The United Nations General Assembly is getting ready to welcome foreign leaders this month. In advance of the New York gathering, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President(-for Life) Mahmoud Abbas yesterday.
Blinken’s call to Netanyahu revolved around four principle elements: working together on “bilateral partnerships”; commitment to Israel’s security including dealing with Iran; integration into the region; and advancing a productive future with Palestinians. The call to Abbas focused on: “ongoing violence” in the region; quality of life for Palestinians; and a commitment for a “two-state solution.”
To Israel, Blinken mentioned a peaceful coexistence with Palestinians but he didn’t even mention the word “Israel” to the PA leader as he focused only Palestinians’ desire for a good quality of life. In addressing the Israeli leader, Blinken mentioned America’s commitment to Israel’s security but to the Palestinians, the Secretary of State simply mentioned concern about the violence without addressing who was committing and instigating the attacks and the U.S.’s determination to stand opposed to terror.
“President Mahmoud Abbas stressed, during the call, that what the Israeli occupation authorities and their forces and settlers who practice terrorism are doing contributes to undermining the two-state solution and destroys all chances of achieving peace, calling on the US administration to accept the State of Palestine’s endeavor to obtain full membership in the UN by a Security Council decision, and to end all sanctions imposed on the Palestinians due to US laws, and build normal relations between the US administration and the State of Palestine, including reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem and an office for Palestine in Washington, and restoring the direct aid program.
“On the other hand, President Abbas stressed the need to oblige the Israeli occupation authorities to stop all their aggressive practices and unilateral Israeli actions, adhere to the signed agreements, and focus on the political horizon.
“President Abbas stressed that the State of Palestine will continue its efforts at the UN level in order to obtain full membership in the UN, and implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, by ending the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine, with its capital, East Jerusalem, on the 1967 borders.”
While Abbas ranted about Israeli “terrorism’, Blinken seemingly opted to not mention the U.S.’s commitment to Israel’s security, and didn’t even mention “Israel” on the official call notes. Abbas told Blinken that he wanted Palestine to have full UN membership and the opening of political offices for the PA in the U.S., and Blinken avoided the topic and focused on Palestinians rather than the PA.
It is safe to assume that the United Nations General Assembly will continue to be a spectacle of disappointment as a parade of dictators and anti-Semites are given a global platform. Any real peace may be achieved in bilateral meetings held in restaurants and apartments away from the microphones.
The failure to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict is because the local Arabs refuse to accept the presence of Jews and believe that the Jewish State will eventually disappear. With such orientation, there is virtually no Palestinian interest in peace talks, and popular support is around “resistance” by “any means necessary” to rid the land of Jews.
Meaning, to kill them, or enough of them to make the rest scared enough to leave.
For those interested in resolving the conflict, Palestinian society must be instilled with basic truths:
Jews are indigenous to the holy land
Two Jewish Temples stood in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount
The land of Israel is, and always has been, central to Judaism
Jews are not going to leave; this is their homeland
These truths do not negate (or should not) negate a Palestinian narrative that they are also native to the land and have lived there for generations. However, it replaces the extremist vitriol prevalent among Palestinian leadership, radical imams, college professors (like Columbia University’s Joseph Massad) and the B.D.S. movement which are built on the foundation of antisemitism in advancing anti-Zionism.
In addition to reiterating these facts, governments and the United Nations need to take clear steps to advance peace:
Unequivocally support the Jewish State in fighting terror
Unequivocally condemn the recruiting, training, arming and using children as terrorists
Clearly label Hamas as not only an Islamic militant group but a designated terrorist group, no different than the Taliban, ISIL and Boko Haram
Palestine will be unwelcome to speak at the United Nations unless it ceases funding and inciting terrorist activities
Support Jews peacefully accessing and praying at their holiest site on the Temple Mount, a fundamental human right (reject the “status quo”)
Repeal UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which made it illegal for Jews – and only Jews – to live throughout their homeland
As long as the UN continues to waffle – and contradict – these moral points, Palestinians will continue to reject coexistence and pursue terrorism against Jews. The local Arabs believe that Hamas’s terrorism got Israel to leave Gaza in 2005, and the next generation of terrorists will ultimately chase Jews from their promised land.
The world is exacerbating Palestinian terrorism and destroying any path towards peace because it fails to address the root cause of the conflict which is Palestinians’ refusal to coexist with Jews. The flawed traditional bias of pressuring the more powerful party (Israel) and absolving the weaker (Palestinian Arabs) is exactly the opposite of what is required to form an enduring peace in the Middle East.
US Ambassador to the United Nations lambasts “settlement activity.”
What happened: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations replied to remarks made by Tor Wennesland, UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, at the UN Security Council on August 21, 2023. After condemning all acts of violence, whether committed by “Palestinian militants, or extremist Israeli settlers”, she added:
“we urge all parties to take proactive measures to counter all forms of violence and incitement to violence, and refrain from actions that inflame tensions including settlement activity, evictions, the demolition of Palestinian homes, terrorism, incitement of violence, and payments to the families of terrorists.”
The Message: The United States has taken the position that Jews living east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49) (commonly called “settlers”) is so upsetting to Arabs that it is on the same level as Palestinians killing Jewish civilians.
It suggests that the US position is that Israeli “actions that inflame tensions,” which could be normal non-violent activity such as Jews visiting the Jewish Temple Mount during normal visiting hours, is equivalent to Palestinians inciting violence and the Arab government paying for the murder.
Scene after Palestinian Arab killed Israeli father and son at a car wash in the West Bank, August 2023
The Danger: There is no moral equivalence between terrorism and… anything. By equating the payment, incitement and actual murder of people with anything, is a tacit blessing to engage in every kind of preventative activity – including violence – to stop such actions from taking place. In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it greenlights Palestinian jihadists to attack Jews sleeping in their beds, visiting a car wash or praying in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Email UN Mission to UN: “There is no equivalence between Arab terror and Jews upsetting Palestinians with their presence.”
The scourge of terrorism is still very much present around the world, especially in areas of concentration of Islamist militants.
In Pakistan, rivals have been blowing up crowds at rallies and in mosques. On July 30, at least 63 people were killed and over 130 injured when a suicide bomber set off explosives at a political rally in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, known for its links to hardline political Islam, in the former tribal area of Bajaur, which borders Afghanistan. ISIS claimed responsibility. Reuters added that “Pakistan has seen a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) [also known as the Pakistani Taliban] and Islamabad broke down. A mosque bombing in Peshawar killed over 100 people earlier this year.”
Relatives and mourners gather around the caskets of victims who were killed in Sunday’s suicide bomber attack in the Bajur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Monday, July 31, 2023. (photo: Mohammad Sajjad/AP)
The United Nations Security Council quickly condemned the “heinous and cowardly suicide terrorist attack” and “expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Pakistan, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.” It continued:
“The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
“The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. They urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Pakistan, as well as all other relevant authorities in this regard.
“The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed. They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.”
These three paragraphs sound weighty but are pre-packaged, off-the-shelf statements used repeatedly. The UNSC used it in January 2023 in Pakistan and aired the same in December 2022, September 2022 and March 2018 in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria, respectively.
But not for Israel. When Israel is confronted with Islamist militants slaughtering innocent civilians, the UNSC cannot recall how to “copy-paste.”
In January 2023, the UNSC condemned the slaughter of seven Jews at a synagogue during a session discussing the region but issued no canned statement. The UN Secretary General issued a terse statement which did not suggest that Israel “hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors… to justice.” Instead, he expressed the opposite desire because he “is deeply worried about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. This is the moment to exercise utmost restraint.“
This is an old, despicable story, in which the UN urges the world to fight terrorism while demanding Israel accept terrorism as a penance for existing.
On June 27, 2023, Tor Wennesland, the United Nations Special Coordinator For Middle East Peace (actually the Coordinator for Palestinian Appeals), addressed the United Nations Security Council. He gave a long list of Israeli actions against Palestinians while giving barely any details of SAP (Stateless Arabs from Palestine) attacks against Israelis.
In one review of the back-and-forth violence, Wennesland recounted that on June 21 “armed Palestinians fired towards al-Jalamah checkpoint, north of Jenin. An Israeli drone subsequently launched a missile at their vehicle, killing three Palestinians, one a child. The IDF said that the three were responsible for a number of shooting attacks in the West Bank. Two were later claimed as members by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the third by Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.”
Wennesland clearly knew that Arabs were recruiting and arming children to engage in terrorist attacks but said absolutely nothing about this horrific activity during his entire report.
Both he and the UN know that this is a red line.
According to the Paris Principles on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, 2007, “A child associated with an armed force or armed group” refers to any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities.“
But the global farcical organization does not utter a word about Arab children committing terrorism as part of organized groups. Instead, Wennesland stated that “Children in particular must never be the target of violence, used or put in harm’s way,” condemning Israel for killing young terrorists, rather than the Arab groups who recruit child fighters.
The Arab American Institute’s James Zogby was given the floor at the UN as well and said “there is an extremist political culture in Israel today. Polling data shows that a majority of Israelis do not view Palestinians as equal human beings. And given the traumatic nightmare visited upon millions of Palestinians for the past 56 years, is it any wonder that a recent poll shows a majority of Palestinians rejecting moderate leadership and favoring armed struggle. This tragic deformity in Palestinian political culture is the result of the continued brutality of the occupation.”
The countries on the Security Council picked up on the twisted theme. Russia, Ghana, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and Malta all berated Israel for the death of Arab children, missing the critical element that the Arab children are fighting alongside adult terrorists. The Israeli representative called it out, “that cancerous [Palestinian] hatred, which has poisoned the minds of children and adults, is the root of the conflict and must be addressed and condemned by the Council.”
No one seemed to hear or care.
Has there ever been a more disgusting inversion of blaming the victim? The majority of SAPs favor killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel, not “armed struggle” against extremist Israelis. The SAPs recruit and arm children to murder as many Jews as possible.
And the United Nations not only ignores the horrible spectacle but gives an audience to people to whitewash the crimes.
The UN is tacitly supporting Palestinians recruiting children to kill Jews, and the US and world say nothing.
ACTION ITEM
The UN ignores and absolves Palestinian Arabs recruitment, training, and arming of children to kill Jewish Israelis. This must be condemned clearly and forcefully, as all bright lines have been erased in the global body’s onslaught against the Jewish State
“The United Nations continues to ignore and absolve Palestinian Arabs recruitment, training, and arming of children to kill Jewish Israelis. It must be condemned clearly and forcefully, as all bright lines have been erased in the global body’s onslaught against the Jewish State.“
Boat packed with as many as 750 fleeing migrants capsizes off Greece in June 2023
Since 2014, the United Nations International Organization of Migrants estimates that 56,912 migrants and refugees are dead or missing. This year is set to be perhaps the deadliest on record, as thousands of people flee their homes due to war or poverty.
The United Nations and media spend a scant moment mourning these poor souls. Men, women and children who reluctantly ran to far-away lands in pursuit of peace were quickly forgotten. No actions are taken to prevent the frequent tragedies.
The United Nations has other priorities:
For synthetic “refugees” over real refugees; and
For people who seek to murder over defenseless souls
The UN has dressed up Palestinian Arabs who have been living in the same land for generations, as a special class of “UNRWA Refugees”. It pardons their jihadi violence against Israeli Jews as a matter of routine and concocted resolutions.
The media closes its eyes and minds to the facts that Palestinian Arabs are not refugees who do not deserve a special UN agency accompanied by a promise of invading a UN member state. Politicians suspend belief that they favor a two state solution while simultaneously advocating that the Jewish State shouldn’t be Jewish and forced to take in millions of Arabs from a few miles away.
The UN held a week-long conference on counterterrorism in June, and subsequently informed Israel that only the rest of the world can combat the global scourge. Israel must accept jihadi violence as penance for its existence.
The UN Security Council is now scheduled to meet to invert reality in discussing Israel’s successful raid to eliminate terrorists in Jenin but will not convene to dismantle UNRWA camps in Gaza and the West Bank which serve as the incubators for Muslim extremists.
It is terribly sad that politicians, the United Nations and media do not attend to peaceful people in actual dire need. It is a horrific state of reality, that the world supports jihadi extremists living next to Israel in their quest to kill Jews and the only Jewish State.
Once again Israel is being forced to combat terrorists who have committed and plan to commit murderous attacks on civilians. Once more, the locus for the attacks is coming from United Nations’ “refugee” camps. Once again, the majority of the terrorists are Arabs whom the UN has told have rights to move into grandparents’ homes in Israel.
UNRWA Wards By The Numbers
For the year ending December 2021, according to UNRWA, there were 6,539,844 Palestinian wards who accept services from the agency, of which 5,807,653 (89%) were “refugees” and another 732,191 (11%) were other people whom the UN thought deserved particular support. Of the 6.5m, 863,708 (13.2%) are above age 60, suggesting perhaps only 2.6% of the total, or 175,000 are actual refugees from 1948 who lost homes a few miles away in Israel, after they launched a war to destroy the Jewish state.
The total number of UNRWA Refugees jumped by about 2.5% by year end 2022 to 6.7 million, while the number of actual refugees continues to decline. The total for West Bank wards was around 1.12 million (16.7%) and in Gaza it was 1.76 million (26.3%), which means that around 43% of all UNRWA wards already live in the area of 1948 Palestine, just a few miles from where ancestors had lived.
The majority of UNRWA wards live in Jordan, about 2.55 million (38% of the total wards), and have Jordanian citizenship. Jordan had been part of the original Palestine Mandate in 1922, and then attacked Israel in 1948 and illegally annexed the eastern portion of Israel which became known as the “West Bank” in 1950. After expelling all Jews from the region, Jordan granted all non-Jews in the area citizenship in 1954. Jordan abandoned its claim on the “West Bank” in 1988, and began pulling its citizenship from Arabs in the region.
The balance of UNRWA wards live in Lebanon (557,300) and Syria (674,500).
UNRWA offices in Jerusalem (photo: First One Through)
UNRWA Camps in the West Bank
Roughly 25% of UNRWA’s West Bank wards live in official UNRWA “camps”. There are 19 camps currently including:
The Jenin Camp was established in 1953 and houses about 23,000 people at the western end of Jenin in the northern West Bank. It encompasses about 0.42 km which yields a population density of roughly 33,333 per sq km. For comparison, Manhattan’s population density is about 28,000 per sq km.
UNRWA’s Jenin Terrorists
UNRWA’s camp in Jenin has long served as the launching point for terrorists as well as a safe haven for murderers.
2002 Massacre
On March 27, 2002, roughly 250 people sat down for a festive holiday seder meal for Passover in the Park Hotel in Netanya along the Mediterranean Sea. A 25-year old member of Hamas from the nearby West Bank city of Tulkarm walked into the hotel and blew himself up, killing 30 and injuring 140. Hamas praised the attack and said Israelis “have to expect those attacks from everywhere, from every Palestinian group.” The Palestinian Authority named a soccer tournament after the terrorist the next year.
In response to the attack, part of a wave of Palestinian terrorism that killed 135 Israeli civilians in that month, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield a few days later. From April 1-11, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered the Jenin Camp which was home base of many of the killers. Rather than bomb the area from the air which might have resulted in the injury of Arab civilians, the IDF deployed infantry into the narrow streets. Palestinian militants set boobytraps which killed and maimed over a dozens soldiers, so the IDF brought in armored bulldozers to clear them out. The militants surrendered on April 11 and the IDF cleared out of the area the following week, but not before losing 23 soldiers.
Center of Jenin Camp in April 2002, cleared of wanted militants, land mines and boobytraps
June and July, 2023 IDF Incursions for Jenin Camp Terrorists
The Jenin Camp has long been a stronghold of the political-terrorist group Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In September 2021, a new group called the Jenin Brigades was formed, soon accompanied by the Lion’s Den. The terrorists groups committed in excess of 50 attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, many attacks staged under the umbrella of UNRWA.
On June 19, the IDF came to arrest two UNRWA ward terrorists. As the Jenin Brigades open fire on the IDF, the Israelis responded with live fire. Eight Palestinian gunmen were killed, most of them confirmed terrorists. UNRWA confirmed that the majority were wards under its care.
As the IDF left the camp, the terrorists detonated a roadside bomb under an Israeli armored vehicle, wounding eight soldiers. Israel deployed a gunship helicopter to help rescue the soldiers from the hornet’s nest.
After yet additional terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, Israel launched another incursion into the camp on July 3rd. The 48 hour operation once again focused on a small section of the UNRWA camp, where the IDF removed Palestinian terrorists, weapons and weapon-making factories.
UNRWA Ward Terrorists
The high percentage of UNRWA wards who are terrorists goes to the heart of the conflict: it is not about “occupation” or lack of sovereignty, as these people are in Palestine and under Palestinian rule. These terrorists have been told by the United Nations that they are entitled to move into homes where grandparents used to live inside of Israel. They are frustrated by the failure to get their “right of return” which the global body has promised.
Entrance to UNRWA refugee camp as a keyhole with a key on top, demonstrating that the pathway to homes inside Israel is via UNRWA.
The United Nations has incubated a destructive cult mentality which is leading to terrorism and death. It is well past time to shut UNRWA, and the first camps to be shuttered are those under Palestinian rule, the launching pads in Gaza and the West Bank.
One of the sessions at the United Nations Conference on Counter-Terrorism in June 2023 was called “Building Effective and Resilient Member States’ Institutions in the Evolving Global Terrorism Landscape.” One of the speakers, Colin Smith from the United Kingdom, spoke (44:35) of the changing landscape of terrorism over the past twenty years and covered:
a focus on al Qaeda 20 years ago versus local terrorist groups today
a secretive counter-terrorism community vs. an open forum where countries share information and resources
immature counter-terrorism agencies vs. more sophisticated organizations
centers of terrorism vs. geographically diffuse operations now
Smith said “Since 2018, there’ve been nine successful terrorist attacks in the UK and one failed attack but none of them were directed from overseas. They were all self-initiated terrorists. So an individual or perhaps a small group getting together being radicalized by what they saw online or what they heard and turning to a terrorist attack in perhaps a very short of time, perhaps radicalizing in weeks, and not in months or years; perhaps days or weeks. Very low sophistication attacks using knives and cars. So since 2018, there have nine such attacks killing six people and injuring 23 in the UK but we’ve had no externally-directed attacks. In fact, the last time there was an externally successful attack in the UK was back in 2005.”
It begs the question as to the nature of home-grown terrorism in the UK since 2005.
Colin Smith of the United Kingdom talking at the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in June 2023
A quick review of some of the attacks:
On May 22, 2013, two Muslim men killed and hacked to death a British soldier stating that they did so “because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one…. By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.“
Quite a heavy toll between 2005 and 2018, and certainly more violent than only “using knives and cars.”
Smith’s UN comments were seemingly dismissive of the news when he said that the attackers were “radicalized by what they saw online or what they heard,” making it sound like the attackers were being fed disinformation and preyed upon. However, it was a well known and reported fact that the United Kingdom participated in fighting Al Qaeda and ISIL. The British Muslims who committed the terrorist attacks simply showed a greater love for co-religionists than for their fellow citizens whom they saw as co-conspirators killing Muslims.
Smith highlighted that the UK published a counter-terrorism document called CONTEST in 2018. Importantly for the UN conference, he spoke of the broad coordination happening amongst different agencies and the public sector to combat terrorism holistically, as called for in the report.
Yet he avoided discussing that between 2013 and the 2018 counterterrorism report, British police “foiled 25 Islamist plots since June 2013, and four extreme right wing terror plots in the past year alone…. The war in Syria, which was in its infancy when the last Strategy was published, has created both a haven and a training ground for British and foreign terrorists. UK citizens have been targeted in attacks overseas, for example in Sousse in 2015,” when 30 British tourists were killed in Tunisia.
The CONTEST publication was explicit about the serious threats facing the UK: “Daesh’s ability to direct, enable and inspire attacks still represents the most significant global terrorist threat, including to the UK and our people and interests overseas. Daesh’s methods are already being copied by new and established terror groups. Using pernicious, divisive messaging and amplifying perceived grievances, Daesh and Al Qa’ida exploit the internet to promote warped alternative narratives, urging extremists within our own communities to subvert our way of life through simple, brutal violence.”
In the setting of the United Nations panel, Smith avoided mentioning Islamic extremism, despite being the root cause of the British developing its comprehensive counterterrorism strategy. He alluded to disinformation, rather than point out that terrorists had grievances about actual facts. He did not discuss the end of British troops fighting in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan (or at least the media covering such events) as cause for the pause in jihadists killing British citizens in recent years.
Significantly, Smith also did not talk about the United Kingdom’s refusal to repatriate perhaps as many as 400 British citizens back to its shores after fighting alongside terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.
CONTEST was explicit, writing “Daesh’s initial state-building narrative persuaded thousands of people, including women and families, to travel to Syria from around the world, including from Europe and North Africa. This includes around 900 people of national security concern from the UK. Of these, approximately 20% have been killed while overseas, and around 40% have returned to the UK. The majority of those who have returned did so in the earlier stages of the conflict, and were investigated on their return. Only a very small number of travellers have returned in the last two years, and most of those have been women with young children.” That leaves 40% of the 900, or about 350 Britons still abroad as of 2018.
In regards to children still overseas, as of April 2023, as many as “60 British children are believed to be detained in al-Hol and Roj, two sprawling detention camps in northeast Syria primarily holding family members of Islamic State (ISIS) suspects” according to Human Rights Watch. Those children are among 37,000 foreign nationals held in the camps who are being refused re-entry into their home countries, many of whom have been stripped of their citizenship.
The UK published its goals of reintegrating returnees from the conflict in CONTEST, noting that its Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP) was “to reduce the risk from terrorism through rehabilitation and reintegration… will aim to more than double its current capacity to accommodate up to 230 individuals…. Through the DDP, we provide a range of intensive tailored interventions and practical support, designed to tackle the drivers of radicalisation around universal needs for identity, self-esteem, meaning and purpose; as well as to address personal grievances that the extremist narrative has exacerbated.” It was unclear whether addressing the terrorist’s grievances meant discussing why the UK fought ISIL or changing policy and having the UK abandon the fight.
Further, if there were still as many as 60 British children held in detention camps in Syria as of April 2023, it stands to reason that the UK has left almost all of the 350 adults in the camps as well, repatriating no one.
CONTEST also spoke of the government’s intention of pursuing would-be terrorists “including covert human intelligence sources, surveillance assets and the lawful intercept of communications. In addition to these capabilities, we also use a wide range of tools to constrain the ability of terrorists to act, for example working to proscribe organisations, freeze and seize their financial assets, and break up networks and associations in prison.” Even before the effort was launched, the report noted the government had contained “approximately 700 prisoners… who have been identified as engaged in terrorism or extremism, or about whom there are extremism concerns.”
Incarcerating would-be terrorists was also excluded from the panel discussion at the United Nations.
In summary, the UN forum was devoid of mentioning Islamic extremism, keeping terrorist in prisons at home and abroad, and blamed disinformation on the Internet for spawning attacks rather than actual grievances from a warped ideology.
It also did not mention acceding to terrorists’ demands which the United Kingdom may have already done, such as abandoning the fight on Islamic terror, whether ISIL, Taliban, al Shabab and Boko Haram, and resuscitating terrorist groups like Hamas.
The United Nations panelists on counter-terrorism did not speak openly, honestly or comprehensively about various approaches countries have implemented to tackle the global scourge and opted instead to parrot politically correct non-controversial narratives. Perhaps honest dialogues exist in private but the public spectacle of the UN is a ghostly version of reality.
The United Nations met this week to discuss counter-terrorism. One of the discussions focused on a left-wing term-of-art called “masculinities” and its need to be studied and addressed in the field of terrorism. Specifically, a 90-minute discussion called “Bridging the gap: Connecting research, policy and practice on masculinities to more effectively counter terrorism and prevent and counter violent extremism” urged the UN and members states to tackle the issue of “toxic masculinity” and how it is used to draw recruits to terrorism.
At 1:18:15 of the talk, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini of the International Civil Society Action Network spoke via Zoom. She described the work she did on behalf of the UN to explore the role that “toxic masculinity” played in terrorism in ten countries. It was an interesting question to ask a women who runs a women’s peace organization, as she focused her work on “what does it mean to be a man? Whether in Liberia, Nigeria, Palestine, Jamaica, Yemen, Syria, Iraq.”
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini
Anderlini contended that four themes emerged in each country as critical elements for male self-definition and worth, the 4 “Ps”: Provide, Protect, Prestige and Procreation. She argued that men living in societies where they failed in their “manly” roles to provide for the family monetarily, to protect them, to have a position of prestige or power, or to procreate and have progeny, were easy prey for radical actors. People like radical jihadis tap into the male aggrieved status and advance the idea that their religion is greater than all others and the pathway to power and prestige is to protect their families and communities via violence.
In regards to Palestinian Arabs, the fourth “p”, to “provide”, is addressed by the Palestinian Authority’s “martyr payments” in their infamous pay-to-slay program.
It’s a peculiar lens to examine the Palestinian Arab-Israeli Conflict, as not being about two people fighting a century-old civil war over a small stretch of land, but of emasculated Arabs being played by their leaders.
And by others.
Anderlini added that “the Islamists, the jihadi movements, that are around didn’t appear out of nowhere. They’ve been funded since the 1990s by UN member states like Saudi Arabia or Wahabi movements that come out of our member states…. These boys and these young men aren’t born violent. They are being exploited by and for powerful elites.”
If a key feature of Jihadi terrorism is emasculated Muslims being preyed upon by powerful leaders, then cutting off the funding and providing young Muslim men with better role models is seemingly a key pathway to stopping the systemic violence.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE “It is time to cut off funding to countries that fund violent extremism such as the Palestinian Authority, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. The Middle East is in terrible need of better role models to promote peace and coexistence.”
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
The United Nations is holding its 2023 Counter-Terrorism Week from June 19 to 23. It is an annual ritual held since 2001 which attempts to combat the violence plaguing many parts of the world.
Some countries like the United Kingdom spoke about terrorism being bred inside its borders, while others like those in Africa, noted that “the spill-over of terrorism from the Sahel to the northern regions of the West African coastal countries is no longer a risk; it is a reality.”
A few speakers spoke of “lone wolves” who become radicalized online in just days, as opposed to fifty years ago when it took months or years of planning by organized groups to commit an attack. Few commented that terrorism has become more institutionalized, capturing the attention and intoxicating academia.
The overall theme was that terrorism is not uniform but all of the countries fear its impact in the near and longer term.
So various nations came together to figure out how to prevent the scourge through the exchange of ideas, best practices and sharing of information. Topics ranged from stopping the flow of weapons and blocking financing for violent groups, to building forums for inclusivity and preventing poverty.
The UN said little about the appropriate penalties for terrorism. The global body relies on its “four pillars for combatting terrorism,” three of which are prophylactic and the fourth, a wrapper of respecting human rights.
It is a monstrous hole in its strategy, atop failed prescriptions, such as the notion that fighting poverty prevents terrorism which has been disproven in multiple studies.
It leaves the agency as unsullied, with an easy perch to admonish those who live in terrorism’s trenches of park benches.
Israel has faced Palestinian Arab terrorism since modern Zionism took root in the Jewish holy land in the 1920s. Instigated and rewarded by its leaders to this day, Palestinian individuals shoot, stab and run over innocent Israeli Jews because they object to the basic presence of these non-Arabs.
Israel takes a number of preventative measures to stop the terrorism, some within the UN playbook and others outside. It tries to stop the flow of weapons and financing to terrorist groups, while it also facilitates the flow of people and goods to help the local Palestinian economy.
However, that is not enough to stem the daily barrage. Israel actively monitors terrorists and launches raids to arrest them before the attacks. It punishes the terrorist by destroying their home, an action the United Nations condemns as “collective punishment” for the terrorist’s family.
Lost in the rebuke is acknowledging that terrorism is inherently a collective attack on a community, not just the parties personally injured. A proportionate response to terrorism must, therefore, include accounting for those who aided and abetted the crime.
First One Through 