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In this mailing:
* Judith Bergman: China Closer to Dominating Southeast Asia
* Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The 'Criminal' Pastor Who Met with the Rabbi


** China Closer to Dominating Southeast Asia ([link removed])
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by Judith Bergman • March 24, 2022 at 5:00 am
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* "China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby... that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region." — US Admiral John C. Aquilino, Associated Press, March 21, 2022.
* "Relevant construction activity that China is undertaking does not target or impact any country and there is no intention to militarize." — Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping, in 2015, The Times, March 21, 2022.
* "[T]his presents a security risk to all countries in southeast Asia... where China has now built itself the capacity to control the skies and control the sea lanes through that region very effectively... It reflects the overall growth of the Chinese military... control of the South China Sea would be a major step for the PRC in prosecuting a military campaign against Taiwan. It certainly makes it much harder for the United States for example to get its military forces closer to Taiwan... it really becomes a mechanism to control all of southeast Asia, this is a region of ten countries, 650 million people... if you are the military dominant power in the South China Sea you dominate south east Asia. That at least was the strategic thinking of the Japanese in the Second World War and I think it is the strategic thinking of China right now." — Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, interview with ABC Radio Australia, March 22, 2022.
* The drill coincided with China's announcement of its annual military budget for 2022, according to which China will be increasing its defense spending by 7.1% to $230 billion, up from a 6.8% increase the year before.... The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has found that China consistently under-reports its actual defense budget.
* China, however, is not transparent about what its defense budget includes -- and does not include.
* "Beijing conducts dozens of operations in its neighbors' EEZs every year which, if civilian in nature, are illegal or, if military, are exactly what China claims other countries are not allowed to do in its own EEZ." — Greg Poling, Center for Strategic and International Studies, rfa.org, March 1, 2022.

While the world is preoccupied with Ukraine, China continues to make aggressive moves in the South China Sea, almost the entirety of which China claims to be part of its territory. One of China's most controversial moves in the area has been to build artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago and then proceed, despite promises to the contrary, to militarize them. Pictured: Sailors and fighter jets on the deck of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning in the sea near Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on April 23, 2019. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

While the world is preoccupied with Ukraine, China continues to make aggressive moves in the South China Sea, almost the entirety of which China claims to be part of its territory. At least three islands there have become "fully militarized" according to U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John C. Aquilino, who told Associated Press on March 21, that on the three islands -- Mischief Reef, Subi Reef and Fiery Cross -- China has deployed anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets:

"China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby.... They have advanced all their capabilities and that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region."

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** Palestinians: The 'Criminal' Pastor Who Met with the Rabbi ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 24, 2022 at 4:00 am
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* Appeals by heads of the Christian community in Bethlehem for the release of Shahwan from prison have been completely ignored by the PA leadership, which appears afraid of a backlash from Islamists and other radical groups if it dares to release the pastor. The appeals have also been ignored by many journalists who mostly chose to focus only on stories that reflect negatively on Israel.
* Even more alarming is that the Palestinian Authority, which now has close relations with the Biden administration, is punishing a Palestinian Christian for the "crime" of meeting with a Jew.
* If the PA is going to incarcerate every Palestinian who meets with settlers or does business with Jews, it will have to build enough prisons to hold tens of thousands of its people. Moreover, if the PA considers meetings with Jews to be a crime punishable by imprisonment and hard labor, why are its leaders continuing to hold public and secret meetings with Israeli officials?
* If PA President Mahmoud Abbas himself is prepared to travel to the Israeli city of Rosh Ha'ayin to meet with Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz, whom the Palestinians have repeatedly condemned as a "war criminal," why isn't a pastor allowed to meet with a rabbi?
* This incident is yet another example of the endemic hypocrisy of the PA regarding its dealings with Israel.
* The Beit Al-Liqa incident is also further proof of the PA's discrimination and mistreatment of the Christian minority.
* It is much easier for the PA to arrest a Palestinian pastor than, say, the head of a Muslim clan. The Christians are not going to take to the streets to riot and attack Palestinian security officers when one of their men is arrested. Muslims, by contrast, would not hesitate to attack the PA and confront its security forces.
* All this is happening while the Biden administration continues to engage with the PA about the need to revive the peace process and the PA's purported commitment to the so-called two-state solution, while ignoring the persecution of Christians and major human rights violations committed by the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Pastor Johnny Shahwan, a Palestinian Christian from Beit Jala, just outside Bethlehem, has been in a Palestinian Authority (PA) prison for the past two weeks, after he was arrested for meeting with a Jew who previously served as a member of Israel's parliament. Appeals by heads of the Christian community in Bethlehem for Shahwan's release have been ignored by the PA leadership, which appears afraid of a backlash from Islamists and other radical groups if it dares to release the pastor. Pictured: A view of Beit Jala. (Image source: SalibaQ/Wikimedia Commons)

Johnny Shahwan, a Palestinian Christian from the Bethlehem area, has been in a Palestinian Authority (PA) prison for the past two weeks. Shahwan, a pastor who runs the Beit Al-Liqa (House of Encounter) in the town of Beit Jala, just outside Bethlehem, was arrested for meeting with a Jew who previously served as a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Beit Al-Liqa, which includes a guest house and a child daycare center, was shut down by the PA security forces for allegedly hosting the meeting between Shahwan and Yehuda Glick, a rabbi, politician and activist, who was a member of the Knesset representing the Likud Party.

The next day, unidentified gunmen fired several shots at the center in protest of the meeting between the pastor and the rabbi. No one was hurt.

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