Elder of Ziyon 12/04 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The agenda that undermines America’s bond with the Jews; Frimet Roth: Forever 15; Giving Rabbi Sacks the Genesis Prize is the honorable, responsible move
Among those who understood the depth of former US President Barack Obama's hostility to Israel, there's understandable anxiety about the Obama retreads and acolytes among the foreign policy and security nominees being chosen by the prospective president-elect, Joe Biden.
Obama's hostility is assumed to derive from his left-wing mindset which regards Israel, falsely and ahistorically, as a colonialist occupying power. He demonstrates this in his new memoir, A Promised Land, in his profoundly distorted account of the origins of the modern State of Israel.
There is, however, a deeper reason why both Obama and the left find Israel so intensely problematic, and why a Biden presidency will once again have Israel in its cross-hairs. This isn't about foreign policy. It's about the programme for America itself.
The core of the left's agenda is to remake the western world; and the agenda of Obama and the American left is to remake America.
Their target is the western nation-state and its culture. The core precepts of that culture are articulated and enshrined within the different histories, laws, religions, institutions and traditions of individual western nations.
The left, however, deems the western nation-state to be evil because it declares itself superior to cultures that don't share its values while excluding those who don't belong to it.
Hence the left's constant undermining of immigration laws in their attempt to erase national borders; their refusal to grasp that citizenship is a bargain between the citizen and the state to which he or she belongs; and their savage denunciations of those who uphold such notions as racists or xenophobes, in order to erase their voices altogether from the cultural conversation.
The nation, its specific attributes and the borders that define its territory must instead give way to a Kumbaya vision of the brotherhood of man expressed through trans-national institutions and laws.
Much of this erosion of western values has already been achieved, in schools and universities, through the culture wars. Obama's strategy in his eight years in the White House was to weaponise this agenda through the presidency.
Out of the hundreds of terrorist attacks etched on Israel's collective memory, the slaughter at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem stands out as one of the worst. On Aug. 9, 2001, when summer vacation was in full swing, Hamas terrorist Muhammad al-Masri entered the restaurant in the city center carrying a bomb hidden inside a guitar. When it detonated, it killed 15 people, including half of the Schijveschuurder family (both parents and three children, and two other children were seriously hurt), wounded a total of 140, and left an indelible trauma.
The victims included six American citizens, four of whom were wounded – including Chana Nachenberg, who remains in a vegetative state – and two of whom were killed – Shoshana Greenbaum, a 31-year-old teacher from New Jersey who was six months pregnant, and 15-year-old Malki Roth, who died alongside her friend Michal Raziel.
In a response that was considered harsh at the time, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered that the Palestinian Authority offices in Jerusalem, primarily the Orient House, be shut down. And as the horrific days of the Second Intifada continued, the public's attention shifted to the even more deadly attacks that soon followed.
Twenty years after the Sbarro catastrophe, one matter remains unresolved. The 22-year-old suicide bomber had been driven into the heart of Jerusalem by a pair of terrorists, Mohammad Daghlas, who was behind the wheel, and Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian TV anchor who used her press pass to get through the security checkpoints on the way to the capital. Tamimi directed the suicide bomber to his target destination, and immediately fled the scene. She got on a bus at Damascus Gate and heard radio reports that the number of Jews who had been killed was mounting.
"There was great joy on the bus. People congratulated each other, even though they didn't know each other. They didn't know about my part," Tamimi said later in several interviews. Later that evening, she reported on the attack without revealing the part she had played. A few weeks later, the IDF arrested her. She was sentenced to 16 life sentences and another 15 years in prison. While in prison, she announced that he had married her cousin Nizar Tamimi, who had murdered Beit El resident Haim Mizrahi in 1993.
A decade after Tamimi was imprisoned, Israel made a deal for the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. Tamimi and the driver were both released, and subsequently, Tamimi arrived in Jordan. She was the only Jordanian citizen among the 1.027 prisoners who were released in the deal.
Nizar Tamimi was also freed. He was supposed to remain in the West Bank, but someone in the Israeli establishment helped him move to Jordan, duping Malki Roth's father, attorney Arnold Roth, who had been trying to keep the couple from being reunited.
This week, we mark yet another agonizing birthday.
My sweet daughter, Malki, would now be 35 years old if Hamas operative Ahlam Tamimi had made some misstep on Aug. 9, 2001.
But Tamimi was and still is a seasoned, determined, efficient and bloodthirsty terrorist.
In the Sbarro bombing, which she confesses she masterminded and which she calls "my operation," seven babies and children perished with nine adults—some parents alongside their offspring. It was an unmitigated massacre.
Never could we have imagined that her murderer would now be free as a bird—and protected by a ruler who is coddled by both the United States and Israel—King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Tamimi's stated determination to kill Jews is matched only by the determination of world leaders to ignore our pleas to correct the travesty of justice that Tamimi's freedom embodies.
Our letters, phone calls, op-eds, tweets and front-page advertisements have fallen on deaf ears. They have only elicited excuses, evasive double-talk, or total silence from most of the people who could easily assist us if they cared to.
There are no obstacles in their path:- Legislation has existed for years empowering the United States to arrest, try and convict terrorists in U.S. courts under U.S. law if they kill a U.S. national, which Malki was.- In 1995, an extradition treaty was signed and ratified between the U.S. and Jordan, and accepted as valid by both countries. The State Department still takes that view.- Tamimi was added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2017. A $5 million State Department reward for her capture and conviction was announced in 2018.- Legislation enacted in 2019 empowers the U.S. to impose a foreign-aid sanction on any country failing to abide by its treaty obligation to the U.S.
None of the steps that could be taken to right this moral wrong has been taken.
The Genesis Prize, also known as the "Nobel Prize of the Jewish world," recognizes individuals who have achieved internationally known success, made significant contributions to humankind and who have demonstrated a fundamental commitment to Jewish identity, Jewish values, the international Jewish community and Israel.
In a world of growing and deepening polarization and extremism, underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is one consistent, extraordinary voice, which transcends the particular to connect to the universal, which unites rather than divides, which epitomizes "the dignity of difference."
Inspiring and illuminating the historic imperative and potential for "renewal of the covenant" between all of humankind, based on mutual recognition that enables negotiation and ultimately paves the path to peace, his is a singular voice of moral clarity, sorely needed in a world of "again and again," that not long ago was entrusted with the pledge of "never again."
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (z"l) was an individual with a voice that delivered overarching messages that will be sorely missed. He was a fearless thought leader, prepared to engage in discussion with all, ingeniously binding together people of all faiths – religious and secular, in Israel and around the globe – based on common values and identity.
The gaping vacuum that his passing has created, embodies the mission, vision and values of the Genesis Prize and, as he is one of the deserving nominees, presents an unparalleled opportunity and alongside it a tremendous obligation to award him with this honor.
In the face of intersecting global challenges, and at this particular moment in time, awarding the Genesis Prize to an individual whose legacy bridges divides harbors the potential of not only filling the void of our collective loss, but of finding and offering a global message of comfort and unity, at a time of distress and instability.
It was thus ironic that in the past two weeks, at the same exact Golan Heights site where Israel operated the field hospital treating wounded Syrians, Israeli soldiers found a system of IEDs set to kill an IDF patrol.
In Israel, we know the truth. For example, in October 2014, just two months after Hamas started a war with Israel in which it launched more than 10,000 missiles at civilian targets, Sarah Haniyeh, the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, was treated at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital following complications she suffered in a Gaza hospital. Around the same time, but unreported, Hamas leader Haniyeh's mother-in-law and granddaughter also left Gaza for treatment in Israeli hospitals.
The parade of Hamas murderers, kidnappers, and genocidal Jew-hating terrorists who find no moral contradiction in seeking medical help from the very people they are sworn to wipe out boggles the mind. But then again, mass murderers usually don't have guilty consciences.
Another absurdity that separates Israeli medicine from Palestinian cynicism and hypocrisy is the example of terrorist Yahya al-Sinwar, head of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, who, while imprisoned in Israel in 2007, was operated on to have a brain tumor removed. Now, having been released in 2011 in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, he continues to furiously beat the Hamas drum for more and more missiles, and more and more killings.
At present, Hamas holds Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers hostage in unthinkable conditions. No one knows where they are, their conditions, or whether they are even alive. Hamas refuses to let the Red Cross visit them. At the same time, convicted Palestinian terrorist murderers go on hunger strikes in Israeli jails, secure in the knowledge that they can rely on the oath sworn by their Jewish doctors, which the terrorists cynically leverage for their own ends, to get effective "get out of jail free cards."
Yet Israel is cast as the real impediment to peace.
The difference between the Hippocratic Oath and the hypocritical oath sworn by the Palestinians when they join the terrorist organizations is not the spelling. They invest in weapons and tunnels instead of hospitals, and explosives instead of medicines.
The Palestinian murder doctrine is not meant to bring healing or peace, but to sow death. Hamas' missiles in UNRWA infirmaries, the Red Crescent ambulances used to transport terrorists and the Hamas bunkers under Shifa Hopsital all give witness to that awful truth. It's time to put a stop to this lunacy.
Anti-Israel organizations have launched a coordinated effort to pressure the incoming Biden administration into selecting people who will champion their causes, a push that reportedly includes opposing mainstream nominees supported by leading Democrats and Republicans.
In a bid to agree on strategy and maximize pressure on Joe Biden's transition team, more than 100 far-left organizations, including Code Pink and Win Without War, held a Wednesday conference call "to try to get on the same page and make a more coherent pitch to the Biden team," according to Politico. The organizations are preparing to recommend some 200 staffers who share these organizations' foreign policy ideology, which includes rolling back sanctions on Iran and challenging American aid to Israel.
Included on the call was Matt Duss, a top adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who has made a name on the foreign policy stage for his hardline anti-Israel views. Duss faced charges of promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during his time as a blogger at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and was ultimately pushed out of the organization by Biden nominee Neera Tanden. His role in pressuring the Biden transition team is likely to worry pro-Israel Democrats who prefer the incoming administration sideline the most radical voices in the party, such as Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). The House progressives have been working to mainstream anti-Israel voices and push policies such as conditioning military assistance to Israel until it bows to far-left demands.
Last week, Duss responded to the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear weapons program official by accusing the perpetrator, assumed to be Israel, of "terrorism"—a claim that was roundly criticized by regional experts.
#Antisemites don't get to define antisemitism! No other minority would be expected to sit on the sidelines while people who aren't part of the community, who don't represent our mainstream views, speak on our behalf. pic.twitter.com/I9dpuAQNcL
Representative Gregory Meeks was voted by his Democratic colleagues on Thursday to serve as the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, beating out the more progressive Joaquin Castro.
Meeks has long described himself as a major supporter of the US-Israel relationship, voting in favor of military aid for the Jewish state and against the BDS movement. He has ties to AIPAC and J Street, with both the establishment group and the dovish lobby calling the New York congressman a friend.
Meeks beat out Castro 148 to 78. He will be the first Black representative to chair the Foreign Affairs Committee, replacing longtime New York Rep. Eliot Engel, who was ousted in a primary by a progressive challenger earlier this year. Engel was also known for his close ties to the pro-Israel establishment in Washington.
In interviews and events leading up to Thursday's vote, Meeks said that he would work to reinvigorate the State Department, accusing outgoing US President Donald Trump of gutting the agency. He has also backed Biden's plan to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, questions former White House national security aide Fiona Hill, and David Holmes, a US diplomat in Ukraine, as they testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The election for panel chair became a two-man race on Wednesday after Rep. Brad Sherman announced his withdrawal.
Democratic NY City Council Candidate @jordanalusk had an anti-Jewish meltdown on Twitter. She apologized and claimed to convert to Judaism. Then she kept attacking Jews on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/TDFqJh7H1j
A member of the British Parliament who served a suspension for antisemitism and was reinstated by his party has been elected to serve on his party's disciplinary board.
Neale Hanvey of the Scottish National Party was just elected to his party's disciplinary board one year after serving a suspension over antisemitic social media posts that resurfaced ahead of the 2019 election. In them, he shared an article featuring a caricature of Jewish billionaire George Soros as a puppet master and another comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to that of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
He was readmitted to his party six months ago after completing a course at a Holocaust center and meeting with Scottish Jewish community leaders to apologize for the posts.
The UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism criticized SNP for electing Hanvey to the disciplinary board at its party conference, calling it "a wrong move."
Hanvey, however, defended his election to the board.
"I have always accepted full responsibility for my error in judgment in 2016, for which I have sincerely, and unreservedly, apologized," he told The National. "I was duly sanctioned for this by my party and complied with those terms without complaint."
.@jeremycorbyn I know it's a bit much to ask you to also call out atrocities of the Houthis after they went and adopted your own slogan.
There is little doubt that for many Palestinians in the "refugee camps" (many of which are urban sprawls virtually indistinguishable from their surroundings) in neighboring states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, poverty is a real issue. But focusing on the financial crisis facing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in terms of funding alone, as a recent article by the United Press International wire service does, leaves readers misinformed as to the true causes of the situation.
The article, published December 1, by Dalal Saoud, tells readers of how UNRWA's situation, coupled with Lebanon's deteriorating economic conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, have "pushed the estimated 200,000 refugees deeper into poverty."
There is no doubt that the plight of the average Palestinian in Lebanon is miserable. But beyond the factors mentioned above, the funding of
"Despair, Poverty and Anger"For example, in the third paragraph, Claudio Cordone, UNRWA's director in Lebanon, is quoted:The conditions are really difficult. If we ran out of money and we cannot support the poor among the Palestinians, whose numbers are increasing, then they are left on their own… There is nobody else for them. UNRWA literally is the only lifeline."
In the same vein, the following paragraph describes Lebanon as "cash-strapped" and "grappling with its worst financial and economic crisis since its 1975-90 civil war," meaning the country "can barely feed its own population and doesn't have the capacity to help any of the refugees on its soil." And the paragraph after cites another UNRWA official — this time Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini is described as sounding the alarm,warning that a huge deficit in the agency's budget could force it to stop some of its services and the payment of salaries to 28,000 staffers in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan."
After all this, readers are told of another official involved in the situation, Abdelnasser el Ayi, office director of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, who talks of the pervasive "despair, poverty and anger."
On November 29, we alerted you to how CBC News wrongly claimed that Iran "disbanded (its) military nuclear program" in 2003, in coverage about the assassination of IRGC Brigadier General and Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
As we noted in our alert and in a complaint sent to senior executives at CBC News, reports on November 27 and 28 claiming Iran shuttered its military nuclear program is disputed by Israel and the west who argue that Iran never stopped its program; the Iranian regime just moved research and development underground, off limits to IAEA inspectors, and within existing military research programs. Israel, citing the confiscating nuclear archives that the Israeli Mossad extracted in 2018, says Iran is still trying to execute a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons.
While Iran claims to have disbanded its nuclear weapons program in 2003, this assertion lacks credibility and cannot be substantiated. The CBC and the mainstream media shouldn't accept the regime's assertions hook, line and sinker.
In dialogue with the CBC, we told our public broadcaster that it has a responsibility to tell its readers, viewers and listeners that this matter is fundamentally in dispute, with Israel and the west believing that Iran has not abandoned its nuclear weapons program.
HonestReporting Canada is happy to report that CBC News has agreed with our criticisms of their reporting and has taken remedial action to set the record straight on this matter. For example, CBC issued the following clarification notice appended to its reporting:
One of Europe's leading rabbis on Friday criticized the Council of the European Union's milestone declaration on antisemitism issued earlier this week, highlighting the absence of any protection for key Jewish rituals such as circumcision and kashrut that have faced legislative challenges in a number of European countries.
In an interview with the French Catholic news outlet La Croix, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt — president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) — stated that while he welcomed the EU declaration, "it does not correspond to what is fundamentally necessary to safeguard the Jewish communities in Europe."
Goldschmidt said that he had been "particularly disappointed by the omission of an explicit commitment to defend our religious practices, such as shechita (the slaughter of animals for consumption according to religious guidelines) and the milah (the circumcision of Jewish male infants eight days after birth)."
The six-page declaration published on Wednesday by the Council of the European Union — the key body coordinating policies among the EU's 27 member states — asserted that "antisemitism, in any form, is and must remain unacceptable and all steps must be taken to counteract it, including, where necessary, through legal measures at European level."
It underlined that "the member states of the European Union support policy initiatives at European level that aim to combat incitement to antisemitic hatred and acts of violence, as well as the dissemination of antisemitic conspiracy myths online."
Sheffield United is the only football club of the Premier League's twenty member clubs to refuse to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The Premier League and the other nineteen clubs adopted the Definition yesterday, but The Blades have declined to do so.
It is hoped that this adoption will enable the Premier League to identify and discipline anti-Jewish racism among players and employees, and will send a signal to fans that antisemitism has no place in football. Sheffield United's decision not to adopt the Definition sends precisely the opposite message.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "We and others have worked hard to ensure widespread adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, with Lord Mann in particular campaigning vociferously for the Premier League and its constituent clubs to adopt it. Their decision to do so is a momentous day for everyone who opposes racism in sport.
"It is therefore all the more astonishing that Sheffield United alone would disgracefully decline to adopt the Definition. It sends absolutely the wrong message to fans and players, and undermines the growing consensus that racism has no place in football. Serious questions must now be asked of the owners and management of the club over this scandalous own goal."
Scientists said Wednesday they have restored sight in mice using a "milestone" treatment that returns cells to a more youthful state and could one day help treat glaucoma and other age-related diseases.
The process offers the tantalizing possibility of effectively turning back time at the cellular level, helping cells recover the ability to heal damage caused by injury, disease and age.
"I'm excited about being able to rejuvenate organs and tissues that fail due to ageing and disease, especially where there are no effective treatments, such as dementia," senior author of the study David Sinclair told AFP.
"We hope to treat glaucoma in human patients (at the trial stage) in two years," added Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who is of Jewish heritage.
The treatment is based on the properties that cells have when the body is developing as an embryo. At that time, cells can repair and regenerate themselves, but that capacity declines rapidly with age.
The scientists reasoned that if cells could be induced to return to that youthful state, they would be able to repair damage.
To turn back the clock, they modified a process usually used to create the "blank slate" cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells.
Most will be virtual, some will take place as part of tightly regulated events — but there will be menorah lightings and more Hanukkah festivities this year in Texas, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
"This year, more than ever, the light of Hanukkah is needed to increase the feeling of the triumph and eradication of evil with goodness, illness with health, sadness with joy," said Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff, program director for Chabad in Houston, adding that the events this year have been "carefully chosen to adhere to best safety practices possible."
Through large outdoor menorah lightings and other public celebrations they organize every year for the eight-day Festival of Lights, Jewish communities large and small throughout the state — from Lubbock to El Paso to Corpus Christi — don't shy away from expressing their Jewish pride.
In Houston, the celebrations are among the largest in the state with a City Hall lighting ceremony, menorah car parade and "gelt drop" that involves the chocolate coins being dropped from a helicopter. It's all organized by the city's chapter of the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which is known for its outreach activities.
But the limitations on public gatherings due to the pandemic has significantly changed the logistics this year in Houston and elsewhere in Texas, where Jews make up less than 1% of the state's population of nearly 30 million.
Over 7,000 miles away from home, the IDF's & @IsraelMFA humanitarian aid delegation is working round-the-clock assessing damages in infrastructure after Honduras was struck by two hurricanes last month.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Al Resalah News has photos of "settlers storming Al Aqsa courtyards" yesterday.
But not everyone in the photos are "storming."
Here's a guide.
Stormers all have something in common, but it is a little hard to define.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The Trump-haters are circling Trump's liferaft promising a comprehensive Middle East peace – but Trump can repel their determined efforts to sink it if he is not nominated as President when the Electoral College votes on 14 December.
United Nations Secretary-General Guterres is not remotely interested in pursuing Trump's Peace to Prosperity Vision - which calls for Israeli sovereignty to be extended to about 30% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) - with an independent demilitarized Palestinian Arab State being established in the remaining 70% and Gaza (Peace Plan).
Guterres remains committed to supporting Palestinian Arabs and Israelis resolving the conflict:
"in line with relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements in pursuit of the vision of two states."
Guterres will be exhorting international support for UNSC Resolution 2334 – which Obama and Biden shamefully failed to veto on 23 December 2016 – abstaining instead - as they were departing the White House.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) seemingly does not have any interest in Trump's Peace Plan - a PLO official recently declaring:
"We have received many positive messages from the Biden team in the past few days. We are looking forward to opening a new page with the Biden administration after the damage caused by the Trump administration."
The PLO refused to negotiate with Israel on Trump's Peace Plan even before its details were published last January.
Biden also seems certain to trash Trump's Peace Plan if elected America's next President.
In an interview with the New York Times Tuesday, presumptive President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed his plan to return the US to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The US will rescind its economic sanctions on Iran if it complies with the nuclear deal's limitations on its nuclear activities. Once this happens, Biden said he will seek to negotiate a new, longer-term nuclear deal with Iran's ayatollahs. The current deal expires in five years.
Biden insisted the goal of his policy is to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. But practically speaking, Biden's policy guarantees Iran will develop a nuclear arsenal and the missiles to deliver them. This is true both because the nuclear deal will expire, and Iran will be free to build nuclear bombs as it likes in 2025, and because the 2015 nuclear deal has no effective enforcement mechanism.
The UN inspectors tasked with ensuring Iranian compliance are only permitted to enter civilian nuclear sites. Since Iran has sole authority to determine if a site is civilian or military, it can and has rendered the deal's inspection regime a pathetic joke.
It goes without saying that Israel cannot accept this state of affairs. Just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was compelled to oppose Barack Obama's nuclear deal, so Israel has no choice but to strongly oppose Biden's plans.
Unfortunately, Israel is currently incapable of clearly opposing Biden's plan that will give the mullahs the means to carry out their plan to destroy the Jewish state. That is because currently, Israel doesn't have one government. It has two governments pretending to be a unity government. But in practice, they disagree on everything, including how to handle Biden's Iran policy and pursue contrary policies on all issues.
Netanyahu's Likud government recognizes the danger posed by Biden's Iran policy. Last week, Netanyahu loyalist Ambassador Ron Dermer said flat out that it would be "a mistake" for a Biden administration to return to the nuclear deal.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White government doesn't understand the danger.
Hudson Institute: A Conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran to discuss the dramatic improvement in Israel's relationship with the Arab world, the sources of Israel's rising power, and the major factors shaping the prime minister's strategic vision.
"There is no gloating about death, but the Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.... was not the scientist who discovered the anti-coronavirus vaccine, but the scientist called the father of the Iranian nuclear bomb..." — Tareq Al-Hameed, Saudi author, Okaz, November 30, 2020.
"[H]ow can they condemn the killing of a man who devoted his life to making a sinister bomb for an evil regime, but they do not condemn Iran's killing of innocent people in the region. Iran kills Syrians, Iraqis, and Lebanese, and destroys Yemen, and sponsors all terrorist groups..." — Al-Hameed, Saudi author Okaz, November 30, 2020.
"[D]isrupting the Iranian regime's access to nuclear weapons is a long-term service to humanity." Iran... sees nuclear weapons as a tool "that enables it to occupy the rest of the world...." — Mohammed Al-Saaed, Saudi political analyst, Okaz, November 30, 2020.
"We are talking about a gang that hijacked Iran, and its defeated people became its captive. It seeks to hijack the entire region, fueled by intense hatred for the Arab. Is it acceptable to allow it to produce nuclear weapons and use them to kill millions of people?" — Mohammed Al-Saaed, Saudi political analyst, Okaz, November 30, 2020.
It has been widely reported that, in late November of 2020, the Israeli prime minister secretly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the kingdom's crown prince. That these two leaders met at all is noteworthy; that they might have discussed the possibility of normalizing relations between the Jewish state and the wealthiest and most influential Arab country is momentous.
It is easy to see what Israel stands to gain from peace with the Saudis. But what's in it for Saudi Arabia? What would they gain, and what would they risk losing?
Richard Goldberg, a Middle East expert and a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tackles these question in his Mosaic piece, "What Saudi Arabia is Thinking." In this podcast, he joins Mosaic Editor Jonathan Silver to discuss what brought the Middle East to this current moment, how the upcoming change at the White House is affecting Saudi thinking, and whether Israeli-Saudi normalization is truly on the horizon.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.
The Tactical Report intelligence website suggested a week ago that the UAE is eager to purchase Israel's proven anti-missile system, Iron Dome. According to the website, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed is looking forward to purchasing the Israeli air defense system, and that he has been examining various models of this system since the signing of the normalization agreement with Israel in mid-September.
Given the participation of the American defense company Raytheon in the production of the interceptor missiles used by Iron Dome, the UAE believes that the Pentagon would support its efforts to obtain the Israeli system.
Tactical Report cited one downside of the Rafael-made system – the fact that it uses fixed launchers. According to the website, this means that any sale of Iron Dome to the UAE will be preceded by inquiries about technical issues and capabilities, to ensure that the system meets the UAE's needs for a variety of short-range air defense systems.
Bin Zayed also showed interest in the Falcon air defense system, which is jointly produced by the US-based Lockheed Martin, the German Dell, and the Swedish Saab companies. Falcon was first launched in 2019, and the UAE submitted an initial purchase order at the time, but it's not yet clear whether it has already been delivered to the UAE.
Meanwhile, Al-Khaleej Al-Jadeed reported Thursday that when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by the head of Mossad Yossi Cohen, visited Saudi Crown Prince Ben Salman, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on hand, the crown prince inquired about purchasing various types of Israel-made air defense systems.
Top women diplomats from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain came together on Thursday for a first-of-its-kind session to discuss the role of women in diplomacy and the need for the active involvement of women in promoting peace and security in the Middle East and beyond.
Hosted by the "Women in Diplomacy Network," the online event was moderated by its founder Sarah Weiss Ma'udi, the legal adviser to Israel's UN Mission in New York. The event featured Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar; Bahrain's UN Ambassador Houda Nonoo, and the United Arab Emirates' UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh.
Eilon Shahar, Nonoo, and Nusseibeh highlighted some of the challenging issues facing women diplomats in the Middle East. The panelists emphasized the important role women at the highest levels of decision-making play in their respective countries and discussed their vision for how gender must play a role in their newly forged ties.
"The UAE and Israel are champions of gender equality in our region, and we believe that the agreement between our two countries is already beginning to foster partnerships that will unlock enormous opportunities for women in the region," said Nusseibeh.
Also in attendance was Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who proposed holding the event in his first meeting with his Arab Gulf partners. Erdan stressed the importance of implementing Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls for the active inclusion and participation of women in promoting peace and security.
"It is essential that women are included on every level of decision-making because a world with gender equality is a better world for all its inhabitants," said Erdan.
No, it's actually not misleading. USG recognizes the Golan Heights as Israel and it has been the reality on the ground for over 50 years. https://t.co/QwcZzeDlVx
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi met his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi at the Allenby Bridge border crossing Thursday, according to both the Israeli and Jordanian foreign ministries.
The meeting was the first between the two, and the first time in years that the top diplomats of the two countries have had an official sit-down.
A statement released by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said Safadi and Ashkenazi discussed "a number of pending concerns, including water rights, lifting restrictions on Jordanian exports to the West Bank, Jordanian provision of additional electricity to the Palestinian Authority, and organizing movement through border crossings in light of their closure due to the coronavirus pandemic."
Jordan also said Safadi told Ashkenazi that "Israel must stop all of the moves that endanger the chance of peace with the Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution," and called upon Israel to halt what he called provocative actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Temple Mount and to respect the historical status quo.
Safadi's office also said he emphasized the need to restart bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in light of the PA's recent decision to resume security coordination with Israel.
Ignoring Jordan's concerns has appeared to work for Israel in the last years because the Abraham Accords were successful. But relations with the Gulf are not a stand-in for relations with Amman. Jordan is essential because of its role in Jerusalem, its close relationship with the Palestinians and also because, as a monarchy, it is close to the Gulf monarchies. Enemies such as Iran are always trying to increase their influence with the Palestinians. In addition, the Muslim Brotherhood, which is linked to Hamas and Turkey's ruling AK party, have wanted to undermine the Palestinian leadership and Jordan.
Israel and Jordan are on the same side on these issues, but clearly, Israel has not invested enough in the relationship.
This must change. As a new US administration takes office, Israel should be working with Jordan rather than have the kingdom be one more voice encouraging the US to be tough on it and seek to undermine the new peace agreements it forged in the Gulf. Netanyahu could do more by sending positive messages in Jordan's direction and showing a greater readiness to listen to the king and his concerns. It doesn't require appeasement of Amman to show strength and respect for the kingdom and that its views matter to Israel.
Jordan doesn't want to provoke the region against Israel, it doesn't want instability, but it wants to be heard. Israel can change that. It can begin by listening.
Jordan is growing increasingly worried about reports suggesting that Israel has offered Saudi Arabia control over the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, including Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount, Jordanian and Palestinian officials said on Thursday.
The recent secret meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has increased fears in Jordan that the kingdom may lose its status as custodian of the Jerusalem holy sites, the officials said.
The issue dates back to 1924, when the Supreme Muslim Council, the highest Muslim body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine, accepted Hussein bin Ali (Sharif of Mecca) as custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, Israel committed to "respect the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem." Israel also pledged that when negotiations on the permanent status will take place, it will give high priority to the Jordanian historical role in these shrines.
The Wakf Department that oversees Muslim sites in Jerusalem is controlled by the Jordanian government.
Turkey's lira briefly slipped on Friday after US lawmakers included mandatory Turkish sanctions in a defense spending bill that moves Washington a step closer to punishing its NATO ally for buying Russian S-400 missile defenses last year.
The final version of the $740 billion annual US defense spending legislation would oblige the White House to select from a list of sanctions over the S-400s, which Washington says are incompatible with NATO operations.
US President Donald Trump, who is set to step down next month, has said he will veto the bill over separate provisions. But he may need some support in Congress and it would be the first such veto in nearly 60 years.
Turkey's foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment.
Russia delivered the ground-to-air S-400s last year and Turkey tested them as recently as October. Ankara says they would not be integrated into NATO systems and pose no threat, and has called for a joint working group.
The threat of Western sanctions has weighed on the lira currency, which hit a series of record lows this year and weakened nearly 1% before recovering to 7.76 versus the dollar at 1019 GMT.
Sanctions could harm a Turkish economy already struggling with a coronavirus-induced slowdown, double-digit inflation and badly depleted foreign reserves.
Were the next elections to be held at this time, the right-wing bloc would win 67 Knesset seats, enough to form a government on its own. The center-left, without Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu party, would receive 46 seats, according to a new poll published by Channel 12 News on Thursday.
The poll projected Likud would win 30 seats, to Yamina's 21, while Blue and White would drop to just 10 seats.
Both Yesh Atid and the Joint Arab List would secure 17 seats each, followed by ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties with eight seats each, and Yisrael Beytenu and Meretz with seven seats each.
Here, too, the Labor, Gesher, Habayit Hayehudi, Derech Eretz ahd far-Right Otzma Yehudit parties cross the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold.
A reunited Yesh Atid-Telem and Blue and White faction, with Blue and White leader Gantz serving as No.2 to Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, would secure 25 seats, two fewer than both parties would receive if they were to run separately in the election. The move would see the Likud gain one seat for a total of 31.
Asked how a possible bid by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai as Yesh Atid-Telem's No.2 would impact the election, respondents gave the faction 21 seats, the same as Yamina. Likud would garner 30 seats, while Blue and White would be knocked down to seven seats.
Israel signed an agreement with Moderna Friday to triple the number of coronavirus vaccines the American pharmaceutical company will supply.
The original agreement for two million doses was expanded to six million — enough for three million Israelis.
"This gives us hope, we see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was the government's responsibility to make vaccines available, he said, and the public's responsibility to follow the coronavirus guidelines. "Together we will beat COVID-19."
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein hailed the extra vaccine purchase as "wonderful news for the citizens of Israel and for the Israeli economy."
"There will not be a citizen that wants to get vaccinated that we cannot supply with a vaccine," he said.
Echoing Netanyahu, Edelstein stressed that the general public needed to maintain social-distancing guidelines and avoid letting its guard down, as Israel sees a rise in new COVID cases.
No lockdown in Israel in place during Hanukkah Holiday
Noteworthy to mention the IDF has used this tactic w/ Palestinian militants. Even though the IDF has killed SAA members in airstrikes, warnings sent to the phones of SAA officers especially the First Corps indicates how serious Israel is about Hezbollah activity on the #Golan. https://t.co/VsDB7mRIeJ
Security forces arrested a terrorist on Friday suspected of aiding the attack responsible for the death of Rabbi Meir Chai in December 2009.
Muayad al-Alfi, 46, was arrested in Nablus by the Israeli counter-terrorist unit Yamam, a division of the Border Police.
Rabbi Meir Chai was killed in a drive-by shooting attack near the northern Samaria settlement of Shavei Shomron.
Al-Alfi was a commander of the Fatah's armed wing, Aqsa Martrys Brigades, and has been wanted by Israeli forces for ten years.
At the time if his death, Rabbi Chai was the fourth victim to be killed in the West Bank by terrorists that year.
Chai, a father of seven, was driving his minivan when a Palestinian car overtook him and someone from inside the vehicle opened fire. Chai was hit in the end, and he drove off the road. By the time rescue services arrived to the scene, they were forced to pronounce him dead.
Nablus: IDF arrests Muayad al-Alfi, 46, commander of Fatah's armed wing, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who was wanted by Israel for 10 years. pic.twitter.com/oeX5msBSIZ
The Palestinian Authority on Thursday summoned the Czech Republic's top representative in Ramallah, Petr Stary, to inquire about his country's decision to open a diplomatic office in Jerusalem and condemned it as a "dangerous step."
The announcement on Wednesday of the decision to open a new Jerusalem branch office of the Czech Embassy in Tel Aviv followed a phone conversation between Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek and his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi.
The office will be established in the first half of next year and will be staffed by a diplomat, a statement by the Czech Foreign Ministry in Prague said.
"This is an important step that is indicative of the friendship between the two people and the recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the State of Israel and the Jewish people," Ashkenazi said.
The Czech Republic is the second EU member state, after Hungary, to open an official diplomatic mission in Jerusalem.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani on Friday "denied" that his country has decided to label settlement products as Israeli.
The denial came during a phone call between Al Zayani and Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Malki, according to a statement released by the PA.
The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not report about the phone call.
On Thursday, Bahraini Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed Al Zayani, was quoted as saying that Bahrain "will treat Israeli products as Israeli products; we have no issue with labelling or origin." He was speaking to reporters during a visit to Israel.
But the PA said that the Bahraini foreign minister assured Malki that there was no change in Bahrain's position toward the Palestinians and settlements.
"Al Zayani stressed that this claim attributed to the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism completely contradicts his country's position of supporting the Palestinian cause and rejecting settlements and annexation," the PA statement said.
In a scathingly homophobic and antisemitic article, Palestinian writer and researcher Dr. Mustafa Yousuf Al-Lidawi, a former representative of Hamas in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, writes that homosexuals were always denounced as loathsome and deranged sodomizers and perverts that corrupt human societies. However, Jews spread homosexuality in the world and encouraged it by means of films that present it as natural behavior that must be respected and defended. He states further that, in Israel, homosexuals have gained considerable clout in society and in politics, which allows them to display their inclinations in public and compels the decision-makers to recognize them as a legitimate social sector, grant them rights and meet their demands. This, he adds, makes Israel one of the countries friendliest to homosexuals and Tel Aviv their regional capital.
Al-Lidawi expresses hope that the homosexuality prevalent in Israeli society will ultimately cause it to disintegrate and collapse, but laments the fact that, in the meantime, homosexuality-ridden Israel occupies the Palestinians' land, desecrates their sanctities and sows destruction and corruption. Finally, he warns the Arabs who have made an alliance with Israel that they will incur Allah's wrath.
It should be noted that Al-Lidawi has published many antisemitic articles. In the past he wrote two articles claiming that Jews used to kill Christian children to make Purim pastries and Passover matzas.[1]
The following are translated excerpts from his recent article.[2]"Writers in East and West Europe, [including] the prominent writers of the former Russian Empire and other authors of internationally famous novels, early and modern, describe [homosexuals] as follows: people who engage in unnatural sodomy; reeking and loathsome perverts; deranged lunatics; people who go against human nature and are controlled by their instincts; wreckers and corrupters of families, and corrupters of human society who destroy lively homes. Such was their evil reputation in Russia and Eastern Europe, in America and elsewhere. When peoples encountered them and learned the truth about them they feared for their sons [and therefore] banished the homosexuals, distanced them [but] kept an eye on them lest they take control of their children, exploit their innocence and corrupt their God-given natures.
Lebanon's Hezbollah said Friday it is suing a former Christian lawmaker and a website affiliated with a Christian political party for defamation, after they accused the Shiite terror group of being responsible for the devastating explosion at Beirut's port this summer.
Hezbollah's legal representative Ibrahim Mussawi said the accusations, leveled by Fares Souaid and the website of the right-wing Lebanese Forces party, were misleading.
Mussawi, also a Hezbollah lawmaker, told a press conference outside the courthouse that blaming the group threatens to disrupt social peace in Lebanon, at a time when the United States is exerting maximum pressure on his party and its allies. Washington, like Israel and a growing number of other nations, considers Hezbollah a terrorist group and has been escalating sanctions against it and its political allies in Lebanon.
"The accusations directed at Hezbollah over the port blast are false and constitute a real injustice," Mussawi said.
"We have assigned a group of lawyers to file lawsuits with the judiciary to pursue all those who have practiced deception, falsification, slander and false accusations," he said.
The Iranians had their way with Obama and Kerry because they sensed their desperation. Every time Iran said "no" to their demands, the United States responded by agreeing to drop the issue.
Now they're hoping to repeat that pattern with Biden – a president who will likely have other priorities once in office. Moreover, with a foreign-policy team composed entirely of Obama alumni who have spent the last four years claiming that everything they did was right despite all evidence to the contrary, coupled with a left-wing Democratic Party activist base that will regard a tough stand on Iran as unacceptable, Biden will have a lot of reasons to accept the Iranians' rebuff and move on to other issues.
The question here is not one about Biden's sympathy for Israel or even whether he has a sufficient grasp of the threat that Iran poses. Even if he has no desire to endanger Israel – or its Arab allies, who are equally incensed at the idea of Biden reversing Trump's stands on Iran – and genuinely wants to reduce the danger Tehran poses, it's impossible to view this first exchange between the next president and the Islamist regime with anything but dismay.
If Biden really wants to reduce the danger to the world from Iran, then he has to wake up and realize that the situation has changed since Obama and Kerry were squandering their leverage with Iran back in 2013.
The idea that unless the nuclear deal is restored, Iran will quickly acquire a bomb is false. The danger is not that it will tempt fate and the possibility of uniting the West (including reluctant European nations that would rather profit from trade with Tehran than to stop it from attacking its neighbors) by building a weapon now. The problem is what happens if the West does nothing and sticks to the false belief that Obama's deal protected anyone.
As a new president, Biden still has the opportunity to begin negotiating in a manner that has a chance of advancing American interests. But if he sticks to what he told Friedman, it's likely that the Iranians will think he is as easy a mark as Obama and Kerry turned out to be. That would be disastrous for the United States and those who still look to it for leadership.
President-elect Joe Biden addressed for the first time on Thursday night US time the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as Iran's chief nuclear scientist, in an interview given to CNN.
He said that it was "hard to tell how much" the recent assassination of the scientist would complicate his dealings with Tehran.
Recall, Fakhrizadeh was killed last Friday. He had been a target for Israelis for a long time.
He slammed US President Donald Trump's dealings with Iran and his decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, reaffirming his desire to rejoin if Tehran complies.
"He has pulled out to get something tougher, and what have they done? They've increased the ability for them to have nuclear material. They're moving closer to the ability to be able to have enough material for a nuclear weapon. And there's the missile issues," the president-elect said. "The bottom line is that we can't allow Iran to get nuclear weapons."
Iran plans to install hundreds more advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges at an underground plant in breach of its deal with major powers, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report showed on Friday, a move that will raise pressure on U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.
The confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters said Iran plans to install three more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in the underground plant at Natanz, which was apparently built to withstand aerial bombardment.
Iran's nuclear deal with major powers says Tehran can only use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, which are less efficient, at the underground plant and that those are the only machines with which Iran may accumulate enriched uranium.
Iran recently moved one cascade of 174 IR-2m machines underground at Natanz and is enriching with it. It already planned to install two more cascades of other advanced models there, in addition to the 5,060 IR-1 machines that have been enriching for years in the plant built for more than 50,000.
"In a letter dated 2 December 2020, Iran informed the Agency that the operator of the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz 'intends to start installation of three cascades of IR-2m centrifuge machines' at FEP," the IAEA's report to its member states said.
The paltry number of demonstrators who took to the streets of Iran in response to the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as well as other forms of evidence, reveal that the Iranian regime is dangerously isolated from the country's citizens. The disconnection between the regime and the people is reminiscent of the Soviet regime in its last years in power.
The dramatic, perfectly executed killing of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, revealed—even more than did the killing of Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani in January—just how porous and exposed is the Iranian security establishment. Dozens if not hundreds of well-placed and informed Iranians appear, whether for pecuniary or political reasons, to be willing to work with the US and Israeli security services. The regime's control over and surveillance of the state is clearly lax, despite its many security forces. The regime not only failed to thwart the killing but has been unable so far to apprehend the culprits.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh put on display the greatest danger threatening the Iranian regime: its isolation from its own citizenry. It is reminiscent of the kind of isolation that drove Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to attempt to reform the system out of fear that he and his colleagues at the top would face fatal retribution from a populace that had long ago lost faith in the regime.
Thirty years ago, a move as striking as the killing of a key security figure inside Iran would have brought tens if not hundreds of thousands of citizens into the streets to chant "Marg bar Israeel" (Death to Israel) or "Death to the Little Satan and the Great Satan [the United States]." Flags of both countries would have been trodden upon and set aflame.
New legislation in Congress would sanction one of Iran's top terror proxy groups operating in Iraq and responsible for deadly attacks that targeted American personnel stationed in Baghdad, according to a copy of the bill exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is spearheading the new sanctions, which would designate for the first time the Iran-funded Badr Organization, a militant group operating in Iraq and tied to Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Badr group was commanded by former Iranian terror leader Qassem Soleimani, who President Donald Trump assassinated with a drone strike in January.
The Badr Organization is responsible for lethal strikes on American embassy officials stationed in Baghdad, including an attack last year that prompted the Trump administration to target Soleimani. The Badr group remains part of Iraq's government and security services, generating concerns that U.S. taxpayer aid to Iraq could be funding the terror organization.
The legislation is likely to garner widespread support from Republicans and Democratic hawks who continue to view Iran's activity in Iraq as a direct threat to America and its diplomacy in the region. The sanctions could complicate the landscape for the incoming Biden administration, which is angling to renew discussions with Iran about its nuclear program. Iranian leaders have said they will not sit down with the incoming administration until American sanctions are rolled back and Tehran is granted cash relief for its ailing economy.
"Badr works directly with Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah, [Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq], and many other designated terrorist organizations to push forward its campaign of terror," Wilson told the Free Beacon in a statement. "Unfortunately, Badr has still not been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It is absolutely necessary if we are to truly have maximum pressure on Iran that Badr is designated as a terrorist organization."
Israel has warned nuclear scientists who used to work at its Dimona reactor to take increased security measures amid fears they could be targeted, as Iran looks to avenge the killing of the father of its atomic program, the Kan broadcaster reported Friday.
Iranian officials have publicly blamed Israel for the assassination of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh over the weekend and vowed revenge. Israeli officials have refused to comment on the killing.
Nevertheless, Israel is taking precautions. Israeli scientists have been told to step up their vigilance, Kan reported. At least one former Dimona scientist was told to change his daily routine, not take walks along set paths, and to be vigilant about suspicious packages.
According to Kan, security officials also told him that the Iranians were likely monitoring his social media and internet activities.
Brig. Gen. (Res) Nitzan Nuriel, a former director of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office, told Kan that precautions were necessary, even though the chances of Iran carrying out such an operation were low.
Not dissimilar to its lethargy in the face of Germany's gross violations of the Versailles rearmament restrictions, Europe appears now to be more motivated by the prospect of lucrative deals with Iran than concern about the machinations and intentions of this rogue nation. Europe turns a blind eye to the obviously malicious intentions of Iran that not only is determined to obtain a nuclear bomb, but is also aggressively involved with terrorism in various parts of the world, including Europe.
While von Braun joined the Nazi Party in 1937 at age 25, seven months after Germany bombed Guernica, and became an SS officer three years later, Iran's foremost nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at 21. Fakhrizadeh was closely associated with overseeing the development of a nuclear device and was invited to observe the North Korean nuclear bomb test in 2013. He was a military man advancing nuclear physics for evil intent only.
And yet his recent assassination elicited misplaced hypocritical outrage from the European Union's foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell, who apparently forgot that Fakhrizadeh was primarily an IRGC Brig. General and not merely an "Iranian government official." British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the assassination by stating "we stick to the rule of humanitarian international law which is very clear against targeting civilians." Brig. General Fakhridazeh's goal was the destruction of Israel and to threaten Europe, the Middle East, and South America with the IRGC's terror network. He was not a civilian.
Borrell and Raab's misguided outrage appeared more vociferous than reactions to Iran's deceit and openly provocative breaches of the JCPOA terms, let alone its terrorist proxies around the world. Raab is a Brexiteer and argued that there was too much corruption in the EU. Nevertheless, by referring to Brig. General Fakhrizadeh as a civilian, Raab indicates he is part of Europe's problem.
Borrell and Raab would do well to read up on their own national and European history, and draw some obvious conclusions.
A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on January 22 in the trial of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to bomb an exiled opposition group's rally, his lawyer told AFP.
Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces 20 years in prison if convicted of plotting to target the rally in Villepinte, outside Paris, on June 30, 2018.
The rally included the People's Mojahedin of Iran (MEK), which Tehran considers a "terrorist group" and has banned since 1981.
Assadi denies any involvement in the plot, which was foiled by security services, and has refused to appear at Antwerp Criminal Court, where he is on trial with three alleged accomplices.
On Thursday, the second and last day of the hearing, the three maintained their innocence.
Lawyers for Nasimeh Naami and Amir Saadouni — a Belgian-Iranian couple arrested in possession of a bomb in their car on their way to France — claimed the explosive was not powerful enough to kill.
Iran said its novel coronavirus infections surpassed 1 million cases on Thursday, as the authorities consider easing restrictions in many parts of the Middle East's hardest-hit country.
According to French news agency AFP, the Islamic republic has recorded 1,003,494 COVID-19 infections since announcing its first cases in February, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state television.
The virus has killed 49,348 people in Iran over the same period of time, according to official figures, contested by both international observers and certain Iranian officials, including Health Minister Saeed Namaki, who say the real toll is likely much higher.
In the past 24 hours the virus caused 358 new deaths in the country with a population of more than 80 million, and 13,922 new cases of infection, Lari said.
The number of fatalities, however, appears to have slightly eased in past days after soaring to a daily average of more than 400 for much of November.
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