IDF determines 19 terrorists killed in strike on Hamas HQ embedded in school - Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Maariv, Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Maariv, Jerusalem Post Staff

Army disputes Hamas claim that 100 civilians killed • US ‘deeply concerned’ about Israeli strike, EU says horrified by images from school

 

Palestinians look at damages at the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City August 10, 2024.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Abed Sabah)

An Israeli air force aircraft, guided by intelligence from the Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), targeted terrorists operating in a Hamas command and control center embedded within the Al-Taabin school complex near a mosque in the Dura' Tafah area on Saturday morning, the IDF and Shin Bet reported.

Following an intelligence investigation, at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed, the IDF reported Saturday evening. 

The IDF also announced on Saturday night that there is a high probability that the commander of the Central Brigade of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, Ashraf Juda, was also killed.

The IDF carried out the attack using three small and precise weapons, Israeli state broadcaster KAN later reported, citing the military.

The IDF argued that according to professional analysis, these types of ammunition “cannot cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza.” Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated, the IDF stated.

Israel's Army Radio later revealed that the school was divided into three sections: men, women, and children. Only rooms containing terrorists in the men’s section were reportedly hit.

Area of the IAF strike at the mosque in the Al-Taba’een school compound, August 10, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The headquarters were reportedly used by Hamas terrorists for shelter and to plan and advance terror activities against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.

“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani posted on X.

He added that casualty figures issued by the Hamas-run media office “do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike.”

The school had been sheltering civilians, the IDF and Shin Bet added, noting that the IAF took measures to minimize the impact of the airstrike on that population.

Prior to the strike, extensive measures were taken to minimize the risk to Gazan civilians, including the use of precision-guided munitions, predictive means, and intelligence information, according to the statement.

“Hamas systematically violates international law by operating from civilian shelters and using the population as human shields for its terror activities,” the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) stated.

Terrorists killed in the military headquarters located inside a Mosque in the area of the Al-Taba'een school, August 10, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Hamas has been frequently criticized and recorded using civilian infrastructure as a shield for its terrorist activities both during the war and predating it. Only 4 days ago, Israel eliminated a Hamas commander using a Gazan school for cover.

In a statement on X on Saturday night, the IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said that no women or children were present according to IDF intelligence. "In the video published by us today, you can see that the compound is still intact, and that there are no significant craters or damage to the main building," he added. 

Reactions to the strike

"The Israeli strikes targeted the displaced people while performing Fajr (dawn) prayers, a matter that led to a rapid increase in the number of casualties," the Hamas media office said in a statement.

Palestinian Authority state-run news agency Wafa reported that over 100 people were killed in the strike.

Hamas condemned the strike, writing, "The massacre of the Al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighborhood is a continuation of the Nazi-Zionist genocide against our people, and the US administration is complicit in such crimes."

Hamas also accused Israel of falsely reporting that there were military targets embedded in the structure.

"The enemy army fabricates pretexts to target civilians, schools, hospitals, and tents of the displaced people, all of which are flimsy pretexts and blatant lies to justify its crimes," Hamas stated.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese also condemned the strike, writing on X, "Gaza: In the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century, Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one 'safe zone' at the time.

Gaza: In the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century, Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one 'safe zone' at the time. With US and European… https://t.co/bHmrFbySYi

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 10, 2024

"With US and European weapons. And amid the indifference of all "civilised nations". May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honoring the most basic meaning of intl law."

Hamas politician Khalil Al-Hayya later claimed to Al Jazeera "All those killed in the occupation's massacres are women and children, and there is absolutely no justification for targeting our people" and added, "The occupation is unable to confront the resistance, and in the face of this inability, it vents its anger on the faces of innocent civilians."

The prime minister of Iraq also condemned the strike "carried out by the occupation that targeted Palestinian worshipers in the Tabeen School in Gaza."

Iraq's Foreign Ministry also described the military action as "barbaric."

Canada's foreign ministry said they condemned the "Israeli strike that killed Palestinian civilians sheltering at a school in Gaza, including children. Israel must uphold international humanitarian law. Hamas must stop putting civilian lives in danger."  

Reuters contributed to this report.

 

Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Maariv, Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-814111

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IDF and Shin Bet closing in on Yahya Sinwar as assassinations take their toll - security official - Avi Ashkenazi

 

by Avi Ashkenazi

According to security sources, Sinwar's movement area, like other senior Hamas officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.

 

People are reflected in a window displaying a poster of newly appointed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Palestinian camp of Bourj al-Barajneh on August 08, 2024 in Beirut Lebanon.

(photo credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Friday's operation in Khan Yunis, as well as the activity in the center of the Gaza Strip and Rafah, may advance the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to their primary goal: the elimination of senior Hamas leadership. In fact, one security source estimates that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is running out of places to hide.

Sinwar is almost alone at the top of Hamas. His close friends in the senior military ranks of the organization, as well as the senior officials, have been eliminated or have disappeared: Mohammad Deif, Rafa'a Salama, Ahmed Ghandour, Raad Saad, and Ayman Nofal.

According to Arab media, the man closest to Sinwar, the minister in the Hamas government and his right-hand man, Rawhi Mushtaha, was also killed along with Sameh al-Siraj and three military commanders from the al-Qassam Brigades who accompanied them: Abdul Hadi Siam, Sami Odeh, and Muhammad Hadid.

Mushtaha, one of Hamas's senior members, is considered to be very close to the leader and is the figure that Sinwar relies on the most, both in the military and the political management of the organization.

The elimination of Rafa'a Salama is also significant for Sinwar's survival. Salama is from one of the most powerful and wealthy families in Khan Yunis, owns many properties, and was the operative factor in providing cover to senior officials, which helped enable the survival of the Hamas leadership.

HAMAS GAZA leader Yahya Sinwar (left) speaks with leader Ismail Haniyeh (center) at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, in 2017. Is it possible for Israel to lay its hands on Sinwar? (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)

Shifting sands

The fact that Sinwar's entire operational hub has disappeared makes it difficult for him, according to the IDF's estimates, to move to hiding places, especially above ground.

"Every day, he has trouble finding places where he can hide. The list of associates and confidants is being reduced," said a security source.

According to the source, Sinwar's movement area, like that of other senior officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.

Recently, the IDF even detected ten attempts by Hamas members to move through the Rafah beaches to the Egyptian side of the border.

First, in small rowing boats and even swimming with fins, binoculars, and a life belt when the route was meters away from the shore. Navy ships managed to thwart all attempts, and all terrorists were eliminated.

Avi Ashkenazi

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-814074

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Tim Walz has ties to Muslim cleric with antisemitic views, gave state funding to his group: report - Jamie Joseph

 

by Jamie Joseph

Walz's administration reportedly donated $100,000 to Muslim cleric who praised Hitler

 

 

 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has reported ties to a Muslim cleric who praised Adolf Hitler online and commended the Islamic terrorist group Hamas for the attacks against innocent Israelis on Oct. 7. 

In the last few years, Imam Asad Zaman has used his Facebook page to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts from antisemitic sites and a 2015 link to a pro-Hitler film, "The Greatest Story Never Told." Released in 2013, the propaganda film is antisemitic and popular among fringe groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Walz’s administration has also donated over $100,000 to Zaman's group, Muslim American Society of Minnesota, according to state records reviewed by the Washington Examiner. Federal prosecutors have described the Muslim American Society as "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S.," according to court records, the outlet first reported. 

ISRAEL ISSUES MESSAGE TO LEBANESE CITIZENS AMID REPORTS OF POTENTIAL PREEMPTIVE STRIKE ON HEZBOLLAH

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign event in Detroit on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly selected running mate are campaigning across the country this week. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates in 2014, the Muslim group faced criticism in 2019 when a video emerged of children at a Philadelphia chapter event calling for Jews to be killed.

In reaction to Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., condemning the Oct. 7 attack a day later, Zaman asked if she would "reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves." Zaman's Muslim group in a statement on Oct. 7 declared it "reaffirms its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli occupation."

In May 2023, Zaman attended a mosque security meeting with Walz’s gubernatorial office. 

EXPECT IRAN'S RESPONSE TO EXTEND BEYOND THE MIDDLE EAST: ROBERT GREENWAY

(Getty Images)

Social media posts reviewed by the Examiner also indicate Zaman participated in a Ramadan event hosted by Walz in May 2019. A recent Washington Free Beacon report also reported Walz’s appearance at a 2019 event with an antisemitic scholar who supports terrorism against Israel.

VANCE FIRES BACK AT 'DISGUSTING' CNN ANCHOR SUGGESTING HIS MILITARY SERVICE WAS EMBELLISHED AMID WALZ DISPUTE

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz waited several days to call in the National Guard as riots destroyed Minneapolis in 2020. (Getty Images)

Zaman, originally from Bangladesh, expressed solidarity with Palestinians for the Hamas-initiated Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israelis. He also shared a Palestinian flag image on Facebook in support of a post criticizing the Biden-Harris administration for its stance on Israel.

The imam reportedly participated in a May 2020 event with Walz to advocate for peaceful protests during the Black Lives Matter riots in Minnesota following George Floyd’s death. Previously, in April 2019, Zaman delivered an invocation at Walz’s state address and had called for an end to a government shutdown alongside Walz in January 2019, the Washington Examiner first reported.

The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by press deadline.

 

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tim-walz-ties-muslim-cleric-antisemitic-views-gave-state-funding-group-report

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US warns Tehran of ruinous response to major attack on Israel - Joshua Marks

 

by Joshua Marks

Arab diplomats have also pressed Iran to de-escalate the situation.

 

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to vote in Tehran in the presidential runoff election on July 5, 2024. Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images.

 

The United States has cautioned Iran that it could face a devastating response from Israel if it carries out a major attack against the Jewish state.

A U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that the message has been conveyed both directly to Tehran and through intermediaries, the paper reported on Thursday.

The Islamic Republic has vowed revenge for the targeted killing of Hamas terrorist chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week. Reports have surfaced this week that the mullah regime may be reconsidering the level of its response amid intensive diplomatic pressure and military force buildup by the Americans.

“The United States has sent clear messaging to Iran that the risk of a major escalation if they do a significant retaliatory attack against Israel is extremely high,” the official said.

Tehran is now aware “that there is a serious risk of consequences for Iran’s economy and the stability of its newly elected government if it goes down that path,” the official continued.

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Arab diplomats have also pressed the Iranian government in recent days to de-escalate the situation, passing along a similar warning to that of the Americans, according to the Journal. At a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week, members condemned the Haniyeh killing but stopped short of collectively supporting an Iranian attack on Israel.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who entered office on July 28, has pleaded with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to avoid a direct attack on Israel, warning that it could threaten his presidency and lead to devastation of Iran’s infrastructure, energy and economy, the London-based Iran International reported.

Pezeshkian told the supreme leader that a harsh Israeli counterattack could lead to the collapse of the regime.

Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for last week’s targeted killing of senior official Fuad Shukr in Beirut, which Jerusalem carried out in response to a Hezbollah rocket that hit a soccer field in the Golan Druze town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children.

Jerusalem has not commented on the Haniyeh killing, while Iran and Hamas said that the Jewish state was responsible.

Israel’s Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah could see a window of opportunity to initiate an attack in the coming days. A large-scale intelligence effort is underway to identify the timing and nature of the response.

Two U.S. officials told the Journal that the assessment is that Tehran cannot conduct a military campaign much larger than the April assault against Israel, the first-ever direct confrontation between Jerusalem and Tehran, which saw some 300 missiles and drones fired, the vast majority of which were shot down by Israel and allied and regional forces.

According to a Thursday report in The Guardian, Tehran might choose not to commit to a wide-scale attack against Israel, instead opting for more targeted actions against those responsible for the Haniyeh execution.

Joshua Marks

Source: https://www.jns.org/us-warns-tehran-of-ruinous-response-to-major-attack-on-israel/

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Kamala Harris and the Civilizational Jihad of Democratic Street Thuggery - Josh Hammer

 

by Josh Hammer

Kamala Harris embodies the convergence of destructive feminism, racial reckoning anarchy, and jihadist extremism within the modern Democratic Party

 

 

On Jan. 21, 2017, hundreds of thousands of feminists wearing pink “pussyhats” protested the prior day’s presidential inauguration of Donald Trump by rampaging throughout Washington, D.C. The “Women’s March on Washington,” an extension of the riots and protests that shook the capital on Inauguration Day itself, was not exactly a peaceful affair. Hundreds of anarchists in total were arrested over the multiday period, typically on rioting or vandalism charges. The “pussyhat”-clad feminist rioters thus constituted the first Trump-era manifestation of destructive Democratic shock troops. Call it Democratic Street Thuggery 1.0.

That particularly virulent strain of radical feminism reached a crescendo during the #MeToo societal struggle session of 2017-2018, culminating in the infamous Christine Blasey Ford-led attempt to derail Brett Kavanaugh’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination in September 2018. Arguably the single leading misandrist crusader during that sordid affair, peddling the ludicrous “believe all women” smear from her senatorial dais and casually throwing out five millennia of “innocent until proven guilty” civilizational norms in the process, was none other than dimwitted California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Alas, Joe Biden—or what little remained, even back then, of Joe Biden—was so awestruck by Harris’ vile interrogation of Kavanaugh and her own hilariously unimpressive 2020 presidential campaign that he tapped her to be his running mate. Cackling Kamala’s grand contribution to the Biden campaign was to dutifully launder her own swarthy complexion to “empathize” with left-wing America during our next great struggle session, the antifa-Black Lives Matter “racial reckoning” that followed the May 2020 death of St. George Floyd our Martyr. Such “empathy” included Kamala’s unctuous rhetorical support for the rioters, as well as her posting to social media a link to support bail for those rare BLM rioters who were actually arrested. The antifa-BLM rioters, who caused up to $2 billion in property damage during that infamous Summer of Love, constituted Democratic Street Thuggery 2.0.

No politician in recent memory has parlayed such little talent into such stratospheric success as Harris. The cackler-in-chief “failed upward” yet again into the vice presidency—and now, following last month’s bloodless coup of Biden, into the Democratic presidential nomination itself. And this Tuesday, in announcing her running mate, Kamala ostentatiously passed on her clearly superior option, popular Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, for the insipid prairie socialist Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Walz, as the home-state governor of St. George Floyd our Martyr, was the original arsonist of the Summer of Love nationwide fire. There was no greater fanner of the flames of Democratic Street Thuggery 2.0 than Walz.

Choosing Walz over Shapiro is curious for many reasons, but adding to the intrigue is the peculiar context in which it all went down. Kamala made her announcement in Philadelphia, Shapiro’s hometown. It came a few days after the mayor of Philadelphia—or, more accurately, the mayor’s hapless social media intern—inadvertently posted a polished video in support of a Harris-Shapiro ticket. The implication seemed clear enough: The pick was going to be Shapiro. But then, following a weekend of keffiyeh-clad radicals running wild in Philadelphia, waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags and decrying “Genocide Josh,” the Keystone State governor was suddenly tossed aside. Kamala caved to the “death to America!”- and “death to Israel!”-chanting jihadists who constitute Democratic Street Thuggery 3.0.

Harris, an intellectually challenged and empty vessel for Democrats to project their basest desires, is the unique politician to find herself at the tripartite Venn diagram of all three Democratic Street Thuggery movements. The overlap of “believe all women”-style destructive feminism, antifa-BLM “racial reckoning” anarchy and Hamas/Hezbollah flag-flying civilizational jihad is embodied in one person: Kamala Harris. She is the perfect totem of the modern Democratic Party, which exalts intersectional victimhood and will whip its shock troops into a violent frenzy to get what it wants. The modern Democratic Party is less political vehicle and more Mafia—right down to the omerta code of silence surrounding Biden’s physical and mental decline.

Many European countries have indulged in the fiction that jihadist outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah—the actual Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, not their useful idiot American supporters—can somehow be divided between “political” and “militant” wings. This is, of course, a lie—it is a distinction without a difference. Similarly, the notion that the Democratic Party can be distinguished between its elite “political wing” and shock troop “militant wing” is also a lie. The elites and the shock troops are one and the same. And Harris and Walz are at the epicenter of it all.

On Oct. 30, 2020, this column argued that the then-impending election “pit(s) against each other a fundamentally Americanist vision of governance and a fundamentally insurrectionist vision of anarchic mayhem.” It was true then. And it’s even truer of our election cycle today.

 

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

Josh Hammer

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/10/kamala-harris-and-the-civilizational-jihad-of-democratic-street-thuggery/

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Trump campaign says internal communications were hacked, including Vance 'dossier,' by foreign sources - Brie Stimson , Mark Meredith

 

by Brie Stimson , Mark Meredith

The campaign noted that the hacking comes after reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Trump

 

 

 

Former President Trump's campaign confirmed to Fox News on Saturday that some of its internal communications were hacked. 

Liberal media outlet Politico had reached out to the campaign after the news outlet started receiving internal Trump documents. 

"These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process," said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign.

"On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a Vice Presidential nominee," he added. 

PAKISTANI MAN WITH TIES TO IRAN CHARGED IN FOILED ASSASSINATION PLOT POTENTIALLY TARGETING TRUMP, DOJ SAYS

Former President Trump's campaign confirmed to Fox News on Saturday that some of its internal communications were hacked.  (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Cheung noted that the hack allegedly by Iran came, "after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy."

He added: "The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want."

The documents sent to Politico included a 271-page "dossier" the Trump campaign had put together on his eventual running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that dated back to February, the outlet said. 

It included Vance's past stances on issues, statements and previous criticisms of Trump in a section called "POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES."

The Trump campaign didn't say if they had contacted law enforcement over the hacking. 

TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: GRASSLEY DEMANDS SECRET SERVICE ANSWER EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS IN BODYCAM FOOTAGE

The documents sent to Politico included a 271-page "dossier" the Trump campaign had put together on his eventual running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that dated back to February, the outlet said.  (Ryan Collerd/AFP via Getty Images)

It was not immediately clear if Politico used any of the hacked material in its reporting. Fox News Digital has reached out to Politico who referred back to their story. 

The outlet reported that it began receiving emails from someone identifying themselves as "Robert" using an anonymous AOL account on July 22, just days after the Republican National Convention ended and Trump announced Vance as his running mate. 

"I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from," the person reportedly told Politico when reporters asked how "Robert" obtained the documents. "Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them."

"These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process," said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

"Robert" also sent documents on Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who was reportedly considered as Trump's vice presidential pick, and claimed he had a "variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions."

The Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton campaign were infamously hacked during the 2016 election, with the U.S. putting the blame on Russia. Some of the documents were released by WikiLeaks. 

Brie Stimson, Mark Meredith

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-campaign-internal-communications-hacked-vance-dossier-foreign-sources

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Harris VP Walz as Minnesota governor last year signed into law flurry of progressive bills - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

As Harris narrowed down her choice of running mate, Walz emerged as the favorite of the progressive camp, in part due to his far-left legislative record.

 

Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential running-mate Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz last year signed into law a string of progressive bills across an array of policy issues.

As Harris narrowed her choice for a running mate, Walz emerged as the favorite of their Democratic Party's progressive wing, due in part to his legislative record.

Harris officially announced Walz on Tuesday as her pick for vice president, and the pair appeared at a rally in Philadelphia that evening at which Harris touted Walz’s credentials.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said Harris “bent the knee to the far left of her party” in choosing Walz.

After Harris' announcement, Walz’s progressive record came to the forefront particularly his abortion stance that resulted in at least five infants “born alive” in 2021 as a result of failed abortions. None of the infants received life-saving care.

A review of Walz’s overall legislative record last year showing the array of left-wing policies he signed into law prompted NBC News to call the state a “laboratory in pushing progressive policy.”

After Walz was reelected as governor in 2022, a Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote the headline: “Minnesota Democrats rapidly advance the most progressive agenda in a generation.”

Here is a look at some of the keynote measures:

LGBTQ issues

In April 2023, Walz signed legislation protecting access to gender-affirming care in Minnesota and barring state officials from complying with extraditions, child removals, or subpoenas connected to the receipt of such treatment within the state.

The so-called “trans refuge bill,” the legislation largely sought to shield travelers to the state who arrive to receive such treatment from repercussions should they come from a state in which the practice is not permitted.

A total of 26 states have enacted a ban on gender-related surgeries for minors while 24 of those have also banned a broader array of gender treatments, according to the pro-LGBT Movement Advancement Project. In neighboring North Dakota, it is a felony to provide certain gender treatments to minors.

Walz last years also signed the Take Pride Act, which removed exemptions for non-religious organizations to maintain certain sex-based distinctions in hiring practices. Critics had argued that the legislation could result in sex-based organizations being required to place persons of the opposite gender in sex-specific mentorship roles.

Abortion up until birth

In January 2023, Walz signed legislation establishing a right to reproductive health care, including abortion with essentially no restrictions. The Protect Reproduction Options Act states that “[e]very individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual's own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.”

“Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise this fundamental right,” it adds, with no gestational limit.

In April, Walz expanded on the state’s abortion legislation, signing the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act. The bill made the state an abortion sanctuary, providing legal shielding to travelers who came to the state to obtain an abortion, should they face consequences from their home state where such practices may be illegal.

The bill prohibits state officials from cooperating with subpoenas, extraditions, and other actions from other states related to the receipt of an abortion within Minnesota.

Environmental policy

In February 2023, Walz signed a bill aimed at transitioning the state entirely to clean energy by 2040. The environmental plan set utilities standards for the transition and aims to promote the development of clean energy production facilities in the same communities wherein companies closed traditional fossil-fuel-based plants.

Republicans had labeled the legislation a “blackout bill,” contending that the plan would substantially increase the costs of basic utilities to Minnesota families, according to the Minnesota Reformer. 

In May, Walz signed a $2 billion spending package for issues affecting the environment, natural resources, climate, and energy. Apart from spending on environmental protection projects, the measure also included $2,500 rebates to purchase new electric vehicles and $600 rebates for used ones. It further included multi-million dollar grants for the installation of solar panels and electric appliances.

Education

Minnesota's 2023 education omnibus bill included an array of progressive priority items including the requirement that schools offer an ethnic studies course addressing racism and the provision of free menstrual products in school bathrooms, including those facilities designated for use by boys.

The measure resulted in ridicule by critics who called the governor “Tampon Tim,” according to The Hill newspaper. The legislation also replaced Columbus Day with "Indigenous Peoples’ Day."

Walz, in March 2023, signed a bill providing free school breakfast and lunch in Minnesota.

“As a former teacher, I know that providing free breakfast and lunch for our students is one of the best investments we can make to lower costs, support Minnesota’s working families, and care for our young learners and the future of our state,” he said at the time.

During the Philadelphia rally, Harris drew attention to the school lunch’s bill, asserting that Walz “refused, as governor, to allow any student in their public schools to go hungry. So he made school breakfast and lunch free for every child.”

At least eight states now provide free school meals to all students, regardless of income and several others have proposed legislation to also do so.

Elections: adding felons to voter rolls

Among the keynote election changes Walz enacted was the Democracy for the People Act, which he signed in May 2023. The law was designed to bolster voter turnout and included the implementation of automatic voter registration for qualified Minnesotans.

It also included the designation of “language minority districts” in which 3% or more of the residents of an area speak English “less than very well.” In such districts, the state must provide translated ballot samples and voting instructions to that district. The bill also provides for the deployment of interpreters in some instances.

In March 2023, Walz signed legislation permitting those with felony convictions to vote after the completion of their jail time. The legislation was estimated to impact more than 55,000 Minnesotans.

“Minnesotans who have completed time for their offenses and are living, working, and raising families in their communities deserve the right to vote," he said at the time. "As a state that consistently ranks among the top three in voter turnout, Minnesota will continue to lead in the fight to protect and expand the right to vote.”

Marijuana legalization

The state legalized recreational cannabis use for persons aged 21 and up in 2023, establishing the Office of Cannabis Management to regulate the drug. The legislation took effect in August of that year and also expunged the records of Minnesotans who had previously been convicted for possession, the Associated Press reported.

Driver’s licenses, even for illegals

Walz also signed a “Driver’s Licenses for All” bill in March of 2023, permitting people living in the state to secure driver’s licenses without showing legal presence, the Associated Press reported. They must still show they live in Minnesota, provide documentation of their identity, and pass the written test and road exam. The measure took effect Oct. 1 and was estimated to impact roughly 81,000 people.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/frione-year-he-joined-ticket-walzs-minnesota-passed-flurry-progressive-bills

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'Just in Time' Defense Modernization: Will the United States Miss the Boat? - Peter Huessy and Stephen Blank

 

by Peter Huessy and Stephen Blank

The issue not addressed by all of the reports is: before the improvements in US defense capability are completed, will the US be able to successfully avoid conflicts with the new axis of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea?

 

• All four reports called for major new investments in US defense spending, completion of the current nuclear deterrent modernization effort, and also recommended, given the projected rise of military power by America's enemies, that the US add serious new nuclear capabilities to its deterrence.

• The issue not addressed by all of the reports is: before the improvements in US defense capability are completed, will the US be able to successfully avoid conflicts with the new axis of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea?

• All four studies emphasized that the time was late for US modernization and that the dangers are escalating.

• All of the studies also proposed significant upgrades to the US deterrent capability, including nuclear, conventional, space, cyber and missile defense weaponry, and emphasized with the utmost urgency that modernization was needed now.

• Modernization, unfortunately, is slow. The system has not achieved what then Secretary of Defense James Mattis explained in 2018 was the ability to buy weapons at "the speed of relevance" -- a capability that remains dangerously elusive...

• The timetables for the invasion of Ukraine, and the coordinated attacks on Israel, the potential invasions of Taiwan or the Republic of Korea, are in the heads of four dictators, Putin, Xi, Kim and Khamenei. They are not necessarily going to wait for the US to modernize its deterrent strength before striking.

• With US deterrent strategy perceived as weak, there are serious concerns that US military modernization may not be completed in time, but only "outside the time-zone," as Zelikow notes, meaning after it was needed.

• Without nuclear modernization of our long-range delivery vehicles, as Admiral Charles Richard, the former commander of Strategic Command, has emphasized, the US is out of the nuclear business.

• Where Zelikow gets it right is in his proposals that the US also use its economic strength as a deterrent, particularly against China.... Success cannot be ensured, however, at the expense of de-emphasizing US military power.

• If the US fails to deter its enemies, and they are left to believe that, instead, the United States will deter itself from winning for fear of "escalation," the ground is set for major new conflicts, especially over the next few years when the United States may be poorly prepared to win.

Four recent reports call for major new investments in US defense spending, completion of the current nuclear deterrent modernization effort, and also recommend, given the projected rise of military power by America's enemies, that the US add serious new nuclear capabilities to its deterrence. Pictured: An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test on August 2, 2017, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (Image source: U.S. Air Force)

The US election in November 2024 may well determine the future direction of US national security strategy. In the past year, there has been a steady stream of thoughtful reports about what America's national security strategy should be. This is a discussion that will hopefully be taken up by the various campaigns of those seeking the presidency.

Four reports are particularly worth attention. They all assess in various detail the current and projected US nuclear posture as well as the nuclear threats the United States faces, especially compared to the situation of a decade and a half ago.

Two of the studies were mandated by Congress. The October 2023 report on the Strategic Posture of the United States and the July 2024 report on the National Defense Strategy of the United States.

The other two reports were both more narrowly focused on US nuclear capability. One was by Robert Peters of the Heritage Foundation, issued in July 2024, the "New American Nuclear Consensus." The other was "The Next Chapter in US Nuclear Policy" by Brad Roberts, the Director of the Center for Global Security Research Center of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

All four reports called for major new investments in US defense spending, completion of the current nuclear deterrent modernization effort, and also recommended, given the projected rise of military power by America's enemies, that the US add serious new nuclear capabilities to its deterrence.

The issue not addressed by all of the reports is: before the improvements in US defense capability are completed, will the US be able to successfully avoid conflicts with the new axis of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea?

In "Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking" Hoover Institution fellow Philip Zelikow wrote for the Texas National Security Review an article which concludes that US defense modernization may be completed but only after the US is challenged by armed conflicts initiated by the four new axis members and/or their proxies.

All four studies emphasized that the time was late for US modernization and that the dangers are escalating.

All of the studies also proposed significant upgrades to the US deterrent capability, including nuclear, conventional, space, cyber and missile defense weaponry, and emphasized with the utmost urgency that modernization was needed now.

The US however, will not acquire such nuclear and other capabilities for at least a decade, due to the current defense acquisition system of the US defense department, as Zelikow noted, Some near-term nuclear advances could be implemented sooner, such as acquiring the B61-13 earth-penetrating nuclear bomb, or adding nuclear warheads to America's existing force of ICBMs, SLBMs or strategic bombers. Such an effort might take as long as three to four years to complete.

Modernization, unfortunately, is slow. The system has not achieved what then Secretary of Defense James Mattis explained in 2018 was the ability to buy weapons at "the speed of relevance" -- a capability that remains dangerously elusive, just as Zelikow warns.

The four main enemies of the US -- North Korea, Iran, China and Russia— Zelikow warns, have their own internal clocks. The timetables for the invasion of Ukraine, and the coordinated attacks on Israel, the potential invasions of Taiwan or the Republic of Korea, are in the heads of four dictators, Putin, Xi, Kim and Khamenei. They are not necessarily going to wait for the US to modernize its deterrent strength before striking.

Whatever their current timetable, those internal clocks may also be suddenly reset. Soviet ruler Josef Stalin changed his mind late in the day about supporting North Korea's invasion of the Republic of Korea, as Zelikow notes, and the Japanese leadership decided to go to war in southeast Asia and Indochina only after seeing the Nazi success in seizing France in WWII.

Zelikow relates that these current axis leaders pay particular attention to world events and especially actions by the US that inform them of America's ability and willingness to defend its interests. A key factor is always whether the US is seen as having a credible will to use its deterrent, let alone having the necessary deterrent capability to begin with.

Over a period of recent years, according to the military historian Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institute, the US took actions that gave the impression of seeking to forgo conflict in the short-term interests of keeping the peace, but also mistakenly took off the table the threat of escalation as a means of winning a conflict, out of the fear of triggering a wider conflict, or a nuclear war.

The US, Hanson notes in a July 26 podcast, has made a series of moves that have, in the eyes of our enemies, undermined deterrence:

• Embargoed arms to Ukraine after the 2014 Russian invasion, and in December 2021 had to take back the comment that "a minor incursion" by Russia into Ukraine might be acceptable: "I think what you're going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do."
• Withdrew from Afghanistan without requiring any quid quo pro from the Taliban, and ending in a tragic killing of American special forces while Afghani citizens, seeking to escape, died trying to hang onto US airplanes. The US also left behind billions in military hardware and a $96 million-dollar military airbase now presumably being used by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), as well as the Taliban
• Failed to challenge Chinese spy balloons roaming over key military installations in the US.
• Failed to rebut accusatory allegations when senior US diplomats were repeatedly insulted by Chinese officials at an official meeting in Anchorage.

With US deterrent strategy perceived as weak, there are serious concerns that US military modernization may not be completed in time, but only "outside the time-zone," as Zelikow notes, meaning after it was needed.

Gordon Chang, a China expert and Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow, has also expressed significant concern that America's military insufficiency, especially in the near future, needs urgent attention to move it front and center in a debate over America's future security policy.

The issue is particularly urgent given that members of this new "axis of evil" may decide at any time to widen their aggression. Zelikow and others stress that this belligerency is possible, most probably in the next few years. All four countries are now part of current wars against American allies, Ukraine and Israel.

Where Zelikow disappoints, however, unlike Chang, is in his implied opposition to the various calls for greater defense spending. Even assuming a more benign view of the world, the US defense strength is not now sufficient to credibly meet our current security obligations, as the two Congressionally-mandated reports referenced above unanimously concluded.

There is no doubt that US defense modernization is critically needed, especially in the nuclear area. Without nuclear modernization of our long-range delivery vehicles, as Admiral Charles Richard, the former commander of Strategic Command, has emphasized, the US is out of the nuclear business. The same point was also made July 29 at an event hosted by the National Institute for Deterrence Studies on Capitol Hill, in remarks by Jill Hruby, Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, on the urgent need to rebuild US nuclear warheads.

Where Zelikow gets it right is in his proposals that the US also use its economic strength as a deterrent, particularly against China -- a point underscored by Institute of World Politics President Emeritus John Lenczowski in his recent essay on taking down China.

As part of an all-of-government approach to security, as highlighted in recent testimony by the chair and vice-chair of the National Defense Strategy Commission to the Senate Armed Service Committee, it makes great sense for the US to use its economic tools as a primary means of deterring the serious dangers presented by the new axis, and to do so aggressively to ensure US success. Success cannot be ensured, however, at the expense of de-emphasizing US military power. As the late Henry Kissinger wrote, "The attempt to separate diplomacy and power results in power lacking direction and diplomacy being deprived of incentives."

If the US fails to deter its enemies, and they are left to believe that, instead, the United States will deter itself from winning for fear of "escalation," the ground is set for major new conflicts, especially over the next few years when the United States may be poorly prepared to win.

Peter Huessy is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrent Studies and Dr. Stephen Blank is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Peter Huessy and Stephen Blank

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20849/defense-modernization

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IRS whistleblower claim that evidence on Hunter Biden swept under the rug bolstered by court filing - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

The specter of potential FARA violations has hung over Hunter Biden’s business deals while an IRS whistleblower testified that his team of investigators were blocked from looking into them further.

 

The evidence prosecutors plan to cite in Hunter Biden’s California federal tax trial in the coming months states that the first son was paid by a foreign client in exchange for influencing U.S. policy. This provides evidence for a key claim the IRS whistleblowers brought to Congress last year: the Department of Justice had evidence of crimes by Hunter Biden, but failed to charge them before the statute of limitations expired.

According to motions filed earlier this week, federal prosecutors are planning to cite evidence at trial that Hunter Biden and his business associates were paid by a Romanian businessman to influence U.S. policy and public opinion.

Tristan Leavitt, the president of Empower Oversight whose group represents IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, said this new filing was “infuriating” in a post to X Thursday.

“…Special Counsel Weiss is demonstrating to a T exactly what SSA Shapley and SA Ziegler blew the whistle on: Weiss's office had clear evidence of crimes by Hunter Biden that they almost swept under the rug when they allowed the statute of limitations to expire,” he wrote.

“Weiss is just using the Romanian payments as evidence of intent to evade taxes,” he added. “But the evidence (not "allegations," as the filings point out) shows what Hunter Biden ‘did do for [Gabriel Popoviciu]’--and the fact of the matter is that it violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”

The specter of potential FARA violations have hung over Hunter Biden’s business deals and Shapley testified that his team of investigators were blocked from looking into them further.

The committees leading the House Republican impeachment inquiry into his father say this pattern has emerged in several deals, not just the Romanian arrangement detailed in the court filing. They are calling Hunter Biden’s business relationship with several foreign clients an “influence peddling” scheme, though the impeachment has lost steam since President Biden announced that he would not be running for reelection.

The Romanian deal was included in one of the Oversight Committee’s bank records memorandums from May 2023, which showed a company connected to Hunter Biden received approximately a third of a $3 million payment from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu’s Bladon Enterprises Limited. The rest of the money was split between his other partners, according to the bank records memo and the recent court filing.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers moved last month to have evidence of “alleged improper political influence” excluded from evidence in the trial arguing that it would unfairly prejudice the jury.

“The government does not intend to reference allegations at trial,” Weiss’ prosecutors responded a motion filed Wednesday. “Rather, the government will introduce the evidence described above, including that the defendant and Business Associate 1 received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion and cause the United States to investigate the Romanian investigation of G.P in Romania.”

According to the filing, the Romanian businessman—Gabriel Popoviciu—was under criminal investigation in his country at the time. In order to combat the investigation, the prosecutors say Popoviciu sought to hire Hunter Biden and his associates in order to “cause an end to the investigation…in Romania.”

According to the court filing, Hunter Biden and his partner—listed as Business Associate 1 in the court filing—“were concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father,” that is, then-Vice President Biden.

To remedy this concern, prosecutors say, Business Associate 1 signed an agreement with Popoviciu to form a purported management services company for real estate in Romania to serve as a front for the payments which were actually designated for Business Associate 1 and Hunter Biden to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to “investigate the Romanian investigation” of Popoviciu. Popoviciu was sentenced in Romania to seven years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of real estate fraud, according to OCCRP.

You can read the court filing below:

Case 2.23-cr-00599-MCS Document 181.pdf

The IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who worked together on the Hunter Biden investigation conducted by their agency and the FBI, approached Congress last year with complaints that the Justice Department was improperly giving Biden “preferential treatment” to avoid filing charges against him. In his first letter to Congress, Shapley also asserted that DOJ officials were limiting prosecutor David Weiss’ ability to pursue charges against the first son.

In a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee in July 2023, Shapley testified that Justice Department officials concealed evidence from the IRS investigative team, delayed key investigative steps for political reasons, and blocked them from pursuing any lines of investigation that involved Joe Biden.

In one episode that illustrates the whistleblowers’ frustrations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Wolf—a deputy to Weiss—intervened to stop a search warrant at Joe Biden’s Delaware home over “optics” concerns despite admitting there would be evidence at that location, Shapley testified.

“AUSA Wolf also told investigators they should not ask about President Biden during witness interviews even when the business communications of his son clearly referenced him,” Shapley said in his opening statement.

The Justice Department's alleged interference also extended to potential Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) charges. Though the prosecutors said in their motion that they will not “reference allegations that the defendant violated FARA,” but instead will introduce evidence that the business relationship with Popoviciu was structured to “avoid having to register as a foreign agent, and that the defendant and his business partners did reach out to government officials, specifically the United States Department of State.”

Weiss’ prosecutors are now confirming what Shapley has told Congress since last year, that they possessed evidence of potential FARA violations, but that the IRS investigators were “precluded” from pursuing it further.

In one instance, Shapley described how Justice Department officials stopped the investigators from trying to use location data to find out if Joe Biden was sitting next to his son when he made the infamous threat over text message to one of his Chinese business partners. Within weeks a $5 million capital contribution flowed into the account of Hudson West III, Biden’s joint venture with the Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy.

“And the reason you wanted to look into this is because there could have been a lot of money coming in from CEFC that was untaxed, correct?” the Republican counsel asked Shapley during his May 26, 2023 testimony.

“Yeah. We're talking about a lot of things there. There's FARA in play. And the FBI is considering a lot of national security type issues here. And we were precluded from doing anything,” he replied.

Just the News previously documented how Hunter Biden helped Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company where he served as a board member, arrange several meetings in 2014 with a top advisor to his father, then-State Department energy adviser Amos Hochstein.

Hunter Biden himself was directly involved in the outreach, at one point helping to forward a direct number for Hochstein to facilitate a follow-up.

The interactions with Hochstein part of the evidence at the center of potential FARA violations still hanging over Hunter Biden’s head. The meeting with Hochstein is not the only interaction Hunter Biden arranged. According to the same Senate investigation headed by Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, Hunter Biden also corresponded with the wife of Antony Blinken in an attempt to secure a meeting between Blinken—then a Deputy Secretary of State—and Blue Star Strategies, the U.S. lobbying firm employed by Burisma.

Hunter Biden had connected Blue Star Strategies with Burisma in order to deal with media fallout from his board position and to close down investigations into Burisma’s founder in Ukraine, according to previous reporting by Just the News.

Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. In an interview with CBS News last August, Lowell told "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that concerns over Hunter Biden’s compliance with FARA were false allegations.

“Our client has been investigated in a five year, long, thorough painstaking investigation for every transaction that he was involved in,” Lowell said.

“But, you asked me whether or not [FARA] has been part of the investigation and after five years and what we know happened in the grand jury, of course that had to be part of what the prosecutor has already looked at, as well as every other false allegation made by the right wing media and others, whether it's corruption or FARA, or money laundering,” he continued.

 
Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/irs-whistleblower-claim-evidence-hunter-biden-swept-under-rug

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Why Are the European Union and the World Bank Paying Palestinian Terrorists? - Robert Williams

 

by Robert Williams

Not only has the PA not begun to change the "pay for slay" system, it is adding tens of thousands of terrorist prisoners and "martyrs" to be funded by the scheme.

 

• Back in March, the Biden administration claimed that it was persuading the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, to change its murder-for-hire "pay for slay" policy. Terrorists who have been imprisoned in Israel for their crimes, as well as families of deceased or wounded terrorists, receive monthly stipends as a reward for murdering Jews. The longer the prison sentence, the higher the monthly stipend. Talk about incentivizing and encouraging terrorism.

• Not only has the PA not begun to change the "pay for slay" system, it is adding tens of thousands of terrorist prisoners and "martyrs" to be funded by the scheme.

• The PA is, as always, undergoing a major financial crisis, in part because it has failed to promote a productive economy – a failure made possible by unconditional handouts from the international community.

• Fortunately for Abbas and his terrorists, both the Biden administration, the World Bank and the EU stand ready with taxpayer financing to ensure that the terrorists are not about to run out of murder-for-hire payments anytime soon.

• The World Bank, in fact, decided that the PA should get more money. In July, it announced that its usual annual grant to the terrorist entity of $70 million would be raised in to a whopping $300 million, no questions asked. The World Bank thereby knowingly and willingly made itself an active accomplice to terrorism. Even the PA leadership itself seemed surprised at the sum.

• "The money will be disbursed in the form of grants and loans in three payments between July and September, subject to progress in the implementation of the reform agenda of the Palestinian Authority," the European Commission said in a statement.

• What reform agenda?

• On May 31, the EU Commission bragged: "The European Union is the biggest provider of external assistance to the Palestinians which amounts to indicatively almost €1.2 billion [$1.3 billion] for 2021-2024 under the European Joint Strategy, of which €809.4 million have already been adopted."

• [W]hy is not one European leader questioning the use of EU taxpayer money for propping up a terrorist regime and its terrorists? Why is the EU knowingly enabling terrorism?

Not only has the PA not begun to change the "pay for slay" system, it is adding tens of thousands of terrorist prisoners and "martyrs" to be funded by the scheme. On July 23, 2018, at a ceremony honoring Palestinian terrorists, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said: "We will neither reduce nor withhold the allowances of the families of martyrs, prisoners, and released prisoners... if we had one single penny left, we would spend it on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners." (Image source: MEMRI)

Back in March, the Biden administration claimed that it was persuading the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, to change its murder-for-hire "pay for slay" policy. Terrorists who have been imprisoned in Israel for their crimes, as well as families of deceased or wounded terrorists, receive monthly stipends as a reward for murdering Jews. The longer the prison sentence, the higher the monthly stipend. Talk about incentivizing and encouraging terrorism.

"There's been a great deal of work on this behind the scenes, and the progress is encouraging," an unnamed senior Biden administration official told Politico in March, while another said that "changes to the system were expected soon."

The Biden administration has its own reasons for giving the false impression that the PA is reforming itself. The administration plans to reward Iran and the Palestinians for their October 7 massacre and the nearly 20,000 rockets fired into Israeli towns and cities by forcing a two-state solution on Israel. Such a Palestinian state, according to the Biden administration, will be run by a "revitalized" Palestinian Authority, and for that it is necessary to give the impression that the PA has started to "reform". That is why we are all now supposed to pretend that the PA leadership, with its praise of the October 7 massacre – calling it "heroic" – no longer promotes or rewards terrorism.

Not only has the PA not begun to change the "pay for slay" system, it is adding thousands of terrorist prisoners and "martyrs" to be funded by the scheme, presumably including terrorists who actively participated in the October 7 slaughter, abductions, and mass rapes, torture and murder of Israeli children, women and men. According to Palestinian Media Watch:

"9,750 terrorist prisoners are now recognized by the PA as eligible for monthly terror rewards, up from 4,300 prior to October 7. This means the PA is committing to pay nearly NIS 60 million [$16.4 million] a month to terrorist prisoners. The PA has recognized Hamas' Martyr count, and a total of 38,983 new Martyrs' families are currently eligible for terror rewards. This means nearly 55 million shekels [$14.7 million] in additional monthly payments to the families of Martyrs."

The most recent tally of terrorist prisoners to receive stipends from the PA includes 899 terrorists who were captured in the ongoing Gaza war. That is in addition to the 661 captured terrorists that were announced in January as joining the "Martyrs payment" program. Palestinian Media Watch notes:

"[E]ach of the new terrorist prisoners will receive a starting salary of 1,400 shekels per month ($375 per month), which will rise the longer he or she is in prison, reaching a maximum of 12,000 shekels per month ($3,215 per month)."

The Palestinian Authority is, as always, undergoing a major financial crisis, in part because it has failed to promote a productive economy – a failure made possible by unconditional handouts from the international community. The PA prioritizes its terrorists at the expense of its own employees, paying them only half a salary, while terrorists and their families receive a full salary. The PA, in other words, as a priority, sees itself as the employer and benefactor of terrorists.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said on television in 2018:

"By Allah, even if we have only a penny left it will only be spent on the families of the Martyrs and the [terrorist] prisoners, and only afterwards will it be spent on the rest of the people. This is a group that we appreciate and respect, and we consider it the one paving the way to Palestine's independence for the future generations... We view the Martyrs and prisoners as stars in the sky of the Palestinian people and the sky of the Palestinian people's struggle, and they have priority in everything."

Fortunately for Abbas and his terrorists, both the Biden administration, the World Bank and the EU stand ready with taxpayer financing to ensure that the terrorists are not about to run out of murder-for-hire payments anytime soon.

The World Bank, in fact, decided that the PA should get more money. In July, it announced that its usual annual grant to the terrorist entity of $70 million would be raised in to a whopping $300 million, no questions asked. The World Bank thereby knowingly and willingly made itself an active accomplice to terrorism. Even the PA leadership itself seemed surprised at the sum. PA Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said:

"The World Bank Board of Directors decided a few days ago to increase the annual grant that it provides to the State of Palestine from approximately $70 million to $300 million per year. This is an unprecedented sum in the history of Palestine's relations with the World Bank." [bold in original]

Also in July, the European Union announced that it would provide the Palestinian Authority with 400 million euros ($435.5 million) of EU taxpayer money in emergency financial support in the coming two months "amid concerns within the EU that the authority could collapse." The sole reason why the PA is in the process of collapse is because of its pay-for-slay scheme, but this apparently does not bother the EU in the least: it happily continues to disburse EU taxpayer money to enable Palestinian terrorism.

"The money will be disbursed in the form of grants and loans in three payments between July and September, subject to progress in the implementation of the reform agenda of the Palestinian Authority," the European Commission said in a statement.

What reform agenda?

Incidentally, the 400 million euros are in addition to the 25 million euros the EU announced in May in a second portion of assistance to pay the salaries and pensions of PA civil servants.

That is not all. Despite the deep involvement of UNRWA in Hamas terrorism, the EU is also pouring more taxpayer money there: In March, the European Commission announced

"Today, the Commission has decided to allocate an additional EUR 68 million to support the Palestinian population across the region to be implemented through international partners like the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. This comes in addition to the foreseen EUR 82 million of aid to be implemented through UNRWA in 2024, bringing the total to EUR 150 million."

On May 31, the EU Commission bragged:

"The European Union is the biggest provider of external assistance to the Palestinians which amounts to indicatively almost €1.2 billion [$1.3 billion] for 2021-2024 under the European Joint Strategy, of which €809.4 million have already been adopted."

It is inconceivable that European leaders are unaware of the PA's consistent involvement in terrorism and its approval of the Hamas atrocities committed on October 7. After the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, Mahmoud Abbas "declared a day of mourning and lowering of flags to half-mast for a full day as a sign of mourning over the assassination of former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh," according to WAFA, the official PA news agency.

Senior PA official and arch terrorist Jibril Rajoub, who holds the powerful role of secretary general of Fatah's Central Committee, eulogized Haniyeh as "a great leader, a dear brother, a friend, and a staunch fighter." In October, Rajoub justified the October 7 massacre: "Hamas is part of our political and social fabric and of our struggle, and their involvement is important."

Nothing above is a secret. All the information is readily available. So why is not one European leader questioning the use of EU taxpayer money for propping up a terrorist regime and its terrorists? Why is the EU knowingly enabling terrorism?

Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20847/eu-world-bank-paying-terrorists

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