'Not in the name of Islam': Muslims speak out against Hamas - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

"Terrorist groups like Hamas and their backers, including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), cannot be allowed to speak for all Muslims or Islam."

 

Faithful attend the prayer marking the Eid al-Adha festival, at the Grand Mosque of the Avenue 8 in Treichville, a district of Abidjan, Ivory Coast June 16, 2024

(photo credit: REUTERS/LUC GNAGO)

The organization Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (CMAA) used a full-page ad in the Canadian National Post newspaper to enforce their support for the Jewish community and condemn the Hamas terror organization and its October 7 attack on Israel, the organization said in a Saturday X, formally known as Twitter, post.

According to its website, CMAA is "a charitable organization comprised of Muslim thinkers, professionals, and activists committed to fighting antisemitism in all its guises."

The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023 plunged the world into a frenzy of antisemitism and extremism.

Today, The Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism took out full page ad in the @nationalpost to deliver a strong message. We stand with the Jewish community and… pic.twitter.com/mwAUsFkPmG

— Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (@AgainstAntisem) June 22, 2024

The organization's full-page ad began with the large header "Not in the name of Islam."

The ad then continued to condemn Hamas for its actions on October 7 that were done in the name of the Islam faith.

"The [Hamas] terrorists repeatedly invoked the name of Allah and verses from our holy books during the slaughter," the ad explained.

"Terrorist groups like Hamas and their backers, including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), cannot be allowed to speak for all Muslims or Islam," the statement continued. 

Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following the IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

Furthermore, the statement said that the organization mourns the death of Gazan civilians but places the blame on Hamas, the IRGC, the Iranian regime, and "all those who fund, justify, and glorify them."

Calling on Muslims to reject 'the weaponization of faith'

The ad ended with a call to action, asking fellow Muslims to reject the "weaponization of our faith by Islamist extremists" that promotes antisemitism, violence, and terrorism.

The organization's website contains pro-Israel activism including a statement by its board in the aftermath of October 7. The document strongly condemns the attacks and features the signatures and statements of several prominent Muslim leaders "debunking the Islamist ideology and recognizing the truth."

The website also includes further advocacy for the Jews and shows the antisemitic sections of the Hamas charter that call on the killing of Jews and claim that the "Jews are the root of historical evil."

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-807262

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Will the Supreme Court Affect the Debate? - Clarice Feldman

 

by Clarice Feldman

This week, the Supreme Court issued two opinions that do not bode well for the outcome of the NY case brought by Alvin Bragg.

 

The Supreme Court announced that it was adding another opinion day to its schedule -- Wednesday, June 26th. Among the pending cases is United States v. Trump, in which the court must decide to what extent presidential immunity shields the president from criminal prosecution for actions taken while in office. 

While the content of the discussions during oral arguments are not a perfect indicator of how the court will rule, Scotus blog sat through oral argument and concluded the court is likely to side with Donald Trump to some degree:

With four of the court’s conservative justices -- Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh -- appearing to lean toward some form of immunity for Trump, the ruling may hinge on Roberts, who although relatively quiet seemed dubious about the reasoning of the D.C. Circuit’s opinion, which he summarized as saying that “a former president can be prosecuted because he is being prosecuted.” And although Dreeben stressed the “layers of protection” available to shield a former president from unwarranted prosecutions, such as the assumption that prosecutors will act in good faith and the need for a grand jury to return an indictment, Roberts asked Dreeben why the court shouldn’t send the case “back or issue an opinion saying that’s not the law?”

The timing of the release of the opinion -- should it occur on Wednesday -- is particularly significant because the following day is set for the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump, and there’s every indication that Biden’s strategy is to hammer on the criminal cases (and singular criminal conviction in New York) against his opponent.

But all those cases have substantial infirmities as well and Trump can certainly argue that those cases are not evidence of wrongdoing by him, but rather evince the Democrats’ use of lawfare to punish him and remove him from the election contest. (All these cases arise from the deep blue cities of New York and Washington, D.C. which, at least when it comes to Trump, seem to be using a Soviet legal handbook.)

This week, the Supreme Court issued two opinions that do not bode well for the outcome of the NY case brought by Bragg, which is the single conviction.

In Gonzalez v. Trevino, the court held in favor of Sylvia Gonzalez, who had been arrested in Castle Hills, Texas in 2019 on a trumped-up charge of tampering with government records. She had briefly misplaced a petition on a table at a public meeting. 

This was a blatant case of selective prosecution by officials whom Gonzalez had criticized.  She was the only person charged in the last 10 years under the state’s records laws for temporarily misplacing a document. She argued that virtually every one of the prior 215 felony indictments involved the use or creation of fake government IDs.

Although the charges were later dropped, the case reeked of political retaliation and selective prosecution. …when she sued, the appellate court threw her case out, requiring Gonzales to shoulder an overwhelming burden of proof to establish selective prosecution for her political speech. The justices, on the other hand, reduced that burden…

Unlike the Trump case, the criminal charges against Gonzales were thrown out before trial. For Trump, selective prosecution claims were summarily dismissed, even though no case like Bragg’s appears to have ever been brought before.

The Bragg case is raw political prosecution. No one seriously argues that Bragg would have brought this case against anyone other than Trump. Indeed, his predecessor rejected the case.[snip] Another case decided this week was Erlinger v. United States. The justices ruled 6-3 (and not along the standard ideological lines) to send back a case in which Paul Erlinger had been convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon. [snip]

The court ruled that a jury had to decide this issue unanimously under a standard of beyond reasonable doubt. This is in contrast to how the Trump case was handled, in which jurors could disagree on key aspects of the crime yet still convict the defendant.

In Trump’s trial, Judge Juan Merchan effectively guaranteed a conviction by telling jurors that they did not have to agree with specificity on what had occurred in the case to convict Trump. The only way to get beyond the passage of the statute of limitations on the dead misdemeanor for falsifying business records had been to allege that the bookkeeping violation in question occurred to conceal another crime. Bragg did not bother to state clearly what that crime was, originally alluding to four different crimes.

It was not until the end of the case that Merchan would lay out three possible crimes for the jury. All the way up to the final instructions in the case, legal analysts on CNN and other outlets expressed doubt about what the actual theory of the criminal conduct was in the case. [snip]

…Merchan told the jurors that they did not have to agree on which fact-pattern or conspiracy had occurred. They could split 4-4-4 on the secondary crime motivating the misdemeanors and just declare that some secondary crime was involved.

That was all that is required in New York when in pursuit of Trump. [snip]

But Gonzales and Erlinger demonstrate the high level of protections that we normally afford criminal defendants. A court with a 6-3 conservative majority just ruled for the rights of all defendants in defense of the rule of law.

That is not how the law is seen from 9th Avenue.

It all comes down to the legal map. As even CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig observed, this case of contorting the law for a selective prosecution would not have succeeded outside of an anti-Trump district. 

As for the pending case in Florida respecting a claim of mishandling classified documents, Judge Cannon has been wading through numerous pretrial discovery matters and motions. This week she announced she wants to hear the arguments respecting whether Jack Smith’s appointment violates the Constitution, in which case he would have had no authority to bring the case at all. 

Another brief, authored by a former attorney general, Edwin Meese, who is 92, and two law professors, Steven Calabresi and Gary Lawson, takes the position that Mr. Smith’s appointment was “unlawful.”

Judge Cannon’s judgment that the brief “may be of considerable help” suggests that she is taking seriously Mr. Trump’s constitutional contention -- made both to her and before the Supreme Court in the January 6 case that Attorney General Garland’s choice of Mr. Smith violated the Appointments Clause. 

That section of the national parchment ordains that the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.”

Mr. Smith, it turns out, was not nominated by the president and was not confirmed by the Senate. His appointment was solely at the discretion of General Garland. Mr. Meese et al. -- and Mr. Trump -- contend that Mr. Smith “does not have authority to prosecute this case.” The key designation, the former president and ex-attorney general argue, is that Mr. Smith is not an “inferior” officer of the United States but a “principal” officer -- and thus requires Senate confirmation. 

As for the civil fraud case against Trump presided over by Judge Arthur Engeron, even former NY governor Andrew Cuomo says it never should  have been brought: 

“The Attorney General’s case in New York, frankly, should have never been brought and if his name was not Donald Trump, and he if he wasn’t running for president, I’m the former AG in New York, I’m telling you that case would have never been brought, and that’s what is offensive to people,” Cuomo said during a discussion with Maher and former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois in “Real Time With Bill Maher: Overtime.”

Jake Tapper, who will be moderating the debate on CNN, has a long history of demonstrated bias against Trump.

So while presidential “debates” in recent years have been snoozefests with the moderators stacked against the Republican candidates, this one, with its rules clearly designed to benefit a decrepit Democrat candidate, may well work to Trump’s advantage -- the microphones will be shut off when it’s not the candidate’s turn to speak, so there can be no disruptive impromptu remarks by an often combative Trump. There’s no Candy Crowley running overt interference for the Democrat as she did for Barack Obama, and Trump, unlike Mitt Romney, will be unlikely to fold and run if any moderator pulls such an obvious stunt again.

 
Clarice Feldman

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/06/will_the_supreme_court_affect_the_debate.html

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Biden Outraged Netanyahu Mentioned His Blocking Aid to Israel - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

Cue the media narrative campaign.

 

Pictured: US President Joe Biden meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Act 1. The stage is set. The key players are Barack Obama, who wants to manufacture a break with Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, looking to navigate a hostile administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden.

During Biden's visit to Israel, the Obama administration stages a scandal, claiming that it was deliberately insulted because the local Jerusalem municipality routed some housing that the administration belatedly opposed through an approvals process.

Hillary Clinton spends an hour (and later brags about) yelling at Netanyahu over the phone. Biden refuses to come down for an hour to an event and a glass trophy being awarded to him ends up being broken. The media plays up a scandal that had been purely invented while spreading the narrative that it was Netanyahu who was creating a crisis.

Act 2. Dramatis Personae. Joe Biden. Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak Ravid, the Axios-employed propagandist acting as a point man for the Biden administration's influence operation to remove Netanyahu and stop the war on Hamas while preventing any action against Iran.

Here's how it plays out.

Biden publicly blocks previously approved military aid to Israel. And is slow-walking other aid. Netanyahu mentions this in a video. The Biden administration fumes and cancels a meeting over Iran. Barak Ravid writes all of this up with lots of "anonymous sources" in the administration and the Israeli Left.

Act 2 is even more absurd than Act 1 because Biden was touting his "extreme pressure" on Israel in a recent video.

But when Netanyahu mentions it, it's a "scandal" and an "insult".

Cue the media narrative campaign.

Barak Ravid / Axios: Scoop: White House cancels meeting, scolds Netanyahu in protest over video

Barak Ravid / Axios: White House baffled by Netanyahu's claim Biden is withholding weapons

Baffled!

Barak Ravid / Axios: Scoop: U.S. put a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel

All of this is a scam. The goal is to abandon Israel and convince liberal American Jews to blame Israel for the breach.

It's the same Obama playbook being run again.

• Follow Daniel Greenfield on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20727/biden-outraged-by-netanyahu

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PA salary crisis: How bad is it and who is to blame? - Itamar Marcus and Ephraim D. Tepler

 

by Itamar Marcus and Ephraim D. Tepler

By its own admission at various times, the primary reason that the PA finds itself in this financial situation in the first place is because of its insistence on paying salaries to terrorists.

 

• Since 2019, PA refuses to pay full salaries to employees, but it continues to pay $350 million a year in Pay-for-Slay terror rewards

2019 – PA Ministry of Finance:

• “The March [2019] allowance salaries of the prisoners... will be paid in full tomorrow, in accordance with the orders of President Mahmoud Abbas… [but] the public employees' salaries will be paid at a rate of 50%”

2024 – PA Ministry of Finance:

• “The April [2024] salaries of the [PA] public employees will be paid on Sunday [June 9], at a rate of 50%”

Columnist at PA daily:

• “The PA will not [stop paying salaries to prisoners]… because if it had done so, it would have admitted that these people are terrorists, as Israel claims”

• “The [PA] employees have received only half of the monthly salary [since 2019]. In other words, with the passage of more than five years, this [PA] employee is defined as one of the poor of society.”

Al-Marsad – Social and Economic Policies Monitor:

• “The [PA] Monetary Authority is forcing the [PA] public sector employees to take loans to cover its loans”

 

It is hard to imagine how unpredictable life must be for Palestinian Authority employees and their families because the PA prioritizes the rewarding of terrorists rather than the payment of salaries to its working civil servants. According to the PA’s official daily, PA employees are poverty-stricken:

“[Since 2019] out of solidarity (i.e., with the terrorists), the [PA] employees have received only half of the monthly salary. In other words, with the passage of more than five years, this employee is defined as one of the poor of society.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 8, 2024]

Why didn’t the PA stop paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of terrorist “Martyrs,” and save the Palestinian civil servants from poverty?

“The PA insisted on continuing to pay these salaries, because it cannot do otherwise… The PA will not do this (i.e., stop paying terrorists) because if it had done so, it would have admitted that these people are terrorists, as Israel claims… “

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 8, 2024]

PA employees literally don't know what their take-home pay will be from month to month or when they will receive it. Salaries are so erratic that even the partial 50% that they received in mid-June was not the May salary but was for April—a month and a half late.

The following PMW chart and table review the PA cuts in salaries in many of the months since 2019:

Palestinian Authority financial abuse of its own employees

Month	Civil Servants	Prisoners and Martyrs	Backpay
March 2019	50%	100.00%	0.00%
April 2019	60%	100.00%	0.00%
May 2019	60%	100.00%	0.00%
June 2019	60%	100.00%	0.00%
July 2019	60%	Not specified	0.00%
August 2019	60%	Not specified	0.00%
September 2019	60%	Not specified	29.41% (Full reimbursement for March salary)
October 2019	100%	Not specified	66.66% (Full reimbursement for April-June)
November 2019	100%	Not specified	50% (Full reimbursement for July)
December 2019	100%	Not specified	100.00% (Full reimbursement for September)
May 2020	50%	Not specified	0.00%
September 2020	“Trying to pay” 50%	Not specified	0.00%
August 2021	100%	Not specified	0.00%
January 2022	80%	Not specified	0.00%
February 2022	80%	Not specified	0.00%
March 2022	80%	Not specified	16.00%
April 2022	80%	Not specified	20.00%
May 2022	80%	Not specified	5.00%
July 2022	80%	Not specified	10.00%
November 2022	80%	Not specified	5.00%
April 2023	80%	Not specified	0.00%
May 2023	85%	Not specified	0.00%
June 2023	85%	Not specified	0.00%
July 2023	85%	Not specified	0.00%
August 2023	90%	Not specified	0.00%
September 2023	90%	Not specified	0.00%
October 2023	50%	Not specified	0.00%
November 2023	65%	Not specified	14.00%
December 2023	60%	Not specified	0.00%
January 2024	65%	Not specified	0.00%
February 2024	70%	Not specified	0.00%
March 2024	50%	Not specified	0.00%
April 2024	50%	Not specified	0.00%

Note that in the first four months on the chart, in spite of the salary cuts of between 50% and 40% to civil servants, terrorists in prison still received 100%. Shockingly, when the PA began making the deductions, it made a point of announcing that although it was cutting employees’ salaries, it would NOT be cutting the salaries of terrorists in prison. Later on, however, the PA stopped disclosing what the terrorists received and it remains unclear whether it actually ever cut terrorists’ salaries by the same percentages.

This entire financial crisis is because the PA rewards terrorists. Since Palestinian Media Watch discovered and notified donor countries in 2011 that the PA rewards terrorists with high monthly salaries, donor countries have cut support by more than two billion dollars. In addition, since 2019, Israel has deducted close to one billion dollars in tax transfers to the PA—part of the amount that the PA has paid as terror rewards during this period. This has placed an extreme burden on the entire PA civil service, and it is all due to the PA’s insistence on rewarding terror and making it a priority.

This month, the PA announced once again that its employees would receive only 50% of their salary (PA TV, June 7, 2024). And as stated above, the reduced salary they are receiving in mid-June is not for May but for April, since the PA salary payments are more than a month behind schedule.   

April 2024’s salaries

“The Ministry of Finance announced that the April salaries of the public employees will be paid on Sunday [June 9], at a rate of 50% of the salaries… The ministry emphasized that the rest of the payments to which they are eligible are considered a debt to the employees, and that they will be paid when this becomes financially possible.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, June 6, 2024]

March 2024’s salaries

50% was also deducted in May:

“The [PA] Ministry of Finance announced… that ‘since Israel has yet to transfer the tax money for April [2024]…the ministry will pay the [public] employees’ salaries for March on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at a rate of 50%...’ The rest…is considered a debt.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 12, 2024]

These deductions were 20% greater than in January and February, when the PA paid 70% and 65%.

February 2024’s salaries

“The [PA] government also decided to pay the February [2024] salaries of the [PA public] employees tomorrow, Wednesday [April 3, 2024], at a rate of 70%.” 

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 2, 2024] 

January 2024’s salaries

Headline: “The [PA public] employees’ salaries will be paid tomorrow, Thursday [March 7, 2024], at a rate of 65%”  

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 6, 2024] 

Pride in perverse values – overview since 2019

The PA actually takes pride in its twisted values. The decision to pay full salary rewards to the terrorists while the rest of the employees would receive as little as half was openly made by Mahmoud Abbas himself. For example, the PA Ministry of Finance announced in April 2019:

“The March allowance salaries of the prisoners, released prisoners, and families of the Martyrs (Shahids) and wounded will be paid in full tomorrow, in accordance with the orders of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas… The public employees' salaries will be paid at a rate of 50%.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 1, 2019] 

The exploitation of employees continued the next month when the PA again announced under the instructions of Abbas that terror-rewards recipients would receive full payments while the working PA employees would receive 60% [Official PA TV News, May 1, 2019].

This repeated itself in August and September 2019 as well—60% for the working PA employees and 100% for terror-reward payments [official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 30, 2019, Oct. 2, 2019].

Only in September 2019 did the PA announce that it would start partially compensating for the deductions from March. 

Six months later, in May and June 2020, the PA was still paying only 50% to its employees [official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 3, 2020]. 

In September 2020, the PA announced that it was “striving to pay 50%” [official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 23, 2020].

In 2021, full salaries were paid in the middle of the year, but they decreased again to 75% in December.

From January to June 2022, the PA raised the salaries to 80% but dropped them again to 70% in July. In the middle of the year, it also announced it would pay 20% of some of the money lost in the deducted salaries. In November, salaries returned to 80%, with additional promises of eventual debt repayment [official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 6, 2022].

As mentioned above, the 2023 and 2024 salaries were a maximum of 90% and currently are 50% of the regular salaries. Moreover, the salaries are paid a month late. The 50% being paid this June was not for May but for April.

The salary deductions make economic planning impossible for Palestinian Authority civil servants.

PA acts as a loan shark

While essentially taking free loans from its employees, the PA is “forcing the [PA] public sector employees to take [personal] loans to cover its loans” through the [PA] “Monetary Authority’s new orders regarding opening an overdraft account [for employees] at a rate of 3%.”

“Al-Marsad – Social and Economic Policies Monitor published a position paper today [June 15, 2023] under the headline ‘The [PA] Monetary Authority is forcing the [PA] public sector employees to take loans to cover its loans.’ The document discussed the Monetary Authority’s new orders regarding opening an overdraft account at a rate of 3% for the public sector employees who are borrowing to make payments that were not carried out, on the pretext of protecting the borrowers’ rights… 

The financial statistics regarding the governmental loans from the banks showed a decrease in the rate of loans by the PA during the period of reducing the public sector employees’ salaries from November 2021 until the end of April 2023, as it decreased by approximately $295 million, in other words, more than 1 billion [Israeli] shekels. This strengthens the conclusion that the PA is attempting to resolve its crisis by paying 80% of the public employees’ salaries and taking the rest as a free loan from its employees.”

[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, June 15, 2023] 

Reason for the crisis

By its own admission at various times, the primary reason that the PA finds itself in this financial situation in the first place is because of its insistence on paying salaries to terrorists.

“Today, Thursday [Nov. 9, 2023], the [PA] Ministry of Finance confirmed that yesterday it returned the tax money that was transferred, because Israel deducted sums that it claims equal the money that the Palestinian [PA] government transfers to the Gaza Strip (i.e., Israel deducted the percentage of PA monthly budget that goes to Gaza to prevent the money from going to Hamas) – as a result of which payment of the October [2023] salaries will be delayed… The ministry continued: ‘Given that the tax money is money that constitutes a main source for paying the monthly salaries of the [PA] public employees, we sadly inform you of a delay in payment of the October salaries.’”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 9, 2023] 

“The PA is currently facing a financial crossroads, with the deepening of the financial crisis after a number of months in which it has not succeeded in paying the salaries of its [public] employees in full or in fulfilling its commitments to the private sector… 

The PA’s financial situation is becoming worse and worse; foreign aid dropped from $1.3 billion in 2013 to just $313 million at the end of 2021. The [PA] Ministry of Finance and Planning’s forecasts also indicate that the European promises to aid the PA this year [2022] will not cross the barrier of 225 million euros, as only 144 million euros of them are being allocated to support the [PA] budget. 

This is while the Israeli government has doubled the scope of the tax money robbery from 50 million shekels ($15 million) [all parentheses in source] a month to 100 million shekels ($33 million) starting from July and until December 2021 (refers to Israel’s Anti “Pay-for-Slay” Law to deduct PA terror salaries; see note below -Ed.). The cumulative amount of deductions since 2019 and until June 2022 reaches approximately $530 million… In a meeting with journalists, [PA] Minister of Finance and Planning Shukri Bishara…emphasized that it is necessary to carry out reforms regarding the salaries and to lower their rate from amid all the expenses from 100% to 70% by the end of the current year, which requires making difficult decisions such as imposing early retirement.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 4, 2022] 

EU to the rescue

The European Union has been coming to the PA’s rescue repeatedly during its crisis by paying its salaries. The EU, however, has never insisted that the PA stop rewarding terror so that it could pay salaries from its own budget. Instead, the EU keeps giving the PA money for salaries to many civil servants, thus enabling the PA to continue its terror salaries. On May 31, 2024, the EU announced additional salary funding to the PA:

“The Commission has today processed a second tranche of assistance of €25 million for the Palestinian Authority to contribute to the payment of salaries and pensions of Palestinian civil servants and disbursed €16 million for UNRWA to provide basic services such as health and education to Palestinian refugees.

The €25 million payment under PEGASE will help the Palestinian Authority to meet part of its commitments towards Palestinian civil servants in the West Bank.

The payment is the second tranche disbursed to the Palestinian Authority as part of the €118.4 million assistance package adopted in December 2023. The first €25 million payment were disbursed in March.”

[European Commission press release, May 31, 2024]

Incredibly, the EU looks away from the PA’s monthly announcements explicitly showing that it views the salaries of both terrorists and other employees as coming from the same pot. The EU is making a mockery of itself by imagining that somehow its euros are not helping to pay salaries to terrorists, or in the very least enabling those payments to terrorists.

PA intransigence on Pay-for-Slay

Despite all the financial obstacles being faced by the PA, it nevertheless consistently insists on making salary payments to terrorists a priority and a point of pride.

PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Deputy Director Abd Al-Qader Al-Khatib: “When we are asked about things the Europeans wonder about, which they were already taught by the Israelis, we have an answer to every question. We have nothing to hide and are not embarrassed of anything. It’s the complete opposite. We are proudly adopting the position of the Palestinian leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, when he said: “Even if we are left with one penny, we will pay it to the prisoners and Martyrs.” This is our position. These are the heroes of freedom. We will not abandon them. We will not leave them to deal with their fate alone. They have sacrificed the best of their years for the sake of Palestine and the people of Palestine, and Allah willing we will be loyal to them. We will be their servants.

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 18, 2022]

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "Israel came and said that the Martyrs are criminals, terrorists, and murderers. Shame on you Israel! We will never agree to abandon our Martyrs… Our Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded are the most sanctified that we have. We will not agree to waive our money in full. Our Martyrs have a right to this money."

The video of Abbas has been broadcast on Official PA TV at least 48 times:

[Official PA TV, Nov. 11 (twice), 12 (twice), 15 (three times), 18 (twice), 30, Dec. 2, 4, 10, 12, 23, 24, 26 (twice) 28, 2019,Jan. 6, 16, 18, 26, Feb. 4, 13, June 8, 25, July 14, 16, 19, 23, Oct. 8, 11,15, Nov. 3, 17, 2020; Jan. 19, March 14, April 4, 5, May 1, Aug. 16, Sept. 8, 26, Nov. 17, 2021; Jan. 12, 2022, Oct. 2 2023]

By its own admission, the PA has lost billions of dollars in support from other countries due to its intransigence on continuing the “Pay-for-Slay” payments and the subsequent Israeli deductions. Were it not for its insistence on continuing this program, it would have an abundance of funds, both from its own revenue and from increased international donations. However, Mahmoud Abbas “has said repeatedly – that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners” [WAFA, official PA news agency, April 4, 2024].

Finally, for political reasons, the PA can’t stop itself from rewarding terror. Bassem Barhoum, a regular columnist for the PA’s official daily, described the PA’s dysfunctional situation quite succinctly:

“The PA insisted on continuing to pay these salaries, because it cannot do otherwise. After all, the PLO’s political ethics say that these people are ‘the most noble among us’ thanks to the sacrifices they have made. The PA will not do this (i.e., stop paying terrorists) because if it had done so, it would have admitted that these people are terrorists, as Israel claims… Since that time, and out of solidarity [with the prisoners], the [PA] employees have received only half of the monthly salary. In other words, with the passage of more than five years, this employee is defined as one of the poor of society.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, June 8, 2024]

Israel's Anti "Pay-for-Slay" Law - Israeli law stating that the PA payments to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is a financial incentive to terror. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. Should the PA stop these payments for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA. The law was enacted by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018. During the parliamentary vote, the law's sponsor Avi Dichter said: “The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee received much help in its deliberations... from Palestinian Media Watch who provided us with authentic data that enabled productive and professional deliberations, nuances that are very difficult to achieve without precise data.” [Israeli Parliament website, July 2, 2018] In accordance with the law, as of September 2021 Israel’s Security Cabinet had ordered the freeze of 1.857 billion shekels ($580.15 million) - the sum equivalent to the PA payments to terrorists in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Itamar Marcus and Ephraim D. Tepler

Source: https://palwatch.org/page/35179

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Biden’s war on fossil fuels hits Wyoming hard, but now the Cowboy State is fighting back - Kevin Killough

 

by Kevin Killough

Since the federal government owns nearly half the state’s land, virtually all oil, gas and coal operations in the Cowboy State, energy production there is heavily impacted by every rule the Bureau of Land Management throws at fossil fuels.

 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been chipping away at the oil, gas and coal industries ever since President Joe Biden took office. Wyoming is an energy state that produces half the nation’s coal, as well as part of its oil and gas output. Since the federal government owns nearly half the state’s land, virtually all oil, gas and coal operations in the Cowboy State are heavily impacted by every rule the BLM throws at fossil fuels. 

Although the Biden administration is waging war on fossil fuels, Wyoming is fighting back. The state, along with Utah, filed a lawsuit against the agency last Tuesday over its restoration lease program, and Rep. Harriett Hageman, R-Wyo., is rolling out legislation to fight back against the BLM’s proposed ban on federal coal leases. 

Coal fight

Wyoming produces about 50% of all thermal coal burned in the U.S. Thermal coal is used in electricity generation, as opposed to metallurgical coal, which is used in heavy industry. The state’s coal production has been in decline since 2008, when it produced over 466 million tons. In 2023, it was down to just over 230 million tons. 

That’s partly due to the nation's transition to natural gas-fired electricity generation. It is also due to regulations going back to the Obama administration, and the efforts of well-funded efforts by NGOs like the Sierra Club, which received $500 million for its Beyond Coal campaign from billionaire Michael Bloomberg. 

In May, the BLM’s Buffalo Field Office proposed an amendment that would ban future coal leasing in the state’s main coal producing area. 

Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., told Just the News that with the rule, the BLM is violating federal law and exceeding its authority with the rule. “The BLM does not have the unilateral authority to outlaw coal mining in the United States,” Hageman said. 

She introduced legislation to block the rule from being implemented, and she’ll be introducing an appropriations bill as well that will prohibit the BLM from using any funding to implement the rule.

Last week, Hageman toured the Belle Ayr Mine near Gillette, Wyoming, with House Natural Resources Committee staff and other members of Congress. They also toured a coal-fired power plant near the mine. That was followed by a roundtable, which included employees of Wyoming’s coal mines. Hageman said that she spoke to third-generation mine workers. 

“These are family long term, high quality, high paying jobs that family members follow each other into, and now you've got a federal government from Washington D.C. saying we're going to shut you down,” Hageman said. 

While Wyoming is losing jobs, Hageman said, the country is descending into energy poverty, which will bring the entire economy down with it. “What I'm really trying to highlight is the fact that affordable, reliable energy is desperately needed. And the idea that we're going to get rid of one of the most important energy resources that we have is just absurd,” Hageman said. 

The long-term and seasonal assessments of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which oversees reliability of the electricity grid in Canada and the United States, regularly finds increasing risks of blackouts during periods of high demand across large portions of the country. One of the primary causes, NERC finds, is the rapid retirement of baseload power sources and an overreliance on intermittent wind and solar. 

The problem is being compounded by increased loads on the grid. This includes electric vehicles, but also data centers, with some facilities being rejected over power demand concerns. 

Hageman said she often points to what happened in South Africa, which pledged to meet emission reductions. The country was highly successful in meeting reduction targets. Unfortunately, it also meant widespread and frequent blackouts lasting hours per day to the detriment of the country’s economy. Some media outlets, such as Bloomberg -- privately owned by Michael Bloomberg -- appear to praise the country for achieving emission reductions through blackouts. 

“Who in the world believes that we're going to be able to continue to live in a first-world country and have the prosperity that we have experienced and enjoyed over the last 70 years, without the use of coal and oil and gas?” Hageman said. 

The South African government last Thursday granted the country's state-owned utility permission to keep five coal-fired power plants operational for another five years, Oilprice.com reported.

Local governments in Wyoming are also fighting back against the BLM’s war on coal. On Monday, members of the Campbell, Converse and Johnson County commissions, where the major mines are located, sent a 954-page letter to BLM Director Tracey Stone-Manning protesting the new rule. 

The letter explains that the counties’ economic viability is dependent on the ability to produce, market and deliver coal to consumers across the county, and for that industry to be viable, the federal coal leasing program is essential. 

“It is baffling that a federal agency would have such disregard for our local communities, state, industries and workforce that invoke tireless effort into ensuring that the lights stay on across this country to provide reliable, affordable energy — not to mention — investment of billions of dollars to responsibly address advanced technology to curtail carbon dioxide emissions — all for not, [sic]” the letter states.

Campbell Converse Johnson Counties BLM Protest Buffalo Coal Leasing FSEIS 06-17-24 Final.pdf

Hellhole

Even Wyoming’s Gov. Mark Gordon -- who is an outspoken proponent of decarbonizing the West -- issued a rebuke against the agency when the rule was announced. Gordon said in a statement on the BLM’s proposed coal ban, that it would lead to blackouts and energy poverty. 

“At the highest levels the Biden Administration – including Interior Secretary Haaland – have shown a complete disregard for blue-collar workers and their families; local communities and neighborhood businesses; the aspirations of  local governments and economic development entities; university scientists and others diligently working on viable solutions to climate concerns; as well as the livelihoods of power plant employees and anyone who relies on dependable, affordable, and attainable electricity,” Gordon said in the statement. 

Gordon has also criticized the BLM’s restoration lease program, which was finalized in April. The rule allows public land to be leased just like oil and gas, except the allowed uses would prevent resource development. Critics argue the rule allows environmental groups to make a non-use a type of use of public land.

Wyoming and Utah Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior and the BLM, arguing the rule represents a “sea change in how the agency will carry out its mission moving forward.” The rule, according to the lawsuit, creates land-management tools not authorized by federal law. 

Utah-Wyoming-v.-Haaland-ECF-1-061824.pdf

Along with Utah and Wyoming, the lawsuit notes, local governments, industry groups, nonprofits, and members of Congress urged the BLM to consider what federal law may require before pushing the rule through. The BLM, according to the lawsuit, brushed these objections aside and unilaterally finalized the rule. 

Wyoming is not alone in filing lawsuits at the Biden administration’s rulemaking. Lawsuits have been filed against the pause on liquified natural gas export permits, the electric vehicle mandate, and the Power Plant Rule, which Wyoming joined. 

While those challenges go through the courts, Wyoming’s fossil fuel producers try to weather the storm. The BLM scheduled an oil and gas lease auction for June 27. The auction is for 18 oil and gas parcels totalling just over 10,000 acres, down from 1,600 acres in March. It will be the smallest action the state has seen since 2009. 

“Our food supply, our affordable housing, our ability to educate our children — everything is based upon the foundation of the commercial production of affordable energy. And here we have a government that has gone to war with the American people and is bound and determined to turn us into a Third World hellhole,” Hageman said.

 
Kevin Killough

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/bidens-war-fossil-fuels-hits-wyoming-hard-now-cowboy-state-fighting-back

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How does the IDF dismantle Hamas strongholds in Rafah? - Amir Bohbot

 

by Amir Bohbot

The IDF Southern Command is writing a new combat doctrine, which, for the first time ever, combines combat above and below ground at the same time.

 

IDF soldiers operating in Rafah, June 20, 2024.

(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The Givati ​​patrol quickly surrounded a dense group of buildings deep in Rafah and surprised terrorists in the area. Some of them were killed in an exchange of fire when they went out to launch anti-tank missiles; others went down into the tunnels or fled north towards Khan Yunis.

A Walla reporter accompanied Israeli forces and documented the Israeli forces' operations.

A vigilant team detected suspicious movements in the mosque area. After checks with the intelligence officials in the field, it was decided to close all the streets around the mosque and to send "Sam," the attack dog of the Oketz Unit.

Sam smelled the courtyard of the mosque, entered independently into one of the spaces in the building, scanned it, heard noises, and navigated down through a hidden staircase that led him to the terrorists from the Nukhba special forces of Hamas. An armed terrorist was hiding on the side of the narrow building, and only an iron net separated them. Sam, at this point, acted completely independently, located another small opening, entered the room, jumped at one of the terrorists, and bit him hard.

It was one dog against seven terrified terrorists who ran to grab weapons. Sam was sharp and attacked several terrorists one after the other. In the background, you could hear the terrorists' screams of pain and cries for help. One of the terrorists shot at him but didn't. Sam was "locked" by biting the hand of one of the terrorists who was holding a weapon. Finally, another terrorist shot Sam at short range and overpowered him.

MORE OF the women are trying to make it into special units like Oketz. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Later, the Givati ​​Brigade Col. Liron Batito said that the terrorists were surprised twice "by Givati ​​Patrol soldiers who quickly arrived at the heart of the neighborhood in Rafah, and once again by the dog of the Oketz Unit that found the way to reach them underground. Unfortunately, the dog is dead."

The soldiers of the Givati ​​Patrol and the Yalam Unit searched the building a few hours later and discovered "Sam's" body, unloaded the camera from his body, recovered the documentation, and discovered, to their astonishment, the battle that took place deep in the ground against the terrorists.

"There was no way that the terrorists could be located without the dog's precise scans," explained Batito. "The camera footage revealed the hidden shaft from which they escaped, and then it turned out that it's a significant underground route with many branches in Rafah."

Continuing to dismantle Hamas infrastructure

Walla also accompanied the Givati Brigade, who are leading the task of dismantling Hamas infrastructure on the Egyptian border, as well as in what is considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Rafah - Tel Sultan. 

Despite the long preparation of Hamas's Rafah Brigade for the IDF's ground maneuver and the many traps set in residential houses, Givati ​​soldiers managed to surprise the terrorists upon approach.

One day, the Shin Bet identified terrorists in the area of ​​a warehouse on which the United Nations inscription was emblazoned; they contacted the terrorists and offered them to surrender or fight, then finally using drones that were activated above their heads as they were "acquitted" (they stripped off their clothes to see that they were not carrying weapons and explosive devices).

"The use of human shields for terrorists in clinics, hospitals, UN warehouses, and schools is a recurring motif throughout the war, and it is still the most complex distance of an underground route I have come across," a Givati official said.

IDF soldiers operate in the Rafah area, June 12, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The IDF Southern Command told Walla that the divisional combat team under Col. Batito's command is writing a new combat doctrine. For the first time, combat above and below ground is combined to push the enemy out of the area of ​​operational control.

The divisional intelligence officer is holding a map of one of the neighborhoods on which all the contours in the area have been marked with red lines.

"This is the work of ants. In some cases, we knew about them before the ground incursion. In some cases, it was found in the field through scans, from terrorist investigations, and some were discovered through the investigation of the electronic equipment or documents," Batito explained and emphasized that this is a map that is updated daily.

IDF Duvdevan and Oketz Unit troops operate in Khan Yunis. December 18, 2023. (credit: IDF)

"They dug tunnels here at a depth of 27 meters. More than twenty tunnels were dug adjacent to the Philadelphi corridor. We have already destroyed some of them, and some are being tested now. The scanning and drilling operations are still ongoing to locate more tunnels. It's a big challenge, so it takes time. But we will dismantle what Hamas has built here for more than 20 years.

"My mission is simple. Make sure that there are no tunnels crossing from Rafah to Egypt. You understand the consequences of this. Cut off Hamas from its source of power - it's more than smuggling; it's a lot of money. According to my estimate, 80% of the tunnels are already in our hands."

Col. Batito explained what the fighting routine looks like in the Rafah region, saying, "Some of the terrorists fled from Gaza and Khan Yunis came here. This required us to be very creative. I estimate that within a month, we will annihilate all the Hamas battalions in Rafah. And if they decide to flee again? We will destroy all the infrastructure they built. Weapons production infrastructure and such.

"So far, the IDF has killed 17 thousand terrorists. In Rafah, the 162nd Division killed about 550 terrorists. This week, we killed four in the Shabora neighborhood."

Hamas terrorists work systematically not to go out into the streets and be exposed to Givati ​​fighters, and for this purpose, they break walls inside and between houses using hammers to jump from place to place.

"In one of the most unusual places, Givati ​​soldiers uncovered an underground route under a cemetery in Rafah, where the terrorists connected several large burial chambers into one room, from which they dug a shaft where three Nohkba terrorists and a commander were hiding, who were arrested and taken for questioning."

Walla reported that at one point, Batito clenched his hands and punched the palm of his hand to emphasize his words. He describes how the Givati Brigade also pays a heavy price in combat.

"On June 10, activity in the Shabora neighborhood involving the 9th Battalion unfolded, and a commander and soldier entered a building that didn't look suspicious, but it turned out to be a trap. After a bomb was thrown at him and nothing happened, an explosion apparently initiated by the terrorists from a distance occurred. As a result of the explosion, four fighters were killed and wounded six more, and later, one of the soldiers who was seriously wounded died of his wounds while in the hospital."

Amir Bohbot

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-807250

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Two charged in terror plot against Jewish targets in France - JNS

 

by JNS

The pair connected online and were planning "a violent action notably aimed at Jewish targets," according to a report.

 

"Twelve years old and already a victim of antisemitic hate," the placard reads at the protest in the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville ("City Hall Square") in Paris, June 19, 2024. Photo by Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images.

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a minor in the Paris region with plotting a terrorist attack on Jewish targets, Agence France-Presse reported on Friday.

The man was charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” according to a judicial source cited in the report.

The youth was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair connected online and were planning “a violent action notably aimed at Jewish targets,” added the source.

The development comes after hundreds protested in the French capital on Wednesday following the antisemitic rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl. The rally was organized by Collectif Nous Vivrons (“We Will Live Collective”), which was founded following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ensuing wave of antisemitism in Europe.

The Jun. 15 rape in a Paris suburb has drawn condemnation from across France’s political spectrum amid a heated campaign ahead of snap parliamentary elections later this month.

Three minors were arrested for their part in the assault, during which they allegedly forced the girl to perform vaginal, anal and oral sex, called her a “dirty Jew” and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

France is home to the largest Muslim population in Europe and has seen a surge in antisemitic acts since Oct. 7. Antisemitic acts have tripled in the first months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, France 24 reported, citing official numbers.

JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/two-charged-for-terror-plot-against-jewish-targets-in-france/

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