Wednesday, September 28, 2022

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: More can be done to support the Iranian protests against strict Islamic laws
The civil unrest that began in Iran on September 16 has been called “The Mahsa Amini protests,” named after the young Iranian woman who died in police custody in Tehran after being severely beaten by the Guidance Patrol, the Islamic Republic’s morality police, which accused her of wearing an “improper” hijab in violation of Iran’s mandatory hijab law.

“The 22-year-old woman emerged from the Tehran subway, her dark hair covered with a black headscarf and the lines of her body obscured by loose clothing, when the capital city’s Guidance Patrol spotted her,” The New York Times reported. “They were members of Iran’s notorious morality police, enforcers of the conservative Islamic dress and behavior rules that have governed daily life for Iranians since the 1979 revolution, and newly energized under a hard-line president who took office last year. By their standards, Mahsa Amini was improperly dressed, which could mean something as simple as a wisp of hair protruding from her headscarf. They put her in a van and drove her away to a detention center, where she was to undergo re-education. Three days later, on September 16, she was dead.”

The protests erupted hours after her death outside the Tehran hospital where she was treated and spread like wildfire to her home province of Kurdistan and then to other cities across Iran.

In response, the Iranian regime initially implemented regional shutdowns of Internet access, and as the protests grew, it imposed a widespread Internet blackout together with nationwide restrictions on social media.

Still, dozens of protesters have been killed in almost two weeks of rage and street battles that are certainly the deadliest since the 2019–20 protests which resulted in more than 1,500 fatalities. The New York Times called them the largest the country has witnessed since 2009, when demonstrations broke out in response to the reelection of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vote seen by many as fraudulent.

Chanting “Women, life and freedom” and “Death to the dictator,” the protesters targeted their anger at their ailing supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while their current president, Ebrahim Raisi, was in New York City to address the UN General Assembly. Ironically, Raisi canceled a scheduled interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after she refused to wear a headscarf.
Phyllis Chesler: Why Haven’t Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib Even Mentioned Iran’s Hijab Protests?
Clearly, the Iranian women and their male supporters find their lives intolerable. They’d rather be dead than continue to live in the prison that Iran has become for all but the ruling mullahs and their hirelings.

The demonstrations, however, are about more than women’s rights. Iranians have demonstrated in massive numbers before — in 2009 over election fraud, in 2017 over economic misery, and in 2019 over fuel prices. Each time, the government suppressed the uprisings with bullets, tear gas, beatings, arrests, torture, and murder. What might be required for a different outcome to occur?

In a personal interview, my esteemed colleague, Ibn Warraq, points out: “The protesters lack leadership and above all they lack weapons.”

Ibn Warraq also points out that “At some point the army would have to flip, refuse to kill their own people.”

Is this possible? Can it ever happen? Are a people who were able to drive out the Shah also capable of driving out Khomeini’s mullahs? That is the question.

For all its very serious faults, including using the American flag to fashion a hijab for the marchers, Sarsour was part of a Women’s March leadership that drew hundreds of thousands of people. Tlaib and Omar have run multiple successful campaigns.

Imagine if they applied their organizational skills to rallying Americans to take to the streets in support the heroic Iranian women and men who are risking their lives for the freedoms we enjoy in America.

It could show the Iranians that we stand with them, and that moral support might help keep them going. Sadly, we are unlikely to find out.
Emily Schrader: Iran protests should be turning point in change for women, life and freedom
This past week, practically the entire country of Iran exploded over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested by Iran’s infamous morality police for improperly wearing a hijab (a criminal offense in Iran). She was beaten and later died of her injuries. The response from the people of Iran has been overwhelming.

Iranians once lived in an extremely progressive and liberal country, but for 43 years now have suffered under the terrorist dictatorship of the Ayatollah – a radically Islamist regime known for its barbarity, cruelty, and misogyny. Mahsa’s death, however, has sparked an uprising. The people have had their fill of systematic oppression, in particular against women. Through massive protests and the help of social media, Iranians are doing all they can to reclaim their country. Sadly, the West appears to be failing them yet again.

From the very start of the protests, the movement was women-led, with initial slogans being “women, life, freedom.” With the hashtag #MahsaAmini, videos began circulating across social media showing Iranian women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs to protest against the Islamic regime and its brutal morality police. The protests spilled into the streets as tens of thousands of Iranians gathered fearlessly, men and women, burning hijabs in public, dancing (another illegal activity for women in Iran), and chanting, “death to the dictator!” in the face of violent regime police.

Yet at the same time as Iranians were fighting for their basic freedoms and for equality between men and women, the United States – which is supposed to be a beacon of freedom and democracy in the world – welcomed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, also known as the “Butcher of Tehran” for his role in mass executions and torture of political dissidents. Raisi touched down in New York to address the UN General Assembly, yet should never have been granted a visa.

The US prohibits issuing visas to leaders who have threatened US leaders or have carried out terrorist activities. Given that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a terror group in the United States, the fact the US would grant Raisi a visa is appalling and disrespectful to Raisi’s victims and the Iranian people.

As if that wasn’t sickening enough, shortly before Raisi addressed the UN, he conducted an interview with 60 Minutes in which he blatantly refused to recognize that the Holocaust occurred. Later, in his UN speech, he criticized the United States and praised late IRGC Commander Qasem Soleimani, a man responsible for countless acts of terrorism.
France's Liberation news site has an article on Mahmoud Abbas that agrees, in the headline, that he is an authoritarian.


This has been obvious for years, but Western media has resisted saying it. 

It is based on an AFP interview from Monday of Nasser Kidwa, Yasir Arafat's nephew who was pushed out of Fatah by Abbas last year. “He does what he wants, without consideration for anything: the law, the institutions, the traditions (...) It has become totalitarian”, Kidwa said.

Unfortunately, the article seems to linger more on how Abbas has appeared to be "collaborating" with Israel by maintaining some pretense of holding to the Oslo Accords. It quotes critics of Abbas who would be more authoritarian than he is. What is best for Palestinians themselves seems to be hardly a consideration. 

I have yet to see a Western media outlet mention that Abbas controls the executive. legislative and judicial branches of the Palestinian government, as well as a terror group.

So to see any real discussion of the true immorality of Mahmoud Abbas, you need to go to niche sites like Gatestone Institute to read real experts like Khaled Abu Toameh.



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The latest Arab Youth Survey indicates that as much as we would love to believe that access to the Internet has moderated the majority of Arab youth, it still isn't true.

Far more Arab youth blames the Ukraine war on the US and NATO than on Russia.

China, Turkey and Russia are considered their top three allies, while 88% say that Israel is an enemy of the Arab world, more than any other non-Arab country:




29% say the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the biggest obstacle facing the Middle East, behind cost of living and unemployment, but ahead of corruption.




9% feel that Israel has the most influence on the Arab world, third place but way behind the US (but ahead of Russia, China and the UAE:)


Interestingly,  57% of the same youth say that the one country they would most want to live in is the UAE - and that is higher than it ever was before. Meaning that the Abraham Accords does not negatively affect Arab youths' opinions of the UAE - perhaps the opposite.

It is a shame that the survey results do not break down the Palestinian youth answers to specific questions. 






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Ramy Abdu is chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and has been a regular speaker at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

He is also an antisemitic bigot.

Abdu tweeted this video, showing popular Israeli Orthodox singer Avraham Fried, wishing a sweet and happy New Year to the entire nation of Israel, with the soldiers of the Netzach Battalion then singing their own song repeating their name.


But Abdu, who was born in Gaza, chose to describe the events of the video quite differently from the reality, claiming that the "rabbi" and the soldiers were singing racist chants and insults against Muslims and Arabs. 


His tweet was up for hours, even as dozens of people pointed out how Abdu was lying.

Abdu then silently deleted it and replaced it:


Two days later - no apology for his libel.

And he is a respected "human rights" figure. 

One only needs one example like this to understand that nothing that Ramy Abdu or his organization says can be trusted. But there are lots of examples proving that Abdu is an antisemitic bigot and his organization similarly doesn't have any interest in facts.







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Tuesday, September 27, 2022

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel's 'Peace Partner' Is Slaughtering Israelis
These two bodies [Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling faction, Fatah] are headed by one man: Mahmoud Abbas, who has zero compunction about his loyalists murdering and wounding Israelis. On the contrary, he encourages it and pays generously for it -- with money from Europe and the United States.

Despite [an extremely long list of terrorist attacks against Israel], Fatah is also often mystifyingly referred to by some Israelis and Westerners as a "moderate" Palestinian faction as opposed to the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Fatah, however, has proved over the years that its actions and rhetoric are actually no different from those of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the terror groups that openly call for the elimination of Israel.

In 1993, Yasser Arafat, then leader of Fatah and the PLO, committed "to a peaceful resolution of the conflict" with Israel and claimed that the PLO "renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence." His loyalists, however, continued to murder and wound Israelis even after making these commitments, signing the Oslo Accords and supposedly beginning an Israeli-Palestinian "peace process."

The groups are so proud of their terrorism that they have started filming their gunmen preparing and carrying out the attacks. They are, in addition, calling on Palestinians to escalate the fight against Israel, while enthusiastically and warmly endorsing the terrorists.

The growing involvement of Fatah and PA members in terrorism is one of the direct results of the Palestinian leadership's extreme incitement against Israel. Abbas and his aides continue to level the worst charges and libels against Israel. It is this kind of rhetoric, as well as generous payments, that encourage Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis. The fact that Abbas and his entourage do not even bother to rein in or denounce the terrorists is apparently seen by many Palestinians as a green light to continue the attacks.

The international community, for its part, is so preoccupied with bashing Israel that no one is calling out these putative Palestinian "peace partners" over their role in terrorism. This silence is also encouraging these Palestinian "peace partners" to continue their attacks.

That is why the Fatah-affiliated Lions' Den group has felt confident enough to publish a new threat: "O Jews, The Countdown For Your Demise Has Begun; Stabbings, Car-Rammings, Clashes."

This is the "peace partner" that the Biden administration is hoping to assist in establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel. With a partner like this, it is easy to imagine what the situation in the Middle East will look like -- more violence, terrorism and bloodshed. Israel's "peace partners" are doing everything in their power to confirm the fears of Israelis about the presence of a Palestinian state just a handful of kilometers from their homes.
Rashida Tlaib’s absurd acid test
Having established a dubious anti-Zionist litmus test for Americans who disagree with her one-sided and unhelpful position on Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, Tlaib has offended some of her Democratic colleagues in Congress.

“I fundamentally reject the notion that one cannot support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and be a progressive,” tweeted Jerry Nadler of New York.

“There is nothing progressive about advocating the end of Israel,” Ritchie Torres of New York wrote on Twitter.

“Proud progressives do support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state,” said Debbie Wasserman of Florida. “Suggestions otherwise are shameful and dangerous.”

They are stating the obvious.

Much to her discredit, Tlaib has erected an artificial barrier between Americans in the progressive movement who support Israel and those who work for its disappearance.

By Tlaib’s skewed standard, progressive-minded politicians and citizens cannot support the cause of Jewish statehood while endorsing Palestinian statehood.

Tlaib’s all-or-nothing philosophy is ethnically self-centered, nasty and destructive. It serves no constructive objective and falls perfectly into line with the policy of Iran — a theocratic and totalitarian state that suppresses free speech and assembly and squelches women’s inalienable rights — and the policies of movements like Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda and Islamic State, all of which decry progressive positions.

Contrary to Tlaib’s outlook, a progressive person can support human rights and fundamental freedoms without renouncing Israel’s right to exist. This is elementary.

Progressives can, and should, criticize Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its failure to fully integrate Muslim and Christian Arabs into Israeli society. But they are on shaky ground when they suggest that a person cannot be simultaneously pro-Israel and progressive, as Tlaib erroneously claims.

Tlaib’s view should be regarded as an opinion among a multitude of opinions in the Democratic Party. It is not carved in stone. Nor is it representative of mainstream thinking in the party or in the country.

Tlaib is entitled to her views, but she should not be under the false impression that they represent the Democratic Party or American public opinion.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

  • Sunday, September 25, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here is a Rosh Hashana greeting card asking that the New Year be a year of "liberation of holy places."

According to one page of the National Library of Israel website, this card was created in 1967.

Yet the Hebrew year on this card is 5700, which would make this card from 1939. That adds a real poignancy to this.

 Jews were always praying for the liberation of holy places in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but if Israel had existed in 1939, there would be millions more Jews alive today.

May you have a sweet, wonderful New Year!


 I will not be posting from sunset tonight in whatever time zone I'm in until late Tuesday or Wednesday.







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From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Welcoming the year of 5783
Rosh Hashanah 5783 begins at sundown this evening, September 25, and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, September 27. The holiday celebrates not only the Jewish New Year, but also the birth of the universe and the beginning of the Days of Awe – 10 days of repentance and renewal that culminate in Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The past year, 5782, has been a difficult one for Israel and the world. Although we appear to be emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been some disturbing global developments – from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seven months ago to the Vienna negotiations on a new Iran nuclear deal.

Historically, this period will be remembered for the death of Queen Elizabeth II after an almost-record sovereign reign of 70 years (Louis XIV of France reigned almost two years longer) and the beginning of a new era under her son, King Charles III.

In Israel, we are witnessing a turbulent period as the country braces for its fifth election in less than four years (the first was on April 9, 2019). Security has been tightened ahead of Rosh Hashanah as the country also faces a resurgence of Palestinian terrorism. Are there any good news for a change?

On the positive side, the Israeli economy is showing signs of bouncing back. The Central Bureau of Statistics reported, for example, that the employment rate rose in August to the highest level in four years.

Israel’s ties with Arab and Muslim states are advancing well – especially in the Gulf – as evidenced most recently in talks on a free-trade agreement with Bahrain and Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York on Tuesday, the first such meeting since December 2008.

Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss told Lapid on Wednesday at the United Nations that she is reviewing a relocation of her country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would also be a welcome development.


Poll: 65% of Israelis Think Country is ‘Good Place to Live’
Nearly 65 percent of the country’s population say Israel is a good place to live, while 33 percent of the respondents think the opposite, according to a poll published ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The survey conducted by Maariv, showed that the degree of satisfaction is higher among the older respondents: 77 percent of those aged 61 and over said they are satisfied, compared to 51 percent of people under 29.

The positive perception of life in Israel is also more widespread among religious (79 percent) and ultra-Orthodox (69 percent) respondents, compared to 59 percent of people who identify themselves as secular.

The majority of respondents (62 percent) also believe that the State of Israel is immutable, while 23 percent, on the contrary, believe that it faces existential dangers.

Asked about what worries them the most in Israel, 68 percent of respondents said it was the cost of living. It was followed by Palestinian terrorism (32 percent), housing prices (18 percent), crime (13 percent) and political instability (12 percent).

The majority of those worried about terrorism are supporters of Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu (47 percent), while Arab respondents are much more concerned about crime (39 percent) and Jewish-Arab relations (21 percent).
Caroline Glick: Booking.com and the Anti-Semitic Zeitgeist
As for the zeitgeist, repeated surveys of public opinion show Europeans are largely hostile to Israel. For instance, a 2019 survey of European opinion by Bertelsman Stiftung Foundation found that whereas 61% of Israelis were positively disposed toward Europeans, a mere 20% of Europeans held positive opinions of Israel.

Regarding the Netherlands specifically, a 2018 study carried out by Israel’s left-leaning Institute for National Security Studies showed that the Dutch media collectively cover Israel in a manner that delegitimizes Israel’s existence and dehumanizes Israeli Jews. A popular Dutch media tactic for demonizing Israel is to claim that Israel cannot be a democracy, since during the period under review, the Knesset was debating a bill aimed at curbing the hostile activities of Dutch-funded anti-Israel NGOs.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) spoke to the now-rising anti-Israel, and increasingly outright anti-Jewish zeitgeist in progressive America on September 20. In remarks to an online forum hosted by a pro-Palestinian group, Tlaib said, “Among progressives, it has become clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values, yet back Israel’s apartheid government.” She added, “We will not accept this idea that you are progressive, except for Palestine, any longer.”

Tlaib’s call for pro-Israel Americans to be shunned by progressives was roundly condemned by a handful of predominantly but not exclusively Jewish Democratic lawmakers, who rightly characterized her statement, and Tlaib herself, as anti-Semitic. On the other hand, there were several other lawmakers who participated in the online conference with Tlaib—and none expressed any qualms about her remarks. Moreover, President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and the rest of the Biden administration and Democratic congressional leadership felt no need to condemn Tlaib. To the contrary, they have embraced Tlaib. When Tlaib condemned U.S. support for Israel during last year’s Hamas missile offensive against the Jewish state, Biden gushed over Tlaib; he expressed his “admiration” for the anti-Semitic lawmaker, applauded her “passion” and “intellect,” and called her a “fighter.”

When seen in the broader context of Europe’s political war against Israel and the dominant anti-Israel and anti-Jewish zeitgeist in Europe and progressive America, Booking.com’s action cannot be dismissed as the mere bloviation of overpaid, woke corporate executives. Instead, it must be seen as a sign of what is already happening, and a warning of an even worse situation that perhaps awaits us, as anti-Semitism again becomes the condition for entry into high society in Europe and America.


By Daled Amos


There are not that many arguments out there against the Abraham Accords.

After all, how do you argue against peace between Jews and Arabs?
How can you find fault in a coalition that opposes the leading state sponsor of terrorism?
What is wrong with the prosperity created by trade between the countries involved?

Now a different kind of argument is being made: the Abraham Accords are based on a myth.

Writing in Haaretz, Seraj Assi explains Why Jews and Arabs Are Not Long Lost Cousins

While Arab and Israeli leaders are celebrating the second anniversary of the Abraham Accords with language and iconography leaning heavily on a return to ancient and ancestral kinship, history itself begs to differ.

The Abraham Accords, which turn two years old this month, are founded on a historical myth long cherished by Middle East peacemakers: that Arabs and Jews are descendants of one great forefather, Abraham, and hence are both symbolic and ethnic cousins, the Arabs being descendants of his son Ishmael.

Assi goes into a detailed overview of the development of the idea that Arabs are Ishmaelites, descendants of Ishmael, and therefore brothers with the common father, Abraham.

And what is his point?

For many disenchanted Arabs and Palestinians, however, the Abraham Accords are illusory, a branding exercise milking a historical myth, just like the political fable that peace can be achieved by a stroke of pen or a romanticized leap of historical imagination. But there is more to peace than mythmaking. Perhaps Arabs and Jews can find a better way to coexist in real life and legitimate each other than depending on the delusions of historical fiction.

According to Assi, if the familial ties between Jews and Arabs are an illusory myth, then the Abraham Accords themselves are illusory as well, based on nothing more than "a stroke of the pen."

Assi's point about Ishmael is not new.

Almost 70 years ago, the ethnographer, historian and Arabist S. D. Goitein wrote about this in his 1955 book Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts Through the Ages:

To be sure there is no record in the Bible showing that Ishmael was the forefather of the "Arabs." [p. 21]

But Goitein continues that by the same token,

While the pseudo-scientific myth of the Semitic race has no basis in reality, there is much more to the popular belief that Jews and Arabs are close relatives, "cousins," because they were descended from the brothers Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham. 

He writes that the Ishmaelites were an ancient tribe that vanished from history, which the Bible then used as a common noun to denote desert people who were camel-breeders and engaged in either raids or transport. During the Second Temple, when Jews had many dealings with Arab tribes, they were described as Ishmaelites. In addition, the Arabs were also referred to as dodanim, cousins, of Israel. Dodanim was a pun on the name of the Arab tribe Dedanim mentioned in Isaiah 21:13. 

But according to Goitein this connection between Jews and Arabs was more than a literary invention. He writes that ancient Israel and the original pre-Islamic Arabs

show very distinctive affinities which make them akin to each other and different from the great civilizations which surrounded and influenced them. There were very definite common traits in the social traditions and the moral attitudes of the two peoples. These common traits can best be described as those of a primitive democracy. [p. 27; emphasis in the original]

He contrasts Jews and Arabs with the kingdoms of the ancient Orient,  such as Mesopotamia, Egypt and Asia Minor and the later civilizations of Byzantium and Persia (3rd-7th century). In ancient Israel and among the Arabs, society consisted of rich and poor, fortunate and miserable, just like everywhere else. But unlike other kingdoms and civilizations, there were no privileged classes or castes established by law. 

In his book, The Seed of Abraham: Jews and Arabs in Contact and Conflict, (p. 7) Raphael Patai writes about "pre-Islamic values and characters traits which to this day are basic ingredients of the Arab personality" described by pre-Islamic poets:

hospitality
o  bravery
o  generosity
o  manliness
o  honor (vis-a-vis shame) 

The Jewish trait of hachnasas orchim, as personified by Abraham, clearly parallels the hospitality listed above. Gemilus Chasadim (sometimes translated as "giving lovingkindness") may also parallel the generosity listed above. They reflect a tight-knit dependence common to both Jews and Arabs.

Goitein sees the source for the similarities between Jews and Arabs described in the Bible. After all, Abraham did have other children besides Isaac and Ishmael:

It would seem that the answer to this question is to be sought in the aboriginal affinity alluded to in the Bible.

According to Genesis (21:20-21, 4:1-6, 12-18), Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, was not only the father of Ishmael, but also of Midian and many other tribes living in North Arabia, and even of Sheba, a tribe most probably connected with the old country of Sheba in Southern Arabia. Genesis reports that Abraham sent these sons into the countries of the East, after giving them presents, thus leaving Isaac the sole heir of the Land of Canaan. (p. 31)

And this would signify that

The people of Israel felt themselves closely akin to those tribes of Northern Arabia or even of Southern Arabia. [p. 32]

Regardless of Assi's hangup about "Ishamael", the fact of symbiosis between Jews and pre-Islamic Arabs set the stage for the continuing relationship -- admittedly not always friendly -- between Jews and Arabs in the centuries following the advent of Islam.

Even then, the relationship is different between Jews and Muslims from the relationship of Jews within modern Western civilization

like the ancient civilization of the Greeks, [which] is essentially at variance with the religious culture of the Jewish people...Judaism inside Islam was an autonomous culture sure of itself despite, and possibly because of, its intimate connection with its environment. Never has Judaism encountered such a close and fructuous symbiosis as that with the medieval civilization of Arab Islam. [p. 130]

Where else but among Arabs and Jews today do we find religion, land, language, law and culture so closely bound together?

A review of Goitein's book in a 1956 issue of Commentary Magazine notes:

It is obvious that, backed by oil revenues and 20th-century technology, a new association of the two peoples and the devotion of their talents and resources to pacific purposes could bring both to a new level of prosperity and even spiritual satisfaction.

Unfortunately, a simple Arab-Jewish rapprochement is no longer sufficient. Near Eastern history is made, in 1956, not in Jerusalem and Cairo but in Washington and Moscow, and by harassed officials with little or no intimate knowledge of or concern for Arabs and Jews.

The first paragraph is prescient.
The second one reflects the problem of the old thinking and attitude prior to the "inexperienced" Jared Kushner.

Instead of getting tied down by Assi's semantics, there is potential for further success and even broader peace. 

And as we have seen over the past 2 years -- that is no myth.





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Continuing on listing Mahmoud Abbas' lies at the UN on Friday.

Since its inception, Israel has committed brutal crimes against our people, when it destroyed 529 Palestinian villages, expelled their residents from them during and after the 1948 war, and expelled 950,000 Palestinians, more than half of the Palestinian people at the time, from their homes, according to the records of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).  and committed more than fifty massacres since 1948 to this day, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of children, women, the elderly and innocent people, and everyone remembers the massacre of children in the war on Gaza last year, which killed 67 children.    
Every single one of these numbers is a lie. 

Some of the supposed villages listed in one database had zero population - and zero area - in 1948, but somehow magically they have "refugee" descendants!



Most historians (Morris, Khalidi) estimate far fewer depopulated villages and towns. 

Most Palestinian Arabs were not expelled in 1948, they left on their own out of fear.

UNRWA doesn't claim 950,000 refugees - it said there were 725,000. Even that is an exaggeration.

50 massacres by Israel? Only 15 rate mention in Wikipedia, where anyone can post anything. 

Tens of thousands of children, women, the elderly and innocent Palestinians killed by Israel?  That is absurd. You can do the math here.

Even the claim of 67 children killed in Gaza in 2021 is a lie (the UN says fewer), but nearly all were killed when Israel aimed at legitimate targets of war.

We do not accept that we remain the only party that adheres to the agreements we signed with Israel in 1993, agreements that no longer exist on the ground, due to Israel's continued violation of them.  
The Palestinians certinly do not adhere to the most basic parts of the Oslo process, starting with the initial 1993 letter signed by Arafat claiming to end all support for terror. I recently listed many violations by the Palestinians of Oslo agreements. I haven't seen the Palestinian list of Israeli violations so I cannot easily show how that is a likely lie. 

Therefore, I present today to this UN organization, the title of international legitimacy in this world, with a formal request to implement General Assembly resolution 181, which formed the basis for the two-state solution in 1947, as well as resolution 194 calling for the right of return of Palestine refugees. 
The entire Arab world unanimously rejected both of those resolutions. Israel accepted both of them (194 with reservations on which specific refugees could be returned.) Now, Abbas says he wants to implement them, seven decades later?

This is a joke. 

UNGA 194 did not call for the "right of return." It quite specifically did not use the language of rights. Israel allowed many to return and offered to allow many more - and this was rejected. 

The "right of return" is a myth that is meant to destroy the Jewish state. And that is exactly what Abbas is demanding now. Isn't it strange that a purported national leader demands that his people go to his enemy that he considers an apartheid state? Either he knows the apartheid libel is a lie or he doesn't cre much about his own people's welfare.

Perhaps I need to remind you that Israel's commitment to implement these two resolutions was a condition for the acceptance of its membership in your esteemed international organization.
This is yet another Palestinian lie. There is no conditional language in the resolution accepting Israel as a UN member state. 
All glory to the righteous martyrs of the Palestinian people who enlightened the path of freedom and independence with their pure blood.
Unlike the rest of the speech, this is not s lie.

This statement, and his subsequent language honoring prisoners, is explicit support for terrorism and terrorists. 

And no one at the UN or the media called him out on this.






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Continuing on exposing Mahmoud Abbas' lies in a single speech to the world...

Moreover, the Israeli government allowed the formation of racist Jewish terrorist organizations that practice terrorism against our people, and provided them with protection as they attack the Palestinians and call for their expulsion from their homes. At the top of these terrorist organizations are the Hilltop Youth, the price tag groups, Lahava, and the Temple Trustees, and these terrorist organizations are led by members of the Israeli Knesset, and, in this context, we call on the international community to put these terrorist organizations on the lists of global terrorism.   
Have these groups placed bombs on Arab buses or encouraged their members to kill Arabs? I am unaware of that. However, some of them have done illegal things and they were arrested by the Israeli police. So claiming that Israel supports them is another lie.

Abbas is trying to say that Israel is guilty of everything he himself is guilty of. After all, the Al aqsa Martyrs Brigades are part of his Fatah organization and takes credit for terror attacks.
Israel has left us nothing of the land to establish our independent state in light of its frenzied settlement attack, so where will our people live in freedom and dignity? Where will we establish our independent state to live in peace with our neighbors? 
The land situation is virtually the same as it was during the Oslo process. 
Israel is imposing forged educational curricula in our schools in occupied Jerusalem, in violation of international law, and disrupts the presidential and legislative elections in Palestine, by preventing Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem from participating in them, as took place in three previous elections (1996, 2005, 2006), and enacts racist laws that it perpetuates a system of racial discrimination, an Apartheid against our people in front of the international community, and evades accountability and punishment, so why not hold Israel accountable for violating international law?  
Here is a firehose of lies.

Israel is encouraging Arab schools in Jerusalem to use the Israeli curriculum, it is not forcing anything

The curriculum is accurate and the criticisms of it by Palestinians are ludicrous.

Israel is not stopping Arabs in Jerusalem from participating in elections; they just have to travel a few minutes to get to a polling booth - or they can vote at post offices. Abbas is the one who has used Israel as an excuse not to hold elections. 

Israel has no racist laws. The lists given by anti-Israel groups are not discriminatory.

Israel does not perpetuate a system of racial discrimination. It treats Arab and Jewish citizens equally, and it treats non-citizens differently from citizens, just like every other country does.

Israel does not practice apartheid and this is simply an antisemitic slur

Israel has not refrained from the repeated violation of our land and its recent closure of the headquarters of six Palestinian human rights organizations operating in the Palestinian territory, in accordance with Palestinian and international law, after it had accused them in the past of being terrorist organizations, while the whole world rejected and condemned this accusation, after confirming it was baseless. 
The links between those groups and terror groups, especially the PFLP, are beyond dispute. 

More coming....




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

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Read all about it here!

 

 




As he does every year, Mahmoud Abbas gave an anti-Israel speech to the UN. And as with every other one on record, it was filled with lies.

Here are some of them, based on the official speech (he sometimes ad libs outside the speech, often betraying more  antisemitism...)

I speak to you on behalf of more than fourteen million Palestinian people, whose parents and grandparents lived through the tragedy of the “Nakba” seventy-four years ago, and they are still living the effects of this “Nakba”, which is a disgrace to humanity, especially those who conspired, planned and carried out this heinous crime.  
The "Nakba" came about because Arabs did not accept the concept of a Jewish state in any boundaries. They chose to fight. They lost. No one "planned" to expel Arabs. It was a war started by the Arabs, not a "heinous crime" started by Jews. 

Notice that his definition of "Palestinian" is anyone who lived in Palestine in 1947-48. Meaning, anyone who lived there for centuries beforehand and who left is not a Palestinian. Abbas is admitting that the concept of "Palestinian people" is less than a century old. 

More than five million Palestinians have been suffering under the Israeli military occupation for fifty-four years.
There were less than a million Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza after the Six Day War.

It has become clear, ladies and gentlemen, that Israel, which disavows the resolutions of international legitimacy, has decided not to be our partner in the peace process. Israel is the one that destroyed the Oslo Accords it signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is the one that, with its current policy, has premeditated and determined to destroy the two-state solution, which proves with conclusive evidence that they do not believe in peace, but in the policy of imposing a fait accompli by brute force and aggression, and therefore there is no longer an Israeli partner with whom to talk.   
Oslo died with the second intifada, orchestrated by the leaders of the PLO that had pledged to stop all terror. Israel kept on trying for peace for years afterwards and the PLO - first Arafat, then Abbas - kept saying no. This is historical revisionism. 

It thus ends the contractual relationship with us, and makes the relationship between the State of Palestine and Israel a relationship between an occupying state and an occupied people, and nothing else. We will not deal with Israel except on this basis, and we demand the international community to deal with it on this basis as well. This is Israel’s choice, not ours.  
The Palestinian Authority, which Abbas unilaterally declared to be the "State of Palestine," was created by the Oslo Accords. If he says that they don't have any legal force, he is the president of - nothing.

Abbas wants the benefits of Oslo but none of the responsibilities.
Israel is carrying out a frantic campaign to confiscate our lands and spread its colonial settlements and plunder our resources, as if this land was empty and had no owners, just as it did in 1948.   
Palestinians have been saying this for decades. Yet the percentage of land Israel has legalized for settlements is virtually the same as it was 25 years ago. 

Oh, and in 1948, the percentage of land privately owned by Arabs was about 20%. The rest was owned by the ruling country.

Parts 2 and 3 will be posted in the coming hours.




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!

 

 

Saturday, September 24, 2022

From Ian:

Iran on the Brink
The cries of Iranian youth for personal freedom have no doubt worsened the disarray. There are 88 million Iranians. Half of the population is under 32 years old. They are ruled by a grizzled and sclerotic clerisy that funnels resources to its private army, the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mahsa Amini represented a generation of Iranians who want more than the limited options, cruelty, and state-imposed religion that have been on offer for 43 years. That is why she has become a symbol for all those who disapprove of, and dissent from, the mullahs' hard line.

A push from the United States would make all the difference. There is no better time for a change in U.S. strategy. The nuclear deal is going nowhere. Accepting Iran's most radical demands at the negotiating table would make America look weak, foolish, and callous. Give in to Khamenei as he murders his citizenry and supplies Russia with weapons to use against Ukrainians? The stomach churns at the idea.

If the current disorder were a test, Biden answered the first question correctly. He has yet to complete the exam.

America's two previous chief executives did not pass it. In 2009 President Obama stood mute as students took to the streets in the so-called Green Revolution. In 2019 President Trump delivered mixed messages while Iranians rebelled against government corruption and economic mismanagement. Obama did not want to jeopardize his plans for détente with the mullahs. As a rule, Trump's personal foreign policy deemphasized human rights and democracy. Crippling sanctions were his weapon of choice.

The motivations of the two presidents differed. The results did not. In both cases, the regime used brutal means to survive the upheaval. And the Ayatollah Khamenei continued to build his nuclear infrastructure and spread havoc throughout the region and the world.

Draw the line here. U.S. officials say they have made their final offer to Iran. Fine. The ayatollah rejected it. Now America must reject him as well. Isolating and punishing the Iranian regime for its malign behavior abroad and oppression at home would further American interests in the Greater Middle East. It would undermine one of Russia's few allies. And it would help the Iranian people in their struggle to put their government where it belongs: on the ash heap of history.
Understanding the depth of Israel-Bashing one night in Basel
Europe is the occupier of Palestinians, having created Palestinian dependencies on both Europe and on conflict-permutation. Europe successfully reduced Palestinianism to a single issue – the occupation – and turned the Palestine Authority’s budget to be dependent on conflict-related grants. Hence, the end of the conflict could mean the end of Palestinianism.

This is on top of European abuse of Palestinians, such as sabotaging Palestinian employment and mentorship in Jewish-owned companies such as SodaStream, and even residence in joint Jewish-Palestinian neighborhoods such as Givat Hamatos.

Europe denies the Palestinian the right to self-determination as an individual. So if Parmelin were truly concerned, he should have given this part of the polite speech in Brussels rather than be the party pooper of the 125th anniversary of Zionism.

Perhaps he should also learn a lesson in etiquette and chivalry from the president of the Jewish state. President Herzog did not speak about Jura, nor did he address Swiss alleged human rights violations.

Switzerland’s astonishing decision to reverse granting citizenship to a qualified Muslim woman, solely due to her refusal to have physical contact with a male Swiss official, is horrifying. Instead, President Herzog spoke about positive things, such as our mission to reclaim Zionism, which he called “the mission of our generation.”

PARMELIN IS certainly a friend, but his actions as a friend demonstrate how core Israel-bashing is to today’s European psyche, just as antisemitism was core to the European psyche then.

Herzl understood that dogmatic minds cannot be changed in such circumstances through public diplomacy (hasbara). “Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of efforts to ‘combat antisemitism,’” he wrote. Therefore, a radical out-of-the-box solution was needed, and that was Zionism and the establishment of the Jewish state.

Applying Herzl’s thinking today, combating dogmatic Israel-bashing through conventional means is not likely to be effective. Yet, a global recognition that Judaism has transformed, and Zionism is now its organizing principle, would turn Israel-bashing to Jew-bashing, and that would dramatically alter the nature of the threat.

The Israel-basher must stay in Judaism 2.0 so he can mask his opposition to Judaism as merely opposition to Zionism. Until there is a broad global consciousness that we are in Judaism 3.0, a European political leader can claim to have zero tolerance for old-style antisemitism (the existential threat to Judaism in the early 20th century) while actively engaging in Israel-bashing – the existential threat to Judaism today in the 21st century.

“We are coming home,” Herzl proclaimed in Basel 125 years ago. That journey home began in that hall in 1897 with the Sheheheyanu blessing, thanking God for bringing the Jewish people to that moment. The 125th-year celebrations in that same hall concluded with a prayer for God to preserve and protect the State of Israel. The next day, I was home in Jerusalem.

Friday, September 23, 2022

From Ian:

Armin Rosen: A Hate Crime a Day Keeps the DOJ Away
New York politicians are at least talking about waging a more serious response to the frequent acts of violence and harassment targeting the city’s Orthodox Jews. Last week, Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, N.Y.-15, called for a federal probe of New York’s failure to prosecute suspects in anti-Jewish hate crimes, which have become so routine a feature of life in Orthodox communities that only the most egregious incidents ever become known beyond community media or the Twitter feeds of local politicians. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams promised that assaults on Jews “won’t be tolerated.”

Attacks on Jews in New York are often treated as a parochial problem, not as a phenomenon with implications for broader civic and social health. Even if that changes, and even if decision-makers and the general public begin treating these incidents as an active civic crisis, the problem elides any easy political fix because it reflects a deeper corrosion. America’s most populous city prides itself on being a special place of safety and tolerance for the diverse peoples of the world, but the pace of attacks on visible Jews, along with the general indifference toward this shameful reality, reveal this to be a self-serving myth. New York is increasingly chaotic, violent, and small-minded, and its official and even semipopular fetish for equity and multiculturalism seems to have translated into even worse treatment of certain minority groups.

Over the past month alone, we found 13 reported incidents of violence or harassment against Jews in New York that appear to have been antisemitic in nature. It is a staggering number, proof that in New York City there is a sense of impunity for attacking people who look a certain way, along with a widespread desire to take advantage of the opportunity. The conditions are favorable for would-be tormentors of Jews in New York, even despite the statements of Torres and Adams. On Wednesday, three men who pleaded guilty to bludgeoning two Orthodox Jews on a Shabbat afternoon in May of 2021 for refusing to say “free Palestine” during an ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas learned they wouldn’t have to go to jail.

Indeed, the past month’s blotter is a record of social breakdown that has been allowed to become utterly normal:
Seth Frantzman: Rosh Hashanah: What's changed in the Middle East this year?
FOR ISRAEL, this is a complex set of changes.

Iran has tried to target Israel with drones, including flying the drones from Iraq and Iran. Israel and US Central Command relations are growing, and as such US-led coalition aircraft reportedly downed Iranian drones earlier this year. In addition, Iran has sent drones to Russia, expanding its drone role.

Israel has continued operations in Syria in the “war between the wars” campaign to stop Iranian entrenchment. The Syrian regime blamed Israel for two rounds of airstrikes on Aleppo and Damascus airports in August and September 2022.

In 2022 there has also been a lot of talk about the Iran deal. Iran has continued to enrich uranium and is reported to be just weeks away from having enough material to build a bomb. However, Iran has been at this red line for years, and it is not clear when Iran might “break out.”

The US had worked with Russia on the Iran deal before the Russian invasion. Now Russia is more closely allied to Iran and wants to use the deal to get around sanctions. Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September, and Iran’s leader went to Uzbekistan alongside Turkey, China, Russia and other authoritarian regimes to attend the SCO meeting. This was a major confab designed to showcase that these countries can balance the US-led world order.

Meanwhile, Israel and the UAE celebrated the second anniversary of the Abraham Accords. Bahrain, Morocco and other countries are now peace partners of Israel, and all these ties are growing. Israel has hosted the Negev Forum of countries, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco and the UAE; and with US support for this important group, it is clear that the Abraham Accords and subsequent partnerships are reaching new heights. This is also clear in Israel-India ties and the I2U2 partnership of India, Israel, US and UAE. The first I2U2 summit took place in July.

Israeli leaders have continued outreach to Morocco and the Gulf. Israel has also rekindled ties with Turkey. This shows that a new regional order could be taking shape. But will Israel really risk closer ties with Turkey if Turkey doesn’t break ties with Hamas? Iran has continued to try to target Israelis in places like Turkey, raising alarms.

At the same time, Israel has launched the Octopus Doctrine to target Iran directly. Israel is also building lasers to stop Iranian missiles supplied to terrorist groups.

Time will tell whether the same trends will prevail or whether there will be shake-ups – minor or major – that make waves.
BDS Fails Stories about Israeli success the media ignore (Rosh Hashanah edition)
Israeli startups raised $1.1b in August
Israeli startups raised $1.1 billion in August 2022, according to press releases seen by “Globes.” The figure may be more as some companies prefer to remain in stealth and sometimes do not publicize the investments they have received.

Israeli privately-held tech companies raised a record $25.6 billion in 2021, according to IVC, more than double 2020’s figure of $10 billion, which was itself a record. Israeli startups raised $10.9 billion in the first half of 2022, according to IVC, so although well of the pace of last year’s record, startups have already raised more than all of 2020. Israeli startups have raised $12.7 billion in the first eight months of 2022.


EL AL to Launch Direct Flight from Dublin to Tel Aviv in March 2023
El Al, Israel’s largest airline is expected to begin operating a direct flight from Dublin to Tel Aviv in March 2023. The flight launch will make El Al the only airline to fly between Israel and Ireland and becoming the first airline to fly to Tel Aviv in over two decades. The route will operate three times a week on a Boeing 737 aircraft. The direct flight will allow easy access between the two hi-tech cities, and will encourage travel and business collaborations between the two. The flight time is approximately six hours.

Israel’s gas royalties jump 48% in H1 2022
Israel received royalties of NIS 829 million in the first half of 2022 from natural gas, quarries and resources, up 50% from the first half of 2021, the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources reports. Most of this figure – NIS 824 million – was from natural gas, up 48% from NIS 557 million the first half of last year. Since the state began collecting royalties for offshore natural gas in 2013, it has received NIS 10 billion.

Israel to ramp up gas exports to Europe as EU energy crisis intensifies
While global price hikes have impacted Israel, the small nation’s domestic gas supplies currently outstrip its needs, leaving it well-placed to increase exports as other countries scramble for solutions.

In the first half of 2022, Israel’s natural gas production soared by 22 per cent ahead of plans to funnel more gas to Europe.

Production also expanded year on year to 10.85 billion cubic metres by June, 42 per cent of which are for exports.

Meanwhile, the combined royalties from gas, minerals, and fees climbed to around 50 per cent to 829 million shekels (over £214 million), mostly accumulated from natural gas.


UAE-Israel Trade Reaches $1.4 Billion This Year So Far, Surpassing All of 2021
Bilateral trade between Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached $1.407 billion in the first seven months of 2022, surpassing the $1.221 billion of trade recorded between the two in all of 2021.

The figures, which account for trade of goods excluding software, were shared Thursday by Amir Hayek, Israel’s ambassador to Abu Dhabi. Hayek was appointed to his post nearly a year after Israel and the UAE normalized relations with US support as part of the Abraham Accords in September 2020.



Top Hezbollah official Ali Damoush gave a sermon today filled with antisemitic rhetoric.

He started off with a brief history of how Jews lied to and fought against Mohammed, but he adds that they were aided by Arabs  who were on the Jews' side. 

One of the most dangerous things that the Prophet faced during his journey and his preaching was the movement of hypocrisy that emerged within the Islamic community and which took a hostile position towards Islam no less dangerous than the hostile position taken by external forces, paganism, Judaism and others.

These people were pretending to support Islam and patriotism, but in reality they were plotting and conspiring against Muslims and believers, and they disrupted, incited, stirred up strife, struck the unity and cohesion of Muslims, frightened people, discouraged them and paralyzed their will, spread rumors, launched accusations, skepticism, and sabotage from within.

Perhaps one of the most prominent actions they have done is to deal with the Jews and support them in their wars and conspiracies against Islam and Muslims.

He then predictably draws a line between the Jews and Israel today. But his analogy from the "hypocrites" is a little surprising - it is not the Abraham Accords countries, but people in Lebanon who oppose Hezbollah!

Here in Lebanon, we are afflicted with models of hypocrites, tools, and followers of embassies who put their hands in the hands of the enemies and prioritize the interests of the outside over the national interests.

Yes, this is a political speech pretending to be a sermon. Hezbollah's political rivals in Lebanon are as bad as Jew-lovers,

Damoush, who is on the designated list of terrorists by the US, says that Mohammed, in his wisdom, didn't act against the "hypocrites" militarily.  Similarly, Damoush says that those "hypocrite" Muslims need to be taught the correct Shiite way. And instead of having Lebanese officials look to the West for help in fixing their problems, Damoush wants Lebanon to enter the Axis of Evil:

Opening the doors to Iran, China, Russia and even Syria will guarantee real solutions to the crises that Lebanon and the Lebanese suffer from. In this difficult and critical stage

What a coincidence that the Quran can be interpreted in exactly the manner needed!

Even though the Jewish part was peripheral to his sermon, the antisemitism is unmistakable - except for those who refuse to see it. 




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!

 

 


From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The real reason for the war against Israel and the west
The core reason, however, why the West has gone through the looking-glass over all this is its total incomprehension of anti-Semitism.

No other prejudice shares the characteristics of anti-Semitism: its driving belief that the Jews control the world; that they are leaders of a conspiracy to harm others to serve their own interests; that they are a supernaturally demonic power.

Ultimately, anti-Semitism is a form of lunacy that defies explanation. But the West cannot grasp this, because it believes everything has a rational cause.

So, it seeks to explain anti-Semitism as just another form of racism, the result of jealousy towards the Jews’ astonishing achievements or something the Jews bring upon themselves by being clannish, keeping themselves separate, looking down on everyone else and other supposed offenses.

Similarly, the West tries to explain the Nazi Holocaust not as the result of psychotic anti-Semitism, but rather of Germany’s humiliation and bankruptcy after World War I. It holds that the Palestinians are driven to behave as they do by dispossession and despair. The fact that the Islamist war against the West is fundamentally driven by a religious war against the Jews is simply unknown.

Israel has never accurately presented the war against itself as an Islamic jihad. When asked, some Israelis have said this is because holy war is a supremely fearsome thing. With Israel’s nine million citizens potentially pitched against the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, the Jewish state prefers to cast the conflict as a nationalistic struggle it can deal with by fighting the fires that break out day-by-day, week-by-week.

The result is that Israel has done a disservice to itself and to the world. It has failed to explain the murderous reach of anti-Semitism. It has allowed the West to undermine its own defenses against a holy war it doesn’t understand. It has enabled a false narrative about the Palestinians to spread without fundamental and essential challenge.

And now an Israeli prime minister has compounded the error.
Caroline Glick: Israel’s choice: independence or appeasement
Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his supporters in the media went berserk Tuesday after Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the gas deal the Biden administration is mediating between Israel and Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.

Since Hezbollah launched two drones against Israel’s Karish gas platform in July, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to blow up Karish if Israel brings Karish online without first surrendering to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon large swathes of sovereign Israeli land underneath Israel’s recognized maritime economic zone, including the Qana gas field.

Rather than stand with Israel against Hezbollah, the Biden administration is siding with Hezbollah—Iran’s Lebanese foreign legion against Israel. U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has pressed Israel to surrender to most of Hezbollah’s outrageous demands. And Israel has folded to the combined U.S.-Hezbollah extortion. Lapid has agreed to give “Lebanon” the Qana field. Together with his partner in strategic collapse Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Lapid insists that with the Qana field, “Lebanon” will be economically saved and once that happens, the Hezbollah-controlled country will magically free itself from Hezbollah’s grip and sign a peace deal with Israel.

Netanyahu’s statement popped their balloon. Summarizing the negotiations to date, Netanyahu warned, “Lapid has entirely collapsed to Nasrallah’s threats. Nasrallah threatened him that if we operate the Karish platform before we sign a gas deal with Lebanon, he’ll attack Israel. Lapid got scared and didn’t bring Karish online.

“Now he plans to turn over to Lebanon, with no Israel control or oversight, a gas field valued at billions of dollars that Hezbollah will use to purchase thousands of missiles and rockets that will target Israel’s cities.”

Netanyahu was right, of course, and that is the problem for Lapid and Gantz. For months the media have hidden the dangers implicit in the deal, and sufficed with parroting government talking points. Lapid intended to avoid public scrutiny, ram the deal through before the Nov. 1 elections and declare himself a genius statesman. When Netanyahu exposed the bluff, Lapid threw a tantrum, accusing Netanyahu of harming Israel’s national interests by interfering with the talks.
Mariam Memarsadeghi: The Gender Apartheid State of Iran
When President Barack Obama promoted the original Iran deal, his pitch was that the normalization of ties with the Islamic Republic would improve the welfare and freedoms of ordinary Iranians. The exact opposite happened. Even with injections of billions in cash into the regime’s coffers, the people grew poorer and the state more repressive. The so-called “moderate” former President Hassan Rouhani presided over the killing of over 1,500 protesters. That President Joe Biden wants to obtain a watered-down version of that deal with Raisi in Rouhani’s office, and with the supreme leader still in power, shows the moral vacuity of a foreign policy that aligns itself with the most repressive tyrants on the planet, even as they murder women, gay people, political liberals, journalists, and anyone else who dares to assert the most basic claims to their own humanity.

Biden has been willing to stick Americans with extortionate gas prices in order to fight for Ukraine and trash our alliance with India by sticking up for “human rights” in the subcontinent. But when it comes to Iran, the president of the United States and leading officials in his administration have been eager to abandon young Iranians, women especially, who have been fighting courageously for freedom since 2009. The greatest asset America has for a peaceful Middle East is the Iranian people, and yet the Obama-Biden playbook is predicated on their permanent oppression under the heel of a brutal regime of America-hating, Holocaust-denying, theocratic misogynists who beat women to death for exposing their hair.

There is no telling whether this time the Iranian people will finally win. What is certain is that the Handmaid’s Tale regime that hates women and hates America is still being courted by the Biden administration, which is a failure not just of our morality but of our national interest. When you look at the photographs of beautiful young Mahsa Amini tortured to death, and when you watch videos of the same thugs who killed her attempting to beat her young compatriots for protesting for her life, remember that these are the thugs the United States is attempting to equip with more power, more cash, and more prestige, at the expense of people who desperately want to be free of their tyranny.

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