Jeffrey Epstein was blackmailing politicians for Israel’s Mossad, new book claims

Jeffrey Epstein, US billionaire who was arrested for sex trafficking underage girls [Twitter]

January 6, 2020 at 2:15 pm

The deceased American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were Israeli spies who used underage girls to blackmail politicians into giving information to Israel, according to their alleged Mossad handler.

The couple reportedly ran a “honey-trap” operation in which they provided young girls to prominent politicians from around the world for sex, and then used the incidents to blackmail them in order to attain information for Israeli intelligence.

The claims are being made by the alleged former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe in a soon-to-be-released book “Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales” in which he said that he was the handler of Ghislaine’s father Robert Maxwell, who was also an Israeli espionage agent and was the one who introduced his daughter and Epstein to Mossad.

“See, f**king around is not a crime. It could be embarrassing, but it’s not a crime,” Menashe wrote in the book. “But f**king a fourteen-year-old girl is a crime. And he was taking photos of politicians f**king fourteen-year-old girls—if you want to get it straight…They [Epstein and Maxwell] would just blackmail people like that.”

Israel’s Barak, US sex trafficking suspect Epstein ties exposed

The handler Ben-Menashe, himself an Iran-born Israeli businessman who says he worked for Mossad from 1977 to 1987, is a mysterious figure who was arrested in 1989 in the US on charges of arms dealing. He was acquitted in 1990, however, only after a jury accepted that he was acting on behalf of the Israeli state. Israel then denied that Menashe has any links with its intelligence services and attempted to distance itself from him, despite the fact that other news reports both in the US and Israel confirmed he was acting on the country’s behalf.

The new book, which also speculates that Maxwell may have worked for other governments as a double or triple agent, says that despite reports Epstein and Ghislaine met in the early 1990s in New York, they in fact met earlier through her father who introduced Epstein to Mossad before Ghislaine joined in the activities later.

Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing charges for sex trafficking minors, was found dead in his New York prison cell on 10 August. According to official reports he committed suicide, but there has been much speculation and evidence put forward that he was in fact killed, with many stating he may have been assassinated due to his knowledge of the figures he blackmailed and the acts they committed.

The statements made by Ben-Menashe are so far unsubstantiated, but if proven true they would provide significant evidence of Israel being involved in the blackmail of senior and prominent politicians and figures in the US.

This would only add to the state’s already-revealed track record of manipulating Western nations’ political systems, as was seen in the revelations of the Israeli lobby’s attempt to “take down” British and US politicians revealed in the past few years.

UK prince made ‘unbelievable’ racist comments against Arabs

Russia is using religion to strengthen its influence among Palestinians


Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) is greeted by Greek Orthodox 

Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III during his visit to the Church 

of the Holy Sepulchre, in the old city of Jerusalem on 26 June 2012

 [ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/GettyImages]
Dr Adnan Abu Amer @adnanabuamer1
February 1, 2020

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the city of Bethlehem this week, and not Ramallah. The choice of venue gave the meeting an unmistakably Christian aspect, something that has been used by Russia recently in its foreign relations.

Last month, Putin met with the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, to discuss the difficulties facing Christians in the Middle East. He expressed his support for preserving Orthodox properties in the city and protecting regional Christians. Russia announced in November its intention to protect the Middle East’s Christians after Putin met the Patriarch in Moscow with a delegation from the Palestinian Authority.

The “religious” foreign policy is also noticeable with Israel preparing to grant ownership of a church in Jerusalem to Russia, as part of a deal to release an Israeli woman imprisoned in Moscow. The building is in the Russian compound in the occupied Old City; the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky and other buildings were sold in the nineteenth century to Tsar Alexander III.

Palestinian-Russian relations have developed recently, at various political and economic levels. What is new is the religious dimension, which gives the Russians an additional angle on Palestinian affairs.

READ: The apartheid deal of the century

Putin’s interest in the efforts to preserve and support Orthodox properties in Jerusalem appears to be in part to prevent Jewish settlers buying or taking them. The Patriarch thanked the Russian President for his support, and his 2016 donation towards the restoration of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Coincidentally this week, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned a decision made last June for the sale of a property belonging to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in the Old City of Jerusalem to the Ateret Cohanim Settlement Association. Palestinians are concerned about such transactions because the Orthodox Church has the largest property portfolio in Palestine, second only to the Islamic religious endowments. Abbas does not challenge the Church about selling its properties to settlers, despite Arab Christian complaints, probably because Russian approval is needed for such sales. The Church does not seem to be too worried about disposing of its property in this way, though.



An Orthodox Church in Jerusalem’s old city on 16 September 2013

 [Saeed Qaq//Apaimages]

Palestinians speak of complicity with the occupation authorities by some Orthodox officials by handing their properties to settlers for personal gain. Others speak of real corruption within the Church leadership. Russia may not be far from also doing property deals with settler groups.

Russian Christian tourists visit Palestine to see the Orthodox churches, historical properties, and archaeological remains in Jerusalem, Hebron, Jericho and Bethlehem. This may explain Putin’s increased interest, even though the PA has no ability to stop the leakage of Christian properties to the settlers because Israel imposes its own sovereignty over Jerusalem.

Palestinian church sources show that one per cent of Palestinians in the occupied territories are Christians; that is around 450,000 people distributed across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel. Of them, 51 per cent are in the Greek Orthodox Church, and the rest are distributed among seven churches, the most important of which are the Roman Catholics and the Protestants.

READ: Who is Archbishop Atallah Hanna, and why does Israel hate him?

The main reasons for the shocking fall in the number of Palestinian Christians living in the cradle of Christianity is their emigration due to the ongoing Israeli occupation, the bad economic situation and their wish to live in a safer country. Putin said last year that the situation of Christians in the Middle East is “catastrophic” and the Russian leader described his October 2015 military intervention in Syria as a holy war to protect the Christians there.

Does this mean that Russia is returning to its pre-Communist Christian roots? In Palestine, at least, religion seems to be used to boost Moscow’s influence.

In October, Putin expressed his negativity towards the US “deal of the century”, and said that he had proposed negotiations in Moscow between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but to no avail. This was seen by the Palestinians as support for them in the face of US pressure to accept the deal.

The Russian position is that the cause of violence in the region is the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue. Nevertheless, Russia has strong relations with Israel, where 1.5 million Soviet/Russian Jews live.

READ: Christian delegation urges international community to recognise state of Palestine

The Palestinians’ support for Russia’s recent positions does not mean that they are interested in shifting from exclusive US mediation to Russian mediation. They want international mediation, and Putin’s position on the “deal” encourages the Palestinians to continue to reject it. This isolates the US even more and increases its hostility to legitimate Palestinian rights.

Russia’s desire to fill the void left by Washington in the Middle East and its use of the Palestinian issue to increase its influence is obvious. The Palestinians can take advantage of the polarisation between Washington and Moscow, by pushing the latter to side with their cause. The Russians are relatively balanced in their positions, though, since they also share strategic interests with Israel.

Even so, the Palestinians welcome partnership with the Russians without turning their backs on the Americans. They wish both to be more equitable when it comes to Palestinian rights. Contacts with Russia mean that the world is not governed solely by the US and help to maintain Palestinian visibility internationally. Such contacts may also help to thwart the “deal of the century” revealed this week in Washington.

Furthermore, Russia is one of the few countries in the world that has links with all of the main Palestinian factions, unlike the Americans, which should make them more representative when seeking to mediate. Israel, though, does not want to use any other country apart from the US to be in its corner, which may block or slow Moscow’s progress in this regard.

According to the Palestinians, Russia is pushing the US out of the Palestinian file by using its alliance with regional powers opposed to Washington, such as Iran and Turkey. Moscow also points to its political and military achievements in Syria, which have encouraged it to intervene elsewhere.

As a veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, Russia’s positive involvement in the Palestinian arena can help to strike a balance in the face of US bias towards Israel. That’s yet another reason why Israel will only deal through Washington.

At the moment, therefore, Russia’s role is restricted to receiving political delegations and making diplomatic statements, without translating them into action on the ground. While there are clear Christian dimensions to Russian foreign policy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, American support for Israel also has a Christian dimension, notably the strong influence of the Evangelical Zionists who back Israel, right or wrong.

Given the obvious Jewish-Orthodox Christian-Evangelical Christian influences, therefore, it is no wonder that the world rejects any Palestinian attempts to link the conflict with Israel to their own ideological beliefs based upon Islam.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

‘There is no occupation’: US compares its military in Germany to Israel in Palestine

January 30, 2020 

US ambassador to Israel David Friedman on 16 May 16, 2017 [Wikipedia]

Israeli soldiers patrolling a future Palestinian state should not be considered occupying powers, according to David Friedman.

The US ambassador to Israel, who is closely aligned to the Israeli settlement enterprise, suggested that US troops patrolling cities is various parts of the world were no different to Israeli troops walking the streets of Palestine.

“The United States has military presence all over the world. We have presence in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, I mean…none of those countries consider themselves occupied by the United States and certainly don’t consider ourselves to be occupiers,” said Friedman.

Friedman made the remarks during a briefing to reporters around the globe, including in Brussels, over the phone, during which he rejected any notion that Israel’s security dominance in the envisaged Palestinian state under President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” is tantamount to occupation.

The former bankruptcy lawyer is one of the main architects of the so called “peace plan” which many have dismissed as an “apartheid plan”. Nevertheless, Friedman has defended the proposal and has not minced his words about wanting to help Israel in annexing the West Bank.

Turkey: ‘Jerusalem is sacred for Muslims,’ Trump’s deal doesn’t serve peace

After recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, the next step was to annex the West Bank, Friedman said earlier this month.

The plan, which has been rejected by the Palestinians over its failure to guarantee even the most basic rights agreed upon by the international community, was unveiled on Tuesday by President Donald Trump with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flanked by his side.

China has also come out in opposition to the plan insisting that the United Nations resolutions, the two-state solution, the principle of land for peace and other internationally backed measures form the basis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After the launch, Friedman met with a group of more than 20 Jewish and Evangelical leaders for an off-the-record briefing, according to the Times of Israel.

He is said to have told the gathering of American Jewish and Christian Evangelical leaders, many of whom subscribe to messianic ideas about creating a greater Israel, that it would take a long time for a Palestinian state to emerge under the White House’s Middle East peace plan.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot dismissed the plan on the BBC saying that it’s true aim was to satisfy the fantasies of zealots and religious fundamentalist that wish for a greater Israel while trampling on human rights, democracy and international law.

Palestine: UN reiterates two-state solution based on 1967 borders

January 30, 2020 

The United Nations stressed on Wednesday its adherence to international legitimacy resolutions on the conflict in the Middle East, and bilateral agreements on the establishment of two states, living side by side in peace and security within recognised borders based on the 1967 borders.

The United Nations renewed its commitment to assist the Palestinians and Israelis in resolving the conflict on the basis of United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.

UN Secretary-General Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement after the publication of the US Middle East peace plan known as the Deal of the Century that UN Secretary-General António Guterres pledged to help the Palestinians and Israelis to reach peace based on international resolutions, international law, bilateral agreements and the two-state vision based on the pre-1967 borders.

Dujarric added that the organisation adheres to international legitimacy resolutions and bilateral agreements on establishing two states “living side by side in peace and security within recognised borders based on the 1967 borders.”

Read: Mandela’s grandson calls Trump plan ‘greatest hoax’

US President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday evening his peace plan in the Middle East, which he said it provides a “realistic solution” to the Palestinian and Israeli states, noting that it is made up of 80 pages and is different from the rest of the previous US administrations.

In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed, in response to Trump’s plan, that “the city of Jerusalem is not “for sale”, considering that this plan is “a conspiracy that will not pass and will be placed in the dustbin of history by the Palestinian people.”

Prior to that, the Palestinian Authority anticipated the US’s announcement of the ‘Deal of the Century’ by calling for an emergency meeting of the Arab League. It stressed its adherence to the two-state solution on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and its rejection of any deal that is not based on this principle.

Palestine cancels 1995 Oslo Accords signed with Israel



Iconic handshake between PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli 

President Shimon Peres during the Oslo accords 

[Council on Foreign Relations/YouTube]

January 31, 2020

Palestine on Thursday cancelled the 1995 Oslo Accords signed with Israel, Anadolu reports.

“Israel has been informed that the Palestinian administration will not adhere to the agreements between them,” the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh said in a televised interview with Al-Jazeera.

Sheikh also expressed hope that Arab and Islamic countries will be a force that supports the Palestinian attitude.

At the request of Palestine, the Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting at the ministerial level on February 1 to discuss the so-called peace plan.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump released his much-hyped plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian dispute during a press conference at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side.

There was, however, no Palestinian representative at the announcement, which saw Trump referring to Jerusalem as “Israel’s undivided capital”.

Read: What is the ‘deal of the century’, and what happens after it is rejected?

Trump’s so-called peace plan unilaterally annuls previous UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue and has drawn criticism for giving Israel almost everything it demanded.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Area A, B and C.

Israel prevents Palestinians from conducting construction projects in parts of the West Bank designated as Area C under the agreement, which falls under administrative and security control of Israel.

Area C is currently home to 300,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Bedouins and herding communities who predominantly live in tents, caravans and caves.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.

CIA chief ‘behind Soleimani’s assassination’ killed in downed plane in Afghanistan

Iran fakes CIA picture

January 28, 2020

Russian intelligence sources have claimed that Michael D’Andrea, head of CIA operations in Iran and who orchestrated the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US spy plane downed yesterday in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

The plane with US Air Force markings reportedly served as the CIA’s mobile command for D’Andrea, who earnt several nicknames including: Ayatollah Mike, the Dark Prince, and the Undertaker. He is one of the most prominent CIA figures in the region, appointed head of the agency’s Iran Mission Centre in 2017. Under his leadership, the agency was perceived to take a more “aggressive stance toward Iran”.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down the plane but have yet to provide evidence, whilst the US has denied the claim but has acknowledged the loss of a Bombardier E-11A plane in central Afghanistan. Graphic images online have already circulated purportedly showing some of the charred remains of those on board.

#AlFath
Enemy intelligence aircraft crashed in Sado Khelo area of Deh Yak district #Ghazni noon hours today resulting in all crew & high-ranking CIA members killed.
Wreckage & dead bodies laying at crash site. https://t.co/DL7qwHpcRe

— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) January 27, 2020


Unconfirmed reports that the CIA head of anti-Iran operations, Michael D'Andrea aka Ayatollah Mike, was on board the plane that crashed near Ghazni, Afghanistan this morning.

D'Andrea also masterminded the murder of Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah Chief of Staff, back in 2008.

— Brasco_Aad (@Brasco_Aad) January 27, 2020


Afghan authorities initially claimed the plane was a state-owned airline, but this was denied by the company, Ariana. Helicopters have been brought down before by the Taliban, but they are not believed to have the capabilities required to bring down a high-flying aircraft.

READ: The truth about US casualties in the Iran attack is slowly coming out

It has been speculated that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) may also have a hand in the incident, especially as anti-aircraft support has previously been given to the Taliban. Additionally, the Afghan Shia Fatimyoun Brigades, who are trained by the IRGC, also have a presence in the coutry.

CIA Middle East chief, Soleimani Killer and Bin Laden Hunter, dead on Jet in Afghanistan. Tasnim and Mirror told after VT
by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio for VT iTaly

VERSIONE ORIGINALE IN ITALIANO
The news is so big that we have to write it running the risk of a denial, … pic.twitter.com/7Da2jmkHug
— VeteransToday (@veteranstoday) January 28, 2020

An exiled Iranian journalist who has written previously for the hard-line Javan daily newspaper suggested the IRGC was involved, tweeting: “The American Gulfstream plane was downed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. They say that intelligence officers were on board. This report has not yet been confirmed, but if it is, it is possible that the issue of Iran will also emerge in this case.”

Another Iranian journalist who writes for Mashregh newspaper, described as having close links to IRGC, tweeted not long after the news broke out: “We will attack them on the same level as they are attacking us.”

Soleimani’s successor as head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, has established ties in Afghanistan going back to the 1980s. Additionally, the chief commander of the IRGC, General Hossein Salami, warned that no American military commanders will be safe if the US administration continues to threaten Iranian commanders.

READ: US: 34 troops suffered brain injuries from Iran strikes

D’Andrea, who is reportedly a convert to Islam, doing so in order to marry his Muslim wife, who is from a wealthy family from the Mauritius of Gujarati origins, having met on his first overseas assignment in East Africa, one of the senior directors of her family’s company Curumjee Group, has been speculated to provide cover for CIA operations.

He also oversaw hundreds of drone strikes, which according to The New York Times “killed thousands of Islamist militants and hundreds of civilians”. D’andrea is credited with being the mastermind behind the CIA’s notorious “signature strike” used to kill people based on their behaviour, not identity, subsequently used to determine someone’s guilt or likelihood of being a terrorist.

He was central to the post-9/11 interrogation programme and ran the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. Assassinations and torture were central to his approach. He also oversaw the hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was involved in the assassination of Hezbollah member Imad Mughniyah in Damascus, Syria.


US vs Iran, who’s going to win the war of influence – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? 

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman (R) in New Delhi, India on 20 February 2019 [Indian Foreign Ministry/Anadolu Agency]


Motasem A Dalloul @abujomaaGaza
January 27, 2020 at 10:45 am

Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

READ: Next up, a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem

Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.



Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.


“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

UN expert: Saudi crown prince behind hack on Amazon CEO

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”



US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms

IT WOULD BE CALLED BIBLICAL EXCEPT PAKISTAN IS MUSLIM

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was worst locust infestation in more than two decades.


Pakistan's government declared a national emergency on Saturday in response to swarms of desert locusts in the eastern part of the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the emergency declaration following a government briefing on the situation on Friday.

"We are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades and have decided to declare national emergency to deal with the threat," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday.

The desert locusts — large herbivores that resemble grasshoppers — arrived in Pakistan from Iran in June and have already ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops.

Read more: East Africa: Why are locusts so destructive?


Favorable weather conditions and a delayed government response have helped the locusts breed and attack crop areas.

Their potential for large-scale destruction is raising fears of food insecurity.

National Food Sec­u­rity Makhdoom Khusro Bak­h­tiar said the locust swarms were currently on the Pakistan-India border along Cholistan and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

"The locust attack is unprecedented and alarming," Bak­h­tiar told Pakistani lawmakers in a briefing on Friday.

"Action has been taken against the insect over 0.3 million acres (121,400 hectares) and aerial spray was done on 20,000 hectares ,” he was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune. "District administrations, voluntary organizations, aviation division and armed forces are put into operation to combat the attack and save the crops,” he added, according to

Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to tackle the issue, adding that protection of agriculture and farmers was the government's priority.

"The federal government will take all possible steps and provide required facilities to protect crops from any possible danger with special focus on the danger of locust,” Khan said, according to Dawn.

The last time Pakistan saw a serious threat of locusts was in 1993. Currently, locusts swarms are affecting neighboring India and countries in East Africa.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PAKISTAN


SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=LOCUSTS

GERMANY

Workers' rights in Germany: Not everyone can go on strike

Different bosses, different rights: whether Germans are allowed to strike for better working conditions depends on if they work for a private employer, the church or the state. And that's just one of the rules.

    

Nurses at the local hospital in Ottweiler, a small town in the western German state of Saarland, are on strike. Twenty of them stopped working on Wednesday to draw attention to the fact that they are constantly overworked. They are demanding that more nursing personnel be hired, so they can actually take breaks and not work an inhumane amount of overtime — a demand common to nurses across Germany.

The special thing about this strike: the hospital in Ottweiler is a Catholic institution, and the staff members at the Marienhaus Clinic do not have the same rights to strike as non-Church employees.

The move is a risky endeavor for all involved, but it's necessary, according to union activists.

"If we really want to push through improvements for nursing staff in all hospitals, then we have to go on strike here, too, now," said Michael Quetting, a representative of the regional chapter of German trade union Verdi.

Different employees, different rights

The Ottweiler case draws attention to the issue that in Germany, different kinds of employees enjoy very different workers' rights.

According to article nine of the German constitution, people have the right to form groups with the goal of "upholding or improving working and economical conditions." This is the legal foundation of German trade unions.

Read more: Lufthansa strikes major labor deal with pilots

In 1955, the Federal Labor Court passed down a verdict that declared strikes "undesirable," but not illegal. Employees would no longer have to quit before they could go on strike — a landmark decision.

During a strike, the employment contracts of participants are suspended. That means they aren't guilty of neglecting their work duties, but it also means they don't get paid by their employer for the days they are on strike. Union members receive daily "strike money," the amount of which depends on their monthly membership fees.

Read more: Daycare center staff strike grips Germany 

Church employees

These are the basic rules for regular workers, trainees and interns with employment contracts at private and state institutions like factories, department stores, public transport agencies or hospitals. But for employees of the Catholic or Protestant Church in Germany, there are different rules.

Quiet moments are few and far between for many nurses in Germany

The roughly 1.3 million people in Germany who work for a church-run institution sign special employment contracts. These are often rather strict, especially when they are with the Catholic Church. Many Catholic institutions don't accept employees who aren't baptized Catholics or lead a lifestyle not in line with the church's teachings, like homosexual or divorced people. This practice is not illegal, since churches in Germany have the right to self-determination and can hire whomever and however they want.

Whether church employees are allowed to strike isn't entirely clear. Those who argue against the right to strike say that employers and employees work together to spread charity and grace in the name of faith. That's why employees shouldn't feel the need to fight their employers, as they might in a capitalist context.

Those in favor of strike rights for church employees counter that while churches have the right to self-determination, this does not cancel out the rights of unions to advocate for good working conditions as specified in the constitution. 

Public servants

Another group that does not have the same strike rights as regular employees in Germany are "Beamte," or public servants. They have special rights in their places of employment, like public administrations or schools. Public servants can only be fired in exceptional circumstances, for example, and have extremely good pension plans.

In 2014, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed that no public servants, independent of their occupation, had the right to go on strike. According to the constitution, they fulfill special tasks in the name of the state and are in a "loyal work relationship" with their employer, which is why they cannot protest by walking off the job.

This has lead to some absurd situations, for example in schools, where teachers who are regular employees work side by side with public servants. Teachers with public servant status have to remain at school and teach when their regularly employed colleagues go on strike to protest for better wages.

For students, it can be hard to understand why their first period math teacher is waiting in class, while their second period English teacher is handing out strike pamphlets at a rally in front of city hall. And for the teachers themselves, the two-tier system looks unfair from both sides.

Read more: Teachers strike in several German states

Rules of the strike

Finally, there are very specific strike rules even for regular employees. This is Germany, after all, and you can't just strike when you feel like it. In order to be eligible to push through demands with a strike, an employee has to work under a collective labor agreement that defines wages. A strike has to be called by a union and is only permissible if the employees' work contracts clearly mention the collective labor agreement.

If all those qualifications are fulfilled, and the employees with demands are neither public servants nor work for a church, they are free to go and join the picket line.

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• Date 11.10.2017
• Author Carla Bleiker

Labour’s fabricated anti-Semitism crisis is being replicated in America

The issue of anti-Semitism became an ongoing narrative that under Corbyn the Labour Party has become a cesspit of anti-Jewish hatred

THIS LIE WAS PEDDLED BY US RIGHT WING ZIONIST MAGAZINE COMMENTARY AND ITS EDITORS ON MSNBC MORNING JOE AS WELL AS BY OTHER MSNBC AND CNN (LET ALONE FOX) MSM COMMENTATORS THAT SPREAD THIS SLANDER THAT "CORBYN WAS AS BAD AS HITLER" SAID JOHN PODHORETZ OF COMMENTARY

Asa Winstanley @AsaWinstanley
February 1, 2020

As far as Zionist lobby groups are concerned, the verdict has finally sunk in: they defeated Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. According to one of them at least; the hard-right, anti-Palestinian group misnamed the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [sic].

Last month one of the group’s leaders posted an utterly bizarre video online in which he claimed responsibility for the electoral defeat of Corbyn at December’s General Election in Britain. “The beast is slain,” he ranted gleefully. He and his team had “slaughtered” Corbyn. “We defeated him… They tried to kill us [but]… we won.”

More than four years’ worth of smears, lies, sabotage and defamation worked. The “Labour anti-Semitism crisis” finally cut through to mainstream voters in a way that other defamatory media campaigns did not. The fabrication that Labour had “a problem with anti-Semitism” contributed hugely to the perception that Corbyn was an “extremist”. This, in turn, led to the de-legitimisation of the veteran anti-racism campaigner in the eyes of many of older, working-class Labour voters. Second, only to the Brexit issue, this is the reason why so many of them voted Tory in the election or stayed away from the polling booths altogether.

READ: Controversial ‘anti-Semitism code’ being ‘weaponised’ by pro-Israel groups, warns drafter

More importantly, the interminable campaign against Corbyn divided and weakened the grassroots left-wing movement, demoralising some of Corbyn’s biggest supporters. Indeed, many were suspended, expelled or pushed out of the party altogether.

Having successfully sabotaged the largest radical grassroots movement this country has seen within living memory, the pro-Israel lobby groups are on a high. What’s more, they are now in the early stages of a major new offensive linked to the US presidential elections, against Democrat Bernie Sanders, another popular socialist candidate.

We’ve seen this before. Last year Republicans united with the Democratic Party establishment to jointly smear left-wing, pro-Palestinian lawmaker Ilhan Omar. Omar is a Muslim woman, and much of the abuse was openly racist and Islamophobic. The Democrats joined in with the lie that Omar was “anti-Semitic”.


US congresswoman Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, US on 4 October 2016 [Lorie Shaull/Flickr]

So far, Sanders has stood with Omar. It is to be hoped that he stands his ground on this, because it is vital to his own political survival, mainly because of the fact that Bernie Sanders is himself Jewish. There are too many on the American left who are, I believe, complaisant about the potential for such smears to do serious and quite possibly fatal damage to the movement.

The number one reason for the successes of both Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders has been the popular movements behind each one. Corbyn’s best slogan was “For the many, not the few”. Sanders’ current tag line is “Not me. Us”. It is about people power.

Solidarity is the simple secret ingredient that got Corbyn so close to No. 10 in 2017. It is that same principle that means Sanders now leads many polls in the Democratic primary and is way ahead of the pack in polls for the first selection caucus in Iowa on Monday. It is a movement.

If you want to undermine a popular movement, how do you go about it? Divide and rule. Spread false rumours, internal dissent, mutual recriminations and denunciations. Result? Demoralisation.

It is not a strategy that can work overnight, but it can work when sustained over a lengthy period. As Corbyn’s case shows, it does work.

Do not underestimate the dedication and extreme commitment of the Zionist movement, and the pro-Israel lobby in general. They are in it for the long haul and will carry on to the bitter end.

Listen to the words of Alan Dershowitz, “Israel’s lawyer”, torture fan and (latterly) a major fan of Trump’s racism. In a recent interview with Larry King, Dershowitz equivocated about whether or not he would vote for Trump. Who he would definitely not vote for, he said, and would actively campaign against, was one person: Bernie Sanders. His reason? “He tolerates anti-Semitism among the hard left in the Democratic Party,” he claimed falsely. “The man went to England and endorsed Jeremy Corbyn.”

The clever lie that he is not personally anti-Semitic, but “tolerates” anti-Semitism was exactly how the “crisis” against Corbyn began. Over the course of four years, this morphed and evolved into open lies that he is personally anti-Semitic.

Do not imagine for a moment that just because Sanders is Jewish the pro-Israel lobbyists will not try the same lies against him. They will, and they cannot be ignored. They must be fought.

READ: UK’s Lord Polak says new Tory government is opportunity for pro-Israel lobbyists

The real reason for Dershowitz’s opposition, of course, is that Sanders has made some very mild (and in my view overly timid) statements about US military aid to Israel possibly being up for revision in the future. This is why a relatively new pro-Israel lobby astroturfing group called “Democratic Majority for Israel” just spent almost $700,000 on a campaign ad against Sanders in Iowa, ahead of the crucial vote there on Monday. The ad despicably questions his health, and claims falsely that he is not “electable”.



Criticisms of Israel labelled as antisemitism – Cartoon [Carlos Latuff/Twitter]

Thankfully, for now, the Sanders campaign is fighting back. They condemned it, and it even seems to have backfired, resulting in a major boost to donations to him from his supporters.

The ad did not mention “anti-Semitism” or that Sanders supposedly “tolerates” anti-Semitism. But as sure as night follows day, you can be certain that that particular attack line is coming, especially if Sanders secures the Democratic nomination, or it begins to look inevitable, as I expect and hope him to do after Monday. When the attacks do come, it is vital that Sanders and his campaign refuse to make even the slightest concession to any of these false, malicious and disgusting attacks.

The left still does not understand: the pro-Israel lobby will stop at nothing. Do not underestimate the ability of the lobby groups to sustain a long campaign over the next few years. They did it in Britain and they can certainly do it in the US. They can be beaten, but only with the political will to fight back aggressively.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas suspends relations with the US, Israel

ABBAS GETS OFF HIS ASS AT LAST

February 1, 2020 By Agence France-Presse


Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced the suspension of relations, including security cooperation, with both Israel and the United States on Saturday, days after the unveiling of a US peace plan that Palestinians say heavily favors Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut security ties with both Israel and the U.S. on Saturday, in a lengthy speech delivered at an Arab League meeting in Egypt’s capital that denounced a White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The U.S. plan would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of east Jerusalem.

The summit of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo was requested by the Palestinians, who responded angrily to the American proposal.

Abbas said that he told Israel and the U.S. that “there will be no relations with them, including the security ties” following the deal that Palestinians say heavily favors Israel.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Israeli officials.

The Palestinian leader said that he’d refused to take U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls and messages “because I know that he would use that to say he consulted us.”

“I will never accept this solution,” Abbas said. “I will not have it recorded in my history that I have sold Jerusalem.”

He said the Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem.

Abbas said that the Palestinians wouldn’t accept the U.S. as a sole mediator in any negotiations with Israel. He said they would go to the United Nations Security Council and other world and regional organizations to “explain our position.”

The Arab League’s head, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, said the proposal revealed a “sharp turn” in the long-standing U.S. foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This turn does not help achieve peace and a just solution,” he declared.

Aboul-Gheit said that the Palestinians reject the proposal. He called for the two sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, to negotiate to reach a “satisfactory solution for both of them.”

President Trump unveiled the long-awaited proposal Tuesday in Washington. It would allow Israel to annex all its West Bank settlements – which the Palestinians and most of the international community view as illegal – as well as the Jordan Valley, which accounts for roughly a fourth of the West Bank.

In return, the Palestinians would be granted statehood in Gaza, scattered chunks of the West Bank and some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem, all linked together by a new network of roads, bridges and tunnels. Israel would control the state’s borders and airspace and maintain overall security authority. Critics of the plan say this would rob Palestinian statehood of any meaning.

The plan would abolish the right of return for Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war and their descendants, a key Palestinian demand. The entire agreement would be contingent on Gaza’s Hamas rulers and other armed groups disarming, something they have always adamantly rejected.

Ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman attended the Tuesday unveiling in Washington, in a tacit sign of support for the U.S. initiative.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states that are close U.S. allies, said they appreciated President Trump’s efforts and called for renewed negotiations without commenting on the plan’s content.

Egypt urged in a statement Israelis and Palestinians to “carefully study” the plan. It said it favors a solution that restores all the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinian people through establishing an “independent and sovereign state on the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The Egyptian statement did not mention the long-held Arab demand of east Jerusalem as a capital to the future Palestinian state, as Cairo usually has its statements related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Jordan, meanwhile, warned against any Israeli “annexation of Palestinian lands” and reaffirmed its commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, which would include all the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel.

(AP)



 SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PALESTINE