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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Biden admin accused of aiding Palestinian 'pay for slay' as terrorists profit in Hamas deal, experts claim
2023-11-27
[FoxNews] Experts claim US and EU taxpayer dollars used by the Palestinian Authority to pay stipends for released terrorists.

Many of the newly released convicted Palestinian terrorists who are part of a swap that secured the freedom of some Israeli and foreign hostages held by the terrorist movement Hamas could receive U.S. funds via the Palestinian Authority, an expert on the matter claimed.

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli-based organization researching Palestinian society, told Fox News Digital, "The American and European funding boosts the Palestinian Authority budget by $600 million. The Palestinian Authority pays the salaries of imprisoned terrorists and the family members of the martyrs and the amount comes to $300 million a year."

Marcus continued, "There is no doubt that the Palestinian Authority could not pay this funding without the boost of funding from the Americans and Europeans. The Americans and Europeans are absolutely facilitating the payment. It is willful blindness."

He noted, "Every single terrorist gets a salary from the Palestinian Authority once they are imprisoned." According to Palestinian law, Marcus said, a prisoner who serves more than five years in prison receives a monthly salary for life.

The release of the Palestinian terrorists comes after Fox News Digital reported on a lawsuit in January by victims of terrorism and Rep. Ronny Jackson., R-Texas, alleging the Biden administration pumped more than a half billion U.S. taxpayer dollars into the Palestinian Authority without verifying that the organization isn’t funding terrorism, according to a federal lawsuit.

The Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank (known in Israel by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria), has paid the families of the convicted Palestinians a stipend while their family members were incarcerated as part of the notorious "pay for slay" program.

Marcus from PMW provided Fox News Digital a list of nine just-released Palestinian terrorists who will receive monthly payments ranging from approximately $535 to $668 for Jerusalem residents.

Shurouq Dweiyat, a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem’s Sur Baher neighborhood, was convicted of attempted murder in Jerusalem’s Old City, after she sought to stab two Jews in October 2015 and wounded one of them. She was imprisoned for eight years.

Amani Al-Hashim, a 31-year-old female Palestinian from East Jerusalem attempted to run over Israeli security forces with her car at the Qalandiya checkpoint on Dec. 13, 2016. Israeli forces opened fire, at which point she got out of the car with a knife and started shouting, "Allahu Akbar" before being arrested. Al-Hashim was serving a sentence of 10 years. She was in prison for seven years.

Israeli Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser told Fox News Digital that many of the convicted Palestinians released over the last few days as part of a truce with Hamas will return to terrorism.

Kuperwasser said of the released terrorists, "Those with sentences for more than five years were paid. Many of them were sentenced to more than five years. Many of them are still committed to the terrorist struggle against Israel. Past experience tells us they will re-enter terrorism."

The Israeli reserve general, now a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense Security Forum, added, however, "Each case has to be looked at by itself."

According to Palestinian media, over 7,500 released Palestinian prisoners who served more than a five-year prison term have received monthly salaries.

Israel’s government and counterterrorism experts have long argued that the so-called moderate Palestinian Authority controlled by Mahmoud Abbas encourages terrorism with its "pay for slay" program.

Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian affairs analyst, told Fox News Digital, "I don't know if some of the released prisoners will return to terrorism, but it's possible that others will now be emboldened to carry out attacks against Israel knowing that they could be released in a prisoner exchange deal."

Abu Toameh, who is widely viewed as one of the leading Middle East experts on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, added, "The release of the Palestinian prisoners will undoubtedly boost Hamas’ popularity and influence in the West Bank. We saw hundreds of Palestinians celebrating the release of the prisoners with Hamas flags and slogans praising the group’s leaders and its military wing. This is bad news for the Palestinian Authority, whose security forces did not stop the celebrations."

Toameh posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the comment: "In Ramallah, masked Hamas members celebrating the release of more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prison. They chanted: ‘We are the men of Mohammed Deif.'"

Mohammed Deif is the commander behind Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel that led to the slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 240 individuals, including young children.

Fox News Digital contacted the U.S. State Department for a comment about the possible misuse of U.S. funds sent to the Palestinian Authority but, as of press time, has not received a comment on the accusations saying the U.S. is indirectly funding terrorists.

The effort to crack down on Hamas’ financing is now front-and-center in the minds of many counterterrorism officials in Israel, the U.S. and Europe after the Oct. 7 massacre.

Money is highly fungible and vulnerable to terror finance in Mideast countries and regions that are not regulated by modern anti-terrorism standards, according to security officials.

In 2018, in a sign of protest, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act aimed at cutting economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends the payment policy. In addition, Israel, which collects some taxes on commerce and income on behalf of the Palestinian governing body, has passed a similar law.

Taylor Force was a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was pursuing his MBA at Vanderbilt, and was savagely knifed to death March 8, 2016, by a Palestinian terrorist during a tour of Israel. President Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law in October 2018.

Kuperwasser, who has written extensively about the dangers of the Hamas rulers in Gaza, said the cease-fire agreement is "is a done deal. We have to go along with it."

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Why Gaza did not fire rockets on Jerusalem Day
2022-06-03
[SpinStrangenessCharm] Last Sunday’s Jerusalem Day, Israel was widely expected to get HamAss or P*sslamic Jewhate rockets like last year, when this triggered an 11-day war. Bomb shelter rooms at work were prepared. Not wanting to sound "I told you so" but I was a bit skeptical from the beginning, and in the end nothing was fired. Why? The JPost’s longtime Arab affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh, one of the newspaper’s few trump cards, considers several factors.

  • the organizations haven’t recovered from the thrashing they received in last year’s war

  • severe diplomatic pressure was applied, especially by Egypt, possibly by 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...
     too

  • 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 Hamaswith 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...
     economy is in the toilet, and the 12,000 daily commuters into Israel are a source of revenue that cannot be spared

Related: The full Jerusalem Post article can be read here.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hebron to Jordan: send Jordanian troops to end street fighting - PA lost control.
2022-05-15
[Twitter]
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PA arrests Hani Abu Salloum, affiliated with Mohammed Dahlan.
2020-12-29


Related:
Mohammed Dahlan: 2020-11-01 Top Fatah militant killed during clash with PA officers
Mohammed Dahlan: 2020-09-28 Fatah Members: ‘The Palestinian Street Has Lost Confidence in the Leadership’
Mohammed Dahlan: 2020-08-23 Yasser Arafat's widow apologizes to UAE over insults, burning of flags
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Biden administration will reopen PLO diplomatic mission in Washington and the US consulate in East Jerusalem.
2020-12-23
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar: In next war, Israel will have to evacuate Ashdod, Ashkelon, and even Tel Aviv.
2019-04-08
[TWITTER]
Yeah, yeah. Speak to the hand, dude.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Glick: The End of Mahmoud Abbas
2016-08-31
[TruthRevolt.org] Like it or not, the day is fast approaching when the Palestinian Authority we have known for the past 22 years will cease to exist.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s US-trained Palestinian security forces have lost control over the Palestinians cities in Judea and Samaria. His EU- and US-funded bureaucracies are about to lose control over the local governments to Hamas. And his Fatah militias have turned against him.

Palestinian affairs experts Pinchas Inbari of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Khaled Abu Toameh of the Gatestone Institute have in recent weeks reported in detail about the insurrection of Fatah militias and tribal leaders against Abbas’s PA.

In Nablus, Fatah terrorist cells are in open rebellion against PA security forces. Since August 18, Fatah cells have repeatedly engaged PA forces in lethal exchanges, and according to Inbari, the town is now in a state of “total anarchy.”

In Hebron, tribal leaders, more or less dormant for the past 20 years, are regenerating a tribal alliance as a means of bypassing the PA, which no longer represents them. Their first major action to date was to send a delegation of tribal leaders to meet with King Abdullah of Jordan.

Even in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas’s power, the PA is losing ground to EU-funded NGOs that seek to limit the PA’s economic control over the groups and their operations.

All of this fighting and maneuvering is taking place against the backdrop of the encroaching PA municipal elections, scheduled for October 8.

Hamas is widely expected to win control over most of the local governments in Judea and Samaria. Hamas’s coming takeover of the municipalities is likely playing a role in decisions by Fatah terrorist cells to reject the authority of the PA. Many of those cells can be expected to transfer their allegiance to Hamas once the terrorist group wins the elections.

Given his Fatah party’s looming electoral defeat, more and more PA functionaries are wondering why Abbas doesn’t use the growing anarchy in Palestinian cities as a reason to cancel them. Abbas seems to have calculated that Israel will step in and, as it has repeatedly done over the past 20 years, cancel the elections for him.

Media organs Abbas controls are full of conspiracy theories whose bottom line is that Israel is not canceling the elections Abbas declared because it is in cahoots with Hamas and other “collaborators” to undermine the PA.

Although Israel, of course, is in cahoots with no one, it is the case that the government has apparently finally lost its patience with Abbas and is looking past him.

More at the link
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Journalist says only truth will set Palestine free
2010-05-19
Hat tip Michael Totten at Instapundit.
THE Palestinian diaspora in Australia is facing an unexpected catastrophe. Normally, May 15, Israel's Independence Day, is the most important day of their year for celebrating their victimhood: the catastrophe, as they see it, of the founding of Israel.

But, this year, visiting fresh from the streets of Gaza, Ramallah and Jerusalem is Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli Arab Muslim journalist, who declares: "I'd rather be a second-class citizen in Israel than a first-class citizen in any Arab country."

And some in the diaspora are not happy about his visit. Ali Kazak, a former ambassador for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, circulated an email this week accusing Abu Toameh of being an "Israeli propagandist" on the "Israeli payroll" and warning people not to be misled by him.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Why Imposing a Solution Is Not a Solution
2010-05-19
by Khaled Abu Toameh

Some Palestinians, Israelis and Americans are demanding that President Barack Obama impose a "solution" in the Middle East should the latest round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian fail.

But a forced solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict would only aggravate tensions between Israel and the Palestinians and harm US interests in the region.

Those who support the idea are hoping that the Obama Administration would force Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, including east Jerusalem, to pave the way for the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state in these territories.

Under the current circumstances, however, this scenario is completely unrealistic. A majority of Israelis is staunchly opposed to ceding control over the entire territories and redividing Jerusalem. Further, Israeli Arabs feel comfortable living in Israel: public opinion polls have shown that a majority of them do not want to move to a Palestinian state.

The mere talk about imposing a solution is already damaging any chance that the "proximity talks" could lead to agreement.

If the Palestinians are convinced that the Obama Administration is planning, at the end of the day, to impose a solution, why should they bother to show any flexibility? As far as they are concerned, it might even be better to deliberately foil the peace talks with the hope that Washington would force Israel to make far-reaching concessions.

As for the Israelis, the present government coalition is not in a position to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians. Imposing a solution on Binyamin Netanyahu would undoubtedly lead to the collapse of his coalition. There is no guarantee that if the Netanyahu government collapses, Israelis will vote for a more moderate candidate, such as Tzipi Livni. On the contrary, Obama's pressure would most likely alienate many Israelis and drive them toward even more right-wing parties and candidates.

At best, the Israelis are ready to give up large parts of the West Bank -- after already having pulled out from the Gaza Strip. Those who think that Jerusalem can be physically redivided are living under an illusion. Jerusalem can only be shared, not divided.

Even the Palestinian Authority leadership appears to have come to terms with the fact that Israel is not going to give the Palestinians 100% of the land. That is why an increasing number of Palestinian officials are now talking about "border adjustments" or "land swap" with Israel.

The West Bank and Gaza Strip are not holy lands and there is no reason why any Palestinian should be afraid to make compromises there. If Israel wishes to retain control over 15% of the West Bank in a final peace agreement, then it could always compensate the Palestinians with a similar -- or even bigger -- amount of land from Israel proper.

Ironically, the talk about a US-imposed solution comes at a time when both Israelis and Palestinians seem to acknowledge the fact that each side needs to make concessions to achieve a breakthrough.

Even if the two sides fail to reach agreement during the "proximity talks" that are about to be launched under the auspices of the Obama Administration, the option of a forced solution, should not be a possibility in the future.

The Obama Administration also needs to take into consideration that forcing Israel to pull back to the pre-1967 lines at a time when the Palestinian Authority is still weak and lacking credibility among its people would be a very dangerous move.

The last time Mahmoud Abbas was given land, it was in 2005, when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip. Abbas later ran away from the Gaza Strip, handing it over to Hamas.

The same scenario is likely to repeat itself in the West Bank since Abbas and Salaam Fayyad don't seem to be in full control. Even worse, the two men are regarded by many Palestinians as "puppets" in the hands of the Israelis and Americans - a perception that plays into the hands of Hamas and its supporters in Damascus and Tehran.

The only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is through mutual agreement between Israelis and Arabs.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli Arab speaks some hard truths about the PA and Hamas
2010-04-19
Were it not for Israel's presence between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Fatah and Hamas would most likely be dispatching suicide bombers and rockets at each other.

And they would perhaps still be throwing each other's supporters from the fifteenth and sixteenth floors of tall buildings had not Israel, in the summer of 2007, helped Fatah members and their families run away from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

This is not a conflict over which side will bring democracy and good government to the Palestinians so much as it is a power struggle over money and power.

The fight between Hamas and Fatah is not a power struggle between good guys and bad guys: it is a rivalry between bad guys and bad guys.
[Khaled Abu Toameh gives some sound advise to Bibi also]
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Michael Totten Interview: The Real Quagmire in the Middle East
2009-07-08
The Middle East is a hard place for idealists, especially for the Western liberal variety. My feelings of optimism for the region have been ground down over time like rocks under slow-moving glacial ice.

Last time I visited Israel, at the end of the Gaza war this past January, I met Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. He sounded no less despondent than the Israelis I spoke to. "Listen," he said. "We must stop dreaming about the New Middle East and coexistence and harmony and turning this area into Hong Kong and Singapore...I don't see a real peace emerging over here. We should stop talking about it."

That's what I hear from almost everyone I speak to over there now, whether they're Muslims, Christians, Jews, or whatever. Arabs, Israelis, Kurds -- most seem to have a dim view of the future. Optimists, for the most part, parachute in for a brief time and leave. I hate it. It depresses me. But that's how it is.

Some writers and analysts are slightly less gloomy, and I frequently ask them to cheer me up and hope their relative optimism isn't fantasy. Jeffrey Goldberg's work at The Atlantic occasionally qualifies as less pessimistic than mine. His outstanding book Prisoners strikes just the right balance between world-weary pessimism and hope. He's an American Jew weaned on Socialist Zionism who became an idealistic Israeli as a young adult. He sought out friendships with individual Palestinians with whom he could forge his own separate peace, if for no other reason than to prove to himself that peace was possible. It was much harder than he expected. But he managed, with some difficultly, when he worked as an IDF prison guard at Ketziot during the first intifada to kindle a rocky but enduring friendship with his prisoner Rafiq Hijazi.

I spoke with him a few weeks ago in Washington D.C.
Go to the link to read the interview. Interesting stuff, although much is the same as its been since Zionism began. Little details pop out though, like Mr. Goldberg's comment, "Jews are floating around in the Persian Gulf with nuclear weapons in German subs that are aimed at the new Hitler. If you step away from your personal feelings about it, it's just fascinating." They also mention Israeli nuke-armed subs in the Mediterranean, which is interesting to know... and should give pause to any anti-Zionists who happened to poke their heads into Rantburg today.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A Minority Report from the West Bank and Gaza
2009-02-03
by Michael Totten

Khaled Abu Toameh is not your typical Palestinian journalist. He began his career at one of Yasser Arafat's newspapers and today he writes for the Jerusalem Post. He has produced video for European TV stations, and even blogged for a while at Commentary Magazine in New York. It's impossible to cram Toameh into a convenient ideological box, though that doesn't stop some people from trying.

I met him briefly a few weeks ago on my trip to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee when he gave a talk to me and my colleagues and answered some questions at the end. I'm reproducing the entire transcript here because I think he deserves a full hearing.

Hamas, Fatah, Americans, Israelis, Europeans, Arab governments, American foreign correspondents -- just about everybody involved in any way with the conflict comes under some well-deserved fire. There's something here for just about everybody to like and dislike, and I'm publishing what he said without quote-shopping or cherry-picking his words for convenience.
What follows is a very long panel interview of Mr. Toameh. Amazing. Mr. Toameh has quite a few interesting opinions that will cause you to re-think what you're thinking about the Paleos. RTWT.
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