03/04 Links Pt1: Phillips: How the West undermines Jewish survival; Clinton, Libya and Israel ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: How the West undermines Jewish survival

At Jewish Book Week in London a few days ago, I took part in a panel discussion about the most pressing questions facing Jews today.
I raised one that has long been bothering me – whether Western secular values were undermining the ability of the Jewish people to survive.
Across the West, there has been a terrifying rise in anti-Jewish feeling. This is fueled by an unprecedented campaign of lies and libels against Israel aimed at destroying it through delegitimization.
This campaign displays the same signature motifs of classic Jew-hatred that go back through the centuries.
But some of its principal leaders are Jews. So Jew-hatred can’t be the whole story.
The core of this problem is the tremendous cultural shift that has taken place in the West. Centered in the intelligentsia, this ditched the Judeo-Christian moral codes underpinning Western civilization in favor of hyper-individualism.
“What is right” was replaced by “what is right for me.”
Feelings replaced authority. There was no longer any such thing as objective truth. Everything was subjective and relative.

Caroline Glick: Clinton, Libya and Israel

The messages from Washington ahead of Vice President Joe Biden’s arrival in Israel next week show President Barack Obama’s hostile policies toward Israel will maintained until he leaves office.
In recent weeks, the administration has warned various government ministers that any construction of housing for Jews in Jerusalem will be viewed with hostility by the administration. In contrast, the administration is pressuring Israel to permit construction of homes for Arabs in its capital city and harshly opposes all moves by the government to destroy illegal construction in Arab neighborhoods and in Judea and Samaria.
In other words, it is the Obama administration’s policy to deny Jews our civil and property rights while it demands that Israel not assert its sovereignty over non-Jews.
Whether or not Obama’s anti-Israel policies will survive his tenure in office depends on who succeeds him. If Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is elected to serve as the next president, there is no question that they will survive him.
During her four years as Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton was a full partner in Obama’s hostile policies toward Israel. Moreover, as her internal emails have shown, all of Clinton’s close advisers are hostile to Israel. The good news for Israel is that Clinton’s chances of election are not as great as they seem from the polls.

Watchdog Calls on America’s UN Ambassador to ‘End Silence’ on Anti-Israel Incitement by US-Funded UNRWA Staff

United States Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power’s “strict silence over repeated cases of bigotry and hatred from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is deeply troubling,” the head of an international human rights NGO told The Algemeiner on Thursday.
UN Watch executive director Hillel C. Neuer was expounding on the reason his group issued a public call on Power “to end her silence over continued anti-Israeli incitement from UNRWA… At a time when the United States is giving an astonishing $400 million a year to a UN agency that is supposed to be strictly focused on humanitarian relief.”
Neuer was reacting to what he called “only the latest egregious breach of neutrality by UNRWA-associated officials”: the endorsement on social media of “Israeli Apartheid Week” by the UN body’s US Director of Communications Laila Mokhiber.
According to Neuer, Mokhiber deleted her Twitter account, containing anti-Israel content, after being criticized by followers. Meanwhile, pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon reported on Wednesday that Mokhiber’s Facebook page was still up and running, and “shows plenty of other anti-Israel activity and support for terrorists,” among them Rasmea Odeh.

Bassam Tawil: Palestinians: The Right Time to Take Big Steps?

Despite the "official" surveys taken among Palestinians, which show support for Hamas, the residents of the West Bank are terrified that Hamas will gain control and destroy our lives and property, the way they did in the Gaza Strip.
The BDS organizations are trying to boycott products made in the West Bank, which only throws masses of Palestinians out of good jobs in an effort to force Israel into a hasty withdrawal that has no chance of taking place. The Israelis and everyone else remember all too well that the last Israeli withdrawals -- from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip -- led to the terrorist takeover of the vacuums created.
Ikrima Sabri, the former Mufti of Jerusalem, often said that Palestinians were better off with the Jews in charge of Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem, because in the future they could be removed and killed off, but if the Crusaders returned to Jerusalem -- such as an international commission headed by the French -- it would be harder to get rid of them.

Hamas: Infiltrations into Israeli settlements to manifest the next phase of the 'intifada'

Hamas has declared that the recent terror attacks committed by Palestinians in Israeli settlements in the West Bank show that "the next phase of the ‘Jerusalem intifada’ will cause great fear among settlers, who will no longer enjoy security."
In a press statement released on Thursday, Hamas Spokesman Husam Badran praised the two stabbing attacks and the shooting attack that took place Wednesday in Nablus that resulted in the injuring of three IDF soldiers.
Badran said that the recurrent infiltrations by Palestinians into Israeli settlements, and the stabbing and shooting attacks they carry out inside, signal that the next phase of the intifada will sow fear among settlement residents.
He added that Palestinians know that the settlements are Israel's weak point, which means that "they would carry out new forms of courageous attacks by infiltrating these settlements."
"In the next days, the West Bank's settlers will witness additional surprises from Hamas," Badran further stated.

Soldier lightly hurt in attempted car ramming near Gush Etzion Junction; motorist shot

An IDF soldier was lightly injured in an alleged vehicular attack at the Gush Etzion junction on Friday morning.
The 20-year-old soldier was part of a three-person patrol at the junction.
The trio noticed a Palestinian woman driving her car toward them. She hit one of them. The soldiers immediately fired at the vehicle, killing the driver.
Magen David Adom evacuated the injured soldier to the Sha’are Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
When security forces searched the driver’s car they found a knife on the dashboard just behind the steering wheel.

When the UN responds to terrorism, which victims does it entirely ignore?

Finally (we said to ourselves)! The United Nations makes a comprehensive listing of acts of terror covering these past four very difficult blood-drenched months. Under the title "UN response to acts of terrorism", it deals with dozens of cowardly, ideologically-driven deadly assaults and says what needs to be said.
In its cataloging of these acts of terrorism between November 2015 and February 2016, the UN civil service in Geneva along with the Secretary-General in New York City express concern, sympathy, condemnation, condolences. All that, plus demands that the thugs carrying out these abominable deeds along with those who sent them be brought to justice.
Bravo!
Then - following an alert issued in the March 3, 2016 Newsletter of Human Rights Voices [here] - we took a closer look, and that's when we realized the nature of this scandal.
...
but they managed to find none - not a single one - in Israel.
No Arab-on-Israeli attack from the last four months of non-stop violence managed to get across the UN's bizarre terrorism-detecting threshold.

Palestinian Rep Calls Stabbings of Israelis "Legitimate Human Right Activities"

Speaking at the March 4, 2016 session of the UN "Human Rights" Council, the Palestinian representative defended the near-daily terror attacks by Palestinians against Israelis as legitimate resistance. That's incitement to commit more violations of international law in the very midst of the UN's top human rights gathering. In his words:
"Israel ... continues its policies of ... prosecution of human rights defenders during their legitimate human rights activities resisting the belligerent prolonged occupation..."

UN's Special Adviser on Genocide says Israel's Exercise of Self-Defense Could Lead to Genocide

According to UN Secretary General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, the exercise of self-defense by Jews - the victims of the worst genocide in history - against an openly antisemitic violent enemy is potentially genocidal. In his statement to the UN "Human Rights" Council on March 3, 2016, Dieng included the democratic State of Israel's struggle to defend itself from Palestinian terror as a conflict that could lead to genocide.
In his words: "This is a privileged body ... that should be at the forefront in alerting to the risk of atrocity crimes, and in calling for early and effective action to stop the escalation of tensions that could potentially lead to genocidal violence.. I would like to focus my intervention on an issue which is extremely worrying from the perspective of the prevention of genocide and related crimes, which is the increasing and alarming disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law in many situations of conflict around the world... Protracted conflicts or cycles or deadly violence, such as those between Israel and Palestine, have not been resolved."

Al-Qaida warns: We are coming to Al-Aqsa

Posters glorifying the Sept. 11 hijackers and late terrorist leader Osama bin Laden were displayed in the city of Mukalla in Yemen this week in a three-day event called "O Aqsa, We Are Coming," organized by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The event's title refers to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the AQAP-affiliated Al-Athir media agency shared photos from the first evening of the event on Twitter, showing hundreds of people, many of them youths, in attendance.
The event, which began on Wednesday, features several activities, including Islamic music performances, martial arts, speeches and video presentations.
Posters displayed at the event show several deceased al-Qaida commanders, including bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saeed al-Shihri.
According to the MEMRI report, the phrase "O Aqsa, We Are Coming," has become almost an official sign-off for AQAP in any productions by its official media arm, al-Malahem.

Radicalized 15-Year-Old Girl Stabs German Police Officer In The Neck

A 15-year-old German girl of Moroccan descent stabbed a police officer Friday in Hannover, Germany, in what now appear to be a jihadist attack.
The incident took place at train station after two police officers asked the girl for her identification documents, newspaper Bild Zeitung reports. When one of the officers stepped to the side, the girl attacked with a kitchen knife.
“She struck with lightning speed,” a police spokesman said Thursday, according to Bild. “Now we know: an Islamist attack on us policemen.”
The knife went deep into the neck of the officer, who had to receive emergency care to save his life. The second officer easily neutralized the girl when she tried to flee the scene. (h/t Yenta Press )

Surprise? Global war deaths doubled in Obama era

Seven years into Barack Obama's presidency, Israeli website Mida decided to check whether the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's isolationist approach has brought about a decrease in global war deaths.
It turned out that the opposite is true.
Mida editor-in-chief Akiva Bigman perused the database of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, which includes a comprehensive list of wars and conflicts worldwide using data collected since 1989.
The database contains a detailed list of global battle-related death tallies, which includes all those killed as a direct result of military operations, including civilians killed by bombardments, civilians killed in crossfire, and so on. It goes up to 2014, and Bigman filled in 2015 and early 2016 using other sources.
Then came Obama
"From a global perspective," he wrote, "what is especially noteworthy is the drastic change that has occurred since Obama became president. From 2001-2008, there were 159,121 deaths recorded as a direct result of wars, including the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, even using statistics only up to 2014, we notice a jump in Obama's presidency of some 80% in the number of overall deaths: 286,204.

Obama Urged to Meet Victims of Attacks on Jewish/Israeli Sites in Argentina

Members of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs this week sent a letter to President Barack Obama, ahead of his upcoming trip to Argentina, requesting that he visit and pay tribute to the victims of terror attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites in Argentina during the 1990s.
US Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) — the committee’s chairman and ranking member, respectively — asked Obama to “pledge to help bring those responsible to justice.”
“The attacks that targeted the Israeli Embassy on March 17, 1992, and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) on July 18, 1994, were the deadliest in the country’s history,” the letter said. “Recognizing the victims and pledging assistance would send an important signal that the US will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Argentina to fight terrorism.”
Iran and its proxy, the Hezbollah terror group, have been linked to both attacks. The attacks killed a combined 114 people and injured hundreds more.

Hidden cam shows Rabbis for Human Rights 'assist in land grabs'

The latest video released by nationalist NGO Ad Kan features hidden camera footage that outlines a sophisticated method used by what Ad Kan calls "anti-Israeli organizations" for taking over state land. The footage was shot by the group's activists who infiltrated the ultra-leftist groups that operate in Judea and Samaria over a three year period.
The land involved was allocated in the past to some of the Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria for cultivation purposes only. The land does not belong to these Arabs, and reverts to full state ownership if they fail to cultivate the land for several years.
A group called Ta'ayush seeks to transfer these plots to full Arab ownership, according to Ad Kan. Prof. Amiel Vardi, Head of the Classical Studies Department in Hebrew University and one of the heads of Ta'ayush, explained on hidden camera that Ta'ayush's activists find the plots of land and then consult the legal department of Rabbis for Human Rights, which tells them what legal documents they need to obtain in order to claim the land.
Arabs are then solicited to file lawsuits demanding ownership of the land. In one case documented, the Arab insists that he has already sold the land, but Ta'ayush's Ezra Nawi tells him to "forget the word 'sale'… If you sold it, nobody knows."

UN: Israel razed 41 buildings in West Bank this week

Israeli forces demolished dozens of structures including a school in the northern West Bank this week, leaving 10 families homeless, the UN said on Friday.
The demolitions took place on Wednesday in the village of Khirbet Tana, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
In total, 41 structures were destroyed, displacing 36 Palestinians including 11 children, the UN’s humanitarian body said in a statement.
The army regularly destroys homes it says have been built without permission from the Israeli authorities.

Hamas has replenished its rocket arsenals, Israeli officials say

Roughly a year and a half after the end of Operation Protective Edge, Israeli officials believe that Hamas has replenished its rocket supply, reaching the number of rockets that it had before the operation began.
At the start of the summer 2014 conflict, Hamas had approximately 12,000 rockets of various ranges, including long-range rockets. It fired approximately 4,600 rockets during the 50-day war, and roughly 4,000 more were hit from the air in Israeli bombardments. That left the terror group with about one-third of its original arsenal.
Since late August 2014, Hamas has worked intensively to regain its military capabilities — replenishing the rocket arsenals, and restoring its terror-tunnel network.
Israeli officials now assess that Hamas has roughly the number of rockets that it had in June 2014. A major difference, though, is that most of the rockets are relatively short range and of lower quality, the officials believe.

Hamas preparing Iranian-style swarm boat attacks for future clash

Hamas in Gaza has received Iranian operational instructions on how to prepare swarm-like boat attacks, and is preparing such capabilities for clashes with Israel, according to a senior naval source.
The Israel Navy’s Squadron 916 of fast patrol boats, tasked with securing the coastline, is training and preparing itself for combat with Hamas, while keeping a close eye on sea movements around the Strip.
“Hamas is building up its ability to cause much damage from sea-based attacks,” the navy source told The Jerusalem Post this week.
“It is improving its diving commando units, and creating sea forces that are much more capable than they were before. Hamas has received battle doctrines from Iran – which is also building up its sea capabilities – on how to deliver ‘stings’ through swarms,” the source said. “They will try to attack our vessels with swarms.”
Hamas’s aim in any future conflict is to cause heavy damage in the opening stage, and achieve a “victory picture, even if all Hamas attackers are killed in the process. From their perspective, if the attack succeeds, they won,” the source said.

Exclusive: Hamas operatives fear entering tunnels, believe Israel behind collapses

Hamas operatives are afraid to enter underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip fearing they will collapse, The Jerusalem Post has learned from Palestinian sources.
In addition, some of the operatives digging the tunnels believe Israel was involved in at least some of the recent tunnel collapses that claimed the lives of several Hamas men.
The most recent collapse occurred on Thursday afternoon when a tunnel collapsed in Khan Yunis, killing one operative. The collapse marked the sixth such collapse in recent months – the highest number of collapses to have occurred since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
Official reports, both in Israel and Gaza, describe collapses caused by recent storms and heavy rains. However, among Hamas and others, there are many who believe Israel is responsible.
Hamas operatives have seen Israeli activities near the border fence against tunnels and fear they are connected to the tunnel collapses. Some of the activists have even spoken of the methods Israel is supposedly using to cause the collapses.
One operative claimed Israel is using liquid explosives, while another operative expressed fears of Israel’s ability to cause localized earthquakes, which could also collapse the tunnels.

Booted Egypt lawmaker apologizes for hosting Israeli envoy

Egyptian MP Tawfik Okasha, who hosted the Israeli ambassador for dinner at his home last week, expressed regret over the invite Thursday, a day after parliament voted overwhelmingly to revoke his membership.
In a video broadcast on a prominent Egyptian television channel, Okasha said he wished to apologize to his fellow members of parliament for hosting the ambassador, and said he had only meant to “act in good faith,” the Walla news site reported.
Okasha, a popular TV talk show host, has been engulfed in controversy since last Thursday, when Israeli ambassador Haim Koren posted a picture on the embassy’s Facebook page of the two of them meeting the evening before for dinner at the MP’s home.
Okasha also talked about the meeting in an interview in the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily, saying the two agreed Israel “has a key role in the issue of the dam” being built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile.

Bahrain's king meets rabbi, reportedly calls for Arab League to label Hezbollah terror group

The king of Bahrain has reportedly recommended that the recent designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by the Gulf Cooperation Council be taken up by the Arab League as well.
Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, head of the tiny island nation, has been one of the most ardent proponents for labeling the Lebanese group as a terrorist organization as part of efforts to fight back against growing Iranian hegemony in the region.
Hezbollah has been funded and supported by Iran for many years and is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, fighting against the anti-regime forces in the country.
The six-member GCC formally labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on Wednesday, which could lead to sanctions against the group and against businesses and other institutions associated with it.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, a prominent interfaith activist and president of the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding based in New York, met with Khalifa in the royal palace in Manama in order to discuss concerns in the Middle East.

Iran Says Blacklisting Hezbollah May Jeopardize Lebanon’s Stability (not satire)

Iran accused Gulf Arab neighbors on Thursday of jeopardizing Lebanon’s stability by blacklisting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, state television said, a move likely to stoke tensions in the regional power rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh.
The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization on Wednesday, opening up the possibility of further sanctions against the group that wields influence in Lebanon and fights in Syria.
Leading Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Muslim Iran compete for influence across the region and back different factions in sectarian-riven Lebanon and in Syria’s civil war.
“Lebanon’s Hezbollah is the vanguard of resistance against the Zionist regime (Israel) and Iran is proud of the group, which is also the champion of the fight against terrorism in the Middle East,” Iranian state TV quoted deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying.
“Calling Hezbollah a terrorist group … will harm the unity and security of Lebanon.”

Joining Hezbollah: An Insider's Account

In late December 2015, Lebanese journalist Carol Malouf held an in-depth interview with two Hezbollah captives of Jabhat al-Nusra. The interview appears to be the first of its kind: Hezbollah members speaking candidly about the group’s organization and methods. Naturally, the fact that their remarks were made in captivity means their testimony must be taken with a grain of salt. Their remarks nonetheless shed light on the Syrian Civil War’s effects on Hezbollah’s relationship with Lebanon’s Shiites, and its exploitation of that community as foot soldiers for its military goals.
Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria has aroused popular discontent against the party in Lebanon, even within its Shiite base. As part of the organization’s battle to keep the Bashar al-Assad regime in power, the community has lost hundreds of its sons on Syria’s battlefields and suffered terrorist attacks by Sunni extremists—all with no tangible returns. Despite their anger, however, Lebanese Shiites have yet to collectively turn their backs on the party.
According to one of the captives, Hassan Taha, that’s because Hezbollah has skillfully employed social pressure to leave the Shiites little alternative. “The Shiite is obligated, ideologically and financially, to join Hezbollah,” he says. Those who choose political independence become social pariahs who “cannot go to their villages, and are hated by their community.” And while Taha says joining the rival Shiite movement Amal is an option, that party is a politically and financially spent force that today holds little appeal for Lebanon’s Shiites.
Hezbollah created this inextricable link by asserting control over all aspects of Shiites’ lives, establishing cultural and educational centers, charities, media and propaganda outlets, and professional societies, surrounding community members with its ideology from birth.

Hezbollah vows to invade Israel in the next war

Hezbollah sources cited in a unique speak peak into the Lebanese Iran-proxy terror group claim that they have gained powerful weapons and experience from the Syrian civil war, which will allow them to invade Israel in their third war against the Jewish state.
The Foreign Policy article Thursday, entitled "Hezbollah's Death Valley," spoke about Hezbollah's involvement in Syria, where it is fighting to prop up Bashar al-Assad's regime on Iran's orders. It has lost many of its terrorists there, but sources in the group told the paper the fighting has only helped them.
“In the next war, Hezbollah won’t stay on the borders, and the Israeli settlements in the north will not be protected from this," a source close to the terror group based in southern Lebanon told the paper, claiming Hezbollah now for the first time can infiltrate Israel in open war.
"Hezbollah will bring the war to them, and Israel’s biggest concern is over Hezbollah’s experience in Syria, as it now has the experience to be offensive rather than just defensive.”
That message was repeated by the sources in the article, with another saying, "the resistance won’t stay in Lebanon; it will reach the Galilee. It will not look like the 2006 war at all.”

Report: Russia's military intelligence chief killed in secret operation in Lebanon

The Head of Russia's military intelligence service, Colonel-General Igor Sergun, was killed in January during a secret mission in the Lebanon's capital, Beirut, the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar reported Thursday.
The Kremlin announced the death of Sergun on January 4, saying that he died in Moscow after a heart attack. The military intelligence chief played a key role in the Russian seizure of Crimea in March 2014, and reportedly died three weeks after he was sent to Syria by Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside.
However, according to a diplomatic source in London quoted by al-Akhbar, Sergun was killed in a complicated secret mission that several Arab and Middle Eastern intelligence agencies took part it.
The diplomatic source hinted that Turkey was involved in Sergun's assassination, and claimed that Ankara's involvement resulted in Russia's decision to confront Turkey, which increased tensions between the states on the Syrian front.

Iran Accuses U.S. Of Breaching Nuke Deal

Senior Iranian officials this week accused the Obama administration of failing to uphold its end of the nuclear agreement, saying that the Islamic Republic has not been given full access to international banking tools.
The Iranian leaders “lashed out” at the United States in their comments and maintained that the Islamic Republic continues to have many disagreements with the Obama administration, according to remarks published in the country’s state-controlled media.
“Our differences with the U.S. have remained in place,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a key figure in the nuclear discussions, said Wednesday in front of reporters in Tehran.
“They have not been resolved yet,” Zarif added, explaining that the implementation of the nuclear deal has not soothed relations between Washington and Tehran.
The comments come on the heels of an election in Iran that ushered in a large number of hard-line candidates who hold anti-American views. The Obama administration has declined to comment on the outcome.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, also accused the U.S. of failing to uphold the nuclear agreement.

Iran’s Impotent Assembly of Experts

When Iranians went to the polls on February 26, they cast their ballots for two bodies: the Majlis-i Shura (parliament) or the Assembly of Experts. It has become conventional wisdom in the press that both are important. Embracing the projection at the heart of so much reporting on Iran, diplomats and journalists understand ‘parliament’ and think it akin to the U.S. Congress, with elected representatives battling it out politically as they seek to advance legislation. In reality, Iran’s parliament is like an American university’s student council: the site of very active and real debates, none of which matter as it is the university president, senior deans, or board of trustees which make any substantive decisions.
But what about the Assembly of Experts, the 86-member clerical body which picks the new Supreme Leader? After all, it is unlikely that 76-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has in recent years battled cancer, will survive to the next Assembly election in 2024. So isn’t the ouster of some conservative figures and the triumph of a few reformers significant? Won’t the changing character of the Assembly of Experts effectively mean a more moderate if not reform-minded Assembly?
Here again, the answer is no. There is a marked difference between the way bodies are supposed to function on paper and the way they do in reality. The Assembly of Experts may meet once a month, but it is basically a coffee klatch. The Assembly has met only once in its history, back in 1989, to choose a new supreme leader after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death. Even then, however, it served as little more than a rubber stamp body because leading Islamic Republic officials had already consulted informally and settled upon Khamenei as a compromise candidate. The same thing will likely occur again — the Assembly of Experts rubber stamping a pre-ordained decision — with the only possible shake up being the appointment of a council of leaders emerging if no consensus emerges on a single figure.

Iran's regional ruses

Iran's murderous marketing campaign is effectively implemented in Syria as well. Bashar Assad, who belongs to the Shiite-offshoot Alawite tribe, is directly supported by Iranian money, training and weapons, which are also transferred to the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah. With Iran's help, Syria has become a slaughterhouse. Dozens of civilians and members of Sunni terrorist groups, like the Nusra Front, Islamic State and others, are killed each day, the fictitious truce notwithstanding.
The cancer of Iranian terror has also become a menace to the Sunnis in Lebanon. The long arms of Iran have also reached into Bahrain in an attempt to make it a bridgehead for an invasion into the Saudi Peninsula, much as it seized control of Abu Musa Island in the Persian Gulf. Iran is swarming the Straits of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb, is helping the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and is spilling the blood of the Sunni Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia. The Saudis recently uncovered Hezbollah terrorist cells in their midst, severed aid to Lebanon and called on it subjects in Lebanon to return home.
While the Palestinians quarrel over Iranian money that in all likelihood will not come, they haven't stopped to question why the Iranians, who are butchering Sunnis across the Middle East, are willing to help the Sunni Palestinians. The Iranian model, whereby it presents itself as a friend, also adheres to the Islamic principle of deception and concealment known as "Taqiya."
Dividing and weakening the PA while bolstering Hamas is intended to establish Iran's foothold in the area, and, incidentally, exploit the problem of Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa to expand the sphere of support for Shia Islam. The "Zabarin" organization active in Gaza is one example of this deceptive method of Iranian operation.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Once Obama’s Out We’re Gonna Need Actual Lobbyists In Washington (satire)

by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran
Barack Obama has ten months left in office. Much can happen in that time, but he has been a stalwart ally in reshaping American policy in the Middle East in our favor, despite our lack of formal diplomatic ties. His felicitousness , as useful as it has been, points to a crucial need as his time in the White House approaches its end: if we want Washington to continue allowing us regional hegemony, we cannot rely on Obama’s successor to be as accommodating. We’re going to need actual lobbyists presenting our case.
Lobbying for Iran in the US – especially in the US Congress – poses some very sensitive problems, not least because, certainly for now, both houses of that legislature harbor negative views about the Islamic Republic. Regardless of their infidel status and their shameful support of Sunni states such as filthy, heretical Saudi Arabia, come next January we won’t have an Obama running interference for us in Washington to undermine pro-Iran initiatives, and Congress may well have a freer hand to stymie our ambitions.
Moreover, the next president is unlikely to enjoy the same legitimacy in granting us far-reaching concessions, and significant lobbying pressure will be necessary to help the forty-fifth president pursue a policy that dovetails with ours – pressure not only on legislators, but on the president himself – or, just as likely, herself. It is unfamiliar territory for us, not having someone in the White House who arranges matters so that we get exactly what we want at minimal cost. But the fact that this dream scenario comes to an end in January 2017 means we’d better get our lobbying act together soon.

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