05/19 Links Pt1: Glick: Trump and Israel: Enemies of the system; Jerusalem - The Eternal United Capital of Israel ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Trump and Israel: Enemies of the system

The main thing that is not in dispute is that during his meeting with Lavrov, Trump discussed Islamic State’s plan to blow up passenger flights with bombs hidden in laptop computers.
It’s hard to find fault with Trump’s actions. First of all, the ISIS plot has been public knowledge for several weeks.
Second, the Russians are enemies of ISIS. Moreover, Russia has a specific interest in diminishing ISIS’s capacity to harm civilian air traffic. In October 2015, ISIS terrorists in Egypt downed a Moscow-bound jetliner, killing all 254 people on board with a bomb smuggled on board in a soda can.
And now on to the issues that are in dispute.
Hours after the Trump-Lavrov meeting, The Washington Post reported that in sharing information about ISIS’s plans, Trump exposed intelligence sources and methods to Russia and in so doing, he imperiled ongoing intelligence operations carried out by a foreign government.
The next day, The New York Times reported that the sources and methods involved were Israeli. In sharing information about the ISIS plot with Lavrov, the media reported, Trump endangered Israel.
There are two problems with this narrative.
First, Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster insisted that there was no way that Trump could have exposed sources and methods, because he didn’t know where the information on the ISIS plot that he discussed with Lavrov originated.
Second, if McMaster’s version is true – and it’s hard to imagine that McMaster would effectively say that his boss is an ignoramus if it weren’t true – then the people who harmed Israel’s security were the leakers, not Trump.

Mordechai Kedar: The sun shone, the trees blossomed, and the butchers slaughtered

Bashar al-Assad is accused of burning bodies in a crematorium. The only new thing in this report is the disclosure that there is a crematorium operating in the Arab world. Up to now, we always thought that crematoria were peculiar to Europe, to be found in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor and the other death factories built by the efficient, refined and oh-so professional Nazis. Here in the Middle East, we thought, they murder in ordinary ways,shooting, slaughtering, beheading, hanging, strangling, drowning or throwing off roofs. But a crematorium? That's a new one.
In actual fact, a crematorium is not an instrument of murder. The unfortunates burned in a crematorium have already been murdered, probably by hanging,at least according to the reports leaked from Saydnaya Prison, known in today's Syria as "The Slaughterhouse." Burning the bodies is not meant to murder the victims, but to destroy the evidence of their murder. Turning bodies into ashes is an attempt to cover up the crime, wipe off the fingerprints, erase the marks of torture, and close the investigative file - because there are no bodies.
A crematorium is meant to eliminate the possibility of a grave for the dead person, to ensure that his name will not be engraved on a tombstone, to strangle the required questions about who killed him, where, how and most importantly - why he was killed. A crematorium is meant to allow its operator to be accepted internationally as a legitimate leader, a politician who survived and an equal among those who are "more equal than others," because there are no proofs extant of the Satanic evils for which he is responsible. They have gone up in smoke.
A crematorium can only be operated in a system that silences opinions, where only a select group makes the decisions and a small group of engineers executes them, while the day-to-day running of the system is in the hands of the victims themselves up until the day it is their turn to be eliminated and enter the evidence-destroying assembly line. This ensures that they will not leak information on what they have done and on what has been done to them by others who will themselves be eliminated the same way. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

JPost Editorial: Trump’s Kotel politics

The battles over the Western Wall reflect the traditional clash between the policy of the State Department and other parts of the US government which are more sympathetic to Israeli policy in Jerusalem. Since the UN Partition plan of 1947 called on Jerusalem to be part of a “special international regime administered by the United Nations,” the US has never recognized Israeli sovereignty in any part of the city. The first US ambassador to Israel, James McDonald, was instructed not to attend the opening session of the Knesset in Jerusalem in 1949. “If I were to go to Jerusalem to attend the function, that might be regarded as US tacit approval of the Israel claim to Jerusalem,” he recalled in his memoirs, My Mission in Israel 1948-1951. US policy has changed since then, but not in its overall rejection of Israeli rights to the Kotel. Since the Oslo period, the US has indicated it would be willing to move its embassy and recognize Israeli rights in Jerusalem if Israel signed a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the Palestinians agree to the changes in US policy. That gives Palestinians veto power over Israel’s rights to Judaism’s holiest accessible site in the world.
Trump’s visit should include a visit to the Western Wall even if he is not accompanied by President Reuven Rivlin or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is visiting Saudi Arabia and the Vatican, where he will make symbolic statements about Islam and Christianity, so it is fitting that he should also go to Judaism’s holy site.
When it comes to gaining official recognition for Israel’s rights to the Kotel from the US and the international community, Israel faces an uphill battle. The Palestinians and Jordan, which is a steward of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, deeply oppose Israel’s claims and there is little prospect that any peace agreement will affirm them. Since the 1930s, Islamic activists have sought to reduce Jewish rights to the Western Wall, calling it an Islamic site. The hostile resolutions at UNESCO have also sought to reduce the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
Against this onslaught Israel has very few allies in the international community that will affirm Jerusalem’s rights over the Old City or east Jerusalem, or even the Western Wall itself. That isn’t likely to change. But Israel can try to make inroads with allies such as Ambassador Haley and the administration to chip away at the iron wall the Palestinians have erected against Israel’s right to the Kotel.

Jerusalem - The Eternal United Capital of Israel

The Latest Trump Controversy Shows Why Israel Is Not a Charity Case

Though the Cold War ended, the U.S. continued to draw upon the assets of its Israeli ally as different threats emerged. As unlikely as it may be, the mere notion that Israel might start holding back important information because of fears that it will be heedlessly revealed to rivals or foes is something that ought to scare Americans.
With Iran seeking regional hegemony, and with radical Islamists taking up the vacuum left by the collapse of Syria and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, it is hardly a secret that the U.S. finds itself increasingly in need of Israeli intelligence, just as some of Israel’s former Arab foes, such as Saudi Arabia, now look to it as a tacit ally because they fear Iran far more than they hate the Jewish state.
Even though Israel punches far above its weight, the U.S. is the senior partner in the alliance. But what Trump’s predecessors often forgot was that actions that weakened Israel — such as Obama’s feckless pursuit of détente with Iran, which was greatly strengthened by the nuclear deal he cut with Tehran — ultimately hurt the U.S. too. The same can be said for efforts to force Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, who are split between Islamist terrorists and a corrupt Fatah regime that is unwilling and unable to make peace.
Trump’s breach of protocol with Russia may not do as much damage as is feared, but it does serve to remind us that the information superhighway between the U.S. and Israel is a two-way street. Those who continue to cling to the fallacy that Israel is a burden on U.S. interests need to realize that without its help, America is often flying blind in the Middle East.

Dear President Trump: Do what’s right, moral and just

Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would correct a longstanding injustice, while sending an important message to the Palestinians and enhancing hopes for peace.
President Donald Trump is set to visit Israel next week at a highly auspicious time, on the eve of Jerusalem Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the city and the May 31 expiration of the US presidential waiver on moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
For a president who places a great premium on the power of symbolism, all the stars and circumstances could not be greater aligned for Trump to make good on his preelection promise of recognizing “Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”
To be sure, for most Israelis, Jews around the world and our millions of Christian supporters, we already know that Jerusalem is the heartbeat, soul and eternal capital of the Jewish people. This message, however, needs to be made loud and clear to our Palestinian neighbors.

Embassy decision coming 'after Trump visit,' US official says

US President Donald Trump will decide whether to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after visiting the region next week, and based in part on what he learns on the ground, a US official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
The official spoke on the matter one day after Bloomberg reported that Trump had already decided against the move.
Trump campaigned on a promise to relocate the embassy — a move that would roil the Arab world, but elate the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the conservative American Jewish organizations that have been consulting his White House.
"Contrary to media reports, President Trump has not yet made a decision on moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and doesn't plan on making a decision on this issue until after his visit," the official said.

White House video shows Israel without Golan and West Bank

A map of Israel on a video the White House produced about US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit shows the country without the West Bank (where Israel does not claim sovereignty) or the Golan Heights (where it has extended Israeli law).
The short clip, which is meant to promote the president’s first trip abroad, highlights five destinations in four countries he’s slated to visit: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy (including the Vatican) and Belgium.
In the video, a map of Israel is shown within the pre-June 1967 ceasefire lines. During that year’s Six Day War — Israel is currently marking the war’s 50th anniversary — the Jewish state captured East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan.
Israel has since returned the Sinai to Egypt, annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan, withdrawn from Gaza, and built large numbers of settlements in the West Bank without extending sovereignty there.
The international community, including all previous US administrations, has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over any of these areas. Many Israelis might nonetheless be surprised to see that the current US administration, which has repeatedly affirmed its unwavering support of and friendship to Israel’s right-wing government, signaling its adoption of the widespread international position, especially as regards the Golan Heights.

Trump hasn't ruled out visiting Western Wall with Netanyahu

U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet decided who will accompany him to the Western Wall during his upcoming visit to Israel, but he told Israel Hayom in an exclusive interview Thursday: "We have great respect and friendship for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu."
On Tuesday, the White House said that Netanyahu would not accompany Trump on the first visit to the holy site by an incumbent U.S. president. "No Israeli leaders will join President Trump at the Western Wall," National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters.
The decision to visit the Western Wall "with the rabbi is more traditional, but that could change," Trump told Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth at the White House Thursday, when asked why Netanyahu would not accompany him.
In the interview, the American president reiterated his desire to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Tillerson's political correctness

In contrast to the recent Arab talk and State Department political ‎correctness, the Arab countries have never considered Jerusalem to be their ‎top holy city -- status reserved for Mecca and Medina -- capital or cultural ‎center. Jerusalem was largely neglected during Islamic rule, serving -- at ‎most -- as a political platform in their conflicts with "the infidel."‎
Reality-based political incorrectness motivated Israel and Egypt, in 1977, in ‎defiance of U.S. President Carter, to negotiate and conclude a bilateral peace ‎accord with no Palestinian, regional or international involvement. It also ‎motivated Israel and Jordan, in 1994, to conclude another bilateral peace ‎accord. The U.S. played a critical deal-closing role in both cases, but only ‎after the two parties reached the framework of bilateral agreement. ‎
Moreover, a litany of peace initiatives, launched by the U.S., failed when ‎attempting to subordinate reality to the U.S. own benevolent political ‎correctness, which stipulated a multilateral peace process, focusing on the ‎Palestinian issue.‎
Will Trump and Tillerson embrace Middle East reality, ‎and reject political correctness by relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, thus sparing the U.S. further erosion of its ‎posture of deterrence in the Middle East and beyond?

Ruthie Blum: McMaster's Western Wall evasion

McMaster's ideological differences with Trump became apparent from the minute he accepted the offer to replace Gen. Michael Flynn in the role of national security adviser. In fact, the first piece of advice he gave to the president was to delete the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" from his February 28 address to a joint session of Congress. Thankfully, Trump did not take the advice.
In his 1997 book, "Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies That Led to Vietnam" -- written as a doctoral thesis -- McMaster examined the failure of the White House and Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide a successful plan to defeat the North Vietnamese army.
"The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of The New York Times, or on the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C., even before Americans assumed sole responsibility for the fighting in 1965 and before they realized the country was at war," McMaster wrote.
It was precisely this kind of intellectual courage, coupled with battlefield prowess, which earned the brilliant military man bipartisan support as Flynn's replacement. Sadly, these traits have not been on display where Israel and its radical Islamic terrorist enemies are concerned.
Behind closed doors, Trump recently referred to McMaster as "a pain." He certainly is turning out to be one.

Michael Oren’s advice for Trump: Connect with Israelis and reassure them

Try to personally connect with the Israeli people and reassure them that the United States has Israel’s back — these are the main recommendations Deputy Minister Michael Oren has for US President Donald Trump, who is scheduled to arrive Monday for his first-ever visit to the Jewish state, where he is widely expected to push for a renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
“It’s an opportunity to connect with Israel’s people, not just with Israel’s leaders. Israeli people loved to be embraced,” the US-born diplomat-cum-politician told The Times of Israel in an interview Thursday. “The warmer we’re embraced, the more confident we feel, and the more flexible we can be in peace talks.”
Oren, who as Israel’s ambassador to the US played a significant role in planning the 2013 visit of then-president Barack Obama, told The Times of Israel that he does not know whether Trump will announce the relocation the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or formally recognize the city as Israel’s united capital. Regardless of the deeper political and diplomatic fallout from the visit, the mere images of the US president praying at the Western Wall will raise his popularity among Israelis, Oren predicted.
Furthermore, seeing Israel and its geographical dimensions for the first time with his own eyes will likely increase the president’s appreciation of the country’s security concerns, the deputy minister posited.

Unrealistic national aspirations

No one is expecting the Palestinian Authority to turn into a democracy overnight. It would be a surprise for the Palestinians and the entire world if Abbas were to succeed in making inroads toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. The most likely scenario, however, is that he would do nothing remarkable before disappearing into the annals of history. Abbas is making an effort to secure a successor and he has his eyes are set on Farj. Both Dahlan and Barghouti, however, have no intention of sitting idle and watching Abbas hand over the reins to his protégé.
Dahlan is funneling millions of dollars into the West Bank and Gaza to build infrastructure for his supporters in the refugee camps and also in a few cities and villages.
Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for murder in an Israeli prison, and Dahlan have both garnered a substantial amount of support among Palestinians. Dahlan has publicly stated that he is not interested in being PA president and that he supports Barghouti.
But anyone who knows him knows that he’s aiming as high as possible, and that the only reason he is supporting Barghouti is because he’s hoping that Barghouti will never be released from prison.
The most likely scenario is that, in the absence of any significant change in the Palestinian leadership, it would be difficult to reach any kind of arrangement, even if Israel were to initiate such a move.
We should remain hopeful that the next PA leader will show courage and leadership capabilities, will revolutionize the Palestinian community, be willing to support a peace settlement that Israel can also live with, and forgo fantasies and unrealistic national aspirations.

Celebrating the murder of innocents

Between the boastful Palestinian announcements celebrating the murder of innocents and the modest memorial that pays respect to the enemy is the difference between a culture of bloodshed and death, and a culture that sanctifies human dignity.
The next time the nations of the world ask us why there is still no peace between Israel and the Palestinians we should point them to Tayseer Abu Sneineh. Can Israel afford to trust a man who says that his greatest achievement is murdering innocent people at point-blank range? Can an agreement be signed with a national movement that celebrates his actions? Can they be trusted to keep their word? What lesson do the children of Hebron learn from his election? What role model does it present them for the future? In the days before President Trump arrives in Israel and tries to restart the diplomatic process, the shameful election of Abu Sneineh is a reminder that in any deal, in any negotiation, Israel must have one indispensable demand – our security remains in our hands.
The State of Israel will not hand over our security to others, not to international forces and certainly not to the Palestinians.
In any framework, the IDF needs to have the operational freedom to act anywhere necessary to protect the citizens of Israel.
If the Palestinians don’t like it, then they should look at Tayseer Abu Sneineh and ask themselves how we know (not think, not assume – know!) that we can’t trust them.

PA to Trump: We must have an airport, Dead Sea resort

The Palestinian Authority is demanding a number of infrastructure improvements, including an airport in PA-controlled territory in Samaria, the construction of a new power distribution facility in northern Samaria, a new cement factory, and a hotel resort on the Dead Sea.
In March, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with President Trump in the White House, laying the groundwork for the President’s plan to reboot negotiations between Israel and the PA.
According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the two discussed a variety of policy questions, including “measures to empower the Palestinian economy and provide economic opportunity for the Palestinian people.”
During the discussion on the Palestinian Authority’s economy, the PA delegation headed by Abbas submitted a list of infrastructure projects the PA claims are necessary for its economic development and the establishment of peaceful relations with Israel, Walla News reported.
Among the items demanded by the PA delegation are the construction of an airport inside the Palestinian Authority for use by Arab residents of Judea and Samaria, a new power station in northern Samaria, a cement factory in Bethlehem, and control of part of the Dead Sea area and establishment of a hotel resort on the beach.

Top Fatah official Time for two embassies in Jerusalem

Top Fatah official Jibril Rajoub on Thursday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s decision to hold off from moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“This is a responsible and rational decision,” Rajoub told The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview. “The American president clearly understands that the issue of Jerusalem is complex and should be resolved in the framework of a final agreement.”
A senior White House official said Trump decided “not to immediately move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem,” Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Trump will have to sign a presidential waiver by June 1st to prevent the relocation of the US embassy. US law requires that the embassy be moved to the capital unless the president signs a waiver to block its relocation.

Trump told Abbas he’ll be able to reach a deal within a year, says Palestinian minister

The Palestinians are taking seriously Donald Trump’s efforts to help resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a minister said Thursday, ahead of the US president’s visit to the region next week.
Foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki was speaking in Muscat where he was accompanying Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of a regional tour prior to the Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh on Sunday.
“Abu Mazen stressed Trump’s seriousness in settling the Palestinian issue” after they met in Washington this month, said the minister, referring to Abbas by his Arabic nickname.
“The US president assured him he will be able to find a settlement within one year,” he added.
Trump hosted Abbas at the White House on May 3, pledging to help end the decades-old conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

‘Don’t Be Another Obama’ – Saudi Columnist Issues Plea to Trump

Ahead of Donald Trump’s arrival in Saudi Arabia on Friday — making the Islamic Kingdom the first foreign country to receive an official visit from the new US President — Saudi newspaper columnists heralded the prospect of improved relations with the US.
Writing in Al-Watan daily – in a translation made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) – Ali Sa’d Al-Moussa, an academic and writer, began with a scathing attack upon former President Barack Obama, whom he described as “infamous,” arguing that he had never delivered on any of his promises.
“Mr. President, together Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were an alliance of the defeated and the weak,” Al Moussa wrote. “Obama merely watched from the sidelines in this sickening show [in the region], when he allowed Tehran to effectively – not hypothetically – occupy Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen … Mr. President, you will discover that Riyadh is a loyal and independent ally and is the only one who knows all the keys to wisely and moderately solving [the crises in the region]. All [we] ask [of you] is that you not be just another version of Obama.”
Khaled Al-Malik, editor-in-chief of the Saudi government daily Al-Jazirah, wrote: “Honorable President Trump… Soon you will visit the Saudi Arab kingdom, as part of your first visit outside [the US] after your election. This is a precedent that is in line with your bold and surprising positions.”

In first, EU lawmakers cite Palestinian terror in resolution on 2 states

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Israel and the Palestinians that omits any reference to Hamas, but which advocates of the Jewish state said was more balanced than previous documents endorsed by that institution.
The resolution, titled “Achieving the Two-State Solution in the Middle-East,” passed by the parliament Thursday in Strasbourg, “condemns all acts of violence, acts of terrorism against Israelis, and incitement to violence which are fundamentally incompatible with advancing a peaceful two-state solution.”
Past resolutions generally avoided identifying culprits and victims, a style that critics complained suggested that both parties might be guilty of such acts.
The resolution also addresses financing by the Palestinian Authority of terrorists imprisoned by Israel, a first for a document of this kind.
The resolution stresses “the responsibility of relevant EU authorities in continuing to ensure that no EU funding can be directly or indirectly diverted to terrorist organizations or activities that incite these acts.”

Army nabs ambulance driver who allegedly blocked Israeli’s escape from riot

The army and Shin Bet security service arrested on Friday the driver of an ambulance that blocked the escape of an Israeli man whose car was attacked by rioters in the northern West Bank the day before, the military said.
Between Thursday night and Friday morning, security forces also picked up one of the suspected rioters and impounded a bus that is believed to have been used to shuttle people to the violent protest in Hawara, outside Nablus, the army said.
The ambulance that blocked the road was seized by the Israeli military as well.
On Thursday, as an Israeli resident of a nearby settlement drove through the demonstration, the protesters turned violent, swarming around his car, kicking it and pelting it with stones.
Video footage from the scene shows that the man tried to escape through the crowd, but his way was blocked by the ambulance, which crossed into his lane. The settler later claimed that the medics had deliberately tried to bar his passage.

Islamic Jihad Terror Group Threatens Israel With New Round of Gaza Violence, Shows IDF General in Sniper’s Crosshairs

The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group published a video this week in which it threatened Israel with a new round of violence, the Hebrew news site Walla reported.
In the middle of the minute-long video, sniper’s crosshairs are superimposed on footage of IDF Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon touring the border between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza.
“If the Israeli enemy continues its normal game and plays with the lives of the Palestinian people, we will break the cease-fire,” PIJ leader Ramadan Shalah states in the video, referring to the quiet that has largely prevailed since the end of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
The video also shows Islamic Jihad fighters moving though underground tunnels and preparing to launch rockets.
“Don’t try to test the resistance,” the concluding graphic of the video — which was produced by PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades — says.

Israel-PA Joint Water Committee meets after years of stagnation

The Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee met on Tuesday after several years in which its operations were suspended, Israel Hayom learned Thursday.
Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai participated in the meeting.
The Joint Water Committee was formed in 1995 as part of the implementation of the 1993 Oslo Accords, with the aim of managing water and sewage-related infrastructure in the Palestinian cities in Judea and Samaria. The committee has an equal number of Israeli and Palestinian representatives, and its framework requires all decisions be reached by consensus, meaning that each side has veto power.
Sources familiar with the issue said that the committee's work was renewed after the parties were able to reach an agreement on a new framework for its operations.

UN COMMITTEE WANTS A UN "PALESTINE OCCUPATION REMEMBRANCE DAY" MODELED ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

A UN Committee has embraced the idea of a remembrance day for Palestinians mimicking Holocaust remembrance day. The comments came during a meeting on May 17, 2017 at UN Headquarters of the "UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People." Addressing the Committee, the Palestinian representative harked back to the alleged original crime of the creation of Israel itself. In the words of Feda Abdelhady Nasser: "we meet in these days that the Palestinian people are solemnly commemorating the 69th anniversary of the Nakba of 1948, an injustice that our people continue to suffer the consequences of to this very day." The remarks are a stark reminder of the reason Israel has no Palestinian peace partner.
The Palestinian Rights Committee is composed of 26 UN member states and another 24 observers, and includes many countries with some of the world's worst human rights records, such as Cuba, Pakistan, Turkey, Venezuela, China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. The Committee's executive is: Senegal (Chair), Malta (Rapporteur), Cuba (Vice-Chair), Indonesia (Vice-Chair), Nicaragua (Vice-Chair). The latter three do not even have diplomatic relations with Israel.
At Wednesday's meeting, the UN Committee engaged in another display of modern antisemitism by appropriating Jewish history and experience as Palestinian. Reporting on the Committee's recent activities, Ambassador Carmelo Iguanez (Malta) called for the UN to establish a "Palestine Occupation Remembrance Day" and repeatedly referred to a "Palestinian diaspora."
Similarly, Palestinian representative Feda Abdelhady Nasser alleged there was "Israeli settler terror and incitement against our people" - well aware of the reality of Palestinian terrorism and incitement.

Hundreds of Palestinians riot in West Bank, Gaza

Israeli security forces faced off against Palestinian rioters Friday in multiple locations throughout the West Bank and along the Gaza border, as hundreds took part in the violent demonstrations.
Demonstrators burned tires and hurled rocks at Israeli security forces, who were responding with non-lethal means. On the Gaza border Palestinians claimed live fire was used in some instances as rioters approached the border fence.
An Israeli soldier and a Border Policeman were lightly wounded by rock throwers during a riot near the West Bank village of Aboud, north of Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that between 30 and 40 people had been injured throughout the territories, mostly by tear gas and rubber bullets. In Gaza one man was said to be in serious condition and two others reportedly suffered moderate injuries.

PA extols imprisoned terrorists as 'heroes of freedom and honor'

The glorification of terrorists is continuing in full force in Palestinian society and has been given further legitimacy with the ongoing hunger strike staged by Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel, according to recent reports by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The institute published a comprehensive review of remarks made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials in recent weeks praising and supporting the hunger strike.
According to the institute's findings, Abbas often praises Palestinian prisoners who join the strike, including terrorists imprisoned in Israel for perpetrating some of the worst attacks the country has ever experienced. Abbas has called their cause the PA's top priority.
In a recent speech to members of the Palestinian diaspora in the U.S., Abbas said, "I say to the prisoners, 'Patience, your victory will come. You are our symbols and our heroes." Last month in Ramallah, he told the families of martyrs and hunger-striking prisoners that their cause was "the Palestinian leadership's top priority."
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah lavished praise on an imprisoned terrorist and hunger-strike leader Marwan Barghouti, calling him a "fighter." Other Fatah officials have also visited the mothers of "martyrs" and imprisoned terrorists.

How Many Jailed Terrorists Are Actually on a Hunger Strike?

There are 890 terrorists fasting at the moment, and that number is holding steady, Gibor writes.
It’s what he wrote next that everyone needs to know.
The reason that number is holding steady is because many of the terrorists are hunger striking in rotation.
They fast for a few days, and when their turn is over, they eat, and another group takes their place. The cycle continues, and the total number of hunger-strikers stays steady, but it’s just not the same terrorists on that hunger strike!
Come on, does that really count?
What can I say…
If you can’t trust a Palestinian Authority terrorist to follow through on his threat when he says he’s willing to starve himself to death for some additional cable TV channels, then whom can you trust? (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Dog walking banned by Hamas 'to protect women and children'

Hamas has banned walking dogs in public in the Gaza Strip in order "to protect women and children," Hamas spokesman and leading religious figure Ayman al-Batniji told the Telegraph Thursday.
“In recent weeks, the phenomenon of young men walking with their dogs in the streets has widely spread. It is neither of our culture nor of our traditions. Children and women feel scared when they see dogs,” al-Batniji stated, adding that it is Hamas' "duty to maintain the safety of citizens."
No specific penalty for breaking the ban has been officially stated, however Hamas is known for their harsh punishments.
The ban reportedly only applies to populated areas such as cities, markets and beaches, while allowing residents to walk dogs in the countryside.

Iran’s Biggest Problem Isn’t Sanctions or Today’s Elections; It’s Water

From 1962 until 1979, the majority of water-infrastructure projects in Iran were managed by Israeli experts. All that changed with the Islamic Revolution of 1979. And this is but one of the many ways the ayatollahs have pushed their country to the brink of environmental disaster, as Seth Siegel explains:
Due to gross mismanagement and its ruinous impact on the country, Iran faces the worst water future of any industrialized nation. . . . Beginning in 1987, as the war with Iraq was ending, the special military force of the Iranian regime—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—was given a special perk. Among other strangleholds on the Iranian economy, IRGC-owned companies . . . were given control over major engineering projects throughout the country. Recklessly, these companies began damming major rivers, changing the historical water flows of Iran. This was done to give preferences to powerful landowners and favored ethnic communities while also transferring billions from the public treasury to IRGC leaders’ accounts. . . .
At the same time, the . . . regime turned a blind eye as farmers drilled wells without controls or concern about sustainability, giving themselves all of the groundwater they wanted. With fuel long heavily subsidized in Iran, farmers turned on their diesel pumps, and often left them on, even when fields didn’t need irrigating. After a few years of such abuse of dammed rivers and over-drafted groundwater, aquifers began to go dry and lakes shriveled. . . .

WATCH: Turkish Dictator Erdogan Appears To Order His Bodyguards To Attack Protesters On AMERICAN SOIL — Then Watches The Beatdown

A new video has emerged that appears to show Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally ordering his security detail to attack anti-regime protesters assembled on U.S. soil outside of the Turkish ambassador’s residence.
Watch as Erdogan, sitting in a tinted black Mercedes, gives orders to his bodyguards moments before they leave the embassy compound and enter American soil to pummel Kurdish, Yazidi, and Armenian demonstrators protesting peacefully against the human rights abuses of the Turkish regime.
What is definitively clear is that Erdogan stepped out of his vehicle to watch his thugs brawl against both D.C. Metropolitan police and peaceful demonstrators.
This new video evidence adds further fuel to the diplomatic row that began Tuesday. As The Daily Wire reported, Congress has already called for criminal charges to be brought against the members of the Turkish president’s security detail involved in the brutal beating of American residents exercising their constitutionally-granted First Amendment right. The U.S. State Department also delivered a harshly-worded statement against the Turkish government, expressing serious concern about the behavior of Erdogan’s men.
But despite outrage from the United States, the Turks have refused to apologize. Adding insult to injury, a statement released by the Turkish embassy blames the victims of the attack.

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