Trump should defund, end UNRWA once and for all

November 15, 2024

OPINION:

It is clear from President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for his new administration, from the chief of staff to border czar to U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. and Israel, that he means to hit the ground running on Inauguration Day.

We hope that when it comes to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Mr. Trump will immediately defund an agency that serves as an ATM for Hamas teachers whose facilities above and below ground have been used as jumping-off points to murder and maim innocents and whose pedagogical raison d’etre is to brainwash Palestinian children to seek Israel’s destruction.

But this time, Mr. Trump, your secretary of state should urge the 60 other donor nations to join the U.S. and demand an end to UNRWA once and for all. It would be a disaster to treat UNRWA as a bulwark of hope the day after the Israel–Hamas war is over when it has actually played a key role in keeping alive the dream of a Jew-free Holy Land.

Akeidat Yitzchak

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

Avraham’s journey towards the Akeida takes 3 long days. During this time, he is deliberating, debating, experiencing an extended inner struggle as depicted in the Midrash describing his meeting with an old man (his conscience) who makes him confront that which he is about to do. Where are you going? the man asks. Why do you carry a knife? The nature of Avraham’s internal dilemma has been described as the “teleological suspension of the ethical”, meaning that Avraham’s understanding of G-d as being all good, is not compatible with Avraham’s being commanded to sacrifice his beloved son. Alternatively, Avraham must confront the total contradiction between having been promised “Ki v’Yitzchak Yikarei L’cha Zara” (in Isaac shall thy seed be called – Bereishit 21:12) and being told to bring Isaac to the Akeida (Rashi on 22:12).

These conflicting messages are seemingly irreconcilable. They are like two parallel lines that can never meet. And, yet, in the Almighty, in the Ein Sof, at infinity, they do meet and can be reconciled.

Many Olim, and potential Olim, may easily identify with Avraham, as they spend days, months and even years deliberating their Aliyah. Often the commandment to Live in the Land seems to be irreconcilable with the financial realities of buying a home and supporting the family on an Israeli salary. Likewise, for many, there exists the stark dichotomy between the Land being ours and the political reality of not having control over Har HaBayit and having to travel to Chevron and Beit Lechem in armored buses. These, too, are like parallel lines that seemingly can never meet!

Yet, here in the Land of Israel, that which may seem impossible is not only possible, but doable.

Coming on Aliyah is a real Nisayon, a true test. But so was the Akeida. And yet, we believe G-d only presents the Nisayon to those who He knows can rise to the challenge (Bereishit Rabba, No’ach 32:3)

The die is cast, we have only to cross the “Rubicon” (or is it the Atlantic?) and enter into Eretz Yisrael.

RABBI YERACHMIEL RONESS was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. After serving as a congregational Rabbi and as a Hillel Director in New York City, he made Aliyah in 1983 with his wife Dina and their five young children.

Ever since, Rabbi Roness has dedicated his life to promoting Aliyah. First, as Rabbi of the Jewish Agency’s Absorption Centers, and subsequently as the executive director of the Aloh-Naaleh organization.

This article was taken from Rabbi Roness’s new book: Aloh Na’aleh – Eretz Yisrael and Aliyah in the Weekly Parshah. The book is for sale on Amazon.

The sorry symbolism of a pro-Israel rally that flopped

November 14, 2024

A participant at the “We Stand Together” rally for Jewish unity and Israel at the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10, 2024. Photo by Abby Greenawalt.

Only a couple of thousand people were in Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10 for an event billed as “Stand Together: An Event of Unity, Strength and Resilience.” And maybe as many as half of that number were associated with the organizations sponsoring the gathering rather than rank-and-file members of the Jewish community who responded to the appeal. So, as photos of the much-ballyhooed rally illustrated, it might be said that most of those who attended it came disguised as empty seats.

The largely vacant stadium was more than a measure of the disappointing turnout for a pro-Israel gathering a year after some 290,000 people showed up for a previous unity rally held on the National Mall a year ago on Nov. 14, 2023. It was an apt metaphor for the equally disappointing response of both American Jewry and the leading organizations that purport to represent them during a genuine crisis.

Some hoped that the horrors of Oct. 7 might galvanize American Jewry in the way that both the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War did more than a half-century ago. The initial response to the massacre in southern Israel carried out by Hamas terrorists and other Palestinians was promising in terms of fundraising and public actions like the unity rally on the Mall. But what followed in the ensuing months—even as the surge of antisemitism in the United States steadily grew in the streets of major cities and on college campuses—demonstrated that the Jewish community was far too divided by politics to stand together against a deadly threat to not just Israel but to their own security and that of their children.

A year of crisis

The current war on Israel continues into its second year, with Hamas terrorists seeking to retake parts of the Gaza Strip in the south, coupled with the launching of rockets and missiles into the Jewish state from Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon to the north. Their paymasters in Iran also still present a deadly threat. But most American Jews spent this year far more focused on domestic partisan politics and debating whether Israel deserved their support than rallying to aid it.

Just as depressing has been the response of the Jewish world to a surge of antisemitism here in the United States. The takeover of numerous college campuses by pro-Hamas demonstrators advocating for Israel’s destruction has had a devastating impact on many Jewish students. But again, the reaction from the organized Jewish world has been largely low-key, and more importantly, mostly ineffective in demonstrating a willingness to fight back against open antisemitism or even to force change at institutions that were unable or unwilling to defend Jewish students.

It’s true that the organizers of the event at Nationals Park were not seeking to rival last year’s rally in terms of attendance. Instead, they apparently just wanted to have something that would serve as a pep rally for those who were attending the annual General Assembly of the JFNA. Yet by choosing a venue that can accommodate up to 41,000 people and deliberately hyping it as a major event, they set themselves up for both failure and ridicule at a moment in time when that is the last thing the pro-Israel community needed.

To be fair, anyone who thought American Jewry could duplicate or even come close to the responses to crises in 1967 and 1973 was dreaming.

Changes in the community since then made that impossible.

American Jews have changed

In the 1960s and 1970s, memories of the Holocaust were still fresh. Israel’s vulnerability and the possibility of its Arab foes making good on their pledges to create another Shoah by destroying the Jewish state was very much on the minds of American Jews, who didn’t just speak up with one voice in response to those wars but also raised astounding amounts of money to aid it.

But the American Jewish world of that era is gone.

Part of it is generational, as many of the Jews who came of age since then think of Israel as a regional superpower rather than an embattled and besieged nation. The most common expressions of Jewish identity in the first decades after World War II were about remembrance of the Holocaust and support for Israel. But that has been largely discarded. Jewish peoplehood can only be instilled in young people through education and a positive vision of Judaism. That doesn’t involve solely recalling a tragic past or living vicariously through the deeds of Israelis, who are built up as larger-than-life heroes, such as those in Leon Uris novels that were once influential in America but are now ignored.

More troubling is the fact that more Americans have been subjected to decades of media bias against Israel as well as the indoctrination in woke ideologies that falsely label it an “apartheid” or “white” oppressor state in educational settings.

Demography is the problem

Criticism of Israeli policies and settlements—and, of course, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—has been blamed for a decline in interest and even support for the Jewish state among the majority of American Jews who are neither Orthodox nor politically conservative.

Yet the real problem is demographic, not political.

The American Jewish population has become increasingly assimilated. That’s due to reasons such as widespread intermarriage, and the fact that more and more Jews are unaffiliated with synagogues, organizations and causes. Many now define themselves as “just Jews,” or as the demographers put it, “Jews of no religion.” The ties of those who fit in this category to other Jews, let alone Israel, have been frayed to the point of disintegration. That is the price of liberty as Jews are free in contemporary America to leave the community and disappear into the rest of the population.

Yet despite that, the initial response to Oct. 7 was encouraging.

The success of last year’s rally was remarkable, even if the tone of the gathering was deliberately kept as politically neutral as possible to allow the participation of groups and religious denominations that have been critical of Israel.

The Jewish Federations of North America, which along with the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations were the principal co-sponsors of this year’s disastrous rally, must also get credit for stepping up and prioritizing Israel in their fundraising efforts. The $850 million raised for JFNA’s Israel Emergency Fund was impressive, given the general decline in giving to federations in recent years, indicating that their core donors were capable of understanding the threat to Jewish life and acting on it.

But whatever enthusiasm for Israel’s cause that existed a year ago has been diminished by the events of the last 12 months during which the Jewish state has been falsely accused of “genocide” of Palestinians during its counter-offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The on-and-off again support for Israel of the Biden administration, which at times was exemplary and at other times sought to derail efforts to defeat the terrorists, was a good indicator of how much leverage its intersectional left wing had over the Democratic Party and its presumably more centrist leadership.

Liberal Jews, who remain dedicated partisans, were caught in the same crossfire as they were often unwilling to express clear-throated support for Israel’s war while also being appalled by the thuggish antisemitism of those who voiced the “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada” chants on college campuses and the streets of America’s cities.

Paralyzed by consensus

Rather than being able to mount a strong response to the takeover of so many college campuses by pro-Hamas mobs, the organized Jewish community found itself unable to speak with one voice on the issue. Just as Jewish students were sometimes told to “shelter in place” rather than vocally confront the Jew-haters, so were all too many in the Jewish establishment. Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, which should have been at the ramparts challenging haters of Israel, were hampered by their past endorsement of the same toxic woke ideas that have been fueling the surge in Jew-hatred.

Perhaps the real problem for those seeking to mobilize American Jewry is that they remain hampered by an institutional need for consensus that allows those least interested in a robust expression of support for Israel’s war against Iranian-backed Islamist terrorists to have a veto over the message that is being sent to the administration and the world.

This is a terrible mistake—not just because it undermines Israel at a moment when it needs its foreign friends and the Jewish community to speak up against the smears and blood libels that the left is hurling at it. It’s wrong because it misunderstands the current dilemma facing American Jewry.

All too many leading Jewish groups are still stuck in the mindset of supporters of a Middle East peace process begun in Oslo in 1993 that was literally blown up by the Palestinian terrorism in the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, and whose death was further confirmed by what happened in Gaza after Israel withdrew every soldier, settler and settlement from it in the summer of 2005.

Obsolete debates

The atrocities of Oct. 7 were the final confirmation for anyone who is paying attention that the old arguments about settlements, borders and a two-state solution that divided Israelis and American Jews for decades are officially obsolete. The only argument about Israel that matters is the one about whether one Jewish state on the planet is one too many or if the plans of Israel’s foes for Jewish genocide (for which Oct. 7 was only the trailer) will be allowed to be fulfilled.

Yet instead of focusing on the debate over the legitimacy of Israel and its right of self-defense, the Jewish community seems more worried about being labeled as accomplices to Netanyahu and the lies about “genocide” in Gaza. Rather than taking a bold stand in favor of the justice of the Zionist cause, some are on the sidelines judging the Jewish state’s life-and-death battle against enemies that want to slaughter all Jews and defeat the West.

Just as bad is the fact that many in the community are more worried about virtue-signaling their opposition to the incoming second Trump administration. That’s a stand that is all the more mistaken given the clear pro-Israel tilt of all of Trump’s choices for his foreign-policy team.

A failure of leadership

The result of all these factors is an American Jewish community that has demonstrated an inability to stand up for itself against an unprecedented attack from antisemites and Israel-haters that threaten its own security more than that of Israel.

Institutions that fail to lead in a crisis have lost their credibility and reason to exist. If the organized Jewish world and its establishment can’t shed their consensus-ridden inability to act decisively in defense of both Israel and American Jewry, then they won’t have to wait for their critics to topple them. They will have destroyed themselves.

If an empty ballpark is an apt metaphor for the failure of American Jewry, then it is the fault of those who have been tasked with leading the community. That’s a tragedy since American Jews currently have neither the time nor the resources to build new institutions to represent them. In the coming year, it’s up to the Jewish establishment to prove that it is worth saving. We can only pray that they succeed; however, given the evidence of the last 12 months and so much else that has happened in recent years, it’s hard to be optimistic about their future.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.

New Film Shows Hamas-UNRWA Connection in Plans for Terror Attack from Bethlehem Refugee Camps

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

Bethlehem, the birthplace of David and Jesus, could possibly be where the next war breaks out. A new film called “UNRWA at War” indicates Hamas would be involved, with the United Nations even playing a role. When Israel entered Gaza after October 7th, soldiers found evidence that Hamas had used the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) facilities for training and weapons storage and that a number of UN workers were also active Hamas members. In the film, produced by the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research and Israel Behind the News, Hamas Minister of Religion Ismail Radwan discusses the terror group’s connections to the U.N. agency.

The global intifada heats up: a war on Jews is a war on civilization

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

On the night of November 7, curiously only two days shy of the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Europe was the scene of a fresh pogrom in which hundreds of antisemites targeted Jews for pre-meditated, coordinated violence in the streets of Amsterdam.

Groups of attackers – many of them masked, carrying Palestinian flags, and shouting pro-Palestinian slogans – emerged from hiding in alleys and train stations and hotels to ambush Israelis who were leaving a soccer match between the local Ajax team and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Shocking video footage – some taken by the perpetrators themselves – shows Israeli and Dutch Jews being chased and assaulted with knives, bats, boots, and in at least one instance, an automobile committing hit-and-run.

This was no garden-variety soccer hooliganism, as it was initially described by some disingenuous media outlets. The attacks reportedly were orchestrated in advance and carried out by members of the Dutch Moroccan and Dutch Turkish community. De Telegraaf reported that perpetrators used the messaging app Telegram to announce a “Jew hunt” ahead of the attacks, prompting some to travel from far outside Amsterdam to take part. Muslim cab drivers throughout the city reportedly helped coordinate the assaults.

“They knew everything,” said 30-year-old Shachar Bitton, a Maccabi fan. “They knew exactly where we stayed. They knew exactly which hotels, which street we were going to take. It was all well-organized, well-prepared.”

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) subsequently published an exposé highlighting the involvement of an organization called the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGNL in Dutch). PGNL, which uses instant messaging apps to organize activism in the country, is connected to the Palestinian terror group Hamas. It is led by Syrian-born activist Ayman Nejmeh, a self-described former teacher with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). UNRWA members in Gaza have been exposed for aiding and abetting Hamas terrorists.

Liberating the world from Jews

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

Over the past year since the October 7th massacre, and for most of the past four years of the Biden Presidency, we have witnessed a spike of Jew hatred and open anti-Semitism on the campuses and streets of America, with pro-Hamas Muslims and Arab-Americans at the vanguard. During this period, many of these Muslims and Arab-Americans have made the leap from harboring anti-Semitic thoughts to physically attacking Jews, desecrating Jewish institutions, and any symbol of the Jewish people or the State of Israel. Over a relatively short time span, these Jew hating mobs have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that most Diaspora Jews are conscious of whenever they exit the front door of their homes.

In what was commonly referred to as “the good old days”, we were accustomed to the classical type of anti-Semitism, the “gentlemen’s agreement” type of bigotry and discrimination against Jews; residential restrictions, academic restrictions, cultural restrictions, and employment restrictions. American Jews did not condone it, but overcame it and even thrived. For the past century America was a “safe haven” for American Jews enabling the Jewish community to reach the highest pinnacles in all fields of endeavor. Yet as we move backwards to the future, and as Jews are hunted down and attacked violently in broad daylight on the campuses and streets of America, all you have to do to understand this new phenomenon is listen to the declarative pronouncements made by these mobs of Muslims and Arab-Americans as they viciously attack Jews arbitrarily for no other reason than the fact that they are Jews. They openly express that they want Jews to die, and that they want to annihilate the Jewish community as a whole. They want to “kill the Jews,” perhaps with their own bare hands, and show their actions to the world through social media.

The common thread unifying this desire for the total destruction of Jews is shared by both radicalized pro-Hamas Muslims/Arab-Americans and classical Nazi ideology prior to and during the Holocaust era. This modern alliance between pro-Hamas supporters and the Nazi ideology is only the latest manifestation of a common bond dedicated to “purifying” humanity of any Jewish presence and promoting the total destruction of Jews and the State of Israel.

Underlying this unholy alliance of Jew hatred upheld by modern day radical Muslims and the Nazi ideology now spans a period that began during the 1920’s of the previous century. The Nazi ideology spoke of “redemptive anti-Semitism”, namely a form of anti-Semitism that explains all in the world by offering a form of “redemption” by exterminating and purifying humanity from the Jews. According to this idea, exterminating the Jews will prevent them from corrupting the world any further and will enable people to be redeemed and purified. “Redemptive anti-Semitism” provides a pathway to be liberated from the Jews. It begins with physically attacking Jews, expelling Jews from their homes and communities, and ends with their physical annihilation. The manifestation of “redemptive anti-Semitism” diligently implemented throughout Europe during the Holocaust, has been passed on to pro-Hamas supporters who freely profess their hatred of Jews and the State of Israel.

Islamic religious and political leaders adhere to a parallel concept that divides the world into Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) and Dar al-harb (House of War) as they broadcast daily sermons of incitement to murder Jews, promising heaven and redemption for those that carry out this call to rid the world of Jews. The Dar al-Islam are all those lands in which a Muslim government rules and the Holy Law of Islam prevails. Non-Muslims may live there on Muslim sufferance. The outside world, which has not yet been subjugated to Muslim rule, is called the “House of War,” and strictly speaking is in a perpetual state of jihad, of holy war, as imposed by the Sharia law, a canonically obligatory perpetual state of war until the whole world is either converted or subjugated to Islam.

These Islamic doctrines dissociate themselves from the prevailing values, mores, constitutions, laws, and legal regulations of American culture and society. They go one step further and claim that Sharia Law is above all “human made” local rules and regulations and have no true intent to allow for real integration but want to use the freedom of Democratic societies to strengthen their message, that Islam is not and will never be subservient to any other religion or political system. Hamas, the terrorist group that occupies Gaza, is dedicated to the murder of all Jews in Israel – a goal spelled out in its charter: the end to the Jewish state and the creation of an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. As stated in its founding document, the Hamas Charter, Hamas is committed to waging Jihad, or holy war, in order “to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” Its stated goal is to eliminate the Jewish state and kill Jews. That is precisely what Hamas has set out to do, and has been doing, in its present savage campaign of mass slaughter since Oct 7th.

Social media tweets and comments such as “As long as there is Jewish life in the world, peace is not possible.” have become the new norm and “redemptive anti-Semitism” will continue to radicalize Muslims and Arab-Americans to continue their crusade to free humanity from the Jews. Signs in the campuses and on the streets of America held by supporters of Hamas; “From the River to the Sea” – “Hitler was right” while waving a Palestinian flag – “Do you want to survive America? Kill the Jew snake” – “God hates Jews” – “support humanity not Israel” – “glory to the martyrs” – “let’s wipe out Israel”, are all manifestations of how “redemptive anti-Semitism” has evolved over the past four years and more so since the Oct 7th massacre. Muslim and Arab-American supporters of Hamas no longer differentiate between American Jews and Israel, no longer differentiate between a rapist and his victim, and no longer differentiate between a murderer and those murdered.

Dar al-Islam begins with the Jews only as a first step, the rest of humanity will follow.

Blinken Blinks: US Takes Back the Embargo Ultimatum Against Israel

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

I’ve been waiting to use the fun combo “Blinken Blinks” since the start of the Biden administration, and I finally got my chance, a few days before it was over.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has opted to maintain the current level of US military assistance to Israel, despite a deadline set by Washington that expires today, November 13, regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Barak Ravid reported, citing two American officials. The officials noted that Israel has made significant efforts to address US concerns about humanitarian conditions in Gaza. However, they emphasized that Washington expects to see additional measures taken by Israel in the coming days.

Well, in the coming days, Washington will be repainted red, and the Secretary of State will be pro-Israel hawk Marco Rubio.

Some recent history: on October 13, the Biden administration warned Israel that it must replenish the humanitarian aid supplies to northern Gaza after said supplies had dropped to their lowest level since the Americans had come up with the foolish notion that the IDF must provide for its enemy’s well being to make sure they never surrender and to allow Hamas to appropriate and distribute the supplies at exorbitant prices.

The Americans warned that if Israel did not replenish the supplies by November 13, they would embargo much-needed military provisions, including ammunition, even as Israel is in the midst of two ground campaigns, one in Gaza, the other in south Lebanon.

The Political-Security Cabinet gave in and on Sunday ordered an increase in the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, in light of the expiration of the ultimatum set by the United States. The Kissufim crossing, at the central Gaza Strip, was opened for the entry of aid trucks into the Strip for the first time since the expulsion of 2005.

So, Israel met Biden’s demands regarding an increase in the number of trucks, from around ten to 350 a day, but apparently, none of the provisions reached northern Gaza. In northern Gaza, the IDF continues its campaign to clear the entire area from the border down to the Netzarim corridor. At some point, once all the civilians are evacuated from northern Gaza, the IDF will go about eliminating every last Hamas terrorist remaining there, and the way to move some 400,000 Arabs to the center and the south is by starvation. Yes, war is hell.

IT’S ALL SMILES AGAIN OVER AT FOGGY BOTTOM

AP reporter Matt Lee on Tuesday asked the State Dept. Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel if Israel was meeting the demands of the ultimatum, seeing as it was about to expire.

Patel responded: “Let me make a couple of points. Over the past 30 days, Israel has taken a number of steps to address the measures laid out in the letter that Secretaries Blinken and Austin sent earlier in October. We continue to be in discussion with our partners in Israel about these steps that they have taken, which they took as a result of US intervention, as well as additional steps that we feel still need to be taken.”

Lee insisted: “You guys, yourselves, set this 30-day deadline. Today is the deadline. Did they meet it or did they not?”

Patel responded: “First, let me just say specifically before I answer your question that we’ve seen some steps being taken over the past 30 days. Specifically, we have seen the reopening of the Erez crossing. We have seen a new crossing at Kissufim open. … We’ve also seen some additional delivery routes open within Gaza, including Bani Suheila Road, expanding the use of the Israeli fence road, as well as repairing the coastal road. We’ve also seen some deliveries resume and restored in the north, first to Gaza City, and in this most recent week to areas surrounding Jabalia. We’ve also seen the expansion of the Mawasi humanitarian zone, and we have seen the institution of periodic operational pauses.”

🔴הערבים במחנה ג׳בליה מניפים דגל לבן – נחיל של פליטים🔴
הערבים פרסמו תמונה של נחיל פליטים שמניפים דגל לבן ועוזבים את מחנה ג׳בליה
המחנה נפל, עכשיו הפינוי זה רק שאלה של זמן pic.twitter.com/d1LN3HW6pt

— אור פיאלקוב (@orfialkov) October 21, 2024

To clarify, Gaza City is below the area being essentially annexed by the IDF in the northern Strip, and the aid to Jabalia consisted of ten trucks. The IDF is in the midst of a huge battle to take over Jabalia and bulldoze every last building there. As a result, once the civilians in Jabalia received their care packages, they were all driven south.

Patel added: “But most importantly, we are going to continue to watch how these steps that they’ve taken, how they are being implemented, how they can be continued to be expanded on. And through that, we’re going to continue to assess their compliance with US law.”

Yes, yes, until January 20, 2025, a little over two months from now.

Lee asked, “All right. So essentially, there isn’t going to be any consequence for Israel not meeting the…”

Patel answered: “I certainly don’t have a change in US policy to announce today, Matt. But as you just heard me say, we are constantly going to assess the circumstances on the ground.”

Lee was upset, it was clear he really wanted the ultimatum to turn into an embargo. “Yeah, yeah. But you guys were the ones that gave them the 30-day deadline. It’s hard to see your answers today, such as they are, as anything other than kind of giving them a pass for not meeting the criteria that were laid out in the letter.”

Patel: “Certainly, Matt, I would not view it as giving them a pass. … And as you’ve heard me say, and as you’ve heard Matt and the Secretary say previously, if we don’t see steps being taken, we, of course, will appropriately enforce US law.”

Lee: “But – correct me if I’m wrong – isn’t that what you guys said a month ago?”

Patel: “That is what we said a month ago.”

Lee: “And they have not yet met [US demands], because you say that they have taken some steps, but more needs to be made. In other words, they have not. And you are giving them a pass. There’s no other way to look at it.”

This went on for a while, with both the reporter and the spokesman neglecting to mention the elephant in the room, and by elephant, I mean the emblem of the Republican party, who’s already measuring the drapes as this pointless conversation was going on.

The important takeaway from this is the fact that Blinken and the boys are not going to impose an arms embargo on Israel, the IDF will continue to do the bare minimum to meet US demands about humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the maneuvers to clear northern Gaza completely, turning it into a kill zone for Gaza Arabs, civilian and terrorist alike, continue.

Trump’s appointments have electrified the West

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 14, 2024

Donald Trump’s impending arrival at the White House is not only having a seismic impact on American politics. It is also creating dramatic changes to the global landscape, especially regarding the conduct of hostile states that will soon find themselves in the new administration’s cross hairs.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are among those that have cause to be concerned about the impact the more robust approach adopted by the incoming Trump administration will have on their fortunes.

Even though the president-elect is still in the early stages of forming his new administration, it is already abundantly clear that Trump 2.0 will be a far more formidable beast than Trump 1.0 in terms of its approach to the world’s malcontents.

The appointment of Pete Hegseth, a high-profile military veteran and Fox News presenter, as Trump’s next defence secretary will certainly concentrate a few minds in places like Moscow and Tehran. A hawk on both Russia and Iran, Hegseth has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s half-hearted support for Ukraine, and previously called on Trump during his first stint in the White House to launch direct military action against the ayatollahs.

Similarly, Senator Marco Rubio, who is being lined up to become secretary of state, has little appetite for compromise when dealing with America’s foes, arguing against a ceasefire in Gaza on the grounds that Israel should “destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on”, an approach that stands in stark contrast to the Biden administration’s continuing pursuit of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.

Add to this Trump’s appointment of John Ratcliffe, who is convinced that Covid originated from a Chinese research laboratory, as CIA director, and Mike Waltz, another renowned China hawk, as national security advisor, and it is clear that, with the equally hawkish J D Vance set to become vice president, Washington’s foes will mess with the next Trump administration at their peril.

The prospect of Trump’s imminent return to the Oval Office has certainly had a galvanising impact on America’s adversaries, with his election victory forcing them to have a serious rethink about their options.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the Ukrainian battlefield, where Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a desperate scramble to capture as much territory as possible, even if it means sustaining even greater casualties. There is a general expectation that one of Trump’s first moves will be to end the Ukraine conflict, not least because he boasted during the election campaign that he could do so within 24 hours. This has prompted both Russia and Ukraine to intensify their efforts to capture as much territory as possible to create “facts on the ground” prior to any negotiations taking place.

Russia’s attempts to retake territory in the southern Kursk region, which was captured by Ukraine in the summer, is proving particularly costly, with the Russian military suffering an astonishing 2,000 casualties a day. With the Russians having sustained in excess of 500,000 casualties since Putin launched his “special military operation” in February 2022, Moscow has now deployed an estimated 10,000 North Koreans troops to support its operations in Kursk, a development that has its own grave implications for Western security.

With China and Iran already providing military support for Moscow’s war effort, the introduction of another rogue actor to back Russia’s land grab is a graphic reminder of the dramatic changes taking place to the global threat environment.

Nor is this radical change in behaviour confined to Washington’s foes. This week’s suggestion that the European Commission is looking to change its spending policies to allow greater investment in the bloc’s defence and security could prove vital to providing European nations with the wherewithal to protect their interests.

This long-overdue move, which could see tens of billions of euros redirected to fund Europe’s defence needs, is a belated acknowledgement that, with Trump back in power, European nations can no longer rely on Washington to defend them.

The commission’s overdue initiative is certainly something No 10 should take on board as the UK, in common with the rest of its European allies, is singularly ill-prepared to defend itself without American support.

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility, for example, that Sir Keir Starmer could soon find himself facing calls from Trump for British forces, together with other European allies, to be deployed to Ukraine to patrol a demilitarised zone on Ukraine’s eastern border in the event of a ceasefire being implemented.

Given the current parlous state of our Armed Forces, with the Army being reduced to its smallest level since the Napoleonic era, the Government would struggle to meet such a request, a failing that would simply confirm Trump’s long-held view that America’s key allies are not serious about funding their defence commitments.

Trump’s imminent return to the White House may be a cause of consternation for America’s foes. But it should also serve as a warning that his new administration will expect all Washington’s allies to pay their fair share towards the defence of the free world.

N.Y. Times Changes “Occupation” Language After AFSI Protests

Center for Near East Policy Research

November 11, 2024

The New York Times has quietly corrected a false statement about “Israeli occupation” that it used repeatedly earlier this year. The change follows a protest by Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI).

The controversy began this past summer, when multiple Times reporters began using a new, identical phrase when referring to the Judea-Samaria territories, claiming that “three million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation” there. The same phrase appeared in no less than six news articles in eight days in August and September.

In early September, AFSI published a report exposing the truth: that 98% of those Arabs actually live under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, not Israel; and that the Times was falsely inflating the Arab population from 2.7-million—which the Times itself had previously reported—to 3 million.

In the weeks since AFSI’s report, the Times has reversed course. Between September 13 and November 5, the Times published five news articles and one video report about those territories. Not one of those reports claimed that “three million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation.” In addition, the video report revised the Arab population downward to the original figure of 2.7-million.

AFSI national chairman Moshe Phillips said:

“It seems clear that editors at the Times last summer instructed their reporters to make a false statement about Israel—but once they were exposed, the editors quietly stopped using that falsehood. The fight against anti-Israel media bias may be long and difficult, but this episode demonstrates that persistence can force biased editors and reporters to correct their misstatements.”

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Established in 1970, AFSI is one of the oldest and most influential pro-Israel organizations in the United States. Its advocacy and education campaigns serve as a potent counterweight to the rising tide of Arab propaganda. AFSI is not affiliated with any political party in the United States or Israel.