Tuesday, May 26, 2026
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From Arafat to Paramount

By
David Bedein
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In   September 1993, while on IDF Reserve duty in Har Eval overlooking Nablus, the IDF distributed its monthly newsletter to the troops.

There was a surprising feature this time, describing a new peace profile of PLO  leader, Yassir Arafat.

The  IDF newsletter described peace initiatives  that Arafat was engaged in.

Found this to be a surprising development.

Called an Arab journalist  to verify the story.

The Arab journalist was just as befuddled .

Asked him if could dispatch a TV crew to follow Arafat around and film him as he spoke to his people.

 It was not long before a dozen clips recorded Arafat’s speeches which people in Israel were not aware of, although they were screened on the new Palestinian TV channel, the  PBC, which hardly presented a persona of peace.

And so began a new cottage industry, “the Arafat tapes”.

Eventually screened in the Knesset and the US Congress, which caused much consternation to the   circles which sought to buttress the image of Arafat and the PLO as harbingers of peace.

However the death of Arafat in 2004 and the creation of the Palestine Authority recognized by 135 nations ,did nothing to diminish incitement which our TV crews continued to film, especially their schools and their summer camps .

By summer 2024, had produced 26 movies filmed on location in UNRWA facilities in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza, where the violent PA curriculum was being used.

Although these movies could  be easily accessed, Israel’s four tv stations will not feature these movies, even though these films provided the living proof of  preparations for the current war.

Along came Paramount pictures.

 Their representative in Israel asked if they could purchase footage to these films

Paramount pictures will now produce  their own movie on Palestinian indoctrination to a war of terror, based on  footage from our movies, which can be viewed at: https://www.cfnepr.com/205640/Movies

Curses – ancient and modern

By
Michael Kuttner
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It is amazing how very often the weekly Torah portion that we read in Synagogues on Shabbat contains startling messages so highly relevant to our current situation.

This past Shabbat, Jewish communities around the world read the portion entitled BALAK.

It narrates the frantic efforts of a local warlord and leader to find and convince the leading non-Jewish prophet of his time to issue curses against the Israelites. The tribes were approaching the end of their forty-year trek from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land. They had already defeated many opponents who had attempted to bar their way.

Balak was no fool.

He realised that conventional military tactics were unlikely to be successful against a battle-hardened group determined to reach their objective. Based on reports he had received, the Israelite tribes seemed, in his words, to be like an ox devouring everything in its path.

A radically different plan of action was therefore needed.

What better way to counter the seemingly supernatural force helping Moses and Joshua than by employing the services of the most famous prophet? If he could be convinced to employ curses against this menacing nation, perhaps they would be stopped in their tracks and prevented from advancing.

The power of cursing an entire People should not be underestimated.

Although reluctant at first, Bilaam was induced with bribes and rewards to publicly curse the Children of Israel and thus frustrate their eventual entry to Canaan.

Things don’t always work out the way intended, and at the end of the day, Bilaam felt compelled to bless the Israelite tribes. This dramatic change did not go down too well, and he was dismissed in disgrace.

Balak refused to give up and devised another strategy. Tempting the weary Israelite men with the prospect of a “fun time” with pagan women turned out to be more successful for a short time until even this ploy was aborted.

The Torah portion ends with the Israelites opposite Jericho, poised to conquer that strategic city and ready to establish sovereignty in the Land promised to the Patriarchs.

As I followed this reading, I couldn’t help but notice the eerie similarities with current developments unfolding before our eyes. Other worshippers also recognised the signs of the times as they continue to develop.

The ancient script, over three thousand years old, is sending us a clear message from the dawn of our history.

Once again, the power of cursing is being employed by individuals, groups and nations in an endeavour to defeat and frustrate the Jewish People.

The same techniques of defaming and besmirching are being utilised to undermine the legality of a Jewish sovereign presence in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. Deliberate lies are spread about having any legal presence in the Land, with “from the river to the sea” becoming the national anthem of the slanderers and liars.

A fake history, creating a fake nation, claiming a fake right to Eretz Israel, has become the accepted narrative of the international community. Like Balak of old, today’s political leaders parrot the same mindless rhetoric. Having failed to prevent the return of the Jewish nation, they now concentrate on delegitimising its presence.

When Balak and his designated spokesperson, Bilaam, were strutting the world stage, the power of cursing others was confined to a relatively small audience. Today’s cursers have access to technology that spreads their vile utterances to millions at the flick of a switch.

Whereas once these purveyors of incitement and hate only represented themselves, the current crop recruits multinational organisations to their malign cause.

The United Nations and its associated bodies are the standard bearers of all those whose main aim in life is to smear Israel and consign it permanently to the “sin bin” of sanctioned outcasts. If one were to look for a modern-day successor to the Biblical Balak, one needs to look no further than Francesca Albanese. Her sole passion and task in life is to curse Israel at every conceivable opportunity.

At a recent meeting of the misnamed UN Human Rights Council, the following poisonous curse spewed forth: “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.”  The assembled delegates erupted in rapturous applause.

Unlike in the Torah narrative, this woman’s curses are endorsed by other political players. It makes no difference whether they repeat the same lies or whether they mumble other inanities. Curses can be cloaked in diplomatic deceit. Kowtowing to ICC arrest warrants against Israelis, rewriting history by claiming non-existent Jewish connections to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria are all part of modern-day efforts to deny Israel’s legitimacy.

Many try to cloak their enmity or ignorance behind a veneer of supposed friendship. President Macron loves to show his Gallic hypocrisy at every opportunity. He is working overtime to give birth to “Palestine” in the heart of the Jewish State. His claim that this will guarantee peace in the region is delusional, but no doubt will resonate with France’s fast-growing jihadist residents.

At the same time that he condemns Israel for its “crimes”, he lauds the establishment of the state of New Caledonia. Of course, this territory will still be a colonial possession of France, which “acquired” it in the 1800s. This exquisite piece of hypocrisy is naturally ignored by the mobs baying against supposed Israeli “colonial” crimes.

The number of professional associations and groups jumping on the curse Israel bandwagon grows apace.

The latest lemming to do so is the British Medical Association, which has decided to boycott Israeli doctors. Given the dire situation of the NHS, one can only shake one’s head at the idiocy of this decision. Taken to its logical conclusion, presumably, the BMA will now also boycott all Israeli medical devices and technology that help to save lives and treat diseases.

Likewise, America’s largest teachers’ union has voted to sever all relations with the Anti-Defamation League because of its “support” for Israel. This means that teachers will no longer use any resource issued by the ADL, and presumably, this is a boycott of teaching about Jew hate. Ignorance of and support for Jew hate in American schools will increase from its already abysmal level.

In Germany, the Protestant Church Assembly has just taken place. Taking pride of place at this gathering was a large map of the “holy land” with Tel Aviv missing. During its proceedings, massive anti-Israel bias was promoted. This modern-day version of cursing the Jewish connection to the Promised Land was amazingly subsidised by the German authorities to the tune of eleven million Euros.

Just as some Israelites at the time of Joshua strayed and embraced pagan practices, today’s self-flagellators delight in demeaning Israel and its war against terror. The media and haters love nothing more than the spectacle of dissident Jews joining those who dish dirt against their fellow compatriots. Nothing has changed over the millennia.

The burning question is why Bilaam, at the end of the day, balked at cursing the Israelites and instead ended up blessing them? What changed his mind, and could the same scenario happen with the current crop of cursers?

One has to remember that Bilaam was a leading prophet or seer of his generation. As such, even though he was a pagan, he was still able to see that there was something special about the Israelite tribes. He was receptive, albeit at first reluctantly, to seeing the error of his ways. At the end of the day, he switched sides. His blessings ended up ironically becoming part of our prayers as we enter the synagogue.

Nobody can truthfully claim that those who curse Israel and Jews today are on an equal footing with Bilaam. They are neither prophets nor seers, and their closed, bigoted minds preclude any sort of belated revelation. It is therefore futile to expect any sort of contrition or acknowledgment of guilt for propagating mistruths.

Ironically, however, or perhaps by some divine intervention, a shattering confession has surfaced. As reported in the Jerusalem Post, an Iranian official claimed that during the recently concluded 12-day war, Israel had received help from a mysterious source. According to this spokesperson, Israel had been helped by “occult forces and supernatural spirits.”

Who would believe it?

Here is an Iranian official admitting that behind Israel stands a force of supernatural dimensions. This revelation validates the Balak/Bilaam episode and the Jewish People’s direct connection with a “higher authority.”

We are certainly living in wondrous times.

The rabbi who knew the real reason for Arik Sharon’s “Disengagement”

By
David Bedein
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The death of the Chief Rabbi Emeritus of Haifa, Rabbi Shaar-Yashuv Cohen, brings to mind the most stirring episodes in the history of the modern State of Israel.

Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen, wounded in the battle for the Old City in Jerusalem, was the last Jewish civilian who left the Old City as it fell, carried on a stretcher into captivity…And Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen, who served as the deputy Mayor of Jerusalem in 1967, was given the honor of being the first civilian allowed to enter the Old City in Jerusalem at the time of its liberation during the six day war.

Yet there is yet another mission to Jerusalem which was little known.

In August, 2005, Rabbi Shaar-Yashuv Cohen traveled to Jerusalem to attempt a last minute plea for then Prime Minister Ariiel (Arik) Sharon to reconsider his plan to retreat from Gush Katif, which involved Israel’s obliteration of the 21 Jewish communities there, including 325 thriving Jewish farms and 86 synagogues and Jewish study centers. Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen told me at the time that the rapport between Arik Sharon and himself had lasted since his days of captivity in the 1948 war and that Rav Shaar-Yashuv was the only Rabbi who was ready to speak with him at the time.

Sharon gave a clear answer to the rabbi: “This is what the US is demanding that I do and I must do it.”

It did not matter that half of the 9,000 Jews who live in Gush Katif had nowhere to go, and that their relocation plans were still up in the air.

It did  not matter that the Israeli government cannot offer more than two containers to each family to help them remove their possessions.

It did not seem to matter that the experts in Israel’s security establishment are warning that the result of Israel’s hasty retreat will be the creation of a new Islamic terror base.

Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen heard Sharon making it clear that he was under pressure from the US government and that is that, and that the myth of an autonomous Israeli policy in this regard had nothing to do with reality.

Indeed, one of the common assumptions was  that the Sharon government’s plan to expel Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria, and unilaterally hand the area over to an independent Palestinian entity, had been an entirely autonomous Israeli decision.

But the US government was behind it all along.

In meetings with concerned American citizens, Danny Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the US at the time, clearly stated that Sharon’s Retreat Plan was  part of an overall Israeli-American agreement.

In late June, 2005, Ayalon met with representatives of the Orthodox Union, one of the largest contingents of American Orthodox Jews, and told them clearly that “Prime Minister Sharon is left with no choice. He is doing exactly what the US expects him to do.”

In an interview with the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, published on June 22nd, 2005, Ayalon reversed earlier Israeli government statements, saying that Israel does not expect the Palestinian Authority (PA) to dismantle terrorist infrastructure until after the planned expulsion. He mentioned that ending terrorism and anti-Israel incitement had been conditions Israel had demanded from the PA before carrying out the plan; however, Ayalon indicated that the agreement with the US was more important than an agreement with the PA.

The Israeli ambassador said, “Disengagement has to be viewed in the context of Israel-United States relations…. This pullout did not follow an agreement with the Palestinians, but it followed something which is much more important, an agreement with the United States. Disengagement is something that creates a common agenda between us and the United States.”

In the final interview given by Benyamin Netanyahu before his resignation from the Sharon government, he indicated that the current policy pursued by the government of Israel should be perceived as a threat to the security interests of the US and of all Western countries, since it created a terror base in Gaza, and since the Palestinian Authority incorporated the Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations instead of dismantling them.

Yet, the directive of the US State Department remained unaltered: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon must dismantle and withdraw any and all Israeli presence from every Jewish community in the Katif district of Gaza by mid-August.

When Israel did go ahead with the retreat of the  IDF and the expulsion of the Jewish communities from Katif and the Northern Shomron,  Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen told me that he wanted to tell the world that this policy was implemented  as a the result of a clear dictate to Arik Sharon issued by the government of the United States. This was not meant as rationalization for Sharon’s policy.

Few people want to hear the warnings of Rav Shaar-Yashuv Cohen that Israeli policy is often dictated from Washington.

“Déjà vu”: Gaza: David Bedein “Where Terror Rules” | September 7, 2005

By
David Bedein
-

Ariel Sharon’s government added a specific clause to the final version of the Disengagement Plan, a plan that was ratified by the Israeli government on June 6th, 2004 after an earlier version had been rejected by Sharon’s own Likud Party referendum on May 2nd, 2004. That clause mandated that all properties from evacuated Israeli communities be transferred to “a third, international party which will put them to use for the benefit of the Palestinian population that is not involved in terror.” The Prime Minister’s Disengagement legislation in English can be found at www.pmo.gov.il.

With such legislated assurance that all assets given over to the PA would not be handed over to any terrorist organization, Prime Minister Sharon was able to win successive Knesset (Israel’s parliament) votes and numerous suits in the Israel High Court of Justice that challenged the legality of the Disengagement Plan.

But open sources in the Palestinian Authority, monitored by the Israeli government, contradict that assurance that Israel’s real estate assets would not be handed over to terrorists.

In an interview with the popular “Islam On Line” website, on July 25th, 2005, at www.islamonline.net, three weeks before the Disengagement, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath boasted that the United Arab Emirates had offered a 100 million dollar grant to transform one of the evacuated settlements into a housing project that would honor suicide bombers and provide housing for the children of suicide bombers.

Meanwhille, WAFA — the Palestinian Official News Agency — confirmed on August 24th, 2005 (www.wafa.pna.net) that the Hamas terrorist organization would indeed receive these assets. The agency quoted senior Hamas leader Yunis al-Astal as saying that he had been assured that “The colonies’ lands” will indeed be awarded to the “families and relatives of the martyrs (shahaida)” in honor of their suicide bombing attacks against Israelis.

At the same time, the Palestinian Authority has raised Hamas’s profile in its tightly controlled official media. Reports have highlighted the rising prominence of Hamas and its expanded role in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Perhaps the most important step was the PA agreement to share authority with Hamas in a working committee that was formed with the PA’s dominant Fatah Movement. [1] That committee was established to monitor the Israeli withdrawal and the Palestinian takeover of areas of the Gaza Strip evacuated by the Jewish state.

That decision was regarded as one of the most important in the PA’s new policy of bringing Hamas into power. This new committee’s responsibility is to review all information and all PA plans for the Israeli areas of the Gaza Strip, and to access the $500 million in international funds allocated for development of the area. [2]

The most telling sign of Hamas’s power was not the committee itself. It was where Fatah and Hamas met to decide on the panel. The meeting took place on August 13th at the home of Hamas spokesman and titular leader Mahmoud A-Zahar in Gaza City. [3]

A-Zahar has become to the Palestinian Authority what Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is in Lebanon — a leading non-state actor. “The Palestinian Authority has the right to administer the land [evacuated by Israel] after consulting with the committee, which consists of representatives of the national and Islamic factions,” A-Zahar is quoted as saying.

Unlike PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, A-Zahar does not occupy a daily presence in the PA media. But when he appears, A-Zahar’s views are given the utmost prominence.  PA dailies have been either quoting A-Zahar directly or reprinting the interviews that he gives to other Arab media.

Perhaps the most important article was an interview that A-Zahar gave to the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily on August 18th, just as Israel was evicting its citizens out of its settlements.

The interview was reprinted the following day in Al Ayyam, a newspaper owned by the PA and edited by a leading Fatah operative. In that interview, A-Zahar outlined Hamas’s strategy of maintaining attacks against Israel until its complete destruction. He added that his movement would seek to destroy the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The publication of Hamas’s platform in a Fatah-aligned newspaper would have been unthinkable even a year ago.

The Hamas platform declared that the PA had failed in its attempt to force the Islamic movement to end attacks against Israel or surrender Hamas weapons. A-Zahar continued that Interior Minister Nasser Yusef sought to confront Hamas operatives in the United Nations Jabalya refugee camp north of the Gaza City with armored vehicles, “But he quickly realized that he could not resolve the situation through military means.” A-Zahar further stated, “Now they seek dialog, which we welcome.”

A-Zahar came across in the interview as the leader of Palestinian jihad or holy war. He stressed that Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank would influence the Arab and Muslim world in jihad. He said the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would galvanize the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and the Taliban and Al Qaida campaign in Afghanistan.

A-Zahar said Israel did not choose to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Instead, A-Zahar emphasized that  it was Hamas missiles, mortars and boobytrapped tunnels that drove the Israeli military out of the area. That message was consistent with that of Mahmoud Abbas who talked of jihad in the struggle against Israel, but had stressed that armed resistance was no longer necessary after the Israeli withdrawal. “[Hamas] wants to spread the culture of resistance,” A-Zahar said in a reference to suicide strikes. “We will enter the settlements and soil Israel’s dignity with our feet. We will stand on the ruins of the Israeli settlements and tell our people we have won.”

A-Zahar hasn’t been the only Hamas official given major publicity in the PA media. Sheik Hassan Yusef, regarded as the leader of Hamas in the West Bank, was given prominence in an interview with Al Hayat Al Jadida, the most ardent of pro-Fatah dailies.

Yusef reiterated the Hamas position that the movement would not surrender its weapons to the PA after the Israeli withdrawal. Instead, Yusef said the PA, including Abbas, never raised such a demand in meetings with the movement. The Hamas leader said the two sides would continue to coordinate.

“There are no moderates or extremists in Hamas,” Yusef said. “Our coordination with the PA has not been severed and talk of disarmament was not proposed.” [4] In essence, Hamas has become a full-fledged partner of the Palestine Authority–on a par with or even beyond that of Fatah. Hamas’s activities are deemed as legitimate and important. Indeed, PA-owned newspapers report on Hamas in greater detail and with greater prominence than Fatah.

The best example of the new PA policy was highlighted in Hamas preparations for the Israeli withdrawal. All of the three PA-aligned dailies [5] have reported on Hamas rallies to mark the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The reports have been prominently placed in all of the dailies and often include photographs.

As a result, readers of PA newspapers now learned of Hamas rallies throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank. All of these rallies were described as “huge” and included photographs of masked Hamas operatives in dune buggies in Nablus. [6]

In contrast, coverage of Fatah activities in the Gaza Strip appears marginal. Most important, articles on Fatah celebrations to mark the Israeli withdrawal do not include photographs, an acknowledgement that these events did not match the crowds at Hamas-sponsored marches.

Hamas, however, doesn’t need the PA to get across the message of jihad.

Abbas has enabled Hamas to maintain its own radio station in the Gaza Strip where it is free to preach holy war against Israel. Indeed, Hamas has launched an intensive media campaign to win support for the continuation of the so-called “armed struggle” in the goal to destroy Israel. The campaign has also been highlighted in the pan-Arab media as part of an effort to raise its profile in the months leading to the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, scheduled for January 2006.

The PA, which pledged to Israel and the United States to stop incitement, has not shut down the Hamas radio station. The PA has also not moved against Hamas’s Internet site, which encourages terrorism. The Hamas website provided data to support a claim that it has been the most active Palestinian group in the war against Israel.

The website said Hamas had conducted 145 out of the 215 insurgency operations in the Gaza Strip. [7] At the same time, Hamas claimed to have killed 646 Israelis since September 2000.  Hamas has also used its website to promulgate anti-Semitism. [8]

Hamas’s Voice of Al Aqsa radio station said the movement would continue to fire Kassam-class, short-range missiles toward Israel after its withdrawal. The message was accompanied by a song that praised Hamas operatives and called for “the raining of rockets on the settlers, preparing missile launchers and aiming them at settlements. Strap on the belts [of suicide bombers] and load them with TNT.” [9]

Hamas has used Voice of Al Aqsa to encourage Palestinians to launch holy war against the United States and the West too. The radio has broadcast interviews with Palestinian experts that asserted that the holy war against Israel would help what they term the global jihad.

“When all of Palestine has been liberated, the weapon of the jihad warriors can be moved to a different region where Islamists will wage war for the sake of Allah against the Crusader [Western], enemies of Allah — in Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan,” Salih Al Raqab, a senior Hamas official and lecturer at the Gaza City-based Islamic University, said. [10]

Hamas’s radio said Islam’s goal was to return Christians and Jews to their “natural state.” This state — promised by the Koran — was one of “humiliation and poverty.” [11]

For his part, Abbas has adopted the language of Hamas and made it clear that the movement would be a partner in government. Abbas, who also refers to “Jihad,” says that the PA has decided to allocate five percent of all government positions to the injured in the war against Israel. Given Hamas’s leading role in the war, that would mean Abbas would reserve the largest portion of government jobs to the Islamic opposition. [12]

Abbas’s policy of sharing power with Hamas, particularly regarding the future of the Gaza Strip, has not sat well with leading Fatah operatives. They see such a policy as encouraging Hamas to take over the Gaza Strip with its army of thousands of armed fighters. They said the PA-Hamas confrontation is one step away from blowing up into a major killing spree.

Yayha Ribah, a leading Fatah operative, asserts that Egypt prevented a Hamas-PA war. Yet he declared that Hamas has been violating all of the agreements with the PA, including the “ceasefire” announced by Abbas in February 2005.

To the question as to whether the PA or the Hamas will control the Gaza Strip. Ribah said the situation in the area has become volatile. “Today, we see a game being played in the arena, and it is a very dangerous game,” Ribah said. “Any simple violation could lead to a real tragedy.” [13]

At the time of writing of this piece, after the Israeli government has removed its citizens from the Katif districts of Gaza, and before Israel hands over any assets to the Palestinian Authority, our news agency asked Israeli government spokespeople about enforcing Cause Seven of the Disengagement Plan that forbids Israel from handing over any assets to Palestinians “involved in terror”.

An Israeli government spokesman said in response that Israel would be “watching very carefully to monitor every move of the Palestinian Authority in this respect.” However, the Prime Minister’s office has altered the Hebrew version of the web site version of its disengagement legislation to present only the April 18th version of the Disengagement Plan, a plan that  did not include Clause Seven forbidding Israel from handing over real estate assets to Palestinians who are “involved in terror.”  A version of the Prime Minister’s plan can be found in Hebrew at: www.pmo.gov.il.

So the question remains: will the government of Israel enforce Clause Seven of the Disengagement Plan to the letter of the agreement since Israel has removed every Jew, every Jewish home, every Jewish farm and even every Jewish grave in good faith gestures toward peace? Israel stuck to its part of the bargain and the message from the Palestinian Authority is that once again they will not do so.

Stay tuned for more in The War on Terror.

Notes:

  1. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 14. Pg. 1
    2. Al Ayyam. August 23. Pg. 1
    3. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 14. Pg. 1
    4. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 20.
    5. Al Quds is not owned by the PA, yet it is influenced by PA policy.
    6. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 23.
    7. The data was supplied by Hamas’s military wing Izzedin Kassam on the Hamas site.
    8. Hamas website contained a poster headlined: “Our Koran was right and your Talmud lied.”
    9. Voice of Al Aqsa on August 18
    10. Voice of Al Aqsa. August 21.
    11. Voice of Al Aqsa broadcast on August 19
    12. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 21
    13. Al Hayat Al Jadida. August 14

Trump’s Peace Delusion Is Bringing Chaos To Southern Syria

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
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I don’t say this lightly, because President Trump has done some good things in the past. However, the current US administration led by President Trump is sowing the seeds for more strife and war in the Middle East - especially in Syria. It will end up being a full failure unless President Trump changes his strategy.

On 14 May 2025, US President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh during his Middle East trip. The meeting was hastily put together at the behest of the Saudis. That meeting eventually led to the lifting of sanctions on Syria and then up until the massacres of Druze at the hands of Syrian regime forces over the last two days, Trump’s team was attempting to push some sort of security agreement with the Syrian Jihadist Regime on Israel.

It is no secret that President Trump is after a Nobel Peace Prize and wants to rush through a series of “peace” agreements between Arab countries and Israel as soon as he can. There is just one problem. President Trump believes countries run by Jihadists can be peaceful if enough carrots are dangled in front of them.

Peace with Jihadists is not possible – no matter how they dress and. how much money they are given. If there was any doubt, the events of the last few days in Sweida should be proof enough. However, for Trump, the illusory “deal” was held onto even as Ahmed al-Sharaa’s men pushed south into Sweida in complete disregard of Israel’s warnings, assuming the Trump administration would hold back the Jewish State from acting – they gambled wrong.

It was reported that Trump told us not to intervene, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz disregarded the American directing and instead pounded the Syrian regime forces. That’s right, the Trump team would have allowed 700,000 Druze to be massacred in southern Syria in order to keep hope alive for some sort of “peace” agreement between Syria and Israel. If it wasn’t for Israel that massacre would have most surely happened. Israel blew up the national military headquarters in Damascus. More than 200 bombs were dropped in the vicinity of Damascus. The IDF took out regime convoys, tanks, fighters, and more - decimating al-Sharaa’s forces.

Unfortunately, the Trump team, including Marco Rubio dropped the ball in regards to the Druze and instead allowing Israel to finish off the Jihadist regime in Damascus, the State Department released what would be considered a “balanced” statement. ”The events in Syria are regrettable, and there is a lack of understanding between the Israeli and Syrian sides. We anticipate that there will be significant developments in the coming hours regarding the issue of tension in Syria, and we expect to see both Syrian and Israeli withdrawals from the conflict area and an end to the violence. We call on the Syrian government to withdraw its forces in order to allow all sides to achieve a de-escalation.”

Given the events over the last 48 hours there is no going back. Syrian forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa massacred Druze in Sweida. Some counts are saying over 250 people were murdered. Videos show humiliation of Druze men before they are killed in cold blood. They also massacred sick Druze in the main hospital in Sweida. If it wasn’t for the IDF, the situation would have been disastrous.

As of the writing of this article Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists that there is an agreement between Israel and Syria for both sides to withdraw forces. There is some evidence that al-Sharaa has ordered his forces out of Sweida based on a ceasefire they reached with one of the Druze sheikhs.

However, the Military Council in Sweida issued this statement: “We do not recognize the agreement made by Yusuf Jarboo (the Druze sheikh Jarboo reached an agreement with the regime). He does not represent us. Only Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri represents us.” Hijri is very pro-Israel and is considered the most powerful of the sheikhs in Sweida.

The USA must understand that the only way to reach stability in southern Syria is to support Druze autonomy as an Israeli protectorate. Anything less is inviting the same sort of barbarism that has been on display over the last 48 hours.

Unfortunately, President Trump is far more worried about prizes and accolades than bringing an end to the Jihadist hordes that have streamed into Syria and threaten the existence of minorities there as well as posing a strategic problem for Israel. We all know that Trump speaks very highly of Turkish President Erdogan. Could there be a connection between that relationship and his softball attitude when it comes to the Druze in Syria? After all, the regime in Damascus is essentially an Erdogan project and President Trump has no problem with that at all.

Natasha Hausdorff: Every element of Israel’s conduct in Gaza is informed by the need to protect civilian lives.

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Ahmed Al-Shara’s Foreign Jihadist Problem

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

When Trump met Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, in Riyadh, he couldn’t stop praising him. “He’s a young, attractive guy—tough guy,” Trump said. “He’s got a real shot at pulling it together.” The White House cast the meeting as a breakthrough, announcing sanctions relief and backing engagement with Shara’s government as a path to stability and an opportunity to counter extremists.

Trump even sent longtime ally Thomas Barrack as a special envoy, who praised Shara for “taking meaningful steps” on tackling foreign terrorist fighters.

But in the weeks since, Shara has done exactly the opposite. Rather than removing extremists, he’s absorbing them into his unified national army. The new government’s approach folds groups affiliated with the world’s most dangerous jihadists into Syria’s armed forces.

Up to 3,000 fighters from the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP)—a Uyghur-led jihadist group tied to Al Qaeda—have been integrated into Syria’s new military under Shara’s watch. This isn’t happening in secret. “There is an understanding, with transparency,” Barrack said of the move, signaling that Washington gave it its blessing.

Some analysts argue that integrating the Turkistan Islamic Party into Syria’s army is a pragmatic move because TIP’s Syria branch has cut ties with Al Qaeda, its fighters cannot return home, and it is better to control them within the system than risk pushing them back into the arms of other extremist groups. Nevertheless, this argument ignores the fact that many of these fighters are still loyal to Al Qaeda’s leadership, have engaged in sectarian violence, and pose a serious threat to Shara’s authority, especially if he pursues policies they oppose.

Analysts who favor integration accept TIP’s claim that it no longer takes orders from its external leadership and Al Qaeda. But there is little indication that the TIP in Syria has severed its ideology or operations from Al Qaeda. Their leader, Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, is a longtime jihadist and member of Al Qaeda’s top leadership council, and according to the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, he still directs TIP’s operations inside Syria from Afghanistan. TIP targets China’s Xinjiang province, where it seeks to establish an Islamic emirate, but it also operates as part of Al Qaeda’s global network, with strongholds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Shara promoted Abdulaziz Khudaberdi, the TIP’s Syria branch leader, to brigadier general in the Syrian army in December 2024. Audio recordings reveal Khudaberdi’s unwavering obedience to al-Turkistani, further showcasing the strong affiliation with the TIP leadership in Afghanistan and, by extension, Al Qaeda.

Shara and his associates have sought to convince Western interlocutors that bringing foreign fighters into the army would be less of a security risk than abandoning them, which could drive them into the orbit of Al Qaeda or the Islamic State.

Shara is partially right about that: The most hardline of these foreign fighters are already turning against him. They are angry that their former comrade in arms has not yet imposed Sharia law and have alleged that “he has cooperated with the United States and Turkish forces to target extremist factions.”

Instead, the authorities are setting clear guidelines outlining how they expect the foreign fighters to behave. They are to avoid inciting sectarian or political violence and to refrain from calling for attacks on other countries.

The claim that appointing foreign commanders is an effective way to insulate the regime from coups is right, but if these groups continue to maintain operational ties with their parent organizations abroad, they may just be biding their time to assert their own agendas. Their loyalty remains uncertain, and the threat of defiance persists, especially if they don’t agree with how Shara implements Sharia law or establishing a security relationship with Israel.

Additionally, taking Shara at his word that excluding foreign fighters will push them toward Al Qaeda or the Islamic State ignores the fact that many of the groups he seeks to integrate are already part of Al Qaeda’s network. That includes the newly formed 84th Division, a unit that Syrian commanders have filled primarily with TIP militants and other foreign combatants.

Among these combatants is a group named Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (KTJ), an Uzbek and Kyrgyz faction that operates in both Syria and Afghanistan. Unlike TIP, KTJ is officially identified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group by the United States, and KTJ has remained loyal to Al Qaeda.

In December 2024, Shara promoted KTJ’s leader, Saifuddin Tojiboyn, to the rank of colonel. Following his appointment, Saifuddin shut down his Telegram channel and vanished from public view—likely an attempt to “hide his extremist credentials and his allegiance to Al Qaeda while Syria seeks international sanctions relief,” according to Uran Botobekov, an expert on Central Asian Jihadi movements. The presence of an individual like Tojiboyn in Syria’s new army shows that Washington is at risk of greenlighting the enlistment of terrorists from its own blacklist into Syria’s military ranks.

Many of Syria’s foreign fighters committed human rights abuses during the violent clashes along the Syrian coast in March 2025. Among them were Turkmen and Chechen militants. According to a resident of an Alawite neighborhood, these foreign fighters “were everywhere.”

These incidents showed the lack of control Shara has over the foreign fighters. The Interior Ministry’s directive amid the clashes was that “all pro-government forces should adhere to procedures used during the offensive against the Assad regime, namely, no targeting of civilians.” However, the killings continued. The involvement of foreign jihadists directly complicates the situation, as many of these fighters came to Syria for explicitly sectarian reasons.

Shara and his government say that he wants the state to control these foreign fighters, but the attacks against the Alawites proved the opposite. These fighters acted with impunity, and their sectarian motivations endure despite their army membership. With the country still vulnerable to this type of conflict, their presence risks igniting further violence and bloodshed.

Now, with Washington greenlighting their integration and with a dedicated unit established for them, it will be difficult for the Syrian government to root out groups like the TIP that have already been absorbed.

At the very least, Damascus must ensure that these fighters sever all ties with Al Qaeda and stop receiving directives from al-Turkistani and the rest of the leadership in Afghanistan, as well as renounce their affiliation with TIP. It will also be sensible to keep these units away from sectarian flashpoints such as the Alawite-majority Syrian coast or the Druze-dominated Suwayda Governorate.

In addition, placing these units under the command of professional Syrian officers who will ensure the units train and learn properly, rather than becoming jihadi pockets within the Syrian army, will also help monitor and contain any insurrections, especially if Syria begins moving toward normalization with Israel. Additionally, Shara must demonstrate accountability for the perpetrators of the March massacres. The fact-finding committee, tasked by Shara, has yet to complete its final report on the incidents. Still, if he hands out token punishments for mass murder, it will show that putting extremists in the army may do more to legitimize them than empower Shara and the Syrian state.freestar

The Trump administration must also make clear to the Syrians that it will not tolerate the integration of foreign fighters designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists or listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, such as Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, into Syria’s new army.

The United States must also communicate to Syrian leadership that the use of Syrian territory for cross-border attacks is a red line and that Damascus will be held accountable for harboring groups that intend to export terrorism beyond Syria’s borders. Finally, Washington should be ready to impose direct sanctions on specific military units, such as the 84th Division, if they engage in sectarian violence against Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities.

Reprinted from: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/07/11/ahmed-al-sharas-foreign-jihadist-problem/

BLOOD LIBEL EXPOSED: Did Jewish “Settlers” Kill A “Palestinian-American” On Friday?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

A blood libel is now being spread throughout western media concerning the deaths of two Arabs in the vicinity of Ramallah, supposedly by Jewish “settlers”. 23-year-old Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat, one of the dead Arabs holds “Palesitnian-American” citizenship. The other was Mohammad Shalabi also 23. Arab media immediately reported that they were killed by Jewish “Settlers.” Without checking further, news outlets from NPR to The Telegraph to the New Arab began repeating this claim without any evidence.

So what did happen?

Here are the facts as best presented from those that were there. The video shown above clearly shows that Musalat is no peaceful bystander by rather part of a gang throwing rocks and attacking Jewish youth.

On Friday, a group of Arabs attacked Jewish shepherds near Ramallah in a premeditated attack. Reports confirm that dozens of Arab terrorists and rioters attacked a small group of Jewish shepherds with stones and slingshots in the area of the Ateret settlement in Binyamin. They burned and destroyed equipment and a Bible and injured two shepherds. The Arabs were accompanied by well-known anarchists and extreme left-wing activists.

The attack was planned in advance by the Arabs of the area. This was also reported by the Arab news agency “Wafa”, when the rioters’ goal was, according to them, to storm the place in order to “remove an outpost”.

The Jews called the security forces* who immediately arrived on the scene and repelled the rioters, while also attacking the forces in the open area along the mountain. When the forces arrived, a gas cylinder placed by the Arab rioters inside a bonfire they had lit exploded near them. There were no casualties from the explosion. At the same time, in light of the attack by the terrorists and rioters, Jewish activists were called to the scene and friction arose between them and the rioters who continued to throw stones.

Hours after the end of the event, the Arabs reported that two Arabs had been found dead, who they claimed had been injured during the events.

So was Musalat some peaceful “palestinian” learning about his heritage and traditions as his family has claimed? In a way they may be partly telling the truth. After all, one of the traditions “palestinians” hold in high esteem is throwing rocks and attacking Jews. Looks like Musalat fit right in.

Musalat was no innocent bystander or tourist, but as evidence becomes more clear he was a Hamas member and did not come to Israel to merely visit, but rather to partake in activities relating to attacking and harming Jews. Hamas is now declaring Musalat and Shalabi a martyrs, urging their followers to attack more Jews. Unfortunately, global media – even outlets in Israel are helping to enrage further hate towards Jews by spreading this blood libel – designed to cause increased violence and harm to Jews in Israel and abroad.

Egypt rejects Israel’s Gaza plan, threatens to dump peace agreement

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

An Egyptian official involved in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, stated that Egypt’s security delegation opposes Israel’s proposed military redeployment plan in Gaza.

In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, the official said that Cairo strongly opposes the continued Israeli military presence in the entire Rafah area, as well as the plan to establish a tent city in Rafah to house hundreds of thousands of Gazan refugees.

He stated, “This would create a human bomb at the Egyptian border, which would pose a clear threat to Egypt’s national security.”

The Egyptian official also noted that his country has warned in the past against Israeli violations of the Camp David Accords. He said that in response to Israeli unilateral actions, Egypt has reinforced its military forces and heavy weaponry in Sinai’s Zone C, contrary to the peace agreement and in direct response to Israel’s actions, which it perceives as violations of the agreement.

He also emphasized that the military buildup in Sinai is meant to send a message, and that Egypt may reconsider the peace agreement if it identifies Israeli violations which it believes pose a definite threat to Egyptian security.

How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

The number of civilian casualties in Gaza has been at the center of international attention since the start of the war. The main source for the data has been the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which now claims more than 30,000 dead, the majority of which it says are children and women. Recently, the Biden administration lent legitimacy to Hamas’ figure. When asked at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week how many Palestinian women and children have been killed since Oct. 7, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the number was “over 25,000.” The Pentagon quickly clarified that the secretary “was citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.” President Biden himself had earlier cited this figure, asserting that “too many, too many of the over 27,000 Palestinians killed in this conflict have been innocent civilians and children, including thousands of children.” The White House also explained that the president “was referring to publicly available data about the total number of casualties.”

Here’s the problem with this data: The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.

If Hamas’ numbers are faked or fraudulent in some way, there may be evidence in the numbers themselves that can demonstrate it. While there is not much data available, there is a little, and it is enough: From Oct. 26 until Nov. 10, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry released daily casualty figures that include both a total number and a specific number of women and children.

The first place to look is the reported “total” number of deaths. The graph of total deaths by date is increasing with almost metronomical linearity, as the graph in Figure 1 reveals.

This regularity is almost surely not real. One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day. In fact, the daily reported casualty count over this period averages 270 plus or minus about 15%. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less. Perhaps what is happening is the Gaza ministry is releasing fake daily numbers that vary too little because they do not have a clear understanding of the behavior of naturally occurring numbers. Unfortunately, verified control data is not available to formally test this conclusion, but the details of the daily counts render the numbers suspicious.

The graph reveals an extremely regular increase in casualties over the period. Data aggregated by the author and provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), based on Gaza MoH figures.
The graph reveals an extremely regular increase in casualties over the period. Data aggregated by the author and provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), based on Gaza MoH figures.

Similarly, we should see variation in the number of child casualties that tracks the variation in the number of women. This is because the daily variation in death counts is caused by the variation in the number of strikes on residential buildings and tunnels which should result in considerable variability in the totals but less variation in the percentage of deaths across groups. This is a basic statistical fact about chance variability. Consequently, on the days with many women casualties there should be large numbers of children casualties, and on the days when just a few women are reported to have been killed, just a few children should be reported. This relationship can be measured and quantified by the R-square (R2 ) statistic that measures how correlated the daily casualty count for women is with the daily casualty count for children. If the numbers were real, we would expect R2 to be substantively larger than 0, tending closer to 1.0. But R2 is .017 which is statistically and substantively not different from 0.

This lack of correlation is the second circumstantial piece of evidence suggesting the numbers are not real. But there is more. The daily number of women casualties should be highly correlated with the number of non-women and non-children (i.e., men) reported. Again, this is expected because of the nature of battle. The ebbs and flows of the bombings and attacks by Israel should cause the daily count to move together. But that is not what the data show. Not only is there not a positive correlation, there is a strong negative correlation, which makes no sense at all and establishes the third piece of evidence that the numbers are not real.

The daily number of children reported to have been killed is totally unrelated to the number of women reported. The R2 is .017 and the relationship is statistically and substantively insignificant.
The daily number of children reported to have been killed is totally unrelated to the number of women reported. The R2 is .017 and the relationship is statistically and substantively insignificant.

Consider some further anomalies in the data: First, the death count reported on Oct. 29 contradicts the numbers reported on the 28th, insofar as they imply that 26 men came back to life. This can happen because of misattribution or just reporting error. There are a few other days where the numbers of men are reported to be near 0. If these were just reporting errors, then on those days where the death count for men appears to be in error, the women’s count should be typical, at least on average. But it turns out that on the three days when the men’s count is near zero, suggesting an error, the women’s count is high. In fact, the three highest daily women casualty count occurs on those three days.

Taken together, what does this all imply? While the evidence is not dispositive, it is highly suggestive that a process unconnected or loosely connected to reality was used to report the numbers. Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily. We know this because the daily totals increase too consistently to be real. Then they assigned about 70% of the total to be women and children, splitting that amount randomly from day to day. Then they in-filled the number of men as set by the predetermined total. This explains all the data observed.

The correlation between the daily men and daily women death count is absurdly strong and negative (p-value < .0001).
The correlation between the daily men and daily women death count is absurdly strong and negative (p-value < .0001).

There are other obvious red flags. The Gaza Health Ministry has consistently claimed that about 70% of the casualties are women or children. This total is far higher than the numbers reported in earlier conflicts with Israel. Another red flag, raised by Salo Aizenberg and written about extensively, is that if 70% of the casualties are women and children and 25% of the population is adult male, then either Israel is not successfully eliminating Hamas fighters or adult male casualty counts are extremely low. This by itself strongly suggests that the numbers are at a minimum grossly inaccurate and quite probably outright faked. Finally, on Feb. 15, Hamas admitted to losing 6,000 of its fighters, which represents more than 20% of the total number of casualties reported.

Taken together, Hamas is reporting not only that 70% of casualties are women and children but also that 20% are fighters. This is not possible unless Israel is somehow not killing noncombatant men, or else Hamas is claiming that almost all the men in Gaza are Hamas fighters.

There are three days where the male casualty count is close to 0. These three days correspond to the three highest daily women’s casualty count.
There are three days where the male casualty count is close to 0. These three days correspond to the three highest daily women’s casualty count.

Are there better numbers? Some objective commentators have acknowledged Hamas’ numbers in previous battles with Israel to be roughly accurate. Nevertheless, this war is wholly unlike its predecessors in scale or scope; international observers who were able to monitor previous wars are now completely absent, so the past can’t be assumed to be a reliable guide. The fog of war is especially thick in Gaza, making it impossible to quickly determine civilian death totals with any accuracy. Not only do official Palestinian death counts fail to differentiate soldiers from children, but Hamas also blames all deaths on Israel even if caused by Hamas’ own misfired rockets, accidental explosions, deliberate killings, or internal battles. One group of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health compared Hamas reports to data on UNRWA workers. They argued that because the death rates were approximately similar, Hamas’ numbers must not be inflated. But their argument relied on a crucial and unverified assumption: that UNRWA workers are not disproportionately more likely to be killed than the general population. That premise exploded when it was uncovered that a sizable fraction of UNRWA workers are affiliated with Hamas. Some were even exposed as having participated in the Oct. 7 massacre itself.

The truth can’t yet be known and probably never will be. The total civilian casualty count is likely to be extremely overstated. Israel estimates that at least 12,000 fighters have been killed. If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1. By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians.

Abraham Wyner is Professor of Statistics and Data Science at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Faculty Co-Director of the Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative.

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