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Monday, November 30, 2020

11/30 Links Pt2: David Collier: ‘the wrong sort of Jew’ – the left’s latest antisemitic conspiracy theory; Tlaib Promotes Slogan Associated With Calling For Elimination Of Israel

From Ian:

David Collier: ‘the wrong sort of Jew’ – the left’s latest antisemitic conspiracy theory
Last week one tweet by ‘Double Down News’ was shared 2000 times and received 3400 likes. It was an upload of a 9-minute video of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi from Jewish Voice for Labour. On YouTube, the same video was watched over 120,000 times in 4 days.

Above the video ‘Double Down News‘ used the headline -‘Meet the Wrong Type of Jew, The Media Doesn’t Want You To Know Exists‘. Putting aside the fact that Idrissi and all of her JVL buddies have been given more than their fair share of mainstream media platforms, the underlying accusation here is stark. Zionists control the media. Why else would anti-Zionists not be given a platform? In other words, this is an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

The recent video even starts with Wimborne Idrissi saying she has been called the wrong sort of Jew. Except nowhere in any of the google searches was there any indication Idrissi and co regularly face such an accusation. All of the ‘wrong sort of Jew’ results were of Jews on hard-left websites batting away at an accusation that does not really exist.

They built the straw man and are now busy playing victims as they publicly demolish it.

The video by ‘the wrong sort of Jew.’
In just nine minutes, Naomi Wimborne Idrissi takes the viewer through most of the rancid arguments we have come to recognise in the fight against antisemitism. The pillars of hard-left antisemitic – anti-Zionist discourse.

That Jewish people are weaponising antisemitism and are harming the fight against real antisemitism.
Idrissi distorts the truth by implying that the Jewish community is evenly divided. She is well aware that her opinion resides in a fringe minority group.
She deals in historical distortion by decontextualising pre-Holocaust anti-Zionism.
Raises the antisemitic idea that the treatment of the Palestinians by Israeli forces is comparable to the way Jews were treated by the Nazis.
Touches on freedom of speech and truth – which is ludicrous hypocrisy coming from a spin artist who publicly calls for no platforming those she opposes.
Tell viewers that media has ‘sidelined and ignored’ left wing Jews because they support Palestine. Which is a blatant lie.
Takes ownership for the historical Jewish fights for justice.
Finishes off by saying that her group are the decent ones – people who want justice and peace. Which means that 93% of Jews must be indecent and against justice and peace.

A vile cocktail of lies and distortion.
J’accuse: In the shadow of Dreyfus at the European Union
On August 21, it was announced that the employee would be fired on 1 September. She was left with the cancellation of her medical insurance amid the COVID -19 pandemic.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center for over a year has acted in support of a Spanish Jewish employee, tenured since 1996 and now a senior official of the European Commission. In 2013, she was transferred to the EU diplomatic service, European External Action Service (EEAS), to work in the Middle East (Israel and Palestinian Territories).

One of her colleagues informed her that their Division Head allegedly suspected her of spying for the Mossad. She was thus transferred to the Turkish Division, entrusted with counterterrorism files.

According to her lawyers, then began a “slanderous... defamatory... campaign with antisemitic overtones.” She was again suspected of passing information to Turkish representatives. In 2016, she was dismissed “in the interest of this service.” Thus a long and painful process began. The story appeared in last week’s Paris Match weekly (Belgian edition). The author, Frédéric Loore, gave the official an anonymous identity, the nom-de-plume of “Eva.” Loore suggested that his article was fit for the cover of a novel by John Le Carré.

He questioned: “Has the EEAS been infiltrated by a Mossad mole or have some of its managers engaged in harassment on the grounds of antisemitism? Was there a Mata Hari in the ranks of the service in charge of the European Union’s foreign and security policy? Or was it a fabricated plot to get rid of a cumbersome senior civil servant of Jewish descent?”

“Eva” had sought an investigation to find out on what these gratuitous accusations were based. “In the end, it was carried out only to harm me... After six years, they still refuse to tell me who accused me of these facts and on what basis,” the employee said.
Alan Baker: The Audacity of Belgium
In an official announcement by the “Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs” department, on Nov. 6 the Belgian government voiced its condemnation of the demolition by Israel of structures built illegally and without any planning and zoning approval in parts of the disputed territories administered by Israel. The buildings were constructed with Belgian funding.

According to this official announcement, “Belgium supports such infrastructure projects because they meet urgent needs. They are always carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law … the demolition of infrastructure and housing is contrary to international humanitarian law, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel’s obligations as occupying power, and UN Security Council resolutions.”

Belgium’s heavy involvement in illegal construction in violation of the planning, zoning, and construction regulations and requirements applicable in what the Palestinians and Israelis have denominated as “Area C” is made clear in the announcement:

“Since 2017, at the initiative of Belgium, a group of partner countries affected by similar actions has systematically intervened with the Israeli authorities to ask them to stop the demolitions and to repair the affected projects or to compensate for the damage suffered.”

Belgium’s audacity in demanding compensation is equaled by its blatant disregard of the legal infrastructure agreed upon between Israel and the Palestinians, applicable in the areas in which Belgium is so actively involved in illegal construction.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Israelis and Palestinian clash over Sheikh Jarrah
The pending eviction of the al-Kurd family from Shiekh Jarrah has made headlines for 40 years. In this video, we reveal the truth behind the headlines.


Democrat Rashida Tlaib Promotes Slogan Associated With Calling For Elimination Of Israel
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) promoted a tweet on her Twitter account on Sunday that contained a phrase that is associated with calling for the elimination of Israel.

StopAntisemitism.org highlighted the tweet that Tlaib retweeted, which stated: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“Rashida Tlaib RT’s out the same message that got Marc Lamont Hill canned from CNN,” StopAntisemitism.org noted. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free – code for eradicating the State of Israel and its millions of Jews. Reminder – this is a sitting U.S. Congresswoman.”

The Daily Beast, a left-wing publication, wrote the following about the meaning of the phrase:
The river in this formulation is the Jordan, the naturally occurring eastern border of Israel and of the West Bank; the sea is the Mediterranean to the west. Uttered by advocates of the Palestinian cause for decades, the pithy slogan very pointedly makes no place for Israel. It evokes a strip of Middle Eastern land where Israel is no more, replaced by a unified Palestinian entity in the space it once occupied. It could be that this entity would welcome and protect a Jewish population. But when supporters of the Jewish state hear those 10 words, they worry about their potentially violent implications.

CNN did fire then-contributor Marc Lamont Hill in 2018 after he used the slogan, which The Times of Israel noted was associated with “Palestinian extremists,” during a speech at the United Nations. Hamas has repeatedly used the phrase, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). A recent report from the ADL described the phrase as “extreme.”


Democrat Nat’l Committeewoman Promotes Palestinian Islamic Jihad Member on Social Media
Rasha Mubarak claims there is a “strong dislike” of her in the Democratic Party. In October, the Party canceled an event that she was featured in, due to her participation. Mubarak says the party’s disdain for her is due to “Islamophobia” and “anti-Palestinian” prejudice, but given her support for Palestinian terrorists and her extreme bigotry aimed at Jews and Israel, Mubarak’s victimhood appears only to be an excuse to cover up for her insidious behavior. And she persists in doubling down. On November 11th, Mubarak once again embraced terror, when she used her social media to promote a “prominent” member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Maher al-Akhras, whose hunger strike has been widely reported, has been held prisoner in Israel, since his arrest this past July. The Shin Bet suspects him of being a “prominent Islamic Jihad activist.” According to the Asra Media Office (AMO), a Palestinian prisoner rights advocacy group, whose spokesman, Ali al-Maghrabi, is also a spokesman for the Hamas Office of Prisoners’ Affairs, al-Akhras is a PIJ leader. One photo shows him next to a PIJ flag, wearing a PIJ scarf. Other photos of him contain the PIJ logo appended to them. Al-Akhras has been arrested on at least five separate occasions for involvement in terror-related activities.

“FREE THEM ALL” – That is the caption atop the al-Akhras drawing Rasha Mubarak tweeted. The drawing depicts al-Akhras lying in bed, smiling as a little girl hugs him. It is a cynical propaganda ploy aimed at generating sympathy, by presenting Al-Akhras in a benign light to those unaware of his involvement in a brutal terrorist group that is responsible for the murders of over 100 innocent people, many via suicide bombings. Mubarak’s endorsement to free him and other killers is but one manifestation of her own psychotic rage and pathological rejection of all civilized norms.

This is not the only time Mubarak has shown support for Palestinian terrorists. This past June and July, Mubarak posted memorials onto her social media for car-ramming terrorist Ahmed Erekat, who was shot and killed after attempting to run over an Israeli border officer stationed at a checkpoint. At the end of the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict, along with photos of a jubilant Hamas, Mubarak tweeted, “Thousands of people celebrating in the streets of Gaza for the victory. Alhamdulillah. #VictoryForGaza.” Mubarak has promoted material from Hamas-related media, and she has personally been affiliated with the Hamas-linked groups CAIR and Islamic Relief.


Keir Starmer must lance the boil of Labour's anti-Semitism
Sir Keir Starmer speaks on Sunday to the Annual Meeting of the Jewish Labour Movement.

Appropriately socially distanced, he will not feel the mood of his audience, but he is well advised to remember the words of Emile Zola on the notorious Dreyfus scandal, which was the first to highlight antisemitism to the world;

‘My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul’.

The Jewish Labour movement, under their Zionist name Poale Zion, were there at the very founding of the Labour Party. My own family, from the Trade Unions, established the Leeds Labour Party with Jewish workers.

There will be, I have no doubt, lots of discussion and advice on the detail of how Sir Keir Starmer should rinse out the stain of antisemitism from the Labour Party. But the overwhelming mood will be one of anguish. His audience will include those who dedicated their life to the Labour Party but could not bring themselves to vote at the election. Those who persevered, despite the intensity of hostility and abuse they received. Those who were on the receiving end, every day for four years and still today of attacks and abuse because of their Jewish identity.

Some on the left refuse to allow Jewish people to be themselves. For too many, there are good Jews and bad Jews, and the only good Jews are those who agree with Corbyn.

Sir Keir Starmer’s speech is more than the usual rallying cry. It is about the battle for the soul of our country. We were not alone when we fought the Nazis, fascism and its inherent evil antisemitism, but we were unwavering. The British people can still recognise the stench of antisemitism and they do not like it.
What Corbyn’s favourite sociologists Greg Philo and Mike Berry get wrong about contemporary antisemitism
Controversially reinstated in the Labour Party, but denied a return to the Parliamentary Labour Party by the leader Keir Starmer, Jeremy Corbyn’s defiant response to the recent EHRC report, which found the party had breached the Equality Act in its treatment of Jewish people under his leadership, continues to roil the UK left.

In his initial statement, Corbyn said he did not ‘accept all of [the report’s] findings,’ because in his view the ‘scale’ of antisemitism had been ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.’ In a later interview, Corbyn clarified that this claim was based on supposed disparity between the general public’s perception of the number of Labour members ‘under suspicion of antisemitism’ and the actual number of formal complaints. While his most recent intervention, released shortly before the hearing which readmitted him to the party, made ‘clear’ that ‘concerns over antisemitism’ were not ‘overstated,’ he did not withdraw his contention that the ‘scale’ of the problem had been exaggerated.

On the face of it, Corbyn’s argument is flatly empirical, resting on raw numbers and unrelated to the wider question of antisemitism on the left. But this ostensibly value-free statement is premised on a series of ideological presuppositions that, once unpicked, demonstrate that the anti-Jewish discrimination the EHRC confirmed is not an inexplicable anomaly or random occurrence. Rather, it derives from a specific worldview, bordering on conspiracy theory, that has come to dominate large swathes of the left, and which is all-too-often receptive to antisemitism.
Councillor suspended for saying ‘no basis for a Jewish race, nation or homeland’
A Labour Councillor has been suspended after claiming there is “no factual basis whatsoever for a Jewish race, nation or homeland”.

Tower Hamlets official Puru Miah has been ‘administratively suspended’, the Labour Party has confirmed, as it investigates a claim of antisemitism. He issued a statement on Saturday saying “I unreservedly apologise for the hurt caused” and that he is “embarrassed” by what he wrote.

This comes after the Equality and Human Rrights Commission found evidence of “unlawful acts harassment and discrimination” as well as “political interference” in cases of antisemitism within the party.

Miah shared a post on Facebook in 2014, which said: “‘The invention of the Jewish people’ by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand'” was an “absolutely ‘must read’ for everyone who wants truth and justice for Palestine/Israel.

“The essential historical evidence will amaze you – there is no factual basis whatsoever for a Jewish race, nation or homeland, it is all a recently invented propaganda called ‘Zionism’.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”


BDS Faces Setbacks Amid New Political Landscape
The November election produced a mixed result for the BDS movement. The pro-BDS faction in the House of Representatives was enlarged, but large gains for Republicans in the House and in state elections portends continued opposition. The reelection of the “Squad,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) was expected. This BDS-supporting bloc has been augmented by the election of Democrat Cori Bush of Missouri.

In contrast, one newly elected progressive Democrat, Ritchie Torres of New York, has spoken strongly in favor of Israel and a two state solution. Torres, a gay Afro-Latino, noted that “pink-washing” attacks on him for participating in a trip to Israel had been shocking, but impelled him to investigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more deeply.

A Senate runoff election in January pits two Democrats against two Republicans for control of the Senate. One of the Democrats, Rev. Raphael Warnock, in the past signed a letter that alleged that Israel was an “apartheid state,” and made the accusation that the “government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey.” He says that he supports Israel, and favors a two-state solution. Warnock also defended the notorious Rev. Jeremiah Wright and invited a Farrakhan-linked minister to his congregation on numerous occasions.

Biden’s presumptive cabinet repudiates progressives and mostly includes veterans such as Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, who have held close to the Clinton-era consensus on Israel. Other staff appointments are more problematic, including Reema Dodin, appointed deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. Dodin, a Palestinian-American, was a student BDS activist at the University of California at Berkeley, who reportedly defended suicide bombings before attending law school and becoming a Congressional staff member.

In a manifestation of pressure from the far-left, BDS leader Linda Sarsour and other faith-based activists expressed preemptive disappointment with the Biden team, including for the candidate’s criticism of her support for BDS. Referring to current State Department efforts to combat BDS, Representative Rashida Tlaib also greeted news of Blinken’s appointment with the demand that he not “suppress my First Amendment right to speak out against Netanyahu’s racist and inhumane policies.”


Guardian letter by Palestinian artists and academics_ Zionists are racists
The Palestinian signatories then proceed to provide seven basic principles, which includes, in principle number one, their characterisation of Israel as a “predatory state”.

The fight against antisemitism…. is deeply distorted when geared towards the defence of an oppressive and predatory state.

In their second principle, we see again an example of why they wish to undermine IHRA’s defining as antisemitic the description of Zionism as an intrinsically racist endeavor

There is a huge difference between a condition where Jews are singled out, oppressed and suppressed as a minority by antisemitic regimes or groups, and a condition where the self-determination of a Jewish population in Palestine/Israel has been implemented in the form of an ethnic exclusivist and territorially expansionist state.

One of the basic principles of IHRA is that it recognizes that some forms of criticism of Israel is a new form of antisemitism, whereby the Jewish collective, Israel, is vilified in a manner that’s morally indistinguishable from classic antisemitism. In its relatively short history, Israel has been the target of hate and violence not because of what it’s done, because of what it is: a Jewish state. To deny that Israel has been hated largely because of its Jewish character is deny reality.

The fact is that crude, classic and often eliminationist antisemitism in the Middle East (especially in the Palestinian territories) has been demonsrated in opinion polls and countless examples, year after year, of antisemitic propaganda by both state and non-state actors. This hatred of Jews, it should be noted, took root not only before the 1967 war, but decades before statehood.

Are we really to believe that the widespread anti-Jewish racism throughout the Arab and Muslim world is not in any way related to their hatred of the Jewish state?

One of the best brief explanations on when criticism of Israel crosses the line to antisemitism was offered by dovish Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi, as he responded to a student asking why humanizing Zionists was acceptable, and compared that to asking black Americans to humanize members of the KKK.


BBC WS radio Gaza Strip reports demonstrate impartiality failings
Listeners were also told that the Hamas-run ministries in the Gaza Strip cannot impose a full lockdown because “people are poor” and such a measure would “break the economy, which is already broken” along with a context-free reference to “a blockade for more than 14 years now”.

Audiences however heard nothing about the terrorism which necessitates that blockade and which is prioritised by Hamas at the expense of public services and welfare, including healthcare.

A similarly context-free account was heard in another BBC World Service radio programme aired on the same day. In a programme described as “factual” called ‘The Documentary’ presenter Alan Dein ‘connected’ with a person presented only as “Mohammed in Gaza” (from 11:48) who recounted how – obviously like millions of other people in the world – his travel plans had been postponed because of the pandemic while making context-free references to “a tank”, “a soldier”, “buildings turned into ashes” and the fact that the Gaza Strip has no functioning airport or trains.

It was recently reported that the BBC has become the lowest-ranked British news provider on impartiality, according to OFCOM. These three items aired on BBC World Service radio serve as examples of how context-free promotion of a chosen narrative, inadequately presented contributors, unchallenged promotion of the agendas of NGOs and political activist interviewees and the failure to meet the simple practice of adequately identifying a person given a BBC platform harm the BBC’s claim to produce impartial news and current affairs coverage.
Israeli Search-and-Rescue Organization Signs Historic MoU With UAE Counterparts
The Jerusalem-based ZAKA International Rescue Unit announced this week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its counterparts in the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli humanitarian organization, made up of volunteers who lead search, rescue and recovery missions at home and around the world, said that it signed the MoU with the organizing committee of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition (DIHAD).

The signing ceremony took place on Wednesday at DIHAD headquarters in Dubai. According to ZAKA, the MoU “supports future collaborations between the two in the humanitarian field in international crises and disasters, and ensures the provision of all the necessary support to those affected, regardless of color, race, gender, religion or political opinions.”

ZAKA Chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, whose delegation was among the passengers that arrived on Thursday in Tel Aviv aboard the historic first direct commercial flight from Dubai, told JNS, “When the water cannon sprayed the plane at Ben-Gurion International Airport—the traditional welcome for a historic flight—we felt that we were making history, twice in one day.”

“We see it as a great privilege, within the implementation of the Abraham Accords, to be the first Israeli humanitarian organization to sign a cooperation agreement with DIHAD. There is no greater expression of peace than volunteer units partnering for mutual humanitarian aid and assistance, as well as professional training in search, rescue and recovery,” he said.
Israeli tech company making water from thin air signs agreement in UAE
UAE-based agribusiness firm Al Dahra has signed a partnership agreement with the Israeli Watergen company, the two announced on Sunday – part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed when a delegation of Al Dahra executives visited Israel in October.

Within the agreement, Watergen will be tasked with supplying the UAE and other countries in the region with its patented water solutions that generate water out of thin air – serving economic sectors ranging from agriculture to hospitality.

"From the moment that we signed this agreement, it has shown how important the signing of the Abraham Accords was and the tremendous wisdom of our leaders in making this breakthrough for our region and the world," said Watergen president and CEO Dr. Michael Mirilashvili.

"Though I had other plans, as soon as I learned of the accords, I rushed here in order to show the world the tremendous impact and importance of this historic step," he said. "With this agreement, we're showing our two nations, the region and the world, what is possible with peace." Created by the environmentally savvy Rishon Lezion-based tech company, Watergen's Gen-L water-from-air system taps into atmospheric water using patented heat-exchange technology, producing up to 5,000 liters of clean water per day – and requiring no infrastructure other than a standard electricity supply.

According to the company's website, it is “perfect for villages, off-grid settlements and factories.”
National Library welcomes Hannah Senesh archive
At an emotional online press conference on Monday, representatives of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem unveiled the full Hannah Senesh Archival Collection, which they had just received from Szenes’s family.

Hannah Szenes (sometimes spelled Senesh) is celebrated in Israel, both for her beautiful poetry and her wartime heroism. Her Hebrew poems, such as “Eli, Eli” (also known as “A Walk to Caesarea”) and “Blessed is the Match,” have been set to music and have become anthems.

Born in 1921 in Budapest, she came to Palestine in 1939 to study agriculture. In 1941, she joined the Hagana, the paramilitary group that preceded the IDF, and eventually volunteered for a mission in which she parachuted into Yugoslavia. The plan was that she and several other volunteers would cross the border into Hungary and bring supplies to anti-Nazi resistance groups, help downed Allied pilots and organize Jewish self-defense efforts.

Szenes was captured at the Hungarian border and executed after she resisted torture and refused to divulge information about her comrades. She was 23.

About a year after her death, a suitcase containing her poems, songs, diaries, letters and other items was found in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, where she had been living before embarking on the mission. Her mother, Katherine, came to Palestine with her daughter’s other writings and her estate was managed by her brother and his children. But now, the NLI has her entire literary archive, which it will display and make available to scholars.

In the press conference, Hezi Amiur, curator of the Israel Collection at the NLI, displayed handwritten poems, photographs, diaries and even a card she made for her grandmother, as well as her Hungarian typewriter and the suitcase in which the bulk of the poems were found.
UN must recognize Jewish refugees from Arab countries – opinion
You won't hear their stories in European Union meetings or see their photographs exhibited in the hallways of the United Nations. Their names cannot be found anywhere among the thousands of UN resolutions discussed and passed over the last seven decades. There is no special day dedicated to their communities or to their memory. They are the 850,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries and from Iran following Israel’s creation.

For international bodies such as the UN, they are forgotten refugees. But for us Israelis, their struggle will go on.

There is no argument over the facts: In a display of anger, after failing to prevent the November 29, 1947, UN Partition Plan and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel, Arab countries waged war not only on the newly established Jewish state but also against the peaceful and thriving Jewish communities that lived among them.

Entire communities from Morocco to Iraq, from Egypt to Syria, Lebanon, Iran and more were effectively wiped out. Along with them thousands of years of Jewish heritage, history and culture was erased, too.

The UN offered no help to those forced from their homes and has done little since to recognize the huge injustice they suffered. There was no international condemnation of the fact that these Jews were attacked and murdered, their property looted and their assets stolen, often by their neighbors and with the backing of the authorities.

In the decades since this treacherous expulsion, the UN has worked to only assist so-called Palestinian refugees. Billions of dollars have been handed over to UNRWA, which while caring for the welfare of families, simultaneously encourages terrorism and incitement through its school programs and, in the process, perpetuates a false narrative of the Palestinian’s “right of return.”



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A couple of antisemitic Arab cartoons


This one is entitled "The Zionist Lobby," showing the entire world is just an attachment to the Zionist keychain.



And this one is "Trump's Legacy," showing Donald Trump hypnotizing the Arab world while the evil religious Jew sneaks away stealing the Dome of the Rock.




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David Ben Gurion on the moral argument of a Jewish state in Palestine with an Arab minority

This is an except of a much longer speech by David Ben Gurion to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, at the YMCA in Jerusalem, on July 4, 1947.

And now I put the question to you: Who is prepared and able to guarantee that what happened to us in Europe will not happen again? Can human conscience, and we believe that there is a human conscience, free itself of all responsibility for that catastrophe? There is only one safeguard: a Homeland and Statehood! A Homeland, where a Jew can return freely as of right. Statehood, where he can be master of his own destiny. These two things are possible here, and here only. The Jewish people cannot give up, cannot renounce these two fundamental rights, whatever may happen.

The problem of Jewish-Arab relations is not merely the problem of Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It is the problem of the relations of the Jewish and Arab peoples as a whole. Their national aspirations in that broader sense are not only compatible but complementary.

Nobody can seriously claim that a Jewish Palestine could in any way endanger or harm the independence or unity of the Arab race. The area of Western Palestine is less than 1% of the vast territory occupied by the Arab States in the Near East, excluding Egypt. The number of Arabs in this country is less than 3% of the number of Arabs who have gained their political independence. The Arabs in Palestine, even if they were a minority, would still be a part of that large Arab majority in the Middle East. The existence of Arab States to the north, east, and south of Palestine is an automatic guarantee, not only of the civil, religious and political rights of the Arabs in Palestine, but also of their national aspirations.

But a Jewish Palestine, a populous, highly-developed Jewish State has something of great value and importance to offer, not only to the Arabs in Palestine, but to those in the neighbouring countries as well. Even the small beginnings of the Jewish State, where Jews have occupied and developed only a small fraction of the country, have already had a marked effect on the advancement of the population in Palestine. Even now the position of the Arab peasant and farmer in Palestine is superior to that of the Arab peasant and farmer in Arab States. Our national aim cannot be achieved without great constructive work, agricultural, industrial, material and cultural, and this must, by its nature, raise the economic and social standards of all the inhabitants of the country. We cannot fully utilize the water resources of Palestine, which are now being wasted, without providing larger irrigation possibilities for the Arab fellah as well. We cannot introduce modern methods of cultivation without the Arabs learning from that example. We cannot organize Jewish labour and improve conditions of work without similarly organizing the Arab worker and improving his conditions.

As long as the government is in foreign hands, the impact of our development on Arab advancement is small. The theory of holding the balance between Jews and Arabs, which in practice meant curbing and obstructing our work, was not only injurious to us but to the Arabs as well.

One may rightly ask: Why is it that a million Arabs can be safely left in a Jewish State and why should not a million Jews be left in an Arab State? If the Jews and the Arabs who are in Palestine ,were all the Jews and all the Arabs that exist in the world, this would be a very logical and conclusive argument. There would then be no reason whatsoever why one should prefer an Arab to a Jew or a Jew to an Arab, and only numbers would count. But one cannot ignore the fact that both communities living in Palestine are merely fragments of larger communities living outside, and both of them belong to these larger units and their fates are inextricably bound up with the larger units. By depriving the Jews in Palestine of a national home, by preventing them from becoming a majority and attaining statehood, you are depriving not only 600,000 Jews who are here, but also the millions of Jews who are still left in the world, of independence and statehood. In no other place can they have the desire or the prospect of attaining statehood.

In depriving the million Arabs of the same prospect, you do not affect the status of the Arab race at all. An Arab minority in a Jewish State would mean that only a certain number of individual Arabs would not enjoy the privilege of Arab statehood, but it would in no way diminish the independence and position of the free Arab race. The Arab minority in Palestine, being surrounded by Arab States, would remain safe in national association with their race. But a Jewish minority in an Arab State, even with the most ideal paper guarantee, would mean the final extinction of Jewish hope not in Palestine alone, but for the entire Jewish people, for national equality and independence, with all the disastrous consequences so familiar in Jewish history.

The conscience of humanity ought to weigh this: Where is the balance of justice, where is the greater need, where is the greater peril, where is the lesser evil and where is the lesser injustice?

The fate of the Jewish minority in Palestine will not differ from the fate of the Jewish minority in any other country, except that here it might be much worse.


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11/30 Links Pt1: Why Iran Is Getting the Bomb; Col Kemp: The Killing of a Nuclear Scientist May Save Countless Lives; Saudi Arabia officially approves Israeli flights over its airspace

From Ian:

Lee Smith: Why Iran Is Getting the Bomb
Barack Obama will never forgive Benjamin Netanyahu for being right about the Iran nuclear deal. In his new memoir, Promised Land, Obama writes that the Israeli prime minister’s “vision of himself as the chief defender of the Jewish people against calamity allowed him to justify almost anything that would keep him in power.”

In fact, Netanyahu put his job on the line by doing something few Israeli voters support—he challenged an American president and potentially endangered the U.S.-Israel relationship. In March 2015, he went over Obama’s head to make his case to the representatives of the American people and told Congress that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) would give Iran a clear path to the bomb. Since many restrictions were due to expire by 2025—the so-called “sunset clauses”—Iran would have an industrial-scale nuclear weapons program in about a decade.

“We’re being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war,” Netanyahu told Congress. “That’s just not true.”

Netanyahu was right. Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA in May 2017 and there was no war. Trump sanctioned the Tehran regime into penury and instead of war, Iranian demonstrators took to the streets to protest against those who’d squandered the country’s wealth by funding international terror.

In January, the president ordered the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. Middle East experts warned that he’d woken a sleeping giant and the region would shortly go up in flames—but again, there was no war. In fact, the Trump White House’s clear stance against the world’s leading sponsor of terror made room for peace in the Middle East. In the summer, the Abraham Accords gave Israel new regional partners, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan all agreeing to normalize relations.

Obama’s Iran deal was the costliest mistake of his presidency for the peoples of the Middle East. The premises on which it was based were proved false. And yet Joe Biden can’t wait to reenter the JCPOA, with Secretary of State-apparent Antony Blinken pledging to keep “non-nuclear sanctions” intact, signaling his clear intention to lift nuclear-related sanctions against Iran.

The only thing that could interfere with such wonderful plans, the press warns, is an impending Trump strike on Iran, which might come any day now. According to The New York Times, Trump asked his cabinet for military options after the U.N. reported that Iran had exceeded its limit of enriched uranium.

Does that mean Trump or Bibi is actually on the verge of attacking Iran? Of course not. On both the American and the Israeli fronts, Trump administration policy was to get American troops out of global hot spots as fast as possible—not start wars. What the war drums means is that the phony communications infrastructure that marketed the Iran deal from 2013-2016 is up and running again.
Richard Kemp: The Killing of a Nuclear Scientist May Save Countless Lives
Under the slogan "Death to America", Iran has been at war with the US, Israel and their Western allies since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, using proxy groups to kill hundreds of Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other places; and to launch terror attacks across the Middle East, Europe, the US and Latin America.

Mr Fakhrizadeh was a brigadier general in the IRGC and therefore not only a senior military commander in a country at war with the US and its allies but also a proscribed international terrorist.

Iran will never abandon what it considers its absolute right to become a nuclear-armed state, not under the current regime nor any future regime.... It has lied to the IAEA and the archive even sets out in detail the ways in which it has deceived the inspectors.

Despite claims to the contrary, the JCPOA was never going to prevent a nuclear armed Iran... Its sunset clauses meant that at best the deal might have delayed Tehran's acquisition of nuclear weapons for a few years.... Any return to the JCPOA by a Biden White House, as is being pushed by Mr Brennan and other prospective administration officials, will not see a strengthened deal but more likely an even weaker one.

Mr Brennan and the European supporters of his argument seem to believe that Iran can be contained by appeasement and negotiation rather than military strength and political will. The path advocated by the proponents of appeasement can only lead to infinitely greater bloodshed, violence and suffering than the death of a proscribed terrorist on the streets of Iran.
WSJ($): Another Bold Strike Against Iran
If Tehran's most prized personnel can be killed and its guarded facilities damaged, and it can do little in response, then the clerical regime's haybat, its unchallengeable awe, is degraded for all to see.

For a regime that knows the extent of popular anger against it, that is a perilous situation.

America's will to intervene in the Middle East is declining rapidly, and Israel's position is significantly stronger than it was in 2012, when President Obama began secret negotiations with Tehran in Oman.


Seth Frantzman: A generation of fighters who died by the sword
There was a time when Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, his No. 2, Imad Mughniyeh, and IRGC Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani would sit together and feel safe. They were leading the “resistance” against Israel, and the Jewish state would soon be defeated, or so they believed. These men had come through the fire of the 1980s, the civil war in Lebanon or the Iran-Iraq War, and they knew the privations of the past. In some ways, it is a tragedy that they turned their fire and anger against Israel. These men, like nuclear scientist and general Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed over the weekend, possessed qualities that surpassed others of their generation. They had legitimate grievances as well, coming from a time when Shi’ites were a suppressed minority and suffering the slaughter that Saddam Hussein’s regime and others had imposed.

However, they channeled their energy from those grievances to set their sights on the US, Israel and their partners in the region. Arrogance led them to confront Israel and the US. This was born of the years in which terrorists could do as they pleased, bombing Jewish centers like the AMIA in Argentina, killing Jews at synagogues in Europe and being freed quickly by local authorities with a wink and a nod. After all, the Israeli Olympic team had been seen as a legitimate target by Palestinians, and most European countries and coffee-sipping Western diplomats had barely shed a tear.

Surely Hezbollah could stockpile rockets and threaten and kill as it pleased. Hezbollah’s narrative was that it was resisting Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Then when Israel left, the organization didn’t put down its arms with any kind of Good Friday Agreement; it planned more killings instead.

That was their mistake. In 2000 when the Second Intifada broke out, these men could have channeled their resources elsewhere.

THEY BELONGED to the same generation. Mughniyeh was born in 1962 and died in 2008. A car bomb killed him in Damascus. The CIA and the Mossad were behind it, The Washington Post reported. Hezbollah vowed revenge.
List of Iran's Assassinations and Plots
Iran has assassinated dozens of its enemies across four continents — in Asia, Europe, North America and South America — over the four decades since the 1979 revolution. As of September 2020, the Islamic Republic had reportedly assassinated at least 21 opponents abroad and killed hundreds in bombings of foreign military, diplomatic and cultural facilities. It targeted Americans, Europeans, Latin Americans, Israelis and Arabs as well as Iranian opposition members living abroad, according to U.S., U.N., Israeli and other government reports. They included 59 attacks or plots:

20 targeted Iranian dissidents
19 targeted Israelis or Jews
20 incidents were solely against Western or Arab targets.


“Terrorism is an important instrument of Iranian foreign policy, used both to promote national interests and to export the regime’s revolutionary ideals,” a declassified CIA report from 1987 said. Some assassinations suggested methodical planning.

Marine Barracks BombingsThe Qods Force, the elite wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that operates outside Iran, has been linked to most of the attacks or plots, the reports concluded. It has coordinated with or used local proxies, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in many attacks. They were linked in the 1983 bombing of U.S. peacekeepers in Lebanon, which killed 241 Marines.

The Foreign Ministry’s Department 210 reportedly also facilitated the operations or coordinated with Iranian intelligence services. In August 1991, Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran's last prime minister during the monarchy, was killed by two men who were allegedly Iranian intelligence agents. The Foreign Ministry reportedly issued the two men passports with false names so they could pose as businessmen and then helped them acquire visas to France.

But many alleged plots failed due to poor planning or amateur operatives. One of the most bizarre attempts was a plan in 2011 to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States at a restaurant in Washington. A used car salesman from Corpus Christi, Texas allegedly tried to hire a Mexican drug gang to carry out the hit. Earlier that year, an alleged Iranian operative in Thailand accidentally blew his legs off with a bomb that detonated while he was trying to escape from the police.
Seth Frantzman: Fakhrizadeh: Hit squads, car bombs and remote-controlled guns - analysis
Remote-controlled weapons killed Iranian nuclear scientist and key nuclear program chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, according to Iranian accounts. But, another account has it differently: a handful of assassins did it. Yet a third explanation has it that 12 men came with several vehicles, using one of them to blow up and block the security convoy that was protecting the high-value target.

The competing narratives over the killing of the man who was at the pinnacle of Iran’s nuclear industrial complex are befitting one who was anyway known to be in the spotlight. Since the 2000s, he was known to the US, and sanctioned and then highlighted by a UN nuclear watchdog in 2011, before being named in a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

You don’t get better known in Iran than that. The UN, the US and the Israelis have all mentioned you. You can retire, or travel with security, but you’re on the wanted list.

So Mr. Fakhrizadeh knew that and those around him knew that. They knew that colleagues such as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani had a deadly meeting with an American missile after traveling to Baghdad in January 2020. On the other hand, Iran also knew that plans to attempt assassinations had been called off in the past for high-value targets.

They had something else. Just days before, on November 14, the world had learned that al-Qaeda’s number two had been killed in Tehran. How many assassin teams can possibly be operating in Tehran? That killing got international attention. It was carried out in August. Foreign reports claimed Israel did it in cooperation with the US.

Thus the Fars News story of the exact details of how Fakhrizadeh was killed is a bit too much information. He was driving home with his wife; it was a nice Friday afternoon. His convoy had three cars. They were driving near Absard to a nice house for the weekend. The cars slowed for some reason, maybe a security check. One kept going.


Killing of nuke chief was done entirely by remote control — Iranian report
The attack that killed the alleged architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program on Friday was carried out from afar using a remote-controlled machine gun attached to a car, a leading Iranian news site reported Sunday.

According to the semi-officials Fars news site, the entire operation was conducted with no human agents whatsoever, a significantly different description of the attack than has been presented until now. The account was not attributed to official sources and was not immediately confirmed by Iran.

According to the outlet, the assault took place over the course of three minutes as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — a brigadier general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a key figure in the country’s military research-and-development program long regarded by Israel and the US as the head of its rogue nuclear weapons program — traveled with his wife toward the resort town of Absard, east of Tehran.
Iran accuses exiled dissident group of helping Israel kill nuclear researcher
Iran said Israel and an exiled opposition group used new and “complex” methods to assassinate its leading nuclear scientist, as it buried him Monday in a funeral befitting a top “martyr.”

As it laid Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — seen by Israel as the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons program — to rest, the Islamic Republic also vowed to redouble his work.

Fakhrizadeh died Friday after his car and bodyguards were targeted in a bomb and gun attack on a major road outside the capital, heightening tensions once more between Tehran and its foes.

Iran’s top security official, Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani of the Supreme National Security Council, said the “operation was very complex, using electronic equipment, and no one was present at the scene.”

The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) were “certainly” involved, along with “the Zionist regime and the Mossad,” he said, referring to the Israeli government and its spy agency.
Nuke chief killed with Israeli weapons controlled by satellite – Iranian report
The attack that killed the alleged architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program on Friday was carried out using an Israeli-manufactured weapon controlled by satellite, Iranian news sites reported on Monday.

Just after the burial of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, state TV’s English-language Press TV reported a weapon recovered from the scene of the attack bore “the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry.” There were no images published of the alleged weapon in the report, which was attributed to “informed sources.”

Additionally, a report on the Arabic-language Al Alam news site, which is operated by the state-owned media corporation Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, said there was proof of Israel’s involvement in the killing. The report, which was attributed to a single anonymous source, offered no evidence for its claim.
MEMRI: Reactions In Qatar To Assassination Of Iran's Top Nuclear Scientist: This Despicable Operation Harms Efforts At Dialogue With Iran; Saudi Arabia, UAE May Have Helped Israel Carry It Out
Qatari media published many reactions to the November 27, 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist and the father of the Iranian nuclear program. The Qatari foreign minister condemned the assassination and extended his condolences to the Iranian government and people, and condemnation was also expressed in editorials in Qatari dailies. Qatari media figures likewise condemned it and also pointed an accusing finger at Israel, even raising the possibility that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had been involved in the operation.

It should be noted that recently Qatar and Iran have been emphasizing the close relations among these three countries. A November 24 Qatar-Iran economic cooperation conference in Isfahan, Iran discussed the subject at length. The following day, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in a phone conversation, invited Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to visit the Qatari capital Doha, telling him that Qatar-Iran relations were "strategic" and that Qatar would make a great effort to implement the agreements signed between the two countries and to promote Qatar-Iran cooperation in all areas. He added that Iran must be part of any dialogue aimed at reaching an agreement assuring the security of the region, and expressed hope that the talks between Iran and the Gulf states would be renewed now that Joe Biden had won the U.S. presidential election.[1]

The following is a review of reactions in the Qatari government and media to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's assassination.

Qatari Foreign Minister: Qatar Harshly Condemns The Assassination Of Fakhrizadeh And Sends Condolences To Iran
Qatari Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the telephone, saying: "Qatar harshly condemns the explosion which took place in Teheran and the assassination of the scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who established the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research at the Iranian Defense Ministry and was its president, during an armed attack," and adding that the incident was a clear violation of human rights. He extended Qatar's condolences to the government and the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran and stressed that "such actions only add fuel to the fire at a time when the region and the international community are seeking ways to reduce the tension and return to the negotiating table and to diplomacy." He also urged "restraint and the investment of efforts to find deep-rooted solutions to the unsolved problems." For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif expressed appreciation for Qatar's stand and emphasized the close ties between the two countries.[2]

Qatari Editorials: This Despicable Operation Damages Efforts At Dialogue With Iran
The November 29 editorial in the Qatari state-run daily Al-Raya emphasized that Qatar condemns the assassination, that Iran is a neighboring country, and that any differences with Iran must be resolved only through constructive dialogue and negotiations. It stated: "The harsh condemnation expressed in yesterday's phone call by the [Qatari] deputy prime minister and foreign minister to Iran's foreign minister – in which he harshly condemned, on behalf of Qatar, the Tehran blast and the assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, director of the Iranian Defense Ministry's Research and Innovation Organization... and called the [assassination] a clear violation of human rights – was based on Qatar's immutable stance opposing all terrorism and violence of any kind and from any source... Qatar's opposition to assassinations and terrorism are clear and unchanging. It has [always] opposed violence and terrorism, no matter the motives or reasons, and its opposition to the assassination operation against the Iranian nuclear scientist stems from this position. It views this operation as harmful to the efforts to maintain a dialogue with Iran about its nuclear issue. This is also the reason for the international opposition and condemnation of the incident, as it is a dangerous act of escalation which may yield disastrous results.


Joining EU, Tehran, J Street Condemns Fakhrizadeh’s Assassination
Adding his condemnation of the assassination of senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh to similar attacks by the Ayatollahs in Tehran and the European Union in Brussels, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami on Sunday issued a statement saying “the assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist appears to be an attempt to sabotage the ability of the incoming Biden administration to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as well as the chances of further diplomacy, either by limiting the political leeway of Iranian officials who want to restore the deal, or by triggering an escalation leading to military confrontation.”

I’m the first to agree that making analogies to the Holocaust is something one should weigh carefully, since mentioning the years 1933-1945 in reference to current events often smacks of hysteria and a lack of appreciation of just how terrible those 12 years were. Having said that, my first reaction to Ben-Ami’s condemnation of the killing of the father of the Iranian nuclear weapons program brought to mind May 27, 1942 assassination of Schutzstaffel (SS)-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office, RSHA), the combined security services of Nazi Germany, and acting Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Heydrich was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. He was given supreme charge of the “Final Solution to the Jewish question.” His assassination was carried out by soldiers of the Czechoslovak army-in-exile, in Prague, after preparation and training by the British Special Operations Executive and with the approval of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Heydrich was wounded in the attack and died of his injuries on June 4, 1942. His death led to a wave of reprisals by SS troops, including the destruction of villages and the mass killing of civilians, most memorably the Lidice massacre, where 199 men were killed, 195 women were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp and 95 children taken prisoner, 81 of whom were later killed in gas vans at the Chełmno extermination camp.

In terms of the two men’s ambitions, there is no daylight between Reinhard Heydrich and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. They both aimed to annihilate roughly 9 million Jews, and they both ruled and operated a state-run industrial effort to carry out their terrifying designs. In that context, there is also no difference between Ben-Ari’s condemnation of Fakhrizadeh’s assassination and the elimination of Heydrich.

As far as Ben-Ami is concerned, it’s all politics, and therefore he points his fingers at “those who oppose the JCPOA” who “will stop at nothing to kill the agreement once and for all, despite repeatedly being proven wrong about the deal’s success in blocking Iran’s paths to a nuclear weapon and the disastrous consequences of Donald Trump’s violation of the pact.”


Honest Reporting: CNN, NYT Sympathize With Iranian Scientist Who Wanted to Nuke Israel
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed on Friday, was not just some civilian scientist. Fakhrizadeh was a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iranian leaders have repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and Fakhrizadeh ran a nuclear program designed to give Tehran the weapon to carry out its threat.

Those facts are what media reports about Fakhrizadeh's death should have focused on - not the suspicions that Israel was involved, and certainly not portraying Iran as the victim.




BBC's 'Independent Expert' is Iranian Regime Advocate
The BBC was very keen to emphasise the supposed “non-partisan” nature of of Trita Parsi – who presented himself as an independent analyst in an interview about the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. In fact Parsi is a well known advocate for the Iranian regime. Parsi left his former organisation after being found by the US courts to be advocating for the Iranian regime, when he attempted to sue a blogger for saying his organisation was lobbying for Iran in America. The court found in 2012 that the work of Tritra Parsi was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iranian] regime.” He masquerades as a non-partisan analyst when in reality he is anti-Israel and pro-Iran…

A quick google by BBC researchers would have found this front page Washington Times article which says that analysis of “e-mails between Mr. Parsi and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Javad Zarif – and an internal review of the Lobbying Disclosure Act – offer evidence that the group has operated as an undeclared lobby and may be guilty of violating tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws.” While BBC are always keen to call out the ideological leanings of those on the right, they appear happy to introduce an apparent long-standing Iranian regime advocate as an independent analyst…


Iranians face trial over suspected bomb plot, in European first
An Iranian diplomat and three other Iranians went on trial in Belgium on Friday accused of planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled opposition group in France in 2018, the first time an EU country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism.

Belgian prosecutors charged Vienna-based diplomat Assadolah Assadi and the three others with plotting an attack on a rally of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The rally's keynote address was given by US President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Assadi, who was arrested while on holiday in Germany and handed over to Belgium, is refusing to appear in court and did not attend the first day of the trial in Antwerp; he has not commented on the charges.

"My client asked me to represent him today, he let me know he has the fullest respect for these judges but as he considers that he should benefit from immunity, they are not allowed to judge him," his lawyer Dimitri de Beco told Reuters.

Assadi was the third counselor at Iran's embassy in Vienna. French officials have said he was in charge of intelligence in southern Europe and was acting on orders from Tehran.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly dismissed the charges, calling the attack allegations a "false flag" stunt by the NCRI, which it considers a terrorist group.

The trial is expected to continue next week, with a possible verdict later this month or in early January, lawyers said.


Trump Senior Aide Kushner and Team Heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his team are headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks in a region simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that Kushner is to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, and the emir of Qatar in that country in the coming days. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation.

Kushner and his team helped negotiate normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan since August. The official said they would like to advance more such agreements before President Donald Trump hands power to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.

US officials believe enticing Saudi Arabia into a deal with Israel would prompt other Arab nations to follow suit. But the Saudis do not appear to be on the brink of reaching such a landmark deal and officials in recent weeks have been focusing on other countries, with concern about Iran’s regional influence a uniting factor.

Kushner’s trip comes after the killing on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran by unidentified assailants. Western and Israeli governments believe Fakhrizadeh was the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Saudi Arabia officially approves Israeli flights over its airspace
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday evening that it has officially given approval for Israeli airlines to fly over the country's airspace, dramatically shortening flying times to the east and finally allowing Israeli airlines to offer direct flights to Dubai, Israeli media reported.

Saudi Arabia's announcement means that an Israir flight between Tel Aviv and Dubai planned for tomorrow, Tuesday, will depart Ben-Gurion Airport as originally planned.

Earlier on Monday, Emirati officials clarified on Monday to Israel's Transportation Ministry that as long as Saudi Arabia doesn't issue Israeli airline companies a permit to fly over its airspace, the UAE won't allow any Israeli flight to land in Dubai, KAN reported. The issue was reportedly examined by the Foreign Ministry, which opened a dialogue with Saudi Arabia in an attempt to speed up the approval process.

In September, Saudi Arabia declared that it will be allowing all foreign civilian flights to fly over its airspace, following a request by the UAE, "in order to allow passage over the kingdom's airspace for flights reaching the UAE and departing from it." However, the message didn't specifically mention Israel, which raised concerns with Israeli aviation officials in recent weeks.

With flights already full, Israeli airline companies Israir, Arkia and El Al are prepared to fly thousands of Israelis to Dubai during the month of December. They can now be calm and know that the flights will be carried out as planned.
Knesset committee ‘meets’ with UAE Jewish community
In a unique meeting the Knesset Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee formally met via video conference on Monday with leading members of the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates.

The signing of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE in August paved the way for the Jewish community to openly build a relationship with the Jewish state. During the committee hearing MKs and other officials discussed how this could be advanced. Some 1,000 Jews from around the world currently live in the country. Most reside in Dubai, while a small number live in Abu Dhabi.

Committee chairman MK David Bitan of Likud noted that there are 200 children in the community and that Israel, along with other donors, is helping to establish the first Jewish school in Dubai.

Jewish Agency director Amira Aharonovitz noted that its emissary, expected this week in the UAE, will work with the local Jewish community, to learn its needs and how best the Jewish Agency can assist it.

“We are proudly and humbly working to have a role and shape the Jewish presence in the Gulf and its relationship with Israel,” said Aharonovitz. “We will work to prioritize the needs of the Jewish community and provide it with programming and assistance.”
After denial, Sudan reportedly confirms visit by Israeli delegation last week
The military council that rules Sudan reportedly confirmed Sunday that an Israeli military delegation “recently” visited the country, after the country’s civilian government last week denied that such a visit had taken place.

“It was a delegation of a military character and nothing more,” said Mohammad Feki Suleiman, a spokesperson for the Sudanese Transitional Sovereignty Council, in statements widely carried in Arabic-language media.

Last Monday, a senior Israeli official told Hebrew-language media that the Jewish state had sent a delegation to Sudan — the first such visit since last month’s announcement of an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries.

The Sudanese civilian government had initially denied the report, with a government spokesperson telling AFP that “the cabinet is not aware of an Israeli delegation and we have no confirmation that this visit took place.”

The cabinet, which is run by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, is distinct from the military-run Sovereignty Council. Since the downfall of former dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the Sovereignty Council, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been Sudan’s de facto ruling authority.


Israel Weighing COVID-19 Restrictions for Hanukkah, Says Health Ministry Chief
Israeli Health Ministry Director General Hezi Levy on Sunday called the latest COVID-19 data “worrisome.”

In an interview with Army Radio, Levy explained: “There is an increase in the reproduction rate, which is 1.16 [percent]. There is an increase in the number of verified cases every day, although their rate has remained constant.”

According to Levy, if the reproduction rate continues to climb, the government will need to restore restrictions put in place to curtail the spread of the virus.

Levy appeared to support the decision to allow students, including high-schoolers, to return to in-person learning, saying, “The government made an ethical decision, and there is great importance in sending students to school, including in the higher grades.”

However, he said, he is worried about the opening of the economy, which he said was “too fast for my liking. It can endanger us even when everyone understands the significance—financial, social and psychological—of shutting down the economy.”

“We’ll have to think about it,” he said. “There are some tools for dealing with morbidity that don’t necessarily include a lockdown [such as imposing] various restrictions … an eight-week lockdown would be very difficult for the economy and people. We need to do everything we can to limit gatherings and the increase in morbidity. It wouldn’t be a cliché to say that a lot depends on us and our behavior.”
Iran releases Jewish prisoner imprisoned for visiting Israeli family
The Islamic Republic of Iran has freed imprisoned Iranian Jew Mashallah Pesar Kohan, who was detained in 2017 for visiting his family members in Israel.

George Haroonian, a prominent Iranian Jewish American, announced Sunday on social media that “Mashallah Pesar Kohan, a Jewish citizen, was released from prison in greater Tehran.”

Karmel Melamed, an Iranian-American journalist and activist for religious minorities in Iran, told The Jerusalem Post that the case of Kohan shows that the “Jews of Iran do not live in peace. They fear for their lives.

“He was imprisoned for visiting his elderly parents in Israel,” he continued. “What kind of crime is that? What kind of ‘love’ and ‘tolerance’ is that for the Jews of Iran?”

Iran’s regime sentenced Kohan to three years in prison for visiting Israel, though he was issued a conditional release in September. According to the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities (ARAM), Kohan "has been denied legal representation and medical care since his arrest.”
Israel Authorizes Tax Transfer to PA, Minus Pay-to-Slay Funds
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet approved the transfer of tax funds Israel collects for the Palestinians on Sunday, after the Palestinian Authority ended its suspension of cooperation with Israel.

The cabinet also deducted about NIS 600 million ($200 m.) from the full amount of taxes and tariffs collected, in accordance with the law requiring Israel to freeze the amount the PA pays to terrorists and their families.

The “Pay for Slay Law,” passed in 2018, requires the government to deduct the amount the PA pays terrorists and their families from the taxes collected, and for the Defense Ministry to present an annual report on the PA’s terrorist salaries, which amounted to NIS 517.4 m. ($156 m.) in 2019.

The taxes and tariffs to be transferred to the PA amount to NIS 2.5 bn. ($700 m.)

All imports to the PA go through Israeli checkpoints, and Israel collects VAT and tariffs for the PA, as per the Oslo Accords. Those funds are the largest source of income for the PA. Israel also collects income tax and health-insurance funds for Palestinians who work for Israelis.


PMW: PA uses music to promote violence: “No force… can remove the weapon from my hand”
Ignoring its commitments under the Oslo Accords, the Road Map, Annapolis, and many additional verbal commitments internationally, the PA has never renounced violence and terror against Israel to its own people. On the contrary, they have repeatedly announced their adherence to it: in speeches by PA officials, at official events, on PA TV programs, on posters and in cartoons, or in songs and music videos. They continue to honor and reward terrorists who have committed gruesome murders, even in recent years. The PA uses all available means to communicate to Palestinians that violence and terror are always an option in the “struggle” for “Palestine” and the eradication of Israel.

One such means is songs. One song in particular stresses the fact that the Palestinians have and will never abandon violence: My Weapon Has Emerged. The repeating refrain declares: “There is no force in the world that can remove the weapon from my hand.”

In a quiz on Palestinian musical history, the PA currently presents this song as one of the Palestinian national songs that “express our national identity,“ and “fascinate us with values and meanings.” Significantly, not only the words celebrate the use of violence, so do the visuals PA TV added. While the song is playing, footage is shown of masked Palestinians carrying weapons, attacking, and shooting. To leave no doubt who this violence is aimed at and that murderous terror is the goal, an image from an Israeli funeral has been inserted, showing soldiers carrying a coffin draped in an Israeli flag:


Israel-Lebanon Maritime Border Talks Postponed, Officials Say
Maritime border talks between Israel and Lebanon scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, and US mediators will now contact the two old foes separately, Israeli and Lebanese officials said on Monday.

The negotiations were launched in October, with delegations convening at a UN base to try to resolve a dispute about their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said it had been agreed with the Americans that talks would be postponed for a few weeks.

“In the interim, they will do some shuttling in order to better prepare the next round of talks,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.

The talks are the culmination of three years of diplomacy by Washington.

Disagreement over the sea border has discouraged oil and gas exploration near the disputed line.

The sides presented contrasting maps for proposed borders in October, sources said at the time.
JCPA: Hizbullah Opposed Israeli Plans for Limited “Battle Days,” Views Them as War
As the IDF’s “Lethal Arrow” exercise began in the Northern Command (October 18-25, 2020), Hizbullah declared a heightened alert of all its regular and reserve units in Lebanon and Syria. Al-Akhbar’s editor, Ibrahim al-Amin, who serves as the mouthpiece of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, noted that Hizbollah’s heightened alert included the deployment of combat troops, the operational deployment of strategic (missile and rocket) units, as well as support units.

Hizbullah’s state of emergency was kept quiet; Israel followed it closely, and as far as Hizbullah was concerned, Israel received the message that Hizbullah was ready for a military confrontation. Hizbullah made it clear that the new term, “Battle Days,” which the IDF uses to define limited military action as a large conflict – but as less than an all-out war – no longer exists. The term came to replace the concept of the “campaign between the wars” in which Israel permitted itself to bomb, assassinate, and hit Hizbullah targets. Hizbullah made it clear that it would not allow Israel to change the existing “power equation” and hit its strategic assets within the framework of the “Battle Days” concept, including the enhancement activities of its missile force, particularly its missile-precision project.

Hizbullah has made it clear that it will not allow a state of limited “Battle Days,” which by their scale, they perceive as an all-out war, and, therefore, à la guerre comme à la guerre, Hizbullah will achieve its goals by all means at its disposal. As reported in Israel, Hizbullah’s means include 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types, including precision-guided munitions (PGM) with a 10-meter accuracy radius (CEP), which can cover the entire area of Israel. In the event of war, Hizbullah will not use them to decorate Lebanon; it will not store them as before, but will use them against the central Israel Dan region – whatever is needed.





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