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Friday, December 23, 2022

12/23 Links Pt1: Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims; Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees; Omnibus Bill Would Let U.S. Rejoin Antisemitic UNESCO

From Ian:

Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims
UN coordinator to the Middle East Tor Wennesland, reported to the Security Council on Thursday that more than 20 Israeli victims have been killed as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning of 2022 – a number lower than Israeli estimations.

The Envoy reported 150 Palestinian casualties during the same time span, the largest number in recent years.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Wennesland relied on data taken from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which only recognized 19 Israeli victims in terror attacks in 2022.

According to Israeli estimations, 31 Israelis and foreign workers were killed as a result of terror attacks, while the UN claimed the cause of the additional 12 fatalities were inconclusive or their perpetrators remained at large.

The Foreign Ministry said the UN’s report ignored terror attack victims including Aryeh Shchupak and Tadese Tashume who were killed in a bombing attack in Jerusalem last November, Shulamit Rachel Ovadia who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in September, Victor Sorokopot and Dima Mitrik who were killed in a terror attack in Bnei Brak last March.

Also not mentioned were Ivan Tarnovksy who was killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in March, Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, Laura Itzhak, Doris Yahbas, and Meha and Menach Yehezkel who were killed in a terror attack in Be’er Sheva also in March, and Border Police officers Shirel Abukarat and Yezen Falah who were killed in a terror attack in Hadera that same month.

Wennesland did not mention that out of the 150 Palestinians who were killed since the beginning of 2022, at least 80% were what the ministry called "terrorists," describing them as Palestinian civilians.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan’s appeals to the OCHA for the reevaluation of the data presented, have so far, remained unanswered.


Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees
As we reflect on the joyous holiday of Hanukkah, a commemoration of the notable and valiant fighting prowess of the Jewish people in ancient times, we also celebrate the unyielding resilience and determination of the Jewish people and our homeland.

From Maccabees to modern miracles
For this year’s Festival of Lights, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) organized a “Live the Miracle” campaign. On each night of Hanukkah, Jewish celebrities and influencers welcomed soldiers from the IDF into their homes to light candles together in a symbolic act of solidarity with Israel and the never-ending fight against the darkness that is antisemitism.

The candle lighting took place at the homes of Lizzy Savetsky, a social media influencer, matchmaker and unabashed Zionist activist; Alexei and Loren Brovarnik, stars of the hit series 90 Day Fiancé; Modi Rosenfeld, a stand-up comedian and actor; Tova Friedman, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and recent TikTok sensation; Ashley Waxman Bakshi, a beauty, travel and fashion creator; Cathy Heller, an author and podcast host; Kosha Dillz, a rapper; and Noa Tishby, an Israeli actress, writer and activist.

In the face of social media attacks, these nine brave individuals stood up for morality, for dignity and for the young men and young women who are literally at the front line of humanity.

Hanukkah is the celebration of miracles, of right over might: of the small yet fearless Maccabee army’s defeat over the formidable Greco-Syrian forces and a tiny vessel of oil, enough to light the menorah in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount for 12 hours, that burned instead for eight days.

A group of educators, the Maccabees fought to defend the religious freedom and basic human rights of the Jewish people. Their victory over their imposing enemy ultimately emancipated the Jewish people so that they could live freely and exult each day in their fundamental humanity.


Netanyahu joins JI’s podcast to discuss Zelensky, Iran, Saudi, his new gov’t and economic reforms
On Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had formed a government, cementing his return to power a year and a half after his ouster by a coalition led by Naftali Bennett. In his first English-language interview since officially forming his government, Netanyahu joined co-hosts Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein for a special episode of Jewish Insider’s podcast.

During the conversation, Netanyahu discussed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Iran, the Israeli economy and criticism of his new government.

Below are excerpts from the conversation.

Goldberg noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress this week, and asked Netanyahu for his reaction to the speech.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Well, I’ve only seen parts of it, but I think it was a strong speech with a strong message. And it looks like it was well-received, to say the least.”

Jarrod Bernstein: “Prime minister, if you were giving a record-breaking fourth address to a joint session of Congress, what would your message be for the joint session now?”

Netanyahu: “I think my message is constant. It’s peace through strength, prosperity through free markets, and the alliance of the like-minded states to assure our place and our permanence, to the extent anybody could do that, in history. That’s really something that unites us across nations, across oceans and across time.”

On the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, Goldberg described the deal as “only mostly dead,” given that Iran has not faced recent U.N. sanctions. When asked if he was troubled by the lack of action despite recent activity in Iran — nation-wide uprisings, aid to Russia in the form of drones — Netanyahu said he was, but added that sanctions are not enough.

Netanyahu: “Yes, it doesn’t trouble me, but I’ll tell you, much more than the snapback or the crippling sanctions which are needed…there is a necessary and sufficient condition to stop a rogue state from developing nuclear weapons, and that is a credible military option. A credible military threat. And I would go beyond that, and I would say the willingness to use it if the threat doesn’t deter. Now, there have been five rogue states that have sought to develop nuclear weapons: The first was Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It was stopped by a credible military action by Israel. The second was Bashar Assad, Syria. It was stopped by a credible military action by Israel, again. The third was Qaddafi’s, Libya. It was stopped by a credible military threat by the United States. The fourth, North Korea, was not stopped. North Korea was a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it didn’t mean anything, or any other agreement that they signed. They did not face a credible military threat and therefore they developed a nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver them to half of Asia, and pretty soon, and perhaps now already, to the western seaboard of the United States. So that is a failure. And the fifth is Iran. Iran has been, frankly, at my behest, and in many ways Israel’s encouragement and push, has been facing all sorts of things that have prevented it, have delayed it from achieving nuclear weapons…I don’t think any nuclear agreement would stop them, they cheat on the agreements. The JCPOA is so bad that if they keep the agreement, they get to nuclear weapons, with hundreds of billions of dollars of sanction relief, in a few years. So the only way that Iran will be stopped is if there is a credible military threat that ideally would be backed by the United States or even promoted by the United States and the major powers. I have come back to office to the genteel world of Israeli politics, I’ve come back for one reason, one main reason, and that is to do everything that I can, as I’ve done over the past 15 years of my premiership, to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons that will endanger my country Israel, will endanger your country the United States, and just about everything in between.”


Second-guessing Israel: A nasty sport gaining popularity in Washington
It is infuriating to repeatedly hear US State Department and other Western officials mealy mouth the call on “all sides to exercise restraint.” While sounding sweet, reasonable and yes, “evenhanded,” essentially this is a hostile-to-Israel statement. Basically, it is a warning to Israel that it must not respond to Palestinian assaults. It again equates terrorism with counterterrorist actions.

For example, instead of condemning PA mafia-government chieftain Mahmoud Abbas for repeatedly using the “al-Aqsa is in danger” libel to foment violence, the State Department only speaks out after Palestinian Muslims riot on the Temple Mount and Israel is forced to respond.

When this happened in April, the State Department spokesman sadly and predictably said, “We call on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.”

(Note that the State Department uses the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, but never the original Hebrew term, Har Habayit. And it ignores the fact the Palestinians long have killed the so-called status quo on the holy mount.)

Similarly, Washington (Blinken) has taken to regularly reminding Jerusalem that the US “expects” Israel to abide by democratic principles, “including respect for the rights of the LGBT community and the equal administration of justice for all citizens of Israel.”

But Blinken has said nothing about the (lack of) rights of the Palestinian LGBT community or the PA’s extreme human rights abuses. Nor about the abhorrent (lack of) human rights policies of Muslim countries – including Qatar, where Blinken went to enjoy the World Cup soccer competition.

And this week, the administration’s foreign aid package that went to Congress includes a $75 million provision for UNRWA. The administration said nothing about the fact that just last week another terror attack tunnel was discovered under one of UNRWA’s Gaza Strip schools, illustrating yet again that corrupt agency’s complicity in allowing Hamas to use children as human shields.

All the while, US and other Western officials have no problem meeting regularly with Palestinian extremists like Hussein al-Sheikh, who is emerging as Abbas’s number two in the Palestinian Authority. Al-Sheikh spent 11 years in Israeli prison for his terrorist activities. He has promoted Mahmud al-Habbash as religious affairs adviser to the PA president. This month, al-Habbash equated Jews who visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem with “those whom Allah has cursed... and made of them apes and pigs.”

This week, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) published yet another report of the raw antisemitism that runs like an open sewer in PA textbooks and on its airwaves. The State Department had nothing to say about this.

Raw antisemitism in Ramallah is the real “extremism” that encourages Palestinian youth to kill Israelis. State Department evenhandedness that is tantamount to blind bias against Israel is the real “extremism” that fuels the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

All this, before the new, supposedly “ultra-nationalist, extremist, racist and supremacist” government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Arye Deri, Yitzhak Goldknopf, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Avi Maoz takes office in Israel.
Omnibus Bill Would Let U.S. Rejoin Antisemitic UNESCO, Reversing Trump Policy
A provision in the $1.7 trillion “omnibus” spending bill currently before Congress would let the U.S. rejoin the antisemitic United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which it left in 2019.

Section 7070 on page 1582 of the bill allows the president to waive section 414 of Public Law 101–246 of 1990, which bars U.S. funding for any United Nations organization that gives the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) the same status as member states; and section 410 of Public Law 103-236, which bars U.S. funding for the United Nations or any affiliated organization that grants state membership to something that is not a state.

These provisions were triggered in 2011, when the Obama administration was reluctantly forced to cut funding to UNESCO after it admitted Palestine as a member state. In 2019, following years of anti-Israel resolutions and outright antisemitism, including the denial of any Jewish connection to the city of Jerusalem, the U.S. and Israel both left the organization, with the U.S. still withholding some $550 million in payments at the time.

However, the omnibus lets the U.S. rejoin UNESCO — and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in withheld funds — if the president decides that “to do so would enable the United States to counter Chinese influence or to promote other national interests of the United States,” a meaningless and open-ended provision. The provision is void if any other United Nations agency admits “Palestine” without a formal peace agreement with Israel.

The Trump administration decision was hailed as a moral stance against antisemitism. But the Biden administration, which is looking for ways to support the Palestinians, has been quietly plotting a reversal.
Hundreds of US rabbis vow to block far-right Israel lawmakers from their communities
More than 330 American rabbis, including some who occupy prominent roles in major cities, are pledging to block far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government from speaking at their synagogues and will lobby to keep them from speaking in their communities.

An open letter said they will not invite members of the far-right parties “to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.”

Netanyahu announced his new government including the far-right Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam factions late Wednesday, although he has yet to finalize coalition agreements with his political partners.

Israeli government ministers sometimes speak at American synagogues to drum up support for their initiatives and ideas. It’s not clear if figures who are harshly critical of non-Orthodox Jews, as the far-right lawmakers have been, would accept invitations from their synagogues even if offered.

Nevertheless, the letter’s uncompromising tone and the breadth of the signatories is a signal of a burgeoning crisis in relations between Israel and the US Jewish community triggered by the elevation of the far-right parties.

The letter was directed at Religious Zionism, which won 14 seats in the November 1 election running on a joint slate with the Otzma Yehudit and Noam. The three factions split apart again after the election and are now holding separate coalition negotiations. The rabbis’ letter appeared to be intended for all three parties.

Its signatories come from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements. There were no Orthodox signatories.


The World Cup Was Just the Beginning, as Qatar Eyes More Sports
This decade and beyond could be the era of Middle Eastern sports.

It may not have sunk in yet, but the Qatar World Cup was the kickoff rather than the finale.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be this decade’s focal points of Asian sports. By 2030, Egypt and Turkey could become part of the global sports-hosting mix.

Morocco will host the FIFA Club World Cup in February. Qatar will host the Asian Cup a bit later in 2023. Saudi Arabia is certain to host the 2027 Asian Cup. Doha is back in the picture as home to the 2030 Asian Games; in 2034, it’s Riyadh’s turn.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considered FIFA favorites for the 2030 World Cup should they decide to bid for the tournament together with Greece. A Moroccan pitch for the 2030 World Cup is also within the realm of possibilities.

In between, somewhat incongruously, Saudi Arabia, better known as a desert kingdom, will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, in its futuristic yet-to-be-completed $500 billion city of Neom on the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia is also bidding for the rights to the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

Further afar, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are separately considering bidding for the 2036 Olympics but could join forces. Egypt and Turkey are mulling their separate candidacies.

All players will have learnt lessons from the human and worker rights criticism Qatar confronted in the 12-year run-up to the tournament that just ended. The indications are that so have human rights activists.
S&D adviser Eldar Mamedov suspended amid EU Qatar probe
The S&D [Socialists & Democrats] group said in a statement Tuesday that one of its officials had been suspended “following serious misconduct related to the ongoing judicial investigation” and “immediately informed the competent Belgian authorities.” However, the group did not name the person concerned.

According to four people close to the matter, the official suspended is Mamedov, a Latvian national and S&D adviser to Parliament’s foreign affairs committee who has been in that role for well over a decade and who has worked on Middle East topics. His webpage on the S&D’s website has now disappeared.

POLITICO contacted Mamedov and asked him specifically whether he had been suspended. He replied that “in current circumstances,” he would prefer not to talk to the media.

According to a biography on a website called Responsible Statecraft, to which he has contributed over 50 op-eds since 2020, Mamedov is a former Latvian diplomat who has worked in the Latvian embassies in Washington and Madrid. An archived webpage on the Socialists’ website said that he speaks Russian, Spanish, Latvian and English.

In some of his articles, Mamedov pushes a markedly anti-Saudi Arabian line. Saudi Arabia is a regional rival of Qatar. For example, he lavishes praise on a letter — spearheaded by Belgian S&D lawmakers Maria Arena and Marc Tarabella — urging the EU to boycott a G20 meeting in Saudi Arabia in 2020.

The house of Tarabella — who says he is the victim of a witch hunt — was raided by Belgian authorities in the presence of Parliament President Roberta Metsola. Meanwhile, Arena has also proclaimed her innocence, saying the media has misrepresented her. Neither MEP has been arrested or charged.

The Responsible Statecraft magazine that Mamedov wrote for is an outlet of the Quincy Institute, which describes its missions as promoting “ideas that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace.”
When Europeans and Palestinians erase Jewish history together
The Temple of Solomon and the Temple of the returnees to Zion, which was expanded in the days of Herod the Great, stood on the Temple Mount for a thousand years. Back in the 1920s, a pamphlet for tourists produced by the Muslim Waqf proudly stated that the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque stand on the site of Solomon's Temple and they even quoted the Bible as proof. Today, they deny any historical Jewish presence on the site and work to destroy any archaeological evidence. The European Union cooperates actively with this erasure of memory, to its disgrace. At this time of year, the United Nations usually votes on some 15 to 20 anti-Israel resolutions, which are basically nothing more than antisemitic resolutions that discriminate against Israel and exclude it from the family of nations. These resolutions are promoted by the Palestinians and their ilk. One regular resolution states that Israel violates the human rights of the Palestinians in east Jerusalem and on al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, which is the Muslim term for the Temple Mount. Incredibly the English equivalent for the Temple Mount does not appear. The Palestinians insist on this in order not to affiliate the Mount with the presence of the Jewish Temple.

Every year, Israeli ambassadors debate this with the foreign ministries of European countries – not to have this lie annulled, but just to get the English name included in the resolution. As ambassador to Italy, I did the same. Last year, I visited New York together with our ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in order to protest the vote. All in vain. They voted for the resolution as it was presented. I told my Italian interlocutor that for us, it is Har Habayit, while the English translation of the Hebrew, the Temple Mount is for them. If there are no Jewish roots on the Temple Mount, where did Jesus preach? On the moon? By not insisting on the inclusion of the term "Temple Mount" the Europeans are collaborating with the Palestinian "Damnatio memoriae," and for all intents and purposes are voting to deny the Christian world's roots in the Holy Land. That is not the way a civilization that wishes to live behaves.

Both the United States and Europe constantly repeat their belief in the two-state solution. That too is the result of collaboration with the Palestinians who have erased the second part of the phrase: The complete phrase is "Two States for Two Peoples." To this day, the Palestinian Authority (and of course Hamas) do not recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Clause 20 of the Palestinian National Charter states that the Jews are not a people, just a religion. In other words, they are not eligible for self-determination as a people and therefore they have no rights in the Land of Israel. According to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which many western states have adopted, "Denying the rights of the Jewish people to serve to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" is in itself antisemitic. We can see with our very eyes the struggle against the historical memory of the Jewish people in its land.

From the balcony of my home in Rehovot, I do not need binoculars to look out over the hills of Binyamin and at Jerusalem and Ramallah. From the disengagement from Gaza, we learned what happens to a region from which Jews are evacuated. It becomes a base for terrorism and its residents serve as human shields for the operations of the organizations of death and destruction against us. Withdrawal from the hills of Samaria will make Israel's central region hostage to gangs that have no control even over themselves. The European Union has difficulty learning from history, both distant and present. In the best case, this can be described as intellectual slough. In any event, as usual, everything depends on us: on deepening our roots and our historical consciousness. As we light the Hanukkah candles, we recall the words of Simon the Hasmonean, our ancient president. We also recall the blessing we recite as we light the Hanukkah candles: In those days, at this time.
Trapped in old narrative, Europe slow to embrace Abraham Accords
Robert Greenway, president and executive director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, said that Europe received 40% of its energy from Russia, something unsustainable once Russia attacked Ukraine and weaponized its energy supply. Yet, Europe still lacks a concrete plan to replace Russian supplies, he said.

Greenway’s message to European countries is that Abraham Accords countries have the “resources and capital investment” to build a substitute for Russian energy in the Middle East. “Our argument [to Europe] now is to start and initiate the infrastructure projects to connect the two continents from an energy perspective, so that our partners and allies are interdependent upon one another, as opposed to dependent upon our adversaries.”

“From an American perspective, I would have to say that our strategic interests are always better served when our partners and allies are working in close cooperation with one another, which was also part of the foundational logic behind negotiation of the accords,” Greenway said.

Michael Freilich, a member of Belgium’s parliament, said that the Abraham Accords aren’t just about the Middle East. “I really believe that it will have an effect in Europe itself.”

He said he’d brought the UAE ambassador to Antwerp, which has a Holocaust memorial to the 25,000 Jews who were deported from the city. The ambassador laid a wreath at the monument. Freilich said it was an important moment because of the strong anti-Jewish sentiment among Belgium’s Arab population, which views the conflict as not between Israelis and Palestinians, but between Muslims and Jews.

“The fact that an ambassador from the UAE lays flowers, lays a wreath, at a monument for deporting Jews in the Second World War is really an eye opener for many of the Muslim youth,” Freilich said.

“The fight against antisemitism can gain so much from these peace accords. And that is what I’m trying to explain to my fellow members of parliament and to the various ministers in government—that the Middle East will definitely gain and grow by these Abraham Accords, but there’s an important role for it to play also in the hostility against Jews in Europe. And I know there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done, especially in Belgium and in some Nordic countries, Ireland the same thing, but we must never give up. And we must keep fighting,” Freilich said.
3 dead, 3 injured in Paris shooting as gunman attacks Kurdish culture center
A 69-year-old gunman opened fire at a Kurdish cultural center and hairdressing salon in central Paris on Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, witnesses and prosecutors said.

The shots shortly before midday local time caused panic in rue d’Enghien in the trendy 10th district of the capital, a bustling area of shops, restaurants and bars that is home to a large Kurdish population.

Witnesses told AFP that the gunman, described by police as white and known for two previous attempted murders, initially targeted the Kurdish cultural center before entering a nearby hairdressing salon where he was arrested by police.

“We saw an old white man enter then start shooting in the Kurdish cultural center, then he went to the hairdresser’s next door,” Romain, who works in a nearby restaurant, told AFP by telephone.

Another local resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP: “There were people panicking, shouting to the police and pointing to the salon ‘he’s in there, he’s in there, go in.'”

He said he saw two people on the floor of the salon with leg wounds.

The Kurdish community center, called Centre Ahmet Kaya, is used by a charity that works to integrate the Kurdish population in the Paris region.
Police_ 3 officers hurt in shooting, ramming attack in Kafr Qasim; driver killed
Three police officers were wounded after being rammed by a vehicle in a terror attack in Kafr Qasim, an Arab city east of Tel Aviv, during the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, law enforcement officials said.

According to police, the assailant, Naim Badir, called police over to a parking area of a building, claiming there had been a violent incident, before pulling out a loaded makeshift submachine gun and attempting to open fire.

Badir then fled into the building after his gun had apparently jammed, police said.

The assailant then hurled Molotov cocktails at a police car. Police said they later found several more firebombs on the roof of the building where Badir had called cops over to.

He then got into his car and rammed it into the officers, lightly wounding three of them.

Officers returned fire, killing the assailant at the scene. A knife was later found in his car.

Police said the incident was a terror attack.


Palestinians Fire on Israeli Forces Securing Entry of Jewish Worshippers to Joseph’s Tomb
Israeli forces exchanged fire on Wednesday night with armed Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus, the military said, while securing the entrance of Jewish worshippers into Joseph’s Tomb.

Some 1,000 worshippers visited the religious site, according to local media, a longtime flashpoint that has seen multiple clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, and was vandalized by Palestinian rioters earlier this year.

In response, “armed Palestinians hurled explosive devices and fired toward the soldiers, endangering their lives,” the military said. Troops responded with live fire and identified hits, though the military did not specify how many.

While no Israeli injuries were reported, Palestinian sources said Ahmed Daraghmeh, 23, was killed in the overnight exchange, and five other Palestinians wounded.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesperson, noted on Thursday that Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip and has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and the European Union, posthumously celebrated Daraghmeh “as a holy martyr.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen fire at settlement, causing damage to home
Palestinian gunmen fired a hail of bullets Friday evening at a settlement in the northern West Bank, the military said.

Images from the scene showed slight damage caused to a home in the settlement of Shaked, which is located close to the security barrier, about 10 kilometers west of the Palestinian city of Jenin.

A local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group claimed responsibility for the attack, but did not immediately provide evidence.

The Israel Defense Forces said just one home was damaged by the shooting, which caused no injuries.

The IDF said troops were dispatched to the area to search for the suspects, who fled the scene. The bullets were fired from outside the settlement.

The settlement has recently been targeted several times.

In recent months, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted military posts, troops operating along the West Bank security barrier, Israeli settlements and civilians on the roads.

The attacks have come amid an Israeli anti-terror offensive mostly focused on the northern West Bank to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that have left 31 people in Israel and the West Bank dead since the start of the year.
Hamas ‘fighter’ killed during armed clash with IDF in Nablus
A member of the Hamas terror group was killed as Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank early Thursday.

Ahmed Atef Mustafa Daraghmeh was mortally wounded when armed Palestinians exchanged fire with Israeli troops that entered the city of Nablus to escort Jewish worshippers to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city.

Palestinian medical officials said another five people were wounded in the clash.

The sound of gunfire was heard in amateur videos that Palestinians recorded from their windows.

Images published by Palestinian media outlets showed Daraghmeh’s body draped in the flag of Hamas, indicating his affiliation with the terror group.

In a statement later Thursday, Hamas said Daraghmeh was a “fighter” in the group.

Daraghmeh, from the nearby town of Tubas, was also reported to be a soccer player for the Tulkarem team, according to Palestinian media.


MEMRI: Senior Hamas Official Mahmoud Al-Zahar: The 'Army Of Jerusalem' Will Not Liberate Palestinian Land Only; The 512 Million Square Kilometers Of Planet Earth Will Come Under A System With No Zionism, No Treacherous Christianity
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar said on a December 12, 2022 show on Al-Masirah TV (Houthis-Yemen) that Hamas has reached a "phase of deterrence" in which it can "defend" occupied Palestine. He also added that after the "Battle of the Promise of the Hereafter," there will be no oppression, no Zionism, and no "treacherous Christianity."

"When We Speak About The Army Of Jerusalem And The Battle Of The Promise Of The Hereafter, We Are Not Talking About Liberating Our Land Alone"

Mahmoud Al-Zahar: "Today, you could say that we reached a phase of deterrence, a phase in which we can defend the occupied land. When we speak about the Army of Jerusalem and the Battle of the Promise of the Hereafter, we are not talking about liberating our land alone – but we believe in what our Prophet Muhammad said:

'Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake, and I have seen its eastern and western ends. The dominion of my nation would reach those ends that have been drawn near me.'

"Planet Earth Will Come Under [A System] Where There Is No Injustice, No Oppression, No Treachery, No Zionism, No Treacherous Christianity"

"The entire 510 million square kilometers of Planet Earth will come under [a system] where there is no injustice, no oppression, no treachery, no Zionism, no treacherous Christianity, and no killings and crimes, like those being committed against the Palestinians, and against the Arabs in all the Arab countries – in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other countries."
Don’t Be Distracted by Hamas’s Claims to Moderation
Last week, the Islamic Resistance Movement—better known by the Arabic acronym Hamas—held a rally in Gaza City to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its founding. Devorah Margolin surveys the group’s history and observes that it has changed little despite more recent efforts to show off its supposedly more moderate side:

As Hamas has repeatedly noted, two main documents highlight its goals and evolving direction: the 1988 charter, and the May 2017 update to the charter, titled the “Document of General Principles and Policies.” The latter document represented a rhetorical shift, with the group seeking to present itself as a centrist alternative to global jihadist organizations like Islamic State and secular nationalist groups like the PLO. Despite this framing, however, the updated principles and policies also declared that “resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine will remain a legitimate right, a duty, and an honor for all the sons and daughters of our people and our umma [global Islamic community].”

Another contradiction can be seen in the group’s framing of Islamization as a “choice” driven by individuals. For example, Hamas has repeatedly argued that while wearing the hijab is a religious obligation, it remains a woman’s choice to do so, not something that can be forced upon her. At the same time, however, the group does not discount acts of violence and pressure to achieve its goals of a “traditional” Islamic society, such as running “virtue” campaigns to discourage “Western” behaviors, excluding male teachers from girls’ schools, segregating classes after age nine, and penalizing male driving instructors who do not have a chaperone for female students.

As Hamas continues to strive for international legitimacy, it will no doubt highlight what it considers to be its most laudable traits. . . . The United States and its allies should not be distracted by this seemingly more moderate approach. Despite its rhetorical embrace of change in certain contexts, Hamas remains committed to its original goal—violent struggle against Israel by any means necessary, with itself at the helm of Palestinian leadership.

At these moments, in the village of Burin, near Yitzhar, hundreds of Arabs celebrate the terrorists Nizam and Rafat Assas, who were released after 20 years. Heavy shooting throughout the evening. The village is within spitting distance of the Samaria Brigade, but the military does not bother to stop the festivities and incitement speeches. Aalek the IDF controls the area... By the way, this is a favorite village of Israeli "peace" activists. Keep this in mind...


The Iran nuclear deal is dead. Or is it?
Like the parrot in that wonderful Monty Python sketch, American and European diplomats have been trying to persuade themselves that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran isn’t dead. It’s just resting.

In the period since the 2018 U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the technical name for the deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers—it has become painfully clear that the main foreign policy achievement of former President Barack Obama’s administration is demised, passed on, ceased to be, expired, run down the curtain, no more. In a word, dead. The diplomats know this, but they have been unwilling to make the announcement, preferring instead to claim at frequent intervals that a revived deal at negotiations that have dragged on for more than a year in Vienna is “imminent.”

Will that position change, now that amateur video of U.S. President Joe Biden declaring that the deal is “dead” has surfaced? The answer, maddeningly, seems to be both yes and no.

Biden’s comments on the deal were not intended for public consumption and he uttered them a while ago—on Nov. 4 to be precise, at a campaign stop in Oceanside, California, as voters headed to the midterm elections. In the video, a woman with a Persian accent can be heard asking the president off-camera whether he will declare the JCPOA dead.

“No,” he answered.

Pressed as to why, Biden replied that it was a “long story” and that there were “a lot of reasons.” But he then went on to explicitly acknowledge that the JCPOA is, in fact, “dead, but we’re not gonna announce it.”

While the video showed only a small portion of their encounter, it didn’t sound like Biden’s interlocutor was particularly impressed. “We just don’t want any deals with the mullahs,” she emphasized. “They don’t represent us, they’re not our government.”

“Oh, I know they don’t represent you,” Biden replied. “But they have a nuclear weapon that they’ll represent.” He then headed off, only to appear later at a rally with a message of solidarity for the historic anti-regime protests that have raged across Iran since September. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” he told a group of activists displaying “Free Iran” signs. “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon.”


Mossad chief warns of Iran's plans to supply Russia with 'advanced weapons'
Director of Mossad David Barnea warned Thursday of the "dangerous and threatening processes" on the part of Iran to "deepen and expand the supply of advanced nuclear weapons to Russia."

"In recent months, we have identified dangerous, threatening, some defiant processes on the part of Iran," Barnea said during a medal ceremony in Jerusalem. "Iran is radicalizing and increasing its attempts to carry out terrorist attacks, which we suppress every day, all over the world ... We also warn today of Iran's future intentions, which they are trying to keep secret, to deepen and expand the supply of advanced nuclear weapons to Russia."

It has been widely reported that Iran is supplying Russia with ballistic missiles as well as drones, which was corroborated by Tehran and which Moscow has reportedly used in its invasion of Ukraine.

Barnea also warned of Iran's intention to "expand otsuranium enrichment project and ... intensify attacks on friendly Muslim countries in the region in various ways," vowing that the Islamic Republic "will not have nuclear weapons, not in the coming years, never, this is my commitment, this is the Mossad's commitment."
Head of US military’s Middle East activities sounds off on Iranian drone threat
The head of U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday that the American commitment to the Middle East should be measured by the strength of its partnerships, and not “by boots on the ground,” like in the past.

Addressing reporters in a briefing, General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, Commander of the U.S. Central Command, focused on CENTCOM’s innovative efforts as Washington has reduced its force posture and military footprint in the region.

“Innovation is not just about technology for us; it is innovation of thought, innovation of concept, innovation of process,” said Kurilla. “We are building a culture of innovation and our partners are with us on this journey,” focusing on the employment of new technology and concepts, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and unmanned systems.

Kurilla noted CENTCOM’s growing network of interconnected mesh of sensors in the region’s waterways “that transmit real-time data, viewed together through data integration, artificial intelligence platforms that help build a clearer picture of the operating environment,” which, when paired with artificial intelligence, “gives us better information faster. This allows us to employ our manned systems more efficiently and strategically. All of this helps us achieve decision dominance.”




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