Friday, August 24, 2018

There will probably be no Update next week.
In Islam, Jerusalem Is Not Mecca - A. Z. Mohamed (Gatestone Institute) ...certain Quranic verses emphasize Jerusalem's connection to the Jews, and the Quran does not promise Muslims to enter or rule Jerusalem. One verse quotes the Prophet Moses instructing the Jews to enter the Holy Land that God has given to them - including Jerusalem. In another Quranic verse, God Himself instructs the Children of Israel to dwell in the land.

What's the Real Story Behind the Delayed Palestinian Mail? - Adam Levick (UK Media Watch-CAMERA)  Arab countries boycott Israel and won't send postal items to the PA via the Israel Postal Service, thus preventing Palestinians from receiving mail sent from these countries.     As a gesture of good-will to the Palestinians, Israel last week allowed a one-time transfer of more than ten tons of mail that had been held in Jordan.
PA Leaders Have Lost Interest in Institution-Building - Nathan J. Brown  (Carnegie Middle East Center) PA structures actually serve as administrative afterthoughts that are no longer viewed as kernels of a statehood effort.
Palestinian Leaders Threaten Jerusalem's Arabs on Eve of City's Municipal Elections - Nadav Shragai (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Prior to the local elections in Jerusalem on October 30, 2018, terrorist organizations are increasing the pressure on east Jerusalem's Arab residents to maintain the boycott of Jerusalem's municipal elections.

Is Putin’s Kremlin subverting Israeli democracy? A Russia expert thinks so (Times of Israel)

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Friday, August 17, 2018

Sir VS Naipaul will be remembered (The Guardian) Most of the obituaries don't mention Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey

Argentina, Paraguay Target Hizbullah's Tri-Border Area Terror Finance - Emanuele Ottolenghi (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

Israel's Unsung Humanitarian Mission Saved Thousands of Syrian Lives - Yaakov Lappin  (Investigative Project on Terrorism) Israeli hospitals have treated 4,800 Syrian civilians since 2011, half of them children. A separate field clinic in the Golan Heights treated 6,000 Syrian civilians since last year.

From Honest Reporting: The latest Mideast reports picked up by Times of Israel, Haaretz, Ynet and Israel HaYom on a possibly emerging ceasefire deal say it will last for one year and establish a Cyprus-Gaza shipping connection which Israel would have security control of. The deal would also include “Qatari funding for Gaza’s electricity bills in cooperation with Israel, and Qatari payment of civil service employees’ salaries in Gaza in cooperation with Egypt.” 
PA Leader Abbas: We Will Thwart Trump's Peace Plan - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the PLO Central Council in Ramallah on Wednesday, "We were the first to fight against [Trump's "Deal of the Century"] and we will continue to fight against it until it falls." Abbas also pledged to continue payments to Palestinian security prisoners and families of "martyrs" killed while carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel.    Meanwhile, Abbas' ruling Fatah faction on Wednesday criticized the current discussions in Cairo aimed at reaching a truce between Hamas and Israel and said the PLO was the only party authorized to make such a deal. 
Tough Times for Palestinians Detained by Israel: Picnics, Parties, Singalongs - Liel Leibovitz (Tablet) Last December, a 17-year-old Palestinian woman named Ahed Tamimi assaulted an IDF soldier and was arrested and sentenced to eight months in prison. After her release, Tamimi addressed the issue of how young Palestinians detained by Israel are treated in an interview on Al-Jazeera.  Each day, she recalled, began with all the prisoners in her wing congregating in the yard to enjoy a potluck picnic. Then, mornings were spent studying for her high school diploma. Lunches were again a communal affair, followed by "having parties, sitting around together, singing, dancing, just passing the time, watching TV, jumping around from room to room, going wild." 

I was mistaken in thinking this Jeremy Corbyn incident was widely known in the US -- Note, the Labour party denied this happened, but Corbyn himself admitted he was there. Despite furor over his stance on anti-Semitism, and new scandal about honoring terrorists, the UK's Israel-bashing, hard-left Labour chief is still potentially on course to be PM 
Netanyahu Blasts Corbyn for Honoring Munich Massacre Terrorists - Benjamin Kentish (Independent-UK) 

Vox Just Makes Things Up - Gilead Ini (CAMERA)
U.S. Blocks F-35 Fighter Jet Transfer to Turkey - Lara Seligman (Foreign Policy)
New U.S. Iran Policy Chief Lays Out Agenda - Michael Lipin  (VOA News) Brian Hook, the new U.S. special representative for Iran, says his team will focus most of its work on changing Tehran's behavior on issues of nuclear weapons, terrorism and detention of Americans. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday announced Hook's appointment to head a new U.S. team known as the Iran Action Group. Hook said the group would work to pursue changes in 12 aspects of Iran's behavior as outlined by Pompeo in May.     Pompeo said the U.S. hoped it could reach a new agreement with Iran "one day soon. But we must see major changes in the [Iranian] regime's behavior, both inside and outside of its borders." 
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Friday, August 10, 2018

For those in New York City: Middle Eastern MixFest, a free reading series festival playing at Atlantic Stage 2 August 9 – 16, 2018. 

Iran's Deadly Diplomats - Matthew Levitt (Combating Terrorism Center at West Point)
Select Iran-Sponsored Operational Activity in Europe, 1979-2018 (Bureau of Counterterrorism-U.S. State Department)

Israeli Navy Intercepts Second Gaza-Bound Boat (i24News) The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its blockade of Gaza, after stopping a Norwegian-flagged boat last week,

A Night of Rockets and Headline Fails- Pesach Benson (Honest Reporting) Residents of southern Israel spent the night in bomb shelters as Palestinians fired a heavy barrage of rockets and mortars (nearly 200, according to the most recent numbers I saw). The IDF retaliated with air strikes on more than 100 Hamas terror sites.
Fatah Warns Hamas Against Reaching Truce Accord with Israel - Khaled Abu Toameh  (Jerusalem Post)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Leaders Meet with Russian Officials in Moscow - Shiri Moshe (Algemeiner)  Officials from Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) met on Tuesday with Russian officials in Moscow, drawing concern from Israel.  (PIJ is) Designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and more than 30 other countries


BBC News still promoting false balance on Syrian regime chemical weapons (BBC Watch) In a bizarre, false attempt at "balance," the BBC keeps repeating the Syrian regime's claims that they neither own nor use chemical weapons.
Islamic State Fighters Numbers Increase in Syria - Jack Detsch (Al-Monitor) As many as 4,000 to 6,000 ISIS fighters remain in northeastern Syria, a report to Congress attributed to a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment revealed on Monday. Pentagon officials had estimated in December that as many as 2,000 ISIS fighters remained in Syria, but has since stopped providing public estimates.
Israel Sees Syrian Army Growing Beyond Pre-Civil War Size (Reuters)  Russia has been helping arm and train the Syrian army. Local Syrian militias raised by Lebanese Hizbullah with Iranian support include the National Defense Forces. 

Purged Turkish NATO Officer Speaks Out - Teri Schultz (Deutsche Welle-Germany) "Being pro-West and pro-NATO is a big crime in Turkey now," he said.
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Friday, August 3, 2018


Forced into abusive marriages, Syrian child brides increasingly turn to suicide - Lisa Khoury (Times of Israel) In Lebanon, young refugees are being married off by families in need of money and security to much older men who rape and beat them -- and often consider them mere entertainment


Hamas Preparing for Cyber War - Tal Shahaf (Globes)
7,000 Palestinians Riot along Gaza Border Friday - Anna Ahronheim (Jerusalem Post)


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