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On This Day: Israeli minister Rehavam Ze’evi assassinated by terrorists
He had merged his party with other right-wing parties Tkuma and Herut in 199 to form National Union – today led by Bezalel Smotrich as part of the Religious Zionist Party – and joined the government of prime minister Ariel Sharon as tourism minister. However, he had actually resigned just days before his death, but it had not yet taken effect.
However, the PFLP had been tracking Ze’evi’s movements and monitoring his routine, preparing the attack in advance.
At 6:00 a.m. that morning, one of the assassins, Hamid Quran, scoped out the hotel dining room in advance as knowing Ze’evi’s schedule, he’d be there soon – and indeed, Ze’evi and his wife arrived just 20 minutes later.
The assassins began to move, securing their guns and getting into position near the minister’s room. Shortly after 6:50 a.m., Ze’evi began heading back to his room, his wife and driver following him minutes later.
He would pass by the assailants, including Quran, who shot him three times.
The killers quickly fled to Palestinian territory in the West Bank while Ze’evi was found by his wife and driver and evacuated to Hadassah-University Medical Center. He died three hours later.
The killing was reportedly meant as a retaliation for the IDF killing of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa that August.
The coffin of slain Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi arrives at Mt. Herzel military cemetery in Jerusalem October 18, 2001. (credit: REUTERS/Natalie Behring NB/CRB)
A funeral was promptly held for Ze’evi and sparked an immediate backlash in Israel, who began calling to arrest the killers.
During Operation Defensive Shield the following year, the killers were discovered to be holding up in Yasser Arafat’s compound Mukataa in Ramallah. Eventually due to an internationally mediated agreement, the killers were moved to a Palestinian prison in Jericho. However, in 2006, Israeli forces captured Quran and several other alleged members of the PFLP cell in Operation Bringing Home the Goods, due to what was alleged to be a violation of this agreement on the part of the Palestinian Authority.
“Murdering a minister differs from murdering an ordinary citizen by the fact that it constitutes direct harm to a symbol of the State and harms its sovereignty,” the three-judge panel wrote in their sentencing.
“Not only has the defendant shown no remorse for his actions, but he has declared before the court that he would not hesitate to repeat them.”
Also sentenced was PFLP secretary-general Ahmad Sa’adat, who had been captured along with Quran in the operation. He received 30 years for leading the PFLP and his role in the assassination.
Ze’evi’s death was the first assassination of an Israeli minister by Palestinian terrorists and was the first assassination of an Israeli government official since the death of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993.
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.
Passing the national security supplemental bills would send a powerful message about the strength of American leadership at a pivotal moment, the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement released Friday morning as the House continues debates on rules for proceeding with the bills.
The supplemental funding package provides long overdue funding to support Ukraine as it continues defending itself against Russia’s brutal war of aggression. Ukraine must prevail, the White House said.
This supplemental funding also helps Israel protect its people against Hamas and Iran and its other proxies, including Hezbollah.
The White House’s statement
“It is critical that we quickly help Israel replenish its air defenses following Iran’s recent brazen and unprecedented attack and ensure Israel maintains its military edge against Iran or any other adversary,” according to the statement.
The funding would also provide urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and vulnerable people suffering around the world, the statement said, as well as critical support to Indo-Pacific partners.
“The world is watching what the Congress does,” the White House said. “The Administration urges both chambers of the Congress to quickly send this supplemental funding package to the President’s desk.”
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American money ear-marked for PA security used to pay families of terrorists from Jenin – report
The Palestinian Authority’s General Security Service (GIS) has apparently admitted to using American money earmarked for security to pay the family of terrorists from Jenin, according to a Palestinian Media Watch report.
According to the report, on April 4, 2024, PA news agency WAFA published that the GIS in Jenin had given a grant to “the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners from the service’s ranks in the district.”
The GIS gave grants to around 36 families from among the “martyrs and prisoners.”
The vast majority of those identified as “martyrs” or “prisoners” were members of the GIS who had committed acts of terror, according to the PMW.The grant was given at the direction of PA General Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj, who emphasized a core principle of Mahmoud Abbas: “If we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners.”
Taylor Force Act
The US had all but ceased providing funds for the PA after the implementation of the 2017 Taylor Force Act, which blocked all funding for the PA general budget.
The act was named for Taylor Force, an American citizen killed in a terror attack in 2016, where the attacker’s family received money from the PA’s pay-for-slay program.
The exception to this was the funding of the PA’s security sector, which received around $45 million in 2022, according to the State Department’s website.
The PMW says that this money was then used to not only provide funds for terrorists and their families but also to train PA security forces, many of whom end up involved in terrorism, according to PA statements in 2023.
The PMW charge that US funds are now being used to directly fund and train terrorists in the West Bank.
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Blinken tells Jewish leaders in the US does not want Israel to ‘escalate’ after Iran attack
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration does not want tensions between Iran and Israel to “escalate” after Iran’s massive attack on Israel over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told American Jewish leaders.
Blinken called the meeting at the State Department on Tuesday morning as Israel contemplates how and when to retaliate against Iran. Blinken underscored how eager the Biden Administration is for the Israel-Hamas war not to spread across the region.
“We understand and appreciate why the Israelis feel like they must respond,” Blinken said according to the notes of one participant, confirmed by three others. “In our estimation, it is not in Israel’s interests or in America’s interest for this to escalate. However, that is a decision for Israel to make. We would never tell Israel what to do — we just give the best advice we can.”
That message came after reports that President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would not participate in or support an Israeli attack on Iran. The United States did help defend Israel from the Iranian attack, shooting down missiles and drones fired by Iran. It was part of a coalition of countries that came to Israel’s defense, including the United Kingdom, France and Jordan.Tuesday’s meeting was off the record, but a number of participants agreed to describe it on condition they not be identified. Groups represented included the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, J Street, the Reform movement, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Federations of North America, the Israel Policy Forum, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the American Jewish Committee, the Conservative movement, Hadassah and the Anti-Defamation League.
Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s envoy to combat antisemitism, moderated the gathering. The State Department did not return a request for comment.
Unconditional support for the Jewish state
There was some pushback from the centrist and right-wing Jewish officials present, who called on the United States to support whatever decision Israel makes. “If and when and how Israel responds, we said it’s very important for that to be backed up by the United States, so that Iran and others see that the coalition [that repelled Iran’s attack] will stay together and remain a deterrent to Iran,” one of the participants said.
Overall, the Jewish leaders evinced gratitude, with the word “miracle” used multiple times to describe the relief that Israel and its allies downed most of the missiles and that no one was killed by the attack. There was relief, too, the US-Israel tensions over the Gaza war, intensifying in recent weeks, appeared to dissipate for the time being. “The alllyship solidified this weekend,” a participant said.
The centrist and center-right officials also decried the tensions between Israel and the United States prior to the Iran attack over Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas. They said that divisions between Israel and the United States should remain private, and that creating public “daylight” between the countries encourages their enemies and spurs antisemitism.
Blinken said he too preferred to keep disagreements private, and noted that most leaks regarding US-Israel disagreements come from the Israeli side. No one in the room argued with that.
Others in the room, representing the more liberal groups, were sympathetic to the Biden administration’s pressing Israel to facilitate the entry of more aid into the Gaza Strip, which is experiencing a humanitarian crisis.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby, praised the Biden Administration for sanctioning Jewish extremists the Biden Administration says are terrorizing West Bank Palestinians.
The atmosphere was warm despite the pushback on Israel’s potential retaliation against Iran, all participants said; the hour-long meeting opened and closed with the Jewish groups lavishing praise on the Biden Administration for rapidly coming to Israel’s assistance to repel the attacks.
“While there might be specific policy disagreements, everyone there was also coming from the same fundamental place, having the same fundamental values and the same fundamental concern for the safety of the Jewish people and the safety of the Israeli people,” Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the JCPA, a liberal-leaning public policy group, said in an interview.
Spitalnick thanked Blinken for the work the Biden Administration was undertaking to identify foreign-sourced misinformation in an election year, noting how the toxicity in the misinformation often morphs into bigotry and antisemitism, which spreads.
“We see how post-Oct. 7, antisemites of all stripes are being empowered and emboldened and amplified by a number of these foreign bot farms and disinformation campaigns,” she said. “And it’s having very real impacts on Jewish safety.”
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