“Today, I announce that the Australian Government has discontinued funding to the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Palestinian Recovery and Development Program,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop wrote in a statement.

Bishop explained that she had contacted the PA in late May seeking assurances that Australian funding was not being misused.

“I am confident that previous Australian funding to the PA through the World Bank has been used as intended,” she affirmed, having had previously stated that the funds were subject to a close audit and had been spent on health, education and governance – aligning with Australia’s policies.

“However, I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA’s operations there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to activities that Australia would never support,” she added, referring to what she previously called the “so-called Martyrs fund.”

“Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values, and undermines the prospect of meaningful peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Bishop’s statement continued.

The payments to families of Palestinian attackers are an highly controversial issue often used to criticize the Palestinian Authority internationally, including by actors in the United States and the European Union. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has defended these payments as “social responsibility”.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas gestures as he chairs a Palestinian National Council meeting in Ramallah on April 30, 2018  – ABBAS MOMANI (AFP)

In 2017, the total budget for “prisoners’ payments” stood at $345 million, equivalent to half of the international contributions to the PA’s budget. The stipend is pegged to the length of the convicted terrorists’ prison sentences, meaning it is indirectly pegged to the severity of the crime.

The 10 million Australian dollars ($7.4 million) aid will now be redirected from to the UN Humanitarian Fund for the Palestinian Territories which supports 1.9 million “vulnerable Palestinians” with a focus on assisting access to basic services. According to the statement, this includes health care, food, water, improved sanitation and shelter.

According to the Guardian, Australia allocated $43 million for humanitarian assistance in the region which began on July 1.

On March 23 of this year, the Taylor Force Act was passed by the US Senate as part of an omnibus $1.3 trillion spending bill, stating that it would withhold a large chunk of Washington’s financial aid to the PA unless they ceased the “pay-for-slay” policies. At the same time, it protected aid funding for wastewater projects.

On Sunday, i24NEWS learned that the US had quietly frozen its aid to the Palestinian Authority pending review. The funding freeze was said to have caused a suspension of certain programs run by international agencies, the HALO Trust, which performs landmine clearance in the West Bank said it had suspended operations due to the fund freeze. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said that funds that should have been received had not arrived.

Last year, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott called on the government to slash the payment of “pensions to terrorists and their families” and also urged his country to follow in the footsteps of Trump’s embassy decision.

Abbott’s support for Israel which has lauded in the past as “the region’s only liberal, pluralist democracy” reflects a prevalent feeling amongst many Liberal Party members.

Australia generally, has been supportive of Israel in the international arena amid a slew of condemnation following the recent string of “Great March of Return” protests along the Gaza border that have turned violent.

Source: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/178508-180702-australia-ends-direct-aid-to-pa-amid-concerns-of-funds-funneled-to-terrorists

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The Trump administration is close to releasing a long-awaited Middle East peace proposal that officials said would present U.S. goals for a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, despite the Palestinian position that President Trump cannot be an honest broker.

The proposal is likely to be released within weeks, with the aim of beginning negotiations between the parties, perhaps as early as this summer, diplomats and other officials said. It has been delayed by a months-long Palestinian boycott in protest of Trump’s policy that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may reject the framework out of hand.

“If he doesn’t give it a read, if he just sticks with the language which he’s been saying publicly, such as the U.S. is out [as a peacemaker] and that he won’t even look at it, that type of language, well shame on him,” a senior Trump administration official said. “How does that help the Palestinian people?”

The exact timing of a release is not set. “We’re going to let the situation on the ground determine when to do it rather than deciding on a deadline and force it,” said the official, who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been released. “We have one shot, right? We want to get it right.”

Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and the chief U.S. negotiator, former Trump attorney Jason D. Greenblatt, are visiting Arab capitals and Israel this week to describe some elements of the administration’s vision and seek help in drawing Palestinian leadership to the table.

[Jared Kushner receives permanent security clearance]

They are not meeting with Abbas or his advisers. Abbas and his Fatah party have refused to meet or talk with White House officials since December, when Trump announced the change to decades of U.S. policy on Jerusalem. Trump recognized it as the Israeli capital and also followed through with a campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the city, part of which the Palestinians also claim as the capital of a future state.

“We will not meet them, and that’s the position,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

He accused the Trump administration of “unprecedented” pro-Israel bias.

The plan, some 18 months in the making, is expected to include U.S. recommendations to resolve the major disputes in the 70-year conflict, including the status of Jerusalem, as well as economic and humanitarian proposals aimed at improving Palestinian daily life. It is unlikely to satisfy the core Palestinian demand that Israel relinquish all the territory it captured from Arab states in the 1967 wars.

The Trump administration has sought to pressure Abbas through other Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II. After the Kushner delegation met with Abdullah on Tuesday, the Jordanian palace said the king “stressed the need to reach a just and comprehensive peace.”

Abdullah told the envoys that Jordan remains committed to the Palestinian demands for peace — an independent state “on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” Much of the land the Palestinians seek is now occupied by Israeli settlements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Abdullah in the past week, and Palestinian officials met with him Wednesday.

While insisting that any deal must ultimately include the land and Jerusalem provisions, Jordan has been pressing the Palestinians to sit down and talk with the Americans and to push back at what they find unacceptable.

But Jordan’s position is somewhat different from that of the Persian Gulf monarchies the administration expects to fund economic inducements to the Palestinians. Abdullah is not only the “custodian” of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem — Jordan also has significant bilateral issues with Israel to consider, including water rights and border security. At the same time, more than 2 million Palestinians live in Jordan.

Jordan also shares borders with Syria and Iraq and is housing at least 1.3 million Syrian refugees, straining its already foundering economy.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have given public support to the Palestinians’ position and cannot afford politically to abandon them. But the issue has become a distraction for them.

Both are laser-focused on the perceived threat from Iran and are pleased with the administration’s policies toward Tehran. Israeli media has been filled with reports that the Saudis and Emiratis are prepared to back the U.S. plan and will twist Abbas’s arm to at least enter negotiations.

[How Jared Kushner forged a bond with the Saudi crown prince]

At the same time, the Saudis and Emiratis, along with Kuwait, have stepped in to provide financial assistance to Jordan, earlier this month pledging $2.5 billion to help support its economy. Qatar has also promised $500 million.

The decision to release the plan with no indication that Abbas will entertain it is one sign that the Trump administration is looking past the 82-year-old leader.

Trump’s tenure has marked a low point for U.S.-Palestinian relations, with the president accusing Abbas and his Fatah leadership of disrespecting Vice President Pence, among others, by refusing to meet since the Dec. 6 embassy announcement. Trump had held positive meetings with Abbas before that, including at the White House, and spoke hopefully about brokering the “ultimate deal” to settle the conflict.

Since the breach, the Trump administration has focused on humanitarian and economic initiatives for the West Bank, where Abbas is headquartered, and the Gaza Strip, which is governed by the rival Palestinian faction Hamas.

Abbas was hospitalized repeatedly last month, including an extended stay to treat a lung infection. He has announced no intention to step down, but questions of who would succeed him have roiled Palestinian politics this year. The United States takes no position, the senior administration official said, but part of the U.S. strategy is to go around the Palestinian “old guard” to make a case for an agreement with Israel.

“We want the Palestinian people to hear our message directly,” the official said. “They are fed so much misinformation, and we want to address that.”

“That doesn’t mean we can solve the peace process” that way, the official said. “At the end of the day, if we don’t solve Jerusalem, don’t solve security issues, maybe there’s no peace agreement. But what can happen is an improvement in lives. They are looking for both, and they don’t think this leadership can improve their lives.”

The bad blood between the Trump team and Abbas was evident in recent weeks as Erekat and Greenblatt sparred in the opinion pages of Israeli newspapers.

“The Palestinians deserve so much better than Saeb Erekat,” read the title of an editorial by Greenblatt that ran last week in the Haaretz newspaper.

In an interview, Erekat accused the United States of trying to change the Palestinian leadership and negotiators. He said the Palestinians held 35 meetings with Trump officials before the Jerusalem decision and see no reason to engage again.

“There is no plan,” Erekat said. “Kushner and Greenblatt are trying to dictate the solution by making Jerusalem the capital of Israel, legitimizing the settlements and changing the conflict from a political one to a humanitarian one.”

The Palestinian leadership has criticized the reported effort by Kushner and Greenblatt to rally Arab support for a $1 billion Gaza investment fund during their regional tour.

“Of course we want Gaza’s suffering to be eliminated,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee. “What they are trying to do is sever Gaza from Palestine and address the concern that is Israel’s security instead of looking at a political solution.”

She said that the U.S. administration appears to have a strategy of “economic peace through Gaza, while making the Arab world pay for it.”

Morris reported from Jerusalem. Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-close-to-releasing-mideast-peace-proposal-that-palestinian-leadership-may-immediately-reject/2018/06/20/32ffa498-73f1-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.b3d15827a100

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Israeli authorities welcomed the announcement, but Palestinians and other world leaders say the move would spark violence and unhinge prospects for a Middle East peace accord.

Israel regards Jerusalem as its capital, but the international community says the city’s status should be determined through peace talks. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future, independent state.

More: Hamas leader calls for new ‘intifada’ after Trump’s Jerusalem move

More: Trump declares Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

What is an intifada?

The Arabic word intifada means “shake”, “shaking” or “shake off.” In this case, intifada refers to an uprising against Israel.

The first intifada began in 1987 after Israeli troops killed four Palestinians at a checkpoint in Gaza and an Israeli soldier opened fire on protesting Palestinians, killing a 17-year-old. Images of Palestinian youths throwing rocks and stones at Israeli soldiers were published worldwide. Israeli troops responded with deadly force. The Oslo Accords between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the setting up of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank brought an end to that intifada in 1993.

More: Trump’s plan signals to Palestinians — the less you give up, the more you lose

More: Why declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital may upend peace in Middle East

The second intifada began in September 2000 after Ariel Sharon, who went on to serve as Israel’s prime minister from 2001-2006, visited the disputed holy site in Jerusalem known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif) to Muslims. Palestinians feared Israel was preparing to retake the site, which is home to the Al Aqsa mosque. Two days after Sharon’s visit, Muhammad Durrah, 12, was killed in a firefight between Israeli troops and Palestinians on the Gaza strip, stoking more Palestinian anger. This Hamas-led intifada was characterized by deadly violence, including shootings and suicide bombings. It ended months after the death of Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in November 2004.

What could a third intifada mean for the troubled region?

“We want the uprising to last and continue to let Trump and the occupation regret this decision,” said Hamas leader Ismail Haniya at a news conference in the Gaza Strip Thursday.

However some believe a third intifada will not occur.

Muhammad Shehada, an activist from the Gaza Strip, wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the likelihood of another mass uprising was at an “all-time low” because it is not in the interests of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

Contributing: Oren Dorell and Kim Hjelmgaard

Source: https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/wp-admin/post-new.php

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The massacre of worshippers at a mosque in Sinai on Friday – the deadliest jihadi terror attack ever in Egypt – is the Egyptian security forces’ second failure in just over a month. In the previous incident, in the Giza district west of Cairo, more than 50 Egyptian policemen were killed in a raid gone wrong at a hideout of Muslim Brotherhood militants. After the first incident, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi fired his army chief of staff, now simply a presidential adviser.

From the Israeli point of view, the two Egyptian failures are astonishing. Especially in Sinai, it’s hard to understand how after constantly fighting the Islamic State’s Wilayat Sinai affiliate in recent years, the Egyptians have let fewer than 1,000 operatives carry out such murderous attacks. The ineffectiveness of the Egyptian security forces cries out to the heavens, especially when we remember the foreign media’s reports that Israel has been extensively helping Egypt in intelligence and the use of drones against Islamic State strongholds.

The United States shares the frustration and surprise; in a number of cases Washington noted to Sissi and his people that the Egyptian security forces’ preparedness was clumsy and predictable. In the fight against terror and guerrilla groups, quicker action is needed, combining precise intelligence and commando forces. The Egyptians are still very far from employing this method that resembles the way Israel combats terror groups.

From the Egyptian point of view, things aren’t so bad, despite the terrible massacre in Sinai. If more than 300 had been killed in Cairo, for example, this would have presented a much greater challenge to the regime.

Senior Egyptian officials have said more than once that the fight against terror, especially in Sinai, will take a great deal of time, and that they have patience. To them, they’ve chalked up plenty of achievements, above all getting some of the Sinai Bedouin tribes to fight the Islamic State. The backdrop for the recent attack might have been the refusal of the tribe in whose territory the attack took place to cooperate with ISIS.

Cairo, in any case, perceives the war against fundamentalist groups as a battle on three fronts: on the Libyan border, in core Egypt and in Sinai. The fighting on the Libyan front is more severe than in Sinai, and the Egyptians have seen some success there. The main concern, shared by Egypt and Israel, involves the possibility that Wilayat Sinai will now strengthen in light of events in the entire region.

The defeat of the Islamic State and the fall of the caliphate the group established in Syria and northern Iraq paves the way to a new era that Israeli intelligence calls ISIS 2.0. This is no longer control of a clearly defined territory, but rather a “virtual caliphate” in which the group recruits young radicals for attacks via the Internet, in Western countries as well, while taking advantage of Sinai’s great desert.

In a speech to the nation, Sissi promised that operations against the Islamic State would become more brutal. It may be assumed that the Egyptians will opt for a major show of force in Sinai while trying to reach understandings with more Bedouin tribes.

The Islamic State has already taken in to its ranks veterans of its battles in Syria and Iraq, a phenomenon that could increase in the coming months. Friday’s attack showed a high degree of planning and implementation; the terrorists stormed the mosque where hundreds of worshippers were trapped and then set ambushes for rescue personnel. Such sophistication also worries the Israel Defense Forces, in case ISIS fighters (who are also operating against Al-Qaida’s awakening local branch) try an ambitious attack in the direction of Israel.

Shaky Hamas-PA reconciliation
The Sinai attack will delay the opening of the Rafah crossing, which Gazans have been waiting for impatiently following the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. But the status of the reconciliation talks is worse than the parties are willing to admit. For the moment, it seems high hopes will be dashed: completing the process by December 1, launching the joint government’s operations and putting the Rafah crossing into continual operation.

The last round of talks in Cairo ended in utter failure. In this context, a kind of unsigned manifesto has been published detailing the ostensible understandings reached by the parties. This might have been a false report by Egyptian intelligence, which is mediating the process and now wants to calm things down.

Among other things, it claimed that Hamas had agreed to accept the Palestine Liberation Organization as the only legal representative of the Palestinian people. It’s hard to believe that Hamas would agree to this without promises of representation in PLO bodies – one of the main stumbling blocks in the negotiations.

And so there’s a double danger. One is the Palestinian people’s loss of hope in light of the talks’ failure, which could help reheat the border between Israel and Gaza. The second is the possibility that Islamic Jihad will request a chance to settle accounts after Israel blew up a tunnel on the Gaza border last month, killing 12 Islamic Jihad militants and one Hamas man.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.824959

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The official Palestinian mission to Colombia on Thursday night tweeted a quote from former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

The tweet read, “Our goal is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromises or mediations…. We don’t want peace. We want WAR and victory — Yasser Arafat,” according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Following a report on Israel’s Channel 1 television, the Spanish-language tweet was removed. No explanation or apology was offered.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded to the tweet by condemning Arafat for his “legacy of hostility” and death.

“A quote from one of Arafat’s statements clearly illustrates to us the hatred that was always his lot and the legacy of hostility he left behind,” the ministry told the TV station. “In his life and death, his entire legacy is death, hatred and disgust.”

Israel’s ambassador to Colombia said the matter had been raised with the local authorities.

“We brought the matter of the Palestinian mission’s tweet to the attention of the government in Bogata,” Marco Sermoneta told Channel 1. “Anyone who believes everything the Palestinians say must also believe them when they say this.”

Arafat, who died in 2004, remains a venerated figure among Palestinians, but is seen by many in Israel as an unreformed terrorist who doomed the 2000 Camp David peace talks, orchestrated the suicide bombing onslaught of the Second Intifada that followed, and disseminated a still-prevailing narrative among Palestinians that denies Jews’ history and legitimacy in the Holy Land.

The aforementioned quote from Arafat appeared in the Washington Post in March 1970, long before he became Israel’s negotiating partner for peace or the head of the Palestinian Authority. However, Arafat continued to call for the destruction of Israel even after the peace deal was signed in 1993.

Bill Clinton looks on as Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands during the signing of the Oslo Accords, September 13, 1993. On the far right, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (photo credit: courtesy GPO)

On January 30, 1996, Arafat gave a speech in Sweden in which he said, “We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilled to redeem our land!”

Most of the tweets on the Colombian mission’s Twitter account, which has fewer than 600 followers, over the past few days have been quotes from Palestinian nationalist writer Mahmoud Darwish.

Darwish, who died in 2008, is considered a Palestinian national symbol and was a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Born in a village that later became part of northern Israel and a resident of countries including Lebanon, France and Jordan, he spent part of the last years of his life in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Darwish was a frequent visitor to Israel, where four of his books were translated into Hebrew. He was critical of Israel as well as of terror group Hamas, which currently rules the Gaza Strip.

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Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/quoting-arafat-palestinian-mission-in-colombia-calls-for-israels-destruction/

[Disclaimer]

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