Tuesday, September 30, 2014
David Horovitz: Bleak Netanyahu warns of militant Islam’s global ambition
There were no gimmicks. Few excruciating one-liners. Just a single visual aid: a photograph of three children in Gaza at play right next to a rocket launcher.Caroline Glick: Kicking the PLO habit
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a no-nonsense address to the United National General Assembly on Monday — presenting himself as the leader of a “proud and unbowed” nation, charged with the “awesome responsibility” of ensuring his much-threatened people’s future in a brutal, unstable region.
It was not a speech entirely bereft of hope. He reached out “to Cairo, to Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere” and asserted that a rapprochement with Israel by such Arab players could in turn yield a peace agreement with the Palestinians, which, he also said, “will obviously necessitate a territorial compromise.”
But the outlook he presented was immensely grim, nonetheless. His bitter overview, he said toward the end of his remarks, “may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but it is the truth. And the truth must always be spoken, especially here in the United Nations.”
As spoken by Netanyahu, the truth is that “militant Islam is on the march,” that its ambitions are global, and that all its many, sometimes competing factions are “branches of the same poisonous tree.” Thus it is ridiculous and self-defeating for countries to support the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State but criticize Israel for tackling Hamas. If not stopped in its tracks, he indicated, Islamic extremism would come for everyone.
The signs are everywhere that the time has come for Israel to abandon the PLO.Mahmoud Abbas’s dangerous grandstanding
So long as the PLO remains in power, the lives of Israelis and Palestinians will only get worse.
PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas’s speech last Friday at the UN General Assembly where he repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide was not merely an abandonment of direct peace negotiations with Israel. Abbas abandoned the very concept of peaceful coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas called for the UN to pass a resolution that will require Israel to cede Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in their entirety to the PLO within a set period of time. No Israeli consideration can be taken into account. No Israel concern can be attended to.
As he put it, “Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of her people, who are subjected to the terrorism by the racist occupying Power and its settlers, remain hostage to Israel’s security conditions.”
As is always the case, the immediate victims of Abbas’s blood libels are the Israeli Left. The politicians and media elite that have hitched their horse to the PLO were again left stuttering by the wayside.
For some, like Meretz chair Zehava Gal-On, stuttering is a fine option. So she pushed out an endorsement of Abbas’s genocide speech.
For several years Mr. Abbas has oscillated between half-hearted participation in peace talks and attempts to advance the Palestinian cause through unilateral action at the United Nations. The latter initiatives have no chance of substantive success and risk being self-defeating, as the Palestinians should have learned from Mr. Abbas’s last such gambit in 2012. Then their lobbyists were unable to win enough support for a U.N. Security Council resolution even to force a U.S. veto, and a compensatory symbolic measure in the General Assembly provoked Israel to impose painful financial sanctions.
Mr. Abbas nevertheless is trying the Security Council again, after refusing to respond to a U.S. framework for peace talks painstakingly developed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He proposes a resolution that would mandate the creation of a Palestinian state based on Israel’s 1967 borders in a set period of time; when it is voted down or vetoed by the United States, the Palestinians hint that they will seek a war crimes investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court. That, in turn, would almost certainly prompt retaliatory sanctions by Mr. Netanyahu’s government and possibly by Congress, which supplies the Palestinian Authority with much of its funding.
Mr. Abbas has repeatedly rejected violence, and he has convinced a series of U.S. and Israeli negotiators that he has a realistic view of the terms for a Palestinian state. Yet he has now rejected platforms for a settlement on two occasions from two U.S. presidents. He persists in grandstanding gestures that he must know will only delay the serious negotiations that must precede the creation of a Palestinian state and that undermine those in Israel who support such talks. He has spoken for years of retiring but, at 79, he clings to his post four years after his elected term expired. Hamas has done the most harm to Palestinians and their cause in recent years. But Mr. Abbas has done little good.
Analysis of the PM's Speech: Vintage Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stood on the world’s grandest stage on Monday and delivered three key messages: Israel’s fight is your fight, the time has come to retire the 20-year-old template of direct negotiations with the Palestinians as the path to peace, and that his main historic role is to defend the Jewish state.PLO: Netanyahu's Speech Full of Hate Language
The speech was vintage Netanyahu. It had passion, it had soaring rhetorical flourishes, it had sarcasm. It even had a contemporary reference to retiring New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter.
And, finally, it had an appraisal of how Netanyahu views his role as a leader.
Toward the end of the speech, Netanyahu said that some in the world do not take Israel’s security concerns seriously.
“But I do, and I always will,” he said. “Because as prime minister of Israel I am entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ensuring the future of the Jewish people and the future of the Jewish state. And no matter what pressure is brought to bear, I will never waiver in fulfilling that responsibility.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Monday denounced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, accusing Netanyahu of “blatantly manipulating” the facts when he compared Hamas with the Islamic State and Iran.Hamas: Israel the Source of All World Evil
"Netanyahu's speech at the UN was a blatant manipulation of facts and attempted at misleading the audience through a combination of hate language, slander and argument of obfuscation," PLO executive member Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Netanyahu in his speech denied accusations of Israeli war crimes during its July-August offensive on Gaza, pointing out that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was jointly culpable with Hamas, which fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
"Hamas embedded its missile batteries in residential areas and told Palestinians to ignore Israel's warnings to leave," Netanyahu said.
Hamas claimed Monday night that photos that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu displayed during his UN General Assembly speech showing Hamas terrorists setting up rocket launchers and firing rockets at Israel from areas containing civilians were fabricated. Hamas, terrorist group spokesperson Sami Abu-Zuhri said, would never place rocket launchers next to children, as depicted by the photos Netanyahu displayed. “Obviously it is a lie,” he said.Some Terrorists More Equal Than Others
In his speech, Netanyahu equated Hamas with the Islamic State, the Islamist group that has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq. “ISIS is Hamas, and Hamas is ISIS,” Netanyahu said. “Both want the same things. Hamas shares the same militant ambitions of global Islamists,” the Prime Minister said.
Last week, when President Obama denounced ISIS during his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations and called for a concerted effort by the international community to defeat the terrorist group, he received some well-deserved applause. But when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for the same body to judge Hamas and Iran by the same standard they use for ISIS, he might as well have been talking to a wall. At the UN, some terrorists are more equal than others, a double standard that was also present when Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the world body on Friday.U.S. Distances Itself from Netanyahu's Comments
That Netanyahu wouldn’t persuade a UN General Assembly that has repeatedly voted to demonize Israeli acts of self-defense against Palestinian terrorism was a given. But the real tragedy is not the indifference of a world body that is tainted by the same virus of anti-Semitism that is gaining strength around the world. It is that those who are supposed to represent the Palestinians are still so cowed by the Islamists that they refuse to understand that the Islamists are as much if not a greater threat to them than they are to Israel. Though much of the Arab and Muslim world is belatedly coming to grips with the fact that ISIS must be destroyed (a task they hope will be largely accomplished by the United States with minimal aid from local forces), if they are to avoid being swept away by a sea of murderous fanaticism, so-called moderate Palestinians must understand that Hamas poses the same threat to their survival.
Speaking to reporters, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki particularly referred to Netanyahu’s comparison between Hamas and the “Islamic State” (IS or ISIS), as well as to his criticism of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).JCPA: Mahmoud Abbas Justifies Palestinian Terror in His UN General Assembly Speech
“We believe they’re both terrorist organizations,” she said, responding to a question regarding Netanyahu’s saying that Hamas and IS are one and the same.
“We obviously believe that [IS] poses a different threat to the United States, based on, of course, the military action and other efforts that are underway,” added Psaki.
“We don’t believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu or anyone else from Israel is suggesting that the United States launch a military campaign against Hamas, so we certainly – they are both designated terrorist organizations under the United States designations, but certainly we see differences -- in terms of the threat and otherwise,” she said.
Psaki also distanced herself from Netanyahu’s comment that the UNHRC “has become a Terrorists' Human Rights Council", though she acknowledged Washington had some issues with some of the UNHRC’s actions.
“We would not agree with that,” she said, when asked if the U.S. agreed with Netanyahu’s statement that the UNHRC is a “terrorists’ commission”.
Abbas’ vision of peace does not indicate any real intention to reach a historic compromise with Israel on dividing the land into two states that would live peacefully side by side. He called for a political agreement via negotiations, but stipulated the results of the negotiations as a precondition for holding them. Moreover, Abbas lauded the Palestinian Authority’s formation of a unity government with Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations, even though it does not signal that the terror organizations have accepted the diplomatic route but, instead, that Abbas has gone in their direction.U.S., U.K., Australia Won't Support Palestinian Bid for Statehood at UN
Hamas wields complete control of Gaza and in recent months also tried to overthrow Abbas’ regime in the West Bank, a plan the Israeli security services managed to foil. Hamas’ military power and popularity in the Palestinian street, including the West Bank, constitutes veto power over any political settlement based on recognizing Israel and/or a political compromise of any kind.
Abbas wants the world to think he is taking a constructive political position. In actuality, he is merely reiterating the “just peace” formula and rejecting the Israeli “peace through compromise” formula. [“A just and agreed upon solution to the plight of the Palestine refugees on the basis of resolution 194.”] The “just peace” formula means uncompromising insistence on what the Palestinians call the “right of return” of the Palestinian refugees and generations of their descendants to Israel itself. That, in turn, means forcing Israel to take in five to seven million Palestinians while ejecting millions of Jews from their communities so that the Palestinians can move in. In other words, the “just peace” formula is a prescription for putting an end to the state of Israel, and forms the ideological basis of the Palestinian unity agreement that Fatah has forged with Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations.
Palestinian sources say that the US, UK, and Australia have each indicated that they would reject a Palestinian-proposed UN Security Council resolution setting a timetable for ending Israel’s administration of the West Bank and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 armistice lines.Shmuley Boteach: Abbas the moderate
Haaretz reports that members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s UN delegation have met with representatives from all 15 member-states of the Security Council in recent days to determine what kind of response their proposed resolution would receive. While the US, UK, and Australia were definitive in their rejection, China and Russia, as well as rotating member Jordan, told the Palestinians they would support such a resolution. The remaining Security Council states have yet to give a definitive answer either way.
It took all of two sentences at the UN for the world to discover just what kind of moderate Mahmoud Abbas truly is. Just after saying, “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,” the Palestinian Authority president followed up with this: “In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”Lieberman: Abbas 'has no intention to make peace'
Now if Abbas says that Israel is guilty of genocide he must be correct, right? He is, after all, an expert on the subject of genocide, having written a doctoral dissertation denying the Holocaust.
All of which exposes the farce of those Jewish organizations and leaders who have embraced Abbas over the past few years as a moderate interested in peace.
This is the man whose Fatah faction in 2011 named a town square after Dalal al-Mughrabi, the leader of a 1978 bus hijacking that murdered 35 Israelis. Had Netanyahu’s government unveiled a statue to Baruch Goldstein, would anyone claim it was interested in peace?
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman questioned the legitimacy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as the Palestinian leader's desire for resolution to the conflict in comments made to the media at the United Nations on Monday.Liberman Meets UNHRC Head After 'Terrorist Rights Council' Jibe
"I must say that the last speech of Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, it really was a message of hatred and incitement. It's clear that he has no intention to make peace with Israel and it's not the first time," Lieberman said of Abbas, who addressed the 193-member body on Friday.
Lieberman made his comments shortly before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to address the world body's General Assembly.
"I'm not sure that he really has legitimacy to speak on behalf of Palestinian people. It's clear that he has no control on Gaza Strip and he postponed his elections more than four years, presidential and parliament elections. And I have some doubts with his authority," he added.
Lieberman described the Palestinian leader as using an "escalation in his rhetoric" at the U.N. and with the international community to compensate for what he called domestic failures.
"It's clear that he as no support and he lost his way," Lieberman finished.
Minister of Foreign Affiars Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) met with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan on Monday, at the United Nations headquarters in New York.Why State Dept. Defends UNRWA's Artificial "Refugee" Designations
FM Liberman and Prince Zeid discussed the working relationship between Israel and the Commission, the MFA stated, with Liberman reportedly stressing a "fundamental difference" between the Commission on Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made the UNHRC's anti-Israel bias a prime point in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
"The UNHRC has betrayed its noble principles to protect its enemies," he declared, noting it is "turning the concept of war upside down."
State is sanguine even about the fact that these UNRWA practices steadily inflate the number of alleged Palestinian refugees year after year, from 750,000 in 1950 to more than 5 million today, a sevenfold increase. "In protracted refugee situations, refugee groups experience natural population growth over time," State cheerfully affirmed in 2013.UNRWA Weighs Using Weapons Depots As Schools (satire)
The State Department has shown that it will resist any change in its policy toward the UNRWA practices that exacerbate and perpetuate the refugee problem. When Senator Mark Kirk introduced an amendment to the 2013 State Department Appropriations bill to force the Department to change, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides fiercely objected: "Legislation which would force the United States to make a public judgment on the number and status of Palestinian refugees would be viewed... as the United States acting to prejudge a final status issue and determine the outcome."
This is the same State Department that, on more than 20 occasions during the Obama years, has ferociously and publicly castigated the government of Israel for constructing homes in disputed areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, also a final status issue to be resolved between the parties. Apparently more Israeli homes hurt peace, but multiplying the number of refugees is fine.
Gaza City, September 30 – The head of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is considering a change in policy that would allow armament storage facilities to be used as educational institutions, to alleviate a shortage of resources facing UNRWA.Yaalon: What'll We Do If They Lob Mortars from Samaria?
UNRWA is tasked with, among other missions, providing basic schooling to the children descended of Palestinians classified as 1948 refugees. However, an organizational oversight has apparently led to buildings originally designated as schools being used instead as rocket storage or launching facilities, a set of operations not strictly within the UNRWA mandate.
The diversion of those assets has deprived the schooling effort of necessary classroom space. Compounding the problem, say UNRWA officials, several of the schools-cum-weapons-depots have suffered damage in Israeli strikes aimed at neutralizing the threat of those rockets, and remain unavailable even after restored to their original use.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Israel needs to “sober up” and learn a lesson from the recent war with Gaza – namely, that a similar situation must not be allowed to arise in Judea and Samaria.Officials allegedly suppress news of E. Jerusalem violence
“Once the area turns into Hamastan, it won't just be Hamas,” he warned, at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). “We are talking about an Iranian proxy and global jihadi elements. Who can afford such a security situation in Judea and Samaria? What reply will there be if they fire mortar shells from the western hills of Samaria?”
Jerusalem police and the Housing Ministry have been attempting to cover up violent incidents in East Jerusalem, according to the CEO of Jerusalem’s light rail and a ministry official.Memorial prize for three slain teens unveiled
Police requested that CityPass not report rock throwing attacks against the light rail because it harms police and encourages the offenders, CityPass CEO Yaron Ravid told Israel Radio, which reported Tuesday that there have been no reports to the media by police or CityPass of violent attacks against the light rail over the last two weeks even though numerous incidents have occurred. Throughout the day Tuesday, the train was attacked by rock throwers three times.
When contacted for a response, police acknowledged that there had been 13 instances of attackers throwing rocks at the train and two arrests, one of which resulted in an indictment. In addition, police said, 75 people have been arrested on suspicion of rioting.
A prize to promote national unity and memorialize three Israeli teens abducted and killed in the West Bank earlier this year was unveiled by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the families of the three victims Monday.Police Suspect Arab Co-Worker Cut Jewish Rapeller's Rope
The Jerusalem Prize for National Unity will award an annual NIS 100,000 grant to initiatives dedicated to strengthening the sense of collective identity in Israel, Barkat’s office said in a statement.
The award is being sponsored by the Gesher Foundation and the UJA Federation of New York.
Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were kidnapped by Hamas-linked terrorists on the night of June 12 at a hitchhiking post south of Jerusalem and killed soon afterwards. Their bodies were discovered June 30 in Halhul, near Hebron in the West Bank, after an 18-day search.
Barkat said he was inspired to establish the fund after paying condolence visits to the teens’ families earlier in the year.
Two weeks after Jewish construction worker Netanel Arami died after falling 11 stories, Arutz Sheva has learned that police suspect he was murdered, thus confirming what Arami's family and nationalist politicians have been saying from day one.Children Evacuated as Arabs Attack JM Neighborhood of Maaleh HaZeitim
Police investigators think an Arab co-worker at the site cut the rope that Arami was connected to as he rapelled down the side of the building.
Arami, 27, owned a small rapelling business which he had been running for several years.
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who visited the grieving Arami family shortly after Netanel's death, was convinced from the outset that he was murdered. “For five hours, Netanel lay crushed on the ground,” wrote. His mother learned of the accident from news site Ynet,” he wrote on Facebook. Netanel's co-worker “arrived there with the police. They went up to the roof and found the slashed rope, heard the Arabs laughing. A rapelling rope that has been cut looks completely different from one that was worn out. And there are two of them – one main rope and one for security.”
Terrified Jewish nursery school and kindergarten children were rushed into bomb shelters in Jerusalem’s Maaleh HaZeitim neighborhood after 10 masked Arabs attacked the Jerusalem neighborhood’s complex with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and stones on Tuesday.Study: 49% of Gazans Killed in War Were Terrorists
The Arabs specifically targeted toddlers from a nursery “Mishpacton” who were playing outside.
The teachers rushed the children inside as the Arabs began throwing explosive and rocks at the children, an angry resident told JewishPress.
Two other schools also rushed their children indoors as explosives landed near the schools.
The neighborhood housing complex has 4 nursery and kindergarten schools.
The terrorist to civilian ratio of Palestinian deaths in Operation Protective Edge is an unprecedented 1:1, a news study released last week reveals - supporting earlier findings regarding the so-called "civilian casualties" Hamas touts to international media.Don’t allow Israel detractors use false Gaza casualty figures to demonize Israel.
According to the highly respected Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), 49% of the "martyrs" listed on the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry (PHM) list were found to have been linked to terrorist organizations; just 51% were confirmed civilian casualties.
The study, which has examined PHM's death tally since the war's early stages, has now tracked roughly 40% of published casualties during the war - some 842 people.
In its attempt at concealment Hamas listed a number of terrorist men as children. One, listed as a 13 year old boy, was 26 year old Fatah terrorist, Ibrahim Jamal Kamal Nasr, killed at Khan Yunis on July 18. So the Gazan Ministry of Health children’s casualty group should be taken with skepticism.Ya'alon: 80% of Hamas's Rocket Arsenal Destroyed in Gaza Op.
My findings throughout the research clearly showed the majority of casualties to be men of fighting age. Clearly, not all men of fighting age were terrorists but they constituted a majority of over 56% of known casualties, and not the women or children.
Out of a total of 2130, less than a thousand were children, women, or elderly.
My findings are being confirmed by the slow, methodical, work being undertaken by the Meir Amit Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center. As of September 22, they had plodded through 750 names in an effort to identify and link them with a terrorist faction in Gaza.
According to their identified people almost 50% were tied to a terrorist group. As they research later figures I am certain that their percentages of terrorists dead will increase to match my figures, or surpass them, as later fighting was concentrated in areas where the civilian population had fled.
The IDF decimated about 80% of Hamas's total rocket arsenal during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon stated Monday.'Smart Fence' to Be Built Around Gaza Belt
Ya'alon, speaking at the Begin-Sadat center at Bar-Ilan University, summed up the entirety of the operation from his standpoint at a special conference over the fifty-day war.
The Defense Minister revealed that he convened the security cabinet several times over the course of the operation, in light of reports circulating that government ministers were skirting the real issues.
Ya'alon also said that, in his view, Hamas attacked Israel "out of distress."
The Defense Ministry and the IDF have decided to build a fence enclosing the Gaza Belt region, after both a survey of the long-term damage of Operation Protective Edge on the bloc and in light of two terrorist infiltrations there within a 48-hour period.Hamas says prisoner swap deal to be signed with Israel soon
But the fence is no ordinary fence. Security sources told Walla! News Monday that the barrier will be a "smart barrier," with an alarm system designed to alert the Gaza Belt Regional Council and the Gaza Division of the IDF at any suspected infiltration attempt. A similar system is in place near the Palestinian Authority and in Judea and Samaria.
Hamas and Israel may be on the verge of signing a deal that would see Israel release top Hamas officials and operatives arrested during Operation Brother's Keeper in exchange for the remains of fallen Israeli soldiers, according to a post on Hamas official Mushir al-Masri's Facebook page.PA honors murderers of 3 Israeli teens
Masri was presumably referring to Golani Brigade Sgt. Oron Shaul and Givati Brigade Lt. Hadar Goldin, who were killed in Gaza this summer. Shaul is classified as a fallen soldier with an unknown grave.
Masri wrote on his Facebook page that "Hamas has bargaining chips that forced Israel to succumb to Palestinian demands.
Even though Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has stated publicly that Hamas members carried out the kidnapping and murder of the 3 Israeli teens, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA sources nonetheless claim that Israel comitted the crime as pretext for the Gaza war.New Palestinian poll reveals waning support for Hamas
The official PA news agency WAFA is calling Israel's attempt to apprehend the terrorists and their eventual killing an "execution," while the terrorists themselves are being honored by the PA as "Martyrs" (Shahids) - a term indicating they are receiving sublime rewards from Allah. WAFA did not mention why Israel sought to arrest them:
"Israeli occupation forces executed citizens Marwan Al-Qawasmi and Amer Abu Aisheh today, Tuesday, in the early hours of the morning in a military operation in central Hebron... Security sources told WAFA that the occupation forces were still holding on to the bodies of the two Martyrs (Shahids)."
[WAFA (the official Palestinian Authority news agency), Sept. 23, 2014]
The survey, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) headed by Khalil Shikaki, interviewed 1,200 adult Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza on September 25-27. It found a 10 percent drop in belief that Hamas won the war, from 79% a month ago to 69% today. But 80% of respondents said they supported launching rockets at Israel if the land and sea blockade is not lifted.Fatah Spokesman Ahmad Assaf: Hamas Leaders Stole 700 Million Dollars Collected for the Gaza People
Support for Hamas and its methods continues to be lower in the Gaza Strip than in the West Bank. Only 58% of Gazans believed that Hamas emerged triumphant, and 59% of Gazans were dissatisfied with the movement’s war achievements (compared to a national average of 50%). Support for rocket launching dropped to 72% among residents of Gaza.
One question, addressing the Israeli talking point of Hamas using civilians in Gaza as “human shields,” revealed interesting answers. Fifty-seven percent of respondents justified rocket launching from within populated areas; but a large discrepancy existed between Gaza — which suffered the brunt of the Israeli attacks — with 48% support, and the West Bank, with 62%.
If elections were held today, Hamas’s former prime minister Ismail Haniyeh would still defeat PA President Mahmoud Abbas by a large majority of 55% compared to 38%, a margin which has, however, shrunk since August, when Haniyeh won 61% support and Abbas only 32%. But in Gaza the two leaders are currently neck and neck, with Abbas winning 47% and Haniyeh 50% in a poll with a 3% margin of error.
Lacking Mannequins, Hamas EMT Trainees To Shoot People, Treat Them (satire)
Previous attempts to replace the mannequins with cadavers proved only a mixed success, with the trainees unable to or unwilling to perform the required techniques on decomposing bodies. Faced with the need to maintain an effective corps of rescue workers, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health came to the realization that the Gaza Strip has a vast wealth of resources in its people, who could serve as stand-ins for the mannequins. Last week the newest version of the training program began, with rescue workers and trainees shooting, beating, stabbing, or driving cars into 25 people, mostly members of the rival Fatah movement, after which they practiced the treatment techniques they had been taught in the classroom.Will US Apologize to Israel Now that Airstrikes Kill Syrian Civilians?
Ministry officials deemed the initial effort a success despite the deaths of 20 of the 25 stand-ins, as the deaths of Fatah members are always viewed positively, though they concede the human specimens do not provide the same reusability that a plastic mannequin would. Nevertheless, says health official Afeel Stabbi, the abundance of disposable humans makes that an irrelevant concern in the short term.
“Whereas with a plastic mannequin the trainees can take turns with, for example, chest compressions or stitches, the use of a living – for the moment, anyway – human is limited to two, maybe three trainees before being rendered unusable. That’s not really a problem, since we can just go out and get another one as needed. There are literally millions of them walking around out there,” he explained.
Human rights organizations addressed the issue by condemning Israel for the blockade, and are counting the casualties of the training as civilians killed or wounded by the IDF. Public reaction in Gaza has been muted, primarily by force.
Last week, civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian homes were reported as well. According to Syrian rebels, airstrikes a week ago left somewhere between eight to 24 dead civilians. Of course, this is coming from anti-Assad-government rebels the media calls “activists,” but we all know by now that many of these “activists” are linked to Al Qaeda and/or ISIS. However, this is the exact same scenario as the “poor Gazans,” aka Hamas, reporting on the civilian casualties during Operation Protective Edge, and European liberals and Obama alike were “deeply concerned” and condemning Israel.Pentagon: No Evidence Civilians Were Killed in Airstrikes
Some reported that three of the dead civilians last week were children, another angle we kept hearing about in the bashing of Israel regarding dead Gazan children. (Many of whom were actually dead Syrian children in recycled photos which had nothing to do with Israel.) Meanwhile, the Obama Administration was confident that no civilians died in the Syrian airstrikes. Really?
An unfortunate part of war is that some civilians die. At the same time, the unfortunate truth of our current politically correct world (a world in which it is politically “correct” to bash Israel) is that we pick and choose who will be the target of negative propaganda, depending on alliances and financial and political gains.
Jews are always the scapegoat. That never seems to change.
The Pentagon said on Monday there was no evidence of any civilian casualties from airstrikes targeting Islamist terrorists in Syria, The Hill reported.Moroccan Soccer Fans Chant Pro-ISIS Slogans
The clarification came after human rights groups claimed that civilians were killed in airstrikes in Syria’s Idlib province last week.
In addition, the groups said the airstrikes were also costly to civilians’ pockets, as they have nearly tripled the price of diesel in Syria's northern Aleppo province.
"We right now don't have anything to corroborate those reports from Syrian activists," said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren, according to The Hill. "We take the matter of civilian casualties very seriously."
However, support for ISIS by a group of football fanatics is rather ironic: under the austere interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia) implemented by the Islamic State's self-proclaimed Caliphate, "western" sports such as soccer are strictly forbidden, much as they were under Taliban rule and still are in other Islamist-controlled areas such as in Somalia.Moroccan Soccer Fans Root for ISIS
What's more, under the Islamic State's rule it is strictly forbidden to use the term "Daesh" (Arabic for ISIS), which is deemed derogatory.
Late Night Q&A: ISIS - Late Night with Seth Meyers h/t PreOccupiedTerritory
Turkish tanks deployed to Syria border as Islamic State advances
Turkey deployed tanks and armored vehicles along a section of its border with Syria on Monday to face off against Islamic State forces whose stray shells fell into Turkish territory during an attack on a border town.Egypt Set to Boycott Turkey Over Muslim Brotherhood Support
Some 15 tanks took up positions on a hill near a military base opposite the besieged town of Kobani that IS has been trying to capture from outgunned Syrian-Kurdish forces for over a week, Reuters reported.
During the course of the fighting two errant shells hit Turkey, provoking return fire from Turkish units.
Officials in Egypt are demanding an immediate and total boycott of Turkish goods, and even a breakoff of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Egyptian media reports said. The call is the latest chapter in the steady and ongoing decline in relations between the two countries, with Turkey accusing Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of everything to “illegitimacy” to “terrorism” to “war crimes.”Iran's "Hanging Machine" to Execute Reyhaneh Jabbari
The sour relations between the two countries have their roots in the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi by the al-Sisi led Egyptian army several years ago. Since then, Turkey has slammed al-Sisi as being a “dictator” who is “persecuting Muslims.” Just last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would welcome seven top Muslim Brotherhood figures being forced to leave Qatar, indicating his strong ties with the Islamist group - and by extension with its Gaza offshoot Hamas.
Reyhaneh Jabbari has been transferred to Rajai-Shahr Prison to be hanged — while the world parties at the UN and gets ready to permit Iran nuclear capability.Iran accused of assassinating its own nuclear scientist
While the West is focused on an Iran nuclear deal and defeating ISIS terrorists, the executioner-regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues violating human rights.
The regime has just transferred Reyhaneh Jabbari to Rajai-Shahr Prison in Tehran and, as she is transferred to be executed, told her to say goodbye to her mother and family.
The Petition to Save Reyhaneh Jabbari from being hanged has been signed by over 188,000 people, but as usual has been ignored by the Iranian regime.
Reyhaneh Jabbari's execution may carried out by tomorrow.
Mahboobeh Hosseinpour, the sister of an Iranian nuclear scientist alleged to have been assassinated by Israel, has claimed that her brother was actually killed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) because he would not cooperate with the regime’s demand that he help create nuclear weapons.
“Western countries have long held suspicions regarding [Iran's] nuclear weapon ambitions and Mrs. Mahboobeh Hosseinpour’s claims could help support these suspicions,” Dr. Iman Foroutan, chairman of Iranian opposition group The New Iran, said in a statement last week.
Mahboobeh said that her brother, Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, was approached in 2004 by special agents of the IRGC on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wanted to enlist Hosseinpour’s services for a project aimed at increasing uranium enrichment for developing nuclear weapons. As part of the project, he would also be tasked with teaching and supervising Russian and North Korean scientists.
