Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Abbas to discuss handover of Palestinian arms during Lebanon visit

2025-05-05

[NAHARNET] Palestinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas

...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
will make an official visit to Lebanon on May 21, Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper reported on Friday.

''The protocol arrangements of the visit have practically started, undertaken by Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, amid expectations that the issue of Palestinian weapons will be on the table of discussions as part of the visit's official agenda,'' informed Palestinian sources told the daily.

''The handover of weapons will only take place through an official Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue led by Abbas, in his capacity as the president of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,'' the sources added.

''This dialogue will represent a groundwork that allows for calm and gradual progress, away from any clash or security explosion inside the camps,'' the sources said.

Hamas handed over member suspected of rocket attacks on Israel to Lebanese army

[IsraelTimes] Hamas hands over to the Lebanese Armed Forces a member of the terror group suspected of involvement in two March rocket attacks on Israel, according to Lebanese media.

The suspect is given to the military at the entrance to Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh camp, says the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

Lebanon has warned Hamas not to conduct operations that compromise the country’s security or sovereignty, Beirut’s Supreme Defense Council said on Friday.

The Lebanese Army reportedly arrested Hamas members in Ain al-Hilweh and another refugee camp in April over alleged involvement in the rocket attacks.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli Court rules PA, PLO must compensate victims of 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro suicide bombing

2024-11-20

Given that the PA is the PLO is mostly Fatah, that seems fair.

[IsraelTimes] The Jerusalem District Court ruled earlier today that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization are required to pay tens of millions of shekels to victims of the 2001 terrorist bombing of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem, Channel 12 reports.

Sixteen civilians were killed in the August 9, 2001 suicide bombing, including seven children, and 130 people were wounded, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the Second Intifada.

The court made the determination on the basis of the PA’s yearslong policy of making financial payments to terrorists and the families of terrorists, the TV report says.

It says the precedent-setting court ruling potentially also opens the door for victims of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre to seek financial compensation from the PA.

The court issued its ruling in response to two suits that victims of the 2001 bombing have been pursuing for the past two decades, the report says, and relied upon a Supreme Court ruling that the Palestinian Authority can be held liable for terrorist acts, due to its policy of paying stipends to security prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed during attacks on Israelis.

Justice Isaac Amit, setting out the Supreme Court ruling in April 2022, found that the decision to pay convicted Palestinian terrorists and those killed as part of the “struggle against Israel” made the PA liable for their actions. “[The PA] expresses its consent to their actions, in a manner that takes responsibility for the acts. This justifies that [the PA] will be assigned personal and direct responsibility,” Amit wrote.

Meir Schijveschuurder, a lawyer for the victims whose own parents and three brothers were among the fatalities in the bombing, hailed today’s ruling, telling Channel 12, that the court decision would help quell “rampant terrorism because the Palestinians will not be able to bear the financial consequences.” The decision, he said, “will bring relief to the families of the victims, and significantly reduce terrorism.”

The Channel 12 report indicates that the compensation ordered by the court could be paid out of funds that Israel has been withholding since 2018 from the monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Why the New White House Won't Help Netanyahu Take the West Bank

2024-11-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] Arguing ahead of evidence. I don’t know which way President Trump will fall on this particular question, but he and Bibi are coordinating their response, whatever it will be.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump has not yet moved into the White House, but his Israeli allies have already mentally tried on the vector of the future policy of the Republican administration to suit their own interests.

In the highest offices of Israel, there is a conviction that Trump's second presidential term will be a continuation of the first, which means that it is possible to continue to act within the framework of the previous logic.

For this reason, the West Bank of the Jordan River (WBJR), where Israel has been engaged in a “creeping expansion” for years, occupying disputed lands with settlers, has been in the spotlight in recent days.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the apologists for settlement control over the ZBRI, does not hide the fact that he sees Trump's presidency as an "important opportunity" to apply Israeli sovereignty to semi-legal settlements. Moreover, he wants to achieve full control over these territories as early as 2025.

However, Trump apparently thinks otherwise.

DISPUTED COAST
The conflict over the status of settlements on the West Bank has been going on since the second half of the 1960s, when the territory came under Israeli control following the Yom Kippur War.

Since 1995, following the signing of the Oslo II Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, parts of the West Bank have been controlled by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which was created as a result of these agreements.

However, this does not prevent the Israelis from actively developing the ZBRI by creating new Israeli settlements, thereby further blurring the status of the disputed territories.

Under the current government, the “settlement expansion” has reached record levels. Since the beginning of 2023, the Israeli government has legalized more than 12,000 buildings in disputed territories, and by the middle of that year, it had agreed on a plan to create new settlements.

Moreover, at least four of them were planned for construction in the ZBRI zones previously abandoned by the Israelis, which violated the long-standing status quo between Tel Aviv and the relatively neutral PNA.

However, the project's progress was hampered by criticism from the United States. Moreover, a number of Israeli public organizations associated with the settlers were even subject to sanctions.

However, with the arrival of Trump, the hawks have hoped to give new impetus to the advancement in the West Bank.

"BEST FRIEND"
The return of the Republicans to the White House was awaited with poorly concealed impatience in Israel. Under the Democrats, the dialogue between Washington and Tel Aviv went into a nosedive, especially after the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

For almost a year, the United States tried in vain to impose its vision of a regional settlement on the Israelis, while Israel sought an opportunity to torpedo the inconvenient “deal.”

And although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to balance publicly between the Democratic and Republican wings until the very end, already during an official visit to Washington in July 2024, the Israeli establishment made a final bet on the "elephant party." Especially since it was the Republicans who provided the lion's share of support for the actions of the Israeli army in the enclave.

Trump was remembered by Netanyahu as “Israel’s best friend,” who did much to strengthen the Jewish state’s regional ambitions. It was he who, in 2017, was among the first to upset the balance of interests between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

Trump recognized Jerusalem as the country's capital and supported Israeli claims to the disputed Golan Heights, declaring them part of Israel's territory in 2019. In addition, in 2019, Washington deliberately distanced itself from the topic of Israeli settlements in the ZBRI, calling the issue "an internal matter of Israeli jurisdiction," which made it easier for Tel Aviv to legalize the houses being built.

After all, it was at the instigation and with the energetic participation of Trump that a new stage of Arab-Israeli normalization took place, providing Tel Aviv with the opportunity to do business with the Gulf sheikhs.

PRO-ISRAEL TEAM
Hints of the White House’s imminent “pro-Israel turn” can also be seen in the first appointments to Trump’s team. Most of the high-ranking officials – be it Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, future National Security Advisor Mike Walz, or the nominee for the post of US Ambassador to the UN Elise Stefanik – either have close ties to the Israeli government or support the political course taken by Tel Aviv.

The candidacy for the post of US Ambassador to Israel is also highly symbolic: it is conservative Mike Huckabee, known for his ardent support of Israel’s “settlement expansion.”

The Israeli leadership also tried to "play to the beat" by appointing former settler leader Yechiel Leiter as ambassador to Washington. However, this appointment did not generate much enthusiasm among Republicans.

OTHER PRIORITIES
Israeli politicians' belief in Trump's readiness to promptly support expansion in the West Bank is based solely on the logic of his previous management decisions, and also partly on his election promises to "more decisively support" Tel Aviv.

Of course, the Israelis will get far more support from the White House than the Democrats. But expansionists are missing the changed regional landscape in which Trump must navigate.

First of all, it is important for the Republican to maintain working contacts with two ardent opponents of Israeli “settlement expansion” – Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Trump expects to use their resources for further settlement of the conflict in Gaza, as well as for soft containment of Chinese economic expansion in the Middle East.

Secondly, Trump is not eager to expose another regional partner, Jordan, to additional risk. With the onset of the Gaza crisis, it has already faced unrest among Palestinians living in the kingdom, and destabilization of the situation in the ZBRI does not bode well for the Jordanians.

Finally, it is not in the interests of the new US administration to give Iran an additional point of pressure on the domestic political situation in Israel, especially since the issue of maintaining a balance of interests in the ZBRI is relevant not only for the PNA, but also for a number of Arab parties from the so-called “Joint Arab List”.

It is quite remarkable that Trump had been signaling his unwillingness to get involved in the West Bank story on the Israeli side long before he was elected president, and upon moving to the White House, he will most likely remain in the same position.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the new US president will nevertheless make an exception for his “old friends” and publicly remind them that, from the US position, the situation in the ZBRI is an internal matter for Israel. However, such a public pass will most likely require the Netanyahu government to make concessions to the US in other areas – primarily in matters of completing the operation in Gaza and in Lebanon.

Link

Fifth Column

Campus Hamas Follies Week of 10/6-12

2024-10-13

Pro-Palestinian activists go loud at Columbia as students mark year since Oct. 7 attack
[IsraelTimes] Israel supporters cap a difficult year amid raucous demonstrations by rival anti-Israel groups at NYC school that has been a hotspot since Hamas onslaught sparked the ongoing war.

Despite all the press and the promises, it’s not gotten any better.

Our martyrs’: Chicago college students rally for ‘Gaza’
[CollegeFix] Pro-Palestinian activists plan to host events throughout the week at Chicago universities, with at least two specifically meant to “honor” the “martyrs” of the war on Israel.

Students for Justice in Palestine will host a “vigil” on Oct. 9 at Loyola University Chicago to “honor our martyrs.”

Students for a Democratic Society at DePaul University will host a rally on Thursday, according to an Instagram post.

A walkout and rally are also planned for this afternoon at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Join us for a powerful day of rallying, learning, and community building,” the campus SJP wrote, describing its “For Gaza We Rise” event.

Anti-Israel activists vandalize homes of UMich leadership, orgs with Israeli ties to mark Oct. 7 anniversary
[CampusReform] ‘To mark one year of genocide against the Palestinian people, an autonomous group visited the homes of two University of Michigan leaders, President Santa Ono and Chief Investment Officer Erik Lundberg,’ the tip said. ‘They also decorated the offices of the Jewish Federation of Detroit and the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, organizations that are deeply entrenched in the apartheid state,’ it continued.

Columbia student group retracts apology of member who said ‘Zionists deserve to die’
[IsraelTimes] Day after Oct. 7 anniversary, Columbia University Apartheid Divest issues explicit endorsement of violence as Khymani James claims he ‘never wrote neo-liberal apology’ in April.

Anti-Israel Columbia Student Sues School For Suspending Him After Daily Wire Exposé
[DailyWire] Student Khymani James said in video that "Zionists don’t deserve to live," compared them to Nazis.

Columbia's Student Protesters Really Have Embraced Hamas
[HotAir] Hamas' goal is to kill Jews, civilian or otherwise, and drive them from the land. This is what "from the river to the sea" has always meant. Now the group which ran the Columbia protests and inspired similar protests around the country is flat out saying they support the same thing.

The increasingly revolutionary tilt of the student movement reflects an internal push among many pro-Palestinian groups to align their goals with principles known as the Thawabet, crafted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1977. They include the right of Palestinians to armed resistance and to self-determination on all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Harvard: Windows Smashed, John Harvard Statue Vandalized in Act of ‘Palestinian Resistance’
[TheCrimson] An individual smashed the ground-floor windows to University Hall and covered the John Harvard statue in red paint as an “act of solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” according to a video posted on social media. The perpetrator of the anonymous act of vandalism appeared to film themselves using a blunt object to break the windows of University Hall, which houses the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The video was published on Instagram by “Unity of Fields,” an account that does not appear to have any affiliation with Harvard. The account, which describes itself as an “anti-imperialist propaganda front bringing the war home,” wrote that the video of the vandalism at Harvard came from an “anonymous submission.”

The vandalism comes amid rising tensions on Harvard’s campus around the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. In a statement Monday night, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee called on student activists to ramp up their protest activities. Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, an unrecognized pro-Palestine group that organized the encampment in Harvard Yard last semester, denied involvement with the act of vandalism.

Unity of Fields also posted photos on X of graffiti on the campus of University of Massachusetts Amherst on Tuesday.

“Autonomous activists struck the Engineering Quad and Fine Arts Center of UMass Amherst… Expect more autonomous actions at UMass Amherst. We will not rest until war profiteers are gone, and Palestine is fully liberated,” the post stated.

After similar acts of vandalism at SUNY New Paltz on Sunday night and the City University of New York, New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote in a post on X that the state has “offered the NYPD and CUNY support to ensure all students are safe.”

Brown University rejects anti-Israel students’ divestment proposal
[IsraelTimes] Explaining vote, board of governors says the university’s ‘mission is to discover, communicate and preserve knowledge. It’s not to adjudicate or resolve global conflicts’.
Brown is a ray of light in the darkness, though it would have been more comforting if they’d moved at faster than glacial speed.
Pro-Hamas Activists at Pomona College Take Over and Vandalize a Campus Building
[HotAir] Pomona College in southern California is one of five undergraduate colleges and two grad schools that make up a group called the Claremont Colleges. On Oct. 7, Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA) held a student walkout with the 60+ student orgs demanding Pomona divest from weapons manufacturers, because there can be no business as usual during genocide.
After the walk out marched to Carnegie Hall where classes were being held and shoved their way in past security.

Organizers announced over megaphones that “Today this is a People’s University for Palestine,” and that demonstrators would be leaving at 4:00 P.M. Inside, students chanted while organizers handed out pamphlets. Lead organizers commandeered multiple classrooms to lead “teach-in” sessions for participants. A list of approved chants obtained by the Independent includes “Intifada intifada, LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA,” “Hey hey ho ho! iSRAEL [sic] HAS GOT TO GO,” and We don't want two states, WE WANT ‘48!”

Professors told students in the classes being disrupted that they could leave, but one Jewish student said they didn't feel safe walking through the throng of activists chanting about the Intifada. The activists also zip-tied the doors shut and blocked entrances so no one else could come in.

One professor whose office is in the building was stuck inside because the activists would not let him back into his office to get his phone. He told the Claremont Independent he was shoved by the activists and added, "People were pretty nasty for two or three hours."

Midway through those two to three hours the school put out a statement condemning the action and threatening consequences.
A statement. Golly.
10 UC Irvine anti-Israel activists face charges, including refusal to disperse, resisting arrest
[CampusReform] The charges stem from a May 15 protest that took place at the school. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that ‘criminal activity which transcends peaceful assembly will not be tolerated.... my prosecutors are continuing to review evidence against the remaining 40 arrestees.’

National Students for Justice in Palestine celebrates glider attack in 'call to action' image
[CampusReform] The anti-Israel student group advertised the Day of Resistance with an ad that pays homage to the Hamas paraglider attack over the weekend. During the 10/7/2023 attack, reports say that Hamas militants killed at least 260 civilians who were attending the Tribe of Nova music festival.

‘Demonstration of Ignorance’: Anti-Israel Installation Riddled With Falsehoods Stands in Harvard Yard
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] ‘It shames Harvard and makes you wonder what is being taught, and what is being learned, in its classrooms today,’ Middle East scholar Elliott Abrams says

UPenn donor who cut ties with alma mater redirects millions to Israeli universities instead: 'Unreformable'
[FoxNews] David Magerman, a venture capitalist and philanthropist, severed ties with the University of Pennsylvania over its response to antisemitism last year. His donations will support programs for English-speaking students to learn academic Hebrew and integrate into STEM degree programs in Israel. He said it's naive to believe that elite U.S. universities are "reformable."

After donating roughly $10 million over the years, Magerman said he was "ashamed" to be associated with the university. Other prominent donors followed suit. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, who donated $50 million to UPenn in 2018, called on other donors at the time to send $1 checks with the hopes of forcing a change in leadership at the university. He urged all Jewish donors to "close their checkbooks."

Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, pulled his donation estimated at approximately $100 million shortly thereafter, writing in a letter that the school's "permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez-faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students would violate any policies or rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion," Axios reported.

RedState piled on the story:

Magerman recently announced that he plans to reallocate the funds he previously sent to UPenn to five Israeli colleges in $1 million increments. These include Tel Aviv University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Bar-Ilan University, and Jerusalem College of Technology.

Hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asness did the same shortly after the outbreak of the Gaza war.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Palestinians officially relaunch bid to become United Nations member state, US ‘signals opposition’

2024-04-04

[IsraelTimes] Palestine Liberation Organization seeks recognition as state from world body, which granted it observer status in 2012, but vote on application can be vetoed by US.

I’m confused. They keep telling us the Palestinian Authority government is nothing like the PLO, even though PA President Mahmoud Abbas is the current head of Fatah, the largest group in the PLO.

The Paleostine Liberation Organization has officially revived its application to become a full member state in the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
, according to a letter from its UN envoy dated Tuesday.

The PLO, which has had observer status at the world body since 2012, has lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Paleostinian statehood.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
, the Paleostinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, requested "upon instructions of the Paleostinian leadership" that an application dating back to 2011 be reconsidered this month by the Security Council.

The letter has been transmitted to the council, according to the documents seen by the AFP news agency.

Mansour has repeatedly said in recent months that in the face of Israel’s military 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 in response to the devastating October 7 onslaught by Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, UN membership was a priority for the PA.

A council committee of 15 members first assesses an application to see if it satisfies the requirements for UN membership. The application can then either be shelved or put forward for a formal vote in the Security Council. Approval requires at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, La Belle France, or Britannia.

If the council approves the membership request, it then moves to the General Assembly for approval. A membership request needs a two-thirds majority to be approved by the assembly. A country cannot join the United Nations unless both the Security Council and General Assembly approve.

The 2011 application, launched by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
, never came before the Security Council for a vote, and the General Assembly voted to grant the PA observer status in November 2012.

The UN Security Council committee assessed the application for several weeks to see if it satisfied the requirements for UN membership. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
the committee was unable to reach a unanimous position and the Security Council never formally voted on a resolution on Paleostinian membership.

Diplomats said the Paleostinians lacked the minimum nine votes needed to adopt a resolution. Even if they had won enough support, the United States had said it would veto the move.

Observers believe the current Paleostinian push for membership is unlikely to reach the assembly as the United States, Israel’s closest ally, could use its Security Council veto power to derail the recommendation.

The League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference
OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain...
, and the Non-Aligned Movement sent a letter to Guterres on Tuesday, also seen by AFP, supporting the bid by the PA.

"We wish to bring to your attention that, as of this date, 140 Member States have recognized the state of Paleostine," said the joint letter, which included a list of those countries.

Little progress has been made in achieving Paleostinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PA in the early 1990s. Among the obstacles are persistent Paleostinian terrorism and incitement against the Jewish state, along with expanding Israeli settlements.

The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank and is Israel’s partner in the Oslo Accords. Hamas in 2007 ousted the Paleostinian Authority from power in the Gaza Strip.

US signals opposition to renewed Palestinian bid for statehood status at UN

[IsraelTimes] State Department says Palestinian state should be established ‘through direct negotiations… not at the United Nations,’ as PLO envoy seeks vote later this month.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

PA in final stages of talks with US to reform ’pay-to-slay’ policy — sources

2024-03-30

[IsraelTimes] One of the holdups has been receiving approval from Israel, which is viewed as critical for getting Congress on board; source fears initial leak of story may torpedo negotiations

The Palestinian Authority is in the final stages of talks with the Biden administration about reforming its controversial welfare policy, which includes payments to terrorists and their families, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.

Drafts of the altered policy have been vetted by the administration’s lawyers and the reform was on track to be announced in the coming weeks, one of the sources said, confirming reporting in Politico.

The altered policy would base welfare stipends that Palestinian security prisoners receive on the recipient’s financial need rather than the length of their sentence, as is currently the case, the source told The Times of Israel, adding that there were a number of outstanding issues still being negotiated.

The White House has sought for months — since well before the outbreak of the war in Gaza — to receive a nod of approval from Israel, worried that its rejection could lead pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress to follow suit, thereby hampering the reform’s legitimacy in Washington, the source said. They indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has been dragging its feet on the matter, even as the premier regularly cites the controversial policy to argue that the PA cannot be trusted.

The effort to coax the PA into implementing the reform was held tightly under wraps for the first three-plus years of the Biden administration, with only a small handful of people involved. But as progress was made in recent weeks and months, the circle of involvement had to be expanded, a second source familiar with the matter said, lamenting that Friday’s leak may well lead to the reform being scuttled entirely, as Ramallah didn’t want it to go public until the initiative was finalized.

The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks — often referred to by some Israeli officials as a pay-to-slay policy — has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror.

Palestinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.

The PA initially sought to leverage its willingness to reform the policy in order to secure gestures from Washington, such as the scrapping of congressional legislation from 1987 that labeled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) "and its affiliates" a terror group.

But Ramallah has long grown disillusioned by the Biden administration, which has failed to keep election promises to re-open missions for the Palestinians in Jerusalem and Washington, and had decided to move forward with the reform without any assurance of gestures from the US in return, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter said.

The source acknowledged that the reform would be domestically unpopular, given the widespread Palestinian solidarity with those imprisoned for confronting Israel’s military rule in the West Bank. However, they noted that the PA is already historically unpopular, and had the move been done at the right time, it had the potential of passing without major pushback, while granting Ramallah a much-needed jolt of international legitimacy as it seeks to return to governing Gaza after the war.

Reforming the welfare policy is designed to bring the PA into compliance with the 2018 congressional legislation known as the Taylor Force Act, which suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued granting prisoners stipends based on time served.

The US would still be barred from directly funding the PA due to legislation preventing such aid once Ramallah began advancing investigations against Israel in the International Criminal Court. However, if the reform is deemed sufficient to place the PA in compliance with the Taylor Force Act, the US would be able to fund projects that directly benefit the PA.

Since entering office, US President Joe Biden has been largely limited to funding humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza through the US Agency for International Development and donations to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA — though this too was barred following allegations that staffers participated in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.

Israel also passed legislation similar to the Taylor Force Act that could be scrapped if Jerusalem deems the PA’s reform as credible.

Both the US and Israel will likely require a pilot period to test the reform’s implementation before they reach determinations regarding Ramallah’s compliance.

The welfare policy reform could also make it easier for the US to re-open the PLO diplomatic office in Washington, which was shuttered during the Trump administration. However, obstacles remain given the PLO’s ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-recognized terror organization.

As for the US consulate in Jerusalem, which former president Donald Trump also closed down, the Biden administration has been unable to make good on its promise to reopen the mission, citing a lack of cooperation from Israel, which views the move as an encroachment on its sovereignty in the capital city.

Pulling off the reform would be a major diplomatic achievement for Biden, succeeding in an endeavor previous administrations couldn’t pull off.

It would also bolster his vision for post-war Gaza, which includes a reformed PA returning to govern the enclave as part of a pathway to a two-state solution with Israel.

The US has a long list of areas in which it would like to see Palestinian reforms, but some international stakeholders place the welfare payments at the top of their lists.

Asked for comment on the original Politico report, a US State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel, "From the outset of the Biden Administration, we have consistently made clear that we are strongly opposed" to the PA’s payments to security prisoners.

"We don’t have anything to offer on those reports," the spokesperson added.

Link

Home Front: Politix

US Reps Bush, Tlaib vote no on ‘redundant' bill to ban October 7 terrorists from US

2024-02-02

[Jpost] United States Congresswomen Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were the sole votes against a bill in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday that would bar entry to the United States by members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, as well as officers of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and anyone who participated in the October 7 attacks but is not a member of a recognized terrorist group. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) voted ‘present.’

Representative Tlaib, who represents one of the most Democratic districts in Michigan and is the only Palestinian-American currently in Congress, said that the bill was “redundant” as entry to those who have participated in terrorism, such as the October 7 attacks or who are members of a recognized terrorist group, such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, is already prohibited. This echoed statements by Democratic leaders, such as the House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, whose statement said the bill was “largely duplicative of existing law.”

The “unnecessary” bill, Tlaib said, is “just another GOP messaging bill being used to incite anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hatred that makes communities like ours unsafe.” The progressive congresswoman included the bill in a list of four immigration measures up for a vote, all of which she opposed, calling them “racist, fear-mongering bills that do nothing to fix our outdated and inhumane immigration system.”

BILL WAS AMONG A PACKAGE OF MEASURES THAT TLAIB REJECTED AS REDUNDANT, DIVISIVE
The bill was among a package of measures that Tlaib rejected as redundant and divisive.

The other bills in question were H.R. 6678, which would include allegations of social security fraud as grounds for exclusion and deportation – a measure Tlaib opposed on due process grounds; H.R. 6976, which would include DUI convictions as a basis for deportation – which Tlaib said would create a “separate and unequal” system of justice for immigrants; and H.R. 5585, which imposes new criminal penalties for evading Border Patrol, a measure Tlaib rejected because it too is “redundant,” adding, “it’s clear that the point of this bill is simply to demonize migrants and asylum seekers”

Bush called the measure “a redundant, empty messaging bill Republicans are using to target immigrants and incite anti-Palestinian hate.” In a statement to Jewish Insider, Bush’s primary opponent, Wesley Bell, called the vote “shameful and reprehensible,” adding, “Rep. Bush’s vote is offensive and embarrassing to our community. We will never be a haven for terrorists, and we need a Congressperson who knows better.”

Tlaib and Bush, known as part of the progressive ‘squad’ in the House, alongside fellow Democrats such as Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Jamaal Bowman, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been among the fiercest critics in Congress of Israel’s war in Gaza, and among the few calling for a ceasefire even before Israel’s ground invasion, without conditioning such a ceasefire on Hamas’s surrender or the return of hostages.

ILLINOIS REP. ABSTAINS, CALLING THE BILL REDUNDANT, "A WASTE OF RESOURCES AND TIME"
Ramirez, the one abstention on the measure, said in a statement Wednesday night, “I voted PRESENT because I am done with political games. The majority is wasting time bringing a bill that is already current law. There are ALREADY no immigration benefits for Hamas terrorists.”

Ramirez compared the debate on the bill to the Republican majority’s impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying: “After participating for 15 hours of a sham impeachment, I could not stomach another bill only introduced to score cheap political points, politicize immigration, and divide our communities.

“Like the Republican’s sham impeachment, this bill does not meaningfully address border security nor further protect our communities. H.R.6679 is unnecessary. It’s a waste of resources and time. And I’m not playing along,” Ramirez’s statement concluded.

Link

Home Front: WoT

‘Squad' members Tlaib and Bush sole votes against bill to bar Oct. 7 attackers from entering US

2024-02-01

[Wash Examiner] Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) were the only House members to vote against a bill that would bar Hamas members and those who participated in the attacks against Israel last year from entering the United States.

The House passed the bill, No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act, 422-2-1, on Wednesday evening. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) voted present, and Tlaib and Bush were the sole votes against the measure, which now heads to the Senate.

While Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad members were already prohibited from entering the U.S. under existing laws, the new bill now expands to officers of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is the governing body of the Palestinian enclave, and anyone who was involved in the Oct. 7 attacks against the Jewish state who is not listed as a member of a terrorist group.

Tlaib said in a statement that the No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act was "unnecessary" and "redundant."

"It’s just another GOP messaging bill being used to incite anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hatred that makes communities like ours unsafe," said the Michigan Democrat, who is the only Palestinian American in Congress.

"I made a promise to my residents when they sent me to Congress that I would take meaningful actions to end hateful Trump-era immigration policies, reunite families, welcome migrants and asylum seekers, and reform our immigration system," Tlaib added. "I reaffirm that commitment today, and will always speak truth to power in the face of disgusting attempts by my colleagues to dehumanize our immigrant neighbors."

The Democratic caucus widely approved of the bill, noting that it had the full support of House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

"This bill is widely duplicative of current law, as Hamas has been designed as a terrorist organization by the State Department since 1997, and any noncitizen who has engaged in or provided material support for terrorism is in admissible to the United States," a notice from House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) stated.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Protesters in Cherkessk demanded that refugees from Israel be banned from entering the republic

2023-10-29

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Participants in the action in Cherkessk demanded that the authorities not allow refugees from Israel into the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia and organize the collection of aid for Palestine.

Why in the name of all that is holy would Jewish Israelis seek refuge in the Caucasus? For that matter, why would Muslim Israelis do so?

They asked the authorities to coordinate a rally on this issue.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the aggravation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict evoked a response among Muslims in the North Caucasus. Thus, in Chechnya, the official clergy organizes daily mass prayers in support of Palestine, and on October 17, residents of Dagestan tried to hold an action in the central square of Makhachkala, which was dispersed by security forces. On October 19, the Muftiate of Dagestan called on the imams of mosques to pray for an end to the war at Friday prayers. On October 27, mass prayers for Palestinians were held in mosques in Karachay-Cherkessia.

Who and how in the North Caucasus expressed support for Palestine can be read in the “Caucasian Knot” information “ Actions in support of Palestine in the North Caucasus ”.

A rally in support of Palestine took place today in Cherkessk in front of the government house, the Kavkaz.Realii publication reported.

As follows from the video published today in the Telegram channel “New Dosh Magazine,” the protesters spoke with the official in a raised voice. Among those gathered there were a large number of women.

“Can you help us?” one of the women asks the official.

“Look, there is a law..." he begins to answer.

"No, can you?" she insists.

"No one will help," says a voice from the crowd.

"Can you help? Can you evict?" the woman asks again.

"By legal means..." the official begins to say.

"How can we evict them by legal means? Are Palestines being killed by legal means? They throw stones, but these throw missiles, is that normal?” one of the participants in the conversation was indignant.

The conversation between the protest participants and the official was about not allowing visitors from Israel into the region and evicting those already living there, the Baza Telegram channel reported today.

In another video published today on the Telegram channel “ChP Grozny,” a woman behind the scenes reads out the demands of the protesters.

“On behalf of the people of Karachay-Cherkessia, I ask you to limit the entry of refugees from Israel into our territory,” she says, reading a handwritten text on a piece of paper.

“Why restrict, you can’t write ban?” - another woman interrupts her.

“To limit is a ban”? - answers the woman who reads the text.

“And I also ask you not to build a building to receive Jewish refugees. We ask you to organize a collection of aid for the territory of Palestine. We also ask you to approve an authorized rally for us, five hundred or even more gathered. We, 500 people, ask you to respond within two days to our appeal officially. In extreme cases, we will be forced to gather again without permission for a rally on October 31,” the woman read the statement.

The fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement began on October 7 with the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory, including civilian targets and civilians. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching the Iron Swords military operation against Hamas, after which Israel announced a blockade of the Gaza Strip: supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel were suspended. Thousands of people died on both sides.

Whoops! The Kavkaz-Uzel reporter and his editor forgot to mention the 1400 Israelis and foreigners brutally murdered that day, and the 250 or so of all ages and nationalities kidnapped for pleasure and profit by the Invaders from Gaza under strict orders from Tehran

The Islamic movement Hamas is recognized as terrorist in a number of countries: in particular, France and the European Union added it to the list of terrorist groups after the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Russia, the movement has not been declared terrorist, since none of its representatives have been convicted in Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in response to a request from a deputy from St. Petersburg.

Russia has a sentimental attachment to Hamas, because the Palestinian “liberation” movement was fostered and trained in terrorism as a Soviet project. Originally it was the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group that originally was primarily various flavours of Communist and Socialist, but the group later expanded to include the Islamofascists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas' actions do not represent Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas says

2023-10-16

[Jpost] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the actions and policies of terrorist group Hamas do not represent Palestinian people, according to official news agency ~~WTF?~~ WAFA.

In a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Abbas also called the Palestine Liberation Organization the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," WAFA said.

"The president affirmed his rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides and called for the release of civilians, prisoners and detainees on both sides," added the news agency.
A message to brown girls of the world.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Pravda writes only the truth

2023-10-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics:
[ColonelCassad] In light of the escalation of the armed conflict in the Middle East, our editors have pulled up issues from previous years from the archives. We wanted to show young readers of Pravda on social networks how similar the events of the past are to those happening now.

For publication, we chose an article that was published exactly 40 years ago in issue 283 (23809) on October 10, 1983 under the title “The occupiers are gaining a foothold. To the events in Lebanon".

Cherry picking for fun and profit?

The material tells about the events of Operation Peace to Galilee, as it is called in Israel, or the First Lebanon War that took place in those days. Then Israel occupied Lebanese territory with the aim of destroying the bases of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In addition, the text contains an information message about a radio speech by US President Ronald Reagan, who tried to justify the presence of American troops in Lebanon, which were essentially occupation troops. The note also assessed Reagan’s “Middle East Initiative,” which in fact became a springboard for interference in the internal affairs of not only Lebanon, but also other Middle Eastern states in order to establish Washington’s dominance in the region.

Our publication received wide distribution on the Internet. In particular, the famous military observer Boris Rozhin (Colonel Cassad) posted it on his channel in the Telegram messenger. About 300,000 subscribers read the material here alone.

But the most valuable thing was the reaction of readers to a note from the past, which turned out to be relevant today:

“The party and the newspaper Pravda didn’t lie to us, but we didn’t believe it, we thought they were exaggerating... And that’s how it turned out...,” writes the user with the nickname Mvvbd.

“In the attic of my grandmother’s house, I found Soviet newspapers from the 50s and 60s. I read it and compared it with what is happening now. It turned out to be the truth,” says a reader with the nickname Mr.X.

“Who would have thought that Pravda wrote the truth…” Evgenia is amazed.

“The longer I live, the more I am surprised: Soviet propaganda did not lie to us about the bestial nature of the imperialists, but we giggled at the cliches,” admits Lyudmila.

“Everything that Soviet propaganda “lied” to us turned out to be true,” states Kozma Cthulhu.

Is Cthulhu a common name in that part of the world?

The name is a Russian Cthulu role playing character.
“Everything that the Pravda newspaper wrote turned out to be true,” Vera Kolesnikova echoes him.

“It turns out that Pravda was telling the truth,” a user with the nickname Goest makes the discovery.

This became the leitmotif of a huge number of messages left by users. We greet such sincere confessions with twofold feelings. On the one hand, it’s joyful because finally, decades later, people have learned the true price of the streams of liberal anti-Soviet lies.

On the other hand, it hurts because understanding came so slowly and came at such a high price. Not everyone survived the collapse of the USSR, the era of “shock therapy”; the present time is also difficult for many with its real “grins of capitalism”, which Soviet citizens previously learned about from articles in Pravda, the Vremya and International Panorama programs.

Everything that Soviet propaganda “lied” turned out to be true: inflation, unemployment, social insecurity, and the hegemony of imperialism with its double standards and constant wars. Everything that the country created by the communists tried to protect its citizens from, free from class struggle, wishing its citizens peace and prosperity and telling them the truth, which not everyone wanted to hear.

Seriously? Wow.

It took more than three decades to understand and learn the truisms long known to communists. We hope that the class approach that underlies all of Pravda’s activities will be adopted much more quickly.

This science is very expensive: to understand what is actually true and what is a lie. Take care, comrades, this knowledge, do not lose it!

Ivan Egorov

I remember that in Soviet times, anti-Soviet propaganda in every possible way promoted the anti-Soviet joke “There is no Izvestia in Pravda, and there is no truth in Izvestia.”As is now not difficult to notice, “everything that Soviet propaganda lied about turned out to be true,” and “the voices of truth from the Voice of America and other similar garbage dumps turned out to be a total lie of Orwellian proportions, which is confirmed on a daily basis with the incredible depths of the bottom being broken through.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tamir Pardo crossed a red line

2023-09-11

[Jpost] Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo is the latest in a line of former top officials to cross a line in his desire to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government.

Playing politics with Israel’s existence, as if another six million dead Jews were not a real possibility.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, Pardo claimed that Israel is implementing an "apartheid state" policy against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state," said Pardo, who was the Mossad chief from 2011-2016.

...The fact that Pardo held such a senior position would appear to add credence to his words. Unfortunately, his comments are factually flawed.

As the Post’s Tovah Lazaroff explained last week, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which is home to more than two million Palestinians and half a million Israelis, is divided into three sections, Areas A, B, and C, in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Areas A and B, which comprise 40% of the West Bank, are under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.

The remainder of the West Bank, some 60%, is under Israel’s military and civilian control. The nearly half a million Israelis who live there are under IDF military rule but maintain the same individual rights as those who live in sovereign Israel. The more than 300,000 Palestinians who live there also do so under IDF military rule, but maintain some rights from the Palestinian Authority.

...This complicated situation has existed since Israel took control of the territories 56 years ago in the Six Day War, a war the Arab world launched on the Jewish state with the stated aim of annihilating it.

The Oslo Accords, signed 30 years ago this month, were an attempt to solve the conflict through agreement but floundered in the subsequent waves of Palestinian terrorism and anti-normalization rhetoric and measures.

How curious that Pardo, who was appointed Mossad head by Netanyahu, agreed to hold such a senior position for so many years when he believed the country he was protecting was morally wrong. The situation he describes is not new; it started long before Netanyahu entered politics.

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