Described as ‘the most contested piece of real estate on earth’, Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, known as Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews, is today the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Many aspects of the site’s history, religious significance, and socio-political status long precede Israel’s inception and are closely entwined with the overall historical status quo of the Old City of Jerusalem itself.

In 1917, having defeated the Ottoman Empire, the British army seized control of Jerusalem. Upon arrival at the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, General Allenby dismounted his horse and entered on foot in what was then understood as a show of respect to the ancient site. It signaled that the British authorities intended to maintain the status quo upheld by the Ottomans in the city for four hundred years.

Under the Ottoman Turks, Jerusalem’s Muslims, Christians, and Jews in their separate quarters coexisted in relative harmony, with edicts granting the various religious groups shared rights in the holy places, demarcating areas of control and establishing time schedules in areas shared by more than one religion. This came to be known as the ‘status quo’.

“Key to the success of this arrangement was the lack of a single sovereign entity or a power hierarchy prioritizing one group’s religious needs over others, and this is precisely what would gradually change in the coming decades”

The status quo acquired additional legitimacy by being included in the 1856 Paris Peace Convention Treaty, the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty, and the British Mandate government’s 1922 Palestine Order-in-Councils.

Key to the success of this arrangement was the lack of a single sovereign entity or a power hierarchy prioritizing one group’s religious needs over others, and this is precisely what would gradually change in the coming decades.

Facilitated by the British authorities in the 1920s and 1930s, Jerusalem saw an influx of European Jewish settlers, which aroused fear in the local Palestinians of a Jewish takeover of the Holy City. Clashes and riots between Palestinians and Jewish settlers were inevitable.

In 1947 the UN adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine, which set to divide the country into Arab and Jewish states. It assigned an international status (corpus separatum) to Jerusalem with the intention to retain the city’s status quo.

In 1948, Israel was established and Palestinians were dispossessed and displaced. This saw the Israeli state seize the western part of Jerusalem. The Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement of 1949 formalised the de facto division of the city into an eastern sector, including Haram Al-Sharif, controlled by Jordan, and a western sector controlled by Israel.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in June 1967, and within days it demolished the 800-year-old Arab Muslim quarter of Al-Maghraba (Moroccan quarter) and expelled its residents to provide increased access for Jews to the Western Wall. Although Muslims still claim the land as waqf (Islamic religious property), the area now is a hub for religious and ultra-nationalist Jews.

The adjacent Haram Al-Sharif was initially spared direct Israeli control, fearing such a step would ignite the region and bring about sharp international criticism. The Israeli occupation allowed the Islamic waqf, mainly supervised and funded by the Jordanian government, to continue to administer the Muslim site.

This, in theory, is what stands today. But the events on the ground suggest that Israel’s alleged commitment to the Muslim site’s status quo has been dangerously eroded.

The incremental takeover of Al-Aqsa

The 35-acre compound of Haram al-Sharif has been under Muslim rule for nearly 14 centuries and houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

For Jews, the same area is believed to be the site of the destroyed First and Second Temples (586 BC and 70 CE respectively). However, independent scientific verification is scarce, as Jewish claims are solely biblical and no significant archaeological remains have been found to support them.

Soon after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, it claimed it had no wish to change the situation in the Old City. The country’s Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis issued a Halachic decree forbidding the entry of Jews into the Al-Aqsa compound on the grounds it was deemed a violation of Jewish religious law.

The decree was approved by even fundamentalist Rabbi Zvi Yehud Kook, a key leader of religious Zionism whose followers represent the core of religious settlers in the occupied West Bank today.

“Over the next decades, it would become clear that the initial religious decree to ban Jewish entrance into Haram Al-Sharif and Israeli governments’ commitment to the legal status quo were not upheld”
For Palestinians, the signs were ominous from day one. Demolishing the Moroccan quarter soon after the occupation was, effectively, an encroachment upon the status quo. This was immediately followed by the Israeli Border Police taking control of a building near the Compound’s northern wall, turning it into a permanent Israeli police headquarters. Protecting Haram Al-Sharif from Jewish violations was the pretext.

Yet, in 1969 a fundamentalist Australian Jew, Denis Michael Rohan, managed to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque and started a fire in the building. With mostly buckets of water, Palestinian Muslims and Christians rushed to put out the fire, only to be obstructed by the Israeli authorities, leaving the fire to rage for hours. The ancient mosque suffered significant damage.

Over the next decades, it would become clear that the initial religious decree to ban Jewish entrance into Haram Al-Sharif and Israeli governments’ commitment to the legal status quo were not upheld. This would be confirmed by Israel’s 1980 unilateral and illegal annexation of East Jerusalem.

The annexation provided the Israeli authorities with the legal tools to gradually create facts on the ground in the compound with the hope of diminishing the Jordanian custodianship over the site, weakening Palestinians’ attachment to it and eventually establishing a permanent Jewish presence there.

Dismantling the Dome of the Rock and building the temple on its ruins continues to be the goal of some Jewish far-right groups. Between 1967 and 2000, dozens of Israeli incursions by religious Jewish fanatics occurred, trying to lay the so-called Temple cornerstone at Al-Aqsa. Several excavations were also carried out under the compound.

Each time, Palestinians protesting these incursions were met with violence by Israeli police.

In April 1982, the Israeli security opened fire within the Dome of the Rock, killing and injuring six Palestinians and causing physical damage to the building. A raid inside the Compound in October 1990 led to the death of nineteen Palestinians. In 1996, widespread protests erupted following Israel’s opening of a tunnel under Al-Aqsa. Over 100 Palestinians were killed and a thousand others injured by Israeli forces.

“Marking the so-called ‘Jerusalem Day’ this year, Haram Al-Sharif saw a record number of settler incursions under unprecedentedly heavy police protection”
Staring into the abyss

The watershed moment came in 2000 with former PM Ariel Sharon’s ‘visit’ to Haram Al-Sharif, surrounded by over a thousand security personnel. The visit, which ignited the Second Intifada, opened the door to more intensive and organized incursions into the compound.

On security grounds allegedly in response to the Intifada, Israel revoked the waqf’s administration of visits by non-Muslims.

Before 2003, the Israeli government allowed a maximum of three religious Jews to visit the site at the same time. From 2017 onwards, the incursions became a daily routine, normally carried out between 7.30am and 10.30am, and again between 1pm and 2pm under police protection. Dozens of settlers join each tour, with the number rising to hundreds on Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Purim, and Jerusalem Day.

In 2009, the number of settlers raiding Haram Al-Sharif reached 5,000. It rose to 15,000 in 2016, then 25,000 in 2017, and 30,000 in 2019. In the first three months of this year, the raids saw a 35% surge compared to the year prior.

Marking the so-called ‘Jerusalem Day’ this year, Haram Al-Sharif saw a record number of settler incursions under unprecedentedly heavy police protection. Some 2,600 Jews stormed the Muslim holy site.

Simultaneously, Palestinians were banned from entering the compound and were met not only by police brutality but also by settler violence at Al-Aqsa gates and across the Old City, including the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

Imam and Director of Al-Aqsa, Sheikh Omar Kiswani, said that the Jerusalem Day incursions this year were the most dangerous since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and that the Israeli authorities have been planning to move the battle to the inside of Haram Al-Sharif. “In so doing, the occupation aims to ignite a religious war,” Kiswani warned.

Similarly, Jerusalem’s PA-appointed governor, Adnan Gheith, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the final goal of the Bennett government is starting a regional religious war.

In a fiery speech last month commemorating the Gaza war’s first anniversary, Hamas leader Yehiyah Sinwar warned that Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line and that what happened during Ramadan, when the Israeli troops stormed the mosque and attacked the worshippers, could be a prelude for a widespread religious war.

Pointing at a large poster behind him showing Israeli troops inside the mosque in full gear, Sinwar threatened that, “The Sword of Jerusalem (a reference to the Gaza battle) remains unsheathed, and [the resistance] will never allow [the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque] to happen again”.

Palestinians believe that reframing their anti-colonial struggle in religious terms would ultimately play into Israel’s hands. Israel actively promotes the idea that Jews, represented by Israel, and Christians, represented by ‘the West’, are in a global struggle against ‘radical Islam’. A religious war can be endless, and that suits Israel perfectly.

Meanwhile, a political struggle has an end, and this framing is at odds with Israel’s final goal of a complete takeover of Palestinian land. What is more, in a religious war, the illegality of the occupation and international law becomes irrelevant.

“All evidence suggests that what is coming is further escalation, and more intensive campaigns to change the status quo at Haram al-Sharif, for without the compound, Israel’s ‘sovereignty’ over East Jerusalem remains incomplete”
To protect Haram Al-Sharif, Palestinians have, among other things, organized what is known as Murabiteen, a social and religious sit-in where worshippers form a permanent presence in the mosque to prevent the settlers from taking over.

The Murabiteen, however, have been routinely targeted by the Israeli authorities, either through physical abuse, arrest, or temporary banishment from the Compound.

With the dramatic increase in the number of raids on the Compound and police brutality, this time directly supported and facilitated by Israel’s far-right government, protecting the Muslim holy site has become extremely challenging.

To Palestinian-Israeli Knesset member (MK) Sami Abu Shihadeh, what is happening in Jerusalem reflects a fast and dangerous deterioration of the majority of the Jewish population toward fascism.

Celebrating the occupation of another people, a reference to the Jerusalem Day’s flag parade, is a sure sign of a society-wide moral decline, MK Ahmed Tibi commented. Whether there is indeed a decline toward fascism remains a subject of debate; what is certain is that Israeli society has been marching steadily towards the far-right.

All evidence suggests that what is coming is further escalation, and more intensive campaigns to change the status quo at Haram al-Sharif, for without the compound, Israel’s ‘sovereignty’ over East Jerusalem remains incomplete.

Only further violence, more Palestinian dispossession, and the increased intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be the result.

Dr Emad Moussa is a researcher and writer who specializes in the politics and political psychology of Palestine/Israel.

Follow him on Twitter: @emadmoussa

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/analysis/why-al-aqsa-epicentre-israels-occupation

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A ruling by a local Israeli court in favor of a Jewish man who prayed at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site has heightened Palestinian fears of Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem’s most sacred site.

Palestinians denounced on Thursday a decision by an Israeli Magistrate Court as a violation of the fragile status quo governing the compound.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the ancient Jewish Temples. It is the emotional epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and tensions there helped ignite the 11-day Gaza war in May.

Under informal understandings, Jews are not allowed to pray there. The ruling by a magistrate court in Jerusalem concerned a Jewish man who had been barred from the site for 15 days after Israeli police caught him praying there, violating a long-standing agreement that Muslims pray in Al-Aqsa and Jews pray at the nearby Western Wall.

The court lifted the ban several days early, ruling that the man, “like many others, prays on a daily basis on the Temple Mount.” Noting that he did so quietly and privately, the ruling said “this activity by itself is not enough to violate the police instructions.”

“The appellant stood in the corner with a friend or two, there was no crowd around him, his prayer was quiet, whispered,” Jerusalem Magistrates Court judge Bilhha Yahalom wrote in the legal ruling.

“I have not found that the religious acts carried out by the appellant were externalized and visible,” she said, determining that such prayer did “not violate police instructions,” and canceling his ban from the site.

Magistrate Courts make up the lowest level of the Israeli judiciary and hear cases concerning relatively minor crimes. Under a longstanding but informal arrangement known as the status quo, Jews are allowed to visit the site but not pray there. The agreement has broken down in recent years as large groups of Jews, including hardline religious nationalists, have regularly visited and prayed at the site.

The Israeli government says it is committed to maintaining the status quo. The Palestinians and neighboring Jordan, which serves as the custodian of the holy site, fear that Israel plans to eventually take over the compound or partition it – as it did with a similarly contested holy site in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Jordan’s Council of Endowments (Awqaf) that maintains Al-Aqsa called the ruling a “flagrant violation” of the compound’s sanctity and a “clear provocation” for Muslims worldwide.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh called on the United States to fulfill its promise to maintain the status quo of the complex, and the Arab countries to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

“We warn against Israel’s attempts to impose a new reality at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Shtayyeh said Thursday.

Palestinian resistance group Hamas called the move a “blatant aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and a clear declaration of a war that goes beyond political rights to an aggression against religion and sanctities”. The group said in a statement that the “resistance is ready and prepared to repel aggression and defend rights.”

The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Yousef Al-Othaimeen, said in a statement that the ruling is a provocation to Muslims globally.

“Such illegal decisions constitute an unprecedented attack on the inalienable religious rights of the Islamic nation and its heritage, a provocation to the feelings of Muslims all over the world, and a violation of freedom of worship and the sanctity of holy places,” he said, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).

He expressed his organization’s rejection of “any measures taken by the occupying power, Israel, that affect the status of occupied East Jerusalem and the Palestinian presence there, or prejudice the Islamic and Christian sanctities.”

“These prayers constitute provocations and a violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa,” mosque director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “This decision also has no legitimacy because we do not recognise Israeli law on Al-Aqsa,” he said.

Egypt and Turkey also denounced the decision with Cairo calling the court ruling a “violation” and claiming that it held “deep concern about the consequences.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry in a written statement said that the decision risks encouraging fanatic circles that try to erode the status quo at Al-Aqsa and warned that the move could lead to tensions. The ministry further called on the international community to reject this “wrong, illegal and dangerous decision.”

Friday prayers at the mosque are regularly attended by tens of thousands of Palestinians and are sometimes followed by protests and clashes with Israeli police. A provocative visit by a right-wing Israeli politician in 2000 helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Al-Othaimeen said the Israeli measures “constitute a grave violation of international law, international humanitarian law and relevant U.N. resolutions.” He warned that such decisions by courts will “lead to destabilization and ignite religious conflict in the region” and held Israel “fully responsible for the consequences.”

He also urged international actors to intervene to preserve Al-Aqsa’s historical and legal status and to facilitate efforts to achieve a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis.

Wednesday’s decision was the first by an Israeli court to support Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The verdict was welcomed by right-wing Israelis.

Israel captured East Jerusalem – including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims – in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized by most of the international community. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. The city’s status has been among the most divisive issues in decades of failed peace efforts.

Source: https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/palestinians-slam-israeli-ruling-on-jewish-prayer-at-al-aqsa

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Israel has agreed to transfer 5,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinians to immunize frontline medical workers, Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz’s office said.

It is the first time that Israel has confirmed the transfer of vaccines to the Palestinians, who lag far behind Israel’s aggressive vaccination campaign and have not yet received any vaccines.

The post Israel to give 5,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Palestinians first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh on Monday urged the European Union to play an active role in the future political process related to the Palestinian cause.

Shtayyeh made the call during an online meeting with the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, attended by 80 people representing different countries and parties in Europe.

“It is necessary to break the status quo that the Palestinian cause is passing through because of the Israeli occupation measures,” said Shtayyeh, according to the Xinhua news agency. He called on the EU to recognize an independent Palestinian state.

During the meeting, he also called on Europe “to end the American monopoly of sponsoring the Middle East peace process through an international conference for peace in which all parties participate.”

“Any political process must depend on ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the basis of the two-state vision under international law and United Nations resolutions,” Shtayyeh noted.

The PA has rejected any US attempts to broker peace talks with Israel, arguing that the Trump administration is biased in favor of Israel and is therefore not an “honest broker”.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly pushed for an international conference for peace in the Middle East, aimed at bypassing the US efforts to resume talks.

The last round of peace talks between Israel and the PA failed in 2014 when the PA unilaterally applied to join international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/288953

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Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.   (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY)

The Palestinian Authority leadership on Friday strongly condemned and rejected Bahrain’s decision to establish relations with Israel, calling it a “betrayal of Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian issue.”

The PA Foreign Ministry announced it has decided to immediately recall its ambassador to Bahrain for consultations in protest of the normalization agreement.

Last month, the Palestinian leadership issued a similar response to the normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It also decided to recall its ambassador to Abu Dhabi.

The PA leadership said the Bahraini decision would “support the legalization of the cruel crimes of the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian people at a time when the occupation [sic] state is continuing to control the Palestinian lands and annex them by military force; is working toward Judaizing Jerusalem and controlling the Islamic and Christian holy sites; and is committing crimes against the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian leadership said in a statement that it views the Bahraini decision “with utmost seriousness because it destroys the Arab Peace Initiative, resolutions of Arab and Islamic summits and international legitimacy.”

It said the Palestinians reject the decision and call on Bahrain to immediately retract it because it causes huge damage to the national rights of the Palestinian people and to joint Arab action.

“The Palestinian leadership reaffirms its call for the Arab countries to adhere to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and urges the international community to adhere to international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy,” the statement read.

“The Palestinian leadership reaffirms that it has not and will not authorize anyone to speak on its behalf. It also affirms that peace and stability in the region won’t be achieved unless the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is ended and Palestinians achieve an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital – and that the issue of the refugees is solved on the basis of United Nations Resolution 194. Those who believe that concessions that come at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people will serve peace, security and stability in the region are deluding themselves.”

Several Palestinian officials expressed outrage over the “disgraceful and treacherous” Israel-Bahrain agreement and accused Bahrain of betraying the Palestinian people.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat accused the UAE and Bahrain of “contributing to [US President Donald] Trump’s presidential campaign at the expense of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

Ahmed Majdalani, member of the PLO Executive Committee, denounced the Israel-Bahrain agreement as a “stab to the national rights of the Palestinian people and their national cause. He said that the US administration’s “delusion that it can make peace between the occupying state and the Arab countries without the Palestinians and without an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories is political stupidity.”

Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other extremist groups also condemned the Israel-Bahrain accord and said it was “the fruit of the failure of the Arab League.”

Last week, Arab League foreign ministers refused to endorse a Palestinian draft resolution that condemned the UAE for its agreement to establish relations with Israel.

“What the Kingdom of Bahrain did is disgraceful and constitutes a political setback and a major downfall for the rulers of Bahrain,” Hamas said in a statement. “This series of steps, initiated by the Emiratis, and then the rulers of Bahrain, constitutes political crimes, contributes to the implementation of the Deal of the Century and undermines the foundations of Arab solidarity. Hamas rejects this announcement and considers it a stab in the back of the Palestinian people, a betrayal of Palestine and Jerusalem and a step against the interests of the Arabs and Muslims.”

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/palestinians-strongly-condemn-israel-bahrain-deal-withdraw-ambassador-641976

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On Friday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the MEK held its annual “Free Iran” gathering. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Free Iran Global Summit” was held online, connecting over 30,000 locations from above 100 countries around the globe. Nearly 1,000 renowned politicians participated in this conference reiterating their support of the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.  

Local gatherings were held in compliance with public health protocols in each of 102 countries, and many of these featured speeches not only from Iranian dissidents but also from political supporters representing a wide range of political parties and professional backgrounds. 

In New York, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke in support of the NCRI, as former Senators Joseph Lieberman and Robert Torricelli, as well as former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Even on their own, these four men represent the ideological diversity of the Americans who have come to view the NCRI as a viable alternative for the existing regime. But they are only four out of dozens of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who attended NCRI’s Free Iran Global Summit. 

As the Iranian regime grapples with a domestic and international crisis, the Iranian Resistance and its goal of regime change in Iran have been receiving international support. The crisis-ridden regime has been desperately pursuing a demonization campaign of the Iranian Resistance to discredit its viable alternative.  

The regime’s commitment to this disinformation scheme, as well as its various attacks and attempted attacks on NCRI assets throughout the world, confirms that the Resistance poses an existential threat to Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. In a tweet confirming his participation in Friday’s summit, Rudy Giuliani highlighted this perception by saying, “There are real possibilities for a free and non-nuclear Iran.” 

The prospect of freedom for the Iranian people should be a prominent motivator for all politicians and all governments that truly value democracy and human rights. But of course, concerns over Iran’s potential nuclear capability have dominated headlines to a much greater extent in recent years. This is especially true in light of last month’s statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which demanded that Iran return to full compliance with restrictions imposed on its nuclear activities in 2016. 

The future of the underlying nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is very much up in the air. But ever since it was signed, the NCRI has maintained the position that no such agreement could be expected to truly prevent the mullahs’ regime from continuing its pursuit of a nuclear bomb. The past several year’s summer gatherings have made it clear that the solution to this problem, like the solution to most of Iran’s domestic problems, can only be found in the wake of regime change. 

However, the western governments have prioritized their short-time economic interests over once and for all end the Iranian regime’s threats by recognizing the Iranian people’s right to resistance and overthrow of this regime. The Free Iran Global Summit on Friday confirmed that the regime has only grown more belligerent since the conclusion of the nuclear deal, and especially in recent months. Its systematic and complete violations of the imposed restrictions are definitive proof of its unshakeable commitment to the nuclear project. 

If “maximum pressure” over this issue was not enough to force reconsideration, the additional challenges of the coronavirus pandemic should have been. But even now that the outbreak has reportedly claimed over 70,000 Iranian lives, Tehran remains unwilling to redirect money away from confrontational projects and toward the vital needs of the domestic population. In other words, the regime prioritizes its illicit activities over the Iranian people’s lives.  

The western governments should end the appeasement policy to end the Iranian regime’s ongoing malign activities. Meanwhile, the Iranian Resistance has been insisting on a non-nuclear and a secular government in Iran. In 2018, NCRI President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi told lawmakers in Washington, “We want a non-nuclear Iran, free of weapons of mass destruction.” And in fact, this is one item on Mrs. Rajavi’s longstanding “10-point plan” for Iran’s future in the wake of the mullahs’ overthrow. 

The rest of that plan includes all of the principles, such as free elections and separation of religion from the state, that make up the unifying character of modern democracies. Americans and Europeans should have no difficulty supporting such a cause, especially if its advocates are genuinely capable of leading the ouster of the current establishment and erecting a new government in its place. The Free Iran Global Summit demonstrated that capability, in part by highlighting the protests that have challenged the clerical regime in the name of the democratic Resistance. 

Since the end of 2017, Iran has undergone three nationwide uprisings. As a result, leading Iranian regime’s officials have begun speaking out over the threat posed by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), whose social influence they had simply denied for the preceding 30 years. If the Iranian people’s right to resistance be recognized by Western policymakers, those officials’ statements could lead to the next great leap forward in international awareness of the “real possibilities” for an Iranian government that not only eschews weapons of mass destruction but also affords its own people the freedoms they have been denied throughout the nation’s modern history. 

Too many past opportunities were squandered amidst the appeasement policy toward the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime is riddled with crisis, the Iranian people have shown their willingness to overthrow this regime. The Free Iran Global Summit showed there is a viable alternative to the Iranian regime.  

Now is the time to ramp up that pressure on the regime even further. And there is no better first step toward maximum pressure than formal recognition of the Iranian people’s right to fight back against the tyranny of the mullahs’ regime. 

Source: https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-resistance/iran-growing-support-for-the-mek-and-ncri-poses-an-existential-threat-to-the-clerical-regime/

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As Israelis increasingly write off the chances of a peace deal with Palestinian Arabs any time in the foreseeable future, the US Democratic Party is increasingly in thrall to a fantasy “solution” that would destroy the Jewish state.

Top Democratic Mideast-policy people like Obama-era National Security Council officials Ben Rhodes and Robert Malley — the folks likely to set the agenda for a Joe Biden administration — actually praised writer Peter Beinart’s outrageous call last week to strip Israel of its status as a Jewish nation in order to (theoretically, at least) make it a “home” for Palestinians and Jews alike, as Jonathan Tobin noted in these pages.

It’s certainly true that Palestinian leaders have turned down countless proposals for a “two-state solution,” but that hardly justifies any hope that they’d live peacefully with Israelis in a unified state — not after decades of propaganda about the inherent evil of the Jews.

Israelis have grown deeply skeptical (and weary) of efforts to find a viable peace deal. That’s a key reason why the Labor party has collapsed. Indeed, the fact that voters last March overwhelmingly backed coalitions headed by a security hawk, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a centrist, Benny Gantz, shows that voters there have little hope that any genuine agreement is possible for now.

Yet for Jews all over, it’s hard to imagine a greater blow than what would be, in effect, the destruction of modern-day Israel, a nation set up to protect them after the Holocaust and after centuries of anti-Semitic persecution across the world.il

With no military force of their own under a “one-state solution,” and birth rates that would soon make Arabs the clear majority, Jews would be back to their pre-Nazi days, politically.

That fits fine with the dreams of a rising Democratic faction of young Israel-haters and anti-Semites, like Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) is also part of the group. She and a dozen fellow Dems last month called for restrictions on US military aid to Israel if it annexes areas of the West Bank. Folks can disagree about such plans, but restricting aid should be a bipartisan nonstarter, given the threats Israel faces and its importance as a US ally.

New York Democratic voters ousted staunch Israel-backer Rep. Eliot Engel last month in favor of AOC-backed Jamaal Bowman, whose pro-Israel bona fides are dubious, at best.

Hostility toward Israel isn’t new among Democrats. At their 2012 convention, the floor booed the idea of recognizing the reality that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. In 2016, they fought over Palestinian rights, with Sen. Bernie Sanders leading the anti-Israel charge.

But the hostility has grown, as top presidential contenders boycotted the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference and threatened to use aid to pressure Israel.

Biden, meanwhile, was part of the team that forged an Iran nuclear deal that put Israel’s very existence at risk. If he wins in November, he’ll likely undo all President Trump’s pro-Israel steps.

What’s most notable, though, is that US Democrats aren’t just parting with US Republicans — but with the people of Israel.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/as-israelis-write-off-peace-deal-democrats-plan-may-destroy-jewish-state/

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Fighters from the haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion on Sunday were able to confiscate a gun that was hidden in a home in the Palestinian Arab village of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya.

During an IDF operation in the village, the fighters seized a gun and arrested a man wanted on suspicion of involvement in terrorism and possession of illegal weapons.

The weapon seized by the fighters had been hidden by the detainee under furniture and was wrapped in a number of plastic bags that did not indicate the dangerous and illegal weapon that was hidden inside.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said, “The IDF will continue to act against the illegal weapons in Judea and Samaria.”

Last week, fighters from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion stationed near the town of Ofra in Binyamin caught three rock-throwing terrorists.

Following several days of observations, the fighters spotted the three terrorists who were preparing to throw rocks at vehicles traveling on Highway 60, and chased them until they were able to apprehend them. The three were taken for questioning by the security forces.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283512

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Without much fanfare or notice, the first known commercial aircraft from the United Arab Emirates recently landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. It was carrying Covid-19 supplies for the Palestinian Authority, which, out of pique, rejected them.

As unprecedented as the flight was, it really shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. For the past five years, contacts between Israel and the Gulf states—especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain—have been booming. The examples of what amounts to a Great Thaw in an otherwise frozen political landscape are plentiful:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with his wife and the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, has been received in Oman by the late sultan. He has met the UAE and Omani foreign ministers in the U.S. Israel’s minister of culture has visited Dubai. Israelis, including Jerusalem’s chief rabbi, have been welcomed in Bahrain, and Bahrain has reached out to Israel for help battling Covid-19. Israeli athletes have competed in judo competitions in the UAE, where, for the first time, the Israeli national anthem was played and the Israeli flag displayed. Trade between Israel and the Gulf states is now estimated at about $1 billion a year. One Israeli-owned company, AGT International, has reportedly concluded an $800 million deal with the UAE for border surveillance equipment. And this partial list comprises only the visible signs. Much more on the intelligence and security side is reportedly happening below the waterline.

Even more stunning, this putative détente is taking place on the watch of a right-wing Israeli prime minister who doesn’t even feign interest in a two-state solution and is doing everything he can to ensure one never emerges by keeping large parts of West Bank and all of Jerusalem. Contrary to the warnings from diplomats, analysts, and peaceniks who predicted Israel would become a pariah if it didn’t settle up with the Palestinians, Israel seems to be making more progress toward normalization with Arab regimes without a credible peace process than with one.

Clearly the Gulf states aren’t on the verge of full normalization with Israel; nor is the Arab world willing to untether itself from the emotional pull of Palestinian issue or its hostile and all too often anti-Semitic views of Israel. But even the most skeptical observers would have to admit something has changed.

So what explains this shift?

Three significant factors. The rise of Iran and Sunni jihadists spewing terror across the region has created a narrow but important coincidence of interests between Israel and the Arab world. Increasing exhaustion and frustration with the never-ending Palestinian cause has opened up more space for Arab states to follow their own interests. But behind it all, lay a White House enamored of Arab money for arms sales and investment in the U.S. and eager to marshal the Arabs in the service of its anti-Iranian and pro-Israeli agenda. Indeed, in an effort to court the Gulf Arabs, Trump, and his Middle East envoy son-in-law Jared Kushner have given the Saudis carte blanche to pursue disastrous policies while holding their coats. And Arab nations, sensing opportunities with an autocrat-friendly U.S. president, have been only too happy to follow.

From the Israeli perspective, the reasons for the détente are not hard to divine. Netanyahu’s regional outreach to the Arab world is part of his broader campaign to project Israel’s political profile internationally with historic visits into Latin America, Asia, South Asia, and Africa. Israel now has more diplomatic recognition in the international community than at any time since independence. In the Middle East, his outreach is aimed to demonstrate that Israel can do business with key Arab states without having to compromise on the Palestinian issue and of course to marshal Arab state support in his campaign against Iran.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in particular, see Iran—not a seemingly intractable Palestinian issue—as their most pressing national security challenge and see Israel as a powerful partner in containing Tehran’s regional designs. The partnership began to crystallize with the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and the perception that Washington was opening the door to legitimizing the Islamic Republic as a potential regional partner.

One of the reasons the Israeli-Arab state détente has gained traction is because it’s homegrown—emerging from the perception of common threat. But the Trump administration picked up the ball and ran with it. Determined to reverse the policies of his predecessor on Iran and the peace process that had alienated both Israel and Saudi Arabia, Trump made both countries key to his Middle East policies. In my first meeting with Jared Kushner in 2017, he made it unmistakably clear that his father-in-law was determined to establish strategic relationships with both countries.

It was certainly no coincidence that the president’s first foreign trip, in May 2017, was to Saudi Arabia, where, accompanied by a retinue of some of the biggest names in American business and finance, the president talked about Saudi investment, American jobs and billions in arms sales. Then it was on to Israel, where Trump became the first sitting president to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. That trip—planned by Jared Kushner—would also give rise to his close relationship with the Saudi king’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS. A reckless and impulsive 30-something reformer, MBS would figure prominently in many disasters, from the war in Yemen to the kidnapping of the Lebanese prime minister, to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as in Kushner’s plans to promote Middle East peacemaking.

At the core of that vision were efforts to promote Israeli-Arab state cooperation, both to cement a common front against Iran and to build leverage to pressure the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table. And the Gulf Arab states played the Israeli card for all it was worth. Convinced the road to Washington lay through Jerusalem, the Saudis in particular cozied up to the Trump administration, which refused to abandon them even after bin Salman’s disastrous role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. For a few token appearances with the Israelis, such as the Warsaw Conference on Middle East Peace and Security in February 2019, where Netanyahu met with the Saudi foreign minister, Riyadh stayed on Trump’s good side, as it had in low-keying the Saudi reaction to Trump’s opening a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. And later that year in Manama, with Riyadh’s permission, Bahrain hosted a U.S.-orchestrated economic conference that brought together Arab and Israeli representatives from the private sector to discuss the economic aspects of Trump’s Vision for Middle East Peace.

Will the Israel-Arab state honeymoon last? The answer is probably yes, anchored as it is in self-interest.

The Iranian threat isn’t going to disappear. The U.S.-Saudi relationship is going through a bad patch now over oil prices. But as long as the Saudis and Emiratis think it’s in their interests to stay in Trump’s favor, their cooperation will continue. And why shouldn’t they? The Saudis have few friends in Washington other than the White House, which recently bypassed Congress, declaring a faux national emergency to facilitate billions of dollars in weapons sales to Saudi and the UAE Positioning themselves as being good on Israel certainly can’t hurt, though the talking points might not be as effective for a President Joe Biden who has labeled Saudi Arabia a pariah state.

As for Netanyahu, as long as he doesn’t expect too much from his new Arab friends and doesn’t break the bank by annexing wholesale the Jordan Valley and the whole West Bank (very unlikely), the Gulf Arabs will stay on board as they did when the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem.

It ain’t peace. But then again that was never in the cards. In a broken, angry, dysfunctional Middle East, who could ask for more?

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/27/israel-arab-peace-netanyahu-282727

The post How Israel and the Arab World Are Making Peace Without a Peace Deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.