1) At the JCPA, Alan Baker discusses the UN Human Rights Council’s latest ‘inquiry’.
“As is evident from its title and mandate, the resolution chooses to single-out only Israel, alleging violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Israel, as well as systematic discrimination and repression prior to and during the 2021 hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
The inquiry commission’s mandate ignores that it was the Hamas terror organization ruling the Gaza Strip that initiated the wave of hostilities for which the commission was established. […]
The unique one-sidedness and permanence of this “independent” inquiry commission is inherent in the fact that it ignores the terror organization Hamas, whose basic and declared purpose is to destroy Israel and terrorize its population.”
2) David May of the FDD looks at the background to the Dutch government’s decision to cut funding to a Palestinian NGO.
“With evidence mounting, institutions worldwide have started to cut ties with the PFLP NGO network. In recent years, credit card companies have terminated services to al Haq, the UAWC, and the DCI-P for their ties to the PFLP. As of December 2021, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed that they would no longer provide services to the UAWC and DCI-P respectively.
But these NGOs have received tens of millions of dollars from the United Nations, the European Union , European charities , and individual European countries , particularly Sweden, Spain, and Norway.”
3) At the JISS, Uzi Rubin explains why ‘Iran’s Drones Tip the Balance of Power in the Middle East’.
“Iran has been developing and expanding its Unmanned Air Vehicles1 fleets ever since the 1980s. They now comprise a wide spectrum of types that range in size and function from aircraft size, high flying reconnaissance UAVs to small, low-cost “suicide” ones. Until fairly recently, Israel’s military regarded the threat from Iran’s UAVs – either operated by Iran’s armed forces or by their proxies in the region – as a minor component of the overall military threat, compared to the major strategic threat from Iran’s fleet of ballistic missiles and its proxies’ rockets deployed in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza.
This view seems to have changed dramatically, judging by recent reports in the Israeli and US media and strong statements made by Israel’s leadership.”
4) Jonathan Spyer analyses recent Iranian attacks in Iraq.
“A series of bomb and grenade attacks have taken place over the last week in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. They were directed at financial facilities and political offices associated with a number of factions currently taking part in negotiations toward the formation of a new Iraqi government. These incidents follow a number of rocket and drone attacks on US and coalition facilities in Iraq and Syria. The latter came after the marking of the second anniversary of the killing of IRGC/Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Units leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis by the US on January 3, 2020.
There is no great mystery regarding who is responsible for these incidents. Given the nature of the targets, they were clearly carried out by pro-Iran elements. But the timing and nature of the incidents, and their intensity, are significant.”
Note that U.S. mass media does not routinely even mention the Iran-sponsored militant/terrorist organizations in direct connection with Iran’s own obvious military activities.
So the American public in the States at least, if not in Canada, rarely sees this as a more coherent whole in terms of an ongoing vital national security concern for Israel, most directly since these groups are based in bordering countries, as well as the U.S.