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law enforcement units in order to crack down on rampant rioting and looting.
Mohammed Adamu vowed to put an end to the “violence, killings, looting and destruction of property” on Sunday. In a meeting with Nigerian police commanders, Adamu said that “enough is enough” and ordered officers to “use all legitimate means to halt a further slide into lawlessness.”
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Looting continued unabated throughout Nigeria on Sunday, with shops and malls being torched in Lagos, the country’s largest city. Homes and businesses belonging to prominent lawmakers were attacked while the city’s largest prison was set ablaze.
The looting spread to the central city of Jos, followed by the states of Adama and Taraba. In the city of Bukurum, a large market was destroyed, with looters making off with food and electronics.
The looting comes after two weeks of demonstrations across the country deteriorated into violence and anarchy, At least 70 people have been killed since tens of thousands of Nigerians took to the streets on October 7 to protest what they say is the consistent violence meted out by the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS. The unit is accused of engaging in a slew of illegal activities, including extrajudicial killings, kidnapping, and extortion.
The protests have continued despite President Buhari ordering the police unit shuttered, with demonstrators demanding additional reforms in Nigeria’s government and the legal system. Last Tuesday, the African country was rocked when police and the military killed 12 unarmed citizens in the city of Lagos.
The protests turned violent after the shootings, with the looting spreading from Lagos to cities throughout the African country. The disturbances continued despite a 24hour curfew the government imposed in an effort to curb the rioting.
Mashup in Malaysia?
Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah refused a request by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to implement a state of emergency in order to battle
the coronavirus pandemic.
The King explained his refusal by saying that he did not see the need for embarking on such a disruptive measure.
“Al-Sultan Abdullah is of the opinion that there is no need at the moment for His Majesty to declare an emergency in the country or in any part of the country of Malaysia,” said the palace. “His Majesty is confident in the ability of the government under the leadership of the prime minister to continue to implement policies and enforcement efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The King’s opposition is another blow for Muhyiddin’s bid to remain in power, as the government is slated to vote on the 2021 budget next month. With only a razor-thin minority in parliament and a coalition marked by rampant division and infighting, the budget’s passage is not guaranteed.
Should it fail to pass, the government would automatically dissolve and new elections would be triggered. The State of Emergency would have delayed the vote, granting Muhyiddin more time to marshal support. With the King’s refusal to approve the move, Muhyiddin faces the prospect of being ousted by opposition leader
Anwar Ibrahim,
Senior Al-Qaeda Leader Killed
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Abu Muhsin al-Masri, a high ranking al-Qaeda terrorist on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, was killed in a raid by Afghani special forces last week.
Al-Masri, an Egyptian who was al-Qaeda’s second-in-command in India, was located in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. He was killed in the resulting shoot-out with security forces while his personal assistant was taken into custody.
Chris Miller, the commander of the U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center, confirmed that the notorious terror leader was killed. According to Miller, his “removal…from the battlefield is a major setback to a terrorist organization that is consistently experiencing strategic losses facilitated by the United States and its partners.”
Miller added that the death of such a high-ranking figure “highlights the diminishing effectiveness of the terrorist organization.” Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi said on Sunday that Al-Masri had been responsible for nurturing the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Al-Masri had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List ever since a U.S. court charged him in 2018 with providing support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. His death came on the 19th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of the war-torn country following the 9/11 terror attacks.
At the time, al-Qaeda was viewed as the world’s most fearsome and dangerous terror organization. The group has since splintered following battles with ISIS and almost two decades of U.S. counterterror efforts in Afghanistan. Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo estimated that only 200 al-Qaeda members remain in Afghanistan.
Sudan to Normalize Relations
Following months of negotiations with the United States, Sudan announced after it will embark on a process that will end with full normalization between the African Arab country and Israel.
Sudan has long been an enemy of Israel, having fought the Jewish State in 1948 and later holding Khartoum’s famous “3 No’s” summit in 1967,
vowing to never recognize Zionism. But after President Trump agreed to remove Sudan from the terror-supporting blacklist, Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk dropped his opposition to the deal.
The official announcement occurred on Friday following a phone call between President Trump, Sudanese interim council chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The three countries said in a joint statement that Khartoum “agreed to the normalization of relations between Sudan and Israel and to end the state of belligerence between their nations” and “agreed to begin economic and trade relations, with an initial focus on agriculture”.
“The leaders also agreed that delegations will meet in the coming weeks to negotiate agreements of cooperation in those areas as well as in agriculture, technology, aviation, migration issues, and other areas for the benefit of the two peoples. The leaders also resolved to work together to build a better future and advance the cause of peace in the region,” added the statement.
The decision is not final, however, until Sudan’s parliament will ratify future agreement with the Jewish State.
“This is an agreement to normalize; it is not yet normalization,” acting Foreign Minister Omar Gamereldin clarified. “We must wait for Sudan’s democratic institutions to be functional, including the legislative council, so we can complete the rati-
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fication of this step so it can become, in reality, normalization.”
He added, “The government cannot unilaterally complete the process of normalization because the government is the Sovereign Council, the Council of Ministers and the Legislative Council.”
Sudan’s decision to normalize its ties with Israel comes after Sudan committed to compensate American victims of terrorism. The United States had removed the African country from the list of terror-supporting countries despite Khartoum’s initial attempt to keep the two issues separate.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who played a key role in hammering out the agreement, said that making peace with Israel and removing Sudan from the list “both have one thing in common: They made sense for the Sudanese people.” He added that Sudan “did all the things that they needed to do.”
The Palestinians condemned the move, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) calling it a “serious stab in the back of the Palestinian and Sudanese people.” Opposition in Sudan also blasted any attempt to “normalize the Zionist enemy,” asserting that it would jeopardize the transitional government currently ruling the country.
The National Ummah Party, the Sudanese Baath Party, and the Popular Congress Party, three of Sudan’s largest factions, put out a joint statement vowing to oppose any peace agreement with Israel. Scattered demonstrations also broke out in Khartoum on Friday against normalization, with protesters burning Israeli and U.S. flags.
“This statement contradicts the Sudanese national law…and contributes to the elimination of the peace project in the Middle East and to preparing for the ignition of a new war,” said former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.
F-35 Fallout
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz publicly bickered after Israel said that it wouldn’t stop the United States from selling the F-35 fighter jet to the United Arab Emirates.
Widely seen as the best air-toground fighter jet in the world, the F-35 joint strike fighter boasts advanced avionics and unprecedented stealth capabilities. Israel had agreed to pay its exorbitant price tag in 2010 after the U.S. promised not to sell it to any of its neighbors.
But after the UAE and Israel signed a peace deal in September, Abu Dhabi submitted a formal request to purchase the cutting-edge military hardware. Israel was thought to oppose the sale due to fear that its advanced capabilities would threaten its military edge.
Upon meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in Washington a few days prior, Gantz was informed that the Trump administration would allow such a sale to go forward. In return, the U.S. promised to compensate Israel with “advanced weapons systems that will significantly upgrade its military capabilities, fortify Israel’s security and regional military superiority, and preserve its qualitative military edge in the coming decades.”
But after news broke that Israel would not lobby the U.S. against selling the F-35 to the UAE, Gantz released a statement saying that the defense establishment had not had any say in the matter. He also accused Netanyahu of okaying the deal in backchannel talks with the U.S. that he conducted without informing the government.
According to Gantz, the negotiations were “known to Israeli officials who were part of the (normalization) negotiations, but were hidden from the defense establishment, who were not involved.”
“As defense minister, I state that the defense establishment did not know about and was not told by the prime minister about the negotiations for the supply of high-quality weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates,” tweeted Gantz.
“If the defense establishment had been given this information, that would have enabled the correct and responsible management of the process,” he added.
Gantz went on to say that he was “proud of our quick and fundamental work that led to the agreement I signed on Thursday with the U.S. defense secretary, which will ensure the
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Netanyahu responded by calling the statements “baseless,” saying in a Saturday evening press conference that Israel had never agreed to withdrawing its objections to the F-35 sale in exchange for peace with the UAE.
Following Netanyahu’s initial public opposition to the F-35 deal back in August, senior UAE officials scuttled a meeting with their Israeli counterparts to express their displeasure. Reportedly, the UAE had believed Netanyahu wouldn’t ask Congress to vote against selling it F-35s, a belief that has now been proven to be correct.
Israel to Regulate FB and Twitter?
A new bill would severely limit the power that Facebook and Twitter have to censor content on political grounds.
The bill, which was submitted by Likud MK Amit Halevi on Sunday, would prohibit social media companies from interfering with content that does not violate the law. If passed, it would be the first time that the Jewish State regulated tech giants.
The legislation would divide social media companies into two categories. Tech giants that do not interfere with user content would be defined as “Exempt Social Media Companies” and would continue to enjoy immunity from lawsuits. The only material these companies would be allowed to remove are posts related to pedophilia, drug use, murder, and racism.
However, companies that censor material on arbitrary grounds would be classified as “Limited Social Media Companies.” Under the law, social media companies that fall into the latter category would be obligated to publish a detailed document concerning their policies for taking down political content.
In addition, they would be forced to respond to user requests within 48 hours and would need to publish a report every four months summarizing their activities. Should Facebook or Twitter decide to delete content that does not violate the law, it would need to send the user a report explaining the reasoning behind it.
Any decision to delete material or accounts that does not conform to its policies would result in an automatic NIS 25,000 fine.
The bill, which has a high likelihood of passing, comes following years of frustration over Twitter’s and Facebook’s frequent censorship of right-wing Israelis. Under the tech giants’ amorphous “community standards,” thousands of leading political pundits and even lawmakers have had their posts banned or deleted, and their accounts shut down.
While the issue had been controversial for some time, it received increased attention earlier this month after Facebook shut down the account belonging to Shiboleth, Israel’s leading conservative publishing house. The decision to shutter Shiboleth’s account, which came at the height of a fundraising campaign, resulted in an uproar and led Halevi and other Likud lawmakers to threaten Facebook with legal action.
“The bill I submitted will not allow the technology giants to continue to grab the rope at both ends. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and others will have to decide whether the responsibility for published material is solely on the users and they do not operate censorship and blocking mechanisms,” said Halevi on Sunday.
Pointing to a recent executive order by President Donald Trump that exposed Facebook and Twitter to legal action after the latter censored his tweets, Halevi said that it was inconceivable that tech giants could decide to censor political opinions held by millions of Israelis.
“President Trump recently signed a presidential decree in exactly this spirit, and he is waiting for the Senate for it to be approved,” Halevi said. “I hope that this ‘Trump plan’ will be approved in the Knesset, with wall-to-wall consent, even before the Senate.”
Who’s Next?
Are Oman and Saudi Arabia next on the list of Arab countries that will normalize relations with the Jewish State?
According to Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, Oman is expected to imminently announce that it will establish full diplomatic ties with Israel. In a briefing he granted Israel’s Channel 12, the spymaster estimated that the picturesque Gulf State is in advanced stages to follow the UAE, Bahrain, and now Sudan in normalizing its ties with Israel.
Oman, which issued a statement a month ago in support of Israel’s normalization with the United Arab Emirates, has long been eyed as a potential ally by Israeli officials. While Oman has never recognized Israel’s right to exist, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both paid public visits to Muskat in the past, with the most recent being in 2018.
However, Israel’s hopes of establishing diplomatic relations with Oman were dashed when Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said passed away suddenly in late 2019. With Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said replacing Qaboos on the throne in January, it was seen as unlikely that he would risk public anger by inking a peace deal with Israel, potentially jeopardizing his regime so soon after taking power.
Cohen also said that Saudi Arabia is eyeing establishing ties with Israel as well but would wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November. Should President Trump prevail, Riyadh would likely recognize Israel’s right to exist, while the chances of this happening would drop significantly should Joe Biden emerge victorious.
“They seem to be waiting for the U.S. election, to give a ‘gift’ to the president-elect,” said Cohen.
Trump has been pressuring Saudi Arabia to establish relations with Israel, predicting that Riyadh would be one of five Arab countries that would recognize Israel before the year is over. “We have at least five that want to come in,” Trump said. “We expect Saudi Arabia will be one of those countries.”
While Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has been promoting normalization, his father, King Salman, has ruled it out until the establishment of a Palestinian State. As the de-facto leader of the coalition of pragmatic Sunni states, Saudi Arabia would dramatically reshape the Middle East should it indeed follow the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan in exchanging ambassadors with Israel.
The Fight for the F-22
Israel hopes that the U.S. will sell it the F-22 Raptor as compensation for allowing the United Arab Emirates to purchase the F-35 fighter jet.
Widely seen as the most advanced fighter jet in the world, the F-22 Raptor surpasses the F-35 in stealth, range, and weaponry. Its technology that renders it invisible to radar is so secret that federal law explicitly prohibits the U.S. from exporting the F-22 to foreign governments.
Israel, along with many other countries, has long hoped that a friendly U.S. administration would agree to amend the aforementioned law and provide it with the fifth-generation fighter. With Washington readying to sell the F-35 to Arab states such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and perhaps Qatar, Israel is asking the Pentagon for the Raptor in order to maintain its military edge.
The effort to obtain the F-22 would likely be fraught with challenges. Not only would it involve convincing Congress to scrap the law banning exports of the jet, manufacturer Lockheed Martin would need to restart its production line. The American aerospace giant had shuttered its F-22 factories in 2012 to make room for the F-35 after the Pentagon said that it would stop producing the stealth aircraft.
However, Jerusalem expects that the Trump administration would pull out all the stops to ensure that the IDF is not surpassed technologically by its neighbors. By law, the U.S. is obligated to maintain the Qualitative Military Edge Israel has over Arab states and must consult with it before embarking on weapons deals in the Middle East.
Israeli defense officials have grown increasingly worried that the recent normalization agreements with the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan are a prelude to a regional arms race. The UAE has already filed a request to purchase the F-35, which is likely to be approved, along with Qatar and potentially Saudi Arabia.
While Israel told the U.S. this past Saturday that it would not oppose the F-35 deal to the UAE, it is pressuring Washington to provide the Jewish State with cutting-edge weaponry as compensation. As part of the talks, Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week at the Pentagon where he informed his U.S. counterpart of the list of weapons Israel is requesting.
Apart from the F-22, Israel is hoping to be given the V-22 Osprey, a platform that takes off like a helicopter but flies like an airplane and is used for inserting commandos behind enemy lines. Another weapon on Israel’s wish list is the Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin’s CH-53K helicopter, along with increasing the amount of military aid it gets annually.
“Our qualitative advantage is narrowing with respect to planes, drones, armament, and air defense systems,” a senior defense official told Haaretz. “The pace of change in the Middle East is high. It’s a different Middle East from what it was in the last decade, and many countries that are not in direct conflict with Israel are investing huge sums to build some of the most advanced air forces and air defense systems in the world.”
IDF 5-Day Drill
The IDF kicked off a mammoth five-day drill this past Sunday that mimicked all-out war in Lebanon.
Titled “Lethal Arrow,” the exercise simulated Israel fighting a multifront war in the north, with Iranian-backed proxy militias showering the country with missiles from Lebanon and Syria. The drill was the largest of the year and featured thousands of soldiers from branches all across the military, including cyber, intelligence, the air force, the navy, and ground forces.
“Headquarters, conscripted troops and reservist forces are taking part in the exercise, alongside the air force, navy and ground forces, as well as the intelligence, technology and logistics, teleprocessing and cyber defense directorates,” the IDF said.
Preparations for the exercise saw every IDF commander from the rank of major in both the standing army and the reserves summoned to a two-day seminar dedicated to hammering home the fundamentals of ground combat. In a talk with the assorted officers, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said that the next round of hostilities with Hezbollah would see the ground forces push deep into Lebanon and Syria instead of the IDF relying only on the air force.
“It is impossible to bring about an achievement against the enemy without maneuvering, without a massive influx of forces and without your own forces,” said Kochavi.
The IDF had been planning for the exercise for over a year but was forced to implement widespread changes due to the unforeseen coronavirus. Safety measures at the drill this week included mandating that reservists be divided into “capsules” that prevented them from accessing any part of the base other than their barracks, holding briefings outdoors, and tapping military police to enforce mask-wearing.
Kochavi had butted heads with Health Ministry staff in the weeks
