Israel Has Destroyed Iran's Nuclear Arsenals Says Ariel Cohen
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fact check: Netanyahu, Smotrich's claim of $1b. Biden aid to judicial reform foes debunked
Netanyahu's endorsement of the false claim came in the form of the sharing of a post by the Likud party from Friday afternoon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and other members of the government and coalition falsely claimed on Saturday and Sunday that the former US administration led by President Joe Biden provided nearly 1 billion dollars in aid to Israeli groups who protested the government's controversial 2023 judicial reforms. Netanyahu's endorsement of the false claim came in the form of the sharing of a post by the Likud party from Friday afternoon. The Likud's post citeda report by the US Committee on the Judiciary published a day earlier. According to the Likud and Netanyahu, "An official document published by the US Congress reveals astonishing information confirming what many have long suspected: the previous US administration transferred close to a billion dollars to left-wing organizations in Israel." The data provided by the report, however, show that the maximum government funds that reached the protest groups in question were less than $600,000. The Likud and Netanyahu called the efforts an attempt to "undermine the rule of a democratically elected, stable right-wing government,' adding that "as part of the attempt to overthrow the government, external pressures were applied, leading to a deep social rift, encouragement of disobedience, and dangerous divisions within Israeli society." In a conference on Sunday morning, Smotrich repeated the false claim. 'Over the weekend, a report was released by the US Congress Judiciary Committee revealing that nearly one billion dollars were transferred to approximately 1,000 NGOs with the aim of dismantling the right-wing government and the broader national camp. This is reportedly being supported not only through funding but also by the mobilization of media and academia in service of this campaign.' 'If anyone is wondering what the government has had to face from the moment it was formed, and what challenges it continues to contend with, this event must be understood first, before delving into discussions about its achievements, successes, and failures,' Smotrich concluded. The report listed a large number of anti-judicial reform organizations and cited various funding sources. However, a large majority of the funds listed in the report either did not originate from the US government or did not reach the organizations in question. The report noted that Congress's Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 26 sent letters to six US and Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to request 'documents related to any grants, cooperative agreements, or other awards received from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) or State Department.' The NGOs in question The six NGOs were Blue and White Future, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Peace Dialogue Network, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA). According to the report, the organizations produced 380 total documents. According to the report, between 2021-2024 PEF Israel Endowment Funds, which provided some 18 million USD to the protest group Blue and White Future (BWF), received some $187,000 from the RPA, which itself received approximately 50 million USD in grants from the Biden administration during the same period. The report does not specify whether the $187,000 of aid were part of the funds transferred to the protest groups, nor how much of it was received after the protests began in early 2023. The report mentions a second grant as originating in the RPA that reached anti-judicial reform groups. According to the report, between 2021-2024 RPA donated $557,000 to its 'affiliate and partner' Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), which in 2023 donated $370,000 to three groups affiliated with the protests – Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), New Israel Fund (NIF), and 'Brothers and Sisters in Arms.' Following the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, the latter organization ceased protests and launched a logistics center based on philanthropy and volunteers to assist IDF reservists and civilian evacuees. The report did not specify whether or not the RBF funds were given before or after October 7. The report also mentions $42,000 in direct aid from the US government to the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG). MQG was a central organization in the protests, but the funds in question were earmarked for educational activities for students in the 11th and 12th grades. A series of other contributions listed in the report to a number of organizations either did not originate in US federal funding, or did not reach protest organizations. The Likud claim about nearly 1 billion USD in aid may have originated in a stat in the report, noting that PEF Israel Endowment Funds, according to which 'between 2021 and 2024, PEF, a US-based tax-exempt entity, provided more than $884 million to over 1,000 Israeli organizations, including groups involved in the judicial reform.' However, the report does not provide proof of any state funding that may have reached PEF other than the aforementioned $187,000, and the sum of grants that the report lists as originating from the US government is below $600,000. The actual number is likely far less, since the grants in question were provided between 2021-2024 and therefore likely came in part before the announcement of the judicial reforms in January 2023. The report also assumes that the grants provided by RPA came specifically from its income from federal funds, even though the organization receives private funding as well. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Biden-era tax dollars funded anti-Netanyahu, judicial reform protest groups, US gov't report finds
The investigation also revealed that the administration may have funded groups with ties to US-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas. United States tax dollars may have been used to fund protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reform plan during the Biden-Harris administration, an investigation published by the US House of Representatives on Thursday revealed. In March, The Jerusalem Post reported that six US and Israeli NGOs were being investigated by the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees to ascertain whether funding they allegedly received from the Biden administration was utilized for the judicial reform protests in 2023. The Committee's oversight also revealed that the Biden-Harris Administration provided grant funds to groups that 'contributed directly and indirectly to the judicial reform protests that sought to undermine the Israeli government,' the investigation stated. Among the groups that received the largest amount of funding were Blue and White Future and the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel. 'Under Israeli law, BWF's direct involvement in the protests and plots against Prime Minister Netanyahu's government 'may constitute a violation of the law and the conditions of the Registrar of Associations in Israel by 'operating outside of its stated goals' as a nonprofit organization, the investigation stated. Funding groups with ties to terror groups Additionally, the investigation suggested that the Biden-Harris administration 'potentially funded groups with ties to US-designated terrorist organizations.' Notably, the Gaza-based NGO Bayader Association for Environment and Development has received nearly one million dollars in US funding since 2016, despite 'openly collaborat[ing] with Hamas officials, including holding joint events with Hamas leaders.' The most recent grant issued by USAID to Bayader was on October 1, 2023, a week before the October 7 massacre. 'These ties are not new,' the investigation stated. 'For instance, in 2021, Bayader's annual report notes 'coordination' and 'meetings' with Hamas's Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Agriculture.' In 2023, a Bayader staff member was seen embracing senior Hamas officials, including the son of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The investigation is still ongoing, and will be expanded to include additional American and Israeli NGOs that may be involved in 'funneling US government funds with the purpose of undermining the Israeli government or for the support or fiscal sponsorship of terrorist groups.' Netanyahu, Likud call efforts an 'attempt to undermine rule of democratically elected' right-wing government Netanyahu shared the Likud Party's statement in a post to X/Twitter on Friday, calling the efforts an attempt to "undermine the rule of a democratically elected, stable right-wing government." "As part of the attempt to overthrow the government, external pressures were applied, leading to a deep social rift, encouragement of disobedience, and dangerous divisions within Israeli society." "Worse still, the document reveals that the same hand funding left-wing political NGOs in Israel also funded, through intermediary organizations, groups associated with Hamas and international campaigns against the State of Israel." "What we have been saying for years is now being revealed before everyone's eyes. This is not a theory, it is not a conspiracy – it is a proven fact backed by official documents," Netanyahu and the Likud's statement read.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
What does it mean IDF's laser will be fully deployed within four months?
Israel's enemies have known that 85%-95% of their short-range rockets would be shot down by Iron Dome. But they also knew some would get through. In dual revelations on May 28 and June 4, the IDF and Rafael said they have developed three laser platforms to use for air defense, and that one of the platforms shot down about 40 Hezbollah drones last fall. They also confirmed earlier announcements that the laser would be fully and regularly deployed by the end of 2025, which is now only four months away. How will this change Israeli security and life on the home front? There are several aspects that need to be addressed to answer that question. The most important one, cost, has been the most covered so far. Iron Dome interceptors currently cost Israel $40,000 to $100,000. Before the war, Hamas spent an estimated $300 to $800 on its cheaper rockets, with costs less well-known regarding some of its better rockets. Iron Beam, Iron Beam M (mobile), and Lite Beam cost almost nothing, since each time they fire, it is equivalent in many ways to turning on a light with a brief burst of electricity. Less covered has been how Israeli lasers will project greater power to intimidate enemies from even bothering to fire short-range rockets and drones. These lasers can shoot down threatening projectiles much faster and earlier in their trajectory, because a laser moves basically at the speed of light. They can also fire multiple laser beams at once to provide wider defense coverage than one defensive shot by Iron Dome. How motivated will a Hamas or Hezbollah terrorist be to keep firing rockets when he sees the rocket shot down just over his head shortly after it leaves its launcher and long before it gets into any position of being able to be a threat? Israel's enemies have known that 85%-95% of their short-range rockets would be shot down by Iron Dome. But they also knew some would get through, and they got to watch their rockets sail off into the distance, with the moment they were shot down usually being too far off for them to see. This change of hitting the threatening rocket or drone much earlier in their trajectory could also extraordinarily change life on the home front. Until now, as soon as Israel's enemies' rockets lifted off, IDF warning sirens had to go off in a number of areas to give civilians enough time to reach safe rooms and bomb shelters should the rocket succeed at striking a residential area. If the lasers can shoot down the rockets earlier in their trajectory, there may be no need to activate the air-raid sirens. The psychological war, in which Israel's enemies feel they have accomplished something by getting two million Israelis to run into safe areas in the middle of the night, even if they do not kill anyone, could be removed, thereby decreasing the motivation for firing such rockets. Terrorist organizations have been shown to adapt But Hezbollah and Hamas have shown they can learn and adapt. After all, the tunnel, rocket, and drone threats were all adaptations to use asymmetric, cheap weapons against Israel in areas where the Jewish state's defenses were costlier and less hermetic. One alternative would be for these groups to switch to the Iranian and Houthi ballistic-missile threat. Their problem would be that ballistic missiles are a much more complex operation to build, set up to fire, train firing teams, conceal before firing, and pay for. But if they can gain ballistic missiles, the lasers would likely still be useless for now, with a range limited to about 10 kilometers and focused on following much slower targets. The Arrow 2 and 3 missile-defense systems shoot down ballistic missiles much higher in the Earth's atmosphere, a place where lasers are not even close to reaching. Lasers lose their intensity over distance, especially if they have to travel through clouds and other inclement weather. No one knows how long it will take to provide lasers that can shoot down long-range threats such as ballistic missiles, but no one is even really working on that yet. Given how long it took to develop Iron Beam, a 10-year waiting period could be a realistic prediction, and a lot can change in war and security in 10 years. There is another time factor that could delay Iron Beam's effectiveness. Each shot is cheap, but producing enough laser batteries for it to be used on a large-scale basis, like Iron Dome, will be very expensive. Iron Dome was first deployed in 2011, but there was a limited number of batteries. The real number is classified, but over time, public reports have placed the number of Iron Dome batteries as high as 12. How long will it take to produce enough Iron Beam batteries to cover what 12 Iron Dome batteries can cover? While it will probably take less than 10 years, it will also probably take more than a year or two. Make no mistake, the Iron Beam is a game changer, but it still may take some time for that change to be fully felt. Solve the daily Crossword
