Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

The explicitly Jew-hating Arab articles just keep coming

From Bassem Yassin in Sawaleif:

The brutal actions of the Jews in #Palestine indicate that the personality of the Jew is still a prisoner of the Holocaust, and locked in the mentality of the castle. A sick, bipolar personality, fluctuating between moods of superiority and oppression. Actors who are good at marketing themselves, according to the seasons. Sometimes they mourn in front of the Wailing Wall, and at other times they rant that they are God's chosen people. You see them for their malice, they turned Judaism from a heavenly religion into a political identity.

The Jews found what they were looking for in a soft land - Palestine - to build a state, where they took all aggressive means to embody their dream. They were helped by the absolute support of Britain - and the absolute absence of the Arabs . The Jew was rejected by the whole world, and there was international contempt for his hateful personality that was, practiced it in Palestine.

The Jewish psychologist Freud said about Judaism: The God of the Jews, “Yahweh,” is violent and evil, and promised them a fertile land (Palestine) and the annihilation of its people. As for the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, he said: "The divine revelation inspired them to abandon paganism and materialism, but the Jewish community remained disobedient, inclined to usury and aggression."

The Holy Qur’an was the deepest, most comprehensive, and most creative, in dissecting the sick, fluctuating, dialectical Jewish personality, as it said: “They forgot God, so He made them forget themselves.” A priori the Jew does not believe in resurrection or reckoning. This is what pushes him to disassociate himself from values and principles and renounce morals, because he does not hope for a reward from God or punishment in the Hereafter. With the spread of the lack of modesty in the Jewish community, modesty in the Jewish society has become an exception. Women are investment projects, Hollywood is king. They own pornographic films, they control usurious banks.

The other shortcomings for which they became famous throughout history are their breach of covenants and reversal of covenants: “Because of their breach of their covenant, we cursed them and made their hearts hard.” And they reap its fruits. The Arabs of normalization emerged...And here is Israel working on what comes after peace, from expanding on the ground, and seizing water, gas and commercial markets along the Gulf. Therefore, we remind the normalized Arabs, of Ben Gvir’s sayings about Al-Aqsa, and what is mentioned in their lying Talmud: “God admitted his mistake by declaring the destruction of the Temple.”

Peace treaties have dissolved, leaving only a stench of them. The two-state solution is rejected by the Jew, because the structure of the Jew is built on the rejection of the other, and the complete lack of coexistence. The famous psychoanalyst Shinkel says in this regard. "The Jews refuse to merge with others.” In the Holy Qur’an, God Almighty says in Surat Al-Ahzab: “And He sent down those who supported them among the People of the Book from their fortresses – their fortresses – but in Surat Al-Hashr, God Almighty says in His greatness: “They do not fight you all except in fortified villages or from behind Walls “...and this is definitive evidence of the isolation of the Jews. Likewise, in Europe, they lived alone, residing in their own ghettos, and lanes bearing their names, so it is not a fortiori the impossibility of their coexistence with the Palestinians, in one geographical spot?! We discover that the Jew is a mine of lies. And the establishment of Israel is a big lie that should not continue, otherwise future generations will curse us in our graves.

He hits all the popular antisemitic themes: Jews as liars, who fake their victimhood, breakers of covenants, aggressors, supremacists, who control the banks and Hollywood.

This is mainstream. And the media keeps ignoring 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!

03/14 Links Pt1: Israel: EU action in Palestinian conflict encourages terror; U.S., A Columbia Student Was Murdered, Again, And the Silence is Deafening; Iran May Be Negotiating Payoff for American Hostages

From Ian:

EU action in Palestinian conflict encourages terror, Israel tells Italy

Italy must help sway the European Union to stop activities related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that encourage violence, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani when they met in Jerusalem on Monday night.

“I asked my friend .. Tajani to act to prevent European intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as such activity often encourages incitement and terrorism,” Cohen said.

It was a reference to the EU support, including by Italy, of Palestinian development in Area C, a section of the West Bank that the EU believes will be part of the boundaries of a future Palestinian state. Most politicians in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government hold that it should be part of Israel’s final borders.

EU activity in Area C has sparked tension between the European bloc and Israel.

Neither politician mentioned a push by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was in Italy last week to sway Rome to recognize Jerusalem as its capital.

Cohen also asked Tajani to help sway the EU to avoid attempts to influence internal Israeli politics.

It was a veiled reference to the turmoil surrounding the government's push for judicial reform. The EU is concerned that the overhaul plan could weaken Israeli democracy.

Italian FM shares concerns regarding escalating tensions
Tajani said he was worried by the escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence. He condemned any terror attack, such as those in which Israelis were killed.

Italy, he said, is ready to advance any initiative that would bring Israeli and Palestinians back to the negotiating table to make peace.

The Italian minister later met in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who stressed the importance of halting "unilateral actions and adherence to signed agreements [with Israel]."

He also met with PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who called on Italy to recognize the Palestinian state and pressure Israel to abide by the signed agreements with the Palestinians.

Josep Borrel: EU high representative for foreign affairs: Honesty can advance peace in the middle east - opinion

Too many people are dying every week in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and millions are living in fear and hopelessness. The world’s response has been too many statements and too little action. That must change. We in the European Union and the wider international community need to do more.

We know that people around the world expect us to stand and work for peace, justice and international law everywhere. But to act successfully we first must be honest with each other and ourselves.

Being honest means acknowledging that extremism is rising on both sides. Indiscriminate attacks and violence are taking many Israeli lives. Violence on the part of Israeli settlers in the West Bank is increasingly threatening Palestinian lives and livelihoods – almost always with impunity.

Moreover, Israeli military operations frequently cause civilian Palestinian deaths, often without effective accountability; illegal settlements are expanding on occupied land; and the delicate status quo concerning holy sites is eroding. While Israelis can rely on a strong state and army, Palestinians have no such recourse.

This vast inequality in the ability to control one’s destiny is visible at every roadside checkpoint. All these facts are obstacles to peace.

To be sure, different actors within Europe often react differently to events in the region. But this does not prevent the EU from acting.

We have all been alarmed by recent developments, and we all share the same ultimate goal: to see a safe, secure, globally recognized State of Israel live in peace alongside a safe, secure, globally recognized state of Palestine. This solution would allow both sides to enjoy freedom, prosperity and peaceful relations with their neighbors.

Our own interests are also at stake. We want peace because ending the conflict would be much better for international security. We want peace because we acknowledge the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist, and because we stand for the principle of international law everywhere.

War in Europe and Peace in the Middle East Heralds Economic Opportunity for Israel

The confluence of the war in Ukraine, Israel’s extraction of offshore natural gas, and the improvement of Jerusalem’s ties with Turkey and several Arab countries is bringing new possibilities for the Jewish state, as Elai Rettig explains:

Ever since the discovery of major offshore gas deposits in 2009 and 2010, Israel has been struggling to secure major export deals to Europe. . . . Israel has yet to find buyers for about two-thirds of the gas it has earmarked for export and has seen its bidding rounds for new gas exploration licenses repeatedly fail.

This could change following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused a major price hike for imported gas in Europe and a new desire among EU policymakers to secure non-Russian gas supplies even at higher cost, especially liquified natural gas (LNG). . . . Israeli and regional investors are hopeful that LNG will be the next chapter for the eastern Mediterranean gas export market, ridding it of the geopolitics of pipelines.

In addition to raising natural-gas prices, the war in Ukraine is causing a major shift in global oil-transit routes, putting the eastern Mediterranean, and particularly Israel, right in the middle. . . . This reconfiguration of global oil routes can reignite and even expand Israel’s role as a transit and storage destination for Europe-bound oil.

Finally, Europe’s energy challenges are creating a major push towards alternative energy solutions in both Europe and the Arab Gulf states, offering Israel a major role as a leader in clean-tech innovation. On the European side, while the energy crisis is causing a rise in demand for oil, gas, and coal in the short term, it is also encouraging further investment in solar, wind, and even nuclear alternatives to increase independence from Russian imports over the longer term. . . . An additional market for Israeli innovation can be found in the Arab Gulf states as they look for solutions to decrease domestic demand for oil and gas through alternative energy systems.

By Daled Amos

On Friday, we learned that thanks to China, two enemies, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have decided to bury the hatchet -- and not in each other. Aside from reopening their embassies in each other's countries, Iran will be taking a step towards releasing the isolation that surrounds it, while Saudi Arabia will no longer be victimized by Houthi attacks.

At least, those are the hypothetical benefits, if this new agreement holds.

Meanwhile, there are all kinds of opinions about the agreement and what it means for the parties involved, for the region in general and for the US.

Naturally, there are those that see this development as an unmitigated disaster:

On the other hand, according to Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, this is just Saudi Arabia pursuing different options, so this agreement does not rule out the possibility of the Saudis pursuing normalization with Israel somewhere down the line. This is a thought that Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies agrees with. He sees this as a play by Saudi Arabia to pressure the US to provide the security guarantees it is looking for.

And just where does this leave Israel?

According to Daniel Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel, this deal should not make Israel panic. He writes that the UAE, Israel's major partner in the Abraham Accords, does not see itself as a partner in a military coalition against Iran and is pursuing its own diplomatic relations with them. The UAE even reopened its own embassy in Tehran last year.

Unlike the Abraham Accords, this is not an alliance of the 2 countries. To a degree, it is symbolic, which does not take away from the fact it has drawn everyone's attention, and has implications for the new kind of role that China is asserting for itself.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that the Saudis actually are not interested in the Abraham Accords as the path towards normalizing relations with Israel.

Saudi-Israel normalization would be a new initiative by Riyadh to pave the way for major Islamic nations like Indonesia and Malaysia to establish relations with the Jewish state. In exchange, the crown prince wants the U.S. to declare Saudi Arabia a strategic ally, provide Riyadh reliable access to American arms, and support his plans to enrich uranium and develop its own fuel production...

In another article, The Wall Street Journal argues that while the new deal with Iran might not signal the end of any prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the Accords, at the very least it puts a major damper on critical cooperation between the Saudis and Israel:

Some collaborations could be out of the question now. For example, if Israel were to attack an Iranian nuclear facility—as many suspect it might one day—it would require permission to use Saudi airspace, a far less likely scenario now that it has renewed diplomatic relations with Iran.

But another angle to this new agreement between the Saudis and Iran is how the Palestinian Arabs see it. After all, one of the benefits of the Abraham Accords was that it was supposed to drive home the point that the Arab world has moved beyond the Palestinian issue. This new agreement certainly revives their hopes that Iran will be able to turn this around.

More than that, the praise that Palestinian terrorists heap on this new agreement makes it sound as if the Palestinian Arabs see the Iran-Saudi agreement as their own personal Abraham Accords.

The Palestinian Authority issued a statement that

The Palestinian Presidency appreciates the Chinese role that contributed to reaching the agreement. We hope that the agreement will lead to stability and enhance the positive atmosphere in the region.

Tayseer Khaled, a senior official of the PLO’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said he hoped the pact would be

a major step towards addressing the economic, political and security challenges facing the Middle East.

Khalil al-Haya, a member of the Hamas political bureau, referred to the agreement as an “important step towards uniting the ranks of the Muslim community” and would

strengthen security and understanding between Arab and Islamic countries and help achieve stability in the region.

This is the kind of phrasing that we heard used to describe the Abraham Accords -- and for good reason. The Accords are a real, and successful, attempt to forge ties not only in opposition to a common threat, but also to create a friendly bond on an economic and social level between countries on both the government level and between the people of Israel and the Arab World.

But to describe this agreement as providing
Security?
Stability?
Positive atmosphere?

China has succeeded in getting a leading exporter of terror to put a leash on one of its terror proxies in exchange for a reduction in its isolation in the Arab world. It is not even clear if that goal itself is within reach. As it is, there are those who see the agreement on the Saudi side as nothing more than an attempt to get more out of the US.

There really is no comparison between the Abraham Accords and the Un-Abraham Accords which China has brought about to establish its status as a player in the region. And that is something that China might find out for itself if it expects to exercise control over Iran.

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!

In 2007, Amnesty International wrote a 5-page report describing the institutionalized and legal discrimination against Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.

It ended off with these recommendations for the Lebanese government:

To this end, the Lebanese authorities should:
 urgently repeal or revise all laws and policies that directly discriminate against Palestinian refugees;
 take immediate steps to improve conditions in the camps and gatherings;
 register all non-ID Palestinian refugees under Lebanese jurisdiction without delay;
 end the discrimination facing Palestinians in the labour market;
 ensure that adequate health care is available to all;
 ensure that all children have equal access to education.

That report, 16 years ago, was the last time that Amnesty dedicated a report to the plight of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Nothing has changed since then. The discriminatory laws are still in place, Palestinians still cannot own land, they still are banned from many jobs, they still have no access to Lebanese health care, babies born are not given citizenship.

By any definition, including Amnesty's own definition, this is apartheid against Palestinians in Lebanon. But Amnesty never calls it such, and it has not considered this issue worth a follow-up report since the first decade of the century.

Amnesty would briefly mention Arab discrimination against Palestinians in their annual reports on every country. From their annual report on 2014:

Thousands of Palestinian long-term refugees continued to live in camps and informal gatherings in Lebanon, often in deprived conditions. They faced discriminatory laws and regulations, for example denying them the right to inherit property, the right to work in around 20 professions, and other basic rights.

And for 2019:

Lebanon also continued to host tens of thousands of long-term Palestinian refugees, who remained subject to discriminatory laws excluding them from owning or inheriting property, accessing public education and health services, and working in at least 36 professions. At least 3,000 Palestinian refugees who do not hold official identity documents faced further restrictions, denying them the right to register births, marriages and deaths.

2020:

Over 470,000 Palestinian refugees were registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, including 29,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria. The 180,000 of them estimated to be still living in the country remained subject to discriminatory laws, excluding them from owning or inheriting property, accessing public education and health services and from working in at least 36 professions.

But when you look at the Lebanon entry of Amnesty's latest annual report, covering 2021, there is not a word about discrimination and mistreatment of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Nothing has changed. The overcrowded camps are still there, the discriminatory laws are still there. Amnesty's decision not to mention that which had been in every annual report until now must be deliberate.

Perhaps it was a mere clerical error, an oversight, a regrettable mistake?

Let's look at Amnesty's annual reports on Jordan concerning the non-citizen Palestinians who live there.

2019:

On 14 October, the Ministry of Labour raised from 11 to 39 the number of professions barred to non-Jordanian nationals seeking employment. Among them were long-term Palestinian refugees not holding Jordanian citizenship, most of whom were from the Gaza Strip; they continued to be denied other basic rights and services, too.

2020:

Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip continued to be excluded from basic rights and services as they do not have Jordanian citizenship.

But in the latest 2021 report, there is not a word about Jordanian discrimination against hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are not citizens. And they are still suffering from the same discrimination they were the year and decades before.

Why would Amnesty excise any mention of Arab human rights abuses against Palestinians in its 2021 report when they were mentioned in previous reports, and their situation has not gotten any better?

Here's why.

Amnesty released its 2021 annual report in March, 2022. This was shortly after Amnesty issued its report falsely accusing Israel of "apartheid" against Palestinians.

As soon as Amnesty issued its anti-Israel report, in which it had invested so many hours and so much money, it removed any mention of Jordan and Lebanon treating their Palestinian residents far worse than Israel does!

This is unlikely to be a coincidence. Amnesty's libel against Israel would have been diluted by their mentioning how Arab nations officially discriminate against Palestinians who have lived within their borders for decades. They did not want people to point to their own reports showing that Arabs really are guilty of apartheid against Palestinians, with discriminatory laws aimed specifically at them. 2022 was the year that Amnesty dedicated to attacking Israel - even creating T-shirts and swag and encouraging "stunts" to get publicity for their crusade.

Amnesty is not soberly reporting on accusations of Israeli human rights abuses. It is enthusiastically promoting an anti-Israel campaign. Mentioning that their fellow Arabs treat Palestinians worse than "racist, Jewish supremacist" Israel would damage that message.

So they erased all human rights abuses against Palestinians that they couldn't blame on Israel.

Which proves that Amnesty is not the impartial arbiter of human rights it pretends to be. At least when it comes to the Middle East, it is an anti-Israel propaganda outlet. It happily throws Palestinians in Lebanon and Jordan under the bus. To them, demonizing Israel is a far more important mission than mere human rights.

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!

Palestinians cannot stand not being the biggest victims in history.

Rasha Abdullah Salameh, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, describes her anger at visiting a Holocaust museum in Skokie, IL.

I was walking in the heavy autumn rain in the US state of Illinois, in the year 2017, heading towards the Skokie area specifically. ; to visit the “Holocaust” museum; To get acquainted with the way in which the oppressor presents, currently, his old grievance.

My fury was growing every minute; It is not only grief over a human tragedy that a normal sane person would not accept, but also anger at the concealment of the second part of the story. The Jews in charge of the museum, which was established in 2009, do not mention that they emerged from their darkness, thirsting for blood, and inflicting more than the Holocaust, suffocation in gas chambers, and execution by firing squad, on the Palestinians, until this moment, and with the most horrible means that can be imagined as well, of harassment, usurpation of rights, falsification of history, and the enjoyment of sniping the lives of unarmed civilians and fedayeen defending their land.

I was also furious at the absence of the Palestinian narrative on the world stage. I was walking around the museum at the time, wondering why the Palestinians did not establish international museums that matched in the power of their narration and the ingenuity of narration tools what the Jews erected in several international cities, under the name of “Holocaust” museums.

The ornate Jewish tales have been greatly exaggerated. They claim a number of victims exceeding 6 million Jews, with an almost complete absence of historical sources on which it was relied upon, and with an absolute absence of the complementary narrative, which is the occupation of Palestine, the displacement of its people, the massacres of its inhabitants, and the infliction of torture on them that exceeds what the Nazis did.

I've noted before about how while Israelis and Jews usually try to look at things from others' perspectives, and often empathize with their enemies, but Palestinians (and most Arabs) simply cannot do that. Anything that humanizes Jews, anything that can cause sympathy for Jews in ay way, must be strenuously opposed. Jews must be demonized, dehumanized, and framed as the ultimate evil.

In 2010, Brookings had a poll of Arabs that asked about whether they ever empathize with Jews or Israeli victims of terror. The results were - hardly ever.

Normal humans have empathy. Palestinians simply do not have that ability.

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!

03/13 Links Pt2: Republicans demand answers from Education Dept. on antisemitism funding; Guardian legitimises Mohammed el-Kurd's blood libel; The Jewish History of Baileys

From Ian:

Republicans demand answers from Education Dept. on antisemitism funding

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and 14 other Republican senators demanded answers this week in a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, regarding the issues of taxpayer money funding antisemitic activity at colleges and universities and the increasing threat to the safety of Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus.

The letter was supported by Heritage Action, StopAntisemitism.org, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Middle East Forum, the Endowment for Middle East Truth and the Zionist Organization of America.

The letter accused the Biden administration of allowing "taxpayer-funded antisemitism" at colleges and universities across the country and demanded to know how much public funds went toward programs and events that meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, according to Fox News.

"We write with grave concern that the Department of Education, over the course of decades, has been allowing taxpayer-funded antisemitism to take place on college campuses throughout the United States," the letter read.

Plans to fight rising antisemitism
“It’s clear more needs to be done to prevent our tax dollars being used to spread this poison on our campuses.”
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks

The letter which was sent during a spike in antisemitic incidents nationwide also asked what plans, if any, have been developed to combat increasing anti-Jewish discrimination on campus and to help Jewish students feel safe.

“StopAntisemitism wholeheartedly endorses Senator Risch’s letter to the Department of Education. The letter draws attention to an alarming reality: the government has the tools to stem the tide of antisemitism on college campuses, but they must be implemented consistently and unilaterally,” said Liora Rez of StopAntisemitism.org. “Enforcing Title VI will, at minimum, remove federal support for antisemitic events and groups. Moreover, it would be a strong signal that the Department of Education takes campus antisemitism seriously - a necessary first step in ensuring Jewish students can express themselves honestly without fear.”

“We appreciate the Senator’s leadership on this important issue,” said the director of government relations at the Zionist Organization of America, Dan Pollak.

‘Antisemitic’ Roger Waters Concert Tour Of Germany Under Threat as Munich Mulls Cancelation

Nearly three weeks after the city of Frankfurt announced that it was canceling a forthcoming concert by former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters over his antisemitic and pro-Russian outbursts, the city council in Munich is seeking to do the same.

On Monday, a coalition comprised of the center and left-wing Social Democratic, Volt, Pink List and Green Parties issued a joint appeal for Waters’ May 21 concert at Munich’s Olympiahalle to be canceled. The group added that if contractual obligations were to prevent its cancelation, concert-goers should be greeted outside the venue by Israeli and Ukrainian flags, as well as handed information sheets detailing Waters’ offensive comments.

The proposal will be debated at Tuesday’s meeting of Munich council’s economic committee. If agreed, the Mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, would be mandated to instruct the venue’s management to cancel the concert, the German dpa news agency reported.

Waters’ scheduled stop in Frankfurt on May 28 — one of five German cities where he intended to appear as part of his “This is Not A Drill 2023” tour — was canceled by the city’s council following a Feb. 24 meeting. The council roundly condemned Waters for backing the campaign to subject the State of Israel to a regime of “boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS)” as a prelude to its elimination as a sovereign state, and for pressuring other artists not to perform in Israel. It also highlighted the use of antisemitic imagery in Waters’ past concerts, including a balloon shaped like a pig and embossed with a Star of David and various corporate logos.

Australian literary fest hosts Palestinian writers who peddle antisemitic tropes

At the festival, El-Kurd, via videolink, claimed that Israelis harvest Palestinian organs, a trope he has repeated on multiple occasions. He reportedly told the Adelaide crowd that it was his “favorite line of poetry.”

In one of Abulhawa’s sessions, she accused Jewish settlers of poisoning and destroying Palestinian water sources. Jews in medieval Europe were periodically accused of poisoning wells in an effort to kill Christians, often resulting in deadly pogroms.

In one incident at the festival, an attendee speaking during a questions and answers segment said that the Zionist movement had collaborated with Nazi Germany, prompting event organizers to cut the microphone before she could finish.

“Zionists have only existed for over 100 years as an ideology, not a religion or race, started by Theodor Herzl, an Austrian,” she began.

“Because he presented a colonial project that appealed to Western imperialists like the US, and colluded with German Nazis to undermine German Jews and European Jews during the Holocaust,” she added, before the microphone was cut off. Other audience members could be heard gasping and sniggering at the baseless assertion.

Having followed the hubbub in the Australian media in the lead-up to the event, Josh Feldman, 23, a pro-Israel activist and writer, flew from his home in Melbourne to attend the writers’ week in Adelaide.

Feldman, who decided to keep his Jewish identity under wraps at the festival, told The Times of Israel that he was drawn to the event because of the international notoriety of the two Palestinian writers, whom he accused of having “disgusting histories of antisemitism.”

While there was no official counter-demonstration, Feldman noted that at least one national Jewish organization, which he did not name, handed out leaflets detailing the antisemitic remarks of Al-Kurd and Abulhawa.

Feldman recalled one incident, where a moderator, in the process of asking a question of Abulhawa, described Israel as an apartheid state.

“I’m glad you described it that way. Apartheid doesn’t even begin to describe what Israel is,” Feldman quoted Abulhawa as saying in response.

“In all these talks there was a clear implication that the Palestinians were indigenous to the land and the Jews have no connection there, they’re European colonialists. It was totally disconnected from reality,” said Feldman, asserting that no one in the crowd objected to any of the comments throughout the five days of the festival.

Caroline Overington, a reporter for The Australian newspaper who also attended the festival, wrote: “Words like pogrom, massacre and apartheid were used, and there was nobody to object. Nobody talked about Israelis being blown up on buses or knifed in the street; nobody talked about suicide bombings that killed thousands of Jews in Israel before the controversial wall went up. Israel was the villain.”

“[Moderator] Sophie McNeill didn’t pretend to be impartial. She told the audience the organization she represents, Human Rights Watch, considered Israel guilty of apartheid,” she said.

McNeill, a former Middle East correspondent for the Australian government broadcaster, was persistently accused of harboring anti-Israel bias in her reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Guardian legitimises Mohammed el-Kurd's blood libel

It shouldn’t require the ADL for a Guardian journalist to understand that the accusation of Israel “harvest[ing] the organs of…martyred” Palestinians and “feeding” those organs to their own soldiers is a monstrous, medieval antisemitic blood libel – variations of which incited the murder of Jews going back to the Middle Ages. Though the libel began in Norwich in 1144 with the accusation that Jews murder non-Jews and then use the victim’s blood for Jewish rituals, the blood libel lives on in the sham charges accusing Jews/Zionists of “harvesting the organs” of their hapless Palestinian victims.

Yet, later in her article, Cain legitimises that very antisemitic accusation:
El-Kurd, speaking to the crowd via video link from New York, addressed the line about organs that some had labelled antisemitic: it was based on easily found and widespread news reports from 2009 in which the Israeli military admitted pathologists had harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families for years.

The article the journalist links to is a 2009 Guardian article – the grossly misleading headline of which was later amended – based on a report on Israeli television quoting a professor saying that, until the 1990s, “pathologists used to harvest organs, especially corneas and skin, from the bodies of soldiers, Israeli civilians, Palestinians and foreign workers, without getting consent from their families”. (That Guardian article came on the heels of the Aftonbladet scandal two months earlier, in which a Swedish tabloid published a false story alleging that the IDF kills Palestinians to provide the Israeli medical establishment with organs.)

The accusation by el-Kurd that Israel “harvests the organs” of dead Palestinians and “feed their warriors” those organs has no resemblance whatsoever to the long-abandoned practice of using the corneas or skin of deceased Israelis and Palestinians without permission, and we’ve complained to Guardian editors demanding a retraction.

"It's not about facts, it's about power." WATCH three prominent anti-Israel activists admit that their accusation that Israel is an apartheid state is a lie. It's just an effective tool to portray Israel as "the villain." pic.twitter.com/nBCIgV8XsE
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) March 13, 2023

I had missed this last month, but MEMRI and the Meir Amit Center both reported that the ISIS newspaper Al Naba had an op-ed whose title was literally "Kill the Jews."

I found the original, and it is just as hateful as you would imagine.

God Almighty has shown the characteristics of the unbelieving Jews in many verses of His wise book, and described them in detail and accurately, and there is no doubt that the wisdom of this accurate divine description is to take the lesson and the admonition, and caution and preparation, so that the Muslim distances himself from following the path of the Jews and following their ways or loyalty to them, and warns of their deception , and necessarily; Get ready to war and fight them.

...

Accordingly, we repeat the call and remind the youth of Palestine that their war with the Jews, in this blessed Qur’anic context, be a religious war far from the pre-Islamic national flags that contradict the Qur’an and Sunnah, and we stress the feasibility of targeting Jewish temples and synagogues and intending them for bloody attacks, as it is more effective against the Jews. ...We advise them to equip themselves after believing in explosive belts, as their absence has been long and their exclusion from that arena;

We also urge Muslims everywhere to fight the Jews and target them inside the Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues scattered in Europe and other countries, so kill the Jews by every means and oppress them, and be the beginning of the war that burns the infidel Jews after the tyrants of the entire world gathered to stop it, and they will not succeed, God willing. Exalted be He, and if tomorrow we will see it soon.

Even though mainstream Arab opinion is against ISIS, I don't see any Arabic op-eds that are upset over this article.

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!

Fox News reports:

In a groundbreaking ruling, an official Islamic legislative body based in the Arab world declared a "fatwa," or a legal opinion, against the Islamist militant group Hamas Thursday, calling its treatment of millions of Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip "inhumane" and urging the terrorist organization and its followers to immediately give up arms, sit down and make peace.

The unprecedented declaration, published by the Islamic Fatwa Council, a non-government body of Shiite, Sunni and Sufi clerics headquartered in the Iraqi spiritual capital of Najaf, states that Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, "bears responsibility for its own reign of corruption and terror against Palestinian civilians within Gaza" and deems "it prohibited to pray for, join, support, finance or fight on behalf of Hamas."

"As an Islamic legal body, we take note of the condition of the oppressed all over the world," Muhammad Ali Al-Maqdisi, a cleric for the council, said in a video statement shared with Fox News Digital.

"We have seen what Gaza has been subjected to under Hamas’ rule. We have also seen the atrocities which, in our view, have been perpetrated against Palestinians — faithful and unarmed civilians — who have neither strength nor recourse. And, so, we believed it was our Islamic obligation to aid the oppressed."

Here is the video statement from the Islamic Fatwa Council:

The Whispered in Gaza video series is here.

(h/t Shachar Petrushka)

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03/13 Links Pt1: US aid to the Palestinians increases violence and terror, not peace; Israel is divided, but Palestinian terrorists target all Jews; WaPo ‘Investigation’ More Hit Piece Than Serious Analysis

From Ian:

PMW: US aid to the Palestinians increases violence and terror, not peace

A comparison of the aid provided by the United States to the Palestinians over the period 2011 through 2022, with the number of people murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror provides a glaring insight: US aid to the Palestinians fuels terror, not peace.

US aid to the Palestinians
According to statistics taken from periodic reports published by the US Congressional Research Service, from 2011 (the year Palestinian Media Watch exposed the PA’s terror-rewarding Pay-for-Slay policy) through 2022, US aid to the Palestinians was reflected by two trends.

As shown in the graph below from 2011 through 2019, both under the Obama and Trump administrations, US aid to the PA steadily dropped. Since 2020, under the Biden administration, US aid to the Palestinians was restored and has spiked.

The categories in the graph are the 3 main types of US aid to Palestinian Authority (Economic Support Fund (ESF); International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE); and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO)) and US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Victims of terror
During that same period, the number of people (Israelis and foreigners presumed by Palestinian terrorists to be Israelis) murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror shows parallel trends. During the years the US aid was rising the numbers murdered kept rising. During the years US aid was dropping the number of murder victims likewise dropped.

While in 2011, 23 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, the number plummeted, predominantly following the policy of the Trump administration to cut all aid to the Palestinians, to 3 people murdered in 2020. Immediately after the Biden administration resumed the US aid to the Palestinians, Palestinian terror resurged with 19 people murdered in 2021 and - in parallel to a further growth in the US aid - 29 people murdered in 2022.

Slightly expanding the statistics and dividing them per each US administration shows the same picture.

During the period fromJanuary 20, 2009 through January 20, 2017, the Obama administration provided the Palestinians a total of US$ 6,466,700,000 in aid. During that same period, 140 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, an average of 17.5 people per year.

During the period from January 20, 2017 through January 20, 2021, the Trump administration cut the aid (including stopping all aid to UNRWA) to the Palestinians to US$669,900,000. During that same period, 42 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, an average of 10.5 people per year.

Israel is divided, but Palestinian terrorists target all Jews - opinion

Israelis are angry and divided. They’re yelling at each other and staging furious demonstrations. Accusations and name-calling abound. But once again, Palestinian Arab terrorists have reminded us that at the end of the day, what Israelis have in common is more important than the disagreements over this or that policy proposal.

On Thursday evening, a Palestinian Arab terrorist walked up to a cafe in Tel Aviv and started shooting. He wasn’t shooting at soldiers or “settlers.” He was trying to massacre unarmed Israeli civilians sitting at an upscale cafe in the heart of secular, politically left-wing Tel Aviv.

That same evening, 72 km. away, another Palestinian Arab terrorist was trying to massacre Israeli civilians. He boarded a bus in the Orthodox (haredi) town of Beitar Illit, near Jerusalem, and planted a bomb. Smoke began to come from the bomb but, in one of those countless miracles that Israelis experience every day, the device did not immediately detonate. That gave bomb disposal experts the crucial minutes they needed to neutralize it.

If the would-be murderer in Tel Aviv had sharper aim, countless secular Israelis would have been slaughtered. If the would-be murderer in Beitar Illit had more expertise in bomb construction, countless Orthodox Israelis would have been slaughtered.

Consider, for a moment, how vastly different those two segments of Israeli society are: What they wear. What they eat. How many children they have. The books they read. The movies they watch (or don’t watch). Where they go on vacation. What they do on Shabbat. By these measures, secular Israeli Jews and Orthodox Israeli Jews are as different as night and day.

But Palestinian Arab terrorists couldn’t care less about those differences. Like other violent enemies of the Jewish people throughout history, they never try to kill only a certain type of Jew. They don’t care if an Israeli Jew is more religious or less religious. They don’t care if he or she lives in Tel Aviv or in a hilltop outpost.

The automatic weapons that the terrorists shoot, the bombs they plant, the rocks they throw, the knives with which they stab, are aimed at all Jews.

Israeli Amb. Herzog: Our Enemies Don't Distinguish between Supporters and Opponents of Judicial Reform

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog said in an interview on March 10 that the demonstrations in Israel indicate "that those people, almost all of them, deeply care about Israel. They're entitled to their voices and thoughts and concerns, and their voices are heard back home."

"I have no idea how the debate over judicial reform will end. I know that there are behind-the-scenes efforts to bring about a solution." "Voices from America or from world Jewry are heard in Israel and people understand that....We are in the middle of that debate. We are in the middle of that process. And don't inject yourself into the internal Israeli debate with a judgmental point of view before we have an outcome." "You want to raise concerns, questions or some warning, all is well, but be careful [in] the way you air it and don't be judgmental before we reach a certain outcome that you can judge."

Israel is "still surrounded by enemies and we are still subjected to a campaign of BDS, and our enemies do not distinguish between those who support judicial reform and those who oppose judicial reform, left and right, they just don't want us to be there, and we have to be aware of [that]."

"I say to those who criticize the State of Israel, that criticism is legitimate if you want to criticize certain policies, but do not cross the line of joining the hands of providing a tailwind to those who want to delegitimize us [and] cast a question mark over our very right to exist as a nation-state of the Jewish people."

Last week, Morocco's Islamist Justice and Development Party accused the Moroccan government of defending Israel in international forums:

Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita has been slammed for allegedly "defending the Zionist entity" during meetings with African and European officials.

The Justice and Development Party (PJD) denounced Bourita's remarks during a meeting with the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi last week, in which he talked about tripartite regional cooperation and the "opportunities that it grants for development between Morocco, the European Commission and Israel."

The government issued a rare rebuke where it both expressed its support for Palestinian positions as well as defended its relations with Israel while accusing the PJD of playing politics:

The General Secretariat of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) recently issued a statement containing irresponsible excessive views and dangerous approximations concerning the relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the State of Israel, against the background of the latest developments in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In this regard, the Office of His Majesty the King stresses the following:

Firstly: Morocco's position regarding the Palestinian question is irreversible. It constitutes one of the priorities of the foreign policy of His Majesty the King, the Commander of the Faithful and Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, who places this issue on a par with the question of the Kingdom's territorial integrity. For Morocco, this is a constant, principled position, which should not be open to political posturing and narrow electoral campaigns.

Secondly: The Kingdom's foreign policy is a prerogative of His Majesty the King, may God assist him, as per the Constitution - a foreign policy which His Majesty implements in light of the immutable values and best interests of the nation, chief among which is the question of territorial integrity.

Thirdly: The Kingdom's international relations cannot be the subject of blackmail by anyone or for any consideration whatsoever, particularly in the current complex global context. The instrumentalization of the Kingdom's foreign policy in a domestic partisan agenda thus constitutes a dangerous, unacceptable precedent.

Fourthly: The resumption of relations between Morocco and Israel took place in circumstances and in a context which everyone knows. It is governed by the communiqué of the Office of His Majesty the King dated December 10, 2020, and the communiqué issued on the same day following the telephone conversation between His Majesty and the Palestinian President, as well as the Tripartite Declaration of December 22, 2020, signed in His Majesty's presence.

The nation's driving forces, political parties, as well as some prominent figures, and certain associations engaged in the Palestinian question, were at the time informed of that decision, for which they expressed their support and commitment.

Arabic media are interpreting this statement according to their own political positions, some emphasizing the Moroccan commitment to Palestinian positions and others highlighting the Moroccan government attacking an Islamist party.

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To China, Israel must be marginalized

There has been a great deal of analysis about the Chinese-brokered improvement of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

As AP notes,

The agreement was seen as a major diplomatic triumph for China, coming as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States as winding down its involvement in the Middle East.

“I think it is a sign that China is increasingly confident in taking a more assertive role in the Middle East,” said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, an Indonesian academic affiliated with the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

China’s economic interests increasingly draw it into conflicts far from its shores. It’s by far the biggest customer for Middle Eastern energy exports, while the U.S. has reduced its need for imports as the country shifts toward energy independence.

Chinese officials have long argued that Beijing should play a more active role in the region, said June Teufel Dreyer, a political scientist at the University of Miami specializing in Chinese politics.

Meanwhile, U.S.-Saudi frictions have created “a vacuum that Beijing was happy to step into,” Dreyer said.

Absurdly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a statement claiming that Beijing “pursues no selfish interest whatsoever..”

Clearly, this is all about Chinese interests - in sidelining the US as a power broker in the Middle East, in extending its own power and influence - solidifying its status as a superpower.

Where does Israel fit in this Chinese calculus? Apparently, as an obstacle.

On Saturday, PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas hosted a delegation headed by the Chinese special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun.

The President referred to the historical relations between China and Palestine, and the Palestinian leadership's keenness to strengthen and develop them for the benefit of the two friendly countries, appreciating the support provided by China to the Palestinian people and their just cause in all fields, stressing that Palestine will remain supportive of China in international forums despite all pressures .

In turn, the Chinese special envoy affirmed the firm and principled Chinese position in support of the Palestinian people and their just cause, and that China, whether during its presence in the UN Security Council or in all forums in which it is present, will remain supportive of the Palestinian people's right to freedom and independence..

As far as I can tell, Zhai Jun is not visiting Israel. He last visited a year ago and briefly said that while China and Israel do not agree about Iran, China "understands" Israel's concerns.

Both China and Israel seek to expand their influence in the region, and in that sense they are rivals - and China is the 900 pound panda.

In 2021, Zhai Jun published a manifesto of sorts describing China's goals for the Middle East: "China and Middle Eastern Countries: Towards a Brighter Shared Future." Israel is barely mentioned., only named in the 2,800 word article as an afterthought: "China has by far established 14 strategic partnerships with regional countries and the League of Arab States, and an innovative comprehensive partnership with Israel, adding strong vitality to the friendship and cooperation between the two sides."

Even when the document discusses the moribund peace process, it manages to avoid mentioning Israel by name:

In 2002, the Chinese government appointed its first Special Envoy for the Middle East. Over the past 18 years, five successive special envoys have made more than one hundred trips to the Middle East to promote peace talks and worked tirelessly for resolving the question of Palestine and other issues in the region. China’s Special Envoy for Syria and Ambassador for China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) Affairs, two roles created later, have also conducted shuttle diplomacy and contributed their wisdom to resolve relevant hotspot issues. This is another example of how China upholds justice and assumes responsibility as a major country. Such efforts have been widely applauded and supported by the parties concerned.

China sees an opportunity to exploit the US incompetence in the region under the Obama and Biden administrations and it is exploiting it. Israel is at best a distraction and at worst an enemy in Chinese ambitions to dominate the region economically and diplomatically.

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75 years ago: Arabs bomb the Jewish Agency using a US Consulate car, killing 13

75 years ago, on March 11, 1948, a huge explosion shook Jerusalem as a car bomb detonated outside the Jewish Agency.

13 Jews were killed, including the head of the Agency, Leib Jaffe, 71, who had attended the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1898.

A Christian Arab employee of the US Consulate took the car, with the US flag, into the compound and the Jewish Agency guards trusted him.

Arab snipers shot at rescue workers from across an Arab cemetery nearby.

A couple of days later, the Arab Higher Committee published a "Black Paper" listing the imagined crimes of the Jewish Agency and named major Zionist leaders as targets, comparing them to the Nazis.

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BDS leader Omar Barghouti admits BDS targets Jews, not "Zionists"

Last week, a bunch of "anti-Zionists" got together for a webcast that next to nobody watched about the dangers of "normalization" with Israel.

One of the speakers was Omar Barghouti, who claims to be the founder of the BDS movement. He explains here what, exactly, BDS opposes when it says it opposes normalization with Israel, giving two conditions before anyone can meet with the "Israeli side." Paraphrasing, the Israeli side must oppose Israel's existence as a Jewish state, and the meeting itself must be an anti-Israel meeting.

Then at the very end of his description, Barghouti says, "Again, 'Israeli side' means Jewish Israelis or Jewish Israeli institutions as the case may be."

Meaning, that it is not "normalization" to meet with Israeli Arabs or Israeli Christians even if they are Zionist. The "crime" of normalization applies only to meeting Jews.

Yes, BDS is antisemitic. But we knew that already.

Here is the video, with as much context as I could put in:

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03/12 Links: Who are the winners and losers in Iran-Saudi ties?; The ignorance of Gary Lineker; Nablus governor, PA security chiefs offer condolences to family of Huwara terrorist

From Ian:

Saudi deal with Iran worries Israel, shakes up Middle East

In Israel, bitterly divided and gripped by mass protests over plans by Netanyahu's far-right government to overhaul the judiciary, politicians seized on the rapprochement between the kingdom and Israel's archenemy as an opportunity to criticize Netanyahu, accusing him of focusing on his personal agenda at the expense of Israel's international relations.

Yair Lapid, the former prime minister and head of Israel's opposition, denounced the agreement between Riyadh and Tehran as "a full and dangerous failure of the Israeli government's foreign policy."

"This is what happens when you deal with legal madness all day instead of doing the job with Iran and strengthening relations with the US," he wrote on Twitter. Even Yuli Edelstein from Netanyahu's Likud party blamed Israel's "power struggles and head-butting" for distracting the country from its more pressing threats.

Another opposition lawmaker, Gideon Saar, mocked Netanyahu's goal of formal ties with the kingdom. "Netanyahu promised peace with Saudi Arabia," he wrote on social media. "In the end (Saudi Arabia) did it … with Iran."

Netanyahu, on an official visit to Italy, declined a request for comment and issued no statement on the matter. But quotes to Israeli media by an anonymous senior official in the delegation sought to put blame on the previous government that ruled for a year and a half before Netanyahu returned to office. "It happened because of the impression that Israel and the US were weak," said the senior official.

Despite the fallout for Netanyahu's reputation, experts doubted a detente would harm Israel. Saudi Arabia and Iran will remain regional rivals, even if they open embassies in each other's capitals, said Guzansky. And like the UAE, Saudi Arabia could deepen relations with Israel even while maintaining a transactional relationship with Iran.

"The low-key arrangement that the Saudis have with Israel will continue," said Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham, noting that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank remained more of a barrier to Saudi recognition than differences over Iran. "The Saudi leadership is engaging in more than one way to secure its national security."

Seth Frantzman: Who are the winners and losers in Iran-Saudi ties?

China has clearly sought to expand its relationships in the region, and the decision by Iran and Saudi Arabia to work with China on normalization with each other is part of China becoming a diplomatic broker in the region.

Though this is a win for China, it was also a natural country to host this final step. Iran and Saudi Arabia already held talks in Baghdad about reconciliation, talks that began in 2021 and continued off-and-on with some stalls in 2022. Overall, the trajectory was clear.

Saudi Arabia had also reconciled with Qatar early in 2021, and it was rumored to be considering closer ties with Israel, a slow process that began back in 2015. The train was on the tracks for Saudi-Iran ties, all it needed was a bit of a push – which China gave

Does Israel lose out?
The potential for better Israel-Saudi ties have been a constant issue of speculation. Days before the Saudi-Iran deal was announced, there were reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times about Riyadh seeking security pledges from Washington as part of some kind of upgrade of ties with Israel.

Clearly, Saudi Arabia has been working on multiple policy tracks: China, Russia, the US and potentially Israel, all part of Riyadh’s new positioning of a more complex independent policy.

It’s unlikely that Iran ties will necessarily impact Israel negatively. Saudi Arabia has interests in Yemen and Lebanon, as well as in Syria and Iraq. In many ways, Saudi Arabia’s interests dovetail with Israel’s in terms of stability and not wanting Iran’s militias or proxies running these countries.

The Gulf in general is moving to reconcile with Syria, which can reduce chaos in the region. The era of war that defined the period after the Arab Spring, and the era of conflict that began decades ago with the rise of extremists, appears to be coming to some kind of a close.

The shifts in the Gulf are important for this to happen. Extremist groups have, one-by-one, been ejected by most Gulf states, except in Qatar. There is less funding for these groups; al-Qaeda and ISIS have been mostly defeated.

Stability and state-to-state relations are part of the new era. This is underpinned by big country politics and also deals that Israel has played a role in such as the Negev Summit, I2U2 and the Abraham Accords. Iran-Saudi ties can be viewed as part of that larger process of diplomacy.

As such, Israel might not lose out. Saudi Arabia can now articulate its concerns to Iran through diplomacy, rather than being at loggerheads. Countries tend to listen more than they have a way to speak and engage with one another, rather than portraying each other as enemies. New ties could reduce the Iranian threats.

IAF fighter jets, refuelers hold air drill with US forces, thought to focus on Iran

Israeli fighter jets and refueler aircraft on Sunday began a two-week air drill with the US Air Force at an airbase in Nevada, a joint activity thought to be focused on Iran, with officials saying the exercises would include long-range flights and simulate strikes in unfamiliar enemy territory.

The seven F-35I fighter jets and two Boeing 707 refueling planes of the Israeli Air Force had been arriving at Nellis Air Force Base since Wednesday, ahead of the drill, known as Red Flag 23-2.

In a statement Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said the exercises would include a “strategic strike in the depth,” an apparent reference to a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Additionally, the air drills would simulate “achieving aerial superiority in the region, joint aerial strikes, area defense, interception of enemy aircraft, low-altitude flights and striking in an unfamiliar area with an abundance of anti-aircraft defenses.”

During the drill, the IAF refueler planes were to refuel American fighter jets, and Israeli fighter jets were to refuel from an American Boeing KC-46, of which Israel has ordered four and is expected to receive the first in 2025.

For Israel, the KC-46 aircraft are seen as necessary to conduct potential major strikes against targets in Iran, some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from Israel and far outside the normal flight range of Israeli jets.

Hmmm pic.twitter.com/C2FAtmRwQA
— Mike (@Doranimated) March 11, 2023

Lebanese freaking out that maritime agreement appears to be legal recognition of Israel

From Arab News:

There was controversy in Lebanon on Friday after a document on the demarcation of maritime borders appeared to suggest the country had recognized the neighboring state of Israel.

Talks have been ongoing between the two nations for some time amidst a backdrop of broader political tensions, with a state of war technically existing between them.

Possibilities of a thaw in relations have also been hindered by the influence of strongly anti-Israel factions in Lebanese politics, especially the Iran-affiliated Hezbollah.

The document in question, recorded as No. 71836 and published on the UN’s official website, said that “the secretary–general of the United Nations hereby certifies that the following international agreement has been registered with the secretariat in accordance with article 102 of the charter of the United Nations … constituting a maritime agreement between the state of Israel and the Lebanese Republic (with the letters, Oct. 18, 2020) Jerusalem, Oct. 27, 2020 and Baabda Oct. 27, 2022.”

One activist told Arab News on condition of anonymity: “The UN document is undeniably clear; Lebanon recognized the state of Israel, and Hezbollah’s role has become limited to protecting the common borders.”

Here is the UN document that is upsetting them so much:

At the time, Lebanon took pains to say that this is not recognition:

A letter approving the deal was first signed by Lebanese President Michel Aoun in Beirut and then by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem.

Lapid claimed that Lebanon's signing of the deal amounted to a de-facto recognition of Israel.

In a palace statement after he signed the agreement, Aoun said the deal would have "no political dimensions or impacts that contradict Lebanon's foreign policy."

"The agreement... will take the form of two exchanges of letters, one between Lebanon and the United States, and one between Israel and the United States," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General.

Lebanon, which has fought a series of wars with Israel, said it would not allow its delegation to be in the same room as the Israeli side, and the two parties would not even sign the same piece of paper.

Rafic Chelala, a spokesman for the Lebanese presidency, confirmed that the Lebanese delegation "will not... meet the Israeli delegation".

This latter article seems to contradict itself - was it one letter signed by both Israel and Lebanon in separate places, or as it two letters between each of them and the US?

I cannot find official copies of the letters from last October to see if both signatures are on the same page. Based on this Times of Israel article with the text of the letters, it does not appear that Lebanon recognized Israel in any way. But I cannot claim to know much about international treaty law.

Either way, it is fun to see the freak-out.

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