounded.

A few years ago, the biggest rockets in Gaza barely reached 15 miles, yet today they can deliver dozens of pounds of explosives north of Tel Aviv (60 miles) and effectively have between three million and four million Israelis within range. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have also accumulated advanced antitank missiles as well as explosive drones. Most of this weaponry has been smuggled into Gaza through Egypt, with the vast majority paid for or manufactured by Iran.

We can't sit idly by while jihadist thugs stockpile arsenals larger than those of many European countries at our doorstep, constantly adding range and payloads. Hamas and the other terror organizations mustn't be allowed to stockpile rockets, and Israel should eliminate them before the enemy uses them. The IDF should apply the same principles used in mitigating the Iranian presence in Syria and not allow the terror organizations in Gaza to rebuild between rounds of fighting.
The Times ($$): Israel Spent Months Planning Its Blow on Gaza Terrorists
Israel had been planning an operation against Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza "for months" and was able to exploit fractures in the leadership, intelligence sources told The Times.

Intelligence services had been monitoring communications between PIJ secretary-general Ziad Nakhalah and two of the group's senior military commanders, and noted the increasingly angry tones in which the commanders demanded the transfer of a large sum of money from Tehran in return for carrying out a spectacular attack on Israel.

The Israelis raced to act before the PIJ missile teams were in place.
Life on the Border with Gaza
As a longtime resident of the region in Israel known as the Gaza Envelope, I have experienced, up close and personal, all of the escalations and operations we have had with Gaza since 2009. I live on Kibbutz Nirim, 2 km. from the border. I can hear the imam's call to prayer from the Gaza mosques.

Last week we were warned not to walk on the usual paths around our community for fear of catching the attention of Palestinian snipers. Another fact of our lives is that we have from zero to 10 seconds from the time we hear the warnings of the Red Alert, our incoming rocket alarm system, to get to someplace safe. That's not a lot of time. I take my phone wherever I go, obsessively, so as not to miss an alert from its very first second. With 10 seconds to protect my life, every second counts.

When I take showers, they are quick and to the point, with the towels laid out so I can jump out and grab the towel as I run to the saferoom. Throwing out the garbage, going to the kibbutz store to get staples or even getting into the car to leave are all nerve wracking as I scan the surroundings to see where to run for cover if there is an alarm at any given moment.

I believe it is important that the world be given the information that while what goes on in Gaza is hell, it ain't no picnic in Israel, either. Why do I choose to remain in my home? Because I am a proud Zionist who knows that it is only here, in our ancient homeland, that Jews can remain safe and free.


UN rights chief decries ‘unconscionable’ killing of Palestinian children
The UN rights chief voiced alarm on Thursday at the number of Palestinian minors killed and wounded this month, and demanded those responsible be brought to account.

Last week saw three days of intense conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in the densely populated coastal enclave of Gaza.

“Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing,” Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. “The killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable.”

The Israeli air and artillery strikes targeted positions of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad group, which fired more than 1,000 rockets toward Israel during the three days of fighting that ended Sunday night with an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire.

Her office said that 19 Palestinian minors had been killed in Gaza and the West Bank in the recent unrest, taking the total number this year to 37.

Seventeen minors were killed during the Gaza hostilities from August 5 to 7. Israel is said to believe that the majority of the children killed in Gaza died as a result of rocket misfires by Islamic Jihad.
Israel Calls on UN Security Council to Condemn Islamic Jihad for War Crimes
Ahead of the UN Security Council's special meeting on the fighting in Gaza on Monday, Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on the international community to condemn the Islamic Jihad terror organization. Erdan presented video evidence proving that indiscriminate shooting of rockets by Islamic Jihad caused most of the deaths of uninvolved Palestinians in Gaza, where the IDF estimated that at least 15 civilians were killed by misfired rockets.

"While the Islamic Jihad was indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli civilians over the past couple of days, its leader Ziad al-Nakhalah, was meeting with his Ayatollah puppet-masters in Tehran and getting orders from them," Erdan noted. He asked, "How would Norway react to Islamists plotting to fire missiles at civilians in Oslo? How would Ireland react if Jihadi rockets were raining down on Dublin in an effort to wipe out the 'infidel'?"

"If the Council truly wishes to improve the situation in Gaza, there must be one outcome and one outcome only - to condemn the Islamic Jihad for its double war crimes while placing the full accountability for the murder of innocent Palestinians on the shoulders of this radical terror group."
Islamic Jihad Planned to Attack Israeli Civilian Bus with Anti-Tank Missile
On Aug. 3, Israel received an alert that Islamic Jihad planned to launch an anti-tank missile at an Israeli civilian bus, leading to the decision to impose strict restrictions on movement for Israeli residents living near Gaza.

The IDF operation against Islamic Jihad began with a strike against senior commander Tayseer al-Jabari, who was in a 14-story building with 28 apartments.

In order to minimize harm to innocent civilians in nearby apartments, the IDF used a Spice-250 bomb which penetrated an empty room in the apartment above Jabari.

The bomb exploded, destroying just the floor, which brought the ceiling down on Jabari, killing him.

Seconds later, Israeli jets fired seven more missiles at the rooms of the apartment from different angles to kill any other terrorists inside.
UN officials visit jailed Islamic Jihad leader, warn ceasefire still ‘fragile’
A team of United Nations officials on Wednesday visited jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Bassam al-Sa’adi, who was arrested by Israeli forces on Aug. 1 prior to the outbreak of the conflict against the Gaza Strip-based terrorist group.

United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland tweeted that he had dispatched a team to Israel’s Ofer prison to meet with Sa’adi, while reiterating that the ceasefire that took effect between Israel and PIJ on Sunday night following three days of heavy fighting remained “fragile.”

According to Israeli media, Wennesland met over the weekend with members of al-Sa’adi’s family at their home in Jenin. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

The U.N. representatives’ visit to al-Sa’adi comes as PIJ is reportedly seeking his immediate release, claiming it conditioned the recent halt to hostilities on an international effort geared towards that end.

However, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Channel 12 that Jerusalem had not agreed to any such demand, and a military court on Thursday reportedly extended al-Sa’adi’s detention until August 16.
Islamic Jihad receives tens of millions of dollars a year from Iran, says Israeli defense minister
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday accused Iran of providing tens of millions of dollars a year to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Cypriot Defense Minister Charalambos Petrides, who is in Israel for an official visit, Gantz said that Iran also helps smuggle material into Gaza that is then used to make weapons. This is done via Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he said.

During their earlier meeting, Gantz noted that he and Petrides had discussed the recent round of fighting between Israel and PIJ, which ended in a ceasefire on Sunday night.

During the brief conflict, “Over 1,000 rockets were launched by Islamic Jihad from within population centers, toward Israeli kindergartens, schools, communities,” said Gantz. “Their disregard for human life was tragic, as multiple failed rocket launches led to the deaths of innocent Palestinian children in Gaza,” he added.

According to figures released by the IDF, of the approximately 1,100 rockets launched at Israel during the fighting, some 200 fell inside the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Gantz hailed Israel’s “great bond” with Cyprus, which he said was based on shared values and interests, as well as a common vision for a peaceful region. He said that this has translated into defense cooperation as well as joint projects in the field of energy, in particular.

“We also value the trilateral framework [including] Greece,” Gantz said, calling the alliance “an asset to the force build-up of the individual countries, as well as to wider regional security.”


Senior Jewish Voice For Labour official calls Jews who support Israel ‘obscene’
A senior figure in the Jewish Voice For Labour (JVL) group has launched a vicious attack on “Jews who place Israel at the core of their being”, describing their Zionist identity as an “obscenity.”

In an incendiary speech Glyn Secker, JVL’s secretary, told a protest outside Downing Street that Israel had destroyed 650 homes “murdering 44 people including 15 children” during the latest conflict with Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

He claimed Israel was “predicated on violence” and “oppression”, and responsible for “ethnic cleansing”, and “genocide” while the “prison camp that is Gaza” was a “human testing ground for its grotesque weapons.”

Secker, a long-time ally of Jeremy Corbyn who faced antisemitism charges before being expelled from the Labour Party, then said:”For those Jews who place Israel at the core of their being, this is what they incorporate into their identity.

“But there are many Jews who resile from such obscenity.”

Secker then proceeded to list the names of organisations, including JVL and Jews For Justice For Palestinians who were “proud to state, not in our name!”

He added these groups stand for “human rights everywhere” adding “human rights for only Jews are hollow rights.”

Also speaking at Wednesday’s protest, which organised by the Stop The War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aqsa groups, was Young Labour chair Jess Barnard.

In another inflammatory rant, Barnard claimed Israel forces knew when launching attacks on militants in Gaza “know the likelihood of children and teenagers being harmed and killed.”

She accused Israel of waging “a war against children and young people”. Barnard added the UK government continued to arm this “brutal oppressor .. this brutal regime against children.”


MEMRI: Journalist Close To Hamas: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Should Not Have Allowed Itself To Be Drawn Into Confrontation With Israel
During the recent Israel-Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) conflict, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, elected to remain on the sidelines and not directly join the fighting. This move exposed it to criticism from PIJ supporters from both within and beyond the Palestinian arena. As of this writing, Hamas has not addressed this criticism, stressing unity in the ranks and the coordination among the Palestinian resistance factions in the framework of the joint operations room in Gaza.[1]

Taking an unusual tack, Yousuf Rizqa, former adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, wrote in his August 9, 2022 column in the Hamas-affiliated Filastin daily, under the headline "Conclusions and Lessons Learned from the August 5, 2022 Campaign," that the PIJ had made a mistake by allowing itself to be drawn into a confrontation at a time and place of Israel's choosing, thus handing the latter significant advantages. He added that threats from PIJ members – that were never even carried out – had been used as a pretext by Israel to justify its campaign against Gaza. Additionally, he said, the fact that some Palestinian factions had refrained from participating in the conflict had divided the ranks of the resistance, which also served Israel's interest.

The following are translated excerpts from Yousuf Rizqa's column in the Filastin daily: "The recent campaign, which the Zionist enemy imposed on Gaza and specifically on the PIJ, lasted three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). It began on Friday afternoon, August 5, 2022, and concluded at 11:30 on Sunday night [August 7], with the cessation of fighting, a return to calm, and the opening of the crossing points under the supervision of Egypt – which is doing all it can to free [the prisoners Khalil] Al-Awawdeh and Bassam Al-Saadi [whom the PIJ claims Israel agreed to release in the ceasefire deal].

"The campaign did not last long, and not all the resistance factions were directly involved, even though [their members] were present in the joint [operations] room to oversee the decision to fight [Israel], as was mentioned by members of the leadership.

"The following lessons may be learned from this campaign: "The enemy initiated the campaign with a surprise bombardment on the most important military figure in the PIJ's [military wing, the Al-Quds] Brigades.[2] This attack on an home in the center of Gaza City killed him and his entourage. This means that this individual was under serious and accelerated Israeli surveillance, and under supportive surveillance by agents specifically tracking this leader, so that within minutes the enemy had won half the campaign.

"A campaign initiated by the enemy with the first attack is generally a painful blow that plays into the hands of the enemy, who has defined target, timing, and location, and who controls the territory of the campaign. Thus, it would be a mistake to agree [to fight in] a campaign with these characteristics out of a desire to avenge the deaths of the martyrs [killed] in the surprise attack, and to deter the enemy. This is because the outcome [of such a campaign] will be in the enemy's favor, and because the clashes are usually based on the concept of 'hit and run,' and 'hit and run again' – [when] the decision to thwart the enemy's planning [and to refrain from engagement with it] is among the wisest of decisions, [including] military decisions, that are needed in the field, and is in no way prompted by fear and cowardice.
Gaza Woman Says Support for Palestinian Terror Groups Is Fading
In an interview with Israel's Channel 12 on Monday, a woman who lives in Gaza said public support for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is fading.

"The view, the perspective, the thought of Gaza people has changed completely. In the previous wars, they were with the resistance, with Hamas and Jihad, but now people are calling for the stop of war. The only one who gets demolished and [are] losing is the people of Gaza, not the leaders."
i24NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: 'When I was 17, Hamas caught me with my boyfriend'
Years of repeated torture at the hands of Hamas.

i24NEWS host Natasha Kirtchuk speaks to a Palestinian man who escaped the Gaza Strip after years of being tortured by the terrorist group for being gay.


PreOccupiedTerritory: Having Someone To Blame Is Easier Than Actually Building Something by Every Single Palestinian Leader Ever (satire)
For more than a century, we Palestinians have fought the usurpation of our land. We have done nothing but fight that usurpation. And it shows. Robust national institutions? Nope. A functioning government? Nuh-uh. Genuine attempts to create a society that generates buy-in from its members and whose leadership demonstrate real care for constituents? Don’t make us laugh. We are here to fight the Jews, not to accomplish anything.

You will notice that no “Palestine Liberation Organization” existed for most of the time Jordan and Egypt controlled parts of the land. Or while the British exercised their international mandate. Or while the Ottoman Empire ruled here for four hundred years. Or under the Mamelukes. Or Abbasids. Or Umayyads. You get the idea. Our interest lies not in building an exemplary – or even halfway competent – system; it lies in denying one to Jews who have the gall not to be third-class subjects of Islamic domination. Also it’s easier to throw murderous tantrums than to do the dreary work of institution-building and not education out children to value killing Jews over everything else.

The world has facilitated our entrenchment in this attitude. We have our own United Nations agency to handle our ballooning roster of “refugees,” who, by the definition of the UN’s own agency for all other refugees anywhere, are not refugees. But we’re special. We get special support and attention in international bodies because our enemies are Jews. The gravy train that is the Palestinian cause rewards our intransigence, funds our violence, and gives us no reason to develop anything other than more incitement and terrorism. Under the circumstances, trying to extract ourselves from a situation we constantly call “intolerable,” “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “apartheid,” would mean the end of that attention and support. We’d have to get off the gravy train. No, thank you. Our cronies and nepotistic circles would never forgive us. We’re far too invested in accusing Israel of everything than in benefiting Palestinians in any material way. It would go against everything we’ve, well, worked, so hard to establish.
MEMRI: Hizbullah Senior Official Hashem Safieddine: America Is Our Number One Enemy; Its Arrogance Towards Russia And China Has Endangered The World's Food Supply; We Would Have Already Finished Off Israel If Not For U.S. Protection
Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hizbullah's Executive Council, said in an August 4, 2022 address that was aired on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah-Lebanon) that America is Hizbullah's "number one enemy" and that it is striving to destroy humanity under the guise of "civilization, progress, and human rights." He said that America's "arrogance" regarding Russia and China have resulted in a threat to the world's food supply, and he claimed that Lebanon has foiled many American plots on its soil. In addition, he said that the "resistance axis" would have easily finished off Israel were it not for the protection the U.S. provides it with. For more about Hashem Safieddine, see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 9393, 7798, and 5624.

"We All Know That Without The Protection Of America... It Would Take 24 Days To Finish Israel Off"

Hashem Safieddine: "Despite all of Israel's weapons, capabilities, military expertise, security agencies and technology... We all know that without the protection of America, [destroying Israel] would not require the entire resistance axis. Just part of it would suffice. I won't say that it would take 24 hours — let's show them some respect. It would take 24 days to finish Israel off.

The U.S. Wants "To Destroy Humanity"

"Our number one enemy is America. America is following the same [old] policies, but under a new and very dangerous guise — the guise of civilization, progress, and human rights. But the truth is that its goal is to destroy humanity. It targets the spirit of resistance among the nations. This is the spirit that allows nations to say 'no' to the tyrants, and to reject that American will.

The U.S. Wants To Control Russia And China; Hizbullah Has Foiled "Many American Plots In Lebanon"

"Just because Russia is defending itself, like the Russian president said, [the U.S.] has turned the world upside down and mobilized the West and the capabilities of the whole world. The result is that today, the world's food [supply] is in danger, and all the talk about the future of the world has gone somewhere else, as a result of this American arrogance.
Armed Man Demanding Frozen Deposits Takes Hostages at Lebanese Commercial Bank
An armed man demanding deposits frozen by his bank took an unspecified number of hostages on Thursday at the Federal Bank of Lebanon, a security source and a Reuters witness said.

Lebanese banks have limited withdrawals of hard currency for most depositors during the country’s three-year financial meltdown, which has left more than three-quarters of the population struggling.

The man entered the Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in the Hamra neighborhood in west Beirut just before noon on Thursday with a firearm, the security source told Reuters.

“He demanded access to around $200,000 he had in his bank account and when the employee refused the request, he began screaming that his relatives were in the hospital. Then he pulled out the gun,” the security source said.

Some customers in the bank managed to flee before he shut the doors on the rest, said the source, who was not able to specify how many clients or employees were in the branch.

At least one elderly man was released from the bank because of his age and government negotiators were deployed to begin talks with the hostage taker, the interior ministry said.

Lebanese media station Al-Jadeed said at least two shots had been fired during the incident. The Lebanese Red Cross told Reuters that they had deployed an ambulance on site but had yet to treat anyone.

A Reuters witness could see a bearded man in a black shirt behind the gated entrance to the bank speaking to several men in plainclothes on the outside.

“Let them give me back my money!” he was heard telling them.
What we know about the Iran nuclear deal – and what we don't
On Monday, the European Union said it put forward a “final” text to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as four days of indirect talks between US and Iranian officials wrapped up in Vienna.

Iran has made demands that the United States and other Western powers view as outside the scope of reviving the deal, such as insisting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drop its claims that Iran has failed to fully explain uranium traces at several undeclared sites.

Each side sought to put the onus on the other to compromise.

"They (the Iranians) repeatedly say they are prepared for a return to mutual implementation of the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Let’s see if their actions match their words," a US State Department spokesperson said.

Yet, it was still unclear on Tuesday if the Iranians would accept the terms of the proposed deal. Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, noted that an Iranian official declared publicly that the chances of a deal are 50-50.

“That may be an honest assessment of where the supreme leader stands at the moment, patiently shaking down the United States and Europe for more and more concessions with every passing day,” he said. “A better question is what will the West do if Iran doesn’t outright reject the deal, but doesn’t accept it either. How long will this game go on?”

When asked what the US should do if the Iranians would not accept the agreement, Goldberg said that the combination of Iranian technical advancements over the last 18 months, the lack of key monitoring all summer and Iran’s failure to account for newly discovered nuclear sites and traces of uranium “already makes a return to the JCPOA a fool’s errand.”

“The UK, France and Germany need to complete the snapback of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, restoring international restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and terminating the sunsets of the JCPOA,” he said. “That would enable diplomacy, backed by the threat of military force, to proceed on a level playing field.”

Under the discussed deal, he explained, Iran would be allowed to keep its newly deployed advanced centrifuges in storage, “ready to break them out and return to high enriched uranium production at any time.”

“Iran would get new sanctions relief not provided in the JCPOA,” Goldberg said. “And the sunsets of the old deal carry over to the new deal. So, effectively, the new deal gives more sanctions relief for fewer restrictions over a shorter period of time.”

“Will the Europeans and the United States back the IAEA and demand answers, or say- as the text is reported to say- that Iran and the IAEA can just talk about that later? If so, it’s a shameful capitulation to Iran and badly weakens the IAEA.”

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, said that the critical question remaining is whether the proposed agreement undermines the IAEA. “The agency has been professional and tough in demanding answers from Iran on its previous military work toward building a bomb,” he said. “Will the Europeans and the United States back the IAEA and demand answers, or say – as the text is reported to say – that Iran and the IAEA can just talk about that later? If so, it’s a shameful capitulation to Iran and badly weakens the IAEA.”


Is no Iran nuclear deal better than a bad deal?
Former ambassador Dr. Michael Oren, Independent Persian's Camelia Entekhabifard and Iranian writer Ramin Parham join Ellie to break down whether a nuclear deal is possible.


Call Me Back Podcast: The New Deal – Iran & its nuclear program, with Mark Dubowitz
What is happening right now in Vienna with the negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program? What was the significance of Putin’s recent trip to Iran? What is the nature of China’s relationship with Iran, and what can it tell us about Beijing’s grand strategy? And if Iran continues to build its nuclear program, what is Israel’s Plan B?

These are some of the questions we explore with Mark Dubowitz, who is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC. We sat down with while we’re in Israel.

Mark has advised the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and testified more than twenty times before the U.S. Congress and foreign legislatures.

A former venture capitalist and technology executive, Mark has a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

According to The New York Times, “Mark Dubowitz’s campaign to draw attention to what he saw as the flaws in the Iran nuclear deal has taken its place among the most consequential ever undertaken by a Washington think tank leader.”

According to The Atlantic, “Dubowitz has been helping design and push forward sanctions on Iran…establishing the FDD as D.C.’s ground zero for research and policy recommendations aimed at highlighting and fixing what Dubowitz saw as the flaws in the nuclear agreement.”
Richard Goldberg: Five Minutes from Disaster
“We stand five minutes or five seconds from the finish line,” declared Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov on Sunday to reporters camped outside renewed Iran nuclear negotiations in Vienna. But if reports emerging from the latest round of talks are accurate, Iran and Russia may stand five minutes from their strategic finish line, with the United States and its allies five minutes from disaster.

Just five months ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, questions mounted in Washington concerning why a man tapped by Moscow to negotiate a nuclear deal favorable to both Russia and Iran was at the center of negotiations with the United States and its Western European allies. Five months later, with Russian atrocities in Ukraine mounting, Ulyanov’s re-emergence at the center of the Vienna talks should reactivate alarm bells among American policymakers and Ukraine supporters around the world.

Late last year, with Tehran racing forward with its nuclear program despite the Biden administration’s pullback from maximum pressure and offer to rejoin the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley enlisted Moscow’s assistance in brokering terms that might be more amenable to the mullahs. Under a new deal, Iran would receive $275 billion of sanctions relief in the first year and $1 trillion by 2030, including the lifting of U.S. terrorism sanctions imposed on the top financiers of a group President Joe Biden recently reaffirmed as a terrorist organization: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Tehran would face no changes in the old deal’s sunset clauses—that is, expiration dates on key restrictions—and would be allowed to keep its newly deployed arsenal of advanced uranium centrifuges in storage, guaranteeing the regime the ability to cross the nuclear threshold at any time of its choosing. As with the 2015 agreement, Iran would face no restrictions on its development of nuclear-capable missiles, its proliferation and sponsorship of terrorism throughout the Middle East, and its abuse of the Iranian people. And worst of all, Iran would win all these concessions while actively plotting to assassinate former U.S. officials like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Pompeo adviser Brian Hook, and trying to kidnap and kill Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad on U.S. soil.

Moscow, meanwhile, would receive billions of dollars to construct additional nuclear power plants in Iran, and potentially more for storage of nuclear material. The fate of U.S. sanctions blocking the transfer of Russian arms to Iran remains unknown, despite U.S. Defense Department reports attesting to Tehran’s interest in buying fighter aircraft, main battle tanks, air defense systems, and coastal defense systems from Moscow.


Iran: Systematic Persecution of Baha'is
Samin Ehsani had been running educational courses for Afghan children living in Iran, but who did not have access to education in the country. During the trial, her activities were presented as an example of the charges against her.

In Iran, an estimated 300,000 followers of the Baha'i faith are being denied many fundamental rights such as access to education, employment, political office, and practice of their religious rituals. Iran's clerical regime evidently considers the Baha'is to be heretics and as having no religion.

Baha'is consider Baha'ullah as a messenger in succession to Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed. For that, no other religion or state suppress them except Iran.
Redesignate Yemen’s Houthis as terrorists, says women’s rights group on DC tour
At the same time that U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to the Middle East in July, a group of Yemeni women set off to Washington, D.C., to encourage the reinstatement of the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The group members, representing a human-rights NGO, met with officials from the Biden administration, Congress and think tanks as part of their week-long trip.

The group included professor of political science Wesam Basindawa, who is originally from Yemen but now resides in Cairo. Basindawa is the founding president of the Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women and the leader of the 8th March Yemeni Union Women.

Joining her on the trip was Manel Msalmi, a Belgian-Tunisian academic, and founder and president of the NGO European Association for the Defense of Minorities, who has advised the European Commission, the European Parliament and UNESCO; and New York-based human-rights and national security attorney Irina Tsukerman.

Timed with their visit, the group wrote a letter to Biden, which included a list of human-rights organizations that work with Basindawa’s organization that could deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen’s population without going through the Houthis.


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