Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Two Palestinians held in connection to Psagot attack
The two men, who are related, live in the Palestinian town of el-Bireh, Israel Radio reported.Terror Attack Leaves Psagot Residents Doubting Peace Process
On Saturday night, an attacker, thought to be from el-Bireh, reportedly infiltrated Psagot and shot Noam Glick, 9, lightly wounding her.
Troops searched the area for the attacker after the incident, at one point entering el-Bireh, according to Palestinian media sources.
It was a frightening Saturday night for the residents of Psagot, a community of 1,800 people located in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem. A Palestinian terrorist broke into the community, firing from point-blank range at nine-year-old Noam Glick, who was playing on the balcony of her home. The girl was lightly wounded, and was hospitalized in Jerusalem.Abbas Again Fails to Condemn Terror Attacks
“It was the first time that something like this happened in Psagot,” said Liat Ofer, a 26-year-old resident of the community, who teaches in Jerusalem.
Noam’s father, Yisrael Glick, told Israel’s Army Radio that Noam managed to get back into the house after she was shot. “Noam told us there was an Arab man out there. I realized that this was a security incident. It’s the scariest thing that can happen here – to have a terrorist enter your home,” he said.
Weeks after they were killed, Abbas discussed murders of IDF soldiers Gabriel (Gal) Kobi and Tomer Hazan, as well as the shooting of nine year old Noam Glick on Saturday night. Abbas has not condemned the murders and attacks, much less sought to capture the terrorists who committed them, as is his obligation under the Oslo Accords. He did say, however, that he condemned “violence on both sides,” adding that he believed Israel and the PA could achieve an agreement in a matter of months.Vehicle Attacked by Rocks on the Way to Funeral
Abbas said that security cooperation between Israel and the PA was “good,” but added that IDF entries into areas under PA control was “damaging.”
A vehicle from central Israel was attacked by rock-throwing Arabs as it was making its way to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Monday.Missing from Abbas meeting with MKs: Israeli flag, Palestinian journalists
The attack took place in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Conspicuously absent from all these photographs, indeed absent from the entire room during the entire visit, was the Israeli flag. Not so much as a little one on the table. It made for quite a contrast to the scene on July 31, when members of Bar’s Knesset Caucus to Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict, hosting PA politicians in the Israeli parliament at a meeting attended by 33 MKs from parties representing 77 of the 120 MKs, held their talks with the Palestinian flag alongside Israel’s behind them — a much-headlined Knesset precedent.PMW: PA award to writer of poem that includes words "Zion is Satan"
Also largely absent from Monday’s meeting were Palestinian journalists. Labor invited a busload of Israeli reporters to document the initial, public section of the meeting, and several of Abbas’s advisers were present too. But while an aide to Abbas said that Palestinian journalists were present, and a solitary one was espied, they proved hard to find.
Last week during a performance given in the PA, the Egyptian writer of the poem, Hesham El-Gakh, recited this and other poems, after which the PA Minister of Culture Anwar Abu Eisheh and PA District Governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam venerated him with a plaque of honor. The event was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV Live.
To warm up the audience, a young girl recited a small part of the same poem, the stanza including the words "my enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail":
UN: Four million Syrians to flee homes in 2014
More than two million Syrians have already fled the country, with the number of registered refugees expected to be 3.2 million by the end of 2013. And millions more are displaced within Syria’s borders.Erdogan calls Assad a ‘terrorist,’ blasts Kerry
The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of fighting between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and myriad opposition groups.
“I don’t regard Bashar Assad as a politician anymore. He’s a terrorist carrying out state terrorism. A person who killed 110,000 of his people is a terrorist. There’s state terrorism — I’m speaking frankly,” Erdogan said at a press conference Sunday after a meeting with India’s president, Hurriyet reported. “I’m having difficulty understanding those in the Turkish media who defend this.”Assad Places War Jets in Iran for Safety
Erdogan has been one of Assad’s harshest critics since Syria’s uprising erupted in March 2011. On Monday he also denounced US Secretary of State John Kerry for praising Syria’s compliance with the international community in relinquishing its chemical weapons.
Iran has given permission to Bashar Assad's regime to keep his war planes in their territory to protect them from possible attack, according to a report by the German newspaper, Der Spiegel.Iran: Peace-Dripping Nuclear Lamb
Unfortunately, along the Potomac, there seem to be sick men as well, who mistakenly think the Iranians, after having spent so much on their nuclear bomb project -- and after suffering international economic sanctions, cyber attacks, and the loss of scientists under suspicious circumstances -- will actually give it up, rather than envisioning the Shi'ite apocalypse; the return of the Mahdi; control of Arab oil; occupying the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf; taking over the Middle East and after it, possibly world domination. The sick men of the Potomac seem mistakenly to think that the Iranians, captivated by Obama and possibly motivated by the Syrian fiasco, will suddenly decide they do not want a nuclear bomb or world domination, after all.Barry Rubin: Is Iran a Lunatic State or a Rational Actor?
There are, along the Potomac, people who actually think that one bearded ayatollah at the United Nations means the Iranians have waived these desires. They ignore the worlds of the Ayatollah Khamenei, who defined statesmanship as fraud and deceit hidden in smiles, and then sent Rouhani off to negotiate with the West.
America is likely to get so caught up in words that it believes the legend it has created for itself.
So is Iran a lunatic state or a rational actor? A hell of a lot more rational than U.S. foreign policy is today, as apparently has been the Muslim Brotherhood's policy and trickery. After all, the UN just elected Iran as Rapporteur for the General Assembly's main committee on Disarmament & International Security without Tehran having to do anything. And Obama will blame Congress for diplomatic failure if it increases sanctions. In fact diplomats doubt Iran will actually do anything anyway.78 Congressmen Demand More Iran Sanctions
That's not moderate but radical in a smart way.
More politely, Iran is a rational actor in terms of its own objectives. The issue is to understand what Iran wants. Policy is always best served by truth, and the truth is best told whether or not people like it. Iran is an aggressive, rational actor.
A bipartisan group of 78 U.S. Representatives told U.S. President Barack Obama that additional Iran sanctions are needed until the Islamic Republic “takes meaningful steps to stop and reverse its illicit nuclear activities.”Iran's FM Insists on 'Absolute Right' to Enrich Uranium
There is “no substantive evidence to suggest that Iran is slowing, or even considering slowing, its nuclear pursuit” since the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the legislators wrote in an Oct. 4 letter spearheaded by U.S. Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Luke Messer (R-IN). Obama and Rouhani recently spoke over the phone in the first direct contact between leaders of their respective countries since 1979.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted on Monday that his country has the "absolute right" to enrich uranium on its soil, the ISNA news agency reported.Attacks surge in Egypt, a day after deadly clashes
"The mastery of civil nuclear technology, including the enrichment of uranium, on Iranian soil is the absolute right of Iran," Zarif said at a meeting in Tehran with the visiting Swiss deputy foreign minister, Yves Rossier, according to the AFP news agency.
A string of attacks killed nine members of Egypt’s security and military forces and hit the country’s main satellite communications station Monday, in an apparent retaliation by Islamic militants a day after more than 50 supporters of the ousted president were killed in clashes with police.October 1973: Panorama and Myopia
The attacks show a dangerous expansion of targets, including the first strike against civilian infrastructure in the heart of the capital. They also blur the lines between the wave of Islamist protests against the military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, and an insurgency that had been previously been largely confined to the northern Sinai Peninsula.
In Cairo and Damascus, the October 1973 war with Israel is celebrated by museums of similar design and purpose. At the center of both attractions is a panorama (or cyclorama): a 360-degree depiction of the key battles of the war. The concept is to immerse the visitor in a "surround" view of a battle—in Egypt's case, the crossing of the Suez Canal, in Syria's, the battle for the Golan Heights—with visual and sound effects, stirring narration, and martial music. Both sites have adjacent grounds for the display of captured and destroyed Israeli hardware, alongside examples of the Soviet-made Egyptian and Syrian armament of the day. The construction of panoramas has become a North Korean specialty, and the Egyptian and Syrian panoramas are of North Korean design and execution.Egypt's Al-Sissi: Morsi's Ousting Prevented a Civil War
Sissi, who also serves as Egypt’s Defense Minister, made the comments in an interview with the Arabic daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The comments were translated by Al Arabiya.Egypt's Brotherhood Challenges Verdict That Seized Group Funds
“The army’s move was dictated by the national interest and national security necessities and the anticipation that the country would reach a civil war within two months if the situation we were at continued,” he said.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the group’s legal representative Othman El-Khateeb with the administrative court, also challenges the establishment of a panel to administer its frozen assets until an appeal has been heard on the ruling.Egyptian Accused of Spying for Israel after Surfing on Israeli Websites
Taliban renews assault on Pakistani polio vaccination teams, killing two
Two people were killed and up to 20 more injured after Taliban militants used a bomb to target a team delivering polio vaccination drops to children in north-west Pakistan.
In the latest of a series of assaults on volunteers, nurses and police officers involved in efforts to confront the country’s polio problem, the bomb was set off outside a health clinic on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar. A police officer and a member of a local anti-Taliban group were killed.
