RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19964/biden-saudi-bribe-palestinians

Palestinian officials… have assured the US that they will not oppose Saudi-Israeli efforts at normalization, in the hope of receiving security, financial and political incentives from the Biden administration.

The Palestinian list of demands for not opposing a Saudi-Israeli deal includes, among other things: Resuming Saudi financial support to the Palestinian Authority, which slowed from 2016 and stopped completely three years ago, to the tune of around $200 million per year, and transferring parts of the West Bank currently under full Israeli control to the governance of the Palestinian Authority. The talk is about land in the West Bank’s Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is exclusively controlled by Israel.

It appears, then, that Saudi Arabia and the Biden Administration are offering a bribe to the Palestinians in return for their silence over a Saudi-Israeli deal. The Biden administration seems desperate to achieve some kind of deal ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, presumably in the hope that it would boost President Joe Biden’s chances of being re-elected.

The Palestinian list of demands for refraining from condemning a Saudi-Israeli peace accord can be seen as tantamount to blackmail. The Palestinian leadership is telling the Saudis and Americans that if they want to avoid Palestinian condemnation, they must pay the price — with money and territory.

The Saudis are being asked to pay $200 million per year and the Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure — or blackmail — Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises. [T]he Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure — or blackmail — Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises.

The Palestinian leaders will happily accept any additional land in the West Bank, but, as experience has shown, they will do nothing to prevent these areas from becoming terror hubs.

Given the ongoing state of financial and administrative corruption in the PA, there is every reason to doubt that the Saudi funds would be used to boost the Palestinian economy or improve the living conditions of the Palestinians.

“The corruption began from the first moment that the Palestinian Authority began to gather the Palestinian people’s money and aid and pour it into the [ruling] Fatah [faction] budget, even though this money was given to the Palestinian people, not the Palestinian Authority or its officials who have divided it amongst themselves…. The many scandals of such officials and those close to Abbas have been exposed and seen as symbols of financial and political corruption, nepotism, bribery, smuggling and theft.” — Middle East Monitor, “Corruption in the Palestinian Authority,” December 2013.

Several militias and armed gangs are currently operating in the northern parts of the West Bank, while the PA is doing nothing to rein in the terrorists or prevent them from attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers.

The PA, which has spectacularly failed to enforce law and order in areas under its control, is demanding that Israel now allow it to gain control over even more territory in the West Bank?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19972/jericho-unesco-heritage-site

The deeply corrupt, highly politicized United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will vote later this week on declaring Jericho, an ancient Jewish city, a “World Heritage Site in Palestine.”

The Palestinian Authority submitted a nomination of Jericho, which it wants to rename Tell es-Sultan.

UNESCO’s purpose is to promote “international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information” which it is supposed to do through “knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas.” Nowhere does it say that UNESCO has the least right to meddle in ongoing conflicts and create make-believe “facts” on the ground.

This illegitimate imposition is not the first time that UNESCO is putting on display its anti-Israel bias, penchant for faking history and an impressive tradition of lying.

In 2010, UNESCO renamed the Jewish site of Rachel’s Tomb the “Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque,” stating that it was part of “occupied Palestine.”” … At the time, only the US voted against these straight-faced falsifications of Jewish history.

In 2016, UNESCO declared Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – site of the two biblical Jewish temples – “a Muslim holy site of worship” and mentioned it only by its Islamic names, the “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif.” It also renamed the Western Wall — a retaining wall which is all that remains of the Jewish Second Temple that was destroyed by the Roman Legions in 70 CE — “Al-Buraq Plaza”.

“[T]hey decided that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is a Palestinian site, meaning that it is not Jewish, and that the site is in danger. Not a Jewish site?! Who is buried there? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah – our patriarchs and matriarchs! And the site is in danger? It is only in those places where Israel is, such as Hebron, that freedom of religion for all is ensured.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Guardian, July 7, 2017.

Corruption, politicization, and the falsification history do not appear, however, to bother the Biden administration in the least. In July 2023, the United States rejoined UNESCO, even though the organization has been called “a byword for inefficiency, nepotism and corruption” and was cited “among the most corrupt and politically biased UN agencies.”

“Biden’s excuse for rejoining UNESCO is to counter rising Chinese influence. The State Department argues, for example, that ‘we can’t afford to be absent any longer from one of the key fora in which standards around education for science and technology are set.’ This claim is entirely specious. There is little to no need for America to rejoin UNESCO to prevent harmful Chinese influence. UNESCO ‘standards’ for any sort of education are irrelevant, if not harmful to real education, as we’ve learned over many painful decades…. Biden is making precisely the same mistake as Obama, and, if Biden proceeds further, Congress should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done.” — John R. Bolton, former National Security Advisor and former US Ambassador to the UN, New York Post, June 20, 2023.

UNESCO does nothing to counter China, Russia, North Korea or Iran, but does do a lot to demoralize those countries hoping that the US will still be the leader of the Free World. UNESCO’s corruption, with America’s backing, is simply driving these countries still further into the waiting arms of China.

If US membership in UNESCO is to have any purpose at all, the least the Biden administration can do with its taxpayer dollars is all it can to prevent Jericho from becoming a “Heritage site in Palestine.”

For a start, there is no “State of Palestine.” In fact, until 1964, there was not even a “Palestinian people”.

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.” — Zoheir Mohsen, Palestinian leader, interview in Trouw, March 31, 1977.

“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.” — Zoheir Mohsen, Trouw, March 31, 1977.

It is important to remember: Until the seventh century there were not even any Muslims in the world, let alone Palestinians.

In 2021, UNESCO published a handbook: “Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and Training.” Perhaps the good folks at UNESCO might read it before they vote?

Failing that, the US Congress should “should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done” — as Bolton suggested.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19970/unesco-bias-israel

In one of the latest examples [of anti-Israel bias], UNESCO recently announced it will designate the city of Jericho as a “Palestinian” heritage site.

This is a clear attack on Christians and Jews, who also view the city as an important part of their cultural and religious history. The Biden administration should object to this designation and protest UNESCO’s clear bias strongly.

[A]s former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former National Security Advisor John Bolton advised in his strong article, “Biden’s foolish rush to rejoin UNESCO has nothing to do with China”: “Congress should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done.”

Rather than building a culture of peace, UNESCO is perpetuating a culture of anger and division.

By exiting UNESCO again, the U.S. would send a clear message that it will not tolerate the organization’s anti-Israel bias and that it will stand up to other racist and anti-Semitic actions at the UN.

Most people know the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through its eponymous and popular designation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. By UNESCO’s own definition, “World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located.” But an impending late-September vote by UNESCO again calls into question whether the organization holds to its stated beliefs or fits into the broader pattern of anti-Israel bias that permeates the United Nations.

The clear bias of the UN against the State of Israel was on full display in 2022. The UN General Assembly passed 28 resolutions criticizing countries. Of these resolutions, 15 criticized Israel, while only 13 were critical of all the other countries around the world combined. In a world beset by conflict, with a war in Ukraine, genocide against the Uyghurs in China, violence in Myanmar, the Taliban horrors in Afghanistan, instability in the Sahel, military infighting in the Sudan, and gang violence in Haiti, among the many global hotspots, Israel being the primary focus of UN criticism is totally inappropriate.