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Monday, February 7, 2022

02/07 Links Pt1: ‘Apartheid’ accusation against Israel puts NGOs on road to irrelevance; Amnesty's map that lies; Israeli-Palestinian confederation plan to be presented to UN, US by Beilin

From Ian:

Amnesty International's Moral Turpitude
Six years before British-Indian author Salman Rushdie had a $6,000,000 bounty on his head as a result of a fatwa (Islamic decree) for his “blasphemous” 1988 book, The Satanic Verses, he stated in 2010 that the NGO Amnesty International was in a state of “moral bankruptcy.”

He was referring to the organization’s blatant surrender to the regimes and gangs practicing violent Islamism, as well as to its anti-Western, anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment. He could say the same today, in light of the report that it released on Tuesday.

The 211-page report, issued by Amnesty’s U.K. branch, is an indictment of the Jewish state. It’s a document that deems Israel’s existence, not merely its policies, as an illegitimate, colonialist and racist entity.

Indeed, for Amnesty, the Jewish state wasn’t based on the self-determination of a population returning to its ancestral homeland—necessary for the Jewish people’s very survival—nor even for defending itself, tooth and nail, against a bloody stream of terror perpetrated by armed movements seeking its destruction.

Indeed, the document is a disgrace to an organization with a record of battling on behalf of communist dissidents or apartheid—the real one, in South Africa. Along with its systematic failure to denounce human-rights abuses in Syria, Iran and Turkey, and repeated calls to take action against the United States and Europe, the report demonstrates that the NGO has been overtaken by politics.

It exposes Amnesty’s ideological approach that confuses the attacked with the aggressor; justifies Hamas terrorism; criminalizes countries concerned with an influx of potentially dangerous immigrants; and extols a sea of hatred against the Jewish state.
Amnesty’s delegitimization efforts have and will continue to backfire - opinion
If prominent international organizations like Amnesty International and others engage in such demonization, convincing other Israelis that their goal is merely to end the conflict with the Palestinians becomes a great deal harder.

Indeed, polling data from the beginning of this century demonstrates that Israeli popular support for a two-state solution was much higher before the international campaign waged by Amnesty and others got underway.

If Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and the myriad other groups and agencies which have taken part in this campaign over the last two decades truly wish to have a positive impact on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they must abandon this pernicious strategy of demonization and delegitimization.

Trying to convince Israelis of the importance of separating from the Palestinians is ill-served by falsely accusing them of being racist white supremacists.

Advocating for the destruction of Israel’s Jewish character and national identity will not persuade Israelis that the true goal of these organizations is the fulfillment of the two-state vision.

As a member of the Labor party and a long-time advocate for such a resolution, I will continue to work toward the goal of two states living alongside each other in peace.

What I ask from Amnesty and others is not to harm this objective with their extremist, manipulative and hateful propaganda.
‘Apartheid’ accusation against Israel puts NGOs on road to irrelevance
The apartheid smear against Israel is absurd, but before explaining why, it’s important to recognise how beating the apartheid drum cynically serves the political ends of the NGOs and the boycotters, like two sides of the same coin.

To a great extent, core supporters for both groups share the same ahistorical worldview: Namely that Jews are not native to Israel, but Palestinians are, making Israel in their minds a settler-colonial project and every Palestinian allegation and grievance gospel that should never be questioned.

Further, these beliefs are today strongly linked to the fashionable idea of intersectionality and the far-fetched attempt by some to apply critical race theory to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This has seen groups like Black Lives Matter join in the apartheid canard despite the fact that over half the Jews in Israel are people of colour and the story of European Jewry is one of relentless exclusion and persecution.

The fact is, we have seen extreme criticism of Israel become the primary litmus test for acceptance into progressive circles and the non-government organisations they support.

While this has been true to some extent for decades, the cost of admission has risen like inflation.

Once, it was enough to criticise Israel for the sins of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967 and settlements. Never mind that the capture of the territories was the outcome of a defensive war, and that Israel immediately offered to return land for peace and was rejected.

Never mind that under the 1993 Oslo Accords, well over 90% of Palestinians live in self-rule areas governed by the Palestinian Authority (today in Gaza, by the terror group Hamas).

Never mind that Israel offered the Palestinians statehood opportunities on the equivalent of virtually 100% of the territory after land swaps, plus the removal of isolated settlements, on at least three occasions since 2000 and has been knocked back each time by Palestinian leaders without so much as a counter-offer.

But mere criticism of Israel is passé. Today, that same “woke” groupthink demands Israel is branded with the crime of apartheid. Not just apartheid, but like an arrow with a bullseye painted around it after it lands, a unique apartheid definition has been invented by NGOs like Amnesty to conform with their distorted perception of Israeli transgressions.


Amnesty's map that lies
Amnesty International’s latest report designates Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state. To unpack again why their report is, as CAMERA demonsrated previously, irredeemably flawed, I’ll use this graphic that Amnesty posted this week to highlight three core issues that undermine the validity of their fundamental argument.
Lies – The claim that Israel keeps ‘Palestinian’ (Arab) Israelis segregated from Jewish Israelis is simply false. There are no physical or legal barriers to movement whatsoever between ‘Palestinian’ and Jewish citizens of Israel. The graphic even acknowledges that ‘Palestinians’ in Israel live in “Mixed Jewish Palestinian Cities.”

In Gaza, Jews were removed from the territory entirely in 2005, so there is no segregation, as the whole area is Jew-free. Residents of East Jerusalem enjoy freedom of movement within West Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. And in the West Bank, the territory was split and governed separately as part of the Oslo Accords, which was signed by Palestinian leaders.

More than 100,000 West Bank Palestinians a day travel across the green line to work, whilst Israeli Jews are warned that entering Palestinian areas (Area A in the West Bank) could get them killed. If Amnesty thinks that West Bank Palestinians are “segregated”, then they’re “segregated” from all Israeli citizens, not merely Jewish Israeli citizens – another distinction that erases ‘apartheid’ from the equation.

Simplification – the reason there is “fragmentation” of the Palestinian people is not because of Israeli policy, but because of numerous historical factors – many of which were initiated by Palestinians leaders. It started with the Arab war against the nascent Jewish state in 1948, when Egypt conquered Gaza and Jordan conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

To this day, the split has many factors, including the internal Palestinian politics of the Hamas-Fatah split. Blaming all things on an evil Israeli policy is part of a malign and myopic obsession with Israel, rather than an honest assessment of both history and complexities of the contemporary situation. This level of oversimplification would be considered shallow and facile in most contexts. But, in the case of Israel, ignoring all other geopolitical, social and historical factors is the hallmark of many so-called ‘human rights’ organisations.
As Amnesty Int’l Accused of Antisemitism, UN Could Use ‘Apartheid’ Report to Place Israel in Docket
On the flip side, the report was welcomed by US-designated terror groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Hamas made stark that it “views with great appreciation and respect the efforts of Amnesty International in issuing this professional report,” while the PFLP called for erasing the Jewish state from what it termed “our entire Arab Palestinian land” — that is, all the territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, widely accepted by governments worldwide, lists as an example of Jew-hatred, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

Notably, Amnesty felt compelled to warn its followers not to use the report as “justification for committing antisemitic acts of hatred and violence.”

Meanwhile, an HonestReporting review of Amnesty’s main Twitter accounts — @Amnesty, @AmnestyUSA and @AmnestyUK — seemingly lays bare the organization’s obsessive focus on Israel. Between February 1, the date of publication of its report on Israel, and February 6, Amnesty posted 132 tweets about alleged wrongdoings by Jerusalem.
The three Twitter accounts together included only 13 tweets about every other human rights issue in the world. This, as the Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing on February 4.

The US government in January 2021 concluded that the Chinese government is committing genocide against the Uighurs and other mainly Muslim peoples.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken soon thereafter agreed with the genocide designation.

Yet, Amnesty during the same six-day period we surveyed published only six tweets criticizing Beijing’s human rights record.

The NGO did not post a single tweet about Russia’s potential military invasion of Ukraine, opting to ignore warnings that such an intervention could lead to the death of 50,000 civilians, as well as cause a refugee crisis.

However, the US and other nations have not fallen for Amnesty’s lies about Israel.

It’s time for UN officials ostensibly tasked with “investigating” alleged Israeli crimes against the Palestinians to follow suit.

Otherwise, they are effectively signaling that their “probe” is nothing more than a kangaroo court that exists to render a predetermined verdict.
Israeli executive at Amnesty: Apartheid report problematic, lacks strong foundation
An Israeli executive at the Israeli branch of Amnesty International speaks out against the organization’s scathing report on the Jewish state, which deemed it an “apartheid” regime.

Tal Gur-Arye, resource development director at Amnesty, writes in a Facebook post that he is “not content with this report,” whose conclusions are “problematic, to say the least.”

“While there is undoubtfully an institutional system of discrimination against Palestinian citizens, the claim that this amounts to apartheid, does not enjoy a strong foundation in international law, academia, and civil society, yet alone the same claim made about Palestinians residing in other countries,” he says.

He says he attempted to influence the report and that his positions were heard but generally not accepted.

He adds: “My support to Amnesty International as a movement has not waivered, and I believe that the movement promotes global change in a direction that is right and just. Despite my strong disagreement with this specific report, I will continue my work in the organisation.”


Pastor Dumisani Washington and Olga Meshoe: Giving Amnesty to antisemitism
In January 1975, Bayard Rustin – a colleague of Dr. King and one of the architects of the 1963 March on Washington, wrote an article entitled, The PLO: Freedom Fighters or Terrorists. This was Rustin’s opening statement: “One of the most distressing reflections of the unhappy state of world politics is the ease with which words can be perverted, stripped of significance, and made to mean their opposite.” Rustin was referring specifically to Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat’s recent speech at the United Nations, during which he reframed his murderous intensions for Israel and the Jewish people as Palestinian “liberation” and efforts towards “peace” and a fight against “racism.”

We reflect on this relevant history as we consider Amnesty International’s latest assault against Israel in a 280-page document brimming with disinformation and antisemitic propaganda. In what can only be understood to be a churlish attempt at remaining relevant in the world of human rights, the Amnesty report omits context, distorts the reality on the ground, manipulates and misapplies international law, and fabricates the intent behind Israeli laws and policies

The libel that Israel is an apartheid state has been debunked countless times over the years. People from around the world – from politicians in South Africa, civil rights leaders in the United States and international law experts in Europe to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs – have explained why it is factually wrong, legally incorrect and morally reprehensible to describe the free and democratic state of Israel as apartheid.

Recognizing that Israel would not be defeated militarily, the Soviet Union created the ‘Zionism is racism’ and ‘apartheid’ slurs that fueled the rise in global antisemitism.

It should be noted that apartheid is a Dutch Afrikaans word meaning apartness used exclusively to define the brutal system of segregation, discrimination and oppression perpetrated on Black South Africans by the racist National Party from 1948 - 1994. Especially since the infamous 2001 UN Conference against Racism in Durban, where Israel was declared to be a “racist, apartheid state,” many Black South Africans have raised their voices to condemn the Palestinian appropriation of the word apartheid to describe a free and democratic Jewish State. In what may very well be a response to those voices, Amnesty attempts to disavow what it is actually doing by engaging in overt double-speak.
Amnesty International Apartheid Report Slammed in South Africa for Extreme Bias
An Amnesty International (AI) report calling Israel an apartheid state has been criticized by leading South African Jewish organizations. The report calls for Palestinian refugees and their descendants "to return to homes where they or their families once lived," which would mean Israel would no longer be a Jewish state. It also calls for Israel to be isolated from the international community.

Sara Gon, a policy fellow at the South African Institute for Race Relations, said, "There's no mention of the genocidal anti-Semitism of the Palestinian leadership....AI believes that Israel has no right to exist, and Jews don't even come into the equation."

South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) General Manager Pamela Ngubane said the report resorted to "hijacking South Africa's apartheid suffering to defame Israel. Millions of South Africans who suffered and fought under actual apartheid should be angered and insulted by Amnesty's attempt to dilute their own history and experience....SAFI rejects in the strongest terms the report that calls into question Israel's very existence and gives a free pass to terror campaigns against the Jewish state by cloaking the perpetrators in a stolen mantle of victimhood."


Amnesty's New Report Is a Shameless Attempt to Demonize and Criminalize a Single Nation
Since the 1970s the term "Apartheid" has been redefined to mean something other than South Africa's Apartheid regime. In broad terms, it now means institutionalized racial discrimination. But if Israel is charged with institutionalized discrimination - an accusation that could be leveled against many other regimes - why give it the special label of "Apartheid"? The answer is that "Apartheid" is being used as a moral signifier. It is a coded way of saying Israel is morally worse than virtually every other nation on Earth.

Amnesty slams Israel for using lethal force against protests on the border fence separating Gaza and Israel. Yet it is clear that armed Hamas activists played a key role in provoking such conflict. This habit of putting all the blame for the problems in the area on Israel permeates the report.

Unfortunately, the framing of Amnesty's report makes it impossible to have a rational debate. Amnesty's goal is to criminalize Israel. It explicitly accuses Israel of the "crime against humanity of Apartheid" and calls for individual Israelis to be held criminally responsible. It demands Israel be hauled before the International Criminal Court. Amnesty is itself guilty of the most gross discrimination - it is holding Israel to a different standard to every other country.


Pro-Israel Democrats: "The State of Israel Is as Progressive as It Gets"
Democratic Majority for Israel, an advocacy group that supports pro-Israel policies in the Democratic Party, held a virtual discussion on Wednesday with several key pro-Israel U.S. House members. Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) said, "The State of Israel is as progressive as it gets. Some of what the progressive members of the party fight for is actually occurring in Israel. We need to make sure those who have a tainted, tarnished, misinformed view understand the reality."

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, discussed Amnesty International's report labeling Israel as an apartheid state. "The one democratic country in the Middle East - with the most diverse government in history, where Jews and Arabs sit together in the Knesset, where there is respect for women and for the LGBTQ community, where so clearly on display are the shared values of the U.S. - to paint that with the brush of apartheid is outrageous....If you want to work towards a Palestinian state, you don't need to be anti-Israel. It harms peace."
Israeli-Palestinian confederation plan to be presented to UN, US by Beilin
A grassroots plan for an Israeli-Palestinian confederation to resolve the conflict that would allow settlers to remain in their homes, is expected to be handed to the United Nations and the Biden administration this week by former justice minister Yossi Beilin.

“It would be easier to co-operate and coordinate if the framework is a confederation, rather than a two-state solution,” said Beilin, who is a former Meretz Party leader.

Beilin co-authored his plan with Palestinian attorney and former peace negotiator Hiba Husseini, along with a small group of Israelis and Palestinians.

They have put forward their plan at a time when the peace process is frozen, the Biden administration refrained from initiating talks and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has publicly stated that he does not support a Palestinian state.

“We have a prime minister that does not believe in the two-state solution, who doesn’t believe in partition,” Beilin said, adding, however, that this “doesn’t mean we shouldn’t raise the issue today.”

Beilin said he hoped the plan, two years in the making, would prompt international debate on resolutions to the conflict.

As to the question of whether members of this government had seen the plan, he said, it “would not surprise them.”

The plan uses a European Union-style model to link two ethnic nationalist states, an Israeli and a Palestinian one.
Israel freezes plans to connect Jerusalem to Maale Adumim due to US, Meretz pressure
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have ordered the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria's supreme planning council to halt discussions on the authorization of construction to connect Maale Adumim to Jerusalem in the E-1 corridor.

Construction had been planned for some 3,000 acres of largely government-owned land and was to include some 3,500 housing units.

The committee began to discuss the plan, which had been frozen for years, toward the end of the previous government under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett and Gantz intervened at the fourth of six authorization stages after most of the Palestinian objections to the move were heard.

The government directive to stop the talks and the promotion of the plan followed sharp criticism from the Meretz party, which made clear it saw the advancement of construction as the crossing of a red line, as well as opposition from Washington. The US has for years taken the Palestinian side on the issue, claiming the plan would cut off Palestinian territorial continuity from the north to the south and could prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

The Israeli position, however, is that the plan would not harm any such continuity, which does not exist to begin with, and which if it should become necessary, could see the E-1 corridor circumvented through roads, tunnels, and other construction. All government heads, beginning with the late Yitzhak Rabin, who initiated the plan, have expressed public support for the move but found it difficult to advance due to diplomatic pressure.
Abraham Accords are rooted in unity, not common enemies
We all have a role to play, however big or small, in our families, communities, schools, sports organizations, mosques, and workplaces. I come to Israel to embrace our brothers, as friends and family on a shared path with a unified goal.

This is a visit to cultivate further work together and promote peace, to do more when it comes to our relationships between our two nations and our people, to discuss initiatives that help combat extremism and hate, to cultivate coexistence. This means not only meeting counterparts in the Knesset and government ministries but the true influencers of our time in think tanks, the guardians of peace behind the scenes who can safeguard a common future.

The Abraham Accords are here to stay and there is no way back. They are here to benefit the whole region, especially Israel, no matter one’s race or religion. The accords are a bridge to a future where we find common solutions, not divisive wars. Those who stand against this powerful peace agreement question the Abraham Accords at the slightest challenge but believe me when I say that we are not so easily shaken. We don’t link this engagement with any other issues we may disagree on. Just like in any family, any relationship, disagreement is normal, and I reiterate: It will not affect the treaty.

Our relationship is not limited to security and issues of conflict in the region. The UAE, in fact, has for many years been home to a Jewish community hailing from all over the world, home to some of the brightest minds in business and academia who saw the country as a place to call home long before the Abraham Accords took flight.

We have for many years hosted delegations from the American Jewish Committee who have become long-standing partners in this process. The progress between the UAE and Israel has moved at a pace witnessed like nothing else in the region, with a raft of tangible results across fields from energy to agriculture, artificial intelligence to the sport.

It is a relationship that will be government to government, private sector to private sector, and above all, people to people. It is not security that will attract and engage the public; it is through means that affect everyone’s lives daily – those that touch hearts.
UAE parliamentarians to visit Knesset in Israel
A delegation of parliament members of the United Arab Emirates will come to the Knesset in an unprecedented visit on Monday.

The MPs will meet with Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, attend a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and will be hosted by the Israel-UAE friendship group and the Knesset Caucus for Advancing the Abraham Accords.

Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, the chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee in the UAE Federal National Council, is scheduled to lead the delegation. He is known for his moderation and positive attitude toward Israel.

When President Isaac Herzog visited the UAE last week, he brought along Knesset members from the coalition and opposition who head the Israel-UAE friendship group.

Levy said he hoped the visit would lead to more cooperation between the Knesset and the 40-member Federal National Council and eventually, with other parliaments in the Arab world.

“We will receive our fellow sons of Abraham with open arms,” Levy said. “The visit to Jerusalem, a city holy to Judaism and Islam, expresses peace and brotherhood among our nations and proof that it is possible to live in peace in the Middle East.”


Israel Police Chief Kobi Shabtai visits UAE to strengthen ties
Israel Police Chief Kobi Shabtai landed in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, becoming the first Israeli police commissioner to visit the UAE.

Shabtai will meet with senior officials in the Emirati Interior Ministry and the police commissioners of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, among other officials.

The visit, which will continue for a number of days, was coordinated by Israel Police's Foreign Relations Unit. The visit is aimed at establishing a professional relationship between the police agencies, the opening of an official channel of discourse on the challenges of crime in the two countries and the establishment of professional cooperation between the police.

Shabtai has decided to appoint a representative of Israel Police in the UAE who will sit at the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi. and coordinated police activities in the Emirates, Africa and the Middle East.

The visit comes just days after Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Bahrain, signing a historic public Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two nations and officially establishing security ties between Israel and Bahrain.
African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki: Why I Granted Observer Status to the State of Israel
"As I received the request for granting Observer Status to Israel...I carefully considered the number of states that recognized the State of Israel in the Continent. The number does not leave any doubt. 44 members of our Organization [out of 54 member states] recognize Israel and have established diplomatic relations....Not to mention that a large number of African states have opened their markets and economic space to Israeli enterprises and signed cooperation agreements....The list is long, very long."

"The obligation to take account of the national choices and interests of the member states...left me no choice but to grant Observer Status to the country with which all these states, more than four-fifths of the members of our Union, maintain...such a diversity of relations."

[In addition] "the number of member states which expressly asked for the granting of Observer Status to the State of Israel appeared to me larger than that of the member states that did not recognize Israel. Which number should I comply with? The majority or the minority?"
Diplomatic Victory: African Union Postpones Israel Vote

South African twins sentenced for plot to attack US embassy, Jewish institutions
A South African court convicted and jailed twin brothers for terrorism on Monday over plans to attack the US embassy in Pretoria and join the Islamic State group, local media reported.

Tony-Lee Thulsie and Brandon-Lee Thulsie, both 28, were arrested in South Africa in July 2016 and have been held in custody since.

The South African brothers pleaded guilty earlier Monday as part of a plea bargain with the prosecution, according to local media.

Hours later the Johannesburg High Court slapped Tony-Lee with an 11-year jail term while his brother Brandon-Lee was sentenced to eight years.

Both pleaded guilty to planning to travel to Syria to join IS, the media reports said.
Israel's severe COVID cases dropping as rolled back Green Pass curbs take effect
Israel reported on Monday the tally of severely ill coronavirus cases continues to drop as the new rolled back Green Pass restrictions, limiting the mandate to "high-risk" events only, officially take effect.

From now on, the presentation of the digital health pass is only necessary in event halls, nightclubs, conference centers in which food is sold or served, and places that host cultural events without designated seating.

Obligation to present a Green Pass in all other places, including restaurants, theaters, and gyms, is now scrapped. In addition, the maximum capacity limitation in places under "Purple Pass" guidelines, has also been cancelled.

The new rules will remain in effect until March 1.

“Because Omicron also infects the vaccinated, the [Green] Pass has lost effectiveness in most places and we decided to reduce its use to only high-risk places. It is part of the trend of living with the virus,” Health Ministry Director General Nachman Ash told Army Radio.

Meanwhile, 52,600 Israelis have tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday after 212,865 tests were conducted, placing the infection rate at 28.16%.
JCPA: An In-Depth Analysis of the Forces Driving the Israeli Arab Riots of May 2021
New research by the Jerusalem Center analyzes in depth the factors that led to this wave of violence, its leadership, and its participants. In addition, the research describes the infrastructure of the consciousness that resulted in this event and compares these events to similar riots in the Israeli Arab sector that occurred in 2000.

These analyses include:
Israel’s Arabs Rioted in May 2021. What Did We Learn and What Does the Future Hold?
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser
Formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence.

The Israeli Arab Rioters Still Mourn the “Nakba” and Yearn for the “Return”
Nadav Shragai
A veteran Israeli journalist who has documented Jerusalem for Ha’aretz and Israel Hayom for over 30 years.

Were Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque the Driving Forces behind the Violence of May 2021?
Yoni Ben Menachem
Former director general and chief editor of the Israel Broadcasting Authority and a veteran Arab affairs and diplomatic commentator.

The Events of 2021 Requires Israel to Wake Up – and the Sooner the Better
Pinhas Inbari
A veteran Palestinian affairs correspondent

Israel’s Islamic Party (Ra’am): Pragmatism and Islamism According to Mansour Abbas
Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi
A former IDF military intelligence officer specializing in the Middle East and radical Islam, who was awarded the prize of the IDF Chief of Staff


Hamas Tries to Recruit Arab Israelis With Family in Gaza, Says Shin Bet
Hamas has been recruiting Arab citizens of Israel who have one parent who was born in Gaza or Judea and Samaria for the purpose of terrorist attacks and intelligence gathering, according to an internal Shin Bet document presented to the government.

The information in question pertains to terrorist activities perpetrated within the Green Line between the years 2020-21, up until Operation Guardian of the Walls in May. These activities included actual terrorist attacks or intelligence gathering operations on behalf of Hamas, sometimes while the Israeli military was fighting the terrorist group in Gaza.

In some of the cases, Hamas tried recruiting these individuals while they were visiting relatives in Gaza, exploiting their conflicting loyalties and Israel’s “family reunification” policies.

Hamas also asked these individuals to report on the location of rocket strikes inside Israel, according to the Shin Bet.

The Israeli citizens recruited by Hamas resided, among other places, in Rehovot, Lod and in the many Bedouin communities in the Negev. One of the Shin Bet’s conclusions is that individuals who are second-generation citizens of family reunification are willing to forego the advantages that come with living in Israel compared to life in Gaza.

The Shin Bet found that the second-generation citizens often experience conflicting loyalties, torn between being Israeli and their families in Gaza. This complexity also causes some of them to work on behalf of Hamas, more so than Arabs who have two parents with Israeli citizenship.

Some two weeks ago, as a reminder, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar noted that the descendants of family reunification were disproportionately involved in the riots in the Negev around a month ago.


PMW: PA Spokesman vows to continue “Pay-for-Slay” terror rewards
Despite international criticism and the PA’s alleged financial crisis, the PA continues to defend their “Pay-for-Slay” rewards, vowing to the imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorist “Martyrs” that they will get paid. Only four days ago, PA Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina reiterated that the PA, led by Chairman Abbas, will “continue the constant and ongoing battle over the salaries”:
Official PA TV newsreader: “[PA] Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that the leadership led by His Honor [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] will continue the constant and ongoing battle over the salaries of the prisoners and Martyrs, and what is more we will break bread with them.”

[Official PA TV News, Jan. 30, 2022]

“The battle over the salaries” refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries as well as foreign governments’ decisions to withdraw or withhold aid to the PA unless the PA abolishes its policy of rewarding terrorists for attacking and murdering Israelis. Specifically, the US has passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts almost all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of "Martyrs." See below.

On the same day, official PA TV resumed broadcasting a filler showing Abbas making the same promise, that the last penny in the PA coffers is earmarked for the terrorists:




Former Lebanese Interior Minister: Hizbullah Only Uses Its Weapons against the Lebanese People

Captured Senior ISIS Commander Abdul Nasser Qaradash Discusses ISIS Leader Abdullah Qaradash's Death

MEMRI: Saudi Writer: The West Is Ignoring Iran's Evil And Seeking An Agreement With It, Just As It Did With Nazi Germany
Against the backdrop of the current talks between Iran and the Western powers in Vienna, Saudi political analyst Faisal Ibrahim Al-Shammari, who specializes in American affairs and writes a column in the Makkah daily, compared Iran to Nazi Germany and the nuclear agreement with it to the Munich Agreement signed with Germany in 1938.[1] He argued that, just as the West ignored the evil of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Second World War and signed an agreement with it, Western states are now ignoring the evil of Iran and seeking to renew the nuclear agreement with it. Furthermore, just as the Munich Agreement only strengthened Nazi Germany and failed to prevent the war, a new agreement with Iran will boost its global status and will not keep it from developing nuclear weapons or prevent a war. On the contrary, the agreement is bound to increase Iran's expansionist ambitions and its support of terrorist organizations, he said. Al-Shammari warned that Iran is a police state that aspires to control its region while waging an ideological campaign against the Western democracies, and therefore an agreement with it is dangerous.

The following are translated excerpts from his article.[2]
"It is said that evil exists in darkness. But I do not think that is true, because evil actually exists in the open and is very clear and blatant – so much so that people look away from it. Why? Because the minute people acknowledge the existence of evil, they realize that they must fight it, and most people prefer not to do this. That is what led to the outbreak of the Second World War and to the death of over 70 million people. Many in the West denied the evil and cruelty of the Nazis. They looked away when it was still possible to stop this evil, and later tolerated it because it had grown strong.

"In 1938 – the year the Western democracies proved to the evil dictatorial Nazi Germany that they would not do anything to stop its expansion – British prime minister Neville Chamberlain came to Munich to negotiate with Adolf Hitler. He believed Hitler's promises that there would be peace if Germany was allowed to annex large parts of Czechoslovakia, [and preferred] not to confront the Nazi evil. Upon his return to Britain, he held the agreement aloft, announced that it had been signed, and stated: 'The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace.'

"The agreement [signed] in 2015 between the U.S., Europe, Russia, China and Iran is very similar to the Munich Agreement of 1938. Nazi Germany was a police state, and so is Iran. The Nazis' initial broader goal was to take control of their geographical region, and the greater goal of Iran is to expand into the Arab countries. Nazi Germany was an ideological rival of the Western democracies, and sought to dominate Europe, and Iran seeks to take over the Middle East and the Islamic world. And just as Britain and France sought to appease Nazi Germany, these same two countries, along with the U.S., have chosen to try and appease Iran…
Bennett: Region Will Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for New Iran Nuclear Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Sunday that a new nuclear deal with Iran based on current parameters “will damage the ability to deal with the nuclear program” and potentially destabilize the region, ahead of a discussion with US President Joe Biden on the negotiations.

“The greatest threat against the State of Israel is Iran,” Bennett said at the government’s weekly cabinet meeting. “As the government, we are responsible for dealing with the Iranian nuclear program and, of course, we are monitoring the Vienna talks” between Iran, the United States, and other world powers.

“Our position is well-known and clear: An agreement — according to the apparent terms — will damage the ability to deal with the nuclear program,” he said.

Bennett added, “Whoever thinks that an agreement will increase stability is mistaken. It will temporarily delay enrichment but all of us in the region will pay a heavy, disproportionate price for it.”

“In recent weeks, precisely during the negotiations, Iran is increasing its aggression and repeatedly using terrorism in the region, as you all have seen,” he remarked. “This is how you conduct negotiations, Tehran-style.”

Touching on the possibility of Israeli military action against Iran’s nuclear program, Bennett said, “We are currently closing gaps and building up Israel’s military strength for years and even decades to come. Israel will maintain freedom of action in any case, with or without an agreement.”
How Iraq became the top link in China's belt and road strategy - analysis
‘The Silk Road Axis’

Not all Iraqis are happy with these developments, just as not all Iranians welcomed the 25-year cooperation agreement signed with China.

Former MP Ghaleb Muhammad Ali wrote in his social media accounts that while China imports crude oil at the price of $70 per barrel, Iraq imports the same volume of Chinese gasoline for $200, indicating that Beijing is getting the better of this cooperation.

Dr. Ronen Zeidel, an Iraq specialist at the Tel Aviv-based Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, said, “On one hand, the Iraqis are highly engaged with the Chinese. They let them access the Iraqi oil market and the Chinese promised to build schools and other infrastructure. Schools are very important since there are plenty of schools in horrible condition and it’s something that is highly discussed in Iraq.

“However, many are also afraid of the barter principle – exchanging their oil for infrastructure, like in Africa. Opponents of Iran fear that pro-Iranian militias’ violence also has something to do with Chinese involvement. They even call it “the Silk Road Axis,” Zeidel said.

Since the 25-year cooperation agreement was signed last year, Iran has seen a few anti-Chinese protests. Demonstrations were staged near parliament where the protesters chanted slogans such as “Iran is Not for Sale” and “Death to Those Who Sell the Homeland.”

Nothing of the kind has taken place in Iraq, where, according to Zeidel, the physical presence of China is not as widespread as in Africa or some parts of Europe. “Iraqis are both drawn to China, since they want their country to develop, and afraid of it,” he said.

The experts are certain that cooperation between China and Iraq will keep growing in 2022, even if the volume of investment does not expand.

Will Chinese involvement contribute to stabilization of the situation in and around Iraq? Some believe this will be the case, due to Chinese concern over disruption of oil supplies. For now, it’s clear China is slowly but surely building its position in the Middle East and that this new reality will affect the global power competition worldwide.
Iran says US partial lifting of sanctions 'not enough'



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