MEMRI: Palestinian President 'Abbas Meets With Terrorists And Terrorists' Families
Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas met recently with Palestinians who carried out terrorist attacks and with the family of a terrorist. On March 5, 2017 he received in his office in Ramallah the family of Muhammad Al-Jallad, who died of his wounds after being shot while attempting to carry out a stabbing attack at a checkpoint in November 2016. 'Abbas also met with 14-year-old Osama Zaidat, who was shot while attempting to stab civilians in Kiryat Arba in September 2016 and who was recently released from detention, as well as with 'Imad 'Asaf, a member of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who took part in the Second Intifada in 2000 and was recently released from prison.MEMRI: The Western Plot To Treat Muslims As Dangerous Children
In one of the meetings 'Abbas said: "The aggression of Israel's arrest and murder [of Palestinians] will not keep the Palestinian people from adhering to its well-deserved rights and from establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital... The Palestinian leadership will make every effort to end the suffering of our heroic brothers and release them from the occupation's prisons so they can take part in building the homeland for which they sacrificed."
It should be noted that 'Abbas often stresses the importance he ascribes to freeing the prisoners and emphasizes that the Palestinian leadership is making every effort to secure their release. For example, at an August 8, 2017 reception in Ramallah for the released prisoner Shadi Al-Baba of the Al-Qassam Brigades, he said: "The issue of the prisoners will continue to be a top priority for the [Palestinian] leadership, [which will act] to free all the prisoners and detainees. He made similar remarks in a December 28, 2017 meeting with Muhammad and Mahmoud Balboul, who were released from administrative detention following a 28-day hunger strike. At the Seventh Fatah Conference on December 1, 2016, he praised the Palestinian prisoners, especially senior Fatah and Popular Front operatives who were behind terrorist attacks, including the assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Zeevi, saying: "We remember the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners and their record... We salute our brave prisoners and respect them. We will not forget our fighting comrades Marwan Al-Baghgouti, Ahmad Sa'dat and Fouad Shubaki, or [our] glorious woman prisoners."
One of the bizarre features of today's academic life in the West is the treatment of young adult college students as children. And not just any children, but fragile, delicate creatures who are easily upset by disconcerting ideas or words. The disparaging word "snowflake," originally taken from a Chuck Palahniuk novel, which is used to describe these sensitive people has itself now quickly become an outworn cliché.Caroline Glick: Avigdor Liberman vs. Israeli democracy
This exaggerated care for the exquisite feelings of others has now even bled into the field of counterterrorism among a few experts, and among rather more non-expert journalists and pundits positing variations on the theme of "Trump is helping ISIS" or "Trump's policies will help ISIS's recruitment." Some of those making such an argument are important scholars worthy of respect. But used permissively by others with a political agenda, it actually demeans Muslims, as if they are easily swayed yet dangerous children susceptible to becoming terrorists because of immigration policy or harsh words that supposedly hurt their feelings.
Lacking in much of this coverage is the realization that the process of actual terrorist mobilization is a rather complex one. Any honest person with even a superficial exposure to the research would caveat any sort of sweeping charge with a bit of humility. After all, the great rise of the Islamic State itself and its explosive growth in 2013-2015 occurred with a Democrat in the White House and a Socialist in the Elysee Palace. And even earlier, the announcement of an organization called Al-Qaeda, and its first spectacular acts of mayhem, preceded Guantanamo or the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the rise of right-wing populism in the West. Al-Qaeda meticulously planned 9/11 in the era of President Bill Clinton – which should give us pause about glib claims of causality.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman is in over his head.Ben-Dror Yemini: Israeli rightists can stop celebrating
Few had high hopes for Liberman when he was appointed to his post, but most observers on the political Right were willing to swallow the pill of having a man with an understanding of military and strategic affairs that began and ended with applause lines because his appointment solved two pressing political problems.
Liberman’s appointment to serve as defense minister brought his Yisrael Beitenu party into the government, which increased the size of the coalition from its razor-thin 61-seat majority to a more healthy 66 seats. Moreover, by appointing him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was able to remove Moshe Ya’alon from the Defense Ministry. Ya’alon had become unacceptable to Likud voters due to his rush to convict IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria as guilty of criminal wrongdoing last March when Azaria killed a downed terrorist who had stabbed a fellow soldier in Hebron.
Monday morning Liberman showed that concerns about his suitability for his position were spot on.
Speaking to reporters at the Knesset, Liberman said that growing discussion among leading members of the coalition about applying Israeli law to parts of Judea and Samaria must stop.
“Anyone who wants to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria needs to understand that such a step will bring immediate repercussions from the new US government,” Liberman alleged.
He added, “We received a direct – not indirect – message: ‘Apply sovereignty and you will be cutting ties with the new administration.”
Liberman’s statement was both ignorant and damaging.
Op-ed: Defense Minister Lieberman’s statement, which was likely coordinated with Prime Minister Netanyahu, makes it clear that even the Trump administration is beginning to understand the catastrophe of the ‘one state’ vision.
Lieberman did not say that as an instantaneous whim. He knew what he was saying and why, and he wasn’t speaking on his own behalf alone. He was speaking on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behalf as well, and the statement was likely coordinated between them. Netanyahu does not always favor the national interest over the political interest, but it happens sometimes, even if through a messenger. And it’s a good thing when that happens.
There is something unfortunate in the fact that Israel needs the American administration in order to protect itself from the fulfillers of the nightmarish “one state” vision, and there is no comfort in the fact that the Right is fulfilling the vision of Israel’s enemies. The common lie is that “that’s what the people chose.” That’s not true. There is no majority among the public or in the Knesset in favor of marching towards one state. That is neither the vision of the Kulanu party nor of the ultra-Orthodox parties, and it’s not Lieberman’s vision either.
And one more thing. The two-state solution is not on the agenda due to the Palestinian rejectionism. But it’s even more clear that the fact that the Palestinians are rejecting the two-state-for-two-people formula should not lead to the conclusion that we have to do what they want—in other words, one state. The American administration, it seems, is beginning to understand that. We can calm down.