Drama @UN: Former Hamasnik Confronts PA

My readers may recall a prior speech by Mosab Hassan Yousef speaking to the Jerusalem Post Conference.  This current video [above] is much shorter but equally as dramatic, as he now addresses the Palestinian Authority.  Bravo!

Son of Hamas Leader in Plea for Palestinian Rights

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas leader, slammed the Palestinian Authority for its human rights abuses at the UN Human Rights Council headquarters in Geneva. He said the PA and its security forces "kidnap Palestinian students from campus and torture them in your jails. You torture your political rivals. The suffering of the Palestinian people is the outcome of your selfish political interests. You are the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people. If Israel did not exist, you would have no one to blame."
   

"Finally, you use this platform to mislead the international community, and to mislead Palestinian society to believe that Israel is responsible for the problems you create." 

(UN Watch)

And while we're on the subject of the United Nations, check out Israel's sense of humor!  Creativity is alive an well.  See the gem below:

Israel Gifts UNESCO with Arch of Titus Replica 
- Raphael Ahren

Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, handed a replica of a frieze from the Arch of Titus, a monument commemorating Rome's victory over Jerusalem, to the head of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, in a not-so-subtle critique of the agency's resolutions ignoring Jewish links to the holy city.
 

The replica will be exhibited in UNESCO's Paris headquarters as a "greeting from the historical truth about the existence of two Temples on the Temple Mount," said Shama-Hacohen.
  

"2,000 years ago the Romans destroyed the Temple and removed it from the Jewish people. And today, UNESCO is trying to destroy and remove the history of Jerusalem from the Jewish people."
  

"When the executive board of UNESCO adopts every six months a resolution that denies the connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount, they are not only adopting a political resolution, they are adopting a resolution that negates the right of the State of Israel to exist and the Jewish people's right of self-determination."
  

Such resolutions "pave the way for spreading anti-Semitism and terrorism."

(Times of Israel)

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Changing the Rules of the "Peace" Process

Trump Tries a New Tack on the Peace Process - Evelyn Gordon

The Trump administration's refusal to publicly commit to a two-state solution as the goal of the peace process serves an important purpose. That's because insisting that the end goal be a Palestinian state is a major concession to the Palestinians that has never been accompanied by a corresponding Palestinian concession to Israel.

Though the Palestinians insist on a Palestinian nation-state, they still refuse to accept a Jewish nation-state alongside it. Instead, they demand that millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees be allowed to relocate to Israel, turning it into a binational state.

For the first time in the history of the peace process, the president has told the Palestinians that if they want to reinstate America's commitment to a Palestinian state, they will have to give something in exchange.

(Commentary)

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Miracles Happen

Egyptian President Holds Public Meeting with Israeli Leader 

- Avi Issacharoff

Egyptian President el-Sissi has once again proven that he is the bravest Arab leader in the region by meeting publicly with Prime Minister Netanyahu, something that other Arab leaders will only do under the radar. Their meeting in New York provides a clear indication that Sissi feels confident enough of his position in Egypt and the Arab world to publicly reveal that such an event took place. 

(Times of Israel)

Bahrain King Denounces Arab Boycott of Israel, Says Countrymen May Visit 

- Tom Tugend 
   
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa last week denounced the Arab boycott of Israel and said his subjects are free to visit the Jewish state.
   
The King spoke at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles at an event denouncing religious hatred and violence. 
(Jerusalem Post)

UPDATE:

Arab States Backtrack on UN Resolutions Criticizing Israel - Barak Ravid

For first time since 2013, a group of Arab countries, headed by Jordan and the PA, have backtracked on presenting resolutions critical of Israel at the UNESCO executive board session in Paris this week. A senior official in the Israel Foreign Ministry said the decision to delay for six months a vote on the resolutions was made following quiet diplomatic talks last week between the UNESCO committee chairman, Michael Worbs, Israel's UN ambassador, Carmel Shama Hacohen, and the Jordanian ambassador to UNESCO, Makram Queisi. Jason Greenblatt, President Trump's adviser on Israel, was personally involved.
  

The official said Israel had not pledged anything in exchange. "The Arab countries realized that every time there is a vote, the support is less and they simply did not want to be humiliated," he said.

(Ha'aretz)

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Israel Warns West About Iranian Land Bridge

Ayelet Shaked

'If Assad Wants to Survive, Syria Needs to Keep Iran Out'

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked [pictured] addressed some of the pressing threats looming over the Jewish state during a live interview at IDC Herzliya's International Counterterrorism Conference. Shaked spoke about the impact of Syrian President Bashar Assad's actions in the region, saying that he has a clear interest to "keep Iran out if he wants to survive." According to the justice minister, "Israel needs to pressure world powers to not allow [Iran to establish a strong presence in Syria]," and should world powers not comply, the Jewish state should "do what we need to do." Speaking about the possibility of a growing Iranian presence in the conflict-addled Syria, Shaked said that "Iran's [presence] in Syria can be very bad and Israel will not agree to them" establishing weapons factories and ports. She also expressed her hope that "world powers won't allow it." She went on to warn of an attempt by different terror groups in the area, backed by Iran, to build a "Shi'ite bridge from Iran [all the way across the] Syrian border with Israel." Shaked also addressed other threats...[T]he minister said that Israel has to "make sure Hezbollah doesn't get "game-changing weapons" and also warned that "Hezbollah's weapons [arsenal] is growing."

[Jerusalem Post]
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Israel Just Bombed a Chemical Weapons Factory that Syria Shouldn't Have Had - Alex Ward 

Israel bombed a suspected Syrian chemical weapons factory last week, just one day after the UN blamed Syrian forces for a chemical weapons attack in April.
  
It's a very big deal that Syria still had a chemical weapons facility, given that it had earlier promised to give up all of those weapons.
   
In 2013, Syria promised to give up its chemical weapons as part of a diplomatic deal with Russia and the U.S. to avert a planned American strike in response to Assad gassing almost 1,000 of his own citizens to death near Damascus.
(VOX)
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Sending a Signal to Syria - Maj. General Yaakov Amidror

There is no doubt that this sole bombing will not halt Iran's efforts to tighten its grip on Syria, but it makes it clear that Israel enjoys freedom of action in striking Syrian targets.
The writer is former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel and former Head of Israel's National Security Council. 
(Israel Hayom)


What Comes after Bombing of Weapons Factory in Syria? - Elliott Abrams

What would be useful at this point is a statement by the U.S. that we approve of the action Israel took, and that in the event of a conflict Israel would have our support in defending itself. Such a statement might help persuade Iran and Syria to observe the limits Israel is imposing, and might help avoid a wider conflict.
The writer, a senior fellow at the CFR, handled Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council from 2001 to 2009.
(Council on Foreign Relations)
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UPDATE:

Russia Urges Syria Not to Respond to Israel's Attack on Weapons Factory
- Ronen Bergman 

Russia has urged Syrian President Assad not to respond after an airstrike on the country's Scientific Studies and Research Center which the Syrian regime attributes to Israel, a senior Russian official in Moscow dealing with Middle East affairs told Yediot Ahronot.  
The official also noted Russia is aware of Israel's concerns of Iranian entrenchment in Syria and will prevent Tehran from establishing a foothold in the Golan Heights significant enough to pose a threat to Israel.
(Ynet News)
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Saudi's Send 'Trial Balloon' to Israel

Did Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visit Israel?

Did the Saudi Crown Prince Visit Israel?  - Yasser Okbi 

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made a discreet visit to Israel despite the fact that the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia do not have official diplomatic ties, Israeli and Arab media speculated earlier in the week.

Rumors about the momentous visit, which was not confirmed by Israel, started swirling when Israel Radio's diplomatic correspondent covering Arab affairs, Simon Aran, took to Twitter to announce the visit. Aran tweeted that a senior Arab figure from the Gulf region paid a visit to Tel Aviv last week, stirring immense interest in the Arab media. 

Israel Radio's Arabic-language broadcast reported that the the senior figure was a "Saudi prince" who met with senior Israelis to discuss regional peace. According to the report, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the news.

One Arab media outlet reported that the senior official was Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Publications in Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE all joined the media storm. As expected, news of the visit was not warmly welcomed by the Arab public. 
[Jerusalem Post] 
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Saudi Prince Paid Secret Visit to Israel
    
"A prince of the Saudi Royal Court paid a secret visit to the country [Israel] in recent days to discuss ideas for advancing regional peace with senior Israeli officials," Israel Radio reported. 
(Anadolu-Turkey)
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Palestinians Descend from Muslim Invaders

Caliph Umar enters Jerusalem in 637, 19th century engraving

The Colonialism of Palestinian Arab Settlers - Dr. Alex Joffe

It has been claimed that Jews represent an alien population implanted into Palestine to usurp the land and displace the people. Yet a wealth of evidence demonstrates that Jews are the indigenous population of the Southern Levant; historical and now genetic documentation places Jews there over 2,000 years ago, and there is indisputable evidence of continual residence of Jews in the region.

In contrast, historical and genealogical evidence shows Palestinians descend primarily from Muslim invaders, Arab immigrants, and local converts to Islam. The Muslim conquest of Palestine in the 7th century CE is a textbook example of settler-colonialism, as is subsequent immigration, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries under the Ottoman and British Empires.

Palestinians have the right to define themselves as they see fit. What Palestinians cannot claim, however, is that they are Palestine's indigenous population and the Jews are settler-colonialists. Palestinian genealogies that show their own tribes originating outside the Southern Levant are prima facie evidence of Arab settler-colonialism.

Muslim settlers who migrated or were intentionally implanted in Palestine in the 19th century included Egyptians fleeing from and imported by Muhammad Ali from the late 1820s to the 1840s, as well as Chechens, Circassians, and Turkmen relocated by the Ottoman Empire in the 1860s after its wars with Russia. Tribes of Bedouins, Algerians, Yemenis, and many others also immigrated during that century.

There was a 37% increase in the Palestinian population between 1922 and 1931, over 60,000 persons, as the result of illegal immigration. From 1932 to 1946, another 60,000 illegal male immigrants entered the country, with uncounted females imported as brides. These were in addition to the great influx of Arab workers from 1940 to 1945 in connection with the war effort.
The writer, an archaeologist and historian, is a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)
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Bolton Suggests Hitting North Korea's Nukes

 

 

North Korea’s ultimatum to America - Caroline Glick

Sunday’s test, together with North Korea’s recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental US, was a direct threat to US cities.

In other words, the current confrontation isn’t about US superpower status in Asia, and the credibility of US deterrence or the capabilities of US military forces in the Pacific. The confrontation is now about the US’s ability to protect the lives of its citizens.

[I]f the Trump administration punts North Korea’s direct threat to attack US population centers with nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council, it will communicate profound weakness to its allies and adversaries alike.

[T]he US’s security guarantees, which form the basis of its global power and its alliance system are on the verge of becoming completely discredited.

If you appease an enemy on behalf of an ally then you aren’t an ally.  And eventually your alliance become empty of all meaning.

If the US strikes North Korea in a credible manner and successfully diminishes its capacity to physically threaten the US, America will have taken the first step towards rebuilding its alliances in Asia.

On the other hand, if the current round of hostilities does not end with a significant reduction of North Korea’s offensive capabilities, either against the US or its allies, then the US will be hard pressed to maintain its posture as a Pacific power. So long as Pyongyang has the ability to directly threaten the US and its allies, US strategic credibility in East Asia will be shattered.

[U]nless the North Korean nuclear arsenal is obliterated, Pyongyang’s nuclear triumphalism will precipitate a spasm of nuclear proliferation in Asia and in the Middle East. The implications of this for the US and its allies will be far reaching.

Not only can Japan and South Korea be reasonably expected to develop nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other inherently unstable Arab states can be expected to develop or purchase nuclear arsenals in response to concerns over North Korea and its ally Iran with its nuclear weapons program linked to Pyongyang’s.

In other words, if the US does not respond in a strategically profound way to Pyongyang now, it will not only lose its alliance system in Asia, it will see the rapid collapse of its alliance system and superpower status in the Middle East.

Israel, for one, will be imperiled by the sudden diffusion of nuclear power.

If the US does not directly defeat North Korea in a clear-cut way now, its position as a superpower in Asia and worldwide will be destroyed and its ability to defend its own citizens will be called into question with increasing frequency and lethality.
[Jerusalem Post]
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UPDATES:

Iran Can Be Where North Korea Is in a Short Time - Yonah Jeremy Bob 

"What people need to understand is that Iran can be where North Korea is" in a short time, Dr. Emily Landau, an expert at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the Jerusalem Post. To prevent this from happening, the world must devise "a strategy to increase pressure on Iran" with a combination of increased, truly biting sanctions, isolation, and the threat of a military option, she said.

Landau said there have always been concerns about North Korea transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran, but after its latest nuclear test, which registered as far more powerful than past tests, that could mean sharing hydrogen bomb technology. 
(Jerusalem Post)
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Iran Has Studied North Korea's Playbook - Anthony Ruggiero

North Korea authored the playbook now being used by Iran to fleece the U.S. and our allies. And if the U.S. fails to neutralize the North Korean threat, Iran will notice how the U.S. buckles in the face of nuclear pressure.

Iran has already learned a number of damaging lessons from North Korea. First, cheating on nuclear deals is permitted. President Bill Clinton announced the 1994 Agreed Framework as a deal that would "freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program," but Pyongyang violated the agreement when it started a covert uranium enrichment program. Washington then negotiated the 2005 Joint Statement, but the Kim regime built a nuclear reactor in Syria during the negotiations, and the Bush administration removed North Korea from the state sponsors of terrorism list in 2008.
The writer, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was a nonproliferation adviser to the U.S. government.
(Weekly Standard)
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