The times are a-changing — a few weeks ago no one would have batted an eye.
[IsraelTimes] Malaysian businessman Ruben Gnanalingam shared posts on LinkedIn comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust, calling Hezbollah a ‘resistance movement’
A part-owner of Los Angeles Football Club apologized Monday for reposting anti-Israel posts on social media that were criticized by his club and Major League Soccer as "deeply offensive." Metric Football
The Jewish Chronicle first reported that Ruben Gnanalingam reposted messages on his LinkedIn page including comments urging "armies" to "dismantle" Israel and one that compared the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... with the Holocaust.
Another repost called Hezbollah a resistance movement "whether you like it or not."
Gnanalingam, a Malaysian businessman and also vice chairman of second-division English club Queen’s Park Rangers, said in a statement that he deeply regretted that content on his social media account had caused distress and concern.
"It was never my intention to offend or harm anyone, and I take responsibility for not exercising greater caution before sharing these posts," he wrote. "I sincerely apologize to those affected, including my colleagues, friends, and family.
"As someone who values unity, diversity, and respect for all people, I take full responsibility for my actions and have since removed the reposts," he added. "I have decided to step away from social media for the foreseeable future to focus on my professional responsibilities and ensure my communication reflects the values and high standards expected of me as a global business leader."
Gnanalingam added that he was committed to learning from his action and working closely with MLS, LAFC, QPR and other organizations to ensure he handles matters of public communication with greater care.
Gnanalingam’s social media reposts were discovered by the investigative group GnasherJew and shared with The Jewish Chronicle.
The MLS and LAFC condemned Gnanalingam’s reposts in a joint statement.
"MLS and LAFC believe in unity and we stand firmly against hate in any form," they said. "The League is currently reviewing the situation and will have no further comment at this time."
The White House has launched a near-total crackdown on migrants at the border, not even bothering to question whether they are seeking asylum, leading droves to just throw in the towel, officials and sources say.
The migrants are halting in their tracks and returning south "due to increased border security" after President Trump ended the Biden administration’s risky "catch and release" program, deployed additional troops to the border and commenced a mass deportation effort across the nation, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said on X.
"These individuals cited the heavy security posture along the U.S.-Mexico border and Mexico’s containment efforts as key reasons for reversing course," Banks wrote.
"Families in these groups made a life-saving decision, avoiding the dangers of cartel-controlled territory, where extortion and violence are rampant," the former Texas border czar said.
"Our enforcement efforts are working."
The Trump administration has essentially taken a "zero tolerance" to migrants even claiming asylum, sources said.
When migrants now try to cross into the US either legally or illegally and claim asylum, they are returned immediately to Mexico if they’re from Central America and several other countries or sent to ICE for detention and eventual removal, according to Homeland Security sources.
Border Patrol agents are no longer required to question migrants about their wants for asylum.
[IsraelTimes] The Kan broadcaster reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flightpath returning from his trip to Washington, DC, yesterday was changed to avoid flying over Canada’s airspace, due to the outstanding International Criminal Court warrant for the premier’s arrest.
Canada is a signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute, meaning it is legally required to apprehend Netanyahu if he enters its territory.
While several ICC signatories have stated that they would not arrest Netanyahu, Canada affirmed last November that it would “abide” by the court’s warrant and would carry out the arrest.
[FoxNews] A federal court on Sunday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp as part of the president's efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S.
Lawyers for the trio said in a legal filing that the detainees "fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantánamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang."
In the filing, the lawyers asked a U.S. District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from flying them to the U.S. military base. The lawyers noted that "the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction."
Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted the temporary restraining order, according to attorney Jessica Vosburgh, who represents the three men.
"It's short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come," Vosburgh told The Associated Press.
The filing came as part of a lawsuit on behalf of the three men filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and Las Americas Immigrant Advisory.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt separately said that flights carrying detained illegal immigrants had been sent to Guantánamo.
Immigrant rights groups sent a letter on Friday demanding access to people who are now being held at the U.S. naval station, arguing that the base should not be used as a "legal black hole." Guantánamo has been criticized around the world for its inhumane abuse and torture of detainees, including interrogation tactics.
The immigrants are being held in the Guantánamo detention camp that was set up for detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The immigrants are separated from the 15 detainees who were already there, including planners in the 2001 terrorist attack.
Trump has promised to expand the detention camp to hold up to 30,000 "criminal illegal aliens."
Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 8,000 immigrants have been arrested since Jan. 20 as part of Trump's plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S.
Here's MAGA suggestion to cut down on the LawFare abuses.
All Legal challenges to Presidential Executive Orders must be directly handled by the SCOTUS. They must addressed within 30 days. If not adressed by the SCOTUS, then the Executive Order goes into effect on day 31.
#4
Note to Chief Justice Roberts. Every institution that has gone after Trump has become significantly diminished in trust and respect among the populous. Do you really want your branch of government to follow the same path? You can nip it in the bud or you can standby and let it erode, day after day, month after month.
[Daily Mail, where America gets ots news] Signs indicate Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner could be taking on a more prominent role in Middle East relations in the second administration.
Kushner initially said last February that he would not have a White House role in a second term after serving as a senior adviser to Trump the last time around.
But when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., last week for meetings with Trump, he also privately huddled with Kushner, according to Axios.
Bibi and Kushner discussed the U.S. president's recently proposed plans to rebuild Gaza, detailed two sources with knowledge of the meeting. They also discussed other matters related to Israeli and Middle East relations.
It comes after Trump divulged in an interview that aired Monday evening that he doesn't see a situation where Palestinians could return to the only land they've ever known as home if he were to go in and help develop the war-torn Gaza Strip. "the only land they've ever known as home", except in 1948 they left Israel in hopes Arab armies would kill all the Juice. They chose ...poorly. Again, and again
In Trump's first term, Kushner helped negotiate the Abraham Accords in a historic move to forge relationships with Israel and its neighboring countries in the hostile region.
And reports emerged earlier this year that Kushner, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka, would take on an unofficial advisement role from afar regarding Middle East affairs.
[FoxNews] Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd highlights need for infrastructure as ICE arrests criminal aliens
A Florida sheriff said that federal immigration authorities need to remove the "shackles" from local law enforcement agencies so they can work hand-in-hand to make their communities safe from illegal criminal migrants.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told Fox News Digital that local departments could be the "biggest assets" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations in carrying out President Donald Trump's promise to deport illegal immigrants.
He highlighted the need for infrastructure to house migrants, saying federal authorities need to "take the chain off" local municipalities.
"There's got to be an infrastructure at the federal level to house these folks because we can scoop them up in large quantities because they're here illegally committing crime and or they already have," he said. "There's 1.4 million with a federal warrant or a removal order. If we can identify them, put them in the computer, we can go pick them up."
"You can't just flip the switch on and off. You've got to put infrastructure together. But we will be an ally at an even greater level than we already have been," he said. "We'll load up ICE with illegal immigrant criminals."
Polk County, which is located between the Orlando and Tampa metro regions, signed a memorandum of agreement in 2019 – during Trump's first term – to work alongside ICE officials.
"And they [ICE under the previous Trump administration] came and got a lot of people from us that we had arrested on other criminal charges. But we saw those numbers diminish under the Biden administration," he said. "You know, quite frankly, they thought it was better to keep criminal illegal aliens in this country so that they could victimize people than to get rid of them."
"I give great compliments to Gov. [Ron] DeSantis, to our speaker of the house, Danny Perez, and to our president of the Senate, Ben Albritton, because we're creating state legislation, and they're working on the details now to make sure that every government in Florida cooperates and has infrastructure to help immigration at a federal level," he said.
Judd pointed out an information gap between local law enforcement and federal officials. He explained that migrants with an active deportation order are not listed in the National Crime Information Center, which is a central information database that law enforcement uses to see individuals' criminal history.
"I think that is an officer safety issue. When we stop vehicles, the people that we stop may very well be in this country illegally with an active deportation order, knowing, 'My Gosh, they've caught me.' But we don't know that," Judd said. "We also can't pick them up and hold them on this order to deport them because the federal government won't put it in the system. So we know we can be an even bigger help to ICE if they will make sure that they give us information to help them."
"We've got to have open communications between the federal government, between ICE and us, in order to help them," he said. "That's what we're working through right now."
[IsraelNationalNews] The US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has of late been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, has for years funneled money to terrorist entities in the Palestinian-controlled territories, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday, citing several former and current US officials who have worked with the agency.
According to the report, the officials fought with the agency over funding for groups that worked to undermine Israel or maintained ties to terror organizations and the organization would work to conceal how taxpayer funds were spent.
The report mentions how in November 2022, USAID granted $100,000 to an organization led by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID gave $900,000 "to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh."
The report also notes that the Biden-era administrator of the agency, Samantha Power, actively fought pro-Israel policymaking at the State Department and that USAID staffers even recently urged the Biden administration to halt military funding for Israel.
One State Department official told the Free Beacon: "They weren't even in line with some of the Biden administration's policies. It's more than just problematic grants to anti-Israel organizations. It's also their role in the internal approval processes and statements within the administration. There's an entire bureaucratic process they're a part of. They carry out their obstructionist ideology on that front as well."
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) confirmed the report, in which he was also quoted, writing on X: "The full story of USAID funding Hamas is vast, and much of it was done in secret. Before and after October 7, USAID flowed uncountable hundreds of millions of dollars toward Hamas which enabled it to launch the attack and keep battling Israel afterward.
The Senator continued: "They lied about the nature of that aid in public databases, refused to disclose what groups were getting the money, and gave tens of millions in American cash to be distributed without American supervision.
"They internally admitted the aid would benefit Hamas, and even exempted themselves from anti-terrorism laws, but in public issued denials."
Cruz added: "For all four years of the Biden administration, I prevented them from confirming a Middle East administrator because they wouldn’t acknowledge what they were doing because continuing their secret pro-Hamas programs was more important to them."
[FoxNews] DHS Secretary Noem requests IRS agents be provided to help ICE
The Trump administration is looking to deputize Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to take on and assist with illegal immigration enforcement efforts, according to a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Either they obey orders or they quit. Both no doubt are acceptable.
DHS sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent requesting that the IRS provide agents to be used for immigration enforcement efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The senior DHS official said the expectation is that the request will be approved.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who signed the letter, said President Donald Trump directed her agency to "take all appropriate action to supplement available personnel to secure the southern border and enforce the immigration laws of the United States," even through use of the agency’s authority to deputize federal employees to perform immigration functions.
Through the implementation of Trump’s directive, Noem noted DHS has secured partnerships with a number of law enforcement officials, who have agreed to assist in carrying out the president’s immigration agenda.
For instance, DHS has deputized law enforcement components of the Department of Justice, members of the Texas National Guard and law enforcement officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
"Even with these resources available, more can be done to fully implement the Executive Order," Noem wrote. "It is DHS’s understanding that the Department of Treasury has qualified law enforcement personnel available to assist with immigration enforcement, especially in light of recent increases to the Internal Revenue Service’s work force and budget."
She informed the agency that ICE needs IRS agents to assist and serve on interagency task forces to help build complex cases that blend tax, immigration and money laundering charges.
It sounds interesting and quite rewarding, actually. Kind of like a government skunkworks — lots of room for innovation and individual accomplishment.
Noem also asked for agents to help with targeting employers engaging in unlawful hiring practices, investigations into human smuggling and trafficking rings, seizing assets, contract oversight, apprehensions, detentions and removals.
While the IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing related laws, its criminal investigators also work to uncover drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption.
#5
Well, when they advertised for the 87,000 new tax collectors, one of the job requirements was that they be armed. Better to have them on the border than in the community.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/11/2025 10:51 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Except from GS-1811 Series OPM Regs-emphasis added! Making them 1811's has a downside.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management logo
"Criminal Investigation Series 1811
Individual Occupational Requirements"
"Summary of Reassignment"...
"3. The Agency's Right to Reassign
An agency may reassign an employee when:
The agency has a legitimate organizational reason for the reassignment; and
The vacant position is at the same grade, or rate of pay (i.e., if the movement is between pay systems such as from a General Schedule position to a Federal Wage System position), as the employee's present position.
The agency's right to direct reassignment includes the right to reassign an employee from a special rate position to a non-special rate position at the same grade, or to a position with less promotion potential than the present position. (Reassignment to a position with more promotion potential than the present position requires competition under the agency's merit staffing plan.) The position to which the agency reassigns an employee may be located in the same or a different geographic area (e.g., reassignment from Houston to Washington, DC)."
[IsraelTimes] The US Agency for International Development has lost almost all ability to ensure $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid does not end up in terrorist hands following the Trump administration’s foreign funding freeze and idling of staffers, a government watchdog warns.
The administration’s fast-moving dismantling of the agency has left oversight of the aid “largely nonoperational,” USAID’s inspector general’s office says in a report, specifically noting past concerns of aid money going to Hamas and other terror groups.
The cutoff of funds means that the monitors charged with making sure no US aid in the Middle East or Central Asia reaches the Islamic State group, Hezbollah, the Houthis or Hamas have been told not to come to work, the watchdog says.
“This gap leaves USAID susceptible to inadvertently funding entities or salaries of individuals associated with U.S.-designated terrorist organizations,” reads the report.
The watchdog office notes that it had pushed USAID last year to boost its training of agency staff to make sure that those monitors were properly screening for any such diversion of aid.
Pointing to a July report from the ombudsman that warned of Hamas diverting humanitarian aid in Gaza, the Inspector General’s Office says that “over the past 2 weeks, staffing shortages and limitations on communications with aid organizations stemming from the cessation of U.S. foreign assistance have limited USAID’s ability to receive, react to, and report allegations of diversion.”
[IsraelTimes] IDF representatives this morning updated the family of hostage Shlomo Mansour, that he was killed during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, the military says.
Mansour was murdered in Kibbutz Kissufim and his body was taken by Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Strip, where it remains held.
His death was declared by a panel of health experts and members of the rabbinate, following intelligence the IDF says it obtained in recent months.
Of the 76 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip, the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 36.
[IsraelTimes] The family of twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, who are hostages in Gaza, says it has have received signs of life from the brothers.
“We take a deep breath, but we know whose hands they are in and how much danger their lives are in,” the family says in a message to the residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, from where they were taken hostage on October 7, 2023.
[IsraelTimes] In chilling testimony, Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Sgt. Roni Eshel was killed on the IDF’s Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023, claims that weeks before the terror group’s onslaught, Hamas operatives had held up a sign wishing his daughter “Mazal Tov” on her birthday.
Eshel says his daughter had reported the incident to her superiors, but nothing was done about it, Ynet news reports.
He says this shows that Hamas knew intimate details about the Nahal Oz base and the surveillance soldiers who were stationed there.
“Hamas terrorists stood on the other side of the fence with a banner,” Eshel tells Ynet. “They knew about her birthday.”
“It illustrates that Hamas knew everything… They knew [the soldiers’] names in from communication networks, they listened and eavesdropped on them,” he says.
Hamas “came prepared and we lost because we didn’t even understand what they knew.”
According to Ynet, the IDF has yet to comment on Eshel’s claims.
Roni Eshel was killed on October 7, 2023, at age 19, along with 14 other surveillance troops during Hamas’s attack on the Nahal Oz base.
In the same attack, seven surveillance soldiers were abducted and taken as hostages into Gaza: Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF during the early days of the war; Noa Marciano, who was killed in captivity; and Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag, Agam Berger and Naama Levy, who were all released by Hamas and returned to Israel during the current ceasefire accord.
So, your majesty — about taking in some Gazans for the duration…
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration’s recent decision to suspend USAID payments is reportedly already having a “devastating” effect in Jordan, according to a UAE report citing nonprofit organizations.
The National outlet reports that some 35,000 jobs have been lost as a result of the move, including both Jordanians and Americans working on projects funded by the US.
One of Jordan’s larger nonprofits is quoted in the Emirati report as saying that more than half of its budget comes from US sources and the aid suspension has affected operations “tremendously.”
The lack of funding is affecting projects covering physical and mental health, disabilities, refugees, sexual and reproductive health services, and gender-based violence protection and rehabilitation services, The National reports.
“It goes beyond the numbers. It’s a ripple effect on the whole economy,” the organization says.
Even adjusting for the pay scale differences between the Jordanian avg. monthly Min. wage of about $366 USD p/month, and the USA at around $1256.66.66. Still that could have taken care of around 10,000 of the 32,000 US Homeless VETS.
#2
The lack of funding is affecting projects covering physical and mental health, disabilities, refugees, sexual and reproductive health services, and gender-based violence protection and rehabilitation services
We all know that "refugees" mean. About the rest of it - in Arab society: you gotta be kidding me.
[IsraelTimes] ‘I thought they were terrorizing me psychologically’: Arbel says she didn’t believe her captors when they told her hostages had become a political issue in Israel
Released hostage Arbel Yehoud condemned on Monday the politicization of the issue of the hostages held in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip and called on the government to agree to a comprehensive one-time deal for the release of all those still in captivity.
Yehoud was released at the end of last month. Her remarks were delivered in a message read aloud by her father to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
"I learned Arabic within a month, and I heard my captors express joy at the division in our nation over the issue of the hostages’ release," Yehiel Yehoud read from his daughter’s statement. "I thought they were terrorizing me psychologically when the issue of the hostages became a political issue. I didn’t believe it until I returned to Israel and was exposed to this harsh reality."
Mass demonstrations of support for the hostages began soon after the war erupted on October 7, 2023, when the terror group Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... led thousands of gunnies to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 to Gaza.
Alongside these rallies, weekly anti-government protests resumed in Tel Aviv, which had focused on the proposed judicial overhaul before the war. The two movements held distinct events in the city, but participants often joined together after the hostage demonstrations ended. Over time, as the war dragged on, hostages’ families became increasingly impatient with the government for not securing their loved ones’ release. Some openly panned the government over its handling of the situation.
Amid accusations from critics that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was avoiding commitment to a ceasefire to preserve his coalition — due to threats from its right-wing flank to bolt if the war ended before Hamas was destroyed — the hostage support rallies have over time taken on an increasingly hostile tone toward the government.
After some 15 months of fighting, a three-stage hostage-ceasefire deal was reached last month. Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas is gradually releasing some of the hostages, Israel is releasing hundreds of Paleostinian security prisoners, and the fighting in Gaza has been paused. Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, Gloria again dodged the questing tip of the giant frog's tongue and ran for her life... negotiations on the subsequent stages that would ultimately result in a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave — alongside the release of all the remaining hostages — are meant to begin.
It was during the ongoing first six-week phase that Arbel Yehoud was released. Other freed hostages have also said that their terrorist guards would show them news from Israel of anti-government rallies on their behalf.
[IsraelTimes] Reform will bring families of security prisoners and slain terrorists into same welfare system as other Palestinians, be based on economic need; move was largely finalized in Biden era
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> signed a decree on Monday canceling legislation that conditioned welfare payments to Paleostinian security prisoners on the length of their sentences in Israeli jails, in addition to providing stipends to the families of forces of Evil killed while carrying out attacks.
The decree states that families of prisoners and slain attackers who require welfare assistance will be eligible for stipends based solely on their financial needs, as is the case with other Paleostinians.
Israel and other countries have long denounced the stipends that Jerusalem said actively encouraged terror, with critics dubbing it the "pay-to-slay" system.
The initiative to cancel the stipends had been in the works for years, and its pilot program was even quietly launched toward the end of the Biden administration, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
Ramallah presented the reform to the US near the beginning of the previous administration, seeking to bring the PA into compliance with the Taylor Force Act — 2018 congressional legislation that suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued granting the stipends.
The US then facilitated a dialogue with the Israeli government to explain the contents of the reform, the source said, acknowledging that it was met with skepticism in Jerusalem.
There were several points toward the end of the Biden administration’s term in which the PA decision was on the verge of being announced, a second source said, arguing that Israel seemed to be trying to stall the matter. In the months leading up to Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s October 7 onslaught, the Biden administration sought to receive a nod of approval from Israel for the reform, worried that a rejection could lead pro-Israel politicians in Congress to follow suit, thereby hampering the reform’s legitimacy in Washington. The second source indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had dragged its feet on the matter, even as the premier regularly cited the controversial policy to argue that the PA cannot be trusted.
It is unlikely that the reform will satisfy the Netanyahu government, which has pledged to box the PA out of any role in the post-war governance of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Monday night dismissing the decree "as a new fraudulent exercise by the PA, which intends to continue making payments to forces of Evil and their families through other channels."
Israeli law requires the government to conduct a review of the PA’s prisoner payment system at the beginning of every calendar year, so Jerusalem could theoretically wait until early 2026 before deciding whether Ramallah is in compliance with Knesset legislation targeting the PA over its controversial stipends.
The Trump administration may also have different criteria for adjudicating the PA reform, even though it was authorized by career legal babus bureaucrats under the previous administration.
Biden officials also briefed congressional politicians about the reform last year and received support from both sides of the aisle, including Republican Lindsey Graham ...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John Maverick McCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems... , the second source said.
The Taylor Force Act requires the US government to review the PA’s compliance every six months.
According to the text of the decree posted on the official PA news agency WAFA, the program to allocate welfare funds will be transferred from the Social Development Ministry to a new fund called the Paleostinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment.
The fund will be headed by current PA Social Welfare Minister Ahmad Majdalani, according to the second source.
A strict criteria system has been put in place to determine eligibility that will be reviewed twice a year, said the second source.
Many families of prisoners and slain attackers who were receiving government stipends will continue to receive financial aid, given the high poverty rate in the West Bank. This has only gone up further since October 7, with Israel ending its permit system to over 100,000 Paleostinians working in Israel and the settlements — a key component of the West Bank’s economy.
The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks, and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks, has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror, and held up by Israel as a symbol of PA corruption and its inability to serve as a partner for peace.
Paleostinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of what they said is Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.
Abbas signed the decree as the US Supreme Court prepares to adjudicate a case in the coming months on whether American victims can sue the PA and its international arm, the Paleostine Liberation Organization, for damages due to Ramallah’s payments program.
According to the PA, the decree was made in part to "strengthen the status of the state of Paleostine" in the UN and other international bodies and gain further international recognition, as well as "with the aim of restoring international aid programs that were suspended in the past year."
The move was also designed to stop "the illegal deductions" that Israel made from taxes it gathered on behalf of the Paleostinian Authority, the decree added. Neither the English nor Arabic version of the announcement made any reference to the Trump administration or to the United States.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s Finance Ministry collects tax revenues on behalf of the PA and makes monthly transfers to Ramallah, but it has withheld funds over the years due to disputes, including, most recently, in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
In 2018, Israel passed a law requiring that a sum equal to the monthly stipends the PA pays to security prisoners and the families of slain attackers be withheld from the tax revenues it transfers to the Paleostinians.
Israel withheld hundreds of millions of shekels from the PA under the legislation, citing the payments. At the same time, Israel has in the past offered loans to the PA in order to keep it afloat and prevent its total breakdown.
While the previous administration believed that the reform would bring the PA into compliance with the Taylor Force Act, the US would still be barred from directly funding the PA, due to separate US legislation preventing such aid once Ramallah began advancing investigations against Israel at the International Criminal Court.
However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... the reform would still theoretically be sufficient enough to enable the US to fund projects that directly benefit the PA.
The decree from the PA on Monday noted that the move should also assist with "the new burdens of helping our people in the Gaza Strip."
While the effort to reform the PA prisoner payment system has been in the works for years, and was largely finalized under the Biden administration, Ramallah decided to hold off on announcing the move, preferring to save it as a goodwill gesture for the incoming Trump administration.
During the transition between the Biden and Trump White Houses, top PA officials briefed their counterparts in the incoming Trump administration regarding their plan, a third and a fourth source familiar told The Times of Israel on Monday.
However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... those two sources believed that the announcement would be put on the back burner following Trump’s declaration last week that he planned to take over Gaza and permanently displace the population. The Gaza proposal sent shockwaves throughout the Arab world, which is now in the middle of a full-throttled campaign against the Trump idea.
A Paleostinian official told The Times of Israel during the presidential transition process that Ramallah had learned lessons from the way it dealt with Trump during his first term. Abbas severed ties with the US after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, less than a year after taking office. The US proceeded to broker the Abraham Accords, while the Paleostinians were left out of the process.
As efforts to include Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... in those accords have intensified, Ramallah has worked to boost its ties with Riyadh, hoping that the latter will condition a deal with Israel on a credible and irreversible pathway to a future Paleostinian state. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch cautiously raised his hat over the edge of the horse trough on the end of a stick...... PA officials indicated to Trump aides that they would be prepared to use his 2020 peace plan as a basis for negotiations.
The decree on Monday is Ramallah’s latest effort to improve ties with Washington and amounts to a major victory for Trump, who managed to secure a concession from the PA that repeated US administrations had worked to actualize.
[IsraelTimes] Iranian hacker group claims to have gained access to several classified government sites and databases containing classified information including personal details of police personnel, sex offender registries, weapons licenses as well as medical and psychological profiles of soldiers and other security personnel, Channel 12 news reports.
The report says several documents were published online.
Channel 12 adds that the hackers claim to have downloaded 2.1 terabytes of classified information from Israel Police databases, and are threatening to publish more documents online.
But after the report, the Israel Police responds that an initial investigation into the alleged hack shows there is “no indication that there had been a hack or a leak of sensitive information.”
“The Israel Police operates advanced security measures and is constantly working to strengthen its defense systems, using the world’s leading technologies in the field of cybersecurity,” police say.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Lebanon continues to gradually emerge from a long-term political crisis. Following the election of the president and the approval of the prime minister's candidacy, official Beirut approved the composition of the government. For the first time in a long time, it included only a few representatives of Hezbollah - and they did not occupy the most important positions. There was also a scandal.
Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus tried at the last minute to put pressure on the Lebanese authorities in order to achieve the "complete expulsion" of pro-Iranian forces from the cabinet. However, to no avail: Prime Minister Nawaf Salam did not follow Washington's lead and did not change the approved composition of the government.
This principled approach did not bring Hezbollah much joy: the movement, although it retained some of its leverage over Lebanese politics, effectively lost its influence over the military-political situation within the country, and was left alone with old problems.
ALMOST WITHOUT HEZBOLLAH
The new Lebanese government included 24 ministers, with posts equally divided between Muslim and Christian forces, a major achievement for Prime Minister Salam. Previous attempts to secure such a clear consensus had only exacerbated rivalries.
Representatives of Hezbollah and its allies received at least five portfolios in the government. In particular, the Ministry of Labor ( Muhammad Haidar ) and the Ministry of Administrative Development ( Fadi Makki ) remained under the control of the Party of God.
Moreover, Makki also retained the unofficial status of “mediator minister” between the legislative and executive branches, which ensured Hezbollah’s integration into the political dialogue at the highest level.
As for the Hezbollah-allied but more moderate Shiite Amal party, its creatures have taken over three structures: the Ministry of Health ( Rakan Nasreddin ), the Ministry of Finance ( Yassin Jaber ) and the Ministry of Environment ( Tamara al-Zein ).
Despite some discord between Hezbollah and Amal after the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, the tactical alliance of the two Shiite parties was preserved. This means that in the new formation, the pro-Iranian forces still have the opportunity to control the country's financial flows through the hands of their allies.
Of course, five portfolios for all is a rather modest result for the Shiite parties. Especially compared to the pre-crisis period, when Hezbollah and its allied forces could simultaneously control up to half of the cabinet, as well as part of the parliament. However, given the losses suffered by the Shiite forces during the conflict with Israel, preserving at least part of the political capital can already be considered a tactical victory.
SYMBOLIC POSITIONS
The inclusion of Hezbollah protégés in the new government does not mean that the movement has been able to recover from the months-long war with Israel without losing political points. On the contrary, the new cabinet formation has consolidated the trend of gradually distancing Shiite forces from military decisions.
Not a single representative of the pro-Iranian wing made it into the “power” bloc (even as deputy ministers), and leadership positions in key departments were occupied by figures dissatisfied with the “excessive independence” of the Hezbollah units.
The movement's leadership remembers well the promise of the country's new president, Joseph Aoun, to return the national army's "monopoly on the use of force" (including through the disarmament of numerous militias and "personal guards" of Lebanese politicians) and sees the redistribution of spheres of influence within the cabinet as the first step in this direction.
In theory, Hezbollah can still resist the pressure being put on it, for example by stalling some of President Aoun's initiatives through the permanent speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri.
The latter, himself a Shiite, has been sympathetic to friendly parties for many years and is interested in ensuring that the influence of Hezbollah, which many Lebanese Shiites still see as their only protector, does not wane.
But pushing too hard through parliamentary channels could backfire, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis. And Hezbollah will inevitably bear the brunt of the blame.
NEW FRONT
The challenges facing the "Party of God" are growing day by day. In southern Lebanon, sporadic clashes continue between militias from Shiite villages along the border (who are reportedly supported by Hezbollah volunteers) and armed formations of the "new Syria".
Beirut and Damascus are effectively on the brink of a new armed conflict.
The Lebanese establishment has so far preferred to ignore the tensions in the border area and has not made any claims to the Syrian side. Lebanese troops are inactive in the region.
At the same time, the central government does not allow Hezbollah units to act independently, apparently fearing that their return to southern Lebanon will disrupt the agreement on the withdrawal of the Israeli contingent from Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah's leadership is also in no hurry to get into trouble, preferring to support the border Shiite villages behind the scenes, without entering into direct confrontation with Damascus. In any case, until the framework of the ceasefire agreement with Israel is in effect.
However, time is not on Hezbollah's side. Delays in the south threaten to undermine the movement's credibility among ordinary border residents. And this is fraught with difficulties in the further restoration of Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
