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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

10/26 Links Pt1: The UN goes DEFCON 3 on Israel; Iranian forces open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini; Sanctioned Syrians benefit from UN contracts

From Ian:

Clifford D. May: The UN goes DEFCON 3 on Israel
Vladimir Putin is slaughtering Ukrainian men, women and children. Xi Jinping is committing genocide against the Muslims of East Turkistan. Ali Khamenei is murdering Iranian girls for wearing their hijabs in what he considers a provocative manner. What is the United States doing in response to these crises? It's going "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

That quote, of course, is from a recent tweet by Kanye West. "DEFCON," an acronym for "defense readiness condition," is how the US military indicates states of alert, ranging from one (the highest) to five. Apparently, however, the performance artist who now calls himself "Ye" intended to convey that he was going on offense against Jews.

The so-called UN Human Rights Council is doing the same. Its so-called Commission of Inquiry is going on offense against the Middle East's only surviving and thriving Jewish community. Indeed, the COI is funded – Americans contributing the lion's share – for the express purpose of demonizing and delegitimizing Israel in perpetuity.

On Thursday, the COI released its second report – one was not enough! – assigning culpability for last year's 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood faction that holds power in Gaza, and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and other nations.

The report urges UN members to prosecute Israeli officials for alleged violations of "international humanitarian law." What does the report say about Hamas and the more than 4,000 rockets it fired at Israelis, its routine use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields" and the support it receives from Tehran? Not a word. "Hamas," "rockets" and "terrorism" are not mentioned.

Israelis are protesting the report as they have protested such slanders in the past, and will in the future. They're also reminding anyone who will listen – not a large cohort – that one of the COI's prominent members, Miloon Kothari, has questioned why Israel is "even a member of the United Nations."
Caroline Glick: America—and the World—Must Stand With Iran's Freedom Revolution
Distressingly, rather than take these actions, the Biden administration speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with regime opponents and lobbyists in the same meeting at the State Department, and referred to both as civil society representatives. Due to this moral and diplomatic equivalence, the move was a transparent signal to the regime that the Biden administration is not supporting the revolutionaries. It was also a means to legitimize the regime's supporters.

Wearing State Department-minted badges of legitimacy, these Iranian regime lobbyists and supporters in turn have briefed friendly reporters with claims that the administration must not sanction the regime, because it will only harm the protesters. According to the lobbyists, the Biden administration should also maintain its policy of realigning U.S. Middle East policy toward the Iranian regime through its nuclear appeasement and lifting of sanctions, because diplomacy is the only answer.

The Biden administration is maintaining its policy of supporting the Iranian regime, even as the mullahs' security forces murder, torture, and terrorize the Iranian people, because the administration is so blinded by its zealous anti-colonialist ideology that it cannot see or understand what is actually happening. Like the Obama administration before it, the Biden administration subscribes to a Manichaean, anti-colonialist worldview that believes anti-Western revolutionary regimes like the Iranian regime are authentic representations of righteous hatred of the West.

Former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, their Iran envoy Robert Malley, Blinken, and their advisors and aides cannot understand that the oppressed people of Iran can be free of hatred of the West and even seek friendship and cooperation with the likes of Israel and the United States. As Obama explained last week, he refused to support Iran's 2009 Green Revolution because he feared that U.S. support for the revolutionaries would discredit them. Obama—like Biden today—could not countenance the notion that the Iranian people themselves do not hate America. An oversimplified anti-colonialist ideology doesn't allow for the possibility that a more nuanced state of affairs can exist.

The anti-colonialist creed of the Biden administration and its progressive supporters dictates that the only possible policy for dealing with "legitimate" regimes, such as the Iranian regime, is to appease them through payouts and strategic concessions. The nuclear deal, which does both of these things, is a perfect expression of the anti-colonialist foreign policy.

Under the circumstances, Congress and the American public should stand with the Iranian revolutionaries and demand that the Biden administration see the truth. For the first time since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, we have a real chance of seeing this toxic regime fall. Every possible effort must be made to help make this possibility a reality.


Caroline Glick: Ahead of the elections, a massive escalation in Palestinian terror
Palestinian terror escalation
From there, Glick moves to the Palestinian arena. A week ahead of Israel’s elections, the Palestinians are in the midst of a massive escalation of their terror campaign against Israel, she says.

According to Glick, the caretaker government’s response to the Palestinian aggression is to redouble its efforts to appease them, at the expense of Israeli security.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz and caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, like Meretz chairman Zehava Gal-On, she says, are all completely wedded to the fantasy that the Palestinians will cut a deal with Israel. This, while all layers of Palestinian society are demonstrating their complete mobilization for the war against Israel. This, she notes, includes a large portion of Israeli Arabs, as events over the past several months indicate.

The future after the elections
As Glick discusses the elections and their near-existential implications for Israel, its Jewish character and its national security and viability, Likud Knesset member Yoav Kisch joins the conversation. The two talk about the state of the race, a week out from the polls.

Kisch explains how a Likud-led government will enact the necessary reforms of Israel’s politicized legal fraternity, and discusses the implications of the revolution in Iran and the gas deal for Israel.

Join us for a can’t-miss discussion of the most important issues affecting Israel, the Middle East and the world.


Israelis prefer practicality in promoting peace with Palestinians - opinion
The Mitvim Institute’s 2022 Foreign Policy Index, published in October for the tenth straight year in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, indicates that the Israeli public has reservations about comprehensive solutions to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians or even to reach a long-term arrangement in the Gaza Strip. While Israelis find it difficult to view the two-state solution as a tangible long-term strategy for peace, they are widely supportive of practical steps for building a two-state reality.

These practical steps include a unique set of tangible policies that have far-reaching significance for the gradual advancement of the two-state vision. In fact, support for these practical measures spans the political spectrum from the left to the center-right. What did Mitvim's survey show?

When Mitvim asked what policy the next Israeli government should implement vis-a-vis the Palestinians, only 36% supported actively promoting the two-state solution, compared to 39% who supported the status quo or refrained from expressing an opinion on the issue. Even on more specific issues, such as a long-term strategy vis-a-vis the Gaza Strip, the public is almost equally divided between the options of economic development, efforts to restore control of the Gaza Strip, and negotiations for a long-term arrangement with Hamas. A majority of respondents prefer the current stick-and-carrots policy vis-a-vis Hamas, at least as long as it yields effective results.

Some will say that the lack of decisiveness and commitment regarding long-term solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reflects an ideological shift within the public to the Right. But an in-depth examination of the public’s positions on policy measures toward the Palestinians presents a far more complex and nuanced picture. For example, more than 60% of those surveyed, including an overwhelming majority of Center-Right voters, support the establishment of a joint mechanism for Israel, the Palestinians, and Jordan to prevent escalation at the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Gas extraction begins at Karish field, day before Israel-Lebanon deal signing
Gas company Energean said Wednesday that it has begun extracting gas from Israel’s Karish gas field, one day before Israel and Lebanon are set to sign a long-awaited, US-brokered maritime border deal.

The company said in a statement, “Gas is being produced from the Karish Main-02 well and the flow of gas is being steadily ramped up.” It added that gas sales will “commence in the next couple of days.”

The company said that the “Karish Main-01 and Karish Main-03 wells are expected to be opened up in approximately two and four weeks, respectively.”

Commercial gas sales are expected to reach maximum capacity in approximately four to six months following first gas, the company said.

“We have delivered a landmark project that brings competition to the Israeli gas market, enhances security of energy supply in the East Med region and brings affordable and clean energy that will displace coal-fired power generation, making a material impact to the environment,” said Energean CEO Mathios Rigas.
Israel, Lebanon to sign maritime boundary deal Thursday afternoon at UN base
Israel and Lebanon are slated to sign their maritime boundary agreement at 3 p.m. local time on Thursday at the United Nations base in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon.

Israel’s cabinet still has to approve the deal at its 10:30 a.m. meeting in Jerusalem that morning, and is expected to do so overwhelmingly.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid will sign the agreement in his office at noon, after which the Israeli negotiating team will take part in the afternoon ceremony along with a Lebanese delegation, US special envoy Amos Hochstein, and UN officials.

France’s envoy to Lebanon Anne Grillo will also attend, the Quai d’Orsay announced late Wednesday afternoon. French President Emmanuel Macron played an active role in mediating talks, one that Lapid publicly thanked him for.

The Israeli delegation will be led by Energy Ministry Director-General Lior Schillat, and will include Foreign Ministry political director Aliza Bin-Noun, National Security Council deputy head Avivit Bar-Ilan, and an IDF representative.

As of now, Israeli and Lebanese officials are set to sit in the same room during the signing ceremony, said Israeli officials, but that may change. Israel and Lebanon are technically at war and have no diplomatic ties.
Egypt Confirms Gaza Natural Gas Field Deal with Israel
Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla on Tuesday told Reuters there was a framework agreement in place between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to develop the marine natural gas field off the Gaza shore, sponsored by the Egyptian government.

Reuters cited an anonymous PA official who confirmed an agreement had been reached regarding the “basic conditions” for a deal, but no final approval was given by Ramallah. Of course, everything concerning the Gaza Strip is complicated by the fact that Hamas, and not the Palestinian Authority, governs Gaza, and Hamas does not recognize Israel nor its right to exist.

But that shouldn’t stop Prime Minister Yair Lapid who, much like the late NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller, is not on the take – he’s on the give. He endowed Lebanon, an enemy country, with 10 square km of Israeli open sea without the Knesset’s approval – count on him to do much more for Hamas.

The gas field was discovered 36 kilometers west of Gaza City in 2000 by the British Gas Company and its partners. The field has remained untapped due to ongoing attempts by Gaza terrorists to receive weapons by sea from Iran and elsewhere, and attempt to reach the Jewish State via the Mediterranean to carry out terror attacks.

Two wells were drilled that same year – Marine Gaza 1 and Marine Gaza 2 – and the field was estimated to contain about 1.4 trillion cubic feet of the precious resource; enough for Gaza and the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria for the next 15 years


Sudan’s Military Ruler Says Ready to Visit the Jewish State
Sudanese military ruler Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the driving force behind his country’s ties with Israel is a desire for “reconciliation” and that he will travel to the Jewish state if invited.

“The basis of relations is reconciliation. Therefore, if an invitation was presented and there is the means for this, I will go,” Burhan told The Associated Press, in an interview on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly published this weekend.

Khartoum and Jerusalem agreed to normalize relations in October 2020 as part of the United States-brokered Abraham Accords, a series of deals that formalized diplomatic ties between Israel and three other Arab nations.

Months earlier, al-Burhan met with then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda, in a diplomatic breakthrough that paved the way for Sudan to forge a rapprochement with Israel following decades of animosity.

The two countries have since developed security and intelligence ties, with officials meetings repeatedly in unannounced trips.

However, the process stalled significantly amid divisions over a power-sharing agreement between the Sudanese military and civilian government that culminated in a coup last year.
Report finds sanctioned Syrians benefit from UN contracts
The United Nations has procured tens of millions of dollars in contracts with companies linked to Syrian government-backed individuals sanctioned for human rights abuses, according to a report by two non-governmental groups.

Syria's uprising turned civil war that started in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. More than 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, leaving much of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, with military support from Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has since been able to reclaim much of the country. But Syria continues to spiral from a crippling economic crisis. Recently, a cholera outbreak that has infected some 20,000 people, underscored the scope of the crisis.

A report analyzing the U.N.'s top 100 suppliers in Syria in 2019 and 2020 by the non-profit Observatory of Political and Economic Networks and the non-governmental organization Syrian Legal Development Program concluded that almost half of the procured contracts those two years were with suppliers that were involved in human rights abuses or may have profited from them. The report was published on Tuesday.

Almost a quarter of contracts the U.N. procured those two years went to companies owned or partially owned by individuals sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom or European Union for human rights abuses, worth a total of around $68 million.


Police arrest six more suspects in killing of Arab Israeli journalist
Police arrested on Wednesday six additional people suspected of involvement in the killing of Arab Israeli journalist Nidal Agbaria in September.

In a joint operation carried out by police interrogators, Border Police officers and the IDF’s canine unit, five residents of Umm al-Fahm and one resident of Ar’ara — both Arab towns in northern Israel — were arrested and taken in for questioning.

The suspects were all individuals in their 20s and 30s, police said.

Three of the suspects were released under restrictions after being questioned.

Police said they would ask the Haifa Magistrate Court to extend the arrests of the remaining suspects.

Last week, police said they had arrested four residents of Umm al-Fahm suspected of involvement in Agbaria’s murder.

A gun was found in one of the suspects’ homes.
The Israel Guys: Zelenskyy is Blaming Israel For Russia's Alliance With Iran
In a huge operation in Nablus, the IDF destroyed an explosive manufacturing site of the Lions’ Den terrorist group, as well as takint out six of their terrorists. A stabbing attack occurred in an Arab town in Samaria yesterday. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is blaming Israel for the new alliance between Russia and Iran, and a poll about the upcoming elections here in Israel.


On Palestinians’ Deadliest Day, CNN Protects The Lion’s Den
CNN is highly diligent about tracking the most deadly days for Palestinians. Last month’s headline was “At least 4 Palestinians killed, dozens wounded in one of year’s deadliest Israeli West Bank raids.” Yesterday CNN conscientiously kept up the count, marking a new record number of fatalities with the headline “Six killed by Israeli forces in the deadliest day for Palestinians this year.”

It’s dramatic and newsworthy information. And it’s also highly misleading when corresponding information — like the fact that those killed were terrorists — are ignored or downplayed.

Indeed, when it comes to the identity of the Palestinian casualties, the news network’s reporting is suddenly not so fastidious. To the contrary, the same journalists who so carefully report the numbers of Palestinian casualties also bury the violent activity of those killed. By highlighting the increasing numbers of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire while obscuring the fact that all were engaged in terror activity or attacking troops when they were killed, CNN provides great cheer and sustenance to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who falsely charges that Israel is engaged in “war crimes.”

Thus, at no point does yesterday’s article by Abeer Salman and Hadas Gold make clear that the five Palestinians killed in Nablus were all members of the Lion’s Den terror organization.
BBC WS radio whitewashes Palestinian terrorism
As we have repeatedly documented on these pages, the BBC has done very little to inform its audiences about the Lion’s Den terrorist group which emerged in Nablus in recent months and which has claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli soldier on October 11th as well as additional attacks.

Against that backdrop of chronic omission, listeners to the early edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newsday’ on October 25th heard an item described as follows in its synopsis:
“The Palestinian health ministry says at least three Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20 others injured in a raid by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.”

Presenter Redi Tlhabi introduced that item – and her sole interviewee Younis Tirawi – as follows:
Tlhabi: “To the Middle East now. At least four Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20 others injured early on Tuesday in a raid by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus in occupied West Bank. [recording gunfire] Heavy gunfire was seen and heard in several videos shared on social media in what’s been the heaviest armed clashes for years in Nablus. We’re joined now by journalist Younis Tirawi. […] Tell us what’s the latest, what’s been happening.”

Tirawi: […] Well the latest is that the Israeli forces had launched a pre-emptive attack against a militant group that is known in Nablus as the Lion’s Den. The Lion’s Den has for several weeks now been threatening the Israeli security establishments of approaching security incidents. So the Israelis didn’t wait that long to take what happened into their own hands. So today they raided the city of Nablus and killed four Palestinians but also it’s worth to mention that they killed another Palestinian in Ramallah. So, yes, that’s a bit of background about what’s happening now in Nablus.”


Notably both Tlhabi and Tirawi repeatedly portrayed the people killed merely as “Palestinians”. In fact, the words terrorist and terror are completely absent from this entire four-minute item about a counter-terrorism operation against a terrorist group. Neither Tlhabi not Tirawi made any mention of the attacks previously carried out by the Lion’s Den, meaning that listeners were unable to understand that Tirawi’s claim of “a pre-emptive attack” was false.
Guardian uses new euphemism for terrorism So, to recap:
Guardian waits until five paragraphs down to inform readers that the Palestinians in question were killed during a raid on a terror bomb factory.
Guardian obfuscates the fact that most or all of those killed were terrorists – one of whom was the leader of the group whose bomb factory was targeted.
Guardian uses grossly misleading euphemism “anti-Israeli operations” to refer to terrorist attacks.
Guardian cites unlikely IDF characterisation of Israeli terror victims, purportedly distinguishing “settlers” from other Israelis.

We’ll be complaining to Guardian editors about these serious omissions and errors.


PMW: Girl draws terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi because she “was a fighter”
Girl: “I wanted to draw Palestinian figures, a woman, a woman who was a fighter who participated in operations (i.e., terror attacks), Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., terrorist who led murder of 37, 12 of them children), a woman who had a role in the struggle and the resolve. She died as a Martyr in this operation (i.e., murder of 37) and the occupation took her body and imprisoned it even though she was dead. A lifeless body, dead. But it wanted her to suffer. It imprisoned her and she remained there for a certain time until her body decayed (sic.).”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Sept. 11, 2022]

The girl participated in a portrait exhibit in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.

Dalal Mughrabi – female Palestinian terrorist who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.

Mughrabi was buried in the Israeli cemeteries for temporary burial of terrorists.

The Cemeteries for Enemy Casualties (numbered cemeteries) are two burial sites maintained by the Israeli army for burying the bodies of enemy soldiers during wartime as well as terrorists. They are fenced and well-marked. Graves have markers instead of gravestones. Burial is temporary, as the bodies are eventually returned to their countries of origin. No ceremony is held. The bodies are buried in numbered caskets after their identities are documented.




UN: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon sinking deeper into poverty amid economic crisis
The UN warned Wednesday that the number of impoverished Palestinians in Lebanon has risen substantially, fueling a “dramatic humanitarian crisis” as the country’s economy collapses further.

For the past three years, Lebanon has been in the throes of one of the worst economic crises in recent world history, according to the World Bank — dealing an especially heavy blow to vulnerable communities, including refugees.

Two-thirds of Palestinian refugee families in Lebanon have reduced the number of meals they eat per day, said Leni Stenseth, deputy commissioner-general at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), addressing reporters in Beirut.

Her statement comes days after UNRWA “urgently” appealed for $13 million in funding for cash assistance to families, primary health care services and to keep the agency’s schools open until the end of this year.

The poverty level among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has shot up from a little more than 70 percent at the beginning of the year to 93 percent, according to UNRWA.

“This means that almost everyone is without the ability to cater for the most basic needs in their lives,” Stenseth said.

“This is a dramatic humanitarian crisis.”

Lebanon hosts about 210,000 Palestinian refugees, including 30,000 who fled Syria after war erupted in 2011, according to UNRWA.




MEMRI: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: 'Now They [Westerners] Are Calling The Iranian Drones Very Dangerous' And Asking 'Why Are You Selling Them And Giving Them To Others? Well, This Is An Achievement Of The Iranian Elite – It Is An Honor For The Country'
In an October 19, 2022 meeting with top Iranian academics, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for investing in the country's elite, particularly its scientific elite, and touted the nuclear, drone, and missile accomplishments of Iran's Islamic revolutionary regime, as well as its achievements in launching satellites into space, stem cell and vaccine research, and more. Khamenei stressed that Iran needs scientific advancement in all these areas in order to stand against the West, headed by the U.S. which seeks to continue its tradition of controlling other countries, expropriating their assets, and maintaining its colonialism and imperialism. He added that mastery of the higher sciences – but not for making nuclear or chemical weapons or for developing advanced weaponry – will stop this from happening.

He stated that the achievements of Iran's nuclear program had come primarily from the Iranian elite's progress, noting that while at first they relied on negligible knowledge from outside Iran, most of the development was Iranian and domestic. He went on to boast of Iran's missile and drone industry as "very dangerous" to the West, hinting at the Russia-Ukraine war, and stressed that in his view, anyone using their talents to produce a nuclear bomb or chemical weapons does not belong to the elite because they are immoral. He also discusses the recent anti-hijab protests by university students, hinting that "the enemy" is behind them.

The following are the main points of Khamenei's full statements at the October 19 meeting with Iran's academic elite:

"People [now] are understanding more the fact that many of our problems in recent years were administrative problems. There was a solution, [but] the government [of previous Iranian president Hassan Rouhani] paid no attention to this solution. Now, we hope that the current government [of President Ebrahim Raisi] will act seriously to implement it, and it is possible to see the signs of this...

"The elite is one of the country's most important human resources. It is true that the country's natural resources are important, geography is important, climate is important – all these are important. But one of the most important things is the existence of the elite; the elite must be considered a tremendous treasure. If we see it as a great treasure, we will try to encourage it and to create more of it, and we will see its loss as damaging... When we realize that this is an important and vital treasure, our treatment of it will be shaped accordingly. Therefore, we must know this, everyone must know this – even senior state officials and influential individuals in the state's public sphere.
Iranian IRGC Commanders Shot Dead Were ‘Responsible’ for Supply of Drones to Russia, Ukrainian Media Outlets Claim
Two senior Iranian commanders who were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Monday may have been responsible for the supply of drones to the Russian armed forces, Ukrainian media outlets claimed on Tuesday.

The two officers were senior members of the Iranian regime’s widely-feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is playing a central role in repressing the historic protests currently rocking the Middle Eastern nation.

Gen. Javad Keikha, the commander of the Basij paramilitary organization, and Col. Mehdi Mollashahi of the IRGC were killed as they traveled together in a car through Zahedan — the main city in Iran’s restive, largely Sunni Muslim province of Sistan and Balochistan — on Monday afternoon.

According to Ukraine’s RBK news outlet, both men were involved in the supply of the Shahed-136 drones which Russian forces have been using to deadly effect against Ukrainian population centers in recent weeks. RBK did not cite a source for this claim. Other Ukrainian outlets pointed to a report carried by Israel’s Russian-language Channel 9 broadcaster, which underlined that the reports asserting the officers were managing the supply of drones to Russia were “unverified.”


As Russia attacks Ukraine with drones, Germany looks to Israel to protect critical facilities
As drone warfare makes the headlines for the use of unmanned vehicles by Russia in Ukraine, 12 German pilots have landed in Israel to take part in a course to operate Berlin’s newest Heron TP UAV.

The German pilots are training at Tel Nof Airbase in central Israel with the Israel Air Force’s Red Baron squadron. Named after German World War I ace Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, it is the only IAF squadron that permanently works with a non-Israeli one.

It was opened in 2018 and will be training German teams until 2027. The training of the German pilots in Israel marks the first time that Germany has had a constant deployment in Israel or any non-NATO state.

Though several German teams have come to Israel to learn how to operate the drones flown by the IAF, known as the Eitan, this is the second course where the Germans are learning to fly their own drones.

The course opened as German Member of Parliament Johannes Arlt from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) proposed to use the new UAVs to protect German critical infrastructure from any possible future Russian threat.

Though the drones were initially purchased to be used abroad, "due to Russian threats, we must quickly create the legal basis that will allow the use of these UAVs for national security purposes,” Arlt told Der Spiegel.
Large shipment of Iranian drones reaches IRGC in Syria
Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent a massive supply of Iranian drones to its proxies in Syria, according to an Oct. 23 report by the Syrian opposition website Euphrates Appeal Media Network (Nida Al-Furat) shared with JNS by MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM).

The shipment entered northeastern Syria through the Al-Hari border crossing on the Iraqi border, according to the opposition website. It was handed to the IRGC in Deir Al-Zour and held at the Saker Island base.

An Iranian drone expert led a large team of technicians who arrived along with the shipment, the report continued. Following the convoy’s arrival, the Iranian militias in the Al-Bukamal sector went on high alert for fear of Israeli strikes on their facilities.

MEMRI JTTM previously shared a report with JNS on two articles published in Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese media on Oct. 24 and 25, relating to strikes this month on American forces in Syria.

According to an article in the Al-Akhbar newspaper concerning rocket fire aimed against the Al-Omar base on Oct. 23, the attack was carried out in the context of a policy according to which any Israeli attack on Syrian territory will be met with an attack on American forces.
Biden Iran Envoy on Ropes After Pro-Regime Comments
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a leading congressional critic of a new Iran deal, told the Free Beacon that the "Biden administration is literally invested in the survival of the Iranian regime because the administration wants Iranian oil to make up for the catastrophe they've created by attacking American energy producers. That's why they can't bring themselves to support the calls by the people of Iran for regime change."

"Robert Malley will go down in the history books as the most ineffective and feckless State Department official of the last 50 years. It's time for him to go," Bryan Leib, executive director of Iranian Americans for Liberty, a grassroots group that supports democracy, told the Free Beacon. "His most recent gaffe on Twitter is just another example of how he has aligned the United States government with the Islamic Republic and not with liberty-seeking Iranian people. His fake apology is not accepted and he should be terminated immediately."

Leib's comments were echoed by many on Twitter, who accused Malley of obfuscating the issue.

"It's a revolution," Alireza Nader, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, replied to Malley's tweet.

"Respect?" asked popular Iran commentator Saman Arabi. "Iranian [people] are literally asking for regime change!"

Though Malley later apologized for his tweet, saying it was "poorly worded," congressional sources and other foreign policy insiders say that the damage has been done and that Malley's credibility with Iranian reformers is shattered.

"So long as Malley is special envoy, you know the administration's policy remains offering sanctions relief to the regime in Tehran," said Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council official who worked on Iran issues and now serves as a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "If he leaves, it'll be the first signal of a policy shift away from accommodating the regime and toward helping the Iranian people."

The State Department's formal position on the protest movement is also muddled. Spokesman Ned Price would not say during the department's daily briefing on Monday if the administration assesses that the protesters want regime change, even though he was presented with clear evidence that this is the case.

"It's not for us to interpret what the people of Iran are asking for," Price said. "We would never intend to characterize what it is that they seek."

Several reporters were left confused by this response, with one saying, "Ned, I think the point is, though, that you don't have to interpret what they're saying. What is it that you see that they're calling for? Do you think that they're calling for something that's less than regime change?"

"I am not going to speak on behalf of the Iranian people," Price replied.

The reporter, Matthew Lee from the Associated Press, continued his line of questioning: "Well, let's say that if I walk down the street carrying a sign saying oranges are bad, okay—orange, the fruit, oranges are bad; they should be banned—what would you say that my message is?"

"I'm the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. I am not the spokesperson for oranges," Price responded.
MEMRI: 40 Days Without Jina - The Revolution Continues In Her Name
"Jîna giyan, to namirî, nawit ebête remiz" ("Jina, my soul. You won't die. Your name will become a symbol"), these are the Kurdish words engraved on Jina Amini's gravestone by her family,[1] a few days before she became the national symbol of the revolution against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Threats To Jina Amini's Family
On September 17, hours after Amini's funeral in her hometown Saqqez, thousands of Kurds poured into the streets across Eastern Kurdistan (Iranian Kurdistan), from where the protests spread across the country, with people burning pictures of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and chanting "Death to the dictator."[2]

In its report published on October 7, Iran's Forensic Organization denied that Jina Amini had died due to blows to the head and limbs while in the custody of Iran's morality police and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions.[3] Amini's family and her lawyer, however, rejected the coroner's report and held the police responsible for their daughter's death, stating that Jina had been in "perfect health." Amjad Amini, the father of Jina, added: "I saw with my own eyes that blood had come from her ears and the back of her neck."[4] Since the beginning of the protests, Jina's family has received death threats and has been warned not to get involved in the demonstrations.[5]

Death Toll Rises
As anti-regime revolution continues, Iran has intensified its violent crackdown on protestors. Forty days after the tragic death of Jina, at least 252 people, including 35 children, have been killed and over 13,300 arrested in the ongoing anti-Iranian regime protests, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a news site run by a collective of Iranian human rights advocates, said.[6] In Zahedan city in Balochistan alone, Iranian security forces massacred at least 82 Baloch protestors on September 30, 2022, widely referred to by Iranians as "bloody Friday."[7]

The Islamic Republic Blames The U.S., Israel And Kurds For The Unrest
In his first remarks addressing the death of Jina Amini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that her death "deeply broke" his "heart." Talking about the unrest that followed her death, Khamenei stated: "I openly state that the recent riots were schemes designed by America, the fake Zionist regime and their mercenaries inside and outside Iran."[8]

"On September 16, minutes after the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran's Kasra Hospital, two CIA agents got into her room and took the first photos of her," Iranian lawmaker Amirabadi Farahani claimed in a televised interview, adding that "the 2022 popular protests have all been pre-planned."[9]

Another official in charge of investigating Amini's death, speaking to Iran's news channel SNN, repeated similar accusations that some weeks prior to the Jina Amini's death, three CIA agents had met with Kurdish officials in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, planning to instigate unrest in Iran particularly in the Kurdish region in Northwestern Iran. The suspicious death of a Kurdish woman in Tehran, he claimed, was part of this pre-planned scenario.[10]


Iranian security forces open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini in her hometown
Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters who massed in their thousands on Wednesday in Mahsa Amini’s hometown to mark 40 days since her death, a human rights group said.

“Security forces have shot tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan square, Saqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded.

Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Saqez in the western Kurdistan province to pay tribute to Amini at her grave at the end of the traditional mourning period.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.

Anger flared at her funeral last month and quickly sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic Republic in almost three years. Young women have led the charge, burning their hijab headscarves and confronting security forces.

“Death to the dictator,” mourners chanted at the Aichi cemetery outside Saqez, before many were seen heading to the governor’s office in the city center.

Iran’s Fars news agency said around 2,000 people gathered in Saqez and chanted “Woman, life, freedom.”
MEMRI: Over a Month after Mahsa Amini’s Death, Protests Continue in Iran – Protestors Chant: We Will Fight!
On September 16, 2022, a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa (Jina, also spelled Zhina) Amini died after being beaten and arrested by Iran's morality police for not wearing her hijab (headscarf) properly. As a result, protests broke out throughout Iran, and have been ongoing since. This clip is a compilation of footage from the protests.

In this clip, protestors and university students can be seen throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes and offices of government officials, chanting obscenities against the Basij and the regime, interrupting a speech by the Iranian regime’s spokesman, and chanting: “We will fight, we will die, we will take Iran back!”

The footage in this clip was posted on October 24, 2022 to various social media accounts, including Iran International Media’s Instagram page, Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad’s Instagram page, and several Iranian Telegram channels.




MEMRI: British Imam Abu Usamah At-Thahabi Says: As a Muslim, I Won't Allow Girls to Lead Me in Any Protest
In a Friday, October 17, 2022 sermon at the Al-Rahma Faith Center in Leeds, UK, British imam Abu Usamah At-Thahabi spoke about the protests that have recently erupted in Iran after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being beaten and arrested by Iran’s morality police for wearing her hijab “improperly”. He said that feminists and progressives claim that the hijab holds women back and are encouraging Muslim girls to participate in these protests. He said that as a Muslim, he is not going to allow girls to lead him in any kind of protest, and he cited a hadith that compares wearing immodest clothing to nudity. He also criticized Muslim girls who post videos to TikTok of them dancing while wearing hijabs, and he stressed that Islamic law permits women to expose only their hands and face. He added: “When we get control of our women, then we will be on the road to success.” At-Thahabi’s sermon was posted to the Al-Rahma Faith Center’s YouTube channel.






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