Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 04, 2018

The Three Boys and a Judge Who Should Have Recused Herself (Judean Rose)

The parents of Naftali Fraenkl asked the courts to reconsider the ridiculously low penalty imposed on Syria and Iran for the kidnapping and murder of their child, a dual American Israeli citizen. Naftali was abducted and murdered along with Eyal Yifrach and Gil-Ad Sha’ar in 2014, as the three were on their way to school. Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer refused their plea, on the grounds that the Fraenkl family lives over the Green Line. Her verdict sets the compensation to $4.1m, though the plaintiffs had requested $340m, an amount comparable to awards in other, similar such lawsuits.

"The Plaintiffs took upon themselves the risks of living in a community built beyond the Green Line in Israel, and sending Naftali Fraenkel another 40 kilometers into the West Bank to a high school in Gush Etzion, 6 kilometers from the city of Hevron," wrote Collyer in her decision.

In other words, Collyer is blaming (and punishing) the victim. Or rather, she’s not blaming and punishing the victim, but the victim’s parents. Sure Syria and Iran are bad. But he got it, Naftali, because his parents are settlers. It’s their fault he’s dead.

Now, based on her decision, one might conclude that Collyer’s thinking runs along these lines: Settlers are bad and need to be punished. Not only to have their kids killed by terrorists but to be hit in the wallet in a big way, as well.

So, according to Collyer, not only do the Fraenkls deserve this thing: the abduction, murder, and mutilation of their son, they need to be punished for living where they do. Lucky for Collyer, the power to punish was in her hands. She made sure the Fraenkls lost out on a big ass financial settlement. Because of where the Fraenkls live and because of where they chose to send their child to school.

Now in saying so, saying that it’s the Fraenkl’s own fault their teenage son was brutalized and murdered, because of where they live, Collyer is betraying a political bias. Because there is no legal consideration to be made here. The Fraenkls have broken no law living where they do, sending their child to school where they did. There is no law on the books, international or otherwise, that says Jews can’t live, build houses in, or go to school in Judea and Samaria.

Since there is no legal impediment for the Fraenkls to live where they do or for their son to attend school where he did, Collyer’s decision is not based on the law, but on her personal political bias. Perhaps Collyer has heard people speak of “illegal settlements” or call settlers an “obstacle” to peace. But there’s no legal basis backing either of these statements or concepts. These ideas are simply not founded in the law and as such are mere propaganda.

Having betrayed a political bias, it is clear that Collyer had a duty to recuse herself from this case.

In fact, the last person who should have ruled on this case was someone like Collyer who appears to believe that Jews have no right to live in their indigenous territory. The word “believe” is important here, since there is no legal basis to this idea. It’s simply Collyer’s personal prejudice.

Not that it matters, but Collyer probably thinks that Jews should live in safer places (Germany, perhaps? Poland?)

Or rather, like Helen Thomas before her, she doesn’t really give a damn where Jews live, as long as they aren’t on “Palestinian” land. (Because she’s obviously never read a bible or a history book.)

Nice to know the judiciary is so well read. And so morally upstanding.

UPDATE: The Fraenkls appealed the decision and the decision has been reversed in part and remanded back to Collyer to decide anew: (see: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/17-7100/17-7100-2018-06-08.html)

"The District Court [found] that the location of the Fraenkels' home, Naftali's school, and the site of the abduction indicated that Naftali and his family had "accepted the risk" of terrorist attacks. Based on these considerations, the District Court awarded solatium damages to Naftali's family members that were lower than the amounts awarded to the plaintiffs in Gates.

"The Fraenkels claim that the District Court abused its discretion in awarding solatium damages because the court's judgment was based on impermissible consderations and clearly erroneous findings of fact. We agree.

"For the reasons explained below, we reverse the District Court's judgment on the solatium damages awards and remand for further consideration."

h/t IsaacStorm

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Preschool Teacher Censured For Missing Quota Of Crap To Send Home With Kids (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Jerusalem, July 4 - A nursery school educator in the Nahalat Ahim neighborhood of the capital faces disciplinary action this week following a period in which she failed to send the children home with the mandated minimum quantity of kitsch, crafts, and assorted other debris, Ministry of Education sources reported today.

Ministry spokeswoman Inda Boydem told reporters that the teacher, whose name has not been released, missed the monthly average of six kilograms of trash in the guise of crafts and souvenirs that preschool teachers must by law distribute each month to each child to take home. Upon end-of-year review, noted Ms. Boydem, the educator in question was discovered to have met the six-kilo threshold only three times, and failing to crack even the four-kilo mark in April.

"This is a rare instance of consistent failure that we will address in no uncertain terms," she promised. "The guidelines on this matter have never been clearer: each child registered for the preschool for ages three and four must be given no less than six kilos per month of drawings, collages, finger paintings, pinwheels, birthday surprises, ugly picture frames, flags, and other bric-a-brack. Unless those quotas are met, parents will be confronted with the prospect of having usable space in their homes, and that would be a disaster."

Ministry Superintendent for Preschool Education Onda Frijj explained the importance of the materials. "The Ministry of Education has several primary purposes, one of which has always been inconveniencing Israeli families," she commented. "In extreme cases that involves having nationwide strikes so parents must scramble to find arrangements for their school-aged children, but the everyday fulfillment of that purpose attracts far less media attention. From keeping school hours that force parents to miss work to pick up and care for their children in the afternoon, to a system that seldom gets into gear before two months into the school year, to making sure parents must find a place for tons of crap their kids have 'made' or received at some party, lest junior throw a tantrum at seeing the crap chucked in the garbage, there are countless daily inconveniences our educators must foist on parents, and adherence to the mandated minimums is what ensures the foisting remains at appropriate levels."

Ms. Frijj observed that the low April figure also stems from the two weeks each year schools are closed for the seven-day Passover break, but that in general, teachers generally make up for those lost weeks by doubling or tripling the quantity of crap sent home in the two weeks preceding the Passover break.

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07/04 Links Pt1: Foiled Iranian bomb plot overshadows Tehran’s European charm offensive; PA TV: Your fetus will be a “Martyr for Palestine”; Israel Wishes USA a Happy Birthday!

From Ian:

Seth J. Frantzman: Foiled Iranian bomb plot overshadows Tehran’s European charm offensive

On the eve of a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Europe, two suspects in Belgium were detained and charged with preparing a terrorist attack. A diplomat from the Iranian Embassy in Austria was arrested in Germany.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed the arrests were part of a “sinister false flag ploy,” and designed to sabotage Iran’s attempt to court Europe to stick with the Iran Deal.

However, the arrests will overshadow Tehran’s attempts to court European countries as the US pushes sanctions.

The arrest of terror plotters in Europe comes amid increasing pressure on the Iranian regime. Tehran has faced more than a week of protests that cap more than six months of unrest in Iran.

"We strongly condemn the Iranian regime's support for terrorism which clearly continues to threaten out European allies. The recently announced US sanctions on Iran are designed specifically to stop this kind of destabilizing activity," US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said in reaction to the arrests.

Experts: Iran set up terrorist infrastructure in Europe

Iran has set up terrorist and intelligence ‎infrastructure across Europe with aim of ‎assassinating exiled Iranian dissidents and moderate ‎Arab leaders, particularly those whose countries ‎rival Iran in the Persian Gulf, intelligence experts ‎told Israel Hayom Tuesday.‎

According to both Israeli and foreign intelligence ‎experts, the vast Iranian infrastructure was set up ‎to serve the Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite black-‎ops arm, the Quds Force. ‎

One foreign intelligence official said that a prominent Arab ‎leader had recently canceled a visit to Europe ‎following solid information suggesting that an ‎Iranian terrorist cell was planning to assassinate ‎him.‎

Belgian authorities announced Monday that they have ‎exposed extensive infrastructure deployed by the ‎Quds Force and Iranian intelligence. Three people ‎were arrested, including an Iranian diplomat, on ‎suspicion of plotting to bomb a meeting of an exiled ‎‎Iranian opposition group in France.‎

The IntelliTimes intelligence blog said Tuesday that ‎former Prime Minister Ehud Barak was also in Paris ‎during that time. ‎

PMW: PA TV to pregnant Palestinians: Your fetus will be a “Martyr for Palestine”

Pregnant mothers all over the world are busy imagining the future of their unborn child and wishing him/her the best. The Palestinian Authority is promoting a song lately in which mothers are taught to see their unborn fetus as a future “Martyr for Palestine.” The song has been broadcast on official PA radio, Fatah’s Awdah TV, and now official PA TV.

“Our Martyrs are convoys and our bones are mountains
We don’t surrender to the lowly
We aren't deterred by imprisonment
Palestine is etched on the heart of the fetus
A proud Martyr in his mother’s womb
And the Arab state will remain ours - Arab, Arab Palestine...
We [hold] the rifles to our chests and our eyes are raised to you
Our homes are trenches and our souls are the sacrifice for you
O Jerusalem, you will not remain stolen.”
[Official PA TV, June 19 and 26, 2018]

“Martyrs” (Shahids) are those who die for Allah. “Martyrdom” has been presented by the PA as the most honorable status achievable in Islam.

Palestinian Media Watch reported when this song appeared on PA radio together with five other songs all encouraging "Martyrdom."

The “from fetus to Martyr” image has been used in the past by the PA and Hamas. When a Palestinian terrorist murderer, Yasser Hamdouni, collapsed while exercising in an Israeli prison in 2016, PA District Governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam comforted his mother, using the image:

Text on image: “You carried him in your womb as a fetus to be separated from him as he is raised over your head as a Martyr (Shahid).
How long the separation, [due to] the jailer, and how you dreamed of embracing him in peace and security, and God’s decree arrived, and he left the grip of the jailer so that you will accompany him as a groom to Paradise (i.e., Martyr's funeral is considered wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam).”
[Facebook page of District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam, Sept. 27, 2016]

By Forest Rain Marcia

Have you ever imagined what it is like to be a farmer?

Any farmer is connected to their land in ways city-folk have a hard time understanding. You feel the rhythm of the land, when it needs to rest and when it is ready to bring forth new life.

There is something magical about communing with the land, being in partnership so that through your sweat and her nourishment you give birth to new growth that will give life to others.

The Jewish farmer in Zion has an even deeper union with the land.

It’s a 3000 year old love story consummated every time he or she goes to work, plants new seeds, waters the lands. It is biblical prophecy fulfilled when he or she walks the land, making it bloom once more.

The land (particularly that in the Gaza area) was dormant, empty. Waiting. When her lover come back she burst into bloom, producing rich fruit, vegetables, anything and everything that could be desired, in thanks, in gratitude for, once again being loved.

The Jewish farmer doesn’t have to consciously think about how the relationship with the land makes him (or her) a more complete Jew. It happens with every breath, with every effort, with the glorious harvest after a year’s labor of love.

And then, in an instant, it’s all ruined.

Melon field, Nahal Oz by Kfir Sivan

One kite, such an innocuous thing, a child’s toy, turned into a weapon, a firebomb burns away a year of love. You aren’t hearing about these attacks on the news. To others this is a non-story – Jews under fire, literally, day after day after day.

Acres of land going up in flames, crops ruined, wildlife burned alive. Greenhouses burnt to the ground, homes drenched in smoke, poisoned air…

This is something else, only the Jewish farmer experiences – people enraged that the land is once again taking part on the centuries old love story that has nothing to do with them. People so full of hate they are willing to burn farmer and land together, just so that no one will benefit.

This is what is happening in Israel now.

Take a look at this field of melons by Nahal Oz. Melons in their prime, ripe and ready to be harvested. Their juice should now be bursting in the mouths of the people they were destined to nourish, their sweetness sliding down throats of people who appreciate this produce of the land.

Instead they lie, burned in ruin. The land that gave them life is now a grave instead of a mother. The farmer that loved them, raised them to be all that they could be, counted on them for the sweet life they would give him is left with bitter tears.

When you hear of kite bombs think of these melons.

Think of their farmer.

Think of this land.

2000 years of yearning, 70 years of hard work, investment of love and labor, livelihood of individuals, food for a nation. THAT is what is under attack.

It won’t work.

We are Zion, home to stay

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From YNet:

The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the Knesset on Tuesday for passing into a law a bill proposal to deduct terrorists' salaries from roughly $130 million in monthly tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, defining the move as "a declaration of war on the Palestinian people."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the PA considered the law a "red line" and threatened that its implementation would lead to "harsh Palestinian decisions."

Sounds like a big deal, right?

In March, the same Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that a proposal in Congress to cut aid to the PA is also a "declaration of war" against the Palestinian people.

In January, he said that a vote in Knesset on Jerusalem residents' voting rights was also a "declaration of war against the Palestinian people."

It isn't only Redeineh.

In December, the Palestinian National Council said that a Likud decision about the territories was a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.

Also in December, the PLO said that Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital was a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.

A PLO member in September said in a general way that there is a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.

In May 2017, a proposed law in Knesset declaring Israel a Jewish state was called a "declaration of war" by the PLO.

In 2014, a brief closure of the Temple Mount was called a "declaration of war" by Mahmoud Abbas.

This is pretty consistent. The PLO has learned that they can manipulate public opinion with hyperbole, so they use it all the time. And too many clueless diplomats and journalists take them seriously, no matter how many times they are shown to be full of hot air.

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From Maan:

The Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Dr. Saeb Erekat said today that the Palestinian leadership is going to the International Criminal Court to file a complaint against US President Donald Trump's decisions on the city of Jerusalem, stressing that the Palestinian issue is not run by the ideas of real estate men and the managers of casinos.

He also demanded that the ICC take action on previous complaints filed against Israel. The impression I get is that the ICC is putting all Palestinian complaints on the back burner.

At any rate, a strategy of threatening the US, especially with this president, on a complaint that the PLO has zero chance of winning, seems to be truly clueless.

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07/03 Links Pt2: Phillips: Time to leave The question the Jews of Britain and Europe must ponder; Bernard-Henri Lévy: The Honor of Israel; Rescuers working to save boys in Thai cave rely on Israeli tech

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Time to leave The question the Jews of Britain and Europe must ponder

For all these members of the tribe, the idea that it may be time for the Jews to leave Britain is no more than paranoid hysteria. For other British Jews, though, the current situation is deeply, profoundly upsetting and lowering. The antisemitism is bad enough. But it’s not just the antisemitism that’s so devastating. It’s the reaction to those who call it out for what it is.

The same people who claim to see antisemitism in European populism or the political base of Donald Trump regularly accuse Jews of claiming antisemitism just to “sanitize the crimes of Israel” or “bring down Jeremy Corbyn.”

This reaction is worse, far worse, than the antisemitism itself. It’s worse even than indifference. For it imputes to the Jews malicious intent in claiming that Jewish people are being maliciously targeted. It says they are lying. It blames the Jews for their own victimization.

This reaction is the inescapable evidence that the Jews are being abandoned. Those of us who have loved Britain for its gentleness, its tolerance, its decency, its stoicism, its reasonableness and the dampness of both its weather and national temperament feel as if we have been orphaned. But maybe we were living all along in a fool’s paradise.

Some people think Europe is over, that the demographics are against it and that it will become a majority-Muslim culture in a few decades. My guess is that Europe won’t go down without a fight. If that happens, the Jews are likely to get it in the neck from all sides. Whichever way it goes, it’s not a pleasant prospect.

So is it time to leave? It’s very personal, and I wouldn’t presume to advise anyone what to do. I can only speak for myself and say that for some years now, I’ve been spending a great deal of my time in Israel. Because even with 150,000 Hezbollah rockets pointing at us from Lebanon, even with Hamas trying every day to murder us and even with Iran working toward its genocide bomb to wipe us out, Israel is where I feel so much safer and the air is so much sweeter, and it’s where Jews are not on their knees and where no one will ever make me feel I am not entitled to live and don’t properly belong.

Israel is where we have astonishingly renewed ourselves as a nation out of the ashes of the Shoah. Israel is where all those who want us gone meet their nemesis in the political realization of the eternal people. Israel is the ultimate, and ultimately the only, definitive and triumphant repudiation of antisemitism and the true vindication of the millions of us who perished in the unspeakable events that we memorialize on Holocaust Memorial Day.
*This article is based on the Simon Wiesenthal memorial lecture which I delivered in London on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Melanie Phillips: Prince William's Israel visit, Iran protests

Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Unwired what actually happened when Prince William visited Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the accelerating protests in Iran and what these signify.

Linda Sarsour's brother posted antisemitic tweets. Will she denounce him? (Yeah, right after she denounces Farrakhan...)

Diya Sarsour is Linda Sarsour's younger brother.

He also seems to dislike Jews.

Obviously, Linda is not responsible for her brother. But she pretends to be an expert on antisemitism. Linda has even spoken out on a panel about antisemitism as if she is some sort of expert.

Yet she spends a great deal of time denying that there is any antisemitism from the Left, and pretending that only neo-Nazis are antisemitic, not Arabs.

This is the Jew-hating environment that she grew up in. This is the every day antisemitism that she denies exists in the Arab and Muslim communities.

(h/t Petra)

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Major Moroccan newspaper Hespress published a scathing op-ed by a man who is visiting Israel, ripping his critics who are against this kind of "normalization."

Mimoune Oumelaid is no fan of Israel. But he points out, "To visit Israel does not mean that you agree with its crimes, or that you are hostile to the Palestinians or against their legitimate struggle. Otherwise, all those who participated in the World Cup in Russia agree with what they are doing in Syria. "

He goes on:

I hope that I will be able to visit Jerusalem and pray in the place where my Moroccan ancestors prayed, on their way to the pilgrimage or during the return. They even had a door in their name in this place [Mughrabi Gate on the Temple Mount.] And to pray to God Almighty that everyone enjoy security and a decent life regardless of their different beliefs ..

I have recalled a memory in my high school days.

I remembered the enthusiastic plays I had written and played the role of a hero, either as a liberator of Palestine from the bond of the Jews, or calling for the opening of the frontier for young people to liberate Jerusalem. My plays often end with the defeat of the Zionists, the victory of the Muslims and the liberation of Palestine. .

One day, the enthusiasm of my teachers' sermons in my small brain was very large in one of the prsentations. The loud applause, the glances of the admiring girls refreshed my enthusiasm, I went off-script a little...In my enthusiasm I threw the microphone in a hysteria, shouting that Holy Jerusalem needs us now.

When the play ended the technician who is responsible for those microphones rebuked me for breaking that device. Then he told me the sad joke that we repeat behind closed doors - There was a man who used to ask all kinds of dirty things from his wife in bed, exploiting her ignorance and her complete trust in clerics (who always say that women have to fulfill every wish of their husbands). So once she had enough and said after an especially rough session: “Do you want to liberate Jerusalem at the expense of my ass?”

The man grabbed my ear and shouted: "So you want to liberate Jerusalem by breaking my microphone?"

I remember those passionate poems that I used to recite outside the synagogues, because we are all in contact with the Jews and the Zionists, and I do not differentiate between them like others. I remember my laughter from saying "Khaybar Khaybar, Jews .. The Army of Muhammad will return." I am now going to visit this brutal entity which I have repeatedly cursed in poems I memorized and even wrote myself. What has changed?

How much has the Israeli Foreign Ministry given me to change my position and come to this country? Did the Mossad pump billions of dollars into my bank account?

It is the right of the Palestinians to defend their land and the estate of their country. But we, who are far from the center of the conflict, have the right to visit them together. We raise our voices and pray to find a solution. We have no benefit other than words that do not guarantee or enrich. My solidarity does not benefit them in anything, nor does my visit to Israel hurt them in anything.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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07/03 Links Pt1: The Decreasing Effectiveness of Hamas Terrorism; Israel Victory gains strength; Western nations de-facto boycott condemnation of Israel at UNHRC

From Ian:

BESA: The Decreasing Effectiveness of Hamas Terrorism

The decline in suicide bombings was followed, starting in 2004, by a spectacular rise in missile and rocket launchings. Hamas continually improved its missiles’ payload and distance – so much so that by 2006, the number of Israelis directly affected by the missiles increased from 25,000 inhabitants in the immediate areas bordering Gaza to the hundreds of thousands who live in major cities such Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and beyond.

For all the feelings of terror the launching of over 14,000 missiles between 2004 and 2014 engendered (the phenomenon largely came to an end after the third bout between Hamas and Israel in the summer of 2014), missile terrorism was not nearly as costly to Israel as suicide bombing had been.

Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of total government expenditures continued to decline, whereas at the height of the “al-Aqsa intifada,” they remained level.

Missile terrorism was far less costly in human terms as well. Even if we take into account all the casualties of the three rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas, mortalities add up to approximately 120 – that is to say, less than one-third the number of Israelis who were killed during the wave of suicide bombing. Note also that the wave of missile terrorism took place over ten years compared to the suicide bombing wave, which lasted four.

Whereas the effectiveness of suicide terrorism was vastly reduced as a result of the military punishment meted out by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency, missile terrorism became less effective over time due to technological developments that denied Hamas much of the potency of this means of attack.

Daniel Pipes: Israel Victory gains strength

What do Israelis think of the idea of Israel winning and the Palestinians losing?

It's a radical idea, very different from the 50-year-old-and-counting win-win assumption of "land for peace" that has transfixed governments and monopolized their attention. That old idea holds that putting Palestinians and Israelis in a room together will prompt them to settle their differences. On the cusp of the Oslo Accords' 25th anniversary, we know precisely how well that worked out: Israelis gave real land, Palestinians rewarded them with false promises of peace.

Indeed, according to a poll commissioned by the Middle East Forum and carried out by Rafi Smith of Smith Consulting, only 33% of Jewish Israelis (and about half that number among those who voted for the current government) still believe in land-for-peace and about the same small number still believe in Oslo. So, the old ways not only failed but are deeply unpopular. What takes their place?

One alternative is the Middle East Forum's Israel Victory initiative, and it polls well. Respondents were asked, "Do you agree or disagree with the proposition that it will only be possible to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians when they recognize they have lost their war against Israel?" Fifty-eight percent agreed. This has the makings of a revolution.

Only 3% of Jewish Israelis View Settlements as a Roadblock to Peace

A new survey conducted for the Middle East Forum and the Israel Victory Project indicate that 65% of the Jewish public in Israel believes that Israel needs to achieve a clear victory through military confrontations with the “Palestinians” in order to end the conflict, as reported by Channel 20. The survey will be presented to the Knesset on Tuesday.

77% of the respondents agreed that in the next round with Hamas or Hezbollah, the military leadership should decide to “let the IDF win.” It has been a common complaint in Israel that the IDF has been holding back in their battles with the enemy.

The survey found that 59% of Israelis see US President Donald Trump as the most pro-Israeli president ever, compared to only 25% of respondents who expressed concern that in the future Trump will still “charge a price” for his support of Israel.

Only 21% expressed concern about the possibility that President Trump would recognize the state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, while 62% do not believe it will happen.

Most importantly, only 3% of Israelis believe that settling in Judea and Samaria is an obstacle to peace.

[The Lebanese government] may call Hezbollah freedom fighters, they may applaud them in Beirut, they can act helpless and blame the Syrians and the Iranians, but the responsibility is on their shoulders.
Moshe Arens, Hezbollah 2 Israel 0 in Ha'aretz

Some freedom fighters.
Actually, Hezbollah is more than just a terrorist group.

Hezbollah has been heavily involved in the illegal drug trade for well over a decade. On October 26, 2005, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld quoted an Iranian Fatwa during her testimony before the Canadian Parliament:

We are making these drugs for Satan America and the Jews. If we cannot kill them with guns, so we will kill them with drugs.

And we know that Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran.

Dr. Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy. In her testimony, she described Hezbollah's activity not only in Lebanon, but also the Balkans and the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay - all made possible by corrupt governments, porous borders, and largely unsupervised waterways and airfields.

She described at the time how the 13,000 acres under the control of Hezbollah in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley produced at least 300 tons of hashish each year, most of it exported to Europe. That alone helped the terrorist group to gross $180 million annually.

But even in 2005, this was not something new for Hezbollah. Hezbollah's involvement in the illegal drug trade goes back to the 1980's.

That is not surprising since terrorism and illegal drugs are a natural fit.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has a background report explaining that the connection between the drug trade and terrorists goes back centuries, as rulers and terrorist groups have used the enormous profits from drug dealing for arming, equipping and training their members.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 brought that connection out into the open when it became clear that illicit drug money helped al Qaeda carry out the terrorist attacks.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the DEA ran an operation the following year and seized more than 30 tons of drugs and arrested more than 370 people in 12 cities, many of whom were from Middle Eastern countries and sent their profits back to the Middle East. When they investigated the flow of money, the DEA found signs some of that money funded terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

By 2008, the DEA believed that Hezbollah had transformed itself into an international crime syndicate collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah himself is estimated to have a net worth of $250 million, thanks to the drug trade.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. Credit: Rainwiki

The Trump administration has responded to the drug threat from Hezbollah. This past January, the Department of Justice announced the formation of Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team, described as

a group of experienced international narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and money laundering prosecutors. HFNT prosecutors and investigators are tasked with investigating individuals and networks providing support to Hezbollah, and pursuing prosecutions in any appropriate cases. The HFNT will begin by assessing the evidence in existing investigations, including cases stemming from Project Cassandra, a law enforcement initiative targeting Hezbollah’s drug trafficking and related operations.

And if Hezbollah is involved in illegal drugs, can Hamas be far behind?

According to DEA Congressional Testimony from April 24, 2002:

The triborder area of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil continues to be a haven for Islamic extremists. The two major terrorist organizations in the triborder area are Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance Movement known as HAMAS. [emphasis added]

Years later, a 2010 report to Congress about drug trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean confirmed Hamas involvement:

International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs [drug trafficking organizations] in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. [emphasis added]

That same year, Judicial Watch came out with a report that a few years earlier the DEA, revealed that Islamic terrorists had teamed up with Mexican drug gangs to infiltrate the US and to finance Middle East terror networks. A top official in the Texas branch of Homeland Security warned that among those crossing the Mexican border into Texas were terrorists with ties to both Hezbollah -- and Hamas.

That was then.
But oddly enough, there has been no mention of Hamas involvement in the drug trade in recent years.

The DEA confirms that they have no recent record of Hamas being part of the drug trade.

And yet, in 2014, Hamas was ranked number 2 on the Forbes list of The World's 10 Richest Terrorist Organizations (behind ISIS) with an annual turnover of $1 billion -- putting Hamas ahead of Hezbollah, which ranked only number 4 with an annual turnover of $500 million.

How did Hamas do it, if they are not dealing in illegal drugs?

According to Forbes, Hamas made its money from taxes and fees as well as financial aid and donations - especially Qatar.

Hamas in 2014 had turned itself into a huge conglomerate, taking for itself about 15% of Gaza's economy through taxes and levies on goods entering Gaza. Taxes that used to go to the PA go to Hamas as well. A large portion of their money came from taking for themselves a large share of the international aid coming into Gaza. Also, Hamas profits from hundreds of businesses it runs, such as real estate, insurance, banking, hotels, tourism and banquet halls.

On the other hand, Hamas was not making money from the tunnels, thanks to Egypt and Sisi and even the donations from Qatar and Iran were not as much as they used to be.

Now, just 4 years later, The New York Times reports that Gaza is in a Financial Crisis, a crisis that reflects the situation that Hamas finds itself in as well. Gaza's failing economy hurts Hamas too, and international aid is not at the same levels as before.

So under the circumstances, is Hamas in the drug trade or not?

I contacted Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and asked him about Hamas. He believes that Hamas is not into the drug trade now, but did not reject out of hand that Hamas may have been involved before:

Although the evidence in Latin America overwhelmingly points to Hezbollah, rather than Hamas, one should not rule out the possibility that Sunni Jihadis too, sooner or later, may find crime as a convenient source of funds. After all, this has happened already in the Middle East and the Maghreb, where illicit trafficking – drugs, fuel, cigarettes, illegal immigrants – is increasingly being conducted as a joint venture between Islamic terror groups and local mafias.

Why there is no recent information on Hamas’ possible involvement in trafficking is anyone’s guess. It could just be that agencies previously involved allocated their limited resources to address other concerns, or that changes in personnel and loss of expertise on the subject created a blind spot for those investigating. Or even that Hamas has enough funding from other sources – Iran primarily – that it does not need to fundraise by getting entangled with transnational criminal networks.

Emanuele Ottolenghi. Snapshot of YouTube video

As to the question of why reports about Hamas drug involvement had stopped, Dr. Ottolenghi said that could be the result of changing the allocation of resources among agencies for that changes in personnel and a loss in expertise could have developed a blind spot in their reporting. It could simply be that with the funding it gets from other sources, Hamas did not see a need to entangle itself with transnational criminal networks.

I posed the same question to Dr. Ehrenfeld. She responded:

It is inconceivable to me that with all the drug trafficking in the Sinai Peninsula, and Hamas tight relations with Hizbollah, Iran, and Turkey - all major drug traffickers who encourage the trade to finance their activities, Hamas has stopped trafficking in drugs. And as far as I know, Palestinians are almost always in the forefront of most Islamist terror groups, including narco-terrorists, including Hizballah in Latin America.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld. Snapshot of YouTube

At least for now, Hamas appears to be satisfied relying on taxes, the largesse of the international community and funding from Iran and Qatar.

And Hezbollah?

It is one thing to fall back on the claim that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," but do drug lords fall into that same category? Are narco-terrorists just as noble as your run-of-the-mill terrorists?

The recent pro-Hezbollah rally in London seems to indicate that many either do not know or do not care about the extent to which Hezbollah destroys lives.

Annual Hezbollah al Quds rally in London. Screenshot from YouTube

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The secret battle for Jerusalem between Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey

There is a new battle for which Muslim country would be considered responsible for Islamic life in Jerusalem.

From Al Monitor:

Saudi Arabia is currently investing a great deal of behind-the-scenes effort into taking away from Jordan its guardianship of the holy sites of Jerusalem, a senior official in the Palestinian Authority (PA) told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The pressure seems linked to the Saudis' friendly relations with the United States, and with President Donald Trump's desire to win Arab support for his Middle East peace plan, which Jordan has not backed.

This revelation aligns with a June 22 report from Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Jordanian monarchy is worried about Saudi Arabia's intent to deprive Jordan of its guardianship. Several peace agreements signed with Israel, such as the Jordan-Israel peace treaty of 1994, guaranteed Jordan's guardianship. [No, they didn't - EoZ].

“Saudi Arabia is now setting the stage for its guardianship of these sites," the senior PA official said, "and it is working on strengthening its relations with the Palestinian community in Jerusalem. It's also trying to lead religious figures and public opinion leaders from Jerusalem to visit Saudi Arabia and meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the idea and try to garner Jerusalemite support for it."

In January, the Arabi21 website quoted a Jordanian source as saying Jordanian authorities were discussing behind closed doors the Saudi steps regarding Jerusalem and were worried about their guardianship.

Raed Daana, one of the most important religious authorities in Jerusalem and former director of preaching and guidance at Al-Aqsa Mosque Directorate, told Al-Monitor that Saudi efforts to take over the sites' administration are “serious and real.” He pointed out that such efforts emerged following Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017.

On Dec. 19, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper revealed that there were behind-the-scenes differences between the Jordanian and Saudi delegations during the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, which took place Dec. 17 in Morocco. Saudi Arabia rejected Jordan's assertion of its guardianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites, the paper said.
Although decision-makers in Saudi Arabia did not publicly announce their desire to manage the holy sites in Jerusalem, several Saudi media circles have called for such a scenario. Abdul Hamid al-Hakim, a Saudi media figure close to the Saudi ruling family, called during the BBC’s "Talking Point" program May 16 for the holy sites in Jerusalem to be under Saudi administration.

But at the same time, Turkey is making a play for Islamic Jerusalem as well:

Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority have all separately warned Israel over the past year about growing Turkish activity in East Jerusalem, which they say is part of an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “claim ownership over the Jerusalem issue.”

Senior officials in Amman and Ramallah told Israel that Turkey was extending its influence in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Israeli defense officials told Haaretz they are aware of the situation and that the issue is now receiving more attention.

Turkey’s attempts to gain influence in East Jerusalem have been monitored by Israel’s security services for more than a year. Israeli sources pointed to a number of ways in which Turkey is increasing its presence in the city.

These include donations to Islamic organizations in Arab neighborhoods; organized tours arranged by Islamist groups in Turkey, some closely affiliated with Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which have brought thousands of Turkish citizens to Jerusalem over the past year; and the prominent presence of Turkish activists in demonstrations around the Temple Mount (known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif).

JCPA has also written about increased Turkish influence in Arab sections of Jerusalem.

It isn't religion. It is politics, as each country is jockeying to appear to be the leader of the Islamic world.

Tellingly, none of these countries even consider allowing the Palestinian Authority to control any part of Jerusalem.

(h/t Yoel)

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HRW director falsely claims Israel refuses triennial human rights review

Human Rights Watch executive director Sarah Leah Whitson tweeted this, claiming that Israel never allows universal human rights reviews and is a "rogue state."

Only one problem: Israel did participate in the triennial universal periodic review. It boycotted the entire UNHRC session in June, not just the UPR, but it did cooperate with the review itself, as Al Jazeera reported in January:

In her opening remarks, Aviva Raz Shechter, Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, laid out bluntly how Israel was going to receive the recommendations of fellow members.

"The continuous discrimination against Israel in the HRC and the unparalleled number of one-sided biased and political resolutions adopted regularly by the automatic majority of its members testify not only to the unfair treatment of Israel but also to the deficiencies of the council itself and its agenda," she said.

Shechter said Israel would submit to the review process despite what she called the HRC's bias, and demanded its overhaul.

Shechter, the Israeli ambassador, said it was deplorable that UN representatives would use the UPR session as what she called a platform to politicise the human rights discourse.

"It is a cynical and hypocritical attitude meant to distort the reality," she said, adding however that Israel would continue to cooperate with the HRC and take "seriously" the recommendations made at Tuesday's session.

There is no rule that says a country has to attend the meeting where the report is being released. HRW is falsely pretending that boycotting the meeting shows that Israel is a "rogue state" that refuses "any" review - this is obviously a lie.

Israel is boycotting the entire week's sessions, not just the meeting that released its hugely biased review, because of its clear and obvious bias. The January session buttressed the point of how the UNHRC is anti-Israel not only in its specifically anti-Israel Agenda item 7 but altogether.

The only other country I could find that HRW has ever referred to in an unqualified fashion as a "rogue state" was Burma in 2008.

Which shows that HRW is fully on board with the anti-Israel bias of the UNHRC.

(h/t NGO Monitor)

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Fatah hosts pathetic rally in Ramallah against peace deal

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group spent the past few days trying to get people to show up at a rally planned for Monday to protest the as-yet unrevealed "deal of the century."

You can tell from the demonstrators that they are all Fatah members, not the "Palestinian street." There are no home-made signs, no signs of grassroots protest, and plenty of attempts by Abbas' party to associate him with Yasir Arafat.

Even the official Fatah site said that there were only hundreds attending. It wasn't worth mentioning in non-Fatah media.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad can get thousands to show up at rallies whenever they want. Fatah can't fill up a city block in its own home territory.

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07/02 Links Pt2: Israel passes law defunding PA over its payments to terrorists; Vox Co-Founder Calls Ben Shapiro ‘The Jew Who Helps Other Jews Onto the Train’; CAA humiliates Gilad Atzmon in court

From Ian:

Israel passes law cutting funding to PA over its payments to terrorists

The Knesset voted into law on Monday a bill to slash funds to the Palestinian Authority by the amount Ramallah pays out to convicted terrorists and the families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks.

The bipartisan law passed by 87 to 15.

The law’s backers said the legislation would send a message to Palestinians that terror does not pay.

“The PA turned itself into a factory that employs murderers [of] Jews mostly but also Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians, and others, including tourists,” said co-sponsor MK Avi Dichter (Likud), who leads the Knesset’s influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

He said the law is meant to send a “moral and principled message” that Israel will not assist in sending money to terrorists, as well as cause the PA to rethink its policy of “encouraging terror.”

Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, who also cosponsored the law, said similar legislation in the US, known as the Tayor Force Act, had prompted the Israeli bill.

Interview: Taylor Force’s father hopes ‘pay-for-slay’ law will help Palestinians in need

In the two years since his son was killed in a terrorist stabbing spree in the coastal Israeli city of Jaffa, Stuart Force has become a regular traveler from his home town in South Carolina to Washington, DC, where he lobbied US lawmakers to adopt a law limiting aid to Palestinians, until they end stipends for terror convicts and families of slain attackers.

On Monday, three months after the US congress passed the Taylor Force Act into law, Stuart Force traveled for the first time to Israel to see the Knesset pass a similar law to slash funds to the Palestinian Authority by the amount Ramallah pays out to convicted terrorists, a policy nicknamed “pay-for slay.”

Speaking to The Times of Israel ahead of the Monday evening vote, Force said he had made the journey in order to pay back the support he had been shown since the death of his son Taylor.

“The Israeli people have been so supportive of the Taylor Force Act, and it feels right for me to be here and support them,” he said. “It’s going to be very emotional for me to be there during the vote, I’m sure, but I’m glad to be witnessing it. It’s important to our family that I’m here.”
Vanderbilt graduate student Taylor Force was killed Tuesday March 9, 2016, in a terror attack in Jaffa. (Facebook)

An MBA student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and a West Point graduate, the 29-year-old Taylor Force was visiting Israel in March 2016 when he was stabbed to death by 22-year-old Palestinian Bashar Massalha. Force’s death elicited a passionate response from US lawmakers, who, in response, took up the hot-button issue of PA funding to Palestinian terrorists.

We just voted and passed the Israeli version of the Taylor Force Bill which cuts funding that the Palestinians use to pay terrorists for their crimes. Before the vote I met Taylor’s father and thanked him for his strength and for everything he has done to honor his son’s memory. pic.twitter.com/y7YvoH2stx
— יאיר לפיד Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) July 2, 2018

‘Black Forest,’ a chilling post-terror attack manhunt, gets English premiere

Kay Wilson was certain she was going to die.

The extraordinary story of how Wilson survived a brutal 2010 attack in which her friend was murdered is the subject of the Israeli television documentary “Black Forest.”

The Times of Israel and Beit Avi Chai will host the English premiere of “Black Forest” along with IsraelB on Monday, July 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Following the screening, Wilson will share her experiences in a live interview with journalist Matthew Kalman. Also present will be the filmmakers, police detectives involved in the post-attack investigation, and family members of other victims.

‘I believed him’

“Bound, gagged and barefoot, with machetes at our throats, we were pushed through the trees to the site of our execution,” Wilson recalls in a blog post for The Times of Israel. “I whimpered, ‘Please don’t kill us.’ One of the terrorists looked me in the eye, put his hand on his heart and declared, ‘I am good, I not kill.’”

“I believed him,” she says.

But she was wrong.

It was December 2010. Wilson and her friend Kristine Luken were walking through a picturesque forest southwest of Jerusalem, a popular site for hikes and picnics, when they were attacked by two men from a West Bank village near Hebron.
Kay Wilson, survivor of a 2010 stabbing terror attack outside Jerusalem. (Courtesy)

Within minutes Luken lay dead, hacked to pieces in a killing frenzy. Wilson should have died, too.