Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Russia

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Wednesday, September 14, 2022

09/14 Links Pt1: While Confronting Russia in Europe, the U.S. Helps It in the Middle East; Fatah announces return to terror; Israel gives CIA intelligence on alleged terror-linked Palestinian NGOs

From Ian:

What Happens If Operation Guardian of the Walls Recurs?

During the twelve-day conflict between the IDF and Hamas in the spring of last year, Arabs in usually peaceful Israeli cities with multiethnic populations rioted, deeply shaking the country’s general sense of safety. Yagil Henkin considers the possibility that, in the event of a larger war between Israel and, for instance, Hizballah, the latter could work with Palestinian groups to foment similar riots within Israel’s borders:
It is incorrect to regard the May 2021 events as civic disturbances or a series of individual episodes. As in any war, the enemy learns and searches for weaknesses to exploit. As a result, Israel should brace itself for a worst-case scenario in which ethnic and religious tensions are used to incite unrest and riots, disrupt army movements and reserve mobilization, cut off supply routes and access to military bases, inflict damage on military convoys, and use threats, propaganda, and possibly assassinations to force Arab and Muslim soldiers and policemen to leave the military and law enforcement. Following [the 2021 conflict], Hizballah escalated its efforts to transfer weaponry and ammunition to Israeli Arabs for use in a future conflict.

Notably, from the perspective of Iran and Hizballah, Israeli Arabs assaulting Jews and the reverse would be welcomed outcomes. Such attacks would force the police to disperse their forces and assign some of them to suppress Jewish riots rather than supporting Israeli offensive moves, limiting Israel’s freedom of action. The suspicion and tensions would undermine citizens’ sense of security and trust in government agencies, leading to further escalation and inter-communal strife. Therefore, Israel’s opponents may view any outcome as advantageous and work hard to bring about such outcomes through financial backing, disinformation, arming radicals, radicalizing youth, etc.

Israel gives CIA intelligence on alleged terror-linked Palestinian NGOs

The Shin Bet has provided the CIA with new intelligence regarding Palestinian civil society NGOs that Israel has accused of involvement in terror.

The agency provided the new information to the CIA last week, though it is not discussing the issue publicly and was first reported by Walla.

Israel is hoping to finally flip the US in its favor on the issue after Washington has been highly critical, along with the EU and UN, of Jerusalem's moves regarding the civil society groups.

It appeared that the latest try to convince the Biden administration that the groups have ties to terror came after Israel upped the ante last month when it closed down several organizations which it had previously declared to be illegal in October 2021.

The organizations have said that Israel merely wants to silence them and their activities which often involve political criticism and activism, including protests, against Israeli control of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has said that the organizations wear two hats, one actually helping with human rights issues, and the other aiding the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Maj. Bar Falah identified as IDF officer killed overnight near Jenin

An IDF officer was killed in an exchange of fire with two armed Palestinian gunmen near the village of Jalma, north of the West Bank city of Jenin.

He was identified as 30-year-old Maj. Bar Falach, deputy commander of the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, from the coastal city of Netanya. He was buried in the city’s military cemetery on Wednesday evening.

The incident began around 11:30 p.m. when IDF observation soldiers identified two suspects approaching the fence along the seam line near a military post. The suspects, who were not identified as being armed, reached within 15 meters of the fence and lay down.

Forces, including Falah and the commander of the IDF’s Menashe Brigade, Col. Arik Moyal, were deployed to the area where the suspects had been identified. A Zik drone was scrambled to the area but was not used.

The forces split into two, one led by Falah and the other by Moyal, in an attempt to surprise the gunmen, who then opened fire on the troops who had approached within several meters.

According to Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Avi Bluth, the troops did not know that the suspects were armed until they opened fire on the force around 2:30 a.m., hitting Falah and fatally injuring him.

The two gunmen were identified by Palestinian media as Ahmed Abed, an intelligence officer in the Palestinian Authority Security Forces, and Abdul Rahman Abed, from the village of Kafr Dan near Jenin. One of them was an intelligence officer of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took responsibility for the attack, saying both the shooters were members of the terrorist organization.

"Unfortunately, last night we lost an officer who fought Palestinian terrorists in the field," said IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, "This is yet another expression of the challenges the IDF faces in all arenas and the security it provides for Israel's citizens, sometimes at a heavy price. I convey my deepest condolences to the family, and to his partner."

Ahmed Ayman Abed, one of the Palestinians killed in an armed clash with Israeli troops in Jenin, worked for the Palestinian Authority's Military Intelligence force. pic.twitter.com/Ar8S8jr1CY
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) September 14, 2022

“Youths”. They were Palestinian terrorists, who beached the West Bank security barrier and opened fire on Israeli soldiers, after refusing to first heed warnings. In the shootout, sadly, an IDF officer was killed. https://t.co/Itg74snUDd
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 14, 2022

PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinian Technology Posthumously Turns Adult Fighters Into Children (satire)

The Before-Interment Alteration System, or BIAS.

Muhammed SabaanehTel Aviv, September 12 – Israeli military and Defense Ministry officials voiced concern today over a device that various terrorist factions appear to have in their possession, one that takes any corpse of a gun-wielding, bomb-planting, firebomb-throwing, or knife-brandishing Arab and transforms it into a “youth” or “child,” as reflected in mainstream news coverage of recent conflict episodes.

Officials pointed to articles and video reports surrounding the violence over the last several months in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian-governed city of Jenin, cases in which the IDF documented its actions against armed Palestinian men, often killing them – only to discover that such reliable, objective sources as CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, and the British Broadcasting Corporation quoted Palestinian media and officials in calling the militant a child. Israeli military intelligence concluded that the Palestinians possess something that somehow changes an adult fighter into a child whose death Israel caused.

“As a placeholder name, we’re calling it a Before-Interment Alteration System,” disclosed one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We know of at least twenty cases in the last year in which BIAS has been deployed to create a propaganda effect, with varying degrees of success. But other evidence points to the use of BIAS for the same purpose going back decades, to the first Intifada in 1987. Its deployment helps explain hundreds of instances in which the IDF neutralized an armed terrorist, only to find that some unexplained technology has altered the corpse so that it now resembles that of a playful youth whose innocent photographs now grace the pages and social media accounts of Western journalists and government institutions. BIAS is clearly a weapon to be reckoned with.”

09/13 Links Pt1: The Palestinians and the World Do Not Need Another Corrupt, Failed Terrorist Arab State; Fatah boasts: Arafat deliberately started the intifada terror campaign

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinians and the World Do Not Need Another Corrupt, Failed Terrorist Arab State

The truth, however, is that neither the Palestinian Authority leadership nor the Palestinian people is ready for statehood. And the responsibility for that fact lies squarely with the ruthless and failed Palestinian leaders.

The Palestinian bid to obtain UN recognition of a Palestinian state comes at a time when the PA appears to be losing control over some parts of the West Bank, where gunmen belonging to several groups have replaced the Palestinian security forces... [and] are responsible not only for terrorist attacks against Israel, but also the growing scenes of anarchy and lawlessness....

Abbas himself has long been praising and glorifying Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks....

Abbas, who is unable (and unwilling) to rein in a few hundred gunmen in two major Palestinian cities in the West Bank, wants the United Nations, its member states and the rest of the world to believe that he is ready to run a state of his own.

If Abbas cannot send his officers to confiscate an M-16 rifle from an unruly gunman in Jenin or Nablus, how can he be trusted to prevent the future Palestinian state from turning into a launching pad for regional terrorism?

Abbas wants the UN to grant the Palestinians the status of full member state, but cannot provide any guarantees that the aspired-for state would not be turned into a terror entity that is armed and funded by Iran's regime and its proxies.

Abbas wants the UN to recognize "Palestine" as a state when he literally has no control over half of the Palestinians... If Abbas dares to go to the Gaza Strip, Hamas will hang him at the entrance to the area on charges of "collaboration" with Israel.

Abbas is seeking full UN recognition at a time when he continues to block general elections for the PA, arrests and intimidates his political opponents, refuses to share power with other Palestinians and muzzles freedom of expression.

More than they need a state, the Palestinians need good leadership. They need to rid themselves of the corrupt leaders who have deprived them of international aid and led them from one disaster after the other since the early 1970s, when the PLO was expelled from Jordan for undermining the kingdom's sovereignty.

[T]he Palestinians' biggest tragedy by far has been failed leadership and more failed leadership. It radicalizes them toward Islamic fundamentalism and deprives them of elections, freedom of expression and international aid. The UN member states would be doing a great service to the Palestinians if they asked Abbas about the absence of freedom of speech and a functioning parliament under his regime.

They would also be doing the Palestinian people a huge service if they asked Abbas about torture in Palestinian Authority prisons and the continuing crackdown by his security forces on human rights activists and journalists. And they should definitely ask him what measures he has taken to end financial and administrative corruption in the PA.

These issues are more pressing for the Palestinians than another worthless document by the UN recognizing a fictitious Palestinian state that is already marked by the intrusion of other brutal radical Islamist dictatorships.

MEMRI: Semi-Frozen: The Middle East's Intractable Conflicts

The term "frozen conflict" came into vogue in recent decades to describe a variety of border conflicts between Russia and neighboring countries, often over breakaway regions like Abkhazia or the Donbass.[1] There are also historic conflicts like Kashmir or the Arab-Israeli Conflict that go on for decades, sometimes hot and sometimes cold, that seem to also be "frozen," neither conclusive war nor outright peace, but an uneasy, volatile reality in between.

But aside from the old conflict over Palestine, the Middle East seems to have engendered new conflicts in recent decades that are, at least, semi-frozen, lasting for a decade or longer. Often extremely violent and damaging to the future of nations, they also simmer down to situations approaching some type of wary truce, mere political turmoil or low-grade instability only to flare up again. This seems to be the case in places like Libya, Yemen, and Iraq, all three countries where the overthrow of a longtime brutal dictator unleashed forces that have not yet played out years later.

Of course, the region is flush with conflict. In Lebanon and Syria, one side (Hezbollah and Assad) is more or less victorious and dominant, though there is still some opposition on the ground. Morocco and Algeria are increasingly at loggerheads, though not at war. In Sudan, political crisis and societal turmoil could lead to open conflict between rival groupings inside the military regime. Transnational Salafi-Jihadism and Iranian-inspired terrorism still exist in the region and still claim victims.

But it is the cases of Iraq, Libya, and Yemen that are particularly haunting and costly to the future of the region. All three countries had been ruled by long-standing dictatorships that while they may have provided some of the aspects of stability, were still very volatile regimes. Two of them, Saddam's Iraq and Qaddafi's Libya, were actually major "exporters" of instability, promoting terrorism globally, repressing local citizens internally and attacking their neighbors.

Iraq has been at war, albeit sometimes at relatively low levels, since the Americans overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003. But even before that was the Kuwait War of 1990-1991 and the Iran War of 1980-1988. On top of that were internal conflicts, the regime's decades-long war against the Kurds, the savage repression of a Shia insurgency in 1991, and then after the American forces left in 2011, an increasingly sectarian Iraq under Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the war against ISIS beginning in 2014. That war greatly increased something that had already existed, Shia paramilitary groups, which echoes today in the ongoing conflict between the militias and parties closest to Iran against those arrayed with Muqtada Al-Sadr.[2] The open armed clashes in Baghdad and Basra of August 2022 have ebbed thanks to the mediating efforts of Iraq's prime minister and of the Shia clerical authorities in Najaf, but the political crisis continues.[3]

The American overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 essentially dethroned Sunni power in Iraq and handed it over to the long-oppressed Iraqi Shia. Today's clashes in Iraq are less about good versus evil than an internal civil war within different factions of the Iraqi Shia political establishment, all of whom in one way or another, have colonized, subverted, and become parasites on the Iraqi state.[4] A 40-year-old Iraqi citizen alive today knows nothing but war and violent political turmoil inside the borders of his country.

Moscow’s invitation to Hamas could be meant as warning to Israel, analysts say

Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Moscow on Sept. 10 at the head of a senior delegation from the terror group for talks with Russian officials. Analysts speculate that Moscow’s invitation to Hamas, like an earlier one in May, is meant to send a message of dissatisfaction to Israel.

“The Russians typically use meetings with Hamas to signal displeasure with Israel, perhaps in relation to Ukraine,” Hillel Frisch, senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), told JNS.

A noteworthy aspect of the May meeting is that it came a month after Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid, then foreign minister, accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, specifically in relation to alleged atrocities committed outside Kyiv. Of the current meeting, Frisch said it was unclear what specifically Russia may have found objectionable about Israeli statements or actions.

Anna Geifman, senior researcher at Bar-Ilan University’s department of political science, told JNS that it might be a general warning, a way for Russia to tell Israel that if it takes a “wrong step” it will strengthen relations with the region’s hostile actors. “The message may be: ‘If you become our enemy, we’re going to deal with your enemies,’ ” she said.

For Geifman, the important point is that this isn’t something new. “The Russians have always played the anti-Israel, or anti-Western, card whenever it was convenient for them, from the Soviet days. They’ve always talked to terrorists. It’s not even a question of talking—it’s collaborating,” she said.

08/27 Links: The Use Of Human Shields Is A War Crime. America Must Hold Terrorists Accountable; Why are Israelis so happy? Because Israel is small

From Ian:

The Use Of Human Shields Is A War Crime. America Must Hold Terrorists Accountable

The administration and Congress should take several steps to more effectively counter the widespread use of human shields by PIJ and other terrorist organizations.

First, the administration should implement its legal authority to designate terrorists who use human shields. Despite strong evidence of human shields use by PIJ and other terrorists, and the requirements of U.S. law, neither Trump nor Biden has thus far imposed any human shields sanctions on anyone. Imposing sanctions on PIJ leaders for their use of human shields would be an important first step.

Meanwhile, Congress should reauthorize and enhance the existing sanctions law,which is set to expire on December 31, 2023.

In addition, the US, Israel, and other allies should work together, including with NATO, to press the UN and other international organizations to investigate, condemn, and encourage penalties for human shields use by terrorist organizations and their material supporters. For example, the UN human rights high commissioner and council should be encouraged to vigorously investigate, condemn, and encourage accountability for the use of human shields.

Finally, the militaries of Israel, the United States and other NATO members, and other allies must coordinate in sharing best practices for more effectively addressing the use of human shields by terrorist organizations.

A robust U.S. government response to the use of human shields by PIJ and other terrorist groups would concretely advance several American national security and foreign policy objectives. These objectives include protecting U.S. and other NATO troops against terrorist use of human shields; setting the record straight in the face of UN and other efforts to falsely accuse Israel of committing war crimes; and undermining PIJ, Hamas, and other terrorist groups while supporting Palestinians who are prepared to make peace with Israel.

Jonathan Tobin: An end to the delusions about Biden, Iran and Israel?

Like any gambler who is willing to seize on any glimmer of hope that irresponsible betting will be rewarded with an unexpected reversal of fortune, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid was sounding hopeful this week. The Israeli government that he now leads spent the last year wagering the Jewish state’s security on the idea that better relations with the Biden administration and a decision to downplay differences would influence Washington to finally show some spine and stop appeasing Iran. So, it was hardly unexpected that Lapid would seize on the news that the United States had “hardened” its response to the latest Iranian counter-offer in the talks about renewing the 2015 nuclear deal.

The “good news” consisted of a report claiming that Lapid had been told by Washington that it would not give in to Iranian demands that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cease investigating Tehran’s nuclear program or take the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) off the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Shorn of context, that might be an encouraging development. But with the international media publishing multiple stories based on leaks from the administration about an agreement between the two sides being imminent, the notion that any victory on these two points, whether temporary or not, vindicates the decision Lapid’s tactics is risible.

Even taken in isolation, these points don’t mean that much.

As bad as giving in on that point would be, the IRGC issue is largely symbolic. If a new deal is reached, Iran’s terrorist arm will be immeasurably strengthened and enriched along with the rest of the regime, regardless of whether they’re on a U.S. list of terror groups. It’s also true that even if Iran doesn’t get Biden to agree to drop the involvement of the IAEA altogether, that means nothing. As the Iranians have demonstrated ever since former President Barack Obama’s signature foreign-policy achievement was put into force in 2015, violating they have no compunctions about repeatedly violating it, especially with regard to flouting the components requiring compliance with IAEA regulations.

More to the point, if these provisions and other points of equal importance are the only obstacles standing between an agreement, then Lapid knows his hopes of persuading the administration not to sign a new deal are negligible. As Lapid has recently reiterated, Israel’s position is that the United States and its partners in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are making a huge mistake. Mossad chief David Barnea has been adamant in insisting that the plan is a “strategic disaster” for Israel and based on “lies.”

‘Basmanny Justice’ and the Jews of Russia

Six months into the war in Ukraine, Russia is being Russia once again.

By that, I mean the predatory, bullying Russia that we know from history. The Russia that persecutes Jews and other minorities, whether under the tsars or the Bolsheviks. The Russia that sneers at freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the other precious individual rights that prevail in the democratic West, while pushing its own brand of nationalist, obscurantist ideology.

When it comes to the “Jewish Question,” as the Bolsheviks were fond of calling it, Russia’s hostility is eminently recognizable. For much of the Putin era, that reality has been obscured, as the Russian dictator actively promoted the impression of a benevolent disposition towards the country’s Jewish minority, assisted in this task by a number of Jewish influencers abroad who really should have known better. Yet as was predictable, with the first whiff of a geopolitical crisis, Jews have once again been cast in a villainous role.

In a recent interview with the Voice of America’s Russian-language service, Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet Jewish refusenik who served as head of the Jewish Agency from 2009 to 2018, observed that Russia is “almost completely isolated from the free world.” Like a wounded animal, it is lashing out at its adversaries as a result, trying to find and pressure any weak spots. Sharansky pointed to the example of Germany, where the coming winter is anticipated with dread given the German dependence on Russia’s heavily sanctioned energy sector.

“They are scaring Germany with the fact that people will start dying from the cold in winter,” said Sharansky.

In Israel, of course, the mild winters and the lack of dependency on Russian natural gas—earlier this year, the European Union even signed a deal to import Israeli and Egyptian natural gas as part of weaning the bloc off Russian supplies—mean that the regime in Moscow has to select a different pressure point. “In the same way, they are starting to put pressure on us, using the Jewish Agency,” emphasized Sharansky.

Russia’s campaign against the Jewish Agency, which assists Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel, was launched at the end of last month. The Russian ministry of justice filed a legal bid to close the agency’s local operations, alleging that a database of Russian citizens was being maintained in contravention of Russian law.

Palestinian news site accuses Jewish Agency of spying worldwide

Al Quds News says that the Russians are quite justified in closing down the Jewish Agency there, because it is just a front for the usual evil Jewish plots:

The basis of the crisis is neither Ukraine nor the bombing of Damascus airport, but rather the work of the Jewish Agency itself in Russia, an act of sabotage that other countries do not dare, as this agency operates freely, to look at it objectively and effectively....

The Russian direct accusation to the Jewish Agency is that it collects information on Russian citizens, as it does in all the countries in which it operates, and chooses among them those who are qualified to immigrate to the entity, according to its requirements and needs. The Jewish Agency, with all its branches, considers the countries of the world to be a human reservoir for the growth of the Zionist entity, without regard to the affiliation of these Jewish people to their countries and society, because it basically considers that the Jew is not capable of assimilation and that he must emigrate. A recent study on the work of the Jewish Agency in the world states that its employees approach them in the places where they live, and begin to teach about the entity and settlement and the benefits of their immigration.

The Russian authorities accuse the agency of encouraging “brain drain” from their countries, as they were educated in their schools and universities, and benefited from the scientific development there, and where their emigration abroad (the Zionist entity) represents a human and scientific loss to their motherland. In addition, Russian officials accuse the Jewish Agency of keeping the data it collected about its citizens outside the country, meaning that it has come into the hands of other countries, especially the Zionist entity.

Regardless of the fact that the work of the Jewish Agency is a criminal act against the Palestinian people because it facilitates the migration of Jews from countries of the world to settle in Palestine, kill its people, destroy its civilization, Judaize its sanctities, and distort its Arab and Islamic landmarks, the work of this Agency can be considered an act of sabotage to the societies of the world, because it separates the Jews and spreads hatred and discrimination against other citizens who do not belong to the Jewish religion.

See? Not only is the Jewish Agency antisemitic, but everything Jews do is meant to hurt Palestinians!

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!

NYT op-ed says not to coddle an honor/shame society - but for Russia, not for Palestinians or Iranians

There's a very interesting op-ed by Peter Pomerantsev in the New York Times that says how the West should understand Vladimir Putin:

To humiliate people is to exploit your power over them, making them feel worthless and dependent on you. It is clear, then, that the Russian military seems intent on humiliating Ukrainians, taking away their right to independence and their right to make their own decisions. ...

Kremlin propaganda claims Russia revels in isolationism, but it is also addicted to seeking approval from abroad.

And Mr. Putin’s success as president of Russia has rested for some time on his ability to mete out daily humiliations to Russians and then act as if he feels their rage as they do, as if he alone knows where to direct it — toward the West, toward Ukraine, anywhere except toward the Kremlin.

Mr. Putin likes to perform both sides of the humiliation drama: from the seething resentment of the put-upon Russian everyman to cosplaying Peter the Great. This allows him to appeal to Russians’ deep-seated sense of humiliation, which the Kremlin itself inflicts on people, and then compensate for it. It’s a performance that taps into the cycle of humiliation and aggression that defines the experience of life in Russia, and now Ukraine is the stage.

This is similar (although not identical) to how the Arab world had traditionally looked upon Israel, and how the Palestinians still do. The honor/shame society is not only obsessed with looking honorable and avoiding shame, but also to inflict shame on enemies. They honestly do not understand why Israelis aren't depressed at seeing Israeli flags burned.

Pomerantsev says that the West needs to understand the mentality in order to counter it:

In the face of such threats, it can be tempting to try and placate Russia. The editorial board of The New York Times has said that Ukraine will likely have to accept territorial compromises. Mr. Macron has said that the West should avoid humiliating Russia. Such proposals are fundamentally misguided: Russia’s sense of humiliation is internal, not imposed upon it. To coddle the Putin regime is merely to participate in the cycle. If you yearn for sustainable security and freedom, abusive partners and predators cannot be indulged.

Absolutely. And this applies to Iran as well as Palestinians. When the EU foreign policy chief says the current text of the Iran nuclear deal is the best possible outcome, he is coddling Iran. When the West makes it appear that the Palestinian issue is the most important problem that must be solved before other Middle East problems, they are indulging a corrupt and would-be genocidal regime that would destroy Israel in a second if it had the strength to.

You don't compromise with bullies, terrorists and those who support them. It should be obvious to all. And that applies to Iran and Palestinians as well as Putin's Russia.

(h/t Scott)

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!

EU drafting deal to obtain natural gas from Israel and Egypt instead of Russia

From EUObserver:

The European Union is negotiating a gas supply agreement with Egypt and Israel, according to internal documents dated 7 June and seen by EUobserver.

A draft memorandum of understanding with the two countries, still subject to changes, is part of its efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"Security of gas supply is a common major concern. Egypt and the EU will work together on the stable delivery of gas to the EU," reads another internal document mentioning the trilateral collaboration deal.

The proposed agreement highlights that natural gas will be shipped to the EU from Egypt, Israel or any other source in the East Mediterranean region, including EU member states in the region.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is due to travel to Cairo next week, but it is currently unclear whether the memorandum will be signed during her visit.

Egypt has increasingly become a regional gas hub, with its two liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But Israel has also become a key regional gas supplier in recent years.

Under the draft deal, imports from Israel would involve gas being processed at Egypt's liquefaction plants before being shipped to Europe as LNG.

Mediterranean natural gas has been a game changer for Israel - not as earthshaking as the Abraham Accords, but it is redrawing the regional balance in ways that couldn't have been predicted.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah is threatening Israel - and a Greek ship - for exploring in gas fields that the UN said belongs to Israel but Lebanon disputes:

Lebanon should block Israel from extracting gas from the disputed offshore field, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday, warning a hydrocarbon exploration company hired by Israel against proceeding with its activities.
"The immediate objective should be to prevent the enemy from extracting oil and gas from the Karish gas field," part of which is claimed by Lebanon, Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
Hizbullah will not "stand by and do nothing in the face of (Israel's) looting of Lebanon's natural wealth... which is the only hope for the salvation of the Lebanese people," he warned.
The company "should pull out its ship immediately and avoid getting involved in this aggression and provocation against Lebanon," the head of the powerful Iran-backed movement said, adding that Energean must assume "full responsibility" for its involvement.
“The resistance has the technical ability to prevent the enemy from extracting gas from Karish and I will not say how,” Nasrallah added.
“All of the enemy's measures will not be able to protect the Greek ship or the Karish field,” he warned.

If Lebanon had crafted a maritime border agreement with Israel years ago, it could have been selling gas to Europe by now. Instead it is a country on the verge of failure, in large part because of people like Nasrallah.

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!

Putin compares Western sanctions against Russia to Nazi persecution of Jews

In his Wednesday speech, Russian president Vladimir Putin compared Western sanctions imposed on Russia, its economy, athletes and cultural world to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis in the 1930s.

He said in the speech::

In many Western countries, people are subjected to persecution just because they are originally from Russia. They are being denied medical care, their children are expelled from schools, parents are losing their jobs, and Russian music, culture, and literature are being banned. In its attempts to “cancel” Russia, the West tore off its mask of decency and began to act crudely showing its true colours. One cannot help but remember the anti-Semitic Nazi pogroms in Germany in the 1930s, and then pogroms perpetrated by their henchmen in many European countries that joined the Nazi aggression against our country during the Great Patriotic War.

Whatever one thinks about Western blanket sanctions against all things Russian, it is nothing like how Nazis treated Jews in the 1930s. For one thing, Jews in Germany were utterly helpless, as they didn't have a state that could protect them.

Putin's use of the word "pogrom" is also telling, since the Russian word has been used since the 19th century to initially refer to Russian attacks on Jews. There seems to be a desire by Putin to pretend that there is no Russian history of antisemitism and it is a purely Nazi invention.

Both sides in the Russian invasion of Ukraine are not shy about accusing their opponents of antisemitism. This is not out of any love for Jews on either side. In some ways, the analogies to Jews that we are seeing are themselves a form of antisemitism.

For one thing, it is a minimization of actual pogroms and historic attacks on Jews. The war is not an attack on race or ethnicities; it is driven by nationalism. Russia may be targeting (or at least grossly uncaring about the lives of) civilians, but they aren't targeting victims by race.

Secondly, the comparisons with Jews on both sides has an implication: Jews are a dominant, unified, worldwide force and therefore both sides want to use them for their own political gains. It is a diluted version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion where the powerful Jews decide which side should win to help their own (nefarious) goals.

When the Jews don't do what these leaders demand, that itself can foment antisemitism in their own countries.

When world leaders invoke Jews to make a political point, it is rarely good for the Jews.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Read all about it here!

Today's Iranian antisemitism

The most interesting thing about this antisemitic article in Iran's PressTV is that it is only signed with initials BM/BB.

BM are the highly appropriate initials for Brandon Martinez, who has been happily spouting Jew-hatred for far left "pro-Palestinian" sites for a while.

After every major war, victors justice and victors history always win the day. Those who win the war customarily scapegoat their vanquished foes for every calamity under the sun, embellishing and exaggerating the crimes of their adversaries as a means of whitewashing their own. World War II is no exception. Hollywood’s bastardization of WWII history, with its obligatory overemphasis of alleged “Nazi” war crimes and endless “holocaust” adaptations, is a deliberate attempt by the victorious powers to suppress the reality of Allied barbarism and the secret agenda of Allied leaders to aid and abet the Jewish-Zionist seizure and ethnic cleansing of Palestine after the war.

“Six million,” was the frenzied Zionist war cry as they wielded British and American weaponry to depopulate more than 500 Palestinian villages, burning them to the ground. “Never again,” the Jewish-Zionist militants chanted while slaying innocent Arab women and children in the name of Yahweh and the mythical ‘six million’ martyrs. It is this hideous transgression against the Palestinian people that must be drowned underneath a tidal wave of documentaries, ‘survivor memoirs’ and fictionalized flicks on the big screen.

Even though Russia rightly condemns the US for its murderous activities during WWII, Moscow is not a guiltless party in the bloody affair. The Russians are playing a schizoid double game of glorifying their own sordid role in WWII whilst condemning America’s equally barbarous contribution to the bloodshed. Russia’s leaders continue to promote preposterous war myths about the Soviet Union’s ‘benevolent’ and ‘heroic’ role in “defeating fascism,” but the truth is that Stalin and his NKVD henchmen laid waste to more human souls than Hitler and Mussolini could even dream of. Over the course of his 30-year iron rule, Stalin and his predominantly Jewish secret police murdered and enslaved more than 40 million people.

...Enforcing German and Japanese war guilt is a self-serving ruse by interested parties, principally American and Zionist imperialists, to distract the masses from the hidden truths about the Second World War which, if exposed widely, could cause the US-Israeli imperium to crumble like a house of cards.

It's funny that Iran's Supreme Leader tweets about his wonderful tolerance of non-Muslims while his official media publishes things like this.

Leader’s meeting with the family of an Iranian #Christian being martyred during Saddam’s war against #Iran. #Jesus pic.twitter.com/cHJCduQGt6
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 4, 2015

Notice that the Christian mother feels compelled to cover her hair in tolerant Iran..