Monday, February 10, 2014
What “Non-Violent” Palestinian Protests Really Look Like
Even as IDF forces try to keep the peace, Palestinian “demonstrators” resort to rock throwing and other acts of violence against Israeli soldiers.
Every Friday, a similar scene repeats itself in Palestinian villages throughout Judea and Samaria. As Israeli soldiers do their best to keep the region secure, Palestinians throw rocks in unprovoked attacks against IDF forces. Israel protects the right of Palestinians to protest peacefully, but so-called “Palestinian demonstrations” often turn violent.
In this video, an IDF officer explains to Palestinian demonstrators that they have the right to protest peacefully, but asks them not to use violence against Israeli troops. Their only response is to throw rocks in an attempt to injure or kill IDF soldiers.
Rocks kill people
As American Secretary of State John Kerry encourages the possibility of a Third Intifada against Israel, and media worldwide continues to claim that rock-throwing is non-violent, Israelis continue to be injured from Palestinian Arab rock throwers. As this video reminds us Rocks Kill People.
It should be noted that American border patrol police “consider rock-throwing to be deadly force which sometimes demands the same in response.” Throwing rocks is violent behavior – and protection from rocks is vital.
Let us hope and pray that this little girl makes a full recovery.
Boycott or Opportunity? You Can’t Have Both
But destroying Israel as a sovereign state is the primary goal the boycotters themselves have never hidden, as much as some naive American Jewish liberals wish they would adapt and sanitize their tactics by concentrating on the West Bank alone. If you don’t believe me, pay heed to Phil Weiss, editor of the anti-Semitic website Mondoweiss: “If BDS is such a powerful tactic that they can use to pressure Netanyahu for a two-state-solution… why shouldn’t Palestinians use the tactic to their ends? Why accept a deal for a fragment of the country you once lived in, negotiated by a collaborationist government?”It’s time for Israel to wage a formidable Public Relations campaign
What, then, should those genuinely committed to securing a peaceful resolution between Israelis and Palestinians do, if they reject boycotting? I would suggest, at the outset, talking to the right people with the most creative ideas—people like Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream, who aced an interview with the BBC’s toughest interrogator, Jeremy Paxman, by pointing out that peace needs to be fueled with economic opportunities for both peoples, even if that means breaking with dogmatic slogans about the illegitimacy of Jewish settlements.
As Birnbaum argued, some of those opportunities might eventually sustain a Palestinian state. But if we unthinkingly buy into the propaganda of the boycotters, there won’t be any opportunities to begin with.
Some analysts believe the Palestinian Authority (PA) is going to quit the talks soon and blame Israel for the failure.Bennett: Western peace efforts keep blowing up in our faces
Then, the PA will immediately launch a massive drive with their numerous sympathizers to organize more boycotts on Israel, alienate Israel further from the mainstream, and try to delegitimize the Jewish Nation.
Consequently, by shrewd public relations and persistence the PA might accomplish what no nation or combined nations have been able to do in modern Israeli history including coordinated warfare and terror.
Far from helping Israel achieve long-lasting tranquility, and helping the Palestinians flourish too, Bennett argued, 20 years of well-intentioned internationally brokered peace efforts have had the opposite effect — provoking violence and instability. “It’s a bit frustrating when people come from outside and think they have a magic solution,” he said. “They come. [Their] entering the fray creates a whole new wave of terror. And then when it fails, we’re stuck with the consequences.”Livni Hints PA Will Acknowledge Israel as Jewish State: ‘Expect to be Surprised’
What’s needed, the Jewish Home party leader argued, are not good intentions but realistic ones. And his own “stability” plan — under which Israel would annex some 60 percent of the West Bank and grant full citizenship to the 70,000 Palestinians who live there, while giving the remaining Palestinians elsewhere in the territories self-government but not statehood — while admittedly “imperfect,” said Bennett, has the advantage of being realistic.
At one point a heated exchange took place between Livni and Minister of Pensioner Affairs Uri Orbach (Jewish Home).Netanyahu to meet with Obama in US in March
Orbach said that, “While it is clear to us that Israel is a Jewish state, the Palestinians will never accept this fact.” In response, the Justice Minister, who is leading Israel’s negotiating team in framework agreement talks with the PA, implied that they may be about to change course. “Expect to be surprised,” she said. “And if they [the Palestinian Arabs] are willing to recognize us as a Jewish state, would you then be willing to divide the country?”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a five-day visit to the United States in the first week of March, during which he will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House and deliver a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington.Yeshiva Students Attacked by Arab Rock-Thowers in Galilee
According to the Prime Minister's Office, the date of the meeting with Obama has yet to be set, but the details are expected to be finalized in the coming days. Netanyahu and Obama last met in September, when Netanyahu traveled to the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly meeting.
Rock attacks by Arabs against Jews are no longer restricted to Judea and Samaria. Last Thursday, dozens of yeshiva students in the lower Galilee were attacked by stone-throwing Arabs as they attempted to visit the tomb of a Jewish sage near the village of Ilabun.Fatah to appoint a deputy to Abbas
The students had gone to visit the tomb of Rabbi Matya Ben Harash, a Talmudic sage. According to Shaul Pu'a, a student at the yeshiva, some 50 students proceeded from a bus that had brought them to the site to the tomb itself. A crowd of Arab youths gathered as they walked.
The attack began when they returned from the tomb to the bus. According to Pu'a, some of the students had gotten back on the bus when the rain of rocks began. Pu'a said that he believed the Arabs waited until that exact moment to carry out the attack, because they believed it was unlikely that anyone would get off the bus.
Despite his ailing health, 78-year-old Abbas has not nominated a deputy either. Abbas has unilaterally extended his term as president since January 2009 amid a political schism with rival movement Hamas, revolving around — among other issues – the arrangements of new presidential and parliamentary elections.Egypt, Russia Seal $2B Arms Deal
According to the Palestinian Basic Law, if the president is to become incapacitated, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament must fill the position pending new elections to be held within 60 days. The current speaker of parliament is Hamas member Aziz Dweik, a fact adding to Fatah’s angst over the day after Abbas.
The source, who asked not to be named, said the two Gulf kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and the UAE played a “vital role” in sealing the deal.Egypt's top satirist Bassem Youssef returns to TV
The official revealed that the first tranche of Russian weapons to Egypt will be delivered before mid-2014. The delivery and payments will both be phased, he explained.
Egypt's top satirist returned to television on Friday for the first airing of his show since it was pulled three months ago, and he skewered the public and media for lionizing the army chief widely expected to be the country's next president.Still many outstanding issues between Iran, IAEA
In taking aim at the frenzy of support for Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Bassem Youssef went further in his criticism of the army-backed political order than anyone else currently allowed on the airwaves.
Iran’s promise to clarify its use of detonators marks only an initial step by Tehran to address long-standing allegations of past nuclear weapons research, the UN atomic watchdog said Monday.Iran Claims 'Biggest Army In Region' on Revolution Anniversary
“This is the first step that is taking place now,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Tero Varjoranta told reporters at Vienna airport after returning from Iran.
“There is still a lot of outstanding issues so now we are starting on the PMD,” he said, referring to alleged “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear activities, mostly before 2003.
On Sunday, Iran and the IAEA agreed a new seven-step plan to increase transparency, including a pledge by Iran to provide “information and explanations for the Agency to assess Iran’s stated need or application for the development of Exploding Bridge Wire detonators”.
To mark 35 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the regime held a special display of the nation's domestic military industry advances in the last decade, bragging that it has the "biggest army in the region."Iranian Navy Commander Vows to Sink U.S. Warships
The pinnacle of Iranian warfare was presented in the Shihab 1, 2 and 3 missiles, which feature a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), enabling them to strike Israel. The missiles are fired from subterranean launchers, making them difficult to detect by satellite.
A top Iranian naval commander threatened to destroy U.S. warships and kill American soldiers just a day after Iranian vessels approached U.S. waters for the first time in history.Iran Hangs Arab Poet As 'Enemy of G-d'
“The Americans can sense by all means how their warships will be sunk with 5,000 crews and forces in combat against Iran and how they should find its hulk in the depths of the sea,” Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the commander of the elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy, was quoted as saying Sunday in the regional press.
Despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "charm offensive," which has sealed an interim nuclear deal and lifted US sanctions, the Islamic regime remains brutal as ever. An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist was executed in late January for being an "enemy of G-d."Hezbollah Pledges to Keep Fighting in Syria
Hashem Shaabani, an ethnic Arab and popular composer of Arabic and Persian poetry, was hung in an unidentified prison on January 27 along with Hadi Rashedi, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. He was the founder of Dialogue Institute, which promoted Arabic literature and culture in Iran.
The 32-year-old poet spoke out against the mistreatment of ethnic Arabs in Iran's Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq. He was arrested in February or March 2011, on charges of being a "Moharabeh," namely an "enemy of G-d."
Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria's bloody civil war, as the conflict approaches its fourth year.Reports: Hezbollah Vetoes New Cabinet, Leaving Lebanon Government in Limbo
At a ceremony in the Beirut suburb and Hezbollah stronghold of Ouzai, the Iranian-backed group's second-in-command, Sheikh Naim Qassem, struck a familiar chord, branding Syrian rebels "takfiris" - a derogatory word for Sunni Muslim extremists.
The current caretaker cabinet took control of Lebanon in April 2013, after the stability of repeated governments was undermined by Hezbollah and its allies. Hezbollah’s veto over the proposed new cabinet composition, which came despite statements from March 14 figures signaling expanded willingness to make concessions, leaves efforts to restore political stability in limbo.Turkish FM Davutoglu: Turkey, Israel close to a deal
Turkey and Israel are as close as they have been yet to ending the long-running saga over the Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying Sunday.Turkish Jews Targeted in Terrifying Anti-Semitic Attack
Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News quoted Davutoglu, who has been an acerbic and vocal critic of Israel, as saying in a televised interview that "there has recently been a momentum and new approach in compensation talks. We could say that most of the differences have been removed recently in these discussions." Israeli diplomatic officials, continuing a policy that has been in place for the last few weeks, refused to comment on the matter. Last week officials in the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry were instructed not to talk about the issue.
Even amid reports that Israel and Turkey are close to "normalizing" relations again, it appears that the long-term impact of years of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement since the souring of relations in 2010 will be far more difficult to roll back.Turkish protesters clash with police over online censorship
Arutz Sheva has seen an email by a Turkish Jewish businessman, relating a harrowing anti-Semitic attack on him and his partner in the northwestern Turkish town of Babaeski, in the country's Marmara district, once again highlighting fears for the future of Turkey's 15,000-strong Jewish minority.
The two men - who requested anonymity - were visiting clients in the Thrace Region, when they stopped off in the town for a lunch break. But upon making their orders at a local restaurant, they were in for a nasty shock.
Turkish riot police Saturday used tear gas grenades and water cannon to disperse more than 2,000 people demonstrating against new Internet curbs that have sparked alarm at home and abroad.Ankara ‘was on brink of severing Paris ties’ over Armenian genocide bill, Turkish envoy says
Large numbers of police with body armor and shields backed up by armored water cannon trucks deployed against the chanting, mostly young crowd around Istanbul’s emblematic Taksim Square.
Ankara was on the brink of downgrading ties with Paris if a bill criminalizing denial of genocide was approved by the French Constitutional Court, Turkish Ambassador to France Tahsin Burcuoğlu revealed Feb. 8.Al-Qaeda And Its Offshoots Train And Indoctrinate Newborns, Toddlers, And Preschoolers – Captured On Twitter
Increasingly over the past decade, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates and sympathizers have been aiming their outreach and recruitment efforts at pre-teens, and even much younger children. As part of these efforts, Al-Qaeda sheikhs are reaching out directly to Muslim youth. For example, last year, in an audio lecture released by the Al-Qaeda media arm Al-Sahab, emerging Al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Maulana Asim Umar urged even the youngest Muslims to "not stay with [their] parents" and to leave the "luxury" of home and "city life" to wage jihad, like the Prophet Muhammad before them. In fiery terms, he exhorted them: "A youth whose heart is filled with desire, spirit, and love for jihad does not rest in his home; do not stay with your parents and do not enjoy the luxury of home... To fulfill the promise, one group preferred to sacrifice love for parents, leave the city life, and go to the mountains of Afghanistan, the snow-covered hills of Kashmir, and to continue fighting the enemy for the supremacy of Islam and to preserve the honor of their mothers and sisters..."
