Sunday, September 11, 2022

09/11 Links: Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice; The unlearned lessons of 9/11; Will King Charles III change course on Israel?

From Ian:

Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice - opinion
Nineteen US states sent Morningstar, the financial services giant, a clear message last month: its attempts to sweep its anti-Israel bias under the rug are not fooling anyone.

On August 17, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that 18 states had joined Missouri in investigating the Chicago-based corporation’s apparent support for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Schmitt promised to investigate whether Morningstar’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) tools amounted to “consumer fraud or unfair trade practices.”

ESG investment is a huge industry, accounting for $17 trillion in assets in the US alone. While ESG is designed to incorporate ethical considerations into investment, the industry’s subjective standards have allowed anti-Israel activists to impose their agenda on unwitting investors. Former US State Department special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism Elan Carr has called it “BDS dressed up as social-justice investing.”

Matters only got worse on August 25, when top financial authorities from 17 states called on Morningstar to reverse course on Israel. This followed Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee’s warning to Morningstar’s CEO that he had 30 days to prove his company was not violating Arizona’s anti-BDS law. Otherwise, Arizona would add the company to the state’s prohibited investments list. Morningstar uses “anti-Israel and antisemitic sources to negatively impact companies doing business in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories,” Yee wrote.

Arizona’s threat may only be the tip of the iceberg: ESG firms must contend with anti-BDS statutes on the books in more than 30 states. These laws have created real consequences, including prohibitions on investing state funds, for companies engaging in discriminatory boycotts of Israel.
The Use of False NGO Apartheid Claims to Support BDS Resolutions
Over the past few years, a network of anti-Israel, pro-BDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been promoting artificial definitions of apartheid in their ongoing efforts to delegitimize and demonize Israel. By deploying emotionally-charged rhetoric related to one of the worst manifestations of racism in modern history, NGOs seek to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish State, and advance BDS and lawfare against Israel.

In order to gauge the salience of the NGO apartheid campaign, NGO Monitor examined 28 divestment resolutions by student groups, trade unions, churches, and other institutions since September 2020 (see table below). We found that, in order to support their demands for BDS, 25 of the 28 resolutions mention apartheid. Eighteen explicitly quote or cite politicized NGOs and their manufactured claims of apartheid.

The “apartheid” rhetoric was accompanied by accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, as well as fundamental opposition to Zionism. Some call for the end of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. A number also referenced the UN BDS “blacklist” of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, another initiative resulting from NGO lobbying.

Apartheid Rhetoric
As noted, the vast majority of the examined BDS resolutions invoked a variety of terms and phrases associated with the NGO network’s apartheid campaign. Many resolutions made direct reference to NGO apartheid reports, including those by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and Israeli NGO B’Tselem.
Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog returns to Ethiopia
During the visit, Almog will visit the historic sites where Ethiopian Jews walked in the 1980s on their pilgrimage to Israel. He will also review the preparation activities for the aliyah process carried out by representatives of the Jewish Agency in community centers in Gondar and Addis Ababa and will meet with the immigrants before they immigrate to Israel.

Almog will arrive in Ethiopia together with a senior delegation of leaders of the Jewish communities in North America, on behalf of the Jewish Federations of North America.

“The true heroes of the Ethiopian aliyah are the olim themselves who have waited so long for this moment, yet never lost ‘hatikvah’ – the hope – that they would one day reach the Land of Israel,” The organization’s president and CEO Eric Fingerhut said.

“It is a tremendous privilege to know that for decades, our federation system has played an instrumental role in the aliyah journey of these men, women and children, as well as in supporting their first steps in Israel.”

Operation “Tzur Israel” operates by virtue of a government decision led by Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.

In the first phase of the operation, which began in December 2020 and ended in March 2021, about 2,000 olim arrived in Israel. The second phase was launched in June 2021, when the government decided to bring an additional 3,000 more immigrants.

So far, about 1,250 immigrants from Ethiopia have immigrated to Israel during the second phase of the operation. Of the 200 immigrants on the upcoming flight this week, 40 are children and toddlers who will be integrated into the Israeli education system upon arrival.

Most of the olim aren’t considered to be entitled to aliyah according to Israel’s Right of Return law, but are instead offered citizenship as first degree relatives of Israeli citizens. Many will begin a process of conversion to Judaism after arriving in the Jewish state.


Ruthie Blum: The unlearned lessons of 9/11
While a short memory may be helpful as a coping mechanism, it is deadly in matters of foreign policy. Barack Obama’s entry into the White House in 2009 was a perfect example.

His first order of business was to renounce American exceptionalism and conduct “outreach” to the radical Muslim world. Islamists took this to mean that Uncle Sam, the “Great Satan,” had been brought to his knees, thanks to their efforts. They weren’t entirely wrong.

Obama’s proceeding to invest serious energy in begging the greatest state sponsor of terrorism to negotiate a nuclear deal only served to strengthen the resolve of the ayatollahs to achieve military and religious hegemony over the “infidels.”

By the time that the mullah-led regime finally “agreed” in 2015 to sign the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it had finagled the terms to its benefit. The removal of sanctions and billions of dollars in cash that it received were just what it needed to infuse life into its centrifuges and fill the coffers of its terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, adopted the opposite approach. It wasn’t merely that he ended up exiting the JCPOA in 2018 (after being shown by then-Israeli prime minister the trove of documents that the Mossad had retrieved from a warehouse in Tehran, which illustrated Iranian violations). He also started a “maximum pressure” campaign of increased sanctions.

Cutting off the money supply was necessary, both for slowing down the nuclear program and for curbing the cash flow to terrorists. Just when this endeavor was beginning to have an effect, Joe Biden took over the reins in the Oval Office and reversed course—right back to that of the days when he was Obama’s second-in-command; and with many of the same colleagues.

Iran’s response has been predictable: upping its conditions for deigning to be courted by the P5+1. It has the luxury to do this, while waiting for a new influx of multi-billions, due to the circumvention of sanctions by many countries and/or corporations within them.

Meanwhile and as a result, Tehran-financed terrorism against Israelis has been escalating. So, too, have vapid claims by Team Biden about its commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nukes. Oh, and equally meaningless statements relating to Israel’s right to defend itself.

So far, the only thing keeping a lid on the next JCPOA is Iranian intransigence. As was the case when Obama was “leading from behind,” Tehran is holding all the cards. In the words of the late Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

On the anniversary of 9/11, let us remember why not to find that the least bit amusing.
Daniel Lewin: The Israeli-American 9/11 Hero
After his military service, Daniel worked as a researcher at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. His work there was highly appreciated. Despite his busy schedule, he found the time to dedicate himself to a full-time research position at IBM. However, Daniel was not just a skilled researcher. He was also a devoted husband to Anne and his two sons, Itamar and Eitan.

Marco, his best friend, shared an anecdote about Daniel:
“Danny wore many different hats. If you can believe it, he was both a father changing diapers with his wife and a stellar student at the Technion, majoring in mathematics, computer science and electrical engineering. He did reserve duty in Sayeret Matkal, the most elite Commando unit, and he would be correcting papers. When we had dinners at his apartment in Haifa, he would look at mistakes from other very bright students, and he would argue about politics—all of this at the same time.”

In 1996, Daniel received a scholarship to do his PhD at MIT, the most prestigious university for computer science in the world. There, he continued his research and wrote an algorithm that would forever change the internet. Daniel found a practical use for the concept of “consistent hashing” and used it to enable websites to handle higher user traffic. In 1998, together with his professor, Tom Leighton, and other partners, he co-founded Akamai Technologies. Daniel became a millionaire before his thirties.

Today, Akamai Technologies exists and keeps growing year after year. It provides its services to some of the biggest companies in the world: Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal and more. Akamai Technologies is always developing and excels in new sectors such as cybersecurity. It is likely that Akamai is responsible for delivering a third of the internet traffic based on the CDN (Content Delivery Network) that Daniel Lewin envisioned.

On September 11, 2001, Daniel was on his way to a business trip in Los Angeles. He was sitting in business class, dressed modestly in Gap jeans and a simple T-shirt. It is impossible to know exactly what occurred on that flight, but according to an FBI report and flight attendant records, Daniel tried to stop the two Al-Qaeda terrorists in front of him. He was seated in row 9, but the passenger behind him, the third terrorist, stabbed him. That makes Daniel the first victim of 9/11. He was only 31 years old.

When the disaster struck, people turned to the internet to see if their relatives survived. The website of federal institutions, newspapers, and others were crashing due to heavy user traffic. Many companies reached out to Akamai Technologies in order to help them find their loved ones.

Today, the legacy of Daniel Lewin, former IDF soldier and internet pioneer, is still alive. May his memory be a blessing.




New York City marks 21 years since 9/11 attacks



Ron Prosor: Will King Charles III change course on Israel?
When I became ambassador to the Court of St James's and arrived at the palace to present my credentials, the queen was most captivated by the issue of mandatory military service for women in Israel. She told me how during the war, women were required to join some form of national service, and this helped make Brits come together. When she and Prince Philip met my son Tomer at the traditional tea party after the event, she was very keen on him talking about his military experience.

Now King Charles III is in charge. After the tears dry, up he will have to deal with the ongoing criticism over the very existence of the monarchy. It appears that the queen's larger-than-life persona helped fend off any meaningful action on that front. But eventually, the new king will have to make a compelling case for keeping the system as it is and convince all four nations of the United Kingdom why even in 2022 there is still a need for a royal sovereign. Will he manage to preserve the status of the House of Windsor by dealing with burning issues or by leveraging his clout to help resolve international conflicts? Only time will tell.

Charles assumes not just his mother's crown but also has to step into her massive shoes after she had successfully become the linchpin that glued together an entire kingdom and the British commonwealth, as well as her own family. Expectations are sky-high and he will have to deal with a new world that is now represented by Prince William and his wife Kate. He will have to make his own unique imprint in this new world, and he could start doing so by holding a royal visit in Israel.
Herzog hails Queen Elizabeth II as an ‘icon of stability,’ to represent Israel at her funeral
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Saturday night signed the condolence book for Queen Elizabeth II at the residence of the British ambassador to Israel, according to a statement by his office.

“On behalf of the State and the People of Israel, I express my deepest condolences on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose reign was momentous and historic. She was an icon of stability and [a] beacon of morality in the service of her people,” Herzog wrote.

“May G-d bless King Charles III and may he reign in peace. ‘The king by justice establishes the land (Proverbs 29:4),'” he added.

The Queen died on Thursday at age 96. She was surrounded by the royal family, including her children, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Her seven-decade reign was the longest ever of a British monarch.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid at the time expressed his condolences, calling the Queen “an extraordinary figure, a unique leader who symbolized devotion and love for her homeland.”

For his part, Herzog called the Queen’s death “the end of an era.”

The Israeli president will represent Jerusalem at the Queen’s funeral in London on September 19, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
Will Queen Elizabeth’s Death Trigger a New Era in the Royal Relationship With Israel?
In 2018, however, the Queen’s grandson and future heir to the throne, Prince William, broke with precedent and became the first British royal to travel to Israel in an official capacity when he toured Israel and Jordan and also met with representatives from the Palestinian Authority.

William’s father Charles followed suit in 2020 and represented Britain at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, although he had visited Israel unofficially twice before when he attended the funerals of former Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

In addition, he paid his respects at the Jerusalem tomb of his grandmother, Prince Alice, who is counted as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for sheltering Jews during the Holocaust, and was interred at the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene just outside the Old City.

Shortly after the official 2020 trip was announced, banker-philanthropist Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, called Charles “a big supporter and friend of the Jewish community, as well as of Israel, and this upcoming trip is a show of that huge sympathy and support.”

Jewish historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, a close friend of King Charles and the Queen Consort Camilla, said the 2020 visit was a sign that Britain and Israel were entering “a new phase of mutual respect.”

Like his mother was, the new King is a long-time friend of the UK’s Jewish community and reportedly forged a bond with the former Chief Rabbi of Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks. Upon Sacks’ death in 2020, Charles gave a heartfelt eulogy in which he described Lord Sacks as “a light unto the nations,” adding, “he was a trusted guide, an inspired teacher and a true and steadfast friend. I shall miss him more than words can say.”

As Charles begins his reign, it is no wonder there has been speculation that we could be ushering in a new era of a special royal relationship between the British Royal Family and the Jewish state.

It is an era that would presumably see Charles become the first British head of state to visit Israel and would therefore truly end the 70-year unofficial royal boycott.
Over 300 ‘significant’ terror attacks foiled so far this year, Shin Bet chief says
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said on Sunday that his security agency has foiled more than 300 “significant” terror attacks so far this year, as the Israeli military has ramped up operations in the West Bank under its direction.

“We foiled 312 significant terrorist attacks, stabbings, shootings, suicide attacks, and have made 2,110 arrests” since the beginning of the year, Bar said at a conference at Herzliya’s Reichman University.

At the same time, Bar cited a massive increase in shooting attacks against troops and civilians in the West Bank — 130 this year so far, compared to just 98 in 2021, and 19 in 2020.

Bar said Israel is required to boost its activity in the West Bank to foil further attacks, and that troops operating there are “a protective blanket” for Israeli citizens.

But he added that such operations come at a cost to Palestinians, with innocent people harmed and the status of the Palestinian Authority further declining among the local population.

To calm the tensions, Bar said the PA’s security services must be strengthened. “The Palestinian public wants this too, but it takes two to tango,” he said.
AFP (Again) Erases Nasser Abu Hamid’s Seven Murder Convictions
Not for the first time, Agence France Presse has erased Nasser Abu Hamid’s seven murder convictions, presenting him only as a Palestinian prisoner while withholding any indication about why he might be in jail. While yesterday’s captions mention that Abu Hamid (also spelled Abu Hmeid) is ill with cancer, they contain no inkling of the fact as to why he is sitting in jail. Thus, the captions refer to demands for “the release of Nasser Abu Hamid, a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel who suffers from cancer.” Surely his multiple murder convictions are at least as relevant to the caption as the fact that he is sick with cancer. A sampling of the incomplete captions follow:
Masked militants of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s “Aqsa Martyrs Brigades” armed faction march in centre of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 10, 2022, after a rally demanding the release of Nasser Abu Hamid, a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel who suffers from cancer. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP

Masked militants of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s “Aqsa Martyrs Brigades” armed faction march through an old market in centre of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 10, 2022, after a rally demanding the release of Nasser Abu Hamid, a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel who suffers from cancer. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP

Masked militants of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s “Aqsa Martyrs Brigades” armed faction gather in centre of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 10, 2022, after a rally demanding the release of Nasser Abu Hamid, a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel who suffers from cancer. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP

The news agencies’ attention to all kinds of detaild about Palestinian terrorists — their medical condition, age, family, how many prisoners before them supposedly died while in Israeli prison — stands in striking contrast to the repeated disinterest in reporting the terror acts which landed them in prison.
Jenin: The Palestinian Terror Capital & Its Threat to the Region
The Wasps’ Nest: Jenin Today
Today, Jenin is home to a number of internationally recognized Palestinian terrorist organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Of these organizations, PIJ is the largest and strongest in the region.

While these organizations always existed in Jenin, their activity was limited during the 15 years of quiet. However, during the past two years, these organizations have taken an active role in supporting and organizing violent attacks against both Israeli soldiers and civilians.

What has occurred during the past two years to turn Jenin back into a hive of terrorist activity?

According to Mor and Truzman, a number of factors have contributed to the recent rise in terrorist activity in the Jenin area: The development of rivalries between different Palestinian factions as to who will succeed Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinian Authority, the 2021 Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza, the escape of six Palestinian terrorists (all from the Jenin area) from Gilboa Prison in September 2021 and the rise in deadly clashes between Palestinian terrorists (many of whom were from Jenin) and Israeli forces in the latter half of 2021.

The last point is particularly relevant as it led to the founding of the Jenin Battalion. Formed in May 2021 and announced a few months later, the Jenin Battalion is affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad but also includes members from Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

The Battalion was founded as a means of more effectively resisting Israeli anti-terrorism operations in the Jenin area. The Battalion is composed of a number of small cells that are controlled by a joint operations room (known colloquially as “the wasps’ nest”).

The joint operations room monitors the entry of Israeli forces into Jenin and then commands Battalion members via cellular communications (such as the Telegram application) and mosque loudspeakers to engage the IDF soldiers with gunfire, Molotov cocktails and IEDs. This leads to the protracted gunfights between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen that have been recently reported in the news (see here, here and here).
PMW: Fatah proudly admits: Officer in PA Security Forces founded Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terror cell
The US and European trained Palestinian Authority Security Forces are meant to be fighting terror. In reality, as admitted by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement, they are actively participating in the very same terror they are meant to be preventing.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is an integral part of Abbas’ Fatah Movement. It is also an internationally designated terror organization. In the last months, terrorists from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades have been participating in an ever-growing number of terror attacks.

One such terrorist was Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, killed on Aug. 9, 2022 during a gun battle with Israeli security forces. While celebrating the terrorist, Fatah exposed, in a post on its official Facebook page, that Al-Nabulsi was part of a terror cell founded by an officer in the PA Security Forces and that three other Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terrorists, killed in February 2022, were also part of the same cell:
"Our heroic Martyrs Adham Mabrouka, Muhammad Al-Dakhil, Ashraf Mubaslat, Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, Abboud [Abd Al-Rahman] Sobeh, Islam Sobeh, and Muhammad Al-Azizi.
And heroic prisoner Abd Al-Hakim Shahin, an officer in the [PA] Security Forces and founder of the lions’ den group (i.e., terror cell from Nablus).
#The_Al-Aqsa_Martyrs’_Brigades
#The_lions’_den_group
#Fire_mountain (i.e., nickname for Nablus)”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Sept. 3, 2022]




UNRWA gives new tablets to kids in Gaza to learn tech

IDF intelligence report: ‘Reasonable risk’ of clash with Hezbollah in near future
An intelligence report produced by the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern command has assessed that there is a reasonable risk of an armed clash between Israel and Hezbollah in the near future, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

Hezbollah has become corrupt, and is losing support as it faces harsh criticism in Lebanon, the report states, according to Channel 12.

The terror organization’s leadership is also losing control over the actions of its armed operatives in the field, the report continues. Following the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a United States drone strike in Baghdad, Nasrallah has been increasingly isolated, and the Iranian Hezbollah Syria axis has weakened.

In light of the above, Hezbollah is attempting to secure credit for a future Israeli-Lebanese maritime gas deal. However, the report warned that Nasrallah could still seek to exit his “trap” by sparking a war. Whoever replaces Nasrallah will likely be weaker than him but also more dangerous, the report added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. mediator in the Israeli-Lebanese maritime talks, Amos Hochstein, is scheduled to visit Doha, Qatar, and a Qatari firm has expressed readiness to explore gas in Lebanese exclusive economic water, Lebanese television station MTV reported on Friday.
Syrian doctor gathering intel for Mossad captured in Lebanon - report
A Syrian doctor working for the Mossad was arrested by Lebanese authorities at Beirut Airport, Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Akhbar reported on Saturday.

He was arrested last month after Lebanese authorities gathered intelligence suggesting the doctor was collecting maps and information on Syria's sewer networks and water infrastructure, as per the report.

Posing as an employee of a fictitious company that claims to purify Syria's waters, the doctor reportedly gathered intelligence significant to Israel's security.

According to the report, the doctor also acted as an intermediary for Mossad in alleged attempts to recruit his father and two brothers, officers in the Syrian Armed Forces.

The potential recruits were offered up to "thousands of Euros" to collect security intel for Israel, the report claimed.

The doctor, who was reportedly born in Latakia in 1969, initially entered Syria on foot through Lebanon, to where he arrived from Sweden. He was arrested after local authorities traced his social media accounts, where they found conversations with his Israeli handlers and other Israeli intelligence officials.
AP Captions Adopt Hezbollah Language on Lebanese Maritime ‘Rights to Its Oil and Gas Fields’
In fact, only the northern portion of Karish is in territory claimed by Lebanon as “disputed,” and the rig itself is found entirely in the area both Israel and Lebanon agree is outside Lebanon’s EEZ.

While the captions don’t explicitly mention Karish, the context leaves little doubt that the protesters intend this gas field when they demand “Lebanon’s right to its maritime oil and gas fields.” In fact, that language is straight out of Hezbollah’s talking points about Karish. Indeed, Hezbollah recently threatened Israel after the installment of the Karish rig last month, including with the July 31 video (below) featuring Karish as a target and warning that “playing with time is useless.” As the AP story about this maritime confrontation makes clear (“Lebanon flotilla rallies at Israel sea border ahead of talks“):
The Israeli military in early July shot down three Hezbollah unarmed drones flying over the disputed Karish gas field in the Mediterranean.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati criticized Hezbollah, saying the move could pose risks to the country. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an interview that month said the militant group can locate and strike Karish and any other Israeli gas field.

Both Al Hurra and BBC Arabic recently commendably corrected after making the more minor error that Lebanon claims that the Karish drilling field “is within disputed territorial waters.” (Again, only the northern part of the field lies in water that Lebanon claims as disputed.) AP’s error goes further, not only inaccurately designating Karish as “disputed,” but actually Lebanese.

Separately, AP’s caption inaccurately bizarrely locates the scene “in the southern marine border town of Naqoura, Lebanon.” (Emphasis added.) Obviously, the boats are in the water, not in the town of Naqoura. They are near the Lebanese town of Naqoura, and also near the Israeli town of Rosh Hanikra. But by falsely identifying the location as “in” the Lebanese town of Naqoura, AP bolsters Hezbollah’s narrative of Israel encroaching on Lebanese resources.
Israeli official predicts no return to Iran deal before US midterms in November
Israel does not believe that Iran and world powers will return to their nuclear deal before the November midterm elections in the United States, a senior Israeli official said on Sunday morning.

Furthermore, “If the US doesn’t give into Iran’s demands, and Iran doesn’t give into US demands and the IAEA doesn’t close the probes, there will be no return to the agreement,” the official said.

The official asserted that Iran does not have any intention of returning to the nuclear agreement without additional concessions by the West. At the same time, Israel “doesn’t have any expectation that Iran will agree [to a new deal].”

“Iran must be pressured by the West before it accepts a new deal,” the official continued, emphasizing that “there are many things that can be done to cause Iran to understand that time is not on its side.”

The official made the remarks to Israeli journalists hours before Prime Minister Yair Lapid was to fly to Berlin, where talks over Iran’s nuclear program will be front and center.

The original 2015 agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, gave Iran sanctions relief in return for restricting its nuclear program.

But in 2018, then-US president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal and began reimposing biting sanctions, prompting Tehran to roll back on its commitments under the agreement.
E3: Iran’s nuke program has expanded ‘far beyond any plausible civilian justification’
Britain, France and Germany on Saturday released a joint statement denouncing Iran for failing to negotiate in good faith a new deal to curb its nuclear program.

According to the statement, Iran’s nuclear program had continued to expand “far beyond any plausible civilian justification,” AFP reported.

The three countries, known as the E3, are all parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, which they along with Russia, China and the United States have been trying to revive through a series of negotiations in Vienna that began in the spring of 2021.

In their statement, the Europeans blamed Tehran for not taking “advantage of the decisive diplomatic opportunity” after the European Union last month presented to the Islamic Republic what was described at the time as a “final” draft proposal for a new agreement, according to AFP.

Instead, the statement said that Iran had “reopened separate issues” and that its position was “inconsistent” with “legally binding international obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and its safeguards agreement under the NPT concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

In this respect, the statement noted that Tehran had not adequately responded to the IAEA’s resolution in June calling on Iran to explain the presence of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites.

“Iran must fully and without delay cooperate in good faith with the IAEA,” the statement said.
Will a third intifada follow a new Iran nuclear agreement?
The likely repercussions of billions of dollars flooding terror organizations in the Levant should not be underestimated. The deal’s proponents seem to have blinders on, not wanting to look a short distance down the road to see how sanctions relief for Iran could be like throwing gasoline on the smoldering embers of a fire. Iran’s goal is to surround Israel from all sides, or as security and defense expert reserve general Yaakov Amidror says, create a “ring of fire” around the Jewish state under a nuclear umbrella. How an Iran deal might affect terrorism in the Middle East

Even though the JCPOA has been a hotly debated issue for the last eight years in the US, and Iran has remained a primary American villain ever since the hostage-taking in 1979, US citizens can be forgiven for minimizing the importance of this issue with so many other domestic concerns overwhelming them.

Forgotten, even among the minority that cares about the nefarious behavior of the Islamic Republic, is the nature of the regime, which is revolutionary in ideology and whose expansionist and racist agenda against Jews is baked into its DNA. The West underappreciates how the destruction of the “Zionist entity” is essential to the Islamic Republic’s hegemonic plan to reshape the region and bring their form of radical Shi’ite Islam to the world, including the majority Sunni population.

Increased funding from Iran will also fill the coffers of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and their 150,000 missiles, many with precision guidance, will grow substantially. Off the radar is Iran’s goal to control southern Syria and either bribe or ethnically cleanse the population of southern Syria, to create an Iranian-controlled military presence opposite the Israeli Golan Heights, as it has in southern Lebanon, and also to threaten Jordan from its north.

The false promise by the Biden administration that sanctions relief won’t benefit the Revolutionary Guards Corps will be on full display as folly with an enriched Hezbollah threatening Israel from Lebanon and coordinating with the Revolutionary Guard’s proxies in Syria, Iraq and Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

If a new intifada draws its lifeblood from American sanctions relief, Israeli civilians will be the first to pay the price. The repercussions for the rest of us follow.


PreOccupiedTerritory: I Feel Like My Kid’s ‘Happy Birthday Osama’ Banner Didn’t Go Over Well Today by Hamda al-Fadi, DMV clerk (satire)
My son turned five today, and I thought we’d acknowledge his milestone by not just keeping the celebration within the walls of our apartment, but showing him we want to share the occasion with the whole neighborhood. That we’re so proud he’s ours! But things took a dark turn the moment we put up a sign in the window facing the street. It turns out that people don’t want to see “Happy Birthday Osama!” in this city? Who knew?

We had hostile people knocking on our door all day. I got tired of explaining it’s a name with a proud history in our family, and carries connotations of fame and glory – it means “name” or “fame” in Arabic, and it was my great-grandfather’s name back in Syria. I even showed them photos of my little angel. But folks got angry. They yelled something about doing this “today of all days.” Of course it’s going to be today! It’s his birthday!

I thought America was more tolerant than this. I thought New York City was more tolerant than this. “Nine-eleven. Nine-eleven.” That’s all I heard the whole day. Yes I know it’s nine-eleven! I got used to your backwards American way of rendering dates with the month before the day instead of the normal way the rest of the world does it, from more specific to less, day-month-year. You think I can’t pick up a new date format the way I picked up your weird mongrel language? It’s the condescension for me.

Also a whole bunch of people kept comparing it to naming my son “Adolph.” Why would I name my sone Adolph? I’m not German and its Arabic equivalent is lame, as names go.
Why Yeshiva University has a First Amendment right to deny official status to an LGBTQ student group
Yeshiva does not condemn or demean students who are LGBTQ. President Dr. Ari Berman has issued a public statement directing “LGBTQ sensitivity” and “absolutely” welcoming and supporting students regardless of their personal sexual orientation. In fact, Yeshiva has permitted the LGBTQ group to meet openly. The students do not allege they are mistreated in any way by Yeshiva other than by the refusal to accord them the full status of an officially sanctioned student club.

Yeshiva’s legal argument is straightforward: New York’s law against gender discrimination may not force an institution committed to religious values to issue a stamp of approval for conduct that violates the institution’s religious commands. Local law cannot override the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. That constitutional claim surely has enough substance that a New York court should have delayed the implementation of Kotler’s order while Yeshiva pursues its appeal.

But Yeshiva’s claim extends beyond protecting religious doctrine. May a court direct any private university, whether or not it is guided by religious precept, to confirm and grant official status to ideologies or practices that offend values fundamental to the university? Supreme Court decisions protecting free speech—entirely apart from religious principles—have recognized a private organization’s right to exclude speakers whose message offends the organization’s values.


Inside StoryIn its $1.3t demand from Germany, Poland seeks reparations for Jews killed by Poles
A report released by the Polish government last week to justify its demands for reparations from Germany for World War II cited the deaths of Jews who were killed by Polish citizens, not Nazis, in an apparent effort to whitewash Polish crimes during the Holocaust.

The third volume of the three-volume, 1,300-plus-page document, “The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation during the Second World War, 1939–1945,” includes a list of 9,293 villages, towns and cities where “Nazi German atrocities” took place, along with their death tolls. Poland demanded 1.3 trillion euros ($1.29 trillion) in reparations for the damages.

Commenting on the release of the report and the reparations demands, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the money was primarily “compensation for the deaths of more than 5.2 million Polish citizens.”

However, included in the list of atrocities are villages that were the sites of Polish pogroms against Jews — perhaps most infamously the village of Jedwabne, where over 300 Jews were burned alive by ethnic Poles — as well as other Jewish deaths that can be tied to Polish citizens. Direct attacks by Poles against Jews were mostly carried out in eastern Poland in 1941 as Germany retook the area from the Soviets, who had controlled it brutally from 1939 under the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.

Jan Grabowski, a Polish-born professor at the University of Ottawa and leading researcher of the Holocaust, called the inclusion of those atrocities in the list “quite appalling.”

“I really have no idea whether it was an act of intentional obfuscation or simply mindless inclusion of unreliable sources dating back to the 1950 and 1960s. Not for me to say,” he told The Times of Israel in an email on Thursday.
Microsoft Launches New Streaming Tech Developed by Israel R&D Team
Microsoft has announced a new technology for its Teams platform, Microsoft eCDN, developed by Microsoft Israel Research and Development. The new technology will significantly improve the quality of video streaming in large-scale live broadcasts without overloading the enterprise network and will allow organizations to hold streaming events for millions of users simultaneously.

The new technology is based on the innovation developed at Peer5, an Israeli startup acquired by Microsoft last August. This technology allows organizations to hold organization-wide training and Town Halls, in a private, secure, and efficient manner without compromising the quality of the video or overloading the enterprise network.

eCDN (Enterprise Content Delivery Network) technology can overcome bandwidth limitations and enables secure video streaming broadcasts to large audiences. The browser-based technology is the first of its kind not to require installation at endpoints.

The new technology is based on WebRTC which operates within the browser and improves bandwidth used by peer-to-peer networks. In this way, the technology moderates the impact on the corporate network and on other business applications running at the same time. The company’s peer-to-peer networks balance themselves and expand automatically according to the increase in the number of users. The technology does not require any changes to the physical network infrastructure and can be implemented very quickly.
Moroccan Muslims are reviving Jewish heritage in former Jewish neighborhoods
Moroccans now living in the mellahs – historic urban neighborhoods in Moroccan cities that were once thriving Jewish quarters – do not know anything about the people who lived there before them. These neighborhoods later became small, mostly poor ghettos, with little to no connection to Jews today.

But a new program might change this. “Rebuilding Our Homes” is a multi-year US Agency for International Development-supported New Partnership Initiative of the American Sephardi Federation and Mimouna Association. It aims to revive the prosperous Jewish life in the historic urban areas in Fez, Essaouira and Rabat, by teaching their current residents about local history, and helping to make them part of the rich heritage of the place.

“We make the residents of these neighborhoods take part in preserving the place by letting them document and upload photos of old Jewish houses to our archive, and teaching them Hebrew,” Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation, told The Media Line.

Guberman is one of the founders of the three-year project, which still has another 18 months to go.

“We wanted to establish a connection between youth and grownups in these neighborhoods and their own history – as well as to the rich Jewish heritage surrounding them,” he explained.




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