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Friday, November 04, 2022

11/04 Links Pt1: Ruthie Blum: Israel’s right to sideline the Left; No Call to Bibi: Biden Has Yet to Congratulate Newly Elected Israeli Leader; Teenage Israeli girl shot in the head in Kiryat Arba

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Israel’s right to sideline the Left
The emerging landslide victory for the camp headed by Israeli opposition leader Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is causing more than the average stir. Though there’s nothing unusual about a losing side feeling disappointed by an unwanted result at the ballot box, the outcome of Tuesday’s Knesset elections – the fifth round in three-and-a-half years – is generating a level of disgruntlement not seen in the country since 1977.

That was the year when Menachem Begin, founder of the Likud Party now chaired by Netanyahu, became premier. The upheaval ended three decades of Labor Party dominance.

Panic on the Left was palpable and shrill, with detractors calling him a terrorist, likening him to Mussolini and bemoaning Israel’s inevitable downfall at his hands. Not only was the frenzy unwarranted but in retrospect, it was laughable.

Today’s equally undue apoplexy surrounds two phenomena: Netanyahu’s smashing comeback, which his foes had been doing everything to quash, and the meteoric rise to mega-popularity of Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir.

At Netanyahu’s behest prior to the election, Ben-Gvir and Religious Zionist MK Bezalel Smotrich merged their factions so as to prevent the possibility of split and wasted ballots. The move turned out to be a brilliant one, as together they garnered a large number of seats.

The haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism also increased their mandates. The upshot is a strong majority for the Right with Netanyahu at the helm. In other words, for the first time in its history, Israel will have an exclusively nationalist and religious governing coalition.
Jonathan Tobin: The panic in the US surrounding Israel’s next government is about politics, not values
As far as many American Jews are concerned, this time the Israelis have gone too far. After more than four decades of tolerating, with decreasing patience and growing disdain, Israeli governments that were led by the Likud Party, the results of this week’s Knesset election go beyond the pale for a lot of liberals.

Their angst is not so much focused on the return to power of Benjamin Netanyahu for his third stint as the Jewish state’s prime minister, even though he is widely viewed by many Jewish Democrats as the moral equivalent of a red-state Republican. The panic about the election results is caused by the fact that the Religious Zionist Party and its leaders, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, will play a leading role in the next governing coalition. The party won 14 seats, making it the third largest in the Knesset and an indispensable part of the majority that Netanyahu is about to assemble.

The prospect of Smotrich, and especially Ben-Gvir, sitting in Netanyahu’s Cabinet has not just set off a bout of pearl-clutching on the part of liberal Jewish groups. It’s also led to the sort of ominous rhetoric describing a crack-up of the relationship between American and Israeli Jews that goes beyond the usual rumblings about the growing distance between the two communities.

There are legitimate questions to be posed about Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. Time will tell whether they are up to the challenge of their new responsibilities and act in a manner that helps, rather than hurts, Netanyahu’s efforts to consolidate support for his government at home and abroad. But what no one seems to be considering is whether the rush to judgment about them says more about Diaspora Jewry’s obsessions than it does about the embrace of nationalist and religious parties by Israel’s voters.

The pair are the embodiment of everything that most American Jews don’t like about the Jewish state. Their unapologetic nationalism and perceived hostility to Arabs, gays and non-Orthodox Judaism are anathema to liberal Americans.

But the interesting thing about the statements coming out of groups like the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and more unabashedly leftist organizations is the way they highlight their worries about the new Israeli government by pointing to the supposed threat that the Religious Zionist Party poses to Israeli democracy.
The Return of Bibi Netanyahu
In Israel, just as in the U.S., the Right typically tends to perform better when the public votes on issues pertaining to the economy and, above everything else, crime, public safety, and national security. Israel has generally been in a shakier place, from a public safety perspective, ever since the Jewish state's last full-scale war with Gaza-based Hamas in May 2021. There have been a number of terrorist attacks and shootings, not merely in Judea and Samaria but even in the liberal/secular heart of Israel, Tel Aviv, that have shocked the national conscience. Israeli-Arab violence, and even the occasional vandalism of synagogues, has at times escalated in mixed Jewish/Arab cities. The Israel Defense Forces has also been forced to step up its counterterrorism operations to thwart the now-ascendant jihad waged by the "Lions' Den" militant group, which is based in Nablus.

At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is still dealing with the domestic fallout of its state-sponsored murder of protester Mahsa Amini, inches ever closer to the bomb. Iran poses a significant threat to the West and to the U.S., but it poses an existential threat to Israel. In fact, it is, at this time, Israel's only true existential threat. And there is no one Israelis trust more to handle the Iran portfolio than Netanyahu, who gave a tremendous speech to the U.S. Congress in March 2015 excoriating the then-ongoing Iran nuclear deal negotiations, oversaw the daredevil Mossad operation to expose and airlift out Iran's nuclear secrets a few years later, and who helped achieve the 2020 Abraham Accords peace with the U.A.E., Bahrain, and Morocco, which is best understood as an anti-Iran regional containment coalition.

Put simply, Israelis finally sobered up and (correctly) realized that Netanyahu is the best person to steward the Jewish state on issues pertaining to law and order, public safety, national security, and even Israel's international diplomacy. Israelis should be applauded for this decision. The so-called international community will undoubtedly blanch at the inclusion of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir in Netanyahu's governing coalition, but, frankly: Who the hell cares? The Israeli people, and only the Israeli people, can deem what is best for them and their country. The Biden administration, and other Western actors, should respect their judgment.


Caroline Glick Show: How were the 2022 Israeli elections different from the previous four?
In this week’s “Caroline Glick Show,” Caroline Glick discusses the outcome of Israel's election with guest Gadi Taub. Glick and Taub look at the election’s results and compare them with the outcome of the previous rounds. The two also discuss the challenges facing the incoming Netanyahu administration.


Caroline Glick: Legal reform, now
Over the past 30 years, Israel’s judges and state lawyers have rejected all checks and balances on their powers. Acting without legal basis, they have seized more and more powers from the elected leadership of the country.

Efforts to enact legal reforms to check the power of the legal fraternity have been stymied time after time because support for those reforms always fell a few votes shy of a majority in the Knesset. As the legal fraternity grew more comfortable exposing its radical, post-Zionist worldview, the Left, a minority in Israeli politics that nevertheless controls nearly every media outlet in the country, realized that with the legal fraternity on its side it didn’t require a parliamentary majority to impose its policies on the public.

Once that reality set in, the Left demonized every politician who sought to reform the legal system as an enemy of democracy, and when possible as a corrupt crook. Invariably, those politicians would find themselves under criminal investigation and even on trial for non-criminal behavior.

On Tuesday, the people of Israel voted in favor of 64 lawmakers who support the widescale reform of the legal system. And with their parliamentary majority, the power to enact reforms is in their legitimate hands. But power is fleeting. Since the legal fraternity rejects all challenges to its authority, time is of the essence. The longer the incoming government waits to act, the more organized the legal fraternity and its allies will be to block a reform agenda.

After suffering through a year-and-a-half of the most radical and incompetent government in our history, a government that saw eye-to-eye with radical jurists on all issues, the incoming Netanyahu government must contend with massive challenges and threats from all quarters.

Voters gave Netanyahu and the right the largest mandate the nationalist camp has received in two decades. They expect the incoming government to clean up the mess that Lapid and his colleagues are leaving behind, and to push Israel forward. The only way for Netanyahu and his partners to meet these expectations is by making far-reaching reforms to the legal system.

Time is of the essence, and the time to move is now.
The Reform of Israel’s Judiciary Is an Urgent, and Trans-Partisan, Issue
Now that the votes have been tallied, it seems almost certain that the next Israeli prime minister will be Benjamin Netanyahu, leading a coalition of rightwing and religious parties. A key item on the platform of several members of this prospective coalition is reform of the judiciary, which has enormous power that it has largely granted to itself. Aylana Meisel-Diament and Yonatan Green explain what is at stake:
Though it might seem a modern partisan power struggle, the judicial-reform debate has much older roots. Founded 74 years ago, Israel developed its system of law and governance in an ad-hoc fashion, and generally in crisis periods. Political fragmentation, defense against constant existential threats, and the lack of a written constitution left a power vacuum that the Israeli court system has slowly and intentionally filled without a popular mandate to do so.

The Israeli Supreme Court, not a popular-representative body, unilaterally declared a written constitution in the 1990s, a surprise to the lawmakers who had passed the statutes the Court decided to “constitutionalize.” The Court then endowed itself with the power of judicial review of parliamentary legislation despite the absence of a duly ratified constitutional document. And the Court departed from its own tradition of restraint effectively to eliminate any limitation on standing and subject-matter jurisdiction in constitutional cases. These are just a few elements of a long and continuing appropriation of policy-making power by the judiciary.

Within Israel, demand for judicial reform—including revising the method of judicial selection and limiting the Court’s vast authority—is bipartisan and extends back nearly 40 years. While the cause is more popular on Israel’s right than its left today, the foremost advocates of these reforms have often been legal luminaries affiliated with Israel’s left or political center.

As for the more specific legal reforms endorsed by right-leaning Israeli politicians, these too are far less partisan than some observers have claimed:
[C]onsider the proposed abolition of Israel’s “Breach of Trust” criminal offense (for which Netanyahu has been indicted) and a proposed grant of revocable criminal immunity to legislators. The substance of the proposal is certainly worthy of debate, but it is incorrectly portrayed . . . as a “blatant attempt to place Netanyahu above the law.” In fact, this particular proposal is intended to apply only prospectively, and not to Netanyahu’s ongoing case. Looking at the relevant history here is illuminating. The “Breach of Trust” offense has been severely criticized by legal scholars since the 1990s, decades before the Netanyahu indictments.


JNS Bureau Chief Alex Traiman on The Ben Shapiro Show
Ben Shapiro and JNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief discuss key takeaways from Israel’s decisive fifth election campaign, which has once again crowned Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister.




No Call to Bibi: Biden Has Yet to Congratulate Newly Elected Israeli Leader
The Biden administration will not say when the president plans on calling newly elected Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, drawing accusations the U.S. administration is trying to isolate the conservative Jewish leader before he even takes office.

Asked on Thursday afternoon if President Joe Biden has any plans to phone Netanyahu following his victory this week in the Israeli elections, a White House spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, "We don’t have any call to preview at this point."

The Israeli media reported on Thursday that Biden is expected to call Netanyahu some time over the weekend, citing the U.S. president’s packed schedule campaigning around America’s midterm elections. But the White House would not confirm these reports when asked by the Free Beacon.

Biden called Brazil’s newly elected far-left president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Monday, just a day after that country’s elections. This discrepancy is fueling accusations the Biden administration is taking a chilly approach to its diplomacy with Netanyahu, who made history by being elected as Israel’s prime minister for the third time.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon that the president's delay in calling Netanyahu "is not an accident."

"President Biden rushed to call Lula, a committed anti-American Chavista, but is finding every possible excuse not to call the next Prime Minister of Israel. That is not an accident," Cruz said. "Biden has spent his entire administration undermining America's allies and boosting America's enemies. The next Republican Congress is going to leverage aggressive oversight and legislation to reverse that recklessness."
Blinken calls outgoing PM Lapid to thank him, warn of spiraling West Bank violence
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid late Thursday to thank him for his partnership and to voice alarm about rising tensions in the West Bank.

Blinken spoke to Lapid to “commend Israel for its free and fair elections, and to thank the prime minister for his partnership,” the State Department said in a statement.

Blinken voiced “his deep concern over the situation in the West Bank, including heightened tensions, violence and loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives, and underscored the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate the situation.”

His warning comes as former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to return to power at the head of what will likely be one of the most right-wing governments Israel has ever had, and amid predictions it could see renewed tensions between Israel and the Biden administration.

Lapid, who has now conceded, last year cobbled together an unlikely coalition united in opposition to Netanyahu.


BBC WS exploits Israel election to promote political NGO’s talking points
Whatever one’s opinion of Itamar Ben Gvir and his “parliamentary office” (actually a gazebo and a table) in that volatile neighbourhood, it is clear that BBC audiences were presented with an entirely one-sided account of that story. Failing to challenge his interviewee’s version of events at all, Worricker continued:
Worricker: “On the issue of humanitarian help for people, there has been EU funding for Palestinian communities. Has that made any significant difference for people?”

Egeland: “Well I mean the humanitarian help that Europeans and the UK is giving is of course helping people to survive, to get through from day to day but it is of course not able to do anything with the constant humiliation and the occupation and the lack of human…human rights. And again, 228 funded structures – homes, waterworks, schools etc – have been torn down by the occupying power Israel so far this year. So we build with tax money from Europeans, Israeli soldiers tear down.”

Worricker made no effort to inform listeners that such European funded structures have been constructed illegally for years.
Worricker: “The international community regularly condemns the current situation but little seems to change on the ground. What do you say would make a difference?”

Egeland: “A united front between the United States – which is the most influential party both on the Israelis and Palestinians – a united front with the Europeans and the Gulf countries that have normalised now with Israel. They should convince Israel that it is in Israel’s interest to live in peace and reconciliation with their neighbours and that occupation is wrong when Israel does it, as with any other power on earth, and if they continue to occupy and humiliate their neighbours, they will not live in security in future. So Israeli politicians are undermining the security of their own people. That needs to end; the international community needs to convince them of such.”

Failing to raise any of the many pertinent issues such as Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian denial of Israel’s right to exist or the highly relevant topic of what happened after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza Strip seventeen years ago, Worricker closed the item:
Worricker: “Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to me there from Jerusalem after he spent some time visiting the Israeli occupied West Bank.”

As we see, ‘Newshour’ exploited the occasion of a general election in Israel to gratuitously promote completely one-sided – and totally unchallenged – talking points from an inadequately presented political NGO with a long record of anti-Israel activity.


Russia said to threaten retaliation if Israel supplies defense aid to Ukraine
Russia has warned Israel that it will retaliate if Jerusalem sends defensive weapons to Ukraine, according to US media.

Citing two unnamed sources familiar with Russian policy, Bloomberg news reported that Russia would respond if Israel passed along air-defense systems directly or through a third party to Ukraine. The report did not specify what action Moscow might take.

Jerusalem has seemed to warm to the idea of supplying defensive equipment as Iran supplies the Kremlin with attack drones. Prime Minister Yair Lapid told Ukraine’s foreign minister in October that Moscow’s ties with Tehran put “the whole world in danger.”

However, the coming change of government in Israel leaves future policy under question. Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to form the next government, has been known for his good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Bloomberg report follows remarks made by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev last month, who warned Israel against sending weaponry to Ukraine, saying it would “destroy all diplomatic relations” between Jerusalem and Moscow.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told Channel 12’s “Uvda” on Tuesday that Israel recently agreed to provide his country with radio systems it had requested in February, and said last week that the two countries were engaged in intelligence cooperation relating to the Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones employed by Russia in the war.
Iran seeking nuclear help from Russia in exchange for weapons -CNN
According to US intelligence officials, Iran is angling for Russia's help in fortifying its nuclear program in return for supplying weapons for the war with Ukraine, CNN reported on Friday.

Iran has been attempting to acquire additional nuclear materials from Russia, as well as get help with nuclear fuel fabrication, sources told CNN. The fuel, powering Iran's nuclear reactors, may bring the Islamic Republic significantly closer to creating a nuclear weapon.

However, CNN's sources did highlight that the nuclear proliferation risk is highly dependent on which reactor the fuel goes to. Also, Russia has not stated any intentions to provide the requested aid.

Zelensky's predictions
In an Oct. 24 interview with Haaretz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky touched on the exchange of weapons between the two nations, saying: "How did this alliance of theirs become possible? I will tell you. ...In eight months of full-scale war, Russia has used almost 4,500 missiles against us. And their stock of missiles is dwindling. This is why Russia went looking for affordable weapons in other countries to continue terror. It found them in Iran."

Zelensky continued, saying "I have a question for you – how does Russia pay Iran for this, in your opinion? Is Iran just interested in money? Probably not money at all, but Russian assistance to the Iranian nuclear program."

Concerns for Israel
Weapons trade between Russia and Iran has expanded significantly in the last several months, worrying members of the global community who may be future targets of such an alliance - specifically, Israel.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Dmitryo Kuleba about Iran's role in the war between Russia and Ukraine on Oct. 20, and “emphasized the deep concern and the military ties between Iran and Russia,” according to the Prime Minister's office.
British PM abandons plan to move embassy to Jerusalem
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ plans to move the British embassy in Israel to Jerusalem have been abandoned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Downing Street has confirmed.

Asked whether the U.K. government was still considering a move, a No 10 spokesperson said: “It has been looked at. There are no plans to move the British embassy.”

When she was prime minister, Truss directed a review of whether the U.K. should follow the Trump administration’s lead and relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv.

The development followed a statement by British government officials to a group of journalists that there were “no plans to move the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” a statement that was lauded by the PLO mission in the UK.

When Truss met with Prime Minister Yair Lapid on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, she informed the Israeli leader that she was conducting the review.
13-year-old girl breathing independently after being shot in West Bank’s Kiryat Arba
The condition of a 13-year-old Israeli girl improved on Friday, a day after she was shot in the head and critically wounded under unclear circumstances in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Tamar Aharon was now breathing independently, doctors said.

“Prayers from the nation of Israel together with doctors of Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital helped. The family thanks the nation of Israel and requests that they continue to pray for the full recovery of Tamar,” the Aharon family said in a statement.

Aharon had been rushed to the hospital by Magen David Adom paramedics while unconscious on Thursday after being hit by gunfire while walking down a street in Kiryat Arba.

The Ynet news site reported that errant gunfire was likely responsible, based on the entry wound that was located on the top of Aharon’s head. It was thought that the bullet had been fired into the air from Hebron.

Residents of Kiryat Arba have long complained about gunfire emanating from Hebron toward the settlement.

“We demand that security forces carry out scans and find the source of the shooting,” a settlement spokesperson said following the shooting.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was conducting searches in the area. “The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” the military added.

The incident came after an Israeli man was shot dead and four others were hurt in Hebron on Saturday night. The terrorist was rammed by a security guard and shot dead by an off-duty soldier.


Rocket sirens blare in communities near Gaza
Rocket alerts blared around 9 p.m. Thursday in three kibbutzim situated near Gaza: Kissufim, Ein Hashlosha and Nirim.

Three rockets launched fell short and landed in the Gaza Strip and were the first since “Operation Breaking Dawn” on August 5-7, when terrorists fired approximately 1,100 rockets towards Israel.

Residents said they heard explosions, though no one was harmed.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack, saying it came in response to the Israel Defense Forces’ killing of a senior member of its armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, in Jenin in Samaria earlier in the day.

The IDF confirmed that rockets were indeed fired and said the attacks were under investigation.
Rocket intercepted on Israel-Gaza border

IDF strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket launches
The IDF launched airstrikes against Hamas underground rocket development and production complex targets in the Gaza Strip in response to earlier rocket fire toward Israel, the IDF announced early on Friday morning.

The IDF said that the airstrikes "will lead to damage to the terrorist organization's attempts to strengthen and arm itself with rockets."

"Hamas bears responsibility for what is happening in the Gaza Strip - and it is [Hamas] that will pay the price for the security violations against the State of Israel," the IDF added.

Multiple rockets fired toward Israel
Several hours prior to the retaliatory airstrikes, Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched four rockets toward Israeli territory in what it claimed was "a response to the assassination of the commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in Jenin," according to Ynet.


Israelis are “despicable” and “Nazis”, “Haifa and Jaffa are ours” – Fatah official
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Abd Al-Ilah Atteereh: “[The Israelis] accuse the Palestinian leadership of being terrorists. But they are the terrorists. They are the despicable ones. They are the Nazis… We won’t leave. We’ll remain and we’ll continue to be a bone in [their] throat in this land. This is our land. Haifa is ours, Jaffa is ours (i.e., Israeli cities), Nablus is ours, and Jerusalem is ours.” [Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, July 24, 2022]


PMW: The Palestinians have a new celeb terrorist murderer - Uday Al-Tamimi
Uday Al-Tamimi is the PA and Fatah’s newest celebrity terrorist. The reason for his fame is that he murdered 18-year-old female Israeli soldier Sgt. Noa Lazar and wounded an Israeli security guard at the Shuafat checkpoint in northern Jerusalem last month, and ten days later wounded another Israeli security guard in Ma’ale Adumim, before being shot and killed by guards.

Terrorist Al-Tamimi’s murder of Lazar in a surprise shooting, his roaming free for more than a week, and his final attack on Israeli security guards have earned him a place in the PA’s spotlight of “heroes.” Not only have PA and Fatah officials praised him and his attacks, but Palestinian youth have adopted a trend of shaving their heads to look like Al-Tamimi. And not just youth – official PA TV broadcast a video of a toddler having its head shaved as a tribute to the murderer Al-Tamimi, while a song lauding him was played in the background:
Man: “Listen Uday [Al-Tamimi], Uday. This is for Uday.”
Lyrics: “Power, courage, bravery, and manliness
He did not feel frustration for [even] a moment
He humiliated your [Israeli] soldiers
This is our hero, and he is from Shuafat
Be blessed, man of heroic acts …
[With] resolve and a fierce desire, he knows no defeat
Your blow is painful, O son of Shuafat”
[Official PA TV, A Tour of Social Media, Oct. 22, 2022]

The PA supported this trend with a cartoon that highlighted the shaved head as the terrorist’s trademark:
Text on cartoon: “Blessings to you
The steel of Palestine”
[Official PA TV, A Tour of Social Media, Oct. 22, 2022]

Palestinian Media Watch has already reported that a physics test in a Palestinian school glorified the murderer by asking students to calculate “the path of the Martyr” from his home to his last attack.

Via its official TV station, the PA has openly endorsed the murderer as the one who “frightened the entire [Zionist] entity.” The PA TV host also vowed that more terrorists will follow, as the PA “will give birth to another 1,000 Udays”:
Relative of dead terrorist: “We have rejoiced at his death as a Martyr”
Relative of dead terrorist: “We have rejoiced at his death as a Martyr… He asked [for Martyrdom] and achieved it”

Special broadcast on a raid by Israeli forces of a terror cell’s headquarters in Nablus, in which 5 terrorists were killed – see note below

Official PA TV reporter: “I want to speak with the aunt of Martyr Wadi’ Al-Houh (i.e., terrorist). I heard you making sounds of joy a short while ago. These are the sounds of joy that we have grown accustomed to hearing at every Martyr’s funeral.”

Aunt of terrorist Wadi’ Al-Houh: “Wadi’ is the most handsome groom. We won’t be able to rejoice at his wedding, but we’ve rejoiced at his death as a Martyr. Wadi’ is the most handsome groom (the aunt makes sounds of joy -Ed.). Allah be praised. He asked [for Martyrdom] and he achieved it.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 25, 2022]

A Martyr's funeral is considered his wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam.

Wadi’ Al-Houh, Ali Antar, Hamdi Qayyim, Mash’al Baghdadi, Hamdi Sharaf – Palestinian terrorists and members of the independent terror cell “the Lion’s Den” who shot at Israeli soldiers raiding and destroying a headquarters and weapons and explosives laboratory of the cell in Nablus on Oct. 25, 2022. The soldiers returned fire in self-defense, killing the 5 terrorists. Al-Houh was a senior member of “the Lion’s Den.” During the raid PA Security Forces shot at the Israeli soldiers, who returned fire in self-defense and wounded several of them.


Taliban, Hamas officials meet in Turkey
Leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the Palestinian terror group Hamas met in Istanbul at a conference of Islamic religious scholars, according to the Payam Aftab news agency.

The Taliban delegation was reportedly led by Zabihullah Mujahid and the Hamas delegation included Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders.

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, Mujahid, the Taliban’s deputy information minister, posted a photo on Twitter of himself and his delegation meeting with Haniyeh and other members of Hamas.

Mujahid said the delegations discussed the Palestinians and the current situation in Afghanistan. He added that “Palestine” was an issue for the entire Muslim ummah (nation).

The meeting came just weeks after Israeli media reported that Taliban officials favored the establishment of diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Israel.

Meanwhile, according to Iran’s Shahr Ara News, Haniyeh hosted a delegation from Afghanistan led by Mujahid, and the two sides discussed recent developments in Jerusalem, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in Judea and Samaria, as well as climate change and international developments in general. It is unclear whether this was a separate meeting.
Wanted Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad Member Killed in Jenin During Israeli Military Operation
On Thursday, the Israeli military in partnership with other affiliated security agencies launched an operation in Jenin to capture Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander Farouk Salameh who was wanted for his involvement in the shooting death of an Israeli counter-terrorism officer earlier this year.

According to a joint Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and IDF statement, Israeli forces raided a building where they suspected Salameh was located. An armed clash ensued and Salameh fled the scene. During the search for his whereabouts, Salameh was found and subsequently killed by gunfire after he drew his weapon on Israeli forces.

Following the Israeli military operation, PIJ’s branch in Jenin published a statement mourning the death of Salameh.

“We announce in the Jenin Saraya al-Quds Battalion, that the assassination of the great fighter Farouk Salameh is a cowardly criminal operation and we will not stand idly by, and that the victorious Saraya Battalion will not remain silent for long.”

Salameh was also suspected of cooperating with the Nablus-based Lions’ Den in “order to carry out further attacks,” according to the Israeli military’s statement.

Speaking to FDD’s Long War Journal, an Israeli military official added that Salameh’s affiliation with the Lions’ Den included “encouraging their activity” and that he “conspired to secure them funding.”

In addition to the killing of Salemeh, Palestinian social media users claimed PIJ member Tawfiq al-Shalabi was arrested during the Israeli military operation.


Biden's goal to 'free Iran' met with derision from Raisi, Amirabdollahian
US President Joe Biden on Thursday vowed to "free" Iran and said that demonstrators working against the country's government would soon succeed in freeing themselves.

"Don't worry, we're gonna free Iran. They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon," Biden said during a wide-ranging campaign speech in California, as dozens of demonstrators gathered outside holding banners supporting Iranian protesters.

Biden did not expand on his remarks or specify what additional actions he would take during the remarks at MiraCosta College near San Diego.

The White House's National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seven weeks of demonstrations in Iran were ignited by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's morality police.

The protests triggered by Amini's death on Sept. 16 have shown the defiance of many young Iranians in challenging the clerical leadership, overcoming fear that has stifled dissent in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Read full story

The United States on Wednesday said it will try to remove Iran from the 45-member UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) over the government's denial of women's rights and brutal crackdown on protests. Read full story

Iran is just starting a four-year term on the commission, which meets annually every March and aims to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.
European Governments Under Pressure To More Forcefully Back Iranian Protesters
As Iranian protesters are killed and imprisoned by their hardline government, Iranian advocacy groups accuse European governments of turning a blind eye to a protest movement that threatens to topple the Islamic Republic.

"Many European leaders by looking the other way [have] succumbed to the bullying trait of the Islamic regime in Tehran," a coalition of Iranian advocacy groups wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to leading European governments and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "Your years of silence and appeasement policy [have] empowered the nefarious Islamic leadership in Tehran to openly admit to its role in providing Russia with suicide drones to target civilians in Ukraine."

The letter is meant to serve as a wake-up call to European governments that have largely sat on the sidelines as Iranian protesters risk their lives to press for the Islamic Republic's dissolution. Hundreds of Iranians have been murdered by the hardline regime's security forces, and around 14,000 have been imprisoned, in the month since protesters began taking to the streets following the brutal murder of a young woman who wore her head covering improperly. Since that incident, the protest movement has grown into a referendum on the Iranian government, leading the regime to murder protesters.

While world leaders have broadly condemned the Iranian regime's tactics, few have taken concrete action, such as increasing sanctions on the hardline government. European leaders, in particular, have avoided getting involved in the conflict due to fears the Iranian regime will start wreaking havoc in their backyards. The activist groups, led by Iranian Americans for Liberty, a U.S.-based organization, say Europe's appeasement policy toward Tehran must end.

"European governments have been far too complacent about the nefarious actions of the Islamic Republic regime, both domestically and internationally," wrote the groups, which include the European Iranian Association for Peace and Friendship, the Council of Iranian Canadians, and the Persian American Civic Action Network. The letter was sent to the European Parliament and the leaders of Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

"In the face of this blatant violation of international treaties, European governments have thus far exercised reluctance to hold the Islamic regime accountable," the groups wrote. "Europe suffers from a lack of strategic vision and lucid policy to restore international order. It is vitally urgent to bring this vision back in focus."




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