In-Depth Issues:
Iranian Intelligence Services Abduct Iranian Opposition Activists from Abroad - Iran Desk ( Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Iran's security and intelligence services have renewed their active espionage and intelligence operations abroad, targeting opposition activists worldwide, especially in Europe.
Iranian agents lure them to Turkey and other countries in the region, abduct them, and transfer them for trial in Iran. Sometimes Iranian agents assassinate them on European soil.
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Sudanese Official: "Any Palestinian Refugee Camp Is in Better Shape than Sudan" - Ariel Kahana ( Israel Hayom)
Discussing Sudan's normalization with Israel, one senior government official in Khartoum told Israel Hayom:
"The Middle East is changing, and Sudan wants to be part of the process. We have a unique opportunity to rehabilitate our society and our economy."
"The Palestinians are angry? They're angry with us, when any Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon is in better shape than Sudan? The days when the Palestinian problem was dumped on Sudan are over. We are working for the future of Sudan and our children and grandchildren."
UAE to Import Israeli Wine from Golan Heights, Angering
Israel Boycott Movement - Ahmad Melhem ( Al-Monitor)
The UAE has dealt a heavy blow to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement after it signed a deal on Oct. 28 to sell Israeli wine from the Golan Heights in Dubai.
The BDS movement said it will boycott any Emirati, Arab or international company implementing the Emirati-Israeli normalization agreement.
When a Teacher Made His Students Debate Hitler's Final Solution - Lior Zaltzman ( Kveller)
In 2017 in Oswego, New York, during a college-level English class at the Center for Instruction, Technology and Innovation, a teacher asked his students to imagine being one of the Nazis at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, where they discussed the implementation of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
He asked his students to argue for, or against, the Final Solution.
Two of the students, Archer Shurtliff and Jordan April, spoke out and pointed out the tastelessness of the assignment.
Shurtliff told Oswego County News Now, he understood where the assignment was coming from but he found it unacceptable: "You can play the devil's advocate, but you can't be the devil."
New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, when first asked about it, claimed that it was an exercise in "critical thinking."
But Shurtliff and April took their fight to the media and to the Anti-Defamation League - and eventually, they won. Elia agreed to make sure the assignment was never given again in New York State.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- U.S. Undertook Cyber Operation Against Iran to Secure the 2020 Election - Ellen Nakashima
Gen. Paul Nakasone, who leads both the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, said Tuesday that the U.S. engaged in actions in the past two weeks against Iran to ensure that it did not interfere in the 2020 election. The move against Iranian hackers working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came shortly after they posed as a far-right group to send threatening emails to American voters.
Nakasone stressed that the agencies' work began after the 2018 midterms and will continue for weeks after Election Day, until the votes are certified. He noted that the level of foreign targeting of the U.S. election was lower than that of two years ago. (Washington Post)
- U.S. Sanctions Companies over Purchase, Sale of Iran Oil
The U.S. Treasury Department last Thursday sanctioned eight entities in Iran, China and Singapore for buying and selling Iranian petrochemical products. "The United States remains committed to targeting any revenue source the Iranian regime uses to fund terrorist groups and oppress the Iranian people," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for the persons designated risk exposure to sanctions that could sever their access to the U.S. financial system or block their property under U.S. jurisdiction.
(U.S. Treasury Department)
- 4 Dead in Vienna Terrorist Attack by ISIS Sympathizer - Katrin Bennhold
An ISIS sympathizer wearing a fake explosive device opened fire on Monday night in the heart of Vienna, killing at least four people and wounding 14. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called the shooting "definitely an Islamist terrorist attack." Police killed the gunman, a 20-year-old Vienna-born man whose parents came from North Macedonia. The Austrian intelligence service said he was one of 90 Austrians who had planned to join the Islamic State in Syria, and had been sentenced last year to 22 months in prison for his attempt. (New York Times)
See also Netanyahu: "Israel Stands with Austria" - Lahav Harkov
Israel and Austria are sharing intelligence in the aftermath of the shooting attack in Vienna, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. He told Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz: "The people of Israel stand with Austria...against the savagery of Islamist terrorism." (Jerusalem Post)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- UN Declares Jerusalem's Temple Mount as Solely Muslim Site - Tovah Lazaroff
139 UN countries approved a resolution on Wednesday that referred to the Temple Mount solely as an Islamic holy site called al-Haram al-Sharif. Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said the resolution "completely ignores any link between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount - our holiest site. This is a disgrace. The audacious attempt to rewrite history will not change the indisputable fact that the Jewish connection to the city of Jerusalem dates back thousands of years."
Nine countries voted against the Jerusalem resolution, including Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and the U.S. Another 16 abstained.
European countries that supported the resolution included Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
(Jerusalem Post)
See also UAE, Bahrain, Sudan Back Anti-Israel Moves at UN - Raphael Ahren
The three Arab countries with which Jerusalem recently signed normalization agreements - the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan - all supported a series of resolutions critical of Israel at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
(Times of Israel)
- PA Security Officer Opens Fire on IDF Troops in West Bank - Judah Ari Gross
Bilal Adnan Rawajbeh, 29, a captain in the Palestinian Preventative Security Forces, opened fire from his vehicle at Israeli troops in the West Bank on Wednesday as he approached the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus. IDF soldiers responded and killed the attacker. (Times of Israel)
- Coronavirus in Israel: Downward Trend Continues
The Israeli Health Ministry reported Thursday morning on 9,406 active coronavirus patients, including 353 in serious condition, with 154 on ventilators. The death toll was 2,597. (Times of Israel)
- Israeli Court Orders PA to Compensate Family of Terrorist Attack Victims - Yael Friedson
The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Monday that the Palestinian Authority must pay NIS 13 million ($3.8 million) in compensation to the family of Tzipi and Gadi Shemesh, who were killed in a suicide bombing in 2002. A court ruling two years ago held the PA directly responsible for the bombing that killed the couple and their unborn twins. The perpetrators were members of a Palestinian terrorist organization that acted as a result of the PA's policy which allowed the killing of Israeli civilians.
According to Palestinian expert Lt.-Col. (res.) Alon Eviatar, the suicide bomber, Muhammad Hashika, had been arrested by the PA and was released specifically to carry out the attack at the request of Abd al-Karim Avis, an officer in the PA's general intelligence apparatus. Moreover, the materials used to make the bomb were taken from the office of the head of the PA's General Intelligence Service, Tawfiq Tirawi, who paid an aide to drive Hashika to the scene of the attack.
(Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Observations:
- In the aftermath of the new peace treaties between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan, important Arab public figures - from political officials to clerics to intellectuals - are now openly proclaiming that the Arab world has been the primary author of its own pain. These admissions may signal the beginnings of a new sensibility among Arabs and Sunni Muslims about their political and social situation.
- Their error was the notion that Israel was the most crucial enemy of Arabs, Muslims, and their states, an enemy that had to be not only defeated but utterly eradicated because it disrupted the harmony and progress of the Arab and Muslim world. Until recently, this view was central to Arab and Muslim sensibility.
- As Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh has observed: "For most Arabs the terms peace and normalization with Israel were associated with extremely negative connotations: humiliation, submission, defeat, and shame." To the question of what ailed Arab and Muslim politics and society, there was always this widely-accepted answer: the state of Israel. If only it could be eliminated, all would be well.
- The new deals have now shattered that discourse, declaring that Israel is not the enemy it was alleged to be, and promising a "warm peace" with broad economic and cultural exchanges. They acknowledge that Israel is not the problem, but rather a partner on the path toward solving Middle Eastern woes.
- Most crucially, the changes in Arab discourse regarding Israel have not unleashed the vehement and widespread explosions of opposition throughout the Sunni world which would have been expected in decades past. Rather, they seem to bespeak views that were developing over some time, waiting for the opportunity to be let out.
Hillel Fradkin is director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World. Lewis Libby is Hudson's senior vice president.
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