A Palestinian “child” trains to kill Jews. (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90)
The real abuse that American politicians should investigate is the Palestinian Authority’s constant incitement of minors to murder Jews, not Israel’s attempts to prevent such exploitation.
Nine members of Congress have introduced a bill to prevent US aid to Israel from being used to arrest Palestinian terrorists who are under the age of 18.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), characterizes young terrorists merely as “Palestinian children” and contends that their arrest by the Israeli army constitutes “abuse.”
It’s worth recalling a few examples of the behavior for which Palestinian “children” have been detained by the Israeli military in recent years.
On Jan. 17, 2016, a Palestinian child named Morad Abdullah Adais broke into the home of Dafna Meir, in the town of Otniel, armed with an 8-inch knife. Adais, who was 16, later described proudly what he did next:
“I plunged the knife into her so deeply that most of it was inside her body. She started screaming, the children saw me and also started screaming, then I stabbed her in her upper body another three or four times. She tried to fight me and tried to take the knife from me. The two children who were there were still screaming, but she continued to resist, so I pushed her, and overpowered her.”
Asked what he would have done if he was able to pull the knife from Meir’s body, the Palestinian teenager said, “I would have continued stabbing her, and if I saw another Jew I would stab and murder him.”
Meir left behind six children, ages 4-17. They’re also minors. But Rep. McCollum is not concerned about them. Her focus is on Palestinian minors such as Adais. According to the McCollum bill, the army’s arrest of Adais would be considered illegal and abusive.
Palestinian ‘Children’ in Action
Here’s another example of a Palestinian “child” in action. On June 30, 2016, a Palestinian teenager broke into the bedroom of a 13-year-old girl named Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in the town of Kiryat Arba. The attacker, Mohammed Nasser Tra’ayra, viciously stabbed Hallel again and again. Then he stabbed two other Israelis whom he encountered. Hallel’s father shot and killed Tra’ayra. Presumably, McCollum would regard the shooting as “settler violence” against a “Palestinian child.”
If Tra’ayra had not been killed, and Israeli soldiers arrested him, that would have constituted illegal and abusive detention, according to the McCollum bill.
One final example to illustrate the real-life consequences of what these nine radical Congress members are trying to accomplish.
On Dec. 25, 2014—as McCollum and her colleagues were no doubt enjoying the Christmas holiday with their families—two young Palestinians decided that they would try to burn some Jews to death. They positioned themselves on the road to the Israeli town of Ma’ale Shomron. Along came an automobile with an 11-year-old girl riding in the front passenger seat. The two attackers—one of them a 16-year-old “child”—threw rocks and firebombs at the car.
The car exploded in flames. Eleven-year-old Ayelet Shapiro jumped out, her entire body on fire. Her father’s quick action to smother the flames saved Ayelet’s life, but she suffered third-degree burns to her face and upper body, meaning years of painful surgery and skin grafts, and a lifetime of severe scars and emotional trauma.
How were the attackers caught? Israeli security personnel went into the nearby Palestinian Arab village of Azun, detained suspects, questioned them and eventually pinpointed the perpetrators. None of which would have been possible under the McCollum bill.
Significant Number of Palestinian Minors Engage in Terrorism
Yes, the Israeli army does arrest a significant number of Palestinian minors. That’s because a significant number of Palestinian minors engage in terrorism. In the past two years, there have been at least 79 terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians from the ages of 8-17, according to the watchdog group Human Rights Voices.
The real abuse that Betty McCollum and her Gang of Nine should be investigating is the constant effort by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to incite minors to engage in the murder of Jews. “We are so proud that in this popular uprising that has started almost two months ago, that the backbone of this uprising are the youth of Palestine,” the PA’s UN representative, Riyad Mansour, declared during the recent wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks.
But don’t take Mansour’s word for it. Morad Abdullah Adais, the 16-year-old who butchered Dafna Meir in front of her children, told investigators that he was inspired to murder her after watching a PA television program depicting Israelis as cruel oppressors of the Palestinians. How about some congressional action against the PA’s use of American aid to sponsor such vicious and deadly incitement?
By: Stephen M. Flatow/JNS.org
Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.
With the president’s directive, North Korea will return to the State Department’s list of designated state sponsors of terrorism for the first time since its removal by the Bush administration in 2008. North Korea will be among Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
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President Trump announced Monday that the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, something he said “should have happened a long time ago.”
Trump announced the designation in a Cabinet meeting at the White House, clearing the way for more sanctions on the “murderous” rogue regime, just days after returning from his historic 13-day trip to Asia.
“We will be instituting a very critical step,” Trump said. “Today, the U.S. is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. [This] should have happened a long time ago — should have happened years ago.”
With the president’s directive, North Korea will return to the State Department’s list of designated state sponsors of terrorism for the first time since its removal by the Bush administration in 2008. North Korea will be among Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
“North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump said Monday. “… This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons.”
Otto Warmbier (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Trump also cited the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea and died days after being returned to the U.S. in a coma.
Trump added that the designation supports a “maximum-pressure campaign” on the “murderous regime.”
Trump explained that the sanctions would be imposed over a two-week period and would constitute the “highest level of sanctions” on North Korea.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson floated the idea of re-designating North Korea to the list in April.
According to the State Department, once designated, a country or nation state faces sanctions resulting in restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance; a ban on defense exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.
The president’s designation comes after months of fiery rhetoric toward North Korea’s rogue dictator Kim Jong Un, whom Trump has warned repeatedly to cease their nuclear activities.
The attacks on Moore have nothing to do with sudden moral outrage, not when Majority Leader McConnell and his GOP cronies spent 30 million dollars to eviscerate this fellow Republican in the primaries even before any sex-related allegations surfaced. And why once he won the primary, did the Republican High Command – McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, John McCain, even Mike Lee and Ted Cruz – condemn him as a predatory deviant, again with stunning lack of proof? And why did Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, the Republican Senate Campaign Committee Chair in charge of the money, cut off GOP funds for Moore, abandoning him to be outspent by his Democrat opponent 11 to 1. Then Gardner even threatened to “expel” Moore from the Senate if elected by Alabama voters. How reprehensible.
But why, when Moore would have easily defeated the Democrat in red-state Alabama and kept the Republican majority – why would they all circle round and tear bloody chunks off the man like a pack of snarling dingoes in a National Geographic special? Because Moore is a rebel who has proved he can’t be bought or controlled by the powers that be. And then there’s his radical God thing.
What would Moore say to the leadership’s price tag on a committee assignment that demands a new Senator pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican (or Democrat) campaign war chest? As exposed in Colorado Congressman Ken Buck’s sobering book, Drain the Swamp, chairing an important committee can cost a member over a million dollars! Moore would doubtless raise holy Hades at the pay-to-play that infects Congress and the valuable time members must spend money-raising instead of doing the peoples’ business.
Senator Moore would refuse to play the Washington game. He would vote his conscience, not in lockstep with demands from on high. He might even start a revolt — and they can’t have that kind of insubordination in Congress! But the people of Alabama chose Moore as their nominee despite the GOP’s $30 million to defeat him, just as they twice elected him Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court even after he had been kicked off the bench for standing up for his Ten Commandments monument and traditional, man/woman marriage. Side note to ACLU: a carved frieze of Moses holding the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments actually looks down on the Supreme Court Justices from the south wall of the courtroom as they dispense their verdicts.
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Three out of the four Moms of the teen daughters who now claim sexual harassment or worse by Roy Moore 40 years ago, trusted him implicitly with their daughters at the time in question. Shockeroo!
According to the Washington Post article that unleashed sexual predator zombie accusations against the Alabama Senate candidate, Debbie Gibson was 17 in 1981 when Moore asked her out. She asked her Mom what she’d say if she wanted to date a 34 year old man named Roy Moore. Gibson quotes her Mom: “I’d say you were the luckiest girl in the world.” The two dated a few times, says Ms. Gibson, and Moore kissed her once. Kissing while dating is now sexual assault doncha know.
Another Mom in the Post hit piece was “really, really strict” according to her then 19 year old daughter, Gloria Thacker Deason, but let her stay out past her 10:30 curfew with Moore because “she just felt like I would be safe with him… she thought he was good husband material.” She dated Moore a few times in 1979 and she told the paper their physical relationship “did not go further than kissing and hugging.” The man was a monster!
Deason’s Mom likely approved of her daughter dating Moore because he was a hometown hero; a much-admired West Point grad, and a Vietnam vet with a bright future as an assistant district attorney. Certainly neither Deason’s nor Gibson’s Mom had reason to think their daughters were in any danger from the town’s golden boy or they would never have enthusiastically welcomed his attentions to the young women.
Yet to read the volcanic spew of articles and horrified accusations from the High Foreheads of MediaWorld, Republicans and Democrats alike, you’d think that a man who dates a teenager when he’s in his 30’s is a raging pervert. Case closed. No discussion allowed.
Even in the sole case in which sexual misconduct is alleged against Moore involving 14 year old Leigh Corfman, her Mom showed enormous trust in the assistant district attorney from the moment they met. The girl and her Mom, Nancy Wells, were sitting outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Alabama, awaiting a custody hearing in Wells’ divorce case when Moore came up to them and offered to watch Leigh while her Mom was in the hearing. The Post quotes Wells, now 71, “He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her.’” Wells wasn’t the least suspicious, but instead says, “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.” Had they met before – or had Moore introduced himself as an assistant d.a.? The Post doesn’t say.
If Wells left her 14-year-old daughter with a total stranger for a couple of hours, either she was a bad Mom or a bad Mom who put her own personal convenience before the safety of her young daughter. Corfman and Moore chatted; she found him “charming and smiley” and gave him her phone number. When he called, they made plans for him to pick her up around the corner from her house. “I was kind of giddy, excited, you know? An older guy, you know?”
She says he might have given her alcohol, and while they sat and talked, she told him she was 14. Moore kissed her, whereupon she felt nervous and asked him to take her home, which he did. Yet she met him again and they again went to his place “in the woods.”
Corfman seems to have been an adventurous girl eager to explore the unknown. “This was a new experience, and it was exciting and fun and scary,” Corfman told the Post, explaining why she saw him again. “It was just like this roller-coaster ride you’ve not been on.”
She said they went back to his house and says “before long she was lying on a blanket on the floor.” Moore left the room and according to her, returned wearing nothing but “tight white underwear” as he kissed her, removed her pants and shirt, and, she claims, touched her through her bra and panties while “he guided her hand to his underwear.” She thought, “I don’t want to do this – I’ve got to get out of here,” and she got dressed. Then she asked Moore to take her home, which he did.
And that’s it. No attempted rape, no violent sexual assault, not even any forced nudity. Of course, if it happened, it’s awfully icky and yes wrong and unlawful that a grown man would handle a 14 year old in such a manner. If it happened. And even if it did, is it worth 40 long years later, ruining a man’s reputation built over four decades of service to his state and nation, and destroying his hard-fought prospects to become a useful, productive U.S. Senator?
Plus, if Moore did this unsavory thing, for which there is no actual proof, only he said/she said, he was a Democrat at the time; he didn’t become a Republican until 1992. Hmmm.
The attacks on Moore have nothing to do with sudden moral outrage, not when Majority Leader McConnell and his GOP cronies spent 30 million dollars to eviscerate this fellow Republican in the primaries even before any sex-related allegations surfaced. And why once he won the primary, did the Republican High Command – McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, John McCain, even Mike Lee and Ted Cruz – condemn him as a predatory deviant, again with stunning lack of proof? And why did Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, the Republican Senate Campaign Committee Chair in charge of the money, cut off GOP funds for Moore, abandoning him to be outspent by his Democrat opponent 11 to 1. Then Gardner even threatened to “expel” Moore from the Senate if elected by Alabama voters. How reprehensible.
But why, when Moore would have easily defeated the Democrat in red-state Alabama and kept the Republican majority – why would they all circle round and tear bloody chunks off the man like a pack of snarling dingoes in a National Geographic special? Because Moore is a rebel who has proved he can’t be bought or controlled by the powers that be. And then there’s his radical God thing.
What would Moore say to the leadership’s price tag on a committee assignment that demands a new Senator pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican (or Democrat) campaign war chest? As exposed in Colorado Congressman Ken Buck’s sobering book, Drain the Swamp, chairing an important committee can cost a member over a million dollars! Moore would doubtless raise holy Hades at the pay-to-play that infects Congress and the valuable time members must spend money-raising instead of doing the peoples’ business.
Senator Moore would refuse to play the Washington game. He would vote his conscience, not in lockstep with demands from on high. He might even start a revolt — and they can’t have that kind of insubordination in Congress! But the people of Alabama chose Moore as their nominee despite the GOP’s $30 million to defeat him, just as they twice elected him Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court even after he had been kicked off the bench for standing up for his Ten Commandments monument and traditional, man/woman marriage. Side note to ACLU: a carved frieze of Moses holding the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments actually looks down on the Supreme Court Justices from the south wall of the courtroom as they dispense their verdicts.
So now comes professional outrage-monger Gloria Allred, Godmother of Victimhood. Having run out of Trump accusers (where did they all go anyway?) her “client” this time is one Beverly Young Nelson who dry-sobbed her way through her salacious accusations since to go all tearful would be to carve a Mississippi River into her elaborately troweled face. Nelson complains that when she was Moore offered to drive her home from the restaurant where she waitressed but instead took her behind the establishment and attacked her in his car.
She and Gloria offered the only “proof” in all the accusations that Moore and the woman even knew each other – Nelson’s 1977 high school yearbook allegedly signed “Love, Roy Moore, D.A.” It’s come to light that “D.A.” were the initials of Judge Moore’s longtime assistant and secretary, Delbra Adams, who says she habitually added them to his official signature, as proved by a divorce document he signed years later with the identical D.A. initials – coincidentally, a divorce decree in the case of none other than the very same Beverly Young Nelson.
That’s a big problem for Allred and Nelson since there’s no way that Moore would have added his assistant’s “D.A.” initials to a personal 1977 yearbook signature (also he was an Assistant D.A., then a judge, never a D.A.) AND especially since Ms. Adams didn’t startworking for Judge Moore until 1989, 12 years later. And there are other big doubts about the validity of the Moore signature.
But the most damning evidence of forgery comes from Allred herself. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked her directly: “Can you say flatly to our viewers that the signature is not a forgery?” Allred refused to answer his persistent question. She told Blitzer she would only release the yearbook for examination by hand-writing experts if and when a Senate committee calls a special hearing. Which she knows perfectly well they will not do for a candidate — and time-wise it’s impossible prior to the December 12 Alabama election.
Allred and her client have exposed themselves as serial liars. The Republicans would rather have a Democrat in the Senate than a man who would help bolster their majority and President Trump’s agenda. And Roy Moore is being mercilessly savaged by political assassins on the basis of nothing more than 40-year-old she-said passing for proof. Oh, and the latest is some woman accusing him of grabbing her butt while her mother was present. Yeah, that happened.
All America awaits the December 12 election to see if Alabama citizens will stand up for their voting rights or bow the knee to the bullies of D.C.
Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist, author and Townhall columnist who has also contributed to The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, BarbWire and elsewhere.
To take them seriously, to respond to them as the media and the left would like, is to collaborate. Rule of thumb is, simply put: anything – anything at all – coming from the legacy media must be examined under the presumption of dishonesty. Don’t respond until after you’ve checked it out, not only down to the ground, but to the basement and subbasements as well. To do anything less is to be a patsy for the left.
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Considerable uproar was generated this past weekend by legacy media reports that the commander of U.S. strategic forces would “resist ‘illegal’ nuke order from Trump,” as CBS, in a headline echoed by most media sources, put it.
In fact, nothing of the sort occurred. The story, like many that have appeared since November 8, 2016, is an almost complete fabrication, intended to embarrass President Trump and cause turmoil within the federal government and among Trump’s own supporters.
What actually happened is this: USAF general John E. Hyten, the chief of Strategic Command (StratCom), which is the trans-service military command that controls nuclear weapons, was asked a hypothetical question about what his reaction would be if he were given an “illegal” order to carry out a nuclear strike. Gen. Hyten answered hypothetically, not mentioning President Trump or any current international situation (e.g., North Korea) or implying that he would disobey orders. At no point did the general give any indication that he was going from the theoretical to the particular.
I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do. And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up with options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.
The legacy media, speaking effectively as one voice, immediately portrayed this as being a direct rebuke to the president. There is no sign that Hyten’s remarks were intended as anything of the kind. The media simply put words in his mouth.
Of course, it’s possible that the question was deliberately asked to put the cat among the pigeons. Hyten’s impatient, if not disdainful, response suggests that he, at least, may have suspected as much: “I think some people think we’re stupid. We’re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?”
So – all calls for Hyten’s firing, jailing, or beheading should simply cease. Hyten is a patriot and a warrior with a proud record, having served in both the Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom campaigns. Let’s turn the fire where it belongs: on the media.
The fact that this comment appeared this weekend is no coincidence, comrades. At the same time, the news was infested by comments from boob ex-jock LaVar Ball, who claimed that the president had nothing to do with his son’s release from shoplifting charges by the Chinese, alongside twisted interpretations of State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s discussion of departmental morale to make it seem as if the organization were in a state of collapse under Rex Tillerson.
The aim of these reports is transparent: to undercut President Trump and his administration in order to create dismay among his supporters and to destroy his support across the country.
To take them seriously, to respond to them as the media and the left would like, is to collaborate. Rule of thumb is, simply put: anything – anything at all – coming from the legacy media must be examined under the presumption of dishonesty. Don’t respond until after you’ve checked it out, not only down to the ground, but to the basement and subbasements as well. To do anything less is to be a patsy for the left.
A U.S. State Department official announced that the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C., must shut down, saying the Palestinians violated U.S. law by calling on the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel authorities for building homes for Jews on Israeli land and evicting Muslims illegally squatting on Israeli land. Palestine leaders warn it will cut off relations with the U.S. if its DC office is shut down. (Good!)
NBC Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has determined that the Palestinians have run afoul of a U.S. law that allows their mission to the U.S. to function, a State Department official confirmed to NBC News. Although the U.S. does not recognize Palestinian statehood, the organization maintains a “general delegation” office in Washington that facilitates Palestinian officials’ interactions with the U.S. government.
A condition in the law which allows support funds to be granted to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, or PLO, and for their Washington office to operate is that they do not request the International Criminal Court, or ICC, prosecute Israelis for crimes against Palestinians.
Tillerson has judged that the Palestinians violated this provision due to “certain statements made by Palestinian leaders about the ICC,” the official said. A State Department official told The Associated Press that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas crossed the line in September by calling on the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israelis.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas called for the ICC to “open an investigation and to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities and aggressions against our people.”
Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, said Saturday that the move represented an unprecedented step in the history of U.S.-Palestinian relations, with serious consequences for the peace process and for U.S.-Arab relations, the Palestine News Agency reported.
US President Donald Trump is said to have shouted at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Bethlehem, saying, “You lied to me in Washington when you talked about commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me you were personally responsible for incitement.”
The Palestinian foreign minister warned earlier Saturday that the Palestinians would not give in to “extortion.” Having called the reported decision “unprecedented in the history of US-Palestinian relations,” Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it “could have serious consequences on the peace process and US-Arab relations,” Palestine News Agency WAFA reported Saturday.
If after 90 days, Trump determines that the Palestinians have entered into “direct, meaningful negotiations with Israel,” then they can keep their office and all restrictions placed on the PLO in the U.S. will be waived, the State Department official told NBC News.
Ever since the U.S. government dangled $160 million last December to combat Russian propaganda and disinformation, obscure academics and eager think tanks have been lining up for a shot at the loot, an unseemly rush to profit that is spreading the Russia-gate hysteria beyond the United States to Europe…
British Prime Minister Theresa May
Now, it seems that every development, which is unwelcomed by the Establishment – from Brexit to the Catalonia independence referendum – gets blamed on Russia! Russia! Russia!
The methodology of these “studies” is to find some Twitter accounts or Facebook pages somehow “linked” to Russia (although it’s never exactly clear how that is determined) and complain about the “Russian-linked” comments on political developments in the West. The assumption is that the gullible people of the United States, United Kingdom and Catalonia were either waiting for some secret Kremlin guidance to decide how to vote or were easily duped.
Oddly, however, most of this alleged “interference” seems to have come after the event in question. For instance, more than half (56 percent) of the famous $100,000 in Facebook ads in 2015-2017 supposedly to help elect Donald Trump came after last year’s U.S. election (and the total sum compares to Facebook’s annual revenue of $27 billion).
Similarly, a new British study at the University of Edinburgh blaming the Brexit vote on Russia discovered that more than 70 percent of the Brexit-related tweets from allegedly Russian-linked sites came after the referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union. But, hey, don’t let facts and logic get in the way of a useful narrative to suggest that anyone who voted for Trump or favored Brexit or wants independence for Catalonia is Moscow’s “useful idiot”!
This week, British Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of seeking to “undermine free societies” and to “sow discord in the West.”
What About Israel?
Yet, another core problem with these “studies” is that they don’t come with any “controls,” i.e., what is used in science to test a hypothesis against some base line to determine if you are finding something unusual or just some normal occurrence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on March 3, 2015, in opposition to President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran. (Screen shot from CNN broadcast)
In this case, for instance, it would be useful to find some other country that, like Russia, has a significant number of English speakers but where English is not the native language – and that has a significant interest in foreign affairs – and then see whether people from that country weigh in on social media with their opinions and perspectives about political events in the U.S., U.K., etc.
Perhaps, the U.S. government could devote some of that $160 million to, say, a study of the Twitter/Facebook behavior of Israelis and whether they jump in on U.S./U.K. controversies that might directly or indirectly affect Israel. We could see how many Twitter/Facebook accounts are “linked” to Israel; we could study whether any Israeli “trolls” harass journalists and news sites that oppose neoconservative policies and politicians in the West; we could check on whether Israel does anything to undermine candidates who are viewed as hostile to Israeli interests; if so, we could calculate how much money these “Israeli-linked” activists and bloggers invest in Facebook ads; and we could track any Twitter bots that might be reinforcing the Israeli-favored message.
No Chance
If we had this Israeli baseline, then perhaps we could judge how unusual it is for Russians to voice their opinions about controversies in the West. It’s true that Israel is a much smaller country with 8.5 million people compared to Russia’s 144 million, but you could adjust for those per capita numbers — and even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that Israel’s interference in U.S. policymaking still exceeds Russian influence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 10, 2015, at the Kremlin. (Photo from Russian government)
It’s also true that Israeli leaders have often advocated policies that have proved disastrous for the United States, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s encouragement of the Iraq War, which Russia opposed. Indeed, although Russia is now regularly called an American enemy, it’s hard to think of any policy that President Vladimir Putin has pushed on the U.S. that is even a fraction as harmful to U.S. interests as the Iraq War has been.
And, while we’re at it, maybe we could have an accounting of how much “U.S.-linked” entities have spent to influence politics and policies in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and other international hot spots.
But, of course, neither of those things will happen. If you even tried to gauge the role of “Israeli-linked” operations in influencing Western decision-making, you’d be accused of anti-Semitism. And if that didn’t stop you, there would be furious editorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the rest of the U.S. mainstream media denouncing you as a “conspiracy theorist.” Who could possibly think that Israel would do anything underhanded to shape Western attitudes?
And, if you sought the comparative figures for the West interfering in the affairs of other nations, you’d be faulted for engaging in “false moral equivalence.” After all, whatever the U.S. government and its allies do is good for the world; whereas Russia is the fount of evil.
So, let’s just get back to developing those algorithms to sniff out, isolate and eradicate “Russian propaganda” or other deviant points of view, all the better to make sure that Americans, Britons and Catalonians vote the right way.
US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
According to an Israel’s Channel 2 TV report on Saturday night, these are the main principles in President Trump’s peace plan as most senior Israeli officials understand them having shared intimate conversations with the US negotiating team: Trump intends to offer the Palestinians a state – but under different conditions than in the past, and together with an extensive economic proposal.
According to the understanding in Jerusalem, these are the principles on which Trump’s initiative will be based: after initial reservation, the American president intends to offer the Palestinians a state, and is also expected to adopt the principle of land swaps – but not necessarily according to the 1967 lines, which were the basis for previous initiatives by previous administrations, especially Obama’s and Clinton’s.
At this stage, there will be no evacuation of Jews or Arabs.
The question of dividing Jerusalem, according to the same sources, is not currently on the agenda. Also, the debate over the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem and US recognition of Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel will be postponed, in order to make it easier for Netanyahu to sell the plan to politicians on the right and public opinion.
In addition, top Israeli officials expect the PA to receive hundreds of millions for a tremendous economic development. The money will come mainly from the Sunni Arab countries, which will allow Chairman Abbas to accept the proposal.
For its part, the US is expected to meet most of Israel’s security needs, and the understanding is that IDF forces will be positioned on the Jordan River.
According to the same report, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the midst of a battle to gain complete control over the entire length of the Jordan valley.
Israeli officials are saying that Trump and his administration have not yet decided who is the obstacle to the negotiations – Israel or the PA – despite Secretary of State Tillerson’s warning to shut down the PLO office in DC for violations of the conditions imposed by Congress on its remaining open. The same Israeli officials also believe the entire Trump Middle East team, who all come from Real Estate, are convinced they can urge the peace process along by throwing money at it.
This is why Netanyahu has been telling his ministers at every opportunity that Trump is the most friendly president Israel has ever dealt with and there will not be a better deal from any future administration, so Israel must not say no to Trump – in the hope that Mahmoud Abbas would be the one to reject the White House plan.
In response to the report, a senior White House official said (translated from the Hebrew Channel 2 report), “There is ongoing speculation about the work we are doing and this report is not much different – the details are essentially a mix of ideas that have been around for years and are not necessarily accurate, we are in a productive dialogue with all the relevant parties and we bring a different approach than in the past to achieve a sustainable peace deal We have no artificial deadline, beyond the continuation of the talks, as we said, our job is to allow a deal that will work for both sides and we have no intention of imposing anything on them.”
Posted November 17, 2017 by Peter Hofman Categories: Uncategorized
November 17, 2017
The Saudi Arabian monarch will announce his son as successor, who plans to count on IDF backing to defeat Iran and its proxy Hezbollah and has already promised Israel billions of dollars if they agree, a new report indicates.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
King Salman of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, a source close to the country’s royal family told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
The transfer of power to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is expected already next week, DailyMail.com said in the report published Thursday, adding that the king will continue only as a ceremonial figurehead.
“Unless something dramatic happens, King Salman will announce the appointment of MBS as King of Saudi Arabia next week,” said the unnamed source. There was no official comment from Riyadh.
Quoting the unnamed “high level source,” the report says the prince will shift his focus to its longtime rival Iran and enlist the help of the Israeli military to crush its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“MBS is convinced that he has to hit Iran and Hezbollah,” according to the source. “Contrary to the advice of the royal family elders, that’s MBS’s next target.”
The prince reportedly plans to count on the IDF to fulfill his mission.“MBS’s plan is to start the fire in Lebanon, but he’s hoping to count on Israeli military backing. He has already promised Israel billions of dollars in direct financial aid if they agree,” the source said.
“MBS cannot confront Hezbollah in Lebanon without Israel. Plan B is to fight Hezbollah in Syria,” the source added.
‘Wake-up Call’ to Iranian Threat
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saed Hariri resigned from his position two weeks ago, fearing for his life. In an address made in Saudi Arabia, he cited Iran’s hostility and meddling in his country.
Iran generated “disorder and destruction” in Lebanon and meddled in its internal affairs as well as in other Arab countries, Hariri charged.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the dramatic resignation two week ago, saying it was “a wake-up call to the international community to take action against Iranian aggression.”
Trump’s Ultimate Deal?
Furthermore, a secret correspondence between the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman reveals the draft of a possible peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, the Lebanese website Al-Akhbar reported this week.
Speculation about a regional deal has been rife since US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May and was strengthened by Arab reports, since denied by Saudi officials, of a secret visit to Israel by the Crown Prince in September, where, according to reports, he met with Netanyahu.
U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned that American military aid to the Lebanese army is arming the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah, which has been amassing a large cache of advanced arms on Israel’s border, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
Following the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who fled the country and disclosed that Hezbollah controls the entirety of Lebanon, the U.S. government has continued its support for the Lebanese military, which multiple sources say has long been under the thumb of Hezbollah militants.
The ongoing policy is said to be fueling diplomatic tensions between the United States and Israel, which has found itself allied with Saudi Arabia as the American government advances a host of policies that have contributed to Iran’s regional dominance, including in Iraq and Syria.
The Trump administration’s State Department is coming under increased pressure from lawmakers and other foreign policy insiders to halt all military aid to Lebanon in light of Hariri’s resignation and new evidence that Hezbollah is benefiting from the American arms and aid.
Multiple U.S. officials and other national security insiders who spoke to the Free Beacon about the situation criticized the Trump administration for continuing a host of policies that they say have emboldened Iran’s grip on the region, including in Syria and Iraq, where U.S. arms have recently been detected going to Iranian-backed militia groups.
“It is clear that the State Department and [Defense Department] operate on the false construct that Lebanese Hezbollah and the Lebanese State are two distinct entities when in reality the information available to decision makers points to the dominance of Hezbollah within the state,” one former senior U.S. defense official familiar with the matter disclosed to the Free Beacon.
“Our Gulf allies and the Israelis are intimately familiar with the internal dynamics of Lebanon and clearly understand that Hezbollah is the defacto Lebanese state today, but we refuse to acknowledge this unfortunate reality even when confronted with obvious evidence,” said the source, who would only discuss the sensitive information on background.
Accusations that the Trump administration is helping to preserve Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon come just days after a large, bipartisan delegation of lawmakers petitioned the Trump administration to present them with a plan on how it will stop Iran’s growing military presence in Syria, where the Islamic Republic has been building weapons factories that arm Hezbollah.
The situation is said to have fueled ongoing diplomatic tensions between the Trump administration and regional allies such as Israel, which has warned for some time that Iran’s presence across the region is emboldening Hezbollah and setting the stage for a brutal regional war.
Some experts have conceded in recent weeks that the United States has found itself more in line with Iran’s interests than those of allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, who have been seeking to combat Iran’s military efforts across the region.
Congressional officials are already examining ways to force the Trump administration into using current sanctions laws on the books to halt all U.S. aid to the Lebanese military, which these sources say is fully under Hezbollah’s control.
“The resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri is the latest consequence of Iran’s increasingly pervasive influence in Lebanon through its terrorist proxy Hezbollah,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), said in recent remarks. “Given these developments, it is time for the United States to reassess the military assistance we provide to Lebanon, including to the Lebanese Armed Forces, and conduct a formal review of our strategy there.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R., Fla.), a combat veteran and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Free Beacon in a recent interview that Congress must play a more active role in reassessing U.S. military aid to Lebanon in light of the situation.
“What can be done can be undone and maybe nobody wanted to undo this for the last eight years,” Mast said, referring to U.S. aid programs to Lebanese forces “This is exactly the role that foreign affairs is meant to play.”
It remains unclear what steps the Trump administration is willing to take.
Current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Free Beacon about the situation said the State and Defense Departments continue to operate under the false belief that Lebanon can be separated from Hezbollah.
“It’s time for the U.S. to cease supporting this mirage of a Lebanon as an independent state given the penetration and dominant influence of the Iranian proxy Hezbollah,” the Defense source said.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson denied that Hezbollah has benefitted from any U.S. assistance to Lebanon’s Armed Forces, telling the Free Beacon the U.S. government has emphasized there “there must be absolutely zero cooperation between the LAF and Hezbollah.”
“The United States is focussed on continuing aid to the LAF to strengthen it and ensure that it alone is the sole defender of Lebanon,” according to the NSC official. “The United States remains committed to strengthening Lebanon’s legitimate government institutions, including the LAF.”
The administration official praised the LAF as a “well-trained, well equipped, and fully capable fighting force” that has been legitimized by U.S. aid, which has topped $1.5 billion since 2006.
“Many of the highest ranking officers in the LAF have attended U.S. professional military education courses at various points in their careers, building professionalism in the LAF’s officer corps,” according to the NSC official, who maintained “U.S. training and weapons” have helped mitigate “the destabilizing effects of the Syrian conflict.”
State Department officials declined to comment on the situation, only telling the Free Beacon that they “must refer all questions regarding the presence of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia to the governments of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.”
The Treasury Department, in comments to the Free Beacon, said the United States has multiple sanctions in place against Hezbollah.
One senior congressional official familiar with the efforts to thwart Iran’s regional takeover told the Free Beacon the Trump administration must immediately impose new sanctions on Hezbollah and halt U.S. military aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, which have already been accused of letting these weapons flow to Hezbollah.
“The United States must counter Iran’s growing control of Lebanon through its terrorist proxy Hezbollah through enforcing and imposing new sanctions to dry up the group’s ability to finance its terrorist operations,” said the official, who would only speak on background about the efforts.
“Furthermore, the U.S. must ensure that the progress against ISIS does not distract us from countering and stopping Iran’s goal to fill this vacuum to further threaten our allies in the region, especially Israel,” the official said. “This step should therefore include reassessing whether U.S. military assistance is in U.S. national security interests and take additional steps to ensure the assistance that has already been provided does not unintentionally fall into the wrong hands.”
The situation has become particularly pressing in light of recent accusations by many leading lawmakers that the United States also has played a role in arming Iranian-backed militia fighters in Iraq, where the American military has been running a program to train, fund, and equip various Iraq militia groups.
“We should reject the idea that its banking system needs to be protected from the consequences of its own corrupt behavior or that the Lebanese Armed Forces deeply influenced by Hezbollah can function in the best interest of all the Lebanese people,” said the former official quoted above.
One veteran foreign policy adviser close to the White House told the Free Beacon that the Trump administration is still taking advice from current officials who served in the Obama administration and have an urge to continue that administration’s policies.
“President Trump has been publicly and fully backing our Saudi and Israeli allies, who are on the front lines against Hezbollah,” said the source, who would only speak on background because policy deliberations are ongoing. “They assess that Hezbollah has full political and military control over Lebanon and they’ve been acting accordingly.”
“But there are parts of the Trump administration that still live in the fantasy world created by Obama, where Lebanon is up for grabs and maybe we can push out Iran if we finance these puppets over here that Iran has installed, but sanction these other puppets over here,” the source said. “The result is we’re paying to boost Iran.”
Israeli officials have expressed concerns to the Trump administration about the situation in Lebanon, according to multiple sources.
A Treasury official, speaking only on background, said it continues to implement sanctions on Hezbollah, though it is waiting for direction from the State Department about future actions.
“Hezbollah is designated under multiple sanctions authorities as are its members, operatives, and supporters,” the official said. “While we do not comment on specific cases or potential future actions, Treasury is committed to imposing sanctions against Hezbollah, and we will continue to expose, block, and disrupt Hezbollah’s finances and deny this terrorist group access to the U.S. and international financial systems.”
The administration continues to consider Lebanon’s Central Bank “as a valuable partner in the fight about Hezbollah,” according to the official.
“Treasury continues to work with the Central Bank of Lebanon and Lebanese banks to expand their capability to protect the Lebanese financial system from abuse by Hezbollah in order to maintain connections with the U.S. financial system,” the administration official said.
This stance, however, is coming under question in light of former Prime Minster Hariri’s claim that Hezbollah controls every facet of the Lebanese government.
“The most important point about Hariri’s resignation—and the Saudi position—is the admission that Hezbollah controls the state,” said Tony Badran, a writer and prominent authority on Lebanon who serves as a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “There is no distinction between Hezbollah and the state.”
“This acknowledgment has direct bearing on U.S. policy in Lebanon,” Badran explained. “It puts paid to the conceit that we can distinguish between Hezbollah and this theoretical construct called ‘the Lebanese state,’ which is supposedly not only independent of Hezbollah, but perhaps even opposed to it. This is myth. ”
“The premise of the support to the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] is that we are strengthening the ‘Lebanese state,’ and in so doing, we are somehow undermining Hezbollah,” Badran said. “How that is, nobody has ever come up with an actual answer.”
U.S. officials acknowledged Iranian-backed forces in Iraq could be using American-made arms, an admission that comes amid growing concern on Capitol Hill the U.S. government is quietly working with militia fighters in Iraq who are directly tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
U.S. lawmakers and military insiders are concerned by what they described as the American government’s continued arming and training of Iranian-backed fighters in Iraq, an ongoing policy that multiple sources described to the Washington Free Beacon as one of the U.S.’s chief foreign policy failures in the region.
Top lawmakers and others have begun to present evidence showing that the State Department continues to provide widespread support for Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, a program that first begun under the Obama administration.
This has helped solidify Iran’s presence in key Iraqi territories and appears to directly conflict with the Trump administration’s newly outlined push to combat the Islamic Republic’s regional military efforts, which have included targeting U.S. forces in Syria and other locations.
Multiple sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon both on and off the record accused the State Department of making “common cause” with the IRGC, which they say has benefited from ongoing American efforts to arm and train Iraqi militia groups, many of which have direct ties to Iran.
These sources pointed to the continued presence of senior Obama administration officials in government as one of the primary drivers of this ongoing policy.
Senior Trump administration officials acknowledged they have seen evidence that some Iraqi forces on its blacklist are using American arms.
“We have seen reports that some U.S.-origin military equipment is being operated by Iraqi militia units that are not the approved end-users,” said a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. “We urge the Government of Iraq to expeditiously return this equipment to the full control of the Iraqi Army.”
However, the official said the United States has strict policies in place to prevent Iranian-tied forces and other terrorist actors from benefitting from its military programs in Iraq.
“All recipients of U.S. security assistance are fully vetted and subject to end-use requirements,” the official said. “The United States has strict standards to avoid providing security assistance to designated terrorist organizations, units with close ties to Iran, or units under suspicion of committing gross violations of human rights.”
Leaders on Capitol Hill are currently pushing the Trump State Department to come clean about possible interactions with Iranian-tied forces in Iraq.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is one of several lawmakers who recently disclosed direct evidence of Iranian-backed fighters using American-made tanks and other military equipment in Iraq.
DeSantis told the Washington Free Beacon Congress is increasing pressure on the State Department to disclose currently withheld information on the relationship between the U.S. military and Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq.
“The State Department should not be making common cause with the IRGC, [Iranian commander] Qassem Soleimeni, the [Iranian] Quds Force or Shia militias,” DeSantis said, explaining that these groups have long worked to thwart U.S. operations in the region.
“These groups were responsible for killing hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq during our operations there last decade,” DeSantis said. “Congress needs to get the facts about the relationship between our own State Department and these nefarious actors.”
Intelligence information circling around Capitol Hill and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon shows that multiple IRGC proxy groups have been operating under the Iraqi Ministry of Interior (MOI), which coordinates and doles out U.S. funding and equipment to various militia groups.
Iranian-tied entities believed to be benefiting from U.S. programs include Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi Shia military group supported by Iran; and the Badr forces, an Iranian backed military group. At least four other Iranian-supported military groups also are said to have benefited from U.S. training programs, according to the intelligence information.
Photographs and other open-source intelligence information appear to show that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is aware that Iran is cashing in on U.S. programs.
Al-Abadi’s government is believed, in part, to allocate funds to these Iranian forces via Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, a designated terrorist who leads Kata’ib Hezbollah, who then doles out U.S. funds to various Iranian-backed militia groups.
Kata’ib Hezbollah has been identified as receiving American funding, armor, and artillery via these programs.
Other photographic evidence in the possession of lawmakers appears to show various Iranian-backed militia fighters in Iraq using American-made M1A1 Abrams tanks, which require direct training from the United States to operate.
The State Department and Trump administration officials are said to be aware of this information, as well as other evidence, but stand accused of downplaying it so as not to interfere with the fight against ISIS in Iraq, which these Iranian militias have helped wage.
Bill Roggio, a veteran military analyst and editor of the Long War Journal, which chronicles U.S. military efforts, said the drive to defeat ISIS has pushed senior U.S. military and diplomatic officials to ignore Iran’s growing role in the Iraq.
“The U.S. military and government has been so desperate to defeat the Islamic State that it has consciously ignored that its allies in Iraq and Syria include Shia militias backed by Iran and the PKK [a Kurdish rebel group], which is designated by the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organization,” Roggio said.
U.S. military officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the situation said that any concerns over the misuse of American-made arms are brought directly to the Iraqi government.
“If we receive reports that U.S.-origin equipment is being misused or provided to unauthorized users, we engage the Iraqi government in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy to address any confirmed issues—up to the highest levels, if necessary,” one senior U.S. military official said. “That communication, however, is private.”
The U.S. has “received assurances from the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Forces that they will use U.S. equipment in accordance with U.S. law and our bilateral agreements,” the official added.
Lawmakers and other have singled out Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, as playing a key role in enabling policies that help arm Iranian backed forces.
McGurk, who was also a senior official in the Obama administration, has long been viewed as a controversial figure due to his 2008 affair with a Wall Street Journal reporter while the two were in Iraq.
“The State Department continues to downplay the role of the IRGC militias, but they’ve literally hijacked the MOI [Ministry of Interior],” said Michael Pregent, a former intelligence official who has tracked U.S. aid to rogue militia groups. “The MOI receives U.S. funds and equipment, so what is the State Department doing about it? By not addressing it, they’re putting Americans on the ground in danger.”
One veteran congressional advisor who works closely with lawmakers on the Iran portfolio expressed concern the Trump administration is being led down the wrong foreign policy path.
“The Trump administration is supporting Iran in just about every country across the Middle East,” the source said, expressing frustration about the policy on background because he is not authorized to speak on the record. “In the Gulf, the State Department is trying to get the Saudis to cave to Iran’s Qatari allies. In Syria, the Defense Department is abandoning our allies. In Lebanon, they’re bolstering the Hezbollah-controlled government. And in Iraq they’re at-best incoherent because they continue to support Iran-controlled militias.”
“That’s what you get when you leave in place the Obama officials who originally orchestrated the pro-Iran pivot, like Brett McGurk,” the source added. “The mystery is why the good people inside the administration, who come up to the Hill and tell lawmakers they don’t want to see the Middle East controlled by Iran, don’t do anything about it.”
The State Department did not return a request for comment.
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