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Wednesday, August 2, 2023

08/02 Links Pt1: The 'Two-State Solution' is the elephant in the room; In Lebanon, Israel and America Are on Opposite Sides; Iran's Illicit Oil Exports Hit Five-Year High

From Ian:

David Singer: The 'Two-State Solution' is the elephant in the room
Israeli annexation of the 'West Bank' won’t happen under the Saudi Solution – but division of sovereignty in the 'West Bank' between Israel and Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine will.

In 2002 Friedman provided an intriguing insight into the role he played in conceiving the two-state solution:

“Earlier this month, I wrote a column suggesting that the 22 members of the Arab League, at their summit in Beirut on March 27 and 28, make a simple, clear-cut proposal to Israel to break the Israeli-Palestinian impasse: In return for a total withdrawal by Israel to the June 4, 1967, lines, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, the 22 members of the Arab League would offer Israel full diplomatic relations, normalized trade and security guarantees. Full withdrawal, in accord with U.N. Resolution 242, for full peace between Israel and the entire Arab world. Why not?”

Imagine Tom’s surprise when he broached his proposal during dinner with Saudi Arabia's then Crown Prince and de facto ruler - Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud:

“After I laid out this idea, the crown prince looked at me with mock astonishment and said, ''Have you broken into my desk?''

''No,'' I said, wondering what he was talking about.

''The reason I ask is that this is exactly the idea I had in mind -- full withdrawal from all the occupied territories, in accord with U.N. resolutions, including in Jerusalem, for full normalization of relations,'' he said. ''I have drafted a speech along those lines. My thinking was to deliver it before the Arab summit and try to mobilize the entire Arab world behind it. The speech is written, and it is in my desk.”

Thus was the Friedman-Abdullah two-state solution born.

The Obama-Biden administration unsuccessfully pushed this solution between 2011 and 2016 – bequeathing its implementation to the United Nations after instructing their UN Ambassador Samantha Powell to abstain – rather than veto – Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016 as they were packing up and vacating the White House.

That Obama-Biden ploy has failed - after seven years of intense UN pressure to broker its implementation.

Biden, Friedman and the UN have never acknowledged the existence of the Saudi solution in the thirteen months since its publication.

They need to – for the Saudi solution has now become the key to a Saudi-Israel peace.


Biden's Saudi honey trap for Israel | Our Middle East
Are the recent efforts by the Biden administration for Saudi/Israeli normalization a pathway to peace or disaster for Israel?

In this episode of Our Middle East, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Dan Diker and JCPA analyst, Arab affairs expert, and veteran journalist Yoni Ben Menahem discuss talk of an American-initiated Saudi-Israeli peace and normalization deal after U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan was dispatched to Jeddah to speak with Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

They discuss
- the likely Saudi demands for the Palestinian state, withdrawal to the 67 lines and nuclear energy.
- the danger in both Biden and Netanyahu seeking to secure their legacies
- the complete misunderstanding of the Arab street by the Americans


‘The Middle East is a Powder Keg’: Israel’s UN Ambassador Warns of Hezbollah Provocations Along Lebanon Border
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan in a letter released Tuesday warned of potentially “disastrous” consequences stemming from Hezbollah’s provocations along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon.

The letter to the UN Security Council and Secretary-General, dated 27 July, cites Hezbollah’s construction of military compounds along the de-facto border, as well as Hezbollah’s repeated attempts in recent months to infiltrate or sabotage Israel’s security barriers.

“The Middle East is a powder keg on the cusp of being ignited,” the letter says. “Tensions along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon are higher than they have been in years as a result of Hezbollah’s violent escalations, blatant violations of Security Council resolutions, and dangerous military advancements. If the Security Council does not condemn Hezbollah’s destabilizing activities and demand that Lebanon takes action against the illegal military buildup within its territories– or at the very least, allow [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)] to be able to fully implement its mandate – the situation on the ground will continue to deteriorate and the consequences will be far-reaching and disastrous.”

While UNIFIL’s 10,000 peacekeepers are in theory mandated to “restore international peace and security” in South Lebanon and are authorized by the Security Council to “take all necessary necessary action…to ensure that [their] area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind,” the area has been a Hezbollah stronghold for decades, and the terror group operates with effective impunity from UNIFIL or the Lebanese government.

For months the group has been building observation and guard posts along the border under the guise of a supposed-environmental NGO called “Green Without Borders.”

“These are military outposts for all intents and purposes, established and maintained by Hezbollah terrorists and not innocent Lebanese environmentalists,” Erdan wrote in a separate letter in January.
Tony Badran: In Lebanon, Israel and America Are on Opposite Sides
Each time Hezbollah provokes, the U.S. reliably steps in to “mediate” between the terror group and Israel, with the goal of “stabilizing Lebanon.” Needless to say, the Israeli role is strictly to make concessions in the framework of a U.S.-brokered agreement, at the risk of displeasing its American patron. Hezbollah, meanwhile, knows that the structure of this Kabuki performance prohibits Israel from retaliating, making its provocations more or less risk-free—especially given the fact that the “Lebanese state” is a fiction.

In a speech marking the 17th anniversary of the 2006 war, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, explained exactly how the terror group’s dance with Team Obama-Biden and its emissaries works. Pointedly, his elucidation began with the maritime deal. The way Lebanon got everything it demanded, Nasrallah explained, was when “the resistance” threatened the Karish offshore platform, and when the official and popular supporting cast played their part. That’s when the Americans and Hochstein came and delivered the Israelis.

Having internalized that precedent, Hezbollah then decided it was time to press its advantage on land, where again, Nasrallah’s reading of the American posture had proven correct. The day before the terror leader’s speech, Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security, who got the lame duck government of Yair Lapid to concede to all of Hezbollah’s demands in its last days in office, arrived in Israel to discuss tensions along the land border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s provocations on Israel’s northern border had begun months prior to Hochstein’s arrival. On June 21, Israeli media reported that Hezbollah operatives had entered Israeli territory several weeks earlier—the exact date was later said to have been April 8—and set up an outpost in the Mount Dov area, several meters inside Israel. Needless to say, this was months before the passage of Netanyahu’s judicial reform bill.

That Hezbollah’s actions took so long to surface in the Israeli press in part likely reflects the Israeli government’s reluctance to advertise its own weakness. Instead, the government vainly hoped that this sign of its impotence might be quietly resolved through diplomatic channels and UNIFIL. Israel filed a letter of complaint with the U.N. Security Council and then threatened to remove the tents by force after an unspecified deadline—a threat which, as more time passes, appears increasingly hollow.

Israel’s weak response to Hezbollah’s symbolic invasion of sovereign Israeli territory suggests a failure to recognize that Hezbollah’s cross-border encampment is, as Nasrallah explained, part of a systematic campaign. In turn, this failure appears to be embedded in an even larger refusal to comprehend America’s new posture in Lebanon. As a result, Israel is responding piecemeal to a coherent Hezbollah strategy aimed at forcing Israel to make additional concessions, this time on land, while using the new constraints forced on Israel by the new American posture to establish new operational dynamics at the border.

The oddity of this situation, then, is that both Israel and Hezbollah appear to be acting under the assumption that they have U.S. backing. In the case of Israel, however, this assumption is in part a mistake, and in part a bit of public posturing which has failed to convince their enemies to the north, who in fact know better.


Which Are the Real Racist States?
In some political circles in the West, there is a popular tendency to consider Israel a "racist " or "apartheid" country.

Israel does indeed have a sizable Arab community... who enjoy rights and liberties that for most other minorities in other countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are still only a dream.

Unlike many other countries, especially in the area, Israel recognizes and respects the rights of all of these minorities. You are welcome to go to Israel and see for yourself. Most critics of Israel, however, would probably prefer not to be "confused by the facts."

[Congresswoman Pramila] Jayapal, unfortunately, is also totally wrong about Palestinian Arabs' not having a right to self-determination.... Some territory, according to the Oslo Accords, is still waiting to be negotiated, but for several years, the Palestinian leadership has seemed uninclined to come to the table. Israel has offered the Palestinians statehood—not just once, but on at least six separate occasions.... Each time, the Palestinian leadership has rejected all offers -- perhaps because they were only for 97% and not 100% of everything demanded; perhaps out of fear of seeming a traitor; perhaps because there might be a greater preference for a "cause" than for a solution, unless the solution entails the elimination of Israel. Perhaps, also, there is the hope that the international community will simply hand the Palestinians a state, without the need for them to give anything on their end, or perhaps there is just a strong aversion to signing an "end of conflict" resolution. In any event, each time there was an offer, the Palestinians not only rejected it, but did not even propose a counteroffer.

Muslim Arabs in Israel hold senior positions in all walks of life: senior posts in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset); the medical profession; private industry, various government posts, and on the supreme court. There is also no legal obstacle for Israeli Arabs who wish to join the military or the police.

What about the rights of minorities of other nations in the region?

In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees , according to UNRWA, "are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon's public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property." UNRWA also reports that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.

In Turkey, the Civil Servants Law of 1926 has made it virtually impossible for Christians and Jews to work as civil servants at state institutions. Consequently, thousands of non-Muslims lost their jobs. The law required that civil servants had to be "Turkish" – meaning that the government saw its non-Muslim citizens as "non-Turkish".... As human-rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz noted, "Not even one single non-Muslim army officer, policeman or judge exists in Turkey. Non-Muslims are absent not only from the security and judiciary establishment but from the public sector altogether.
Education Ministry bans Israeli-Palestinian NGO from schools
Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch has recently moved to ban an Israeli-Palestinian NGO accused of whitewashing terrorism from conducting programs in public schools.

Under the new regulations, the Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF) is also barred from receiving state funding for its programs.

The order reportedly came after the group failed to refute accusations against its work during a hearing in July.

The Parents Circle-Families Forum, which has offices in Ramat Gan and in the Palestinian Authority town of Beit Jala in Judea, is mainly financed by the U.S.-based New Israel Fund as well as Swiss, German, and other European Union donors.

The organization claims to promote “peace and reconciliation” by bringing together “Israeli and Palestinian families who have all lost an immediate family member in the conflict.”

However, according to the NGO Monitor watchdog group, its campaigns “promote a highly biased view of the conflict based on the Palestinian narrative and draw an immoral equivalence between terror victims and terrorists.”

Among other activities, the Parents Circle-Families Forum co-organizes the annual joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv. The event equates slain Israeli soldiers with the terrorists who attacked them and minimizes the struggle for Israel’s survival.

In the past, bereaved Israeli parents have spoken out against the organization, with some stating that while the forum “claims to speak for five or six hundred bereaved Israeli or Palestinian members,” it “exploit[s] bereavement to raise funds and to promote specific ideological positions.”
NGO Monitor: German Ministry of Interior Reinforces NGO Monitor’s Research
On July 28, the major German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the German Ministry of Interior supports Israel’s 2021 decision designating 6 Palestinian NGOs as terrorist entities. Germany and other European governments are the major funders for these groups, providing millions annually.

This is a significant repudiation of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other European officials who claim that Israel did not provide sufficient proof linking these NGOs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. According to Der Spiegel, the Ministry of Interior found the evidence of these ties provided by Israel to be “substantial,” adding that it “could stand in court.”

Moreover, the Ministry labeled the German MFA’s criticisms of Israel’s designations as “reckless” and politically motivated. NGO Monitor has consistently urged European governments to review the publicly-available information linking these NGOs to the PFLP, and this development reflects our outreach and research.

In March, NGO Monitor Vice-President Olga Deutsch presented our research and policy analysis to German MPs in Berlin. This included our 80-page report, “Clear and Convincing: The Links between the PFLP and the European Government-funded NGO Network,” presenting the overwhelming, publicly available evidence that ties these NGOs and their leadership to the PFLP.

In this document, we highlighted the individual governments and financial institutions that have ended or cut back their relationships with PFLP-affiliated groups after reviewing the evidence.

In this context, the German-Israel Society (DIG) released an official statement stating, inter alia, that “NGO Monitor once again presented its findings on the PFLP connections of Palestinian NGOs financed from Germany, this time in a comprehensive report. The DIG has discussed these reports with officials in the federal government and parliament on several occasions.” He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to address any of NGO Monitor’s findings and in order to continue funding NGOs they “must first refute the PFLP connections of these organizations, as documented in the NGO Monitor report.”
A German phenomenon: Fake Jews bash Israel and spread anti-Semitism
Scandals highlight 'insatiable demand among left-leaning publications in Germany for Jews who will advocate for BDS and delegitimize the Jewish state'

“Fake Jew” scandals rocked Germany in late July after disclosures in the media reported two German men fabricated their Jewish identities while publicly slamming the Jewish state and spreading alleged anti-Semitism.

Fabian Wolff, who paraded his Jewish background as an active supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, acknowledged in a lengthy article for Die Zeit newspaper that he is not Jewish.

Over the years, Wolff launched scathing attacks against pro-Israel Jews, the State of Israel, and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of modern anti-Semitism, while writing for major leading German newspapers, ranging from Die Zeit to Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The 33-year-old Wolff, who works as a teacher, wrote in his Die Zeit essay titled “My Life as a Son” that his late mother apparently misled him about his maternal great-grandmother being an Orthodox Jew. “I will not speak from the position of a Jew in Germany, because I cannot and I am not,” Wolff wrote.

Wolff’s critics contend he knowingly deceived the public and is a journalistic huckster. Writing for the left-wing German daily paper Taz, journalist Erica Zingher said, “Wolff himself is responsible for his false claims; others contributed to his rise. That too is part of the story.”

Zingher argued that there is a kind of insatiable demand among left-leaning publications in Germany for Jews who will advocate for BDS and delegitimize the Jewish state. This helps to explain why Wolff’s articles were “attractive” for liberal and leftist readers and news editors.

Zingher, who is Jewish, neatly captured the effect of Wolff’s agitation against Israel in 2021. That year, Israel fought an 11-day mini-war with the terrorist movement Hamas, known as Operation "Guardian of the Walls," during which Hamas launched 3,500 rockets at Israel. She explained that Wolff’s promotion of BDS and attacks on Israel unfolded “at a time when anti-Semitism in left-wing or anti-Israel demonstrations was reaching a new peak.”
Israeli diplomats send open letter to US Congress
Is it ok for the US to meddle in and influence Israeli domestic affairs?
Nadiv Tamir and Gilad Katz debate the open letter sent by Israeli diplomats to the US Congress on the current political crisis in Israel




The Possibilities, and Limits, of Israeli Reconciliation with Turkey
Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to meet with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts, and then travel to Ankara for a summit with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the trip was postponed due to the Israeli prime minister’s recent health problems. Both visits, however, are expected to be rescheduled. Eran Lerman assesses the possibilities of a further thaw in Israel and Turkey’s vexed relations, and how reconciliation with Ankara can be balanced with Jerusalem’s now-solid ties with Athens and Nicosia:

The recurrent hints and pressures Erdogan and his government used to persuade Israel to export the gas from its Mediterranean fields via Turkey (helping it establish itself as an energy hub) are ultimately pointless. Such a project would immediately run into conflict over the use of the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone [in the eastern Mediterranean]. Israel has no wish to become tethered to a mercurial leadership in Turkey which still harbors hostile sentiments and might turn radically against Israel at times of crisis, particularly a confrontation with Hamas. Moreover . . . there are viable alternatives.

What, then, should be on the agenda during Netanyahu’s visit to Ankara if he rejects (no matter how politely) Erdogan’s push for a pipeline to Turkey? There are, as things stand, significant other fields over which the two countries—despite the bitter differences of the recent past—can find common ground. . . . The scope of trade—distinctly skewed in Turkey’s favor—keeps growing, and may do so even more (albeit marginally) if the present Israeli government proceeds with its plans to lower the cost of living by allowing agricultural imports.

At the strategic level, Israel shares with Turkey—as demonstrated in mid-July by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to Baku—a keen interest in Azerbaijan’s ability to defend itself during growing tensions with Tehran. A traditional ally of Turkey (and speaking a Turkic language), Azerbaijan has enjoyed a strong security relationship with Israel over the years and recently opened an embassy after years of hesitation and delay. Turkey may take an ambivalent position toward Iran, but in Syria—as well as over the future of Azerbaijan—Ankara and Tehran are on the opposite sides of the conflict.
New direct flight between Tel Aviv, Moroccan port city
Israeli flight carrier Arkia will soon launch flights between Tel Aviv and the Moroccan city of Essaouira. The Moroccan National Tourist Office (ONMT) and the Israeli airline will sign a partnership agreement on Friday for the launch of a direct line linking these two coastal cities.


MEMRI: Columnist In Qatari Daily: Arabs And Muslims Who Have Normalized Relations With Israel Are Traitors; Children Must Be Taught About Martyrs For Palestine
In his July 11, 2023 column in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, journalist 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-'Abdallah slammed the Arab and Muslim "traitors" who have normalized relations with Israel and who condemn the Palestinian resistance and expect the Palestinians to coexist with Israel. The Jews, he argued, will not be satisfied until the Muslims leave the holy land and the holy sites and abandon the Islamic faith. He therefore called on the Arabs and Muslims to teach their children the stories of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for Palestine, and also to teach them about the Arabs who have betrayed the Palestinian cause and will be dogged by humiliation forever.

The following are translated excerpts from his column:
"[Among the Arabs and Muslims] there are deviant groups that have strayed from their course and from the national consensus that Jerusalem is the Muslims' first direction of prayer and is [therefore] not just a piece of land but [an issue of] deep faith for the Muslims. Those people think that the issue of Jerusalem is not their business but only the business of the people of Palestine!

"The worst people are those who attack the Palestinian resistance and any uprising aimed at restoring the Islamic and Arab right to the holy sites and the land. In fact, they demand that the Palestinians live in peaceful coexistence with the occupier, and they side with the occupation army against the Palestinians, admire this army and pray for its victory, while they [themselves] are in a state of humiliation…

"In the past and today as well we see the crimes perpetrated by the occupation soldiers in the occupied territories and the killing and robbing of our brethren there, so what is our position [on this]? Our position is that if, as individuals, we are unable to regain the land, we can [at least] establish the principles of justice among ourselves and among the nation. These principles state that this land is ours, that these holy places are ours, and that all measures taken by some [Arab countries] to normalize relations with the occupation, and the expressions of affection they exchange [with the occupation], are meaningless.

"Allah says in the Surah of the Cow: 'And never will the Jews or the Christians approve of you until you follow their religion. Say, "Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [only] guidance." If you were to follow their desires after what has come to you of knowledge, you would have against Allah no protector or helper' [Quran 2:120]. Therefore, they will never be satisfied until you [the Muslim] abandon not only the land and the holy places, but the entire Muslim faith. And then [do you think] they will be satisfied?!

"[So what] is our duty? Teach your children the stories of the martyrs in occupied Palestine. Teach them how its sons, its young people and its women sacrificed their lives defending the land and the holy places. Teach them how the Jews were afraid of the crippled sheikh [Hamas founder] Ahmad Yasin and of many others like him. [And] teach your children about [the Arabs and Muslims] who betrayed the land, and that humiliation will dog every traitor forever – because whoever becomes a Zionist will never have honor, but only humiliation and sorrow.
Trump campaign likens Jan. 6 indictment to Nazi Germany
The campaign of former US president Donald Trump compared the latest indictment he received on Tuesday on the January 6 Capitol Insurrection to Nazi Germany.

"The persecution of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union, and other dictatorial and authoritarian regimes," the campaign said, with a spokesperson of the former president saying that the investigation into Trump is "un-American," according to an Associated Press article.

"This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the ongoing pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Justice Department to interfere in the 2024 presidential election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins.”

The campaign also said that Trump has "always followed the law and the Constitution."

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted in response to the Trump campaign, stating that "comparing this indictment to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is factually incorrect, completely inappropriate and flat out offensive. As we have said time and again, such comparisons have no place in politics and are shameful."


Seriously hurt victim stable after Ma’ale Adumim attack; 1 released from hospital
Five of the six Israelis injured in a terror attack in the West Bank settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim on Tuesday remained in the hospital as of Wednesday morning, including one in serious condition who underwent surgery during the night.

According to law enforcement officials, the Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a group of people, including diners at a burger restaurant, injuring six in a plaza outside a main shopping mall in the settlement. He was shot dead by an off-duty police officer while attempting to flee the scene.

The seriously injured victim underwent surgery overnight and remains in serious but stable condition, Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center said in a statement Wednesday.

Another victim is in moderate but stable condition and remains hospitalized for treatment, while a lightly injured victim was released from the hospital Tuesday evening, the statement said.

The other three wounded in the attack, among them a 14-year-old boy, are in light-to-moderate condition at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.

The terrorist was identified by the Shin Bet security agency as 20-year-old Mohannad Muhammad Suleiman al-Mazra’a, from the nearby West Bank town of al-Azariya.


IDF: Palestinian shot dead after attempting to stab soldiers in southern West Bank
A Palestinian man who allegedly attempted to stab soldiers in the southern West Bank on Tuesday was shot dead, the military said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, an officer and her driver who were passing by a bus station at the Eshtamoa Junction, close to the West Bank settlement of Shim’a, spotted a suspect and decided to turn around to question him.

When they stopped to question the Palestinian suspect, he pulled out a knife and tried to stab the officer and the soldier, the IDF said.

The IDF said the soldier shot the suspect in response. Military medics declared his death at the scene.

Palestinian media named the alleged assailant as 15-year-old Mohammad Farid Zaarir.

There were no other injuries in the attack, which came hours after a Palestinian terrorist carried out a shooting attack in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem that left six Israelis hurt, before being shot dead by a Border Police officer.

Tensions have remained high in the West Bank, with the military carrying out near-nightly raids amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have killed 25 people since the beginning of the year.


Armed clashes erupt overnight between PA forces and terror group fighters in Jenin
Armed clashes erupted between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and members of local armed terror groups on the streets of Jenin Tuesday night.

The fighting broke out in reaction to the PA’s arrest of two gunmen in the West Bank town of Jaba’, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Jenin, according to the Hamas-affiliated news website Shehab.

Following the arrests, armed assailants reportedly attacked the headquarters of the Jenin governorate, the local seat of the PA administration, prompting clashes with the PA security forces. The confrontation then moved to the Jenin refugee camp, where the PA forces opened fire and threw tear gas at the gunmen, storming into the local hospital, according to videos circulating on social media.

The clashes signal an escalating conflict between President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and local Islamist factions in the Jenin area, most prominently the Jenin Battalion, the local branch of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

A month ago, the Israeli military carried out a large-scale two-day operation in the Jenin refugee camp to dismantle the terrorist networks operating there and to seize weapons.

As the street fighting broke out Tuesday night, mosques in the refugee camp called on the PA via loudspeakers to release a number of Palestinian Islamic Jihad members it detained following the IDF operation in the refugee camp in early July, in what local factions claim were “political arrests” and the PA sees as a crackdown on rival Islamist factions that have undermined its control over the northern West Bank for years.


Marwan Barghouti’s wife launches international campaign for his release
Meeting the Jordanian foreign minister in Amman last week, Fadwa Barghouti, wife of jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, announced the launch of an international campaign for the release of her husband.

The campaign, called “Freedom for Marwan Barghouti, the Mandela of Palestine,” is scheduled to be launched in Europe, Latin America and South Africa by “solidarity groups” in the next few months. It will attempt to put pressure on the international community for the release of the convicted Fatah leader, who was arrested by Israel in 2002 and is currently serving five life terms for planning three terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five Israelis.

At the meeting, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi reiterated Jordan’s support for the Palestinian cause and expressed his appreciation for the “struggle and sacrifices” of her husband.

Fadwa Barghouti’s trip to Amman is the latest stop in a lobbying tour that took her to Cairo two weeks ago to meet with the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmad Abu al-Ghait, and previously included meetings with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in March and with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Bogdanov.

Barghouti supporters within the Fatah party said to the Haaretz daily (Hebrew) that the only chance for his release from prison was for international pressure to be brought to bear on Israel, since a prisoner exchange deal is nowhere in sight; hence Fadwa Barghouti’s tour to lobby the international community to become involved.

Marwan Barghouti, 64, is often touted as one of top candidates to succeed octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinian Authority. He is especially favored by the younger generation, who perceive him as untainted by the PA’s corruption and collaboration with Israel. The latest series of meetings held by his wife were intended to consolidate international support for his possible future candidacy.
Report: 2012 sexual harassment probe into top PA minister closed after ‘hush payment’
A 2012 sexual harassment probe into a senior Palestinian official and potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was reportedly shelved following a $100,000 “hush payment.”

The revelation was made in a profile of PA Civil Affairs Minister and secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, which was published by Foreign Policy on Monday.

The US news magazine interviewed 75 government officials and other figures familiar with al-Sheikh’s rise to one of the most powerful positions in West Bank politics, where he is one of Abbas’s closest advisers. The profile paints a picture of a complex figure within a system plagued by corruption, but someone appreciated by both Israel and the United States due to his relatively pragmatic approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli security establishment was so invested in al-Sheikh’s success that it reached out to a Haaretz reporter planning to publish an article about the sexual harassment allegation and pleaded with him to kill the story, Foreign Policy revealed.

The reporter refused to comply and published a story describing how al-Sheikh verbally harassed a young IT engineer at his ministry and proceeded to touch her even after she rebuffed him. The woman then slapped him, shouted at him and left the office. Her husband later filed a formal complaint against al-Sheikh that was subsequently withdrawn following the payment.


PreOccupiedTerritory: Hamas Mulling Fake Nuke Next To “Tank” In Next Parade (satire)
The Islamist terrorist organization that governs this coastal territory is considering an upgrade to its display of prowess in the streets during an upcoming procession: in addition to a regular car dressed up as an armored fighting vehicle – including a green plastic “barrel” protruding rom the “turret” – the movement’s leadership is weighing whether to produce a mockup of an atomic weapon, sources within the organization disclosed today.

Hamas officials held discussions over the last few days to address a proposal that the boastful event feature the most powerful weapon, since that would make the most powerful rhetorical statement, the entire point of the exercise. Skepticism from several officials has delayed acceptance of the proposal.

“Is it really necessary?” wondered one official, according to an aide who recounted the discussions under condition of anonymity. “Everyone the tank is pretend. It’s a symbol, an aspiration, but still not totally outside the realm of possibility – and it represents a credible, if slightly farfetched, threat to the enemy, to instill fear. Adding a nuclear bomb to the display would ruin the effect. It would become a joke.”

Supporters of the move argued otherwise. “It is an expression of our rage and our resolve,” contended a proponent. “Our rage is nuclear. Our will to resist extends to every act we can manage, and if it were possible to wield nuclear bombs against the Zionist entity, we would do so in an instant! The enemy must know that!”

“The enemy knows that quite well,” countered an opponent. “We have shown it time after time, choosing to fight and invest in fighting rather than in ensuring the safety or prosperity of our people. A ‘nuke’ would just look silly. I think the ‘tank’ looks silly too, but that Battleship Potemkin Village has sailed. Probably on the water from the pretend dams Israel opens to flood Gaza when it rains.”
Fighting among Palestinians in Lebanon Could Be a Harbinger of Things to Come
On Monday, three days of fighting in the Palestinian settlement of Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon came to an end, leaving an estimated nine dead and 40 wounded. It appears that the efforts of Fatah, the PLO faction that governs much of the West Bank, to exert its dominance over its rivals among Lebanese Palestinians had led to a violent backlash from jihadist groups. A ceasefire was brokered with the help of Hizballah, the Iran-backed terrorist group that exerts de-facto control over the country. Benny Avni explains:

The clash at Ein el-Hilweh, on the edges of the Lebanese city of Sidon, is part of tensions between factions vying for power inside one of twelve UN-run Palestinian enclosures in Lebanon. While defined as refugee camps, they are in fact midsized, autonomous cities wallowing in poverty, anger, and militancy. The escalation of tensions between a faction loyal to the Ramallah-based Fatah and armed Islamic fundamentalists worries the Beirut leadership, which is already struggling to address Lebanon’s multiple crises. It could also be a harbinger of infighting among Palestinians elsewhere, including in the West Bank.

Te Lebanese army and its law-enforcement officials rarely enter the Palestinian enclaves, where the only outside authority is the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for Palestinians residing in Lebanon, as well as some nearly half a million Palestinians who maintain their refugee status in several Arab countries, the West Bank, and Gaza.

In Lebanon, some 200,000 descendants of Arabs who had been relocated during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 are under UNRWA’s care. . . . Palestinians in Lebanese UNRWA-run enclaves are denied citizenship and are barred from working in most professions, and their travel is restricted. Inside, the camps are divided by neighborhoods according to rivaling loyalties—to family, clan, political affiliation, religion, or ideology. Clashes occur regularly, though this weekend’s fire exchange marks an uptick in violence.


Iran's Illicit Oil Exports Hit Five-Year High
Iran’s illicit oil exports have hit a five-year high under the Biden administration, which has refrained from seizing Tehran’s outlaw tankers even though authorities have had at least half-a-dozen credible leads, according to intelligence information collected by Congress and provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Iranian oil exports—a principal source of income for Tehran’s cash-strapped regime—increased by 35 percent from 2021 to 2022, indicating that the Biden administration is not enforcing sanctions meant to prevent these sales. Record oil revenues have enabled Iran to boost pay for its regional terror proxies and cause havoc in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane where Tehran routinely harasses U.S. military vessels and seizes commercial shipping boats.

Iran has tried to abduct five ships since April, and has "harassed, attacked, or seized nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels" since 2021, according to data from Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R., Iowa) office. The situation has become so dire that the Biden administration moved additional war planes into the region earlier this month to help deter attacks.

Amid this uptick in Iranian aggression, the Biden administration has failed to enforce sanctions on Tehran’s oil trade, which benefits China, Syria, and Venezuela. Iranian oil sales stood at $44 billion as of August 2022—a 77 percent increase from 2020—with analysts attributing the rise to President Joe Biden’s "terminally lax sanctions enforcement." Although the Biden administration has been armed with the intelligence information to seize at least six illicit Iranian oil ships in recent months, it has only detained one ship in the past year, likely to appease Tehran amid diplomatic talks to restart the 2015 nuclear deal.

"By allowing Iran to increase their illicit oil profits, the Biden administration is greenlighting additional funding for their terrorist activities, forcing the U.S. to put more assets in the region, and putting more resources at risk," Ernst told the Free Beacon in a statement. "This strategy of appeasement must end—lives are on the line."
To understand Rob Malley, look no further than his father Simon
Tongues have been wagging since Robert Malley, the US Special Envoy to Iran, was put on “leave” after his security clearance was withdrawn. Was he a spy for the Iranians? A closet Communist? No, he was simply a child of the post-colonial western trend espousing Third World liberation and anti-imperialism, argues Hussein Aboubakr Mansour writing for Emet. A major influence was his father Simon Malley, an Egyptian Jew and Communist, who propagandised for Nasser. Unlike other Jews who were stripped of their Egyptian passports, Simon Malley retained his:
Rob Malley: man of the Third World
Malley’s family history, professional record, and stated opinions that usually showed contempt for traditional US foreign policy and a bold readiness to call for new controversial approaches are the very reasons that made Malley a rising star in the liberal foreign policy establishment and a loathed figure among conservative circles. Malley was the right man in the right place at the right time to be part of the progressive turn in the American political establishment.

Malley is a man of the Third World in many different ways. Coming from a strong Third Worldist lineage, Malley was always straightforward and admirably unapologetic about his family history. His father, Simon Malley, was an Egyptian-born Jew and a staunch Arab Nationalist who worked for the Nasser regime, even as it led Arab states in expelling their native Jewish populations and declared a permanent war on Israel with the help of former Nazi officers. He dedicated his life to the anti-imperialist and anti-American causes of Third World national liberation movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the time when the Third World held the promise of a completely new human nature. The Maoist revolution of 1949, followed by the Algerian War of Liberation in 1954 and Nasser’s defiance of the 1956 invasion of Suez, unleashed a wave of salvific exhilaration and enthusiasm among all revolutionaries. Europe’s post-war malaise and disillusionment with Stalinism had left the ranks of passionate leftwing activists and intellectuals in a state of revolutionary pathos, a long dark night of the beautiful soul. Algeria, the “Mecca of Revolution,” and the Third World’s wave of national liberation and anti-imperialism suddenly illuminated the darkness in which the revolution had fallen. Franz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and the entire French Left heralded that out of the sands of North Africa and the jungles of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, a new man and a new socialism are emerging to end history once and for all. For nearly three decades, the Third World was the cause that mobilized the Left more than any other cause in the world.

It is necessary to recall this air of international revolt if we are to grasp a glimpse of the life of Simon Malley, who, more than many, invested his life, his being, and his identity in the Third World. Malley’s political life started in his youth years in Egypt when he joined the Egyptian Communist Party, which was mostly dominated by bourgeois Jewish dilettantes who barely spoke Arabic but had a strong base of young students, aspiring intellectuals, and some figures in the Egyptian labor movement. Malley seemed to have come from a modest background and couldn’t further his formal education beyond high school. He found his way into journalism at an early age and where sent to cover the UN on behalf of an Egyptian newspaper, where he began a journalistic career that defined his life. Like many of his generation, the beginning of the war in Algeria was the key event that radicalized Malley and inspired him to become the francophone journalistic voice of the Third World. He had a major role in putting the Fanonian National Liberation Front (FLN) on the world map. He became one of Nasser’s official propagandists in New York despite the latter’s hostility toward Jews and communists. Thanks to his revolutionary commitment, Malley maintained his Egyptian passport despite the fact that Nasser made Egypt’s population of 80,000 Jews stateless. While he was in New York, he met his soon-to-be wife, Barbara Silverstein, a New Yorker who worked for the UN delegation of Algeria’s FLN.




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