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Friday, September 29, 2023

09/29 Links Pt1: What Iran’s penetration of Washington means; US-Saudi Defense Pact Tied to Israel Deal, Palestinian Demands Put Aside

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: What Iran’s penetration of Washington means
Reporters, Republican lawmakers, Iran policy experts and other NIAC critics are routinely attacked as McCarthyites, nativists and racists.

Consider the case of former NIAC official Sahar Nowrouzzadeh. Nowrouzzadeh served as director of Iran affairs in Obama’s National Security Council. She was considered one of Obama’s closest advisers on Iranian affairs, including the nuclear negotiations, and worked under Malley. In the closing days of the Obama administration, she was appointed director of Iran and the Persian Gulf region on the State Department’s policy planning staff.

After conservative media organs reported her position in early 2017, then-President Donald Trump’s Iran envoy Brian Hook demoted her. Nowrouzzadeh eventually left government.

Rather than accept Hook’s move as the proper response to Obama’s 11th-hour effort to seed his officials in Trump’s administration and undermine Trump’s ability to pursue his own policies, the media establishment pilloried Hook for refusing to accept Obama’s closest Iran aide as the senior professional staffer responsible for crafting Trump’s Iran policy. Hook was accused by the media of nativism and bigotry for taking this routine action.

Perhaps it was the Washington establishment’s hatred for all things Trump, or perhaps it was the success of Iran’s propaganda efforts executed by members of the IEI and NIAC. But whatever the reason, the fact is that over the past decade and a half, the Washington establishment has embraced Iran regime agents and struck out against anyone who points out their disloyalty to the United States.

And that brings us to the most alarming aspect of the story of Iran’s massive footprint in official Washington: its acceptability.

Whether the Washington establishment wants to admit it or not, the fact is that Iran is America’s enemy. It has been in a state of war with the United States since 1979. It waged—and won—terror wars against the United States through its proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the largest state sponsor of terrorism and designated as such by the State Department. It is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to attack America with its incipient nuclear arsenal. The Iranian regime may want to cut a deal with Washington, but it doesn’t want to bury the hatchet. It wants to make a deal with Washington to build a more powerful hatchet.

The Washington establishment’s refusal to acknowledge this reality—let alone support policies aimed at weakening Iran or preventing it from becoming a regional hegemon and nuclear-armed state—indicates something horrible about the state of that establishment. It has become so mesmerized by its ideology and its partisan biases that it refuses to see the danger.

This state of affairs is dangerous for the security of the United States. And it sends a clear message to Israel and other U.S. allies threatened by Iran. Unless Washington cleans its house, it must be considered compromised.
Seth Frantzman: How Iran gets ‘more bang for the buck’ in influence ops
Racism and orientalism: How Iran uses Western biases to win support
Supporters of the deal said they were merely pro-diplomacy. However, from Iran’s perspective, a lot of this work aided the regime’s narrative and its demands. For instance, stories about an Iranian “fatwa” against nuclear weapons were trotted out to play on people’s beliefs in the West that Muslims are guided by religious edicts.

The way Iran has used racism and orientalism in the West to gain influence in this overall process is notable, as in this “fatwa” example. A 2013 Al-Jazeera article in English claimed that “Iranian leaders have pledged to never make nuclear weapons, which they consider a violation of Islam.” The fact that any media repeated this clearly-bogus claim was evidence in itself that the readers were being manipulated. In fact, the stories of the “fatwa” against nuclear weapons have now disappeared from any discussion about Iran’s current enrichment of uranium, perhaps because these kinds of stories don’t entice the Western, English-reading audiences like they used to.

Today, the controversy in the US is whether Iran’s foreign ministry was actually guiding the narrative and “lobby” regarding Iran, or whether these were merely individual voices who believed in diplomacy and happened to correspond with Iran’s regime. In fact, the discussion has taken on more pointed questions about whether Iranians in the West are being “smeared” for pushing for diplomacy or having contact with the regime.

For the regime, it isn’t always necessary to plow money to influence operations in the West. Sometimes, it can simply get local organizations to fund projects, and it benefits because it may be in the shared interest of some voices in the West to push for “diplomacy,” and for Iran to receive that support.

Iran invests in people, not projects
Tehran’s methodology of playing on Western needs in the era of the Iran deal to let the US extricate itself from the Middle East is a methodology Iran has used across the region. Iran’s regime invests in people, not projects. It doesn’t build dams and universities or housing, rather it finds individuals such as Hassan Nasrallah, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and others to facilitate its work in places like Lebanon or Iraq; its investment is in the long term.

Once it gets locals, it then expects them to do the hard work of building up Iran’s influence. Iran doesn’t necessarily have to pay off these locals; in fact, one selling point of the regime is the apparent modesty that their friends have. For example, Qasem Soleimani always dressing in modest clothes.

Tehran has different methods for different places, but the overall strategy remains the same: “more bang for the buck.” The regime doesn’t have much money and Iran’s economy often slouches from crisis to shambles.

But Iran has what to sell, providing Russia with cheap drones to terrorize Ukrainian civilians, and stirring trouble in Syria among tribes opposed to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. In the West, Iran used to get influence by selling stories about how an Iran deal would prevent “war.” Today, Tehran has largely failed in its influence campaign, but the stories about 2014-2015 show how Iran got more bang for its buck than many regimes that try to influence the West.


Via Pressreader: Eugene Kontorovich: Unesco Writes Jews Out of Ancient Jericho The Palestinians have literally paved over this important historic site.

Jonathan Tobin: Canada’s Ukrainian Nazi embarrassment was no accident
Why they didn’t face justice
That brings us back to last week’s Canadian farce.

Hunka’s SS unit was used by the Germans to suppress anti-Nazi partisans and killed many Russians, Poles and citizens of the former Yugoslavia.

The SS was declared to be a criminal organization, whose members were an integral part of the Holocaust, at the Nuremberg Trials. But postwar politics enabled the members of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division to get a pass. Having been fortunate to surrender to the British rather than the Soviets, its members were spared investigations. Thanks, in part, to intervention by the Vatican, whose representative declared them to be “good Catholics and anti-Communists,” they were spared repatriation to the Soviet Union, where they would have faced rough justice. As a result, most of them immigrated to Canada and the United Kingdom.

Nor was that the end of the story. Canada has never fully admitted its fault in providing a haven for ex-Nazis. A commission in the 1980s declared that members of the unit should not be indicted on the dubious grounds that not enough proof had been brought forward to establish their guilt, even though no serious investigation of their crimes was ever carried out. Monuments to them erected by the Ukrainian community exist in both Canada and the United States. Of even greater interest is the fact that their insignia are among those worn by contemporary Ukrainian soldiers, and streets are named in honor of the unit in at least two Ukrainian cities.

Seen in that light, maybe what happened in Canada requires greater scrutiny. Poland certainly thinks so. Though resolutely anti-Russian, the Poles have demanded that Hunka be extradited so as to face justice for the crimes committed by the Ukrainian SS.

Raising this doesn’t excuse Russia. But it does undermine the fanciful claims about the cause of Ukraine being indistinguishable from that of Western democracy.

Yet those who believe that sensible calls for the United States to be working to end the war rather than prolong it are still damned as Putin’s followers. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has the ability to do anything but continue the slaughter. Unless Americans want to continue wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year for the foreseeable future on this tragedy, they should be encouraging the Biden administration to work for compromise peace terms that will, sooner or later, have to be accepted by both sides. Doing so won’t endanger Western Europe, which stands in no peril from a weak Russia that couldn’t manage to conquer Ukraine. Nor will it help China, whose strategic position is enhanced by the fact that America’s armed forces have been stripped of armaments for Ukraine’s sake.

Do Americans really think it is justified to persist in funding a war that doesn’t directly involve U.S. national interests in order to go on valorizing a government tainted by its inability to confront antisemitism just to spite their old Russian foe? Ukraine’s failure to confront its past may not invalidate its right to independence, but it does call into question a policy that commits American money and arms to indefinitely continue a war that has no end in sight.
Memorials to Ukrainian Nazi allies in Detroit, Philadelphia enter spotlight after Canadian Parliament scandal
The memorials in Detroit and Philadelphia, and the nonagenarian’s Nazi past, were all first reported by Lev Golinkin, a writer for the Forward. He has cataloged monuments to Nazis and their collaborators around the world, and in the Detroit case, detailed a memorial “dedicated to Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American veterans” on a private bank in the suburb of Warren. Veterans of SS Galichina are named as one of the monument’s sponsors — though they’re referred to by a different name on the structure.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who heads the Detroit JCRC/AJC, said he was developing a relationship with the local Ukrainian community and said “discussing history and past antisemitism will definitely be part of this process.” But he said he would be hesitant to press the issue of the SS Galichina memorial at present, in part because of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

“I believe the time is now to support Ukraine, and defending itself against Russia,” Lopatin wrote in an email. He added, “There certainly is a lot to do, but there is a right time for everything and also a wrong time for everything.”

There are existing ties between the local Ukrainian and Jewish communities. Lopatin has attended ceremonies commemorating the Holodomor, the Soviet-imposed famine that caused millions of Ukrainians to starve to death in the 1930s (and which some far-right Ukrainians blame on the Jews). A Ukrainian museum in Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb with significant Ukrainian, Polish and Yemeni populations, has also offered to host an upcoming exhibit of Yemeni Jewish art.

Lopatin also believes the intentions behind the Warren memorial may not be sinister. “There is a difference between honoring a genocidal regiment or saying that their veterans gave [money] for a general memorial for Ukrainian Veterans,” he told JTA.

Golinkin, however, called the Detroit Jewish groups’ silence “shameful.”

“It’s astounding that, during a global surge of white supremacy and Holocaust distortion, Jewish organizations in Detroit are electing to remain silent about a monument to the SS in their city,” the writer told JTA.
Zelensky visits Babyn Yar to mark 82nd anniversary of Jewish massacre
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday visited the site of the Babyn Yar massacre to mark the 82nd anniversary of one of the largest mass murders of Jews in the Holocaust.

Zelensky, dressed in his usual olive-green attire, placed a candle at the historic site and said Ukraine would “never” forget the tragedy perpetrated by Nazi Germany.

“No matter how many years have passed, humanity will remember the lives taken by Nazism,” Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent, said in a statement on social media. “And it will always remember that this evil was punished.”

On September 29-30, 1941, around 34,000 adults and children, most of them Jews, were killed at the Babyn Yar ravine outside Nazi-occupied Kyiv, the capital of ex-Soviet Ukraine.

Babyn Yar was the scene of mass executions until 1943. Up to 100,000 people were killed there, including Jews, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.


There will never be a better opportunity for Saudi ties
The Biden administration, for its part, is interested in marking a significant achievement within the framework of the Abraham Accords, largely associated with the Trump Administration. Yet more than anything else, it seeks to be the one administration to have succeeded in making the Israeli leadership concede to making far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians.

This appears to be a far more lucrative goal for the current US administration than to the Saudi leadership. Moreover, the US is driven by the fear that if it does not take its rightful place within the dynamics of the Middle East and the Gulf regions, China will undoubtedly take its place, much as it had done when it mediated the Iranian-Saudi MOU several months ago.

If Israel will agree to the concessions asked of it in return for normalization with Saudi Arabia (and I have little doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is striving to do just that given his yearning to have this achievement as his legacy), Jerusalem must remember two issues: First and foremost, of course, is the obvious need to maintain its military edge, much like it has done within the framework of the Abraham Accords thus far.

In fact, in terms of defense-related military buildup and armament, which Saudi Arabia seeks within the agreement, it appears that Israel and the US have that covered in a manner that promises that Israel shall remain unharmed.

HOWEVER, SAUDI ARABIA’S demand to equip itself with nuclear enrichment capabilities for civilian purposes, is, at the very least, extremely challenging. There are certain alternatives and potential creative solutions in this field too, yet such a situation may very well place Israel in an extremely fragile position.

However, maintaining military superiority and a technological military edge is not crucial, although it is extremely important. Such a negotiation is a one-time opportunity to make Israeli consent conditional upon the cessation of the ongoing and hateful incitement still very much present in Jordanian and Palestinian curricula.

Since the signing of the Abraham Accords, the UAE has undergone tremendous changes in its curriculum, providing its younger generation with a far more tolerant and balanced syllabus.

Similarly, Qatar has undergone certain changes in recent years, and just recently it was made public that Saudi Arabia made many changes in its own schoolbooks, even though the process is incomplete. Even Egypt, which is known for its sensitivity regarding its own sovereignty and views with caution every attempt to meddle with its internal issues, has allowed the reviewing of its curriculum by international bodies, in order to moderate intolerance and biases. Consequently, the omission of many of the blunt antisemitic and anti-Israel messages which were part and parcel of its school books for decades, are now a happy byproduct.

Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, however, have remained adamant about not changing one ounce of the hate-filled messages that are inherent in their curricula. While the US and Saudi Arabia are demanding of Israel to make concessions toward the Palestinians, clear demands must also be made of the Palestinians and the Jordanians, as part of the regional package delivered within the framework of these negotiations. There will never be a better opportunity than this one.
US-Saudi Defense Pact Tied to Israel Deal, Palestinian Demands Put Aside
Saudi Arabia is determined to secure a military pact requiring the United States to defend the kingdom in return for opening ties with Israel and will not hold up a deal even if Israel does not offer major concessions to the Palestinians in their bid for statehood, three regional sources familiar with the talks said.

A pact might fall short of the cast-iron, NATO-style defense guarantees the kingdom initially sought when the issue was first discussed between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and Joe Biden during the US president’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July 2022.

Instead, a US source said it could look like treaties Washington has with Asian states or, if that would not win US Congress approval, it could be similar to a US agreement with Bahrain, where the US Navy Fifth Fleet is based. Such an agreement would not need congressional backing.

Washington could also sweeten any deal by designating Saudi Arabia a Major Non-NATO Ally, a status already given to Israel, the US source said.

But all the sources said Saudi Arabia would not settle for less than binding assurances of US protection if it faced attack, such as the Sept. 14, 2019 missile strikes on its oil sites that rattled world markets. Riyadh and Washington blamed Iran, the kingdom’s regional rival, although Tehran denied having a role.

Agreements giving the world’s biggest oil exporter US protection in return for normalization with Israel would reshape the Middle East by bringing together two longtime foes and binding Riyadh to Washington after China’s inroads in the region. For Biden, it would be a diplomatic victory to vaunt before the 2024 US election.

The Palestinians could get some Israeli restrictions eased but such moves would fall short of their aspirations for a state. As with other Arab-Israeli deals forged over the decades, the Palestinian core demand for statehood would take a back seat, the three regional sources familiar with the talks said.

“The normalization will be between Israel and Saudi Arabia. If the Palestinians oppose it the kingdom will continue in its path,” said one of the regional sources. “Saudi Arabia supports a peace plan for the Palestinians, but this time it wanted something for Saudi Arabia, not just for the Palestinians.”
Minister photographed in Saudi Arabia alongside Syrian counterpart, Taliban official
Tourism Minister Haim Katz was photographed alongside his counterpart from Syria and an official from Afghanistan’s Taliban — neither of which recognize Israel — during his groundbreaking appearance this week at an international conference in Saudi Arabia, according to images published Friday.

In one of the pictures released by the Kan public broadcaster, Katz can be seen standing directly behind Syrian Tourism Minister Mohammed Martini and the unidentified Taliban figure as attendees of the UN World Tourism Organization lined up for a group photo.

But Martini, a hotel and tour operator owner under EU sanctions since 2019, reportedly took exception to being photographed next to Katz and moved away from the Israeli minister to another spot.

Israel and Syria have fought against each other in four wars since the Jewish state’s establishment in 1948. Unlike fellow neighbors Egypt and Jordan, whose armies also previously fought against Israel, the Iran-backed regime in Damascus has not normalized ties with Jerusalem and remains one of the most vocal anti-Zionist states in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

The Taliban official however did not shift places and could be seen at Katz’s right in both photographs. It was not clear if the member of the extremist group, which after retaking control of Afghanistan two years ago said it was open to forging ties with all nations besides Israel, was unaware of who Katz was or indifferent to being pictured alongside him.

The publication of the photos came as Katz returned from Saudi Arabia, which he was the first Israeli minister to lead a delegation to.

“We made a crack in the wall,” Katz said in a statement Friday.
The Right and Wrong Ways for the U.S. to Support the Palestinians
On Wednesday, Elliott Abrams testified before Congress about the Taylor Force Act, passed in 2018 to withhold U.S. funds from the Palestinian Authority (PA) so long as it continues to reward terrorists and their families with cash. Abrams cites several factors explaining the sharp increase in Palestinian terrorism this year, among them Iran’s attempt to wage proxy war on Israel; another is the “Palestinian Authority’s continuing refusal to fight terrorism.” (Video is available at the link below.)

As long as the “pay for slay” system continues, the message to Palestinians is that terrorists should be honored and rewarded. And indeed year after year, the PA honors individuals who have committed acts of terror by naming plazas or schools after them or announcing what heroes they are or were.

There are clear alternatives to “pay to slay.” It would be reasonable for the PA to say that, whatever the crime committed, the criminal’s family and children should not suffer for it. The PA could have implemented a welfare-based system, a system of family allowances based on the number of children—as one example. It has steadfastly refused to do so, precisely because such a system would no longer honor and reward terrorists based on the seriousness of their crimes.

These efforts, like the act itself, are not at all meant to diminish assistance to the Palestinian people. Rather, they are efforts to direct aid to the Palestinian people rather than to convicted terrorists. . . . [T]he Taylor Force Act does not stop U.S. assistance to Palestinians, but keeps it out of hands in the PA that are channels for paying rewards for terror.

[S]hould the United States continue to aid the Palestinian security forces? My answer is yes, and I note that it is also the answer of Israel and Jordan. As I’ve noted, PA efforts against Hamas or other groups may be self-interested—fights among rivals, not principled fights against terrorism. Yet they can have the same effect of lessening the Iranian-backed terrorism committed by Palestinian groups that Iran supports.
‘Unfinished Business’: Biden Admin’s New Actions Against Antisemitism Laudable but Not Enough, Expert Says
The Department of Education became the first agency to declare that Title VI applies to Jewish Americans during the George W. Bush administration, when Marcus served as assistant secretary, in what has become known as the “Marcus Doctrine.” The policy, he told The Algemeiner, was controversial, with critics arguing that Jews are a White-adjacent people who either do not need or have transcended the need for federal protections safeguarding the civil rights of Americans of color.

Marcus said that more work needs to be done, despite the Biden administration’s latest announcement. The key area that still needs to be addressed, he explained, concerns the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has been embraced by dozens of governments and hundreds of civic institutions around the world.

IHRA, an intergovernmental organization comprised of dozens of countries including the US and Israel, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and well over 1,000 global entities, from countries to companies. The US State Department, the European Union, and the United Nations all use it.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

IHRA provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

The Biden administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism, unveiled in May as the foundation of the federal government’s efforts to fight antisemitism, embraces elements of both the IHRA definition and the competing “Nexus Document.” The latter was written by a group of academics who argue that applying double standards to Israel and opposing Israel’s continuation as the nation-state of the Jewish people may not necessarily be antisemitic, creating tighter standards around when anti-Israel speech and activity is antisemitic.

According to Marcus, the Biden administration remains in limbo when it comes to the IHRA definition. While he commended the administration’s efforts to implement its national strategy on combating antisemitism, he said that none of the eight agencies named in Thursday’s announcement have committed to using the IHRA definition.

“There’s still unfinished business in terms of the administration’s approach to IHRA and making it applicable across the board,” he explained, defending the definition as a tool for standardizing the government’s approach to fighting antisemitism. “That’s the definition that really needs to be used across the board. It is incorporated into the executive order on combating antisemitism, and it’s really crucial that the agencies now recognize that it should be the basis on which they’re interpreting their newly recognized authority.”

Marcus added that other areas also need to be addressed, especially concerning the US government including full recognition of Zionism as an inalienable element of the Jewish people.


The Israel Guys: Former Israeli Spy Calls the New US/ISRAEL Visa Waiver Program “A Trojan Horse”
This week the United States announced that Israel will be joining a list of countries where the US will dramatically ease the requirements for Israelis to obtain a visa to enter the US, but not everything is sunshine and roses with the program, we’ll get into that, and Canada gives a standing ovation to a former Nazi.


Top ‘AP’ reporter: Israel hasn’t met Visa Waiver Program requirements
Accusations that Israel commits horrific crimes thinly disguised as questions come regularly from Said Arikat, Washington bureau chief of Al-Quds, at U.S. State Department press briefings. But on Wednesday, Matt Lee, Associated Press diplomatic reporter and a senior member of the Foggy Bottom press corps, also took aim repeatedly at Israeli admission into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.

Arikat said several times that Israel should not have been admitted to the program since it treats Palestinian Americans differently when they enter the country. Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said there are particular benefits in the program for Palestinian Americans.

“There are different procedures for Gaza. We understand that. We expect it,” Miller said. “We think it’s appropriate for there to be so.” He added later, “As we have discussed many times from this podium, there are differences, especially with respect to Gaza. We have to remember that Gaza is controlled by a foreign terrorist organization. We would expect there to be different procedures.”

Lee, of the AP, suggested that Miller at the State Department could not really know how fairly Israel treats Palestinian-American travelers if it couldn’t even present specific information about how many such travelers there have been during a trial period.

“I’ve read the 15-page DHS talking points,” Lee said, referring to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “and they don’t address this question, and not only do they not address the question of the Gaza issue and reciprocity, Israel is not even meeting right now the criteria for the West Bank, for Palestinians who are going—Palestinian Americans who are on the registry who are going into the West Bank.”

Lee allowed that there was no doubt that conditions for such travelers have improved. “No one is saying it hasn’t,” he said. “But they’re not meeting that requirement either. So it’s not an issue of whether Israel should get into the program based on it being a partner of the U.S. and a strategic ally in the Middle East. It’s a question of whether they meet the legal criteria under the law. And they don’t.”
'Reward for racism': Pro-Palestine groups slam Israel's entry to US visa plan
A number of pro-Palestinian organizations based in the United States have filed an appeal against the Department of Homeland Security protesting Israel's inclusion into the US visa waiver program, according to a joint statement released by AJP Action on Wednesday.

The appeal was submitted alongside other organizations including CAIR, Jewish Voice for Peace, and The Jerusalem Fund.

The release points to aspects of the deal that still leave room for differential treatment of Palestinian-Americans upon entry into Israel such as issues hiring taxis or crossing checkpoints into the West Bank.

The organizations stated that they have “no faith that Israel will fully abide by the rules and regulations set forth by the visa waiver program,” arguing that Israel has a “long history of discriminatory actions against US citizens and Palestinians.”

“We call upon the US government to reconsider its decision and prioritize the reciprocity, security, and international cooperation principles underpinning the Visa Waiver Program. The admission of any country into this program must be based on precise adherence to the established criteria and a demonstrated commitment to the program's core values,” they requested of the US government.

Jewish groups climb aboard
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said, "The Biden administration's decision to allow Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program is an outrageous endorsement of the Israeli government's systematic discrimination against Palestinian Americans and a reward to the most extremist, racist government in Israel's history.

"Once again, the US is singling out Israel for special and exceptionalized treatment at the expense of the rights of Palestinian Americans. Jewish Voice for Peace Action calls for the immediate reversal of this decision."
Rashida Tlaib: Biden’s Visa Waiver Helps Israel’s Discrimination Policy
According to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), “The Biden Administration’s decision to admit Israel into the Visa Waiver Program explicitly condones and enables the Israeli government’s discriminatory practices towards Americans requesting entry, including hours of detainment and interrogation.”

On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Israeli citizens will no longer have to obtain a visa to visit the U.S.

On September 8, fifteen U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to delay Israel’s entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program because “Israel is not expected to fully implement one system that all U.S. citizen travelers can use for purposes of visa waiver travel until May 1, 2024, well beyond the September 30, 2023 deadline for meeting program requirements.” The Senators argued that “Such a two-tiered system of entry inherently violates the Administration’s own standard for reciprocity.”

It all comes down to the sad fact that some Arab visitors enter Israel to kill Jews, as we reported last July (US Visa Waiver Deal Harbors Security Traps and Pitfalls for Israel). One of the US administration’s key conditions for ratifying the agreement is that American citizens entering Israel will receive the same treatment as Israelis entering the US. This must apply to “Palestinians” with American citizenship visiting the PA and the Gaza Strip, as well as to Arab Americans coming from countries that are hostile to Israel. The US will not put up with discrimination against its citizens due to their place of residence.

Also, Americans whose visa expires in Israel will be able to renew it if they go to another country and come back. The US is obligated to warn Israel about the planned entry of terrorists and criminals, but Israel’s tough, no-nonsense security officials warn of the glaring loopholes such a turnstile is inviting.

But wait, there’s more: the US demands that Israel exempt from a security check “Palestinian” Americans with a VIP card issued by the Palestinian Authority. The Americans initially estimated there were 5,000 such VIPs, but a thorough examination revealed that there are at least 20,000 VIP “Palestinians” that Ramallah vouches for. Netanyahu’s government will have a hard time explaining this to its voters, some of whom might be fired on by those VIPs, God forbid.


Palestinian gunmen deploy in school compound after clashes in Lebanon refugee camp
A Palestinian security force deployed Friday in a school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp in the country’s south, replacing gunmen who had occupied it since fighting broke out in late July leaving more than 30 people dead.

The deployment raises hopes that a nearly two-week ceasefire in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, near the southern port city of Sidon, will hold. On September 14, members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group and two Islamic militant factions, Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim, agreed to a cessation of hostilities.

The complex includes eight schools. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has been urging gunmen to evacuate the compound ahead of the school year that is supposed to start in early October.

In the afternoon, the security force, consisting of 55 fighters from factions including Hamas, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Asbat al-Ansar, took over the badly damaged compound. Some of the school walls were riddled with bullets and rockets.

In late July, Fatah accused the Islamic groups of gunning down a senior Fatah military official, Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi, triggering intense street battles. Several ceasefires were agreed but collapsed. The militants have still not handed over al-Armoushi’s killers.

The commander of Shabab al Muslim, Haitham al-Shaabi told reporters that “the situation in the camp will soon return to normal.” He refused to answer questions related to the handover of al-Armoushi’s killers.

The latest ceasefire agreement, reached on September 14, came after clashes that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 100. The previous round of fighting earlier in the summer killed at least 13.


MEMRI: In First-Ever Iranian Acknowledgment Of Iran's Role In 1980s Lebanon Bombings, Issa Tabatabai, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei's Representative In Lebanon, States: 'I Received From Imam Khomeini The Fatwa [Ordering] Martyrdom Operations Against The Americans'; 'I Provided What Was Needed In Order To [Carry Out] Martyrdom Operations In The Place Where The Americans And Israelis Were'
The Iranian news agency IRNA recently published a five-part interview with Issa Tabatabai, the representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Lebanon. Tabatabai had previously served as the representative in Lebanon of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic.

In Part Four of the interview, which was published September 13, 2023, Tabatabai described his contribution to the establishment of Hizbullah as a military organization, and recounts that at his home, which at the time served as military headquarters, dozens of men had signed a declaration of their willingness to carry out martyrdom operations. He also discussed his role in the Iranian resistance and in launching suicide operations against American forces and representatives and Israeli forces in Lebanon.

After acknowledging that he had received, directly from Khomeini, the fatwa ordering suicide operations to be carried out against the Americans and Israelis in Lebanon, he went on to talk about Hizbullah's military activity against Israel in Lebanon and its cooperation with the Palestinian organizations. He spoke of his personal efforts to set up a hospital there, on the orders of Khomeini, who had also called for building a Hussainiya (Shi'ite religious study and community center), Islamic centers, and mosques to spread Iran's resistance ideology.

Tabatabai also told of the utter confidence placed in him by both Khomeini and his successor Khamenei, and underlined that he is Khamenei's trusted representative in Lebanon in all things having to do with finance and the spread of the Shi'a.

It is noteworthy that the part of the interview in which Tabatabai acknowledged receiving Khomeini's fatwa ordering attacks on American and Israeli targets in Lebanon was removed by IRNA from its website shortly after publication. This is apparently because no official representative of Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Republic, or of Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, had ever said that Iran had any involvement in ordering, planning and carrying out the massive bombings in Lebanon against, inter alia, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 in which 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed, and the barracks of American and French members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon in October 1983, in which 242 U.S. Marines and 58 French troops were killed.

Iran has always vehemently denied any role in the bombings. It submitted no defense in response to the 2001 U.S. lawsuits filed against it by families of the hundreds of Americans killed or wounded in the barracks bombings. In 2007, the court found Iran legally responsible for providing Hizbullah with financial and logistical support that helped it carry out the bombings, and ordered it to pay over $2.5 billion in damages.

The following is a translation of the part of Tabatabai's interview that was removed by IRNA from its website shortly after it was published, under the headline "I Received From Imam Khomeini The Fatwa [Ordering] Martyrdom Operations Against The Americans":[1]

From Ayatollah Khomeini, "I Received Instructions To Fight Against Israel And Even The Fatwa [Ordering] To Carry Out Martyrdom Operations, And He Confirmed This Three Times..."

"...With the victory of the Islamic Revolution [in Iran], Hizbullah was established [in the summer of 1982]. For two years, [Hizbullah's] military base was located in my home. 'The group' [supporters of the Islamic Revolution] signed a contract declaring their willingness to become martyrs. Perhaps more than 70 [of them] signed this contract in my home. This 'group' was given facilities, and then the [1982] war with Israel broke out in South [Lebanon]... When Israel occupied South Lebanon, we had to launch a movement, and the military movement started in my home. [At the time] we were not thinking of establishing Hizbullah – we were just adhering to the [Iranian] 'resistance.'

"We received many facilities from the Palestinians. The military courses we had with the Palestinians prompted us to launch the struggle, and from the Imam [Khomeini], I received approval for the struggle against Israel and even the fatwa [ordering] to carry out martyrdom operations [ishtihad in the original], and he confirmed this three times...
Danger to Western Lives Takes Off, Thanks to the Biden Administration
Even though Iran is a party to the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages, the Islamist regime has long violated it, as it has other commitments, by taking foreign hostages as pawns to extract economic concessions and achieve geopolitical and financial gains.

We can now expect the Iranian regime to arrest or abduct more Americans anywhere it can. Collecting hostages is now big business. Other hostile governments will most likely be tempted to abduct Americans, as well.

Secret attempts by the Biden administration to reach an interim deal with the mullahs have threatened to add not only an estimated $100 billion into Iran's economy, but also, worse, to catapult an Iranian nuclear menace onto the world.

"This exchange operation is in fact one of the most successful and effective negotiation [efforts] ever to happen to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In essence, we released a few Iranian prisoners in exchange for some prisoners whose sentences were about to end, and, on the other hand, we succeeded in releasing billions of dollars of our blocked resources without committing to anything else." — Senior Iranian security source, interview with Fars News, August 12, 2023.

After Obama transferred this $1.7 billion to the Iranian regime to release five Iranian-American prisoners, the theocratic establishment became more emboldened than ever.

"The Trump administration secured prisoner releases without ransom payments...." — Saeed Ghasseminejad, Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Fox News, September 18, 2023.

Increased revenues will also allow the IRGC and Khamenei to crush more easily any domestic protests against their government. The other priorities of Iran's regime are to "export the revolution," and regional military domination. Targeted for this project are Yemen, Syria, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Latin America, Lebanon and Iraq -- and strengthening the regime's militias and terror groups. America and Israel are presumably being fattened up for eventual extermination.

That is what $6 billion has bought us. And the "Iran Nuclear Deal," which will enable the Iranian regime legitimately to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes, is not even dead.
House Resolution Slams Biden's $6 Billion Iran Prisoner Swap
House Republicans on Thursday filed a resolution expressing disapproval of the Biden administration's $6 billion ransom deal with Iran amid reports of ongoing diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, in what congressional sources described as an opening salvo in the Republican-controlled chamber's efforts to block the White House from freeing up more funds for Tehran.

The resolution condemns a range of recent diplomatic gambits that the Biden administration either hid from Congress or only admitted to lawmakers after significant pressure and delays, according to a copy that was exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The resolution's language provides a roadmap for Republican leaders to stymie the Biden administration's diplomacy with Tehran, particularly amid speculation the United States could free up another $3 billion in Iranian funds frozen in Japan.

The measure asks President Joe Biden to submit all deals inked with Iran to Congress, as required under the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which was crafted to give lawmakers a veto over any future deals with Tehran. The Biden administration's hostage deal, reached earlier this month, was crafted without congressional scrutiny. In the lead-up to the hostage deal and the weeks since it was implemented, the Biden administration has kept Congress in the dark, a tactic that critics charge is both illegal and designed to hide the scope of American concessions to the Iranian regime.

"Despite an almost uninterrupted tenure of failure on the world stage, Biden's foreign policy team maintains they are the practitioners of realpolitik and the adults in the room," Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), a House Foreign Affairs Committee member who is spearheading the resolution along with 27 Republican colleagues, told the Free Beacon. "This conceit has led them straight to an Iran policy not of engagement on America's terms, but a non-stop progression of concessions, appeasement, and now billions in ransom for hostages. All of this has made the mullahs rich, Tehran less isolated, and the world's leading terror regime closer to a full nuclear capability. This Congress realizes it's time to step in."
US acknowledges Iran satellite successfully reached orbit as tensions remain high
The United States has quietly acknowledged that Iran's paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps successfully put an imaging satellite into orbit in recent days in a launch that resembled others previously criticized by Washington as helping Tehran's ballistic missile program.

The US military has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press since Iran announced the launch of the Noor-3 satellite on Wednesday, the latest successful launch by the Revolutionary Guards after Iran's civilian space program faced a series of failed launches in recent years.

Early Friday, however, data published by the website space-track.org listed a launch Wednesday by Iran that put the Noor-3 satellite into orbit. Information for the website is supplied by the 18th Space Defense Squadron of the US Space Force, the newest arm of the American military.

It put the satellite at over 450 kilometers (280 miles) above the Earth's surface, which corresponds to Iranian state media reports regarding the launch. It also identified the rocket carrying the satellite as a Qased, a three-stage rocket fueled by both liquid and solid fuels first launched by the Guard in 2020 when it unveiled its up-to-then-secret space program.

"Noor" means "light" in Farsi, while "Qased" means "messenger."

Authorities released a video of a rocket taking off from a mobile launcher without saying where it occurred. Details in the video earlier analyzed by the AP corresponded with a Guard base near Shahroud, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of the capital, Tehran. The base is in Semnan province, which hosts the Imam Khomeini Spaceport from which Iran's civilian space program operates.
Pentagon To Review Senior Official Linked to Iranian Government Group
A senior Pentagon official on Thursday said his office is reviewing top-secret security access for another official alleged to be part of a secret Iranian government-run propaganda network, marking an about-face from an initial defense offered earlier in the week.

Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Pentagon official with top-secret security clearance, was outed in a Semafor report this week as an alleged member of an Iranian-run influence network that reported back to Tehran's foreign ministry and helped push its policies among Washington policymakers. Tabatabai's alleged links to the organization prompted a congressional probe and calls among Republicans for her security clearance to be yanked.

The Pentagon, in comments to the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday, defended Tabatabai, claiming she was "thoroughly and properly vetted as a condition of her employment." But now the Defense Department says it is "looking into whether all law and policy was properly followed in granting" Tabatabai a security clearance.

The investigation was disclosed Thursday by Chris Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, during testimony before Congress. Tabatabai serves as Maier's chief of staff.

"This is an ongoing personnel matter," Maier said under questioning from Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.). "I think the initial response you're referring to was issued by our public affairs folks. We are actively looking into whether all law and policy was properly followed in granting my chief of staff top secret, special compartmented information [clearance]."

When asked if Tabatabai was subjected to a "full-scope" security screening prior to assuming her Pentagon job, Maier said, "I don't know that information."


FDD: The Monetary Value of Relaxed Oil Sanctions Enforcement by the Biden Administration
Tehran’s efforts to obscure its export activities and sidestep sanctions make it harder to determine both the quantity of exports and their likely price. This analysis assumes that Iran offers its buyers a discount for purchasing oil from a sanctioned entity. Since Tehran’s discount offerings likely fluctuate based on time and clientele, this analysis posits three scenarios in which Iran’s oil is priced at 5, 10, and 15 percent below the Brent rate, respectively. For each month of Biden’s tenure (February 2021-August 2023), this analysis takes the estimated increase in Iranian exports as calculated in the previous section and multiplies it by the average monthly Brent price, less the discount for that scenario.

Depending on the scenario, Iran’s total revenue during Biden’s tenure ranges from $81 billion to $90.7 billion. Had Iranian exports remained at the baseline “maximum pressure” level of 0.775 mbpd, revenues would only have been $54.7 billion to $61 billion. The differences between these two sets of figures indicates an Iranian gain of $26.3 billion to $29.5 billion, depending on the discount.

To simplify the calculations, the analysis assumes that a dip in Tehran’s export volume would leave global oil prices unaffected, a plausible premise given the historically minimal price impact of sanctions against Tehran. In other words, had the Biden administration kept Iranian exports to the “maximum pressure” level of 0.775 mbpd, the reduction in global supply would not have pushed prices upwards, partially compensating Tehran for the lower volume of sales.

The spike in Iranian export levels last month may turn out to be transitory, yet the upward trend in 2023 has proven to be resilient. Tehran’s exports will likely remain above the 2021 and 2022 levels and continue to grow as the sanctions wall crumbles. This trend further erodes U.S. financial leverage over Tehran, leaving Washington with fewer means to pressure Iran to restrain the rapid advance of its nuclear program.




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