Tuesday, November 03, 2015
NYTs: The Facebook Intifada
THREE weeks ago, my father was riding on a public bus in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood when terrorists from East Jerusalem shot him in the head and stabbed him multiple times. Afterward, as he lay unconscious in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, fighting for his life, one question was on my mind: What inspired the two young Palestinian men to savagely attack my father and a busload of passengers?Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Palestinians Do Not Want Cameras on the Temple Mount
My father, Richard Lakin, dedicated his life to the cause of Israeli-Arab reconciliation. Ever since moving to Israel from Connecticut in the 1980s, he spent his career teaching English to Israeli and Arab children. Inspired by his experience marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, he became a founding member of Israel Loves Iran, a social media initiative designed to bring the citizens of these two nations closer together. When news of his tragedy broke, many of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish residents of Jerusalem who knew my father and admired his work rushed to his bedside to pay their respects and say a prayer for his recovery. Even Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, stopped by on his recent visit to Israel.
Watching the well-wishers congregating in the intensive care unit, however, I realized that the world leaders who were having the most impact on the situation in the Middle East right now weren’t Mr. Ban or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter and other young entrepreneurs who shape the social media platforms most of us use every day.
It may sound strange to talk of Twitter and Facebook as relevant players in the war against terror, but as the recent wave of violence in Israel has proved, that is increasingly the case. The young men who boarded the bus that day intent on murdering my 76-year-old father did not make their decision in a vacuum. One was a regular on Facebook, where he had already posted a “will for any martyr.” Very likely, they made use of one of the thousands of posts, manuals and instructional videos circulating in Palestinian society these last few weeks, like the image, shared by thousands on Facebook, showing an anatomical chart of the human body with advice on where to stab for maximal damage.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) will continue to work against having cameras in the hope of preventing the world from seeing what is really happening at the site and undermining Jordan's "custodianship" over Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.Amb. Alan Baker: Palestinian Incitement to Violence and Terror: Nothing New, But Still Dangerous
Another reason the Palestinians oppose King Abdullah's idea is their fear that cameras would expose that Palestinians have been smuggling stones, firebombs and pipe bombs into the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the past two years.
The cameras are also likely to refute the claim that Jews are "violently invading" Al-Aqsa Mosque and holding prayers on the Temple Mount. The cameras will show that Jews do not enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Palestinians have been claiming. Needless to say, no Jewish visitors have been caught trying to smuggle weapons into the holy site.
It remains to be seen how Secretary Kerry, who brokered the camera deal between Israel and Jordan, will react to the latest Palestinian Authority escalation of tensions. If Kerry fails to pressure the PA to stop its incitement and attempts to exclude the Jordanians from playing any positive role, the current wave of knife attacks against Jews will continue.
Lessons to Be Learned
No peace process can be expected to prevail if it is constantly and systematically being undermined by a pervasive policy of incitement and indoctrination. All three factors make the peace process impossible: the fear, suspicion, and hatred against the other side emanating from the highest levels of government, permeating through the religious, social, cultural, and educational system, down to the youngest and most impressionable.
It is reasonable to assume that a culture of mistrust and hate, fanned by constant religious and public incitement, inevitably leads to violence and terror, and, as such, undermines the concept of peaceful relations. A leadership that openly and officially sanctions and encourages such incitement cannot come with clean hands to the international community and complain about lack of progress in the peace process.
Clearly, the institution of appropriate and effective public machinery within the religious, cultural, and educational infrastructures of the Palestinian Authority is a necessary and urgent requirement in order to supervise and prevent incitement at the public level. But such a policy could only be implemented if the Palestinian leadership were to demonstrate through its own acts, declarations, and behavior a sincere and genuine will to end incitement and halt its use as a weapon, and to live up to the Palestinian commitments in their agreements with Israel. The damage that has been done in molding the minds of countless children and youth to hate Israel, to hate the Jew, and to view terrorists as role models, will likely take many years, and possibly a generation, to mend.
Committed to blood in the endless war against Israel
In lone wolf attacks, Palestinians have stabbed to death nine Israelis since Oct. 1 alone. The intent is both to instill terror and to force Israeli security forces to act so that Palestinians can claim to be victims of the response.Joseph’s Tomb restored after October arson attack by Palestinian rioters
They have no shortage of would-be martyrs who are willing to kill Israelis and then give up their lives. Many are young people, the product of schools that make heroes of Palestinians who kill Israelis. The education committee of the Israeli Knesset last week showed a video in which a Palestinian boy said his school had taught him to “fight the Jews, kill them and defeat them.”
Such is the social fabric in which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last month fomented more attacks, saying “we welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.”
Now, he’s calling on the United Nations Security Council to impose a “special regime of protection” against Israel, as if Israelis are perpetrating the violence and insulting the sovereignty of the mosque.
Palestinian leaders reject a workable step like cameras while urging a never-in-your-wildest-dreams UN intervention. They’re barely even pretending that they have anything on their mind but spilling Israeli blood.
The Jewish holy site of Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus was restored and repaired Tuesday night by the Shomron Regional Council after it was set ablaze and severely damaged by Palestinian rioters last month.The insane psychosis of Israel’s “we save terrorist lives” hasbara fetish
A team of 50 workers, including stone masons, painters, welders, and electricians arrived at the site at 1:00 a.m., with an IDF escort, to carry out the necessary repairs and worked at the site through the night until approximately 6:00 a.m. to complete the restoration.
The most serious damage was done to the stone tomb itself inside the external structure. The rioters smashed and broke several marble panels overlaid on the tomb, breaking them with hammers, iron bars and other implements.
The restoration work replaced the marble around the tomb, as well as repainting the site, and repairing and replacing lighting and other aspects of the site’s infrastructure which were damaged in the attack.
The repairs cost approximately NIS 100,000 and have been covered by the Shomron Regional Council.
“The sovereign over Joseph’s Tomb is the Jewish people, and so the jewish people have restored this place of rest of one of its ancestors,” said Davidi Ben Tzion, deputy chairman of the Council.
“IDF paramedics treating Palestinian after he tried to stab a Border policeman,” tweeted the IDF spokesman recently. An article on another incident claimed the IDF was using a “revolutionary treatment to save life of Palestinian stabber.” The article detailed that the medical professionals don’t ask what the person they are treating did before or what he will do after, their job is not judge and jury, it is to provide treatment. At the end of the article, one source claimed “I know this was ‘sexy’ because it was a terror attack, but this happens all the time.” Sexy?Terrorist foiled at West Bank crossing near Jenin
In Israel there is a sort of sexy-addled perversion with reporting stories about how great the country is for providing first aid and priority treatment to wounded terror suspects. “In the hospital the terrorist is the patient,” say the headlines. It is part of Israel’s medical ‘hasbara’ or efforts to increase public relations. Whether it is opening a field hospital to treat Palestinians wounded in bombing in the Gaza war, or treating sick Gazans even as missiles rain down from Gaza, the real fetish is the stories of “Israeli hospitals treat terrorists and victims alike.” The articles boast of how on one floor the terrorist is being treatment and the person they disfigured is being treated on another and hospitals “wouldn’t have it any other way.” Even after the Boston bombing, Israel’s “medical help for terrorists” had to go into over-drive. A doctor at a Boston hospital told Ynet, “It was very similar to what I was used to in Israel in that we had to admit many injured people in a short period of time…The fact that we are treating both the victims and the suspected terrorist also reminds me of similar situations in Israel. In Israel we had an injured soldier and a terrorist lying on adjacent beds. When an injured person is admitted to the ER, the doctor or nurse treats him without asking questions.”
You’d almost think that from all the reports about terrorists lives being saved that the Israeli medical profession exists primarily to aid wounded terrorists and that this is the job they revel in the most. The actual number of terrorists being given treatment in hospitals is infinitesimal. With some 180,000 Palestinians being treated in Israel a year, there are only a few instances of perpetrators being in the same bedroom with the IDF soldiers they have stabbed.
Cosmetics Saleswoman Recounts Brush With Death at Hands of Knife-Wielding Terrorist in Rishon LeZion (VIDEO)
An IDF unit apprehended a Palestinian terrorist at the Gilboa West Bank crossing and discovered a pipe bomb and knife in his possession.
The suspect was arrested on the Palestinian side of the crossing, and confessed to soldiers that he was planning an attack, an army spokeswoman said. Security forces took the suspect in for questioning. There were no injuries in the incident.
The Defense Ministry shut down the crossing following the spate of continuous Palestinian attacks at the site. The decision to close the crossing, which is run by the Defense Ministry's Crossings Authority, was taken following "instructions by defense officials," the Ministry said in a statement.
The Gilboa Crossing will remain closed "until further notice," it added.
Monday's attack was the third attack at the Gilboa crossing in the last ten days.
A woman working in a cosmetics shop in Rishon LeZion recounted her harrowing brush with death during a terror attack on Monday afternoon to Israel’s Channel 2 shortly after the incident.Cops ward off two lynching attempts after Netanya stabbing
Victoria Postrikov was attacked by a 19-year-old Palestinian assailant from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, after he had managed to stab three people, wounding two of them critically.
Postrikov recounted for Channel 2 how the terrorist entered her shop, where he lunged at her with a knife. But “luck” and the “glass counter” behind which she was standing saved her life, she said.
“The terrorist wasn’t tall and I bent down, so he couldn’t reach,” she explained, adding, “Many people came in and started hitting him [with anything they could get their hands on] — a stand from the entrance, umbrellas and sticks. I ran to the back of the store.”
Israeli arrested as he tries to attack wounded terrorist; mob sees him under arrest, assumes he’s the terrorist and tries to attack himTerrorists sat at a restaurant, then went to hunt Jews
Police prevented two attempted lynchings following a terror attack in Netanya on Monday evening that left a 71-year-old Israeli man seriously wounded, Channel 2 television reported.
A 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkarem stabbed and seriously wounded the elderly man early Monday evening, then fled the scene.
Police who were nearby rushed to the scene and began to pursue the attacker. The Palestinian turned to face the cops, knife drawn, when one officer shot him four times in the legs. He was seriously wounded, according to police.
According to reports from the scene, a local shopkeeper saw the wounded terrorist and attempted to rush the officers and stab him.
Police stopped the attacker and arrested him for attempted assault.
The Jerusalem district attorney's office submitted an indictment on Tuesday to the local court against two teen Arab terrorists for attempted murder and illegal possession of a knife.An Inconvenient Truth: Palestinian Polls
The two, a 15-year-old and 17-year-old from the eastern neighborhood of A-Tur, arrived in Jerusalem's Old City last Tuesday morning according to the indictment, where they proceeded to eat at a restaurant and play at a computer store.
At a certain stage, and according to predetermined plans, the two went into a construction store near Damascus Gate on the eastern end of the Old City's northern wall, where they bought an ax and a knife.
Afterwards, the two went out and sat for a few minutes at Damascus Gate before proceeding to the promenade between IDF Square near the municipality building and Yafo Gate, a popular area where tourists pass all the time.
The ax and knife were with them in a bag, and at the promenade they sat on a bench while waiting for an appropriate victim to appear.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducts a poll every quarter on a range of issues. It breaks the analysis between Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank/ east of the Green Line and the Gaza Strip. A review of the poll numbers gives a much better sense of Palestinian Arabs sentiments about their situation than biased and bogus statements from Kerry, Abbas and Ban Ki-Moon.Israel Closes Palestinian Radio Station Over Anti-Israel Incitement
A Growing Majority of Palestinians Support Attacking Israeli Civilians
The poll figures do show a growing support of attacking innocent Israeli civilians. In December 2013, the percentage of Arabs supporting unprovoked attacks was 34% and 58% in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively. Those figures jumped to 48% and 68% for WB and Gaza in September 2014 and then to 50% and 70% in September 2015. Overall, a clear majority of 57.2% of Palestinians were in favor of terrorism as of September 2015, up from 42.9% in December 2013.
Terrifying numbers about terrorism in both the absolute percentage and in the terrible trendline of support.
Israeli authorities raided a Palestinian radio station in Hebron before dawn Tuesday on suspicion that the station systematically aired incitement to violence against Israelis. During the raid, conducted by the Israel Defense Forces and the Civil Administration, troops confiscated broadcast and technical equipment, forcing the station off the air.Defense minister resolved to return bodies of Palestinian attackers to their families, despite objections from within the cabinet
The Al-Huriya radio station is said to have encouraged violent “resistance” marches.
“The operation to confiscate equipment and close the station was a necessary step in the efforts to rein in the incitement whose results have been obvious over the last month,” said an IDF statement. “The IDF will continue to use every legal means at its disposal to combat terrorists and their accomplices in order to provide security to the citizens of Israel.”
Al-Huriya was established in Gaza in 2002 by Palestine Liberation Organization activists, and was relocated to Hebron after Hamas violently took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The station has been shut down by Israeli authorities twice: once in 2002 and again in 2008.
Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan have come out against returning the bodies, in an attempt to prevent the drawn-out and often violent heroes’ funerals that attackers often receive.Free MDA self-defense and first-aid workshops around country
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, however, has opted to maintain Israel’s policy of returning the remains, though he has done so with the caveat that families of attackers forgo a large, public funeral.
While the security cabinet adopted Erdan and Netanyahu’s position last month, the prime minister left a fair amount of discretion for Ya’alon to act as he saw fit. Over the past week, the defense minister used that leeway to return the bodies of nine Palestinians killed during attacks, five of them to Hebron.
The Prime Minister’s Office asserted Saturday that the move did not actually go against the earlier cabinet decision, classifying it instead as an exception made in order to prevent more violent demonstrations in Palestinian cities. “Defense officials recommended releasing several bodies with the understanding that holding them would serve to stir up the West Bank,” the PMO said in a statement.
As a sign of the times, free, two-hour self-defense and first-aid workshops will be offered by Magen David Adom on Wednesday and Thursday (November 4 and 5) at its first-aid and ambulance stations around the country and in a number of other locations, The workshops, which will be open to the general public at 7 p.m. on both days, are being organized with cooperation from the Israel Judo Association. Participants must first register at the organization’s website at www.mdais.org.Irony: Inciting PA complains against Israeli 'executions'
In addition, MDA said on Tuesday that its smartphone application for first aid has been downloaded by 10,000 people in the last few weeks and a total of 114,000 downloads since it was launched two years ago.
The workshops will focus on treating victims with serious wounds such as those stabbed with knives and suffering from gunshot wounds. At MDA’s request, Israel Judo Association director Sagi Gur agreed to join in and present fundamentals on self defense.
In addition, actress Yamit Sol, who is also an MDA volunteer, appears in a video film with examples of how people wounded in terror attacks were saved with basic first aid.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which continuously incites and encourages stabbing attacks against Israelis, has filed a complaint against Israel’s alleged “extrajudicial executions” with the International Criminal Court (ICC).Al-Qaeda leader praises stabbing attacks in Israel
Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on Monday declared that the PA had filed more complaints to the ICC against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, with regards to what he called "extrajudicial executions" during the current intifada.
This past Friday, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with the ICC’s chief prosecutor and handed to her a file documenting alleged Israeli crimes such as "ethnic cleansing".
The move was part of the PA’s ongoing "diplomatic war" on Israel, which has included a barrage of petitions to the ICC blaming the Jewish state for various "war crimes".
More details are emerging about the audio recording released Sunday by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.BDS In Solidarity with the Intifada
According to additional excerpts released on Monday, Zawahiri welcomed the latest terrorist attacks in Israel and called for Muslims to work to “liberate” Jerusalem.
Zawahiri says that “Muslims everywhere” are upset by the “Jews’ repeated attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” according to a translation obtained Monday by The Long War Journal website.
He then reportedly praises the recent stabbing attacks that have been carried out against Jews, saying they are “a new epic of jihad,” in which people “defend Palestine and Al-Aqsa with knives, cars, stones, and everything they own.” Zawahiri also asks Allah “to bless these martyrdom-seekers who dare to stab the Jews even as they are almost certain that they will be killed at the Jews’ hands.”
The BDS movement, which calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, is defined by those who lead it as a movement based on international law and the principles of human rights. In reference to armed resistance, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti wrote: “Armed resistance is considered one of the most important forms of direct resistance against military occupation during revolutionary periods. In principle, this is a legitimate option according to international norms, but must be executed responsibly… It must also be subject to international law and ethical principles, and object to deliberate harm to innocents…BDS Bring Third Intifada Proxy War to Oxford Street London 15 10 2015 (h/t DaphneAnson)
Despite these statements, the BDS Movement recently published a notice explicitly expressing support for the “Palestinian Intifada.” The BDS Movement even organized a campaign for expressing solidarity with the intifada.
The following is a translation of the notice that appeared on the movement’s Facebook page in Arabic.
October 15, 2015: The boycott movement launches a call for solidarity with the intifada of the Palestinian people against the apartheid occupation, on the 16-18 of this month.
Worrying protest as BDS bring their proxy war and third Intifada to Oxford Street. Blatantly display Intifada banner. Fail to engage with Jewish people
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urges PA President Mahmoud Abbas to stop violent attacks against Israelis
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Members of the Dutch parliament have urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to call on his population to stop violence against Israelis.Ha'aretz Twitter feed hacked: 'Our martyrs' mothers will drink your soldier's blood'
Abbas was on a visit to The Netherlands this week where he also met with King Willem-Alexander of Holland.
After a meeting at the Catshuis in The Hague, the official residence of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte declared that he asked Abbas ‘’to reject violent resistance.’’ Abbas, he said, has an important role to play in order to de-escalate the conflict which saw 11 Israelis killed since September.
Until now, Abbas has refused to do so despite several calls from other Western leaders.
Members of the Dutch parliament who met the PA leader said that he condemned violence ‘’behind closed doors.’’ But one of the MPs,
Hans ten Broeke, who leads the VVD (Liberal) group in the parliament, stressed that Abbas also needs to do such a statement in Arabic to his own people.
Pro-Palestinian activists hacked into the Twitter feed of Israeli news publication Ha'aretz Tuesday, leaving ominous messages while evoking the Balfour Declaration on its 100th anniversary.An Idiot’s Guide for the Media on How to Do Your Job Properly
Almost a dozen tweets written in Hebrew and Arabic cluttered the publication's feed, with tweets such as : "The memory of the Balfour Declaration has changed the situation, wait for the massacre that will be arriving soon," and "The mothers of our martyrs will drink the blood of your soldiers and settlers."
Another tweet reads, "The Holocaust of the Balfour Declaration will continue the knife intifada." The post was accompanied by a disturbing image of a wounded Israeli victim, a clear reference to the current security crisis engulfing Israel and the West Bank.
Other images included current and former Israeli leaders, as well as the United Kingdom's former foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour, covered in blood or adorned with devil horns.
This instructive video shows what news reports would look like if they applied their outrageous Israel-reporting techniques to terrorist attacks in the rest of the world. In the hope of lessening the egregious anti-Israel bias, here are some pointers to members of the media:BBC News ignores terror attacks on pensioners in Rishon Lezion and Netanya
1) Your job is to report facts, not reinforce a narrative. Really. The facts matter – they form the basis for judgments. So here are some facts for you, meticulously documented and updated (with details and graphs worthy of a data scientist) in a shared Google spreadsheet by Nehemia Gershuni-Aylho. According to his data, in the fifty days from September 11 through October 31, there have been 1,315 Arab Muslim attacks on Jews, including stabbings, bombings, rock-throwing, etc. That’s about 26 attacks per day resulting in the murder of 11 innocent Jews. Adjusted for the US population, that’s over 1,000 knife, bomb and other attacks per day that kill 440 people during fifty days of terror. How would the US react to that?
2) Remember that the weaker party can be wrong. Actually, when a Palestinian man stabs a 70-year old woman, he’s not even the weaker party. Sometimes Palestinians do indefensible things. Sometimes Israel is guilty of only trying to protect its citizens from insanely hateful violence. And as an honest reporter, you should try to show this.
On the morning of November 2nd a terrorist, together with an accomplice, tried to stab an Israeli soldier at the Jalame (Gilboa) crossing north of Jenin. Later on in the day five Palestinians from Hebron were arrested when an IED was found in the vehicle in which they were travelling.Kevin Connolly tells BBC Radio 4’s ‘Feedback’ complaints rooted in narratives
In the afternoon, a terrorist from Hebron stabbed three people – including an elderly woman – in Rishon Lezion.
None of those incidents received any coverage whatsoever on the BBC News website.
The BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Feedback’ (which, as readers may know, has a ‘get involved’ facility) describes itself as a “forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations”. The October 30th edition of that programme included an item concerning criticism of the BBC’s reporting on the current wave of terror in Israel, introduced by presenter Roger Bolton as follows:R4 Feedback ConnollyAfter reports of Israeli strikes in Syria, Ya'alon issues warning
“But we begin this week with the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Violence has escalated once again and with it, allegations of bias in the BBC’s coverage.”
Later on, a statement from BBC News concerning such allegations was read out on air.
“The BBC’s responsibility is to remain impartial and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments. We cover stories as they happen and our role is to explain and give context and so we endeavor to reflect a range of voices amid deeply held views. BBC News reports widely and extensively across TV, radio and online on many different aspects of this ongoing and complex conflict and we are committed to do so in an accurate, fair and balanced way across our coverage.”
Were the BBC to get back to journalistic basics, Kevin Connolly might be better placed to appreciate that when members of the public complain about his misrepresentation of Britain’s administration of the Mandate for Palestine, his distorted accounts of the Six Day War or his recent claim that Temple Mount is an exclusively “Islamic” site, it is because he is factually wrong.
Connolly’s dismissive assertion that such complaints are rooted in a wish to see the BBC adhere to a certain “narrative” do little to convince audiences of the BBC’s commitment to accurate and impartial reporting as its main priority – or its capacity for self-criticism.
Israel will respond with zero tolerance to cross-border artillery fire from Syria, weapons trafficking to terrorists, and the distribution of chemical weapons to terrorists, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said on Tuesday.US said to have approved sale to Israel of Ospreys, capable of reaching Iran
Speaking at the Kibbutz Leadership conference in Kibbutz Ma'ale Hamisha, situated in the Judean Hills near Jerusalem, the defense minister made the comments three days after international media reports claimed Israeli aircrafts carried out air strikes in Syrian airspace, reportedly attacking numerous Hezbollah targets in the Qalamoun mountain region near the Lebanese border, possibly to intercept a weapons convoy to Lebanon.
It was the first reported attack attributed to Israel since Russia began providing air support to the Assad regime and its allies, who are fighting rebels on the ground.
"Those who cross the red lines will be hit," Ya'alon warned on Tuesday.
He also referred to the humanitarian crisis afflicting Syrian villages near the Israeli border, adding that Israel is seeking to provide villagers with blankets, medicines, fuel, and any additional required humanitarian assistance.
Turning his sights to Hamas in Gaza, Ya'alon said, "We are leading a policy, which is leading to a reality in which Hamas is deterred from escalating the situation. We see Hamas' willingness to accept a ceasefire, and not to join in the current round of terrorism. This is not because they have turned Zionists, but because of the price they paid in Operation Protective Edge."
Israel is said to have finalized its “shopping list” of desired US military material as part of a new long-term agreement for US defense assistance to Israel to maintain its qualitative edge in the region. On the list, and reportedly approved in principle by the US, is an Israeli request for V-22 Ospreys, planes which are believed capable of reaching Iran and which Israel reportedly sought from the US in 2012 — but later decided not to purchase due to budgetary restraints — when contemplating a strike on Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility.Jordanian combat pilots flew with Israel counterparts in recent US exercise
The new list was presented at meetings with senior defense officials from both countries ahead of the planned meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama at the White House on November 9.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was in Washington last week to meet with his counterpart Ashton Carter and discuss the security memorandum to replace the current one, which provided for over $30 billion in US military aid spread over a decade, and will expire in 2018.
Israel has already contracted for more than 30 F-35 multirole fighter planes; it may ultimately want 50, or even 75. It also seeks a host of F-15 jets which incorporate Israeli-developed advanced technologies and are considered the “workhorse” of the Israeli Air Force.
Jordanian fighter pilots trained closely with their Israeli counterparts at a US-hosted air force exercise this summer, an American official said, in a rare acknowledgment of intimate military cooperation between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbor to the east.Israel’s Steinitz: Turkish President Erdogan’s AKP Party Victory ‘Unfortunate’
The US official’s comments, reported by Reuters on Tuesday, came as Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon more vaguely confirmed the cooperation. Ya’alon said in a speech Tuesday that Israeli pilots trained with unspecified Arab pilots in the course of July’s “Red Flag,” the latest in a series of joint combat training exercises frequently hosted by the US in Alaska.
Egypt is known to have participated in previous “Red Flag” exercises; Jordan is not.
“There were Arab pilots there too, and pilots from the various branches of the United States military and other countries,” Ya’alon said Tuesday.
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister for national infrastructure and a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the election victory of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party on Sunday “unfortunate.”Hamas flaunts elite unit in new propaganda video
“During Erdogan’s time in power, and specifically in recent years, relations with Israel have deteriorated from cooperation to bitter tensions,” Steinitz said. “Turkey is drawing closer to Hamas and radical Islam at the expense of relations with Israel, including incitement against Israel.”
Last June, Erdogan’s AKP party suffered a significant setback, losing the governing majority in parliament for the first time since coming to power over a decade ago. In the run-up to the June election, many Turkish voters expressed dismay over Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian policies. But instead of forming a coalition government, Erdogan pushed for new elections while increasing his nationalist rhetoric, and implementing a greater crackdown on dissidents and Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
As a result of Sunday’s election, Erdogan’s AKP regained the majority and will now control 317 seats in the 550-seat parliament, which will allow AKP to govern without a coalition partner.
Hamas releases new video with insider look at training and first mission against Zionist enemy. (Parody).
Vicar of Baghdad: ISIS Responded to Dinner Invite with Beheading Threat
The Vicar of Baghdad has gone the extra mile to deal with Islamist terrorism in Iraq. He even invited ISIS terrorists to dinner, despite their putting a $157 million bounty on his head.Israel’s Unheralded Humanitarian Project for Wounded Syrians
He has been willing to talk with some of the worst villains in the world, but he has to admit his fearless effort to deal with the Islamic State constructively has been a bust, and “there should be war” to stop them.
He really hates to put it that way. “It is a terrible thing to say as a priest,” he told the UK Independent this weekend.
The vicar in question is the irrepressible Andrew White, whose approach to peacemaking and spreading his faith looks like a mixture of stand-up comedy and early Jackie Chan stunt work. Beneath his humor lies an astounding confidence in faith and the power of peacemaking. He has walked the walk, and it has taken him through the valley of death, where he feared no evil.
While the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrians by the Assad regime — and the rise of regional Islamic terror organizations — shows no sign of ending, an unheralded Israeli humanitarian mission recently marked the treatment of 2,000 Syrian patients.
Although the two countries remain sworn enemies, advocates of Israel’s program that cares for badly wounded Syrians emphasize the Jewish imperative to save life whenever possible. Despite endangering the lives of Israeli soldiers and medical personnel, the program has enabled critically injured Syrians — who have no one else to turn to for lifesaving treatment — to cross the border to an Israeli field hospital close to Har (Mount) Bental.
In a special interview in the Golan Heights, one of the most senior IDF officials involved in the program (whose identity cannot be revealed for security reasons), discussed the nature of a humanitarian operation that flies in the face of the derogatory, caricatured image of Israel (and of Jews in general) that is peddled by much of the surrounding Arab world.
“This is the main area of the fighting between the Syrian regime — heavily supported by Iranian-funded Hezbollah and now by Russian forces — and the Al Nusra Front, the Syrian Al Qaeda,” the medical officer said. ISIS militias have also been present in the area.
“Many wounded people come from this area,” he adds, pointing across the valley to the Syrian warzone from a high vantage point. “The rebels don’t want the patients to be taken to Israel.”
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