EU moves to stop funding Palestinian terrorists, inciting textbooks
The European Parliament Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to ensure EU funds do not reach anyone affiliated with terrorists. It also rapped UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, for iinciting hate and violence in their textbooks.Palestinian President Unleashes Profane Rant Against Rest of the World
The legislature’s annual budgetary report says the EU must “thoroughly verify” that its funds are not “allocated or linked to any cause or form of terrorism and/or religious and political radicalization.” Any funds that did go to any person or organization with terror ties must be “proactively recovered, and recipients involved are excluded from future Union funding.”
The article in the report came following an ongoing dispute between Palestinian NGOs and the EU over the affiliations of some of the organizations’ leadership and employees. Palestinian NGOs demanded that the EU erase a stipulation that aid can only be sent to organizations without ties to EU-designated terrorist groups, claiming that groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated a terrorist group in the EU, US, Canada and Israel, and has been responsible for many terrorist attacks on Israelis, are political parties.
Last March, EU Representative to West Bank and Gaza Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff wrote in an official letter to the Palestinian NGO Network that said as there are no Palestinian individuals on the EU’s “restrictive measures list” which bars funds to terrorists, NGOs would not be penalized if members of terrorist groups benefit from their EU funding. The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned EU Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret to protest the policy, following Jerusalem Post reporting on the letter.
The new guideline doubles down on the European Parliament’s commitment to prevent EU donations from ending up in the hands of terrorists, by calling for proactive recovery of funds.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was recently caught badmouthing several countries, including the United States and his Arab neighbors, during a profanity-laced rant that raises new concerns about the 85-year-old leader's deteriorating health.Where John Kerry’s truth lies
The Arabic language rant is renewing speculation that Abbas—who is overweight and a heavy cigarette smoker—is in poor mental and physical health as he carries out his 16th year in office. His government is under great strain amid monumental regional shifts that have seen Israel make peace with its traditional Arab foes.
When asked by an unidentified attendee at the Fatah political party's April 19 meeting what his message to China is on the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Abbas went ballistic.
"Fuck the c—t of China with a shoe!" Abbas screamed, according to an independent Arabic translation of his remarks provided to the Washington Free Beacon. "That good for you?"
After pausing for a few seconds, Abbas continued yelling: "And Russia, America, and all the Arabs. What's wrong with you? All of you go to hell!"Leaked audio recording of Mahmoud Abbas cussing out Russia, the Arabs, and China (Fatah Central Committee meeting April 19,2021) pic.twitter.com/bLngjLMXl8
— Fadi Elsalameen فادي السلامين (@Elsalameen) April 22, 2021
The rant raises new questions about Abbas's health ahead of Palestinian elections scheduled for late May. The president's age and deteriorating health have been a much-discussed topic in the Israeli and Arab media for years, and it still remains unclear who is poised to succeed him. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been mostly dormant in the wake of Israel's landmark peace agreements with leading Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Jonathan Schanzer, a Middle East expert and vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Abbas is under "immense pressure" and may be reaching his breaking point. Israel's newfound peace with Abbas's traditional Arab allies also could be fueling his anger.
"Abbas has been under immense pressure to hold elections after being marginalized for the last four years by former president Donald Trump and a number of Arab states," Schanzer said. "He has felt alienated. Now he is boxed in. He is lashing out."
So which is it: Should we trust Iran or not?Kerry’s Denial on Leaking to Iran Doesn’t Add Up
John Kerry is the biggest proponent of the nuclear deal with Iran. We can believe that country to abide by its provisions, he says.
Yet when Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that Kerry had revealed to him the fact that Israel had conducted 200 airstrikes in Syria, the Biden official bristled. Zarif was lying.
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false,” Kerry said in a statement. “This never happened when I was secretary of state or since.”
To be sure, the likeliest scenario remains that John Forbes Kerry is guilty of doing exactly what Zarif claims he did. But let’s engage in a little thought experiment: Let’s say Zarif made the whole thing up and the underlying leaked recording was part of a cynical Islamic Republic disinformation operation to create more “daylight” between two of Tehran’s greatest adversaries, the “Big Satan” of America and the “Little Satan” of Israel.
Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at United Nations headquarters.
In this hypothetical scenario, it is not Kerry who is the bald-faced liar — it is Zarif. But in that case, why in the world is Team Biden currently prostrating itself in Vienna before the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, with Zarif himself as that No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism’s leading diplomat, in the quixotic hopes of securing a “longer and stronger” nuclear deal?
Either way, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that the Israelis had signed off on Kerry revealing this information to Tehran. We’re left where we started: John Kerry knowing about military actions that an allied country had taken in Syria that were not meant to be public knowledge — and sharing information about them with the Iranian foreign minister.Land of Confusion
Also note that by speaking this bluntly and critically of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the late Major General Qasim Soleimani, it seems clear Zarif did not expect this interview to go public at this time. Maybe he thought his comments would be revealed far in the future, after his retirement or after his death — if they were ever revealed at all. For what it is worth, the Iranian foreign ministry says the recording was never meant to be released to the public:
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said today that the recording was not supposed to be released to the media. The interview took place with economist Saeed Leylaz, who is a supporter of the Rouhani administration. Khatibzadeh said the recording was a “typical discussion within the administration.” The intention of the talks was a Rouhani administration initiative that all Cabinet members record their experiences in order to serve as documents to help the next administration.
It seems pretty clear that we in the West were not meant to hear this interview anytime soon, if ever — which makes it even more implausible that this is some sort of Iranian misinformation effort to undermine John Kerry’s reputation. However, it does feel as if somebody in the Iranian government wanted to kneecap Zarif, and/or his political allies. Iran is scheduled to have a presidential “election” in June 18. (Those scare quotes are deliberate.) While the final ballot has yet to be set, take a look at who a bunch of the top contenders are:
A number of Iranian military leaders, from both the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are among the likely candidates for Iran’s presidential election, which will be held on June 18. Among these candidates are the former IRGC air force commander and former defense minister in the Rouhani government Hossein Dehghan; former IRGC commander and current Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee; and the former head of the IRGC’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters Brig. Gen. Saeed Mohammed, as well as other politicians with a military background, including Ali Larijani, Parviz Fattah and Mehrdad Bazrpash. If you’re the IRGC or an ally of that faction within the Iranian government, and you come across an audiotape of the foreign minister trashing your beloved brigadier-general-turned-airport-highway-speedbump, you’re sure as heck going to release that. This isn’t a lie designed to smear Kerry. There’s no good reason to think Zarif is lying to the interviewer. Kerry’s reputation is collateral damage in a fight among factions within the Iranian government. We as Americans have very little ability to influence who runs what within the Iranian regime. But we can decide which people can be trusted with secrets within the U.S. government — and John Kerry isn’t one of those people.
Although never a major power, Iran has appeared at or near the center of many of the foreign-policy challenges America has faced over the past 75 years. An audacious Soviet effort to swallow or dismember Iran at the conclusion of World War II prompted one of the first major acts of American containment policy. Then, in 1953, the CIA inserted itself into an internecine power struggle to restore or re-cement the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Washington’s action was prompted by the continuing fear of Soviet designs, but since the Iranian crisis also entailed Western oil interests, it became the template for a Soviet caricature of American “imperialism” in the service of global capital, an image that gained wide credence around the world. Despite whatever debt he owed Washington for the CIA’s 1953 machinations, Mohammad Reza had ambitions of his own that sometimes made him a thorn in America’s side. He helped forge OPEC, whose stranglehold on energy challenged U.S. power and policies in the 1970s. Then, with the shah’s ouster in 1979, Iran became the world’s first “Islamic Republic,” energizing radical Islam, both Shiite and Sunni, much as Lenin’s declaration of the first socialist republic in 1917 infused enormous new strength into all sorts of revolutionary movements. Today, Iran’s relentless drive to join the club of nuclear-weapons states constitutes the most urgent threat facing the new U.S. administration. In short, Iran was at some moments the vessel of Washington’s hopes and at others the source of its most irksome torments. This tortuous tale is the subject of Ray Takeyh’s The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. Takeyh’s narrative skill, eye for detail, sense of character, and judicious presentation of controversial events make his account as compulsively readable as a novel. The 1953 coup that restored the shah’s authority also ousted the popular prime minister, Mohammad Mossadeq, and to this day it “casts a long shadow over Iran,” writes Takeyh. “The oft repeated slogan that the United States crushed Iran’s nascent democracy and ushered in a rigid dictatorship conceals more than it reveals.” For one thing, as Takeyh shows, Mossadeq, the avatar of Iranian nationalism and the leader of the National Front Party, made his own contributions to undermining democracy, notably by inducing the parliament to award him the power to rule by decree. At strategic moments, he encouraged riots to strengthen his bargaining position, and, says Takeyh, he even seems to have countenanced the assassination of one of his predecessors, Ali Razmara. Takeyh argues that while “the CIA was complicit” in the 1953 events, “its role has been exaggerated.” It was Iranians, he says “who took the essential steps in overthrowing” Mossadeq.Washington’s Weirdest Think Tank
When the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft launched in 2019, its founders chose a name that would connect the group to a primordial era of U.S. foreign policy. Although John Quincy Adams was hardly an isolationist—he pursued territorial expansion and argued for America’s direct interests in Latin America as secretary of state and later as president—his 1821 formulation that the United States “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy” has become a catchphrase for those who believe Washington has lost all sense of proportion and reality in its dealings with the rest of the world. According to its application for tax exemption filed with the Internal Revenue Service in July 2019, which Tablet has obtained, Quincy’s purpose would be “to educate the public about ‘restraint,’ a foreign policy grand strategy developed by interdisciplinary academic thought-leaders,” and to support scholars who “generally argue that in regions where the US possesses vital interests, it should lead with diplomacy.” The institute’s titular director and president is Andrew Bacevich, a historian, former U.S. Army colonel, and a widely respected if sometimes overwrought proponent of the idea that a military-industrial complex has hijacked American society. The IRS document identifies Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council until 2018, as another one of Quincy’s co-founders and as its executive vice president. The tax exemption application lists Parsi’s estimated compensation at $275,000 a year, compared with $50,000 for Bacevich—a fair indication of who is actually running Washington’s weirdest and most intriguing foreign policy shop. Chas Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and one of the elder statesmen of the realist movement in American foreign policy, told me he was “part of the group consulted about [Quincy’s] formation,” though he has no affiliation with the institute. “I think the main organizer was Trita Parsi, and perhaps that was a product of his disappointment as head of NIAC,” Freeman recalled. “I think he probably thought: How can I play a role in trying to shake things loose a little bit, not particularly on Iran, but generally.” Freeman said Parsi described his future organization as an “‘action tank,’ meaning that it would comment on contemporary foreign policy issues in a way that punctured familiar stereotypes and narratives.” Lawrence Wilkerson, a Quincy nonresident fellow who is himself a retired Army colonel and served as Colin Powell’s chief of staff during his time as secretary of state, recalls that Parsi approached him at a NIAC-related meeting in New York during the summer of 2018. Parsi had only recently announced his departure after 16 years of leading the Iranian-American activist group he founded, and said he was working on launching a new foreign policy organization, with a scope beyond U.S.-Iranian relations. “He wanted to do something that would be national, that would be across the country, even international,” Wilkerson told me. “And it certainly has international implications, to stop the empire from trying to establish hegemony over every rock in the world.” According to Wilkerson, Parsi entered “a sort of study, analytical period, to figure out how one would do this, whether he could get the money for it, achieving some of the money, and then having a meeting in New York.”Rivlin to Macron: After Sarah Halimi, send message against antisemitism
President Reuven Rivlin sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron Wednesday regarding the French court's decision on Sarah Halimi's killer's liability for her death. “I heard with sorrow of the decision of the French Supreme Court to confirm the decision of the lower courts that the accused in the antisemitic, brutal and terrible murder of Sarah Halimi is unfit to stand trial," said the letter. “I appreciate your ethical and legal position and your determination to introduce an amendment to the criminal code. Your quick and clear response sends a clear message to the family of the victim and to France as a whole that law as it currently stands is deficient, and that deficiency has allowed a despicable murderer to evade justice and punishment. “The facts of the case are accepted: Dr. Sarah Halimi was a victim of a despicable murder by a cruel murderer because she was Jewish, and everything must be done to send a clear message that there is, and will not, be any tolerance of sick and despicable antisemitism and attacks on Jews because of their ethnicity and religion.”‘Beleaguered’ French Jewry ‘Dealt an Incredible Injustice’ With Sarah Halimi Verdict, Says Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief
The recent verdict excusing the antisemitic killer of Sarah Halimi from legal proceedings has shown French Jewry that bringing justice to her case was simply “not a priority” for the country’s leaders, Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune said during an interview with i24 News on Sunday, as tens of thousands rallied in cities across the world to protest the decision. “The picture that is being painted to French Jewry is that this is just not a priority, this is just not important,” Efune said. “Holding this perpetrator to account, highlighting the antisemitic nature of the crime, and ensuring that he’s held fully accountable — it has not been a priority or a serious, significant concern to leaders of the French judicial system, and of course, the government.” The family of Halimi — the French Jewish woman brutally murdered in her Paris apartment by 31-year-old Kobili Traore, who bellowed antisemitic slogans as he beat her — lost a final ruling in France’s top appeals court this month, which upheld an earlier decision that he could not be held criminally responsible because his intake of marijuana on the night of the killing had rendered him temporarily insane. “One of the most beleaguered Jewish communities on the planet has been dealt an incredible injustice leaving every single member of that community concerned, and fearing that their security and safety can no longer be guaranteed and secured in the country of France,” Efune said of the ruling. Thousands gathered in cities from Paris and Marseille to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London and New York on Sunday, calling for Traore to be held accountable. “The call for justice is ringing across the globe,” said Efune on Sunday. “It’s resonated because the injustice is so great. We’ve known for so long that the harm, and the danger, and threats that have been thrust upon French Jewry have been significant and extensive and torturous. But certainly the ability to achieve justice and to track down perpetrators, has been fundamental and crucial.” “Now, French Jews have faced with a scenario where not only are they facing the challenges and threats, but the tools with which to respond to them and hold perpetrators accountable have been hamstrung significantly by the state and the judicial system,” he added.Biden May Nominate Hillary’s Designated Chief of Staff as Ambassador to Jerusalem
President Joe Biden will probably nominate Thomas Nides, who served as Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources from 2011 to 2013, as the next US ambassador to Israel, according to the Washington Post (Biden donors, friends, and former aides expected on first slate of high-profile ambassadors). Nides will be yet another Jewish ambassador to Israel, the son of Shirley and Arnold Nides from Duluth, Minnesota. His late father, who owned Nides Finance—a national consumer finance company, was president of the Duluth Temple Israel and the Duluth Jewish Federation. Indeed, the last US ambassador to Israel who wasn’t Jewish was James Cunningham, who was followed by one Shapiro and one Friedman. But his Jewish faith is not why mainstream Democrats should be pleased with the prospect of Biden’s picking Nides, who is currently the managing director and vice-chairman of Morgan Stanley. Mainstream Democrats should be pleased because of Nide’s connection to Hillary Clinton, one of the last security hawks in the party. For his service, in 2013, Secretary Clinton awarded Nides the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the nation’s highest diplomatic honor. In 2016, Nides was considered for the role of White House Chief of Staff by in Hillary’s administration. Back during the 2020 presidential campaign, Nides served as a Biden and Kamala Harris proxy, but in an interview with the NY Times, he came across more as a Hillary proxy. “Hillary Clinton really likes Joe Biden, and always has,” Nides attested. “This is a real thing, not politics. She really liked him as a human being, and the feeling is mutual.”Biden Administration Directly Aiding and Abetting Hamas-Linked CAIR
Sources inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report to Understanding the Threat (UTT) that FEMA and DHS officials participated in a private webinar last Friday (April 9th) hosted by the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hamas, doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) which was attended by leaders of prominent U.S. Islamic jihadi organizations. The purpose of this webinar was for these government officials to give precise details to the hostile U.S. Islamic Movement on how to obtain U.S. government grant money to structurally harden mosques and Islamic organizations, and, according to CAIR’s website, was entitled Protecting Muslim Community Centers and Mosques: The 2021 Nonprofit Security Grant Program and Safety and Security Federal Resources. The two key government officials participating in this webinar and instructing leaders of the U.S. Islamic Movement were: Kerry Thomas, Director of Preparedness Grants Division (PGD) within Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Grant Programs Directorate (GPD); and Mark Silveira, Executive Officer, DHS/FEMA Grant Programs. It should be noted that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was created in 1994 by the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee which is the designated terrorist organization Hamas in the United States.Israeli Military Says It Shot Down Hezbollah Drone on Lebanon Border
Israeli forces shot down a drone belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah group that crossed into northern Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday, the Israeli military said. In a statement, the military said that earlier in the day troops had located another Hezbollah drone that had been shot down along the border with Lebanon several weeks ago. “We will continue to operate in order to prevent any attempt to violate Israeli sovereignty,” the statement said. Israel has acknowledged several incidents in recent years in which its own drones have been lost during missions along the Lebanese frontier, with Iranian-backed Hezbollah claiming to have shot them down. Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, is the dominant presence in Lebanon’s south near the border with Israel. The militant group has vowed to bring down Israeli drones breaching Lebanese airspace.
2. Marana's candidacy was a unprecedented. She has a long history of anti-Semitism including calling for the destruction of the city of Zichron Yaakov. Labor leader @MeravMichaeli's support for her candidacy for Knesset signalled Israel's founding party had abandoned Zionism./3
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) April 27, 2021
PMW: Abbas “salutes” Arab rioters in Jerusalem; Fatah promotes “intifada” against Jews Fatah rebroadcasts Abbas’ 2014 call for violence in Jerusalem Jerusalem is in “the greatest danger in history” - PA TV sermon during Jerusalem riots Fatah official “urges young people” to join Jerusalem riots and “to defend the holy sites” Terrorist prisoners are “a crown on our heads,” says Fatah official Win $100 prize for being an expert on arch-terrorist Abu Jihad - on PA TV quiz show Abbas’ advisor claims Herzl wanted to “throw Palestinians to wild animals in Africa” “All Palestine is ours and it will be liberated from the thieves” - 7-year-old girl on PA TV4. In a Supreme Court libel case. In other words, Marana is openly lying and slandering Israel and IDF soldiers. Notably, the Labor party is set to be a member of the "unity government" that @naftalibennett and @gidonsaar are forming with @yairlapid.
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) April 27, 2021
FDD: Biden, Congress Should Defend Missile Sanctions Imposed on IranThe poor quality of the recording doesn't help but in two sections of the video, one can recognize civilian infrastructure by where these rockets are being launched from. https://t.co/3GhnsPDJHS
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) April 28, 2021
During a March 2021 appearance before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged not to make any concessions to Iran regarding its missile program while persuading Tehran to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).1 Less than one month later, however, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price refused to rule out missile-sanctions relief as an inducement for the regime to rejoin the deal.2 Offering Iran missile-sanctions relief without first addressing the Islamic Republic’s robust missile program should be alarming to Congress. The JCPOA imposes no limits on Iran’s missile development and proliferation; instead, the deal schedules UN restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missiles to expire in 2023.3 During the years the United States participated in the JCPOA (2015 to 2018), Iran launched at least 27 ballistic missiles as part of tests or military operations.4 Last year, the clerical regime fired ballistic missiles at military bases in Iraq housing American personnel.5 Iran’s terrorist proxies use Iranian-supplied ballistic and cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to target and harass U.S. forces and allies across the Middle East. Between all of this and Tehran’s ambitions to develop longer-range nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that could reach the United States and Europe, lifting sanctions on Iran’s missile program undermines U.S. national security interests. Congress should send a resolute and bipartisan message to the Biden administration: Regardless of where members stand on the JCPOA, an overwhelming majority of legislators agree that no missile-sanctions relief should be provided to Iran as part of rejoining the agreement. This message would align with Blinken’s testimony and his 2020 campaign commitment to “continue non-nuclear sanctions as a strong hedge against Iranian misbehavior in other areas.”6 This memorandum summarizes the threats posed by Iran’s missile force; reviews the longstanding record of bipartisan support for missile sanctions on the Islamic Republic; and provides a detailed list of U.S. missile sanctions in place as of April 15, 2021.JCPA: Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif’s Leaked Tape: Revolutionary Guards and Soleimani Sought to Control Iranian Diplomacy
In a leaked interview, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lamented the depth of the involvement of Gen. Qassem Soleimani – the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force commander who was assassinated by the U.S. in January 2020 – in Iran’s foreign policy, and the MFA’s subordination to the military imperatives of the IRGC. Zarif discloses that the Obama administration’s secretary of state, John Kerry, informed him in June 2016, after the nuclear deal, of “at least 200 cases of Israeli attacks on IRGC targets in Syria. I as foreign minister was amazed since I did not know anything about this.” The interview unambiguously illustrates Iran’s regional order of priorities and the limited role of diplomacy in determining it. The Iranian Foreign Ministry is charged with whitewashing the effects of Iran’s subversion, terror, and human rights violations and with moderating the West’s response to Iran’s malignant activity throughout the world and its nuclear activities. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Russia opposed the nuclear deal and attempted to sink it. The IRGC keeps pursuing nuclear activity under its own aegis, while the Foreign Ministry serves as a fig leaf to provide Iran with room for maneuver vis-à-vis the West. The Foreign Ministry’s role is to create a mirage of political activity that affords time and facilitates the nuclear activity. Zarif’s interview, leaked from within Iran, was most probably aimed at destroying his professional career and preventing him from running in the June 18 presidential elections.
Fmr. Lebanese Minister of the Interior Ahmad Fatfat in Reaction to KSA Ban on Vegetable Import from Lebanon Due to Drug Smuggling: Nasrallah Has Become the Pablo Escobar of Lebanon; “Real Action” Must Be Taken to Rid the Region of the Plague of Hizbullah #Hizbullah #KSA #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/IEhN6hbSmc
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 28, 2021
"In my country, women are not allowed to ride a bike, show their hair, have custody of their child, travel abroad without permission of their husband... I'm not allowed to be a judge, to dance, to sing solo, to run for president."
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 27, 2021
"I want to know which countries voted for Iran." https://t.co/OBaWj63QMy pic.twitter.com/ijo4cyLUJW
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