Friday, September 12, 2014
Hamas threatened UNRWA personnel at gun-point during Gaza war
Hamas used violence and threats against UN personnel in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, The Jerusalem Post learned from credible sources this week.Alan Dershowitz: Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas
During the operation, Hamas was hiding weapons in facilities run by UNRWA, and firing rockets from close proximity to its schools, it was discovered. UNRWA workers were subject to Hamas threats at gun-point during the operation.
In a number of incidents, Hamas terrorists threatened to kill UNRWA personnel if they revealed that the Islamist group was using the UN facilities for purposes of war, to ensure that they would not speak out about Hamas’s activities.
Details have also emerged of the fate of medical supplies and food that were intended to be distributed by UNRWA to residents of Gaza in need of humanitarian aid. On a number of occasions, armed Hamas operatives forcefully confiscated the supplies, taking them for their own use.
In a few cases, both during and after the Gaza war, trucks carrying supplies to UNRWA facilities were intercepted and taken over by Hamas terrorists.
In 2009, I published a short book entitled The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza. Very little has changed since that time, except that Hamas has built many more tunnels, and that the reach and sophistication of its rockets has increased.IDF Blog: Hamas Reveals Jihadi Character on Arabic Twitter Account
I am writing this book to warn the world that unless Hamas's dead baby strategy is denounced and stopped — by the international community, the media, the academy, and good people of all religions, ethnicities, and nationalities — it will be coming soon "to a theater near you." Hamas repeatedly employs this despicable and unlawful strategy because it works! It works because despite the material losses Hamas suffers in its repeated military encounters with Israel, it always wins the public relations war, the legal war, the academic war, and the war for the naïve hearts, if not the wise minds, of young people. And if it is indeed winning these wars — if its dead baby strategy is working — why not repeat it every few years? That's why cease-fires between Israel and Hamas always mean that Israel "ceases" and Hamas "fires" — perhaps not immediately, while it regroups and rearms, but inevitably. And if it works for Hamas, why shouldn't other terrorist groups, like ISIS and Boko Haram, adapt this strategy to their nefarious goals, as Hezbollah has already done?
The only way to end this cycle of death is to expose the Hamas dead baby strategy for what it is — a double war crime whose ultimate victims are civilian children, women, and men.
The difference in speech from English to ArabicCaroline Glick: Of politicians and moral courage
On its English twitter account, Hamas’ Islamist character is played down. The terrorist organization publishes more reserved statements such as, “The Palestinian people are committed to their right to their land, to defend themselves and to lift the siege imposed on Gaza,” (although there are some notable exceptions to this “moderation.”)
However, on its Arabic twitter account, Hamas reveals its Jihadist nature by issuing far more virulent statements, such as:
“We will not rest until Palestine is free … We are not tired nor weary, and we’ll continue on the path of Jihad with the help of God. “
Leaders are not elected. Politicians are elected. Their election in turn provides politicians with the opportunity to become leaders.
You don’t become a leader by telling people what they want to hear, although doing so certainly helps to you get elected. A politician becomes a leader by telling people what they don’t want to hear.
If they are lucky, politicians will never have to become leaders. They will serve in times of peace and plenty, when it’s possible to pretend away the hard facts of the human condition. And they can leave office beloved for letting people believe that the world is the Elysian Fields.
Certainly this has been the case for many American politicians since the end of World War II.
This is not the case today. In our times, evil rears its ugly head with greater power and frequency than it has in at least a generation. As Americans learned 13 years ago this week, evil ignored is evil empowered.
Yet fighting evil and protecting the good is not a simple matter. Evil has many handmaidens.
Those who hide it away enable it. Those who justify it enable it. Those who ignore it enable it.
To fight evil effectively, a leader must possess the moral wisdom to recognize that evil can only be rooted out when the environment that cultivates it is discredited and so transformed. To discredit and transform that environment, a leader must have the moral courage to stand not only against evildoers, but against their far less controversial facilitators.
In other words, the foundations of true leadership are moral clarity and courage
What Obama Offers Against ISIS vs. What Churchill Offered Against the Nazis
At no point does Churchill speak of shrinking Nazi's Germany sphere of influence. At no point does Churchill speak of Nazi Germany being a manageable problem. Although he welcomed all the help he could get, Churchill also never spoke of making sure there was an international will to defeat the Nazis.Sarah Honig: Old antipathies die hard
The only thing Churchill offered against the Nazis was blood, toil, tears and sweat. Is Obama prepared to offer any of this against ISIS? All Obama has offered against ISIS is ambiguity, equivocation, indecision and a lifeline.
Is it any wonder that, in one of his first acts of office, Obama returned the Churchill bust that Tony Blair lent to President Bush after the attacks of September 11, 2001?
Sadly, it should come as no surprise that a symbol bearing the image of one of the wisest leaders of the 20th century would have no place in the Obama White House.
If Obama possessed an ounce of Churchill's resolve then perhaps ISIS would tread lightly.
Why are the White House, Whitehall and hubs of diplomacy in all the capitals of the EU so irascibly indignant over Israel’s decision to declare 400 hectares in Gush Etzion state lands?If you want to call it Gaza’s 9/11…
Under whichever conceivable future compromise (if any) this minuscule area is sure to remain Israeli, as it was even before Israeli independence.
The Etzion Bloc fell to Arab besiegers in 1948 and its Jewish defenders were cold-bloodedly massacred after they had already surrendered. Destroyed and desolate, it languished under Jordanian occupation for merely 19 years. Nonetheless, the dysfunctional family of nations decrees that for the sake of world peace the Etzion Bloc must forever revert to its brief erstwhile judenfrei status.
Why? Because old antipathies die hard. In some cases they just never die at all, the staggering volatility around us notwithstanding. Otherwise sterling democracies still hold fast to their archaic prejudices despite the dizzying flux and scary savagery of our times – especially in the logic-defying Middle East.
Until lately hardly any statesmen, observers or scholars dared question the region’s national divisions or the borders delineating them. The sole exception, not unexpectedly, was their inimical perception of the Jewish state’s legitimacy. To all and sundry it seemed that Iraq, Syria or Libya were ancient nations with distinct characters and cohesive identities all their own.
Unsurprisingly, anti-Israel activists like Abunimah push the same ludicrous notions. The “infographic” posted at Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada that suggests that New Yorkers fared incomparably better after 9/11 than Gazan’s after their many “9/11s” includes the complaint that “Palestinians are stuck in a repeating cycle, they cannot heal, nor can they accept the continuation of Israeli violence and blockade.” The statement that “Palestinians are stuck in a repeating cycle” is actually one of the few true pieces of information conveyed in this graphic, but as so many surveys show, this vicious cycle is entirely the Palestinians’ own making. When almost three quarters of a population have confidence that Osama bin Laden would “do the right thing in world affairs” and almost 80 percent believe a war that resulted in more than 2000 dead, more than 10 000 injured and considerable destruction was a “victory” for the terrorist organization that started it, there is unfortunately no basis for any constructive development.Daniel Pipes: Why Kurdistan Will Benefit Iraq and the Middle East
Before welcoming the emerging state of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, I confess to having opposed its independence in the past.PA daily: Obama is "a black president whose crimes have surpassed those of all the white presidents."
In 1991, after the Kuwait War had ended and as Saddam Hussein attacked Iraq’s 6 million Kurds, I made three arguments against American intervention on their behalf, arguments still commonly heard today: First, Kurdish independence would spell the end of Iraq as a state; second, it would embolden Kurdish agitation for independence in Syria, Turkey and Iran, leading to destabilization and border conflicts; and three, it would invite the persecution of non-Kurds, causing “large and bloody exchanges of population.”
All three expectations proved flat-out wrong. Given Iraq’s wretched domestic and foreign track record, the end of a unified Iraq promises relief, as do Kurdish stirrings in the neighboring countries. Syria has been fracturing into its three ethnic and sectarian components — Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab — which promises benefits in the long term. Kurds departing Turkey usefully impede the reckless ambitions of now-President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Similarly, Kurds decamping Iran helpfully diminishes that arch-aggressive mini-empire. Far from non-Kurds fleeing Iraqi Kurdistan, as I feared, the opposite has occurred: hundreds of thousands of refugees are pouring in from the rest of Iraq to benefit from Kurdistan’s security, tolerance and opportunities.
Obama "sees all of these repulsive scenes in Gaza, and is happy, [seeing this] as compensation for what happened to the blacks"Rule of Law: Ready for a fight
Ongoing demonization of the United States as the leading imperialist country responsible for poor living conditions in the Muslim and Arab world shaped the mentality that led to the 9/11 attacks on the US by radical Islamic terrorists.
The Palestinian Authority continues this same message of demonization, in spite of the US being its largest donor since it was formed in 1994.
Below are some examples of PA hate speech against the US and President Obama during the Gaza war, which depict the US as a country that dominates and destroys others for its own gain and pleasure. Although these articles were published during the Gaza war, the messages are not unique to this period. They reflect a consistent PA policy of demonizing the US as the master imperialist conspirator who together with Israel, is trying to undermine the Arab and Muslim worlds.
WITH THE future dangers of using ground forces clear, what is the outlook on Israel’s fight to defend its recent past operations? It depends on who you ask.Leaked letter suggests PA stalling ICC membership, possible war crimes probe
According to a lineup of human rights groups – B’Tselem, Yesh Din, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and likely the UN Human Rights Council investigation headed by William Schabas – Israel’s legal situation is bleak.
They claim Israel does not meet international standards for self-investigation, and that it ignored the recommendations of its own quasi- independent Turkel Commission – which gave 18 recommendations for how Israel could improve its own investigations (while giving the IDF investigations an overall passing grade).
They believe the only answer is to bring Israeli soldiers before the ICC.
Israeli officials across the board seem surprisingly far more calm and confident about surviving the situation without any ICC intervention than they did post the 2008- 2009 Gaza war.
They say the state learned a lot from fighting the Goldstone Report, has made huge improvements in its investigations, is implementing all or almost of the Turkel recommendations, and will therefore leave the ICC no basis to intervene, since it only intervenes if a state does not self-investigate adequately.
The Palestinian Authority has prevented war crimes investigators from probing actions by Israel and Hamas during Operation Protective Edge, the Qatar-based pan-Arab news network Al Jazeera is reporting on Friday.Jerusalem Arabs: In-House Agents of Anti-Israel Agenda
Citing a confidential letter signed by the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, Al Jazeera is reporting that the ICC “did not receive a positive confirmation” from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riad Malki, to go ahead with a war crimes investigation that was originally requested by the PA’s justice minister.
The justice minister, Saleem al-Saqqa, and the PA general prosecutor, Ismaeil Jabr, formally petitioned the ICC to investigate Israel for its actions during the Gaza offensive. In order for such a probe to be launched, the court needs formal approval from “the head of state, the head of government, and the minister of foreign affairs.”
This week we sadly are witness to increased rioting and violence in east Jerusalem including the use by local Arab residents of lethal weapons against Jewish neighborhoods, Jewish motorists, and police and military forces.Israeli Government Seeks to Intensify Anti-Terror Enforcement
East Jerusalem’s Arab residents are trying to destroy any semblance of co-existence in Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. They are willing to sabotage the light rail system that brought their neighborhoods modern urban transportation.
This is a minority that is positioning itself to join the Palestinian Arabs in a complete rejection of Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem. Israel must acknowledge the fact that a large minority of more than 280,000 Arab residents in Jerusalem are fighting from within Israel’s borders against Israel's Jewish and democratic character.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special session on Wednesday to discuss the growing threat to Israel posed by radical Mideast terror organizations such as the Islamic State, Israel Hayom reported.Israeli authorities shut down 'Hamas-linked' Islamist organization in Nazareth
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Shin Bet security agency Director Yoram Cohen, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein participated in the meeting, which focused on the need to intensify the counterterrorism measures taken by Israel’s law enforcement agencies.
Livni is pushing a new bill to bar Israeli citizens and residents from participating in any activity related to organizations that have been designated by Israel as terrorist groups.
Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) closed down the offices of an Islamic Movement-run organization in Nazareth that was identified with Hamas, authorities announced on Thursday.Wrong Turn in Jerusalem Leads Family to Arab Ambush
The offices of the Amara al-Aksa and al-Makdasat organization were closed on September 3.
Founded in 2009 by the Islamic Movement, the Islamist body’s role was to ensure a permanent Muslim presence on the Temple Mount and protect the holy site, but it also cooperated with Hamas, according to the Shin Bet.
A family accidentally drove into the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Joz in Jerusalem on Thursday night, and nearly paid for the wrong turn in Israel's capital city with their lives.Watch: Rock Terror in Samaria Caught on Tape
After entering the neighborhood, the family car was beset upon by a hail of potentially lethal rocks and massive bricks that broke the windshield, in what the mother of the family Etti Cohen described to Yedioth Aharonoth as "nearly a lynch-mob." Fortunately the family managed to escape with only minor physical wounds.
"I feel like we got out of there by a miracle," Cohen recalled tearfully. "I woke up this morning and the first thing that happened to me was hysterical crying, because I don't believe that we're at home and safe."
Arab terrorists were caught on camera as they rained a potentially lethal hail of rocks on Israeli cars Thursday afternoon on Highway 60, which runs the length of Judea and Samaria.
The terrorists, who carried out their attack near the community of Ofra in the Binyamin region of Samaria, were filmed by a crew of the company IS, which provides legal and security advising.
As they captured the attack on film, the IS crew called security forces, and thanks to their actions and film evidence, the two terrorists were quickly apprehended.
Police arrest 6 after East Jerusalem riots
Three were arrested after they hurled stones and firecrackers at police forces near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.MK Feiglin Warns of a New Intifada in Jerusalem
Following Friday prayer at the al-Aqsa mosque, several masked men began charging at a border police post near the entrance to the Temple Mount. The rioters were blocked by Waqf forces, and the three demonstrators were subsequently arrested. They were transferred to a nearby police station for questioning.
Later, police apprehended three protesters for similar offenses in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Also on Friday, Likud MK Miri Regev urged police to take a tougher stance against rock-throwing in the capital.
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) visited eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on Thursday with members of the Internal Affairs Committee, where he told Arutz Sheva that he is convinced the wave of terror in the capital will only increase in coming days.Police: Fireworks Are the New Weapon of Choice for Rioters
"The loss of control over Jerusalem, and by continuation also over Gaza, started on the Temple Mount," Feiglin said, while at the French Hill gas station that Arab rioters tried to explode on Sunday.
Feiglin's comments come in the wake of the dismantling of a new access ramp to the Temple Mount in a folding to Jordanian pressure, and recommendations by MKs, including those of the Jewish Home, to maintain the status quo of de facto Jordanian Waqf (Islamic Trust) control.
Four thousand (4,000) police officials were on patrol that night, he said, on high alert after rioting had begun to rise steadily since Ramadan began.Cuba Sends Drugs, Medical Supplies to Gaza
By now, he said, "we have 600 arrests, 240 indictments filed, and it doesn't end there."
Weapons against police have gotten deadlier, he added. While firework-launching has long been a common occurrence during the frequent Arab riots in Jerusalem, the rioters have begun firing large amounts of them at police at once, requiring police to respond with riot dispersal measures more frequently.
The phenomenon has led to the high number of police injuries, he said; of the 130 recorded injuries among police forces, at least thirty (30) were said to be from fireworks alone.
Cuba has sent six tons of drugs and medical supplies to Gaza, official media reported Thursday.Syrian rebels: We 'will fight Islamic State so it cannot reach Golan'
The government-run Cubadebate website said the humanitarian shipment was delivered by officials at Cuba's embassy in Cairo to the Hamas representative there.
Cubadebate said Palestinian officials expressed their thanks for Havana's "noble gesture" that "will alleviate the difficult situation Gaza is facing," as hospitals continue to treat those injured by the Hamas offensive on Israel.
Communist Cuba broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973 after the Yom Kippur War.
A representative of the Syrian rebels operating near Israel’s border in the Golan Heights told an Israeli TV station on Thursday , “We will fight against Islamic State so that it does not reach the Golan.”Syrian Army and Hezbollah Ordered to Shoot Down Foreign Planes
The rebel spokesman told Israel’s Channel 2 that it is disappointed in the US decision not to launch a ground invasion against the Islamic State and that there “will be an all-out war against Islamic State in southern Syria.”
Syria's Western-backed National Coalition opposition on Thursday said it was ready to work with the United States against Islamic State militants after President Barack Obama authorized US air strikes for the first time in Syria.
The Syrian Army and Hezbollah have reportedly been given orders by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to shoot down any foreign planes flying over Syria airspace.Woman who lost limbs in Syrian war treated at Safed hospital, making the total 366
Assad’s troop and Hezbollah are fighting together against the Syrian Rebels, who range from secular freedom fighters, to Al Quida, and ultimately ISIS.
Assad is supported by Iran and Russia.
The threat seems to be directed specifically at the United States which may be planning to attack Daash (ISIS) inside Syria, by air.
A 47-year-old Syrian woman who was very seriously wounded by a rocket that fell close to her home during the current upheaval in her country was brought Thursday by the Israel Defense Forces to Ziv Medical Center in Safed for urgent treatment.,Syria Fighting Stalls Golan Apple Harvest Shipment to Syria
The woman was wounded on Tuesday in the Dar’a region and received medical care there, but her condition continued to decline. Her right arm was amputated and her left left was amputated under her knee. She also had serious shrapnel wounds to her right leg.
Due to the lack of advanced care, her family took her to the Israel-Syria border and transferred her to IDF forces, who took her to the trauma room at Ziv. The medical team stabilized her condition and transferred her to the operating theater where surgeons and orthopedists worked hard to try to save her right leg from amputation.
The woman is the mother of eight children who were at home when the missile hit. Since she was evacuated quickly, she did not know how her family are.
For the second year in a row, Israeli Jewish and Druze apple growers on the Golan Heights are unable to send their produce to Syria, due to the fierce fighting between Syrian troops, ISIS terrorists, and rebel forces near the Quneitra crossing point, Israel’s NRG News reported Wednesday.Lebanon FM: ISIS Must be Eliminated, Not Contained
Exports of the Hermon and Golden Delicious varieties from Israel to Syria, via the UN-run facility, lasted nearly a decade, and included shipments of 7,000 to 10,000 tons of apples annually, netting local farmers some 14-20 million shekels in income.
Usually apples were transferred to Syria via Syrian farmers. The apple growers and their counterparts on the Israeli side evolved a trusting business relationship over the years, and it’s likely that traders on the Syrian side are missing their cross-border partnerships.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Thursday, “The priority is to eradicate Daash (ISIS) and not only reduce its size or defeat it… Daash (ISIS) shouldn’t exist at all, and its ideology should vanish and disappear.”JPost: Intervention’s limits
In his speech, Bassil said, “You must not exclude any country or party that is ready to fight Daash, as there is no excuse or justification for the exclusion of any state or party from participating in the war on Daash.”
Bassil also said that Lebanon would be a partner, a pioneer and spearhead in the battle against ISIS, which he believes threatens the entire human race.
Over the decade since the invasion of Iraq, Republicans and Democrats alike have learned the hard way the limits of the US’s ability to effect change. Afghanistan and Libya offer additional examples of how difficult, if not impossible, regime change can be. In contrast, Egypt is proof that regime change is possible when the local population is actively involved in the shaping of its future.Daniel Pipes: ISIS Is Not Islamic?
Ultimately, Syrians, Iraqis and other peoples in the region will have to sort out their own problems and take responsibility for their own destinies. Obama speech on the 13th anniversary of 9/11 reflected this hard-learned fact.
In a televised address on Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama outlined his ideas on how to defeat the Islamic State. Along the way, he declared the organization variously known as ISIS or ISIL to be “not Islamic.”Netanyahu: Israel Fully Supports U.S. Action Against Islamic State
In making this preposterous claim, Obama joins his two immediate predecessors in pronouncing on what is not Islamic. Bill Clinton called the Taliban treatment of women and children “a terrible perversion of Islam.” George W. Bush deemed that 9/11 and other acts of violence against innocents “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.”
None of the three has any basis for such assertions. To state the obvious: as non-Muslims and politicians, rather than Muslims and scholars, they are in no position to declare what is Islamic and what is not. As Bernard Lewis, a leading American authority of Islam, notes: “it is surely presumptuous for those who are not Muslims to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in Islam.” (That Obama was born and raised a Muslim has no relevance here, for he left the faith and cannot pronounce on it.)
In a major foreign policy speech on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel fully supports the United States in its counter-terrorism campaign against the Islamic State, but stopped short of elaborating on what steps Israel would take.10 Arab Countries Back U.S. Campaign Against IS
Netanyahu said Islamic State has a similar ideology to other radical Islamic groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and al-Shabab.
“These groups must be fought. They must be rolled back and they must ultimately be defeated. That’s why Israel fully supports President [Barack] Obama’s call for united actions against ISIS,” he said.
Netanyahu cautioned that weakening Sunni terrorists should not result in strengthening Shi’a terrorists and Iran, which he called the “ultimate terror” if it acquires nuclear weapons.
The United States on Thursday received the backing of 10 Arab countries for a "coordinated military campaign" against Islamic State fighters, Reuters reported.Beheaded Journalist's Mother Is 'Appalled' At Failure To Save Her Son
According to the report, after talks in Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State John Kerry won backing from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar - for a coalition to fight the Sunni militants that have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.
"Arab nations play a critical role in that coalition, the leading role really across all lines of effort: military support, humanitarian aid, our work to stop the flow of illegal funds," Kerry was quoted as having told a news conference.
Non-Arab Sunni power Turkey also attended the talks in Jeddah but two other major regional players - Shiite Iran and Syria itself - were excluded, a sign of the difficulty of building a coalition across the Middle East's sectarian battle lines.
The mother of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) last month, issued harsh words for the U.S. government which she believes did not do enough to save her son.Report: Germany's Jihadists are 'Young, Male Failures'
“As an American I was embarrassed and appalled,” Diane Foley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview airing Thursday. “I think our efforts to get Jim freed were an annoyance.”
“An annoyance to the government?” Cooper asked.
“Yes and it wasn’t — didn’t seem to be in our strategic interest if you will,” said Foley. “I was appalled as an American. Jim would have been saddened — Jim believed til the end that his country would come to their aid.”
Just one in four German jihadis finished high school, a report which describes those who travel to Syria as mainly ‘young, male failures’ has announced. The Local has reported that 90 percent of jihadis were male, and a third were aged between 21 and 25.British Women Running ISIS 'Brothels' Full of Kidnapped Yazidis
The statistics were compiled in a report by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution who looked at the 378 German Islamists who have travelled to Syria in the last two years. Around a third are known to have returned to Germany after fighting within terror groups including ISIS, but only a dozen are being actively monitored by security services.
233 of the fighters held a German passport. The majority were born into Muslim families, but 54 of those who travelled to Syria were Muslim converts, including Berlin rapper Deso Dogg. The rapper gained fame with his three albums released between 2006 and 2009, but in 2010 he converted to Islam, changed his name to Abu Talha al-Alman and ended his music career.
Twenty percent were registered as unemployed, but only 12 percent are known to have had a job, mostly low waged. Just two percent had entered further education, but a third held a criminal record, mostly for violence and drug related offences. The youngest of the jihadis was aged just 15, whilst the oldest was 64 years of age.
Female British jihadis are running brothels full of Yazidi women who have been kidnapped by ISIS militants in Iraq. The women, who are senior members of the al-Khanssaa religious police force, have been tasked with looking after the girls who are being used of sex-slaves by ISIS men.Australia elevates terrorism threat level
Sources told the Mirror that the all-female al-Khanssaa brigade, which has been set up to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law, are running the brothels in order to satisfy the sexual desires of male jihadis.
“These women are using barbaric interpretations of the Islamic faith to justify their actions. They believe the militants can use these women as they please as they are non-Muslims.
“The Yazidi people are being ethnically cleansed, and their women are being subjected to the most brutal treatment. It is the British women who have risen to the top of the Islamic State’s sharia police and now they are in charge of this operation. It is as bizarre as it is perverse.”
The Australian government on Friday elevated its terrorism threat level to the second-highest warning in response to the domestic threat posed by Islamic State movement supporters.Report: Turkey's Border Towns Provide a Welcoming Market for ISIS Oil
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the increase from “medium” to “high” on a four-tier scale on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.
The domestic spy agency’s Director General David Irvine warned this week that the terrorist threat level had been rising in Australia over the past year, due in part to Australians joining Islamic State to fight in Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has established a market in the Middle East for oil stolen from conquered fields in Syria and Iraq, depending heavily on oil sales to pay for ammunition and basic goods for its mujahideen. Reports claim that it has established a major market in Turkey, a NATO country who should be at the forefront of the fight against ISIS.ISIS Starts Recruiting in Istanbul's Vulnerable Suburbs
The Islamist terror group, the Daily Beast reports, has been using smugglers and what appear to be rudimentary organized crime syndicates already established in Turkey to provide oil at a much lower price than the legal fuel sold in the country. Sales of this oil have provided Islamic State leadership with millions of dollars in revenue that it has used for munitions, food, and to establish electric and water services in conquered cities, like the proclaimed "capital" of the Islamic State, Raqqa, Syria.
Stories shared with Newsweek in recent days by Deniz and others show the group has sunk its tendrils deep into Turkey, a country that may now be in its firing line after being named as part of a Nato alliance to combat the jihadist group. Many fear Isis has the capacity to wreak havoc in a nation that attracts 35 million tourists a year and whose porous border adjoins Isis-controlled territory.PreOccupied Territory: Tibi Proposes Official Name Change of Jerusalem To Al Quds (satire)
Last week at a Nato summit in Wales, US President Barack Obama said Turkey was part of a “core coalition” to fight Isis. However, Deniz and other victims of Isis recruitment question their government’s willingness or ability to tackle the terrorist organisation’s infiltration of Turkey. They speak of their frustration at police inaction and of their powerlessness to retrieve their loved ones. In her extended family alone, Deniz says, 15 people – including five children – have gone to live under Isis rule or fight in its ranks in recent months.
Her story is echoed by others in Istanbul, who describe an organised recruiting network operating online and through religious study groups, targeting young men from Sunni Muslim districts plagued by poverty and drug addiction. One family, whose son joined Isis, says that he was among 19 young men from their neighbourhood alone who left for Syria recently, with at least four others planning to join them soon.
Jerusalem, September 12 – Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi submitted a legislative proposal today that calls for Israel to switch the name of its capital city to its parallel Arabic appellation, stating that use of the Hebrew constitutes prejudice against the Arab minority in the country.
Bill 1947C, the Name Jerusalem ‘Al-Quds’ in All Official Contexts Act of 2014, aims “to take steps to eliminate bias against the non-Hebrew-speaking minorities in the country” by replacing Jewish terms with “names in a neutral language, the natural vernacular of the region being most suitable.” As such, Jerusalem would henceforth be exclusively called Al Quds – literally, “the Holy Place” in Arabic – the Western Wall would be called Al Buraq, after Muhammad’s legendary steed – and Tel Aviv would be subsumed under the Arabic named of the city from which it emerged, Jaffa. The changes would only go into effect after three years, given the abundance of documents, signs, flags, emblems, plaques, and currency that use the former terms.
“Prejudice against the Palestinian minority is ingrained in so many parts of Israeli culture and government. This law takes several important steps in reversing that worrisome process,” Tibi said from the Knesset podium. “Perhaps one day we can even shift away from the Hebrew term ‘shekel’ to refer to the currency, and employ a less divisive one, such as, perhaps, ‘dinar’, even using banknotes with the images of non-Jewish figures important to our collective history, such as Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini.”
