Friday, April 21, 2023

04/21 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Israel’s protests are now crossing sacred red lines; Italian lawmaker calls for dismissal of UN envoy accused of antisemitism

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The ruling class must regain its senses
President Joe Biden has shown through his policies and statements on Iran, the Palestinians, Jerusalem, progressive anti-Semitism and a host of other issues of strategic importance to Israel that his Middle East policies are predicated on ideological positions that are hostile to Israel’s core national and strategic interests. Under normal circumstances, Biden’s hostile posture would place him in an uncomfortable position vis-à-vis the overwhelming majority of American Jews who are pro-Israel.

But with the likes of Lapid, Barak, Olmert, Ya’alon and their many partners demonizing the government and calling for American Jews, Democrat and Republican lawmakers and the Biden administration to boycott the government, Biden’s effective declaration of Netanyahu persona non grata last month went over with barely a word of protest among American Jewish leaders. He was applauded by Israeli leaders.

In this week’s “Caroline Glick Show,” Tony Badran from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies explained that Iran’s decision to escalate its aggression against Israel in recent weeks is predicated in part on Biden’s declared shunning of Netanyahu. Biden’s statement was interpreted by Iran as an invitation to attack Israel at will.

Likewise, in recent weeks, the Iranian regime-controlled media have given banner headlines to statements by retired IDF commanders like Barak and Ya’alon and politicians like Lapid declaring that Israel is doomed. And rather than join Netanyahu when he warns Iran not to believe the propaganda, Lapid, Barak, Ya’alon and their elitist comrades blame Netanyahu for failing to protect the country from the forces their insurrection has emboldened.

This week, the son of the former Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi made a historic visit to Israel. He participated in the official Yom Hashoah ceremony at Yad Vashem. He visited the Western Wall. He went to a desalination plant and spoke of the assistance Israel can offer a post-ayatollah Iran that will seek to repair the environmental devastation the regime has inflicted on the land.

Rather than praise Netanyahu and Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel who hosted Pahlavi, leftist commentators attacked them and Pahlavi. Former ambassador Daniel (“Danny”) Shek panned Pahlavi and Netanyahu for hosting him. In an interview on i24 News, Shek said the son of the former monarch “is not a force to be reckoned with” and that “Israel has nothing to gain from him.” Parroting Iranian regime propaganda, Shek insisted that no one in Iran supports Pahlavi.

Maariv columnist Yossi Melman attacked the government even more forcefully calling it “stupid” for hosting Pahlavi and inviting him to attend the Yad Vashem ceremony. Parroting the pro-Iran anti-Israel lobby in Washington, Melman wrote, “It’s counter-productive to topple the terrible regime.”

Why? Because.

Other members in good standing of the Clinton’s “pro-peace” Ashkenazi, sabra, Likud-bashing club joined the chorus of elitists standing with the Iranian regime and pillorying Netanyahu for hosting Pahlavi and Pahlavi for not hating Israel and Netanyahu.

With our ruling class in full revolt, Israel’s most important institutions—first and foremost, the IDF—are reeling. Our ability to defend ourselves on the battlefield and in diplomatic circles is constrained as never before. With our elites declaring our government illegitimate, and lobbying American Jews and politicians to boycott our leaders and reject the morality of the public that voted them into office, the government must fight against our enemies, against anti-Semitism, against BDS campaigns and anti-Israel propaganda machines with both hands tied behind its back, its mouth gagged while hopping on one foot. This situation is unsustainable.

As we approach Remembrance Day for Fallen IDF Soldiers and our 75th Independence Day next week, we must find a way to restore sanity and a sense of common destiny to our national life. We don’t have a spare country. Our ruling class needs to return to its senses and remember this obvious fact.
Melanie Phillips: Israel’s protests are now crossing sacred red lines
Israel’s three-month-old protest movement, which has repeatedly brought tens of thousands into the streets, is now crossing an increasing number of red lines.

There are serious anxieties that protests will disrupt next week’s Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Independence Day ceremonies.

At a Holocaust Remembrance Day synagogue service this week, anti-government participants forced Likud MK Boaz Bismuth to leave after they shouted at him to get out and started to become physically violent.

The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, announced that because the government had “divided society,” he would boycott the traditional torch-lighting ceremony that ends Memorial Day and opens Independence Day.

It was hitherto unthinkable that Israelis could desecrate those three sacred days. It was similarly unthinkable for soldiers of the IDF to refuse to serve their country, as did a group of elite Air Force pilots in protest against the government.

Even the memory of the Shoah is being traduced. On an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to New York on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the pilot announced, “Things like [the] Holocaust are potentially carried [out] in a dictatorship, and we are fighting in Israel to remain a democratic country.”

On the same day, in another obscene equivalence, a ceremony at the Mateh Asher Regional Council displayed pictures from the Holocaust alongside photographs from the protests.

It should be apparent to rational observers that this has gone way beyond the issue of judicial reform. That particular agenda is now all but dead in the water. The government has retreated. Yet the protests are not only continuing but are becoming increasingly disturbing.

This is because judicial reform is a flashpoint for profound divisions that have previously escaped attention but have now erupted.


Italian lawmaker calls for dismissal of UN envoy accused of antisemitism
Italian Senator Giulio Terzi sent a letter to Italian Foreign and International Cooperation Minister Antonio Tajani on Tuesday, calling to consider the future of UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese after she expressed divisive views related to her work.

His letter was sent after two NGOs approached Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr. Volker Türk regarding their "utter dismay and outrage at the abhorrent statements made by Ms. Francesca Albanese... in the wake of the wave of terror perpetrated against civilians in Israel this past week, and call for her immediate dismissal."

The two groups are the International Legal Forum, a global network of over 4,000 lawyers and activists, committed to combating antisemitism, advancing human rights and promoting peace in the Middle East and the Solomon-Observatory on Discrimination, an Italian-based NGO combating antisemitism. In addition, Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli sent a harsh letter to the same UN officials, calling them to dismiss Albanese, because of recent comments made by Albanese on Twitter, in which she claimed that Israel can't claim its right to defend itself against "the people it oppresses/whose lands it colonizes."

Following the terrorist murder of an Italian tourist, Alessandro Parini (35), and British-Israeli sisters Rena (20) and Maya (15) Dee, Albanese explicitly said that "Israel does not have a right to self-defense against Palestinian terror, thereby directly endorsing the murder of Israeli civilians, including children," the two NGO's said.

Terzi calls for Albanese's dismissal
In Terzi's letter he said that, "given that the spokesmen of the International Legal Forum and of the Solomon Observatory on Discrimination, which fights antisemitism, have sent to the secretary UN General and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights an open letter to express 'the total consternation and indignation for the serious statements made by Mrs. Francesca Albanese,' and other statements made by her, he called to abide the

"United Nations code of conduct," since "the activities carried out by the special rapporteurs must follow criteria of 'impartiality and objectivity.'" Terzi added that the positions expressed by the special rapporteur would appear to run the risk of contradicting the principles of impartial and rigorous application of international law for all Member States of the United Nations and of the principles concerning human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law."


Israel to provide Ukraine with missile warning system - but no Iron Dome
Israel will begin testing its civilian alert system that warns of incoming missiles in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv next month.

The system delivers a red alert warning to residents in areas targeted by missiles and will be tested in Ukraine by Israel’s Home Front Command, Israeli news outlet Walla reported.

The system will be connected to Ukraine’s radar monitoring, enabling faster and more accurate alerts to be delivered to mobile phone users, as well as activating air raid sirens only in affected areas.

Then-defence minister Benny Gantz first announced last year that Israel could supply the early warning system, an offer reiterated by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen following his visit to Ukraine in February.

In the intervening period, Israeli and Ukrainian military officials have reportedly met several times in Poland to discuss deployment and adapting the system to a country that is far bigger than Israel and being targeted by more advanced missiles.

The system set for use in Ukraine will feature alerts without interception capabilities, unlike the Iron Dome system in Israel.

Ukraine has previously urged Israel to supply it with the Iron Dome system, but Jerusalem has so far refused, as Israeli leaders seek to avoid overtly antagonising Russia.

This is likely due to Israel’s strategic need to maintain freedom of operations over Syria, where Russian forces largely control the airspace.

The missile alert system will first be deployed in Kyiv, then expand to other Ukrainian cities if deemed a success, with the aim of making it operational over the summer.
‘Incredibly Disturbing’: ADL Calls on Israel to Reconsider New York Consul General Nomination
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in a statement to The Algemeiner called for the Israeli government to reconsider the nomination of Likud MK and minister-without-portfolio May Golan as Israel’s Consul General in New York over past comments she has made about asylum seekers and her description of herself as a “proud racist.”

“Minister May Golan’s racist comments about African asylum seekers in Israel and others are incredibly disturbing and raise deep concerns about her fitness to serve as a diplomat in any locale, let alone in a city as diverse and vibrant as New York,” the ADL said in a written statement. “We hope the Israeli government will reconsider her potential nomination.”

The US State Department on Thursday also condemned comments made by Golan, who has also previously said that she does not eat at restaurants with African asylum seekers for fear of catching AIDS.

“We would condemn such kind of rhetoric and believe that such kind of language is also particularly damaging when it’s amplified in leadership positions,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told The Algemeiner at a press briefing.

Patel said the State Department would not comment on her credentialing as Israel’s Consul General in New York.

Golan in a statement on Twitter Thursday confirmed that she was being considered for the Consul Generalship and said she would represent mainstream views and work with the leaders of all US Jewish organizations.
Hakeem Jeffries Won't Condemn Uncle's Anti-Semitic Comments
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) in comments to reporters on Thursday did not denounce anti-Semitic remarks made by his uncle, whom he defended in a newly unearthed college op-ed, merely saying he does not "share any of the controversial views."

"I think I’ve made clear consistently that I do not share any of the controversial views that were expressed by my uncle more than three decades ago," Jeffries said during a Thursday press conference.

Jeffries came under fire last month when CNN surfaced a 1992 opinion piece he wrote as a college activist in which he defended his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, against criticism of his anti-Semitic comments. His uncle had claimed that "rich Jews" were responsible for the slave trade and alleged the existence of "a conspiracy, planned and plotted" by Jewish businessmen in Hollywood to portray black people poorly.

The op-ed contradicts Jeffries's claims over the years that he had only a "vague recollection" of the controversies surrounding his uncle and hadn't looked at the anti-Semitic speeches he made.

In the 1992 op-ed, Jeffries further defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, an infamous anti-Semite who defended Adolf Hitler and assailed the "stranglehold that Jews have on this government."

"Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire," Jeffries wrote in 1992. "Where do you think their interests lie?" He claimed his uncle "has challenged the existing white supremist [sic] educational system and long standing distortion of history."

"His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations," Jeffries added.
The Israel Guys: America Is No Longer The Greatest Superpower In The World | Here’s Why
Wake up… I’m not sure if anyone has told you yet or not but America is no longer the standalone world superpower! China, Russia and Iran have created a strong axis that now replaces the global void created by American weakness.

Now, the big question? What does Israel do now! It relied on the great American superpower… Now what?


JPost Editorial: Israel must keep the IDF as the People's Army
In an address at Latrun yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi strongly endorsed the People’s Army model. He is clearly on target.

“For 75 years, the People’s Army model has proven beyond any doubt that there is not and there must not be any substitute,” Halevi said. “It is the secret of the IDF’s strength, the secret of the nation’s strength.”

Halevi made the comment at the launch of a project called “Walking the Paths of the IDF,” in which soldiers will take part in a legacy march following significant routes in the IDF’s history.

What is the IDF's People's Army model and what is threatening it?
The People’s Army model is based on the idea of Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, that the IDF should reflect all segments of the country’s population. Ben-Gurion believed that the army should be a melting pot that would create social cohesion among Israelis from diverse backgrounds and build up a national identity.

Because the regular army is relatively small, according to this model, it draws on reservists from the entire population. One of the primary aims of the People’s Army model was for the military to be apolitical, in order to serve as a powerful force that functions above politics.

This is particularly relevant in light of the government’s controversial new draft bill that would lower the exemption rate for haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men from 26 to between 21 and 23. Under the proposal, yeshiva students would be exempt from military service to join the workforce at a younger age. Currently, many choose to continue their religious studies until the age of 26 in order to avoid service.
59 soldiers added to list of Israel’s fallen since last Memorial Day
Fifty-nine soldiers were killed during their military service since Israel’s last Memorial Day, according to figures released by the Defense Ministry on Friday.

Another 86 disabled veterans died due to complications from injuries sustained during their service.

The numbers brought the total to 24,213 of those who have died during service to the country since 1860.

The annual figures include all soldiers and police who died in the past year, whether in the line of duty, or as a result of an accident, illness, or suicide.

Thirty-one names were also added to the list of terror victims who perished in attacks in the past year. Another two disabled victims died due to complications from serious injuries they sustained in attacks, bringing the total to 4,255 since 1851, according to Israel’s National Insurance Institute.

Israel’s Memorial Day will commence next Monday evening when a one-minute siren will blare across the country. On Tuesday morning, a two-minute siren will sound ahead of national memorial ceremonies at Israel’s 52 military cemeteries.

Memorial Day is one of Israel’s few national, non-religious holidays, during which large swaths of the Israeli public typically visit the graves of loved ones and comrades.
Gallant warns Israel's enemies preparing combined attack on several fronts
Col. (Res.) Grisha Yakubovich breaks down the regional threats Israeli faces and why the defense minister thinks a conflict on multiple fronts is just over the horizon.


Attorney general bucks Gallant bid to bar Palestinians from joint Memorial Day event
In a non-binding opinion, the Attorney General’s Office on Friday rejected a decision by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to bar bereaved Palestinians from attending an annual joint Memorial Day ceremony in Israel next week.

The High Court is slated to issue a ruling on the matter in the coming days.

Gallant last week announced that due to the “complex security situation in the West Bank,” the Defense Ministry would not be granting permits for some 180 Palestinians who have lost loved ones as a result of the conflict to attend the ceremony.

But Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s office said in an opinion published Friday that it backed a petition by organizers of the Combatants for Peace event to compell Gallant to reverse the decision.

Baharav-Miara’s office noted that the top court has already ruled twice in recent years against efforts to indiscriminately ban all Palestinians from attending the ceremony. It wrote that the Defense Ministry had not met its requirement to present evidence justifying the “deviation from the outline laid out in previous rulings.”

As in previous years, permit requests should be judged on an individual basis, Baharav-Miara’s office wrote.

The annual ceremony, which has grown in prominence in recent years, is hailed by many as a rare chance for both Israelis and Palestinians who have lost loved ones to reflect on the human toll of their ongoing conflict and give meaning to tragedy by turning away from violence.

But the ceremony has also been deeply controversial since its inception, particularly among the Israeli public, with critics accusing it of legitimizing terrorism and equating Israel’s fallen soldiers to those who attacked them on a day widely regarded as sacrosanct.
Cabinet approves $440 million plan to bolster Sderot’s ‘resilience, security’
The Israeli Cabinet approved on Thursday the allocation of 1.6 billion shekels ($440 million) to strengthen the southern city of Sderot, adjacent to the Gaza Strip ruled by the Hamas terror group.

During a rare Cabinet meeting convened outside of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted his previous governments’ accomplishments in developing the city and its surroundings, and vowed to do more to support communities constantly targeted by Palestinian rocket fire.

“First of all, we have developed transportation. We opened a train station in Sderot and have linked the area around the Gaza Strip to the center of the country, and the center of the country to the area around the Gaza Strip. We extended the railway line to Beersheva, and we improved it,” he said.

Netanyahu continued, noting that “we enacted a roof plan here, created thousands of residential units, doubled the industrial zones, assisted residents economically, developed the highways and did many other good things.”

“On security, we have been active constantly. … There was [Operation] ‘Protective Edge’ [in 2014], which for the first time struck a significant blow to the tunnels that physically and psychologically threatened the residents in the area around the Gaza Strip. In 2021, there was ‘Operation Guardians of the Wall,’ which in effect neutralized the tunnel weapon and struck a very significant mortal blow to Hamas’s other capabilities,” said Netanyahu.

“Today, we will continue this effort with an additional 1.6 billion [shekels, or nearly $440 million]. This plan includes developing and upgrading public spaces, boosting education and young people, strengthening the local economy, increasing the council’s readiness for emergencies and other items,” he added.
$960 million earmarked to improve transportation in Judea and Samaria
Israel’s Ministry of Transport and Road Safety announced this week that it has submitted an unprecedented 50 billion shekel (around $13.7 billion) budget proposal to the Ministry of Finance for the development and improvement of transportation over the next five years.

Twenty billion shekels (about $5.5 billion) of that funding is included in the proposed 2023-24 state budget.

The plan puts a special emphasis on improving infrastructure and road safety in communities within Israel’s geographic periphery, while also focusing on enhancing the transportation routes between the North and South with the center of the country, which houses the majority of the population and its main business centers.

At the same time, a document released by the Finance Ministry (signed by representatives of both ministries) and obtained by JNS details specific projects totaling more than 3.5 billion shekels (some $960 million) earmarked to improve transportation in Judea and Samaria.

The work in the area beyond the Green Line aims to enhance security in the face of constant terrorist threats, improve road safety and thus reduce traffic accidents—all too frequent on these routes—and alleviate the traffic jams.

The most significant allocations include a 2 billion shekel ($547 million) project to significantly widen Route 60, the main north-south highway traversing Judea and Samaria, in both the Binyamin and Gush Etzion regions. Motorists in those areas, especially near Jerusalem, have been plagued with snarling traffic in recent years when trying to enter the capital city.


Jewbotinsky: Never Asked Kuwait What Happened in 1991

Pledged Israeli measures to boost cash-strapped PA back on track after delay
A series of small Israeli measures aimed at financially boosting the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority are now in place after over a month-long delay, a senior National Security Council official told The Times of Israel on Thursday.

The top official said that Israeli authorities this week granted final approval to lower the handling fee Jerusalem charges Ramallah for fuel transfers from three percent to 1.5%; raise the percentage of revenues it transfers to Ramallah from the fees it collects from travelers at the Allenby border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan; and expand the list of tax-free imports that it facilitates on the PA’s behalf.

The first two measures will be applied for the month of April, the senior NSC official said, adding that the list of tax-free imports will be updated at the next meeting of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Economic Committee (JEC). Updating the list will enable the Palestinian private sector to import specific goods up to a predetermined rate at either an exempt or favorable customs rate.

The JEC is mandated under the Oslo Accords as the authoritative body for adjudicating financial disputes and promoting joint economic initiatives. However, it has not met since 2009 amid long-deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian ties. The Biden administration announced last July that Israel had agreed to reconvene the panel, though no date has been set for the meeting.

The three measures were requested by the PA for years and are now finally being enacted against the backdrop of sustained pressure from the Biden administration along with a pair of Israeli-Palestinian regional summits held in Aqaba, Jordan and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which aimed to lower tensions between Jerusalem and Ramallah.


"Iran Improves Ties with Jordan, Completing Stranglehold of Israel"
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Safadi, on Thursday spoke on the phone with Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and the two senior officials discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, Petra, Jordan’s state news agency, reported on Thursday.

The two ministers agreed to continue holding security meetings to continue the political communication between their two countries, to reach understandings that establish future relations, consolidate cooperation, and contribute to enhancing security, stability, and cooperation in the region.

This, folks, is very bad news. Israel’s border with Jordan is the longest, 192 miles, starting at the Gulf of Eilat, passing through the Arabah desert, the Dead Sea region, the Jordan Valley, and the Beit Shan Valley, concluding at Hamat Gader in the southeastern Golan Heights, the border triangle of Israel, Jordan, and Syria. Should Iran be able to encroach into Jordan and spread its militias along this very long border, as it has done in Lebanon and Syria, this would easily double the security burden on Israel.

Thursday was a busy day for Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian. As Arab News reported, he held another important phone call, this time with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The two discussed the next phase in their renewed relations through a deal that was brokered by China. Between March 4 and 6, both ministers were the guests of China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing and became friends. Iran promised to end the constant Huthi attacks on the Saudis, and the Saudis promised to stop raiding Yemen in search of those Huthis.

This is what the Middle East looks like when the man in the White House stops caring. Iran’s stellar diplomatic victory in Saudi Arabia was bad enough, but the fact that it came after President Biden had visited the kingdom personally to beg the Saudi heir apparent MBS (Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud) to increase oil production to help the US fight its runaway inflation––and was refused (even ridiculed on Saudi TV), that made the Iranians practically glow.

But wait, there’s so much more: after re-establishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s foreign ministry said in mid-March that Tehran wants to improve relations with Egypt, too. Egypt is the only Arab country without an embassy in Iran. Their relationship went downhill following the 1979 Camp David Accords when Egypt recognized Israel. Later, Egypt supported Iraq in its eight-year war with Iran. And there was that time when Iran praised Khalid Islambouli, the man who assassinated President Anwar Sadat.




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