• U.S. Says Iran's Link to Terror Could Scuttle Nuclear Accord - Michael B. Marois and Nick Wadhams
  U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a report to Congress, said President Donald Trump ordered his National Security Council to review whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran because of its continued support for terrorism. "Iran remains a leading state sponsor of terror, through many platforms and methods," Tillerson told Congress. (Bloomberg)
• France Foils Islamist Terror Plot in Marseille
  Police arrested two men in Marseille Tuesday on suspicion of planning an "imminent" attack, finding guns and explosives. The detained Frenchmen - Clement Baur, 23, and Mahiedine Merabet, 29 - were known to be "radicalized," said Interior Minister Matthias Fekl. A search of the suspects' apartment uncovered a loaded Uzi submachine gun, two loaded pistols, three kilos of TATP explosives and a homemade grenade, as well as the flag of ISIS, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
      France remains under a state of emergency after being the repeated target of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 230 people since January 2015. (AFP)

• Netanyahu: Time for Moral Clarity - Barghouti Is a Murderer and Terrorist
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday: "I read, on Sunday, the article in the New York Times that presents arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti as a 'parliamentarian and leader.'...They are murderers and terrorists. We will never lose our sense of clarity because we are on the side of justice and they are on the side that is neither just nor moral."  (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Israeli Monitoring of Social Media Thwarts Terror Attacks by 2,200 Palestinians - Amos Harel
  The Israel Security Agency and IDF Military Intelligence have stopped 2,200 Palestinians at various stages of planning and preparing terror attacks, mostly stabbings and car-rammings, in less than a year. More than 400 Palestinians were arrested by Israel and similar number by the PA, while the rest received warnings. So far the move has significantly reduced the number of attacks. (Ha'aretz)

• Who is Marwan Barghouti? - Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser
  Marwan Barghouti was the leader and commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the key terror component of Fatah that carried out many terror attacks throughout the Second Intifada. He was also the leader of the umbrella organization of the Islamic and national forces, which oversaw the entire range of terror activity during those years, and served as coordinator between the different organizations. Barghouti was also responsible for inciting violence and terror before the Second Intifada.
      Barghouti operated under the direct command of Yasser Arafat and was beyond any doubt directly responsible for murderous activity. Documents captured by the IDF in "Operation Defensive Shield" (April 2002) reveal Barghouti asking Arafat to authorize payments to several lists of Fatah terrorists. The documents include, for example, an urgent request from Barghouti to Arafat to approve payment of $2,000 each to 25 members of the Palestinian Fatah movement. The writer was formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
      See also Video: The Real Marwan Barghouti - Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
• Barghouti Enjoys Palestinian Support Due to His Track Record as a Murderer of Israelis - Editorial
  The real impetus for the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners seems not to be about prisoners' rights at all, but rather it is a political initiative designed to promote Marwan Barghouti. He is using the Palestinian prisoners as his latest ploy for self-advancement.
      It is depressing that a man like Barghouti, with the blood of so many victims on his hands, has consistently been the most popular candidate to lead the Palestinian people. And it is precisely because of his murderously violent past that Barghouti is able to beat a Hamas candidate for the Palestinian vote. He enjoys the support of the Palestinian street due to his track record as a murderer. This is the sad state of radicalized Palestinian politics that is the real obstacle to peace. (Jerusalem Post)
• Barghouti's Gamble - Avi Issacharoff
  The hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners is not a spontaneous response to some new tension between the Israel Prisons Service and the Palestinian prisoners. The strike is a political step by Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader, who is determined to demonstrate his mastery of Palestinian politics. Barghouti has not been particularly outspoken when it comes to Palestinian prisoners' rights over the last 15 years. So what happened?
      The answer, in all likelihood, lies in his disappointment with the current Fatah leadership, and especially its chairman, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who have worked hard to minimize his influence in its top echelons. Barghouti holds the top slot in Fatah's Central Committee, but his backers have been blocked, through procedural and other measures, from the party's leadership ranks.
      Not every Fatah prisoner has joined the strike, in part because some suspect Barghouti is attempting to use them for his own political ends. Hamas prisoners, too, even as they declare their support, are sitting it out for the moment. (Times of Israel)
• No Nelson Mandela - Reuven Ben-Shalom
  In an April 16 New York Times op-ed, Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti shapes an image of a passive, innocent bystander who has been illegally incarcerated by the brutal Israelis. But Barghouti is a murderer who inflicted pain and suffering on many innocent victims.
      He refers to "dark [prison] cells." But I've visited Barghouti's prison. Not only is his cell well lit, but the abundance of books supplied by the Israel Prison Service enabled him to complete a PhD in political science within his prison cell. (Jerusalem Post)

Barghouti Is Intentionally Lying - Ben-Dror Yemini (Ynet News)

• We used to be friends. For me, Marwan Barghouti represented the new generation of realistic Palestinians. In the 1990s, he genuinely supported the peace process. Later, things changed.
• On Sunday, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Barghouti, in which he complained about the Israeli occupation. Both Barghouti and the Times know that in 1999 Israel offered the Palestinians both a state and a divided Jerusalem. Nevertheless, they responded with terror - and Barghouti was one of the leaders of this response.
• Barghouti is not in prison because he fought for freedom and liberation. Barghouti turned to terror to fight Israel's existence as the Jewish people's national home.
• Barghouti is deliberately lying about the "ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners" and the Times is knowingly publishing a lie: I doubt there are any other terrorists in the world with such amazing conditions as those received by the terrorists jailed in Israel's prisons. The Guantanamo Bay detainees don't even dream of such conditions, and neither do terrorists jailed in France's prisons.
• Barghouti is a terrorist who was convicted of a series of acts of murder by an Israeli civil court. Would the Times publish a similar op-ed by a Taliban terrorist who murdered American civilians? Or perhaps an op-ed by a Guantanamo Bay detainee?