Saturday, August 13, 2022

08/13 Links: Salman Rushdie on a ventilator, likely to lose an eye after on-stage attack; Senior UN official loses her post after tweet condemning PIJ rocket fire at Israel

From Ian:

Salman Rushdie on a ventilator, likely to lose an eye after on-stage attack
Author Salman Rushdie is likely to lose one of his eyes and is currently on a ventilator after he was attacked on stage at a literary event in upstate New York on Friday, a report said.

“The news is not good,” the 75-year-old writer’s agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times.

“Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” said Wylie.

Rushdie, who is still unable to speak, was attacked by a lone man while speaking at an event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY, about 55 miles south of Buffalo.

He was scheduled to speak about the United States as a place for exiled authors “as a home for freedom of expression,” according to the institute. After the stabbing, he was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery.

A witness who was in the audience told The Post that Rushdie tried to run off the stage, and the two men scuffled before audience members rushed onstage to subdue the attacker.

Approximately 2,500 people were in the audience at the time.

Rushdie’s alleged attacker, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, was arrested at the scene by a state trooper who was assigned to the lecture.
Douglas Murray: The best response to Salman Rushdie’s stabbing
It must be said that Rushdie has dealt with all this and more heroically. He does not complain about his lot. He does not make himself into a victim. Instead he has displayed the simple qualities of a hero. In a recent series of Curb Your Enthusiasm he even joked about it. Most impressive, perhaps, was that his well of creativity has never been dimmed. From Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) right up to his forthcoming Victory City the assaults of the illiterate on him and his work never managed to stop that work.

The attack onstage in New York today is still a subject of confusion. Initial reports said the author had walked off stage with assistance. Now it appears that his assailant stabbed him in the neck. Rushdie has been helicoptered to hospital and is currently be fighting for his life.

In his 2012 memoir – Joseph Anton – Rushdie wrote about the fatwa years. The book is a detailed chronicle of all the people who let him down: the MPs who promised support and then whipped up mobs; the political figures of left and right who said that while the Ayatollah may have caused an offence so had the novelist; the authorities who allowed Muslims in Bradford and others on television to call for a British subject´s murder with impunity.

But it is also a chronicle of the people who supported him, the friends who stood by him and the public figures who stood up for him. One of them was the American writer Susan Sontag, who helped organise a public reading of Rushdie´s work in New York. As Sontag said, the moment called for some basic 'civic courage'. It is striking how much of that civic courage has evaporated in recent years. Today no one would be able to write – much less get published – a novel like The Satanic Verses. Perhaps nobody has tried. From novels to cartoons a de facto Islamic blasphemy law settled across the West in the wake of the Rushdie affair. The attack today will doubtless exacerbate that.

So apart from willing, wishing or praying for Rushdie´s recovery, the only other thing that can be done now is to display that civic courage that Sontag called for three decades ago. The Satanic Verses is a complex but brilliant novel. It includes an hilarious and devastating reimagining of the origins of the Quran. I hope that people will read it, and read from it, more than ever. Because what happened in New York today cannot be allowed to win. The illiterate cannot be allowed to dictate the rules of literature. The enemies of free expression cannot be allowed to quash it. The attacker should get exactly the opposite of the response he will have hoped for. Not just hopefully a failure to silence Rushdie, but a failure to limit what the rest of us are allowed to think, read, hear and say.
JPost Editorial: Iran needs to be shown that it cannot win through aggression
On Friday, Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him because of his writing, was stabbed in the neck and torso at a lecture in New York State. He was airlifted to a hospital, was placed on a ventilator and was said to be in serious condition.

Stunned attendees helped wrest the man from Rushdie, who had fallen to the floor. A New York State Police trooper providing security at the event arrested the attacker. Police identified the suspect as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New Jersey, who bought a pass to the event.

Matar reportedly was caught carrying a fake driver’s license with the name Hassan Mughniyah. The first name is the same as Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and the last name is the same as Imad Mughniyah, the Hezbollah military commander killed in a CIA-Mossad operation in 2008.

The attempt on Rushdie’s life was made just days after the United States Justice Department announced that it was indicting a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for attempting to hire hit men to murder former national security advisor John Bolton in an apparent retaliation attempt for the January 2020 assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

Shahram Poursafi, aka Mehdi Rezayi, a resident of Tehran, attempted to pay individuals in the US $300,000 to murder Bolton in Washington or Maryland on behalf of the Quds Force, according to court documents.

“The Justice Department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” said Assistant Attorney-General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil – and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts.”

“Iran has a history of plotting to assassinate individuals in the US it deems a threat, but the US government has a longer history of holding accountable those who threaten the safety of our citizens,” said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI’s National Security Branch.
Israel says Rushdie stabbing ‘an attack on our values,’ evidence of Iran’s brutality
Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Saturday night condemned the attempted murder of British-Indian author Salman Rushdie the previous day in the United States as an attack on freedom and the consequence of years of incitement by the Iranian regime.

“The attack on Salman Rushdie is an attack on our freedoms and values. It is the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran,” Lapid tweeted Saturday night.

“On behalf of the people of Israel, we wish him a full and speedy recovery.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll also denounced the Iranian regime following the attack on Rushdie during a speaking event in the town of Chautauqua in New York state.

“Yesterday’s shocking attack on Salman Rushdie is further evidence of the brutality & extremism of the Iranian regime, which has gone after and persecuted freethinkers everywhere for decades,” said Roll.

“Iran is a threat to the free world,” he continued.


Why the Iranians Want Salman Rushdie Dead
The attack comes more than 30 years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on "all brave Muslims of the world" to kill Rushdie, as well as his authors and publishers, "without delay." Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, slammed The Satanic Verses as "against Islam, the Prophet of Islam, and the Qu’ran," and noted that Rushdie’s assassination was necessary to ensure "no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth."

Khomeini’s fatwa claims "whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr." Rushdie’s head also carries a $3 million bounty in Iran.

The Satanic Verses is a sprawling work that consists in part of a fictionalized narrative of the founding of Islam by the Prophet Mohammad. In the book, Rushdie refers to Mohammad as "Mahound," reportedly a derogatory term for the prophet used by Medieval Christians. The book’s title comes from a scene in which Mahound rejects his earlier revelation permitting polytheistic worship as the work of the Devil.

Some Muslims objected to The Satanic Verses before Khomeini’s fatwa. Several countries banned the book, and critics held book burnings around the world.

Rushdie was defiant when asked about the backlash to The Satanic Verses in a 1989 television interview.

"Frankly I wish I had written a more critical book," the author said, adding that "religious leaders who are able to behave like this, and then say this is a religion which must be above any kind of whisper of criticism, that doesn't add up."

Khomeini’s February 1989 fatwa led to a barrage of death threats and drove Rushdie into hiding under British government protection. The author reentered public life nine years later, and went on to marry model and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi.


French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo slams Rushdie stabbing
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose 12 staff members were gunned down in 2015 over cartoons about Prophet Mohammed considered blasphemous by many Muslims, said Saturday that nothing justified the stabbing of Salman Rushdie.

The British author, who spent years in hiding after an Iranian fatwa ordered his killing, was on a ventilator following a stabbing attack at a literary event in New York state Friday.

“Nothing justifies a fatwa, a death sentence,” Charlie Hebdo said.

“At the time we are writing these lines we do not know the motives” of the attacker, it said, speculating ironically whether it was spurred by global warming, the decline in purchasing power, or a ban on watering potted plants during the current heatwave.

The magazine’s managing editor, known as Riss and a survivor of the 2015 attack, said Rushdie’s assailant was probably a practicing Muslim and slammed the “little and mediocre spiritual heads who are intellectually nil and culturally ignorant.”

Rushdie’s 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” transformed his life when Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious decree, ordering his killing.
J.K. Rowling gets death threat by person who hailed Rushdie’s stabbing
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling received a death threat from a Twitter user on Saturday who lauded the stabbing of fellow author Salman Rushdie.

Rowling had posted on Friday night about Rushdie’s stabbing, saying the incident was “Horrifying news. Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok.”

She later shared a screenshot of a reply by Meer Asif Aziz, who described himself as a Pakistani “student, social activist, political activist and research activist.”

Aziz responded to her post saying the stabber, Hadi Matar, was a “revolutionary Shia fighter.” He went on to threaten Rowling, saying: “Don’t worry you are next.”

In Saturday’s post, Rowling asked Twitter for “some support.” Aziz’s account appeared to have been disabled in the following hours.

Rowling added that police were involved in the recent threat, along with others.
Salman Rushdie Attack Suspect Charged with Attempted Murder
Hadi Matar, the suspect in the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie at an event in New York state, has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bond, prosecutors in Chautauqua County said on Saturday.

Matar, a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New Jersey, was arraigned late on Friday, accused of attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree, the county’s district attorney, Jason Schmidt, said in a statement.

Indian-born author Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him over his novel “The Satanic Verses”, was stabbed in the neck and torso on stage at a lecture on Friday. After hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak as of Friday evening.

Schmidt said state and federal law enforcement agencies, including in New Jersey, were working to understand the planning and preparation which preceded the attack and determine whether additional charges should be filed.

Reuters could not immediately establish whether Matar, who bought a pass to the event at western New York’s Chautauqua Institution, had legal representation.

Police said on Friday they had not established a motive for the attack on Rushdie, 75, who was being introduced to give a talk to an audience of hundreds on artistic freedom when the attacker rushed to the stage and lunged at the novelist. Rushdie has lived with a bounty on his head since 1989.

A preliminary law enforcement review of Matar’s social media accounts showed he was sympathetic to Shi’ite extremism and Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), although no definitive links had been found, according to NBC New York.
A ‘Lebanese Hero’: Iranian Outlet Praises Assailant Behind Attempted Murder of Novelist Salman Rushdie
Hours after the assassination attempt on Friday upon the celebrated Anglo-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, pro-Iranian and pro-Hezbollah social media feeds lit up with praise for the alleged assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, NJ.

At least one prominent Iranian Twitter account associated with the website “Iran in Arabic” — which describes itself as “part of a comprehensive official Iranian media organization” — posted a graphic with a photograph of Matar placed next to one of Rushdie. The tweet described Matar as a “Lebanese hero who stabbed Satan Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, in which he insulted the Prophet of guidance and mercy, the Messenger of God, Muhammad.”

The tweet was deleted shortly after being posted, but was shared multiple times. The “Iran in Arabic” website, which was featured in the Twitter graphic, carries reports and articles from official Iranian media outlets translated into Arabic, along with information aimed at Arab citizens seeking to study or work in Iran.

The target of a “fatwa” (edict) demanding his murder issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini following the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, regarded by Islamists as blasphemous, the 75-year-old Rushdie was stabbed several times in the neck and torso as he was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. The novelist, who previously spent ten years in hiding because of the “fatwa,” was ferried by helicopter to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery.

Several other Arabic and Farsi language posts on Twitter on Friday afternoon celebrated the attack on Rushdie.

One account bearing a photograph of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, published an image of Matar being arrested by New York State Police officers, alongside a message declaring him to be the “Lebanese champion from the South who stabbed the apostate Salman Rushdie.”
Iran’s Hardline Newspapers Praise Salman Rushdie’s Attacker
Several hardline Iranian newspapers poured praise on Saturday on the person who attacked and seriously wounded author Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” had drawn death threats from Iran since 1989.

There was no official reaction yet in Iran to the attack on Rushdie, who was stabbed in the neck and torso on Friday while onstage at a lecture in New York state.

However, the hardline Kayhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote:

“A thousand bravos… to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York,” adding, “The hand of the man who tore the neck of God’s enemy must be kissed.”

The leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 that called on Muslims around the world to kill the Indian-born author after his book was condemned as blasphemous, forcing him into years of hiding.

In 2019, Twitter suspended Khamenei’s account over a tweet that said Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie was “solid and irrevocable.”


Iranian Oberlin professor urged murder of author Salman Rushdie
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s former ambassador to the UN Mohammad Jafar Mahallati advocated the 1989 fatwa (decree) to assassinate the US and British writer Salman Rushdie for the author’s novel showing the Muslim prophet Muhammad irreverently.

Oberlin College’s embattled professor of Islamic studies is now confronted with an additional allegation about his role in a plot to assassinate one of the world’s most distinguished and famous writers.

In an extensive 2018 report, Amnesty International said Mahallati was complicit in “crimes against humanity” for his reported cover-up of the massacre of at least 5,000 political dissidents in 1988.

According to a 1989 Reuters report, when asked about the then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa and the “right to put a bounty on someone's head,” Mahallati replied: "I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures should be condemned.

"I think that if Western countries really believe and respect freedom of speech, therefore they should also respect our freedom of speech. We certainly use that right in order to express ourselves, our religious beliefs, in the case of any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures."


US Lawmakers Urge UN Commission of Inquiry on Israel to be Dissolved
A group of bipartisan US lawmakers called for the United Nations to discontinue the Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza over what were considered antisemitic remarks made by an expert on the panel.

Miloon Kothari, one of the three human rights experts on the UN Human Rights Council’s COI, told the Mondoweiss website in July that he “would go as far as to raise the question of why [Israel is] even a member of the United Nations.”

“We are very disheartened by social media that is controlled largely by – whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs,” he added.

The UN investigator apologized days later for his comments, saying he was “completely wrong… to describe social media as being controlled largely by the Jewish lobby,”

Over a week later, the US lawmakers are urging UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to also remove Kothari from his position and take definitive action against antisemitism in the UN.

“These comments should have no place at the United Nations and clearly demonstrate the lack of impartiality and disproportionate focus on Israel by the COI,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter.

Israeli and US officials also condemned Kothari for the remarks.
Pentagon backs off Jerusalem security coordinator downgrade amid lawmaker pressure
The US Department of Defense will not downgrade the rank of the military post tasked with bolstering security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, following bipartisan opposition from lawmakers, two Congressional aides said Tuesday.

Pentagon spokesman Rob Lodewick told The Times of Israel last week that his office was going ahead with plans to lower the rank required to be appointed US Security Coordinator, or USSC, in Jerusalem from a three-star general to colonel. The move, planned for the end of the year, was slated to be part of a cost-saving program passed by Congress in 2017, which affected 111 positions across the globe.

In the wake of Lodewick’s comments, lawmakers redoubled efforts to nix the plan, expressing concerns that downgrading the post could harm US efforts to maintain stability between Israelis and Palestinians, one of the congressional aides who spoke to The Times of Israel said.

On Tuesday, several lawmakers who had reached out to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urging him to intervene on the matter were notified by the Pentagon that the Jerusalem coordinator would not be among the posts the Defense Department will downgrade, an aide to one of the lawmakers said, speaking on condition of anonymity as their office was asked not to publicize the decision before the Pentagon publicly confirms it.

Lodewick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In June, the Israel Policy Forum, a pro-Israel advocacy group and think tank, began urging members of Congress to oppose the plan to include the Jerusalem position among posts slated for downgrading. The effort managed to recruit lawmakers from both sides of the aisle against the Pentagon plan.


Senior UN official loses her post after tweet condemning PIJ rocket fire at Israel
The UN has removed the head of one of its offices serving the Palestinians after she posted a tweet in which she condemned Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s “indiscriminate rocket fire” during the recent Gaza conflict, a UN spokesperson has confirmed to The Times of Israel.

The revelation came days after Sarah Muscroft tweeted her support for the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian terror group after three days of fighting.

Muscroft, who headed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said: “Relieved to see a ceasefire agreed ending hostilities impacting both Palestinians and Israeli civilians. Such indiscriminate rocket fire of Islamic Jihad provoking Israeli retaliation is condemned. The safety of all civilians is paramount — the ceasefire must be upheld.”

Muscroft, who had been based in East Jerusalem, came under massive fire from pro-Palestinian activists who said she was blaming Palestinians for the latest round of violence and was failing to hold Israel responsible.

She later deleted the post and tweeted an apology the next day, saying that “one of my previous tweets was ill-informed and I have deleted it. I sincerely apologize for my poor judgment. All civilians — everywhere — must be able to live in peace.”

The uproar did not subside though, and Muscroft went on to close her Twitter account entirely.

Emails to the senior UN official on Friday received an automatic reply saying Muscroft was “on annual leave.”


7 hurt, including 2 seriously, in suspected terror shooting near Western Wall
Seven people were hurt, including two seriously, in a suspected terror shooting attack just outside Jerusalem’s Old City in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, officials said.

According to the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service, shots were fired toward a bus on a road near the Western Wall, and also at a parking lot near King David’s Tomb, outside the Old City’s Zion Gate.

MDA said its medics treated two people who were seriously hurt, as well as five others who were said to be in light and moderate conditions.

The victims — six men and one woman — were all taken to hospitals in Jerusalem, MDA said.

The alleged assailant fled the scene, police said, adding that they were treating the incident as a suspected terror attack.

“A large number of police forces have arrived at the scene and begun securing the area, investigating the case and searching for the suspect who fled,” police said.


Hamas, PIJ ‘attracting’ many Palestinians, top Fatah official tells Post
MANY PALESTINIANS are unhappy with the PA because of its failure to engage IDF soldiers who enter Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, the senior Fatah official said.

“The Israeli arrests and killings have weakened the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “The people no longer respect the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian security forces stay in their headquarters when the Israeli Army enters the Palestinian areas. They don’t do anything to defend the people. In the eyes of many Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority’s role has been limited to issuing traffic tickets, carrying out some arrests and collecting taxes.”

Tirawi said he does not believe a political solution with Israel is possible under the current circumstances. That’s why the time has come for the Palestinian leadership to take its own measures, including halting security coordination between the Palestinian security forces and the IDF, lodging complaints against Israel with the International Criminal Court, unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state and dismantling the PA.

“There are many decisions that the Palestinians can take to stop the daily Israeli killings,” he remarked. “We need decisions to confront land expropriation and the [Israeli] practices in Jerusalem, which have been isolated from the West Bank. There are many resolutions by the PLO and other institutions [to halt security coordination and suspend all signed agreements with Israel]. How come these resolutions are not being implemented? All our leadership is doing is issuing statements of condemnation.”

The top Fatah official said he was not calling on the Palestinians to declare war on Israel. Instead, he said, they should take “political steps.”

“The internal Palestinian situation has become complicated and depressing,” Tirawi opined. “The split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the disputes within Fatah have made matters worse. One day the people will revolt against this bad situation.”


Totalitarians Inc.
As far as strategic convergence goes, look no further than the respective Russian and Iranian echo chambers and the content of their disinformation ops, which are so aligned that their stated policies toward the United States have become virtually indistinguishable.

Russia’s propaganda supporting its rape of Ukraine echoes Iran’s bloodcurdling dehumanization of Israel.

of close cooperation began to consolidate in the crucible of that war, which engulfed the Levant as the Obama administration was finalizing the details of the JCPOA in 2015.

When Bashar Assad, a wily and cruel dictator who preferred to destroy his own country and murder its people than concede power to popular protests, was in danger of losing control, he had only Iran and Russia to save him. Qassem Soleimani, the late commander of the elite Quds Force unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, boarded a commercial flight in Tehran and headed to Moscow in July of 2015, as nuclear negotiations in Vienna were in their final stages. Soleimani was on a mission to finalize the details of Iranian-Russian military cooperation in Syria’s civil war. Both countries worried that the Assad regime and its Iranian auxiliaries were being overrun in Aleppo. Russia’s air support could change that.

Soleimani’s gamble succeeded. Russia, already supplying the Assad regime with weapons and diplomatic cover, entered the fray and ruled the skies while Soleimani deployed every proxy militia Iran could mobilize on the ground. Russia’s entry into the war led to a reversal of fortunes for Assad and Iran. Aleppo was turned to rubble but restored to Assad’s control. The regime emptied Syria’s Sunni countryside, sending tens of thousands of Syrians to Assad’s torture chambers. Many more fled as refugees, pressuring neighboring states and Western sensitivities in what would become the first great, man-made refugee crisis of the 21st century.

Today, Russia has moved beyond cruel realpolitik and propagates the view that its new manifest destiny is to wipe an entire people off the map of Europe while stemming the tide of moral decay it attributes to the West. Depicting the West as irredeemably decadent and depraved is not unprecedented—Russia has been officially bemoaning our depravity since the 19th century. What is new is that this discourse, amplified by Russia’s propaganda supporting its rape of Ukraine, has become so vicious that it echoes Iran’s bloodcurdling dehumanization of Israel and its righteous contempt for the West.

Russia and Iran are revisionist powers bent on reestablishing their hegemonic rule. They have found enough common ground to align where it matters most: undermining U.S. influence and values. Russia is not just engaged in a war of aggression against its neighbor; it wants to upset the global balance of power by building a league of authoritarian states that includes Iran, China, and Venezuela—a strategy that is clearly reminiscent of the Cold War.

The past is not a foreign country, to borrow the title of a landmark essay by the historian Anita Shapira. It carries weight. Ancient rivalries can be overcome by new realities. Moscow and Tehran are drawing closer. Pretending otherwise is to flirt with disaster.
A Deal Will Not Stop the Mullahs from Going Nuclear
When the regime's television host asked him about the video showing concrete being poured into the Arak reactor's pipes to block them, Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran responded: "[N]ot the pipes you see here. We had purchased similar pipes, but I couldn't announce it at that time.... We needed to be smart." — Iran Focus, August 2, 2022.

In addition, during the deal, several reports, later proven to be accurate, warned that Iran was conducting secret nuclear activities.

Now, thanks to the Biden administration's focus on reviving the nuclear deal... the Iranian regime bought time by dragging out the negotiations long enough to reach the nuclear threshold.

Regrettably, it looks as though the Biden administration and Europe -- through their endless concessions and a staggering lack of deterrence -- are still trying to force-feed the world a hostile Iran, armed with nuclear weapons.

One can only assume that the Biden administration is hoping to bribe the mullahs with up to a trillion dollars just not to bomb Israel while he is still president. Meaning that afterwards would be splendid?

Not only are deals such as the Biden or Obama nuclear deal failing to halt the predatory regime of Iran from advancing its nuclear program and possessing nuclear weapons, it actually facilitates Iran's going nuclear by legitimizing its weapons.


Pro-Palestinian student group at Ohio State to hold vigil honoring terrorist
The Ohio State University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter plans to host a vigil to honor Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terrorist Ibrahim Nabulsi, who was recently killed by Israel, on Friday at 6 p.m.

The student group announced the “emergency protest and candlelight vigil” on Aug. 10 via its Instagram account. The post indicates that the demonstration is “in honor of our martyrs,” including Nabulsi and those killed alongside him, 25-year-old Islam Soboh and 16-year-old Hussein Taha, whom Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has hailed as mujahideen.

“We will be honoring our martyrs Ibrahim Nabulsi, Hussein Taha, Islam Soboh and Momen Jaber. Please join us as we continue to fight and stand for justice in Palestine,” says the student club in the post’s caption, calling on participants to bring “signs, flags and keffiyehs” to the demonstration.

The fall academic semester starts on Aug. 23, with students arriving on campus prior to that date.

The United States and Israel consider the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades to be a terrorist group, with the U.S. State Department designating the outfit as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
J Street’s Losing Strategy Is Neither Pro-Israel Nor Pro-Peace
These races both showed crystal clear policy differences on the US-Israel relationship, and those differences matter when a pro-Israel group decides who to endorse and support in elections.

That’s why J Street’s choices are so incredulous. In these races, like many others, J Street deliberately endorsed, fundraised for, and spent funds trying to elect the candidate likely to be less supportive of the US-Israel relationship and also less likely to call out Palestinian terrorism and rejectionist positions.

For further proof, let’s look at the upcoming Democratic primary in New York’s 16th congressional district. J Street has endorsed Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Congressman who has gone out of his way to regain the support of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), one of the most overtly anti-Israel groups on the political landscape. The DSA actively supports the BDS movement, whose goal is to end Israel as a Jewish state, seeks to end US military assistance to Israel, and opposes normalization with Israel.

Bowman’s trip to Israel earlier this year (with J Street, ironically), his vote to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, and his hedging on support for BDS, enraged the DSA. In an obvious attempt to placate the group, Bowman removed his endorsement of the Israel Normalization Act, legislation widely supported by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress but opposed by DSA, that seeks to encourage greater integration of Israel into the Middle East. Moreover, Bowman recently co-sponsored Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)’s biased, one-sided “Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian Refugees” resolution. The resolution attempts to rewrite history by ignoring that Palestinians launched a war of annihilation and that Arab nations invaded Israel to thwart Israel’s declaration of independence.

How can J Street call itself a pro-Israel organization when it endorses candidates like Jamaal Bowman?

J Street continues to believe that it knows better than the democratically elected government of Israel by ignoring the on-the-ground realities for both Israelis and Palestinians alike, and trying to force Israel to accept unrealistic policies that only appeal to J Street and its cadre of political supporters. By putting partisanship first and supporting candidates who are clearly not the pro-Israel choice, J Street works to undermine the very foundations of the US-Israel relationship. It’s a reckless and losing strategy, and certainly not “pro-Israel” nor “pro-peace.”
'Zionists, go home!' chanted at anti-Israel protest in London
Responses to the protest
In response to the chants, one Twitter user wrote that "they're telling Zionists to go home, doesn't that kind of make them Zionists, too?" Another user said that the chant was the "best self-defeating slogan."

Another user said that it is "such an illogical thing to say when you protest against Israel."

Jerusalem Post columnist Emily Schrader said, "that's the point… we did."

Author and former Labor MK Dr. Einat Wilf responded with: "Otherwise known as the call to 'Make Aliyah.'"

Journalist and writer David Collier called the protesters "thugs" and that they are the new Nazis - and have overrun left-wing political spaces, media, academia and NGOs. "They are even in schools teaching our children."

Antisemitism in London
Earlier this month, a Jewish mother in London was chased by an assailant with a stick and had her 8-month-old baby sprayed with an unidentified liquid while the mother was walking home.

This week, a British man was sentenced to 43 months in a youth offenders’ institution for hitting a British rabbi over the head with a brick last year.

Last year saw a sharp rise in antisemitism in the UK – especially in the midst of Operation Guardian of the Walls.


HonestReporting Expose Prompts New York Times to Fire Gaza Stringer Who Called for the Murder of Jews
Following HonestReporting’s uncovering of antisemitic Facebook posts by Fady Hanona, The New York Times on Friday cut ties with the Gaza Strip-based stringer.

Out of the eight articles produced by the NYT during the recent escalation with Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), six credited Hanona as having contributed from Gaza City (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Yet Hanona, a freelance producer and fixer who has also been hired by the BBC, The Guardian, and VICE News, appeared 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.

During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, the 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.”


Ex-Al Jazeera chief tweets that ‘same killer’ behind deaths of Jesus, Palestinians
The former director-general of Al Jazeera on Friday shared and then deleted an image that said “the same killer” — inferring Jews — was responsible for the deaths of Jesus Christ and slain Palestinians.

The image shared by Yasser Abu Hilala was a composite of art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling a dead Jesus, and a Palestinian woman in a similar pose by the body of a young Palestinian, presumably her son.

Text emblazoned on the image declared: “After 2000 years & it’s the same killer…”

After deleting the tweet, Abu Hilala wrote on his account: “Based on the advice of those whose opinion I trust, I deleted the tweet to prevent confusion, while emphasizing that the design is not mine and I do not adopt it and everyone understands it in their own way.”

It was not immediately clear where the image originated, or whether the people depicted in it were indeed tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sharing the original tweet, Joshua L. Zarka, deputy director-general and Head of Strategic Affairs at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, blasted its “pathetic, vile and pure antisemitism,” and asked whether Abu Hilala also wanted to add the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into the mix.


"Canada: Jewish Man Viciously Attacked by Former Employee"
In Canada, a 24-year-old Jewish man was attacked this weekend by a former employee in the Montreal neighborhood of Saint-Michel, according to a report by the city’s CTV News and CFCA, The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism.

The victim, a Hasidic Jew, was stabbed with a scissors multiple times in the face and neck by the 21-year-old suspected attacker.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

The attacker was arrested and arraigned Friday in court.

The B’nai Brith Canada organization has been in touch with police and is “monitoring the file,” according to CTV News.

According to a report by the organization, in 2021 Canada saw the highest-ever number of antisemitic incidents since 1982, when B’nai Brith began recording such data.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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