In this mailing:
- Bassam Tawil: Palestinians: Why
Abbas Cannot Stop Funding Terrorists
- Maria Polizoidou: Greece: A
Drug-Smuggling Case with Global Implications
by Bassam Tawil • June 26, 2017
at 5:00 am
- This
is their way of expressing their gratitude to those who have
chosen to "sacrifice" their lives by trying to
murder Jews. It is also their way of encouraging young people
to join the war of terrorism against Israel. The financial aid
sends a specific message: Palestinians who are prepared to die
in the service of murdering Jews need not worry about the
welfare of their families.
- The
more years a Fatah terrorist serves in Israeli prison, the
higher the salary he or she receives. Some Fatah terrorists
held in Israeli prison are said to receive monthly stipends of
up to $4,000. Many of them are also rewarded with top jobs in
both Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Why should any
Palestinian go to university and search for a job when he can
make a "decent living" murdering Jews?
- Such
a plan to dry up the funds that support terrorists and their
families, is doomed from the start unless these leaders reverse
their behavior and embark on a process of de-radicalizing
their people.
In his
recent meeting with US presidential envoys Jason Greenblatt (left)
and Jared Kushner (center) in Ramallah, an enraged Mahmoud Abbas
(right) rejected their demand that he halt payments to terrorists
and their families. (Photo by Thaer Ghanaim/PPO via Getty Images)
For the record, this is not a defense of Palestinian
Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas or of funding terrorists. It
is simply an explanation of what is taking place. Nonetheless, it
is worth noting that the idea of ending payments to Palestinian
terrorists and their families is a challenging one, to say the
least. Old habits, especially of hate, are hard to break.
The practice of paying salaries to terrorists and
the families of "martyrs" is as old as the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964. It did
not start after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA)
in 1994. Nor did this practice start after Abbas was elected as
president of the PA in January 2005.
Prior to the establishment of the PA, the PLO relied
solely on Arab and Islamic financial aid to pay salaries to
imprisoned terrorists and the families of those killed in terror attacks
against Israel.
by Maria Polizoidou • June 26,
2017 at 4:00 am
- If
even the partial information that Efthimios (Makis)
Yiannousakis revealed during the interviews is true, the upper
echelons of Greek society have good reason to want to silence
him.
- The
true culprit, however, is the "deep state" and its
links to Iran, through the drug trade. It is an open secret by
now that heroin revenues are used by Middle East regimes to
fund terrorist and other questionable organizations, such as
ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The case of
the Noor 1 illustrates one of the ways that both the drugs
themselves and terrorist operations are exported to Europe.
- The
possible direct and indirect involvement of figures at the
highest levels of Greek society makes it nearly impossible for
the government alone to get to the bottom of the case, and
protect key witnesses from bodily harm. It needs help now,
preferably from the U.S. Justice Department and security
agencies. The complete dismantling of the drug-terrorism
circuit is not only a pressing issue for Greece. It is an international
security imperative.
Greek
Defense Minister Panos Kammenos. (Photo by Yorgos
Karahalis-POOL/Getty Images)
New details surrounding a three-year-old
drug-smuggling case in Greece are causing a political storm that
could have global implications.
In June 2014, the Greek Coast Guard uncovered and
seized 986 kilograms of heroin stashed in a warehouse in a suburb
of Athens, and another 1,133 kilograms in two other locations,
claiming that the more than two tons of drugs -- valued at $30
million -- had been smuggled on a tanker, the "Noor 1,"
from the "territorial waters between Oman and Pakistan."
As was reported by Gatestone last December, the
heroin, which was to be distributed throughout Europe -- in
addition to 18 tons of oil also smuggled on the Noor 1 --
originated in Iran. Two years later, in August 2016, a criminal
court in Piraeus sentenced five of the defendants, two Greeks and
three foreign nationals, to life imprisonment. Among these was the
(now former) owner of the Noor 1, Efthimios (Makis) Yiannousakis.
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