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Monday, October 21, 2024

Links - 21st October 2024 (1 - Palestine/Middle East Peace)

Iran Is on the Cusp of Producing Nuclear Weapons - "One of the many reasons I was a detractor of the 9/11 Commission was its counterintuitive “ramp up the bureaucracy” solution, so typical of Washington, to a problem — namely, lack of intelligence sharing — that was caused, in part, by there having already been too much bureaucracy. This solution, adopted by Congress in the similarly typical “let’s at least look like we’re doing something to fix this” mode, gave us the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Like another post-9/11 “fix,” the Department of Homeland Security, the ODNI is among the most redundant government bureaucracies. That is, its necessary functions were already being performed by other agencies before it was created, and its supposed value — drawing better performance out of an intelligence community that its creation made more bloated — is non-existent.  It’s worse than that, though. With nothing useful to add, the ODNI does politics camouflaged as intelligence.  A prime example: The ODNI was an important participant in the report that President Obama rushed out right before leaving office in 2017, which assessed that “Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton.” The theory read like a Clinton campaign press release, and we now know it was fed to the intelligence community by the Clinton campaign... The ODNI’s most consequential politicization of intelligence occurred in November 2007, when its NIE announced, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” Iran, of course, never halted its nuclear-weapons program. You’ll be shocked, I’m sure, to learn that a principal generator of the 2007 NIE was then-National Intelligence Council chairman (now Stanford prof) Thomas Fingar, who on the eve of the 2020 election was among the infamous gang of 51 former U.S. national-security officials who, in aid of the Biden campaign, signed the public statement suggesting that the patently authentic Hunter Biden laptop data bore “all the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation — a formulation crafted by James Clapper, who had run the ODNI in the Obama–Biden administration.  The 2007 NIE was a political agenda masquerading as an intelligence conclusion: The unelected bureaucrats opposed Bush administration Iran hawks, who urged taking military action if necessary to prevent the world’s leading sponsor of anti-American terrorism from acquiring the world’s most deadly weapons. From nearly 40 years of jihadist attacks and cries of “Death to America,” our politician-spies had deduced that Tehran was really teeming with moderates who would wrest control and warm to us if only we groveled just the right way.   To the contrary, no one with a shred of common sense was surprised by the post-NIE revelation that Tehran had constructed a uranium-enrichment facility deep within a mountain range at a base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps near Qom. Indeed, as our Rich Lowry noted at the time, in 2002 — i.e., just a year before, according to the ODNI, the regime had halted its nuclear-weapons program — “the Iranians were caught with an undeclared enrichment facility at Natanz.” And “a few years later they were caught trying to figure out how to get a warhead onto a Shahab missile.”   AEI scholar Michael Rubin detailed in these pages how Tehran’s cover story — that the oil-rich nation needed an extensive civilian nuclear-power program — did not pass the laugh test and was bluntly acknowledged to be a fraud in discussions among regime leaders. It would be better, Rubin contended, to listen to such insiders as Gholam Reza Hasani, a top aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who proclaimed in 2005, that “An atom bomb . . . must be produced as well. . . . because the Qur’an has told Muslims to ‘get strong and amass all the forces at your disposal to be strong.’”... it has for years been customary for the ODNI to insist that Iran was not “currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.” The July 2024 report, however, marks a shift. The ODNI concedes that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”... As Iran gets closer, the Biden–Harris administration hews to its default position that “Iran does not have an active military nuclear program”...   To be charitable, one might have abided such delusional thinking back when Iran was believed to be so far behind in enrichment capability that we could assume we’d have several months of notice before it was on the brink of producing an atomic weapon. (I cannot be that charitable. We now know the U.S. intelligence community was unaware of Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility when it generated the 2007 NIE, and Israeli intelligence’s 2018 acquisition of Iran’s nuclear records proved the regime’s years of lies and feverish production activity. Ergo, how can the ODNI’s proclaimed insights about Iran’s capabilities and intentions be taken seriously?)  Now, however, self-delusion is intolerable. Given how close Iran is to producing weapons-grade fuel (if it is not there already), there must be scrutiny of its weaponization activities. Without that, it is not possible to assess how close the regime is to “break-out.”  The Biden–Harris administration won’t provide any such scrutiny, at least for public consumption, because “some uncomfortable truths would come out”...   Obviously, President Biden was never serious about his commitment to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear-weapons power"

Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses
This seems to be what anti-Semites are referring to when they claim "Johns Hopkins genetic study shows 97.5% of Judaics living in Israel have absolutely no ancient Hebrew DNA, are therefore not Semites, and have no ancient blood ties to the land of Palestine at all.  Whereas 80% of Palestinians carry ancient Hebrew DNA and thus... are real Semites."

Thread by @khalidi79397 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "How many times did we get an offer to split the land with the Jews?
1. Peel Commission (1937): This was the first major proposal for partition by the British, recommending a division of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The plan proposed a small Jewish state in parts of the north and coastal areas, with the remainder of the land going to the Arabs. The Jewish leadership accepted it in principle but wanted modifications, while the Arabs outright rejected it.
2. United Nations Partition Plan (1947): Known as UN Resolution 181, this was the most significant partition plan prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The plan proposed the creation of independent Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international city. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab leadership rejected it, leading to the 1947–1948 Civil War and the subsequent Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
3. Armistice Agreements (1949): After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, armistice agreements were signed between Israel and its neighboring Arab states, but these did not constitute a formal partition plan. Instead, they established ceasefire lines, known as the Green Line, without official recognition of borders.
4. Rogers Plan (1969): Proposed by U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers, the Rogers Plan aimed at resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict after the 1967 Six-Day War. The plan called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the war (including the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem) in exchange for peace and recognition by Arab states.  Impact: The plan was rejected by both Israel and the Arab states, as Israel was unwilling to the pre-1967 borders, and the Arab states refused to recognize Israel or negotiate at that time.
5. Camp David Accords (1978): The Camp David Accords were brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Two frameworks were agreed upon: A. Framework for Peace in the Middle East B. Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty (1979) Impact: The accords improved relations between Israel and Egypt but did not resolve the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor did they lead to immediate Palestinian autonomy.
6. Madrid Conference (1991): After the Gulf War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union co-sponsored the Madrid Peace Conference, bringing Israel and Arab states (including Palestinian representatives) to the negotiating table for the first time.  Impact: The conference initiated direct, face-to-face negotiations but did not result in a final agreement. However, it paved the way for later agreements, including the Oslo Accords.
7. Oslo Accords (1993-1995): The Oslo Accords were the first direct agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The accords outlined a framework for Palestinian self-governance in parts of the West Bank and Gaza and a five-year timeline for further negotiations on issues like borders, refugees, and Jerusalem. Impact: The Oslo Accords led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, each with varying levels of Palestinian and Israeli control. However, final status issues were left unresolved, and subsequent violence, including the Second Intifada (2000-2005), disrupted the peace process.
8. Camp David Summit (2000): U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David to negotiate a final status agreement. Barak offered a two-state solution, proposing that Israel would withdraw from most of the West Bank and Gaza, while retaining some settlement blocs and offering a shared Jerusalem. Arafat rejected the offer.  Impact: The failure of the summit, combined with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, led to a collapse in the peace process.
9. Taba Summit (2001): Following the Camp David failure, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt, to try to salvage the peace process. The talks made significant progress, with Israel offering a near-complete withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and compromises on Jerusalem. However, the negotiations were interrupted by Israeli elections and the Second Intifada.  Impact: While progress was made, the talks ended without a final agreement, and violence escalated soon after.
10. Annapolis Conference (2007): The Annapolis Conference, held in November 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland, was a peace summit aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promoting the two-state solution. It was initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush and attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and representatives from several other nations. The conference sought to revive peace negotiations based on previous agreements, with the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. During the negotiations, Olmert made a far-reaching peace proposal to Abbas, offering a near-total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, a territorial link to Gaza, and international control of Jerusalem's Old City. Abbas, however, rejected the offer.
11. Trump Administration Peace Plan ("Deal of the Century") (2020): The Trump administration proposed a peace plan in January 2020, which envisioned a two-state solution, with Israel retaining large portions of the West Bank, including settlement blocs, while offering the Palestinians limited autonomy over a non-contiguous state. Jerusalem would remain Israel's capital, and the Palestinians would receive some compensation for land losses.  Impact: The plan was welcomed by Israel but rejected outright by the Palestinian leadership."

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦 on X - "Video showing Judith Butler’s amazing statement: ''Hamas and Hezbollah are social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left.'' Hezbollah leader Nasrallah explicitly called for the execution of LGBT people (which includes Judith Butler)"
Wesley Yang on X - "It's important to bear in mind the social and intellectual context -- American academia and the global Left -- that makes Butler's statement both not at all surprising and entirely true. This is in fact the global Left."

Brigitte Gabriel CRUSHES Lowkey: Terrorism vs Resistance! Pro-Palestinian Narratives Debunked - YouTube - "When the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded, the West Bank was in the hands of Jordan, it was Jordan. And Gaza was in the hands of Egypt, it was Egypt. So the PLO was founded in 1964 not because of any occupation. They wanted to drive the Jews into the sea and get rid of every single Jew in the Middle East...  in 2000 Ehud Barak offered them 97% of the territories back and they refused it again and again and again. In 2005 when Israel withdrew out of Gaza they said okay we're going to give you your own state, we're going to give you your own territory. Israel forcibly removed its own people. People fighting the IDF by force. Removed them out of Gaza. Not only removed the people, they dug out dead Jews' bones from the cemeteries because they knew exactly what the Palestinians are going to do to the cemeteries. So in 2005 when Israel withdrew out of Gaza there wasn't one Jew alive or dead in Gaza. They turned over the key to them and said okay, great. Now build your own place. You are independent... what did the Palestinians do within 24 hours after Israel withdrew?... They destroyed every single Jewish synagogue in the area... Israel did not put the Palestinians in a prison in Gaza. Hamas put the Palestinians in a prison in Gaza. Gaza could have been turned into, into Singapore. They had the money, they had more money pouring into the Palestinian territories and still from all over the world and what did they do with it? Build a tunnel infrastructure underneath bigger than the subway system in New York."
Weird. I thought "resistance" was not anti-Semitic. Yet they destroyed synagogues
Clearly, the problem was that the world didn't give enough money to the Palestinians

'Palestinians In Gaza Are Mostly Hamas,' Claims Lebanese-American Author Brigitte Gabriel - YouTube - "Palestinians in Gaza are mostly Hamas. They elect Hamas. Remember... Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians back in 2005. Their first election, they put a woman called Umm Nidal, that they nominated her to the prominent position in the, in the Ministry in their government. And the reason why they nominated her and she won by the way, because she sent three of her sons as suicide bombers, to die. And she ran on the, on the platform of I have another seven to send them over to Israel to blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. This is what the Palestinians elected and have been electing for all these years. The Palestinians and Gaza chose Hamas as their representatives. They support them, they stand with them, and they and for the Palestinians who may not agree with Hamas, they they hate the Jews so badly, they are collectively anti-Semite. And the plight of the Palestinian in Gaza, Palestinians in Gaza lays only at the feet of Hamas. It is Hamas who held them prisoners. It's because of hamas's atrocities and war that they are living in the squalor that they are living. Look! Gaza used to export, in 2004, 50 million flowers to Europe. Gaza flourished when the Israelis were there. They, I think they exported 40% of the world's tomatoes out of Gaza. They had greenhouses. When Israel withdrew out of Gaza and they gave Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, they left all the greenhouses, they wanted to help the Palestinians prosper. I know a businessman in New York who raised $14 million and sent it to the Palestinians so they can continue working and operating the greenhouses. And what did the Palestinians do? Destroy the greenhouses within 24 hours. Not just destroy them, but steal the copper in the pipes to make sure nothing works. They shoot themselves in the foot so the Palestinians in Gaza are the collateral damage of Hamas, not of Israel"

Suicide Bombers' Mother Elected to Palestinian Parliament - "Mariam Farahat, who was elected to the Palestinian parliament, can work a crowd like a veteran politician -- shaking hands and greeting supporters. When she gets on the stage at a Hamas rally, she is the star attraction. She was one of Hamas' most popular candidates in Wednesday's election.  In Gaza, Farahat is known as Um Nidal, or Mother of the Struggle -- a mother who sent three of her six sons on Hamas suicide missions against Israeli targets.  "We consider it holy duty," she told ABC News. "Our land is occupied. You take all the means to banish the occupier. I sacrificed my children for this holy, patriotic duty. I love my children, but as Muslims we pressure ourselves and sacrifice our emotions for the interest of the homeland. The greater interest takes precedence to the personal interest."  She is most famous for her presence in a Hamas video, showing her 17-year-old how to attack Israelis and telling him not to return. Shortly afterward, he killed five students in a Jewish settlement before he was killed himself.  Um Nidal's home has become a shrine to her dead sons, with admirers and other members of Hamas often dropping by... "I had no desire to join the parliament or the political arena," she said. "It was enough ... the pride of jihad, and I found that I have to complete my social and political duty." Destroying Israel is not something Hamas has promoted much during this election campaign. But at the grassroots level in Gaza, where Um Nidal campaigns, most Palestinian supporters believe it was the violent attacks against Israel that forced them to pull out from the Gaza Strip last fall.  "This is our strategy," she said. "We are working on two parallel lines -- the political and the jihadist." Um Nidal is now a politician, but she says violence is still an option. And she does have three sons who are still alive. If necessary, she says, they will follow in their brothers' footsteps."
From 2005.
If there's any "genocide" of the Palestinians going on, it's auto-genocide
Land for peace does not work when the other side sees it as a sign of weakness and reason to commit even more terrorism

Meme - SevenAkuma @sevenakuma: "How out of touch do you have to be to say something like this"
CTSH1 @CTSH1_pc: "If anything I imagine hamas has become more accepting of lgbt people (atleast subconsciously) thanks to the prevalence of queer people protesting isreal's genocide"

Meme - Brianna Wu @BriannaWu: "Here’s the (dead) leader of Hezbollah calling for the murder of LGBT people.   My friends, stop being useful idiots and cheerleading the people that want to slaughter us. Their mission doesn’t stop with Israel."
"they shall be killed"

Meme - Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres: "Dr. Rupa Marya is claiming that medical students have a right to be concerned about appearing in the same classroom as an Israeli.  There was a time not so long ago when white students were “concerned” about appearing in the same classroom as a Black person.  Those “concerned” white people were known as racists.  The “concerned” Anti-Zionists are antisemites.     Any doctor advocating discrimination based on identity, as Rupa Marya has done, is prescribing not medicine but poison."
Rupa Marya, MD: "Med students at UCSF are concerned that a first year student from Israel is in their class. They're asking if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating into medical school in CA. How do we address this in our professional ranks?"
Discriminating against people based on country of origin is good when it pushes the left wing agenda

Meme - Jihadists: "Death to the West!!!" *attacking with knife, rifle and RPG*
Israeli soldier with shield: *holding back tide*
Redhead holding phone and sipping coffee at table with "Free Palestine" T-shirt: "THOSE ZIONISTS..."

Meme - "Everything I Don't Like is GENOCIDE. A guide to discourse for online cosplaying Ieftists"

Meme - Jewish Mom: *protecting child with body*
Arab Mom: *putting suicide belt on child*

Isaac de Castro on X - "Deranged Jewish academics are like: “Go read my new book ‘Longing for Dhimmitude: How being a second class citizen was good for Jews because I, personally, am uncomfortable with power and I would rather condemn my entire community to perpetual endangerment and pogroms rather than give up my dinner parties with extremist faculty at Yale’. Yes, I do omit and lie about history because sometimes it is inconvenient but if you call me out you are silencing me as one of the twelve Jews with insane opinions your antisemitic professor is willing to cite to shut up the Jewish student in your class who feels uncomfortable with rationalizing murdering Israelis. Find my book at your local Marxist book store and at JewHatingPublishing dot com. PS, Mizrahi Jews are Muslim.”
“Also, sign up for my new Fall seminar JWST3044: The Jews are Genociders and Colonizers, Why Survival Is Bad. This is totally learning and not indoctrination.”"
joe on X - "Whats crazy is that there are jews that have lived longer in arab lands than in American land and the jews who have never stepped foot in the arab lands are lecturing the others about how life is good there ."

Brianna Wu on X - "People always say the history of Israel in the Middle East is complicated. It’s not, morally.  This is the Jews’ land historically. After the Holocaust, they wanted to move back there so they bought a bunch of land legally.   And then in 1948 five Arab countries tried to slaughter them and lost. The world recognized Israel as a country.  It really is that morally simple. There was a war and Arabs lost. And there’s been a political project to destroy Israel ever since with six different wars started by those same countries.  Britain lost a war with America in 1781 and you don’t see Kier Starmer launching sneak attacks on New York trying to take it back.   Instead of trying to destroy Israel, why not build a paradise with the land you have now, a luxury Jews did not have for millennia? Give up this dark dream with such an insane body count."

Brianna Wu on X - "I’m going to tell you a difficult truth.   Are you willing to kill your grandchildren for your grandparent’s home? How many more generations of Palestinian children have to die for your pride?  You started a war to slaughter your neighbors 76 years ago. You lost. You’re not the first people to lose a war. What is different is the Arab antisemitic political project to inflame your resentment and continue this suicide mission to destroy Israel, which will never happen.   It has had a staggering body count.   There is no future where you win. Israel has nuclear weapons and they have no illusions about defending themselves. Your only winning move is not to play. Stop starting wars.   It is time to build a beautiful new home. Make it paradise. Make it a worldwide beacon of your culture, which needs to be about more than destroying Israel. The entire international community, myself included, will proudly help you build it."

AP on X - "For thousands of years, Jewish blood was cheap. It wasn’t worth a thing. Jews were the easy target, the blame, the punchbag, the victim. Whoever felt like it-from the drunk in some European village to church officials, kings, and rulers-spilled Jewish blood without batting an eye. Pogroms, burnings, lynchings—take your pick. For centuries, it was open season on the Jews.  And why? Because no one cared. There was no one to answer to. Jews didn’t have a state, didn’t have an army, didn’t have a voice. We were at the mercy of whoever had the power that day. It didn't matter if it was a mob on the street or a king signing an expulsion order, Jews were nothing more than a target.  But everything changed, and it changed for two reasons: the Holocaust and Israel.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific and unimaginable atrocities in human history, and it made the world feel so raw that even those who had spent centuries upon centuries crushing Jews had to step back. It was dark, vile, even for those that had laughed at pogroms or expulsions. The Holocaust somehow acted like a mirror, making the world confront its own brutality.  But even something as massive as the Holocaust, as horrific as the industrial slaughter of six million Jews, has an expiration date in people’s minds. Over time, people forget. The world gets distracted, the survivors die off, and suddenly the lessons get fuzzy. The old antisemitism starts creeping back in through the cracks.
That’s where Israel comes in.  The one that shall never let that happen again is Israel. Daring, audacious beyond belief, unapologetic-this is Israel, Its the only country in the world that has no dilemma what so ever about doing what it needs to do, whatever that might be, to protect the Jewish people. No questions asked, no permission sought, no limits.  Israel will bomb, raid, bulldoze, and defend its people to the last man because no one else will. And that audacity—that unrelenting fire—is precisely the reason Israel is hated. The same people missing those days when the Jews were weak and defenseless and easy to oppress are the ones raging against Israel from behind this newly found "humanitarian" mask.  They hide their hate as issues of "human rights," of "justice," but we know what this is: the same hate that has been burning for centuries, just repackaged. Because deep down, they can't stand the fact that Jews fight back now. They can't stand that we refuse to go quietly into the night like we did for so long.  The Holocaust woke the world up, but Israel is the reason it stays awake. And that’s why the hatred is relentless. Because Israel won’t apologize for doing what every other nation would do for its people. And to those who wish for the days when Jewish blood was cheap, Israel is their nightmare—a nightmare that won’t go away."

Meme - "Captain Palestine *Masked man with long knife/sword and baby strapped to shield with Palestinian flag*"

Meme - "I'd like to boycott Palestinian products *No Palestine* But their only invention is their history"

Uri Kurlianchik on X - "I used to think Iran was pathologically obsessed with Israel, a distant county that has never done it any harm. Then I joined Twitter and met the Irish."

Zach Sage Fox's 'Wild West Bank: Deleted Scenes Exposed' in Ramallah - YouTube - "ESSENTIAL VIEWING: Two months ago, Jewish-American writer and self-proclaimed "accidental journalist", Zach Sage Fox published the 'Wild West Bank', a video where he interviews Palestinians on the streets of Ramallah asking their views on October 7. The video exposed a strongly held solidarity with Hamas, and went viral. But Zach and his Muslim film crew almost didn't make it out alive. While filming, they were surrounded by a group of Palestinian men who allegedly threatened to kill them if they didn't delete their footage.  Zach has now been able to recover more of the deleted footage, releasing it in a second instalment, 'Wild West Bank: Deleted Scenes Exposed'..."
Damn Zionists!

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