| A few reminders on the 58th anniversary of Fatah's first terror attacknoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 01 Jan 05:45 AM January 1 is considered the 58t | | January 1 is considered the 58th anniversary of the Fatah movement. Just a few reminders about what exactly that means:
1. Fatah was founded in the 1950s, but it doesn't celebrate the date of its founding. It celebrates the date of its first attempted terror attack, against Israel's national water carrier. It was the definition of a terror attack, an attempt to make most Israelis die of thirst.
Fatah defines itself as a terror group.
2. The Palestinian Authority is run by Fatah.
3. Mahmoud Abbas controls Fatah - meaning, he is the head of a group that openly celebrates terror.
4. Fatah has never stopped actively supporting terror, as its current party platform makes clear.
5. This attack happened in 1965 - before "occupation." Fatah then had, and now has, a goal of the destruction of Israel, not an end to "occupation." 6. Hamas congratulated Fatah on this occasion, saying "We congratulate our brothers in the Fatah movement on their 58th anniversary, and we affirm our firm strategy with the inevitability of joint national action on the grounds of adhering to the principles of our people, and the struggle in all its forms, to restore its just national...Read More |
From Ian: Dore Gold: Where is the Middle East heading now? Dr. Ebtisam Al-Ketbi, who heads the leading research center in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Policy Center, pointed out that the overlapping crises afflicting the Middle East have made strictly bilateral solutions completely ineffective, which drew the major players in the region to try the Baghdad II mechanism. Perhaps they were thinking about a Middle Eastern version of the Helsinki Process that drew in members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact in 1975 at the height of the Cold War. But Iran was glued to a policy of exploiting its Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) units as its chosen instrument for spreading its regional influence – not multilateral mechanisms that the strongest party in the room was prepared to ignore. Over the last few years, Iran effectively employed its Houthi allies in Yemen to successfully strike the heart of Riyadh, shutting down for a period of time a significant percentage of Saudi Arabia's oil production. Indeed, a Houthi drone attack knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production in 2019. Iran did not pay a price for this bold action. Clearly, it had little incentive to restrict its behavior, given the tepid regional reaction. In fact, Jordan's King Abdullah disclosed on CNN in July 2021 that Iranian drones had attacked Jordanian territory in increasing numbers. For years, Tehran had built up a military presence in Lebanon and Syria...Read More |
From Ian: Melanie Phillips: The religious culture war comes to Israel Far from creating a liberal, tolerant society, progressive ideologies are profoundly illiberal and coercive. Far from producing the brotherhood of mankind, left-wing universalism sets group against group in a battle for power over each other. A constitutional monarchy, such as exists in Britain, promotes unity because it exists above politics and therefore above division. This was the great insight of King David, who unified the tribes of ancient Israel to form a coherent nation and whose limited monarchy was the inspiration and template for the British Crown. King Charles's patent desire to bring the British people together has transformed him from a figure widely disparaged and distrusted as cold and remote into a person viewed affectionately as the benign and genial grandfather of the nation. The State of Israel, of course, doesn't have a monarchy. Nor does America, which is being pulled apart over these cultural issues. For all the unifying strength of the monarchy he represents, however, King Charles is actually in a lonely and perilous position. For the prevailing culture in Britain is actively undermining the religious continuity he realizes is essential. No political party in Britain is prepared to face down and defeat the culture warriors writing women and conservatives out of the public sphere. No party is prepared...Read More |
* * * * * * Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. Read all about it here! ...Read More |
From Ian: Caroline Glick: Where the Netanyahu government differs from its predecessor Over the course of the campaign, and in a steadily escalating fashion as he prepared to return to office, Netanyahu has spoken enthusiastically about the prospect of reaching a peace agreement that will formalize Israel's relations with Saudi Arabia. Those still sub rosa relations were the foundation of the Abraham Accords. The rationale for a Saudi deal is overwhelming for both countries. Leaving aside the economic potential of such an agreement—which is massive—the strategic implications are a game changer. An Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement, like the agreements Israel concluded with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in 2020, is a means to withstand the Biden administration's realignment away from America's allies and towards Iran. By strengthening its bilateral ties with the Arab states bordering Iran and other key states in the region, Israel expands its strategic footprint and is capable of developing defensive and offensive capabilities by working in cooperation with likeminded governments. By working with Israel openly, Saudi Arabia sends a clear message to Iran and its people that Saudi Arabia will not be cowed into submission by the regime that is currently brutalizing its youth. Netanyahu has already made a statement in support of the revolutionaries in Iran. At this point...Read More |
Al Jazeera's headline says it all: The year 2022 is the worst in terms of occupation violations at Al-Aqsa Mosque.. More than 48,000 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Remember, this isn't a Palestinian news site. This is Al Jazeera, trusted and praised throughout the world.
The article says, The Director General of the Department of Islamic Endowments and Affairs of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, described the year 2022 as the worst and highest in terms of violations by the Israeli occupation and extremist settlers of the Holy Mosque. Al-Khatib said in a statement yesterday, Thursday, that "the intensity and pace of the raids increased during this year, bringing the total number of Jewish extremists who stormed from the Mughrabi Gate side of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque to 48,238 extremists." He pointed out that the unprecedented provocative actions included prayers, prostrations, and the performance of public Talmudic rituals, chants, singing, and dancing inside the courtyards, in addition to raising Israeli flags inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jewish occasions and holidays during this year. Horrors! For context, the average Friday sees about 50,000 Muslims visiting the holiest Jewish site. Their...Read More |
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For the past two months, the media has been churning out article after article on how the incoming Netanyahu government will be extremist, a disaster for Palestinians and Israelis alike. In an unprecedented move, US President Joe Biden gave a public warning to the incoming government that he will oppose policies that the US feels are against the two state solution.
For a six months, Israel has been led by a centrist politician, Yair Lapid. By nearly all measures, Lapid was more aggressive against Palestinians than his two predecessors, Naftali Bennett and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The six months of Bennett and of Lapid this year makes it fairly easy to compare the two.
According to the UN's OCHA, when Lapid entered office, Israel had killed 60 Palestinians in operations in the West Bank in 2022 under Bennett. Since then, 86 more were killed. Compare with all of 2020, under Netanyahu, when the number killed was 24.
Under Bennett, about 340 Palestinian structures were destroyed this year. Under Lapid, about it was about 550. Combined, this is a modest increase over the total in 2020.
Under Bennett, there were about 1620 search and arrest operations in the West Bank this year. Under Lapid, the number was over 1800. (The total number is roughly the same as under Netanyahu in 2020.)
Lapid the centrist has been clearly more aggressive than the "settler" Bennett and the "fascist" Netanyahu.
While there may be good reasons for Israeli...Read More |
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