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| DAILY ALERT |
Thursday, October 28, 2021 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Following talks in Brussels with the EU coordinators of the Vienna negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani, said Wednesday, "We agree to start negotiations before the end of November." This would end a five-month hiatus in talks that has enabled Tehran to press ahead with its nuclear program. However, U.S and European officials remain cautious about the prospects of reaching agreement with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's government. To revive the deal, Iran would need to eliminate much of its growing stockpile of nuclear fuel and halt the work it is doing on key technologies that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. At the heart of Western concerns is that Iran has gained enough nuclear know-how that it may soon be impossible to re-create the centerpiece of the 2015 nuclear deal: keeping Iran at least 12 months away from producing enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon. Iranian officials have in recent days demanded complete sanctions lifting - including human-rights and other non-nuclear sanctions the U.S. has said aren't up for negotiation. They are also demanding a guarantee the U.S. won't quit the agreement again - a pledge U.S. officials say no administration could make. (Wall Street Journal) The U.S. military was tipped off prior to an Iran-backed drone attack on the Tanf base in Syria housing American forces on Oct. 20, 2021. Roughly 200 U.S. troops were evacuated by C-130 transport planes prior to the attack, while about two dozen remained at the base, a military official told Fox News. Multiple officials say it saved lives. (Fox News) See also Officials: Iran Behind Drone Attack on U.S. Base in Syria - Lolita C. Baldor (AP-Washington Post) See also Iran's Bellicose Message to the U.S. and Israel - Yoni Ben Menachem (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Israel will soon have to decide whether to act against Syrian air defenses in order to preserve its ability to strike Iranian targets in the country, a security source told Israel's Channel 11 on Oct. 25. Syria has intensified its anti-aircraft fire in recent months. While the Israel Air Force has reported few hits and negligible damage, it has conceded that Syria's air defense capability has improved and its response time has been cut by 20%, requiring Israeli adaptations. The Russians have been claiming that Russian-supplied air defense systems have successfully intercepted missiles fired by Israeli planes. (Al-Monitor) Iran executed over 250 people, including at least four child offenders, in 2020 and so far this year has carried out 230 executions that included nine women and one child, Javaid Rehman, the UN independent investigator on human rights in Iran, said Monday. "The heavy reliance by courts on forced confessions extracted under torture and other fair trial violations lead me to conclude that the imposition of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes arbitrary deprivation of life," Rehman said. He pointed to "persistent impunity for serious violations of human rights law," including those committed by people in powerful positions and "at the highest level of public office." He cited "the alarming level of intimidation or persecution of those who call for accountability," citing the high number of acts of reprisals against families of victims, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists who seek justice. There also has been "a heightened targeting of minority groups and advocates of minority rights." In addition, "the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters continues to be characteristic of the authorities' approach to the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly," including the lethal use of live ammunition against unarmed people. (AP-Washington Post) UK Middle East Minister James Cleverly has said that due to development assistance prioritization, "the UK no longer provides direct funding to the Palestinian Authority to support the salaries of education workers and health professionals." However, the UK will continue to support "quality education for Palestinian children" through support to UNRWA and the British Council. He told the House of Commons this week that funding was cut because of financial pressures caused by the pandemic. Britain has spent $137 million in the last five years, including on salaries of Palestinian civil servants and teachers responsible for drafting PA textbooks. (Jewish News-UK) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Brian McKeon confirmed Wednesday that America could not open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem without Israel's authorization. In a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) asked him: "Is it your understanding that, under U.S. and international law, the government of Israel would have to provide its affirmative consent before the United States could open or reopen the U.S. consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem?" McKeon responded: "That's my understanding - that we'd need to get the consent of the host government to open any diplomatic facility." (Jerusalem Post) On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and urged him to cancel a meeting on Wednesday to approve 1,344 new Israeli housing units in the West Bank. Gantz responded that Israel is advancing a "balanced" construction plan and is also advancing 1,300 units in Palestinian towns and villages in Area C, the section of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and security control. This is the largest number of housing units Israel has promoted for Palestinians in over a decade. (Ha'aretz) Despite assurances by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority and Israeli courts that gardening work near an Arab cemetery outside the Old City of Jerusalem will not impact the graves, violent clashes have occurred at the site over the past month between Israeli security forces and Arab demonstrators. A spokesperson for the Nature and Parks Authority stressed on Tuesday that "no work is being done in the cemetery. The work is being carried out on open public land designated for a public park and in the area of a national park located north of the cemetery." The spokesperson explained that while a number of graves were illegally placed in the area in recent years, the work being carried out would not damage the graves and they would remain intact. The Jerusalem Magistrates Court stated on Oct. 14 that the land in question was open public land separate from the cemetery and that there was evidence that the claimants opposing the work had given false testimony. (Jerusalem Post) Muhammad Maruh Kabha, 40, was convicted of the murder of Esther Horgen, 52, the mother of six, while she was jogging near her home in Tal Menashe in the West Bank. Kabha confessed to the murder. He had served three terms in Israeli prisons for terror-related offenses, including involvement in a shooting attack and making explosive devices. (Ha'aretz) A senior Sudanese diplomat said the military's takeover of the country is not expected to affect normalization with Israel because military leaders who support normalization have strengthened their position. (Times of Israel) A group of hackers in Venezuela, in cooperation with former state intelligence officials, gained access to information on Hizbullah operatives living in the country under the protection of President Maduro. The terrorists entered the country as Spanish-language students under the cover of "government language studies programs." They appear to be involved in arms and drug trafficking as well as money laundering to finance terror. Jalal Maklad, for example, is described as "involved in the cocaine trade and the trafficking of strategic minerals and international terror financing." (Israel Hayom) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
U.S.-Israel Relations Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Director-General of the Israel Foreign Ministry, explained why Washington insists on saying that it did not know in advance about the Israeli announcement banning the six Palestinian NGOs affiliated with the PFLP: "During the recent period, American policy reflects internal concerns more and more, and not necessarily what should be foreign policy concerns. The Palestinian issue has become very important for the very progressive wing of the Democratic Party. These elements don't feel a closeness to Israel, they feel alienation. Incidentally, this position is very far from the general public opinion in the U.S., which is still close to Israel." Gold added that one couldn't separate the current story from the American insistence on opening a consulate for the Palestinians, specifically in the building on Agron Street in the heart of the capital of Israel. "It's an ideological obsession." "In Israel-U.S. relations, the president is the one who makes the final decision, and I wonder how much the president is involved. As he weakens, is not interested, and gives his attention to other matters, all sorts of more junior elements take over the formation of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and toward Israel, and their approach is not friendly." (Makor Rishon-Hebrew-26Oct2021) State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. was not informed in advance of Israel's designation of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. The fact is, Israel spoke with officials in the U.S. and Europe about the organizations acting as fronts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group multiple times in recent months. On Thursday, the day before the ban was made public, Israel Foreign Ministry Deputy Director-General for Strategic Affairs Joshua Zarka spoke with a State Department official, likely Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism John T. Godfrey. The State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism has been downgraded under the Biden administration, and the message may not have gotten to the highest levels at first. However, one would expect that after Israel made the terrorist designations public and disputed the State Department's version of events, the latter would have looked into what happened. Instead, Price doubled down on the falsehood that Israel did not update the Americans. Israeli Prime Minister Bennett and President Biden disagree with each other on matters of principle, including construction in the West Bank and opening a consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem. This week it seemed that the Biden administration is ramping up the pressure on Israel. (Jerusalem Post) The Biden administration is insisting on opening a consulate to conduct diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and locating it in Israel's capital, Jerusalem. Opening a separate, independent diplomatic mission would undermine a longstanding bipartisan policy of treating Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of Israel. The consulate plan is a way to undo in part President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem and anti-Israel radicals are pushing hard for the new consulate. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently crowed that a U.S. consulate is a stepping stone to recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem. U.S. senators who don't wish to leave a question mark hanging over Israeli control of Jews' holiest city should demand that the State Department shelve the consulate plan. The writer is director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Law School. (Wall Street Journal) Iran Iran has made impossible demands in the negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, reportedly seeking sanctions relief beyond that provided in the JCPOA, while hesitating to commit to rolling back the nuclear activities it has undertaken in violation of that agreement. By developing a credible Plan B that sharpens the consequences for Iran should it continue to rebuff diplomatic overtures and expand its nuclear activities, President Biden may be able to change Iranian leaders' calculus. The central lesson from past diplomatic engagements with Iran is that the U.S. has achieved the most when it has employed several policy tools in conjunction with one another and acted in concert with key partners. First and foremost, the U.S. must demonstrate that Iran will face consequences for the unreasonable stance it has taken at the Vienna talks. The administration should enforce and expand existing economic sanctions in order to disabuse Iranian officials of any notion that sanctions will simply be permitted to weaken or lapse in the absence of a deal. The writer, Managing Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council. (Foreign Affairs) There has been an increase in the activities of Iranian partners and proxies in West Africa, including the outreach programs Iran and Hizbullah conduct with the Lebanese Shi'a diaspora in the region. These capitalize on weak governance as well as pre-existing international organized crime groups and smuggling routes. There is an urgent need for African countries and their partners to understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by Iran-linked militant organizations. As a result of Lebanese fleeing wars, between 1960 and 1970, the Lebanese population in West Africa rose from 17,000 to 75,000, reaching 150,000 by 1985. Within West Africa, the Lebanese often dominate multiple sectors of the economy. Extensive fundraising operations for Hizbullah occur through Lebanese in Africa, as well as enabling it to engage in money laundering, the drug trade, and arms dealing. Hizbullah cells are surreptitiously provided cover by Iranian diplomatic offices as well as Iran's steady development of social infrastructure which is used to conceal illicit activity. There are 4 million Shi'a Muslims in Nigeria, 2 million in Tanzania, and 900,000 in Niger, with smaller numbers in the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal. The writer is CEO of T.A.A.S. Ltd., consultant in counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and data protection. (Hudson Institute) Palestinians The influence of terror organizations in Palestinian society is so pervasive that it would be shocking if most Palestinian NGOs weren't linked to them. The purpose of these NGOs is not to make the lives of Palestinians better. If it were, they would be advocating for peace, not the destruction of the Jewish state, as all do. They would be building the infrastructure of Palestinian society and trying to make their own government more accountable and less corrupt. Palestinians who actually care about creating a civil society would be seeking to promote normalization and cooperation with Israel, not opposing it and treating those who seek peace as traitors. Well-meaning Americans hear the words "civil society" and "human rights," and make unfounded assumptions. But the tunnel vision of the human-rights community in attacking Israel, the one pluralistic democracy in the region, while ignoring real human-rights catastrophes elsewhere, is telling. It's long past time for those who care about human rights to reject the scam being perpetrated by those who parade under that banner. (JNS-Israel Hayom) Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) prisoners held by Israel have received wide coverage. They are in prison because many of them were involved in major terror attacks against Israel, including murder, though some international media refuse to call them terrorists, but rather "militants" or "political detainees." Yet there is hardly any mention of prisoners and detainees held by the PA security forces in the West Bank. A Palestinian who goes on a hunger strike in a Palestinian prison can only dream of being noticed by a foreign journalist or a human rights organization. A Palestinian who declares a hunger strike in an Israeli prison knows that within minutes, the whole world will learn about his "grievances." The Palestinian Authority continues to hold many Palestinians without trial and denies them basic rights such as meeting a lawyer or family members. Many are suspected of affiliation with rival groups, such as Hamas and PIJ. Most of these detainees are never formally charged or brought to trial. Those now being held in Palestinian prisons are undoubtedly wishing that they could be in Israeli prisons, where they would be better treated and win international sympathy. (Gatestone Institute) In 1967, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations launched what became known as the Six-Day War. Its aim was Israel's extermination. Its failure left Gaza and the West Bank in Israeli hands. In 2005, Israelis conducted a bold experiment. They withdrew every soldier, every farmer, every grave from Gaza. But Hamas waged and won a civil war against the PA. Since 2007, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has not dared set foot in Gaza. Turning Gaza into a Mediterranean Singapore was never on Hamas' to-do list. Hamas exists to fight Israel, firing missile salvos that ignited wars in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. Israelis try to limit the weapons that Hamas receives. Israel's enemies call that a "blockade" and pretend it's the cause - not the result - of Hamas' terrorism. But food, medicine, and other non-military goods move into Gaza daily from both Israel and Egypt. Although the Israelis gave Gaza to the Palestinians, the Israelis never took Gaza from the Palestinians. It was an Ottoman possession and then a British possession until those empires exited. In 1948, when the Arab states launched a war to drive the Jews into the sea, Egypt conquered Gaza. But it never attempted to transform the territory into a Palestinian state. The writer is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). (Washington Times) Other Issues My heart sank when I heard about the brutal murder of British MP Sir David Amess by Ali Harbi Ali. Acknowledging that Ali is of Somali background, we are told, is racist and xenophobic. He must only be identified as British. As someone who was born in Somalia, I find this absurd. Our efforts to counter Islamist attacks are hindered by misconceptions, such as describing a perpetrator as a "lone wolf." I suspect numerous victims of Islamist extremism might be alive today if those in charge of preventing terrorism recognized that Islamist extremists are anything but lone wolves. While individuals responsible for terrorist attacks may conduct their attacks alone, they still emerge out of communities or networks of like-minded individuals. They learn the radical ideas that inspire their violence from teachers or imams. I believe that, by and large, the Islamic terrorist narrative is waning. Al-Qaeda is a skeleton of what it was two decades ago, while the specter of ISIS continues to serve as a real-life deterrent to what living under a caliphate requires. Even the Muslim Brotherhood narrative is stale and petering out. So the defeat of radical Islam in Britain is still attainable. But achieving that requires us to bin the fallacies regurgitated after every attack. The writer is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. (UnHerd) The World Bank is calling Lebanon's economic collapse the worst the world has seen since 1850. The collapse of Lebanon is the product of financial and government mismanagement, political gridlock, and corruption among competing sectarian elites. Once a country of glitz and glamour, a financial and shopping hub for the Levant, Beirut and most of Lebanon are in darkness due to a lack of electricity. Last week, the government announced it was lifting fuel subsidies, leading to an immediate jump in the prices of gasoline, diesel for generators, and gas cylinders for cooking and heating. It now costs more than 300,000 Lebanese pounds - nearly half the monthly minimum wage - for 20 liters (5.3 gallons) of gasoline. Since 2019, the collapse of Lebanon's currency has meant Lebanese have lost 80% of the value of their savings. Fares for buses and shared taxis have shot up to the point where for many, the commute to work costs more than a day's salary. The shuttering of the national water company has left 2.7 million Lebanese without running water. (Christian Science Monitor) Anti-Semitism The 2021 State of Anti-Semitism in America report is based on parallel surveys of American Jews and the U.S. general public in September and October. 90% of American Jews believe anti-Semitism is a problem, while 60% of the general public agree. 82% of American Jews believe anti-Semitism has increased in the U.S. over the past five years, while only 44% of the general public agree. 24% of American Jews have been a victim of anti-Semitism over the past year and 3% said they had been the victim of anti-Semitic physical attacks. 25% of American Jews said they have avoided posting content online that would reveal their Jewishness or their views on Jewish issues; 22% refrained from publicly wearing, carrying, or displaying items that might enable others to identify them as Jewish; and 17% avoided certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their safety as Jews. 52% of those 18-29 said they had taken steps to conceal their Jewishness or limit their activities. Both Jewish and non-Jewish Americans overwhelmingly view anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic. 81% of American Jews and 85% of the general public said the statement "Israel has no right to exist" is anti-Semitic. 87% of white Americans believe anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, as do 84% of Black Americans and 82% of Hispanics. 95% of Catholics, 89% of Protestants, and 82% of atheists and agnostics agree that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, as do 92% of Republicans, 83% of Democrats, and 81% of independents. 94% of American Jews, along with 82% of the general public, agree that the statement "the Holocaust has been exaggerated" is anti-Semitic. Only 21% of the general public said they were at least somewhat familiar with the BDS movement, compared to 59% of American Jews. (American Jewish Committee) Weekend Features The barbarians that murdered Daniel Pearl believed that being a Jew was a mark of shame. But to me it is a badge of honor. When I was at the New York Times, a colleague asked if I was writing about the Jews again. The answer was yes, and it's not just because I am a Jew. It's because if you study history and if you look at where Jews stand, you will understand where a culture, where a country, where a civilization stands. Whether it's on the way up or on the way down. Whether it's expanding its freedoms or contracting them. That is because the Jews represent freedom. Where liberty thrives, Jews thrive. Where difference is celebrated, Jews are celebrated. Where freedom of thought and faith and speech are protected, Jews tend to be, too. One might imagine that the solution was to erase our differences, to flow with the direction of the stream. But the opposite is true. The Talmud is a 2,000-year-old record of a conversation between sages born hundreds of years apart and speaking across time. The Talmud is not just a document of the majority opinion. It's a document, also, of the minority, of the critics, of the gadflies. Right now we live in an age of groupthink, of black-and-white purity politics, the community of the righteous and the good and those who fall outside of it. This is anti-liberal. It is anti-humanist. But encoded in Judaism's DNA is the perspective we need, on hearing multiple perspectives, and on a kind of intellectual humility that understands that sometimes the minority opinion turns out to be right. From the writer's remarks accepting the Daniel Pearl Prize for Courage and Integrity in Journalism at the Los Angeles Press Club on October 16, 2021. Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was murdered by al-Qaeda commander Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on February 1, 2002. (Substack) Chip-maker giant Intel launched on Wednesday its Alder Lake 12th Gen Core Processors, developed over three years by 1,000 Intel Israel engineers and other teams worldwide. They provide 40% more performance without consuming more power, representing "the largest performance leap in over a decade," said Core CPU chief architect Adi Yoaz. (Jerusalem Post) Observations: Are the Palestinians Changing their Legal Tactics in the International Courts? - Amb. Alan Baker and Lea Bilke (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Amb. Alan Baker, former legal counsel to Israel's foreign ministry, heads the international law program at the Jerusalem Center. Lea Bilke is a law student at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, specializing in international and European law. |
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