1209: No major rival for Abbas in the Palestinian election; & What is to be done? Malcolm Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres; @ThadMcCotter, @theamgreatness

Published: Feb. 23, 2021, 4:54 a.m.

Image: Mahmoud Abbas (far right) in Moscow at the opening of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque.  Photo: www.kremlin.ru (http://www.kremlin.ru/) .  Abbas, Vladimir Putin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin) , and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recep_Tayyip_Erdo%C4%9Fan) opened Moscow's Cathedral Mosque (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Cathedral_Mosque) , 23 September 2015.   Malcolm Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres, Conference of Presidents, in re:   the announced Palestinian elections. Will they be held?  Often an election is announced there and never comes.  Mahmoud Abbas at age 84 is still manipulating it; he’s thought not to allow any election. An alternative slate is forming called on Marwan Barghouti (who’s still in jail)) to stand on a united slate. Palestinians are tired of and upset at the enormous Palestinian kleptocracy. SO far, no one has emerged to run against Abbas, which controls all the mechanisms.   Money missing: 2020 budget no longer has Ministry of Prison Affairs, which has been giving major aid to murderers; looks as though $157 million has gone to terrorists, who also get free medical coverage and education. Officials tried to  hide it in the PLO budget.   Iran: Speaker of the Majlis said any discussions with the IAEA goes beyond what’s permissible. No snapback. “Parliamentary law must be implemented this week” – to 60% enrichment; 90% is weapons-grade. Zarif said if Israel attacks it’ll be suicide for Israel. Uranium metal . . .  particles found.  Iran and Russia having talks; supposedly, Iran is sending certain excess nuclear material to Russia for reprocessing.   IAEA demands to know where a lot of nuclear material is coming from.  No answer. All the components of a nuclear program are  emerging.   Building a war-crimes case against Assad. A photographer who was ordered to keep photos of the dead (reminiscent of the Nazis’s careful record-keeping); he smuggled out thousands of pictures of people who’d been tortured to death, including children; bombing hospitals, gassing of innocents.   Arrow 4 defense system. New technology, a game-changer.  https://jcpa.org/pitfalls-on-the-way-to-palestinian-elections-in-the-territories/