Caroline Glick: Biden abandons Middle East peace
The Trump administration was on the verge of securing a peace agreement between Israel and Indonesia in its final weeks in office, according to a former senior Trump administration official involved in the efforts. The official divulged that the negotiations between Israel and the world's most populous Muslim state were run by then-President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner and Adam Boehler, then-head of the US's International Development Finance Corporation.No Justice for Women Killed in Gaza
Israel was represented by then-Ambassador Ron Dermer and Indonesia by Minister Mohamed Lutfi. To secure peace, Boehler told Bloomberg News last December, the US would be willing to provide Indonesia with an additional "one or two billion dollars" in aid. Indonesia was interesting in Israeli technology and even wanted the Technion to open a campus in Jakarta. It wanted visa-free travel to the Jewish state and Arab and US investment in its sovereign wealth fund. Israel wanted Indonesia to end its economic boycott of the Jewish state. Direct flights from Tel Aviv to Bali were on the table.
The advantages of peace between Israel and Indonesia for both sides are self-evident. But such a peace would also pay a huge dividend to the US in its burgeoning cold war with China. An expanded strategic and economic partnership with the archipelago and ASEAN member would be a setback for China's efforts to dominate the South China Sea, particularly with Indonesia playing a role in an Islamic-Israeli alliance led by the US.
"We got the ball on Indonesia and Israel to the first-yard line," the official explained. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has dropped the ball on the ground and walked off the field.
On the surface, the Biden administration is interested in promoting peace. President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have praised the Abraham Accords, as well they should.
For 26 years, the Arab conflict with Israel was ignored and left to fester. Then suddenly, in Trump's last year in office, the situation was reversed as four Arab states rapidly normalized their ties with Israel. Expanding the accords to Indonesia, with its massive population and strategic location outside the Middle East would transform a strategic regional shift into a game-changer throughout Asia.
But despite the strategic logic of expanding the Abraham Accords and the praise Biden and Blinken have given them, starting in its first week in office, the new administration's actions have served to undermine the accords by removing their American foundations.
The Family and Child Protection Department seeks to protect women who are subject to violence that poses a threat to their lives, by sending them to care centres or safe houses, until proper solutions have been found and reconciliation ensures they are not harmed.French police prevent stabbing attack at Jewish school in Marseille
Barsh attributes domestic violence and family disputes to the abuse of drugs on the part of the aggressors. She says society in Gaza is conservative, and crime is not a common occurrence. She adds that not all murders have motives, as in some cases people are killed by stray bullets.
The deaths of women in mysterious conditions in Gaza are ongoing. In every story of a new victim, there are details that people know nothing of except for what is said in the first hours following the crime.
Between the questions ‘Why was she killed?’ and ‘Did she deserve to die?’, the victims die twice, while the killers walk the streets with impunity thanks to a law that pulls their necks out of the gallows, and a society that accepts them again and sometimes hails them as heroes.
Every year, the number of missing women increases; some are murdered, some are said to have committed suicide, others die from a stray bullet or in mysterious circumstances. After the first news on the fate of the killer, the wave of public anger against them subsides. This continues in a vicious circle.
For the past ten years, women’s institutions in Palestine have demanded the enactment of a family protection law in the Palestinian Territories. However, this is strongly objected to by some lawyers and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who have signed a petition rejecting the law. There have also been demonstrations rejecting it by some communities in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This opens the door to doubts about the seriousness of the denouncements of the killing of women on the ground of defending honour, and the rejection of violence against women.
French police arrested a man who tried carrying out a stabbing attack at a Jewish school in Marseille, France on Friday morning, French media reported.
The attacker was turned away by the Yavne School security, made up of parents who serve as security on a volunteer basis, the Jewish Agency noted. The institution was immediately locked down with the students inside to ensure their safety. A police patrol car has been set up in front of the school building.
French police forces were alerted immediately, and instructed Jewish sites throughout the city to tighten security in light of the attempted attack.
After turned away from the school, the attacker tried to stab Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket in the city, where he was once again prevented from attacking anyone by the same security personnel.
"While the coronavirus has silenced the world in many ways, it has not silenced antisemitism, or the resulting danger for Jews," said Chairman of the Jewish Agency Isaac Herzog.
#Marseille Interpellation de l'assaillant armé de l'école juive et l'épicer cacher pic.twitter.com/oNGJTiGvMy
— Pierre Sautarel (@FrDesouche) March 5, 2021
Seth Frantzman: The Middle East could be part of Biden's focus on great power rivalry
Israel has a message for the U.S. regarding these issues. A senior Israeli defense official recently told me how important U.S. commitments are: “There is no substitute for U.S. power and influence in the Middle East,” he said. Any void left by the U.S. will be filled by other countries, such Russia or Iran. “Israel and the U.S. have an unshakeable bond based first on shared values,” he noted. “U.S. bipartisan support is crucial to Israel’s security. The special relationship with the U.S. is an essential part of Israel’s national security, alongside the peace with Egypt, Jordan, [the United Arab Emirates] and Bahrain.”Seth Frantzman: Inside Iranian Gen. Soleimani’s imminent threats that led to US airstrike
This important message conveys how the U.S. can see the region as part of a larger process of dealing with Russia and China. The challenge with Russia for the U.S. is about direct regional military influence, such as Russia’s role in Syria. With China, the issue is more global economic trends, such as China’s investment in ports and natural resources across Africa and into the Middle East.
The U.S. and Western allies can count on Israel in the Middle East. Israel has vowed to not allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon, so any U.S. discussion with Russia about Syria or with Western allies about the Iranian nuclear deal must weigh that concern. Meanwhile, Israel has new peace deals in the Gulf and is building strategic ties with Greece and India. Israel can deal with Iran’s proxy threats, such as Hezbollah, or Iran’s role in the Syrian civil war, until the great powers choose to figure out a long-term agreement in Syria. An added concern is keeping an eye on Iran’s role in Yemen and attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iranian-backed Houthis. Once again, the Biden administration has signaled a shift in policy support for Riyadh’s war in Yemen, but too much of a shift will embolden Iran and spread elsewhere from Yemen.
A cautious U.S. policy relying on local allies such as Israel, and also speaking to Russia about Iran’s destabilizing role in Syria, while taking the Iranian nuclear threat seriously, can all fit into the wider worldview of the White House’s desire to deprioritize the Middle East. But the Biden administration must be cautious not to embolden enemies. Threading that needle will be a real challenge for the U.S., its partners and allies.
In a recent 60 Minutes special on Iran’s attack on US forces at al-Asad base in January 2020, details about Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s threats are revealed.Five key points on Israel’s latest ICC war crimes clash - analysis
Soleimani was killed by the US alongside Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020. A drone was used to kill him. Soleimani was planning attacks on the US within hours or days of when he was killed, US Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie told the television news magazine. It was an imminent threat.
McKenzie noted that Soleimani had the blood of many Americans on his hands. “He was close to an indispensable man inside Iran. Where he went, violence and death followed.” He had aided pro-Iranian groups in Iraq to kill more than 600 Americans after 2003. In 2019 and 2020, leading up to the US strike, there had been much tension with Iran and Soleimani.
There were warnings at the time that the killing could spark a war between the US and Iran. Tensions between them had been growing since May 2019. Iran had downed a US drone in June, and pro-Iranian militias fired dozens of rockets at US forces in Iraq. In December, a US contractor was killed.
The US launched airstrikes on the pro-Iranian militias. In response, Muhandis and other pro-Iranian leaders in Iraq, including Hadi al-Amiri, Falah al-Fayyadh and Qais Khazali, sent their members to storm the US Embassy compound. Washington then waited for Soleimani to appear, in a flight at night which arrived on January 3, and killed him.
It was not always clear if there was actionable intelligence about a direct threat from Soleimani at the time.
How strong is the case on Gaza?
The possibility of a war crimes suit against Israeli defense ministers and chiefs of staff and/or soldiers for alleged wrongdoings in Gaza sounds dramatic.
Bensouda had already stated her intention to examine war crimes charges against Israel for its action in the 2014 Gaza War, and against rioters along its southern border with Gaza during the Hamas-led “March of Return” that lasted from March 2018 until December 2019.
It is a danger that could pose an existential threat to Israel, because Jerusalem views IDF action in Gaza a matter of self-defense. It worries that any war crimes suits for such military action would undermine the IDF’s ability to defend the state, which is under constant threat along three of its five borders.
But one of the factors the court will weigh is whether Israel has a domestic legal system that would investigate and/or adjudicate such issues. The ICC is considered to be an international tool that operates when no domestic court system exists, or when that system fails to deal with the issue.
But when it comes to Gaza, Israel has already held scores of preliminary investigations and criminal investigations. These would weigh heavily in Israel’s favor, and could be a reason for Bensouda or her successor to reject war crimes suits against Israel with respect to Gaza.
Conversely, the issue of war crimes suits against Palestinians for rocket attacks against civilians are more likely to be advanced, precisely because the Palestinian legal system either in Gaza or the West Bank has no history of dealing with that matter.
How strong is the case on settlements?
The specter of a war crimes suit against Israel for settlement activity in the West Bank and Jewish building in Jerusalem sounds less dramatic. But it is precisely this issue that is most likely to be advanced to the next stage.
The Israeli courts and the government have upheld the legality of settlement activity and Jewish building in east Jerusalem, so there is a strong case for ICC involvement on this issue. The court would only be looking at settlement activity since June 13, 2014. The bulk of Jewish building over the pre-1967 lines occurred prior to that date.
Ironically, however, that was not even the primary reason why the UNHRC's ill-fated appointment of William Schabas to head its 2014 Gaza inquiry was a travesty of justice.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 5, 2021
I had a front-row seat in this drama, so let me share one memory:
3/ ...I handed Schabas this legal brief requesting his recusal, on grounds that his numerous prejudicial statements—pronouncing on the merits of the very question to be decided—gave rise to actual bias or the appearance thereof.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 5, 2021
Schabas flew into a rage. https://t.co/G368TBMxM5 pic.twitter.com/F5TN6HMklb
US Opposed to ICC Probe of Israel, Harris Tells Netanyahu
Vice President Kamala Harris, in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, reaffirmed US opposition to an International Criminal Court probe of possible war crimes in the Palestinian Territories, the White House said.
The call, the first between the two since Harris and President Joe Biden took office in January, came a day after the ICC prosecutor said she would launch the probe, prompting swift rejections by Washington and Jerusalem.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who will be replaced by British prosecutor Karim Khan on June 16, said in December 2019 that war crimes had been or were being committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She named both the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.
Harris and Netanyahu noted their governments’ “opposition to the International Criminal Court’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel,” the White House said.
The two agreed to continue to cooperate on regional security issues, specifically Iran’s nuclear program and “dangerous” behavior, the White House statement said.
Harris “emphasized the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” the statement added.
Biden’s bid to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers sets him and Netanyahu on a potential collision course. The Israeli prime minister opposed the nuclear deal and applauded former President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon it in 2018.
🔴 MUST WATCH interview on @IntlCrimCourt where @NGOmonitor Legal Expert @AnneHerzberg14 shows Raji Sourani (alleged ties to the PFLP terror group) & William Schabas (thrown off 2014 UN investigation of #Israel for conflict of interest) who’s boss!!!
— Becca Wertman (@becca_w13) March 5, 2021
🎥 https://t.co/PPryPAWOP5
#Hungary opposes the March 3 statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the initiation of an investigation respecting the Situation in #Palestine. Read more ⤵️https://t.co/sMhxzYlRtH
— Hungarian Embassy DC (@HungaryinUSA) March 4, 2021
Abbas praises ICC prosecutor’s ‘courage’ in opening Israel war crimes probe
The PA president praised what he called “the independence and courage of the prosecutor in defending truth and freedom.”US: Our Middle East allies don't get blank check to oppose US interests
The announcement of the investigation came less than a month after the court ruled it had the jurisdiction to open a probe. A preliminary investigation to settle the justiciability question took more than five years.
“The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the situation since 13 June 2014, the date to which reference is made in the referral of the situation to my office,” Bensouda said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Any investigation undertaken by the office will be conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor,” she added.
The Biden administration issued a warning this week to its allies in the Middle East not to oppose US policies and not to seek military solutions to the region's problems.Biden Admin to Restart Palestinian Aid as Payments to Terrorists Flow
"We do not believe that military force is the answer to the region’s challenges, and we will not give our partners in the Middle East a blank check to pursue policies at odds with American interests and values," it said in a document posted on the White House website that outlined its global strategic interests.
The document, titled, "Interim National Security Guidelines," was published as Israel has increasingly spoken of the possibility that it might have to use force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the IDF was updating a military plan to strike Iranian nuclear sites if necessary. Israel and the Biden administration are at odds on how best to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power and to halt its regional and global support of terror activities.
While the two allies agree on the end goal, the Biden administration believes the best way forward is to rejoin the 2015 Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, designed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Israel believes the deal only emboldens Iran and leaves it with the ability to become a nuclear power.
The Biden administration will resume U.S. taxpayer aid to the Palestinians, even though the Palestinian government continues to use this money to pay convicted terrorists and their families.Matt Duss expected to remain on Bernie Sanders’ staff
State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed this week that the administration will reverse a decision by former President Donald Trump to cut off American aid to the Palestinian government and United Nations organizations that provide services in the region. The United States now intends "to provide assistance that will benefit all Palestinians, including [Palestinian] refugees," Price said.
The decision comes as the Palestinian government continues to spend international aid dollars on a program known as "pay-to-slay," in which large portions of this money are spent caring for imprisoned terrorists and their families. The resumption of aid could also violate a 2017 bipartisan law passed by Congress that bars the American government from giving the Palestinian Authority taxpayer aid until it ends its terrorist payment program. The State Department has yet to explain how it will resume U.S. aid without violating that law, known as the Taylor Force Act.
A State Department official familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon that "any decisions related to resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza will be consistent with requirements under relevant U.S. law."
The Palestinian government reportedly spent around $155 million on imprisoned terrorists in 2020 alone and has vowed to continue the program, despite U.S. laws such as the Taylor Force Act. Around 3.2 percent of the Palestinian Authority's budget was allocated to the program, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors the government.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) foreign policy advisor Matt Duss, who was previously rumored to be under consideration for a position in the Biden State Department, is expected to remain with Sanders instead of making the move to Foggy Bottom, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.Gantz on Fox News: Israel Prepared to Strike Iran’s Nuclear Sites
This comes as Duss has boosted a series of tweets this week critical of the Biden administration’s handling of foreign policy issues, including the decision not to punish Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and U.S. condemnation of the International Criminal Court’s decision to open an investigation into Israel. On Wednesday, Duss retweeted a post from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) criticizing Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s opposition to a recently announced investigation into Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Some Hill staffers were skeptical that Duss was ever a serious candidate for a position in Foggy Bottom. “I think that was a progressive pipe dream advocated by the very far left and never seriously considered by Biden or Blinken,” one congressional staffer, who asked to remain anonymous, told JI.
This week, the Sanders advisor started distributing a letter authored by Sanders to other Senate offices calling on Blinken to urge Israeli officials to do more to assist in the vaccinations of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News Thursday that Israel has identified many targets inside Iran whose elimination would damage the Islamic Republic’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb (Israel updating plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli defense minister tells Fox News).
“If the world stops them before, it’s very much good. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” Gantz said.
As to Iranian’s client terror militia Hezbollah, the defense minister warned it has hundreds of thousands of rockets and shared a classified map showing that many of these rockets are embedded in civilian locations on Israel’s border.
“This is a target map. Each one of them has been checked legally, operationally, intelligence-wise and we are ready to fight,” Gantz stated.
When asked for his opinion on the Biden administration’s willingness to return to the Iran nuclear deal, Gantz responded: “The American policy should be American policy, and Israeli policy should stay Israeli policy.”
EXCLUSIVE: Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz shows Fox News a classified target map, revealing Hezbollah missiles amid civilian infrastructure https://t.co/fPisnRjtjs pic.twitter.com/fm4nOQ5yLm
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 4, 2021
Incredible show that @AhmadObali hosted from Chicago in conversation with Azerbaijani Turks in Iran. 40 listeners called in to say that Israel is the friend of Azerbaijan. None said anything negative. To repeat: All callers called FROM INSIDE IRAN. pic.twitter.com/Bl2Vtj4kPO
— Mike (@Doranimated) March 4, 2021
TV: Defense establishment probe finds no proof of Iran terror role in oil spill
Israel’s security establishment is investigating the alleged Iranian link to the oil spill off Israel’s coast that polluted most of the country’s beaches, but has so far found no evidence of the claim that the spill was deliberate “environmental terrorism,” Channel 12 reported Thursday evening.Thousands protest police response to Arab crime; dissident MK Abbas chased away
The network said the Environmental Protection Ministry had handed over its report on the matter to security bodies, which were reviewing its findings. Sources in the defense establishment, however, were quoted as saying there was no indication the spill was deliberate.
The report added that Israel’s intelligence apparatus has now also been recruited to look further into the claim of Iranian sabotage.
A Libyan-owned ship, the Emerald, was smuggling crude oil from Iran to Syria at the time of the spill, the Environmental Protection Ministry said in a statement Thursday, citing satellite images by the TankerTrackers monitoring group. The ship has since returned to Iran and is currently anchored there.
In an interview with Channel 12 on Thursday evening, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel again insisted, without providing proof, that the spill constituted an Iranian terror attack on Israel.
Thousands of demonstrators marched Friday in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm to protest against what they called the police’s failure to stem a rising tide of violence in Arab communities.PLO says $15 million per month being paid in terror stipends
The latest weekly protest came after a particularly violent demonstration last week, when police fired rubber-coated bullets, tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons as they dispersed hundreds of demonstrators. At least 35 protesters were injured, including Joint List parliamentarian Yousef Jabareen and the city’s mayor. Arab Israeli officials accused police of racist behavior and using excessive force and have demanded an investigation.
As the demonstration went on, police said some protesters began to launch fireworks and throw stones at officers on the scene. In videos, some demonstrators could be seen shooting firecrackers in the air.
Protesters charged on Friday morning that police had deliberately closed off main roads leading to Umm al-Fahm in order to prevent the demonstration from taking place.
“Police are preventing people from coming to Umm al-Fahm because they are scared by both the protestors and the criminal organizations,” said Joint List head Ayman Odeh, who was at the protest.
In a sign of the widening cracks in Arab Israeli politics, dissident Arab MK Mansour Abbas sought to join the demonstration — only to be rebuffed by dozens of demonstrators calling for him to “get out.” After some scuffles, Abbas’s aides removed him from the scene.
Ramallah may have paid as much as NIS 600 million ($181 million) in 2020 in salaries to Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for security offenses — including terrorism — and their families, a Palestine Liberation Organization official said on Thursday.
“We pay around NIS 50 million ($15 million) per month in salaries,” PLO Commissioner for Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr said in a phone call with The Times of Israel.
Ramallah has a longstanding policy of compensating Palestinians jailed by Israel for security offenses, as well as those wounded or killed by Israeli forces — including those killed while committing violent terror attacks.
Israel has long sought to clamp down on the practice, which it says encourages terror. As required by a 2018 law, Israel deducts the estimated cost of the stipends from tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority every month.
Abu Bakr did not immediately provide a precise figure for 2020 as a whole but agreed when The Times of Israel suggested an estimate of NIS 600 million ($181 million) for the past year, based on the monthly number he’d provided. “Yes, that’s right,” he said.
An Israeli military order imposes sanctions on any banks that allow Palestinians to collect the payments. After several delays, the order came into effect early in 2021. In order to avoid the sanctions, the PLO paid the salaries of prisoners three months in advance in late December.
2 simultaneous events held in Gaza & Iran featured speakers from designated terror organisations, children & grandchildren of Che Guevara, Gandhi & Mandela.
— The Mossad: The 7th Happiest Place On Earth (@TheMossadIL) March 4, 2021
Their campaign is a radical shift from the usual Palestinian policy.. this time they will reject peace and commit terror. pic.twitter.com/GRhPWbOoMe
I'll give round of applause & $45 donation to the first human rights group that opposes occupation/settlements in Middle East to publicly condemn Jordan and call for sanctions for its direct support for settlement activity @amnesty @hrw @peacenowisrael @btselem @alhaq_org (2/2)
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) March 5, 2021
Seth Frantzman: Turkey tries insulting Egypt, Greece in imaginary maritime deal - analysis
Turkey has invented a new “reconciliation,” after attempts to spread propaganda stories of “reconciliation” with Israel failed last year.
In early December, after Ankara saw that Joe Biden had won the US presidential election and its days of working closely with Donald Trump were coming to an end, it sought to dupe Israel into a “maritime deal.”
Israel already has close relations with Cyprus, Egypt and Greece and has delimitation of economic zones with them.
Israel, Greece and Cyprus are developing a pipeline following a deal they signed last year, and are part of a gas forum in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey sought to upset all these relationships in December 2019 by signing a deal with Libya, reaching across all the peaceful agreements that Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Egypt have, to grab greater control of the sea.
Greece and Egypt signed a deal in August, after condemning Turkey’s provocative actions at sea in May along with France, the UAE and Cyprus. Turkey responded by threatening Greece, and the countries came close to a potential conflict. France was involved as well.
Then Ankara shifted gears from threats to spreading false news stories. It engineered stories in the Israeli media in which Cyprus disappeared from Mediterranean rights of water and exclusive economic zones (EEZs), and Turkey and Israel would have a magic deal over maritime borders.
But Israel rejected the deal. It is not Turkey’s neighbor across the sea, despite the maps that Turkey tried to present that ignored Cyprus. Now Turkey has done the same thing by trying to implicate Egypt. This comes after the Philia forum in Athens, where it was clear how Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, France and other countries are growing more closely into an alliance system of shared interests.
Turkey's ridiculous use of its propaganda media to sell this entirely invented story is hilarious. That's what happens when you have no critical media and state control and propaganda nonsense... pic.twitter.com/FE6apzOXn9
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) March 3, 2021
Turkish Textbooks Increasingly Demonize Israel and Zionism, Refer to Jews as ‘Infidels,’ Says New Report
A new report has found that the latest editions of Turkish school textbooks take a strongly negative view of Israel and now describe Jews as “infidels.”Gantz: IDF updating military plans for potential strike on Iran nuclear sites
The report by IMPACT-se, which examines education materials on the basis of UNESCO standards related to peace, human rights, and tolerance, has found an increasing “Islamization” of the Turkish curriculum, in accordance with the Islamist AKP government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the textbooks, three categories of human beings are posited: Muslim “believers;” Muslim “hypocrites” who try to tempt Muslims to sin; and “infidels,” consisting of all non-Muslims.
The report notes that previous curricula have referred to Jews as “people of the book,” but Jews are now referred to solely as “infidels,” as are Christians.
Marcus Sheff, the CEO of IMPACT-se, commented, “We have identified a marked deterioration in Turkish textbooks since our last review in 2016.”
“School books have been weaponized in Erdogan’s attempts to Islamize Turkish society and to hark back to a nostalgic age of Turkish domination,” he said. “We note increased demonization of Israel and antisemitic aspersions that must make Turkish-Jewish school students feel unsafe.”
The group’s report found that several incendiary attacks on Israel by Erdogan, such as those made after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008, appear in the textbooks. The Palestinian cause is promoted throughout, and students are encouraged to support and take part in it.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday said the Israel Defense Forces is continuously updating its plans for a prospective military strike on Iranian nuclear sites.
Gantz, in an interview with Fox News, said the military plans would not be finalized until right before such a strike was set to be carried out.
“Until then, we will continue to build them [the plans], to improve them… to the highest professional level possible,” he said.
“If the world stops them [Iran] before, it’s much the better. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” added the defense minister.
Israel has twice conducted military strikes against the nuclear programs of its enemies — Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007 — under what’s become known as the Begin Doctrine, which maintains that Jerusalem will not allow an enemy country to obtain an atomic weapon.
Gantz has previously warned Israel would carry out a military strike against Iran, if necessary.
His comments came as the US seeks to reenter the Iran nuclear deal. The Islamic Republic has been openly violating the agreement clinched in 2015, stepping up uranium enrichment far beyond permitted levels. It recently barred international inspectors from its nuclear sites.
See RJC’s new Iran deal portal. You'll learn more on:
— RJC (@RJC) March 4, 2021
-The failures of the 2015 Iran deal
-RJC’s stance on a new, better deal
Most importantly, we made it easy for you to email @JoeBiden to convey your opposition to reentering the failed 2015 Iran dealhttps://t.co/DgiqJ33BQX
Watch a compilation https://t.co/0DejtYXYvS pic.twitter.com/prsZU80Pmq
— David Shor (@DYShor) March 5, 2021
How Azerbaijan destroyed Russian S-300s | “The Antonovs would appear on radar as legitimate military-grade drones & activate the S-300 systems. And then Israeli-built Harop loitering munitions, dubbed 'kamikaze drones', would hit the Russian-made systems.” https://t.co/45Jwf9gSe3
— Mike (@Doranimated) March 4, 2021
Biden Declares War on Iran After Ayatollah Reads ‘The Cat in the Hat’ (satire)
President Joe Biden has withdrawn his offer to enter nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran and officially declared war after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei read the Dr. Seuss classic ‘The Cat in the Hat’ at a Friday sermon. The sermon started innocently enough, with the Ayatollah declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and promising to hang any unveiled woman or homosexual that set foot in the country. But Khamenei’s remarks then turned ugly, as the supreme leader started reciting the words to the recently maligned children’s book. “As the great infidel Tabib Seuss once wrote, ‘Something went bump! How that bump made us jump!’ Khamenei shouted to a cheering crowd. “Well, when we finally build a nuclear bomb, I will unleash a bump that will make every Jew, Crusader and infidel in the West jump like never before.” Upon hearing reports of the speech, Biden immediately sprung into action, sending warships to the Persian Gulf and preparing for a mass invasion. “These Iranians are a bunch of Neanderthals,” Biden fumed. “Don’t they know that 98% of human Dr. Seuss characters are white, and that by promoting his work they are decentering marginalized people of color? C’mon man!”
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