08/03 Links Pt1: International Law, Not Terrorism, Must Be the New Paradigm; China’s Emerging Middle Eastern Kingdom; Israelis have more in common than not with one another ~ EoZ

From Ian:

International Law, Not Terrorism, Must Be the New Paradigm

What must occur to alter the course of this perpetual cycle of violence, terror and violation of law and rights is a fundamental shift in the paradigm applied. Israel and the international community must transcend and move away from terms rooted in terror, and hold the violators accountable to the language and terms of international law and human rights.

In practice, what this means is that negotiations anywhere must not take place on the terms determined by genocidal terrorist regimes and their supporters, and that the price paid must conform to agreed-upon international standards. It means a system of "monetary for humanitarian," where only when the humanitarian needs of Israel are met does the cash flow.

For example, instead of allowing Hamas to set the negotiation terms, the international community must acknowledge that holding four Israeli citizens captive is a standing violation of international law, and humanitarian aid is therefore at risk of being embargoed if the Israelis are not returned and if the law is not upheld. The fact that one of the Israelis being held captive for six years nearly to this day—Hadar Goldin—was killed during an internationally brokered humanitarian ceasefire only further strengthens the international legal and moral argument. The concept of a "prisoner swap" prescribed by terrorist thought and rhetoric as the tool to use in such a scenario must be denounced; instead, international law must be upheld.

Similarly, the financial support—known as "pay-for-slay"—that the Palestinian Authority provides to terrorists, must cease, or their humanitarian aid and the provision of international aid by United Nations agencies must be limited. Announcements that Israel is now seizing these terrorists' salaries form a necessary first step. The international community also must make difficult choices of when to restrict aid in order to uphold international laws and human rights norms. If it fails to do this, these laws and norms risk losing their very meaning.

This new paradigm of international law, human rights and norms means that Israel too must move away from the old paradigms or prisoner swaps and cease allowing the "pay-for-slay" payments to take place. The global community and Israel together have the potential of leading by example, utilizing the language of rights and expecting consistency and reciprocity from the international community in return. Only then can the cycle of violence begin to unravel, and a renewed "world order" be built on a profound commitment to uphold, promote and protect human rights.

Michael Doran and Peter Rough: China’s Emerging Middle Eastern Kingdom

If the Russian-Iranian alliance should die, or become weak and ineffectual, China will not step in directly to build it back up—because Beijing fears a direct confrontation with the United States. The first priority of American policy, therefore, is to remove the sword from China’s hand by crushing the Russian-Iranian alliance. The domestic American political climate will not permit the use of large numbers of American troops in this project, but four other tools do exist:
1) Economic sanctions. The Trump administration has been imposing these effectively. The Iranian economy is in perilous condition, and the economic situation of Iran’s allies, the Assad regime and Lebanese Hezbollah, are equally dire.
2) Clandestine operations. In recent months, Iran has experienced a wave of mysterious fires and explosions at industrial complexes and military installations. One of these events, at the nuclear fuel enrichment site at Natanz, reportedly set back the country’s nuclear program significantly. A foreign hand is suspected in at least some of these episodes, and the finger of suspicion points most often at Israel. But the sabotage could just as easily be the result of a joint American-Israeli operation.
3) Direct military action by allies. The Turks and the Israelis have both carried out very effective operations in Syria that have significantly degraded not just Iranian but also, in the case of the Turks, Russian capabilities.
4) Selective and judicious use of American military capabilities. The killing of Qassem Soleimani in December did more to shake the Iranian regime than any step the United States has taken in the last 30 years, with the possible exception of the invasion of Iraq. It not only removed from the game an indispensable player, but it boosted the morale of America’s allies and demoralized its enemies.

These tools, taken together, can effectively remove the Russo-Iranian sword from the hand of China. They are already being used. Are they the result of a conscious Trump administration strategy, or have they simply materialized as a set of ad hoc responses to the president's insistence that his national security team contain Iran aggressively, yet with an economy of force? Whatever the answer, they point the way forward. The goal of American policy should be to use them separately and in coordination so as to increase their lethality.

The greatest advantage that the United States has in its competition with China and, indeed, with any of its adversaries, is hard power. In the realm of trade and investment, Washington simply cannot compete with China and hope to win. If it is to contain China successfully, then it will win with its sledgehammers: military power and economic sanctions. In the Middle East, what America’s allies crave most is the security that comes from the might of the American military. Nothing does more to encourage allies to hedge their bets and cozy up to Beijing than the fear that the United States has decided to abandon military competition as a tool of statecraft.

As China works to make the Middle East a factor in the Western Pacific balance of power, the United States should respond by bringing the Pacific to the Middle East. China’s energy supply lines and its aspiration to become the dominant power in the Persian Gulf should become a regular and significant part of America’s discussions with its Pacific partners and India. The goal of this dialogue should be to arrive not just at a shared picture of the threat but also at strategies for assuring that China’s supply lines remain highly vulnerable. China’s partners and potential partners in its plan to become a Middle Eastern military power—Iran, Djibouti, Pakistan, Iraq, and others—should be put on notice that the days of harmonic convergence are over. Support for Chinese hard-power aspirations must come at a steep price. The U.S. must bury harmonic convergence as an organizing principle, or risk ceding control of the international system to a hostile, anti-democratic power.

Israelis have more in common than not with one another - opinion

If there is a large protest, the media will – as it must – interview the protesters and then the politicians. The protesters are protesting because they are angry, and that anger comes out in their words. The politicians are looking for someone to blame, and that anger comes out in their words.

Both Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) and MK Moshe Ya’alon (Yesh Atid-Telem) – on opposite sides of this country’s pro- and anti-Netanyahu divide – sound as if they are about to blow a gasket every time they talk about the other side. Interviewee after interviewee sound angry, mad and full of hate.

But there is another Israel out there. It’s the one that quietly goes on with its life in these uncertain times, perhaps not agreeing – and perhaps even strongly disagreeing – with the political outlook of their neighbors or co-workers, but not hating them, not wanting to wage an all-out war against them. In fact, there are many who feel a great deal of sympathy for their countrymen’s suffering as a result of the pandemic.

The problem is that right now, that does not attract attention and does not get air time. What attracts attention is extreme rhetoric. What attracts attention is comparisons to dark periods of history. What attracts attention is saying that the other side are a bunch of fanatics hell-bent on destroying the country: anarchists to the left of me, fascists to the right.

And since that is what attracts attention, that is what is shouted out from the megaphones, picked up by the press and amplified on social media. So one wakes up and believes that is the reality.

Except it’s not. It might be a slice of this country’s reality, but only a slice.

There is another reality out there,reflected in that meeting of those reservists, of an Israel where not everyone hates the other side, and where – though it might sound corny – what binds really is greater than what divides.

Which is not to say that the atmosphere is not charged, and that in a charged atmosphere someone may commit an act of political violence. But civil wars – the type some are warning of now – are not made of individuals on the fringes taking extreme action, but rather, brother taking up arms against brother because the hatred in their hearts overflows.

Walk the streets of the country beyond Balfour Street during one of the nightly protests – or step away from Twitter for a day – and chances are that you won’t encounter that overwhelming hatred, but rather, a reality that, while contentious, is softer and far less toxic and hate-filled than what you come across every time you turn on a computer, radio or television set.

Most people are not inhabiting the hate-permeated reality being portrayed in the media and online. There is another Israel out there.

Netanyahu: Annexation still on the agenda

Israel may still apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Likud faction meeting on Monday.

“It has not been taken off the agenda,” Netanyahu told Likud MKs. “The option still exists.”

The prime minister said the matter is currently in the Trump administration’s hands.

The Trump peace plan would allow Israel to apply its law to 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements and the Jordan Valley. The rest would be designated for an eventual Palestinian state, which would receive recognition and a massive aid package from the US if it meets conditions listed in the plan, including demilitarization and stopping incitement and salaries for terrorists.

The coalition agreement between Blue and White set July 1 as the earliest date at which Netanyahu could bring extending Israeli sovereignty to a vote.

Palestinians' Chief Negotiator or Chief Liar?

Erekat is now using the killing of his relative to step up his incitement and spread more lies about Israel. He is now demanding that Israel unconditionally hand over the terrorist's body to his family. He wants the body so that the family would be able to honor the terrorist by holding a large funeral for him. The former Palestinian "chief negotiator" would, apparently, love to attend the funeral of the terrorist together with Palestinians chanting "Death to Israel."

Erekat is demanding that Israel release the body of a terrorist, while ignoring that his Hamas brothers in the Gaza Strip have been holding the remains of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014. Erekat does not care that the families of the Israeli soldiers have not been able to bury their beloved ones. He is more concerned about the body of a terrorist than about the ongoing suffering of the families of Shaul and Goldin.

Saeb Erekat's continued lies and fabrications about Israel promote anti-Semitism and embolden terrorists.

As a veteran negotiator, it would be a good idea for him to use his experience to persuade the Hamas terrorists to release the remains of the two soldiers instead of waging a propaganda campaign on behalf of a terrorist who woke up one morning and decided to kill Jews.

With negotiators like Erekat, one can understand why the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for so many years.

Jordan reiterates to Israel: Al-Aqsa is a place for Muslim worship only

The Kingdom of Jordan has requested that Israel "respect the sanctity" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the status quo, after it recently reopened to Muslim worshipers following a two-month hiatus amid coronavirus lockdowns.

According to Jordan's official news agency Petra, "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has sent Israel, via diplomatic channels, a memo calling on Tel Aviv as an occupying power to respect the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, and end all provocations and violations there."

The ministry's spokesperson Deifallah al-Fayez condemned the "continued Israeli violations," the most recent example given being the "Israeli occupation forces allowing hundreds of Jewish extremists to storm the mosque" on Tisha B'Av.

The spokesperson reiterated, in a note of exclusion, that the Al-Aqsa mosque is a place of worship for Muslims only and that the Jerusalem Waqf Department, run under the auspices of Jordan, "is the sole institution responsible for administrating the affairs of Al Aqsa Mosque."

The biggest dishonesty of all is the title. The Palestinians didn't agree to compromise at any point.
— Israel in Ireland (@IsraelinIreland) August 3, 2020

Gaza rocket fired at south, intercepted, in first launch in over a month

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket that was fired from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel on Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The rocket triggered sirens in Israeli communities northeast of the Gaza Strip, sending tens of thousands of residents to bomb shelters.

“One [rocket] launch was detected from the territory of the Gaza Strip toward Israel, which was intercepted by aerial defense soldiers,” the military said.

A fragment of the Iron Dome interceptor missile apparently struck a vehicle in the southern town of Sderot, shattering the back windshield.

The sirens were heard in Sderot, as well as the smaller communities of Ibim, Erez, Or Haner and Nir Am in the Sha’ar Hanegev region.

Residents of the area reported hearing the sounds of explosions.

The attack came as Sderot inaugurated a new drive-in movie theater, with dozens of cars full of people watching the maiden film.

Families in southern Israel went to see a movie at a drive-in theater this evening.

Halfway through, terrorists from Gaza fired a rocket at Israel, forcing the kids to run to bomb shelters.

Terror is not a movie for these kids, it’s a traumatic reality.

(Video: Yaniv Kalif) pic.twitter.com/nAeBXa65tU
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 2, 2020

After rocket attack, Israel hits ‘underground’ Hamas targets in Gaza

Israeli warplanes hit several Hamas sites in central and southern Gaza Strip early Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said, hours after Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from the coastal enclave.

The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, the IDF said.

The army said warplanes hit an cement factory used in the construction of underground infrastructure and “underground facilities used by the Hamas terror group.”

The Hamas-linked al-Resalah news said that the IDF bombed “a resistance site” west of Khan Younis and agricultural land to the east of the town.

It also said that three missiles were fired at “a site affiliated with the resistance,” west of Rafah.

The rocket triggered sirens in Israeli communities northeast of the Gaza Strip, sending tens of thousands of residents to bomb shelters.

“One [rocket] launch was detected from the territory of the Gaza Strip toward Israel, which was intercepted by aerial defense soldiers,” the military said.

A fragment of the Iron Dome interceptor missile apparently struck a vehicle in the southern town of Sderot, shattering the back windshield.

"Sit here! sit here! don't move away from the wall!"

Last night, #Gaza terrorists fired a rocket at the southern 🇮🇱 city of Sderot; families rushed their children to shelter.

Kids should never experience such moments of terror. pic.twitter.com/BjMAK3x9Ml
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 3, 2020

Gimme shelters: Comptroller says millions have nowhere to run from rockets

Nearly 30 percent of Israeli citizens do not have access to functioning bomb shelters near their homes, including over a quarter of a million people who live near the borders with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon — areas that are most likely to come under attack by rocket and missile fire — according to a state comptroller report released Monday.

According to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, a fifth of all public bomb shelters — 2,494 out of 12,601 — would not offer proper protection if needed in the case of an attack.

These deficiencies are considered especially worrisome as rockets, mortar shells and missiles — hundreds of thousands of which are estimated to be in the arsenals of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and lesser terror groups on Israel’s borders — represent some of the greatest threats facing Israel. In a future, multi-front war, Israeli military planners anticipate that upwards of a thousand projectiles could rain down on the country each day.

“In the rounds of fighting in recent years, hundreds of missiles and rockets have been fired at Israel each day. This number is expected to grow, and tens of thousands of missiles and rockets will be fired at Israel during days of battle,” the comptroller wrote in the report, which is based on 2018 figures.

The figures published Monday represented an improvement in terms of the total number of citizens with access to bomb shelters since the state comptroller looked into the matter in 2016 — roughly a million Israelis gained access to bomb shelters during that period, according to the comptroller’s figures — but a decrease in the number of functioning public shelters.

Syrian cell entered Israeli territory to plant bomb in unmanned army post — IDF

Four people crossed into Israeli territory from Syria and planted improvised explosive devices inside an unmanned Israel Defense Forces outpost along the Syrian border late Sunday night, the military said, as it revealed new details about the overnight incident.

Soldiers from the Maglan special forces unit and unspecified aircraft opened fire at the four suspects, some of whom were armed, killing them all, IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told reporters Monday morning. The army also released video of the incident, showing figures approaching a fence near the border and being hit with a missile.

No Israeli soldiers were injured.

The spokesman said the military did not yet know which military or terrorist organization the men belonged to, but the IDF was looking into the matter.

He said it was not immediately clear if this was an isolated incident or if it was tied to the ongoing tensions with Hezbollah, which has vowed to carry out some kind of attack on Israel in retaliation for the death of one of its fighters in an airstrike in Syria last month that it attributed to the Jewish state. There has been no comment from the Lebanon-based group.

“I believe in the coming days we’ll know better about what organization they were a part of,” Zilberman said.

The spokesman said the military was working on “neutralizing” the area where the four militants were operating — disarming the bombs they planted — so that the explosives could be studied in order to determine which organization the men belonged to.

This is the moment when four terrorists attempted to plant explosives near the security fence between #Israel and #Syria last night...

...and the moment we stopped them.

We will continue to defend Israel's borders from all enemy threats. pic.twitter.com/bQPGPiJFlg
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 3, 2020

Netanyahu: Israel's coronavirus morbidity among highest in the world

A full lockdown to be imposed from the middle to the end of August was one of the options discussed during the coronavirus cabinet meeting on Monday to contain the coronavirus infection rate, according to The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv.

The cabinet met to discuss whether to lift the restrictions currently implemented on weekends, such as shutting down stores and malls. The possibility of implementing full lockdowns during the weekend or at night were also considered. However, no decision was reached and the cabinet is set to reconvene on Wednesday when national coronavirus project manager Prof. Ronni Gamzu is tasked to present a detailed plan that can be put to vote.

Earlier in the morning, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that as far as he was concerned “there is no such thing as a half closure, just as there is no such thing as being half pregnant.”

“If you decide on a lockdown - then it should be a full one. As long as this is not the case, there is no point in a partial closure," he added.

“The morbidity rate in Israel is among the highest in the world,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of meeting. “This is the bad news. The good news is that for the past two weeks, the rate seems to have been plateauing.”

“The number of serious patients is increasing slowly, in a way that at the moment is not posing a challenge to the system,” he added. “However, the death toll is rising. Last week, it stood at 68 and it could rise to large numbers.”

Ten patients passed away due to COVID-19 between Sunday morning and Monday morning, bringing the victims of the pandemic in Israel to 541, according to the data released by the Health Ministry.

Ministers mull nightly curfews, local lockdowns to stem COVID-19 spread

Senior ministers on Monday discussed the possibility of localized lockdowns and curfews during nights and weekends to stem the spread of COVID-19, but ended a meeting of the so-called coronavirus cabinet without making new decisions on tackling the pandemic.

The meeting saw ministers discuss various ways to drive down infection rates, ranging from encouraging mask-wearing to a full national closure, “which we are trying to avoid,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“The other options are three different kinds of closures: local closures in ‘red’ cities [with high rates of infection] — and there are such cities,” Netanyahu said.

“The second thing we’re discussing is nightly closures, meaning limiting activities from a certain hour until the morning. The third option is weekend closures,” he continued, saying ministers may opt to back some or all of the measures.

Coronavirus czar Ronni Gamzu will build a detailed plan by Wednesday’s meeting of the coronavirus cabinet, at which time the ministers will vote on a final decision, according to the statement.

Gamzu has backed ending all weekend restrictions on businesses and parks, according to Hebrew media reports. The official, who was appointed to the position late last month, has promised to end “illogical” government restrictions.

Opposition MKs rap virus czar for approving entry of 17,000 foreign students

Opposition lawmakers on Monday criticized the official leading Israel’s response to the coronavirus, after he approved a plan to allow thousands of foreign students into the country.

According to a Health Ministry statement, 2,000 university students and 12,000 yeshiva students will be permitted to enter Israel for their respective programs. Another 5,000 participants in Masa programs, 500 high school exchange students on the Naale program and 1,500 people at private institutions will also be allowed into the country. A ministry statement said 17,000 students were being let in, though it was unclear how the figures were meant to match up.

MKs from the opposition laced into Ronni Gamzu, who was appointed to the post of coronavirus czar last month, for the decision, warning it would import infections and put more strain on the healthcare system.

“With all of Professor Gamzu’s diplomatic efforts, this is a failure in decision making,” said Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman at a faction meeting. “This is a wrong decision and we will pay a heavy price for it.”

Liberman also warned the government against allowing Israelis to visit Ukraine in September, for a Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the tomb of a Hasidic master.

Another member of his party, MK Yulia Malinovsky, tweeted: “I hope Prof. Ronni Gamzu agreed to approve the entry of 17,000 students and yeshiva students for substantive reasons and not as a result of pressure. In addition, I hope he understands the consequences of this move.”

MK Merav Michaeli, a member of the coalition Labor party who votes with the opposition, petitioned the Interior Ministry, demanding explanations for the “serious discrimination” as family members of Israeli citizens have been denied entry into the country for months as a result of the pandemic.

Shocked doctors find bullet lodged in brain of ‘sleepy’ 9-year-old, remove it

A nine-year-old boy from East Jerusalem is recovering after doctors at Hadassah Medical Center removed a bullet that hit him in the head, passed through his brain, ground to a halt upon reaching the inside of his skull and then migrated back into his brain.

The parents, residents the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, brought in their conscious but sleepy son, who only had a tiny wound on his head and a bit of blood on his hair. Doctors were staggered when the bullet showed up in a scan.

Neurosurgeon Guy Elor told The Times of Israel he was “amazed” that even though the bullet went through “very important brain structures,” the boy was chatting and recovering, and was expected to have minimal brain damage or none at all.

Police have opened an investigation and are probing, among other lines of inquiry, the possibility that the bullet came from celebratory gunfire for the Muslim Eid el-Adha festival that was observed this weekend, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Times of Israel.

The incident comes two months after a four-year-old girl from Issawiya, which is close to Ras al-Amud, was killed by an apparently stray bullet fired by an unknown shooter.

PMW: PA home videos: Children are taught to see murderers as “heroes”

Remember home videos that people would make and submit to be shown on TV?

In the PA, home videos are being used to teach children to see murderers as “heroes”!

On a PA TV show for kids, O Children of Our Neighborhood, two such home videos were broadcast, showing very young kids addressing the “heroic prisoners.” Holding a framed poster of terrorist Anas Allan who is serving 4 life sentences for his involvement in the murder of 4 Israelis, two girls likened the imprisoned terrorists to “tall mountains” and “lions.” A young boy specifically mentioned murderer Allan, sending “love” to all prisoners:
Girls: “On behalf of Allah, we send all the words of pride to the tall mountains, to the lions crouching in their dens, to the heroes of this generous people, to the heroic prisoners. You are the symbol of endurance.”

Boy: “Our prisoner Anas Allan... I think of him every time I see his mother and his father, my neighbors. I see the pain of separation in the eyes of Um Mahmoud… He was sentenced to 4 life sentences and 25 years... I send love and greetings to every male and female prisoner and to all the prisoners’ families.” [Official PA TV, O Children of Our Neighborhood, July 18, 2020]

If you learn nothing else from Twitter, remember that 99% of images you will see on social media that are anti-Israel are either photoshopped or repurposed.

H/T @afagerbakke pic.twitter.com/3H12U4VWkn
— AZ עם ישראל חי (@americanzionism) August 3, 2020

MEMRI: Palestinian Activist: Re-Conversion of Hagia Sofia Will lead Way to Liberation of Mosques in Spain

Naser Al-Hadmi, the Head of the “Jerusalem Anti-Judaization Committee,” said in a July 24, 2020 interview on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) that the Palestinian people are the ones who should be the happiest about Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque once again and hosting Islamic prayers. He said that this is a reminder that the Al-Aqsa Mosque will also be liberated, and it is a sign that the Islamic nation has awoken from its “slumber.” Al-Hadmi added that the power of the Islamic nation will continue to expand until it liberates the Al-Aqsa Mosque, mosques in Spain, Europe, and elsewhere.

Exclusive: Inside Hizbollah's fake news training camps sowing instability across the Middle East

The three-storey run-down building on the outskirts of Beirut blended in among the nondescript apartment blocks and businesses lining the busy street.

But when Mohammed stepped through the door he was greeted by an opulent interior filled with advanced technology and the blinking lights of specialist computer equipment.

The young Iraqi had entered a 10-day fake news training camp run by Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah which would equip him to spread fear and division around the Middle East.

It would teach him how to build up networks of false social media profiles that he would later use to spread propaganda and disinformation online, sowing confusion and sometimes death in his home country.

His experience is not unique.

A Telegraph investigation can today reveal that Hizbollah has trained thousands of Iran-backed social media activists, helping create so-called “electronic armies” across the region.

This newspaper can disclose that since at least 2012, Hizbollah has been flying individuals into Lebanon for courses teaching participants how to digitally manipulate photographs, manage large numbers of fake social media accounts, make videos, avoid Facebook’s censorship, and effectively spread disinformation online.

Students have come from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Syria, according to interviewees that spoke to The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.

The camp highlights Iran's malign influence in the region, and the lengths it is willing to go to spread its revolutionary ideology around an increasingly fractured Middle East, analysts say.

The portrait of Hizbollah’s digital training operations is based on more than 20 interviews with politicians, analysts, social media specialists, a member of Iraq’s military psychological operations unit, a member of the Iraqi secret service, and several former members of electronic armies.

Former White House aide and FDD member sanctioned by Iran

Former White House aide and a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Richard Goldberg, was sanctioned by Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday, Radio Farda reported.

The ministry accused Goldberg of "effective participation" in "economic terrorism against the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its citizens."

The sanctions were instituted based on an Iranian law from 2017 "to confront violations of human rights and adventurist and terrorist moves by America in the region," according to Radio Farda.

Goldberg called the sanctions a "badge of honor" in a tweet, drawing support from a number of activists and politicians.

Former United States National Security Advisor John Bolton congratulated Goldberg on Monday for "drawing sanctions from the corrupt Iranian regime," saying it showed the "effectiveness of his work."

Goldberg, who called on US President Donald Trump to bring Iran’s economy “to its knees,” served as Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Security Council.

Data Leak Reveals 42,000 Dead of Coronavirus in Iran

Information leaked to the BBC reveals that the Iranian government’s daily reports on the damage caused by the coronavirus have been “significantly lower” than the real situation in the Islamic Republic, which means they were fudged (Coronavirus: Iran cover-up of deaths revealed by data leak).

The data that was sent to the BBC by an anonymous source includes details of daily hospital admissions across Iran, including dates, names, age, sex, symptoms, length of hospital stays, and the patients’ condition. According to the BBC, the leaked details match those known living and dead patients.

Also according to the BBC, the discrepancy between the official figures and the number of deaths on the leaked records match the calculations of excess mortality as late as mid-June, meaning the number of deaths above what would be expected without the pandemic.

According to the leaked data, Tehran has the highest number of deaths: 8,120. The much smaller city of Qom, initially the epicenter of the pandemic in Iran, was hit worse than the capital, at a rate of one dead per 1,000, amounting to 1,419 deaths. It appears that 1,916 non-Iranian nationals have died across the country.

Doctors with direct knowledge of Iran’s public health system have told the BBC that the Iranian health ministry is under pressure from security and intelligence organizations to keep the figures on pandemic-related deaths low. One source said: “Initially they did not have testing kits and when they got them, they weren’t used widely enough. The position of the security services was not to admit to the existence of coronavirus in Iran.”

The BBC report believes the reason for the cover-up originally had to do with the start of the outbreak coinciding with the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and parliamentary elections. In fact, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the time blamed the pandemic on elements that wanted to use the coronavirus to undermine the election – which ended up with an abysmal turnout.

Tehran Professor: We Should Burn More U.S. Flags in Solidarity with Americans Who Are Burning Flags

Tehran University professor Foad Izadi said in a July 18, 2020 interview on Ofogh TV (Iran) that people should burn more American flags, because this will help establish solidarity with American protesters who are tearing down statues and burning flags in America. He said that these people should be Iran’s “target audience” if Iran wants to start acting in America.

pro·?jec·?tion | \ pr?-'jek-sh?n — The mental process by which people attribute to others what is in their own minds. The concept was introduced to psychology by Sigmund Freud. https://t.co/RVbgYy2aQz
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 3, 2020

2/ The next year, in Sept. 2011, we invited Uighur leader @KadeerRebiya to testify about China's persecution of her people at our We Have A Dream Summit in New York, held in parallel to the U.N.'s Durban 10 meeting. Yet the U.N. refused to act.

Full: https://t.co/oWkeJnMooT pic.twitter.com/jIYBmrejMy
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 2, 2020

PreOccupiedTerritory: ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ Sign At Uighur Camp A Bit Too On The Nose (satire)

Inmates and administration staff at a facility that imprisons, enslaves, sterilizes, and otherwise abuses a Muslim ethnic minority in China expressed discomfort this week at the eerie evocativeness of the posted exhortation that greets arrivals, a message that in the original German adorned the entrances to locations such as Dachau and Auschwitz.

Chinese characters conveying a translation of “Arbeit Macht Frei” – rendered in English roughly as “Work sets you free” or “Labor liberates” – festoon a sign over the entrance to this camp at an undisclosed location, where Uighur Muslims undergo treatment that has several organizations and Jewish groups clamoring for the international community to stop the Chinese Communist Party from perpetrating what many observers consider one of the few cases where Holocaust analogies apply. Guards and prisoners alike at the camp voiced misgivings at the sign being too on-the-nose, given what happens at and around the camp.

“It’s not like the Party to be this, well, tone deaf, I guess is what you’d call it,” observed a watch commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Obviously no one expects this in messaging that targets an international audience, but even internally, this is the sort of euphemism you’d think they’d know to avoid. China didn’t have much direct experience with the Nazis, only with their Japanese allies in the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis, and of course the Japanese invaders were every bit at vicious and racist as the Nazis, but it’s disconcerting to see such a gauche rhetorical move. Uncharacteristic, at least in my opinion.”

“That wasn’t what I expected,” admitted an Uighur inmate in restraints, awaiting his forced sterilization. “It’s easier for the authorities to do what they do if they keep the target population docile, which gets harder to accomplish when you broadcast something that basically screams, ‘We’re the SS and you’re the Jews!’ at every arrival. Just not the slickest line to put up there.”

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