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Shin Bet to defend banning 6 Palestinian NGOs in Washington
A senior diplomatic-security source said the case against the organizations – Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), Union Of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC) – is “cast in concrete,” and provided The Jerusalem Post with parts of the intelligence the Shin Bet representative plans to show Washington, which the source argued show an “unambiguous and direct” connection between the NGOs in question and the PFLP.
Israel is aware of the significance of banning civil society groups, the source said, but the PFLP had adopted a modus operandi of using such groups to launder funding for terror activities.
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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.”
Jewish diaspora organizations expressed concern for Israel and increased their own security preparedness as Iran launched drones against Israel on Saturday night.
The Jewish Federation said it was comforted by IDF statements that the situation was under control and by the statements of support by the United States of America, but was watching “Iran’s launch of an attack on Israel with extreme concern.”
“We are monitoring the situation very closely and join in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Israel.”
Preparing for attacks in the diaspora
The Conference of European Rabbis said that Jewish communities in Europe were raising their level of preparedness, given the history of Iranian proxies attacking Jewish targets on the continent.
“We are closely monitoring the Iranian attack on Israel and its implications for the security of Jews in the diaspora,” said conference president Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt. ‘We are in contact with all the leaders of the Jewish communities and security officials across the continent. I call on all Jews across Europe to remain vigilant in community institutions and to act responsibly in the public sphere.”
The IDF said on Saturday night that dozens of Jews and Palestinians had been injured in altercations in the West Bank following the terrorist murder of 14-year-old shepherd, Binyamin Achimair.
Though he was murdered on Friday, his death was only confirmed Saturday afternoon, with the subsequent violence between Jewish extremists and Palestinians being declared the largest battles in the area not involving IDF forces since February 2023.
In February 2023, dozens or more of extremist Jews burned large swaths of Palestinian property in Huwara in the West Bank, injured a number of Palestinians, and killed at least one Palestinian.
The IDF said it had significantly beefed up its forces in the area to try to maintain order, but it appeared to be on a significant delay from after multiple rounds of attempts by Jewish extremists to take revenge on nearby Palestinians villages, though these extremists did not have any specific information about who might have committed the murder.After February 2023, the IDF apologized for failing to react fast enough to protect Palestinians and had said it would preemptively beef up to be ready for future potential reactions by Jewish extremists to the killing of Jews in the West Bank by Palestinians.
One area attacked by Jewish extremists on Saturday was the Duma village, south of Nablus.
A mix of Israeli, Arab, and US media reported that Jewish extremists also attacked over Friday and Saturday al-Mughayyir, Deir Dibwan, and Beitin, east of Ramallah and the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah.
Violence from both sides
There were also reports of Palestinian counterattacks.
It was unclear which reports involved live fire, which lower grade rock-throwing style violence and how much violence was committed by each side.
Reports did say that dozens of Palestinians’ cars or structures were set on fire by extremist Jews, with some reports of Palestinian deaths.
By Shin Bet statistics, most extremist Jews, though not all, involved in violence come from a specific list of West Bank settlements or outposts.
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