The Israeli companies that earned $60 million working with UNRWA

March 18, 2024

Twenty-five Israeli companies conducted direct transactions with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from 2020-2023, bringing in around $60 million. Some of them continued to have commercial dealings with the organization even after the outbreak of the war, according to data released by Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky (Israel Beitenu) taken from UNRWA’s contract reports with Israeli suppliers from 2020- 2023 (excluding the second quarter of 2023, for which no data were provided by UNRWA). These reports indicate that many companies and businesses in Israel directly benefited from the controversial organization’s activities.

A destroyed UNRWA facility in Gaza. (Credit: UNRWA)

UNRWA is a UN organization established to provide relief services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. According to Israel, UNRWA employees participated in the massacres carried out during the October 7th attacks, and the organization’s facilities and vehicles were also used. Israel says that UNRWA and Hamas are fundamentally connected. According to reports, twelve UNRWA employees have been accused of involvement in the massacres. According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, nine UNRWA employees were fired, one of whom died, and two others are under investigation.

Last week, Israel decided to weaken UNRWA so that it would no longer be operational. This approach was adopted after lengthy deliberations by political and security entities, who believed that although UNRWA is a problematic organization which has perpetuated the refugee issue and collaborated with terrorist organizations like Hamas, there is currently no real alternative that can manage and distribute humanitarian aid to Gaza’s residents, particularly during a period when such assistance is more critical than ever. It is undisputed that Gaza is currently experiencing a massive humanitarian crisis, with some reports suggesting that parts of the Gazan population are facing extreme hunger, and there are concerns about the spread of disease.

Ultimately, the decision to restrict UNRWA’s activities was reached after the IDF concluded that this would harm Hamas’s civilian infrastructure in Gaza, and after mounting evidence of UNRWA employees participating in the October 7th massacres and its close ties to Hamas. The IDF and the government are considering, among other things, working with local clans in Gaza which has its own challenges. Last week, it was reported that Hamas executed members of a family suspected of collaborating with Israel.

One of the main strategies to curtail UNRWA’s activities is economic warfare. Efforts are being made within the security system to strip the organization of its ability to operate independently. The government instructed Israeli banks to close accounts used by UNRWA, and last month, Bank Leumi announced the closure of UNRWA’s bank account due to concerns that the funds were aiding terrorism.

In addition to Israeli banks, UNRWA has extensive economic ties with Israel as a significant portion of its activities are carried out within Israeli territory. For example, UNRWA’s central office dealing with Palestinian affairs in the West Bank is located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, and from 2020-2023, the organization paid around $2.1 million in property taxes to the Jerusalem Municipality.

The previously mentioned direct transactions between Israeli companies and UNRWA totaling approximately $60 million from 2020 to 2023 is just the tip of the iceberg. It is believed that many more Israeli companies indirectly provided services and sold products to UNRWA through intermediaries, including contractors and Gaza businessmen, some of whom are believed to be affiliated with Hamas.

The most well-known Israeli companies that worked directly with UNRWA include energy company Paz, car importers Champion Motors, Auto Chen, and the Carasso Group, and communication companies Partner and Cellcom’s 013 Netvision. Paz said that they ended ties with UNRWA Gaza on October 7th. The other companies did not comment.

MK Yulia Malinovsky. (Credit: Orel Cohen)

The total amount of transactions conducted by UNRWA in the last quarter of 2023 amounted to $85 million, with the main suppliers being companies from the Palestinian Authority and Gaza, UAE, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, as well as countries like Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Israel.

Some of the companies doing business with UNRWA said that some contracts in the reports had not been finalized, and that payments were not actually made, partly because Israeli banks and other businesses are no longer willing to work with UNRWA. This has left many of these organizations in debt. A manager from one of the companies told Calcalist that his company has been boycotted because it is known that he worked with UNRWA, which has significantly affected his business: “We cannot pay salaries. I have fifty employees whom we have barely been able to keep on for two months. UNRWA owes me NIS 5 million ($1.35 million), and the banks are not willing to accept money from them. I won a contract, operated in accordance with the law, and now they are boycotting us. I’m worried that people will burn down our business.” Other companies noted that they cut ties with UNRWA after October 7 even though their contracts appear in the report for the last quarter of 2023.

In conversation with Calcalist, Knesset member Malinovsky said, “For many years, the State of Israel and Israeli companies have worked with UNRWA. But now, after seeing the horrors committed by UNRWA employees, such as the murder of hostages, Israel must declare UNRWA a terrorist organization.” Malinovsky estimates that the majority of the more than $60 million from UNRWA to Israeli contractors was conducted through a third party. For example, a Gaza contractor close to Hamas who won a UNRWA tender to build a school worth millions of dollars purchases goods like cement in Israel. “Continuing to trade and have working relations with UNRWA is an affront to the memory of the victims [of October 7],” emphasized Malinovsky.

Malinovsky recently submitted a bill to declare UNRWA a terrorist organization, which would prevent the organization from operating in Israel and prohibit Israeli bodies and companies from working with it. The bill faced opposition from the Knesset Committee on Legislation and was not exempted from the obligation of a 45-day notice in the Knesset before being raised for a preliminary vote. Therefore, Malinovsky will only be able to bring it to a vote in two months, at the start of the Knesset’s summer session in May. “In my view, we owe it to the victims, the wounded, the missing, and their families to approve the bill,” said Malinovsky. “It is impossible to move on and continue to work with UNRWA.”

Malinovsky is outraged that the National Security Council, headed by Tzachi Hanegbi, opposes the promotion of the bill. “The NSC is subordinate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it is his duty to act to thwart UNRWA’s activities in Israel and to prevent economic ties between the organization and Israeli companies,” she said. Additionally, she is upset that a discussion on the matter initiated in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was declared confidential.

According to her, the reason for the government’s opposition to the bill is a reluctance to worsen its relations with the UN and the international community. “Since we lost 800 citizens and soldiers in one day, and we have captives in the hands of Hamas – some of whom are UNRWA employees – I no longer care about the UN,” she added. She also pointed out that “at the beginning of the war, many countries in the world stood by Israel and even cut off ties and support to UNRWA, but now countries like Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, and France have returned to funding UNRWA. If we had declared UNRWA a terrorist organization, many countries might have followed suit.”

Ring of fire

March 15, 2024

Palestinian members of the marine unit of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, take part in an anti-Israel parade in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 13, 2015. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90 *** Local Caption *** çîàñ
òæä ôìñèéðé
ôìùúéðé
ôìùúéðàéí
îöòã
ðù÷
öåììðéí

This tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes has the potential to cause lethal upheavals at any given moment.

Its destructive possibilities have been known for quite some time. In addition there is no way of knowing when it will activate and very little that can be done to mitigate its malign effects on countries and humans.

Basically, we are powerless in the face of nature’s destructive forces.

The Jewish People are no strangers to facing their own rings of fire, which over the millennia have erupted with devastating consequences in almost every part of the globe.

Unlike the unpredictable tremors generated by the forces of nature, the lethal shocks generated via pogroms, libellous lies and poisonous rhetoric are entirely predictable. While there is very little that can be done to prevent natural disasters, there is plenty that can be undertaken to prevent and thwart the tsunamis of vindictiveness against us.

It is necessary to first of all understand and recognize the root of the threats and then to take steps to deal with them in a timely manner.

Herein lies the dilemma we face these days.

Everyone living in countries bordering the Ring of Fire knows that sooner rather than later, “the big one” will strike.

On the other hand, there are, unfortunately, still far too many Jews who prefer to pretend that they are immune to the aftershocks of any sort of lethal tremors directed against them. It is not as though there are no early warnings of impending destructive forces. They abound everywhere and the message could not be clearer.

Just look at the eruptions currently occurring.

The Hamas kidnapping and horrific rape of Israeli women on 7 October is a perfect case in point. The international feminist movement has been noticeable by its silence despite the fact that there are still hostages in Gaza who are subject to the most indescribable indignities imaginable. When Nigerian Christian girls were abducted in 2014 by Islamic jihadists, the world was in an uproar, and the likes of Michelle Obama carried posters demanding their immediate return. Presumably, Jewish women being abducted do not warrant the same concern because the former First Lady and others have been conspicuously mute.

In fact, the subject of Hamas hostage-taking has sunk beneath the waves and is instead replaced by selective “moral” outrage over Israel’s response to terror. In this campaign to blame Israel we once again witness the usual peripheral Jews being trotted out by the media to bash the country.

Progressives in the USA and elsewhere are enlisting the support of disparate groups in a campaign of delegitimisation. This falls on fertile ground in academia where ignorance about historical facts goes hand in hand with endemic Jew hate. Electoral considerations mandate a sacrificial lamb, and Israel is the perfect candidate. The subsequent byproduct of Jew hate has now risen to a level not seen since the heady days of Germany’s pogroms against Jewish communities.

Israel has produced irrefutable proof of UNRWA staff complicities in aiding and abetting Hamas terror. Well before 7 October, it was known that UNRWA schools were in league with Hamas and that terror tunnels existed under UNRWA facilities. In the face of these facts the only defense was one of denial. UNRWA belatedly promised to investigate in response to what was to become a temporary cut-off in funding by donor countries,

In what one can only describe as the perfect fraud of the millennium, UNRWA now claims that its staff’s confessions of involvement with Hamas and its atrocities were “forced and coerced” by Israeli interrogators. Additionally, UNRWA accuses Israel of the rape of Palestinian Arabs. In other words, the best means of defence is to accuse your accusers of the very crimes that the terror groups employ. As blaming Jews for crimes committed by others is a well-tried and trusted method employed over the past centuries, there is every reason to believe that this time around, the mud will stick. Sure enough, in the morally polluted assemblies of the United Nations, UNRWA can be assured of steadfast support and continued financial beneficence.

Germany has demanded that Israel rescind the building of homes in Judea and Samaria. It has only taken about eighty years for the Germans to once again decide where Jews can live and for others to jump on the same bandwagon. Russia’s Foreign Minister maintained at the Moscow meeting of Islamic terror groups that “Jesus was born in Palestine.” This supreme and moronic fabrication is, of course, par for the course in the long and lamentable revision of historical facts which have become divine revelations of infallibility.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that Saudi Arabia can blatantly assert that “Israel is Judaizing the West Bank” – i.e. Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem? The fact that Jews now living in Israel’s Capital and heartland can be guilty of a heinous crime merely illustrates the absurd situation that prevails. The eruption of condemnations reverberating forth from every quarter proves that historical realities are irrelevant.

Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria were settled by Jews long before Wellington, Canberra, Washington and London were colonized. The irony of Italy refusing to accept the credentials of a designated Israeli ambassador because he lives in “occupied” territory is another example of the prevalent lunacy. Apparently Roman ethnic cleansing of Jews is perfectly acceptable but for today’s successor of the Romans, Jews returning to their ancestral homeland is an anathema.

Meanwhile, it took a former French Foreign Minister to resurrect an ancient yet still surviving libel. He is on record of accusing “settlers” of poisoning Arab wells. In the past, this claim, together with accusations of deicide, was enough to ignite theological and physical terror against European Jewish communities. We all know where that ended. Making the same allegations of well poisoning today is guaranteed to resonate with all those who are looking to cause trouble.

That is why threats of “holy war” during Ramadan are now the daily theme of Islamic incitement. The fact that Biden can quote Hamas produced numbers of casualties in Gaza and Jordan’s Queen can accuse Israel of genocidal actions is a direct result of the torrent of untruths cascading forth on a daily basis.

The continued acquiescence by the international community to the obscene utterances emanating from Ramallah is proof that Israel cannot entrust its security to anyone but itself.

Take, for example, as recorded by MEMRI, a Fatah official stating that “the Holocaust was necessary because Jews planned to take over Germany by destroying its economy and moral values.” This abhorrent slander raised nary a ripple of protest at the UN and has had no adverse effect on all those peddling the notion of “Palestine” as a respected member of the international community.

At the same time, it has been disclosed that the PA is actively working towards having Israel suspended from United Nations membership. No doubt this move would have the overwhelming support of all the despotic and non-democratic regimes represented at the UN. Whether this eventuates or not is immaterial because it merely highlights the prevailing rotten state of affairs.

If the Ukrainians fighting against Russian imperialist ambitions thought that they might at least attract some sort of moral encouragement from the Vatican, they were rudely awakened. The Pope urged them to “have the courage of the white flag.” He told them that “when you see that you are defeated, you have to have the courage to negotiate.” The concordat with Nazi Germany no doubt was an example of waving the white flag and abandoning any pretence of opposing the forces of evil.

These few examples exemplify the destructive seismic forces currently occurring.

The ring of fire arrayed against Israel and Jews worldwide will not subside or disappear. There is no point in lamenting or surrendering.

The only flag we must wave is the blue and white one. The Jewish national home is an eternal inheritance of the Jewish People and is destined to outlast all its oppressors.

REPORT: Biden Administration Grants Iran Billions in New Sanctions Relief

March 15, 2024

The Biden administration is reportedly unfreezing billions in new sanctions relief for Iran.

This move comes just a month after three U.S. soldiers were killed in drone attacks carried out by Iran-backed militias.

The Obama administration was known for having a curious determination to empower Iran and given that the Biden administration employs many of the same people, one can’t help but wonder if this is just a continuation of the same disastrous wrongheaded policy.

Biden Admin Renews Iran Sanctions Waiver That Unlocks Upwards of $10 Billion for Regime

The Biden administration on Wednesday reapproved a sanctions waiver that unlocks upwards of $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian government, according to a copy of the notice submitted to Congress late Wednesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon…

Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress raised concerns about the waiver earlier this week, the Free Beacon reported, saying that sanctions should not be lifted on the hardline Iranian regime in light of its support for Hamas and other terrorist proxy groups waging war on Israel and American outposts in the region.

While the State Department maintains the funds can only be accessed by Iran to pay for humanitarian supplies, like food and medicine, critics of the sanctions waiver argue that money is fungible, and that the waiver frees up cash for Iran to spend on its global terrorism operations.

Every instinct Biden has for foreign policy is wrong.

This move is dangerous and makes absolutely no sense.

The problem in Gaza is Hamas, not how to provide aid

March 15, 2024

After months of pressure from left-wing critics and liberal media outlets that seem to only highlight the suffering of Palestinians since Hamas started a war on Oct. 7, President Joe Biden felt he had to respond with something big. What he needed was a gesture that would be a tangible demonstration of his sympathy for Gaza civilians, as well as a scheme that would allegedly provide aid to them without helping the terrorists. What he came up with was a plan to build a floating port for the Strip from which food and other supplies would flow to alleviate the shortages that have produced a steady stream of appalling images and heart-rending stories about conditions there.

The main question to be asked about the port is not whether it will be enough to facilitate the aid needed in Gaza. Nor is it the problem posed by Biden’s pledge that not a single American boot will be on the ground in Gaza, which he is highly unlikely to be able to keep. Similarly, the as yet unanswered questions about how the food, fuel or other supplies brought in by the American contraption will actually reach needy Palestinians without being stolen by Hamas are also secondary concerns.

That’s because, despite the international community’s obsessive focus on shortages in the Strip, the real problem there isn’t about aid or its distribution or the conditions faced by Palestinians. The issue in Gaza is Hamas itself.

As long as the terrorist group is still armed and in charge of any part of the coastal enclave—and still able to use parts of the tunnel system it built with international aid intended to help ordinary Palestinians—all talk about humanitarian concerns there is essentially a diversion.

Why the Palestinians suffer

The only reason residents in Gaza continue to suffer is precisely because the international community, the media and the U.S. government have been persuaded to treat the impact on Palestinians of the war that began on Oct. 7 as more important than its cause or the only way it will truly end: by Hamas’s complete defeat.

War, as it has always been, is hell. Innocent people always suffer when governments and/or terrorist groups that operate as governments—like Hamas, which ruled Gaza as an independent Palestinian state in all but name since 2007—start them. And the only way the pain can be ended is by ending the war.

It’s true that many of the same people clamoring for more aid for Gaza—and decrying Israel’s alleged cruelty in prosecuting the war against Hamas in such a manner as to make that assistance more difficult to obtain—do have ideas about ending the fighting. They support Hamas’s demands for an immediate and permanent ceasefire that will more or less return to the status quo on Oct. 6, when the Islamists ran the Strip with an iron fist.

Israel’s refusal to go along with that absurd situation is treated by its critics as proof of its malevolent intentions. But any ceasefire that would put an end to the fighting would essentially reward Hamas for carrying out the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust in its assaults on Jewish communities in southern Israel. And it would make the repeat of that spree of murder, rape, torture and kidnapping a virtual certainty; Hamas has said as much.

The war aim of the Jewish state—supported at least in principle by the United States until Biden issued a “red line” warning demanding that the Israel Defense Forces be prevented from entering Hamas’s last enclaves in Rafah—is the complete defeat of Hamas.

And it is a reminder that all the suffering in Gaza and the casualties on both sides, no matter how many there actually have been, is the fault of Hamas and Hamas alone. It started the war with cross-border attacks and unspeakable atrocities. And by not releasing the men, women and children it took as hostages and dragged back into Gaza—carrying on with the war despite the hopelessness of its military situation and continuing to hide behind civilians, even if most of them probably support Hamas—it must accept the responsibility for the inevitable consequences.

Hamas still thinks it can win

But the problem isn’t just their intransigence. It’s the fact that they are counting on the images of Palestinian anguish, which they caused, bailing them out. They see the focus of the international community and the United States on the aid question, rather than on demanding that Hamas end its futile resistance as the key to victory. This goes beyond the unfair criticism of Israel’s military tactics, which far from being genocidal are actually more humane than that of any army in modern history. By acting as if the priority of the moment is to push aid into Gaza, regardless of the fact that most of it is being stolen by Hamas and kept for the use of its cadres, they are prolonging the war and increasing rather than alleviating the pain of Palestinians.

And the same will be true of the port scheme.

The idea for the port is complicated and will require a massive effort from both the U.S. Army and Navy. The conceit of the concept is that U.S. forces will build the floating platform offshore, as well as a causeway that will connect it to the land over which trucks will transport the humanitarian aid. Once ashore, the vehicles will be inspected by unspecified personnel and then allowed to make their way to Palestinians. Reportedly, Israelis will inspect the items heading to Gaza in Cyprus to ensure that nothing will directly help Hamas’s war effort. But there is no plan that can guarantee that any food, fuel or anything else needed by Palestinians won’t eventually be taken by Hamas’s forces inside the Strip. Which is to say that even after all the elaborate logistical planning of this engineering marvel, the supplies it brings to the region may not help anyone but those who have always gained from the world’s generosity: the terrorists themselves.

Creating new problems

Even if that were not an obvious flaw in this proposal, the mere act of involving American personnel in Gaza operations opens up the possibility of attacks on them, whether they remain offshore or, as is most likely, Biden’s pledge is not kept. Will an administration that left Afghanistan in a disgraceful rout that involved the deaths of Americans and the betrayal of our allies, as well as the handing over of immense stores of military material and infrastructure to the Taliban, be willing to stand its ground in the face of Hamas attacks? Or will it run away as it did elsewhere, further diminishing U.S. prestige and influence?

And what is the future of the floating port? Will it become the start of a permanent facility that will provide Gaza with an outlet to the sea that will facilitate not just the flow of humanitarian aid but an easier way for Palestinians to import weapons and materials needed to rebuild their military infrastructure?

The history of the last two decades in Gaza should have made the international community far more cautious about easing the isolation of Gaza.

While the creation of a port could contribute to solving a short-term crisis of food distribution, it could also exacerbate a long-term problem by essentially breaking any future blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt that was aimed at making it harder for the terrorists to regroup. It’s true that the blockade failed to stop Hamas from arming itself to the teeth and building the equivalent of the New York subway system underneath Gaza. It uses its tunnels for a command-and-control structure where it stores rockets, arms and other supplies. The underground system also shelters terrorists and is being used to imprison Israeli hostages. And it did it by diverting the billions that Europeans and Americans sent to Gaza intended to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians before the start of the current war.

A Trojan Horse

Unless Hamas is eradicated and Israel is in complete charge of all of Gaza, there would be no way to stop the port from solving Hamas’s future supply problems. There’s nothing in the port plan—other than trusting in Biden’s judgment or that of a successor if he is not re-elected—that would prevent it from making Gaza more of a threat to the region than it was on Oct. 6. Rather than being merely a conduit for aid, the port must be viewed as a Trojan Horse that looks like a humanitarian gesture but is certain to provide the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 atrocities with the ability to go on killing and exploiting the Palestinian population.

The administration has succumbed to pressure generated by images in the media and reports of Palestinian starvation that are as likely to be manipulated by a biased press as those of the bogus casualty figures put out by the Hamas Health Ministry. Biden is worried about defections from his intersectional left-wing base that sympathizes with Hamas. Yet the president should have said no to involving American forces and resources in a scheme that could boomerang on him and prolong the war he says he wants to end.

The only way to do that is the same as it has been since Oct. 7: helping Israel to complete the defeat of Hamas and the end of its control of any part of Gaza. Once that happens, the problem of feeding and caring for Palestinians becomes simpler. It takes a degree of foresight and moral courage not to succumb to pressure from those who refuse to see the connection between Hamas’s continued existence and the troubling images of Palestinians in need. But instead of speeding up the demise of the terrorist forces, the port plan, coupled with the pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire before the terrorists are finished, will only mean more privation for Palestinians as well as more blood spilled by Hamas.

Maryland Rabbis Won’t Take Van Hollen’s Contempt Lying Down

March 15, 2024

It’s possible that American Jewry is reaching the point at which its seemingly limitless patience reveals itself to be a finite resource. While the Jews of Berkeley were sitting-in and marching in protest of campus anti-Semitism, the rabbis of Maryland were taking the unusual step of rebuking a senator who has made anti-Israel rhetoric a centerpiece of his political agenda.

Chris Van Hollen is serving his first term as Maryland senator after representing parts of Montgomery County for seven terms in the House. Maryland is among the ten largest Jewish populations by state, and Montgomery County—very much including areas represented by Van Hollen during his House career—has more than 100,000 Jewish residents, accounting for 10 percent of the county’s entire population.

A Jewish community of that size right next to Washington, D.C. should loom large in the political sphere, especially for its congressional representative. But Van Hollen is working hard to erase it from his constituency. A particular low point came in February, when Van Hollen stood on the Senate floor and accused Israel of intentionally starving Palestinian children. This was not only a lie but a lie in the mold of the classic blood libels. Van Hollen went on to call this invented tale of Jewish perfidy “a textbook war crime” and Israeli leaders “war criminals.” Just yesterday, Van Hollen tried to use these unfounded allegations to raise the specter of an aid cut-off to Israel during wartime.

Van Hollen’s regular demagoguery was enough to provoke a letter from more than 70 Maryland rabbis from across the major Jewish denominations informing him that his vicious grandstanding is one thing they all can agree on: “We have differing opinions about some of the rhetoric and actions taken by the current Israeli government, but today we write with a unified voice to urge you to change your rhetoric and actions that we believe mischaracterize the current war and undermine America’s support for the Jewish state.”

The rabbis do not pull punches. “Following the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust, we here at home have faced the worst wave of antisemitism in our lifetimes,” they write. “Yet to our dismay, rather than standing with us, your efforts in the Senate have only stoked deeper divisions and further isolated Israel and our Jewish community.”

The rabbis, who say they are “aghast” at Van Hollen’s rhetoric, also use the letter to correct the senator’s claims about Israel withholding food, though I doubt a lack of information is behind Van Hollen’s smear.

Getting that many rabbis to agree on anything is an accomplishment, but the Montgomery County Jewish community’s very existence is a testament to its tenacity. Land covenants that forbade Jewish ownership were common in the 20th century, though they didn’t stop an influx of Jewish federal workers who came to the D.C. area as the century wore on. Eventually the covenants expired or were made to be dead letters, and Jewish organizational life followed its members from the District to the suburbs, ensuring Jews had social lives and leisure activities despite exclusion from some of the social clubs.

It’s easy to see, then, why the thriving community would protest its erasure by Van Hollen.

Unfortunately, it’s not just Van Hollen, although his oleaginous used-politics salesmanship leads the way. Van Hollen’s replacement in the House has been a disappointment as well. A month into the Israel-Hamas war, Jamie Raskin became one of three Jewish Democrats at that early date to call for a ceasefire, breaking from President Biden’s support for Israel and getting way out in front of Bernie Sanders. Raskin vigorously opposed censuring Rashida Tlaib for her amplification and defense of genocidal calls to destroy the Jewish state. In January, he joined Squadnik Ayanna Pressley to give credence to another unfounded accusation: that Israel was planning the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

In general, Raskin’s unseriousness about the threat of anti-Semitism has been appalling. After GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik broke open the issue of campus anti-Semitism by forcefully questioning top university presidents at a hearing that has since led to the resignations of two college presidents, Raskin treated the whole thing as a joke. Stefanik, he said, didn’t object when Donald Trump had dinner with Kanye West, “and yet somehow she gets on her high horse and lectures a Jewish college president from MIT.”

While Raskin and Van Hollen laugh it up at the expense of their Jewish constituents, they—especially Van Hollen—fan the flames of anti-Zionist sentiment and show resentment and disrespect for the Jewish community. The rabbis’ letter to Van Hollen is an encouraging sign that they are not taking this disrespect lightly.

Inside Israel’s plan to force Biden to drop settlement sanctions

March 15, 2024

The Israeli government is preparing to take steps to dramatically curb financial interactions between Israeli and Palestinian Authority banks, a move eyed as a response against the Biden administration’s decision to sanction two Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, according to a new report Thursday.

According to Axios, the Biden administration is planning to impose new sanctions as early as Thursday on two Jewish outpost communities in Samaria linked to alleged attacks on Palestinian Arabs.

The sanctions will also target three Israelis living in the area, said the report, citing three U.S. officials, and would include freezing of assets, entry bans to the U.S., and loss of access to the U.S. financial system.

On Thursday, Israel Hayom reported that the Israeli Finance Ministry, under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) is planning to respond to the Biden administration’s sanctions with punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority.

The steps being considering by Smotrich include ending the broad exemption granted to Israeli banks which conduct business with Palestinian Authority financial entities from liability for any terrorist funding carried out by PA banks.

‘GENOCIDE, ETHNIC CLEANSING’ – PA ATTACKS ISRAEL AT ICJ HEARING

The exemption is extended on a regular basis, and the Finance Minister need only withhold his signature to end it.

Such a move would likely force Israeli banks to cease their business ties with PA banks, for fear of being targeted either in civil or criminal proceedings over any terrorist funding conducted by the PA banks they do business with.

Given the extent to which Palestinian banks rely on their financial ties to their Israeli counterparts, ending the exemption could cause serious damage to the Palestinian Authority economy.

The U.S. itself has hitherto refrained from forming closer ties to Palestinian financial institutions, given their links to terrorist entities – links which could create legal barriers to the U.S. directly involving itself with Palestinian banks.

Sources close to Smotrich said that the Palestinian Authority is creating risks for Israeli banks, and the Finance Minister is no longer willing to shield banks from those risks.

According to Thursday’s report, the Finance Ministry believes that faced with the potential collapse of the P.A. banking system, the Biden administration will ultimately agree to turn a blind eye to the unfreezing of the Israeli accounts of the seven Israelis targeted by the new U.S. sanctions.

In addition to the three Israeli nations set to be sanctioned Thursday, four others were sanctioned in February for alleged harassment of and attacks against Palestinian Arabs.

The terrifying numbers of Palestinian security personnel involved in attacks against Jews revealed

March 15, 2024

English translation of excerpt from Kalman Libeskind’s Maariv 8 March 2024
Column
https://www.maariv.co.il/journalists/Article-1082089

[Dr. Aaron Lerner – IMRA: YNET revealed today (14 March 2024) that Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is blocking an American plan endorsed by the
“experts” in the IDF and embraced by Defense Minister Galant to recruit
Fatah members in Gaza and then have the United States train them, arm them
and hand over control of the Gaza Strip to them. No – I’m not making this
Unfortunately, the gang of wishful thinking ideologues who promoted fellow
travelers at the expense of quality continue to control so much of the
analysis in the top echelons of the Israeli security establishment.
Ironically, the Americans pushing for this program are giving a boost to
their nemesis Netanyahu by showing the Israeli public that Binyamin
Netanyahu appears to be the only person in the room with a straight head on
his shoulders in this matter.]

For those spreading myths about the Palestinian Authority as a “moderating
force”: a study by “Regavim” found that on average, every two weeks, a
member of their security apparatus participates in an attack, with at least
78 personnel involved in recent years. Despite our debates on many issues,
including our clear stances even without full knowledge of facts, the gap
between the significance of these issues and our limited information is
vast. This is especially true regarding the proper approach to the
Palestinian Authority, as discussions often ignore realities like the U.S.
push for a Palestinian state or the notion of the PA as a “moderating force”
aiding our security, even as some claim they control Gaza too.

A shocking report by the “Regavim” movement lays out facts crucial for
everyone to know. Their research division followed the stories of
Palestinian security personnel, not just Fatah supporters or sympathizers,
but full-time security apparatus members who have carried out attacks
against Jews since 2020. The data, as unsettling as it is, becomes even more
so when considering it’s likely incomplete.

Why incomplete? Because the data is derived from official statements and
announcements by the PA, which likely doesn’t report every attack carried
out by its members. Moreover, announcements by the security apparatus
typically concern their personnel killed, wounded, or arrested during
attacks against our forces, suggesting a significant number of attackers
remain unaccounted for.

Despite these limitations, the facts remain: since 2020, at least 78 PA
security personnel, many of whom are officers, have attacked us. By 2024,
eight terrorists from the Palestinian security forces have already been
killed. This suggests that, roughly every two weeks, a terrorist from Abu
Mazen’s security apparatus attempts to murder Jewish civilians or IDF
soldiers. This behavior, combined with the PA’s respectful treatment of such
terrorists, including financial payments if captured by our security forces,
underscores the PA’s deep-rooted involvement in murdering Jews.

To grasp the severity, imagine if an Israeli police officer, soldier, or
firefighter were to shoot Palestinians by the roadside weekly, and the
Israeli government then conducted an official funeral, named a school after
them, provided financial support to their family, and government ministers
visited to offer condolences. How would the world, the U.S. President, or
even we ourselves view our leadership if this were the case? This mirrors
the situation with our neighbors from the PA. Anyone examining this data and
still thinking it wise to allow such a group to establish a state alongside
us or manage Gaza is beyond conventional reasoning.

Over 30 years, according to a PA security spokesman, their forces have lost
over 2,000 “martyrs,” hundreds of prisoners, including life-sentence
inmates. This translates to a “martyr” from the PA forces every five and a
half days over the last 30 years, not including those arrested or surviving
attacks.

Furthermore, Gabril Rajoub, former head of Preventive Security in the West
Bank, stated that 12% of Palestinian prisoners, or one in eight terrorists
jailed by Israel, are members of the PA security forces, highlighting the
extent of their involvement in terror.

Regavim’s report, titled “Policemen by day, terrorists by night,” documents
numerous cases where the PA and its security apparatus mourn their personnel
killed by Israeli forces following attack attempts. If similar occurrences
were within our security services, official bodies would rush to condemn,
explain, and apologize. In contrast, the PA celebrates such individuals with
military funerals, official eulogies, and condolences from senior figures,
including Abu Mazen.

It’s astonishing that these facts are not known to every Israeli, and it’s
essential to defend those unfamiliar with this material. Israel’s official
security bodies are not lax in this knowledge. The defense establishment and
the IDF Spokesperson do their utmost not to inform us when terrorists
neutralized by the IDF are members of the PA security forces. Perhaps this
is to ease the cognitive dissonance of portraying the PA as a reliable
partner in counterterrorism while reality tells a different story. This
story is one of a PA drenched in terror, rejoicing at the murder of Jews.

This article details numerous instances of PA security personnel involved in
terror acts against Israelis, highlighting the significant support the PA
provides to terrorists and their families, including financial rewards and
public honors. It questions the logic of any sane country cooperating with
an entity that officially rewards the murder of its citizens.

________________________________________
IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il

For free regular subscription:
Subscribe at no charge: imra-subscribe@imra.org.il
Unsubscribe: imra-unsubscribe@imra.org.il

For free daily digest subscription:
Subscribe at no charge: imra-subscribe-digest@imra.org.il
Unsubscribe: imra-unsubscribe@imra.org.il

IMRA is now also on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IMRA_UPDATES

Israel, Jews and Peace in Schoolbooks and Teachers’ Guides Used in UNRWA Schools in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip

March 15, 2024

Introduction
The schoolbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA) are mandatorily
used in all areas of Judea, Samaria, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem (In
schools that follow the PA curriculum) – in government, private and UNRWA
schools. The books surveyed here are of the latest edition and are used in the
current school year. They were mostly published in 2020. Teachers’ guides,
mostly published in 2018, were examined as well. They shed special light on
the PA indoctrination process which is also applied in UNRWA schools.

__UNRWA Expanded Word Presentation 2024 – עותק

“Jonathan Glazer, we cannot say shame in you because you are shameless”

March 15, 2024

Film director Jonathan Glazer’s comparison of his film “The Zone of Concern” to the war in Gaza sparked controversy, particularly for its omission of the more than 130 hostages still held by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Glazer’s remarks have drawn criticism, with some expressing disappointment in what they perceive as a failure to acknowledge the full scope of the situation.

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now we stand here as men who refute their [sic] Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation …”

Addressing Glazer directly, some have condemned his actions as shameless, as Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, accusing him of sacrificing integrity for fleeting fame and approval from questionable sources. These sentiments extend not only to Glazer himself but also to those who defend or support his controversial stance.

The German-language film, which garnered five Oscar nominations, delves into the narrative surrounding Rudolf Höss, the senior commander of Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Höss’s tenure at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where an estimated 1.1 million individuals, primarily Jews, were brutally murdered between 1940 and 1943, forms the backdrop of the film’s exploration.

Turning attention to recent events, the actions of the Palestinian jihadist terrorist group Hamas have reignited tensions in the region. Despite a previous “ceasefire” agreement, Hamas breached the pact on October 7, launching attacks on Israel via land, sea, and air. Reports indicate horrifying atrocities, including the targeting of innocent families, sexual violence against women, and the abduction of individuals, from adults to newborns. Hamas’s relentless assault, marked by daily missile launches against Israel, has further escalated the conflict.

In a poignant letter to Jonathan Glazer and The Academy, 94-year-old Holocaust survivor David Schaecter addresses the weight of Holocaust representation in film. He critiques Glazer’s portrayal, emphasizing the importance of honoring the memories of the six million Jews, including one and a half million children, who perished due to their Jewish identity. Schaecter denounces any attempt to speak for those who witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand, urging a more respectful and accurate portrayal of history.

“You made a Holocaust movie and won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for the six million Jews, including one and a half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity.

“And it is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for those of us who personally saw the world stand silent as our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were murdered…”

The government of Israel condemned Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer’s comment Sunday evening that he and fellow filmmakers “refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being used to justify an occupation.”

Israeli government spokesperson Ilana Stein said that she was “deeply shocked by this comment.”

She continued: “To think that we exploit the … Holocaust … is despicable. We are not ‘using’ anything. Hamas showed how it massacred us. And this is what we are fighting against — a massacre, a terror organization that says that it wants to be ‘from the river to the sea,’ and that means that they want the whole state of Israel to be free of Jews.

“Does that remind you of anybody?” she asked, rhetorically.

It was Hamas’s actions that evoked the Holocaust, she said, not Israel’s self-defense.

1...112113114...1,281 Page 113 of 1,281

Israel Behind the News

The Israeli companies that earned $60 million working with UNRWA

Biden has failed to understand what this war means to Israel

Ring of fire

REPORT: Biden Administration Grants Iran Billions in New Sanctions Relief

The problem in Gaza is Hamas, not how to provide aid

Maryland Rabbis Won’t Take Van Hollen’s Contempt Lying Down

Inside Israel’s plan to force Biden to drop settlement sanctions

The terrifying numbers of Palestinian security personnel involved in attacks against Jews revealed

Israel, Jews and Peace in Schoolbooks and Teachers’ Guides Used in UNRWA Schools in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip

“Jonathan Glazer, we cannot say shame in you because you are shameless”

Column from the Director