Friday, December 16, 2022

12/16 Links P1: Al Arabiya: The Netanyahu Doctrine: An in-depth regional policy interview; Israel, Jordan, PA: Who violated Temple Mount status quo?

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The survivor: Benjamin Netanyahu on securing the future of Israel and the Western alliance
On Nov. 1, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party won Israel's general elections, likely returning Netanyahu to the post of prime minister for the third nonconsecutive time. He is already Israel's longest-serving premier, having spent over a decade in office before his ouster in 2021. He spent his year in the opposition, in part writing his autobiography, Bibi: My Story. In an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, Netanyahu talked about his life and career and what comes next for Israel and the wider world. The following has been condensed for clarity.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER MAGAZINE: Prime minister, a big part of what I learned from your autobiography is the background to how you formed your worldview, how you see the world ideologically, philosophically. And the chapters that really bring that to life are the chapters where you talk about your father, Benzion Netanyahu. Most people know him as a celebrated historian, but he was also an important Zionist activist, and he worked with Vladimir Jabotinsky, the great Zionist leader. And the crux of that seems to be your approach toward convincing the public of the justice of Israel's cause and rallying support for Israel and the Jewish people and the strategy to do that.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Well, you're right that my father was a disciple of Jabotinsky from an early age. In 1939, he goes to London, and he says to Jabotinsky, "You have the right idea trying to influence British public opinion and British policy, but you're simply in the wrong place." And Jabotinsky asked him, "Why? Where should I be?" And my father said, "You should be in America because America's going to be the dominant world power. And if you want to influence British policy, influence American policy." And Jabotinsky was convinced by that. And he just packed his whole delegation that was in London and moved to the United States, took my father with him, and shortly after they came there, Jabotinsky died. My father was named executive director of the New Zionist Organization of America shortly afterward, the one that Jabotinsky had headed. And now he was left without the great leader — what to do? Well, my father fell back on a principle that Jabotinsky had enunciated in an article years before in which he talked about the theory of public pressure. And he said if you want to influence a democracy, in this case the great democracy of the United States, you have to first influence public opinion. And the only way you can influence public opinion is by appealing to justice. My father added [the need to] also influence the leaders. The way you appeal to leaders is through appealing to their national interest.

My father did something that Jewish leaders simply did not do in those days. He went to the Republicans. After he got the Republican National Convention to adopt a platform supporting a Jewish state, a few months later, the Democratic National Convention under Roosevelt adopted a similar platform. So in many ways, my father was the progenitor of the bipartisan American support for Israel. And that, I think, has been the mainstay of my policy, too.

WEX: The other major influence in the book is your brother Yonatan, the commander of Operation Thunderbolt, the rescue at Entebbe, Uganda, where terrorists had taken a hijacked Air France plane in 1976. He was killed in the operation tragically, and after that, you founded the Jonathan Institute, you became an expert in terrorism, and eventually went into public service. But when Yoni was alive, he said you would end up here. He said you would be prime minister of Israel, and you weren't really sure what he saw. And so now I'm wondering if you could answer that question. What have you learned about yourself and the state of Israel that Yoni already knew?

NETANYAHU: You know, Seth, I have no idea.

Because I was shocked by this because we were very close as brothers and we served in the same unit, which my younger brother joined, too, so we were three brothers in this tiny unit. … This friend [of Yoni's] came to me or approached me nearly half a century later: "You know, Yoni said at that time that you one day would be the leader of Israel, the prime minister of Israel," and I said, "Are you sure? That doesn't make sense because he never said that to me." And he said, "Well, he saw in you things you didn't see in yourself." And it's true, I didn't have an idea or even a notion that I would one day enter politics, let alone become the prime minister of Israel, let alone the longest-serving prime minister of Israel. I never had an inkling of that.

I didn't talk politics at all with my teammates. But I talked politics and history with [Yoni]. And for some reason, he thought that I would lead Israel one day. I haven't the faintest idea, and at first, I didn't believe this person when he said that. And he said, "Well, my wife was there, too, and she heard him, too." … So, the answer to your question is I don't know how he could see that. I saw things in him, and I thought, actually, that he could be that leader. And for some reason, he thought that I would be that leader. And it's impossible for me to ask him that obviously.


Al Arabiya: The Netanyahu Doctrine: An in-depth regional policy interview
Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office.

In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward ending the Arab-Israeli conflict that “would change our region in ways that are unimaginable.” Saudi officials have consistently maintained that no normalization can happen without a Palestinian state.

Mr. Netanyahu indicated a willingness to explore a wide variety of peace options behind closed doors, stating “I believe in open covenants, secretly arrived at or discretely arrived at.”

Responding to questions about how the racist tenor of remarks by some of his coalition partners might affect relations with Arab states, Mr. Netanyahu stated that “The other parties are joining me, I’m not joining them.”

Mr. Netanyahu said that he would not repudiate the US-brokered maritime agreement with Lebanon, but denied that it was a peace agreement, adding that he saw “an enormous difference between the solid agreements between like-minded states and the so-called agreements with Iran and its proxies that are usually violated even before they're signed.”

The transcript of the interview as it appears below has been lightly edited for clarity, including the removal of repeated phrases and clauses, without altering the meaning of anyone’s remarks.

Mohammed Khalid Alyahya
Netanyahu gives wide-ranging interview to Saudi media outlet



Caroline Glick: Ayman Odeh and coalitions of hate
On Dec. 9, MK Ayman Odeh met in New York with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The meeting was arranged by the PLO’s mission to the U.N. Odeh heads the Hadash Party and is a co-leader of the five-member Joint Arab List Knesset faction, along with MK Ahmed Tibi. During the course of their meeting, Odeh reportedly delivered a petition to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

In his petition, Odeh requested that the council condemn Israel for failing to adequately fight the rising levels of violent crime in the Israeli Arab community. While the text of Odeh’s petition has yet to be made public, its underlying purpose is obvious. Odeh’s purpose was to delegitimize Israel by proclaiming it both incapable and unworthy of asserting its sovereignty over its Arab citizens.

Odeh’s meeting demonstrated that the elected representatives of Israel’s Arab community believe that it is reasonable and desirable to make common cause with Israel’s enemies and to delegitimize Israel’s very right to exist. The PLO mission at the U.N. is waging an all-out diplomatic war against Odeh’s country with just that end in mind. Earlier this month, the PLO mission led the successful passage of a General Assembly resolution that declared Israel’s founding a “catastrophe.”

The U.N. Human Rights Council to which Odeh directed his petition is a cesspool of antisemitism. Criminalizing the Jewish state and denying basic human rights to Israeli Jews are top priorities for the body, which has made condemning Israel an automatic agenda item at all its meetings.

Not for the first time, this week the Council’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, was exposed as a rabid anti-Jewish bigot with the revelation of hideously antisemitic remarks she made in the past. Last week, Albanese participated in a conference in Gaza attended by senior terror masters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There—again, not for the first time—Albanese justified Palestinian terrorism against Israel.

Albanese is far from the only Council official with a long record of violently antisemitic pronouncements and positions. To the contrary, her hatred for Jews is a dominant position at the Human Rights Council.

In defending his meeting with Guterres, Odeh insisted that “[Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad] Erdan doesn’t represent us. We will represent ourselves.”

Odeh isn’t the first Arab parliamentarian to turn to the U.N. and other international institutions in an effort to undermine Israel’s right to exist. In 2018, the PLO mission arranged for his party members Aida Touma-Sliman and Yousef Jabareen to meet with senior U.N. officials. The purpose of their meeting was to advance the antisemitic narrative—now rampant in the U.N.—that Israel is an apartheid state. The irony that they spread the libel despite the fact that their very membership in the Knesset proves its utter falsehood obviously escaped them.


Israel, Jordan, PA: Who violated Temple Mount status quo? - opinion
According to this newspaper’s Palestinian affairs correspondent, Khaled Abu Toameh, the Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have begun taking measures “to stave off any attempt by the incoming right-wing government in Israel to change the status quo at al-Aqsa mosque compound.” (The “al-Aqsa mosque compound” is Islamic nationalist nomenclature for the Temple Mount compound.)

Jordan and the PA reportedly are stepping up their efforts in the international arena to warn of the dangers of any attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo at the holy site and to reaffirm Jordan’s role as custodian of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

The initiative aims to send a message to the incoming Israeli government, which includes right-wing religious Zionist factions, that Jordan and the Palestinians are determined to thwart any attempt to divide the holy site in time and space between Muslims and Jews.

Jordan and the PA have, in recent years, attacked Israel for allowing Jews to tour the Temple Mount and even quietly and unofficially to pray there a bit, describing Jewish-Israeli visits as “stormings” and “violent incursions” into al-Aqsa mosque, and as the “Judaization” of Jerusalem and its Muslim holy sites.

The inversion of truth contained in the above presentation is utterly galling. If anybody has unilaterally, brazenly and violently changed the status quo on the Temple Mount over the past 25 years, it is radical Palestinian and Islamic actors who have turned the mount into a base of hostile operations against Israel, instead of protecting it as a zone of prayer and peace.

Israel, on the other hand, has acted with utmost restraint in the face of Arab assaults. (Too much restraint, in my opinion.)

The Wakf (Islamic Trust) and Islamic movement provocateurs have attacked Jewish visitors to the Mount, Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall below the Mount and Jewish worshippers on their way to the Western Wall. They have attacked Emiratis and Bahrainis praying in al-Aqsa mosque because these countries signed Abraham Accord peace treaties. They have greatly restricted visitation rights to the holy mount for all non-Muslims and hijacked the pulpits in the mosque on the mount to preach hatred and violence against Israel.
Mark Regev: Israel and Indonesia? Expanding Abraham Accords to Asia
When the presumptive next prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his goal of expanding the Abraham Accords to include additional countries, speculation arose as to which Arab or Muslim state would be the next to normalize ties with Israel. Though unlikely to materialize soon, one particularly attractive candidate is located over 8,000 km. away in southeast Asia – Indonesia.

The 2020 Abraham Accords breakthroughs involved the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Asia, and Morocco and Sudan in Africa. Potential new partners for normalization exist on both continents.

It is widely appreciated that upgrading Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia would be an inflection point, the kingdom’s special position in the Islamic world almost guaranteeing that other Muslim countries would follow suit. However, given the current impasse in Saudi-US relations, most presume that the time is not yet right for Riyadh.

Nearby in the Gulf, Oman is sometimes mentioned as a possible partner for normalization. But the new sultan, Haitham bin Tarik, who came to power in 2020, may need more time to cement his authority.

Beyond the Arab world, the six Asian Muslim-majority republics of the former Soviet Union – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – all have full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Of the other non-Arab Muslim Asian states, the militant Islamic Republic of Iran, and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, can be excluded from the list of potential partners.

This leaves six additional non-Arab Asian Muslim countries that do not have normalized ties with Israel: southwest Asia’s Maldives; south Asia’s Bangladesh and Pakistan; and southeast Asia’s Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Blossoming Bahrain-Israel ties on display as Arab state fetes its National Day in Tel Aviv
The deepening peace and collaboration between Israel and its new Arab allies as a result of the Arbaham Accords was evident on Thursday in Tel Aviv, at an event hosted by Bahrain’s embassy in Israel at the Hilton Grand Ballroom to celebrate Bahrain National Day. While Bahrain declared independence on Aug. 15, 1971, every Dec. 16 and 17 the Kingdom of Bahrain recognizes the coronation of its first emir, Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, as the date of its true birth as a modern nation-state.

Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, Bahrain’s ambassador to Israel, said at the event, “Today we are at a more advanced stage of relations between our two nations. There is enhanced medical cooperation. Economic trade between our two countries has started to blossom.”

Al-Jalahma continued, “We have a responsibility to tell our part of the world of the challenges you face in Israel, a platform to project to the world what these relations can do for the region. A goal to… create an everlasting peace.”

“The Palestinian cause remains a priority for our country… and for the Arab world,” Al-Jalahma added. “Solving this crisis will bring a sustainable peace. I urge that these new relations be seen as a new beacon of hope for all.”

Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej said at the event, “Relations with Bahrain are at the center of Israeli consensus. Both our states and nations share a vision of a prosperous future and to improve security which is vital for both our nations and the region.”
UN must fire 'anti-Zionist, antisemite' legal envoy Francesca Albanese - SWC
The United Nations must fire "proven anti-Zionist and antisemite" Francesca Albanese, who serves as the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) said on Wednesday.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, SWC's Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg wrote that it "is an outrage to allow a proven anti-Zionist and antisemite to head the UN Human Rights Council’s already biased investigation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Albanese must be removed, and the Human Rights Council’s biased witch hunt against Israel must be dismantled if the UN hopes to retain credibility," they added.

Albanese, whose initial appointment in April earlier this year was denounced by Israel after the Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar claimed she "compared the Holocaust to the Nakba and advocates for the de-facto destruction of the nation-state of the Jewish people."

SWC's statement came following a scathing attack on the Italian legal expert by the Israeli mission to Geneva, who on Wednesday called on the United Nations to stop turning a blind eye to UN officials, including Albanese, who use the antisemitic phrase the “Jewish Lobby.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018 (credit: REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON)Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018 (credit: REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON)

In a 2014 Facebook post, she wrote “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust remain on the sidelines.”
UN Palestinian rights investigator denies ‘Jewish lobby’ comments are antisemitic
A UN official investigating Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories said Thursday that her past statements claiming the “Jewish lobby” controls the US were not antisemitic.

Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said during a 2014 conflict between Israel and Gaza terror groups that the “Jewish lobby” had taken control of the US, that the “Israel lobby” controlled the BBC and that Israel started the war out of greed.

The Times of Israel uncovered the comments in Albanese’s social media history and revealed them in a Wednesday report.

In her first public statement since the report, Albanese decried “yet another malicious attack” against her office and said the criticism was motivated by politics.

She said her comments were “wrongly mischaracterized as antisemitic,” and the report was “decontextualized and disingenuous extrapolation.”

Taking a shot at the US mission to the UN in Geneva, which said it was “appalled” by her antisemitism, Albanese said, “Should anyone feel the urge to be ‘appalled’ about something, please consider the 215 Palestinians killed this year.”

It wasn’t clear what figure she was referring to. According to the UN’s own statistics, 168 Palestinians have been killed this year. Israeli officials have said many of them — but not all — were killed while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces.


Republican Senators Call on FBI to Cease Israel Investigation Over Journalist Killing
Eight Republican Senators sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding that the FBI cease its investigation into the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operation in May.

The letter, led by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), calls for the investigation to be ended “immediately before further harm comes to our bilateral relationship with Israel.”

In September, the IDF released the findings of its investigation that there was a “high probability” that Abu Akleh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera outlet, was “accidentally” killed by IDF gunfire during an exchange of fire with armed Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Jenin. However, the exact source of the gunfire that killed her, including that the possibility that she had been killed by Palestinian gunfire, could not be determined “unequivocally.” Israel’s Military Advocate General concluded there was “no suspicion” of a criminal offense and no military police or criminal investigation was opened.

Wednesday’s letter, which was joined by Senators Cruz (R-TX), Scott (R-FL), Hawley (R-MO), Braun (R-IN), Cotton (R-AK), and Lankford (R-OK), argues that the findings of Israel’s investigation are sufficient to conclude the matter.

“In light of this, we are dismayed the DOJ and FBI are seeking to disregard Israeli sovereignty by inserting itself into an investigation which has concluded and which U.S. officials participated in,” the letter says. “Moreover, reporting indicates U.S. Ambassador Nides was not informed of DOJ’s decision to investigate. If true, this is wholly unacceptable and represents a breakdown in internal coordination between the agencies. The investigation highlights DOJ and FBI’s overreach and politicization of investigations.”

That sentiment has been opposed by some Democrats. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who in June wrote a letter along with 23 Senate colleagues calling for the FBI to intervene in the case, welcomed the opening of the FBI’s investigation in November.
The Israel Guys: AL JAZEERA SAYS an Islamic Jihad Terrorist is a Reliable Source
Al Jazeera recently went to the International Criminal Court with “key evidence” that Israel killed their journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. A recent exclusive report however, shows that one of their “eye-witnesses” turns out to be a terrorist who has served time in Israeli prisons and is affiliated with Islamic Jihad.

Why is the ICC trying to prosecute Israel in the first place? Is it actually illegal for them to do so? Find out on today’s program.


In farewell to Congress, Elaine Luria accuses colleagues of peddling antisemitic dual loyalty trope
In her farewell speech to Congress, Elaine Luria, the Virginia Jewish Democrat, called out colleagues in the House of Representatives who she said insinuated the antisemitic dual loyalty trope about Israel.

“The first time I stood in this very place to speak on the floor of the House I rose as a Jewish woman to speak out against antisemitism, which has seen a rapid and alarming rise and has even reared its head among our colleagues in our own chamber, in the forms of claims of dual loyalty to those who show support for Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East,” Luria said Wednesday.

Luria appeared to be referring to fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. In 2019, Tlaib attacked Republicans who backed a bill targeting the Israel boycott movement, saying in a tweet “They forgot what country they represent.”

Omar the same year accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerhouse pro-Israel lobby, of buying influence. She apologized, but not long after, she said she should not be silenced for exposing the actions of a “powerful lobbying group” and for arguing against those who say “it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

Luria, elected in 2018 among a class of women politicians who rode a wave of anger at former President Donald Trump, has been among the Democrats most closely allied with the traditional pro-Israel lobby. Last year she joined three other Democrats in a letter that effectively accused Omar and Tlaib of making antisemitic comments. A number of Jewish progressives have consistently defended Omar, saying accusing her of antisemitism is unwarranted.
US Senate confirms ambassadorial pick despite antisemitic comments
Months after her nomination was held up due to prior antisemitic comments, the U.S. Senate confirmed Elizabeth Frawley Bagley to the post of ambassador to Brazil on Wednesday.

The nomination has been blocked in June by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a tie, party-line vote. It came after comments by Bagley, a longtime diplomat and Democratic Party donor, were uncovered by The Washington Free Beacon.

Bagley’s nomination was suddenly discharged by the committee last week. Her full Senate confirmation came in a voice vote, in which the names of the senators and the tally of votes are not recorded.

In a 1998 interview, Bagley said that money was the reason American lawmakers support Israel and the idea of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem was “stupid.”

According to the context of the interview, taken for an oral history project at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Bagley appeared to be referring to AIPAC and similar groups when she said, “The Democrats always tend to go with the Jewish constituency on Israel and say stupid things, like moving the capital to Jerusalem always comes up.” She added that support for Israel causes is mainly due to “the Jewish factor, it’s money.”

Bagley’s statements were from an interview for an oral history project at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, where questions from the interviewer prompted her to speak on the effects Israel advocacy supposedly has on American politics.
PA preparing major diplomatic offensive against new Netanyahu gov't
The Palestinian Authority is not wasting any time waiting for the formation of a new right-wing government in Israel to launch a broad diplomatic and media blitz to warn about the dangers of the policies and decisions of the presumptive coalition.

In fact, the Palestinian offensive began almost immediately after the announcement of the results of the November 1 Knesset elections, which saw the rise of far-right parties and candidates such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Since then, Palestinian officials in Ramallah have been holding a series of meetings with US and European Union officials to voice their concern over the outcome of the elections and the prospects of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir holding key positions in a new government headed by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

PA criticism against Bennett-Lapid gov't
It’s not that the Palestinian officials have been silent during the term of the outgoing government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. The officials have been extremely critical of the Bennett-Lapid government, especially regarding its policies toward Jerusalem and the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Some officials claimed that the outgoing left-center government was worse than previous right-wing coalitions.

In the past year, the officials noted, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces was higher than that under any of the Netanyahu-led governments.

But while the Palestinian representatives have been unhappy with the Lapid-Bennett government, they still see it as the lesser of evils.
Israeli car comes under fire near Nablus, driver escapes unharmed
An Israeli driver came under gunfire by Palestinians in the northern West Bank on Friday, medics said, adding that he was not injured.

According to the Rescuers Without Border emergency service, the driver was unharmed by the shooting attack near the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, close to Nablus.

In video and pictures shared by the service, damage was seen caused to the Israeli man’s car. The windows were shattered, and bullet holes could be seen on the driver’s headrest.

The IDF confirmed the shooting attack and said in a statement that it had launched a manhunt for suspects in the area of the shooting.

An initial investigation found that four shots had been fired at the vehicle, with two striking the target.

“I was driving on the road and suddenly a car came in front of me and did a U-turn. The driver motioned to me with his hand to say ‘What happened?’ Then I heard shots,” said the driver of the car that was attacked. “I continued driving and called the police. The other car fled the scene.”

In recent months, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted military posts, troops operating along the West Bank security barrier, Israeli settlements and civilians on the roads.

The attacks came amid an Israeli anti-terror offensive mostly focused on the northern West Bank to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that have left 31 people in Israel and the West Bank dead since the start of the year.


Backing Palestinians at World Cup, Qatar takes aim at pro-normalization neighbors
What happens in Doha, stays in Doha
Michael Milstein, a former adviser on Palestinian affairs to the Defense Ministry, agreed that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians explains a large part of the hostility to the Jewish state at the World Cup.

Still, he cautioned against buying into the “illusion” that the Arab world’s hostility to Israel will end once the Palestinian issue is resolved, explaining that the sentiment “runs much deeper.”

Nonetheless, he viewed the Israeli experience at the World Cup positively because it “succeeded in bringing Israeli citizens in direct contact with the Arab street — not with diplomats or academics, but with the people themselves.”

With that contact, though, came recognition of what Touboul referred to as “the glass ceiling of the normalization trends,” revealed by the World Cup.

“For the past two years, we’ve found ourselves believing that we’ve succeeded in collapsing all of the walls around the Arab world and in turning on its head the pre-conceived axiom that there won’t be normalization with the Arab world before there is peace with the Palestinians,” said Milstein, who currently heads the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center.

This might be accepted to an extent at the government level, but the notion has not trickled down to the Arab street where Palestine is considered the World Cup’s “33rd team,” even if it is not actually participating.

Milstein recalled a recent conversation with a Saudi friend who told him that the Arab fans have been referring to this year’s tournament as the Arab World Cup “because it’s not a World Cup of the Arab regimes, it’s the World Cup of the Arab people.”

As opposed to the governments who are engaged in bitter rivalries, the people are supporting one another — support for Morocco spans the entire region, even in adversarial Algeria where civilians took to the streets to celebrate the Atlas Lions’ upset over Spain last week.

And as opposed to the governments who have advanced normalization with Israel, the people are supporting the Palestinians, Milstein explained.

Still, he argued that the influence of this popular support is limited. “As my Saudi friend explained to me, ‘We’re currently living in a dream, but this dream is going to end in a few days, and when it does we’ll once again find ourselves in a world that is full of disputes and struggles for power.”

There are lessons for Israel to learn from the World Cup experience and advancing the far-right policies advocated by some of the next government’s ministers risks upending recent progress, but Milstein contended that much of the pro-Palestinian pushback seen in Doha will likely remain in Doha.


Senior Jordanian police officer shot and killed in clashes over fuel prices
Jordanian police say a senior commander has been killed in clashes with protesters that broke out over high fuel prices.

Abdul Razzaq Abdel Hafez Al Dalabeh, deputy police director in the city of Maan, was shot Thursday “by a group of outlaws,” police said.

“We will not hesitate to preserve the pride of the homeland, and we will strike with an iron fist against anyone who attempts to attack lives and property,” the police said in a statement.

Truck drivers launched a strike last week to protest high fuel prices. The strike and protests have spread to several cities across Jordan. Clashes erupted in multiple cities on Thursday, with police using tear gas to disperse them.

Jordan is a close Western ally and has long been seen as an island of stability in a turbulent region.
Muslim Brotherhood Succession Crisis Deepens
The Nov. 4 death of the Muslim Brotherhood’s acting general guide, Ibrahim Munir, triggered a new internal power struggle.

At the moment, there are three factions struggling to control the Muslim Brotherhood, and they all operate outside of Egypt: one residing in Britain, and two others operating from Istanbul. The London faction, once led by Munir, is now led by Mohei El-din El Zayet. One Istanbul faction is led by Mahmoud Hussein, and the other operating from Istanbul is the “Current of Change” faction. Each claims to be the legitimate representative of the Muslim Brotherhood group and its goals.

Before his death, Munir declared that the Muslim Brotherhood no longer would seek political power in Egypt. In contrast, the Istanbul factions reject that stance. After Munir’s death, the group’s London faction immediately declared its leader, El Zayet, as acting guide. In response, the Istanbul-based faction announced Mahmoud Hussein is the new acting guide.

“The Muslim Brotherhood group realizes that the youth boys and girls are its present tools, the power of the group, the hope, its glory makers, the safety valve for its continuity and the name of its future,” Hussein said in a Nov. 20 speech to members. “That’s why the group is working on preparing and qualifying a generation of youth leaders who [are] completely qualified in all professions and able to lead the group toward a safe transition into the second centennial for the group, God willing.”

The feud cannot be settled anytime soon. It requires a general assembly vote, something difficult to arrange with members behind bars or in exile.


Ruthie Blum: Khamenei’s nephew hails Iran’s anti-regime protests
In a two-part interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Tuesday and Wednesday, the nephew of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised the masses who’ve been risking and losing their lives to extricate themselves from the grips of the ayatollah-run regime.

A France-based expat, Dr. Mahmoud Moradkhani has been following from afar the ongoing protests in his home country, spurred by the murder in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s morality police for not wearing her hijab properly.

Moradkhani, who left Iran in 1986, seven years after the Islamic Revolution, to study medicine in Paris, is the son of Khamenei’s sister, Badri Hosseini Khamenei. Her whereabouts have been in question since December 7, when he tweeted an open letter that she penned in support of the rallies.

Iran supreme leader's family support the protests
“I oppose my brother’s actions,” she began in the post that went viral. “I express my sympathy for all mothers mourning the crimes of the Islamic Republic regime [from the time of its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei.”

She concluded the lengthy missive by declaring that “the people of Iran deserve freedom and prosperity, and their uprising is legitimate and necessary to achieve their rights,” adding, “My brother wrongly considers the voice of his mercenaries and money-grubbers to be that of the Iranian people. He is rightly deserving of the disrespectful and impudent words that he uses to describe the oppressed, but brave, Iranian people.”

Speaking to correspondent Dror Balazada via Zoom in Farsi with Hebrew subtitles, Moradkhani was vague about his mother’s current circumstances, although he pointed out that she cut off relations with Khamenei in 2009, when he ordered the killing of anyone challenging the fake re-election of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying she’s at home and sending messages indirectly.

He was a bit more specific about his sibling, Farideh, a feminist and human-rights activist who was arrested last month for recording a video referring to her uncle’s reign as murderous and child-killing.


Germany earned over $1 billion from Iran trade amid Tehran’s repression
German business deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran are booming amid the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown on protestors who are seeking the end of the theocratic state.

According to newly published statistics from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Germany exported €1.2 billion worth of goods to Iran from January to the end of October in 2022.

The federal republic imported roughly €260 million in merchandise from Iran.

The German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce boasted on its website that “Germany is still Iran’s largest trade partner in Europe.”

Germany exported €275 million worth of machines and engineering technology to Iran in 2021. Germany's non-transparent export regulations do not permit disclosure of the nature of the goods and material sold to Iran - some of which has been used for dual-use purposes (military and civilian aims) over the decades.

The Iranian-owned bank European-Iranian Trade Bank located in Hamburg and German banks (Volksbank Konstanz and Volksbank Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar) situated in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg provide transactions for sensitive business deals between German companies and Iranian banks.

The US accused the European-Iranian trade bank (EIH) of playing an illicit role in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Germany continues to permit the EIH to operate.




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