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Monday, April 30, 2018

04/30 Links Pt2: Netanyahu: Iran ‘brazenly lied’ about nuclear program; What’s wrong with American Jewish liberals; Something Is Rotten in Israel: It’s the New Israel Fund

From Ian:
Netanyahu: Iran ‘brazenly lied’ about nuclear program, continued work after deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of lying about its nuclear program in a speech broadcast live Monday, revealing information he said showed the Islamic Republic had for years worked on developing nuclear weapons, and continued to pursue such weapons even after signing the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The premier, who has repeatedly called for the accord between world powers and Iran to either be altered or scrapped, said Israel had obtained 100,000 secret Iranian files “a few weeks ago in a great intelligence achievement.”

Speaking in English at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu gave a presentation including videos and slides he said exposed Iran’s nuclear dossier.

“You may well know that Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said, before playing clips of Iran’s supreme leader, president and foreign minister denying the country ever sought such capabilities weapons.

“Iran lied. Big time,” said Netanyahu, adding that the trove included a half-ton of material.

The cache, he said, contained “incriminating documents, incriminating charts, incriminating presentations, incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos and more.


After Netanyahu’s speech, Trump says ‘I’ve been 100 percent right’ on Iran
Shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech detailing covert Iranian efforts to build a nuclear program, and with less than two weeks before his deadline to exit the nuclear accord with Tehran, US President Donald Trump on Monday said the deal was “unacceptable” in its present form.

Responding to Netanyahu’s broadcast in which the prime minister revealed that Israel had obtained 100,000 secret Iranian documents pertaining to the program, Trump said, “What’s happening today and what’s happened over the last little while and what we’ve learned has really shown that I’ve been 100 percent right.

“That is just not an acceptable situation, and I’ve been saying that’s happening,” he went on in the White House Rose Garden, alongside Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. “They’re not sitting back idly; they’re setting off missiles, which they say are for television purposes? I don’t think so.”

The American leader also declined to share whether he’s decided to walk away from the landmark agreement by May 12, the next deadline to waive sanctions against the Islamic Republic under the deal. Trump last signed those waivers in January, but he said he would not again unless Congress and European allies amend the pact.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “I’m not telling you what I’m doing, but a lot of people think they know. On or before the 12th, we’ll make a decision. That doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a real agreement. You know, this is an agreement that wasn’t approved by too many people, and it’s a horrible agreement for the United States, including the fact… that we gave Iran $150 billion and $1.8 billion in cash.

“You know what we got?” Trump continued. “We got nothing. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t negotiate a new agreement, we’ll see what happens.”

The Duplicitous Diplomat: Seven Deceptions Iranian FM Zarif Told Face the Nation
4) “We never wanted to produce a bomb.”

Later on Zarif reiterated this, saying, “Iran commits itself never to develop a nuclear weapon.”

In fact, a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate assessed that Iran had sought to develop a nuclear weapon until 2003. The IAEA, in 2015, prior to implementation of the nuclear deal in January 2016, determined that Iran was attempting to design a nuclear weapon at least until 2009. Iran also failed to answer all of the questions asked of it about its nuclear program by the IAEA prompting The New York Times to observe, “Iran’s refusal to cooperate on central points could set a dangerous precedent as the United Nations agency tries to convince other countries with nuclear technology that they must fully answer queries to determine if they have a secret weapons program.”

Iran has tried to develop nuclear weapons in the past and no matter what’s written on a piece of paper (that Iran never signed), Iran can be expected to do so in the future.



Eli Lake: Israel Exposes Iran's Nuclear Lies, and the Limits of U.S. Intelligence
Advocating for a pact in 2015, John Kerry said American agencies had "absolute knowledge" about the regime's past nuclear efforts. Oops.

Since Iran and six world powers reached an agreement to pause Iran's enrichment of uranium and allow weapons inspectors into declared facilities, Israel's prime minister has argued the deal would give Iran a glide path to a nuclear weapon. On Monday he announced that he had proof.

If the West can verify the new Israeli intelligence that Iran had preserved its design and research work into a nuclear weapon, that's a big deal — particularly now in light of the May 12 deadline that President Donald Trump has imposed on U.S. negotiations with Europe to come up with fixes to strengthen the nuclear bargain. The trove of data would be a blow not only to Iran's credibility but also to the reputation of American intelligence gathering.

As negotiations with Iran came to a close in summer 2015, John Kerry, then secretary of state, assured reporters that American intelligence agencies had "absolute knowledge" about Iran's past efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

It was a strange remark. As the intelligence assessments before the 2003 Iraq War showed, intelligence is never absolute. What's more, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, still had its own outstanding questions for Iran. Indeed, that agency could not give Iran a clean bill of health on the possible military dimensions of its nuclear program nearly six months later.

Now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming that his country's spies have purloined a warehouse full of videos, files, blueprints and designs for nuclear weapons compiled between 1999 and 2003. If verified, the new Israeli intelligence would show there were many details the U.S. didn't know back in 2015.
PMW: Europe's desire to get rid of remaining Jews after WWII made it support Zionism, says Abbas advisor
The antisemitic Palestinian Authority narrative that Zionism was a European scheme to get rid of the Jews, because Jews were damaging European society, was repeated last week by a senior advisor of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Mahmoud Al-Habbash charged that after WWII Europe supported the establishment of Israel because they "wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe."

Al-Habbash, one of the most important religious figures in the PA, repeated the PA narrative that the European animosity toward the Jews was because the Jews "had a monopoly over the economy and capital" - a particularly absurd accusation following WWII, and the destruction of most of European Jewry in the Nazi concentration camps.

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs:
"After World War II ended, the colonialist states wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe, who had a monopoly over the economy and capital. Therefore, they supported these claims and helped them establish their state on the land of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian people, who are still suffering from this crime."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 24, 2018]

Al-Habbash made these statements during his "religious and political lecture" at a conference in Sudan.



Israel And The Defeat Of Soviet Communism
Israel's position in the world was transformed. Simcha Dinitz, former Israeli ambassador to United States, said: "In the contest between Russia and America within the Cold War in the Middle East, Israel was an automatic ally of the West. Since the Six Day War, this automatic ally became a strategic asset."

Every subsequent war proved the superiority of American weapons over Soviet weapons, and the United States proved that its diplomatic support carried more weight than any other country (and even outweighed the diplomatic power of most of the world combined, especially at the United Nations). Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat - coming to the realization that “America holds all the cards” – made peace with Israel and moved Egypt (the most powerful and important country of the Arab and Muslim worlds) out of the Soviet camp and into an alliance with the United States. Soviet influence in the Middle East would never recover from the loss of Egypt.

Inside the USSR, Sharansky recalled the impact of Israel's victory on himself and his fellow Soviet Jews: "In six dramatic days, everything changed for us. The call that went up from Jerusalem, 'The Temple Mount is in our hands,' penetrated the Iron Curtain and forged an almost mystic link with our people. And while we had no idea what the Temple Mount was, we did know that the fact that it was in our hands had won us respect. Like a cry from our distant past, it told us that we were no longer displaced and isolated. We belonged to something, even if we did not yet know what, or why. Of course, we still suffered from anti-Semitism, but even that assumed a new character. Jews were no longer cowards. Instinctively, and without any real connection to Judaism, we became Zionists. We knew that somewhere there was a country that called us its children, and this knowledge filled us with pride."

Soviet Jews who wished to emigrate to Israel from the Soviet Union (a right denied to them) joined the Soviet dissident movement en mass. The regime’s legitimacy – internal and external – dissipated as Sharansky and the “Refuseniks” worked hand-in-hand with underground human rights groups to document and disseminate reports of systematic human rights abuses in the Soviet Union.

There were many causes of the Soviet Union’s collapse – economic, cultural, moral, etc. But the deterioration of its prestige on the world stage and in the eyes of its subjects undoubtedly ranks among the top reasons for the Evil Empire’s fall. And Israel played an indispensable role in this.

Just one more miracle, from a nation built on miracles.
Abandoning the Jewish state
Having now despaired of a two-state solution to the Israeli -Palestinian conflict and having realized that substantial Israeli unilateral withdrawals are unlikely (for very good reasons, in my view) – the hard Left is now throwing in the towel.

The movement that pretends to be deeply concerned for Israel's Jewish character can no longer support independent Jewish statehood if the Palestinians can't obtain full national rights, too. That's the bottom line of Yehoshua's essay.

This ideological denouement is as striking as it is sad. There always was a tension between the Jewish and democratic principles underlying the drive for Israel, going back to the writings of the early Zionist ideologues and the diplomatic positions of David Ben-Gurion.

But the historic Jewish claim to independent Jewish statehood in Israel always won out, whatever degree of impingement on Arab/Palestinian rights this entailed. After all, the Arabs have quite a few other territories across the Middle East.

But unfortunately for Yehoshua and his ilk, this calculus no longer holds. For them, there is now something more important than Jewish statehood: "our humanity and the humanity of the Palestinians in our midst," which leads to Yehoshua's call for a one-state confederated "solution" – meaning the dissolution of Israel.

This is the inevitable culmination of the protracted process in which the hard Left lost its Jewish-Zionist identity – an identity that has been overwhelmed by fealty to ephemeral "humanity" and extremist liberal principles that apply nowhere else and to nobody else.

Indeed, nowhere else. I hear no global clamoring for confederation of any of the crumbling 22 Arab states. But the sole Jewish state in the world must become half Arab, you see. (h/t steelraptor from Saturn)
What’s wrong with American Jewish liberals
For too many liberal Jews, Israel in their minds, has become an “oppressor” of rights. They have repeatedly attempted to brand Israel as an intolerant society. Liberal Jews will also be the first to disingenuously claim that they are on Israel’s side.

What seems to escape liberal Jews like Portman is the very composition of democratic life here in Israel. Their understanding is based on recriminations and false accusations suggesting that they can save Israel from itself, if only Israel would adopt their liberal values. The fact that Jews and Arabs all enjoy equal civil and legal rights and are subject to judicial review should they feel that their democratic rights are being impinged always seems to escape their minds. The fact that Israel’s Supreme Court of Appeals has adopted “judicial activism” in its orientation and is at the forefront of protecting the rights of all sectors of the population in Israel also doesn’t seem to hold water for Liberal Jews.

However by dividing Israel into good cop, bad cop, and making out the Israeli Prime Minister and his ruling coalition an amalgamation of Dirty Harry and The Chosen so as to make Israel palatable to liberal Jews is avoiding the real issue at hand. The problem lies - and here I quote the Jewish liberal Peter Beinart - liberal American Jews “are not especially connected to Israel because they are not especially connected to being Jewish".

Supporting an Israel that elects a conservative/right-wing/religious government is messy, complicated, and raises too many questions concerning Jewish identity and Jewish affiliation for liberal Jews, especially if they want to fit in with today's Democratic Party..

Yet, when one considers the worldwide movement in recent years to de-legitimize the State of Israel; their aim is not to engage or interact but to undermine and demonize. Their opposition to Israel is not open to reason or good will. In short, their hatred is unconditional. With his being the current geo-strategic reality challenging Israel, than why is it that liberal Jews become so uneasy by expressing unconditional love and support towards Israel?

Had Natalie Portman accepted the Genesis Prize here in Israel, no one would have assumed that she was representing or endorsing Netanyahu or any other Israeli politician. For Liberal Jews many of our debates about Israel have become coarse and divisive, their enthusiasm and eagerness to express tough, critical love towards Israel even when unwarranted and hypocritical has become the accepted norm in how they relate to Israel.
‘Anti-Zionist and Jew:’ Behind Jeremy Corbyn’s Apology
“I refuse to characterize as opinion,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in Anti-Semite and Jew, “a doctrine that is aimed directly at particular persons and that seeks to suppress their rights or to exterminate them.”

This was the French philosopher’s answer to the contention that antisemitism is merely an “opinion,” when it is more properly understood as a “passion” rooted in a hatred that lies outside of reason. “If the anti-Semite is impervious to reason and to experience, it is not because his conviction is strong,” Sartre observed. “Rather his conviction is strong because he has chosen first of all to be impervious.”

Sartre’s characterization of antisemitism as outside “the category of ideas protected to the right of free opinion” — a clear statement that Jew-baiting is the preserve of knaves and fanatics — has more or less prevailed in the Western democracies since his eccentric yet invaluable study was first published in 1944. Perhaps the best evidence of that, today, is the fact that someone described as an antisemite almost always objects that this is a personal insult, rather than a provocative observation about the manner in which they interpret the world around them. As to what they call themselves, some of them are “patriots,” “nationalists” or “socialists;” others use terms like “anti-racist.” Most will see at worst no harm, and even some honor, in the descriptor “anti-Zionist.”

That is one critical reason why — in an opinion piece billed as an apology for the antisemitism that has plagued the British Labour Party since he became its leader in 2015 — Jeremy Corbyn felt compelled to point out that “anti-Zionism is not in itself antisemitic, and many Jews themselves are not Zionists.”

There are, Corbyn conceded, “a very few [sic] who are drawn to the Palestinian question precisely because it affords an opportunity to express hostility to Jewish people in a ‘respectable’ setting.” In other words, the intentions of anti-Zionists are usually noble, and a few bad apples should not let us lose sight of that.
Revealed: 'Poisonous' Anti-Semitic Posts Litter Jeremy Corbyn's Facebook Page
Vile, poisonous slanders against Jews have been exposed as part of the official Facebook page of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Claims that “supremacist Jews” have taken over Labour and are playing “victims” by talking about being “massacred by Hitler” are just two of the repeatable assertions Mr. Corbyn’s page played host to.

The Mail on Sunday reports others accused Jews of being the “biggest problem facing the world for centuries” while the “Zionist lobby” is alleged to be in control all of British politics.

The comments were left in the days after Mr. Corbyn met with Jewish leaders in London to address their concerns over anti-Semitism in his left-wing party.

A spokesman for the Community Security Trust – a charity which campaigns against anti-Semitism – said: “Some of these comments contain shocking anti-Semitism.

“Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to drive anti-Semitism out of the Labour Party. We welcome this commitment, and a fitting place to start would be on his own Facebook page.”
Labour Party Antisemitism: BBC Confuses its Youth Audience
Zionism: “Not all Jewish people support this”

And while it is true that not all Jews consider themselves to be Zionists, the BBC should have pointed out that a majority of British Jews (72%) defined themselves as Zionists. according to a 2010 study. Even then the report’s authors noted: “Many of those who define themselves as non-Zionist are using the term to mark their disagreement with contemporary Israeli government policy, rather than to signal a lack of support for the concept of Israel as an expression of Jewish nationhood.”

More recently, in 2015, even a poll for a progressive left-leaning Jewish group found that 90 percent of British Jews support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, 84 percent feel a “deep sense of pride” in its achievements in art, science and technology and 93 percent say Israel plays a part in their Jewish identity.

By failing to note the views of mainstream UK Jewry, the BBC gives far too much weight and credibility to the small minority of anti-Zionist Jews on the fringes who claim that the the problem of antisemitism is exaggerated or made up.
Labour and left-wing antisemitism: It’s all about Israel

It’s hardly surprising that so many young people in the UK appear to believe that the charge of antisemitism is being “weaponized” to shut down criticism of Israel when the BBC gives them this kind of sub-standard analysis:
Anti-Semitism – prejudice against Jewish people – is definitely not just a problem in the left wing of British politics.

But accusations of it being within the left goes far back, partly because of its long association with anti-Zionism.

Making left-wing antisemitism about “its long association with anti-Zionism” is to excuse those manifestations that have been apparent during this Labour Party crisis such as Holocaust denial and revisionism, and the promotion of Jewish conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with outright Jew hatred.

“Jewish settlements within Jerusalem”
Typically, the left would associate itself with standing up for oppressed minorities in the UK and around the world.

There’s been a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians about Jewish settlements within Jerusalem for decades.

If the BBC is saying that the left is typically associated with “standing up for oppressed minorities,” who is the oppressed minority in this case? That becomes clear in the next utterly idiotic sentence – “There’s been a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians about Jewish settlements within Jerusalem for decades.”

Is the BBC trying to say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to antisemitism and/or anti-Zionism? Either way, to explain the conflict in one sentence as being “about Jewish settlements within Jerusalem” is mind boggling.
The puzzle of Baroness Warsi's links with Islamist group
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi is a puzzle. The Muslim former Minister for Faith and Conservative Party Chairman says she is strongly opposed to sectarianism within Islam, homophobia, antisemitism and extremism of all kinds.

She wants to “continue on our journey towards liberal values.”

Yet her opposition to the Muslim woman who has campaigned for a decade to take us on that journey is positively visceral.

“Deeply concerned” was how Warsi greeted the recent appointment of the Commissioner for Counter Extremism, Sara Khan. When pressed, Warsi lets rip in a way that sounds almost personal.Khan is dismissed as a “Home Office construct” — and this from a former Conservative Cabinet minister.

Warsi is referring to a series of anti-Isis rallies in 2014 inspired by Khan’s anti-extremism organisation, Inspire. Aimed at helping British Muslim mothers protect their children from the toxic ideology of ISIS, ‘Making A Stand’ was a roadshow to which the Home Office provided logistical support — something Inspire openly acknowledge.

Why would Warsi oppose anyone who stood for human rights and female empowerment in the face of brutal theocratic extremism — with or without government assistance?

Should Khan now say “I am so sorry for running an anti-ISIS campaign?”.

As I say, it’s a puzzle.

More puzzling still is Warsi’s relationship to an organisation she admits has accommodated views that “although not illegal, are clearly illiberal.”

That organisation is Mend, Muslim Engagement and Development, the fastest growing and most active Muslim advocacy group in Britain today.
Daphne Anson: British Labour Antisemitism: Stephen & Jonathan Tell (video)
Well look who's talking about antisemitism in Britain's Labour Party, or the, er, lack of it.

Yes, that Stephen. Stephen the Martyr, persecuted, to hear him tell it, by those dastardly Zionists. In other words, vicar-turned-Peacemakers Trust CEO Sizer, back in that not unfamiliar setting for him, the London studios of the Iranian regimes's propaganda satellite channel, Press TV.

But not that Jonathan. Not the bravely zealous Israel-defender Mr Hoffman but notorious anti-Israel activist Professor Jonathan Rosenhead.

Watch, but have a sick bag close at hand.
Bonus: Lord Sugar on the same topic


Jews for Corbyn
In fact, Jenny Manson is deviously disingenuous. Her JVL group was set up, as she herself admitted, “to tackle the myth of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.”

For people like Manson, Levane, Corbyn, and others, there is a deliberate attempt to disconnect Jews from support for Zionism. They know that once you prize Judaism from Zionism you remove the heart and soul from the Zionist enterprise, thereby killing the raison d’etre of the fundamental basis of Israel, the Jewish state, Fortunately, the vast majority of mainstream British Jewry stand firmly with Israel.

To paraphrase David Aaronovitch, Jeremy Corbyn abides only the “good Jews,” those that affiliate themselves with his far-left ideology. An essential part of that belonging is to disown Israel.

He can’t help himself. This Socialist is stuck in the mantra that not only are Hamas and Hezbollah his friends but also supporting the terrorists responsible for the bombing in 1994 of the Israeli Embassy in London and Balfour House, the building that housed the UJIA, one of the largest Jewish charities in the UK, in which twenty-six people were injured.

Corbyn, the bombers' friend, spent more than a decade campaigning for their release.

Corbyn can’t help himself. That is the way he is, and it is highly unlikely that the JLC or the BoD can help him either, although I applaud them for giving it their best shot.
Something Is Rotten in Israel: It’s the New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund (NIF) is ecstatic over its victory dismantling the Israeli government’s plan to deport illegal migrants from Africa back to friendly, third-party African countries. As the self-described “real opposition” in Israel, the NIF believes it has accomplished a major policy goal.

The NIF is indeed on a roll. Their grantees have been advocating against the self-defense tactics of the IDF at the Gaza border and are also trying to stop the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem.

There’s just one problem: The NIF is not an Israeli organization. It’s American. The NIF has no seats in the Knesset, nor does it send its children to the Israeli army. If there is conflict in Israel, there is no need for them to find shelter in a safe room, because they are safely ensconced in America.

How are Israelis supposed to react to this state of affairs? Perhaps a hint can be found in how Americans have reacted to the prospect that Russians interfered with the US election in 2016. They were furious that the internal affairs of their country might have been influenced by foreigners.

Americans were rightly concerned that their sovereignty was being compromised by non-Americans who had their own agenda. They were being manipulated by outsiders who might claim they were acting for the benefit of Americans, but were actually pursuing their own agenda.
UC San Diego Hosts Those With an Antisemitic and Anti-American Agenda
Over the past decade, University of California schools have been making headlines, not for athletic or academic achievements, but for the antisemitism pervading campus life. Case in point: the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

An African-American student would be justifiably offended, perhaps frightened, by the spectacle of Ku Klux Klan or white supremacy posters on a professor’s office. Likewise, Jewish students visiting the office of Professor Yen Le Espiritu would be offended and frightened. But for them, it isn’t hypothetical.

Espiritu’s office door is adorned with posters glorifying Hamas and accusing Israel of engaging in apartheid. These displays of hate and antisemitism hint at someone who should not be influencing impressionable minds. And this is before stepping into her classroom.

Espiritu is a distinguished fellow and former chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at UCSD. One of the courses she currently teaches, “Circulations of Difference: Introduction to Ethnic Studies,” has been described by one student who requested anonymity as a course that delegitimizes the very existence of Israel and the United States.

“Espiritu believes that Israel and the United States are colonialist nations. She is adamant that Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel,” the student told the Haym Salomon Center, “despite the archaeological proof and the fact that Jews have resided in modern day Israel long before Islam even existed.”

Far from encouraging the free exchange of ideas and perspectives, Espiritu’s classroom environment is intimidating.
Belgium’s ex-PM accused of anti-Semitism for ‘Antwerp diamond dealers’ crack
Belgium’s previous prime minister faced accusations of anti-Semitism after complaining in an interview that the kingdom has become a country “of Antwerp diamond dealers.”

Elio di Rupo, a socialist politician who serves as Belgium’s prime minister from 2011 to 2014, was accused of dog whistling in an interview published Friday in the L’Echo newspaper.

“Belgium cannot be governed the way it is today: solely for the richest and most powerful,” Di Rupo said. “It’s a Belgium of Antwerp diamond dealers that we have today when we need a much more pluralistic Belgium. It’s an unapologetic right-wing policy that presumes to know everything, but is belied by statistics.”

The diamond district of the Belgian city of Antwerp for decades was dominated by Jews. However, since the 1980s, Jewish traders have gradually been replaced by south Asians, who now are believed to outnumber the Jews.

In an editorial op-ed on the news site Juif, the writer accused di Rupo of dog whistling about Jews. But even if this was not his intention, the writer continued, “he could have said what he wanted to say differently instead of pouring oil on the fire of a certain kind of anti-Semitism.” The op-ed originally appeared on the blog “Philosemitism.”
Guardian suggests equivalence between President Rivlin’s ‘greater Israel’ and Gaza protest leader’s ‘No Israel’
It is indeed true, that President Rivlin has openly supported the idea of Israelis and Palestinians living ‘side by side’ as citizens of one state. However, President Rivlin champions the idea of an Israeli annexation of the West Bank with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side under Israeli sovereignty and Palestinians being granted full Israeli citizenship. In this scenario, it is assumed that Jews would still represent a significant majority of the overall population.

This is certainly not the view of Abu Artema. As UK Media Watch noted in an earlier post, Abu Artema believes Israel has no right to exist within any borders, and sees it as a foreign entity that expelled the Palestinians through ‘terrorism’. Thus, Abu Artema believes in ending Israeli sovereignty, not spreading it to Palestinians.

So, to compare the two seems to be a willful conflation of two opposite extremes, not an accurate comparison. There is a big difference between Israelis and Palestinians living under Israeli sovereignty, and living in a post-Israel world as hoped for by Abu Artema. Incredibly, the Guardian even includes a link in the above-mentioned opinion piece to a Jerusalem Post article about President Rivlin’s views, which makes it crystal clear that he wants to extend Israeli sovereignty – so they can’t even claim to have misunderstood his point.

There also is another mistake in the analogy – President Rivlin talked about Palestinians in the West Bank, whereas Abu Artema’s protests are in Gaza. President Rivlin did not champion Israel extending its sovereignty to Gaza, as Gaza is politically a separate entity. Israel withdrew its soldiers and civilians fully from Gaza in 2005. They the IDF imposed a partial military blockade in 2009, it is a totally separate political entity from Israel. So the simplistic phrase “Palestinians and Israelis living side by side” ignores the hard fact that there are different groups of Palestinians – President Rivlin talked about West Bank Palestinians, and Abu Artema talks about Gazan Palestinians.
Telegraph Corrects ‘West Jerusalem’ Giro d’Italia Stage
The Giro d’Italia, international cycling’s second biggest event, is coming to Israel this weekend much to the disappointment of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Back in November 2017, after angering Israeli government ministers, race organizers issued a clarification after their web site and promotional material said the first leg of the race would take place in “West Jerusalem.”

It looks like the Daily Telegraph didn’t get the memo.

While the BDS may wish to politicize the race, it shouldn’t be that the Telegraph unilaterally divides Israel’s capital city even when the Giro d’Italia has not done so.

We requested an amendment and we are pleased that the Telegraph obliged.
German memorial honors forced laborers of forgotten Nazi camp
Germany on Friday inaugurated a memorial at the long-forgotten site of a World War II Nazi concentration camp where forced laborers built an aircraft factory deep inside a Bavarian forest.

At least 2,200 prisoners, many of them Hungarian Jews, died in the miserable conditions at the Muehldorfer Hart camp and were buried on-site in a mass grave.

More than 70 years after the war ended, the state of Bavaria has finally put up a memorial of standing concrete slabs with photographs and text on the site's grim history.

A concrete path has also been laid, leading visitors through the vast area's work camp to the mass grave.

"I am satisfied that finally, after so many years, we can remember the suffering of these men and their deaths in the middle of the forest," said Franz Langstein, who heads the association "For Remembrance."

The group has fought for 20 years for the memorial to be built, he told AFP.

"Why so long? That's a difficult question," said Langstein. "I think it has to do with the fact that a certain generation needed time before looking back."

Some 10,000 detainees were forced to work in "inhumane conditions" in the camp from the summer of 1944 until April 1945, according to Langstein.
Road sign in Arizona hacked to display anti-Semitic message
An electronic road sign in central Arizona was hacked to display an anti-Semitic message.

The sign in Pinal County early on Friday morning was altered to read “Hail Hitler,” which, though spelled incorrectly, is believed to refer to the Nazi salute, the Arizona Republic reported.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office received the first call complaining about the sign at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

fficers attempted to turn off the sign, owned by an unnamed private company, but it required a password. County crews covered the sign for several hours until the company could be reached and the sign was turned off, according to the report.

The sheriff’s office said it could not investigate the incident as a hate crime since no individual victim was targeted.

Nazi symbols, salutes on display at Ukrainian nationalist march
Hundreds of people in the Ukrainian city of Lviv attended a nationalist march featuring Nazi symbols that commemorated a Waffen SS unit with many local volunteers.

Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, condemned the march Saturday honoring the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, or the 1st Galician, as “a scandalous event that should not be allowed to happen in Ukraine in which murderers of Jews and others are glorified.”

And Andrew Srulevitch, the director of European affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, on Twitter wrote on Sunday that “Ukrainian leaders need to condemn such marches, where Ukrainian extremists celebrate Ukrainian Nazi SS divisions (1st Galician), giving Nazi salutes in uniform in the middle of a major Ukrainian city.”
Nazi Camp Survivors, Austrian Far-Right Party Clash Over Memorial Service
A group that represents survivors of a Nazi-era concentration camp said on Monday the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), junior party in Austria’s coalition government, had not been invited to a memorial service, prompting an angry response from the FPO.

The Austrian Mauthausen Committee holds a ceremony every May to mark the liberation of the Mauthausen-Gusen camp near the city of Linz in northern Austria by US troops in 1945. Up to 320,000 people are believed to have died there from 1938, when it opened after Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria, to 1945.

The committee has barred the anti-immigrant FPO, which was founded by former Nazis, from the memorial services since the 1960s. But the FPO became the junior coalition partner of the ruling conservatives last year, it has publicly disowned its Nazi roots and has been trying to project a more moderate image.

Willi Mernyi, the committee’s head, told Austrian newspaper Der Standard that having officials from the FPO at the May 6 memorial service would be a “renewed humiliation” for survivors.

He said the FPO supported a far-right publication called Aula, which once called freed prisoners from the concentration camp a “plague on the country.”

“Should such people march by the survivors? Perhaps we should also invite the (nationalist) student fraternities to sing something for us?” Mernyi added.
Teen behind JCC threats suspected of making bomb hoax calls from prison
A 19-year-old Israeli-American teenager awaiting trial on charges relating to more than 2,000 bomb and other threats against Jewish communities, airports and police stations in the United States and other countries is suspected of making a further 100 threatening calls from inside an Israeli prison.

The teenager, a resident of Ashkelon, was arrested Monday after two calls were made to the Israeli police on Sunday warning of suspicious items at schools in Tel Aviv and the nearby town of Kfar Saba.
The two calls were traced back to the teenager who is currently awaiting trial at the Nitzan prison in the central Israel town of Ramle.

The name of the suspect remains under gag order as he was a minor when the majority of the alleged crimes were committed. The police investigation into the latest series of calls is still ongoing.

The teenager was first arrested in March 2017 after a lengthy investigation carried out by Israel Police, in coordination with the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies.

He was indicted in April 2017 for a range of offenses over a two-year period, including extortion through threats, publicizing fake news that caused fear and confusion, cyber crimes and money laundering. He was also charged with illegal possession of a weapon, attacking a police officer, selling drugs, possessing pedophile-type materials and other crimes.

His defense lawyer in Israel has stated that the defendant has a high IQ but has an inoperable benign brain tumor and severe behavioral issues.
80s band Foreigner to play Tel Aviv show
Foreigner lead singer Kelly Hansen is on the road for seven to eight months a year, visiting city after city and country after country - "I stopped counting countries at around 75, but we've been to a lot!" he said.

But Hansen knows one thing he'll be looking forward to when he and the rest of the band touch town in Tel Aviv this week - the food.

"I love the whole Mediterranean vibe of the food there," Hansen, a self-described foodie, told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview from Oklahoma. "The first time was really quite a shock as to how fresh and just vibrant the food was - I look forward to having some more of that."

This Saturday night will be the band's third time in Israel in just the past four years, as they celebrate their 40th anniversary and kick off several weeks of shows across Europe. And, after 40 years, the band knows just how to deliver the classic hits that Foreigner fans are looking for - from "I Want to Know What Love Is" to "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Hot Blooded," "Juke Box Hero" and more.

But only one member of the original lineup - guitarist Mick Jones - is still touring with the band, and Hansen himself came on in 2005, long after the band's heyday in the 70s and 80s.
Roseanne at JPost Conference: I want to move to Israel and run for PM
Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr said at the Jerusalem Post Conference on Sunday that she hopes one day to make aliya and run for prime minister of Israel.

“I want to move to Israel and run for prime minister,” she told interviewer Dana Weiss. “I do have that fantasy. If God calls me, I’ll go.”

Barr later said that she’s not entirely sure about the political run, but she definitely hopes to move to the Holy Land one day.

“I want to make aliya, I do, and before all the stuff is sold – all the real estate,” she said. “I still have this fantasy of being an old Jewish lady living in the Jewish homeland... I want to buy a farm there and maybe bring my family.”

Of course, Barr won’t be moving just yet, since she just signed on to another year of her smash hit TV show, the revival of Roseanne. Barr said it’s true she committed to another year “but you never know what’s going to happen.”
Brazilian soccer legend opens academy in Israel
A Brazilian soccer idol has launched a soccer school in Israel aimed at both native-born and immigrant children and youths.

Ronaldinho Gaucho, who spent last week in the Jewish state, announced Thursday the establishment of the Ronaldinho Soccer Academy, a soccer school for children and youths ages 6 to 16. The goal is to combine the passion and fun of Brazilian soccer with a strong teaching methodology and friendship values.

“I am very excited to help Israeli children of all faiths raise their game to the highest levels,” Ronaldinho said during a news conference. “I see the school as a first-class educational tool that helps in acquiring skills, tools for life, discipline, teamwork and more. Israel has a tremendous potential, countless talents and a great love for the game.”

The project was established in cooperation with the Beitar Nordia Jerusalem soccer team along with local partners.

“Our mission is to bring new values to Israeli children and make the sports they are passionate about collaborate in their upbringing, promoting well-being, health, compliance and social engagement. Teachers will be cordial and patient educators,” Brazilian-born Mauro Rozenszajn, CEO of Ronaldinho Soccer Academy Israel, told JTA.
Argentina’s national soccer team will play in Israel despite BDS pressure
Two-time soccer world champion Argentina will travel to Israel to play a friendly between the two national teams despite pressure from BDS activists.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel has launched a campaign to stop the June 9 match, including sending letters to Argentine sports figures.

The letter from the Argentinean Committee of Solidarity with Palestine to the Argentinean National Secretary of Sports and the Argentine Football Association says that canceling the match “would represent the solidarity values ​​of the Argentine people towards other people’s victims of oppression, apartheid and genocide.”

The boycott campaign is using the motto “Argentina don’t go” to Israel, or #ArgentinaNoVayas.

On Sunday, the main sport national television channel, TyCSports, announced that it would broadcast the match live. The Israeli event organizer, Cometc, also published details of the match on its website.

The venue of the match is not yet confirmed, with Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem and Samy Ofer Stadium in Haifa the most probable locations.
Israel Daily Picture: Lag B'Omer Festival 100 Years Ago -- April 30, 1918
Among the thousands of very old and recently digitalized pictures from a Library of Congress collection of photos from Palestine, there is this captivating picture.
All the original Library of Congress caption explained was that the picture was taken between 1910 and 1930 and that it is a “Group of children and adults in procession in street, some holding a banner with a Star of David.”

Today, the caption reads: Procession may have taken place on April 30, 1918, on Lag Ba'Omer, when visits were traditionally made to the tomb. British army tents in background, indicate year of 1918. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A Picture a Day website, August 19, 2011)

Who are the hundreds of children? Why are the boys and girls separated? Where are they marching to? Where is this picture taken? And why is there a tent compound on the left horizon?

Photo analysis and comparison to an aerial photograph from 1931 and contemporary pictures indicate
that the children are walking south on the Nablus Road (Derech Shchem) in the direction of the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. Behind them is the road that veers to the right toward Mt. Scopus. The road leads to a neighborhood built around the grave of a High Priest named Shimon the Righteous (Hatzadik) who lived in the days of the Second Temple.

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Ottoman archives recognize Al Aqsa mosque built on area of Temple

Elder of Lobby noticed this in the Ottoman Imperial Archives:



Let's look at that caption a little closer, shall we?



I guess this is when the Muslims that claim there was never a Jewish Temple on the site regroup and decide that Solomon was a Muslim.


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PLO tells their people to keep resisting until Israel is destroyed via "return"

The Western media has been downplaying the meaning of "return" in the weekly Gaza "Great Return March" riots.

But to Palestinian Arabs, the meaning has always been clear. They intend to "return" to take over Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias and Nazareth more than they want an independent state in the West Bank.

Here is a poster that the PLO - the official representative of the Palestinians to the world - has released for "Nakba Day":


When they say that there is "no alternative to return" they know, and their people know, exactly what that means.

Yasir Arafat said this about "return" in 1980: "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations… We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel."

Nothing that the PLO has done since then, including Oslo, has contradicted this basic position. And for proof of that - see what Arafat said after Oslo.

In 1995, in a speech celebrating the birth of his daughter, he said, "The Israelis are mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice until either the last boy and the last girl raise the Palestinian flag over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem."

In 1996, in a speech to Arab diplomats, he said, "The PLO will now concentrate on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps... We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs. I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under Arab rule."

Also in 1996, Arafat is quoted as saying in a speech in Stockholm, “We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilled to redeem our land!”

The PLO has never, ever repudiated Arafat's words. On the contrary, it and Abbas has emphasized how they have not changed their position one bit since 1988.

If they wanted to build a country, they would welcome all Palestinians into the areas they control. They wouldn't want to send them to an enemy country that they teach their children routinely kills them. 

But this poster, just like Arafat's statements, proves that the intent of the Palestinian leadership was never to build a nation but to destroy one. 


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04/30 Links Pt1: Netanyahu make ‘significant’ announcement on Iran’s nuclear program; Glick: Time to Leave the Iran Deal; Trump 'seriously considering' letting Pollard move to Israel

From Ian:
Netanyahu to announce ‘significant’ new info on Iran’s nuclear program
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will announce a “significant development” regarding Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in a live speech at 8 p.m. Monday, his office said.

Netanyahu will give the statement at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv.

According to Hadashot news and Channel 10 news, Netanyahu will reveal intelligence information, based on a large cache of documents recently obtained by Israel, which he believes proves Iran has duped the world regarding the state of its nuclear program.

Channel 10 reported that Netanyahu will speak in English, in order for the announcement to reach a worldwide audience.

Ahead of his remarks, Netanyahu cancelled a speech he was to make at the Knesset and his Likud party called off its weekly faction meeting due to the security tensions. The opposition Zionist Union and Yesh Atid parties withdrew their proposed no-confidence vote in the government. Given the “sensitive” security situation, it was appropriate to “show a unified front,” said Zionist Union MK Yoel Hasson.
Palestinians must make peace or shut up, Saudi crown prince said to tell US Jews
At a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman castigated the Palestinian leadership for rejecting opportunities for peace with Israel for decades, and said they should either start accepting peace proposals or “shut up.”

Citing what it said were multiple sources, Israel’s Channel 10 News on Sunday night quoted what it said were remarks made by the crown prince at the meeting that left those who were present “staggered” by the ferocity of his criticism of the Palestinians.

“For the past 40 years, the Palestinian leadership has missed opportunities again and again, and rejected all the offers it was given,” the Saudi leader reportedly said.

“It’s about time that the Palestinians accept the offers, and agree to come to the negotiating table — or they should shut up and stop complaining,” he reportedly went on.

Prince Salman also told the US Jewish leaders that “the Palestinian issue is not at the top of the Saudi government’s agenda” and elaborated, “There are much more urgent and more important issues to deal with — such as Iran,” according to the TV report.
Officials: Trump 'seriously considering' letting Pollard move to Israel
US President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” changing the parole conditions of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to allow him to come to Israel, Israeli officials said at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on Sunday.

Pollard was paroled from prison in November 2015 after serving 30 years of a life sentence for spying for Israel, America’s ally. But his parole conditions prevent him from leaving New York State and moving to, or even visiting Israel.

In a recent conversation with a visitor to New York, Pollard revealed that he and his wife, Esther, were suffering from poor health and had dealt with significant medical challenges over the past year.

Asked if he had hope that the Trump administration would commute his sentence and allow him to go to Israel, Pollard told the visitor he met on the street: “I am praying for a miracle. I just want to come home.”

Intelligence Services Minister Israel Katz said allowing Pollard to come to Israel would be another welcome gesture by the Trump administration when the US Embassy moves to Jerusalem.

“In order to make the celebration even happier, I would like to ask our great friend President Trump to give the Israeli public one more present and to allow Jonathan Pollard to come to Israel and celebrate with us in Jerusalem,” Katz said.



Caroline Glick: Time to Leave the Iran Deal
Conversely, abandonment of the nuclear deal by the U.S. will weaken, if not cripple the regime. Reinstituting U.S. sanctions against Iran will hasten the downfall of the Iranian economy, which is already coming apart at the seams. Iran’s current economic woes owe to its limited access to foreign currencies through the international banking system. Further U.S. economic sanctions will limit that access still further, and send hundreds of thousands of Iranians into the streets to protest as what is left of their rial-backed savings are rendered worthless by skyrocketing inflation.

If the regime is destabilized, its desire to go to war against Israel will likely diminish rather than increase. During the countrywide anti-regime protests last December and January, the demonstrators protested against the regime’s diversion of billions of dollars away from the public to pay for the war in Syria and to underwrite Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. The protesters called out, “No Gaza, No Lebanon, No Syria, My life for Iran!”

At the UN Security Council on Thursday, Israel’s UN Ambassador Dani Danon revealed new details about Iran’s burgeoning military presence on Syria. “There are over 80,000 extremists from all over the Middle East who are members of Shia militias in Syria under Iranian control,” he said.

Danon shared satellite imagery of what he claimed is an Iranian recruitment center just five miles outside Damascus. His presentation dovetailed with satellite imagery released by the Israeli military earlier in the month detailing five Iranian-controlled air bases in Syria. The release of the air base data was interpreted as a signal to the Iranians that Israel intends to bomb the bases if Iran carries out its threat to retaliate for Israel’s air assault on the Iranian drone base T-4 outside Palmyra, Syria immediately after the US-led airstrikes on Syria’s chemical weapons installations on April 7.

All of these recent events, and the rising threat of war, show that opponents of the Iran nuclear deal were correct and that Kerry’s circular reasoning, which prevented the U.S. and its allies from taking effective action against any of Iran’s nuclear and non-nuclear operations, was dead wrong.

Not only does the nuclear deal pave Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal rather than block it, by enriching Iran, the deal also rewarded Iranian aggression and increased the chance of a major regional war.

The way to diminish that prospect is not to empower the Iranians still further by maintaining the deal. The way to diminish the chance of war is by weakening Iran. Leaving the deal, while standing with Israel and with opponents of the regime inside Iran, means doing just that.
Seth Frantzman: Syrian regime bombing Palestinian camp to root out ISIS
Once home to 160,000 people, it has been gutted and reduced to rubble over the last years as it was under siege.

Many of the Palestinians who once lived there have fled, but estimates noted that thousands still remained.

“Severe escalation of fighting affecting Yarmouk Camp, in Damascus,” tweeted UNRWA commission general Pierre Krahenbuhl on April 24. “UNRWA prepared to provide emergency aid to fleeing refugee families as soon as security conditions permit.”

By Sunday, Al Jazeera estimated that 60% of the neighborhood had been taken by the Syrian army and its allies.

UNRWA continued to warn of “catastrophic consequences.”

In addition, up to 3,500 Palestinians were able to escape the fighting, Al Jazeera reported.

For Palestinian refugees in the camp and those who fled over the last few years, this is only the latest round of suffering.

Krahenbuhl told reporters in Brussels at an international conference that “Palestinian refugees in Syria are a community that lives, for the second time in their large history, the trauma of displacement.”

Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi posted about Yarmouk on her Facebook page, asking: “Who can be silent in this time of people crying out?” “Imagine the global response if Israel had done this. But it’s [the] Assad regime so let’s keep the focus on ISIS,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies asked on Twitter.
Iranians killed in alleged Israeli strike on military site in Syria
The Syrian army confirmed that Sunday that several military bases in northern Syria were struck in an attack blamed on Israel by the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al Akhbar.

According to official news agency SANA, a military source said that “some military sites in the countryside of Hama and Aleppo provinces were exposed at 10:30 PM to a new aggression with hostile rockets.”

The explosions following the strike registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, but the weapons used did not cause the quake. Over 18 people were killed and another 60 were wounded, Sky News Arabia reported citing regime media.

Al Akhbar reported the targets of the strike were Syrian army bases being used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Shi'ite militias with troops from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hezbollah’s Al Mayadeen reported missiles also struck targets in the Al-Malikiyah area, north of the Aleppo’s airport.
Iran's Tasnim news agency denied that its bases were hit.


Seth J. Frantzman: Analysis: Who could have been behind the massive explosion in Syria?
Four hours after the strikes, around two in the morning, many pro-regime accounts shifted their blame from Israel to the US-led Coalition. The narrative began to form that it was actually a missile strike from the Coalition base at Al-Tanf or from airplanes off the coast with missiles flying over Jordan and striking Hama. Supposedly, the missiles were directed at Iranian bases. A post by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi shed light on claims by a commander in the pro-regime Latakia Local Defense Forces, that the strike was “likely an American strike in retaliation for the crossing onto Syrian Democratic Forces positions in Deir ez-Zor.” This is a reference to an attack on April 29 by pro-regime forces on the Euphrates river against US-backed SDF. Other accounts even showed maps and diagrams to “explain” how the attack was carried out by the US. And they sought to show that a US drone was hovering around the Mediterranean at the time of the strikes.

An even more strange rumors put out by some pro-Syrian rebel accounts was that it was the Russians who had targeted their own Iranian allies. “Russia was involved in negotiations in Homs and they wanted to negotiate, and the Astana meetings will take place in two weeks. Because the regime and Iran did not apply the Russian instructions, Russia struck the Iranian base.” Astana is the location of peace talks and the sixth round of discussions between Russia, Turkey and Iran are supposed to take place in mid-May.

By the morning on Monday, the rumors and stories had largely dissipated. Iran’s ISNA news agency reported casualties at the site of the airstrikes. But full details remained unclear and the Iranian media even quoted Israeli media in order to claim that the “Zionists” might have been responsible. Syria’s SANA state media included only a small report on the “foreign aggression” against the base in Hama. It was more interested in boasting about the regime’s successes in battles in southern Damascus against Islamic State and about an agreement to evacuate civilians from a Shi’ite enclave in Idlib.

So why did pro-regime accounts spread rumors blaming the Coalition for the strikes? Why did pro-regime media switch from reporting the “aggression” to ignoring it? It appears that because they knew no one could ignore the massive scale of the explosion, there had to be some explanation. It may have been embarrassing for the regime to assert that Israel had been responsible, because then it would have to admit that Russian air defenses were not activated, despite assertions that future strikes would be challenged. This made it easier for pro-regime activists to create a convoluted and complex story blaming the US for strikes from a “new” location near Jordan. But by the morning, such necessities to blame the US for the strike evaporated into a decision to simply move on. There are still dozens of killed and wounded at the Hama base. Details of their condition and the base itself have yet to emerge.
Resonant Syria strike suggests coordinated US-Israel message to Russia and Iran
Hours after a mysterious “earthquake” — 2. 6 on the Richter scale — registered on the devices of the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the circumstances behind the series of explosions that shook Syria overnight Sunday-Monday are starting to become clear.

An increasing number of media organizations associated with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah are hinting that Israel was responsible. According to a report in the Al Akhbar newspaper, identified with Hezbollah, bunker buster missiles, which do not explode on impact but rather deep in the ground, hit bases in the Hama and Aleppo areas. Hence the “earthquake.”

The base that was attacked in the Hama area belongs to the 47th Brigade of President Bashar Assad’s Syrian Army, but apparently there were many Shiites and/or Iranians in the area. The Syrian Human Rights Observatory (based in London) reported that 26 people were killed in this attack, Iranians among them. Another report spoke of 38 fatalities. Whatever the case, it is clear that the strike was highly unusual in several respects.

First and foremost was the sheer power of the attack. The pictures and the sounds, and the large number of casualties, point to an incident of larger scale than those to which we have become accustomed. We are not talking here about just another strike on another Hezbollah convoy, but rather what would appear to be a new step in what is now the almost-open warfare being waged between Iran and Israel in recent weeks on Syrian territory. The same player that earlier this month attacked the T-4 airbase, from which an Iranian attack drone was launched into Israel in February, apparently struck again overnight Sunday-Monday, taking the gloves off and moving into a new level of military confrontation.
JCPA: Hamas’ Warfare Tactics in the “Great Return March”
The violent activities that occurred within the framework of the “Great Return March” included the following:

Shooting attacks – On March 30, 2018, two Hamas operatives approached the border fence in northern Gaza and opened fire from a light weapon at an IDF force, which returned fire and killed them.5 Two more gunmen fired on Israeli troops on April 27.

Explosive charges – An IDF spokesman reported on April 13, 2018, an explosive charge was laid a few meters away from the border fence in the area near the Karni crossing, close to the neighborhood of Shuja’iyya. The explosives blew up on the Palestinian side of the fence, apparently injuring several protesters. A Palestinian was filmed throwing a suspicious object, apparently an explosive charge, several meters from the security fence. In a photograph taken at the scene of the incident, several journalists and a disabled person are seen close to the thrower of the explosive charge.6

Another explosive device that was laid during the disturbances at the events of the “great return march” in northern Gaza was activated (on April 11, 2018) against IDF engineering tools.7 On April 8, an IDF force located several explosive devices in northern Gaza. These explosives were placed by Palestinians who passed through the fence and immediately retraced their steps.8 Several days earlier, a hand grenade thrown from the Gaza at IDF forces was located.9 Explosive charges along the entire border pose a tangible threat against IDF forces on a regular basis. On March 15, several explosive devices were detonated while an IDF force was patrolling the area around northern Gaza.10 On March 1, 2018, IDF forces neutralized explosives that had been placed on the fence in southern Gaza to harm soldiers patrolling the area. The explosives had been laid during “peaceful” Friday protests, along with an explosive charge that had been attached to a flagpole. When it exploded on February 17, 2018, it wounded four soldiers.11 In March 2017, explosive devices were also located close to the border fence with Gaza.12

Molotov cocktails13 – These are glass bottles filled with flammable liquid that are activated by lighting a damp cloth in the neck of the bottle. In the past, Molotov cocktail attacks have caused serious injuries to soldiers and civilians and even death. A Molotov cocktail is considered by the IDF to be a weapon.

Catapults – East of Khan Yunis, the Palestinians used catapults attached to a wagon or anchored in the ground that were able to launch rocks at IDF forces.14


6 Gazans try to cross fence into Israel; 3 shot dead
In two separate incidents, one of which included an attack on Israeli forces, troops opened fire on four Palestinians who tried to enter Israeli territory from the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, killing three of them, the army said.

In a third case, also in the southern Gaza Strip, two Palestinian suspects were arrested after they crossed into Israeli territory, the military said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, in the first incident, two of the Palestinians were spotted trying to damage the security fence and infiltrate into Israel. IDF soldiers opened fire, killing one of them, and took the second into custody.

“Two suspects tried to cross the border into Israel and damage the security fence in the southern [Gaza] Strip. One suspect was killed, the other apprehended for questioning,” the army said.

Minutes later, the army reported that a second pair of Palestinian suspects had broken through the security fence and hurled improvised explosive devices at IDF soldiers.

The troops fired at them, killing the two attackers, the army said.




WaPo Publishes Piece Painting Palestinian Protesters As Young Innocents. That's Not The Whole Story.
On Saturday, The Washington Post, in yet another example of its anti-Israel bias, published a piece titled, “Blasted Limbs, Broken Dreams,” in which it lamented the Palestinians who have been shot in the legs during the past month as Palestinians have been threatening to cross the border into Israel.

Of course, the Post quoted the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza when it came to gathering statistics; that organization claimed 17 Gazans had lost limbs after being shot by Israeli troops. And the Post’s article painted the victims as young innocents who were cruelly targeted by Israeli troops: examples included, “a lanky teenager who loves to run, a medal-winning track star with ambitions to compete abroad,” “an aspiring athlete who had hoped to break free from life in Gaza,” and one with “thick dark hair in a pompadour and has deep-set eyes that turn down in pain.”

But here’s the side of Gazans’ actions that the Post ignores:


If you needed further evidence that the Post’s sympathies lie with the Palestinians and not the Israelis who live under constant threat, try this sentence from the Post article: “Israel says its armed response has been appropriate for the threat posed by Palestinians. Israeli officials accuse the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, of using civilian demonstrators as cover to ‘terrorize Israel.’”

Note the quotes around “terrorize Israel,” as if Israeli officials are making up out of whole cloth the idea of Palestinians executing terrorist attacks on Israel.

Just another example of anti-Israel bias brought to you by the MSM.
NY Times’ Infantile Support for Gaza Rioters Empowers Reactionary Regime
There’s a difference between running an unfair piece which once again points the finger at Israel for this or that failure of its Arab neighbors – and actually contributing to the suffering and hopelessness of those same Arabs. Iyad Abuheweila and David Halbfinger on Sunday actually joined the forces of repression which have been devouring the Arabs of the Gaza Strip since 1948.

Their story, For Gaza Protester, Living or Dying Is the ‘Same Thing,’ focused on Saber al-Gerim, 22, a Gaza Strip Arab whose grandmother fled her home in what is today the city of Ashdod in Israel. One of the thousands of Gazan youths who threw themselves against the border fence over the past five weeks, al-Gerim’s dispair has reached a level where he tells the Times’ writers: “It doesn’t matter to me if they shoot me or not,” because “Death or life — it’s the same thing.”

The CIA World Factbook in 2017 offered a grim analysis of things inside the Gaza Strip: “Movement and access restrictions, violent attacks, and the slow pace of post-conflict reconstruction continue to degrade economic conditions in the Gaza Strip,” goes the report. “Israeli controls became more restrictive after Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007.”

The reason for that tightening of the controls had to do with the fact that Israel, which had let go of every last inch of Gaza in the summer of 2005, watched helplessly as the partner with which it had signed a peace agreement, the PLO, was being roughed up, its members thrown off rooftops, by the zealot terror group Hamas whose primary goal, above all else, was and has since remained the annihilation of the Zionist state.
Israel MFA: U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo: "The U.S. Is with Israel in This Fight to Counter Iran's Threats"
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. After their meeting, they said:

Prime Minister Netanyahu:
"The bold decision by President Trump has prompted other countries, quite a few now, who are planning to move their embassy to Jerusalem as well. It says something about American leadership and about the forthright way in which simple truths are being put forward, and the effect this has on the international scene."

"The greatest threat to the world and to our two countries - and to all countries - is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons, and specifically the attempt of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons."

"I appreciate the President's and your position on stopping Iran's aggression in the region. That aggression has grown many-fold since the signing of the Iranian deal....Iran is trying to gobble up one country after the other. Iran must be stopped. Its quest for nuclear bombs must be stopped. Its aggression must be stopped, and we're committed to stopping it together."

Secretary of State Pompeo:
"We remain deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region, and Iran's ambition to dominate the Middle East remains. The United States is with Israel in this fight, and we strongly support Israel's sovereign right to defend itself."

"As part of the President's comprehensive Iran strategy, we are also working to counter the broad set of non-nuclear threats: Iran's missile systems, its support for Hizbullah, the importation of thousands of proxy fighters into Syria and its assistance to the Houthi rebels in Yemen."

"We look forward to working closely with strong allies like Israel in countering these threats and rolling back the full range of Iranian malign influence."
U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo and Palestinians Have Nothing to Discuss
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Israel Sunday in the midst of the worst crisis in relations between Israelis and Palestinians in years, but he did not meet a single Palestinian representative and mentioned them publicly once.

For decades, American diplomats saw themselves as brokers between the two sides, and secretaries of state typically met Palestinian representatives on regional tours like this one. When relations between the two sides deteriorated, the United States sought to bridge the divide.

No more.

No one at the State Department called Palestinian leaders to ask for a get-together with Mr. Pompeo, according to Palestinian officials. And that may be because the Americans knew the answer they would have gotten: No.

Infuriated by President Trump’s decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, paving the way for the United States to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested holy city, Palestinian leaders have cut off political contacts with the Trump administration. They say the White House can no longer be considered an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“There’s nothing to discuss,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Affairs Department.

In a remarks Sunday in Tel Aviv while standing next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Pompeo mentioned that the boundaries of Jerusalem should still be the subject of negotiations between the parties. “We remain committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace that offers a brighter future for both Israel and the Palestinians,” he said.

But the escalating protests along the border between Gaza and Israel — which have led to hundreds of injuries and 46 deaths and have generated global sympathy for the Palestinian cause — went unmentioned.

“No meeting in Ramallah on his first visit sets an ominous tone about prospects for any progress, or even dialogue, with the Palestinians,” said Daniel B. Shapiro, an American ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration.
Pompeo puts onus on Palestinians to rejoin peace talks
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wound up a three-day Middle East trip Monday without having met any Palestinians, and urged their leadership to rejoin the peace process. The Palestinian Authority is boycotting the Trump administration since US President Donald Trump in December recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Washington’s newly appointed top diplomat received a warm reception in Riyadh, Tel Aviv and Amman, focusing his talks on Iranian interference in the region.

Forty-five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire on the Gaza border since the start of protests that organizers have dubbed the Great March of Return on March 30, with more than 1,500 wounded, according to statistics from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The marches are being encouraged by Hamas, the terror group that runs Gaza, several of whose members were among the fatalities. Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, says the marches are ultimately designed to erase the border and liberate Palestine.

Pompeo, who met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, refused to criticize the use of deadly force, saying: “We do believe the Israelis have a right to defend themselves and we’re fully supportive of that.”
In Jordan, Pompeo backs Israel's right to defend itself
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that Israel has the "right to defend itself" in relation to the recent violence on its border with the Gaza Strip.

Former CIA director Pompeo, who embarked on his first foreign trip immediately after being confirmed as secretary of state last week, also urged the Palestinians and Israelis to resume political engagement toward a peace agreement.

Speaking at a news conference in Amman alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Pompeo said, "We certainly believe that the Israelis and Palestinians need to have political engagement. We urge the Palestinians to return to that political dialogue."

The remarks came one day after Pompeo met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and told him that the U.S. was deeply concerned by Iran's "destabilizing and malign activities."

Before arriving in Israel, the former CIA director met Saudi King Salman in Riyadh and stressed the need for unity among Gulf allies as Washington aims to muster support for new sanctions against Iran.
The Palestinians are at a dead end
The Palestinian nationalist movement was always a mirror image of Zionism – in other words, it was born out of and in response to the advent of Zionism. This means that the battle against the Zionist idea and the desire to serve as an antithesis to everything that Israel symbolizes were and are simply a common denominator rather than a defining element of the Palestinian identity. This is not enough to sustain a victorious national movement and lead it to success.

It would appear that the sources of the Palestinian weakness have never changed: the lack of a national identity that supercedes the tribe, the clan, or the village and is anything more than a rejection of the other (Zionism); the lack of any legitimate, effective leadership that lays out a path and convinces the public to take it; a weak economy; religious radicalization; and above all – depending on others to rescue the Palestinians from their distress.

From 1948 to 1967, the Palestinians hung their hopes on Arab nations. For the PA it's now the international community, that same vague and amorphous entity whose efficacy we have seen in Syria, and for Hamas – Iran and Turkey.

Incidentally, this is a challenging reality for Israel, because it means that the hope that one day Israel would find a Palestinian partner for either a peace deal or in the case of Gaza, a truce, is a false one. It's hard to think that the Palestinians in their current situation are capable of compromising, much less making a compromise acceptable to Israel, which is the stronger side. It also means that in the future, the ball is in Israel's court when it comes to its approach toward the Palestinians, and it's doubtful whether the Palestinians wish to or can take part in the game.
Graham calls for renegotiation of U.S. defense deal with Israel
Senator Lindsey Graham called for a landmark, decade-long defense agreement between Israel and the United States to be renegotiated on Sunday.

The Republican senator from South Carolina said that the memorandum of understanding, worth $38 billion in defense funding to Israel through 2028, offers insufficient missile defense aid at a time when Israel is facing an unprecedented array of missile threats from Iran and its proxies.

"I would ask President Trump and Bibi to sit down and renegotiate this deal," Graham told the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his nickname. "I want to give Israel more for missile defense."

When the MOU originally concluded in 2016, between the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration, Graham rejected caps the deal places on Congress, which appropriates funds to specific Israeli defense needs. The agreement was the first of its kind between Israel and the US to incorporate missile defense aid and ensures Israel receives $500 million a year for those programs.

Per the agreement, Israel will not request additional defense funds from Congress outside emergency circumstances. The MOU is the largest defense agreement the US has ever signed with a foreign nation.
Japan presides over rare Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian meet
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe landed in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, the first stop in a trip across the Middle East that will also take him to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Before leaving Japan, Abe told journalists working for Middle East peace would be a priority on his trip.

"I intend to work for the Middle East peace process by engaging with both Israel and Palestine in a constructive manner," Abe said, according to the Kyodo news agency.

On Sunday, Japanese Foreign Minister Tara Kono presided over a rare meeting of Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian officials in Jordan with the aim of pushing ahead on a plan to build a collaborative agro-industrial park and enhance cross-border trade and cooperation.

Kono acknowledged late Sunday that it "has not been easy for the four parties to get together under current circumstances."

Among those in attendance at Sunday's meeting were Israel's Economy Minister Eli Cohen, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki and Jordan's Planning Minister Imad Fakhoury.

Officials from Israel and the Palestinian Authority meet only intermittently, and Israel and Jordan only recently patched up relations after a months-long diplomatic crisis that began when a security guard at the Israeli embassy in Jordan shot and killed two Jordanian civilians, alleging one had attacked him with a screwdriver.
IsraellyCool: Why Australia Should Stop Abstaining and Stand Alongside Israel at UN
Every year, the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party meets at State Council to elect office bearers and debate policy motions. The 2018 meeting took place over 28-29 April, with over 1200 delegates participating.

On behalf of the Caulfield State Electorate Conference, I moved this motion, which was overwhelmingly supported:
“That this State Council calls upon the Federal Government to vote alongside Israel and the US and cease abstaining at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, or any other UN forum, on motions that are critical of Israel including its right to name Jerusalem as its capital city.”

A great many of us have had a gutful of the United Nations’ relentless attacks on Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign and Jewish State.

Late last week, I returned from a trip to the Holy Land. With my own eyes, I viewed the archaeological relics that prove Jews lived in Jerusalem over two thousand years ago. I stood in a sixteenth century synagogue. My hands touched the Western Wall – the last remaining part of the second Jewish temple: the holiest site in Judaism.

And yet UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organisation, has recently passed two resolutions, rejecting any historical connection between Jerusalem and Judaism. The resolutions claim Jerusalem is a city solely relevant to Muslims, which is curious given Jerusalem isn’t mentioned in the Quran once.

Why did Australia vote to abstain on these ridiculous motions? We should not have abstained, we should have voted no. Are we Israel’s close friend or not?
Community ally Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as Home Secretary
Community organisations have welcomed the appointment of Sajid Javid as the new Home Secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal.

The new appointee who was Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has a strong record speaking out against anti-Semitism, supporting Holocaust education, and opposing boycotts of Israel.

His promotion was welcomed by the Community Security Trust (CST) who wished him “success in your new role, and hopes to continue working with you to protect our Jewish community”.

The Board of Deputies also sent their congratulations to Javid, saying “your support for the Jewish community has been exemplary and we look forward to continuing to work together.”

Simon Johnson, CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council said “Sajid Javid has been a great supporter of the Jewish community, not least his vocal support for us against anti-Semitism. We want to congratulate him on his new role as Home Secretary and look forward to working with him in his new capacity.”

Javid, who said during his first community engagement in 2012 at a Conservative Friends of Israel business lunch, that if he were to live anywhere in the Middle East, it would be Israel, has been a long-time supporter of the Jewish state and a staunch opponent of anti-Semitism.
MEMRI: The Qatari Regime's Doublespeak: Condemnations Of Terrorism vs Social And Official Support For Terrorists
Since June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain have maintained a comprehensive boycott of Qatar, claiming that it supports and finances global terrorism.[1]Qatar, for its part, rejects these claims, and its senior officials constantly reiterate that they oppose terrorism and are committed to international agreements for fighting it. However, it is evident that despite its declarations condemning terrorism, Qatar continues to maintain ties with top terror operatives.

For example, two weeks ago, it was reported that Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al-Thani attended the wedding of the son of Qatari terrorist Abd Al-Rahman Bin 'Umayr Al-Jabbar Al-Nu'aymi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., the U.N. Security Council, and the U.K. as a major financer of Al-Qaeda.

This report reviews Qatar's anti-terrorism declarations, the Qatari prime minister's presence at wedding of Al-Nu'aymi's son, and the sanctioning of Al-Nu'aymi.

Qatar Condemns Terror, Publishes List Of Wanted Terrorists

To counter the claims of the Arab states that boycott it, Qatar makes an effort to project an image of a country that fights terrorism and its financing in every way. Thus, for example, at his April 10, 2018 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, Qatari Emir and Foreign Minister Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani declared his willingness to cooperate with the U.S. in this matter, and stressed that" We do not and we will not tolerate with people who fund terrorism. We've been cooperating with the United States of America to stop funding terrorism around the region." President Trump himself said that the countries that are stopping terrorism funding include the "UAE, it includes Saudi Arabia, it includes Qatar and others."[2] The previous week, in a telephone conversation with the Emir, President Trump praised Qatar's efforts in the struggle to end the financing of terror.[3]
Netanyahu slammed for sharing dubious, incendiary news about Arab soccer fans
An Arab Israeli soccer team on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for sharing on social media an apparently false news story that claimed the club’s supporters disrupted a minute of silence held in memory of 10 teens killed in a hiking accident. A spokesperson for the team said the prime minister was trampling on the bereaved families’ feelings and trying to divide Israeli society.

The soccer league and members of the opposing team all maintained that there had been no disruption by fans of the Bnei Shakhnin club during the memorial at the team’s home stadium.

Ten teenagers from a pre-military academy were swept away in a flash flood Thursday as they hiked through a desert canyon.

Netanyahu posted to his Facebook page a news story from the right-wing Israel National News website claiming Bnei Sakhnin fans whistled and booed during a minute silence held before a league match Saturday against Hapoel Ra’anana, who won the game 3-1.

“An utter disgrace,” Netanyahu wrote Sunday along with a link to the article. “I expect all public leaders, Jews and non-Jews, to forcefully condemn this embarrassing behavior.”
Terrorist who planned attacks in which 125 were murdered was “a battleship,” “great” and “fearless”


PA TV praises terrorist Abu Jihad who led “prominent operations” in which 125 were murdered


“A soul that still dwells in our hearts” - PA TV praises arch-terrorist Abu Jihad


Nuke deal deadline nearing, Netanyahu and Trump discuss ‘problems posed’ by Iran
With a deadline for amending the Iran nuclear deal or walking away from it just weeks away, US President Donald Trump spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone Saturday about Tehran’s malign influence on the region, the White House said on Sunday.

“The two leaders discussed the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East region, especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities,” according to a White House readout of the conversation.

Earlier on Sunday, Trump’s newly minted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel on his first foreign trip. While speaking alongside Netanyahu during a joint press conference, the former CIA director said that Trump remained committed to exiting the landmark accord if changes weren’t made and said that Iranian aggression against Israel — by trying to establish a military presence in Syria — was exacerbating American concerns.

“President Trump’s been pretty clear: This deal is very flawed. He’s directed the administration to try and fix it and if we can’t fix it he’s going to withdraw from the deal,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo also warned of Iran’s “destabilizing and malign activities” in the Middle East.
Putin, Macron urge ‘strict observance’ of Iran nuclear accord
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for the “strict observance” of the current Iran nuclear accord, with US President Donald Trump still deciding whether to scrap the agreement.

“The Presidents of Russia and France spoke in favor of keeping the plan and its strict observance,” the Kremlin said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The statement was released after Macron called Putin to inform him of his talks with Trump in the United States.

Trump faces a May 12 deadline to decide on the fate of the Iran nuclear accord and is demanding changes that European capitals believe would represent a legal breach.

On Sunday, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said the mercurial US president had not yet decided whether to scrap the accord.
Tehran warns it can enrich uranium to higher levels than ever before
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization warned Monday that Tehran is technically able to enrich uranium to a higher level than it could before it signed a nuclear deal with six world powers in 2015.

Directing his comments at US President Donald Trump, who is considering scrapping what he calls a terribly flawed agreement in the coming days, Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by Iranian state TV as saying, “Iran is not bluffing … Technically, we are fully prepared to enrich uranium higher than we used to produce before the deal was reached… I hope Trump comes to his senses and stays in the deal.”

Salehi made his comments hours before Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was slated to address Israel and the watching world on Monday evening in remarks relating to Iranian nuclear activities.

According to Israel’s Hadashot news and Channel 10 news, Netanyahu will reveal intelligence information, based on a large cache of documents recently obtained by Israel, which he believes proves Iran has duped the world regarding the state of its nuclear program.

Trump has given Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia until May 12 to fix what he sees as the main shortfalls in the deal.

So far, all these countries have said they will stand by the original deal and Tehran has threatened grave consequences if it is cancelled.
BESA: Iran’s Brutal War in Yemen Threatens the Entire Middle East
[T]he Houthis have been waging a very successful propaganda war that plays off of international confusion over the complicated ground campaign in Yemen. They have focused the world’s attention on Saudi airstrikes while entirely omitting their own widespread war crimes, such as their use of child soldiers, their positioning of troops in hospitals and schools, their use of civilians as human shields, their abuse of religious minorities, and their merciless use of missile strikes against “adversary” civilians in both Yemen and Saudi Arabia. And while Riyadh has taken responsibility for its mistakes, . . . Houthis have issued no apologies for their ruthless tactics.

It was the Houthis, not the Saudis, who first imposed a humanitarian blockade against Yemen. They then used humanitarian-aid shipments to their own population as a disguise for smuggled weapons, which ultimately led to many deaths from starvation. The Saudis were forced to impose their own naval blockade as a defensive measure to counter ballistic-missile strikes and increased attacks on coalition [forces] on the ground—yet the Houthis have succeeded in painting the kingdom as the villain. . . . [T]he main [goal] of the widespread, tenacious, and largely successful pro-Iran propaganda campaign in the West . . . has been to get the U.S. out of Yemen. . . .

The stakes here are high and numerous. Endangering the Saudi kingdom’s physical security is but one of the Iranians’ goals. Their wish to control significant portions of Yemen, if not the whole country, also reflects their desire to monopolize the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait (an effort that mirrors similar attempts in Syria) and thereby be in a position to threaten the safe passage of all international vessels attempting to reach Djibouti and the Horn of Africa. Tehran is building a naval base in Yemen, creating new routes for smuggling, and mobilizing Houthis into yet another standing semi-formal army [along the lines of Hizballah] that can be called upon for military or terrorist operations anywhere in the world at any time. . . .
Saudi court starts trial of Arabs accused of spying for Mossad
A Saudi Arabian court began the trial of two Jordanians accused of spying against the kingdom for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya said on Monday.

The charges under consideration by the Specialized Criminal Court include plotting a terrorist act during the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage four years ago and supporting Islamic State militants, Al-Arabiya wrote on its website.

It did not provide further details about the case.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and site of its holiest shrines, does not officially recognize Israel. It has maintained for years that normalizing relations hinges on an Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war - territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

However, increased tensions between Riyadh and Tehran has fueled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together against what they regard as a common Iranian threat.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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