Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Terrorism

Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts

Friday, October 28, 2022

When "Israelis killed Palestinians in cold blood!" changes to "Heroic Palestinians martyred while attacking the Zionist enemy!"

Two Palestinian Authority security services members were killed this morning near the Huwara checkpoint as they shot at the soldiers there.

Whenever incidents like this happen, before a terror group takes responsibility, Palestinian media (and even other terror groups) first respond by claiming that the IDF shot innocent civilians in cold blood.

Islamic Jihad called it a "cold blooded execution."

PA prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh called it "a heinous field execution committed by the occupation forces."

Then as more information started coming out that they were involved in an attack, the tenor of the responses changed.

The PFLP was cautious, saying they"were martyred in a new crime committed by the occupation" but implying that they were attacking at the time by saying "our people's response to the occupation and its aggression and the escalation of resistance against it proves the determination of our people to continue the confrontation until freedom and victory are achieved."

Then the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took explicit credit for the attempted attack, saying they shot at the IDF soldiers at point-blank range at 1:05 AM, a "zero-distance clash with the Zionist enemy at the Hawara checkpoint in the city of Nablus, and that all the usurpers and settler herds are targets of the battalion fighters, and that the battle is open with this usurper occupation."

So now the responses change from "innocent victims" to "heroic martyrs."

Hamas praised '"the two martyrs of the armed clash with the Zionist occupation forces."

The narrative changed on a dime.

Note that two members of the Palestinian Authority security forces were also terrorists for the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Either Mahmoud Abbas is too weak to enforce that his own security forces are not terrorists, or he supports it. Either way, negotiating with him for peace is impossible.

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Alex Kane at Jewish Currents justifies terrorism

At the socialist site Jewish Currents, writer Alex Kane provides us with an excellent example of anti-Israel agitprop - and even justification of terrorism - disguised as a critical analysis of the definition of terrorism.

Like all good propaganda, the article starts off with a very reasonable point:

ON OCTOBER 9TH, a Palestinian shot and killed Noa Lazar, an Israeli soldier serving at a checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp. Three days later, a Palestinian gunman killed Ido Baruch, a soldier who was guarding Israeli settlers as they marched near the Palestinian town of Sebastia in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the Shuafat attack a “severe terrorist attack,” and said the assailant behind Baruch’s shooting was a “despicable terrorist.” The Jerusalem Post, Israel HaYom and i24 News referred to the Shuafat shooting as a “terrorist” act. The centrist Anti-Defamation League as well as the liberal Zionist J Street also referred to the shootings as “terror” attacks.

This broad consensus across the Zionist political spectrum reflects a commonly-held view among many Israelis and Israel advocates that the killings of soldiers engaged in a military occupation are acts of “terror,” in the same category as indiscriminate attacks on civilians. But this view represents only one pole of a discursive struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, and, more broadly, Western countries and formerly-colonized nations, who have clashed in international fora like the United Nations (UN) over whether violence against agents of a military occupation ought to count as “terrorism.”

While different countries have codified their own definitions of terrorism in their national laws, “there is no international legal consensus on the meaning of terrorism,” said Ben Saul, Challis Chair of International Law at the University of Sydney and author of the book Defining Terrorism in International Law. According to Saul, there is general agreement among states that the deliberate killing of civilians to achieve political goals constitutes terrorism; the disagreement lies in “whether insurgent or guerrilla attacks on soldiers in armed conflicts should also be called terrorism.”

Kane is partially correct - not only Israel but most Western nations and media usually refer to attacks on their own soldiers as terrorist attacks, but generally not attacks on other nations' soldiers (not just "agents of a military occupation" as Kane claims.) For example, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed over 300 US and French soldiers was referred to as a terrorist attack in US statements and news articles even though the targets were military.

However, the official definitions of terrorism adopted by many countries do not give exceptions for attacks against soldiers. Most Western countries make no mention of civilian or non-combatant targets in their definitions. The FBI defines international terrorism based on the identity of the attackers being associated with designated terror groups; attacks against armed forces are not excluded.

Be that as it may, Kane's initial point has validity - one instinctively associates terror attacks with civilian targets - and he leverages that to skillfully pretend that other criticisms of the use of the term have equal validity.

Since 2000, countries at the UN have tried to come to a consensus on what’s called the Comprehensive Terrorism Convention, which would codify the criminalization of terrorism in international law. But consensus has again stalled due to disagreements on how to classify national liberation struggles. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a body of 57 mostly Muslim-majority countries, argues that violence committed by those in a struggle for self-determination—a term referring to a people’s ability to form their own state and govern themselves—should not be covered by the terrorism convention but rather by international humanitarian law, which governs the permissible use of force based in part on the “principle of distinction” between civilians and soldiers. The OIC’s argument is aimed at exempting Palestinian and Kashmiri fighters from being considered “terrorists” under international law when they launch attacks on Israeli or Indian soldiers who currently occupy their lands. The African Union and League of Arab States share the OIC’s perspective: Both bodies have adopted regional terrorism conventions that exclude struggles for national liberation from their definition of terrorism.

Here's where we see the depth of Kane's dishonesty. Building on his initial point, he frames the objections of the OIC and others in terms of their targets, saying that their main objections are against considering attacks on "occupying soldiers" to be terrorism.

But that is not what they are saying. The OIC's proposed definition would exempt any attack, even against civilians, even targeting women and children, from being considered terrorism as long as they are "in situations of foreign occupation" or any "armed conflict." It was written, at the height of the second intifada, deliberately to excuse Palestinian suicide and bus bombings.

And this is borne out by parallel activities by anti-Israel activists who have attempted to claim that even directly targeting Jewish civilians are part of a legitimate "right to resist" - by any means. Richard Falk, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, wrote that "Palestinian resistance to occupation is a legally protected right" specifically in reference to the second intifada attacks on Jewish civilians.

Kane is presenting these justifications for attacks on civilians as merely objections to use of the term "terrorism" against soldiers. By not mentioning these facts, he is framing the controversy over the definition of the term "terrorism" as two sides making reasonable, equally valid points and that their disagreements are only about attacking the military.

Kane then subtly justifies attacks on civilians, again by using misdirection to pretend he is only talking about soldiers:

According to George Bisharat, an emeritus professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, “terrorism” is “a buzzword” intending to cast violence against occupation soldiers as illegitimate. In Israel/Palestine, “it’s being used for its political and rhetorical impact to discredit any violent resistance against Israel’s occupation,” he said, which is why “the non-aligned nations, as they call themselves, are insistent on the principle that violence exercised to advance the right of self-determination is not illegal.”

The legal distinction Kane is making has suddenly changed from target of the violence (ostensibly, soldiers) is to the reason for the violence - "self-determination." Kane introduces Bisharat as only talking about targeting soldiers, but Bisharat's words say otherwise. If "violence exercised to advance the right of self-determination is not illegal" then that includes all attacks, including civilians. (Bisharat himself knows that attacks on civilians is illegal, but he is unhappy about it, ludicrously complaining that the inaccuracy of Palestinian rockets makes it too difficult for Palestinians to adhere to international law by only hitting military targets.)

Which means that Kane is classifying attacks on civilians as just another valid position. He's too smart to say it explicitly, but the Bisharat sentence is in fact the main point that he wants to give the reader - that Palestinian terrorism is legitimate because it is resistance.

In fact, the tone of the article is that Israel is unjustifiably referring to legitimate resistance as terrorism, while those who have cheered and funded the murder of Jewish civilians (the non-aligned nations) have solid legal ground for their support.

There is another layer to Kane's propaganda techniques.

This entire article is meant to obfuscate a basic fact. By only talking about Palestinian attacks on soldiers, he is implying that soldiers are the main targets of the terror groups. But the terrorists, whether they are Hamas or Fatah or Lion's Den, make no such distinctions. Their own words and publications never say that they only want to attack soldiers - their targets are "settlers" and, to them, every Israeli Jew is a "settler." When they attack soldiers and guards it is because those are the ones on the front lines, not out of any concern for international law or the definition of terrorism. When the armed groups have the opportunity, they attack civilians, and indeed they prefer to attack civilians because they are softer targets.

This is why the attackers are terrorists by any definition. And that is exactly what Alex Kane and Jewish Currents wants you to forget.

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Palestinian media claims EU expressed regret over 6 terrorists killed. It didn't.

From Ramallah News:

Today, Tuesday, the European Union expressed its regret over the death of six Palestinian martyrs as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression on the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah and Al-Bireh, in the West Bank.

In response to a question by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) at a press conference in Brussels, European Union Spokesman for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano affirmed that the European Union "is closely following developments in the occupied territories and the West Bank."

He said that "the disturbances, provocations and violence will continue until a solution and a vision for solving the problems is produced," expressing "regret for the loss of lives, especially the innocent."

Stano actually said, "We also regret loss of life - unnecessary loss of life - especially if it's innocent civilians."

This doesn't sound like it fits the dead terrorists.

He also strongly condemned terrorist attacks, and gave the usual support for a two-state "solution," which would not be a solution in any sense at any time soon.

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To Palestinians, women are only good for being terrorists - or mothers of terrorists

Today is National Day of Palestinian Women.

The theme of the day was to pressure Israel to release terrorists from prison.

The participants in supportive vigils for prisoners organized by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in coordination with the governorates, on the occasion of the National Day of Palestinian Women, today, Monday, stressed the need to form a fact-finding committee to study the situation of male and female prisoners and discuss it with the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and to facilitate and facilitate regular and regular family visits for female and male prisoners.

For its part, the Ministry of Women's Affairs called, in a press release, on the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to put pressure on the Israeli occupation, the occupying power, to end the file of administrative detention and to abolish the policy of solitary confinement and stop its use against Palestinians.

What does that have to do with women? Not much, but they tried to shoe-horn it in, by mentioning female prisoners (a whopping seven prisoners are mothers, out of 30 total) and that Palestinian women are suffering when their husbands or sons are in prison.

Nablus Governor Ibrahim Ramadan said, "The wounded, the martyr, and the captive represent the homeland. Without them, there is no homeland. We support their mothers who shed tears for their children for the sake of the homeland."

To Palestinians, women are there to make male babies to blow up Jews, and this is their highest purpose.

If you think this sounds sexist, that is because it is. Even a Palestinian Women's Day is hijacked into anti-Israel incitement, and Palestinian women are shoved to the side on their supposed special day.

The website of the Minister of Women's Affairs - who very ministry's existence is proof that Palestinian women are regarded as peripheral to society - features several statistics showing exactly how little women are regarded in their society:

96% of Chambers of Commerce members are men

15 of 16 governors are men

89% of foreign envoys are men

87% of cabinet members are men

95% of PA Central Council members are men

89% of members of the National Assembly are men

This is the reality of women's rights in the PA - and it is worse in Gaza under Hamas.

The Ministry of Women's Affairs, like the National Day of Palestinian Women, are symbolic shell institutions to make the gullible West (and pesky Palestinian women) believe that something is being done to address the inequalities in Palestinian society. They exist so the PLO can report to the UN how many accomplishments they have achieved - "look, we put resources into women's rights!" But none of it translates to anything that actually helps Palestinian women.

And the anti-Israel feminists of the world don't give a damn.

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JVP claims Palestinian terror doctor was an innocent civilian

Jewish Voice for Peace sent out an email to its members:

Last night, Israeli snipers shot and killed Palestinian Doctor Abdullah Abu al-Teen outside the hospital where he worked. But instead of reporting on how the Israeli military targeted and killed a doctor, the Associated Press calls him a militant — the same language used by the reports from the Israeli military.

According to Palestinian news agencies and video from the scene, Dr. Abdullah Abu al-Teen was treating a wounded patient outside the public hospital in Jenin when he was targeted by an Israeli soldier. Dr. Abu al-Teen had three children.

As usual, JVP is lying.

Here is video of Dr. Al-Tin's body being recovered - with his machine gun.

#Jenin: The moment AMB militant Dr. Abdullah Abu Tin was rescued from the alley after being shot, his rifle still on him.

To comment, follow this link pic.twitter.com/O28YYQR48J
— AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) October 14, 2022

And here is a Palestinian Fatah official not only admitting but bragging that Al-Tin was fighting at the time he was targeted.

His martyr poster also makes it clear that he is proudly considered a terrorist, not a doctor.

JVP never met a terrorist they didn't defend.

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Clashes between Jews and Arabs are not "pogroms" and those who use that term are Jew-haters

In an effort to demonize Jews, anti-Zionist groups are throwing around the word "pogrom" for some hotheaded Jewish settlers who entered Huwara today.

I am not going to defend the Jewish youth who appear to only want to cause trouble. But the descriptions of the scenes there by people and groups like "Independent Jewish Voices" as a "pogrom."

Israeli settlers carrying out a pogrom in the middle of a Palestinian town near Nablus today. This kind of fascist behaviour is a natural outcome of Israeli apartheid and colonialism.

The haters also claim that the Jews are being given carte blanche to destroy property and that the IDF is protecting their rampage.

The most complete video of the events shows not a pogrom, but clashes. Palestinians are wielding sticks and throwing rocks at the Jews. And the IDF is separating the two sides, not protecting one side.

If I wanted to, I could edit the video and add deceptive captions to make it look like Palestinians are attacking Jews without any provocation. Which is exactly what the haters are doing on their side.

Using the word "pogrom" is as offensive and as antisemitic as using the word "Holocaust" to describe Jewish actions. It is meant to accuse Jews of doing exactly what those who murdered them throughout the ages have been doing. The term is meant to hurt Jews and only Jews.

And, again not to defend the Jewish youth, but they are there because Palestinians have been attacking Jews non-stop in recent days. The haters aren't talking about that.

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This video was featured on the Fatah Facebook page. It says,

It shows a car being stoned by youths. The driver attempts to flee to save his life, and he ends up crashing the car and it falls into a ditch.

The video is captioned, "A settler entered Husan village in Bethlehem by mistake.✌️🇵🇸"

This isn't the Facebook page of some Palestinian teenager celebrating throwing rocks at cars. It is the official social media of the ruling political party of the Palestinians.

There is real glee here from Mahmoud Abbas' party at kids terrorizing a presumed Jew because he or she is a Jew.

Anyone who thinks that Fatah can run a country has 25 years of counter-evidence - but all you really need to see is in how it promotes this video.

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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.”

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah doesn't even pretend to oppose terrorism against Jews

Back in 2015, the official Fatah Facebook page was taken down for encouraging terror.

When the page came back, Fatah tried to be careful. But in recent weeks it has gone full-blown terror support.

Today alone it has posted about 10 pro-terror messages, mostly in support for the Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists killed this morning before they could launch a major attack.

Plus a video showing one of them in action:

And if it wasn't clear enough already, it quotes an official saying that "the Al Aqsa Brigades, the Jenin battalion and the [Palestinian Authority] security agencies are a single weapon in the face of the occupation."

Also, it quotes the PA interior minister denying a quote attributed to him opposing weapons and violence in the West Bank because it gives an excuse for Israeli forces to enter. Apparently, the PA interior minister no longer opposes gunfire in the cities under his control.

And the world is silent.

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J-Street spreads the lie that Israel demolishes Palestinian homes for Jewish settlements

J-Street, the self-styled "pro-Israel, pro-peace" organization, is definitely anti-truth.

An email sent out to the J-Street mailing list signed by their deputy Israel director, Eve Lifson, says:

Almost every day, my fellow Israelis are sent to guard wrecking crews.

Young soldiers have to tell children and their parents that bulldozers have come for their family home. They hold back distraught relatives as jackhammers tear into bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms.

It’s not the vision of defending our homeland that most young Israelis had in mind.

The truth? Demolishing family homes to make way for settlements has nothing to do with Israel’s security, and everything to do with the right-wing’s efforts to entrench permanent control over occupied land.

The idea that Israel demolishes Palestinian homes in order to build Jewish communities in their place is rampant among anti-Israel social media activists, but it is a lie. Jewish communities are not built anywhere near existing Arab communities. (The only exception is Hebron, where Jews lived way before Arabs did, and which J-Street wants to ethnically cleanse today just as it was in 1929.)

There are only two reasons why Arab homes are demolished nowadays. Either the home was built without a permit, or it was the home of a terrorist and the demolition is meant to dissuade future attacks.

Before Israel withdrew from Gaza, it sometimes demolished homes to clear land for security purposes (as in the Rachel Corrie incident.)

Lifson lives in Israel, which means that either J-Street hires the most ignorant Israelis to work for them, or she is knowingly lying.

And Lifson isn't ignorant. She's been obsessed with Israeli home demolitions since she was in high school. She considers home demolitions to be part and parcel of what anti-Israel activists call "creeping annexation." It is only a short mental leap between that belief and telling people that Israel is building settlements on destroyed Palestinian villages.

Her hallucinations may be shared with many modern antisemites, but that doesn't make them true.

But if anti-Israel organizations cared about truth, they wouldn't have very much to say.

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

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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.”

More and more members of Palestinian security forces directly attacking IDF

This morning, an IDF soldier was shot and killed by two Palestinian militants during an arrest operation.

One of the terrorists, Ahmed Abed, worked for the Palestinian Authority security forces.

Both of the terrorists, who appear to be relatives, were claimed by Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

There has been a significant increase in Palestinian Authority forces directly attacking Israel in recent months. Under signed agreements, the Palestinian police and security forces are supposed to work with Israeli security to arrest and imprison terrorists - but lately they have become the terrorists.

Joe Truzman writes in the Long War Journal:

Since last year, IDF troops have increasingly engaged in armed clashes with members of the Palestinian Authority Security Services (PSS) in the West Bank. In some cases, PSS members belonged to militant organizations.

The trend began in June 2021 when two members of the PA’s military intelligence, Adham Tawfiq and Tayseer Issa, were killed after they fired at Israeli special forces who were attempting to arrest Jamil al-Amouri, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Jenin.

In May 2022, IDF troops arrested an officer of the PA’s Palestinian Preventative Corps during an anti-terrorism raid near Jenin. Three months later, Israeli forces arrested a member of the PA’s customs police after a lengthy armed clash in the town of Rujeib, near the city of Nablus.

In late July, a Palestinian police officer named Mahmoud Hujeer, fired at Israeli troops at the Huwarra checkpoint in the West Bank. Hujeer was arrested after he was critically injured during the attack.

Other examples involve militants and their supporters working for the PSS. In May, Dawood Zubeidi, a member of the PSS, was shot and wounded in Jenin by Israeli forces during an anti-terrorism raid. He later died in an Israeli hospital and was lauded by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a commander belonging to the organization.

The evidence suggests the PA is ostensibly losing control of its security services. While the number of PSS members launching attacks against IDF troops has not reached the level of the second intifada, the upward trend should be noted. Adding to the PA’s problems is the erosion of its authority in pockets of the West Bank.

The question is whether this is the PA losing control - or making an active decision to play both sides of the fence. The public appearances of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in recent months indicates that this might be an conscious decision to go back to Yasir Arafat's game of controlling both the "good guys" and "bad guys" and telling the West that he needs more help to control his own terrorists.

Just as Hamas policemen are also members of Hamas' terrorist Al Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Authority policemen are members of Fatah's terror group (that was supposed to have been dismantled 15 years ago.)

It is also possible that this is part of the larger fight of who is to succeed Mahmoud Abbas, and that these "rogue" militants are being led by one of the aspiring new Palestinian leaders.

The trend of Palestinian security forces attacking the IDF has also been noted approvingly in Palestinian media, some of whom call for a new violent intifada led by the Palestinians who were armed by the West. From an Amad editorial:

The developments that characterized the act of resistance in recent months are the practical participation of the Palestinian security forces as a vital and active part...Those services and their sons, who fought with a people and under the leadership of the Founder, the longest military confrontation with the army of the national enemy for 4 years from 2000 to 2004, confirmed that the conflict will not be without the Palestinian’s right to his full national entity,...

This is a difficult and complex situation.

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A short list of Palestinian violations of signed agreements with Israel

The Palestinian prime minister Muhammad Shtayyeh opened his weekly cabinet meeting with his usual litany of complaints against Israel.

Wafa reports:

On the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Oslo Accord, the Prime Minister said that Israel had left nothing of the agreement, and had canceled most of its provisions, disregarding them... It continued its financial deductions in violation of the agreement, and stopped the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, which was supposed to include Karim Younis and other brothers, and sick prisoners, in violation of the agreement.

He stressed that Israel has violated, and even canceled most of the terms of the agreements signed with us, and this matter calls us to stop a lot with him and review it.

Palestinians have made these accusations of Israel violating Oslo many times. (The "fourth batch of prisoners" was part of 2014 negotiations, and nothing to do with the Oslo accords.)

In reality, it is the Palestinians are the ones who are violating signed agreements with Israel every day.

Here is a short and very incomplete list of violations:

Annex 1 of the 1995 Interim Agreement says about Jewish holy sites in Nablus (Joseph's Tomb) and Jericho:

While the protection of these sites, as well as of persons visiting them, will be under the responsibility of the Palestinian Police, a JMU shall function in the vicinity of, and on the access routes to, each such site, as directed by the relevant DCO.

The functions of each such JMU shall be as follows:

to ensure free, unimpeded and secure access to the relevant Jewish holy site; and
to ensure the peaceful use of such site, to prevent any potential instances of disorder and to respond to any incident.

The Palestinian police do not protect Joseph's Tomb and there is no free access to it by Jews - last week, Jews were almost lynched trying to access it. Terrorists routinely attack any Jews they can who visit the site and the Palestinian police are nowhere to be found.

The Oslo II agreement says:

Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.

But the Palestinians have declared the "State of Palestine" and signed international agreements under that name, which was completely unilateral.

The PLO undertakes that, within two months of the date of the inauguration of the Council, the Palestinian National Council will convene and formally approve the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant, as undertaken in the letters signed by the Chairman of the PLO and addressed to the Prime Minister of Israel, dated September 9, 1993 and May 4, 1994.

This never happened. There has never been a version of the Palestinian National Covenant published that removed the parts that declare the establishment of Israel to be null and void, for example. The PLO pretended to amend it but never did.

Relations between Israel and the [Palestinian National] Council

Israel and the Council shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.

There is daily incitement to violence in official Palestinian media, let alone other media.

Israel and the Council will ensure that their respective educational systems contribute to the peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the entire region, and will refrain from the introduction of any motifs that could adversely affect the process of reconciliation.

Palestinian schools still teach that Israel doesn't exist in any borders and they do not teach peace with Israel in any context.

The 1995 Joint Declaration of the Washington Summit stated that the PLO would oppose the Arab boycott of Israel. While BDS pretends to be separate from the Arab boycott, it is in fact a continuation of the same, and the PLO has attempted to enforce boycotts against Israeli products both demostically and internationally.

The Wye River Memorandum (1998) says:

1. Outlawing and Combating Terrorist Organizations

The Palestinian side will make known its policy of zero tolerance for terror and violence against both sides.

Yet the Palestinian Police aren't even attempting to enforce security in Jenin, Nablus and other places where organized armed groups from Islamic Jihad and other terror organizations have effectively taken over.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - part of Fatah - has free reign to walk around publicly with weapons anywhere it wants to. It is not an illegal organization.

2. Prohibiting Illegal Weapons

The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.
In addition, the Palestinian side will establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of all such illegal items in accordance with the prior agreements.

There are illegal weapons all over the West Bank (let alone Gaza,) publicly brandished. They aren't being confiscated and the police aren't even trying.

3. Preventing Incitement

Drawing on relevant international practice and pursuant to Article XXII (1) of the Interim Agreement and the Note for the Record, the Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.

Not only is there no law against incitement, but there is incitement to violence in official Palestinian media and statements from Palestinian officials.

2. Forensic Cooperation

There will be an exchange of forensic expertise, training, and other assistance.

As we saw during the Shireen Abu Akleh investigation, the PA had no intention of sharing forensics information.

4. Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Pursuant to Article XI (1) of Annex I of the Interim Agreement, and without derogating from the above, the Palestinian Police will exercise powers and responsibilities to implement this Memorandum with due regard to internationally accepted norms of human rights and the rule of law, and will be guided by the need to protect the public, respect human dignity, and avoid harassment.

The Palestinian police are clearly not adhering to this. Nizar Banat is only one example.

When the Palestinian leaders attempt to claim that Israel is violating signed agreements, they are trying to misdirect attention from their own egregious and explicit violations of those same agreements.

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A reminder of how fully Palestinians supported Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and suicide bombings on 9/11 - and long after

This video shows, for a painful 100 seconds, how happy Palestinians were upon hearing that thousands of Americans had been murdered by Al Qaeda 21 years ago today.

But Palestinian support for Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and suicide bombings remained high even as Arab countries turned against them.

This Pew Research graphic shows that Palestinians were more enthusiastic about Al Qaeda than citizens of any Arab country, and while their support waned over the years, they continued to be the most extreme supporters of terror among Arabs in the decade following 9/11.

In 2014, the most recent poll I can find, Palestinian Arabs were most supportive among world Muslims towards suicide bombings - by far.

And even then, three years after Osama Bin Laden was killed, a huge proportion of Palestinians continued to support Al Qaeda - more than any other Muslims:

One doesn't see questions about suicide bombings and support for Bin Laden being asked by international pollsters any more, possibly because they make Palestinians look so bad. But even this year, a majority of Palestinians support "armed attacks" against Israeli civilians, and there is little reason to think that they distinguish between "martyrdom operations" and any other attacks on Jewish civilians.

Bin Laden lives on - in Palestinians.

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Seven inconvenient and under-reported facts about the Munich Olympics massacre

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis and massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed.

There are a number of details about the event that do not get the publicity they deserve.

One is that the terror attack was financed by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. The mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), says that both Yasir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas wished him luck and kissed him.

The second is that German security officials were tipped off three weeks before the attack by the German Embassy in Beirut from a Palestinian informant, and did not do anything to stop the attack.

The third inconvenient fact is that the Palestinian terrorists in Munich were aided by German neo-Nazis. At the time, it was assumed that German Leftists had been involved, but in this case the Palestinians allied with Nazis.

Another is that while the organization that took responsibility for the attack is still referred to a Black September, that organization was Fatah. Black September was a front for Fatah in order to publicly distance itself from terror. Abu Daoud was quoted in Arab media in 1972 saying, "There is no such organization as Black September. Fatah announces its own operations under this name so that Fatah will not appear as the direct executor of the operation." The US government confirmed this in a 1973 memo.

The hijackers were not simply professionals trying to arrange a prisoner. They were bloodthirsty, and as they killed weightlifter Youssef Romano, they castrated him in front of his teammates.

A sixth, and almost unbelievable, fact about Munich is what happened to the three surviving terrorists after the botched rescue attempt at the Munich airport. They were released less than two months after the attack, before going on trial, in exchange for hostages from a hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615 flight.

But that hijacking was, according to credible accounts, arranged by the Germans colluding with Fatah to get rid of the headache of jailing and trying the terrorists.

From a 2000 article in The Guardian:

Black September, the Palestinian terror group that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was allowed by the German government to hijack a passenger jet two months later to provide a 'cover story' for the release of the three gunmen captured at the scene.

According to One Day in September - an Oscar-nominated documentary which is to be released in Britain in May - Bonn indicated to the terrorist group that it would give in to their demands should a certain aircraft - carrying no women and children - be hijacked. The Germans were keen to release the three jailed terrorists to avoid Black September fulfilling threats to carry out a series of bombings and hijackings.

On 29 October, 1972 - not even eight weeks after the Munich attack - a Lufthansa Boeing 727 on its way from Damascus, Syria, to Frankfurt was hijacked by two terrorists as it left Beirut airport. There were only 11 passengers on board, all male. The pilot was told to fly to Munich and the terrorists' demands were relayed to Bonn. Within hours the German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, gave in and the three men were handed over. The Israelis were not consulted.

And only last month, TheJC reported:

“We have found documents that state that the German government asked the Palestinian terror organisation to fake the hijack of a German plane in order to be able to set them free — and for doing so, a month after the heinous terrorist attack, the Palestinians were paid nine million dollars,” Dutch lawyer Carry Knoops-Hamburger, one of the team negotiating with the German government for compensation for the victims’ families, told the JC.

The final inconvenient fact about the Munich massacre is that it is still praised as "heroic" in Palestinian media and by Palestinian officials, including Abbas himself, today. It is obvious why Abbas didn't apologize for the attack when asked by a reporter last month - because he still considers it an achievement, not a source of embarrassment.

Not one of these facts were mentioned in, for example, AFP's summary of the massacre.

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