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Friday, September 30, 2022

09/30 Links Pt1: ‘You little boy’: Abbas says he scolded Blinken for not pressuring Israel; PA envoy: Israel has committed most terrible massacres since WWII

From Ian:

‘You little boy’: Abbas says he scolded Blinken for not pressuring Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Palestinian Americans last week that he scolded US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for failing to pressure Israel to make peace.

While Abbas has not shied away from publicly vocalizing his frustration with the Biden administration over the past year, his remarks during a private meeting with representatives of the Palestinian diaspora on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York appeared to go further and included the belittling of the United States’s top diplomat.

In a recording of the September 22 meeting obtained by The Times of Israel, the PA leader recalled a recent phone conversation with Blinken during which Abbas said he grew frustrated with what he called a recurring US practice of claiming that Israel is not interested in peace, while refusing to use the American bully pulpit to pressure Jerusalem into moving in that direction.

“I told Blinken, ‘You little boy, don’t do that,'” Abbas told the Palestinian Americans, speaking in Arabic. Some details of the meeting were first published by the Haya Washington Arabic news site.

Abbas said he then recalled to Blinken how during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip after US president Dwight Eisenhower ordered prime minister David Ben Gurion to do so.

“I know your history,” Abbas said he told Blinken, detailing a string of phone calls that Eisenhower held with Ben Gurion at the time. In one of those conversations, the PA leader said the US president called the Israeli prime minister and asked, “David, have you gotten out of [Gaza]? Tonight, you’ll withdraw and you’ll tell me yourself that you’ve done so.'”

“Ben Gurion wrote in his memoirs that he withdrew that same night,” Abbas said, seeking to prove that the US has the power to press Israel when it wants to.

Commenting on the testy conversation with the US secretary of state, the PA president said he told Blinken: “The lesson [from this] is not to say, ‘My beloved, do this or don’t do that,'” when dealing with Israel, but rather to use the “red phone” and the authority of the president’s office to strong-arm Israel into changing its policies. He claimed the US deals with “190 countries” in this manner, but not Israel.

Abbas told the meeting attendees he used to believe US administrations that claimed that Israel does not want peace. However, he now realizes that “it’s not that the Israelis don’t want peace but the Americans don’t want peace.”


PA envoy: Israel has committed most terrible massacres since WWII
Israel has executed the worst humanitarian massacres since World War II ended in 1945, Palestinian Authority Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi charged in a speech he delivered to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Friday.

"Israel has committed the most terrible crimes and massacres against humanity since WWII," he said.

"So, Israel is the primary [nation] responsible for the international legal chaos supported by the positions of a number of countries led by America," he said, as he accused the Biden Administration of "blind bias" toward Israel.

The UN, he said, must work to deter "Israeli aggression" and to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law.

Khraishi spoke under Agenda Item 7, during the 51st session of the UNHRC, which began on September 12 and is slated to end on October 7.

The UNHRC is mandated to debate alleged Israeli violations of international humanitarian law at each one of its three annual sessions. Such a mandate has not been leveled against any other country. Israel routinely boycotts Agenda Item 7, arguing that it is an example of UN bias against Israel.

Khraishi's speech to the council fell in line with the increasingly hostile PA rhetoric against Israel. His words were delivered in Arabic and translated into English by the UN.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas was condemned in August when he compared Israel's actions against the Palestinians with those of the Nazis, which sought to exterminate the Jewish people and who killed six million Jews during the Holocaust.
Seth Frantzman: Nord Stream sabotage will permanently shift global trade
Headlines on September 29 painted an increasingly worrying picture. CNN said that European security officials say Russian ships were in the waters near the pipeline when the leaks occurred. A fourth leak was discovered on Thursday. According to Reuters, “NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday attributed the leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines to acts of sabotage and said he had discussed the protection of critical infrastructure in NATO countries with the Danish defense minister.”

Reports say that seismic meters recorded the explosions that damaged the lines. Now there is concern that a new phase of “hybrid war” may be coming, and Russia could use these kinds of incidents to upset the global order.

It’s worth thinking about what this means globally. Nord Stream was seen as an important project worth tens of billions of dollars, mostly financed by banks in Europe and by Gazprom. Reports said that Gazprom’s investments were driven by Moscow’s interests and geopolitics.

Russia was not only working on these lines – bypassing Baltic states and trying to literally get Europe addicted to the line from Moscow directly – but Russia was also moving ahead with Turk Stream, a project under the Black Sea to Turkey. This means that Turkey was also angling with Russia to make Europe dependent.

How does this impact Israel?
This matters also for Israel and the Middle East because Israel, Greece and Cyprus wanted to partner on an East Med line. It’s not a coincidence that Iranian-backed Hezbollah has threatened the Karish gas field off the coast. Iran has exported drones to Hezbollah, which has tried to use them to threaten the infrastructure working the field. Russia is also acquiring Iranian drones and using them against Ukraine.

The threat that Hezbollah poses to offshore gas platforms – and that Russia apparently poses to undersea pipelines going to Europe – links to related aspects of this hybrid war and shows how non-Western regimes may work together to wreak havoc on energy supplies.

The realization that Russia cannot be trusted to supply gas securely to Europe is leading to an earthshaking, once-in-a-generation event. Global economies, which have been marching zombie-like in one direction toward globalization and knitting everyone together, are now moving in a new direction.

This regional protectionism is embodied not only by Europe’s shift away from relying on Russian gas, but also by forums like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and other regimes recently met. Those countries want to work together and they are almost all authoritarian regimes.

Meanwhile, the US, Europe and Western states, and their allies in Asia such as Japan, South Korea and India, also want to work together. Israel’s growing ties with the United Arab Emirates and with South Korea, with free trade talks recently resulting in a new deal, represent an important step for the global economy and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Connecting the dots between Europe, the US, Israel, the UAE, India, Australia and other countries makes economic sense – but it also showcases how global trade networks are shifting.


Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is Israel’s ground zero - opinion
WHILE MUSLIMS play soccer and desecrate antiquities, Jews have been prosecuted for reciting the Shema.

As I said, the winds of change are beginning to blow, and the only reason they are is because there have been consistent challenges to protocols that have been upheld in court.

Increasingly, prayer is being heard, both individually and even in minyans. Israeli flags have been known to appear, and even the “Hatikvah” has been sung. Most recently, intrepid members of B’yadenu, including our CEO and a Board Member, along with former MK Yehuda Glick, blew shofarot outside the Eastern wall of the Mount, prompting their knee-jerk detention, but ultimately – after legal intervention – their release.

Just as the Abraham Accords succeeded in bursting the bubble of received wisdom as to how peace could be advanced in the Middle East, so too, it is high time for Israel’s leaders to recognize that they must break out of the failed assumptions and approach that have characterized Israel’s control, or lack thereof, of the Temple Mount.

It is time to assert our sovereignty over our holiest site, to send a clear, unambiguous message to the world, friends and adversaries alike, that the Temple Mount will indeed be a place for free worship and association by respectful people of all faiths, including Jews.

At a time when Hamas chooses to project itself as the “Guardians of Jerusalem” and when segments of the Arab community see the opportunity to exploit Israeli reasonableness and compromise for the weakness that is ultimately perceived, it is absolutely critical that we assert ourselves on the Temple Mount.

Al-Aqsa has never been nor will ever be under attack, except if the mere presence of Jews on the Temple Mount is perceived as a threat in the ethnically cleansed mentality of some Muslim visitors. To that perception, we need to invoke timeless kindergarten wisdom: “well, we’re sorry you feel that way, but you are going to have to learn to share.”

I am very proud of the individuals and the organizations who, with great clarity, and even greater determination, have made the reclamation of the Temple Mount into a new Jewish imperative. The proof of that determination is the dramatic rise in Jewish ascendance to the Temple Mount. More than 50,000 Jews ascended this past year, a number greater than any time since the destruction of the Second Temple.

In this new year, may we redouble our efforts to extend our rights, presence and our connection with the Temple Mount. It is not a zero-sum game. Asserting our rights comes with no derogation to anyone else.

When King Solomon inaugurated the First Temple, he invited the nations of the world to come to pray there. We are similarly welcoming. It’s just that it is long overdue for the Temple Mount to be beckoning and welcoming to Jews.

Next year on the Temple Mount!


The Israel Guys: Do the Palestinians Have a Right to Their Own State?
The day before Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid dropped his bombshell at the UN where he announced his support of the two-state solution, Joe Biden said much the same thing, but with a unique twist. At the UN General Assembly, Biden proclaimed his support for the two-state solution, but he went a step further, and said that Palestinians are “entitled” to their own state.

At first glance, this makes sense, and seems like it should be true. On today’s program however, we take a deep dive into why the Palestinian Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria are not entitled to their own state. Indeed, the creation of this state would be the worst thing that could happen to Palestinian Arabs, and it would be political suicide for Israel.




Deadly Standards Bloody Days in Jenin Vs. Tel Aviv
It’s a noteworthy data point. But it also gives a highly misleading picture when other relevant information – like the fact that all of the four fatalities were gunmen affiliated with designated terror organizations – is concealed or obscured.

Both AP and Reuters failed to make that basic information clear. By highlighting yesterday’s high number of fatalities and whitewashing the fact that all of them were gunmen affiliated with terror groups, media outlets falsely portrayed Israel killing with abandon, recklessly gunning down innocent Palestinians.

Indeed, the selective reporting gives sustenance to the false charges of Palestinian Authority’s presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh, as quoted in the CNN story:
[T]he Israeli occupation continues to play with the lives of our Palestinian people, and is tampering with security and stability by continuing its policy of escalation.

Israel is still a state above international law, and that Israel and the United States of America have lost their credibility by demanding calm and the preservation of stability, and on the ground practice all forms of escalation, killing and destruction against the Palestinian people, their land and their holy sites.

Consider, in contrast, the different understanding that emerges when a news agency makes clear even in the headline that Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen, and not simply four Palestinians. Reuters, to its credit, went that route, forthrightly reporting: “Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinian gunmen in flashpoint West Bank town.” The accompanying article began: “Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday . . . .”

In addition, Reuters added: “The Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades factions said four of their gunmen were killed.” That’s information that AP and CNN did not report. (Analyst Joe Truzman observed that both terror organizations claimed the four men, but open source material suggests they were Islamic Jihad members.)

AP captions encapsulated the distorted portrayal of events by highlighting “deadly raids” and ignoring that the fatality was violently attacking troops when he was killed and that he was a member of a terror organization.
US asks Israel to launch investigation after boy dies during riots
Israel said it was not involved in the death of a Palestinian boy who family members said died form heart failure while running away from troops.

The US State Department voiced sorrow at the incident and encouraged an investigation. Seven-year-old Rayyan Suleiman was coming home from school with other pupils in the village of Tuqu when troops gave chase, and he "died on the spot from fear," his father Yasser said in a video circulated on social media.

A medical official who inspected the body told Reuters that it bore no sign of physical trauma and that the death appeared consistent with heart failure. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the incident as "an ugly crime" by Israel.

An Israeli military spokesman said troops were in the vicinity at the time to search for Palestinians suspected of fleeing into the village after having thrown rocks at motorists.

"An initial inquiry shows no connection between the searches conducted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the area and the tragic death of the child," the spokesman said.

In Washington, deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, "The US is heartbroken to learn of the death of an innocent Palestinian child."

"We support a thorough and immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the child's death" alongside an Israeli military probe, he added.


Jonathan Tobin: Obama and Biden aided the real war on women in Iran. Can the US change course?
Apparently, there are some mistakes from which the U.S. foreign-policy establishment thinks it can learn. In 2009, when Iranian protesters thronged the streets of Tehran to protest a rigged election for the president, the United States said and did virtually nothing.

But faced with another surge in protests against the despotic government of Iran, the Biden administration is trying to behave slightly differently. Rather than ignoring or downplaying the efforts of courageous individuals (particularly the women who are defying the oppression of the Islamist morality police) pushing for change, President Joe Biden publicly sided with them during his speech last week at the United Nations General Assembly. His administration has also taken some steps to help restore satellite links and Internet service that the Islamist regime in Tehran has shut down in order to aid its repression.

That’s a commendable step. But, coming as it does after this administration has done so much to strengthen Iran’s theocrats by seeking to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, it’s too little and too late to deserve much praise.

Still, when National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confessed last weekend that the Obama administration—in which he, Biden and most of the current foreign-policy team served—erred by standing aloof from the struggles of the Iranian people in 2009, it was something of a breakthrough. Such an admission of error was novel in and of itself for a group that operates as if everything it’s always believed and done—especially with respect to the Middle East—was and always will be correct.

Contrary to Sullivan’s grudging acknowledgment, however, the problem wasn’t merely one of tactics, with the U.S. feeling that public support from America would hurt, rather than help, the Iranian freedom-seekers.

At the time, President Barack Obama was just beginning his effort to appease Iran’s theocratic regime. The brutal oppression of the Iranians who dared to challenge that regime—symbolized by the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan by the security forces—came only weeks after he had launched his effort to fundamentally alter America’s approach to the region with a speech in Cairo, Egypt.

In that speech, Obama apologized to Muslims for a generation of U.S. foreign policy and made an analogy between the Holocaust and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. It was the start of a process by which Obama would reorient the U.S. away from its traditional allies in the region, Israel and the Sunni-Arab states led by Saudi Arabia. The object of his initiative was not just to make good on his Cairo promises to renounce what he considered his nation’s sins of the past, or even merely to achieve a rapprochement with Iran. Rather, it was an attempt to shift to a position in which America’s friends would be more or less replaced by a foe as Washington de-engaged from the Middle East. The deal with Iran that enriched the regime and legalized its nuclear program, while ensuring that it would eventually obtain nuclear weapons with Western permission, was key to this strategy.
Seth Frantzman: Why do ongoing Iran protests have the regime flailing, worried?
What is different this time than in past protests?

For one thing, the US and the West has been more openly supportive of the rights of the Iranians to protest.

This would seem an obvious cause. Here you have a regime whose police killed a woman. Westerners who preach about women’s rights and diversity would seem hypocrites if they didn’t back Iranian women’s rights to protest.

However, The New York Times pointed out that “the last time waves of protests swept Iran, after the killing of a young woman who was standing on the sidelines of an anti-government rally in 2009, Barack Obama hesitated to back the anti-government movement publicly for fear that Tehran would claim the CIA was secretly sparking the unrest.”

It’s not clear if this assessment is accurate. The Obama administration in 2009 was already setting sights on a shift in relations with Tehran, wanting to talk to the regime and work on nuclear issues.

The same administration was seeking a reset with Russia, to be able to work with Russia and Iran; both of whom are US adversaries. For supporters of working with the Iranian regime, the argument was that the regime could help “stabilize” the Middle East.

This theory was one that was held by other experts. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, a book slamming pro-Israel voices in the US, had been published in 2007. One of its authors was quoted in 2012 as arguing that “a nuclear-armed Iran would bring stability to the region.”

It’s worth recalling that the paradigm at the time asserted that the US could work with Tehran. To work with them, you can’t be undermining the regime too. That means US interests at the time were to keep the regime in power and not let protesters undermine it. The stronger the regime, the more it could be relied on.

By contrast, a weaker regime might not adhere to a “deal” and it might change hands from what the US termed “moderates” to “hardliners” or even be overthrown.


Call Me Back PodCast: Cracks in Iran’s Theocracy – a view from a former CIA officer
We have all seen the images of women in cities across Iran burning their headscarves and cutting their hair in public to chants of “Death to the dictator.”.

The protests began after the September 13th death of 22-year-old Masha Amini. According to reports, Iranian morality police had accused Amini of violating laws mandating women cover their hair.

These events appear to have sparked a major public backlash against the Iranian regime. But how serious is the threat to the Iranian regime?

Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Earlier, he served as a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. In that role, he was focused on Iran targets.

Among his many books, Reuel is the author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy. He has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Dispatch.


Iran accused of massacre in South amid wave of protests
Footage showing Iranian security forces massacring protesters using live ammunition in Zehdan, southern Iran during Friday prayers was posted online, showing shows Iranians bleeding and apparently shot.

Other videos purportedly show the aftermath of clashes between locals and members of the local security forces, with protesters allegedly trying to storm a police station and being shot.

Protests in minorities-dominated areas surge in Iran
The recent incident came as protests continue in Iran and the regime appears to be resorting to more force against the protesters. In Sistan Balochistan, Iran fears a larger rebellion among the minority Baloch people. This area borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. There has been an insurgency in this region for many years, including across the border in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in Ahwaz, the province in Iran’s Southwest which contains a large Arab minority, there were also protests reported on Friday. The overall picture then is one of the growth of the protests in southern Iran. The protests began in the Kurdistan region two weeks ago, but they have spread to Tehran and many other cities. The regime was careful the first week to not carry out massacres.

However, as the protests are now two weeks old the regime is lashing out and has threatened to attack US forces in Iraq after attacking Kurdish opposition groups on September 28 with missiles and drones. Iran has been bombarding these Kurdish groups for a week.

Iran claims to foil "Zionist plan for chaos"
In addition, on Thursday night, Iranian media reported that it had foiled what the regime called a “Zionist” plan for chaos in Iran. The regime also admitted numerous banks and financial institutions had been damaged in the protests.


Soccer-Women’s Rights Group Calls on FIFA to Kick Iran Out of World Cup
Rights group Open Stadiums have called on FIFA to throw Iran out of the World Cup finals in Qatar in November because of the country’s treatment of women.

In a letter sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Thursday, the organisation said Iranian authorities continued to refuse to allow female fans access to games inside the country despite pressure from the game’s governing body.

“The Iranian FA is not only an accomplice of the crimes of the regime. It is a direct threat to the security of female fans in Iran and wherever our national team plays in the world. Football should be a safe space for us all,” the letter said.

“That is why, as Iranian football fans, it is with an extremely heavy heart that we have to raise our deepest concern about Iran’s participation in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

“Why would FIFA give the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage, while it not only refuses to respect basic human rights and dignities, but is currently torturing and killing its own people?

“Where are the principles of FIFA’s statues in this regard?

“Therefore, we ask FIFA, based on Articles 3 and 4 of its statutes, to immediately expel Iran from the World Cup 2022 in Qatar.”

The articles cited cover the issues of human rights and non-discrimination based on gender, race, religion and other matters, with breaches punishable by suspension or expulsion from the global body.

Neither FIFA nor Iran’s FA immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.




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