Monday, August 14, 2023
David Singer: Time for MBS to show courage and think out of the box
The possibility of Israel and Saudi Arabia doing a peace deal rests on the shoulders of one man - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).
MBS has to clarify whether any peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is dependent solely on a Palestinian Arab State being created between Israel and Jordan - by answering this one question:
“Will Israel’s agreement to implement the 2022 Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (HKOPS) - rather than the 2002 Saudi Arabia-Arab Peace Initiative – enable you to commence negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia?”
If MBS answers “Yes”: An Israel-Saudi Arabia peace deal is highly possible. If MBS answers “No”: Why is HKOPS unacceptable?
HKOPS is the revolutionary and circuit-breaking solution that burst onto the international stage on 8 June 2022. It calls for merger of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Gaza and part of the 'West Bank' into one territorial entity to be named the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with its capital being located in Amman – not Jerusalem.
Authored by a confidante of MBS – Ali Shihabi – HKOPS was first published in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News. The solution was amended shortly thereafter but surprisingly was not republished in Al Arabiya News or any other Saudi news outlet.
Amazingly HKOPS has received virtually:
no mention in the international media
no analysis by international analysts or think tanks and
no acknowledgement at the United Nations as an alternative solution to replace the failed two-state solution adopted by Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016
Wresting Land Rights from Israel Using a 'Historic' Arab Village That Never Existed
This is Part 3 of a 10-part series exposing the underreported joint European and Palestinian program to bypass international law and establish a de facto Palestinian state on Israeli land.The Israel Guys: The SECRET Palestinian Takeover of the WEST BANK {Episode 1}
The particular case of Khan al Ahmar demonstrates how far the Palestinian Authority and European Union will go in their quest to delegitimize Israel and garner international sympathy.
By the 1970s, many Bedouin Arabs had abandoned their nomadic shepherding traditions, taking advantage of the livelihood the newly established state of Israel afforded them. Advertisement - story continues below
During this time, after a blood feud occurred within the Jahalin Bedouins, an offshoot of a larger tribe, some families were forced out and migrated from southern Israel to Maaleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the north between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
They set up a cluster of tents, ignoring its hazardous location due to its proximity to a major highway, and began illegally tapping into the municipality’s water and electricity lines.
Knowing full well that their presence was illegal, many of the Bedouins cooperated with Israeli orders to evacuate. Some relocated, while others signed relocation agreements and were preparing to leave.
But instead of allowing this routine zoning enforcement case to be settled like any other real estate dispute involving squatters, the Palestinians and their European backers decided to act as the Jahalin’s representatives and turn this into an international spectacle.
First, they fabricated a name for this lawless encampment to make it appear historic: “Khan al Ahmar.” From there, they complained to the media that this destitute group of Arabs was being threatened with forced removal and ethnic cleansing.
They accompanied their manufactured narrative with images of barefoot Bedouin children and began pumping money into the settlement, even building these “dispossessed” children a school.
Eventually, the Bedouins were convinced that they should stay put, while the PA and EU launched four separate lawsuits starting in 2009 with the Israeli Supreme Court, an activist body consisting of self-selected and largely liberal judges who have crafted a supra-democratic system in which actors with no legal standing are invited to file unlimited petitions against the state.
You’ve heard about the illegal settlements located in the occupied territories in the West Bank. You’ve heard of the violent, extremist settlers who have chosen to live and settle in this volatile region of the world.
What you haven’t heard of, is the Philistine settlers that are illegally building houses in the West Bank at the rate of 15 structures every single day. That’s 105 per week, 450 per month, and 5,335 every year.
Welcome to our new series, where we’re going to take you behind the scenes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, exposing Israel’s enemy from deep within. Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride.
Martin Sherman: Distorting the Declaration
Several Bibi-phobic opposition politicians also pounced on the Declaration in an effort to exploit it for their anti-government purposes. Thus, Yair Lapid, with his usual superficial mindlessness, proposed that a way out of the judicial reform impasse would be to compose a constitution, something that has eluded Israeli leaders for almost eight decades. This prospective constitution, he said, should commence with the Declaration of Independence, which according to him, “expressed the moral heart of the nation.”Jonathan Tobin: A monolithic media, essential to the left, imperils democracy
Benny Gantz has repeatedly invoked the Declaration in his regular anti-reform harangues. In one public appearance, he said that we need to find “a new balance, to recalibrate the way we live with one another … to make us stable and share the same vision,” stipulating that Israel’s Declaration of Independence embodies that vision.
As I mentioned previously, it is difficult to know whether these anti-government Declaration enthusiasts have bothered to read the document they so fervently embrace, or whether they are merely banking on the hope that their audience has not.
After all, the focus of Israel’s Declaration of Independence is overwhelmingly on Jewish sovereignty and political independence in the ancestral Jewish homeland—not on liberal democratic governance.
Prescribing Jewish sovereignty, not liberal democracy
Indeed, the briefest content analysis of the Declaration will reveal that the words “Jew” or “Jewish” are mentioned over 20 times—virtually always in reference to the exercise of Jewish sovereignty, national independence and self-determination.
Likewise, the terms “nation” or “nationalism” appear over 10 times (not including references to the “United Nations” or “League of Nations”).
On the other hand, the Declaration uses the words “equal” or “equality” only twice, exclusively in the context of civil rights, not national rights. The words “democracy” or “democratic” and “liberal” or “liberalism” do not appear at all.
The Declaration is replete with references to the historical birthplace of the Jewish people, their connection to the land, their tradition and heritage, and the Bible. All of these are likely anathema to many of the current left-leaning Bibi-phobic demonstrators, who have adopted the Declaration as the centerpiece of their professed socio-political creed.
Indeed, the leaders of the opposition would do well to study the fables of Aesop, who warned, “Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!”
As different as the United States and Israel are, the events of the last several months have shown that the political and media cultures of the two nations are growing more and more alike. Nothing demonstrates that better than the current campaign to silence Israeli television’s Channel 14.Three US presidential campaigns respond to Biden’s Netanyahu snub
A free and politically diverse press is essential to democracy. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that if given the choice between, “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
That’s a view that Jefferson eventually rejected once he became the target of blistering criticism and abuse from newspapers that supported his political opponents. Yet he was right to understand that without the free flow of information, democracy becomes a sham. Many of us now get our news on the Internet, as well as from broadcast and cable outlets, as newspaper readership continues to show a steep decline, especially among those under 40. But genuine democracy requires a competition of ideas, views and interpretations of events today just as much as it did in the 18th century. And where such a competition doesn’t exist, it must be created.
Filling an underserved niche
The late great commentator Charles Krauthammer memorably explained the astonishing success of Fox News by pointing out that its founders had filled an underserved niche of the national television news audience. But the problem for its competitors, as well as for those who disliked its conservative leanings, was that this niche comprised “half of the American people.” Until the station’s founding in October 1996, those viewers had no alternative to the uniformly liberal news available on broadcast outlets and existing cable channels. Fox not only survived in a competitive environment but soon assumed a position of dominance, routinely attracting larger audiences than its major cable competitors—CNN and MSNBC—combined.
Channel 14 may be on a similar trajectory. That’s because it can offer the half of the Israeli people who voted for the parties that make up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the election he won last November an alternative to other television news outlets, which are uniformly on the political left.
Over the years, Fox’s liberal and left-wing detractors have seized various pretexts to repeatedly demand that it be shut down, but they’ve failed. The network’s ratings have only declined recently because of the perception on the part of some in its audience that it is moving more to the left.
The media and business environment in Israel, however, is very different. That’s why the efforts of politicians and now some major businesses to try to organize efforts to strangle Channel 14 should be taken seriously.
The protest movement that is doing everything it can to topple Netanyahu and halt moves to reform an out-of-control and unaccountable judiciary claims to be trying to save democracy. If that’s true, then the effort to shut down the one pro-Netanyahu outlet is something that ought to concern them. But as we’ve seen in the United States, where the Biden administration has sought illegally to try and collude with Big Tech and social media to silence dissent while claiming to be defending democracy against its political opponents, the Israeli left has consistently tried to play the same game.
It’s the gift that keeps on not giving.Fitch reaffirms Israel’s A+ rating with ‘stable’ outlook
Months after Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected Israeli prime minister late last year, U.S. President Joe Biden has yet to invite the leader of one of Washington’s closest allies to the White House.
The Biden administration has twice extended an invitation to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and Herzog made his latest trip to Washington in mid-July. Some decried that invitation as a breach of protocol, as Israel’s presidency is a symbolic role, while the prime minister heads the government.
Then diplomatic protocol seesawed again, and again. Timed around Herzog’s visit, Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone, after which the Israeli leader announced that he had finally been invited to meet Biden. But rather than that being the end of the story, White House and State Department spokesmen have repeatedly declined to name the venue of the meeting, even when asked to confirm that it was to be the White House.
And then, last week, Israeli media reported that the Biden administration had confirmed it had not invited Netanyahu to the White House, although articles cited atmospheric quotes from the White House stating, as it had for weeks, that the meeting would occur somewhere in the United States, rather than flat-out denying a White House meeting.
As the Biden administration demurs in its public statements about the nature of the invitation, JNS sought answers from declared 2024 candidates about how soon, if at all, into their presidencies they would invite Netanyahu—or another Israeli prime minister—to the White House, and what they made of Biden’s handling of a potential Oval Office invite to the Israeli premier. Three campaigns responded.
U.S. credit evaluation firm Fitch Ratings on Monday reaffirmed Israel’s A+ score with a “stable” outlook, causing the Tel Aviv stock market to rise and the shekel to strengthen against the dollar and the euro.Yesh Atid MK defies Lapid, calls for unity government with Netanyahu
“Israel’s ‘A+’ rating balances a diversified, resilient and high value-added economy and strong external finances against a relatively high government debt/GDP ratio, ongoing security risks and a record of unstable governments that has hindered policymaking,” Fitch said.
The firm indicated that it was unclear how the government’s judicial reform initiative will impact Israel’s credit metrics in the future, although it could bring negative changes “if the weakening of institutional checks leads to worse policy outcomes or sustained negative investor sentiment or weakens governance indicators.”
However, Fitch said that the current judicial reform measures “are unlikely to trigger a material exodus of talent and capital in the high-tech sector.”
The company held a round of meetings with Israeli economic officials ahead of the latest report, with one of its economists visiting Israel last month to discuss judicial reform developments.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued a joint statement, saying, “The approval of Israel’s credit rating at the level of A+ and the leaving of the forecast at ‘stable’ prove what we have been saying all the time: Israel’s economy is strong, stable and solid.”
In May, Fitch Ratings issued a special update regarding Israel, when it complimented its economic strength but expressed concern that the judicial reform effort could hurt Israel’s A+ sovereign credit rating.
Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern "would be delighted" if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to form a unity government with the opposition faction, he told Army Radio in a Monday morning interview.In New York Times ad, prominent Netanyahu critics spurn unity government prospect
"I would be delighted if Netanyahu puts forward such an offer," Stern, a former intelligence minister, told Army Radio. "If he does, it will be on the table and we will have a discussion.
"I was never against the possibility of an extremist-free unity government," the former minister stressed.
Stern’s comments come a few weeks after there was much speculation if Netanyahu would drop Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party to take on Yesh Atid and National Unity, headed by Benny Gantz.
Late last month, Stern's faction leader and opposition head MK Yair Lapid said that a unity government with Netanyahu's Likud would "ruin the country."
Yair Lapid's statements
"I am a decent person, and this would be the death of decency," Lapid explained when asked by Ynet radio.
"It cannot be in Israel that there will be no opposition to corruption, no opposition to the idea of standing on the steps of the court and threatening judges, opposition to those who claim that moral integrity does not matter, and opposition to the idea that racism and messianism have a place in a government.
"If we declare that there is no opposition in Israel to the idea of corruption and to the destruction of all Israeli values … this does not save the country, it destroys everything that this country represents," Lapid added.
In the wake of a New York Times ad in which World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder advocated a national unity government in Israel, several opposition figures have rejected that idea in an ad of their own in the same paper.Al Jazeera Celebrates Former IDF General’s Attack on Israeli ‘Apartheid’
The new full-page ad published Monday, cosigned by 17 prominent individuals including former Israel Defense Forces chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya’alon — also a former defense minister — as well as former Mossad head Tamir Pardo, calls Lauder’s national unity plan “misguided,” as “there can be no unity with those who have declared total war on Israeli democracy.
The cosignatories published their ad under the title “CEASE AND DESIST, THEN WE CAN TALK: An Open Letter to the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder.”
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to transfer some powers from the judiciary to elected officials in the executive and legislative branches. Critics say it is attempting a dangerous erosion of democratic safeguards.
The first major piece of legislation in the overhaul passed last month. That law says that the court may not rule on government policies based on “reasonableness.” Advocates of this legislation say it addresses a creeping power grab by the judiciary, in which judges apply subjective parameters to reverse democratically reached decisions. Critics say the reasonableness clause was an important safeguard against abuse of power, nepotism, and negligence by the executive branch.
The government said it next plans to advance one of the most controversial bills in the plan — legislation that would change the makeup of the committee that selects judges, in a way that would give far more power to politicians.
“There can only be unity after two conditions are wet: WITHDRAW the toxic legislation in its entirety. REVERSE the law passed on July 26th which revokes judicial oversight based on the long-standing ‘extreme unreasonableness’ standard, a key deterrent to corruption and unrestrained government power. After these prerequisites are achieved, we can talk,” the ad said.
Former Commander of the IDF northern front Lt. Gen. (Res.) Amiram Levin this week told Army Radio: “The IDF is beginning to be complicit in war crimes, in deep processes reminiscent of processes that happened in Nazi Germany.”Israel Katz first minister in Netanyahu gov’t to visit UAE
He added: “Walk around Hebron and you will see streets where Arabs cannot walk. It is painful and unpleasant but it is the reality. It’s better to deal with it as hard as it is than to ignore it.”
Before I forget: if you happen to take a walk in Hebron, you’ll quickly realize that while there’s a stretch where Arabs may not enter because it was the site of numerous murderous attacks on Jews – some 90% of Hebron’s streets are off limits to Jews, with signs that say so explicitly.
Also, back in 2017, when Amiram Levin was running for chairman of the Labor party, he told the party members: “Next time we’ll tear the Palestinians apart and throw them across the Jordan River.” He also suggested “We were too good to them in 1967,” and, “The Palestinians earned the occupation, they deserve nothing because they did not accept the borders of the [1947 UN] partition.”
So, here’s a treat: when a former IDF general accuses his country of an apartheid policy, Al Jazeera listens. The Qatari news outlet picked up the whole thing. So much fun: Al jazeera picked up Amiram Levin’s tantrum. / Twitter screenshot
Amiram Levin is yet another former IDF commander who lost it in the wake of the military coup d’état taking place in Israel, as an estimated 500 reservist pilots are blackmailing the Netanyahu government to stop its judicial reform or face the consequences.
These open-faced acts of defiance of law and order in Israeli democracy are supported by a well-funded and well-organized group of a few thousand (you’ll notice that media reports of protest rallies no longer talk about “hundreds of thousands,” because the pictures just can’t support it).
Over the past seven and a half months, a few dozen Israeli has-beens: failed prime ministers, IDF chiefs of staff who can’t cut it in politics, and rank and file old guard folks who just don’t want to give up control of the country to the majority, which is extremely not them, are blasting the mainstream media with ever-more outrageous statements, which the mainstream media laps up like a dog who found a hunk of tossed away ice cream in the trash.
Energy Minister Israel Katz on Sunday became the first Cabinet member to visit the United Arab Emirates since the Netanyahu-led government came to power in December.
The minister is in Abu Dhabi to discuss a UAE-brokered water-for-solar energy deal between Jerusalem and Amman.
The original memorandum of understanding was signed in November 2021 at the Expo 2020 world fair in Dubai and another MoU to advance the project was signed in November of last year at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Jordan plans to build 600 megawatts of solar power capacity, the product of which will be exported to Israel. In exchange, Israel is to provide Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water per year. As part of the deal, the UAE will construct a solar farm in Jordan.
Katz is scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi on Monday with UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Al Jaber and Jordan’s ministers of environment, water and energy. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will also be present at the meetings.
According to the updated MoU, there needs to be tangible progress on the deal by the COP28 climate change conference to take place in Dubai this November.
Emirati leaders in May invited Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog to attend the climate summit.
The UAE in 2020 became the first Gulf state along with Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords.
In 1947, Jerusalem was the administrative capital of the *British Mandate for Palestine,* not the "state."
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 14, 2023
Google is free, try it sometime. https://t.co/lXhZWanM0M
In fact, Israel sent Jordan a meaasge on June 5 through the Chief of Staff of UNTSO telling the Hashemites to " sit this one out and we won't f with you." Of course the Hashemites , being the colonizers they are, couldn't resist an opportunity to take more land from Israel so… https://t.co/gSklEJE6im
— Shoshana🦁🌞 (@Shoshana51728) August 13, 2023
Egypt, Jordan voice ‘full support’ for Palestinians, slam Israel
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday affirmed their “full support” for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and urged Israel to fulfill its obligations in accordance with international law and honor all agreements signed with the Palestinians.Algerian ex-minister warns against Tunisia-Israel normalization
The three leaders, who met in the Egyptian city of Alamein, said in a joint communique after the tripartite summit that solving the Palestinian cause and achieving a just and comprehensive peace is a “strategic option and a regional and international requirement.”
The summit was held ongoing talk about a possible normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In their communique, Sisi, Abdullah, and Abbas did not make any direct reference to the reports concerning US efforts to broker a deal between Jerusalem and Riyadh. However, they stressed their “adherence” to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which stipulates that the Arab states would normalize their relations with Israel only after a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
In the past, the Palestinian leadership accused the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan of violating the terms of the Arab Peace Initiative by reaching separate normalization agreements with Israel.
D.r Naseer AlOmari discusses what's behind the former Tunisian presidential candidate's comments, slamming any possible normalization with Israel.
It's like a competition to the bottom between @MichaelLynk5 and @FranceskAlbs, which can be the bigger antisemite and shill for Palestinian terrorists. https://t.co/aKziSzjl5r
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 14, 2023
What happened in Burqa
A visit to the desolate open area between the small Jewish farming community of Oz Zion and Burqa, where Palestinian Kosai Ma’atan, 19, reportedly died after being shot by 22-year-old Israeli Yehiel Indore on Aug. 4, seems to tell an entirely different story than the prevailing narrative.Suspect in killing of Palestinian to stay in custody
National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz on Aug. 6 warned of the development of a “dangerous Jewish nationalist terrorism.”
Labor Party Chairwoman Merav Michaeli tweeted: “The time has come to say it in a clear and clear voice: There is a party of terrorist supporters in the Netanyahu government. Terrorist supporters. If you want to deport families of terrorists, you can start by deporting the family of the terrorist settler [Indore].”
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly referred to the incident as a “terror attack” committed by “extremist settlers,” with spokesman Matthew Miller seemingly likening the events near Burqa to the shooting in Tel Aviv in which municipal security officer Chen Amir was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist.
According to the testimony of multiple Israeli witnesses, around 7 o’clock on the evening of Friday, Aug. 4, a large crowd of Arabs from Burqa confronted a lone Jewish shepherd grazing his flock near the village.
“I was sitting in the pasture, and suddenly nine or 10 Arabs with clubs arrived, threatening me: ‘Wait a second, we’re coming for you.’ After 15 minutes, I saw that people were gathering in the area below me, and suddenly, a mass of 30 or 40 people began to surround me from all directions and throw stones at me,” the young shepherd told Channel 14 on Thursday.
“I called the guys here in the Oz Zion area. They came very quickly and started to kick them out,” continued the herder, referring to the group of Israelis that included Indore and Elisha Yered, who is also considered a suspect in the shooting. Yet as sunset approached, between 80 and 120 more Arab villagers arrived at the scene, the shepherd related, and initiated a “crazy attack” using wooden and iron bars.
Through his attorney, Nati Rom, Indore has said that he fired a warning shot but was then surrounded, and he only shot to kill in self-defense after he was struck in the head by a rock.
The Jerusalem District Court on Monday rejected an appeal to release Yehiel Indore, the prime suspect in the killing of Palestinian Kosai Ma’atan during clashes near the Arab village of Burqa in Samaria.The Israel Guys: Joe Biden Condemns ISRAELI Settlers as Terrorists WITHOUT ANY FACTS
Judge Alexander Ron agreed with a lower court that Indore would remain in custody at least until Tuesday to allow for the completion of the preliminary police investigation.
“The self-defense claim is legitimate, but beyond that, I see no reason for this court to intervene,” Ron stated in his ruling.
Indore’s attorney, Nati Rom, had argued that his client was suffering from pains and cognitive difficulties resulting from the head injury he sustained during the Aug. 4 clashes.
In the incident, hundreds of Arabs from Burqa confronted a Jewish shepherd grazing his flock near the village.
According to Rom, dozens of Jews arrived at the scene, including his client, to protect the shepherd. Indore fired a warning shot but was then surrounded, and only shot to kill after he was struck in the head by a rock.
Speaking from his hospital bed last week as he recovered from surgery for a major skull fracture, Indore said he had never experienced “such severe danger to life” before.
When a group of Jewish shepherds were almost lynched by a mob of Palestinian Arabs near Ramallah, a Jewish shepherd drew his legal firearm and defended himself and the Jews who were with him. After a Palestinian was killed in this attack, the US State Department put out a statement calling the incident an extremist Israeli settler terror attack. Stay tuned for the real story.
Bob Carr is a man possessed. Anyone that does not conform to his point of view on Israel, is automatically part of ‘hard right lobby’. Is quite sad to see @bobjcarr become so ravaged with Jew hatred and antisemitism. https://t.co/pSRTRoLikD
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 13, 2023
Shin Bet foils 9-man Hamas cell planning kidnapping of soldier in West Bank
The Shin Bet security agency on Monday said it foiled plans by a Hamas terror cell to kidnap a soldier and carry out shooting and bombing attacks in the West Bank.Israel forces foil Hamas cells plot to kidnap soldier
Nine Palestinians were arrested by Israeli security forces during the past month over their suspected involvement in establishing the cell on behalf of the Gaza Strip-based Hamas, in the West Bank town of Biddu on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The Shin Bet said the investigation of the suspects revealed that they were planning to kidnap an Israeli soldier, and were additionally planning to carry out shooting attacks and bombing attacks against Israeli forces in the central West Bank.
“The members of the cell armed themselves, prepared explosives, mapped out escape routes, and conducted intelligence-gathering tours in order to learn the routine of the soldiers’ activities in the Binyamin area, and even prepared a place to hide the abductee,” the Shin Bet said.
The agency said the suspects set up a bomb-making lab in a residential home in Biddu.
Security forces who raided the lab seized raw materials for making explosives, a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, and “maps on which they sketched the planning of the attacks and the escape routes,” the Shin Bet said.
Police later published a video of Border Police officers detaining some of the suspects.
The Shin Bet revels it foiled a soldier kidnapping attack plotted by a Hamas cell in the West Bank. Colonel in the reserves Oliver Rafowicz, a military consultant, details how they were able plan the attack and how severe it could have been.
Tel Aviv terror victim’s corneas transplanted to two people
The corneas of an Israeli victim of terrorism were transplanted into patients on Sunday, Ichilov Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center announced on Monday.
Chen Amir, a 42-year-old municipal patrolman, was killed while preventing a larger terrorist attack in downtown Tel Aviv on Aug. 5.
The corneas were transplanted into an 81-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man.
The family donated Amir’s corneas and tissues. Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan said that these tissues will benefit about 50 patients. Chen and his wife, Vered, signed ADI organ donation cards.
The terrorist, identified as 22-year-old Kamal Abu Bakr, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, aroused the suspicion of Amir and his partner who approached him. Bakr fired at the guards with a handgun, critically wounded Amir. The other guard returned fire hitting Abu Bakr.
Amir, a father of three girls, was buried at Kibbutz Re’im in the Negev.
Israeli interest in organ donations rose sharply after the organs of Leah (Lucy) Dee were donated to five patients in April. The 48-year-old Dee was mortally wounded and her daughters Maya and Rina were killed in a Palestinian drive-by shooting in the northern Jordan Valley on April 7.
Leah’s husband, Rabbi Leo Dee, has been outspoken about the importance of donating organs.
Some slow walking Jews 👇https://t.co/IjUFoBbcrN
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 14, 2023
IDF soldiers dancing and goofing about with Palestinian children in Hebron, Judea (south "West Bank").
— Imshin (@imshin) August 14, 2023
h/t @Abualiexpress https://t.co/7Hpi6LXCZ0 pic.twitter.com/GL8vr0gi8i
MEMRI: Palestinian Authority Acts To Strengthen Its Control Of West Bank Amid Growing Power Of Terror Organizations, Fears Of Gaza-Style Coup
Amid the security escalation in the West Bank and especially in Jenin, and the efforts of the Palestinian terror organizations to duplicate in the West Bank the methods used to fight Israel in the Gaza Strip,[1] the Palestinian Authority (PA) has almost completely lost its grip on security and governance in the northern West Bank.[2] One of the major manifestations of this in the last two years is the emergence of pan-organizational terror militias such as the Jenin Brigade and the Lions' Den, which are operating in Jenin and Nablus in defiance of the PA’s authority.[3]
Israel’s latest military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, in early July, highlighted the erosion of the PA’s political authority. The Palestinian public, especially in Jenin, was furious with the PA for its weakness vis-a-vis Israel and the helplessness of its security apparatuses, which did not join the terror organizations in their fight against Isael and even arrested operatives of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) on their way to join the fighting in the Jenin refugee camp. The anger at the PA was such that, when a delegation of Fatah officials, headed by the movement's deputy-chairman Mahmoud Al-'Aloul, came to the funeral of operatives killed in the fighting with Israel in the camp, it was chased away with cries of "Out! Out!"[4] PIJ official Maher Akhras said that the expulsion of these Fatah officials was a message from “all sectors of the Palestinian people,” including Fatah activists who oppose the PA's security coordination with Israel,[5] and later also threatened that the Palestinian people would “expel the PA from the entire [West] Bank, just as it expelled it from Jenin.”[6]
The PA regards these developments as a serious threat to its authority in the West Bank and to its very survival, since they are reminiscent of the process that led to Hamas’ 2007 military coup against it in the Gaza Strip. In fact, on several occasions over the last 18 months, Fatah expressed concern that Hamas, PIJ and other armed organizations would stage a military coup against it in the West Bank. For example, on June 13, 2022, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the Gaza coup, Fatah issued a statement accusing Hamas members of “expanding their efforts to take over the West Bank.” About a year later, on May 7, 2023, Fatah’s spokesman in Gaza, Mundhir Al-Hayek, likewise accused Hamas of plotting a coup in the West Bank.[7] Furthermore, according to Fatah activist Mounir Al-Jaghoub, in a June 26 meeting in Ankara between PA President Mahmoud ‘Abbas and Hamas Political Bureau head Isma’il Haniya, the former conveyed that the PA would not allow “a duplication of the Gaza model in the West Bank.”[8]
Hamas and PIJ leaders, for their part, deny having any such intentions. In a July 9 interview with the Iranian news agency IRNA, PIJ Secretary-General Ziad Al-Nakhaleh denied that his organization’s efforts to establish militias throughout the West Bank were an attempt to weaken the PA or to prepare for a military coup against it.[9] Hamas Political Bureau head Isma’il Haniya likewise stressed, in his meeting in Turkey with PA President ‘Abbas, that Hamas was not interested in attacking or overthrowing the PA,[10] but his statements apparently failed to reassure the PA.
In this situation, the PA finds itself caught between two conflicting imperatives: restraining the terror organizations that are establishing themselves in the West Bank at its expense, and regaining its popularity and preserving its support base among the public. This dilemma is especially difficult given that the PA's control is being challenged even from within. Some of the armed militiamen defying its authority are members of its own military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Furthermore, members of the PA’s security apparatuses have lately been involved in terror operations.[11]
An interesting read by @reuters on the covert ways Iran funds Islamic Jihad.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 14, 2023
It's worth underscoring:
🔴 Islamic Jihad is committed to destroying Israel & replacing it with an Islamic state.
🔴 They are a proscribed terror org by many countries around the world.
PMW: PA admits “young person” shot by Israel actually “intended to die as a Martyr” and “took steps” toward terror
“A young person died as a Martyr” and was “executed in cold blood” – that’s the way the PA routinely reports on dead terrorists who are killed while attacking Israelis.
Such a “young person” shot and wounded 6 Israelis outside a shopping mall in Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem. The attacker was 20-year-old terrorist Muhannad Al-Mazar’ah. An off-duty Israeli border police officer shot and killed him to end his attack.
Following his death, the PA had to juggle its narratives, simultaneously presenting him both as a victim whom Israel “claimed… shot at settlers,” yet also as a “resistance” member who had intended to carry out an attack and “die as a Martyr” all along.
While a newsreader on official PA TV described the terrorist as “a young person [who] was shot by the occupation and died as a Martyr,” a PA TV reporter colleague appearing in the same news broadcast explained that Al-Mazar’ah had stressed “his intention to die as a Martyr,” and had taken “a step towards the Palestinian resistance“ – a Palestinian euphemism for terror and violence against Israel:
Official PA TV newsreader: “A young person [Muhannad Al-Mazar’ah] (i.e., terrorist) was shot by the occupation and died as a Martyr next to the town of Al-Eizariya, east of occupied Jerusalem... Hebrew media sources claimed that young Al-Mazar’ah shot at settlers at the entrance to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim… and wounded some of them…
Official PA TV reporter: “[Al-Mazar’ah] left behind an audio recording, and it is as if he is emphasizing his intention to die as a Martyr, or he is taking a step towards the Palestinian resistance (i.e., terror).”
[Official PA TV News, Aug. 1, 2023]
In the recording left by terrorist Al-Mazar’ah, he praised “prayer and Jihad” – holy war – and expressed his wish to “meet Allah in Paradise.” He also stated that he would “die for Allah and become a Martyr”:
An example of what I mean. pic.twitter.com/9fq3jxaE31
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 14, 2023
Palestinian Authority security services reportedly arrested a gunman in the northern West Bank after he damaged a transformer while shooting in the air. pic.twitter.com/WDFTHeW9DT
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) August 13, 2023
I keep saying that Gaza needs to be freed... from Hamas!
— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) August 14, 2023
But maybe they will finally understand it when the world hears the residents of Gaza saying it while protesting against Hamas (who violently dispersed the protesters). pic.twitter.com/XF3GY4k6R3
Eng. Abu Hamdi inspects a new Gaza villa he designed.#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/K7JUFfL3VF pic.twitter.com/w188mJkVp7
— Imshin (@imshin) August 14, 2023
Apt for sale in Gaza, Hajr ad-Deik, in the Turkish built estate. 100 sqm, 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms. Price $14,000 for cash up front, or $16,000 in installments. #TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/4ozc5Tryyh
— Imshin (@imshin) August 14, 2023
Palestine pic.twitter.com/mwVIgU1hux
Special offers at Arab Mall, Rafah, south Gaza Strip.#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/G3iFTPjgkM
— Imshin (@imshin) August 14, 2023
Palestine pic.twitter.com/cla8v7mpCP
Abu Ashraf Odeh and Sons Jewellery, Gaza.#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/elGAbJy9bn pic.twitter.com/aUxgvKGLcq
— Imshin (@imshin) August 14, 2023
Grand opening of Be 1 Gym women's branch, Khan Younes, south Gaza Strip.#TheGazaYouDontSeehttps://t.co/0YoE14FrIB pic.twitter.com/Aiz7MmTBOw
— Imshin (@imshin) August 13, 2023
PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinian From Lebanon Refugee Camp Reaches San Francisco, Turns Right Around (satire)
A man who escaped an Apartheid camp outside Beirut, where the descendants of those who fled war with the nascent Israel in 1948 may not hold most jobs or enjoy anything resembling the rights of long-term residency, let alone citizenship, in their country of birth, managed to smuggle himself out of the squalid, walled-in village, secure passage to Europe, and from there to the US, finally got to the destination of which he’d dreamed, a progressive, pro-Palestinian haven in Northern California, only to discover a city so horrid, so crime-ridden, that only hours after arriving, he went back to the safer environs of the camp.What's behind Israel's restraint in wake of US-Iran understandings?
Hassan Halabi, 27, recounted Monday his journey out of Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, a “refugee” camp for Palestinians whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents left their homes in what was to become Israel, ahead of an onslaught of Arab armies and irregulars into the territory of Palestine, to get out of the way of those armies’ anticipated triumph over the newly-created Jewish State of Israel, after which the clans would return to their homes and enjoy the spoils of victory over the lowly Jews – only to get stuck in Lebanon and elsewhere when the Jews withstood the onslaught and repelled the invaders.
Halabi found a way to bribe the guards who keep the UN-defined “Palestine Refugees” restricted to the Ein el-Hilweh camp; make his way to the coast, where smugglers, for a hefty price, spirited him by sea to Southern Europe; from there, he made his way to a US diplomatic facility and requested asylum, citing conditions for Palestinians in Lebanon. The US Department of State approved his request and flew him to New York, from where Halabi contacted acquaintances and relatives who helped him travel to the West Coast and reach San Francisco, of which he’d dreamed since his preteen years – and, upon encountering a city rampant with drugs, human feces, used hypodermic needles, homeless encampments, automotive burglaries, robbery, shoplifting, violence, and total lack of political will to address any of it, realized Ein el-Hilweh wasn’t so bad after all, and returned there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a muted reaction to the emerging understandings between the Biden administration and Iran over its nuclear program over the weekend. Netanyahu issued a statement – not attributed to him personally but to his office – that implicitly came out against the prisoner deal that was announced, but did so using laconic and limited language; it simply stated that "Israel's position is well known," without taking a clear-cut position against the deal.Iran never has and never will seek a temporary nuclear deal
An Israeli official has said that Israel's opposition to a deal with Iran only pertains to the full agreement from 2015, against which Netanyahu went on a global campaign (including by addressing the US Congress). This time around, the Israeli official told me, there is no reason to create friction with the administration since the emerging understandings stop short of a full-fledged deal, adding that the $6 billion dollars that Iran will get were not going to hurt Israel.
Under the emerging understandings, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, Iran has slowed the pace of producing highly enriched uranium and has even diluted its stockpiles of such material. In a likely related development, a prisoner swap and unfreezing of funds was announced.
"These are frozen Iranian funds," the official explained. The Israeli official further added that the prevailing assessment is that the close talks between Washington and Tehran on limiting the latter's nuclear program and on the prisoner exchange do not hurt the chances of normalization with Saudi Arabia. "Mohammed bin Salman also signed a deal with Iran [on renewing diplomatic ties]; so there is no reason why he should come out against the US for striking its own set of understandings with the Islamic Republic."
Iran never has and never will seek a temporary or interim nuclear agreement, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Iranian media on Monday.MEMRI: Iranian Political Analyst Emad Abshenas: Iran Has Enough Uranium To Produce 15 Nuclear Bombs
"We have always said that we have never deviated from the path of diplomacy and negotiation. From the beginning of the government's work, the president decided that we should act in two ways: neutralizing the sanctions and trying to cancel the unilateral and unfair sanctions of the United States through diplomacy. The part that is related to trying to neutralize the sanctions, goes back to the content of the JCPOA."
"We have been discussing, negotiating and exchanging indirect messages with the American side for months," said Amirabdollahian. "In this direction, I would like to emphasize that we have never sought a temporary agreement or a lesser agreement and we will never seek it."
Efforts by the US, European nations, and Iran to return to compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal have been stalled for months.
In June, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirmed that the US and Iran were holding negotiations in Oman about Iran's nuclear program and prisoner swaps.
Iran and United States' $6 billion deal
Amirabdollahian referenced a recent agreement reached with the US in which $6 billion of Iranian assets was released from South Korea, stating that the assets were transferred from South Korea to a European bank, except for a limited amount in order to keep the bank account open.
The amount will be converted into Euros in the coming days and weeks and Iran will then be able to use the funds to purchase non-sanctioned items, according to the foreign minister, which called the restriction "cruel and unfair behavior of the other party."
Iranian political analyst Emad Abshenas discussed his country's nuclear program on an August 12, 2023 show on Asharq News (Saudi Arabia). He said that before the nuclear deal was signed, Iran had enough uranium to produce 20 nuclear bombs and it now has enough uranium to produce 10-15 bombs if it only wanted to. Abshenas said that Iran doesn't want to produce nuclear weapons, but it has technology and science to do so if it wanted to. He suggests that Iran might be using its nuclear program as a bargaining chip so that the other side lifts its sanctions.
"Iran Has Enough Uranium To Produce 10-15 Nuclear Bombs"
Emad Abshenas: "If Iran had wanted to produce nuclear weapons – before the nuclear deal it had enough uranium to produce 20 nuclear bombs, and it could have produced them. Today as well, Iran has enough uranium to produce 10-15 nuclear bombs.
"So had Iran wanted to produce a nuclear bomb – there is enough uranium, the technology and the science are there. However, Iran does not want to produce nuclear weapons. Perhaps it is using its [nuclear] program, as a bargaining chip, so that the other side lifts its sanctions."
Iranian Political Analyst Emad Abshenas: Iran Has Enough Uranium to produce 15 Nuclear Bombs #Iran #JCPOA pic.twitter.com/DMfAuya6X2
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 14, 2023
This builds on their prior “reporting” on Rob Malley’s suspension that was had more details than anyone in Congress knew.
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) August 13, 2023
My guess: this story is being planted from IRGC/MOIS sources who are getting this directly from intel or from the Chinese/Russians.https://t.co/3N2aJhdHsD
JCPA: Has Iran Successfully Suppressed the Hijab Protest?
The Iranian government believes it will quash the women’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” hijab protest movement, as President Ibrahim Raisi pledged to eradicate the phenomenon of hijab removal just days before the first anniversary of the protest’s outbreak.
Anticipating the potential for renewed demonstrations, the Iranian regime is determined to crush any protests with extreme force, aiming to eliminate the issue from public discourse.
Iran is tensely approaching the one-year mark since the tragic death of 22-year-old Mehsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, who died during a visit to Tehran on September 16, 2022. The Iranian Morality Police detained her for alleged improper hijab-wearing. She was brutally killed during her detention.
After Amini’s death, a tsunami wave of protests dubbed the “Hijab Protest,” surged throughout Iran.
Over several months of intense demonstrations, more than 500 protesters lost their lives, and more than 20,000 individuals were arrested. Shockingly, seven protesters were executed following convictions for assaulting Iranian security personnel.
During these tumultuous protests, the “Basij” forces, an Iranian “Revolutionary Guards” auxiliary branch, was mobilized. They suffered the loss of 70 security personnel.
Mehsa Amini’s death has become a symbol of resistance against Iran’s dictatorship and the oppression of women within the country.
A Forced Hijab Is Not Just a Piece of Cloth
Iranian women have been challenging the mandatory hijab law since its enactment after the “Islamic Revolution” in 1979.
The movement gained momentum, especially after 2017 when Vida Movahedi climbed on a utility cabinet in Tehran, attached her white headscarf to a pole, and brandished it as a protest flag. She, and the women who emulated her, were punished and served time in prison.
This viral video shows young Iranian boys and girls rollerskating in the streets together in defiance of the Islamic Republic’s regulations, particularly the compulsory hijab. pic.twitter.com/uF1smVfNlQ
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 13, 2023
Earlier this month, NHS chaplain Suliman Gani – who is still on payroll at public expense - praised the Taliban’s vision for Afghanistan.
— Dr Alejandro Sanchez (@logomachist) August 14, 2023
Listen to Professor Michael Semple eviscerate Gani’s Taliban talking points. Thread🧵: pic.twitter.com/3y4t32J9Nn
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