Tuesday, October 29, 2024

10/29 Links Pt1: Cry Me a River, UNRWA; VDH: The Ordeal and Triumph of Mr. Netanyahu; The JW3 protest is a new low for the ‘anti-Israel’ set

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Cry Me a River, UNRWA
The proper response from UNRWA would be: Thank you. For an agency funded by hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money alone, and which does nothing but perpetuate the conflict so it can continue collecting other people’s hard-earned money and spending it on terrorists, any punishment shy of closure and the prosecution of its directors is a gift.

The UN, of course, is furious. But honestly, who cares? For posterity, here’s the crux of the world body’s complaint: “The vote by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) against UNRWA this evening is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent. It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

An unprecedented precedent-setter! The legislation, we’re told, “will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education.” An education from literal Hamas political leaders? Or accused hostage-takers? Anyway, the “education” provided by UNRWA schools teaches children to venerate terrorists and to hate Jews, which is really no education at all.

Finally, UNRWA says, “Putting an end to UNRWA and its services will not strip the Palestinians from their refugee status. That status is protected by another UN General Assembly resolution until a fair and lasting solution is found to the plight of the Palestinians.”

About that “refugee status.” Palestinian refugees, according to the agency’s own definition, are “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”

UNRWA then sneaks in that the descendants of refugees are “eligible” for refugee benefits as well. The common claim that there are millions of Palestinian refugees from 1948 is very obviously false. There were perhaps as many as 750,000 refugees. Palestinians are the only refugee class with their own UN agency. It is no coincidence at all that that agency has inflated the number of refugees even though its own definition of a refugee makes that number impossible.

According to Jonathan Schanzer, COMMENTARY contributing editor and vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, members of Congress have been trying for years to pass legislation that would apply the actual definition of a “refugee” to Palestinians. A 2012 amendment would have required “the secretary of state to report to Congress on how many Palestinians serviced by UNRWA are true refugees from wars past — those who could prove that they were personally displaced. That number is believed to be closer to 30,000 people. This new tally would then become the focus of America’s assistance to UNRWA for refugee issues.”

UNRWA could, that is, service Palestinian refugees. But it isn’t designed to do that. It is designed be a Palestinian agency. Which is why it has been subsumed by Hamas in Gaza (and Lebanon). UNRWA counts nearly 6 million Palestinians among its refugee population—which is higher than the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Actual refugees deserve every bit of help they can get from refugee agencies. But that work isn’t being done by UNRWA, which is why UNRWA should not be doing any work at all.
Alan Dershowitz: The Media Is Implementing Sinwar's Genocidal Strategy Although they could easily distinguish between combatant and non-combatant deaths, Hamas refuses to do so.

They [Hamas] fail to acknowledge that many of these so-called children were also combatants.

They do the same with women, conveying the impression that only men are terrorists.

Without the support of the media, this strategy would not succeed.

And useful ignoramuses on university campuses, along with bigots in international organizations, falsely accuse Israel of genocide, despite the successful efforts of the IDF to reduce civilian casualties to the minimum possible....

In the absence of an honest accounting, the media will continue to do Sinwar's nefarious work in increasing Palestinian casualties in order to increase the pressure on Israel.

Sadly, the media's dangerous cooperation with terrorists tells us more about them than about the war about which they purport to be "reporting." David Singer: UNRWA inflamed Jew-hatred by keeping Gazans penned in Gaza
The continuing failure of the United Nations and UNRWA, its refugee agency that serves only Palestinia Arabs, to remove Gaza’s children, women, the sick and the elderly from 8 refugee camps inside Gaza to the relative safety offered by 10 refugee camps located in Jordan and 12 refugee camps located in Syria - or anywhere else in the world - has been a monumental failure, dereliction of duty and lack of concern for the welfare of the 650356 refugees living in Gaza and already registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Keeping these registered refugees penned inside Gaza for the last year has seen the Israel-Gaza war prolonged and civilian casualties and damage to property substantially increased - as Israel was:
- Slowed down in eliminating those Gazan terrorists responsible for invading Israel and murdering 1200 people, raping and beheading, hospitalizing 14970 whilst internally displacing 150000 Israelis on 7 October 2023
- Hampered in its efforts to release 252 hostages forcefully abducted in Israel and taken to Gaza
- Required to confront Gaza’s civilians being used as human shields by the perpetrators of the 7 October 2023 atrocities seeking to escape being killed or captured
- Prevented from speedily destroying the extensive underground network of attack tunnels containing weapons, manufacturing and storage facilities located under hospitals, mosques, schools, commercial and residential buildings

Unsuccessful attempts by the UN to procure a ceasefire – rather than demanding the unconditional surrender of Gaza’s Hamas Government – underscored the UN’s concern more with allowing Gaza to survive to fight another day rather than see these Gazan terrrorist monsters and their infrastructure wiped out and destroyed.


Victor Davis Hanson: The Ordeal and Triumph of Mr. Netanyahu
So Israel without loss has finally retaliated against Iran in force, but in a geostrategically brilliant fashion that for now has taken few lives, avoided a regional war, and again put Iran in a nearly impossible strategic position—and all without further alienating an often hostile Biden administration.

If Iran does not match its murderous eliminationist rhetoric with a third strike, it will continue to lose face abroad and perhaps eventually even its governance at home. And yet Tehran realizes such humiliating quietude is the better of two bad choices, since Israel also gave it a way out, by killing few Iranians and sparing its oil and nuclear facilities.

On the other hand, if Iran foolishly chooses to send more ballistic missiles into Israel, there is a good chance that again few—if any—will get through. And such a third strike will both justify and indeed this time ensure that an unbound (and unstoppable) Israeli retaliation will destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and its oil infrastructure, rendering it destitute, defenseless, and humiliated—to the delight of the Arab world, the U.S. and even Europe, and the indifference of its supposed allies China and Russia.

Moreover, Netanyahu struck before the election. That sent a message that even if Harris were to be elected, neither she nor Biden in the next few months will veto Israeli strategic options. (And the strike also reminded American voters that the current administration turned a calm Middle East into an inferno). All that said, Israel responded again with restraint, which the Biden-Harris will eagerly claim was due to their own humanitarian pressure.

In sum, Netanyahu has changed the very image of his multifarious enemies—and indeed of the Middle East terrorist himself. The myth of a deadly and inviolate Iran is now shattered, replaced by a neurotic theocracy, its terrorist limbs amputated, its homeland defenseless, and its ultimate fate in the hands of a righteously angry Israel—with the specter of a possible President Donald Trump on the horizon who would end the dangerous American strategic nonsense of promoting a theocratic, anti-Western, Persian/Shiite/underdog as a foil to the moderate Arabs and Israel.

Likewise, exploding pagers and walkie-talkies not only decimated Hezbollah, but it also humiliated it—and made it the butt of macabre global jest.

Targeted assassinations changed the image of the fiery terrorist Iranian, Hezbollah, or Hamas leader, shaking his fist and shouting death to Israel and the West to assembled thousands, into a caricature of a craven and quivering bully—screaming from a reinforced bunker about the unfairness of being on the receiving end of what it has so boastfully for decades dished out.

Western media weekly posts wanted poster-like charts of Iranian, Hezbollah, and Hamas leadership, with x’s over the faces of the deceased. Now no sooner does a Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iranian terrorist implode than there are hushed assumptions that no one wishes to publicly identify as his replacement—and thus join him in eternity

The surreal aspect of the Netanyahu retaliatory tour is that he has done more to neutralize European and American enemies—with decades of Western blood on their hands—than NATO, the CIA, the FBI, and Interpol combined, and yet more often received rebuke rather than gratitude.
The banality of ‘don’t!’
The Biden administration, and the record that Harris has inherited over these past four years, has left American Jews with many questions. On the one hand, President Biden has supplied Israel with weapons—including the recent delivery of the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system; deployed naval warships to the region; assisted in destroying Iranian missiles before they reached Israeli airspace; shared intelligence; and declared himself a Zionist.

Would Harris ever make such a declaration?

But there has also been a different Biden, one beholden to the progressives within his party and terrorist sympathizers who are making baklava in anticipation of a caliphate that a Harris administration might help usher in. This Biden threatened an arms embargo, pestered Israel with such refrains as: “show restraint,” “de-escalate,” “diplomatic solutions,” “ceasefires,” “stay out of Rafah,” “do not invade Beirut,” “take the win,” “over-the-top” and “stay away from Iranian oil facilities and nuclear enrichment sites.”

The very same Biden who repeatedly warned Iran: “Don’t!”

Iran didn’t pay heed. It went ahead and just did. And why wouldn’t it? This is the same administration that released billions in confiscated funds, which ultimately went into the hands of the Houthis and Hamas. Its proxies never took a day off from attacking Israel. Iran itself launched ballistic and cruise missiles on April 13 and Oct. 1 this year.

Biden adopted President Obama’s love affair with the Islamic Republic. He even retained the three architects behind the original Iran Deal, who by now must have achieved the rank of honorary Persians: Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Robert Malley.

Remember Malley, Biden’s “Special Envoy” to Iran? He’s nowhere to be found these days. He was placed on indefinite leave, his security clearance revoked for mishandling classified information.

Last week, we learned that someone else in the Biden administration leaked classified information to Iran—this time regarding Israel’s planned retaliation for the fusillade of missiles launched on Oct. 1.

These leaks (more like floods) that favor an enemy like Iran and prejudice an American ally like Israel should be front-page news. They would be if the mainstream media were not wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party.

Israel ignored Biden, too. This past weekend, its vaunted air force put on an aerial show, destroying Iranian air-defense systems and missile-production facilities—without losing a single aircraft.

Israel has most definitely reestablished deterrence in the Middle East. Its support among Democrats, however, is still up in the air.
CIA chief proposes partial hostage deal during Doha talks
CIA Director Bill Burns has proposed a 28-day ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for Hamas releasing eight hostages and Israel freeing dozens of Palestinian prisoners, Axios reported on Monday, citing three Israeli officials.

The head of the U.S. intelligence agency advanced the plan during discussions on Sunday in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Mossad director David Barnea.

Negotiations for the release of the 101 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip resumed on Sunday after a nearly two-month lull.

Burns’s proposal does not address Hamas’s key demands of a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. Axios noted that an agreement was unlikely before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Jerusalem would not agree to end the war against Hamas.

“Israel agrees to a temporary pause, but Hamas wants a pause that would open a process that would lead to irreversible Israeli steps. If neither side softens its position there isn’t going to be a deal,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

The Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday that Barnea had returned to Israel from Doha, where “the sides discussed a new unified framework that integrates previous proposals and also takes into account the main issues and recent developments in the region.”

The statement continued: “The discussions between the mediators and Hamas will continue in the coming days in order to evaluate the feasibility of talks and the continued effort to advance a deal.”


State Dept demurs on lack of US pressure on Hamas leader harbored in Qatar
Washington believes that Hamas is being led in Gaza by a council until its hierarchy is re-established after Israeli forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s chief in the Strip, on Oct. 16, Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said at a Monday press conference.

Qatar, a major U.S. ally, which senior U.S. officials frequently thank for its role in negotiating on behalf of Hamas in ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal, has long harbored Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s acting leader.

JNS asked why Washington isn’t pressuring Qatar to push Mashaal into a deal, given that the terror leader is a guest in the Gulf state.

Miller cited the prior “tireless efforts” and “intense focus” of Qatari Prime Minister Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to try to seal an agreement.

“They have a channel with Hamas that is productive for trying to reach this agreement,” Miller said. “The fact is it’s Hamas that holds the hostages, and so it’s Hamas with whom they have to negotiate.”

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed charges against Mashaal for his role in orchestrating the Oct. 7 attacks.

JNS asked Miller if the State Department believes that Qatar has more leverage, given that Mashaal lives there. The Foggy Bottom spokesman again demurred.

“We have made clear that is an important channel that exists to communicate with Hamas to try to get these hostages home,” Miller said. “There can be no more business as usual with Hamas. But it is important that this channel continues to exist, because we have hostages, including seven American hostages who remain in Gaza, that we want to try to get home.”
Graham: Sexual misconduct allegations against ICC prosecutor ‘put a cloud’ over anti-Israel proceedings
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Monday that sexual misconduct allegations against Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, have “put a cloud over” the court’s proceedings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.

Khan ordered the arrest of Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in May. While Israel isn’t a part of the ICC, making it possible to flout their rulings, the warrants make it impossible for Netanyahu or Gallant to travel to any country in compliance with the court.

Khan is accused of sexually harassing a female colleague for over a year, allegedly trying to coerce her into a sexual relationship and groping her against her will. The woman, who was interviewed by the ICC’s independent watchdog after two colleagues she confided in reported the alleged misconduct, declined to file a complaint during that interview.

Graham made the comments while speaking to Jewish Insider on the sidelines of a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., for former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the state’s Republican Senate candidate. The South Carolina senator explained that he has been confused about how Khan came to the decision to move forward with the warrants, and is now seeking answers from the court directly.

“I wrote a letter to the governing body of the ICC asking for information about the investigation. Was it an honest investigation? Was the person who made the allegations intimidated? He was supposed to come to Israel on May the 20th. I had a phone call with 10 senators – five Republicans, five Democrats – urging him to hear Israel’s side of the story, to invoke complementarity, which is a legal concept under the Rome Statute,” Graham said, referring to the treaty that established the ICC. “The people in Israel were at the airport to meet him. At the last minute, he canceled his flight and he filed the [request for an] arrest warrant. So I’ve always wondered what the heck happened.”

“I don’t know if the allegations are true, I just know this: there’s a lot of intrigue around what happened,” Graham continued. “Apparently, this lady came forward in early May. So I think I want to know, how was it handled? Is there any there there? Apparently, some kind of internal report said that the ICC was a very unhealthy place to work. So the question is: Did this have anything to do with this decision to issue arrest warrants, I thought, arbitrarily and without any input from Israel? Was he trying to change the subject? I don’t know, but I’ve written to the governing body, and I expect an answer.”
Barnard College Under Fire for Inviting Anti-Semitic UN Official Who Blamed Israel for Oct. 7 Attack To Speak
Barnard College is facing backlash for inviting United Nations official Francesca Albanese to speak on campus this week. Albanese has blamed the Jewish state for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and compared Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

A pro-Israel U.N. watchdog is urging Columbia University's sister school to cancel Albanese’s Wednesday speech, warning that inviting the "internationally condemned anti-Semite" contributes to the "egregiously anti-Semitic hostile educational environment" on campus. The Wednesday event is hosted by Barnard's human rights, economics, and anthropology departments, the New York Post reported.

"This is exactly the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that has led to allegations of Columbia fostering an egregiously anti-Semitic hostile educational environment, and to allegations of the harassment, threats, and intimidation against Jewish and Israeli students," UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said in a letter sent Monday to Barnard College president Laura Rosenbury and Columbia president Katrina Armstrong.

Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, has argued the Jewish state does not have a right to defend itself against Hamas and liked posts on X endorsing the anti-Semitic trope of the "Jewish billionaire class." She likened Netanyahu to Hitler in a July X post, and hours after the Oct. 7 attack, she said the "violence must be put into context." Albanese also said that the victims of Oct. 7 "were not killed because of their Judaism but in response to Israel’s oppression."

Albanese also accused Israel of committing genocide and advancing a "settler-colonial project in Palestine."

Columbia University was ground zero for anti-Israel student protesters last spring. In the letter, UN Watch criticized the Ivy League institution for "enabling" hundreds of students, faculty, and others to overtake the university’s South Lawn last spring, where "the harassment and abuse of Jewish and Israeli students only intensified, filled with calls for a global Intifada—the worldwide murder of Jews—and other anti-Semitic slogans and chants."

"By inviting Francesca Albanese, an internationally condemned anti-Semite and supporter of Hamas terrorism, Columbia will be subjecting itself to additional claims for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, New York Human Rights Law and New York City Human Rights Law, and the Ku Klux Klan Acts," the letter reads.
Israeli envoy in NY: If US is naive about pro-terror groups, ‘it will harm your society, not just ours’
Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son, Yonatan Samerano, was shot by Hamas terrorists and abducted by a UNRWA social worker on Oct. 7, 2023, is relieved that her desperate calls for action are finally being answered.

“Today we’re seeing the results of our hard work,” she told JNS, after the Knesset passed two laws on Monday that make it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to operate on Israeli soil, and for Israeli officials to to work with the U.N. agency.

Samerano talked with JNS on Monday night after she spoke at an Oct. 7 memorial ceremony at Park East Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“We are very glad that we succeeded and that UNRWA is out of Israel finally,” she said.

More than 600 people attended the event, which the Israeli Consulate General in New York co-organized with the Israeli-American Council. The Israeli Defense Ministry and the La’Aretz Foundation also partnered on the event.

Samerano, the former hostage Mia Shem and Avi Harush, the father of fallen Israeli soldier Rif Harush, addressed attendees at the event, which was held five days after the anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.

“I hope everyone listening to me takes this perspective from Yonatan—that you can achieve anything with a smile and a little charm,” Samerano told JNS. “I believe this is the best wish for the world—that even with our enemies, we try to smile and talk.”


Seth Frantzman: For 75 years, UNRWA has sought to undermine Israel, perpetuate conflict
The concept of UNRWA is to keep Palestinians dependent, living in refugee camps generation after generation, while using its young men as foot soldiers to fight Israel.Winding down the camps and having the people live normal lives and believe in two states and peace could have potentially resulted in peace. However, the UNRWA mandate was never to embrace peace, two states, and coexistence.

One can draw a direct line from the end of the Second World War and the end of the Holocaust to the establishment of the State of Israel and the creation of UNRWA as a weapon in the hands of the international community to try to undermine Israel and use refugees as proxies against Israel.

This line is clear because the UN played a key role in the Partition Plan. The UN then undermined its own plan by creating UNRWA, which served to perpetuate the conflict.Each succeeding generation has taken up the baton from the UNRWA camps and launched wars against Israel. The first war occurred in the 1950s, when Egypt used “infiltrators” and fedayeen (guerrillas) against Israel.

Then there was the Jordanian Civil War, aka Black September, in the 1970s. The war then moved to Lebanon, where Palestinians upended the Lebanese system, leading to Israel’s invasion in 1982.

Then the movement moved via Tunisia back to Gaza and the West Bank and laid the groundwork for the First Intifada. When the Oslo peace deal emerged, Hamas emerged to upend it.

Since the 1990s, the UNRWA camps have not embraced two states or peace but have instead continued to embrace extremism, thereby becoming a hotbed for radicalism.The road to October 7 was paved from there. In Gaza, when Hamas took over, UNRWA didn’t oppose Hamas but was available to partner with it.

Now, Gaza has been destroyed in another war because of UNRWA’s unwillingness to end this conflict and stop using refugees as a tool against Israel.


After UNRWA closure, Norway to request ICJ opinion on Israel’s ‘humanitarian obligations’
Norway wants the International Court of Justice in The Hague to issue an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Oslo said on Tuesday after the Knesset made it illegal for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to operate in the country’s territory.

The Scandinavian nation is requesting that the United Nations’ top court “pronounces on Israel’s obligations to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, delivered by international organizations, including the U.N., and states,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement cited by the Agence France-Presse agency.

Norway will submit a resolution to the U.N. General Assembly, which will request the court to “give an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations as an occupying power to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people,” Oslo said in the statement, adding that UNRWA and “several countries” have already expressed their support for its initiative.

On Monday, a majority of Israeli lawmakers from across the political spectrum voted into law two bills banning UNRWA’s operations in Israeli territory and prohibiting state officials from cooperating with the agency.

The legislation was introduced following the exposure of UNRWA personnel complicity in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, despite pressure from the United States and other countries against the move.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement on Monday that “Norway strongly rejects the legislation adopted by the Knesset, which will make it impossible for UNRWA to operate in Palestine.”

Barth Eide claimed in the statement that “no one can take on UNRWA’s responsibilities in meeting the fundamental needs of Palestine refugees for food, protection, shelter, health care and education.”

Oslo’s top diplomat added, “This is yet another example of Israel ignoring its international legal obligations.”


FDD: Israel Likely Eliminated Key Iranian Weaponization Site
What Was Taleghan 2?
An earlier Institute analysis of Iranian activities at Taleghan 2 and other Parchin sites is based on Iranian nuclear files, plans, and photographs that the Israeli Mossad seized from a Tehran warehouse in 2018 and shared with the Institute. According to this Institute report, Taleghan 2 was roughly 40 meters long and built into a hillside. Prior to mid-2003, when Iran allegedly halted the Amad Plan, the Institute assessed that Tehran used a small test chamber inside Taleghan 2 to test high explosives. These activities constituted part of Iran’s development of a so-called multi-point initiation system, which creates a shock wave that helps set off a nuclear weapon explosion. Iran’s early nuclear weapon design used an MPI.

The Institute’s analysis of Iran’s nuclear archive also indicated that in addition to a test chamber, Taleghan 2 contained flash X-ray equipment powered by a Marx generator, which could “deliver fast pulses of energy” and “enable a rapid succession of images to be taken” of “high explosives compressing a core of natural uranium, simulating the initiation of a nuclear explosive.” This equipment could enable Tehran to test weapons components using natural uranium in lieu of weapons-grade uranium.

In 2012, as negotiations progressed on a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the clerical regime apparently began modifying and sanitizing Taleghan 2 as well as the nearby Taleghan 1 building, possibly in anticipation of international inspections. The nuclear archive indicated that Taleghan 1 previously contained a larger high-explosive test chamber than the one used at Taleghan 2. According to the nuclear archive materials, Tehran used the chamber at Taleghan 1 to test the functionality of the center of its nuclear weapon design, called a neutron initiator. Iranian experiments at either Taleghan 1 or 2 using uranium would have left traces for international nuclear inspectors, which could “explain why Iran sought to also sanitize [Taleghan 2] in the same manner used to sanitize Taleghan 1,” the Institute assessed.

Ultimately, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), required Iran to submit environmental sampling to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that would enable the detection of potentially illicit nuclear activities — but, for reasons that remain unclear, only at Taleghan 1. During a 2015 visit to Taleghan 1, the IAEA did not observe the larger high explosive chamber previously located inside, since Iran likely relocated or dismantled it. However, the IAEA — using sampling physically carried out by Iran under the agency’s oversight — still detected particles of natural uranium that Tehran failed to declare as required by its IAEA nonproliferation safeguards agreement.

The other parties to the JCPOA, including the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, did not require Iran to explain the presence of uranium. In 2016, they began implementing the accord’s associated sanctions relief provisions. The IAEA’s inspection of Taleghan 1 appeared to be a mere box-checking exercise aimed at placating critics who lamented the Obama administration’s failure to reach a deal with Iran that permitted nuclear inspections at regime military sites.

The IAEA never visited Taleghan 2. However, Albright told Reuters after this weekend’s Israeli strike that even if Iran had removed key equipment prior to the Jewish state’s attack, the site retained “intrinsic value” to a weaponization program.
Israel Destroyed Air-Defense Systems Protecting Critical Iranian Energy Sites
Israel's attacks on Iran on Oct. 26 destroyed air-defense systems protecting several critical oil and petrochemical refineries, as well as guarding a large gas field and a major port in southern Iran, according to Iranian and Israeli defense officials. The sites targeted included defenses at the Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex in Khuzestan Province, the Bandar Imam Khomeini port adjacent to it, and the Abadan oil refinery. Air-defense systems were also struck in Ilam Province, at the refinery for the Tange Bijar gas field.

These critical energy and economic hubs are now vulnerable to future attacks if the cycle of retaliation between Iran and Israel continues. Israeli officials said that initial plans, developed immediately after Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1, included strikes on targets linked to Iran's energy industry and nuclear project, but the U.S. urged Israel not to do so.

Israel's attacks have effectively taken out four S-300 air-defense systems that Iran had purchased from Russia. Israel disabled one in April in an attack on a military base in Isfahan Province and three on Saturday, at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport and the Malad missile base.
IDF Froze Iran's Radar Screens prior to Saturday's Counter-Strike
Shortly before Israel launched its retaliatory attack on Iran on Saturday, radar systems in the Iranian defense systems were breached, and the radar screens froze, KAN reported on Monday, citing Iranian sources.

Due to this possible breach, Iran's ability to intercept targets was limited and allowed the Israeli air force to penetrate Iranian airspace, Iranian sources were cited by the Israeli state broadcaster as saying.

Prior to launching the attack on Iran on Saturday, Israel conducted a preliminary strike on radar targets in Syria aimed at "blinding" Iran's capabilities. Attacking radar allowed Israel to deepen strikes in Iran

This attack on Syrian radar targets allowed Israel to escalate into an offensive targeting Tehran and Karaj, Iran's capital and an additional strategic location.

The Israeli operation, which involved over 100 aircraft traveling approximately 2,000 kilometers, likely began with initial waves attacking radar and air defense systems to clear the path for subsequent strikes on military bases. The earlier coordinated strike in Syria neutralized similar threats and prevented Iran from building situational awareness of Israel's offensive plans.

Iran's military later said that Israeli warplanes used "very light warheads" to strike border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, and around Tehran.


Five soldiers killed in Gaza, Lebanon bringing IDF toll to 777
Five more Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed fighting in the northern Gaza Strip and Southern Lebanon, the army said Tuesday.

The soldiers killed in Gaza were identified as Cpt. Yehonatan Joni Keren, 22, from Moledet; Staff Sgt. Nisim Meytal, 20, from Hadera; Staff Sgt. Aviv Gilboa, 21, from Neve Tzuf; and Staff Sgt. Naor Haimov, 22, from Rosh Ha’ayin. All four served in the IDF’s elite Multidimensional Unit.

An officer in the unit was seriously wounded in the incident that killed the four.

On Tuesday night, the IDF announced that Master Sgt. (res.) Yedidia Bloch, 31, from Mevo Horon, died of serious wounds he sustained late last week while fighting Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon. Bloch served in the Battalion 7155 of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade.

On Monday night, an IDF soldier wounded in the northern Gaza Strip earlier this month succumbed to his wounds, the army announced.

Maj. Guy Yaacov Nezri, 25, of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from Atlit, was seriously hurt in Jabalia on Oct. 19.

The IDF death toll in Gaza since the start of the ground operation there on Oct. 27, 2023, stands at 365, while the figure on all fronts since Oct. 7, 2023 is 777.

Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May.


IDF says military goals in Lebanon achieved, gov't can reach diplomatic resolution
The IDF said that its military goals in Lebanon have been achieved and that the Israeli government can now promote a diplomatic resolution to end the conflict in the North, Walla reported on Tuesday.

According to the Northern Command, most of the Hezbollah terror infrastructure near the Lebanon-Israel border has been destroyed, and most of the weapons have been transferred to Israel or destroyed in the field.

Despite this, the IDF also said there are Lebanese villages where the work has not been completed, in which operations through Shin Bet and IDF intelligence still need to be completed. What if a diplomatic resolution is not implemented?

If Israel's political echelon does not achieve a diplomatic resolution regarding southern Lebanon, two possible scenarios could occur:
- The continuation of military pressure through ground maneuvers and airstrikes.
- Continuation of military control of territory occupied by the IDF in all of southern Lebanon - including a scenario in which the Israeli military will be required to expand operational control of the villages.

The IDF makes it clear that in any scenario, whether there is or isn't a diplomatic resolution with Lebanon, the IDF will be required to present a model for enforcing calm in southern Lebanon.

The question raised by IDF officers is this: Will such enforcement be carried out from Israeli or Lebanese territory?


Who is Sheikh Naim Qassem? Hezbollah’s newest leader
Sheikh Naim Qassem, a 71-year-old Shia religious scholar long viewed as Hezbollah’s “number two”, has been chosen to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as the leader of the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.

Last week the previous alleged successor to Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine, was killed by an Israeli airstrike. Following Safieddine’s death, Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general since 1991 and acting head, was left as the sole surviving member of the group’s public-facing senior leadership.

Qassem is one of the radical Shia group’s leading spokesmen, having given many interviews with foreign media, and was a founding member of the group in the early 1980s along with Nasrallah.

He was the first of Hezbollah’s senior leadership to address the public following the death of Nasrallah in Beirut on September 27. He has made two other public addresses since then and in his third, on October 15, reiterated the Iranian terror proxy’s unshakable support for Hamas.

Naim was elected via the group’s Shura Council, the normal procedure for appointing a new secretary general. In a statement, Hezbollah said Naim was elected due to his “adherence to the principles and goals of Hezbollah”.

He is reportedly currently residing in Tehran after fleeing Beirut after Nasrallah’s assassination, aboard the aircraft used by Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, according to the UAE-based Erem News outlet.

In 2011, Qassem said that despite “billions of dollars” being offered to the group in order for them to lay down their arms, help rebuild southern Lebanon and stop the work of the resistance, they would not cease their activities. “We’re not in need [of their money], and the resistance will go on regardless of the consequences,” he said.


Austria says eight UNIFIL troops wounded in Lebanon rocket attack, IDF says Hezbollah responsible
Eight Austrian soldiers belonging to the UN peace-keeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sustained slight and superficial injuries in a rocket strike on Camp Naqoura near the Israeli border, Austria's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was not clear where the attack came from, and none of the soldiers needed urgent medical care.

Later on Tuesday, an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah was responsible for firing rockets at the UNIFIL soldiers.

The IDF told the Post that it is accusing UNIFIL of a double standard, as there have been several incidents in the past where Hezbollah killed UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon. IDF, UNIFIL confirm that Hezbollah fired rocket

Following an investigation, the IDF found that the UNIFIL site was struck as a result of a rocket launch by Hezbollah, fired from the Hallousiyyeh El Faouqa area.

UNIFIL also confirmed that a rocket that hit its headquarters in Naqoura was fired from the north, likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group.

A former UN Truce Supervision Organization soldier testified that UNIFIL was "totally subject to Hezbollah" when he worked in Lebanon 10 years ago in an interview with Danish news site B.T. in October.


'A difficult scene': Hezbollah rocket kills Israeli Arab, wounds three children in northern Israel
The MDA confirmed that a man was killed by a Hezbollah rocket on Tuesday in Ma'alot-Tarshiha in the Galilee region.

24-year-old Israeli Arab Mohammad Naim was killed by a direct hit to his house in the northern city, Ynet reported. A total of 13 others were wounded in the rocket fire and are in light condition, including three children, Ynet also said, citing the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, including those suffering from anxiety.

"It was a difficult scene. There was a lot of destruction when we arrived and started searching the scene. There was an unconscious man with no pulse," MDA paramedic Gilad Ben Hamo said. "We gave him medical treatment, but his injury was too critical, and we had to pronounce him deceased.

"MDA teams are providing treatment on scene to a number of victims with anxiety," he continued. He also said that a 13-year-old boy sustained shrapnel injuries to his lower limbs.


Analyzing a year of war. How is Israel really doing? Caroline Glick and Alex Traiman Explain
JNS CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief Alex Traiman sits down with senior contributing editor Caroline Glick for a one-on-one conversation following the Oct. 26 retaliatory strikes in Iran. Join them for an inside look at what’s really happening in the ongoing war and a discussion on Israel’s road to total victory.


The Quad: Why this may be the end of the Iranian Regime
This week on the Quad, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum and Emily Schrader are joined by guest host Jonathan Elkhoury. Jonathan has a fascinating perspective on the current conflict as his family escaped Hezbollah’s Lebanon for Israel along with other Lebanese Christians a couple of decades ago.

They also interview Iranian Christian artist Hooman Khalili about his experience breaking barriers and connecting Israelis and Iranians.

Chapters
00:00 Iran's Military Strategy and Regional Implications
03:56 Lebanon's Struggle Against Iranian Influence
08:04 The Future of Lebanon Post-Hezbollah
12:17 Prospects for Change in Iran
14:34 Interview: Art as Activism: Supporting Iranian Freedom
20:08 Scumbags and Heroes


Call Me Back: “The Ayatollah has no clothes” – with Rich Goldberg and Richard Fontaine
Hosted by Dan Senor
As we continue to assess the threat FROM Iran and the threat TO Iran, we sat down today with two analysts and former national security officials with different perspectives on what we’ve learned so far and next steps.

Richard Fontaine is CEO of the Center for American Security. He was formerly the top foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain, deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and an official of the U.S. State Department and National Security Council. He currently serves as a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.

Rich Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From 2019-2020, he served as a Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as a national security staffer in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Rich is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve with military experience on the Joint Staff and in Afghanistan.
WTH Extra! Israel Strikes Iran! Frederick W. Kagan Explains Explicit
On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc speak to Fred Kagan about Israel’s strike against Iran over the weekend, retaliating against Iran’s unprovoked October 1 missile barrage against the Jewish state. Israel’s strike, involving over 100 aircraft, effectively took out Iranian air defense systems and decimated Iran’s missile production capabilities. However, either because of Israel’s strategic calculation or pressure from President Biden, Israel chose not to target Iran’s nuclear or oil production. Did Israel effectively put a halt to the tit-for-tat escalation with Iran? Or did it miss an opportunity to prevent a much more dangerous Iran down the road?

Frederick W. Kagan is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a former professor of military history at the US Military Academy at West Point. He is the author of the 2007 report Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, which is one of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy in Iraq, and the book Lessons for a Long War (AEI Press, 2010). His Critical Threats Project, alongside the Institute for the Study of War, releases regular updates on Iranian activity in the Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and transnational terrorism on the African continent.
Tom Gross: Views on Israel, Iran, Gaza & the US election: Tom Gross on FOX LiveNOW with Jeane Franseen

Tom Gross: Israel is 'incredibly' popular with Iranians

The Israel Guys: BREAKING: Huge IDF SURPRISE for Hamas in Northern Gaza and Hezbollah is CRUMBLING
The Israeli military just pulled off a stunning surprise operation in northern Gaza that led to the surrender of what might seem to be the rest of Hamas’s forces in the area. Also up north, Hezbollah terrorists are deserting from their posts like crazy, even as a new leader is chosen to replace Nasrallah.

Ben Hilton breaks it all down for you here on the show.

00:00 Modern warfare
00:43 Israel is reinventing modern warfare
1:33 Israel’s surprise attack on Hamas
2:35 Hospital attack
4:32 Book of Psalms
5:29 Hezbollah deserting
6:44 Israeli strikes in Tyre
6:58 Rocket strike on Israeli home
7:15 New Secretary General for Hezbollah


Southport ‘attacker’ charged with having Al-Qaeda manual and making ricin
The teenager accused of carrying out the Southport attack has been charged with possessing al-Qaeda material and producing ricin.

Axel Rudakubana, accused of the knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, is alleged to have made ricin – a biological toxin – and kept materials related to the terrorist group.

On Tuesday, Downing Street denied a cover-up despite the details emerging three months after the attack. Rumours that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker motivated by terrorism sparked riots over the summer, with thousands arrested and dozens jailed.

Mr Rudakubana, who is 18 but was 17 at the time of the attack, is charged with the murders of Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.

He is also charged with the attempted murder of Leanne Lucas, the class instructor, businessman John Hayes and eight children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and with possession of a knife.

Police said the al-Qaeda material was found during a search of Mr Rudakubana’s house. It was a PDF entitled Military studies in the jihad against the tyrants: The al-Qaeda training manual.

The document includes a translation of a manual produced by the terrorist group, which offers advice on urban warfare and terrorism along with instructions to operatives on how to establish cells and what to say if they are arrested.

The ricin was found in a search of Mr Rudakubana’s home in early August, but public health officials said the risk to the public and emergency workers was low.


The JW3 protest is a new low for the ‘anti-Israel’ set
When Jews in the UK can’t attend a conference hosted by an anti-Netanyahu, left-wing newspaper, featuring two Palestinian politicians, without being barracked by bigoted protesters, you know that ‘anti-Israel’ activism has morphed into something much darker.

That is exactly what happened on the streets of north London on Sunday morning. Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, hosted a conference titled, ‘Israel After October 7: Allied or Alone?’. Speakers included Nasser al-Kidwa, a former Palestinian foreign-affairs minister and the nephew of Fatah founder Yasser Arafat, as well as left-wing Arab Israeli MP Ayman Odeh.

Many of the conference’s speakers were deeply critical of the Israeli government. ‘How do allies committed to liberal democracy relate to a hard-right Israeli government?’, the blurb asked. ‘Who are the Palestinian partners for building a common future?’

But even this kind of event, it seems, was a step too far for ‘pro-Palestine’ protesters. Outside JW3 – a leading Jewish community centre, where the conference was taking place – attendees were jeered at by activists. In videos posted on X, masked protesters can be seen calling attendees ‘mass murderers’ and demanding that Zionism ‘no longer exist in the Middle East, because Zionism is a racist ideology’.

Footage from the protest shows one elderly woman reduced to tears as she’s shouted at. Another chant that rang out was: ‘There is only one solution, intifada revolution.’ Jews have good reason to fear when, on the streets of a supposedly civilised city, mobs start talking about ‘solutions’ to their existence. It is a testament to Haaretz that it wasn’t cowed by the protesters and the conference carried on.
Mayor of London asked to act to protect Jews as protestors shout “Zionists not welcome here”
A chant implying Zionists are not welcome in London, at one of the Saturday “Hate marches” has prompted UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to write to the Mayor of London to urge him to act to protect Jews.

“Say it loud, say it clear, Zionists not welcome here” was shouted through a megaphone and microphone by two men, one clad in a red Keffiyeh, and the other draped in a Palestinian flag, to the beat of a large drum. The offensive chant was then repeated by the accompanying mob during the pro-Palestine march on 5 October 2024. A video of this can be seen here.

UKLFI has reported the two unknown individuals to the police for breaching sections 5 and 18 of the Public Order Act 1986 and has also written to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, to urge him to ensure the safety and protection of Jews in London.

UKLFI’s letter to the Mayor pointed out that it is well known in the public domain that most British Jews are Zionists, in that they believe in the right to self-determination for the Jewish people, and statehood in their ancestral homeland. Therefore, hearing it publicly proclaimed that Zionists are not welcome is effectively saying that British Jews are not welcome in their own country.

The letter said: “This exemplifies the dire situation faced by many British Jews week in week out as these marches take place up and down the country and the language and behaviour and thinly veiled hatred ramps up. The hatred that is fuelled at these marches, is likely to increase the antisemitic incidents in London and elsewhere.”

This is one incident amongst many in the past 12 months and as the hatred continues each week without apparent steps being taken to stop such behaviour and/or ban marches. London’s Jews feel even more intimidated and afraid to travel in and around London.




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