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Friday, March 12, 2021

03/12 Links Pt1: Is the Biden Administration Planning on Violating the Taylor Force Act?; Exposing the ICC’s anti-Israel bias; UAE announces $10 billion fund for investments in Israel

From Ian:

Stuart Force, Sander Gerber and Mike Pompeo: Is the Biden Administration Planning on Violating the Taylor Force Act?
The Biden Administration has signaled its desire to resume aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a way to jump start the moribund Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.” The obstacle to peace, however, is not the absence of US assistance but the PA’s incentivizing of terrorism. The bipartisan Taylor Force Act blocks US funding for the PA until it changes this behavior. There is no indication that it has, making any resumption of US taxpayer aid a contravention of this important law and a further hindrance to peace.

The PA’s “pay-for-slay” policy was highlighted by the 2016 murder of an American tourist in Israel by a Palestinian terrorist. The tourist, named Taylor Force — a West Point graduate, US Army veteran, and son of one of the authors of this post — was in Tel Aviv on a school trip when he was stabbed to death.

Force was neither Israeli nor Jewish. Yet, the PA celebrated the killer repeatedly as a “heroic Martyr” and held a large, festive funeral where he was hailed as a national hero. The murderer’s family soon began receiving benefit payments from the PA.

The PA spends massively on these payments to terrorists and their families and treats this perverse benefits system as a sacred obligation. Codified in PA law, the system adds bonus payments for Israeli Arabs and Arab residents of Jerusalem who have Israeli IDs and therefore more freedom of movement to carry out attacks. The longer the prison sentence, the greater the payments — meaning the deadlier, the more lucrative. The PA employs some 550 people in its pay-for-slay bureaucracies and devotes over seven percent of its budget, or $350 million, to the program, compared to just $220 million for non-terrorist welfare programs.

To address this despicable system, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act (TFA) — a bill the ACLJ has long supported — cutting off US aid to the PA until the pay-for-slay bureaucracy is dismantled and the laws governing it are repealed. The logic is simple: since money is fungible, aid that supplants the governance responsibilities of the PA frees up PA money to reward terrorists.

The Taylor Force Act corrected a profoundly immoral policy that had American taxpayer funds being laundered unwittingly through PA accounts to incentivize murder. The bill also offered a simple litmus test of the PA’s seriousness about making peace: If the PA cannot revoke the laws and infrastructure conferring special treatment for terrorists, then the PA itself remains an obstacle to the “peace process.”

Yet, the Biden Administration claims renewed aid for the Palestinian people will not violate TFA, which bars aid programs that “directly benefit” the PA. And news reports indicate the PA believes it can satisfy the Administration by making terrorist compensation “needs based” rather than based on the success of attacks, as it is now.

The Administration also appears set to endorse and empower the PA by giving it preemptive rewards, such as re-opening the PLO mission in Washington, DC, the office that directly administers the pay-for-slay program.


European, Arab diplomats attempt to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts
Leading European and Arab world diplomats announced potential “small steps” Thursday toward reviving Middle East peace efforts after upcoming Israeli and Palestinian elections.

The officials — from the UN, EU, Egypt, Jordan, Germany, and France — did not release any specific details, however. And the meeting came amid new tensions between Israel and Arab countries around Jerusalem.

There have not been any serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in over a decade and it is unclear what the diplomats can do concretely to create conditions to bring the two sides closer together, especially without the participation of the US.

The Biden administration has called on both sides to refrain from unilateral steps that could harm peace efforts but has yet to announce any major effort to resolve the decades-old conflict as it focuses on the coronavirus, the economy, and other domestic issues.

“We are going to initiate meetings with both parties within a timeframe built around the electoral calendar to identify, with them, the steps they are in a position to take to kickstart mutual trust,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. He mentioned possible health and economic measures, without elaborating.

Any next moves will depend on the outcome of the Israeli election on March 23, as well as Palestinian elections later this year.


UAE announces $10 billion fund for investments in Israel
The United Arab Emirates on Thursday announced it was setting up a $10 billion investment fund aimed at strategic sectors in Israel, with whom it normalized ties last year.

The decision, the UAE official news agency WAM said, was taken following a “constructive” phone call between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Through the $10 billion fund, the UAE “will invest in and alongside Israel, across sectors including energy manufacturing, water, space, healthcare and agri-tech,” it said.

Israel and the UAE established ties last year in a diplomatic coup for Netanyahu brokered by his staunch ally, former US president Donald Trump.

The deal made the UAE only the third Arab state to establish relations with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan subsequently reached similar US-brokered agreements with Israel, in what has become known as the “Abraham Accords.”

“The fund builds on the historic Abraham Accord and aims to bolster economic ties between two of the region’s thriving economies, unlocking investments and partnership opportunities to drive socio-economic progress,” WAM said.

It said fund allocations “will derive from government and private sector institutions”.
Overseas demand for Israeli homes rising 'through the roof'
Demand for Israeli homes from overseas buyers has gone “through the roof,” said Tzvi Shapiro, co-founder of First Israel Mortgages. “While American Jews once looked at having a home in Israel as luxury, or a nice thing to have for the holidays, it is now seen as a necessity for those who can afford to purchase one,” Shapiro said. “Because the stock markets are at all-time highs, and due to the political unrest in the US, people are looking to Israel as a safe-haven for their families and their futures.”

December was one of the busiest months for real estate transactions in the country’s history, according to Finance Ministry data. Some 13,400 apartments were sold in the last month of 2020, the third-highest volume in Israeli history, despite the country being under corona lockdown for about half the month.

Some 62,000 homes were sold in the second half of 2020, the highest in 20 years, after the bottom fell out in March-June due to pandemic pandemonium. Among other factors, Finance Minister Israel Katz’s decision to reduce the purchase tax for real estate investors in July is credited with some of the spike.

As COVID-19 is seen to be winding down, a new wave of local buyers is coming into the market, as people’s narratives have changed regarding the property values.

“There were always people on the fence, saying that homes were too expensive, and that they would wait for prices to come down,” Shapiro said. “Now, there is a general sense that prices are going to just keep going up, and the longer they wait, the more it will cost in the future.”
No AIPAC conference? No problem. We’re meeting for coffee on Zoom
For years, the annual AIPAC conference has culminated with thousands of Israel supporters knocking on their congressional representatives’ doors here to deliver three policy requests.

Last year, the conference in early March ended with anxiety about whether COVID-19 had spread after some of the country’s first cases were detected among attendees. And this year, there’s no throng and no door-knocking at all. Due to the pandemic, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee announced in May that it would not hold an in-person conference in 2021 for the first time in decades.

But the pro-Israel lobby says it’s still engaging a broad swath of Americans — through a series of online events that spanned the course of the year rather than being packed into a five-day conference. And although both staffers and lawmakers say Zoom lobbying has drawbacks, AIPAC remains optimistic about its plan to present a three-pronged policy agenda to lawmakers next week.

“We have very active creative services and communications departments that have now adapted to this environment quite ably in being able to take the type of high-quality presentations that you normally see at the policy conference and adapt them to the virtual environment,” said Marshall Wittmann, the group’s spokesman.

The suspension of AIPAC’s signature event came at a crucial time in U.S.-Israel relations: a new administration that is unlikely to be as solicitous to Israel as the Trump White House; looming elections in Israel; reconsideration of the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump as president exited; and backburner anxiety about support for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel.
Michal Cotler-Wunsh: Take a stand against ICC politicization - opinion
It is further not only the responsibility of diplomats and ministries of foreign affairs, but imperative for members of parliament around the world to also take a stand and ensure their governments reiterate concerns regarding this politicization of the Court and the need for reform. Parliamentary discussions must take place regarding what can be done to ensure the Court’s resources are used as intended in the Rome Statute and are dedicated to cases where there is no complementarity, where domestic systems of justice do not exist to hold war criminals to account. The prosecutor’s decision to investigate a democracy with a renowned legal system, such as Israel, poses a risk to all law-abiding states and promotes a culture of impunity against abusive regimes whose crimes are sidelined in favor of politically-motivated cases.

Members of Parliament must also question and audit their international aid apparatuses, which have provided millions of tax payer dollars to nongovernmental organizations for activities involving lobbying the ICC to investigate Israel. For example, in 2018, Switzerland provided CHF 280,000 to Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) for “Conduct[ing] communications with the Office of the General Prosecutor of the ICC and other intn’l litigation mechanisms.” In the same year, Switzerland also provided CHF 20,000 to the Palestinian NGO Addameer for “follow up for the submission to the ICC, and to file a new report.” Both PCHR and Addameer have documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by governments including the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel.

Similarly, within Israel, members of Knesset must too take responsibility and utilize the resources available to them to understand the implications of the ICC investigation for all Israelis and to engage with fellow parliamentarians from around the world. The Knesset, like legislatures around the world, is fortunate to have numerous “friendship groups” with global allies and to have representation in inter-parliamentary forums. In each of these forums, members of Knesset must be equipped to discuss the imperative for reform of the Court and the detriment the investigation of Israel will cause to all. Further, the position of Official Knesset Liaison on Matters Concerning the ICC must be enshrined as a permanent role, so that there continues to be leadership on this issue from within Knesset and supervision of the executive branch.

While the prosecutor claimed in her March 3 statement that the investigation would be “conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favour,” the fact that Bensouda discounted the opinions of renowned legal scholars, international legal principles, and amici briefs of seven governments, instead favoring information provided by terror-tied NGOs and non-legally binding UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council Resolutions, demonstrates the politicization of the Court. It is imperative that all parliamentarians act in the name of international law and human rights and call for reform of the Court. Only then will the “limited resources” noted in Bensouda’s statement be utilized for the true victims of atrocities.
ICC Rhymes with Hypocrisy
The imaginary scenario I sketched out above is not far-fetched. I wrote about this back in September 2005, in Issue #75, when I interviewed Major General Doron Almog, who required diplomatic intervention when he faced arrest after flying to the UK on a fundraising mission for Aleh, an Israeli nonprofit that runs rehabilitative villages for children with severe disabilities.

Almog is a combat hero in Israel. At age 21, he was one of the commandos who targeted the Palestinian terrorists guilty of murdering 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He was also the first Israeli soldier to hit the runway — and the last to leave — at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport during the daring 1976 rescue of more than 100 hijacked Jewish passengers.

However, a leftist Israeli attorney living in Britain at the time viewed Almog as a villain, and his service as head of the IDF’s Southern Command in Gaza as a war crime. The attorney had enough clout to try to get Almog arrested under the Geneva Convention, which allows one country to try citizens of another country even for war crimes that took place in another land. Israel’s military attaché in London boarded the plane before Almog could get off and told him to turn back because he would be arrested if he set foot on British soil.

ICC deliberations are secret. Unsuspecting Israelis might not know they face arrest until it’s too late.

Kontorovich says the ICC could take months or even years, but inevitably, they will file arrest warrants against high-profile Israelis.

“They’re on a political path, and there’s no deterring them,” Kontorovich said. “Israeli officials, when traveling abroad, will have to look ahead to make sure the country they’re traveling to will not enforce such a warrant.”

Singling Israel Out
Equally hypocritical was the ICC’s decision to expand its definition of war crimes to include Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. While the Geneva Convention forbids forced population transfers to or from territories captured in war, Israel has never coerced any Jew to move to Yesha, or any Arab to move out.

“This particular offense was written into the ICC statute tailor-made for Israel,” Kontorovich said, adding that international bodies turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of people that Tukey transferred to northern Cyprus to cement its 1974 invasion of that island nation, and never prosecuted Russia for the estimated 250,000 Russians who flooded into the Crimea after Russia wrested the territory away from Ukraine in 2014.

Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has rejected cooperating with the ICC probe, noting that Israel has a vigorous justice system (many would argue way too vigorous) including military tribunals, and that outside intervention is unwarranted. Yet some voices in Israel recommend we play along, have our day in court, and prove our innocence once and for all.

Kontorovich advises against: “Going to court assumes this is a legitimate neutral decision-maker. This is not a fair court. Israel should ignore it and treat it as a hostile political entity, which it is.”
Exposing the ICC’s anti-Israel bias



The USSR and the Old Middle East
With the return to power by the Obama administration through their proxy Joe Biden, there is concern that the Biden administration would carry on the policies of the previous two-term Obama administration that involved the embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and Iran, all enemies of Israel.

On December 23, 2016 that administration had underscored its animosity towards Israel by not vetoing the anti-Israel United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2334. Thus, the US could not be counted on to veto any anti-Israel Security Council resolution.

Regardless of any pro-Israel assurances uttered by the current administration, we believe that their policies are all detrimental to Israel. They are once again seeking to revive the JCPOA and the two-state solution, both of which have been rejected by Israel. Though the Biden administration hasn’t rejected the Abraham Accords, their involvement in them and in the final negotiations with Saudi Arabia to join the Accords will co-opt the Arab states to once again back the two-state solution and other anti-Israel measures they intend taking.

During the Obama years, when Israel was much weaker, Israel managed to resist Obama’s pressure. This time around they are better equipped to resist.

But there is worry about what the UNSC might do with the US acquiescence.

We wondered whether Russia can be induced to veto future UNSC resolutions which are inimical to Israel. This may not be as fanciful as you might think.
The Israel-Russia-Syria deal: Cost, beneficiaries and future deals
However, all options considered, the deal seems to be less costly for Israel in terms of public support, especially during an election period. Israelis traditionally support doing whatever necessary to “bring the boys back home,” whether live soldiers or the bodies of warriors held by the enemy. This approach is rooted in Judaism and Israeli national-communal sentiment of mutual responsibility. The Israeli/Russian/Syrian deal seems more reasonable than a trade involving the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, as has happened in previous exchanges of this kind. In the past, thousands of prisoners, including some with blood on their hands, were released in exchange for even a single Israeli hostage. This drew considerable criticism from the Israeli public (which simultaneously celebrated the return of the hostage). In this respect, the deal stresses Russia’s and Syria’s pragmatic approach (which was rewarded), as opposed to the stalemate with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas still presents excessive demands in the spirit of previous agreements mentioned above, yet the Israeli public is less and less willing to accept disproportionate deals.

The current deal with Syria was described by official Israeli spokesmen as humanitarian, and followed two other such deals with Russian involvement. The was the 2019 return of the remains of an Israeli soldier from Syria, which the Russians obtained while risking their soldiers’ lives. Second was the release of an Israeli woman detained in Russia following allegations of drug trafficking. However, unlike these two previous cases, where nothing was known officially to have been given to Russia directly for its humanitarian assistance, the current Russian gesture came with a price tag. It is reasonable to assume that previous Russian involvement was not free either and may have involved expectations from the Russian side for constructive Israeli assistance, perhaps with regard to Washington. In case such expectations have not been met, it is realistic to assume Russia demanded an immediate, concrete compensation for its efforts.

Russia seems keen to assume the position of an intermediary between Israel and Syria. A Russian TV channel just aired a new documentary apparently showing Eli Cohen, a legendary Israeli spy who was hanged in Syria in 1965 and whose remains are still in Syria. The documentary was shot by the Russian military attache in Syria at the time. Notably, it was released just days after the deal that brought the Israeli woman back from Syria.

For Israel, the recent deal is the latest example of the strategic and tactical benefits of the continued coordination in the Syrian arena with Russia that demonstrated Moscow’s readiness to act constructively, although not for free. The question that follows — assuming Russia is willing and able to advance the strategic interests of Israel (and its allies in the Middle East) in Syria — is what the cost would be to limit Iranian military expansion and arms smuggling there.
Israel, France, Greece, Cyprus come together for naval military exercise
In an effort to strengthen its control over the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Israel Navy held joint maneuvers this week with Greece, Cyprus and France practicing anti-submarine warfare and search-and-rescue operations.

The drills were part of the annual trilateral Noble Dina exercise and included naval vessels and helicopters. The Israeli Navy participated with Sa’ar 4.5-class missile frigates equipped with anti-submarine systems as well as Dolphin 2-class submarines.

The Greek Navy stated that the main objectives of the exercise was focused on addressing modern challenges and threats in the marine environment and promoting the level of cooperation and mutual understanding of the three navies.

The drill took place in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cretan Sea in the southern part of the Aegean Sea. According to the IDF, while most of the exercise dealt with underwater warfare, other scenarios such rescue situations while at sea and air defense were also practiced.

While Israel’s Navy is relatively small compared to other IDF corps, it has a significant amount of territory to protect since the expansion of the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from 40 miles to 150 miles four years ago.
10 Years Fighting: Israel’s Revolutionary Trophy Is a Tank 'Shield'
Israel is currently looking at creating future combat vehicles through what it calls the Carmel program. Rafael, Elbit Systems and Israel’s IAI, the big three of the defense industry in Israel, are all taking part in offering their technology for the program. The Trophy and other active protection systems could influence future designs of tanks. This can make militaries more maneuverable and make lighter armored vehicles safer. Infantry Fighting Vehicles like the M2 Bradley and Infantry Carrier Vehicles like the Stryker have often faced questions about their abilities to either stand up against missile threats or other armored threats. Active protection systems provide flexibility but also may influence a future generation of vehicles.

There is also going to be more competition in the active protection system market. Israel’s Elbit Systems acquired Israel Military Industries several years ago. IMI developed the Iron Fist which is supposed to be put on Israel’s Eitan armored fighting vehicle. In addition, it has been tested on the Bradley in the United States. “We want to remain best in the field,” says Lurie about Trophy. It is a complex system without a man-in-the-loop. However, that means you don’t want the system to respond to false alarms. These complexities, of not having misfires, is something Rafael has worked out over the decade the system was operational. Others who want to develop these kinds of systems need to put them to that test on a real-world battlefield. Israel has been fighting those kinds of wars in 2012 and 2014 in Gaza and on the border of Gaza, and also facing threats along the Lebanon and Syrian borders.

Work on the Trophy system goes back to the 1990s. The 2006 Lebanon war moved the concept forward faster because of the rapid need for such a system. Israel had the same decades of development in terms of air defense, moving forward with Arrow in the 1990s and then adding Iron Dome and David’s Sling in the 2000s. The Scud missile threat of 1991 and the Iranian threat woke Israel up to the need to have an indigenous capability against ballistic missiles. The war against a more advanced Iranian-equipped Hezbollah terror army necessitated better protection for tanks. This wasn’t immediately obvious because Israel’s army had stagnated when it was sent to deal with Palestinian rioters and small arms fire and bus bombings during the Second Intifada. The IDF that emerged out of that, with Trophy and Iron Dome and other systems is a revolutionary new model army, far removed from decades ago in terms of technology, digitization, battle management, networked capability and use of artificial intelligence.

The success of Trophy saw it tested in the United States in 2017 and 2018. Moreover, the first U.S. tanks were equipped with the system when it was delivered in 2019 in partnership with Leonardo DRS. “These things began with a bright person and an idea, and it takes time to get to a working version,” says Lurie. The U.S. has now tested in rigorously and the German deal is a major step for Israel. It has seen dozens of interceptions in combat and thousands in tests. For Israel, preparing for the next major conflict and putting its army through upgrades in its Momentum multi-year plan, systems like Trophy are a key element of the power, protection and lethality that Israel can put in the field when the time comes.
Israeli troops nab Gazan infiltrator who was carrying grenades
Israeli troops on Friday arrested an armed Palestinian man who crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the military said.

An initial interrogation revealed the suspect had three grenades he left along the border barrier before he was caught, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement.

The IDF said the suspect, who entered Israel from northern Gaza, was taken in for further questioning.

The incident came a day after the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas blamed Israel for an explosion that killed three fishermen off the coast of the Strip earlier this week, leading several armed factions in Gaza to vow revenge.

Hamas interior ministry spokesperson Iyad al-Bozm said that the three fishermen were killed by an explosion caused by a downed Israeli drone that had been caught in their net.

Israel has denied any involvement in the incident.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Why Terrorists Support Mass Murderers
For Hamas and Islamic Jihad, what matters is the money and weapons coming from Iran. They see Soleimani as a hero because of his role in providing the Gaza-based terror groups with cash and weapons in order to continue their jihad (holy war) against Israel and Jews.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and all of Iran's militias throughout the Middle East have a single goal in common: the annihilation of Israel.

"Instead of providing a fish or teaching how to catch a fish, we taught our allies and friends how to make a hook," Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, adding that Hamas and Hezbollah are now in possession of advanced missile technologies.

Soleimani, the man responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs, is being commemorated as a hero and martyr by these terrorist groups because he was supplying them with cash and weapons. His death has not stopped Iran from continuing its support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

This is why the next US administration must maintain pressure on the mullahs in Iran. An easing of the sanctions will embolden the terrorist groups and facilitate their mission of pursuing their jihad against Israel. Iran's proxies want to see Israel obliterated -- and if that means aligning themselves with mass murderers such as Soleimani, so be it.
PMW: Fatah embraces terror organizations that openly reject Israel’s right to exist; suggests “all factions” run on joint list
In advance of the PA elections, Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub has announced that Fatah urges “all the national activity factions” to run together on a joint list. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 28, 2021]

Rajoub’s statement came after the terror organization PFLP announced its election platform, which included rejection of Israel’s right to exist and a reiteration of PFLP’s long term goal to seek Israel’s destruction using violence and terror:
“[PFLP] emphasized its firm opposition to recognizing the racist Zionist entity, and its determination to continue with all forms of the struggle, and foremost among them armed resistance, in order to liberate every grain of the soil of Palestine.”

[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 21, 2021]

The PFLP further urged to “revoke” the Palestinian recognition of “the Zionist entity” and demanded an annulment of “the humiliating and catastrophic Oslo Accords.”

The day after the PFLP’s announcement, Rajoub announced that “Fatah greatly appreciate the decision” of the PFLP to run in the elections, not citing any reservations at all regarding the terror organization’s election platform and goal to destroy Israel. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 22, 2021] Less than a week later, Rajoub called on all factions to join one list.

Recent events show that running on one joint list may be more than just a suggestion but rather a dictate from Abbas. When a member of Fatah’s Central Committee announced he would form a separate list that would run separately from Fatah in the upcoming PA elections, Abbas promptly kicked him out of Fatah and of the Central Committee:
Excerpt from Abbas’ decision: “The Fatah Central Committee has decided to expel Nasser Al-Qidwa from the committee and from Fatah, in accordance with its decision that was made in the meeting on March 8, 2021…[Al-Qidwa] will be given 48 hours to retract his declared positions, which transgress Fatah’s regulations and decisions, and which harm its unity – and if not, he will be expelled…In accordance with Fatah’s regulations and decisions, and to preserve its unity, it views its decision as valid as of today.
Ramallah, March 11, 2021
Mahmoud Abbas
Fatah Chairman”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 11, 2021]


Israel targeted some 12 tankers headed for Syria, US officials say -WSJ
US and regional officials have accused Israel of targeting "at least a dozen" tankers bound for Syria and mostly carrying Iranian oil due to concerns that petroleum profits were funding extremists, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The report alleged that since 2019, Israel has been using naval weapons, including water mines, to strike vessels which were either Iranian, or carried Iranian cargo, as they made their way to Syria.

The report said that while most of the tankers carried oil, some of the targeted vessels have made efforts to move other cargo, including weaponry.

According to Greenpeace, Iranian oil tankers routinely violate trade embargoes on Iran and Syria to smuggle oil into Syria through the Suez Canal. The organization said that the practice of turning off tracking systems is also commonly done such vessels, to avoid detection for violating the trade embargo.

The practice is so common in fact, that between August of 2018 and July of 2019, Syria received around 17 million barrels of crude oil from Iran this way.

The WSJ report added that other ways that these ships avoid international scrutiny is through the declaration of false destinations, transferal of oil from one ship to another at sea, or through the use of old, rusted tankers which are harder to detect.


US Repeats It Will Not Offer Iran Unilateral Incentives for Talks
The United States repeated on Thursday it will not offer Iran unilateral incentives to attend talks about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“We will not offer any unilateral gestures or incentives to induce the Iranians to come to the table. If the Iranians are under the impression that, absent any movement on their part to resume full compliance with the (nuclear deal), that we will offer favors or unilateral gestures, well that’s a misimpression,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Price suggested Washington would consider each side taking steps to resume compliance with the agreement once they are at the negotiating table.

“If and only if Tehran comes to the negotiating table would we be in a position, would we be prepared, to discuss proposals that would help push both sides back on that path of mutual compliance to the deal,” he said. “Ultimately, that is where we seek to go: compliance for compliance.”

Price was referring to the deal between Iran and six major powers under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for the easing of US and other economic sanctions.
Why Iran’s hate-filled public school curriculum should be a global concern
The government of Iran remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, and unfortunately its educational curriculum is no exception. Public school teachers in Iran today use textbooks designed by the state to indoctrinate young people to export global revolution using terrorism and other aggressive means. As a result, the content of its textbooks should be a global concern.

I recently completed the first comprehensive study of hate and extremism in current Iranian textbooks in nearly half a decade as part of my ongoing work with the Anti-Defamation League, the results of which are accessible in full on the ADL website.

Evaluating teaching materials to identify and discourage hateful content is an important trend in the Middle East. Accordingly, this essay reproduces key findings from the ADL research on Iran and adds several notable new examples beyond the content in the original report.

The Iranian state curriculum especially encourages terrorism and political subversion against Arab states in particular. It also demonizes America, Israel and the Jewish people, including in ways that are part and parcel with these same hateful conspiracy theories and calls to violence.

For this reason, condemning the problematic content in Tehran’s textbooks is only part of the solution. We should also redouble efforts to teach peace-building and interfaith tolerance in every country’s textbooks, so that it is harder to exploit suspicions between East and West, between Sunnis and Shiites, or between Muslims, Jews, Christians and followers of other faiths.

The Iranian government’s current textbooks indoctrinate children with messages that put them on a permanent footing for war. The books teach children how to assemble assault rifles, to carry out military maneuvers, and to learn about the importance of cyber warfare.



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