03/02 Links Pt1: Pompeo: US officials tried to undermine Abraham Accords to help Palestinians; Melanie Phillips: The return of American anti-anti-Islamism

From Ian:

Pompeo: US officials tried to undermine Abraham Accords to help Palestinians

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is accusing certain US and European officials of attempting to block the historic Abraham Accords in order to keep the Palestinian issue at the top of the international agenda.

In a speech at the annual conference of the Combat Anti-Semitism movement, at which the organization awarded him a prize, Pompeo discussed opposition to the accords and said that the Russians, as well as certain policy-makers in the United States and Europe, would have preferred to see them fail to materialize.

According to Pompeo, the unnamed officials wanted to maintain the "delusion" that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the keystone to regional peace. The former secretary of state said that when the opponents of the accords, realized that no Intifada would erupt as a result of the agreements being signed, and Israel could establish "warm ties" with its regional neighbors, they saw that the Trump administration's approach had been correct.

Pompeo said he believed that many other countries would sign on to the accords, adding that he hoped Saudi Arabia would be one, as well as Muslim countries outside the Middle East.

Pompeo also discussed the processes that led up to the accords, saying that the Palestinians had clung to their line of "no, no, no," prompting the administration to decide to move ahead with other countries in the Middle East, whose leaders said they did not want the Palestinians to bar them from establishing relations with Israel. Those countries said they wanted ties "not founded on hatred," Pompeo said.

The Abraham Accords will last, he said, adding that people in Sudan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates would not go backward.

Melanie Phillips: The return of American anti-anti-Islamism

As Pompeo observed about the DNI note:
The release of this report was reckless. It was political. It was aimed at harming a relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the use of intelligence in a way that, as a former CIA director, I would have never stood for. I regret that because this administration wants to develop a relationship with Iran and destroy one with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they chose to use intelligence to do that.

According to US officials, by implicating MBS in Khashoggi’s killing but opting not to punish him personally the Biden administration wants to recalibrate the relationship with Saudi Arabia without destroying it. The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to President Biden’s press secretary:
as part of the recalibration of ties Mr. Biden sees the King as his counterpart, not the Crown Prince.

This is all astonishingly stupid. The King is old and barely functioning. MBS is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, MBS is a reformer trying to drag his country out of the dark ages. Saudi women now work, drive and travel abroad without permission of a male guardian. Previously banned cinemas have sprung up along with public entertainments such as rock concerts.

Sure, this is all small change by western standards; and the Saudi regime is still guilty of barbaric abuses of human rights. But at least MBS is pushing his country a little in the right direction. By damaging him in this way, the Biden administration has empowered his Muslim Brotherhood enemies who want to bring him down and return Saudi Arabia to an even more repressive ethos — as well as enmity against the west. What perversity is this?

The risks are that, with such cold winds once again blowing from the White House, Saudi Arabia will cosy up to Russia and China, thus destabilising the region and damaging western defences. And America will again shockingly become what it became under President Obama — anti-anti-Islamist. Which, whether the Biden administration wants this to happen or not, will put it on the side of the Islamic fanatics, whether the Sunni Muslim Brothers or the Shia “Twelvers” who are all at war with the west — and also intent upon repressing freedom-seeking Muslims everywhere.

Internationally, America is now a wasting asset. Its enemies can scarcely believe their luck — or conceal their contempt. Its allies are looking on aghast. And the Biden administration is still only six weeks old.

JCPA: Africa Is a Jihadist Playground for the Resurgent Islamic State and al-Qaeda

The presence of the extremist groups in the “jihadist belt” has destabilized the area and has had a crucial impact on the willingness of outside investors to risk huge sums in those regions at risk. The United States and France’s military presence, together with its local allies of the G5 (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad), has succeeded in limiting the damage perpetrated by the Jihadist organizations but has failed to eradicate the phenomenon.

“We also see a serious regional threat from violent extremist organizations emanating from the Sahel,” warned General Townsend, head of the U.S. Army’s AFRICOM. “Security is deteriorating rapidly, with a 250% increase in VEO violence since 2018 in Burkina Faso, Mali, and western Niger. Having quickly spread from northern Mali, al-Qaida’s JNIM, ISIS-aligned groups, and other VEOs are now operating throughout the Sahel region.”9 Nevertheless, France’s President Emmanuel Macron is considering a reduction of the French military force of 5,100 in the Sahel states.10

The involvement of Western powers in the fight against jihadism is meant primarily to fight the terrorists in their own territory in the hope that it will also thwart terrorism outside Africa. However, it is unclear if this method actually protects Europe, in particular, as many attacks have been carried out by home-grown jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State.

On the other hand, it is also clear that ending the West’s war carried out in Africa against jihadism would prove fatal to shaky regimes and open the doors to terrorist activities in Europe. The example of thousands of brain-washed Europeans who volunteered to join the ranks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria proves that there is fertile ground in Europe to sow jihadist activity exported from Africa.

Today, it is obvious that the declaration of victory against the Islamic State was erroneous. “The international community is not making durable progress in containing priority VEOs in Africa,” warned the American Army commander in Africa.11

Even though beaten and left without its territorial base following its defeat by the coalition forces in 2017, the Islamic State is still very much alive and, from time to time, reminds all concerned that it has not been vanquished.

Gantz says Israel moving to protect citizens from ICC

Defense Minister and Justice Minister Benny Gantz set off alarms on Tuesday saying that Israel estimates hundreds of Israeli citizens might be subject - in the not so distant future - to war crimes probes by the International Criminal Court.

Including himself among Israelis who could be threatened with arrest, Gantz told Reuters that Israel is hard at work protecting those Israelis. "I was never afraid to go across enemy lines, I will continue to stand wherever I have to," he said.

In an interview on Israel's border with Gaza, Gantz called the ruling a "negative development" and added: "We have our own teams working in different (places) to try (and) influence (the ICC)." Gantz's comments came in direct contradiction to statements made in early February by top Israeli legal officials when Israel’s confrontation with the ICC moved into high gear.

Senators Urge Blinken to More Strongly Condemn ICC War Crimes Probe of Israel

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) are urging US Secretary of State Tony Blinken to take a stronger position against the International Criminal Court’s ruling that it has jurisdiction to open a war crimes investigation against Israel.

In a letter circulating among their colleagues and obtained by Haaretz, the two senators said Blinken should “issue a more forceful condemnation of the court’s actions” after the ICC announced on Feb. 5 that it has territorial jurisdiction to investigate Israel for committing war crimes in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The US State Department came out with a statement expressing “serious concerns” about the ruling and opposing the court’s “attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.” Cardin and Portman, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are now calling for more action from Blinken.

“We also urge you to work with like-minded international partners to steer the ICC away from further actions that could damage the court’s credibility by giving the appearance of political bias,” said the letter. “We ask that you give this matter your full attention and that you continue to defend Israel against discriminatory attacks in all international fora.”

Cardin and Portman said they are “concerned that the court’s recent actions” have “inappropriately infused politics into the judicial process.”

“The ICC’s mandate should not supersede Israel’s robust judicial system, including its military justice system,” added the senators, explaining that “it is not within the authority of the ICC to accept or deny any party’s claims to these disputed territories, nor has the court ever before formally investigated allegations taking place in disputed territories. This unprecedented action by the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber unfairly targets Israel, biases any subsequent investigation or trial, and hinders the path towards regional peace.”

Biden admin ‘enthusiastically embraces’ full IHRA definition of antisemitism

Secretary of State Tony Blinken wrote that the Biden administration “enthusiastically embraces” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including its full list of examples.

In a letter to American Zionist Movement President Richard Heideman obtained by Jewish Insider, Blinken said the administration is “eager to work with allies and partners to counter Holocaust distortion and combat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance abroad while we strengthen our efforts at home.”

Read the full text of the letter here

Among the examples listed in IHRA’s definition of antisemitism are “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

The IHRA definition was codified in an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump in December 2019 that added antisemitism to the list of types of discrimination prohibited by federal law. Prior to that, it had been used as guidance in the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which last month applauded the administration for its support of the definition, told JI that the definition is a “helpful tool in combating antisemitism” and that the administration’s adoption of it “reflects the fact that the IHRA definition is the gold standard.”

Yisrael Medad: A Return to the Hansell Memorandum?

From a State Department Press Briefing conducted on March 1, 2021 by Ned Price, Department Spokesperson:

QUESTION: Just briefly on Israel and Palestine. Has the State Department reversed the – Mr. Pompeo’s determination that the settlements in the occupied territories are not necessarily illegal?

MR PRICE: So we wouldn’t comment on any internal deliberative processes here, and that’s a rule across the board. What we would stress is that our focus is on encouraging Israel and the Palestinians to avoid, as I said before, unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and that make it more difficult to preserve the viability of a two-state solution.

QUESTION: So is it under review, then? Is it under review?

MR PRICE: Again, we’re not going to comment on any internal deliberative process.

QUESTION: Well, wait, wait, does that – that suggests that there is a deliberative process going on.

MR PRICE: We —

QUESTION: So the previous administration, when it came to a conclusion that it did not think that the Hansell Memorandum * was appropriate or accurate, came out and announced it. Will this administration, if it determines that either you’re going to keep it – the previous administration’s position – or change it, will you announce it? Or is that now a deliberative process that you won’t talk about?

Exclusive: Why I cannot approve the EU Budget Discharge in its present form

The European Union funds a large number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which pursue a one-sided anti-Israel agenda. Thanks to the excellent work by NGO Monitor, the Israeli Ministry for Strategic Affairs, and NGOs like Regavim, Palestinian Media Watch and Im Tirtzu, this fact is well-known in Israel.

As Rapporteur for the Discharge of the EU Commission Budget 2019, I believe it is time to put an end to this, in the interest of peace and human life.

No country would accept another country meddling in its internal affairs, funding riots and the radical political opposition, funding the BDS boycott campaign and lawfare against the elected government, employing terrorists and their allies, the raising of children to be killers and the rewarding the families of terrorists. Except, as I will show here, in the case of Israel and the EU.

We have identified €13,124,712 EU Commission grants going to anti-Israel NGOs and organizations in 2019. Due to the lack of transparency in EU funding, the real number is probably higher. In addition, at least €257,450,000 in 2019 EU funding went to the Palestinian Authority, and $131,742,673 to UNRWA. As Palestinian Media Watch reports, the Palestinian Authority paid 517 million Shekels (approx. €130 million) for "pay-for-slay" salaries to terrorist prisoners 2019 - over half the sum of EU funding.

NGO Monitor has identified at least 3 EU grants in 2019 totaling €5.8 million involving Palestinian NGOs with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an EU-designated terrorist group.

In addition, “The EU supports highly politicized NGOs to influence Israeli public attitudes on the conflict, to lobby public officials, and to intervene in the legal system,” NGO Monitor wrote, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Human Rights Defenders Fund HRDF (EU funding 2019: €299,988 with ACRI and Movement for Freedom of Information).

These NGOs are waging a “lawfare” campaign against the democratically elected Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, providing legal counsel to “violent protesters demonstrating in front of the official residence of the Prime Minister of Israel,” according to the Chair of the Knesset Caucus on Combating Delegitimization & Anti-Semitism Ariel Kallner.

Turkey Leans on Kosovo to Nix Jerusalem Embassy Plan

Kosovo’s ex-Prime Minister Albin Kurti met with Turkey’s ambassador in the capital Pristina on Monday, discussing numerous topics including Kosovo’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem.

On February 1, Kosovo established diplomatic ties with Israel and decided to open an embassy in Jerusalem — becoming the first European country and Muslim-majority one to make such plans. It followed the US and Guatemala in doing so.

The intention to open a Jerusalem embassy put the partially-recognized state, which was only formed in 2008, at odds with powerful opponents to the plan, including Turkey and the European Union.

The EU, which Kosovo would at some stage like to join, said that members of its 27-nation supranational bloc do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and locate their embassies in Tel Aviv instead, implying that failure to do so would likely jeopardize its potential accession.

Similarly, Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a thinly-veiled threat that “it would be beneficial to avoid such a move that would cause great damage to Kosovo.”

“The place where the embassy will be located is to be considered following checking of the documentation of the outgoing government,” said a statement issued after the talks.

After Israel Designates PFLP-linked Palestinian NGO as Terrorist Group, Will Media Respond?

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed an order designating the Palestinian NGO Samidoun as a terrorist organization, the Ministry announced on Sunday. Gantz accused Samidoun of acting as the international branch of the far-left Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The PFLP has orchestrated several terror attacks globally, as well as many targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers, and has thus been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel (1986), the United States (1997), the European Union (2002), Canada (2013), and several other countries.

Meanwhile, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, founded in 2012, is active in Europe and North America, where it purportedly tries to “build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom.” As such, journalists have used Samidoun’s purported expertise in articles about incarcerated Palestinians. In reality, Israeli research has repeatedly shown that the group acts as a front for the PFLP.

In 2019, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry released the Terrorists in Suits report, highlighting the close ties between various NGOs and terrorist groups. The publication included several examples of cooperation between Samidoun and the PFLP, including a Samidoun activist who received Hezbollah training in Lebanon and subsequently smuggled funds from Lebanon and Syria to PFLP proponents in Belgium. It also noted that several senior Samidoun officials double as PFLP operatives, in accordance with previous research by NGO Monitor.

Fast forward to 2021. The blacklisting of Samidoun was made following the recommendation of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. The decision also applies Samidoun’s offshoots in Europe.

Amongst others, Gantz’s order singles out the Dutch chapter of Samidoun. That body has become increasingly active in Amsterdam over the past few months, organizing campaigns calling for the release of prominent PFLP members like its current leader, Ahmad Sa’adat. The PFLP Secretary-General is serving a 30-year prison sentence in Israel for ordering and directing several terror attacks.

PA admits some 1st vaccines went to government officials, soccer players, Jordan

After public pressure and calls for greater transparency, the Palestinian Authority acknowledged Tuesday that some of the few COVID-19 vaccines in its possession did not go to healthcare workers, but rather to government officials, the Jordanian royal court and the Palestinian national soccer team.

The news infuriated many Palestinians, as the Palestinian leadership has yet to begin a public vaccination campaign. The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry had previously said that the handful of doses available would be given first to healthcare workers and then to the elderly and other at-risk groups.

Among those given vaccines were security officials working in the offices of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, 100 Palestinian students heading abroad to study, fieldworkers in the Central Elections Committee, PA government ministers, Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee members over the age of 65, and some foreign embassy staff in Ramallah.

Given that Abbas is a PLO Executive Committee member, it is likely that the PA President was vaccinated as well. A spokesperson for the PA Presidency did not respond to a request for comment.

The Palestinian national soccer team was also quietly immunized. The Health Ministry explained that the team had been asked to play a match abroad representing Palestine, and that a coronavirus immunization was a condition for their participation.

Palestinian Terrorists to Biden: Do Not Believe the Palestinian Leadership

Who exactly is the Palestinian Authority leadership lying to and why?

Hamas issued a statement on February 25 in which it denied that the group had changed its attitude toward Israel. "Our political and national positions are well known and clear," Hamas said. "They are expressed in our official documents and publications. We remain committed to the resistance until the liberation [of all of Palestine]."

Hamas "will pursue its resistance program until the liberation of the Palestinian land, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea." — Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader, alalamtv.net, February 20, 2021.

The Palestinian terror groups certainly deserve credit for being upfront about their true, lethal intentions toward Israel. Unlike the PA leadership, these terror organizations speak in a single and straightforward voice. Their message in Arabic and English is clear: we will spill as much Jewish blood as it takes to rid "Palestine" of the Jews.

Abbas is seeking to fool the Biden administration into believing that he has managed to persuade the terror groups to transform themselves into peace-seeking organizations. Abbas is utterly desperate for US funding. He is lying through his teeth to get the Biden administration to resume pumping cash into his regime -- which is bankrupt in every possible sense of the word.

It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will allow itself to be hoodwinked by the PA's master magician.

PMW: Netanyahu is Hitler - Antisemitic Fatah cartoon

The antisemitic cartoon above was posted by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Commission of Information and Culture. It shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Hitler with Hitler’s mustache and a Nazi uniform with Stars of David on blue instead of Swastikas on red on his tie and arm band. Netanyahu is making a Nazi salute and blood is dripping from his hand.

Headline: “He killed the Palestinians with the weapon of racism!”
Text on cartoon: “Adolf Netanyahu”

[Website of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Feb. 16, 2021]

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) internationally accepted working definition of Antisemitism, includes “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

The PA and Fatah have often disseminated this specific kind of Antisemitism by comparing Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular to the Nazis. Fatah has portrayed Netanyahu as a Nazi officer:

PA promotes song of children “fluttering towards the rifle and the blood”

Official PA TV narrator: “Because songs are a basic part of our culture and they express our national identity… and because these songs are present in our consciousness and still fascinate us with values and meanings… It’s here: ‘The Tune of the Homeland.’”…

Lyrics:
“Our boys and girls
From the heart of longing and exile
Out of the pain, they opened their eyes
and fluttered towards the rifle and the blood
Girls without a father and mother
-but our girls never felt orphaned
The revolution is the father, the revolution is the brother, the revolution is the mother…
Official PA TV narrator: Who is the composer of the national song “Our boys and girls”?
[Official PA TV, The Tune of the Homeland, Feb. 13, 2021]

The Culture Of Corruption In Lebanon Harms The Vaccination Campaign

The World Bank threatened on Tuesday to suspend its multi-million-dollar financing for Lebanon’s COVID-19 vaccinations over politicians (under the age of 75) jumping the line.

The World Bank’s funding enabled Lebanon to receive its first two batches of about 60,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses this month.

The World Bank’s threat came after reports in the Lebanese media that Hezbollah’s health minister had authorized members of parliament from the Amal movement and the Syrian Socialist Party under the age of 75 to be vaccinated.

The head of the Lebanese Vaccine Committee has announced his resignation in light of the vaccination of MPs who are not entitled to it.

Former Iranian Hostage Says Obama Payments to Iran Led to His Arrest

A former Iranian hostage who was wrongly imprisoned in the country for three years said the Obama administration's decision to pay Iran $1.7 billion in cash encouraged the hardline regime to abduct him.

Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-American academic who was freed in 2019 by the Trump administration, said in a recent interview that Iran viewed the Obama administration's 2016 decision to send the country nearly $2 billion in cash as a signal that hostage-taking could lead to sanctions relief. Wang was arrested by the Iranians in 2016, shortly after the Obama administration airlifted the $1.7 billion as part of a deal that saw other American hostages released from Iranian custody. The United States maintained the cash was not sent as part of a prisoner swap, but to cover the costs of a decades-old legal proceeding between the two countries.

"Iran saw it as a ransom payment, and they talk about it in the media in the open," Wang told American Enterprise Institute scholar Danielle Pletka in an interview published last week. "It really doesn't matter how Obama and his administration saw it. It was perceived by Iran as ransom, clearly. It is not even an inference. It's their explicit statement. The moral of this is make America pay."

Wang's comments shed new light on the former Democratic administration's dealings with Iran at a time when the Biden White House is pursuing direct diplomacy with the Islamic Republic in hopes of securing a revamped nuclear agreement. The Washington Free Beacon reported in early 2016 that the $1.7 billion payment was paid, in part, to secure the release of five Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran. Wang's comments support that claim and indicate that Iran will continue to seize Americans in order to pressure the United States into making similar payments.

Wang said that after he read reports about the $1.7 billion payment, first published in the Wall Street Journal, "I felt, ‘Oh shoot, they are going to arrest me, because clearly they want to take me for ransom.'" He was detained by Iranian authorities shortly after.

Did you ever notice how the folks now calling to sanction the Saudi regime for killing dissidents are the same ones who strenuously opposed sanctioning the Iranian regime which has killed many more dissidents. https://t.co/ugJ5Xk1JMh

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 1, 2021

It’s up to Saudi Arabia to end the war in Yemen, ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and to move away from the brink of war with Iran.

In short: Saudi Arabia & NOT IRAN is the problem. pic.twitter.com/pazvlha33F

— David Shor (@DYShor) March 1, 2021

@PeterBeinart now compares Iran positively to Israel. This is a notable shift. It shows there is a direct link between rejecting Israel's right to exist to supporting efforts to annihilate it. Something to keep in mind when the left says anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism. https://t.co/ByfJQvY0JF

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) March 2, 2021

Iran's only female Olympic medalist to compete as refugee in Tokyo

Iranian female Olympic medal winner Kimia Alizadeh has been granted refugee status in Germany and aims to compete in the Olympic Refugee Team under a white flag in Tokyo this summer. Alizadeh, who won taekwondo bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympics, fled to Germany last year after several offers to compete for the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and Bulgaria. She said she had left her homeland because she was fed up with being used as a propaganda tool. "Taekwondo changed my life," Alizadeh told Reuters. "When I got a medal, I was the first athlete in Iran and, after that, all the people knew me and... that was hard." The 22-year-old, who now lives in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, is training with her husband and can compete for a ticket to the Olympics at the European qualifying tournament in Sofia in May. The young athlete plans to join the Olympic Refugee Team, which will be picked in June from a group of 55 athletes in 12 sports.

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