Massacres under Syria's new Regime

 

SYRIAN CHAOS GROWS - The new regime led by al-Julani, which received the blessing of the democratic governments, European countries, the UN, and Turkey, have accelerated massacring Alawites who had been massacring Sunnis for years.  Videos of massacres, murder and humiliation are being shared widely on Arab channels, as well as looting and kidnapping of women. 

 Condemnations? None. UN Security Council sessions? None. Intl. Court of Justice or Criminal Court warrants? None. 

 Compare to the responses for Israel’s defensive actions.  Hypocrisy abounds.

The European Union’s Subversion of Israel

 Video of The Week - IDF Officers Slam EU Plan for "Area C" https://tinyurl.com/2rabtu45

 For the full Article by melanie phillips go to https://tinyurl.com/3p25w7tr

Liberal Jews in both the diaspora and Israel have been hyperventilating over the “extremist” ministers in the incoming government headed by Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.  These are the rabble-rouser Itamar Ben-Gvir, the theocrat Bezalel Smotrich and the ultra-socially conservative Avi Maoz.

With Netanyahu insisting that he will keep these three on a short leash, the rational position is to judge this government on what it actually does rather than wildly denouncing these men on the basis of their previous behaviour.

But are liberal Jews capable of anything other than hysteria when it comes to people they have damned as beyond the pale of humanity itself? Are they able to judge these individuals in accordance with demonstrable evidence?  Take, for example, Smotrich. He opposes a Palestinian state, maintains that only Israel is entitled to settle in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria and claims that the Palestinian Arab agenda is to drive the Jews from the land. He has accordingly been accused of supporting an illegal land grab and anathematised as a Nazi.  Yet now information has surfaced that shows Smotrich is all too correct about the Arab strategy in the disputed territories — and that this strategy is being promoted by the very sort of people who denounce him as an extremist.

Earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 13 revealed that a document drafted by the European Commission in eastern Jerusalem proposed helping the Palestinian Authority secretly take control of land in Area C — which is supposed to be under full Israeli control according to the Oslo Accords — and suggested using left-wing NGOs in Israel for this purpose.  The document, probably drafted in June, said the EU should map the land to “prove” Palestinian Arab rights in the disputed territories, as well as violate local land-planning law, without leaving any trace of its activities.  The document also called for “following and monitoring Israeli archaeological activity in the area,” claiming that this was being used as a pretext for settlement building in Judea and Samaria.

What this really means is that the EU wants to stop these excavations because they are consistently uncovering indisputable archaeological proof that the Jews are the indigenous people of the land.  By saying it wants to “prove” Palestinian rights to the land, the EU revealed its true intention: to fabricate an entitlement that doesn’t exist. The only people with a legal, historical and moral claim to the land are the Jews. But the most important thing the EU document revealed is the sustained attempt by the Palestinian Authority and the EU to erase that unique Jewish claim via illegal construction.

As the Gush Etzion Council Head and Chairman of the Yesha Council Shlomo Ne’eman said: “Every week the State of Israel loses large areas, every day dozens of illegal homes are erected, roads are broken up and paved at significant points as part of an organised strategic plan. European governments are actively working to revise the borders of our country. In years past, this would be grounds for wars between nations.”  For his part, Smotrich said: “The blatant involvement of the European Union in the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to establish facts on the ground and unilaterally establish a de facto Arab terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel is unacceptable, contrary to international law and incompatible with basic rules of diplomacy in relations between states.”

Who could argue with that? He is correct.

The EU has been caught bang to rights. While liberals scream that Smotrich is intent upon illegal “annexation,” it’s actually the EU and the Palestinian Arabs who are stealing land to which the Arabs have no entitlement.

As the international lawyer Professor Eugene Kontorovich has observed, the Palestinian Authority and the EU are rapidly annexing areas surrounding Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. “The proposed policies of the [prospective Benjamin Netanyahu-led] coalition in Area C are not about changing the status quo — they are the bare minimum to preserve it,” he said.

Yet none of this is news to those who have been paying attention. The NGO Regavim has been raising the alarm over this for years. It has also been warning of similar activity in the Negev, with the spread of illegal Bedouin settlement and associated lawlessness, including the systematic theft of IDF weapons and ammunition. This too is being funded and encouraged by the EU. Last February, Alan Baker, a former legal adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, wrote for the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs that an EU directive to mobilise and activate “national and international stakeholders through ad-hoc influencing actions on land rights to challenge the Israeli planning and permit regime in Area C” was deliberately encouraging the Palestinians to defy and undermine Israel’s authority there, which runs counter to the Oslo Accords.  “The EU cannot maintain the status of ‘witness’ to the Oslo Accords while at the same time systematically undermining those Accords and encouraging the Palestinians to violate them,” Baker wrote.

The implications are astounding. The EU is in effect helping the Palestinians build a state in Judea and Samaria. It is also helping the Bedouin illegally carve up the Negev in a further dire threat to Israel’s security.  Yet few have paid this any attention. Israeli governments have ignored it because they have chosen not to open up yet another front against the western diplomatic consensus. And that consensus dismisses as a “right-wing extremist” anyone who has the audacity to suggest — entirely correctly — that the Arabs have no legal rights to any of this land.

Indeed, a principal reason Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have gained power is that so many Israelis are utterly appalled at the way successive governments — including those led by Netanyahu — have ignored this growing threat to Israel.

Now this is out in the open. The EU can no longer pretend it is merely contributing to Palestinian “civil society”. Yet even now, there is no mention of any of this by the western mainstream media. In Britain, the BBC has instead been busily fomenting yet more anti-Israel feeling by telling its audience that Netanyahu has finalised “the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history”.

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OUTRAGEOUS - The US is Offering to Pay Organizations to Defame Israel.

 Video Of The Week- UAE's FM speech at Negev Summit - https://tinyurl.com/4kx8y45e

For the full article by Lahav Harkov go to https://tinyurl.com/2kkk43a2

The US State Department has offered a grant of up to $987,654 for projects that include reporting human rights violations by Israel, raising concern about the potential for abuse by organizations seeking boycotts, sanctions and international law tribunals against Israel.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announced “an open competition for projects that strengthen accountability and human rights in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza” last month, thought to be the first of its kind from Washington.

The proposals are meant to “collect, archive and maintain human rights documentation to support justice and accountability and civil society-led advocacy efforts, which may include documentation of legal or security sector violations and housing, land and property rights.”

The projects can also “take meaningful action in pursuing truth, accountability and memorialization; and/or provide psychosocial support to survivors of atrocities.”

DRL will favor projects led by local organizations with a proven ability to implement programs in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

The contest rules state that applications cannot “reflect any type of support for any member, affiliate or representative of a designated terrorist organization.” Projects that directly benefit foreign militaries or paramilitary groups will also not be considered.

Applicants must pass vetting to evaluate the risk that the funding will go to terrorists or their supporters, according to the State Department website.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, director of NGO Monitor, which tracks funding for NGOs dealing with Israel-related issues, said he has never seen a US funding announcement of this kind.

US funding “generally was not for these more political NGOs under the headings of human rights,” he said.

Steinberg wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that NGO projects of the kind described “are exploited for campaigns targeting Israel. These grantees lobby the International Criminal Court and UN frameworks – such as biased Commissions of Inquiry – to sanction Israel, promote BDS and use the ‘apartheid’ label.”

The Biden administration has opposed the ICC investigation of Israel, the use of “apartheid” to describe Israel, and the UN Commission of Inquiry against Israel.

“In light of the Biden Administration’s repeated rejection of such campaigns, we call on the State Department to reconsider this program,” Steinberg wrote. “If however the NOFO [notice of funding opportunity] proceeds, the application of clear and rigorous safeguards will be necessary to ensure that taxpayer funds are not provided to organizations advancing a discriminatory, anti-Israel agenda under the façade of accountability and human rights.”

According to Steinberg, “the language [of the NOFO] is reflective of what European governments use to justify funding organizations like Al Haq and Breaking the Silence,” Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, respectively, that have advocated for boycotts of Israel and for Israeli officials to be tried for war crimes.

“It’s hard to see any other explanation for this type of grant,” he said.

Such human rights organizations targeting Israel are “an industry on the order of at least $50 million to Israel and Palestinian groups from European governments, plus there is UN support. It’s even more if you include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty” – which have accused Israel of being an apartheid state – “and this funding could, in theory, go to them,” Steinberg said.

Blinken recently met with Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard, releasing only a brief tweet in which he said: “We support the important work of human rights defenders.” He commended their work in a speech about the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

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Bennett "The Mediator" in Moscow

 Video Of The Week – Bennett Visits Putin - https://tinyurl.com/32p9t9yt

For the full article by Pesach Benson go to- https://tinyurl.com/565yyatf

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett returned to Israel on Sunday morning after making a surprise visit to Moscow to discuss the Russia-Ukraine crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

From Moscow, Bennett headed to Berlin where he updated German chancellor Olaf Scholz before flying back to Israel in time to lead Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.

Israel has historically kept a low diplomatic profile in international power games. So despite days of buzz about possible Israeli mediation — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been calling for it — Saturday night’s news still stunned Israelis.

An Israeli premier was the first Western leader to meet with Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine. The mission had American and European blessings. Underscoring the gravity of the gravity of the situation, the Sabbath-observant Prime Minister departed for Moscow on Saturday morning.

It’s too soon to know if Bennett’s trip will bear any fruit. Certain aspects of his three-hour meeting at the Kremlin may not be known for years, if ever.

But the talks clearly have significant implications for Israel and the Jewish people. Here are four takeaways.

1. Israeli diplomacy is on the map.

No European country is suited to mediate. Russia is their neighbor. The European Union’s decision to send arms to Ukraine is the first time it has ever sent weapons to a conflict zone. Finnish public opinion suddenly supports joining NATO — which prompted menacing comments from Moscow to Helsinki.

Even ever-neutral Switzerland is freezing the assets of Russian individuals and organizations on the EU blacklist.

Spearheading an effort to end the war in Ukraine carries great rewards and great risks. Israel has opened the door on a new level of international diplomacy, which reflects three particular changes.

• Buoyed by the Abraham Accords, Israel has more secure standing in the Mideast.

• American and European trust in Israeli mediation seems to reflect that Washington, Paris and Berlin don’t believe that so many world problems will disappear if Israel would just make peace with the Palestinians.

• Israel’s insistence on striking Iranian targets in Syria — despite Moscow’s occasional objections — has apparently earned Putin’s grudging respect.

Those are all reasons to be optimistic.

2. Israel will be better poised to evacuate Jews from the Ukraine.

The biggest perk of being mediator is the extra access and leverage it provides.

If Russia is trying to extricate itself from the conflict, what better goodwill gesture than to create humanitarian corridors and safe zones for refugees — including Jews?

And if Russia proves to be insincere, having Putin’s ear will be all the more important if an emergency evacuation of Jews proves necessary. According to Haaretz, Israel had contingency plans in the late 1980s for an emergency airlift of large numbers of Jews from the Soviet Union. Those plans are being dusted off and updated now.

Israel’s last major airlift was Operation Solomon, a covert operation in which 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were evacuated within 36 hours amid a civil war in 1991.

3. Israel will be better poised to influence Iran nuclear deal.

Israel’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program were never taken seriously by the West. That could change.

That’s because Moscow created a new linkage between the Iranian nuclear deal and its own interests. Specifically, Russia wants written guarantees that its own trade and military cooperation with Iran won’t be impacted by sanctions the West is levying in response to the Russian invasion. Washington and Tehran panned Moscow’s demand as “unrelated” and “not helpful.”

But the U.S. is relying on Russian help to finalize the nuclear agreement. That could give Israel room to exploit improvements in the deal.

Putin also has leverage over Iran’s presence in Syria — when it chooses to exercise it. Once upon a time, in 2018, Russian officials talked of keeping Iran and its proxies at 85 km (53 miles) from the Israeli border.

Iran has also endangered Russians by smuggling weapons through the Syrian port of Latakia. Perhaps Putin will take Tehran’s recklessness more seriously now that Israel has his attention.

4. This is Bennett’s chance to shine.

When news broke from the Kremlin, plenty of Israelis imagined Benjamin Netanyahu eating his heart out. After all, It wasn’t so long ago that Netanyahu’s re-election campaign prominently featured him with Putin and then-President Donald Trump.

The campaign’s message was powerful. Netanyahu was the only heavyweight Israeli capable of standing up for Israel’s interests with the world’s super powers.

Yes, Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have paid historic visits to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. But they were building on the Abraham accords which were finalized on Netanyahu’s watch.

Bennett put himself in this position by navigating between U.S. and popular Israeli demands for stronger criticism of Russia with sensitivity to Jerusalem and Moscow’s security coordination in Syria. Whether or not Netanyahu could’ve done it too is beside the point. Bennett pulled it off.

Mediating the Ukraine crisis is Bennett’s accomplishment and his opportunity to put a unique stamp on Israeli and international diplomacy.

What will that look like? Will he succeed?

Only time will tell.

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PA School Textbooks Preach Anti-Semitism, Incitement, Violence and Terrorism

Video Of The Week - What Does EU Probe into Palestinian Textbooks Mean? https://tinyurl.com/36kp7rx2

For the full Article By LAHAV HARKOV,  20.6.2021 go to https://tinyurl.com/h3a3dm4d

The European Union has released its report on Palestinian Authority textbooks four months after its completion.It sparked condemnations across the European Parliament.The report includes dozens of examples of encouragement of violence and demonization of Israel and of Jews.

Twenty-two members of the European Parliament demanded that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen withhold aid to the PA over the books, which “preach antisemitism, incitement and the glorification of violence and terrorism... violating fundamental EU values and our declared goal to help advance peace and the two-state solution.”

EU Parliament Budgetary Affairs Committee Vice Chairman Niclas Herbst called for 5% of EU funding to the PA and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, to be withheld.“The fact that EU assistance to the PA education system is used to produce antisemitic propaganda material that encourages hatred, violence and terrorism, instead of promoting a peaceful solution to the conflict, harms the prospect of coexistence and establishing good and encouraging neighborly relations,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The report was only released after the European Parliament made three different declarations condemning antisemitism in the PA curriculum, as well as dozens of parliamentary questions, said Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, which studies textbooks in the Middle East.

“While deeply flawed, [the report] states what has been obvious to all for years: that the Palestinian Authority systematically incites over a million children to antisemitism, hate and violence every school day,” he said. “

The EU commissioned the report in 2019 and kept it under wraps for four months following its completion. Brussels directly funds the salaries of teachers and the writers of the textbooks, which encourage and glorify violence against Israelis and Jews.

The report examines 156 textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides. Excerpts from the report were previously published in the German newspaper Bild. The concept of “resistance” is a recurring theme in the textbooks studied, along with calls for the Palestinians to be liberated via a revolution. To clarify the concept, one textbook has a photo with the caption, “Palestinian revolutionaries,” featuring five masked men toting machine guns.

Glorification and praise of terrorists who attacked Israelis can be found not only in history or social-studies books, but also in science and math books, such as one that mentions a school named after the “shahid” (martyr) Abu Jihad, a leader of the First Intifada.

A demonstration of Newton’s Second Law, which says force is equal to mass times acceleration, is illustrated by Palestinians using slingshots against Israeli soldiers.

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EU Awakes Then Goes Back To Sleep

Video Of The Week -US State Department's Bias against Israel https://tinyurl.com/y6hlyvco

Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor, a policy analysis think tank focusing on non-governmental organizations, spoke to participants in a June 8 Middle East Forum webinar (Click on video) about the European Union's funding of Palestinian NGOs affiliated to terrorist organizations.

                                  

The EU grants around two to three billion Euros a year to hundreds of NGOs around the world, of which at least 150 million Euros is allocated for humanitarian aid. NGO Monitor's investigations reveal that over the last seven years at least 25 million Euros have gone to Palestinian groups affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization designated as a terrorist group by the European Union.

Steinberg highlighted three examples of NGOs funded by both the EU and EU member governments that have ties to the PFLP:

Al-Haq, an NGO ostensibly dedicated to documenting human rights violations, is led by Shawan Jabarin, who was convicted by Israel's High Court in the 1980s of being a member of the PFLP and subsequently was prohibited from traveling abroad based on evidence he was recruiting for the PFLP.

Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-P), a local branch of the Geneva-based Defense for Children International, is closely associated with the PFLP. At least three figures with alleged ties to PFLP have been employed or appointed as board members by DCI-P.

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) was identified in a USAID report as the "agricultural arm of the PFLP." UAWC personnel with ties to the PFLP include an accountant who negotiated funding from the European Union and an administrative manager, both of whom are currently under indictment for the August 2019 murder of 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shnerb.

Last year, the EU introduced a provision into its grant agreements designed to ensure that entities on the EU's terrorism blacklist, known as a "restrictive list," don't benefit from EU funds. This caused an uproar among Palestinians. The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), which represents the above groups and many others with dubious affiliations, "went to the European Union office that's in charge of relations with the Palestinians and said, 'We have totally opposed this. We won't let you. We refuse to allow you to apply this regulation to the funding that we're getting'."

EU officials soon backed down. In March 2020, the EU's representative to the Palestinians, Sven Kȕhn von Burgsdorff, issued a clarification letter saying, "it is understood that a natural person affiliated to, sympathizing with, or supporting any of the groups or entities mentioned in the EU restrictive lists is not excluded from benefiting from EU-funded activities, unless his/her exact name and surname (confirming his/her identity) corresponds to any of the natural persons on the EU restrictive lists."

In plainer English, said Steinberg, this means Shawan Jabarin and other PFLP members who pose as "human rights defenders" are allowed to benefit from EU funding so long as their individual names are not on the EU blacklist, which it so happens does not list any individuals (i.e. "natural persons"). Von Burgsdorff's letter assures Palestinian NGOs that affiliates connected to EU-designated terrorist groups like the PFLP not only can continue to receive EU funding but are now afforded "legitimacy" by Brussels.

The Israeli government contested this dodge and continues to insist that the Europeans end funding "that can be readily siphoned off to the terrorist organizations like the PFLP," explained Steinberg. "The European commissioner in charge of relations with Israel ... said, 'We're going to investigate this.' Now we're going to see if there's going to be an investigation or not. There may. That's why I leave the question, did the European Union go to sleep or not?"

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