Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

PA security forces officially discriminate against women. Does anyone care?

The Palestinian ministry of interior announced today the launch of a training curriculum for gender issues in the Palestinian security forces.

As is always the case with these sorts of social justice programs under Palestinian rule, it is not coming from an internal desire for progressive thinking. It is being funded by a European country, in this case Great Britain, as can be seen in the flags above.

It turns out that the Palestinian security forces are really, really misogynist. An expose in The New Arab this year notes:

Female members of the Palestinian Security Services (PSS) endure unequal treatment in comparison with their male colleagues when it comes to social security, health insurance, promotions, social allowance, holidays, scholarships, courses abroad and accessing decision-making positions.

Brigadier General Rana Al-Khouli, director of the Advisory Committee for Gender and director of Public Relations, Media and Gender in the National Security Forces experiences discrimination alongside her female colleagues when it comes to accessing social security and health insurance due to administrative regulations defining their social status as 'single'.

Even when they are married. Because a female breadwinner in the security services is not supported by their own laws.

Really.

The Law of Service in the Palestinian Security Forces No. 8 of 2005, defines a soldier as follows:

"Every (male)officer, non-commissioned (male)officer, or (male)individual in any of the security forces".

Article 72 from the same act states:

"Social allowance is paid to the (male)officer on behalf of his non-employed wife and his sons and daughters in accordance with the executive regulation specifications of this act".

I've noted a series of anti-woman provisions in Palestinian laws in the past.

Yet "progressive" voices remain silent about this.

Proving, once again, that attacking Jews is more important than helping Palestinians. Every single time.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

09/13 Links Pt1: The Palestinians and the World Do Not Need Another Corrupt, Failed Terrorist Arab State; Fatah boasts: Arafat deliberately started the intifada terror campaign

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinians and the World Do Not Need Another Corrupt, Failed Terrorist Arab State

The truth, however, is that neither the Palestinian Authority leadership nor the Palestinian people is ready for statehood. And the responsibility for that fact lies squarely with the ruthless and failed Palestinian leaders.

The Palestinian bid to obtain UN recognition of a Palestinian state comes at a time when the PA appears to be losing control over some parts of the West Bank, where gunmen belonging to several groups have replaced the Palestinian security forces... [and] are responsible not only for terrorist attacks against Israel, but also the growing scenes of anarchy and lawlessness....

Abbas himself has long been praising and glorifying Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks....

Abbas, who is unable (and unwilling) to rein in a few hundred gunmen in two major Palestinian cities in the West Bank, wants the United Nations, its member states and the rest of the world to believe that he is ready to run a state of his own.

If Abbas cannot send his officers to confiscate an M-16 rifle from an unruly gunman in Jenin or Nablus, how can he be trusted to prevent the future Palestinian state from turning into a launching pad for regional terrorism?

Abbas wants the UN to grant the Palestinians the status of full member state, but cannot provide any guarantees that the aspired-for state would not be turned into a terror entity that is armed and funded by Iran's regime and its proxies.

Abbas wants the UN to recognize "Palestine" as a state when he literally has no control over half of the Palestinians... If Abbas dares to go to the Gaza Strip, Hamas will hang him at the entrance to the area on charges of "collaboration" with Israel.

Abbas is seeking full UN recognition at a time when he continues to block general elections for the PA, arrests and intimidates his political opponents, refuses to share power with other Palestinians and muzzles freedom of expression.

More than they need a state, the Palestinians need good leadership. They need to rid themselves of the corrupt leaders who have deprived them of international aid and led them from one disaster after the other since the early 1970s, when the PLO was expelled from Jordan for undermining the kingdom's sovereignty.

[T]he Palestinians' biggest tragedy by far has been failed leadership and more failed leadership. It radicalizes them toward Islamic fundamentalism and deprives them of elections, freedom of expression and international aid. The UN member states would be doing a great service to the Palestinians if they asked Abbas about the absence of freedom of speech and a functioning parliament under his regime.

They would also be doing the Palestinian people a huge service if they asked Abbas about torture in Palestinian Authority prisons and the continuing crackdown by his security forces on human rights activists and journalists. And they should definitely ask him what measures he has taken to end financial and administrative corruption in the PA.

These issues are more pressing for the Palestinians than another worthless document by the UN recognizing a fictitious Palestinian state that is already marked by the intrusion of other brutal radical Islamist dictatorships.

MEMRI: Semi-Frozen: The Middle East's Intractable Conflicts

The term "frozen conflict" came into vogue in recent decades to describe a variety of border conflicts between Russia and neighboring countries, often over breakaway regions like Abkhazia or the Donbass.[1] There are also historic conflicts like Kashmir or the Arab-Israeli Conflict that go on for decades, sometimes hot and sometimes cold, that seem to also be "frozen," neither conclusive war nor outright peace, but an uneasy, volatile reality in between.

But aside from the old conflict over Palestine, the Middle East seems to have engendered new conflicts in recent decades that are, at least, semi-frozen, lasting for a decade or longer. Often extremely violent and damaging to the future of nations, they also simmer down to situations approaching some type of wary truce, mere political turmoil or low-grade instability only to flare up again. This seems to be the case in places like Libya, Yemen, and Iraq, all three countries where the overthrow of a longtime brutal dictator unleashed forces that have not yet played out years later.

Of course, the region is flush with conflict. In Lebanon and Syria, one side (Hezbollah and Assad) is more or less victorious and dominant, though there is still some opposition on the ground. Morocco and Algeria are increasingly at loggerheads, though not at war. In Sudan, political crisis and societal turmoil could lead to open conflict between rival groupings inside the military regime. Transnational Salafi-Jihadism and Iranian-inspired terrorism still exist in the region and still claim victims.

But it is the cases of Iraq, Libya, and Yemen that are particularly haunting and costly to the future of the region. All three countries had been ruled by long-standing dictatorships that while they may have provided some of the aspects of stability, were still very volatile regimes. Two of them, Saddam's Iraq and Qaddafi's Libya, were actually major "exporters" of instability, promoting terrorism globally, repressing local citizens internally and attacking their neighbors.

Iraq has been at war, albeit sometimes at relatively low levels, since the Americans overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003. But even before that was the Kuwait War of 1990-1991 and the Iran War of 1980-1988. On top of that were internal conflicts, the regime's decades-long war against the Kurds, the savage repression of a Shia insurgency in 1991, and then after the American forces left in 2011, an increasingly sectarian Iraq under Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the war against ISIS beginning in 2014. That war greatly increased something that had already existed, Shia paramilitary groups, which echoes today in the ongoing conflict between the militias and parties closest to Iran against those arrayed with Muqtada Al-Sadr.[2] The open armed clashes in Baghdad and Basra of August 2022 have ebbed thanks to the mediating efforts of Iraq's prime minister and of the Shia clerical authorities in Najaf, but the political crisis continues.[3]

The American overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 essentially dethroned Sunni power in Iraq and handed it over to the long-oppressed Iraqi Shia. Today's clashes in Iraq are less about good versus evil than an internal civil war within different factions of the Iraqi Shia political establishment, all of whom in one way or another, have colonized, subverted, and become parasites on the Iraqi state.[4] A 40-year-old Iraqi citizen alive today knows nothing but war and violent political turmoil inside the borders of his country.

Moscow’s invitation to Hamas could be meant as warning to Israel, analysts say

Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Moscow on Sept. 10 at the head of a senior delegation from the terror group for talks with Russian officials. Analysts speculate that Moscow’s invitation to Hamas, like an earlier one in May, is meant to send a message of dissatisfaction to Israel.

“The Russians typically use meetings with Hamas to signal displeasure with Israel, perhaps in relation to Ukraine,” Hillel Frisch, senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), told JNS.

A noteworthy aspect of the May meeting is that it came a month after Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid, then foreign minister, accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, specifically in relation to alleged atrocities committed outside Kyiv. Of the current meeting, Frisch said it was unclear what specifically Russia may have found objectionable about Israeli statements or actions.

Anna Geifman, senior researcher at Bar-Ilan University’s department of political science, told JNS that it might be a general warning, a way for Russia to tell Israel that if it takes a “wrong step” it will strengthen relations with the region’s hostile actors. “The message may be: ‘If you become our enemy, we’re going to deal with your enemies,’ ” she said.

For Geifman, the important point is that this isn’t something new. “The Russians have always played the anti-Israel, or anti-Western, card whenever it was convenient for them, from the Soviet days. They’ve always talked to terrorists. It’s not even a question of talking—it’s collaborating,” she said.

This is an episode of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" called "The York Treasure" that has a Jewish-themed plot, even though the word "Jewish" is (as far as I can tell) mentioned only once.

Joseph of Cordoba and his young friend Esther escaped from a pogrom of the Jewish community in York (described as "riots") instigated by a deserter of King Richard I's army named Malbete. He knew that the Jews had raised 1000 pounds to pay the captain of a ship who is bringing more Jewish refugees from Europe via the seaside town of Grimsby. Malbete started the pogrom to steal the money, but Joseph and Esther smuggled it out, and asked Robin Hood to help them bring it to the arriving ship at Grimsby. Meanwhile, Malbete enlists help from the Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood's enemy.

Antisemitism is seen during the episode as well, when Malbete rages against Jews in a tavern (also referring to the Crusades) and later when he promises his men that the Jews arriving from the boat will not be a problem: "Those scum don't fight."

Obviously, they do.

Interestingly, the legend of Robin Hood occurs right in the timeframe of the destruction of York's Jewish community in 1190. The Jews were expelled from England altogether in 1290. So the episode did not take as many liberties with history as one could have imagined.

The TV show was produced by Hannah Weinstein, a Jewish left-wing political actress-turned producer who moved to England to avoid being blacklisted by McCarthyism. Many episodes of the series were secretly written by Americans who had been blacklisted, under assumed names. (The writer of this episode was "Clare Thorne," almost certainly a pseudonym.)

Weinstein went on to a career in Hollywood in the 1970s.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The New York Civil Liberties Union @NYCLU tweets pure antisemitism

Yesterday, the New York Times published a long piece about how Hasidic schools in New York State are failing:

The leaders of New York’s Hasidic community have built scores of private schools to educate children in Jewish law, prayer and tradition — and to wall them off from the secular world. Offering little English and math, and virtually no science or history, they drill students relentlessly, sometimes brutally, during hours of religious lessons conducted in Yiddish.

The result, a New York Times investigation has found, is that generations of children have been systematically denied a basic education, trapping many of them in a cycle of joblessness and dependency.

Segregated by gender, the Hasidic system fails most starkly in its more than 100 schools for boys. Spread across Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley, the schools turn out thousands of students each year who are unprepared to navigate the outside world, helping to push poverty rates in Hasidic neighborhoods to some of the highest in New York.

While one can certainly argue that these yeshivas should teach secular subjects better than they are, the article is hopelessly biased: the community deliberately chooses to be separate from the "outside world." It is successful on its own terms and within its own frame of reference. The poverty that the New York Times pretends to care about is utterly unlike the other poor neighborhoods - there are practically no problems of crime or drugs, there are strong families, and an internal support system that borders on the heroic. While the NYT complains about the amount of money that the community receives from the government, it doesn't mention how much the government saves compared to supporting other lower income communities because they have virtually no social problems one sees in other neighborhoods - which means that the schools are part of a success story.

Ironically, the major reason for the poverty that does exist is because Hasidic families choose to spend around tens of thousands of dollars annually for each of their many children to go to their own schools rather than trust public schools to educate them.

The article is problematic on many levels. But it has also predictably sparked a torrent of Jew-hatred. And one of the results is this thread from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is pure antisemitism:

While NYC public schools are being drained of money, funding is flowing to private religious Hasidic schools.

These schools have received $1 billion+ in public money but are denying students a secular education, trapping generations of kids in poverty.

It’s an issue not unique to New York City — in the hyper-segregated East Ramapo Central School District, a white majority took over the school board in 2009, denying a generation of public school students an adequate education.

For years, district leaders in East Ramapo have extracted resources from public schools, which are almost entirely attended by students of color, in order to lavishly fund yeshivas attended by white students.

State leaders often claim their commitment to an equitable, high-quality education. But if they mean it, they have to do more.

ALL students deserve access to a basic education free from violence and discrimination.

Every sentence is insane.

A public school student costs the government about $28,000 a year, a private school student in one of these schools less than $2,000. Most of that is federal and state money and has nothing to do with school board decisions. The "$1 billion+" is stretched out over years. (The annual NYC school budget is about $38 billion, I estimate Jewish schools get about 0.7% of that while their students represent about 5% of the total in public schools.) The public schools in East Ramapo are paid for overwhelmingly by the taxes of people who do not send their children to those schools. Every community chooses the members of their school boards, but when a religious Jewish community does the same, they are racist "whites" who are trying to suck the blood of the students of color.

The NYCLU's linked article is even worse, referring to the East Ramapo school district as the "Jim Crow school district."

One feature of antisemitism is when Jews are blamed for two opposite, mutually exclusive attributes (like being behind communism and capitalism.) Here, though, we see the same NYCLU blames religious Jews both for "trapping generations of kids in poverty" and for withholding their fabulous riches from people of color, as their article says:

While East Ramapo public school students are recognized by the state as having high needs compared to other districts, there is substantial income and property wealth within the district....East Ramapo is the most fiscally stressed district in the state, according to the New York State Comptroller. This is not because the district lacks wealth, but because white voters refuse to fund public schools.

The NYCLU claims that religious Jews are wealthy white racists who steal government funds for their exclusive rich schools and are choosing to keep people of color poor and oppressed. But they are also politically powerful but poverty-stricken wretches who steal government funds to keep their own children poor and oppressed, under the tutelage of teachers who beat them (a theme of the NYT article.)

There are real issues to be dealt with, both in Hasidic and public schools. Antisemitism is not the solution for either of them. And to see a "civil liberties" organization inciting against Jews should be a wake up call about antisemitism from the Left.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

According to Quds Press, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, signed an agreement with the Jordanian Bar Association on Sunday for them to help prevent sale of Jerusalem land to Jews.

Sources say the Jordanian Bar Association will announce a package of decisions including punishing any lawyer found to be involved in selling Palestinian property and lands to Jews, with penalties including dismissal and expulsion from the association and preventing them from practicing law altogether.

The JBA will announce details within days.

Yes, the Quds Press article says "Jews."

I was curious if the bar association mentions Jews elsewhere on its website. I found that in 2017, they sponsored a talk about a book called "Bait Al-Maqdis and the Foundations of the Final Battle with the Jews, a Quranic Study."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

09/12 Links Pt2: 9/11 anniversary marks generational strategic shift; An Interview With a Muslim Zionist; Long-Hyped NYTs Investigation of Hasidic Yeshivas Fizzles

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: 9/11 anniversary marks generational strategic shift

September 11 was the beginning of increasingly brutal attacks across the world all linked to similar extremist ideologies that are rooted in what some term jihadist attacks, or Islamist extremism. When we go back and look at the trajectory of those who planned and executed 9/11 we find a group of men who came from places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Many passed through Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Some had volunteered to fight in other places such as the Balkans, or Chechnya. They were men of privilege who saw a world in which law enforcement was fighting terrorist groups and they could exploit that because they had a worldwide network of cells. A decade after 9/11, these groups had shifted to become similar to ISIS. Whether it was Boko Haram in Nigeria or Al-Shabab in Somalia, or groups operating in Thailand, Indonesia, or targeting India and other countries; they had become terror armies and their extremism was reaching genocidal proportions. But they were largely deprived of their ability to execute their designs because governments began to get tough.

Ironically, by the time the US had left Afghanistan, the kinds of groups the US was fighting, like Al Qaeda and ISIS had been defeated. That doesn’t mean they don’t pose a threat. Their threat has shifted.

Where are such extremist groups today?
Extremist groups now operate more on the periphery of the Middle East and exploit weak states in Africa and Asia; rather than threatening the West in the same way Al Qaeda did. That means that where these groups continue to spread terror they do so in places like across the Sahel, or even Mozambique.

Extremist preachers who backed ISIS were more likely to be in Europe, than in the Middle East. Countries are cracking down on the free-wheeling days of the 1990s when too many people thought terrorism was romantic or could justify it so long as it “harms someone else.”

The extremists have also shifted, from desires to fight the West, to sectarian massacres or even fighting amongst themselves. Countries have co-opted them as well, using them, but clipping their wings.

Ankara, for instance, works with extremist groups in Syria, but the understanding is that groups like Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which was once linked to Al Qaeda, won’t attack the West. Even the Taliban pretend to want to crack down on groups like ISIS.

This is a major strategic shift in how terror groups operate and how countries confront them. The twin shifts, of generations in the West and the geographic shift of terror groups, represents the major changes that we see this decade as we look back on 9/11.

JPost Editorial: UK's King Charles should visit Israel

Queen Elizabeth II was Britain’s longest reigning monarch and her passing will inevitably bring about changes. King Charles, who has waited so long to ascend the throne, presumably has his own ideas of how he sees the role and how to adapt it to the modern era. After a suitable period of mourning, necessary both on the personal and the national level, he will no doubt reveal them to the public and the world. One change, in particular, which will be interesting to watch for is how the new king sees his role as head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith.

Israel wants an official visit from a British monarch
Something we in Israel would like to see in the future is an official visit. The queen traveled widely to some 120 countries, including those which were part of the Commonwealth and many that were not. Although she visited Jordan, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, she never set foot in Israel.

In 1994, her husband, Philip Duke of Edinburgh, became the first member of the immediate royal family to come to Israel when he paid a private visit. He came to honor his mother, Princess Alice of Greece, a Righteous Gentile who saved Jews during the Holocaust and who is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Two of the Queen Elizabeth’s sons, Prince Edward and the new King Charles, paid unofficial visits but only in 2018 did her grandson, Prince William, now next in line for the throne, pay an official royal visit, when Israel was celebrating its 70 years of independence. Charles returned in 2020, this time officially, for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

It is assumed that the reason the royal family in the past avoided Israel was in large part due to concerns by the British Foreign Office about a possible Arab backlash and maybe also due to resentment over the violence that marked the end of the British Mandate here.

The end of an era also marks the start of a new one. We send our condolences to the Royal Family, the British people and the British Commonwealth, and wish King Charles III the wisdom and fortitude necessary to carry out his duties successfully in challenging times. And we hope to see King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla visit Israel in their official capacity as the heads of the British Royal Family. They would receive a royal welcome.

Israeli cartoonist says Marvel copied superhero Sabra, he’d sue if he had the means

An Israeli comic book artist has been getting attention since Marvel’s Saturday announcement that it had cast actress Shira Haas as the Israeli superhero Sabra. He claims the character is based on a superhero he created when he was 15 — although he says he won’t sue the US entertainment giant because he doesn’t have the means.

In 1978, Uri Fink created Sabraman, a comic series about an Israeli superhero whose attire, colors and symbols appear to resemble those associated with Sabra, a little-known character that first appeared in Marvel comics two years later.

Haas, who gained international fame through her starring role in the hit Netflix series “Unorthodox,” will play Sabra in the next “Captain America” film, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and titled “New World Order,” according to multiple reports Saturday.

In the comics, Sabra, aka Ruth Bat-Seraph, is a former superhuman agent for the Mossad spy agency who sometimes knocks up against other superhuman characters such as the Hulk and the X-Men. Her powers include super strength and stamina, and her costume often incorporates the Israel flag and the Star of David.

Sabra, in Hebrew “tsabar,” is the local term for the fruit of the cactus (commonly known as a prickly pear). It has long been a term for Israeli-born Jews.

Fink tweeted Sunday morning that he had woken up to countless tags and messages telling him it was “time to sue Marvel and make a lot of money.”

He said his publisher and co-creator David Herman had considered doing just that when Sabra first emerged in 1980, but that Fink convinced him otherwise. He said there was no chance of succeeding against Marvel’s lawyers and that it was doubtful he even had a case, since he doesn’t own a copyright for the word “sabra,” and Sabra’s superpowers were different from Sabraman’s.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean different things–that’s all.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master–that’s all’

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The 1968 Palestinian National Covenant (Charter) has an interesting paragraph:

Article 6:
The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.

The Palestine Ministry of Information notes that the year of the "Zionist invasion" is considered to be 1917. It does not appear that they are including descendants of those Jews, so the issue is moot, but it points to something interesting in official Palestinian language.

This is one of the few uses of the word "Palestinians" in the document. Most of it refers to "Palestinian Arabs." So, for example:

Article 3:
The Palestinian Arab people possess the legal right to their homeland and have the right to determine their destiny after achieving the liberation of their country in accordance with their wishes and entirely of their own accord and will.

If the only people that have the legal right to the land are Arabs, then the Jews - even those they call "Palestinians," who had been there continuously for thousands of years - do not.

In other words, the Charter gives legal rights to Arabs that it withholds from non-Arabs.

Isn't that apartheid?

This is besides the explicit antisemitism in the charter itself - which has never been revoked - that denied the existence of the Jewish people to begin with. "Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong."

Now look at the 2003 Palestinian constitution. There, they refer repeatedly to the Arab Palestinian people. The first paragraph of the preamble says:

The continuous attachment of the Arab Palestinian people to the land of their fathers and forefathers, on which this people has historically lived, is a fact that has been expressed in the Declaration of Independence, issued by the Palestine National Council. The strength of this attachment is confirmed by its consistency over time and place, by keeping faith with and holding onto national identity, and in the realization of wondrous accomplishments of struggle. The organic relationship between the Palestinian people, their history and their land has confirmed itself in their unceasing effort to prompt the world to recognize the rights of the Arab Palestinian people and their national entity, on equal footing with other nations.

Why the need to emphasize "Arab Palestinian people"? By 2003 (and unlike 1968), the term "Palestinian" was well known.

It appears that the term is used specifically to exclude Jews from calling themselves "Palestinian."

The Palestinian Arabs are well aware that the term "Palestinian" usually referred to Jews before 1948. They want not only to make sure that they are the only "Palestinians" with rights to the land but to ensure that they assert that Jews have no historic or legal rights to the land.

That explains why they call themselves "Palestinian Arabs" or "Arab Palestinians."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

09/12 Links Pt1: The “State of Palestine” is just a stepping-stone to the destruction of Israel; Qatar U.N. Ambassador is a Rabid Antisemite, Homophobe, Anti-Western Conspiracist

From Ian:

The “State of Palestine” is just a stepping-stone to the destruction of Israel

For Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) the creation of a “State of Palestine” in the territories Israel freed in 1967 - Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and East Jerusalem (freed from Jordanian occupation) and Gaza (freed from Egyptian occupation) - is just one stage towards the ultimate goal of destroying Israel.

While the international community would often like to believe that forcing Israel to relinquish Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem (Israel completely left Gaza in 2005) will bring about the long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace, the truth is that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in peace with Israel. Rather, the Palestinian leadership actively seeks Israel’s destruction.

As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, the PA, the PLO, and the Palestinian leadership constantly claim that Israel has no right to exist. These claims are reinforced by repetitive messaging and thousands of maps of “Palestine” that erase any recognition of Israel’s existence. It is the Palestinian leadership’s refusal to accept the existence of Israel (in any borders) that has brought the Palestinians to repeatedly reject every Israeli offer to secure a long-lasting peace. Those offers included the 2008 offer of then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to create a Palestinian state on an area larger than the combined areas of Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem prior to 1967.

To understand the Palestinian position, it is important to appreciate that this reality is not a passing phase, but rather, has been official Palestinian policy for decades.

While the Palestinian leadership take great pains to conceal its true goals, occasionally the truth slips out.

Abbas was recently criticized for having put too much faith in the US administrations and in the results of Israel’s elections to achieve a limited Palestinian state that comprises only Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem. Deflecting the criticism, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily Muwaffaq Matar, came to Abbas’ defense. According to Matar, if the Palestinians were to read the speeches of Abbas, they would realize that his goal is to free every inch of the “[Palestinian] land”, including all of Israel, through “the policy of stages” – a reference to the PLO’s “10 Point Program” or “Stages Program”.

Joe Truzman: Mounting Evidence of the PA’s Security Services Clashing With IDF Troops in the West Bank

Since last year, IDF troops have increasingly engaged in armed clashes with members of the Palestinian Authority Security Services (PSS) in the West Bank. In some cases, PSS members belonged to militant organizations.

The trend began in June 2021 when two members of the PA’s military intelligence, Adham Tawfiq and Tayseer Issa, were killed after they fired at Israeli special forces who were attempting to arrest Jamil al-Amouri, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Jenin.

In May 2022, IDF troops arrested an officer of the PA’s Palestinian Preventative Corps during an anti-terrorism raid near Jenin. Three months later, Israeli forces arrested a member of the PA’s customs police after a lengthy armed clash in the town of Rujeib, near the city of Nablus.

In late July, a Palestinian police officer named Mahmoud Hujeer, fired at Israeli troops at the Huwarra checkpoint in the West Bank. Hujeer was arrested after he was critically injured during the attack.

Other examples involve militants and their supporters working for the PSS. In May, Dawood Zubeidi, a member of the PSS, was shot and wounded in Jenin by Israeli forces during an anti-terrorism raid. He later died in an Israeli hospital and was lauded by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a commander belonging to the organization.

Lastly, Fathi Hazzem, an officer in the PSS, launched an incitement campaign shortly after his son committed a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv earlier this year.

The evidence suggests the PA is ostensibly losing control of its security services. While the number of PSS members launching attacks against IDF troops has not reached the level of the second intifada, the upward trend should be noted. Adding to the PA’s problems is the erosion of its authority in pockets of the West Bank.

Mossad director: ‘We thwarted dozens of Iranian terror attacks overseas’

The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to try to kill Israelis abroad, but Israel has stymied its efforts dozens of times in recent weeks, Mossad Director David Barnea said on Monday.

“In Cyprus, an attempted terror attack against Israeli businesspeople was thwarted. In Turkey, a terror attack attempt against a local Israeli businessman and an Israeli diplomat was thwarted, in Colombia, an attempt to attack Israeli businesspeople was thwarted. In many additional places in the world, terror attacks were thwarted,” Barnea said, speaking at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism’s 21st annual conference in Herzliya.

In all such cases, he said, terrorists were caught with deadly weapons and provided information about the identity of their target during questioning.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agency sent three hit squads to Istanbul simultaneously, with orders to kill any Israelis they could, said Barnea.

“We stood a hairsbreadth away from harm to our people. The crosshairs were actually on peoples’ heads. Thanks to the dedicated intelligence personnel of the Mossad, with excellent cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the National Security Council, we, with Turkish assistance, foiled terror incidents that were imminent a moment before the trigger was pressed, a moment before terrible tragedies would have occurred,” he said, adding that the targets were innocent tourists.

Addressing the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers, Barnea said the talks have had no restraining effect on Tehran, adding that its terror activities had expanded to the United States and Europe to target former American administration officials, Iranian dissidents and others.

From Naharnet:

A Hezbollah official on Friday sounded the alarm over the latest U.N. Security Council resolution that extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“What are officials doing regarding the Security Council resolution that granted UNIFIL freedom of movement… without needing a permission from the army for its declared and undeclared patrols?” Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek said.

“This contradicts with the previous agreements and this is a dangerous development that turns the (UNIFIL) forces into occupation forces whose role would be to protect the Israeli enemy through pursuing the people and the resistance,” Yazbek added.

..."The decision is a conspiracy against Lebanon and its sovereignty,” the Hezbollah official went on to say.

But it isn't only Hezbollah. The government of Lebanon seems to agree!

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday noted that the resolution “contained a text that does not conform with what was mentioned in the framework agreement signed by Lebanon with the U.N.,” adding that “Lebanon has objected against the introduction of this wording.”

“Accordingly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants has requested to meet with the head of the UNIFIL mission to stress the importance of continuing permanent cooperation and coordination with the Lebanese Army in order to secure the success of the mission of U.N. forces in Lebanon,” the Ministry said.

The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Wednesday that Lebanon had requested the removal of “two phrases mentioned in clauses 15 and 16 in the extension resolution, which stipulate UNIFIL’s freedom of movement and the condemnation of any restriction of this freedom in the area south of the Litani River.”

The phrases in question (clauses 16 and 17) say:

16. Urges all parties to cooperate fully with the Head of Mission and UNIFIL in the implementation of resolution 1701, as well as to ensure that the freedom of movement of UNIFIL in all its operations and UNIFIL’s access to the Blue Line in all its parts is fully respected and unimpeded, in conformity with its mandate and its rules of engagement, including by avoiding any course of action which endangers United Nations personnel, reaffirms that, pursuant to the Agreement on the Status of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (SOFA) between the Government of Lebanon and the United Nations, UNIFIL does not require prior authorization or permission to undertake its mandated tasks and that UNIFIL is authorized to conduct its operation independently, condemns in the strongest terms all attempts to deny access or restrict the freedom of movement of UNIFIL’s personnel and all attacks on UNIFIL personnel and equipment as well as acts of harassment and intimidation of UNIFIL personnel and disinformation campaigns against UNIFIL; calls on the Government of Lebanon to facilitate UNIFIL’s prompt and full access to sites requested by UNIFIL for the purpose of swift investigation, including all relevant locations north of the Blue Line related to the discovery of tunnels crossing the Blue Line which UNIFIL reported as a violation of resolution 1701 (2006), in line with resolution 1701, while respecting the Lebanese Sovereignty;
17. Demands the parties cease any restrictions and hindrances to the movement of UNIFIL personnel and guarantee the freedom of movement of UNIFIL, including by allowing announced and unannounced patrols;

This is nothing new - UNIFIL's independence was always part of its mandate. And the Lebanese government's objection to this sounds like they are run by Hezbollah.

UNIFIL issued its own statement today:

UNIFIL has always had the mandate to undertake patrols in its area of operations, with or without the Lebanese Armed Forces. Nevertheless, our operational activities, including patrols, continue to be coordinated with the Lebanese Army, even when they don't accompany us.
Our freedom of movement has been reiterated in Security Council resolutions renewing UNIFIL’s mandate, including Resolution 1701 in 2006, and UNIFIL’s Status of Forces Agreement, signed in 1995.

UNIFIL seems to be getting more and more impatient with Hezbollah lately, and as I have noted, the latest UN Security Council resolution on southern Lebanon condemned Hezbollah although it didn't mention their name. Hezbollah is interfering with UNIFIL's already weak enforcement of UN resolutions to keep southern Lebanon free of non-army weapons.

This seems to be part of Hezbollah's increased threats against Israel in recent months. The group, almost certainly at Iran's request, seems intent on starting a new war with Israel, the rest of Lebanon be damned.

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A short list of Palestinian violations of signed agreements with Israel

The Palestinian prime minister Muhammad Shtayyeh opened his weekly cabinet meeting with his usual litany of complaints against Israel.

Wafa reports:

On the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Oslo Accord, the Prime Minister said that Israel had left nothing of the agreement, and had canceled most of its provisions, disregarding them... It continued its financial deductions in violation of the agreement, and stopped the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, which was supposed to include Karim Younis and other brothers, and sick prisoners, in violation of the agreement.

He stressed that Israel has violated, and even canceled most of the terms of the agreements signed with us, and this matter calls us to stop a lot with him and review it.

Palestinians have made these accusations of Israel violating Oslo many times. (The "fourth batch of prisoners" was part of 2014 negotiations, and nothing to do with the Oslo accords.)

In reality, it is the Palestinians are the ones who are violating signed agreements with Israel every day.

Here is a short and very incomplete list of violations:

Annex 1 of the 1995 Interim Agreement says about Jewish holy sites in Nablus (Joseph's Tomb) and Jericho:

While the protection of these sites, as well as of persons visiting them, will be under the responsibility of the Palestinian Police, a JMU shall function in the vicinity of, and on the access routes to, each such site, as directed by the relevant DCO.

The functions of each such JMU shall be as follows:

to ensure free, unimpeded and secure access to the relevant Jewish holy site; and
to ensure the peaceful use of such site, to prevent any potential instances of disorder and to respond to any incident.

The Palestinian police do not protect Joseph's Tomb and there is no free access to it by Jews - last week, Jews were almost lynched trying to access it. Terrorists routinely attack any Jews they can who visit the site and the Palestinian police are nowhere to be found.

The Oslo II agreement says:

Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.

But the Palestinians have declared the "State of Palestine" and signed international agreements under that name, which was completely unilateral.

The PLO undertakes that, within two months of the date of the inauguration of the Council, the Palestinian National Council will convene and formally approve the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant, as undertaken in the letters signed by the Chairman of the PLO and addressed to the Prime Minister of Israel, dated September 9, 1993 and May 4, 1994.

This never happened. There has never been a version of the Palestinian National Covenant published that removed the parts that declare the establishment of Israel to be null and void, for example. The PLO pretended to amend it but never did.

Relations between Israel and the [Palestinian National] Council

Israel and the Council shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.

There is daily incitement to violence in official Palestinian media, let alone other media.

Israel and the Council will ensure that their respective educational systems contribute to the peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the entire region, and will refrain from the introduction of any motifs that could adversely affect the process of reconciliation.

Palestinian schools still teach that Israel doesn't exist in any borders and they do not teach peace with Israel in any context.

The 1995 Joint Declaration of the Washington Summit stated that the PLO would oppose the Arab boycott of Israel. While BDS pretends to be separate from the Arab boycott, it is in fact a continuation of the same, and the PLO has attempted to enforce boycotts against Israeli products both demostically and internationally.

The Wye River Memorandum (1998) says:

1. Outlawing and Combating Terrorist Organizations

The Palestinian side will make known its policy of zero tolerance for terror and violence against both sides.

Yet the Palestinian Police aren't even attempting to enforce security in Jenin, Nablus and other places where organized armed groups from Islamic Jihad and other terror organizations have effectively taken over.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - part of Fatah - has free reign to walk around publicly with weapons anywhere it wants to. It is not an illegal organization.

2. Prohibiting Illegal Weapons

The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.
In addition, the Palestinian side will establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of all such illegal items in accordance with the prior agreements.

There are illegal weapons all over the West Bank (let alone Gaza,) publicly brandished. They aren't being confiscated and the police aren't even trying.

3. Preventing Incitement

Drawing on relevant international practice and pursuant to Article XXII (1) of the Interim Agreement and the Note for the Record, the Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.

Not only is there no law against incitement, but there is incitement to violence in official Palestinian media and statements from Palestinian officials.

2. Forensic Cooperation

There will be an exchange of forensic expertise, training, and other assistance.

As we saw during the Shireen Abu Akleh investigation, the PA had no intention of sharing forensics information.

4. Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Pursuant to Article XI (1) of Annex I of the Interim Agreement, and without derogating from the above, the Palestinian Police will exercise powers and responsibilities to implement this Memorandum with due regard to internationally accepted norms of human rights and the rule of law, and will be guided by the need to protect the public, respect human dignity, and avoid harassment.

The Palestinian police are clearly not adhering to this. Nizar Banat is only one example.

When the Palestinian leaders attempt to claim that Israel is violating signed agreements, they are trying to misdirect attention from their own egregious and explicit violations of those same agreements.

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An editorial at Amad shows anger at various Arab states for declaring days of mourning for Queen Elizabeth, saying that this is an insult to...Palestinians.

Hassan Asfour, the editor of Amad, wrote an article saying that various Arab countries who declared days of mourning and that flags should fly at half-mast are showing support of the British Balfour Declaration and of Zionism, and insulting Palestinians.

The Arab countries that declared days of mourning include Jordan, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Asfour notes that none of these countries did anything similar when Yasir Arafat was "assassinated," or when Gamal Abdel Nasser died.

Far from empty compliments, what these countries have done is a new attack on the Palestinian people and their national cause, as if they are blessing what [Great Britain has]done. Just days ago, the Prime Minister of Her Majesty’s Government announced that if Israel did not exist, it would need to be created..and that it is more Zionist than the Zionists themselves.

(I couldn't find that Liz Truss quote.)

As always, Palestinians need to make everything about themselves, and when any other world event happens that knocks their position in the daily news items down a peg or two, they are livid that they aren't the top story.

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Palestinians condemn "settlers in obscene clothing" visiting Tomb of the Patriarchs

Palestinian media is reporting:

Today, Sunday, September 11, 2022, a group of settlers, accompanied by the Israeli occupation forces, stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

The director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Ghassan Al-Rajabi, said that a group of settlers accompanied by the occupation forces stormed the Ishaqiah (Isaac) section and the prayer hall in the Ibrahimi Mosque, coinciding with the noon prayer.

Al-Rajbi added that the guardians of the Ibrahimi Mosque tried to prevent a group of settlers dressed in obscene clothes from entering the Ishaqiah chapel...

For his part, Minister of Awqaf Hatem Al-Bakry denounced the settlers storming the Ibrahimi Mosque in obscene clothes to perform Talmudic rituals.

Al-Bakri said: "The continuation of these crimes from time to time, with the blessing of the Israeli political level and in public, obliges the world to stand up to its responsibilities and to intervene seriously to put an end to these violations."

So what did these "Jewish settlers in obscene clothing" look like?

Needless to say, these are not "Jewish settlers." They are non-Jewish tourists, visiting the Muslim side of the holy site (the centotaph of Isaac is on the Muslim side.) The guards have been known to ask tourists if they are Jewish and will not admit Jews to begin with.

Apparently, the Muslim bigots have been so enthralled at the publicity they received by falsely claiming that Jews were dressing obscenely at the Temple Mount that they have decided to play the same trick on the world by pretending that non-Jewish tourists, dressed like normal tourists, are really "Jewish settlers".

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09/11 Links: Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice; The unlearned lessons of 9/11; Will King Charles III change course on Israel?

From Ian:

Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice - opinion

Nineteen US states sent Morningstar, the financial services giant, a clear message last month: its attempts to sweep its anti-Israel bias under the rug are not fooling anyone.

On August 17, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that 18 states had joined Missouri in investigating the Chicago-based corporation’s apparent support for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Schmitt promised to investigate whether Morningstar’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) tools amounted to “consumer fraud or unfair trade practices.”

ESG investment is a huge industry, accounting for $17 trillion in assets in the US alone. While ESG is designed to incorporate ethical considerations into investment, the industry’s subjective standards have allowed anti-Israel activists to impose their agenda on unwitting investors. Former US State Department special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism Elan Carr has called it “BDS dressed up as social-justice investing.”

Matters only got worse on August 25, when top financial authorities from 17 states called on Morningstar to reverse course on Israel. This followed Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee’s warning to Morningstar’s CEO that he had 30 days to prove his company was not violating Arizona’s anti-BDS law. Otherwise, Arizona would add the company to the state’s prohibited investments list. Morningstar uses “anti-Israel and antisemitic sources to negatively impact companies doing business in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories,” Yee wrote.

Arizona’s threat may only be the tip of the iceberg: ESG firms must contend with anti-BDS statutes on the books in more than 30 states. These laws have created real consequences, including prohibitions on investing state funds, for companies engaging in discriminatory boycotts of Israel.

The Use of False NGO Apartheid Claims to Support BDS Resolutions

Over the past few years, a network of anti-Israel, pro-BDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been promoting artificial definitions of apartheid in their ongoing efforts to delegitimize and demonize Israel. By deploying emotionally-charged rhetoric related to one of the worst manifestations of racism in modern history, NGOs seek to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish State, and advance BDS and lawfare against Israel.

In order to gauge the salience of the NGO apartheid campaign, NGO Monitor examined 28 divestment resolutions by student groups, trade unions, churches, and other institutions since September 2020 (see table below). We found that, in order to support their demands for BDS, 25 of the 28 resolutions mention apartheid. Eighteen explicitly quote or cite politicized NGOs and their manufactured claims of apartheid.

The “apartheid” rhetoric was accompanied by accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, as well as fundamental opposition to Zionism. Some call for the end of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. A number also referenced the UN BDS “blacklist” of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, another initiative resulting from NGO lobbying.

Apartheid Rhetoric
As noted, the vast majority of the examined BDS resolutions invoked a variety of terms and phrases associated with the NGO network’s apartheid campaign. Many resolutions made direct reference to NGO apartheid reports, including those by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and Israeli NGO B’Tselem.

Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog returns to Ethiopia

During the visit, Almog will visit the historic sites where Ethiopian Jews walked in the 1980s on their pilgrimage to Israel. He will also review the preparation activities for the aliyah process carried out by representatives of the Jewish Agency in community centers in Gondar and Addis Ababa and will meet with the immigrants before they immigrate to Israel.

Almog will arrive in Ethiopia together with a senior delegation of leaders of the Jewish communities in North America, on behalf of the Jewish Federations of North America.

“The true heroes of the Ethiopian aliyah are the olim themselves who have waited so long for this moment, yet never lost ‘hatikvah’ – the hope – that they would one day reach the Land of Israel,” The organization’s president and CEO Eric Fingerhut said.

“It is a tremendous privilege to know that for decades, our federation system has played an instrumental role in the aliyah journey of these men, women and children, as well as in supporting their first steps in Israel.”

Operation “Tzur Israel” operates by virtue of a government decision led by Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.

In the first phase of the operation, which began in December 2020 and ended in March 2021, about 2,000 olim arrived in Israel. The second phase was launched in June 2021, when the government decided to bring an additional 3,000 more immigrants.

So far, about 1,250 immigrants from Ethiopia have immigrated to Israel during the second phase of the operation. Of the 200 immigrants on the upcoming flight this week, 40 are children and toddlers who will be integrated into the Israeli education system upon arrival.

Most of the olim aren’t considered to be entitled to aliyah according to Israel’s Right of Return law, but are instead offered citizenship as first degree relatives of Israeli citizens. Many will begin a process of conversion to Judaism after arriving in the Jewish state.

This video shows, for a painful 100 seconds, how happy Palestinians were upon hearing that thousands of Americans had been murdered by Al Qaeda 21 years ago today.

But Palestinian support for Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and suicide bombings remained high even as Arab countries turned against them.

This Pew Research graphic shows that Palestinians were more enthusiastic about Al Qaeda than citizens of any Arab country, and while their support waned over the years, they continued to be the most extreme supporters of terror among Arabs in the decade following 9/11.

In 2014, the most recent poll I can find, Palestinian Arabs were most supportive among world Muslims towards suicide bombings - by far.

And even then, three years after Osama Bin Laden was killed, a huge proportion of Palestinians continued to support Al Qaeda - more than any other Muslims:

One doesn't see questions about suicide bombings and support for Bin Laden being asked by international pollsters any more, possibly because they make Palestinians look so bad. But even this year, a majority of Palestinians support "armed attacks" against Israeli civilians, and there is little reason to think that they distinguish between "martyrdom operations" and any other attacks on Jewish civilians.

Bin Laden lives on - in Palestinians.

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