“Arab Bombings Return to Jerusalem Streets”

 Video Of The Week - UN's Continuing Campaign against Israel over Judea and Samaria - https://tinyurl.com/5n96fxuv                 

For the full article from JNS, by Yaakov Lappin - https://tinyurl.com/yvbsxndv

Wednesday’s double terror bombing in Jerusalem sent shock waves throughout the State of Israel because it was a different style of attack than the one Israelis have, sadly, grown accustomed to seeing since March this year, when the latest escalation began.

Unlike the individual or small groups of terrorists who, acting on radical ideology and incitement to violence, picked up a gun, a knife, or embarked on a car-ramming attack, this time a better organized terrorist cell detonated two bombs—apparently by remote control—at bus stops in the capital.

Police and the Shin Bet have exhausted their immediate physical searches, and the hunt for the perpetrators will now move to the intelligence front.

Meanwhile, security personnel will be working around the clock to prevent the next bombing, scanning buses and bus stops in the city and trying to figure out how terrorists were able to make their way to western Jerusalem.

It is too soon to know who or which organization conducted the attack, but it is possible to note that in recent years, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has taken a lead in remote-control bombing terrorism.

Col. (res.). Michael Milshtein, a former adviser on Palestinian affairs to the Israeli Defence Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit and a former head of the Department for Palestinians Affairs in the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, said during a call organized by Media Central that despite the fact that the Second Intifada (2000-2005) saw many more attacks and casualties, “this time we and the Palestinians are much more concerned about the results of this wave of escalation—this is a result of the fact that this wave of escalation reflects deeper developments in the Palestinian arena and in the relations between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Milstein pointed to the “rise of the Z generation in the Palestinian arena, the young generation,” which he noted has been behind “most of the terrorism in the Samaria area, in Nablus and Jenin. Groups of younger Palestinians, most of them born around the year 2000. Most of them have no relations with the P.A. [Palestinian Authority] or even Fatah. Most feel deep alienation towards the P.A.,” he said.

With the Palestinian Authority losing its grip in parts of Samaria to armed terror gangs, and the image of the P.A. at an all-time low among Palestinians, in no small part due to corruption, nepotism and its violation of human rights, Milstein said, the current situation does not look promising.

Israel has a broad set of military measures it can call upon to confront terrorism, but one tool that it has also relied upon for the past 15 years to boost stability—economic easements for Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, commonly known in the West Bank, seems to be losing its effectiveness.

All this amounts to a continued deterioration of the security situation. Although the resilience of the Israeli people and the great capabilities of the Israeli security forces will continue to provide a resolute response to terrorism, challenging times could lie ahead.

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FBI Has a Double Standard

Video Of The Week - Iran Stirs Violence in Samaria - the Heart of Israel - https://tinyurl.com/mwc54b

 For the full article by Lahav Harkov from the JP go to - https://tinyurl.com/bdhm429k

 Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” poster, which can be viewed on the FBI website, describes her as “charged with participating in an August 9, 2001 suicide bomb attack at a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including two United States nationals. Four other United States nationals were among approximately 122 others injured in the attack,” the site reads. “Should be considered armed and dangerous.”

 The FBI poster asks for tips and offers a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Tamimi’s arrest.  Here’s a tip: She’s in Jordan, hosting a talk show on Hamas TV. Tamimi’s whereabouts have been long known – she’s on TV, not exactly hiding – but Jordan refuses to extradite her. Despite an ongoing campaign by the family of one of the Sbarro attack victims, Malki Roth, which has received significant attention in Jewish media and Israeli media in English, Washington has not done much to press Jordan on the matter. There’s no indication the Biden administration has done anything at all.

Which brings us to the extraordinary lengths to which Washington seems willing to go for Palestinian Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen who was killed in an exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in May.

Israel was initially unable to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident because the Palestinian Authority, which insisted along with Abu Akleh’s family that the IDF assassinated her, refused to hand over any evidence from the scene. Eventually, and following US pressure, the PA handed over the bullet. The Israeli examination of the bullet was conducted together with US investigators and Israel was fully transparent with the US about all elements of the probe. In September, the IDF said it found that Abu Akleh was likely unintentionally shot by an Israeli soldier in an exchange of fire with Palestinian terrorists, but that there was no conclusive evidence.  At the time, the US continued to say it expects transparency, but didn’t announce next steps. Dissatisfied with the result, the Abu Akleh family began lobbying sympathetic politicians, along with the State Department.

 This week, the US Department of Justice notified its Israeli counterpart that the FBI would be conducting its own investigation. This seems to be an unprecedented situation, in which the US officially considers a democratic ally to have an independent judiciary capable of investigating and prosecuting its own soldiers when need be – after all, it supports that argument when it’s made against International Criminal Court involvement – and is proceeding with an FBI investigation against that ally’s wishes after the ally’s probe reached its own conclusions.

This apparently accidental, but still tragic, death of a US citizen seems to warrant special attention that an intentional terrorist bombing with several American victims does not. And, of course, the Sbarro attack is just one example – chosen because of the Roth family’s extensive lobbying efforts that arguably go beyond that of the Abu Aklehs – but there are 49 US citizens, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, that have been murdered by Palestinians since then. The FBI doesn’t seem to have done much to get justice for them, either.

Since Washington has not given an explanation, what’s left is to speculate.  What is behind Washington's double standard?

Some have talked about it being a shot across the bow to prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu as he’s expected to form a far-right government, though Washington is expressing dissatisfaction at events that occurred under a government to the left of Netanyahu.

US Senator Ted Cruz certainly sees it that way, saying the FBI investigation “underscores how corrupt and blatantly politicized the Justice Department has become, and how entirely beholden to the radical left-wing Squad Democrats really are. These lawmakers, which include Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), pressured the DOJ for months to investigate the Abu Akleh shooting. This administration has spent its time in office weaponizing the DOJ to target their political enemies as a matter of policy, and now they have allowed that tactic to bleed into their obsession with undermining our Israeli allies.”

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UN Commission of Inquiry - Masterpiece of Modern Antisemitism

Video Of The Week - UN- Elephant In The Room -  https://tinyurl.com/f6b425d6

New UN Commission of Inquiry - Masterpiece of Modern Antisemitism

 For the full Article by Prof. Anne Bayefsky  go to  https://tinyurl.com/y87evzu9

Guilty of Nazi-like crimes. That’s the verdict of a United Nations “Commission of Inquiry” on Israel that was created by the UN Human Rights Council to commit the Nazi-like crime of demonizing and destroying the Jewish state. Archetypal moral inversion.

Not one Western democracy voted to create the “inquiry,”. Only 30% of the Human Rights Council members are democracies; Islamic states hold the balance of power, and its members include such human rights luminaries as China, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Venezuela.

All three members of the “inquiry” had already declared Israel guilty of the crimes they were charged to investigate. Member Chris Sidoti dismissed Jewish claims of discrimination with the retort that “accusations of anti-Semitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding.” Member Miloon Kothari claimed that “the Jewish lobby” and its money controlled social media and the inquiry’s bad press. He also suggested kicking Israel out of the UN. The Chair of the “inquiry,” Navi Pillay unleashed a self-serving defense of her colleagues’ appalling behavior. She herself  is a pusher of “the extremist Israel lobby” canard, the “apartheid Israel” slander, and BDS.

UN authorities did not remove them from office ,even though they had violated the UN rules of impartiality, objectivity and personal integrity – but that’s why they were chosen in the first place.

The  “inquiry”“ call for submissions” claimed they wanted specifics about victims of “systematic discrimination and repression” as well as “underlying root causes” of the conflict.

The report is sprinkled with undated, unsigned, anonymous accusations accompanied by no evidence against Jews. In contrast, submissions were made  with carefully documented photos, videos, statements, names and statistical evidence relating to Jewish victims of “systematic discrimination and repression” by Palestinians and other Arab perpetrators. However, these submissions were ignored apparently even before being read. Addressing the submissions at a UN news conference, Pillay declared “I’ve not seen them” and “all of them would be pro-Israel.”

Subsequently, additional submissions were made, specifying 5,875 attacks by Palestinians and their collaborators, six Arab wars against Israel and eight defensive Israeli military operations in response to Arab aggression. In light of the latest “inquiry” report, we now know that those submissions were also trashed, demonstrating that the UN “investigation” is phony. Instead, the report has sixty-five “citations” from eighteen organizations that trash-talks Israel and nothing from a single participating so-called “pro-Israel” NGO or “stakeholder” sees the light of day.

The shameless prejudice of the report - of an inquiry billed as discerning “all underlying root causes” of the conflict – is dramatically illustrated by the statement that it is only about “the human rights implications for Palestinians.” Not any “human rights” of Jewish Israelis.

The report’s declarations of Israeli human rights violations run wild. Among them, Palestinian females are mistreated by Israeli male who  are also at fault for Palestinian women hygienic issues when menstruating. The silence on honor killings, discriminatory laws, and rampant domestic violence by abusive Palestinian men in their own inequitable society, is deafening.

Also missing in action? The word “terrorism” is nowhere to be found. Palestinian perpetrators have vanished. Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad never appear.

The report advocates that Israelis be hunted down, prosecuted and jailed for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court – for the Nazi-like crimes of “persecution” and the “transfer of populations” (knowing full well that the latter meant transfer to the death camps).

On the other hand, they couldn’t name a single Palestinian crime worth prosecuting.

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“Karish becomes Olympus”

Video Of The Week -“Lebanon-Israel Maritime Gas Deal”- https://tinyurl.com/ynwh3zp7

 For the full article by Zachy Hennessey, from JP, go to - https://tinyurl.com/4a6msjxm

 Energean PLC has announced a new commercial natural gas discovery of 13 billion cubic meters off the shore of Israel as a result of its exploratory drilling well dubbed Zeus-1. It has also confirmed the presence of an additional 3.75 bcm at its Athena site. 

These discoveries have confirmed the company’s suspicions that the so-called “Olympus area” located between the Karish and Tanin gas fields are both voluminous and commercially viable.

“Following the start of production from our Karish reservoir last week, I am pleased that our drilling program, which has now delivered five successful wells from five, continues to deliver value, ensuring security of supply and energy competition across the region.”

Bounty of Israeli gas in Olympus area

The company is now plotting its next steps toward capitalizing on the area’s bounty and expects to update the market on the total resource volumes within the Olympus area, taking into account the uplifted volumes in both Zeus and Athena, in early 2023.

 “Following the start of production from our Karish reservoir last week, I am pleased that our drilling program, which has now delivered five successful wells from five, continues to deliver value, ensuring security of supply and energy competition across the region,” said Mathios Rigas, CEO of Energean.

“We are evaluating a number of potential commercialization options for the Olympus area that leverage both new and our existing, unique Med-based infrastructure, and we expect to commit to a development concept in 1H 2023,” he said.

Future drilling sites off Israel's coast

In addition, Energean has moved its Stena IceMax drilling rig in order to begin drilling at its Hercules drilling site, the final well in its 2022 drilling campaign.

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Nablus, Hub of The Terror Triangle

Video Of The Week - Into the "Lions’ Den” - https://tinyurl.com/m9c2svhx 

The Terror Triangle: What You Need to Know About the West Bank City of Nablus

Akiva Van Koningsveld, HonestReporting.

 For the full Article go to - https://tinyurl.com/yjket6t9

An elite Israel Defense Forces soldier died on October 12 after being shot near the community of Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank. Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch, 21, was attacked by gunmen who opened fire from a passing vehicle as his unit was “conducting operational security activity in the area,” the IDF said. 

A relatively unknown Palestinian armed faction operating out of the nearby city of Nablus, the Lion’s Den, soon claimed responsibility for the killing of Baruch, warning Israel that “the volcano of our operations has begun and only God will extinguish it.”  Tuesday’s deadly shooting was the latest in a string of recent attacks carried out by terrorists from Nablus that targeted Israeli security forces and civilians. On October 2, the Lion’s Den in two separate West Bank shootings injured an Israeli taxi driver and a soldier. 

Nablus (identified with the ancient Jewish city of Shechem) is home to about 150,000 people, making it the second-largest locality under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.  Nablus’ history as a hub for anti-Jewish terrorist activity far predates the founding of the modern State of Israel. In a 1921 report, a British Mandate official already denounced the Nabulsi attitude as “fanatic” and “bigoted,” citing, in particular, the city’s “hostility to the Jews.” Notably, the bloody Arab riots of 1936-39 were in part triggered by the slaying of two Jewish men near Nablus at the hands of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam supporters.

Soon after the attack, on April 20, 1936, the Arab National Committee of Nablus declared a general strike and boycott of Jewish goods, a call heeded by Arabs throughout the Mandate’s territory. During the six-month strike, some eighty Jews were murdered in terror acts, with a total of 415 Jewish deaths recorded during the entire 1936-1939 Arab Revolt period.  Together with Jenin and Tulkarem, Nablus comprised what London at the time dubbed the “Triangle of Terror” or “Triangle of Fear.”

When Palestinian arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat set up Fatah terror cells in the West Bank after the Arab armies’ ’67 defeat, he chose Nablus as the location for his first secret headquarters, before relocating to Ramallah.  Some of the most horrific terror attacks during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) were likewise carried out by Nablus residents, including a December 2, 2001, bombing of a Haifa bus that killed 15 Israelis and injured 40. The day after the attack, thousands of Hamas followers marched through Nablus in support of suicide bomber Maher Habashi.  The explosive belts used in the March 2002 Passover massacre (30 dead) were also produced by Hamas in Nablus.

During Operation Defensive Shield (March-May 2002), IDF troops uncovered hundreds of rifles and improvised firearms in Nablus, in addition to 18 explosives laboratories and a factory producing Qassam rockets.

Fast forward 20 years, the successes of Operation Defensive Shield have apparently been undone, and Nablus’ reputation as an epicenter for Palestinian terror has been firmly re-established.  Nablus initially resurfaced in the international press on February 8, 2022, after IDF forces neutralized three Palestinians during an operation in the al-Makhfiya neighborhood. Israeli officials said the targets belonged to a terror cell that had conducted shooting attacks against Israeli military positions and personnel.

Six months later, following a Palestinian terror wave that left 19 Israelis dead, Israeli troops during a raid killed Ibrahim/ Nabulsi, the fourth member of the cell suspected of being a commander of the terror group’s Nablus brigade. Nabulsi was wanted for numerous attacks in the West Bank, including shooting attacks against Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph’s Tomb just outside of Nablus.  After Nabulsi’s death, a cadre of young Palestinian terrorists took it upon themselves to carry on his violent legacy. This summer, Ibrahim Nabulsi helped found a new coalition of armed groups modeled after the Jenin Battalion; Areen al-Usood (the Lion’s Den). According to Israeli data, the number of drive-by shootings targeting Israeli military positions near Nablus has more than doubled since 2021.

The Lion’s Den has also attacked civilians, for instance by firing at the Jewish community of Har Bracha, located south of the Palestinian city. On September 9, Israeli security forces thwarted a large-scale attack in Tel Aviv, arresting an operative linked to the Nablus group. All in all, the group is estimated to consist of some 100 Palestinians under the age of 30. Although the alliance includes members of Fatah, PIJ, Hamas and the PFLP, it has no clear affiliation with any specific terror organization.

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