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Monday, November 07, 2022

11/07 Links Pt1: The Palestinian rejection of Israel’s right to exist; Netanyahu victory paves way for Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine; Lies and unapologetic antisemitism from the UN CoI.

From Ian:

PMW: The Palestinian rejection of Israel’s right to exist
The Palestinian objection to the 1917 Balfour Declaration is one of the most explicit expressions of the Palestinian rejection of Israel’s right to exist. This year, as in previous years, the Palestinian Authority and its leaders marked the historical event with a barrage of statements condemning the declaration, that ranged from outright rejection to elaborate conspiracy theories.

The common theme of all the statements, as Palestinian Media Watch has conclusively demonstrated, is the denial of the internationally and historically recognized connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and the rejection of the legitimacy of the State of Israel, in any borders.

Leading the barrage was the PA Ministry of Information which claimed that the declaration was “the crime of the era” which “exceeded the crimes of colonialism”, and called on the Britain to “be ashamed of their sin”.

“The [PA] Ministry of Information said that the black Balfour Promise in its 105th year is the crime of the era, … this unjust promise is a dangerous precedent in the history of international relations… that … exceeded the crimes of colonialism…

The Ministry of Information reemphasized that Britain and all its diplomats should be ashamed of their sin, their historical injustice, and their denial of all the laws and conventions…” – which obligates them to recognize the State of Palestine and stop blindly siding with injustice, occupation, and colonialism.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 2, 2022]

PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh also condemned the declaration, claiming that “Britain gave that which it did not have ownership over to one who has no right”. Shtayyeh added his demand that Britain correct its historical mistake by recognizing the “State of Palestine:
“[At the weekly PA governmental meeting, PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said… that the anniversary of the ominous Balfour Declaration will take place in two days, Wednesday [Nov. 2, 2022], ‘and through it Britain gave that which it did not have ownership over to one who has no right. We are still paying the price of this ominous declaration’s consequences in political, material, humanitarian, geographical, and other terms, and Britain must correct its historical mistake and recognize the sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem, and the [Palestinian] refugees’ right of return.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 1, 2022]
Palestinians Vote For Terrorists, Then Claim Israelis Are 'Extremists'
The Palestinians, who keep complaining about the rise of the right-wing parties in Israeli elections, are the ones who brought the terrorist Hamas group to power.

In 2006, a majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the elimination of Israel.

The Palestinians who voted for a jihadist terror group would therefore seem to have little justification to complain about the outcome of any Israeli election.

The statements that Palestinian leaders and officials are making in response to the latest elections are identical to those they issued after previous rounds of voting in Israel.

After Israel's 2020 election, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum... urged Palestinians to step up the "resistance" against Israel to thwart then US President Donald J. Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East, titled "Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People."

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, any elected government in Israel that does not submit to 100% of their demands is a bad and dangerous government.

The second camp, represented by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several other armed groups, is seeking to replace Israel with an Islamist state. This camp does not believe in Israel's right to exist....

The Palestinians... continue to engage in fear-mongering after each Israeli election in efforts to intimidate the Israeli public into complying with their demands. They also have used this tactic for three decades to frighten the international community into pressuring Israel to make dangerous territorial concessions.

The Palestinian claim that there is no partner for peace in Israel is totally false. In fact, the opposite is true.... The sad fact is that there is no partner for peace on the Palestinian side.

The next time the Palestinians wring their hands about Israeli elections, the international community might remind them that it is Palestinian terrorism that drives the Israeli ballot-box results.

The Palestinians also need to be reminded that it is their own leaders, and not those of Israel, who reject peace.

Rather than bemoaning the Israeli election results, Palestinian leaders should be granting their own people even a part of what the Israelis wish for them in the Abraham Accords: equal justice under the law, freedom to speak and publish without fear of retribution, freedom to become prosperous, and freedom to live lives that have opportunity apart from the cottage industry of terrorism -- lives free from their own leaders' corrupt, unending suppression.
David Singer: Netanyahu victory paves way for Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
Bibi Netanyahu’s triumphal return as Israel’s next Prime Minister affords him the opportunity to fulfil one of his major election promises: Ending the 100-years old unresolved Arab-Jewish conflict.

It has been a long and arduous road for Netanyahu to travel since he told the United Nations on 11 December 1984:
“Those who accept the notion of a Palestinian people must therefore wonder: how many Palestinian Arab peoples are there? Is there a western Palestinian Arab people and, just across that narrow stream known as the Jordan River an eastern Palestinian Arab people? How many Arab States in Palestine does Palestinian self-determination require? Clearly, in eastern and western Palestine there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews; and, just as clearly, there are only two States in that area, Jordan and Israel.

The Arab State of Jordan, containing some 3 million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew 10 live there. It contains four fifths of the territory originally allocated by the predecessor of the United Nations. the League of Nations, for the Jewish national home. The other State, Israel, has a population of a little over 4 million, of which one sixth IS Arab. It contains less than one fifth of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate.

The claim of self-determination, then, is misleading, for the inhabitants of Jordan which, incidentally,Hussein's grandfather, King Abdullah, wanted originally to call the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - are largely Palestinian Arabs, and within that population, western Palestinian Arabs are the majority. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a State or their own, the ultimate expression of self-determination. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in western Palestine, and the twenty-second Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949.”

The United Nations rejected Netanyahu’s warning - pushing ahead instead to try and create that 23nd Arab state between Israel and Jordan in territories allocated to the Jews to reconstitute the Jewish National Home under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.

Both the Security Council and General Assembly subsequently passed a plethora of anti-Israel resolutions using highly-inflammatory language such as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and recognising two separate peoples in the process – “Jordanians” and “Palestinians” – even granting observer status to the non-existent “State of Palestine”


Anne Bayefsky: Lies and unapologetic antisemitism from the UN ‘Commission of Inquiry’
On Oct. 27, 2022, the three inquisitors demonstrated why the world’s worst human rights violators are their biggest admirers, and how the U.N. system has been enlisted in the service of their anti-human rights and antisemitic agenda.

Pillay stage-managed the two-part event, both the “dialogue” with states and the news conference. She began by presenting the report at the General Assembly’s Third Committee. This committee is composed of all 193 U.N. member states and is tasked with addressing human rights, even though the majority of U.N. members are not free democracies and think human rights protection is for losers. The sources of enthusiastic support for the “inquiry” in this environment was revealing.

Iran—currently engaged in a bloody crackdown on its own civil society—participated in the General Assembly dialogue with this:

“The Islamic Republic of Iran expresses support for the work of the Commission of Inquiry … The brutal Israeli regime has resorted to a new law in order to hinder the Commission’s work and its cooperation with civil society … Madam Pillay, in your opinion, how critical is the role of civil society in resolving the question of Palestine?”

Iran thus reminded listeners of the true nature of the exercise—namely, cynical political gamesmanship.

Syria—which murdered its own population with weapons of mass destruction—told inquiry members and the General Assembly:

“I would like to thank the Chair and members of the Committee. We fully support your mandate, your efforts, and your report. And actually, we don’t find what was mentioned in your report weird or unreal. This is an ordinary result for a continuous occupation since 1948.”

Thus, Syria reminded listeners of the actual root cause of the conflict—namely, Arab rejection of Jewish self-determination.

Pillay’s presentation was a no-holds-barred attack on Israel from the U.N. podium, where she sat beside her two colleagues, accompanied by the Third Committee’s chairman, Ambassador José Blanco of the Dominican Republic. When she finished her tirade, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan was given the floor.

Erdan criticized the report, pointed to the bias of its authors and introduced actual victims of Palestinian terror that were physically present in the seats behind him, dehumanized by the report.

The next move was extraordinary. The chairman did not proceed simply to call the next speaker. Instead, Ambassador Blanco said:

“Before we continue with the statement of the State of Palestine, I would like to recall to the Delegation of Israel that let’s stick to the text of the document and let’s avoid personal attacks or provocations for Members of the Commission.”

Such a reprimand from the chairman of the Third Committee to the ambassador of any state—let alone a state responding to a direct attack on its legitimacy and its people—was unprecedented.


Macron, world leaders congratulate Netanyahu on election victory
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday congratulated Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on his right-religious bloc’s victory in last week’s elections.

“I just called Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him for his victory in the elections. We share the same desire to strengthen the already strong ties between Israel and France,” Macron tweeted.

The two leaders discussed regional issues, with a focus on Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli media reported.

In the aftermath of last Tuesday’s national vote, Netanyahu has also spoken with the leaders of Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Austria, according to the reports.

Netanyahu has also been congratulated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others.

Notably, U.S. President Joe Biden has yet to formally congratulate Netanyahu.


President Herzog meets with King Abdullah of Jordan at COP27 in Egypt
Israel's President Isaac Herzog inaugurated Israel's first-ever pavilion at the COP27 conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Monday.

At the event, he gave a speech saying that "Israel is committed to the global effort to combat climate change."

"This is a subject that is above politics and above borders. It might be the only subject to unite the entire humankind," Herzog said.

Herzog met with King Abdullah II of Jordan during his visit to the COP27 conference in Sharm El Sheikh.

"We discussed trilateral Israel-UAE-Jordan cooperation on energy and water, as well as the southern Jordan River rehabilitation project, the advancement of our bilateral ties, and regional issues," he wrote on Twitter.

"The climate conference is a historic event in humanity's most important struggle – saving the planet's climate," Herzog said on Monday shortly before heading to the COP27 climate change conference.

"I will present an Israeli vision that I call a renewed Middle East, in which Israel, together with the countries in the region, will provide significant solutions in the face of the climate crisis," he said.

“The climate is at the top of the State of Israel’s priorities," Herzog added. "It is connected to the future of our children and future generations. We must do everything to do our part to save humankind.”


Republican challenger Zeldin rallies Haredi voters in New York governor’s race
On Saturday night in Brooklyn, Republican US House Representative Lee Zeldin rallied a crowd at the close of Shabbat with a message tailored to the Haredi community ahead of the state’s race for governor.

Zeldin highlighted his family’s Jewish background, relating how his grandfather founded a synagogue, before turning to two central issues for the community in the hotly contested race.

“My mother was a 4th-grade yeshiva teacher here in Brooklyn,” he said.

“I’ll say it publicly and I’ll say it proudly and I’ll say it anywhere,” he said. “It would be an honor to be the greatest champion of yeshiva education.”

The fired-up crowd in the Williamsburg neighborhood, the home base of the Satmar Hasidic movement, responded with chants of “Zeldin! Zeldin!”

The candidate then turned to crime and antisemitism, blasting progressive cashless bail laws and vowing to “take back our streets.”

“You should not be targeted for who you are. New Yorkers right now have been under attack. There must be zero tolerance for antisemitism on our streets, in any of our schools and in the halls of government,” he said. “The violent antisemitic attacks taking place in Brooklyn must end and I want to work with all of you.”

New York, a Democratic bastion, has emerged as an unlikely battleground state in the run-up to Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections. Governor Kathy Hochul remains ahead in most polls, but Zeldin has made the race competitive by focusing on the economy and crime, in line with Republican messaging in the US.
"Crown Heights Activists Call to Vote ‘Republican Down the Ballot’"
A group of Crown Heights activists has called for Crown Heights residents to vote Republican ‘Down the Ballot’ in the upcoming election. “We need candidates who will fight for the pro-yeshiva and pro-safety laws that our community desires,” they wrote.

They are not alone: Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, head of the Philadelphia Yeshiva, announced a rare endorsement Monday, urging the New York Jewish community to vote “as one” for GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who currently serves as a US Representative.

On Thursday evening November 3, local Crown Heights activists and businesspeople met with a few of the Republican candidates for various positions.

“This is a time for us to unite along with other Jewish communities, and endorse the candidate whose values most align with our community’s,” said CHRC chairman Max Cohen in a statement to their campaigns.

“After meeting with Lee Zeldin, Michael Henry, Paul Rodriguez, and Joe Pinion, that means voting Republican down the ballot.

“We need candidates who will fight for the pro-yeshiva and pro-safety laws that our community desires.


The Arab League walks a tightrope - opinion
The first meeting of the Arab League in three years took place on November 1 and 2. The venue was Algeria, chosen to commemorate its War of Independence against France, which began on November 1, 1954.

On this occasion, although all 22 member nations with the exception of Syria were represented, the usual turnout of kings, sheiks, emirs and presidents was far from complete. One long-time absentee was Syria’s President Bashar Assad. Syria’s suspension from the League, imposed in 2011 for the regime’s brutality against Arab Spring activists, was not lifted despite the best efforts of Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. He had attempted earlier in the year to persuade other Arab states to readmit Syria, but major Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, support Sunni Muslim rebels fighting Assad.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI was not present. Algeria and Morocco are currently at daggers drawn over a variety of issues, not least Morocco’s claims on Western Sahara.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates leader, Mohammed bin Zayed, both decided not to attend. Their absence, and indeed that of the king of Morocco, forced the attention of members and observers to the great elephant squatting in the room throughout the conference – the Abraham Accords, a phenomenon beyond the bounds of belief at the last Arab League summit in 2019.

How the Abraham Accords have changed everything for the Arab League
It was on September 15, 2020 that the Abraham Accords were signed in a ceremony hosted by the US in the White House. As part of the agreements, both the UAE and Bahrain recognized Israel’s sovereignty, opening the way for establishing full diplomatic relations followed by highly lucrative trade, economic and hi-tech deals. Since then, Morocco and Sudan have signed up to the accords, while other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar have gone a long way toward normalizing business and security relations with Israel.

In signing the accords, none of the four Arab states renounced its support for Palestinian aspirations. All, though, had determined that a settlement of the Israel-Palestinian issue was not an essential precursor to adopting a pragmatic view of the benefits to be derived from cooperating with Israel across a whole variety of fields – not least in opposing the ambitions of Iran to dominate the region.
Yasser Arafat thought Mahmoud Abbas was plotting to get rid of him - leaks
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was convinced that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was conspiring against him at the behest of Israel and the US, according to classified documents leaked to the Palestinian media over the past few days.

The documents consist mostly of the testimonies of senior Palestinian officials who appeared before the special commission set up by the PA to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Arafat in November 2004.

It remains unclear who stands behind the leaks. Moreover, it’s not clear whether the documents were authentic, with senior Palestinian officials refusing to confirm or deny their authenticity.

What do the Palestinian leaks say?
The testimonies showed that a large number of Palestinian officials were convinced that Arafat’s death was caused by foul play.

Arafat, according to the officials, was also convinced that he was facing a regional and international conspiracy to remove him from power after the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

The documents revealed the extent of the bad blood that prevailed between Arafat and Abbas and showed that most of the leaders of the Arab countries had distanced themselves from the former Palestinian leader after the eruption of the Second Intifada.

One Palestinian official who testified before the commission of inquiry claimed that Arafat despised Abbas to a point where he once called him a “son of a bitch” and likened him to Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan who was widely condemned as “America’s chief puppet.”


The West Shouldn’t Strengthen the Iranian Regime, Even in the Name of “Stability”
While neither the U.S. nor the EU is in a position to bring down the Islamic Republic, argues Yalda Zarbakhch, neither ought to be providing financial or diplomatic incentives to a government that supports terrorism around the world and is currently in the midst of a ruthless crackdown on its own people. Yet, as Zarbakhch notes, Western reactions to the ongoing protests have been decidedly mixed:

With Iran in the midst of a unique feminist revolution, . . . how is it possible that the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, remained silent for five weeks? It wasn’t until October 31 that he condemned, in a tweet, the “disproportionate violence of the security forces” against demonstrators in Iran. And why is the West still hoping for a resumption of the Iran nuclear agreement, signed in 2015 and abandoned in 2018? This is a slap in the face of all Iranian women and men who are currently putting their lives on the line.

In the liberal West, of all places, there is a widespread fear of regime change. I keep hearing warnings that a revolution in Iran would result in instability throughout the region—that it could spark a civil war and turn the country into a second Syria. I wonder what these warnings are based on. The region is already far from stable, and the Islamic Republic and its Revolutionary Guard, supported by Hizballah, play a significant part in that, as well. . . .

Apart from the machinery of power that is centered on the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militias—who would give everything for their religious ideology and their leader, Ayatollah Khamenei—the vast majority of the population is united in the struggle against the Islamic Republic. This has seldom been as apparent as in the past six weeks: people of all ethnicities and minorities, Kurds, Baluchis, women and men, old and young, Muslims, people of other faiths, atheists: all are protesting together across the entire country—with and without hijabs.
Iran 'complicity in Russian terror must be punished' - Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Iran to be punished for its weapons sales to Russia in a speech on Sunday, following his meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Zelensky said that he had discussed increasing pressure on the Islamic regime of Iran with von der Leyen.

"Its complicity in Russian terror must be punished," said Zelensky in his evening address. "And we will bring this issue not only to the level of our traditional partners. The whole world will know that the Iranian regime helps Russia prolong this war, and therefore prolong the effect of those threats to the world provoked precisely by the Russian war.

"If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now."

The Ukrainian president added that everyone that aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine bore responsibility for the consequences of the war.

Threat of Iranian suicide drones to Ukraine
Zelensky pointed to Iranian kamikaze drones as an ongoing threat to Ukrainians.

"Today, the occupiers [Russian military forces] used Iranian attack drones again. There are downed ones. But, unfortunately, there are also hits," said Zelensky.

Ukraine has been seeking to stem the supply of Iranian drones to Russia. Its intelligence directorate has been requesting information on the trade logistics of the weapons, and its special operations have claimed to have identified routes and airlines involved.


Iranians deface Soleimani posters and statues, shout ‘Death to Khamenei!’
Iranian protesters have been vandalizing posters and statutes of General Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC Qods Force commander slain by an American drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020.

The demonstrators have also been shouting: “Death to [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei!”

The videos in the clip below were uploaded between Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 to various Twitter and Telegram accounts and put together by MEMRI. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

Meanwhile on Sunday, hard-line Iranian legislators demanded that the judiciary crack down on the perpetrators of the unrest throughout the country as the regime struggles to quell the largest display of dissent in years.

“We ask the judiciary to deal decisively with the perpetrators of these crimes and with all those who assisted in the crimes and provoked rioters,” state media quoted 227 lawmakers from Iran’s 290-seat parliament as saying.

As of Saturday, 318 protesters, including 49 children, had been killed in the unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). It was also revealed that 38 members of the security forces had been killed.




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