On Wednesday despite its litany of reported human rights abuses, Communist China was appointed to a United Nations Human Rights Council panel called the Consultative Group, a panel that will choose some of the U.N.’s human rights investigators. The Consultative Group has only five members who help select at least <a href="https://unwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Vacancies-HRC44-46-.pdf">17 UN human rights mandate-holders</a> who investigate, watch over and publicly report on violations, as <a href="https://unwatch.org/china-joins-u-n-human-rights-panel-will-help-pick-experts-on-free-speech-health-arbitrary-detention/">UN Watch</a> reports.
The United Nations <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/SP/Pages/BasicInformationSelectionIndependentExperts.aspx">writes</a> of the selection and appointment process for independent United Nations experts of the Human Rights Council:
<blockquote>Independent United Nations experts of the Human Rights Council are appointed through a competitive and transparent process which involves an online written application in response to a call for candidatures issued by the Secretariat. Shortlisted candidates are then interviewed by telephone by the Consultative Group composed by five Ambassadors nominated by each of the five regional groups. The Consultative Group makes recommendations to the President of the Human Rights Council through its public report. The appointment is finalized when the selected candidate put forward by the President is approved by the Human Rights Council.</blockquote>
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which monitors the UN Human Rights Council and has championed the rights of victims in China, stated, “Allowing China’s oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief. It’s absurd and immoral for the UN to allow China’s oppressive government a key role in selecting officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide.”
<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">Human Rights Watch</a> reported in 2018:
<blockquote>In October, Meng Hongwei, then-president of Interpol, the international police organization, and China’s vice minister for Public Security, disappeared upon return to China and was assumed to be held in “liuzhi.” … Authorities dramatically stepped up repression and systematic abuses against the 13 million Turkic Muslims, including Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. Authorities have carried out mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment of some of them in various detention facilities, and increasingly imposed pervasive controls on daily life. New regulations in Tibet now criminalize even traditional forms of social action, including community mediation by religious figures. In Hong Kong, a region promised “a high degree of autonomy” under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments hastened their efforts in 2018 to undermine people’s rights to free speech and political participation.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/china/">AmnestyUSA</a> echoed:
<blockquote>Repression conducted under the guise of “anti-separatism” or “counter-terrorism” remained particularly severe in the <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/china/xinjiang/">Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region</a> (Xinjiang) and Tibetan-populated areas (Tibet). Authorities subjected Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang to intrusive surveillance, arbitrary detention and forced indoctrination. From early 2017, after the Xinjiang government had enacted a regulation enforcing so-called “de-extremification”, an estimated up to one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minority people were sent to internment camps.Police detained human rights defenders outside formal detention facilities, sometimes incommunicado, for long periods, which posed additional risk of torture and other ill-treatment to the detainees.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
No joke: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#China</a> joins U.N. Human Rights Council panel, where it will help select the U.N.&#39;s next world monitors on freedom of speech, enforced disappearances &amp; arbitrary detention—and on health. That&#39;s like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief. <a href="https://t.co/DqFY90rd6I">https://t.co/DqFY90rd6I</a>
&mdash; Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1245890358342553603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;

United Nations Building

China Appointed To U.N. Council That Helps Pick Human Rights Investigators

China

United Nations

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.
&nbsp;
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>

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

Benjamin Netanyahu

Foreign Policy

Israel

Jared Kushner

Mahmoud Abbas

Middle East

Palestinians

Trump Administration

“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

Hamas

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

American Jews are now embroiled in an important election battle over the U.S. seats at the World Zionist Congress (WZC) for the next five years. Record numbers of Jewish U.S. residents have been casting votes in this <a href="https://www.zionistelection.org/election/2a3b7a80-ba00-42ec-957e-c0375167a065">online election</a>, which ends on March 11.
The World Zionist Congress has a major impact on both Israel and Diaspora Jews. It helps control Israel’s major national institutions’ polices and funding priorities for a $1 billion annual budget.
This election is so important that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu just called on every eligible Jewish U.S. resident to vote for our slate, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Coalition (slate #11). Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBtQ4wfTsaY">video of Netanyahu&#8217;s endorsement here</a>. In addition, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Justice Minister Amir Ohana, several other cabinet ministers, and numerous other Knesset member have all publicly endorsed the ZOA Coalition.
The ZOA Coalition includes 27 of the strongest pro-Israel groups and is leading the battle at the World Zionist Congress to defend Israel, sovereignty, and the safety and well-being of the entire Jewish people.
At the 2015–16 World Zionist Congresses, ZOA Coalition led a difficult, successful two-year battle to pass an anti-&#8220;Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction&#8221; (BDS) resolution to combat boycotts against all Jews, including Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. The ZOA Coalition also initiated a WZC program to encourage buying Israeli products, as well as promoting other anti-BDS efforts.
At the most recent (2019) World Zionist Congress, the ZOA Coalition initiated every single pro-Israel and pro-Jewish resolution.
Because rapidly rising anti-Semitic violence in Europe and elsewhere is a major threat, the ZOA Coalition initiated and obtained passage of a WZC resolution giving highest funding priority to rescuing and bringing to Israel Jews who are endangered by global anti-Semitism.
But, despite anti-Semitic murders and frequent attacks on Jews in France, other slates blocked the ZOA Coalition’s efforts to also establish an emergency Aliyah program for endangered French Jewry. If ZOA Coalition obtains more votes in the current election, this won’t happen again. The safety of endangered Jews will always come first.
ZOA Coalition initiated and obtained passage of resolutions condemning UNESCO for denying the Jewish people’s connection to Jewish sites in Jerusalem and Hebron, as well as requiring use of the proper names “Judea and Samaria” — instead of the de-Judaized name “West Bank.” ZOA Coalition also led the 23-year battle to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
We’re extremely concerned about what will happen if the ZOA Coalition does not do well in this WZC election.
Our opponents used the power they obtained in previous WZC elections to stop Israel’s national institutions from purchasing lands in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even in the Negev. This anti-Jewish discrimination could become even worse.
Shockingly, at the most recent World Zionist Congress, our opponents tried to pass a resolution smearing Israel’s tolerant, multi-faceted society as replete with “institutional racism.” We were only able to defeat this resolution — which reminded us of the notorious 1975 United Nations “Zionism is racism” resolution — by one vote.
An opposition group now openly says that it is running in the WZC election to “divert” the $1 billion per year of Israel’s national institution funding “away from the entrenchment of the occupation.”
“Occupation” is a false propaganda term used to attack Jewish persons’ rights to continue living on historic Jewish lands designated for the Jewish homeland <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">under international law</a>. Anti-Israel boycott groups use the term “occupation” to demonize Israel.  It is frightening that groups running in the WZC election are using the same rallying cry.
The ZOA Coalition (slate #11) needs many more votes now, so that the next attempt to use the World Zionist Congress to smear Israel has no chance of passing. The full slate includes the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Aish HaTorah, Students Supporting Israel, NORPAC, The Lawfare Project, American Friends of Likud, Dov Hikind’s Americans Against Antisemitism, One Israel Fund, Young Jewish Conservatives, Z Street, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, American Friends of Likud, Chovevei Zion, Eretz Israel Movement, National Conference on Jewish Affairs, major Russian-Jewish and Persian-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish groups, Beta Israel, and more.
Make sure to cast your vote; you have the chance to determine the Jewish future for the next five years. <a href="https://www.zionistelection.org/election/2a3b7a80-ba00-42ec-957e-c0375167a065">Vote Here.</a>
&nbsp;
Mort Klein (<a href="https://twitter.com/mortonaklein7">@mortonaklein7</a>) is national president of ZOA. Mark Levenson is national chairman of ZOA.

United States and Israel flags, Jerusalem, Israel

KLEIN & LEVENSON: Netanyahu Makes Endorsement In American World Zionist Congress Election

Judaism

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.
&nbsp;
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

In the United States, “The Cognitive Campaign to Co-opt Zionism” is in full force. This is a movement, sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional, consisting of one simple goal: The complete separation of Judaism and <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-definition-of-zionism">Zionism</a>, which is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to a state in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel.
But what exactly is a cognitive campaign?
In the information era, war is often not waged in any physical space. Instead, the battlefield lies inside peoples’ hearts and minds — where influence is the weapon of choice. As Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and David Siman-Tov of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/the-cognitive-campaign-strategic-and-intelligence-perspectives/">explain</a>: “The purpose of the cognitive campaign is to cause target audiences to adopt the perception of reality held by the side wielding the effort, so that it can more easily advance the strategic and/or operational objectives that it sees as critical.”
Campaign activists accomplish this via a wide array of tools, ranging from traditional diplomacy, mass media, social media, grassroots efforts, and so forth. Cognitive campaigns have become such powerful weapons in both domestic and international affairs that governments have created entire agencies to operate exclusively in the field of public perception.
However, the cognitive campaign to co-opt Zionism is one that is seldom discussed, likely due to the sensitivity surrounding the subject within the Jewish community. Jewish identity has many different characteristics. Some emphasize the community aspect of Judaism, others the religious aspect, and others the Zionist aspect. And in a society that puts such an emphasis on personal identity, it is galling to see broad swaths of the public, Jews included, disparage Zionists because of their beliefs. Many American Jews simply do not see Zionism as a legitimate component of Jewish identity. Unfortunately, it is often Jews themselves who take prominent roles in the campaign against Zionism.
The cognitive campaign to separate and redefine Zionism from Judaism is longstanding. For decades, Zionism has been compared, in some quarters, to colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. In 1975, a shameful <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/InternatlOrgs/Issues/Pages/40-years-since-UN-resolution-equating-Zionism-to-racism-10-Nov-2015.aspx">resolution</a> was passed at the U.N. declaring that Zionism is racism (it was later reversed in 1991, but by then the damage was done). Today, this cognitive campaign is led by anti-Israel activists, such as <a href="https://ukmediawatch.org/2016/08/25/guardian-again-whitewashes-the-extremism-of-students-for-justice-in-palestine-sjp/">Students for Justice in Palestine</a>, <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/jewish-voice-for-peace-jvp-what-the-media-is-concealing/">Jewish Voices for Peace</a>, and BDS supporters, who relentlessly promote misinformation that Israel is a non-democratic, oppressive, apartheid state.
In the digital age, almost everyone spends time on social media, where cognitive campaigns thrive, and where people live in echo chambers that oftentimes expose them to only one perspective on a given issue. When combining this one-sided social media exposure with the blatant lies constantly told about <a href="https://israelforever.org/israel/reading/industry_of_lies_media_academia_and_the_israeli_arab_conflict/">Israel in the media and academia</a>, people fall victim to the <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect/">“illusory truth effect,”</a> which causes them to believe misinformation due to repeated exposure. If someone ignorant of the facts were to stumble upon all the terrible things said about Zionism and Israel, it’s no wonder he might distance himself.
This brings us to President Donald Trump’s recent Israel-related moves. Part of the controversy surrounding the president’s actions is that they amplified the already fraught tension inside the Jewish community about the connection between Judaism and Zionism.
Take, for example, the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-pompeos-statement-on-settlements/">declaration</a> that Israel’s &#8220;settlements&#8221; in Judea and Samaria do not necessarily violate international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit the nail on the head when he <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Benjamin-Netanyahu-Mike-Pompeo-speak-at-Kohelet-Policy-Forum-WATCH-613535">stated</a> that the declaration “establishes the truth that we are not strangers in our land.&#8221;
Then there’s President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-anti-semitism/">executive order</a> (EO) combatting anti-Semitism on college campuses — an EO that many <a href="https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/trumps-executive-order-against-anti-semitism-will-protect-us-jews">erroneously claimed</a> would &#8220;redefine&#8221; Jews as a race or nationality. In fact, the EO merely enshrines that Jews will enjoy the same protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as other racial, ethnic, or national groups. It also implicitly links Zionism with Judaism, by relying on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism">Working Definition of Anti-Semitism</a>, which stipulates that “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” (i.e., Zionism) is inherently anti-Semitic.
Of course, one cannot forget President Trump’s statement regarding the American embassy move to Jerusalem, when he <a href="https://il.usembassy.gov/statement-president-trump-jerusalem/">reminded the world</a> that Jerusalem was “the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times” — a fact which he reinforced in his newly unveiled vision for a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/">comprehensive peace agreement</a> between Israel and the Palestinians.
All these actions by President Trump not only reaffirm the connection between Jews and Zionism, but also subvert decades of the cognitive campaign’s attempt to separate the two.
Make no mistake — the cognitive campaign to co-opt Zionism is consequential for the Jewish people. Will large sectors of Jewish society continue to distance themselves from Zionism? Or will they re-embrace it?
The most effective way to combat this campaign is through what can be described as a “Counter-Cognitive Campaign.” Obviously, this campaign must spread some much-needed truth about Zionism as a legitimate national movement. Equally important, the campaign must clarify that although Judaism and Zionism need not always be conflated, they must not be disassociated from each other. Of course, not every Jew needs to consider Zionism a core part of his individual identity. We do, however, need to recognize that every Jew enjoys the right to identify as a proud Zionist — and nobody can demonize him or her for that.

Israeli flag

FISCHBERGER: The Cognitive Campaign To Co-Opt Zionism

Donald Trump

Students for Justice in Palestine

We have to wait until President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan is unveiled to discuss it; those already discussing are likely to be wrong. But it is worth reviewing where Israelis, Palestinians, Arab states, and Americans have been — and why this time may be different.
The central flaw in the “Palestinian-Israeli peace process” has never been addressed. There has not been — and there is not now — a shared goal toward which Israelis and Palestinians can be induced to work. Instead, each side has three specific and irreconcilable objectives.
The Palestinians — both Hamas and Fatah — seek:
<ul>
<li>An independent state without recognizing a legitimate and permanent state of Israel in any territory. Both factions are willing to accept a temporary agreement with Israel on the way to the fulfillment of the <a href="https://iris.org.il/plochart.htm">PLO Charter</a> to which both are committed. (Reading the Charter will tell you what else they are committed to, and it isn’t a “two state solution.”)</li>
<li>Sovereign control of East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.</li>
<li>The right of entry for all remaining 1948–1949 Arab refugees from Britain’s Mandatory Palestine, as well s their descendants, to any place within pre-1967 Israel in which they or their antecedents claim to have lived.</li>
</ul>
Israel seeks three different things:
<ul>
<li>Recognition of the legitimacy and permanence of Israel within finalized “secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force”: U.N. Resolution 242’s security promise to Israel.</li>
<li>The capital of Israel in Jerusalem and Israeli protection for Jewish patrimony in the eastern part of Jerusalem.</li>
<li>“End of conflict; end of claims.” After an agreement, the Palestinians will not be able to press additional claims against Israel for territory or other “rights.”</li>
</ul>
Beyond the issue of objectives, all previous “Palestinian-Israeli peace processes” were doomed because they operated as if the protagonists were on an island in the middle of the sea rather than in the middle of the Middle East. Until recently, the Palestinians counted on lip service, at a minimum — guns and money in better cases — from the so-called “Arab world” and a variety of African and Middle Eastern states. This broad, if shallow, support covered up the fact that the Palestinians were the weakest link in regional politics. It was impossible for Palestinian Authority (PA) strongman Mahmoud Abbas — let alone Hamas — to recognize the legitimacy of Jewish nationhood and accept a split, rump state squeezed between Jordan and Israel if the Arab states with the money and the guns didn’t go along.
The more the U.S. pressed for Palestinian concessions that would rile the bankers, the more the Palestinians retreated. Intransigence and violence were their defense against being told to defy their Arab state patrons.
The core issue was never jobs or civil society or drinking water — or even a state — for the Palestinians; it was never about Palestinians at all. It was about the failure of the Arab states to accept the reality of 1948 and their losses in 1949, and recognize the legitimacy and permanence of the state of Israel in the region. “Secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force,” says U.N. Resolution 242, and that is the obligation of Arab States to Israel.
And finally, they’re getting there. Anwar Sadat’s bold move has never been the vision of conservative Arab leaders; Sadat, after all, died. But today, Israel’s relations with the Sunni Arab world are closing in on something real. Yes, it is based on threat perception on both sides. Yes, it is tentative. Yes, it has a lot to do with the price of oil. No, it isn’t closeness borne of shared values and governing systems. OK, let’s not get carried away. But this is the Arab-Israeli process. It doesn’t need Palestinians, but maybe they can benefit. If not, not.
Palestinians patrons today are Iran, an increasingly bellicose and Islamist Turkey, and weak European states with little to contribute.
And finally, the Americans.
The PA appears to have mistaken America as an “honest broker” for America as a “neutral party.” Between Palestinians and Israelis, the United States is not, and should not, ever be &#8220;neutral.&#8221; With Israel we share goals, values, and history; with the Palestinians we do not. &#8220;Honest broker&#8221; is something else. The U.S. has an obligation to state clearly the requirements of peace and ensure that both players understand the consequences of breaking the rules.
Pursuit of arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians is not for the faint-hearted. The parties deserve honest brokerage — American &#8220;neutrality&#8221; would be a betrayal of an ally.
Now, let’s see what the Trump administration has in mind.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

US President Donald Gives A Speech At Israel Museum

BRYEN: Running Up To The Peace Process

<div>
<div>
Visiting Jerusaelm for the World Holocaust form, French President Emmanuel Macron used the site of a holy church to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/macron-yells-at-israeli-security-to-leave-french-church-during-jerusalem-visit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/macron-yells-at-israeli-security-to-leave-french-church-during-jerusalem-visit/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGd1lyLaA_FJ-ZMS6QNqiuEPliWKw">yell at the Israeli Police</a> who were protecting him.
This is just another episode of French antagonism to Israel’s presence in Jerusalem. In 2016, France supported a ludicrous UNESCO resolution that implied Jerusalem has no Jewish or Christian historical connection. The French prime minister at the time, Manuel Valls, subsequently expressed regret for his country’s action, but it did not stop France from doing it again: A year later, it abstained on a similar UNESCO resolution.
The following year, when President Trump announced that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy, France was at the forefront of the passionate and angry European opposition — itself more aggressive than the Palestinian and Arab reactions. Macron repeatedly claimed that the recognition would have negative security repercussions well beyond Jerusalem, stating that “the status of Jerusalem is a question of international security which concerns the entire international community.&#8221;
Such European position is based on a 1949 U.N. resolution that designated Jerusalem and Bethlehem as a “corpus separatum” to be placed under an international legal regime — essentially a European colony.
Macron did not stop there, and tried to link the May 2018 Hamas-led &#8220;Nakba day&#8221; Gaza riots to the opening of the new U.S. embassy: “Experience shows that whether you like it or not, things like that provoke violence in response. … This leads to people dying.” He said.
French disruptive meddling in the Middle East is not new. In 1920, French actions triggered the first shots in what became the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France invaded Syria in order to dethrone the pro-Zionist Arab Emir Faisal and to instill a French regime instead (nominally posing as a League of Nation mandate). While Jews attempted to stay neutral in the French-Arab conflict, local Arab commanders suspected French soldiers were hiding in the Jewish village of Tel-Chai and a deadly battle ensued.
The residue of French colonialism was very much on display in Macron’s visit to Jerusalem on January 22. Indeed, it traces back as far as the inter-colonialist dealings of the 1850s, when the Ottoman Empire gave the Church of Saint Anne to France as a reward for France’s support in the Crimean War.
“Get out,” Macron yelled at Israeli Police as they entered that church with him. Analysts view this as an orchestrated show directed at Macron’s Muslim and far-left anti-Israel voters. Previous French President Jacques Chirac pulled a similar stunt during his 1996 Jerusalem visit. Walking through the narrow alleys of the Old City — a venue of multiple stabbings and other terrorist attacks — Chirac confronted his Israeli security detail for their tight protection.
What is alarming about the January 22 incident is not that Macron, like Chirac, decided to take a shot at Israel for seemingly internal political grains, but that he chose to do so in one of Christianity’s holy sites, located right on the Via Dolorosa. As Macron ordered Israeli Police out, he yelled at them that those rules have been in place for centuries and “that will not change with me.” Macron got it wrong. This colonialist-era arrangement could have only been in place for one century and a half.
While Macron might wish for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be taken away from the locals and given to the “international community,” this particular part of Jerusalem should apparently belong to France. His spokesperson even clarified this point. Israeli Police stated that Macron’s team later apologized for the incident, and Macron went on to shake the hands of his security detail as they continued their tour of the Old City.
Notwithstanding the apology, one cannot ignore the disturbing pattern. This week’s actions come just a year after Macron outraged the world in announcing his plans to honor Marshal Petain, murderer of the Jews of France and head of the collaborative Vichy government, for his role in World War I. Macron later retracted the plan. Symbolically, the Macron incident occurred as he gathered along with 45 world leaders in Jerusalem to remember the Holocaust — a genocide for which France is still in the early stages of recognizing its previous occupied government&#8217;s complicit guilt. For example, a recent <a href="http://www.claimscon.org/france-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.claimscon.org/france-study/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEVIoRCH-fCTziIpPRiSTN_v0QSVQ">study</a> showed that 45% of French millennials are unaware of the occupied French government’s collaboration with the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
Let us be clear — France is an important ally of both Israel and the United States, and Macron is a friend. He is a courageous fighter against anti-Semitism, including in his repeated proclamation that there is no difference between anti-Zionism and anti Semitism. But friendship requires honesty and France should be told that it is time to take a deep look inside.
France’s repeated episodes of opposition to Jerusalem should not be taken lightly, even if followed by some sort of retraction or apology. Moreover, anti-Semitism in France is rising yet again and trickling up into the mainstream of French society. This was just as it did in the 1890s during the Dreyfus Affair — a stunning case of state-sponsored anti-Semitism spanning multiple levels of French government and society — and just as it did in the 1940s with the Vichy government&#8217;s collaboration with the Nazis.
Rather than yell at Israeli Police that things &#8220;will not change with me,&#8221; it is time for Macron and France to enact radical changes that will put an end to the French government&#8217;s stance against Jerusalem. This should not be done to please Jews or Christians. It should be done for the sake of France itself.
<div></div>
Gol Kalev analyzes trends in Zionism, Europe and global affairs. For more of his articles: <a href="http://europeandjerusalem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://europeandjerusalem.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1579878466728000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFitK7ujW6YkWYwdOOdDlab9h_iRg">europeandjerusalem.com.</a>
</div>
</div>

Emmanuel Macron

KALEV: Macron Must End France’s Colonialist-Like Stance Against Jerusalem

France

This will not be Tehran 1979. Nor Benghazi 2012.
There were, apparently two groups of invaders at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-iran-behind-attack-on-u-s-embassy-in-baghdad-will-pay">U.S. embassy in Baghdad</a> — hordes of rioting protesters in the streets and well-covered, professional-looking, careful militia members entering the out building. Security forces (and some contractors) used tear gas and stun guns against the demonstrators as the United States protected its embassy compound — <a href="https://www.tribuneledgernews.com/opinion/embassies-and-consulates-are-not-foreign-territory/article_781a9a04-d64a-11e8-9977-334e978bea56.html">sovereign American territory</a> by international convention.
A bit of U.S.-Iranian history is instructive here. When the Iranians overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, President Jimmy Carter dubbed the Ayatollah Khomeini “<a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Father-of-the-Iranian-revolution">a holy man</a>” with whom, presumably, one could do business. President Barak Obama was certain, in 2015, that “the only alternative to the JCPOA is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-defense-of-the-iran-deal-comes-with-a-tough-love-message/2015/07/15/a7614b4a-2b04-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html">war with Iran</a>,” presumably meaning that the so-called “Iran nuclear deal” was the way to avoid war and restore Iran to the family of nations.
The result of Carter’s assistance to the ayatollah, and Obama’s lapse in memory — the Iranians had, actually, been in a declared state of war with the United States (and Israel) since 1979 — was to allow the juggernaut of Shiite expansionist theology to ruin Iran, invade Iraq, incubate ISIS, occupy Syria, bring its proxy to power and ruin Lebanon, run the Houthi war in Yemen, undermine Bahrain, attack Saudi Arabia, and spread its tentacles across Africa. And this transpired all while Iran violated the U.N. ban on Iranian arms imports and exports, the U.N. ban on the development of Iranian ballistic missiles, and the P5+1-ratified-by-the-U.N. ban on the development of nuclear weapons technology.
President Donald Trump harbors no such fantasies. He has already shown that <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2018/03/05/punishing-syrian-chemical-weapons-use/">retaliation</a> for acts of war is in his playbook. But he has also shown that it isn’t necessary to retaliate every time for every single thing — including Iran’s attack on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/world/middleeast/saudi-iran-attack-oil.html">Saudi oil facilities.</a>
As Iran’s tentacles have <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/09/03/the-shiite-crescent-and-regional-disaster/">spread farther</a>, it has begun to show signs of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-irans-imperial-overreach">imperial overreach</a>.” The re-imposition of American sanctions means Iran has fewer and fewer resources to stoke the flames of revolution extraterritorially. Rebellion against the clerical regime actually began in December 2017 — not 2019, when The New York Times began to report on it. Uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq began earlier this year — both decidedly anti-Iran and anti-clerical. And, as Iran watches Russia swallow Syria’s <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/78261">reconstruction money</a> for its own purposes, the mullahs appear to have decided it is now time for Iran to reassert itself.
Iranian forces are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-says-it-shot-rioters-after-rights-group-claims-200-n1094651">out in the streets</a> of multiple Iranian cities and the U.S. confirms that the death toll among demonstrators is <a href="https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/voa-news-iran/us-confirms-report-citing-iran-officials-saying-1500-killed-protests">more than 1,500</a>, including hundreds of women. The ayatollahs have cut off the internet, to the extent they can, to prevent Western understanding of the devastation. Iranian-backed Shiite militias have been out in force in Iraq — not only in Baghdad, but in Shiite cities across the south of the county. The <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/lebanon-military-forces-must-end-arbitrary-arrests-and-torture-of-protesters/">Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)</a> plus Hezbollah militias are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">trying to get Lebanon</a> under control with some brutal tactics.
It hasn’t been working very well.
A wounded adversary is the most dangerous. The 1944 Battle of the Bulge reflected Hitler’s understanding that the Allies would not be held off forever, so he wanted to make it harder and bloodier to reach V-E Day. Emperor Hirohito’s determination that every Japanese civilian would fight to the death on the mainland — knowing defeat was inevitable — was the impetus for President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb (in part) to short-circuit the casualty count, assessed by analysts to be in the millions.
This is NOT a suggestion that the U.S. storm Iran — or heaven forbid, use an atomic or other weapon against Iranian cities. Not, not, not!
It is, however, a reminder of what we face. Iran has been begging for the sort of American retaliation that it could (A) use to try to bring its population together in opposition to the “Great Satan,” or (B) use to launch Hezbollah to attack Israel, presenting the U.S. with the conundrum that legitimate American retaliation might harm an ally. The death of an American contractor and wounding of several American soldiers last week in Iraq — in a barrage of more than 30 rockets — followed weeks of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-launches-strikes-in-iraq-and-syria-targeting-iran-backed-militia-pentagon-says/2019/12/29/28c12e22-2a64-11ea-be79-83e793dbcaef_story.html">Pentagon warnings</a> that Iranian-backed groups in Iraq were likely to attack U.S. forces there.
American retaliation was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-launches-strikes-in-iraq-and-syria-targeting-iran-backed-militia-pentagon-says/2019/12/29/28c12e22-2a64-11ea-be79-83e793dbcaef_story.html">precise, hitting three sites</a>: Weapons storage facilities and locations the militia used to plan attacks against coalition forces.
What happens next is unclear. At this writing, reinforcements for the U.S. embassy have been called in. But there is a clear understanding in Washington that this is not an uprising of Iraqis against the United States. These are Iranian acts of war. Where American retaliation goes will, no doubt, take that into account.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

Outraged Iraqi protesters storm US embassy in Baghdad

BRYEN: The Unyielding Iranian Menace

Iraq

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Islamic State (ISIS)

Lebanon

New York Times

Nuclear Weapons

The war on motherhood continues. Feminists at the United Nations decried one of the most cherished aspects of being a woman as a “penalty” that keeps them from achieving their potential.
In a tweet posted on Christmas Eve, the verified U.N. Women Twitter account published a picture of a fake “violation” related to motherhood, saying, “Not every woman can afford the penalty #WomensProgress2019 #FamiliesOfToday.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Not every woman can afford the penalty.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WomensProgress2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WomensProgress2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FamiliesOfToday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FamiliesOfToday</a> <a href="https://t.co/86DxuKJedJ">pic.twitter.com/86DxuKJedJ</a>
— UN Women (@UN_Women) <a href="https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1209709117297831936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The words “Motherhood penalty” appear in big, bold letters at the top of the photo. Below that an “Issue No.” appears, followed by the name of the “officer” (P. Atriarchy, because of course). Following that, the “Date” and “Time” for the ticket says “Beginning of Time.”
The “violation” is listed as “being a mother.” Next to that, a list of “penalties” allegedly incurred. Here’s the list:
<blockquote>-More unpaid care and domestic work
-Irregular work
-Reduced employment
-Limited maternity benefits
-Gender-based occupational segregation
-Gender pay gaps
-Higher rates of poverty in older age</blockquote>
Forget for a moment that most women find motherhood to be a blessing and a joy, and remember that the alleged penalties listed by the U.N. relate to the choices women make once they become mothers.
For example, most mothers wouldn’t count caring for their children as a penalty, yet the U.N. does. Reduced employment comes from women choosing to leave the workforce to care for their children full-time instead. Men tend to take on more work in order to support the family so that women can be with the children.
Limited maternity benefits, if we’re talking about employer-provided benefits, is an actual issue. Women need time to recover after giving birth, and employers should see the benefits that come from motherhood.
Gender-based occupational segregation likely refers to women gravitating toward certain jobs. This is not a problem. Women are better at some jobs and men are better at others. So what if women end up taking careers that allow them the flexibility to spend time with their children? That makes them smarter. Life is not all about work.
It&#8217;s funny, the Left complains about capitalism and the wealthy, yet they are the ones who reduce people to how much money they make.
Speaking of earnings, no list that tries to paint women as natural-born victims would be complete without mentioning the gender wage gap. As I’ve written too many times to count, the wage gap is a myth. It is actually an earnings gap due to the different choices men and women make in their careers. Countries with more freedom tend to have larger wage gaps because, gasp, when people are allowed to make their own choices, they will choose what works best for them, not for gender studies majors.
Women do not suddenly see their salaries slashed when they become mothers, nor do fathers get raises. Instead, women tend to choose to work fewer hours – leading to lower earnings – while men tend to work more after becoming a father.
There is no motherhood penalty. There are tradeoffs, sure, but the way the U.N. is portraying motherhood is not only wrong, but cruel.

Motherhood

U.N. Tweet Claims Motherhood Is A ‘Penalty’ Not Every Woman ‘Can Afford’

Gender Wage Gap

The United Nations General Assembly (GA) doesn’t take itself seriously. Unlike U.N. Security Council resolutions, GA pronouncements have no enforcement mechanism and often serve only to permit countries to vent — mostly at Israel. But this travesty helps determine the allocation of general U.N. funds — American tax dollars among them, albeit fewer under the Trump administration. So, it is worth parsing the activity of the GA last week.
Thirty-five resolutions were proposed in the GA by the U.N. Special Political and Decolonization Committee. The Committee, which includes Syria, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, has no North American, Western European, or Scandinavian members. Twenty-seven resolutions used general language and named no specific country; eight targeted Israel.
If you thought this would be a good time for the U.N. to recognize the <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/11/18/has-the-iranian-empire-overreached/">desperate efforts</a> of the people of Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran to throw off repressive and kleptocratic governments — and specifically, to rid themselves of the destructive machinations of the mullahs of Iran — the GA didn’t agree with you.
If you were waiting for the U.N. to condemn horrific violations against the people of Syria by its own government and aided by Russia and Iran, or to stand up for the Rohingya who have been forced out of Myanmar, or to consider the plight of the Muslim Uighurs of China herded into camps, you’re still waiting.
Slave labor in Qatar; Venezuelans reduced to eating garbage; North Koreans with no discernible human rights; Palestinian-Arab children taught that the highest form of life is death — their own and that of as many Jews as possible; civil war in Libya; increasing repression of the press and of dissent in Russia — all ignored. Turkey, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Saudi Arabia — ignored.
OK, actually Syria was mentioned — in the context of Israel’s “illegal occupation” of the “Syrian Golan Heights.” Ninety-five countries voted for Israel to stop “repressive measures against the population of the occupied Syrian Golan” and return the territory to Syria. <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12220.doc.htm">Nine countries voted against</a> and 65 abstained. How many Arab Druze residents of the Golan do you suppose would have voted to be returned to Bashar al-Assad’s rule?
UNRWA, the <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2018/01/08/free-palestinians-end-unrwa-funding/">intergenerational jailor</a> of Palestinians in various countries, was mentioned in four resolutions, one of which extended its mandate until 2023. That passed 167–5 with 7 abstentions. There was no mention of the <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/report-alleges-ethical-abuses-at-un-agency-for-palestinians">serious allegations</a> of financial corruption and sexual assault against its inmates.
One resolution related to a “Special Committee” investigation on Israeli human rights practices, one was on houses for Jews where the U.N. doesn’t want them (156–6 with 15 abstentions), and one was on “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people” (154–8 with 15 abstentions).
There are some “good guys” here. The United States, which changed its vote from “abstain” to “no” on the settlement resolution, and Israel. Then, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and the United Kingdom voted “no” on one or more resolutions. The <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12220.doc.htm">representative of Brazil</a> expressed support for less biased texts, noting that human resources should not be used to promote biased views.
Bravo, all.
But what about all those abstentions? Israel has very good relations with Cameroon, Togo, Rwanda and Vanuatu, for example — all of which abstained on at least one resolution and voted for the others. Much of Western Europe abstains and pretends — like the GA itself — that it doesn’t matter. It matters because of the money — but more important, it matters for countries to be honest and honorable, and it matters in the end because GA resolutions can be defeated. The particularly nasty resolution about “Israeli practices affecting the human right of the Palestinian people” passed by a vote of 82–11 with 78 abstentions. If the abstainers had voted “no,” the vote would have been 89–82 AGAINST a U.N. travesty.
The U.N. is a pit. The Trump administration has chosen to deal with it by withdrawing from and withholding money from specific U.N. entities that are particularly awful — <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621435225/u-s-announces-its-withdrawal-from-u-n-s-human-rights-council">the Human Rights Council</a>, UNRWA and the <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/11/16/the-paris-agreement-and-federalism/">UN Climate Pact</a>, for starters — and stating the American case forcefully within the building.
It is probably the right call.
Israel has been asked an infinite number of times why it doesn’t just throw in the towel and leave, but Ambassador Danny Danon told inFOCUS Magazine in an interview:
<blockquote>There is a gap between the public U.N. and the private U.N. Publicly, they will condemn Israel, but privately they admire Israel … in every bilateral meeting I have with a head of state, I say, “We want to see the great bilateral relations or trade relations that you have with Israel reflected when it comes to a vote in the U.N.”</blockquote>
To the extent Danon is successful, there is a path for America and Israel to persevere and convince abstainers to vote their consciences — and reality.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Magazine.

U.N. logo

BRYEN: The U.N. General Assembly Is A Joke. But Let’s Take It Seriously.

Led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the contingent of impeachment investigators in Congress continue to garner headlines over the probe into the administration’s alleged corruption and solicitation of foreign interference. But perhaps Schiff and his colleagues should first clean their own house.
Flying well under the radar of the ongoing impeachment frenzy was the news that the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund (Armenia Fund) recently <a href="https://jam-news.net/armenian-telethon-charity-drive-raises-record-low-of-10-mln-in-wake-of-scandal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jam-news.net/armenian-telethon-charity-drive-raises-record-low-of-10-mln-in-wake-of-scandal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGlD5vfR-IDCz23fHUhqSeeshriIA">raised a record-low $10 million</a> during its annual telethon a year after the <a href="http://asbarez.com/173346/hayastan-all-armenian-funds-director-arrested-for-embezzlement/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://asbarez.com/173346/hayastan-all-armenian-funds-director-arrested-for-embezzlement/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE5YZflNFXABHuRX2xu6X2sx5KBqg">arrest of its director, Ara Vardanyan</a>, on charges of embezzlement and misuse of funds. The same telethon raised <a href="http://asbarez.com/59644/more-than-35-million-raised-in-armenia-fund-telethon/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://asbarez.com/59644/more-than-35-million-raised-in-armenia-fund-telethon/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrKnz6j7yda4c6GcS9lQ7TdYB8xA">$11.1 million in 2018</a>, <a href="https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/11/24/Hayastan-All-Armenian-Fund-Telethon/1869753" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/11/24/Hayastan-All-Armenian-Fund-Telethon/1869753&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHOo-uCNY5W9n6RVj_NMVuvHy7fyA">$12.5 million in 2017</a>, <a href="https://anca.org/15-4-million-raised-in-2016-armenia-fund-telethon/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://anca.org/15-4-million-raised-in-2016-armenia-fund-telethon/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE1nKOxEp82Nts1lmAfW5DAMJesig">$15.4 million in 2016</a>, and <a href="http://asbarez.com/59644/more-than-35-million-raised-in-armenia-fund-telethon/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://asbarez.com/59644/more-than-35-million-raised-in-armenia-fund-telethon/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHrKnz6j7yda4c6GcS9lQ7TdYB8xA">$35 million back in 2008</a>. Notice a pattern?
The declining fund’s supporters and telethon guests over the years include House Democrats like Reps. Schiff, Jackie Speier (CA), Frank Pallone (NJ), Tulsi Gabbard (HI), and Brad Sherman (CA), among others. All are highly vocal in the impeachment conversation. (Gabbard initially <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/463071-tulsi-gabbard-transcript-doesnt-show-compelling-case-for-impeachment" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/463071-tulsi-gabbard-transcript-doesnt-show-compelling-case-for-impeachment&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH2g24aMJKHWedSqJxKvVSAJiOgow">expressed hesitation</a> about impeachment, but later <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/tulsi-gabbard-supports-impeachment-inquiry/index.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/tulsi-gabbard-supports-impeachment-inquiry/index.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGp59HfUaFoH4UKNDNpIxiIk0THww">changed course</a>.) Yet their backing of the Armenia Fund could have the makings of its own foreign interference scandal.
The problems begin with the Armenia Fund’s history. Established by Armenian presidential decree in 1992 and setting up shop in Los Angeles in 1994, the fund <a href="https://www.armeniafund.org/about/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.armeniafund.org/about/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfMe6iHKUw3HfDXiygRoD12ry4QQ">calls itself</a> a “humanitarian organization serving the needs of the Republic of Armenia and the Artsakh Republic” that carries out a mission “to connect the people of Armenia with the worldwide Armenian Diaspora to create a better homeland for the Armenian nation.” The term “Artsakh” refers to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani territory that <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/13508.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/13508.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFbqZ84LfvVWeWyAkHCN792lAeAkQ">several U.N. resolutions</a> describe as being occupied by Armenia. Meanwhile, calling Nagorno-Karabakh a “republic” contradicts U.S. State Department policy, which <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/103560.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/103560.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679908000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGHPqwrxdaXEoEnt2-EIbu1dG8f-Q">doesn’t recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country</a> and holds that the territory’s future status “is a matter of negotiation between the parties.”
For its congressional advocates, the Armenia Fund poses a unique dilemma: How can Democrats on the one hand target President Trump’s associates in the impeachment process over their alleged activities as unregistered foreign agents, but on the other hand ignore that a foreign government-established fund <a href="http://usa.mfa.am/en/hayastan-fund/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://usa.mfa.am/en/hayastan-fund/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHqTbrYeBB6YiK2yCYhHN2nSQB9Nw">whose board president is Armenia’s own president</a> also remains unregistered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act?
While the Armenia Fund spotlights its work on infrastructure projects such as “schools, roads, hospitals, and community centers,” it is far from the innocuous “humanitarian” group it purports to be. The fund’s affiliates include the Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), two political lobbies that campaign in Congress for greater American funding of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. At their core, the Armenian lobbies’ activities serve to drive Armenia and Azerbaijan further away from peace, including through the ANCA’s <a href="https://anca.org/press-release/anca-reaffirms-support-for-osce-minsk-group-rejects-madrid-principles-as-a-flawed-plan-for-lasting-peace/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://anca.org/press-release/anca-reaffirms-support-for-osce-minsk-group-rejects-madrid-principles-as-a-flawed-plan-for-lasting-peace/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQHrA6LXLqjnWalhRhV-Mpov6dTg">rejection of the Madrid Principles</a>.
The July 2018 arrest of Armenia Fund leader Vardanyan exposed the corruption at an organization that was already deceiving the public as a political front group. The fund’s declining fundraising mirrors the broader <a href="https://spectator.org/the-rise-of-a-state-and-the-decline-of-another-2/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://spectator.org/the-rise-of-a-state-and-the-decline-of-another-2/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaKPIW_o4YdTggYKKOHvqMLVZn0w">decline of Armenia</a>, arguably the least independent of the post-Soviet states. Armenia has a <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/armenia-population/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/armenia-population/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGKrHikgU9z4OvVLT4SHlsX8yiT6Q">declining population</a> that exhibits what a Gallup poll has recorded as the <a href="https://eurasianet.org/why-is-armenia-angry" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://eurasianet.org/why-is-armenia-angry&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFfDv3Us37j4AJRb2yGcC-BXIlY1w">world’s greatest prevalence of anger</a>. That anger results from Armenia’s floundering, inflation-plagued economy and a so-called “Velvet Revolution” that has <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/26/beyond-armenias-velvet-revolution/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/26/beyond-armenias-velvet-revolution/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHLhBBOuqO-WWRzBKGNkvob9x_kAA">failed to deliver on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s promises of sweeping changes</a>. Namely, Pashinyan has overseen the persistence of both <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/04/09/armenia-isolated-backwater-dump-because-of-russia/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dailycaller.com/2018/04/09/armenia-isolated-backwater-dump-because-of-russia/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGAjH-Ry-kPw2OGWEvrmG22Ze_B9w">Moscow’s well-documented influence over Yerevan</a> and Armenia’s intransigence in the peace process with Azerbaijan.
Can Armenia turn around its economic malaise and extract itself from Russia’s orbit? Progress will likely be elusive as long as Armenia remains transfixed by its decades-long conflict with Azerbaijan. For the Armenian people, depending on the financial support of controversy-ridden outside groups such as the Armenia Fund will only breed more corruption and disappointment, while relying on the advocacy of the ANCA will continue to damage prospects for peace.
Simultaneously, House Democrats have done the Armenian people no favors by supporting the Armenia Fund and ANCA. Now, as they lead the charge on impeachment, it’s only fair to call out their hypocrisy. How can they stand against alleged presidential corruption when for years they backed an Armenian Diaspora telethon which has been exposed for its corruption? (During those same years, Armenia’s consul general in Los Angeles <a href="http://en.thegreatermiddleeast.com/2017/12/the-diplomatic-elephant-in-the-room-armenias-russian-oligarch-consul-general/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.thegreatermiddleeast.com/2017/12/the-diplomatic-elephant-in-the-room-armenias-russian-oligarch-consul-general/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFxUWlQMxtuGU18Ug0gGhZzWJ1bYA">was a Russian citizen and notorious oligarch</a>.) And how can they claim to be advocates for peace when they amplify the ANCA’s talking points, which are antithetical to peace?
It should come as no surprise to see such doublespeak coming from politicians like Schiff, the <a href="https://spectator.org/the-congressman-who-cried-wolf/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://spectator.org/the-congressman-who-cried-wolf/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEVzKvM6KnCTaJyhkFVp_vk7OCOsA">face of the impeachment probe</a> who is <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/schiff-hired-former-nsc-colleague-of-alleged-whistleblower-eric-ciaramella-the-day-after-trumps-ukraine-call" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/schiff-hired-former-nsc-colleague-of-alleged-whistleblower-eric-ciaramella-the-day-after-trumps-ukraine-call&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEZTUuJwmrCh8ZorwhbrO2isb3FKw">entangled in his own Ukraine scandal</a>; Gabbard, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/miller-tulsi-gabbard-pro-assad-candidate-2020-paul-miller" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/news/miller-tulsi-gabbard-pro-assad-candidate-2020-paul-miller&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEKFLv6IYiEfgbwow7G6rOKesN8qw">notoriously pro-Assad presidential candidate</a>; and Pallone, who in October landed in Nagorno-Karabakh on the Armenian government’s own military helicopter to <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2019/10/01/pallone-i-am-here-because-i-want-to-make-it-clear-that-artsakh-is-a-state-a-democratic-nation/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://armenianweekly.com/2019/10/01/pallone-i-am-here-because-i-want-to-make-it-clear-that-artsakh-is-a-state-a-democratic-nation/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFHGR-iPgvwf0epI7oPBu-5s4_xdA">urge the end of security assistance to a U.S. ally, Azerbaijan</a>.
Until they distance themselves from the Armenian-American fundraising and lobbying apparatus, these lawmakers have virtually no credibility as voices in the debate on foreign influence and impeachment.
&nbsp;
Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://salomoncenter.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGpdyXx56KnSUcPnrupcOqwyJFL5Q">Haym Salomon Center</a>. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/pauliespoint" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/pauliespoint&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1576604679909000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvssir9fRSC1FevwmmoZR6XEqk-Q">@pauliespoint</a>.

Adam Schiff and House Democrats

MILLER: Impeachment-Focused House Democrats Should Clean Their Own House

Adam Schiff

Armenians

Democratic Party

Impeachment

State Department

U.S. House of Representatives

On Sunday as a two-week global climate summit in Madrid began, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pontificated that the world must stop a “war against nature” and intensify its efforts to fight climate change. Guterres uttered, “Our war against nature must stop, and we know that it is possible,” adding, “We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions,” according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-accord-guterres/war-against-nature-must-stop-u-n-chief-says-before-climate-talks-idUSKBN1Y514H?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews">Reuters</a>. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7744673/UN-chief-warns-climate-change-point-no-return-hurtling-us.html">The Daily Mail</a> added that Guterres hyperventilated, &#8220;The point of no return is no longer over the horizon. It is in sight and hurtling toward us.&#8221;
Guterres argued that a number of nations have not met the specifications outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. He insisted that the promises made by 70 countries to reach “carbon neutrality” or “climate neutrality” by 2050 were insufficient, stating, “We also see clearly that the world’s largest emitters are not pulling their weight, and without them, our goal is unreachable.”
Guterres asserted, “I don’t even want to entertain the possibility that we do not agree on article 6. We are here to approve guidelines to implement article 6, not to find excuses not to do it.”
The <a href="https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/article-6-important/">International Chamber of Commerce</a> wrote about Article 6:
<blockquote>Article 6 of the Paris Agreement aims at promoting integrated, holistic and balanced approaches that will assist governments in implementing their NDCs through voluntary international cooperation. This cooperation mechanism, if properly designed, should make it easier to achieve reduction targets and raise ambition. In particular, Article 6 could also establish a policy foundation for an emissions trading system, which could help lead to a global price on carbon.
Under this mechanism, countries with low emissions would be allowed to sell their exceeding allowance to larger emitters, with an overall cap of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ensuring their net reduction. Supply and demand for emissions allowances would lead to the establishment of a global carbon price that would tie the negative externalities of GHG emissions to polluters. In other words, by paying a price on carbon, states exceeding their NDCs would bear the costs of global warming.</blockquote>
<a href="https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/paris_nov_2015/application/pdf/paris_agreement_english_.pdf">Article 6</a> of the Paris Agreement states:
<ol>
<li>Parties recognize that some Parties choose to pursue voluntary cooperation in the implementation of their nationally determined contributions to allow for higher ambition in their mitigation and adaptation actions and to promote sustainable development and environmental integrity. 2. Parties shall, where engaging on a voluntary basis in cooperative approaches that involve the use of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes towards nationally determined contributions, promote sustainable development and ensure environmental integrity and transparency, including in governance, and shall apply robust accounting to ensure, inter alia, the avoidance of double counting, consistent with guidance adopted by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Agreement.</li>
</ol>
As Christopher C. Horner and Marlo Lewis, Jr. wrote for the Competitive Enterprise Institute in a comprehensive <a href="https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Chris%20Horner%20and%20Marlo%20Lewis%20-%20The%20Legal%20and%20Economic%20Case%20Against%20the%20Paris%20Climate%20Treaty.pdf">piece detailing the legal and economic case against the Paris Agreement</a>:
<blockquote>The Paris Agreement is a costly and ineffectual solution to the alleged climate crisis. It is also plainly a treaty, despite President Obama’s attempt to implement it without the Senate’s advice and consent … In America’s constitutional system, treaties must obtain the advice and consent of the Senate before the United States may lawfully join them. President Obama deemed the Paris Agreement to not be a treaty in order to evade constitutional review, which the Agreement almost certainly would not have survived … The Agreement endangers America’s capacity for self-government. It empowers one administration to make legislative commitments for decades to come, without congressional authorization, and regardless of the outcome of future elections. It would also make U.S. energy policies increasingly unaccountable to voters, and increasingly beholden to the demands of foreign leaders, U.N. bureaucrats, and international pressure groups.</blockquote>
They added, “U.S. industry has a huge energy price advantage over its global competitors, which underpins the American manufacturing revival Trump campaigned on. The climate policies required to meet President Obama’s emission reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement would destroy that edge. Obama pledged to reduce U.S. emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, with deeper cuts every five years thereafter. That is already significant, but he went much further. He also committed the United States to rapidly phase out fossil fuels over 35 years.”

Madrid Prepares For UNFCCC COP25 Climate Conference

U.N. Chief Warns At Global Warming Summit: ‘Stop Digging And Drilling’

Climate Change

Global Warming

Iran has publicly revealed for the first time that it has an active legal case involving former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing inside Iran in 2007 under suspicious circumstances.
In a filing to the United Nations, Iran wrote: “According to the last statement of Tehran’s Justice Department, Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran.”
&#8220;Mr. Levinson was last seen alive about eight years ago, in a hostage video pleading for help and in photographs wearing a Guantánamo-style jumpsuit,&#8221; The Associated Press <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/world/middleeast/iran-robert-levinson.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The images did not disclose who was holding him, though the video has a Pashtun wedding song popular in Afghanistan playing in the background.&#8221;
It was not clear how long the case had been open or the events that started it.
The news came after the Trump administration announced on Monday — which was the anniversary of when Iranian terrorists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the Iranian regime took over 50 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days — that it was offering a $20 million reward for information leading to Levinson&#8217;s safe recovery.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.state.gov/on-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-u-s-embassy-takeover-in-tehran/">said</a> in a statement:
<blockquote>The Trump Administration has made clear that the regime in Iran must release all missing and wrongfully detained Americans, including Robert Levinson, Xiyue Wang, Siamak Namazi, and others.  We will not rest until they are reunited with their families.
Additionally, today the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program is advertising a new reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the safe location, recovery, and return of Robert Levinson, who was taken hostage in Iran with the involvement of the Iranian regime.  Mr. Levinson is the longest-held hostage in U.S. history.</blockquote>
The $20 million reward offered by the Trump administration is in addition to a $5 million reward being offered by the FBI.
Iran&#8217;s filing at the U.N. came in response to a 2016 complaint that the Levinson family filed with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Involuntary Disappearances.
The family was told at the time not to expect a response from Iran.
Iran&#8217;s response to the family comes as the Islamic regime is being crushed by U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program, which Iran has illegally restarted in defiance of an agreement they signed.
&#8220;Mr. Levinson disappeared from Kish Island, off the coast of Iran, on March 9, 2007. For years, United States officials would only say that Mr. Levinson, a meticulous F.B.I. investigator credited with busting Russian and Italian mobsters, was working for a private firm on his trip,&#8221; The AP added. &#8220;In December 2013, The A.P. revealed that Levinson had in fact been on a mission for C.I.A. analysts who had no authority to run spy operations. Mr. Levinson’s family had received a $2.5 million annuity from the C.I.A. in order to stop a lawsuit revealing details of his work, while the agency forced out three veteran analysts and disciplined seven others.&#8221;
The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/08/ray-light-mysterious-case-an-american-missing-iran/">reported</a> that after the U.S. government &#8220;showed little evidence of working to free Levinson&#8221; under former President Barack Obama, the Levinson family believes that President Donald Trump has made the case a top priority
“We’re encouraged. This administration is engaged and completely committed to bringing my dad home,” the family told The Post. “They’ve taken it as a personal mission. I think they care passionately about bringing my dad and other Americans home.”

Robert Levinson

Iran Acknowledges That FBI Agent Gone Missing Since 2007 Involved In Ongoing Court Case

<div class="el__leafmedia el__leafmedia--sourced-paragraph">
Thirty-six environmentalists were four weeks into their &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/americas/chile-climate-voyage-canceled-scli-intl/index.html?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_term=link&amp;utm_content=2019-10-31T20%3A30%3A12&amp;utm_source=twCNN">grueling voyage</a>&#8221; by sailboat to Chile for a United Nations climate change summit, COP25, when they leaned the event had been canceled.
The activists, known as the Sail to the COP group, took a cue from young climate change figurehead Greta Thunberg and opted for a sailboat ride over a plane ride. According to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/americas/chile-climate-voyage-canceled-scli-intl/index.html?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_term=link&amp;utm_content=2019-10-31T20%3A30%3A12&amp;utm_source=twCNN">CNN</a>, Thunberg expressed her approval of Sail to the COP via Twitter at the end of October.
The activists, who left from Amsterdam, were halfway to Chile when they found out the devastating news.
&#8220;After a long assessment process, the Chilean Government has made the painful decision of not to host the Climate Summit COP25,&#8221; the COP25 Twitter account posted Wednesday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
After a long assessment process, the Chilean Government has made the painful decision of not to host the Climate Summit COP25. <a href="https://t.co/bH0f1nOv0R">pic.twitter.com/bH0f1nOv0R</a>
&mdash; COP25 (@COP25CL) <a href="https://twitter.com/COP25CL/status/1189621397032783872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As noted by CNN, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera pulled out as host of the summit &#8220;amid protests that have left at least 20 people dead and led to the resignation of eight cabinet ministers.&#8221;
&#8220;The Sail to the Group participants prove to be a strong and reliant group after four intense weeks of sailing,&#8221; the climate change activists posted in a <a href="https://twitter.com/sailtothecop/status/1189868224093073410">statement</a> on Thursday. &#8220;After the initial shock and sadness the news brought, everyone came together determined to continue what we started: putting the climate impact of aviation on the international agenda.&#8221;
Sail to the COP is now headed for Belém, Brazil, instead.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
📢UPDATE: We are continuing our journey to Belém, Brasil today, while our thoughts are with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chile?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chile</a>! 🌊🌊From there we can still make it to a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COP25?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COP25</a> held in Costa Rica or Bonn, most likely options at the moment. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateAction?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ClimateAction</a> is unstoppable! 🌏 <a href="https://t.co/DP7u9TYYYh">pic.twitter.com/DP7u9TYYYh</a>
&mdash; Sail to the COP (@sailtothecop) <a href="https://twitter.com/sailtothecop/status/1189868224093073410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
<div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable">Before the cancellation, the group boasted online of its journey — on what appears to be a very small sailboat for 36 adults.</div>
<div></div>
<div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable">&#8220;We are doing the first ever [Global Climathon] on the Atlantic Ocean! Spread out over three days (instead of 24 hours) due to sailing tasks, we will finish tonight with a big pitching event in the ship’s saloon,&#8221; one tweet said. </div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We are doing the first ever <a href="https://twitter.com/GlobalClimathon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GlobalClimathon</a> on the Atlantic Ocean! Spread out over three days (instead of 24 hours) due to sailing tasks, we will finish tonight with a big pitching event in the ship’s saloon 🌊🍸🏆<a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateKIC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ClimateKIC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateCrisis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ClimateCrisis</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateEmergency?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ClimateEmergency</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/flyless?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#flyless</a> <a href="https://t.co/n4LxIT4Fk5">pic.twitter.com/n4LxIT4Fk5</a>
&mdash; Sail to the COP (@sailtothecop) <a href="https://twitter.com/sailtothecop/status/1188079258851258369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<div>
<div class="css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5 r-1mlwlqe r-1d2f490 r-1udh08x r-u8s1d r-h9hxbl r-417010" aria-label="🌊">
Thunberg, leading the charge for climate change extremism focused primarily on the West, gave a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-trolls-greta-thunberg-over-mass-extinction-ryan-saavedra">radical speech</a> at the UN in September, where she warned of &#8220;mass extinction.&#8221;
&#8220;My message is that we’ll be watching you,&#8221; warned the 16-year-old. &#8220;This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here, I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope, how dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet, I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.&#8221;
Thunberg continued: &#8220;How dare you pretend that this can be sold with just business as usual and some technical solutions with today’s emissions levels that remaining CO2 budgets will be entirely gone within less than 8 and a half years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line the world is waking up and change is coming whether you like it or not.&#8221;
</div>
</div>

Greta Thunberg

OUCH: Activists Four Weeks Into Boat Ride To U.N. Climate Summit Learn It’s Cancelled

China’s influence was on full display Tuesday as 23 member nations of the United Nations signed on to a statement from the United Kingdom condemning the communist country’s human rights abuses – only to have 54 other nations praise China’s human rights.
The stunning turnout occurred after U.K. Ambassador Karen Pierce introduced a statement that condemned China for “detention; efforts to restrict cultural and religious practices; mass surveillance disproportionately targeting ethnic Uighurs; and other human rights violations and abuses.&#8221;
“We call on the Chinese government to uphold its national laws and international obligations and commitments to respect human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, in Xinjiang and across China,” the statement continued.
Radio Free Asia <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/uyghur-un-statement-house-passes-bill-10302019173527.html">reported</a> that the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and others backed the statement.
But after Pierce’s statement gained support, 54 other member nations gave their support to a statement from Belarus Ambassador Valentin Rybakov that praised China’s record on human rights.
“Now safety and security have returned to Xinjiang and fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there are safeguarded,” Rybakov said, as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uighur-muslim-china-xinjiang-united-nations-human-rights-uk-religious-freedom-a9177191.html">reported</a> by The Intercept.
“We commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights.”
The 54 nations that signed off on Rybakov’s statement included Egypt, Russia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pakistan.
As RFA reported, many of the countries that supported China “have been on the receiving end of human rights criticism, including Russia, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
A few months ago, a similar situation took place at the U.N. when 22 countries on the U.N. Human Rights Council wrote a letter condemning China’s human rights abuses. At the time, ambassadors from 37 other nations wrote a follow-up letter in support of China. As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-prisoner-in-one-of-chinas-re-education-camps-speaks-out-torture-and-rape-were-common">reported</a>, China has given enough money to countries in the Middle East that even they signed onto the letter praising China, even though the communist nation’s human rights abuses largely involve Muslim minority groups.
China has more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim-minorities imprisoned in internment camps. China for years denied the camps existed, but have recently admitted they existed but claimed they were educational facilities where families could learn new skills. The camps are marketed as ways to cut down on Islamic terrorism in the country. Those who have survived the camps have said inmates are routinely sexually abused, tortured, and even experimented on.
Anyone who even dares speak out about the camps inevitably gets detained. Himit Qri, police chief of Ucha township in Kuchar County, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-chief-in-china-expresses-concern-over-re-education-camp-gets-detained">was detained</a> after he criticized the camps at an event. He also suggested “many people died” at one of the camps. A later report suggested at least <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-man-held-in-one-of-chinas-internment-camps-was-beaten-to-death-by-a-drunk-police-officer">150 people had been killed</a> at just one of the four detention centers in Kuchar County in past six months.
The situation at the U.N. highlights the international body’s problems. Israel, the only Democratic nation in the Middle East, has more statements of condemnation than Russia, China, or North Korea.

UN boy

23 U.N. Member States Condemn China’s Human Rights Abuses; Twice As Many Praise The Communist Country

human rights

Human Rights Council

Last week, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44424/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">Jewish politics</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43388/hammer-anti-semites-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-josh-hammer">anti-Semitism</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50850/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9hH2jloilc">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss the revelation that 2020 Democratic Party presidential <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">statistical frontrunner</a> Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elizabeth-warren-could-pull-military-aid-israel-settlements-1466680">threatening</a> to withhold U.S. military aid to Israel if Israel does not make the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">&#8220;two-state solution&#8221;</a> land concessions that a President Warren might envision. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-elizabeth-warren-says-shes-open-to-cutting-off-aid-to-israel">reported</a> last week, Warren said that &#8220;everything&#8221; — meaning aid — would potentially be &#8220;on the table.&#8221;
Hammer began his segment with Wheeler by explaining how clearly Warren telegraphed her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schachtel-elizabeth-warren-completes-her-total-jordan-schachtel">hard turn</a> against Israel — including her hiring of ex-<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-bashing-group-ifnotnows-recent-josh-hammer">IfNotNow</a> co-founder Max Berger as a high-ranking <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ifnotnow-co-founder-max-berger-brings-progressive-fight-to-warren-camp/">campaign staffer</a>:
<blockquote>Elizabeth Warren is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination in a year in which the Democratic Party has just gone crazy. &#8230; [Warren] hired someone named Max Berger as one of her progressive campaign outreach chairs. Max Berger is a co-founder of a despicable, far-left, self-hating, Jew-hating group, IfNotNow. IfNotNow is so radically left that they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hellenized-jews-ifnotnow-protesters-disrupt-josh-hammer">protest Shabbat services</a> — for Jews observing Sabbath. They&#8217;ve been known to say Kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourners prayer, for Hamas jihadists who have been fired at or had been killed by IDF rocket fire.
She surrounds herself, much like Bernie Sanders, with Israel-hating, I would say Jew-hating, anti-Semites. And this is honestly very sad, but it&#8217;s hardly unexpected. As soon as I saw that she hired Max Berger this summer, I thought, okay, we&#8217;re gonna get to exactly where we now see that she&#8217;s gotten. Well, the only positive thing — the only silver lining here — is that we at least are seeing her true colors before it&#8217;s too late</blockquote>
Wheeler continued by additionally pointing out that Warren&#8217;s narrative is factually misleading, to boot, because it is simply dishonest to objectively view the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and conclude that Israel is the barrier to peace. Hammer agreed:
<blockquote>My friend David Brog, who used to be the executive director of Christians United for Israel and now runs a group called Maccabee Task Force, he did a really wonderful <a href="https://www.prageru.com/video/why-isnt-there-a-palestinian-state/">video for PragerU</a> &#8230; where he really nicely goes back to the history to the beginning of the 20th century and he systemically shows, over and over again, that it is the Palestinian-Arabs who are the obstacles for peace. They have turned down Israeli offers for peace as far back as the United Nations&#8217; original two-state partition in November 1948, where the Jews accepted a tiny sliver of land — barely enough to sustain a civilization — and the Arabs said no and then tried to kill the Jews the very next day. The same thing happened in 2000 at Camp David, it happened in 2008 when Ehud Olmert [offered two states, much like Ehud Barak in 2000].
And then also, in 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu, as a sign of goodwill to Barack Obama, did exactly what Liz Warren wants Israel&#8217;s to do: A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html">10-month freeze</a> on so-called &#8220;settlements.&#8221; The so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; are actually <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZBjoeeehg">legally fine</a> — the Left is wrong, but we can talk about that perhaps another day — but he actually froze so-called &#8220;settlements&#8221; for 10 months and you know what? Mahmoud Abbas, currently in the 15th year of his four-year term &#8230; he did not even come to the negotiating table after a 10-month full-on &#8220;settlement&#8221; freeze from Netanyahu. So the Palestinians, over and over again, Liz, show who they really are. &#8230; They have no interest in peace. All they want are dead Jews.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="Elizabeth Warren Threatens To Withhold Aid To Israel" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qyMOT_2sZ4Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 10.22.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: Elizabeth Warren Is An Israel-Hater

2020 Election

Elizabeth Warren

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Leftism

As former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani finds himself <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/465168-giuliani-associates-who-aided-ukraine-investigation-arrested-on">squarely engulfed</a> in the Ukraine scandal and impeachment inquiry surrounding President Donald Trump, one piece of the puzzle simply does not seem to fit.
If anything is a given about contemporary Republican Party foreign policy, it is a hawkish stance on Iran. That unified front is led by a president who pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal and continues to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/world/middleeast/trump-sanctions-iran.html">impose new sanctions against Tehran</a>. Giuliani, too, talks tough towards the Iranians — most recently <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/a/giuliani-says-i-am-for-regime-change-in-iran/30182912.html">backing regime change and declaring “down with the tyrants in Iran”</a> when he spoke at a rally outside U.N. headquarters in September.
Yet Giuliani was on the cusp of making a paid appearance at the Armenian-hosted conference of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a gathering held October 1st–2nd amid the <a href="https://en.mehrnews.com/news/150676/Iran-to-join-Eurasian-Economic-Union-EAEU-from-October">formalization of Iran’s future membership</a> in that Russian-led trade alliance that consists of five former Soviet republics. Although Giuliani <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html?outputType=amp">ultimately cancelled his 2019 EAEU appearance</a>, he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-headlines-conference-promoting-russia-organized-2018-10">attended the same conference last year</a> and is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/democratic-senators-renew-questions-about-rudy-giuliani-s-apparent-work-n1058686">coming under rising scrutiny</a> for his <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine?utm_content=bufferf7573&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">mysterious overseas travel — including to Armenia</a>.
Created to counter the influence of the European Union, the EAEU’s anti-Western approach is particularly apparent through its embrace of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. After the Moscow-based EAEU <a href="https://eurasianet.org/armenia-hopes-to-benefit-from-new-iran-eurasian-union-free-trade-deal">reached a free trade deal with the Iranians last year</a>, EAEU member Armenia this past April signed a <a href="http://www.iran-daily.com/News/251511.html">memorandum of understanding on customs cooperation</a> with Iran in which the two countries agreed to exchange information on the value of goods and vehicles transported through their shared border. In other words, commerce between Tehran and Yerevan flows without restrictions.
On a broader strategic level, both the free trade and customs deals were envisioned as pillars of a bridge linking Iran, the EAEU, and the EU. The final pillar will be cemented on October 27th, when Iran formally joins the EAEU and gains the ability to have its goods “exported to [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia] with almost zero tariffs,” according to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Simultaneously, Iran is prepared to increase the natural gas its supplies to Armenia, Rouhani <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/amp/iranian-president-again-offers-closer-ties-to-armenia/30193900.html?__twitter_impression=true">said at the EAEU conference</a>.
It should come as no surprise that the rapid growth of EAEU-Iran ties is spearheaded by Armenia, the only EAEU member which shares a border with Iran. Armenia is also the only EAEU state which maintains a “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement” with the EU, meaning that the warm economic ties between Tehran and Yerevan could have a domino effect throughout Europe.
Further, Armenia has a long and ongoing history of offering Iran an escape route from international sanctions. Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-sanctions-armenia/exclusive-iran-looks-to-armenia-to-skirt-bank-sanctions-idUSBRE87K05420120821">has reported</a> that Armenian banks help the Iranian regime “obfuscate payments to and from foreign clients and deceive Western intelligence agencies trying to prevent it from expanding its nuclear and missile programs.” In August, the U.S. <a href="https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/08/15/us-sanctions-two-armenian-firms/">levied sanctions</a> on two Armenian companies over their business ties with Iran. And upon meeting with Rouhani at the EAEU gathering, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan affirmed that despite U.S. sanctions, Armenia’s “relations with Iran must be beyond geopolitical influences.”
All of which brings us to the recent EAEU conference, where Giuliani was set to participate in a panel led by Sergey Glazyev, a longtime adviser to Russian President Vladimiar Putin who has been subjected to U.S. sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Giuliani had been the only American scheduled to speak at the gathering.
How did this former Republican presidential candidate make his way onto an anti-Western conference’s agenda this year, while actually attending the same summit last year? <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine?utm_content=bufferf7573&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">According to ProPublica</a>, Giuliani’s 2018 EAEU appearance was funded by Ara Abramyan, chair of the Union of Russian Armenians and president of the World Armenian Congress.
Abramyan also sits on the advisory board of TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, which has been organizing trips to Russia and Ukraine since 2004 for the ex-mayor’s Giuliani Partners, and has been described by The New York Times as “a company that provides image consulting to Russian oligarchs and clients with deep Kremlin ties.”
Before he cancelled his 2019 EAEU appearance, Giuliani had quipped in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html?outputType=amp">comments to The Washington Post</a> that he would “try to not knowingly talk to a Russian until this is all over.” Yet it is no laughing matter. By opening the door to free trade, the EAEU has set in motion a slippery slope that may lead Iranian businesses directly to the EU. It is a nightmare scenario in which anti-West meets West, and shockingly, one of its enablers is a high-profile Republican who is presumably aligned with his peers when it comes to cracking down on Iranian aggression.
That is why despite his eventual pullout from the EAEU conference, the question remains: Why would Giuliani even consider attending?
&nbsp;
<a href="http://jessebogner.com/">Jesse Bogner</a> is an author and journalist. His memoir and social critique, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Egotist-Memoir-Jesse-Bogner-ebook/dp/B0174UNI66/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452620828&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=the+egotist">The Egotist</a>, has been translated into five languages. His work has been featured in The Daily Caller, MSN, and The Huffington Post.

Rudy Giuliani

BOGNER: The Curious Case Of Rudy Giuliani, Iran, and Armenia

Ukraine

Vladimir Putin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his United Nations General Assembly speech last week to blast Israel as the cause of “injustice” in the Middle East and vow that his country “will continue to stand by the oppressed people of Palestine as she has always done.” But a new report by Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center, as well as new sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department, make it clear that Erdogan is in no position to cast aspersions.
“Turkey turns a blind eye to Hamas’ covert operational and financial activity being carried out from its territory (which has recently been demonstrated in the American sanctions) and regularly denies its existence,” the Meir Amit center <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">reported</a>.
“[T]he latest American designations clearly demonstrate that Turkey continues to be used as a hub for Hamas’ operational and financial activity, even after the departure of Saleh al-Arouri,” the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">said</a>. <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/810.pdf">Arouri</a>, a founder of the Hamas military wing and a member of the Hamas political bureau, lived in Turkey until last year.
During his time in Turkey, he helped plot Hamas terror attacks. He <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4532/hamas-official-admits-his-group-murdered-three">claimed credit</a> on behalf of Hamas for the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli yeshiva students. Later that year, the Shin Bet “uncovered an extensive Hamas military network which operated in Judea and Samaria. Its operatives had planted IEDs in Samaria. They [were] handled by Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey,” the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=13">said</a>. “Hamas’ military operatives who were trained abroad (in various countries, including Turkey) participated in this activity.”
For his part, Erdogan <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/news/2016/11/22/Erdogan-Hamas-elected-national-liberation-movement">considers</a> Hamas a “liberation movement” and denies that it is a terrorist group.
While it supports the Palestinian-Arab cause, Turkey denies autonomy to more than 15 million Kurds and even <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/in-turkey-repression-of-the-kurdish-language-is-back-with-no-end-in-sight/">represses</a> the use of the Kurdish language. It has bombed Kurdish civilians. It occupies much of northwestern Syria and has <a href="https://israelunwired.com/silence-from-the-west-as-turkey-conducts-ethnic-cleansing-against-kurds-and-christians-in-afrin-syria/">engaged</a> in ethnic cleansing <a href="https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/0784919f-57d4-43f5-b970-f7d7bea78994">against</a> the Kurds there. Turkish warplanes bombed a hospital in Afrin during its invasion of the Kurdish enclave last year, independent <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/03/19/did-turkey-bomb-afrin-hospital/">analysis</a> by Bellingcat, a citizen journalism organization that focuses on war crimes and criminal activities, showed.
Earlier this month, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm772">the U.S. Treasury Department</a> announced sanctions on Hamas leaders and ISIS facilitators living in Turkey.
Those include Zaher Jabarin, who heads Hamas’ finance office from Turkey and manages tens of millions of dollars in Hamas money. Jabarin’s transfers of U.S. dollars “finance HAMAS’ terrorist activity,” the Treasury statement said. Like Arouri, Jabarin was one of the founders of the Hamas military wing in Judea and Samaria. Jabarin was in charge of a Hamas squad that abducted and murdered Israeli border policeman Nissim Toledano in 1992, the Meir Amit report <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">said</a>.
“Jabarin has served as the primary point of contact between Hamas and the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp –Quds Force] IRGC-QF. Since 2017, his relations with them were enhanced based on Hamas operatives’ efforts to increase funding from Iran,” the <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/new-designations-recently-published-us-department-state-department-treasury-reveals-turkeys-central-role-hub-hamas-handles-financial-matters-includin/">report</a> said.
Treasury also targeted the Turkey-based Redin Exchange as “a key part of the infrastructure used to transfer money” to Hamas. Redin transferred $10 million to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, in March.
Redin also facilitated a $2 million transfer last year from the IRGC-QF and Hezbollah to Hamas. Its deputy CEO, Ismail Tash, was the primary contact in numerous Iran-Hamas money transfers, the Meir Amit report found.
Erdogan’s inner circle has encouraged bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians by providing assistance to the al-Qassam Brigades. Israel’s Shin Bet <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7349/shin-bet-investigation-exposes-depth-of-turkey">arrested</a> two suspects last year linked to the <a href="http://www.sadat.com.tr/about-us/news/141-how-is-the-palestine-question-solved.html">Turkish private military company SADAT</a>, which run by <a href="https://www.cnnturk.com/turkiye/erdogana-basdanisman-atanan-adnan-tanriverdi-kimdir-sadat-nedir">top Erdogan military adviser</a> retired Brig. Gen. Adnan Tanriverdi. It accused them of helping Hamas’ military buildup by providing money and weapons to the terrorists. SADAT’s website calls for the use of military force against Israel. Meir Amit <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2019/09/E_212_19.pdf#page=14">reported</a> that Jabarin had recruited the men under instructions from Arouri.
“The liaison of Palestine with the globe should not be left at the mercy of Israel. This requires open support by Islamic countries. Every effort should be made, including use of force,” SADAT <a href="http://www.sadat.com.tr/about-us/news/141-how-is-the-palestine-question-solved.html">says</a> on its website.
Erdogan presented Turkey as a terrorism fighter, saying Turkey killed ISIS fighters in areas of Syria it occupies. He glossed over Turkey’s clandestine support for ISIS in Syria.
“Turkey has been the country most influenced by the [ISIS] threat; this terrorist organization has harassed our borders and targeted our cities very near the borders with suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Turkish citizens,” Erdogan <a href="https://youtu.be/Bve1yt0SEb4?t=498">said</a>. “Turkey is the first country that has delivered the heaviest blow to the [ISIS] presence in Syria.”
Internal documents and whistleblowers tell a different story — one of a country that plays both sides when it comes to ISIS. Leaked emails from Erdogan’s son-in-law and current Turkish finance minister, Berat Albayrak, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4006568/WikiLeaks-reveals-57-000-emails-son-law-President-Erdogan-proving-connection-ISIS-operation-smuggling-oil-Turkey.html">showed</a> his connection to an ISIS oil smuggling operations.
The Treasury Department <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm772">sanctions</a> also targeted several Turkish companies that “materially assisted &#8230; or provided financial, material, or technological support” to ISIS.
Turkey’s intelligence agency, the MIT, conspired to bus ISIS jihadists across Turkish territory, leaked Turkish <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7809/report-wiretaps-show-turkish-intel-supported-isis">wiretaps show</a>. At least 15,000 ISIS fighters entered Syria that way, Abdullah Bozkurt, former editor of Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (where we both work) in February.
Turkish police were told not to arrest ISIS fighters traveling to Syria, said former Turkish National Police official Ahmet Yayla.
Turkey provided ISIS with drones and munitions, an ISIS fighter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=88&amp;v=q9ZTmYyN6eY">detained</a> by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who was interviewed by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism said. He and a <a href="https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/isis-prisoner-from-palestine-we-were-treated-in-istanbul-37895">Palestinian-Arab ISIS fighter</a> held by the SDF said that Turkish hospitals provided medical assistance to wounded ISIS terrorists.
“Like me, thousands of ISIS members have been treated in Turkey. Everyone knows that Turkey is the mother of all jihadist groups,” <a href="https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/isis-prisoner-from-palestine-we-were-treated-in-istanbul-37895">said</a> former ISIS fighter Islam Ahmed Muhammed Balusha. “This applies to the jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and even from Palestine to Afghanistan. Turkey has supported the ISIS massively.”
Erdogan’s party, the AKP, allegedly used ISIS to attack political opponents.
EU INTCEN, the European Union’s intelligence arm, <a href="https://ahvalnews.com/terrorism/ahval-reveals-top-secret-eu-report-akp-commissioned-isis-ankara-massacre">reportedly</a> suggested the AKP ordered an October 2015 ISIS <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/10/turkey-suicide-bomb-killed-in-ankara">suicide bombing</a> at a peace rally in Ankara that killed 109 people.
Erdogan’s pretense of being the savior of the region’s problems belies the fact his government has become a major terrorism supporter and is guilty of everything he criticizes Israel of doing.
&nbsp;
John Rossomando is a senior analyst at the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org">Investigative Project on Terrorism</a> and Steven Emerson is its executive director.

Erdogan at U.N.

ROSSOMANDO & EMERSON: While Erdogan Slammed Israel At U.N., Turkish Support For Terror Was Revealed

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Terrorism

Turkey

Actor Jason Momoa delivered a speech at the United Nations on Friday in which he described humanity as &#8220;a disease that is infecting our planet&#8221; and took a thinly veiled shot at President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate agreement.
Momoa, whose blockbuster DC Universe film &#8220;Aquaman&#8221; brought in <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dcfilm0617.htm">$335 million</a> domestically and over $1 billion internationally last year, delivered the speech on behalf of &#8220;all island nations.&#8221;
&#8220;Aloha. Your excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,&#8221; Momoa told those gathered at the United Nations on Friday. &#8220;Today I stand before you as a singular representative of all island nations. I&#8217;m honored to represent those who continue to fight as stewards of this planet.&#8221;
&#8220;As a native Hawaiian born to a mother from Iowa, I have seen how one place can be oblivious to another,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The issues facing an island can feel far-removed from a place that is land-locked in the middle of our country. However, with a foothold in two worlds, I quickly began to see how a problem for one can become a problem for all.&#8221;
&#8220;As a human family, through innovation and creativity, we have elevated ourselves and perceivably stand as the most powerful beings on earth, yet our ego, our fear, and our relentless drive for profits have made us the only species willing to force disharmony with the natural balance of our world,&#8221; he stated.
&#8220;We are the living consequence of forgotten traditions. We suffer a collective amnesia of a truth that was once understood — the truth that to cause irreversible damage to the earth, is to bring the same unto ourselves,&#8221; he asserted.
&#8220;We the island nations  and all coastal communities are the front lines in this environmental crisis,” the actor continued. “The oceans are in a state of emergency. Entire marine ecosystems are vanishing with the warming of the seas. And as the waste of the world empties into our waters, we face the devastating crisis of plastic pollution.&#8221;
&#8220;We are a disease that is infecting our planet,&#8221; Momoa declared.
&#8220;From the atmosphere to the abyssal zone, we are polluted. It is a known fact that the great garbage patch floating in the Pacific is larger than the country of France. Even at the depths of the Mariana Trench we are discovering nano plastics. And shockingly, there are more particles of plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way. It is shameful.&#8221;
Then, like fellow celebrity activist Greta Thunberg earlier in the week, Momoa got to climate change.
&#8220;Yet, the greatest threat to small island developing states is that entire islands are drowning into the sea due to the enormous volume of emissions generated by the first world countries,&#8221; he claimed, adding: &#8220;Island nations contribute the least to this disaster but are made to suffer the weight of its consequences.&#8221;
&#8220;Our governments and corporate entities have known for decades that immediate change is needed, yet change still has not come,&#8221; he stated. &#8220;And when the front line is gone, we are doomed. There is no undoing.&#8221;
&#8220;If you continue to watch unsympathetic to the issues of island nations, this realization will soon come — that you stood by and witnessed the world cross the critical tipping point, ushering in the death of our planet,&#8221; he warned, echoing Thunberg, in telling them, &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greta-snaps-we-are-beginning-mass-extinction-how-ryan-saavedra">we are watching</a>.&#8221;
Momoa also made a point of condemning the Trump administration for walking away from the Paris Agreement in 2017.
&#8220;Three years ago in Paris, the world stood united and vowed to keep the earth below 1.5 degrees of warming,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We pledged to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and to do what is right. I’m standing here today because I am ashamed that not all of our leaders have honored this agreement.&#8221;
&#8220;Delegates, I ask you now, do we still stand in unity for this cause?&#8221; he charged. &#8220;Do you intend to honor the commitments for a betterment of mankind? Or will you continue to chase short-term profits above our children’s basic human rights to live on this earth? Change cannot come in 2050, or 2030, or even 2025. The change must come today. We can no longer afford the luxury of half-assing it as we willingly force ourselves beyond the threshold of no return.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="Jason Momoa Addresses United Nations On Climate Crisis (Sept. 27, 2019)" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Bo2UD2wAOs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Momoa&#8217;s speech follows the much-publicized <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greta-snaps-we-are-beginning-mass-extinction-how-ryan-saavedra">statement</a> delivered by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg on Monday in which she claimed that we are &#8220;in the beginning of a mass extinction.&#8221;
&#8220;My message is that we’ll be watching you,&#8221; she told world leaders. &#8220;This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here, I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope, how dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-trolls-greta-greta-swipes-back-james-barrett">Trump Trolls Greta Thunberg; Greta Swipes Back</a>
Partial transcript via <a href="https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2019/09/27/video-jason-momoa-addresses-united-nations-on-climate-crisis/">Big Island Video News.</a>

Jason Momoa

WATCH: ‘Aquaman’ Jason Momoa Says ‘We Are A Disease Infecting Our Planet,’ Rips Trump At U.N.

Hollywood

Menu