Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 28, 2020

12/28 Links Pt1: Understanding the lobby against Israel’s new relations in the Gulf; Moroccan delegation arrives in Israel; IDF: Our subs sail everywhere; Iran: Our response to any attack will be strong

From Ian:

'Abrahamic' instead of 'Judeo-Christian'

Upcoming elections in the Netherlands and Germany in 2021 will test the strength of the radical right, which has a distinct vision of European identity. In contrast to those who view democratic values as essentially secular and universal, and not tied to specific cultural or religious roots, radical right parties typically say these values are anchored by the heritage of European or western civilization. And they claim that this heritage is being threatened by non-European cultures, particularly Islamic culture.

My research into the international political world views of radical right parties reveals their widespread references to the "Judeo-Christian" roots of European values. The manifesto of the Alternative for Germany declares that the party:

"Opposes Islamic practice which is directed against our liberal-democratic constitutional order, our laws, and the Judeo-Christian and humanist foundations of our culture."

Comparable claims can be found from Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage in the UK.

What do these politicians mean by Judeo-Christian? This term's definition is fuzzy at best, and historical analysis shows that it has long been used and abused for political ends.

Though the Jewish roots of Christianity are clear, Jews were pariahs in pre-modern Christian Europe. As Europe gradually left behind the identity of "Christendom" from the 18th century onwards, efforts to make Jews a legitimate part of European society were a political struggle, resisted by religious conservatives and anti-Semites. In 19th-century Europe, Jews were still commonly grouped with Muslims as non-European "Semites" or "Orientals."

It was in mid-20th century America, especially after the Holocaust, that the idea of the west as Judeo-Christian gained wide acceptance. When President Dwight Eisenhower referred to the Judeo-Christian roots of "our form of government," he chose words that embraced different Christian denominations and Jews within a shared civic identity – one which contrasted with anti-Semitic and godless ideologies of fascism and communism.

Seth Frantzman: Understanding the lobby against Israel’s new relations in the Gulf

THE CAMPAIGN against Israel’s relations with the Gulf uses several talking points. Initially, they claimed that the new relationship was somehow aiding “authoritarians.” This talking point was used by people who don’t condemn “authoritarians” in Doha, Tehran or Ankara. This illustrates how much charlatanism is behind the “authoritarians” talking point. Ankara’s regime is the largest jailer of journalists in the world and sentences opposition politicians to decades in prison on mythical “terror” charges. If there is an authoritarian axis in the Middle East it is the Tehran-Ankara axis and its allies.

Another argument against the Israel-Gulf ties is made by those who oppose Saudi Arabia. Of particular interest here is that most of those who make this argument are not people who historically cared that Saudi Arabia was an absolutist monarchy and conservative Kingdom. Their dislike of Riyadh is primarily anger at palace intrigue in which their allies in the Kingdom were pushed out when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rose to power.

The arguments against Saudi Arabia don’t stand up to scrutiny because they are ostensibly made by people on “human rights” grounds when those very same voices didn’t speak out about human rights as recently as five years ago. Thus, “human rights” and “authoritarianism” became methods of critique of the new Israel-Gulf ties by those who are silent about authoritarian human rights abuses throughout the region.

The critique of Israel-Gulf ties hangs on several interrelated issues. First, the anti-Israel agenda of the 1960s and 1970s has not gone away. The dispute between the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Brotherhood, backed by Turkey and Qatar, is another layer. The Gulf crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar in 2017 is part of the issue. In addition, the pro-Iran crowd opposes the peace deals. These voices have ample platforms, from pro-government media in Turkey to Qatar, which mostly serve as English-speaking or Arabic platforms to influence the region and the world.

The emptiness of this critique, which reveals its more complex agenda, hangs on the fact that in no other case in the world are “authoritarian” regimes critiqued for merely having diplomatic relations with other states. For instance, the same voices who have poured cold water on the new peace deals, don’t have an issue with the UAE or Israel having relations with Denmark or China. They just don’t think the UAE and Israel should have relations with each other because they are hostile to both the UAE and Israel and have had to find some reason to excuse that hostility to make it appear legitimate.

The campaign against the peace has had its effect, either by downplaying the importance of the new peace or by sniping at it from various angles. An unprecedented level of new engagement between Israel and the UAE, in particular, has not received the attention it deserves partly because of ingrained biases against both states. Understanding the reasons for this is important because it helps explain some of the challenges that these countries – and their allies – face in the region and globally.

Moroccan delegation arrives in Israel

A Moroccan diplomatic delegation was in Israel on Monday for the first time since normalization between the countries was announced earlier this month.

The delegation, which landed in Israel on Sunday night, plans to work towards reopening the Moroccan liaison office in Tel Aviv, which it has held onto for the past 20 years since Rabat cut official ties. Israel has also retained its closed office in Morocco.

During last week’s visit to Rabat by the Israeli-US delegation led by National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat and White House Special Adviser Jared Kushner, the countries committed to reopening the offices within two weeks, which would mean next week.

Morocco is also expected to prepare for a high-level delegation to come to Israel at a later, yet to be determined date.

The Moroccan diplomats have meetings scheduled at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, but they do not have any public events or statements on their agenda.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Morocco's King Mohammed VI to visit Israel, in a phone conversation over the weekend.

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra records Moroccan national anthem

Immediately following the announcement of the Israel-Morocco normalization agreement, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO) recorded the National Anthem of Morocco in honor of the historic agreement.

Arranged for the symphony orchestra and choir by Israeli composer and conductor Nizar El-Khater, the rendition of the anthem was performed at the Jerusalem Theater.

The Jerusalem Symphony and the Israeli Kehilot Sharot choir were joined via teleconference by Moroccan singers, a truly unique experience in honor of the normalization deal between the two countries.

3 VOIX De L’espoir (Three Voices of Hope), a Moroccan musical collective helped produce the event.

Today's antisemitism in Arabic media

Algerian site Ech-Chaab has an article on how Jews and Zionists are infiltrating the Arab mind.

Long years ago, the great Egyptian thinker Abd al-Wahhab al-Masiri wrote his encyclopedia on Jews, Judaism and Zionism, and in a section of it he warned against Arab Judaism, saying: “From now on we will find Jews dressed as Muslims, who prays with us in the mosque, but he plays the same role that he a Jewish general is doing it, and accordingly, this phenomenon must be analyzed so that many of us do not turn into Jews without even knowing it. ”
In 1977, Dr. Esmat Saif al-Dawla spoke about "Zionism in the Arab mind," and said, "Zionism and its allies, after they were defeated militarily on the battlefront in October 1973, opened holes in our foreheads and invaded our minds."

Saudi site Al Marsd has an article that praises a Jew, and an angry response. Saud Al-Fawzan describes how he rented an apartment from a Jew when he was in college, and it burned down. The Jew first told him that he was happy he was safe; he then invited him in for coffee and fixed the apartment in ten days while putting him up in a five-star hotel.

In response, Ali Al-Zamil is angry at the story: "What do these people want from the cause of glorifying the morals and exploits of the Jewish man !? ...Why not look at his intentions and what is behind his actions .. What is the point of that! ? It is naive, or even stupid, if these people think that someone will believe that good qualities and good morals are confined only to the Jewish people."

Manadrama has an article on why in Islam, Jews are compared to donkeys: because they are as stupid as donkeys. One must not compare Jews to camels, which are noble creatures.

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The latest poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows a large majority of Palestinians want Mahmoud Abbas to go - and be replaced by someone even more extreme.

66% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign as president of the PA while only 30% want him to remain in office.

But when it comes to who they want to replace him, the choices are pretty much all terrorists.

People who support Fatah would like to see Marwan Barghouti as their candidate, and if he would run he would handily beat any Hamas candidate. Even if Barghouti would create a new political party, he would get more votes than Fatah would under Abbas.

Barghouti is in an Israeli prison for murder and terrorism charges.

If there was an election between Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Haniyeh would win 50%-43%. But if Barghouti would run against Haniyeh, Barghouti would handily win, 61%-37%.

Interestingly, Mohammad Dahlan, who Abbas considers his major Fatah rival, has little support within the territories, and only 7% would like to see him replacing Abbas. Current PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh would do much better, and an election between him and Haniyeh is a deadlock.

The split between Gaza and the West Bank continues, with Hamas supported by the majority in Gaza and Fatah preferred in the West Bank, although not overwhelmingly.

The poll also showed that 48% of Palestinians would like to see a return to an "armed intifada," meaning terrorism. Similarly, a plurality of Palestinians think the most effective means of ending the Israeli "occupation" is terror, 39% choosing "armed struggle" over 35% who chose negotiations.

The Palestinian affinity for terrorism and terrorist leaders is something that the Western media tries very hard not to report. But it is there in the surveys, consistently, month after month.

This poll was done in conjunction with German NGO Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

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Modern "progressive" antisemites now blaming Israel for high Palestinian diabetes rates

The Lajee Center, an NGO centered in the Aida UNRWA camp, wrote in their December newsletter:

On November 19, 1for3 and Lajee Center presented a webinar on Managing Chronic Disease in Conflict settings, featuring Health for Palestine Director Dr. Bram Wispelwey, Community Health Worker (CHW) Ashghan Awais, Asmaa Rimawi, an advanced medical student and Health for Palestine researcher, and 1for3 Director Nidal Al-Azraq. They presented data from a two-year study that revealed significant improvement in diabetes due to the Community Health Worker program. Palestinians in Aida and Azza Refugee Camps suffer high levels of diabetes and hypertension. Dr. Wispelwey put Palestinians’ declines in health in the context of settler colonialism, presenting on the violence of military occupation and comparing Palestinians’ health to that of Indigenous and Black people harmed by settler colonialism in the United States. Moreover, the Middle East and North Africa region currently has the highest rates of diabetes in the world. While the older generation of Palestinians has lower rates than the rest of the region, middle aged Palestinians have higher rates. Rates for diabetes in the West Bank are twice the global rate and more than twice the rate in Israel.

The video of the seminar shows Dr. Wispelway spending some 16 of his 18 minutes talking about his theories that Israel is responsible for Palestinians having high rates of diabetes, blaming everything from the "Naqba" to "settler colonialism" to tear gas to the Oslo Accords.

What he didn't spend much time on was the fact that the entire Arab world has high rates of diabetes.

Here's a map showing its prevalence in 2019:

The prevalence in the Palestinian territories are roughly what they are in Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is a huge problem for the entire region.

Are those countries suffering from "settler colonialism?" Did they have a "naqba?"

Dr. Wispelsky went to Bar Ilan University of the Negev. But whether he is Jewish or not, his section of the seminar was effectively antisemitic, blaming Israel for Palestinian obesity and lack of exercise that lead to diabetes, a problem that is endemic in the entire region and has nothing to do with Israel.

Palestinians grow plenty of fruits and vegetables for domestic consumption; blaming Israel for them eating junk food is yet another example of how the "progressive" Left infantilizes Palestinians and gives them no agency over their own decisions.

The irony is that the seminar showed that a relatively simple and inexpensive community based health program can significantly reduce the prevalence of, and risk of mortality from, diabetes - which destroys the thesis that Israeli actions are responsible to begin with.

But the main takeaway from those who watched the seminar is that Israel is responsible for Palestinians' doing basic things for their own health.

Yes, blaming Israel for Palestinians' own poor health decisions is antisemitic.

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Cartoon of the Day: Little David gets in trouble at school

Continuing our series of recaptioning cartoons...

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claims that he knows about an assassination plot against him.

In a video interview with Al Mayadeen, Nasrallah asserted that "Saudi Arabia has instigated my assassination for a long time and at the very least since the war on Yemen."

He went on, , "Our data is that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised the issue of my assassination during his visit to Washington," adding that the Americans "agreed to a Saudi request to assassinate me, that Israel would implement it."

Hey, you can't argue with data! Although I'm not sure why now would be a better time to knock him off than any time over the past 30 years.

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12/27 Links: Moroccan-Israeli peace faces multiple security challenges; Israel, No more Arab-Israeli peace deals if Biden mollifies Iran; UAE collaborating to eliminate UNRWA

From Ian:

Dore Gold: Moroccan-Israeli peace faces multiple security challenges

For much of the modern era, the Arab world has sought ways to provide legitimacy to its political leadership. That led it down the road of highly ideological politics based on promoting unity schemes even with the use of force, experimenting with Arab socialist doctrines, and maintaining at all costs the Arab-Israel conflict.

A few brave leaders were prepared to break with this paradigm and reached peace with Israel, such as president Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan. Most recently, King Hamad of Bahrain and Sheikh Zayed of the UAE have joined. Peace with Israel was not a risk-free strategy, and some of these leaders’ enemies were prepared to threaten them with assassination attempts and increased political turmoil. But they persisted nonetheless in the path of peace.

Now King Mohammed VI has bravely moved the Kingdom of Morocco into the circle of states making formal peace with Israel. It is a move that is not without risks for the Moroccans.

The security challenges that they face primarily emanate from the area of the former Spanish colony of the Western Sahara, where an insurgency campaign is being waged by guerrillas from the Polisario Front against the Moroccan security forces, with the support of Algeria. Morocco had valid claims to this disputed territory; many tribes in the area had been historically linked to the Moroccan monarchy.

The stakes in this conflict were considerable. The Polisario, which is also backed by the Iranian regime, seeks to undermine the territorial integrity of Morocco itself.

In 2018, Morocco presented documents to the Iranian government proving that Tehran was now arming and training the Polisario with the help of Hezbollah. The weapons supplied included shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles like the SAM-9 and SAM-11. As a result, Morocco cut its diplomatic ties with Iran. It turned out that the Iranians were using their embassy in Algiers as a conduit to the Polisario.

This was part of a pattern that the Iranians were following in Africa, seeking to infiltrate the continent by backing military moves of allies they sought to cultivate.

Brian Hook: No more Arab-Israeli peace deals if Biden mollifies Iran

US President-elect Joe Biden will not be able to pursue Israeli-Arab normalization deals if he softens America’s stance against Tehran, former US special representative for Iran Brian Hook told i24 News.

“If the Biden administration pursue a policy of accommodating Iran and alienating our partners in the region, there will be no more peace agreements that are made,” Hook said.

He spoke less than a week after Israel announced a normalization deal with Morocco, the fourth under the US brokered Abraham Accords. The focus of those deals has been Israeli-Arab peace and expanded regional economic opportunity.

But the deals have also been viewed as the backbone of a new and very public regional alliance between Israel and its Arab neighbors against Iran.

The United Arab Emirates was able to secure an agreement with the US to purchase advanced F-35 fighter jets, concurrent with its peace deal with Israel that was ratified in October. A normalization deal with Bahrain was ratified in November and a deal with Sudan has been agreed on but not ratified.

Israel, UAE collaborating to eliminate UNRWA - report

Israel and the United Arab Emirates are working together to eliminate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) without solving the issue of Palestinian refugees, the French newspaper Le Monde has reported.

The report alleged that this has been underway since Israel and the UAE announced normalization between them in August.

According to the report, Emirati officials are considering an action plan intended to gradually eliminate UNRWA, without making this development conditional on a resolution of the refugee problem. This is despite the UAE having been a major source of funding to UNRWA in 2018 and 2019, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to offset US President Donald Trump's halting of funds to the agency, which brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.

"In doing so, Abu Dhabi would be rallying to a long-standing demand from Israel, which insists that the agency is obstructing peace by nurturing refugees in the dream of returning to the lands from which their parents were driven in 1948," a tweet of a portion of the report said.

UNRWA was established 70 years ago to supply aid to Palestinian refugees, and its mandate is renewed every three years.

Last year in November, the UN General Assembly approved the extension of UNRWA’s mandate for three more years, only a week after its commissioner-general Pierre Krahenbuhl resigned over a UN ethics report alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority among senior officials of the agency, after which Israel called for UNRWA’s closure.

There was a dance party over the weekend at the Shrine of Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses) in the West Bank. Muslims believe it is where Moses is buried.

This caused great anger among many Muslims who felt this was a desecration of the site, which was built during the Mamluk period.

Reports claim that the Palestinian Authority gave permission for the party, while the mosque was closed for COVID-19. I'm not sure how tru this is.

Videos showed a group of young men and women dancing and cheering to electronic dance music before a group of Muslim youths attacked them, ended their party and expelled them from the site..

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Nadia Fatah Alawi, Morocco's tourism minister, is the most senior woman in the Moroccan government. She told Yediot Aharonot, "I have heard that all Israelis travel to Dubai since you signed a peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates. Honestly, I am not surprised at all. But there is no doubt that there is a challenge here for me - to put Morocco at the top of the list of destinations Israeli tourists desire, and I accept the challenge."

According to Alawi, even before the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco, 50,000 Israelis visited Morocco every year. "Most of them came to visit relatives who live here, to visit their ancestors' cemeteries and tombs of the righteous. Now, with an official agreement and direct flights, our ambition is very great - I want and believe we will reach 200,000 Israelis every year."

And she doesn't want to limit it to Israelis whose ancestors lived in Morocco. "I also include Israelis of non-Moroccan descent. Those who do not know our country are going to fall in love with it. I want to offer Israelis several vacations instead of one vacation. When you visit Morocco, you have the opportunity to experience a number of very different styles of tourism. Beyond Jewish cultural and historical cities, I want to offer magical beaches, extensive ecotourism with huge and beautiful deserts, golf clubs, nightlife. We want to make you visit here again and again - not just once."

Until now, Israelis could travel to Morocco in organized groups, through a flight connection in another country. Soon, there will be direct flights, albeit with a small detour to avoid flying over Algerian and Tunisian airspace. Both those nations have bragged that they did not allow the maiden El Al Flight to Morocco to fly over their lands.

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I don't know how to objectively rate my own posts, but one of my readers, Malgorzata Koraszewska, translates some of my essays for Polish site Listy Z Naszego Sadu.

If someone spends the time translating entire articles, that seems to be a good indication that they are notable.

Martin Luther King and Edward Said: Palestinian intellectuals never gave a damn about human rights

Forget "peace." Start optimizing the status quo. That is what Israel and the Palestinians have chosen, anyway.

The @Amnesty employee who insisted Hamas arrest Gazans for videoconferencing with Israelis

Israel-haters who pretend to care about Gaza hurt tens of millions of Arabs

Why is the @ICRC glorifying the matriarch of a terrorist family?

There has been a nakba for 72 years. But it isn’t what Palestinians say it is.

The EU's hypocritical use of "international law" that only applies to Israel

New York Review of Books parrots “Deadly Exchange” lies

Jordan’s absurd denial that they annexed the West Bank

Pro-Israel Democrats and their fundamental misunderstanding of the 20 years since Oslo

How would Palestinians act under Peter Beinart’s “one-state” solution?

EU says it rejects unilateral moves in Area C - while funding unilateral moves in Area C

What if there was no “occupation?” The anti-Zionists of the 1950s provide the answer

Honor/shame and Arab reactions the Israel-UAE agreement

Trump's success in the Middle East came from his concrete (not rhetorical) support of Israel's permanence

An interesting 1944 description of antisemitism describes anti-Zionism perfectly

Time magazine writes a biased, pro-BDS piece pretending to be an objective backgrounder

Are Palestinians victims of "cancel culture"? James Zogby makes a straw man argument to silence Jews

These are not by any means my most popular posts of the year. But they generally track to the ones I'm most proud of.

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The supposedly racist Israeli authorities will be giving Palestinian prisoners the coronavirus vaccine before most Israeli citizens get inoculated.

The head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Executives Affairs Authority, Major General Qadri Abu Bakr, announced Saturday that the Israel Prison Service has informed the prisoners that they will be vaccinated against COVID-19 during the next few days.

The vaccinations, which will use the Pfizer vaccine, will be voluntary.

This is of course not good enough for the Palestinians. The Palestinian prisoners Authority is demanding that the vaccinations be held under the supervision of international doctors.

This all of course doesn't jibe with the many news stories that came out last week that claimed that Israel was withholding vaccines from Palestinians. If Israel was racist, the prisoners would be the last ones to get the vaccine, if at all.

But when it comes to Israel, truth is apparently optional.

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12/26 Links: Normalizing with Israel, Arab states look to gain powerful ally in Washington; How Israel, the US combined media, military power to prevent war

From Ian:

Normalizing with Israel, Arab states look to gain powerful ally in Washington

Israel’s perceived muscle in Washington’s halls of power was already legion in some circles before the Trump administration’s transactional approach to international relations put it on steroids. Suddenly arms, support for controversial moves, or other types of backing could be had for the price of normalization with Israel, or even just talks.

A source who served as an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign said that Arab state’s understanding of Israeli clout in Washington “is a little exaggerated,” but that the Trump administration “did little to dispel the perception” by tying the United States’ bilateral relations with other countries to the question of Israel normalization.”

David Makovsky, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Arab states realized that the Trump administration’s approach meant that they could get top dollar for normalization, even on matters unconnected to Israel. Plus, by going with Israel, they were “purchasing… political risk insurance [for] a post-Trump era because peace with Israel has broad support.”

Jerusalem wasn’t only happy to come along for the ride, but may have even been in the driver’s seat, lobbying Washington on behalf of Arab states willing to make nice.

According to an Axios report, it was a team of former Israeli officials who first came up with the proposal offering US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in the disputed territory of Western Sahara in exchange for Rabat agreeing to normalize ties with the Jewish state.

The news site also reported that Israeli officials lobbied their US counterparts in favor of Washington removing Sudan from its blacklist of state terror sponsors in exchange for Khartoum agreeing to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, which has thus far held off on normalizing with Israel, may also be looking to take advantage of the opportunity to get Israel in its corner, the Arab diplomat who spoke to The Times of Israel speculated.

He referenced recent reports that during Netanyahu’s covert visit to Saudi Arabia last month, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pushed the Israeli premier to assist in Riyadh’s efforts to smooth over its ties with Washington, seemingly dangling normalization with the Jewish state in exchange.

However, Makovsky argued that normalization with Israel will not be “a get-out-of-jail-free card because these countries will still have to answer for their [human rights-related] issues.”

“It’s helpful, but not necessarily decisive,” he said, suggesting that Biden would move away from the Trump formula for pushing Arab states to normalize with Israel.

2020: The year Sudan ended its isolation and looked to peace with Israel

For Sudan what was important was being removed from US sanctions and being listed as a country that had hosted or supported terrorists. In the 1990s the US carried out airstrikes against an alleged Al Qaeda linked site in Sudan. IN the last decades there were also accusations of weapons trafficking by Iran and Hamas-affiliates through the country. Hamas is supported by Iran and Turkey’s regime and has roots in the Brotherhood.

“Sudanese circles expect the final peace agreement between Khartoum and Tel Aviv [sic] in Washington to be signed soon, following two military and political visits by Israeli-American delegations to Sudan, which settled the terms of the expected treaty,” the article says. These visits have not been widely reported. The article quoted political analyst Jamil al-Fadil, saying that the transitional authority has taken a bold and courageous step in peace with Israel, given the complications in the internal domestic level. This is “punctuated by disparities resulting from old psychological ideological positions that are outdated and overtaken by the Palestinians themselves.” What this means is unclear although it implies that the old guard of Brotherhood-linked groups oppose the deal.

The analyst believes that Sudan has gone down the right path and it is in line with the reality of the transformations taking place in the region. Of interest the article asserts that this new posture in the region was the result of “the emergence of a new alliance imposed by the Turkish-Iranian expansion in the region.” Sudan was once the site of the Arab League meeting after the 1967 war that put forward the infamous “three nos” against Israel, saying there would be no recognition of Israel. Now that is changing and stability will increase, the article says.

“Political analyst, Hajj Hamad Muhammad Khair, said he believes that the basis of international relations is common interests, so where are they found, the parties will go forward to establish them,” the article notes. Muhammad Khair said, "Sudan and Israel do not have common borders or previous relations, and are now proceeding to establish new relations. Therefore, we commend the steps taken by the transitional government to that end." He added, "The government succeeded in separating the path of the relationship with Israel from the file of removing Sudan from the list of terrorism, and it linked peace with Tel Aviv [sic] with the approval of Parliament. This is a correct way and position." Nevertheless any international agreement needs to be approved by the legislative bodies, in addition because there is an internal law to boycott Israel that needs to be canceled by Parliament. Expectations are that parliament will move to cancel it.

This will complete the “episodes of breaking the international isolation for Khartoum, as it was preceded by a decision to remove the country from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, as well as the positive interaction of the international community with Sudan following the success of its popular revolution, which in turn contributed in this direction.” Sudan is now on a new path, the article illustrates.

Netanyahu has ‘friendly’ call with king of Morocco, invites him to visit Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Friday for the first time since the two countries agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations earlier this month.

The two leaders congratulated one another on the agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, which included the White House agreeing to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region.

During the “warm and friendly” conversation, Netanyahu extended an invitation for King Mohammed VI to visit Israel and the two agreed to continue contacts in order to advance the normalization agreement in the weeks ahead, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“The leaders congratulated each other over the renewal of ties between the countries, the signing of the joint statement with the US, and the agreements between the two countries,” according to the statement from Netanyahu’s office.

“In addition, the processes and mechanisms to implement the agreements were determined,” it added.

The Moroccan king’s royal office issued a statement saying that, in his conversation with Netanyahu, the monarch recalled “the strong and special ties” between the Jewish community in Morocco and the monarchy, and reiterated “the consistent, unwavering and unchanged position of the Kingdom of Morocco on the Palestinian issue and the pioneering role of the kingdom in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East.”

On Wednesday, Morocco’s tourism minister announced that direct flights will begin operating between Israel and Morocco within two or three months.

Moroccan delegation to visit Israel to advance normalization deal

A delegation from Morocco will visit Israel next week to work on advancing diplomatic ties, following the countries’ recent agreement to establish full relations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday.

The sides will discuss reopening liaison offices, establishing embassies and launching direct flights between the countries, Netanyahu said in a video statement.

The delegation will touch down in Israel on Sunday, according to the Walla news site.

12/25 Links Pt2: 'Israel, the West must stand with persecuted people' - Bernard Henri Le´vy; Melanie Phillips: A stunning ruling against religious freedom

From Ian:

'Israel, the West must stand with persecuted people' - Bernard Henri Le´vy

It began with a phone call. Bernard-Henri Lévy and I were speaking while I sat in my car, returning from getting hummus in central Jerusalem. The pandemic was raging and winter weather was beginning in Jerusalem. He wanted to speak about the recent war in Armenia and the Kurds.

The last time I’d seen the French philosopher, who is also a filmmaker, activist and the author of more than 30 books, was in Erbil in 2017 during the Kurdistan region’s referendum. Tall and impeccably dressed, he was at the Rotana Hotel there during the first voting in the momentous attempt by the Kurdish region to offer its people a chance at independence.

Much has changed now. Turkey has prodded Azerbaijan into a war with the Armenians in Nagorna-Karabakh and Ankara has occupied the Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria. Israel has made a far-reaching peace with two Gulf Arab states, Sudan and Morocco (with even Pakistan reportedly considering it). Morocco is dear to Lévy’s heart.

Lévy’s work as an intellectual and writer is uniquely intertwined with humanitarian activism. His books include The Virus in the Age of Madness (2020), The Empire and the Five Kings (2019) and American Vertigo: Traveling America in the footsteps of Tocqueville (2005). In June 1992, Lévy convinced French president François Mitterrand to make his surprise-journey to Sarajevo. Lévy was appointed by French president Jacques Chirac to head a state mission to Afghanistan and he supported the intervention by France and the US in Libya in 2011. Since 2015, Lévy has been supportive of the Kurds, first in the fight against ISIS and later through his documentary film, Peshmerga, which premiered as an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2018, following the abandonment of the West after the 2017 Kurdish referendum and the Turkish attack on Afrin, Lévy co-founded with environmentalist and philanthropist Thomas Kaplan the US-based nonprofit Justice for Kurds (JFK), of which Kaplan is the chairman and Lévy is president. Since its creation, JFK is the main base of Mr. Lévy’s humanitarian commitments.

Bernard-Henri Lévy has always been a devoted Zionist, he says. His book The Genius of Judaism (2017) looks at the exceptionalism of Israel and Jewish thought. His recent reporting has been published in The Wall Street Journal and in European outlets such as Der Stern, La Repubblica, L’Espresso, Kathimerini, Novoe Vremya and Paris-Match.

I spoke to Lévy about a variety of regional issues. Given his background and knowledge of Morocco, Israel, the Kurdish regions and the great changes in the region and the world, his responses provide a critical window into the issues affecting the Middle East and the West today.

Melanie Phillips: A stunning ruling against religious freedom

This argument over ritual slaughter has gone on in Europe for many years. At its base, it reflects the priority over humans that’s now given to animals with a corresponding rise in ignorance, sentimentality and hypocrisy over their welfare.

That moral confusion is one of the outcomes of the prevailing dogma of universalism, which has caused much of Europe increasingly to reject the precepts of the Hebrew Bible. That in turn accounts for the secularism and hostility to religion upon which the EU itself is based.

The EU prides itself on the core Enlightenment values of liberalism and tolerance. Those values, however, emerged from British thinkers whose values were framed by the Bible.

In continental Europe, by contrast, the Enlightenment was fuelled by a vicious hatred of religion and the belief that reason could only be advanced if religion was suppressed.

It is that European strain of universalist Enlightenment thinking that forms the values of the European Union. It has also given rise to the west’s predominant ideology of moral and cultural relativism, which has propelled the rise of paganism and the veneration of the animal and natural world at the expense of humanity. And that now has Jewish and Muslim religious practices squarely in its sights.

At the start of 2020, Europeans joined other nations of the world in marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, vowing “never again.”

At the end of this horrible year, the custodians of the European Jewish graveyard have instead demonstrated all too bleakly just what they think that means for the values of freedom and tolerance so many have given their lives to defend.

Caroline Glick: The Israeli left is far from dead

Even when the "anyone-but-Bibi" camp doesn't have the requisite number of Knesset seats to form a government, so entrenched are its right-wing members in their hatred for Netanyahu that they still empower the left. Following the April and September 2019 elections, Lieberman prevented the formation of a government and forced the country into the second and third round of elections by refusing to join a Netanyahu-led coalition.

And following the third round of elections, former Netanyahu aides and current "anyone-but-Bibi" right-wing politicians Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel who broke away from two parties to join the Blue and White list, were willing to block their leftist Blue and White party from forming a post-Zionist government with the Joint Arab List. But they weren't willing to leave Blue and White to join Netanyahu to form a right-wing government. And as a result, Netanyahu was compelled to form a coalition with Blue and White.

Blue and White's position in the outgoing government didn't give its leaders Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi the power to implement their leftist policies. But it did give them the power to block Netanyahu and Likud from advancing their rightist policies which Hauser and Hendel ostensibly support. Gantz and Ashkenazi torpedoed Netanyahu's plan to apply Israel's sovereignty to the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, in accordance with US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan. This week, Gantz and Ashkenazi blocked Netanyahu from bringing the young Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria to the government for formal approval. Blue and White's Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn has worked assiduously to expand the powers of his leftist partners in the judiciary and the state prosecution while ruling out the implementation of the Likud's agenda of legal reform.

Given the left's success in seizing and wielding power through its partners in the deep state and its enablers in the "anyone-but-Bibi" right, it is clear that the polls that give a significant majority of Knesset seats to right-wing parties obscure more than they reveal. The left remains the only power that competes with the Likud for power. And if Likud and its coalition partners do not win 61 seats in the upcoming elections, the left will continue to control the national agenda regardless of what the public thinks.

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12/25 Links Pt1: ‘We Do Not Live in Fear’: Israeli Women Encourage Running in Memory of Esther Horgen; 'Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital caused an explosion – of peace'

From Ian:

‘We Do Not Live in Fear’: Israeli Women Encourage Running in Memory of Esther Horgen

Israelis woke up on Monday to the horrible news that the lifeless body of 52-year-old Esther Horgen, a mother-of-six from the community of Tel Menashe in Samaria, was found at around 2 am in a forest near her home after she went for a power walk on Sunday afternoon and never returned. Her husband, Benjamin, alerted security officials when she didn’t make it back.

On Thursday, JNS reported that Israel’s Shin Bet security service arrested a Palestinian suspect from the Jenin area in connection with the murder. Details of the investigation remain under a gag order.

Police are trying to assess whether the incident was a nationalistically motivated terror attack. The Samaria Regional Council said the murder was without a doubt an act of terror, saying Horgen’s skull had been crushed with police believing the weapon to have been a rock.

Friends and family gathered in Tel Menashe on Tuesday to pay their final respects to Horgen before she was laid to rest.

Ora Oziel, a neighbor and close friend, told JNS that her family and the Horgens shared a Shabbat meal together last Friday night, just 48 hours before Esther went on her ill-fated jog. She said that Esther, who was a life coach, marriage counselor and specialist in Jewish psychology, “was full of life.”

“She loved the beauty of nature and of human beings, both on their inside and outside,” added Oziel.

Thousands march to honor Israeli woman murdered in suspected terror attack

Thousands of people took part in a march on Friday in memory of an Israeli woman murdered in a suspected terror attack while out on a run earlier this week in the Reihan forest near her home in the West Bank settlement of Tal Menashe.

The march took place in the forest where Esther Horgen, 52, a mother of six, was killed on Sunday. Her body was found in the early hours of Monday, having apparently been violently murdered. Horgen had gone out for an afternoon run and did not return, whereupon her husband, Benjamin, notified the police.

Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan called on Friday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to greenlight new housing construction in the settlement as a response to the murder.

“We call on the prime minister to announce on Sunday that construction in Tal Menashe will be doubled as a Zionist response to the killing. We will not stop marching,” Dagan was quoted by Ynet as saying at the gathering.

IDF troops map house of suspected murderer of Esther Horgen

IDF soldiers entered the Palestinian village of Tura early Friday in order to map the house of the terrorist suspected of murdering Esther Horgen, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit reported.

The process of mapping the house was done in order to examine the possibility of demolishing the house, in case the suspected killer is found guilty.

Horgen, a woman in her 50s, was found dead on Monday in the Reihan Forest, close to her home in the settlement of Tal Menashe, after she had been out jogging.

Horgen’s body was found on the side of a path in the forest and showed signs of violence, including to her head. Her family reported her missing on Sunday. She is survived by her husband, Benyamin, and six children. Her youngest child celebrated his bar mitzvah three months ago.

A suspect in the murder of Horgen, who was killed in the northern West Bank in an alleged terrorist attack, was arrested in a joint operation by the Police, the IDF, and the Border Police on Thursday.

On Thursday, at around noon, intelligence units found that the suspect was staying at his mother’s house in the village of Toura, near Jenin. The Yamam (Israel Police National Counter Terrorism Unit) then arrived at the scene and with assistance from intelligence drones, the suspect was located on a rooftop and was later apprehended. He was taken questioning by the Shin Bet.

Mahmoud Abbas' annual Christmas message wasn't quite as obsessively about Israel as usual, but what he did say was offensive.

We face every day the policies of the Israeli occupation and its aggressive practices against our Islamic and Christian sanctities, the most recent of which was the attack on the Church of the Gethsemane in Jerusalem, in addition to the attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, persecution, repression, and the herds of settlers.

He is blaming the arson attack on the church on Israel altogether.

He is saying Jews must be banned from visiting their holiest site.

He is claiming that Israel specifically attacks Christian and Muslim sites, trying to incite a religious war.

Despite all of this, we are steadfast, and are confident of victory and freedom, as we deserve justice for our cause, a decent life for our people and the end of the occupation, and our people gained their freedom and independence in their own state and whose capital is East Jerusalem, a state that is not separated by the racist walls of that holy city

.He is calling the separation barrier a "racist wall" - perhaps because it saves lives.

Because this is not nearly as offensive as his usual Christmas speeches, no one reports on this. But if a purported leader of an entity recognize by many as a state spouts lies, antisemitism and slander, it is newsworthy - even if it is only 60% as hateful as usual.

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From UN Watch:

NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2020 – The UN General Assembly condemned Israel today in two separate resolutions, concluding the world body’s 2020 legislation with a total of 17 resolutions that either single out or condemn the Jewish state, and six on the rest of the world combined. There was one resolution each adopted for the regimes of North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Myanmar (to be ratified on Wednesday), and two on Crimea. (Click here for texts and voting sheets.)

“The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.

“It’s absurd that in the year 2020, out of a total 23 of UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries, 17 of them—more than 70 percent—were focused on one single country: Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of the lopsided condemnations is to demonize the Jewish state,” said Neuer.

I have a simple question: Who cares?

162 UN member states recognize Israel, with several more having trade relations. The 31 states that don't recognize Israel is also pretty much a list of the worst human rights abusers on Earth:

Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Tunisia, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia.

As we have seen this year, the Arab world is starting to finally recognize that Israel is a fact and pretending it doesn't exist doesn't help anyone.

Israel is not a pariah state. It is respected by most of the world.

Everyone sees these lopsided votes and the absurd number of resolutions. Most of the anti-Israel resolutions are repeated year after year. Yes, it is outrageous that so many European nations keep voting to condemn Israel, but this seems to be more from inertia and some misguided idea that this helps them maintain relations with Arab nations than anything else. In other words, the reason the Europeans keep voting for these is because they know it is all theater.

The fact that the world keeps playing out this charade year after year shows that no one is taking the UN General Assembly seriously.

The UN has been creating these resolutions for decades. Abba Eban famously said at least fifty years ago, "If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions." Yet the continuous orgy of anti-Israel resolutions hasn't hurt Israel in any serious way.

In the end, the UN votes don't delegitimize Israel. They delegitimize the UN.

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After almost 14 years of the Hamas/Fatah split, it appears that Egypt has given up on any hope of reconciliation between them.

On Wednesday, Egypt has permanently closed its representative office in the Gaza Strip.

A delegation from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, which arrived in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, supervised the transport of the remaining furniture in the office back to Egypt.

Egypt kept its office closed but ready for rapid re-opening for nearly 14 years, since the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

About four years ago, Egypt stopped renting the house of their consulate general in Gaza and moved its contents to this office which is on Al-Thawra Street in Gaza City.

Only three months ago, to much fanfare, Hamas and Fatah held reconciliation talks in Turkey. Much of the world actually believed that this time the two groups would unify; they even announced a date for national elections.

All of that fell apart, as it had many times before.

Apparently Egypt has finally had enough.

Disgust over the Palestinian inability to govern itself has been one of the reasons the Arab world has been more open to relations with Israel. it has become increasingly untenable to boycott Israel in order to support Palestinians who couldn't even agree on who their leaders are.

There was no immediate comment from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on the office closing.

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The Night Before Christmas, Iranian version (@JSchanzer)

Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, created this updated version of the famous poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, with as bit of a twist:

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the region

Not a creature was stirring, but Iran’s foreign legion;

The rockets they placed in the Mideast with care,

In hopes that the Quds Force

soon would be there;

The weapons were nestled

all snug in their places,

While visions of war

put grins on their faces;

In Syria the bombs burst

with a terrible clap,

While the U.N. settles in

for a long winter's nap.

The war grinds on,

Russia spreads more confusion.

More S400 sales are a foregone conclusion.

Trump from the White House tweeting “Syria withdrawal!”

America’s footprint grows increasingly small.

What Biden does next,

nobody knows.

But the fear is a deal that empowers these foes.

Then who to my wondering eyes should appear,

But Esmail Ghani

from the Republic of Fear.

It used to be Qassem,

so lively and quick.

But American drones made quick work of that prick.

Now it’s on Ghani

to continue the game.

In some ways he’s different,

but he’s more of the same.

A bundle of weapons

he brings in his sack,

He’s a peddler of death,

and remorse he does lack.

But his eyes lack that twinkle.

He’s not quite as sly.

Soleimani’s the one for whom Supreme Leader does cry.

Still, the plan is in place

and his control does expand,

with the terrorist groups

that Iran does command.

To fight for the cause,

one by one they all came.

Ghani whistled, and shouted,

and called them by name;

"Now, Hezbollah! Now, Hamas!

now, Shiite militias!

Those Mahan air routes

are so damn suspicious!

To the border with Israel!

Through tunnels we’ll crawl!

We can also hit Saudi!

Bombs away all!"

The refugees shiver

amidst new-fallen snow,

The Levantine land bridge,

It continues to grow.

The IRGC plan,

It’s as clear as can be.

It’s precision munitions

But there’s nothing to see.

It’s all underground,

It’s all out of sight,

Human shields will get hit

But Iran gets off light.

It’s Christmas tomorrow

Nobody will talk of this plight

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL,

AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!

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12/24 Links Pt2: Daniel Pipes: Arabs and Muslims increasingly accept Israel even as the global left rejects it; HRW's Anti-Israel Agenda; UN Watch: The Top 10 Worst UN Actions of 2020

From Ian:

Daniel Pipes: Arabs and Muslims increasingly accept Israel even as the global left rejects it

That four Arab states in four months normalized relations with Israel is a remarkable development that opens the possibility that the Arab states’ war with Israel, which began in 1948, is winding down.

But there is more good news, less visible and also potentially momentous: a change taking place among the people who constitute Israel’s ultimate enemy, its Arab citizens. This sector may finally begin to end its self-imposed political isolation and recognize the Jewish state.

First, some background: About 600,000 Arabs fled as Israel came into existence, including most of the educated, leaving 111,000 behind, mostly peasants. That rump population then multiplied many through the decades, supplemented by a steady influx of immigrants (in what I call the “Muslim aliya”); Israel’s Arabs now number 1.6 million, or about 18% of the country’s population.

That population long ago escaped its rural confines, having become educated, mobile and connected. By now, it has included a supreme court judge and a government minister, ambassadors, businessmen, professors and many others of distinction.

Despite this impressive progress, the community has consistently voted for radical and anti-Zionist representation in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. While its members (MKs) have differed sharply among themselves in ideology, dividing into Palestinian nationalist, pan-Arab nationalist, Islamist and leftist, all reject Israel’s Jewish nature.

Gerald M. Steinberg: Human Rights Watch's Anti-Israel Agenda

Human Rights Watch (HRW) was founded as Helsinki Watch by the late Robert Bernstein in 1978, and has grown to become one of the most influential international NGOs active in this arena. However, the organization and its leaders have been strongly criticized, including by its own founder, Bernstein, for acting against its original mission, and for deep-seated political and ideological bias.

The influence of HRW is reflected in its intense involvement in the UN and the International Criminal Court. Its Israel-focused activities are fundamentally different from its role on other topics and countries on HRW's agenda, and contrast strongly with norms of universality and political neutrality.

The History of Soviet Jewish Hijackers—and Why It Matters

On Dec. 24, 1970, the Leningrad municipal court issued verdicts in the cases of 11 defendants in a case that would transform the Jewish world, the State of Israel, and the Soviet Union itself. The court sentenced two defendants, Mark Dymshits, age 43, a former military pilot, and Eduard Kuznetsov, age 30, a dissident who had already done seven years in the gulag, to death by firing squad. Seven defendants, ages 21 to 30, were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in labor camps, with two receiving shorter sentences. Their crime: attempting to hijack a Soviet airplane in order to escape to Israel. With two exceptions, all the defendants were Jews.

The story of the Leningrad hijacking plot is one of the most powerful stories of Jewish courage and commitment in the last half century of diaspora history. It turns the narrative about passive, silent Soviet Jews on its head, shining a spotlight on the true heroes of the struggle for Soviet Jewry—Soviet Jewish activists themselves. Most important, it offers profound lessons about the meaning and value of Jewish identity, and the need to struggle for it, at a time when such lessons are needed more than ever.

Today, it is American Jews who are being conditioned, in ways subtle and overt, to give up slices of their identity. It is American Jews who are facing an onslaught of anti-Semitic attitudes in their political and cultural homes and workplaces. It is American Jews who are being asked to reject their connection to Israel and proclaim themselves to be “privileged” and “white”—and many are meekly or reluctantly falling into line. The story of these Soviet Jews who responded to anti-Semitic attitudes, assimilationist pressures, and vicious anti-Israel and “anti-Zionist” propaganda not by retreating or keeping quiet but by flinging their windows wide open and screaming for all the world to hear is no longer simply part of history, but also a beacon.

The Leningrad plot was as brazen as it was hopeless. Few of its participants believed they would ever get off the ground, let alone fly across the Soviet border. Most viewed their chief objective not as reaching their preliminary destination—the Swedish town of Boden—but in drawing the world’s attention to the virtual prison that the Soviet Jews found themselves in. Their desperate action and defiant words touched the hearts of millions, moving world leaders to act on their behalf and propelling the nascent movement for Soviet Jewry into high gear.