Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Abdul Fatah Awang	Abdul Fatah Awang	Learned Elders of Islam	Southeast Asia				20040109
Abed al-Fatah Hameil	Abed al-Fatah Hameil	Palestinian Authority	Israel-Palestine	Palestinian			20040328
Fatah Issa Halil Dababse	Fatah Issa Halil Dababse	Tanzim	Middle East				20031106
Fatah Khan	Fatah Khan	Taliban	Afghanistan/South Asia				20040517	Link
Mahmoud Al-Fatahni	Mahmoud Al-Fatahni	Al-Qaeda	Afghanistan/South Asia	Saudi	At Large	Tough Guy	20050712
		escaped from US detention in Bagram
Omar Abdel Fatah Al-Shishani	Omar Abdel Fatah Al-Shishani	al-Qaeda	Home Front				20031009

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Thinking

2024-06-04

A taste.

[IsraelNationalNews] The leaders of the American State Department who whitewashed Fatah/PLO/PA are no less rejectionist towards a viable resurrected nation of the Jews than the Hamas or Islamic Jihad beheaders of Jewish infants are.

Once again the cause of creating Arab state # 22 has emerged on the center stage of world opinion. That would be the second state for Arab nationalism, not first, in the original April 25, 1920 Mandate of Palestine’s territory. As is often cited, but usually ignored, today’s Jordan was gifted with almost 80% in 1922.

The recipient Arabs would be those who deny Jews their sole, minuscule, resurrected one—whether it’s 9-15 miles wide by the pre-UNSC Resolution 242, ‘49 Auschwitz/armistice lines, or 242’s which granted Israel a reasonable territorial compromise, where Israel’s extreme vulnerability was finally taken into consideration in the wake of the June 1967 War, started with an Egyptian blockade of Israel…a casus belli.

The Arabs in question mostly came into the land of Israel/Judea from elsewhere, and only in fairly recent history (despite largely fictitious claims otherwise) have renamed themselves “Palestinians.” The more historically accurate designation should be “Palestinian ARABS”—where Arab is the main identifying noun, and Palestinian is the descriptive adjective.

They speak the same language, share most of the same culture, religion, and so forth as hundreds of millions of other Arabs. Granted, there’s some differences among these folks, but no more, for example, than 40 million stateless Kurds who speak different dialects in Turkey, Iraq , Syria, Iran, and so forth. Or, for that matter, Jews from over 50 different countries who’ve been oppressed in many if not most of those lands.

The following two links show how in the public relations fight to deny Jews their one state, Arabs have tried to transform themselves into the “old” and “new “ Jews over rights of possession in the ancient land of Israel/ Judea: Here and here.

Here’s a PLO executive committee member paraphrased in the above second link:

“There are no differences between Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, and other Arabs…It is only for tactical snd political reasons that we now emphasize “Palestinian” identity in out battle to deny Zionism and Jews any rights to the land at all.”….Zuheir Mohsein, Dutch newspaper Trouw, 3/31/1977."

When considering the claim for a 22nd Arab state, please next consider such things as…

There are Moroccan, Libyan, Algerian, Iraqi, and other Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews who predate Arab conquerors of those lands by millennia.

Do they get to demand other states besides Israel because they perhaps decide to rename themselves “Moroccans” instead of Jews?

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hamas leader denies knowledge of Palestinian money used for Afrin settlements

2024-06-03

5/29/2024 See more of Dr. Baxtiyar Baram‘s observations here.
[Rudaw] Basim Naim, former Paleostinian health minister and a Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
politburo member, said on Wednesday that he was unaware of Paleostinian funds being spent on building settlements in the Kurdish city of Afrin in Syria, stating that Paleostinians cannot build their homes at the expense of other people.

Speaking to Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman from Doha, Naim said that he was unaware of claims by a Kurdish doctor who served in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, that funds collected by Gazooks were being used to build Paleostinian settlements in Afrin

"We cannot build our rights, our homes, and our freedom at the expense of any other human. We cannot accept the construction of our homes and residents at the expense of other people," Naim said.

During a Rudaw news bulletin on Tuesday, Dr Baxtiyar Baram, a Kurdish doctor who traveled to Gaza from April 28 to May 22 with the Norwegian NORWAC Association, stated that Hamas and Gazooks "hate Kurds" and that his Kurdish name was a problem for him during his stay at the Strip.

"The Paleostinians recognize that the Kurds have done great favors to Paleostine and its people... We consider the role of the Kurdish people in defending Paleostine, not as a secondary, marginal or political, but the Kurdish role is an authentic, historic and permanent role," Naim said, denying Baram’s claims.

"We are indebted to the Kurdish people for all the sacrifices they have given throughout centuries for Paleostine, and for the freedom and the dignity of the Paleostinian people," he added.

Israel accuses Hamas leaders of hiding in hospitals and using civilians as a human shield against the Israeli campaign, a claim that was reiterated by Dr Baram during his stay in the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Baram said he is an eyewitness to Hamas leaders take shelters at hospitals and he has personally spoken with one of the founders of the group inside one of the hospitals.

"Hamas, as a political and military organization, needed to exploit everywhere to shelter them in their strategic positions... I have seen it with my eyes that the hospitals have been used for hiding Hamas leaders," Baram said. "Yes, yes, we saw them and even spoke with them, including one of the founders of Hamas, Mr. Munir Albursh."

Naim did not reject Baram’s claim of Albursh being at the hospital at the time. Still, he elaborated that Albursh was the director general of the health ministry and it is a wartime practice that the health ministry officials move into the hospitals to be present on the field.

"When I was a [health] minister, during wartime the ministry administration is moved into the hospitals in order to be able to perform on-field and administrative work for these emergency operations," Naim said, stating that Baram was not "informed about the nature of fieldwork" during the war.

Naim thanked the doctor "who risked his life, and was adamant to join a European medical team under the banner of the Norwegian NORWAC, to help and aid our maimed Paleostinian people."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF reservist in viral mutiny video dismissed from duty, under investigation

2024-05-27

Follow up to this story from yesterday.

[IsraelTimes] Military says soldier, who recorded himself saying troops would not obey orders to hand off control of Gaza, being probed for incitement to mutiny and not following orders

An Israel Defense Forces reservist who called for mutiny in a video shared on social media over the weekend has been dismissed from reserve duty, following his interrogation on Sunday by the Military Police.

The interrogation was part of an investigation into the soldier on suspicion of mutiny, incitement to mutiny, not following orders, and other offenses, the military said.

At the end of the investigation, findings will be presented to the Military Advocate General for review, the IDF said.

Hebrew media reported that the video was in fact filmed in Israel. Images posted to the soldier’s Facebook page indicate that he did serve in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
previously.

Graffitied on the wall behind the soldier is the name "Kahane," potentially a reference to the far-right Jewish turban Meir Kahane, who called for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. Kahane’s party was banned from the Knesset and designated a terrorist organization by the Israeli government.

"We reservist soldiers do not intend to hand the keys [to Gaza] over to any Paleostinian authority," the soldier says in the video. "We do not intend to give the keys to Gaza to any entity — Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
, Fatah, or any other Arab entity. Reservist soldiers are behind you and we want to win."

According to Channel 12 news, the reservist in question had had multiple run-ins with the law in the past, and it was not clear why they had not raised red flags ahead of his reservist duty.

News of the reservist’s dismissal came a day after the IDF announced it was opening a criminal probe into the video, saying in response to a query on the matter: "The behavior in the video is a serious violation of IDF orders and IDF values."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Tens of thousands in attendance as Raisi is buried in Iran’s Imam Reza shrine

2024-05-25

Expanding on an item mentioned in passing in this story from yesterday.

[IsraelTimes] Services fail to draw same crowds as those seen at funeral for Soleimani in 2020, in possible sign of country’s feelings; Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis meet on sidelines

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
on Thursday interred its late president Ebrahim Raisi at the holiest site for Shiite Moslems in the Islamic Theocratic Republic, a final sign of respect after he was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week along with foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six others.

Raisi’s coffin was flown to Mashhad in northeast Iran after a funeral procession was held for him on Thursday morning in the city of Birjand, in Iran’s South Khorasan province along the Afghan border, where thousands in black gathered along a main boulevard in the city.

A semi truck bore his casket down the street, with mourners reaching out to touch it and tossing scarves and other items to be placed against it for a blessing. A sign on the truck read: "This is the shrine."

Hours later, the plane carrying Raisi’s coffin arrived in Mashhad, his hometown, where he was laid to rest at the gold-domed Imam Reza shrine, the holiest Islamic site in Iran, revered by Shiite Moslems as the resting place of the 9th-century imam Ali al-Reza.

In 2016, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Raisi to run the Imam Reza charity foundation, which manages a vast conglomerate of businesses and endowments in Iran, as well as oversees the shrine. It is one of many bonyads, or charitable foundations, fueled by donations or assets seized after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

These foundations offer no public accounting of their spending and answer only to Iran’s supreme leader. The Imam Reza charity, known as "Astan-e Quds-e Razavi" in Farsi, is believed to be one of the biggest in the country. Analysts estimate its worth at tens of billions of dollars as it owns almost half the land in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.

Raisi is the first top politician in the country to be buried at the shrine, which represents a major honor for the holy man.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
the services across the country did not draw the same crowds as those who gathered for services for Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani

in 2020, slain by a US dronezap in Baghdad.

It was a potential sign of the public’s feelings about Raisi’s presidency during which the government harshly cracked down on all dissent during protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in police custody after she was arrested for allegedly not wearing her mandatory headscarf to authorities’ liking.

That crackdown, as well as Iran’s struggling economy, went unmentioned in the hours of coverage provided by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
and in newspapers. Also never discussed was Raisi’s involvement in the mass execution of an estimated 5,000 dissidents at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, which had earned him the moniker "the Butcher of Tehran."

Prosecutors warned people against showing any public signs of celebrating Raisi’s death and a heavy security force presence has been seen in Tehran since the crash.

Raisi, 63, was widely seen as a candidate to succeed 85-year-old Khamenei, who wields ultimate power in Iran. Mohammad Mokhber, who had been first vice president, is serving as interim president until a June election. For now, though, there’s no clear favorite for the position among Iran’s political elite — particularly no one who is a Shiite holy man, like Raisi.

Acting president Mokhber, a relatively unknown first vice president until Sunday’s crash, stepped into Raisi’s role following his death and even attended a meeting between Khamenei and Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
leader Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
on Wednesday.

In Tehran, meanwhile, former Iranian foreign ministers Mohammed Javad Zarif
...Persian foreign minister, Mouthpiece of Mullahs, good friend of John Kerry and similar exemplars of Merkin values...
and Ali Akbar Salehi and other officials and foreign dignitaries paid respects to Amir-Abdollahian at the Foreign Ministry, where his casket was put on display.

His body was later interred in Shahr-e Rey just outside of Tehran at the Abdol Azim shrine, another final resting place for those famed in Persian history.

"Give Soleimani our greetings," a religious singer said as Amir-Abdollahian’s body was placed inside its final resting place, referring to the slain general.

Ahead of Raisi’s funeral, the representatives of some 60 countries took part in a ceremony paying their final respects on Wednesday afternoon. Among those in attendance were Tunisian President Kais Saied and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as well as representatives from Belarus and Serbia, while countries of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
declined to attend.

Khamenei declared five days of national mourning in the wake of the helicopter crash.

Iran says no signs of foul play in wreckage of helicopter crash that killed Raisi

[IsraelTimes] Report by Iranian military says ‘no bullet holes or similar impacts’ found at crash site to indicate Iranian helicopter was attacked, flight did not sway from pre-designated route?

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Heads of Iran-allied militant groups meet in Tehran

2024-05-24

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Heads of Iran-allied militant groups meet in Tehran https://t.co/9ZJC4FYD6j
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) May 23, 2024

Leaders of the Iran-led, so-called "axis of resistance", including Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
's Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
and Hezbollah's Naim Qassem

... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
, discussed the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
during a meeting in Tehran on the sidelines of president Ebrahim Raisi's funeral, state media reported Thursday.

The "axis of resistance" brings together Iran's regional allies in the fight against Israel, including the Paleostinian movement Hamas, Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
's Hezbollah, Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
's Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s and Iraqi Shiite gangs.

The leaders of these movements met Wednesday after attending ceremonies organised in Tehran to pay tribute to Raisi, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran.

The meeting was attended by Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
-based political bureau, as well as Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem and Houthi front man Mohammed Abdulsalam.

Haniyeh had also previously had an audience with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
Iranian officials meanwhile included General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as General Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the guards.

They discussed "the latest political, social and military situation in Gaza and the al-Aqsa Flood operation and the role of the resistance front," state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The meeting reportedly stressed "the continuation of jihad and struggle until the complete victory of the Paleostinian resistance in Gaza with the participation of all resistance groups and fronts in the region", IRIB said.

Hezbollah's al-Manar channel also reported the meeting, broadcasting photos.

Iran's Fars news agency said representatives of Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine and Iraqi groups were also present at the meeting.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who also died in the helicopter accident, had increased his trips to the region, particularly to Lebanon and Syria.

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
is a key backer of Hamas, but has repeatedly denied involvement in the Paleostinian group's October 7 attack on Israel.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Arab League calls for peacekeepers in 'occupied Palestinian territories'

2024-05-18

[GEO.TV] The Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
on Thursday called for a United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
peacekeeping force in the Paleostinian territories at a summit dominated by the ongoing Israel-Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

The meeting of Arab heads of state and government convened in Bahrain more than seven months into the conflict in Gaza that has convulsed the wider region.

The "Manama Declaration" issued by the 22-member bloc called for "international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Paleostinian territories" until a two-state solution is implemented.

The declaration also called on "all Paleostinian factions to join under the umbrella of the Paleostine Liberation Organization," which is dominated by Hamas' political rivals, the ruling Fatah movement.

The Arab League added that it considered the PLO "the sole legitimate representative of the Paleostinian people".

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Area C will never be part of Israel

2024-05-18

Long. A taste:

[Jpost] The year 2023 will be remembered as the year that witnessed the collapse of two closely related pillars of Israel’s West Bank policy. Together, these policies constitute grave misconceptions that nevertheless have been proudly championed by Israel's ultra-nationalist right-wing government. The first policy pillar is the “divide and rule” strategy, whereby the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were intentionally separated to prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state and to facilitate the sequestering of the West Bank and its ultimate annexation to Israel. This pillar crumbled to wrack and ruin on October 7th when it became abundantly clear that allowing Hamas to grow at the expense of the Palestinian Authority has grave consequences. The second pillar, the “battle over Area C,” sought to create spatial and demographic conditions permitting the annexation of an area that accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank. This pillar has been disintegrating gradually over several years.

The roots of these failed policies can be found in Israel's abdication of its legal commitments that were ratified in the Oslo Accords.

Given that both the Palestinian Authority/PLO/Fatah and Hamas abdicated their legal commitments from the beginning, it seems unfair and unrealistic to demand Israel stick to them.

In the declaration of principles, the State of Israel accepted the notion of unity of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: “The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period.” With regard to Area C, the agreement stated: “The Parties agree that the area of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations [Jerusalem, settlements, and military sites] will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction, to be completed within 18 months from the inauguration of the Council.” It also stated that: “‘Area C’ means areas of the West Bank outside Areas A and B, which, except for the issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations, will be gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction in accordance with this Agreement.” In simple terms – all the agreements signed by the State of Israel define the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as a single territorial unit. This principle has guided all negotiations conducted by the two sides. Area C, therefore, has been under an extremely extended temporary status pending its eventual transfer to Palestinian jurisdiction.

Regarding the first failure – the collapse of the “divide and rule” policy – the Palestinians are united in their insistence on a joint future for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Yes, yes. But does that mean Hamas will rule or Fatah/PLO/Palestinian authority? I admit it’s a silly question, as it looks like Hamas is the more popular option in both territories, and the PA demonstrated their inability to hold Gaza in the teeth of Hamas armaments back in 2007.

Similarly, there is overwhelming consensus in the international community on the two-state solution as the only viable solution to the conflict.

So? The international community doesn’t have to worry about Palestinians rampaging over the border with pillage, plunder, rape, torture, and murder in their minds. So it is none of the international community’s business.

Israel has also accepted this principle in all negotiations with the Palestinians, and it is only the stalemate in diplomacy during the Netanyahu years that gave rise to the catastrophic divide and rule strategy. Because the territorial integrity issue is clear and undisputed, we focus on the second failure – the battle over Area C. Our research, conducted as part of the T-Politography project, a project dedicated to empirically monitoring changing levels of Israeli and Palestinian control in the territories in several different domains, examined the period from 2010 through the end of 2023. During these Netanyahu years (with a one-year Bennett-Lapid government), we found clear evidence that Israel is squandering its resources on a lost cause.

Motivated by the idea that it is possible to annex most of the West Bank without its Palestinian population, Israel devoted its full force and all the means at its disposal to shape the political future of Area C. This process included unprecedented budgetary allocations for the expansion of settlements; the establishment of additional government ministries as channels for the indirect transfer of funds; the encouragement and retroactive whitewashing of illegal outposts by the government; the construction of roads such as the Hawara and El-Arub bypasses, each of which cost over 200 million US Dollars; attempting to legislate the Regularization Bill – a bill that would allow the seizure of private Palestinian land; attempting to abolish the grounds of reasonableness clause (both legislation initiatives were canceled by the Israeli Supreme Court); and the absence of an immediate and forceful response to settler violence against the Palestinians. The process reached its peak in 2023 with the transfer of responsibility for the Civil Administration of the West Bank to ultra-nationalist Betzalel Smotrich as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry, which effectively turned him into the de-facto governor of the West Bank.

The Palestinian side did not remain impassive in the face of this Israeli campaign. The Palestinian struggle for Area C was implemented through the Fayyad Plan, a two-year plan formulated by former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in 2009. The plan offered a roadmap for building Palestinian infrastructure and institutions to establish a de facto Palestinian state throughout the West Bank. The plan enjoyed international support and a budget of over half a billion euros from the EU.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Soldier killed in accident on Gaza border as Gallant sends more troops to Rafah

2024-05-17

[IsraelTimes] Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ran Yavetz sixth soldier to be killed in tragic mistake in two days, after Jabaliya friendly fire incident; primed rocket launchers uncovered in southern Gaza city.

A military reservist was killed in an "operational accident" on the border with the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday, a day after five soldiers were killed due to a case of mistaken identity.

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ran Yavetz, 39, was killed in a blast caused by Israeli munitions in a military zone near the Black Arrow memorial site, hundreds of meters inside Israel.

Yavetz, from Modiin, had served with the Bislamach Brigade’s 6828th Battalion.

Four other soldiers were lightly injured in the accident, which was under further investigation, the army said.

On Thursday morning, the IDF announced that five Israeli soldiers were killed and another seven maimed, including three seriously, in a friendly fire incident in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya the night before.

The deaths brought the toll of slain troops in the IDF ground offensive against Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
in Gaza and in operations on the border to 279. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in Gaza.

At least 50 of the fatalities have been due to friendly fire and other accidents, according to IDF data. The army has assessed that myriad reasons have led to the deadly accidents, including communication issues between forces, and soldiers being exhausted and not paying attention to regulations.

Tanks continued to push into the heart of Jabaliya in northern Gaza on Thursday, facing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs from Hamas fighters concentrated, Paleostinians reported.

Israel says it has eliminated many button men in Jabaliya but had no new comment on developments there on Thursday.

In Rafah, where residents reported heavy Israeli bombardments, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that more troops would be deployed in Gaza’s southernmost city, the focus of intense international consternation.

"This operation will continue with additional forces that will enter [the area]. Several tunnels in the area have been destroyed by our forces and more tunnels will be destroyed soon," Gallant said in remarks provided by his office.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri
...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest...
responded that the Paleostinian terror group would defend its people "by all means."

Israel says four of Hamas’s six remaining battalions are now in Rafah along with hostages kidnapped during the terror group’s October 7 massacre, but it faces international pressure not to invade the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Paleostinian civilians are sheltering amid the ongoing war. Two more Hamas battalions remain in central Gaza, in the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah camps.

The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
says that over 600,000 Gazooks have evacuated the city since the IDF began operations there last week by taking over the Paleostinian side of the Rafah Border Crossing.

South Africa on Thursday asked the International Court of Justice to halt the IDF’s military campaign in Rafah — and in all of Gaza — claiming that Israel has genocidal intent against Paleostinians.

Citing comments by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who was quoted by Haaretz at the end of April as saying, "There are no half-measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nusseirat — total annihilation," as evidence of Israeli genocidal intent, Attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi also played a video of IDF soldiers before entering the southern Gazook city praying and then singing, "We will dismantle Rafah."

South Africa told the top UN court that the Rafah offensive was "part of the endgame in which Gaza is utterly destroyed." Israel has denied allegations of genocide in Gaza and said it had complied with an earlier court order to step up aid. Israel will respond to South Africa at Friday’s hearing.

The IDF began sending troops into Rafah on May 7, in what it has described as a pinpoint operation, with soldiers currently holding a relatively small area southeast of the city.

The IDF said that troops of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit located several primed rocket launchers with long-range projectiles Thursday.

The launchers, some of which were used in attacks on Israeli cities in recent months, were located and demolished using drones, the military said.

In a different area of Rafah, the IDF said troops located another rocket launching site with dozens of launchers, before it was also demolished. This site had also been used in recent attacks on Israeli cities, including last week’s barrage on Beersheba, according to the military.

The military said its 98th Division pushed into the Jabaliya camp in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, killing many gunmen amid the fighting.

The IDF said the division’s 7th and 460th armored brigades battled “dozens of armed squads and eliminated a large number of terrorists” over the past day.

In the same area, a drone strike killed a terror cell responsible for rocket fire on the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday, the military said.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Tuesday that troops are now operating in areas of Jabaliya that the IDF previously did not reach in the initial ground offensive in northern Gaza. More than 80 gunmen have been killed in the operation that started on Sunday.

On Wednesday morning, several rockets were fired from Jabaliya at Sderot. Some of the rockets were downed by the Iron Dome air defense system, while at least one struck an unoccupied building, authorities said. There were no injuries.

The rate of rocket fire on southern towns has steadily increased in recent days as the IDF was carrying out new operations against Hamas.

A useful observation.

Also in the past day, some 80 sites used by terror groups, including buildings, weapon depots, rocket launchers, observation posts, and other infrastructure, were struck by the Air Force, the military said.

The IDF also confirmed Wednesday morning that troops of the Nahal Brigade withdrew from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood after six days, to prepare for “additional offensive operations.”

The IDF reentered Zeitoun last Thursday for the third time in the ongoing war after identifying Hamas regrouping there.

Reservists of the Carmeli Brigade continued to operate in Zeitoun, the IDF added, contradicting media reports claiming that the six-day operation there had ended.

On Tuesday night, Hagari said troops had killed more than 150 gunmen and destroyed some 80 sites used by terror groups in the ongoing Zeitoun operation.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Arab League calls for peacekeepers in occupied Palestinian territories

2024-05-17

Ha ha ha… No way in Hell.

[NEWARAB] The Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
on Thursday called for a United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
peacekeeping force in the Paleostinian territories at a summit dominated by Israel's offensive in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

The meeting of Arab heads of state and government convened in Bahrain more than seven months into the war on Gaza that has convulsed the wider region.

The "Manama Declaration" issued by the 22-member bloc called for "international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Paleostinian territories" until a two-state solution is implemented.

The declaration also called on "all Paleostinian factions to join under the umbrella of the Paleostine Liberation Organization," which is dominated by Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
' political rivals, the ruling Fatah movement.

The Arab League added that it considered the PLO "the sole legitimate representative of the Paleostinian people".

Link

Home Front: WoT

16 Republican senators demand IRS investigate fiscal sponsor of Students for Justice in Palestine

2024-05-15

[Jpost] Republican senators urge IRS to investigate nonprofits backing pro-Palestinian groups like National Students for Justice in Palestine, alleging support for terrorism.
The "investigation" has likely been conducted. The results of the "investigation" is what is needed.
A group of 16 Republican senators is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate nonprofits that support National Students for Justice in Palestine - including the group’s fiscal sponsor, the suburban New York nonprofit Wespac.

The senators’ letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, dated May 9, says the agency should investigate whether, by directing funds to NSJP, the nonprofits are supporting terrorism - which would violate their tax-exempt status.

“We should not need to remind you of the heinous support NSJP chapters across the country have voiced for Hamas, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the letter says. “That support has exploded at NSJP chapter-led demonstrations in recent weeks.”

The recent wave of pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations - many of them organized by SJP chapters - has made the investigation especially urgent, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, the letter’s lead signatory, told the New York Jewish Week. A range of Jewish groups have condemned the protests for targeting Jews with antisemitic rhetoric and creating a hostile atmosphere at schools across the country.

“The antisemitism that has popped up on college campuses coast to coast is fundamentally un-American,” Ernst said in a statement, adding, “it is clear these organizations should not receive any favors from our government to do Iran-backed Hamas’s bidding on our own shores.”

The IRS is notoriously underfunded when it comes to enforcement, making it unlikely that the call will swiftly lead to an investigation. Still, the senators’ call highlights just how closely they are scrutinizing the organizations that are known to be tied to the protest movement, which many of them have decried as antisemitic.

Other signatories included Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mitt Romney, from Utah.

The letter cites a recent lawsuit filed by survivors of Hamas’ October 7 attack, which claims that NSJP collaborated with Hamas and has promoted its messaging in the months since the attack. It also refers to an existing investigation into one of the groups by Virginia’s attorney general.

The letter comes seven months after dozens of Jewish groups signed a letter in mid-October asking schools to withdraw funding for SJP due to its support for Hamas’ attack. On October 12, NSJP released a “toolkit” lauding the October 7 invasion as a “historic win,” and the senators’ letter argues that in the months since, the pro-Palestinian student group has continued to promote Hamas, including at the campus protests.

Wespac and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The other nonprofits named by the senators are the California-based Tides Foundation and Virginia’s AJP Educational Foundation. The Tides Foundation donated $35,000 to Wespac in 2022.

Wespac’s tax-exempt status allows it to support a number of pro-Palestinian groups. The organization, a small nonprofit with the stated mission of “current affairs education,” quietly facilitates funding for NSJP along with Within Our Lifetime, which has organized frequent pro-Palestinian street protests and also endorsed Hamas’ attack.

Wespac - which is chaired by an anti-Zionist Jew named Howard Horowitz - facilitates funding for the groups by acting as a fiscal sponsor, which allows it to receive tax-exempt donations and grants for organizations that do not have nonprofit status, including NSJP. The arrangement allows NSJP to keep its finances out of public view and doesn’t require the fiscal sponsor to detail the funding it channels to other groups.

In its most recent tax filings, covering September 2022 through August 2023, Wespac reported $2.3 million in revenue, mostly from donations and grants. It does not make its fiscal sponsorships public. The Anti-Defamation League said in a 2022 report that Wespac sponsored a total of 15 groups related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, far more than for any other cause. It is unclear how many groups it sponsors in total.

Among the other groups it sponsors are the US Palestinian Community Network, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Palestine Freedom Project, and Adalah-NY, which all collect donations through Wespac online. Wespac has sponsored NSJP since at least 2019 and Within Our Lifetime since 2020, according to archived web pages.

Link

The Grand Turk

Haniyeh meets Turkish intel chief in Doha, reportedly gives dossier for ICJ genocide case against Israel

2024-05-13

[IsraelTimes] Ottoman Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met with Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
leaders including Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
in Doha today to discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
and the access of humanitarian aid

into the Paleostinian enclave, according to a Ottoman Turkish security source.

Unverified posts on social media claim Haniyeh passed over a dossier to be used in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, which ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
recently announced that it will join.

The ICJ ordered Israel in January to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Paleostinians, after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

It did not find that Israel was committing genocide.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

PA says it can only pay 50% of civil sector salaries this month as tax funds withheld

2024-05-13

[IsraelTimes] Finance Ministry says it is preventing transfer of tax revenues, said to amount to $46 million, citing Ramallah’s diplomatic efforts against Israel

The Paleostinian Authority said Sunday it will only be able to pay a part of public sector salaries this week as the Finance Ministry is continuing to withhold tax revenues that it collects for Ramallah, keeping up a squeeze on payrolls that has lasted for months.

Channel 12 reported over the weekend that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had been holding back NIS 170 million shekels ($46 million) in tax revenue for nine days, in protest of PA efforts "fighting against the State of Israel." It was an apparent reference to reports that Ramallah has been pushing for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials for alleged breaches of international law

…one can indeed see how that might rankle…

in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
during the war against Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
The PA said it would pay Paleostinian public sector employees 50 percent of their March salaries on Tuesday after Israel withheld a transfer due for the month of April.

It said the arrears would be paid once the financial situation allowed.

The Finance Ministry confirmed it had been decided not to transfer tax revenues this month but declined to provide details.

The squeeze on public sector salaries, and the fact that tens of thousands of Paleostinians have been prevented from working in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October, have added to growing economic hardship in the West Bank.
Those jobs will be filled by others: Indians, Thai, ...
Israel collects hundreds of millions of shekels in Paleostinian tax revenue, which Smotrich held up earlier in the war over concerns that the portion of the funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services and employees in Gaza — roughly NIS 260 million ($73 million) monthly — could wind up in the hands of Hamas.

Although Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the rival Fatah faction in 2007, the Paleostinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, continues to fund some health and education services in the enclave.

An agreement was eventually reached in February to transfer the payments via Norway to ensure no money is diverted to the terror group.

But in a letter sent last month to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and widely reported by Hebrew media, Smotrich wrote that the PA is an immediate danger to Israel and called on the premier to annex the West Bank if the Paleostinians don’t desist from their diplomatic efforts against Israel.

Link

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