RUTHFULLY YOURS

Huh? How is it a “secret” if the WSJ has a headline about it? rsk

Israel has been regularly supplying Syrian rebels near its border with cash as well as food, fuel and medical supplies for years, a secret engagement in the enemy country’s civil war aimed at carving out a buffer zone populated by friendly forces.

The Israeli army is in regular communication with rebel groups and its assistance includes undisclosed payments to commanders that help pay salaries of fighters and buy ammunition and weapons, according to interviews with about half a dozen Syrian fighters. Israel has established a military unit that oversees the support in Syria—a country that it has been in a state of war with for decades—and set aside a specific budget for the aid, said one person familiar with the Israeli operation.

Israel has in the past acknowledged treating some 3,000 wounded Syrians, many of them fighters, in its hospitals since 2013 as well as providing humanitarian aid such as food and clothing to civilians near the border during winter. But interviews with half a dozen rebels and three people familiar with Israel’s thinking reveal that the country’s involvement is much deeper and more coordinated than previously known and entails direct funding of opposition fighters near its border for years.

“Israel stood by our side in a heroic way,” said Moatasem al-Golani, spokesman for the rebel group Fursan al-Joulan, or Knights of the Golan. “We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance.”

Israel’s aim is to keep Iran-backed fighters allied to the Syrian regime, such as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, away from the 45-mile stretch of border on the divided Golan Heights, the three people said.

But its support for rebels risks heightening tension with President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has long accused Israel of helping rebel groups. Mr. Assad has said Israel supports rebel groups and launches airstrikes in Syrian territory to undermine his hold on power. Israel has said it doesn’t favor any one outcome in the civil war.

Israel captured part of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and later annexed it—a move the international community doesn’t recognize. CONTINUE AT SITE

As Israeli Ambassador Yahel Vilan ends his two-year posting, Kenya is suffering from drought and food insecurity and has been forced to import food. Israel, a tiny country of 21,000 square kilometres and a population of 8.7 million, is famous for turning the desert green with agricultural innovation, such as drip irrigation.And it exports fresh produce.

Kenya with 48 million people covers more than 581,000 square kilometres, much of it arid and desert, some of it verdant, well-irrigated and perfect for agriculture. And yet it’s struggling.

In a wide-ranging interview, Vilan discussed Israel’s assistance to Kenya in agriculture, especially the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project in Tana River.

It is being developed with Israeli expertise and run by an Israeli company. It’s largely funded by Kenya.

Though the project has been criticised by some in Kenya for not producing enough, Vilan called the project — which is a pilot — a success that will help transform Kenyan agriculture.

According to chief engineer and project manager Thuita Mwangi, the third harvest from 2,500 acres delivered 93,860 bags. About 1,000 locals are employed.

Describing how Israel became so successful despite the geographic and climatic challenges, Vilan said, “We knew from the beginning that we didn’t have choices. We wanted to strive, first and foremost for our own consumption. We needed to base our agriculture on technology.

“We had scarcity of water and we had to find solutions, which we did through drip irrigation and use of treated water. Israel is currently number one in usage of treated water for agriculture.”

Vilan said bold and consistent decision–making at national and county levels is essential if if Kenya is to be food secure.

“There is no reason Kenya should have to import food,” the envoy said.

State and local governments should not sit and wait for the next drought, the ambassador said.

Rainwater must be harvested and better managed, instead of going to waste. This, he says, is a matter of policy-making and leadership.

Vilan called critism of the Galana-Kulalu project premature.

“The Kenyan people one day had nothing. We go for this ambitious project and almost immediately, there is criticism. If people expected miracles and immediate yields, that is not possible. It is okay to criticise but I invite everyone to go there and see with their own eyes.”

The first maize crop was harvested when Vilan arrived in the country in September 2015.

In less than two years, he says, 30-40 bags of maize are being harvested per acre, as promised.

“We also should remember, the goal of Galana, as of now in this pilot project, is not to solve Kenya’s food shortage but to introduce technologies and methods for farmers for the future. This is an experiment testing different varieties of maize and other crops. The plan is not just to produce maize and other food products but also to ensure every farmer in Kenya sees how these technologies can work here. We have seen governors and ministers going to Israel and saying it is working there and they want to see it working in Kenya. Agriculture is not cut-and-paste. But, in the end, this [Galana-type agriculture]is the solution to Kenya’s food security.” the ambassador said.

To avoid a repeat of the collapse of the Kibwezi irrigation project — into which Israel pumped Sh300 million into 14 years ago — the envoy says they have introduced the training aspect in Galana, so Kenyans can learn to run it by themselves.

Again, these terrorists are referred to as “militants”….rsk

TEL AVIV—Stabbing attacks by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem left an Israeli police officer dead, Israeli officials said Saturday, but authorities cast doubt on a claim by Islamic State that its fighters were responsible for the assaults.

The three attackers also lightly injured several other officers and civilians before security forces shot them dead in locations outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday evening, Israeli police said. One of the assailants had a gun that jammed, avoiding more serious casualties, the police added.

Sergeant Major Hadas Malka, 23 years old, was stabbed while engaging the attackers and later died of her wounds, Israeli officials said.

The bloodshed on Friday ended a lull in Palestinian violence against Israelis after a wave of attacks that began in September 2015 had largely abated in recent months in part due to greater security coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces.

Islamic State quickly took responsibility for the attacks, but Israeli authorities said they had no evidence to support the extremist group’s claims, which were also dismissed by other Palestinian militant groups.

Islamic State made the claim in a statement on its official channel, its first about an attack in Israel.

In response, Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and regularly claims responsibility for Palestinian violence against Israelis, said one of its members and two operatives from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine conducted the attacks.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Islamic State’s claim aimed to “muddy the waters.”

The PFLP, a secular nationalist group that has only a small level of support among Palestinians, said in a statement it also was responsible for the attacks. CONTINUE AT SITE

In the eyes of many Arabs and Muslims, Trump is no longer the strong leader they feared a few months ago. Rather, he has proven to them that he too is susceptible to blackmail and intimidation. And when Trump caves, US credibility suffers. Had Trump gone ahead and fulfilled his promise to move the embassy, he would have earned the respect of many Arabs and Muslims, who would have looked to him as a proper leader.

A further point ought to be of extreme interest to the US: When the Palestinians and Arabs talk about the possibility that such a move would “harm” US interests in the region and “trigger violence and bloodshed,” they are actually threatening to launch terror attacks against American nationals and interests. That is why Trump’s recent decision not to move the embassy to Jerusalem is being understood in the Arab world as surrender to terrorism.

Consider what happened when Trump recently ordered a missile attack on Syria. Many Arabs and Muslims took to social media to heap praise on Trump for displaying courage. If and when Trump honors his promises, he will earn even more respect in the Arab and Islamic countries.

US President Donald J. Trump’s waiver delaying the relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem accomplishes two things.

First, it disappoints many Israelis for failing to fulfill his pre-election promise. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it has sent precisely the wrong message to the Palestinians. What the Palestinians and other Arabs heard in this message is that the US president folds under pressure and threats.

This message of weakness and retreat harms not only Trump’s credibility, but also that of the US by making it appear a country that caves under threats of violence.

In general, it is Trump’s presentation of power that garners respect among many Palestinians and Arabs. The Arabs admire and respect such figures because they have been ruled for decades by ruthless tyrants and dictators such as Saddam Hussein. But the Arabs also respect leaders who keep their promises, even if they disagree with and oppose those promises.

Trump’s decision to delay the relocation of the US embassy came after repeated threats by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and some Arabs that such a move would “plunge the entire region into violence and bloodshed.” These threats began during Trump’s election campaign and escalated after he entered the White House.

President Donald Trump’s decision to delay the relocation of the US embassy in Israel (pictured) from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem came after repeated threats by the Palestinian Authority that such a move would “plunge the entire region into violence and bloodshed.” (Image source: Krokodyl/Wikimedia Commons)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts in Ramallah spearheaded the campaign of threats and intimidation. They even went as far as threatening to revoke their recognition of Israel’s right to exist if Trump dared to fulfill his promise.

Last January, Abbas was quoted as saying that the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem would prompt the Palestinians to withdraw their recognition of Israel.

“I wrote a letter to President Trump urging him to refrain from such a move. I made it clear to him that such a move would not only deprive the US of playing any legitimate role in solving the conflict, but would also destroy the two-state solution.”

Abbas’s mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, warned Trump that transferring the embassy to Jerusalem would be seen as an “aggression not only against the Palestinians, but against all Arabs and Muslims as well.” PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat joined the chorus of threats by warning Trump that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would “plunge the Middle East into violence and chaos.”

The Palestinian threats were accompanied by threats from some Arab governments and Islamic clerics. They too warned Trump that the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem would trigger a wave of violence and jeopardize US interests in the Middle East. The former mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Jum’ah, said that moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would “constitute a grave escalation and threaten US interests in the region.” Another leading Egyptian Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ibahim Reda, warned that such a move would “trigger a wave of tensions in the region and constitute an aggression against Arabs and Muslims.”

Such threats on the part of Palestinians are nothing new. In fact, Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues issue similar “warnings” whenever they do not get what they want. This is one of their favored tactics against Israel.

For example, the Palestinians used to warn that Israel’s construction of the security barrier in the West Bank would result in violence and anarchy. In reality, however, the security barrier has led to exactly opposite; it has halted suicide bombings against Israel, and saved the lives not only of Jews, but also Arabs who were killed in the wave of terrorism waged by the Palestinians during the Second Intifada.

“Palestinians warn” is one of the most popular results on Google Search.

More recently, for example, the Palestinians “warned” Israel against introducing a new curriculum for Arab schools in Jerusalem by claiming this would lead to the “Judaization” and “Israelization” of Jerusalem.

Last month, the Palestinians came out with another “warning” — this time, that if Israel does not comply with the demands of Palestinian prisoners who went on hunger strike, there would be a “new intifada.”

After 40 days of the hunger strike, the prisoners backtracked and ended their fast — although most of their demands were not met by Israel.

All this is added to the daily threats Abbas and many Palestinians have been making for the past two years regarding visits by Jews to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Hardly a day passes without another threat being issued by the Palestinians about these visits.

The Palestinians work hard to convince the world that routine and peaceful tours of Jewish groups and individuals to the Temple Mount are part of an Israeli “conspiracy” to destroy the Aqsa Mosque and “defile” Islamic religious sites. They have also been warning that the visits would trigger a “religious war” between Jews and Muslims and lead to a “big explosion” and an “earthquake” in the Middle East.

True, the Palestinian incitement over the Temple Mount visits has resulted in a wave of knife and car ramming attacks against Israelis, but no “religious war” has erupted and the Arab and Islamic countries do not seem overly concerned about Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.

These visits, by the way, have been taking place since 1967. The visits were suspended temporarily during the Second Intifada for security reasons, and were resumed about two years ago. It is also worth noting that Christian tourists also continue to tour the holy site — something that does not seem to bother Abbas and his PA friends.

Israel, for its part, has learned to live with the incessant Palestinian threats and warnings. But the international community continues to take these threats seriously, ignoring the fact that by doing so they are constantly sending the wrong message to the Palestinians. Surrendering to threats of violence only emboldens the extremists and paves the way for more violence and bloodshed.

How moving the US embassy to Jerusalem “destroys” the so-called two-state solution is rather a mystery.

If and when the US embassy is moved from Tel Aviv, it will be set up in the western part of the city and not in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians are demanding as their future capital. Only one thing can be inferred from this — that the Palestinians also see the western part of Jerusalem too as part of their future capital.

The Palestinian and Arab threats of violence and chaos in the region sound laughable given the current state of affairs in many Arab countries, including Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya, where Muslims have been slaughtering each other — and Christians — for the past six years.

The turmoil in the Arab world — including the recent tensions surrounding Qatar — is completely unrelated to US policies in particular, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general. Despite the myopia of Arab leaders and Islamic clerics, blood is already spilled at a rather alarming rate in the Arab countries.

The killings in Syria, Iraq and Libya will continue, regardless of whether Trump moves the US embassy to Jerusalem or not.

A further point ought to be of extreme interest to the US: When the Palestinians and Arabs talk about the possibility that such a move would “harm” US interests in the region and “trigger violence and bloodshed,” they are actually threatening to launch terror attacks against American nationals and interests.

That is why Trump’s recent decision not to move the embassy to Jerusalem is being understood in the Arab world as a surrender to terrorism.

From the Arab world’s point of view, it shows the US as cowing under the threat of violence.

Does anyone seriously believe that the leaders of the Arab and Islamic countries really care whether the embassy is located in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? Don’t these leaders have enough to worry about, such as the Iranian threat to undermine the stability of their regimes and the threat of Islamic terrorism?

A thorough examination of the track record of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, Fatah (all three headed by Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas is a prerequisite for a realistic assessment of the nature of the proposed Palestinian state and its potential impact upon vital US interests in the Middle East.

North Korea has scrutinized these terror organizations since their inception, in 1959 (Fatah), and has identified the significant, long-term, geo-political synergies between them and Pyongyang. Hence, the systematic and elaborate geo-strategic cooperation, since 1966, between one of the most repressive, terroristic and anti-US regimes in the world and the Palestinian terror organizations, which have been systematically anti-American, role-models of international and intra-Arab terrorism, subversion and treachery. Similarly to North Korea, they forged alliances with the USSR and the ruthless East European communist regimes, collaborated with Iran’s Ayatollahs, fomenting egregious systems of hate-education, incitement and repression.

Furthermore, Pyongyang is aware of the Palestinian trail of anti-Jewish and (mostly) intra-Arab terrorism during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, their collaboration with the Nazis, and their 1951 murder of Jordan’s King Abdullah, while the monarch prayed in Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque. The ruthless totalitarian Kim Jong-un sympathizes with the PA’s Mahmoud Abbas’ twelfth year of (what was to be) his first four-year-term, refusing to hold an election.

North Korea considers its ties with the Palestinians compatible with its paramount strategic goal: the erosion of the US power projection in the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East and throughout the globe. Therefore, Pyongyang has attempted to destabilize pro-US regimes, while forging cooperation with regimes, which are rivals of – or hostile to – the US and its allies, such as Israel.

North Korea has supported terror organizations – which have targeted the US and its allies – providing them with training, military supplies, communications technologies, and expertise on the construction of tunnels and fortifications.