Tuesday, July 04, 2023

07/04 Links Pt1: Tunnel linked Jenin terror mosque to kindergarten; At least nine wounded in Tel Aviv ramming attack; The White House Is Trying to Buy Pre-Election Quiet by Paying Off Iran

From Ian:

The IDF is dismantling Jenin’s terror infrastructure
The Israel Defense Forces’ intensified security operation in Jenin entered its second day on Tuesday, and looked to be on track to achieving its goal of shattering the concept of Jenin as a terrorist haven out of reach of the Israeli military.

The operation exposed some of the systems set up by terrorists—consisting of local operatives as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas members—that had made Jenin so challenging for ordinary Israeli security missions recently: War rooms where operatives received video feeds and radio communications from across the city, and coordinated the activities of gunmen; hundreds of weapons, large quantities of explosive devices hidden in underground bunkers; and the beginnings of a rocket production industry.

These threats, collectively dubbed by the defense industry as “terror infrastructure,” are being systematically eliminated by a brigade-sized IDF force comprising mostly special units, backed by unmanned aerial vehicle firepower, that moved into the city overnight Sunday.

Some 10 Palestinian combatants had been killed by Monday noon, with the majority of the remaining hundreds of terrorist gunmen choosing to go underground and avoiding clashing with the IDF, which surprised them with its entrance into the city from multiple directions. Dozens of terror suspects have been arrested.

Dozens of IEDs and other bombs were found and neutralized by special forces, as were bomb-making labs.

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated on Sunday evening that precise intelligence enabled the launch of the operation, which is focused on “dismantling terrorist infrastructure, seizing weapons, apprehending terror suspects and preventing future attacks.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were no reports of noncombatant casualties, and the IDF has enabled civilians to evacuate Jenin Camp during the operation. Hagari stressed that air power was used in a minimal manner, precisely, to protect IDF units on the ground.

According to IDF figures, some 50 terror attacks targeting Israelis over the past 18 months can be traced back to Jenin. Twenty-five Israelis have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks since the start of 2023.
As US supports Jenin op, Arabs and int’l organizations condemn it
A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, which advises President Joe Biden, released a statement on Monday in support of the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing counterterrorism operation in Jenin.

“We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups,” it states.

The council added that it is monitoring the situation closely.

Sources said on Tuesday afternoon that the operation was getting close to winding down. But Israeli officials said it would probably continue at least until Wednesday as security forces continue to arrest members of terrorist groups and destroy their infrastructure.

As of Tuesday morning, more than a hundred wanted suspects have been arrested, and eight confirmed terrorists have been killed.

“We have no intention of occupying the [Jenin] refugee camp, and this is not an operation against the Palestinian Authority,” said R. Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the IDF. “We will create a sequence of operations in the northern part of the West Bank.”

Tor Wennesland, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, announced on Twitter he had been “in direct contacts [sic] with all relevant parties” with an eye towards de-escalation.

“The current escalation in the occupied West Bank is very dangerous [and] follows months of mounting tensions,” Wennesland wrote, noting that the operation “reminds us of the extremely volatile [and] unpredictable situation across the occupied West Bank.”

Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Palestinian-controlled areas, said she was “alarmed” by the scale of the operation in Jenin and slammed Israel’s use of precision airstrikes against terrorists in the “densely populated refugee camp.”

In Brussels, the European Union’s Middle East peace envoy said he was “very concerned” and following the situation in Jenin closely. E.U. Special Representative Sven Koopmans warned in a tweet of a “real threat of a major eruption” caused by “months of elscalating [sic] violence and increasing hopelessness” and called on “all parties” to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law.

The U.K. government, in a statement published by the British consul-general in Jerusalem, likewise expressed “deep concern” and urged the IDF to “adhere to the principles of necessity and proportionality when defending its legitimate security interest.”

“Protection of civilians must be prioritised. Essential to ensure access for medical personnel,” the short missive reads.
UN agencies 'alarmed' at scale of Jenin raid, concerned about access
UN aid agencies on Tuesday voiced alarm at the scale of the ongoing Israeli military operation in the West Bank town of Jenin, where 10 Palestinians have been killed, saying there were restrictions on medical access.

The operation, which involved drone strikes and hundreds of troops and was one of the largest of its kind in years, entered a second day on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people from a refugee camp.

"We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and air strikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp," Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a briefing, saying three minors were among those killed. She did not immediately respond to a request for the victims' ages.

Damage to infrastructure caused by air strikes have cut off most of the water and electricity at the camp, she added. The Palestinian Red Crescent previously said it has evacuated around 3,000 people.

The Red Cross said it was "extremely concerned by the alarming intensification of armed violence" in Jenin.

The World Health Organization and medical charity MSF both raised concerns about access.
Jenin operation: IDF arrests 120 terrorists as fighting continues
IDF Chief Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari on Tuesday said that the military's massive operation in Jenin could end faster than initially expected, even within a matter of days.

In an update early Tuesday, Hagari described how the operation had already achieved most of its goals and with less resistance or side complications than intelligence had estimated.

According to the IDF spokesperson, the military had preselected some dozens of targets to eliminate in terms of terror command centers and weapons and explosives storage areas. IDF has '10 more targets' in Jenin

All but around 10 of those locations were already destroyed or neutralized on the first day of the operation, many within the first two hours in attacks by the air force.

All told, a mix of IDF drones have already destroyed 20 targets, while the IDF commandos, Maglan, paratroopers, regular Menashe infantry, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) forces have neutralized a variety of other targets, including a concealed hiding spot of a large cache of weapons under a mosque.

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that there are a total of 10 Palestinians dead since the operation in Jenin started.

Pre-operation estimates were there were 150 specific wanted suspects in Jenin and an estimated total 300 potential combat fighters out of the population of 49,000.

Of those, around 120 have been arrested, though not all 120 were suspects and some have been released.

But one of the surprises for the IDF was that there have been under 10 gunbattles in Jenin as the operation enters its second day.

Whether because the IDF achieved complete surprise, because of fear of being targeted by drones or other considerations, most of the fighters in Jenin have chosen to hide, rather than confront the IDF.

In that sense and if the fighters whose identities are unknown continue to hide, once the IDF has neutralized the remaining 10 targets and sought to find some more of the identified wanted suspects, there could be little for the IDF to do, other than leave its forces exposed and be hit with global criticism for dragging out the operation.


Terror in Tel Aviv: At least nine wounded in stabbing, ramming attack
At least nine Israelis were wounded in a combined car-ramming and stabbing on Pinchas Rosen Street in Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon.

Footage shared on social media showed the assailant dead at the scene. After running people over, the terrorist got out of the vehicle and reportedly managed to stab one of the victims in the neck. A civilian at the scene shot the terrorist.

MDA paramedics arrived quickly on the scene to treat the wounded, who were subsequently taken to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Upon arrival at the scene, one MDA paramedic said that: "We arrived at the scene with a large force of MDA intensive care vehicles and ambulances. We saw that it was very serious, and near a bus stop there were 5 injured people, including a 46-year-old woman who was lying on the sidewalk while she was conscious and suffering from severe trauma."

Injuries from the incident
Multiple victims were reported to be in serious condition.

Three injured individuals, aged 30, 66, and 76, are currently being treated for multiple injuries from the attack at Beilinson Hospital. One of the individuals, in critical condition, is being operated on for injuries sustained to the stomach and shoulder. Another of the injured, also in critical condition, is being operated on for chest injuries. The third individual is moderately hurt and is being treated for facial injuries, but does not need surgery.

5 injured individuals have arrived at Ichilov's trauma center. 3 are in moderate to severe condition, 1 is in mild to moderate condition, and 1 is suffering from shock. They all have injuries characteristic of a vehicular attack. One of the individuals in critical condition suffered multiple injuries requiring complex multi-system intervention. She is set to undergo surgery at Icholov Hospital.

Additionally, an injured woman in her 70s was referred to the emergency department of the Meir Medical Center in minor condition and is currently being treated in the orthopedic emergency department.
At least 8 Israelis wounded in Tel Aviv terror attack



Seth Frantzman: Did the int'l community do enough to stop Jenin weapons threat?
The overall context here then is not just about lawlessness or lack of Palestinian Authority control. There is a much larger factor that involves Iran’s plans to slowly infiltrate the northern West Bank, and also the factor of the awareness of other countries in the region and the international community regarding this threat. Jenin clashes are often seen as local and they are generally reported as such. That means that while part of the city is festooned with weapons and while Iran-backed PIJ and others stored munitions and constructed command and control centers and build IEDs, when Israel does carry out raids it is generally presented as taking place in a kind of vacuum. Israel’s increased use of advanced methods, such as using UAVs or helicopters, is also under the spotlight. That spotlight does not appear to fall fully on groups like PIJ and their activities.

In part, PIJ has been able to move under the radar because it does not control either Gaza or the West Bank. It has also been the focus of tailored operations in the past such as Operation Black Belt in 2019. This enables PIJ to often be seen as an isolated problem, rather than part of the larger Iranian infrastructure in the region. However, the fact that Iran’s supreme leader hosted PIJ in mid-June and the frequent tendency of Iran’s messaging and meetings to coincide with a rise in tensions, shows that this is not in a vacuum. Iran is openly seeking to raise tensions in Lebanon and to move around its PIJ pawns in places like Jenin and the West Bank. A lack of regional and international focus on this issue likely plays a role in fueling the terrorists as they seek more influence.

The lack of monitoring by regional actors of the weapons threat in Jenin is not due to lack of funds. Since April 2021, the United States has said it “provided over half a billion dollars in assistance for the Palestinians, including more than $417 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinian refugees through UNRWA, $75 million in support through USAID,” and other funds. The EU also announced a 2022 budget financial assistance package of more than $200 million earlier this year.

There is no doubt the weapons threat in Jenin presents many challenges. On the one hand, there are the gunmen and terror groups that obtain the weapons. Iranian-backed PIJ and others seek to create more terror infrastructure and use new weapons such as IEDs. The smuggling of arms also fuels gun violence in Israel and other areas of the West Bank. Hundreds of rifles and weapons have been interdicted in the last year by authorities.

The Palestinian Authority also lost control in Jenin. The tactical challenge of finding weapons is difficult because it takes time to find them and usually M-4 rifles can be hidden easily. Iran likely understands this. It wants to slowly build the terror infrastructure, as it did with its proxies and partners in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. The challenge for the region, during an era of increased regional integration and diplomacy, is to check this rise in threats.
Seth Frantzman: Iran, Hezbollah see Israel's operation in Jenin as beneficial
Iran has also seen how Islamic Jihad is generally isolated. Israel launched Shield and Arrow in May against PIJ in Gaza. In early April Hamas launched attacks from Lebanon using rockets and then another group, likely backed by Iran, fired rockets from Syria. What this means is that Iran has often tried to dictate the tempo of threats to Israel.

However, Iran also wants to move slowly as it usually does in the region. This means a combination of Iran’s octopus-like strategy across the region, with a kind of anaconda-like attempt to surround Israel with threats.

Iran combines this with its diplomatic achievements in relations with Saudi Arabia, outreach to Egypt and the Gulf, as well as its strategic ties with Russia and its ties to China. Iran openly brags about these ties. Iran must weigh its diplomatic ties with its response now to what is going on in Jenin.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has threatened Israel in the wake of the Jenin operation, claiming in Iranian Tasnim News that Israel will “regret” the operation. Iran wants to highlight, via its media and other pro-Iranian media such as Al-Mayadeen, that Israel has been condemned in the region and that Jenin will continue to “resist” and be a “headache” for Israel. While pro-Iranian media may highlight the chances that this operation may “ignite” Gaza, the other context is that Iran has also been monitoring the last two years worth of information coming out after the ten-day conflict in May 2021.

Iran has the motivation to create a crisis in the West Bank. It seeks to bring arms and money to support Islamic Jihad. Iran’s Supreme Leader recently hosted Islamic Jihad leaders in Tehran. The context, therefore, is that Iran knows very well the current situation. It tries to slowly percolate Islamic Jihad to create tensions.

At the same time, it sees benefits in the region, by using a relatively small proxy group to create basically monthly cycles of low-level conflict with Israel. It then measures this conflict to see if it is beneficial. Iran’s regime claims it is benefiting. It would like to move Israel’s focus closer to the West Bank, and therefore away from the wider region.

In essence, Iran would like to turn back the clock to the year 2000, around the time of the Second Intifada, when Israel had left Lebanon and Iran was about to put Hezbollah on steroids. Iran used that to lead to the 2006 war and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza then led to the 2008-2009 conflict in Gaza. Iran then tried to put Hamas on steroids as well with rocket technology and other support.

Now Iran may think it has a kind of similar recipe for the West Bank.
Israel's Army operation in West Bank's Jenin: Day 2 10 Palestinians killed, 100 wounded as Israel continues operation in the West Bank city of Jenin.

IDF says Palestinian gunmen showing little resistance in Jenin, 10 targets remain
The Israeli military’s operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin was set to continue Tuesday following a mostly uneventful night that saw Palestinian gunmen choosing not to fight Israeli forces, potentially signaling an approaching end to the campaign, now in its second day.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military had some ten sites in the city’s restive refugee camp that it aimed to search in the coming hours.

He said the IDF had intelligence information that the sites were being used to manufacture explosives and other weapons.

Israel launched the major operation early Monday to crack down on what it says is a hotbed of terror in the city. A number of attacks on Israelis in recent years have been carried out by Palestinians from the area, and observers say the Palestinian Authority has little control on the ground.

Over 1,000 IDF troops were involved in the campaign, which appeared to be the largest in the West Bank in some 20 years.

Palestinian health officials said Tuesday morning that ten people were killed and at least 100 others were wounded, including 20 listed in serious condition, during Israeli airstrikes and in clashes with Israeli forces the previous day.

Palestinian gunmen take up positions during a confrontation with the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Jenin on July 3, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90) The water and electricity supply to the Jenin refuge camp was disrupted during the operation. Hagari said the military’s liaison to the Palestinians was working to fix it in coordination with the PA. “This happened mainly because of where we damaged roads, where there were hidden explosives,” he said.

There were no major clashes overnight Monday or on Tuesday morning, even as IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi entered the West Bank city to hold an assessment with forces.

“The resistance of the gunmen tonight was low. They ran away from the targets we reached,” Hagari said in a call with reporters, noting that the operation was likely to be wrapped up within days, rather than weeks.

He said all of the slain Palestinians were involved in the fighting, but there were some noncombatants among the wounded.
Inside the Jenin Refugee Camp, the Palestinian ‘Martyr’s Capital’
Since Monday’s predawn hours, the Jenin refugee camp has been the epicenter of intense fighting between Palestinian terror groups and the Israel Defense Forces.

The camp is home to 18,000 Palestinians densely packed in an area about half a square kilometer (0.2 square miles) in size. Established in 1953, the U.N.-administered camp is often referred to by Palestinians as the “Martyr’s Capital.” Between 2000 and 2003, during the Second Intifada, at least 28 Palestinian suicide bombers came from the Jenin camp.

The refugee camp became a stronghold of terror, particularly for those aligned with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a number of smaller local factions. PIJ receives direct support from Iran while other factions often receive indirect assistance. Tehran’s relations with Palestinian terror groups, like its other regional proxy militias, are overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared in 2014, “I believe the West Bank should be armed just like Gaza.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have transferred tens of millions of shekels to terror groups in the camp in 2023 alone.

The results speak for themselves. In 2023, 50 attacks against Israelis came from the Jenin Camp. Since September, 19 terrorists have fled to the camp after carrying out attacks. Ten homes inside the camp have been demolished by Israeli authorities so far in 2023.

One PIJ terrorist killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in May had worked to establish rocket capabilities for the terror group in Jenin. Israeli intelligence has also detected an increase in the quality of explosive charges being used in the camp. Soldiers operating in the camp on Monday discovered a weapons laboratory and an improvised rocket launcher.


The Israel Guys: Did Israel Just DECLARE WAR On Terror in the WEST BANK?
Israel just launched a massive counter terror operation into the Palestinian city of Jenin. After taking out, with a drone strike, a headquarters used for storing weapons and sheltering terrorists who had murdered Jews, the IDF has gone in with ground forces to arrest a multitude of terrorists.

Is this the start of a large-scale war on terror in Judea and Samaria?




Tunnel linked Jenin terror mosque to kindergarten
The mosque in the Jenin refugee camp where Palestinian terrorists barricaded themselves contained a tunnel leading to a nearby kindergarten, the IDF announced on Tuesday.

Soldiers working with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) in the camp’s al-Ansar mosque using technological tools discovered the tunnel, traced its route and “neutralized” it. A map released by the army shows one tunnel opening into an adjacent kindergarten.

Lt. Col. M., who was involved in the mission, said that “the excavations carried out in the mosque turned it into a fortified target.”

On Monday, the IDF released photos of pits found in the mosque containing weapons, explosives and military gear.

Israeli forces operating in the refugee camp since Monday morning have uncovered bomb-making laboratories, a homemade rocket launcher, explosives, weapons and military gear.

The Israel Defense Forces said its forces killed 10 Palestinians, adding that “all the dead were involved in combat” and that 120 wanted terrorism suspects have been arrested since Monday morning. The IDF is still searching for 350 terrorists in Jenin, of whom 160 the IDF believes are still in the camp.


BBC Jenin Coverage Riddled With Lies, Mistakes and Distortions
The BBC’s coverage of the ongoing counterterrorism raid in Jenin represents an abject failure in journalism.

In sticking to its mission to report the facts accurately and impartially, the broadcaster has gone so far off course that it is disturbing to witness.

Across the publicly-funded outlet’s news sites and channels, there have been numerous examples of poor reporting relating to the large-scale operation designed to take out terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the West Bank city.

Here are some of the worst:
BBC News Television Coverage
Among the guests invited onto BBC News to give their view on the raid was Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative Party (al-Mubadara), who was given a platform in front of millions of viewers in the UK upon which to spew countless lies.

For example, in response to being asked about his claim that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians, Barghouti responded to say that “for Israelis, we are all terrorists. All Palestinians are terrorists, regardless of how peaceful we are.”

Of course, the Israeli military does not indiscriminately target Palestinians and, in fact, the IDF has among the strictest rules of engagement in the world to avoid unnecessarily hurting innocent civilians.

In addition, the fact that almost all of the casualties of the Jenin raid have been claimed by terrorist organizations is further proof that the IDF only targets terror operatives.

Later in the interview, Barghouti was allowed to sidestep a question asking him to acknowledge the fact that armed terror groups are operating inside Jenin, with Barghouti describing heavily-armed terrorists as “young people who have lost hope in the so-called peace process, which has failed in the last 30 years because of Israeli obstruction.”

Yet, the BBC interviewer failed to challenge this fallacious assertion, such as by pointing out that Jenin terrorists are well organized and funded by Iran, in addition to the fact that Palestinians have repeatedly rejected comprehensive peace deals that would have seen the two-state solution actualized.

Finally, Barghouti repeated the libel that Israel perpetrated a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002.


Fatah official calls on PA Security Forces to join terror in Jenin
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Jamal Huweil: “The morale is sky-high, as if we were in the 2002 [Jenin] battle. There are heroes who do not fear death at all... The young people are united, they have ammunition and equipment… This is a message to all our heroes in Palestine: The Jenin refugee camp is fighting for the honor of Jerusalem, for the Gaza Strip… The fate of this refugee camp is always to write history in letters of gold and blood... Our motto is that this occupation will pay the price if it enters our alleys, neighborhoods, and homes, the criminal Zionist occupation. This is a message to all members of the Palestinian people, and a message to the free people, the members of the [PA] Security Forces: The time has come for you to defend your sons and your brothers in this refugee camp. This is a message to Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, let them all turn into military wings to fight this occupation.”
[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, July 3, 2023]

Huweil’s statement was published under the headline: “Watch: A Fatah Revolutionary Council member calls on the [PA] Security Forces to defend the Jenin refugee camp”


Reuters Removes False Claim That Jenin Refugee Camp Was ‘Largely Destroyed’ In 2002
Following communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Reuters today deleted the false claim that the Jenin refugee camp “was largely destroyed by Israeli troops during a previous incursion two decades ago” (“Israeli troops and drones hit Jenin in major West Bank operation“).

In fact, as was acknowledged during in a CAMERA-prompted March 29, 2004 National Public Radio correction:
In a story about a Palestinian film festival last week, Julie McCarthy said that the Jenin refugee camp had been “largely destroyed” during an Israeli military action in 2002. A United Nations report noted that while the center of the camp had been “totally destroyed,” the extent of the destruction for the camp as a whole was 10 percent.

Indeed, a report of the European Union included in the end of the U.N. “Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10” said of the destruction to the Jenin refugee camp resulting from the 2002 Israeli military incursion:
10 percent of the camp totally destroyed
The center of the refugee camp has been totally levelled. The area has a diameter of about 200 m and a surface of about 16,000 [sq] m, with approximately 100 buildings totally destroyed.

The updated version of the story no longer contains the unfounded claim.
CAA writes to Guardian over description of Jenin camp as “ghetto-like area”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to The Guardian over its description of the Jenin camp as a “ghetto-like area”.

Today’s article in the newspaper, titled “Thousands of Palestinians flee Jenin refugee camp after major Israeli raid” and written by Bethan McKernan, comes as the Israel Defence Forces conducts a military operation targeting terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin camp, a neighbourhood of the Palestinian Authority city.

The full paragraph in which the phrase appears reads: “Jenin camp was set up in the 1950s to house refugees fleeing their homes in 1948 after the creation of the state of Israeli. The ghetto-like area, plagued by poverty, has long been a hotbed of what Palestinians consider armed resistance and Israelis call terrorism.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “ghetto” is “an area of a city where many people of the same race or background live, separately from the rest of the population. Ghettos are often crowded, with bad living conditions”; or “the area of a town where Jews were forced to live in the past.”

It is not obvious to us that either of these descriptions applies. Accordingly, we have written to The Guardian requesting an explanation or otherwise an immediate correction, given the inflammatory implication of the description.

It is noteworthy that, according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.


Seth Frantzman: Israelis on Gaza border wary of terror escalation amid Jenin operation
In the wake of the IDF’s largest raid on Jenin since the Second Intifada, communities on the Gaza border went about their usual activity on Monday.

An operation by the IDF in Jenin had begun overnight with airstrikes and raids on terrorist groups in the city.

While Islamic Jihad and Hamas have extensive arsenals in Gaza, reports said they had been warned not to escalate and that they were holding their fire in the morning to see how the day developed. That sense of calm was clear on the border in communities such as Sderot, Nahal Oz, Alumim, and Zikim.

In Sderot, city workers were busy adding new roundabouts, trimming olive trees, and going about their work. The city has rapidly developed in the last two decades since the dark days of the Second Intifada and the era before the Iron Dome when rockets terrorized residents without obstruction.

At the Chabad House, which is modeled on the well-known brick Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in New York, guests are welcomed by a hanukkiah made from old rockets that have fallen on border communities here. Sderot was once the center of such attacks when Hamas bombarded the city after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. For a time, the old rockets were kept near the police station.

These days, Sderot is different. Although the city is festooned with shelters near most bus stops, they have been decorated with murals depicting birds, flowers, and fruits.

'You don’t want to think you are living in a war zone'
Chana Melul, a retired headmaster and Sderot tour guide, spoke to The Jerusalem Post in front of a bomb shelter-turned-caterpillar structure in the middle of a playground.

“You don’t want to think you are living in a war zone,” she said, gesturing towards the caterpillar. “Kids want to feel normal.”

Melul added that the community was built on “resilience.”

“Here, we say it’s our house,” Melul said. “You can’t just go and leave every time someone attacks you.”
Palestinian stabs Israeli in central city of Bnei Brak



Fatah official praises Jenin terror as “loftiest examples of pride and honor”
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, on Palestinian terrorists ambushing Israeli forces in Jenin, wounding 7 with an explosive on June 19, 2023; 7 Palestinians, most of them terrorists, were killed and dozens wounded in the ensuing gun battle.

Official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi: “We ask for mercy for the souls of the Martyrs. With honor and appreciation we salute Jenin, the [Jenin] refugee camp that abounds with honor and sends it to the entire Arab and Islamic nation. This refugee camp that we knew well in the second Intifada and first Intifada, and now too it is demonstrating the loftiest examples of pride and honor, examples of sacrifice and giving.”
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, June 19, 2023]

Osama Al-Qawasmi also serves as Fatah Revolutionary Council member.


Palestinian Authority stops all contact with Israel amid Jenin operation
The Palestinian Authority leadership decided on Monday night to halt all contact and meetings with Israel and continue the suspension of security coordination between the Palestinian security forces and the Israeli security forces.

The Ramallah-based leadership also decided to limit its relationship with the US over Washington’s alleged failure to exert pressure on Israel.

The decision was taken during an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah to discuss the latest developments surrounding the large-scale IDF operation in Jenin Refugee Camp, which began earlier in the day.

Earlier this year, the Palestinian Authority decided to suspend the security coordination after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians during a raid in Jenin.

What happened at the meeting in Ramallah?
At the meeting in Ramallah, headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leadership decided to invite the secretaries general of various Palestinian factions to an emergency meeting to agree on a “comprehensive National vision and unite the ranks to confront the Israeli aggression,” said Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesperson for the PA presidency.

The Palestinian leadership, he said, “affirmed the right of our people to defend themselves and the Palestinian Authority’s mission to protect the Palestinian people.”

Abu Rudaineh said that the Palestinian leadership also announced that the understandings reached with Israel during the meetings in Jordan’s Aqaba and Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh cities “no longer exit and are no longer valid” in light of the Israeli non-compliance with them.


The White House Is Trying to Buy Pre-Election Quiet by Paying Off Iran
During his long career in public office, Joe Biden has frequently professed his sympathy with, and even love for, the Jewish state. While Elliott Abrams believes these professions are sincere, there is little doubt in his mind that the informal agreement President Biden appears to be considering with Iran will greatly increase the dangers to Israel—not to mention those to America:
It is fair to say that the United States is paying Iran to stop taking American hostages and trying to kill Americans, an amazing response by a superpower to violent and unlawful actions by a vulnerable middle power. . . . The deal seems aimed at protecting the United States in part and the Biden administration in part. If Iran keeps its promises for a while, American soldiers in Syria and Iraq, and American visitors to Iran, will temporarily be safer.

It is fair to ask whether Americans, and the United States, are really safer when our response to hostage taking, murderous attacks on American service members, and nuclear blackmail is to pay more money. [However], under this apparent agreement, President Biden will be safer—from having to confront, before the 2024 U.S. election, an Iran steadily moving toward nuclear weapons. He has bought time for himself.

The agreement also makes it harder for Israel to strike at Iran’s growing nuclear program, because the administration will now argue that with [uranium] enrichment capped at 60 percent, there’s no imminent danger. Iran, meanwhile, can improve its enrichment capabilities, upgrade its centrifuges, and continue secret work on a warhead.

All of this reflects the Biden administration’s—and over many years, America’s—unwillingness to confront Iran over behavior that has for decades included killing Americans. One can think of other possible responses to the taking of hostages, ranging all the way back to “millions for defense but not one cent for tribute” in 1797. This time, it looks like up to $20 billion for tribute.




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