Disputed legal territory: Guardian assails Australia’s right to dissent on Jerusalem
Finally, the mere fact that Saul and others might claim that calling Jerusalem “occupied” represents the “near-universal legal status quo” does not make it so. First, the term itself is generally “used in international law to denote the presence of one country in sovereign territory that belongs to another”.Palestinian diplomat: PA should recognize Israel as Jewish state, relinquish return
Additionally, Israel is the only recognized nation with a legitimate claim to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) – territory which was, for hundreds of years, until the end of World War I, the equivalent of a province in the Ottoman Empire. The territory never had any unique national standing other than as the future Jewish national homeland as stipulated by the League of Nations.
Jewish national rights accorded by these agreements have never been abrogated and are indeed binding to the present day.
Thus, while the status of east Jerusalem (which, let’s recall, includes the ancient Jewish quarter of the Old City and the Western Wall, the holiest site at which Jews are permitted to pray) is disputed, it is not accurate to affirm – as if there is no legal debate on the matter – that is “occupied”.
In an article published in Fathom, a quarterly devoted to Israel and the Middle East, Manuel Hassassian, who has served as the Palestinian envoy to Britain since 2005, and Israeli professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor, outlined the steps that in their opinion would be necessary for the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to take in order to assure a final peace deal is realized.Khaled Abu Toameh: ISIS Threatens to Invade Jordan, 'Slaughter' King Abdullah
“We believe that if there is a will, there is a way,” they wrote. “Peace is a precious commodity and therefore requires a high price for its achievement, reaching a solution that is agreeable to both.”
The authors posited that the ongoing conflict could only come to an end if both Israel and the Palestinians recognized the right of the other to self determination.
Security sources in Amman expressed deep concern over ISIS's threats and plans to "invade" the kingdom. The sources said that King Abdullah has requested urgent military aid from the U.S. and other Western countries so that he could foil any attempt to turn Jordan into an Islamist-controlled state.
Marwan Shehadeh, an expert on Islamist groups, said he did not rule out the possibility that ISIS would target Jordan because it views the Arab regimes, including Jordan's Hashemites, as "infidels" and "apostates" who should be fought.
The recent victories by ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria have emboldened the group and its followers throughout the Middle East. Now the terrorists are planning to move their jihad not only to Jordan, but also to the Gaza Strip, Sinai and Lebanon.
This is all happening under the watching eyes of the U.S. Administration and Western countries, who seem to be uncertain as to what needs to be done to stop the Islamist terrorists from invading neighboring countries.
ISIS is a threat not only to moderate Arabs and Muslims, but also to Israel, which the terrorists say is their ultimate destination. The U.S. and its Western allies need to wake up quickly and take the necessary measures to prevent the Islamist terrorists from achieving their goal.
Failure to act will result in the establishment in the Middle East of a dangerous extremist Islamist empire that will pose a threat to American and Western interests.
Elliott Abrams Middle East chaos
The fall of Mosul, Iraq to a terrorist group should change the American perceptions of developments in the Middle East. Although the Obama administration has spent its efforts in the region on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that front is actually stable: No one is predicting or expecting a massive collapse into violence.Does the US condone a terrorist government?
But look north and east. Today's news is of the capture of Iraq's second largest city by the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (abbreviated ISIS), an al-Qaida offshoot. Meanwhile in Syria, roughly 12,000 jihadis are now gathered, producing chaos in that country and sowing seeds of trouble for neighboring countries and our own. The estimate now is that 70 Americans are among the jihadis in Syria, one of whom recently engaged in a suicide bombing, so the question arises: What will they do when they come home?
For Israel, the US announcement that it “will work” with the new Palestinian Fatah-Hamas government certainly was a disappointment both on a moral and a political scale. Impetuously rushing into the announcement while the swearing-in ceremony in Ramallah was hardly over in spite of previous assurances to Israel to the contrary may be seen as an indication that the US administration had probably decided all along to take this step, making the retrospective statement of the State Department spokesperson that “the US will be watching (the new government) closely” sound more than a bit contrived.Poll: 56 Percent of Palestinians Oppose Resuming Talks With Israel
Less than a week before, President Barack Obama in his West Point speech had spoken about the “diffuse terrorism threats faced by the US,” announcing the creation of a $5 billion counterterrorism fund to help countries such as Yemen and Mali “fight emerging terrorist threats” but apparently not countries like Israel where the terrorist threat has long been a fully “emerged” one. But the money isn’t the real issue, and though the proposed initiative is commendable, it might have been more credible were it not for the implied distinction between supposedly different sorts of terrorism al-Qaida and its various off-shoots on the one hand, and the jihadist Hamas targeting Israel on the other hand.
More than half of Palestinians are against renewing negotiations with Israel, while less than one third think they should be restarted, according to a new poll conducted by a West Bank research center.Rice: US supports Israel, but it’s a two-way street
The survey, conducted earlier this month by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion found that 56.3 percent of Palestinian adults believe the negotiations should not be restarted due to Israeli intransigence on prisoner releases and halting settlement construction, and just 30.3 percent say the talks should resume.
The United States may be committed to supporting Israel, but that commitment comes with strings attached, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said during a talk in Washington, DC on Wednesday evening.Report: PA Considers Applying to More UN Groups
“America will always maintain our iron-clad commitment to the security of Israel, ensuring that Israel maintains its qualitative military edge and can protect its territory and people,” Rice told attendees at the Center for a New American Security’s annual conference in Washington DC. “Equally, we consistently defend Israel’s legitimacy and security in the UN and other international fora. In turn, we expect Israel to stand and be counted with the US and other partners on core matters of international law and principle, such as Ukraine.”
A report Thursday said that the Palestinian Authority was considering its next steps in applying for membership in UN organizations under the name “Palestine.” Last April, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas started the process of applying to 15 different UN organizations, and according to the PA news service Ma'an, the PA is considering applying for membership in more UN groups.Top Palestinian negotiator rips into ‘discredited, useless’ Abbas
The PA has set up a committee to consider which groups to apply to, to be headed by PA Foreign Minister Riyadh al-Maliki.
A leaked audio recording of chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat harshly criticizing PA President Mahmoud Abbas over his reluctance to pursue Israel in the international arena exposed severe fissures within the Palestinian leadership regarding how best to engage Israel following the collapse of US-brokered negotiations in April, and showed profound disdain by Erekat for his president.Erekat says leaked tapes of him bashing Abbas 'taken out of context'
In the video, Erekat says Abbas has lost his credibility, slams his “useless” approach, and compares him to Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad. The top Palestinian negotiator also says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal who isn’t “worth the bullet” to shoot him.
The source and time of Erekat’s speech were not reported, but in the edited three-minute recording, uploaded to YouTube late Wednesday night by the Awraq News Agency, the Palestinian official accused his president of acting autocratically against the will of a majority of the Palestinian leadership, which voted for a harsher stance against Israel. (h/t Bob Knot/Yenta Press)
A leaked audiotape published on Wednesday night features Chief PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat launching an unprecedented attack on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.Israel freezes settlement expansion plans
Erekat responded to the audiotape by saying his words had been taken out of context.
It’s not known when Erekat was recorded. A source in Ramallah said that Erekat’s criticism of Abbas might have been recorded sometime last month.
Israel has decided on a partial freeze of some 1,400 new settlement units planned in the West Bank, Israel's daily Haaretz reported Thursday.Salafist targeted in Israeli airstrike on Gaza
The report said only 381 housing units out of 1,800 settler homes are now greenlighted, all in the neighborhood of Givat Ze'ev northwest of Jerusalem.
The Israeli government last week ordered officials to move forward with construction plans for 1,800 settler homes in the West Bank, just hours after issuing tenders for 1,500 housing units, in all 3,300 units.
The reason for the sudden freeze of hundreds of new units is European pressure, Haaretz said. (h/t Bob Knot)
The IDF said in a statement the incident was a targeted hit against “global Jihad-affiliated terrorists,” in conjunction with the Shin Bet security service.Abbas accuses Israel of 'pulling region into violence' following Gaza airstrike
Palestinian media reported one killed and two injured in the incident.
The man targeted in the attack was named by the IDF as Mohammad Awwar, 33, a Hamas policeman who also belonged to “extremist Salafi” groups responsible for attacks against Israel, IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said.
The IDF refused to confirm whether Awwar — or anybody — was killed in the attack.
Israel's airstrike followed the firing of a rocket from Gaza into Israeli territory on Wednesday morning.Israeli Interrogation Reveals: Palestinian Soccer Player Aided Hamas Terrorists
The statement, carried on official Palestinian news agency WAFA, stated: "We hold Israel responsible for this escalation, which we consider an attempt to exacerbate the situation and pull the region into violence.” Abbas's statement called upon the Israeli government to promptly stop what it called the “grave escalation."
Wednesday's rocket sent from Gaza narrowly missed a main artery in southern Israel as it landed in a nearby dirt field without causing any injuries.
The Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet Security Service) announced Wednesday that a Palestinian soccer player recently attempted to transfer funds to the Hamas terrorist organization in Qalqilya. During an ISA interrogation, the Palestinian athlete, Samah Bars Mahmad Maraaba, admitted that he had met Hamas terrorists on several occasions and accepted money to be transferred into Judea and Samaria.Fatah film glorifies perpetrators of Munich attack and other terrorists
Maraaba, a member of the Palestinian national soccer team, left Israel in April with his teammates to compete abroad. In Qatar, he met Talal Ibrahim Abd Alrahman Sharim, a Hamas terrorist Israel released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal in October 2011. Since leaving prison, Sharim has continued his involvement with Hamas and in its terror-related activities.
Palestinian Nakba Day victim shot by live fire, autopsy finds
Palestinian and Israeli specialists, as well as two pathologists from the US and Denmark, were in attendance during the autopsy, which took place at the Abu Dis Institute of Forensic Medicine in the West Bank.Egypt Deploys Battalion Near Sinai Border to Fight Jihadists
An entry and exit wound were detected on the body, and shrapnel was also found, the Ma’an Palestinian news agency reported.
Nawara’s parents earlier handed over a bullet found in their son’s backpack after the attack to Palestinian investigators, and the Israeli military police have requested it as well for its independent investigation. The Nawara family said Monday it discovered the bullet a few days after the incident, but have not handed over the evidence for fear it will be tampered with. They demanded a joint Palestinian-Israeli investigation, brokered by international forces, to ensure the findings are accepted by all parties.
The family of the other victim, Mohammad Abu Daher, 16, has refused to allow an autopsy on his body, but will meet with an international investigative committee. (h/t Bob Knot)
The Egyptian military has deployed a new infantry battalion near the Red Sea resort city of Taba, which borders the Israeli city of Eilat, to prevent possible terrorist attacks in the region.New Hezbollah Unit Training Shiite Guerrillas Across Mideast
According to Egyptian sources, the deployment was coordinated with Israel, Haaretz reported.
The Lebanon-based, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah has assembled a new group named Unit 3800” which is tasked with arming and training Shiite militants in Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere in the region, according to a new report.80% of Syria rebels are Islamist, senior IDF officer says
Hezbollah, emboldened and battle-hardened by it’s experience fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria’s bloody four-year-old civil war, has set it’s sights on other local conflict zones, the Israel Defense Magazine reported on Tuesday.
The revelation comes in the wake of the arrest and interrogation of two Hezbollah operatives caught by Yemeni forces training rebels in the north of that country several days ago.
Eighty percent of the opposition fighters in Syria have “a clear Islamist agenda,” a senior Israeli intelligence officer said on Monday, noting that Iran continues to aspire to nuclear weapons despite abiding by a provisional agreement signed with the superpowers.View from Israel: IDF Camera's Register Syrian Army Attack
Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, head of Military Intelligence research, assessed in a presentation to the Herzliya Conference on Monday that of a total of some 120,000 men fighting the Assad regime, some 50,000 are Salafists who would like to see Islam implemented in the future Syria, belonging to groups like Al-Nusra Front. Approximately 30,000 support a more moderate political Islam, akin to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. The number of global jihadists, members of organizations such as ISIS, is around 15,000, or 13 percent of the fighting body. Only 20 percent of Syria’s fighters, Brun estimated, could be categorized as “secular.”
Iran to cut plutonium creation capability in attempt to reach deal with West
The West is worried that Arak, once operational, could provide a supply of plutonium - one of two materials, along with highly enriched uranium, that can trigger a nuclear explosion.Satellite photos show construction at Parchin military base in Iran
Israel has argued that any nuclear deal with Iran should demand the complete shutdown of the Arak reactor.
Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin explained last year that, if the Arak reactor was allowed to become operational, it would effectively be immune from attack and the West would "be deprived of its primary 'stick' in its efforts to persuade Iran to forgo a military nuclear capability."
Yadlin said that the West "would likely seek to avoid an attack on a 'hot' reactor, lest it cause widespread environmental damage."
The U.S. and Iran ended two days of negotiations without success on Wednesday in making progress toward an agreement over Iran's nuclear program.How the World Looks a Day After an Iranian Nuclear Deal
The United Nation's Nuclear Watchdog reported last week that while Iran has been more cooperative about its nuclear program than in the past, it still will not allow U.N. inspectors in its military installation in Parchin.
A classified document presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran agreed to allow an investigation into the claims that it is developing nuclear weapons, it has yet to allow U.N. inspectors into the Parchin complex, south of Tehran.
Experts on Iran took part in a unique round-table discussion on Tuesday at the Herzliya Conference, holding a simulation game posing what would happen the day after a deal between Iran and the West on the Islamic regime's nuclear program.Iran Insists Will Defend its ‘Nuclear Rights’; Pledges to Support Hamas at El-Sisi’s Inauguration
In Geneva on Tuesday, the US and Iran held a second day of talks ahead of a July deadline for a nuclear deal, giving the simulation an added sense of urgency.
In the first section of the simulation game, experts discussed Iranian military activity in Syria amid the civil war now stretching into its fourth year there. In the second part, the participants explored the potential of Iran making a grab at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to expand its power and capture oil reserves.
Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of Arab and African Affairs, on Tuesday said Tehran “is resolved to defend its nuclear rights in the ongoing talks with the world powers, stressing that the Iranian negotiators would never compromise national interests under any conditions,” according to semi-official Iranian media Fars.Spoil sport: Saudi sheikh gives soccer the boot
Fars said Amir Abdollahian, while in Cairo for President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s inauguration, gave an interview to Lebanon’s Al Akhbar, in which he “underscored that Iran will not give up its right to advance its peaceful nuclear program” and “stressed that the country will continue constructive talks with Group 5+1 (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany).”
When he met El-Sisi in Cairo, Amir-Abdollahian told him that, while Egypt has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran would continue to support Brotherhood-affiliate Hamas, in Gaza, Iranian state media outlet Mehr cited from the same interview.
In Mehr’s words: “He underscored that Iran's support for Hamas in the occupied Palestine is Tehran’s support for the Palestinian nation and this issue should not harm Tehran-Egypt relations.”
The World Cup that kicks off in Brazil on Thursday evening, but not everyone is excited.
In a recent fatwa, Saudi cleric Sheikh 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Barrak wrote that the game of soccer is a moral and social abomination.
According to a translation of his statements by Memri, the Middle East Media Research Institute, the sheik proclaimed that football has caused the degradation of Islam.
"There is no doubt that football, played according to [the accepted international rules], has caused Muslims to adopt some of the customs of the enemies of Islam, who are [preoccupied with] games and frivolity. [This game] causes many abominable and corrupt acts," he said.