Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: dictatorship

Showing posts with label dictatorship. Show all posts

Friday, September 22, 2023

Abbas' annual UN speech filled with lies, incitement and antisemitism, as usual

We've come to expect Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to fill his UN speeches with lies and libels, and he did it again on Thursday.

He claimed that the Kotel (Western Wall) was exclusively Muslim:

The occupation government is also violating the city of Jerusalem and its people, assaulting our Islamic and Christian sanctities there, and violating the historical and legal status of the holy places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which international legitimacy has recognized as an exclusive right for Muslims alone, including the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and the Buraq [Western] Wall, according to the report. League of Nations in 1930.

While the travesty of the Wailing Wall Commission did indeed determine that the Waqf owned the entire Temple Mount, the Wall and Moroccan Quarter, the Muslims made quite clear that they did not accept anything the commission was going to say. So Abbas is trying to have it both ways.

Not only that, but the Muslims claimed ownership by conquest - meaning that according to their arguments then, Jews clearly have the ownership rights to all of Jerusalem today!

Also, before 1930, Muslims did not identify the Kotel with the Buraq Wall.

I hereby call on the international community to assume its responsibilities in preserving the historic and legal status of Jerusalem and its holy sites, specifically the Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

Translated, this means he wants to revert to the situation before 1967 when Jews were banned by law from visiting their holiest places in Jerusalem and Hebron. He defends this antisemitic attitude as the "historic and legal status."

Abbas then demanded compensation from Great Britain and the US for their role in the Balfour Declaration.

He claimed:

Our people defend their homeland and their legitimate rights, through peaceful popular resistance as a strategic option for self-defense.

Tell that to Eli (48) and Natalie Mizrahi (45), Rafael Ben-Eliyahu (56), Asher Natan (14), Shaul Chai (68), Irina Korolova (59), Ilya Sosonsky (26), Shlomo Liderman (20), Yaakov Yisrael Paley (6), Asher Menahem Paley (8), Hallel Yaniv (21) Yagel Yaniv (19), Elan Ganeles (27), Or Eshkar (32), Lucy Dee (48), Maia Dee (20), Rina Dee (15), Alessandro Parini, (35), Inga Avramyan (80), Meir Tamari (32), Ofer Fayerman (64), Harel Masood (21), Elisha Anteman (17), and Shmuel Mordoff (17), Chen Amir (42), Aviad Nir (28), Silas (Shai) Nigreker (60) and Batsheva Nagari (40). They were all murdered this year by Abbas' "peaceful popular resistance."

Absurdly, Abbas blamed Israel for the Palestinians not having an election in 19 years. In fact he celled off the last election when it was clear that his Fatah party would lose badly.

What this supposed champion of democracy pointedly doesn't mention is that he is a dictator in every sense. He controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches of his government. He writes and passes all laws. Plus he controls the PLO which overarches it all. If he cared about democracy, he would have stepped down after his four year term was up.

Abbas again falsely claimed that Israel's recognition by the UN was conditional on accepting resolutions 181 and 194. That is a lie, as anyone can see by reading the text of the resolution accepting Israel. There is no conditional language.

However, the Arab world and Palestinian Arab leaders thoroughly rejected both resolutions and Arab states voted against them.

Abbas is a liar.

Abbas also showed appreciation for the successful Palestinian brainwashing campaign denying any Jewish rights or history in the land. He said:

For several years, we have presented our Palestinian narrative, and the story of our people, which has been deliberately distorted by the Zionist and Israeli propaganda. We are relieved that the peoples of the world and many of its countries have begun to believe our narrative and sympathize with it, after having been misled for decades.

Notice he doesn't say "facts" or "history." Only "narrative" and "story." Palestinians want to erase the Jewish ties to the land, discard facts and rewrite history.

And Abbas drinks his own Kool-Aid. The Palestinian Arab "narrative" has stated for a century that Jews are endangering Al Aqsa, and he channeled the infamous Mufti of 100 years ago saying, "The occupying Power is also feverishly digging tunnels under and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening its collapse, or the collapse of parts of it, which will lead to an explosion with untold consequences. "

The Holocaust denier went further than just pushing a false version of history. He wants to make sure the rest of the world is forced to accept those lies.

I call upon you today to criminalize the denial of the Nakba and designate the 15th of May of each year an international day to commemorate the anniversary of the Nakba, to commemorate the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were killed in massacres committed by Zionist gangs. Palestinians whose villages were demolished and who were forcibly displaced from their homes. The number of these refugees reached 950,000 in 1948,

"Hundreds of thousands" is a gross lie. "950,000 refugees" is a lie. Most of them were not "forcibly displaced from their homes." Abbas wants me to go to prison for pointing out his lies.

The Palestinian dictator wants the entire world to submit to his rules of newspeak. I bet not one mainstream media outlet will condemn him for his opposition to freedom of thought and speech.

There are only some of his most outrageous lies and statements.

He might not have the charisma of Yasir Arafat, but he sure can lie as well as his predecessor did.

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!

Over and over again: Mahmoud Abbas spouts Jew-hatred. He is pressured to apologize and does it again. And the world continues to respect him.

In April 2018, Palestinian Authority president and PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave an antisemitic speech where he claimed that Ashkenazic Jews were not really Jews, that Jews throughout history including during the Holocaust were hated not because they were Jews but because of how they acted, that Jews were never persecuted in Arab lands and that Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel.

World leaders expressed outrage, and Abbas - under pressure - apologized.

In a statement released by his office, Abbas said he did not intend to cause offense in a speech to the Palestinian National Council on Monday, in which he claimed the Holocaust was driven not by anti-Semitism but by a reaction to the financial activities of European Jews.

In his speech, citing books written by what he described as Zionist Jewish authors, Abbas also re-aired a discredited theory that Ashkenazi Jews hail from Khazaria, an empire located in Eastern Europe, rather than the biblical Holy Land.

“If people were offended by my statement in front of the PNC, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them,” Abbas said in his statement. “I would like to assure everyone that it was not my intention to do so, and to reiterate my full respect for the Jewish faith, as well as other monotheistic faiths.”

“I would also like to reiterate our long-held condemnation of the Holocaust, as the most heinous crime in history, and express our sympathy with its victims,” Friday’s statement from Abbas said. “Likewise, we condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms."

A couple of weeks ago, Abbas repeated every single antisemitic point he made in 2018 - and added a few more.

From MEMRI:

Abbas: "The truth that we should clarify to the world is that European Jews are not Semites. They have nothing to do with Semitism.

"The story began in 900 CE, in the Khazar Kingdom on the Caspian Sea. It was a Tatar kingdom that converted to Judaism.

"[In the 11th century], this empire collapsed, and all its population left to the north and to the west. They left for Russia and Western and Eastern Europe. They spread there, and they are the forefathers of Ashkenazi Jews. So when we hear them talk about Semitism and antisemitism – the Ashkenazi Jews, at least, are not Semites.

"They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews.

"Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion. Several authors wrote about this. Even Karl Marx said this was not true. He said that the enmity was not directed at Judaism as a religion, but to Judaism for is social role.

"The [Europeans] fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money, and so on and so forth. Even Hitler...

"Everybody knows that during World War I, Hitler was a sergeant. He said he fought the Jews because they were dealing with usury and money. In his view, they were engaged in sabotage, and this is why he hated them. We just want to make this point clear. This was not about Semitism and antisemitism.

"As for the eastern Jews, they are Semites, because all of them originated in the Arabian Peninsula and they traveled to Al-Andalus, and then came back. We are familiar with this history.

"The Balfour Declaration saw the light of day only because of the complete agreement between Balfour and U.S. President Wilson. They were in full agreement about this phrasing. So America was a partner to the Balfour Declaration. Who invented that [Jewish] state? It was Britain and America — not just Britain.

"The U.S., who was not even a member of the League of Nations, force the League of Nations to include the Balfour Declaration in its covenant. I am saying this so that we know who we should accuse of being our enemy, who has harmed us and took our homeland away, and gave it to the Israelis or the Jews.

"In 1948, the population of Israel numbered 650,000 people. In 1948-1949, they occupied 78% of Palestine. 650,000 people were not enough, so Ben-Gurion complained to the British, to his friend Churchill. He said: 'Man, I have a problem. Get me the Jews from Europe. I am short [of people]. I have this vast land, but no population.'

"[Churchill] said: 'I cannot get you the European Jews. After the World War, they emigrated to different places, or settled [in Europe], or were killed. The only ones I can get you are the Jews of the Arab countries.' But Churchill said that there was no one else. Ben-Gurion said: 'God forbid! Do me a favor, I don't want the Jews of the Arab countries.'

"[Ben-Gurion] said: 'Brother, those Jews of the Arab countries are just like the Arabs. They look like Arabs. They have the same culture, same food. I don't want them.' But [Churchill] said: 'Do whatever you want. There is no other solution.'

"Not only did Ben-Gurion agree, he sent his people to Iraq, to kill, destroy, and plant explosives in synagogues, in order to force the Iraqi Jews to emigrate. This also happened in Egypt in 1956 – the Lavon Affair – and then in Morocco, and other countries. The Jews did not want to emigrate, but they were forced to do so, by means of pressure, coercion, and murder."

Abbas repeated the exact same lies he said in 2018 - that he "apologized" for.

And after his apology, everyone forgot about his antisemitism.

Just as the media has forgotten that in 2016, Abbas claimed that rabbis called to poison Palestinian water.. His office released a statement saying "President Mahmoud Abbas has affirmed that he didn’t intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world."

Of course, he didn't apologize for lots of other antisemitic statements. In January 2018 Abbas said that European Jews stayed in Europe to be slaughtered rather than immigrate to Israel. In 2015, Abbas said Jews "have no right to defile [the Temple Mount] with their filthy feet." In 2022, Abbas told German officials that Palestinians have gone through 50 "holocausts" at the hands of Jews.

Do you sense a pattern?

No, I don't mean the pattern of Abbas saying vile statements that prove that he is an antisemite. I mean the pattern of the media and world leaders feigning outrage every single time one of his Jew-hating statements makes it into the headlines - and then they go back to acting as if Abbas is a respected member of the world community.

Which means that world leaders, the media and human rights NGOs care as much about antisemitism as Mahmoud Abbas himself does, and their lip service of condemning his statements are exactly as sincere as Abbas' "apologies" are.

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!

Was Jordan behind Abbas' recent mass firing of envoys and governors?

The Media Line reports:

After PA President Mahmoud Abbas fired 12 provincial governors and 35 foreign envoys, analysts say it is Jordan that has pushed him for changes out of concern for the stability of the entity on its border. Further overhauls may lie ahead.

Rumors of imminent changes within the Palestinian Authority government continue to swirl, despite official denials from Ramallah.

Earlier this month, PA President Mahmoud Abbas fired 12 provincial governors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in what many say is part of an “overhaul” in personnel in the political and security structure. The shakeup continued some days later with the announcement of the retirement of 35 of his foreign envoys, all of them over the age of 65.

Experts believe the dismissals are an attempt to promote newer leadership and quell increasing domestic, regional, and international criticism of the PA.

Ramallah-based political analyst Esmat Mansour told The Media Line that Abbas’s visit to Jordan contributed to the speed with which he carried out the firings.

“It is not possible for the president to ignore Arab advice, as well as international demands, out of fear for the future and fate of the PA,” Mansour said.

Analysts say the Palestinian leadership is scrambling to appease regional players while satisfying the disgruntled Palestinian street, which sees the PA as ineffective, incompetent, and a tool in the hands of Israel.

“Abbas is trying through these decisions to give the impression that he is still influential and in control of things, and that change comes by his own will and is not imposed on him by anyone,” Mansour said.

As part of the shakeup, Abbas is planning a limited cabinet shuffle in the next few weeks, according to Palestinian media outlets. This may affect the current prime minister.

The only part that makes sense is that Abbas wanted to project the idea that he is still in charge. But firing governors and envoys does not change the main challenges he faces - the loss of control by the PA security forces and the lack of elections.

Ironically, Abbas fired a lot of the older people working for him in favor of youth, but he himself remains the 87-year old dictator above all.

It is true the PA has been trying a little harder to assert security control over areas that had been effectively ceded to terror groups. I can certainly see Jordan pushing for that, since security chaos would affect Jordan as well.

Abbas met with the heads of his security services last week to emphasize the importance of the "rule of law.".

But these changes are really just re-arranging the deck chairs of the Titanic.

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!

A professional liar, with no experience, gets promoted by Mahmoud Abbas as new Governor of Nablus

For years, I have been following the career of Ghassan Daghlas, a man who has been paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about alleged crimes of Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

Over at least the last dozen years, Daghlas has been quoted hundreds of times in the media as he spun lurid tales of Jews attacking Arabs, virtually always without even a photo to back up his stories.

Just two months ago, Daghlas claimed that there were 310 separate instances of Jews attacking Palestinians in the territories - in a single day. Even though these lies are so translarent, he is still quoted as a reliable official by Western media, even a recently as August 4 by AP.

All his years of deceit have now paid off.

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas fired nearly all of the governors in the West Bank. Daghlas has been chosen as the new governor of the Nablus governorate.

I cannot find any evidence that Daghlas has a shred of experience going any sort of governing or as a manager. Every biography I can find only mentions his role as a monitor of "settlers" in the northern west Bank, nothing else.

It is clear that Abbas wanted to tighten his grip on local governments as well, after already taking over the executive, legislative and judicial systems of the Palestinian Authority, not to mention heading the PLO that the PA reports to.

Daghlas, an incompetent administrator, will do whatever Mahmoud Abbas tells him to do.

Naturally, Daghlas says his top priority is "confronting the attacks of settlers and the occupation army." Not developing the economy, or uprooting corruption, or social programs for the needy - but continuing his career of blaming everything on the Jews.

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!

Study: Antisemitism is associated with conspiracy thinking, authoritarianism and desire to overturn the social order

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.., made headlines this weekend when he seemed to claim that COVID-19 could have been genetically engineered to target certain populations, and then mentioned there have been studies that suggested that Chinese people and Ashkenazic Jews are less susceptible to the virus.

"COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a video that the New York Post published.

There is indeed such a study, from 2020, which he gets slightly wrong. The two groups that the study claimed were less likely to be susceptible to COVID-19, based on an analysis of two specific genes, were Ashkenazic Jews and the Amish. Latino, South and East Asian, and Finnish people were less susceptible than other groups as well.

Kennedy later clarified, saying he “never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.”

Obviously, a large number (and percentage) of Ashkenazic Jews died of COVID-19, so the study did not predict anything accurately.

But the cat is out of the bag, and conspiracy theorists now have more ammunition to attack Jews.

And they are the most likely people to be antisemitic to begin with.

A new study published in Nature shows that antisemitism is not so much associated with the political Right or Left as it is with extremist thinking and conspiracy theories.

The researchers checked the association between antisemitic attitudes and likelihood to believe in other theories. For example, they found a high correlation between antisemites that those who believed in totalitarianism:

•To bring about great changes for the benefit of mankind often requires cruelty and even ruthlessness.
•Soft and idealistic people can never be the doers of great events.
•Almost any unfairness or brutality may have to be justified when some great purpose is being carried out.
•The unhappiness of a few people simply doesn’t matter when it is a question of a step forward for the majority of the people.
•Sometimes when a new society is in its early stages, the masses have to be ruled with an iron hand for their own good

Similarly, antisemitic attitudes were correlated with belief in conspiracy theories, such as:

•The government permits or perpetrates acts of terrorism on its own soil, disguising its involvement.
•The power held by heads of state is second to that of small unknown groups who really control world politics
.•A small secret group of people is responsible for making all major world decisions such as going to war.
•Secret organizations communicate with extraterrestrials, but keep this fact from the public
•The spread of certain viruses and/or diseases is the result of the deliberate, concealed efforts of some organisations.
•Technology with mind-control capacities is used on people without their knowledge.

And they are also associated with support for authoritarianism, both associated with the Right:

•What our country needs most is discipline, with everyone following our leaders in unity.

•An ideal society requires some groups to be on top and others to be on the bottom.
•Some groups of people are simply inferior to other groups

And the Left::

•Rich people should be forced to give up virtually all of their wealth.
•Most investment bankers need to be thrown in prison.
•Political violence can be constructive when it serves the cause of social justice.

•Books that contain racism or racial language should be censored.
•I should have the right not to be exposed to views I find offensive.

While both the Right and the Left attack each other as antisemites, they usually remain blind to the antisemitism that is on their own side. And too many on their own sides want to see an authoritarian government that supports their viewpoints - and violently represses others.

Which indicates that antisemites are often some of the worst people on Earth. And those who find antisemites on their own political side should be in the forefront of denouncing them, not accommodating them.

Incidentally, the introduction to the study cited quite a few studies that showed a strong correlation between Judeoiphobic antisemitism and anti-Zionist antisemitism. And the people who would self-describe as anti-Zionists were just as likely to believe in the other noxious theories listed here as those who espouse the "old" antisemitism.

(h/t Irene)

our country needs most is discipline, with everyone following our leaders in unity.

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!

You can learn a lot from this Palestinian press release

The website of the Palestinian National Council published a warning:

The head of the National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, warned of the call made by the criminal extremist and the extremist National Security Minister Ben Gvir, in which he called on all Jews to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish Passover holiday.

Fattouh said in a statement issued on Sunday evening that the incitement of the fascist government and its ministers against the danger of the storming, and the so-called extremist groups of the Temple Mount, erecting an altar on the southern wall of the walls of Jerusalem, and conducting exercises to offer the "oblation" of the Jewish Passover, and the ceremonies that It will be held near Al-Aqsa Mosque, and will ignite the region and plunge it into a religious war for which the fascist far-right government bears responsibility.

He added that the volume of incitement, oppression and abuse against the worshipers of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and what extremist groups are planning, fears that the massacre of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron will repeat, or that an insane act will be carried out and the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque will be repeated.

Fattouh called on the international community to immediately intervene to curb this terrorist madness led by the fascist occupation government, whose impact will not be limited to the occupied Palestinian territories only.

First of all, what is the Palestinian National Council?

The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the legislative authority within the PLO, and is responsible for formulating the organisation’s policies. It acts as a parliament that represents all Palestinians, except for Palestinian citizens of Israel.

A full quorum of the PNC convened between 30 April-3 May 2018 in Ramallah to elect a new Palestinian Central Council (PCC) and PLO’s Executive Committee (EC). This was the first meeting of the full PNC since 1996. This meeting was boycotted by the PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, and was seen by analysts as an effort by Mahmoud Abbas to consolidate his hold on power by promoting supporters, while marginalising his political rivals. During the meeting, the PNC reportedly transferred its legislative powers to the PCC.

In January 2021, Abbas issued a presidential decree announcing that a new PNC (formally including Hamas) would be formed by 31 August.

It is a puppet organization, controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, that reportedly gave up all of its powers - its entire reason of existence - to another puppet organization. And then Abbas created his own law, which never seems to have been implemented, to create a brand new PNC - proving once again that Abbas is a dictator who manipulates the many political organizations he controls to make things appear slightly more democratic.

The website appears to be nothing more than a sounding board for Rawhi Fattouh, since there are no PNC meetings. I'm not sure who elected him but it sure wasn't a transparent election.

Now, let's look at Fattouh's warning: that Jews play-acting a Passover sacrifice outside Al Aqsa "will ignite the region and plunge it into a religious war."

It isn't the Jews who are threatening violence. It is the Arabs inciting against the Jews who are threatening violence. The message, which we have heard so many times from Palestinians of all ranks including dictator Abbas, is that Palestinians are animals who have no self-control, and the sight of Jews doing Jewish rituals fill them with so much rage that they can ignite the region into a new war, or new wave of terror, or sometimes to get all Muslims to join in to start a world war.

Palestinians spend a great deal of time telling the West that they cannot control themselves against becoming violent. For over a century they have tried to manipulate the West by warning of impending jihad that would turn the region into a bloodbath - a jihad that they cannot control (when they don't declare it themselves) because their people are so inherently violent.

At the same time they tell Westerners that they are savage beasts who cannot be expected to adhere to normal social mores, they claim that the West is guilty of "orientalism" by stereotyping them as those same savage beasts they tell the West that they are.

One more detail about this press release. It is accompanied with this photo:

They took a regular photo of Jews visiting their holiest site and removed the color from the Jews. It is a subtle but unmistakable attempt to dehumanize Jews as unworthy beings who are swarming the sacred Muslim site like cockroaches.

These three absurdities are not anomalous. They are seen every day in Palestinian media. And no one calls it out. Palestinian antisemitism and hypocrisy are accepted as normal and the Bizarro world where the rules are different for Palestinians becomes more and more mainstream in the real world.

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!

How Palestinian laws are made. Step 1: Mahmoud Abbas declares them. (There is no step 2.)

Today, a new law is on the Palestinian books.

The General Intelligence Law No. 17 of 2005 said said that the head of Palestinian general intelligence must be less than 60 years old and can only remain in the job for three years, perhaps extending to four. (Oh, and he also is not allowed to be married to a non-Arab woman.)

But Mahmoud Abbas likes his loyal intelligence chief, "Major General" Majed Faraj, who has been in office for well over three year now, so Abbas changed the law as an early 60th birthday present to him.

Faraj now can stay in office forever, or until Abbas removes him. He is also now promoted to the rank of minister.

That's it.

No legislative meetings, no committees to discuss the law, no input from the the PLO Executive Committee or Palestinian National Council or Palestinian Central Council or Palestinian cabinet.

Mahmoud Abbas decided to change a law, he wrote it, he implemented it and that's it.

At a time that Israel is struggling over balancing powers between the legislative and judicial branches, there are no such problems in the Palestinian territories.

Because they have a dictator who decides everything.

And no one - media, politicians, pundits, diplomats - seems to be gnashing their teeth over this.

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!

Palestinians in an uproar over Abbas "shekel tax" on phones "to support Jerusalem"

Yesterday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas announced that every Palestinian with a mobile or landline phone will have to pay an extra shekel every month "to support Jerusalem."

Palestinians received a message on their mobile phones saying, "In compliance with President Abbas' decision, one shekel will be added to your bill every month for a period of 12 months as part of an initiative to support the steadfastness of our people in Jerusalem."

The tax would raise about 60 million shekels ($18M) annually.

The reaction was immediate and fierce. Absolutely no one believes that the money would go to Jerusalem Arabs and nearly everyone assumes it would enrich Abbas and his Fatah friends.

Palestinians ridiculed the decision on social media, many saying that they refuse to pay or that they would rather cancel their phones. Some called in "theft in broad daylight."

Others noted that the earmarking of funds to "Jerusalem" was incredibly vague and could be used for anything.

Some Jerusalem Arabs said that they don't need any money, but rather an army to "liberate" them.

Still others pointed out that imposing such a tax without official approval from the Legislative Council is illegal under Palestinian law.

Many Palestinians recalled a previous fundraising initiative by Abbas. In 2016, he announced a project to build the "Khaled Al-Hassan" cancer hospital on 20 dunams of land in Ramallah, at an approximate cost of $140 million, not including medical equipment costs. Tens of millions of dollars were raised, but the hospital was never built, while the government claims that the money raised was put in a "special fund."

This prompted many to jokingly say that the phone tax will pay for the Jerusalem branch of the Khaled al-Hassan hospital.

This episode proves that there is absolutely no trust in Mahmoud Abbas' government. A majority of Palestinians consider both the PA and Hamas to be corrupt.

Beyond that, it shows how out of touch Abbas is from the people. The reaction was predictable, even as he probably thought that no one would care about such a small increase in their phone bill.

The story shows how precarious and corrupt the PA is.

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!

01/10 Links Pt1: The perpetual dictator and the missing peace: The story of Mahmoud Abbas; Ambassador Nides’ delusions about Palestinian terrorism

From Ian:

Bassem Eid: The perpetual dictator and the missing peace: The story of Mahmoud Abbas

During these long 18-plus years, peace has eluded the region primarily through Abbas’s personal obstinance. In 2008, Abbas walked away from a third Israeli peace offer that would have relinquished Israeli control over the Old City, location of the holiest site in the Jewish faith, the Temple Mount. Under his rule, Palestinian public education and news media fully normalized and are even saturated in antisemitism, often featuring explicit calls for violence against Jews. Abbas’s public statements and speeches place all of the onus for peace on Israel, as the Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt succinctly wrote: “The Abbas approach should be rejected by the international community, not merely because of its bias against Israel, but also because it recycled the same-old ideas that have pushed Palestinians down the pointless loop of delegitimizing Israel rather than the hard climb of reaching compromise.”

Over 2 million Palestinians live under the tyrannical power of Abbas’s PA in the West Bank, including me and many of the people I care most about. Abbas is the real occupier of our cities and our homeland, not our future partner Israel, which has consistently had a majority in favor of peace and not Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader who has explicitly supported the idea of a Palestinian state so long as Israel maintains the necessary security controls.

Abbas has offered us neither democracy nor independence, but we remain a free people. It is time for the Palestinian nation to reach a new agreement with Israel and the international community, abolishing the dictatorial rule of Abbas and the PLO and instead granting our people what we truly deserve: peace with dignity alongside our neighbor, the Jewish State of Israel.

Netanyahu government breaks sharply with predecessor in dealings with PA

On Jan. 5, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a series of retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority. These included sanctions against senior Palestinian officials, the withholding of Palestinian funds collected by Israel and a halt to illegal Palestinian construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria.

The measures were swiftly implemented: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, on returning from a trip to Europe, found himself waiting in line at the Allenby Bridge crossing after Israel stripped him of his VIP pass. On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the transfer of $40 million in confiscated Palestinian funds to Israeli victims of terrorism, money that would have gone to support terrorists had it reached P.A. hands.

“The difference that we’re seeing, the actions of the government on all fronts, is really quite substantial,” IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of legal strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, told JNS.

The measures, coming less than two weeks into the tenure of the country’s new government, are partly a response to the P.A.’s orchestration of a vote at the United Nations on Dec. 30 calling on the International Court of Justice to render an opinion on the legal status of Judea and Samaria. (Al-Maliki’s VIP pass was reportedly confiscated because of a meeting he had at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.)

“What the government did is focus on punishing the P.A. leadership. The government is saying that there’s a cost and a consequence for these actions,” said Hirsch. “P.A. subversion at the United Nations is a complete and utter breach of the Oslo Accords. The VIP permits are a function of the Accords. There’s no reason why we should have to continue as if nothing happened. They have to pay the price,” he added.

Israel’s move to freeze taxes and tariffs it collects on behalf of the P.A.—and which the P.A. uses to award terrorists and their families as part of its “pay-for-slay” program—is also a welcome decision, according to Hirsch. An Israeli law to withhold the funds has been on the books since 2017, but only half-heartedly enforced, he noted. “This will be particularly effective and forceful with the P.A.,” he said, as it will cost them 100 million shekels ($28 million) a month.

US: Israel’s Withholding of Funds over Palestinian Terrorism ‘Exacerbates Tensions’

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday described a series of Israeli measures meant to curb and punish Palestinian terrorism as a “unilateral move” that “exacerbates tensions.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet last week approved the measures in response to what it described as the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing “political and legal war” against the Jewish state. The previous week, the U.N. General Assembly, at the urging of the P.A., passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

“We have continued to make the point that unilateral actions that threaten the viability of a two-state solution, unilateral actions that only exacerbate tensions—those are not in the interests of a negotiated two-state solution,” said Price.

He added that Washington has “been consistent in our own strong opposition to the request for an ICJ advisory opinion concerning Israel…. We believe this action was counterproductive.”

As part of the measures, Israel on Sunday transferred $39.5 million of taxes and tariffs collected for the P.A. to the victims of terrorism and their families.

At a press conference, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “We promised to fix this, and today we are correcting an injustice. This is an important day for morality, for justice and for the fight against terrorism. There is no greater justice than offsetting the funds of the Authority, which acts to support terrorism, and transferring them to the families of the victims of terrorism.”

Palestinian Prime Minister calls new Israeli sanctions 'final nail in the coffin'

Mahmoud Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005 to a four year term term as president of the Palestinian Authority, scheduled to end January 15, 2009.

He is about to start the 19th year of his "four year term."

During his time in office, he has not only stopped any possibility of further elections. He also has taken over the legislative and judicial branches of government, changed laws to ensure that his people remain in all leadership roles, and consolidated his hold on Fatah, expelling any potential threats to his power either within his party or within his government. And he remains the head of the PLO, which is the real political leadership of the Palestinians, an organization that the Palestinian Authority reports to.

He has used the people of Gaza as hostages in his attempts to defeat Hamas there, regularly blocking delivery of medicines and fuel. He has mercilessly jailed and murdered protesters. He has passed laws that make any criticism of him or his cronies into crimes. He has played potential successors against each other.

He's a dictator in every sense of the word, every bit as ruthless as Bashar Assad or Vladimir Putin.

Yet how many Western articles about him mention the word "dictator?" They dance around it, they will sometimes quote a critic or two, but you won't hear the "D" word in mainstream Western media or analysis.

Arab analysts, on the other hand, have no such qualms.

The latest comes from an interview of several analysts in (Hamas') Felesteen news site.

Omar Assaf, a member of the National Democratic Assembly, confirms that Abbas fears losing power, so he prevents anyone from the Fatah movement or other factions from gaining any.

"Abbas monopolizes the three centers of power; executive, legislative and judicial, and enshrines the one-man rule that was tried in many countries of the world, and its results were disastrous, and the continuation of this situation means further deterioration at all levels," he said.

The writer and political analyst, Rashid Al-Bably, says that after 18 years of monopolizing the position of the head of power in an unconstitutional manner, and in light of the clear absence of the Legislative Council, Abbas has become the only figure in control of the three authorities, and even increased his power with his leadership of the PLO, the Fatah movement, and other positions. Ultimately,he is a dictatorial figure controlling all aspects of all official decisions.

Activist and political researcher Suhaib Zahda says Abbas constitutes a model of dictatorship and authoritarian rule by refusing to hold general elections and allow the renewal of the leadership.

"Abbas is using the security services and the outside to continue clinging to the rule and power, refusing to hold any elections, and continuing his work as president illegally."

The article notes a number of times that Abbas postponed the planned elections last year after it became apparent that he would lose. Abbas' excuse that he postponed the elections because it wasn't clear that Jerusalem Arabs could participate is not even considered to be an issue in any Arab media - everyone knows that the issue could have been resolved if there was any political will.

So why are the Western media and politicians so reluctant to criticize a dictator? There are two, related reasons.

One is that the alternative is probably worse. If elections were held, Hamas would likely win, and no one wants that - Hamas is a designated terror group in the West.

The other, more compelling reason is that there is a deep narrative of Israeli intransigence embedded in Western discourse. As long as the West can pretend that Abbas is a moderate - the word attached to him in the media far more often than dictator - they can continue to blame Israel for any tensions or lack of peace. If they would admit that Abbas is not a peace partner, Israel's position since the collapse of talks in 2001 is proven to have been correct all along. Moreover, if Hamas wins an election that is forced by the West, no one can blame Israel for there not being a horizon for peace.

The willful blindness of the West about Mahmoud Abbas is meant, above all, to keep alive the fiction that Israel is the obstacle to peace.

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Gazans die in boat disaster off Tunisia. Guess who Hamas blames?

In October, at least eight Palestinians died when their the boat they were on to try to enter Europe sank off the coast of Tunisia.

Their bodies were returned to Gaza over the weekend and their funerals were held.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Hamas movement, said, "We mourn the martyrs of the siege who were killed off the Tunisian coast, and we extend our sincere condolences and great sympathy to their honorable families, asking God Almighty to grant them patience and solace."

In a press statement Sunday, Qassem held Israel fully responsible for their deaths.

Gazans, however, blamed a different party: Hamas itself.

“The government that governs us here is the reason. It’s to blame. It’s to blame,” said Naheel Shaath, whose 21-year-old son Adam was among the dead. “I blame all officials here who don’t care for the youths or provide job opportunities for them.”

“Our children are drowning in the sea and their children are enjoying luxury. Isn’t this unfair?” Mrs. Shaath said.

Another family, the al-Shaers, buried their son, 21-year-old Mohammed. But his younger brother Maher, 20, is still missing. They were on the same doomed boat.

Their mother, Amina, blamed Hamas for the family's misery.

“What do we see in Gaza? We only see oppression," she said. "They are suffocating the youth and the youth flee because of their suffocation.”

Hamas wants to blame Israel to take off the heat from itself. Jews, of course, are the natural targets for blame. And Palestinians know when they are being manipulated by their own leaders.

The route that took the Gazans to that boat was quite circuitous. They went to Turkey, presumably by air since Turkey accepts Gazans, but instead of trying their luck there, they went from Turkey to Egypt, traveled to Libya, and then tried to cross the Mediterranean a third time, hoping to eventually make it to Belgium.

Turkey is supposedly very hospitable for Palestinians, so it is strange that they went from Turkey back to Egypt. Presumably they flew to Turkey from Cairo after crossing the Gaza border at Rafah.

There is more to this story, perhaps Palestinians are not as welcome in Turkey as we are told.

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Palestinian prime minister insists that Palestinian films must be anti-Israel propaganda - and soon it will be policy

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met with Palestinian filmmakers on Tuesday and gave them one message: produce pro-Palestinian propaganda.

He stated, "The strength of our narrative in the face of poisonous funding lies in its sincerity, and every Palestinian has a narrative that must be told, and supporting the cinema sector in Palestine is one form of steadfastness. The private sector and society must participate in it alongside the government."

Shtayyeh stressed the importance of film as propaganda, in "highlighting our Palestinian cause and its justice, and communicating it to the world through cinematic and documentary works, because it leaves a great impact on the hearts of peoples around the world ."

The PA ministry of culture intends to create a committee to regulate the film industry - meaning, not to allow any films that do not adhere to the Palestinian, anti-Israel narrative.

If there was any independence in Palestinian cinema to date, it is certainly gone now. Not that Palestinian filmmakers ever showed a desire to create films that counter their narrative: their smiling faces above show that they have no problem whatsoever with being told what kinds of films they will be allowed to make.

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10/31 Links Pt1: The UN CoI's 2nd: The Continued Assault on Israel; Sunak should acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; NZ PM calls to expel Iran from U.N. Women’s Rights Commission

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: The UN Commission of Inquiry’s Second Report: The Continued Assault on Israel

Failure to Address Commissioners’ Antisemitism

In issuing its second report, the members of the COI ignored the numerous condemnations of the antisemitic statements they had made since the COI began.

In June 2022, speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Commissioner Chris Sidoti appeared to trivialize the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) consensus-building definition of antisemitism by dismissing it as “the definition of antisemitism promoted by the government of Israel, and its GONGOS.” He contended that “accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding,” and claims that such accusations “legitimize” antisemitism.

In July 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari also made antisemitic comments on a podcast, claiming that the “Jewish lobby” controls social media and questioned whether Israel should have UN membership. In a letter to UNHRC President Federico Villegas, Pillay refused to condemn Kothari’s remarks, stating his comments “have deliberately been taken out of context…[and] deliberately misquoted.”

Dozens of countries, as well as UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed, and HRC President Federico Villegas condemned these remarks. (Read NGO Monitor’s letter to United Nations Human Rights Council President Federico Villegas calling on him to initiate an assessment of the UNHRC’s Commission of Inquiry on Israel for violations of the mandate and UN codes of conduct as well as NGO Monitor’s joint letter to the UNHRC President calling for the removal of the Commissioners due to their antisemitic biases. NGO Monitor has also thoroughly documented the Commissioners’ prior anti-Israel biases and their links to Palestinian NGOs in detailed reports.)

Nevertheless, no punitive action was taken against the COI or its commissioners, and the COI report made no mention of the controversy. As a result, following the presentation of the report, many countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Federated States of Micronesia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Republic of Nauru, and the United States, again condemned the antisemitism exhibited by the Commissioners. Many of these countries also denounced the inaction of the United Nations to repudiate these statements or remove the Commissioners from their positions.

Once again, Navi Pillay ignored this glaring criticism, and made several false and dismissive statements in response to the State remarks. Pillay falsely claimed, “This has been dealt fully by the President of the Human Rights Council, who is the proper authority to clear up criticism of the mandate and clear up criticism of those he selected for appointment as commissioners. So I do encourage you to look at the President’s website on that.” To date, the President has taken no action. Pillay also rejected claims of antisemitism, stating that “I’m 81 years old now, and this is a very first time I’ve been accused of antisemitism. In my own country, that will not be received well because everybody knows the role I played, and similarly with the other two commissioners. So let me make absolutely clear, we are not antisemitic.” These remarks represented yet another attempt by Pillay to whitewash the clear antisemitism expressed by the Commissioners and to absolve herself and the COI from taking the necessary concrete steps to address the deep-seated problems.

At the United Nations, Israel Becomes the Outlaw when Palestinians Reject Peace

First and foremost, the COI claim relies on ignoring that Israel has, in fact, repeatedly tried to end the occupation. Nowhere in the COI report is there any mention of the repeated offers of statehood made by Israel, including in 2000 at Camp David, and then the even more generous 2008 offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

How does one square these offers with the claim that Israel has “no intention of ending the occupation?” How does one square Israel’s agreement to the Oslo Accords, which gave a Palestinian entity autonomy over parts of the West Bank for the first time ever in history, with this charge? Any serious legal inquiry would have to account for and overcome these facts to come to the conclusion that the COI reached .

Second, the claim relies on ignoring all the instances when Israel gave up land for peace, and even gave up land in the hopes of reaching peace. Far from Israelis being “covetous aliens” and Israel being an “acquisitive occupier,” as Lynk claimed while using openly antisemitic tropes in his final report, the Jewish state has repeatedly traded land captured in defensive wars back to states like Egypt and Jordan in exchange for lasting peace. As Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s recent statement at the UN General Assembly demonstrated, that is still Israel’s desire when it comes to the Palestinians, too. No amount of baseless, conspiratorial assertions by the COI that Israel only “uphold[s] the appearance of agreement” — with a two-state solution as part of a duplicitous strategy — can overcome this history.

This is particularly evident when considering Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the COI only acknowledges to the extent necessary to absurdly accuse Israel of still “occupying” the territory. To admit that Israel completely uprooted not just its military, but also thousands of Israeli residents of Gaza, would require also acknowledging that many of the policies that the COI claims are designed to make Israeli occupation in the West Bank “permanent” are, in fact, quite capable of being overcome, just as they were in Gaza.

Third, and perhaps most telling, is that the claim relies on ignoring Palestinian rejectionism and maximalist demands. The entire narrative crafted by the likes of the COI members is that Israel alone bears responsibility. The fact that Israel prevailed in repeated wars of survival against invading Arab armies and decades of terror attacks that began long before the “occupation” started in 1967, does not square with the COI’s portrayal of pure Palestinian innocence and absolute Israeli malevolence. The COI has to conceal that the conflict persists in large part due to Palestinian rejectionism and refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state in any part of the Land of Israel.

That is also why Palestinian leaders openly bragging about rejecting peace offers must go unmentioned, as with Mahmoud Abbas’ demand that “not a single Israeli” will be allowed to be part of a Palestinian state. It is why the COI cannot acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority (PA) arrests and tortures Palestinians for participating in peace workshops. It is why Hamas is rarely if ever mentioned — and no acknowledgement is made of its violent, antisemitic, and openly genocidal charter. The fact that the PA tells its people that the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Charter still calls for Israel’s destruction must also remain hidden.

Stephen Daisley: Sunak should acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Under Jordanian occupation, Jews were expelled from eastern Jerusalem and their synagogues burned, but under Israeli authority there are provisions to facilitate freedom of worship. This set-up is not particularly loveable. Jews are banned from praying on Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, while Muslims are free to pray there. There are tensions. Clashes are not unknown. But on the whole it works.

The UK’s policy, one shared by the overwhelming majority of countries, is to deny recognition to this uneasy but enduring arrangement. We pretend that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel because we fear doing otherwise would concede that international law, or at least the dominant reading of it, has failed as a conceptual framework in the most scrutinised conflict of modern times. We wish to see a viable Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem and fret that acknowledging Israel’s capital would prejudice or hinder that.

This is an error born of a paradox. Mindful of its history in Palestine, Britain wishes to be uninvolved in the conflict but uninvolved in a way that aggrandises its status in the region. By withholding recognition of Jerusalem, we tell ourselves, the UK is advancing the cause of peace. Without wishing to sound like one of those ‘Britain is crap, ackshually’ historians, we are seriously overstating our swing in this part of the world. The Palestinian conflict with Israel will end when the Palestinians accept their own state alongside the Jewish state. Nothing we say or do is likely to influence them either way. This is their conflict, not ours.

Those of us who advocate recognition tend to do so in political, historical, moral, legal and, yes, emotional terms. But there is also a realist case. Under these terms, recognising Jerusalem is not about what Israel or the Palestinians want. It is about what the UK considers its foreign policy ought to be. What is in our interests? Some might argue that it is in our interests to be scrupulously even-handed and leave well enough alone. Even if that were true, the fact is that we are not neutral at present. Even as it refuses to acknowledge Israeli sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem, the UK government defines East Jerusalem as part of the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’. So our position is not one of balance or non-intervention. We have intervened in the conflict to say that East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians and West Jerusalem is up for debate.

Dictator Abbas attempts to replace doctors' union with his own people

Mahmoud Abbas, the ruthless dictator who already controls the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Palestinian government, is now going after....the unions.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority president issued a presidential decree to dissolve the Doctors' Syndicate and to replace it with another union headed by his own pick, Shawki Sabha.

The Doctors Syndicate stated that Abbas's decision wants to replace the current elected council for the group with handpicked cronies.

Abbas consistently goes after any organization that does not toe his line. And he's been doing this for over 15 years.

Palestinian human rights groups Al Haq and the Independent commission for Human Rights denounced the decision. But outside of those, the media and major human rights organizations let Abbas do whatever he wants.

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A Western media outlet notices that Mahmoud Abbas is a dictator

France's Liberation news site has an article on Mahmoud Abbas that agrees, in the headline, that he is an authoritarian.

This has been obvious for years, but Western media has resisted saying it.

It is based on an AFP interview from Monday of Nasser Kidwa, Yasir Arafat's nephew who was pushed out of Fatah by Abbas last year. “He does what he wants, without consideration for anything: the law, the institutions, the traditions (...) It has become totalitarian”, Kidwa said.

Unfortunately, the article seems to linger more on how Abbas has appeared to be "collaborating" with Israel by maintaining some pretense of holding to the Oslo Accords. It quotes critics of Abbas who would be more authoritarian than he is. What is best for Palestinians themselves seems to be hardly a consideration.

I have yet to see a Western media outlet mention that Abbas controls the executive. legislative and judicial branches of the Palestinian government, as well as a terror group.

So to see any real discussion of the true immorality of Mahmoud Abbas, you need to go to niche sites like Gatestone Institute to read real experts like Khaled Abu Toameh.

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