Israel’s ‘Top Gun’: The US-Israeli aircraft that can take down Iran - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Top Israeli officials have all made direct threats against Iran. US-Israeli F-35 aircraft drills have helped make this option a possibility.

 

PREPARING FOR a joint mission? US and Israeli fighter jets participate in the Juniper Oak drill over the Negev in January.

(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

White, yellow and purple fire erupted from their engines like a volcano.

The force of the explosion in their engines was deafening, even at a distance of a couple of hundred meters, and slightly shook the entire area.

Israel’s F-35 Adir elite fighter aircraft sped off one by one down the Nevatim Air Force Base runway near Beersheba, curving at first slightly to the right and then bursting forward with a stunning thrust, cutting deep rightward, as well as sailing upward at an acute angle.

After witnessing six aircraft taking off (and nearly going deaf the one time that we were too slow in covering our ears), the Magazine, a group of IDF officers, and one other media outlet turned our attention to the American F-15s that were due to take off next.

The F-35s had taken off with increments of 30 to 90 seconds in between each aircraft.

ISRAELI AND AMERICAN train through Israeli airspace. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

IDF Lt.-Col. M, commander of the 140 F-35 squadron, told the Magazine that the entire squadron could be up in the air during the exercise in less than 10 minutes and in an operational situation, far more rapidly.

However, the four American F-15s, even during the exercise, seemed to take off at a much faster rate – within 30 seconds or less – practically one right after another.

A Gulfstream G-500/G-550 (Nachshon) was also involved to train for intelligence collection.

Up close and on the ground, the gray F-35s, in shades of red, sported an eagle symbol and had a variety of messages written in large font on the aircraft itself.

These messages are to remind pilots and crews about proper handling of the cockpit and canopy, as well as instructions relating to items to remove before flying and various latches that need to be moved.

F-35s: A small and deadly aircraft

The F-35s seem astonishingly small for the best fighter aircraft in the world.

THEN AGAIN, as IDF Capt. I, the commander running the joint Israeli-US drill from the Israeli side, pointed out, the F-35s are made to be small and to carry fewer weapons. That is so they can have a much lower radar signature and achieve their stealth attack-with-surprise capability.

Asked about a variety of tasks, such as refueling, which might be necessary when striking distant locations such as Iran, M declined to address specific targets but said, “The Air Force would be ready for all tasks,” sending a message that the IDF has creative solutions for long-range flights.

Analysts have speculated that the IDF could use its aging Boeing 707 for mid-air refueling, even if not ideal, or that IDF aircraft might land and refuel at moderate Sunni locations in the Gulf. If an attack were to occur at some point in the future, or with US refueling assistance, Israel could use the American or its own new KC-46 refueling aircraft, which it will eventually receive from Boeing.

M was asked what he would do if he were engaged by antiaircraft missiles and if there were different maneuvers for avoiding one missile versus 10 or 30 or more.

Without revealing specific tactics, he confirmed that there were different tactics “to make sure we protect the aircraft according to different antiaircraft defense scenarios.”

In mid-December, outgoing IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi said that Israeli Air Force jets attacking Syria in recent years have, at times, faced 30 to 40 surface-to-air missiles or even up to 70 such missiles without losing a single aircraft.

When Kohavi’s recent quote regarding 70 antiaircraft missiles was mentioned, M said, “We know how to deal with” any scenario.

SOME ANALYSTS have noted that the aircraft that Israel possesses can also fire long-range missiles to strike targets in Iran from a significant distance, and then hightail it back to Israel while remaining out of range of Iranian defenses or while maximizing their ability to get out of range before those defenses kick in.

When presented with the idea that the IDF has had a 90% success rate in attacks in Syria against land-based targets, whereas hitting aerial targets which can maneuver in more of a three-dimensional manner, M demurred. He said, “Both land forces and hitting aerial attack drones have different challenges.”

He did not specify the different challenges. But one special challenge sometimes presented with land-based targets versus aerial targets is the proximity to potentially innocent civilians.

M would not say all the places he had flown, but there was a clear implication that with his long flight record, he would have served in missions striking targets in Syria.

At a recent graduation ceremony of Air Force personnel, then-defense minister Benny Gantz said that the graduates would need to be ready to attack Iran in “two to three years.”

Since then, outgoing chief Kohavi, new IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, new Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have all made direct threats to Iran about its nuclear program and regional terror.

The goal of the joint flights and simulated attacks witnessed by the Magazine was to train for hitting targets in “deep” enemy territory, often a euphemism for Iran and other countries that do not have immediate borders with Israel.

Clearly, the US is a huge asset and backer. As M said, “Any help from the US could be good” if any foreign strike were ordered, but “we do not need them or anyone else” if Israel is compelled to take action and other allies prefer to stay on the sidelines.

IN LATE January, the exercise which the Magazine partially witnessed was followed by “Juniper Oaks,” which was called the largest US-Israel joint exercise in history.

IDF Chief Herzi Halevi (C) and US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla (L) receive a briefing. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

CENTCOM, IDF and anonymous US officials all made it clear, either explicitly or implicitly, that Iran should take notice of the joint capabilities of Washington and Jerusalem to project and use power anywhere in the Middle East.

The F-35 could be called on to be the first wave of a climactic Israeli preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities at some point. If so, it is this stealth capability which Israeli experts hope will surprise and knock out Iran’s prized S-300 antiaircraft missile system.

Without discussing a specific operation, M emphasized the power of the F-35’s stealth capabilities and that he had personally confronted danger on various missions over the course of his career.

In 2016, when Israel was rolling out its new F-35s, Steve Over, director of the F-35 International Business Development for Lockheed Martin, said publicly that the F-35 fighter was designed to counter advanced threats just like the one posed by the Russian-made S-300.

He was speaking to journalists a day after Russia announced that it was lifting a ban on the sale of the air defense system to Iran, and said countries like Russia and China “have the capacity to sell advanced air defenses and planes and will sell to any nation with the money to buy them.”

But the F-35, he added, “has the capacity” to deal with advanced surface and airborne threats.

Israel's F-35s: Outfoxing the Syrian air defense system

During the period of 2018 to October 2022, it is believed that the Israeli Air Force’s F-35s succeeded in outfoxing the Syrian S-300 antiaircraft missile system.

Kohavi told the Magazine in January that Israel attacked targets in Syria on average on a weekly basis.

Despite the massive number of aerial attacks, which reportedly also included F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft at times, Israel lost only one F-16 in early 2018 and has never lost an F-35.

This gives Jerusalem some confidence about the ability to do the same, if necessary, against the Islamic Republic.

Israel also made progress on January 21, announcing that the Defense Ministry had officially requested 25 F-15 EX fighter jets from Boeing and the US. It is expected that Jerusalem will request even more in the future.

According to Boeing, the F-15 EX “carries more weapons than any other fighter in its class and can launch hypersonic weapons…weighing up to 7,000 pounds.”

But attacking Iran would be challenging.

How would Israel attack Iran?

Scenarios of an attack might play out with an opening salvo from Israel’s F-35 fighters, who might fly in from a variety of directions.

The F-35 has a small radar signature, but too many aircraft moving all together at the same time could set off other alarm bells and suspicions.

These aircraft would have to travel 1,200/1,350 miles/kilometers, possibly over Saudi airspace, which the Saudis might allow as the informal sponsors of the Abraham Accords. Alternatively, they might travel along the Syria-Turkey or Syria-Iraqi corridor, and then through Iraq itself to shorten the trip somewhat.

ANY AIRCRAFT crossing through Iraq would not be doing so with permission. But Baghdad has a weak air force and while nowhere near friendly to Israel, it has also not been actively hostile toward Israel since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Their mission would be to take out Iran’s many air defense systems from the S-300 to less sophisticated but still worrisome systems. They would also destroy any Iranian aircraft on the ground so that there would be “clear skies” for the next waves of aircraft. The S-300 would be the biggest priority, given that Iran’s air force is ancient. Many are not even sure that its aircraft have had sufficient maintenance to be combat worthy at all.

Depending on how many F-35s Israel has at the time, it might even be possible to dedicate only some of them to this first round and to reserve some to join the second wave. Israel might also be able to begin striking certain nuclear facilities simultaneously with the first wave.

It is also likely that Israel would send a fleet of drones, along with the F-35s, to fire missiles to destroy various antiaircraft missile targets and nuclear facilities or to destroy them by crashing into them.

According to Iranian and foreign sources, Israel recently pulled off drone attacks on Iran at its Isfahan facility on January 29, as well as in June 2021 at the Karaj nuclear facility.

This would be a way to multiply force in the initial wave without risking as many pilots’ lives, until it was evident that the skies were clear of most threats to Israeli aircraft.

Deciding how many F-35s and drones to send in, and how many defense sites versus critical nuclear sites to go after, would be a balancing act between risks to Israeli pilots and maximizing the element of surprise.

Israel will need bunker buster weapons to stop Iran's Fordow, Natanz nuclear facilities

The most complicated element in the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities would be eliminating its deep underground Fordow facility and, depending on whether it is finished, the new deep underground facility the Islamic Republic has been building at Natanz since 2021.

TO DATE, the US has refused, even under the Trump administration, to provide Israel with “bunker buster” weapons which are specially designed to destroy such deep underground facilities.

Previously, former CIA director Michael Hayden told the Magazine that America should have and should give Israel these weapons as a way to deter Iran from thinking that it can safely build nuclear facilities by placing them deep underground.

AIR DEFENSE capabilities are tested as part of the drill, simulating what could happen in the event of an Iranian missile or drone attack. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Another problem would be that no Israeli aircraft to date is capable of carrying the weight of a huge bunker-buster bomb.

However, a large number of current and former top IDF and other intelligence officials have assured the Magazine, without hesitation, that Israel has the capability to destroy such underground facilities.

How? They will not specify because such things are classified.

But senior US officials have told the Magazine that repeated bombing raids could cause a cave-in, a cut-off or make any Iranian underground facility otherwise unusable.

Other targets might include the heavy water reactor at Arak; various facilities at Isfahan, including a uranium conversion plant (though according to Iran, Israel’s Mossad just hit Isfahan on January 29); research reactors at Bonab, Ramsar, and Tehran; and other facilities like Parchin, where Iran may have conducted or may be conducting nuclear weaponization experiments.

M did not want to give a time frame regarding when the 11 Israeli F-35 aircraft, which were grounded on December 25 from training flights to address a potential malfunction found in similar American jets, would be returned to full service.

The impression given was that the review of the potential malfunction could be complex and take time. But M was clear that the remaining F-35s available, of which Israel has three squadrons (squadrons often vary from 10 to 25 aircraft), were enough, along with other Israeli fighter aircraft, to accomplish any mission that would need to be assigned. Since the interview with M, partners of Lockheed Martin have said that there may be a fix for the US’ F-35s as soon as this coming month, with parallel efforts in Israel.

Additional sources the Magazine has consulted added that while reviewing those F-35s for the purposes of training may take time, they are likely still fit for combat, and the IDF could use them as such even if not taking such risks for mere training.

US, Israeli pilots training with F-35s together

Cutting back to the joint drill and what was achieved, Capt. I emphasized a mix of overcoming obstacles in language, as well as procedures and maneuvers. When he interviewed with the Magazine, the exercise had already been running for multiple days.

He said that even in only a few days, the two teams of pilots had a greater understanding of each other and intuiting each other’s approaches to flying.

While learning operational maneuvers and tactics and getting used to flying in different formations could lead to Israelis teaching Americans some moves – given that Israeli pilots currently have more regular combat missions – in terms of language, everything is about Israelis improving their English.

After all, Israeli pilots already have all been educated in English to a relatively high level, but the US is the big brother, so any discrepancies in communication will usually lean toward the American Air Force’s needs.

Curiously enough, both M and I said that the Israeli and the American pilots learned as much from each other while commiserating on the ground between exercises as they did in the air.

M noted that he was among the first to learn to fly the F-35 and spent five months living in the US on an American base in 2016, when the first F-35s started to become available to Israel.

He said that American pilots loved Israeli food and were stunned by the quick changes to Israel’s landscape and scenery in such a small geographic area, from fields of green to mountains to desert.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) during exercise Juniper Oak. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

M AGREED that Israel’s move from coordinating with EUROCOM, the US’s military forces in Europe, to CENTCOM, its forces in the Middle East, was a positive move which could be extremely helpful for future operations. He said that more generally, it also allowed the US and Israeli militaries to be more in sync.

M confirmed that the Abraham Accords have helped isolate Iran and have helped the Air Force in advancing greater regional cooperation, while emphasizing “not operational cooperation yet” (as opposed to the US, where there is already operational cooperation).

In addition, M said his pilots and the American pilots could “learn more specific tactics in this smaller exercise.” This is as opposed to a larger exercise, where the focus is less on unit-by-unit coordination and more on the full picture of a wider integration of diverse forces.

A remarkable aspect of the IDF is its work ethic. One of the pilots suffered a broken arm but pushed through it to perform a variety of activities on the ground during the drill until he was fully back in shape.

One thing that was self-evident was that M was a clear master. He walked around the aircraft on the base like it was his backyard which he had owned for most of his adult life.

Tall and with a swagger and overtly disarming confidence that pilots are known for, M fits the mold of exactly who the Jewish state would want in the cockpit, commanding the most dangerous and momentous missions over the horizon.

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-732487

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Thanks to Obama's 'Nuclear Deal,' Iran Now a Major Arms Exporter - Majid Rafizadeh

 

by Majid Rafizadeh

Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles.

• In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies.

• "Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations...." — Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2023.

• Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles.

• While ballistic missiles can be used for either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.

• Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies, including a drone assembly line in Russia. Pictured: An Iranian drone that was shot down near Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Image source: Ukrainian Armed Forces)

The Biden administration is still attempting to revive the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, which paved the way to lift the arms embargo on the country and helped the Iranian regime to currently become a major global arms exporter.

Among the many gifts that the Obama Administration offered to the Iranian regime was one setting October 18, 2020 as the date when the arms embargo on Iran would be removed, allowing the regime to export, import, buy and sell weapons legally, as it might wish. The arms embargo for Iran had been previously placed on it by the five members of the United Nations Security Council in 2007, during the Bush administration. The embargo encompassed a wide range of weapons, including large-caliber artillery, drones, combat aircraft, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, attack helicopters, some missiles and missile launchers, and warships.

Thanks, however, to the Obama-Biden administration, after the arms embargo was lifted, the Iranian regime, which the US Department of State has called the world's "top state sponsor of terrorism" unsurprisingly ratcheted up its import and export of weapons.

In addition to non-state actors such as the Houthis, the Iranian regime is increasingly supplying kamikaze killer drones to Russia, an act that led to the Ukrainian foreign ministry stripping Iran's ambassador in Kyiv of his accreditation and reducing the embassy's diplomatic staff, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry's press service.

The EU also acknowledged that Iran is indeed "provid[ing] military support for Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine," by means of the "development and delivery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Russia".

"By enabling these strikes," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly noted in a statement, "these individuals and a manufacturer have caused the people of Ukraine untold suffering."

In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies, including a drone assembly line in Russia. According to the Wall Street Journal:

"Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, said officials from a country aligned with the U.S.

"As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running."

Iran's ruling mullahs are also currently bragging that China is another customer for their domestically made drones. "Our power has grown to levels where China is waiting in line to buy 15,000 of our drones," a senior official from Iran's Intelligence Ministry recently said at the Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin. "Since the day we turned to the East," he added, "the West could not bear it and an example was the war in Ukraine."

"Today we have reached a point that 22 world countries are demanding to purchase unmanned aircraft from Iran," Iranian Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi boasted at Imam Hussein Military University in Tehran.

Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles. According to a report by Forbes:

"Russia also wants Iran's Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) with ranges between 186 and 435 miles, respectively. A large order of such missiles could give Russia some substitution for its arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, which has reportedly dwindled, enabling it to sustain its bombardment of Ukrainian cities."

Iran currently possesses the largest and most diverse ballistic missile program in the Middle East. It is worth noting that no country other than Iran has acquired long-range ballistic missiles before obtaining nuclear weapons. While ballistic missiles can be used for either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.

Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

 
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19436/iran-arms-exporter

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Anatomy of a Cover-up: The January 6 Tapes - Julie Kelly

 

by Julie Kelly

Like all good political scandals, the path to the truth begins with the tapes.

 

Tucker Carlson now has the equivalent of nearly five years of surveillance footage captured by U.S. Capitol Police security cameras on January 6, 2021. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) turned over the tapes to the Fox News host  earlier this month, according to Axios. Carlson’s producers and researchers are already distilling the footage; the first round of clips is expected to air in a few weeks.

While some grumble that McCarthy did not fulfill his promise to publicly release the footage—arguably a valid complaint—Carlson’s team undoubtedly will give the massive trove much-needed context and maximum impact. Carlson released a three-part documentary, “Patriot Purge,” in November 2021 that explained how the events of January 6 helped launch a second “war on terror” against American citizens out of step with the Biden regime.

Since early 2021, Carlson has used his nightly show to expose the cruel treatment of Trump supporters suffering pretrial detention orders; raised questions about the use of undercover assets including FBI informants and the mysterious role of Ray Epps; asked why the case of the January 5 “pipe bomber” remains unsolved; and demanded the release of the surveillance video as late as last month.

Releasing the video never should have been a political fight; after all, the footage was recorded on a taxpayer-paid closed circuit television system installed on public property to monitor public employees. Contrary to arguments by Capitol Police and the Justice Department, the video belongs to the public, not federal agencies.

But both entities, with the help of D.C. District Court judges, have successfully kept the trove largely under wraps for more than two years. Even the FBI and D.C. Metropolitan Police departments signed agreements a few days after the Capitol protest to acknowledge that the tapes technically belonged to Capitol Police.

In a sworn statement filed in March 2021, Thomas DiBiase, general counsel for the Capitol Police, insisted the footage constituted “security information” that required very limited access. “Our concern is that providing unfettered access to hours of extremely sensitive information to defendants who already have shown a desire to interfere with the democratic process will . . . [be] passed on to those who might wish to attack the Capitol again,” DiBiase warned.

The Justice Department subsequently designated the tapes as “highly sensitive” government material subject to protective orders in January 6 prosecutions. It’s been a major battle for defendants and their attorneys to properly access all of the video tied to their cases; defendants cannot watch any clips without the presence of a legal authority and none of the footage can be shared or downloaded.

Of course, there have been some exceptions. Capitol Police shared cherry-picked clips with the House Democrats on the second impeachment committee as well as the January 6 select committee. For example, the brief clip of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) running through a hallway that afternoon presumably after the breach was produced from surveillance video. HBO also accessed surveillance footage for its slanted documentary on January 6. “Security” concerns, my foot.

Imagine the universal outrage in any other situation had crucial video of what the government considered a terror attack been kept away from the public for more than two years. Influential opinion pages would have banged the drum incessantly for its release, insisting some sort of cover up was unfolding. Progressive activist groups and elected officials would demand a full accounting of what happened before, during, and after the “attack,” including all government-produced evidence. Influential lawyers and legal defense funds would lament the deprivation of due process for those involved in the allegedly heinous act.

Instead, the usual defenders of accountability, transparency, and constitutional rights have been completely AWOL. The fight has been waged by outmatched defense attorneys in the rigged legal and judicial system in the nation’s capital. And a handful of influencers like Carlson.

To be fair, a consortium called the Press Coalition forced a few federal judges to lift protective orders on a small amount of surveillance video. Representing more than a dozen major news companies, the coalition successfully won the release of limited security footage that, in some instances, contradicted the assertion that police did not allow protesters into the building that afternoon. Unsealed video also showed how police brutalized women inside the lower west terrace tunnel.

In a laughable “reality check” in his article, Axios reporter Mike Allen suggested the public has seen enough surveillance video since the “Jan. 6 committee played numerous excerpts of the footage at last year’s captivating hearings.” But not only were most of the evidentiary video clips sourced from protesters’ cell phones, the surveillance video clips offered by the committee represented an infinitesimal sliver of the total collection.

Which, notably, is much bigger than what the government has made available to January 6 defendants. Axios reported that Carlson’s team has 41,000 hours of raw footage—nearly three times the amount that the Justice Department allowed into evidence, which only covered the time period between noon and 8:00 p.m. on January 6. The tapes now in Carlson’s possession apparently covers the entire 24-hour period from “multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds.”

One can only guess what the videos will reveal. It’s possible, even likely, the never-before-seen footage will show the elements of a preplanned attack engineered by the same political and government forces that attempted to destroy Donald Trump for the better part of six years. Will the tapes finally answer the questions that top law enforcement officials such as FBI Director Christopher Wray refuse to answer and the January 6 select committee buried—not the least of which was the role of the FBI?

Withholding the video is only one part of the massive cover-up about January 6. Republicans should seek similar demands for records, emails, and communications from Capitol Police to expose the full scope of the cover-up. But like all good political scandals, the path to the truth begins with the tapes.

Julie Kelly

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/anatomy-of-a-cover-up-the-january-6-tapes/

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Key Hunter Biden associate cooperating with Congress, opening crucial window into Joe Biden dealings - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Former Rosemont Seneca businessman Eric Schwerin "is going to be a very valuable witness," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Just the News.

 

Congressional investigators have scored a major breakthrough by securing cooperation from Eric Schwerin, a close business associate of Hunter Biden who also had dealings with Joe Biden's business and tax affairs.

"He is cooperating with us," House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) revealed Thursday evening on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "His attorneys and my counsel are communicating on a regular basis. Now, I feel confident that he's going to work with us, and provide us with the information that we have requested."

Comer added: "I think that Schwerwin is going to be a very valuable witness for us in this investigation." 

The announcement comes as the committee has gotten word that Hunter Biden and his uncle, presidential brother James Biden, don't intend to volunteer all the information Comer's committee has been seeking in its wide-ranging probe of the first family's overseas business dealings that collected millions from Ukraine to China.

Comer said his committee won't wait any longer and will begin issuing subpoenas immediately.

"We know individuals, many are cooperating with us now, but others, not so much," he said. "We're going to start subpoenaing people in the private sector, we're going to start subpoenaing financial institutions to get us the information. And then we'll go from there."

Comer also trolled Hunter Biden for refusing to fully cooperate, saying the lack of cooperation seemed to undercut his claims he had nothing to hide.

"If I were Hunter Biden, and I'm as innocent as his lawyers and the little hit guy that works in the White House and attacks me every day says he is, I would want to clear my name in front of the House Oversight Committee," he said.

"He could come in front of the House Oversight Committee right now and defend his good name," Comer said. "He would have 20 Democrats that would definitely support him, and he could make 26 Republicans look bad if all this information we have from his laptop, all the emails that were in his own words, all the audio that are in his own voice, if for some reason we're misinterpreting that, then he could make us look bad.

"But we all know that this family was involved in influence peddling. And this administration is doing everything in its ability to try to block oversight." 

Both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have denied the family did anything wrong, although Hunter Biden has acknowledged he is under federal criminal investigation on tax issues.

Comer said while the committee battles the White House and the Biden family for information, Schwerin's cooperation was a breakthrough that could spur other key witnesses to cooperate.

"That's a very positive development, I believe that's going to lead to a few others coming forward," he said.

Emails on a Hunter Biden laptop that was turned over to the FBI in 2019 show Schwerin, a business executive at Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca investment firm, had close proximity to both Hunter and Joe Biden during most of the time the elder Biden was vice president and his son was pursuing international business deals.

For instance, Schwerin was involved in vetting and facilitating Hunter Biden's business dealings with the Chinese energy firm CEFC, a relationship that has raised questions about whether communist China has compromised the Biden family by providing it, as the emails show, an expensive diamond and a multimillion dollar, no-interest, forgivable loan.

"If we can make the connection [to CEFC] we can take a percentage of the sale," Schwerin wrote Hunter Biden on Aug. 22, 2016, explaining how they could profit. 

As early as 2010, Schwerin was also involved in discussing tax and financial matters with Vice President Biden.

"Your Dad just called me (about his mortgage) and mentioned he'd be out a lot soon and not really back until Labor Day," Schwerin emailed Hunter Biden on July 6, 2010. "So it dawned on me it might be a good time (also he could use some positive news about his future earnings potential!)."

The White House and Hunter Biden's lawyer were unavailable for comment. 

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/breakthrough-house-investigators-secure-cooperation-key-hunter

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Man in the middle: Emails show how cooperating Hunter Biden associate could dish on Joe - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Rosemont business associate had critical access to Joe and Hunter Biden during the first family's push to discover "earnings potential" overseas.

 

In the years since Hunter Biden's laptop was seized by the FBI and made public, one business associate with unique access to both Joe Biden and his son has repeatedly emerged as key to investigators: longtime Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm executive Eric Schwerin.

Contemporaneous emails gleaned from the laptop show Schwerin handled some tax matters for both the future president and his son, engaging in conversations about everything from Joe Biden's private earnings potential to his son's unpaid taxes.

He also witnessed discussions about some of the family's most controversial overseas business deals ranging from Hunter Biden's remuneration from the Burisma Holdings natural gas firm in Ukraine and a plan to make money off the name of a Russian oligarch to dealings with the CEFC energy firm in communist China.

On Thursday, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) revealed to Just the News that his investigative team had secured Schwerin's initial cooperation, a breakthrough with a potentially transformative witness who could help Congress understand the who, what and why of the Biden family's pursuit of overseas riches dating to the early years of the Obama administration.

"He is cooperating with us," Comer told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "His attorneys and my counsel are communicating on a regular basis. Now, I feel confident that he's going to work with us, and provide us with the information that we have requested."

Comer added: "I think that Schwerwin is going to be a very valuable witness for us in this investigation." 

The announcement comes as the committee has gotten word that Hunter Biden and his uncle, presidential brother James Biden, don't intend to volunteer all the information Comer's committee has been seeking in its wide-ranging probe of the first family's overseas business dealings, which collected millions from Ukraine to China.

Comer said his committee won't wait any longer and will begin issuing subpoenas immediately.

"We know individuals, many are cooperating with us now, but others, not so much," he said. "We're going to start subpoenaing people in the private sector, we're going to start subpoenaing financial institutions to get us the information. And then we'll go from there."

There is no suggestion Schwerin, who worked in the Clinton administration before entering private business, engaged in any wrongdoing himself, and former colleagues described him to Just the News as respected and straightforward.

But Schwerin's cooperation with congressional investigators opens an unprecedented window into the finances of Joe and Hunter Biden and the business deals the first son pursued overseas as his father shepherded key aspects of U.S. foreign policy, a point Comer accentuated in a November 17 letter that first solicited Schwerin's help.

"Your personal involvement in then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter Biden's finances — including your role as president of Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca Partners company —and your numerous visits to the White House, reveal your extensive involvement with Joe Biden and his family’s affairs," Comer wrote to Schwerin.

2022-11-17-Schwerin-follow-up.pdf

Hunter Biden's lawyer and a spokesperson for the Biden White House did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Schwerin did not respond to a request for comment at his current office in Pennsylvania.

Below follows a roadmap to some of the emails involving Schwerin that have captured federal and congressional investigators' attention:

1. Schwerin wrote he worked on Joe Biden's taxes and suggested the future president owed his son money.

In spring and summer 2010, emails state Hunter Biden and Schwerin assisted the White House with documents for Joe Biden's tax returns after his first year in office as vice president. Afterwards, they discussed diverting the then-vice president's Delaware state tax refund to Hunter Biden to pay off money the father allegedly owed his son.

"I am depositing it in his account and writing a check in that amount back to you since he owes it to you," Schwerin wrote to Hunter Biden in June 2010 about the tax refund. "Don't think I need to run it by him, but if you want to go ahead." 

You can read that email here: FYI-Reacted.pdf

2. Schwerin wrote an email suggesting Hunter Biden paid some of his father's expenses.

In July 2010, Schwerin wrote an email entitled "JRB bills" — using the future president's initials— and listed a series of expenses from Joe Biden's lakefront home in Wilmington, Del., that Hunter Biden had allegedly paid.

They included $1,239 for air conditioner repairs at "mom-mom's cottage" and another $1,475 to paint the "back wall and columns at the lake house." There was $475 "for shutters" and $2,600 for building or repairing a "stone retaining wall at the lake."

You can read that email here: JRB Bills-Redacted.pdf

3. Schwerin engaged in a conversation about Joe Biden exploring how much money he could earn.

That same summer of 2010 — with Joe Biden just 18 months into his eight-year term as Obama's vice president — Schwerin and Hunter Biden discussed exploring what Joe Biden could make in the private sector in an email entitled "JRB Future Memo."

"Your Dad just called me (about his mortgage) and mentioned he'd be out a lot soon and not really back until Labor Day," Schwerin emailed Hunter Biden on July 6, 2010. "So it dawned on me it might be a good time (also he could use some positive news about his future earnings potential!)."

You can read that email here:

JRB Future Memo_Redacted.pdf

4. Schwerin was involved in the Biden family's initial discussions with the Chinese energy firm CEFC starting in 2015.

CEFC first approached Hunter Biden about making a donation to the U.S. World Food Program, which he served as honorary chairman, according to Schwerin's own correspondence on the laptop.

"Hunter was recently approached by a large privately owned Chinese corporation, called CEFC Energy China, that has a U.S. based foundation," Schwerin wrote in October 2015.

"They'd like to explore making a donation to WFP USA and their CEO would like to meet with the appropriate person at WFP USA the last week of October when he is in the U.S." he added. "My assumption based on the conversations I have had with them is that it would be more than just a token donation."

Soon, Hunter Biden and his partners would steer the discussion to personal business, when Hunter Biden was invited to a private meeting in December 2015 with CEFC's Chairman Ye in Washington D.C.

"I am confident that many interesting projects may come out of that in the future," a business associate wrote in explaining why Hunter Biden should attend.

As Just the News, The Washington Post and others have reported, the CEFC courtship eventually landed the Biden family a large diamond as a gift and a no-interest, forgivable $5 million loan that enriched the first family.

5. Schwerin warned Hunter Biden he had undeclared income from Ukraine on which he owed back taxes.

Four days before Donald Trump assumed the presidency, Schwerin warned Hunter Biden that he had not paid taxes on approximately $400,000 he had been paid by the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma in 2014 and needed to file an amended tax return.

"In 2014 you joined the Burisma Board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported Burisma income," Schwerin wrote Hunter Biden on Jan. 16, 2017. "That is approximately $400,000 extra so your income in 2014 was close to $1,247,328."

The email has caught the attention of investigators because it also described other transactions as "phantom income."

Hunter Biden issued a statement in late 2020 acknowledging he was under federal investigation for taxes, saying he was cooperating and confident he and his accountant handled his filings appropriately.

"I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors," Hunter Biden said at the time.

6. Schwerin emails detail effort by Hunter Biden to monitor father's official speeches looking for business opportunities.

Several emails on the Hunter Biden laptop turned over to the FBI chronicle instances in which Hunter Biden and his business partners monitored official actions or speeches by then-Vice President Biden to conjure up business ideas. Schwerin engaged in an email discussion about one such opportunity, which targeted a Russian oligarch.

Shortly after then-Vice President Biden gave a speech in 2011 in Russia that mentioned the U.S. aluminum firm Alcoa, Hunter Biden pitched an $80,000 business deal to Alcoa to research a controversial Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska who also was in the global aluminum business.

"FYI, note CEO of Alcoa at VP event in Russia today," Schwerin emailed Hunter Biden as the vice president's trip to Moscow was unfolding.

AlcoaVPSpeechSchwerinRedacted.pdf

Within a few short months, Hunter Biden personally emailed a proposal to Alcoa executives to charge them as much as $80,000 for an intelligence and risk analysis report on one of the U.S. company's new Russian partners, Deripaska, who ran the Russian aluminum giant RUSAL.

"Please see the attached proposal per our last conversation," Hunter Biden wrote the Alcoa executive on June 3, 2011. "Since we weren't able to get into it in depth in our meeting, we tried to provide a little better sense of the product by attaching some of the raw data that is produced through the elite mapping procedure.  

"Take a look at the attached and let's discuss after you have had a time to look it over. I am happy to get some of the other folks on the phone with you if you want us to further explain some of the attachments."

HunterBidenAlcoaJune3,2011Redacted.pdf

Hunter Biden's overture touched off a long series of emails between Alcoa officials and Rosemont Seneca executives that laid out the scope of the work the Biden firm was proposing.

"Follow-up to initial meeting with Rosemont Seneca Co-Chairman Hunter Biden regarding proposal to provide Alcoa with statistical analysis of political and corporate risks, elite networks associated with Oleg Deripaska (OD), Russian CEO of Basic Element company and United Company RUSAL," one email explained.

The emails don't indicate whether the deal was ever consummated.

As he continued to play a role in both Joe and Hunter Biden's affairs in 2015, Schwerin scored an appointment from Obama to a prestigious federal body called the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

"Eric D. Schwerin is Founding Partner and Managing Director at Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC, positions he has held since 2008," Obama's announcement said. "He has also been President of RSP Investments, LLC since 2013." Both firms cited are tied to Hunter Biden.

Schwerin and Hunter Biden worked together previously from 2002 to 2008 as partners at Oldaker, Biden & Belair, a firm that sought hefty sums in earmarks for clients' pet projects from Obama when he was still a U.S. senator, according to a 2008 article in The Washington Post. 

"Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, records show," the newspaper reported. "Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago."

The newspaper article quoted a letter Hunter Biden and Schwerin sent one client that stated  they were "working with a number of clients, institutions like yours, and we would like to help you identify earmarks, federal support and grants," the newspaper reported.

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/holdemails-show-why-biden-business-partner-eric-schwerins

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'Ministry of Truth': Critics warn Washington extremism bill targets free speech - The Center Square

 

by The Center Square

New domestic violent extremism database would include noncriminal activities or speech under AG’s description.

 

As the Washington State Attorney General’s Office continues work on a database for police use of force incidents, a House bill would set up a 13-member commission within that same office to develop a data collection process on incidents of “domestic violent extremism,” or DVE.

Although the term DVE is not defined in the bill, under State Attorney General Bob Ferguson's description it would include noncriminal activities or speech.

HB 1333 sponsored by Rep. Bill Ramos, D-Issaquah, creates a Domestic Violent Extremism Commission to develop ways to combat “disinformation and misinformation,” though the two words are not defined in the bill. Also not defined is the term DVE.

The legislation is derived from a recommendation by the Attorney General’s Office own 2022 “Domestic Terrorism” study, which cautioned that “effective State intervention to address these threats has the potential to implicate speech or association that may be protected by the First Amendment, or the individual right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.”

Among the report’s recommended was the creation of a commission to explore not just data collection, but potentially adding a definition of DVE to state statue. State law already addresses hate crimes, and the FBI defines “domestic terrorism” within the context of actual crimes or intent to commit a crime.

However, the attorney general's 2022 report argues that “rather than exclusively address ‘domestic terrorism’ per se, these recommendations seek to best support Washington State to respond to this panoply of challenges, which together combine to create the threat of—and indeed, are often precursors to—acts of domestic terrorism.”

The commission would also examine ways to treat DVE as a public health issue, though the state Department of Health is not included on the commission or mentioned in the bill. The commission would only have a member with “an expertise in public health” and would be appointed by the attorney general.

The bill is intended to take preemptive measures to stop actual domestic terrorist acts through community intervention. Testifying in support of HB 1333 at its Jan. 24 public hearing in the House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee, Snohomish County Councilmember Megan Dunn told legislators that "as local electeds, we have limited options in reporting, tracking, or collecting data, and we often have limited resources or solutions for combatting serious misinformation related to domestic violence extremism. We know incidents are not reported or underreported, and that data is the first step to determining the scope of the issue before we move forward with solutions."

However, critics argue that it could easily lead to situations like that in 2021, the National School Boards Association, or NSBA, sent a memo to the Biden Administration asking that it treat parent protesting during public comment at local school board meetings as “a form of domestic terrorism” under the PATRIOT Act.

Several state attorney generals filed lawsuits against both NSBA and the Biden Administration over the incident in an effort obtain public documents on that memo.

In a letter from Attorney General Bob Ferguson included in the 2022 Domestic Terrorism study, he described DVE as follows:

"Various forms of extremist and political violence like threats, coercion, and intimidation, online disinformation, extremist recruitment and government infiltration efforts, and the general spread of extreme white supremacism and anti-government ideologies."

In an analysis of the bill, Washington Policy Center Director Liv Finne wrote that the legislation "would criminalize certain forms of expression based on what members of a state commission consider to be their definition of 'domestic extremism.' Creating a state level 'Ministry of Truth' would not only undermine democratic norms, it would have a chilling effect on public debate, freedom of speech and civic participation in Washington state."

In the original bill, the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, would have been guaranteed a spot on the commission, but was removed via a committee amendment. In a brief statement, the ACLU declined to comment on the bill or its removal from the commission.

Part of the commission’s work would be developing ways to track data incidents of DVE, “including how data is collected, what triggers data collection, and how to ensure data is not disproportionately used against black, indigenous, and people of color communities or other communities.”

The commission would have to submit a report of its recommendations to the Attorney General’s Office by 2025, though the office would write its own final review “guided by the recommendations in the Attorney General’s 2022 domestic terrorism study.”

Testifying at HB 1333’s Feb. 20 public hearing in the House Appropriations Committee, Sue Coffman with informed Choice Washington warned that it's “bad publicity to spend $500,000 on an unlawful effort,” adding that they should “focus on actual criminal activity and intent to commit a crime, and not upon the people who exercise their right to freedom of expression.”

Also opposed was ballot initiative sponsor Tim Eyman, who told the committee that the bill could result in people being investigation over their "views, their associations, and their friends," with “no judicial oversight, no public viewing, no TVW.”

HB 1333 was voted out of the Appropriations Committee on Feb. 23.

The Center Square

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/ministry-truth-critics-warn-washington-extremism-bill-targets-free

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Earthquake Unveils Turkey's Many Ugly Faces - Burak Bekdil

 

by Burak Bekdil

[I]n the aftermath of the 1999 quake, Erdoğan said: "What broke here is not the fault line ... It is [the state's] sense of shame. This is [the result of] poor building planning and stealing from construction materials." Now that he is in power, Erdoğan explains that the loss of life in this month's earthquake was (God's) fate.

• The worst disaster in modern Turkey's history, the earthquake killed, as of February 15, more than 35,000 people and injured 100,000. The death toll will likely reach 40,000 or more. According to one estimate, the quake will result in $84 billion in economic losses to Turkey, more than 10% of gross domestic product.

• It was not the quake that killed tens of thousands, but politics and suicidal profit-maximization behavior on individual level.

• [I]n the aftermath of the 1999 quake, Erdoğan said: "What broke here is not the fault line ... It is [the state's] sense of shame. This is [the result of] poor building planning and stealing from construction materials." Now that he is in power, Erdoğan explains that the loss of life in this month's earthquake was (God's) fate.

• As part of his election campaign in 2018, Erdoğan granted "amnesty" to 7.4 million applications for unregulated buildings in return for fees, of which his government collected more than $13 billion.

• More than 10,000 buildings were destroyed in the latest earthquake.

• With the amnesty, contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk. Few buyers and tenants could guess that those permits would be their death certificates.

• One of the buildings that collapsed in Hatay, one of the worst-hit provinces, was a government hospital. In 2012, experts wrote a report that the building was not earthquake-resistant. The authorities did not mind. Ironically, a bridge in the same region, built 18 centuries ago during the Roman Empire, survived unscathed.

• An Israeli relief team from United Hatzalah, after having rescued 19 people under the rubble, was forced to cut short their work in Turkey and leave the country "in the face of growing security threat to the team." Yeni Akit claimed that "the Israeli team consisting of intelligence agents disguised as relief workers left Turkey in the face of threats and local people's cries of 'go home.'"

With the illegal building amnesty put in place by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk. Few buyers and tenants could guess that those permits would be their death certificates. Pictured: Earthquake-stricken Samandag, Turkey, on February 23, 2023. (Photo by Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images)

At 4:17 am on February 6, an earthquake of 7.8-magnitude hit 10 provinces in Turkey's east, which account for a sixth of the country's total population. The worst disaster in modern Turkey's history, the earthquake killed, as of February 15, more than 35,000 people and injured 100,000. The death toll will likely reach 40,000 or more. According to one estimate, the quake will result in $84 billion in economic losses to Turkey, more than 10% of gross domestic product.

The earthquake, epicentered in Kahramanmaraş province and triggered by geological fault lines, also has revealed Turkey's socio-cultural and political fault lines. It was not the quake that killed tens of thousands, but politics and suicidal profit-maximization behavior on individual level.

Twenty-four years ago, a powerful earthquake hit Turkey's Marmara region, including Istanbul, the biggest city, killing 18,000 people. It was one of the reasons that brought an end to the then-ruling coalition government and paved the way for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to become the prime minister in 2002, and later president in 2014. In his rightful criticism of the "failed state" in the aftermath of the 1999 quake, Erdoğan said,

"What broke here is not the fault line ... It is [the state's] sense of shame. This is [the result of] poor building planning and stealing from construction materials."

Now that he is in power, Erdoğan explains that the loss of life in this month's earthquake was (God's) fate. After Erdoğan came to power in 2002 and promised swift measures to minimize deaths from natural disasters, 1,060 Turks lost their lives in nine earthquakes. Now it's 1,060 plus 35,000.

Profit-related crime often goes unpunished in Turkey. After the 1999 earthquake, 2,100 building contractors were prosecuted. Of those, 1,800 were acquitted and sentences for 300 were suspended.

In the years immediately following Erdoğan's election, government permits for housing construction tripled. Skyscrapers, bridges and smooth paved roads spread across the vast country, as a handful of construction companies with ties to the ruling party grew powerful.

As part of his election campaign in 2018, Erdoğan granted "amnesty" to 7.4 million applications for unregulated buildings in return for fees, of which his government collected more than $13 billion.

More than 10,000 buildings were destroyed in the latest earthquake.

Erdoğan had said, "We solved the problem of hundreds of thousands [who built homes without permits]." In one video, taken during a campaign stop ahead of Turkey's 2019 local elections, Erdoğan listed some of his government's superior achievements — including new housing for the city of Kahramanmaraş. There were government-sponsored television ads encouraging citizens to join the illegal building amnesty.

With the amnesty, contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk. Few buyers and tenants could guess that those permits would be their death certificates.

One of the buildings that collapsed in Hatay, one of the worst-hit provinces, was a government hospital. In 2012, experts wrote a report that the building was not earthquake-resistant. The authorities did not mind. Ironically, a bridge in the same region, built 18 centuries ago during the Roman Empire, survived unscathed.

Two years before the earthquake, several scientists and opposition members of parliament warned of the coming disaster. Erdoğan's government simply ignored all warnings that a catastrophe was coming.

Construction is a particularly lucrative business in Turkey due to its large population (85 million) and loose regulations. According to one report, there are 453,000 licensed contractors in Turkey, compared to 3,800 in Germany, or 25,000 in the entire European Union. One of the construction companies in the earthquake zone is Özburak Inşaat, which has built 1,500 homes since 2005. The company's owner, Hikmet Günsay, said in a recent interview: "I am a graduate of primary school."

The Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit, a favourite of Erdoğan, claimed that the earthquake had been triggered by a U.S. oil company that was exploring in a nearby region. And in a country like Turkey, even in times of national mourning and global relief efforts, Islamists could not have missed the name "Israel." An Israeli relief team from United Hatzalah, after having rescued 19 people under the rubble, was forced to cut short their work in Turkey and leave the country "in the face of growing security threat to the team." Yeni Akit claimed that "the Israeli team consisting of intelligence agents disguised as relief workers left Turkey in the face of threats and local people's cries of 'go home.'"

In another article, Yeni Akit claimed that the earthquake may have been triggered by a neutron bomb fired by a hostile country. Several "experts" claimed that the quake was the result of the U.S. High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere. According to Yevgeny Fodorov, a member of the Russian parliament, the earthquake in Turkey was a U.S. attack by seismological weapons.

Isbank, one of Turkey's biggest bank, has proudly announced that it will erase the credit card debts of those who died in the earthquake. What? The announcement was not a joke. Was the alternative to send debt collectors to the rubble?

Author's note: A sequel to this article will analyze the potential repercussions of the disaster on elections, including the possibility that Turkey's most critical presidential elections, scheduled for May, might be postponed.

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19406/turkey-earthquake-ugly-faces

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Why the West Bank is in Chaos - Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman

 

by Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman

Hat tip: Jenny Grigg 

The violence in the West Bank and Israel is not new. Nor is it the result of Israel's recent elections. The current narrative misses the real story.

Palestinian terrorism in Israel is on the rise. Daily headlines convey a steady stream of stabbings, vehicular attacks, and other forms of violence.

Few expect the media to be fair, much less balanced. A recent and much-maligned New York Times headline blared: "At Least 2 Dead as Driver Rams Bus Stop in East Jerusalem." No mention of the driver's motivation (Palestinian nationalism). No mention of who was targeted or why (Israelis, just for being Israeli).

Some observers falsely assert cause and effect. Notably, a December op-ed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman implied that the newly elected right-wing Israeli government, which had yet to take office, was driving up attacks.

Equally cringeworthy are reports describing recent bloodshed as a "fresh" surge of violence. That's flat wrong.

Although it is tempting to look at Mideast violence as all part of the same perpetual "cycle of violence," different waves are often clearly distinct from one another. The ability to delineate such trendlines makes it possible to determine the intent behind the waves of violence and better anticipate future ones. Such closer inspection reveals, as well, the foreign direction and funding for some of the attacks, widening the scope of responsibility beyond Israel and local Palestinian leaders.

There was a time when sustained West Bank violence was common. The intifada of 2000-2005 was an asymmetric war waged by Palestinian groups. But since then, thanks in part to the efficacy of Israel's security barrier, not to mention careful and complex coordination between Palestinians and Israelis, the West Bank has been largely quiet.

By the end of 2021, however, armed clashes between Israeli forces and gunmen had become routine. So it behooves us to look for the turning point. We find it in May 2021 during an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli security officials now say that Hamas made a strategic decision after that clash to abandon battles in Gaza because it is a territory the terrorist group already controls. Rather, it elected to export unrest and chaos to the West Bank, with assistance from Iran and some of its proxy groups, with the goal of taking it over. Stoking violence there has the benefit of threatening Israel and destabilizing the rival Palestinian Authority.

The effect was immediate. On June 10, 2021, Israeli security forces entered Jenin to search for two men who shot at Israeli soldiers. The Israelis were met with armed gunmen and members of the Palestinian Authority security services. Two Palestinian Authority security officers were killed in the ensuing gunfight, as well as the founder of Islamic Jihad's Jenin branch. Two months later, amid an uptick in militant activity, Israeli forces killed another member of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad in Jenin. In September, Israeli forces killed four members of Hamas, which also happens to be backed by Iran, during operations near Jenin and Jerusalem.

Violence continued into 2022. The first major attack took place on March 22, after an Islamic State sympathizer rammed a cyclist with his car and stabbed others in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. That episode left four dead.

Five days later, two other ISIS sympathizers, Ayman and Khaled Ighbariya, carried out a shooting attack in the northern Israeli city of Hadera, murdering two Israeli Border Police officers. The two previously recorded a video swearing allegiance to ISIS and its leader at the time, Abu al Hassan al Hashimi al Qurayshi.

Then, on March 30, five people were shot and killed in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak by Dia Hamarsheh, a Palestinian from the northern West Bank with connections to Islamic Jihad.

Jarred by the wave of violence, the Israel Defense Forces launched "Operation Wave Breaker" on March 31. Twenty-five battalions deployed to the West Bank.

There is little doubt that Israeli soldiers operating in the territory that the Palestinians seek for their national project has agitated some West Bankers. But the Israelis saw little choice, given the surge in violence. The terrorist attacks in the spring and summer of 2022 were clearly coordinated by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (a faction aligned with the ruling Palestinian Fatah party), and others.

Wave Breaker resulted in numerous injured and dead jihadis. However, the Palestinian fighters were not deterred. A subsequent increase in attacks targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank was particularly notable.

By the spring of last year, Israeli defense officials observed that pockets of the West Bank were utterly lawless. Hamas's strategic pivot in the summer of 2021 was paying dividends. The Palestinian Authority was either unwilling or unable to contain the chaos in towns such as Nablus and Jenin. After sustained Israeli political pressure, coupled with continued IDF operations, in September 2022, the Palestinian Authority arrested Musab Shtayyeh, a wanted member of Hamas. Israel lauded the arrest, which demonstrated the Palestinian Authority had the ability to act.

But it was too little and too late. The West Bank had become home to established terrorist organizations that previously lacked a foothold in the territory, such as the Gaza-based Mujahideen Movement and the Popular Resistance Movement. Worse, a new terrorist organization emerged: the Lions' Den.

On Sept. 4, 2022, Palestinian media published footage of a memorial for gunmen killed by Israel associated with the Lions' Den. The group appeared well armed, well financed, and surprisingly organized for a new actor on the scene. Reports suggest Iran helped to fund the group, which has enticed fighters to join its ranks from across the spectrum of Palestinian militant factions, with the promise of engaging in more aggressive battles with Israeli forces.

The Lions' Den subsequently carried out dozens of attacks against IDF troops and settlers in the West Bank. But the group attacked inside Israel's green line, too. On Sept. 8, 2022, Israeli police thwarted a large-scale terrorist attack in Jaffa, apprehending a 19-year-old resident of Nablus carrying a bandana of the Lions' Den, a makeshift machine gun, and pipe bombs. Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai claimed to have prevented "a massacre." Haaretz later confirmed that Lions' Den was responsible.

The chaos continues. Attacks are mounted nearly every day, inside Israel and in the West Bank. An interactive map created by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and updated daily clearly demonstrates the arc of this campaign. No less than 1,120 violent incidents have occurred since March.

Sadly, in today's media environment, when reporters say something is "new," it's often merely new to them. Especially when Israel is involved, such narratives are reinforced by completely unrelated actions taken by the government that reporters find objectionable (judicial reform or settlement expansion, for example). U.S. officials weigh in, which then adds momentum to the coverage. And so these completely unrelated actions become post hoc justifications for Palestinian violence, even though the actual motivations are no mystery.

Crucially, documenting the campaign led by Palestinian terrorist groups is not rocket science. One of this article's authors, Joe Truzman, has been keeping a running Twitter thread, in English, of the incidents and their genesis, and he is not alone in providing a reliable and easily accessible record of events. Yet this is scarcely reflected in most media coverage. The good news: This gap can be filled somewhat easily, enabling more accurate coverage of the conflict, so long as journalists want to correct their blind spots.

It might be tempting to place blame on an Israeli coalition of right-wing parties whose leaders continue to utter statements that Palestinians find offensive. But it's also lazy. Such statements may exacerbate the problem, but they don't alter the fact that this round of Palestinian terrorism began long before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered office. Indeed, the bulk of those 1,120 violent incidents occurred during the brief premiership of Naftali Bennett and caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid. It would be wrong to blame them, as well.

While the Israeli government continues to sustain a barrage of criticism (much of it unrelated, focusing on controversial judicial reforms), there is remarkably little analysis of the Palestinian Authority's inability to counter the rise of Palestinian terrorist organizations in its territory. Towns including Jenin and Nablus, even Tulkarem, are still no-go zones. The Palestinian Authority appears more interested in referring Israel to the International Criminal Court on dubious charges than tackling the terrorist threat.

The violence in the West Bank and Israel is not new. Nor is it the result of Israel's recent elections. The current narrative misses the real story. Israel is actively working to counter the surge in terrorism, instigated by Iran-backed groups seeking to destabilize Palestinian Authority territory, with a persistently erroneous media narrative that only makes the job that much harder.

Joe Truzman is a research analyst for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies's Long War Journal. Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at FDD and author of the book Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War (FDD Press, 2021). Follow on Twitter @JoeTruzman and @JSchanzer.

Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman

Source: https://schanzer.pundicity.com/26778/why-the-west-bank-is-in-chaos

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