Sunday, July 09, 2023

07/09 Links: Biden: This is one of the most extreme Israeli gov'ts I've seen; Nazism and the Palestinians; Palestinian envoy to UK memorializes PFLP terrorist

From Ian:

Biden: This is one of the most extreme Israeli gov'ts I've seen
The current Israeli government is one of the most extreme US President Joe Biden has ever seen, he said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

"This is one of the most extreme cabinets I've seen and I go back to Golda Meir," he said, referring to the fact that he has been in US politics since Meir was Israel's prime minister in the early 70s.

Biden also said that Israel and Saudi Arabia are a long way from a normalization agreement that would involve a defense treaty and a civilian nuclear program from the United States.

US officials have been negotiating in a bid to reach an elusive normalization deal between the two countries.

"We're a long way from there. We got a lot to talk about," Biden said in an interview with "Fareed Zakaria's GPS."

Israel's energy minister voiced opposition last month to the idea of Saudi Arabia developing a civilian nuclear program as part of any US-mediated forging of relations between the countries.

Biden pointed to Saudi Arabia's decision, on the eve of his visit to the kingdom last summer, to open its airspace to all air carriers, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel.
Nazism and the Palestinians
In Jan. 1941, Husseini wrote his first letter to Hitler. Husseini claimed that British imperialism was “pitting” Arab countries “against the Jews of the entire world.” He proposed an alliance that would defeat the Zionists and end their support for Great Britain. Together, he said, the Arabs and Germans would solve “the question of Palestine.”

Later that year, Husseini travelled to Berlin and met with Hitler, seeking German help in exterminating the Jews of the Arab world. Hitler agreed and, on that basis, they formed an alliance.

Husseini then became the leading purveyor of Nazi propaganda to the Arab world. As historian Jeffrey Herf documented in his book Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, this included millions of leaflets and thousands of hours of radio broadcasts. The central theme of these efforts is captured in Husseini’s repeated exhortations to “kill the Jews wherever you find them.”

At the same time, Husseini aggressively silenced moderate Arabs, often by having them assassinated. (His successor, Yasser Arafat, would adopt the same practice.) In this way, he ensured that there could be no compromise with the Zionists.

The Nazis also financed, armed and collaborated with the violently antisemitic Muslim Brotherhood, which continued to admire the Nazis after World War II. In 1946, the Brotherhood’s founder Hassan al-Banna lauded Husseini as a “hero who challenged an empire and fought Zionism with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin al-Husseini will continue the struggle.”

Husseini did just that, his reputation burnished by his Nazi collaboration. According to historian Bernard Lewis, pro-German sentiment was so strong in the Arab world “that even after the final defeat of the Third Reich it did not fade away and—what is perhaps more significant—it was not concealed. On the contrary, a pro-Nazi past was a source of pride, not shame.”

That pride was still alive in 2015, when the grand mufti of Jerusalem laid a wreath at Husseini’s grave. In 2019, Mahmoud al-Habbash, a former Hamas official who was appointed by Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas as an advisor on religious affairs, marked the anniversary of Husseini’s death by praising him as a “great Palestinian national leader” and a “role model.” Now, nearly half a century after his death, the P.A. preserves Husseini’s memory for the next generation at the “Amin Al-Husseini Elementary School” in El Bireh.

In their seminal book Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz noted, “While the Nazi ideology collapsed in 1945 and virtually vanished from German and European life, the radical Arab nationalist and Islamist ideologies flourished thereafter.”

This was the legacy of the Nazi-Arab alliance. Thus, wrote Rubin and Schwanitz, “the profoundly doctrinal hatred for Jews and the belief in the necessity of destroying them remained the core reason for the Arab-Israeli conflict’s enduring and irresolvable nature.”

As Rubin and Schwanitz documented, Husseini ensured that Axis-style ideology would continue within the Palestinian movement by making Yasser Arafat his successor in 1968: “The movement would be directed by these two sequential leaders and their similar philosophy and methods for an astounding 83 years, from al-Husseini’s becoming grand mufti in 1921 to Arafat’s death in 2004.”

Under Arafat, the Nazis served as an inspiration for Palestinian terrorists. As Rubin wrote in a study of the PLO, more than 25 activists “chose a nom de guerre such as Hitler or Abu Hitler.” These included Fawzi Salim Ali Mahdi, who served in Force-17, a terrorist group “under Arafat’s direct command.” Ian Michael Davison, another notable Force-17 member, was a British neo-Nazi. In 1985, he helped murder three Israelis while attacking a yacht in Cyprus. The PLO group al-Fatah trained German neo-Nazi groups in Lebanon.


Melanie Phillips: The ugly opposition to Gove's anti-boycott bill
A government bill to outlaw boycotts of Israel received its second reading this week in the Commons.

The bill prevents local councils and other publicly funded bodies from “pursuing their own foreign policy agendas” by using procurement or investment deals “to indicate disapproval of a foreign state”.

While it provides for exceptions to this ban, it states that no boycotts of Israel will be permitted.

This is because, said the Communities Secretary Michael Gove, an “existing, organised and malign campaign” is trying “to persuade public bodies to make commercial decisions solely on the basis of harming that state and its people”. This campaign, he added, also “leads directly” to antisemitic incidents and a loss of community cohesion.

The aim of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) strategy, as acknowledged by its originator Omar Barghouti, is to exterminate the State of Israel altogether.

One might therefore think that, in any decent political universe, banning Israel boycotts would be axiomatic. But of course, this isn’t a decent political universe.

Ministers have criticised two councils in particular — Leicester and Lancaster — for boycotting Israeli goods. Similar boycotts have been promoted by various academic institutions.

This is part of the obsessive animus against Israel that’s the default in “progressive” circles. As a result, the anti-boycott bill was always bound to be deeply divisive.

In the second reading vote, Labour abstained, as did more than 80 Conservatives, with two Tories voting against. Labour has said that if the bill isn’t amended according to its wishes, it will finally vote against it.

The opposition to the bill is deeply disingenuous. Critics say that it’s so wide-ranging, it will prevent boycotts of places like China or Russia. Yet exemptions would permit boycotts of those countries.

Labour’s communities spokesman, Lisa Nandy, has been careful to say the party opposes BDS. But her reasoning is weaselly. BDS, she says, “offers no meaningful route to peace for Palestinians or Israelis” and provides cover “for whipping up hostility towards the Jewish people”.

But surely the main objection to BDS is that it is unconscionable to demonise Israel through libellous falsehoods with the aim of destroying it.

Not once, though, did any of these critics acknowledge the malevolent use of such falsehoods against Israel, nor the BDS strategy of annihilation.


JPost Editorial: French riots should inspire France to reconsider its stance toward Israel
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly rebuffed the UN’s comments, saying: “France, and its police forces, fight with determination against racism and all forms of discrimination. There can be no doubt about this commitment.

“The use of force by the national police and gendarmerie is governed by the principles of absolute necessity and proportionality, strictly framed and controlled,” the ministry said.

Using diplomatic language, the French Foreign Ministry essentially said this: “Stay out of it, we’ve got this, we don’t need you or any outside body to remind us to respect the principles of legality, proportionality, non-discrimination, and accountability.”

France, which has often condescendingly joined the chorus of those reflexively calling on Israel to show restraint and respond “proportionally” to aggressive acts like rockets fired on its civilian population, did not take too kindly to being told to do the same.

France is in the midst of a crisis roiling the country. Its leaders are not looking to harm people gratuitously but rather to contain the violence, which just days ago looked like it was about to spiral out of control.

Macron doesn’t need others to preach to him to act carefully and with caution; he can figure that out himself. The French don’t want anybody moralizing to them about how to deal with a problem they know is acute and that erupts every few years.

One hopes that when this particular crisis blows over, when the anger dies down, the French will remember how they felt at this tumultuous hour when certain actors in the world preached to it about its behavior.

Perhaps they will think twice the next time before wagging a finger at Israel and will not join the tired chorus of those urging the Jewish state to act with “restraint” and “proportionality” – which it already does, to a far greater degree than do many of its critics.

Perhaps, then, they will remember how it felt to be preached to, how it stung, and will take it upon themselves not to do unto others – specifically, Israel – what they did not want others to do unto them.
Palestinian envoy to UK memorializes PFLP terrorist
The PLO’s envoy to the United Kingdom commemorated a Palestinian terrorist over the weekend accused of orchestrating a 1972 attack that killed over two dozen of people at Israel’s international airport.

“Rest in eternal power and peace Ghassan Kanafani,” Husam Zomlot wrote in a Twitter post published on Saturday.

Kanafani was a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization until the Mossad killed him in Beirut on July 8, 1972. Photographic evidence linked Kanafani to the May 1972 Lod Airport massacre, in which terrorists recruited by the PFLP gunned down 26 travelers, including American citizens from Puerto Rico.

“Palestinian diplomat celebrating the terrorist responsible for the 1972 massacre at Ben Gurion Airport which took the lives of 17 Puerto Rican pilgrims, a Canadian tourist and 8 Israeli civilians,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, responded. “Sick. But not surprising.”

In 1973, Lod Airport was renamed in honor of Israel’s first prime minister.

Saturday’s tweet was not the first instance of Zomlot’s extremist positions causing controversy. In February, the PLO representative refused to condemn an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue that left seven Israelis dead, while describing Islamic Jihad terrorists as “refugees” who were “ethnically cleansed.”

He then proceeded to describe Israel as a “colonizer,” “occupier” and “besieger.”


Netanyahu: Whoever murders Israelis will end up in prison or dead
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday his government’s policy to combat Palestinian terrorism, saying that whoever murders Israelis “will end up in one of two places: Prison or the grave.”

Netanyahu began his remarks at the weekly Cabinet meeting by extending his condolences to the families of Chief Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23, a non-commissioned officer from the Egoz commando unit who was killed last week as Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin following a two-day counterterrorism raid, and Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, 22, a member of the Givati Brigade who was shot dead two days later by a Palestinian terrorist seeking to infiltrate the town of Kedumim.

“From the depth of its heart, the people of Israel embrace the families and we all salute the security forces that fight terrorism around the clock,” said Netanyahu.

The government’s policy was being implemented in three ways, he continued.

“First, we settle accounts with the assailants themselves, without exception. Second, we strike those who dispatch terrorists and at terrorist infrastructure. Third, we initiate and use the element of surprise. We determine the timing of our actions, as we did in ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’ against Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and as we did in the operation against terrorists in Jenin. We are changing the equation and so we will continue,” added Netanyahu.
Israel Completes Successful Series of Tests for David’s Sling Air Defense System
Israeli security forces completed a series of training and groundbreaking experiments, which included successful interceptions using the David’s Sling system in complex scenarios simulating advanced threats, following Operation Shield and Arrow in May.

Israel’s Air Force, the Defense Ministry, and the Rafael company conducted the test to expand the system’s capabilities and significantly improve the multi-layer air defense array. The Israeli Aerospace Industry and Elbit Systems participated, as well as senior US defense officials.

The series of tests included simulations of attacks from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and drones. The successful interceptions proved the David’s Sling system capabilities during a conflict, which has been called a central component of Israel’s air defense systems, including the Arrow, Iron Dome, and the Naval Iron Dome.

Operation Shield and Arrow took place in May, and was carried out against Gaza’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It lasted five days, during which six high-ranking members of the terror group were assassinated and over 400 military positions were dismantled.

“During Operation Shield and Arrow, we witnessed for the first time the operational capabilities of the David Sling System,” the Defense Ministry’s Director General, Major General (res.) Eyal Zamir, was quoted in the statement, summarizing the significant step.

“In the challenging activity that has just ended, we witnessed the expanded operational capabilities of the system that prove the qualitative advantage and technological superiority of the State of Israel in general and in the world of defense missiles in particular as part of the layered concept that includes the Iron Dome and the weapons system Arrow,” Zamir concluded.
Stabbing attack at Jerusalem light rail stop
An attempted stabbing attack was thwarted at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in northeastern Jerusalem, police said on Sunday evening.

The lone terrorist attacked a light rail security guard, who shot her in the leg, the police added. The assailant was the only casualty.

“The female suspect was neutralized on the spot by the light rail security guard and is currently in light condition,” the statement read. The knife used by an Arab woman in an attempted stabbing attack at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in Jerusalem, July 9, 2023. Credit: Israel Police.

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai arrived at the scene, which is located across the road from the National Police Headquarters.

The security guard who foiled the attack told Shabtai that the Arab woman acted suspiciously.

“I asked her if she needed any help, and she put her hand in her bag and pulled out a knife,” he explained. “I stepped back, cocked my gun and fired two shots in the air, and told her to drop the knife. She didn’t drop it so I fired once at her knee.”

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government’s policy to combat Palestinian terrorism, saying that whoever murders Israelis “will end up in one of two places: prison or the grave.”
Women injured in Tel Aviv car ramming ‘out of danger’
Two women seriously wounded in last week’s car-ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv are “out of danger” and in stable condition, Ichilov Hospital announced Sunday.

The two women are fully conscious and breathing without the assistance of ventilators, Ichilov, which is part of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, said in a statement.

“They will continue treatment in the coming weeks,” it added.

One of the women was pregnant and lost her baby while fighting for her life in the hospital.

Last Tuesday, a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into pedestrians at a bus stop on Pinchas Rosen Street in Tel Aviv’s northeastern Ramat Hahayal neighborhood.

He then got out of the vehicle and stabbed additional victims with a sharp object. There were seven victims in total.

An armed civilian at the scene shot the assailant dead.

The terrorist was identified as Abed Halilah, who was in Israel illegally.

Hamas said that Halilah was a member of the Gaza-based terror group and praised the attack as a “heroic” response to Israel’s military operation in Jenin.
FDD: IDF Dismantles Terror Infrastructure in 48-Hour Operation in Jenin
On July 5, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from the Jenin Refugee Camp, concluding a significant but limited military operation in the northern West Bank in response to months of sustained terror attacks against Israelis. The operation involved limited fatalities on both sides, a rare outcome in dense urban combat settings, including 12 Palestinians— all identified by the IDF as militants — and one Israeli soldier from the elite Egoz unit.

Dubbed “Bayit v’Gan” — Hebrew for “house and garden” — the operation sought to dramatically degrade terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin camp, a hotbed for terrorism. According to the IDF, since last year, residents of Jenin carried out some 50 shooting attacks, and 19 wanted Palestinians have tried to evade Israeli forces by hiding out in Jenin. Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian terrorists have killed more than two dozen Israelis.

The Israeli operation involved roughly 2,000 soldiers and employed bulldozers, drones, and aircraft. During the operation, Israeli forces located multiple explosive manufacturing facilities, an underground tunnel network, weapons storage sites, and 11 improvised explosive devices intended for use against Israeli forces. The IDF also revealed that Palestinian terrorists were storing weapons and explosives in a mosque.

Although the IDF has denied ordering the evacuation of the camp, there was a sizable exodus at the onset of the fighting. Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said around 4,000 Palestinians fled, seeking refuge with relatives or shelters. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that “most” of the terrorists left Jenin ahead of the fighting.

Gallant also said the operation “fully achieved” its goal of restoring Israel’s ability to carry out security operations in the Jenin area. He went on to note that Iran is heavily involved in supporting terror in Jenin and the broader West Bank. Arms smuggling and increased funds have benefited U.S-designated terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas. These organizations have claimed responsibility for bombings and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and security personnel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that, while a success, the operation was “not a one-time thing” and that Israel will not allow Jenin to become a “haven for terror.”
BBC ME bureau chief frames the IDF operation in Jenin
Among the BBC’s early coverage of the recent two-day counter-terrorism operation in Jenin was a filmed item published on the afternoon of July 3rd with the headline ‘What is happening in Jenin… in 60 seconds’.

The BBC’s Middle East bureau chief presented his “assessment” as follows:
Floto: “This is an ongoing operation involving, we think, thousands of Israeli troops. And they’re currently operating in…mainly in the Jenin refugee camp. We do know that overnight the Israeli military launched an airstrike against what it describes as a command-and-control centre – most likely just a house where people were meeting.

Eh…they then continued with further airstrikes carried out by drones to clear the way for troops to enter Jenin refugee camp. Just to give you a picture, this is an area that’s incredibly densely populated. Tens of thousands of people live in Jenin and the surrounding areas. Narrow streets, lots of people there and the chances of people being caught in the crossfire are high. It’s a high-risk operation.

In terms of scale, we haven’t seen this level of operation in many, many years and already this year is the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005 when records were kept in the same way.”

As we see, this early framing for already underinformed BBC audiences fails to give viewers any information whatsoever about the context to the IDF operation. The word terrorism is not mentioned at all and BBC audiences are not told that the Jenin refugee camp is a major hub of Palestinian terror from which dozens of attacks against Israeli civilians have been launched in recent months.

No information regarding the various Palestinian terrorist organisations operating from Jenin – or their outside financers and backers – is provided at all. Instead, Floto frames the story as one that merely involves “Israeli troops” and local “people”.

In addition, Floto follows what has become standard BBC policy, failing to inform viewers that the reason that this is allegedly “the deadliest” year is the rise in terrorism perpetrated by various Palestinian terror factions and he airbrushes the fact that the majority of those killed were terrorists and/or males involved in violence at the time.
Terrorism Missing From PBS Jenin Report
In PBS News Hour’s report on the recent Israeli counter-terror raid in Jenin, special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen failed to provide her audience with fair and balanced coverage of the operation.

Instead, Molana-Allen chose to almost completely ignore the threat of Palestinian terrorism that emanates from Jenin while simultaneously misrepresenting the nature of the Israeli operation.

Missing Context: Terrorism Absent From PBS Report
Nowhere in the seven-minute report is it mentioned that Israel’s raid in Jenin was aimed at disrupting the activities of the terror organizations that call Jenin home and thwarting the threat posed by these terrorists to Israeli civilians and security personnel in both the West Bank and pre-1967 Israel.

Instead of providing this necessary context, the pitying report largely portrays the residents of Jenin as hapless and innocent victims of Israeli aggression, claiming that the refugee camp is “packed with up to 20,000 civilians at any one time.”

This simplistic portrayal conveniently leaves out the fact that close to 50% of these 20,000 “civilians” identifies with either Hamas or Islamic Jihad, two internationally recognized Palestinian terror organizations.

Keeping in line with the report’s refusal to allow for any mention of Palestinian terrorism, a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the success of the operation was carefully edited so that his repeated mention of terrorism was omitted.


Media Romanticize ‘Acne-Covered’ Palestinian Terrorists and Their Dreams of ‘Martyrdom’
While giving a brief history of the Jenin Battalion, Philp describes this “militant coalition that has sprung up and thrived in the squalid surroundings of the Jenin camp where this week Israel began its largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades.”

She goes on to claim the group consists “overwhelmingly” of members aged between 16 and 22, all of whom have a “burning sense of grievance” having “grown up in an era when prospects for peace were in effect dead, in a moribund economy with few jobs, their only heroes martyrs whose images blanket the camp’s alleys.”

Aside from the obvious problem of Philp’s framing of Jenin terrorists as disenchanted youngsters with little choice in life other than to pick up an M16 rifle and start shooting, the presentation of the Jenin Battalion as a sort of grass-roots youth movement is simply bizarre.

After all, the terrorist group is well-funded by Iran (which Philp acknowledges) and comprises operatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (which Philp ignores).

Indeed, the whole piece is replete with language that serves to glorify and justify Palestinian terrorism, from Philp’s quoting the uncle of one Jenin Battalion member who gushes that the new “generation is more dangerous than the previous one,” to her subtly romanticizing the “daring [Gilboa] jailbreak.”

Related Reading: Media Fails Come Thick and Fast as Israel Launches Precision Strikes on Jenin Terrorists

The piece, unfortunately, appears to be part of a trend in which media outlets publish strange terrorism puff pieces following the Jenin raid.


IDF reveals Hezbollah, Lebanese soldiers crossed into Israel
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) then assisted UN peacekeepers in returning the foreign combatants and terrorists to Lebanon

Israel’s Army Radio reported Sunday morning that dozens of armed soldiers from the Lebanese army, as well as Hezbollah operatives, entered Israeli territory for about 20 minutes last week.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) then aided UN peacekeepers in an effort to return the foreign combatants and terrorists to Lebanon, after the incursion near the area of Manara, on the Lebanese border.

According to the Army Radio report, the incident occurred on Wednesday, while the IDF was conducting during routine engineering work near the Ramim Ridge area on the northern border. The Lebanese soldiers entered Israeli territory while armed and in uniform. Video poster

The IDF reportedly chose to exercise caution and tried to resolve the incident through liaison channels within the UN peacekeeping force (UNIFIL). The Lebanese combatants remained in Israeli territory and refused to evacuate for approximately 20 minutes, after which the incident was resolved and they returned to Lebanon.

This most recently reported incident on the Lebanese border is part of a series of escalations that have occurred, including anti-tank rockets fired on Thursday, likely by Palestinians in the area. The IDF responded with artillery strikes on the launch site.

UNIFL is also mediating in the instance of a Hezbollah outpost set up within Israeli territory by the terror organization, with so far only partial compliance to the request for removal. However, there has been no official confirmation of any improvements.

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said “against any violation of our sovereignty and challenge to our presence in our country, we will respond at the time and place of our choosing, in overt and covert ways.”


Israel to discuss measures to boost PA
The Israeli Security Cabinet on Sunday will discuss a series of economic and defense measures to boost the Palestinian Authority amid the deteriorating security situation in Judea and Samaria, according to Hebrew-language media reports.

The agenda will include the possible approval of a new industrial zone in Tarqumiyah, near Hebron, as well as easing the timeline for Ramallah’s debt repayments and freedom of movement for top P.A. officials.

In June, Israel green-lighted the development of a natural gas field off the coast of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

According to Channel 13, Israeli security officials warned the government that the moves needed to be implemented quickly to prevent the P.A.’s possible collapse.

The initiative is also intended to weaken Iran-backed terror proxies Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in P.A.-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria, according the reports.
PMW: Fatah: Forget security cooperation; PA police are leaders in terror
The PA has turned to Israel and the world asking for additional funding for its Security Forces to fight terror, while at the same time, both Fatah and the PA are boasting that those same PA Security Forces are playing a central role in terror. And while some terror groups are critical of the PA Security Forces, the PA and Fatah regularly publicize explicit evidence to back up their claims.

The following Fatah video is one recent example. It shows photos of 24 armed terrorists who were salaried members of the PA Security Forces. To stress that the dual roles are not conflicting, each picture includes the logos of the terror organization and the branch of the PA military. For example, in these three pictures that follow, the logo on the top right is of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s terror branch, and beneath it is PA General Intelligence:

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed the ongoing PA and Fatah efforts to document the PA Security Forces’ central role in terror against Israel. It is as ironic as it is tragic, that a number of Western countries gave special military training to members of the PA Security Forces in addition to significant designated funding. The PA Security Forces are just one additional example of the PA's abuse and misuse of Western funding to support terror, that PMW has exposed.

In the video, each terrorist’s picture is accompanied by the name, rank, and branch of the PA security in which each served. These are the lyrics to the song that is played while the terrorists’ pictures are shown:
Terrorist who infiltrated Jewish town with a knife was “polite young man with good traits”
Official PA TV newsreader: “Young Alaa Qaisiya (i.e., terrorist) died as a Martyr after a settler opened fire on him next to the settlement of Tene Omarim (sic., Qaisiya infiltrated Tene Omarim with a knife).” …

Ahmed Qaisiya, relative of terrorist Alaa Qaisiya: “We ask Allah to have mercy on the soul of Martyr Alaa Qaisiya, the polite young man with good traits who was assassinated by Zionism’s treacherous hand.”
[Official PA TV News, May 26, 2023]

Alaa Khalil Qaisiya – 28-year-old Palestinian terrorist who infiltrated the Jewish town of Tene Omarim southwest of Hebron armed with a knife and made his way to a synagogue there to commit a stabbing attack on May 26, 2023, during prayer services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. A member of the town’s security patrol shot and killed Qaisiya before he was able to stab anyone. Qaisiya's infiltration of the town was captured by security cameras.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this video do not represent those of Palestinian Media Watch in any way. PMW monitors and analyzes the Palestinian




Col. Richard Kemp: Any Deal with Iran Requires Congressional Approval
Israel, above all nations, cannot afford for Iran to become a nuclear-armed state. It is Tehran's number-one target. Jerusalem cannot take any chances with a regime that has repeatedly stated its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and is developing the means to do so.

What is clear is that Biden has no more intention of standing by his repeated undertakings to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran than Obama had. Like his Democratic Party predecessor, Biden has rolled over to the inevitability of Tehran getting the bomb and is opting for a policy of containment based largely on appeasing the ayatollahs, camouflaged by a nuclear agreement. It amounts to nothing less than capitulation to Iranian blackmail.

Despite all the rumours and leaks, and even public murmurings of assent from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Biden Administration maintains that a formal treaty is not on the table. This putative disclaimer strongly suggests the plan is reportedly to come to an informal agreement with Iran that would not require Congressional validation: nothing in writing, and perhaps calling the agreement something like a "meeting of the minds" or whatever.

Unfortunately for the Biden Administration, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA) of 2015 was enacted by Congress, with strong bipartisan support, precisely to avoid such a sleight-of-hand.

"INARA was enacted with strong bipartisan support to ensure Congressional oversight of U.S. policy regarding Iran's nuclear program.... This definition makes clear that any arrangement or understanding with Iran, even informal, requires submission to Congress." — US Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a letter to US President Joe Biden, June 15, 2023.

Congress should not tolerate being circumvented, with its constitutional powers cynically usurped in this way.

It is not only Israel that is threatened by another nuclear-armed terrorist dictatorship, but the entire region and the world.
Jewish groups say sanctions on IRGC are 'not enough' as UK shies away from ban
Jewish leaders and experts on Iran have said the UK's decision to apply tougher sanctions against the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards does not go far enough and that the group should be fully proscribed as a terror outfit.

On Thursday, James Cleverly announced plans for a new sanctions regime that would supposedly give the UK greater powers to target Iranian "decision makers" responsible for hostile activities around the world.

But Claudia Mendoza, co-chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the JC: “It’s unclear what these sanctions will actually do to thwart Iran’s activities.

"They should certainly not come at the expense of dealing with the root of the problem, the IRGC, which should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.”

The Board of Deputies said that it commended the tougher line on Tehran, but added: "we reiterate our belief that the UK needs to proscribe the IRGC as an organisation, in full."

"The Iranian regime uses the IRGC to brutally suppress its own people, spread antisemitic propaganda and sponsor global terrorism," it said.

Kasra Arabi, Iran Programme Lead at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said that the existing sanctions regime on the IRGC was "not sufficient and has many loopholes", adding: “The failure to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation puts UK citizens at direct risk, not least members of the Iranian diaspora and Jewish community—who are the main targets of IRGC terrorism.”
BDS urges 2 South African clubs to nix friendlies against Maccabi Tel Aviv
Israel dismisses the 'apartheid' analogy, promulgated by the BDS movement, as baseless

The anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement has called on South African soccer clubs to cancel their friendlies against Maccabi Tel Aviv, scheduled for July 13 and 16 in Spain.

Maccabi are due to face Orlando Pirates and AFC Bournemouth during their pre-season training camp, but the pro-Palestinian movement is trying to dissuade the two South African teams from taking part.

“As South Africans, football fans and activists in solidarity against Israeli apartheid, we call on the Orlando Pirates not to participate in the friendly match against Maccabi Tel Aviv scheduled for July 13 in Spain. There's nothing friendly about a match against a team representing the apartheid state of Israel,” the BDS statement read.

Israel fiercely contests the deeply contentious claim that its military presence in the West Bank amounts to a regime of segregation and domination comparable to the one enforced by South Africa's white minority on the country's black majority in the latter half of the 20th century.


Row Over Inclusion of Anti-Israel Themes in German Art Exhibition on Immigrant Experiences
Yet another art exhibition on display in Germany has been sharply criticized for including an allegedly antisemitic work that accuses the Israeli government of practicing “torture” while calling for the release of a Palestinian terrorist jailed for the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.

Less than one year after the prestigious Documenta contemporary art fair was widely condemned for featuring a series of works that invoked antisemitic tropes, the controversial work, which is being shown at a new exhibition in Bonn, has aroused similar anxiety.

Peruvian artist Daniela Ortiz’s creation — titled “The ABC of Racist Europe” — is currently being shown at an exhibition themed around immigration and national identity at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. The federally funded museum attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Ortiz’s effort takes the form of a children’s picture book, with each letter of the alphabet illustrated by a word or a story concerning the experience of immigrants, the legacy of colonialism and the policies of western countries towards the Global South.
Israeli stabbed in suspected NYC antisemitic attack
An Israeli man was stabbed in New York City on late Friday night in a suspected antisemitic attack, according to Israeli media reports.

The student, a hasidic Jew, was walking in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Shabbat when two male suspects approached him and asked if he was Jewish, to which he replied in the affirmative. The assailants then stabbed him in the arm with a screwdriver.

He was released from the hospital on Saturday morning in good condition.

Yaacov Berman, a representative of the Jewish community in the Crown Heights neighborhood, reported the incident via social media after being informed of the attack by the victim.

“It is currently being investigated as a hate crime. According to the victim, he was questioned about his Jewish identity. Despite being visibly traumatized, the victim expressed gratitude for not having sustained more severe injuries,” wrote Berman.

“This incident is deeply concerning, and we have full confidence in the NYPD’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation and apprehend the perpetrators,” he added.

The Anti-Defamation League confirmed the incident, saying that “We are aware of this incident and are reaching out to law enforcement and community partners.”


Israeli national team lands in Saudi Arabia for FIFA’s video game World Cup
A team of Israeli gamers landed in Saudi Arabia on Friday to take part in the video game version of the FIFA World Cup, hosted in its capital Riyadh.

Although Israel and Saudi Arabia don’t have official relations, Israeli journalists, businessmen, and other figures have increasingly been allowed to visit the Islamic kingdom in recent years.

Three team members, their trainer, and the deputy manager entered the country via the United Arab Emirates on their Israeli passports for the event, which will run from July 16-19, according to media reports.

Zvika Kosman, manager of the team, told Kan news that he worked with FIFA to ensure the Saudis would allow the team into the country.

Kosman said Saudi authorities penned a letter stressing all participants would be allowed in the country, without specifying Israelis.

He stated that there was no direct contact between the Israeli and Saudi governments and that messages were passed along by FIFA.
Moroccan teens join JCC Maccabi Games in Israel
Seven Jewish teenagers from Morocco are participating in the JCC Maccabi Games now underway in Haifa, the first delegation from the North African country to take part in the international sports competition.

The annual event, which is billed as the largest Jewish youth sporting event in the world, is taking place in Israel for the first time in over a decade and only the second time in its four-decade history, in celebration of the state’s 75th anniversary year.

“The king of Morocco likes the Jews so there is always a lot of security and we don’t have to be scared because the police protect us,” said Aaron Tordjman, 14, from Casablanca, a soccer player. “In Israel we feel right at home. We feel [we’re] in our country.”

“It’s unusual for us to see so many Jewish people together—both secular and religious people—walking around,” added his cousin Lea Tordjman, 14, who came to play tennis. “[We feel] it is our country.”

More than 1,000 Jewish teenage athletes including 700 from North America, 300 from Israel and scores of participants from dozens of countries around the globe are taking part in the weeklong event.

Run by the JCC Association of North America and the Maccabi World Union, the sporting event, which is geared for those between the ages of 14 and 17, is separate from the more prominent Maccabiah Games, commonly known as the “Jewish Olympics,” which takes place every four years in Israel.
The true story behind the Red Sea Diving resort: i24NEWS speaks with author Raffi Berg
The true story behind the 'Red Sea Diving Resort' and the Mossad operation to rescue Ethiopian Jews: i24NEWS speaks with journalist and author Raffi Berg






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