State Department spokesperson Ned Price began his Monday press conference by condemning Hamas for launching rockets at Israel.

"This is an unacceptable escalation. While we urge deescalation on all sides, we also recognize Israel's legitimate right to defend its people and its territory."

Said Arikat, Washington Bureau Chief for al-Quds, had a very direct follow-up question: "Do Palestinians have a right to self-defense?"

"Broadly speaking Said, we believe in the concept of self-defense. We believe it applies to any state," responded Price.

The AP's Matt Lee took note of this assertion and had an inquiry later in the press conference. Price had said that any state has a right to self-defense. Does the Biden administration view Palestine as a state? If they do not, was Price saying Palestinians don't have a right to self-defense?

When pressed on this, Price suggested it was complicated. "I'm not in the position to debate the legalities from up here. Our message is one of deescalation."

Later in the press conference Price was asked about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) referring to the situation in Sheikh Jarrah as ethnic cleansing. "That's not [terminology] we've used before," he said. "That's not something that our analysis supports."

In light of the tension and violence, Israeli security officials have chosen to restrict access to the Temple Mount for Jews on Monday, with a statement saying that "the Israel Police will continue to allow freedom of worship but will not allow riots."

The decision has sparked an angry reaction from Israeli right-wingers, with Otzma Yehudit party chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir lamenting that "violence and bullying have won," and even blaming the authorities and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for policies representing "harm to the Jews."

Complicating things further are the right-wingers' plans to hold the customary Flag Parade celebrating the "reunification" of the city - a mass event that usually proceeds into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

At least 305 people have been injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, with as skirmishes continue - including tear gas attacks.

Authorities say that order has now been restored at the Temple Mount. According to reports, Israeli forces withdrew from the compound in the afternoon, allowing Palestinians who were sheltered inside the mosque to leave. Some worshippers were photographed cleaning up debris following the skirmish.

Those who stayed behind to help clean up in the aftermath of the violence collected piles of stun grenades, tear gas canisters, rocks, chairs, and other items that were used during the battle.

A spokesman for Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the "brutal storming" of the mosque, claiming it undermined peace efforts and presented a "new challenge to the international community."

The European Union's delegation to the Palestinians released a statement saying the bloc was "extremely concerned" by ongoing clashes in the Old City and urged all sides to refrain from violence.

An Israeli motorist plowed into a Palestinian youth near Lion's Gate in East Jerusalem, reportedly after his car was attacked by a mob amid ongoing unrest in the city. CCTV footage shows a group of people chasing after a white automobile.

© AFP/Mahmud Hams

Twenty Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes, including nine children, Gaza's Ministry of Health has said, after rockets fired from the territory towards Jerusalem were reportedly met with Israeli counterstrikes. Some of the scores injured were also treated at the Beit Hanoun Hospital in the north of Gaza, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

© Reuters/Reuters TVIsraelis gather at the Western Wall, blaze in the background

Smoke rose above Jerusalem's Temple Mount as a tree outside the Al Aqsa Mosque went up in flames on Monday. Police said the fire at Al Aqsa was the result of "fireworks being fired at the Temple Mount plaza."

The mosque has not sustained any damage from the blaze, according to eyewitnesses.

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Back on November 30, 2020, Maricopa County elections witness Jan Bryant testified before the Arizona legislature.

Jan has a strong project management background. She could not believe what she witnessed during the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Jan said back on November 30, 2020, that Maricopa County officials DID NOT RUN THE ELECTION! Dominion employees John and Bruce did.

Jan's testimony might explain why Maricopa County officials do not have Admin passwords or access to the Dominion voting machines.

They never had them!

Jan also testified under oath that county staff, not even IT staff were allowed access to the voting machines and that she witnessed Dominon employees with a laptop computer in the counting room.

Jan worked 6 days at MCTEC, has an MBA, and project management background in technology.

Transcribed Witness Text: Janice (Jan) Bryant
From Video Testimony here:
Captured 06:39:30 to 06:42:25
Nov. 30^th 2020 - AZ Legislature's Election Fraud Hearing (Hyatt Hotel)

Jan Bryant: ....and back to my opening, I wanted to tell you that I do have a pretty strong project management technology background. This is not, I would say, everybody, raves about how we'll run and how tight this room is that we were working in. I was in the (MCTEC) tabulation center. You know the glass (wall) and the servers in a glass room. All the computers are on a single cable that you can see. None of that matters because of two things. One, the Dominion employees were the only ones that were running any of that equipment.

So I'm, I was in the tabulation center six different days. Day and night shifts. And no county employees, no IT people, no one else was touching any of the software. They (Dominion) did all the training for the adjudicators, they ran all the reports. And so I brought this up on my very first day in the room. I said this doesn't seem right, as a person with my background. Never in a million years would I turn my company's most important things over to someone else. And there's only two guys (Dominion's Bruce & John) and they had whole control of everything.

I also participated in the (2%) random ballot selection for hand audit. Picking the ballots, you know, determining which bins we were going to select. And even with that, Dominion ran the report for it (which bins to pull). So no one, I mean, they (Dominion) knew exactly what was in the hand audit boxes. That made me nervous also. And they also knew when we pulled the last box, which was probably eight days before they quit counting ballots. As a senior manager over big projects, never in a million years would I have allowed some of the stuff that I saw going on there.

RECAP: The exact bins to be pulled for the mandated 2% hand audit were decided by Dominion staff, using their EMS software, not randomly.

The other thing that I wanted to make sure. The final week that they were counting ballots, I came in on I think a Tuesday. When I had left the Friday before I did NOT notice there was a laptop in the room behind the (glass) wall, that "John" the Dominion employee was working on. When I came in on Tuesday and walked around where they were doing the hand entry of ballots, I noticed that laptop sitting there and John was working on it. It's not a secure room if you're bringing a laptop in and out of a room. Who knows what happened there. Every one of the 50 desktops that were in there had a row of USB ports on the side of it. So I get very angry when I hear some of our leader here saying "Oh, it's secure, nothing can get in or out.". That's not true. I will tell you that is probably the biggest issue that I had.

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