STATE DEPT. MOVES TO STRIKE SHURAT HADIN'S UNRWA LAWSUIT
Attorneys for the US Department of State have filed a motion in the Washington DC District Court, to strike the lawsuit brought by the Shurat HaDin Law Center seeking to block future funding of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (“UNRWA”).
In February 2024, Shurat HaDin filed for a permanent injunction against the Dept. of State, on behalf of 8,000 plaintiffs, demanding that the US stop its financial support for the UN body found to have been deeply controlled by the Hamas terror organization in Gaza. The complaint alleges that UNRWA officials, employees and facilities were involved in the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians. The plaintiffs argued that more than a 1,000 UNRWA employees are, in fact, Hamas terrorists and more than 6,000 other identified terrorists are family members of UNRWA employees. In addition, it was revealed that UNRWA's employees participated in the actual massacre and the kidnapping of Israelis, some of whom were even held by UNRWA personnel in their Gaza homes. Furthermore, many, if not all, of UNRWA facilities in Gaza were being utilized by Hamas.
The US is UNRWA's major donor, with more than $4 billion of taxpayers' money already given to UNRWA over the years. In 2023 alone, the U.S. support for UNRWA has reached a record high of $422 million.
The Dept.of State's motion to dismiss argues that the US has already suspended its funding to UNRWA and that the plaintiffs' lawsuit is moot and, moreover, that they lack proper standing to challenge US foreign aid and policy. The US contends that the plaintiffs cannot allege that they might be subjected to future harm and injury from UNRWA, as it is a "hypothetical risk" and a claimed injury cannot be “remote, speculative, conjectural, or hypothetical . . . An injury must be certainly impending to constitute injury-in-fact," and that “allegations of possible future injury are not sufficient.” In addition, the Dept. of State contends that there is no way to prove that US aid to UNRWA was directly responsible for the Hamas terrorism that resulted in the murder, maiming, raping and incineration of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.
In response, attorneys for Shurat HaDin and the 8,000 plaintiffs intend to argue that the current suspension of funding to UNRWA is only temporary and will no doubt eventually be resumed by the Dept. of State despite all the evidence of UNRWA's involvement with Hamas and its terrorism against Israel. Our lawsuit is demanding a permanent injunction against US aid to this criminal agency. UNRWA simply cannot be reformed; it needs to be dismantled and replaced. Moreover, there is a direct correlation between funding to UNRWA, the Dept. of State's lack of oversight and supervision and the aiding and abetting of Hamas' terror.
We will also argue that the Dept. of State has completely ignored the lawsuit's demand that the funds already provided to UNRWA by US taxpayers be recovered as they were given in violation of US regulations. The Dept. of State was obligated to carry out due diligence to ensure that no US aid was provided to individuals affiliated with anti-Israel terror and that UNRWA officials, employees and facilities were not being utilized for terrorist recruitment, training, communications or the storing of Hamas weapons. It is obvious that the US fraudulently provided funding to UNRWA in violation of these restrictions, that there was extreme negligence in not supervising UNRWA and that American law requires that the money be clawed back from the UN.
Potential New Leadership
By Sherwin Pomerantz
While the war in Gaza and the border activity with Lebanon continue, in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank) there is also activity. Earlier today it was announced that Capt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, from Hadera, an IDF sniper team commander, fell during operational activity in the area of Jenin. During the incident in which Capt. Alon Sacgiu fell, another soldier was severely wounded as well. Sacgui was killed during a complex operation in which 15 additional soldiers were wounded.
In the incident, an armored vehicle drove over a road where there was a planted explosive device underground, according to Israeli media reports. Following the damage to the vehicle, an engineering vehicle arrived at the scene to extricate it. Shortly afterward, another armored vehicle arrived, and soldiers disembarked to assist those in the first vehicle. However, they stepped on a second explosive device that was planted there. In addition to the soldier who was severely wounded, five were moderately wounded, including an officer and a paramedic. Additionally, ten soldiers were lightly wounded, including an officer and a reservist. The soldiers were operating in Jenin against Hamas infrastructure in the area.
Regarding US aid to Israel, Israel has received $6.5 billion in security aid from the United States since October 7, according to a report by The Washington Post. The report added that nearly half of the aid lasted through May 2024, 7 months after the start of the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza. “This is a massive, massive undertaking,” a senior administration official told The Washington Post. He added that the totals indicate how deep and complex Israel's relationship with the United States is. This aid was a topic of conversation with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his delegation to Washington this week.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged that the Biden administration has been slowing down military assistance to Israel. The official said that in order to counter this allegation of bottlenecking, US arms transfer experts went through "hundreds of separate items" with counterparts, accompanied by Gallant on his visit. The purpose of Gallant's trip was partly to smooth over increasingly tense relations and illustrate a different Israeli attitude toward American aid, according to the Washington Post report.
On the Lebanese border, after repeatedly warning that Israel is gearing up to take military action against Hezbollah’s non-stop rocket fire, the IDF has quietly transferred additional troops to the northern border with Lebanon. The move to significantly bolster the number of soldiers in the north, including transferring units which had previously fought in the Gaza Strip, may suggest that a major confrontation is likely in the near future. According to a Channel 12 report, a large number of combat soldiers moved to the border area participated in a “large-scale training exercise.” The troops practiced for “extreme scenarios, fighting in hilly and mountainous terrain…and combat in urban areas.” Although Israel has said it would prefer to see a diplomatic solution to the conflict, officials have warned that the current security situation is no longer tolerable.
Since October 8th, Hezbollah has rained down thousands of missiles, rockets, and explosive drones on northern Israel, displacing at least 60,000 Israelis from their homes. Israel has demanded that the terror group abide by UN Resolution 1701, which requires Hezbollah to keep its fighters north of the Litani River. Both the terms of the resolution and Israel’s requests from the international community to enforce it have been widely ignored.
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday during a diplomatic visit to Washington D.C. “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage” should the fighting escalate, he said. Gallant added that Israel can bomb Lebanon “back to the Stone Age.”
In recent days, the Foreign Ministries of Canada, Germany, and Holland warned their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country while they still could, due to the potential for a full-blown war to break out between Israel and Hezbollah.
Earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech in which he threatened a terrorist invasion of the Galilee, reminiscent of the October 7th terror onslaught, should Israel engage further with the terror group.
On the topic of potential new leadership for Israel, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave a speech at the recent Cybertech conference here which gives many of us hope for a new beginning once we go to elections. You might want to listen to it here, it will lift your spirits…..
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The son of the founder of Hamas speaks out and has a new book .
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If anyone understands the mentality of Hamas, and all of the Islamic resistance groups, it is the son of one of the seven founders of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef. Otherwise known as “The Green Prince”, EMET has developed a very close personal relationship with Mosab, since we honored him in 2010. It is our profound pleasure to be able to interview Mosab, who has been through a very arduous and difficult journey away from his deep roots within the Muslim Brotherhood, and its Palestinian branch, Hamas.
Mosab has been making a great come back lately and has been on many national and international television programs. For example, please see his brilliant remarks on a recent edition of Piers Morgan.
Mosab will discuss the war in Gaza, what is happening in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah, the Iranian and Qatari relationship to Hamas, and what is taking place within our nation, particularly on US college campuses.
About the Speaker: Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in Ramallah in 1978. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is a founding leader of Hamas, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization and responsible for countless suicide bombings and other deadly attacks against Israel. Yousef was an integral part of the movement, for which he was imprisoned several times by the Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service. He withstood torture in prison only to discover Hamas was torturing its own people in a relentless search for collaborators. He began to question who his enemies really were—Israel? Hamas? America? While in an Israeli prison, Yousef was approached about becoming a spy for the Shin Bet. Initially, Yousef accepted it with the idea that he would betray them and in hopes he could use the role to protect his father and family. Later, as Yousef saw the hypocrisy within Hamas and became a Christian, he used the position to save lives on both sides of the conflict. Yousef worked as a double agent within Hamas for nearly 10 years. He became a vital intelligence asset for the Israeli government while Yousef served side-by-side with his father within the upper ranks of Hamas. After a chance encounter with a British tourist, Yousef started a six-year quest that jeopardized Hamas, endangered his family and threatened his life. He was granted political asylum in the United States.
His first book, part history and part biography, is called Son of Hamas. He has a new book coming out soon, called The Last Prophet.
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Trump Knocks It Out Of The Park
Attached is a link to A Video INTERVIEW OF TRUMP BY several successful tech executives from Silicon Valley who interview a wide variety of folks. They have no agenda other than truth and curiosity. Serious people left the mainstream media decades ago and learned about the world from citizen journalists like these and others like them.
This is one of the greatest interviews of Trump and I urge all to at least listen and draw your own conclusions.
Trump is clear and direct in his responses and he, potentially, will blow Biden away. Anyone who continues to believe Trump is not knowledgeable, and does not have clear, rational solutions to our nation's problems is beyond prejudiced. I can only say they are simply pig headed.
Trump addresses the various problems our nation is conflicted by head on and in clear and in a, more or less, succinct manner.
I am making this a brief essay because I believe the video speaks for itself.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-conversation-with-president-trump/id1502871393?i=1000659680213
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