Throwing Good Money After Bad - $310 Million

For the record, from the State Department Press Briefing – April 7, 2021 

by Ned Price, Department Spokesperson

MR PRICE: ...And today, we’re pleased to announce that, working with Congress, we plan to restart the U.S. economic – U.S. economic, development, security, and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people. It includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, 10 million for peacebuilding programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and 150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief Works Agency, or UNRWA. All assistance, of course, will be provided consistent with U.S. law.

Assistance includes, among other things, support for small and medium enterprises’ recovery from the effects of COVID-19; support for needy households to access basic human needs, including food and clean water; and support for Palestinian civil society. A portion of this funding will support the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, as it continues to provide the necessary and life-saving treatments to Palestinians. This funding is in addition to the $15 million in humanitarian assistance to address COVID-19 pandemic and food insecurity that we announced last month.

U.S. foreign assistance for the Palestinians serves important U.S. interests and values, including providing critical relief to those in need, fostering economic development, and supporting Israeli-Palestinian understanding, as well as security and stability in a volatile region.  It aligns with the values and the interests of the United States as well as those of our allies and partners.  The United States is committed to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in tangible ways in the immediate term, which is important in its own right, of course, but also as a means to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution.

The United States encourages other donors to support programs and activities that work toward a common goal of stability and progress for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

QUESTION: So I got two things, both on the Middle East, including – well, one on that. When you say that all this aid is going to be provided in – well, consistent with U.S. law, I’m curious as to how actually you’re going to do that.

MR PRICE: Sure.

QUESTION: Because U.S. law – there’s several of them – says that the U.S. cannot provide money to the Palestinian Authority, or – perhaps more importantly – money that would be fungible, that would be used for projects and programs that they – that a government would otherwise do as long as they continue to pay stipends to people convicted of anti-Israel or anti-U.S. attacks and their families. So how exactly are you going to square this?

MR PRICE: Sure.

QUESTION: Because as you’re aware, since reports about this have come out for a week or so, there have been growing opposition in Congress.

MR PRICE: Well, let me just start there. And I don’t want to characterize the reactions of individual members, but I think it is fair to say that we have been gratified by the reaction that we have heard from Congress on a bipartisan basis. Members of Congress, just as we do, recognize that the aid we announced today is consistent with our interests, it is consistent with our values, it is consistent with the interests of those in the region, to include Palestinians not only in the West Bank and Gaza but also in the broader region as well, as well as the interests of our Israeli partners.

Now, you asked about how we ensure that this aid is consistent with applicable U.S. law, including the Taylor Force Act. I just want to underscore that —

QUESTION: And ATCA.

MR PRICE: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: And —

MR PRICE: And ATCA. And I just want to underscore that all of this aid is absolutely consistent with relevant U.S. law, including those two statutes. As we do around the world, we provide assistance in the West Bank and Gaza through experienced and trusted independent partners on the ground, and it’s these partners who distribute directly to people in need, not through government or de facto government authorities. Our development partners in the West Bank and Gaza have aggressive risk mitigation systems in place aimed at ensuring just that – namely, that U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance is reaching those for whom it is intended: the women, the men, the children in need of lifesaving assistance.

Now, you asked about this fairly technical issue as to how we ensure that this aid is consistent with the Taylor Force Act —

QUESTION: Well —

MR PRICE: — and that it doesn’t directly —

QUESTION: Okay, fine, but I would not say that that’s “fairly technical.”

MR PRICE: No, no, no – well, I’m getting to a technical point.

QUESTION: You’re either breaking the law or you’re following the law. That’s not a technical —

MR PRICE: Well, it is – you’re right, it is very clear. We are following the law. Everything we are doing here is quite consistent with it, scrupulously so. But you did ask about how we ensure this doesn’t benefit —

QUESTION: Yes.

MR PRICE: Directly benefit the Palestinian Authority, which is the relevant provision, and assistance considered as quote-unquote “directly benefiting” the PA is actually defined in the Department of State – defined by the Department of State and was transmitted to Congress in May of 2018. And in making this determination, we take several conditions into account, including the intended primary beneficiary or end user of the assistance; whether the PA is the direct recipient of the assistance, of course; whether the assistance involves payments of Palestinian Authority creditors; the extent of ownership or control the PA exerts over an entity or an individual that is the primary beneficiary or end user of the assistance; and whether the assistance or, in some cases, the services provided directly replace assistance or services that the PA would otherwise provide.

So we take all of that scrupulously into account – not only Taylor Force, not only ATCA, every relevant statute – to ensure, again, that what we are doing is in service of our interests, our values, consistent with U.S. law, and betters the lives of the people in the region.

QUESTION: Okay. As it relates to the UNRWA assistance, the 150 million to UNRWA, the Israelis have already come out and said that they’re concerned about this, that they don’t think it’s a good idea because the – because UNRWA, they think, is – well, one, that it’s non-transparent and that it promotes anti-Israel activity; and then secondly, the previous secretary of state just before he left office really laid a – quite a harsh allegation against UNRWA, saying that there’re fewer than 200,000 refugees that it actually serves from 1948. So one, do you – or, well, one, when you say you take into consideration Congressional concerns, are you also taking into account Israeli concerns? And then secondly, are you repudiating former Secretary of State Pompeo’s criticism of UNRWA that it’s riddled with corruption and is not serving anywhere near the number of quote-unquote “real” refugees?

MR PRICE: Well, you asked about UNRWA. Let me just say one more word on the bilateral assistance we’re providing to the Palestinian people because it gets to your question about security, and that is, of course, that we have an enduring commitment to Israel’s security. It is a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East but also, beyond that, globally. Likewise, we are committed to advancing the safety and the security of the Palestinian people. As we said in a statement earlier this week, we believe that Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of security, prosperity, and dignity.

Now, when it comes to U.S. security assistance, that has played a key role in strengthening Palestinian Authority security forces capable of or, in some cases, willing to partner with Israel to address regional instability. We expect that a key part of our security assistance going forward will be working to advance the rule of law in the West Bank for the benefit of all through the development of professional and accountable security and criminal justice institutions, institutions that, by the way, are able to maintain security and stability in the West Bank to uphold the rule of law, to contribute directly to regional security, and to protect the population. That is not only in the interests of the Palestinian people. That, of course, is in the interests of our Israeli partners.

And as you know or as you might have guessed, we have engaged at multiple levels repeatedly with our Israeli partners on these questions. Of course, it was noted in the recent readout of the call between Secretary Blinken and his counterpart, Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. I wouldn’t want to characterize any further those diplomatic conversations, but we do all of this, again, consistent with the interests and the values of this country.

QUESTION: You don’t have to characterize it because the Israelis have already come out and said they think it’s a bad idea. So – or so the reservations that Congress has about this and the opposition that Israel has about this doesn’t matter; is that what you’re saying?

MR PRICE: Matt, we are doing this consistent with the values and the interests of the United States and also with the interests of those in the region as well. You did ask about UNRWA —

QUESTION: Yes. Yes.

MR PRICE: — and concerns there, so let me just take a moment to note how seriously we take oversight of – our oversight role of UNRWA when it comes to UNRWA’s policies, programs, and finances. We take them extraordinary seriously. Got a long answer here.

QUESTION: You don’t really have to go on – you don’t have to drone on forever about it. But just, like, you are repudiating what the former administration thought about UNRWA? Do you still – do you believe, as the previous secretary of state did, that UNRWA serves a very, very small number of Palestinian refugees as opposed to what they claim to serve?

MR PRICE: I’m not going to characterize what the previous administration might have said or might have concluded. I am relaying here what this institution, what this secretary of state, what this administration, and what this building thinks and has concluded. And that is, again, that is that these steps and measures that we’ve announced today are consistent with our interests and our values.

I think the other point I would make is that even when the United States had stopped its support for UNRWA, the United States, and in this case the previous administration, did maintain a dialogue even in the absence of funding with UNRWA. By resuming this assistance today, not only do we have that dialogue, but we have a seat at the table. We can help drive UNRWA in the ways that we think it is in our interest and consistent with our values to do. Obviously, there are areas where we would like to see reform. We will continue to be in a position, an even greater position to drive and to steer UNRWA in a direction that we think is productive and useful with this step today.

Humeyra.

QUESTION: Can I actually get you to elaborate on that? So you do think that UNRWA needs to be reformed. Can you identify in which areas? And also, by restoring this aid today, are you guys working towards restoring to the amount of $365 million, which was in 2017? Is that what you’re aiming for, and what’s the path to that look like? But don’t forget the first one I asked.

MR PRICE: Well, let me start with the first one. It is absolutely the case that we are committed to closely engaging with UNRWA to uphold its neutrality, to promote human rights and tolerance and education, and to improve the agency’s effectiveness and sustainability, and we plan to do that in a few different ways. One, we plan to do that bilaterally with the agency, with UNRWA, to improve its transparency, accountability, and internal governance and oversight processes. And two, multilaterally to improve its sustainability over time.

The point I made before is absolutely a critical one. Even in the absence of the funding that the previous administration halted, we – in this case the previous administration maintained a dialogue with UNRWA. Now not only do we have a dialogue, but we have a seat at the table. We are able to help effect these reforms – these reforms that we think are necessary, these reforms that we think are important – in a manner that is much more – that will be much more effective going forward.

Yes.

QUESTION: Thank you, Ned. I have two questions on the Palestinians and one on Iraq. On the Palestinian issue, so would you say that any part of this money will go to support election in East Jerusalem since you value the democratic process? Number one. And number two, would you say that this money is trying to address a severe humanitarian need or also double as a carrot for the Palestinian Authority to come back to the negotiation table?

MR PRICE: This is – these are humanitarian steps when it comes to the humanitarian aid that we have announced today. The Secretary was speaking in a completely different context earlier this week when he said that we don’t trade shots in arms for political favors. But I think the broader principle is one that stands. This is consistent with who we are as a people. It also happens to be consistent with what is in our interest. And when we talk about the humanitarian funding that we are – I would – that we have announced today, it is to alleviate the – in many cases the humanitarian suffering that Palestinians have endured, whether it is in the West Bank, whether it’s in Gaza, or whether it’s in the broader region.

Now, when it comes to the question of elections, again, I would make the point that everything we are doing is going to be consistent with ATCA, it’s going to be consistent with the Taylor Force Act, and as we do around the world, we are providing this assistance through experienced and trusted independent partners on the ground who in turn distribute that aid. Palestinian elections are a matter for the Palestinian people. I think I would leave it at that in terms of our announcement today.

Yes.

QUESTION: Yes, I was just wondering if the Secretary or any official in this building has made sort of calls with the Palestinian officials ahead of today’s announcement. If not, when would they do that? And another question: Is there any update about the pledges to reopen the diplomatic – the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C.?

MR PRICE: Well, I would reiterate the point I have said before that we believe it is important for us to have a partnership with the Palestinian people and with Palestinian officials. I don’t have any calls to read out – I would imagine if Secretary Blinken had a call with his Palestinian counterpart, we would be in a position to read that out – nor do I have any calls to preview, but it is true that we have engaged extensively with stakeholders, including officials in the region, but I don’t have any details of that to read out.

Now, when it comes to the ways in which we will engage with the Palestinian people and Palestinian authorities, obviously today’s announcement, the announcement of funding on a bilateral basis for the Palestinian people and through UNRWA is an important element of that, but it is not the only way in which we intend to do that. But I just don’t have any announcements to preview at this time.

QUESTION: I don’t think you answered my first question.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) 365. Is that the aim that you’re going to eventually increase this? Is that where you’re going?

MR PRICE: I’m not going to – I’m – today we’re talking about a significant, a sizable, an ambitious announcement of funding. I don’t have anything to preview beyond today.

QUESTION: Did you have any comment that —

QUESTION: (Inaudible) this is the first tranche, because I know that the administrations have usually provided their UNRWA funding in trenches – tranches, whatever – leading up to the full amount. So you haven’t made a decision about whether you’re going to go back to that historic amount of (inaudible)?

MR PRICE: I just don’t have anything to preview today. We are in April of 2021. Of course there are many months left in this fiscal year. But I just don’t have anything to preview today as to where we are heading.

QUESTION: But then I turn to the security assistance. That’s – is that like the 60 million extra that’s not part of the number that you put into this press release?

MR PRICE: We – I’m sorry.

QUESTION: The security assistance.

MR PRICE: Yes.

QUESTION: You said we’re also resuming vital security assistance programs. So that’s separate from the numbers that you have in this press release, right?

MR PRICE: We can – we can – if we have more details on exactly what that security assistance looked like – looks like in terms of numbers, we can let you know.

QUESTION: Did you guys ever have a response to the GAO report that found that USAID had not followed all of the – all of the requirements of the Taylor Force and ATCA laws in awarding not direct grantees but sub-grantees?

MR PRICE: Well, we are of course aware of the GAO report. We have welcomed the report. We take it, its findings, very seriously. It’s important to note that this GAO report found no cases of U.S. funding going to parties, providers on the ground who failed vetting. USAID is already taking steps to strengthen its existing, extensive antiterrorism procedures. I would also say that the funding we have announced today takes into account that report and our implementation of that funding has and will take into account what the GAO put forward. Again, the bottom line here is that this administration is firmly committing to – committed to ensuring that all U.S. assistance is provided in accordance with antiterrorism requirements and all U.S. laws, including the Taylor Force Act.

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So Where Did Solomon's Temple Stand?

Is the Temple Mount where Solomon's Temple stood?

Let's ask James Silk Buckingham who published this in his 1827(9) book, "Travels in Mesopotamia Including a Journey from Aleppo to Bagdad By the Route of Beer, Orfah, Diarbekr, Mardin, and Mosul; With Researches on the Ruins of Nineveh, Babylon, and Other Ancient Cities", Vol. 1, p. 221:

But that didn't stop the propaganda attempts at the time based on religion:

And the falsehood continues until this day.

The Palestinian Authority:

“[Israeli] plots are being woven against it [Jerusalem] to forge its identity”

“The stones in the ground are fabricated graves planted [by Israel] to prove… an ancient Israeli and Jewish presence”

“The greatest liar is [Israel]… stealing our heritage”

”[Jewish history is] delusional myths and the arrogance of power”

”They [Israel] imagine that by this brute force they can invent a [Jewish] history”

“Their so-called 'Temple' - the greatest crime and forgery in history"

____________

UPDATE

From Jeff Dunetz:

The Official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council (Wakf) Guide Book To Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) recognized the presence of the Jewish Temples atop the Mount.  Shown below is paragraph two which appears on page four, it says, “It’s [the Temple Mount] identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”

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For the Record: Jared Kushner - "They've Screwed Up"

Excerpted from his CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour

"...And so the question then comes down to the Palestinian leadership. Right? They've been saying that they're victims for a long time.

They're doing fine. There's been a lot of corruption, a lot of mismanaged funds. You know, a lot of the leadership is great. They're rich, their friends are rich, their families are rich. But the Palestinian people have been stuck in this cycle.

So the question for the international world is, are we going to continue to tolerate this. But what we've now put together for them is a real offer on the table. You talk about the borders -- right now under this plan that we've proposed, they can double the size of the land that they have available. They can have $50 billion of investment, which will lead to over a million Palestinian good-paying jobs. It could double the size of their GDP.

So again, what I've been fighting against is an illogical construct created by people who had no interest in solving a problem. And what we've tried to do is attack that by putting out a very detailed, logical solution...

...you're going to see more and more pressure put on Palestinian leadership to do it.

What we've -- look, right now, what's Palestinian leadership? You're talking about them like they're great diplomats. What are they calling for? They're calling for a day of rage. Who do you know that runs a state that when they don't get what they want they call for a day of rage? That's not how people who are capable of running a state work.


So again, the Palestinian leadership have to ask themselves a question, do they want to have a state, do they want to have a better life. If they do, we have created a framework for them to have it and we're going to treat them in a very respectful manner. If they don't, then they're going to screw up another opportunity like they've screwed up every opportunity that they've ever had in their existence. 

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Arabs-called-Palestinians and De-Nazification

As I was saying goodbye to a group of students who had come to Shiloh to hear the 'other side' of the story, an accompanying adult pressed me as to how I saw the future.

I informed him that one of the central elements of the Arab conflict with Israel and Zionism was the inability of the Arabs, it seemed to me, to acknowledge any Jewish national identity in this area. Moreover, with no such groups as a "Peace Now" or "Yesh Din" within the Arab society, without pro-Israel demonstrations in Ramallah and Hebron, the extreme inequality of the populations and their perceptions make the situation worse. In addition, as a result of 25 years of the Oslo Process with the establishment of a "Palestinian Authority", today's 25-year old Arab's thinking has been conditioned by the educational system Arafat and Abbas created.  That system, as has been documented, has inculcated the very worse of the 1920s and 1930s Mufti-thinking along with erasing Israel from maps, calling Jews dogs, inciting to violence and terrorism, glorifying such and excluding any educational programming that would facilitate coexistence, if not peace.

The very first thing I'd suggest is dealing with this younger generation to condition them for peace and acceptance of the Jew-as-Zionist.

I then began saying, "without making any direct comparison, if, after World War II, there was a need by the Allies to institute a de-Nazification program..." but was loudly interrupted.  My interlocutor raised his voice a bit: "you cannot make any comparison with the Nazis." 

I attempted to respond, saying, "I precisely prefaced my remarks by saying I am not comparing Arabs to Nazis but drawing attention to the program that was instituted..." but could not finish. I had wanted to continue and say, "and a similar program should be in place for a decade amongst the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority" but I could not. The man was getting agitated, was refusing to listen and someone thought better to move him, gently, on to the bus and end the exchange.

There surely exists a problem with that post-WW II program, as Frederick Taylor notes:

"Germans loathed the hypocrisy and the arrogance of the allied assumption of superiority"

and so, it cannot be force.  It must come from a realization by the PA leadership that the failure of the PA by developing a consciousness of pure negativism in their attitude to Jews, Israel and Zionism is wrong and needs be corrected.  As with Germany, the PA must accept

how a violent pariah state can cleanse itself

Besides the fact that I did not compare Arabs to Nazis, the subject does come up.  In the first place, I never heard of or read of a Nazi on a suicide mission to kill Jews. It would seem only Arabs are capable of that. So there is no comparison there.

Many books have been published that trace the leader of the Palestinian Arab national movement, Haj Amin El-Husseini, and his identification not only politically and diplomatically with the Nazi movement and its leader, as well as mobilizing Muslim troops for the German armed forces and intervening to prevent Jews escaping Europe but philosophically, too. (See: Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam; The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years; The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini; Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World; and an early study - The Mufti and the Fuehrer: the rise and fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini).

And then there was the Nazi-replicated crematoria plans for Palestine.

Let's recall that

Two months after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 al-Husseini had his first meeting with German General Consul Heinrich Wolff in Jerusalem. Al-Husseini’s Arab Revolt “took place against the background of the swastika: Arab leaflets and signs on walls were prominently marked with this Nazi symbol; youth organizations… paraded as ‘Nazi-scouts,’ and Arab children greeted each other with the Nazi salute.” On 2 October 1937 al-Husseini met with Adolf Eichmann in Palestine. 

On September 12, 1938, on the eve of the Munich Conference, at the Nuremburg Rally of that year, Hitler drew an analogy and compared the situation of the Sudenten Germans in Czechoslovakia to another:

Under no circumstances, however, am I willing to quietly stand by and observe from afar the continued oppression of German Volksgenossen in Czechoslovakia. 
It’s all tactics. Herr Beneš talks, wants to organize negotiations. He wishes to resolve the question of procedure in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and hands out little favors to placate the people. Things cannot go on this way! This is not a question of empty diplomatic phrases. This is a question of right, the question of a right not granted. What we Germans demand is the right to self-determination, a right every Volk possesses, and not an empty phrase. Herr Beneš is not supposed to grant the Sudeten Germans any favors. They have a right to their own way of life, just as any other people do...I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place.

We would truly regret if this were to cloud or damage our relations to the other European states. Yet the fault would not be ours. It is the business of the Czechoslovakian Government to come to terms with the true representatives of the Sudeten Germans and, in one way or another, to reach some form of understanding with them. Nevertheless, it is my business and, my Volksgenossen, it is the business of all of us to take care that justice not be perverted into injustice. After all, this matter involves our German Volksgenossen. I am not in the least willing to allow foreign statesmen to create a second Palestine right here in the heart of Germany. The poor Arabs are defenseless and have been abandoned by all. The Germans in Czechoslovakia are neither defenseless nor have they been abandoned. Please note this fact.

Indeed, the Arabs of Palestine were very much in Hitler's thinking. Does that make them Nazis? No. But it does indicate that Nazi diplomacy very much had the Arabs of Mandate Palestine in mind. Their's was a situation to be employed to further Nazi aims. They were to be defended by the Nazis.

With all this, something similar to a de-Nazification program is very much a necessity.  Protests withstanding.

^

Saeb, Shut Up?

Saeb Erekat, that Natufian, has had harsh words for the United States Representative to the United Nations. He even told her she needs to "shut up".

Nikki Haley is probably laughing over that.  But I laughed at this statement of his, that she:

called for overthrowing the democratically elected Palestinian president

and to "undermine the Palestinian national project".

Anybody really believe there is democracy in the Palestinian Authority?

And when was Abbas democratically elected?

January 9, 2005.

And have there been democratic elections since then?  No.

That's more than 13 years of non-democracy.

Saeb, shut up?

^ 

Completely Out? They Were Never In Ever

Published:

President’s spokesman: We won’t agree to any changes on the 1967 borders of Jerusalem

RAMALLAH, December 16, 2017 (WAFA - Official PLO news agency) – The Palestinians will not accept any changes to the 1967 border of East Jerusalem, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said on Saturday.

Abu Rudeineh was reacting to statements attributed to a White House official saying that the United States considers what Muslim refer to as Al-Buraq Wall, while Jews call the Wailing or Western Wall, as part of Israel.

“This American position proves once again that the current US administration is completely out of the peace process,” said Abu Rudeineh.

I am going to suggest that the Palestinian Authority, whether or not it has reconciled with Hamas-Gaza, is completely out of everything.

If it wasn't for the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] and its Fatah terror arm founded in 1964 (after the fedayeen failed and brought about the 1956 Sinai Campaign) trying to "liberate" Israel in the pre-1967 period, there would have been no war and Judea, Samaria and Gaza would not have been in Israel's hands as a result of that defensive war against Arab aggression.

They do not negotiate. They reject.

They do not properly rule their own populace.

They do not conform to the Oslo Accords.

They incite.

They fund terror.

Their educational system avoids all reference to peace and coexistence and compromise.

They maintain myths and historical untruths about their past, sites and events and promote anti-Jewish sentiment.

Out?

They were never in.  Ever.

^ 

Is Abbas Now in Favor of "Settlements"?

I can't figure this out.

Is a campaign against his presidency more important (read: dangerous) than Jews in so-called "settlements"?

What type of "Palestinian patriot" is he?

Item:

Palestinian security forces have arrested one of the most prominent human rights activists in the occupied territories after he criticised the arrest of a Palestinian journalist in a Facebook post.
Issa Amro, who lives in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, is the highest profile victim of a growing campaign by Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, against journalists and dissent on social media.
Amro is the founder of Youth Against the Settlements, which has long-documented alleged abuses by the Israeli military and settlers in Hebron. He was already facing charges in an Israeli military court for his activism.

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An American Stain

Do we all remember the song "America the Beautiful", words by Katharine Lee Bates?

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

There are a lot of verses but if you look, you'll find these words, too:

America! America! God mend thine every flaw......America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!......America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee! 

I searched for those words after reading this:

Joint Statement From the U.S.-Palestinian Political DialogueMedia NoteOffice of the SpokespersonWashington, DCDecember 12, 2016

Delegations headed by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Secretary General Saeb Erakat and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart E. Jones met today in Washington for the U.S.-Palestinian Political Dialogue. The Dialogue offered an opportunity for the Delegations to discuss a range of issues of concern at a senior level, including regional matters.

Both delegations strongly condemned terrorism and its supporters in the region and worldwide. The delegations agreed on the threat presented by ISIL, sharing the deep concern that ISIL has dramatically undermined regional stability, particularly in Iraq and Syria, and continues to commit gross, systemic abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law.

Both delegations also discussed the significance of the PLO’s long-standing commitment to non-violence and reiterated their commitment to a negotiated two-state outcome, which is the only way to achieve an enduring peace that meets Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, end the occupation that began in 1967, and resolve all permanent status issues. They also agreed on the crucial role of civil society, and the need to create economic and political opportunity for the next generation of Palestinians...

There is a stain in those words of summation.

The Palestinian Authority supports terrorism through its payments to terrorists and its incitement campaign and its glorification actions. 

The Palestinian Authority abuses human rights, of its own residents as well as Israelis and violates international law.

The Palestinian Authority violates its own civil society through embezzlement, oppression, lack of freedoms and not governmental transparency.

Woe this America.

Woe these American officials.

^

Say It Ain't So, PA

What will liberals do now?

New report documents abusive detentions 
by both PA and Hamas 

to stifle freedom of expression

As if we didn't know.

Some details:

The Palestinian security services in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were responsible for 2,578 arbitrary detentions and summons to appear in 2015, documents the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor for Human Rights in a new report—including 228 that resulted in torture.

"Many people are reluctant to talk about human rights violations by Palestinian security forces because it will ‘deepen the division’ between the two main factions, Hamas and Fatah," says Sandra Owen, a political adviser to the Euro-Med Monitor. "...Palestinians have too many external oppressors to be oppressors of their own people, no matter who does it.”

The Euro-Med report, "Strangulation Twice: the Oppressive Practices of Palestinian Security Services," documents 1,274 arbitrary detentions in the West Bank in 2015 and 1,089 summonses to appear in front of the police or “interior security.” Most of these actions by the Palestinian Authority targeted individuals affiliated with Hamas or who opposed PA policies. Among those arrested were about 35 journalists and human rights activists, 476 university students, and 67 teachers/professors.

...During detention, 179 individuals reported not being shown an arrest warrant, confiscation of belongings and even beatings with sticks and solitary confinement. Medical reports confirmed the systematic practice of torture in Palestinian Authority jails in the West Bank.

They'll find a way to blame it on the Jews/Zionists.


(h/t=RRR)


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The PA Proposes, the UN Disposes and to Israel No Roses

Those you are veteran readers of my blog know that this

Palestinian proposal to UNESCO: Western Wall is part of al-Aqsa  A new proposal to establish that the Western Wall is part of al-Aqsa Mosque is set to be submitted by the Palestinians to a vote at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) next week, Ynet learned Thursday.The proposal states among other things that the Western Wall is part of al-Aqsa Mosque...Yedioth Ahronoth received a copy of the proposal, which reveals the main points:1. To declare and confirm that the Western Wall is part of al-Aqsa Mosque, and is called Buraq Plaza (as the Palestinians call the Western Wall). The same applies to the Mughrabi Gate...

is old news.

How old?

Well, in the British White Paper of November 1928, the Mandate Authority basically created or recreated the status quo we're all talking about in a primitive version and while one pro-Arab MP tried to have it that

the Wailing Wall is legally the absolute property of the Moslem community, with the strip of pavement facing it; that the placing there of tables, chairs, screens, etc., is against the status quo;

the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies William Lunn, however, declared in parliament that

a memorandum relating to the Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem was presented to Parliament in November last as a White Paper (Cmd. 3229)...These regulations were promulgated, with the Secretary of State's approval, as a matter of urgency with a view to the preservation of good order and docorum. As the High Commissioner has announced locally, the regulations are of a temporary and provisional character. They do not purport to define the existing rights of either Moslems or Jews, nor do they prejudice the rights and claims either of Jews or of Moslems. 

However, things got a bit out of hand and following the murderous riots of August 1929 and the agitation of the Mufti, the Mandate appointed an International Commission of Inquiry and its report of December 1930 was inimical with its unjust restrictions on Jews by the Western Wall in addition to awarding to the Muslim Waqf the ownership of the Wall and the small courtyard which served as the worship site.

And let us not forget the December 1931 Islamic World Conference of the Mufti:

I pointed out a decade ago that Israeli officialdom either were ignorant of this element although Arafat was proclaiming it from the rooftops or preferred to ignore it as if it would go away.

Sheikh Tayseer Al-Tamimi, former Chief Justice of PA Religious Court:
"...the Jews have no right to it. No party, no matter how much power and international support it has, can change this established fact by giving the Jews any right to it, or the right to pray in any part of it. The Al-Aqsa Mosque includes all its courtyards, foundations, skies, gates, domes, walls, and specifically, its western wall (Al-Buraq Wall), [parentheses in source], which is, after all, a part of it...It is with great pride that we remember the attitude of President-Martyr Yasser Arafat, of blessed memory... who refused to give the Jews any right to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."
[Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida, Feb. 17, 2014]

As made clear here:

the denial of Solomon’s Temple is expressed through the use of the word al-maz’um (alleged) with al-haykal (the Temple). The use of the word al-maz’um is a direct attempt to negate the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount. The main argument made by those who deny the existence of the Jewish Temple is that no proof of the Temple’s existence has ever been found. Palestinian officials have adopted this position. 

This denial is an important element in local Arab crypto-nationalism:

Furthermore,

The Israeli government also contributed indirectly to the erosion of Israel’s rule over the Temple Mount. In October 1993, then-foreign minister Shimon Peres wrote to his Norwegian counterpart that Israel would not interfere with the activities of “all Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem… and holy Muslim places.” Although Peres’ letter did not specify what it meant exactly by Muslim holy places, Arafat nonetheless later claimed that Israel had implicitly recognized the PA’s jurisdiction over the Temple Mount.

I only hope that the UN Delegation is adequately prepared, with all this documentation and more, to counter the PA move.


______________

UPDATE

PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting
(Transcript Communicated by the PM Media Advisor)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Sunday, 18 October 2015), made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting:

Israel cannot accept the French draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council. It doesn’t mention Palestinian incitement; it doesn’t mention Palestinian terrorism; and it calls for the internationalization of the Temple Mount.

Well, we've seen across the Middle East – in Palmyra, in Iraq, throughout Iraq and elsewhere how the militant Muslims blast each other's mosques to the sky. We've just seen it in a Jewish holy site, Joseph's Tomb. Only Israel, Israel alone, is the guarantor of the holy sites on the Temple Mount.

The reason the status quo has been violated is not because we changed it. We didn’t change anything. The orders of prayer, the visiting rights have not changed for the last 15 years. The only thing that's changed are Islamist hoodlums paid by the Islamist Movement in Israel and by Hamas, who are entering the mosque and try to put explosive [unclear]and from there emerge and attack Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, and Christian visitors. That's the only change in the status quo.

Israel will protect the holy sites, will guard the status quo. Israel is not the problem on the Temple Mount. Israel is the solution.

^ 

A Hanging Authority

Did you know that ....

the total number of death sentences issued by the Palestinian Authority since 1994 has risen to 157, of which 130 have been issued in the Gaza Strip and 27 in the West Bank. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 72 have been issued since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The Palestinian Authority also executed 32 death sentences, of which 30 have been executed in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank. Among those executed in the Gaza Strip, 19 have been executed since 2007 without ratification by the Palestinian President in violation of the law.

Does that bother you?

Upset you?

Unsettle you? 

Are you going to do anything about it?

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Israel's Yielding on Jerusalem

On April 22, this year, MK Yariv Levine asked the Foreign Minister a Parliamentary Question regarding the PA-Jordanian Agreement on Jerusalem.

Noting that the agreement seemingly represents an attempt to negatively affect Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem and its holy shrines, his two queries are:

1.  What is Israel's official stand regarding the agreement?

2.  Why does Israel not declare publicly and firmly that it rejects this injurious attempt?

 The answer came a month later from then Deputy Foreign Minister Zev Elkin:

and reads:

Re: Israel's Ignoring of the Agreement between King Abdallah and the PA President as regards the Temple Mount

1.  The setting of Jordan's position complies with Israel's outlook and contributes to the distancing of undesired elements, including Qatar and other Arab Muslim countries.

2.  The Jordanian recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in East Jerusalem is not new but has been reestablished by this agreement.

3.  The agreement does comply with the terms of the special status awarded to Jordan concerning the holy sites to Islam according to the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty, 9 (2), and therefore restricts the Palestinian aspirations (symbolically and administratively) on the Temple Mount.

This is outrageous.

I complained about the ignoring.

I asked Yariv to pursue the matter. 

_______

P.S.  

If you comprehend Hebrew, listen here to the Internal Security Minister admitting he was told recently by the Prime Minister not to allow prayer by Jews on the Temple Mount.

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But Mr. Barnea, The PA Is Much Worse

Nahum Barnea published an op-ed in the New York Times' website entitled Israel Should Not Take Action on Syria.

He has an opinion and he stands behind it.

But in deliberating the issue, he wrote this:-

...events in Syria have made it clear that the man in Damascus is not abiding by the same rules any more. Israel cannot rely on him...
      

The Arab Spring has changed the face of several countries in the Middle East. And it has profoundly destabilized the Middle East. The hopes for more justice, equality and democracy have been crushed by internal and tribal rifts and realities of violence and economic despair.
      

In Syria as in Egypt, religion has played a negative role in domestic conflicts. We would be foolish to believe that these two counties — or, for that matter, other countries in the region — could adopt democracy in the Western-liberal sense.

Here is a man whose columns in Yedioth Ahronot persistently attack Binyamin Netanyahu and the entire nationalist approach to issues of security and the Land of Israel and is behind the Oslo Option all the way, although he does have critical observations that slip through.

If you substitute "Palestinian Authority" for either Syria or Egypt above, it is obvious that Barnea is ignoring the reality that the PA cannot ever be a "peace partner" for Israel.

It's societal dysfunctionality is worse than those two countries.

Equality?  Democracy?  Justice?

Of course not.

And most assuredly violence, internal rift, economic despair and more, including religious fanaticism.

If you do not accept that reality, you are misleading Israel's media consumers.  You are biased.

And that is not at all ethical.

^

A Demand for Elections - in the Palestinian Authority

Guy Bechor asks:   Who does Abbas represent?

and insists that

Israel must demand Palestinian general elections be held before peace negotiations resume

Why?

Who exactly does Abbas represent, apart from himself? He was elected in the Palestinian elections organized by Israel in January 2005, and years have passed since, for all intents and purposes, his term ended....the government of resigning Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was never legitimate either, because it was never approved by parliament, which, as I mentioned, was dissolved. So who does Abbas represent? Currently he only represents himself...He certainly doesn't represent Gaza – its Hamas rulers are his most bitter enemies. He certainly doesn’t represent Hamas in the West Bank, nor does he represent the Salafis or global jihadists. So does he represent Fatah? According to Fayyad, "this party, Fatah, is going to break down, there is so much disenchantment."...

...Still, who does Abbas represent? We must find out the answer to this question before we begin negotiating with him, not after...Future Palestinian leaders will claim, justifiably, that the 78-year-old Abbas conducted negotiations without any authority, so they are not bound by the agreements he had signed...

...Agreements are not reached in an imaginary reality, and the demand for Palestinian elections must precede any diplomatic process, if we want this process to be genuine and binding. 

^

What Are The "Basic Needs of the Palestinian Population"?

I received a copy of this press release, soon to be uploaded here, in the meantime, here:

Press Release
PR/14/2013
Jerusalem

06 May 2013

The EU contributes €20 million to the Palestinian Authority's April salaries and pensions

Today the European Union has contributed approximately €20 million to the payment of salaries and pensions for March of nearly 76,000 Palestinian civil servants and pensioners in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution, which is channelled through the PEGASE[1] mechanism, is funded by the European Commission (around €19.3 million) and the Government of Luxembourg (€0.7 million)

"The European Union continues to support the Palestinian Authority, month by month, to meet the basic needs of the Palestinian population. Our contribution to the payment of salaries and pensions is one of the most tangible ways to help ensure delivery of public services", said the EU Representative Mr. John Gatt-Rutter. "The EU's direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority is not merely a cash-injection. Taken together with our institution-building programmes our efforts are designed to achieve real reforms on the ground, added the EU Representative.

Background

Most of the European Union's assistance to the Palestinian Authority is channelled through PEGASE, the financial mechanism launched in 2008 to support the PA Reform and Development Plan (2008-2010) and the subsequent PA Palestinian National Plan (2011-2013). As well as helping to meet a substantial proportion of its running costs, European funds support major reform and development programmes in key ministries, to help prepare the PA for statehood in line with the state-building plan put forward by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in August 2009. Since February 2008, around €1.47 billion have been disbursed through the PEGASE Direct Financial Support programmes. In addition, the EU has provided assistance to the Palestinian people through UNRWA and a wide range of cooperation projects.


[1] Mécanisme Palestino-Européen de Gestion de l'Aide Socio-Economique (PEGASE)

The Office of the European Union Representative.

And last month, there was this:

Press Release - PR/12/2013

Jerusalem
23 APRIL 2013
 
The EU supports the 10th payment under the PA's "Private Sector Reconstruction in Gaza" programme

The European Union contributed today c.€1.6 million (c.US$2.0 million) to the tenth payment under the Palestinian Authority's "Private Sector Reconstruction in Gaza" (PSRG) programme. The programme, which was the first large-scale initiative in support of the private sector in Gaza after "Operation Cast Lead", has played an important part in its recovery. This contribution is being channelled through PEGASE [1], the European Union's mechanism for support to the Palestinians.

Do you think there is real reform in the PA?

Government?  Civic society?

No incitement?  No terror?  Peace Education?

What would do with all that money? 

And check this:

European bureaucrats keep pouring cash into the dark recesses of the PA, while Palestinian Arab concerns are ignored 

(k/t=MP)



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Save the Life of an Arab of Former Mandate Palestine Territory

No, not from "Israeli occupation" but from the Palestinian Authority:

From the "open letter" of  Hebron's Jewish community representatives, David Wilder and Noam Arnon:-

To all those whom this may concern:

Shalom.

According to various news agencies, Mr. Muhammad Abu Shahala, a former intelligence agent for the Palestinian Authority, has been sentenced to death, following a hurried trial. His crime: selling property to Jews in Hebron.

Mr. Abu Shahala reportedly confessed following torture sessions at the hands of his captors. The death sentence can be executed only following concurrence by Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, president of the PA. After he signs the death warrant, Abu Shahala may be killed.

It is appalling to think that property sales should be defined as a ‘capital crime’ punishable by death. The very fact that such a ‘law’ exists within the framework of the PA legal system points to a barbaric and perverse type of justice, reminiscent of practices implemented during the dark ages.
It is incumbent upon the entire international community, which views Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority as a viable Middle East peace partner, to publicly reject such acts of legal murder, when the ‘crime’ is nothing more than property sales. What would be the reaction to a law in the United States, England, France, or Switzerland, forbidding property sales to Jews?

...Is the Palestinian Authority a reincarnation of the Third Reich?

We appeal to all international leaders to demand the annulment of the death warrant and pending execution of Muhammad Abu Shahala, to be followed by his immediate release from imprisonment, for he has committed no crime.

^

Another Arab Apartheid Act

From Haaretz:-

The issue of land deals in the West Bank is a knotty one. The root of the problem lies with the real danger to the life of anyone who tries to sell land to Jews. This began as a practice in the 1970s, and was anchored in law upon the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. A death sentence, which has yet to be carried out, was passed most recently in 2009, on a Palestinian from Hebron who sold lands.

In order to circumvent this problem, front men are used. These buy the land from its owners, then immediately transfer it to settlers and disappear from view. In many deals it has emerged that the front man cheated the landowners, or the land purchasers, and absconded with the money.

Goodness gracious. They. You mean Arabs kill, or injure, or torure or whatever sellers of property? Is that just an inhumane practice or actually racist? Does that law serve an apartheid purpose? Helloo? Rabbis for Human Rights? Amnesty Int'l? Human Rights Watch? Anybody? ^

'West Bank' Woman Treated Subhumanely

Sorry, but Israel not responsible.

West Bank woman freed from bathroom prison

QALQIYLA, West Bank, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Palestinian police said they rescued a young woman who had been locked in a bathroom by her father over a family dispute for more than nine years.  The 20-year-old woman, who apparently had not seen sunlight since she was 11 years old, was turned over to a social worker at a police station and her dad was arrested. Qalqilya police on the West Bank said the father told them he had imprisoned his daughter in the bathroom after some unspecified family quarrel nearly a decade ago.

Her dad!?

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Squish - There's A Weak Link on the West Bank

No, not the one forged between King Abdullah II and Mahmoud Abbas.

And not the one between Hamas and Abbas. (*) And read this about that from...2005.

This one, again, is in New Orleans:

Weak link in West Bank levee described as "jelly donut"

A weak area discovered on the West Bank Levee during soil testing is being called a “jelly donut” by Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority Commissioner, Michael Merritt. “What I was attempting to do with my thumb as we hopped into those trenches and had a look between Orleans village and the pump station was just to see how soft the clays were,” he explained. Simply put Merritt equates the instability of the area that he calls a jelly donut to squishing a peanut butter cookie dough with a fork…something they professionally call unconfined compression testing.

“It’s how much you can squish something before it compresses and how hard you can push,” he said.

On second thought, "soft" is very appropriate to to diplomatic and political moves the Palestinian Authority is making.

Unfortunately, too much could collapse as a result.


(*)
Update:

Even the NYTimes is on the mark: New Winds in Mideast Favor Hamas

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