10/06 Links Pt1: The Palestinians squander another opportunity; The end of the Abbas era

From Ian:

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Daniel Gordis: The Palestinians squander another opportunity

Pandering to his street’s basest instincts, Abbas proved that he cannot lead. Whatever the opposite of leadership is, is precisely what Abbas did at the UN.
In so doing, he reminded even left-wing Israelis why the centre and the right want nothing to do with him. In so doing, he reminded Israelis who might have been willing to overlook it, that he was an avid promoter of the unity government with Hamas. In so doing, he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suggest, in his response at the UN, that Israel would seek alliances with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In so doing, therefore, Abbas slammed the door on the possibility of any negotiated deal with Israel in the near future.
Israelis are nervous about the shifting sands all around them, but most understand that just as Israel is going nowhere, so too the Palestinians are here to stay. Just as Israelis had national aspirations some 70 years ago and would not relent until they were realized, so too with the Palestinians. The difference is that Israelis have often been led by people who were willing to change their positions. Menachem Begin, sought by the British as Terrorist No. 1, made peace with Egypt and returned the Sinai Peninsula — even though he had to battle his own cabinet to get the deal approved. Ariel Sharon, the controversial military leader of Unit 101, pulled Israel out of Gaza, despite the move’s unpopularity. Netanyahu, who used to reject the mere idea of a Palestinian state, has now openly accepted it — much to the chagrin of some of his party’s leadership.
But as Abbas reminded us during his UN speech, there has been no similar movement on the Palestinian side. There are many reasons the Palestinians do not have a state, but chief among them is that the Palestinians have never had a genuine leader. They have figureheads, fearful of leading and unwilling to goad their citizens into thinking differently about Israel, refugees and their own future. So, they watch and wait, as those who call themselves leaders make mistake after mistake, consigning Palestinians to a life that sadly, once again, seems unlikely to change.

An open letter to Mahmoud Abbas

Genocide, Mr. Abbas, is what was done to my three cousins, Abraham, Jacob and Mordechai, who were between the ages of six and 12. Who were forced, together with their mother, Sarah, into the gas chambers at Birkenau. Who slowly suffocated. Who tried to scratch their way out through a concrete wall with their little fingernails, and who breathed their last with the question “why” on their innocent faces.
This is genocide, Mr. Abbas.
Some people argue that the use of such obscene terms in your speech stems from ignorance. But I have known you for quite some time, and you are not an ignorant person. I therefore think that your characterization of myself, my children and the people of Israel as “war criminals” guilty of committing “genocide” was a pure, malicious and evil act.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out that part of the duty of the president of the Palestinian Authority is to prevent attacks against Israel civilians, and also to prevent the use of Palestinian women and children as human shields by Hamas. It was your duty as Palestinian president to prevent the launching of rockets and mortars from schools and hospitals.
Finally, Mr. Abbas, please note that your inappropriate speech, following your attempts to slander the Israeli people, won’t stop me and many other people in Israel from continuing to search each and every crack to bring peace to the region.
This is our duty as parents, as grandparents, as human beings.

The beginning of the end of the Abbas era

The gap between Israel and the Palestinians remains unbridgeably vast. Israel’s security needs almost certainly preclude full Palestinian sovereignty when it comes to defense. Meanwhile, the Palestinian need to have a peace agreement that addresses and in some measure reverses the narrative of dispossession and calamity suggests that no Palestinian leader can agree to a Palestine without the Temple Mount and an explicit Israeli statement of culpability for refugees — demands no Israeli leader can deliver.
Yet these gaps don’t change the harsh truth, the bitter pill that Palestinian politics faces: that the Jews are at once their enemy and their unavoidable future.
For many years, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict held pride of place in the foreign policy discourse in Washington and other Western capitals. Foreign policy realists propounded the theory of “linkage,” that the challenges faced by the broader Middle East are intimately tied to what happens in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
“Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East, one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all the other Middle East conflicts would melt away,” explained Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, whose 2009 book “Myths, Illusions, and Peace” took this theory to task.
The theory lost favor in the wake of the Arab Spring, which revealed vast tensions and processes underway in the region that had little to do with the tiny strip of Mediterranean coast shared by Palestinians and Jews.
Now, perhaps, a new theory of linkage is emerging — in reverse. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the key to the region’s troubles, but perhaps a troubled region will find a new reason to try to end this distraction, which stands in the way of an unprecedented alliance desperate to stem the chaos and violence that engulfs more of the region with each passing year.
At least, Netanyahu hopes so.

PM: For Palestinian state to emerge everyone needs to adjust concepts of sovereignty

If there is ever to be a Palestinian state, everyone is going to have to adjust their ideas of sovereignty, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
Netanyahu, who filmed the interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria during his stay last week in New York, said that the only way to ensure that territory ceded by Israel does not turn into a “third Iranian enclave around Israel’s border” is to have a long-term Israeli security presence inside a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians, according to Netanyahu, “say: ‘Oh, you can’t do that. That offends our sovereignty. We can’t have the security presence or military presence of our former enemy on our soil. That doesn’t square with independence.’ I say: Really? How about American forces in Germany 70 years after the fact or in Japan or in South Korea?” While acknowledging that “no analogy is perfect and identical,” Netanyahu said that if Hamas takes over the West Bank, “they could stop our international airport with mortars, not rockets, not missiles.

Hamas: Ruling West Bank could destroy Israel “with a speed that no one can imagine”

Last week, Hamas Political Bureau member Mahmoud Al-Zahar stated that Hamas wants to build an Islamic state in all of Palestine, meaning it would replace Israel:
"[Some] have said Hamas wants to create an Islamic emirate in Gaza. We won't do that, but we will build an Islamic state in Palestine, all of Palestine." [Al-Ayyam, Oct. 1, 2014]
Al-Zahar further said that if Hamas had a military foothold in the West Bank as it does in the Gaza Strip, it would be able to destroy Israel. He alluded to a possible future war of destruction against Israel by citing a Sura from the Quran about "the final promise," which speaks of destroying "the enemies" and "what they had taken over with [total] destruction" [Sura 17:7]:
"Al-Zahar said that if his movement [Hamas] were to 'transfer what it has or just a small part of it to the West Bank, we would be able to settle the battle of the final promise with a speed that no one can imagine.'"
His expression "the final promise" is taken from Sura 17:7 of the Quran: "Then when the final promise came, [We sent your enemies]... to enter the temple in Jerusalem, as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had taken over with [total] destruction.'" (trans. Sahih International) By alluding to this passage in the context of Israel, Hamas is promising a future war of destruction against Israel.

Peace Now Head: Golan Withdrawal Still a Good Idea

Syria has been wracked by civil war for over two years, with a variety of factions, from “moderate” groups to Islamists associated with Al Qaeda to IS (Islamic State) fanatics vying for control of the country, or what is left of it. All are fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops, and to an extent, each other.
One thing that makes most Israelis very happy – and extremely relieved – is that the country never fell for the temptation of “peace with our northern neighbor”: For years, pundits on the left explained how much better off Israel would be if it surrendered to the ministrations of the Assads – the elder Hafez or the junior Bashar – to withdraw to the 1948 armistice lines, allowing the Syrian leaders to “dip their feet in the Kinneret.”
But recent reports have the Al Qaeda-backed Al-Nusra extremists in control of the Syrian Golan, meaning that if Israel had indeed left the entire Golan Heights, the Islamists would be perched above the Galilee, a perfect position from which to take “pot shots” at farms and cities – or to launch a full-scale missile war against Israel, as Syria did prior to its loss of the Golan in the Six Day War in 1967.
One Israeli who still regrets not withdrawing from the Golan when Israel had the chance is Yariv Oppenheimer, head of far-left group Peace Now. Speaking to the Galei Yisrael radio station, Oppenheimer said that he did not think that leaving the Golan would have been a mistake. “If Israel was at peace with Syria everything would have been different,” Oppenheimer said. “Of course, if things had not worked out we could have retaken the Golan anytime.

PM: US East Jerusalem critique is ‘against American values’

The tough words by Netanyahu threatened to deepen a rift with the White House over Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as part of a future independent state.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Netanyahu said he does not accept restrictions on where Jews could live, and said that Jerusalem’s Arabs and Jews should be able to buy homes wherever they want.
He said he was “baffled” by the American condemnation. “It’s against the American values. And it doesn’t bode well for peace,” he said. “The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it’s anti-peace.” The interview was recorded Thursday. (h/t Bob Knot)

Sweden: Palestine recognition meant to jumpstart talks

The Swedish ambassador to Israel said that he plans to clarify Sweden’s position on recognizing a Palestinian state and its desire to maintain strong ties with Israel, in a meeting at the Foreign Ministry on Monday.
“Israel and Sweden have a strong relationship, and the new government has made it clear that it wants this to continue,” Carl Magnus Nesser told Army Radio on Monday morning, ahead of his meeting with Aviv Shir-on, the deputy director-general for European affairs at the ministry.
He added, however, that in deciding to recognize a Palestinian state, Sweden was making a statement to support the resumption of peace negotiations.
“The situation is clear, peace talks have been suspended for a while, and I think the conflict in Gaza made it clear that the status quo needs to be changed,” Nesser said. “The purpose of such a statement of this forthcoming recognition is of course to support negotiations leading to a two state solution.”

Israel rebukes Swedish envoy for Palestine recognition talk

Aviv Shir-on, the deputy director-general for European affairs at the ministry, told Carl Magnus Nesser that “the statement does not only not contribute to the improvement of relations between Israel and the Palestinians, but even harms it, deteriorates the relations on the ground, and minimizes the chance of reaching an agreement because it gives the Palestinians the unrealistic expectation that it may achieve their goal unilaterally, rather than through negotiations with Israel,” according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Shir-on expressed Israel’s “disappointment and protest” with the Swedish prime minister’s announcement, and pointed to the regional unrest, saying that the increased violence perpetrated by radical Islamists further makes the focus on the Palestinians “puzzling and inappropriate.”

JPost Editorial: Swedish mistake

One would expect Löfven to be preoccupied with domestic issues. After all, he has a budget to pass in November. Garnering support for his fiscal policy will be no small feat considering that his Social Democratic party won just 31.2 percent of the vote to overcome the center-right alliance last month. So far, only the Greens, with 6.8% of the vote, have joined Löfven’s government. In Sweden, minority governments can survive as long as there is no majority vote against them.
But instead of focusing his energies on wooing moderate parties to back Social Democratic policies – the reason he was voted into office – he has gone far afield.
Since Löfven opted to devote time to the Middle East, one would have thought that he would comment on the most serious crises of the region. But he made no mention of the carnage in Syria. He refrained from commenting on the US-led coalition against Islamic State.

Stockholm's syndrome

So has Sweden walked back this statement and fallen in line with Israel's position? Not really. Lofven, who hails from the Social Democratic Party, was probably more genuine in his original statement than in his clarification. The first was probably a reflection of what he truly thinks. For Lofven, recognizing "Palestine" is just as important as dealing with Islamic State and Hamas. It tops his agenda, perhaps even eclipsing the other two.
Former Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel told me Sunday that Lofven's speech was hardly a surprise. The resurgent Social Democratic Party is not pro-Israel. Lacking a majority in parliament, Lofven and his party have tried to boost their popularity by kowtowing to Swedish Muslims, who already make up more than 5 percent of the population. Malmo, among other places in Sweden, has become an Islamic bastion. This is what happens when a government subscribes to a liberal immigration policy. It has opened the floodgates, essentially letting anyone come in without setting proper criteria, without seeking balance, without exercising proper judgment. This spawned a new anti-immigration party, which garnered a whopping 13 percent of the vote in the recent elections. It has since been shunned by both the Left and the Right.

Influx of refugees blamed for Sweden recognizing Palestinian state

Loftven’s party, the Social Democrats, are “anti-Israeli,” former ambassador Zvi Mazel told Israel Radio, but another reason for the statement “is the large Arab minority, which has grown unbelievably this year.”
Mazel charged that Sweden has taken in some 80,000 Arab refugees in 2014, mostly from Iraq and Syria, and claimed there were 700,000 Muslims living in the country.
“All this against a social-democratic background, which is pro-Arabic, pro-Islam and anti-Israeli,” Mazel said.
Mazel was in the headlines several times for controversial actions and statements during his tenure in Sweden. In 2004, he destroyed an exhibit he charged was glorifying suicide bombers. He also said that “Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places,” and that its press bears much of the blame.

Former Mavi Marmara activist becomes Swedish minister

Sweden has appointed a pro-Palestine activist who was on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla to Gaza in 2010 as its new Minister of Urbanization.
Mehmet Kaplan, who was born in Turkey in 1971, was among the human rights activists who were arrested by Israeli forces and imprisoned in Ashdod before being released, after commandos raided the ship in international waters while it was on its way to break the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The former Greens and Environment Party lawmaker, Kaplan appointed in his new position by Social Democrat Party leader Stefan Löfven, who won the election on September 14.

Amid Sweden crisis, are Europe’s Social Democratic parties shifting against Israel

Anti-Israel sentiments from Sweden’s Social Democrats have been conspicuous over the years. In 2011, the Social Democratic politician Omar Mustafa tweeted that Sweden should send fighter planes against Israel instead of targeting the regime of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Mustafa, the chairman of the Islamic Association in Sweden, was elected in 2013 to the governing board of the Social Democratic party.
After revelations surfaced that, as head of the Islamic Association, Mustafa permitted the organization to reject recognizing women as equals to their male counterparts and invited a speaker who voiced hardcore anti-gay ideologies, he resigned his post in the governing board. It is worth noting that Mustafa’s well-publicized tweet calling for air strikes against Israel did not bar him from serving in the governing board of his party.
The former Social Democratic mayor of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, said that “I would wish for the Jewish community to denounce Israeli violations against the civilian population in Gaza. Instead, it decides to hold a [pro-Israel] demonstration in the Grand Square [of Malmö], which could send the wrong signals.”
Adrian Kaba, a Social Democratic city councilman in Malmö, wrote on his Facebook page in July that “ISIS [Islamic State] is being trained by the Israeli Mossad.
Muslims are not waging war, they are being used as pawns by other peoples’ game.”

Swedish Politician Says Mossad Trained ISIS, Apologizes

A local politician with Sweden’s ruling party said that Israel trained the jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS) to wage war on Muslims – and has apologized for the statement.
According to JTA, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reported on Thursday that Adrian Kaba, who represents Sweden’s Social Democrats in the Malmö city council, made the statement this summer during a discussion on Facebook.
In a Facebook post, Kaba wrote on July 21: “ISIS is being trained by the Israeli Mossad. Muslims are not waging war, they are being used as pawns by other peoples’ game.”
Reacting to the report, the chairman of the party’s regional branch, Joakim Sandell, said, “An elected official should not be spreading conspiracy theories.” Sandell said the party intends to deal with the issue internally, but did not elaborate.

PLO Blasts Israel for Saying PA Statehood Should Follow Talks

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi has criticized Israel and the United States over their reaction to Sweden's decision to recognize “the state of Palestine”, the Ma’an news agency reported on Sunday.
"Conditioning recognition of the State of Palestine on the outcome of negotiations with Israel is equivalent to making our right to self-determination an Israeli prerogative," Ashrawi said in a statement.
"This fails to address the very basis of the values upon which the United Nations was founded, including its responsibility to protect and act accordingly. We call upon all those countries who haven't recognized the State of Palestine to do so as an investment in peace, as well as a long overdue right of the Palestinian people," she added, according to Ma’an.
Ashrawi added that the Swedish decision reflected the country's commitment to Palestinian human rights.

Pope: Continuation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict could harm region's Christians

Pope Francis stated on Saturday night that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is crucial for stability and peace in the Middle East, during a summit held at the Vatican.
“The recent conflict in Gaza recalls that the situation is serious and difficult, but it is necessary to renew diplomatic efforts for a just and lasting solution that respects the rights of both parties to the conflict,” the Pope said.
Should it remain unsolved, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will inevitably have great regional and global consequences, including consequences for Christians in neighboring countries, the Pontiff added.
During the same conference, Pope Francis reaffirmed that military force is justified in the fight against Islamic militants in the Middle East, stating that Christians in the region had the right to peacefully return to their homeland.

Report: Concerns mount that Hezbollah, Lebanese army could cooperate against Israel

A day after IDF soldiers opened fire on a cell trying to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon, concerns are mounting among the defense establishment over the possibility of the Lebanese army and Hezbollah operatives cooperating against Israel, Channel 10 reported Monday.
In the incident in question, soldiers opened fire on men they identified crossing the border, hitting one of them. The men then fled back into Lebanese territory.
According to Lebanese accounts of the incident, Israeli cross-border fire injured a Lebanese soldier.
Channel 10 quoted defense sources as saying they believe that the cell intended to carry out a terror attack on Israeli territory.

UNIFIL condemns firefight on northern Israeli border

The UN peacekeeping force tasked with monitoring Israel’s northern border denounced a skirmish between Israeli and Lebanese troops earlier Sunday in which a Lebanese soldier was injured, and said it would launch a probe into the incident.
“UNIFIL condemned the incident which is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” it said in a statement, referencing the ceasefire terms reached between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, ending the Second Lebanon War.
Following the incident, UNIFIL urged both the IDF and Lebanese troops to hold fire, and both sides have been cooperative, it maintained.

Al-Qaeda rebels dangled victims' heads to goad UN

Islamist rebels decapitated prisoners around the United Nations bases near where Irish troops were serving in Syria, a UN report seen by the Sunday Independent reveals.
The brutal beheadings in the Golan Heights, which have not been reported on, are described as "horrific atrocities" in the report by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The full horror of events that took place around the Irish and other UN troops in the area have so far been kept a closely-guarded secret by the Defence Forces and Government.
Last week, the Irish soldiers' representative association (PDFORRA) called for psychological support services for soldiers returning from Golan, who might be suffering from post-traumatic stress.

IDF Blog: The Rolling Sword Squadron – Anytime, Anywhere

Throughout their training, IDF infantry forces prepare for one moment: a ground operation. Simultaneously, one special squadron of the Israeli Air Force prepares for the same moment but with a different objective in mind, to save lives.
“Tense quiet.” That’s how the pilots and soldiers from the elite 669 Unit described the first days of Operation Protective Edge, when the ground offensive was still a contingency plan. The squadron was responsible for evacuating and rescuing ground forces under fire while providing emergency medical care to wounded soldiers and transferring them to hospitals.
The preparations for this mission began well before the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge. The team underwent thorough mental training and began preparing for a war-like scenario far in advance. “During the first days of the operation we trained in cooperation with the brigades that were meant to enter Gaza in case of a ground operation. This way we would be as prepared as possible in case the order was be given,” said Lt. Col. Guy, the commander of the “Rolling Sword” Squadron, which operates the IDF’s Black Hawk Helicopters.

A common sight during the Gaza war, IDF’s reliance on aerostat balloons is up

Two months after the end of Israel’s war with Hamas, the Yavne-based RT defense company, which played a crucial role in the IDF’s operations in Gaza, has returned to a normal pace.
But like the military – its chief client – the company is preparing for imminent security challenges along Israel’s borders.
RT produces a series of aerostats it calls the Skystar family, and these are, according to company CEO Rami Shmueli, in high and growing demand.
The IDF’s Combat Intelligence Collection Unit uses the Skystar 180 and 300 aerostats for a variety of missions, which include, but are not limited to tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Budget Concerns Prompt IDF To Put Ads On Sides Of Tanks (satire)

Tensions over a proposed increase in military spending as part of the 2015 government budget have forced the Ministry of Defense and Israel Defense Force to seek revenue outside the standard military budget, leading them to offer ad space on the sides of armored vehicles.
Lower-than-anticipated tax revenues and a falloff in tourism resulting from the summertime war with Hamas have stretched Israel’s budget as military needs vie with impending crises in affordable housing, a shrinking middle class, and concerns over deficit spending. Seeking to meet budgetary requirements if Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon proves unable to secure the full allocation for its projected expenses, the ministry and army have launched a program to offer the flanks of the Merkava IV main battle tank and other similarly-shaped vehicles as space for advertisements.
The ads would run for several weeks at a time, and follow the model of local buses, which can have the proper decals applied or removed in minutes. The IDF believes the tanks will command a greater fee than other forms of signage advertising, since the cavalry, especially the Merkava corps, carries a prestige in Israeli society that few other institutions can match, a coveted association for advertisers. Early Ministry of Defense estimates calculate an annual revenue of 61 million shekels, shaving a significant amount off the necessary government allocation. Those estimates assume only a partial rollout of the program, with 30% of the relevant vehicles in active service carrying ads; experts believe the total can reach much higher if more vehicles, such as Howitzer artillery units, tankbulances, and armored personnel carriers are included in the revenue stream.

Jatt Imam: Islam Will Take Over World in a Decade

In a sermon given Saturday at a local mosque, Badran said that no Muslim could stand aside and watch as the “enemies of Islam attack our land. Our Muslim brothers are accused of terror and attacking America,” but really it is the US and its allies who are attacking “our brave Muslim brothers.”
“There is no difference between the countries that are attacking us and the countries that are not attacking us,” he added. “For us, there is no difference between Australia, Sweden, Japan, Russia, or the US. They are all one army united against Islam.
“It will take ancient Islam not more than ten years to rule the world,: Badran added. “The countdown has begun to the great battle with the infidels around the world.”
A spokesperson for Badran said that his comments had been taken out of context.

Palestinian unity government to meet in Gaza

The Palestinian unity government will hold its first Cabinet meeting in Gaza this week, a key step toward taking charge of reconstruction efforts in the war-battered territory, a senior official said Monday.
The Cabinet will convene Thursday, said Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, three days before an international pledging conference where the Palestinian government will seek $4 billion in aid for Gaza, hit hard in a 50-day war this summer between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Donor countries view the unity government of independent experts, led by Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as key to any reconstruction plans. Hamas, which is shunned as a terrorist group by the international community, has governed Gaza for the past seven years.

Heart-Rendering Photos from Gaza

Just weeks after the latest Gaza war, we are still learning about the depths of the humanitarian crisis sweeping the area
On September 20 Almat'haf Hotel and Cultural House. posted these shocking photos on their Facebook page.
This is the Gaza the mainstream media does not want you to see.

IDF Ups Presence Near Sinai Border Amid Heightened Tensions

The IDF's Southern Command has reinforced its forces along Israel's southern border, a senior IDF officer revealed Sunday, due to rising unrest in the Sinai Peninsula.
On Thursday, the Egyptian Army eliminated a major terror leader in the peninsula, the head of the ISIS-linked Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis group.
Mohamed Abu Shatiya, who took part in the kidnapping of seven Egyptian soldiers in Sinai last year, died during fighting with the army south of Rafah, on the border with Gaza.
Terror attacks in Egypt have eased over the past month as the military squeezes their hideouts in the sparsely inhabited peninsula, analysts have noted - and could ease even further with the elimination - but IDF officials told Walla! News Sunday that the extra deployment is a necessary precaution.

Egypt jihadist group releases video of beheadings

An Egyptian jihadist group released a video Sunday showing the execution of four men, including three being beheaded, accused of spying for the army and for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
It is the second time such gruesome footage has been released by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem), the deadliest terrorist group based in Egypt’s insurgency-hit Sinai region.
A similar video of beheadings was released by the group on August 28, showing the decapitation of four men also accused of being “Israeli informants.”

Egypt Arrests Recruiters for ISIS

Egyptian security forces have arrested four suspected members of a cell recruiting fighters for the “Islamic State” (IS or ISIS) group in Syria, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Sunday.
Egypt’s MENA news agency reported that the four suspects, all of Egyptian nationality, were arrested in the Suez Canal city of Port Said.
The report quoted a senior local security official as saying the four confessed to recruiting young fighters to join the Islamic State jihadists in Syria. MENA said that according to the men's confessions, another four Egyptians, also members of the cell, are already in Syria.

Hezbollah loses 10 fighters in Sunday clashes with Nusra Front

Ten fighters from Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group were killed in clashes with fighters from al-Qaida's Syrian wing in eastern Lebanon on Sunday, a source close to the group said on Monday.
Hundreds of fighters from the Nusra Front attacked several Hezbollah bases along a mountainous range close to the Syrian border on Sunday, in the latest spillover of violence from the civil war next door.
The death toll is one of the group's highest single loses since it publicly took part in fighting in Syria along Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.