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In this mailing:
* Guy Millière: The Biden Administration's Hostility to Israel
* Amir Taheri: Iran: Protests and Paralysis


** The Biden Administration's Hostility to Israel ([link removed])
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by Guy Millière • December 11, 2022 at 5:00 am
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* The January 28, 2021 appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs of Hady Amr, a man who wrote "I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada" and who falsely accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," was a significant step that promised the worst.
* Two days before that, the Biden administration not only restored relations with the Palestinian Authority, but resumed most of the financial aid that had been suspended by the Trump administration -- but they failed to ask the Palestinian leaders to stop financing and supporting terrorism.
* The Biden administration also announced its willingness to return to a basically fictitious "two-state solution."
* A speech by Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills, announcing these decisions, defined the "settlements" as "an obstacle to peace". He left out that many Palestinians regard the entire state of Israel as one big settlement to be dismantled.
* Since then, any construction of homes in the existing Israeli suburbs has been condemned by the State Department in the strongest terms. By contrast, the Biden administration has never made the slightest remark concerning the massive illegal Palestinian construction intended to create "facts on the ground" or "land grabs" in both the West Bank and Israel's Negev desert.
* On a more deadly front, on July 14, 2022, Biden signed a Joint Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership, and promised he would "never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon". Since the first days of coming to power, however, on January 29, 2021, the Biden administration has done its utmost to reach a new "nuclear deal" with Iran's mullahs that would enable them to have not only nuclear weapons, but up to $1 trillion dollars, which would quite certainly not be used for human rights.
* America's negotiators -- led by Robert Malley and Russia, mediating supposedly on behalf of the US, as the Americans are not even allowed in the room -- have not stopped making concessions.
* For months, the Biden administration pressured Israel to accept an off-shore gas deal with Hezbollah-run Lebanon, now effectively a satrapy of Iran. The deal fundamentally alters Israel's maritime borders, denies Israel tens of billions of dollars and allows Hezbollah, Iran's terrorist proxy, to receive billions of dollars potentially to be used to further threaten Israel.
* Lebanon expert Tony Badran explained in detail that the Biden administration wants to "give as much money as possible to Lebanon" — with full knowledge that it will be money given to Hezbollah. Hezbollah is believed to have 200,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel. "All land and sea targets of Israel are in the range of Hezbollah missiles, " Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in July. Why is the Biden administration helping an Iranian proxy militia to get rich to destroy Israel?
* The Biden administration -- evidently unable to see that it was a new wave of Arab terrorism inside Israel that had most likely propelled voters to elect its new government -- in a move perhaps unprecedented, then abruptly lobbied to keep some of Israel's democratically-elected religious politicians out of government. Meanwhile, only last week, the Biden administration begged Venezuela's illegitimate and brutal dictator, Nicolás Maduro, to sell the US its low-quality crude oil, while denying a loan to US ally Guyana, which is a producer of light, sweet oil.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hinted that if Itamar Ben Gvir becomes a minister in Israel's new government, they would not work with him. US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides also made clear to Netanyahu that the Biden administration was opposed to the possible appointment of Bezalel Smotrich as defense minister.
* Nides recently gave a speech suggesting that if the new Israeli government deviates from the positions of the Biden administration, the relationship between the United States and Israel could suffer: "I'm confident that these men and women [in the new government] understand the importance of this bilateral relationship and understand that we have shared values ​​and everyone wants to achieve the same thing". Is that a threat?
* Just as the launching of an FBI investigation against the army of a democratic ally of the US has no precedent, the attempt to interfere in the composition of a government of a democratic ally also has no precedent.
* Biden last week said that he wanted to upgrade U.S. ties with the Palestinian Authority, and promoted Hady Amr to a new post: special envoy to the Palestinians. Amr met members of the outgoing Israeli government and said that his mission is to "strengthen the Palestinian Authority". He did not say a single word about the increase of shootings, stabbings, firebombs, and stoning attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and in the West Bank; on the recent Jerusalem bus stop bombings, or that the PA continues to finance terrorism and murdering Israeli Jews.
* The time when support for Israel in the United States was bipartisan is unfortunately over. The Biden administration's proclamations of friendship toward Israel cannot hide actions of relentless hostility. While the Republican Party now has pro-Israeli positions, the Democratic Party includes representatives who not only hate Israel but do not even try to deny it.
* Ilhan Omar wrote tweets saying that "Israel has hypnotized the world", and adding "may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel". Rashida Tlaib spoke of the "brutal apartheid government of Israel". Their party did not disavow them.
* That there are 57 Democratic house members to ask the FBI and the State Department to launch an investigation into Israel, apparently with a desire to harm Israel, is a reality that Israel must urgently take into account.

The January 28, 2021 appointment as US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs of Hady Amr (pictured), a man who wrote "I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada" and who falsely accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," was a significant step that promised the worst. (Photo by Ryan Rayburn/IMF via Flickr)

May 11, 2022. Jenin. West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launch an operation against a cell of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization funded by the regime in Iran, which, since it came to power in 1979, has continuously threatened to obliterate the Jewish state. As exchanges of fire took place, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, embedded with the terrorists, was killed by a bullet, not clear from where.

Immediately after the battle, when Israeli soldiers withdrew, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad scrubbed the battle scene to erase all traces of what just happened. The PA refused to let Israeli forensic doctors examine the body of the journalist or hand over to Israeli authorities the bullet that killed her – at least, until much, much later.

Palestinian propaganda immediately erupted and said that Shireen Abu Akleh was intentionally murdered by the IDF.

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** Iran: Protests and Paralysis ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • December 11, 2022 at 4:00 am
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* The failure of the Khomeinist clique to develop a coherent narrative, let alone a strategy to deal with what looks like an existential crisis for the regime, has led to a chaotic response to the popular uprising. According to semi-official figures, between 300 and 500 protesters have been killed by the security forces and more than 15,000 jailed. By the time of this writing, four executions have also been officially reported.
* But when you break down those figures, a curious pattern emerges.
* Almost 60 percent of the deaths happened in just nine cities in two provinces: Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdistan.
* Despite the depth and breadth of the protests, just confirmed by widespread strikes in more than 30 cities, the Khomeinist establishment is still unable to understand what is really going on. Divided between its natural reflex to crush any dissent and its lack of self-confidence, it is spreading its paralysis throughout Iran's political life, hoping to be saved by inertia.
* After 10 years of negotiations to buy natural gas from Iran, China has decided to sign a 60-year deal with Qatar instead.
* [T]he ayatollah's abracadabra seems unlikely to force this genie back into the bottle.

The failure of Iran's rulers to develop a coherent narrative, let alone a strategy to deal with what looks like an existential crisis for the regime, has led to a chaotic response to the popular uprising. Pictured: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a rally in Tehran on November 4, 2022. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

Almost three months after the current popular uprising against the Islamic Republic started in Iran, three things are clear.

The first is that even if the uprising hits an interlude to recuperate, as is often the case with such movements, it is unlikely to simply fade away. It has mobilized energies that cannot be tamed with time, and raised such hopes and expectations that even the most hard-boiled cynics in power won't be able to disregard.

Next, most of those who have mobilized those energies, that is to say the thousands of young men and women who risked all to openly challenge one of the most brutal regimes in contemporary history, while knowing what they want, don't know how to translate their desiderata into the cold political reality of securing and using power.

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