07/25 Links Pt1: Palestinian journalist tells how Hamas brings kids to front line to die; Iran fueling friction on the Golan Heights; House Overwhelmingly Passes Multiple Pro-Israel Bills

From Ian:

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Palestinian journalist tells how Hamas brings kids to front line to die

A Palestinian journalist has described in detail how Hamas operatives take children in buses to protest against Israel on the Gaza border.

In a new documentary released by TPS, the journalist, whose face is blurred and his voice distorted for security reasons, says he has witnessed Hamas operatives taking chairs and sitting nearby the fence eating seeds and watching people die.

“They bring children to the playgrounds and let them play and then encourage them to do whatever they can to get close to the fence,” the journalist told TPS.

The documentary focuses on the March of Return riots, which started in March of last year. Some 2,200 terror-related incidents have been reported since the start of the riots - a combination of gunfire, explosive device and molotov cocktail attacks.

Not Only in Summer Camps - How Hamas Exploits Children During the Riots on the Gaza Border


Iran fueling friction on the Golan Heights

After its success in pushing the Iranian forces away from the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights, Israel is stepping up its efforts against Hezbollah’s attempts to further entrench itself in the sector.

Tuesday’s airstrike on Tal al-Hara, a strategic hill south of Damascus, was the third to be attributed to Israel by the foreign media. All of the airstrikes targeted Hezbollah assets, mainly observation posts that the Shiite terrorist group is trying to form along the border as part of a wider lineup of weapons. These posts are intended to serve Hezbollah and its Iranian and perhaps Syrian patrons to gather intelligence and, in the future, as a potential platform for terrorist activity.

Hezbollah’s efforts in the sector have known their ups and downs. Under the auspices of the war in Syria, the Shiite terrorist group tried to set up an extensive terrorist grid in the area, but the elimination of two of its leaders, Samir Kuntar and Jihad Mughniyeh – also attributed to Israel – considerably slowed it down.

The end of the Syrian war, and especially the pause placed on Iranian militias’ efforts to establish themselves in the Golan Heights, brought Hezbollah back into the picture. The organization's activities in the Golan are encouraged and financed by Iran, and the Syrian regime, by means of tacit consent.

Israel Hayom has revealed in the past that the organization's senior commander in the Golan Heights is Munir Ali Naim Shaito, known as Haj Hashem, a veteran of the organization and a key player in Hezbollah’s assistance to the Syrian army during the civil war. Subsequently, the IDF also exposed details on Hezbollah’s secret plan to establish terrorist infrastructure in the Golan using Syrian civilians, mainly Druze.

Things are heating up between Israel and Hezbollah in the Golan - analysis

Smyth told The Post that while “Trump’s statement has sent some signals to Iran,” Tehran has “upped the ante because of the situation on the ground, not because of Trump’s statement. They know that their goals will outlast the Trump administration. But if it rallies the troops, they will use it. They are very pragmatic.”

While the “Iranians have been following the same program in southern Syria for years, now they're trying to secure and resecure their gains,” Smyth said. “There’s a lot more opportunity, it’s a net gain no matter how you look at it.”

The attack on Tel Haara on Wednesday was not the first.

The site has been used by the Syrian army for years to observe Israeli movement, and since the Assad regime re-took the area from rebels last summer, there have been several strikes on the site blamed on Israel.

While the base, which has electronic surveillance capabilities, was supposed to be manned solely by regime troops, pro-Iranian militias including Hezbollah are known to be stationed in it.

According to Smyth, Hezbollah and Iran “have been at the forefront of using electronic means to counter their foes, its existed for decades and it wouldn’t shock me if they were testing the waters there.”

The opportunity was there for the taking.

The retaking of the Syrian Golan by Assad also forced Israel to end Operation Good Neighbor, where Israel provided humanitarian and, according to foreign reports, military aid to rebels in the Syrian Golan.

Israel also treated thousands of Syrians who arrived at the border,both combatants and civilians. According to officials some 70% of the wounded treated by Israel were men of fighting age while the other 30% were women and children.

A year later, “times have changed,” Smyth told the Post. “Not everyone has switched over but if your stuck in Syria and you have no options...and you can’t run into Israel...you have to back the strongest horse.”

The Palestinian Authority Creates Facts on the Ground in Violation of the Oslo Accords. Why Is Israel Passive?

Pursuant to the Oslo Accords, Judea and Samaria are divided into three parts: Area A, administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA); Area B, under joint Israeli-PA control; and Area C, under Israeli control. The last has a Jewish population of about 400,000—mostly concentrated in a few blocs of towns and villages near Jerusalem—and a Palestinian population of about half that number. With assistance from foreign governments and organizations, the PA has been systematically encouraging the construction of Arab homes and villages there, in violation of the Accords. Yaakov Eliraz explains:

The settlements in Judea and Samaria are a subject of extensive and spirited debate in Israel. The topic is a politically charged one, and construction and demolition are issues that frequently feature on the public agenda. But focusing on the future of the settlement project and its horizons of growth creates—even among its supporters—an optical illusion that obfuscates the bigger picture. The Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria take up only a tiny [geographic] proportion of Area C, and the events occurring in the greater area impact the settlements and other Israeli interests far more than the approval of this or that local construction plan.

The Palestinians, [meanwhile], have been employing diverse tactics and strategies in an effort to take over parts of Area C and have established a designated government ministry to oversee these efforts. . . . They are encouraging Bedouin to settle in permanent housing in the area, and employ a wide range of incentives to encourage Palestinians [as well] to settle there, including with tax exemptions, discounts for vehicle registration, jobs for those who settle, and so on.

They [also] systematically impede the sale of land to Israelis, and use violence to do so when necessary. They engage in large-scale road building and paving projects, launch large-scale agricultural projects with the aim of taking over state land, . . . initiate construction projects aimed at occupying lands, and have undertaken a large-scale public diplomacy campaign with the goal of cementing the idea that Israeli control over Area C is illegitimate.

Amb. Alan Baker: EU Foreign Affairs Chief Nominee Downplays Iranian Threats to Annihilate Israel

When asked in a February 2019 media interview regarding the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Iran's involvement in terror attacks in Europe, and repeated calls by Iran's leaders for Israel's destruction, Spanish Foreign Minister and nominee for the post of EU Foreign Affairs Chief, Josep Borrell, replied, "We will continue working with Iran….Iran wants to wipe out Israel? There's nothing new here. We have to live with it."

This astounding statement indicates a serious lack of diplomacy and good sense and clearly does not augur well for the senior European foreign minister touted to become the EU's number one diplomat. In fact, Borrell seems to have perfected the art of expressing irresponsible statements over the past years, trivializing some of the most serious threats facing members of the international community.

By now trivializing the oft-repeated Iranian declared intention to "wipe Israel off the map," and, as such, by giving license to a blatant call for genocide and destruction of a sovereign, member state of the international community, Borrell would appear to have crossed all accepted lines of basic decency. In light of his irresponsible statement, his candidacy to head the EU's foreign affairs department should be reconsidered.

Jpost Editorial: Explaining demolitions

There’s no way to prevent predictable reactions like that to any Israeli move that appears to be against Palestinians, but it seems like Israel didn’t even try. Like so many public relations disasters in the past, Israel’s decision-makers either did not realize that the demolition would reverberate in the halls of the UN and European capitals, or they didn’t really care that Israel’s image would once again be tarnished as the Goliath-like aggressors intent on removing Palestinian presence around Jerusalem. Either scenario is worrying.

What Israel needed was a media blitz, with on-the-scene briefings for foreign correspondents by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, or a senior Civil Administration or IDF official – or all three – explaining Israel’s considerations and decisions.

The world has a short memory, not the least of which is why the security barrier exists in the first place. Built to protect Israelis from the plague of Palestinian suicide attacks in the early 2000s – some of them emanating from residents of the Sur Bahir area – the barrier has helped to drastically reduce the deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.

What about explaining controversial decisions, not with legalese but with human emotion and a sound security assessment? Maybe it’s because the validations are somewhat murky. A 2011 military edict prohibits construction within 400 meters of the security barrier. Construction began on the buildings after 2014. As Lazaroff reported, residents say they did not know of the edict when they began building. The buildings in question are interspersed among other preexisting buildings in Wadi Hummus that were built prior to 2011 that are also less than 400 meters from the barrier, and which are not being demolished.

Israel’s security remains a No. 1 concern, and we back our security establishment in assessing its needs. It should be above any political concerns. But when decisions are made and carried out that everyone knows are going to be controversial, we need our leadership to stand up to explain and defend those decisions, and not just to send out bulldozers under the cover of night.

US blocks UN draft condemning demolition of Palestinian homes

The United States on Wednesday blocked an attempt to get the UN Security Council to issue a formal condemnation of Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the edge of Jerusalem earlier this week.

The draft statement, circulated to the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa, expressed “grave concern” and warned that the demolition “undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for just and lasting peace,” Reuters quoted diplomats as saying.

After the US said it could not support the statement — such condemnations require consensus from all Security Council members — a revised and watered-down version was circulated. This too was rejected by the US.

Hebrew U professor: 'Jewish terrorists' destroyed homes in Wadi Hummus

Amiram Goldblum, a senior chemistry professor at Hebrew University, called the IDF soldiers who demolished illegal Arab buildings in Wadi al-Hummus "Jewish terrorists."

"If there was a God, he would've brought down a lightning bolt on the Jewish terrorists who destroyed the home," wrote Goldblum on Facebook.

The professor recommended that Palestinians retaliate following the demolition.

"The 'caligae' [derogatory term for soldiers] of the apartheid state Israel are demolishing homes in Area A of miserable Palestinians in a modern method," he posted. "I hope that the home will avenge its blood against its destroyers and the ones who gave the orders."

Goldblum is a longtime, outspoken critic of many of Israel's policies. He was the spokesperson of Peace Now for 20 years, which, according to its website, is a movement that "works to ensure Israelis embrace the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states, meaning the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel." Goldblum now serves on the public council of the non-profit New Israel Fund.

CEO of right-wing NGO Im Tirtzu Matan Peleg blasted Goldblum's post: "It is disgraceful to see how a professor who teaches in a publicly funded university and receives his salary from the Israeli taxpayer, calls IDF soldiers 'terrorists' and writes that he hopes harm befalls them," said Peleg. "While he is drinking his espresso in Hebrew University's cafeteria, these same soldiers are working day and night to ensure his safety. Rather than disgustingly inciting against IDF soldiers, Goldblum should focus his time on actually doing his job."

Professor Goldblum previously sparked controversy, when he called students from Im Tirtzu "Nazi dogs" in June.

Palestinians Promise Fight on E. Jerusalem Home Demolitions

Israel's military demolished several Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem claiming they were too close to the security barrier. Now, the Palestinians are promising a tough fight. Our Emily Rose has the story.

A blow to BDS in the House

For one day at least, the Democratic Party’s leadership made it clear that the adults are still in charge. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), with support from civil-rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) announced last week their decision to push for a resolution supporting the BDS movement. But rather than sit back and let the pair further embarrass their party by identifying it with an anti-Semitic movement, as well as distracting from the Democrats’ effort to focus on President Donald Trump’s insults directed at the far-left “Squad,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team decided to push forward another competing resolution condemning BDS.

The result was that after months of letting a handful of radical leftists become the face of the party, Democrats demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of their caucus wanted to distance themselves from anti-Israel politics. The anti-BDS resolution passed overwhelmingly by a 398-17 majority in a stinging rebuke for Omar, Tlaib and their buddy, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was also among the few “no” votes on the measure.

But the congressional battle over BDS is far from over. As long as many Democrats are still prepared to treat the movement’s most prominent champions as worthy of praise rather than being shunned – as they should be – as backers of a hate movement, concerns about the growth of anti-Semitism on the political left are still very much in order.

The House had an opportunity to deal decisively with this issue earlier this year when both Omar and Tlaib made anti-Semitic statements in which they accused American Jews of dual loyalty to Israel and stated that supporters of the Jewish state had bought Congress. Combined with their backing of a BDS movement that is indistinguishable from anti-Semitism, that should have been enough to motivate Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership to strip the pair of their committee assignments and to pass a resolution rebuking them by name.

Israel’s Netanyahu Hails US House’s Passage of Anti-BDS Bill: ‘It Is Right, It Is Correct, and It Is Very Helpful’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked the US House of Representatives for passing on Tuesday a bill rejecting boycotts of Israel.

House Resolution 246, which “opposes the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) targeting Israel, including efforts to target United States companies that are engaged in commercial activities that are legal under United States law, and all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel,” was approved by a 398-17 margin, with five abstentions.

“I would like to commend the US House of Representatives for overwhelmingly approving by a great bipartisan majority, Democrats and Republicans alike, a decision against boycotts against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on Twitter.

“This attests to the support for Israel in the US. This support is bipartisan and is important to us,” the prime minister added.

“I welcome this decision,” he said. “It is right, it is correct, and it is very helpful.”

House Overwhelmingly Passes Multiple Pro-Israel Bills

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed several pro-Israel bills, including one opposing boycotts of the Jewish state, dealing a blow to far-left lawmakers such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), who voted against the legislation.

In a vote of 398 to 17, lawmakers approved a bill spearheaded by Rep. Brad Schneider (D., Ill.) opposing the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), an anti-Israel effort that wages economic warfare on the Jewish state.

Among the 17 who voted against the bill are Tlaib, Omar, and progressive ally Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). Five members including frequent Trump administration critic Rep. Justin Amash (I., Mich.) voted "present" on the measure, while 12 members, including Greg Gianforte (R., Mont.), skipped the vote.

Two other bills meant to strengthen Israel's military alliance with the United States and provide justice to victims of Palestinian terrorism also sailed through the House on Monday evening with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The consecutive votes are a sign that despite vocal anti-Israel outcry and anti-Semitic sentiment from fringe lawmakers such as Omar and Tlaib, the majority of Congress continues to back the U.S.-Israel alliance and America's military commitment to the Jewish state.

"The Global BDS Movement denies the Jewish people's connection to the land of Israel, refuses to accept the basic idea of a Jewish state, and seeks to delegitimize Israel in international forums, on college campuses, and in global commerce," Schneider said in a statement after the vote on his anti-BDS bill.

I would like to commend the US House of Representatives for overwhelmingly approving, by a great bipartisan majority, Democrats and Republicans alike, a decision against boycotts against Israel. pic.twitter.com/mEhurFjjLz

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) July 24, 2019

Israel congratulates new British PM Johnson, thanks May for friendship

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz congratulated Boris Johnson on being named Britain’s next prime minister on Tuesday.

Netanyahu, on Twitter, offered “heartfelt congratulations from Jerusalem.”

“Looking forward to working closely together, both in facing our common challenges and seizing the opportunities ahead,” added the prime minister.

“Mazal Tov to Boris Johnson on becoming UK Prime Minister,” Katz tweeted. “I look forward to working with Prime Minister Johnson and his team to build on the existing strong relationship between the UK and Israel.”

The former London mayor easily beat his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, in a vote of members of the governing Conservative party. He is expected to be confirmed as prime minister on Wednesday when his predecessor Theresa May formally tenders her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.

The foreign minister also thanked May, who will leave office on Wednesday, for “the amazing and tireless work that she did to strengthen ties between our two countries. Bilateral trade is up, tourism is up and security cooperation is saving lives. Thank you to a true friend.”

Please join me in wishing @BorisJohnson and his new cabinet a mazal tov! https://t.co/jXg2JWWjct

— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) July 25, 2019

Ron Prosor: A great friend to Israel

The announcement that Boris Johnson was named Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday brought smiles to many faced in Jerusalem. Israel may have lost a friend in the form of his predecessor, Theresa May, but it has won an even greater friend in Johnson, whose appointment was hailed as good news for both Israel and British Jews, who now have reason to believe their premier will fight British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the anti-Semitism that has ruined his party.

Much has been said in the past 24 hours about Johnson’s brief time as a volunteer at Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi in northern Israel, but I met him quite early in his political career, when he was just a fledgling MP. He visited Israel and I, then the director general of the Foreign Ministry, was his host.

One of the issues that preoccupied him at the time was the Iranian threat to Israel and the world – years before it became a main issue for the West. It was clear even then that he wasn’t going to suffice with the backbenches of parliament. He was going all the way.

Our paths crossed again when he was elected the mayor of London in 2008 and I served as Israel’s ambassador to the British capital. His commitment to the protection of London’s Jewish community was clear from the get-go, especially vis-à-vis the rise of radical elements in the kingdom.

Boris Johnson's Decades-Old Ties to Israel


New UK foreign sec. Dominic Raab has a view on Israel-Palestinian conflict

In the late 1990s, Raab -- The former secretry in charge of Brexit, who quit in November in protest against Theresa May’s Brexit plan -- studied for a summer at Birzeit University near Ramallah, and worked for a Palestinian negotiator, assessing World Bank projects in the West Bank.

He referenced this experience in a blog entry he posted in 2010, after the Mavi Marmara incident in which nine Turks were killed when trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza.

“Shocked, I sat sweltering in a classroom at Birzeit University,” he wrote. “I was out on the West Bank, in the summer of 1998, studying the Arab-Israeli conflict and working for a Palestinian negotiator from the Oslo peace process. A Palestinian lecturer was asking students provocative questions about the conflict. He paused, and asked the Palestinians present: if you could, who would prefer just to drive all the Israelis into the sea? The overwhelming majority of hands shot up instantly.”

In the nuanced post, Raab wrote that his experience “chimed with a long-held Israel gripe” that Yasser Arafat had “done little to sell the [Oslo accords} deal –or the compromises involved – to the Palestinian people, and scarcely looked any more serious about delivering his promise of security to Israel.

“The average Palestinian I met had far more direct experience of Arafat’s venal regime than Israeli brutality – the university lecturer quipped that he had been imprisoned by the Israelis, but tortured by the Palestinian Authority – a fact that fuelled the rise of Hamas on a ticket of honest government, welfare for the needy and wiping Israel off the map,” he wrote.

He added that, “none of this excuses the actions of Israel – whether illegal settlement building in the West Bank, or this week’s raid on the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying aid to the Gaza strip, which resulted in tragic loss of life. But, it helps explain their stubbornness.”

Raab wrote that there “is no question” that the maritime blockade of Gaza was legitimate, and that “there is no doubt that Israel has a right of self defence against Hamas, a terrorist group, running the gaza Strip. The real issue is whether Israel could have achieved its legitimate aims, without killing nine people on board the Mavi Marmara.”

Abbas congratulates Boris Johnson on becoming UK prime minister

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Boris Johnson Wednesday on becoming the United Kingdom’s prime minister, the official PA news site Wafa reported.

Abbas conveyed his congratulations to Johnson in a telegram, the report said.

“In the name of the State of Palestine and its people and personally in my name, we present to you our heartfelt congratulations on the confidence that the members of the Conservative Party have granted you with your election as party head and your winning of the United Kingdom’s prime ministership,” Abbas wrote, according to the government news site.

“We wish you success in forming the next government and [accomplishing] everything that your friendly people want with regard to progress and prosperity.”

Olmert said to cancel Switzerland trip over threat of arrest for ‘war crimes’

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert recently canceled a trip to Switzerland over fears authorities there were planning to detain him on suspicion of war crimes, according to a television report on Wednesday.

Olmert, who was prime minister during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, was scheduled to arrive in Zurich on Monday.

However, defense and justice officials warned Olmert to change his plans after Swiss authorities informed Israeli officials over the weekend that the former Israeli leader would be detained for questioning upon his landing.

Despite the alert, Olmert initially insisted on going anyway, the Channel 12 report said. It was only after justice and defense officials stressed that his detention would be a great embarrassment to Israel that he agreed to cancel the visit, the report said.

Jordan’s king meets with Abbas, reaffirms support for Palestinian state

Jordan’s King Abdullah II met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in Amman and said the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital was the only way to end the conflict with Israel.

The meeting between Abdullah and Abbas came ahead of the Jordanian king’s upcoming sitdown with the White House’s Mideast adviser, Jared Kushner.

Kushner will be returning to the Middle East this week to promote the Trump administration’s economic peace plan for the Palestinians. He outlined the plan’s ambitious investment and development goals at a conference in Bahrain last month, which was boycotted by the Palestinians.

The US under President Donald Trump has refused to endorse a two-state solution as part of Trump’s undisclosed peace plan, and has slashed aid and support for the Palestinians.

Israel’s Mainstream Political Parties Should Be Courting Arab Voters

In the 2015 Knesset election, the various Arab parties in Israel joined together into a single bloc, thus garnering thirteen of 120 seats. But this unity proved short-lived. In the elections this past April, different parties ran separately, leading to two of them dividing ten seats between them. With new elections scheduled for September, these parties are undergoing the same splintering and instability as the rest of the Israel political system. Eyal Zisser sees this state of affairs as an opportunity:

The source of the Arab parties’ problem lies in their agenda, which focuses more on the struggle against the state of Israel and its institutions and less on an attempt to integrate Arab citizens further into Israeli society. The vast majority of Arabs in Israel have long since opted to integrate into the state of Israel and its fabric of life. The path is long and riddled with obstacles. . . . But the data point to impressive progress having been made by Israel’s Arab citizens in every field.

But the Arab parties have refused to focus their activities on an agenda that seeks to improve the situation of Arab citizens and to dedicate themselves to dealing with the societal and economic problems that concern them. As a result, the voters abandoned the Arab parties en masse. The decreased voter turnout in the Arab sector was dramatic. In some places, it was down by over 30 percent.

These trends will continue in the coming Knesset election. But in order for them to be leveraged into dramatic change in the situation of Arab citizens and their relation with the state and its institutions, a few complementary processes are needed: first, the appearance of forces and leaders from within the Arab community that will [embrace an] agenda focused on bringing about change in the status of Arabs in Israel. Second, the Zionist parties must return to the Arab street, incorporate Arabs in their Knesset lists, and mainly, go out and talk to Arab voters. And they should do this not just to earn their votes come election day but to make them legitimate and long-term political partners. Should that happen, the country and its Arab citizens would set out on a new path.

As a Group of Palestinians Threw Chairs at a Pro-Israel Saudi Blogger, Palestinian Leaders Were Making Obeisance to Iran

This week, a six-person delegation of journalists from Arab countries visited Israel at the invitation of the foreign ministry. Among them was the Saudi blogger Mahmoud Saud, a vocal and public supporter of both the Jewish state and Benjamin Netanyahu. While en route to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque, Saud found himself physically attacked. Ruthie Blum writes:

Calling him a “traitor,” an “animal,” a “normalizer,” and a “Zionist,” these violent [Arab] hecklers cackled at him to “go to synagogue.” As if this weren’t bad enough, they also spat in his face and threw sticks and chairs at him.

[This incident] brings us to a key factor in the pointlessness of peace deals with the Palestinian leadership. Unlike Israel, which has a burgeoning understanding with many of its Arab neighbors based on a shared interest in preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Palestinians have been kissing up to Tehran.

In a meeting in Tehran on Sunday with the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, the Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri reportedly said, “We are on the same path as the Islamic Republic—the path of battling the Zionist entity and the arrogant ones.” This followed a visit to Iraq late last month by Nabil Shaath, Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser for international relations, during which he told local Shiite leaders that “Palestinians don’t have a problem with Iran, as Iran has been supporting the Palestinian struggle. We seek to strengthen our relations with Tehran, and we don’t consider it an enemy. The enemy is Israel.”

Prominent Israelis Call for Residency Permit to Be Granted to Palestinian Who Has Faced Persecution for Helping Jewish Children After Terror Attack

A legendary Israeli actress and the head of the council of northern West Bank communities have sent a joint letter to the interior minister asking for a Palestinian man who rescued Jewish children after a terror attack to be granted residency in Israel.

According to the Israeli news site Mako, the Palestinian man, identified only as “A,” has faced brutal persecution since he helped save the ten children of Rabbi Michael Mark following a drive-by shooting attack south of Hebron in 2016. Rabbi Mark himself was killed in the attack.

A, who lived near Hebron, has since been referred to as a traitor by the Palestinian Authority. He has been harassed, had Molotov cocktails thrown at his house, and has been unable to find employment.

To escape the persecution and take the pressure off his family, A fled to Israel, but was unable to obtain residency and a work permit, despite the efforts of the Mark family to help him. He currently lives on a beach in a tent, with no way to earn a living.

Having heard of the situation, Israel Prize-winning actress Gila Almagor and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan — who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum — sent a letter to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on A’s behalf.

No need for a cliché caption about strong women in the IDF. The pictures say it all. pic.twitter.com/Mgpn4O6ZM7

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 24, 2019

Israeli Arab arrested in Cairo after cop grew suspicious of his Israeli passport

An Israeli Arab man was arrested in Egypt and locked in a cell for days after a policeman saw him taking photos and became suspicious of his Israeli citizenship, the Ynet news site reported Tuesday.

Ouda Masarwa of Taybeh said he traveled to Cairo last week to watch the Africa Cup of Nations soccer final.

“When I came to the area of the stadium I started taking photos,” Masarwa told Ynet. “Suddenly a policeman came and started asking me strange questions like ‘What are you doing?’ I told him I was taking photos so he asked ‘Who are you taking them for?’ I told him they were for my own personal use.”

The police asked for Masarwa’s passport and saw he was Israeli. “He told me ‘You’re Israeli, what are you doing here and why do you speak Arabic?’ I explained to him I was of the 1948 Arabs,” Masarwa said, referencing a name for Israeli Arabs. “Maybe he didn’t know who we are… We argued and then he told me ‘You’re under arrest.'”

Former Jordanian Minister of Education on PA TV:
- "Israel is a racist state... rejecting the other in a Nazi, Hitlerian manner... [it] has outdone what Hitler did"
- Zionism "represents evil"

More here: https://t.co/fzFGc15WYL pic.twitter.com/FuLcmiBo36

— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) July 25, 2019

Assad's Nuremberg Moment: NGO Builds Case for Syrian War Crimes

The exception may be Mr. al-Baghdadi, whom Mr. Wiley says the United States could be interested in extraditing, if he’s captured alive, to face charges in the U.S. over crimes such as the gruesome murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Although some U.S. states also allow for capital punishment, Mr. Wiley can’t envision CIJA’s donors, which include the U.S., barring his group from supporting such a prosecution.
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Mr. Wiley alternates between speaking with the careful wording of a legal professional, and the occasionally crude bluntness of a buddy in the barracks. Born in Toronto – something he utters like a guilty plea – “home” for Mr. Wiley means Newfoundland, where he spends time fishing and hunting each summer, and where he has a retirement home ready for the day he’s finished chasing alleged war criminals.

He thought he was done with international justice after Mr. Hussein’s trial (a conviction he says wouldn’t have held up in a common-law jurisdiction – “the evidence was there, but it was improperly presented”). After his stint in Iraq, Mr. Wiley set up a consulting firm that offered security and human-rights training to corporations operating in potentially dangerous environments. “I was out. I was running a business and working and making far more money than I do running an NGO. But I was bored.”

Then the Syrian civil war broke out, and the British government asked his company if it would give human-rights training to a group of Syrian civil-society activists. Mr. Wiley saw no point giving human-rights training to people whose country was descending into all-out war. But he and Mr. Rapp saw a way to help Syria prepare for the day after the fighting was over. Many of the human-rights activists the British government identified were trained instead to become war-crimes investigators, some of whom remain with CIJA today.

The assumption back when the effort began was that the regime would collapse and Mr. al-Assad would be brought before some kind of international tribunal. That possibility seems remote now, but Mr. Wiley – who has seen the likes of Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Hussein lose the impunity they once enjoyed – remains confident that Mr. al-Assad will one day have to face the evidence that CIJA has collected. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to face justice. I just don’t know whether it’s going to take five years or 10.”

Stabilizing Iraq Is the Key to Protecting the Gulf States

If Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, this would end all of its petroleum exports as well as those of its Arab neighbors. Iran is already in a critical statewide economic crisis - much of which is self-inflicted by its own failed economic policies. It is far from clear whether its leaders are willing to put the nation in a position in which it will suffer far more than it does from today's sanctions.

Iran would have to start and keep fighting a war that it cannot possibly win, and in which it would suffer far more damage that its Gulf neighbors. Such a war would also probably threaten the postwar survival of the present Iranian regime.

Iran is not the natural hegemon of the Gulf, and should not have its current level of impact on Gulf security. The Gulf Arab states vastly outspend Iran on military forces, and import arms by more than an order of magnitude. They should be able to deter and defend against Iran with minimal outside aid.

Unfortunately, however, Arab divisions handed Iran major strategic opportunities that it could hardly resist. Iran was not particularly aggressive. It effectively walked in through a door that Arab states had opened.

The real prize for Iran is Iraq. A unified Iraq, with its own security forces and a reasonable level of unity, would confront Iran with a major barrier to threatening the rest of the Arab states in the Gulf and providing major military support to Syria or Hizbullah.

However, Iran's influence over the Iraqi government's Shi'ite elements is growing. The U.S. must recognize that a strong and independent Iraq is the most immediate key to creating a stable balance of power in the Gulf.

US Saudi Arabia Policy Needs a Dose of Realpolitik

Iran has spent the past several months demonstrating that it poses the greatest threat to American interests in the Middle East and beyond. In addition to sabotaging and seizing oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, it has left its fingerprints on virtually every conflict that concerns us: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and even Central and South America, especially Venezuela. Working with Saudi Arabia to defeat Iran and Iranian proxies is smart policy, even if many believe that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) is a barbarian.

In diplomatic parlance, this is called "realpolitik," a term coined by Ludwig von Rochau in the 19th century to indicate an essentially amoral approach to foreign policy. Rather than choosing only allies that share ideals (in our case, freedom, democracy and enlightenment principles), a realpolitik approach insists that our national interests take precedence over morality. Put another way, in realpolitik, pursuing one's national interests is the highest moral goal.

The U.S. has a long tradition of helping less threatening autocrats fight those posing greater threats.

U.S. history is steeped in the realpolitik tradition of helping less-threatening autocrats fight those who pose greater threats. We partnered with Joseph Stalin to defeat Adolf Hitler, and after that we partnered with a variety of brutal dictators to stop the spread of communism. In Iran, we backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi instead of his communist and Islamist enemies. In Egypt, we backed Hosni Mubarak and, later, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi instead of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Houthi Minister of Tourism Ahmad Al-Aly: We Have Compiled a List of 300 Strategic Targets in the UAE

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