10/03 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: 'Gas deal with Lebanon is a total capitulation to Hezbollah'; Abbas demands that UN turn back the hands of time

From Ian:

'Gas deal with Lebanon is a total capitulation to Hezbollah'

The emerging maritime boundary deal between Israel and Lebanon, brokered by the Biden administration, constitutes a “total capitulation” to the terrorist organization Hezbollah, a senior jurist argued Sunday, adding that the Lapid government is violating Israeli constitutional rules by pursuing an agreement.

Eugene Kontorovich, Director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and director of the Center for the Middle East & International Law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, blasted Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s cabinet address Sunday, in which he confirmed that Israel has made concessions in US-brokered maritime border talks with Lebanon.

"Over the weekend, Israel and Lebanon received the American mediator's proposal for an agreement on a maritime line between the two countries. We are discussing the final details, so it is not yet possible to praise a done deal; however, as we have demanded from the start, the proposal safeguards Israel's full security-diplomatic interests, as well as our economic interests," Lapid said.

Lapid argued that ceding natural gas reserves to Lebanon would help the country become independent of Tehran, and ultimately curb the strength of groups like Hezbollah.

Kontorovich pushed back on Lapid’s claims, calling the concessions “capitulation” to Hezbollah, and arguing that pursuing such an agreement during an interim government violates Israeli constitutional norms.

“The proposed natural gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon represents a total capitulation to Hezbollah, and a transfer of sovereign Israeli territory to an Iranian puppet state.”

“As the people of Iran fight for their freedom, Israel is surrendering to Tehran via Beirut without even getting an acknowledgement of its existence in return, let alone peace.”

“After being proposed and rejected a decade ago, the deal is being rammed through, just weeks before the Israeli elections - in violation of Israeli constitutional rules - because the Biden Administration and Hezbollah understand the desperation and weakness of the Lapid-Bennett government.”

Maritime Agreement: A Tactical Concession for the Sake of Strategic Gain

The emerging maritime agreement with Lebanon has benefits. These include negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, albeit indirect and mediated by the U.S. We should not underestimate the importance of an agreement, even if partial, with an enemy state. The ability to generate and implement common interests is a calming and restraining element.

Lebanon is a broken, insolvent country on the verge of anarchy, and the money it would gain from gas drilling would help it stabilize. In addition, Israel could start producing gas from the Karish field immediately, and at a time when the world is hungry for natural gas and prices are increasing. It will do so without a physical threat to its rigs.

The main disadvantage of the deal is the possible loss of maritime assets. Had Israel wanted to, it could have drilled in more extensive areas and extracted gas, but that would involve a considerable risk of an escalation. In other words, Israel has made a tactical concession for a strategic gain of stability on the northern border.

However, Israel must make sure to let Hizbullah know that it wasn't its threats that brought about the results. Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah will not hesitate to challenge Israel if he senses weakness on its part.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman: Gas Deal Gives 100 Percent to Lebanon and 0% to Israel

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said Monday that the decision to all but endorse a U.S. plan to redraw the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel was a squandered opportunity that put to waste years of hard work. "We spent years trying to broker a deal between Israel and Lebanon on the disputed maritime gas fields. Got very close with proposed splits of 55-60% for Lebanon and 45-40% for Israel. No one then imagined 100% to Lebanon and 0% to Israel. Would love to understand how we got here," Friedman tweeted.

Lebanon denies it will pay royalties to Israel as part of maritime deal

Lebanon on Monday denied a US-brokered maritime deal with Israel would see Beirut pay royalties to the Jewish state in exchange for access to disputed gas fields.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who has been involved in the maritime talks, told the interview the Al-Mayadeen TV station on Monday that Israel has made more significant concessions than its northern neighbor, which he claimed the Israeli government has also acknowledged.

Saab pledged that “Lebanon would not pay royalties to the Israeli enemy.”

Lebanon’s president Michel Aoun made similar claims to Saab, telling Lebanese citizens that “there will be no partnership with the Israeli side.”

Speaking earlier Monday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Lebanon would pay royalties to the Jewish state.

“Israel gets 100 percent of its security needs, 100% of Karish and even some of the profits from the Lebanese reserve,” the premier said.

Israel’s lead negotiator in Lebanon border talks quit over emerging deal

Israel’s lead negotiator in the U.S.-mediated maritime border talks with Lebanon quit last week due to disagreements with the Prime Minister’s Office over how the process was being handled, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Ehud Adiri reportedly resigned just days before U.S. senior energy adviser Amos Hochstein on Saturday submitted to Jerusalem and Beirut what is widely being portrayed as a final proposal to end the two countries’ longstanding dispute over gas-rich waters in the Eastern Mediterranean.

According to the reports, Adiri opposed the terms of the emerging agreement and how National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata conducted the negotiations after their purview was transferred to the PMO.

Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused Prime Minister Yair Lapid of caving in to Hezbollah with regard to the emerging agreement.

“Yair Lapid shamefully surrendered to [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah’s threats,” Netanyahu reportedly stated, adding: “He is giving Hezbollah sovereign territory of the State of Israel with a huge gas reservoir that belongs to you, the citizens of Israel.”

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Abbas set to release Hamas terrorist - AFTER his UN speech

Yesterday, I reported that the Palestinian Authority arrested Mosab Shtayyeh, a commander in the Hamss Al-Qassam Brigades, in Nablus. 

Coming after Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party has been taking responsibility for terror attacks itself, including attacks by its own security services, this move was simply an attempt to claim that the PA really opposes terror - so Mahmoud Abbas can make that claim ahead of (or within) his annual anti-Israel speech at the UN. 

The arrest was also reportedly after intense pressure from the US and Israel for the PA to adhere to its own signed agreements to fight terrorism, not to contribute to it.

In my post, I predicted that by next week, we'll see that this was simply political theatre.

It seems that we don't have to wait for next week.

After massine riots in Nablus and Jenin, in which Palestinian security forces killed one protester, the PA caved to the terrorist supporters who wanted Shtayyeh released. At dawn today, after all-night negotiations with the rioters, reports say that the PA will release Shtayyeh "within a few days."

Conveniently, this will be after Abbas' speech to the UN and after he leaves the US. 

The PA is not serious about fighting terror. On the contrary, it supports terror. And it always has.

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Abbas pretends to fight terror, this week at least

Suddenly, after weeks of his Fatah party taking responsibility and bragging about terror attacks, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority arrested Hamas terrorist Mosab Shtayyeh in Nablus.

This caused Palestinian fans of terror to protest in Nablus and Jenin, and Hamas condemned the arrest.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority also confiscated a cache of weapons in Hebron, plus "the arrest of a number of outlaws and instigators of sedition and security chaos in the Hebron Governorate."

So what's going on? Why is the PA suddenly acting how it is supposed to when it has been openly supportive of terror recently?

The reason is that Mahmoud Abbas is in New York this week to give a speech at the UN. He has been under pressure from the US and Israel to flex his muscles against terror, and he doesn't want to look bad when he gives his annual anti-Israel speech to the world.

Next week, we'll find out if this is a real change or just optics. My bet is the latter.

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Analysis shows vast majority of those killed by IDF fire this year in West Bank were terrorists

Adin Haykin published a huge thread on Twitter detailing every Palestinian killed (or purportedly killed) by the IDF so far in 2022 in the West Bank.

He finds that the huge majority of the 83 killed were either members of terror groups or were killed while performing terror acts like stabbing or throwing Molotov cocktails.

By my count, 34 of them were members of Islamic Jihad, 18 from Fatah, five Hamas, and one each from the DFLP and PFLP. 

Of the others, most of them were involved in stabbing, violent riots and throwing Molotov cocktails. One tried to use a hammer on a policeman. Two were killed trying to infiltrate into Jewish communities. 

Four women were killed while trying to attack soldiers. 

Three were killed accidentally during fighting, including Shireen Abu Akleh. 

One died of a heart attack and Israel is being blamed.

Of those killed, at least 17 were children - and they were all involved in violence.

Read the thread and compare that information, accompanied with photos of their "martyr posters" and weapons, with how the UN and others describe them all as "victims."

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Another Fatah West Bank terrorist "martyr:" What, exactly, is the difference between Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad again?

This morning, 24 year old Hamad Abu Jildah died of wounds he received from IDF fire a few days ago in Jenin during a firefight.

The Palestinian Information Center in English published photos of him on his motorcycle and of his funeral:

The article humanized him and painted him as an innocent victim of Israeli aggression, saying that "Martyr Abu Jildah was an ex-detainee who spent two and a half years in Israeli jails. He got married recently and his wife is pregnant with their first child."

In Arabic, the same publication looked and sounded quite different.

The Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" mourned the martyr Hamad Abu Jildah, who died this morning of wounds he sustained a few days ago, stressing that "the occupation will not undermine the resolve of our people and our resistance."

The movement offered condolences to the martyr's family and lovers, stressing that "the battle that our Palestinian people are waging and their resistance against the criminal Zionist enemy continues unabated, and that the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain."

The messages are completely different depending on the audience. For the gullible West, Abu Jildah is an innocent victim, a newlywed cut down in the prime of his life. To a Palestinian Arab audience, he is a valiant fighter whose death is a celebration of "resistance' and who should be emulated.

But this isn't the only difference in how these events are tailored differently between the West and the Arab world.

Abu Jildah was not Hamas. He wasn't even Islamic Jihad, which dominates Jenin's militants. He was a field commander of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades.

His death was mourned equally by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 

The fiction that Fatah is a secular, peace-seeking political party - the "good guys" to the West as compared to the other terror groups - is increasingly shown to be a lie. There is no difference between Fatah and the other terror groups, and there never was. They disagree about tactics sometimes, and Fatah is not as explicitly Islamist - although it certainly never disagrees publicly with the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Hamas. 

That logo of the Al Aqsa Brigades above is the real Fatah - machine guns and grenades, centering on a theme of a Judenfrei Jerusalem, not peaceful protests and boycotts and secularism. 

The West wants so badly to believe that peace is possible between the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and Israel that the media will consciously and enthusiastically overlook the copious evidence to the contrary, from Abbas' own antisemitic and terror supporting statements to the incitement in daily media. 

There can be no peace without truth. The media, the world's diplomats and national leaders, and the "expert" pundits spend more time hiding the truth than they do admitting it. And then when Israel defends itself from Fatah terrorists that are just as lethal as Islamic Jihad's, the audience is not aware of the facts and assumes Israel is the aggressor.

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AP implies that Breaking Dawn was a means for Lapid to gain wartime credibility and Knesset seats

An AP dispatch about the Gaza fighting this past weekend throws in a conspiracy theory:

Israel said it took action against the militant group because of concrete threats of an imminent attack, but has not provided details. Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who is an experienced diplomat but untested in overseeing a war, unleashed the offensive less than three months before a general election in which he is campaigning to keep the job.

There two sentences meant to give the impression that the fighting wasn't necessary and the caretaker government made up an excuse to look macho and gain power in the next elections.

It is beyond absurd. An article in Al Monitor by Ben Caspit on Friday described the events leading up to the initial bombings:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation came after several days of tension on the Gaza border, over the arrest of in the West bank of a senior Islamic Jihad member.

In fact, at the start of the week, Israeli security forces appeared to have scored yet another victory over terrorism with the arrest of the Islamic Jihad’s West Bank commander Bassem Saadi. The Aug. 1 raid by Israeli commandos and Shin Bet agents in the Jenin refugee camp was complex, with Israeli forces coming under brutal fire that forced them to hole up with Saadi in his home until a rescue team arrived to extricate them unharmed.

Saadi’s arrest was intended to deal a severe blow to the terrorism that swept through Israel from late March to early May, much of it carried out by Palestinians from the Jenin area. In political terms, the successful raid appeared to signal yet another upbeat week in the fortunes of Yair Lapid, the caretaker neophyte prime minister struggling to position himself as a viable alternative to “Mr. Security,” former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the Nov. 1 elections.

However, as always in Israel and the Middle East, any victory can turn into a fiasco within a heartbeat, every ending is a new beginning and nothing ever turns out the way it was meant to. The footage of Saadi being dragged on the floor by Israeli troops accompanied by an attack dog generated a widespread storm, especially in the Gaza Strip, where Islamic Jihad is headquartered....

Hours later, Israeli intelligence had already detected the deployment of Islamic Jihad teams along the Gaza border, toting anti-tank rockets and other weapons, in search of targets on the Israeli side. The head of the military’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, ordered the closing of all roads along the border vulnerable to rocket attack. Residents of the kibbutzim and other communities in the area were instructed to remain indoors until further notice.

The spring terror attacks, Israel's going after Islamic Jihad leaders in Jenin to stop them, the events of this past week in the "Gaza envelope," Islamic Jihad's open threats over the past week - none of this is mentioned by AP. 

And this is just what we know. Why would Israel reveal intelligence information about an imminent attack? 

At the same time,  how does it make any sense that Israel would start a potential war for political purposes? Most citizens are reservists in the army - no one would be happy if they thought they'd have to go away from home and potentially fight for a mere political stunt. That would backfire pretty spectacularly. 

Similarly, no Israeli government would put its residents at risk from hundreds of rockets - Iron Dome is good but not perfect and people get injured scrambling for shelter even if it was perfect. Israelis wouldn't stand for that, either.

To float such an idea is to say that Israeli politicians are willing and eager to put their own constituents' lives at risk for political gain. 

Practically, Lapid's party Yesh Atid has 17 seats in the Knesset; it is part of a coalition with other parties who also want to lead the next government. Why would they go along with this conspiracy to keep Lapid in office? Why would they remain silent about it? 

AP is publishing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. 

But this is the subtle antisemitism that pervades international media coverage of Israel. If the reporter can't figure out why Israel is doing something, or is offended that Israel doesn't share enough intel, it must be that Israel is up to something underhanded. Certainly Israel cannot be telling the truth, even though lying would hurt them far more. 

And as with other cases like the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, the media does not look for any evidence that would contradict their gut feeling that the Jews are certainly the guilty party and are always up to something. The only theories worth exploring are the ones that suggest that the Jews are acting odiously. 

(h/t Irene)

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UN official visits Islamic Jihad terror leader's house in Jenin, legitimizing murdering Jews

Islamic Jihad is ecstatic this morning at the legitimacy given to it after a visit from a UN official to the house of its West Bank leader in Jenin.

Jody Barrett, Chief Regional Affairs Unit of the UN Special Coordinator's Office in Jerusalem, visited the home of the family of the terrorist leader Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi in the Jenin camp this morning.

Al-Saadi was arrested by Israeli security forces this past week.

The delegation was received by family members, leading figures in Islamic Jihad, and Fatah figures.

The media office of the Islamic Jihad stated in a press release after the visit:

The United Nations delegate listened to the painful details of what happened to Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi at the hands of the occupation forces at the moment of his arrest, dragging and assaulting him and his family members in a brutal and barbaric manner. Mrs. Nawal Al-Saadi spoke about the details of this event and the moments of terror that they experienced at the moment of the storming.

The United Nations representative, Jody Barrett, expressed her strong disapproval and sympathy with the family of Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi, after hearing the details of the attack.

As the leader of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, al-Saadi was almost certainly responsible for at least some of the terror attacks in Israel this past spring. Israel had been trying to arrest him for months.

A UN visit to his home is nothing less than support of murdering Jews. It is certainly being reported that way in Palestinian media. 

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No one is asking why Jenin is a no-go zone for Palestinian police

During the entire Shireen Abu Akleh snow job by the media, there was one larger question that has barely been asked: 

Where are the Palestinian police?

We see lots of videos of terrorists in full military gear and with assault weapons walking the streets of Jenin. But Jenin is in Area A, which is supposed to be under full Palestinian security control. No one is supposed to be brandishing weapons outside the Palestinian police, under signed agreements with Israel. (And those signed agreements are international law.) 

Israeli security forces only go into Jenin because the Palestinian Authority security forces aren't doing their basic jobs.

Back in December, this was already becoming apparent:

Asked if the PA was losing control of the situation in Jenin, the officer, a resident of Burqin village, replied, “That’s true; they are losing control not only here in Jenin, but in all of the West Bank.”  

And in April:

The [Jenin] camp now, however, is virtually off limits to PA forces, who neglected to police it in the years following the end of the Second Intifada.

The vacuum that was left was filled by young, impoverished and unemployed youth, who joined armed gangs, initially to commit crimes, including the smuggling of arms and drug trafficking. 

The West has paid millions to bolster the Palestinian security forces since Oslo. In fact, the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) was established in 2005 for exactly that reason:

Mission

The USSC coordinates with the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to enhance security cooperation; leads coalition efforts in advising the Palestinian Authority on security sector reform; and recommends opportunities for nations and international organizations to contribute to the development of a self-sustaining Palestinian security sector.

Goal

The Palestinian Security Sector is able to effectively coordinate with the Government of Israel and international community, has accountable institutions capable of independently sustaining the security apparatus, while providing a safe and secure environment in the West Bank.

It has had 17 years, and Jenin is just as lawless as it was during the second intifada. This is why there were no Palestinian police securing the scene where Shireen Abu Akleh was shot, and this is why there is essentially no real evidence from the scene itself. 

Lots of people angrily say that Israel has no business being in Jenin, and the IDF incursions there stoke tension. That is looking at it backwards. The Palestinian Authority has abdicated their role to provide security for all of Area A, and have let Jenin and other areas turn in into terrorism hotbeds. 

It seems like the PA happily allows the US and EU to take over some responsibility for governance and has little interest in taking the role it is supposed to take. It has been nearly 30 years since Oslo - more than enough time for a government to mature enough to take control of its people - but the PA is still acting like it doesn't want to govern at all. So we have lawless areas in the West Bank, and no one is to blame but the Palestinian Authority.

If the PA had adhered to their signed agreements under international law, Shireen Abu Akleh would be alive today. 

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When Jenin terrorists thought they shot an IDF soldier, and other Abu Akleh updates

One piece of evidence that I had not noted previously was that Jenin militants had claimed that they had injured an Israeli soldier. 

Here's video of where militants to the south got the news with translation from Palestinian Media Watch:

What makes this more compelling is the timeframe. The false news that a soldier was down spread quickly throughout Jenin, as this screenshot from the (pro-terrorist) Jenin camp Telegram channel shows.

The second message is the same video shown above.

This was minutes after Abu Akleh was shot, so she is the only person who the militants could have been referring to. (It takes a couple of minutes to upload the video and type in the caption. Abu Akleh was shot between 6:30 and 6:35.)

This is a strong indication that the Jenin terrorists thought that the crowd of journalists (with helmets) were IDF soldiers, and shot in their usual wild manner without verifying what they were doing, and then celebrated their "successful" hit before realizing that the hit one of their own heroines.

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Meanwhile, very, very slowly, the idea that Palestinians killed Shireen Abu Akleh has started to percolate into the media.

CAMERA's Karen Bekker noted at JNS that the two main journalist witnesses to her death initially said that the gunfire came from a building, when the IDF was in their vehicles.

Fox News reports that Shurat HaDin filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court saying that the Palestinians were responsible for Abu Akleh's death, although they do not cite any of my evidence.

I made a new poster with all the latest evidence in one place:

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IDF operations in Jenin are saving many Israeli lives

Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israelis in February, the beginning of a new wave of terror. This was followed by four killed in March and four more killed in April. 

16 of the victims were civilians.

The IDF increased its operations in terrorism hotbeds in the West Bank as a result. The most public of these operations were in Jenin.

While it is difficult to claim definitively that there is cause and effect, the IDF offensive appears to have been paying off. According to Israeli government sources, there have been no civilian deaths in two months, the last one being the stabbing attacks in Elad on May 5. 

Col. Arik Moyal, head of operations in Jenin, said in late April “The lives of hundreds of Israelis have been saved thanks to attacks we foiled.”

In fact, over the past month, all types of terror attacks have gone down significantly. The Shin Bet released this graphic.

The three injuries in June came from the attack on worshipers at Joseph's Tomb last week.

Israel haters love to take the Jenin operations out of context, pretending that there is no military reason for them and that the Palestinians who are killed are innocent victims. The facts show otherwise - not only have they been terrorists, but these operations are saving lives. 

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US just trying to make Abu Akleh go away - and throwing Israel under a bus

How can these two facts be both true?

After an extremely detailed forensic analysis, independent, third-party examiners, as part of a process overseen by the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), could not reach a definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the bullet that killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged, which prevented a clear conclusion.

In addition to the forensic and ballistic analysis, the USSC was granted full access to both Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Authority (PA) investigations over the last several weeks. By summarizing both investigations, the USSC concluded that gunfire from IDF positions was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.  The USSC found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.

What actual evidence is this conclusion based on? Certainly the PA didn't provide any. In fact, so far, there has not been a single bit of evidence that the IDF was responsible, at least not publicly released, outside the admission that they shot in her general direction a handful of times. 

This appears to be less about finding out the truth and more about making the incident go away. Biden is coming to Israel and right now, both Israel and the US want to make sure that there aren't any ugly incidents. This way they don't rile up the Palestinians too much, and the White House can tell the 24 senators who demanded an investigation that it was done as best as possible, and the White House also takes some of the heat off Israel by saying it wasn't done intentionally.

The actual truth? The likelihood that Palestinian terrorists killed Shireen Abu Akleh? Those just get in the way of the upcoming trip. 

So the truth is buried.

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The Pallywood lies of "eyewitness" Ali Samoudi

As the US has finally pressured the Palestinian Authority to hand over the bullet that they claim killed Shireen Abu Akleh (and Israel is handing over the only weapon that they say could have shot in her direction on May 11,) it is worth looking a little more at how the main "eyewitness" to her death is a pathological liar.

We've already discussed how Jenin journalist Ali Samoudi was known decades ago to prompt "witnesses" to say whatever lies would be most dramatic in accusing Israel of crimes. There is no reason to think he would act any differently himself when he is the witness himself. 

On May 11, Samoudi said that this is what happened (CAMERA's translation:)

’After several minutes we heard the sound of bullets pouring on us from the direction where the occupation’s soldiers were concentrated, they were on the rooftops of the buildings in front of us. [This was] amidst the shouts of Palestinian citizens, calling us: get down to the ground, the snipers are targeting you.’

“Samoudi says: ‘I was hit by a bullet at the lower back, and Shireen shouted: ‘Ali was hit, Ali was hit.’ Not even a few seconds went by before Shireen fell on the ground after blood covered her face, and one of the colleagues carried us to the graveyard’s fence to protect us from the soldiers’ bullets, which went on for 10 minutes nonstop.’

“He said: ‘I was miraculously spared from certain death after a bullet hit me in the lower back, but the doctors described my condition as moderate. However the diagnosis requires hospitalization for several days, to make sure there are no complications in the coming hours.’

This is a series of lies.

There were two volleys of bullets. Ali Samoudi can be seen in this screenshot (7:06) right before the first volley, as one of the journalists with light colored sleeves in the background less than a second before the shooting:

Here is a video showing the above scene, and then a synced video showing Samoudi rushing to a car before the second round of shots.

Samoudi didn't witness Abu Akleh get shot. She was killed in the second round of gunfire, after trying to take cover. Samoudi wasn't helped by anyone. He wasn't pinned down for ten minutes of gunfire. 

And he wasn't hit in the lower back. He was grazed in the shoulder, as his own video at the hospital shows quite clearly, rushing from that same car to the emergency room where he videos everything.

Here you can see his wound on his left shoulder:

But AP reported weeks later, based on his "testimony:" 

Samoudi said the soldiers fired a warning shot, causing him to duck and run backwards. The second shot hit him in the back. Abu Akleh was shot in the head and appears to have died instantly, 

.... Samoudi says the bullet that struck him shattered, leaving some fragments inside his back. 

Sounds dramatic. And provably false.

The New York Times was somewhat more accurate in what his injury was, but still exaggerating it:

“They’re shooting at us,” Mr. Samoudi shouted. He turned around, he said, and felt his back explode as a bullet pierced his protective vest and tore through his left shoulder.

“‘Ali’s been hit, Ali’s been hit!’” Ms. Abu Akleh shouted, Mr. Samoudi recalled. It was the last time he would hear her voice.

No female voice can be heard in the video.

It appears likely that Samoudi was hit from the front in the first volley - he made up the story of a warning shot, turning around and being hit from behind because that makes Israeli soldiers look worse. (Later he said there were no warning shots.) 

He said that the soldiers were on rooftops of buildings before he knew that there were no soldiers in buildings - so that part of his "testimony" disappeared after May 11. 

And AP shows him, absurdly, in a wheelchair eight days later in the same spot. He clearly never needed a wheelchair - he ran quite quickly about 20 meters in ten seconds to the car after supposedly being "shot in the lower back."

His posing in a wheelchair is pure Pallywood.

By the time the New York Times interviewed him, it was already clear that he was an accomplished liar. Yet they still quote him as if he is a credible witness.

But here's the thing: Ali Samoudi is not an anomaly. Most Palestinian witnesses to events, when they give their names, will say what the Palestinian Authority or Hamas want them to say. They are conditioned to always blame Israel no matter what, even when evidence points to Palestinian terrorist culpability.  After all these years, one would think that reporters would treat Palestinian "eyewitness" testimony with the knowledge that they are often either enthusiastic accomplices in trying to make up stories about Israel (as Samoudi has been) or frightened of saying something that their leaders do not want to be said.

(h/t Gail)

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Al Jazeera "experts" exonerate Israel of shooting Shireen Abu Akleh

According to Al Jazeera, which claimed that it obtained a photo of the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh:

An investigation by Al Jazeera has obtained an image of the bullet used to kill the network’s journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. 

According to ballistic and forensic experts, the green-tipped bullet was designed to pierce armour and is used in an M4 rifle. The round was extracted from her head.

The bullet was analysed using 3D models and, according to experts, it was 5.56mm calibre – the same used by Israeli forces. The round was designed and manufactured in the United States, experts said.

If their experts are correct and the bullet was manufactured in the United States, then the bullet must have been shot by Palestinian terrorists.

IDF exclusively uses bullets made in Israel by IMI Systems, formerly Israel Military Industries and owned now by Elbit, and they all manufactured in Israel, not the US.

Al Jazeera's experts are saying that Shireen was killed by Palestinians. 

If their experts aren't correct, then why believe anything you read from Al Jazeera?

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The New York Times helps illustrate how the IDF COULDN'T have killed Shireen Abu Akleh

The New York Times has joined CNN, AP, the Washington Post et. al. in doing a nearly identical analysis of how Shireen Abu Akleh was killed.

It makes most (not all) of the same mistakes the others did, and fudged things to make it look like no one but the IDF could have killed her. But physics is physics, and there is no way that the IDF was in the proper range given by - in their case - two audio analyses by different experts.

The Times did a great illustration of their analysis. I added the real position of the IDF and the position of the two houses that I think are the most likely location of snipers, showing how those two buildings are within the range:

I have shown that witnesses pointed out snipers in buildings south and southeast of the journalists. And that the two main journalist witnesses, Ali Samoudi and Shatha Hanaysha, had both said that the gunfire came from buildings across from them.

I described my logic of the position of the real shooters here, and you can also see there this video from two days later showing how little Jenin gunmen on rooftops care about accuracy when they shoot.

Put it all together, and not only is it impossible (with the information we have) that the IDF could have shot Shireen, but it is highly likely that she was shot by one of the gunmen that we don't have video of but that we have multiple witnesses for.

And that other potentially relevant fact that could explain why we don't have video. The Jenin Camp Telegram channel has been the clearinghouse for videos around Jenin that morning. It takes videos from multiple sources, and that is where the news media are getting many of the videos they are analyzing. Telegram channel had asked residents, on that very morning, not to photograph any shooters in houses! 

"Please brothers, the family inside the houses, no one photograph the gunmen - pray for them."

The New York Times, along with the other analysts, always seem to assume that because they have multiple videos, they have a reasonably complete picture of all of Jenin that day. It is a natural bias to trust things you can see rather than theorize about what you cannot. But when determining who shot this bullet, not only is the IDF outside the range of the audio analysis, but they wouldn't shoot as wildly as the shooters did - if they wanted to aim at the reporters as the "experts" want to say, they would not have been hitting trees. 

The gunmen on the video seen above, however, would shoot exactly as we saw.

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The wild snipers of Jenin and the likely location of Shireen Abu Akleh's killer

I have previously mentioned that I think I identified the most likely location of the gunman who killed Shireen Abu Akleh.

Based on the audio forensics of the gunshots/bullet shockwave, this building is the exact distance away that the gun that killed her was - between 178-187 meters away from the microphone that recorded the shots depending on where one would be standing on the roof of this house.

Here is the path a bullet would take from that house to Abu Akleh.

I have found a fantastic high resolution aerial video of Jenin, uploaded to YouTube last month, which shows even more clearly how perfect that location would be both for Jenin snipers to be positioned and their line of sight to Shireen.

Not only is there perfect line of sight to where Abu Akleh was standing, but from the vantage point of the snipers there would be an unimpeded view down the street to where the IDF convoy was likely (and, indeed, did) pass by.

The entire area at full resolution can be seen if you click on this thumbnail.

As previously reported, multiple witnesses said that they saw snipers on buildings at the time of Abu Akleh's death. We do not have any direct video of those gunmen at that time, but it is obvious that the terrorists would use rooftops as the most strategic firing locations in Jenin. Proof can be seen from this video of multiple gunmen two days later, on May 13, shooting northward from a rooftop/terrace from which you can see the sports field and also the house I just mentioned. 

Even the famous video from Jenin on May 11, where the terrorists tell each other that an IDF soldier was down at the time Abu Akleh was killed, shows a puff of smoke from a rooftop apparently from gunfire (0:15)

The shebab clearly act like they own the refugee camp. They will not ask permission to take over a rooftop firing position.

The analyses from CNN, AP and Bellingcat did not give readers any idea of the scope of gunman activity in Jenin that day, only showing two groups of militants when in fact they were all over the area. The "experts" did not identify, directly or indirectly, a single case of gunmen on rooftops.

Yet those rooftop gunmen are the only people with a clear line of sight to Shireen.

Nor do these "investigators" mention how amateur these gunmen are, often firing without aiming. That is obvious from the video above, and even clearer in this video uploaded on the day Shireen was killed.

This is all circumstantial evidence, of course, but so is the "evidence" given by the media that blame the IDF.

The circumstantial and hard evidence that indicates that Jenin gunmen killed Shireen Abu Akleh, and that the IDF didn't, is far more compelling:

- We know the killer was between 177 and 195 meters away from the microphone near Shireen. (audio forensics)

- We know that the IDF was more than 200 meters away. (video)

- The only recorded people with guns in that zone were Jenin militants to the southeast of Shireen. (video)

- There were gunmen on rooftops that were pointed out by residents/journalists minutes before her death. (video of pointing)

- Jenin gunmen shoot from roofs of multiple buildings, and it doesn't appear that they ask permission. (video above)

- There is at least one building with a roof that is ideal for gunmen that is also the exact distance from Abu Akleh that the audio forensics indicates, and one of the Jenin residents/journalists pointed in that direction. (photos, maps above)

- The best line of sight to Shireen would have been from an elevated position such as a rooftop. (logic)

- The two main witnesses to her death said explicitly that she was killed by "snipers" in buildings "across" from her, when there was no IDF presence in that area. (video, interview)

- Jenin gunmen fire without looking carefully at their targets. They are not professionals in any sense. (video above)

- The bullet pattern on the tree next to Abu Akleh, the one hitting Shireen and the one hitting Ali Samoudi, is far more indicative of wild Jenin gunmen-style firing than shooting by professional soldiers. (CNN's idiot "expert" who is known to hate Israel claimed the exact opposite!)

- The IDF has no incentive, and plenty of disincentive, to kill reporters, and reporters specifically show themselves to the IDF every day to ensure their own safety - including on May 11.

All evidence points to the real killers - the Palestinian terrorist youth who have hijacked the Jenin camp.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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