From Ian:
Mordechai Kedar: Trump, Israel and the Middle East
Trump’s attitude towards US Jewry is complex. On the one hand, he is surrounded by Jews – his daughter Ivanka underwent an Orthodox conversion, his son-in-law is Jewish, and he is also surrounded by Jewish advisers, some of whom wear kippahs without giving it a second thought. On the other hand, the Republican party has some voters who speak about Jews as worthy candidates for genocide.
In all fairness, it must be noted that the Democratic party has no shortage of anti-Semites. The last DNC included PLO flags waving outside the convention hall, and former president Jimmy Carter, one of the party’s respected figures, published a book whose title calls Israel an apartheid state – implying that it is worthy of disappearing just as South Africa’s apartheid regime did.
I am concerned about America’s reaction to the fact that Trump is surrounded by Jews, because even if they play no part in the formation of his policies, there will be those who will accuse them of pro-Israel bias and of influencing Trump’s policies in that direction. We have already seen people accusing the Jewish Lobby, during the days of George W. Bush, of running US foreign policy and of instigating the Iraq War (2003). There are even two academics who published a book about it. Trump’s time in the White House may unleash the same anti-Jewish genies from the bottle.
And one last point: There are approximately two months until Trump enters the White House, on the afternoon of January 20, 2017. President Obama has full presidential authority up to that date and can make decisions that create a problematic reality for Israel and Trump, such as a UN Security Council decision recognizing a Palestinian State whose capital is Jerusalem. I suspect that there are those, such as J Street, who will respond to Trumps’ victory by trying their utmost to get Obama to recognize a Palestinian State whose capital is Jerusalem while he still can. Israel will need all its diplomatic skills and all its real friends in the USA and the world to prevent this from happening.
My blessings and best wishes to Donald J. Trump from here for a successful presidency. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Pro-Israel Groups to Erect Gigantic Pinocchio Near UN to Protest Jerusalem Resolutions
Pro-Israel groups will erect a giant Pinocchio effigy across from the United Nations headquarters in New York City in protest of the recent resolutions passed by its cultural body, UNESCO, which deny Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem.
The Pinocchio display will be put up in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the UN following a “We Stand Together” rally at New York City’s Israeli Consulate Thursday afternoon. The rally is organized by AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns and co-sponsored by StandWithUs New York and other groups.
Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, said UNESCO through its resolutions not only negates 3,000 years of Jewish roots in Jerusalem, but also “deprecates and belittles” Judaism.
“These are lies that betray UNESCO’s own mandate to ‘contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture.’ Instead of contributing to peace by building bridges between Israel and its Arab neighbors, UNESCO has become a vehicle for fomenting conflict and strife,” Rothstein said.
Dore Gold: Middle East Looks to America for Leadership
The countries of the Middle East are looking for America to be an ally. They are looking for America to lead the peoples of the Middle East. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency in certain parts of Washington in recent years to try and see how to fix America’s relations with its adversaries – with Syria’s Assad in the Levant, with the Iranians and with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and with other radical groups across the Middle East. This leaves America’s allies, like the famous situation with President Mubarak of Egypt, in the lurch.
There is a hope that is common to Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Egypt under President Sisi, with Saudi Arabia under King Salman, and with the United Arab Emirates under Mohammed bin Zayed. All of these leaders are hoping for a United States that will lead them against the twin radical threats of ISIS and Iranian imperialism.
Douglas Murray: Donald Trump won’t be as bad as you think
For 18 months, Donald Trump was amazingly useful to British politicians. Whatever their party, he provided them with the most magnificent means with which to polish their liberal credentials. In January, when the British Parliament spent three hours debating a public petition to ban Trump from entering the country, we learned from Labour’s Rupa Huq that he was ‘racist, homophobic, misogynist’, from the Conservative Marcus Fysh that he was ‘the orange prince of American self-publicity’ and from the SNP’s Gavin Newlands that he was not only ‘racist, sexist and bigoted’, but ‘an idiot’.
So perhaps now that the giggling has subsided, we can get down to a more realistic assessment of the man and his views. Some unsavoury personal moments aside, the accusation that Trump was a misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic racist simply constituted the liberal press’s best effort at holing his campaign below the waterline. In reality, Trump is a man who holds liberal New York opinions and would be unable to set about ‘rolling back’ liberal rights even if he wanted to.
The other accusations against him have been equally cynical. For months there has been a hysterical insistence, by everyone from Democrat peaceniks to Cold War nostalgists, that a Trump presidency would fundamentally undermine and even end Nato — the centrepiece of the UK’s defence capability. The basis for this claim lies solely in Trump’s complaint during his campaign that America should not be bailing out its Nato allies if they are not willing to pay a fair share for their own defence. Though it was expressed more forcefully than is usually the case, there was nothing so surprising about this. For decades, US presidents have implored their European partners to fulfil the minimal 2 per cent spending requirements that membership of Nato should require. There is nothing immoral or unstrategic about asking European powers to demonstrate a commitment to their own security. Rather than ‘weakening’ Nato, such a stance is likely to underpin and strengthen it.
Then there are the fears about American trade protectionism. But these would have pertained whoever won the White House. Pulled to the left by the Bernie Sanders insurgency within her own party, President Hillary Clinton would have been at least as protectionist as Trump will prove to be.
JPost Editorial: The morning after
As president, Trump will have to prove he is indeed the leader of all the people, particularly the many segments of the population he maligned during a campaign that revealed some deeper issues. The world will continue to move away from the center and toward the extremes on both the Right and the Left. In many parts of Europe – from Poland to Hungary to Greece – neo-fascist parties are strengthening their influence in their governments.
In the United States the alt-right has been considerably strengthened by the Trump candidacy, without regard to whether Trump himself won the election.
As legal scholar Alan Dershowitz wrote, “The hard Right and the hard Left have more in common than either has to centrist liberals and conservatives. They both hate America, distrust government, demonize Israel and promote antisemitic tropes.” He concludes that the election of Trump would exacerbate the problem.
While many voters are worried that President Barack Obama might try to tie the hands of his successor regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict by sending it to the United Nations during the interim before Trump’s inauguration, the incoming president has promised to be Israel’s best friend. Trump should insist that the lame-duck president not do so, and reiterate America’s commitment to the direct negotiations that Israel continues to demand as the only way to achieve peace.
The day after the election is the time for healing to begin. Abraham Lincoln expressed the concept concisely at a time America was shattered by the Civil War. “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
What Israel Doesn’t Need From Trump
With respect to Israel and the Palestinians?
Barack Obama came into the presidency not only believing deeply in the imperative of the U.S. brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians but also thinking that the way to get it was to create more “daylight” between the U.S. and the Jewish state. He pursued that policy for eight years with no success. In his last two months in office, Obama may take one more shot at the Israelis with a betrayal at the United Nations, recognizing Palestinian independence without requiring them to make peace first.
By contrast, although Trump’s grasp of policy is meager, he appears to have no such illusions about the willingness of the Palestinians to make peace or the value of American pressure on Israel. No one should be surprised if some of his campaign promises, such as his vow to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, are not fulfilled. He unnerved friends of Israel with talk of even-handedness during the primaries and his desire to strike what he called a “real-estate deal.” Still, unlike Obama, Trump isn’t obsessed with the fallacy that, if left to decide its own fate, Israel is doomed or that it must be saved from itself. The overwhelming majority of Israelis has decided that further territorial retreats must await a sea change in Palestinian culture that will lead their leaders to make peace and recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Obama—and many Jewish liberal critics of Israel—believe Israel should be forced to withdraw from the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem despite the real possibility that this might create a new Gaza, where an independent Palestinian terrorist state already exists. As unpleasant as the status quo may be for both sides, it is better than an international diktat that will weaken Israel and make a new round of bloodshed even more likely.
There will be intense international pressure on Trump to conform to past administration positions on pressuring Israel, but this is one issue on which his outlier approach may truly bring a break with decades of failed U.S. policies. That said, Israel and those Arab nations who look to it as a tacit ally as a result of the Iran deal will have reason to worry if Trump continues to back away from engagement in the region or bows to Russia on Iran policy.
Daphne Anson: David Singer: Trump Must Confirm Bush-Congress Commitments To Israel
Trump has been withering in his criticism of Obama’s conduct towards Israel:
“Israel, our great friend and the one true democracy in the Middle East has been snubbed and criticized by an administration that lacks moral clarity.”
Moral clarity demands that Trump immediately inform Obama that no action should be undertaken by Obama between now and January that would in any way depart from or undermine the commitments made by former President George Bush and the Congress to Israel in 2004.
Trump also needs to unequivocally state that his Administration intends to fully uphold those Bush-Congress commitments.
Draining the swamp and making America great again will be given a huge impetus if Trump makes these policy declarations without obfuscation or delay.
PMW: PA reactions to election of Donald Trump as America’s next president
Following this morning’s announcement of Donald Trump having been elected the next US President, several Palestinian Authority leaders issued almost identical statements, expressing their hope that Trump’s administration will be the one to bring “peace to the region” and implement the two-state solution. Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas congratulated Trump:
“President Mahmoud Abbas today, Wednesday [Nov. 9, 2016], congratulated American President [Elect] Donald Trump on his election, and expressed hope that a just peace will be achieved during his tenure.”
[PNN, independent Palestinian news agency, Nov. 9, 2016]
Other leaders gave similar statements, all stressing that “peace and security” will only be achieved if the two-state solution is implemented and a Palestinian state is established, with East Jerusalem as its capital:
Trump invites Netanyahu to White House in phone call
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone and invited the Israeli leader to Washington at the “first opportunity,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Trump and Netanyahu, “who have known each other for many years, had a warm, heartfelt conversation,” the statement said.
“President-elect Trump invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to a meeting in the United States at the first opportunity,” it said.
Netanyahu responded by saying that he and his wife Sara were looking forward to meeting the president-elect and his wife Melania.
Regional issues were also raised during the phone conversation, the statement said, without elaborating.
In phone call, Netanyahu thanks Clinton for her support for Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, a day after she was defeated by now President-elect Donald Trump in the race for the US presidency.
During the call, Netanyahu thanked Clinton for her support for Israel and extended an open invitation for her to visit, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Earlier Wednesday, Netanyahu spoke to Trump who invited the Israeli leader to Washington at the “first opportunity,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Trump and Netanyahu, “who have known each other for many years, had a warm, heartfelt conversation,” the statement said.
“President-elect Trump invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to a meeting in the United States at the first opportunity,” it said.
Trump adviser to ‘JPost’: President-elect will be best friend Israel ever had
Israelis are going to have a friend in president-elect Donald Trump “never seen before” by the State of Israel, David Friedman, Trump’s adviser on Jewish and Israeli matters, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
Speaking shortly after Trump delivered his victory speech in New York, Friedman, co-chair of the president- elect’s Israel Advisory Committee, said the hostility that existed between Washington and Jerusalem under President Barack Obama would completely disappear in a Trump presidency.
“The level of friendship between the US and Israel is going to grow like never before, and it will be better than ever, even the way it was under Republican administrations in the past,” he told the Post.
Friedman is said to be a leading candidate to become the new US ambassador to Israel.
He said one of the administration’s first moves would be to follow through on a campaign promise that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, made last month, according to which her father would move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump advisor: ‘West Bank settlements are not an obstacle to peace’
President-elect Donald Trump does not condemn Jewish building over the pre-1967 lines, nor does he believe in dictating the terms of any peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinian, a close legal advisor, Jason Greenblatt, told Army Radio on Thursday morning.
“Mr. Trump does not view the settlements as being an obstacle for peace,” Greenblatt said.
He described a US policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is 180 degrees different from that of past administrations, either Democrat or Republican.
Trump’s views, he said, come from the past example of the 2005 Israeli demolition of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in northern Samaria. That withdrawal did not bring peace but rather was a precursor to a Hamas takeover of Gaza and three wars with Israel.
Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration to US removed from campaign website
Donald Trump’s campaign website has removed a statement calling for a ban on Muslims immigrating to the United States, The Telegraph reported Thursday.
The statement, according to The Telegraph, had been visible on the site until November 8, 2016. But the policy has since disappeared from the site and now directs visitors to the campaign’s homepage.
The declaration, dated December 7, 2015, called for the “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” which Trump argued was necessary “until [the] country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
The Trump statement also claimed that “there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.”
Edgar Davidson: A message to Jews upset about Trump’s election
This is directed mainly to Jews/Zionists in the UK and Israel who feel depressed, disappointed or even angry about Trump’s victory. I suspect that your knowledge about Trump is nothing but a caricature that has been exclusively fashioned by the mainstream media and establishment (by which I mean politicians, big business, academia, showbiz, pollsters etc). That is the same media and establishment which you know – more than anybody –tells you a narrative about Israel and its enemies that is also a caricature based on a narrative of lies invented by the left.
The media and establishment has lied to you about Trump and Clinton (think “Trump = aggressive Israel” and “Clinton = noble downtrodden Palestinians”). If you need any more proof of this just look at the lies the media was telling you about the outcome of this election for the last 3 months and even well after the polls closed (same lies and narrative they spun about Brexit). They were not reporting the news – they were reporting their preferred narrative.
You probably feel cheated, but that’s because you relied on the media for your information and that media ignored all the obvious evidence that Trump was going to win. Would you have been so shocked if the media had reported that Trump was drawing crowds of tens of thousands of people several times a day (without celebrity support) while Clinton couldn’t muster 200 even with all her celebrity supporters.
Would you have been so shocked if the media had not covered up the multiple scandals Clinton has been directly involved in (that would have seen less privileged people locked away) and instead portrayed this corrupt, pathological liar as a paragon of virtue.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Mideast States Puzzled By Peaceful Transition Of US Presidency (satire)
Egyptian officials publicly welcomed the election of Donald Trump to the presidency yesterday, while subsequently expressing private astonishment that the change of leadership did not occur through bloodshed or hand-picked succession.
Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, government officials and private citizens are scratching their heads at the bizarre phenomenon occurring in Washington, where one presidency is soon to draw to a close and the next will follow smoothly on its heels, with the departing president cordially – and possibly warmly – handing the reins of the state over to a person with a diametrically opposing worldview who bears neither blood ties nor political allegiance to his predecessor.
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to work,” muttered Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, the Egyptian president who seized power in a coutercoup against Muhammad Morsi who in turn deposed Hosni Mubarak, who assumed the presidency as Anwar Sadat’s successor after the latter was assassinated. “There’s supposed to be a bloody removal of a brutal, corrupt dictator, followed by a period of uncertainty until a new strongman asserts himself and takes control. I don’t know what those Americans think they’re doing.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan voiced similar incredulity. “This makes no sense,” he observed to an aide. “I mean, congratulations to Mr. Trump and all, but the presidency wasn’t his father’s or grandfather’s position that he’s now inheriting. Nor is he fighting it out on the battlefield, or through proxy militias, to eliminate rivals. How does he expect this to happen? That’s one unpredictable system they’ve got.”
Right-Wing MKs Getting A Little Carried Away With Trump Election Implications (satire)
One day after Donald Trump soundly defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president of the United States, cabinet ministers and members of the Israeli Knesset have been getting a bit carried away with the anticipated new felicitousness with which a Trump administration will treat Israel.
Lawmakers and officials from Likud, Jewish Home, and Yisrael Beiteinu spent Wednesday and Thursday waxing ecstatic about the implications of a Trump presidency, from a promised move of the US embassy to Jerusalem to unequivocal endorsement of Israeli policies toward, and control of, disputed territories. Some even went as far as to declare the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict effectively dead, while still others predicted Israeli carte blanche in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“This is the final nail in the coffin of a Palestinian state,” declared Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett, the Minister of Education. “We wish the incoming president well, and trust he will fulfill his campaign promises to stand steadfastly behind Israel and thwart, once and for all, any attempts to establish a terrorist entity in our heartland. And, I might add, it’s quite possible Mr. Trump will shut down the hostile United Nations, nuke Iran to smithereens, and increase military aid to us by several billion dollars annually.”
“I think you’re selling him short,” responded Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Liberman, Minister of Defense. “We should just assert sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, and maybe reestablish the communities in the Gaza Strip we destroyed in 2005. Trump will be fine with that.”
Russian PM, Netanyahu meet, agree to fight ‘mutual fight against terror’
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a scheduled visit aimed at advancing stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
During his visit he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said “we must continue our mutual fight against terror.”
“We must not allow Iran to have any military presence in Syria,” the Israeli prime minister said.
Medvedev said in response that the fight against terror is mutual because the roots of terror are the same – in Israel and in the Russian federation.”
During the visit, Medvedev also met with President Reuven Rivlin, and leader of the opposition Isaac Herzog.
“Russian Prime Minister Medvedev visit’s Jerusalem’s Western Wall, November 10, 2016”
Herzog asked Medvedev for Russia to use its influence in the Middle East to work for the return to Israel of the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, which have been held by Hamas in Gaza since the 2014 Protective Edge counter-terror operation in Gaza.
Medvedev will also reportedly meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
Upon his arrival, Medvedev traveled to Jerusalem where he visited the Western Wall holy site accompanied by Israeli officials. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
In sign of bolstered ties, Rivlin to visit India next week
President Reuven Rivlin is to travel to India for an official visit next week, his office said Wednesday in a sign of increasingly close relations between the two countries.
Rivlin was invited by his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee “in order to strengthen the cooperation and the fruitful relations between the two countries,” a statement from Rivlin’s office said.
It follows a visit by Mukherjee last year to Israel.
Indian media reported that the trip was likely to pave the way for a historic first visit of an Indian prime minister to Israel.
During the week-long visit starting November 14, Rivlin will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, and other Indian leaders.
Yisrael Medad: My Bumped Al-Jazeera Piece
I was contacted by Al-Jazeera.
They requested a 250-word response as part of a broader piece, asking people around the world similar questions about Obama and then the current election.
Here is it is.
President Barack Obama and the Jewish Communities across the Green Line
Yisrael Medad
The past eight years of the Obama Administration have undoubtedly been one of the most contentious and tension-filled periods since 1967 between the United States and Israel on the issue of Jewish communities across the Green Line. On the positive side, Mr. Obama never referred to our residency as “illegal” (it aren’t) but as “illegitimate” beginning on his Cairo Speech, June 4, 2009: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” (even though the Bush-Sharon 2004 Understanding did do just that) but in the same breath demanded that “it is time for these settlements to stop.” To be fair to Obama and precise, he targeted always “continued” Jewish residency activity not the totality of the presence of Jews in areas of their historic homeland.
On the other hand, despite that the 2009-10 moratorium on construction proved that the Palestinian Authority was not interested in negotiations, not to mention its anti-Jewish incitement which resulted in more terror, Obama always placed the onus for a lack of agreement on Israel’s government. America’s Jerusalem Consulate General effectively cold-shoulders the Jews living in the communities and denies them equal cultural non-consular services Arabs receive which, unfortunately, allows the assumption that the total removal of communities would be tolerated even the new Jerusalem neighborhoods.
Hundreds protest, burn Israeli flag at UN climate talks
Hundreds demonstrated in the Moroccan capital Wednesday against the Israeli flag being flown beside the colors of 195 other countries at UN climate talks in the central city of Marrakesh.
More than 200 people protested outside parliament in Rabat against the Jewish state’s flag being hoisted at the COP22 conference that opened Monday.
“The Israeli flag at COP22 means Morocco symbolically recognizing the state of Israel. It’s unacceptable,” one protester told AFP.
“Death to America, death to Israel!” demonstrators cried, burning the Israeli flag.
Several pro-Palestinian associations took part in the protest after calling on authorities to take action about the flag earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Morocco’s Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar responded that “UN meetings around the world welcome all nations” and that the fight against climate change “requires all governments to commit.”
Nine Palestinians arrested for bomb attack against IDF
Nine Palestinians were arrested over several months on suspicion of participating in a cell that targeted Israeli security forces with explosive devices, as well as for plotting future attacks against Israeli forces, the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the Shin Bet, it arrested the nine Palestinians in a joint operation with the Israel Police and IDF.
Eight of the Palestinians are from the northern West Bank, while one is an East Jerusalem resident. All were arrested between August and October.
The Shin Bet said that the Palestinians from the northern West Bank were arrested for targeting IDF soldiers on numerous occasions with explosive devices, while Ahmed Azala, the Palestinian from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Bab al-Huta in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, was arrested for working with the cell to try and smuggle two kilograms (four pounds) of explosive material from the West Bank to Jerusalem to use in the preparation of pipe bombs.
Palestinian shot throwing Molotov cocktail at troops — IDF
Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian man as he threw a Molotov cocktail at their position outside Ramallah on Thursday, the army said.
The troops had been guarding in Birzeit, north of Ramallah, when the assailant hurled the firebomb at them, an Israel Defense Spokesperson said.
“Responding to the threat, forces fired toward the attacker,” the army said.
No Israeli troops were injured in the incident.
The Palestinian man was shot in the leg, according to Palestinian media. He received medical treatment and was taken into custody, the army said.
According to the Ma’an news outlet, he had been part of a group of Palestinian students demonstrating to mark the 12th anniversary of Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat’s death.
Syria warns Israel after retaliatory airstrike to errant fire
Syria on Wednesday warned Israel against future raids after the Israeli army responded to errant mortar fire that struck the northern Golan Heights.
A mortar shell apparently fired from Syria landed in Israeli territory on Wednesday morning, causing neither injury nor damage, the army said.
The projectile, as with most others emanating from the war-torn country, appeared to be accidental spillover rather than an intentional attack on Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the Israeli army fired back into Syria, hitting “artillery positions belonging to the Syrian regime in the northern Syrian Golan Heights,” the military said.
In response, the Syrian general command warned “against the repercussions of repeating such an attack,” according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
On Wednesday, Israel said it holds the Syrian regime responsible for all errant fire, regardless of the source. However, in the past, the army has also noted that it “will not hesitate to act against any opposition forces in Syria.”
The Israeli army would not elaborate on how Israel retaliated to the attack, whether it was by airstrike or artillery fire.
Israeli forces seal off bedroom of accused accomplice in deadly Sarona Market attack
The Israeli army has sealed off the bedroom of a Palestinian accused of being an accomplice to the deadly Sarona Market terror attack.
Early on Thursday morning, IDF forces came, accompanied by cement trucks, to the home of Younis Ayash Musa Zayn’s home in the West Bank village of Yatta near Hebron.
According to an army statement, Zayn’s bedroom was sealed off “as recommended by the political echelon” as was carried out in cooperation with Border Police and the Civil administration.
The Sarona Market attack, which occurred on June 8, saw cousins Khalid and Muhammad Muhamra open fire on customers sitting at Max Brenner with locally made Carlos Gustav submachine guns. Four people — Michael Feige, Ilana Naveh, Ido Ben Ari, Mila Mishayev — were killed, and 16 others were injured.
The two fled the scene but were almost immediately detained near the scene. Zayn was arrested shortly afterwards.
Hamas Blasts Moroccan Journalists’ Visit to Israel as a “Crime”
The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas blasted a visit by seven Moroccan journalists to Israel as a “crime,” The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
“We condemn the visit of a team of Moroccan media persons to the Israeli entity with the goal of normalizing with it and undertaking a campaign of beautifying its image in the Arab media,” Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamist group, said according to a report published on the London-based website al-Araby al-Jadeed.
“We consider this a crime against our people, and an offense to the feelings of the Arabs and Muslims and lovers of the Palestinian cause and an encouragement of the Israeli entity in its crimes and violations,” he added.
The seven journalists are currently on a week-long trip to Israel, which was arranged by Israel’s Foreign Ministry “in the hope that they will contribute to more positive coverage of Israel in the Moroccan media,” the Post explained. The visit includes meetings with senior diplomats, politicians, and other high-ranking officials. The group is also supposed to tour the border with the Gaza Strip, where they will receive a briefing from senior military officers on the challenges that Israel faces.
Iran Once Again Violates Nuclear Deal’s Limit on Heavy Water
Iran has once again violated the cap on the amount of heavy water, nuclear runoff that can be used to produce weaponizable material, it may possess under the terms of the nuclear deal, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
This is the second time since the implementation of the nuclear deal in January that Iran exceeded the 130 ton threshold on heavy water. The United States already agreed to purchase 32 tons of heavy water from Iran in April in an effort to allow the Tehran to come back into compliance with the agreement.
“On 2 November 2016, the director general [of the International Atomic Energy Agency] expressed concerns related to Iran’s stock of heavy water to the vice president of Iran and president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran,” the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog noted in a confidential report obtained by Reuters.
In response, Iran claimed that it planned to ship the heavy water out of the country in the coming days.
Reuters’ report about the latest Iranian violation of the nuclear deal comes days after an Iranian parliamentary committee claimed that the country adhered to all of its obligations under the nuclear deal.
Iran says it has ‘options’ if nuclear deal fails after US elections
Iran wants all parties to stay committed to an international nuclear deal signed last year, but has options if that does not happen, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.
He spoke after the US presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who had said he was opposed to the nuclear pact during campaigning.“Of course Iran’s options are not limited but our hope and our desire and our preference is for the full implementation of the nuclear agreement, which is not bilateral for one side to be able to scrap,” Zarif told a news conference in Bratislava after meeting his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak.
Republican Trump said during the election campaign that he would abandon the nuclear deal reached between Tehran and six world powers in 2015 that curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for the removal of international sanctions.
Iran’s Rouhani: Trump cannot reverse nuclear deal
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday there was “no possibility” of its nuclear deal with world powers being overturned by US President-elect Donald Trump despite his threat to rip it up.
“Iran’s understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government,” Rouhani told his cabinet, according to state television.
Last year’s accord with world powers saw international sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for guarantees that it would not pursue a nuclear weapons capability.
During the election campaign, Trump described the deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.
Rouhani’s remarks came after the American ambassador to Israel called on the incoming administration to adhere to the Iranian nuclear agreement.
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