EU moves to stop funding Palestinian terrorists, inciting textbooks
The European Parliament Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to ensure EU funds do not reach anyone affiliated with terrorists. It also rapped UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, for iinciting hate and violence in their textbooks.Palestinian President Unleashes Profane Rant Against Rest of the World
The legislature’s annual budgetary report says the EU must “thoroughly verify” that its funds are not “allocated or linked to any cause or form of terrorism and/or religious and political radicalization.” Any funds that did go to any person or organization with terror ties must be “proactively recovered, and recipients involved are excluded from future Union funding.”
The article in the report came following an ongoing dispute between Palestinian NGOs and the EU over the affiliations of some of the organizations’ leadership and employees. Palestinian NGOs demanded that the EU erase a stipulation that aid can only be sent to organizations without ties to EU-designated terrorist groups, claiming that groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated a terrorist group in the EU, US, Canada and Israel, and has been responsible for many terrorist attacks on Israelis, are political parties.
Last March, EU Representative to West Bank and Gaza Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff wrote in an official letter to the Palestinian NGO Network that said as there are no Palestinian individuals on the EU’s “restrictive measures list” which bars funds to terrorists, NGOs would not be penalized if members of terrorist groups benefit from their EU funding. The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned EU Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret to protest the policy, following Jerusalem Post reporting on the letter.
The new guideline doubles down on the European Parliament’s commitment to prevent EU donations from ending up in the hands of terrorists, by calling for proactive recovery of funds.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was recently caught badmouthing several countries, including the United States and his Arab neighbors, during a profanity-laced rant that raises new concerns about the 85-year-old leader's deteriorating health.Where John Kerry’s truth lies
The Arabic language rant is renewing speculation that Abbas—who is overweight and a heavy cigarette smoker—is in poor mental and physical health as he carries out his 16th year in office. His government is under great strain amid monumental regional shifts that have seen Israel make peace with its traditional Arab foes.
When asked by an unidentified attendee at the Fatah political party's April 19 meeting what his message to China is on the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Abbas went ballistic.
"Fuck the c—t of China with a shoe!" Abbas screamed, according to an independent Arabic translation of his remarks provided to the Washington Free Beacon. "That good for you?"
After pausing for a few seconds, Abbas continued yelling: "And Russia, America, and all the Arabs. What's wrong with you? All of you go to hell!"Leaked audio recording of Mahmoud Abbas cussing out Russia, the Arabs, and China (Fatah Central Committee meeting April 19,2021) pic.twitter.com/bLngjLMXl8
— Fadi Elsalameen فادي السلامين (@Elsalameen) April 22, 2021
The rant raises new questions about Abbas's health ahead of Palestinian elections scheduled for late May. The president's age and deteriorating health have been a much-discussed topic in the Israeli and Arab media for years, and it still remains unclear who is poised to succeed him. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been mostly dormant in the wake of Israel's landmark peace agreements with leading Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Jonathan Schanzer, a Middle East expert and vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Abbas is under "immense pressure" and may be reaching his breaking point. Israel's newfound peace with Abbas's traditional Arab allies also could be fueling his anger.
"Abbas has been under immense pressure to hold elections after being marginalized for the last four years by former president Donald Trump and a number of Arab states," Schanzer said. "He has felt alienated. Now he is boxed in. He is lashing out."
So which is it: Should we trust Iran or not?Kerry’s Denial on Leaking to Iran Doesn’t Add Up
John Kerry is the biggest proponent of the nuclear deal with Iran. We can believe that country to abide by its provisions, he says.
Yet when Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that Kerry had revealed to him the fact that Israel had conducted 200 airstrikes in Syria, the Biden official bristled. Zarif was lying.
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false,” Kerry said in a statement. “This never happened when I was secretary of state or since.”
To be sure, the likeliest scenario remains that John Forbes Kerry is guilty of doing exactly what Zarif claims he did. But let’s engage in a little thought experiment: Let’s say Zarif made the whole thing up and the underlying leaked recording was part of a cynical Islamic Republic disinformation operation to create more “daylight” between two of Tehran’s greatest adversaries, the “Big Satan” of America and the “Little Satan” of Israel.
Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at United Nations headquarters.
In this hypothetical scenario, it is not Kerry who is the bald-faced liar — it is Zarif. But in that case, why in the world is Team Biden currently prostrating itself in Vienna before the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, with Zarif himself as that No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism’s leading diplomat, in the quixotic hopes of securing a “longer and stronger” nuclear deal?
Either way, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that the Israelis had signed off on Kerry revealing this information to Tehran. We’re left where we started: John Kerry knowing about military actions that an allied country had taken in Syria that were not meant to be public knowledge — and sharing information about them with the Iranian foreign minister.
Also note that by speaking this bluntly and critically of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the late Major General Qasim Soleimani, it seems clear Zarif did not expect this interview to go public at this time. Maybe he thought his comments would be revealed far in the future, after his retirement or after his death — if they were ever revealed at all. For what it is worth, the Iranian foreign ministry says the recording was never meant to be released to the public:
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said today that the recording was not supposed to be released to the media. The interview took place with economist Saeed Leylaz, who is a supporter of the Rouhani administration. Khatibzadeh said the recording was a “typical discussion within the administration.” The intention of the talks was a Rouhani administration initiative that all Cabinet members record their experiences in order to serve as documents to help the next administration.
It seems pretty clear that we in the West were not meant to hear this interview anytime soon, if ever — which makes it even more implausible that this is some sort of Iranian misinformation effort to undermine John Kerry’s reputation. However, it does feel as if somebody in the Iranian government wanted to kneecap Zarif, and/or his political allies. Iran is scheduled to have a presidential “election” in June 18. (Those scare quotes are deliberate.) While the final ballot has yet to be set, take a look at who a bunch of the top contenders are:
A number of Iranian military leaders, from both the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are among the likely candidates for Iran’s presidential election, which will be held on June 18. Among these candidates are the former IRGC air force commander and former defense minister in the Rouhani government Hossein Dehghan; former IRGC commander and current Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee; and the former head of the IRGC’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters Brig. Gen. Saeed Mohammed, as well as other politicians with a military background, including Ali Larijani, Parviz Fattah and Mehrdad Bazrpash.
If you’re the IRGC or an ally of that faction within the Iranian government, and you come across an audiotape of the foreign minister trashing your beloved brigadier-general-turned-airport-highway-speedbump, you’re sure as heck going to release that.
This isn’t a lie designed to smear Kerry. There’s no good reason to think Zarif is lying to the interviewer. Kerry’s reputation is collateral damage in a fight among factions within the Iranian government.
We as Americans have very little ability to influence who runs what within the Iranian regime. But we can decide which people can be trusted with secrets within the U.S. government — and John Kerry isn’t one of those people.