ONE can spend all day, more pointedly, until the cows come home, and never be done cataloging the lies that the Bennett regime tells the majority-held citizens of Israel, a/k/a the right-wing. Truth dare be told, they spin more tall-tales than a stadium full of Pinocchio-like characters. In fact, there is little difference between their spinning and that of the Biden regime — and that’s a high threshold to cross! No kidding.
AS such, let’s cease attempting to place lipstick on this duplicitous pig, be it in Israel or in America. Simply, don’t piss on our heads and tell us that it is raining.
IN this regard, a sampling of the laundry list re the aforementioned within Israel can be found below. Keep in mind, it is hardly exhaustive.
MOST perniciously, in answer to the query: who is REALLY running the show, the following illegal putsch by the enemy within removes the mask completely. Yes, and via electricity hook-ups, no less. Not to mention, the continuous coddling of terrorists ala this or that “goodwill gesture!”
BUT never mind. Here comes the highly astute Caroline Glick, as per what’s what in the hotbed of Israeli politics, aside from the fiery geo-political arena.
The “quiet” on the northern and southern fronts that Israel’s leaders point to is the result not of Israeli deterrence, as they claim, but deterrence by our enemies.
(JNS) Something happens almost every day that tells us that Israel’s enemies are preparing for war. On the other hand, Israel’s responses to these events indicate that Israel is not preparing for war.
Three separate events last week exposed this distressing state of affairs.
First, on Monday, Iran and its proxies in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen marked the second anniversary of the U.S. assassination in Iraq of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. At a ceremony in Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to kill former president Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Not only did the Biden administration not condemn the Iranian regime for threatening the life of a former president and secretary of state, but on the day Raisi made the threat, President Joe Biden’s nuclear negotiators were in Vienna beginning another round of nuclear talks with Raisi’s emissaries. U.S. officials told reporters ahead of the talks that they expect to close a deal with the Iranians, perhaps a partial one, in the near future.
To go by the reports of the negotiations, a deal means nothing less than complete U.S. capitulation to Iran’s demands. Last week, Britain’s Spectator published a report titled “Inside Joe Biden’s Disastrous Negotiations with Iran.” It described how the Western position has collapsed due to the radical pro-Iranian posture of the U.S. team led by Robert Malley.
British and other negotiators characterized Malley as “the most dovish official we’ve ever seen.”
One official said that Malley bent over backwards so far that “he now speaks to Tehran between his legs.”
Malley, they explained, presented the Iranians with what was supposed to be the U.S.’s final take-it-or-leave-it offer at the opening session of the negotiations. After the stunned Iranians “caught their breath and climbed back onto their chairs, they set about demanding further concessions.”
And it’s all been downhill from there. Iran has made no concessions of any kind. Clearly, under these circumstances the only way that an agreement—even a partial one—can be reached is if the United States abandons the ostensible purpose of the agreement—to prevent Iran from achieving independent military nuclear capabilities.
Israel’s response to the collapse of America’s diplomatic position has been to paper over the oceanic rift between the U.S. position and that of Israel. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pretended away the problems, saying, “We’re not a teddy bear that just says ‘No.’ We’re not looking for a fight, there could be a good deal [with Iran].”
In short, the U.S. policy is to appease Iran, and Israel’s policy is to appease the United States. But no one is blocking Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
The second event occurred the day after Raisi threatened to murder Trump and Pompeo, and Biden’s negotiators renewed their genuflections to Raisi’s underlings. On Tuesday, Iran’s Lebanese foreign legion, Hezbollah, launched a UAV into Israel. The IDF responded by downing the drone.
On the surface, the drone story is no cause for concern. But it cannot be seen as an isolated event. Over the past several months, infiltrations and probes of Israeli territory by drones, “laborers,” drug smugglers and others from Lebanon have become routine occurrences along the northern border.
Hezbollah, which exercises complete control over the Lebanese side of the border, allows all these infiltrations and directs most of them. There is a method to these actions. Among other things, Hezbollah uses them to probe Israel’s operational readiness, its force structure and deployments, its intelligence capacity, its speed of response and competence.
Hezbollah’s operations at the border, in turn, cannot be seen in isolation from its “Radwan Plan.”
Around a decade ago, Israel discovered that Hezbollah plans to invade the Galilee in the next war, and seize a village or hostages from a village. Hezbollah intends to use the Israelis it kidnaps either as “human shields” for Hezbollah operations or as bargaining chips in extortionate “negotiations.”
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah publicly unveiled the Radwan Plan in 2015.
The Radwan force, an elite Hezbollah unit with 2,500 soldiers, is charged with invading Israel. Its members are veterans of the wars in Syria and Iraq. Although Hezbollah announced the program years ago, and Israel in 2018 uncovered sophisticated underground tunnels Hezbollah had constructed for transporting forces into Israel, Israel has yet to fortify the border. To date, only 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) of a concrete border wall have been constructed, due to lack of funding for the project. No discussion of preemptive operations to prevent Hezbollah from carrying out the Radwan plan has entered the public arena. And there is no indication that any such operations have taken place.
This brings us to the third event Israel’s foes initiated this past week. Apropos of nothing, last Saturday, Hamas launched two missiles at Tel Aviv. Later, it attacked IDF helicopters with surface-to-air missiles.
Israel’s leaders routinely attribute the “quiet” between Hamas missile and terror onslaughts to Israel’s deterrent strength. But last week, Hamas terror master Ismail Haniyeh dismissed Israel’s claims.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Haniyeh said that since “Operation Cast Lead” in 2009, Hamas has used every respite between campaigns to upgrade its strategic capabilities. It built its domestic missile production capabilities and smuggled thousands of advanced projectiles from Iran to Gaza between campaigns. It built a subterranean tunnel complex for offensive and defensive capabilities between campaigns. Ahead of Hamas’s most recent offensive against Israel in May, it built operational coordination with Arab Israelis that enabled Hamas to use Arab-Israeli pogromists as an integral component of its assault.
The assessment that the Arab mobs who lynched Jews and burned Jewish cars, homes and businesses in mixed Jewish and Arab cities, and the mobs that blocked major traffic arteries in the Negev and the Galilee, were orchestrated by Hamas moved from suspicion to certainty when the violence ended as soon as Hamas agreed to a ceasefire.
Israel’s response to Hamas’s missile assault on Tel Aviv was deflating. In the interests of “preserving the quiet,” Israel’s retaliatory airstrike was tepid, at best. Indeed, according to IDF officials, the Prime Minister’s Office was so intent on not provoking Hamas with the response that it sacrificed operational security by telling the media the attack plan before the aircraft took off for Gaza. The PMO denied the allegations, but Israel coordinated its response with the Egyptians, who are serving as go-betweens with Hamas.
Israel’s extraordinary efforts not to provoke Hamas with its counterattack lead to the distressing conclusion that the “quiet” between Hamas campaigns isn’t a testament to Israel’s deterrent strength. It’s a testament to Hamas’s deterrent strength.
Israel did initiate one event in recent weeks: Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Like Bennett, Gantz insisted the meeting didn’t mark the start of a new “peace process.” Both men claimed Gantz’s meeting with Abbas at Gantz’s private residence was necessitated by Israel’s national security.
During their meeting, Gantz agreed to give the P.A. hundreds of millions of shekels, which Abbas will use to pay salaries to terrorists and their families. Gantz agreed to permit massive Palestinian Arab building in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which Israel requires to defend its national security and its communities in the areas. And he agreed to permit 10,000 foreign Arabs residing in the Palestinian Authority illegally to receive permanent residency status.
Obviously, taken together and separately, Gantz’s concessions to Abbas do not advance Israel’s security. They impede Israel’s security. Gantz wasn’t trying to augment Israel’s security by meeting with Abbas. He was trying to appease a terror-supporting adversary.
Israel remains more powerful than its enemies, but those enemies are no slouches. They lack armored divisions and air forces, but have compensated for those deficits by building three-pronged forces tailor-made to fight Israel. Their operational components are missiles, terror and unconventional weapons.
The missile threat Israel faces from Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq has no historical or global precedent. Israel has more missiles pointed at it than any nation on earth.
In a future war Israel can expect to absorb thousands of missiles a day from Lebanon, thousands more from Gaza, and more still from Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Enemy arsenals include tens of thousands of precision-guided missiles as well as rockets. While Israel has the most sophisticated missile defense system in the world, that system cannot withstand thousands of rockets a day. Many will get through.
As for terror, Israel will face both grand terror, of the type envisioned by Hezbollah’s Radwan plan, and local terror, from Abbas’s P.A. and from Arab Israelis who are now integrated into Hamas’s force structure. The purpose of terror is to disrupt civilian life, to undermine IDF mobilization and transport of troops to the battlefield, and in extremis, to bring Israel to its knees.
As for unconventional threats, the most ominous one—Iran’s nuclear weapons program—is apparently not operational at this point. Syria, though, has a large arsenal of chemical weapons. Iran and Hezbollah also have considerable offensive cyber capabilities. In recent months, cyberattacks have hamstrung Israeli hospitals and other critical facilities.
IDF commanders routinely declare that Israel is ready for the storm gathering against it, but it is hard to see evidence of that readiness. For decades, David Ben-Gurion’s doctrine of moving the battle to the enemy’s territory was the guiding concept of Israel’s defense doctrine. Today, that offensive doctrine is barely a flicker of memory.
-Israel is not preemptively striking Hezbollah’s and Hamas’s missiles in Lebanon and Gaza.
-It is not killing their terror commanders.
-Arab Israelis who participated in the organized violence against Jews and blocked roads during Hamas’s missile offensive in May have mostly been released from jail.
-Police and military forces are not confiscating the massive quantities of stolen and smuggled weapons that are nearly ubiquitous in Arab Israeli communities.
Lebanon’s economic ruin is of no concern to Hezbollah, which is largely to blame for the penury of the former Paris of the Middle East. Nasrallah and his terror forces remain scope-locked on readying themselves to attack Israel when given the order by Tehran. The same is the case with Hamas, which rules impoverished Gaza with an iron fist.
Israel’s political and military leadership needs to recognize that appeasement is not a strategic doctrine. It is a political move—and for Israel, a very stupid one. Our military and national leaders need to recognize the gravity of the situation and match Israel’s actions, force levels and resources to the dynamic and deadly form of war our enemies have developed to destroy us.
Caroline Glick is an award-winning columnist and author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.”This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
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THE more things change, the more they stay the same. Such is the case when it comes to centuries-old Islamic terrorism via barbarians who wage jihad on behalf of Allah. There is no sense in pussyfooting around, after all, the only ones who benefit are those who execute jihad and their supporters thereof.
IN this regard, a mere four years ago (Nov. 2017), this investigative journalist gave a global interview,
and it sent shock-waves across the internet. It was not for nothing.
WHILE several intersecting geo-political dangers came to the fore, a key player within became Turkey’s Brotherhood Mafia capo, that is, President Erdogan! And for further evidentiary trails, read within the above link.
AS such, the following analysis presented by the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs (JCPA) is a more than important read. And when juxtaposed against the aforementioned interview, it is no wonder that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
A decade has passed since the official opening of Hamas’ offices in Istanbul, and Turkey is courting Israel anew.
Turkey collaborates with terror organizations on both the ideological and operational levels.
Terrorists working on Turkish soil establish infrastructures and plan terror attacks against Israel.
Hamas senior officials (most former inmates in Israel for terrorism who were released in a prisoner exchange) are operating from Turkey against Israel. Some have even been granted Turkish citizenship.
In December 2021, Israeli security forces broke up Hamas-linked terror cells in Nablus (Shechem) and Hebron in the West Bank. On December 12, 2021, Israel’s Minister of Interior Ayelet Shaked signed an order banning the departure from the country of several known “senior Hamas activists” who, it was suspected, would link up with Hamas officials overseas.
Turkey today seeks another reconciliation with Israel. Israel should demand “payment in advance,” meaning that the Turks must first act against the Hamas operatives on their soil and prove that they are preventing them from continuing to act against Israel.
Only then will it be worth upgrading relations with Turkey to a level of understanding and cooperation – a goal that both sides certainly have an interest in promoting.
Introduction: Turkey Is Contributing to Hamas’ Military Empowerment
During the “Pioneers of Jerusalem” conference hosted by Turkey in December 2017, Maher Salah, Hamas’ former leader abroad, directly addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “The fate of your country is to disappear from the world, the fate of your kingdom is to be annihilated. I promise him [Netanyahu] that his country will not celebrate the 100th anniversary.”
A few days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used Hamas terminology from the organization’s Charter when he invoked the “Trees and Stones” hadith.2 Erdoğan warned: “Those who think they own Jerusalem better know that tomorrow they will not even be able to hide behind trees.”
President Erdogan, at the Anatolian Media Awards Program in Ankara, Turkey, January 2020. (TRT World/YouTube, Screenshot)3
This hadith quoted in Article 7 of the 1988 Hamas Charter4 calls for Israel’s destruction. It deals with the Muslims’ ultimate war against the Jews: “Then the stones and the trees will say: ‘O Muslim, ‘o servant of God. There is a Jew hiding behind me; come and kill him.”
Hundreds of Terror Attacks and Attempted Attacks
But Erdoğan did not just settle for words and Hamas terminology. The year 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the official establishment of the Hamas terror organization’s offices in Istanbul, and despite the official Turkish claims, not only Hamas’ political activity is involved. According to the Shabak (Israeli Security Agency), over the years, the Istanbul headquarters, branches, and operatives have directed hundreds of terror attacks and attempted attacks in Israel and the West Bank in particular. For many years, Turkey has relied on the distinction between Hamas’ “political wing” and its “military wing,” however, this rationalization, does not meet the test of reality.
After a decade of thwarting numerous terror attacks with seemingly connected to Hamas operatives in Turkey, early in 2018, Israel arrested (and subsequently deported) law professor Kamil Takli. He was recruited to Hamas by one of the freed prisoners from the Shalit deal, senior Hamas official Zaher Jabarin residing in Turkey. A protégé of Salah Arouri (at that time, head of Hamas’ West Bank operations), Jabarin was in charge of Hamas’ budget and helped enable – under Arouri’s guidance – widespread terror activity in the West Bank.5
Takli’s arrest, though preceded by other detentions, became, in Israel’s eyes, a milestone in the history of Turkey-Hamas collaboration, particularly with the publicity that Israel decided to give the development. An unusual announcement by the Shabak (which eluded the public’s attention) stated, for the first time, openly and officially, what until then, had only been whispered:
Turkey contributes to the military strengthening of Hamas via – inter alia – the SADAT Company that was established at the behest of Adnan Basha, an adviser who is close to Turkish administration officials. … The findings of the investigation underscore the fact that Hamas’ ramified economic and military activity in Turkey takes place unhindered as Turkish officials turn a blind eye and – on occasion – encourage it, and with the assistance of Turkish nationals, some of whom are close to the government.6
Indeed, most of Hamas’ activity in Turkey in recent years, has been led by a group of freed prisoners from the Shalit deal in 2011 who were expelled to Turkey or chose to move there. Some have even been granted Turkish citizenship.
Israel hoped that Turkey would honor the promise offered in the two countries’ reconciliation deal, signed in the aftermath of the May 2010 Marmara flotilla affair. On June 27, 2016, in two separate press conferences given by their heads of government, Israel and Turkey announced that they had reached a reconciliation deal. In one of its clauses, Turkey undertook to prevent the use of its territory for terror operations against Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that this promise included putting an end to the funding of terror activity. Along with the official declarations, the Israeli media reported Turkey’s undertaking. However, it was also announced that the Hamas offices would remain in Turkey, but they would engage solely in political activity. Of course, that promise remained solely on paper.
After a half-decade of ups and downs in Israel-Turkey relations, a further attempt at reconciliation is now on the agenda. This time the initiative comes from the Turkish side. According to assessments, Turkey is trying to break out of the international isolation that has befallen it, improve its standing with the Biden administration, and ameliorate the difficult economic situation within Turkey.7
This study will survey the Turkey-Hamas collaboration over the past decade, before and after the 2016 “reconciliation deal.” It will show that a further reconciliation deal or understandings and agreements between Israel and Turkey must entail Turkish steps to oust Hamas and put an end to the orchestration of terror from its soil. This time, such measures must precede a deal, understandings, and a further reconciliation, not merely be part of a future deal.
The Ideological Background of the Turkey-Hamas Collaboration8
In the spring of 2017, then-Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, in a speech at Tel Aviv University, described how President Erdoğan of Turkey viewed the role of Hamas: “Erdoğan is the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. He calls it the New Ottoman Empire. Since the beginning of his rule, he has sought to become a sultan. He promotes his Islam by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and not Fatah. He tries to achieve hegemony even in Europe through illegal immigration.”9
President Erdogan greets Palestinian Authority and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in 2015. The presidential guard is dressed in historic Ottoman military uniforms. (Wikimedia)10
Indeed, in his own eyes, Erdoğan is the successor of Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Turks are the “grandchildren” of those two. From time to time, Erdoğan invokes the dream of renewing the caliphate, and for him, Turkey defines itself as the representative of Muslim civilization. The Turkish president sees himself as the partner, patron, and protector of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Muslim world. His party, the Islamic Justice and Development Party, is close in its views to those of the Brotherhood and seeks to extend Turkish influence to lands that in the past were part of the Ottoman Empire and thereby restore the old glory.
Like Erdoğan, Hamas dreams of a Muslim revolution that will widen Islamic influence around the world. Hamas is also a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Erdoğan, as noted, now sees himself as a patron. The Turkish ruler has averred repeatedly in recent years that Hamas is not a terror organization. He described as “sisters,” a series of cities that the Ottoman Empire ruled in the past – Mecca, Medina, Cairo, and others. He has declared that “the world must know and understand that Ramallah, Nablus, Jericho, Rafah, Gaza, and Jerusalem, too, are sister cities whose residents are our brothers.” Thus, Erdoğan links his more distant vision of the caliphate to his concrete and primary concern with Jerusalem, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
See Turkish Government Music Video showing the Turkish military over the ages, Erdoğan as heir to the Ottoman and Seljuk Dynasties, and Turkish conquerors praying in Hagia Sophia Church (MEMRI).11
Ottoman “warriors” enter the Hagia Sophia museum, once a church, and now a mosque. (MEMRI, screengrab from Turkish video)
In the 1920s, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, spread the rumor that Jews sought to destroy the al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. These charges became an effective means to recruit resources and volunteers.
Over the years, the Turkish president has also become complicit in the modern blood libel that accuses Israel and its institutions of seeking to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque or at least putting it in danger. This is a commonality among many in the Muslim world, including Hamas, and it has sparked numerous waves of terror. Erdoğan has made several statements on the issue. In 2016, he accused Israel of “attempting to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and one must stand guard and prevent it from conquering the place with its drilling and archaeological digs.”12 In 2017, he asserted that “the filthy Zionists are polluting the Temple Mount”13 and “Israeli soldiers carelessly pollute the grounds of Al-Aqsa with their combat boots by using simple issues as a pretext and then easily spill blood there.”14
At a mass rally in 2018, the Turkish president declared, “We are facing a struggle against Zionist and Zionism. Even such a catastrophe, unfortunately, was not enough for Muslims to come to aid,” Erdoğan said as he criticized the Israeli violence against Palestinians.
“I separate Zionists from Jews. The main struggle is against Zionism and Zionists,” he said, adding: “Their hostility to Muslims is not at all forgiven.” “Israel has been doing whatever it wishes since 1947 and continues its way in the same reckless way today. We cannot unsee these facts. With the latest decision, the U.S. took, once again, the primacy of Jerusalem was attacked.” Erdoğan said while Al-Aqsa Mosque was increasingly becoming polluted by radical Zionist schemes, the Al-Khalil (Hebron Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs) mosque remains occupied, and all Muslims can do is condemn.”15
Over the years, Erdoğan has enabled the ongoing activity of the Turkish nonprofit group, “Our Heritage,” in Jerusalem, which aims to defend Al-Aqsa against the Israeli incursions and the alleged threat to demolish it. In the past, Our Heritage took part in transporting hundreds of thousands of Israeli Arabs to the Mount to defend Al-Aqsa. The Turkish group has held contacts with groups from the radical Northern Branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement that have acted on the Temple Mount to prevent and disrupt visits by Jews there, with the aim of “protecting Al-Aqsa” from Israel.16 Our Heritage is funded in part by TIKA, a Turkish governmental aid agency that is subordinate to the office of the Turkish prime minister.17
A conference held in Turkey on November 7, 2020, by the Forum of Turkish Muslim Scholars for Jerusalem attended by religious scholars and politicians from Turkey and the Muslim world at large, assigned Turkey a historic role in Jerusalem and Palestine, including deepening its penetration of the city. These goals were expressed in speeches by the participants and in the conference’s concluding announcement, which stated that Palestine has an Ottoman identity and that the Turkish people have a right to Jerusalem no less than the Palestinian people.
President Erdogan, at the Anatolian Media Awards Program in Ankara, Turkey, January 2020. (TRT World/YouTube, Screenshot)18
The announcement called to augment the Turkish presence in the city in different ways, such as promoting and overhauling the Ottoman Waqf facilities in the city and pursuing initiatives for twin cities and twin mosques. The announcement also condemned the Arab countries for normalizing relations with Israel and expressed hope that the Al-Aqsa Mosque would soon be freed from its defilement.
President Erdogan and his wife visited the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in 2005.
(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Erdoğan, for his part, sent his blessings to the participants, underlining his support for “the glorious resistance of the Muslim Brotherhood” and asserting that Turkey had served Jerusalem “for four hundred years.” In a speech at the conference, Khaled Mashal, former head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, praised Turkey under Erdoğan’s leadership. He called Turkey a “crucial partner” and lauded the fact that it is regaining its regional status of the days of the Ottoman caliphate.
Simultaneously, on November 7-8, 2020, the First Virtual Conference of Jerusalem Pioneers was held by elements affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey. Attended by Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ahmad al-Raisoni, chair of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and Al-Aqsa preacher Ekrima Sabri. The conference particularly emphasized the support of the Palestinians’ jihad and armed struggle against Israel “with money and with weapons,” especially in the face of “the danger of normalization” between Arab countries and Israel, and claimed that such support is a religious obligation.19
The Turkey-Hamas collaboration, which has included transferring funds to Gaza and hosting Hamas offices and leaders on Turkish soil, is not only expedient; it stems first and foremost from an ideological affinity between Erdoğan and Hamas. Although the relations between the Turkish president and Hamas have known their ups and downs, what has helped maintain them to the present is both sides’ fealty to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Initial Hamas Infrastructure on Turkish Soil – Salah Arouri
It was Salah Arouri, now deputy chief of Hamas’ Political Bureau, who laid the infrastructure for Hamas’ activity in Turkey 10 years ago, including directing terror attacks against Israelis on the West Bank. Already in May 2014, Arouri, then head of Hamas’ military headquarters abroad, declared that resistance in the West Bank was steadily on the rise and would eventually lead to an all-out confrontation with Israel. He also expressed hope that “the resistance in the West Bank will manage to obtain rockets and use them similarly to how they are used from the Gaza Strip.” Arouri noted that “rockets have been manufactured in Gaza under a blockade, so in the West Bank, as well, one can overcome all the difficulties and manufacture rockets.”20
The general public in Israel was first exposed to Arouri’s name only three months later when he declared at the fourth conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, held in Turkey, that Hamas’ military wing was behind the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenage boys in Gush Etzion (June 12, 2014). His words were read aloud and in the name of the leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal. They were recorded without Arouri’s knowledge and uploaded to YouTube, where they created a great stir.21 Arouri portrayed the operation as part of Hamas’ ongoing efforts to ignite a new intifada. Despite Arouri attempt to repudiate the words, then-Defense Minister Yaalon called him “the man in charge of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teens” (Herzliya conference, 2015).
The three Israeli teens murdered by Hamas terrorists under Salah Arouri’s orders.
During those years, Arouri, as head of the West Bank region in Hamas’ military headquarters abroad, enjoyed the freedom of action in Turkey and orchestrated Hamas’ terror attacks in the West Bank.22
Salah Arouri, born in 1966 in the village of Arura, near Ramallah, and in the 1990s was one of the founders of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank. According to publications of the Shabak and the Intelligence and Terror Information Center, he was arrested by Israel in 1992 and sentenced to five years in prison for membership in a terror organization. Subsequently, he served additional prison sentences, and on March 30, 2010, was freed as part of a deal that was signed with him after a period of 18 months of incarceration. He first relocated to Jordan, then to Syria, where he resumed his terror activity. In Syria, Arouri was chosen as a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, assigned the prisoners portfolio, and given a senior role in the negotiations that led to the Shalit exchange deal. When the civil war broke out in Syria and forced Hamas to evacuate its headquarters in Damascus, Arouri and some of his compatriots relocated to Istanbul and made it their home.
Salah Arouri and other Hamas officials meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (Khamenei.ir)
On the eve of the signing of the 2016 Turkey-Israel reconciliation deal, Arouri was asked to leave Turkey. He first found himself a home in Qatar, but amid Qatar’s crisis with the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, he was forced to leave Doha and move to Lebanon, where he has enjoyed the protection of Hizbullah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah to this day. Arouri now lives Dahiya in the southern (Shiite) quarter of Beirut, Hizbullah’s stronghold in Lebanon. Over the years, he has become the link between Iran and Hizbullah on the one hand and Hamas on the other. In November 2018, the U.S. State Department announced a $5 million reward for information that would help lead to Arouri’s capture. They explained that he was one of the founders of the Hamas military wing, collaborating with the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, mobilizing funds, directing Hamas military operatives in the West Bank, and linked to several terror attacks including kidnappings.23
Since replacing Mousa Abu Marzook as deputy chair of the Hamas Political Bureau, Arouri has played a central role in the sporadic talks, mediated by Egypt, on an “arrangement” with Israel. He speaks fluent Hebrew, which he learned and polished during his many years of incarceration in Israel. In September 2017, Russia hosted Arouri as part of a Hamas delegation that came to Moscow for talks with Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle East Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov.24 In June 2017, then-Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told Nikki Haley, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that Arouri, who had made his way to Lebanon, aimed to continue trying to direct terror attacks against Israel. He called him “a dangerous terrorist who is responsible for lethal Hamas attacks against Israel, who must not be allowed to continue with his actions.”
In September last year, in an interview to the Al-Midan television station in Lebanon, Arouri said that in the next conflict with Israel, “the losses and the results on the ground will be unprecedented, the occupation will pay an unprecedented price, and the enemy will be surprised by the capabilities of the resistance…. The Israeli home front will be part of the war.” He added that Hizbullah was helping all the Palestinian factions, including Fatah.25
Shalit-Deal Deportees (and Others) – the Backbone of Hamas Activity in Turkey Today26
Ten of the terrorists who were released from Israeli prisons in October 2011, as part of the deal for the freeing of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from a Hamas prison, were exiled to Turkey. Despite “promises” in the Turkish media that they would be under the supervision of Turkish intelligence, these Hamas operatives and some of their comrades, enjoy complete freedom. The following are the main figures:
Husam Badran was freed in the Shalit deal and is a native of Nablus. In 2004, he was sentenced in Israel to 17 years in prison for his involvement in suicide bombings, during the second Intifada. In December 2013, after his expulsion, he was appointed official spokesman of Hamas abroad. He was also involved in directing a terror infrastructure in the Hebron area in March 2013. A Shabak announcement said Badran had transferred funds totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars for terror activities in Nablus.
Hamas spokesman Husam Badran (Facebook image)
Mousa al-Akari was a cell member that kidnapped and murdered Israeli Border Police officer Nissim Toledano in December 1992. Al-Akari was sentenced to three life terms, released in the Shalit deal, and expelled to Turkey. His brother, Ibrahim al-Akari, carried out a ramming attack at the Jerusalem light-rail station in November 2014. Israel considers Mousa al-Akari a Hamas operative who works from Turkish soil.
Zaher Jabarin is head of Hamas’ Finance Bureau. He was involved in the Prof. Kamil Takli affair in which the law professor was recruited in Turkey and arrested in Israel. He works at Hamas headquarters in Turkey, where he directs and funds West Bank terror.
Zaher Jabarin (Hamas)
Salamah Mari is a Hamas operative in Turkey whose name is also linked to Prof. Takli. Mari was freed in the Shalit deal. He was imprisoned for his involvement in a shooting attack in the Burqin area in March 1993 which an IDF soldier was killed.
Jihad Yaghmour is a Hamas operative originally from Beit Hanina in Jerusalem. He was involved in kidnapping the soldier Nachshon Wachsman in 1994, sentenced to life in prison, and expelled to Turkey in the Shalit deal. According to an Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center publication from December 24, 2019, Yaghmour, living in Turkey, has “served as a liaison to the Turkish government and the Turkish intelligence service MIT.” According to the experts of the Amit Center, Yaghmour is also involved in covert activities, mainly the handling of terrorist squads in Judea and Samaria. As cover for Yaghmour’s activity in Turkey, he serves as president of a cultural organization called the “Association for Jerusalem and Its History.”
Yaghmour in his Turkish office.
Abd al-Rahman Ranimat is a former head of a Hamas cell in the Surif area in the West Bank responsible for several severe terror attacks in Israel, including the 1997 Café Apropos bombing in Tel Aviv, which killed three. Ranimat, too, was freed in the Shalit deal, first expelled to Gaza, and later moved to Turkey where he became the senior aide to Hamas commander Mazen Fukha. In March 2017, Fukha was assassinated in Gaza; Hamas claimed the Mossad was behind the attack.
Kamel Awad is a Hamas financial officer. In August 29, 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department placed him on the Counter-Terrorism Designation list.27 Awad, too, relocated from Turkey to Gaza (he was not among those freed in the Shalit deal).
Abd al-Hakim Hanani, according to Hamas sources, is in charge of a surveillance center in Istanbul for media and communications that provides intelligence to Hizbullah and Iran. Hanani, a crony of al-Arouri’s, was compelled to leave Turkey because of American and Israeli pressure. Hanani was involved in sending Hamas’ first suicide bomber to the Mehula intersection in the early 1990s.28
Abdul Hakim Hanini (Palestinian Information Center)
Hamas: The Stumbling Block to Turkish-Israeli Reconciliation
On the eve of the signing of Israel’s reconciliation deal with Turkey in 2016, Shurat haDin, an Israeli human rights organization that works on the legal front against terror entities, petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court against the deal.29 Although the petition was rejected, it included interesting details that add a further layer to the information on Hamas activity in Turkey. Among others, it mentions the following Hamas personnel who operate or have operated on Turkish soil:30
Mahmoud Atwan, originally from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher, freed in the Shalit deal, member of the cell that kidnapped and murdered Border Police officer Nissim Toledano in 1992; Majid Abu Katish, originally from Anata, also a member of that cell; Taiser Suleiman, expelled in the Shalit deal, murdered an Israeli soldier; Fahad Sabri Barhan al-Shaludi, appears from time to time on Turkish television; Walid Zakaria Akel, a founder of Hamas’ Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, was given 21 life sentences; Haroun Mansour Yakoub Nasser al-Din, boasted in the past that Turkey grants former Hamas prisoners full freedom to come and go as they please; Ayman Mohammad Abu Khalil; Bakri Hanifa, a senior economic figure in Hamas claimed to have transferred millions of dollars from Qatar to Hamas via Turkey; and Maher Abid, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau and senior financial operative, reportedly in charge of Hamas’ international relations until 2016.31
In her petition, Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of Shurat haDin, referred to the narrow and invisible line between “political Hamas” and “military Hamas,” as other Israeli courts had noted. Darshan-Leitner wrote: “Any agreement that accepts a distinction between the military wing and the political wing of a terror organization will end up strengthening the military wing and the organization’s terror activity, since, after all, the whole purpose of the ‘political wing’ is to buttress the military wing’s ability to operate and engage in terror attacks. And if the political wing is granted mitigating conditions and ‘breathing space,’ that will only boost the terror organization’s activity as a whole, and most of all its military wing.”32
15 Examples of Hamas Terror Infrastructures, Attacks, and Attempted Attacks Directed from Turkish Soil
The roots of Hamas activity on Turkish soil go back to the infamous Marmara flotilla in 2010. The Turkish organization IHH, which was in charge of the Marmara flotilla and was declared a terror organization in Israel,33 directly assisted with the funding of the Hamas military wing in Gaza. The head of the IHH branch in Gaza, Mehmet Kaya, transferred cash from Turkey to the Hamas senior officials Ismail Haniyeh and Raed Saad. These funds served, among other things, to build a naval-training facility at a Hamas base in Gaza and to purchase weapons and equipment. As a Shabak investigation revealed, “The IHH transferred to the Hamas military wing, systematically and for years, funds that served to strengthen Hamas militarily.”3435
A representative of the Turkish IHH watching Gazan citizens destroy a barrier wall between Gaza and Egypt in 2007.
January 2010 – Attacks thwarted at the Malcha Mall in Jerusalem, the central bus stations of Jerusalem and Beersheba, and the Tel Hashomer military base. Marad Namer of Sur Baher, Jerusalem and Marad Kamel of Wadi Joz, Jerusalem, were arrested at the central bus station in Beersheba. Their interrogation revealed that they were recruited by the Hamas headquarters abroad during their studies and work in Jordan and Dubai. Namer met with Hamas members in Turkey. The two were supposed to receive weapons and explosives from their handlers abroad. According to a Shabak announcement on January 3, 2010, they gathered intelligence that included photographs and sketches of potential sites for an attack, including the central bus station in Jerusalem as well as sites in Mevaseret Zion (near Jerusalem), Beersheba, the Malha Mall in Jerusalem, the area of hotels and seafront in Tel Aviv, and the area of the Tel Hashomer military base, which was crowded with soldiers.36
April 2014 – Mahmoud Tuama revealed Hamas’ activity on the Temple Mount, its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, and ongoing activity of Hamas’ headquarters and senior officials in Turkey. Tuama, who was originally from Tulkarem in the West Bank and lived in Saudi Arabia, was arrested on April 14. During his interrogation, he described how Hamas uses the Israeli Islamic Movement as a front organization to promote its goals in Jerusalem, focusing on the Temple Mount and payment of the salaries of the Islamic Movement’s operatives there. Another goal was disrupting visits by Jews to the site. Tuama was one of the first to testify in Shabak interrogations regarding Turkey’s absorption of most of the Shalit-deal deportees and was providing them financial support.37
May-August 2014 – A coup attempt against the Palestinian Authority and significant terror attacks in Israel were thwarted. All were planned by Hamas-Turkey. Hamas’ military infrastructure, operating all over the West Bank to recruit military cells and carry out attacks against Israeli targets, attempted to enlist hundreds of people. The ninety-three individuals who were connected to the plan were arrested. The infrastructure’s activity was directed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey, of which Salah Arouri was in charge. Before their arrest, some of the operatives of this infrastructure succeeded in planting explosive devices in Samaria.
The training for the different tasks, including terror attacks, kidnappings, attacks on settlements, and the planting of explosive devices, were supervised by Hamas military wing operatives abroad and in Gaza. The training was conducted in Jordan, Turkey, Syria, and Gaza. As part of Hamas’ plans, terror cells from Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Jericho, and another 37 Palestinian villages were supposed to carry out terror attacks against Palestinian Authority institutions as part of the coup attempt to take over the West Bank.
When the infrastructure was uncovered, Hamas terror funds totaling more than 600,000 shekels were seized along with a variety of weaponry including 24 rifles, six pistols, seven rocket launchers, storerooms, and a large quantity of ammunition. The military infrastructure was headed by Riad Nasser, a resident of Dir Qadis in the Binyamin region of the West Bank. Nasser was one of the Hamas chiefs in Ramallah and had served several prison sentences for Hamas military activity. His recruiter was Arouri, then living in Turkey.
The dozens of detainees planned a series of major terror attacks against Israel. These would mainly have been perpetrated by the Jerusalem branches of the cell, to which many operatives were recruited by former prisoners, students, and academics. Emphasis was placed on specializations in chemistry and engineering. Among the prominent detainees involved in this endeavor were, according to the Shabak, Dr. Majdi Mafarja, a resident of Beit Liqya with a degree in computers who was recruited in Malaysia; Mahmoud Abu Daoud, a resident of Hebron who admitted involvement in recruiting military cells to carry out kidnappings, planting of explosives, and shootings; and Yihye Ata of Deir Abu Mashan, who admitted in his interrogation that he was recruited by Arouri to head a military cell.38
August 20, 2014 – Arouri takes responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the three teenage boys. He gave a speech that day to the fourth conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which was held in Turkey, and said that the Hamas military wing was behind the kidnapping and murder of the three boys from Gush Etzion on June 12, 2014.
As noted, his words were read from a page, in the name of Khaled Mashal, a Hamas leader, and recorded without Arouri’s knowledge and uploaded to YouTube, where they reached a large audience. This was the first time Hamas admitted its involvement in the kidnapping and murder. A short time afterward, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the fact that Turkey was hosting Arouri at that time was “incredible.”
Facebook posting by Benjamin Netanyahu, August 21, 2014.
September 2014 – An extensive Hamas military infrastructure in the West Bank was broken up, along with the terror attacks planned at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium and the light rail in Jerusalem. They were planned by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey. The Hamas military infrastructure in the West Bank, uncovered by the Shabak, was aimed at recruiting military cells and mounting terror attacks against Israeli targets. Its activity was directed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey, and its Hamas operatives were trained abroad and infiltrated into the territory. More than 30 operatives were arrested, and M16 rifles, ammunition, and materiel for producing explosives were seized. Some of the operatives of this cell had carried out the bombings at the Rechelim Intersection and the Jit intersection (without casualties) in Samaria on August 31, 2014.
The detainees’ interrogation revealed that after a process of recruitment, usually in Jordan, training was conducted in several countries, including Turkey. The recruits went to Gaza, sometimes through smuggling tunnels, for further courses. “In Turkey,” according to the Shabak’s findings, “they focused on planning the military operations: a combination of different types of activity aimed at carrying out terror attacks on targets in Israel, the West Bank, and abroad…. After the military training, the operatives were integrated into the various spheres of activity, according to the distribution and staffing of that was conducted by senior Hamas officials in Turkey.”
The detainees planned to attack traffic arteries with firearms and explosives, as well as settlements and military facilities in the West Bank; infiltrate and attack Israeli communities; kidnap Israelis in the West Bank and abroad; mount attacks within Israel by recruiting military cells in Jordan and training them for infiltrations; attack the Teddy Stadium and the light rail in Jerusalem, and perpetrate car-bomb attacks. Among the main detainees: Manaf Ajbara, a resident of Jordan, and Mahmoud Melhem of Anabta/Tulkarem.39
March 2015 – Hamas trained Palestinian students in Malaysia for terror activity on the West Bank. Some of the training was conducted in Turkey. An indictment served to the Judea Military Court charged Wasim Kawasme, a resident of Hebron, with crimes of membership and activity in an outlawed organization, making contact with the enemy, and receiving enemy funding.
In the framework of the training in Malaysia, Kawasme went to a weeklong course that Hamas organized in Turkey. During his visit, he heard, along with other Hamas operatives, a lecture by the head of the Hamas network abroad at that time, Muhammad Nazal.40
October 2015 – The murder of Eitam and Na’amaHenkin was directed from Turkey. The Henkins were murdered in a shooting attack on October 1 at the Beit Furik intersection between Elon Moreh and Itamar. The two were shot from close range by a Hamas operative and died on the spot in front of their children. The attack was planned by Hamas operative Ragheb Ahmad Muhammad Aliwi, who recruited a cell of four Nablus residents and provided them with weapons. The attack was orchestrated by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey.41
January 2017 – Hamas operatives in Istanbul instructed Malik Kazmar on how to recruit operatives for the organization in Israel. Kazmar’s interrogation revealed that he was recruited for Hamas service in August 2015 while living in Jordan. In January 2016, he was sent for training at a camp in Syria and, at the start of 2017, was given further instructions by Hamas operatives in Istanbul. In the course of his interrogation, Kazmar turned over the contents of a memory card he had received from his handlers on Turkish soil. These had been concealed with the help of special software that contained security instructions. The contents were designed to help him carry out his plans. An indictment against Kazmar was served in March 2017 at the Military Court in Samaria.42
February 2017 – Muhammad Murtagha, director of TIKA in Gaza, a Turkish-government humanitarian aid organization, defrauded his organization and funneled aid to Hamas terror operatives instead of needy people. He was arrested on his way to Turkey, where he planned to obtain information that would help Hamas improve the precision of its rockets. The investigation of the affair uncovered the fact that Murtagha was supposed to go from Gaza to Turkey to receive satellite photos of sensitive sites in Israel, thereby improving the precision of rockets in Hamas’ possession. On February 12, 2017, he was arrested on his way to Turkey, where he was to copy the maps and photos onto a USB flash drive, bring them to Gaza, and convey them to the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades.
During his interrogation, it further emerged that the Turkish IHH organization had helped to directly fund Hamas military activity. Israel had declared IHH a terror organization in 2008 because of its support for Hamas. Murtagha’s interrogation revealed that Mehmet Kaya, head of the IHH branch in Gaza, had transferred to Hamas senior officials Ismail Haniyeh and Raed Saad cash that had come from Turkey and was designated for the Hamas military wing. These funds served, among other things, to build a naval-training facility at a Hamas base in Gaza and to purchase equipment and weapons. In this fashion, the Shabak said, the IHH systematically funded the Hamas military wing for years.
Murtagha’s interrogation further revealed that beginning in 2009, he had operated within the Hamas military wing. This activity included military training, production of weapons and explosive devices, and the digging of terror tunnels. Murtagha also stored hand grenades and rifles in his home.43
In light of Murtagha’s arrest, the Shabak clarified that “Hamas’ various ways of deceiving the international community and humanitarian aid organizations had been revealed. These deceptions, in which senior officials of the organization are involved, enable the diversion of funds and resources that are intended to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip and its needy population. Hamas thereby gains wider room to maneuver as it exploits all its material and economic resources for purposes of terror activity and military empowerment.”44
February 2018 – The Prof. Takli Affair. Funds for the “Army of Palestine” and liaison with Turkish officials. This affair is of great importance because it shows how much Turkish officials and Hamas senior officials in Turkey are intertwined. Its details make it hard for the Turkish authorities to claim a lack of knowledge about Hamas activity in their country.
The two main characters of the affair are law professor Kamil Takli of Istanbul, who visited Israel as a tourist and member of a delegation of Turkish lawyers, and Daram Jabarin, a resident of Umm al-Fahm. The two were recruited for Hamas service by Zaher Jabarin, one of those freed in the Shalit deal who resides in Turkey. Jabarin directs Hamas’ budget from Turkey. Under the guidance of Arouri (who lived in Lebanon), Jabarin also promoted extensive West Bank terror activity from his place of residence in Turkey.
Takli revealed in his interrogation that Hamas operates in Turkey in close contact with Turkey’s top leadership and that senior Turkish officials help strengthen the Hamas militarily through the SADAT Company. With money and weapons, the company helps build the “Army of Palestine.” According to Israeli Arab-affairs commentator Pazit Ravina and other sources, “The SADAT Company was established in 2013 by General Adnan Tanreverdi, former head of the Special Forces of the Turkish army, under the inspiration of none other than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Tanreverdi, who was dismissed from the Turkish army in 1997 because of his Islamist activity, eventually became one of Erdoğan’s close advisers. Since then, mutual trust and deep ideological affinity have prevailed between the two.”45
According to a Shabak document: “The investigation of Kamil Takli revealed that Turkey is contributing to the military empowerment of Hamas, among other things through the SADAT Company, which was established under the guidance of Adnan Basa, the close adviser to Turkish government officials.”
The company was founded to help provide money and weapons to the “Army of Palestine,” whose purpose is to fight Israel. One of the company’s employees also helped Hamas senior officials visit a weapons exhibit in Turkey in 2015, during which they expressed interest in drone capabilities.
Hamas, it further emerged during the interrogation, maintains close ties with the Turkish authorities via Jihad Yaghmour, the terror operative involved in the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli soldier, Nachshon Wachsman. Yaghmour, too, was freed as part of the Shalit deal. Yaghmour resides in Turkey.
The interrogation also found that in 2012, Takli was asked to help newly arrived Hamas operatives in Turkey to get settled and established economically. The terror operatives whom Takli helped, most of them freed in the Shalit deal, were involved in attacks that killed Israelis. Takli helped them obtain visas, deal with rentals, purchase real estate assets for residence and businesses, fancy vehicles, and establish a sound business footing in Turkey by registering companies under his name.
The Shabak’s investigation revealed extensive Hamas money-laundering in Turkey under the supervision of Zaher Jabarin, with the authorities turning a blind eye to the source of the funds. The investigation also found that Hamas operatives owned a company named Imas, which served Hamas by camouflaging money-laundering activity involving sums of millions of dollars that were transferred to Gaza and different countries.
The Shabak noted that an account for Imas was opened at one of Turkey’s largest banks, Akbank and that the company’s director-general opened another account under his name at the Turkey Finance Bank.46
The Investigation of Daram Jabarin
But Tikli was only one character in the story: “The Imas Company’s importance for Hamas was also revealed in the interrogation of the second suspect, Daram Jabarin,” according to the Shabak. “Jabarin was recruited to Hamas by a relative, Zaher Jabarin, during the former’s visit to Turkey. The appeal to him was made under the cover of Imas’ business activity. For a year-and-a-half, Daram made frequent visits to Turkey and was asked by his handler to convey Hamas funds from Turkey to the West Bank. The handler in Turkey gave Daram hundreds of thousands of euros destined for Hamas terror cells, and he took care to hide them well in the West Bank. In a search of Daram’s house in the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm, a sum of 91,000 euros was seized, which he intended to transfer to the West Bank.”
A Shabak investigation further found that Daram acted under the guidance of Hamas senior officials together with Zaher Jabarin and his right-hand man Salama Mari, both of whom had settled in Turkey with Takli’s help. As noted, in March 1993, Salama Mari, later freed in the Shalit deal, was involved in a shooting attack in the Burqin area which killed an IDF soldier. The investigation led to the arrests of other suspects who were Umm al-Fahm residents and had helped Daram financially.
After his interrogation, Kamil Takli was expelled from Israel; Daram Jabarin, for his part, was put on trial.
“The investigation’s findings,” the Shabak stated, “illustrate Hamas’ extensive military and economic activity in Turkey, which is conducted undisturbed. The Turkish authorities turn a blind eye and sometimes even encourage it, and with the help of Turkish citizens, some of whom are close associates of the government. This activity is supported, among other things, by business platforms that enable Hamas to launder funds that are transferred to the West Bank and to recruit Israelis to its activity.”
May 2017 – A cell of the Islamic Movement that planned to attack soldiers in the Negev made contact with Hamas-Turkey for guidance and financial assistance. Two members of the cell, Muhammad Masri of Beersheba and Abdullah Abu Ayyash of Kuseifa, had been put on trial a year earlier. Their friend, Mahmoud Lawisi of Qalansawe, then living in Turkey, was arrested immediately upon arriving in Israel in March 2017. It turned out that the members of the cell turned to Faris al-Umari, a resident of Sendal for approval of the attack. Al-Umari went to Turkey late in October 2016 and met there with Majid Abu Katish, a Hamas senior official who was among those freed in the Shalit deal. Al-Umari asked him for financial aid and guidance for terror attacks he had planned.47
May 2018 – Two members of the Sur Baher (near Jerusalem) cell that planned terror attacks near the settlement of Oranit, visited Turkey. One of them was given hundreds of thousands of shekels in terror funds. The cell was headed by Nasim Hamada. Its members, according to the Shabak, were Izaddin Atun and Oveida Amira. Hamada was in contact with Hamas operatives who had been expelled to Gaza in the Shalit deal. Izaddin Atun and Oveida Amira had already met in Turkey in 2017 with two of the Hamas operatives expelled in the Shalit deal, Mahmoud Atwan and Musa Akari. In this meeting, Izaddin received terror funds from Hamas, totaling thousands of dollars.
July 2018 – Erdoğan intervenes to free a female Turkish citizen imprisoned in Israel on suspicion of terror infractions. After governmental contacts between Turkey and Israel, Ebru Özkan, age 27, who was charged with transferring funds to Hamas, was freed and returned to her country. The Turkish president’s close advisor, Ibrahim Kalin, tweeted that Erdoğan welcomed her return. Turkish media quoted Özkan as thanking Erdoğan for taking a personal interest in her case.48
August 2018 – A Hamas infrastructure was discovered in the Hebron area that included many women. This infrastructure was assisted by Hamas-Turkey. It was led by Nizar Shehada and Faris Abu Sharakh, two senior Hamas operatives who had made use of a number of women to set up a central committee that would serve as a command arm of the organization. The women’s committee was headed by Dina Karami, wife of Nisat Karami, who was involved in a 2010 terror attack that killed four residents of Beit Hagai and was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces. Several women of the organization were sent for meetings with members of the Hamas headquarters who had been expelled in the Shalit deal. This branch is headed by Haroun Nasser al-Din, who lives in Turkey. The women were given terror funds, messages, and instructions.
May 2019 – TheTelegraph: Hamas-Turkey planned to assassinate then-Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, then-Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, and former Member of Knesset Yehuda Glick. Based on transcripts of interrogations of suspects in Israel and on indictments that were served against three east Jerusalem residents, Adham Muslamani, a Jerusalem resident, met with senior Hamas agent Zakaria Najib in Istanbul in February 2019. The latter told Muslamani that if he wanted to be remembered, he had to kill a senior Israeli official. Najib, the report said, suggested that Muslamani assassinate Barkat, Alsheikh, or Glick and also offered him funds as well as weapons training in Turkey. After the meeting, Muslamani returned to his home in the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, tried to purchase a pistol, but was arrested by the Shabak.49
The Money Trail
Besides hosting Hamas offices and senior officials who planned terror attacks, Turkey has also become a safe haven for Hamas’ financial affairs, including funding terror organizations in the West Bank. In a report published by the U.S. Treasury Department on September 10, 2019, the United States announced that it had “designated 15 leaders, individuals, and entities affiliated with terror groups.”50 The list included operatives and companies based in Turkey that were involved in transferring funds to Hamas. The report revealed that Hamas operatives and collaborators in Turkey engage in fundraising, transferring money to the military wing in Gaza, funding terror organizations in the West Bank, and running money-changing and fund-transferring companies in Turkey through which terror funds are laundered. The information published by the Treasury Department shows that the main source of financial support to Hamas via Turkey (and sometimes via Lebanon) is Iran. The Treasury’s efforts to “disrupt terrorist activity by depriving terrorist supporters of financial, material, and logistical backing worldwide… serves as an important tool in [U.S.] efforts to drain the financial resources of the Iranian regime’s malign actors including the IRGC, and its foreign expeditionary arm, the Qods Force (IRGC-QF).”51
The Treasury Department lists the Redin Exchange Company, based in Turkey, as responsible for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to, HAMAS. …As of March 2019, the Redin Exchange and financial facilitator, Muhammad Sarur, were involved in a $10 million dollar transfer to Hamas’ operational arm, the Izz-Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.”
The U.S. agency named Redin’s Deputy Director, Ismail Tash, for maintaining a “steady contact with Hamas collaborators for transferring funds from Iran to Hamas.” The report also fingered Zaher Jabarin, the Hamas senior official living in Turkey, as the recipient of $5.5 million from Redin.
Jihad Yaghmour – Hamas’ Official Representative in Turkey
Jihad Yaghmour is Hamas’ official representative in Turkey. Involved in the kidnapping of the soldier Nachshon Wachsman and sentenced to life in prison, Yaghmour was expelled to Turkey as part of the Shalit deal. Although his official post there is president of the Jerusalem and Our History Association, some experts argue that is only a cover. Yaghmour was also involved in “activating terror cells in the West Bank under the direction of Salah Arouri.”
Yaghmour’s ties with the Turkish authorities are almost overt. On December 14, 2019, he accompanied a Hamas delegation headed by Ismail Haniyeh that visited Turkey and, that month, met with the deputy chair for foreign affairs of the Justice and Development Party. In May 2019, Yaghmour accompanied Khaled Mashal, chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, to a meeting with a senior member of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey. In Shabak interrogations of detainees in Israel, Yaghmour’s name arose as the main liaison between Turkey and Hamas.
An analytical report on November 27, 2019, by the Investigative Journal channel identified Yaghmour as the conduit between Hamas and the Turkish government. TheTelegraph reported in December 2019, that Yaghmour was maintaining daily contacts with the Turkish intelligence service. This bureau cooperates with Western intelligence agencies in the fight against terror and is responsible for conveying intelligence information to a series of Turkish officials – from President Erdoğan to the prime minister, the chief of staff, the secretary-general of the National Security Council, and other Turkish organizations.52
Turkey Denies Any Connection to Terror
Turkey has repeatedly denied that it allows Hamas to operate from its territory against Israel. “We firmly reject the accusation that the Turkish territory is being used for any action against Israel or any other country,” declared the Turkish Foreign Ministry in December 2019. The Ministry further argued that Turkey and other countries do not consider Hamas as a terrorist group “but as a political reality which has won the elections in Gaza back in 2006…. It is worth mentioning that last year the U.N. General Assembly refused to define Hamas as a terror organization. A series of countries including Turkey maintain ties with Hamas at various levels.”53
Erdoğan himself, insisted in a media interview, that Hamas is not a terrorist movement and that its members are not terrorists but “people who defend their land.” Senior officials in Ankara strongly reject what they claim is an assortment of unproven allegations.54 “There are no such secret terror cells in Turkey that carry out terror attacks,” they argue. “Hamas leaders in Turkey were sent by Israel as part of the Shalit deal.”
Turkish diplomats reportedly reacted “angrily” to Israeli claims that Turkey was hosting Hamas’ terror headquarters in Istanbul.55 “This,” they say, “is a lie and a falsehood. It is a figment of imagination. There are elements in Israel who are trying to torpedo, at any price, efforts to iron out the differences in the relations between the two countries and begin a fresh page. They put forward lies that Hamas operates in Turkey with the government’s knowledge. Turkey conducts a dialogue with Hamas, but in no way allows any terror organization to operate from its territory.”56
Conclusion and Recommendation: Israel Must Demand Turkey’s Uprooting of the Hamas Terror Organization in Turkey Prior to the Improvement of Relations
Ten years is a sufficient period to study Turkey’s behavior with regard to Hamas. The facts are clear. There is no gray area; the picture is black-and-white. The Hamas terror organization is hosted on Turkish soil, and from there, it directs, with the knowledge of the Turkish authorities, terror operations against Israel.
The root of this dispute with Turkey is its twisted definition of Hamas. Whereas Israel correctly defines it as a terror organization, Turkey pleads innocent and asserts that Hamas operatives on its soil are functionaries of “Hamas’ political wing.” Contrary to this Turkish definition, a legal Israeli ruling concerning Hamas’ Dawa [social welfare] activity, which provides social, community, and religious services to an Arab population, invalidated it on the grounds that a civilian infrastructure would clearly facilitate the entrenchment of Hamas terror.
Israeli Judge Amnon Cohen of the Jerusalem District Court wrote when convicting three Hamas operatives who served as heads of Hamas’ Advisory Council in Jerusalem: “This is Hamas’ way of inculcating the ideology of a terror organization and sustaining it, thereby also widening the circle of its supporters. This extensive array of services, despite its ostensibly humanitarian purpose, is intended to expand the terror organization’s base of public support and create economic dependence on it among the population, as well identification and commitment to its path and its values.”57
The same logic can be applied to the activity of the “Hamas political wing” in Turkey. The facts presented here, and others in the hands of Israel’s security services, show that it is not just a “political wing” that could develop into a military wing, but a “political wing” that serves as a cover for a military wing.
Turkey’s courtship of Israel in an attempt to repair relations gives Israel a golden opportunity to act effectively against the Turkey-Hamas collaboration. Turkey’s current and relatively weak position (economically, security-wise, and internationally) affords Israel a better bargaining position than it had in 2016 when the Israel-Turkey reconciliation deal was signed.
At that time, Israel settled for a Turkish promise not to allow Hamas operatives living in Turkey to keep from orchestrating terror activity in the future. The promise was not kept. This time Israel should demand “payment in advance,” meaning that Turkey must first act against the Hamas operatives on their soil and prove that they are preventing them from continuing to act against Israel. Only then will it be worth upgrading relations with Turkey, to a level of understanding and cooperation, a goal that both sides certainly have an interest in promoting.
{ADDENDUM: Bear uppermost in mind — To stifle the truth-telling found at this site, FB’s censors have “zeroed-out” all of my articles via their “Boom and Ban” censors ala their ubiquitous “Community Standards” — as they hunt me up and down the internet like rabid dogs to their prey! No kidding. This is just some of FB’s modus operandi, what is now deemed their “love notes” to yours truly:This URL goes against our Community Standards on spam:adinakutnicki.files.wordpress.comACTIVITY
About your post Today at 4:34 PM: No one else can see your post.And so on and so forth. In fact, just recently, each article at my “parent site”, ADINA KUTNICKI: A ZIONIST & CONSERVATIVE BLOG, had its FB registered shares go from the hundreds, with some up to the many thousands, to a big, fat ZERO. In other words, all my shares have gone down the rabbit hole. Just like that. Poof. Gone. As such, take it to the bank that each and every conservative voice which reaches a wide readership will, sooner than later, be CENSORED. MUTED.} MESSAGE FAILED:This message contains content that has been blocked by our security systems.If you think you’re seeing this by mistake, please let us know. Yes, additional “proof-in-the pudding” as to why “BANNED: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad” had to be written!}
The time is now to join a revolutionary organization! Join Freedom Road Socialist Organization -…
If you have been out in the streets this past few weeks, the odds are good that you’ve been thinking about the difference between the kind of change this
Black Lives Matterwas created as a part of the Chinese communist organization operating in the United States calledFreedom Road Socialist Organization. Listen as UTT Vice President John Bennett lays it out. A combat veteran and retired Marine First Sergeant, John Bennett served for 8 years as a State Representative in Oklahoma. John explains that Black Lives Matter was founded by three female Marxist/communists: Alicia Garza, Patrise Cullors, and Opel Tometi. When we see the violent riots in the streets of America, it is important for Americans to know Antifa and Black Lives Matter are communist groups. These are not “protests” for “justice.” They are coordinated efforts to foster the overthrow of the U.S. Constitutional Republic by hostile foreign and domestic forces.
FOR years on end, patriotic Americans have been subjected to a two-prong assault; that which continuously wields hammer-blow after hammer-blow via reds and greens. Be that as it may, this warning has a bulls-eye on Allah’s Muslim terrorists. No doubt, they run roughshod sans any push-back from officialdom on both sides of the aisle. Bastards – Mohammedans…and the leaders who fail to hold them to account!
ON the upside, increasingly, many Americans are becoming aware of CAIR’s insidious danger, despite the Koranic-sanctioned, taqiyya-laden, jive-talking mantra from mouthpieces: Yes, CAIR operates as a civil rights organization! In a pig’s eye.
IN reality, it has already been proven that CAIR was set-up and organized by Hamas; the Gazan arm of the global terror organization. It operates as the Brotherhood Mafia’s propaganda front within the U.S. and Canada. Simple as that. Deadly.
THAT being established, it is mandatory (as best as possible) to keep readers up to speed re their infiltration and penetration – alas, there are only so many hours in a day!
BUT before we get to the latest, it must be emphasized: While it is duly noted that President Trump has America’s best interests at heart, it is also the case that he has been remiss in his due diligence, relative to whom he entrusts with this and that security protocol. This is not a secret. As to the evidentiary trail, a September 2017 analysis is more than enough proof of the same.
WHICH brings the discussion back to the most treacherous aspect of all, one which has been explored here, here, here, here, here, here, here….and so on and so forth. After all, since it is ongoing and national security is at stake, it bears repeating as many times as it takes. Indeed, it has been demonstrably proven within the aforementioned links: CAIR has inserted itself into the nation’s security agencies, and has captured the FBI’s arms in the process!
IN this respect, why would any American entity – let alone law enforcement or education based – give CAIR (or another Brotherhood front) even a sandle-hold, after all the damage it has accrued within the homeland? Rhetorical. Mind you, while the Sheriff from Barrow County, Georgia is displaying a back-bone, others in law enforcement – not so much. And herein lies the grave danger.
RECALL: Broward County’s Sheriff Israel, you know, the coward and dhimmi Jew-boy who ordered his officers to stand down, and, for all intents and purposes, allowed the slaughter-fest at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida to continue – yes, that complicit bastard – chose Nezar Hamzeas his top Deputy, a mobbed-up Brotherhood CAIR leader!! You got that? But know this: If the Brotherhood had been deemed a terror organization by Trump, well, Israel would be in jail, alongside Hamze and the rest of the Brotherhood Mafia’s (long line of) tentacled leadership. Understood? Cause and effect.
Deputy Nezar Hamze, who not only lacked even the most basic qualifications for the job according to Broward County SD’s own senior reviewing officers, but was and remains an actively-serving Florida state-level official for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), HAMAS’ Muslim Brotherhood front group in the U.S.–for whom he conducted active shooter weapons training inside identifiable Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Centers–but obviously failed adequately to train his own Broward County deputies on how to defend Florida students from an active shooter inside a school.
BACK to Barrow County….
The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office is hosting a course on “Islam in America,” but its description has raised concern from CAIR – a radical Muslim activist and advocacy group. The curriculum includes instruction about “The Muslim Brotherhood in America, Islamic Ideology and its challenges to U.S. law enforcement and our constitution.”
“This course is to learn the jihadist enemy,” according to a description of the course. “How they define themselves by documents and social media, the historical basis to justify their actions, and their inspirations. This course also covers the Grand Jihad to eliminate America by terrorist acts and subversive acts under the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The March 8 training course will taught by former Woodstock Police Department Chief David Bores and is open to law enforcement and the faith community. Bores could not be reached for comment.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the course description is disturbing. Bores has been in public service for more than 45 years, according to information on the sheriff’s office website.
Mitchell said people have a right to express their views, even if its unfavorable to Muslims “but they do not have the right to do so while teaching official classes to law enforcement agencies on behalf of the State of Georgia.” (Muslims ARE the enemy) Mitchell said police officers “ must learn to serve and protect all Georgia residents, including over 100,000 Georgia Muslims. Racism and anti-Muslim bigotry have no place in a law enforcement training course.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, said he has taken courses by Bores before and denies Bores unfairly singles out Muslims. “If he was saying every Muslim in the world is a bad person and they want to kill us, I would stand up and say, ‘Brother, you are wrong’,” said Smith.
What Bores does talk about, said Smith, are different incidents and how to prevent Islamic terrorism. “He dissects those attacks and says here are the signs to look for so you’re not profiling,” Smith said. Bores is listed asdirector of intelligence for the Atlanta-based Defender Group, according to the organization’s website in 2016. It says company is made up of current, former and retired law enforcement professionals
Below is an outline of the kind of training for Law Enforcement that Bores conducts:
Islamic Ideology: Does It Conflict with Our Law Enforcement Mission?
Course Description: Repeatedly we are told by members of the media, academic institutions, and elected officials that Islam is a religion of peace. We are also confronted with the reality of the recent past, in which organized groups of radical Muslims and so called “lone wolves” representing domestic Islamic extremists present a real and potentially violent threat to our communities……continue reading…..
TO wit, seventeen years after 9/11/01 – unarguably, the most horrific terror attack ever to hit U.S. soil – the fact that this analysis has to be written (along with copious others), well, it’s indicative of the stranglehold that Islamists have over the nation.
ALAS, the urgent issue becomes: Despite the continuous assault on America – even with President Trump at the helm, again, the most patriotic POTUS, bar none – what will it take to sign into law Congressional Act S.68, finally, designating the Brotherhood Mafia (the titular head of global Islamic Jihad) a terror organization? Even more so, as it languishes in limbo, the intolerable is tolerated, while the Brotherhood Mafia’s tentacled hydras – in their quest for global dominance – dig deeper into the leading nation of the free world, or of what’s left of it!
MOST significantly, what the hell is really going on??
UPDATE: Muslim Mafia subpoenaed for school-infiltration plans!
It is not for nothing that some of us who operate in the counter-jihad domain, at one time or another, intersect with what is known as terrorism financing. Money laundering. What is less known are the myriad ways in which to accomplish said aiding and abetting, be it through narco-terror, gold/money, or another illegal revenue stream.
Still yet, how many know that olive oil, a staple in most pantries, is a major source of terrorism financing – Mafia-style? Well, it is!
Resultant, it is urgent to (re)introduce Lee Kaplan,a long-standing colleague. He is a first-class investigative journalist, an expert on the BDS movement and the ISM, both of which are part and parcel. Integrally linked.
Poisoning People for Palestine? How BDS raises its funding through Olive Oil Fraud
(Would You Like Hamas-Pure BDS Olive–Oil in Your Salad?
California Olive-Oil Fraud Funds the BDS and Hamas)
Olive oil is not only a food product but a commodity that is extremely valuable. This agency previously showed that BDS leader and ISM activist Paul Larudee has laundered and transferred funds to Gaza under the false name Arlington Market, but, besides this, has also been involved for several years in selling fake “pure Palestinian extra-virgin olive oil” he bottles here in America. The bottling is done by hand, by as many ISM activists Larudee can sucker to work for free for him to do so. He arranges “olive oil bottling parties” where he gets BDS and ISM activists (other Israel haters) like himself to work for free bottling the olive oil that he sells at street fairs and especially on the Internet to benefit “Palestine.” Larudee not only makes his living doing this, but he has also developed over the years a lucrative business that raises money to ultimately fund Hamas (not to mention himself and BDS) through the illicit sales of olive oil he claims is the product of “poor Palestinian farmers”.
Olive oil fraud is such a good business that even the Mafia has been involved in production and exploitation. Trade experts have stated that more money can be made selling olive oil fraudulently than can be made with drugs. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Larudee, who should have been jailed years ago for aiding and supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, continues to operate his olive oil scam in blatant violations of U.S. laws. What’s also distressing is that U.S. law enforcement, from the FBI to the FDA has been feckless in doing something about it.
The Israeli government controls exports of agricultural products from the Palestinian Authority (West Bank and Gaza) due to threats of terrorism by poisoning. Palestinian terror leaders have tried on more than one occasion to poison the Israeli water supply, so the Israelis take this seriously.
Despite his advertised claims that the olive oil he sells is made by poor impoverished Palestinian farmers merely trying to eke out a living, the olive oil that Larudee and company have been hand bottling here in the US cannot be what he says it is. Israel until recently, in fact, did not allow the exportation of raw olives or olive paste from the Palestinian Authority for security reasons. In addition, Larudee falsely advertises and labels that his bottles contain “cold pressed pure extra virgin olive oil” from “Palestine.”
Research into the olive oil trade has revealed that Larudee is more likely purchasing olives within the US market then bottling them, selling the oil as “Palestinian” olive oil to an unwary public. Industry experts advise that olive oil, especially the pure extra virgin kind is very difficult to import because it spoils within two days of the produce being picked. Likewise, any oil bottled at the growth site spoils during shipment by sea on pallets.
The National Olive Oil Association of America (NAOOA.org) is the trade group that seeks to assure quality and responsibility in the USA while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for olive oil standards.The USDA defines olive oil grading in much the same way as the International Olive Council IOC, but while the standards are voluntary in Europe, in the USA it is fraud if there is a claim of USDA grade on the bottle label or case.
Larudee deceptively puts on his labels “USDA Organic” which has a different meaning than most consumers understand. The FDA does set the standards for the USA which extends to using processing facilities that Larudee has consistently violated. He provides no proof of such certification on his labels (probably because none exists). Of more importance, bottled olive oil is required in the U.S. to have nutritional information on the outside label. Larudee does not provide these guides among his many violations.
The FDA requires that bottled olive oil be processed in a FDA approved facility that receives twice-yearly inspections by FDA. The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 ( directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as the food regulatory agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, to take steps to protect the public from a terrorist threat or attack on the U.S. food products and supply.
Larudee has been rubbing elbows with designated terrorist group Hamas for years. There are even photos of him shaking hands with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah and on another occasion his receiving an award from the terrorist group. Larudee was also caught and deported from Israel when he went there to meet with Hamas operatives, later going to Lebanon to work with Hezbollah, another designated terrorist group. More recently funds he sought to send to Hamas-infested Gaza were frozen then returned to him by Mellon Bank due to suspicions of laundering funds for terrorism. The FBI did nothing.
(Larudee is shaking the blood-soaked hand(s) of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah)
(Larudee, an “honored” award-winning guest, sitting at the dais with top terrorists from Hamas)
Larudee routinely bottles his olive oil in an old ramshackle house in Berkeley, California known as the Grassroots House, a shared meeting-house with other radical and communist groups a few blocks from the UC Berkley campus. In the past, he also used his home in Emeryville, California.
The shared communal kitchen in the Berkeley building where the olive oil is bottled has no FDA clearance for sanitation. The pro-BDS volunteers who help him wear no hair nets and no one knows if they even wash their hands, or follow minimum sanitation requirements.
The Federal Trade Commission also requires truth in labeling for olive oil products, another violation by Larudee and his BDS gang. Mislabeling of olive oil is a continuing problem, according to the FTC. FTC regulations state “The FTC and the FDA have overlapping jurisdiction to regulate the advertising and labeling of foods. Section 403(a) of the FDCA prohibits the ‘misbranding’ of food which includes labeling that ‘is false or misleading in any particular. This shared jurisdiction over labeling and advertising of food products operates under a longstanding Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies. Under this agreement, the FDA exercises primary responsibility for regulating food labeling, while the FTC assumes primary responsibility for ensuring that advertising of food products is truthful and not misleading.
Larudee’s olive oil bottle labels say that his Hurriya bottled olive oil is “pure extra virgin olive oil” when it is not. To verify this mislabeling, we have hired Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco; a FDA approved food testing facility. Testing just one bottle of Larudee’s olive oil cost over $400, which professional olive oil bottlers and producers regularly pay to assure FDA quality for the end-user. Each new lot of olive oil requires such sample testing. In fact, such testing can be like playing the whack-a-mole game where one bottle might pass while others are not the same quality.The difference between “extra virgin olive oil” and lesser quality oil is determined by the acidity level in the oil. Cheaters who intentionally mislabeled their products’ acidity levels are guilty of fraud according to the FDA and FTC rules.
In the case of the Hurriya olive oil test, the acidity level showed that Larudee’s product is not the extra virgin quality claimed on the label. Genuine “extra virgin olive oil” usually commands a higher price from consumers, about $20 a bottle on average. Larudee charges $20 per bottle for his product, part of the proceeds going into his own pocket besides helping to fund the BDS movement or generating money to be sent to Gaza and potentially Hamas.The test noted excessive amounts of filth patently visible in the bottle and that it was not extra virgin olive oil at all.
Larudee once wrote a letter about his pleasure at sleeping in the bed of a suicide bomber and stated he recognizes the Palestinians’ right to violence to achieve their goals. Most people would not feel comfortable consuming a food product prepared by a Hamas apparatchik if they knew more about it. Would you want someone who works closely with Hamas preparing your food?
Besides cheating buyers of his olive oil, Larudee and his Norcal-ISM that produce the product are also cheating the public out of tax dollars due on sales. The city finance and business tax collection and health departments of both the cities of Berkeley and El Cerrito, Ca., require that sales be reported on a regular basis to compute business taxes owed. Both cities reported that not only does Larudee not have a permit to bottle olive oil from the city or county health departments (nor from the state of California) but that he has also been cheating these government agencies and the public out of taxes due on sales for at least the past ten years. This also means he is not reporting those numbers to the IRS on a federal level. While his Norcal-ISM has nonprofit tax status as an “educational nonprofit,” he nevertheless is required to keep records and report his sales when he is engaged in selling a product for profit in case of a necessary recall if a threat to the public health emerges. Larudee does not do this.
California has just begun clamping down on misrepresented olive oil products like Larudee sells to fund the BDS Movement. This might explain why he is now looking to import pre-bottled olive oil from a Palestine Fair Trade Association set up by the PLO to bypass scrutiny in the U.S. market. Importing pre-bottled olive oil usually, means the product will not have the freshness needed to assure proper quality as required in the U.S. market that the EU is more willing to overlook. The EU is also more willing to overlook misrepresentation of the olive oil product. The Palestine Fair Trade Association website says that olive oil will be certified as labeled properly through the “Fair Trade Labeling Association of Germany” (FLO), yet only a few lines later read: “FLO has not yet developed international product specific guidelines for olive oil.”
One thing is certain: the likelihood of Paul Larudee and his BDS activists at Norcal-ISM providing a genuine product to the consuming public is very remote. Current U.S. FDA standards for bottling and labeling olive oil must be adhered to in the U.S. market for health and consumer products, and Larudee’s using a shell trade association administered by the PLO government in Jenin is unlikely to change past practices of ignoring uncleanliness, mislabeling and tax evasion. Larudee has long violated U.S. Customs regulations also that require that bottled olive oil products as sold by Larudee’s Nor-Cal ISM to raise funds for BDS must say “product of the West Bank” (a recent political development since U.S. Customs used to require they read “Made in Israel”). Currently, and for over ten years, Larudee’s bottles have been labeled “Produced by Palestinian farmers in Israeli-occupied Palestine and packed by volunteers of the International Solidarity Movement in Berkeley, California.”.
By bringing in pre-bottled goods as he suggests he will be doing, Larudee risks bringing in spoiled olive oil because the transport time for the oil will result in spoilage. Despite being sent via “Palestine Fair Trade Association,” the labels also state the product is packed in the United States requiring the same permits, health and sanitation inspections and true labeling that Larudee to date has not been doing, not to mention tax reporting on sales. Even if he continues bottling the oil here and selling it, repeated violations of U.S. Customs requirements on truth in labeling calls for such bottles if imported to be destroyed on entry to the United States.
Readers are encouraged to send copies of this article to the enforcement agencies below to hopefully see some action with the change in a new administration coming in Washington. In particular, U.S. Customs has a new e-allegation email system readers can write to electronically. An U.S. Customs source has recommended this article be copied simultaneously to the plaintiff’s congressional representatives.
STIPULATED, as unrealistic as a flying pig scenario is, it is just as impossible to obtain victory – aka to win the war – without inflicting damage upon a hostile population in the midst of battle. Pray tell, what is so hard to understand about that? Moreover, what’s wrong with a “them or us” calculus?
HENCE, stepping it up a notch – as discomfiting as it is for some – even innocent civilians invariably get caught in the crossfire. Nevertheless, the fact remains that without the wider support of an enemy’s population – material or otherwise – it would be much harder for their leadership to continue on a war-footing. So, in effect, there is no alternative – unless defeat has become the preferable or acceptable fall-back outcome – other than to pummel the enemy’s leadership and population into submission. Deal with it.
MORE specifically, does anyone believe that tap-tapping the Nazis during World War 2 would have subdued them or dissuaded Japan’s aggression. had massive force not been used, regardless of civilian casualties? In other words, rational leaders do everything in their power to ensure that the enemy is stopped in its tracks, thus, ceasing their aggression as quickly and punishing as possible. In effect, attaining victory is a deterrent to future acts of war! Not only that, in the long-term, civilian lives – on both sides of the conflict – are spared, that is, once the rabid enemy aggressor is put down.
WHICH brings us to the western crises at hand; a moment in time whereby one leadership is demonstrably mentally besieged (to the degree of materially aiding, over and over again, a Jew-hating, highly belligerent enemy population), whereas the other critical care case originates from an anti-American/western prism. Indeed, the leadership of the Free World trained (and continues to) those who are now ISIS’s military leadership! Wait and see.
(A display of some ofHamas’s missiles, having exploded inside Israel’s population centers.)
HEADING back to Israel’s unfit leaders, in this regard, knowing that Gazans overwhelmingly voted for Hamas in 2006 – thereby, sweeping them into power – surely they are as responsible as their warlords for their fates, whatever that may be. Indisputable.
REGARDLESS, like drunken sailors, Israel’s leaders continually aid (one may rightfully suggest, abet) the genocidal Jew-hating arm of the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia, Hamas, and its Gazan (aka Palestinian) population. They are one and the same. Let that monstrous truth sink in.
MIND you, meanwhile, Israel’s elected poohbahs – alongside non-elected elitists – have the utter audacity to pat themselves on their backs for assisting ! the Gazans, as if they can be separated from Hamas, the leaders they ushered into office who unremittingly wage murderous jihad on Israel’s Jewish population centers! Did you ever??
The Dutch government will assist Israel in improving water and gas supplies to energy-strapped Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday during a visit to the Netherlands.
Netanyahu said that while his government is in a conflict with “terrorists” in the Palestinian territories, Israel still wishes to improve the quality of life for most people living there.
“We have no battle, no qualms with the people of Gaza,” he said. “The first step is to improve the supply of energy and water to Gaza, including laying a gas pipeline.”
He said he was publicly committing to making it happen.
Gaza faces an energy crisis due to damage to its electric network from past conflicts, together with Israel’s coastal blockade and other sanctions and restrictions.
Currently the Strip has electricity less than half the time, using an 8-hour on, 8-hour off rationing system.
A gas pipeline from Israel could allow Gaza’s power plant to double generation from around 200MW at present.
Water supplies to Gaza and the West Bank have long been a point of tension between the neighbors, with the Palestinians saying Israel prevents them from accessing adequate water at an affordable price.
Netanyahu did not elaborate on details of the gas pipeline plan, saying only the Dutch, with their long history of water management, would help.
Earlier in the week, Japan said it wants to turn the dusty West Bank city of Jericho into a pipeline for Palestinian goods to the Arab world.
It has pumped $300 million into a new complex in Area A, known as the Jericho Agro Industrial Park or, as the Japanese have dubbed it, the “Corridor for Peace and Prosperity.”
Israel has added $50 million to the project, according to Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation Ayoub Kara.
JUDICIOUSLY, whose fault is it that Gazans are having electrical problems? And why the hell is it Netanyahu’s (in reality, foisting it upon the Jewish majority public at large, those taxpayers who will really ante up!) problem, as he pledges his support through “publicly committing to making it happen.” Is he certifiable, or what? Besides, doesn’t he realize that the onus is upon their murderous leadership and attendant terror apparatuses, which has never ceased rocketing and blitzing Israel, even up until the end of August 2016? And how about Hamas’s rocket attack upon an Israeli kindergarten in July 2016? Is this not indicative of an unquenchable, unremitting war-footing? Rhetorical.
SO, how can Israel’s leaders justify the rebuilding of a genocidal foe’s construction projects, let alone supply them with their energy needs, that which merely gifts them even more opportunities to literally fuel their next jihadi war efforts against Israel, the pejoratively named “Zionist entity”? What’s going on here?
CONSEQUENTIALLY, not only are Israel’s leaders mentally besieged, they are truly unfit to lead. Of this, let there be no doubt.
ALONG the same jihadi trajectory, it should have been expected that HUSSEIN and gang would fling open the nation’s doors to tens of thousands similarly inclined – Shariah Law abiding – militant Islamists, aka “refugees.” Not only that, the overachiever actually hit his 10,000 quarterly targeted goal ahead of schedule. O M G!
ALAS, how shocking is it to find out that the devil in the White House is responsible (yes, the buck stops at his door!) for training ISIS military commanders? Again, rhetorical.
Gulmurod Khalimov, the new ISIS military commander whom the U.S. just days agoannounced a $3 million bounty for, was trained by the State Department in an anti-terror program as recently as 2014 while serving in the security service of Tajikistan.
He replaces former ISIS commander Tarkhan Batirashvili, aka Umar al-Shishani, who was also trained by the United States as part of the Georgian army and who ISIS claimed was killed fighting in Iraq this past July.
The State Department confirmed Khalimov’s U.S.-provided training to CNN in May 2015:
“From 2003-2014 Colonel Khalimov participated in five counterterrorism training courses in the United States and in Tajikistan, through the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program,” said spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala.The program is intended to train candidates from participating countries in the latest counterterrorism tactics, so they can fight the very kind of militants that Khalimov has now joined.
A State Department official said Khalimov was trained in crisis response, tactical management of special events, tactical leadership training and related issues.
Unironically, the State Department spokeswoman said that Khalimov had been appropriately vetted:
“All appropriate Leahy vetting was undertaken in advance of this training,” said spokeswoman Jhunjhunwala.
“Listen, you American pigs: I’ve been to America three times. I saw how you train soldiers to kill Muslims,” he says.Then, he threatens, “we will find your towns, we will come to your homes, and we will kill you.”
Khalimov and Batirashvili are hardly the first terrorist leaders operating in Syria to have been trained by the United States.
INEXTRICABLY, for the most part, Israel’s top leaders operate from a mentally besieged prism, consequently, rendering them unfit to lead. On the other hand, the fact remains that HUSSEIN Obama (and surrogates) is ideologically in sync with those he aids and abets. Intrinsically, his aim is to bring down America, with Israel as a cascading domino.
EVEN so, the knock-on effects of both leaders are one and the same: dead Jews on the one hand, and dead Americans/westerners on another. Pick your poison.
BUT when all the muck is sifted through, know that Judaism’s ancient texts are as relevant today, as they were centuries ago. As is stated in the Midrash Rabba, Ecclesiastes 7:16:
He Who Is Compassionate to the Cruel Will Ultimately Become Cruel to the Compassionate
GEO-POLITICS operates at warp speed, but its moving parts are rarely understood for what they are. Rather, too many (until recently) have relied upon their leaders (political and media-based) to “set the strategic record straight.”
GRAVE error.
IN this regard, there is little more pressing than stopping Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, irrespective of any obstacle. And for those who believe that the threat is “only” to Israel, think again. Agreed, wiping Israel off the map is their absolute plan, but destroying America is on their target bank too.
BUT to ensure that this existential point is duly cemented, please refer to what Israel just uncovered: satellite images reveal new long-range Iranian missile and launcher!In other words, said missiles are NOT required to strike Israel, but they are target-worthy for America. Bull’s eye.
NEVERTHELESS, first and foremost, Israel’s leaders are duly sworn to eliminate threats, whether near or far. In this regard, PM Netanyahu has a spotty record of accomplishments. Said details were delineated (at a global interview), immediately after this summer’s war with Hamas “ceased”. No sense re-working that wheel.
NOT only that, but PM Netanyahu’s spineless tethering to Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s “rebels” has catapulted ISIS into Israel proper! Don’t believe it? Well, here is the poop and scoop.
ACUTELY, in regard to the existential threat from Iran, PM Netanyahu failed miserably, despite ordering proxy strikes here and there. His inability to abide by his own “red lines”, those which have come and gone, is beyond the pale. As such, let’s place our cards on the table: in the main, he caved. He opted to leave the gravest threat to Israel in the hands of an Islamist POTUS, but now he is attempting to walk back his spinelessness by pleading before Congress!
PROOF ONE
TRUTH dare be told, back in Dec. 2012 (5 months into this site’s inception), it was painfully obvious that PM Netanyahu’s much ballyhooed U.N.”red line” graph was nothing but a cartoon-like drawing. Meaningless.
EVEN so, it doesn’t take a strategic master to figure certain moves out: Obama is Israel’s enemy and an avowed Islamist. Incontrovertibly, he is committed to Israel’s destruction, thus, exposing PM Netanyahu’s fatal flaw – relying on him to “take care of business.”
OMINOUSLY, as a shadow war plays out on Israel’s northern border – between Israel, Iran, Hezbollah and Syrian/ISIS agents – it is astonishingly obvious that PM Netanyahu has NOT learned his (tunnel digging) lessons.
So let me tell you. The Hezbollah is digging tunnels. Very rapidly. Just like the IDF did not know how many assault tunnels there were in the Gaza Strip, they also do not have a clue as to what’s going on right under its nose along Israel’s northern border. Ego issues? Lack of means? No, just being stubborn. It would take an incident before they would actually believe those living right on the border with Lebanon.
An army which pulls its own soldiers out of settlements along the border with Gaza, won’t believe their digging tunnels right under the border with Lebanon either.
CAN you believe it? Do.
STILL, yet, a three-part mutually inclusive question remains: how does one explain Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s counter intuitive, seemingly inexplicable unpatriotic “negotiations” with Iran, when he understands full well that the mullahs are scamming and scheming? Moreover, where is the linkage between Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s empowerment of Iran; Hezbollah’s Latin American sleeper cells, and Argentina’s newly deceased Prosecutor, albeit under less than kosher circumstances? Everywhere.
INTRINSICALLY, Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s mad dash to secure an “agreement” with Iran’s genocidal mullahs renders ZERO room for “obstacles”, be they from domestic opponents, foreign-wise via Israel, or even emanating from apoplectic Sunni regimes. He is Allah bent re Iran and that is that.
The Islamic Republic was saying in effect that it is not only acting in concert with the Obama administration over a nuclear accord, but the two powers will also be aligned against any potential Israel military action against Iran that is intended to upset the nuclear accord unfolding between Washington and Tehran.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on “private diplomatic contacts with Iran” beyond saying that no threat was delivered to Israel in the latest round of nuclear talks….
AS reiterated, the Islamist-in-Chief has the mullahs backs. He will NOT tolerate any “interference” re the “negotiations”, as such, Iranian mouthpieces felt secure enough to publicly state as much!
POINTEDLY, jihadi cells primed throughout South America help to accelerate a front arm, one which is within striking distance of America. In fact, this trigger hair scenario is sans nuclear weapons! Imagine that.
(In 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad palling around with Hugo Chavez…hmm)
AS to the Argentinian Prosecutor’s very suspicious death, look at what he was on the cusp of exposing, thus, even causing the investigative journalist – who broke the story – to flee for his life to Israel:
Damian Pachter, a reporter with the Buenos Aires Herald, broke the news that a prosecutor who accused Argentina’s government of a cover-uphad been found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment.
Alberto Nisman’s death has rocked Argentina, and the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – who Nisman accused of secret and illegal dealings with Iran – first called it a suicide before suggesting he had been killed.
In the latest development in the murky saga, Mr Pachter abruptly fled the country on Saturday and flew to Tel Aviv after concluding he was being tracked by Argentine intelligence agents.
“They are using their security forces to chase me,” Mr Pachter said after arriving in Israel. “I just had to move fast and quick, as fast as I could in order to get onto a plane and leave the country.”
In a first-person narration published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Mr Pachter said a man wearing sunglasses at night followed him into a cafe where he was due to meet an important source.
“I was sitting around there for two hours or so when a very strange person came in. He wore jeans, a jeans jacket and Ray-Ban sunglasses. I noticed him immediately but stayed where I was. He was sitting two tables from me,” Mr Pachter wrote.
“I then had to consider the best thing to do, because when an Argentine intelligence agent is on your tail, it’s never good news. He didn’t just want to have a coffee with me, that’s for sure.”
He left on Saturday morning, flying first to Uruguay, then Spain and on to Israel, where he is a citizen.
The Argentine government responded by tweeting out the details of his flight from the official account of the presidential palace, apparently in an effort to show that Mr Pachter was due to return in February and had not really fled.
CONCLUSIVELY, understanding that the Islamist-in-Chief is more in league with rogue actors, rather than with his sworn duty to protect America, Hezbollah’s ready-to-pounce factor suits him very well. By the way, Putin is in league with the S. American jihadi thrust into America. Similarly, he shields Iran’s mullahs from any attacks on their nuclear facilities. Yes, the oft-mentioned highly flammable red/green alliance.
MOST significantly, is it any wonder that Barack HUSSEIN Obama went ballistic when Congress recently issued PM Netanyahu an invite to address Congress (lying that he was not notified, when he was), so much so that he is refusing to meet Israel’s duly elected leader, ostensibly, on the bizarre grounds that the White House doesn’t interfere in Israel’s elections! Liar, liar, pants on (Islamic) fire….
NEVER mind the fact that Bubba Clinton made sure to invite “never say die to peace” PM candidate Peres for a pow wow, a month before Israel’s election. Yet, even more revealing, the Liar-in-Chief has dispatched a TOP GUN team to ensconce themselves in Tel Aviv, chiefly, to ensure that PM Netanyahu loses the upcoming March elections! Brass balls.
NOW, aside from the fact that the Anti-American-in-Chief wants radical leftist/Arabist Livni – a crass political opportunist, no less – to take over Israel’s premiership, in tandem with her comrades, the real thrust lies within his desperate quest to stop PM Netanyahu from having any real say during the “delicate negotiations” with Iran.
MIND you, the fact that he has empowered the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia is decidedly not in contradiction with assisting Iran’s ascendancy, even though Sunni Arab/Gulf states are in an uproar over Washington’s drive to essentially usher Iran to the nuclear threshold.
WHAT the hell is really going on?
IN effect, he has been hedging his Islamic-driven bets, indubitably, as both Shia and Sunni powers are ascending. The point being, an Islamic Shariah law (global) takeover is the end point.
BUT if Obama Inc.’s intentions are still unclear, ponder what his mouthpiece at State, John Kerry, has been stating, even as Islamists (Shia and Sunni) slaughter in the name of their pagan, Allah: terrorists kill for thrill seeking, not Islamic jihad! Heck, even many Egyptians are livid, becoming very vocal about Obama Inc’s machinations and intentions. Not exactly complimentary.
IN this regard, Islamists, due to the opening lent them via their leftist collaborators, grabbed westerners by the short hairs. They are running circles around patriotic Americans, as well as nationalists within western countries. But while leftists surely are pleased with said outcome, the fact of the matter is that many average folks truly think that being liberal simply means demonstrating compassion for the other. Not so fast. There is such a thing as being so wedded to liberalism that your brains fall out. Yet, the most salient question remains: how did it get to this tipping point?
IN the meanwhile, Islamists are free to wage a bloody war across the globe in the name of the same “religion”! Not only that, political Islam, its mainstay, is implanting across the world and nothing is being done to stop its thrust. Yes, America is ripe for their picking. Indeed, the once mighty nation leading the free world has now become the gateway for barbarism. Its epicenter.
SIGNIFICANTLY, the Muslim Brotherhood’s new “American” political party – the basis for this commentary, the parent of Hamas which uses its civilians as human shields, while they target Israel’s civilian population – is front and center within Capitol Hill and ready to take America by storm. Literally.
A facebook post by Taher Herzallah, leader of one of the groups represented in a recently formed Muslim political party in the U.S., clearly celebrates Israeli casualties and the group that has caused them – Hamas. The post has since been taken down (screenshot below).As the National Campus Coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine, Herzallah also represents the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an organization formed with Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America to create the first Muslim Brotherhood political party in the U.S. Earlier this year, Shoebat.com reported on the founding member groups of USCMO. They include CAIR, MAS, and ICNA. As far as posts to social media that reveal the true feelings of these supposed Muslim civil rights groups, CAIR’s Executive Director Nihad Awad was caught using doublespeak earlier this month with twitter. Upon learning the news that convicted terrorist financier Sami al-Arian had been released from jail, Awad sent out two tweets – one in English and one in Arabic. They were not the same; the Arabic tweet blamed the ‘Israeli lobby’ as Shoebat.com reported. Last month, USCMO held its inauguration in Washington, DC. Two of the speakers at the event were Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); they represent the only two Muslims in Congress. The goal of USCMO is clearly to help elect more.Another prominent figure within USCMO is Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing who is closely connected to the infamous “Blind Sheikh”, Omar Abdel Rahman. Wahhaj was one of the speakers at the USCMO inauguration, alongside Ellison and Carson. As Shoebat.comreported, Glenn Greenwald and Wahhaj shared a podium at a 2013 CAIR banquet. Greenwald is the ‘journalist’ who provided Edward Snowden a platform to release highly sensitive NSA information. According to an exhaustive article Greenwald wrote in defense of highly suspect Muslim figures in the U.S., he claimed that though Awad expressed support for Hamas in 1994, he stopped doing so when the group moved into the realm of suicide bombings. If that were true, Awad should condemn the elation of Herzallah.
Hamas/CAIR Wave the Banner of Jihad in Miami! {presented by this blogger’s contact, Tom Trento}
ASIDE from all the other proofs offered above, the fact of the matter is that the Muslim Brotherhood is a defacto terror org, as designated by U.S. authorities!
and this is not up for debate, how can its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, open its own political party (under whatever cockamamie hydra name they conjure up) via a membership list which is a who’s who listing of the Brotherhood? In the main, less than zero degrees separated!
NOT only that, but this site’s readership is more than familiar with the tie-ins between Obama Inc. and the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia. Volumes of evidence. Truckloads.
THEREFORE, it makes total sense, under Barack HUSSEIN Obama, a Muslim Brotherhood political party would emerge. But it doesn’t answer the most pressing question of all: will millions of patriots allow their treachery to infiltrate and dominate America’s body politic, eventually destroying the nation as a Constitutional democracy?
Terror-tied U.S. defense contractor, Rahim Sabadia…another mobbed up Brotherhood operative.
WHILE some would like to believe that CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. propaganda arm, its spearhead, is “in the dog house” in Washington’s circles – due to its unindicted co-conspirator status during the Holy Land (Terror) Foundation trial – the fact of the matter is that this is nothing short of fantasy land.
On its website, the USCMO even describes itself as “an umbrella group” for Muslims. Founding members of this USCMO are proven ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and include the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others. Of course, it’s easy to see how the Muslim Brotherhood would be the “umbrella group” for the USCMO.
It’s not uncommon for the Muslim Brotherhood to have a separate, political party that does its bidding. In Egypt, the Freedom and Justice Party was one such entity and it was the party of Mohammed Mursi, who is now in jail and identified as a leader of a terrorist organization, a designation the new government in Egypt has given to the group.
Awad knows what it’s like to wield influence in Washington, D.C. As head of CAIR, he led one of the many groups that gained access to the George W. Bush White House both before and after 9/11/01. In fact, Awad, along with Dr. Yahya Basha, who was president of the now-defunct American Muslim Council, Salam Al-Marayati, the Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and Muzammil Siddiqi, then-President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), were all relied upon by the Bush administration to help develop the dangerously flawed strategy of what was actually Muslim Brotherhood outreach.
As Shoebat.com has reported, Yahya Basha now serves on the board of the highly suspect Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), which found controversy when Political Director for the group, Elizabeth O’Bagy didn’t disclose a significant conflict of interest. Senator John McCain read from a Wall Street Journal Op-ed O’Bagy wrote to justify assisting Syrian jihadists. McCain hired O’Bagy after she was fired. Basha continues to be listed as a Board member of the group.
MPAC’s Al-Marayati was appointed as the U.S. State Department’s envoy to a human rights conference back in 2012, which Shoebat.com reported at the time.
REGARDLESS of everything else, CAIR’s footprints keep popping up, each and every time jihad in America rears its head. Why is this? Why indeed.
Factor Four:
NOT only that, CAIR’s penetration into the FBI makes nonsense out of the claim, yes, it has been marginalized within Washington’s agencies.
ACCORDING to Dave Gaubatz, a premiere counter-terrorism expert, whose access is second to none, the following is noted:
I receive internal emails from the ADAMS Center,ADAMS CENTER ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION SITE The Executives of the ADAMS Center are very closely aligned with CAIR National. CAIR Executives often flip flop and join one another’s terrorist supporting organization. The ADAMS Center and CAIR National have previously been investigated and/or raided by the FBI. Why would the FBI recruit from Islamic terror organzations for sensitive positions, such as FBI Special Agents and FBI Analysts. The positions require a Top Secret clearance.
The answer is there is no good reason to recruit from terrorist organizations and supporters of terrorist. FBI Special Agent Amylynn Errera, Washington Field Office sent the email to Farooq Syed, ADAMS Center. Farooq then forwarded the email about FBI positions to members of their internal group of supporters. I was provided a copy by a source.
The FBI sends these job opening to Islamic terror supporters, yet I would make a multi-million dollar bet that no one from the Tea Party, ACT For America, and dozens of other conservative groups are provided an up front notice of sensitive job positions in the FBI. There are good people within the FBI, but the majority are not properly trained in regards to Islamic terrorism issues. Then there are some who knowingly have relationships with organizations that pose a threat to our national security.
The ADAMS Center has previously been raided for their support of terrorism (RAID ON ADAMS CENTER). I encourage readers to contact Special Agent Amylynn Errera and ask her why Islamic terror supporters (per the FBI’s own allegations) are being recruited for TOP SECRET positions within the FBI. Her contact information is at the bottom of the email she sent to the ADAMS Center.
U.S. government employees are paid their salaries by American taxpayers. They are not above the law and must answer to the American people. Dave Gaubatz
The FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) has several immediate vacancies for full-time computer scientists (CS) working directly with our cyber squads. The positions would be located ONLY at the Northern Virginia Resident Agency in Manassas, Virginia.WFO’s cyber program is one of the most extensive and advanced within the FBI. WFO CSs work alongside investigators to directly impact critical criminal and national security computer intrusion investigations. Additional background details on the position are available at http://www.fbijobs.gov/cs.The minimum requirements for this position are:- Applicant must be a United States citizen
– Applicant must be able to obtain a Top Secret/SCI security clearance
– A bachelor’s degree in computer science
– Or any degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. Fifteen of those hours must include differential and integral calculus.More competitive applicants may have some of the following training/work experience:- Computer forensics/investigations
– Computer security
– Internetworking (firewalls, gateways, routers, hubs, WANS, etc.)
– Computer networking administration
– Computer programming
– Computer network architecture/design
– Computer technical support
– Operating system administration
– Other high-tech computer experienceThe starting GS level will depend heavily on the applicant’s educational and work experience, and can range from GS 7-12.If interested, please email your resume to FBI-WFO SSA Matthew Braverman,matthew.braverman@ic.fbi.gov, by July 31. If you have already submitted your resume for a CS position via USAJobs and not heard a response, please re-send your resume to SSA Braverman.
– Amy
SA Amylynn Errera
InfraGard co-coordinator, National Capital Region chapter
FBI / Washington Field Office / Northern Virginia Resident Agency
IN effect, this blogger wants the reader to just consider Rahim Sabadia, aka Abdur Rahim Noormohamed (hmm…one of his aliases), as the tip of the Brotherhood’s high level security accessing arm to the Pentagon, even though reportedly revoked. As if….
Four years after the Pentagon suspended the security clearance of Rahim Sabadia — a South African-born, California-based defense contractor who has bankrolled the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — new discoveries raise questions about how he had been permitted to hold one in the first place. Documents analyzed by Islamist Watch show that Sabadia’s foundation donated to an infamous Hamas-funding charity and other radicals, that in 1985 he pleaded guilty to the sale of illegal listening devices, and that immigration officials had ordered him out of the country a decade earlier. Topping off this troubling record, Sabadia recently pleaded guilty to providing false information to a Navy procurement officer in a scheme to recapture an old contract. The Sabadia saga is a warning that Islamists and their sympathizers must be kept away from the sensitive technologies and institutions that protect America.
Concerns about Sabadia initially came to light in a 2011 article by Matt Pearce and Brooke Williams for the Orange County Register. While researching the millions of taxpayer dollars that had been flowing to Sabadia’s Sabtech Industries — thanks, in part, to earmarks fromGary Miller, a Republican congressman whose campaign chest was regularly filled by Sabadia and his wife — the journalists learned that Sabadia had lost his secret-level clearance in 2010. As a result, his company had to stop work on a lucrative contract to upgrade the Navy’s Aegis combat system, a key component of ballistic missile defense. Federal agencies did not disclose the reason for the suspension, but Pearce and Williams located an internal email citing worries about “charitable contributions.”
The authors note that Sabadia, via the Sabadia Family Foundation (SFF), distributes money to “many Islamic education, relief, and humanitarian organizations,” and “one of the foundation’s large beneficiaries — receiving at least $1.2 million since 2002 — is the Council on American-Islamic Relations.” CAIR has been on the outs in Washington due to its designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against the Holy Land Foundation, a charity convicted in 2008 of funneling millions to Hamas. In another interesting CAIR–Sabadia link, Omar Zaki, Sabtech’s onetime vice president, is CAIR’s current national chairman.
Sabadia’s massive financing of CAIR, which has reached $1.296 million for its Los Angeles chapter based on available SFF tax filings (2001–12), as well as lesser support for similar Islamist pressure groups, certainly should have grabbed the Defense Department’s attention. However, there have been far more disturbing recipients of the Sabadia family’s largesse.
The most notorious SFF grantee was the Holy Land Foundation itself, which collected $3,300 in 2001, the year that federal authorities finally shut it down. Also enjoying Sabadia’s generosity in 2001 was the American Muslim Foundation, which pocketed $700. That organization was led by the high-profile Islamist Abdurahman Alamoudi, who is now serving a long prison term following his role in an international assassination plot. Additionally, the SFF has gifted $1.177 million (2001–12) to Islamic Relief USA, which is a subsidiary and funder of Islamic Relief Worldwide, a charity that, according to an Americans for Peace and Tolerance report, “has multiple associations with Hamas fundraising and with the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in the U.S., Europe, and Sudan.”
The SFF’s roster of beneficiaries also betrays a fondness for radical mosques and imams. In 2001, the foundation gave $4,500 to Oakland’sMasjid Al-Islam, which, in the words of the Anti-Defamation League, is “affiliated with the anti-Semitic Sabiqun movement, which seeks to establish Islamic rule in the U.S.” Even the Southern Poverty Law Center, known for vilifying critics of Islamism, calls Masjid Al-Islam and the Sabiqun network “hate groups.” In 2002, the SFF sent $100 to defend Jamil al-Amin, an imam convicted that year of the 2000 murder of a Georgia sheriff’s deputy. He has since been identified as the head of the Ummah, another entity striving for an Islamic state within U.S. borders. In 2007, the SFF contributed $25,000 to Brooklyn’s Masjid At-Taqwa, which the New York Police Department classified among the city’s “tier one mosques of concern.” That is largely due to the influence of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was listed as one of the “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the foiled follow-up attacks. Wahhaj, too, dreams of a Shari’a-governed America.
Sabadia’s run-ins with the law should have raised further red flags for those vetting him. On January 21, 1985, Sabadia was hit with a seven-count federal indictment (Central District of Illinois) for selling electronic devices “primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of wire or oral communications,” contrary to Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 2512. Investigators had caught him peddling “telephone drop-in FM transmitters,” “ink pen FM transmitters,” and “‘snooper’ contact microphones.” Sabadia pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced to three years of probation for each, set to run concurrently, and insignificant fines and restitution.
Besides outing his past criminality, the 1985 court papers expose Sabadia’s former name, Abdur Rahim Noormohamed, which can still be found on variouswebsites. It turns up somewhere else as well: in documents that place Noormohamed/Sabadia at the heart of an immigration dispute during the 1970s.
According to a decision from an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) district director dated May 23, 1977, Noormohamed/Sabadia entered the U.S. from Switzerland in January 1976 on a nonimmigrant visa for business in New York on behalf of a textile company. He soon went to Dallas and joined his brother Moosa in a separate venture exporting electronics. When his six-month admission was nearly up, Noormohamed/Sabadia applied for permanent residence based on the claim that he was a qualified investor. The INS official ruled that he did not meet the requirements, rejected his application, and instructed him to leave the country, declaring: “It can only be concluded that you and your brother did not enter the United States in good faith as nonimmigrants without any intention of circumventing the quota restrictions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended.” In other words, they had planned to remain in the U.S. from the start. The INS district directordismissed a motion to reconsider his decision, the INS regional commissioner affirmed the denial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas backed the INS, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals approved the ruling. Yet Noormohamed/Sabadia managed to stay. A documentfrom a legal case explored below notes that he married Nafees El Batool in 1979 and became a U.S. citizen in 1989….read the whole thing….
THE very fact that prosecutors – those who are tasked with protecting the people’s interest – soft-pedaled Sabadia, a well-connected, well-funded jihadi “defense” contractor, attests to the degraded state of affairs on every conceivable level in the realm of national security.
Those who advance terrorism and anti-Semitic agendas, prop up others who do so, or lend them cover, are the scum of the earth. There is no tap dancing around this issue. Everything which aids in their exposure will be done at this site, threats be damned. In fact, those who continue to threaten this and that know that their bullying tactics fall on deaf ears. To wit, an Iranian stalker has been bombarding this American-Israeli with messages, most recently sending along this “lovely” link. Yet, the following is of a “milder” bent, and the rest are in professional hands…let’s leave it at that – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1498058023743373&set=vb.100006175680852&type=2&theater
Really now?
In effect, it matters not a whit from whichever direction they lob their verbal grenades; Islamist-driven; garden variety anti-Semites or self-hating Jews. As a first order of record, let’s deal with the most grating level of this site’s (s)hit list.
It goes without saying, at least it should, that veritable anti-Semites always aim to destroy Israel, the one and only Jewish homeland. Vile vermin. All the while they have the utter audacity, the temerity, to protest and claim they are not anti-Semitic! Credo quia absurdum. At the same time, these miscreants generally have a very high tolerance and threshold for jihadi terror groups. One hatred naturally feeds into the other.
Now, being that terror organs, by nature, are incapable of sustaining their own citizens with basic services, there are always international Jew-haters willing to step in, including Washington’s poohbahs. And even though Hamas is designated as a terror org by U.S. law, as well as throughout the western world, the Islamist-in-Chief is Allah-bent on “working” with this new “entity’.
In effect, U.S. taxpayers will now be supporting Abbas’s PA/Fatah, as well as the Brotherhood’s Hamas! As mentioned, like it or not.
It gets worse. Being a native New Yorker the following lit another fire, but was hardly unexpected. After all, New York City is – once again – in the grip of a radical leftist, Marxist/communist-loving Mayor, one who is surely all atwitter over taxpayer’s funding jihadi terror! In fact, the PLO/PA/Fatah are “pets” of Comrade Bill DeBlasio.
The fact of the matter is that the New York Council of Arts (and related entities) is directly funding anti-semitism and jihadi glorification. Plain and simple.
There is some understandable outrage about the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to stage The Death of Klinghoffer.
Some rightly fear that between this and the American Studies Association resolution, European style anti-Semitism thinly disguised as anti-Zionism is being pipelined into the United States.
As alluded to above, the opera is based on the 1985 murder of a helpless 69-year-old American Jewish man, Leon Klinghoffer, confined to a wheelchair—shot in the head while vacationing with his wife on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. He was murdered by Palestinian Arab hijackers belonging to the Palestine Liberation Front, a component of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, and his body dumped into the water…
The opera opens with these words sung by the Chorus of Exiled Palestinians: “My father’s house was razed—In nineteen forty-eight—When the Israelis passed—Over our street.”
We are outraged at the exploitation of our parents and the coldblooded murder of our father as the centrepiece of a production that appears to us to be anti-Semitic…
Even the New York Times ran an essay after September 11 indicting the theatrical production for its bigotry.
The Death of Klinghoffer is a production that only a Goebbels could love.
And what’s striking is how much it stands out in the Met’s season. The tawdry piece of pomo bigotry is sandwiched between the work of Verdi, Mozart, Offenbach, Bizet, Rossini, Puccini and Wagner. It’s completely out of place and out of time.
The Metropolitan Opera has been having serious financial problems. Its programs regularly mention support from public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. Its website mentions help from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Arts website shows six figure funding going to the Metropolitan Opera every year under General Opera Support. There are also other grants. That means that when a terrorist screams about the Jews on stage, he’ll be doing it with funding from New York taxpayers.
Maybe it’s time to put a stop to that.
If the Met wants to promote the murder of 9 percent of the population of New York City, New Yorkers shouldn’t have to pay for it.
That means eliminating all city and state funding for the Metropolitan Opera. The most obvious place to start is by killing the annual six-figure New York State Council on the Arts giveaway.
It’s something that a New York State Senator or Assemblyman can do.
At the Federal level, the Met receives funding from a variety of agencies, including $1 million from the State Department and from the usual suspects such as the Department of Education.
But it is not as if funding “Palestinian” “art” is anything new. Not at all. Most disturbingly, academia is in the forefront of glorifying anti-Semitic, pro-terror diatribes and student funds are (ab)used for the heinous deed!
Consider the case of MIT‘s Associate Provost for the Arts Alan Brody, as he subjected young college students to his thinly masked political agenda. But never mind, some weren’t fooled, including a nearest and dearest.
MIT’s oldest and largest
newspaper & the first
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Jihadis training in America…again and again. In plain sight! Muslims of the Americas!
WHILE jihadi compounds in America certainly didn’t start under the (mis)reign of Barack HUSSEIN Obama, the fact of the matter is that they have been given a tailwind under his “watchful” gaze. How so? Well, if elevating Islamic interests in America, in tandem with pumping them up throughout the Islamic world doesn’t constitute a tailwind it is hard to imagine what does.
Yet, despite the above knowledge base of Obama’s proclivities towards Islamic “entities”, and before we get to the latest, a recap re jihadi compounds in America and Canada (other western nations too) seems in order.
The terror group goes by the name of the Muslims of the Americas/Jamaat ul-Fuqra (MOA). They made the mistake of suing two of their critics, Martin Mawyer and Patti Peirucci, for statements made in their book about the MOA titled, “Twilight in America.”
Although the judge dismissed the lawsuit as baseless last week, some interesting information came out depositions conducted as part of the proceedings.
The depositions revealed that MOA has a previously unknown property outside of Anchorage, Alaska. They also confirmed the existence of an additional New York property, as well as California and Michigan locations.
The Deputy Director of MOA, Hussein Adams, is the son of terrorist Barry Adams. During questioning he was unable to provide evidence which would indicate a lack of reasonable basis for the defendants’ claims.
While MOA officials denied assertions that they are a terrorist organization, they refused to provide basic information regarding the group and their activities. They contended that the group kept no records, with director Adams asserting that he did not know the names of those on the town council at their flagship location, Islamberg. The identity of the person entrusted to issue checks to pay the organization’s bills was also unknown, according to director Adams.
MOA is the umbrella organization operating 22 “Islamic villages” nationwide, including “Mahmoudberg” in Sweeny, Texas.
Other “communes” dotted around the U.S. and Canada include not only the Islamberg facility in Hancock, NY but also Holy Islamville in York County, South Carolina; Islamville in Dover, Tennessee; Hasanville in Barry’s Bay, Ontario, Canada; Madinah Village near Commerce, Georgia; Aliville in Odum, Georgia; Ahmadabad West in Red House, Virginia and one with an unknown name in Meherrin, Virginia.
Less precise information was offered regarding the location near Anchorage, AK, as well as “Mariaville” which is supposedly “just down the street” from Islamberg, a Deposit, NY location, an Oak Hill, CA camp as well as Coldwater, MI.
Adams declared that only three of the locations, Islamberg, Mariaville and Holy Islamville were official MOA properties, with another nine described as unofficial. When questioned on the disparity between the twelve he identified in his deposition and a propaganda DVD which states there are 22 villages, Adams replied, “Well, maybe there were other locations included.”
The plaintiffs maintained throughout their testimony that the group does not engage in jihad training and dismissed as insignificant the content of two MOA videos. Both show ongoing training, one is a recruitment effort and the other shows women in training.
Adams insisted he “was not aware” of any training like that depicted on the tapes since his arrival at Islamberg in 2000. He claimed there were no weapons stored in Islamberg, other than the personal firearms of commune members. Adams acknowledged that individuals had their “personal” firearms.
Another plaintiff, Abdul-Haqq admitted to seeing parts of the [Clarion] tape but said the he had never seen “any actual training like that.” He did say, “I know that they were doing things. They were going out there and marching and carrying on with some wooden sticks. Yeah, I know about that.”
Khadijah Smith, the third member of the terror group to be deposed described their training as self defense, saying, “Self—we have self-defense classes, yes.” When the interviewer said it had the appearance of military-style training, Smith answered, “That’s in reference—that’s basically personal opinion, but I know that I’ve actually taken self-defense classes, as well as all the other ladies did.”
Smith admitted being briefly trained on firearms at the “Islamberg” camp, but insisted “I don’t know a whole lot about guns. I know how to shoot a rifle, not even a handgun.”
In a 2007 FBI report, the agency stated that MOA “possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.” and “extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government.”
IT may seem, at first blush, incongruous to state Newton’s Third Law of Motion within this commentary, but the fact of the matter is that it is highly germane.
Admittedly, this physics reference is coming from someone who freely attests to having only a basic foundation in the sciences, preferring to leave the higher sciences to some nearest and dearest. Nevertheless, most have come across (or should have) the aforementioned basic laws in their studies. The point being, if one takes this “equal and opposite reaction” to its rightful geo-political conclusion, one can’t help but note that there will be a reckoning, and it will not be to Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s liking, nor to his fellow travelers.
Extrapolating further, within all this blog’s success – and it has been considerable, having been in operation just shy of a second anniversary – a recent commentary generated tens of thousands of hits. Not only that, but the re-blogs have topped all expectations.
Simply put, due to the fact that westerners are feeling TOTALLY betrayed by their leaders, gaining an understanding that these same leaders are (for the most part) siding with Islamic thrusts, the opposite reaction they are used to receiving – within western nations – from a (mostly) compliant, obedient citizenry, is falling by the wayside. Use your imaginations…your (basic) science acumen to figure out the rest of the “equation”.