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Friday, October 07, 2022

10/07 Links Pt1: PA summer camps - terror training camps for kids; Blame Biden’s disastrous Iran and energy policies for Lapid’s Lebanon fiasco

From Ian:

PMW Special Report: PA summer camps - terror training camps for kids
In recent months, many young Palestinians have died as “Martyrs” while carrying out terror attacks against Israelis – be it throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks, stabbings or shootings. What is it that make kids want this? The answer is what Palestinian Media Watch has pointed out for years: That the PA and its leading party Fatah – both led by Mahmoud Abbas – as policy encourage kids (and adults) to carry out terror and seek Martyrdom - and thereby become heroes.

Now that the summer holiday is over it is important to examine the values the PA and Fatah decided to bestow on Palestinian kids via their summer camps – one of the “tools” the PA uses to inculcate the ideals of terror against Israel and Martyrdom.

One distinctive PA message was that terrorist murderers are heroes. Being presented with this strong role modeling for decades impacts on kids, and many young Palestinians set out to die as Martyrs, seeking to earn the ultimate glory in Palestinian society.

Announcing the opening of the summer camps, PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Head Jibril Rajoub explained that 42,000 young Palestinians were to participate in 600 camps. Rajoub stated that:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary and Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Jibril Rajoub: “The goal of these camps is to serve as a melting pot and formulate the consciousness of these children according to the Palestinian national ideology.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 19, 2022]

Same Rajoub strongly hinted at the content of the teachings in the PA/Fatah summer camps when he in his opening speech singled out terrorist murderer Thaer Hammad who killed 10 Israelis as “deserving of blessings”:
Jibril Rajoub: “[Silwad] is the town of Thaer Hammad (i.e., terrorist, murdered 10), who deserves blessings, and who constituted a milestone in proactive national action. Blessings to him, his family, and our prisoners from Silwad and from throughout the homeland.”

[Facebook page of Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, July 18, 2022]

Prior to Rajoub’s opening of the camps, a Fatah “registration announcement” for participation in a camp under Fatah’s military unit Al-Asifa explained the camp activities which clearly sound like military training and combat, among them: “military order and discipline, infantry, combat skills and Shooting live ammunition at a shooting range”; (emphasis added)


Melanie Phillips: Democracy’s watchdog has abandoned its role
It has often been said that the media is a pillar of democracy because it keeps our politicians honest.

Lifting the veil of secrecy in which authorities like to cloak themselves, revealing inconvenient truths that expose the inadequacies and worse of government actions and subjecting all politicians to forensic questioning without bias—this is how the media acts in the public interest.

But when the media doesn’t deliver, truthfulness goes out of the window, propaganda and ignorance take over and democracy stumbles.

We see this in much Western coverage of Israel, with newspapers often delivering nothing more than thinly disguised Palestinian propaganda. So, people with no knowledge of Israel or Jewish history get a wholly false impression.

It’s in America, however, that we see most graphically and frighteningly the media’s abdication of its professional role.

The most influential mainstream media outlets have turned into brazen shills for the Democratic Party and became willing accomplices in the attempt to remove President Donald Trump via the bogus Russian conspiracy smear, which involved elements of the FBI, Justice Department and the Democrats.

At same time, the media refused to report troubling revelations of corruption involving President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s dealings with Ukraine, which implicated Biden senior as well.

And they have left Americans largely in the dark about the acute peril into which Biden’s policies are putting America, Israel and the West.
Jonathan Tobin: Blame Biden’s disastrous Iran and energy policies for Lapid’s Lebanon fiasco
Unfortunately, however, the Americans clearly hope that strong-arming Israel in order to help Iran-proxy Hezbollah—which will presumably profit, directly or indirectly, from Lebanon’s natural-gas business—will influence its masters in Tehran to stop stalling and sign a new, and even weaker, nuclear deal with the West.

If this happens after more humiliating U.S. concessions to Iran in the negotiations that will likely resume after the midterms, it ought to get Iranian oil flowing freely to the West. That could impact the price of oil in the long term and help the Democrats’ efforts to hold onto the White House in 2024, even if it also guarantees that the Iranians will eventually obtain a nuclear weapon. It will also constitute a betrayal of the courageous demonstrators who have taken to the streets in Iranian cities to resist the theocratic regime.

Lapid walked into this trap because he is committed to a strategy of avoiding public disputes with Biden at all costs. For months, as the Americans moved closer to an agreement with Iran that he knew was antithetical to any notion of protecting the security of Israel or its Arab allies, he spoke of trying to influence the U.S. not to go down the path of appeasement.

Iran’s hardline stance in negotiations momentarily seemed to vindicate him. Yet, when Biden gave him his marching orders on Lebanon, he appeared to have believed that he had no choice but to blindly obey.

Seen from this perspective, it’s clear that Lapid was not so much surrendering to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as he was to Biden, though the blow to Israel’s national interests was much the same.

It remains to be seen whether Biden will tolerate, even if only for the five weeks until the election, Lapid’s act of political survival in moving away from the Lebanon pact that the U.S. administration has ordered him to accept. What is obvious, however, is that Lapid has not yet learned what Netanyahu came to understand during the course of his 15 years as prime minister.

Managing relations with Israel’s sole superpower ally is the nation’s top foreign-policy priority. And though doing so is vitally important, Washington can’t be allowed to dictate to its small Israeli ally. The true measure of an Israeli prime minister’s diplomatic acumen is not how close he can stay to an American president. The real test is showing that a premier can say “no” to the Americans when it’s absolutely necessary, as it was with respect to the natural-gas-fields dispute.

Lapid failed that test. Biden and his team now understand how far they can push him, even when Israeli security is on the line. That’s a fatal flaw in any leader.
Behnam Ben Taleblu: You cannot stand with Iran’s women while seeking a deal with Tehran

JCPA: The Problem with Lapid’s Weak Conditions for Establishing a Palestinian State
At the UN General Assembly in September, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed the dream of reaching an arrangement with the Palestinians that would rid Israel of the reality of the “occupation,” while at the same time achieving security for Israel. His remarks show that he understands how far we are from a solution. However, Lapid’s formulations regarding the conditions for establishing a two-state solution for two peoples indicate too little familiarity with past discussions of the issue.

Israeli prime ministers and U.S. presidents have made it clear to the Palestinians that the realization of the idea of a Palestinian state depends on their willingness to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Only such recognition can lead, after time, to the abandonment of terrorism and acceptance of the reality of two states for two peoples, one of which is the Jewish people.

President Trump raised a series of additional conditions including the cessation of incitement and hate indoctrination, the cessation of the payment of salaries to terrorists, giving up the attempt to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court, and Palestinian willingness to accept Israeli security supremacy that would allow Israel to deal with those involved in terrorism against it in the territories of the Palestinian state.

As long as the Palestinians are committed to the narrative adhered to by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his UN remarks, the chances of a renewal of terrorism will be high. This narrative argues that the Palestinians have a vested right to the entire territory of historic Palestine, that there is no Jewish people and the Jews have no sovereign history in the Land of Israel/Palestine, and that Israel was established by colonialism and imperialism that wanted to rid themselves of the presence of the intolerable Jews in their countries and exploit them as a bridgehead in the struggle against Islam. Therefore, the Palestinians have the right and duty to fight for the realization of their goals, chief among them the victory over Zionism.

The idea that Israel needs to “strengthen the PA” reflects an exaggerated fear of its collapse. The PA is not in danger of collapse. It continues to function as a mechanism that manages the lives of Palestinians and employs some 160,000 officials. It also continues to be perceived, despite the criticism of its senior figures, as the Palestinians’ main national achievement. A focus on strengthening the PA ignores the fact that it does not fight terrorism but encourages it, perpetuates the Palestinian narrative through incitement, and works to promote this in the international arena as well.
Israel-EU annual meeting after decade hiatus - opinion
On Monday, Israel and the EU held their first “association council” meeting since 2012, resuming what was once an annual event, equivalent to the meetings Brussels conducts with many other countries. Although the summit didn’t produce any major agreements or diplomatic breakthroughs, writes Shany Mor, it is a sign of a dramatic change that has occurred over the past decade. The very fact that the discussion focused on energy, counterterrorism, military technology, and the situation in Ukraine—rather than on the Israel-Palestinian conflict—is evidence of this change:

Israel is no longer the isolated and boycotted outpost in the Middle East that it was for most of its history. It has peace treaties with six Arab states now, four of which were signed since the last association council meeting. There are direct flights from Tel Aviv to major cities in the region and a burgeoning trade between Israel and Gulf monarchies, including those without official relations.

It is a player in the regional alliance systems of both the Gulf and the eastern Mediterranean, just as it has also become a net energy exporter due to the discovery of large gas deposits of its shoreline. None of this was the case at the last council meeting in 2012. [Moreover], Israel has cultivated deep ties with a number of new member states in the EU from Central and Eastern Europe, whose presence in Brussels bridges cultural ideological gaps that were once much wider.

Beyond the diplomatic shifts, however, is an even larger change that has happened in European-Israeli relations. The tiny Israel defined by its conflict with the Arabs that Europeans once knew is no more. When the first Cooperation Agreement [between Israel and the EU’s precursor] was signed in 1975, Israel, with its three million people, was smaller than all the European member states save Luxembourg. Sometime in the next two years, the Israeli population will cross the 10 million mark, making it significantly larger than Ireland, Denmark, Finland, and Austria (among others), and roughly equal in population to Greece, Portugal, and Sweden.
Chief of UN Human Rights Council Staff Targeted Watchdog, Leaked Emails Reveal
Leaked emails show Tistounet instructed staff to use internet café to anonymously post negative material against UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer
According to disturbing internal emails from the first tranche of those leaked to UN Watch by other concerned UN colleagues of Tistounet, when the latter learned in November 2007 that Hillel Neuer was the victim of a wrongful arrest by U.S. police in a case of mistaken identity, his response, copied to the team of some 50 UNHRC staff, was “You made my day.”

Tistounet wrote to his staff: “Question is: how to put it on youtube without leaving a trace. It would be nice if someone (obviously from outside the UN, and as was suggested recently from an internet café for instance) could place it discreetly next to his videos concerning the Council…”

Tistounet dreamed of Interpol arrest warrant against Neuer, told staff to violate rules to comply with it if it came
Tistounet also wrote to his UNHRC staff:
“Forgot to mention: Should the individual below [Hillel Neuer] be subjected to an Interpol arrest warrant (so called ‘red notices’), do not hesitate to let us know. I have the feeling that in this specific circumstance we may ponder about the validity of these Interpol tools in a less dogmatic manner. It may be the case that together with the civil society unit we may forget to raise our usual objection to the Security Unit when they will exclude him from the list of those authorized to enter our premises… Cheers, eric”

In other words, the chief of staff to the world’s highest human rights body instructed his staff to violate their own UN procedures to comply with any false Interpol arrest warrant that might be filed against Neuer, in order, he hoped, to block his entry to UN premises in Geneva, and thereby prevent him from testifying before the Human Rights Council plenary.

Tistounet personally intercepted UN Watch speeches, drafted unjustified reprimands for chair to read, tampered with the time clock to run out UN Watch’s speaking time
Tistounet personally obtained all UN Watch speeches in advance, so he could draft unjustified reprimands for the chair to read out afterwards.

“Mr. Tistounet had a standing instruction that when a statement was received in advance from UN Watch, it was to be given directly to him either in his office or on the podium, and placed on the desk of his office if he could not be immediately located. This instruction did not exist for any other NGO,” said Reilly.

“On occasion, when a UN Watch speech was received in advance, Mr. Tistounet would request that I draft new language for the President to give a false impression that the speeches broke the rules.”

“He was fully aware that his advice to successive Presidents to reprimand UN Watch for disobeying rules was false, and that no rule was in fact being broken.”

In addition, when he could get away with it, Tistounet manipulated the clock to remove time from UN Watch.

“When points of order are made during speeches, the NGO liaison and Secretary are responsible for pressing a button on the podium to pause the NGO speaking time. it.”

“Mr. Tistounet issued a standing instruction that the button was not to be pressed during UN Watch speeches, but instead that their speaking time should be deemed to continue during the point of order. This instruction applied only to UN Watch.”

“Mr. Tistounet made clear on a number of occasions that his ultimate aim was to exclude Mr. Neuer and UN Watch more generally from UN premises.”


UNHRC refuses to debate China's human rights violations
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday refused to tackle China’s forced imprisonment of its Muslim Uyghur minority, defeating by a narrow margin a resolution that would have mandated a debate on the matter.

The very brief resolution did not condemn China’s actions, which some countries, including the United States, have described as genocide. It simply asked that the UNHRC “hold a debate on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region at its fifty-second session [in March 2023] under agenda item 2.”

The 47-member body rejected the US and Norwegian text in a vote of 19-17, with 11 abstentions.

US Ambassador to the UN Michele Taylor said she was “disappointed” by the vote, adding that “no country should be immune from a discussion at the council.”

The US, she pledged, “will continue to work closely with our partners to seek justice and accountability for victims of human-rights abuses and violations, including the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.”

Earlier, the resolution took a neutral position on the issue, merely calling for a discussion on the matter, Taylor said.

The resolution was put forward following a report former UN high commissioner for human rights Michele Bachelet submitted to the council on the Uyghurs prior to the end of her term in August.

UK Ambassador to the UN Simon Manley issued a sharp statement against China, in which he quoted from Bachelet’s report.

“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” he said. “These crimes include torture, sexual and gender-based violence, forced sterilizations, severe restrictions on freedom of religion and belief, and forced disappearances on a massive scale.

“And what is all the more significant is that so many of those findings are based on official public information from the Chinese authorities – corroborated by other sources.”


Kanye West says Jared Kushner only brokered Abraham Accords ‘to make money’
Acclaimed rapper Kanye West said that former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner brokered the Abraham Accords peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations in order “to make money.”

The comments were made during an interview Thursday with Fox News host Tucker Carlson during which West — who now goes by Ye — directed a larger part of his criticism toward Kushner’s brother, Josh.

West recalled a dinner he had with the Kushner brothers along with Jared’s wife Ivanka after which he learned that Josh had 10 percent ownership in the SKIMS shapewear clothing line the rapper created with his now-ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

“F**K JOSH KUSHNER,” West wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post hours before the Fox News interview.

““WHAT IF I HAD 10% OF KARLIE KLOSS UNDERWEAR LINE WITHOUT YOU KNOWING AND YOU ONLY HAD 5%,” he added, referring to Kushner’s wife.

“After talking to them, and really sitting with Jared and sitting with Josh…I was like, ‘Wow, these guys have really been holding [former US president Donald] Trump back and being very much a handler,'” West told Fox News as he reflected on his relationship with the Kushners.

Not so long ago, the rapper’s relationship with Trump’s son-in was believed to have been a close one. They were spotted having dinner together as recently as this past January.
JPost Editorial: The maritime deal is a win-win, but Israel must be respected
The upcoming Israeli election also hangs over the current discussions. Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed Lapid’s decisions and has openly said the deal, which he views as surrender to Hezbollah threats, would not bind a new government that he seeks to establish after the November election.

This could create another strange situation in which one Israeli government accepts the deal and the next tears it up, the way the US shifted tactics on the Iran deal.

This would lead to tensions and accusations that Israel is then “crossing” the line and give Hezbollah an excuse to “resist” by firing rockets.

Hezbollah lives on this fake “resistance” narrative, just as it pretends to need to fight for Mount Dov in the North. Now it will have a reason to exist to “defend” the coastline. Israel must be careful not to create a situation where it concedes too much and then the next administration goes back over the line and creates a possible conflict.

We are a strong nation and must be respected. Lebanon should not think it can throw endless small hurdles up just before the deal is agreed to. Israel does not need to give away more to Lebanon and let Lebanon spurn us and treat us like we are a “Zionist entity” and not a country.

For too long, Israel was rejected in the region, but today we have good friends from Morocco to the United Arab Emirates.

We should make a deal, but Lebanon should stop letting Hezbollah and Iran hold its hand all the way to the table.

We can have secure borders and economic prosperity that will benefit Lebanon and ourselves.
Gantz instructs IDF to prepare for escalation as Lebanese gas deal hits snag
Lebanon said US-brokered talks to demarcate its maritime border near the disputed gas field Karish with Israel were at a "make or break" point on Thursday after Israel rejected revisions to a draft deal requested by Beirut, throwing years of diplomatic efforts into doubt. In light of the apparent breakdown of talks, Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the IDF this week to prepare for a possible flare-up on the Lebanese front, with terrorist group Hezbollah warning it could hit Israel if it extracts gas from the field, which is entirely under Israel's economic waters.

The draft, which has not been made public, had a warm preliminary reception from the Israeli and Lebanese governments. But amid domestic opposition in both countries, Lebanon on Tuesday sought amendments from the US envoy.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid "was updated on the details of the substantial changes Lebanon is seeking to make and instructed the negotiating team to reject them", an Israeli official said. Lapid convened the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet on Thursday and the meeting concluded with the ministers empowering him and Gantz to make the necessary decisions in extreme cases should the security situation surrounding this standoff deteriorate.

A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Israel said the parties were "at a critical stage in the negotiations and the gaps have narrowed." According to Israeli media, a main sticking point was over recognition of a line of demarcation buoys Israel has strung out to sea from its coast. Lebanon worries about any action that may connote formal acceptance of a shared land border.

Lebanon – which has never recognized the state of Israel, with any broader peace deal beyond the horizon – has also said Israel will earn no royalties from the Lebanese share of gas in the nearby Qana prospect, which under the proposed deal would have Lebanon operate but share with Israel part of the revenue to the would-be change of border demarcations.
Graves of 2 Israeli soldiers killed in War of Independence found after 74 years
The burial sites of two Israeli soldiers who were killed during the 1948 War of Independence have been located, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced Friday morning.

The resting places of Palmach fighters Private Binyamin Aryeh (York) Eisenberg and Private Yitzhak Rubinstein were found after 74 years in Kibbutz Nitzanim. The decade-long investigation was launched by Eitan Unit for Detecting Missing Soldiers. The families were notified Friday morning of the discovery. In the coming weeks, a ceremony will be held establishing gravestones for the soldiers.

Rubinstein and Eisenberg were taken captive during the evacuation of the wounded during the battle for Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. Eisenberg was injured and being carried on a stretcher by Rubinstein and medic Livka Shafer when the three were captured by Egyptian forces. In 1952, they were declared killed in action.

Have other bodies been found of missing soldiers?
In 2018, the body of Shafer was found in a mass grave in Kibbutz Nitzanim, having been moved there in 1949. Rubinstein and Eisenberg were discovered by the investigation to have also been moved to that site.

Eisenberg was born in Poland in 1927 and immigrated to Israel in 1946. He enlisted in 1947 into the Palmach, the elite Haganah fighting force.

Rubinstein was born in Ukraine in 1913, and immigrated to Israel in 1938.


Does this youth group teach Palestinian nationalism, visit Arafat tomb?
AJEEC Co-CEO Ariel Dloomy said that while he didn’t like some of the content, and that he could understand how such content could cause feelings of discomfort and fear among Israeli Jews, the materials should be understood within AJEEC’s processes of deradicalization and socialization.

“We don’t receive [youths] as a blank page; everyone is influenced by his own background,” said Albaz. AJEEC accepts that some of its youth will be coming to them with controversial ideas.

In order to achieve its objectives of creating a society in which “everyone is accepted” and its students are successful and law-abiding, they need to start a dialogue with the youths from their own axioms, Dloomy argued. Being in a safe place allows the youth to be open to new ideas.

“If I want to change this reality, I need to start where people are,” he said. “It is an in-depth educational concept – so that this [Palestinian] flag remains a concept, that it remains as something spoken about and not as something else.”

Albaz said that Land and Nakba Day programming is part of this process, and both Arab and Jewish youth who come to AJEEC have preconceived notions about Land Day. They learn about the topics, and alongside them learn about Independence Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day – even meeting with Holocaust survivors. For many, it is their first encounter with Jewish holidays and Israeli narratives.

“Our Facebook page has endless posts about joint activities between Arabs and Jews,” said Dloomy, adding that the few posts found by the Post don’t reflect the majority of AJEEC’s activities. Indeed, reviews of their platforms show mostly typical youth group activities, content such as COVID-19 awareness programs for the Arab sector, and campaigning against crime and domestic violence in the community.

Albaz argued that the best measure of AJEEC’s success was how many of its students move on to academics, with 10% of participants undertaking higher education each year. Moreover, according to Dloomy, “No AJEEC alumnus – I can say also in the past and the future – would ever lift a stone and be involved in illegal activity because we are undertaking a serious and deep process of anti-radicalization.”
Palestinian teen killed in clash with IDF during protest against land expropriation
A 15-year-old Palestinian was shot dead Friday during clashes that broke out during a weekly northern West Bank protest against the expropriation of land for Israeli settlements.

The IDF said its troops opened fire after the boy hurled a Molotov cocktail at troops stationed near the West Bank security fence surrounding the Palestinian town of Qalqilya.

The teen was later identified as Adel Daoud, a resident of Qalqilya. Over a dozen other Palestinians were injured in the clashes, Arabic media reported. The IDF said none of its troops were injured.

Palestinians from the nearby town of Kafr Qaddum have for years been holding near-weekly protests against Israel’s expropriation of land that had historically belonged to their town, but has since become part of the borders of the nearby settlement of Kedumim.

Israel often cites security concerns in justifying such moves, saying they help separate Israeli and Palestinian populations in the West Bank, while Palestinians say it is part of a policy to slowly eat away at their land and harm farmers who rely on the agricultural lands in order to make a living.

Friday’s clashes unfolded during a months-long period of raised tensions in the West Bank.

Hours earlier, the IDF announced the arrest of a Palestinian suspected of attempting to carry out a pair of attacks in the territory, including placing an explosive device at a gas station.
Palestinian nabbed for attempted shooting attack, placing bomb at gas station
Israeli forces on Friday announced the arrest of a Palestinian suspected of attempting to carry out a pair of attacks in the West Bank, including placing an explosive device at a gas station.

According to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency, Nablus resident Amad Asleem was detained in a joint operation overnight. He was later handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.

The statement said Asleem, a resident of Nablus, was involved in shooting at an Israeli vehicle near Hawara on September 19.

No one was injured in the incident, with the suspect’s gun apparently jamming after he aimed it at the car. He then fled when the driver got out of the car and fired in the air.

The military and Shin Bet said Asleem was also suspected of leaving an explosive at a gas station near the entrance to the Kedumim settlement on September 25.

The explosive did not detonate and IDF sappers were called in to deal with the device.

In security camera footage of the incident, a suspect can be seen opening a car door and leaving a bag at the gas station, before the vehicle speeds off.
Nablus Governor Criticizes Palestinian Mothers Who Send Their Kids to Fight, Before Apologizing
The governor of Nablus spoke out on Wednesday against Palestinian mothers who encourage their children to participate in fighting that will lead to their deaths, in a rare criticism that sparked local backlash.

“I ask Palestinian mothers, and there are some extreme cases,” said Ibrahim Ramadan, who is affiliated with the ruling Fatah party of the Palestinian Authority, in an interview with a local radio station that was translated by Middle East Monitor. “There are some who send their children to fight. They take pictures with them and send them to commit suicide. Is that what a mother does? This isn’t a mother.”

The comments drew some protests in Nablus and Ramallah in the West Bank, according to Palestinian media reports, as well as condemnation from the Fatah’s party longtime rival Hamas, the US-designated terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip.

In his comments, the governor was “going against a big consensus in Palestinian society, and is therefore also coming under a lot of heat,” as the mothers of Palestinian attackers are often honored in Palestinian media, said the Palestinian affairs correspondent for Israel’s Kan news channel, Nurit Yohanan.

Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, including while carrying attacks against civilians, are known as “martyrs,” and they and their families are generally highly respected figures in Palestinian society. The Palestinian Authority offers monthly salaries to Palestinians who perpetrate attacks against Israelis and, if they are killed in action, to their families.

The governor has faced calls for resignation and has since expressed regret for his comments, according to Yohanan.


MEMRI: Senior Saudi Journalist Al-Homayed Accuses Nasrallah Of Hypocrisy: He Curses Those Who Make Peace With Israel, Yet Hopes For An Agreement Between Lebanon And Israel On Maritime Border
In an article titled "Nobel Delusion Prize," published October 5, 2022 in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, the daily's former editor-in-chief, senior Saudi journalist Tariq Al-Homayed, accuses Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah of hypocrisy for welcoming the U.S.-brokered contacts between Lebanon and Israel on the demarcation of the maritime border between them. Nasrallah, he says, has for years been spewing the Iranian slogans of "death to America" and "death to Israel," and cursing Saudi Arabia and other countries for pursuing peace with Israel. Yet now he welcomes an agreement with this country, while at the same time encouraging the Palestinians to reject any progress towards peace. Quipping that the region should award figures like Nasrallah with a Nobel Delusion Prize, Al-Homayed states that "'we should not listen to those trading in causes and brokering wars. Peace is fundamental, and it is the best way to rid ourselves of the merchants that have been trading in our region’s resources and the youths for decades."

The following is his article, as published in the English-language edition of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat:[1]
"Our region needs a prize like the Nobel Peace Prize, but called the Nobel Delusion Prize. It would be given out once a year, if not once a month, as we have enough delusional figures for it. I will give one example and start with a sort of surprising experiment.

"He says: 'Regarding the issue of our maritime borders and oil and gas rights - after months of hard work, political efforts, media campaigns, and action on the ground - we saw the country’s three top officials [President Michel 'Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Najib Mikati] receive a written text from the mediator. I have always reiterated that it is up to the state to take the right decision that it believes best serves the interest of Lebanon, and the coming days will be decisive in this regard,' he added. He then went on to add that 'over the next few days, the stance of the Lebanese state will become clear, and we hope that the process is close to its conclusion and that things will end well for Lebanon and all the Lebanese.' He then says: 'If the conclusion is positive, it would open new horizons that will be positive for the Lebanese, God willing.' This would be the result of national solidarity and cooperation.

"Well, who is speaking? What are they talking about? Who is the mediator in question? Was it Rafik Hariri, may God have mercy on his soul, Walid Jumblatt, or one of those whom Hezbollah had assassinated and accused of being Israeli operatives? Answer: No. It is Hassan Nasrallah speaking, and he is talking about the maritime border demarcation negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. The mediator he mentioned is the United States. Doesn’t he truly deserve the Nobel Delusion Prize?

"We have already heard of the terms phrases like the peace of the courageous and Abrahamic peace; now we see 'oil peace,' a term that had been used to criticize us. Now it is being lauded by Nasrallah, who said this in the same speech in which he brazenly insulted Saudi Arabia and defended Iran and its crimes.


As Iran Protests Intensify, US Sanctions Interior Minister Wanted for Bombing of Jewish Center in Argentina
The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against seven senior Iranian officials in response to the repression of escalating protests against the Islamist regime. The group includes Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is also the subject of a “red notice” — an international arrest warrant — issued by the international law enforcement agency Interpol for his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Argentina.

In an official statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Iran’s Minister of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi, and Iran’s Minister of Communications, Eisa Zarepour, along with five other “senior leaders of Iran’s security apparatus for the continued violence against peaceful protesters and the shutdown of Iran’s Internet access.”

Blinken added that Thursday’s action “follows the Sept. 22 designation of the Morality Police, its senior leadership, and other senior security officials, and the release of Iran-related General License D-2, which together demonstrate that the United States stands with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.”

Eighty-five people were killed and more than 300 wounded in July 1994 when a truck loaded with explosive deliberately crashed into the AMIA center in downtown Buenos Aires.

More than a decade after the bombing, in 2007, Interpol issued “red notices” for the arrest of the six Iranian and Hezbollah operatives who planned the attack. The driver of the vehicle used in the AMIA attack was a Lebanese suicide bomber, Ibrahim Hussein Berro.

Of the original six individuals sought for the bombing, one of them — the notorious Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh — is dead, having been killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus.

Along with Vahidi, the other surviving four — Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, and Mohsen Rezai — are also understood to be in Iran.




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