Middle East Madness > Lebanese recognizing the evil done by Hezbollah, but Gazans still blind; Palestinian Authority criticizes Hamas's cowardly methods

 

In Lebanon, Voices Are Now Raised Against Hezbollah

Jan 23, 2025 4:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

The rapid and nearly bloodless overthrow of Assad in Syria has turned that country from being a firm ally of Hezbollah and Iran into an implacable enemy of both. And inside Lebanon, Hezbollah has been so battered by the IDF that it had to beg for a ceasefire that requires it to withdraw its forces in southern Lebanon north of the Litani River. Now Lebanese of all stripes have been openly denouncing Hezbollah for the ruin it has brought to so much of Lebanon.

Let us consider what has been happening on the Lebanon-Syria border, where the two countries have been trading barbs and bullets amid mutual exclusions. 

Syria in diplomatic spat with Lebanon, but everyone agrees that Hezbollah is the problem – and for the first time, the Lebanese are saying this out loud

Elder of Ziyon, January 6, 2025:

Since Thursday night, Lebanese citizens are almost all banned from entering Syria.

No one knows exactly why, and analysts are making guesses.

France 24 reports that the reason seems to be that there had been an earlier skirmish between Syrians and Lebanese troops at the border:

The Lebanese army said in a statement on X that its soldiers and Syrians had clashed at the border as the armed forces tried to “close an illegal crossing”.

“Syrians attempted to open the crossing using a bulldozer, so army personnel fired warning shots into the air. The Syrians opened fire on army personnel, injuring one of them and provoking a clash”.

“Army units deployed in the sector have taken strict military measures,” the statement added.

Kataeb reports that this was a quid pro quo on severe Lebanese restrictions on Syrians entering their country:

Sources suggest that Syria’s decision was in response to similar Lebanese restrictions on Syrians entering Lebanon. Lebanese authorities currently require Syrians to meet strict entry conditions, including holding valid Lebanese residency permits.

L’Orient Today believes it might be because of fears of Hezbollah trying to re-establish itself.

One explanation offered by Syrian experts is security concerns. “The authorities are afraid of fighters infiltrating Syria from Lebanon, whether from Hezbollah or jihadist groups. This measure has come at a time when the new authorities suspect that some of them are entering Syria,” Rami Abdel Rahman, Executive Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), told us.

Syria wants to prevent Lebanese from entering the county because it fears that those Lebanese will be Hezbollah members who want to infiltrate Syria and to join forces with Alawites and others who still support Assad, and would like to keep their hold on some parts of Syria, such as Latakia, where the Alawites still hold sway.

At the same time, the Lebanese government doesn’t want Syrians entering the country for the same reason. The Lebanese fear that Hezbollah members and sympathizers may want to flee the new regime in Syria and join forces with Hezbollah inside its home base in Lebanon.

This fear is all the more justified after Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Dec. 16 that “the axis of resistance will return to Syria in less than a year,” adding, “The occupied territories in Syria will be liberated by the valiant Syrian youth; have no doubt that this will happen.”…

This may be an empty boast by the Supreme Leader, but it worries the new regime in Syria just the same. The Syrians want to make sure that no Hezbollah fighters arrive from Lebanon to swell the ranks of those who still support the ancien régime in Syria.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah is claiming that they have completely rebuilt their military. Spokesperson Wafiq Safa said, “Our capabilities are fully restored, and we are prepared to face any attack. Hezbollah is now stronger, tougher than steel, and more powerful than ever before” in a statement where he said Hezbollah would veto presidential candidate Samir Geagea.

The Hezbollah spokesman Wafiq Safa is full of braggadoccio, nonsense, and lies. His group is not “stronger, tougher than steel, and more powerful than ever before.” The IDF has killed nearly 5,000 of its operatives, severely wounded thousands more with the “exploding pagers,” and eliminated all of its leaders, including its head Hassan Nasrallah, his successor Hashem Safieddine, the commander and deputy commander of the elite Radwan Forces, and ten of the twelve members of the Jihad Council. The IDF has also destroyed more than 80% of Hezbollah’s prewar arsenal of rockets, missiles, and mortars. It has been so battered by the IDF that it had to plead for a ceasefire, one that requires it to withdraw its forces entirely from southern Lebanon

Hezbollah has lost more than 80% of its arsenal of missiles and rockets, thousands of its fighters have been killed and many thousands more wounded. It has been stripped of its Syrian conduit for Iranian weapons. Militarily it has never been weaker. The fear that the group once installed in Lebanese has clearly dissipated, and its critics have been speaking out as they would not have dared to do even a month ago, before Assad fell. Every charge is being made against the group: “you threatened us, killed us,” “you took refuge in our homes, hiding in our homes and beds,” you “cost us our children, families, hopes, and dreams.” The rebellion against Hezbollah by the Lebanese themselves has now begun in earnest, and it is hard to see how the group will be able to hold on, given that it has been stripped of most of its weapons, deprived of its Syrian ally, and facing a powerful Israel that is ready at any moment, should Hezbollah violate its pledge to leave southern Lebanon, to batter it anew.

It's a good sign that the Lebanese are recognizing the horrific damage Hezbollah has done to that beautiful country. What is inexplicable is why Gazans have not realized the great evil that Hamas has committed upon them. Perhaps it means that all Gazans are radicalized Muslims. Their vociferous hatred of Jews would support that idea. Or, maybe it is 20 years of brainwashing by Hamas that is responsible.

Palestinian Authority says Hamas disguised as civilians caused civilian deaths and destruction of Gaza

Jan 25, 2025 5:00 pm By Robert Spencer

No one will pay any attention. They’re far too invested in demonizing Israel.

Palestinian Authority: Hamas disguised as civilians caused civilian deaths and destruction of Gaza

by Ephraim D. Tepler and Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, January 23, 2025:

The Palestinian Authority’s official daily admitted that Hamas terrorists disguised themselves as civilians and used civilian homes to launch attacks, thus deliberately increasing casualties in Gaza. Moreover, the PA called Hamas insolent for only putting on uniforms during the ceasefire in order to take credit.

Headline: “Shame branches out from faith”

“When three female Israeli hostages were released, Hamas members recently appeared armed and masked in their army uniforms, and in a completely flashy manner! Over the last 15 months of the war, we have not seen any of these activists in these uniforms. They were dressed in civilian shirts and pants, wore sandals (!!) [parentheses in source], and some were in pajamas. From among people’s homes – as Al-Jazeera TV presented them – they fired their [RPG] rockets at the occupation army’s vehicles, and retreated behind these homes. This matter, in addition to the racist and violent Israeli response to these rockets, is what contributed to increasing the losses among civilian residents of the slaughtered Gaza Strip…

When shame ends, only insolence remains. For 15 months of harsh war, Hamas did not dare to show even one of its operatives in military uniforms (!!) [parentheses in source], but when the ceasefire agreement stipulated that the cannons be silenced, Hamas brought out its operatives in military uniforms – not only for display purposes, but also to fabricate a victory narrative!”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 22, 2025]…

Islam - Current Day > PA Terrorist rewards cost public servants - teachers strike; EU's Doors not quite so wide open now; Pastor gets beaten up by Muslims for winning debate

..

Palestinian Authorities' priorities should have them arrested by the world court. Are Palestinians waking up to the madness, or will they blame it all on Israel?

Should the PA pay monthly salaries to teachers or terrorists?

by Maurice Hirsch, Palestinian Media Watch, 

March 15, 2023:

The teachers in the Palestinian Authority are striking because the PA is not paying their full wages and has reneged on promises it made to them in 2022. As a result, according to different reports, over a million Palestinian children have not had school since the strike started on 5th of February, 2023.

Instead of paying the salaries of the teachers, the PA prioritizes to pay hundreds of millions of shekels to terrorists. As Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says, time after time: “Even if I’m left with one penny, I’ll pay it to the families of the Martyrs, to the prisoners, and to the wounded.”

Referring to the strike, Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily summarized the PA approach – Blame Israel!

According to Matar, the teachers’ strike is due to the implementation of the Israeli Anti Pay-for-Slay law, the law that penalizes the PA for paying huge monthly cash rewards to terrorists:

“The wheels of educational life are put on strike now and then, under the headline of ‘the right to strike’ or abstaining from providing services to the citizens for particular periods of time until the realization of material (monetary) demands [parentheses in source]. This is even though everyone knows that all the public sector ([PA] government) employees [parentheses in source] are suffering as a result of how the occupation authorities are stealing the Palestinian tax money, which is the backbone of the PA government employees’ salaries, and as a result of the deduction of hundreds of millions of [Israeli] shekels in order to dissuade the national Palestinian leadership from providing allowances to the prisoners and the Martyrs’ relatives.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

Trying to present a positive spin, Matar then added that hardships were caused out of the Abbas’ “loyalty” to the terrorists:

“Out of loyalty to them, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas has promised that their allowances will be at the top of the table of allowances and salaries, until the last [Jordanian] dinar in the treasury of the PA and the PLO.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

PA Ministry of Education Director-General of Measurement, Evaluation, and Examination, Muhammad Awad, accepted that the demands of the teachers are justified:

“All the teachers’ demands are correct and we have no reservations about them. On the contrary, we are fighting and defending the agreement that was signed [with the teachers] in all its aspects, especially everything concerning the monetary aspect.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 15, 2023]

Awad then explained that the non-payment of the teachers’ salaries is due to the general financial hardship of the PA:

“Awad emphasized that the monetary and financial blockade that the Palestinian [PA] government is in has prevented the implementation of the agreement until now, and added: ‘Therefore, the government is paying partial salaries to all the employees, and it cannot treat the teachers as exceptional.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 15, 2023]

For approximately 2 years, the PA has been punishing its law-abiding employees by paying them only partial salaries. To deflect the anger of the employees from the PA to Israel, the PA blames Israel for its alleged financial crisis….

EU urges members to deport more migrants ineligible to stay

Ekathermerini

14.03.2023 • 19:15

  

The European Union on Tuesday urged its member countries to deport more people who enter Europe without authorization and who are not eligible to stay, saying that only around one in five would-be migrants who should be sent home actually is.

“Last year, we had a return rate of only 21% of those who are not eligible to stay,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “When we fail to return people, this hampers our system and erodes trust.”

In some countries, the return rate is more like one in 50.

Johansson said that 340,000 decisions were handed down in EU member nations last year to deport people, but that only in 60% of cases did European authorities try to contact the migrants’ home countries to get them accepted back in.

“To protect the right to apply for asylum we have to show that we are appropriately dealing with those who do not qualify for international protection,” she said. “We need migration, but it has to be in a legal and orderly way.”

How many years have we been saying this? 'We' meaning people with common sense.

The arrival of well over one million migrants in 2015 – mostly people fleeing war in Syria or Iraq – sparked one of the EU’s biggest political crises. Member countries bickered over who should take responsibility for the migrants who enter, and whether other members should be obliged to help.

The row continues today. Repeated attempts to reform the asylum system have been made, but there’s been little progress. Unable to resolve the core dispute, the EU has turned to paying the countries that people leave or transit to prevent them setting out in the first place.

Johansson said the EU’s border and coastguard agency “is well equipped” to organize deportation flights, and urged the bloc’s 27 member countries to take advantage of them.

“We have a good political agreement with Bangladesh,” the EU’s top migration official noted. She said a Frontex flight would depart for Bangladesh on Wednesday with 68 “returnees” aboard. “This is the way we should work together,” Johansson said. [AP]

Pastor Attacked after Invitation to Christian-Muslim Debate

Mosque leaders in Uganda invited church leaders to participate.

February 28, 2023 

By Our East Africa Correspondent

Morning Star News

Rural Mbale, Uganda, near a Christian theological college. (Michael Shade, Creative Commons)

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A pastor invited to participate in a religion debate by mosque leaders in Uganda was attacked after his arguments ostensibly led to 37 Muslims accepting Christ, sources said.

Muslims who apparently converted to Christianity were among those who assaulted Pastor Arthur Asadi Babi, 42, on Feb. 10, he said. He was hospitalized for eight days in Mbale city’s Nakaloke ward with injuries to soft tissue in his neck, a broken leg, a bone fracture in his hand and swelling of his private parts, said Bishop Michael Okia of the area’s Living Stream Church of Christ.

“We received an invitation letter from the sheikh of Nakaloke mosque, who organized the debate in Nakaloke ward in Mbale city,” Okia told Morning Star News. “I decided to send Pastor Babi to debate with the Muslims because of his scholarship skills in the Koran and the Bible.”

Pastor Babi and a team of Christians began participating in the second week of the two-week debate, on Feb. 9, and on the second day he presented a defense of Christianity using the Koran with responses from the Bible on the uniqueness of Christ as the Son of God and the only way to God the Father, the bishop said.

“On Feb. 10, at the end of his defense, the pastor made an appeal for a response from the audience to believe in Christ,” Okia said. “Surprisingly, 29 adults and 8 children gave their lives to Christ Jesus, all Muslims.”

Pastor Babi said he was attacked immediately after apparently leading the Muslims to Christ.

“From nowhere, Muslims started throwing stones, and then with sticks and clubs attacked me by beating me, including the new Muslim converts who had embraced the Christian faith,” Pastor Babi told Morning Star News. “I was hit on my right hand and left leg while some tried to strangle me. One Muslim kicked me and injured my private parts, which is still in pain to date.”

A church member, Ben Yasiini, was able to rescue him and also suffered minor injuries, a tearful Pastor Babi said, adding that he was able to identify two of the assailants.

The pastor received treatment at Grace Medical Center in Mbale and was discharged on Feb.18.

Converting from Islam seven years ago, Pastor Babi is a married father of six children, ages 3 to 17.

As his church is only four kilometers from the mosque, Okia said leaders are still assessing whether to file a police report.

The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country. 

Muslims can't stand to lose, even though Islam is largely indefensible. They think Allah is real and on their side, and when God shows up for people like Pastor Babi, they just go hysterical.

Islam - Current Day > BBC Covers-up Muslim ID of Criminal, Again; PA Cracks Down on Protesters; Taliban Executions; Afghans Kept From Airport; Squalid Conditions for Migrants

..

BBC accused of 'omitting facts' about Muslim culprit seen

in video of shocking anti-Semitic attack in London

23 Aug, 2021 12:41

(L) © Twitter / @metpoliceuk; (R) © Twitter / @Shomrim

The BBC has once-again drawn the ire of the British public after it reported a shocking assault that left a man in "Orthodox Jewish dress" unconscious, but failed to describe his attacker's Islamic clothing.

Over the weekend, reports emerged of a horrific and unprovoked attack on a 64-year-old Jewish man as he walked down a street in Stamford Hill, London, last Wednesday. Videos show the moment he was knocked unconscious by his attacker. He was also left with a broken ankle. 

However, the BBC's reporting of the anti-Semitic assault hasn't been well received, as the national broadcaster strangely elected to describe the Jewish attire of the victim but not the Muslim dress of the perpetrator.

The BBC simply labelled the attacker, who wore a white kaftan under his jacket, a kufi, and sported a sizeable beard, as "another man" while they described the victim as "a man in Orthodox Jewish dress." The attacker's attire can be seen more clearly in other images shared online.

Author Douglas Murray was among those highlighting the unusual omission by the BBC. But while Murray stuck to the facts, many were keen to lay into the BBC, with some claiming they have a reputation for not fully reporting a story when Islam is concerned.

"The BBC always covers up for certain criminals," one Twitter user wrote, while another added "Criminal Muslims. There I said it. They do exist you know."

Others ask why Muslims are getting a free pass in the media, claiming the piece in question appears to blame the Jewish man for being attacked. "Imagine them describing the attire of a female assault victim - 'she wore a short skirt & high heels' - cue outrage & 'victim blaming' accusations," they added.  

"One religion can do no wrong in the eyes of the BBC. Their actions are beyond reproach," another commenter wrote, while others claimed the BBC "owned the word hypocrisy." 

One person claimed that by "omitting obvious facts and important information" the BBC was in fact creating fake news. "Referring to one in this case victims religion but not the perpetrators shows shocking bias," they added.  

Others claimed the BBC won't change as reporting on crimes seemingly committed by people of the Muslim faith doesn't fit in with their narrative that Britain is racist. By leaving out the details about the Muslim attacker, they claimed people will assume the attacker was both "white" and "English."

No one was forthcoming to back up the BBC, although some jokingly suggested the attacker could have been Scottish, a jovial reference to the wearing of a kilt.

Earlier this year a BBC reporter found herself in hot water after it emerged that she'd once posted "Hitler was right" on Twitter. Having been fired by the BBC, Tala Halawa, a Palestinian journalist, blasted the corporation, accusing it of giving into the "pro-Israel mob."

Now, this is completely out of character for the EU and the UN to criticize the Palestinian Authority without even blaming Israel. But this has been happening in Gaza by Hamas for many years now, I believe.

EU condemns ‘politically motivated’ arrests of activists

by Palestinian Authority

24 Aug, 2021 15:11

FILE PHOTO. Palestinian demonstrators attend an anti-Palestinian Authority protest, forty days after the death of Nizar Banat, a critic of the Palestinian Authority, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 2, 2021. © Reuters / Mohamad Torokman

The UN and EU issued statements on Tuesday criticizing the Palestinian Authority for the “politically motivated” arrest of activists and “continued pressure” on people demonstrating in the territory.

Protests have been taking place in recent months, as activists demand justice for Nizar Banat, a critic of the Palestinian Authority, who died after security forces detained him earlier this year and subjected him to physical violence.

On August 21 and 22, dozens of activists who had been participating in these protests were detained by Palestinian Authority security forces in Ramallah, with several still in custody. 

On Tuesday, the UN Office for Human Rights declared that it is “deeply concerned” by the Palestinian Authority’s actions and the “continued pressure on those seeking to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly” in the area. 

In a separate statement, the EU’s representative in the region expressed concern at “an increase in apparently politically motivated arrests by the Palestinian Authority,” firmly stating that “violence against peaceful human rights defenders, activists and protesters is unacceptable.”

While the remarks from the UN demanded the “immediate release without any charges” of the activists who were detained, the EU called on Palestinian officials to focus on “swiftly” concluding the investigation of Banat’s death and ensuring that “those responsible are held accountable.”

The Palestinian Authority has not yet publicly responded to the UN or EU statements but the detention of protesters comes after the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, indefinitely postponed elections amid low approval ratings.

Surely, Abbas has enough billions stashed away in Swiss banks to be able to retire.

Credible reports of Taliban executions in Afghanistan

– UN human rights chief

24 Aug, 2021 12:48

Taliban forces stand guard inside Kabul, Afghanistan (FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Stringer

The United Nations human rights boss has spoken of credible reports of serious rights abuses by the Taliban, including "summary executions" of civilians as well as those who served in the now-defunct Afghan security forces.

Speaking on Tuesday, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged the Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based forum, to closely monitor the actions of Afghanistan's new rulers, the Taliban.

Bachelet was President of Chile for 8 years.

Bachelet said there had been credible reports that the group was committing human-rights violations, including the "summary execution" of civilians as well as those who served in the defense of the US-backed government.

The UN human rights chief did not give any details about the killings but noted that Afghanistan's ethnic minorities were at risk. She cited a series of targeted attacks and killings in recent months. Bachelet added that the maltreatment of women and girls was also "a fundamental red line." 

A draft resolution, which calls for Bachelet to report back to the council in March 2022, will be considered by the Geneva-based forum. The resolution does not mention the Taliban by name and makes no provision for a probe into rights abuses in Afghanistan.

The text, which was submitted by Pakistan, also urges parties to respect human rights law including "the full and meaningful participation of women" and minority groups. A western diplomat told Reuters they were disappointed by the weak text.

Good grief. What's the point? There definitely seems to be no hurry. Wasn't there anyone but Pakistan who could have written the text?

Meanwhile, Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the US and its NATO allies should also be held accountable for alleged rights abuses in Afghanistan. The Chinese foreign ministry has repeatedly highlighted reported accounts of rights abuses by western troops.

We don't seem to get those on this side of the Atlantic.

There have been several concerning reports of Taliban abuses since the Islamist group took Kabul. Among other concerning footage, one video showed Taliban gunmen firing on protesters in Jalalabad. Another shows the militants arresting citizens while pointing a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in their direction.

No Afghans will be let into Kabul airport, only foreigners – Taliban

24 Aug, 2021 14:01 / Updated 5 hours ago

Crowds of people gather outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan (FILE PHOTO) © ASVAKA NEWS via REUTERS

The Taliban has said it will no longer permit Afghans to leave the country via Kabul airport, calling on the west not to encourage the educated elite to flee, as the new rulers reiterated foreigners must be evacuated by August 31.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid announced that the Islamist militant group would no longer allow Afghans to access Kabul airport in an attempt to flee the country.

Mujahid stated they were not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave, adding that foreigners could continue to use the airport until the August 31 deadline.

Taking aim at the west, the spokesman demanded that western powers refrain from evacuating Afghanistan's educated elite, such as doctors and engineers.

He also cited the chaotic situation at the airport as a reason for Afghans to avoid it. He said the crowds around the capital's airport should return to their homes, claiming that their safety would be guaranteed. 

In the same press briefing, Mujahid claimed that people could remain in Afghanistan and promised that there would be no reprisals. He said the Taliban had forgotten conflict in the past and would let bygones be bygones.

He also confirmed that the Taliban had not agreed to extend the August 31 deadline set by the US to complete their evacuation of Afghanistan.

‘Urine, fecal matter, rats’: Leaked email describes

squalid conditions facing Afghan refugees in Qatar

24 Aug, 2021 14:11

Special Immigrants from Afghanistan walk through the in-processing building after their evacuation at

Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, August 20, 2021 © Reuters / US Army / Sgt. Jimmie Baker

The United States is flying thousands of refugees out of Afghanistan, but they face desperate and unsanitary conditions in the US’ processing center in Qatar, a leaked email has revealed.

Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, is the first port of call for many Afghan refugees lucky enough to get a spot on an American flight out of Kabul. The base is one of several where these refugees will be processed and screened, before being flown on to the United States, Europe and Asia.

Conditions at the base, however, are “a living hell,” Colin Sullivan, an agent with US Central Command, told State Department and Pentagon officials in an email on Friday, reported by Axios on Tuesday.

“Trash, urine, fecal matter, spilled liquids and vomit cover the floors,” Sullivan wrote, describing the packed hangar housing the refugees. “I spent an hour in there picking up trash... almost suffocated.”

“We’re in the middle of humanitarian crises [sic] that compounds itself with every flight that lands in Doha,” he continued, before writing a grim update: “They now have a rat problem.”

According to Sullivan, the hangar lacks proper air conditioning, a serious problem when temperatures in Doha this week are expected to hit 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.6 Census) this week. “There’s a reason they’re not holding the World Cup in the middle of the summer there,” an anonymous official told Axios, referring to the 2022 World Cup’s November kickoff. “It’s brutally hot.”

The precise number of refugees housed in the hangar at any one time is unknown, as is the total number the Biden administration plans on bringing to the US. “Roughly a few thousand” Americans remain on the ground in Kabul, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told NBC News on Sunday, and they are reportedly being prioritized for evacuation. However, Sullivan told reporters on Monday that “thousands, if not tens of thousands” of people are being flown out of Kabul every day. Presumably, the bulk of these are Afghans, bound for processing centers like Al Udeid Air Base.

Many of these refugees are traveling without passports, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. While this presents US officials with difficulty verifying that these people are who they say they are, officials at Al Udeid are facing more immediate risks to their safety. US embassy bosses pulled their staff out of the hangar in recent days, citing the risk of catching Covid-19 from incoming refugees. Less than 1% of Afghans are fully vaccinated against the disease. 

The State Department says it’s alleviating the problem by speeding the Afghans on to the West. On Monday alone, “more than 3,700 individuals were transported to follow-on destinations in the United States, Germany and Italy,” a department spokesman told Axios. 

A Pentagon spokesman added that the military has installed more than 100 toilets in the hangar and is now supplying 7,000 traditional Afghan meals, three times a day.

Against the wishes of the Taliban, which has controlled Afghanistan for more than a week, Biden has refused to rule out extending the August 31 deadline for a complete US withdrawal from Afghanistan. A decision on this deadline is expected later on Tuesday. 

The Palestinian Authority’s Bad Day in Court

The government of the West Bank, which receives hundreds of millions in U.S. foreign aid, is found liable for financing terrorism in Israel.

By JESSICA KASMER-JACOBS - WSJ

For the better part of a decade, Congress has annually allocated $400 million to the Palestinian Authority in foreign aid, ostensibly to build schools, renovate hospitals and repair roads. On Monday in a U.S. federal court, a Manhattan jury found that this same Palestinian government financed and supported six terrorist acts that killed dozens of people in 2002-04 during the Second Intifada against Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member, Hanan Ashrawi

The verdict held the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization liable for $218.5 million in damages. Under the 1992 Anti-Terrorism Act, the sum automatically triples to $655.5 million, roughly 15% of the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget. The Palestinian groups said they will appeal.

For the 10 American families who were injured or lost relatives more than a decade ago in the terrorist attacks, the ruling is overdue justice. Mark Sokolow, the lead plaintiff, had narrowly escaped the south tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and was in Jerusalem four months later. He and his family were outside a shoe store when a suicide bomb detonated. Mr. Sokolow’s wife, Rena, recalled in testimony hearing “a whoosh, and I started spinning around like I was in a washing machine.” She looked at her leg and saw “the bone sticking out.” Nearby, Ms. Sokolow said, “I saw a severed head of a woman.”

Assistant Books Editor Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs on a landmark federal court ruling that awarded damages to American families of Palestinian terror victims. Photo credit: Getty Images.
The families in the lawsuit were represented by Kent Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter, and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Shurat Ha’Din, an Israeli law firm. Representing the Palestinians was Mark Rochon of Miller & Chevalier, who told the jury that the attacks were carried out by agents “acting on their own for their own reasons” and not by the government he was defending. Those agents were “crazy, wrong, contemptible,” said Mr. Rochon, “but not my clients.”

Yet as the six-week trial revealed, the Palestinian Authority provided backing for terrorists—and continues to do so today. Palestinian military and intelligence officials, Mr. Yalowitz calculated, spend $50 million a year to keep terrorists on the payroll while they are held in Israeli jails. The Palestinian government also awards “martyr payments” to the families of suicide bombers.

Monday’s verdict comes as something of a vindication for the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound American who in 1985 was murdered by Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists aboard the hijacked Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro. The Klinghoffer family filed a lawsuit, but U.S. federal courts had no jurisdiction over acts of terrorism outside the country. The case was dropped, and the PLO settled with the Klinghoffers out of court for an undisclosed sum in 1997.

The 1992 Anti-Terrorism Act provides federal courts “with an explicit grant of jurisdiction over international terrorism” and a private right of action for “any national of the United States injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism.” The act also has the virtue of allowing American citizens to assign blame for supporting terrorism, even if politicians are reluctant to do so. A jury in New York has spoken about the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Congress might want to consider that fact as it prepares next year’s foreign-aid budget.