| 03/12 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Meghan Markle and the Jewish question; UK Jews are fooling themselves; The Western cultural Stockholm Syndrome Posted: 12 Mar 2021 01:00 PM PST From Ian: Melanie Phillips: Meghan Markle and the Jewish questionThe secular world, including many secular Jews, tells itself the opposite. It claims that the West's most valuable achievements, such as science and the promotion of freedom and equality, come from having dumped the Bible as mere mumbo-jumbo involving punitive codes of behavior that destroy freedom.
On the contrary, these are values and achievements that could not have existed without Judaism and Christianity. And every one of the ideologies which has replaced the Hebrew Bible—ideologies that have helped extinguish freedom and equality and undermined scientific integrity—is anti-Judaism or anti-Israel.
Moral relativism denies the Mosaic moral codes. Egalitarianism denies the differentiation and distinctiveness that underpin the very idea of right versus wrong.
Environmentalism, which denies the superiority of humankind over the natural world, devalues humanity in favor of the planet. Materialism, or the belief that everything in the universe has a material explanation, denies the existence of God. Transnationalism dismisses the importance of the individual nation with its particular culture and laws, which is the very essence of Judaism.
Responsibility for the crisis in the West, however, doesn't only lie with the liberals—and liberal Jews—who subscribe to these ideas. Conservatives have conspicuously failed to fight them.
After the fall of communism, conservatives thought their anti-Western fox had been shot. They turned instead to defending liberty against the state at home. But liberty shouldn't be an end in itself. It should be the means to a more important end: how to live a civilized life and help create a civilized society.
The failure of conservatives to understand this, coupled with their tendency to view the world through the prism of economics, meant they were largely blind to the urgent need to defend the West's core values of individual and collective moral responsibility.
When the culture war against the West morphed into a lifestyle free-for-all and the growth of identity politics, these so-called conservatives gave up and decided to go with the flow.
In general, observant Jews tend to be politically conservative. So are some religiously liberal Jews, but these are vastly outnumbered by politically liberal Jews who are either secular or are trying to refashion Judaism itself into a secular and liberal Golden Calf.
The challenge for Jewish conservatives is to find the language to reclaim and communicate Jewish values to both the Jewish and non-Jewish world, and to use these values to drive the defense of the Western nation and its culture against the forces that seek to obliterate it through the moral chaos we now see all around us. UK Jews are fooling themselvesEnglish Jews are experiencing a wrenching time. They struggle with anti-Jew hatred from migrants, knife attacks, vandalism to their synagogues and Jewish schools. The perfidious anti-Semitism in all its vizards once pervading the Labour Party gave it gravitas until the exorcism. It lingers in the larger society and on public display as pro-Palestinian activism.
Tenenbom wants to learn about Brexit but gets caught up in the Jewish questions. How pervasive is anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom? How are Jews responding? He takes to the streets and reports his findings in a new book.
Tenenbom chronicles his capers roaming through Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. He is more of a participant than a detached journalist. Anti-Semites, he reports, commonly disguise their positions as pro-Palestinian fulminations. Underneath it all lie traditional crude blood libels. For instance, a favorite indictment of the Jews is they purposely kill or support the killers of Palestinian Arab children.
Tuvia reports the findings in a solid, entertaining, and informative book, and best-selling e-book, titled The Taming of the Jew (Gefen Publishing, 2021/5781). His favorite theme is exposing the place of Jews living in free societies, in the age of tolerance, and how Jews respond.
Enjoy the humor and self-deprecation of Tenenbom's writing. They are his hallmarks, but don't give short shrift to the importance of his findings. He is genuine, remarkably sensitive to the surroundings, and insightful per Mead and Benedict, but funnier. Methods include driving the back roads, walking neighborhood streets, drinking in local pubs, eating in family restaurants, sleeping in off-beat hotels and engaging ordinary folk and influencers.
Tenenbom is relentless in questioning Christians about the Jews. He is no less relentless when talking with Jews about anti-Semitism. He presses everyone about the pro-Palestinian love affair promoted by politicians and NGOs.  I spend a lot of time reading about and writing about worrisome cultural trends in what have traditionally been the liberal democracies of the West, including America, Canada, Australia, Israel and a weakening Europe.
I am saddened when I contemplate the extent to which our traditional free society has succumbed to:
1. an excessive tolerance of evil (which, in a book by the same name, I term "tolerism");
2. a masochistic self-hatred, leading to threats to our fundamental liberties; and
3. ultimately a submission or surrender to what I call the Leftist-Islamist-Globalist alliance.
- We make compromises in our freedoms to accommodate fascist collusion among leftist Democrats, big Tech censorship, our education and university systems, and media that blatantly ignores stories that challenge their bias.
- We accept, even welcome, a totalitarian Islamist theocracy.
- We tolerate attempts from offshore to terrorize us, to make us submit to their values, instead of defending ours.
- We allow citizens of totalitarian states that regularly print anti-Semitic cartoons to dictate to us in our country not to print cartoons they find "offensive".
- I have had, as far back as 18 years ago, a lecture shouted down by "Islamofascists" who said I had no "right" to speak if I disagreed with their views, and our civil liberties groups were silent.
- We cower in the face of threats that this policy or that policy may "inflame the Arab street" or Black Lives Matter.
Our tolerance and submission to Islamism has clearly paved the way for our tolerance and submission to Black Lives Matter, and the increasing number of violent domestic terrorists, who, despite media falsehoods, are predominantly on the left. As recently as last Saturday, the American city of Portland, Oregon was still seeing rioting in its streets.
We allow Big Tech censors to delete anything that offensive fascists say offends them. Our ideology of Tolerism combined with our ready adoption of the Stockholm Syndrome has laid down the path for large groups of our young people to respond to their alienation from a culture and economy that makes their prospects difficult by a great "transformation" or "re-set". Serious COVID caseload lowest in months; over 4 million get 2nd vaccine doseIsrael's serious COVID-19 cases dropped Friday to the lowest tally since December, as the country's vaccination campaign kept striding forward, with more than 4 million citizens receiving both doses.
Health officials have expressed optimism that Israel is turning the corner on the coronavirus pandemic, with officials quoted Thursday by Channel 13 news as saying the situation was "the most hopeful it's been since the beginning of the pandemic" last year. The officials said that if the positive trajectory continues, Israelis will be able to celebrate Passover without limitations at the end of March.
Health Ministry data published Friday morning showed that 2,509 new cases were confirmed the previous day. The Ynet news site said more than half of them were under 19 years old, an age group in which serious cases are rare. The rate of positive tests stood at 3.1 percent, continuing the trend of low positivity.
Since the start of the pandemic, 815,562 Israelis have been confirmed to have the coronavirus. They include 35,576 active cases, of whom 613 are in serious condition — the lowest figure recorded since December 26. They also include 254 patients regarded as critical.
The total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients dropped below 1,000 to 997.
The death toll was nearing the 6,000 mark and reached 5,975. The data showed 196 people died in the first 11 days of March. More than 1,400 died in January, with the rate appearing to slow down almost threefold.
The virus's basic reproduction number, which represents the average number of people each carrier infects, dropped further to 0.83. A transmission rate below 1 means the outbreak is abating. Pfizer CEO hails 'obsessive' Netanyahu for calling 30 times to seal vaccine dealPfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Thursday praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "obsessive" efforts to secure a coronavirus vaccine deal for Israel and predicted that children younger than 16 will soon begin receiving his company's vaccine. "He called me 30 times," Bouria said of Netanyahu.
Speaking with Israel's Channel 12 news, Bourla said he believed it was "a question of weeks" until kids aged 12-16 could start receiving the vaccine, but stressed that it depended on FDA approval.
He also said he believes elementary school students will be eligible for the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine by year's end.
Pfizer recently enrolled over 2,000 children between the ages of 12 and 15 for clinical trials and hopes to have results within a few months. The vaccine currently has emergency approval for use in people 16 and older.
Bourla's comments came after the director-general of the Health Ministry estimated Israel will begin vaccinating children 12 and up against the coronavirus "around May-June." Chezy Ley said the decision will depend on clinical trials being conducted by vaccine-makers, which he hopes "will be over around the end of spring, or beginning of summer."
On Wednesday, a top Israeli health official said Israel has given some 600 children between the ages of 12 and 16 in at-risk groups the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and has seen no significant side effects from the shot. Israeli company's new COVID test does away with uncomfortable nasal swabsTired of having Q-tips stuck up your nose? Israel's BATM Advanced Communications Limited has launched a new molecular COVID-19 diagnostics kit that uses self-collected saliva samples, the company announced Thursday.
The new kit consists of reagents that have been developed to accurately detect SARS-CoV-2 in saliva samples that are collected by an individual chewing a cotton ball for 30 seconds and then spitting it (or spitting directly) into a small plastic collector tube (a Salivette).
The reagents are based on the Group's existing COVID-19 antigen kit that tests samples collected via swabbing the upper (via the nose) and middle parts of the throat or fluid from the lungs, and which has five (4+1) gene discovery capability to enable detection even with a very low viral load. The company reports that its new test kits is 100% accurate for both specificity and sensitivity. This new kit, which is CE certified, is able to detect all known variants of COVID-19, including in people who are asymptomatic.
According to BATM, the new method significantly improves the sample collection process compared with existing swabbing methods while maintaining diagnostic accuracy using the RT-PCR technique.
BATM's new kit reduces processing time by eliminating the RNA extraction phase required for the existing swabbing methods. The new test can be executed by standard PCR equipment at a rate of 150-180 tests per hour.
Dr. Zvi Marom, CEO of BATM said the company was "extremely proud" to have launched the new test kit that eliminates the need for swabbing. Head of Harvard University Hillel Blasts Student Petition Supporting Academic Cornel West as 'Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theory'The head of the Harvard University Hillel strongly criticized a petition in support of prominent Harvard professor Cornel West that echoes the scholar's claims that he was denied tenure because of his attacks on Israel and Zionism.
The Harvard Crimson reported Thursday that Rabbi Jonah C. Steinberg, the executive director of Harvard Hillel, sent an email to Hillel affiliates saying the petition promulgated "an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory" and that West had "egged students on" in promoting it.
The petition — which has been signed by more than 1,800 people and endorsed by over 90 campus organizations — cited West's claims that he was denied tenure because of his attacks on Zionism, which it listed alongside "white supremacy" and "racial capitalism" as targets of the professor's work.
Steinberg said, "It is painful to see representatives of so many student organizations maneuvered into signing a petition that attaches itself to a long chain of demonizing anti-Jewish libels through the centuries."
"Student leaders who have signed the petition likely do not realize how the words 'Israel's occupation of Palestine' are used to suggest that the entire country of Israel is illegitimate, and perhaps they are not sensible of how eliding 'white supremacy, racial capitalism, Zionism, and the military-industrial complex,' as the petition does, is a dangerous ethnic slander," he added.
A member of the student coalition that wrote the petition, Jeremy Stepansky, told the Crimson that the petitioners "vehemently reject the conflation of the Zionist state of Israel with the Jewish people."
West reiterated his claims to the outlet, saying, "I do think the support of this critique of Israeli occupation is a plausible hypothesis" for the denial of tenure "given what I know about earlier candidates who have been denied."
West said he wants to have a "public discussion about Israeli politics, Israeli occupation" with Steinberg, and said it should be "respectful." Jewish Groups Ask Homeland Security Chief to Maintain 'Made in Israel' Label PolicyTogether with 24 pro-Israel Jewish and rabbinic groups, the Zionist Organization of America spearheaded a letter to US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday urging him to maintain the current US policy of labeling goods from Judea and Samaria as "Made in Israel."
"This is not just a matter of some technical regulations in the Federal Register," said the 11-page letter. "Real people's lives and livelihoods are at stake. We would thus be happy to arrange for you to visit the Jewish communities, families, businesses and farms in Areas C and H2 so that you can see for yourself the real people who would be harmed if you rescind the current labeling regulations."
The letter provided historical, legal, legislative and moral background information explaining why the current regulations should not be changed. It also included the assertion that the policy is "essential" for combating antisemitic discrimination and boycotts against Jewish products "made in the historic Jewish homelands of Judea and Samaria."
It further explained that current labeling regulations"properly reflect "reality and relevant authorities" since Israel has had ownership of the referenced areas for the past 54 years.
The policy adopted by the US State Department on Nov. 19 states that products manufactured in Israeli-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria, or West Bank, should be labeled as "Israel," "Product of Israel" or "Made in Israel" when exported to the United States.
The pro-Israel organizations also tried to appeal to Mayorkas on a "personal note," saying: "We hope that your background as a Jew, as an immigrants' rights activist and as the child of a mother [who] had to flee from Nazi-occupied Romania and Fidel Castro's Cuba has given you compassion and consideration for your fellow co-religionists, and that you will not revert to the boycott facilitating regulations that were ultimately aimed at turning 500,000 Jews into refugees from their own historic homeland." UK Student Union President Receives Backlash for Joining Event With BDS LeaderThe president of Britain's National Union of Students (NUS) has sparked outrage for agreeing to speak alongside BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti at an event for Israel Apartheid Week.
Larissa Kennedy, elected last July, is listed as a speaker for an online debate on March 18 called "United Against Racism: Resisting Israeli Apartheid." The event is hosted by the British group Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Also scheduled to speak is William Shoki, an activist with the South African BDS Coalition, and PSC director Ben Jamal.
The event's description stated: "Israel's system of institutionalized racist discrimination amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law. This webinar, part of Israeli Apartheid Week 2021, will explore how Palestinians, and their allies around the globe, resist Israeli apartheid. … This webinar will also touch on how you can build the [BDS] movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality on your university campus."
Both the Union of Jewish Students and the Board of Deputies of British Jews slammed the event and Kennedy's expected participation in it.
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: "We support the Union of Jewish Students, which has been forthright in its condemnation of the intention of the president of the NUS to appear at such a controversial event. Mr. Barghouti has made it clear that his activities and intentions are to bring an end to Israel as a country." Lawmaker Demands Investigation Into ActBlueRep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) is demanding the Justice and Treasury Departments launch an investigation into the ActBlue charity platform following a Washington Free Beacon report exposing the organization's work with an anti-Israel group allegedly tied to multiple terror organizations.
Burchett, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, says that ActBlue—an online donation portal that primarily services liberal and Democrat-aligned organizations—could be violating U.S. anti-terrorism laws by facilitating donations to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), an anti-Israel organization that plays a central role in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
PACBI continues to be listed as a partner organization on ActBlue's website, despite being alerted earlier this month of PACBI's ties to foreign terrorist organizations. The Zachor Legal Institute, a think tank that combats anti-Semitism, informed ActBlue's leadership that PACBI is "a hate group that is controlled by a coalition of organizations that the United States and other countries have designated as foreign terror organizations."
Burchett, in a Thursday letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland, said the Biden administration must uphold its repeated pledge to fight the BDS movement. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the administration opposes the BDS movement and will not shift its stance on combating efforts to boycott the Jewish State. Blinken is just the latest senior Biden administration official, including President Joe Biden himself, to come out publicly against the BDS movement.
ActBlue's ongoing partnership with PACBI "is a flagrant violation of ActBlue's terms of service, but I am more troubled by the fact that PACBI works closely with the Palestinian BDS National Committee," Burchett wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Free Beacon. "The BNC is basically an umbrella organization for foreign terrorist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad."
Burchett said he is "worried that funds donated to PACBI via ActBlue are, through BNC, directed to foreign terror organizations." California 'Ethnic Studies Curriculum' Proposal Gets Worse, Heavy On Critical Race Theory and Anti-Israel ActivismThe saga continues: California's Department of Education has released yet another iteration of its neo-Marxist-inspired, Critical Theory-based Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum for public schools. Even after five years of work (and who knows how much money) the latest (fourth!) version of the ESMC—to be voted on next week—has managed, somehow, to be worse than the last.
Last month, we detailed a litany of historical and epistemological problems with the neo-Marxist-inspired California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) in our post, California Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum A Subterfuge For Anti-American And Anti-Zionist Activism.
As we reported:
The [first two] drafts of the ESMC were, in the words of the Los Angeles Times,
an impenetrable melange of academic jargon and politically correct pronouncements. It's hard to wade through all the references to hxrstory and womxn and misogynoir and cisheteropatriarchy.
…This curriculum feels like it is more about imposing predigested political views on students than about widening their perspectives.
In fact, as an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal summarized:
Excluded from California's model curriculum are the white ethnic groups (Italians, Irish, Poles and so forth) studied fruitfully by scholars such as Nathan Glazer, Daniel P. Moynihan and Michael Novak. Also largely excluded are groups like Jews and Armenians who were persecuted abroad and sought refuge in America. The groups that dominate the curriculum are African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and American Indians.
Perhaps worse, the first draft included fawning endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel (and only Israel), and echoed classic anti-Jewish stereotypes in its discussions of Zionism and the Jewish state.
At the root of the ESMC's flaws is its foundation in neo-Marxist Critical Theory—which, as Bret Stephens recently pointed out, is "not multiculturalism. It is not a way of exploring, much less celebrating, America's pluralistic society. It is an assault on it…It is less an academic discipline than it is the recruiting arm of a radical ideological movement masquerading as mainstream pedagogy." Greek Jews Slam Columnist for Comparing Life Under Present Government to Auschwitz Extermination CampGreece's Jewish community has issued an angry response to an opinion columnist's claim that life in the country under its present government is comparable with the Auschwitz extermination camp during World War II.
In a statement Wednesday, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) slammed writer Elena Akrita's "shameful" analogy. Akrita made the comparison in an opinion piece that accused the Greek government of ruling through "humiliation and violence" during the protests that have rocked the country over the past month.
"We live in an Auschwitz," Akrita wrote. "In a little while we will sew stars on the lapel of our coat so that they know who they are trampling on in this endless 'Night of Crystals' (a reference to the Nov. 9-10, 1938 Nazi pogrom against Germany's Jewish community.)"
In response, the KIS said that it deplored "the unacceptable and non-existent parallel of Auschwitz with life in a democratic country like Greece."
The statement continued: "In Auschwitz people did not live. They died every day, every hour, every minute, every moment, because in Auschwitz life had lost all value."
Referencing the title of Akrita's piece — "It Hurts, You Fools" — the KIS pointed out that "in Auschwitz, 1,500,000 people were killed who could not shout 'It hurts.'"
However, Akrita doubled down on her comments on Thursday, telling the KIS that she had not mentioned "Jewish prisoners" in Auschwitz. After NBC airs tone deaf episode of 'Nurses,' Orthodox Jews hold AMAGreece's Jewish community has issued an angry response to an opinion columnist's claim that life in the country under its present government is comparable with the Auschwitz extermination camp during World War II.
In a statement Wednesday, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) slammed writer Elena Akrita's "shameful" analogy. Akrita made the comparison in an opinion piece that accused the Greek government of ruling through "humiliation and violence" during the protests that have rocked the country over the past month.
"We live in an Auschwitz," Akrita wrote. "In a little while we will sew stars on the lapel of our coat so that they know who they are trampling on in this endless 'Night of Crystals' (a reference to the Nov. 9-10, 1938 Nazi pogrom against Germany's Jewish community.)"
In response, the KIS said that it deplored "the unacceptable and non-existent parallel of Auschwitz with life in a democratic country like Greece."
The statement continued: "In Auschwitz people did not live. They died every day, every hour, every minute, every moment, because in Auschwitz life had lost all value."
Referencing the title of Akrita's piece — "It Hurts, You Fools" — the KIS pointed out that "in Auschwitz, 1,500,000 people were killed who could not shout 'It hurts.'"
However, Akrita doubled down on her comments on Thursday, telling the KIS that she had not mentioned "Jewish prisoners" in Auschwitz. Former ADL Director Abe Foxman Discovers Virulent Islamic Anti-SemitismPresident Donald "Trump is a demagogue and his presidency threatens American democracy," former Anti-Defamation League (ADL) director Abraham Foxman wrote on September 11, 2020, in opposition to Trump's reelection. Yet review of Foxman's 2003 book, Never Again: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, actually indicates that Jews such as him and others should have voted for Trump over Vice President Joe Biden.
Foxman himself had conceded in his editorial that his Biden endorsement uniquely broke with Foxman's traditional abstinence from partisanship. "For more than half a century, I avoided public positions on electoral politics," he noted. "Everyone knew Foxman was liberal, but he kept his personal views distinct from his work," Alex Van Ness from the conservative Center for Security Policy wrote in 2016.
Yet in Foxman's book tour d'horizon of antisemitism's various ideological currents, Islam holds throughout center stage. Indeed, the book's longest chapter is "From Hatred to Jihad: Anti-Semitism in the Muslim World." "The fact is that virulent anti-Semitism is widespread throughout the Arab Middle East," he wrote.
This danger was a revelation for Foxman. "For many years ADL and others at the forefront in the war against bigotry and hatred treated anti-Semitism in the Arab world as a marginal issue," he wrote. In reality, "[a]nti-Semitism is tolerated or openly endorsed by Arab governments, disseminated by the media, taught in schools and universities, and preached in mosques." Antisemitic Outrages Cast a Pall Over The Hague's Image as 'City of Peace and Justice,' Dutch Jewish Leader SaysA Jewish leader in the Netherlands has questioned whether The Hague can "decently call itself the city of peace and justice" amidst an upsurge of antisemitism locally.
The administrative capital of the Netherlands and its third-largest city, The Hague is home to most of the foreign embassies in the country as well as over 200 international organizations, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The city is the fourth major center for the United Nations after New York, Geneva and Vienna.
Speaking to a meeting of The Hague City Council on Wednesday night on the issue of tackling antisemitism, Ronny Naftaniel — the executive director of Dutch-Jewish advocacy organization CIDI — noted that in 2019, an antisemitic incident was reported in the Netherlands "on every other day and 8.25 percent of it came from The Hague."
A total of 182 antisemitic incidents targeting Dutch Jews was reported in 2019 — the highest since record-keeping began and a disturbing 35 percent increase on the previous year.
Continued Naftaniel: "That is catastrophic and raises the question of whether The Hague can decently call itself the city of peace and justice."
Judith Oudshoorn, a councillor for the center-right VVD Party, told the same meeting that "everyone should be able to feel safe and free in our city; unfortunately, this is not always the case."
Oudshoorn asserted that "antisemitism is still very much alive, also in The Hague, and a specific approach to antisemitism is needed." She stressed that the reluctance of some Jews to wear their kippot in public for fear of provoking physical assault was an unacceptable state of affairs. History group drops plans to celebrate works of William Cobbett over antisemitism concernsA history group has reportedly dropped plans to celebrate the works of a 19th-century political commentator after his books were found to contain a slew of antisemitic views, blaming the economic crisis of the time on "Jewish money".
Hyde900, a history group based in Winchester, had planned to commemorate the writer William Cobbett (1763-1835) on the 200th anniversary of the publication of his book Rural Rides, but the group has pulled out.
The book chronicles his views on the agricultural crises of the 1820s England, which he blames on "Jewish money" in the City.
Founder Edward Fennell, said: "Within Rural Rides there were a number of gratuitous antisemitic and racist comments which seemed at odds with Cobbett's generally 'progressive' opinions [and] organisers thought that they needed to be investigated further. As a result, it was decided that it could not be justified to hold an event which, as one person observed, 'put him on a pedesta'." Architect sanctioned by Architects Registration Board after repeatedly comparing neighbours to Nazis and asking if they will put their "children in charge of the gas chambers" in property disputeAn architect has reportedly been found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and sanctioned after she harassed neighbours with sickening antisemitic slurs over a property dispute.
Mail Online reported that Karin Reenie Elliott asked her neighbours if they would be "putting their children in charge of the gas chambers" and wrote in a message: "We are not in 1930's Germany, we are not Jewish, we don't wear yellow stars and you won't crush us." She repeatedly told the couple, who live next to her in Norwich, that they were "building concentration camps" when they began construction on a car port for their home and knocked down part of a fence.
Other messages included Miss Elliott telling her female neighbour: "No regrets then? For Krystallnacht 1917 [sic]? We will not be your victims anymore" and that "there wouldn't be enough comfort food in Norfolk to make up for the emotional trauma caused to any woman that had to sh** your Nazi husband".
Miss Elliot is a seasoned architect, with more than 25 years' experience in the field and a plethora of respectable employers names on her Linkedin CV. As well as taking umbrage with the couple building a car port, she apparently sent similar messages to another set of neighbours when they rented a hot tub for a weekend. She told them: "You cannot instigate a one family Nazi regime to occupy our land and intimidate us off our property."
At the hearing of a disciplinary panel of the Architects Registration Board, she said that she simply wanted her neighbours to know that she did not like them and regretted using "childish bad language", but she then went on to state: "In mitigation, I would ask the members of the panel to understand what it feels like to be attacked. It's hard not take it personally when strangers are smashing up your home".
The panel found her guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and imposed a £2,000 penalty order to be paid within 28 days. Bus-schedule planner Optibus raises $107 million to boost global reachOptibus, a maker of a schedule-optimizing software for bus fleets and public transportation operators, said Wednesday it has raised $107 million in a Series C round, co-led by venture capital funds Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners.
Optibus will use the funding to continue to expand its global presence and boost its product capabilities such as optimization and artificial intelligence algorithms that improve mass transit for passengers while increasing operational efficiency, the Tel Aviv-based startup said in a statement.
Optibus uses a combination of AI, advanced optimization algorithms and distributed cloud computing to performs deep analysis and number-crunching on anything that could affect public vehicle schedules: traffic, weather, drivers who call in sick, rock concerts that increase passenger loads, road closures. It also helps cut back on CO2 emissions as buses can be planned more effectively, the Israeli firm says.
The startup also received funding from existing investors including Verizon Ventures, Pitango, New Era Capital Partners, Dynamic Loop and Blue Red Partners. With this latest round, Optibus has raised a total of $160 million since its founding in 2014. Israeli company making water from thin air comes to help Colombian stateIsrael has donated two water extraction devices to help schools in Colombia's rural La Guajira state, amid an ongoing water crisis that has lasted for years.
The crisis has stemmed from the unique ecosystem in the state. Traditionally, the state has survived by planting crops using seasonal rains. But climate change has resulted in prolonged droughts, and the region has increasingly become more desert.
This has led to a severe rise in deaths caused by malnutrition.
These water extraction devices are the ideal solution.
Made by Watergen, the devices extract drinking water from the air itself, and can provide up to 800 liters of fresh water per day. The technology behind it has been widely lauded and has seen widespread use worldwide.
La Guajura Governor Nemesio Roys expressed his amazement at the technology, saying it represented a new and more efficient way to bring water to the state rather than being forced to drill into the earth.
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| Cartoon of the Day: Today's heroes Posted: 12 Mar 2021 11:00 AM PST |
| 03/12 Links Pt1: Is the Biden Administration Planning on Violating the Taylor Force Act?; Exposing the ICC’s anti-Israel bias; UAE announces $10 billion fund for investments in Israel Posted: 12 Mar 2021 09:58 AM PST From Ian: Stuart Force, Sander Gerber and Mike Pompeo: Is the Biden Administration Planning on Violating the Taylor Force Act?The Biden Administration has signaled its desire to resume aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a way to jump start the moribund Israeli-Palestinian "peace process." The obstacle to peace, however, is not the absence of US assistance but the PA's incentivizing of terrorism. The bipartisan Taylor Force Act blocks US funding for the PA until it changes this behavior. There is no indication that it has, making any resumption of US taxpayer aid a contravention of this important law and a further hindrance to peace.
The PA's "pay-for-slay" policy was highlighted by the 2016 murder of an American tourist in Israel by a Palestinian terrorist. The tourist, named Taylor Force — a West Point graduate, US Army veteran, and son of one of the authors of this post — was in Tel Aviv on a school trip when he was stabbed to death.
Force was neither Israeli nor Jewish. Yet, the PA celebrated the killer repeatedly as a "heroic Martyr" and held a large, festive funeral where he was hailed as a national hero. The murderer's family soon began receiving benefit payments from the PA.
The PA spends massively on these payments to terrorists and their families and treats this perverse benefits system as a sacred obligation. Codified in PA law, the system adds bonus payments for Israeli Arabs and Arab residents of Jerusalem who have Israeli IDs and therefore more freedom of movement to carry out attacks. The longer the prison sentence, the greater the payments — meaning the deadlier, the more lucrative. The PA employs some 550 people in its pay-for-slay bureaucracies and devotes over seven percent of its budget, or $350 million, to the program, compared to just $220 million for non-terrorist welfare programs.
To address this despicable system, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act (TFA) — a bill the ACLJ has long supported — cutting off US aid to the PA until the pay-for-slay bureaucracy is dismantled and the laws governing it are repealed. The logic is simple: since money is fungible, aid that supplants the governance responsibilities of the PA frees up PA money to reward terrorists.
The Taylor Force Act corrected a profoundly immoral policy that had American taxpayer funds being laundered unwittingly through PA accounts to incentivize murder. The bill also offered a simple litmus test of the PA's seriousness about making peace: If the PA cannot revoke the laws and infrastructure conferring special treatment for terrorists, then the PA itself remains an obstacle to the "peace process."
Yet, the Biden Administration claims renewed aid for the Palestinian people will not violate TFA, which bars aid programs that "directly benefit" the PA. And news reports indicate the PA believes it can satisfy the Administration by making terrorist compensation "needs based" rather than based on the success of attacks, as it is now.
The Administration also appears set to endorse and empower the PA by giving it preemptive rewards, such as re-opening the PLO mission in Washington, DC, the office that directly administers the pay-for-slay program.  Leading European and Arab world diplomats announced potential "small steps" Thursday toward reviving Middle East peace efforts after upcoming Israeli and Palestinian elections.
The officials — from the UN, EU, Egypt, Jordan, Germany, and France — did not release any specific details, however. And the meeting came amid new tensions between Israel and Arab countries around Jerusalem.
There have not been any serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in over a decade and it is unclear what the diplomats can do concretely to create conditions to bring the two sides closer together, especially without the participation of the US.
The Biden administration has called on both sides to refrain from unilateral steps that could harm peace efforts but has yet to announce any major effort to resolve the decades-old conflict as it focuses on the coronavirus, the economy, and other domestic issues.
"We are going to initiate meetings with both parties within a timeframe built around the electoral calendar to identify, with them, the steps they are in a position to take to kickstart mutual trust," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. He mentioned possible health and economic measures, without elaborating.
Any next moves will depend on the outcome of the Israeli election on March 23, as well as Palestinian elections later this year. UAE announces $10 billion fund for investments in IsraelThe United Arab Emirates on Thursday announced it was setting up a $10 billion investment fund aimed at strategic sectors in Israel, with whom it normalized ties last year.
The decision, the UAE official news agency WAM said, was taken following a "constructive" phone call between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Through the $10 billion fund, the UAE "will invest in and alongside Israel, across sectors including energy manufacturing, water, space, healthcare and agri-tech," it said.
Israel and the UAE established ties last year in a diplomatic coup for Netanyahu brokered by his staunch ally, former US president Donald Trump.
The deal made the UAE only the third Arab state to establish relations with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan subsequently reached similar US-brokered agreements with Israel, in what has become known as the "Abraham Accords."
"The fund builds on the historic Abraham Accord and aims to bolster economic ties between two of the region's thriving economies, unlocking investments and partnership opportunities to drive socio-economic progress," WAM said.
It said fund allocations "will derive from government and private sector institutions". Overseas demand for Israeli homes rising 'through the roof'Demand for Israeli homes from overseas buyers has gone "through the roof," said Tzvi Shapiro, co-founder of First Israel Mortgages. "While American Jews once looked at having a home in Israel as luxury, or a nice thing to have for the holidays, it is now seen as a necessity for those who can afford to purchase one," Shapiro said. "Because the stock markets are at all-time highs, and due to the political unrest in the US, people are looking to Israel as a safe-haven for their families and their futures."
December was one of the busiest months for real estate transactions in the country's history, according to Finance Ministry data. Some 13,400 apartments were sold in the last month of 2020, the third-highest volume in Israeli history, despite the country being under corona lockdown for about half the month.
Some 62,000 homes were sold in the second half of 2020, the highest in 20 years, after the bottom fell out in March-June due to pandemic pandemonium. Among other factors, Finance Minister Israel Katz's decision to reduce the purchase tax for real estate investors in July is credited with some of the spike.
As COVID-19 is seen to be winding down, a new wave of local buyers is coming into the market, as people's narratives have changed regarding the property values.
"There were always people on the fence, saying that homes were too expensive, and that they would wait for prices to come down," Shapiro said. "Now, there is a general sense that prices are going to just keep going up, and the longer they wait, the more it will cost in the future." No AIPAC conference? No problem. We're meeting for coffee on ZoomFor years, the annual AIPAC conference has culminated with thousands of Israel supporters knocking on their congressional representatives' doors here to deliver three policy requests.
Last year, the conference in early March ended with anxiety about whether COVID-19 had spread after some of the country's first cases were detected among attendees. And this year, there's no throng and no door-knocking at all. Due to the pandemic, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee announced in May that it would not hold an in-person conference in 2021 for the first time in decades.
But the pro-Israel lobby says it's still engaging a broad swath of Americans — through a series of online events that spanned the course of the year rather than being packed into a five-day conference. And although both staffers and lawmakers say Zoom lobbying has drawbacks, AIPAC remains optimistic about its plan to present a three-pronged policy agenda to lawmakers next week.
"We have very active creative services and communications departments that have now adapted to this environment quite ably in being able to take the type of high-quality presentations that you normally see at the policy conference and adapt them to the virtual environment," said Marshall Wittmann, the group's spokesman.
The suspension of AIPAC's signature event came at a crucial time in U.S.-Israel relations: a new administration that is unlikely to be as solicitous to Israel as the Trump White House; looming elections in Israel; reconsideration of the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump as president exited; and backburner anxiety about support for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel. Michal Cotler-Wunsh: Take a stand against ICC politicization - opinionIt is further not only the responsibility of diplomats and ministries of foreign affairs, but imperative for members of parliament around the world to also take a stand and ensure their governments reiterate concerns regarding this politicization of the Court and the need for reform. Parliamentary discussions must take place regarding what can be done to ensure the Court's resources are used as intended in the Rome Statute and are dedicated to cases where there is no complementarity, where domestic systems of justice do not exist to hold war criminals to account. The prosecutor's decision to investigate a democracy with a renowned legal system, such as Israel, poses a risk to all law-abiding states and promotes a culture of impunity against abusive regimes whose crimes are sidelined in favor of politically-motivated cases.
Members of Parliament must also question and audit their international aid apparatuses, which have provided millions of tax payer dollars to nongovernmental organizations for activities involving lobbying the ICC to investigate Israel. For example, in 2018, Switzerland provided CHF 280,000 to Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) for "Conduct[ing] communications with the Office of the General Prosecutor of the ICC and other intn'l litigation mechanisms." In the same year, Switzerland also provided CHF 20,000 to the Palestinian NGO Addameer for "follow up for the submission to the ICC, and to file a new report." Both PCHR and Addameer have documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by governments including the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel.
Similarly, within Israel, members of Knesset must too take responsibility and utilize the resources available to them to understand the implications of the ICC investigation for all Israelis and to engage with fellow parliamentarians from around the world. The Knesset, like legislatures around the world, is fortunate to have numerous "friendship groups" with global allies and to have representation in inter-parliamentary forums. In each of these forums, members of Knesset must be equipped to discuss the imperative for reform of the Court and the detriment the investigation of Israel will cause to all. Further, the position of Official Knesset Liaison on Matters Concerning the ICC must be enshrined as a permanent role, so that there continues to be leadership on this issue from within Knesset and supervision of the executive branch.
While the prosecutor claimed in her March 3 statement that the investigation would be "conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favour," the fact that Bensouda discounted the opinions of renowned legal scholars, international legal principles, and amici briefs of seven governments, instead favoring information provided by terror-tied NGOs and non-legally binding UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council Resolutions, demonstrates the politicization of the Court. It is imperative that all parliamentarians act in the name of international law and human rights and call for reform of the Court. Only then will the "limited resources" noted in Bensouda's statement be utilized for the true victims of atrocities. ICC Rhymes with HypocrisyThe imaginary scenario I sketched out above is not far-fetched. I wrote about this back in September 2005, in Issue #75, when I interviewed Major General Doron Almog, who required diplomatic intervention when he faced arrest after flying to the UK on a fundraising mission for Aleh, an Israeli nonprofit that runs rehabilitative villages for children with severe disabilities.
Almog is a combat hero in Israel. At age 21, he was one of the commandos who targeted the Palestinian terrorists guilty of murdering 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He was also the first Israeli soldier to hit the runway — and the last to leave — at Uganda's Entebbe Airport during the daring 1976 rescue of more than 100 hijacked Jewish passengers.
However, a leftist Israeli attorney living in Britain at the time viewed Almog as a villain, and his service as head of the IDF's Southern Command in Gaza as a war crime. The attorney had enough clout to try to get Almog arrested under the Geneva Convention, which allows one country to try citizens of another country even for war crimes that took place in another land. Israel's military attaché in London boarded the plane before Almog could get off and told him to turn back because he would be arrested if he set foot on British soil.
ICC deliberations are secret. Unsuspecting Israelis might not know they face arrest until it's too late.
Kontorovich says the ICC could take months or even years, but inevitably, they will file arrest warrants against high-profile Israelis.
"They're on a political path, and there's no deterring them," Kontorovich said. "Israeli officials, when traveling abroad, will have to look ahead to make sure the country they're traveling to will not enforce such a warrant."
Singling Israel Out
Equally hypocritical was the ICC's decision to expand its definition of war crimes to include Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. While the Geneva Convention forbids forced population transfers to or from territories captured in war, Israel has never coerced any Jew to move to Yesha, or any Arab to move out.
"This particular offense was written into the ICC statute tailor-made for Israel," Kontorovich said, adding that international bodies turn a blind eye to the tens of thousands of people that Tukey transferred to northern Cyprus to cement its 1974 invasion of that island nation, and never prosecuted Russia for the estimated 250,000 Russians who flooded into the Crimea after Russia wrested the territory away from Ukraine in 2014.
Israel's Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has rejected cooperating with the ICC probe, noting that Israel has a vigorous justice system (many would argue way too vigorous) including military tribunals, and that outside intervention is unwarranted. Yet some voices in Israel recommend we play along, have our day in court, and prove our innocence once and for all.
Kontorovich advises against: "Going to court assumes this is a legitimate neutral decision-maker. This is not a fair court. Israel should ignore it and treat it as a hostile political entity, which it is." Exposing the ICC's anti-Israel bias The USSR and the Old Middle EastWith the return to power by the Obama administration through their proxy Joe Biden, there is concern that the Biden administration would carry on the policies of the previous two-term Obama administration that involved the embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and Iran, all enemies of Israel.
On December 23, 2016 that administration had underscored its animosity towards Israel by not vetoing the anti-Israel United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2334. Thus, the US could not be counted on to veto any anti-Israel Security Council resolution.
Regardless of any pro-Israel assurances uttered by the current administration, we believe that their policies are all detrimental to Israel. They are once again seeking to revive the JCPOA and the two-state solution, both of which have been rejected by Israel. Though the Biden administration hasn't rejected the Abraham Accords, their involvement in them and in the final negotiations with Saudi Arabia to join the Accords will co-opt the Arab states to once again back the two-state solution and other anti-Israel measures they intend taking.
During the Obama years, when Israel was much weaker, Israel managed to resist Obama's pressure. This time around they are better equipped to resist.
But there is worry about what the UNSC might do with the US acquiescence.
We wondered whether Russia can be induced to veto future UNSC resolutions which are inimical to Israel. This may not be as fanciful as you might think. The Israel-Russia-Syria deal: Cost, beneficiaries and future dealsHowever, all options considered, the deal seems to be less costly for Israel in terms of public support, especially during an election period. Israelis traditionally support doing whatever necessary to "bring the boys back home," whether live soldiers or the bodies of warriors held by the enemy. This approach is rooted in Judaism and Israeli national-communal sentiment of mutual responsibility. The Israeli/Russian/Syrian deal seems more reasonable than a trade involving the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, as has happened in previous exchanges of this kind. In the past, thousands of prisoners, including some with blood on their hands, were released in exchange for even a single Israeli hostage. This drew considerable criticism from the Israeli public (which simultaneously celebrated the return of the hostage). In this respect, the deal stresses Russia's and Syria's pragmatic approach (which was rewarded), as opposed to the stalemate with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas still presents excessive demands in the spirit of previous agreements mentioned above, yet the Israeli public is less and less willing to accept disproportionate deals.
The current deal with Syria was described by official Israeli spokesmen as humanitarian, and followed two other such deals with Russian involvement. The was the 2019 return of the remains of an Israeli soldier from Syria, which the Russians obtained while risking their soldiers' lives. Second was the release of an Israeli woman detained in Russia following allegations of drug trafficking. However, unlike these two previous cases, where nothing was known officially to have been given to Russia directly for its humanitarian assistance, the current Russian gesture came with a price tag. It is reasonable to assume that previous Russian involvement was not free either and may have involved expectations from the Russian side for constructive Israeli assistance, perhaps with regard to Washington. In case such expectations have not been met, it is realistic to assume Russia demanded an immediate, concrete compensation for its efforts.
Russia seems keen to assume the position of an intermediary between Israel and Syria. A Russian TV channel just aired a new documentary apparently showing Eli Cohen, a legendary Israeli spy who was hanged in Syria in 1965 and whose remains are still in Syria. The documentary was shot by the Russian military attache in Syria at the time. Notably, it was released just days after the deal that brought the Israeli woman back from Syria.
For Israel, the recent deal is the latest example of the strategic and tactical benefits of the continued coordination in the Syrian arena with Russia that demonstrated Moscow's readiness to act constructively, although not for free. The question that follows — assuming Russia is willing and able to advance the strategic interests of Israel (and its allies in the Middle East) in Syria — is what the cost would be to limit Iranian military expansion and arms smuggling there. Israel, France, Greece, Cyprus come together for naval military exerciseIn an effort to strengthen its control over the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Israel Navy held joint maneuvers this week with Greece, Cyprus and France practicing anti-submarine warfare and search-and-rescue operations.
The drills were part of the annual trilateral Noble Dina exercise and included naval vessels and helicopters. The Israeli Navy participated with Sa'ar 4.5-class missile frigates equipped with anti-submarine systems as well as Dolphin 2-class submarines.
The Greek Navy stated that the main objectives of the exercise was focused on addressing modern challenges and threats in the marine environment and promoting the level of cooperation and mutual understanding of the three navies.
The drill took place in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cretan Sea in the southern part of the Aegean Sea. According to the IDF, while most of the exercise dealt with underwater warfare, other scenarios such rescue situations while at sea and air defense were also practiced.
While Israel's Navy is relatively small compared to other IDF corps, it has a significant amount of territory to protect since the expansion of the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from 40 miles to 150 miles four years ago. 10 Years Fighting: Israel's Revolutionary Trophy Is a Tank 'Shield'Israel is currently looking at creating future combat vehicles through what it calls the Carmel program. Rafael, Elbit Systems and Israel's IAI, the big three of the defense industry in Israel, are all taking part in offering their technology for the program. The Trophy and other active protection systems could influence future designs of tanks. This can make militaries more maneuverable and make lighter armored vehicles safer. Infantry Fighting Vehicles like the M2 Bradley and Infantry Carrier Vehicles like the Stryker have often faced questions about their abilities to either stand up against missile threats or other armored threats. Active protection systems provide flexibility but also may influence a future generation of vehicles.
There is also going to be more competition in the active protection system market. Israel's Elbit Systems acquired Israel Military Industries several years ago. IMI developed the Iron Fist which is supposed to be put on Israel's Eitan armored fighting vehicle. In addition, it has been tested on the Bradley in the United States. "We want to remain best in the field," says Lurie about Trophy. It is a complex system without a man-in-the-loop. However, that means you don't want the system to respond to false alarms. These complexities, of not having misfires, is something Rafael has worked out over the decade the system was operational. Others who want to develop these kinds of systems need to put them to that test on a real-world battlefield. Israel has been fighting those kinds of wars in 2012 and 2014 in Gaza and on the border of Gaza, and also facing threats along the Lebanon and Syrian borders.
Work on the Trophy system goes back to the 1990s. The 2006 Lebanon war moved the concept forward faster because of the rapid need for such a system. Israel had the same decades of development in terms of air defense, moving forward with Arrow in the 1990s and then adding Iron Dome and David's Sling in the 2000s. The Scud missile threat of 1991 and the Iranian threat woke Israel up to the need to have an indigenous capability against ballistic missiles. The war against a more advanced Iranian-equipped Hezbollah terror army necessitated better protection for tanks. This wasn't immediately obvious because Israel's army had stagnated when it was sent to deal with Palestinian rioters and small arms fire and bus bombings during the Second Intifada. The IDF that emerged out of that, with Trophy and Iron Dome and other systems is a revolutionary new model army, far removed from decades ago in terms of technology, digitization, battle management, networked capability and use of artificial intelligence.
The success of Trophy saw it tested in the United States in 2017 and 2018. Moreover, the first U.S. tanks were equipped with the system when it was delivered in 2019 in partnership with Leonardo DRS. "These things began with a bright person and an idea, and it takes time to get to a working version," says Lurie. The U.S. has now tested in rigorously and the German deal is a major step for Israel. It has seen dozens of interceptions in combat and thousands in tests. For Israel, preparing for the next major conflict and putting its army through upgrades in its Momentum multi-year plan, systems like Trophy are a key element of the power, protection and lethality that Israel can put in the field when the time comes. Israeli troops nab Gazan infiltrator who was carrying grenadesIsraeli troops on Friday arrested an armed Palestinian man who crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the military said.
An initial interrogation revealed the suspect had three grenades he left along the border barrier before he was caught, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement.
The IDF said the suspect, who entered Israel from northern Gaza, was taken in for further questioning.
The incident came a day after the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas blamed Israel for an explosion that killed three fishermen off the coast of the Strip earlier this week, leading several armed factions in Gaza to vow revenge.
Hamas interior ministry spokesperson Iyad al-Bozm said that the three fishermen were killed by an explosion caused by a downed Israeli drone that had been caught in their net.
Israel has denied any involvement in the incident. Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Why Terrorists Support Mass MurderersFor Hamas and Islamic Jihad, what matters is the money and weapons coming from Iran. They see Soleimani as a hero because of his role in providing the Gaza-based terror groups with cash and weapons in order to continue their jihad (holy war) against Israel and Jews.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and all of Iran's militias throughout the Middle East have a single goal in common: the annihilation of Israel.
"Instead of providing a fish or teaching how to catch a fish, we taught our allies and friends how to make a hook," Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, adding that Hamas and Hezbollah are now in possession of advanced missile technologies.
Soleimani, the man responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs, is being commemorated as a hero and martyr by these terrorist groups because he was supplying them with cash and weapons. His death has not stopped Iran from continuing its support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.
This is why the next US administration must maintain pressure on the mullahs in Iran. An easing of the sanctions will embolden the terrorist groups and facilitate their mission of pursuing their jihad against Israel. Iran's proxies want to see Israel obliterated -- and if that means aligning themselves with mass murderers such as Soleimani, so be it. PMW: Fatah embraces terror organizations that openly reject Israel's right to exist; suggests "all factions" run on joint listIn advance of the PA elections, Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub has announced that Fatah urges "all the national activity factions" to run together on a joint list. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 28, 2021]
Rajoub's statement came after the terror organization PFLP announced its election platform, which included rejection of Israel's right to exist and a reiteration of PFLP's long term goal to seek Israel's destruction using violence and terror:
"[PFLP] emphasized its firm opposition to recognizing the racist Zionist entity, and its determination to continue with all forms of the struggle, and foremost among them armed resistance, in order to liberate every grain of the soil of Palestine."
[Ma'an, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 21, 2021]
The PFLP further urged to "revoke" the Palestinian recognition of "the Zionist entity" and demanded an annulment of "the humiliating and catastrophic Oslo Accords."
The day after the PFLP's announcement, Rajoub announced that "Fatah greatly appreciate the decision" of the PFLP to run in the elections, not citing any reservations at all regarding the terror organization's election platform and goal to destroy Israel. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 22, 2021] Less than a week later, Rajoub called on all factions to join one list.
Recent events show that running on one joint list may be more than just a suggestion but rather a dictate from Abbas. When a member of Fatah's Central Committee announced he would form a separate list that would run separately from Fatah in the upcoming PA elections, Abbas promptly kicked him out of Fatah and of the Central Committee:
Excerpt from Abbas' decision: "The Fatah Central Committee has decided to expel Nasser Al-Qidwa from the committee and from Fatah, in accordance with its decision that was made in the meeting on March 8, 2021…[Al-Qidwa] will be given 48 hours to retract his declared positions, which transgress Fatah's regulations and decisions, and which harm its unity – and if not, he will be expelled…In accordance with Fatah's regulations and decisions, and to preserve its unity, it views its decision as valid as of today.
Ramallah, March 11, 2021
Mahmoud Abbas
Fatah Chairman"
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 11, 2021] Israel targeted some 12 tankers headed for Syria, US officials say -WSJUS and regional officials have accused Israel of targeting "at least a dozen" tankers bound for Syria and mostly carrying Iranian oil due to concerns that petroleum profits were funding extremists, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The report alleged that since 2019, Israel has been using naval weapons, including water mines, to strike vessels which were either Iranian, or carried Iranian cargo, as they made their way to Syria.
The report said that while most of the tankers carried oil, some of the targeted vessels have made efforts to move other cargo, including weaponry.
According to Greenpeace, Iranian oil tankers routinely violate trade embargoes on Iran and Syria to smuggle oil into Syria through the Suez Canal. The organization said that the practice of turning off tracking systems is also commonly done such vessels, to avoid detection for violating the trade embargo.
The practice is so common in fact, that between August of 2018 and July of 2019, Syria received around 17 million barrels of crude oil from Iran this way.
The WSJ report added that other ways that these ships avoid international scrutiny is through the declaration of false destinations, transferal of oil from one ship to another at sea, or through the use of old, rusted tankers which are harder to detect. US Repeats It Will Not Offer Iran Unilateral Incentives for TalksThe United States repeated on Thursday it will not offer Iran unilateral incentives to attend talks about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
"We will not offer any unilateral gestures or incentives to induce the Iranians to come to the table. If the Iranians are under the impression that, absent any movement on their part to resume full compliance with the (nuclear deal), that we will offer favors or unilateral gestures, well that's a misimpression," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
Price suggested Washington would consider each side taking steps to resume compliance with the agreement once they are at the negotiating table.
"If and only if Tehran comes to the negotiating table would we be in a position, would we be prepared, to discuss proposals that would help push both sides back on that path of mutual compliance to the deal," he said. "Ultimately, that is where we seek to go: compliance for compliance."
Price was referring to the deal between Iran and six major powers under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for the easing of US and other economic sanctions. Why Iran's hate-filled public school curriculum should be a global concernThe government of Iran remains the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, and unfortunately its educational curriculum is no exception. Public school teachers in Iran today use textbooks designed by the state to indoctrinate young people to export global revolution using terrorism and other aggressive means. As a result, the content of its textbooks should be a global concern.
I recently completed the first comprehensive study of hate and extremism in current Iranian textbooks in nearly half a decade as part of my ongoing work with the Anti-Defamation League, the results of which are accessible in full on the ADL website.
Evaluating teaching materials to identify and discourage hateful content is an important trend in the Middle East. Accordingly, this essay reproduces key findings from the ADL research on Iran and adds several notable new examples beyond the content in the original report.
The Iranian state curriculum especially encourages terrorism and political subversion against Arab states in particular. It also demonizes America, Israel and the Jewish people, including in ways that are part and parcel with these same hateful conspiracy theories and calls to violence.
For this reason, condemning the problematic content in Tehran's textbooks is only part of the solution. We should also redouble efforts to teach peace-building and interfaith tolerance in every country's textbooks, so that it is harder to exploit suspicions between East and West, between Sunnis and Shiites, or between Muslims, Jews, Christians and followers of other faiths.
The Iranian government's current textbooks indoctrinate children with messages that put them on a permanent footing for war. The books teach children how to assemble assault rifles, to carry out military maneuvers, and to learn about the importance of cyber warfare.
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