| 02/26 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: We recognize Haman. But where are Mordechai and Esther?; Antisemitic ‘SNL’ Slur Is No Laughing Matter; Oberlin College's 'Professor of Peace’ urged elimination of Jewish state Posted: 26 Feb 2021 01:02 PM PST From Ian: Melanie Phillips: We recognize Haman. But where are Mordechai and Esther?What we can do is what the Jewish people have always done: bear witness to what's happening, record it and hold its perpetrators to account.
We should target their weak spots: their vanity and narcissism, their inflated claim to intelligence and moral virtue. We should pillory them publicly as too sloppy, stupid and credulous to be worthy of any academic post.
We should call out the anti-Israel churches and "human rights" NGOs as supporters of racism, colonialism and ethnic cleansing, which we can prove by publicizing the Palestinians' Nazi-style tropes and regular exhortations to murder Jews and steal Israeli cities such as Haifa and Jaffa.
Rather than drive Western anti-Semites out of the public square, we should use it ourselves to expose them to what they most fear: public exposure and ridicule as bad, stupid and ludicrous people.
What Jewish people can and must do is protect themselves as best they can. That's why Israel is the safest place for a Jew to be: because "never again" is in its DNA.
The inescapable vulnerability of Diaspora Jews saps their capacity to stand up against their tormentors. At best, it makes them timid, striving only to be left alone by keeping their heads down. At worst, they actively side with the foes of the Jewish people. As in America, where some 70% of the Jewish community vote Democrat, these sign up to the liberal universalist ideology that has the Jews in its cross-hairs and, in their keenness to be an indistinguishable part of the herd, forget that the Jews must always be outside it.
Mordechai and Esther did not forget who they were. They refused to be intimidated, drew upon their reserves of courage and turned the tables on their would-be destroyer.
Israel will defend itself against the present-day Haman in Tehran. The Jews of the Diaspora remain rather more cruelly exposed.  Caroline Glick: 'Facebook and Twitter? Boycott them, there are other sites'Mark Levin, a Jewish American talk radio host and former Reagan administration official, makes no effort to hide what he thinks. Indeed, what his three-hour radio show's 14 million regular listeners and the millions of more viewers who watch his top-rated show on Fox News every Sunday love most about Levin is that he gives them the unvarnished truth as he sees it. And Levin does so with a combination of intellectual depth and populist passion.
Levin's massive audience insulates him from the growing fear of censors that now plague conservatives in America. At a time when progressive propaganda has become a substitute for news reporting at liberal media organs across the US, fresh from four years of unrelenting media assaults on former president Donald Trump and his supporters, Levin is a leading voice for millions of Americans who feel increasingly marginalized and besieged.
Ahead of the release of the Hebrew edition of his New York Times bestseller Unfreedom of the Press, (Sella Meir Publishers), Levin sat down for a conversation with Israel Hayom. He explained what moved him to research the roots of media bias and why he believes the rising extremism of the US media poses a threat to the future of the most powerful democracy in the world.
Levin sees a direct link between the US media's longstanding hostility towards Israel and its burgeoning anti-Americanism. He also sees parallels between the overwhelmingly leftist Israeli media and the US media. Mark Levin speaks, with President Donald Trump behind him, during a ceremony to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Attorney General Edwin Meese, at the White House, Oct. 8, 2019 (AP/Alex Brandon/File)
Our conversation was broadcast Monday evening to mark the official launch of the Hebrew edition of his book. What follows are excerpts from our discussion.
"As somebody who watches the Israeli media, the Israeli media is a disaster," Levin begins.
"The American media is a disaster. But at least in America, we have conservative talk radio. You have a few outlets in Israel – not many. And we have Fox News where at least we have some conservative opinion shows. You have nothing like that in Israel. You pretty much have a statist media that backs the Left – as small as the Left is now politically, the media remains overwhelmingly leftist in Israel. David Collier: Elbit – Meet the six Palestine Action thugs charged with criminal damage Yesterday six thugs from Palestine Action were charged with criminal damage after their violent attack on the Shenstone offices of the Israeli company Elbit on Tuesday. It is time to meet them: Elbit – the three key figures
One of those arrested should be well known to readers of this blog – Kajsa Anckarstrom:
Although she went by the name of Kajsa Anckarstrom in her anti-Israel activism, her real name – and the one on the charge sheet – is Vienna Lstadt. She is one of the key faces of the Islamist group 'Inminds' – which was fronted by the Holocaust denier Sandra Watfa. Like other Palestine Action activists – Lstadt is no stranger to antisemitism herself:
Another of those arrested may not be known to you – but his father probably is. Michael Sackur 23, is from West London:
His father, Stephen Sackur is an award-winning BBC journalist and the regular host of the BBC's frontline news programme HARDtalk. Stephen Sackur has a very long history of anti-Israel bias in his reporting.
There is no intention at all to blame this act of vandalism on the father – we are all only responsible for our own actions – but given his apparent hostility towards Israel, perhaps we should not be so surprised that his son has ended up vandalising buildings of Israeli companies.
Nick Georges was another of those arrested. In the Palestine Action video, whilst Georges is spreading lies about Elbit and Israel, he also tells us he was sent as a 'witness' to 'Palestine' for three months:
In fact, he was sent as part of the Quaker supported Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme run by the World Council of Churches. This is a hard-core propaganda tour – that as part of their deal – ensures that the 'witnesses' upon their return must spread the propaganda by speaking at a certain number of events. On the tour – they 'witness' exactly what the propaganda NGOS arrange for them to witness and are fed a diet of hard-core disinformation, sprinkled with thousands of lies. They return as radicalised members of a cult.
Want to feel really sick? This is Nick Georges, the thug who vandalised the Israeli owned business, spreading his propaganda to hundreds of school children at Ashcombe School in Dorking:
No wonder antisemitism is on the rise! Just as with Amnesty International spreading lies at schools, we HAVE TO kick all these thuggish propagandist organisations OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS. They are out to spread lies and demonise Zionism and Israel and they have no business telling their lies to school children. How Israel won the vaccine warsIsrael's remarkable vaccination success story might be less interesting if it were only pulling slightly ahead of comparable countries. But the difference is not one of degree. With more than 82 doses delivered per 100 citizens by the end of last week — compared with 26 for the UK, 17 for the US, and a scandalous 5.9 for the EU — Israel is significantly ahead of the pack.
But why is that? No doubt that's the question governments across the world are currently attempting to answer, in the hope of replicating some of Israel's success. But the truth is that the country's vaccination rollout has been a unique victory — one that has emerged from a confluence of factors which, while individually common in other countries, Israel is alone in having.
Some of those factors are structural. Israel's universal health system, for example, is built on a regulated service provided by four competing non-profit health service organisations, called "sick funds" — a bit like having four versions of the NHS. Every resident must be a member of a fund, which are financed by a small progressive health tax that ranges from 3-5% of a person's income. In effect, the system combines the benefits of universal coverage with competition, though it is hardly alone in the world in doing so.
Far less common, though, is the extent of digitisation in the Israeli health system. Each fund maintains a fully digitised records and appointments system, integrated with smartphone apps, websites, and automated phone systems. Crucially, these records are directly connected to the Ministry of Health's universal vaccination database. This meant that when the time came for organising Covid vaccination appointments, there was no new infrastructure to set up. Appointments were organised automatically for the people who most urgently needed them on platforms that were already familiar.
But none of that would have mattered without an adequate vaccine supply. And this is where the Israeli government stepped in. Well before any vaccines were approved, senior officials were already signing deals with Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and others — as well as funding a domestically produced vaccine, which is still in clinical trials. They also began securing a large supply of syringes and needles, an element of the vaccine strategy which was surprisingly overlooked by other countries, most notably Japan. Massive Study Finds Encouraging Results But Israel's Infection Rate Is Rising and Younger Patients Are DyingFirst the good news:
A study that was published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine in a Nationwide Mass Vaccination Setting) and included 600,000 Israelis who were vaccinated from December 20, 2020, to February 1, 2021, and who were matched to 600,000 unvaccinated Israelis according to demographic and clinical characteristics, estimates high effectiveness of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccine for preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in a noncontrolled setting, similar to the vaccine efficacy reported in Pfizer's randomized trial.
According to the study results, about two weeks after the first vaccine dose, there was efficiency of 57% in preventing disease and a 62% reduction in serious illness. After 21-27 days, a 66% reduction in morbidity was observed, a reduction of 80% of serious illnesses, and 84% of mortality.
After full vaccination, one week after the second dose of the vaccine, the incidence of Corona morbidity was decreased by 94% and the rate of severe illness by 92%.
These are exciting results, which are based on testing 1.2 million people and should leave no room for speculation as to whether or not the Pfizer vaccine (and by extension the Moderna vaccine as well, which is based on the same technology) is effective against COVID-19. It is. Indeed, it appears from the study that the vast majority of Israelis who fell victim to the virus since the vaccine had become available were unvaccinated.
But while Israel is spearheading the global effort to vaccinate against Corona, the country is unable to defeat the virus and the overall rate of infections remains high. The trend of an increase in the coefficient of infection continues: according to health ministry data, the coefficient of infection rose to 0.93 on Friday, and the rate of increase continues to be high. Last Sunday, the figure was 0.79 and has taken great leaps in five days to 0.93. It means the decrease in morbidity reached over the last lockdown is being reversed and could cross over the hard-earned coefficient of 1.0. Health Ministry: In latest milestone, over 50% Israelis vaccinated with 1st doseJust over half of Israel's population has had at least a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the Health Ministry said Friday in its latest update.
It said that 4.65 million of the country's 9.29 million population had received a first shot, with 3.27 million of them getting the recommended second dose too.
Over 85 percent of people aged 70 and over have received both doses, the ministry said.
Some 3 million Israelis are currently not eligible for the vaccine, including children under 16 and people who have recovered from COVID-19.
Israel launched its massive inoculation operation on December 19, backed by a deal with Pfizer which mounted an airlift of its vaccine in exchange for biomedical data on its effects. Antisemitic 'SNL' Slur Is No Laughing MatterUnfortunately, as is often the case where Israel is concerned, the facts are largely ignored because they are inconvenient. For those who push a political agenda aimed at undermining the Jewish state of Israel, facts about how Israel is working for the good of others are counterproductive and dissonant to the false narrative of Israel as the bogeyman and "occupier" of the Middle East.
That narrative has gained popularity within our culture because of lies spread by people like Che, and these lies masquerading as humor are often tolerated because they are falsely believed to be grounded in reality.
What many fail to understand, however — maybe even Che, assuming he isn't an antisemite — is the real harm to Jews that can result from misinformation disguised as humor.
Because Israel is often treated as a proxy for Jews collectively, comments like Che's — that Israel is giving vaccines only to its Jewish citizens — directly contribute to growing antisemitism. Such claims fan the flames of classic antisemitic tropes and fuel stereotypes that lead to hatred — from the public square and the university campus, to the halls of government and social media outlets.
It is well past time for those with visible platforms in our culture to begin treating antisemitism with the same level of seriousness — and unapologetic condemnation — that they treat racism and other forms of bigotry. Sadly, "SNL's" "joke" has already been used to promote antisemitic words and deeds.
Numerous Jewish organizations, as well as over 5,000 people, have joined the StandWithUs letter-writing campaign to Che and "SNL" condemning Che's "joke." Regardless of whether those peddling antisemitic rhetoric ever acknowledge their bigotry, we must continue to make our voices heard on this matter and call out anti-Israel and anti-Jewish lies wherever we find them. Stand With Us: SNL, Space Exploration & More | Israel Weekly Shalom everyone and welcome to our brand new show 'Israel Weekly'. We're coming to you from our studio in Jerusalem to share the important Israel events you might have missed during the week.
This week (20-25th of February 2021) we will talk about the first-ever nanosatellite coming from Tel Aviv University, Iranian judoka champion Saeid Mollae winning a silver medal in Israel, Saturday Night Live's widespread controversy, Israel's worst oil spill in history and "Follow the Lights" project in Jerusalem. This is: Israel Weekly. UNICEF branch quietly stops publishing list of NGO partners after years of scrutinyThe United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has quietly stopped publishing a list of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) it partners with to carry out its mission in the Palestinian territories, according to Israel-based organization NGO Monitor. NGO Monitor investigates non-governmental organizations that claim to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas.
The revelation comes after NGO Monitor's explosive 2018 report revealed that UNICEF was working in tandem with NGOs that support and seek to advance the BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement against Israel.
It was a stunning revelation, analysts told this reporter.
Moreover, the investigative report noted that UNICEF was partnering with organizations with ties to U.S., Canada, and European Union designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). At the time, these groups were seeking to blacklist the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as one of the "grave violators of children's rights" alongside groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.
The European Union, however, is denying its connection and stating that it is "unaware" of such a campaign, according to Israel Hayom, a popular news outlet in Israel.
However, the European Union's explanation doesn't match the evidence collected by NGO Monitor, which has been tracking such efforts to target the IDF since 2017, Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor of NGO Monitor, told The Dark Wire.
"We call on UNICEF to end its funding and project secrecy and to cease all cooperation with NGOs linked to the PFLP and other terror groups," said Herzberg. "We also demand that the EU and other government donors immediately freeze all UNICEF-OPT funding until this cooperation is ended." Oberlin College's 'Professor of Peace' urged elimination of Jewish stateAs it works to play down accusations that Oberlin College's so-called "Professor of Peace," Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, was involved in crimes against humanity, the liberal arts college is now confronted with new allegations of antisemitism as it continues to provide a platform for an academic who has urged the destruction of Israel.
The Jerusalem Post can reveal that Mahallati, a professor of Islamic Studies at Oberlin, delivered a speech when he was the Iranian regime's ambassador to the UN in 1988, stating: "The establishment of the Zionist entity was itself in violation of provisions of the United Nations Charter."
Asaf Romirowsky, the executive director of the over 40,000-member organization Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told the Post that "Oberlin has a long history of hiring individuals who are propagandists and antisemites as we saw with the now dismissed instructor Joy Karega who claimed that Israel was behind 9/11."
He added that "The latest employment of Mohammad Jafar Mahallati who openly calls for Israel elimination is emblematic of the growth of propaganda in the academy under the guise of 'scholarship.' These scholar activists use and abuse their podium in the worst way possible teaching students platitudes and agitprop rather than critical thinking and looking at factual data. This is another example of how cancel culture materializes through professors who advocate for the eradication of an entire nation showing their true antisemitic colors."
The Post analyzed the entire UN archived material of Mahallati's speeches and letters while he was at the UN during the 1980s, particularly while he served as the Islamic Republic's top envoy to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989. Massachusetts school board member calls Jew a 'kike' on live TVA school board member in Lowell, Massachusetts, called a former school district leader a "kike" on live television, spurring calls for his resignation.
Bob Hoey should step down from the Lowell School Committee, the mayor of the Boston suburb said.
"We lost the kike, oh, I mean, the Jewish guy," Hoey said Wednesday morning on "City Life," a news opinion show, according to video posted by the local Jewish Journal. "I hate to say it, but that's what people used to say behind his back."
Hoey, an elected official in the city of 111,000, was referring to Gary Frisch, the former CFO of the Lowell Public Schools.
According to the Lowell Sun, the comment followed a lengthy discussion in which Hoey and the show's host, George Anthes, complained about or denigrated undocumented immigrants, diversity in the local high school's student government, the concept of "equity," Indian-American families and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York Democrat.
Hoey used the slur amid a discussion of school budgets. Lawyer Cites Satire in Defense of Dickinson Student's Antisemitic Holocaust VideoThe lawyer representing a student who attends Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., now under investigation by the school for antisemitic comments he made in a video praising the Holocaust, said the clip was meant to be satirical, the local news station ABC27 reported on Wednesday.
Dressed formally in a suit, junior Shane Shuma lists multiple reasons why the Holocaust was "a good thing" and notes "official SS statistics," such as "96 percent of Germans said that it made their lives much more positive."
"One of them is, 'the Holocaust is a good thing because you can't have racism if you only have one race,' I mean … the target of the jokes were antisemites," said Shuma's lawyer Samantha Harris, who is Jewish, noting that her client said those lines as part of a friend's film project when he was 16. (The cameraman can be heard laughing in the background.)
"We are now living in a climate where we are all judged based on our worst decisions, our dumbest decisions, our worst moments, sometimes when we are children," she added.
Harris cited free speech, particularly satire, in defense of her client.
"There is this conflating of speech with violence. You know, the idea that somebody telling a joke or saying something that hurts someone's feelings is actually tantamount to a threat to their safety," she explained. "Such that, being in their presence someone—you know, that emotional safety and physical safety are the same thing, and that we are all somehow entitled to emotional safety and comfort at all times." New York Times' Beinart Defends Himself on Hypocrisy ChargeNew York Times columnist Peter Beinart is defending himself against the charge that he is a hypocrite for favoring economic sanctions against Israeli Jewish settlers on the West Bank while opposing them against Iranian terrorists and human rights abusers.
A February opinion piece by Beinart in the New York Times called for easing sanctions on Iran, Syria, and North Korea. The Algemeiner published a column pointing out that the article left Beinart "in the awkward position of opposing sanctions on terror-sponsoring Iran but supporting them on Israelis who live in Hebron or suburbs of Jerusalem."
Beinart replied with two tweets.
The first tried to draw a distinction between what he called "secondary sanctions" and the sanctions he favors against Israeli settlers.
"My NYT oped is about 'secondary sanctions' — sanctions on any entity that does business with a besieged country, thus denying its people even basic humanitarian goods. I've never suggested anything close to that regarding Israel. Come on guys, do better," Beinart tweeted.
The second minimized his call for sanctions against Israeli settlers. "1) I've never called for 'secondary sanctions' on Israel — the topic of my oped. 2) I didn't write an 'entire book' calling for a boycott. It's a few pages near the end. As an editor you're supposed to try to get facts right even when it's inconvenient. Try harder," he tweeted. Man who attacked Jew outside synagogue in Germany sent to psychiatric hospitalA German court on Friday ordered a man who attacked a Jewish student in Hamburg in October to be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The Hamburg district court said the attacker, a 29-year-old German man of Kazakh origin who was not further identified, was mentally ill and suffering from religious delusions and therefore could not be held legally accountable for the attack. He had been charged with attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm.
The man hit the Jewish university student on his head in front of a Hamburg synagogue during the holiday of Sukkot. The student had to be admitted to a hospital with severe injuries but survived the attack.
Judge Birgit Woitas said while it was clear "this was a targeted attack on a Jew," the attacker was a "mentally ill person who acted on his own," German news agency dpa reported. Tulsa Police Search for Two Suspects for Vandalism of Holocaust Memorial Statues at Jewish Museumolice in Tulsa, Oklahoma are searching for two suspects who destroyed statues dedicated to child victims of the Holocaust at the city's Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art.
The Tulsa Police Department (TPD) was notified early Wednesday morning that two young male suspects had bent and knocked down the statues after unsuccessfully attempting to steal them, causing over $15,000 in damage.
Each of the five statues are filled with 2,000 rocks bearing the names of children killed in the Holocaust.
"It's really important that we don't forget," said TPD Lt. William White, in a video published on Facebook by the agency on Thursday.
"You come out and your car's been egged, that's not great. But when you have statues dedicated to the children that lost their lives in one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humankind — obviously, there's a different tier there." White said. "So we're taking this very seriously, and we really want to catch these people."
The museum, which opened in 1966, is home to the largest collection of Judaica in the region. Its permanent Holocaust exhibition displays items donated by Oklahoma veterans who helped liberate German concentration camps, and others brought to the state by Jewish refugees. 'Mein Kampf' and Other 'Hate Speech' Products You Can Still Buy on AmazonAmazon, the popular online retailer, is under fire after conservative author Ryan T. Anderson announced on Sunday that his 2018 bestseller, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, had been scrubbed from the Amazon website.
The decision to ban the book from its platform came several months after Amazon quietly altered its content guidelines to prohibit the sale of "content that we determine is hate speech … or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive," which includes content that "promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, [or] advocates terrorism."
As recently as August 2020, Amazon's content guidelines for books were significantly vaguer, asserting the company's right to prohibit the sale of "certain content, such as pornography or other inappropriate content." Amazon has yet to offer a sufficient explanation of the updated guidelines.
In the meantime, Amazon continues to permit the sale of numerous books that most casual observers might reasonably classify as "hate speech" or are otherwise incompatible with its updated content guidelines. The company also continues to sell other products that would appear to run afoul of contemporary standards of wokeness, as outlined in its prohibition on selling items (excluding books) that "promote, incite, or glorify hatred." "The time has come for a Reich [empire] with Muslims and Jews exterminated", reads graffiti on Welsh war memorialA war memorial has been daubed with swastikas and disturbing antisemitic hate messages.
The vile messages, which refer to the murder of Jews and gassing of soldiers, was found on the memorial in Rhyl, Wales.
The graffiti also continued the line, in German, that "the time has come for a Reich [empire] with Muslims and Jews exterminated."
Richard Kendrick, Rhyl's Poppy Appeal organiser for the Royal British Legion, said: "Someone has put graffiti on two of the stones and plaques. These stones are dedicated to the men and women from Rhyl who have given their lives for us over the past 125 years. I can't understand who would do such an awful thing."
Mr Kendrick went on to urge anyone with information to call police before adding: "Sad day when someone would do such an awful act."
Councillor Brian Jones said: "It is a total disrespect to the people that fought for the freedom of the country." 55 years after execution in Syria, Israeli spy Eli Cohen makes headlinesRussian news giant RT recently released a video it says shows Eli Cohen, the famous Israeli spy, walking in a Damascus street. The video, unclear and no more than a few seconds in length, has generated headlines throughout the region, both in Arabic and in Hebrew. Experts attribute the interest to Cohen's legendary status and recent Russian efforts to try and facilitate a normalization agreement between the two enemy countries.
This story is one that could easily have found its way to the pages of a thriller novel. An Israeli agent, born and raised in Egypt, infiltrates the highest strata of Syrian political and military leadership at the height of animosity between the countries. Using his connections, he visits military bases and outposts, gathering information that former Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol later said "saved Israel many brigades" during the 1967 war, and brought victory to the small country.
While it may seem beyond the limits of imagination, this is exactly the story of Eli Cohen, an Israeli intelligence agent who was later caught, tried and hanged in a Damascus square. And despite the decades that have passed, his memory continues to be strongly present in the region. RT recently released a documentary, titled "Spyfall," about Cohen that includes the video clip, shot by a former Soviet military official, that purports to show the Israeli agent. And while the video is just seconds long, and one cannot even be sure that it is, indeed, Cohen who saunters through the frame, Arab and Israeli media have generated dozens of articles about those few seconds.
Oraib al-Rantawi, founder and director general of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies in Amman, points to current events as a major contributor to the great interest in the video. The video was released while in the background there are "serious actions by the Russians and by the Syrian government" to find the remains of Cohen and Israeli soldiers killed in Syria long ago, he told The Media Line.
"I hear news from my colleagues in Damascus," he said. "Russian experts, everyday almost, digging in the Yarmouk cemetery, where it is expected his body may be buried." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday that Russian forces have been digging for more than three weeks in the cemetery at the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus in search of the remains of the Israeli agent as well as Israeli soldiers.
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| Abbas reportedly refused to let Israel vaccinate thousands of Palestinians. Media silent. Posted: 26 Feb 2021 11:38 AM PST
Times of Israel reported yesterday: Israeli officials reportedly sent a request last week to the Palestinian Authority and the Jerusalem Muslim Waqf asking that the Israeli government be allowed to open a coronavirus vaccination station in the Temple Mount area, but the request was rejected.
The station was meant to vaccinate mainly Palestinian worshipers visiting the area. The Waqf is a Jordan-affiliated religious authority that administers Muslim religious sites in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound atop the Temple Mount in the Old City.
According to a report by the Kan public broadcaster (Hebrew) on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opposed the idea since, he claimed, the act would give Israeli officialdom a presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque area. The mosque area on Temple Mount, which is known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif, is considered one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, holding central significance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism; al-Aqsa mosque is the third most holy shrine in Islam.
Although this was reported on Thursday, there has been no condemnation of the Palestinian Authority for not accepting free vaccines for thousands of its people.
Which is exactly what critics of Israel have been insisting that Israel do for two months!
This shows yet again that there are very few people who are truly pro-Palestinian. The only, and I mean only, reason not to accept this offer is because it makes Israel look humane, and avoiding that is worth a few Palestinian lives.
But what about the other side of the story. Was this a cynical way for Israel to use the vaccines to make a propaganda victory - to show photos of virtuous Jews vaccinating poor Palestinians and making Israel look good?
Well, no: After Israel's initial proposal was refused, a second was reportedly made: that the vaccines be administered by Arab Israeli paramedics and not by Jewish ones, and that they be dressed in clothes that bear no markings of Israeli medical establishments.
That offer was also turned down, the report said.
It is now a mantra. Palestinian lives don't matter unless Jews can be blamed. The Palestinian Authority would prefer its own people die than be indebted to Jews for saving their lives.
Judging from the photo above showing thousands of Arabs jam packed into the Temple Mount with few of them wearing masks shows once again that Israel cares more about Palestinian lives than Palestinians do.
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| 02/26 Links Pt1: Palestinian lies, American delusions on solving the conflict; Joe Biden’s Ugly Betrayal of the Iranian People; Israeli faces treason charges for sharing Iron Dome locations with Hamas Posted: 26 Feb 2021 10:11 AM PST From Ian: Ruthie Blum: Palestinian lies, American delusions on solving the conflict - opinionThe capacity of peace-process addicts to delude themselves about the Palestinian war against Israel is as bottomless as it is peculiar. It is they, after all, whose repeated attempts at solving the conflict have failed.
The only real shift in perception and action on this issue came from former president Donald Trump.
As a businessman with no political or diplomatic background, he refused to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors in many areas, key among them the Middle East.
His approach, based on rewarding America's allies and rejecting the appeasement of enemies, was working. His replacement in November by US President Joe Biden signaled a backslide to the tired, old, false paradigms relating to the Middle East.
Palestinian Authority leaders heaved a sigh of relief. For them, dealing with Democrats in the White House, State Department and Capitol Hill is as second nature as manipulating the European Union and United Nations.
Their satisfaction at the outcome of the US presidential election only increased with Biden's appointment of Hady Amr – a foreign-policy wonk with a history of hostility to Israel and sympathy for Hamas – as deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs. Due to his role in the new administration in Washington, Amr was handed an official letter sent to the White House last Saturday by the PA. David Singer: Will someone emerge to rescue the Palestinian Arabs from Hamas and the PLO?The first Arab elections to be held in Judea and Samaria (aka 'West Bank') and Gaza on 22 May in more than 15 years – to be followed by a presidential vote on 31 July – in theory give the long-suffering Arab residents in these areas the opportunity to get rid of their failed rulers – the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the 'West Bank' and Hamas in Gaza.
The remote chance of this happening however will require a citizens' grass roots movement to contest the elections - promising a different way forward in reconciling their differences with Israel.
This seems extremely unlikely to happen.
Both the PLO and Hamas remain implacably opposed to making peace with Israel – as their respective constitutions make abundantly clear.
Article 11 of the 1988 Islamic National Resistance Movement (Hamas) is unequivocal:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day."
Article 13 is uncompromising in attaining Hamas's goal:
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with."  In the short time since taking office, Biden has already snubbed Iranian dissidents who courageously wrote to him from inside Iran, some writing from prison, urging him to maintain sanctions and other pressures on the regime and to provide support and solidarity for their democratic struggle. Instead, their message was received as an inconvenience by a White House national security team staffed with some of the regime's leading U.S.-based apologists. The administration then quickly provided other sweeteners to the regime, including the lifting of sanctions on their proxy in Yemen, the lifting of restrictions on its arms buying and selling, the lifting of U.S. opposition to an IMF loan, and the neutering of a pro-freedom public diplomacy initiative from the State Department, which went overnight from being a popular source of information on the regime's repression and corruption to the butt of jokes among Iranian democracy activists. The initiative's Persian-language Twitter account has had a steep drop in followers since the U.S. election because of its canceling of real-time statements about the regime's human rights abuses in favor of promotion of the Biden team's appeasement measures. When angry Iranians on Twitter pushed the State Department into taking a stand about the regime's torture and killing of Behnam Mahjoubi, it only raised their ire by saying he was "mistreated."
Biden's decided U-turn away from maximum pressure on the regime to a posture of maximum accommodation has been accompanied by silence about the regime's escalation of its war against its own people, and anyone else who is unfortunate enough to fall within its reach. Biden's policy of appeasement has been accompanied by large increases in the number of executions and deaths in custody of political prisoners, the taking of foreign hostages for ransom, and threats to kill dual nationals like Swedish Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalali. The new administration has, in effect, taken every opportunity to demonstrate to Iran's thuggish theocracy that it will give in, even signaling that the regime's holding of American hostages will not be an impediment to negotiations on the nuclear program.
The results of this policy of accommodation are clear. Khamenei has not hesitated to respond by intensifying belligerence by the Islamic Republic's proxies, who shell American troops in Iraq. America's other leading adversaries, particularly China and Russia, are also taking note; they do not expect to be confronted for their aggressions and can more easily plot to fill the vacuum left by the United States in the Middle East.
Repeating the recent tragic mistake of Obama's Iran policy is not simply a foolish replay of the past. It is especially egregious because of the recent, momentous gains made toward a transformation of the region toward modern, rational friendship and cooperation between Arabs and Israelis. It is as if the new administration is closing its eyes to the realities of the region and to American security interests to instead pursue a policy whose symbolism is in fact its purpose. By using "foreign policy" to convey an ideological worldview to a U.S. domestic audience, 80 million Iranians are being treated as props by U.S. policymakers who pose as "progressives" while openly displaying their lack of interest in our common human fate. In Response to: Why Poland Is Trying to Control Holocaust Memory byStanisław Żaryn The Polish Government's Holocaust 'Truth Campaign' Is a Weird Mix of Authoritarianism, Ignorance, and Injured PrideIn his Feb. 22 Tablet article, Stanisław Żaryn shared an astonishing perception of the history of the Holocaust in Poland and of wartime Polish-Jewish relations, as well as of the complex context of Poland's past and current ties with Germany, Russia, and of course, the Jews. This perception, as painted by the spokesperson for the Polish Minister-Special Services Coordinator and Head of the National Security Department, calls the current international debate over the wartime involvement of Poles in the murder of Jews a supposedly dire "security threat" to the welfare of the Polish nation. This in turn seems to serve as a justification for the surprising public involvement of a high-level Polish government official in an essentially historical dispute.
The immediate catalyst for Żaryn's stance is apparently the widespread international condemnation of the recent verdict of the Polish judiciary, finding two world-renowned Polish historians of the Holocaust, professors Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski, guilty of libel regarding a passage in a groundbreaking publication they edited. Numerous international academic and professional associations and research institutions, as well as public figures in the United States, Canada, Israel, Poland, and other countries, expressed grave concern regarding the Polish policy of dragging scholars to court. The American Historical Society, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Polin Museum, Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS), the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and the Polish Academy of Sciences were among the many organizations and institutions that issued statements on the matter.
Repeating old anti-Semitic tropes, Żaryn and the government he represents would have us believe that this worldwide concern for academic freedom in Poland is in fact evidence of coordinated German-Russian-Jewish collusion against Polish integrity and identity. Evidentially, my own expertise in security issues can be compared with Żaryn's apparent ignorance of contemporary history. Just as I have no business enacting laws, so, too, governments have no role in writing history; this must be left solely to historians and scholars. Therefore, I am not sure what he means by the need for Poland to "control [sic!] Holocaust memory," a concept unheard of in a free democratic society, and certainly not in the world of academia. As an historian in this field, I fear that we are facing a further pinnacle in the current Polish regime's attacks on history, and its attempts to revise the fact-based historical narrative of the Holocaust.
For years, Yad Vashem has fought against the misconception regarding the term "Polish Death Camps." It supported IHRA and the Polish government's request in 2006 to amend UNESCO's records to refer to the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau officially as the "former Nazi German Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau." In fact, it has stated clearly that Poland is not responsible for the Holocaust despite the fact that it is the location where many atrocities were perpetrated. The facts are that no distinguished scholar nor reputable author has written differently, which is why it should be in Poland's interest to encourage professional, well-informed research. In such research, one will find no indictment of Poland for the crimes committed by Germany and its collaborators on its land, but the discussion rests primarily on instances where Poles took part in those crimes—and sadly, such cases are well documented. In Response to: Why Poland Is Trying to Control Holocaust Memory byStanisław Żaryn When Writing History Becomes a CrimeA factual refutation of several, but not all, of the most glaring false assertions to be found in "Why Poland Is Trying to Control Holocaust Memory," by Stanisław Żaryn, is in order. Żaryn, as spokesperson for the Polish Minister-Coordinator of the Intelligence and Security Services, represents the political interests of the Polish state, not the interests of scholarship.
Professor Grabowski, with professor Barbara Engelking, has recently been put on trial in Poland for allegedly "disseminating false information" about a Pole during World War II. The judge found that he and Engelking must apologize to the relative of the man they have been accused of slandering. Were this an isolated case, it might be understood differently than what in fact it is: part of a much wider effort of the Polish government and active elements of Polish society to silence the legitimate work of Holocaust scholarship in favor of protecting the supposed interests of the Polish state for which the narrative of Polish innocence during the Holocaust plays an important role. The present case must be seen as part of that larger effort.
In Poland, the controversy over Polish participation in the Holocaust was sparked by the work of Jan Tomasz Gross over a decade ago and continues to dominate mainstream Polish discourse. Scholars and institutions devoted to critical thinking and the historical truth of the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations have come under increasing harassment by the government anxious about defending the narrative of Polish victimhood and innocence, even while conceding, as Żaryn does, that terrible acts were performed by some. The vast majority of Poles, according to this narrative, did everything possible to protect and save the Jewish population.
The so-called facts cited by Żaryn are not part of a free intellectual or scholarly debate. They are not the product of historical research but, as Żaryn himself makes clear, reflect the needs of a political reality in which Poland finds itself. They are one of the political weapons used by the Polish state in asserting the power of a self-justifying official state narrative.
Below is our response to some of the most egregious inaccuracies of Żaryn's text. Stanisław Żaryn: Why Poland Is Trying to Control Holocaust MemoryAt the beginning of 2021, Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem-based institution widely credited with preserving the memory of the Holocaust, posted a tweet promoting a book available for purchase on its online store. Unfortunately, the post and the book make part of a wider effort to distort the history of World War II and the Holocaust. Both suggest that the extermination of Jews took place "in Poland," which is utterly contradictory to historical facts. Even more unfortunately, they highlight a serious problem Poland faces—the existence and an ongoing, complex smear campaign targeting the country and its people. And the more and harder Poland is hit, the more threats for the Poles and for the truth about the Holocaust emerge.
Every single false accusation thrown at Poland can affect the quality of public debate and the level of social awareness. Following that logic, there is a high risk that the country which fell victim to the German and Soviet aggression and atrocities during WWII will one day be identified as the perpetrator. And the aforementioned tweet by Yad Vashem is hammering in such false and harmful rhetoric. The same applies to the so many Israeli, American, German, and other European media outlets that have pushed or have been pushing similar narratives of Polish collective responsibility or guilt.
The history speaks for itself: In 1939, Poland was jointly invaded by two aggressors—Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia—and partitioned between them shortly thereafter, pursuant to a secret deal between Hitler and Stalin. Therefore, a sovereign Polish state had ceased to exist before the Germans developed and implemented their devilish plan to annihilate the Jews. By the way, the Poles were the first nation the Germans had selected for extermination in the Auschwitz death camp. But it is not about bargaining who suffered first or who lost more lives. It is about historical truth, which clearly shows that during the war the Germans hated both the Poles and the Jews. Hence, there is no reason why the Poles should accept or condone false accusations of complicity in the Holocaust. Kentucky to become first US state to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitismIn a historic moment, both bodies of the Kentucky Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a state resolution to condemn antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), calling on public officials to confront antisemitism and Jew-hatred.
The recognition comes after a series of antisemitic incidents across the Bluegrass State in the past year, including hate-filled flyers being left in various neighborhoods, vandalism at a Jewish center, a car attack and threatening phone calls made to Rabbi Shlomo Litvin of Chabad of the Bluegrass in Lexington.
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, who helped craft the resolution, congratulated both houses on this moment of solidarity.
"The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, my personal mentor and the foremost leader of world Judaism in the modern era, taught it is the duty of a leader to seek out the welfare of all particular sectors of the community and thereby ensure the flourishing of the whole." Rabbi Litvin said.
"Today the leaders in the Kentucky Assembly showed that leadership, our entire commonwealth is uplifted by it, and the Jewish community thanks them," he added. Green Party continues to wage war on International Definition of AntisemitismThe Green Party is set to vote on two motions against adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism at its Spring Conference next month.
Motion D07 (an "organisational" motion), sponsored by former Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali and others, calls on the Party to "reaffirm its support for free speech on Israel and Palestine and for The Green Party to campaign against adoption of the [International] Definition of Antisemitism and in support of Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaigns."
The suggestion that the Definition stifles free speech is as persistent as it is unfounded in both fact and law. Meanwhile, research by Campaign Against Antisemitism has shown that the overwhelming majority of Jews feel intimidated by the tactics used to boycott Israel. It is also ironic that boycotting – particularly when it impacts academia and culture – is by definition an attempt to stifle free speech.
This is not Mr Ali's first battle against the Definition. The Green Party failed to pass a resolution adopting the Definition in 2018 following calls to oppose it by Mr Ali.
Motion E07 (E motions are "unaccredited policy motions and enabling motions") focuses on the BDS movement but also seeks to repudiate one of the examples under the Definition, namely that "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)" is antisemitic.
The conference is due to be held online during the first week of March 2021. UAE's first ambassador to Israel to take up post next weekThe United Arab Emirates' first-ever ambassador to Israel will arrive next Monday and spend several days in the country, during which time he will meet with senior officials as well as scout out suitable locations for the embassy and his home, an Emirati official confirmed to The Times of Israel.
Mohammad Mahmoud Al Khajah will come with a small team of staffers and stay for five days at this point, the Walla news website reported, citing Israeli and Emirati senior diplomatic sources.
On Tuesday, Al Kajah, 40, will present his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin.
During the rest of his visit he will also meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Ministry Gabi Ashkenazi and other senior Israeli officials, Walla said.
Israel and the UAE normalized ties last September with the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords at the White House in Washington, in a deal brokered by then-US president Donald Trump's administration. Bahrain also joined the accords, establishing ties with Israel. Israeli cargo ship damaged after mysterious explosion rattles Oman GulfAn Israeli-owned cargo ship used to transport vehicles was damaged Friday afternoon in a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman. The ship - Helios Ray - usually used as a vehicle carrier, was then diverted to a port in Dubai in order to asses the damage.
The ship's staff and the ship itself are reportedly in good condition, with no injuries reported.
The explosion was most likely the result of a maritime mine going off, according to estimations made by the United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) which is investigating the incident. However, the company noted that it is not ruling out any option at this point.
UKMTO issued a warning for nearby vassals, advising them to stay away from the area until the incident becomes clearer.
Despite the estimations pointing to an underwater mine causing the explosion, a US defense official told Reuters that the ship was hit by a blast above the water line that ripped holes in both sides of its hull. If accurate, this means that it is highly unlikely that the a mine caused the explosion. U.S. notified Israel in advance about Syria strikeThe Biden administration notified Israel in advance about the airstrike against an Iranian-backed Shiite militia base on the Syrian-Iraqi border Thursday evening, Israeli officials told me.
Why it matters: The airstrike was the first overt military action by the U.S. in the Middle East since Biden assumed office, and one that Israeli officials see as a positive signal about the new administration's posture toward Iran.
Driving the news: The U.S. notification to Israel took place Thursday morning ET in talks between working-level officials at the Pentagon and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
- Israeli officials told me it was a standard update that occurs every time a U.S. military operation can influence Israel and vice versa.
Behind the scenes: The strike came several weeks after a missile attack on a U.S. base in Erbil in northern Iraq. The U.S. retaliation was delayed mainly in order to coordinate it with the Iraqi government and avoid creating a crisis with Iraq.
- In recent weeks, Israeli officials were concerned by growing provocations by Iran and its proxies both in Yemen and in Iraq.
- The Israelis shared their concerns with the Biden administration. Israeli officials told me they expected that Biden would respond.
What they're saying: "The Iranians didn't realize that Biden is not Obama, and that if they will continue down this road of miscalculation they will eventually get hit," an Israeli official told me. Israeli faces treason charges for sharing Iron Dome locations with HamasAn Israeli citizen is alleged to have acted as a Hamas agent inside Israel and worked for the terrorist organization's military wing inside the Gaza Strip, the Shin Bet security agency and the Israel Police revealed, Friday.
The citizen, who was arrested on Feb. 3, is 43-year-old Muhammad Abu Adra. Ada's father is a Bedouin and his mother is from the Gaza Strip. Abu Adra is married to a Gaza resident and splits his time between Rafah and the central Israeli city of Rehovot, frequently using the Erez Border Crossing.
A Shin Bet investigation revealed Hamas recruited Abu Adra while he was in Gaza around a year and a half ago. From that time, he remained in covert operational contact with Hamas members, collecting and providing them with information on the location of Iron Dome batteries.
Hamas took advantage of Abu Adra's ability to move between Israel and Gaza due to his family situation and held in-person meetings with Abu Adra when he was inside the coastal enclave. According to the Shin Bet, Abu Adra provided Hamas unique and high-quality access to Israeli territory and carried out missions for the group.
According to a Shin Bet official, "This is another example of Hamas' use of the Erez Border Crossing for the benefit of its inter-regional activity, as part of its systematic and wide-ranging activity that is moving toward Judea and Samaria and demonstrated the strategy Hamas leadership continues to pursue to undermine stability in the region, despite and in parallel with the ongoing efforts toward an agreement." 'Palestinians continue to take over archeological sites in Samaria'A Palestinian family has turned a Second Temple-era site near the Hermesh settlement in northern Samaria into a residential building, an NGO that aims to protect Israel's national lands and resources announced this week.
Over the years, several mikvehs and underground complexes dating back to the Second Temple have been discovered in the area around Hermesh, as well as buildings from the Ottoman period.
According to the group Regavim, the family took over one of the ancient structures, which had already been declared an archeological site, and turned it into a private residence.
Archeological remnants were discovered on a nearby hill as well, which experts believe to be part of the "industrial" area of the ancient city of Peresh.
Regavim was conducting infrastructure work on top of the hill when its members discovered that the family had turned the cave into their home. The IDF Civil Administration has submitted a request to remove the eviction order arrives.
"This is an ongoing case of incompetence and lack of enforcement," Regavim Spokesperson Avraham Binyamin explained. Abbas said to veto Israeli vaccination station on Temple MountIsraeli officials reportedly sent a request last week to the Palestinian Authority and the Jerusalem Muslim Waqf asking that the Israeli government be allowed to open a coronavirus vaccination station in the Temple Mount area, but the request was rejected.
The station was meant to vaccinate mainly Palestinian worshipers visiting the area. The Waqf is a Jordan-affiliated religious authority that administers Muslim religious sites in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound atop the Temple Mount in the Old City.
According to a report by the Kan public broadcaster (Hebrew) on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opposed the idea since, he claimed, the act would give Israeli officialdom a presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque area. The mosque area on Temple Mount, which is known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif, is considered one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, holding central significance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism; al-Aqsa mosque is the third most holy shrine in Islam.
The Israeli request came following the repeated publication of photos in which over 10,000 people can be seen praying in the mosque area each Friday, in disregard of COVID-19 protocols.
After Israel's initial proposal was refused, a second was reportedly made: that the vaccines be administered by Arab Israeli paramedics and not by Jewish ones, and that they be dressed in clothes that bear no markings of Israeli medical establishments. That offer was also turned down, the report said. Seth Frantzman: For Israel, the Iran Threat Extends Far Beyond Nuclear WeaponsOn a positive note for Israel, there are new relationships in the Gulf with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Israel views Mohammed bin Zayed of the UAE as a visionary and courageous leader who played a key role in the Abraham Accords. Relations are on a promising trajectory. For instance, Israeli defense companies took part in IDEX in Abu Dhabi for the first time this year. In addition, UAE ambassador to Washington Yousef Al-Otaiba received major praise from Israel for his role in the new peace accords. "He masterfully facilitated" behind the scenes, the official said this week. Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was key to the current peace deals by giving a green light for the UAE and Bahrain to proceed. These Gulf states are all close and coordinate policy, especially in the wake of the Gulf crisis of 2017 which saw Riyadh lead allies to break relations with Qatar. Now that crisis is patched up a bit, but the larger Saudi strategic outlook and concerns remain the same.
Last year there were rumors that Riyadh could also make a peace deal with Israel. That hasn't happened yet, but overall Saudi Arabia's role is essential to the new peace deals. What is important to Israel today is that the region remains stable and that the United States continues its bipartisan support for Israel, as well as its support of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The larger picture with Saudi Arabia is that it is supporting reform and moderation, compared to the extremist groups like Hezbollah or Hamas. This is a seismic shift and it should be recognized, despite criticism of the kingdom on human rights, say those familiar with current Israeli concerns.
The problem is that when the United States signals it no longer supports a key regional leader, such as Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the results can affect the whole region as the Arab Spring eventually did. The continued conflict in Libya and Syria, as well as the way Iran exploited the ISIS war to grow its influence in Iraq and Syria, is partly a result of the chaos unleashed in 2011.
Israel has generally thrived when there is stability and investment in the economies of the region. Extremism has tended to eat away at states and led to threats to the West, the United States, and U.S. partners and allies in the region. "The special relationship with US is an essential part of Israel's national security, alongside the peace with Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain," the defense official said. It's no surprise then that the current peace between Israel the Gulf is rapidly seeing business ties pushed by both sides. Whether at IDEX or initiatives with the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC) and recent visits by Emiratis to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, the peace is underpinned by hi-tech and investment. A new UAE ambassador was sworn in this month, a symbol of the commitment. More has been accomplished in months of these rapidly growing ties with the UAE than we have done in years with Egypt and Jordan, where a kind of colder peace prevailed. However, some positive developments came in mid-February 2021 as Egypt's energy minister visited Israel.
What might come next? Israel has warned about continued Iranian enrichment. Israel acted in the past to prevent nuclear reactors from being completed and operated in Iraq and Syria. "All of us, regardless of politics, will not allow or accept anything that endangers Israel," said the defense official this week. Israel acted to stop the Syrian reactor in 2007 in the wake of a controversial war with Hezbollah in 2006 in Lebanon. Many Israelis thought the war was a failure at the time, but not long after the Syrian reactor was struck, quiet has prevailed mostly with Hezbollah over the last decade and a half. Recently Hezbollah launched a missile at an Israeli drone, piercing some of that quiet. Lawmaker Demands Biden Admin Disclose Secret Iran Talks with ChinaIn a letter exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, a Republican member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is demanding the Biden administration provide Congress with answers about U.S.-Iran envoy Robert Malley's undisclosed talks earlier this month with China about rejoining the 2015 nuclear accord.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) petitioned the State Department on Thursday to come clean about Malley's talks with China, which came just before the Biden administration announced it is seeking direct negotiations with Iran about rejoining the nuclear accord. Burchett says the administration's refusal to provide Congress with details about Malley's discussions indicates that it is intentionally leaving Republican lawmakers in the dark about its bid to rejoin the nuclear agreement.
Malley has yet to brief top Republican foreign policy leaders, including those on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee, about the administration's diplomacy with Iran, the Free Beacon reported this week.
"I find it troubling that the Biden Department of State is reaching out to foreign governments regarding the [nuclear deal] while you yourself have said that the Department of State won't make diplomatic overtures to the Iranians until they fall back into compliance within the original parameters of the deal," Burchett wrote in his letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Republican Lawmakers Step Up Campaign Against Sanctions Relief for IranRepublicans in both houses of Congress introduced a resolution on Wednesday opposing any move by US President Biden and his administration to lift sanctions against Iran.
Led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and supported by more than 40 lawmakers, the resolution "rejects and opposes the reapplication of sanctions relief for Iran" and expresses disapproval of giving Iran access to the US financial system, reported Bloomberg News.
In a statement, congressional members supporting the resolution said "the US must maintain sanctions on the Iranian regime until it abandons its nuclear ambitions and ends its support for violence and terror around the region."
The lawmakers noted that Iran "took advantage of weak policies during the Obama administration, and President Biden must not repeat those same mistakes."
The resolution follows a letter sent on Monday by 15 Republican members of the House Committee on Homeland Security to Biden, stating, "Regime demands for sanctions relief as a prerequisite for the administration's proposed bilateral negotiations are not made in good faith." Newly elected Jewish Democrat wants Biden to take tougher line on Iran nuke dealA freshman Democratic congresswoman who sits on the key House Foreign Affairs Committee has come out against the Biden administration's plans to return to the existing Iran nuclear agreement.
Rep. Kathy Manning (NC-7) said in a Wednesday interview with The Times of Israel that too much has changed since former president Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 and that the accord is now "outdated."
The Biden administration has said it is prepared to reenter the JCPOA if Iran first returns to compliance with its terms. From there, the White House says it wants to negotiate a "longer and stronger" follow-up agreement to address Iran's "malign influence" in the region as well as its ballistic missile program.
But Manning, a former board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, disagreed with the strategy, noting Iran's ongoing enrichment of uranium in violation of the deal and the fact that some of the accord's sunset provisions will soon expire.
"I don't believe it makes sense to get back into the [JCPOA] 1.0," she said. "There needs to be some rethinking about it, and I'm hoping that the [Foreign Affairs] Committee will study the current situation and be able to express to the Biden administration what we think should be taken into consideration before reentering the deal." Iran Threatens to End Deal With IAEA Over US-Led Push to Criticize ItIran is threatening to end a deal struck with the US nuclear watchdog last weekend temporarily salvaging much monitoring of its activities if the agency's board endorses a US-led push to criticize Tehran next week, an Iranian position paper shows.
Tehran this week scaled back cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending extra inspection measures introduced by its 2015 nuclear accord with major powers. It was the latest of many steps retaliating for US sanctions reimposed after the United States pulled out of that agreement in 2018.
Iran and US President Joe Biden's administration are now locked in a standoff over who should move first to save the unravelling 2015 deal. Tehran says Washington should lift sanctions first. Biden wants Iran to undo its many retaliatory breaches of the deal's nuclear restrictions first.
In its own paper sent to other IAEA member states ahead of next week's quarterly meeting of the US watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors, the United States said it wants a resolution to "express the Board's deepening concern with respect to Iran's cooperation with the IAEA".
The US paper obtained by Reuters said the board should call on Iran to reverse its breaches of the deal and cooperate with the IAEA to explain how uranium particles were found at old, undeclared sites — finds first reported by Reuters and confirmed in an IAEA report this week.
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