02/22 Links Pt1: The Gigantic Scam of the ‘Occupied Territories’; Biden administration funds anti-Netanyahu protest group; Peter Beinart’s Deceptive Attack on Israeli Democracy ~ EoZ

From Ian:

There is no alternative to Israeli victory

Our enemies look to the past for proof of their eventual victory, often referring to the Crusades and figures like Saladin, convinced that time is on their side.

They will also know that history proves that victors do not concede or compromise until they have won and vanquished their enemies. This has been true for millennia. Our enemies see an Israel that denies this historical truth, trying to negotiate away the conflict through concessions and compromises, and failing miserably.

A country that wants victory does not act like this. A nation that wants to defeat its enemies must force them to give up any hope of ultimate victory. It must crush its enemies’ will to continue fighting.

Israel should listen carefully to Nasrallah’s words and understand their ramifications. They are the words of someone who believes in ultimate victory over Israel, even if his timeline is somewhat optimistic.

These are the words of our enemies, heard regularly in Tehran, Ramallah, Gaza, Beirut and elsewhere. Our enemies believe them and act accordingly.

People regularly ask how we can win this war against our enemies.

History has the answer: You pressure them militarily, economically, diplomatically and politically until they give up. Then they admit defeat and accept the terms of their loss.

Only then is it possible to talk about what peace might look like; a peace that might actually benefit the defeated.

Israel has tried multiple ways to end the wars waged against it, but the words of Nasrallah and others demonstrate that Israel has not succeeded.

There appears to be no alternative to an Israeli victory.

The Gigantic Scam of the ‘Occupied Territories’

I don’t even dare to think what would have happened to those Jewish fugitives from Europe and from Arab countries.

But before all that, is there in this world, a people who occupy their country of origin? There are none! All of them have been invaded, conquered, subjugated… and replaced… at the present time, this is still going on in the majority of Western countries.

So why should Israel, which has lived on this piece of land more than 5000 years ago, returns and seizes it – in fact snatches it from the hands of the usurpers who call themselves Palestinians, and be perpetually accused of occupying territories that do not belong to it?

All those invaders and settlers who to this day occupy countries that don’t belong to them should also sit in the dock, but not Israel.

Israel has only taken back what is rightfully his.

Netanyahu talks confronting Iran, expanding Abraham Accords with US senators

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately on Tuesday with U.S. Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), stressing to them the importance of the bilateral relationship and that America is the Jewish state’s “greatest friend.”

Netanyahu told the lawmakers that despite any disagreements between Jerusalem and Washington, such meetings were an expression of the strength of ongoing bipartisan ties with Israel.

Among the topics discussed were the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords and their possible expansion, as well as confronting Iran and its proxies.

Risch, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced earlier this month a bill into that chamber which aims to stop the flow of American taxpayer dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

It is a companion bill to U.S. Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-Texas) The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Accountability and Transparency Act, which was introduced in the House of Representatives.

The bills would require reforms of UNRWA before any U.S. taxpayer dollars are directed to the organization. Specifically, the Biden administration would need to certify that:
• No UNRWA employee is a member of a terrorist organization such as Hamas or Hezbollah, or has advocated terrorist activity, or propagated anti-American, anti-Israel, or antisemitic rhetoric.
• No UNRWA infrastructure or resource is being used by terrorist organizations.
• UNRWA is subject to a comprehensive financial audit and has implemented a system of vetting and oversight to prevent any diversion of UNRWA resources to terrorist organizations.
• No UNRWA school or facility uses textbooks or other educational materials to disseminate anti-American, anti-Israel, or antisemitic rhetoric.
• No recipient of UNRWA funds is a member or affiliate of a foreign terrorist organization.
• UNRWA holds no affiliations with financial institutions that the United States deems or believes to be complicit in financing terrorism.

Sudan: Expanding the Tent of the Abraham Accords

Sudan’s full entry into the Abraham Accords is a powerful symbolic statement of the rejection of Arab rejectionism. It is a fuller and more comprehensive casting of the Khartoum calumny on peace with Israel after the 1967 war to the wastebasket of history.

Growing normalization with Israel will significantly augment military cooperation between the two countries. In addition, it will strengthen intelligence gathering and sharing capabilities and empower the Sudanese military to contend with and ultimately curtail the arms trafficking running through its ports and territorial waters.

Normalized relations with Israel will not only assist Sudan in its struggle against radicalization but in the balancing act of negotiating regional superpower interests as well.

Israel is uniquely positioned to facilitate discussions between three quarrelsome parties. Since its founding, Israel has managed water security issues with its neighbors before and following peace agreements. It has maintained diplomatic relations with Egypt and Ethiopia over multiple decades. The inclusion of Sudan into the Abraham Accords further solidifies Israel’s place in the region as a constructive interlocutor and trustworthy partner.

Historical colonialism, internecine strife, and natural disasters have created a strong will for many Africans to engage in their state-building again or, more accurately, to restart it. After years of shunning Israel, they realize it was to their detriment and seek to partner with the “start-up nation.” Sudan can lead the way. It is for Israel to embrace the challenge now.

i24NEWS speaks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen sits down with i24NEWS 'The Rundown' host Calev Ben-David to discuss Iran, Ukraine, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority, and much more

'Not just countries from Africa or the Gulf... Some countries from far east Asia could also join the normalization agreements with Israel... All the Muslim and Arab countries can be partners,' he told i24NEWS

Israel approves 400-plus housing units in Judea

The Higher Planning Committee of Israel’s Civil Administration on Wednesday approved the construction of more than 400 housing units in the town of Elazar in Judea.

Elazar is located in the Gush Etzion group of communities about 11 miles south of Jerusalem and just west of the city of Efrat.

The homes will be built in Elazar’s Netiv Ha’avot neighborhood, where four-and-a-half years ago 15 homes were demolished by order of the Supreme Court. The demolition was carried out in June 2018.

At the time, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman drafted an official resolution stating that hundreds of housing units would be built in the exact location of the 15 homes.

Ne’eman said in response to Wednesday’s news: “Today we are privileged to close the circle that opened exactly six years ago, when I assumed the role of council chairman. Back then the court responded to those trying to save their homes—by destroying. Today, that ‘curse’ became a blessing with the new approvals.”

In addition to the Elazar construction, more than 1,000 housing units were approved throughout Gush Etzion. Also, the eastern Gush community of Pnei Kedem was officially registered in the Israel Land Registry.

UN secretary-general warns against Jerusalem ‘provocations,’ settlement expansion

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned against “provocations” at Jerusalem holy sites and escalating violence in the West Bank at a pro-Palestinian event at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Guterres also decried settlement activity and called for more support for Palestinians during a periodic meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, held as violence surges between Israel and the Palestinians.

Tensions have spiraled in the West Bank over the past year after a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks in 2022. IDF raids against terror groups have led to hundreds of arrests and dozens of deaths, mostly members of Palestinian terror groups. Ten Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in an IDF operation against terrorists in Nablus, which Guterres called “deeply concerning.”

Israel’s new right-religious government has also vowed to expand settlements and take a more hardline approach against the Palestinians. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the flashpoint Temple Mount last month prompted an emergency UN Security Council session.

“The situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory is at its most combustible in years,” Guterres said Wednesday. “The situation in Jerusalem/Al-Quds is becoming more fragile amidst provocations and acts of violence in and around the Holy Sites. It radiates instability across the region and beyond.

“The position of the United Nations is clear — the status of Jerusalem cannot be altered by unilateral actions. Jerusalem’s demographic and historical character must be preserved, and the status quo at the Holy Sites must be upheld, in line with the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,” Guterres said.

US Funded Palestinian School Celebrated Terror Attack on Jewish Worshipers Leaving Synagogue

A Palestinian school funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) celebrated a terrorist attack that took place in Jerusalem on Jan. 27 and claimed the lives of seven Jewish worshipers who were leaving a synagogue, according to Israeli education watchdog Impact-se.

Omariya Secondary School for Girls in Qalqilya held a ceremony to herald the attack and honor its culprit, Alqam Kharyi, Impact-se announced in a report shared with The Algemeiner. In a Facebook post advertising the event, the school said Kharyi is a “hero” and that “the Jews will taste the bitterness” of his crimes. The school also said that Palestinians will “bring down destruction” to secure Jerusalem for themselves.

“The Omariya School is indicative of everything that is wrong with how US taxpayer money is abused in the Palestinian Authority’s educational sector,” Impact-se CEO Marcus Sheff told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “A school is more than bricks and mortar: it is where lessons are learned and values imparted. USAID built the school but it cannot be indifferent to the lessons of hate and values of antisemitism taught within its gates.”

Representatives with USAID did not respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

USAID provided $1.2 million to build the school, which opened in 2009, according to Impact-se. The agency’s logo and a US flag can be seen in a screenshot of video of the ceremony, which was not the first time that the school honored a terrorist.

State Department Gives $41K to Charity That Partners With Terrorists

The State Department is funding a project to train Palestinian journalists that will be carried out by a charity that has partnered with terrorist groups, according to grant records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The State Department gave $41,000 last September to Fares Al-Arab, an organization based in the Gaza Strip that has a history of partnering with the Hamas government. The money is for Fares Al-Arab to launch a 15-month training program that will "target employed and unemployed journalists" and focus on "developing the Palestinian journalists’ English language skills," the grant documents say.

The charity has openly worked with the Hamas government as recently as 2021 on a housing project, and regularly works with the terrorist organization and others on projects. Fares Al-Arab gave its media award to a radio network run by the Islamic Jihad Movement, honored a self-described journalist who belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hosted a press freedom event that featured a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, and co-led a human rights training course with a convicted terrorist. The group has also blasted Israel as an "apartheid" regime, supports boycott campaigns against the Jewish state, and signed on to a petition that calls on the United Nations to "uncover the terrorist face" of Israel.

Areej Al-Massry, a spokeswoman for Fares Al-Arab, told the Free Beacon that "the group's views on Israel will not be a part of the media training program." Program participants will be selected "in partnership with the project's management staff in the U.S. Department of State," she said. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The group's associations with terrorist groups and history of anti-Israel activism are raising concerns among lawmakers. The Israel Defense Forces has warned that terror groups use "journalism as a cover for terrorism," with Hamas reportedly employing operatives as cameramen and operating out of media buildings. In 2015, an Israeli soldier was stabbed and wounded by a terrorist posing as a photographer and wearing a yellow "press" vest.

Daniel Greenfield: Biden administration funds anti-Netanyahu protest group

Even while Israeli children were being murdered by terrorists, the only thing the media wanted to talk about were the leftist protests against the new Israeli government’s democratic judicial reforms. And the Biden administration has joined this campaign.

Israel’s new conservative government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally initiated the long overdue process of restoring democratic checks and balances by limiting the unlimited power of Israel’s Supreme Court. And the left has threatened everything up to civil war to protect its illegitimate power, while its angry protests have been spun as grassroots opposition.

What none of the news reports, editorials, public letters by prominent figures or statements by officials have revealed is that the Biden administration is funding the group behind the protests.

As David Isaac at JNS reported, the first major rally against democratic judicial reform attended by leftist opposition politicians was organized by a group known as the Movement for Quality Government. MQG receives annual funding from the State Department to purportedly conduct “classes” on democracy in Israeli schools. The State Department is well aware that MQG has a long history of waging “lawfare” against the Israeli government, because its work has been cited in its “human rights” reports. While State Department funding was not programmed for protests, money is fungible, and the Biden administration knows it’s funding an anti-Netanyahu group.

“The speakers at the rallies stand under the MQG banner when they call for insurgency, civil war and violence,” wrote prominent Israeli journalist Caroline Glick. “No one is asking the organizers who finances their activities. Someone is paying tens of millions of shekels to rent buses to transport scores of thousands of people to rallies, buy them flags, print banners and signs, rent stages and sound systems and finance ad campaigns in every newspaper and on billboards across the country.”

MQG’s obsession with stopping the return of a Zionist government is so extreme that it generated a FARA registration by hiring a Washington, D.C., law firm for the “initiation of investigation by one or more U.S. government agencies” of ridiculous leftist smears that Netanyahu was having his laundry washed for free by the Trump administration.

The Israel Guys: 20,000 Protesters STORM the Knesset as Israel PASSES JUDICIAL REFORM

After 20,000 protesters marched around Israel’s parliament building, and some even tried to break into the Knesset, Israel passed the first reading of their controversial judicial reform. Contrary to what the US Ambassador, Joe Biden, and Israel’s left-leaning politicians claim, these reforms are a sure sign of a healthy, growing democracy in Israel.

Peter Beinart’s Deceptive Attack on Israeli Democracy

Peter Beinart is at it again.

In his latest guest opinion piece (read: political screed) for The New York Times, Beinart uses the ongoing domestic Israeli debate over judicial reforms as a platform from which to dive into his favorite activity: Manipulating facts and spouting intellectually dishonest arguments in order to demonize the Jewish state and its Jewish citizens.

Here are the top ten issues (out of many) with Beinart’s portrayal of Israeli democracy, political leadership and history:

1. Israeli Demography
In an effort to undermine Israel’s claim to being a democracy, Beinart writes that “Democracy means government by the people. Jewish statehood means government by Jews. In a country where Jews comprise only half of the people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the second imperative devours the first.”

This is a misleading statement since Beinart is including the population statistics for Gaza (where Hamas is in control) and the West Bank (where the majority of Palestinians are under the control of the Palestinian Authority).

In Israel, the vast majority (74%) of citizens are Jewish, with a sizable minority (21%) of Arab citizens and those classified as “other” (5%).

2. Peter Beinart vs Yair Lapid
Beinart portrays former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid as illiberal and undemocratic by pointing to an essay by Lapid that discusses Israeli democracy but fails to make any mention of the Palestinians.

However, Beinart’s analysis is misleading since the essay is not a defense of democracy but rather a pointed critique of a political opponent (i.e. the Netanyahu government).

Thus, it is not surprising that Lapid did not mention the Palestinians because democracy and equality were not the focus of his essay.

3. Peter Beinart vs Benny Gantz
Another Israeli politician whose democratic credentials Beinart seeks to undermine is Benny Gantz.

Beinart questions how Gantz can be considered a defender of democracy when, as Israel’s minister of defense, he designated six Palestinian human rights organizations as terror groups in 2021 and subsequently shut them down.

As Beinart seeks to portray this as another case of Israeli hard-handedness toward the Palestinians, he fails to inform his readers that these organizations’ deep ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have been well-documented by a number of organizations, including HonestReporting.

4. Israel’s Palestinian Citizenship Law
Beinart refers to a law that denies naturalization to Palestinian spouses and children of Arab citizens of Israel as “discriminatory” and a tool for ensuring an Israeli Jewish majority.

He fails to inform his readers as to the central justification for the law’s continued enactment since 2003: The many cases of Palestinian family members using their Israeli papers in order to carry out or assist in terror attacks.

British-born schoolgirl who joined IS loses appeal over citizenship removal

A British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State lost her latest appeal against the removal of her UK citizenship, with a judge ruling her possible trafficking was insufficient grounds to reinstate her citizenship.

She was stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria.

Her lawyers said they would challenge the ruling.

Begum is currently being held in a detention camp in northeastern Syria.

Begum challenges decision at hearing in London
Announcing the tribunal's decision, Judge Robert Jay said there was a "credible suspicion" that Begum was trafficked to Syria for the purposes of "sexual exploitation" but that the suspicion was insufficient for her appeal to succeed.

Begum's case has been the subject of a heated debate in Britain in recent years, with some saying she forsook her right to citizenship by traveling to join the militants and others arguing she should not be left stateless.

Jay also said British government officials appeared to "see this as a black and white issue," adding in his written ruling that the government's witnesses' evidence to the tribunal "betrayed an all-or-nothing approach."

He said the tribunal was concerned by the security services' "apparent downplaying of the significance of radicalization and grooming."

On February 21, 1970; Palestinian terrorists associated with the PFLP, although acting independent from the group, placed a bomb on Swissair flight 330 headed from Zurich to Tel Aviv. Shortly after takeoff the altitude sensitive bomb exploded taking the lives of 47 people. pic.twitter.com/FRYPCJYHXg
— Max???????? (@lilbuddymax) February 21, 2023

10 Palestinians Reported Killed, At Least 100 Wounded During Israeli Military Operation in Nablus

The Palestinian Health Ministry indicated on Wednesday that 10 Palestinians were killed and at least 100 wounded during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Clashes broke out between Palestinians – reportedly from the “Lions’ Den” organization – and the Israeli military in Nablus’s Old City. Those wounded were taken to Rafidia Hospital, Nablus Specialty Hospital or Al-Ittihad Women’s Hospital for treatment, with five reported in critical condition. There were no reported casualties to Israeli forces.

Two of the dead were reported as the operation’s targets: Hussam Aslim, 24, and Mohammed Abu Baker, 23. According to reports, Aslim and Abu Baker were responsible for a number of earlier attacks against Israeli settlements, as well as the death of an Israeli military soldier in October.

Israeli soldiers surrounded the building in which the two terrorists were located, attempting to force them out. Reports indicate that an anti-tank missile was fired at the building – demolishing it while Aslim and Abu Baker were inside. Their bodies were then found by the Israeli military.

A recording by Aslim – who is linked to the Lions’ Den – was shared on Palestinian forums where he is heard saying: “We’re in trouble, but we won’t surrender ourselves. We won’t hand over our weapons. I’ll die as a shahid (martyr). Keep carrying weapons after us.” Abu Baker was identified as the leader of the al-Quds Brigades’ branch in Nablus.

After surrounding the building, security forces asked the suspects to turn themselves in. They refused and opened fired at the forces, so the security forces operated to thwart the terrorist squad. 2/4
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 22, 2023

During an Israeli operation in Jenin, a suspect jumped out a window to avoid arrest. It appears he suffered a significant injury to his right foot, nobody helped him either. pic.twitter.com/Dh80tMNP07
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) February 21, 2023

Deadly IDF raid is another nail in the coffin of the Palestinian Authority

The timing of Wednesday’s IDF operation in Nablus, in which 10 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, could not have been any worse for the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders were quick to condemn Israel and call for providing international protection to the Palestinians.

The military raid is seen by many Palestinians as yet another sign of the PA leadership’s deceptive policies and double talk.

Worse, the raid further undermines the PA’s credibility, making it appear as being part of an Israeli-American “conspiracy” targeting the Palestinian people.

Palestinian wary over PA-Israel security coordination
Many Palestinians are convinced that the operation in Nablus came in the context of ongoing security coordination between the Palestinian security forces and Israel.

A video of a Palestinian police vehicle fleeing the area as IDF soldiers entered Nablus is being cited by some Palestinians as proof that the PA is in cahoots with Israel.

Nablus today

We will not turn our necks to the Gallows of oppression.

We will fight until the occupation ends, from the apartheid soldier to the fanatic settler. Whatever the cost may be! pic.twitter.com/1orS1T4rvn
— Younis | يونس (@ytirawi) February 22, 2023

A third gunmen Muhammed Anbousi was killed in the clashes. pic.twitter.com/069jvFZTNj
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) February 22, 2023

Islamic Jihad leader whose arrest sparked 2022 Gaza conflict gets 22 months in jail

A military court sentenced a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad member to 22 months in prison Tuesday over his activities in the terror group.

Bassem Saadi’s arrest last year sparked a round of fighting between Israel and the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces said Saadi was sentenced in a plea deal that saw him confess to conducting activity on behalf of a banned organization, incitement and assuming a false identity.

He will serve 22 months in jail (beginning at his arrest on August 1, 2022). Saadi was additionally given a suspended sentence, contingent on a financial commitment.

Saadi’s indictment in August 2022 included charges of membership in a terror group — the PIJ — conducting operations on behalf of the terror group, incitement to terrorism, assisting others to contact an enemy, and assuming a false identity.

Saadi, the leader of the terror group in the West Bank, was arrested last August by Israeli troops in the Palestinian city of Jenin. His arrest followed intelligence information indicating that Saadi had continued to be active in the PIJ, a military source said.

According to the indictment, Saadi worked to assist two other Palestinians to “advance activities” of the PIJ’s student council, which is considered by Israel to be a part of the outlawed group. The pair received $5,000 from a terror operative in the Gaza Strip for the activities, according to the indictment.

US Plan to Help Palestinian Authority Take Control of Northern Samaria Raises Questions

According to what various Arab sources have told the Tazpit Press Service, it appears that the Palestinian Authority accepts in principle an American security plan designed to help the PA take control of northern Samaria.

American involvement in security coordination, training of Palestinian Authority special forces, security coordination with the IDF, and active American oversight of the points of friction between PA Arabs and “settlers” are the main points of the US operational plan to stabilize Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ control. PA security personnel have been involved in numerous terror attacks.

However, TPS has learned that the US plan requires a change in the PA Arab’s perception of the armed groups, and that Abbas has already presented conditions for its implementation.

The American plan, prepared by the coordinator for security affairs at the US Embassy, Mike Fenzel, is based on the training of Palestinian Authority special forces to take over Jenin and Shechem (Nablus). As part of this effort, 5,000 currently serving Palestinian Authority security personnel, will undergo special training on Jordanian soil under US supervision. The plan has Jordanian and Egyptian approval.

At the end of the training program, the Palestinian Authority forces will be deployed within the cities and neighborhoods (aka “refugee camps”) of Jenin and Shechem to eradicate the armed terror groups.

The plan states that no additional PA Arabs will be recruited into the security mechanisms and that the new headquarters will be based on the existing personnel as well as the equipment in the hands of the PA security mechanisms. In theory, this means the practice of absorbing terror groups into the Palestinian Authority security apparatus will no longer continue.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades published a statement claiming its fighters targeted the northern West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh on Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/HQqd4wmPpW
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) February 22, 2023

PreOccupiedTerritory: Propagandist Expects You To Care That Murderous Palestinian Terrorist Loved Soccer (satire)

An online activist attempting to both downplay or glorify the life and death of a man who met his end in an attack on Jewish civilians at a bus stop two weeks ago thinks your image of the murderer will change when you find out about his love for sports.

Mohammed Shehade, a prolific tweeter and Palestinian propagandist, cited the chief pastime of Hussein Qaraqe, 30, who drove a car into a crowd of Jews at a bus stop just outside Jerusalem two Fridays ago, killing three and injuring several others. Passers by shot and killed him before he could wreak further havoc. The dead victims included six-year-old and eight-year-old brothers, plus a twenty-year-old newlywed. Shehade, in a series of tweets, cited Qaraqe’s devotion to soccer as a way to get you to see him as less monstrous, and, perhaps eventually, to see him not as a murderer at all, because Palestinians are automatically snowflake princesses. Mr. Shehade sought to paint the wholesome picture in one thread, while retweeting and liking posts by others who called Qaraqe a hero, depicted him as a role model for Palestinians in general, and encouraged others to follow his example.

“Hussein was apolitical,” asserted Shehade in his thread, while others in his feed shared proud photos of the man with militant movement flags, posing in front of the Dome of the Rock. “he had no history of violence,” stated Shehade, even as the man’s own family boasted of his involvement in previous attacks. Qaraqe’s apparent love for kicking a ball around, Shehade seemed to argue, must negate the fact that he decided to target visibly-Jewish civilians at a bus stop, including children, and that, in turn, must somehow change your view of the conflict and of Palestinian society as something other than a cesspool of violence-glorifying, self-destructive honor-shame dynamics.

1/5 Video Footage of Hizbullah’s Elite Unit Radwan Force Training, Simulating Invasion into Northern Israel pic.twitter.com/RWdZ8A421a
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 22, 2023

3/5 Video Footage of Hizbullah’s Elite Unit Radwan Force Training, Simulating Invasion into Northern Israel pic.twitter.com/pzg23qWcsO
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 22, 2023

5/5 Video Footage of Hizbullah’s Elite Unit Radwan Force Training, Simulating Invasion into Northern Israel pic.twitter.com/nh3eHKp7Pu
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 22, 2023

Israeli strike on Damascus targeted Iranian and Syrian drone experts — report

An airstrike in Damascus over the weekend that was attributed to Israel targeted a meeting of Syrian and Iranian experts in producing drones, according to a report Wednesday.

Syria has said five people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack on Saturday night. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike, per its policy of not generally commenting on air raids in Syria. Israeli officials have previously said the IDF does not target civilians and seeks to avoid damage to residential areas as much as possible.

Citing an unnamed source close to the Syrian government, Reuters said the strike hit the meeting of experts in a residential neighborhood of Damascus.

“The strike hit the center where they were meeting as well as an apartment in a residential building. One Syrian engineer and one Iranian official — not high-ranking — were killed,” the source said.

According to a second source quoted in the report, the gathering was held “in an Iranian military installation in the basement of a residential building inside a security compound.” The source said that among those killed was a civil engineer in the Syrian army who worked at the Scientific Studies and Research Center, which has been linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program.

An additional source said an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps engineer involved with Iranian missile development was seriously hurt in the strike and sent to a hospital in Tehran for treatment.

Seth Frantzman: IRGC praises ‘expulsion’ of critical media from London

The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami praised reports that Iran International TV, a media organization, had moved operations from London to the US.

The IRGC has tried to threaten media that is critical of Iran and Tehran apparently sees this as an achievement, even amid Iran’s other setbacks.

Iran International noted recently its own “announcement by Iran International TV that about shifting studio operations to Washington DC over Islamic Republic’s threats have solicited worldwide reactions. After a significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran and advice from the Metropolitan Police, Iran International TV announced February 18 that it has reluctantly closed its London studios and moved broadcasting to Washington DC.”

The BBC noted over the weekend that “independent TV network Iran International is suspending its operations in the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.” Iran has praised this and is seeing it as a success apparently.

The IRGC head was quoted in pro-regime Tasnim media as saying that “this evil media spreading seditious lies and slander” had left London. The headline of the Iranian pro-regime media bashed the critical media as “agents.” Clearly, this shows how important Iran’s regime thinks Iran International is and also how it is afraid of any critical voices abroad.

Ukraine, Israel, and the Russia-Iran Axis

When the Biden administration entered office, argues Michael Doran, it believed that China, Russia, and the Middle East presented discrete problems that could be handled separately. The war in Ukraine and the Iranian decision to provide the Kremlin with military hardware have given the lie to this approach. Doran, the Iran expert Emanuele Ottolenghi, and the expert on Russian-Jewish affairs Mark Levin explain what brings these two authoritarian revanchist powers together, their shared opposition to the Western democracies, and the dangers their cooperation poses to both Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Levin also observes that whatever the results of the current conflict, it is likely to bode ill for Russia’s Jews.

Germany expels 2 Iranian diplomats over dual citizen’s death sentence

Germany said Wednesday that it is expelling two Iranian diplomats over the death sentence imposed in Iran against one of its citizens.

Authorities in Iran announced Tuesday that Jamshid Sharmahd, a 67-year-old Iranian-German national and US resident, was sentenced to death after being convicted of terrorist activities.

Iran claims Sharmahd is the leader of the armed wing of a group advocating the restoration of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but his family said he was merely the spokesman for the opposition group and denies he was involved in any attacks.

They accuse Iranian intelligence of abducting him from Dubai in 2020. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Berlin and informed him that “we will not accept this massive breach of a German citizen’s rights.”

“As a consequence, the German government has declared two members of the Iranian embassy unwanted persons and asked them to leave Germany at short notice,” she said.

“We demand that Iran revokes the death sentence against Jamshid Sharmahd and allows him to have an appeal that is fair and in line with the rule of law.”

Germany has said that Sharmahd, who lives in Glendora, California, did not have “even the beginning of a fair trial” and that consular access and access to the trial had been repeatedly denied. She also said he had been arrested “under highly questionable circumstances,” without elaborating.

Sunni Leader in Iran’s Baluchestan: We Will Not Rest Until We Avenge the Blood of Our Children

Molavi Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi, a Sunni leader in Iran’s Baluchestan, pledged to avenge the victims of the Zahedan massacre in an October 28, 2022 speech posted on YouTube. Naqshbandi referred to the violent crackdown against protesters in Baluchestan, in which dozens of Baluchis were killed by the Iranian authorities. He said that the people of Baluchestan await the orders of Maulana Abdolhamid, Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, the spiritual leader of Iran’s Sunnis. Naqshabandi added: “I swear to God, we will not rest until we avenge the blood of our children.” He warned the Sunni leaders of Baluchestan against meeting with authorities or participating in any government conferences, marches or elections until the blood of the victims is avenged, otherwise they would be considered traitors to the youth of Zahedan.

"Iran was one of the 1st countries that recognized State of Israel. The day Islamic Republic falls we'd be ready to have a peaceful normalization of ties with Iranian people. I hope that day will come very very soon," Israeli activist @emilykschrader told @IranIntl's @alirezambb. pic.twitter.com/55itiBzrMJ
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) February 22, 2023