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Wednesday, June 30, 2021

06/30 Links Pt2: Black, Jewish and bullied into quitting – SCBWI and the April Powers story; Ilhan Omar Knows What She’s Doing; Omar Claims Jewish Colleagues ‘Haven’t Been Partners in Justice’

From Ian:

Not in Kansas Anymore: Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities
Academic freedom is the liberty which academics have, within the confines of the law, to question and test generally-held beliefs, and to put forward different, sometimes unorthodox, maybe unpopular, alternative views without being at risk of losing their jobs or being silenced at their work. A complaint sometimes made against Israel is that it culpably suppresses academic freedom in Palestinian universities. This complaint is sometimes deployed by critics of Israel defending themselves against the charge that they focus too exclusively on Israel’s misdeeds at the expense of paying attention to other and worse political horrors elsewhere. Their reply is that academic freedom is a value especially in the care of academics everywhere, and so they have special reason to focus on Israel, since it’s illegitimately eroding academic freedom in vulnerable institutions, while purporting to be a liberal democracy which values academic freedom and free speech.

Cary Nelson’s new book: Not in Kansas Anymore: Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities,[1] addresses this whole issue with exceptional thoroughness. He examines the state of academic freedom in Palestinian universities, and comments on the implications of this for the criticisms levelled by some Western academics, especially in the United States, against Israel’s handling of this matter. His central thesis is that academic freedom in Palestinian universities is indeed very badly eroded and in certain respects non-existent. It is true that Israeli measures are sometimes responsible for aspects of this erosion, where Israel has acted without sufficient justification and in ways that would have been better avoided; however Israeli interventions are greatly outweighed in their effect on academic freedom by measures taken by Palestinian students, academics, and wider political forces. These measures, often deployed by students though sometimes by faculty, involve intimidation and physical violence. They receive wide social support, have done so for many years, are very resistant to change, and are largely ignored by Western critics of Israel.

In Nelson’s view this singular focus on Israel’s impact on academic freedom in Palestinian universities is misplaced in three main ways: it fails to acknowledge the security context within which Israel has to operate; it fails to recognise Palestinian violence; and it fails to consider regimes, in the area and beyond, whose treatment of academic freedom is far, far worse. His book has useful and pertinent things to say about the first and third points, but it’s the second, central, one for which Nelson provides the fullest and most detailed examination, and the one on which I’ll focus here.

The book opens with an account of violent attacks on two senior academics in different Palestinian universities. One of these academics took some students to visit Auschwitz. In his absence, other students denounced him as a traitor, trashed his university secretary’s office, and threatened to kill him if he returned to the university. His academic union cancelled his membership; his university did not defend him (they eventually accepted his resignation); and he was the target of an assassination attempt. Academic freedom did not protect him. The second (unconnected) case involved a different academic, one who was opposed to reconciliation with Israel and was certainly not opposed to violence. Nonetheless when he criticised the Palestinian authorities, accusing them of corruption, he was arrested and imprisoned. Academic freedom did not protect him either.


David Collier: Black, Jewish and bullied into quitting – SCBWI and the April Powers story
SCBWI bow to the haters
Until now, we have a normal everyday occurrence on social media. An organisation or well-known public figure stands in solidarity with Jewish people – and for this, they are attacked. We cannot know exactly what went on behind closed doors, between SCBWI and the author of the post – their black, Jewish, Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer, April Powers – but what followed was disgraceful appeasement, abandonment of principles, and proof positive that SCBWI doesn’t really stand up to antisemitism at all.

Eventually, SCBWI actually issued a public apology for making the statement on antisemitism. And whatever did go on behind closed doors, left April Powers feeling so isolated that she felt the need to resign. In the end, the victim of the SCBWI statement on antisemitism – the person who paid the price and was bullied out of her job – was the black Jewish woman.

The SCBWI apology was written by their Executive Director, Lin Oliver. The statement says that they have accepted the resignation of April Powers and that they apologise for absolutely everything. SCBWI bowed before the haters, stripped down and publicly flagellated themselves.

They even specifically apologise to the very person who had been harassing them with the ‘all lives matter’ argument – Razan Abdin-Adnani:

SCBWI apology
It is important to understand who SCBWI apologised to. Razan Abdin-Adnani is not some innocent, peace-loving and misunderstood victim, but rather a hard-core, and rather extreme activist. The tweet below not only spreads lies about co-existence (Jews were never more than vulnerable second-class citizens under Ottoman rule) – but also suggests that millions of Israelis should be forcibly removed and sent to Poland or Russia.


Make no mistake about how racist this is. If this were a post about black people or Muslims in the US, needing to be forcibly sent away to wherever people believed their ancestors came from – the author would rightfully be called a neo-Nazi. There is no difference here. This person has no tolerance, no understanding of human rights and no knowledge of actual history. It is clear that her issue with the SCBWI post was not that it didn’t mention Muslims, but that it was written at all. Razan Abdin Adnani picked a cheap fight with SCBWI and boy, did she win easily.
Prominent children’s literature organization apologizes to antisemite for condemning antisemitism
On June 22, Abdin-Adnani wrote a 31 post Twitter thread/manifesto retconning the events that had transpired and included her thoughts about being dismayed when SCBWI released a powerful statement in support of the Jewish community. Abdin-Adnani claimed "I left an affirmative and polite comment on SCBWI’s Twitter," but at no point does she admit that this comment was followed by dozens more, including antisemitic statements, on the original SCBWI statements condemning anti-Semitism.

In response, SCBWI asked their Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, who is black and Jewish, to resign, then posted the following statement apologizing to Abdin-Adnani by name and joined the writer in "all lives mattering" the situation.


"I would like to apologize to everyone in the Palestinian community who felt unrepresented, silenced, or marginalized. SCBWI acknowledges the pain our actions have caused to our Muslim and Palestinian members and hope that we can heal from this moment."

SCBWI executive director Lin Oliver also apologized to a the antisemitic writer and stated that Abdin-Adnani had been unblocked from the group’s feed.

Abdin-Adnani did not accept the apology and has called for a boycott of SCBWI. The activist also demanded an investigation into how supportive SCBWI is of the Jewish state.

Had SCBWI researched Abdin-Adnani before apologizing to her, they would have discovered tweets from as recently as June 2 from the activist that said, "Zionists need to go back to Europe and Brooklyn," and "I hear Germany and Poland are quite nice these days."


Ilhan Omar Knows What She’s Doing
The Jews can never seem to live up to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) exacting standards.

The Minnesota congresswoman’s latest broadside came Tuesday afternoon, when she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that her Jewish Democratic colleagues "haven’t been partners in justice" and have yet to apologize for their allegedly Islamophobic comments.

Omar’s statement came after Tapper asked whether she regrets her comments last month comparing the United States and Israel with terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Taliban. Her answer was unequivocal: "I don’t."

That’s funny, because Omar at the time "clarified" that statement, which elicited a rebuke from Democratic leaders and a dozen Jewish Democrats, saying that she did not say what in fact she said: "I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries." To be clear, she also believes Israel is a terrorist nation.

Omar, as the kids say, is owning her truth. Her tap dance follows a pattern that is by now well established, in which the justice-seeking congresswoman makes nakedly prejudicial remarks, pretends to walk them back in the face of muted criticism from her colleagues, characterizes the criticism itself as Islamophobic, and proceeds to reoffend.

That pattern gives the lie to the apology Omar issued after arguing that American support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins, baby": Her offenses were born of ignorance rather than prejudice, she said, and thanked her colleagues for "educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes."

Omar could give a master class on anti-Semitism, and the pattern of her offenses makes clear she is using that knowledge to perpetuate it. That’s probably why a Punchbowl News report earlier this month indicated that "a number of Omar’s fellow Democrats believe Omar is an anti-Semite, even if they don’t say so publicly."

It is, of course, the only prejudice about which Democrats are tight-lipped and the only one tolerated in the party’s ranks.
Rep. Ilhan Omar Claims Jewish Colleagues ‘Haven’t Been Partners in Justice’
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) lashed out at her Jewish House Democratic colleagues during a CNN interview Tuesday, claiming that they “haven’t been partners in justice.”

During Omar’s appearance on “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper cited some of the congresswoman’s statements that have led to accusations that she is anti-Semitic. Tapper specifically cited a February 2019 tweet that stated the alliance between the US and Israel is “all about the Benjamins” and a 2012 message in which she claimed that Israel “has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel”.

“Do you understand why some of your fellow House Democrats, especially Jews, find that language anti-Semitic?” Tapper asked.

“I’ve welcomed, you know, anytime my colleagues have asked to have a conversation, to learn from them, for them to learn from me,” Omar responded. “I think it’s really important for these members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice. They haven’t been, you know, equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.

“And I think, you know, I will continue to do that,” she added. “It is important for me, as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t, to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed, and who have had injustice done to them.”

Omar did not mention any names in her answer. However, earlier this month she blasted a group of Jewish House Democrats who pushed back on her claim that the US, Israel, Hamas and the Taliban had all committed “unthinkable atrocities.”


Ilhan Omar defends comments comparing Israel, US to Hamas, Taliban
Rep. Ilhan Omar defended her statements comparing Israel and the United States to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban, in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Following the 11-day escalation in May between Israel and allied terror groups in the Gaza Strip, Omar attempted to draw comparisons between the war in Afghanistan and the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating atrocities have been committed by all sides and each should be held accountable for their “crimes against humanity.”

Tapper called out Omar’s original tweet, which drew criticism from members of Congress, asking if she regretted sharing it with the public. “I don’t,” Omar replied on Tuesday. “I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make. Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken.”


Ilhan Omar Condemns Joe Biden Ordering Air Strikes on Iran-backed Militias
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has condemned the U.S. air strikes on Iran-backed militias near the Iraq-Syria border on Sunday, which killed at least seven fighters.

The bombardment took place a day before Israel's new president was scheduled to visit U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. The U.S. carried out three airstrikes on Iranian targets on the border — two landed in Syria and the other landed in Iraq.

"This constant cycle of violence and retribution is a failed policy and will not make any of us safer," Omar said in a Twitter post.

"Congress has authority over War Powers and should be consulted before any escalation."

Omar has been criticized previously for speaking out against attacks against Iran and has condemned U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

In a statement on Sunday night, the Pentagon explained why it had carried out the strikes.

"At President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said.

"The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries. Several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), used these facilities."


Interview: Former Labour MP: Corbyn’s continued denial of antisemitism makes him culpable
Few voices in the British parliament have been more passionate and consistent in their support for Israel than that of the former Labour MP Joan Ryan.

Ryan, who quit Labour at the height of the antisemitism crisis which roiled the party under the hard-left leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, left the House of Commons 18 months ago.

This month, however, she is returning to the heart of Israel advocacy in the UK as head of the new London office of ELNET, a nonprofit which works to strengthen ties between Europe and Israel. (Full disclosure: the author of this article worked with Ryan on speeches and articles when she was an MP.)

Britain’s departure from the European Union, believes Ryan, makes ELNET’s decision to set up shop in the UK well-timed.

“I think it’s very important because the UK was a very positive voice for Israel in the EU, and now that the UK is not in the EU we don’t want to see that voice diminished, we don’t want to see those relationships disappear,” Ryan tells The Times of Israel. “I think we might have left the EU, but we have not left Europe.”

ELNET, which brings together European and Israeli decision-makers and opinion-formers from across the political spectrum, facilitates policy discussions on key strategic issues. In addition to its new London base, it already has offices in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Warsaw.

“I think its USP [unique selling point] is this amazing European network that ELNET has built and the leaders, policymakers and thinkers that it can bring together,” says Ryan, who served as a minister in former prime minister Tony Blair’s government.

ELNET’s high-level delegations to Israel, she believes, have a crucial play to part in building support for the Jewish state and a greater understanding of the challenges it faces.
Stop Funding Hate accused of ‘militant prejudice’ over tweets by adviser
Stop Funding Hate, the campaign group calling for advertisers to boycott GB News, the recently launched news channel, has been accused of “militant prejudice” and an “extreme far left worldview” after a series of tweets by its strategy adviser and logistics facilitator.

The JC has unearthed comments by Stu Moran, CEO of the Web Foundry, a consultancy that provides logistical and strategic support for SFH. In one, he wrote that, "Much of the UK media seems to be in thrall to Israeli propaganda".


In another, he defended Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey after she was removed from the Shadow Cabinet by Sir Keir Starmer after sharing an article containing an antisemitic conspiracy theory around the death of George Floyd.

Mr Moran wrote: "How have we ended up with criticism of the Israeli state - openly involed in US police training it seems - being branded anti-Semitic @Keir_Starmer? And how can Labour face up to Israel's treatment of Palestine & UN resolutions against it without such criticism"
.


Mr Moran described Israel as "the incredibly well-funded and now nuclear power" and defended website The Canary after its editor tweeted "Arbeit macht frei": "Yes, I get that it's not good but compared to things I've seen in almost every tabloid, the Times, Telegraph and even the BBC that cause hate crime on our streets a daily basis - I'd argue that tweet won't - I'm struggling to understand the size of the furore against the Canary?"


Commenting on the tweets, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “For Stop Funding Hate to collaborate with people making these sorts of comments is the height of hypocrisy. They should stop funding the hate spread by their own contractor.
Co-founder of JVL ousted from local Labour party’s executive committee
The co-founder of Jewish Voice For Labour has been ousted from her position on the executive committee of Chingford and Woodford Green constituency Labour Party (CLP) as part of a major shake-up of official posts.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi had previously been vice-chair of the east London CLP – where she had regularly spoken out in support of Jeremy Corbyn and disputed claims of antisemitism in Labour.

But in the latest elections for Chingford and Woodford Green’s new executive committee, Wimbourne-Idrissi and supportive CLP chair Gary Lafley were amongst those to replaced in a co-ordinated move by led by local members.

Wimborne-Idrissi had been suspended by Labour in December 2020, after a local CLP meeting left several Jewish members complaining they had felt “uncomfortable” with the conduct of the JVL media officer and that of Lafley.

A continued investigation into Wimborne-Idrissi’s conduct by the party meant that she was unable to stand for the latest round of elections.

While Lafley has subsequently been readmitted to the party, it is understood that he also failed to stand as a candidate at the annual general meeting.
Train drivers’ union publishes article calling Zionism ‘racism’
Britain’s trade union for train drivers has published an opinion piece by one of its members stating that Zionism, the Jewish movement for self-determination, “is racism”.

The article, which is printed in the most recent edition of Aslef's monthly journal, is an extract from a speech delivered last month at the union’s annual assembly of delegates.

The piece condemns Britain’s trade union movement as historically “complicit” in its “support of Zionism” and describes Israel as a settler-colony practising apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

Hussein Ezzedine, the secretary of Aslef's Edinburgh no.1 branch, who delivered the speech, said: “The narrative must change, and we should avoid the intentionally misleading narrative which is – at best – of an ‘insoluble and complex conflict’, with both sides responsible.

“It isn’t. It is, actually, very simple. There is an occupier and an occupied…

“Let us be clear – Zionism is racism.”


Commenting on the article, Board of Deputies President, Marie van der Zyl, said: “Aslef's Jewish members will be very concerned to see the union publishing such a one-sided and offensive tirade against Zionism, totally ignoring the 4,000 year relationship of Jews to the land of Israel and their right to self-determination following genocide in Europe and persecution in the Middle East.

"It is also a disgracefully biased perspective of the Israel-Hamas conflict which fails to mention let alone condemn the terrorist group against whose rockets Israel was defending all its citizens.”
Congressman Urges Rutgers University President to Speak Out Against Anti-Israel Rhetoric by Union
Expressing concern for Jewish students at Rutgers University who may be the target of antisemitic attacks after a union of part-time lecturers at the university singled out Israel in a recent statement, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) sent a letter on Monday to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway asking him to “clearly and quickly” speak out against hate-filled rhetoric and misinformation campaign against Israel at the university.

The statement was issued June 12 by the executive board of the Part-Time Lecturer Chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT Local 6324 declaring that they, as teacher’s union members, “can no longer allow ourselves to be complicit in the illegal acts of the Israeli government,” and accused Israel of “military actions that have targeted, killed and maimed civilian populations.”

The letter also accused Israel of upholding “a regime of legalized racial discrimination perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”

Gottheimer’s letter called for universities to be open to free expression and robust exchange of ideas, while remaining inclusive and respectful to people of all backgrounds, religions and nationalities.

“To be sure, Rutgers’ part-time lecturers are entitled to hold their own opinions, even those which may be disagreeable. However, it is important to recognize that invective which singles out, disparages, delegitimizes, or demonizes Israel can and in many cases does fall outside of bounds,” he wrote. “In addition, in recent months, we have seen American Jews targeted in a series of unacceptable antisemitic attacks. That is why I am deeply concerned for the wellbeing of Rutgers students who identify as Jewish or pro-Israel and who worry that they might face a hostile environment in the classroom or on campus because of such sentiments.”

Gottheimer asked Holloway to send a clear message so that Jewish and pro-Israel students at the university are not made to feel unwelcome or singled out.
Antisemitic vandals target San Diego State University Chabad house
Vandals targeted a Chabad house at San Diego State University (SDSU) in what seems to be an antisemitic attack, attempting to topple the large menorah outside, local CBS affiliate CBS8 reported.

The two vandals were recorded on CCTV Friday morning breaking off a branch of the large menorah outside the Chabad house and ripping a banner with the faces of students on it.

“They just came by the Chabad House and started tearing out the banner behind us,” SDSU Chabad Rabbi Chalom Boudjnah told CBS8. "They went from one side, grabbed a piece of it, went to the other side and started tearing the banner. If that wasn’t enough, they decided to go and destroy part of the menorah. It's just very, very upsetting; it's frustrating."

The university condemned the vandalism, releasing a statement in support of the Jewish community.

“To members of our Jewish community: Our campus community stands with you and is in opposition to every act of bias and discrimination targeting you – all of which fail to undermine who you are and the many positive contributions you make to our community,” SDSU president Adela de la Torre said in a statement, according to local ABC affiliate KGTV.

The university's Hillel further condemned the incident.

"San Diego State University should be a safe place for Jewish students at all times," the Hillel wrote in an Instagram post. "We will continue to work with the administration, Chabad, [Anti-Defamation League] and other community partners to ensure Jewish students feel seen and heard."
Nation’s Largest Teachers’ Union Will Debate Resolution Accusing Israel of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’
The nation's largest teachers' union will debate two resolutions aimed at boycotting Israel and recognizing a Palestinian state at a conference this week.

The National Education Association will take up the proposals at their multi-day annual meeting, which is set to begin Wednesday. One measure calls on the United States to cut material support and funding to Israel. Another would have the union promote Palestinian causes through a variety of programs at an estimated cost of $71,500.

Teachers' unions across the country have come out against Israel and Jews in recent months. Three local unions affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the country's second-largest teachers' union, passed statements in June condemning Israel as an apartheid state. Federation president Randi Weingarten criticized Jews as being "part of the ownership class" dedicated to denying opportunities to others in an interview earlier this year.

The National Education Association is slated to debate more than 30 proposals at its upcoming meeting. One resolution, New Business Item 29, would "publicize" the union's support for the Palestinian authority.

More than 50 members of the National Education Association cosponsored Item 29, which says, "The Arab population of Palestine has again risen up in a heroic struggle against military repression and ‘ethnic cleansing' by the Israeli state and extreme nationalist forces in Israeli society."

New Business Item 51 calls for the union to "recognize the existence and sovereignty of Palestine and Palestinian children and families and their human right to access a quality education and live freely as outlined in United Nations Declaration of Human Rights."

The union will also debate measures on "decolonizing curriculum," creating a racial justice task force, opposing police unions, and sending a letter to the University of North Carolina calling for the school to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the controversial New York Times writer behind the 1619 Project.

Activists are criticizing the union for attacking Israel instead of working to close learning gaps caused by a year of remote learning—which teachers' unions supported—during the coronavirus pandemic.
Chicago Dyke March Bans Gays and Lesbians After Learning Israel Supports Gay Rights (satire)
The Chicago Dyke March, a pride event held each June, has announced that it will no longer allow gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people to take part in the march after learning that Israel is a strong supporter of gay rights.

The event’s organizers, who previously previously banned flags portraying the Star of David and earlier this month posted a cartoon of a woman burning Israeli and American flags, discovered that while they were committed to destroying Israel and defeating Zionism, Israel was the only country in the region that promoted gay rights.

“We realized that there was this huge contradiction in that we were advocating LGBTQ+ rights while at the same time trying to destroy the only country in the Middle East in which LGBTQ+ people have any rights,” event organizer Jill Raney said. “There is only one solution; we have to stop supporting LGBTQ+ rights immediately.”

Organizers hoped that the new rules for the Dyke March, which will now simply be called “The March,” would create a more welcoming atmosphere for Hamas supporters, who in past years complained that they felt uncomfortable being around so many gay people without being allowed to execute them. But some Hamas enthusiasts still balked at attending a protest in which women are allowed to march without their faces covered.
Guardian obfuscates fact that Palestinian child was killed by Gaza rocket
Though the word “rocket”, instead of bomb or airstrike, would indicate to the careful reader that the child’s tragic death was likely caused by a misfired projectile by a Gaza terrorist group, and not the IDF, it’s telling that the Guardian writer doesn’t inform readers anywhere in the article that this is the case.

In fact, in researching the boy in question, it seems almost certain that, though the journalist got some details wrong (His name is usually reported as Yazan al-Masri, and he was 2, not 1) al-Masri, as noted on these pages, and by Israeli and Palestinian NGOs, was indeed killed by a rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.

Moreover, though a signifacnt percentage of the 4,360 rockets fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip between May 10th and May 21st fell inside Gaza, there’s been almost no coverage of that topic at the Guardian or other British media outlets.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the article was published on the Guardian’s ‘Global Development‘ page, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

However, by obfuscating Hamas’s responsibility for the death of al-Masri and other Palestinian children during the war, consistent with the media outlet’s broader failure to hold the extremist group responsible for their prioritisation of destroying Israel over the basic social and economic needs of Palestinian residents, the primary cause of the territory’s under development will continue to elude readers.
CBC Gives First Person Article to Palestinian-Canadian To Spew Outright Falsehoods
In his recent June 22 First Person commentary for CBC News, “Hope, disappointment, self-censorship: What it’s like to be a Palestinian Canadian,” Idris Elbakri tells his family’s story of coming to Canada, a narrative that was replete with misinformation about Israel.

Elbakri writes that his family were refugees who “fled the onslaught of the Jewish militias on their neighbourhood” when Israel achieved independence in 1948.

This claim of forced expulsions of Palestinians is widely made, but it does not stand up to scrutiny. When Israel gained it’s independence in 1948 as a Jewish State, after nearly two thousand years of occupation by the British, the Ottoman Turks, Saracen Arabs and others, many of Israel’s Arabs left the newly reborn State of Israel. Elbakri argues Israel kicked them out, but that is not true.

Many of these Arabs were threatened by their own Arab leadership to leave. As the Economist magazine reported at the time, “It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in (the Israeli city of) Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.” Another contemporaneous article by Time magazine reported that the Arab leadership wanted to harm Israel’s ability to function, and thus encouraged its Arab citizens to leave. “By withdrawing Arab workers, their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa,” Time reported.

Unfortunately, grandiose tales of alleged Israeli brutality have spread far wider than the truth, but it’s nonetheless important to set the record straight.

Elbakri also veers into absolute fiction, as he describes Israel “in the context of Western colonialism,” but this allegation is not only misinformation; it’s an erasure of three thousand years of Jewish history in Israel.

The Jewish People have more than three thousand years of uninterrupted habitation in the land of Israel, and though they have been occupied and oppressed by a variety of global powers during that time, they never lost the desire to determine their own future.
BBC WS radio business programmes rehash old Gaza blockade format
Abu Mezeid’s reply included the claim that “a hundred years ago when there was no occupation” Palestinians “were exporting barley to the UK”. Of course a hundred years ago there was no Palestinian political entity in the region, which was at the time under British military rule following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire.

Abu Mezied also claimed that in the 1950s and 1960s Palestinians “were exporting citrus to Eastern Europe” but failed to clarify that the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt at the time before going on:

Abu Mezied: “So it shows that when there is no blockade, when there is no occupational politics, the Palestinians were able to tap into their potential…”

After alleging that Palestinian agriculture “has been deteriorating because of Israeli control over resources, water, in Gaza and in West Bank”, Abu Mezied’s agenda – which is clearly not limited to counter-terrorism measures imposed on the Gaza Strip – became even more apparent.

Abu Mezied: “The question should be how Israeli occupation policies are hindering the growth of the Palestinian economic and prosperity.”

The final interviewee was Manal White of the British organisation Zaytoun who likewise used the political term “the occupation” to describe Israel, claimed that the Gaza Strip is occupied and asserted that if there was no blockade, Gazans “could have water and electricity”. Saragosa failed to inform listeners that part of the supply of those utilities is provided by Israel.

Manuela Saragosa made no effort to ensure that BBC audiences heard any alternative views to the monochrome talking points promoted by three interviewees chosen to participate in this report and no Israeli voices were given a platform at all.

After past rounds of conflict we saw similar BBC amplification of one-sided campaigns against the anti-terrorism measures imposed upon the Gaza Strip in order to protect Israeli civilians. Saragosa simply rehashed the same superficial format, making no effort to bring listeners any new perspectives or information.
British Jews' fear and defiance amid record monthly anti-Semitism reports
A record number of anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded in the UK since the start of last month's violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the CST says.

From 8 May to 7 June, 460 incidents were reported to the charity - the highest monthly total since records began in 1984 - with 316 happening offline and 144 online.

The previous record was 317 in July 2014 - coinciding with the last major eruption of violence between Israel and the Palestinians as part of a decades-long conflict.

In the month before 8 May, 119 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to the CST.

On 17 May, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the House of Commons that there had been a "deeply disturbing" upsurge in anti-Semitism in recent years, particularly on social media.

Police forces in London, Greater Manchester and Hertfordshire did not have readily available data on the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported to them in May.

Last month, Greater Manchester Police's Det Ch Insp Paul Coburn said that "following recent tensions in the Middle East", officers had seen a "rise in hate crime directed towards members of specific communities" - which he told the BBC has since "stabilised" since the force launched a dedicated response, Operation Wildflower.

Dave Rich, CST's head of policy, says 416 of the 460 incidents "used language or some other evidence" related to Israel. He adds that generally, most incidents involve verbal abuse, with a "relatively small" number involving violence.

"Every time Israel is at war… 2014, 2009, 2006 being the main ones, we've seen record totals each year, each time, [that are] always higher than the last," he tells the BBC.

Mr Rich says the current trends that have "stood out" are the car convoys that have driven through areas where Jewish people live - as well as the "disproportionate impact" on school pupils, teachers, and university students - with 30% of all reports recorded linked to the educational sector. (h/t Yerushalimey)
US non-profit releases new campaign to combat antisemitism
JewBelong.com has revamped its campaign to fight antisemitism, titled "JewBelong or JewBeGone," presenting a "powerful" new message intended to invoke feelings surrounding the Holocaust.

"We're just 75 years since the gas chambers. So no, a billboard calling out antisemitism is not an overreaction," said co-founder of JewBelong Archie Gottesman, reciting the new slogan. "If Jews stop talking about antisemitism, the haters win – it's that simple."

The message will debut on billboards at Times Square in New York and soon expand into other cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, Miami and San Francisco.

Aside from the campaign, JewBelong stands as a resource for those who want to learn about antisemitism, how to combat it and ways to share their own experiences. It is a not-for-profit online resource that attempts to offer "easy explanations and meaningful DIY rituals for Jews, allies and anyone who has felt like a Jewish outsider or feels disengaged from the religion." For now, its focus is centered on antisemitism.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a survey conducted after Operation Guardian of the Walls in May. It found that three-quarters of American Jews “are more concerned about antisemitism in the US and abroad, and 60% have personally witnessed antisemitism because of the conflict in May.”

“The poll also found that 40% of American Jews are more concerned about their personal safety than before,” the ADL said. “Likewise, three-quarters of those polled (75%) indicated they were more worried than before about rising antisemitism in other countries spurred by the conflict.”
Nassau County NY officially recognises International Definition of Antisemitism
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran signed an Executive Order last week officially recognising the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The Order directs all departments and officials in the Long Island county to be guided by the Definition in identifying and enforcing laws against antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

Ms Curran said: “In order to combat antisemitism effectively, it is important to be clear about what it is and how it may manifest itself. With antisemitism on the rise, Nassau County stands with our Jewish brothers and sisters and will continue fighting to ensure hatred never finds a home in our communities.”

Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism and Lord Pickles worked hard over many meetings with officials at Downing Street.
Romanian Police ID Group of Minors in Synagogue Vandalism Reported on Eve of WW2 Pogrom Anniversary
Police in Romania have identified a group of minors who allegedly vandalized a synagogue in Orăștie, located in south-western Transylvania. The incident was reported on Monday, coinciding with the eve of the anniversary of a Holocaust pogrom that occurred in the Romanian city of Iași 80 years ago, and led to the killing of more than 13,000 Jews.

The identified minors aged between 9 and 14 years old are accused of smashing the windows of the synagogue building in Orăștie, a 19th-century historical monument, reported Romanian daily newspaper Adevărul.

The historical building is also being used as a cultural space and for exhibitions. The police will conduct further investigations into the incident, the report said.

On Monday, two archaeologists of the local Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art reported the acts of vandalism to police. They described broken windows and noticed a few dozen medium-sized stones inside the synagogue, according to Romania’s Stirile Transilvaniei newspaper, which published photos of the damage.

The IaÈ™i pogrom took place between June 29 to July 16 of 1941. During a commemoration speech on Tuesday, David Muniz, Chargé d’affaires of the US to Bucharest called for the “urgent need to invest more in Holocaust education, to help citizens better understand how such a tragedy unfolded, and to ensure that it never happens again.”

“We mourn the thousands of Jews from IaÈ™i who died in the massacres carried out by the army, police, and gendarmerie at the order of Marshall Antonescu 80 years ago,” Muniz remarked. “We remember and mourn the thousands of others who lost lives en route to and in the death camps. We must also remember that ordinary people did not choose to participate in this atrocity overnight; slowly, over time, influenced by years of political and antisemitic rhetoric, millions came to so devalue the lives of their fellow human beings.”
Far-Right GOP Congressman Paul Gosar to Appear With Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes at Fundraiser
A far-right GOP Congressman from Arizona will appear at a fundraiser on Thursday with a notorious white supremacist and Holocaust denier for the second time this year.

Rep. Paul Gosar will appear at his July 1 fundraising event alongside Nick Fuentes, a 22-year-old white supremacist who spouts violently antisemitic propaganda from the safety of his social media feeds.

In a bid to be the US far-right’s star tough guy, the diminutive Fuentes has questioned the Nazi Holocaust on several occasions and mocked it on others, once comparing the slaughter of Jews in gas chambers to “cookies baking in an oven.”

Fuentes loudly hailed the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection on Capitol Hill by extremist supporters of former President Donald Trump as “awesome.” He has also expressed support for racial segregation in the US, so as to preserve the country’s “white demographic core.”

Gosar’s planned appearance with Fuentes on Thursday, at a time and location still to be announced, will be the second time that the pair have appeared together in public this year. Fuentes followed Gosar as a speaker at February’s America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) gathering in Florida, declaring from the podium that “white people are done being bullied.”

A flyer for Thursday’s fundraiser showed Gosar sitting alongside a grinning Fuentes. “Here’s Nick Fuentes — proud white nationalist — openly denying the atrocities of the Holocaust and doing so in sick fashion, with a smile on his face,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated on Twitter. “Rep. Gosar, an elected official, should be actively speaking out against this hate, not actively supporting and emboldening it.”
Ohio Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Antisemitic Harassment of Jewish Neighbors
A Columbus, Ohio man who harassed his Jewish neighbors with antisemitic insults and threats has pleaded guilty in a federal court to criminally interfering with the right to fair housing.

During 2020, Douglas G. Schifer, 66 repeatedly targeted his neighbors, Nick and Tiffany Kinney, a Jewish couple from California who had recently moved to the Olde Towne East neighborhood of Columbus.

Documents filed by the prosecution revealed that Schifer had told the couple, “all you f***ing people, it’s no wonder Hitler burned you people in ovens,” “f***ing Hitler should have gassed you,” and “Jews burn, you belong in ovens.”

On Nov 7. 2020, three days after the US presidential election, Schifer shouted antisemitic slurs, obscenities and other derogatory language at the couple and the guests they had invited to their home. He also broke one of their windows and spat at them, while ranting about “gassing Jewish people, chopping them up, and burning them in ovens.”

In an interview following last November’s incident, the Kinneys described how Schifer had showered them with antisemitic abuse.

“Real disappointing and painful, the way this man must feel about Jews,” Tiffany Kinney commented.
Israel named cyber powerhouse in new rankings
Israel is one of the strongest nations when it comes to cyber capabilities, according to a report published Monday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Israel was ranked on par with Australia, Canada, China, France, Russia and Britain, and above Iran and North Korea.

The report assessed the cyberpower of 15 countries, separating them into three categories based on their ability to assist national decision-makers in calculating strategic risk and deciding on strategic investments.

The United States ranked highest on the list and was the only country in the highest-ranked category.

"Dominance in cyberspace has been a strategic goal of the United States since the mid-1990s," the report said. "It is the only country with a heavy global footprint in both civil and military uses of cyberspace… The US retains a clear superiority over all other countries in terms of its ICT [Information and Communications Technology] empowerment."

Israel was ranked in the second-highest category, along with six other countries.

According to the report, Israel "was one of the first countries to identify cyberspace as a potential threat to its national security, and started to address the issue more than 20 years ago."

The document said that technological and geopolitical changes had caused several organizational reforms in Israel, which culminated in 2018 with the establishment of the Israeli National Cyber Directorate within the Prime Minister's Office.

It also cited several cyberattacks attributed to Jerusalem by foreign publications against Tehran.
Israeli weapons maker Rafael unveils new state-of-the-art anti-ship missile
Israel’s Rafael defense contractor this week unveiled a powerful new naval missile system known as the Sea Breaker that it says can knock out a full-sized warship from hundreds of kilometers away in one shot.

The fifth-generation missile is principally geared for use against targets at sea or near the shore, but can also navigate over land, according to Rafael. At this stage, the Sea Breaker is primarily being marketed to customers abroad, the weapons manufacturer said.

Rafael announced the creation of this new long-range missile on Wednesday, saying that it combined state-of-the-art capabilities with existing technologies, making it one of the most powerful weapons of its kind.

The Sea Breaker is designed to be fired either from ships at sea or from a land-based launcher on shore. The missile uses a variety of sensors, supported by artificial intelligence, to identify targets autonomously, though human operators are meant to remain in the loop.

The winged missile can essentially function as an incredibly fast drone, flying low at “high subsonic speeds,” over the sea or the land, changing direction as necessary. It can be directed to hit a target from up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) away with an accuracy of a few meters, the company said.

According to Rafael, the missile carries a “250-pound penetration, blast and fragmentation warhead, making a single hit effective enough to neutralize a frigate-sized ship.”
Israeli scientists at forefront of mRNA vaccination revolution
In the past year or so, mRNA vaccines have become headline news as their development has been key to the successful rollout in many countries of an immunization program to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

What might be less well-known, however, is that an Israeli immunology researcher affiliated with the Lautenberg Center in the Medicine Faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), completed a series of research experiments more than a decade ago that showed the potential for mRNA therapeutics in autoimmune and cancer diseases.

“I read that CNN reported that U.S. scientists suggested extrapolating mRNA vaccines technology of COVID-19 for use in auto-immune diseases and cancers,” said Prof. David Naor, the immunologist in question.

“I realized that I had already done this more than 10 years ago, performing research that showed the potential for mRNA vaccines to combat autoimmune diseases and cancers. Practically, we used cDNA vaccines, which were the first generation of mRNA vaccines, and they were efficient in the therapy of animal models of autoimmune diseases and cancer.

“We published our findings in scientific literature,” he explained. “We wanted to encourage mRNA vaccinations [we called it then “gene vaccination”] — and the technology used to make them — to be used against infections and other diseases.” “I used a technique of mRNA-like vaccines to test them against animal models of autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis as well as breast cancer. We experimented on mice — because it is easy to recapitulate the pathologies in these rodents by simple manipulations. Naor said that the technology showed that mRNA vaccines were able to ameliorate or even nearly cure the diseases under investigation.
Israeli medtech firm testing new AI-based device for early detection of blood cancer
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem wants to improve its blood testing speed and capabilities in order to faster diagnose blood cancer and other infections, and has signed a research collaboration agreement with Sight Diagnostics, a company specializing in the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-based devices for blood count.

Research will focus on developing the capability to detect and classify white blood cells, and specifically, to differentiate between different types of lymphocytes. Detecting malignant lymphocytes in the blood can aid in the early detection of the types of cancer that affect blood. This is a highly complex and often lengthy task using existing technology.

The research will be conducted using Sight Diagnostics' flagship device, Sight OLO, which performs a blood test in a matter of minutes using just two drops of blood.

Sight's Research and Development Team will analyze the images of the blood cells collected during the study and employ AI-based algorithms to cross-reference the visual information with clinical data from Shaare Zedek.

The company believes that the results of the research will lay the foundation for innovative diagnostic capabilities for different types of lymphocytes, and that these diagnostics could eventually help detect and monitor infections, as well as uncover malignant cells at an earlier stage than is possible at present.

Shaare Zedek and Sight Diagnostics began cooperating two years ago after the medical center inaugurated an innovation center that focuses on working with digital healthcare companies. The innovation center provides access to a database of samples and data collected at the hospital. A previous collaboration between Shaare Zedek and Sight Diagnostics focused on early detection of the coronavirus.
SentinelOne completes NYSE IPO at $9 billion valuation
The Israeli cybersecurity company again upped its value and raised $1.2 billion on Wall Street.

Israeli cybersecurity company SentinelOne has completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), raising $1.2 billion at a company valuation of $8.9 billion.

The company sold 35 million Class A shares at $35 per share, having announced on Monday that it would sell 32 million shares priced between $31 and $32 per share. If the underwriters exercise their options to buy 5,250,000 class-A shares at the IPO price within 30 days then SentinelOne's valuation could climb to $11.5 billion. The company will begin trading on Wall street today with the S ticker.

In addition to the shares sold in the public offering, SentinelOne announced the concurrent sale of 1,428,568 shares of its Class A common stock to certain of its existing stockholders, at a price per share equal to the initial public offering price, in a private placement.

SentinelOne was founded in 2013 in Israel by CEO Tomer Weingarten and Almog Cohen, who no longer has an active role in the company. The company has its headquarters in Mountain View, California and its development center in Tel Aviv. SentinelOne has developed an AI-based platform to protect end-points including laptops, desktop computers, servers and cloud servers as well as other web-connected devices.

According to IVC, the company has raised $797 million to date in eight financing rounds, the last of which were completed over the past year at a company valuation of $3.26 billion.  
How a staunch rightist gave her kidney to a Gaza boy — simply to do a good deed
When Idit Harel Segal, a 50-year-old married mother of three, told her loved ones she was planning to donate one of her kidneys simply to do a good deed, they were aghast.

And that was before the staunchly right-wing family found out that the recipient would be a Palestinian from Gaza.

“I wanted to do something big — and what is bigger than saving a life,” Segal told Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site. She said she was inspired by her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who always taught her to live a meaningful life.

Said Segal, a resident of the northern village of Eshhar: “I read stories about people who donated kidneys and was disappointed to see they were almost only men. I told myself, I’m a strong woman, and I’m going to do it. Something inside me felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Her husband, Yuval, was baffled by the decision to risk her health, and possibly her life, for someone she didn’t know.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she quoted him as saying. ” How are you doing this to yourself? You are young, this isn’t a joke, and what if one of your children needs a kidney?”

While Yuval didn’t question her right to make decisions regarding her body, he repeatedly begged her not to follow through, she said.
Dr. Miriam Adelson donates 150 ambucycles to United Hatzalah in Jerusalem
Israeli-American philanthropist Miriam Adelson spurred the creation of United Hatzalah’s Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Ambucycle Unit, donating 150 vehicles to the new squad.

Emceed by Channel 12’s Ofer Hadad, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion was also present at the event on Tuesday in Jerusalem’s Safra Square. Married to American business magnate Sheldon Adelson, who passed away in January, she has had an illustrious career as a physician in Israel and the US.

Adelson’s own connection to United Hatzalah began when she helped save the life of its president and founder, Eli Beer, who was deathly ill at the start of 2020 in Miami with COVID-19.

The event’s organizers arranged the 150 ambucycles in the form of a menorah all across Safra Square. Each United Hatzalah volunteer personally thanked Adelson for her generosity before venturing off in the convoy across the Old City.

While the ambucycles will be used across the country, a specific focus will be made toward the Negev, Galilee, Judea and Samaria. “This will significantly increase the effectiveness of emergency medical response in Israel,” Beer said.







When Your Antisemitic Neighbor is Hiding in Plain Sight (Judean Rose)

PA minister: Zionist myths about the Holocaust brought Jews to Palestine

We reported yesterday that Mahmoud Abbas sponsored a supposedly "scientific" conference aimed at coming up with ways to combat the facts of Jewish history by promoting academic papers that supposedly refute it.

The conference at Open Al Quds University concluded today, featuring a speech by PA's minister  of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mahmoud Abu Mowais, where he said "we need the papers of this conference and a committee emanating from this conference to help us achieve the strategy of higher education and scientific research and the practical steps taken by the ministry in this field. Universities have a key role in analyzing and refuting the [Israeli] narrative, and we focused on three religious axes and legends made them claim that Palestine is their land. "

"The Zionist narrative of the Holocaust brought them thousands of immigrants, while the current criminal holocaust of the Israelis against the Palestinians must be confronted," he said.

Besides the antisemitism of comparing the Palestinian issue with the Holocaust, note that he didn't say that the Holocaust itself brought Jews to Palestine - it was the "Zionist narrative of the Holocaust." 

Somehow the Zionists convinced the Jews in Europe that their relatives were slaughtered. 

Mowais added that "all the decisions and curricula of the occupation are focused on the fact that the Jew is the zenith of civilization, that the Arabs are a primitive people, and that the Palestinian does not exist on Earth. We have developed a plan of action to combat these allegations by relying on universities as centers of scientific and intellectual production based on learning, and focusing on archaeological research to refute the narrative. And to encourage students to communicate our story to the world, and to bring students from European countries to Palestinian universities to see the situation as it is."

These are the people who claim tat Israel plants fake artifacts all over the land to pretend that there was Jewish history there and that there is no evidence of Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. They are the ones who want to create university courses to teach Europeans their version of history. 

Chances are, this strategy will work. What student will question what a professor tells them, especially when they passionately explain that all of Jewish history is a lie made up by the hated Zionists?




06/30 Links Pt1: Nikki Haley: A Better Blueprint for International Organizations; The NYTs Relies on Amnesty and HRW Sources in Misleading Gaza Video; When will Mahmoud Abbas step down?

From Ian:

Amb. Nikki R. Haley and Richard Goldberg: A Better Blueprint for International Organizations
The United States must call out China’s attempts to co-opt the United Nations and its agencies. We should rally other countries to oppose China’s influence. As ambassador, I lost track of how many countries expressed their fear of China’s bullying. They are counting on us to have their backs – and to push back, hard.

The WHO’s struggles illustrate another sad reality: Many UN agencies are broken. The United States should try to fix them where possible. Yet we cannot fall into the trap of mistaking process for progress. Some parts of the United Nations just cannot be salvaged. Sometimes we are better off leaving them behind.

An obvious example is the UN Human Rights Council, which is a cesspool of human rights violators – from Cuba to China to Venezuela to Russia. I pressed our allies and partners to demand reforms, but they were content with the status quo. So I led the effort to withdraw the United States from the council. We care too much about human rights and individual freedom to be part of a group that undermines both. Our principles are too important to get lost in the endless and pointless process that UN bureaucrats prefer.

We also withdrew from the Human Rights Council because the United States stands with our friends. The council spent the vast majority of its time condemning Israel – a free and democratic country. It has a standing agenda item devoted to Israel. It has passed 10 times as many resolutions condemning Israel as it has for China, North Korea, Iran, and Cuba combined. Friends do not sit still while their friends get attacked, so we walked away. We stopped funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for similar reasons. That agency does more to foster hatred toward Israel than it does to support actual Palestinian refugees. So much of the United Nations has an insane fixation on Israel. In fact, when it comes to Israel, there is no clearer sign of the United Nations’ profound shortcomings.

It was my privilege to tackle those shortcomings as ambassador. We made headway in many areas. But I have no illusions that we can solve all the United Nations’ problems. We should make progress where we can, walk away when we cannot, and hold the line when we must.
Amb. Dore Gold: Prime Minister Bennett Should Nail Down Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights with President Biden
Israel captured the Golan Heights in 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War. According to UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel was expected to withdraw from territories – but not all the territories – so that at the end of the day it would be left with “secure and recognized boundaries.” The most important U.S. statement on policy with respect to the Golan Heights was contained in the 1975 letter from President Gerald Ford to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin which stated that “the U.S. has not developed a final position on the borders. Should it do so, it will give great weight to Israel’s position that any peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights.”

What made the Ford letter so significant was that it provided the basis for the formulation of U.S. policy by subsequent administrations. Thus, right before the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, Secretary of State James Baker wrote a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, stating: “You expressed a special concern about the Golan Heights. In this context, the United States continues to stand behind the assurance given by President Ford to Prime Minister Rabin on September 1, 1975.” A second American letter reconfirming the Ford letter was written in 1996 by Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well. American assurances on the Golan Heights were bipartisan and in many respects set the stage for finally recognizing Israeli sovereignty on March 25, 2019.

The new U.S. approach to the Golan Heights was not formally locked in by means of a bilateral treaty. Thus, theoretically, the Biden administration would be within its legal right to modify this policy. These kinds of changes unfortunately happen. For example, Israel received a letter from President George W. Bush in 2004 recognizing Israel’s right to “defensible borders.” The letter was even backed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Nonetheless, the Obama administration disavowed the Bush letter. President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have not renounced Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, but they haven’t accepted it either.

Clearly, further diplomacy is required between Jerusalem and Washington. Perhaps the issue can be settled before the first summit meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Bennett. Remember, Iran is seeking to encircle Israel with its Shiite militias, in Lebanon, in new bases within Syria, and eventually in Jordan. If U.S. policy over the Golan Heights is interpreted as changing, that might even invite a conflict that neither the U.S. nor Israel is seeking.
“Palestinians” Don’t Exist – but when they do, it’s to annihilate Israel.
First and foremost, Jews and Israelis must stop caring about world opinions. The fact that Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East, where people of every religion and creed thrive, is inconsequential to a world who views us as “occupiers”. We appear to be so for two simple reasons; The refusal of some to apply sovereignty and to destroy the “Palestinian” myth. That is the core of the issue.

Jews have absolute legal rights to rebuild and settle in Israel, according to the 1922 Mandate for Palestine: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country”. According to attorney Howard Grief, international law advisor and legal expert on Jewish rights to Israel, “the UN did not have the legal authority to partition the country in favour of the Arabs of Palestine who were not the national beneficiary of the Mandate entitled to self-determination”.

Furthermore, “Article 80 of the UN Charter [the Jewish People’s clause] preserves intact all the rights granted to Jews under the Mandate for Palestine… The UN is still committed by Article 80 to uphold [the Mandate and] not alter it”. Jewish settlement is fully protected by Article 80, and the UN has no power to give Jewish territory to any entity to create a state. Those who claim “annexation” may be a hurdle do not realise that one cannot annex one’s own land. We have full rights to sovereignty and must apply it, with many options to do so.

I posit, however, that it is not enough. There still remains the giant, KGB circus elephant in the room, the “Palestinian” hoax. Should we continue to use the false designation, the lie will perpetuate; We will still be viewed as the “occupiers” and any means used against us, no matter how violent, will be pronounced appropriate. The argument I often hear from Jews and Israelis is that “Palestinians” have a right to call themselves by that title because they “identify” as such.

By this logic, I, a non-indigenous American, can “identify” myself as a Native American and demand the tiny reservation they own. If they don’t hock it over, I can create the Native American Liberation Front and then barrage them with missiles while the UN backs my cause.

There is no imaginable reason to allow the appropriation of our historical title to continue. Such a belligerent level of cultural theft has not existed since the Germans fancied themselves “Aryans”, yet the Allied forces were not calling the Nazis by their chosen identity so as to avoid hurt feelings.

Each time we use the term “Palestinian”, we assist in legitimising the false narrative, and then battle the ensuing propaganda and terrorism that are a consequence of the hoax. It’s the story of Frankenstein’s monster. Give the monster life, then fight it off, in a continual cycle. Many Jews hold the same view of the situation, but we have yet to take action. It’s time to stop the Nazi protégé, made in the USSR, Iran-funded terror group once and for all. Negotiations with terrorists and land-for-peace must end, their leadership must be dissolved, and Jews and our allies must immediately rename “Palestinians” to “Arab migrants to Israel”, or any suitable, accurate title, and only address them as such from henceforth.

To achieve lasting peace for Jews and all Israelis, it can only come with G-d’s help and with our effort to return to truth and strength.


IDF: We believe there are still survivors in the Surfside Collapse
Describing the collapse as “very complicated,” Edri said that “usually when a building collapses, like during an earthquake, it doesn’t usually collapse onto itself. Sometimes they fall backwards like during the Mexican earthquake. Because this building collapsed onto itself... it just fell floor onto floor onto floor and inside there are people.”

In Miami, the troops also spoke with the families of the missing in order to understand where in their apartments they could have been when the building collapsed. Family members were also asked to describe what the missing could be wearing, what color hair they have and if they had any tattoos.

In one apartment, Edri said, he was told of a family with two daughters that were missing.

“They told me the father slept in the living room because he used to fall asleep next to the tv. The mother would be sleeping in the master bedroom with one daughter while another daughter slept in her room,” he said.

According to Edri the hundreds of rescuers at the sites know where apartments used to be and where exactly to look thanks to the 3D modeling that was done by IDF troops, even if they ran in an attempt to escape when the collapse happened.

“You need to know where to look,” he said, adding that now the Americans know exactly where apartments used to be and where exactly to look for those who may have been inside.

The families are updated twice a day about the rescue operation and as the days pass with no survivors being pulled from the rubble, the families of the missing are not giving up hope that the rescue workers will find their loved ones.

“Families went to see the site two days ago and they had a really hard experience,” Edri said. “What the families are going through is hell, nothing less than that.”
Avi Abelow: The Progressives in Israel Have Taken Over and Its Impact on Fighting Growing Global Jew-Hatred
This is my first talk with Caroline Glick since our new reality with progressives in charge of the United States government and the Israeli government.

In this episode of the Caroline Glick and Avi Abelow show, we discuss the new Israeli government's decision to open a front against Poland while seeking to appease the Democrats and what it means for the fight against anti-Semitism and for Israel's diplomatic interests.

For those interested in the audio version or in listening to our long-form interviews at a quicker speed, then best to use one of the podcast services:


How the Biden administration funds Palestinian terrorists
When challenged at a Congressional hearing on June 8 about the renewal of funding for UNRWA despite its Jew-hatred, Blinken said that the administration is "determined that UNRWA pursue very necessary reforms in terms of some of the abuses of the system that have taken place in the past."

As President Biden would say – Come on, man. Secretaries of state and other political figures have been saying for decades that they were going to "reform" UNRWA. It never happened. It won't happen now, either. The pro-Palestinian wing of the Democratic party will make sure that the money flows to Gaza, come hell or high water. And the New York Times will facilitate it with more feature stories about how poor children in Gaza desperately need the taxpayer dollars of Americans.

The second way that the Biden administration is underwriting the training of Palestinian terrorists is through the fungibility of funds. In other words, the part of the $188.5 million Palestinian Arab "humanitarian aid" package that will go to Gaza will free Hamas from having to spend that money from its own coffers.

While Biden administration spokesmen can say that the money is being used to build hospitals and apartment buildings that were damaged in the recent retaliatory raids, the reality is that if the US was not sending those funds, Hamas would have to pay for those expenses.

The newly freed-up funds are then used by Hamas to pay for the militant summer camps that train young terrorists, the schools that indoctrinate Gaza children with a love of violence, and the missiles that Hamas fires at Israeli homes.

The third way in which Biden's aid will help train future terrorists is the example that it sets. The huge US grant to the Palestinian Arabs helps legitimize such aid in the eyes of the international community.

Several European governments have in recent years begun to reduce or restrict parts of their own aid to the Palestinian Arabs because of Jew-hatred and glorification of violence in their schools. It will be harder than ever to persuade any other country to restrict aid when the US is writing check after check without any real conditions attached.

That will free the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to do whatever they want with the funds – and what they want, most of all, is to raise another generation committed to jihad and hatred of Jews.
The New York Times Relies on Amnesty and HRW Sources in Misleading Gaza Video
The New York Times continues to present anti-Israel propaganda as news. In the latest example, the paper published a 15-minute video alleging Israeli war crimes during the May conflict in Gaza. The sources called upon by the Times to back up these claims are exclusively members of NGOs known for their hostility to Israel. Not a single genuine expert on either the specifics of the incident in question or international law was used as a source in the Times’s highly misleading and biased report.

One incident from the May 2021 Gaza conflict—one that is sure to factor in UN Human Rights Council and International Criminal Court investigations against Israel—is a May 16 strike that killed 44 people when apartment buildings collapsed in an upscale neighborhood in Gaza. The IDF did not target the buildings. According to The New York Times (NYT), “several Israeli aircraft fired 11 missiles along a 200-yard stretch of Al Wahda Street, aiming to destroy a tunnel and command center beneath it…. But while most of the adjacent buildings remained standing, the Abul Ouf Building collapsed in what the official described as ‘a freak event.’ …When the bombs exploded deep underground, they unexpectedly dislodged the Abul Ouf Building’s foundations.”

This incident was at the center of a major NYT article (“Dreams in the Rubble: An Israeli Airstrike and the 22 Lives Lost,” June 17) and 15-minute video (“Gaza’s Deadly Night: How Israeli Airstrikes Killed 44 People,” June 24). While both feature emotive accounts that emphasize the human tragedy, they also pointedly repeat allegations that the Israeli strikes were in violation of international law: “In a conflict in which both sides are accused of war crimes, the air raid on Al Wahda Street that night stands out for its shocking civilian death toll and for nearly decimating entire families.”

The video, in particular, asserts at the beginning that “The Times has uncovered new details” that seem to undermine Israeli claims about the strike (“The Israeli military has said that these strikes were carefully targeted. But our investigation will show how Israel dropped some of the heaviest bombs in its arsenal without warning on a densely packed neighborhood and with limited intelligence about what they were attacking”.

However, the discussion of the legality of the attacks is based entirely on unreliable NGO officials who are not experts in the laws of armed conflict and who had no access to any of the relevant targeting information. In fact, the two leading producers of the video were formerly employed by these same political NGOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW). These conflicts of interest were not disclosed. While the Times journalists could have consulted with dozens of actual legal and military experts, they instead turned to their NGO colleagues. The basis, extent, and funding of the Times-NGO collaboration is unknown and was not disclosed to readers.

Moreover, a careful “reading” of the video shows that the Times investigation is consistent with Israeli army statements regarding the incident and the unanticipated collapse of the building and does not, in fact, support assertions of illegality. (Others have effectively shown how the video is “one-sided” and “ultimately delivers not much.”)
Numerous MPs appear to excuse antisemitism in Palestinian Authority textbooks in Parliamentary debate
Numerous MPs from across parties appeared to excuse antisemitism in Palestinian Authority textbooks in a debate in Parliament today.

The debate focused on a recent “EU Review into Palestinian school textbooks”, which revealed that Palestinian Authority textbooks are rife with antisemitism. As Caroline Ansell MP put it, opening the debate, “The EU report clearly identifies evidence of anti-Jewish racism within the curriculum.”

Nevertheless, despite the evidence of incitement to murder Jews and glorification of terrorism against Jews in those textbooks, several MPs in the debate obscenely appeared to claim, without foundation, that Israeli textbooks might exhibit similar incitement, or that Israel was somehow to blame for the incitement in Palestinian Authority textbooks, or that the incitement did not really matter.

Labour Party MP Julie Elliott made the case for moral equivalence, insisting that “There is no doubt that there is room for improvement, but there is also room for improvement in Israeli schools. That is the nub of the problem.”

Her colleague Andy Slaughter blamed the Jewish state for anti-Jewish racism in the textbooks, conceding that there are “regrettable passages” in the textbooks but proceedings to say: “Above all, there is an inequality of arms. What the Israelis have been able to do to the Palestinians over 53 years of military occupation, with 650,000 Israelis in illegal settlements, and many other things during this crisis, needs to be addressed. That is the real root of the problem that has to be dealt with.”

The SNP’s Brendan O’Hara made a similar argument: “Perhaps we would pay greater heed to the howls of protest from the Benches opposite about the content of Palestinian children’s schoolbooks if they were equally vociferous in calling out the outrageous human rights abuses that those same Palestinian schoolchildren face every single day of their young lives.”


Israel Seeks to Extend New Gulf Ties to All Middle East, Says Lapid
Israel’s foreign minister said on Wednesday his visit to the United Arab Emirates was just the start of a road to peace with other Middle East countries, signaling an offer of friendship with Arab states still wary of normalizing ties.

Yair Lapid, the first Israeli cabinet minister to visit the Gulf state since the countries forged ties last year, also reiterated Israel’s concern about the Iran nuclear deal being negotiated in Vienna.

The trip comes amid unease in Israel and Arab capitals about US efforts to re-enter a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers, which then President Donald Trump quit in 2018 in a move backed by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies.

“This visit isn’t the end of the road to peace, it is just the beginning,” he told reporters. “Our hand is outstretched … I hope this visit is the first of many and that together with our new friends we continue to make history in the entire region.”

The UAE and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel under so-called “Abraham Accords” brokered by Trump’s administration, creating a new regional dynamic based on mutual concern over Iran and Islamist groups. Sudan and Morocco followed suit.

The agreements in effect challenged a decades-old allegiance to the Palestinian issue as a major driver of Arab policy.

Lapid declined to comment on whether Israel was coordinating with Gulf states over Iran, saying he did not want to “embarrass” his hosts by remarking on a neighbor while in the UAE, but noted his country was worried about the nuclear deal.


Israel digs in heels on Gaza, demands captives' release
In three high-level meetings this week, Israel has insisted on linking the rehabilitation of Gaza with the return by Hamas of the remains of two soldiers and the release of two captives.

President Reuven Rivlin raised the matter with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday in New York and with US President Joe Biden on Monday in Washington.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett raised the matter during his first phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi since taking office earlier this month.

Egypt and the United Nations are attempting to broker a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The UN is the primary institution tasked with organizing humanitarian aid to Gaza, and it is also working on a mechanism to allow for aid to be sent to Gaza that would prevent Hamas from diverting material and funds to constructing weapons.

“We are interested in continuing to work with the UN to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, with whom we have no conflict,” Rivlin told Guterres.

“However, any agreement should include steps to return our soldiers and citizens, who are held by Hamas, a terrorist organization,” he added. At issue are the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul, presumed to have been killed during the 2014 Gaza war, and the fate of two Israeli citizens, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015, respectively.


Israel’s Interior Minister Signs Off on Revocation of Hamas Terrorist’s Citizenship
Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked signed off Tuesday on the denaturalization of Ashraf Hassan, a member of Hamas.

Shaked based her decision on information she received from military officials, who told her Hassan had orchestrated an attack on an Israeli soldier and taken advantage of his Israeli citizenship to move around the country freely in pursuit of his plans.

In 2004, Hassan was convicted for plotting to kidnap and kill an Israeli soldier and was sentenced to nine years in prison. He maintained his ties with Hamas after his release. He left Israel in 2016 and has not returned since. The Interior Ministry said it was proceeding with Hassan’s denaturalization with urgency as “a matter of national security” and in an effort to deter others who might be planning to commit terrorist actions against Israel.

Shaked also approved the revocation of the permanent residency status of Salah Hamouri, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Hamouri was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to seven years in prison for plotting to murder a prominent Israeli rabbi. He was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap. After his release, he continued his terrorist activities.

“Salah Hamouri’s actions are a serious violation of the basic core commitment of an Israeli citizen, and due to this breach of trust, the revoking of his citizenship is legally justified,” Shaked explained.


When will Mahmoud Abbas step down?
The sun has set on the dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas, and it is now just a matter of time until he leaves the scene.

Initially elected as Palestinian Authority president in 2005, Abbas is now in his sixteenth year of what, according to PA law, was meant to be a four-year term. Since his election, Abbas has rejected or quashed any attempt to hold new elections. In January this year, under pressure from the United States and European Union, Abbas announced that the PA would hold its first general elections since 2006. The general elections were to be followed by presidential elections.

Abbas did not want to hold elections, because he knew that his Fatah faction would lose to rival Hamas—an internationally designated terror organization. After four months of maintaining the pretense that the elections would actually happen, Abbas expectedly cancelled them, much to the despair of Palestinian voters.

A recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that “two thirds of the [Palestinian] public believe that Abbas postponed the elections because he was worried about the results.” Only 25 percent of those surveyed believed Abbas’s excuse that he cancelled the elections due to the alleged Israeli refusal to allow the elections to take place in Jerusalem.

Responding to Abbas’s decision, and in an attempt to bolster its popularity, Hamas attacked Israel, firing over 4,300 missiles indiscriminately targeting Israel’s civilian population. Hamas’s violent response led to a sharp decline in popular support for the already beleaguered Abbas.

Following the Hamas aggression, the PCPSR poll found that if elections for the position of PA chairman were held now, between Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Abbas would receive 27 percent and Haniyeh 59 percent of the votes, this compared to 46 percent for Haniyeh and 47 percent for Abbas three months ago.
Jordan's king meets with Abbas, reiterates support for two-state solution
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday made a surprise visit to Amman, where he met with Jordan’s King Abdullah. The visit is to be seen in the context of coordination between the PA and Jordan ahead of Abdullah’s planned trip to the US on July 19. The PA and Jordan have expressed support for resuming the Middle East peace process on the basis of a two-state solution.

Abbas’s visit to Amman came as a committee, formed to investigate the death of Palestinian anti-corruption activist Nizar Banat, presented its findings to PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

The death of Banat, allegedly beaten to death by PA security officers who came to arrest him last week in Hebron, triggered widespread protests in a number of Palestinian cities, where demonstrators chanted slogans against Abbas.

The PA’s official news agency Wafa said that Abbas had a “private meeting” with the Jordanian monarch. “They discussed the latest political developments in the Palestinian arena, bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern,” the agency said. “President Abbas affirmed ongoing coordination with Jordan on the interest of the Arab nation and its common causes, primarily the Palestinian cause.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinian Police State
These [Palestinian] leaders have turned the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank into a police state where political opponents are beaten to death, arrested, tortured and intimidated.

The crackdown was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the West -- until the death of Banat. It was ignored because the perpetrators were not Israeli policemen or soldiers. It was ignored because the media could not find a way to blame Israel for the fact that the Palestinian government was harassing, intimidating and torturing Palestinians.

The silence of the international community and media towards the human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority has prompted Palestinian journalists to make a direct appeal to the European Union to provide them with protection.

The protests... are mainly directed at the Biden administration, whose representatives have recently been courting and searching for ways to cozy up to Abbas and his Fatah cohorts. The message Palestinians are sending to the Biden administration: Stop empowering our brutal, corrupt leaders.

Will the Biden administration and the Western world actually legitimize -- and reward with millions of dollars and possibly even a state – political leaders who brutalize, torture and murder their own journalists and citizens? To gain what? A legacy of America championing a regime like that?
PA said to ask Israel to allow in riot gear amid protests over activist’s death
The Palestinian Authority has asked Israel for permission to obtain additional riot equipment in anticipation of an uptick in protests over the death of prominent opposition figure Nizar Banat while he was in the custody of PA security forces, the Ynet news site reported on Tuesday night.

PA security forces arrested Banat, who was known for his scathing social media presence criticizing the Palestinian leadership, in a raid early on Thursday morning in Hebron. According to his family, Banat was “viciously beaten” by PA officers before they dragged him away.

Banat’s death sparked protests in Hebron and Ramallah over the weekend, with thousands calling for a end to the rule of octogenarian PA President Mahmoud Abbas. PA security forces cracked down on the Ramallah demonstrations, firing tear gas and arresting protesters.

Human rights groups have alleged that PA officers in civilian clothes deliberately targeted journalists to ensure that footage of the crackdowns did not reach the press.

While the PA has a stock of riot dispersal materiel, those reserves have been somewhat depleted in recent days, leading it to ask Israel to approve further shipments, the Ynet news site reported.

The report did not clarify where the equipment could come from.
PMW: Official PA TV praises terrorist murderers who were residents of Jerusalem
In a continuing effort to encourage Arab residents of Jerusalem to carry out terrorist acts, official Palestinian television chose to praise three murderous terrorists who lived in the Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Based on the narrative of victimization and distorted reality, PA TV praised the terrorists as those who "refused to submit to the occupation.”

"Since the occupation of [Jerusalem], the residents of the village [Jabel Mukaber] (i.e., neighborhood of Jerusalem) have not stopped their resistance for one day against the arbitrary acts of the occupation that are manifested in the theft of their lands, the arrest of their children, and the destruction of their homes. The village [Jabel Mukaber] gave Martyrs for the sake of Jerusalem like Martyr Fadi Al-Qunbar, Baha Alyan, Alaa Abu Jamal, and many others who refused to submit to the occupation that is making their lives bitter, and to its blockade on the village of Jabel Mukaber.”

[Official PA TV News, June 26, 2021]

While in practice, the actions attributed to Israel - arrests, demolition of houses and the imposition of closure - were taken only in response to terrorist acts committed by residents of the neighborhood, according to the PA narrative all the arrests, house demolitions and closures were entirely arbitrary and lacked any cause, justification or background.


MEMRI: Houthi Indoctrination Of Children: Chanting 'Death To America, Israel' Gives Life To The People They Kill, Corrupt; 9/11 Was Staged By The U.S., Jews As Pretext For Occupying Arab Countries
In a series of shows that aired on Al-Eman TV (Houthis-Yemen), Houthi scholars indoctrinated children against the U.S., Jews, Israel, and the leaders of the Gulf states. In a show that aired on June 12, 2021, Houthi Islamic scholar Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami said that the "scam" of 9/11 was a "theatrical show produced by the Jews and the Americans." He said that the Americans decided to kill "a group of their own people" in order to create a pretext to occupy and destroy Arab and Islamic countries. Dr. Al-Shami said that chanting "Death to America" means life for all those people "that America is killing." He added that "Death to Israel" means life to all the people, "in whose killing and corruption Israel is taking part." In a show that aired on June 14, 2021, Houthi Islamic scholar Dr. Khaled Mousa said that Muslim leaders should not follow the example of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince, who leads his people "to taverns" and Mohamed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, who leads his people "to nightclubs." Rather, he said, they should lead their people to the liberation of "occupied lands such as Palestine and others." The children concluded their lesson by chanting: "Allah Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse be upon the Jews! Victory to Islam!"

Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami: "The Scam Of 9/11 Was A Theatrical Show Produced By The Jews And The Americans" As A "Pretext" For The "Occupation Of All The Arab And Islamic Nations"

Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami: "The scam of 9/11 was a theatrical show produced by the Jews and the Americans. They killed a group of their own people so that they could have a pretext. They would be able to say: Since you Muslims killed our people, we will take revenge and occupy you. In order to orchestrate this, they molded public opinion into believing that 'you killed us and this justified our occupation of all the Arab and Islamic nations, and destroying their infrastructure and resources.' All of this is done under the pretext of fighting terrorism, which 'emerged from your midst of Muslims and Arabs.'

"In order for us to understand the crimes of the Americans... They invaded and occupied Vietnam, killed two million Vietnamese, and raped tens of thousands of Vietnamese women. They wounded 3 million Vietnamese. In Japan, they dropped two nuclear bombs on two cities. They did not drop them on military targets or in the desert, but on two populated cities. Within moments, 70,000 Japanese died in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When they invaded Iraq, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, two million Iraqis were killed – men, women, and children. In addition, they raped thousands of women, children, and even men.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami: "When We Say 'Death To America,' It Means Life For All The Nations That America Is Killing"

"When we say 'Death to America,' it means life for all the nations that America is killing. When we say 'Death to Israel,' it means life for all the people, around the world, in whose killing and corruption Israel is taking part. "


Reeling From Gaza War and Lebanon Crisis, Hamas and Hezbollah Chiefs Meet in Beirut
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and head of Hamas’ political bureau Ismail Haniyeh met in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss repercussions of last month’s hostilities in Gaza, in what one Israeli analyst called a sign of the two groups’ current “weakness and distress.”

At the meeting, the two leaders stressed “the depth of the existing relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas and its key position in this blessed axis and in this decisive battle,” according to Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu, which cited a statement from the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Haniyeh and Nasrallah discussed how they can build on the experience of the latest 11-day round of Israel-Hamas clashes in May and how they can further deploy and organize the capabilities of their groups for their activities against Israel.

According to Orna Mizrahi, senior research fellow at the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the Beirut meeting comes at a time when both Hezbollah and Hamas suffer from severe internal distress: the former because of the complete collapse of the Lebanese state; and the latter due to the aftermath of the fighting with Israel in Gaza in May.

“This meeting can be seen as another expression of the growing cooperation between Hamas and the Shiite axis led by Iran that risks Israel, but in my opinion this meeting actually expresses the weakness and distress of the two, who need the resulting moral encouragement of each other,” Mizrahi told The Algemeiner.
US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Press Lebanon to Disarm Hezbollah
A bipartisan bill aimed at pressuring the government of Lebanon to disarm paramilitary groups such as the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization within its borders was introduced in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The bill, called the “Strategic Lebanon Security Reporting Act,” requires the State Department to put together a strategy to help Lebanon implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarming of armed groups along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Resolution 1701 was agreed on after the 2006 Lebanon War.

The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

“Having been to the Israeli-Lebanese border, I’ve seen the rockets aimed at Israel and I understand the importance of curbing Hezbollah’s presence and impact in Lebanon,” Luria said in a news release.

“Hezbollah will not stop their pursuit of destroying Israel. I introduced this bill to strengthen the international effort to prevent Hezbollah and other terrorist paramilitary groups within Lebanon’s borders from freely amassing arms and posing significant security risks to our closest Middle East allies.”

The bill encouraged cooperation between Lebanon and international peacekeeping missions on the border, and utilized US-Lebanon diplomatic engagement to prevent the building of cross-border tunnels into Israel and weapons factories inside Lebanon.


The "Iran Deal" Soon to Be Resuscitated
Raisi's election, "engineered to guarantee his victory," looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran's demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than the one with whom they are negotiating at present.

The JCPOA is allegedly designed to prevent, or at least postpone, Iran's drive for a nuclear weapons capability along with the means to deliver them. Among the deal's many major drawbacks is that after it expires, Iran can enrich as much uranium to have as many nuclear weapons -- and the means to deliver them -- as it likes.

Despite signs that the P5+1 negotiating team will subscribe to a re-constituted JCPOA "understanding," there seems to exist no trust that the Islamic Republic will comply with any agreement. The IAEA's catalogue of doubts regarding Iran's compliance with any nuclear safeguards is lengthy.

Based on Iran's pattern of obstructionism, the impending renewal of the JCPOA does not inspire confidence that the Islamic Republic -- even if it verbally agrees, or this time signs a document -- will ever be in compliance.

It is also sadly assumed, based on past patterns, that the US, in its eagerness to secure a deal -- any deal -- will back down when faced with any Iranian demand.
UN chief urges US to remove Iran sanctions as agreed in 2015
In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to "extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects."

The 15-member council on Tuesday was to discuss the secretary-general's biannual report on the implementation of a 2015 resolution that enshrined the nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China.

Guterres' appeal to Washington comes amid talks to revive the deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear program in return for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it.

Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, prompting Tehran to start violating some of the nuclear limits in 2019. Among its numerous flaws, the nuclear deal fails to address Iran's ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, which Tehran has said it will not negotiate with foreign powers, nor does it address Iran's ongoing support and financing of regional terrorist organizations, chief among them Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"I appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan," said Guterres, who also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the deal.

Iran has refined uranium up to a purity of roughly 60%, far above the deal's limit of 3.67% and much closer to the 90% suitable for atom bomb cores, though it maintains it could quickly reverse its moves if Washington rescinded sanctions and returned to the 2015 deal.

Guterres said: "I continue to believe that a full restoration of the [JCPOA] remains the best way to ensure that the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains exclusively peaceful."
Former Iranian Intelligence Minister: ‘Mossad Has Penetrated the Regime’
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has infiltrated Iran’s leadership, and many senior officials in the Islamic Republic are compromised, a former Iranian intelligence minister said on Tuesday.

“The leaders of the country don’t show any interest in what’s best for the public and their lives, and the Mossad has succeeded, with enticements of influence and money, to penetrate the regime’s security bodies,” Ali Younesi said in an interview with the reformist Jamaran news website.

“Now the regime is busy persecuting people who are loyal to the country, particularly from the reformist camp, instead of detecting and detaining the infiltrators working on behalf of Israel. The regime established many intelligence agencies with overlapping tasks, for the purpose of weakening the intelligence ministry,” he said. Younesi served under former reformist president Mohammad Khatami from December 2000 to August 2005, and was an adviser to former president Hassan Rouhani.

“Spy agencies can easily penetrate radical groups and organizations, because in these groups only radicalism matters,” Younesi continued. “Spy agencies pick the right radicals from among their own ranks or elsewhere and have them infiltrate other intelligence agencies. The more radical they are, the quicker they get promoted and reach the top echelon of the intelligence agencies.”

Claiming all Israeli infiltration took place after he left the intelligence ministry in 2005, Younesi suggested Iran should remove sycophants and radicals, who he claimed were the most likely to be lured by foreign intelligence agencies.







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