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In First, Iranian Opposition Leader Addresses Israel’s Parliament, Urging Jewish State to ‘Attack Iran’s Leaders in Tehran’
Vahid Beheshti with MKs Sova and Tal, at the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus. Photo: Michael Katz
At a meeting of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, discussing the plans for a post-Hamas Gaza on Tuesday, an Iranian opposition leader told Israeli lawmakers that Israel should not hesitate to “attack the heads of the Iranian leadership” in Tehran itself.
The meeting of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus — which was attended by Vahid Beheshti and Israeli ministers, Knesset members, security officials, and diplomatic leaders — marked the first time an Iranian opposition figure has addressed Israel’s parliament.
Beheshti, who grew up in Iran but now resides in London, is known for his 72-day hunger strike calling for the UK government to categorize Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terror organization. At Tuesday’s meeting, which was jointly hosted with the Israeli Victory Project, Beheshti urged Israel to confront the Iranian government directly.
“Soon you will have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the Iranian government, and you should not be afraid of attacking Iranian bases in Iran. Do not be afraid to attack the heads of the Iranian leadership in Iran. This is the only language they understand,” he said.
Beheshti highlighted the support of “80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy” who have failed to overthrow the Islamist regime and its “barbaric violence.”
“If you support the Iranian people, you will see how they will lower the head of the octopus and we will all experience peace,” he said.
Beheshti claimed that the Iranian regime, which was the “weakest it’s been in 44 years,” miscalculated Israel’s response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 — of which he said it was “aware in advance” — expecting to achieve a “total” ceasefire within two months. Nearly three months have passed since the war broke out with the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel.
Iran is the main international sponsor of Hamas, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with funds, arms, and training.
Beheshti’s comments came a day before a huge explosion killed more than 100 people at a ceremony in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman commemorating top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.
Beheshti denied claims by Iran’s state-run media that Israel was behind the attack.
“Those who are aware of the nature of the Iranian regime, know full well that today’s attack was an inside job, as Israel’s operations are always targeted,” he said on X/Twitter, citing various other attacks, including the downing of the Ukrainian plane, that he said proved Iran was willing to “sacrifice civilian lives for its own sinister goals.”
The people of Iran will not be fooled by the orchestrated attacks of the regime aimed at influencing public opinion.
Videos are being shared by Iran’s state media showing the victims of a “terrorist attack” at the burial site of Qassem Soleimani.
This is yet another attempt… pic.twitter.com/hw6Xooc71Y
— Vahid Beheshti (@Vahid_Beheshti) January 3, 2024
Co-Chairman of Tuesday’s caucus meeting MK Ohad Tal, a member of the Religious Zionist Party, emphasized the need for a strategic victory over Hamas, and proposed permanent Israeli control over the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas taught us that the time has come for a real and strategic victory,” he told The Algemeiner. “The goal of the war should be that the State of Israel controls the entire Gaza Strip, not temporarily, but permanently. Gaza is part of the State of Israel and should once again be in Israel’s hands.”
“This way our enemies will be fully aware that it is not worth their while to enter into a war with Israel, and it will restore deterrence and [Israel’s] political, military, and economic power,” he added.
Israel withdrew all Israeli soldiers and civilians from Gaza in 2005. Hamas has fully ruled the Palestinian enclave, from which it launched its Oct. 7 massacre, since 2007.
Zvika Hauser, former head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, presented a three-pronged plan for victory, including the expulsion of remaining Hamas members from Gaza, demilitarization of the area, and the creation of a buffer zone.
Yisrael Weiser — the father of Staff Sergeant Roey Weiser, who was killed on Oct. 7 — attended the meeting with his wife, Naomi. “This war must continue until the IDF’s complete victory over all the enemies that surround us. Anything less than that will not achieve the goal for which my son was killed. This must also be the last war. We must learn from our failures to be a deterrent for the future,” the grieving father said.
Israeli Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel outlined her plan for the voluntary resettlement of Gaza Strip residents, emphasizing the need for international support and an aid package for refugees. “The mobilization of the international community is required to create a pool of countries that will take in refugees while receiving an aid package for them,” Minister Gamliel stated.
Israeli media on Wednesday reported that officials are conducting clandestine talks with several countries to absorb Palestinians from Gaza on a humanitarian basis. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also advocated the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, and called on the international community to find solutions.
“Seventy percent of the Israeli public today supports a humanitarian solution of encouraging the voluntary immigration of Gazan Arabs and their absorption in other countries,” he said.
“They understand that a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where four minutes away from our towns and cities there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism where two million people wake up every morning with an aspiration for the destruction of the State of Israel and with a desire to slaughter and rape and murder Jews wherever they are,” he added.
The US State Department on Tuesday slammed Smotrich over the plan, calling his rhetoric “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
UN special rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal on Wednesday said that the “forcible transfer” constituted an “act of genocide.”
The post In First, Iranian Opposition Leader Addresses Israel’s Parliament, Urging Jewish State to ‘Attack Iran’s Leaders in Tehran’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Incoming US Senate Majority Leader Threatens ICC With Sanctions Over Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, March 31, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Incoming US Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has threatened to push legislation imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it does not halt its efforts to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Thune, who was picked last week to be the next Senate majority leader once the Republicans take control of the legislative chamber in January, wrote Sunday on X/Twitter that he will make it a “top priority” to punish the ICC if it refuses to walk back its arrest warrant application issued against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The US lawmaker also indicated he would take action if Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the current Senate majority leader, does not do so against the intergovernmental organization.
“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,” he wrote. “If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this — and other supportive legislation ‚ a top priority in the next Congress.”
In May, the ICC chief prosecutor officially requested arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Gallant, and three Hamas terrorist leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh — accusing all five men of “bearing criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel or the Gaza Strip. The three Hamas leaders have since been killed, and Gallant was recently fired as Israel’s defense minister.
US and Israeli officials subsequently issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has come under fire for making his surprise demand for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on the same day in May that he suddenly canceled a long-planned visit to both Gaza and Israel to collect evidence of alleged war crimes. The last-second cancellation infuriated US and British leaders, according to Reuters, which reported that the trip would have offered Israeli leaders a first opportunity to present their position and outline any action they were taking to respond to the war crime allegations.
Thune’s Republican colleagues praised his threat to the ICC, suggesting that the Senate should target the international organization.
“Well done Senator Thune. The ICC’s actions against Israel have been outrageous, and an independent review into the prosecutor’s actions is more than called for,” wrote Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). :The Senate should take up the ICC sanctions bill that passed the House in a bipartisan manner. Standing up for Israel today protects America tomorrow.”
“The Senate must immediately pass legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court,” stated Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY.), chair of the Senate Republican Conference. “Senate Republicans stands with Israel.”
“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee can and should act ASAP to pass ICC sanctions legislation. We waited for months for the majority to schedule the vote only to have them postpone it before the election. We will not fail to act when Republicans are in the majority,” wrote Sen. John Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) wrote that the Senate “should immediately consider the bipartisan legislation passed by the House to sanction the ICC.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) added that Thune is “right” and that “Chuck Schumer should do his job” by advancing legislation to sanction the ICC.
The US has said it does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction and rejects the implied equivalence drawn between Israel and Hamas.
The post Incoming US Senate Majority Leader Threatens ICC With Sanctions Over Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Concordia closes its Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, citing ‘budgetary constraints’
It was announced quietly, wit a small, two-paragraph notice replacing the web page for Concordia University’s Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), along with an unrelated stock […]
The post Concordia closes its Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, citing ‘budgetary constraints’ appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Jamaal Bowman Continues Diatribes Against Israel, AIPAC; Expresses Pride in Not Condemning Oct. 7 Massacre
US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during the National Action Network National Convention in New York City, US, April 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In his final weeks as a US federal lawmaker, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has continued his persistent condemnation of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating “apartheid” against Palestinians, expressing pride in not supporting a resolution condemning Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, and arguing against the funding of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
During a newly released interview with left-wing pundit Rania Khalek, Bowman reflected on his unsuccessful reelection bid earlier this year. The lawmaker blamed the “pro-Israel lobby” for his loss in the Democratic primary, claiming that his outspokenness about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war made him a target for “Zionists.”
Bowman, one of the staunchest critics of Israel in the US Congress, argued that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, overwhelmed his campaign by spending roughly $15 million to aid his opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer. He added that his constituents were stunned that a “special interest” group such as AIPAC “can remove a congressman” by submerging a primary race in a torrent of money.
“Now the world has seen AIPAC for who they are,” Bowman stated.
The stated mission of AIPAC is to seek bipartisan support to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.
Bowman admitted that he did not know much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he initially ran for office, opting to parrot talking points such as Israel “has a right to exist” and a “right to defend itself.”
Bowman said that his opinion on Israel was transformed after he visited the country on a trip sponsored by J Street, a progressive Zionist organization that recently called for the US to impose an arms embargo against the Jewish state. The left-wing firebrand said that the trip — which consisted of a series of discussions with peace activists, scholars, and former Israel Defense Force (IDF) officers — soured his view of the Jewish state, comparing the security checkpoints and barrier wall that separate Israel and the West Bank to protect against terrorism with the Jim Crow laws in the US south segregating black Americans.
Khalek asked Bomwan if his view on Iron Dome has shifted, citing that the missile interception system “shields Israel from the consequences for bombing all of its neighbors, for constantly stealing land.”
The congressman claimed that his view on Israel’s air defense system has changed, arguing that it represents “a weapon to use and continue apartheid, oppression, open-air prison, occupation, and now the genocide” of Palestinians. He said that he regrets voting in favor of Iron Dome funding, and that the missile defense system should only be replenished if the Palestinians are given a fully-funded army on Israel’s borders.
Bowman also criticized a congressional resolution condemning the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, suggesting that AIPAC authored the document. He dismissed the notion that the mass murder, rape, and kidnapping of Israelis on Oct. 7 was “unprovoked,” claiming that Israel initiated the aggression by enacting “apartheid” on Palestinians. He then lambasted American governors, senators, and President Joe Biden for immediately showing empathy to Israelis, saying that legislators were being “dishonest” and not having a “full conversation” about the Jewish state.
In the year following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Bowman intensified his rhetoric against Israel and pro-Israel organizations. Over the summer, he condemned AIPAC as a “Zionist regime.” In a desperate attempt to salvage his ill-fated primary effort, he promise the Democratic Socialists of America — a prominent far-left organization that has made anti-Israel activism a top priority — that he would vote against future Iron Dome funding in exchange for financial backing of his campaign. Bowman infamously dismissed the widely reported and corroborated allegations of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women during the Oct. 7 onslaught as “propaganda” before being forced to walk back his remarks.
In June, Latimer cruised to a commanding victory over Bowman, winning by a margin of 58 percent to 41 percent.
The post Jamaal Bowman Continues Diatribes Against Israel, AIPAC; Expresses Pride in Not Condemning Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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