Sunday, September 04, 2022

09/04 Links: At least 7 injured in Jordan Valley Israeli military bus shooting; Col Kemp: 'There We Will Strike Them': The Munich Massacre and Its Aftermath; PA: When you lack any history, just invent one

From Ian:

Soldier, civilian seriously injured in shooting attack on a bus in Jordan Valley
Two Palestinians were arrested by IDF forces after they opened fire on a bus carrying troops from the Kfir Brigade in the Jordan Valley, injuring several troops including one soldier who was seriously wounded.

According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and Magen David Adom, five soldiers and a civilian were injured in the attack.

One soldier was seriously injured with neck wounds and there were at least two moderately injured in the attack including the driver of the bus who had gunshot wounds to his face. Medics and paramedics treated the soldier and civilian driver at the scene before being evacuated to Rambam hospital in Haifa by helicopter.

Another three people were lightly injured by glass shrapnel and treated at the scene before being evacuated to Ha’Emek Hospital in Afula where they were treated before being released.

According to a senior officer involved in the investigation into the attack, the bus was coming from Tel Aviv to brigade regional headquarters when it was attacked, first by a flammable substance and then firing on it.

The officer said that the military is still investigating whether the terrorists, identified by Palestinian media as Muhammed and Walid Turkman from the Jenin area in the northern West Bank, knew that it was a military bus.

The three suspects, who were driving a pickup truck with Israeli license plates, followed the bus for several minutes before opening fire on the left side and windshield.

"We saw two gunshot victims outside of the bus who were being treated by IDF medics and other people who were at the scene. One is a 60-year-old male, and another who was younger. They were fully conscious and communicating with us,” said Senior MDA EMT Matti Carmi.


Gantz vows to increase West Bank anti-terror operations after Jordan Valley attack
In a tweet, Gantz said: “Security forces began pursuing the suspects immediately and got their hands on the suspected attackers in a quick and professional operation. We will continue to increase our focused operations against terror in the Judea and Samaria area.” He was using the biblical name for the West Bank commonly used in Hebrew.

Lapid, like Gantz, wished the wounded a speedy recovery. He offered praise to the “first responders and the security forces who acted with speed and determination to treat the wounded and catch the suspected terrorists.”

“We will continue to reach anyone who tries to harm the citizens and soldiers of the State of Israel,” he tweeted.

President Isaac Herzog, who is on an official state visit to Berlin, noted alongside his German counterpart on Sunday that “terror does not rest for a second, and today it reared its head again, alas, when a few hours ago, depraved terrorists perpetrated an attack against Israelis traveling by bus.”

Speaking next to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Herzog said that Israel “will not accept any attack on our citizens or soldiers. The State of Israel will defend its citizens, and the IDF and our security forces will act at any place and at any time.”

Gaza-based terror organization Hamas labeled the “Zionist bus” attack a “heroic operation,” saying that it was a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation.” Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said he was praying for the recovery of the injured, adding, “Only through a strong hand can we defeat terrorism.”

According to local officials, the gunmen tailed the bus before overtaking it and opening fire from the front. They then attempted to pour flammable liquid on the bus and set it on fire, before fleeing.

The getaway car caught fire as it sped away, likely as a result of the flammable liquid used in the attack. IDF forces arrested two suspects, both of whom were said to be hurt.

The pair were taken to be questioned by the Shin Bet security agency. They were named by Palestinian media as Muhammed and Walid Turkman, apparent relatives, from the Jenin area in the northern West Bank. Several firearms were found at the scene of the arrest.

A third suspect apparently fled, according to Hebrew-language media reports. The IDF said troops continued to search the area for additional suspects.
BREAKING: Drive-by shooting attack on a bus traveling in the Jordan Valley

At least 7 injured in Jordan Valley Israeli military bus shooting



Richard Kemp: 'There We Will Strike Them': The Munich Massacre and Its Aftermath
Prime Minister Golda Meir — who had been a signatory to Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 — refused to bargain with [the terrorists], branding it blackmail. She later said: "We have learnt the bitter lesson. One may save a life immediately only to endanger more lives. Terrorism has to be wiped out."

Meanwhile Berlin offered safe passage and unlimited cash to the terrorists....

Libyan president Muammar Gadaffi had funded the attack at the behest of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who subsequently denied any involvement and two years later was feted in a standing ovation at the United Nations General Assembly.

"We were not engaged in vengeance. What we did was to concretely prevent in the future. We acted against those who thought that they would continue to perpetrate acts of terror". — Mossad Chief Zvi Zamir, in an interview with Yossi Melman, (17 February 2006), Haaretz.

Too often Western nations, despite earlier rejection, condemnation and sometimes hostility, have eventually been obliged to follow the lead Israel was first forced to take to protect its people. American and European responses to jihadist attacks on their own territory, especially after 9/11, is an example of that. We are at present living through another example: the Iranian nuclear threat. Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that Tehran's nuclear programme not only represents grave danger to their own country but to the entire region and to the world. As in its response to Munich, Israel is conducting a covert campaign to stop it, including by targeted assassinations. Meanwhile the US and European countries are appeasing the mullahs in Tehran, just as they did with Palestinian terrorists in the 1970s, and are on the verge of striking a deal that will pave the path to an Iranian nuclear capability. This time, ignoring Israeli warnings will have even more dire and far-reaching consequences.

In memory of: David Berger, Anton Fliegerbauer, Ze'ev Friedman, Yosef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Yosef Romano, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer, Moshe Weinberg.
Survivor of Holocaust, Munich attack heads back to Germany
When he came to Munich for the Olympics at 36 years old, he said, he tried to guess the age of every German he met, and "if in my mind he would have been age-wise in the age group that might have participated in the Third Reich's atrocities, I prevented any contact."

However, this time it wasn't the Germans who posed a threat to his life.

Early on the morning of Sept. 5, members of the Palestinian group Black September broke into the Olympic Village, killed two athletes from the Israeli delegation and took nine more hostage, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel as well as two left-wing extremists in West German jails.

Ladany, again, narrowly escaped. A terrified roommate woke him up to say a fellow athlete was dead, and he quickly put on his sneakers and ran to the door of their apartment.

Just outside he saw an Olympic official pleading with a man in a tracksuit and hat, later identified as the leader of the assailants, to be "humane" and let Red Cross officials into an adjacent apartment. The man, Ladany recalled, responded: "The Jews aren't humane either."

Ladany turned around, threw on some clothes over his pajamas and joined other teammates in fleeing. Not everyone was so lucky; all nine hostages and a police officer were killed during a failed rescue attempt by German forces.

Ladany said that while before the attack the Olympics was purely "a sports meeting of joy and competition," today no such event is held without strict security.

"Since then," he said, "the world has changed."

West Germany was criticized not only for botching the rescue but also for withholding historic files on the tragic events for decades, and for not offering enough compensation to victims' families. Relatives of the 11 slain athletes had threatened to boycott Monday's anniversary but last week finally reached a deal in which they will receive a total of 28 million euros (dollars) in compensation.

Ladany plans to wear his original Israeli team jacket from 1972 when he attends the memorial, and he's looking forward to showing the world that both he and Israel have endured.

"Those that tried to kill me are not alive anymore," he said. "We are still here. Not only as individuals, but also as a country."
The latest BBC reporting on the Munich Olympics terror attack
Throughout the rest of the item the terrorists are described by Bateman as “Palestinians, members of the Black September group” and “hostage takers”. Listeners were told that the perpetrators were “demanding release of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails” but were not informed why those Palestinians were imprisoned or that the list also included two prominent members of the Red Army Faction held in German prisons.

The report on this story which will remain as ‘permanent public record’ appeared on the BBC News website on August 31st under the headline ‘Munich Olympics massacre compensation deal struck’.

Credited to Malu Cursino, that report follows the usual BBC practice of avoiding the words ‘terrorists’ and ‘terror attack’.

“Germany has agreed a compensation deal with the relatives of Israelis killed during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Eleven Israeli athletes were killed after being taken hostage by members of a Palestinian militant group.

The €28m (£24m) deal was struck days before the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. […]

Members of the Israeli team were taken hostage inside the Olympic village by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group.

Two were shot dead almost immediately, while the others were killed during a gun battle with West German police at a nearby airfield, as the militants tried to take them out of the country.”

As is well known, the BBC’s editorial guidelines dictate the use of euphemisms such as ‘gunman’ and ‘militant’, claiming that “[t]he word ‘terrorist’ itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding”.

Half a century after the Munich Olympics terror attack, only one of these five BBC reports referred to it as such and all refrained from describing the perpetrators as terrorists. None of the five reports noted the links between Black September and Fatah and the PLO and none addressed the still relevant issue of Palestinian Authority glorification of that terror attack. One can therefore only wonder what kind of “understanding” the BBC believes it is aiding with its continued use of euphemisms fifty years on.
Ruthie Blum: Joe Biden’s four-D speech
It is, though, an apt depiction of a very different republic—the Islamic one run by killer mullahs to whom his administration is desperate to hand over billions of dollars for atom-bomb building and enhanced global terrorism. Still, it is the MAGA “threat to American democracy” that he bemoaned, while assuring that the United States is “not powerless in the face of [this] threat.”

Yes, he said, “history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy. For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it … We’re all called, by duty and conscience, to confront extremists who will put their own pursuit of power above all else.”

Again, he could and should have been addressing the need to stand firm against the danger posed by the regime in Tehran. Instead, he called on Americans to be “stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy than MAGA Republicans are to destroying American democracy.”

Attacking one’s enemies in the vein of anti-Semitic Israel-bashing is never complete without the casting of aspersions on the core of their being. Biden didn’t disappoint on this score.

“MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair,” he asserted. “They spread fear and lies—lies told for profit and power.”

Unlike POTUS, of course, who said that he “ran for president because [he] believed we were in a battle for the soul of this nation.” Good luck on winning that imaginary war—or an election, for that matter—by slandering half the voters.
UNRWA is radicalizing Palestinian students
UNRWA promised last year that all hateful material it produced had been removed, is no longer circulated and that any breach reported was dealt with firmly. This came in the wake of the agency’s earlier admission that its teachers had “mistakenly” produced and distributed “inappropriate material” in response to IMPACT-se’s reports on UNRWA-produced study materials during the pandemic.

But instead of eradicating hostility toward Jews and Israel from its educational infrastructure, UNRWA has instead settled for a strategy of aggressive outreach to Jewish organizations worldwide, where during meetings its spokespeople have been unable to answer basic questions about its teaching mechanisms.

The agency’s other innovation was to announce that only material on its online platform is officially sanctioned. This conveniently allows it to disassociate itself from its own long-standing teaching practices in Gaza, where its education districts and employees have routinely produced and taught a great deal of UNRWA-branded content not aligned with UN values. And the material on the platform is not even what students learn in the classroom.

In May of this year, IMPACT-se met with Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and his team, raised concerns over UNRWA’s self-produced materials and pointed out that very little actual teaching material is on its platform. The agency had more than enough time to address these issues, which made its ad hominem, petulant attacks on IMPACT-se even more regrettable.

The reality is that inciting material has been routinely used in UNRWA schools for years, reaching many thousands of children. The donor community – including the two largest donors in the US and EU with whom we engage – is well educated about these issues, and elements within these administrations are highly motivated to eliminate incitement from UNRWA teaching.

The ultimate question is, however, whether the disbursal of $1.6b. in annual aid is enough for donor nations to finally put a stop to the radicalization of Palestinian school students. Or, alternatively, will UNRWA continue in its current self-destructive path, shielded by international apathy? If the world’s largest UN educational infrastructure fails to foster the resolution of conflict and the promotion of peace, then what is it really worth?
EU Foreign Affairs Committee blasts UNRWA chief over Palestinian textbooks
Members of the European Union’s Parliament’s influential Foreign Affairs Committee slammed United Nations Relief and Works Agency Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini last week over the content of textbooks used by UNRWA schools.

During a hearing on August 31, the Committee’s members cited findings from the latest report by Israeli NGO IMPACT-se, which monitors Palestinian curricula to assess whether young people are being indoctrinated with hate. The report, published in July this year, examined UNRWA’s self-produced educational materials, and found that they promoted hatred, anti-Semitism and the celebration of terrorism, bloodshed and martyrdom.

E.U. Parliament representatives from across a range of political parties criticized UNRWA in light of the findings.

According to a press release by IMPACT-se, left-wing German member Reinhard Bütikofer of the European Green Party criticized Lazzarini’s position on the recent problematic findings in UNRWA’s educational materials and UNRWA’s tactic of attacking IMPACT-se.

“And I think [that] when you say, and I quote, that ‘these are baseless and shameless accusations’—end of quote—then you are probably falling victim [to] the emotional dimensions,” said Bütikofer. “ I do not agree that those criticisms are ‘baseless and shameless,’ and I’m weary of having to go back to the same conversation year after year. I think it is an easy task to make sure that no anti-Semitic material will ever be financed. So, please—work on the problem[s], instead of insulting those that raise them.”
Meeting German president in Berlin, Herzog denounces ‘toothless’ Iran deal
President Isaac Herzog publicly stressed Israel’s opposition to the current Iran nuclear deal draft as he met on Sunday in Berlin with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“Iran is openly striving for Israel’s destruction, and the international community must treat it severely, firmly and assertively,” said Herzog in comments alongside Steinmeier following their meeting. “Toothless and watered-down accords and sweeping benefits will not stop Iran.”

Herzog declared that Iran “has proven that it cannot be trusted,” and said Israel “will stand up and assertively and powerfully defend its citizens and Jewish communities all around the world. We expect our allies to stand firmly by our side at this hour.”

Germany is one of the main world powers currently negotiating a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, with a deal seen as likely in the next few weeks despite persistent gaps between Tehran and Washington.

Herzog departed for Germany Sunday morning for an official state visit timed to the 50th anniversary commemorations of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. His attendance at the official German ceremony was held up until the last minute amid an ongoing dispute over compensation to the surviving family members of the 11 Israeli victims of the 1972 attack. A deal between the families and the German government was finally reached last week.

In September 1972, members of the Black September terrorist organization broke into the Olympic village and took the Israeli team hostage, killing two and capturing a further nine. At the end of a botched rescue attempt, 11 Israeli athletes and officials were dead, as well as a West German police officer.


Eight suspects to go on trial Monday for Bastille Day terror attacks in Nice
It was Bastille Day on the French Riviera.

A lawyer was strolling with her mother, friends and a colleague along the beachfront boulevard in Nice to celebrate France’s national day. Four young sisters from Poland had spent a day of sightseeing. Two Russian students were on a summer break. And a Texas family, on vacation with young children, was taking in some of Europe’s classic sights. The bright lights of the packed boardwalk glittered along the bay like a string of stars.

Those lights would mark a pathway of murder and destruction that night of July 14, 2016. Shortly after the end of a fireworks display, a 21-ton truck careered through the crowds for two kilometers (1¼ miles) like a snow plow, hitting person after person.

The final death toll was 86, including 15 children and adolescents, while 450 others were injured.

Eight people go on trial on Monday in a special French terrorism court accused of helping the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who left a gruesome trail of crushed and mangled bodies across 15 city blocks. Bouhlel himself was killed by police the same night.

“It was like on a battlefield,” said Jean Claude Hubler, a survivor and an eyewitness to the horrific attack that holiday Thursday. He rushed to the boardwalk to help after hearing desperate screams of people, who had been cheering and laughing and dancing on the beach a minute before.

“There were people lying on the ground everywhere, some of them were still alive, screaming,” Hubler said. As he waited for the ambulances to arrive, he kneeled down beside a man and a woman as they lay dying on the pavement, in a pool of blood and surrounded by crushed and mangled bodies. “I was holding her hand on her last breath,” Hubler said.
Abbas denies Israel's right to exist: “Palestine has been under occupation for 77 years”

“Strike the snake's head” – Egyptian song broadcast by PA TV calls to fight Israel



Israeli-Palestinian conflict: West Bank today echoes Second Intifada - analysis
The arrest of an Islamic Jihad commander in Jenin was the spark for the latest round of fighting in the Gaza Strip – Operation Breaking Dawn.

Israel continued with its Break the Wave raids in the West Bank during the three days of fighting, when Islamic Jihad launched more than 1,000 rockets.

Concerned over the escalation of violence, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has met several times with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. But the 86-year-old leader has little authority over the Palestinian street nearly 18 years after he was first elected.

The inability of the PA Security Forces to crack down on militancy not only leads Israeli security forces to carry out more operations, it is also driving support for terrorist groups that are filling the void of control.

Over the weekend, Hamas operatives near Jenin published a video that showed them training. It was later shared across social networks and Israeli news channels.

Rallies are also taking place during the day, with hundreds of Palestinians brandishing rifles, including youths and mothers of terrorists killed by Israeli security forces.

More than 85 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year by Israeli security forces, either while committing attacks or during clashes, the PA Health Ministry recently reported.

That number includes those who carried out attacks inside Israel and members of terrorist groups. It also includes 17 teenagers under the age of 18 and six women.

More than a dozen bystanders also have been killed, including a teenage girl who was returning home from studying and Shireen Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.

It doesn’t take much to understand that tensions rise with every Palestinian death – be it by a Palestinian or IDF bullet.

Revenge is served hot in the West Bank, especially when assault rifles are in the hands of every local militant cell.


PMW: When you lack any history, just invent one
According to the Palestinian Authority, Jews have no historical connection to the Land of Israel. To support the assertion, the PA argues that archaeological artifacts that unequivocally prove this connection are fake. The Palestinians on the other hand, so claims the PA, are actually a 4,500 year-old people who are descendants of the Canaanites.

There is no honest way to deny the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. Tens of thousands (if not more) of archaeological artifacts prove that connection. When the international community allocated the whole of Israel, in 1922, for the reconstitution of the Jewish homeland, they recognized that historical connection. When the Supreme Muslim Council wanted to describe the Temple Mount, it noted that “This site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”

In order to explain away and negate the historical Jewish connection to Israel, the PA has invented an entire alternative reality. In the PA reality, Jews/Israelis have no history, and therefore they try to “steal” the Palestinian identity. The Jews, according to the PA, try to steal Palestinian foods and clothes, and even plant historical Jewish coins at excavation sites in order to invent a false history:

Writer and poet Faiqa Al-Sous: “[The Israelis] wanted to market the falafel to the world as if it was theirs… They have no heritage, no history or heritage. They attempt to steal our heritage…”

Official PA TV host: “They are attempting to market the Palestinian people’s heritage and the Palestinian garb as if it were part of the Israeli heritage and that they have a place here in this land. Even in the excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque and everywhere, they try to place some coins, as if [to say]: ‘Here, we found coins, and this land is ours.’ These are ongoing attempts at falsification.”

Faiqa Al-Sous: “They lie. They know they’re lying and the world knows they’re lying… Look at the evil world, we whose narrative is reliable must not publish it, while they spread the false narrative, the false narrative of the occupation.”
[Official PA TV, Returning, July 16, 2022]

The goal behind the false PA narrative is to convince the Palestinians that Jews are merely colonizers who came to inhabit a land to which they have no historical connection. This claim enables the PA to persuade the Palestinians that the Jews are simply thieves who stole “Palestinian land”.
PA libel: Israelis fake history, place coins in excavations

We swear by Allah that we will avenge the blood, Fatah song honors terrorists

Ghost hospitals reveal corruption in Palestinian Authority health sector
It is a tale of two ghost hospitals. The first is a gleaming edifice of tinted glass and stone, containing state-of-the-art medical equipment but almost no doctors or patients. The other is a 50-acre hole in the ground.

Both were high-prestige health projects, launched with loud fanfares by the Palestinian Authority; indeed, the gleaming edifice is named after its president, Mahmoud Abbas. Both should be bursting with local people being treated on the public health service, propped up by the British taxpayer.

But the two-year-old Mahmoud Abbas general hospital in Halhul, near Hebron, lies deserted, due to incompetence and corruption.

And the Khaled Hasan Cancer Centre in Surda, northeast of Ramallah — intended as one of the finest cancer units in the Middle East — will never arise from the hole in the ground. Here too, millions have been wasted.

The exterior of the Mahmoud Abbas general hospital in Halhul

The ghost hospitals are grotesque symbols of the cronyism and wastage that dogs the PA health sector, which has soaked up more than £200 million of British taxpayers’ cash since 2008.

Last week, to mark the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, the JC exposed the scale of the brutality of the PA’s notorious security services.

Trained and supported by the British Army at a cost of £65 million since 2011, the Palestinian forces routinely use torture against political opponents, in prisons across the West Bank.
Hamas executes 5 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2 for ‘collaborating’ with Israel
The Hamas terror group announced on Sunday that it had executed five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including two for “collaboration” with Israel.

“On Sunday morning, the death sentence was carried out against two condemned over collaboration with the occupation (Israel), and three others in criminal cases,” Hamas, which rules Gaza said in a statement.

It added that the defendants had previously been given “their full rights to defend themselves.”

Hamas’s interior ministry provided the initials and years of birth of the five executed Palestinians, but did not give their full names.

The two executed over “collaboration” with Israel were two men born in 1978 and 1968.

The older of the two was a resident of Khan Younis in the south of the blockaded Gaza Strip. He was convicted of supplying Israel in 1991 with “information on men of the resistance, their residence… and the location of rocket launchpads,” Hamas said.

The second was condemned for supplying Israel in 2001 with intelligence “that led to the targeting and martyrdom of citizens” by Israeli forces, the statement added.
Hamas executes 5 Palestinians including 2 men accused of collaborating with Israel



Iran sentences two gay rights activists to death
The Islamic Republic of Iran imposed the death penalty on two LGBTQ activists for allegedly promoting homosexuality, human rights organization Hengaw reported on Sunday.

According to Hengaw, an organization that documents human rights violations in Kurdistan, “Zahra Sediqi Hamedani, known as ‘Sareh,’ 31, from Naqadeh, and Elham Chubdar, 24, from Urmia, both activists of the LGBT community, were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Urmia in a joint case on the charge of ‘Corruption on Earth’ through the promoting of homosexuality.”

The Hengaw Human Rights Organization added that “the sentence has been announced to them in the past few days in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.”

Urmia is a city in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran.

The independent Iranian news Twitter feed 1500tasvir also reported the sentencing, writing on Sunday that “Homosexual rights activists #Zahra_Seddighi (31) and #Elham Choobdar (24) have been sentenced to death.”

Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979, according to a 2008 British Wikipedia cable.
Iran arrests 12 Baha'i people accused of spying for Israel
Twelve members of the Baha'i faith were arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel in Iran's northern Mazandaran province, Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Saturday night.

According to the report, two of the heads of the organization were trained at the World House of Justice, located in the Baha'i Center in Haifa, and set up a spy cell with other members of the organization throughout the northern district.

The Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of the Islamic Republic said that "the members of the organization communicated in secret, relying on the basis of messages sent from Haifa and the Zionist regime. These messages were used by the organization's members in the country."

The Director of General Intelligence for Mazandaran Province stated that "any activity of espionage networks linked to the Zionist regime for anti-revolutionary activity is closely monitored by the intelligence, and their agents will be dealt with decisively." Iran's previous arrests of members of the Baha'i faith

This is the second time that Iranian intelligence reports arrests made on suspicion of spying for Israel from the Baha'i faith.

In early August, it was reported that the "key figures in the Baha'i faith" had been arrested on espionage charges.

The Iranian Defense Ministry said that they were "members of the central leadership of the religion" and that they were "directly connected to the World House of Justice Center, based in the city of Haifa in occupied Palestine."
Iran ups civil defense as Mossad Chief heads to US to thwart nuclear deal
Iran has equipped 51 of its cities and towns with civil defense systems to thwart any possible foreign attack, as tensions rise with Israel and Mossad Chief David Barnea heads to Washington early this week in an attempt to thwart the nuclear deal with Tehran.

The civil defense equipment enables Iran’s armed forces to “identify and monitor threats by using round-the-clock software according to the type of the threat and risk,” Deputy Defense Minister General Mehdi Farahi was quoted as saying by Iranian media on Saturday.

Although he did not name the countries that could threaten Iran, the move comes just after Israel announced the purchase of refueling tankers that will help it attack the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.

The four new planes are only likely to arrive in 2025, but news of their purchase comes as the Jewish state has intensified its aerial strike against Iranian targets in Syria and has spoken repeatedly of maintaining its right to act militarily against Iran even if US President Joe Biden succeeds in reviving the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

All eyes are now on the European Union, now that its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has received a response from Tehran over a text that has been described as a final offer to revive the deal.

Iran’s response has been distributed to the six signatories to the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program: the US, Russia, China, France, Germany and Great Britain.
Canada Pro-Israel orgs blast NDP for anti-Israel boycott, lawfare policies
What are the demands made to Trudea?
This included a letter campaign to Trudeau. NDP's Foreign Affairs representative Heather McPherson called for the boycotting of Israeli settlements in February, after the release of the Amnesty International report declaring Israel an apartheid state.

For the crimes mentioned in such reports, Canada should engage in the prosecution of Israelis, according to the email sent by the NDP.

The NDP said that Canada should accept the recommendations of NGO reports on supposed Israeli apartheid — which includes calls to prosecute Israelis for apartheid, refer them to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or open an international tribunal.

“Mr. Singh must also be reminded that Canada has already responded to false allegations accusing Israel of ‘apartheid,’" said Fogel. "It has rejected [the] application of that label being applied to Israel, as have other democracies, including the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and the USA."

Israel should also be referred to the ICC over the death of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, said one of the NDP's points.

McPherson previously accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing Abu Akleh in a May 30 letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly.

Abu Akleh was killed in a May 11 firefight in Jenin between Israeli and Palestinian forces. Examination of the bullet by Israeli and American investigators was inconclusive on the source of the projectile — but the US embassy said that it was likely she was accidentally killed by Israeli forces.

The NDP called for the condemnation of Israeli security efforts — the blockading of Hamas-ruled Gaza and the designation of six Palestinian NGOs as fronts of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine.

The progressive Canadian political party wished for Canada to begin voting "for Palestinian human rights at the United Nations." The NDP also demanded the government speak against Israel in land disputes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Fogel warned that the NDP's new policies will not lead to an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"In its one-sided, unbalanced positioning against Israel, the NDP is apparently following in the steps of the UK Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn," he said. "We all know where that led: Unmitigated disaster at the polls and widespread antisemitism within the Party."


Why Scotland’s fiercest soccer rivalry features Israeli vs. Palestinian flags
While the Catholic and Protestant divide has largely vanished in England, it has survived as an undercurrent in Scotland, and many believe that football rivalries have helped sustain it.

“It is still massive,” said David Kaplan, a Jewish supporter of Heart of Midlothian, an Edinburgh club historically associated with the Protestant population. “Every club in Scotland has a religious affiliation in Scotland. Even if they don’t admit it, they all do.”

This has made Scotland’s 5,000 or so Jews an oddity in the Scottish soccer landscape. Unencumbered by the religious and cultural baggage of their Christian peers, many Jews can choose more freely which teams they want to root for.

“Jews felt that they were caught in the middle,” said Harvey Kaplan of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in Glasgow. “Jews also probably had less bother because… Protestants and Catholics were more likely to be fighting each other.”

Historically, most Jews have supported the Rangers and Hearts (the shorthand for Heart of Midlothian). When Jews arrived as immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, their children mostly adopted the teams of their friends and classmates. Most of them sent their children to Protestant schools, Kaplan explained, because they were more open to a range of students, in opposition to Catholic schools, which were focused on Catholic students.

“This would mean that you would likely come out as a Rangers supporter,” he said.

There is also, however, a sizable group of Jews that started following Celtic in the late 1960s when Third Lanark, a south Glasgow team with a large Jewish following, went bust. At the time, Celtic was at their height, winning nine consecutive league titles and the European Cup in 1967 — so the Third Lanark fans hopped on the bandwagon.
Dutch Public Broadcaster Appoints Israel Correspondent Who Worked for Terror-Glorifying Palestinian NGO
A recent survey in The Netherlands showed that news consumers consider the NOS public broadcaster the most reliable media brand. According to the Oxford-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 77 percent of the Dutch trust NOS News, with only 7% saying they are skeptical of its reporting.

By comparison, the same June 2022 study found that over 40% of Americans distrust CNN.

Yet, when it comes to its coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, this trust in the NOS seems rather misplaced. In recent years, the outlet has repeatedly been forced to apologize for spreading gross inaccuracies about the Jewish state, and it was even accused of disseminating Nazi-like antisemitic propaganda.

Indeed, the NOS’ track record on Israel has led some Jewish leaders to suggest that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is systematically slanted in favor of the Palestinian narrative.

Now, it has appointed as its correspondent in Israel a reporter who has been criticized for her alleged bias.

Following the resignation of Ties Brock, the NOS last week announced its new Jerusalem correspondent. In the August 29 press release, outgoing editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff described Nasrah Habiballah as an “experienced multimedia journalist with a great drive” who would bring “new, fresh perspectives” to the NOS’ coverage of the decades-old conflict.

Meanwhile, Habiballah said her “personal connection with the region” and “extensive network in Israel and the Palestinian Territories” would allow the NOS to present to the Dutch public “different opinions and unique stories.”

But this is precisely what worries some critics in The Netherlands.


Female Muslim police officer who tweeted racist messages and was in regular contact with a suspected female jihadi in Syria is suspended
After being alerted by this newspaper, the Met referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and Miss Begum was placed on ‘restricted duties’.

Following an investigation, the Met said yesterday that she had ‘a case to answer for gross misconduct’. She now faces a hearing ‘on a date to be determined’.

‘On 9 August 2022, she was suspended from duty.’

Miss Begum communicated over many months with a woman thought to have fled Europe in 2014 to live under the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate.

The woman would later acquire notoriety for appearing to defend male terrorists’ use of minority group Yazidis as sex slaves.

Without offering explanation, Miss Begum wrote around this time that her own passport was confiscated for a month.

Miss Begum ran a Twitter account under the name Ruby Beees from 2012. Most of her antisemitic comments were made in 2014 when Israel attacked the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. She tweeted: ‘Dirty Zionist. Jahannam [hell] is awaiting.’ In another, she said: ‘Israel have no limits. Scumbags.’

There is no suggestion that Miss Begum tried to join IS or go to Syria, and some of her tweets indicate she was appalled by the group’s behaviour.
Digging into the origins of Jerusalem
When King David captured Jerusalem from the Canaanites in approximately 1000 BCE, it was a small city situated on a ridge, known today as Mount Zion.

Recently, I stood with a group examining a corner of what may very well have been King David’s palace in the City of David National Park, just south of the current Old City walls.

Our guide, Yehuda Deutsch, asked us why we thought David founded his city in this place.

Politely piecing together the bits of our answers that were relevant, while delicately discarding those that weren’t, Deutsch then asked another question.

“What are the two basic conditions needed for a city to exist in ancient times?”

The answers turned out to be “water and security.”

Deutsch pointed down the southern slope of the hill known as Mount Moriah.

“Down there, under the roots of the palm tree that is beyond the red tile roof, there is a spring that produces 100 cubic meters of water per hour on average.” This is the famous Gihon Spring, the only water source in ancient Jerusalem, through which David led his army to take the city by surprise. According to the book of Kings I, the Gihon Spring is where the prophet Nathan and the high priest Tzadok crowned David’s son Solomon in 962 BCE. Solomon’s great achievement was building the First Temple, which stood on the nearby Mount Moriah for more than 400 years. Sometime in the eighth to ninth centuries, Solomon’s descendant King Hezekiah had a channel cut into the rock under the City of David to secure water supply to the Temple and surrounding inhabitants in case of an enemy invasion. Hezekiah’s Tunnel guides the water from the Gihon to the freshwater Siloam (Shiloah) Pool reservoir.




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