Sunday, December 11, 2022

12/11 Links: Did Thomas Friedman miss his chance in Hevron?; Kanye West named 2022 Antisemite of the Year; Saudi FM: 'All bets off' if Iran gets nuclear weapon

From Ian:

The Biden Administration's Hostility to Israel
The January 28, 2021 appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs of Hady Amr, a man who wrote "I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada" and who falsely accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," was a significant step that promised the worst.

Two days before that, the Biden administration not only restored relations with the Palestinian Authority, but resumed most of the financial aid that had been suspended by the Trump administration -- but they failed to ask the Palestinian leaders to stop financing and supporting terrorism.

The Biden administration also announced its willingness to return to a basically fictitious "two-state solution."

A speech by Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills, announcing these decisions, defined the "settlements" as "an obstacle to peace". He left out that many Palestinians regard the entire state of Israel as one big settlement to be dismantled.

Since then, any construction of homes in the existing Israeli suburbs has been condemned by the State Department in the strongest terms. By contrast, the Biden administration has never made the slightest remark concerning the massive illegal Palestinian construction intended to create "facts on the ground" or "land grabs" in both the West Bank and Israel's Negev desert.

On a more deadly front, on July 14, 2022, Biden signed a Joint Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership, and promised he would "never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon". Since the first days of coming to power, however, on January 29, 2021, the Biden administration has done its utmost to reach a new "nuclear deal" with Iran's mullahs that would enable them to have not only nuclear weapons, but up to $1 trillion dollars, which would quite certainly not be used for human rights.

America's negotiators -- led by Robert Malley and Russia, mediating supposedly on behalf of the US, as the Americans are not even allowed in the room -- have not stopped making concessions.
Seth Frantzman: Why the Twitter files revelations are important
It is at this point that the public and elected officials need to scrutinize these companies more. While social media giants might think they are serving the public good by clamping down on “misinformation,” what happens when they make mistakes? What happens if authoritarian regimes are able to find a way into the data?

This is an important question in a world of rising authoritarianism. Social media giants were told after the 2016 US election that they could be victims of foreign governments meddling in future elections. It was under that guise that these tech giants prevented the sharing of a controversial story about a laptop in 2020.

The problem for the public is that it’s very difficult to get any information on what these tech giants are doing, and to challenge their decisions.

The files hint at how some decisions that were made were arbitrary. It will take time to know what other kinds of decisions were made.

This matters when it comes to controversial subjects discussed on social media as well as things like incitement and antisemitism.

Regardless of a person’s political stance, people should want to know how those companies that sit astride most of the information that exists in the world today are operating and whether users will ever get the transparency they deserve.
David Singer: Did Thomas Friedman miss his chance in Hevron?
Friedman was surprised when he dared mention his idea to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto ruler – Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud - at a dinner a few days later

“After I laid out this idea, the crown prince looked at me with mock astonishment and said, ''Have you broken into my desk?''

''No,'' I said, wondering what he was talking about...

''... I have drafted a speech along those lines. My thinking was to deliver it before the Arab summit and try to mobilize the entire Arab world behind it. The speech is written, and it is in my desk.”

Friedman then proffered this advice to the Crown Prince:
“I suggested to the crown Prince that if he felt so strongly about this idea, even in draft form, why not put it on the record -- only then would anyone take it seriously. He said he would think about it. The next day his office called, reviewed the crown prince's quotations and said, Go ahead, put them on the record. So here they are.”

Thus was born the Friedman-inspired 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - which has gone nowhere in the last 20 years.

The 2022 Saudi Plan - authored by Ali Shihabi - a close confidant of Saudi Arabia’s current Crown Prince and de facto ruler – Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) – shreds Friedman’s 2002 idea – offering in its place a drastically different solution to end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict - if negotiations to implement it are successfully completed.

Yet Friedman has not written one word about Shihabi’s proposal in the six months since its publication – despite my personal request to him to do so. Sour grapes perhaps?

However why has the NYT not informed its readers of this Saudi Plan - that also offers Israel sole sovereignty in Jerusalem and in part of Judea and Samaria ('West Bank')? If that’s not front page news – what is?

Could a well-resourced NYT investigative journalist with Saudi contacts find out whether a plan similar to Shihabi’s is in MBS’s desk or ask MBS directly whether he endorses Shihabi’s plan?

Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury – some answers and an op-ed please.


Daniel Greenfield: 'Black People are the real Jews'
Black Hebrew Israelis may be trying to replace Jewish people, but liberal Jewish strains have been theologically feeding off black struggles and history. And black people are right to resent it.

This problem isn't unique to Jews.

Liberal Christian denominations abandoned much of their faith for social action. They rebuilt their theology around the 'Wretched of the Earth'. So did some elements of the Catholic Church. Liberal Jews were once again imitating the upper class American liberals they so desperately wanted to be like.

And they've mostly achieved their goal.

They've erased their history and tradition leaving little more than a hollow shell that is driven by a noblesse oblige that in the era of militant activism is easily twisted into guilt and self-hatred.

Jews don't need the civil rights movement or any particular cause or the entire absurdity of Tikkun Olam to me the linchpin of our purpose and meaning. The history, the purpose and meaning of the Jews has spread out around the world to be almost universally known, if not universally accepted.

In Israel, it drove the recreation of an ancient nation with little more than grit and determination. In America and other western nations, Holocaust survivors used it to start anew, rebuilding families and communities after incomprehensible losses and traumas. Judaism, the beliefs and history, are incredibly powerful. Abandoning them is a moral, theological and practical dead end that leads nowhere.

Every people wants to know who it is and to believe that it matters. Liberal Jews have robbed their descendants of that. Playing Esau, they sold their birthright for a mess of political pottage, and all they have to offer their children is the civil rights movement, Ukraine and other people's struggles.

That is a theological microcosm of Jewish secularism which heroically throws itself into every cause and dies for every movement except their own.

American Jews have a fundamental choice between their own history and that of the latest romantic victims who stir their otherwise numbed feelings. And if they choose the latter and embrace the latest 'Wretched of the Earth' as the chosen people, they can hardly complain when their latest victims decide to turn around and claim to be the real Jews.
Kyrie Irving and Louis Farrakhan are 2 variants of Black antisemitism. What’s the difference?
The divide between the NOI and BHI became unbridgeable once the narrative turned to the Modern Arabs. Dalton relates that in the first six centuries CE, Arabia and North Africa were the “Black Land of Ham,” but “by 711CE, … a new race of people” “had subdued all of North Africa.” They, the modern Arabs, were not a Semitic people, but descendants of Japheth—“white to light-skinned” Europeans, largely of “the Turkish nations of the North”—who bore no relation to Ishmael.

It was they, the new “Arabs,” who enslaved the scattered Hebrew Israelites of North Africa and sub-Saharan regions, “starting almost one thousand years before the Atlantic slave trade” and “continuing [until] today.” Further, “Islam was forced upon us during the invasion of North Africa by the Arabs [and] it continued as our new mandatory religion during the Arab slave trade.” In sum, Islam is not the natural religion of black people; today’s Arabs are not descendants of Ishmael, and Palestinian Arabs are not descendants of Canaan, as they claim.

Nor, Dalton contends, do the “Ashkenazi Jews” who “occupy Israel” bear any relation to the “biblical Children of Israel.” They are descendants of Japheth, patriarch of the European tribes, and have “no bloodline to Shem, Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.” Dalton underscores that “‘Ashkenazi Jew’ … is not found in the Bible, ANYWHERE!” Moreover, Ashkenazi Jews “exhibit no physical traces of black … therefore, [they are] not related to the Ancient Hebrew Israelites.”

In fact, Dalton instructs—and Farrakhan agrees—“extensive research” has proven that “European Ashkenazi Jews are descended from … the ‘Khazars,’” “pagan worshippers” whose “whole nation” converted to so-called Judaism in 740CE. Moreover, “ancient historians and travelers” linked the Khazar European Jews to “the biblical Japhetic nation … ‘Gog and Magog.’” Ashkenaz was “the son of Gog [and] grandson of Japheth. So … Khazar-Ashkenazi Jews ARE ‘Gog and Magog’”—evil forces in the Christian lexicon.

Indeed, “In 929 chapters of the Old Testament, the word ‘Jew’ is found only 74 times! How can this be?” Dalton asks. And then he explains that the Kenites—the Levite scribes—made “this sneaky insertion of the word ‘Jews’ to link Judaism followers to ‘God’s Chosen People’ … [so] they could take on the identity of the original Hebrew Israelites and nobody would know they were ‘imposters.’” Thus, “Jesus was definitely not a ‘Jew,’” and “despised” Judaism, which had “substituted … the Kenite/Nethinim evil tradition for the Law of Moses.”

“While Jesus walked the Earth” and over the next two centuries “the face of Judea … changed.” The “Children of Israel [had] scattered,” replaced by the “Jews”—the Kenites, Nethinim, and “Sephardic Jews,” pagan converts who “changed things … to their ways, … that of Satan.”

It was the “imposter Jews,” Dalton concludes, who were “highly responsible” for bringing “the real Black Hebrew Israelites” on slave ships, especially to the Caribbean and South America, where, “as overseers” and enslavers, they took “the Lost Hebrew Israelite people as far away from the truth and salvation as possible.” After all, “this is what Satan wants to achieve.” Here, Dalton and Farrakhan are largely in accord. The 1991 screed, The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, by the NOI “Research Department,” attributed “monumental culpability” for the Atlantic slave trade to Jews—a “monumental lie.”

Kyrie Irving justified his interest in “Hebrews to Negroes” by tweeting, “I am a seeker of truth and knowledge and I know who I am.” A “documentary” that demonizes Jews and delegitimizes Judaism and the Jewish state helped Irving “know who” he is. Notably, he believed that he and his followers could find “truth and knowledge” in a “documentary” that robs the foundation narrative of the Jews—and insists it was the Jews who robbed the blacks.

Upon leaving an address by Farrakhan, a Black woman explained to a reporter, “You know how you can hear the truth and it just feels right? That’s the way it is when I listen to Minister Farrakhan. He speaks nothing but the truth.” Clearly, these demagogues’ antisemitic worldviews continue to satisfy deep needs.


After 34 years, US says Libyan who built deadly Lockerbie plane bomb in custody
A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into US custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday.

The arrest of Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi is a significant milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground. American authorities in December 2020 announced charges against Masud, who was in Libyan custody at the time. Though he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the US in connection with the attack, he would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.

The New York-bound Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Citizens from 21 different countries were killed. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.

The bombing laid bare the threat of international terrorism more than a decade before the September 11 attacks. It produced global investigations and punishing sanctions while spurring demands for accountability from victims of those killed.

The announcement of charges against Masud on Dec. 21, 2020, came on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing and in the final days of the tenure of then-Attorney General William Barr, who in his first stint as attorney general in the early 1990s had announced criminal charges against two other Libyans intelligence officials.
Report: Israel Saved 82nd Airborne Commander from Taliban Car Bomb on Last Day in Kabul
82nd Airborne Commander Major General Chris Donahue, renowned as the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan during the military withdrawal of August 2021, almost didn’t make it out and was saved from a car bomb explosion by his friends, thousands of miles away in Tel Aviv, News12 reported last week.

The last convoy of American fighters was on its way to Kabul airport surrounded by the chaos of the Taliban takeover of the Afghani capital. It was a race against time as Taliban fighters were tailing the Americans and shooting at them, trying to exact a final price from America.

Israeli intelligence officers received credible information that a car bomb driven by an ISIS operative was already on its way to meet the convoy. Taliban operatives were about to catch up with the Marines and detonate a charge of hundreds of kilograms of explosives. IDF Intelligence maintains a direct channel to the Central Command of the US Army and told their colleagues there what the convoy had to do to escape a raging inferno.

The American soldiers were able to change their route and escape the attack at the very last minute. Another US unit was not so lucky: an ISIS explosive device killed 13 American soldiers in another part of Kabul, just before they boarded the planes to go home.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 is remembered around the world for its images of crowds of desperate Afghans at the Kabul airport, begging for their lives, chasing US Air Force planes and hanging on their wings as they off, some falling to their deaths. The suicide bomb that killed 13 American servicemen was just one more terrifying event in a day that lives in infamy. Now it appears things could have gone even worse, had the Taliban been able to murder hundreds of American Marines on their last day in Kabul.
UAE, Israel ratify comprehensive economic partnership agreement
The governments of the United Arab Emirates and Israel ratified their comprehensive economic partnership agreement, UAE minister of state for foreign trade, Thani Al Zeyoudi, said on Twitter on Sunday.

The free trade agreement, which was first signed in May, will remove or reduce tariffs on 96% of goods traded between the nations.

"Non-oil trade between UAE and Israel hit $2 billion in the first nine months of 2022, up 114% from the same period in 2021... [The agreement] will accelerate this progress as we create opportunities in key sectors such as advanced technology, renewable energy and food security," Al Zeyoudi added.


Jonathan Tobin: The Palestinians’ World Cup propaganda victory
In addition, as Ben Cohen has noted, Qatar’s government did everything possible to prevent those in attendance from expressing support for the people of Iran engaged in protests against their despotic Islamist regime. It also pressured FIFA to ban player armbands symbolizing sympathy with or support for gay rights.

But neither Qatar nor FIFA had any problem with the wearing of Palestinian-flag emblems by Moroccan players—the so-called “Cinderella team” that’s won upset after upset to make it into the semifinals. Since this is the first time a team from an Arab or African country has gone this far in a World Cup, it’s a great source of pride to the region.

The team’s waving of a Palestinian flag during its victory celebrations is therefore an enormous story. It’s one that The New York Times and other outlets have been happy to cite, along with related incidents, as evidence that Arabs and Muslims still support Palestinian nationalism—which those in the Middle East, if not everyone in liberal America, understand is inextricably linked to the war on Zionism—and hate Israel.

The routine Israel-bashing at the United Nations, and the truly dangerous way that the Palestinians and their antisemitic allies at the U.N. Human Rights Council have sought to misuse international law to target and isolate the Jewish state is often dismissed as meaningless. We’re told that these efforts don’t portray the reality of a new Middle East, in which Arab states have discarded their old policies of confrontation with Israel.

While this is true of the kings, emirs and other Arab autocrats who have left behind the culture of hate—and abandoned the pretense that Israel, rather than Iran or Islamist terrorists, is the main enemy—not all the people they govern have the same attitude. A case in point is Morocco, which long enjoyed close informal relations with Israel and which, in exchange for an American promise to recognize Rabat’s occupation of an adjacent region that used to be governed by Spain, also joined in the Abraham Accords.

Contrary to the usual pablum about sports bringing people together to embrace peace and coexistence, this World Cup has led to a surge not merely in pro-Palestinian sentiment—by the Moroccans, for instance–but to an avalanche of Arab/Muslim animus toward Israel. This doesn’t mean that Israel hasn’t made enormous progress in breaking the barrier that Arabs, Muslims and their antisemitic allies had erected. But it’s bad for the cause of peace.

Worse, it’s terrible for Palestinian Arabs, desperately in need of help to overcome their addiction to an unwinnable war against Israel that’s causing them so much suffering.
JCPA: Will Qatar Emerge Victorious in the World Cup Image War?
Countermeasures Against Qatar’s Image War:
Qatar may win the battle over public perception this time around when all is said and done. However, image wars are comprised of numerous battles waged on multiple fronts. And lest we forget, wars are fought between at least two parties, not merely at the state level. The most effective counter-strategy for civil society to push back against Qatar’s soft power agenda under these challenging circumstances is working to ensure that it cannot participate in the image war at all. A key lesson here is to understand that a more proactive approach should be implemented instead of waiting for Qatar to dominate a given sector before mounting opposition, as was the case with the World Cup.

To accomplish that, concerned parties and prominent human rights groups must identify sectors of the international system where Doha has not yet established a foothold and embark on an intensive lobbying campaign to stop it from doing so. For example, they would be wise to approach international organizations in, say, the cinema and music industries and warn them of the potential damage their brands could incur by empowering the Qatari regime, much like FIFA, the body governing world football, has been hit.

This strategy doesn’t imply boycotting Qatari artists or actors per se, who are not at fault for their government’s policies but rather working to prevent Qatar’s state-controlled institutions from exerting their influence as profoundly as they have in sports. Time is of the essence, as the Gulf nation will flaunt all its culture and society’s (positive) elements throughout the month-long World Cup.

Of course, such efforts would do little good without honest and unflinching media highlighting Qatar’s human rights abuses – the kind that derailed Russia and China’s nation branding dreams when they hosted the Olympics years ago. Combining these two tactics may be the only way to hinder Qatar’s charm offensive and turn the tide of its image war.

As far as Israel is concerned, the relevant authorities – including its foreign ministry and national public diplomacy directorate – should understand that Qatar’s tactic of diverting negative attention towards Jerusalem can easily be emulated by other authoritarian regimes when hosting mega events. When such occasions occur, Israel should coordinate with allied states to exert pressure upon the governing body of the mega event and demand that rules banning political messaging (i.e., anti-Israel propaganda) and harassment of Israeli citizens be enforced.


Jerusalem Honors Memory of Terror Victim Eli Kay
Friends, family and local dignitaries unveiled a memorial plaque honoring Eliyahu “Eli” Kay on Sunday, marking the anniversary of his murder in an Arab terror attack.

Kay, a 26-year-old South African-Israeli from Johannesburg, was gunned down by a Hamas terrorist near the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on November 21, 2021. The anniversary on the Hebrew calendar fell on Sunday.

Kay worked as a guide for the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which administers the holy site and studied. He was engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Jen Schiff.

Four other Israelis were injured in the attack.

Dignitaries attending included Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who serves as Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.

A lone soldier who was in a paratrooper unit, Kay completed his military service in 2019 and studied in a Chabad yeshiva in Kiryat Gat. His parents and siblings subsequently moved to Israel as well.

The terrorist, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, was killed by responding security personnel. Shkhaydam was a member of Hamas who taught Islamic studies at a school for boys in eastern Jerusalem.

During the ceremony, an ambucycle, which had been donated to United Hatzalah by an anonymous resident of the old city, was dedicated in Eli’s memory. The volunteer EMT who was the recipient of the vehicle, Yoni Ben Shimol, was the first to arrive at the scene of the terror attack where Eli was killed. Despite Ben Shimol’s efforts, Eli passed away shortly after due to the severity of the injuries he suffered.
Palestinian man suspected of terror ramming of motorcyclist in Tel Aviv last week
The Shin Bet security agency is investigating a car crash in Tel Aviv last week as a suspected terror attack, law enforcement officials said Sunday.

According to police, a Palestinian man, 31, illegally staying in Israel crashed a car he was driving into a motorcyclist in the central city.

The Israeli man on the motorcycle, in his 30s, was moderately hurt, according to medical officials.

The Palestinian driver was arrested shortly after the incident, and police initially described it as a traffic accident.

Police did not say if the car he was driving was stolen, but it came following a string of incidents where Palestinians driving stolen cars in Israel crashed into checkpoints in central Israel, including one fatal incident.

“After an initial investigation… the Shin Bet suspects that the motive for the accident is nationalistic,” police said Sunday.
PA is allowing its residents to cause environmental, archaeological damage - opinion
THROUGHOUT THE Binyamin Region, the largest rural jurisdiction in Judea and Samaria, garbage is being burned at 60 illegal waste disposal sites every day. The PA, and the municipalities operating under it, allow their residents to dump garbage and burn it at these unauthorized sites. This is not an oversight. This is an intentional policy.

The destruction of antiquities in Judea and Samaria has also become systematic. With no one to impede them, antiquities thieves go to archaeological sites, many of which are thousands of years old, and use modern earth-moving equipment to plunder and destroy ancient royal palaces, burial grounds and synagogues. Many sites associated with biblical figures and events have already been obliterated or badly damaged, leaving the Jewish people and the world with nothing but photographs and diagrams from decades ago.

Israel knows that raising a cry against such “trivialities” is a non-existent privilege. Israel must turn the little international attention granted her to fight for the very right to exist, against threats from Iran and Hamas. When Israel tries to introduce order and preserve the quality of the air and the environment in Judea and Samaria, such complaints are not granted any legitimacy. Instead, they are met with criticism and antipathy, which in turn allows for more smoke and contaminants that pollute the air and water for us all.

It is a travesty that is all the more frustrating given that Israel is a pioneer and world leader in advanced water treatment and management, as well as possessing numerous other technologies and techniques for cleaning up and protecting the environment.

What is happening here every day is a travesty. Beware of the continued contamination of natural resources, and the destruction of antiquities. I appeal to the American people: Your tax dollars that are being funneled to the Palestinian Authority are not helping the Arab population under its rule. That money is being burned on the wrong things, while smoke gets into our lungs and harms our health.

The damage caused by the unsupervised transfer of funds – with no coordination with Israeli authorities – harms all of us in the land, as well as causes irrevocable harm to physical remnants of the biblical and archaeological record that we in Israel, as well as the secular and Christian worlds, hold so dear. Conservatives, liberals, religious and secular, peace lovers and environmentalists, this is your cause.

Do not stand by quietly while the fires rage and the region suffers. And don’t say we didn’t tell you.


Israeli Forces Catch Arab Smugglers Heading to Palestinian Authority with IDF Bullets
Israeli security forces seized thousands of bullets on Saturday night from two Bedouin Arabs heading to the Palestinian Authority.

The smuggling attempt was foiled at the Beka’a Valley border crossing between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The two smugglers were Bedouin residents of southern Israel.

The pair aroused the security guards’ suspicion on the Israeli side of the crossing, the Authority said. A search of their car revealed boxes containing about five thousand IDF bullets in four rectangular containers shoved under the seats of the vehicle.

The Ministry of Defense Crossing Points Authority said in a statement that the forces “thwarted an attempt to smuggle about five thousand 5.56 mm bullets” to the Palestinian Authority. The bullets were stolen from the Israel Defense Forces.

The suspects were taken for further investigation by security forces.
The wave of terrorism and its connection to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority
In recent months, we have witnessed an escalation and an increase in the scope of attacks carried out by Palestinian terrorist operatives. The more disturbing figure in this matter is the number of Israelis murdered in attacks in the last year, which reached 30. It is important to understand that as far as the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) is concerned, there is no change in the scope and number of planned attacks. The Shin Bet foils between 400 and 700 attacks each year before they can come to fruition.

However, as far as we citizens are concerned, the attacks that are carried out are of critical importance, since one attack that succeeds and harms an Israeli citizen is enough to severely damage civilian morale and the public’s sense of security in general.

One option is to analyze the situation from the perspective of the quantity and quality of attacks being carried out. Here we will indeed discover an increase and escalation arising from a number of reasons to which I will refer later. However, it seems that the analysis of the situation from this point of view differs from the general reality. The more correct point of view is to examine the political and security situation as a whole, and here we will also discover the real reasons for the increase in the scope of attacks.

The terrorist attacks directed against Israel originate in several ways: from individual Palestinian terrorists acting spontaneously as a result of personal frustrations and incessant incitement in the Palestinian media; from both the terrorist organizations and the Palestinian Authority itself, which stands at its head; or from organized terrorist organizations, led of course by Hamas, which operates under the direction of operatives in the Gaza Strip.

The groups are trying to recruit, finance and arm operatives with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. They also want to destabilize the PA and bring about the fall of PA President Mahmoud Abbas in order to seize power in its territories.
PMW: #SavePalestinianChildrenFromTheirLeaders - Share our new hashtag
Palestinian Media Watch has extensively documented and repeatedly exposed to the public and to world governments, that the PA is abusing the Palestinian children by indoctrinating them to actively seek death as a “Martyr” (Arabic: Shahid) while attacking Israelis and Jews.

The Arabic Shahada, translated as “Martyrdom”, literally means to die for Allah. By telling Palestinian children that terrorists - including teenagers who murdered Israeli civilians and were killed - are Shahids, the PA is teaching them that killing any Israeli, even civilians, is something Allah desires and is a fulfillment of something positive in Islam.

In the coming days, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba is set to visit Israel. Every year the UN Secretary-General releases a “blacklist” of countries and bodies that breach the rights of children in the context of armed conflict. In his report for 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern about the number of Palestinian children killed during that year, and while referring to Gaza, added a warning that if the situation did not improve, he would have no choice but to add Israel to the blacklist:
“During the May 2021 escalation of hostilities, there were substantial air strikes by the Israeli armed forces, resulting in a significant increase the number of cases of violence against children. So far this year, we have not witnessed a similar number of violations. However, should the situation repeat itself in 2022, without meaningful improvement, Israel should be listed. Israeli authorities are engaging with my Special Representative and the United Nations to prevent any more violations against children and adopt clear and time-bound commitments.”

[Children and armed conflict, Report of the Secretary-General, June 23, 2022]

Tragically for Palestinian children, the PA leaders seem to have identified the cautions of the UN Secretary-General as another opportunity to libel and defame Israel in the international arena, and have been very “successful” in sending Palestinian children to die.

Citing Palestinian parents’ testimonies, PMW has exposed a significant rise in Palestinian children who have been killed in 2022 while attacking Israelis for the purpose of dying as heroic “Martyrs”. See PMW Special Report: “How and why the PA kills its own children.”




West Bank City’s Christian Residents Face Uncertain Future As Emigration Takes Toll
Thousands of Christian residents of Beit Sahour — the traditional site in the West Bank of Shepherds Field to which the Magi followed the Christmas Star to greet the newborn Jesus — gathered Dec. 8 for a festive lighting of their town’s central Christmas tree.

Nearly every child over the age of 4 in the town of 15,000 marched in the raucous parade of bagpipe-, trombone- and drum-playing Boy and Girl Scouts that preceded the ceremony. Proud parents and grandparents cheered on their loved ones.

The celebration gave Beit Sahour’s Greek Orthodox residents — who constitute one-quarter of the beleaguered Christian community in the Palestinian territory — a reprieve from their existential crisis of emigration. Speaker after speaker told the media present about family members who have moved abroad, mostly to the United States, South America and Europe, leaving behind an ever-shrinking and aging community.

Most poignant were the words of Helen Jarayseh, who spoke about the 2014 kidnapping of her son Khaled. Held for 40 days by his Muslim business partner while the police did nothing to secure his release, she said, the traumatized man fled to Germany after he was finally let go.

Anecdotal accounts attest to the anti-Christian bias and Muslim cronyism that characterize the Palestinian Authority. The Beit Sahour-based owner of a marble and granite factory in the adjoining city of Bethlehem told ReligionUnplugged.com that after Israel withdrew in 2003, he sold $90,000 of stone floor tiles and countertops to a Muslim client. When the check bounced, the client taunted him to go complain to the police. Religion Unplugged is withholding his name to protect his safety.

Palestinian Authority tour guides whisper to their Israeli colleagues who have permission to work in PA-ruled Bethlehem that they wish Israel would return. (h/t Yerushalimey)
West Bank Christians can’t avoid mixing politics with Christmas
The findings of a recent poll conducted among Palestinian Christians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza provide more insight into the brain drain.

Sixty-two percent of respondents to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR)’s February 2020 survey said Israel’s goal is to expel Christians from their homeland.

Seventy-seven percent say they are worried by the presence of fundamentalist Salafi Muslims; 69% are concerned about armed factions such as Hamas; and 67% are worried about the implementation of sharia law. Some 43% believe Muslims don’t want Christians in the land.

PSR director Dr. Khalil Shikaki wrote: “The largest percentage indicate that their desire to emigrate stems from economic reasons, while a smaller percentage indicate a desire to search abroad for educational opportunities, a safer, more stable and less corrupt place, and a place that allows greater liberties and religious tolerance.”

Down in the square, hundreds of youthful scouts dressed in uniforms adorned with the Palestinian flag march through town playing traditional Christmas songs. Their instruments of choice are all manner of drums accompanied by Scottish bagpipes. Both scouts and bagpipes are a legacy of the British Mandate for Palestine, but somehow they’ve become the traditional accompaniment to Christmas celebrations in the Bethlehem area. The main square in Beit Sahour. Credit: Judy Lash Balint.

As the music fades away, al-Hayek took the opportunity to deliver a lengthy speech decrying the “occupation” and the latest “martyrs” (three Palestinian gunmen killed that day in an IDF operation to clear terrorists out of Jenin) before he signals for the lighting of the town’s 20-foot Christmas tree.
Bild: This Is How the Ayatollahs’ Regime Threatens Jews in Germany
The popular German tabloid Bild on Sunday published a major report headlined: “Iranian terror in our society – this is how the mullah regime threatens Jews in Germany.”

The report opens: “Red alert at Jewish institutions – because of suspected mullah terror! Police officers currently have to guard synagogues with protective vests and submachine guns, because Radical Islamists could be behind the most recent three attacks on synagogues in North Rhine-Westphalia – controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards!

“That’s what investigators suspect so far, according to Bild. The possible goal of the mullah terror: harming the archenemy Israel to distract attention from domestic political problems!”

Yes, German tabloids employ an abundance of exclamation marks.

But how does the antisemitic mullah network work in Germany? According to Bild, Iranian agents spy on Jews there. The Iranian intelligence service “Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS)” and the military special unit “Quds Force,” also known as “Quds Brigades,” are active in Germany.

These agents’ task is to spy on Jewish and Israeli targets – including attack targets! According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the mullahs have declared the State of Israel and the people who represent or support Israel to be their enemies. And according to investigators, the President of the Central Council of Jews is particularly in danger!
Saudi foreign minister: 'All bets off' if Iran gets nuclear weapon
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Sunday that Iran's Gulf Arab neighbors would act to shore up their security if Tehran were to obtain nuclear weapons.

Indirect US-Iranian talks to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact between global powers and Iran, which Washington exited in 2018, stalled in September. The UN nuclear chief has voiced concern over a recent announcement by Tehran that it was boosting enrichment capacity.

"If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off," Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in an on-stage interview at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi when asked about such a scenario.

"We are in a very dangerous space in the region...you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security."

The nuclear talks have stalled with Western powers accusing Iran of raising unreasonable demands and focus shifting to the Russia-Ukraine war as well as domestic unrest in Iran over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Though Riyadh remained "skeptical" about the Iran nuclear deal, Prince Faisal said it supported efforts to revive the pact "on condition that it be a starting point, not an end point" for a stronger deal with Tehran.

Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states have pressed for a stronger agreement that addresses their concerns about Shi'ite Iran's missiles and drones program and network of regional proxies.
Seth Frantzman: As Iran-Russia alliance grows, Tehran becomes bigger danger to Middle East
Russia may help Iran with technology that improves its precision-guided munitions, its cruise missiles, air defenses or even aerospace technology. Russia could also help Iran partner with countries like China and North Korea in triangular deals where Iran receives something from one country and then Russia in turn supplies that country with something as part of a quid pro quo where Iran also sends something to Russia.

These kinds of complex arrangements are how Russia seeks to balance US global hegemony and challenge the US. The fact that China’s leader was in the Gulf this week should have ramifications on this issue, because Iran seems concerned that Beijing may prefer the Gulf to Iran. This could also improve the Iran-Russia connection.

It remains to be seen what will come of the US warnings. However, what is important is to reflect on these warnings and recall that Israel has been warning for years about how Iran has been hijacking the region with proxies.

Iran has harmed Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and threatened the Gulf and other countries. Iran threatens shipping and is involved in a plethora of activities that undermine the stability of the region. Israel has been warning for years about the ballistic missile and nuclear threat and also raising concerns about Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups, such as Hamas in Gaza and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

It’s clear in the last several years that Iran’s threats go far beyond this. Iran has helped outfit militias in Iraq and Syria. Tehran is becoming more brazen with its attacks, such as the attack on Saudi Arabia in 2019 targeting Abqaiq. With Russian technology, Iran’s brazen attacks may become even more destabilizing for the region.
US warns 'unprecedented' Moscow-Tehran ties could significantly bolster Iran's air force
The Biden administration is accusing Russia of moving to provide advanced military assistance to Iran, including air defense systems, helicopters and fighter jets, part of deepening cooperation between the two nations as Tehran provides drones to support Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday cited US intelligence assessments for the allegations, saying Russia was offering Iran "an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship into a full-fledged defense partnership."

Kirby said Russia and Iran were considering standing up a drone assembly line in Russia for the Ukraine conflict, while Russia was training Iranian pilots on the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter and Iran could receive deliveries of the plane within the year. "These fighter planes will significantly strengthen Iran's air force relative to its regional neighbors," Kirby said.

The US allegations are part of a deliberate effort by the US to drive global isolation of Russia, in this case targeted at Arab nations who have looked to contain Iran's regional malevolence and who have not taken a strong stance against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration accused Saudi Arabia of siding with Russia in the conflict by shepherding cuts by the OPEC+ cartel to boost the price of oil, crucial to funding Moscow's war effort. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been on opposite sides of a yearslong proxy war in Yemen. Kirby said the arms transfers were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and that the US would be "using the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities."
Iran: Protests and Paralysis
The failure of the Khomeinist clique to develop a coherent narrative, let alone a strategy to deal with what looks like an existential crisis for the regime, has led to a chaotic response to the popular uprising. According to semi-official figures, between 300 and 500 protesters have been killed by the security forces and more than 15,000 jailed. By the time of this writing, four executions have also been officially reported.

But when you break down those figures, a curious pattern emerges.

Almost 60 percent of the deaths happened in just nine cities in two provinces: Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdistan.

Despite the depth and breadth of the protests, just confirmed by widespread strikes in more than 30 cities, the Khomeinist establishment is still unable to understand what is really going on. Divided between its natural reflex to crush any dissent and its lack of self-confidence, it is spreading its paralysis throughout Iran's political life, hoping to be saved by inertia.

After 10 years of negotiations to buy natural gas from Iran, China has decided to sign a 60-year deal with Qatar instead.

[T]he ayatollah's abracadabra seems unlikely to force this genie back into the bottle.


Prosecutions For Brutal May 2021 Antisemitic Assaults in NYC Moving At Glacial Pace
On May 20, 2021, several men assaulted Jews at a pro-Israel protest near Times Square. Shouting ‘You dirty Jew, f— Israel, go back to your country,’ the anti-“Zionist” assailants beat 29-year old Joseph Borgen with fists, kicks, and crutches. Borgen was also pepper-sprayed in the eyes, blinding him for several hours. Another assailant threw fireworks, which exploded and burned a 55-year old woman. At least five people were arrested, four adults (Waseem Awawdeh, Faisal Elezzi, Mahmoud Musa, and Mohammed Othaman) and a minor (K.A.). Awawdeh was reportedly the assailant who beat Borgen with crutches. Othaman was allegedly the one who hurled the fireworks that exploded.

Awawdeh, Elezzi, Musa, and Othaman were all charged, but the cases remain in limbo. A hearing was held December 8. According to Kay from the New York District Attorney’s Office media department, the cases are awaiting trial. The next hearing date is January 26, 2023, and the delay is to complete discovery. Asked whether trial will actually take place on that date, Kay responded frankly, “Likely not that date because of the backlog,” but shortly thereafter.

The minor was reportedly charged as a juvenile in a New York County court. The status of his case is unknown.

Awawdeh was rearrested on a criminal mischief/property damage charge for an incident that happened November 10, 2022, in Brooklyn. Othaman appears to have been rearrested (under the name Mohammad Othman) for reckless endangerment and related charges that arose September 29, 2022, in Staten Island. Despite these apparent release violations, bail was continued at the December 8 hearing(s).

A year after the assault, Borgen filed a federal civil lawsuit charging Awawdeh, Elezzi, Musa, Othaman (spelling the name Othman, as NYPD did in a tweet announcing his arrest), and K.A. with violating his civil rights, assault, battery, and other claims. The case has been stayed, pending resolution of the criminal cases. If they ever are.
A month on, BBC Arabic acknowledges that Qaradawi supported killing civilians
On November 9th BBC Arabic editors finally amended an obituary for Qatari-Egyptian Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi (dated September 26th, 2022) who was broadly regarded as a leading spiritual figure for the Muslim Brotherhood movement. This was one of a series of BBC Arabic corrections prompted jointly by CAMERA Arabic, CAMERA UK and The Jewish Chronicle.

Whitewashing the late scholar’s support of terrorism against Israeli civilians, the obituary originally read:
“Qaradawi was banned from entering the US and the UK due to his support of suicide operations targeting Israeli soldiers, which he described as ‘martyrdom seeking operations.’”

The suicide bombings which Qaradawi legitimised as “martyrdom-seeking operations” were aimed at all Israelis, soldiers and civilians alike. He repeatedly reiterated that stance, justifying such attacks under the pretext that no member of Israeli society can truly be considered a civilian. As late as 2016, at the age of 89, he praised a terror attack in Tel Aviv which resulted in exclusively civilian casualties.

Unlike the BBC obituary in Arabic, the one published in English acknowledged that fact, citing a BBC interview with Qaradawi from 2004:
“He […] claimed that Islam justified Palestinian suicide bomb attacks against Israelis during the second Palestinian intifada that began in 2000. In an interview with the BBC in 2004, he said: ‘I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an indication of the justice of Allah Almighty.’”

Neither the UK nor the US cited Qaradawi’s views on Israeli soldiers when specifying the grounds upon which his entry to those countries was denied. The UK Home Office stated that it “will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify any acts of terrorist violence or express views that could foster inter-community violence”. Similarly, the US suggested that he “advocated violence”, based on Qaradawi’s own testimony.
Shireen Abu Akleh Over Ukraine AP’s Top Photos Capture Anti-Israel Bias
“AP’s top photos capture a planet bursting at the seams” is the headline for the news agency’s 2022 collection of 153 powerful world images depicting war, natural disasters, triumphs and quiet moments of beauty. “A year’s worth of news images can also be clarifying,” the accompanying text explains.

AP’s photo essay is clarifying indeed. It throws into sharp relief the news agency’s abiding, vastly disproportionate and overwhelming obsession with Israel.

The news agency’s all-consuming fixation apparently fuels the editorial decision to place an outsized spotlight on the Jewish state, overshadowing the year’s biggest news — the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has so far claimed well over 200,000 lives. In the same time period, the Israel-Palestinian conflict has claimed less than 250 lives, representing about one tenth of one percent of the Ukraine-Russia body count.

And of course the Ukrainian war has seismic implications well beyond Europe: reigniting fears of nuclear war and exacerbating food supply chain issues and world hunger.

The iconic image which AP passed over for the photo essay’s top spot
Nevertheless, the image that AP chose to highlight at the very top of its photographic essay capturing 2022 in all of its horror and glory had nothing to do with that devastating war. It’s not for lack of choices. The photo essay includes more than 20 images of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including the iconic photograph of a wounded, heavily pregnant woman being carried out of the Mariupol hospital destroyed in a Russian bombing raid shortly after the war began. While the mother-to-be and her unborn child did not survive, the enduring image of her harrowing escape from the hospital has been seared into the world’s consciousness, assuming a permanent place in our collective archive of iconic war images.

The AP, though, passed over that haunting image as the featured photograph. The news agency also skipped over all of the other moving photographs capturing the daily struggles of Ukraine’s population living and dying under siege.

It’s not that the news agency chose to shy away from conflict, opting for a more soothing scene of natural beauty, human accomplishment or normal daily life.

Far from it. AP did elect to put the spotlight on strife — just not the strife with the highest death count and the highest stakes for all of humanity.
Israeli musical plays in Morocco in Hebrew — a first for any Arab country
In the latest sign of the warming ties between Israel and Morocco, an Israeli musical was performed in the North African country in Hebrew last week — a first for Morocco or any Arab country.

“Bustan Sephardi” (“Spanish Orchard”) is a new version of the 1969 original play by the same title that depicted daily life in a Sephardic neighborhood of Jerusalem during the 1930s. It was written by Yitzhak Navon, who would later become Israel’s fifth president.

The play’s arrival in Rabat is seen as a potential gateway for further cultural exchanges between the countries.

The initiative to perform the Israeli play in Morocco was led by Navon’s son Erez. The Navon family are descendants of a renowned Moroccan-Jewish family that immigrated to Jerusalem in 1742, and Erez has been on a mission to bring his father’s work to the country since the two countries normalized relations in 2020.

“‘Bustan Sephardi’ highlights the culture of Sephardic Jews that was muted at the time [of its writing],” Navon told Channel 12 on Saturday. “My father saw the outcry of Sephardic Jews who were seeing their culture vanish and being silenced and so ‘Bustan Sephardi’ was born.”

The report said the Israeli cast that was flown into Rabat received a friendly reception.
‘It brings closure, when your loved ones have no grave’
Not all Jewish cemeteries in Libya have been bulldozed. There is one on a hill near the former Giado concentration camp in the mountainous west, close to the desert, where almost 2,600 Libyan Jews were deported in 1942 and where 562 died. There is one in Khoms, a port city on the Mediterranean coast. The rest are gone. Nothing but fading memories.

Jews who grew up in Libya talk of overlaying old city maps onto new ones to work out where the cemeteries once stood. You simply couldn’t tell from looking. Whatever remains of them for now lies under streets and high-rise blocks. For family members, there has been nowhere to go to remember their loved ones. Until now.

Last week, at the Jewish section of the giant Prima Porta Cemetery in Rome, Jews born in Libya unveiled 16 new marble blocks containing the engraved names of Jews who died in – and were buried in – Libya.

Paid for by a London-based philanthropist, the marbles were unveiled in front of Holocaust survivors, local Jewish leaders, diplomats, and dignitaries. A Libyan deputy prime minister had been due to attend and apologise for the events that caused thousands to leave the country, but ill health hospitalised him before the trip.

The 16 new marbles are engraved with the names of around 1,800 Libyan Jews whose graves were razed on the orders of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who overthrew King Idris in 1969 and who was himself overthrown and killed in 2011. For families, there is now a place to come and to remember.

“It brings closure,” said Penina Meghnagi Solomon, 73, who lives in Santa Monica. “When your loved ones have no grave, it helps enormously if there’s a place with their name, where you can come and find peace.”

Her father, a Jewish national swimming champion of Libya, died in 1963 of kidney failure and was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Tripoli. Four years later, aged 17, she was one of 5,000 Libyan Jews forced to flee to Italy on Alitalia night rescue flights in June 1967 after anti-Jewish rioting broke out in Libya over Israel and the Six Day War. She stayed in Italy for four years, partly in a refugee camp, before moving to Israel, where she met her American husband. They later moved to Los Angeles.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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