Wednesday, July 12, 2023

07/12 Links Pt1: Iran’s shadow war; Republicans threaten Biden nominees over ‘antisemitic' boycott of Israel; NYT's Friedman: US reassessment of ties with Israel inevitable

From Ian:

What are the latest Israeli government protests about? The 'reasonableness standard' explained
For the last six months, the sight of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets has become part of daily life in the country. Since the election of Netanyahu's controversial coalition, protests and counter-protests over his planned judicial reforms have been taking place week in and week out.

This week saw a ‘Day of Disruption’, which was called in response to the Knesset passing the first reading of the Reasonableness Standard Bill on Monday evening. This bill is the latest chapter in the saga of Prime Minister Netanyahu's attempts to overrule the legal system in the country while himself facing corruption charges.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 64 to 56, would block Israel’s courts from applying the doctrine of “reasonableness” to government decisions. This permits the judiciary to overrule government decisions that are considered beyond the scope of reasonable authority.

The doctrine defines unreasonable action as a situation in which the administrative authority fails to give proper weight to all relevant considerations, and does not properly balance between all situations according to their weight.

Justice Minister Yari Levin argues that the reform is “long overdue”. He said that it was aimed at “strengthening democracy, rehabilitating governance, restoring faith in the judicial system, and rebalancing the three branches of government”.

The three branches of Israeli parliamentary democracy are the legislative (the Knesset) the executive (the government), and the judicial. Levin has argued that the reform would “restore the decision-making capability of the elected government,” and return power to elected branches of governance (the legislative and executive).

Former Supreme Court justice Moshe Landau has also supported the reforms. He argued that the reasonableness principle allows elected officials to be subverted by appointed judges – an undemocratic process. The formulation of the principle is subjective, which allows an activist court to set the terms of governance.

Those on the political left have opposed the bill. They argue that reasonableness is rarely used, except in extreme cases in which there is no other recourse to protect impacted citizens, who cannot wait until the next election for the issue to be resolved. To avoid human rights abuses, they argue that the doctrine of reasonableness must remain intact.
Protest movement fails Netanyahu’s ‘reasonableness’ test
Insincere negotiations
Netanyahu agreed, at the behest of President Isaac Herzog, to engage in negotiations with the opposition toward reaching a broad consensus on a more moderate reform package. Since then, he has repeatedly called for a compromise, and openly stated along with other judicial reform proponents that the controversial override clause would be completely removed from the agenda.

Negotiations began, with media reports that the coalition was willing to give up on many of its proposed reforms in favor of a compromise, and opposition leaders willing to acknowledge that certain reforms were warranted.

The concept of judicial reform is not foreign to the opposition. Many opposition leaders, including Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Gideon Sa’ar and Avigdor Liberman, have all previously called for reigning in the court’s overreaching authority. Herzog believed that a compromise could be reached whereby the coalition would get some meaningful degree of judicial reform, while the opposition could prevent some of the more controversial aspects.

It is now clear, however, that the opposition leaders are not interested in any form of consensus or compromise. Hell-bent on crashing Netanyahu’s stable right-wing government, the opposition has little interest in handing Netanyahu even the most minor of political victories. Nor is the opposition any longer interested in weakening a court with the power to overturn policies with which it disagrees.

As such, it was the opposition that broke off negotiations on the very day on which their own candidate was voted onto the judicial selection committee. For close to a month, Netanyahu has called for negotiations to resume. Without negotiations, Netanyahu has decided to advance a singular component—restricting the court’s ability to rule on “reasonableness.”

This component was selected precisely because its passage appears reasonable to a plurality of Israelis. As such, the overwhelming majority of Israelis who protested in March have stayed home since.


JPost Editorial: Refusing IDF service over judicial reform isn't reasonable
These calls to shirk reserve duty are highly dangerous and potentially destructive for Israel, which is under constant threat on all sides. We have seen examples of this from the beginning of 2023, with rockets from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, attempts by terrorists in Jenin to emulate their Gazan counterparts, and a quiet Hezbollah invasion in the form of tents on Israel’s side of the Lebanese border, plus an Iran that keeps plugging away at its nuclear program while sponsoring the aforementioned groups threatening Israel.

Someone fully aware of all of these challenges who can also relate to the protesters is National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

In the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week, Hanegbi recounted that he was once the leader of a protest movement that used extreme tactics. For 23 days in 1982, he and his allies barricaded themselves in a memorial in Yamit, an Israeli town in the Sinai Desert, in an attempt to stop Israel from giving the peninsula to Egypt.

Hanegbi told MKs that he had been “convinced that the peace agreement with Egypt would mean the end of Israel because we would be returning to indefensible borders.” When the protests failed, he felt “distress and concern.”

Weeks later, “when the order came to report for reserve duty for the First Lebanon War, I did not think for a moment that I would not go,” Hanegbi said.

The protesters abhor this government’s attempts to change the judicial status quo, and their demonstrations, as long as they’re within the limits of the law, must be allowed, as befits any strong democracy. However, they should take a cue from Hanegbi, who felt deeply betrayed by the government but still saw the State and people of Israel as worthy of defending from their enemies.

Hopefully, despite the massive media attention that calls to refuse orders receive, the reality will be similar to last time these threats cropped up. Reservists must realize, to paraphrase Shakespeare’s King Lear, that that way madness lies.
Protests shake Israel as government moves ahead with judicial reform
Gilad Katz, Ben-Dror Yemini and Yoav Keren debate the state of Israel as protesters hit the streets, opposing the judicial reform legislation.


Clifford D May: Iran’s shadow war: Israelis are defending themselves against Tehran’s foreign legions
The rapporteurs also called for Israelis to “end their illegal occupation” of the West Bank. Of course, Israelis do not actually “occupy” such cities as Jenin. They enter only in response to the murder of Israelis given the Palestinian Authority’s failure to govern.

If they refrained from such interventions, the West Bank would soon be fully taken over by Tehran’s proxies. That’s what happened in Gaza after Israel’s withdrawal from that territory.

More attacks on Israelis by better-armed jihadis would lead to a longer and more lethal conflict — though perhaps not as long and lethal as in Syria, where Bashar Assad, with help from Tehran, has killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs and displaced millions more.

Mr. Assad was recently welcomed back into the Arab League. Why is the “international community” harder on Israelis who defend themselves than it is on mass murderers? (Again, I suspect you know.)

I’m not so naive as to believe that Israeli lives matter to Mr. Guterres, U.N. rapporteurs, Ms. Gadgil, or many others who regard themselves as champions of “the Palestinian cause.” But shouldn’t they at least worry about the many Palestinians who would be killed in the wider “armed struggle” they’re encouraging and inciting?

Of course, once that conflict got underway, they would, as usual, denounce Israeli efforts to defend themselves as “disproportionate” and “illegal.”

Regarding the Jenin operation, Mr. Guterres on Thursday accused the Israelis of “violence against civilians” — providing no evidence that civilians were unintentionally harmed by the Israel Defense Forces while ignoring massive evidence that Islamic Jihad and Hamas intentionally kill Israeli civilians whenever they can.

Shouldn’t international civil servants and independent journalists be embarrassed to side with Iran’s rulers — even as those rulers sponsor terrorism abroad, run an illicit nuclear weapons program, and brutalize their own subjects, not least women?

While I obviously don’t think well of them, I’d like to believe they’d prefer Palestinian-Israeli peaceful coexistence over endless Palestinian “defiance.”

Imagine if they were to say to the Palestinians: “Look, we’re with you. We, too, wish the Israelis would just disappear. But Jews are not leaving the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. They’re not going to surrender or submit to living under Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or other pawns of Tehran.

“So, negotiate with them. We’ll help you get the best deal possible. We’ll put pressure on the Israelis. And, by the way, Israelis will put pressure on themselves — if they believe there’s a real possibility of ending this conflict.”

Does the scenario I’ve outlined seem sensible? I’m afraid that’s what makes it a fantasy.
Republicans threaten Biden nominees over ‘antisemitic' boycott of Israel
Fifteen US Senators threatened to hold up the process of approving Biden administration nominees if the State Department does not reverse a guidance banning US funding for scientific and technological cooperation in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria or the Golan Heights.

In a letter spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz and signed by GOP presidential primary candidate Sen. Tim Scott and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch, among others, the senators accused the Biden administration of an “antisemitic boycott of Israel.”

The Trump administration decided in 2020 to remove territorial limitations in the Binational Science Foundation, Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation and Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund agreements with Israel. All three had large endowments providing grants to American and Israeli academics and companies for research and technology, and the US and Israel signed a new science and technology agreement at the time.

Last month, the Biden administration decided that all US-Israel government-funded cooperation in those areas must take place in pre-1967 Israel, what has been the more typical position in recent decades.

The senators said that “without a reversal in these trends Congressional oversight and the expeditious vetting of nominees would become intractable.” Israeli settlers stand on a hill next to the village of Orif near the West Bank City of Nablus May 26, 2012. (credit: REUTERS/ABED OMAR QUSINI) Israeli settlers stand on a hill next to the village of Orif near the West Bank City of Nablus May 26, 2012. (credit: REUTERS/ABED OMAR QUSINI)

“The new guidance as written constitutes an antisemitic boycott of Israel,” the senators stated, pointing out that “the State Department’s own Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism was excluded from deliberations over this guidance and did not clear it.”

According to the senators, “the American people and Congress broadly and deeply oppose boycott efforts against Israel, which have been repeatedly defined in US law as efforts to limit commercial with persons doing business in any territories controlled by Israel… This guidance in particular puts Americans’ safety, security, and prosperity at risk because it politicizes and undermines cooperation on science and technology, including in areas such as defense and medicine where also our Israeli allies have proven themselves critical partners.”


NYT's Friedman: US reassessment of ties with Israel inevitable
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in a column Tuesday that a reassessment by the United States of ties with Israel was "inevitable" due to the "unprecedented radical behavior" by the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Friedman claimed that Netanyahu was being "led around by the nose" by "extreme" cabinet members, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, risking a breakdown in Israel-US ties and a civil war in Israel.

He also claimed that the judicial reform undermined ties with the US.

"Such a huge change to Israel's widely respected judicial system, which has guided the emergence of a remarkable start-up economy, is something that should be done only after study by nonpartisan experts and with a broad national consensus," Friedman wrote. "That is how real democracies do these things, but there has been none of that in Netanyahu's case. It underscores that this whole farce has nothing to do with judicial 'reform' and everything to do with a naked power grab by each segment of Netanyahu's Coalition."

Friedman also accused the Netanyahu government of "occupying the West Bank" and opposing "the establishment of a Palestinian state."

"Netanyahu's steady destruction of this shared fiction is now posing a real problem for other US and Israeli shared interests: It threatens the stability of Jordan, a vital US and Israeli interest. It is driving the Arab states that joined with Israel in the Abraham Accords to take a step back. It is giving the Saudis real pause about moving ahead with normalization with such an unpredictable Israeli regime," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, who came to power in December, is yet to receive an invitation to the White House. President Joe Biden has recently said that he was not planning to invite the Israeli prime minister any time soon.
Israel ‘unaware’ of any US decision to reevaluate special bond
In his NYT column, Friedman claimed that Netanyahu was being “led around by the nose” by “extreme” Cabinet members, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, risking a breakdown in Israel-U.S. ties and a civil war in Israel, Israel Hayom reported.

He also claimed that the judicial reform undermined ties with the U.S.

“Such a huge change to Israel’s widely respected judicial system, which has guided the emergence of a remarkable start-up economy, is something that should be done only after study by nonpartisan experts and with a broad national consensus,” Friedman wrote. “That is how real democracies do these things, but there has been none of that in Netanyahu’s case. It underscores that this whole farce has nothing to do with judicial ‘reform’ and everything to do with a naked power grab by each segment of Netanyahu’s coalition.”

Friedman also accused the Netanyahu government of “occupying the West Bank” and opposing “the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

“Netanyahu’s steady destruction of this shared fiction is now posing a real problem for other U.S. and Israeli shared interests: It threatens the stability of Jordan, a vital U.S. and Israeli interest. It is driving the Arab states that joined with Israel in the Abraham Accords to take a step back. It is giving the Saudis real pause about moving ahead with normalization with such an unpredictable Israeli regime,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, who came to power in December, has yet to receive an invitation to the White House. President Joe Biden has recently said that he was not planning to invite the Israeli prime minister any time soon.


DeSantis blasts Biden over Netanyahu snub
Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on Tuesday denounced U.S. President Joe Biden over his failure to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

“Biden meets with dictators of countries such as Venezuela but snubs the democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is not how you should treat an ally,” the presidential hopeful noted on Twitter.

Biden has been widely criticized for neglecting to invite Netanyahu to Washington. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman recently told JNS that his failure to do so was “despicable.”

In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides expressed concerns about Netanyahu’s plans to reform the country’s judicial system, revealing that he had urged the premier to “tap the brakes, slow down.”

Nides is set to depart his position this summer after two years in the post.

“I think most Israelis want the United States to be in their business,” the diplomat claimed in his parting remarks, adding that “with that sometimes comes a modicum of a price, which is articulating when we think things are going off the rails.”

DeSantis slammed the comments as “disrespectful” and false.


Hamas Praises UN Official’s Anti-Israel Statements
Hamas on Tuesday praised United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for describing the West Bank and Gaza as an “open-air prison” during public statements she made to announce the release of a new report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Albanese, citing postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault, accused Israel of limiting the movements of Palestinians, as well as surveilling and disciplining them.

“In her speech, Albanese shed light on the Israeli crimes and violations against the Palestinian people that have turned the occupied Palestinian territories into an open-air prison where all forms of discrimination and apartheid are exercised against the Palestinian people,” said the group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Hamas then called for sanctions against Israel, saying, “The UN must take more measures to hold Israeli occupation leaders accountable for crimes and violations against the Palestinian people.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: The UN Must Help Calm The French Riots By Condemning Israel by Ken Roth, former Director, Human Rights Watch (satire)
A significant number of human rights activists from my former organization and allied NGOs – Amnesty International and Btselem foremost among them – understand the crucial need to warn against enforcement excesses against the protesters; that message forms the bread and butter of human rights discourse when events such as these develop. They, and we, also realize that the cause of human rights suffers unless it centers the plight of Palestinians – and that, therefore, the only appropriate response to the riots in France and their suppression must involve condemnation of Israel.

At the very least, critique of the French response – which should of course consume the bulk of our concern; any depredations of the rioters deserve no more than token criticism; these are Muslims, after all, whom our NGOs may not criticize – must make explicit the parallel with, if not the dependence on, the unfortunate dynamic in Israel-Palestine.

In this respect, our NGO networks have performed well. Any mention of the rioters vandalizing a Holocaust memorial and calling for another Holocaust, they only mention among a flood of other reports humanizing, justifying, and supporting the rioters – if they mention it at all. Amnesty, after all, voted not to include antisemitism as an issue of concern; who can blame them for ignoring it? Funding from dictatorships might dry up if too many people other than Jews (or their US proxies) star in human rights NGO opprobrium.

Resolution of the French situation may well prove critical to the stability of the country, to Europe as a whole, and to global affairs – but that pales in comparison with how it affects, or even merely reflects, Palestine and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians. Trust the human rights community to shrug at whatever resolution, if any, emerges from the French situation. We have much bigger gefilte fish to fry.
Israeli defense minister makes official visit to Azerbaijan
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will head to Azerbaijan on Wednesday for a three-day official visit, the ministry’s press office announced in a statement.

Gallant is scheduled to meet with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, his Azerbaijani counterpart Gen. Zakir Hasanov, Chief of the State Border Service Col. Gen. Elchin Guliyev and other senior defense officials.

“Minister Gallant is conducting the visit with the aim of further strengthening the strategic ties between Israel and Azerbaijan in the fields of diplomacy, security and technology. This includes widening defense and industrial cooperation between the countries,” said the Israeli Defense Ministry, adding that Gallant is expected to discuss “opportunities to increase regional security and stability.”

On Monday, Azerbaijani security forces reportedly thwarted an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Baku. Afghan citizen Fawzan Mosa Khan was arrested by Azerbaijan police on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against an unspecified foreign embassy.

While the statement by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service did not specify the embassy, the Turan local news outlet noted that the video released by the State Security Service indicated that the suspect had been surveilling the area where the Israeli Embassy is located.
Leo Dee urges end to PA funding, Palestinian chance to work in Israel
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two teenage daughters were killed in a Palestinian terror attack, called on Wednesday for Jerusalem to terminate all funding to the Palestinian Authority and to grant Palestinians the possibility to work in Israel.

The British-born Efrat resident, who garnered national and international headlines for his message of unity in the wake of the deadly April shooting, directed the impassioned plea at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting of the Knesset’s Israel Victory Caucus.

“The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist state, which finances murderers and terrorists,” he said, of the notorious “pay-for-slay” program, in which the P.A. doles money out to the families of terrorists.

“There is no two-state solution or future possible with an authority that bankrolls terror,” he added.

Dee–who in May was offered Israeli special envoy status to Jewish communities worldwide–said that foreign ministers and ambassadors from multiple Western countries have admitted to him that the two-state solution, which they have peddled for more than three decades, is no longer viable.

“Without exception, they have acknowledged privately that the two-state solution is a dead horse,” he said.
IDF thwarts Hezbollah attempt to damage border fence
The Israel Defense Forces foiled on Wednesday an attempt to damage the fence along the northern border with Lebanon.

Several suspects approached the barrier, prompting troops to use unspecified dispersal methods, according to the military.

“The IDF will continue to act to prevent any violation of the sovereignty of the State of Israel,” it added.

A security source in southern Lebanon told AFP that Israeli fire wounded three Hezbollah members.

The incident comes on the 17th anniversary of the start of the 2006 war between the IDF and Hezbollah.


Tensions on Lebanon border rise ahead of war anniversary
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on border with Lebanon continue to rise ahead of the 17th anniversary of the 2nd Lebanon War




The Israel Guys: Israel's Government is TRYING TO SAVE the Palestinian Government From COLLAPSE
Support the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund to provide therapy for children who have suffered from trauma in Israel: https://rb.gy/5irw5

In a surprising announcement, Israel’s cabinet voted to take measures to rescue the Palestinian Authority this week. Since the Palestinian Authority has sworn to destroy Israel, constantly pays hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists who have killed Jews, and is swimming in corruption, violence and injustice, many wonder why Israel would take measures to prop up this incredibly biased and corrupt institution.

On today’s program, Luke digs into who the Palestinian Authority really is, and why Israel is interested in keeping their government from collapsing.




Contact lost with 290 Israelis in India amid storms, floods
About 290 Israelis in India couldn't be reached and were being tracked down in India on Wednesday amid stormy weather and flooding, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Israelis Abroad Department in the Foreign Ministry received multiple inquiries on Tuesday about Israeli relatives in India whose location was unknown.

Deputy ambassador Ohad Nakash Kaynar traveled by helicopter to the area affected by the storms on Wednesday in order to contact Israeli tourists in the area.

"The Foreign Ministry has entered a special operations format in light of the severe weather in northern India. I have instructed the director general of the ministry to allocate whatever resources are required to ensure the safety of all Israeli travelers in the area and to update their families on their condition as soon as possible. A senior representative from our embassy in India will arrive on the ground to help the local forces contact the travelers from Israel. This is another example of the Foreign Ministry's activity in Israel and around the world for the sake of the citizens of Israel."

The Foreign Ministry estimated on Wednesday afternoon that it would able to contact many of the disconnected Israelis within a matter of hours.
Israeli kidnapped for ransom in Ethiopia
An Israeli citizen was abducted during a visit to Ethiopia's Gondar region last week, the Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday evening.

Jerusalem told Hebrew media that officials were working with Interpol on the matter. Additionally, the Israeli consul in Addis Ababa is said to be in contact with local authorities to "bring about the release of the Israeli citizen as soon as possible, safe and sound."

According to reports, the 79-year-old abductee had sent a voicemail to his family saying, "Help me. I'm in the middle of the jungle. It's raining hard. Help me… This trouble I wouldn't wish upon my enemies."

He reportedly also called on family members to collect ransom money, leading Israeli officials to believe the background is criminal.

Israel does not currently advise against travel to the Horn of Africa country's Amhara region, which includes Gondar, but the US State Department warns of "sporadic violent conflict and civil unrest" there.
PMW: PA libel: Israel is behind violence and killings in Israeli Arab society
PA PM: “Israel, as a colonialist and settler state, is taking action to destroy the spirit of unity in the Palestinian society in the Interior (i.e., Israel), is spreading strife, and is not enforcing order”

PA TV: Israel’s “goal is to dismantle the Arab public in the Interior”

Israeli Arab journalist: “The official Israeli policy [is] to escalate every conflict and every tension in the Palestinian public in the Interior… They want to escalate every internal conflict”

Israeli Arab lawyer: “The Israeli police and government are capable of eliminating the crime, but they are not interested in this. They want the crime to continue to spread so as to subordinate the Arab willpower to this police”

Israel Police: “When someone is killed in an Arab city there are no witnesses. Everyone closes the window. They didn't see and didn't hear. It's a way of life and not something that the police is to blame for”


Brother quotes terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi: “One who is sure-footed walks like an angel”
Official PA TV program We Were There, on terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led the murder of 37, 12 of them children

Brother of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi: “[Dalal] joined Fatah when she was in the student organization… A number of days before she set out… she wrote a very beautiful expression: … ‘One who is sure-footed walks like an angel.’””
[Official PA TV, We Were There, May 23, 2023]

Dalal Mughrabi – female Palestinian terrorist who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.


Sister of dead teen terrorist says he wished to follow his Martyr friend
Sister of dead teen terrorist Nur Al-Din Marshoud, Selah Marshoud: “I’m the only sister. He asked me for a present for his birthday: That I would give him a [phone] cover and a necklace with the Martyr Ashraf (i.e., terrorist), his friend. He went to Ashraf, his friend. Praise Allah, he wished to go to Ashraf, and he went to him.”
[Palpost Telegram Channel, July 4, 2023]

Majdi Ar’arawi, Ali Al-Ghoul and Nur Al-Din Marshoud – Palestinian teen terrorists aged 16, 17, and 17 respectively who were killed during Israel’s Operation Home and Garden, a counter-terror operation in Jenin that started on July 3, 2023. Majdi Ar’arawi belonged to the Islamic Jihad terror organization, Ali Al-Ghoul, belonged to Hamas, while Nur Marshoud, belonged to Fatah’s terror wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.


Jenin residents worry international reconstruction aid may be misappropriated by PA
Following Israel’s anti-terror operation last week in Jenin, residents of the West Bank city have taken to social media to express their worries that international donations toward its reconstruction will not reach the local population and will instead be pocketed by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials.

Millions of dollars have already been pledged by Arab countries to rebuild roads and buildings damaged in the operation. The UAE pledged $15 million, Algeria $30 million, and more donations are expected to come from Qatar and other countries, while funds have also been collected from Palestinian individuals.

A ministerial committee formed by the PA to assess the damage announced on Thursday that around $15.5 million would be needed for the reconstruction. Most of the damage caused in the 48-hour military operation is concentrated in the Jenin refugee camp.

The large volume of donations prompted some local residents to wonder about how the Palestinian Authority will spend it. Some have expressed concerns that the money will meet the fate of “many projects that the Palestinian Authority has promoted over the decades and have remained a dead letter,” according to the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency, whose website is banned in the PA-controlled West Bank.

Young activist Mona al-Rimawi, 21, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp, suggested that the PA may use the money left over after the reconstruction for its own purposes.

On Sunday, al-Rimawi wrote on Twitter: “The cost for the reconstruction of the Jenin camp is 15 million dollars. Forty-five million have already been handed to the Palestinian Authority from the UAE and Algeria, without counting private citizens’ donations and the Qatari grant.”


Seth Frantzman: Russia and Gulf countries seek to increase cooperation
Russia held a meeting with the Gulf States this week in what is the sixth ministerial meeting of Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The meeting has added importance this year because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and also other shifting global issues that put the Gulf states in a unique position. The Gulf has also hosted important Chinese delegations and this week the N7 Initiative is holding a meeting in Bahrain. That means the Gulf is increasingly a center of world affairs.

According to Arab News, the “GCC countries are keen to enhance all forms of cooperation with Russia, secretary-general of the GCC, Jassim al-Budaiwi, said.” The countries discussed increasing cooperation on economic issues and also regarding energy issues. This includes both oil and also clean energy.

“The Gulf countries and Russia also praised the successful efforts of the OPEC+ countries in this regard, and said there needed to be continued cooperation of all participating countries to adhere to the OPEC+ agreement in a way that served the interests of the global economy,” Arab News said. Gulf State ties with Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine

The Gulf States don’t want to take a major stand on the Russia-Ukraine war. They prefer non-interference in “internal affairs.” However, it’s not clear how Russia’s invasion is an “internal” issue.

“We have a unified position with the Gulf states towards Syria's unity and sovereignty over its lands, and Syria's return to the Arab League has positively affected the region,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Lavrov also discussed solving the Yemen conflict. Recently a new diplomatic era in the region has opened doors to peace deals. This has been the case with the Iran-Saudi deal and other initiatives.
Egypt at a crossroads: Has el-Sissi's decade in power been a success?
It has been nearly a decade since then-General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi came to power as president of Egypt following a military coup.

July 3, 2013, began as a regular day in Cairo, with demonstrations held against then-President Mohamed Morsi, but ended in his dramatic ouster.

The Egyptians took to the streets for seven long months. Some due to Morsi's attempt to reinstate an Islamist-led parliament, others due to the energy crisis. Following the coup, there were suspicions that the Egyptian military had manipulated the fuel prices to destabilize the government.

A gas manager said of the events in 2013, "Before the demonstrations, I would send two of my workers to negotiate all night so that we would have enough gas, and it didn't always work. Tonight, [following the protests,] both pumps were full and the supplier called to ask if we needed more."

Like many other fields in Egypt, the fuel industry is also under the influence of the military.

The Muslim Brotherhood did not give up easily. In the weeks following Morsi's ouster, violent clashes took place between their members and the security forces, leading to thousands of deaths. The next step was to declare the movement illegal and embark on an unprecedented arrest campaign.

A decade later, el-Sissi himself now faces a similar problem: the Egyptian pound is decreasing in value and the projects he announced, including the building of new cities and highways, are a burden on the state budget.

The highlight of the massive construction boom is the new administrative capital that is being built east of Cairo but is several years behind schedule. These ventures, which resemble those of real estate giants Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, led to harsh criticism against el-Sissi.
NATO Summit Slams Iran Over Nuclear Program, Military Support for Russia
The NATO defense alliance issued a stern condemnation of Iran on Tuesday, calling on the Tehran regime to curb its nuclear activities and end its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In their final declaration following the summit of the 31-member alliance in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, NATO leaders said they remained clear in their “determination that Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon.”

The statement underlined that NATO continues to be “deeply concerned about Iran’s escalation of its nuclear program. We call on Iran to fulfill its legal obligations under its Non-Proliferation Treaty-required safeguards agreement and political commitments regarding nuclear non-proliferation without further delay.”

The statement separately noted that “Iran’s support to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has an impact on Euro-Atlantic security.” The alliance called on Iran to “cease its military support to Russia, in particular its transfer of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which have been used to attack critical infrastructure, causing widespread civilian casualties.”
‘Completely Unacceptable’: House Foreign Affairs Chair Slams State Department’s Handling of Suspended Iran Envoy
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Tuesday slammed the State Department for its inadequate response to his request for information about the suspension of Robert Malley, the US Special Envoy for Iran.

Malley is officially on leave without pay pending an FBI investigation into his potential mishandling of classified information. CNN first reported on 29 June that Malley has been on leave since his security clearance was suspended at an unspecified date earlier in the year. On 30 June, McCaul wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding a detailed accounting of Malley’s suspension, which the State Department responded to on Tuesday.

The State Department’s response letter said that the department “is not in a position to provide further documents or information related to this personnel-security clearance matter” and said that it needed additional time to respond to McCaul’s request about Malley’s leave status given the “sensitivity” and “privacy related interests” of that information.

“This is an absolutely unacceptable response,” McCaul said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “Congress deserves to know exactly why the U.S. Special Envoy to Iran had his security clearance suspended, was then suspended from his position, and now, according to news reports, is being investigated by the FBI. This is a person whose mission is to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran – nothing could be more serious than this. I will be following up with the State Department to get a classified briefing next week.”

McCaul’s 30 June letter said that the State Department’s failure to inform Congress about Malley’s status “demonstrates at best a lack of candor, and at worst represents deliberate and potentially unlawful misinformation.”


European intel report: Iran moves toward possible atom bomb test in defiance of Western sanctions
A fresh batch of damning European intelligence reports reveal that the Islamic Republic of Iran sought to bypass U.S. and EU sanctions to secure technology for its nuclear weapons program with a view toward testing an atomic bomb.

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which first published translations of the intelligence documents on its website, the security agencies of Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany revealed sensitive data during the first six months of 2023 on the Iranian regime's illicit nuclear weapons proliferation activities. The reports mainly cover Iran’s alleged illegal conduct in 2022.

The most shocking revelation in the trove of intelligence data was from the Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service (AVID) that determined Iran’s astonishingly fast development of weapons-grade uranium "brings the option of a possible [Iranian] first nuclear test closer."

Fox News Digital reached out to AVID for comment.

IRAN REGIME CLOSE TO GETTING NUCLEAR BOMB, BUT WHAT'S THE HOLDUP?
"Last year, Iran proceeded with its nuclear program," the Dutch report noted. "The country continues to increase stocks of 20% and 60% enriched uranium. By means of centrifuges, this can be used for further enrichment to the 90% enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon."

In this picture released by the Iranian Defense Ministry May 25, 2023, a Khorramshahr-4 missile is launched at an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

According to the Netherlands' intelligence report, "Iran is further ignoring the agreements that were made within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). And by deploying increasingly more sophisticated uranium enrichment centrifuges it is enlarging its enrichment capacity."
US intelligence says Iran not currently developing nuclear weapons
A US intelligence assessment released on Monday said Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons at the moment but has ramped up activities that could help it develop them.

The assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Iran has moved to increase its capacity to produce an atomic bomb since 2020 but has stopped short of that so far.

The findings corresponded with previous US assessments about Iran’s nuclear program, although many in Congress and elsewhere have been skeptical of those.

The Biden administration has been defending its desire to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, since it first took office. That effort has been complicated in recent months by the suspension of its chief negotiator, Rob Malley, who was placed on unpaid leave last month pending an investigation into claims he mishandled classified information.

“Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device,” according to the two-page unclassified synopsis of the report.

However, Iran is also pursuing “research and development activities that would bring it closer to producing the fissile material needed for completing a nuclear device following a decision to do so,” the report said.
MEMRI: Iranian Officials: Iranian President's Recent Visit To Latin America Can Be Considered 'A Maneuver In America's Back Yard'; 'The World Seems To Be Ready For A Change In The Global Order'
n June 12-19, 2023, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a five-day tour of three Latin American countries – Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba – at the head of a political and economic delegation.[1] Iranian spokespersons explained that the tour had two goals: a political goal, of forming an anti-American political coalition "in America's back yard," and an economic goal, of realizing Iran's economic interests in the Latin American market while circumventing the U.S. sanctions on it. In this context it is worth mentioning remarks made by Iranian commentator Ali Asghar Zarei in a June 27, 2023 interview with the ISNA news agency. Shedding light on Iran's map of strategic interests vis-a-vis the U.S., including in Latin America, he said: "In his speeches in the recent years, [Supreme] Leader [Ali Khamenei] has repeatedly used the phrase 'historic turning point,' and stressed in this context that the world is on the brink of significant changes. We see these changes reflected in regional cooperation in various parts of the world, including in East Asia and West Asia [the Middle East] and in Latin America. In the recent period we have witnessed the gradual collapse of America's monopoly and hegemony, and the failure of the notion of forming a unipolar [world] order. Global interactions have prepared the ground for a new world order… We have witnessed the emergence of regional powers and organizations like BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] and the Shanghai Pact,[2] and the gradual ousting of the [U.S.] dollar from international trade… In this framework, the Islamic countries can play an important role in shaping the new world order, thus restoring the Islamic nation to its proper place. In the new state of the global economy and the world order, the Arab and Islamic countries can play an important role by coopering with developing countries in Africa and Latin America, while [also] interacting with countries like China and Russia… Iran's capabilities in new high technologies and in the domains of missiles and defense have caused some of the countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, to somewhat change their attitude towards Iran…"[3]

This report presents some statements by Iranian officials stressing the potential for political and economic cooperation between Iran and Latin America against the U.S.

Hojatollah Firouzi, Member Of Majlis Industries And Mines Committee: Venezuela Has Extensive Economic Potential And Is A Good Market For Us; We Can Operate There In Various Fields

In a June 16, 2023 interview with the ISNA news agency, Hojatollah Firouzi, a member of the Majlis Industries and Mines Committee, highlighted the strained relations that prevail between most Latin American countries and the U.S., and hoped that Iran could take advantage of this tension to cooperate with these countries economically and politically and to sell them technical and engineering services. He said: "

"The foreign policy of the Raisi government focuses on interaction with [a range of] world countries, and the [Iranian] politicians are trying to expand [Iran's] foreign relations. Among the countries that have extensive potential to benefit us economically and politically, thanks to their geographical location, are Latin American countries, with which we have had good relations in the past, especially Venezuela. [This country] has extensive economic potential and is a good market for us, and we can operate there in various fields. We share various political goals with Venezuela, and Raisi's visit to this country can no doubt realize these goals, which are [also] economic, based on the preplanning that was done and the elements that took part in the visit..."

Firouzi added that this visit could be considered "a maneuver in America's back yard," and that "the world too seems to be ready for a change in the global order. Different countries have been suffering from this situation [i.e., from the prevailing world order] for years. The countries of Latin America, situated in America's back yard, have been in conflict with America for years, due to their differences with it. America repeatedly tried to instigate 'color revolutions' within them, albeit without success..."




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