Defending PM, Amir Ohana had claimed police extorted state’s witness Nir Hefetz with extramarital affair; Hefetz slams minister, vows ‘shameful’ accusation ‘will not go unanswered’

By RAOUL WOOTLIFF, TOI and TOI STAFF6 November 2019, 8:48 pm

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit (L) and Justice Minister Amir Ohana attend the annual Justice conference in Airport City, outside Tel Aviv on September 3, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit issued an unprecedented rebuke of a serving justice minister on Wednesday, saying Amir Ohana’s claim that investigators in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption probes extorted a key witness was an attempt to “mislead the public” for the Likud leader’s political benefit.

Mandelblit, in a joint statement with State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, vowed not to get dragged into litigating Netanyahu’s corruption investigation in public, as the premier’s political allies were trying to force him to do.
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T. belman.  This is a good thing.

“If it is that important to Netanyahu, he should pay them,” Trump reportedly told his advisers at the prospect.

ARUTZ SHEVA

Several months ago, President Trump rejected a request by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow US aid to be transferred to Palestinian Authority security forces, Channel 13’s Barak Ravid reported in Axios.

According to the report, while the White House has gradually cut all funding to the PA over the last two years – with the encouragement of Israel – around 6 months ago the State Department realized that $12 million in aid to PA security forces had not been cut, but hadn’t been transferred, either.

Israeli officials requested from their US counterparts that the money be transferred to PA security forces, “which work hand in hand” with Israel in Judea and Samaria, according to the report. They were told that, as Trump’s policy was to cut funding to the PA, such a decision would have to be cleared by Trump himself. Read more…

Leadar quits admid misconduct probe

Israel’s Foreign Minister: Renewal of organization’s mandate unreasonable and immoral

BY Tovah Lazaroff, JPOST

Pierre Krahenbuhl Commissioner-General of the UNRWA attends a news conference in Geneva. (photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS)

Israel called for UNRWA’s closure Wednesday, as its commissioner-general, Pierre Krähenbühl, resigned amid a UN probe into ethical misconduct allegations against him and other top officials in the organization tasked with providing humanitarian assistance to 5.5 million Palestinian refugees.

This “is a victory in the campaign against the politicization and incitement against Israel that is at the root of the agency [UNRWA],” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said. “Compounding this, numerous accusations regarding the agency’s conduct signals to the international community that there is no other solution for UNRWA besides its total closure, and it is time to consider alternative models for the refugee issue.”
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By Shoshana Bryen, JEWISH POLICY CENTER • The Daily Wire

One of the few points of unbounded bipartisan agreement in Washington has for decades been that U.S.-Israel security cooperation is right, good, mutually beneficial, and worth every nickel spent on it. It is well–grounded in facts and has acknowledged benefits to both sides.

However, at the J Street Conference last week, left-of-center political candidates and hostile-to-Israel speakers questioned the utility of American aid to Israel except, perhaps, as “leverage” to force Israel to meet their left-of-center and hostile-to-Israel demands. Candidates were willing to “explore” the issue. But it was left to J Street president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, to get to the heart of the conversation – Ben Ami isn’t interested in “leverage,” but in de-legitimizing the aid. “American aid is not intended to be a blank check. As Israel receives that $3.8 billion in aid, what is it being used for?”
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This is the second time the consulate has been attacked in a week.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Demonstrators take part in a protest over corruption, lack of jobs, and poor services, in Iraq. (photo credit: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS)

Iraqis scaled the wall around the Iranian consulate in Karbala and raised an Iraqi flag over it. They said only the Iraqi flag should fly high in the sky and that Iranians should be ejected. Other protesters tried to burn the wall around the compound.

This is the second time the consulate has been attacked in a week; it was previously targeted on October 26.
Protests in Iraq have reached their crescendo after a month in which 250 demonstrators have been killed. The Iraqi Prime Minister has been pressured to resign. Protesters have targeted the political party offices of Iranian-linked parties and militias. The militias, known as Hashd al-Shaabi, have been alleged to use snipers to shoot demonstrators. In addition, reports indicate that Iran has used a heavy hand to try to suppress Iraqi protesters by working through political allies such as the Badr Organization and Fatah Alliance head Hadi al-Amiri.
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T. Belman. Wasn’t there supposed to be a ceasefire after initial invasion. What’s Turkey doing in Iraq?

Three were injured in the airstrike on Tuesday, the third airstrike in two days.

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN, JPOST

Turkey’s attacks on Syria and Iraq escalated on Tuesday as its warplanes bombed Sinjar two days in a row, striking at villages inhabited by the Yazidi minority. Yazidis survived the ISIS genocide by they have been targeted in both Afrin in Syria, which Turkey invaded in January 2018, and in eastern Syria where Turkey is carrying out an invasion against Kurdish fighters. Turkey claims it is fighting “terrorists,” but locals say airstrikes and attacks by Turkish-backed militants have caused civilians to flee. Read more…

Announces New Effort to Hold Turkey Accountable for Human Rights Abuses in Syria

US SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

WASHINGTON – Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a speech on the Senate Floor making the case for a recalibration of the U.S.-Turkey relationship based on its aggressive behavior in the region and the dramatic backsliding of democracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

“Our strongest allies should be those in NATO, those who have made a treaty commitment to mutual defense.  Those who share our values.  Those who work in concert with us to face the threat from countries like Russia and Iran with common cause,” said the Senator. “Unfortunately, Turkey under Erdogan embodies none of those things… Turkey under Erdogan should not and cannot be seen as an ally.”

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And if the Islamic Republic does attack, there will have to be a massive retaliation against its interests by the Jewish state, ideally with reassurances of backup from the United States.

by  Israel Kasnett, JNS, 

IIran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps test-fires missiles during military maneuvers in the central desert outside the holy city of Qom | Archives: AFP/Fars News

Israel is bracing itself for war with Iranian proxies, as Tehran escalates its provocations. But what will the United States do if conflict comes?

Michael Oren, ATLANTIC

The senior ministers of the Israeli government met twice last week to discuss the possibility of open war with Iran. They were mindful of the Iranian plan for a drone attack from Syria in August, aborted at the last minute by an Israeli air strike, as well as Iran’s need to deflect attention from the mass protests against Hezbollah’s rule in Lebanon. The ministers also reviewed the recent attack by Iranian drones and cruise missiles on two Saudi oil installations, reportedly concluding that a similar assault could be mounted against Israel from Iraq.

The Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, announced the adoption of an emergency plan, code-named Momentum, to significantly expand Israel’s missile defense capacity, its ability to gather intelligence on embedded enemy targets, and its soldiers’ preparation for urban warfare. Israeli troops, especially in the north, have been placed on war footing. Israel is girding for the worst and acting on the assumption that fighting could break out at any time.

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By Frank Musmar

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,336, November 5, 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was created in 1949 via UN Resolution 302 (IV) with a short-term mandate. It flouted its original mission and perpetuated rather than alleviated the Palestinians’ status as refugees. It has long since become corrupt and functions essentially as a front group. The UN should close it down, and Palestinian refugees should be integrated into the economic systems of the countries that sheltered them. 

In December 1949, in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established by the UN through Resolution 302 (IV) to “carry out in collaboration with local governments the direct relief and works programmes” for the rehabilitation of the Palestinian Arab refugees, and to “consult with the interested Near Eastern Governments concerning measures to be taken by them preparatory to the time when international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer.” In fact, not only has the agency failed to accomplish this goal, but it has functioned instead as a de facto anti-Israel front group and a fig leaf for Palestinian intransigence.

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T. Belman. Eric Hoffer called it in his classic, The True Believer. Such a person sees himself as nothing and the cause, everything. This article inspired me to ask a number of very talented writers to write an article about Antifa: what it is and where it came from and why the Democrats support it. Obviously such an article would draw parrallels between it and the brownshirts and blackshirts of history. These groups go to any lengths to shut down ideas and groups that they hate and consider themselves virtuous for doing so. That is, the ends justify the means. If anyone else is up to the challenge, kindly advise.

By Sean Adl-Tabatabai, NEWSPUNCH

The founder of domestic terrorist organization Antifa has admitted that George Soros helped turn them into terrorists “more dangerous than ISIS.”

Shayne Hunter, the founder of Antifa Australia, says he quit the radical far-left group after 4 years after he realised that “Soros was using us to start a civil war in every country in the world”.

In an interview with News.com.au, Shayne describes his experience:

I got radicalised in Sydney. I was originally concerned about Western intervention in Syria. Radical left wing people dominated rallies and I started to associate with them more. My so-called ‘normal’ friends drifted away.
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Republican Jewish Coalition launches campaign ads accusing Democrats of turning on Israel, calling it a ‘shanda’.

By Ron Kampeas, JTA, 

The Republican Jewish Coalition launched a $10 million campaign — an unprecedented amount in partisan Jewish advertising — with online ads depicting 2020 Democratic presidential candidates as a “disgrace.”

Videos titled “Shanda,” Yiddish for “disgrace,” blast the Democrats for saying they would consider reducing aid to Israel.

“The radical Left has taken the reins of the Democratic Party, and their policy proposals will devastate our national security, our alliance with Israel, our economy, and our health care system,” Matt Brooks, the RJC’s executive director, said in a statement announcing the release of the 15- to 30-second ads.
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