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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

12/27 Links Pt1: The World Has Forgotten Two Israelis Held by Palestinian Terrorists; ISIS-inspired terrorist arrested for deadly Jerusalem bombings

From Ian:

The World Has Forgotten Two Israelis Held by Palestinian Terrorists
Where is Hisham? Where is Avera? It has been more than 3,000 days since Avera Mengistu, an Israeli citizen and member of the Ashkelon Ethiopian community, climbed over the border fence in Gaza and was captured by Hamas. His family has had zero contact with him since.

Roughly six months later, the same fate befell a 34-year-old who is part of Israel’s Bedouin community, Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed over into the terrorist-controlled enclave.What was the reason these young men ended up in the Gaza Strip? They have a long history of suffering from mental illness, and often wandered hundreds of kilometers from their homes.

On September 7, 2014, Avera was highly agitated; his mental well-being had begun to deteriorate after the tragic death of his brother. As a result, Avera left home and began to wander. Video surveillance showed that he took off and walked approximately 10 kilometers, where he was eventually spotted, unusually close to the Gaza border fence, by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers tried to get his attention; instead, he was startled and climbed over the border fence and disappeared into Gaza.

Hisham has a similar story. In the past, he had entered Jordan, the West Bank, and even Gaza, but he was always returned by security personnel who were aware of his mental status and vulnerability. In 2015, however, he was taken hostage by Hamas. Fast forward to now, and Hamas only released a video clip this year, which appears to show Hisham lying in a bed, looking dazed, and wearing an oxygen mask — the first sighting of him since he disappeared seven years ago.

The holding of Hisham and Avera is a human rights violation on several counts.

Firstly, they are civilians who have no part in the war between Israel and Hamas, and cannot be held or treated as enemy combatants.

Secondly, withholding information about captives, as Hamas has done, amounts to an “Enforced Disappearance” and is illegal under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been signed by the Palestinians. It also goes against another piece of international law they signed, called The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which provides protections for people with psycho-social, or mental health disabilities, including freedom from inhuman treatment and equal access to justice.

Finally, any detainees have the right to contact their families and receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. All of these international rights are violated each moment that Hamas continues to hold Hisham and Avera hostage. Even the likes of Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, a fierce critic of Israel, has said that “Hamas’s refusal to confirm its apparent prolonged detention of men with mental health conditions and no connection to the hostilities is cruel and indefensible.”
David Singer: Israel set to uncork Hashemite Kingdom genie at UN
The UN stands to become totally irrelevant if it continues to refuse to discuss the Saudi Solution following Danny Danon - Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations – claiming at the first Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit - that Saudi Arabia may be one of the next nations to normalize relations with Israel.

Danon stated:
“We have been in contact with the Saudis for years. I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. .. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year”

This was good news for those seeking an end to the 100 years-old Jewish/Arab conflict – but bad news for the UN which continues to stubbornly support the two-state solution whilst refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the game-changing Saudi Solution since its publication six months ago.

It beggars belief that on 30 November the UN General Assembly adopted five resolutions on the questions of 'Palestine' and the Middle East without one speaker uttering the words. “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution” - whose successful implementation would see the Arab populations in Gaza, part of the 'West Bank' and the wretched UNRWA camps in Lebanon and Syria becoming citizens of that newly-created territorial entity.

Cheikh Niang (Senegal) - Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - introduced its annual report containing developments relating to the question of Palestine between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 – which contained not one reference to the Saudi Solution in its 27 pages.

Israeli Prime Minister designate Bibi Netanyahu has made his intentions crystal-clear:
“I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close.”

The 2022 Saudi Solution offers Israel:
sole sovereignty in Jerusalem,
sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and
abandonment of the 74 years-old Arab claim to return to Israel
The UN must respond to the hope of peace offered by the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie.
Abdullah in the middle
Millions of Jordanian citizens descend from families who lived in eastern Palestine when it was ruled by the British Empire or, before that, the Ottoman Empire. Others moved to Jordan, fleeing wars launched by Israel’s Arab neighbors—Jordan among them—in 1948 and 1967. In other words, millions of Jordanians identify as Palestinians.

“While Jordanian officials may not say so explicitly,” Dr. Schanzer writes, “the animosity harbored by Jordan’s Palestinian population toward Israel has a significant influence on the kingdom’s foreign policies.”

A chapter of history Israeli leaders seldom discuss publicly: When the first Arab-Israeli war came to a halt in 1949, Jordanian forces had conquered the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria (quickly renamed “the West Bank”), from which they expelled the Jewish population. Even Jews living in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem were driven out, and their homes and synagogues destroyed.

Upon taking east Jerusalem in the defensive war of 1967, then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan decided to award a Jordanian waqf (a government-controlled religious entity) authority over the two important Muslim sites—Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock—that stand atop the Temple Mount, the holiest of all Jewish sites. This profound gesture of conciliation has never been fully appreciated, much less reciprocated.

Nor do Jordanians express gratitude for the essential goods Israel currently provides, for example, water (Israel is a world leader in desalination technology) and energy (40 percent of Jordan’s electricity comes from Israeli gas). Israel also cooperates closely with Jordan on “a wide range of security-related issues.”

Dr. Schanzer notes that King Abdullah, in a conversation with former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster last May, “voiced concerns that Iranian forces in Syria could soon destabilize his country…Jordan also faces a threat from Iran-backed militias in Iraq to the north. Additional threats loom in the south, with Iranian assets reportedly operating in the Red Sea.”

Though the enemy of Jordan’s enemy should be Jordan’s friend, Dr. Schanzer expects relations with Israel to deteriorate further. He notes the king’s “unabashed distaste” for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now forming a new government.

Netanyahu, for his part, is undoubtedly reading with distress “reports that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has been spending more time in Jordan with the approval of the Hashemite Kingdom.”

The king of Jordan is a moderate, modern and savvy sovereign. But without Israeli support, his future and that of his country will be precarious.

And if there is to be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Jordan will need to join the pragmatic Arab states advocating for a new regional order, one based on stability and prosperity.

For King Abdullah to explain all this to his subjects—penetrating the fog of Palestinian irredentism and rejectionism—will not be easy. But that is his job.


Seth Frantzman: Russia’s Medvedev ‘predictions’ showcase Moscow mentality
THE OVERALL point he is making is rooted in Moscow’s view of the world order. Russia thinks that the international system and state borders don’t matter. Russia wants the EU to collapse and it is hoping to see more controversies. Russia also has fantasies that it is fighting “Nazis” in Ukraine and thus wants to believe that western countries will form a new “Reich.”

More serious is his prediction that Ukraine will cease to exist. This has been Moscow’s policy. Russia wanted to occupy Kyiv and then leave a rump state of western Ukraine to be occupied by the West. Russia now is openly talking about “partitioning” Poland. These are dangerous comments from an official.

The comments come as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Moscow can no longer maintain normal ties with the US. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has been reaching out to India regarding discussions of a peace deal with Moscow. But Lavrov has said Monday that Ukraine must fulfill Moscow’s proposals regarding their “new territories” – or the Russian military would take action, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

This means Russia is not serious about peace. It means Russia is predicting a new offensive and a new potentially brutal phase of the war.

Of course, Russia and the West could climb down from this. However, considering the comments by people like Medvedev, and also Putin’s previous comments about the decline of the West, it’s difficult to see how the West can ever really negotiate with or deal with Russia again in a normal way.

Russia has said what it thinks and shown its overall policy. Unlike China, which is more cautious and measured in its rhetoric, even though it too wants to upend the US-led world order, Russia is becoming more extreme. The new year’s “predictions” are an example of this extremism and an example of how Moscow thinks everything is up for grabs.

Countries should be very wary and concerned because a Moscow that believes it is not tethered by rules could do something more dangerous. On the other hand, it is well known that some politicians like to appear more threatening than they are in order to get concessions. During the Nixon era, the US president also tried to convince others that he was a bit of a “madman” in order to create fear in his adversaries.

Russia also has a case of this “madman” doctrine, combined with a policy rooted in dividing the West and empowering Asia.
Morocco and Israel celebrate two years of normalized relations
Relations between Morocco and Israel are booming.

Just this month, the countries signed a natural gas exploration deal and are working on a “Cyber Iron Dome” to protect computer systems and networks. In Oct. 2022, bilateral trade totaled $12.3 million, up 925% from Oct. 2021. Israel is building a permanent embassy building in Rabat and is set to open a separate trade mission in 2023.

Morocco, Israel and the United States signed a joint declaration in Rabat on Dec. 22, 2020 announcing the opening of a “new era in the relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the State of Israel.” Twelve days earlier, President Donald Trump had announced that the U.S. had brokered a deal between the two Mediterranean countries, and that the United States had recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara.

The Abraham Accords normalization agreement followed previous agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Diplomatic and geostrategic significance
Morocco attended the first Negev Summit in Israel along with the U.S., UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, and is to host the Negev 2 Summit in Dakhla in the Western Sahara early next year.

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and the author of Inside The Middle East: Entering A New Era, told JNS that “given Morocco’s location, normalization with Rabat increases and deepens the potential for cooperation between Israel and countries in West Africa.”

“Indeed, in 2021 Morocco supported Israel rejoining the African Union as an observer. For Israel, gaining observer status in the African Union was a political victory and reflected the improvement of its status on the continent,” he said.
Seth Frantzman: Turkey exploits Paris attack on Kurds while claiming to be 'anti-terror'
Turkey claims it is fighting “terrorism” even though there is no evidence of the kind of claims Ankara makes. Ankara wants support for a new invasion of Syria. In Syria, Turkey claims to be fighting the “YPG” and “PKK,” two Kurdish groups. It claims that the US-backed SDF, another group, is the same as these “terrorists.”

This is a kind of Orwellian rhetoric that condemns every critic and group as “terrorists” as a way to excuse targeting them. For instance, after a recent bombing in Istanbul, Turkey carried out dozens of attacks on Syria, even though there was no evidence linking the bombing to Syria.

By quickly using the media to claim any protesters in Paris were “terrorists,” Ankara sought to prevent any criticism of Turkey and to prevent Kurds in France from being able to organize a protest.

Ankara fears Kurdish dissidents and any Kurdish groups abroad. It often works to target the Kurdish language, Kurdish music and flags. Ankara also knows that its opponents will sometimes use these events to raise their flags and voices, so it’s easier for Ankara to claim “terrorists” are protesting than to try to segment out the organized critics from the innocent average people.

Major media in the West didn’t portray the protesters as “terrorists” and generally sympathized with the Kurdish victims, even if some felt the riots were unacceptable.

The danger that Ankara’s intervention represents is that Ankara is always willing to exaggerate and even willing to summon ambassadors of European countries, or try to force NATO not to admit democracies like Sweden, in order to force European countries to suppress critics and minorities in the same way that Ankara does at home.

So far, it appears that France’s judicial system is doing the right thing and that peaceful demonstrations are now the norm in Paris. However, it should be noted that this incident of Ankara meddling in internal politics in France, just as it tried to do in 2020 with protests in the US, is a new escalation.

Ankara is seeking to exploit issues in Europe and the West to its benefit. Under the guise of claiming to be against “terrorism,” it has warped language to an Orwellian degree.

This is a remnant in some ways of the US “global war on terror” and the way countries such as Turkey took this to mean it could do whatever it wants as long as it labels its adversaries “terrorists.”
Israeli envoy named in Turkey after years of strain
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan received the credentials of Israel's new ambassador to Turkey on Tuesday, as the two countries normalize ties after four years of strain.

Turkey and Israel began improving relations with high-level visits this year including Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Ankara. They agreed to appoint ambassadors mutually in August.

After Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu won elections last month, he and Erdogan agreed to "work together to create a new era in relations" on a basis of respect for mutual interests.

Irit Lillian, Israeli's charge d'affaires in Ankara since January 2021, became ambassador after presenting her letter of confidence to Erdogan. Complex relations

Once close regional allies, relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained for more than a decade, with Ankara having expelled Israel's ambassador following a 2010 Israeli raid on an aid ship to Gaza, which killed 10 Turkish citizens.

Diplomatic relations were restored in 2016, but two years later Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel and expelled the Israeli envoy when Israeli forces killed a number of Palestinians who had taken part in protests in the Gaza Strip.


Erdogan makes unfounded claim Ronaldo ‘banned’ at World Cup for backing Palestinians
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed that Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was subject to a “political ban” at the World Cup in Qatar because of his purported support for Palestinians.

“They have wasted Ronaldo. Unfortunately, they have imposed a political ban on him,” Erdogan said on Sunday while speaking to a group of students, according to comments translated by Al Jazeera.

“Sending a soccer player like Ronaldo to the pitch with just 30 minutes remaining to the match ruined his psychology and took away his energy,” Erdogan added, saying by way of explanation that “Ronaldo is someone who stands for the Palestinian cause.”

Ronaldo does not appear to have made any significant public statements weighing in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although some doctored images, videos and reports claiming that he has have circulated widely in the past. The soccer player has over the years met with and been photographed with both Israelis and Palestinians.
ISIS-inspired terrorist arrested for deadly Jerusalem bombings
The deadly Nov. 23 twin bombings in Jerusalem were carried out by a Palestinian resident of Kafr Aqab, acting alone, according to Israeli security forces.

Eslam Froukh, 26, was arrested on Nov. 29, following an “extensive” investigation, according to a statement by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police.

While Froukh identifies with the Islamic State terrorist group and acted according to a Salafist-jihadist ideology, he planned the bombings on his own, over an extended period, according to the statement.

“Just as we pledged, we found him. Israel will find every terrorist who attacks our citizens and will deal with them to the fullest extent of the law,” said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

“We will continue to fight terrorism and deal with terrorists and those who dispatch them to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.

The explosive devices used in the attacks were constructed in a pit dug by Froukh in the Binyamin region of Judea and Samaria, using instructions found online, police said.

Raw materials for additional devices were found in the pit, along with a submachine gun of the Carlo type. A ready-to-activate bomb was also found in Froukh’s possession at the time of his arrest, according to the statement.

Two Israeli civilians—Tedsha Tashuma, a 50-year-old father of six from Pisgat Ze’ev, and Aryeh Shechopek, 16, a Canadian-Israeli from Har Nof, Jerusalem, were killed in the attacks, and more than 20 people were wounded.


Israeli security forces arrest Jerusalem bombing suspect
Israeli police say the suspect behind the double blast terror attack in Jerusalem in November has been arrested.

Our Middle East correspondent Ariel Oseran has more of the chilling details from the investigation.


Troops come under fire during West Bank raids; 16 terror suspects arrested
Palestinian gunmen opened fire at Israeli troops in two separate instances during overnight arrest raids in the West Bank, the military said Tuesday morning.

The Israel Defense Forces said troops detained 16 wanted Palestinians during the raids, which came amid a months-long anti-terror offensive following a series of terror attacks that have left 31 people dead since the beginning of the year.

According to the military, troops operating in the northern West Bank city of Nablus came under fire while arresting six Palestinians suspected of involvement in terror activity.

In a separate incident, as troops arrested two wanted Palestinians in the town of Jaba, near Jenin, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at them.

The IDF said no soldiers were hurt in the two shootings.

Troops operating in the West Bank town of al-Khader arrested two wanted men and seized explosive materials, the military said.

The 16 suspects were taken to be questioned by the Shin Bet security agency.
Far-left journalist arrested over tweets praising Palestinian attackers
Journalist Yisrael Frey was arrested Tuesday and questioned under caution for hours over several tweets praising Palestinian attackers for purportedly seeking out military Israeli targets, rather than civilian ones.

The Tel Aviv Police Department said in a statement that Frey had ignored multiple summonses to come in for questioning and had said he would refuse to take part in any investigation. Therefore, police said, a warrant for his arrest was issued, and he was investigated on charges of incitement to terrorism and violence.

He was later released.

Frey, who is an outlier in the ultra-Orthodox community for espousing far-left political opinions, tweeted approvingly in September of a Palestinian man arrested and accused of planning a large-scale terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.

“See what a hero is: He traveled the whole way from Nablus to Tel Aviv, and despite all the Israelis surrounding him who take some part in oppressing, crushing and killing his people — he regardless sought out legitimate targets and avoided harming innocents,” tweeted Frey in reaction to the arrest. “In a proper world, he would get a medal.”

While the Palestinian who was arrested claimed that he was seeking to harm IDF soldiers, a security official previously said that the Nablus-based Lion’s Den terror group was involved in sending the man to attempt to commit a “large-scale” attack in Tel Aviv.

And in October, Frey reacted to the fatal shooting of IDF soldier Noa Lazar at a checkpoint in Shuafat in East Jerusalem, tweeting: “Harming security forces is not terrorism.”
The Israel Guys: Multiple SHOOTING ATTACKS in Samaria
This is an exciting week for the State of Israel. Netanyahu has succeeded in forming a majority coalition and his new government could be sworn in as soon as Thursday.

There are some positive changes coming in this new government, specifically in regards to authorization of new building in Judea and Samaria.

Over the last week, there have been several shooting attacks here in Samaria. And 2022 has been the biggest year for Aliyah in 23 years!


PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians Cry Foul Over History’s Most Persecuted Minority Brazenly Defending Itself (satire)
Opponents of Jewish control over Jewish security continued today to assail the world’s only Jewish state for the impudent practice of protecting Jews from attack from the region’s majority population, characterizing any harm to the majority attackers that occurs in the course of such protective actions as war crimes, Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

Palestinians and their progressive allies around the world once again called any incident in which Israeli security personnel or civilians prevent Palestinians from harming Jews or non-Jewish Israelis a violation of human rights law or the laws of armed combat, with the number and seriousness of the violation increasing in case of bodily harm to the Palestinian attacker. The shame inherent in once-dominant Muslims no longer occupying the position of the oppressor vis-à-vis the dhimmi Jew constitutes a violation of Muslims’ religious rights, since in the Islamic view no one, certainly not the cursed Jew, may exert any superiority over Muslims.

Each time a IDF soldier shoots a Palestinian, under any circumstances – whether the Palestinian is at that moment engaged in harming or preparing to harm Israelis; abetting harm to Israelis; participating in a violent confrontation; positioned in harm’s way to use as fodder for blood libels; or hit by a stray bullet – the incident constitutes a crime against humanity and an assault on everything sacred, specifically the sacrosanct notion that the Jew is a dependent, subject class that may never own weapons, ride a horse, build a synagogue taller than a mosque, stand in a Muslim’s way in the street, prevail over a Muslim in legal matters, or raise a hand in self-defense.
PMW: Important admission: Fatah takes children as terrorists, says mother of terrorist
PMW has reported extensively on the PA/Fatah using children as terrorists and brainwashing them to seek “Martyrdom.” Now a Palestinian mother of six terrorists, Um Nasser Abu Hmeid, has confirmed that it was Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement that brought her to son to terror when he was still a child:
“To the Fatah Movement I say: You took Nasser from me when he was a child, all I ask of you is to return him to me, so that I will be able to pay respects to him and bury him.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Dec. 26, 2022]

Fatah launched Nasser Abu Hmeid’s terror career when he was merely age 11 - the year he was first detained. He was arrested repeatedly for terror -related crimes, and eventually was sentenced to 7 life sentences for responsibility for 7 murders. He died of cancer last week in an Israeli hospital.

The use of children in conflict as soldiers or as terrorists, is prohibited and condemned internationally. This candid admission by the mother of the 6 terrorists that it was Fatah who took her son to terror already “when he was a child,” is an important confirmation of what PMW has been documenting to the international community for several years.
Top Abbas aide heard bashing Palestinian leader for mismanaging succession
A top adviser to Mahmoud Abbas was heard insulting the Palestinian Authority president as “the son of 66 whores” and accusing him of stoking a chaotic succession battle, in leaked tapes published Tuesday, laying bare angry fissures within the ruling Fatah party.

In the obscenity-laced recording, published by the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news site, Fatah Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh can be heard angrily venting frustration over the 88-year-old Palestinian leader’s handling of internal tensions over who will succeed him.

“The succession is at the heart of everything,” al-Sheikh is heard saying at one point.

Abbas “is complicit in the anarchy and has an interest in maintaining it for his own survival,” he added, expressing frustration over the lack of consultation on the process. “It pains me to say these things, but this process is completely different from after the death of Yasser Arafat.”

It was not clear who al-Sheikh was talking to in the recordings, but he is heard speaking with open derision for the Palestinian leader’s governing style, describing him as testy and mercurial.

Abbas is the “son of 66 whores, he comes and gives his decisions without explanations,” he is heard saying. “He is not right in the head if he thinks we can do the right thing without explaining his intentions.”

A former minister in charge of liaising with Israeli authorities, al-Sheikh was appointed earlier this year to replace the late Saeb Erekat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and as point person on diplomatic negotiations. The promotion was seen boosting his chances to eventually succeed Abbas as head of the Fatah party, though several others are also vying for the job.
"Abbas is an accomplice to the chaos and has an interest in its survival" Shehab News Agency publishes leaked recordings of Hussein Sheikh attacking and cursing Mahmoud Abbas and influential leaders in power as part of the "succession war for the position of president of the authority"


“Fatah… You took Nasser [Abu Hmeid] from me when he was a child”

PA celebrates: "Martyr" is a “handsome groom [at his] wedding”



Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah wants spotlight off Lebanon after Irish UN peacekeeper killing
Hezbollah understands that the focus is on the terror group. It has thus facilitated handing over a suspect. According to reports, the Lebanese army detained the man in a deal coordinated with Hezbollah. This shows the degree to which Hezbollah controls Lebanon. It functions as a powerful terror entity that is more powerful than the state itself. It conducts Lebanon’s foreign and military policy, threatening other countries and sending forces to fight in places like Syria. It also feels free to carry out extrajudicial assassinations in Lebanon and elsewhere. As such, it is the group that decides law and order, and whether the Lebanese army will operate or not.

According to the reports, the man that was detained is a supporter but not a “member” of Hezbollah. What is not explained is why this man and others chose to attack the UN vehicle. Why did the man shoot at a clearly marked UN vehicle? It doesn’t make a lot of sense unless Hezbollah has given a quiet message to its supporters to attack the UN whenever the UN strays off the roads it usually uses.

This UN convoy was heading back at night from southern Lebanon, traveling the main route from Tyre to Sidon. However, there is also a coastal road that parallels the route and the vehicle exited by mistake into a village south of Sidon. It was then attacked. Reports at the time say it might have been followed.

Clearly the government of Ireland, the UN and others will want answers. However, there is also an agenda to not rock the boat in Lebanon. The West wants to maintain the illusion that the Lebanese army controls Lebanon. In addition, this means continued US and other support for the Lebanese army. The fiction that the state of Lebanon controls its territory is important because this means it can sign deals, such as the maritime deal that it agreed with Israel before Israel’s recent election.

If one dispenses with that fiction then one has to realize Lebanon is run by Hezbollah. Hezbollah has some 150,000 missiles and rockets, it apparently has large numbers of drones, precision-guided munitions and air defenses and anti-ship missiles. It has carried out assassinations before, such as targeting former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. It carried out an attack on Israel in 2006 that led to a war. It has sent forces to Syria. It threatens Israel from areas in Syria near the Golan. It has also killed political enemies and likely was behind the murder of publisher Lokman Slim.
Israel's readiness to attack Iran's nuclear sites improved - IDF chief
Israel carries out on average at least one operation against Iran every week somewhere throughout the Middle East, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi revealed on Tuesday. The IDF, he also said, will be ready when and if it is given the order to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“The level of preparedness for an operation in Iran has dramatically improved,” Kohavi said at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“I will say more than that. The IDF will be ready for the day when an order is given to act against the nuclear program and it will fulfill the mission that it is given.”

“The Iranian vision to establish a second Hezbollah in Syria has been disrupted,” Kohavi said.

“The Iranians wanted to deploy hundreds of surface-to-surface missiles in Syria alongside tens of thousands of Shia militiamen.”

Kohavi said that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi had been scheduled to visit Syria on Tuesday. “If he had come he would see that there is a lot less weaponry and fewer bases and forces,” said the IDF chief of staff, who wraps up his term next month. “This didn’t happen on its own, but due to [Israel’s] war between wars, which will mark 10 years in March.”

The “war between wars” is the IDF’s name for the covert military campaign it has been waging against Iranian efforts to entrench itself in Syria.
In video, Iran threatens to raze Tel Aviv, destroy Dimona if Israel hits nuke sites
Iran’s state broadcaster has aired a video describing what it claims would be the response to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, warning that Israeli targets would be destroyed within minutes and that a follow-up wave of rocket attacks would “raze Tel Aviv.”

The video aired on Iran’s state-controlled IRIB TV2 on December 17, and was reported upon by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute monitor group on Monday.

Israel has vowed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and has repeatedly said it has the right to act in striking Iranian facilities to prevent what it sees as an existential threat.

In the clip, narrator Younes Shadlou began by noting that Israel had recently held exercises with the US to simulate an attack on Iran.

“Let’s assume that Israeli jets manage to reach the Natanz nuclear site in one piece” and manage to damage it, Shadlou posited, referring to a major facility buried under a mountain where Iran has installed advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium.

“Even if they manage to leave Iran’s sky safely,” he continued, it would take the jets “at least an hour” to return to their base.

“The question is whether there would be any base for them to land at,” Shadlou said.


How the U.S. Can Use Iran’s Economy to Pressure Its Government
At the moment, writes Yair Albeck, Washington is caught in a dilemma in its relations with the Islamic Republic:

Tehran is stringing out the nuclear negotiations endlessly with the expectation that President Joe Biden will not admit that the talks have failed. After such an admission, the public would likely pressure the administration to stop offering Iran stealth economic relief through the lax enforcement of sanctions. Rigorous enforcement would, the White House fears, remove Iranian oil from the market and contribute to the global energy crisis that Russia’s war against Ukraine sparked. Meanwhile, Iran is benefitting doubly—strategically and economically—from the war, selling missiles and drones to Russia and oil to China. Given this advantageous situation, Tehran wants negotiations to continue.

But, Albeck argues, there is a way out of this “conundrum,” thanks in part to the ongoing protests against the Iranian government:

The world is witnessing the convulsions of a regime facing its own mortality. The regime’s vulnerability offers the Biden administration an opportunity to gain leverage in the nuclear negotiations. There is a path forward that can squeeze Iran economically without disrupting the already tight oil market. To that end, the U.S. needs to target foreign entities outside Iran that enable the country to circumvent sanctions, rather than companies inside Iran.

To revitalize its deterrence, the United States should target the financial institutions that help Tehran and the individuals who work in them. Iran uses American allies such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. . . . In other words, Iran can easily exploit financial institutions in these countries to evade sanctions due to a lack of regulation and loose standards.

Disrupting Iranian activity in the financial centers will not disrupt the global oil market. While Iran’s revenues from sales will be frozen, Tehran will not take its oil off the market because it fears losing market share. And as it knows from experience, it will have access to its revenues at some future date when it finally reaches an agreement with the United States.
Elon Musk Says Around 100 Starlinks Now Active in Iran
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm’s satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he tweeted he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country.

Musk said, “approaching 100 starlinks active in Iran”, in a tweet on Monday.

The billionaire had said in September that he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of a U.S.-backed effort “to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information” to Iranians.

The satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent the government’s restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms amid protests around the country.

The Islamic Republic has been engulfed in protests that erupted after the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after being arrested by the morality police for wearing “unsuitable attire”.


Iranian Woman Competes at Chess Tournament Without Hijab: Media Reports
An Iranian chess player has taken part in an international tournament without a hijab, according to media reports, the latest of several Iranian sportswomen to appear at competitions without one since anti-government protests began.

Iran has been swept by demonstrations against the country’s clerical leadership since mid-September, when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of morality police who detained her for “inappropriate attire.”

Iranian news outlets Khabarvarzeshi and Etemad, in reports on Monday, said Sara Khadem had competed at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, without the hijab — a headscarf mandatory under Iran’s strict dress codes.

Photos posted by both outlets appeared to show her with no headscarf during the tournament. Khabarvarzeshi also posted a photo of her wearing a headscarf but without saying if it was taken at the same event.

There was no comment on Khadem’s Instagram page about the tournament or the reports, and she did not immediately respond to a direct message from Reuters.

Khadem, born in 1997 and also known as Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, is ranked 804 in the world, according to the International Chess Federation website. The website for the Dec. 25-30 event listed her as a participant in both the Rapid and Blitz competitions.




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