Friday, February 03, 2023

02/03 Links Pt1: What Blinken refuses to see; Daniel Pipes: Violence is not the biggest Palestinian threat to Israel; The Ilhan Omar vote is a turning point for American Jews

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: What Blinken refuses to see
In other words, the Biden administration thinks that permitting Jews to lawfully build and buy homes and communities, to buy land or lease government land in Judea, Samaria or unified Jerusalem is unacceptable.

Furthermore, as far as he is concerned, Israelis living in Judea and Samaria should be compelled to receive government services from incompetent military officers employed by the military government rather than from Israeli government ministries. This includes, for instance, sewage treatment and environmental protection, protection of antiquities and archaeological sites, building rights and licensing guidelines.

Another step the U.S. opposes, Blinken said is “disruption to the historical status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites.” Here, Blinken sides with the Palestinians in insisting that Jews should not be permitted to freely access–much less pray at–the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site.

Blinken went on to say the U.S. opposes “demolitions and evictions.” But he wasn’t referring to demolitions and evictions of Jews—that’s fine. He was referring to demolition of illegal Palestinian construction and eviction of Palestinian squatters from state land and from apartments and buildings owned by Israeli Jews.

In short, Blinken set out a policy of antisemitic discrimination and demanded that Israel abide by it on behalf of a society organized around the demonization and dehumanization of Jews and the delegitimization and aspiration to annihilate the Jewish state of Israel.

Blinken did say, in the end, that the United States opposes “incitement and acquiescence to violence.” But, as he made clear in his next sentence, he was just joking.

Blinken announced that the U.S. is giving an additional $50 million to UNRWA, the U.N. agency most responsible for prolonging the Palestinian conflict with Israel by among other things, inciting and acquiescing to violence. UNRWA schools indoctrinate Palestinian children to hate Jews and aspire to become terrorists and destroy Israel. Hamas and other terror groups use UNRWA installations as missile launching grounds.

Those $50 million are just a drop in the bucket. Blinken bragged that since Biden entered office two years ago, the U.S. has provided $950 million in aid to the Palestinians overall.

The Biden administration doesn’t oppose Palestinian incitement and acquiescence to violence. The administration is funding it.

It’s hard to know how the Palestinian conflict with Israel will end. But two things are certain. First, demanding institutional discrimination and the denial of civil rights to Jews will not lead anywhere good. And second, we’ll know we’re moving in the right direction if the U.S., the E.U. and the U.N. stop discriminating against Jews and end their support for a Palestinian society organized around the dehumanization and demonization and aspiration to destroy the Jewish state.
Jonathan Tobin: The Ilhan Omar vote is a turning point for American Jews
Pro-Israel Democrats could have taken a stand against her and Tlaib. But, intimidated by the rise of the intersectional movement that has seized control of the left-wing base of the Democratic Party, and fearing that they will be branded as racists if they speak out, they have refused to ostracize them.

In doing so, they have essentially legitimized Omar’s views. Her anti-Zionist and antisemitic ideas are now routinely published in the pages of liberal mainstream outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. And the ranks of the “Squad” have vastly expanded in the last two election cycles, with even more sympathizers among those who identify as progressive Democrats.

Republicans have their outliers, like Greene and others. They routinely make outrageous and often indefensible statements, although Democrats are equally guilty of the promiscuous use of inappropriate Holocaust analogies.

But they are not guilty of seeking to normalize antisemitism by masquerading as mere “critics” of Israel. And, unlike Omar, they lack the influence that comes with being part of a movement that already dominates academia and much of the media with its toxic myths about white privilege and lies about Israel’s being an “apartheid” state.

Republicans have been accused of making Israel a partisan issue. The GOP has pointed to its lockstep support for the Jewish state, and to the way Democrats are now divided on it with so much of their base embracing the myth—rooted in critical race theory teachings—that Israel is a “white” colonialist oppressor of people of color.

Hyper-partisanship is now so deeply entrenched in American political culture that many liberal Jews aren’t likely to be persuaded to be angrier at House Democrats for defending Omar than they are at Republicans for their ideology or support for Trump, who—though deeply flawed—was still the most pro-Israel president in history.

In giving Omar a pass for antisemitism, Democrats have crossed a line that no party or its supporters can transgress without being rightly accused of enabling Jew-hatred. By rallying around her, either out of party loyalty or hypocritical opposition to cancel culture that they never apply to embattled conservatives, is to make antisemitism a partisan issue. This is a historic development that may make it impossible to ever put the genie of intersectional hate for Jews back in the bottle. It’s also an unforgivable betrayal of their Jewish voters and the principles of tolerance that they claim to uphold.
Noah Rothman: Ilhan Omar’s committee removal was a long time coming
As for precedent, Omar’s defenders are on even weaker ground.

Before Republicans voted along party lines to oust Omar, some expressed reservations about the basis for it. But even those members, like Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, conceded that it was Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who “took unprecedented actions” to remove Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committee posts. Prior to the 117th Congress, the majority party typically accepted the minority party’s recommendations for committees, and even staunch critics of Greene’s and Gosar’s often inappropriate conduct warned of this new precedent’s dangers. “Democrats may regret when Republicans regain the majority,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told her colleagues when Greene and Gosar were removed.

Contrary to Meeks, Republicans have policed their own on occasion. In 2018, for example, the House GOP leadership ejected Rep. Steve King of Iowa from all of his committee assignments after he wondered aloud why the term “white supremacist” is considered a slur. And like Omar, who has repeatedly and unashamedly advertised her intention to apply her worldview to the conduct of foreign affairs, Republicans had reason to believe King’s bigotry would color his policy preferences.

At no point did it occur to anyone that being deemed too bigoted to serve on committees called King’s very citizenship into question. Republicans can and should be criticized for having stomached King’s many racially provocative comments before the one that cost him his career, but Republicans’ late is better than Democrats’ never.

The decibel level at which Democrats are arguing in Omar’s favor is designed to convince you that a grave injustice is being done to her. But the relevant precedents, Omar’s conduct and the case her fellow Democrats made against her betrays the theater of it all.


The Media Keep Lying To Protect Ilhan Omar
You’ll notice that when Democrats denied Taylor Greene a committee seat it was “the House,” but it is “House Republicans” when Omar is booted (and this was the case on NPR, PBS, Yahoo!, etc.). House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has the power to unilaterally eject Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the intelligence committee, but the entire House was needed to remove Omar. Obviously both votes were largely along partisan lines, as almost all votes are these days. It’s a newsworthy fact, no doubt. Yet AP editors left the partisan aspect of the story out of the headline for only one of the incidents, even though Democrats were the ones creating the precedent.

More misleading, however, is the claim that Taylor Greene was expelled for “spreading violent, racist rhetoric,” while Omar was merely targeted for the innocuous offense of being “critical of Israel.” This is a constantly repeated lie (see the New York Times, PBS, etc.) Numerous politicians are “critical of Israel.” Omar doesn’t believe the Jewish people deserve a state, no matter what policies Israel engages in short of going out of business. She is critical of the existence of this one nation. That’s a pretty important distinction (notwithstanding the transparently political resolution Democrats came up with today to give Omar cover).

But that’s not the central problem, either. Omar, when already a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, compared the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. After she was elected to Congress, Omar diminished the 9/11 attacks—“some people did something”— to exaggerate the presence of “Islamophobia” in this country, a comment that was worse, not better, in context. And when Omar says House members are expected to pay “allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country” or that supporters of Israel are in it for “Benjamins,” she is not “being critical” of any policy, she is spreading ugly “tropes.”

The press then uncritically repeats Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s claim that Democrats “unequivocally condemned” Omar four years ago, without any pushback. But either Jeffries is lying or doesn’t understand that “unequivocal” means with “no doubt and “unambiguous.” The House passed a watered-down resolution mentioning Alfred Dreyfus, Leo Frank, Henry Ford, and “anti-Muslim bigotry” — and a bunch of other bad -isms — that never even mentions Omar. One expects there will be no media “fact checks” forthcoming.


Gottheimer, Moskowitz call for select committee on antisemitism
Shortly after the House voted along party lines to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (RD-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, two Jewish Democrats, Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), urged House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to establish a Select Committee on Combating Antisemitism.

In a letter addressed to the speaker, Moskowitz and Gottheimer highlighted an increase in incidents involving antisemitism, pointing in particular to the emergence of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in recent months as a virulent propagator of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and tying the performer’s comments to recent antisemitic incidents across the country.

“In recent years, we have seen a troubling rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence both at home and abroad. Left unchecked, this hate poses a direct threat not only to the Jewish community but the entirety of our society as it creates division and sows discord,” the letter reads. “We are deeply concerned, as you must be, by the rise in antisemitism and stand ready to help you take action to create a more tolerant society.”

“A Select Committee on Combating Antisemitism would provide a dedicated forum for Members to bring legislative efforts to combat antisemitism to the forefront of the national conversation,” the letter argues.
FACT CHECK: Ilhan Omar's Anti-Semitic Tropes 'Were Clearly and Unequivocally Condemned by House Democrats'
CLAIM: "Rep. [Ilhan] Omar certainly has made mistakes. She has used anti-Semitic tropes that were clearly and unequivocally condemned by House Democrats when it took place four years ago."

Who said it: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) before members of Congress voted to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Why it matters: Jeffries is the House Democratic leader. If power declines to speak the truth, the Washington Free Beacon will speak truth to power. Mainstream journalists, by contrast, are only interested in holding Republican politicians to account.

Context: Omar is one of the most controversial politicians in the country. She might have married her own brother to game the U.S. immigration system. She definitely destroyed a family by stealing her current husband (and top political consultant) away from his ex-wife and teenaged son. She is, above all, a notorious anti-Semite.

• She supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an anti-Semitic campaign to economically cripple the Jewish state of Israel.
• She has accused the Jewish state of Israel of having "hypnotized the world" to cover up its "evil doings," a common anti-Semitic trope.
• She has repeatedly accused American politicians of dual loyalty to the Jewish state of Israel due to financial motivations, or in her words: "It's all about the Benjamins." The Anti-Defamation League condemned Omar for promoting an "ugly conspiracy theory."
• She has suggested Jewish Democrats are not "equally engaged in seeking justice around the world" because of their allegiance to the Jewish state of Israel. In response, 12 Jewish Democrats denounced Omar's remarks as "offensive" and "misguided."


'Squad' Member Rashida Tlaib Breaks Down in Tears as Republicans Vote To Demote Ilhan Omar
Anti-Semitic Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) broke down on the House floor Thursday as Republicans voted to remove fellow "Squad" member Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"I am so sorry, sis, that our country is failing you today," Talib said through tears. "The GOP is now doing what it is best at, weaponizing hate against a black, beautiful, Muslim woman."

Led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), congressional Republicans voted to remove Omar from the committee over her frequent anti-Semitic comments, including a 2012 remark that "Israel has hypnotized the world." Every House Democrat voted against Omar's removal.


Netanyahu’s Sixth Government and the Security Issues Facing Israel
The Military Threats to Israel

Israeli leaders are aware that such a scenario could escalate into an all-out war in which Israel will have to face several fronts:
1. Salvos of precision-guided ballistic missiles shot from outside of Iranian territory, as well as swarms of drones launched from Iran that would attack strategic sites in Israel.
2. A Hizbullah offensive from Lebanese territory, possibly including attacks on Israel’s natural gas rigs in the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Coordinated attacks by Iranian militias on the Golan/Syria front.
4. A Palestinian uprising in the territories of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, and from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, while unleashing domestic instability inside Israel by encouraging subversive actions by Arab circles within Israel.
5. Houthi participation in Yemen’s armed conflict with Israel.
6. Israel should expect Israeli ships to be attacked in the Persian Gulf and off the coast of Arabia, as well as possible terrorist attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia carried out by Iranian-backed operatives.

This Netanyahu government, his sixth, is ready for such a scenario, provided it is certain that it can neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat permanently.

Having said that, Netanyahu will not take such a decision without giving notice to the United States, even though Israel can act alone and surprise its American ally. In parallel, Netanyahu could also try to form an anti-Iranian alliance with Israel’s direct Arab neighbors and others who are partners in the Abraham Accords and potential Iranian targets. Such an alliance could provide Israel with strategic support when it comes to attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Seventy-five years after its founding, Israel’s existence is again threatened, this time by a non-Arab enemy which is trying to mobilize Arab and non-Arab entities to fight Israel. The ultimate dream of Israel’s founding fathers of living in peace is still far from being realized.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed by CNN

Jonathan Tobin: Daniel Pipes: Violence is not the biggest Palestinian threat to Israel
The latest terror attacks in Jerusalem are being treated by the Biden administration and the media as merely part of a “cycle of violence” between Israel and the Palestinians. JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin argues that doing so is based on more than a false moral equivalence between Israeli efforts to root out terrorists and the murderers who committed the massacre at a Neve Ya’akov synagogue. It’s also based on a refusal to understand that it is the Palestinians’ unwillingness to give up their century-old war on Zionism that explains why the conflict continues.

Tobin is joined by Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes, who argues that the failure of Israel and its supporters to insist that the Palestinians concede defeat in their efforts to destroy the Jewish state is at the root of the problem. He says the Israelis who advocated for the Oslo Accords believed that they could end the conflict by simply declaring that it was over without understanding that the other side wasn’t going along. Their arrogant unwillingness to accept the truth that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was lying about his desire for peace prevented them from seeing the situation clearly.

Pipes also argues that the main challenge to Israel is not the Palestinians’ terrorism, terrible though it may be. Their ability to generate “toxic hostility among leftists who accept the Palestinian narrative at the U.N. and other international forums that have as their goal making it a pariah state” is a much greater strategic threat. But, he says, Israel is fortunate that its Palestinian opponents are so weak. If it breaks them and forces them to give up their rejectionism and acknowledge Israel’s victory, their foreign supporters will also fold.

While acknowledging that antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world rooted in support for the Palestinians is an obstacle to expansion of the Abraham Accords, Pipes has a surprising suggestion for getting Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. He thinks Israel should offer the Saudis control of the Temple Mount mosques and eliminate a weak Jordanian kingdom from the equation. He believes that might lead to stability and widen the circle of peace.


Masafer Yatta & Khan al-Ahmar: Behind the Headlines
Masafer Yatta and Khan al-Ahmar are two small Bedouin enclaves in the West Bank that the State of Israel is seeking to evacuate, which has generated a considerable amount of international media attention.

Major news organizations such as the BBC, CNN and Washington Post have published in-depth reports about the controversy surrounding these two areas. But how much is really known about the history behind the controversy? And how much of Israel’s perspective is presented in these reports?

Here is an in-depth look at the histories of Masafer Yatta and Khan al-Ahmar as well as an analysis of Israeli perspectives concerning their evacuation.

Summary:
Located in the southern Hebron Hills, Masafer Yatta was traditionally used for grazing and agriculture, with no permanent residents.
In the early 1980s, the IDF established Training Zone 918 in the area.
In 1997, locals took the IDF to court in order to revoke its designation as a training area.
Most structures in Masafer Yatta have been built illegally over the past 20 years and serve to create facts on the ground.
In 2022, the Israeli High Court of Justice decided in favor of the IDF.

Located in the southern Hebron hills, Masafer Yatta is composed of 12 villages/hamlets that are sparsely inhabited by local Bedouins. Currently, the 36-square-kilometer (14-square-mile) area is populated by roughly 1,000 inhabitants (approximately 5% of the area size of New York City with around 0.01% of its population).

During the Ottoman, British and Jordanian eras, Masafer Yatta was considered to be public land and was used primarily by Bedouins and locals from the larger town of Yatta as a grazing ground for their animals as well as for agricultural development.

During this time, there were no permanent structures on the land, and people spending a more extended period of time in the area would temporarily live in special cave dwellings.

In the early 1980s, the IDF requisitioned this area to serve as a training ground for soldiers and it became Training Zone 918 (sometimes also referred to as “Firing Zone 918”).
Israel says peace deal with Sudan to be signed by year’s end
Israel and Sudan committed on Thursday to completing a normalization agreement in the near future following what Foreign Minister Eli Cohen described as his “historic diplomatic visit” to the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Cohen said upon landing back in Israel that the plan was for a full agreement to be signed by the end of the year — though only once Sudan’s current military leadership has transferred power to a civilian government, a process that is still unfolding.

“Today’s visit to Sudan lays the foundations for a historic peace agreement with a strategic Arab and Muslim country,” Cohen said after he landed at Ben Gurion Airport.

“The peace agreement between Israel and Sudan will promote regional stability and contribute to the national security of the State of Israel,” he continued.

A statement released by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry after a meeting between Cohen and his Sudanese counterpart Ali al-Sadiq said that “It has been agreed to move forward towards the normalization of relations between the two countries.”

Israel was once in a state of war with Sudan, after the African nation sent troops to fight against the nascent Jewish state in the War of Independence in 1948, but in January 2021, the two countries agreed to normalize relations as part of an agreement with the US that removed Sudan from its list of “state sponsors of terrorism.”
Israeli-Arab peace incomplete without Palestinian talks - Macron
Israeli peace with Arab and Muslim nations is complete without renewed negotiations with the Palestinians toward a two-state solution, French President Emmanuel Macron told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two men spoke in Paris on Thursday night.

“This dynamic will remain incomplete as long as it is not accompanied by a resumption of a political process towards a solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis,” Macron told Netanyahu during their meeting, according to a statement released by the Elysee Palace.

The two men met just after Chad, an African country with a Muslim population, opened an embassy in Ramat Gan, five years after the two nations restored diplomatic ties which had been severed in the 1970s in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.

As Netanyahu traveled to the Elysee Palace, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen returned from what had initially been a secret trip to Khartoum, where he secured Sudan’s agreement to finalize its participation in the US-brokered Abraham Accords initiated in 2020.

Sudan has lagged behind the other Abraham Accord partners — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — in its participation in the accords and has yet to sign the deal, despite committing to the process.
French mayor cancels Oslo Accords commemoration due to security fears
The mayor of the French city of Lyon, Gregory Doucet, announced on Monday that his plans to hold a conference marking the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Agreements on February 1, which French-Palestinian human rights lawyer and former prisoner Salah Hamouri was set to attend, were officially canceled according to French media.

The conference was going to be titled: "Thirty years after the signing the Oslo Accords, a look at Palestine," according to French news magazine L'Express.

Hamouri, an east Jerusalem resident born to a Palestinian father and a French mother, is a lawyer and researcher who works for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, one of the six Palestinian NGOs declared by Israel to be terrorist organizations. He has also been accused of being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group.

The mayor's decision comes on the heels of recent tensions and violence between Israelis and Palestinians throughout Israel.

"The resurgence of violence in the Middle East makes me fear...conflict here. My priority is to ensure the safety of the inhabitants of the city," said Doucet on Monday morning, according to French daily paper Le Monde.

Salah Hamouri's history with the law
In 2005, Hamouri was arrested after being charged with plotting to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Shas spiritual leader who at the time was Israel’s chief Sephardi rabbi. He was released in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange with Hamas to free IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. Since then, he has been arrested multiple times for a variety of reasons.

On December 15, 2022, Israel deported Hamouri for committing security offenses, according to the Interior Ministry.

France’s Foreign Ministry denounced the deportation and said the French government had actively sought to defend his rights and has been in contact with Israeli authorities multiple times.
In now annual tradition, US urges Israel to keep friction in check ahead of Ramadan
For the second straight year, the Biden administration has circled the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as a potential accelerant for another eruption in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Senior US officials used their visits to Jerusalem over the last two weeks to urge Israel to take preemptive steps in the coming weeks in order to ensure that the sensitive period does not feature more bloodshed, two US and Israeli officials told The Times of Israel on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The holy month is slated to begin around March 22.

Talks on efforts to defuse tensions are still in their early stages and there were no specific requests made of Israel by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who visited last week, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in town this week, the Israeli official said.

However, the top Biden aides made clear that the issue is a matter of concern for the US and they asked their Israeli counterparts how they plan to address the matter.

The US official said that a particular emphasis was placed during Sullivan and Blinken’s meetings on them confirming that Israel will ensure adherence to the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, which sees an uptick in Palestinian visitors during Ramadan.


Far-right minister probes legality of US returning looted artifact to Palestinians
An ivory spoon dating back 2,700 years that was recently repatriated to the Palestinian Authority from the United States has sparked a dispute with Israel’s new hard-right government over the cultural heritage in the West Bank.

The clash brings into focus the political sensitivities surrounding archaeology in the Middle East, where Israelis and Palestinians each use ancient artifacts to support their claims over the land.

Israel’s heritage minister has ordered officials to examine the legality of the US government’s historic repatriation of the artifact to the Palestinians earlier this month, He has also said he intends to give the Israel Antiquities Authority, which his ministry oversees, full control over archaeological sites in the West Bank.

The artifact — a cosmetic spoon made of ivory and believed to have been plundered from a site in the West Bank — was seized in late 2021 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as part of a deal with the New York billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.

It was one of 180 artifacts illegally looted and purchased by Steinhardt that he surrendered as part of an agreement to avoid prosecution.
Shin Bet says it foiled election day bomb plot by 2 Arab men enlisted by Hamas
The Shin Bet security agency on Friday said it foiled an attempt by the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group to carry out a bombing attack on the day of Israel’s recent elections using two Arab Israeli men.

Several weeks ago Mohammed Amin Muslah, 24, and Mohammed Faid Mahmeed, 28, both residents of the northern village of Mu’awiya, were detained over their involvement in the plot.

According to the Shin Bet, Muslah was recruited by the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, to carry out a bombing against civilians when Israelis went to the polls on November 1.

Muslah then recruited his friend Mahmeed to carry out the attack, but at some point, the pair cut ties with Hamas over disagreements regarding the target, the agency said.

The Shin Bet said Hamas was adamant that they target civilians, but the two men wanted to attack soldiers.

Muslah and Mahmeed then allegedly worked to carry out a shooting attack against soldiers, including snatching soldiers’ guns to continue a deadly attack.

The pair conducted surveillance operations at several bus stops frequented by soldiers between the town of Binyamina-Giv’at Ada and Kafr Qara, practiced with a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, and sought to find a stolen car for the attack, according to the Shin Bet.
Suspect killed after attacking Israeli troops in attempt to steal weapons
A suspect who attempted to snatch an IDF soldier's weapon near the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus was killed on the spot by security forces, Israeli media reported on Friday afternoon.

As per the reports, the suspect lunged at a group of soldiers before attempting to steal the weapon of one of the troops, who opened fire.

The suspect was shot dead after he approached a nearby military post.

There were no injuries among the Israeli soldiers, according to reports.
Crisis in the PA: Can’t Pay Both Its Employees and Terrorists following Smotrich’s Customs Withholding
According to the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s Finance Ministry Abdel Rahman Bayatna, Israel deducted the “unprecedented amount” of NIS 276 million ($81 million) from the tax and customs it collected on the PA’s behalf, under the law offsetting the sums the PA pays out to terrorists behind bars in Israel and the families of dead terrorists from the collected money.

Bayatna told Sanad News that this month’s deduction was the result of “the doubling of the deduction on the funds that the authority pays the families of the martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners.” The spokesman stressed that “this is an illegal step that will lead to a situation in which the Palestinian Authority will not be able to pay its workers’ wages in full for more than a year.”

The PA payments to terrorists and their families are enshrined in the PA constitution, according to which the PA grants a salary or allowances to terrorists, security prisoners arrested and imprisoned in Israel over “Palestinian terrorist acts,” or monthly support to their families, in the event that the terrorist himself is killed.

In its March 2018 budget, out of the overall NIS 1.4 billion ($410 million), 7%, or $28.7 million is used to pay terrorist salaries.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the deduction, saying, “Yesterday, for the first time, I signed a double offset of the terrorist funds that the Palestinian Authority transfers to the families of terrorists. We cut the Palestinian Authority’s payment by NIS 100 million, instead of 50 million which was the case to date, plus another NIS 200,000 that will go as compensation to the families of victims of terrorism, according to a court ruling. The PA funds terrorists but the State of Israel says, No more. The citizens of Israel will not be part of this farce.”

In July 2018, Australia stopped the funding of $7.5 million (USD) it sent to the Palestinian Authority through the World Bank and instead it is sending it to the United Nations Fund for the Palestinian Territories. The official reason was Canberra’s reluctance to help the PA pay terrorists behind bars.

In November 2019, the Netherlands eliminated the annual $1.5 million it used to pay directly to the Palestinian Authority, saying it no longer wished to help pay the families of killed, wounded, or imprisoned terrorists.

PA media noted that this is the first time an Israeli finance minister signs a double deduction of NIS 100 million, and not NIS 50 million, as was customary until now. They also mentioned that on January 8, Smotrich announced the confiscation of NIS 139 million from the Palestinian Authority’s funds.


Hamas calls on Sudan to backtrack from Israeli peace deal
Palestinian terror organization Hamas released a statement on Friday afternoon condemning Sudan's normalization plans with Israel.

Hamas’ statement calls for the Sudanese government to “backtrack on this decision that contradicts the interests of the brotherly people of Sudan and would only serve the Israeli occupation’s agenda.”

The statement also accuses Israel of being a “fascist” state and committing “crimes against the Palestinian people." Hamas claimed in the statement that Israel has "killed 35 Palestinians since the start of 2023, including women and children, let alone colonial settlement expansion and desecration of Christian and Islamic holy places.”

Many of the Palestinians that have been killed in 2023 so far were gunmen and had initiated or planned attacks against Israelis.

The reference to the claimed Israeli "desecration" of Christian and Islamic holy places refers to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's publicized pilgrimage to the Temple Mount.


Is Hezbollah trying to provoke a confrontation with Israel?
According to the Alma Research Center on Israel’s northern border, a Hezbollah observation sight within 275 meters (902 feet) of residential housing in the Israeli border town of Metulla has been harassing civilians with laser pointers. This month, a new 18-meter (59-foot) Hezbollah observation tower was constructed over the Israeli border town of Shtula. The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that there are at least 20 observation posts operated 24 hours a day by Hezbollah members in civilian clothing. Some of these posts are just meters away from the internationally recognized border between the countries.

UNIFIL, as per usual, has been impotent in confronting Hezbollah, despite their mandate, fearing for their safety. Last month, Hezbollah killed an Irish member of UNIFIL, claiming it was an accident. It was more likely to warn the U.N. forces and the LAF that there would be consequences for challenging Iran’s presence on Israel’s northern border. Strategically and tactically, Israel considers its northern border as an Iranian border, not an Israeli-Lebanese border. With Hezbollah’s help, Iran is trying to reproduce this in southern Syria to encircle Israel.

So, is Hezbollah trying to provoke Israel? Is it planning a preemptive attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians?
Ask Iran. Hezbollah follows the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The next confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah is not a question of if, but when—especially with the production and transfer of precision-guided missiles, a red line for Israel. And there is always the chance that Israel will preemptively attack the Iranian nuclear facilities, with Iran responding by activating its Hezbollah missile network.

Last year, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said, “In the next war, Hezbollah’s array of launchers, missiles, and rockets will be activated at full force…The enemy has chosen to place its weapons, missiles, and rockets among urban areas exploiting the local population as human shields…The IDF will carry out intensive attacks on these missile-launching and weapons-storage sites…It is our duty to attack the tens and hundreds of rocket and missile launchers deployed in or near populated houses. Such an attack will prevent harm to Israeli citizens’ homes and thus prevent the loss of dozens of people’s lives.”

The Middle East isn’t stabilizing. It’s just between wars.


Netanyahu After Macron talks: France to Consider Sanctions on IRGC
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he had “one of the best meetings” with French President Emmanuel Macron, who expressed “willingness to consider the imposition of sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

According to Netanyahu, who arrived in Paris on Thursday night and held a three-hour meeting with Macron, there is a “very big rapprochement” between Israel and France “in the way we see the Iranian threat.”

“The conversation was very good. We talked about concrete things. He (Macron) expressed willingness to consider the imposition of sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” Netanyahu said.

“I must say that the concern is shared, the assessment of the nature of the regime is shared. It’s a rapprochement,” Netanyahu said, adding that just several years ago, he was “almost alone” in voicing concern about the danger of the Iranian regime “not only to Israel, not only to the [United States], but also to Europe.”
Satellite photos show damage at Iran military workshop allegedly struck by Israel
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press on Friday showed damage done to what Iran describes as a military workshop attacked by Israeli drones, the latest such assault amid a shadow war between the two countries.

While Iran has offered no explanation yet of what the workshop manufactured, the drone attack threatened to again raise tensions in the region. Already, worries have grown over Tehran enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, with a top United Nations nuclear official warning the Islamic Republic had enough fuel to build “several” atomic bombs if it chooses.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose earlier tenure as premier saw escalating attacks targeting Iran, has returned to office and reiterated that he views Tehran as his country’s top security threat.

With State Department spokesperson Ned Price now declaring Iran has “killed” the opportunity to return to its nuclear deal with world powers, it remains unclear what diplomacy immediately could ease tensions between Tehran and the West.

Cloudy weather had prevented satellite pictures of the site of the workshop since it came under attack by what Iran described as bomb-carrying quadcopters on the night of January 28. Quadcopters, which get their name from having four rotors, typically operate from short ranges by remote control.

Images taken Thursday by Planet Labs PBC showed the workshop in Isfahan, a central Iranian city some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran. An AP analysis of the image, compared to earlier images of the workshop, showed damage to the structure’s roof.
Nobel Laureate Ebadi Says Iran’s ‘Revolutionary Process’ is Irreversible
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman last year has sparked an irreversible “revolutionary process” that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s clerical rulers have faced widespread unrest since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police on Sept. 16 after she was arrested for wearing “inappropriate attire”.

Iran has blamed Amini’s death on preexisting medical problems and has accused the United States and other foes of fomenting the unrest to destabilize the clerical establishment.

As they have done in the past in the face of protests in the past four decades, Iran’s hardline rulers have cracked down hard. Authorities have handed down dozens of death sentences to people involved in protests and have carried out at least four hangings, in what rights activists say is aimed at intimidating people and keeping them off the streets.

A staunch critic of the clerical establishment that has ruled in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Ebadi has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the anti-government demonstrations.

Like many critics of Iran’s clerical rulers, Ebadi believes the current wave of protests has been the boldest challenge to the establishment’s legitimacy yet.

“This revolutionary process is like a train that will not stop until it reaches its final destination,” said Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work defending human rights and who has been in exile in London since 2009.
Images of Emaciated Iranian Prisoner on Hunger Strike Prompt Outrage
Social media images purported to be of an emaciated jailed Iranian physician who went on hunger strike in support of demonstrations against the compulsory wearing of the hijab have caused outrage and warnings that he risks death.

Farhad Meysami, 53, who has been in jail since 2018 for supporting women activists protesting against the headscarf policy, began his hunger strike on Oct. 7 to protest recent government killings of demonstrators, his lawyer said.

But the Iranian judiciary denied the hunger strike claim and said the photos that have gone viral on social media were from four years ago when Meysami did go on hunger strike.

As evidence, the semi-official student-led news agency Young Journalists Club posted what it said was Meysami’s latest photo, in which he does not look emaciated and is seen sitting on the floor of his prison cell with a bag of what looks like chips next to him.

Reuters was unable to confirm when the pictures were taken.

Iran has been rocked by nationwide unrest following the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody, posing one of the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.


Iran Media Target Azerbaijan’s President with Antisemitic Cartoons
Iranian media on Thursday responded to cooperation between Israeli and Azeri defense ministers by publishing antisemitic cartoons targeting Azerbaijan’s president.

Iranian newspaper Javan, owned by the son of Ayatollah Hossein Mazakheri from Iran’s central city of Isfahan, published on its front page a cartoon depicting Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as a stereotypical Jew with a huge hooked nose, with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing behind his back.

The cartoon illustrated in the article “Tel Aviv’s Trap for Baku” came as Iran’s reaction to a phone conversation between the defense ministers of Israel and Azerbaijan.

The article claimed that “the incident with the attack on the embassy in Tehran” was blown out of proportion, “presenting a crime motivated by personal issues as a Holocaust-scale event, despite all the actions of the Iranian authorities to investigate the incident.”

It also referred to a shooting attack at the Azeri embassy in Tehran last month that prompted Baku to suspend its diplomatic mission work there. The incident was followed by a series of arrests this week in connection to the alleged Iranian “espionage network.”

“At the same time, dozens of people were arrested in Baku on false accusations of spying for Iran, while the country is flooded with Israeli spies pretending to be Jewish businessmen, but no one in Azerbaijan touches them,” the article claimed.
Republicans Go After Biden Sanction Waivers That Allow Iran and Russia To Build Nuclear Infrastructure
The Biden administration's ability to waive sanctions on Iran and permit a Russian energy company to make billions helping the Islamic Republic develop its nuclear program could be coming to an end.

Senate Republicans think they may have the votes to pass legislation that would make it virtually impossible for the Biden administration to keep renewing these sanctions waivers, congressional sources told the Washington Free Beacon. The bill, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), is being circulated among Senate colleagues and is expected to draw widespread Republican support. Though a previous version of the legislation failed to pass the legislative body last Congress, the latest version of the bill could attract bipartisan support due to a growing appetite in Congress to penalize Russia for its use of Iranian-made weapons in Ukraine.

"There is absolutely no reason to continue issuing these waivers, which allow Iran and Russia to cooperate on building up Iran's nuclear program," Cruz told the Free Beacon. "These waivers were nevertheless renewed in August, because the Biden administration remains obsessed with reentering a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime."

Iran's alliance with Russia is shaping up to be a fight between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration, which has consistently renewed a series of sanctions waivers that permit Russian work at Iranian nuclear sites, including those suspected of housing the regime's illicit nuclear weapons program. The sanctions waivers—which were last renewed in August—have been a source of consternation on Capitol Hill among Republicans who want to crack down on Tehran's growing alliance with Moscow.
Singer From Pop Band Hanson Invites 16,000 Voices to Record New Version of Iranian Protest Anthem ‘Baraye’
American singer Taylor Hanson, from the multi-platinum pop band Hanson, is co-organizing a project that aims to get 16,000 voices to record a new arrangement of a song in support of the mass anti-government protests in Iran that started following the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

The “MMMBop” singer and the new non-profit called For Women, Life, Freedom have invited the general public as well as leading musicians and others in the music industry to participate in a new recording of Baraye by Iranian artist Shervin Hajipour.

The initiative is being called The Voices Project and participants are being asked to help sing, online or in-person, an English translation of the final refrain of Hajipour’s song — “For women, life, freedom.” Voice submissions can be made online and the in-person recording session will take place on Feb. 4 at the iconic Henson Studios in Los Angeles, where leading artists gathered 38 years ago to record We Are the World. The new song will be called Baraye – For Women, Life, Freedom and it will be the largest single studio recording of voices in history, according to The Voices Project.

The new arrangement of Baraye is being produced by Hanson; Iranian-American musician Hamid Saeidi of the Grammy-winning group Opium Moon; Grammy-winning producer and engineer Jim Scott; and producer and musician David Garza with assistance from CJ Eiriksson. Variety reported that The Voices Project hopes to release Baraye – For Women, Life, Freedom on Feb. 10, the day before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The goal of the project is to bring awareness and unified support to those in Iran who are protesting Amini’s death on September 16 while she was in the custody of Iran’s morality police, who arrested the 22-year-old for not properly wearing a headscarf. Amini’s family claim she was beaten to death by police, though authorities deny all wrongdoing. So far thousands have been arrested — some executed and others given long prison sentences — for participating in the protests. Hajipour was also arrested after his song turned into an anthem for protesters in Iran.

“Since September, over 16,000 people have been arrested for protesting peacefully in the street. We will be their voice,” it says on the sign-up page for The Voice Project.
Are there still Jews in Iran? Not many - opinion
On January 13, The Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s most widely read daily newspapers, published an article by the travel essayist and novelist Pico Iyer, about a recent trip that he took to Iran. Iyer emphasized the ambiguities (false surfaces) and mixed messages that he encountered, including being told repeatedly that Iran is home to the largest Jewish population in the Middle East, outside of Israel.

To verify whether this is true, I consulted data provided by the Israeli demographer Sergio DellaPergola (World Jewish Population 2014, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). It turns out that there are about 8,300 Jews in Iran today, out of a population of more than 81 million. The Jewish population used to be much larger, but today the vast majority of Jews with Iranian ancestry, about a quarter of a million, live in Israel, with another 60,000 in the United States.

What Iyer was told is not quite right. The largest number of Jews in the Middle East, outside of Israel, live in Turkey (14,800 out of a population of more than 81 million). There are about 2,000 Jews in Morocco, the remnant of what was once an old and much larger population, and perhaps 1,000 in Tunisia. That’s it. The rest of the countries in the Middle East contain very few if any Jews.

The Middle East used to have a lot more Jews outside of Israel
But it wasn’t always so. Not that long ago, the Middle East, outside the British Mandate of Palestine, included almost a million Jews. On May 16, 1948, two days after the Declaration of Independence of Israel, The New York Times published a major article by Mallory Browne that carried the headline, “Jews In Grave Danger In All Moslem Lands: Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia Face Wrath of Their Foes.”

Mallory Browne’s warning was a prescient one. Over the next number of years, almost all of the Jews in North African and Asian Muslim countries were brutally uprooted, often leaving behind all their assets, as well as memories and traditions going back, in some cases, millennia. Most of them ended up in Israel. Today, they and their descendants make up more than one-half of the more than seven million Jews in the country.




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