Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 24, 2021

The terrorist PFLP's links to Palestinian NGOs are extensive

The news all weekend has been about the backlash against Israel declaring six specific Palestinian NGOs as having links to the terrorist PFLP organization.

Israel and the US State Department clashed over the weekend after the Justice and Defense ministries on Friday declared that several leading Palestinian NGOs were arms of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.
The ministries each issued documents classifying Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), Union Of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), as branches of the PFLP, joining other NGOs who had previously also been designated as terrorist affiliates.
The US State Department criticized the announcement on Friday in the most explicit admonition from the Biden administration since the new Israeli government was formed in June.

The State of Israel itself has issued a detailed report, titled "Terrorists in Suits," documenting the extensive links between the PFLP and three of the organizations listed - Al Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, and Addameer. Some excerpts:

There is no coincidence here. The PFLP is a Marxist organization that uses human rights as a weapon against Israel at the exact same time they are using explosives to kill Jews. Because it is socialist, the far Left haters of Israel fully embrace the PFLP, treating its terrorists as heroes - and these are many of the same organizations now screaming the loudest that their terrorist-linked NGOs are being treated appropriately.

What about the other organizations listed? What are their PFLP links?

One of the people arrested for the murder of Rina Shnerb was Samer Arbid, who served as an accountant at the Union of Agricultural Works Committees (UAWC) and led the cell for the murder - which the PFLP proudly calls the Bubeen operation.

The Regavim organization documented the links between the PFLP and UAWC:

Both the PFLP and UAWC have attempted to obscure their close ties, in order to portray the civilian organization as an independent non-profit. Notwithstanding their efforts, there is clear evidence of their ideological and financial interdependence: An internal document prepared for the American humanitarian organization USAID in 1993 stated that the UAWC is "the agricultural wing of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine." In fact, the PLO registered the UAWC as a branch of the Popular Front.

The affiliation of the UAWC with the PFLP is ongoing, despite the latter's classification both by the United States and the European Union. Senior figures in the PFLP hierarchy have served in senior positions in the UAWC, among them Jamil Muhamad Ismail Al Majdalawi, formerly the Vice President of the UAWC in Gaza, who is a well known senior officer in the PFLP. He served as head of the political division of the PFLP in Gaza, and in 2013 acted as the PFLP's representative to Fatah bodies in the Palestinian Authority. Bashar Al Khiri served as Chief of the PFLP's Political Division in the early 2000s. He was arrested and imprisoned by the State of Israel, and after his release served as President of the UAWC Advisory Board from 2005-2010.

Ubai Aboudi is the Executive Director of Bisan Center for Research & Development. In early 2005 he was arrested for planning an attack at the Latrun Armory Museum and also to carry out a shooting attack against an IDF vehicle and abduct the soldiers' bodies.

A report for USAID mentions that the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was founded as the the PFLP's women's organization, just as the UAWC was founded as its agricultural wing. The report, written in 1993, says "Most major Palestinian institutions, especially in the health, agricultural, and industrial sectors, are affiliated with one of the principal factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (Fatah, PFLP, PPP, and the two wings of the DFLP). That is, each faction has its own medical committee, agricultural committee, women's committee, federation of trade unions, etc."

The very genesis of Palestinian NGOs that are now considered to be "human rights" organizations are as part of designated terror groups - and the US knows this quite well!

The PFLP is not just "linked" to these NGOs. For most of them, it appears to be their founders. Any pretense that they have separated their ways is ignoring reality, as people move back and forth between the PFLP and these organizations even today.

It is too bad the State of Israel didn't release the corroborating information on these NGO links to terrorist organizations in concert with the announcement. As usual, the messaging has been amateurish or incompetent. But the links and history is all there for anyone who bothers to look.

Palestinian media on Saturday quoted their "Jerusalem Governorate" as condemning the rebuilding of the iconic Tiferet Yisrael synagogue.

Their claims are ludicrous once you know that it the land was purchased by Jews in the 1840s, completed in 1872, destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948. The Jerusalem government approved the rebuilding in 2012, but perhaps some new stage in the rebuilding just started.

The Jerusalem Governorate condemned the start of building a new synagogue bearing the name “The Jewel of Israel” located about 200 meters from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque from its western side, in the Al-Sharaf neighborhood, considering this measure a new crime against the sanctities and another attempt to Judaize and falsify the Arab face of the city.

The Jerusalem Governorate said - in a press statement this evening - that the synagogue is being built on the ruins of an Islamic endowment, warning of the danger of encircling Al-Aqsa Mosque with a series of synagogues and biblical gardens, among which was the "Hurva Synagogue", in an effort to Judaize Al-Aqsa and its surroundings and Jerusalem as a whole in exchange for obliterating every trace. Islamic and Arab in the occupied city and the surrounding Palestinian areas, and added that the occupation deliberately built the Jewish Synagogue west of Al-Aqsa with a huge architectural design so that it distorts its general visual scene and controls it completely, and in order to mimic its domes, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City, knowing that it has built dozens of synagogues and religious Talmudic settlement schools in the Old City with the aim of Judaizing it and expelling the Palestinian Arab population from it.

The statement said: "These racist settlement measures [aim to] to prove its entitlement to Jerusalem, through falsification of history, obliteration of facts, distortion of the Islamic urban landscape in the occupied capital, and the creation of a Hebrew model in it.

The statement stressed that the city of Jerusalem is Islamic in face, with an Arab identity, and the occupation will not rob it of this fact, no matter how intrusive it is in criminality by all means and methods.

As far as the Arab fear of Jewish buildings dominating the skyline, here is the Jewish Quarter before 1948, with both the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael domes clearly visible.

10/23 Links: What We Lose When We Lose Thomas Jefferson; Israel disputes US claim it wasn’t told of plan to outlaw rights groups; Palestinians fume over labelling of NGOs as terrorist organizations

From Ian:

What We Lose When We Lose Thomas Jefferson

The reduction of American history to an unbroken story of racial oppression comes at particular cost to Jews. Because we have been among the greatest beneficiaries of liberal institutions, we are unavoidably targets when those institutions abandon or reject their liberal mission. A widely despised and persecuted people who thrived in America like nowhere else, Jews do not fit into the sharp distinction between oppressor and oppressed that characterized ideological “antiracism.” Therefore, Jewish experiences must either be ignored or reduced to a monolithic conception of white supremacy.

It’s no coincidence that former Council member (now Assemblyman) Charles Barron, who began the campaign to remove the Jefferson statue twenty years ago, is among the most antisemitic figures in city politics. An ally of the New Black Panther Party, Barron has asserted that the “real” Semites are black and accused Israel of “genocide.” Even if he’s not targeting Levy specifically, Barron is an undisguised enemy of the pluralistic patriotism that Jefferson articulated and Levy did so much to promote. Barron doesn’t want the statue moved, “contextualized” or supplemented by other likenesses. He wants it destroyed.

The question for Assemblyman Barron and everyone else who made removal of the statue their cause celèbre is: By destroying the statue, do you mean to attack the man or the symbol? Do you mean to attack his slave-holding, or his striving for a free and democratic republic? Sometimes, it’s hard to be sure.

Jefferson’s far from the first statue to fall, and it won’t be the last. But the plaster and bronze of which they’re composed isn’t the most important thing. What matters is the fate of the ideas in that Declaration in Jefferson’s hand. The ones that Lincoln described as “an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times,” and “a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.” That’s what Uriah Levy saw in Jefferson and what we should continue to honor today.

Israel disputes US claim it wasn’t told of plan to outlaw rights groups

An Israeli defense official on Saturday disputed American claims that the United States was not informed of a highly contentious decision by Jerusalem to label six Palestinian rights organizations as terror groups, insisting Washington had been told in advance.

“Officials in the American administration were updated in advance of the intention to make this declaration and they received intelligence information about the matter,” the defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Friday afternoon, Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that half a dozen Palestinian civil society groups — including highly prominent ones with significant backing and oversight from the European Union and other international bodies — were being designated as terror organizations, asserting that they worked on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group.

This list included: Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; ADDAMEER — Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Bisan Center for Research and Development; al-Haq Organization; Defense for Children International — Palestine (DCI-P); and the Union Of Agricultural Work Committees.

“Those organizations were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel,” Gantz’s office said in a statement. According to the Defense Ministry, all six organizations employed senior PFLP members, “including activists involved in terror activity.”

Representatives of the groups and international organizations denied the charges and accused Israel of trying to silence criticism of alleged human rights abuses, with one of the organizations, al-Haq, calling the move “a sinister, unprecedented, and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations.”

One of the really remarkable parts of the Obama administration, "remarkable" as in people remarked on it all the time, was how they constantly manufactured false reasons to beat up on the Israelis.

Everything old is new again. pic.twitter.com/5oQpDCKdT2
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) October 23, 2021

JPost Editorial: Israel must prove blacklisted NGOs funded terrorism - editorial

It is also reminiscent of the trial of Muhammad el-Halabi, a former head of the World Vision NGO who was arrested in 2016 for allegedly assisting Hamas.

Israel said he diverted millions of dollars contributed by the Australian government that were earmarked for humanitarian aid to Hamas. World Vision suspended its operations in Gaza and hired investigators to check the Israeli claims. Australia did the same. After exhaustive research, they both came up with no evidence to back the Israeli claims.

Halabi’s trial has dragged on for years. Something so simple - the Israeli claims that he funneled money to Hamas - should have been easy to prove in court. Why is the trial not over remains a mystery and as Yonah Bob recently wrote in the Post, the case is showing indications of not being a fair trial.

As Bob pointed out, Halabi has been in jail for more than five years and has endured 165 court sessions without any credible evidence brought against him. He has been denied bail and his trial has been declared secret without any credible reason except possibly to hide the fact that the prosecutor is afraid of being exposed for unjustly keeping an innocent man in jail for such a long time.

And this is exactly the problem with Gantz’s announcement on Friday about the NGOs designated as terrorist groups. It is easy to make announcements and declare that an NGO is part of a terrorist enterprise. It is harder to prove that.

This is not to say that these NGOs or Halabi are innocent. It is a call on Israeli authorities to back up what they claim with real evidence. Otherwise, they should not be surprised when the world asks questions.

The screams you hear from the multi-billion NGO industry after 6 of their Palestinian allies were finally acknowledged as terror fronts (the evidence is clear) are the sounds of being found out. https://t.co/EXBRhgLT2a pic.twitter.com/mTeUaw4wAo
— Prof Gerald M Steinberg (@GeraldNGOM) October 22, 2021

10/22 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The baleful consequences of cultural dogmyopia; ‘This is what bigotry looks like’ — Jewish groups react to national Sunrise Movement statement

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The baleful consequences of cultural dogmyopia

In Britain, western Europe and America, those who dissent from liberal dogma hostile to fundamental western values, the nation-state or the existence of Israel are intimidated, smeared and cancelled.

Britain, where an epic revolt by the people against liberal universalism delivered Brexit and thus restored the United Kingdom as an independent sovereign nation, is nevertheless run by a political class that continues to refuse even to identify the Islamic holy war being waged against it. Britain therefore cannot defend itself against that attack.

America is well on the way to destroying itself through the hatred of its identity and values with which it has indoctrinated so many of its citizens. The resulting moral and cultural vacuum is being exploited by an alliance between radical Islamists and black, anti-white extremists intent on bringing down America and the west.

Most American Jews, having bought to some extent at least into the intersectional ideologies fuelling this onslaught, are incapable of acknowledging the threat these pose to Jewish life.

In Britain, Jewish community leaders promote the fantasy that if they line up alongside intersectionality’s purported “victims,” the Jews will be afforded protection.

The west is like the apocryphal frog being uncomprehendingly boiled in the pot. In Britain, the pot is being heated very slowly; in France, it has reached boiling point; and in America, it has boiled over with many Jews actually helping turn up the heat.

When the whole of mainstream politics subscribes to self-destructive thinking, it’s inevitable that leaders will emerge who are themselves in some ways extreme and unpalatable but who nevertheless offer the only chance of extinguishing the heat under the pot.

Various thinkers over the years have recognised a conundrum. This is that, if a liberal society finds itself required to use illiberal means to defend its liberal values, it will refuse to do so — and thus inevitably constitutes its own death warrant.

Will this be the case in the west? Given the significant jump in immigration to Israel this year from France and Britain, it seems that an increasing number of diaspora Jews aren’t waiting to find out.

Father of man charged with Amess murder defended attacks on Israel

The father of the man charged with the murder of Tory MP Sir David Amess posted a series of inflammatory tweets about Israel including one in which he defended Palestinian rocket attacks.

Harbi Ali Kullane, the father of Ali Harbi Ali, also responded to the clashes on Temple Mount in 2009 with a warning that Israel did “not know what it is meddling with”.

The posts, which were uncovered by the influential think tank Policy Exchange, have prompted extremism experts to question whether his son may have been motivated to murder the pro-Israel MP by a “grievance culture” against Israel and the West.

In other controversial messages, Mr Kullane, a former diplomat for the Somali government, in 2015 compared the Islamist terror attacks in Paris to the West’s aerial bombing campaign in Syria and posted a tweet in 2017 criticising “the misery inflicted by British colonialism”.

Mr Kullane was a one-time adviser to the former Prime Minister of Somalia, Hassan Ali Khaire, and a director of the then-government’s media and communication department.

Commentary Magazine Podcast: What It Means to Be Courageous

Bari Weiss joins the COMMENTARY podcast to discuss her article in the new issue: “We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage.” She outlines the threat posed by wokeness, and how dissenters against this authoritarian dogma can reverse course.

The Tikvah Podcast: Elisha Wiesel on His Father’s Jewish and Zionist Legacy

When Elie Wiesel was fifteen years old, the Nazis murdered his mother and sister and enslaved him and his father in Buchenwald. After the U.S. Army liberated the camp in April 1945, Wiesel went to France, where he studied the humanities and worked as a writer, and then to New York, where he became a professor and an activist for human rights. Wiesel, who died in July 2016, wrote some 60 books, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, and was counselor to presidents, senators, kings, and prime ministers.

Recently, he and his family were honored by the installation of a sculpture of his likeness in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The manner of this honoring introduces some particularly vexing Jewish questions, which his son Elisha discussed in a recent Washington Post op-ed. Elie Wiesel was a moral hero, and a particularly Jewish one. His family worried that his memorialization in a church would emphasize the universalist elements of his legacy, and discard particular Jewish elements of his moral persona—including his Jewish observance and his Zionist commitments. Elisha joins Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver to think about these questions, his father’s legacy, and more on this week’s podcast.

See here for previous takes on this term.

10/22 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Israel's post-American strategic challenge; Palestinian NGOs declared PFLP terrorist arms by Israeli government; Terror cell are linked to PA security forces

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel's post-American strategic challenge

A report this week about the discussions Israel and the US are now holding regarding the Iranian nuclear program was nothing short of an earthquake. Tuesday, Israel Hayom ran a red headline on its front page: "Iran is cozying up to moderate states, and Israel is worried." The story, by military correspondent Yoav Limor, told us two deeply alarming things about the state of American-Israeli coordination on Iran's nuclear program. First, the Americans are not working with Israel to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power. They are working against Israel.

The Americans and Israelis agree that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear breakout state, which can assemble nuclear weapons at will. But whereas they agree on the status of Iran's quest for military nuclear capability, they disagree about what the response to the current state of Iran's nuclear program should be. Israel's position is that the US should take diplomatic and economic action, and at a minimum threaten military action if Iran refuses to reinstate the limitations on its nuclear activities set out in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, from 2015. The 2015 nuclear deal permitted Iran to enrich limited quantities of uranium to 3.67% enrichment. Iran is currently enriching massive quantities of uranium to 60% enrichment – just a step away from weapons-grade.

US President Joe Biden and his advisors are unwilling to consider placing additional economic sanctions on Iran. Indeed, the administration is turning a blind eye to Iran's export of massive quantities of oil and gas to China and other states, in breach of the sanctions.

Military action, the Americans told their Israeli interlocutors, isn't off the table.

The Americans say they may be willing to consider taking diplomatic action of some form or another. But in exchange, they demand Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.

In short, Limor's article reported that the US has made clear to Israel that it will take no effective action to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

The second stunning bit of information in Limor's article is that the Lapid-Bennett government has no idea what to do in the face of America's position. Instead of accepting reality and moving to face Iran without the US, Israel's government is opting to cling ever tighter to Washington.

Limor wrote, "The Israeli effort to reach maximal cooperation with the US is under way, among other reasons, because of the fact that Israel has very few options left."

Poll: Majority of Israelis Believe Joe Biden Worse for Israel than Donald Trump

A narrow majority (53 percent) of Israelis believe the Biden administration is worse for Israel than that of Donald Trump, a new poll found.

Only 35 percent thought the relationship between Israel and the U.S. was good, a dramatic drop from a year ago when 67 percent respondents said it was good.

Thirty-six percent said there was no significant difference between Trump and Biden and 11 percent thought Biden is better for Israel.

Forty-six percent of Israelis view the E.U. as hostile to Israel, and 24 percent view it as an ally.

Thirty-four percent believe the Abraham Accords agreements, signed a year ago between Israel and four Arab countries, are a turning point for Israel’s standing in the Middle East. Thirty-one percent believe Israel’s standing has not changed significantly.

Richard Kemp: Biden's Afghanistan Withdrawal Unleashes a Lethal Terrorist Cocktail

Despite their promises to deny terrorists safe haven, the Taliban will do the opposite. They and Al Qaida are joined at the hip, with both Osama Bin Laden and his successor Ayman Al Zawahiri having sworn unbreakable allegiance, bay'ah, to the leaders of the Taliban.

The Islamic State's Khorosan branch, with several thousand fighters in Afghanistan, will pose a similar threat. Many political leaders in the US and UK claim the Taliban are sworn enemies of the IS, with some even suggesting that we might form an alliance against IS with Taliban terrorists. But this abhorrent proposition is merely an attempt to help limit the political fall-out from their ill-judged actions that facilitated the Taliban's conquest.

Today, all these actors know there is no prospect of further large-scale US intervention in the country, no matter how great their atrocities. The US remains capable of air strikes and even special forces raids against serious threats emanating from Afghanistan, but these require high-grade intelligence which, despite the powerful technical capabilities of the agencies, is extremely difficult to gain now that we have withdrawn all forces.

The prospect of a successful jihadist insurgency in Pakistan, with its nuclear arsenal, has been a long-standing concern for the US, which invested huge intelligence and military resources to help prevent it. Most of this capability was withdrawn with the exit from Afghanistan.

Like Pakistan, China supported the Taliban insurgency for many years. In return, the Taliban have frequently hunted down and killed many of the Uighur leaders — fellow Sunni Muslims — who took refuge in Afghanistan. Desperate for Beijing's funds and political backing, the Taliban can be relied on to do all they can to prevent any export of jihadism into China.

But we can expect no such efforts from Beijing to prevent terrorist actions against the West. On the contrary, as the new cold war intensifies, China is more than capable of using its increasing cooperation with the Taliban to enlist jihadists from Afghanistan as proxies against the US.

Palestinian NGOs declared PFLP terrorist arms by Israeli government

Several Palestinian NGOs, designated as Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, DCI-P, Samidoun and UAWC, were declared by the Justice and Defense Ministries on Friday to be affiliated with the terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

"The security organizations will continue to act and intensify the strikes against terrorism and the terrorist infrastructure everywhere, and by all means,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “I call on the countries of the world and international organizations, to assist in this fight, and to avoid contact with companies and organizations that supply materials to terrorism."

“This appalling and unjust decision is an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement,” Human Rights Watch, which reportedly works closely with many of the affected NGOs, said in a statement. “How the international community responds will be a true test of its resolve to protect human rights defenders. We are proud to work with our Palestinian partners and have been doing so for decades. They represent the best of global civil society. We stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.”

The Defense Ministry charges that the organizations serve as a network on the world stage working undercover as civil society organizations to support the PFLP and pursue its interests.

The NGOs allegedly serve as a branch of PFLP’s leadership. Members of the PFLP serve as senior officials in the groups, and they have employed field activists who have participated in acts of terrorism.

About CNN’s coverage of Israel…

The Israeli government just designated Samidoun an affiliate of the PFLP terror group.

Here’s @CNN using Samidoun as trusted source. ?? pic.twitter.com/XURziYtVk7
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) October 22, 2021

Rabbi Yaakov Herzog calls himself the Chief Rabbi of Saudi Arabia. He has been traveling to the kingdom for well over a year now but he became famous in April when Jewish media started covering his intention to represent Judaism to the Saudis and provide services to any Jews traveling there, either in the US Army or on business.

Every time he posts photos or videos of himself in front of various Saudi landmarks, he gets a lot of response.

On Thursday, he posted a video of him dancing with a Saudi friend. One response was that "Riyadh must be washed with water and dirt after [his] stepping on its land." But another responded to critics of him visiting by saying "America exploded a nuclear bomb on Japan and today they are friends and allies.. In the same way you think, we have to be hostile to France, Italy and Britain because they colonized all our countries."

One said, "You will not be happy, O you who wish to destroy the first of the two Qiblahs and the third of the Two Holy Mosques."

Arab media also picked up on the videos and photos of Herzog. One theorized that he entered the kingdom with an Emirati passport (he has an American accent and almost certainly used that passport.)

A video where Herzog blesses the Saudi king and citizens gained a comment that the Saudis arrest people for tweets, why is this rabbi allowed to run around freely?

For another tweet of his, one Arab responds with a video of a Hitler speech dubbed into Arabic that is translated as being explicitly antisemitic.

Even so, the number of positive reactions is nothing short of amazing, considering that any public support for Jews was unheard of in Saudi Arabia only a few years ago.

(Not exactly like this)

This week it was revealed that Turkey had arrested 15 people that they claimed were part of a Mossad "spy ring."

Turkish newspaper Sabah today described how one of the supposed spies was recruited - and it appears that he didn't know he was a spy.

Daily Sabah describes the operation:

According to the news article, [Turkish citizen] M.A.S. had a company that provided consultancy to students coming from abroad to Istanbul. Mossad first contacted him in December 2018 through an agent called A.Z., who reached him through an unknown number on WhatsApp.

He asked M.A.S. for information about his business, claiming that he had Arab-origin customers in Germany whose children wanted to study in Turkey.

The agent aimed thereby to learn how Palestinian students entered universities in Turkey and what kind of opportunities the Turkish government and municipalities provided them with. After a week, the suspect who sent his work to the Mossad official received hundreds of euros through Western Union.

This was the first parcel of money that he was to receive over three years. M.A.S. also agreed to work on a separate file on Palestinian nongovernmental organizations (NGO) in Turkey for Mossad, which he encountered for the first time face-to-face in 2019.

A.Z. told him he has a close friend who wants to help the Palestinian people, with the initials M.C.

This friend was another case officer who told M.A.S he is working in the European Union and could communicate with him through Protonmail.

M.A.S. explained that he received thousands of euros in return for the files and that he once took the money from a market in Istanbul’s Batışehir by showing his ID and receipt.

Mossad also wanted to learn how Palestinians coming to Istanbul Airport during COVID-19 that could not leave were aided.

The two stayed in contact until April 2021, when M.C. asked M.A.S. to meet him in Europe with all of his expenses covered. M.A.S. was sent an invitation letter by a front company called European Student Guidance Center (ESGC) through the Switzerland consulate general in Istanbul.

M.A.S received his visa from Switzerland within the hour, flew to the country and was met by A.Z. at Zurich Airport.

He guessed A.Z. was around 60-65 years old and 1.80 meters (5 feet 9 inches) tall. He was given 500 euros ($580) and was brought to a hotel. He met M.C. at another hotel and was taught in his room how to encrypt Word files on Protonmail. Further contact between the two was made through Protonmail.

M.A.S. elaborated that he went to Zurich once again in August where he met with M.C. and another man called John. After M.A.S. got suspicious that they might be intelligence agents, M.C. told him he could think of them as “an intelligence-like organization with the duty of making research for EU institutions.”

M.A.S. received close to $10,000 over the three years.

Based on this, the Turkish citizen is not a spy. He didn't even suspect that his handlers were spies until a few months ago.

Every government gathers intelligence, and while the handlers used clandestine means to gather it, "M.A.S" does not appear to have done that. The information he gathered was useful as part of a huge amount of information that intelligence agencies must sift through to find patterns and potential threats. But this is really small potatoes.

Maybe some of the other people arrested were doing more illegal things to gather intelligence, or had access to more sensitive information. But based on this story, it sounds more like Turkey bragging that they managed to "break a Mossad spy ring" than any actual accomplishment.

JTA reported on Wednesday:

The Washington D.C. branch of a national climate action group turned down a role at a voting rights rally because a “number of Zionist organizations” will be taking part.

“Given our commitment to racial justice, self-governance and indigenous sovereignty, we oppose Zionism and any state that enforces its ideology,” Sunrise DC said in a statement it posted Tuesday on Twitter.

The group named the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs as groups supporting Israel, which Sunrise DC called a “colonial project.”

All three Jewish groups cited by Sunrise DC have long-established records of pro-Israel advocacy but have in recent years devoted much of their focus on domestic issues. The three groups all back the two-state outcome; NCJW and the Reform movement’s RAC have sister groups in Israel that advocate for the rights of minorities and for women.

Reaction was swift from both the Zionist and anti-Zionist sides. One other Sunrise group, based at George Washington University, responded forcefully and succinctly:

Sunrise GW unequivocally condemns the Sunrise DC hub’s statement this week calling for the removal of 3 Jewish organizations from the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition.
Standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people is morally just and not antisemitic. Singling out explicitly Jewish organizations despite non-Jewish organizations in the coalition holding similar stances on Israel is unquestionably antisemitic and has no place in our movement.
Our movement is rooted in principles of justice, equity, and anti-oppression. We do not and will not place a litmus test on Jewish students or any students to be a part of our movement at GW.

But while even another progressive Sunrise group was easily able to identify the antisemitism behind its sister chapter, Jewish liberal organizations - while critical of the statement - refused to say the same.

Americans for Peace Now said that SunriseDC's position "crosses any line" but didn't use the A word:

“If you look at NCJW, for example, nowhere on their website does it say that they’re a Zionist organization,” said Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, an organization that advocates for a two-state solution. “This is not boycotting the ZOA [Zionist Organization of America] or AIPAC or even [Americans for Peace Now]. This is boycotting groups because they are Jewish and state a general … support of Israel, which is the position of 90% of the American Jewish community.”

Susskind said such a view “crosses any line.”

“To say that any group that is in any way supportive of Israel should be excluded from our civic life is unacceptable,” said Susskind.

The three groups targeted by Sunrise DC also refused to say that the stance was antisemitic:

In separate statements to Jewish Insider, senior leaders at the RAC, NCJW and JCPA expressed commitments to dialogue and coalition-building but did not criticize the Sunrise Movement by name nor call the group’s stance antisemitic. When asked specifically what they thought about the Sunrise Movement statement and its language about Zionism, all three declined to elaborate.

J-Street likewise refused to point out the antisemitism:

Kevin Rachlin, J Street’s vice president of public affairs, expressed his support for “the critical work of the Sunrise Movement in combating the urgent dangers of climate change.”

But, Rachlin told JI, “we find the statement by the local Sunrise DC Chapter to be saddening, harmful and wrong,” he said. “Seeking to bar liberal pro-Israel and Zionist groups and individuals from progressive coalitions and spaces disrespects and alienates a large portion of the American Jewish community — and does nothing to actually help the Palestinian people, combat occupation or promote peace. Progressive advocates for Palestinian rights and other important causes should seek to engage and share views with liberal Jewish institutions — not treat them with dismissive contempt.”

The only exception listed in the JI article came from the Jewish Democratic Council of America:

This is antisemitism, plain and simple.

Targeting Jewish Americans in is such an open and blatant way is a shameful attempt to bar Jews from participating in civic spaces. We stand with
@NCJW

@TheRAC
and
@theJCPA
.

We won't stand for such blatant attacks against our community.

This is modern dhimmitude.

Most (but not all) Jewish progressives are often so frightened of maintaining their status among other liberal groups that they are not willing to call out obvious antisemitism when it happens in their own spaces. They prioritize being one of the "in crowd" than they do their own Jewishness.

SunruseGW's unequivocal statement of condemnation towards SunriseDC was stronger that of nearly all liberal Jewish groups. And that says volumes about how secure liberal Jews are in their liberal spaces.

They know that there is a huge amount of antisemitism on the Left - but they are willing to let it slide rather than admit it and fight it. This cowardly attitude is what helps modern antisemitism grow and fester. They prioritize politics (calling out right-wing antisemitism, real or imagined) rather than defending themselves from the hate from some of their own allies.

The organizations that refused to call out this hate for what it was are doing a disservice to all Jews, liberal or otherwise.

10/21 Links Pt2: Climate group refuses to rally with 'Zionist organizations'; Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s crisis is escalating; Black Eyed Peas to perform in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Climate group refuses to rally with 'Zionist organizations'

The Washington, DC chapter of US climate action group Sunrise Movement is being accused of antisemitism for turning down a role in a voting rights rally taking place this Saturday over the participation of "Zionist organizations."

“Given our commitment to racial justice, self-governance and indigenous sovereignty, we oppose Zionism and any state that enforces its ideology,” Sunrise DC said in a statement it posted Tuesday on Twitter. The group named the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs as groups supporting Israel, which it calls a "colonial project."

The Freedom to Vote Relay and Rally is a bike ride from West Virginia to Washington, DC in support of voting reform legislation in the US Congress. The participants of the ride will be greeted by demonstrators in the nation's capital.

Sunrise DC called for Declaration for American Democracy, one of the main organizers of the rally, to remove the pro-Israel Jewish groups from the coalition it put together.

The refusal to take part in this event because Jewish organizations are participating is unfortunate & wrong, & I am disappointed by this decision. This type of action is unhelpful and counterproductive, & takes needed attention away from such a vital issue as voting rights. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/0WoX6bVX5j
— Grace Meng (@RepGraceMeng) October 21, 2021

Sunrise distances itself from, but doesn’t condemn, boycott of Zionist groups

The Sunrise national climate organization said Thursday that it was not involved in the decision by one of its local chapters to pull out of a voting rights rally in Washington due to the participation of several Zionist groups.

However, the Sunrise Movement defended Sunrise DC’s “ability to act independently” and refrained from condemning the local chapter’s decision.

The national movement said it “reject[s] all forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism.”

It went on to note that it has hundreds of local chapters like Sunrise DC, and that each “has the ability to act independently — whether it’s organizing protests, supporting candidates, or sending out public statements.”

“Sunrise DC made a decision to issue this statement, and we weren’t given the chance to look at it before it became public,” the Sunrise Movement continued.

“As a national movement that supports freedom and dignity for all people, we will always welcome anyone who acts on our principles and chooses to join the fight for collective liberation,” the umbrella group continued, indicating that it believed Sunrise DC’s boycott of Zionist groups was rooted in its principles.

Yonah from IfNotNow defending Sunrise’s vile antisemitism … almost as if on cue. https://t.co/a7ajK6EPOb pic.twitter.com/mpr1pU2ezn
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) October 20, 2021

Elder Comix: Now, why didn't Hamas think of that?

I came up with this after reading the zillionth hot woke take that the US should fund an Iron Dome for Hamas.

1947: Arab Man Loves Palestine So Much He Abandons It To Let Invading Arab Armies Take Over (PreOccupied Teritory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

refugee Haifa, October 24, 1947 - An Arab resident of this mixed-ethnicity city in the north of Palestine feels such a powerful, protective attachment to his place of birth and upbringing that he will soon run away rather than defend it from usurpers, and will instead allow different usurpers to attempt conquest, sources close to the man announced today.

Amr Habash, 22, prepared this week to move out of Haifa in advance of an anticipated offensive by Syrian and Lebanese soldiers and irregular militia troops who will try to push the Jews into the sea or otherwise slaughter them. Habash, who helps run his family's fishing enterprise, has voiced such love for his ancestral homeland that he has never once referred to it as distinct political entity, and plans to spend however long necessary in areas already under foreign Arab rule until he can return to the city and live under either the same or different foreign Arab rule, depending on how the war goes.

"Amr just loves this place to pieces," acknowledged his uncle Faisal. "I can just tell that his bond with the land is so strong, he would rather skedaddle to Beirut or Damascus than stand and fight the Jews for possession of it. Not everyone feels as he does, even though we can all sense the trouble ahead."

The United Nations General Assembly is set to vote next month on a proposal to divide what remains of the British Mandate of Palestine between two new countries: one Arab state and one Jewish. Experts agree that any such plan stands slim chance of approval by the UN, and even if it clears that hurdle, faces rejection by the Arab states surrounding Palestine, which refuse any sovereign Jewish presence even in that tiny sliver of land. Britain gained control of Palestine in 1917 from the Ottoman Empire, which in turn captured it from the Mameluks in the thirteenth century (the semi-independent kingdom of Egypt controlled it briefly in the nineteenth century), who formed but the latest in a long series of invasions and conquests that included Seljuks, Fatimids, Ummayads, European Crusaders, Byzantines, Romans, and Parthians, among others. The last time the place now called "Palestine" enjoyed sovereign rule occurred in the first century CE, when it was a Jewish vassal state of the Roman Empire. Some Jews remained in the land after Roman suppression of revolts and exile of most Jews, who began to return en masse in the nineteenth century; the British Mandate, granted under the League of Nations, will expire in May of next year.

That return has sparked resistance from the non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, who refer to it as "southern Syria." Their formidable attachment to the land has prompted talk of leaving to make space for the armies of Lebanon, Transjordan, Syria, and Egypt to sweep in and get rid of those uppity Jews, who should know better than to assert anything above second-class status under Islamic rule. In the unlikely event of an Arab defeat, the hordes of voluntary refugees plan to spend generation after generation as stateless political tools of the same powers that promised to rescue them from the threat of Jewish state even as everyone knew none of those powers intended to relinquish conquered territory to the people they were "helping."

10/21 Links Pt1: Israel can't submit to Biden pressure on consulate, settlements; IAM: Justice for Malki with Arnold Roth; Meretz member lobbying European MPs to attack Israel

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: US Consulate in Jerusalem: The Bottom Line

The May 2018 proclamation by the U.S. formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel established a new bilateral legal situation that replaced the former policy of non-recognition, whereby the U.S. acknowledged the application of Israeli law in Jerusalem. The 2018 proclamation rendered the existence of an independent U.S. consulate in Jerusalem serving the Palestinian administration as redundant and incompatible with official U.S. policy.

The mutually accepted consular relationship between Israel and the U.S. is based on the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations. Article 4 of this convention determines that consular posts may only be established in the territory of the receiving state with that state's consent. Similarly, Articles 7 and 8 of the convention require that the exercise of consular functions vis-a-vis or on behalf of another state requires specific approval.

Opening a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians, without Israel's prior consent and sanction, would be a flagrant breach of Article 4 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In Article IX (5) of the 1995 Israel-PLO Interim Agreement (Oslo 2), the parties agreed that the Palestinian Authority will not have powers and responsibilities in the sphere of foreign relations. The same article provides for the possible establishment of "representative offices" by foreign states in the area under the control of the Palestinian Authority and would not require Israel's consent.

Only in this manner could the U.S. establish a mission to provide services to the Palestinian Authority and its population that would be compatible with U.S. policy, with American international law commitments, and that would not undermine U.S. commitments and proclamations.

US, Israel to Form Team to Discuss Palestinian Consulate

The United States and Israel are planning to form a team that will hold discreet negotiations on the reopening of the US Consulate in Jerusalem serving Palestinians, Israeli officials told Axios reporter Barak Ravid.

The diplomatic mission was the US government’s de facto representative office to the Palestinian Authority before being shut down by the administration of former president Donald Trump in March 2019.

The consulate was downgraded to the Palestinian Affairs Unit and merged with the US Embassy in Jerusalem that opened in May of 2018 after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump acted under the bipartisan Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 requiring the US to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital. The law was waived by previous presidents.

The current Israeli government opposes the reopening of the Palestinian consulate, citing the fragile nature of the diverse coalition cobbled together that succeeded in ousting former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power after 12 years in office.

However, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a recent White House visit that his administration is determined to reopen the the consulate.

Morton Klein: Israel can't submit to Biden pressure on consulate, settlements - opinion

Freezes on Jewish building in Judea/Samaria and Jerusalem would be especially detrimental now. Aliyah is way up. Jews face dramatically increasing worldwide antisemitism. Thousands are finally realizing the 2,000-year-old dream to return to the Jewish homeland. In 2020, over 20,000 Jews moved to Israel from 70 foreign countries. Aliyah in 2021 is record-breaking. More building is needed to house Jews returning home – not less.

Pressuring Israel to freeze building also violates Israel’s sovereign right to Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem under binding international law (including the Mandate, San Remo Resolution, Anglo-American treaty and UN Charter). In 2019, the US acknowledged that Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria are legal. Jews moreover have the moral and historic right to these areas. Jewish kingdoms reigned here for hundreds of years. Jews have lived here for thousands of years.

Judea/Samaria is also a haven for avoiding Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza, and Hezbollah rocket attacks from Lebanon. The “Protectors of Israel” (Bithonistim) movement of over 2,400 Israeli security and military professionals explains that Israeli sovereignty in Judea/Samaria is essential for securing Israel’s defense.

In addition, building in the E1 corridor connecting Jerusalem with Jerusalem suburb Ma’aleh Adumim would help stop Arab attacks on Jews traveling back and forth to their homes.

The Biden administration’s demands reflect the will of Biden’s slew of anti-Israel appointees: Reema Dodin justified and encouraged suicide bombings against Jews, organized anti-Israel rallies, and spread anti-Israel blood libels; Samantha Power enabled the passage of extreme anti-Israel UN Security Council Resolution 2334, and called for the US to give the PA terrorist regime a “protection force” against Israel; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr wrote he “was inspired by the Palestinian intifada” (the terrorist war in which Arab terrorists murdered or maimed 10,000 Jews); National Security Council official Maher Bitar supports BDS and ran a seminar on how to demonize Israel – to name just a few.

Concerningly, Bennett appears to be at least partly appeasing Biden’s demands, including by offering to limit building in Judea/Samaria to “natural growth” and by delaying building approval meetings – a de facto freeze.

David Singer: European Union and Germany plot to see Jerusalem divided

The decision by the European Union (EU) and Germany to launch the East Jerusalem Tourism Development Programme is in reality a blatant attempt by them to see Jerusalem divided by creating political facts on the ground under the guise of helping promote tourism in East Jerusalem.

The German representative - Oliver Owcza – was quite happy to create this tourism smokescreen:

“As Germans and Europeans we value tourism that is of quality and locally owned. We therefore are confident this project will connect the tourism community and support new concepts and services. As it will contribute to more and better job and career opportunities”

European Union Representative - Sven Kühn Von Burgsdorff – however - did not seek to hide the consortium’s real objective - firing these bullets:
‘’Palestinians in East Jerusalem are facing daily political, economic, and social challenges. Tourism has always been one of the main income-generating activities in the city and helped maintaining the Palestinian presence and identity of the city.

"Our joint work as Europeans reflects once again the clear and united position of the EU and its Member States with regard to East Jerusalem. For us, East Jerusalem is part of the occupied Palestinian territory and the status of Jerusalem as the future capital for the two states should always be respected and protected.’’

Words do have meaning.

“Palestinians in East Jerusalem”, “Palestinian territory” and “maintaining the Palestinian presence and identity of the city” excludes any rights Jews, non-Arab Christians and non-Arab Moslems might have in East Jerusalem - according to the self-created definition of “Palestinians” in Clause 6 of the 1964 Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter:
“The Palestinians are those Arab citizens who were living normally in Palestine up to 1947, whether they remained or were expelled. Every child who was born to a Palestinian parent after this date whether in Palestine or outside is a Palestinian.”

New evidence of "Israeli medical negligence:" An 8 hour surgery to remove a lung tumor from a terrorist prisoner

On Tuesday, Israeli doctors performed a major 8-hour surgery to remove a tumor from the lung of a murderer.

Here's how Palestinian media covered the story:

Today, Thursday, the lawyer of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, Karim Ajwa, said that the doctors of the Israeli Barzilai Hospital performed a surgery for the prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid the day before yesterday, to remove a tumor from the left lung, and cut 10 cm from it due to damage to it.

Ajwa added, in a press statement, that the operation of the captive Abu Hamid took more than 8 hours, and began at half past seven in the morning last Tuesday and ended after three thirty in the afternoon, by making a small hole in the beginning in the left side of the chest, and then a larger hole in order to remove the damaged part of the lung, and its surroundings, and the mass was sent to the laboratory for examination and knowledge of its nature.

He stressed that Abu Hamid suffers from aches and pains at the site of the operation, and from difficulty and shortness of breath, as an industrial tube was placed to help him breathe, pointing out that he is expected to stay in the hospital between one week to ten days, and that his medical condition still needs close follow-up and ongoing care.

The commission confirmed that what Abu Hamid is subjected to is part of the systematic policy of medical negligence, which hundreds of sick prisoners suffer from.

Israeli doctors just saved the life of this terrorist at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, and Palestinians are calling it medical neglect because he still has pain at the site of the incision a day after a major surgery.

Nasser Abu Hamid isn't a "political prisoner." He was a commander in Fatah's military wing the

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah and was convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12

attempted murders. He provided logistics and weapons for the murders of Gad Rejwan in Atarot, Yosef Habi, Eli Dahan and Salim Barakat at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, Binyamin and Talia Kahane in a shooting attack on their car near Ofra, and Eliyahu Cohen on Road No. 443 near Giv'at Ze'ev.

Not only that, but Hamid is part of a celebrated terror family. His five brothers were convicted for killing another 11 Israeli civilians, and four of them are in prison with him. His mother is considered a hero to Palestinians for giving birth to so many murderers and has been honored by Palestinian president Abbas.

Here are the brothers with their parents during a prison visit a few years ago. Their victims can no longer smile, but these terrorists are having a wonderful time.

If anyone deserves to die a painful death, it is Nasser Abu Hamid. Yet Israel saved his life - despite his murders, despite the fact that Israel is being accused of medical negligence, despite the fact that he is a sickening piece of subhuman garbage.

Palestinian media are reporting on an apparent audit done on the Palestinian Authority budget by an anti-corruption commission.

It is unclear what the actual source of the findings are, it translates as the "Global Anti-Corruption Code" which doesn't sound like the official Palestinian body to investigate corruption, the "Palestine Anti-Corruption Commission."

Whoever they are, the findings are worth looking at. They are consistent with previously published information.

The commission said:

Corruption in the Palestinian Authority is deeply entrenched. Just to illustrate by a few examples:

Between 2008 and 2012 alone, more than $2.3 billion in development aid funds provided by the European Union to the Palestinian Authority were misappropriated.

In 2017, the PA spent huge sums on shell companies and projects, including a non-existent airline, and instead of developing welfare programs to distribute social services or development aid funds to Palestinians, the PA allocates funds to pay salaries to security officers and government officials.

Senior PA officials establish foundations, non-governmental bodies, and shell companies to attract additional funds from aid programs, yet donors have mostly turned a blind eye to the PA's blatant corruption and mismanagement of development funds.

For example, even when investigators reported that PA officials embezzled EU aid funds, the EU did not stop providing assistance. Thus, despite providing more than $15 billion in development aid to the Palestinians over the past 30 years, nothing has changed on the issue of reducing poverty or delivering sustainable improvements in the quality of life for Palestinians.

It is not just that PA corruption undermines aid effectiveness. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the flow of development aid contributes to and supports the PA's culture of widespread corruption. And the more funding the PA can receive, the more powerful it becomes. It has increased its capacity to embezzle funds, extortion and bribery, and worse, the consequences of corruption are not just economic: in Palestine, corruption contributes to violence against Palestinians.

The only way out of this cycle is for donors to call for the cessation of unrestricted development aid to Palestinian government institutions, which have proven time and time again to be too weak and who treat aid as an opportunity for corruption.

Donors, including the United States and the European Union, should set a timetable for the expiry of existing aid packages and should make clear that no further aid will be provided until the Palestinian Authority provides strong evidence of a reduction in corruption and assurances that the development aid funds they have received is used in development projects and its objectives.

Some may be concerned that cutting direct development aid to the Palestinian Authority will lead to its collapse, and thus create a vacuum that Hamas may exploit, but whoever claims this ignores the bigger picture, that the corruption rooted in the Authority is what enabled Hamas from gaining power in the first place.

More than empowering corrupt institutions, the continued flow of unrestricted funds to the PA will do more than support and perpetuate the PA’s systemic corruption.

Arab nations have curtailed their monetary support of the PA partially because of corruption. Sweden, one of the most staunch national supporters of the Palestinian Authority, has warned that they might do the same.