Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 17, 2020

Much of Palestinian policy has been based on the myth of Arab and Muslim unity

The fallout from the UAE/Israel announcement of normalizing relations continues to come, and it has shaken up long standing assumptions about the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Palestinian foreign policy has been largely based on the myth of Arab and Muslim states’ unity in supporting whatever they demand about Israel. Yet that unity has been only on paper for well over a decade. Already back in 2010, the Arab League pledged a half billion dollars to the Palestinians to “defend Jerusalem,” whatever that means, and they didn’t pay a dime.

Smart leaders would have noticed that their Arab brethren’s support was paper thin and would plan accordingly for how to deal with the day that the Arab rhetorical support would follow their monetary support. But Mahmoud Abbas is not a smart man – great at seizing and consolidating power, not too bright at seeing the trends that have been staring at him in the face.

Instead, Palestinian leaders and their media would pump up stories about support from Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan or trade unions in Jordan and pretend that this meant that there was universal consensus on Arab and Muslim support for their cause. They didn’t make the simple realization that if Arab and Muslim nations refused to invest money in the Palestinian cause it is because they no longer saw that cause as their own.

Arab media love to quote the fake Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying that the Jewish plan to dominate the world includes fracturing Arab unity. What we saw over this past week will be looked upon as proof of this plan. But it is nothing so nefarious: it is simply Arab and Muslim nations acting in their own self-interest rather than subsume themselves under a unified position. The same thing has been happening in the EU: nationalism is ascendant.

Most Arab nations have not made a statement one way or another about the UAE deal. Egypt, Oman and Bahrain support it, Libya and Yemen oppose, Jordan and Qatar issued cautious statements and the rest of the Arab world has been silent. What we certainly have not seen is the chorus of automatic anti-Israel statements that the PLO could have orchestrated only a year ago.

The larger group of Muslim states have been similarly divergent in their opinions. Mauritania’s statement of support for the agreement is perhaps more explicit in explaining why: it said that “the United Arab Emirates possesses absolute sovereignty and complete independence in conducting its relations and assessing its positions in accordance with its national interests, the interests of Arabs and Muslims and their just causes.”

In other words, members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are unhappy at being told what positions to take by these organizations. They want to act in their own self-interest, not based on what Palestinians have been telling these organizations to parrot.

The Palestinian stranglehold on the pan-Arab and pan-Islamic organizations has been so seemingly strong that Saeb Erakat arrogantly called on the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, to issue a statement condemning the Emirati-Israeli agreement or to resign from his post. His hubris is telling – it is one thing to demand the condemnation of Israel which costs members of the Arab league nothing, it is another to demand the condemnation of a major Arab member. The PLO is so ossified in its ways that it continues to treat the Arab League and the OIC as its own personal platform. His threats just marginalize the PLO even further.

As it is, the PLO demand for an emergency Arab League meeting has so far gone nowhere and the organization has not commented on the UAE-Israel agreement, which has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world.

The UAE has forced into the open what observers have recognized for years: there is no Arab or Muslim unity. The Arab and Muslim world used the Palestine issue to give the impression of such unity because it was the only thing they could agree on. The PLO took full advantage of this and took virtual control of these groups to make it appear to be a leader of the Arab world. But behind the scenes, Arabs were sick of Palestinian rejectionism and refusal to accept a state offered by Israel, and it was only a matter of time before some Arab states realized that aligning with Israel is a better idea than being led by the nose by the Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian reaction is one of horror at the realization that their position as the ones who set the agenda has been toppled. The support and silence of most of the Arab and Muslim world towards the UAE/Israel agreement has shattered their confidence and destroyed their strategy, yet they have no other because they were too overconfident to create one.

Imagine if Gulf countries would accept Palestinians as citizens

If the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and other potential Arab peace partners of Israel would allow Palestinians to become citizens, it would be an even bigger political earthquake than those countries normalizing relations with Israel.

Right now there are 150,000 Palestinian workers in the UAE and about 250,000 in Saudi Arabia, along with at least another 100,000 in other Gulf countries. These countries have huge outside worker populations.

Palestinians are desirable workers. They work harder than Gulf Arabs and are generally better educated. Many of them know Hebrew which will make them more important as Gulf countries slowly normalize with Israel.

If the UAE and Saudi Arabia would announce that they would accept Palestinians as citizens, motivated Palestinians from the territories would move there, as well as many more from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It would help the Gulf countries’ economies and it would help Palestinians who want to live in s stable Arab land where they can raise their families.

Perhaps most importantly, it would puncture the myth that somehow purposefully keeping Palestinians in a stateless limbo for over seven decades is for their own good.

Once Palestinians are shown to be happy, productive members of the Gulf states, other countries that deny them citizenship like Egypt, Syria and Lebanon would be shown to be mistreating them not out of solidarity but out of bigotry.

The “Palestinian right of return” which has no basis in international law would be exposed as a means of using Palestinians as cannon fodder.

And the Middle East would be that much closer to real peace.

Let’s hope that this is part of the negotiations.

Now the entire Arab world can import Israeli goods through the UAE

Globes points out:

Israel's normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will give Israeli business an official, stable bridge to the entire Arab world, particularly the other Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia, which was in on the secret all along the way, at their head. The opportunities that have been opened up in the Arab markets for Israeli firms are huge, and could dramatically boost Israel's exports, to the UAE, and via them to other Arab countries.

A prominent businessperson, formerly a senior officer in the security forces, told "Globes" that although there were substantial ties with the UAE beforehand, this agreement puts everything above board, and lends legitimacy to buying from Israel for companies and governments throughout the Arab world, through UAE intermediaries. In one way or another, this happened before, but now "the sky is the limit".

A source in Saudi Arabia told "Globes" that the Arab world had a great deal to gain from Israel. This is a breakthrough. The Palestinian issue has not gone away and will continue to be an obstacle to some degree, but the road is open.

Existing ties were mostly beneath the surface, and came to light here and there, such as the collaboration of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) (IAI) with Group 42 in the UAE, medical technology companies working on solutions to the coronavirus pandemic. This agreement was reported two months ago.

The new normalization agreement will bring to light a wide range of economic and technological collaborations that has existed for years.

This is a huge blow for BDS - and they are reacting with hysteria..

08/16 Links: Qanta Ahmed: Israel-UAE agreement will likely lead more Arab nations to recognize Jewish state; MSNBC, CNN mostly ignore Trump's major Israel-UAE peace deal during prime time

From Ian:

Jared Kushner: The historic deal between Israel and the UAE shows Trump’s strategy is paying off

When President Trump took office, the Middle East was in a state of extreme turmoil, even by the low standards of a region long plagued by danger and violence. Islamic State terrorists controlled an area in Iraq and Syria approximately the size of Ohio. The peace process between Israel and the Arab world had stalled. Iran was spreading instability through proxy fighters in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

It was to this region that President Trump took his first trip abroad as president. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the president laid out his vision for a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East. He described to the leaders of dozens of Arab and Muslim countries a region with vast potential, held hostage by extremism and the conflicts of the past.

President Trump recognized that, to tap this potential, the region required a strategic realignment. In the new Middle East, nations must chart their course based on shared interests and common values, not old hatreds and rivalries. The president also recognized that building this future would require altering a U.S. policy that for far too long had accepted these historic animosities and even nurtured them.

That’s why instead of rewarding America’s enemies, we pledged to draw our partners closer. Rather than lecturing America’s friends, we committed to taking forceful action against the evils of extremism and terror. Finally, we resolved to pursue these goals grounded in the realities of today, not the ghosts of the past.

Three-and-a-half years later, this strategic realignment continues to pay off. The Islamic State caliphate has been destroyed, its brutal leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed. Iran remains a pariah state but is more constrained than ever before. And thanks to the courageous leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East this week took a great step toward a future in which people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds can live together in the spirit of cooperation and peace.

Ultimately, it is up to the people of the Middle East to decide the future they want for their children. The United States cannot and should not choose for them. But the remarkable progress over the past several years is clear evidence that the people of the Middle East are finally on a path to a very bright future. And today, more than ever, they can count on the United States’ support every step of the way.

Anwar Gargash: UAE minister of state for foreign affairs: The UAE's landmark deal with Israel is a step towards achieving a two-state solution

Since Israel’s inception, Arab nations have taken the position of refusing to recognise it because its establishment took place at the expense of Arab inhabitants of that land. But as the world has witnessed, this stance has yet to achieve any concrete progress or benefits for the Palestinian people. Indeed, over the years, several Arab states have realised that making peace with Israel, and ensuring that our Israeli neighbours feel secure in the region, is the best way to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people, while also bringing benefits for the region as a whole. The UAE is now joining their number.

But this is not an entirely new step. The UAE and Israel have worked together before, most recently in the fight against Covid-19. We are a country that constantly looks towards the future. We recently launched the Arab world’s first mission to Mars. We have demonstrated an exemplary response to the ongoing pandemic. In light of this philosophy, we see peace and dialogue as the means to achieve a safer and stronger Middle East.

But this new agreement will by no means preclude our support of the Palestinian cause in line with the Arab consensus. There will be no embassy in Jerusalem until Jerusalem is also the capital of the future Palestinian state. We will continue to steadfastly defend the Palestinian right to statehood and dignity. And indeed, any and all progress on the matter must derive from direct dialogue between Palestine and Israel themselves. But this new deal will allow us to push ever harder for such an outcome.

We in the UAE are proud of this progress and look forward to the achievement of a more secure future for the Palestinian people, to the growth of our new partnership with Israel, and to the betterment of the region as a whole.

Qanta Ahmed: Israel-UAE agreement will likely lead more Arab nations to recognize Jewish state

Much credit for the Israel-UAE agreement and the earlier Israeli-Palestinian peace plan goes to Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law. He and other U.S. officials have worked hard to establish personal friendships with Muslim leaders across the Middle East, which leads me to conclude that the agreement announced Thursday will be followed by the establishment of relations between Israel and more of its neighbors.

It is no surprise that the seven-member federation of the United Arab Emirates — now under the leadership of the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and commander in chief of the UAE’s formidable armed forces, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed — has become the first Muslim nation to normalize relations with Israel since Egypt and Jordan did so. His courage and long-term vision means Israel and the UAE will now have embassies in each other’s capitals.

Muslims will be able to fly directly from the UAE to Israel to pray at the third-holiest site of Islam –- the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Israelis will be able to visit, work and trade with the UAE — one of the most intensely forward-thinking regions in the world. They will be able to admire the remarkable Shaykh Bin Zayed Mosque, peruse the astonishing art the region has amassed and see the world’s preeminent Falcon hospital — a personal favorite of mine, as a physician.

Israelis and residents of the UAE will also be able to get to meet and know each other on a personal basis, establishing both friendships and professional relationships. The UAE is home to some of the most educated and empowered Muslim women in the region, including Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri the UAE’s first female fighter pilot, who led the first airstrike her country launched against ISIS. I’m sure she would get along well with Israeli military women I know.

All of us who are friends of peace between Israel and the Arab and Muslim world should now hope that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia follows the path of his neighbor and ally the UAE in establishing normalized relations with Israel.

It is in the self-interest of all Muslim nations— including the 16 remaining Arab nations that continue the boycott of Israel — to at long last accept the fact that the modern state of Israel exists and is here to stay.

Crown Prince Mohammed of the UAE has long been a behind-the-scenes source of wisdom, guidance and strategic policymaking for Crown Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia, and both nations have worked together in an intensely difficult time.

The neighboring countries have together dealt with the rise of the ISIS terrorist group; the deepening hostilities and undeclared open conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran; the rise of the terrorist group and Iranian proxy Hezbollah; the Syrian civil war; and the dangerous threat they face from Iran itself.

Israel can be a natural ally to Arab nations against these threats. Let’s hope and pray that the announcement by President Trump establishing ties between Israel and the UAE is followed by more such agreements with Arab and Muslim nations. That would serve America’s best interests and the best interests of all the countries following the road to peace and cooperation.

AHMED: #IsraelUAE peace deal is EPIC - here’s why @petehegseth on @foxandfriends ?cc ?@IWF? ?@aviberkow45? #ISRAELUAEPEACEDEAL pic.twitter.com/CzLM1mZPcJ
— Qanta Ahmed (@MissDiagnosis) August 15, 2020

AHMED: #UAE clearly the keystone nation in the region- deeply engaged w #israel on aid, #COVID19 , Rafael defense systems , Israel aerospace. VISIONARY ?@MohamedBinZayed? FORMIDABLE strategist & global player cc @iwf ?@aviberkow45? pic.twitter.com/WTp2VyRg4l
— Qanta Ahmed (@MissDiagnosis) August 15, 2020

Iran’s fear: Israel will act like expansionist Iran

This Tehran Times article shows the real fear that Iran has: that Israel will take over lands closer to Iran, just as Iran has taken over Syria and Lebanon and parts of Gaza to threaten Israel.

President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday condemned an agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Zionist regime of Israel to normalize ties, warning Abu Dhabi that the agreement must never prepare the ground for the presence of the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf region.

Noting that even until the present time the UAE has done a “great mistake and treasonous act”, Rouhani said, “We warn the Emirates that lest it (agreement) finds a place for the Zionist regime in the region… then it will be different and they will be treated differently,” Rouhani said while speaking at a meeting of the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus.

Recent interest by Israel in the history of Jews of the Gulf, including the Himyar kingdom in what is now Yemen and parts of Saudi Arabia, has been fueling this – an article in Al Sharq this weekend makes it sound like Israel has only shown interest in this topic after the Israel/UAE agreement.

That same article refers to a recent conspiracy theory that a Saudi development initiative named NEOM is in fact a cover for Israel to recreate a fictional Hebrew Biblical kingdom of “Noam.”

This has been a theme in the Arab world – especially in Jordan where many are convinced that Israel is planning to make a Biblical claim on Petra.

But it is natural for Iran to be concerned with an Israeli presence on its doorstep – so much so that it has warned the UAE that an agreement with Israel would make it a legitimate military target.

From Naharnet:

President Michel Aoun seemed to leave the door open to eventual peace with Israel, in an interview with French news channel BFMTV.

Lebanon has technically been at war with neighboring Israel for decades, with tensions sporadically flaring in the border area in Lebanon's south, stronghold of Iran-backed Hizbullah.

Asked in an interview on BFMTV whether Lebanon would be prepared to make peace with Israel, Aoun responded: "That depends. We have problems with Israel, we have to resolve them first."

His statement came in the wake of an announcement Thursday that Israel would normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, only the third Arab state to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel since its creation in 1948.

"It's an independent country," Aoun said of the UAE.

Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement has for years been politically allied with Hizbullah.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday of the Israel-UAE agreement that "it's a betrayal of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people. It's a knife in the back."

Lebanon and Syria have been the most anti-Israel Arab countries, and Lebanon has been among the most antisemitic countries in the world. Even allowing for a possibility of a peace agreement with Israel is a huge shift.

Aoun is not ideological – he will align with whomever will save his political career (as would many Lebanese politicians.) And of course Hezbollah will block any possible peace with Israel. The reason that Aoun’s statement is groundbreaking is because it indicates that he is seeing the Lebanese people angry at Hezbollah as a major culprit in the Beirut explosion and he is hedging his bets with any possible popular uprising against Hezbollah and Iran.

More importantly, even this mild statement weakens Hezbollah. Hezbollah pretends that it needs its arms to defend Lebanon from an Israeli enemy – if Israel is not the enemy, Hezbollah loses its entire reason for existing. The Lebanese have deep memories of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the wounds will not heal soon, but they are living under Hezbollah’s and Iranian implicit threats today. They are seeing Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah trying to blame Israel for the Beirut blast and they recognize it for what it is – an attempt to move attention away from Hezbollah’s responsibility for putting hundreds of thousands of dangerous weapons literally under Lebanese homes, mosques and churches.

If Hezbollah issues a blistering anti-Aoun statement, they risk losing a key ally and alienating many Lebanese even more. But it cannot ignore his words either. As of this writing, Hezbollah’s Al Manar news site has remained silent.

Practically speaking, what are the disputes between Israel and Lebanon today? Some very minor land border disputes and some fairly important disputes over maritime borders where there are significant natural gas reserves. Israel would be very flexible on those issues in exchange for real peace.

And peace is the last thing that Hezbollah wants.

(Notably, a UAE businessman makes the case for peace between Lebanon and Israel in Haaretz.)

Iranian media OBSESSED with UAE/Israel deal

All of these stories were published in Mehr News, an official Iranian news site, in English:

FM Zarif discusses UAE’s betrayal with Palestinian groups

Emirati-Israeli normalization a stab on Muslim World’s back

UAE move in normalizing ties with Israel, ‘strategic folly’

UAE-Israel agreement, clear violation of Palestinians' rights

Emirati people not involved in UAE-Zionist ties

UAE move in normalizing ties with Israelis, clear betrayal

Israeli-UAE deal betrays Palestinian cause

Iran's Armed Forces condemns UAE-Israeli tie normalization

VIDEO: Palestinians hold protest against Israel-UAE deal

Iran issues strong warning to UAE

Yemen condemns UAE’s ‘betrayal’

Fight against Zionist regime will continue with power

Turkey may suspend diplomatic ties with UAE: Erdogan

UAE-Israeli agreement ‘a stab in regional countries’ back’

UAE’s ‘hypocritical’ behavior ‘unforgivable’: Turkey

UAE to be engulfed in Zionism’s fire: advisor

Hamas, Fatah slam UAE, Zionist regime agreement

Iran condemns UAE-Zionist tie as ‘strategic folly’

I think Iran isn’t happy with the agreement.

08/15 Links: I grew up with anti-Semitism in the UAE. Peace with Israel is a dream come true; Iran, Turkey, Ben Rhodes, Tlaib united in criticism of UAE-Israel deal; Don’t Let Iran Blow Up the U.N. Security Council

From Ian:

Mujahed Kobbe (Siraj Hashmi's co-host): I grew up with anti-Semitism in the UAE. Peace with Israel is a dream come true.

Never in a million years did I believe there would be a deal in my lifetime where an Arab Gulf state would recognize the Jewish state. Watching the news this week of Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalizing relations was something of a dream come true.

From the age of eight until adulthood, I called the UAE home. It was a place I enjoyed most of my firsts: my first day of school, the first time I ditched school, my first kiss, my first chicken shawarma, crashing my first car.

It’s also where I had my first experience with anti-Semitism. Of course, I didn’t know what that actually was at the time.

Calling Israel and its Jewish inhabitants the enemy of Islam and God was as common as breathing while I was growing up. Anti-Semitism was in my home. It was in the school hallways and yard. You heard it at the café while having a hookah, enjoying a chicken shawarma and playing a hand of tarneeb.

At Friday prayers, a religious cleric at any given mosque was sure to make a comment about how Allah will one day destroy Israel from the map and all the yahoud that live in it so that our brothers may finally be free.

Believing in conspiracies like the idea that Israel was the true mastermind behind 9/11 or that Israel is funding ISIS was prevalent, mainstream, part of the culture. It was a hate taught and passed down through generations by people who had never once interacted with a Jew.

It’s so weird looking back at it now, trying to understand how it is that I had this hate in my heart for an entire group of people I had never met.

I myself didn’t meet a Jewish person until I was about 25 years old and traveling through New York. He also happened to be an Israeli.

I’m not going to lie: I was nervous when he first told me where he was from. I didn’t know how to feel about, if I was supposed to walk away, or punch him in the face.

But something came over me, a curiosity, a deep desire to know more about this person I was taught to just hate. We talked about a wide range of topics in the short time we spent together, but the one that interested me the most was Israel.

You could tell he loved his country; there was a glow about him when talking about his favorite bakery that he would go to on the marina, or how he enjoys his chicken shawarma with pickles and garlic paste — just the way I would eat it as a kid in the UAE.

From my interview on @WIONews on why peace agreement between #Israel & #UAE is so historic!

I should add, as #India 🇮🇳 has important strategic relations with all 3 countries - 🇮🇱 🇦🇪 🇺🇸 - they can have crucial role to play in advancing this peace process!https://t.co/V8Vy5bg7wC
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 14, 2020

Vivian Bercovici: A Dream of Peace Made Real

To say that Israel is reeling today is a cosmic understatement.

All of Israel–left, right, center–was dealt a knockout blow by the indefatigable Netanyahu on Thursday when the Oval Office announced on Thursday the agreement between Israel and the UAE to immediately formalize “full normalization” of diplomatic, economic and all relations.

The revelation was so surreal, in fact, that in this hopelessly gossipy nation, where everything leaks, nothing did. It was the equivalent of an atomic bomb. In terms of sheer force, not devastation. A good atomic bomb.

For the Emiratis to engage openly, fully, and proudly has left this nation stunned. In the best way. It was totally unexpected.

Perhaps it was best expressed in a tweet by former MK Einat Wilf, who wrote: “Israeli Jews are keenly aware of their minority status in an Arab and Islamic region and so yearn for peace with the Arab and Islamic world. The #UAE showed today yet again that when the Arab world comes to us with offers of genuine peace, they always find in us willing partners.”

Mired in an evergreen domestic political morass, PM Netanyahu, “the magician,” has clearly worked for years to pull off the impossible, as he was sliced and diced six ways to Sunday by local scandal and subterfuge.

“Full normalization.”

Peace, in the vernacular. With one of the most important, progressive, influential Middle Eastern countries, the UAE.

Israeli media reports that this agreement has been brokered by Jared Kushner, Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, and others. But foremost, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, ruler of the UAE, has boldly led the Middle East into what will not just re-align the region’s geopolitics, but quite likely those of the world. And, in a flash, the notoriously aggressive Israeli media was rocked back on its heels, collective mouths agape, at the unsurpassed brilliance of Bibi.

If Shakespeare were alive, he would have to reinvent his canon, which has become the literary foundation of Western story-telling. With Bibi, there simply is no Act V–no denouement. We are stuck in Act III, where the hero is unstoppable. Where his brilliance and unsurpassed triumphs continue, mere human frailties notwithstanding.

“On regional strategy, this shows the benefit of the U.S. standing by its historic allies in the Middle East. Pres Obama shunned Israel & the Gulf states and sought to normalize Iran. His nuclear deal, an economic boon to Tehran, was a means to that end.”https://t.co/IFnZRW4ajj
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 15, 2020

08/14 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: Harris, Omar and the party's great march leftward; NY Democratic Socialists asks City Council candidates to pledge no Israel visits

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Harris, Omar and the party's great march leftward

Under the leadership of Obama White House alumni Jonathan Greenblatt, in recent years the ADL has tried to reinvent itself as a progressive group that focuses mainly on criticizing the other side of the political divide.

The ADL's fervent efforts to ingratiate itself among progressives places in stark relief the "Open Letter to the Progressive Community" signed by more than a hundred groups calling for ostracizing it. It shows that today's Democrat party is unwilling to accept Jews or politicians who are both progressive and pro-Jewish.

This brings us to Omar's primary victory. It wasn't particularly surprising that Omar won the poll. Her national profile has made her a lightning rod in national politics. While as a bigot she is justifiably hated by many, leftist donors and activists adore her and back her as an anti-Semite.

While predictable, three aspects of her win are particularly significant. First, the main difference between the Omar and the progressive black opponent she defeated is that unlike Omar, Antone Melton-Meaux isn't an anti-Semite. Rather than drawing praise from progressives for his lack of bigotry, Melton-Meaux was decried by progressive activists who accused him of being controlled by Jews.

The second significant aspect of Omar's win is that despite her open anti-Semitism, her reelection bid – and that of her anti-Semitic comrade Rashida Tlaib – was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi even donated $14,000 to Omar's campaign from her political PAC. Pelosi was long viewed as a friend to both American Jews and to Israel. The fact that she monetarily supported an out and out anti-Semite speaks volumes about the direction of the party.

The final significant aspect of Omar's win is that it was a testament to the rapidly growing power of the radical left in the Democrat party. Two years ago, four female radicals with harshly anti-Israel positions were elected as first-time lawmakers. The joined together, called themselves "The Squad" and proceeded to drain all the air out of the policy discourse in their party.

As the Squad members rose in power and prestige, moderate Democrats insisted their voice was out of synch with their actual power. To be sure, the moderates argued, the likes of Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have the loudest microphones, but they represent but a fraction of the party's Congressional delegation.

So far, Tlaib and Omar handily won their primaries and three new candidates with their same brand of radical, anti-Israel positions just won their primaries replacing moderate lawmakers who either retired or were defeated. These victories point to two things. First, the squad has already nearly doubled its numbers in one Congressional term, and two, they have become, without a doubt, the rising force – and with Pelosi's backing, the dominant force in the Democrat party.

In light of all of this, it is self-evident Omar's primary victory was far more significant than Biden's selection of Harris as his running mate. Biden and Harris, weather vanes both, will not lead their party. They will follow their party's grassroots and donors as they lead the Democrats every further along on their great march into the anti-Semitic leftist abyss.

NY Democratic Socialists asks City Council candidates to pledge no Israel visits

Lots of candidates for New York City Council are expected to seek an endorsement from the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, a rising force in city politics, in next year’s elections.

To apply for the endorsement, the candidates will have to decide if they will pledge not to travel to Israel if elected.

According to a screenshot of a candidate questionnaire from the DSA posted to Twitter by local reporter Zack Fink, candidates are being asked to “pledge not to travel to Israel if elected to City Council in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation.” (The party did not immediately confirm that it had distributed the survey.)

The group also asks candidates if they support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which is part of the New York City DSA chapter’s platform.

Some candidates declared their answers already on Twitter. “Easy: 1. No. 2. No,” Eric Dinowitz, a teacher (and son of a state Assemblyman) who is running for City Council in the Bronx, posted late Thursday.

The questionnaire comes after pro-BDS activists were vindicated this month when Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who have voiced support for the BDS movement, both won their Democratic primaries. Both represent overwhelmingly Democratic districts where they are likely to be reelected to Congress. A third congressional candidate who has indicated support for the BDS movement, Cori Bush in Missouri, also defeated a longtime incumbent in her primary.

With 35 out of 51 city council seats up for election this year due to term limits as well as open elections for citywide offices like mayor and comptroller, citywide elections in New York City next year present a rare opportunity to reshape most of New York City’s government.

The DSA is considered to be a rising force in New York City after helping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeat incumbent Joe Crowley in 2018. In this year’s Democratic primary, DSA member Jamaal Bowman defeated Eliot Engel, a longtime incumbent and champion of Israel. Far from pledging to boycott Israel, Bowman has indicated his backing, last week telling City & State, “I am in full support of Israel.”

A few years ago, I had an amazing learning experience when I visited Israel and I encourage my colleagues to be open-minded and travel there to form their own opinions. I refuse to be a part of this litmus test/cancel culture movement. Let’s do more engaging not less. https://t.co/djZDrhTWg5
— Senator Brian Benjamin (@NYSenBenjamin) August 14, 2020

Jonathan S. Tobin: Can a Jewish leader coexist with an anti-Semitic extremist?

As it turns out, it isn't Rodney Muhammad who is on the spot in the controversy about the NAACP and anti-Semitism. The people who should really be worried about the controversy engendered by Muhammad are the Jewish members of the national board of the NAACP, like Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who are being discredited by the organization's failure to draw a line in the sand about Jew-hatred.

Muhammad is the Philadelphia chapter president of the venerable civil-rights group who sparked controversy last month with a blatantly anti-Semitic Facebook post. The post combined pictures of African-American celebrities who had recently made anti-Semitic statements, and included the image of a Nazi-style caricature of a hook-nosed Jew above a fake quote from Voltaire that said: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." The obvious point was the false claim that powerful and sinister Jewish forces are working to suppress criticism of their fiendish hold on society by courageous but oppressed black people.

While Muhammad was bitterly criticized by various Jewish groups, as well as local politicians and public figures, he doesn't seem so concerned about his future as a public figure, even after such a gross display of prejudice. The national leadership of the NAACP was slow to issue a statement about the incident and when it did, its condemnation stopped well short of demanding Muhammad's resignation or his firing by the Philadelphia chapter.

As the African-American newspaper The Philadelphia Tribune reported, local black leaders such as Bishop J. Louis Felton, the first vice president of the Philadelphia chapter, said they had not received any instructions or guidance from the group's national office. Instead, the Tribune reported that NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson would be meeting with Muhammad, as well as local community and faith leaders, to "open a dialogue and continue the educational conversations." But the time for dialogue about this scandal is over. That statement could be reasonably interpreted as an indication that the national leadership has no interest in breaking with Muhammad, despite the fact that a state board could vote to The reluctance of the NAACP to take swift and decisive action is disappointing. Jews were active in the organization's founding. And there is a direct precedent in which the NAACP was faced with a similar situation in the not-too-distant past.

In August of 2000, Lee Alcorn, president of the group's Dallas chapter, sparked controversy by denouncing the selection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) as the Democratic candidate for vice president. Alcorn said he opposed Vice President Al Gore's running mate because "if we get a Jew person, then what I'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know? … So I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kind of things."

NAACP president Kweisi Mfume responded immediately. He not only condemned Alcorn's remarks as "repulsive, anti-Semitic, anti-NAACP and anti-American," he also immediately suspended him from the organization.

The International Union of Muslim Scholars said that any agreement the UAE makes with Israel is “high treason.”

The group, which is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, has on its website a truly bizarre chronology of events that supposedly led to the agreement, and the Elders of Zion are the main people behind it. It is an allegory, but only barely.

Historians and news analysts agree that the beginning [of the events] was in 2011, the year of the Arab Spring, when the advisors of the "Elders of the Children of Israel" volunteered to convince the UAE that this Arab Spring is a real danger to them, and that any success for it is a nail in their coffins, and that this requires swift actions and a comprehensive confrontation, in order to eliminate this danger in its presence and uproot its roots and extensions.

The UAE said: We are a small country, and simple people, we sell our oil and protect our home. And our army is barely enough for us even inside the UAE, so how can we face this Arab Spring, these revolutionary peoples, and these deeply rooted movements?

The Elders of Zion said: You can trust us and rely on us, because we have enough expertise and capabilities, networks and plans, ideas and supporters. We only need funding, the battle requires huge and long-term financing.

The UAE said: This is entirely on us, so what is this money and wealth suitable for if we do not use it to protect ourselves and secure our judgment?

The Elders of Zion said: So we agree; Funding is upon you and the rest is upon us .. Thanks to Gulf money and Jewish genius, states, armies, parties, the press will be with us and at our disposal ... and everything we need.

The UAE said: Yes, this is excellent, but we have a special problem that preoccupies us. We want your help in solving or overcoming it, so that we can go comfortably facing our common enemy.

The Elders of Zion said:….You will become Little Israel, and we will be Greater Israel ...We will truly adopt you, and you will be safe under our care and protection.

The UAE said: This is great, but adoption in Islam is not permissible, so how do we tell people?

The people of Zion said: We will not talk about our adoption of you. Rather, we will say: normalization with you ..

These people are crazy.

08/14 Links Pt1: Michael Oren: Stunning Israel-UAE deal upends the ‘rules’ about peace-making in Middle East; Norm Coleman: They told us the sky would fall if Trump stood by Israel. They were wrong.

From Ian:

Eli Lake: Why the UAE Chose to Normalize Relations With Israel

For the Gulf States in particular, normalization of ties with Israel has historically been tied to the full withdrawal of forces to the pre-1967 lines and recognition of a Palestinian State. These principles were affirmed almost two decades ago through something known as the Arab Peace Initiative. The UAE had previously endorsed that initiative. Now the UAE and Israel have agreed to sign agreements to establish reciprocal embassies in their countries without any agreement for Israel to remove its forces from the West Bank.

The UAE is not the first Arab country to formally recognize Israel. Egypt signed the Camp David Accords in 1979 in return for the Sinai, while Jordan signed its agreement in 1994 at the height of the Oslo Peace Process. It’s notable that the UAE has signed its agreement with Israel when there are no peace negotiations whatsoever.

And that is the most striking element of the normalization agreement. It reflects two realities of today’s Middle East: First, Israel and most Gulf states have been quietly cooperating for the past 20 years. The Israelis and the Emiratis in particular have shared intelligence and private diplomatic initiatives to roll back Iranian influence in the region.

The other important reality is that no one in the Middle East can say with a straight face that Israel is the source of the region’s instability. Experience is a cruel teacher. Israel had nothing to do with the collapse of the U.N.-recognized government in Yemen — the Iranian-supported Houthis did. Israel had nothing to do with the collapse of Syria — that was the fault of the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. And Israel had nothing to do with the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. In all of these cases, the regimes and groups most vocally opposed to Israel also served as the region’s chief arsonists.

This is something Arab leaders in the region understand better than many advocates for Palestinian sovereignty in the West. As Osama bin Laden once observed, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” In assessing the region, the UAE’s leaders have seen one state thrive as its neighbors burned. They have chosen the strong horse.

Noah Rothman: There Is No Going Back

Indeed, even before the rise of The Squad and their allies, a contingent of progressive congressional Democrats sought to bar the disbursement of U.S. military aid to Israel under the guise that its treatment of Palestinians was “inconsistent with the values of the United States.” These lawmakers aren’t going out on a limb—they are responding to the demands of the Democratic base. In 2019, A Gallup survey found that, while most Americans maintained favorable views toward Israel, “liberal Democrats” had become more sympathetic toward Palestinians overall.

Joe Biden does not appear eager to cater to this wing of their party. He has said that he will preserve the U.S. embassy’s new home in Jerusalem. He would return to the Iran nuclear accords only if and when Iran is no longer in violation of its terms—an unlikely prospect. He has even praised, albeit obliquely, the work the Trump administration did to yield today’s achievement. “The UAE’s offer to publicly recognize the State of Israel is a welcome, brave, and badly-needed act of statesmanship,” Biden said in a statement. “A Biden-Harris Administration will seek to build on this progress and will challenge all the nations of the region to keep pace.”

Perhaps Joe Biden is friendlier to Israel than his party’s progressives, but these statements are not the product of an abiding affection for Israel. They are acknowledgments of the world as it is. There is no going back to the status quo circa 2015. The United States cannot abandon its strategic commitments to the region and its partners in pursuit of the fanciful idea that Iran will suddenly become a responsible actor, or that the Sunni states it is currently at war with by proxy will acquiesce to their own defeat. If he becomes America’s 46th president, Biden will have to govern—and preserving America’s interests in the Middle East involves maintaining its alliances and partnerships.

Biden’s left flank remains committed to the hidebound notion that Israel is the true obstacle to peace in the region, but the region itself has moved on. What seems to look like progress to progressives would, in fact, be regression.

Commentary Magazine Podcast: Living Through History

Hosted by Abe Greenwald, Christine Rosen, John Podhoretz, Noah Rothman

The historic announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates will pursue a peace accord reflects changing dynamics in the Middle East that the European and American left simply refuse to acknowledge. But there will be no turning the clock back.

Michael Oren: Stunning Israel-UAE deal upends the ‘rules’ about peace-making in Middle East

The impending peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is more than just a stunning diplomatic breakthrough. It represents a fundamental shift in the paradigm of peace-making.

For more than 50 years, that paradigm has been based on seemingly unassailable assumptions. The first of these was that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the core dispute in the Middle East. Resolve it, and peace would reign throughout the region. The premise was largely dispelled by the Arab Spring of 2011 and the subsequent civil wars in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. Still, a large body of decision-makers, especially from Europe and the United States, continued to regard a solution to Israel-Palestine as the panacea for many, if not most, of the Middle East’s ills. Then-secretary of state John Kerry’s intense shuttle diplomacy, which paralleled the massacre of half a million Syrians in 2012-14, proceeded precisely on this assumption.

The next assumption was that core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was settlement-building in Judea/Samaria, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Freeze it and the dispute would be easily mediated. This, theory, too, collapsed in the face of facts. Israel withdrew from Gaza, uprooting 21 settlements, in 2005, and then froze settlements for much of 2009-10. The conflict nevertheless continued and even worsened, but that did not prevent foreign policymakers from persisting in the belief that peace is incompatible with settlements.

And, in addition to ceasing construction in the territories, Israel was expected to give virtually all of them up. This was the third assumption — that peace with the Arab world could only be purchased with Israeli concessions of land. This belief is as old as Israel itself. The first Anglo-American peace plans — Alpha and Gamma — were predicated on Israeli concessions in the Negev and elsewhere. After 1967, the principle applied to areas captured by Israel in the Six Day War and, after the return of Sinai to Egypt in 1982, to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The same secretary of state Kerry repeatedly warned Israel that failure to forfeit those areas would result in its total international isolation.

Yet another assumption held that “everyone knows what the final agreement looks like.” With minor modifications and territorial swaps, this meant that a Palestinian state would be created along the pre-1967 lines with a capital in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians would give up the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, agree to end the conflict with Israel and to cease all further claims, and to accept the formula of “two states for two peoples.” Israel, in turn, would remove dozens of settlements, redivide its capital, and outsource West Bank security either to the Palestinians or some international source. Of all the assumptions, this was the most divorced from reality. Not a single aspect of it was achievable. In fact, no one knew what final agreement looked like.

LIVE: Netanyahu Addresses Historic Israel-UAE 'Abraham Accord' Peace Deal

Some hysterical reactions to the Israel/UAE agreement

From Wafa:

The republics of Iran and Turkey vehemently condemned today the UAE-Israeli deal on a full normalization of the relations between the two countries.

"The UAE, which is pursuing secret ambitions over a US plan that is stillborn, null and void, ignores the willpower of Palestine," said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement.

The statement added, "The UAE administration has no authority to negotiate with Israel on behalf of Palestine without consent from its people and administration regarding vital matters."

"Neither history nor the collective conscience of the region will ever forget and forgive the hypocritical behaviour of the UAE, which is trying to depict the deal as a sacrifice for Palestine, when in reality it is a betrayal to the Palestinian cause for its own narrow interests."

Meanwhile, Iran called the deal a "stab in the back" of all Muslims, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

"The UAE government and other accompanying governments must accept responsibility for all the consequences of this action," Iranian Foreign Ministry said, describing the move as an act of "strategic stupidity from Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv that will undoubtedly strengthen the resistance axis in the region."

"The oppressed people of Palestine and all the free nations of the world will never forgive the normalizing of relations with the criminal Israeli occupation regime and the complicity in its crimes."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry described the deal as a "dagger that was unjustly struck by the UAE in the backs of the Palestinian people and all Muslims."

And:

In an official statement broadcast this night on Palestine TV by Nabil Abu Rudeinah, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leadership considered this step as a "blow to the Arab Peace Initiative and the decisions of the Arab and Islamic summits, as well as an aggression against the Palestinian people."

"The Palestinian leadership rejects what the United Arab Emirates has done and considers it a betrayal of Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause. This deal is a de facto recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," said the leadership, as it demanded the UAE to immediately withdraw from this "disgraceful" declaration.

The leadership also rejected any correlation between Israel's freezing of its illegal annexation plan and any normalization of relations with the UAE or any nations, warning the rest of the brotherly Arab countries against "bowing" to American pressure, against following in the footsteps of the UAE, and against free normalization with the Israeli occupation at the expense of Palestinian rights.

"Neither the Emirates nor any other party has the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian leadership shall allow nobody to interfere in the Palestinian affairs or decide on their behalf regarding their legitimate rights in their homeland," said the leadership.

The Palestinian leadership also affirmed that the Palestine Liberation Organization shall remain the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and that the Palestinian people are united behind their legitimate leadership, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas in the face of this brutal tripartite declaration.

In the Arab world, there is a direct correlation between the level of anger expressed and impotence.

Remember the Arab boycott of Israel? It is still the official policy of the Arab League

This week was the 94th conference for the liaison officers of the regional offices of the Arab boycott of Israel that started before Israel was reborn.

The Arab League boycott of Israel has been in place since 1945, when the brand new organization said, “Products of Palestinian Jews are to be considered undesirable in Arab countries. They should be prohibited and refused as long as their production in Palestine might lead to the realization of Zionist political aims.”

Even though most Arab countries have stopped enforcing the boycott – the only exceptions now being Syria and Lebanon – the Central Boycott Office remains.

On Wednesday, that office held a videoconference with members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes Iran.

The conference also expressed its appreciation for the progress and impact of the BDS movement “in confronting the occupation, settler colonialism and Israeli apartheid, in order to achieve freedom and justice in Palestine and enable the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Meanwhile, Israel trades directly with the Arab world, officially and unofficially.

The Arab League is a living example of the Arab honor/shame mentality. It cannot officially accept that the world has changed since the days of the Arab oil embargo. Dismantling the Boycott Office would be an admission of “defeat.” And no one wants to show any cracks in Arab unity which would undermine the entire purpose of the Arab League. Since Syria prioritizes the BDS agenda, and no one opposes a paper committee that does nothing in reality, they continue to meet, twice a year, unwilling to say out loud that they are wasting their time.

Former Palestinian negotiator: UAE deal will HELP Palestinians

Ghaith al-Omari of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has had a number of positions in the Palestinian Authority, including Director of the International Relations Department in the Office of the Palestinian President and an advisor to Mahmoud Abbas. He was also an advisor to the PLO negotiating team from 1999-2001.

His analysis of what the Israel/UAE deal means for Palestinians is therefore most interesting.

Importantly, the UAE’s recognition of Israel also tests whether the Palestinian issue still resonates with the Arab street, especially the younger generation. While the UAE is not a democracy by any stretch of the imagination, its leaders, as is true throughout the Arab world, are sensitive to public opinion. Though this move will not be as popular with Emiratis as with Israelis, there are indications that Palestinian issue is no longer a high priority for the UAE public.

The historic willingness of Arab states to put the plight of the Palestinians in the center of their foreign policy has magnified the clout of the Palestinians and their struggle. But if the UAE can pull off this diplomatic 180, it will suggest that the Palestinian issue is losing its traditional resonance and is now incapable of mobilizing the masses. This could further weaken the Palestinians’ diplomatic hand.

The most immediate plus is the removal of annexation from the agenda.

But beyond this near-term advantage for the Palestinians, history has shown that Arab countries that have relations with Israel — namely, Egypt and Jordan — are more effective in advancing Palestinian interests. Partly, that’s because they hold direct conversations with Israel, which doesn’t want to lose its ties to these two neighbors. But that’s also because in Washington and in the wider international community, their formal relations with Israel lend them more credibility than countries that do not have that status and are seen as automatically criticizing the Jewish state. The UAE will be a valuable and effective addition to this grouping, particularly as it extends the Israeli-Arab dialogue to the strategically important Gulf.

The Arab-Israeli peace process has been mired for many years. This vacuum has led to the hardening of positions among Palestinians and Israelis, and many international and regional actors have given up on the prospect of any progress between the two sides. Indeed, the two-state solution — the idea that the conflict can be resolved through dividing the Holy Land between Israel and a Palestinian state — has been fast losing support. Annexation would have put an end to any prospects for progress, as it would have made a future Palestine unviable. This new development can create a window to begin shifting these dynamics.

I’m not so optimistic on Israel and the Palestinians reaching any sort of agreement, because the Palestinian position has been nothing but rejectionism and waiting for the international community to pressure Israel for it without compromising.

The dynamic is now different. If the PLO can no longer rely on the Arab world to reflexively support it, it has to recalibrate its strategy. At the moment it has no leader with the foresight or the courage to do that. However, a prerequisite for any sort of peace is Israeli security – and Israel’s psychological security is as important as its physical security.

If Israel feels like it is a part of the Middle East, and that it is a true ally with the Arab world, and if it knows that its Arab friends want peace more than they want to see Israel disappear, it will be more willing to take chances for peace.

If the Palestinians realize that their strategy of relying on a solid wall of Arab support has failed, they will face a stark choice of becoming a vassal of Iran and becoming a mini-Syria or Lebanon, or choosing to do what is best for their own people.

So far in their brief history, Palestinian leaders have consistently made the worst choices. I see no reason to think that is going to change. But this diplomatic lightning strike gives them the chance, at least, to wake up.

Scorecard–who supports, opposes peace between Israel and Arabs?

Support peace	Oppose peace	On the fence
UAE/Israel/USA	PLO	Japan
Albania	Hezbollah	Jordan
Australia	Houthis	Luxembourg 1 2
Austria	Iran	Pakistan
Azerbaijan	Libya	Qatar
Bahrain	Turkey	South Africa
Brazil	Yemen
Canada
China
Croatia
Cyprus		Human Rights Watch
Czech Republic	IfNotNow	Amnesty International
Egypt	Jewish Voice for Peace
Ethiopia	Rashida Tlaib
France	CODEPINK
Germany
Greece
India
Kosovo
Mauritania
Moldova
Netherlands
New Zealand
North Macedonia
Norway ... (barely)
Oman
Poland
Romania
Slovenia
South Korea
UK

UN
EU
AIPAC
J-Street, barely
Peace Now

Notice how the socialist Left has no problem aligning with the worst terrorists and terror supporters on the planet.

As of this writing on Thursday night I see no comment from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, the Arab League, Indonesia, Malaysia and many other counties.

If you see any other reactions please link to them in the comments and I will update this list.

(h/t Zvi)