Wednesday, May 24, 2023

05/24 Links Pt1: Palestinian Leader Abbas Is No Partner for Peace With Israel; We're witnessing the birth of a new Middle East; Shin Bet foiled bus bombing by Hamas

From Ian:

Jason Greenblatt (not the ADL one): Palestinian Leader Abbas Is No Partner for Peace With Israel
In 1973 Israel's former Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban, referring to the Palestinians, said they "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." When I served in the White House 44 years later this was a go-to quote about the Palestinians that I often heard in Washington, European capitals, and throughout the Middle East, including from Palestinians themselves.

This famous quote needs some updating. My suggestion is to add that today's Palestinian leadership also never misses an opportunity to defame the Jewish people or lie or pervert the history of Jews in a land that is holy and of monumental significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Last week marked the 75th Anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel. Abbas commemorated this 75th anniversary not with words of possible conciliation between Israel and the Palestinians or the hope for peace and a better life for Palestinians who deserve so much more than they have today. Instead, he traveled to the United Nations to attend the ignominious, first-ever Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of what Palestinians call "the Nakba" at UN Headquarters.

In his remarks, Abbas slandered Israel and invoked Joseph Goebbels, the master propagandist for the Nazis by saying Israelis and Zionists "continue to lie, like Goebbels." Abbas mourned the creation of the State of Israel as a "catastrophe" of history, and castigated the United States and Great Britain, countries that have given billions upon billions of their taxpayer's dollars and pounds sterling to help the Palestinians. He accused the United States and Great Britain of expelling their respective Jewish populations and planting, for their own colonialist purposes, a "foreign entity" in what he pretends was then an Arab State of Palestine. His speech was a cornucopia of hatred, lies and slander.

The denial of the two Jewish temples on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a fixture of Palestinian propaganda and a fundamental building block of the Palestinian campaign to whitewash Jewish history in Jerusalem and Jewish claims to its historical holy places, was on prominent display at Camp David in 2000, when Abbas' predecessor, Yasser Arafat, denied such historical facts to President Bill Clinton. Clinton, a bible-believing Christian, responded forcefully that "not only the Jews but I, too, believe that under the surface there are remains of Solomon's temple." That did not stop Abbas from his Temple denial claims at the United Nations. Such historical revisionism should be condemned by today's world leaders. Instead, Abbas' speech received significant applause from those who attended it. So much for the United Nations seeking to maintain international peace and security and developing friendly relations among nations.


Hypocrisy much? @eu_eeas @EUinIsrael @ExtSpoxEU https://t.co/mXhTzzJIU1 pic.twitter.com/7vuHXe9Pem

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 24, 2023


Abbas invokes the Canaanite canard in UN speech - a Dystopian Fiction
It is important to note that Arabs claim descent from Ishmael. As recorded in the Bible [30], on his father’s side, Ishmael was a child of Abraham. On his mother’s side, he was a child of Hagar, a descendant of Mitzraim, one of the other sons of Ham; and not Canaan.

Thus, being an Arab negates being a Canaanite and vice versa. It must be difficult for those inventing a false narrative and people out of whole cloth, in furtherance of a wholly political agenda, to keep track of their absurd meanderings, uttered with such enthusiasm and unfounded certainty. Even the PLO Charter and Hamas Covenant proudly proclaim that the so-called Palestinian people are a part of the Arab nation.

It also clearly identifies Philistines as being a distinct people from the reviled Canaanites. It should also be noted that Canaanites are not explicitly mentioned in the Quran or the New Testament and the Quran does not refer to Palestinians.

It is interesting to note that that the Talmud [31]records a legal action was brought, approximately 2,350 years ago, by descendants of the Canaanites [32], who as noted above were ancient occupiers of the Land of Israel. The Judge was no less a personage than Alexander the Great.

At the trial, Geviyah, representing the Jewish people, examined the plaintiffs and asked what proof they had to support their claim to title to Israel. They testified the Bible [33] was their proof of record title. Well, Geviyah handily countered that assertion. He cited the very same Bible [34] to defeat the Canaanites’ claim. As noted above, the Bible reports title to the Land of Israel was vested in the Children of Israel as an inheritance. The Canaanites had no legitimate claim to title to the Land. Moreover, the Canaanites had compounded their illegal occupation of the Land by sinning mightily and G-d assured the Jewish people the Canaanites would be dislodged [35]. Alexander the Great ruled in favor of the Jewish people.


We're witnessing the birth of a new Middle East - analysis
President Zelensky is also in Jeddah. The presence of a staunch Russian adversary and symbol of democracy in the Kingdom for the Arab League summit at the same time as Bashar al-Assad illustrates the other side of a new Middle East. While initiatives led by US allies focused in the past on maintaining the US security order, this Arab League summit brings together a region that can no longer be easily divided into well-marked camps policed by superpower patrons. The most notable feature of this new landscape is a competition for influence, power and resources that is open to all players.

While open competition is not in itself a bad thing, the prospect of a regional free-for-all carries considerable risks – both to American interests and to regional stability. Without clear alliances and rules, the threat of armed conflict can only increase. Lack of US strategy leaves power vacuum

Meanwhile, the United States lacks a coherent strategy to manage its own remaining, quite large interests in the region. Even if the long-term American goal is simply to erase the region from the maps of US military and economic planners, departing in a haphazard and piecemeal way is a recipe for increasing chaos that will negatively impact American interests while damaging the region in ways with likely global effects, and not simply local.

Beijing has capitalized on the power vacuum left by the United States, most recently by brokering an agreement in Beijing between Riyadh and Tehran. The enmity between those two capitals is based mostly on Iran’s perception of Saudi Arabia being an agent of the American order in the Middle East.

Absent that order, why should there be enmity? While the Iranians have reneged on agreements many times in the past, Chinese guarantees introduced a new level of confidence for the Saudis. At the same time, the Chinese clearly lack the American ability to back up their commitments with force.

Saudi Arabia’s reestablishment of diplomatic ties with Syria does not mean the Kingdom condones the crimes committed in that country, any more than it is now aligning itself with either Teheran or with Beijing. Instead, Saudi Arabia realizes that absent a coherent US-backed security architecture in the region, senselessly making pariahs of regional actors – whoever they are – makes little strategic sense.

US allies are not pivoting away from America. Instead, they are pursuing their own national interests. Nothing illustrates the new realities of the Middle East better than the Saudi Kingdom hosting both Vladimir Zelensky and Bashar al-Assad in the same room in Jeddah. Both the opportunities and the dangers of a region that is being left to manage its own problems and rivalries, without superpower guarantees and guidance, could not be more clear.
Saudi Arabia Has Mostly Removed Antisemitic Tropes From School Textbooks, New Report Says
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has removed “practically all antisemitism,” from K-12 textbooks, marking a significant step forward in the Kingdom’s approach to Judaism and, to a lesser extent, Israel, according to a new report by Israeli education watchdog Impact-se.

In Jan. 2016, Mohammed bin Salman, who was then Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, announced the “Vision 2030,” which included expansive education reform policies, according to documents from the Saudi government.

In “Updated Review: Saudi Textbooks 2022-2023,” Impact-se discussed Vision 2030’s role in prompting reforms of the Saudi Arabian education system, but noted that changes began as far back as as 2001. After the announcement of Vision 2030, educations reform swayed “back-and-forth” like a “pendulum,” Impact-se explained. But since their last review of the Saudi curricula “highly inflammatory hadiths and texts” describing Muslims and Jews as interminably in conflict have been removed from textbooks issued to K-12 students. So too are condemnations of gays, infidels, and Christians, reflecting “a reasonably consistent step-by-step progress an improvement.”

In one example cited by the report, texts accusing Jews of being apostates and charging that they “sold their souls” were removed from a high school textbook titled Islamic Studies — Tawhid. Additionally, the title of a passage in a social studies textbook was changed from “The Attempt to Create the Zionist Entity” to “British Mandate in Palestine,” demonstrating a shift in how the years leading up to the establishment of Israel as the world’s first Jewish state is presented to students. Absent as well are accusations of Israel being involved in a 1969 arson incident at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

However, Impact-se noted, Zionism is still described as a “Jewish racist political movement” that “aims to expel the Palestinian people and establish a Jewish state by force,” but overall, extremist ideologies are denounced, tolerance is promoted, and women, whose participation in the Saudi workforce is positively expounded, are no longer taught to conform to gender stereotypes.
Emily Schrader: 'Europe much more skeptical than in the past' about Iran, Germany envoy says
Anti-Israel groups in Germany have expressed frustration over a German court that upheld a recent ban on anti-Israel demonstrations in Berlin due to their antisemitic and pro-violent messaging. The impetus for the ban? Repeated chants to destroy the state of Israel at previous demonstrations.

In fact, the Berlin Police denied permits multiple times for anti-Israel events in the past month, due to "antisemitic incitement of the people, glorification of violence, the conveyance of a willingness to use violence and thus to intimidation and violence.”

While the United States, the UK and many other Western democracies are falling short when faced with similar challenges, Germany is one of the only countries to take a bold stance against rallies that clearly call for violence against Jews, thanks to the tremendous efforts of Israel's Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor and his team.

“When they shout, ‘Kill the Jews’ that's incitement … but you can say ‘the nation-state of the Jewish people,’ that's [considered] fine. Yet if the same person would shout that about Ukraine, he would be thrown out of a five-story building here,” said Prosor.

“We as an embassy really pushed in all the relevant places here in Berlin on the political level, to make sure that – and, by the way, with success – they won't be able to demonstrate again and shout those things,” he told Ynetnews.

Prosor’s work with the German government has helped lawmakers there in understanding, identifying, and dealing with all forms of antisemitism in Germany today, but there is no shortage of challenges.

Antisemitism in Germany in 2023
“Germany really scrutinized its past in a very aggressive way, and basically did that on all levels of society,” according to Prosor. However, “where there's a problem that is not dealt with in a serious manner… is antisemitism on the left.”

“Right-wing extremist antisemitism is quite clear: they say we're against Jews, we're against blacks, we're against LGBTQ,” and the German government is working hard to fight this hatred. They establish delegates or envoys for antisemitism in every federal state. Out of 16 federal states, they [all] have someone who is responsible for dealing with antisemitism,” Prosor said.

But the reality is more complex on the left. Prosor explained that antisemitism on the left "basically takes things from the margins and brings them to center stage so it's legitimate to debate … and it demonizes and delegitimizes not just Jews, but Israel as a state. So under the so-called cover of legitimate criticism against a democratic country, you have all this coming in and we are on the front lines nearly every day.”

As an example, Prosor referenced the Documenta art show in Berlin in August 2022, when it took seven professors to determine that a piece of “art” depicting a Jew with a hooked nose sitting on a bag of money with a kippa was indeed antisemitic. Astoundingly, the curators of this blatantly antisemitic scene weren’t disciplined, rather they were basically promoted.
Furious heckling greets German minister at Jewish music contest
Germany’s Culture Minister was booed and heckled by an angry crowd at a Jewish music competition last weekend.

Claudia Roth, of the Greens, was met with an onslaught of hooting and whistling when she took to the stage for the Jewrovision youth music competition in Frankfurt, organised by the Central Council of Jews.

The crowd was protesting about her defence of last year’s Documenta art exhibition in Kassel, which caused outrage for its use of antisemitic images.

“Get off the stage!” and “You are not welcome here” they yelled.

Roth stopped her speech, which was being drowned out by the cries of the crowd, and responded: “That’s democracy. I accept the criticism.” Claudia Roth, minister of culture.

Documenta was curated by Ruangrupa, an Indonesian artistic collective. One collage featured an Orthodox Jew with side-curls and an evil glare, monster-like giant sharp teeth, bloody eyes and a hat with “SS” on it.

Other images included a figure with a pig’s nose and a Star of David below, and the word “Mossad”, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, on its head.


World Zionist Organisation demands Israel backs down on judicial reform plans
The World Zionist Organisation has sent a strong message to the Israeli government not to proceed unilaterally with plans for judicial reform.

In an extraordinary meeting of the Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, liberal delegates won a string of decisive votes over the right that also included calls not to amend the Law of Return and to mark Pride Week in order to strengthen LGBT inclusion.

Rabbi Lea Muhlstein from London, who chairs the international Progressive religious Zionist movement Arzenu, said: “It’s very clear a vast majority of world Jewry are not in favour of the policies the current Israeli government are pushing.

“It shows a consensus of world Jewry sits with the centre-left and not with the right-wing parties represented in the Israeli government.”

WZO deputy chairman Yizhar Hess, who represents the Conservative Mercaz movement, said: “Faced with the most extreme government in Israel’s history, world Jewry has gone on record - Israel must remain a liberal, Jewish and democratic state.”

The Israeli government’s proposals for judicial reform - which critics say will weaken the power of the Supreme Court - unleashed a wave of demonstrations in Israel and among expatriates abroad in recent months.

In a resolution proposed by Muhlstein herself, the WZO called on the government to “reach consensus agreements that will bolster the democratic nature of the state of Israel and the checks and balances in the structure of government, while providing protection for human rights, minorities and women”.

The Congress also declared its opposition to amending the Law of Return, which currently allows the non-Jewish grandchildren of a Jew to claim Israeli citizenship.
Israel, UK: 2 countries without written constitutions and shared lessons
Israel is one of only five countries without a written constitution, along with Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, a professor of law at George Mason University and a scholar at the Kohelet Policy Forum, the Israeli think tank behind the proposed judicial reforms, said that the UK and Israel have very different reasons for lacking a constitution.

“The UK never had a written constitution because it never needed one. Israel never had a written constitution because it could never afford one,” Kontorovich told The Media Line. Amid war, mass immigration, and austerity following Israel’s founding, the country was unable to devote the time to writing a constitution and was unwilling to risk tearing the public apart.

One reason for the UK lacking a written constitution is simply the country’s age, Kontorovich said. The English Parliament dates to the 13th century.

Although the UK lacks a codified written constitution, it does have a collection of written documents and unwritten arrangements that establish the country’s principles.

Retired Israeli jurist Philip Marcus, who was born and educated in the UK, said that England’s unwritten constitution includes not just written laws but also “conventions,” unwritten agreements around “the things that are done and the things that are not done.”

“It’s rather difficult to define in words, but the underlying principle is that we are all in this together and we are all working for the benefit of everybody,” Marcus said of the British constitutional conventions.

He attributed the country’s ability to withstand various internal disagreements throughout the years around workers’ and women’s rights to conventions that defined appropriate political behavior.

Kontorovich said that a constitution represents a social consensus and that that sort of consensus simply doesn’t exist in Israel.

He pointed to the debates around the judicial reforms as an example of the Israeli populace’s inability to reach a consensus. He said that the “simple compromises” contained within the reforms—like a proposal to restructure the composition of the Supreme Court—would be more effective than an attempt to reach a broad consensus.

“Having a constitution for the sake of having a constitution doesn’t necessarily make anything better,” he said.

Kontorovich and Marcus both said that Israel can continue to get along fine without a constitution.

“Israel can be strong and powerful and wealthy without it,” Kontorovich said. He said that whether Israel would do better with a constitution would depend on what the constitution said and how it was adopted.
The Caroline Glick Show: Is Bibi a criminal?
Two Years into Prime Minister Netanhyahu's Trial, the charges against Israel's leader have completely collapsed. The prosecution has been exposed as politicized and corrupt. This week's Caroline Glick Show is devoted to a review of what we have learned about the nature of the charges, the prosecution's perversion of criminal procedure, the rights of witnesses and the rights of the accused.

Caroline's guest this week is Moshe Kovarsky. Moshe, who co-founded Project 315 two years ago to go through the specific claims against Netanyahu, has been following the proceedings in the Jerusalem District Court on a daily basis and reporting on them.


Shin Bet says it foiled Hadera bus bombing by Umm al-Fahm man recruited by Hamas
The Shin Bet security agency on Wednesday said it had foiled an attempt by the Gaza Strip-ruling Hamas terror group to carry out a bombing attack on a bus in the north, using an Israeli man to plant the device.

In the early hours of April 2, Muhammed Nadir Mahajneh, 20, a resident of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, was detained by the elite police Unit 33, also known as Gideonim, over his alleged involvement in the plot.

According to the Shin Bet, Mahajneh was recruited by the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, several months ago, to carry out a bombing against civilians on a bus in Hadera.

The agency said the suspect, due to financial pressure and mental distress, began to “adopt the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, and later decided that he wanted to commit jihad.”

Mahajneh was found to be in possession of “media used to communicate with Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” the Shin Bet and police said.

The Shin Bet investigation revealed that Mahajneh scouted out a number of locations in Israel for the bombing attack, “with an emphasis on security sites and crowded places, and sent the information he gathered to Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” the agency said.

According to an indictment filed on May 9, Mahajneh allegedly scouted out the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv and the adjacent Azrieli Mall and Sarona Market as potential targets.
Shin Bet arrests Israeli Arab recruited by Hamas
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency announced they have arrested a 20-year-old Israeli citizen from an Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, who was planning to carry out a bombing attack.

The suspect, who was detained a few weeks ago, was recruited by the Hamas terrorist group. He intended to “carry out a bombing attack using an explosive device” on a bus line in the Hadera area, northern Israel, according to the Shin Bet statement.




Three IDF soldiers sentenced for beating Palestinian
Three IDF soldiers were sentenced on Wednesday by an IDF Court for beating a Palestinian in mid-April.

Two of the soldiers were sentenced to 60 days in prison and the third was sentenced to 40 days in prison.

The difference in the sentences reflected that the first two were convicted of violence against the Palestinian, whereas the third soldier was convicted of the lesser crime of going beyond his authority in a way that could endanger human life, but not explicitly of taking a direct part in the violence.

While the first three soldiers were arrested on April 23, a fourth soldier was arrested later, on May 8, and the proceedings against him are ongoing.

The first three soldiers arrived at their conviction and sentencing as part of a plea deal, in light of certain potential difficulties of proceeding with a full trial for longer sentences.

Planning the crime
According to the indictments, the four soldiers conspired together to bring the Palestinian into a vehicle, beat him as they drove with him in the vehicle, and then left him injured and in a remote area alone. The soldiers then worked together systematically to try to cover up the incident and obstruct their own prosecution.


BBC fails to fully report terror group links of Palestinian fatalities
BBC audiences are not informed that the dozens of kilograms of explosives intended for the purpose of terrorism which were found in that “workshop” were destroyed by the IDF at the site. Neither does Knell inform her readers that the “three arrests” made were of terror suspects.

Knell does however provide amplification for an obviously exaggerated and inaccurate statement from a PA official:
“In a statement, the spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, condemned what he called “a real massacre and a continuation of the all-out war Israel is waging against the Palestinian people”.

He called for the US administration to intervene to put a stop “to the Israeli madness that will drag the region towards an explosion”.”

By way of background Knell tells her readers that:
“Israeli-Palestinian violence has been intensifying for months with near-nightly Israeli military raids in the West Bank and rising settler violence as well as a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.”

Clearly that paragraph does not properly clarify that the Israeli operations are the outcome of rising Palestinian terrorism which the BBC has yet to adequately explain to its audiences.

Knell again confuses cause and effect later on in her report:
“Overnight, the Israeli military says it made more than a dozen arrests across the West Bank, including three in Jenin. Like Nablus, Jenin has recently seen a concentration of Israeli army raids and has been a hotbed for Palestinian militants.”
IDF Court holds first hearing against B’Tselem activist, NGO accuses Israel of harassment
The Judea Military Court on Wednesday held its first hearing of witnesses in the trial of B’Tselem activist Nasser Nawaj’ah for allegedly hitting a police officer.

Nawaj’ah not only denies the allegations, but claims that Israel as a whole is trying to punish and silence him for his work for B’Tselem in general as well as for a specific incident in which he uncovered an IDF alleged violation of its own rules regarding its use of ammunition.

Neither the IDF prosecution nor Nawaj’ah have provided a fully detailed public narrative of their side of the case.

Despite repeated requests, the fact that the trial is public and the indictment is supposed to be public, the IDF failed to present a copy to The Jerusalem Post.

No detailed explanation by the IDF
Instead, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office simply stated, “Nawaj’ah was brought to trial for attacking a police officer during an incident of disturbing the peace in Susiya in September 2021. According to the indictment, the defendant hit the policeman and afterward fled the area. The defendant denied the charges and the hearing of witnesses started today.”

However, the IDF did not explain why Nawaj’ah was indicted over a year after the incident and why, when Nawaj’ah was questioned by the Shin Bet in August 2022, they did not ask him anything about this alleged incident.

Meanwhile, B’Tselem refused to discuss the details of Nawaj’ah’s defense: whether he claims there was no scuffle at all with police, or that there was a scuffle but he acted in self-defense or some other scenario.
PMW: PA brags Fatah gave active support to Islamic Jihad in recent Gaza War
Israel launched its recent counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip - Operation Shield and Arrow – mainly to eliminate leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror organization, but other terror organizations joined PIJ in the battle. Palestinian Media Watch documented the participation of other terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), both of whom published footage of their members participating in the hostilities against Israel.

By contrast, Abbas’ Fatah Movement did not participate in the Gaza terrorists’ fight against Israel. However, Fatah needs to profile itself as leading the Palestinians and “a pioneer in armed struggle.” The terror organization Hamas didn’t join the recent hostilities either, but polls show its popularity is greater than Fatah even in the West Bank. Therefore, Fatah wants to be seen as if it is “on the barricades” along with the Gazan terrorists. This became evident when the official PA TV reporter in Gaza glorified Fatah and its military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades as being “considered the spearhead in the war room” and claimed that Fatah’s military wing and Islamic Jihad’s military wing are those who “acted together” as “partners in blood” against the Israeli “aggression”:
Official PA TV newsreader: “There were statements by the Fatah Movement and unity on the ground to confront this aggression on the Palestinian lands. For a long time, Fatah is the pioneer in armed struggle activity on the Palestinian lands.”

Official PA TV reporter in Gaza: “That’s true. We see that in the Gaza Strip, even in terms of the military wings and the joint war room that includes all the factions. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (i.e., Fatah’s military wing) and Fatah are actually considered the spearhead in this war room… In this battle, when we speak about the factions that participated in it and about what’s called on social media ‘partners in blood,’ the intent is mainly the Al-Quds Brigades fighters (i.e., Islamic Jihad’s military wing) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fighters (sic.), who acted together in the battle as a response to the assassinations of the Al-Quds Brigades members.”

[Official PA TV News, May 12, 2023]


Fatah vows to follow “path” of terrorist responsible for murder of 9
Fatah vows to follow “path” of terrorist responsible for murder of 9 “until defeating the Zionist enemy”

Fatah-run Awdah TV host: “We have no army, but we have principles and rifles that succeeded in frightening the enemy in all the battles.” Thus said determined commander Martyr Marwan Zalum (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 9) – a son of the [Fatah] student cell who joined the Fatah Movement’s ranks from high school, commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Hebron... Zalum… even led military squads from outside of the homeland… which constituted great practice in the Palestinian revolutionary activities... He returned [to Palestine] before the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005), and immediately when it broke out he put together the first military squad. He was appointed to be commander and instructor of the Brigades, and he oversaw the implementation of the self-sacrificing operations and operations] against the settlement outposts. On April 22, 2002, the occupation attacked his car in Hebron with three missiles. The determined hero Marwan died as a Martyr with his comrade on the path of struggle Col. Samir Tamimi... Every year Fatah and the homeland hold onto the eternal memory of this Martyr [Zalum]. On the anniversary of your death as a Martyr, we promise Allah and promise you that we will follow the path of pride and struggle and the path of all the Martyrs, until defeating the Zionist enemy and fully liberating the lands of Palestine.” [Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, April 22, 2023]

Fatah posted this video twice the same day.

Marwan Zalum - Palestinian terrorist and commander of the Hebron branch of the Tanzim (Fatah terror faction). He was responsible for a number of terror attacks in the Hebron region, including sending the terrorist who in a shooting attack murdered the infant Shalhevet Pass in her stroller on March 26, 2001. Zalum also provided the explosive device used in a suicide attack at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open market on April 12, 2002, in which 6 Israelis were murdered and 80 wounded. He organized the planting of a bomb in southern Hebron, which murdered Israeli soldier Shai Cohen on July 9, 2001, and initiated a shooting attack at the entrance to Kiryat Arba on July 12, 2001, in which 1 person was murdered. Zalum was killed by the Israeli army on April 22, 2002.

The second Intifada/The Al-Aqsa Intifada - Palestinian terror campaign 2000-2005, directed and controlled by the PA, during which Palestinians carried out numerous terror attacks including suicide bombings. More than 1,100 Israelis were murdered.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas sentences three men to death for 'collaboration' with Israel
Three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have been sentenced to death by a Hamas court on charges of collaboration with Israel. A fourth man received life in prison for the same charges.

The sentences were confirmed on Tuesday when the court turned down appeals by the defendants. It was not clear when the men would be executed. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has in the past executed several Palestinians on similar charges.

Palestinian human rights have previously criticized Hamas for issuing death sentences against Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority has also criticized Hamas for issuing and carrying out death sentences, saying such verdicts require the approval of the PA president

The names of the three men who were sentenced to death were not revealed.

They were found guilty of “communicating with hostile foreign entities” in violation of Article 131 of the Palestinian Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979.

Two of the defendants will be executed by hanging, while the third will face a firing squad.


Seth Frantzman: Kataib Hezbollah back in spotlight in Iraq
The Iranian-backed terrorist group Kataib Hezbollah, which is also influential in parts of Iraq’s government and state-backed militias, is back in the spotlight in Iraq for its continued destabilizing role.

According to an article in Arab News by researcher Hassan al-Mustafa, a member of the group was linked to the murder of academic and intellectual Hisham al-Hashimi.

Another study at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted that “on March 14, 2023, a group of KH [Kataib Hezbollah] fighters led by Abu Jaffar al-Daraji, a KH commander and the head of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) security directorate in Salah al-Din, engaged in a firefight with the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) in Speicher.”

Why is Iraq's Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group back in the spotlight?
The overall context here is that Kataib Hezbollah was sanctioned by the US in 2009. Its leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was a key Iranian proxy in Iraq and he was killed alongside IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad. Kataib Hezbollah was formed in the early 2000s, but men like Abu Mahdi were key figures in Iran’s octopus-like role in the region for many years. Kataib Hezbollah unsurprisingly shares a similar name with Lebanese Hezbollah. These kinds of groups perform similar roles. They hollow out a state from within and then expand the Iran-militia influence nexus.

Towards that end, Kataib Hezbollah has often been a kind of elite unit within the larger Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq. As such the group continues to threaten Iraq’s stability and may also threaten US forces. It also has had a role in Syria at times, extending Iran’s influence there.
Hezbollah sleeper who photographed US landmarks for possible attacks gets 12 years
A New Jersey software developer who prosecutors say once photographed landmarks in New York, Boston and Washington, DC, for possible terrorist attacks was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison by a federal judge.

According to the US Justice Department, he once tried to kill a suspected Israeli spy and was involved in a Lebanon bombing that injured at least one IDF soldier.

However, Judge Paul G. Gardephe noted, Alexei Saab, 46, has become a model prisoner since his 2019 arrest, helping others incarcerated at New York City’s federal jails to get high school equivalency certificates, learn English and find relief from psychological problems.

Gardephe called Saab’s 2005 exit from his relationship with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group’s Islamic Jihad Organization and the “peaceful and productive” life he lived in the New York City area afterward among “inconvenient facts” that made it impossible to grant the government’s request that Saab be incarcerated for 20 years.

According to the Justice Department, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), also known as the External Security Organization and “910,” is Hezbollah’s wing “responsible for the planning and coordination of intelligence, counterintelligence, and terrorist activities on behalf of Hezbollah outside of Lebanon.”

A jury at a trial last year heard prosecutors portray Saab as a highly trained terrorist who scoped out landmarks in the US, France, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Prosecutors said Saab was a sleeper cell waiting to be activated if Iran was attacked by the United States.

But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on a material support for a terrorist group charge.
Iran says it will work with inspectors after new tunnels near nuke site uncovered
The head of Iran’s nuclear program insisted Wednesday that his government would cooperate with international inspectors on any “new activities,” following a report on Tehran’s newly constructed underground tunnel system near a nuclear enrichment facility.

The exclusive Associated Press report outlined this week how the new tunnels deep inside a mountain near the Natanz facility are likely beyond the range of a last-ditch US weapon designed to destroy such sites.

The report sparked wider conversation across the Middle East about the construction, with Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi saying Tuesday the site would not be immune from attack even if its depth put it out of range of American airstrikes.

Speaking to journalists Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting, Mohammad Eslami of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to describe the interest in the site as a case of Israel feeling pressured.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is working under the IAEA safeguards, and whenever wants to start new activities, it will coordinate with the IAEA and acts accordingly,” Eslami said, using an acronym for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA did not respond to questions from the AP about the construction at Natanz, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Tehran. Natanz has been a point of international concern since its existence became known two decades ago.


MEMRI: Iranian Islamic Scholar Fariba Alasvand on Hizbullah TV: The West Permits Pedophilia and Bestiality
Iranian Islamic scholar Fariba Alasvand said in a May 17, 2023 show on Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah-Lebanon) that Western countries have permitted pedophilia and bestiality and that this is part of a Zionist “manifesto” and scheme to corrupt families and morality in the West.

The MEMRI Lantos Project exposes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East region and Middle Eastern communities in the West with the aim of supporting legislation and educating media and the general public.




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

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