Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: funding terror

Showing posts with label funding terror. Show all posts

Friday, September 01, 2023

UNRWA didn't get $75 million from the US by today's deadline. Let's see if the dire predictions come true.

Khaled Elgindy senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, issues a dire warning at The Hill:

One wouldn’t know it from the headlines, but the next violent eruption in the Gaza Strip may be just around the corner. As most of Washington remains mired in its traditional August doldrums, yet another a potential crisis is brewing in the already isolated and impoverished Gaza Strip. For the past several months, $75 million in badly needed food assistance for Palestinians has been held up in Congress, not because of any bureaucratic or logistical impediments but for purely political reasons. Moreover, if the Biden administration does not act by the end of August, it will likely lead to a further deterioration in the already dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza — with potentially serious security implications for Jordan, Egypt and Israel.

The $75 million, approved by Congress and the State Department earlier this year, is being held up by Idaho Sen. James Risch, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He wants assurances that the funds will not go to terror groups.

Let's look at this a little closer.

Here are the top national donors to UNRWA as of 2021:

Notice anything missing? Yes, the Arab nations are nowhere to be found, and in fact Arab nations provide only a tiny percentage of UNRWA's budget. The top Arab donor, Qatar, gives a mere 5% of what the USA gave in 2021.

The US already provides more aid to UNRWA than anyone else, over $300 million a year. Why is it obligated to give an additional $75 million, which is more than the entire Arab world combined gives to UNRWA? Where are the angry op-eds demanding that Saudi Arabia or China give tens of millions to UNRWA?

Is this all going to be "food aid"? While the original bill says the $75M was for "food assistance to vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza" it cannot be earmarked; UNRWA will simply redirect other moneys to more problematic programs like their schools that teach the beauty of "martyrdom."

A little more context: People have been warning of starving Palestinians for many years now. In 2008 Jimmy Carter said that Gazans were literally "starving to death" and in 2009 he said they were "literally starving."

Nine million people die of starvation every year. Not one of them is Palestinian.

Interestingly, USAID will provide direct food aid - US food products - and food vouchers to countries where cash might go to terrorists. If there is such a looming food crisis, the US can contribute....food. This would also help US farmers and food producers, and it would be more difficult for Hamas to steal the food and resell it, as it does today with UNRWA products. (Obviously there are logistics involved to set up a direct food program, and it takes months to ramp a program like that up, but it could be done for next year.)

Here is the best part of Elgindy's article:

Despite appeals from the State Department, UNRWA and several Arab governments, Risch shows no sign of budging. “The administration has all the authority they need to provide emergency food assistance to UNRWA,” observed a spokesperson for the senator, adding that Risch “will continue to hold them until his long-term concern about UNRWA are addressed.”

On this, at least, Risch is correct. Biden does indeed have the authority he needs to disburse the funds over Risch’s objections. But this will require taking a stand and expending at least some political capital on an issue—the Palestinians—that has not been a political priority for the administration thus far.

So when a Republican holds up the aid, he is responsible for a looming escalating crisis that may lead to starvation, instability and war. But when Biden chooses not to override the senator, he is merely reluctant to expend political capital.

We are at September 1. Biden didn't override Risch. Let's see if the dire warnings come true.

The reality is that UNRWA is unsustainable as it stands right now. Its unique and bizarre definition of "Palestine refugee" ensures that it will need more funds every year forever. Clearly the world is sick of paying for this: in June a pledging conference for UNRWA netted a mere $107 million of the $300 million they wanted.

The solution is simple. Take 2 million Palestinians who are Jordanian citizens off the rolls. (Provide additional funding for the Kingdom of Jordan for a few years so that government can do its job and take responsibility for its own citizens' education, medical and housing needs.) That slashes UNRWA's budget by some 35%.

Later, do the same for Palestinians who live in the area of British Mandate Palestine, who are not "refugees" by any measure. They are the proper responsibility of the Palestinian Authority which provides schooling and medical services for its citizens - except for the "refugees," an absurd discrimination that the world doesn't seem to mind. That's about 40% more of its budget.

The Palestinians who are still in real need - the ones in Lebanon and Syria - really do deserve funding even though they aren't refugees either, but they have no government on their side. However, political pressure should be put on those countries to allow the Palestinians who have lived there for seven decades to become naturalized like any other Arabs can.

People who care about Palestinians should not object to any of these ideas. But, as we know, the world doesn't care about Palestinians unless they can be used as propaganda tools - "refugees" - to damage Israel.

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08/28 Links Pt1: The Deadly Militia "Spotters" of Jenin; IDF kills Palestinian kids without recourse, claims HRW; Libyan foreign minister fired after meeting with Israel, fleeing country

From Ian:

JCPA: The Deadly Militia "Spotters" of Jenin

In recent months, Palestinian militias in the West Bank have introduced improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and roadside bombs into their arsenal.

Palestinian spotters alert other units of the approach of an Israeli vehicle so ambushes can be set and roadside bombs triggered.

Palestinian Salim Awad showed CNN a 16-minute video of Israeli military vehicles in Jenin during the fighting in which Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed.

The footage tells us that the spotter was filming and transmitting the location of Israeli armored vehicles.

A plausible answer to the question of Abu Akleh's death is that she stood between Israeli soldiers who believed they were in danger and spotter Salim Awad, filming their location and transmitting his video.

Daniel Greenfield: Biden’s Terror Funding Just Killed an Israeli Preschool Teacher

Batsheva’s murder, like that of the 74 terror victims killed under Biden, was paid for directly and indirectly through foreign aid to terrorists and sanctions relief on Iran’s terror regime. These policies were not undertaken in ignorance, the OFAC documents provide clear evidence that the Biden administration had been warned that it was funding terrorism and that people would die.

That’s why the number of Israelis continues to climb every year that Biden has been in office.

After 7 Israelis, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in a Sabbath terrorist attack outside a synagogue in January 2023, Secretary of State Blinken met with Mahmoud Abbas and promised another $50 million to UNRWA which acts as the employment agency for Hamas. Earlier that same month, the Biden administration warned Israel to turn over $39 million in tax revenues to terrorists rather than providing that money to help terror victims rebuild their lives.

In August, with 4 Israelis already murdered, the Biden administration demanded that Republicans stop blocking $75 million in “humanitarian aid” to the UN agency. Sen. Jim Risch and Rep. Michael McCaul are determined to block that aid until Secretary of State Blinken certifies that UNRWA “is not affiliated with U.S. designated foreign terrorist organizations”. And yet the Biden administration can’t seem to even manage to clear that lowest of legal bars.

In Batsheva’s hometown of Efrat, which the Biden administration considers an “illegal settlement” despite being referenced numerous times in the bible, the children have lost a teacher and a friend.

The murdered preschool teacher had been on the way to “prepare the kindergarten for the start of the year.” A woman who worked with her described how “every time I entered the kindergarten, she welcomed me with a beaming smile that always accompanied her. The children were everything to her, she always hugged them and gave what she could to the children, the staff, the parents.”

Batsheva did not have to die. None of the 26 already killed this year did. The 3 dead in 2020 show what’s possible. The Biden administration is knowingly funding the murder of the innocent.

Bassam Tawil: How US Politicians Empower Anti-American Jihadists and Other Aggressors

When people such as Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 US presidential election, call for decreasing aid to Israel, they are actually sending a message of support to the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies, Hamas and PIJ, as well as the Iran-funded Hezbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon and to nations that would like to see Israel and America "out of the way."

For Israel's enemies, statements such as "cutting aid" are a sign that America is about to throw Israel under the bus, paving the way for them to proceed with their plan to destroy Israel.

The timing of Ramaswamy's call for cutting US aid to Israel could not have been worse. It came at a time when Jews are being murdered by Palestinians on an almost weekly basis. The terrorists are waging their campaign of murder because they want to drive all Jews out of Israel. The terrorists are undoubtedly happy to hear a Republican candidate talk about decreasing aid to Israel. They are hoping Israel will be made weaker. With less US backing, it will be easier to destroy.

The terrorists and others have, even more, long been seeking to end US "hegemony" in the Middle East. They consider the US an enemy of Arabs and Muslims and dictators everyplace. Ending US aid to Israel would not just be the first step toward undermining Israel, it would also be the first step to ending US influence in the Middle East -- the way then US President Barack Obama's abandoned Syria -- the best gift the US could ever give to Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and on and on.

The terrorists who want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the United States -- for supporting exactly those freedoms both countries embrace, and which their detractors falsify as "biased."

"Instead of prioritizing social programs and economic development, the PA rewards and encourages this violence, spending more than $300 million a year incentivizing murder. This "pay to slay" policy, funded by the UN, EU, and many governments, rewards those who commit violence (including children) with cash payments. The greater the crime and the more victims injured or killed, the more money received. This campaign targeting children begins from birth and continues throughout childhood and the teenage years. It takes place through state media, schools (including those run by UNRWA), youth groups and centers, and sporting and cultural events in both the West Bank and Gaza." — NGO Monitor, March 1, 2023.

The US doesn’t write Israel a blank check. The strategic alliance between the two countries is mutually beneficial.

Let’s break it down… pic.twitter.com/PkSAILF2f2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2023

Islamic Jihad now claims its members started the Lion's Den (meaning, Iran)

Last year, the IDF killed an 18-year old terrorist, Ibrahim al-Nablusi, who was a leader of the Lion's Den terror cell in Nablus and involved in multiple attacks.

He had been a child soldier, joining a terror group at 15.

Articles about the Lion's Den have implied that it was a home-grown group that just popped up out of frustration with Israel or the PA. Members claimed not to be loyal to any one armed faction.

But today, Islamic Jihad has written a new obituary for Ibrahim al-Nablusi, where they take credit for the creation of the Lion's Den.

Today, Wednesday 8/9/2023, the Al-Quds Brigades - the Nablus Brigade confirmed, on the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Ibrahim Alaa Al-Nabulsi "Abu Fathi", one of the most prominent leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades - the Nablus Brigade and the fighter Islam Muhammad Sabouh, that the blood of the two martyrs will remain a light for the Mujahideen and a fire for the aggressors Zionists at all times .

The battalion revealed for the first time that the martyr, Commander Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, was part of the department for developing military action in Nablus and that he was one of the first leaders in establishing the battalion.

This makes a lot more sense. The many armed groups that have arisen in the West Bank over the past two years were not spontaneous, but planned - and they were planned by Iran, via Islamic Jihad.

It was in the Palestinian interest to tell Western media that these were organic groups that were created at the grassroots level, and Islamic Jihad had a "department for developing military action" in the West Bank.

More evidence that Iran was behind these groups comes from the Tehran Times "Man of the Year" last year - none other than Ibrahim al-Nabulsi.

Iran's actions in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza are not haphazard, but they are coordinated and planned to keep Israel under siege and on the defensive.

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

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Comparing 1921 Zionists with 1994 Palestinians

On Sunday, I saw a tweeter quoting a 2019 Hanan Ashrawi tweet:

This is a ridiculous theory, so I responded:

Somehow, between 1921 and 1948, under full British control, Zionists managed to build a prosperous economy and effective governance.

Palestinians have had since 1994 with more autonomy than Jews had. And yet they blame Israel for their failures.

As usual when I strike a nerve, I got a lot of angry responses , nearly all of which are the usual mindless anti-Israel drivel. But a few people made one reasonable point.

So I answered that point and elaborated on my initial tweet.

The only reasonable response to this has been that the Zionists had large amounts of capital from the Jewish diaspora.

This is true - and it proves my point. Jews didn't depend on anyone else to build their nation. They funded it themselves, they drained the swamps themselves, they built their government themselves, they built cities from scratch themselves, they built an economy themselves. They had no foreign aid, no NGOs giving advice, and the British didn't allow them to do a great deal.

Now let's look at Palestinians since 1994.

They've received tens of billions of dollars - from the EU, from the Arab world, from the US. They have more NGOs advising them than anyone else on Earth does. They have an automatic UN majority for political support. They got the world to recognize their "state" before it exists.

And yet they haven't built squat. Three decades later they are dysfunctional, corrupt, divided, and immature. All those billions were wasted instead of invested. Instead of working to build, they are spending all their political capital to fight Israel in international fora.

The most honest Palestinian government comes from the Hamas terrorists. At least they don't pretend - they want Palestine to be a stage towards a pan-Islamic ummah. The PA tells the world it wants peace but it admires and financially supports terrorism.

Neither Hamas nor the PA have shown the slightest interest in building a real independent nation - only the trappings of one. Neither have shown any interest in making the lives of their people better. Their goals are the same: blame everything on Israel and work to destroy it.

Everyone knows all of this. But it is a convenient fiction for the West to pretend that the PA actually cares about its people and actually wants an independent state. The PA focus on "return" shows that its goals lie elsewhere.

So, no, Israel isn't the reason the Palestinians have a dysfunctional and corrupt statelet.

The Jews built Israel despite the difficulties, the Palestinians avoid building a state despite the financial and political support of nearly the entire world.

Adults take responsibility for their actions. Palestinians do not. Instead they blame all their problems on others.

Any objective observer can see that they are the ones who have architected their own problems by making poor decisions for decades and never abandoning Arafat's "stages" program to destroy Israel.

If the Palestinians were serious about peace and building a nation, they'd have no better partner than Israel.

But leaders that responded to a peace plan in 2001 with a terror spree that they remain proud of today are not leaders.

They are antisemites.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Islamic Jihad leader: "We follow Iran's orders, and our only terror targets are Jews"

The secretary general of the Islamic Jihad terror group, Ziyad Al-Nakhala, gave an extensive interview to an Iranian newspaper, and he mentioned a few things that the Western media rarely reports.

While most people understand that Iran funds most of Islamic Jihad's operations, Al-Nakhala admits that Islamic Jihad essentially is part of Iran's military, and that its decisions originate in Iran.

First he praises the Iranian regime for providing the technical expertise to build weapons:

We gained from the Islamic Revolution other expertise in the level of manufacturing and arming. Today, we see the action of the resistance taking different roles from the past, and the Palestinian has more experience than before, and today the Palestinian manufactures many weapons with which he confronts the occupation and manufactures them locally, with the exception of machine guns. Missiles, anti-tank weapons, and explosives are manufactured locally. An important part of this expertise was gained by the Palestinian people from our brothers in the Islamic Republic, and this has a great impact, and what we are witnessing today of resistance action in which missiles are used to strike the occupied cities, and in particular Tel Aviv, and all the central cities of Israel. These experiences from the Islamic Republic benefited the resistance and the Palestinian people , in addition to the expertise of mortars and explosives.

But then he says that it was Iran's leader who called for local armed groups in West Bank towns like Jenin:

When His Eminence [Ayatollah Khamenei] called for the arming of the West Bank, ...everyone cooperated in order to bring about change and a qualitative shift in the Palestinian situation, and programs were developed for this, whether through smuggling of weapons or by purchasing weapons from the Israelis themselves. The important thing is that there was a lot of focus in order for the West Bank to move from a state of coexistence and calm to a state of resistance that we see today, and this, of course, was completely consistent with the directives of His Eminence the Leader on the possibility of arming the West Bank. During our visit to Iran and during the meeting with His Eminence the Leader, His Eminence confirmed once again to develop the armament of the West Bank, and the development of resistance work in the West Bank.

Interestingly, Nakhala also downplays the amount of money Iran provides for terror operations and "martyr" families, because he is aware that there is a backlash in Iran of how much it provides to Palestinians while Iranians are in severe financial straits. "I say this so that people can be reassured, because it is possible for them to think that the Palestinian people took all the money of the Islamic Republic," he says, which means that this is a very sore point and Iranian citizen anger is a threat to terror groups like Islamic Jihad.

Al-Nakhala then emphasized that the targets of terrorists are specifically Jews, and the purpose of terror attacks is to frighten Jews into fleeing:

We are optimistic and we will win even if 10 or 15 years pass. years, but we are optimistic that if we exert more effort, the Zionist project will disintegrate, because the reality of the Jews in Palestine is that they came to this country in order to live in peace, stability and an opportunity for life, but when the opportunity for life and peace is not available and when the Jew finds only the place where he is killed is Palestine, he will inevitably leave. He came to Palestine to live in safety and stability. When he does not find this stability and peace, so he returns to where he came from, because there is no Jew in the world today whose life is threatened like the Jews in Palestine. Jews in other countries live and prosper. The only Jew who is killed is in Palestine. We must work to change the conviction of the Israeli that the chance of life here is non-existent and that the only place in which the Jew is killed is Palestine, and therefore he must leave this country.

So while these terror groups claim in English that they have nothing against Jews, they freely admit that their targets are specifically Jews and the only people they want to terrorize are Jews.

Notice also that Al-Nakhala admits that the purpose of Zionism is for Jews to live in peace and security - not to steal land, as they usually tell the West and each other. (h/t kweansmom)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Is it wise for Israel to allow development of the Gaza gas field?

On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a brief statement:

In the framework of the existing efforts between the State of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with emphasis on Palestinian economic development and maintaining security stability in the region, it has been decided to develop the Gaza Marine gas field off the coast of Gaza.

Implementing the project is subject to coordination between the security services and direct dialogue with Egypt, in coordination with the PA, and the completion of inter-ministerial staff work led by the National Security Council, in order to maintain the security and diplomatic interests of the State of Israel on the matter.

This is very vague.

In the past, Israel has tied the development of the field off the Gaza coast to returning the Israeli hostages and recovering the bodies of Israeli soldiers still held by Hamas.

But it looks like Netanyahu is dropping that condition and playing some word games:

An unnamed Israeli official at the prime minister’s office told Ynet on Sunday that all of the security agencies recommended the government approve the project. The same agencies had also approved the resolution of the maritime border dispute with Lebanon in November 2022, but Netanyahu rejected the recommendation, and the agreement with Lebanon was reached under the previous Bennett-Lapid government.
“The issue of the [Israeli] prisoners and missing people was and still is a condition for the development of infrastructure in Gaza. In this case [of the Marine field], we are not talking about Gaza infrastructure, but rather about an agreement with the PA and with Egypt," said the official.

Hamas has been pretty much maintaining calm in Gaza since Israel has allowed thousands of Gazans to work in Israel. It seems like Netanyahu (and Israel's security agencies) are looking at Gaza Marine as a means to make life easier for Gazans but Israel could theoretically turn the spigot off in case Hamas decides to resume hostilities.

If that is the logic, there are a couple of flaws. One is that if there is a direct line of natural gas from the field to Gaza, Israel could not turn it off, because that would look clearly like collective punishment.

The real fear is that the revenues would help fund more Hamas weapons and attacks. This will undoubtedly happen. Is that certainty worth the possibility/probability that Hamas will keep Gaza quiet?

Which brings up the other problem. While Hamas might be quieter in Gaza, they are active in the West Bank and taking credit for terror attacks. When Abbas is gone, while there is infighting within Fatah to replace him, Hamas is planning to take advantage of the chaos to make its own bid for controlling the West Bank. And the Gaza money will be critical to that plan succeeding.

Beyond that, what's wrong with leveraging Gaza Marine to get the hostages back? Why give up a concession and get nothing in return? Why not publicly tell the world, "We are happy to allow Gaza gas to be exported as soon as our boys come home?" Europe needs to replace Russian gas, which is why this has become a hot issue over the past year again. Why not give them a reason to pressure Hamas?

I hope Bibi knows what he is doing, and that there will be appropriate guardrails on this effort.

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!