129 nations ignore Jewish ties to Temple Mount, call it solely Muslim

Author: Published: December 2, 2021

The United States, which opposed the text, said that the omission of inclusive terminology for the site sacred to three faiths was of “real and serious concern.”
By TOVAH LAZAROFF Published: DECEMBER 2, 2021 03:14

Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount on Wednesday. (photo credit: TEMPLE MOUNT ADMINISTRATION)
Updated: DECEMBER 2, 2021 11:56Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount on Wednesday. (photo credit: TEMPLE MOUNT ADMINISTRATION)

Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount on Wednesday.
(photo credit: TEMPLE MOUNT ADMINISTRATION)

The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution 129-11 on Wednesday, that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and called it solely by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.
The text, referred to as the “Jerusalem resolution,” is part of a push by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states across the UN system to rebrand Judaism’s most holy site and as an exclusively Islamic one.
The United States, which opposed the text, said that the omission of inclusive terminology for the site sacred to three faiths was of “real and serious concern.”
“It is morally, historically and politically wrong for members of this body to support language that denies” both the Jewish and Christian connections to the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif.
Jewish man prays at the Temple Mount in front of the Dome of the RockJEREMY SHARON
Jewish man prays at the Temple Mount in front of the Dome of the RockJEREMY SHARON
The US has not been the only country to voice concern over the lack of inclusive language. In an attempt to ensure support for the resolution, its authors had made some small amendments since the UNGA last approved the resolution in 2018 by 148-11. That text referenced al-Haram al-Sharif twice, one in the action portion of the resolution and once in the introduction.
This time, the phrase al-Haram al-Sharif was mentioned only once in the introduction. Despite this shift, support for the resolution dropped, with the number of countries that abstained growing from 14 to 31.
Three years ago, all the European countries supported the text, this year a number of them changes their votes.
Hungary and the Czech Republic opposed the resolution, while Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia abstained.
A British envoy said the “the resolution adopted today refers to the holy sites in Jerusalem in purely Islamic terms without recognizing the Jewish terminology of Temple Mount.
“The UK has made clear for many years that we disagree with this approach and while we welcome the removal of the majority of these references, we are disappointed that we were unable to find a solution to the final reference.
“The UK has therefore moved our vote today from a ‘yes’ to an ‘abstention.’ If the unbalanced reference had been removed, the UK would have been ready and willing to vote ‘yes,'” the British envoy said.
“This should not be misunderstood as a reflection of a change in UK policy toward Jerusalem. Instead, it is an important signal of our commitment to recognizing the history of Jerusalem to the three monotheistic religions,” he said.
The EU took a middle-of-the-road stance, in which it welcomed amendments the PA and the Arab groups made to reduce the annual number of some 20 resolutions on Israel which it presents to the UNGA for approval.
“The EU reiterates that whenever referring to the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif in the Jerusalem resolution both terms, ie, Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif should be used,” an EU representative said.
The same is true for any text relating to Jerusalem, the EU envoy explained.
“The EU calls on all sides not to deny the historical ties of other religions to the city of Jerusalem and its holy places, thus trying to delegitimize their history,” the EU envoy said.
In spite of his words, a fair number of EU member states approved the text, including Belgium, France, Spain and Italy.
The Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour thanked those who support the Jerusalem text, noting that it was “an appropriate and needed resolution to give hope and support to our people.” It pushed back at attempts to transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a “religious confrontation,” Mansour said.
He noted that it relied on language on Jerusalem which had already been approved in UN Security Council resolutions.
He called on the UN to accept Palestine as a member state and to hold Israel accountable for its refusal to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines so that a two-state resolution to the conflict can be implemented.
“We will never accept to continue living under occupation in an apartheid system, we deserve freedom and dignity in our homeland.”

Russia Pushes Its Influence in the Middle East

Author: Published: December 2, 2021

by James M. Dorsey

OPINION

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reacts during the US-Russia summit with U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Russia hopes to blow new life into a proposal for a multilateral security architecture in the Gulf, with the tacit approval of the Biden administration.

For now, Vitaly Naumkin, a prominent Russian scholar, academic advisor of the foreign and justice ministries, and head of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, is testing the waters, according to Newsweek, which first reported the move.

Last week, he invited former officials, scholars, and journalists from feuding Middle Eastern nations to a closed-door meeting in Moscow to discuss the region’s multiple disputes and conflicts, and ways of preventing them from spinning out of control.

Naumkin, who is believed to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, co-authored a plan first put forward in 2004. The Russian foreign ministry published a fine-tuned version in 2019.

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Russia appears to have timed the revival as the Houthi rebels are seemingly gaining the upper hand against Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s seven-year-long devastating war.

The Iranian-backed rebels appear to be closer to capturing the oil and gas-rich province of Marib after two years of some of the bloodiest fighting in the war. The conquest would pave the way for a Houthi takeover of neighboring Shabwa, another energy-rich region. It would put the rebels in control of all northern Yemen.

“The battle for Marib could be a final stand for the possibility of a unified Yemen,” said Yemeni writer and human rights activist Nabil Hetari.

A self-declared independent North Yemen would potentially resemble an Afghanistan sitting on one of the world’s critical chokepoints for the flow of oil and gas. North Yemen would be governed by a nationalist Islamist group that presides over one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The Russian initiative also appears geared to take advantage of efforts by Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, and Iran to reduce regional tensions.

Russia seems to be exploiting what some describe as paused and others as stalled talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran mediated by Iraq. Iraqi officials insisted that the talks are on hold until a new Iraqi government has been formed following October’s elections.

Naumkin suggested that the Russian initiative offers an opportunity to carve the Middle East out as a region of cooperation as well as competition with the United States — in contrast to southeastern Europe and Ukraine, where US-Russian tension is on the rise.

In the Middle East, Russia and the United States “have one common threat, the threat of war. Neither the United States nor Russia is interested in having this war,” Naumkin told Newsweek.

A State Department spokesperson would not rule out cooperation. “We remain prepared to cooperate with Russia in areas in which the two sides have common interests while opposing Russian policies that go against US interests,” the spokesperson said.

The Russian proposal calls for integrating the US defense umbrella in the Gulf into a collective security structure that would include Russia, China, Europe, and India alongside the United States. The structure would include, not exclude Iran, and would have to extend to Israel and Turkey.

Inspired by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the proposal suggests that the new architecture would be launched at an international conference on security and cooperation in the Gulf.

Russia sees the architecture as enabling the creation of a “counter-terrorism coalition (of) all stakeholders” that would be the motor for resolving conflicts across the region and promoting mutual security guarantees.

The plan would further involve the removal of the “permanent deployment of troops of extra-regional states in the territories of states of the Gulf,” a reference to US, British, and French forces and bases in various Gulf states and elsewhere in the Middle East.

It calls for a “universal and comprehensive” security system that would take into account “the interests of all regional and other parties involved, in all spheres of security, including its military, economic and energy dimensions.”

In Naumkin’s reading, Middle Eastern rivals “are fed up with what’s going on” and “afraid of possible war.” Negotiations are their only remaining option.

That seems to have driven men like UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, his Saudi counterpart Mohammed bin Salman, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian leader Ebrahim Raisi to reach out to one another in a recent flurry of activity.

But, “these are talks between autocrats keen to protect their own grip on power and boost their economies: not peace in our time, only within our borders,” cautioned The Economist.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and scholar and a Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.

IDF Spokesman: We Are Accelerating Our Plans Against Iran

Author: Published: November 30, 2021
By

David Israel

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IDF Spokesman Brigadier General Ran Kochav told Reshet Bet radio on Tuesday morning: “We have accelerated our readiness to prevent Iran from establishing itself on the northern front and to prevent it from becoming a nuclear-threshold state.” He added: “When I say we are accelerating the plans against Iran – I mean it.”

On Monday, after a five-month hiatus, the talks on reestablishing the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement were resumed in Vienna at the Palais Coburg hotel, where the original document had been signed.

On the eve of the renewed talks, a spokesman for Iran’s army issued a statement saying: “The destruction of the occupation regime in Jerusalem is the greatest goal before us and the greatest goal we are striving for. We will not back down from this ideal by one millimeter, even if we are torn to pieces.” And he added: “The fake Zionist regime must disappear and it will surely disappear.”

 

With that in mind, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a statement directed at the five powers negotiating with the Iranians, saying: “Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail.”

The PM continued: “Today, Iran will be arriving at negotiations in Vienna with a clear goal: To end sanctions in exchange for almost nothing. Iran won’t just keep its nuclear program; from today, they’ll be getting paid for it.”

Referring to the jarring message above, Bennett said: “Iran doesn’t hide its intentions. Just a couple of days ago, the senior command of Iran’s Armed Forces declared, and I quote, ‘We will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, not even one millimeter.’

“Just this week, the Iranian regime shot its own people on the streets of Isfahan for having dared to protest the lack of water in their country. Yes, they shot their own citizens just for being thirsty.

“Such a murderous regime should not be rewarded. Despite Iran’s violations and undermining of the nuclear inspections, Iran will be arriving at the negotiation table in Vienna, and some think they deserve to have their sanctions removed and hundreds of billions of dollars poured right into their rotten regime. They’re wrong.

“Iran deserves no rewards, no bargain deals, and no sanctions relief in return for their brutality. I call upon our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail.”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued his own statement, saying: “In the past days, Israeli teams have shared intelligence with our friends around the world that points to Iran’s current process of dashing towards a nuclear weapon, blatantly violating the agreement that is in place with Europe.

“To our partners, I stress – the time that passes must have a price expressed in sanctions or military alternatives so that Iran will stop its nuclear race and its regional aggression.

“We do not oppose negotiations but we must not cooperate with their stalling. We recognize the international community’s work to reach a diplomatic solution with the Iranians, yet we must continue, as a strong and independent country to maintain the capability to defend ourselves.”

Israel has made it clear in recent days that Iran is reaching the current round of talks only to remove as many sanctions as possible, at the lowest possible cost, without giving up its ambition to develop a nuclear weapon very soon.

A senior Israeli official told Haaretz on Tuesday that “the Iranian economy is rotten and Government corruption is severe. “The leadership is unable to deal with the Corona, which has fatally damaged the Iranian public,” he said, adding, “At the tough situation they’re in, they will make an effort to remove the sanctions that make it most difficult for them financially – but as things stand at the moment, they have no intention of really giving up their military nuclear program.”

Iran is insisting on lifting all the sanctions immediately, which won’t play very well in DC. Iran is also insisting that the US and its three allies—the UK, France, and Germany—promise to never again impose sanctions on Iran, according to Iranian chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian issued a similar statement on Monday, saying Iran’s primary goal is “to gain a full, guaranteed and verifiable removal of the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian people,” and in that context, he views the renewed talks not so much as debating the restrictions on his country’s nuclear arms program but rather as “negotiations to remove unlawful and inhuman sanctions.”

Israel is very concerned about the possibility that the countries around the table, especially the Biden White House, would accede to the Iranian requests regarding the removal of sanctions even before a clear commitment is reached to freeze the military nuclear project and adopt a strict supervisory regime.

A signal for such a move being around the corner can be seen in Tuesday’s schedule of discussions in Vienna, which will include a meeting on the issue of lifting sanctions – well before agreements have been reached on a return to the nuclear agreement.

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