Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

12/08 Links Pt1: Three decades to get here: Israel’s leading expert looks back at Gulf ties; Banner Over Busy Tehran Street Reads, ‘Thank You, Mossad’

From Ian:

Seth Franzman: Three decades to get here: Israel’s leading expert looks back at Gulf ties

Around twenty years ago, there were few experts in Israel on the Gulf and a paucity of knowledge about the monarchies and the countries that stretch from Oman to Kuwait. Israel had spent most of its formative years in conflict with powerful states like Egypt in the 1950s, and the Jewish state had relations with countries like Iran and Turkey.

Now things are a bit reversed: Iran is a major threat, Turkey is hostile and the Gulf states offer the promise of peace and prosperity. Among Israel’s leading experts on these states is Yoel Guzansky, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies. Twenty years ago, he felt the need to concentrate on the Gulf, he says in an interview. There were just a handful of researchers then, mostly gathered around Yossi Kostiner at Tel Aviv University.

“I fell in love with the Arabian Gulf. And I was fortunate enough when I left the [Prime Minister’s] Office that I could start going to the Gulf. I was invited many times with my Israeli passport and it wasn’t a problem – and for a decade I went back and forth, and I met Gulfies in the US and Europe,” he says.

According to Guzansky it’s important to make a distinction between diplomatic and security ties. Israel has had connections in these countries going back many years, but most of this was not public.

For instance, he recounts a story relating to Oman where Omanis thanked him for Israel’s support. “I said what are you talking about? I knew about some of the connections,” but not the depth of the ties. “Israel helped Sultan Qaboos and others, and even the Saudis in the war in Yemen, so the connections are long term,” he says. After the Oslo Accords, a new era began and Israel had limited open ties in the 1990s.

GOP Congress Members Move to Ensure US Embassy in Jerusalem Stays Put

Ahead of the three-year anniversary of US President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, more than three-dozen Republican members of Congress have called for language in an upcoming must-pass appropriations bill that would prohibit American funding from being used to move the US embassy in Israel from Jerusalem.

In a Dec. 4 letter, a group of 43 Republicans in the US House of Representatives called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to ensure that the 2021 State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies bill, primarily funding the US State Department, which oversees embassies, includes language that prohibits funding from “being used to move the United States’ embassy out of Jerusalem.”

Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6, 2017, and moved the US embassy to there from Tel Aviv five months later.

“In a time when we are seeing the increasing normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, we must ensure that the United States does not take a step backward by moving the US embassy out of Jerusalem, which is why we seek the prohibition of any FY21 funding in the State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies bill being used to move the United States’ embassy out of Jerusalem,” wrote the GOP congressional members.

Here's the podcast of my webinar for @oneisraelfund last night about the future of Israel-US relations.https://t.co/CfoTEDZNkB
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) December 8, 2020

153 UN states call on Israel to 'renounce possession of nuclear weapons’

The United Nations General Assembly called on Israel to “renounce possession of nuclear weapons” in a 153-6 vote on Monday, with 25 abstentions.

Israel was asked “not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons.”

The UNGA further called on the Jewish state “to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and to place all its un-safeguarded nuclear facilities under full-scope Agency safeguards as an important confidence-building measure among all States of the region and as a step towards enhancing peace and security.”

Israel is presumed to be one of the world’s nine nuclear powers, but it has never admitted to the possession of nuclear weapons.

There are eight countries acknowledged to be nuclear powers, five of which having signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The five signatories are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Three additional countries, which are not signatories to the treaty, have admitted to testing and possession nuclear weapons: India, North Korea and Pakistan.

Overall, 191 countries are party to the treaty, including Iran but not Israel.

In New York on Monday, 153 countries called exclusively on Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and renounce its weapons in the resolution titled, “The Risk of Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East.”

Today began the Sixth International Conference of the Union of Resistance Scholars in Beirut. This year's theme is “The nation’s uprising in the face of normalization plots and liquidation projects."

In short, it is a conference for giving Islamic support for Palestinians killing Jews.

Speakers include:

Sheikh Naim Qassem, Deputy Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah

The Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad, Ziyad Al-Nakhalah

Member of the political bureau of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahhar

Mufti of Syria

Sheikh Jawad Riad from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif from Egypt

Head of the Sunni Endowment in Iraq

The keynote speaker was the President of the International Federation of Resistance Scholars, Sheikh Maher Hammoud, He said, "We must condemn all forms of normalization, since normalization was produced by sick souls, stupid minds, and client regimes."

The head of Islamic Jihad railed against the Arabs who are normalizing relations with Israel, saying that this is the culmination of a Western plot since World War I to embed Jews in the region, attacking fFrom Palestine to Yemen, to Iraq and Syria, to Afghanistan, with American-Zionist weapons."

Qassem from Hezbollah said, "Israel is an obstacle to the development and stability of the region, carrying a history and present full of crimes, murder, chaos and sabotage; the region and the world can not stabilize ass long as Israel exists. We are getting stronger and better equipped in Lebanon, Palestine and the region to achieve a balance of deterrence , which believes in defense and victory, We will work with all our strength to be stronger militarily, materially, politically and in the media."

Hamas' Zahar said, "There are clear indications for the liberation battle ... that we are on a date with a new revolution and the fall of the Zionist entity."

They seem very concerned over losing the unanimous support of the Arab world. In the end, only Iran and its satellites will be fully supportive of them - for the price of becoming Iranian proxies. Islamic Jihad is almost there, Hamas a little further, but the way things are going, the Palestinian Authority could go in that direction as well.

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Palestinianism is an antisemitic endeavor

An anti-Israel Canadian group, "Independent Jewish Voices," published a series of memes to "prove" that "Israel is a racist endeavor," in an attempt to disprove the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism which uses that phrase as an example of antisemitism.

Their examples are ridiculous, but instead of arguing and putting ourselves on the defensive, I decided to use their own rules as to what "proves" that Zionism is racism to prove that Palestinian nationalism, or Palestinianism, has been suffused with antisemitism since it began.

I very quickly found 16 examples, and I'm sure I can find hundreds more. But these should make the point.

Feel free to tweet these and use them liberally.

To be clear, I am not saying that all supporters of Palestine are antisemites. I am using the rules that IJV came up with to show that by their own logic, Palestinian nationalism is antisemitism.

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There were lots of articles about the blunt (and bizarre) criticism that Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud hurled at Israel at the IISS Manama Dialogues over the weekend:. Here's AP's:

A prominent Saudi prince harshly criticized Israel on Sunday at a Bahrain security summit that was remotely attended by Israel’s foreign minister, showing the challenges any further deals between Arab states and Israel face in the absence of an independent Palestinian state.

The fiery remarks by Prince Turki al-Faisal at the Manama Dialogue appeared to catch Israel’s foreign minister off guard, particularly as Israelis receive warm welcomes from officials in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates following agreements to normalize ties.

Prince Turki opened his remarks by contrasting what he described as Israel’s perception of being “peace-loving upholders of high moral principles” versus what he described as a far-darker Palestinian reality of living under a “Western colonizing” power.

Israel has “incarcerated (Palestinians) in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice,” Prince Turki said. “They are demolishing homes as they wish and they assassinate whomever they want.”

The prince also criticized Israel’s undeclared arsenal of nuclear weapons and Israeli governments “unleashing their political minions and their media outlets from other countries to denigrate and demonize Saudi Arabia.”

There are two important points that the media is ignoring.

One is the blatant antisemitism in Prince Turki's remarks.

Saying that Israel is incarcerating Palestinians in concentration camps is directly comparing Israel to Nazis, and the only reason to use that language is to deliberately hurt the feelings of Jews.

And what concentration camps is he talking about? The only camps in the Middle East are the ones set up by Arab nations to keep Palestine "refugees" in misery. Lebanon has one large one that is literally surrounded by a wall with watchtowers.

Yet his antisemitism doesn't end there: he is implying that Jews control the media and the politics of other countries besides Israel, "unleashing their political minions and their media outlets from other countries to denigrate and demonize Saudi Arabia."

What is even stranger is that Saudi Arabia's most strident critics are generally Israel's biggest critics, too. There is plenty to criticize in Saudi Arabia - its human rights record is horrendous - but the criticism comes from NGOs like Human Rights Watch. So not only are Turki's charges about "concentration camps" and Israeli control of the media antisemitic, they are fictional.

I have not seen any media outlet point this out, which seems like a basic journalistic task.

The second point that no one is making about the conference is that even with the Saudi barbs, here was a conference attended by countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan - with Israel.

As far as I can tell, Israel didn't attend last year's conference, because many Arab nations would have walked out if it did. This year saw not only an Israeli delegation but a speaker as well, Gabi Ashkenazi.

If Saudi Arabia can verbally attack Israel at a conference like this without resorting to antisemitic tropes, that's fine. At least Israel is now considered a part of the Middle East. Friends can and do argue. The bigger story is not Saudi criticism of Israel but that Saudi Arabia and Israel were talking with each other, publicly - something that not long ago would have been unthinkable.

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UAE to import Israeli goods from Judea and Samaria

The good news keeps getting better and better:

Settler companies that produce wine, tahini, olive oil and honey have signed a deal with the Dubai distribution company FAM Holding, to export their products to the United Arab Emirates, the Samaria Regional Council announced on Monday.

Israeli companies have signed agreements with the Emirates even before a normalization deal was signed between their two governments in September and ratified in October.

But Monday’s agreements mark the first such agreement to export settler goods to the UAE.

FAM Holding is in talks with other Israeli companies and is excited to sign deals to expand the business cooperation between the two countries, he said.

Among the wineries that signed deals to export to the UAE are Tura Winery, the Har Bracha Winery and the Arnon Winery, as well as Paradise Honey.

This is like a dream.

And it isn't like the UAE hates Palestinians. As I noted earlier, the UAE was working with Israel to import the Russian COVID-19 vaccine into the PA-controlled areas.

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12/07 Links Pt2: ‘Goodbye to Hannukah,’ Says a Headline in the Post-Judaism New York Times; NYT and CNN Pundit Defends Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Genocidal Tweet

From Ian:

‘Goodbye to Hannukah,’ Says a Headline in the Post-Judaism New York Times

The author, Sarah Prager, explains that she celebrated Chanukah as a child because her father was Jewish. “Each of those eight nights we’d recite the Hebrew prayer about God while lighting the menorah. We memorized the syllables and repeated them, but they had no meaning to us and my parents didn’t expect, or want, us to believe what we were reciting.”

The Times article goes on “I married a woman who was raised Catholic but who, like my parents, had left her family religion as an adult. She and I are part of America’s ever-growing ‘nones’ with no religious affiliation at all. Before we had kids, we imagined we’d choose a religion to raise them in, maybe Unitarian Universalism or even Reform Judaism. But when our first child was born four years ago, we realized that going to any house of worship and following a religion just for our children to feel a connection to something wouldn’t be authentic. We couldn’t teach them to believe in anything we didn’t believe in ourselves.”

Though she claims she is “none,” her family actually slides into the Christian dominant culture: “our two daughters will celebrate Christmas and Easter because that’s what my extended family still celebrates.”

The article says the author respects tradition. “I respect the incredible value of keeping traditions alive, especially those that centuries of persecution have sought to erase. But while I have more of a connection to Judaism than some, I am not Jewish and it doesn’t feel authentic to celebrate a Jewish holiday religiously. My kids may end up playing dreidel sometimes, but they won’t learn the prayer that begins Baruch atah Adonai, sacred words that are nonetheless empty to them,” the Times article says. “Discontinuing my family’s Hanukkah celebration fits right in with our family’s tradition of bucking tradition.”

The article was met with scorn by Jewish readers. “Oh, is it NYT publishes thin, uninformed, somewhat self-hating article on Chanukah o’clock again? I can’t even look,” tweeted Rabbi Jill Jacobs.

Rabbi Marisa Elana James tweeted, “It is an INTERESTING choice for the NYT to publish a piece ostensibly about Hanukkah where 2/3 of the way in the author writes ‘I’m not Jewish.’ Just one piece on Hanukkah by someone who is Jewish and *likes* being Jewish would be great!”

Arsen Ostrovsky wrote, “Of all the essays @nytimes could publish for #Chanukah, they chose this by @Sarah_Prager , who does not even identify as Jewish, about why she’s choosing not to celebrate this beautiful holiday. Could the NYT have any more contempt for the Jewish people?”

NYT and CNN Pundit Defends Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s Genocidal Tweet

Where openly anti-Israel rhetoric is aired by woke politicians, media elites all too often are close behind to follow up and justify their words.

Instead of criticizing the invocation of a notorious dog-whistle calling for the destruction of Israel, CNN pundit and New York Times contributing opinion writer Peter Beinart last week defended it.

The call “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has long been understood as a euphemism for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. So when Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) retweeted a social media post, those words were met with strong opposition from many Jews and Israelis.

The Democratic Majority tweeted, “@RashidaTlaib is not just opposed to Israeli control of the West Bank — this slogan means she sees the entire State of Israel as illegitimate and wants it eliminated. That’s an immoral and reprehensible position.”

In response, Beinart used his public position to espouse the spurious perspective that this call for the destruction of Israel actually means something else entirely: the establishment of a state in which Jews and Palestinians would live equally.

“@RashidaTlaib supports 1 state where Jews + Palestinians live equally, under the same law. Why is that less moral that the current 1 state: Where millions of Palestinians lack citizenship, due process, free movement + the right to vote for the govt that controls their lives?” Beinart opined.

Logic by Rashida Tlaib 👉🏻 RT a blood libel against Jews without doing any research on the subject.

Again this is a sitting U.S. Congresswoman throwing Jews under the bus AT EVERY TURN. pic.twitter.com/6Fld533n28
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) December 6, 2020

According to this article, 157 Palestinians are still incarcerated in Israel– only 18 of them under the age of 16.

In America, around 21,000 Black children are in prison.

Stop co-opting causes like BLM when there is so much work to be done. https://t.co/QlF2TXXdGi
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 6, 2020

From the New York Times, December 15, 1929:

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The New Arab quotes anonymous sources that Hanan Ashrawi , a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, submitted her resignation a few days ago to President Mahmoud Abbas .

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "President Mahmoud Abbas has not yet responded to the resignation by rejecting or accepting it."

According to the report, Ashrawi is angry that the Palestinian Authority has restored its relations with Israel last month..

There was no comment from Ashrawi.

This seems to be the same sort of resignation theatre that Mahmoud Abbas likes to do, and that Saeb Erekat had engaged in himself, to make a dramatic threat which in the end does not happen.

But isn't it interesting that the "moderate" Ashrawi, darling of international news networks, is against the idea of the PA even talking to Israel?

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12/07 Links Pt1: Dore Gold in Bahrain: "Abraham Accords a Whole New Paradigm for Diplomats"; Plagued by intelligence failures, Iranian security apparatuses aim to clean house

From Ian:

It's a Mistake to Go Back to the JCPOA

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed by Michael Doran, Dec. 3, 2020 (Hudson Institute)

Netanyahu: Jews have been fighting for our place under the sun for almost four millennia. And we haven't made this extraordinary odyssey for it to end by a whim of ayatollahs who are ideologically committed to destroy us. That's not something that an Israeli leadership should sit by and allow to happen.

Some Arab leaders have come to realize, especially in the last decade, that Israel, far from being their enemy, was their indispensable ally in securing stability, peace and prosperity in the Middle East. Some of them say so fairly openly, most of them say so quietly.

They're concerned with Islamic radicalism of a Shiite or a Sunni variety. They're concerned with developing their economies for the betterment of their peoples. They're concerned with countering Iran's aggression and terrorism, which is spread all over the area. And they see Israel as the power in the area that is willing to stand up, and often speak up, for something that they all agree with.

Far from blocking Iran's path to the bomb, the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) paved its way with gold, literally, with an enormous amount of money that was put into Iran's coffers. They promptly used it to fund an unbelievable campaign of conquest. Right after the JCPOA, you see them expanding into Iraq, into Yemen, into Iraq, seeking to establish military bases in Syria, supporting Hizbullah with greater funds, supporting the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

If the idea was this tiger will be tamed, in fact, what the JCPOA did was to open the gates of the cage and let the tiger loose to a campaign of plunder and conquest that was threatening to overrun the Middle East in horrible ways.

Iran with nuclear weapons is a very dangerous thing for the United States. It's developing ICBMs which it wants to tip with a nuclear payload (because you don't use ICBMs for anything else) to reach America. You say that's not a real problem? Well, take North Korea, a smaller country that has a fraction of Iran's GDP. You understand what the arming of North Korea with ICBMs and nuclear weapons means to the United States. Iran is many times more dangerous than North Korea because it has a radical ideology. It chants death to America, death to Israel. They mean it.

We have peace breaking out now. And I think the United States has a vested interest to expand that peace, to support those countries that seek to broaden the circle of peace, and to constrain or roll back Iran and its proxies that seek to bring us back to a violent medievalism. The fact that we're willing to stand up and protect ourselves, but thereby also protect the neighborhood, our allies in peace, I think is a vital interest of the United States.

Dore Gold in Bahrain: "Abraham Accords a Whole New Paradigm for Diplomats"

- Amb. Dore Gold interviewed by Omar Shariff

At the 2020 Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Israeli diplomat Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said, "The Abraham Accords represented a whole new paradigm for diplomats. It gave the Arab states the freedom to make peace with Israel, while not denying the Palestinians the right to join the process when they are ready. This new structure will make peace more likely."

"Senior leadership in the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards and even more importantly the senior religious leadership in Qom have spoken about the need 'to wipe Israel off the map.' You cannot wipe a country off the map without physically destroying its population. Among polite company we call that genocide." (Gulf News-Dubai)

See also Questions for Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal - Amb. Dore Gold Amb. Dore Gold asked Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal a number of questions at the 2020 IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Sunday:

"Do we want to be caught up in the accusations of the past, many of which are false, or do we want to present the young generation in the Middle East with a positive vision and really give leadership for a better future?...Do you, Prince Turki al-Faisal, think we have something to learn from each other...with respect to the challenge Israel has faced from the north, from Hizbullah, since the early 1980s, and the challenge you face from the south, from the Houthi militants?"

Plagued by intelligence failures, Iranian security apparatuses aim to clean house

Hossein Shariatmadari, Kayhan's editor-in-chief and Khamenei's representative, directed an editorial (Nov. 28) at Iran's leaders: "How can the Zionist regime, which is on the brink of decay today and surrounded by resistance forces on all sides, so easily murder our nuclear scientists?!"

He added, "Today, all the attention of the Iranian people and the Iranian regime must be focused on two targets: the first, the harsh retaliation against the criminal Zionists that will make them regret, and the second is identifying internal elements and possible infiltrators of the enemy into Iran's intelligence security systems."

Shariatmadari also called for "attacking the important port city of Haifa, destroying the strategic facilities, and causing heavy human casualties" to reach a "real deterrent point." Dr. Sadollah Zarei, an Iranian scholar and political analyst, wrote in Kayhan that Iran's reaction to suspected Israeli airstrikes that killed IRGC forces in Syria wasn't enough to deter Israel, while "striking Haifa … will definitely lead to deterrence because the United States and Israel are not ready to participate in a war and a military confrontation."

In Iran, the dilemma is growing with regard to how and where to respond to Fakhrizadeh's assassination, and how far to stretch the regime's restraint. So far, Iran has not responded as it is "required" to by the threats it issued following the deaths of Hezbollah international operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, Soleimani, operatives associated with Hezbollah's precision missile program, IRGC personnel in Syria, important figures among the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, and others.

It is possible that Iran will continue its policy of restraint and choose to strike "easier" targets that are allied to the United States and Israel, such as the oil facilities and strategic infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Such an attack took place on Sept. 19, 2019, with precision cruise missiles hitting the Saudi oil processing facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais.

In this regard, on Nov. 23, the Iranian Mehr news agency broadcast a video of an Aramco oil distribution site in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, being hit by Quds-2 missiles launched by the Houthis in Yemen. Iran could be waiting for the new US administration, which might limit Israel's aggressive activities while negotiations are in the offing and test Israel-American relations, which reached new heights during Trump's presidency.

With the long-range missile attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais and periodic Houthi missile launches against strategic targets in Saudi Arabia, Iran demonstrated that it has the operational know-how to launch surprise attacks on strategic sites, including in Israel, with stealthy, precision cruise missiles.

One way or another, Iran must conduct a thorough house-cleaning in response to the repeated infiltrations and attacks on its security and intelligence establishments. These recurring intelligence operations have targeted Iran's scientists, nuclear infrastructure (such as the explosion in the Natanz enrichment facility in July 2020) and sometimes its electricity and oil facilities. As it has in the past, the regime will publicize over the next few weeks and in the run-up to presidential elections the arrests of people ostensibly involved in the attacks and espionage, so that it may salvage some of its honor among the Iranian people, who are exposed to details of the calamities via social media, international reports and the joyful Iranian opposition.

These sorts of things happen often, but it is a good reminder that Israel isn't at all the pariah state that BDS wants to make it into.

British and Israeli military leaders have signed a joint agreement to strengthen their cooperation in a range of areas, in a move heralded by diplomats.

Much of the detail of the agreement is classified but it is thought to cover areas of warfare such as maritime, land, air, space, and cyber and electromagnetic.

UK Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said he was “delighted” to announce that Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Sir Nicholas Carter and the IDF’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi had agreed “to further deepen our military co-operation”.

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The British Army already deploys Israeli drones over theatres of war and last year a senior UK said the two countries had a “first-order partnership” in cyber security.

Analysts suspect that a driving force behind this week’s announcement is the UK’s desire to transition to a digital military, potentially using Israeli-designed platforms.

BICOM adds a history of Israel/British military cooperation over the past decade:

Both militaries share a commitment to improving and integrating their multi-domain capabilities in maritime, land, air, space, and cyber and electromagnetic.
They share similar interests in the region. While Israel feels the Iranian threat far more acutely due to its relative geographic proximity, both countries wish to prevent Iran achieving a nuclear capability, curb its advanced ballistic missile programme and counter Iranian proxies, particularly in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the shipping lanes of the Gulf.
In 2019, the UK deployed naval assets to ensure free shipping in the Gulf, while the UK is also working to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national who has been detained in Iran since April 2016 after being convicted of espionage.
The also share concerns against radical Islamist terrorism, with emphasis in recent years on the Islamic State, a mutual priority.
British financial and military support to Jordan is also a common interest, with the stability of the Hashemite Kingdom viewed as a strategic priority by Israel, which it shares its longest border with. The military and intelligence services of both Israel and Jordan cooperate closely against mutual threats of Islamist terrorism and Iranian encroachment.
In February 2019, the UK government designated all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Israel would, however, like to see more pressure on the Lebanese government to stop the deployment of Hezbollah personnel in southern Lebanon and the build-up of its missile arsenal in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
In July 2019, the Telegraph reported that the Metropolitan Police and MI5 uncovered a Hezbollah bomb plot in North London in 2015, just months before the UK signed the JCPOA nuclear agreement. Police discovered three tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored inside disposable ice packs when they raided four properties in north-west London, arresting a man on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The discovery of the bomb plot was reportedly assisted by information from Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad.
There is also significant cooperation between the two countries in cyber security, described by a senior UK official last year as a “first-order partnership”. Israel is widely recognised for its unique innovation ecosystem, with close interaction between government, military, academia and industry – a model which the UK has sought to emulate.
Since 2010, the two countries have cooperated on the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) through the Watchkeeper programme, which has been deployed by British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The British Army hopes to learn from the Israeli experience as it transitions to a more digital army. According to a report by Seth Frantzman in The National Interest, in October the British were given access to Israeli-based Elbit Systems' “Rhino mobile headquarters”. It uses advanced digital technology to link together units in the field and commanders with the best information possible to help achieve results on the battlefield. The British Army said the system helps to “reduce the size of the headquarters, makes it less vulnerable and able to make and communicate decisions faster.” Elbit has worked with the UK for years on other applications, such as battle management systems.

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Harvard University's Divinity School includes biographies of its faculty and fellows on its website.

The biography of Rami Younis, who was a Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative Fellow in the 2019–⁠20 session, says, "He is one of the founders of the Palestinian activist group Khotweh, which was active on the issues of home demolitions and Palestinian identity in Lyd and Ramleh, mixed Jewish-Arab cities in occupied Palestine. "

Of course, Lod and Ramle are Israeli cities, well within the Green Line and not in the territories. This article on Harvard's website is saying that all of Israel is illegitimate.

Younis also refers to "Palestinian member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi," effectively saying that all Arab citizens of Israel are Palestinian - with the implication that all Jews in Israel are thieves.

No doubt Younis himself wrote his bio, and Harvard published it without any editing - because who would even think that an academic would use his biography to delegitimize an entire nation?

But Palestinians routinely use any and every means for anti-Israel propaganda.

And at this moment, Harvard is complicit in spreading lies.

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AFP reports that a mob blocked the route of a UNIFIL convoy in southern Lebanon on Friday.

The UN forces issued a statement saying that "a large group of civilians... dispossessed the UNIFIL patrol of items and equipment," without specifying what equipment was taken.

The Lebanese Army had to come in to extricate the UNIFIL forces, but their equipment was not returned.

This was not a spontaneous, popular action. Hezbollah controls the area and the population. This was orchestrated by Hezbollah, possibly to send a message to UNIFIL as to who is really in charge.

Not to mention that this way, Hezbollah gets free equipment upplied by the United Nations without the UN issuing a peep of protest.

The UNIFIL website does not have any news about this.

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