Looking back at articles from the 1970s, when the Communist bloc was heavily into its "anti-Zionist" campaign, the news media saw how obvious it was that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
From UPI, January 19, 1971:
From syndicated columnists Evans and Novak, November 12, 1976, the reporting that Soviet anti-Zionism was virtually identical to the antisemitism in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
Even the New York Times news service recognized that leftist anti-Zionism was Jew-hatred. May 31, 1978:
Just like today, the socialist Left strenuously denied that they had any problem with Jews. But since these early attempts to pretend to be okay with Jews were so laughable, the Left has refined its message over the years to be less overtly antisemitic.
Even so, the origins and the underlying bigotry are the same today as they were then.
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There was a very telling tweet by the formerly prestigious ACLU in response to Mike Pompeo:
Pompeo is talking about boycotting Israel. The ACLU is answering about "criticizing Israel."
Boycotts aren't criticisms by any definition. They are actions.
We see this all the time. The IHRA's Working Definition of Antisemitism specifically excludes criticism of Israel similar to that of any other country as being antisemitic, yet virtually every article against that definition says that it calls criticism of Israel antisemitic.
These lies are deliberate. The liars know they are lying. They want to change the framing of the argument into something they can win, by pretending that Israel's supporters are saying something they never say.
Why do they do this? There's only one reason:
They are defending Leftist antisemitism.
They know that they cannot defend treating Israel with double standards, or delegitimizing Israel, or demonizing Israel, because it shows that they are hypocrites when they consistently find only Israel to be uniquely evil. They know that boycotting Israel is meant to tell the world that Israel is the only nation whose crimes make it worthy of boycotting.
The IHRA definition is the best definition there is, but they want to continue to call Zionism "racism" and to compare Israel to Nazis and to call a nation with 20% non-Jews with full rights an 'apartheid state." They know that if their criticisms of Israel were fair and accurate, the world would yawn - Israel does no worse, and significantly better, than most nations in war time.
So in order to defend the indefensible, they blatantly lie and say that this demonization, this only boycotting Jewish businesses and Jewish entertainers and Jewish speakers, this insane need to call Jews, and only Jews, Nazis, is merely "criticizing Israel."
They know they are lying. They refuse to respond when called out on it.
The tweet above is an explicit attempt to change the framework of the discussion away from what Pompeo said into an indefensible straw man.
One only does that when they know they have lost the argument.
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Former First Minister of Northern Ireland Lord David Trimble has nominated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Lord Trimble won the prize himself in 1998 for his efforts to find a solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. As a Nobel laureate, his nomination of Netanyahu and Prince bin Zayed will lead the Norwegian Nobel Committee to discuss the issue.
The announcement comes less than a month after a ministerial delegation from the United Arab Emirates landed in Israel for the first-ever official visit from the Gulf state following the Sept. 15 signing of the US-brokered Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain at the White House.
In a Nov. 20 letter to the Nobel Committee, Lord Trimble explained that he was nominating Netanyahu and bin Zayed “in recognition of their historic achievements in advancing peace in the Middle East.”
Noting that US President Donald Trump “has already been nominated for the prize for his contributions to this cause,” he said that therefore the Israeli and UAE leaders deserve the same recognition.
Does anyone still think moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a huge mistake that set back the cause of peace? Cause the Israeli PM apparently just met with the Saudi crown prince. I am guessing the US embassy didn’t come up.
How long will Saudi Arabia spend on the edge of friendship with Israel? The Saudi Royal Court is old-fashioned when it comes to the Jewish state. In its official response to the Abraham Accords, the Saudi foreign ministry declared that the kingdom would not normalize relations with Israel until peace is achieved between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the Arab (i.e., Saudi) Peace Initiative of 2002.
While bin Salman may assess that radical extremism, Iran, and an oil-based economy are the primary long-term challenges facing Saudi Arabia, his advisers may fear that radical clerics in coordination with rivals within the royal family and foreign intelligence services (e.g., those of Qatar, Iran, or Turkey) would use normalization with Israel as the pretext for a coup or assassination. Indeed, the U.S. philanthropist Haim Saban recently claimed that bin Salman told him exactly that. Incrementalism is thus the preferred approach—opening Saudi airspace to Israeli commercial flights; inserting Israeli characters into Saudi television dramas; and signaling Riyadh’s approval of other Arab countries normalizing with Israel.
But will this incremental approach provide enough reason for a Biden administration to shield bin Salman from what the pro-Iran deal, anti-Saudi wing of the Democratic party will push forward in Congress? Media coverage of the Abraham Accords gives little to no credit to Saudi Arabia for its behind-the-scenes enablement of the other peace treaties. Bin Salman needs a formal agreement with Israel—or at least an institutionalized process for reaching an agreement—to complicate anti-Saudi initiatives in Washington.
This week’s reported meeting between bin Salman and Netanyahu may be a step in that direction. But more is needed—and soon. Within hours of learning about the bin Salman-Netanyahu meeting, President-elect Joe Biden announced that Antony Blinken would serve as his secretary of state. Last month, Blinken told Jewish Insider that a Biden administration would “undertake a strategic review of our bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia to make sure that it is truly advancing our interests and is consistent with our values.”
Ambassador Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace envoy, has suggested a step-by-step approach that might appeal to bin Salman—that is, staged normalization in exchange for staged Israeli concessions to the Palestinians. Israel, however, may see the status-quo relationship with Saudi Arabia more favorably. Why give in to pressure to make concessions when other Gulf states have normalized in full and more Arab governments may follow?
The UAE wisely leveraged Arab fears of an Israeli sovereignty declaration in the West Bank to spin its normalization agreement as a win for the Palestinians, since the declaration never went forward. Is there something similar Netanyahu could offer to allow Saudi Arabia to claim an achievement toward Israeli-Palestinian peace?
Maybe a normalization agreement commits Israel to a peace process with the Palestinians based on both the Trump peace plan and Arab Peace Initiative. Maybe it recognizes the mutual importance of Jerusalem and guarantees Muslim access to holy sites. Framed correctly, it could offer Saudi Arabia something to tout not just in the Middle East but throughout the Muslim world—without forcing Netanyahu to make concessions his government would not allow.
Can creative and willing minds find something that works? Israel stands at the crossroads of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and the ball is in the Royal Court.
We are indeed headed back to Obama-era “normalcy.”
As it happens, Pompeo wasn’t on conservative radio this week, but in the Saudi Arabian city of Neom with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the Mossad to meet with officials, including Mohammed bin Salman. The normalization of relations between the Sunni Arab world and State of Israel is one of the biggest foreign-policy stories of the past two decades — almost entirely ignored by our media for partisan reasons.
Because while Blinken might have served under Bill Clinton, as staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as a principal in a global lobbying firm, and as a top adviser in the Obama administration, he’s never come in the vicinity of a genuine peace deal.
Not long ago, Blinken lectured, “Israel has never been — until now, unfortunately — a partisan political issue. And I think it’s very bad for the United States and for Israel that someone tries to turn it into one.” But who made Israel a partisan issue? The Trump administration, which moved the embassy to Jerusalem — fulfilling a promise that Obama and numerous other presidents had made but failed to keep — or internationalists like Blinken, who sided with the theocrats of Iran over the democratically elected leaders of the liberal Jewish State?
It wasn’t Pompeo who appeared at 2012 conferences put on by Israel-antagonists J Street to mollify the hard-Left. It was at that conference that Blinken argued no Middle East peace could be achieved without the Palestinians. That ossified position is back in vogue, but it is now entirely debunked by the facts on the ground.
It was also Blinken who had farcically claimed that “Israel has no better friend, no stronger defender than John Kerry,” even as every pro-Israel organization and the entire political establishment in Israel — left, right, and center — were strenuously disagreeing. Kerry, friend of the Iranian mullahs and the PLO, is Biden’s new “climate czar.” Let’s hope that he’ll be kept clear of any foreign-policy decisions. Blinken, on the other hand, promises to revive the Iran deal.
The Arab world has been in an uproar over a photo of Egyptian singer Mohamed Ramadan, who was photographed in Dubai embracing Israeli singer Omar Adam.
As usual when these things happen, the underlying antisemitism in much of the Arab world is on full display. Ramadan is being summoned for an investigation in Egypt by the Egyptian Theatrical Professions Syndicate. Ramadan himself has claimed that he had no idea who Adam was when he posed for the photo.
Egyptian Streets has an op-ed by Mirna Abdulaal justifying the anger by saying that everyone should follow the dictates of the BDS movement:
Art-washing, according to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, is the “use of culture to whitewash the occupation.” In other words, artists can be used to hide the crimes of the oppressor and justify the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.
To put it simply, BDS argues that Israel can use culture as a form of ‘propaganda’ to ‘art-wash’ the crimes and oppression of the state.
“The cultural boycott of Israel is inspired by the South African anti-apartheid struggle,” says PACBI’s (the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) Stephanie Adam.
Art-washing essentially gives a false image of ‘normalcy’ against grave and heinous acts of repression.
But then, Abdulaal - who is Egyptian - strays from the BDS playbook:
HOW CAN WE CONTINUE SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE?
First, we need to distinguish between social and cultural normalization as opposed to economic or political normalization. Political peace deals should not necessarily influence social and cultural issues, as this would undermine the conditions that the peace agreements rest upon – which is to end the occupation of Palestinian territories and violation of Palestinian’s rights.
BDS doesn't make any such distinction - it is against any interaction with Israel, both political and cultural (and especially economic, which is BDS' main point!)
Abdulaal, as a loyal Egyptian subject, cannot say she is against the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel, perhaps out of patriotism and perhaps out of fear. So she has to change BDS' rules to allow economic and political ties with Israel, but to discourage any cultural and social ties, which is pretty much what Egypt has been doing
She also encourages readers to visit the BDS site to see what local BDS groups there are in your country.
If you choose Egypt, it points to the BDSEgypt.com site - which is dead.
It is harder to be a BDSer in most Arab countries than it is in Europe.
(h/t Mitchell B)
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Today, Hamas sources told Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that it sent a message to Israel via Egypt that "things might get out of control as a result of the great pressure on the Strip," and that the rocket that was launched on Saturday night to Ashkelon was a warning shot.
Hamas is demanding more ventilators for Gaza, which has been hit badly by COVID-19 in recent weeks.
Gaza has only 100 beds equipped with ventilators, and they are now at 70% capacity.
Israel agreed this week to send 15 more ventilators, and the Palestinian Authority has shown little interest in sending any to Gaza. Israel doesn't block any international medical aid from reaching Gaza.
Hamas is not directly threatening to fire rockets at Israel, but it is saying that if things get worse, they won't be able to stop others from shooting rockets at Israel. This is a typical Hamas attempt to avoid responsibility (and Israeli retaliation) for rocket fire.
In April, Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar similarly threatened Israel by saying if Gaza doesn't get enough respirators, "we will take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis."
Israel has over 8 million citizens, roughly 6 million of whom are Jewish, so it was just another threat of genocide by Hamas that the world ignored.
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The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, formally known as the Ansar Allah movement, has threatened to develop and use missiles that can reach critical oil installations all over Saudi Arabia - and Eilat in Israel, as well.
A member of the Ansar Allah movement’s political bureau, Abd al-Wahhab al-Mahbashi, said in an interview with al-Mayadeen that Yemen is working on developing a cruise missile with a range to reach all Aramco oil sites in Saudi Arabia and will have a range to hit Eilat.
Eilat is about a thousand miles from Yemen. It is clear that the Houthis are using Iranian-designed (or Iranian-manufactured) missiles against Saudi Arabia.
The Quds-2 missile that hit Jeddah is probably related to the Iranian-designed Quds-1 missile that has hit oil facilities last year.
Beyond the worries about a new front against Israel, Iran almost certainly would like for Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or Hamas to have these cruise missiles as well, which could accurately target any point in Israel from Gaza or Lebanon.
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President-elect Joe Biden chose two staffers of top Democratic leaders in Congress to help his administration negotiate legislation, as he continues to fill out his White House staffing.
Reema Dodin and Shuwanza Goff were each named deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs.
It's a voice she said the media are not publicizing.
It's the voice of the Palestinians, and Wednesday night, Reema Dodin, a Palestinian-American student from University of California, Berkeley, spoke to a group of Lodians about the conflict in Israel from the Palestinian perspective.
And Lodi listened.
... She described an Israel where Palestinians have lost hope and are getting desperate.
"The suicide bombers were the last resort of a desperate people," Dodin said.
Palestinians and their supporters used to routinely and openly justify the most heinous terror attacks, blowing up buses and pizza shops and discos. Then, when the Palestinian leadership decided that supporting blowing up Jews was a political liability, their supporters suddenly claimed to become anti-terror, too.
Here, however, Dodin is on the record as justifying terror attacks on Jews.
KeyWiki has more on her, claiming that Dodin has ties to the Council on American Islamic Relations and that she organized anti-Israel rallies at the University of California at Berkeley as a student. It didn't show any sources for those claims.
Dodin has recently made her Twitter account private, so one can only wonder what else she has said.
UPDATE: More from Dodin, quoted in the book "Muslim Mafia" but I couldn't find the original edition of the Berkeley newspaper:
"Reema is the first to tell you she has grown from her youth in her approach to pushing for change, but her core values of fighting to expand opportunity to building a stronger middle class remain her driving force," a Biden-Harris transition official said in a statement to Fox News. "She harnessed her activism into action, becoming a well-respected and trusted leader in the U.S. Senate."
This is an amazing statement. The team is not saying that she regrets the statements, or has changed her mind. It just says she has "grown" and her enthusiasm in supporting terror attacks is now being directed into other areas.
That omission sure makes it sound like Dodin stands by her statements.
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Twenty years later, writing for Ynet, Eitan Haber, Yitzhak Rabin’s speechwriter, wrote that right-wing politicians “turned Pollard’s cell into a pilgrimage site. They made political capital on his broken back and threw him to the dogs and to prison after using him.” If anything, it was left-wing politicians that stymied endeavors for his release.
The last significant success the lobby had was when then-interior minister Ehud Barak agreed to authorize the granting of Israeli citizenship to Pollard. The passport came a bit later from Haim Ramon who had replaced Barak.
IN 2011, I sat in a hotel room with Morris Pollard, Jay’s father. We went over the past decades of activities, and he shared with me his thoughts. He even left me with a copy of a summary he had with him of his thinking on the affair, on how it was handled and what the proper course should be.
Foremost in his mind were the incomprehensible attitude of American authorities toward his son; the suggested charge of “treason” that had been tossed out by the prosecutor; the in camera appeal to the judge; the prison treatment; and the less-than-forthcoming positions of certain Israeli officials. But he would not lessen his determination to work for his son’s release. Unfortunately, he died soon after. His son did not receive permission to attend the funeral.
Jonathan is free now. His burdens with his wife’s illness are great. He has much to make up for. I hope he will do that in Israel.
Professor Alan Dershowitz on Ex-Spy Jonathan Pollard
Five years after his release from prison: electronic handcuffs removed by Jonathan Pollard: "I am a free man" pic.twitter.com/9HdQvhqCUb
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert criticized former agent Jonathan Pollard on Sunday, saying he should not be welcomed in Israel.
Interviewed by Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz at the Maariv newspaper’s business conference on Sunday, Olmert cautioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against holding a festive ceremony for Pollard when he moves to Israel soon.
“With all due respect, I would prefer that he not move to Israel,” Olmert said. “We don’t owe him anything. He was a spy who worked for a lot of money. He was not a ZiontistZionist volunteer who came and sacrificed his life. He was an American who loved Israel and worked for a lot of money, spying for Israel.”
Olmert said the information Pollard provided Israel helped the Jewish state but in retrospect did more harm than good.
“His spying was beneficial, but when taking a full account, the damage caused to Israel’s interests as a result of revealing his involvement was the harshest in the history of US-Israel relations,” Olmert said. “The danger of increasing this damage has not ended. If the prime minister will act like he does and have a festive welcoming ceremony for Pollard, we will pay a heavy price when there will soon be a new administration in America.”
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman also criticized Pollard on Sunday in an interview with KAN Radio.
“I recommend we celebrate less because of American public opinion,” Olmert said. “I suggest we lower our level of excitement, because it doesn’t help with the American defense system, which sees the Pollard affair as an unacceptable incident that violated acceptable codes between Israel and the US.”
Beirut's Magen Avraham synagogue, located in the Wadi Abu Jamil neighborhood downtown, was damaged in the Beirut port explosion.
Philanthropist Richard Heykal rebuilt the synagogue, according to reports. It is really a beautiful building.
It had private opening for dignitaries, although it was not and is not planned to be open to the public, and there are not enough Jews in Beirut to have services there.
One of the people seen in one of the photos of the private opening was Basem Al-Hout, a Muslim who is the Mukhtar of the remaining Jewish community there. He keeps tracks of births, deaths, and marriages, and is pretty much responsible for the community.
And other Muslims are upset at his involvement in rebuilding the synagogue.
According to Al-Ankabout, members of the "Islamic Group" have been arguing about Magen Avraham and specifically Al Hour's role.
Sheikh Sami Al-Khatib of the group said, "the presence of the [Jewish community's] political official in Beirut at the opening ceremony, is neither natural nor acceptable."
Sheikh Hussein Atwi said, “This synagogue is an advanced base to the enemy in the heart of the capital. Otherwise, how do we explain the relentless US and Israeli efforts to restore it? What convincing argument is this that speaks of coexistence? ”
Sheikh Muhammad al-Hajj, of the Association of Palestinian Scholars Abroad, also objected: “We are not against the Jews in performing their rituals, but why today? How many Jews are there in Lebanon? This coincides with the demarcation of [maritime] borders and with political and economic pressures on Lebanon, while Lebanon still refuses to grant civil rights to Palestinian refugees."
The secretary general of the Islamic Group tried to calm things down, defending Al Hout and saying that supporting a synagogue has nothing to do with Israel.
And then the Islamists of his group started attacking him!
This is how deep antisemitism is in Lebanon.
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'The official Palestinian Wafa news agency reports:
President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, received this evening, Sunday, a phone call from the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa .
During the call, the King offered his condolences on the death of the great fighter, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat.
In turn, the President offered condolences to King Hamad bin Isa, on the death of the Bahraini Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.
His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa held a phone call with Palestinian President, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.
President Abbas offered to HM the King condolences on the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest his soul in vast paradise.
HM the King also expressed condolences to President Abbas on the death of PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Dr. Saeb Erekat.
They don't say who called whom, and they switch the order of the conversation to prioritize condolences over Khalifa first and then Erekat.
Erekat died on November 10.
Prince Khalifa died on November 11.
The phone call took place on November 22, an exceptionally long time after both deaths to offer condolences.
This looks a lot like a game of diplomatic chicken, with each leader wanting the other to call them first to offer condolences so they feel more powerful and force the other into a position of subservience. In this case, Abbas "won."
Here we have the stupidity of the honor/shame culture in full view.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Neom, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Israeli sources confirmed.
Netanyahu used a private plane belonging to businessman Udi Angel, which he has used for past diplomatic trips. The plane left Israel at 5 p.m. on Sunday and returned after midnight.
ABSOLUTELY rare Israeli flight direct to new Saudi mega-city Neom on Red Sea shore
The Israeli and Saudi sides discussed Iran and normalization, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a Saudi source.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denied the meeting took place on Twitter, saying only Saudi and American officials were present.
Yet Education Minister Yoav Gallant confirmed the meeting, calling it an “amazing achievement” and “a matter of great importance” in an interview with Army Radio.
The trip was kept tightly under wraps as it was planned for over a month, with Netanyahu not informing Defense Minister Benny Gantz or Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi before it took place.
Instead, Pompeo's visit and his statements were correctives to these errors of judgment in reporting and commentary. Facts still matter. Pompeo's visit reminds the International community of a truth that every Israeli government since 1967 have attempted to convey to the world, unsuccessfully: Psagot and Petach Tikvah share the same legitimacy. The secretary's visit marks the first time that a United States administration has formally recognized the equality of Jewish sovereignty.
This US recognition of collective Jewish human rights parallels the principle of secure Jewish collective life that every Israeli government has recognized since the Jewish people's reestablishment of sovereignty in 1948. The International community had formally recognized those same rights to Jewish Sovereignty in 1920 at the international San Remo Conference. The principal powers of the League of Nations formalized San Remo's declarative recognition in 1922 of the Right of the Jewish People to "reconstitute their National Home In Palestine". The League of Nations further called for "close (Jewish) settlement" establishing and unanimously approving the Mandate for Palestine, that anchored the Jewish collective human right to collective freedom and sovereignty and ultimately led to Israel's Declaration of Independence and policy of every Israeli government Since 1967, sanctioning rights to Jewish community building on both sides of the 1949 armistice lines on state land.
The United States' top diplomat apparently did his legal and diplomatic homework. Apparently, he and his advisers studied the abovementioned international legal documents. His visit to Israel's Psagot winery and his accompany condemnations of BDS and anti-Semitic product labeling, reminiscent of the World War II-era, break the "glass ceiling" regarding formal US recognition of Israel's legal rights to sovereignty. US and Israel's alignment on Israel's rights to sovereignty safeguards the most fundamental Jewish collective human right today. Unfortunately, the cynical discrediting of Secretary Pompeo's alignment with the policy of all Israeli governments since 1967 reflects the lack of understanding of its critics rather than the well-reasoned positions of the current US State Department.
In a September 23, 2020 column titled "Message to Iran, in Light of the Peace with Israel," Saudi journalist 'Abdallah Zayed reacted to Iran's harsh attack on the normalization agreements between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel. [1] Iran, he wrote, is forgetting that it is the one whose bullying and terrorist behavior is destabilizing the region and who has become the enemy of the Arabs. He added that Iran spouts slogans of liberating Jerusalem, but in practice it does nothing to realize that goal and, moreover, continues to occupy many Arab countries while pursuing the goal of renewing its lost Persian empire.
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[2]
"The wailing, weeping, pain and sorrow of the of the government officials of Iran and its proxies have been steadily growing since the UAE and Bahrain signed a peace agreement with Israel. The spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry keeps repeating terms like 'Arab nobility' and 'Islamic values,' while the Iranian government keeps forgetting its [own] actions in the region and [the fact that it has] crossed many red lines, which have turned it into a blatant enemy [of the Arabs].
"The Iranians are forgetting that it is they who are in a state of hostility and actual war with the countries of the region. Who is occupying the [UAE's] Persian Gulf islands?[3] Who tried to precipitate a coup in Bahrain? Who conspired against Kuwait by employing terror cells? Who are the ones firing their missiles into Saudi Arabia? Who are the ones who sent their mercenaries to [fight in] Syria? Who founded the militias in Iraq? Who founded a terrorist party in Lebanon [i.e., Hizbullah]? Who is cultivating the [Houthi] mercenaries in Yemen to stage a coup against the legitimate government? The truth is that the one who did all this is not Israel but Iran.
"No Israeli official has ever declared [with pride] that his country is occupying five Arab capitals.[4] Although Iran brandishes the slogan of resistance, although it has [a military force] called 'Qods [i.e., Jerusalem] Force'… and although it claims that its goal is to liberate Al-Aqsa, we have never seen the top Iranian officers [firing] a single bullet in retaliation for Israel's bombing of their bases in Syria. Israel sends planes and fires missiles, constantly bombs the [Iranians'] bases in different areas, yet Iran does not respond. When Russia intervened and ordered the Iranians to move their bases hundreds of kilometers away from the Israeli border, Iran did so, [despite] the intense humiliation.
"Doesn’t Iran claim that it now has a foothold in northern Israel, thanks to Hizbullah, which controls Lebanon, and also thanks to its presence in Syria?! Yet it hasn't liberated Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, as it constantly calls [to do].
"The clear equation and the obvious [conclusion] is that Iran's real goal is to take over the Arab world and reestablish the obsolete Persian Empire in it. Simply put, that is the reason for the Iranian actions we are seeing on the ground. Is it Israel that is present [in Yemen], on Saudi Arabia's southern border? What does [Iran] want with Yemen? Is it Israel who is present north of Saudi Arabia, in Iraq? What does [Iran] want with Iraq? Is it Israel who is present east of Saudi Arabia, [in Bahrain]? What does [Iran] want with Bahrain?
Remember The Quartet? That was the group made up of the US, UN, EU and Russia in 2002 to push the Oslo process along during the second intifada when Palestinian terrorists were blowing up Jews in Israeli cities.
Besides creating a "roadmap" that went nowhere, it really hasn't done much.
The Quartet does issue reports every once in a while, including one as recently as last month that no one noticed. That report discusses the Palestinian refusal to cooperate with Israel:
There has been no notable progress in addressing outstanding fiscal files. The PA’s decision – in response to the threat of annexation and deductions to clearance revenues – to stop accepting the monthly revenues from the GoI, combined with reduced tax generation, reduced PA monthly revenue by 80 per cent. Resuming acceptance of monthly clearance revenue transfers as well as any accumulated sums to date will go some way to addressing this crisis. ...
In the security sector, the suspension of security cooperation limited the PA’s ability to enforce COVID related restrictions outside PA cities, particularly in rural areas, as well as its ability to monitor the flow of Palestinian labour crossing to and from Israel. It also hampered the PA’s ability to enforce rule of law in much of the West Bank. Resumption of security coordination that enables PA Security Forces to provide effective law enforcement to communities residing outside Area A is strongly encouraged.
Now that the PA walked back its refusal to deal with Israel, the Quarter apparently woke up to issue a statement of support for the Palestinians not acting like spoiled brats. I couldn't find the Quartet statement, but PLO leader Abbas praised the Quartet for complimenting him on resuming what should never have stopped.
The Palestinian Presidency welcomed the position issued by the International Quartet meeting, which confirmed that the Palestinian move to restore relations with the Israeli side creates the necessary conditions for building confidence and returning to direct negotiations on the basic issues related to the final status.
The presidency welcomed the positive evaluation of the Palestinian move by the Quartet representatives during their meeting, which included the Russian Federation, the United States of America, the United Nations and the European Union
But it is much easier to create bureaucracies to work on Oslo-era issues than it is to end them.
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Elder of Ziyon
