06/05 Links Pt1: Dershowitz: The Palestinians Miss Yet Another Opportunity; PA: Salaries for terrorists more important than cancer treatment for 7-year-old ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: The Palestinians Miss Yet Another Opportunity

The Palestinians should send a delegation to Bahrain and participate in the meetings. They can make their demands and propose changes in the U.S. plan. There is no good reason for them not to participate. They can object to what President Trump has done and even demand that it be undone, but their objections will have no credibility if they continue to be no-shows.

One reality should be clear to the Palestinian leadership at this point if they want a state rather than a "cause" they will never get through any means other than direct negotiations with Israel. They will not get a state from the United Nations, from the European Union, from Russia, from Iran or even from the United States. Nor will they get it as a result of BDS or university protests. They will certainly not get it through military conquest or terrorism. Only by negotiating with Israel will they achieve statehood. And it won't be on the 1967 lines or without any other compromises, such as to the so-called right of return, despite dozens of meaningless one-sided resolutions, including the one engineered by outgoing President Barack Obama during his final days in office. Both sides will have to make painful compromises. Israel has already shown its willingness to do so by twice offering compromise plans. Prime Minister Netanyahu has recognized the need for Israel to make compromises. So must the Palestinian leadership.

Israel's current political deadlock, with new elections scheduled for September, will inevitably postpone any real progress toward peace. The Palestinian leadership should take advantage of this delay to attend the meeting without having to make any concessions. They can listen and propose, knowing that no final decisions are likely to be made until Israel forms a new government in the fall.

If the Palestinian leadership persists in its refusal to sit down and negotiate, they will only have themselves to blame for the lack of statehood. President Abbas himself has bemoaned the failure of Palestinian leadership to accept prior peace proposals. Now he is the leader in charge, at least in theory. He should learn the lessons of the past, come to Bahrain and begin a process of negotiation that may be the only remaining road to Palestinian statehood.

How the Palestinians Failed to Move toward a State during Oslo

When I started to work together with Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin on ways to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the early 1980s, the first thing we did was to speak to Palestinian leaders, businessmen, and journalists. One of our first questions was whether Israel should simply withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. The answer we got was devastating. "We Palestinians will first kill each other, and then we will start to kill you."

Israel has repeatedly offered ways and means to establish a prosperous State of Palestine, living in good neighborly relations beside Israel. Alas, internal Palestinian divisions, conflicting external influences, and the conviction that Israel is not here to stay have prevented the establishment of a state of their own.

In Shimon Peres' memoir, Battling for Peace, he expressed Israeli fears, writing: "In our view, a Palestinian state, though demilitarized at first, would over time inevitably strive to build up a military strength of its own, and the international community, depending upon massive Second and Third World support at the United Nations, would do nothing to stop it. That army, eventually, would be deployed at the very gates of Jerusalem and down the entire, narrow length of Israel. It would pose a constant threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the region."

In October 1993, Yassir Arafat's brother, Dr. Fathi Arafat, suggested the building of working committees for "people-to-people" activities, aiming to lay the foundations of good neighborly relations. Joint teams worked for 14 months on a wide range of programs. Then the PLO decided on an "anti-normalization" strategy that meant that any Palestinian who cooperated with Israelis would be castigated. The major message understood by Israeli society was that good neighborly relations were not part of the deal, even if this would undermine Palestinian well-being and prosperity.

In October 1995, a small group of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepared what is known as the Beilin-Abu Mazen Understanding, which was a blueprint for a Permanent Status Agreement. In the summer of 2000, Abu Mazen (Mohammad Abbas) publicly withdrew his consent. When we phoned him, he answered in his own voice, telling us that he was not at home.

PMW: PA: Salaries for terrorists more important than cancer treatment for 7-year-old

The PA has decided to stop paying for the successful cancer treatment of a 7-year-old Palestinian child Majed Muhammad Majed Ah-Sha'er in Israeli Ichilov Hospital, in order to keep paying salaries for terrorists. The decision was made despite the fact that Ichilov is the first hospital outside the United States using a new cancer treatment "that holds promise for lymphoma and leukemia patients."

According to the boy’s father Majed Muhammad was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2015, and was sent for treatment in Israel:

"He has been transferred to hospitals in the occupied interior (i.e., Israel) since the outbreak of the disease. He added that he has received full treatment and that the response [to the treatment] has been good. He also said that the doctors have emphasized that check-ups need to be made every six months in order to complete the treatment and necessary medical tests." [Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, May 28, 2019]

Majed's father explained that the new request for approval of his son's next trip was submitted "to the relevant bodies in Ramallah, but his referral to Ichilov Hospital was not approved and the doctors have said that he is expected to be referred to a different hospital in the occupied West Bank."

He added, "The reason that the referral to the hospital in the occupied interior (i.e., Israel) was not approved is that the president [Abbas] has decided to stop the referrals to the Israeli hospitals but there are sick people who are still being treated in the occupied interior."

Trump mourns passing of Nechama Rivlin as nation prepares for funeral

U.S. President Donald Trump sent his condolences to his Israeli counterpart President Reuven Rivlin, a day after Israel’s first lady passed away following an unsuccessful lung transplant.

Trump tweeted that he and his wife Melania were sending their condolences to the president “and the entire State of Israel.” Trump, who is currently on a state visit in the United Kingdom, said, “Mrs. Rivlin represented her beloved country with grace and stature. We will miss her along with all those who knew her.

The Trumps met the Rivlins when they visited Jerusalem in 2017. Rivlin suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, an interstitial lung disease, and was regularly seen in public with a portable oxygen tank.

During the presidential visit, Melania Trump helped the Israeli as she walked, endearing the former to the Israeli public. During the visit, Nechama presented Melania with the book Hug, about mother-son relationships.

Rivlin underwent a lung transplant in March but the complications had her hospitalized until her death early Tuesday. Her funeral was to take place on Wednesday evening.

Rivlin, who passed away at the age of 73 – just one day before her 74th birthday – led a quiet life by the side of her much more overt husband, the current president of Israel.

Stopping the al-Quds march - London 2019

You won't believe what happened at this years al-Quds protest. Thank you to every activist and organiser that made this year's counter-protest an undeniable success. ❤️

Covered previously on EoZ, May 26, 2019: Sydney, Australia man planned to stab Jewish students wearing Kippot

Ihsas Khan jailed for 36 years over terror attack in Sydney driveway

A Sydney man has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for stabbing his neighbour during a "violent, ferocious and inhumane" terrorist attack.

Ihsas Khan, who likened his attack to eating a chocolate bar, stabbed Wayne Greenhalgh in a driveway in Minto, in the city's south west, on September 10, 2016.

Mr Greenhalgh survived his life-threatening injuries after running to a nearby hair dressing salon for help.

In the Supreme Court in Parramatta today, Justice Geoffrew Bellew said Khan was motivated by an "immoral and depraved" ideology to kill in the name of religion.

"The offender's attack was violent, ferocious and inhumane," he said.

"The offender did not just set out to harm Mr Greenhalgh, he was on a mission to kill him."

Justice Bellew sentenced Khan to 36 years in prison with a non-parole period of 27 years.

There were loud cheers and applause from the public gallery, where Mr Greenhalgh sat with his family.

Student sentenced to 42 years for non-fatal stabbing of homestay host

A Bangladeshi student who stabbed her Melbourne homestay host in a terror act inspired by Islamic State will spend at least 31 years behind bars.

Judge Lesley Taylor today sentenced Momena Shoma, 26, to 42 years in prison for an act the bench labelled “an outrage to our democracy”.
Shoma admitted to engaging in a terror act when she stabbed Roger Singaravelu's neck while he dozed beside his five-year-old daughter at Mill Park on February 9, 2018.

Entering the court dressed in a niqab, Shoma was asked by the court to remove her headdress for the purpose of confirming her identity.
Shoma, then 24, had been in Australia on a student visa for just a week when she attacked Mr Singaravelu in the name of violent jihad, using a 25cm kitchen knife.

"Your actions sent waves of horror through the Australian community, but they do not make you a martyr ... they make you a criminal," Judge Taylor told the Victorian Supreme Court.

The young woman was enrolled in a masters of linguistics at La Trobe University but had been looking to attack someone since arriving in Australia.

“You had absolutely no intention of studying,” Judge Lesley Taylor said.

“Your sole purpose for entering this country was to carry out a terrorist attack.”

Israel and Egypt Made Peace in 1979 because Their Leaders Wanted to

In the conventional telling of the origins of the 1979 Camp David accords, President Jimmy Carter and his foreign-policy team dragged a reluctant Anwar Sadat and an even more reluctant Menachem Begin to the negotiating table and coaxed them into coming to an agreement. This story primarily emerges, write Gerald Steinberg and Zvi Rubinovitz, from the memoirs of several American officials. But recently declassified Israeli documents paint a very different picture of events, showing among other things that Begin supported peace with Egypt as far back as 1967:

[During Begin’s] stint as a member of the national-unity government created just prior to the June 1967 war, . . . the cabinet, led by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, endorsed the land-for-peace formula for Egypt and Syria, and Begin . . . joined in approving this framework. He repeated this position on numerous occasions, emphasizing the importance of a full treaty, as distinct from partial agreements or non-belligerency, which, he argued, would not bring Israel the full legitimacy that was required. In 1970, Begin resigned from the cabinet and returned to lead the opposition, citing the government’s [abandonment of these condition].

[In the months leading up to Camp David], Carter’s effort to involve the Soviet Union [in negotiations between Egypt and Israel] alienated both leaders, who made common cause in going around Carter. Sadat had recently evicted the Soviet military from Egypt, and Begin’s experience as a prisoner in the Gulag left a lifelong hostility; both viewed Moscow’s potential role as entirely anathema. The two leaders were also concerned that the American effort to solve the entire Middle East conflict, which included bringing in the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and Syria’s President Hafez al-Assad, . . . would fail and also prevent realization of a bilateral peace agreement.

Only after they had made progress in their own negotiations did Cairo and Jerusalem ask for Washington’s assistance in ironing out the details.

Jared Kushner Is Right. Palestinians Do Not Deserve A State.

The simple reality is that the Palestinian-Arabs are not anywhere remotely close to being deserving of their own state. They not only fail to reject jihadism — they actively embrace and inculcate it as a virtuous way of life. They not only fail to recognize Israel as a Jewish state — they seek to destroy it via both the sword and intellectually disingenuous "right of return" demographics alike. They not only do not invest in the societal building blocks of rudimentary economic and civil institutions — they actively invest, instead, in the subsidization of Jew-killing jihadi "martyrs."

In truth, the restive Palestinian-Arab populace is among the least sympathetic in the entire world. There is a good reason why so many of the Arab world's leading nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are increasingly unsympathetic to purported Palestinian plight and are instead interested in forging covert geopolitical ties with Israel. In the grand geopolitical scheme of things, the failure of the Palestinian-Arabs to carve their own terror state out of the Jewish biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria morally ranks somewhere far below the comparably uninteresting sovereignty disputes involving Western Sahara and Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. Indeed, the legal reality is also that, under any cognizable principles of international law, Israel has the unambiguously superior legal claim to control of Judea and Samaria.

Good for Jared Kushner for stating the obvious. But the fact that his comments are even controversial in the slightest ought to be deeply disturbing to anyone who lives and operates in the real world.

PA premier calls Trump plan ‘blackmail,’ says Bahrain workshop to be ‘born dead’

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan “blackmail” and said the PA wasn’t invited to this month’s Bahrain economic workshop — but wouldn’t have attended anyway.

Speaking with the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday, Shtayyeh also warned that the PA would collapse by July or August if a financial standoff with Israel isn’t resolved.

Shtayyeh criticized the Trump administration for touting the Bahrain conference as focused on improving Palestinian economy, while withdrawing its funds to Palestinians.

“These same people are the ones who have been working on the drying up of the financial resources of the Palestinian Authority,” he said, referring to hundreds of millions of dollars in halted aid money and contributions to UNRWA, the controversial UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

“We know the political agenda,” Shtayyeh said in the interview. “They are saying no to refugees. They are saying no to Jerusalem. They are saying no to two states. They are not respecting ’67 borders. And if this economic track is part of the overall package, what are we accepting? If we are there, people will use our presence there to capitalize on that.”

Gazans Burn Cardboard Effigy of President Trump, Display Coffin Representing Deal of the Century during March of Return pic.twitter.com/2DH3AX3fuT
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 5, 2019

Making Real Arab-Israeli Peace at the Bahrain Conference

Bahrain allows the Arab states to reach back, meet their obligations under UN Resolution 242 and restart the process the way the United Nations intended....

The UN did not offer Israel a nebulous "peace" but a concrete set of conditions to create "security": "Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."

All of that was to be given to Israel not by the Palestinians, who did not and do not meet the requirements of a state, but the belligerents of 1948 and 1967. Egypt and Jordan have done so.

Some of the countries that have to make their peace with Israel will be in Bahrain, and UN Resolution 242 should be on the table. Fifty-two years late is not too late.

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Iranian-Palestinian Plan to Thwart Trump's Peace Plan

Iran's support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad also needs to be seen in the context of Tehran's effort to undermine Arab states that have close relations with the Trump administration.

By boycotting the US-led conference in Bahrain, Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have placed themselves in the same league as Iran -- a country that despises them, deems them traitors and bankrolls their rivals, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in the Gaza Strip.

Even so, Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials match Iran's incendiary rhetoric of violence at the US administration and its "Deal of the Century" by denouncing it as a conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims.

Iran's leaders have every reason to be satisfied with Abbas, whose every remark indirectly bolsters the Ayatollahs in their campaign to undermine any Arab and Muslim who wants to work with the US or make peace with Israel.

B'Tselem creates interactive map of 52-year Jewish settlement growth

Israeli NGO B'Tselem has spearheaded a new project that will illustrate, over time, the growth, movement and construction of Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank. It will also demonstrate the dwindling of Palestinian communities.

B'Tselem said in a statement that Israel has expanded into "Palestinian space over the decades, shattering the land into small, isolated units, and keeping Palestinians apart from one another and from Israelis."

The project is titled "Conquer and Divide" and was created in collaboration with Forensic Architecture, an independent research agency.

"This visualization of the occupation shows how a combination of measures – annexation; establishment of settlements; declaration of 'state land,' firing zones, nature reserves and national parks; construction of the Separation Barrier; division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C with varying forms of control; and severing the Gaza Strip from the West Bank – has broken up Palestinian space into separate units that are easier to control in isolation," B'Tselem said.

Following the Six Day War in 1967, the Israeli government took control over the areas of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank. For the past 52 years, Jewish settlements have been constructed periodically and sporadically all across the territory.

Dems videos to AJC show divided interpretations of the US-Israel alliance

Everyone started by praising the American Jewish Committee, naturally enough. But in their video greetings to the group’s annual policy forum here, 13 Democratic candidates proceeded to demonstrate a party grappling with what story they should tell to one of its most important demographics: Jewish voters.

Some candidates started by decrying antisemitism. Others started by holding up the U.S.-Israel relationship. A couple didn’t mention Israel at all. Some remarks lasted under a minute, one went over six minutes.

Then there were the backgrounds, from the Capitol to a hotel room interior to what appeared to be the exterior of a shipping container. Frontrunner Bernie Sanders, the Independent from Vermont, posed in front of a poster touting the band the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Taken together, the 13 videos show a field of Democratic presidential candidates united in a determination to combat right-wing extremism, but divided in their interpretations of the U.S.-Israel alliance.

The AJC invited most of the 24 declared candidates to contribute a video and 13 complied. Candidates who are leading in the polls or who have had longstanding relations with the group had their videos streamed during plenaries. People attending the conference and others streaming online were directed to AJC’s YouTube channel to watch all 13.

Participating were Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sanders of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Michael Bennet of Colorado. The governors were Jay Inslee of Washington and former governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado. Former Vice President Joe Biden shared a video, as did Reps. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Tim Ryan of Ohio, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Sanders: Netanyahu's peace is Israel between Mediterranean Sea, Jordan River

Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised sharp criticism Tuesday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a video clip that was broadcast during the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington, Sanders also said that opposing Netanyahu doesn’t make him anti-Israel.

“We must say loudly and clearly that we oppose reactionary policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, [which] does not make anyone anti-Israel,” Sanders said. “Let me say it again. I am vigorously opposed to the reactionary racist and authoritarian policies of [US President] Donald Trump. That does not make me anti-American, and I am not anti-Israel because I oppose Netanyahu’s policies.”

Speaking on the peace process in the Middle East, Sanders said Israel is making significant technological advances that could bring innovation and prosperity for the entire region, yet it is unable to achieve this goal because of its unresolved conflict with the Palestinians.

“And I see [the] Palestinian people crushed underneath a military occupation [that is] now over a half-century old, creating a daily reality of pain, humiliation, and resentment,” he continued. “Let me be clear: I do not know how peace can be achieved in that region, but in the Gaza Strip, poverty is rampant. Fifty-three percent of people are unemployed. The number of unemployed is even higher, but young people at 99% of the residents cannot leave that area. That is not a sustainable situation.”

Sanders added that “ending the occupation and enabling the Palestinians’ independence and self-determination in a sovereign, independent, economically viable state of their own, is in the best interest of the United States, Israel, Palestinians, and the entire region. It is a necessary step in ensuring that Israel is accepted and integrated into the region.”

52 Years After Liberation, UK Minister Condemns Jews Moving into Eastern Jerusalem

Andrew Murrison, who on May 9 was appointed Minister of State at the Department for International Development and Minister for the Middle East at the Foreign Office, has issued his first contribution to the stability of the region under his concern by condemning the fact that Israel is planning to let several hundred Jews move into eastern Jerusalem.

Back in 1948, the British army left the area without having taken steps to establish a proper, legal boundary between the Jewish and Arab populations, in accordance with the 1947 UN resolution. As a result, the area exploded before and certainly after Israel’s May 14, 1948 declaration of independence. It just so happened that Great Britain owned and operated the Jordanian Legion which was one of the Arab armies that invaded the fledgling Jewish state the day after its establishment.

Divide and conquer is just what the empire did.

The invasion netted the Hashemite kingdom a large slab of land west of the Jordan river, to which it was not entitled, nor was its rule there recognized by anyone in the world – except, well, you know who, the island folks next door to France.

52 years ago Friday this week, after three weeks during which the Jordanians, in coalition with the Egyptians and Syrians, had assembled their army with the declared aim of annihilated the Zionist entity once and for all, the Israel Defense Forces chased the Jordanian Legion—still managed and operated by Her Majesty the Queen of England—across the Jordan River and liberated Jerusalem

Narendra Modi’s Reelection Is Good News for Israel

India’s recent elections delivered a decisive victory to the sitting prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his BJP party. Noting Modi’s consistent commitment to bettering relations between Jerusalem and New Delhi, Vijeta Uniyal comments on what this portends for the Jewish state:

Though some [of the improvements in the relationship between the two countries] have taken place gradually since the early 1990s and can equally be credited to the previous Israeli and Indian governments, bilateral ties today bear Modi’s distinct signature. In keeping with his policy of forging a strong bond with the Indian diaspora worldwide, India’s government has made specials effort in reaching out to the nearly 85,000 Jews of Indian origin living in Israel. During his July 2017 visit to the Jewish state, Modi addressed a gathering of 8,000 Indian Jews and Indian nationals. No modern Indian leader before Modi has managed to galvanize the Indian diaspora in such large numbers. . . .

Unlike his predecessors, Modi’s foreign policy has been shaped by his personal relationships with world leaders. If he has been warm toward Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Vladimir Putin, his dealings with the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau can fairly be described as frosty. Therefore, much will rest on the personal rapport between him and the next Israeli premier. . . .

[In the meantime], the media’s speculations over possible hostilities from India’s large Muslim population over Modi’s diplomatic “pivot” toward Israel have largely been unfounded. Beating predictions, he doubled his share of the Muslim vote in the recent election, increasing it from 4 percent in 2014 to 9 percent this election cycle. The Arab countries as well haven’t shown any inclination toward punishing India for building stronger ties with the Jewish state. These factors, combined with an increased mandate, give Modi even greater leverage in cementing diplomatic ties with Israel than he had in his previous term.

With nod from Jordan and Gulf, Israel upgrades section near Temple Mount

In recent weeks and far from the media spotlight, the Jerusalem Development Authority carried out an unprecedented upgrade near the Temple Mount, clearing a long-standing garbage dump just outside the Old City walls.

Work of this kind is rare, especially when done so close to the Temple Mount, where just on Sunday violent clashes broke out as Jews entered the holy site to mark Jerusalem Day.

Known as the “Sheep Market”, the garbage dump was located until recently on the northeast corner of the Old City, not far from the Temple Mount and adjacent to a monument erected to honor Jordanian soldiers killed during the Six Day War in 1967 as well as the Yeusefiya Cemetery, that runs to the south of the Temple Mount and is managed by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.

Sources involved in the project said that the garbage dump had become a health and sanitation hazard and was also disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers who walked by it on their way to the Temple Mount and al Aksa Mosque via the Lion’s Gate.

In order to move the garbage dump, the JDA – under direction of the Jerusalem Municipality and Mayor Moshe Lion – conducted negotiations with the Greek Orthodox Church and located a new location for a cleaner and environment-friendly garbage plant, farther away from the Old City walls.

Sources said that the project took time due to the sensitivity of any work conducted by the government in East Jerusalem and especially work that is carried out close to the Temple Mount. Throughout the process, contact was maintained with the Waqf as well as with authorities in Jordan and in various Gulf states.

Hamas Claims It Tried to Confuse Iron Dome System During May Fighting

Hamas attempted to confuse Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense batteries during the recent round of fighting between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, a commander in Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades told the organization’s Al Qassam website on Tuesday.

“The rocket fire worked as planned and in a well-timed manner,” he told the site, explaining that simultaneous launches towards multiple Israeli population centers were intended to confound the Iron Dome system.

The commander, known only as “Abu Maaz,” told Al Qassam that the rockets Hamas used in the May round of violence were locally made versions of the Iranian Sejjil medium-range ballistic missiles.

Abu Maaz said that the number of rockets fired during the May clashes was “the highest in the history of the conflict with the occupation [i.e., Israel],” with hundreds of rockets and mortars launched at Israel in a 30-hour period.

He also claimed that Hamas and the rest of the terrorist groups in Gaza, coordinating their launches though a joint operations center, managed to hit “key sites” in Israel.

According to Abu Maaz, 85 rockets were fired at Ashkelon, 80 at Ashdod and 60 at Beersheva, all of which supposedly contained heavy explosive payloads.

Senior PA ministers caught laundering money for Hamas in Malaysia

An intricate affair of fraud, corruption, and money laundering by senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials who transferred the funds to Hamas terrorists training in Malaysia has been exposed, TPS reports.

Official PA documents obtained by TPS show that Mahmoud Al-Habash, Supreme Sharia Judge in the PA and PA head Mahmoud Abbas’ Adviser on Religious and Islamic Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia Justice, is in the center of the corruption case, which is already sending shock waves through the PA.

Habash is suspected of having established shell companies through which funds were laundered and then transferred from Dubai to Malaysia, where Hamas has broadened its activities in recent months.

Habash’s accomplice is the PA’s Ambassador to Malaysia Anwar Al-Agha.

The two established ties in 2011 and began to collaborate in 2014 after Al-Agha was appointed an ambassador in Malaysia.

Al-Agha’s wife was registered as a partner in the shell companies without her knowledge, but after the two separated over a financial dispute she discovered her husband’s illegal dealings and subsequently divorced him because of them.

Palestinian teacher wishes for end of Israel and “liberation of Palestine”

Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on a three-dimensional model exhibition on the history of the Palestinian cause at Ma’zouz Al-Masri School in Nablus. Note the ripped Israeli flags replaced by Palestinian flags, symbolizing the end of Israel. Teacher Manal Al-Tanbour, presenting the map: "Allah willing, this is our vision, and we hope to liberate Palestine, break the chains, smash the check points, tear down the separation wall like the Berlin Wall was torn down, Allah willing, and may we achieve the liberation of Palestine." Official PA TV reporter: "An impressive image and a map that we hope to achieve soon. We wish for the liberation of… I want to thank you very much for this initiative. I want to thank the school principal who is with us for this good effort to educate our male and female students." [Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, May 16, 2019]

Abbas’ Advisor: The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including the Western Wall, belongs only to Muslims

Supreme Shari’ah Judge, and Abbas’ advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “They [Israelis] want to find or make a foothold for themselves in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. And this will not happen as long as we are alive… Because whoever thinks that they can forsake one millimeter of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is also liable to forsake the noble Kaaba [in Mecca] or the Quran… Let them search elsewhere for the realization of their fairy tales. But here, this mosque is ours and it will remain ours as long as the world exists… Al-Aqsa is not up for bargaining, and every inch of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the Gate of Mercy and the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount) and the Al-Buraq Plaza – all of it is an Islamic waqf (i.e., inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law), the nation's waqf.” [Official PA TV, Feb. 22, 2019] The Al-Buraq Wall - Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden during his Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17), and there tied his miraculous flying steed named Al-Buraq to a "stone" or a "rock." (Jami` at-Tirmidhi, Book 47, Hadith 3424). In the 1920's, Arab Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini decided to identify the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem as that "rock" or "stone," and since then Muslims refer to the Western Wall as the "Al-Buraq Wall." Mahmoud Al-Habbash is also the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians To Reenact D-Day, Aftermath By Shooting Americans (satire)

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe falls tomorrow, and Palestinian leaders aim to mark the occasion by with a recreation of their favorite moments during and following Operation Overlord, such as massacres of hundreds of captured Americans by gunfire.

In the early morning of June 6, 1944, American, British, Canadian, and other allied troops crossed the English Channel into the Normandy region of Nazi-controlled France, opening a second front in Europe against the Third Reich and bringing Hitler’s defeat closer. Palestinians will commemorate the occasion with reenactments of some notable moments from that phase of the Second World War, such as mass shootings of civilians and American prisoners.

Officials in both the Fatah and Hamas factions of the Palestinian leadership instructed staff to prepare for the capture and execution of hundreds of American prisoners-of-war in a reprise of the war crimes at Malmedy and Wereth, Belgium, among other locations. “It is important to remember which side we were on in that conflict,” explained Saeb Erekat of Fatah. “The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, gave staunch support to Hitler and intended to bring the Final Solution to Palestine in the event of a German victory over the British. Our current tensions with the Americans provide a solid stimulus for us to reassert our core values in that respect.”

JCPA: Nasrallah: It Is Hizbullah’s Decision to Upgrade Its Precision Missiles

The intensification of Hassan Nasrallah’s recent threats to respond with force against the United States and Israel, as in his latest Quds Day statement on May 31, 2019, reflects a genuine fear among Hizbullah. Hizbullah saw as imminent threat messages conveyed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield to the Lebanese leadership. According to a credible report in Al Hayat on June 2, 2019, President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri were warned by the United States that it would not ignore the intelligence information, pictures, and maps of Hizbullah’s precision-missile sites. The United States will not be able to restrain Israel from acting against them.

Nasrallah responded belligerently. He denied that there are precision-missile factories in Lebanon, but he asserted that building such facilities is a decision for Hizbullah to make. In the same breath, Nasrallah again threatened to use long-range precision missiles that can hit strategic targets in Israel. This is not the first time Nasrallah has denied existing facts; he has done so in the past in different circumstances. For Nasrallah, the truth is not the sole option.

A commentary posted on Hizbullah’s official site Al Ahed proclaimed that Israel cannot ignore Nasrallah’s messages, including his words about the precision missiles in Hizbullah’s hands and about the United States’ “failure” to foment a domestic debate on the subject in Lebanon and to portray the missiles as the main factor behind Lebanon’s instability. The post said that, instead of adopting a policy of ambiguity on the missile issue, Nasrallah had unequivocally affirmed the right to maintain any capabilities to confront the Israeli threat, including long-range precision missiles that can hit any target in Israel.

Iran Hawks Prep Final Push to Dismantle Nuclear Deal

As Iran continues to ramp up its most contested nuclear work in violation of the landmark nuclear accord, Republican hawks in Congress are preparing a final push to destroy the deal and reimpose a set of biting sanctions that the Trump administration has balked on implementing in recent months, according to multiple officials familiar with the effort.

International nuclear inspectors overseeing Iran's nuclear work recently disclosed the Islamic Republic has kept true to its threats of restarting key portions of its nuclear program that could be used to build a weapon. This includes blowing past caps on the amount of enriched uranium—the key component in a bomb—Iran can store in country, as well as heavy water, a plutonium byproduct that also could fuel a weapon.

Iran also has breached provisions of the nuclear accord that were meant to limit the installation of advanced centrifuges, a mechanical device that can speedily enrich uranium to levels needed for a bomb.

Iranian officials have maintained these moves are part of an effort to force European countries still party to the deal to help Tehran skirt U.S. economic sanctions, which have shattered the Islamic Republic's economy.

With Iran amping up its cash demands in what U.S. officials see as an international blackmail campaign, GOP hawks in Congress see an opportunity to convince the Trump administration to follow through on promises to nix a set of sanctions waivers that have enabled Iran to legally continue secretive nuclear work at a range of sites, including one that previously housed the country's weapons program.

Iran could make nuclear weapon in 6-8 months, says former IAEA deputy

A former deputy head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said Wednesday that Iran is capable of producing a nuclear bomb in six to eight months.

In an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, Olli Heinonen said that Israel and the Gulf states “have a reason to worry.”

Heinonen said that despite assertions to the contrary by the current leadership of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, which he left in 2010, Tehran has not been adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Iran is actually weaponizing uranium enrichment without making a weapon,” he claimed.

Heinonen currently serves as a fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a right-wing Washington think tank that has been highly critical of the Iran deal, which was initiated by former US president Barack Obama.

He said that according to his personal, “perhaps back-of-the-envelope” calculation, Iran could produce a nuclear weapons in six to eight months, “if they put in their maximum effort.”

Israeli intel firm: Alleged IDF strike on Syrian base targeted Iranian drones

An Israeli satellite imagery analysis firm on Tuesday determined that the target of an airstrike on a Syrian air base earlier this week, which was attributed to Israel, appeared to be an Iranian drone facility.

According to the company, ImageSat International, the attack late Sunday night appeared to be a pinpoint strike, targeting “one element or just a few elements” connected to Tehran’s unmanned aerial vehicle program in Syria, indicating that the components were of “particular importance.”

This assessment was based on satellite images of the targeted facility, the T-4 air base near Palmyra, from Tuesday. Comparing these photographs to ones from May 22, the private intelligence firm determined that the strike hit a small crop of buildings on the base.

The firm said that a number of cargo planes had recently landed at the base from Iran prior to the strike, indicating that they had delivered the equipment that was targeted.

“According to our assessment, it is reasonable that [the target] was a component [or components] connected to [Iran’s] UAV program,” ImageSat said in a statement.

Syrian state media said that Israel was behind the attack late Sunday night on the T-4 air base, which the Israel Defense Forces has bombed in the past and which Jerusalem has long claimed to be a facility used by Iran and its proxies.

Friday Sermon in Iran: Our Enemies - a Fusion of Jews, Polytheists - Are Crossbreed of Dogs, Wolves

Ayatollah Alireza Ebadi, Khamenei's representative in the Iranian city of Birjand, said in a May 31, 2019 Friday sermon that aired on Khorasan Jonoobi TV (Iran) that Iran's "impure and evil" enemy are a "fusion" of Jews and polytheists, and he described it as a dirty, predatory, reptilian, satanic, vile, and wicked "crossbreed of dogs and wolves" that has "pounced on the convoy of humanity." He said that the U.S. was built by oppressive Europeans on the graves of 80 million indigenous people, but that the Zionists are the worst of Iran's enemies. Ayatollah Ebadi then told a story about a doctor who wanted to cure himself of feeling connected to the village fool, and Ebadi said that, likewise, anyone who is attached to the West and its "dirty, anti-human, liberal-democratic ideology that has destroyed the world" should cure themselves.

Egyptian Actor Mohamed Sobhi Says That After Airing of Antisemitic Show He Starred in, Sales of Protocols of the Elders of Zion Skyrocketed in Egypt pic.twitter.com/hVdepUUj6K
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 5, 2019

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