“Only when [Abbas] steps down can Israel and the Palestinians move forward,” Danon said after the Palestinian leader blasted the Trump peace plan at the United Nation.

By World Israel News Staff and AP

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon slammed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, saying that if Abbas really wanted peace, he would be in Jerusalem talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not at the United Nations.

“Progress toward peace will not be made so long as President Abbas remains in his position. Only when he steps down can Israel and the Palestinians move forward,” Danon said. “A leader who chooses rejectionism, incitement and glorification of terror can never be a real partner for peace.”

Abbas minutes earlier delivered an address blasting every aspect of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently unveiled Mideast peace plan.

He called on the international Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., Russia, the European Union and United Nations — and the Security Council along with other countries “to hold an international conference for peace … to implement resolutions of international legitimacy.”

According to Abbas, “The United States cannot be the sole mediator.”

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft sidestepped a question about whether Abbas should be at the negotiating table.

“What we’re really supporting at the moment is having the two parties at the table together and be able to discuss how we can best facilitate this plan,” she said. “It’s a vision. It’s not a deal. It’s an opportunity and I think today was the beginning.

President Donald Trump unveiled the U.S. initiative for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Jan. 28. It envisions a “Palestinian state,” while permitting Israel to extend sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and the strategically essential Jordan Valley.

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To those calling for restraint and talks, “once rockets are flying into our cities, we will defend our people … and then we will talk,” Danon said.

By Associated Press and World Israel News

Israel’s U.N. ambassador is warning Gaza’s Hamas rulers that if attacks against Israel continue, the terrorist group will face the “might” of the Israeli military and “be buried in the tunnels of Gaza.”

Danny Danon told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Hamas committed a “heinous crime against Israel, a deliberate and direct act of terror against our people” when it fired a rocket Monday that hit a home in central Israel, wounding seven people.

The IDF responded with retaliatory airstrikes across Gaza and Palestinian terrorists fired a barrage of rockets at Israel’s south before an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire appeared to take hold early Tuesday.

Despite the supposed ceasefire, a rocket from Gaza exploded in an open field in the South Tuesday evening.

Danon said the Security Council “must condemn Hamas and its terrorism against Israel unequivocally” and designate Hamas a terrorist organization.

To those calling for restraint and talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Danon said, “once rockets are flying into our cities, we will defend our people … and then we will talk.”

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“The U.S. stands by Israel’s right to not renew TIPH’s mandate and to act on its own accord to ensure stability, without the help of a violent, biased international force,” Ambassador Danny Danon stated.

By Associated Press and World Israel News

Kuwait and Indonesia urged the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to call for protection of Palestinians following Israel’s decision to suspend an international observer mission in Hebron, where hundreds of Israelis live alongside more than 200,000 Palestinians, but diplomats said the United States objected.

The two predominantly Muslim nations on the council called closed-door discussions on the Israeli announcement and then circulated a draft press statement that would recognize the mission’s “efforts to foster calm in a highly sensitive area and fragile situation on the ground.” But the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, rejected the proposed statement, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron was established in 1994 following Israeli Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs that triggered riots across Palestinian areas.

Indonesia’s U.N. ambassador, Dian Djani, told reporters that he and Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi brought up Israel’s action because they don’t want to see a repetition of the 1994 incident and want “to make sure the situation that is already fragile and tense … is not going to worsen.”

Al-Otaibi said there was “overwhelming support” for an expression of concern that Israel’s action might exacerbate the situation on the ground, saying the mission “was like a preventative tool.”

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) had operated in Hebron based on a mandate regularly renewed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a statement on Monday, “We won’t allow an international force to act against us.”

While TIPH’s mission is ostensibly to monitor compliance with the agreement that divided the administration of the city between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, group members have been caught committing crimes against Israelis.

Last year, for example, TIPH’s legal counsel assaulted a 10-year Jewish child in Hebron, slapping the young boy across the face. In another incident, a staff member punctured the tire of a Jewish resident’s vehicle.

TIPH has also been accused of provoking Israeli security forces, collaborating with fringe left-wing groups, and interfering with the daily life of local Israeli residents of Hebron.

“There is no place in Israel or anywhere in the world for an international force to harm the country in which it operates. Instead of maintaining order and neutrality, TIPH observers used violence, created friction with the civilian population, and interfered with security forces,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon stated in response to the U.S. move.

“The United States stands by Israel’s right to not renew TIPH’s mandate and to act on its own accord to ensure stability, without the help of a violent, biased international force. That the Palestinians want to maintain violent observers in Hebron attests to their intentions,” he added.

Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba of Equatorial Guinea, the current council president, signaled differences among Council members immediately after the meeting, where the U.S. said Israel had a right not to renew the temporary mission.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador at the U.N., stressed that “it is the duty of the Security Council on the basis of the resolutions” to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians and said he looked forward to meeting with Ndong Mba “as quickly as possible.”

But Al-Otaibi told reporters that council visits require approval by all 15 members as well as the countries involved, so the U.S. and Israel would have to give a green light.

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Israel’s U.N. envoy warns that unchecked Iranian attempts to create ballistic missiles endanger the entire region as well as “Europe and beyond.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon is demanding that the world body move to stop Iran from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles following its unsuccessful attempt to launch a satellite-carrying rocket into space last week.

The Space Launch Vehicles (SLV) that are used for satellites contain technology similar to ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Danon called its use “a clear violation of Security Council Resolution 2231” in a statement Saturday night.

“Iran is a rogue state violating international law,” he said. “It blatantly defies the calls of the international community, and by doing so, cynically threatens the stability of our region, Europe and beyond. I call on the Security Council to join the nations and unions of states that have already taken measures to curb the threat of Iranian missiles, especially those capable of carrying nuclear weapons.”

In 2015, UNSC Resolution 2231 endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, which removed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic. According to the resolution, Iran will “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

The U.S. pulled out of the JCPOA last May, with President Donald Trump calling it “the worst deal ever.” The other signatories – the U.K., Russia, France, China and Germany – did not withdraw.

The European allies have protested Iran’s ballistic missile activity to the U.N. Security Council, including in March 2016, when Iran test-launched a series of short- and medium range missiles. These tests were “in defiance of” Resolution 2231, they noted.

France joined Israel in condemning last week’s launch. “The Iranian ballistic program is a source of concern for the international community and France. We call on Iran not to proceed with new ballistic missile tests designed to be able to carry nuclear weapons, including space launchers, and urge Iran to respect its obligations under all U.N. Security Council resolutions,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement.

Iran has steadily refused to curb its satellite program, claiming that it does not violate any U.N. resolutions, and said it would be ready to for a new missile launch in the coming months.

On Tuesday, the Security Council is scheduled to meet on the Middle East. While the subject is usually the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Danon is planning to use the opportunity to address the ballistic missile threat.

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The forceful request comes as “Palestine” takes over the presidency of the Group of 77, the largest bloc of nations in the U.N.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), became 2019’s rotating chairman of the United Nations’ Group of 77 and China on Tuesday.

The Group of 77 was named for the 77 original signatories to a loose alliance of developing countries created in 1964. The main purpose was to defend their economic interests by insisting on equal standing with more advanced countries in the area of international trade as well as to present a united front on other issues of common concern.

Despite its many efforts for full membership, the PA is merely an observer, non-member state of the U.N. To overcome the barrier, the General Assembly called a special vote in October to enable the PA to preside over the Group of 77, which has grown to include over 130 countries.

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh called the event “an important achievement to assert the Palestinian identity in the international community, which colonial powers have tried to abolish over many centuries,” according to a report in the PA’s Ma’an news agency.

Abbas already took advantage of the upgrade in international status on Monday to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. At the meeting, he urged the implementation of recommendations in a report, authored by the U.N. chief last August, calling for an armed U.N. force to protect Palestinians in Israel.

The report recommended a “more robust UN presence on the ground,” including human rights monitors deployed at potential flashpoints such as roadblocks and checkpoints near Israeli villages in Judea and Samaria, as well as an armed force to protect Palestinian civilians physically. Israel would never agree to such a force, and since the establishment of such a force would require approval by the Security Council, Israel would rely on the United States to use its veto power.

When the vote took place in July, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, said that making “Palestine” head of the Group of 77 would in no way advance the PA agenda.

“The goal of the Group of 77 originally was to facilitate the economic advancement of underdeveloped nations,” he said in a statement to The New York Times. “It is unfortunate that it will now become a platform for spreading lies and incitement. This will not promote the G-77’s goals, and it encourages the Palestinians to not engage in negotiations for peace.”

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Foreign minister Zarif tweets suggestion that the two “regimes” also withdraw from planet Earth.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Following the American and Israeli administrations’ departure Monday from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization (UNESCO), Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif took to Twitter to ridicule his country’s biggest enemies.

He referred to other international agreements that President Donald Trump had left, including the nuclear deal with Iran, two trade agreements and the Paris Climate accord, and mockingly suggested that nothing else was left except to leave planet Earth as well, along with Israel.

The United States and Israel had given the mandated one-year’s notice of withdrawal at the end of 2017 and carried through with their threat on Monday. The main cause was UNESCO’s refusal to stop bashing the Jewish state, passing of dozens of resolutions condemning Israel and others that erased any Jewish links to its holiest sites.

“After #JCPOA, #NAFTA, #TPP, Climate Convention & …, the Trump regime—along with the Israeli regime—today officially withdrew from #UNESCO. Is anything left for the Trump Administration and its client regime to withdraw from? Perhaps from planet Earth altogether?” Zarif tweeted.

Last year, for example, UNESCO labeled Hebron a “Palestinian heritage site,” although it contains the Machpela Cave in which the Jewish foremothers and forefathers are buried. Egregious resolutions that raised both American and Israeli ire in 2016 included declarations that Israel has no rights to Jerusalem and labeling the Temple Mount and Old City of Jerusalem as Moslem holy sites only.

UNESCO’s self-described mandate is “to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture.” As such, its website boasts that among other tasks, “UNESCO develops educational tools to help people live as global citizens free of hate and intolerance,” and that “by promoting cultural heritage and the equal dignity of all cultures, UNESCO strengthens bonds among nations.”

Outgoing American ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley described the situation Tuesday, making it clear that her country believes that the organization has fallen far from these ideals.

“UNESCO is among the most corrupt and politically biased UN agencies,” Haley tweeted. “Today the U.S. withdrawal from this cesspool became official. #USStrong”

Israel’s UN envoy, Danny Danon, said that his country “will not be a member of an organization whose goal is to deliberately act against us and that has become a tool manipulated by Israel’s enemies.”

He also tweeted: “Remember how @JZarif said in an interview with @LePoint on Dec 19 that no one in Iran wants to annihilate Israel? Well, calling for #Israel (and the #UnitedStates) to withdraw “from planet Earth altogether” sure sounds like calling for the demise of our countries.”

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Israel decided in 2017 to leave UNESCO along with the U.S., accusing the U.N. body of anti-Israel bias. The decision takes effect today. 

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News

Israel’s decision to leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has taken effect with the beginning of 2019.

Marking the occasion, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon declared that “UNESCO is a body that continues to rewrite history, among other things, by attempts to erase the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Israel will not be a member of an organization dedicated to acting against it and which has a tool manipulated by Israel’s enemies.”

While UNESCO has declared several Israeli locations as world heritage sites, Danon was referring to a move in 2016 when the Palestinian Authority and Arab states pushed forward resolutions which ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, describing the holiest sites to Judaism solely by their Muslim names of al-Haram al-Sharif and the Buraq Plaza.

The organization also rejected Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.

In 2017, UNESCO declared Hebron an endangered Palestinian world heritage site, even though that city, home to the Cave of the Patriarchs, is considered one of the holiest to Judaism. At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau condemned the move, calling it “yet another delusional decision by UNESCO.”

In 2011, the organization became the first U.N. organ to recognize Palestine as a member state. After that decision, the U.S. and Israel stopped paying dues to UNESCO. Both countries lost voting rights in 2013 over their failure to pay but maintained all other participation rights.

In October 2017, Washington and Jerusalem both announced that they would leave the organization, with Israel announcing its pullout soon after the U.S. did.  They went ahead with implementation of their decisions despite efforts by the agency’s new director-general, Audrey Azoulay, to get both countries to reconsider. The efforts included mediating compromises putting off or softening anti-Israel resolutions.

Azoulay, who has Jewish and Moroccan heritage, has presided over the launch of a Holocaust education website and the U.N.’s first educational guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism — initiatives that might be seen as responding to U.S. and Israeli concerns. Since then, all 12 texts on the Middle East passed at UNESCO were seen as having been consensual among Israel and Arab member states.

In April 2018, Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO said the mood was “like a wedding” after member nations agreed to a rare compromise resolution on “Occupied Palestine,” and UNESCO diplomats spoke of a possible breakthrough on countering Israeli-Arab tensions. However, the document was still quite critical of Israel.

Danon praises Haley’s ‘uncompromising fight for truth’

The cooperation between Israel and the U.S. at the U.N. has been very close during the term of President Donald Trump, with his appointment of Nikki Haley as the U.S. ambassador. Haley stepped down December 31, prompting Ambassador Danon to issue a farewell statement on Tuesday, praising Haley as someone “who will always be a true friend to the State of Israel.

“Nikki, your uncompromising fight for the truth and against lies and terrorism will be remembered in the history books. I wish you and your family success on your journey,” said Danon on Twitter.

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Israeli Ambassador Danon will demand the U.N. Security Council confront the terror threat from Hezbollah on Wednesday. He will also provide evidence of collaboration between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. 

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet on Wednesday to discuss the exposure of Hezbollah’s cross-border tunnels running into Israel from Lebanon.

The discussion is taking place at the request of Israel and the U.S. and will focus on the violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted at the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The resolution includes restrictions on the arming of Hezbollah and its terrorist activities in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) agreed that the tunnels dug by the Lebanese terror group into Israel violate Security Council resolution 1701.

In a statement the U.N. force released Monday.“After further technical investigations conducted independently in accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL at this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue Line that demarcates the border between Israel and Lebanon. These constitute violations of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701,”

Before the U.N. discussion, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said that since UNIFIL “confirmed that Hezbollah tunnels are a flagrant violation of Resolution 1701, it is time for the Security Council to use all means necessary to confront this terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon, which has continued to grow under the Lebanese government.”

Danon said he “will show how these tunnels are just the beginning of a large-scale operation against Israel that Hezbollah has been planning and implementing for years.”

Israel has underscored the fact that the terror group dug the tunnels in order to infiltrate the country and carry out attacks. Hezbollah has not commented on the operation.

The IDF has so far exposed four Hezbollah tunnels in Operation Northern Shield. The mission to discover and neutralize more of them is expected to last several months.

Lebanese Army-Hezbollah link

One of the issues that Danon will emphasize is the Lebanese army’s cooperation, or at least it’s ignoring of Hezbollah’s tunnel project. Danon is expected to present intelligence materials – “conclusive proof,” as he put it – which attests to the coordination between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.

He will also share previously unpublished information on Hezbollah’s violations of Resolution 1701.

“There is a clear connection between parts of the Lebanese army and the Hezbollah terror organization, which help the terrorist organization expand its terror infrastructure in the country and destabilize the region,” Danon said.

“Under the Lebanese government, a tunnel city and factories for accurate missiles were built, which not only blatantly violate the U.N. resolution but endanger the residents of south Lebanon who serve as human shields. Israel will thwart any threat and will act with force against Hezbollah and anyone else who will try to harm its sovereignty.”

The UNSC has “already said clearly to Hezbollah that it must not arm itself and continue its terrorist activity against Israel, which has not prevented the organization from continuing its path and now trying to infiltrate Israeli territory through terrorist tunnels,” he said.

Israel has reiterated that Lebanon, and not only Hezbollah, well bear full responsibility for any offensive activity that would emanate from Lebanon.

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Netanyahu praised Bush’s “commitment to the security of Israel, his important contribution to the liberation of Soviet Jewry and his efforts to promote peace in the Middle East.”

By World Israel News Staff
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero and the 41st president of the United States whose leadership soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, died. He was 94.

Bush, who also presided during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the final months of the Cold War, passed away late Friday night at his Houston home, said family spokesman Jim McGrath.

Bush will be honored with a funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Saturday. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will attend, she said.

“On my behalf and on behalf of the citizens of Israel, I send heartfelt condolences to the Bush family and to the American people over the passing of a great American patriot, President George Herbert Walker Bush,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated. “His wise leadership at the end of the Cold War helped steer the world to a peaceful transition and the spread of democracy.

“The people of Israel will always remember his commitment to the security of Israel, his important contribution to the liberation of Soviet Jewry and his efforts to promote peace in the Middle East at the Madrid Conference,” Netanyahu said.

The Conference, held from October 30-November 1, 1991 in Madrid, hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union, was was an attempt by the international community to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process through negotiations, involving Israel and the Palestinians as well as Arab countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

“We have lost an American hero, George H.W. Bush, who fought in the killing fields of the Second World War, who knew to distinguish between good and evil and how to build strong regional coalitions against cruel tyrants,” President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement.

‘A true friend of Israel’

Bush “led his country with skill and wisdom at the end of the Cold War, and under his leadership our strategic relationship evolved into the strongest of alliances. The Jewish people will always remember his help in bringing the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel and his determination to ensure the Arab world recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.

“Personally and on behalf of the people of Israel, my deepest condolences to President George W Bush, a true friend of Israel, to Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Doro and their families. May his memory be for a blessing,” Rivlin said.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danon said that Bush “was always a true friend to Israel and the Jewish people, taking a stand against PLO terrorism and proving instrumental in helping saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. America lost a patriot and remarkable individual today. May he rest in peace.”

Bush is survived by four sons and a daughter: John, known as Jeb, the former Florida governor who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016; Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy; and George. His wife Barbara died in April. The couple lost a three-year-old daughter, Robin, to Leukemia in 1953.

Their son George W. Bush served as the 43rd US president from 2001 to 2009

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Israel’s Security Cabinet has instructed the military to continue its operations as necessary, based on briefings by the IDF and security officials.

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Israel has suspended all ceasefire contacts with the United Nations and Egypt, which have been attempting to forge a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, a senior diplomatic source said Tuesday, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Israel’s Security Cabinet instructed the IDF to continue its operations as necessary, based on briefings by the military and security officials.

The announcement came amid contradicting reports, confirmed by IDF Radio, regarding the prospects of ceasefire talks.

Israel’s south has come under a massive barrage of over hundred of rockets fired by Hamas terrorists from Gaza since Monday evening. One man was killed, while several others were wounded at various locations throughout the south; property and homes were damaged.

The UN and Egypt had been serving as mediators between Israel and Hamas, but Israel has ceased all discussions on the issue as the terrorist group has refused to hold its fire.

The “UN is working closely with Egypt and all concerned to ensure that Gaza steps back from the brink,” Nickolay Mladenov, the UN’s Middle East envoy, tweeted. “The escalation in the past 24hrs is EXTREMELY dangerous and reckless. Rockets must STOP, restraint must be shown by all! No effort must be spared to reverse the spiral of violence.”

A Western diplomat quoted by the Post reportedly said that these efforts were continuing and that the weeks-long effort to bring calm to the Gaza border were ongoing.

Earlier in the day, Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon appealed to the UN Security Council to condemn the deadly rocket attacks on innocent civilians and to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“Hamas has fired 400+ rockets into Israeli civilian centers. I call on the #UNSC to condemn Hamas in the strongest terms for its indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilian populations. It is time this body acknowledges and designates #Hamas as a terrorist organization,” he tweeted.

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Slamming b’Tselem’s anti-IDF presentation at the United Nations Security Council as “absurd,” Ambassador Danny Danon discussed in advance of the meeting Thursday his plan to demand condemnation of the Hamas terror group instead.

The post WATCH: Danon slams anti-IDF NGO’s lies, demands UN condemn Hamas appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon slammed B’Tselem for providing “moral cover for anti-Israel activities at the United Nations.”

By: Adina Katz, World Israel News

Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B’Tselem, an Israel-based NGO known for condemning Jerusalem’s policies with regard to the Palestinians, will appear before the United Nations Security Council in what Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon has labeled a “disgrace.”

The Council is scheduled to hold its quarterly discussion about the Middle East on Thursday. It will include an overview of the current situation by the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, as well as speeches by Danon, Palestinian Permanent Observer to the U.N. Riyad Mansour and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who will participate for her last time in this debate, having resigned from her position last week.

El-Ad’s opportunity to address the meeting, as a representative of civil society, came at the invitation of Bolivian Ambassador to the U.N. Sacha Llorenty, who is also serving as president of the Security Council this month.

B’Tselem, a left-wing Israeli organization, is known to organize demonstrations and disseminate material attacking the IDF and the Jewish state. NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel watchdog that demands transparency from NGOs and government funders, says that B’Tselem’s claims are marked by major omissions and distortions.

Danon: ‘Crossing a Red Line’

“B’Tselem, which has already proven that it cooperates with Israel’s enemies, is now working with a country that has called IDF soldiers ‘murderers,’” the Israeli envoy stated.

“This is a shame and a disgrace for the organization. It is also crossing a red line for foreign countries with anti-Israel agendas to finance and invite this organization to deliver ‘testimony’ against us,” he continued.

“Therefore, in this discussion, we will expose not only the lies and incitement of the Palestinians, but also those of Hagai El-Ad and B’Tselem. We will continue to defend Israel and the truth,” Danon declared.

In 2016, El-Ad joined harsh criticism of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria at a special meeting of the Security Council. “With every breath the Palestinians take they are breathing an occupation. Israel cannot call itself a democracy while occupying another people,” he claimed.

At that meeting, El-Ad called on the Council to take action against Israel, citing unsubstantiated claims by enemies of the Jewish state that Israeli security forces mistreat Palestinian civilians. Danon accused the B’Tselem director of providing “moral cover for anti-Israel activities at the United Nations.”

B’Tselem: Israel committing a ‘war crime’

In response to Danon’s comments, El-Ad vowed that his organization “will continue to document the reality of occupation which the government is trying so hard to conceal,” The Times of Israel reported. “It will do so this week as well, when Israel plans to commit the war crime of destroying the community of Khan al-Ahmar and expelling its residents. Withholding political rights from millions of people and holding them under military rule for generations is not an internal Israeli matter, it’s a clear international issue.”

The High Court of Justice, in agreement with the Civil Administration that no permission had been granted for building the illegal structures, recently ordered the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin hamlet situated near the Jewish city of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.

The location of the illegal structures is hazardous due to its proximity to a major highway. Khan al Ahmar is adjacent and overlooking the highway that connects Jerusalem to the south of Israel in a strategic area that bisects the country.

The state has offered alternative sites for the residents to relocate with an emphasis on keeping the community intact, but they have rejected all of them and any other compromises on the issue.

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Rouhani accused the US of trying to overthrow his government and rejected bilateral talks after Trump predicted stepped-up US sanctions would get Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program.

By: AP and World Israel News

Addressing world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the Trump administration of violating “state obligations” from the Obama administration by withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with the US and five other major powers.

“On what basis and criteria can we enter into an agreement with an administration misbehaving such as this?” Rouhani asked. “It is ironic that the U.S. government does not even conceal its plan for overthrowing the same government it invites to talks.”

Rouhani invited the US to come back to negotiations within the UN Security Council, which endorsed the nuclear deal. There, he said, both sides can listen to each other.

“Beginning the dialogue starts with ending threats and unjust sanctions that negate the principles of ethics and international law,” he said.

In remarks released while Rouhani was still talking, National Security Adviser John Bolton doubled down on the decision to withdraw from the deal, echoing his president’s strong language and using blunt language to dismiss any entreaties from Tehran. He called the scrapped Iran deal “the worst diplomatic debacle in American history.”

“According to the mullahs in Tehran, we are ‘the Great Satan,’ lord of the underworld, master of the raging inferno,” Bolton said in remarks prepared for delivery at a New York meeting convened to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“So, I might imagine they would take me seriously when I assure them today: If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be HELL to PAY,” Bolton said.

The capitalizations were included in the text of the quotes released to journalists.

‘Xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition’

Rouhani, in his General Assembly speech, targeted President Donald Trump in language if not directly in name. He condemned “recklessness and disregard of some states for international values and institutions.”

Rouhani laid into leaders who believe they can “ride public sentiments and gain popular support through the fomenting of extremist nationalism and racism” and through what he called “xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition.”

Trump, in his own speech, said Americans “reject the ideology of globalism” in favor of what he called “the doctrine of patriotism.” He also blasted what he called Iran’s “corrupt dictatorship.”

Rouhani also said US sanctions against his country amount to an “economic war” that’s disrupting trade and will harm people beyond Iran.

Trump’s administration has reinstated sanctions on Iran after pulling Washington out of the multinational 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. Trump says the deal was a “horrible” agreement that didn’t do enough to contain Iranian “aggression.”

Financing terror and preaching morality

“With one hand, Rouhani is financing global terrorism, and is trying to preach about morality to Israel, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon stated after the Iranian president’s speech.

“Iran’s actions spread terror around the world in a long and bloody path across continents. Had it not been for Tehran’s financial support, Hamas could not have dug terror tunnels into Israel and Hezbollah would not have built huge stockpiles of weapons. Rouhani’s words are detached from reality and only strengthen the policy of the world to exit the nuclear agreement and present a strong stance in the struggle for a safer world,” Danon said.

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“The president proves again that the US is on the right side of history,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said following Trump’s address to the General Assembly.

By: Adina Katz, World Israel News

In his address to the 73^rd session of the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, President Donald Trump repeated his determination to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, reiterating that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem advances that goal.

“I moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The United States is committed to a future of peace and stability in the region, including peace between the Israelis and Palestinians,” Trump stated.

“That aim is advanced, not harmed, by acknowledging the obvious facts,” he said.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon immediately praised Trump’s remarks.

“The president proves again that the US is on the right side of history. While standing on the side of Israel in the struggle for stability in the Middle East, the United States leads the United Nations into a new era that ends its obsession with Israel and pushes back against the Iranian regime,” Danon remarked.

Regarding Iran, Trump said the 2015 nuclear deal was a “windfall” for the Islamic Republic, whose leaders “sow chaos, death and destruction.”

“We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons,” he declared. “We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.”

The president also cited what he saw as America’s accomplishments at home — including, for example, low levels of unemployment and large tax cuts and reforms — and abroad, such as “historic change” in the Middle East, success in the fight against Radical Islam and signs of improvement in North Korea.

“We are standing up for America and for the American people, and we are also standing up for the world,” the president asserted.

For the full speech, click on the video below:

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“Shameful for the US to end its funding for UNRWA…. The UK must help to fill the gap by boosting its contributions,” Corbyn tweeted.

By: Adina Katz, World Israel News

While facing condemnation for his anti-Israel activism and charges of anti-Semitism from party members, world Jewish leaders and senior Israeli politicians, UK Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn added fuel to the fire by weighing in on Washington’s decision to stop funding UNRWA.

“Shameful for the US to end its funding for UNRWA, a vital UN refugee agency. The UK must help to fill the gap by boosting its contributions. Support for Palestinian refugees is a vital commitment until there is a just and viable settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict,” he tweeted on Saturday night.

The State Department announced Friday that the US, the largest contributor to UNRWA with $350 million in annual aid, will make no additional contributions to the agency.

The Palestinians, who reacted in fury to the move, claim refugee status for five million people, which includes millions of descendants of the approximately 700,000 original refugees who were living in British Mandatory Palestine, or what is now the State of Israel, and were displaced during the 1948 War of Independence.

These descendants of refugees, supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), live in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The majority of the original refugees are no longer alive.

Speaking Sunday morning on the occasion of the first day of the new school year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added comments praising the US decision.

Netanyahu: US made a ‘welcome and important change’

Referring to Jewish refugees from Europe and from Arab lands, he said that the State of Israel “did not leave them as refugees; we turned them into equal citizens, who contribute, in our state.

“This is not what is happening with the Palestinians,” he added. “There they created a unique institution, 70 years ago, not to absorb the refugees but to perpetuate them. Therefore, the US has done a very important thing by halting the financing for the refugee perpetuation agency known as UNRWA. It is finally beginning to resolve the problem. The funds must be taken and used to genuinely help rehabilitate the refugees, the true number of which is much smaller than the number reported by UNRWA. This is a welcome and important change and we support it.”

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon issued a statement, saying, “We welcome the US’ decision as UNRWA has proven itself an impediment to resolving the conflict by keeping the Palestinians in perpetual refugee status. The Palestinian attempt to approach the UN is another empty statement.

“It’s about time that the Palestinian leadership abandoned its victimhood and incitement campaign and took concrete steps to improve the Palestinians future,” he added.

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Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon expressed shock at the collaboration between Arab Knesset members and the Palestinian Mission to the UN and beseeched Chairman of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein to take the appropriate steps in response.

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