WarSclerotic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate.

As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos purport to show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.

The videos offer only fragments of encounters, but to some extent they fill in the larger void left by Iran’s state-controlled television and radio channels. On their airwaves, hard-line officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. In print, newspapers offered mostly PR for the government, the moderate daily Hamshahri said, in an analysis on Sunday.

They do not acknowledge that the gasoline price hike on November 15, supported by Iran’s civilian government, came as the country’s 80 million people have already seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing US sanctions. US President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, over Iran’s ballistic missile program and interventions in conflicts throughout the region.

A man uses a smartphone, while speaking with another riding a motorcycle in a street, in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 23, 2019. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Authorities also have yet to give any overall figures for how many people were injured, arrested or killed during the several days of protests that swept across some 100 cities and towns.

Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A UN office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”

Starting November 16, Iran shut down the internet across the country, limiting communications with the outside world. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests incredibly difficult. Some recycled days-old videos and photographs as new, making it even more difficult.

Since Saturday, internet connectivity spiked in the country, allowing people to access foreign websites for the first time. On Sunday, connectivity stood nearly at 100% for landline services, while mobile phone internet service remained scarce, the advocacy group NetBlocks said.

Iranians walk past the branch of a local bank that was damaged during demonstrations against gasoline price hikes, on November 20, 2019, in Shahriar, west of Tehran. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

The restoration brought messaging apps back to life for Iranians cut off from loved ones abroad. It also meant that videos were again being shared widely.

Recently released videos span the country. One video from Shiraz, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of Tehran, purports to show a crowd of over 100 people scatter, as gunfire erupts from a police station in the city. One man bends down to pick up debris as a person off-camera describes demonstrators throwing stones. Another gunshot rings out, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.

Another video in Kermanshah, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Tehran, purports to show the dangers that lurked on the streets of Iran in recent days. Plainclothes security forces, some wielding nightsticks, drag one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point.

Shops that were destroyed during demonstrations against gasoline price hikes are pictured in Shahriar, west of Tehran, on November 20, 2019. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

“Look, (the agents) wear styles like the youth,” one man off-camera says, swearing at them.

On Sunday, it remained unclear how widespread any remaining demonstrations were. The acting commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, repeated the allegation that America was behind the protests, without offering any evidence to support his claim.

“Why did (the Americans) get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. “We will deal with this, Islamic Republic supporters, and our proud men and women will sign up to make a domestic system similar to the internet with operating systems that (the Americans) can’t (control) even if they want.”

That likely refers to what has been known as the “halal net,” Iran’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see. The system known as the National Information Network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, activists say. Iranian officials say it allows the Islamic Republic to be independent if the world cuts it off instead.

Ali Fadavi, Deputy Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), delivers a speech during Basij Week in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 24, 2019. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

But while Fadavi earlier said the protests were put down in 48 hours, he also acknowledged the scope of the unrest by comparing it to Operation Karbala-4, one of the worst military disasters suffered by Iran during its bloody 1980s war with Iraq.

On a visit to the northern border on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was planning new attacks in the region, but insisted Israel was working to disrupt them.

Netanyahu cited US Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, who told the New York Times earlier this week that Iran was unlikely to have been deterred by increased US troop deployments in the Middle East, and remained on track to carry out a large-scale attack in the region.

“My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again,” McKenzie told the newspaper.

“Pay attention to what Gen. McKenzie said,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “Iran is planning additional attacks. I can confirm that, and I can confirm to you that we are continuing with our plans to disrupt that aggression by various means.”

Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, speaks next to a picture of the operation targeting Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a press briefing October 30, 2019, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

Netanyahu spoke during a visit to the northern border, where he was briefed by top IDF commanders.

He said Israel would continue to counter Iranian efforts to entrench militarily in Syria.

“Iran’s belligerence in the region — including against us — continues,” he said. “We are taking all the necessary steps to prevent Iran from establishing itself here in the area.

“That includes the necessary activity to prevent the delivery of lethal weapons from Iran to Syria, whether by air or over land.”

The prime minister added that Israel would counter reported Iranian efforts to turn Yemen and Iraq into bases for launching rockets and missiles into Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett tour the northern border on November 24, 2019. (Haim Tzach/GPO)

“Our commitment to fight Iran’s aggression is absolute,” he said.

Netanyahu’s premiership is in crisis after he failed to form a government in the wake of an election in April and another one in September. And his future appeared to be in real peril after the attorney general on Thursday announced plans to indict him on corruption charges.

But the prime minister insisted during his northern tour that he was “doing everything necessary to continue the work of the government and the Security Cabinet… by all necessary means, to preserve the security of the citizens of Israel and the things that are essential for the State of Israel.

“Whoever knows me knows that I am doing this,” he said. “I am doing this in the best way possible out of a supreme commitment to the security of Israel. The considerations are completely substantive.”

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett joined Netanyahu on the visit, and issued a similar warning to Iran.

“Our message to Iran’s terrorist forces in Syria: You have no business here, you have no reason to entrench yourselves. Anything you try to accomplish here will meet with a strong and determined IDF that will hurt you.”

Bennett added: “To Iran’s leaders we say: Focus on your citizens, on improving the lives of Iran’s citizens, and not on these unsuccessful efforts to hurt Israel’s citizens.”

The two were briefed by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Amir Baram.

The top US general is visiting Israel for meetings with top military leaders, the latest in a series of high-level military meetings amid heightened tensions with Iran.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley met Sunday with his Israeli counterpart Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi.

Israel’s military said in a statement that Milley’s visit was a sign of “the depth of the partnership between the forces and its importance in promoting regional stability.” The two discussed “a series of operational topics and regional developments,” the army said.

A readout from Milley’s office said “Gen. Milley reaffirmed the US commitment to its relationship with Israel.”

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, left, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, right, at a ceremony at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, November 24, 2019. (IDF)

Milley’s visit is the latest in a series of top US military visits to the Jewish state in recent weeks.

Last week, US Air Force Chief of Staff David L. Goldfein visited Israel to participate in the Blue Flag joint military exercise, which pitted 70 combat planes from five air forces against each other in 19 sorties across six locations around the country. For two participating militaries, Israel and Italy, it marked the first-ever use of the new stealth F-35 in an international exercise, making it “the most advanced international exercise ever held in Israel,” according to the IDF.

On November 10, the commander of American military forces in the Middle East arrived in Israel for meetings with the IDF’s top brass.

It was Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr.’s first visit in Israel since becoming head of the US military’s Central Command, or CENTCOM, in March. McKenzie’s trip was the second-ever visit by a CENTCOM commander to the Jewish state.

US Air Force chief David Goldfein (L) and President Reuven Rivlin at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on November 14, 2019. (Haim Zach/GPO)

McKenzie’s predecessor, Gen. Joseph Votel, was the first US CENTCOM commander to travel to Israel, visiting last April with little fanfare.

The string of high-level visits come amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran. Last week, after Iranian forces fired rockets at the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, the Israeli Air Force struck dozens of Iranian military targets in neighboring Syria.

The strikes were the latest Israeli attack against Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years. Israel has warned against a permanent Iranian presence near the frontier.

Military ties between the US and Israel have been somewhat strained in recent months, as the US has begun withdrawing from the region, leaving Israel alone to confront an increasingly aggressive and emboldened Iran.

Though Israeli officials have refrained from specifically criticizing US President Donald Trump for the withdrawal, they have more obliquely expressed concerns about the trend.

In this April1 14, 2018, file photo, then-Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie speaks during a media availability at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon, File)

On a visit to the northern border on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was planning new attacks in the region, but insisted Israel was working to disrupt them.

In his comments Netanyahu cited McKenzie, who told The New York Times earlier this week that Iran was unlikely to have been deterred by increased US troop deployments in the Middle East, and remained on track to carry out a large-scale attack in the region.

“My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again,” McKenzie told the newspaper.

“Pay attention to what Gen. McKenzie said,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “Iran is planning additional attacks. I can confirm that, and I can confirm to you that we are continuing with our plans to disrupt that aggression by various means.”

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a damaged building targeted by Israeli missile strikes is seen in Qudsaya suburb in the capital Damascus, Syria, November 20, 2019. (SANA via AP)

In June, Trump called off a retaliatory strike after Iran downed an American drone that Tehran said entered its airspace. The US, which denied the drone entered Iranian skies, was later reported to have launched a limited cyberattack on Iran.

Last month, around half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity was knocked offline due to an attack claimed by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. There was no response to that attack, which the US, Israel and others also blamed on Iran.

The White House’s decision last month to pull troops out of northern Syria and abandon Kurdish allies there has also been seen as a sign of Trump’s general lack of willingness to engage militarily in the region.

GENEVA, Switzerland — A Lebanese businessman living in Switzerland has offered Adolf Hitler’s top hat and other former possessions to the Israel-based Keren Hayesod, an umbrella body for pro-Israel fundraising in Diaspora Jewish communities.

Abdallah Chatila, who made his fortune in diamonds and real estate in Geneva, said he had bought the items at a controversial auction in Germany last week in order to keep them out of the hands of neo-Nazis.

He “wanted to buy these objects so that they would not be used for neo-Nazi propaganda purposes,” Chatila told the Swiss weekly Le Matin Dimanche. “My approach is totally apolitical and neutral.”

Chatila spent 545,000 euros ($601,000) on 10 lots at the Wednesday auction in Munich by the German auction house Hermann Historica, including a top hat worn by Hitler, his cigar box and typewriter, as well as a luxury edition of his book “Mein Kampf” embossed with an eagle and a swastika that belonged to the Nazi leader Hermann Goering, one of Hitler’s chief lieutenants.

“Far-right populism and anti-Semitism are spreading all over Europe and the world, I did not want these objects to fall into the wrong hands and to be used by people with dishonest intentions,” Chatila told the Swiss weekly.

Born in Beirut in 1974 to a family of Christian jewelers, Chatila is one of the 300 wealthiest people in Switzerland.

He told the paper that the Nazi artifacts “should be burned,” but that “historians think that they must be kept for the collective memory.”

He said he had made contact with Keren Hayesod, which was acting “for the building and development of the State of Israel.”

“I’m going to give them those objects… that should be exhibited in a museum.”

The auction sparked an uproar in Germany, particularly in the Jewish community.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association, said earlier this month that Germany was “in the forefront in Europe with regard to the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents.”

The EJA called on “German authorities to oblige the auction houses to disclose the names of buyers,” which “could then be placed on a government list of people to watch.”