Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas admitted to Congress on Wednesday that an employee who was exposed by The Daily Wire as a Hamas supporter remains on the Department of Homeland Security payroll, even as she gloats about her employment online.
Nejwa Ali was placed on leave following The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-u-s-govt-hired-a-pro-hamas-plo-spokeswoman-to-handle-asylum-claims">report on October 18</a> about her posts celebrating the Hamas attacks on Israel that killed more than 1,000. At the close of a Wednesday <a href="https://appropriations.house.gov/legislation/hearings/budget-hearing-fiscal-year-2025-request-department-homeland-security">congressional hearing</a> about DHS finances, Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), who chairs the subcommittee responsible for the agency&#8217;s funding, asked Mayorkas whether Ali was still on the payroll.
&#8220;Since we&#8217;re talking about finances here&#8230; after the horrific terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, one of your employees was exposed celebrating the attack online. It was later revealed that she previously worked for the [Palestinian] Liberation Organization, or what&#8217;s commonly known as the PLO, which is a very troublesome reputation, you&#8217;d agree. According to a public comment she made on LinkedIn as of two months ago, she was still getting paid by the department&#8230; What is the status of the investigation into her behavior?&#8221;
Mayorkas said that the &#8220;individual is on administrative leave, not performing the duties and responsibilities for which she was hired,&#8221; but that &#8220;the investigation is ongoing&#8221; and that he &#8220;cannot speak any further about it because it is an ongoing personnel matter.&#8221;
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BREAKING: DHS Secretary Mayorkas confirms to <a href="https://twitter.com/RepDaveJoyce?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepDaveJoyce</a> that a Hamas-supporting employee remains on the payroll, even as she gloats online about her paid vacation. Nejwa Ali, a former PLO spokesman hired to vet refugees, is unrepentant but an &quot;investigation&quot; has taken 6 months <a href="https://t.co/fbykxHh1aP">pic.twitter.com/fbykxHh1aP</a>
&mdash; Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) <a href="https://twitter.com/lukerosiak/status/1778170004178939967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Ali was a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-u-s-govt-hired-a-pro-hamas-plo-spokeswoman-to-handle-asylum-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spokeswoman for the PLO</a> who was hired by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after the PLO was banned from Washington. Her job was to vet people who claimed to qualify for asylum, reviewing evidence to &#8220;determine fraud of security concerns&#8221; and to &#8220;perform credible fear interviews&#8221; that determine whether the person is actually fleeing persecution, or is just lying to get into the country.
She posted incessantly on various social media platforms almost exclusively about Israel, with her bio saying she is &#8220;Palestinian @ heart.&#8221; That included sharing an image glorifying the Hamas hang-gliders parachuting into a music concert with guns.
“F*** Israel and any Jew that supports Israel,” said one of her comments.
Agency spokesman Matthew Bourke told The Daily Wire at the time that it “strongly condemns anti-Semitism and the use of violent rhetoric in any form.” Yet she remains on the payroll, even though she openly admits her support for terrorism.
Ali has used her paid leave to protest in front of the Israel embassy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/immigration-agent-who-celebrates-hamas-is-using-paid-leave-from-dhs-to-threaten-military-officials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during work hours</a>, and to dox military members there, The Daily Wire reported in December.
Since then, she has gloated on LinkedIn about Mayorkas&#8217; refusal to fire her. When someone posted, &#8220;USCIS [please] review your employee&#8217;s posts,&#8221; she replied, &#8220;yes, please do!&#8221;
When someone wrote, &#8220;When you do everything you can to get fired but the boss says NO&#8221; she replied with a stream of laughing emotions and wrote, &#8220;hilarious, seriously.&#8221;
When someone posted that Ali &#8220;hasn&#8217;t yet been fired by&#8221; Mayorkas, Ali commented that she was &#8220;still laughing too. #freePalestine from APARTHEID Israel.&#8221;
When a military member commented on another one of her anti-Israel rants that &#8220;this is why you&#8217;ve been fired from your homeland security job,&#8221; she said: &#8220;I&#8217;m still being paid, but thanks&#8230; You&#8217;re a privileged white woman.&#8221;
Another LinkedIn user said, &#8220;Nejwa, as much as I believe in free speech and every American being entitled to develop and express their own opinion, tha [sic] ends when you&#8217;re a representative of the US and mpre [sic] implicitly, when dealing with immigration with the very people you are calling for total annihilation against.&#8221;
Ali replied: &#8220;Listen white women, shut the F*** UP.&#8221;
Joyce, the congressman, asked Mayorkas if others had also been investigated for Hamas loyalty, and Mayorkas said he was not aware of any. Mayorkas indicated that its vetting process had not been updated, but insisted that &#8220;individuals who are hired go through a clearing process.&#8221;
Reached by The Daily Wire following her initial posts, Ali confirmed her support for terrorists: &#8220;I abso-f&#8212;ing-lutely celebrate them, a&#8211;hole, f&#8212; you!&#8221; Ali said, in a call that was recorded by The Daily Wire.
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UPDATE: DHS/USCIS says the former PLO spox has been placed on administrative leave from her job vetting immigrants.
PLUS NEW AUDIO: She reaffirmed her allegiance to Hamas THIS AFTERNOON, saying of hang-gliders: &quot;I abso-fucking-lutely celebrate them, asshole, fuck you!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/BJry1EisZe">https://t.co/BJry1EisZe</a> <a href="https://t.co/FPrQbjAPak">pic.twitter.com/FPrQbjAPak</a>
&mdash; Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) <a href="https://twitter.com/lukerosiak/status/1714769461834633687?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Nejwa Ali LinkedIn / Facebook

Mayorkas Confirms He’s Still Paying Hamas-Supporting DHS Agent, Who’s Been Gloating About Her ‘Paid’ Vacation

Department of Homeland Security

Hamas

Israel

The U.S. immigration enforcement agency hired a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and put her in a position to determine who gets to come into the country as an immigrant or “asylum seeker.” Now the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer is repeatedly posting pictures of Hamas terrorists parachuting in with guns and writing, “F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel,&#8221; a Daily Wire investigation found.
Nejwa Ali worked in 2016 and 2017 as a public affairs officer for the Palestinian Delegation to the U.S., which according to its own website, served as the &#8220;<a href="http://plodelegation.us/2017/09/ambassador-dr-husam-zomlot-responds-to-israels-demand-to-shut-down-the-delegation-of-the-plo-to-the-u-s-office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PLO office in D.C</a>.&#8221; That office was expelled from the country by the Trump administration, but Ali landed on her feet, according to a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/linkedin2.png">screenshot of her LinkedIn profile</a>, securing a job at DHS as an &#8220;Asylum Officer,&#8221; where she was tasked with &#8220;applying immigration laws and regulations to asylum applications.&#8221;
This January, she moved over to being an Adjudication Officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). People with that job, <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/careers/career-opportunities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the agency</a>, &#8220;analyze new or amended legislation and policy, prepare written reports of findings, and review and make determinations on cases for immigration benefits.&#8221;
Though Ali’s job at DHS included vetting people to make sure they were not a threat to the country before letting them in, it’s not clear that anyone from the agency vetted her. That her primary allegiance was to the Palestinians, not the United States, was evident from her social media profiles, where she posts as “Falastine Mi Amor.”
She has posted extremist rhetoric continuously to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for years — rhetoric that intensified this month as Palestinian terrorists murdered over 1,000 Jews on October 7 and Ali cheered. &#8220;F*** Israel, the government, and its military. Are you ready for your downfall?&#8221; she wrote on Instagram after the attacks.
According to her social media profiles — which say she is &#8220;American born, Palestinian @ heart&#8221; — Ali is from Dearborn, Michigan, a hotbed of unassimilated immigrants where thousands <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/thousands-rally-in-dearborn-to-support-palestine/">reportedly</a> took to the streets in support of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
Ali has made several posts glorifying the terrorist attacks on Israel, including one depicting armed terrorists paragliding into the Jewish state with the caption, &#8220;Free PALESTINE.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638217" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/unnamed-3-1019x576.png" alt="Nejwa Ali Instagram" width="1019" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/unnamed-3-1019x576.png 1019w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/unnamed-3-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/unnamed-3-768x434.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/unnamed-3.png 1354w" sizes="(max-width: 1019px) 100vw, 1019px" /></div>
Several of Ali&#8217;s posts glorifying the terrorist attacks include the statement, &#8220;Respect our existence, or expect resistance. Simple. No Apologies,&#8221; a suggestion that as long as Israel exists on what she considers occupied land, attacks on civilians are acceptable.
Jews seeking to come to America might have a hard time if Ali were their immigration officer. &#8220;Israeli, American privilege is disgusting. When Israelis acknowledge the government and military are solely responsible for the attack. Period,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;I hold every Israeli accountable for their governments [sic] actions, IF they do not speak against Israel.&#8221;
On October 9, she posted to Facebook: &#8220;How Nejwa wakes up,&#8221; accompanied by a video captioned &#8220;F*** Israel and any Jew that supports Israel&#8221; and a photo that says &#8220;A nation that has nothing but Allah has everything it will ever need.&#8221; She also added an anti-Semitic cartoon of a Jewish nose.
She has also claimed that the media is pushing Israeli propaganda, mimicking a common <a href="https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/control">anti-Semitic</a> refrain that Jewish people control the press.
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638241" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss8-1024x198.png" alt="Nejwa Ali Facebook" width="1024" height="198" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss8-1024x198.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss8-300x58.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss8-768x148.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss8.png 1151w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638245" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7-1024x269.png" alt="Nejwa Ali Instagram" width="1024" height="269" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7-1024x269.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7-300x79.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7-768x202.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7-1536x403.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss7.png 1584w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
“Palestine will be free one day. F*** APARTHEID Israel and any Israeli that supports that bulls***. F*** you, may Allah forgive you. and spare us the crocodile tears, I sure as hell give zero f***s,&#8221; she wrote on Instagram.
USCIS spokesman Matthew Bourke told The Daily Wire that &#8220;USCIS strongly condemns antisemitism and the use of violent rhetoric in any form.&#8221;
&#8220;USCIS employees are held to high ethical standards both on and off duty, including their presence on social media,&#8221; Bourke said. &#8220;Any violation of these standards is taken seriously by the agency.&#8221;
But a day after The Daily Wire asked the agency about Ali, she told The Daily Wire in a phone call that she still works for DHS, and was decidedly unchastened.
Asked if she disclosed her employment with the PLO to DHS, she said &#8220;That&#8217;s none of your f***ing business. Mind your business before I call the police. If I were you I&#8217;d respectfully hang up the phone right now.&#8221;
Asked if her views on Israel impacted her ability to work as an American government official, she said, &#8220;That does not affect the ability to do my job at all. You can mind your own business.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638203" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-903x576.png" alt="Nejwa Ali Facebook" width="903" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-903x576.png 903w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-300x191.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-768x490.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5.png 1162w" sizes="(max-width: 903px) 100vw, 903px" /></div>
USCIS declined to say why it would hire someone who previously worked for a foreign quasi-government that was expelled from the United States and put them in position to determine who was allowed to come into the country.
It said, &#8220;applicants seeking employment with USCIS are thoroughly vetted and subject to extensive security and background checks before they can receive a permanent position with the agency.&#8221;
But it declined to shed light on the two apparent possibilities: that USCIS either knowingly hired a PLO employee who had demonstrated extremist views, or it was completely in the dark about its own employees&#8217; recent employment and public records.
USCIS would not say whether it called PLO officials for a job reference — calling past employers is a standard part of the government vetting process. Ali has recently scrubbed her LinkedIn profile of her work with the PLO, as well as an internship with UNRWA, the United Nations agency tasked with helping Palestinians.
Ali&#8217;s extreme foreign policy views were evident long before she was hired by the government in 2019, during the Trump administration. Her clear animating force in life appears to be pushing the Islamic socialist message of the PLO.
During the Obama administration, on social media she lobbied for it to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190808164804/https://twitter.com/falastinemiamor/status/653739558731915265" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;BOYCOTT ISRAEL&#8221;</a> and &#8220;End AID 2 ISRAEL,&#8221; and during the 2016 election, she complained that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190808164703/https://twitter.com/falastinemiamor/status/703071478225489920" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Republicans OBSESS over Israel&#8221;</a> and called for &#8220;decolonization.&#8221;
&#8220;F*** APARTHEID Israel and any Israeli that supports that bulls***. F*** you, may allah forgive you,&#8221; she wrote, alongside pictures of violent leftist Americans Assata Shakur and Malcolm X. In 2017, she posted a picture of herself grinning in front of a statute of Che Guevara, the murderous Communist militant.
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638267" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-317x576.jpg" alt="Nejwa Ali Facebook" width="317" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-317x576.jpg 317w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-165x300.jpg 165w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n.jpg 528w" sizes="(max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px" /></div>
The United States is <a href="https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/squad-member-rep-jamaal-bowman-says-us-should-welcome-palestinian-refugees-israel-gaza-palestine-hamas-terrorism-terrorist-invasion-middle-east-conflict">facing pressure from the political Left</a> to welcome Palestinian refugees into the country amid Israel&#8217;s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It is officers like Ali who would be tasked with advising the government whether or not it would be safe to grant entry to an applicant.
Ali&#8217;s position on Israel goes squarely against the policy of the United States. President Joe Biden has said that his administration stands firmly with Israel, and has pledged to support it in its war against terrorists.

The U.S. Gov’t Hired A Pro-Hamas PLO Spokeswoman To Handle Asylum Claims

Immigration

Palestine

The suspected murderers of Elan Ganeles, the American citizen who was recently buried in Ra’anana after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-killed-in-west-bank-terror-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an attack by Arab terrorists</a> in the northern Dead Sea area, have just been arrested. The murderers of the Yaniv brothers, Hallel and Yagel, shot at point-blank range in Huwara last week, have yet to be apprehended. But one thing is certain: when they are identified, all of them and their families will receive lifelong murder stipends from the Palestinian Authority (PA). 
It is impossible to rationalize the ethical and moral bankruptcy of any “culture” that actually promotes, justifies, glorifies, and rewards the murder of innocents, but we were trained as lawyers, so we will simply talk about the law. The PA and its supporters, as well as supporters of other terrorist organizations, literally invite terrorists through financial incentives to kill Americans and Israelis. We seek criminal and civil remedies for their victims and we believe that in many cases the families of these victims are not without possible redress against those who enable and solicit the crimes. 
While the cold-blooded murders of the recent victims shock the conscience and rend the heart, these crimes were not committed in a vacuum: There are other identifiable perpetrators, who encouraged, solicited, enabled, promoted, and engendered those awful unlawful acts, promising payment for their commission. They are legally, not just morally, culpable for the premeditated murder of American citizens; they should be subject to criminal penalties, and their assets should justly be available as damages.
Some basic definitions are in order. Under U.S. law, one is liable as an accomplice to the crime of another if he or she gave assistance or encouragement … with the intent thereby to promote or facilitate the commission of a crime … Or if they solicit, command, encourage, or request another person to commit the crime. A person who aids, abets, or encourages another to commit a crime need not even be present at the scene to be culpable as an accomplice. One may be guilty of solicitation if he requests or induces another person to commit a crime. A wide range of defendants can be held jointly and severally liable for damages, including, among others, those who knowingly assisted in causing injury and those who incite or aid another to cause injury.
And now some facts:  
The Palestinian Authority makes payments to prisoners convicted of attacks against civilians and to the surviving families of suicide bombers and other deceased terrorists. Over $300,000,000 annually, comprising 7-10% of the annual PA budget, is allocated to terrorists or their families. For example, the family of the murderer of Ari Fuld (an Israel-American hero who was knifed in the back four years ago and managed to incapacitate his own attacker as he died before others could be harmed) received an initial payment within hours of the crime, and were then made eligible to receive a monthly payment of 1,400 shekels. Under PA law, perpetrators of even deadlier attacks would be eligible for even larger sums.
The Palestinian payments to prisoners and surviving families of terrorists are not secret: They have been publicly defended by Palestinian political leaders and even acknowledged by the terrorists as a primary inducement to the commission of their heinous crimes. In 2018, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/03/14/does-the-palestinian-authority-pay-350-million-a-year-to-terrorists-and-their-families/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the explanation of a would-be terrorist, to the effect that “The important thing is that I will die and they will kill me, so that my children will receive a [PA] allowance and live happily.”   
Murdering an American citizen is a crime. So is inducing a third party to murder an American citizen, by publicizing, and subsequently paying, a monetary reward for commission of that murder. In almost all cases, an additional civil action and remedy will be available and appropriate for the intentional or negligent infliction of physical and emotional damages. And, thinking out of the box, there may even be a class of plaintiffs whose “shared circumstance” is that the perpetrators of the crimes or torts against them were paid by the PA.
Both the U.S. government (through the Taylor Force Act) and the Israeli government (through legislation to withhold funds equivalent to the terrorist-related payments) have tried to stop the pay-for-slay program. But the PA has made it clear that no economic sanction will affect the payment regime, with President Mahmoud Abbas <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-vows-to-continue-stipends-to-terrorists-even-with-pas-last-penny/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> that they would continue to pay those stipends with their very last penny. The Biden Administration maintains that its restoration of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the PA does not technically violate the Taylor Force Act, notwithstanding the continued payments to terrorists and the fungibility of money.
There is no question as to the criminal and civil liability of people who made it known to the public that they would pay a bounty of $10,000 to anyone who murders a member of a particular religion in a specific place, thus both encouraging and rewarding the murder. It would be no defense if they later argued, as did Nabil Shaath, the foreign affairs adviser to President Abbas, speaking in his official capacity, that “payments to support the perpetrators or their families are a social responsibility.” (Note that the World Bank has determined that the payments are not based on need and are disproportionate to other welfare type payments.)
In 1990, Congress enacted the Antiterrorism Act (ATA), creating a new federal right of action for any U.S. national “injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism,” defined to include “violent acts or acts dangerous to life” occurring overseas that violate U.S. criminal laws (or would violate such laws if committed in the United States), and performed to intimidate or coerce populations or public policy. Plaintiffs are permitted to pursue relief in a U.S. district court and, if liability is established, to collect treble damages, plus attorneys’ fees. 
Of course, the PA would try and claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts because of foreign sovereign immunity — but the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act provides a series of exemptions, including an exception added in 1996 that withholds immunity from state sponsors of terrorism in cases alleging their responsibility for the death or personal injury of U.S. citizens. President Biden’s questionable restoration of Palestinian aid, the conditioning of which, under the ATA, subjects the PA to personal jurisdiction in the U.S., should at the very least be used to overcome that obstacle, which stymied Plaintiffs in recent cases like Sokolow v. the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Moreover, NGOs providing support to the PA would lack even that putative defense. 
There are also other laws that could come into play like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which makes it unlawful to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity in association with an enterprise. RICO has criminal and civil application, and has been interpreted to include extraterritorial activity, so long as the enterprise has a nexus to the United States. Of course, the PA conducts numerous activities here, including commercial activity raising money, which should satisfy the nexus requirement.
For some reason, the U.S. government has been slow to enforce its laws and hesitant to punish those who have killed innocent American citizens. Take Ahlam Tamimi, the female mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem, who gleefully admitted to murdering innocent men, women, and children, including American citizen Malki Roth. This assassin still lives freely in Jordan despite the U.S. having an extradition treaty with the Kingdom. To date, she has received thousands of dollars in murder stipends from the PA.
Enough is enough. Palestinian terrorists have killed 147 American citizens since 1968, and not one has ever been brought to the United States to stand trial. Senior members of the PA do, however, visit the United States on a regular basis. If the federal government won’t act then states and the private sector should. Where are the bold state attorneys-general who will seek justice for their injured citizens? Where is the plaintiffs’ bar that brought Big Tobacco to its knees?
There have been some sporadic efforts to bring individual tortfeasors to justice, and some damages have been awarded to surviving family members, but this is insufficient. What is required is a multi-state and multi-jurisdictional consortium of attorneys-general, public interest organizations that seek justice for victims, and plaintiffs’ lawyers, dedicated to discovering and pursuing every individual and organization that provides material support to the entities that encourage, incite, and reward violence. Let them spend the money they pay murderers to defend their actions in court. And let us demand that they be financially liable for damages, despite the fact that no compensation will ever restore the losses they have caused.
Gary Epstein recently retired as global chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Corporate and Securities Practice. 
Mark Goldfeder is an international lawyer and Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center.  
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 
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Protests Continue into Fourth Day Across Jerusalem and the West Bank

‘Pay For Slay’: Seeking An Effective American Legal Response To Palestinian Terror

'Pay For Slay': Seeking An Effective American Legal Response To Palestinian Terror

Middle East

Palestinians

Readers Pass

Terrorism

World

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is pushing Israel’s government to cancel a planned march in celebration of Jerusalem Day that has already been postponed twice.
The PLO put out a statement Sunday warning of an “explosion” if the Flag March takes place Tuesday as planned, according to <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/PBTXQ6CJ8">YNet</a>. The march was previously scheduled to take place Thursday last week but was canceled by the Israeli government at the urging of the Israeli police. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that the march should be canceled after Hamas, a terror group located in the Gaza strip, threatened violence if the march took place.
Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, called for Israel’s police chief to resign on Thursday over his handling of a canceled Jerusalem Day march. The Israeli lawmaker said that by postponing the march, Israel was allowing Hamas to have undue influence over Israeli policy.
Shabtai accused Ben Gvir, a member of the Knesset, of threatening to harm “public order” after the lawmaker pledged to lead the Flag March through Jerusalem’s Old City whether the government approved or not.
“Ben Gvir’s intended march is almost certain to cause serious harm to public order, to the point of harming national security,” Shabtai <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-mk-barred-from-visiting-temple-mount-amid-fears-of-violence/">said</a> last week. The Israeli government agreed to move the Flag March’s date to June 15.
Ben Gvir spoke out against the commissioner and government’s decision to move the Flag March’s date to Tuesday. The Flag March was originally set to take place on May 10, but it was canceled last minute as Hamas, an internationally recognized terror group, fired hundreds of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. The new date was set for a month later on June 10, but Shabtai and some Israeli lawmakers began to push to cancel the Flag March a second time over threats from Hamas.
Ben Gvir slammed Shabtai and other lawmakers for canceling the march for a second time, accusing them of tacitly acceding to terrorists’ demands and allowing Hamas to have undue influence on the way Israel is governed. Ben Gvir also said he planned to lead the Flag March through the Damascus Gate and along its original route through the Old City whether the commissioner approved or not.
Shabtai said that the lawmaker’s plans could spark violence, and he added that he would hold Ben Gvir responsible if activists followed him and violence broke out. Ben Gvir backed off his plans, saying he would not defy the police and instead went to the Damascus Gate and slammed Shabtai, calling for his removal from office.
“This is the end of democracy. The Commissioner has failed to deal with the rioters in Lod, the south and the Temple Mount, and now, in an unprecedented decision, he is violating the immunity of Knesset members,” Ben Gvir said last week. Members of Israel’s parliament are protected by “immunity laws” that allow lawmakers to travel anywhere in Israel with few exceptions without being stopped by the police.
Ben Gvir called on then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse his decision to postpone the Flag March and said that Shabtai should be fired as police commissioner. Netanyahu lost his prime ministership after 12 consecutive years in a Sunday vote in the Knesset.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israeli-lawmaker-defies-hamas-threats-promises-to-hold-jerusalem-day-flag-march">Israeli Lawmaker Defies Hamas Threats, Promises To Hold Jerusalem Day Flag March</a>

Itamar Ben-Gvir

Palestinian Liberation Organization Threatens ‘Explosion’ If Twice-Postponed Jerusalem Day Celebration Takes Place

The Trump administration secured a key victory yesterday at the hostile United Nations, as Holocaust-denying, kleptocratic, jihad-subsidizing Palestinian Authority (PA) chieftain Mahmoud Abbas failed to rally sufficient support to merely force a U.N. Security Council vote on a Palestinian draft resolution that would have rejected the Trump administration&#8217;s recently unveiled <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-deal-of-the-century-for-israel-palestinians-a-realistic-plan-with-arab-states-backing-it">&#8220;deal of the century&#8221; peace plan</a>.
The Security Council vote assuredly would have been vetoed by the United States, a permanent member, but the failure to even successfully garner support to stage a symbolic vote represents a monumental embarrassment for Abbas, the PA successor to unrepentant terrorist Yasser Arafat — himself a mentee of <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitler/">Hitler ally Haj Amin al-Husseini</a>, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem. The diplomatic effort to stymie the symbolic vote, halting it dead in its tracks, thus also represents a clear win for the Trump administration&#8217;s United Nations diplomatic team. The United Nations, of course, is a body <a href="https://unwatch.org/2019-un-general-assembly-resolutions-singling-out-israel-texts-votes-analysis/">infamously hostile to the Jewish state</a> and infamously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-palestinian-frauds-unrwa-called-out-lying-josh-hammer">mollycoddling of the Palestinian-Arab cause</a>.
Abbas is speaking today at a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He had initially hoped to stage a Security Council vote on the &#8220;deal of the century&#8221; to follow his speech.
&#8220;This is a significant setback for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,&#8221; Barak Ravid <a href="https://www.axios.com/palestinian-mahmoud-abbas-security-council-vote-81c12553-d692-4a77-a122-10dd7cc141ff.html">opined</a> yesterday for Axios. &#8220;The postponement follows efforts from Jared Kushner and other administration officials over the last few days to dilute the text of the resolution and prevent a vote.&#8221;
&#8220;U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian officials say the text had to be softened because several Security Council members wanted to avoid a confrontation with the U.S.,&#8221; Ravid continued. &#8220;Several sentences that referred directly to the Trump plan were removed.&#8221;
According to Ravid, PA officials still hope to bring the condemnatory resolution up for a Security Council vote later this week.
&#8220;There was immediate speculation that the delay was a backhanded way of pulling the resolution because it lacked the requisite support of nine members for passage,&#8221; The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/International/US-suggests-amendments-for-UNSC-resolution-on-Trump-peace-plan-617115">reported</a>. &#8220;Otherwise, it would have been considered that the resolution had failed. The delay comes amid U.S. pressure to soften the language of the resolution towards the U.S. and Israel. A U.S. source with direct knowledge of the negotiations between the members of the Security Council told the Post earlier on Monday that if the resolution would get a vote, a number of countries are expected to abstain.&#8221;
&#8220;The softening of the language comes after U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner’s briefing with [Security Council] members last Thursday,&#8221; the Post continued. &#8220;Kushner was accompanied by Trump&#8217;s assistant and special envoy for international negotiations Avi Berkowitz, and U.S. envoy Brian Hook. The source added that &#8216;there are numerous countries who are considering abstaining&#8217; if the wording is not changed.&#8221;
The U.S. has historically often used its permanent seat the Security Council to veto anti-Israel measures — a trend <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/choosing-not-to-veto-obama-lets-anti-settlement-resolution-pass-at-un-security-council/">notably bucked in December 2016 by the outgoing anti-Israel Obama administration</a>, with respect to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2234.
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RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-pairagraph-trumps-israel-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-part-1">Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)</a>
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-pairagraph-trumps-israel-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-part-2">Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 2)</a>

United Nations Building

Abbas Embarrassed: Trump Admin Secures Key Victory At Hostile United Nations

Benjamin Netanyahu

Foreign Policy

Jared Kushner

Mahmoud Abbas

Trump Administration

United Nations

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d">debate</a> about the Trump administration’s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as “a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals” and “an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.”
Hammer was previously scheduled to <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> Palestinian-Arab activist <a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>, but Amro <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/2">refused to respond</a> to Hammer after his <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/1">initial response</a>. Pairagraph then secured Omar Baddar as a new debate opponent, and Baddar <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/2">responded</a> to Hammer on Sunday. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries. 
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/3">rebuttal to Baddar</a>.
<div>
An old lawyer maxim goes: &#8220;If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.&#8221;
Omar Baddar is pounding the table. He has doused a field of straw men in gasoline and applied an industrial-grade blowtorch.
Baddar embraces countless obfuscations and outright lies. There was no &#8220;ethnic cleansing&#8221; in 1948 — only the fateful Arab rejection of November 1947. Blame for the 1967 war lies squarely with Gamal Abdel Nasser, who repeatedly vowed to exterminate Israel and militarized the Sinai in defiance of the 1956 demilitarization. U.N. S.C.R. 242 has never been internalized by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has frequently offered a generous Palestinian state (e.g., 2000 and 2008) hewing closely to 1948&#8217;s harrowing &#8220;Auschwitz borders.&#8221; Israel did not instigate the civilizational jihad that was Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada; rather, the mentee of Hitler ally Haj Amin al-Husseini planned it while rejecting the peace offered at Camp David in July 2000. (“[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all,&#8221; President Clinton said.)
Baddar and his ilk nonsensically shout &#8220;apartheid,&#8221; but if the Palestinian-Arabs wanted peace, they would have negotiated one of the sundry times Israel has offered statehood. Instead, the PA has become the laughingstock of the Arab world. The vile 1967 Khartoum Resolution is now the very distant past; following Trump&#8217;s peace plan unveiling, Saudi Arabia said it &#8220;appreciate[d] the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan.&#8221; The UAE&#8217;s foreign affairs minister approvingly tweeted a Bret Stephens column decrying Palestinian rejectionism.
Historically, separatist movements are rarely successful. Those separatist movements — Tibetans, Kurds, etc. — that might be offered a state by the &#8220;international community&#8221; would gladly accept. That the PA, which names parks after suicide bombers and directly subsidizes murderous jihad via &#8220;pay to slay,&#8221; rejects such offers gives the game away. The PA&#8217;s ultimate goal is not peace, but to kill all the Jews. &#8220;From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,&#8221; a rally cry frequently associated with terror-sympathizing hate groups, is nothing short of a call to genocide.
The Arab world, sobered by Iran, finally sees the Palestinian ruse. It wants to finally resolve this issue. Accordingly, the Trump peace plan is emphatically reasonable. That the plan&#8217;s bare-bones preconditions to full Palestinian statehood — cease indoctrinating Palestinian-Arab children in Jew-hatred, oust Hamas, etc. — are viewed as non-starters in Ramallah says all one needs to know about the moral midgets of the PA.
There is zero — zero — compelling U.S. national security interest in carving out a PLO/PA jihadist state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The PA is fortunate that it has enough addlebrained leftists to carry its flag and keep viable the &#8220;two-state&#8221; solution paradigm. Israel has yet again stretched out its hand, but the PA is again poised to throw its own people under the bus.
</div>
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RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-pairagraph-trumps-israel-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-part-1">Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)</a>

Israel : Illustration

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 2)

Donald Trump

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Students for Justice in Palestine

“Jerusalem is ours, our weapon is our Islam, and our ammunition is our children. And you, O my son, are meant for martyrdom.” 
This <a href="https://palwatch.org/page/16939">statement</a>, uttered by a Palestinian mother to her son, was posted on the official Facebook page of Fatah, the political party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately, the sentiment expressed in this Facebook post is not a rare one. The use of Palestinian children as child soldiers and terrorists has been prevalent in the Levant for decades — and not just by Fatah. Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other organizations indoctrinate children and regularly send them to their deaths. With more light being shed on the issue recently, it is time for all people of good conscience to stand up and tell these children what their leaders will not: They deserve life.
The practice of using children in warfare and terrorism is immoral and contradicts the norms outlined in the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> in 1989. The U.N. articles ban the use of children in any military capacity — such as combatants, laborers, and support staff. Thankfully, many countries have signed and ratified the convention, thereby committing to the protection of the most vulnerable amongst us. However, this ban means nothing if the international community fails to speak up against violations of this norm, or even address the issue in any serious way.
There are roughly <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2015/02/4-10-child-soldiers-girls/">300,000 estimated child soldiers</a> around the world in over 20 countries. About 40% of the children are girls, sometimes as young as eight years old. While there has been much attention and even some <a href="https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2020/02/south-sudan-comprehensive-action-plan-to-end-prevent-all-grave-violations-against-children-signed-by-government/">successes</a> in addressing the issue in African countries (though of course, much more is necessary), the issue of Palestinian-Arab child soldiers, specifically, has thus far failed to grasp the world’s attention. Worse, it is sometimes even excused.
For too long, the systemic abuse that Palestinian minors suffer at the hands of their oppressive leaders has gone largely ignored by the international community. Far too many children have been sent to their deaths, either as suicide bombers or while carrying out stabbing attacks. The abuse extends from &#8220;traditional&#8221; combat roles to every imaginable dangerous auxiliary capacity. Children are used by Gaza-based terror groups as <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/">human shields</a>, whether it’s protecting adult terrorists on the front lines of violent riots, or protecting weapon stores and rocket launching silos intentionally placed in proximity to, or even inside, Gaza schools.
Indoctrination in violence frequently begins in the Palestinian-Arab education system. Countless reports of inflammatory material propagated on official Palestinian Authority- or Hamas-run media have been published, yet have received little condemnation internationally. It took until August 2019 for the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to issue its first ever <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-un-panel-calls-on-palestinians-to-halt-hate-speech-against-israelis/">condemnation</a> of incitement and anti-Semitism found in Palestinian Authority textbooks. The textbooks included glorification of terrorists like <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5161024,00.html">Dalal Mughrabi</a>, who viciously slaughtered 38 civilians, including 13 children, during the 1978 &#8220;Coastal Road massacre.&#8221; Even <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20997/E_080_16_1749675127.pdf">kindergarteners</a> are not off limits from Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based terror group, even runs terrorist <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/100000-children-attend-radical-Hamas-summer-camps">summer</a> boot camps for about 10,000 children.
The tragedy of Palestinian child soldiers — or any child soldier, for that matter — does not end once the child takes off the uniform. Those who survive their ordeal often exhibit severe psychological trauma that hinders their ability to adjust to civilian life. The evil people who turn children into tools of war for their own political gain do not merely rob children of their childhoods; they rob them of the joy of living normal lives.
On February 12, 2020, the word commemorates the annual “Red Hand Day,” which is meant to draw attention to child soldiers. There is no better time to shine a light on the plight of Palestinian-Arab children suffering at the hands of their oppressive, corrupt leaders.
Indeed, some have already to take matters into their own hands. A <a href="http://www.pcsweek.org/">multi-NGO campaign</a> is underway on social media and college campuses to raise awareness about the nightmare that so many Palestinian-Arab children are forced to endure. This campaign encourages citizens to send open letters to their governments and public leaders. Yet this is merely the first step.
We all have a duty to raise awareness and pressure Palestinian-Arab leaders to cease these exploitative practices. Palestinian-Arabs must know that they can have more to life than death and murder — and are worth more than ammunition. Even if no one else will tell them this, we must.

FISCHBERGER: Palestinian Child Soldiers Can No Longer Be Ignored

Anti-Semitism

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> about the Trump administration&#8217;s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as &#8220;a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals&#8221; and &#8220;an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.&#8221;
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">opening salvo in his debate</a> against Palestinian-Arab activist <a href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries.
In the entire history of human civilization, there has never, ever been an independent Arab state situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Never.
At the same time, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the historical Land of Israel — including the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, which &#8220;international community&#8221; ignoramuses nonsensically call the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; — for thousands of years.
The modern 20th/21st-century history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not difficult to grasp. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, San Remo Resolution of 1920, Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, and the Peel Commission all laid the pre-World War II positive law foundation for what we all already knew from Genesis: The Jews are entitled to our land. In November 1947, the U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine proposed a pro-Arab partition that would have given the Jews a tiny, unworkable state. The Jews accepted; the Arabs rejected and instead launched a genocidal war to kill the Jews. The Arabs lost. The Arabs tried in 1967 and lost again. They tried in 1973 and lost yet again. The unrepentant terrorist Yasser Arafat and his Holocaust-denying kleptocratic Palestinian Authority successor, the brutish Mahmoud Abbas, have similarly never been nearly as interested in negotiating peace as they have been in killing Jews and inciting bloody jihad. In a sign of good will, even after Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada murdered over 1,000 Jews and grievously maimed many thousand more, Israel in 2005 unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip — forcibly uprooting its own citizens en route. Jihadist outfit Hamas took over and turned the Strip into an Iran-subsidized terrorist enclave.
Again, the history is not difficult to understand. As Dennis Prager has said, if the Israelis were to lay down their guns, Israel would be destroyed tomorrow. But if the Palestinian-Arabs were to lay down their guns, there would be peace tomorrow.
All the Palestinian-Arabs have to do is accept Israel as a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders, pursuant to U.N. Security Resolution 242, and there will be immediate peace. But they have not done so because the sprawling Arab world, with devastating rapacity, has never abided a Jewish state that is smaller than the state of New Jersey.
The Trump administration soberly recognizes that under properly construed international law, Israel has (by far) the best legal claim to all of Judea and Samaria. Jordan illegally occupied the territory after the failed 1948 Arab war of aggression, after all, and Israel won it back only in the defensive war of 1967. Israel has always been willing to make political concessions of the land for peace, as no less conservative a prime minister as Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s acceptance of the Trump peace plan demonstrates.
The Trump plan deals with the reality on the ground — the reality of inveterate Palestinian-Arab intransigence, rejectionism, and glorification of jihad. The U.S. cannot be &#8220;neutral&#8221; as between stalwart moral/strategic ally Israel and a thuggish Palestinian Authority. Good for Trump for recognizing that.

Western Wall, Jerusalem, Israel

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel – Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)

Zionism

It takes time for attitudes to change, and changing attitudes in the Middle East is a tough proposition. Moving the Europeans may prove harder.
An Israeli general once told this story (I was there):
<blockquote>The Israeli general commanded a unit that crossed the Suez Canal in 1973 after repulsing Egypt’s surprise Yom Kippur War attack. In his headquarters, he received a message that purported to be from an Egyptian general, telling him to come — alone — in a jeep to a certain spot in the desert and “hear something.” The general told the group, “I was sure I was going to die, but I did it.” The Egyptian proved to be the chief of the Egyptian general staff and he, too, was alone.
The Egyptian said, “The war is over.”
The Israeli general said, “Yes. I know.”
The Egyptian general sighed, “Not this war. In 1948, Egypt was within 11 miles of Tel Aviv and you pushed us back. In 1956, you drove through Sinai — but it wasn’t fair because you had the French and the British. In 1967, you did it again — by yourselves. Now you have crossed the Suez Canal and are 99 kilometers from Cairo. I’m here to tell you that you won’t get any closer. The war is over.”
He got back in his jeep and left.
The Israeli returned to his headquarters and told the story to the general staff in Tel Aviv. “No one believed me,&#8221; the Israeli said.</blockquote>
But it was true. The Egyptian government had determined that fighting, losing, and regrouping was not a plan. In 1979, Anwar Sadat went to Jerusalem, and in so doing met Israel’s primary condition for peace — recognition of Israel as a legitimate and permanent state in the region, entitled to “secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force” (the language of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242). Today, Egypt and Israel cooperate on energy, security (including for the Gaza Strip), and trade.
In the broader Arab world, it is taking longer. Unable to countenance Jewish sovereignty in the region, the Arabs went to war in 1948 to erase it. They failed. They tried again in 1967. They failed again. After that war, an Arab League Summit convened in Sudan and issued what became known as the Khartoum Resolution: &#8220;No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.&#8221;
Then there were the conflicts of 1973 and 1982, intifadas, and rocket wars with Gaza.
President Trump called them on it in announcing his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-donald-trumps-vision-for-the-middle-east">“Vision” for the Middle East</a>. “It is time for the Muslim world to fix the mistake it made in 1948, when it chose to attack instead of to recognize the new state of Israel. The Palestinians are the primary pawn in this adventurism, and it is time for this sad chapter in history to end.” Three Arab ambassadors were in the room.
The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/arab-league-holds-emergency-meeting-trump-plan-200201105251740.html">Arab League hastily convened a summit</a>, responding to the flat rejection of the plan by Palestinian Authority strongman Mahmoud Abbas, who had declined to read or even discuss it. This was not a “three noes” meeting. While the bloc as a whole rejected the Vision, the head of the Arab League said that there was time only for an initial study of the plan, adding that the Palestinian response would be key in shaping a &#8220;collective Arab position.” It should be noted that a day after announcing it would scrap security cooperation with the U.S. and Israel, the Palestinian Authority announced that, in fact, it <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-wont-halt-security-ties-with-Israel-US-Ramallah-officials-616503">would not do so.</a>
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/oic-hold-emergency-meeting-trump-middle-east-plan-200203064919675.html">Al Jazeera</a> wrote, “The announcement of Trump&#8217;s plan drew mixed responses from Arab states.” While joining in the vote, Egypt and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-jewish-journal-saudi-arabia-is-now-more-pro-israel-than-the-democratic-party">Saudi Arabia said separately that they “appreciated”</a> Mr. Trump’s efforts and called for renewed negotiations. Sudan’s leader announced a “principled stance on the Palestinian issue and the right of its people to establish its independent state &#8230; in accordance with the Arab consensus and Arab League decisions,” even as in a bit of irony — having hosted the Khartoum Declaration meeting — it established a mechanism for <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israel-Sudan-set-up-normalization-teams-616526">opening diplomatic relations with Israel.</a>
OK, yes, the <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/qatar-qatar-backed-international-union-muslim-scholars-blast-trumps-peace-plan-it-belongs">International Union of Muslim Scholars</a> (IUMS) consigned the Vision to the “dust heap of history,” but the IUMS is a creation of Qatar and Qatar is a puppet of Iran.
And speaking of Iran, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josip Borrell met with Iranian leaders and shortly afterward tried to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-reportedly-blocked-from-resolution-condemning-trump-plan-annexation/">ram a condemnation</a> of the Vision though the EU. But EU statements have to be unanimous and, of its 27 countries, six refused — including Italy, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Borrell then issued the statement in his own name.
The interim commissioner-general of UNRWA said, “The plan … is extremely unsettling for the Palestine refugees living under occupation, under blockade and through conflict after conflict and crisis after crisis, hoping for justice and human rights. The international community must send a clear message to Palestine refugees and to the world at large that the international community stands firmly behind them.”
Rightly, Israel chose to <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/israel-harshly-criticizes-eu-over-rejection-of-trump-middle-east-peace-plan/">respond more harshly</a> to the EU and <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/03/israel-slams-unrwa-head-for-attacking-trump-peace-plan/">UNRWA</a> than it did the Arab League.
It has been hard for Arab states to move on from decades of adamant rejection of Israel to talk and trade, and generally accept the nation-state of the Jewish people. That is the reality, not an excuse. But for the EU and UNRWA, to encourage Palestinians in outmoded, fanatical, and dangerous thinking is inexplicable.
Except it isn’t.
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Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At The White House

BRYEN: The Arabs And Europeans React To Trump’s Middle East ‘Vision’

Egypt

Europe

European Union

Iran

Jerusalem

When speaking with liberal-minded folks about solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the recently revealed &#8220;Deal of the Century,&#8221; inevitably the question of Arab buy-in arises. “Will the Palestinians accept it?” is the oft-heard refrain.
While this may seem to be a pretty reasonable question, it actually reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of the Middle East.
Here is a true story involving one of my mentors, Dr. Mordechai Kedar. It helpfully illustrates Middle East thinking.
Kedar has crafted an alternative vision to the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; that is called the “<a href="http://www.palestinianemirates.com/contact.html">emirates plan</a>.” He presented it to a well-known sheikh in Judea and Samaria (i.e., the “West Bank”). The sheikh listened attentively to Kedar and in the end, announced: “I like it. It is good for us. Now you will have to force it upon me.”
Why did the sheikh, who liked the plan and thought it was good for his people, say this strange phrase, “now you will have to force it upon me?”
For a knower of the Middle Eastern mind, the answer is obvious. No self-respecting Arab can publicly proclaim support for a plan that recognizes Israel a regional sovereign. It’s simply against a basic tenet of Islamic law: No non-Islamic entity may exercise jurisdiction over a landmass once controlled by Islam.
Moreover, there is Islam’s corollary: Arab nationalism. The jingoistic Arab world has tried to defeat Israel in numerous wars and attacks. They lost, and they know it — but the dream of Arab nationalism lives on in their hearts.
So, what the sheikh was saying to Kedar was: While I like your plan, please respect my honor and my need to avoid looking weak to my nation or disloyal to my religion by publicly surrendering to your plan. Help me save face by forcing your plan on me — that way I maintain my dignity and we can move forward together.
Israel is a small Jewish enclave within the massive, and predominantly Arab, Middle East. It is therefore important to understand the regional mindset. While in the West, seeking consent and acquiescence is a sign of respect, equality, and moral uprightness, in the Middle East that same attitude may be insensitive. Trying to elicit public Arab buy-in can inadvertently put Arabs in the uncomfortable position of having to openly repudiate their religion and their nationalism — even if they like the plan.
Ironically, we have arrived at a time where much of the Arab world is looking for an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/historic-arab-states-welcome-trumps-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan">excuse to wind down</a> the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fleisher-end-100-year-arab-israeli-war-yishai-fleisher">100-year war</a> against Israel, which, they realize is fruitless and continues only to their own detriment. Moreover, there is real pressure. The Egyptians fear both the ISIS presence in the Sinai and the threat of homegrown Muslim Brotherhood jihadis overthrowing the Sisi government. Even more urgently, the threat of Iran is very real for the Saudis, who are facing Shiite incursions on all of their borders. As strange as it sounds, today both Egypt and Saudi Arabia desperately need Israel for their own security reasons.
However, while these Arab countries feel pressure to line up with Israel to defend their strategic positions, as leaders of Arab nationalism and authentic Islam, they still need to publicly save face.
That is why the Trump plan smartly kept the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; on the table so that Arab states could pay lip service to the creation of a Palestine. This allowed Arab representatives to sit at the White House in their traditional robes as the deal was being unveiled. Yet the real effect of Arab states accepting the tenets of the deal was not the creation of an independent Palestine at all. Rather, it was the recognition of Israel as a legitimate Jewish entity in the Middle East — with its capital in Jerusalem and with rights in Judea and Samaria.
Shocking! And with regard to Palestine, the Arab states heard and acquiesced to the call on Palestinians to disarm, to stop paying for terror, to stop incitement — to basically give up the war with Israel. This was truly revolutionary. By agreeing to an Israel in the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; and also a defanged Palestine, the Arab states, quietly and without public pronouncement, essentially agreed to an end of hostilities with the Jewish state.
The Palestinian leadership, naturally, is up in arms. But it is not only their former Sunni Arab state allies who have turned their backs on them — it is also the proverbial Arab street. Many “West Bank” Arabs are tired of the pointless war with Israel and are tired of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. It is for this reason that there have barely been any protests against the &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; — just as there was a muted reaction to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the Trump administration.
Yet, while many Arabs want to end hostilities, it is a mistake to pine for public Arab buy-in. Israel is anathema to both their Arab nationalism and a core tenet of Islam — and if they must swallow the existence of Israel, they prefer it play out as coercion, or at least a gradual and quiet acceptance rather than voluntary proclamations of &#8220;peace in our time.&#8221; In the end, helping the Arab world transition from war to cooperation is a delicate task and it will surely benefit Israel. But the Muslim world, which is hungry for prosperity, modernity, and reform, stands to gain even more.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

Israel map

FLEISHER: The Myth Of Arab Buy-In

Islam

Islamic State (ISIS)

Saudi Arabia

After the unveiling of President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan in the Middle East, numerous Senate Democrats took time out of their busy schedule to lecture him about Middle East politics. <a href="https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Van%20Hollen%20Letter%20MidEast%20Peace%20Plan.pdf">The letter they wrote</a> is historically ignorant and dangerous, which is compounded by the fact that it was signed by three leading current presidential candidates; Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
“Dear President Trump,” the letter begins, “We write to express our profound concern regarding your decision to release a one-sided Israeli-Palestinian plan forged without any Palestinian involvement or support.”
Right off the bat, Senate Democrats ignore the fact that the Palestinians have been invited to the negotiations on numerous occasions. The most prominent one was June 2019, when there was a U.S.-led peace conference in Bahrain that was boycotted by the Palestinians. They thought that a boycott would stop the conference, but Jared Kushner, the point-man for the Trump administration in this process, pushed forward.
Trump&#8217;s peace plan would ultimately give the Palestinians a state, as well as funds to help get that state up and running. The 1947 U.N. partition plan, which the Arab world outright rejected in choosing instead to declare all-out war on the nascent Jewish state, did not include $50 billion. In fact, the world mostly stood by and watched while the Jewish state was attacked from every direction.
Senate Democrats&#8217; letter espouses significant falsehoods, claiming that this plan “paves the way for full or partial Israeli annexation of the West Bank.” But there has never been much support for a call to fully annex Judea and Samaria, as that would include giving citizenship to millions of Palestinian-Arabs — many of whom call for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Senate Democrats also, un-ironically, claim that this plan “undermine[s] existing U.S. policy regarding the unilateral annexation of Crimea, eastern Ukraine.” In case the Democrats forgot, Russia invaded Crimea when the Obama administration withheld crucial military aid to the Ukranians. That was not a defensive war; it was an attack by Russia. Comparing that act with Israel winning territory in the 1967 Six-Day War, which was a defensive war, is patently insane. Additionally, Russia immediately annexed Crimea, whereas Israel limited its annexation to the city of Jerusalem — the eternal capital of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hill-the-jewish-nation">Jewish nation</a>. Contrast that to 1948, when Jordan took over that same territory, annexed it, and left the Palestinian people in refugee camps to linger and suffer until Israel militarily defeated Jordan in 1967&#8217;s defensive conflict.
Senate Democrats also conveniently ignore the last 73 years of history when they claim that “this proposal violates the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.” The Palestinians could have asserted their right to self-determination any time from 1947 through today. They can declare a state and nobody will mind. In fact, many Israelis would welcome it. In 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to Yasser Arafat the Gaza Strip, 95% of the West Bank, 5% of Israel, half of Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount), and Israeli citizenship for 50,000 Palestinians. Arafat walked away without a counteroffer and instead <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-vox-lies-about-israel-again">launched the Second Intifada</a>. Democrats ignore that the Palestinians could have exercised their “right to self-determination.” Instead, they are choosing to stay as they are.
The Democrats complain about the proposed borders, referring to it as a “disconnected series of Palestinian islets.&#8221; They claim that this “would betray the vision of a sovereign Palestinian state.” Again, Palestinians could have had a say in this process. They chose not to. Additionally, the only “vision” that the Palestinians have of a Palestinian state is one that encompasses all of Israel and does not include any Jews.
The Democrats then have the audacity to accuse President Trump of interfering in the upcoming Israeli election, claiming that the timing “raises disturbing questions about [Trump&#8217;s] intention to intervene in the Israeli election process.” This accusation is audacious for multiple reasons. First, the Democratic Party at-large is currently in the middle of an impeachment of President Trump that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-impeachment-manager-admits-that-impeachment-is-about-2020-election">Democrats themselves claim</a> is intended to prevent him from winning re-election. Second, this is the third Israeli election in the last year, so this wouldn’t affect much of anything. Third, Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s chief political rival, endorsed this plan and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-says-hell-bring-trump-peace-plan-before-knesset-for-vote-next-week/">is bringing it up for a parliamentary vote</a>. Finally, it is ironic that Senate Democrats are accusing Trump of interfering with Israeli elections when <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/236565-netanyahu-pollster-obama-role-in-election-larger-than-reported">Obama did that</a> in 2015 — and nobody cared.
Democrats continue their letter with their old and tiresome “President Trump isn’t a normal president” routine. “Your administration has already reversed decades of bipartisan U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it reads. “Previous presidents of both parties successfully maintained the respect of both Israelis and Palestinians for the United States’ role as a credible player in difficult negotiations.” But policies that haven’t worked for 50 years should be changed. Democrats think that if they try the same thing over and over — that &#8220;thing&#8221; being caving to terrorists — there will be different results. That is the definition of insanity. Trump’s only change from the standard “two-state solution” is that it recognizes the fact that Israel is the only actor that actually wants peace.
The Democrats are making the same mistakes with the Palestinians that they did with the Iranians: The assumption that everyone wants the same thing. They do not. Palestinian leadership wants to destroy Israel. Democrats either don’t know that, or simply don’t care.
 
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and a Chovevei Zion Fellow. His work can be found on <a href="https://www.ahillwithaview.com">aHillwithaView.com</a>, <a href="https://facebook.com/aHillwithaView">facebook.com/aHillwithaView</a>, and on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TheMoHill">@TheMoHill</a>.

HILL: Senate Democrats’ Response To Trump’s Peace Plan Is Historically Ignorant

Amy Klobuchar

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Party

Elizabeth Warren

Perhaps the sole silver lining of the otherwise-harrowing capitulation to fundamentalist jihadist evil that was President Barack Obama&#8217;s Iran nuclear deal was the fact that the leading Sunni Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt chief among them — began to warm up to the Jewish state of Israel. The enemy of my enemy, as the venerable maxim goes, is indeed my friend. And these Sunni stalwarts have found common cause with Israel in opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran&#8217;s decades-long hegemonic ambitions, which were only augmented by the capitulatory cash influxes provided by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
To date, however, the thawing of relations has generally taken a clandestine form — mostly on the intelligence and counterintelligence level. But the unveiling yesterday of President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs represents the clearest public sign yet of just how far this thawing has progressed.
It is nothing short of remarkable just how far we have come, when considering the &#8220;Three No&#8217;s&#8221; of the infamous 1967 Khartoum Resolution, decreed in the aftermath of Israel&#8217;s miraculous Six-Day War victory: &#8220;No peace [with Israel],&#8221; &#8220;no recognition [of Israel],&#8221; and &#8220;no negotiations [with Israel].&#8221;
For starters, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Hank Berrien <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-deal-of-the-century-for-israel-palestinians-a-realistic-plan-with-arab-states-backing-it">reported</a> yesterday, &#8220;Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba of the UAE, Ambassador Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and the Ambassador Hunaina al-Mughairy of Oman <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Bahrain-UAE-envoys-come-to-White-House-for-Trump-Deal-of-the-Century-615706">were in the East Room</a> of the White House on Tuesday as Trump announced his plan.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Three great friends of peace &#8211; you, your countries &amp; your leaders are courageous. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being at the event at the <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> today &amp; thank you for your encouragement &amp; support! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UAE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UAE</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bahrain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bahrain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oman?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oman</a> <a href="https://t.co/N3LvtQufvz">pic.twitter.com/N3LvtQufvz</a>
&mdash; Jason D. Greenblatt (@GreenblattJD) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenblattJD/status/1222227819033518083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It is unprecedented to have such leading representatives from Sunni Arab governments effectively recognizing Israel&#8217;s right, under U.N. Security Council <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-meaning-of-un-security-council-resolution-242">Resolution 242</a>, &#8220;to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.&#8221; It is even more unprecedented for such Arab governments to effectively recognize this international law right in the context of what is quite clearly, on the underlying merits, the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Trump-Plan-How-Israel-Should-Respond-615681">most pro-Israel peace plan ever offered</a> by an American president — and one that is offered by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-jerusalem-matters-ben-shapiro">historically pro-Israel American president</a> and a conservative Likud party Israeli prime minister, no less.
Numerous Arab governments, furthermore, have offered public endorsements of Trump&#8217;s plan that invariably refer to it as a welcoming or promising development.
From the <a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&amp;newsid=2027848#2027848">Kingdom of Saudi Arabia</a>, home to the Islamic holy city of Mecca and the centuries-long epicenter of the Sunni Muslim world: &#8220;The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump&#8217;s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, and encourages the start of direct peace negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, under the auspices of the United States, and to resolve any disagreements with aspects of the plan through negotiations.&#8221;
From (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">deeply problematic &#8220;ally&#8221;</a>) <a href="https://news.qna.org.qa/lang/en/w/article/1580250375011598800">Qatar</a>: &#8220;The State of Qatar welcomes all efforts aiming towards a longstanding and just peace in the occupied Palestinian territories. It also appreciates the endeavors of President Trump and the current U.S. administration to find solutions for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, all solutions should be consistent with international law and the relevant U.N. resolutions.&#8221;
From <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1452664425061142/posts/2592875164373390/?d=n">Egypt</a>: &#8220;The Arab Republic of Egypt appreciates the continuous efforts exerted by the U.S. administration to achieve a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue, thereby contributing to the stability and security of the Middle East, ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.&#8221;
From the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1021964141227620/posts/2670012913089393/">Kingdom of Morocco</a>: &#8220;The Kingdom of Morocco expresses the wish that a constructive peace process be launched from now on, with a view to a realistic, applicable, equitable and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question, satisfying the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, for an independent, viable and sovereign State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and enabling the peoples of the region to live in dignity, prosperity and stability.&#8221;
Contrast that with the leading 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, who have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democratic-candidates-censure-trump-peace-plan-warn-against-annexation/">all assailed</a> the plan. Or contrast it with Hamas/Hezbollah-loving Jeremy Corbyn of Britain, who calls it a &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1222303875593637891">travesty</a>.&#8221;
The Arab world is desperately trying to move on and finally resolve the Palestinian issue once and for all. But the American and European Left will not let them do so.
Kudos, nonetheless, to the Trump administration and the main actors/former actors there responsible for crafting the plan — including but hardly limited to Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner, and Avi Berkowitz — for their work in this very <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/eugene-kontorovich-trump-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-but-palestinians-wont-compromise">fair and thoughtfully devised</a> peace plan.

Donald Trump at White House with Benjamin Netanyahu

HISTORIC: Arab States Welcome Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan

Barack Obama

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

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