Bayit Yehudi's Ben-Dahan: Kerry giving legitimacy to terror, not a worthy mediator
Bayit Yehudi deputy minister Eli Ben-Dahan lashed out at US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday night, saying that he had given legitimacy to terror and was not worthy to serve as mediator to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.Baby Seriously Injured in Muslim Rock Ambush
The deputy religious services minister made the comments at the consecration of a new synagogue in the West Bank settlement of Etz Efraim. His remarks followed a suspected terror attack in Jerusalem on Thursday evening in which a two-year-old girl was wounded when her family's vehicle was pelted with stones.
"Earlier a girl in Jerusalem was hurt by stones from a terrorist," Channel 2 quoted Ben-Dahan as saying. "John Kerry, who warns us of an intifada does not understand the Middle East and he is not worthy to be a mediator when he goes back to his country. His words give legitimacy to this terrorism."
A two-year-old baby was seriously injured Thursday when Muslim terrorists hurled rocks at the car she was in, at the entrance to the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in southern Jerusalem.PM Vows to Catch 'Criminals' Who Injured Baby
A Magen David Adom (MDA) team gave the baby initial medical care and took her to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. She suffered a serious head injury.
"I am always moved by being here, in the place where Jewish history was formed, to large extent. This is the Zion that we dreamt of returning to, and this is Zion that we have returned to. Since then, we have been busy building our land and our state, and we are always under challenge."Four arrested in Jerusalem stoning attack that injured toddler
"The first thing that I'd like to do this evening is to send wishes of speedy and full recovery to the small baby girl who was wounded by criminals here in Jerusalem," he said. "We will find these criminals and we will bring them to justice. We will safeguard our city."
"I think that you must have noticed in the last few days that our security forces are focusing on finding the perpetrators of evil. They succeed in this, and they will succeed in this case, too."
The suspects, Arab men aged 15 to 20, were brought for a remand extension before the Jerusalem District Court Friday morning, police said. The court extended their remand until Monday.'I Hoped Adelle Would Be the Last' Injured Infant
The four, residents of the Arab neighborhood of Sur Baher, are suspected of hurling rocks at the vehicle in which two-year-old Avigail Ben Zion was traveling with her parents in Armon Hanatziv, a predominantly Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood just over the Green Line.
Adva Bitton, mother of the infant Adelle who was nearly killed in March by a rock thrown at the family's car near Ariel in Shomron, said the similar rock attack in Jerusalem Thursday night brought her right back to the day of the attack.Islamic Jihad Leader Calls for Rebellion Against PA
The Islamic Jihad terrorist group has called on "the Palestinian people" to rebel against the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, and urged them not to respond to summons for questioning by PA police as an act of defiance.UN Distributes Fuel to Gaza in Midst of Crisis
The Iranian-backed Islamist group has harshly criticized the PA and its security forces over a series of "political arrests", as the PA - which is dominated by Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah party - has sought to consolidate its control over Judea and Samaria by rounding up members of rival factions.
Robert Serry, UN Middle East special coordinator, said Thursday that fuel "purchased by UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) and distributed by the UN" is coming in through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.Al-Aqsa TV Filler Tallies Terror Attacks by Hamas
Serry added that while the amount "doesn't resolve the fuel crisis in Gaza, ...it does provide a safety net, we hope, for the coming two to three months for those critical installations here."
In a 2-minute TV filler broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas dramatizes various types of attacks, giving a tally: 38 stabbings, 487 shootings, and so on.Iran
Netanyahu vows to banish ‘darkness’ of Iran nuclear program
Speaking at the Western Wall for a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony, Netanyahu compared Iran’s nuclear program to a darkness that would be forced out by Israel, referencing a popular children’s song for the holiday.'Washington Post': White House omitting facts about Iran nuclear deal
“We came to drive out the darkness, and the largest darkness that threatens the world today is a nuclear Iran,” he said. “We are bound to do all we can to prevent this darkness. If possible we will do this diplomatically, if not we will act as ‘a light unto the nations’.”
In other words, according to the Post's Editorial Board, "the United States and its partners have already agreed that Iranian enrichment activity will continue indefinitely. In contrast, a long-standing US demand that an underground enrichment facility be closed is not mentioned."You know it’s a bad deal when...
According to the editorial, the most troubling aspect of the Geneva interim deal is that it provides for a "sunset clause" in the comprehensive agreement, meaning even the long-term deal would not be finite, and Iran could return to uranium enrichment and plutonium production at some point in the future after sanctions have been removed.
You know the accord reached in Geneva last weekend between the P5+1 and Iran is a bad deal when the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, proclaims that the accord does not recognize Iran’s “right to enrich” uranium, and five minutes later the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, says it does.Dem to Obama: Don't fix Iran's airplanes
Woe to us that Zarif speaks with more credibility than Kerry. Officials in Washington have now confirmed the Iranian interpretation by commenting on the record that it is “not realistic” to expect, even in a further accord, that Iran will agree to zero enrichment.
A senior Democrat is lashing out at a provision of the nuclear deal with Iran that could make it easier for the country to repair its aging fleet of civilian aircraft.Iranian FM: Tehran won’t attend nuclear talks if ‘Zionist regime’ present
A little-noticed provision of the deal paves the way for U.S. companies such as Boeing and General Electric to inspect and repair Iran's American-made planes inside Iran. But Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs panel and a hawk on Iran, says the planes could be used to promote terrorism and support Syria's Bashar Assad.
A report by the country’s official news agency IRNA quoted Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that Islamic Republic “would not attend a meeting in which the Quds [Jerusalem] occupying regime participates.”Amidror: Iran Deal a ‘Failure, Not a Triumph, of Diplomacy’
“We consider the Zionist regime as the biggest danger to the region and the world,” Zarif told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), according to IRNA.
In a New York Times Op-Ed, Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council, slammed the outcome of the Geneva deal with Iran, as “a failure, not a triumph, of diplomacy.”North Korea 'Restarting Its Reactor'
Entitled, “A Most Dangerous Deal: The Iran Agreement Does Not Address the Nuclear Threat,” Amidror wrote, “The agreement represents a failure, not a triumph, of diplomacy. With North Korea, too, there were talks and ceremonies and agreements — but then there was the bomb. This is not an outcome Israel could accept with Iran.”
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told the agency's 35-member board Thursday that North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex appears to have re-started its reactor. But the agency says without access to the site, IAEA inspectors cannot draw a definite conclusion.How sloppy US diplomacy is empowering Iran
North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Yongbyon in 2008 as a confidence-building measure in talks with South Korea, China, the United States, Japan, and Russia.
But in September, a U.S. research institute said satellite imagery of the site showed activity that could mean North Korea is reviving the reactor.
Dr. Michal Yaari, an expert on Saudi Arabian foreign policy from the Open University and Bar Ilan University, said that Riyadh’s greatest concern is that the US will to ignore Saudi Arabian interests and focus on Iran. “Outwardly, they have been relatively cordial. They did not attack the Geneva agreement outright, they only hinted at their objections,” he said. “But beneath the surface, Riyadh understands that Washington may choose to proceed in a way that conflicts with Saudi Arabian interests, causing a crisis.UK PM Cameron to Britain’s Jews: ‘I Share Your Skepticism Over the Iran Deal’
Iran, she clarified, “is their greatest enemy. On the religious front, there’s the hostility between the Sunnis and the Shiites. On the ethnic front, there’s the Arab-Persian conflict. From a security perspective, since Iraq disintegrated, no power has been able to stand in the way of Iranian hegemony in the Persian Gulf. And politically, there are the Iranian attempts to weaken the monarchies in the region. They see an Iranian threat everywhere they turn. So while Tehran may not have the upper hand in all of the conflicts in the region, it certainly is not losing its battles.”
UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Britain’s Jewish community at a Chanukah reception, “I share your skepticism over the Iran deal.”BBC WS fails to disclose Iranian regime connections of ‘expert panel’ member
“An enemy of Israel’s is an enemy of mine… but in my judgement this is the right step to take,” Cameron said, after lighting Chanukah candles with the UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak at a reception held at 10 Downing Street, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Thursday.
“I know there will be great skepticism, I know there will be great worry,” the prime minister said. “All I will say to you tonight is that I share your skepticism, I share your worry. I don’t have any starry-eyed view about what this Iranian regime offers. We only got to where we are because of the very tough sanctions.”
So there we have it: undiluted Iranian regime propaganda broadcast to tens of millions of listeners around the world by the ‘reputable’ BBC World Service in the guise of an “expert” opinion, and with complete abandonment of the editorial obligation to make the connections of that “expert” known to audiences.‘Israel spied on embassies in Lebanon,’ says Hezbollah MP
A Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament on Thursday accused Israel of tracking the movements of UNIFIL members and international ambassadors in the country, allegedly using a chain of surveillance positions along its border with Lebanon.Report: Hezbollah Policing Lebanon Streets
At a special meeting hosted by the parliament’s media and telecommunications committee, and which was attended by the ambassadors of 27 countries and UNIFIL representatives, the head of the committee MP Hassan Fadlallah said Thursday that “[an] attack on a sovereign country in this way goes beyond international resolutions and conventions, as it includes an assault on freedoms and privacies [sic],” according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.
Hezbollah operatives have set up checkpoints to inspect every car entering the Dahieh district controlled by the armed political organization. Since the double bombing of the Iranian embassy on November 19 that killed 25 people, Hezbollah has been wary of further attacks on Iranian institutions in Beirut. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based Al-Qaeda affiliate.Saudi Cleric: Women Driving Ban Protects Against Evil
“Young people are walking around with radios, checking every car that wants to enter the Dahieh quarter, and there are whole streets closed to traffic due to security concerns,” Lebanese sources were quoted as saying by Asharq Al-Awsat.
Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, in a speech delivered Wednesday in the western city of Medina, said the issue of giving women the right to drive should not be "one of society's major concerns."
The kingdom's most senior cleric called for "the matter to be considered from the perspective of protecting society from evil" which, according to him, included letting women drive.