Monday, August 21, 2023

08/21 Links Pt1: Hebron terror: Mother shot dead in front of daughter; PA “Martyrs Fund” May Soon Fund Killing Jews in the US and UK

From Ian:

Palestinian Authority “Martyrs Fund” May Soon Fund Killing Jews in the US and UK
Martyrs are compensated
The Palestinian Authority pays “martyrs,” prisoners and their families according to a schedule of how long they sit in Israeli jails. The more severe the crime, the longer the sentence and larger payments to the martyr’s family. The PA pays these funds to “anyone incarcerated in the occupation’s prisons for his participation in the struggle against the occupation,” which could include Palestinians or Israelis, as long as they do not belong to Hamas. In this way, the PA tries to foment terrorism inside of Israel and take a more commanding role in the terror than its political rival Hamas.

Martyrs are absolved of any crime as “resisting occupation”
The Palestinian Arabs view all of the land “from the River to the Sea” as Arab land, and the State of Israel as a “painful settlement.” They believe that all Arabs in the region are under “occupation” and that they have a right to “resist” by any and all means, including violence. Such are the opinions in Al Jazeera, TRT World and Middle East Eye to name a few.

In summary, Palestinian propaganda states that all of Israel is illegal and violent reaction to that occupation – against civilians and military – is legal and legitimate. It celebrates those who have died fighting against the presence of Jews and encourages its youth to participate in the jihad to rid the land of Jews.

Going global
The BDS movement parrots this Palestinian propaganda. In response to the Democratic Socialists of America calling all Jewish Israelis fair target for attack on June 28, 2023, Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted “Denying Israelis the status of civilians means declaring them fair game for violence and terror. If a naked justification of terror against Israel is not a sign of a demonic double standard against the Jewish State, I am not sure what would be.”

On July 30, 2023, Abbas spoke in Egypt about taking his war globally. As translated by PMW: “We also will submit lawsuits against the US and Britain for their responsibility for the Balfour Promise and its implementation through the British Mandate for Palestine… One of our most important weapons today is disseminating our Palestinian narrative, which confirms the Palestinian people’s existence on its historical homeland and its consecutive presence on this land for thousands of years. The authentic Palestinian narrative is currently gaining acceptance and sympathy worldwide. Our success in imposing our national narrative on human consciousness is in itself debunking the false Zionist and Israeli claims and narratives, which have strived and still strive to harm the image of our people and its legitimate struggle to restore its national rights.”

The Palestinian Authority is pushing its antisemitic deadly narrative beyond the Middle East that all Zionists are fair game for violent attack. The calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” the BDS’s “Mapping Project” which identifies Jewish institutions, and CAIR’s labeling of Jews as “enemies” are dead canaries in the coal mine. The PA is looking for money – perhaps from the $6 billion that the United States just handed the Islamic Republic of Iran – to expand its Martyrs Fund for anyone who attacks Zionists around the world. Civilized people everywhere must shut down the fictional narrative and the organizations which promote the terror.
Hebron terror attack: Mother shot dead in front of daughter
Preschool teacher Batsheva Nigri, 40, was shot to death in front of her six-year-old daughter on Monday on Route 60 in the West Bank after hitching a ride to her nearby home in Beit Hagai junction.

Nigri, a mother of three, grew up in Efrat.

The driver Aryeh Gottlieb, 39, also of Beit Hagai is in serious condition from gunshot wounds was transported to Soroka Medical Center.

The child suffered from light shrapnel wounds.

Two terrorists drove in front of the victims' car, cutting it off while slowing down traffic at the intersection. They then shot at the victims from short range, spraying their vehicle with at least 20 bullets and then continued driving.

Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, the armed wing of the Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah faction, took credit for the attack, explaining in a statement that it was "a natural response to the crimes of the occupation." The group further noted that this terrorist attack took place on the 54th anniversary of an attack on al-Aqsa by a Western tourist.

There was an IDF guard post nearby, but the lookout soldier did not see or hear the attack, which only took a couple of seconds. The rest of the soldiers at the outpost, which can range from four soldiers to a larger group, were not on lookout at the time of the attack.

The IDF has set up a complete closure around Hebron as well as surrounding villages like Halhul.

Soldiers set up roadblocks and are searching for the suspects, including in the nearby Gush Etzion bloc.

The IDF is very concerned about the multiple attacks in the last few days leading to a new terror escalation.

On Saturday, a terrorist shot two Israelis who were visiting the Palestinian town of Huwara in northern Samaria.

Some 80% of the anti-terror focus has been in the Jenin and Nablus areas in the northern West Bank.


US equates Palestinian and settler terror as four Israelis gunned down
The Biden administration equated Palestinian terror attacks with settler violence in a month when four Israelis have been gunned down in such attacks, three of them this week.

“The US remains deeply concerned by violence in the West Bank and Israel and we express our condolences to those killed,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield told the United Nations Security Council on Monday, as it held its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She spoke on a day when two Palestinian terrorists sprayed an Israeli civil vehicle with over 20 bullets, killing a preschool teacher in front of her daughter, and seriously wounding the driver.

Two days earlier a Palestinian terrorist fatally shot two Israelis at close blank range as they waited for their car to be washed in the Palestinian town of Huwara. On August 5th, a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli police officer.

UN Ambassador condemns terror attacks
Thomas-Greenfield said, “We [the US] strongly condemn Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis, including this morning's shooting attack near Hebron,” she said as she listed all the incidents.

She then referenced an incident outside the village of Burka, that led to the shooting death on August 4, of one of its residents Qusai Jamal Ma’atan, 19, by a settler who suffered from a fractured skull after he was hit in the head with a rock. But the details of the incident, unlike other examples of settler violence, remain murky. The Israelis involved in the incident have explained that a shepherd was attacked while herding his sheep, called on his friends for help, and that the shooting was in self-defense. Palestinians say they were defending their village from a violent infiltration by settlers.

The US immediately called the incident a terror attack, a claim which Thomas-Greenfield repeated on Monday.

“We strongly condemn the terror attacks by settlers in Burka on August 4th that killed a 19-year-old Palestinian,” she said.

Both Israelis and Palestinians must take “immediate steps to descale and restore calm,” Thomas-Greenfield said. She encouraged Israeli and Palestinian security forces to increase their cooperation.

“We urge all parties to take proactive measures to counter all forms of violence and incitement to violence and refrain from actions that inflame tensions, including settlement activity, evictions [of Palestinians, [and] the demolition of Palestinian homes,” she said. Thomas-Greenfield also called on the Palestinian Authority to halt its monthly stipends to terrorists that have killed Israelis and or their family members.


The Iran-Saudi deal is a nightmare for Israel, the US, and the world
There are diplomatic liaisons and talks taking place that have me alarmed. The United States and Israel should be seriously worried about the renewal of talks, and the building of relationships, between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The United States and Israel also should be very concerned about China’s involvement with Iran and Saudi Arabia. But it is this newly burgeoning relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is sending sends shivers down my spine.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, long-time nemeses, are expert gamers when it comes to international diplomacy. Saudi Arabia is simultaneously engaged in diplomatic liaising with Iran and engaged in navigating a US-brokered deal between their country and Israel. And not just any deal. This would be a deal that includes a resolution of the decades-old, until now unsolvable, Palestinian-Israeli issue. A deal that would, presumably, involve some form of Palestinian statehood or independence.

Any diplomatic venture that includes Iran is extremely dangerous for Israel and the region. Iran cannot be trusted. Iran is not a responsible party to any agreement.

This axiom is essential.

You can never trust Iran
The tensions that have existed between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been very important in keeping an equilibrium in the region. These two significant regional powers balanced one another. Their tensions kept them in check, and it staved off a head-to-head confrontation between the region’s Shi’ite (Iran) and Sunni (Saudi Arabia) populations. Until now, they encouraged their proxies to battle it out. And as a result, larger regional conflicts were minimized.

That was then. Times have changed. Nowadays, the attraction of creating a working relationship with Iran has become very attractive to the Saudis. And while I am not at all sure that this, until now elusive, goal will come to fruition, Iran and Saudi Arabia are both willing partners in the challenge of forging liaisons. A deal may backfire. And if that happens, it will cause great damage to the Saudi empire.

As the leader of the Shi’ite world, Iran has nothing but disdain toward all Sunnis – even, and especially, toward Saudi Arabia specifically, because the leaders of Saudi Arabia are the leaders of the Sunni Muslim world. Shi’ites have been holding a grudge against the Sunnis for over 1,400 years. The anger is visceral.
Why the West is welcoming Saudi Arabia back into the fold
It's clear that the Biden administration is doing all it can to encourage this process. (The head of Mossad, David Barnea, held talks with his US colleagues on the issue in Washington last month.) And by inviting MBS to London, Sunak appears to be joining what has become a three-dimensional diplomatic chess game. If Khashoggi has not been forgotten, MBS has been forgiven, with Sunak’s spokesman announcing that the PM “looked forward to personally deepening the long-standing ties” between the Saudis and the UK.

Not everyone is happy. Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokeswoman, who happens to be of Palestinian descent, said “It beggars belief that Rishi Sunak is rolling out the red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman”, claiming that the invitation “sends a signal to MBS that he can continue acting with impunity and we and our allies will do nothing about it”. Amnesty International’s UK foreign policy adviser Polly Truscott added that the visit looked likely to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Kashoggi’s “sickening assassination”, insisting that MBS “must be properly held to account for abuses by Saudi officials, including Khashoggi’s murder, the widespread use of torture in Saudi jails and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen.”

In recent weeks I’ve argued in this column that diplomatic engagement with the other regional power with a shocking human rights record is a waste of time – I refer, of course, to Iran. Indeed, this week the JC publishes another installment in our investigation of the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, revealing that the same individual who arranged to pipe talks by IRGC commanders into UK universities has also been trying to persuade UK-based academics to share their knowledge of “dual use” technologies to boost Iranian military capability – yet further evidence, in my view, of the need to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation as soon as possible.

However, I don’t share the opposition expressed by Amnesty and Moran to a visit by MBS.

Is this a double standard? I don’t think it is, and the reason it isn’t was contained in Churchill’s assessment of his 1941 alliance with Stalin. There’s a great deal one would like to see different in Saudi Arabia – not just the issues mentioned by Truscott, but also its continued use of barbaric public beheadings. But Saudi Arabia doesn’t pose an existential threat to anyone. Like Nazi Germany in 1941, Iran does, and the ideology of the regime and IRGC explicitly demands the destruction of what it calls the “cancerous tumour” that is Israel.

Earlier this year Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a partial rapprochement, brokered by China. Welcoming MBS to Downing St may help to ensure that this unsettling development goes no further – a valuable prize in itself. And although the hurdles to achieving a wide-ranging deal between the Saudis and Israel remain considerable, if Sunak’s intervention assists in their removal, that would be a still greater boon.
Israel reaffirms anti-nuclear policy for neighboring countries
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office clarified on Sunday that Israel has not agreed to any of its neighboring countries having a nuclear program, without distinguishing between military and civilian programs.

The clarification came after Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer hinted during an interview with U.S. public broadcaster PBS that the Jewish state might be willing to accept Saudi Arabia starting a civilian nuclear program as part of a normalization agreement.

In the interview, which aired on Aug. 18, Dermer said, “You have countries in the region that can have civilian nuclear power. That’s a different story than a nuclear weapons program.”

Asked if Israel would agree to Riyadh having civilian nuclear capacity, including enrichment, in exchange for a peace deal, Dermer said that “like so many things, the devil is in the details, and we’re going to have to look at what ultimately is agreed upon.”

As a signatory to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, he continued, “[Saudi Arabia] could go to China or they can go to France tomorrow, and they could set up—ask them to set up a civil nuclear program and to allow for domestic enrichment.

“They could do that tomorrow if they wanted to. So the question that I asked myself is, if the U.S. is involved in this, what will that mean 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road, 30 years down the road, and what’s the alternative?”

With regard to the details of an agreement, said Dermer, “What are the safeguards? And what happens if they take another path, if they take a path with the Chinese or something else? We have to think through that whole thing.”

Conversely, he continued, “Let’s not underestimate the impact that an Israeli-Saudi peace agreement could have on the region and the world. I think, if Saudi—if you get a Saudi-Israeli peace, you’re going to have several other Arab countries, and Muslim countries are going to follow. And I think it’s the ultimate game-changer.”

He emphasized, however, that Israel would not accept any of its neighbors having a nuclear weapons program.
A Limited Defense Treaty with the U.S. Would Be Counterproductive
A "limited defense treaty" between the U.S. and Israel as part of a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia contains many more cons than pros, especially when it might come at the expense of Israel's top priority concern: preventing an Iran nuclear bomb. According to published reports, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer's recent meetings in Washington discussed such a "limited defense treaty."

By raising a need for a treaty, Israel is conveying the message that it lacks confidence in its power and capability to defend itself by itself. A hostile president, in the future, could exploit the treaty against Israel. No matter what wording will be used, it will break the historical unwritten understanding that Israel does not want American soldiers coming to its rescue and dying on Israeli soil. Moreover, there is no such thing as a "limited treaty."

Iran is going to behave aggressively in the region, with or without a treaty. American support for what Israel really needs exists without a treaty. Signing a treaty can only undermine U.S. support on key issues, on the grounds that if there is a treaty they are no longer needed, or at least they can be reduced and weakened: No need for a broader and longer new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU); no need for a better Qualitative Military Edge (QME); no need for a wider and sophisticated deployment of U.S. weapons systems in Israel; no need for wider and much more sensitive R&D and technology cooperation.
Is the Media Preparing to Scapegoat Israel for a Failed Saudi Deal?
It has been several weeks since the news first broke that the United States is reportedly in the early stages of arranging a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Since then, a wide range of foreign media outlets have published opinion pieces and expert analyses on what could be an unprecedented and monumental shift in Middle Eastern politics.

In reviewing the global media’s examination of the possibility of an agreement between the Muslim kingdom and the Jewish state, it appears that most are skeptical about the prospect of peace within the near future, pointing to a wide range of issues from all involved parties that could hamper such a deal.

In the media’s discussion of the issues concerning the Israeli side of the equation, two interrelated themes dominate its analysis: The Palestinian variable and the ability of the current Israeli government to finalize an agreement with Saudi Arabia.

The Palestinian Variable: Steps or Statehood?
When discussing the issues that could hamper a final agreement from the Israeli side, the primary focus of the media appears to be the question of the Palestinians.

However, while most media organizations agree that Israel will have to provide the Palestinians with some concrete steps to improve their quality of life before any agreement with Saudi Arabia can be finalized, they seem less certain about what these steps will be.

Some analysts, such as Dion Nissenbaum of the Wall Street Journal and Bader Al-Saif (in an interview with NPR’s Daniel Estrin), point to some form of statehood for the Palestinians as the price that Israel would have to pay in order to guarantee a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia.

As noted by The Washington Post’s Shira Rubin and Karen DeYoung, this is not likely to happen, as a number of Israeli officials have quashed the idea of full statehood for Palestinians at this time.

However, some observers believe that the gestures Israel will have to make toward the Palestinians stop well short of creating a state and would be more similar to the steps Israel took in the lead up to the Abraham Accords in 2020, when it promised to not annex any of the West Bank for three years.

The Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf echoes this by citing former American ambassador Martin Indyk’s claim that Israel would have to stop any efforts at annexation in order for a deal with Saudi Arabia to go ahead.

For The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, the significant steps that Israel should take vis-à-vis the Palestinians would be a promise to never annex the West Bank, to not build new settlements or expand the ones that currently exist, to not legalize any settlement outposts and to transfer some of Area C (under Israeli control) to either Area A (under full Palestinian Authority control) or Area B (under the civil control of the Palestinian Authority).

Regardless of which gestures Israel will have to make to the Palestinians, whether they be incremental steps or full-blown statehood, the media is also seemingly quite resolute that the current Israeli government does not have the wherewithal to follow through with such actions in order to facilitate a Saudi-Israel peace agreement.
Poll: In Gaza, Half Are Open to Normalizing Ties with Israel Were Saudi Arabia to Do So
According to a poll conducted with the Palestine Center for Public Opinion in July 2023, 50% of Gazans would support normalizing relations with Israel were Riyadh to do so.

At the same time, 65% of West Bank residents reject this proposal.

47% of Gazans say the Abraham Accords have had at least a somewhat positive impact, versus 29% of West Bankers.

42% of Gazans agree that "I hope someday we can be friends with Israelis, since we are all human beings after all."

In the West Bank, the corresponding figure is just 30%.

At the same time, 63% of Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem, whose residents have daily contact with Israelis, agree at least "somewhat" to possible friendship with Israelis someday.
Ramaswamy tells reporters he hopes US aid to Israel reduced by 2028
Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy told JNS late last month that he supports most of former President Donald Trump’s policies on Israel and that he wanted to go further than the former president with respect to the Abraham Accords.

In a recent interview with The Washington Free Beacon, Ramaswamy articulated a rather different aspect of his “Abraham Accords 2.0,” including ending military funding to Israel by 2028.

“If we’re successful, the true mark of success for the U.S. and for Israel will be to get to a 2028 where Israel is so strongly standing on its own two feet, integrated into the economic and security infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East—that it will not require and be dependent on that same level of historical aid or commitment from the U.S.,” he told the paper.

The candidate later told the Free Beacon by email that he would support continued Israeli aid should his Abraham Accords 2.0 plan not succeed.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow, told the paper that aid to Israel would still be necessary due to “a bunch of enemies with technology” in the region. Conservative radio host Mark Levin wrote to Ramaswamy, in part, saying “respectfully, you need to bone up a bit on this subject.”

“He has no understanding of the Middle East and likely shows he has little understanding of U.S. foreign policy,” added Ari Hoffman, another conservative radio host. “Now this makes him a hard ‘no’ for me.”


Gush Etzion Council warns of illegal PA city in Judea nature reserve
The Gush Etzion Regional Council, which administers the bloc of Jewish communities south of Jerusalem, has called on the Israeli government to act against the construction of an illegal Palestinian city in the Judean Desert.

Under the slogan “It’s all been predicted—the [Palestinian] Authority builds,” the regional council on Monday launched a public relations campaign against the P.A.’s attempt to build in the area, which it said violates agreements signed between Israel and the PLO.

Under the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, intended to facilitate the implementation of the Oslo II agreement, the zone is designated as a nature reserve, and Ramallah agreed it would make “no changes in the status of these areas.”

Gush Etzion Regional Council Chairman and Yesha Council head Shlomo Ne’eman called Jerusalem’s failure to put a stop to the project a “loss of governance on the most serious level,” which threatens the Jewish presence in the region.

Ne’eman said the new city could potentially be used as a base for terrorist organizations operating in the area.

“I call on all of the decision-makers to come to this … reserve to understand the situation and immediately stop the continuation of this dangerous construction,” he added.
EU threatens to sue as Israel demolishes illegal PA school
The European Commission has threatened a lawsuit and is demanding compensation after Israel on Aug. 17 demolished an illegally built school in Ein Samiya near Ramallah.

It’s the third school that Israel has knocked down in the last 12 months, according to UNICEF.

“Appalled by the demolition of the EU-funded school in EinSamiya in the Occupied West Bank. Call on Israel to respect Palestinian children’s right to education and to compensate EU for the funding lost,” the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians tweeted on Aug. 18.

However, according to Naomi Kahn, director of the International Division at Israeli NGO Regavim, the school was built on state land in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which entirely falls under Israeli jurisdiction, and without permits.

She expressed surprise at the European Commission’s threats, stating that it knew about the lack of permits.
The Israel Guys: The SECRET Takeover of the WEST BANK (Episode 2) Shocking footage
In episode #2 of this series, Joshua and Luke show you the CRAZY EXTENT of the illegal Palestinian takeover of the WEST BANK. Including the massive, beautiful mansions that the “poor” Palestinians are building in order to steal land. You might be asking: “Who is paying for all this?” The answer might be shocking as well.


Israel is facing a prolonged escalation in Judea and Samaria
Monday’s murderous terrorist attack on Route 60 in Hebron, in which an Israeli woman was shot dead and a man seriously injured, is just the latest indication of the sad fact that Israel is in the middle of a prolonged security escalation in Judea and Samaria—with no end in sight.

The incident comes two days after an Israeli father and son were shot dead in Huwara, an attack that may have helped “inspire” Monday’s shooting.

So far in 2023, 34 people (33 Israelis and an Italian tourist) were killed in Palestinian terrorism, and almost 200 shooting attacks occurred in Judea and Samaria. In the whole of 2022, terrorists killed 31 people and there were 281 shooting attacks.

These figures attest to the scope of the escalation. The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) are engaged in a non-stop effort to combat terrorism in the area, sending in backup forces and holding assessments daily all the way up to the level of the General Staff, according to an Israeli military source.

Over 20 IDF battalions are active in Judea and Samaria, including the Givati Reconnaissance Battalion that was dispatched on Saturday after the Huwara shootings.

In the end, however, no matter how many backup forces it sends, the IDF still cannot be everywhere at once or preempt every attack.

There are many roads in Judea and Samaria that provide easy targets for terrorists looking to fire on Israeli vehicles, including Route 60 and the Hurawa “corridor,” which Israelis in the area must use to move between north and south—although the decision by the father and son on Saturday to stop at Hurawa for several hours was extremely dangerous.

Other signs of the escalation can be found in the fact that where in the past a single IDF company was sufficient to hold the Huwara area, now an entire battalion is needed, according to the Israeli military source.

The fact that so many IDF battalions have to be deployed to Judea and Samaria is also negatively impacting training.
Israeli woman murdered in a violence escalation that shows no signs of ending
An escalation that shows no signs of ending: terror attack near West Bank's Hebron has risen the death toll from terror attacks to 34 since the beginning of the year




Hawara shooter made sure targets were Jewish – and opened fire
A Palestinian terrorist shot and killed an Israeli father and son on Saturday in the Palestinian village of Hawara.

Shay Silas Nigrekar, 60, and Aviad Nir, 28, had stopped at a local car wash, when a terrorist – who had reportedly heard that there were Israelis nearby – walked up to the car wash on foot, opened fire with a handgun and fled.

The two victims were treated at the scene but were both soon pronounced dead.

The IDF launched a manhunt for the attacker and arrested the owner of the car wash on suspicion of collaborating with the terrorist.

Located just outside of Nablus in Samaria, Hawara has been the scene of multiple terror attacks against Israelis. Most recently, brothers Hallel, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, were murdered while driving through the town.
Border police arrest accomplice in Huwara attack
Israeli Border Police officers conducted an arrest raid in Beita, near Nablus (Shechem), on Monday and apprehended a suspect in Saturday’s deadly terrorist attack.

The suspect is believed to have assisted the terrorist who murdered Shay Silas Nigrekar, 60, and his 28-year-old son, Aviad Nir. The Ashdod residents were shot at point-blank range at a car wash in the Palestinian village of Huwara, which is adjacent to Nablus.

Following Monday’s arrest operation, which was carried out by undercover Border Police officers, Palestinians in Beita clashed with security forces, Army Radio reported. Five Palestinians were injured in the riots, including one seriously.

The Israel Defense Forces was continuing to search for the Huwara shooter.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-old Israeli woman was killed and a 39-year-old man was seriously wounded on Monday morning in a terrorist shooting near Hebron in Judea.

The slain woman was identified as Batsheva Nagari, a kindergarten teacher and mother of three from Beit Hagai, an Israeli community in the South Hebron Hills. The other victim, a man in his 30s, was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva.

In a statement, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed “militia” of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.


First stand-alone BBC News website report on terror in Huwara
The reason the BBC News website cannot offer its readers a link to any stand-alone coverage of the terror attack in which Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered on February 26th is because, as documented here at the time, it did not produce any such reporting.

The final four paragraphs of the first version of Knell’s report read as follows:
“Hawara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank. It is located on a main road south of Nablus, which is used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers.

In the past, Israelis would sometimes shop there, but that has become uncommon after a recent surge in violence.

This year, the village has seen several shooting attacks in which Israeli settlers and soldiers have been targeted – including the killing of two brothers in February.

That triggered a deadly rampage by a large crowd of settlers in one of the worst such acts in years. There have also been other instances of settler violence.”

In the second version some slight additions were made:
“Hawara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank. It is located on a main road south of Nablus, which is mostly used by Palestinians and Israeli settlers.

In the past, Israelis would sometimes shop there and come for services, which are often cheaper in Palestinian areas of the West Bank. But that has become uncommon after a recent surge in violence.”

Knell does not bother to inform readers that the Israeli authorities made a number of arrests in relation to that February rampage (which was the topic of three dedicated BBC News website reports at the time, including a video reposted in this latest report by Knell, as well as a fourth report two months later) and subsequent incidents.


IDF saves Israeli from violent mob in Turmus Ayya
An Israeli who was attacked after mistakenly entering Turmus Ayya on Sunday night was evacuated by Israeli forces with minor injuries.

Upon entering the Palestinian town, located some 14 miles northeast of Ramallah in Samaria, local residents surrounded and stoned him, and torched his car, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli soldiers were alerted to the scene, and escorted the man out.

The man was treated for a minor injury caused by a hurled stone, according to the Rescuers Without Borders emergency service. No injuries to Israeli troops were reported.

Turmus Ayya is in the Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of Judea and Samaria, which is illegal for Israeli civilians to enter. Road signs warn Israelis that entry into Area A is both life-threatening and a criminal offense.

Separately on Sunday night, shots were reportedly fired at the Israeli village of Avnei Hefetz in western Samaria. No injuries or damage were reported.
Israeli man attacked after entering Palestinian village
The IDF has rescued an Israeli man who was attacked and had his car torched after mistakenly entering a Palestinian village


Terror charges filed against Palestinian who stabbed coworker
Terrorism charges were filed on Monday against a Palestinian man who allegedly stabbed a coworker at a garage in the central Israeli city of Petach Tikvah.

Muhammad Bassiouni, 35, is accused of attempted murder in the Aug. 10 incident that was initially thought to involve a workplace dispute with an Israeli employee but was later determined to be nationalistically motivated.

The Palestinian, from the Nablus (Shechem) area in Samaria, was at first mistakenly identified as a Jordanian citizen. According to the indictment, Bassiouni had proper work permits and was staying in Petach Tikvah most of the time.

“At some point, he decided to kill the son of one of the garage owners, who worked with him at the place,” the indictment, filed at the Central District Court in Lod, reads.

He allegedly attacked his coworker with a kitchen knife while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” an Islamic phrase that is often employed by terrorists.

The victim was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah in serious condition.

Bassiouni is charged with attempted murder with a terror motive, aggravated assault with a terror motive and obstruction of justice.
Iron Dome downs Gaza drone for 2nd consecutive day
The Iron Dome air defense system intercepted another drone launched from the Gaza Strip Monday morning.

The IDF said on Twitter that "an unidentified aircraft was spotted flying over Gaza toward Israeli territory."

It said the drone was was monitored from the moment it took off and did not cross into Israel and that no alert was sounded because the aircraft did not pose any threat to residents living in the area.

Similarly, on Sunday the Iron Dome intercepted a UAV launched from the Hamas-ruled enclave. Hamas sources told the Lebanese Al-Akhbar news outlet that they launched several drones into Israeli territory adjacent to Gaza and that the terror group was working on developing its military capabilities to "surprise" the IDF in a future conflict."


Hamas Begins to Establish a Rocket Production Infrastructure in Jenin
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) are preparing a series of operations in the Jenin area to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure known as the “Al-Ayash Battalion.” This group is responsible for manufacturing and launching rockets aimed at Israel.

Security officials in Israel emphasize that no terrorist enjoys immunity and no location in Judea and Samaria is off-limits. Soon, the IDF will take action within the Jenin refugee camp, where members of this infrastructure are believed to be hiding.

Saleh al-Arouri, the leader of Hamas’ military wing in Judea and Samaria, has been working to realize his vision of setting up a terrorist network in northern Samaria dedicated to producing and launching rockets toward Israel.

Established in May 2023, the Hamas-funded “Al-Ayash Battalion” is named in honor of Yahya Ayash, also known as “The Engineer.” Ayash was an infamous bomb-maker and terrorist leader killed by Israel in 1996.

While the Israel Security Agency has managed to apprehend some members of this terrorist network in recent months, most remain concealed within the Jenin refugee camp. Despite those arrests, the group continues manufacturing and launching rockets at Israel.

Seven of these primitive, locally-produced “Qassam” rockets have been launched recently. Although these rockets are rudimentary in nature, they symbolize Hamas’ intent. The group seeks to transfer advanced technological knowledge for rocket production from Gaza to Judea and Samaria.

The Israel Security Agency predicts that it is only a matter of time before this expertise reaches Jenin, enabling the terrorist groups to produce more sophisticated rockets with larger warheads, longer ranges, and better accuracy.

To combat this threat, the IDF and ISA heavily invest in intelligence efforts to neutralize the “Al-Ayash Battalion.”


Why Palestinian Self-Government Is Unraveling under President Abbas
Mohammed, a Chilean Palestinian, is the only visitor at the Yasser Arafat Museum and Mausoleum in Ramallah on a weekday afternoon. A few yards away, the Mukataa presidential compound is nearly just as empty. It's no coincidence. Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, whose elected mandate ended 14 years ago, has shut off the Mukataa and Palestinian Authority (PA), the institutional embodiments of Palestinian autonomy, to everyone but himself and his inner circle.

Over the past 12 years, the president has ousted and exiled potential rivals, detained opposition figures, and quashed dissent, both within his Fatah movement that dominates the PA and across the West Bank. With the Palestinian parliament dissolved, judiciary sidelined, and his party hollowed out, Abbas and a handful of allies now rule the West Bank alone. The result, observers and Palestinians say, is a self-inflicted leadership crisis: The PA commands little popular support, and its control over territory is diminishing rapidly.

Gaith al-Omari, an analyst and former PA official who worked with both Arafat and Abbas, says, "Today Palestinians are checking out; they feel they have no voice and that a small clique controls everything. There is a widespread sense of, 'This is not ours; why should we bother?'"

The Palestinian Legislative Council has been shuttered since 2007. The PA has been unable to pay full salaries to its 130,000 employees for 20 months. With just 70-80% of their salaries, many disgruntled employees are sinking into debt or are abandoning their posts to work in Israel.
Continuing overhaul, Abbas sacks 35 PLO ’ambassadors’
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has decided to fire as many as 35 of his foreign envoys, Arab media reported on Sunday, continuing an administrative overhaul that already saw 12 P.A. governors removed from their posts.

In a press release quoted by the pan-Arab media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the P.A. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates confirmed that Ramallah had informed “a number of ambassadors who have reached or exceeded the retirement age that the retirement procedures for them will begin within a period of time and according to the rules.”

The London-based publication cited anonymous sources as saying that Abbas sacked 17 PLO envoys over the age of 70, and 18 over the age of 65. While P.A. law sets the retirement age for diplomatic personnel at 60, Palestinian representatives usually continue to serve well past that age.

Palestinian political analyst Mohammed Daraghmeh told local journalists that Abbas’s recent firings are only the beginning of a series of steps aimed at improving the Palestinian Authority’s declining power and legitimacy.

The overhaul was suggested to Abbas by P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, Dubai daily Al-Bayan said on Sunday.

The 87-year-old Abbas is deeply unpopular among the Palestinian public, who increasingly support terrorist groups, recent polling shows. The octogenarian leader is in the 19th year of his four-year term and has not heeded repeated calls to hold elections.

On Aug. 10, Abbas issued a decree removing 12 of his 16 regional governors from their posts.
Mahmoud Abbas fires dozens of Palestinian diplomats
Fatah activist Samer Sinijlawi breaks down the recent move by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — and why his political reshuffling is merely cosmetic.




PreOccupiedTerritory: Umm El-Fahm School Nixes Program To Distribute Candy When Jews Die; Only Israeli Candy Available (satire)
This all-Arab municipality in northern Israel approved a scheme earlier this year to celebrate the killings of their Jewish co-citizens at the hands of Palestinian terrorists, by providing free sweet to students and to have students do the same for passers-by in the streets of the Ara Valley town – but the realization that the only sweets available in sufficient quantity come from Jewish-owned Israeli manufacturers forced the municipality’s Education Department to cancel the plan, lest Jews profit from the endeavor.

Department sources disclosed that four school principals in Umm el-Fahm alerted the municipal higher-ups last month that the only reliable suppliers of chocolates, mass-produced confections, sucking candies, and chewy treats are “Jewish” Israeli corporations such as the Elite company. Public support for the BDS movement – Boycott, Divest, Sanctions – against Jewish Israelis runs high in this town, even if the movement’s principles are honored mostly in the breach, given everyday necessities. This optional expense, however, risked a clear violation of the principles, and the principals refused to comply with it.

“It can be difficult to balance the benefits and advantages of Israeli citizenship with the desire to destroy the very state that gives us those benefits and advantages,” acknowledged Fashla Fadiha, headmaster of the Al-Himar Elementary School in the eastern section of the town. “Go from grocery store to grocery store, from kiosk to kiosk, in this town, and all you’ll see is Israeli chocolate. The market realities dictate the dominance of Jewish-owned companies. Of course there’s plenty of room for local establishments, but those can’t handle the production demand that the proposed program would create, and we’d have to order from those Jewish companies. Obviously no one wants that.” Fadiha provided the answers to a reporter’s questions via a mobile device with key components developed by Jewish Israelis.


Bassam Tawil: After Destroying Lebanon, Iran-controlled Hezbollah Threatens War with Israel
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Hezbollah terror group, recently threatened to send Israel back "to the Stone Age" if it goes to war with Lebanon -- meaning defend itself against an Iranian-Lebanese attack.

While Nasrallah's threat to destroy Israel is not new, he surely knows a thing or two about sending countries back to the Stone Age. His Iran-backed group, which functions as a state-within-a-state in Lebanon, is responsible for turning the Arab country into a failed state.

Two days after Nasrallah made his latest threat against Israel, Lebanon witnessed widespread blackouts, forcing Beirut Airport to run on electric generators.

"On the other side of the spectrum is the understanding that Lebanon was coerced into collapse by Hezbollah and its regional broker, Iran." — Fadi Nassar, assistant professor in political science and international affairs, Lebanese American University; Saleh El Machnouk, lecturer in political science, Saint-Joseph University, Beirut; mei.edu, March 24, 2023.

"Lebanon has been hit by a debilitating new wave of hyperinflation, the imposition of its judiciary over the local investigation into the Port of Beirut blast, and a European investigation into the Central Bank." — Fadi Nassar and Saleh El Machnouk; mei.edu, March 24, 2023.

"Hezbollah and [former Lebanese president Michel] Aoun have destroyed everything that made Lebanon great. The Arab world's banking capital is bankrupt. Tourists don't frequent destabilized states run by terrorists. Former regional partners refuse to have anything to do with us. Our celebrated culture is trampled underfoot by barbarian theocrats. Beirut no longer has a viable port." — Baria Alamuddin, award-winning Lebanese journalist and broadcaster, arabnews.com, September 27, 2020.

Since the explosion at the Port of Beirut [which killed more than 200 people, injured thousands more, and displaced half of Lebanon's capital city], Hezbollah has been trying to obstruct the investigation into the incident by the Lebanese authorities.

"All indications, signs, and collected evidence of weapons and explosives, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Hezbollah, backed by the mullahs in Iran, have turned Lebanon into a massive arms and explosives warehouse." — Mohammed al Shaikh, Saudi political analyst, alarabiya.net, September 29, 2020.

"Hezbollah's militia, as was publicly and boldly recognized by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, is trying to convert Lebanon into an Iranian mullah's province, from which he receives his arms and all the funds and equipment he requires. Hence, the crimes committed by Hezbollah, including the Beirut explosion, are in fact an extension of Tehran's orders... Although they cannot be publicly vocal about it, all the Lebanese hold Hezbollah responsible for the port bombing. People know that if they do express their opinion, physical liquidation awaits them...." — Mohammed al Shaikh, alarabiya.net, September 29, 2020.
No Daylight: U.S. Strategy if Israel Attacks Iran

How U.S. Marines Could Prevent Iranian Harassment of Commercial Ships
More than 100 Marines already have gotten training and are prepared to be put on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, the U.S. Naval Institute reported Friday.

"You will not get on a commercial vessel that has a contingent of Marines on board," Marine Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Dave Beydler said Tuesday.

They can fend off attacks with their counter-drone and counter-air capabilities. And with their communications capabilities, they could quickly alert the Navy if threats emerge.

Navy Adm. (ret.) James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, wrote Friday that the Marines' jam-proof communications would be their most important asset.




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