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Monday, February 03, 2025

02/03 Links Pt1: How Western governments are funding the persecution of Jews; Trump to watch October 7 film; Trump withdraws from UNHRC, defunds UNRWA and closes USAID

From Ian:

To Save Itself from International Isolation, Israel Must Hold On to the West Bank
Yet, as Elliott Abrams argued in Mosaic a decade ago, the rhetoric of unsustainability is misguided: a regional realignment is taking place in the Middle East, and that realignment was made possible by the supposedly unsustainable status quo that benefitted Israel over the past few decades. Abrams’s points are even more valid today, after the “unsustainable” situation in the West Bank has endured another ten years, than at the time of his essay’s publication. But an important point must be added.

Talk of political “unsustainability” implies that there is a different equilibrium that would be “sustainable.” For how long? Critics of the status quo rarely ask this question, because they implicitly assume that while the status quo that they criticize cannot last forever, their proposed way of replacing the status quo could. Not only two-statists assume this, but right-wing critics of the status quo as well, for example the journalist Caroline Glick and the former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who both wrote book-length defenses of their vision of “one Jewish state” that would include all of Judea and Samaria and (for Glick) the Gaza Strip as well.

The assumption that just because the status quo cannot last forever there must be something else that will, is itself flawed: it exemplifies what I elsewhere called “end of history” thinking. In reality, history never ends. Political arrangements come and go, and nothing about the status quo makes it inherently less stable than any of the proposed political solutions to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. That the status quo will have to end one day is true but trivial: Baathist rule in Syria also ended one day, and so will the mullahs’ rule in Iran, as well as oil dominance in the energy sector and the resulting importance of most Gulf states. But in the foreseeable future, there is no reason to build policy on these forecasts.

An unsentimental view of Israel’s regional realities should force us to replace the impossible mission of ending history in the Middle East with a more down-to-earth principle, one articulated by Hippocrates: first, do no harm. The directive to avoid harm doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t strive for incremental improvements in the everyday life of all residents between the river and the sea, which the Israeli writer Micah Goodman describes as “shrinking the conflict.” But competent conflict management must take precedence over utopianism, be it the left’s two-state solution or the hard right’s dream of Jewish sovereignty over all of the land. Israeli policymakers must instead focus on securing a better future for our children and grandchildren. For the foreseeable future, nobody has suggested anything better than the status quo.

The implications of this essay’s argument for Israel’s Western supporters, especially in the U.S., are also clear. Israel’s Western friends who would like to see Israel withdraw from further territories, let alone agree to a two-state solution with the Palestinians, must completely change their attitude to Israel’s wars. They need to abandon the language of “de-escalation” and clearly and unambiguously state that in any war between Israel and its adversaries, the goal should be not cease-fire for cease-fire’s sake, but total and unquestionable Israeli victory. They need to stop talking about “Israel’s right to defend itself,” a phrase that has become empty of content over the years, since in practice it often means little more than Israel’s right to intercept rockets in the air. Instead, they should emphasize Israel’s right to do what it must to defeat its regional adversaries, and to finish wars on its own terms and according to its own timing, not under American pressure. They should stop demanding that American assistance to Israel be conditioned on any of the great many constraints that U.S. administrations routinely want to impose on Israel’s war efforts; and they should view arms embargos as an absolute taboo.

Coming from an Israeli, this might sound self-serving and all too convenient, but it’s based on a rational understanding of incentive structures. Any friend of Israel who wants to encourage Israel’s withdrawal from parts of the West Bank should want to avoid a situation in which Israel finds the diplomatic cost of withdrawing even steeper than the diplomatic cost of not withdrawing. Lukewarm, hesitant, and unreliable support during a defensive war against an enemy whose base is territory from which Israel previously withdrew (as is the case of Israel’s current war against Hamas) sends Israel the message that heeding the call to withdraw isn’t merely dangerous but could even lead to the very outcome that the withdrawal was supposed to stave off: diplomatic isolation. Thus, anyone who wants to convince Israelis that withdrawal is in their interest should be steadfastly and unconditionally supportive of Israel when it finds itself at war.

Of course, we know that this is not how things work in reality. In practice, politicians and opinionmakers who see the greatest urgency in Israel’s relinquishment of additional territory also tend to be the people who are the most critical of Israel’s war effort, and indeed their criticism of the war is much harsher and much more vocal than their criticism of Israel’s management of the Israel-Palestinian conflict during quieter times. This means, however, that in view of its self-declared allies’ and partners’ easily observable revealed preferences, Israel has no incentive to make further territorial concessions. Quite the contrary: if Israel is truly concerned about potential diplomatic isolation in the future, it must resist the idea of territorial concessions with all its might.
Lyn Julius: Palestinian resettlement would complete the 1948 exchange
President Donald Trump’s proposal that 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip be transferred to Egypt and Jordan has been met with outright rejection by said countries, in addition to howls of outrage and accusations of “ethnic cleansing.”

The refugee problem needs to be considered in its historical context. Trump has focused attention on the Gazans by effectively suggesting the completion of an exchange of refugee populations that began in 1948 with the first Arab-Israel war. Arab refugees fled from Israel to Gaza, and the areas of Judea and Samaria, while thousands of others left for Lebanon and Syria.

It is often forgotten that Jewish refugees—persecuted in Arab countries, where they had been established for millennia—fled in the opposite direction. The numbers of refugees who swapped places were 711,000 Arabs (according to U.N. figures) vs. 650,000 Jews—roughly equal. (Another 200,000 Jewish refugees fled to the West).

The Jews were granted citizenship in Israel and the West. They were quickly resettled and are no longer refugees. But the Palestinian Arabs remained stateless, many shunted into camps. Not only were they not resettled but weaponized into a tool of permanent conflict with Israel.

They were actively prevented from resettling by two factors.

The Arab League passed, in 1959, Resolution No. 1457, which forbids the countries from offering citizenship to the refugees “in order to prevent their assimilation into their host countries.”

The other gatekeeper of statelessness has been the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) set up exclusively for Palestinians. The agency not only provides health, food and education in the refugee camps but allows the Palestinians to pass on their refugee status to succeeding generations ad infinitum.

Population exchanges have been the norm after most conflicts in the 20th century. Indeed, the principle of population exchange and, therefore, of resettlement has been accepted in international law as in the Treaty of Neuilly (1919) and the Lausanne Convention (1923). More than a million Greeks from Asia Minor and the Caucasus swapped places with 400,000 Muslims from Greece.

A vast population exchange took place following the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan. In that case, 8.5 million Hindus left Pakistan for India, and 6.5 million Muslims fled Pakistan. Millions of Germans and Russians were forced from their homes during World War II, never to return.
Approx. 80% of Israelis support Trump's plan to relocate Gazans
A large majority of Israeli Jews support US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s population to other countries, a Jewish People Policy Institute Israel Index survey revealed Monday.

The survey, which was published ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump in Washington, found that approximately eight out of 10 Jewish Israelis support Trump’s suggestion that “Arabs from Gaza should relocate to another country,” while most Arab Israelis oppose the proposal.

According to the findings, 43% of all Israelis believe Trump’s plan is “practical” and should be pursued, while an additional 30% of Jewish Israelis responded that the plan is “not practical, but desirable,” meaning they support the idea but do not see it as realistically feasible.

However, 13% of Israelis believe Trump’s proposal is “immoral.” This group includes 54% of Arab respondents and only 3% of Jewish Israelis.

The JPPI study also found differences in opinion in political views, with 81% of right-wing respondents saying the plan is both desirable and practical, compared to 31% of those in the Center and 27% of left-wing Jewish respondents.

Results found that a majority of Likud voters say they believe the relocation plan is both desirable and practical, with half of National Unity Party voters agreeing it is desirable but not practical. Furthermore, 62% of those who associated themselves with the Labor Party consider the plan either a “distraction” or “immoral.”

Change in views
According to the JPPI, the idea of significantly relocating Gaza’s Palestinian population – once considered illegitimate by many Israelis – now sees support among Jewish Israelis. When there is opposition, it is typically based on practicality, with some dismissing the plan as “a distraction” rather than on moral grounds.

Surveys conducted in the 1990s and mid-2000s on the transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank generally found support levels of 40%–50% among Jewish Israelis.


Brendan O'Neill: How Western governments are funding the persecution of Jews
The British government helped to fund the persecution of a British Jew. That’s the takeaway from Emily Damari’s revelation that she was held in an UNRWA facility for some of the hellish time she spent in Hamas captivity. Keir Starmer’s Labour government pumps millions of pounds into UNRWA. Money that will be used, in part, for the upkeep of UNRWA’s buildings. Buildings like the one in which Ms Damari was held by the neo-fascist militia of Hamas. It may have been indirect, it may have been unwitting, but British government money, our money, went to an organisation whose facilities were used to tyrannise a British Jew. And we need to talk about that.

Emily Damari is the young British-Israeli woman who was abducted from her home in the Kfar Aza kibbutz during the Hamas-led pogrom of 7 October 2023. She was held hostage for 471 days, finally being freed on 19 January as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. In a phone call with Starmer on Friday, she revealed that for some of the 15 months she spent in the captivity of that army of anti-Semites, she was held on premises belonging to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). We don’t know how Starmer responded, but hopefully he said something like: ‘What?! The aid agency I just gave millions to?’

For that, almost unbelievably, is what happened. Three days before his chat with Ms Damari, three days before being informed that this citizen of the country he leads was held by racist terrorists in an UNRWA facility, Starmer’s government awarded an additional £17million for the Palestinian territories, much of it to UNRWA. Anneliese Dodds, Starmer’s minister for development, gushed about the ‘vital role’ UNRWA plays in Gaza and haughtily instructed Israel to back off and let it play that role. One of the roles it seems to have played, wittingly or otherwise, is the provision of facilities for Hamas, including for the purposes of criminally depriving a British Jew of her liberty. How ‘vital’ is that?

It’s hard to overstate the seriousness of all this. British taxpayers helped to fortify buildings in which Hamas committed war crimes. British taxpayers helped to fund one of the dens of anti-Semitism in which our fellow citizen was held captive for the ‘crime’ of being a Jew in Israel. Where is the outrage? Where are the pained editorials in the liberal press? It is a testament to the moral indifference of Britain’s cultural elite that we can discover a British woman was held hostage in UNRWA facilities days after our government handed UNRWA yet more money and no one bats an eyelid.

If Starmer was shocked by Ms Damari’s revelation, he has no right to be. For everyone who has been paying attention knows that UNRWA has been thoroughly compromised by its intimate links with Hamas. Other hostages have likewise said they were held in UNRWA buildings. It’s possible some of these hostages were seized by UNRWA’s own employees during the orgy of barbarism that was the 7 October pogrom: at least nine UNRWA staff members are suspected of having taken part in that fascistic atrocity. ‘I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews’, an UNRWA-employed teacher reportedly said as he invaded Israel on that day of bloodshed.


Trump To Withdraw US From UN Agencies That Whitewash 'Horrific Human Rights Violations'
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and cutting funding to UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency for Gaza, which has been widely criticized following reports that its staffers were involved in terrorism.

The order, which will reinstate policies from Trump's first term, will cite anti-Israel bias within both the council and UNRWA, Politico reported. The Biden administration last year suspended funding to the UNRWA for one year after reports emerged that some staffers had been involved in Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

The UNHRC "has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations," the Trump administration said in a fact sheet, according to Politico.

"The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings," the document reads. "In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined."

The Tuesday order will also direct Secretary of State Marco Rubio to identify international organizations, conventions, and treaties that "promote radical or anti-American sentiment," Politico reported.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), Trump's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, said in her confirmation hearing last month that she would push for U.N. reforms and ensure that U.S. funding is going only to U.N. programs "that work, that have a basis in the rule of law, that have a basis in transparency and accountability, and strengthen our national security and our partnerships."
Biden Admin Quietly Funneled $3 Mil to Palestinian Government 'Security Forces' for Weapons Training—After Its Members Carried Out Attacks on Israelis
The Biden administration, weeks before leaving power, funneled more than $3 million in taxpayer cash to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF), according to a nonpublic notice transmitted to Congress that was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Those funds allowed the PASF to conduct "firearms and ammunition" training—and came after its members carried out scores of attacks against Israelis.

The Jan. 3 funding notice outlined more than $20 million in funding for regional security projects, including those in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Jordan. Just over $3 million of these funds were earmarked for the PASF, which the United States is training to handle security operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip. As it does so, the PASF is reportedly seeking more than $680 million from the American government over the next four years.

That spending—both past and, potentially, future—is drawing concerns in both Israel and Washington, D.C., given PASF's deep and longstanding ties to terrorism carried out against Israelis.

PASF members conducted more than 1,500 terror attacks against Israel in 2023—attacks that came with the Palestinian government’s backing, according to a Palestinian Media Watch investigation shared with the Free Beacon. More than 60 percent "of the number of Martyrs in the West Bank" are affiliated with the Palestinian Fatah movement, which sponsors the PASF, "and most of them are members of the [PA] Security Forces or their sons," the investigation found. Nearly 400 Palestinians imprisoned for terrorism are known PASF members.

Earlier this month, for example, the PASF announced that one of its officers, Hassan Raba'iah, was killed during a standoff with Israeli forces in Jenin, a West Bank city. "Shortly thereafter, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a designated terrorist organization, announced that Hassan Raba'iah was one of its commanders," PMW determined in an investigation.

Both the PASF and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades celebrated Raba’iah’s death in Telegram channels, that investigation found.
Trump to watch October 7 film for first time
US President Donald Trump will reportedly watch a film from the October 7 massacre for the first time, Ynet reported on Monday.

The US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, watched the film during his visit to Israel last week and said that Trump "must watch it himself" to see with his own eyes what happened on October 7.

According to sources who are familiar with the details, Witkoff was shown the film by the IDF spokesman and was left "shocked and appalled." An appeal was made shortly after to the Israeli Embassy in DC and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit to shorten the film to show Trump. The original length of the film is 47 minutes.

Trump will watch roughly 20 to 30 minutes of it, at most, and will be shown the film by his aids.

Trump is expected to watch the film on Monday or Tuesday, most likely before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who landed in Washington DC on Sunday.

Hamas atrocities documented digitally
Shortly after the October 7 Hamas massacre on Israel’s southern border, it became clear quite quickly that it was the first event of its kind that was almost wholly documented digitally and that if it was not properly and swiftly organized and preserved for historical research, it would be destined to disappear.

Recognizing the transient and changeable nature of this digital media, the National Library of Israel launched a project of collaborative leadership working together in partnership with other institutions and dozens of collection efforts to serve as a central repository for all existing documentation of these events: texts, photos, audio, and video.
Netanyahu extends DC trip through Saturday, will meet with congressional leadership
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, plans to extend his visit stateside until Saturday night, his office said, reportedly citing “many requests by U.S. officials who want to meet him.”

The Israeli leader had originally planned to fly home on Thursday.

Netanyahu’s trip comes at a crucial time, as Israel maintains tenuous ceasefires with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and with Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, on Monday evening, per the latest itinerary that Netanyahu’s office released to press.

That discussion will likely mark the start of the negotiations of phase two of the ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas, in which Israel is to withdraw entirely from the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages and a permanent cessation of hostilities.

Reporters asked Trump on Monday during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office if he thought the Gaza ceasefire would last.

“I have no assurances that it will hold,” Trump said. “I’ve seen people brutalized. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold.”

Trump passed the question to Witkoff, who said of the ceasefire that “so far, it’s holding.”

“We’re certainly hopeful,” Witkoff added. “That’s the president’s direction: Get the hostages out, save lives and come to, hopefully, a peaceful settlement of it all.”
US readies new $1 b. arms sale to Israel, WSJ reports
US President Donald Trump's administration has asked congressional leaders to approve new transfers of roughly $1 billion worth of bombs and other military hardware to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, and armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million, the report added, citing sources.


Fate of terrorist behind Sbarro pizzeria bombing remains in question
Jordan informed the Hamas terrorist group that it must take convicted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi off its hands, or it will deport her to the United States, according to Arab media reports on Sunday.

Tamimi, 44, who lives freely in Jordan, helped plan and engineer the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, which killed 16 people, including three Americans. Some 130 were injured.

In 2013, the U.S. charged Tamimi with participating in the attack. She is at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List. The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest.

Jordan, which has an extradition agreement with the U.S. dating from 1995, has refused to comply in the case of Tamimi. If the reports are true, it would mean a major shift in Amman’s position.

Ahmad Safadi, Jordan’s Speaker of the Parliament, said on Monday that the reports were “inaccurate.”

“If we don’t open the issue, it’s better,” he stated.

‘Hand this woman over’

Arnold Roth, whose teenage daughter, Malka, was killed in the attack, and who has waged a years-long campaign with his wife, Frimet Roth, to see Tamimi brought to justice, told JNS that something is happening, though it’s difficult to ferret out the truth from the reports.

“If true, what the reports are saying is that Jordan is handing a veto to Hamas—and not for the first time,” he told JNS. “The veto says to Hamas: ‘We have an obligation to hand this woman over, but we’re not going to do it if you don’t want us to do it.'”

Hamas would take Tamimi to another country—one without an extradition treaty with America, he noted.

Roth speculated that Tamimi is already out of Jordan, perhaps on the way to Qatar. “Her husband is there. Her bank account is there.”

Jordan would like to be rid of her; she is a “huge embarrassment,” according to Roth. “The Jordanian government wants to see her someplace where there’s no more criticism of Jordan—to skip the part about how they have been breaching their treaty with their most important ally for 13 years.”


Danon to ‘Post’: Era of change at UN on Israel possible now under Trump
Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, is optimistic that change is coming to the world body under US President Donald Trump.

“We are excited,” is the first thing that Danon said in an interview to The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Danon, who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delegation to the US capitol to meet with President Donald Trump, said, “We – I – am really looking forward to the arrival of the new US Ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik. We have a lot to do.”

Danon will closely follow what results from the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu today, and said he believes the close bond between the countries could yield results at the UN headquarters in New York, where the US has largely had to use its veto power to diffuse the volley of anti-Israel actions.

“It has been a very challenging period for us since October 7 at the United Nations. A lot of hostility, antisemitism, and biased opinions. We are looking forward to pushing back against antisemitism, pushing back against the bias against Israel, and promoting our shared values.”

One of the problematic figures at the world body over the last year has been UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Danon. “He has made many mistakes since October 7; the fact that he hasn’t yet visited the communities in Israel speaks for itself. The US gives billions of dollars to the UN, and has a strong position in the organization. I believe that what will happen is that we will see the US more involved in demanding more from the UN and, hopefully, shifting the UN to address its bias against Israel.”

Politico reported on Monday that the US will halt funding to UNRWA, the UN body which oversees Palestinian refugees, and will withdraw from the UN’s Human Rights Council. Danon said he thinks this is only the beginning. “I think the US administration must look at the details to see what the UN is doing with the funds [it gets], and make sure they go to the right places. UNRWA is a corrupt organization, and it’s about time it no longer exists.”
Trump To Withdraw United States From UN Human Rights Council
President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) this afternoon, according to POLITICO. The executive order will also prohibit future funding for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The factsheet announcing the withdrawal accused the UNHRC of not fulfilling its purpose and being a “protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations.”

“The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings,” the document says. “In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined.”

Trump withdrew from the UNHRC during his first term in 2018. At the time, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley accused the council of scapegoating nations with clean human rights records and propping up the world’s worst human rights abusers.

Some of the world’s worst human rights abusers currently serve on the UNHRC, including Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, China, and Qatar.


EU parliamentarians from 14 countries ask Guterres to shutter UNRWA
Members of the European Parliament from 14 nations have appealed to the United Nations to shut down the terror-linked U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Israeli media reported on Sunday.

The Jan. 27 missive from Brussels, the content of which was first revealed by Israeli media on Sunday, urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to “put an end to the operations of UNRWA, which contravene the neutrality of the United Nations and do great harm to your essential work and to the image of the organisation you represent.”

The letter, signed by 30 lawmakers from across the European Union, notes reports that the U.N. agency “has contravened all its missions” by allowing the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip “to hide hostages, which is politically, morally and legally highly reprehensible.”

The European Union, through its 27 member states, is UNRWA’s third-largest donor.

“Of course, we understand that refugee management is an important part of the UN’s mission, but we believe that it can be managed by UNHCR,” the parliamentarians added, referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the body responsible for all refugees who are not Palestinian.

Israeli-British Emily Damari, who was freed from Gaza on Jan. 19 following 471 days in terrorist captivity, has revealed how she was held at UNRWA facilities after her kidnapping.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, in a subsequent statement called Damari’s allegations “deeply disturbing and shocking,” while stressing that his agency has “repeatedly called for independent investigations into any credible claims of misuse and disregard of U.N. premises by Palestinian armed militants, including Hamas.”

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday voiced support for the E.U. parliamentarians’ call.

“Supporting UNRWA is supporting Hamas. The secretary-general’s and UNRWA Commissioner-General Lazzarini’s turning of a blind eye is not the solution,” tweeted Danon, attaching a copy of the Jan. 27 letter.


Yisrael Medad: USAID was a political agent for anti-Israel diplomacy
Observing the Trump administration’s battles with USAID has brought a bit of satisfaction and even some schadenfreude.

Its site has been down for a few days and several of its security officials were placed on leave after a clash with Department of Government Efficiency agents, with Elon Musk himself writing in a social-media post that “USAID is a criminal organization.” President Donald Trump said USAID was run by “a bunch of radical lunatics.”

Now, in the fast-moving story, we learn that Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, announced he was now the acting administrator of the agency.

After checking my blog, I found that I have been following USAID’s deeds since at least 2007. In that fiscal year, USAID had invested $50 million in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Bush administration has requested an increase to $77 million for the next fiscal year. That year, I also caught an advertisement it had published here in Israel.

The ad made it clear that it was treating the areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza as a separate territorial entity, even bypassing the Palestinian Authority. Using its financial weight, USAID was not only supposedly improving lives and economies, but influencing the diplomatic developments and desired political outcomes of America’s foreign-policy chieftains.

What also became clear, as I further investigated, was that USAID not only ignored but actively sought to undermine any acknowledgement of the right of Jews to live in their historic homeland.

Some 14 years later, at a U.S. State Department press briefing on April 7, 2021, the media was informed that U.S. economic, development, security and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people would be “restarted” and that the “assistance, of course, will be provided consistent with U.S. law.” The aid included $75 million in “economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza,” and USAID would directly find “peacebuilding programs” in the amount of $10 million. UNRWA would receive $150 million in “humanitarian assistance.”
Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID
The Middle East Forum’s multi-year study of USAID and State Department spending has uncovered $164 million of approved grants to radical organizations, with at least $122 million going to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters. Billions more of federal monies has been given to leading American aid charities which have consistently failed to vet their terror-tied local partners, and show little interest in improving their practices, to the apparent indifference of the federal government.

Millions of federal dollars have been handed by USAID to organizations directly in Gaza controlled by Hamas, with government officials even visiting Gaza terror proxies’ offices and launching joint programs.

USAID beneficiaries have called for their lands to be “cleansed” from the “impurity of the Jews,” among dozens of other chilling examples. USAID staff attend the offices of charities which seemingly operate on behalf of senior Hamas leaders, while staff of multiple multi-million dollar USAID beneficiary charities openly praise and encourage violence against Jews.

State Department money has been handed to radical domestic groups such as the Tides Foundation, which members of Congress have accused of funding pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish violence in college campuses across America.

Easily manipulated fellow travelers, including major aid organizations such as World Vision and Catholic Relief Services, as well as advocacy organizations such as InterAction, serve as important vehicles for terror-tied Islamists, both in the United States and abroad. These charities are dependent on federal funding, receiving billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

Federal funding subsidizes efforts by domestic Islamists involved with Hamas, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Turkish regime, to abrogate rules and scrutiny in the United States intended to tackle the threat of terror finance.

Records of federal funding, particularly through USAID, are obfuscated by deficient disclosure practices, deleted data, and deliberate attempts to evade transparency, with millions of dollars given to anonymous beneficiaries in terrorism-stricken areas of the globe.


Seth Frantzman: It remains to be seen if war on Hezbollah is gamechanger
When the IDF did go into Lebanon on the ground after two weeks of more intense airstrikes in September, the IDF moved slowly into some border villages. It expanded the operation slowly. This was a major difference to Israel’s Operation Peace of Galilee in 1982 or the Litani operation in 1978.

In those days the IDF moved more quickly to seize areas up to the Litani river. In the 2024 war on Hezbollah, called Northern Arrows, the IDF did not move as quickly. Instead it moved slowly and systematically as it had in Gaza.

IDF meant to withdraw from southern Lebanon
Today the IDF is still in some areas of southern Lebanon. However it is supposed to withdraw by February 18. Hezbollah is prodding civilians there to return to their homes and create tensions with the IDF. The Lebanese army is supposed to deploy at the border but it has a historic track record of failing to carry out its mission.

This leaves questions. Is the quiet on the border an illusion. Has Israel defeated Hezbollah? Has Hezbollah been deterred. Iran has been cut off because of the fall of the Assad regime. Will this mean Hezbollah cannot re-arm and return to threaten Israel in the same war. Is Hezbollah weaker than it was in 2006?

There are many key questions that we do not know the answer to. What is clear is that Israelis will need to return to their homes on the border. Will Hezbollah soon be raising their flags again in places near the border? If so will it seem that everything has merely returned to the status quo. What are the chances that the war in 2024 on Hezbollah was a game-changer?

Time will tell. For now what impacted me is the sense of quiet and feeling that the border of northern Israel is safe again. But, if Hezbollah flags appear again on the other side of the border, this sense of security will likely change.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Why The Palestinian Authority Will Not Be Able to Control Gaza
The failure of the Palestinian Authority's security operation against the Jenin gunmen shows why the PA cannot be trusted to assume control over the Gaza Strip, where thousands of Hamas and PIJ terrorists continue to operate, especially after the recent US-brokered ceasefire-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas.

Like Abbas, no Arab country will invest in or get involved in the Gaza Strip as long as Iran's Islamist proxies continue to dominate it. Given the recent return of hundreds of convicted terrorists released from Israeli prisons to the streets in exchange for hostages -- many of whom are dead -- the possibility of another October 7-style atrocity against Israelis is still all too real.

President Donald J. Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, may have the best of intentions, but unfortunately appears to have placed his trust in his real estate business associate, Qatar, which is a major funder of Hamas.

Witkoff, who regrettably took a terrible, ready-to-wear deal from the Biden administration... is proving an unfortunate embarrassment to Trump.

From the beginning, the deal should have been, as then-President-elect Trump put it, that all the hostages must be released before his inauguration or "all hell will break out." Such a warning presupposes that all the hostages, dead and alive, are placed at the border, on a certain date at a certain time. No negotiations, no release of hundreds of terrorists, nothing... It would be interesting to know how Trump's strong, original vision got so badly derailed.

"Qatar is at the top of funding terrorism worldwide, even more than Iran." — Ehud Levi, retired head of the Mossad's unit for economic warfare against terrorist organizations, Ynet, April 18, 2024.

Qatar's plan undoubtedly is to see that Hamas, one of its preeminent clients, remains in power. As the mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas through its vast television empire, Al Jazeera, Qatar does not want to see Israel in the region any more than Hamas does.

There is only one viable way to address the Gaza Strip's problems: discard Qatar as a supposedly honest broker (it is not), designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization (it is), disarm all the terrorist groups, and oust Hamas completely from power.
IDF: 50 terrorists killed, 100 detained since start of Samaria op
The Israel Defense Forces has killed more than 50 Palestinian terrorists since the start of “Operation Iron Wall” in northern Samaria on Jan. 21, the military said on Sunday evening, announcing it was expanding the offensive.

At least 35 gunmen were killed by soldiers during ground operations in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas, while another 15 were killed in airstrikes, the IDF said. More than 100 wanted terrorists have been detained thus far.

“During the operation, the forces located and confiscated dozens of weapons, destroyed hundreds of explosive devices and dozens of additional charges that were planted on roads to harm our forces,” the IDF said.

On Sunday, the counter-terrorism operation was expanded to include Tammun, a Palestinian town south of Tubas near Nablus. On Jan. 20, one Israeli soldier was killed and four others were wounded when their armored army vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Tammun.

Earlier on Sunday, the army said it had destroyed “several buildings in Jenin, in the Menashe Brigade [area of responsibility], which were used as terror infrastructure.”

According to the IDF, security forces destroyed 23 structures in the Jenin area where terrorist infrastructure was located after searching hundreds of buildings in the area. During the scans, explosives laboratories, weapons, observation posts, and more terrorist infrastructure were found.

No casualties were reported in the incident.
5 CRITICAL issues Trump & Bibi will discuss this week | JLMinute
President #Trump is not wasting any time bringing order to the world and the Middle East is no exception. Trump is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu this week and JNS CEO Alex Traiman is in Washington DC to give us an up-close, inside look at the discussions. Today, Alex joins Josh Hasten for a complete rundown of everything that’s on the agenda, including: what’s next for Gaza, relocation of Gazan refugees, the ceasefire with Hezbollah, normalization with Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s military buildup in Sinai, next moves in Iran and so much more!


Waging Lawfare for Terror Victims w/ Deborah Sturman | Quad Interviews
Join host Fleur-Hassan Nahoum for an interview with attorney Deborah Sturman. Sturman has successfully sued German industries and Swiss banks for their use of slave labor during World War 2 and is now suing those funding and participating in #terror activities against #Israelis. Learn details of how she took on these major players on the global stage and how justice can be brought to victims of terror.


Albanese has ‘lost control of the streets’ as antisemitic incidents continue
Nationals Leader David Littleproud is calling for “stronger deterrents” and “stronger penalties” against perpetrators who commit antisemitic attacks.

“Unfortunately, this has got away from the Prime Minister; he’s lost control of the streets,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia.

“When you see the streets of Sydney and Melbourne burning, hateful speech being spewed across cars and houses and firebombs – this is not the Australia we all grew up in.”


‘Inexplicable’ for Albanese to not be briefed on caravan terror plot
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson questions why Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was kept in the dark about the foiled caravan incident in Dural – labelling it “inexplicable”.

Multiple homes and cars have been vandalised with more antisemitic graffiti in Sydney's eastern suburbs, marking the latest in a spate of attacks against the Jewish community.

“It really is extraordinary, if it is true, that no-one told the Prime Minister or the Attorney-General or the Home Affairs Minister about a foiled mass casualty terrorist attack,” Mr Paterson told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“That shows that something is fundamentally wrong on this government’s watch.”


Sharri Markson rips into PM for ‘turning a blind eye’ to the antisemitism crisis
Sky News host Sharri Markson says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continues to “turn a blind eye” to the antisemitism crisis.

Multiple homes and cars have been vandalised with more antisemitic graffiti in Sydney's eastern suburbs, marking the latest in a spate of attacks against the Jewish community.

The Prime Minister addressed Caucus today ahead of the final parliamentary sitting period before the federal election.

"In his caucus address, he failed to even mention the antisemitism emergency that Australia is experiencing,” Ms Markson said.

“If the prime minister has really failed to understand the climate in the country he leads, then he is more out of touch than we realised.”


Labor failing on national security amid ‘wave of domestic terror’
Sky News host Sharri Markson discusses how the Labor government has “not done enough” to keep Australia secure.

“Let’s return to this wave of domestic terror,” Ms Markson said.

“There is no question the Albanese government has not done enough on national security.”


Australian actor shares his family’s experience during the Holocaust
Australian actor Daniel Lissing discusses the non-profit organisation ‘If You Heard What I Heard’ with Sky News host Sharri Markson.

The project, founded by Carolyn Siegel, focuses on sharing Holocaust survival stories by interviewing the grandchildren of survivors.

Mr Lissing reflected on the harrowing story of his grandparents, who were both sent to the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz.

Against all odds, they survived the inhumane conditions and were reunited and moved to Australia, where they rebuilt their lives and started a family.

Mr Lissing claims the project is important to “continue their legacy and continue the stories of their heartbreak and resilience and strength”.




Cam Higby: I Was Assaulted At A Palestine Protest: But Not Before EXPOSING EVERTHING





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