Monday, December 08, 2014
PA Minister of Religious Affairs continues to fuel conflict in Jerusalem
Contrary to remarks by Palestinian Authority officials that Abbas wants to calm the atmosphere in Jerusalem and prevent violence, Abbas' own Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is continues to fuel the conflict by repeating the libel that Israel plans to "take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque,destroy it and build the alleged Temple":PA Minister voices libel that Israel seeks to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque and build "alleged Temple"
"All that Israel wants is to Judaize the Holy City, take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, destroy it and build the alleged Temple. Under Jerusalem there is a city of tunnels belonging to Israel. Yesterday, I was told that Israel has an underground market beneath the Jaffa Gate, which draws many [Palestinian] residents who shop there." [Official PA TV, Dec. 3, 2014]
Hezbollah drones, anti-aircraft missiles destroyed in alleged IAF attack, says Syrian opposition
Syrian opposition sources told Arab media on Monday that the airstrikes near Damascus that were alleged to have been carried out by Israeli warplanes destroyed a storage facility housing anti-aircraft missiles as well as drones belonging to Hezbollah.Two Hezbollah members said killed in airstrikes on Syria
While the Lebanese Shi’ite group has yet to officially comment on the attack, Channel 2 is citing a report in the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar which said that “the Israeli action was intended to preserve the rules of the game.”
The newspaper claimed that the IAF struck weapons caches “that belonged to Hezbollah.” These arms are considered to be “capable of tilting the strategic balance,” namely threaten Israel’s ability to act freely in the skies above Lebanon.
The IAF has struck Syria several times since the start of the three-year conflict, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for their longtime foe Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Last week, the Lebanese Daily Star reported the army said it had fired anti-aircraft guns at an IDF drone flying low over the eastern part of the country.
“The Israeli enemy committed aggression against Syria by targeting two safe areas in Damascus province, in all of Dimas and near the Damascus International Airport,” state television said, adding that there were no casualties.
One of the slain was a senior official from the Lebanese group, the report said.After Syria Strikes, Israel Reiterates: No Arms for Terrorists
Syrian state TV, which accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes on the Damascus International Airport and an airfield near the town of Dimas on the Syrian-Lebanese border, had maintained that there were no casualties in the attacks.
The power supply to the airport has been cut off since the attack, the report said, citing Syrian rebel sources.
Israel stressed on Monday that it has a policy of preventing arms transfers to terrorist groups, a day after Syria accused the Jewish state of bombing two targets near the Syrian capital, including Damascus airport.
Israel has launched a series of strikes inside Syria since the armed uprising erupted there in 2011, including raids reportedly targeting weapons bound for Damascus ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz refused to comment directly on Sunday's incident, as was also the case with Israeli officials questioned in the aftermath of previous strikes.
"We have a firm policy of preventing all possible transfers of sophisticated weapons to terrorist organisations," Steinitz told public radio in response to a question about the strikes, and apparently referring to Hezbollah.
Minister insists Syria strike wasn’t aimed at voters
In an interview with Israel Radio, Steinitz was cautious to not explicitly admit that Israel was behind the two bombing runs, which hit two Syrian military sites near Damascus and the Lebanese border, but noted that such operations require months of planning. The jets struck military sites at Damascus’s main airport and at the town of Dimas on a key road near the Syrian-Lebanese border, Syrian media reports said.Following airstrikes, Syria calls for sanctions on Israel
“It’s ludicrous and an insult to [Israelis’] intelligence,” Steinitz said of the claims that the airstrikes were politically motivated.
Nonetheless, the minister stressed that Israel maintained a very firm security policy of preventing terror groups from obtaining advanced weapons that would change military balance in the region. Arab media reported that the target of the attack was advanced Russian S-300 air-defense missiles, long considered a “game-changing” weapon by Israel. Israeli officials maintain a policy of ambiguity regarding such bombing runs, several of which have been carried out in recent years in Syria, and rarely take credit for them.
Syria called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel Sunday, hours after Damascus alleged Israeli planes struck two sites near Damascus.Iran, Syria condemn Israel for 'lifting morale of terrorists' with Damascus airstrikes
Syria’s Foreign Ministry said it sent letters to the UN Security Council and to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accusing Israel of carrying out the air raids to cover up its own internal problems and calling for action against Israel to ensure the attacks do not continue.
“The Syrian government called for imposing deterring sanctions on Israel, which did not hide its policy in supporting terrorism, calling also for taking all procedures, in accordance with the UN Charter, to prevent Israel from repeating such attacks,” the Damascus-run SANA news agency reported.
Iran and Syria on Monday condemned Israel for the airstrikes that hit near Damascus on Sunday.Russia wants Israeli explanation for 'aggressive actions' in Syria
The foreign ministers from both countries held a joint news conference during which they charged that the attack proves that Israel was making common cause with “terrorists” in Syria fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Israel has not officially acknowledged carrying out the attack, which was captured on film by eyewitnesses on the ground.
During their news conference in Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took turns denouncing the attack.
Moallem said the airstrikes “lifted the morale of terrorists” while Zarif said that the bombings made it more urgent for Syria to “dry up the sources of terrorism.”
Israel has not officially acknowledged carrying out the attack, though that did not stop Iran and Syria from placing blame on Jerusalem.Top Putin aide: Mossad training ISIS terrorists in Iraq, Syria
"Moscow is deeply worried by this dangerous development, the circumstances of which demand an explanation," a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Moscow is quoted as saying.
The Russian government sent a letter to the United Nations protesting Israel’s “aggressive action.”
In an interview with Iranian state television, Alexander Prokhanov said that Mossad agents were training ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq.UN: Israel interacting with rebels on Syrian border
“ISIS is a tool at the hands of the United States. They tell the Europeans that if we (the Americans) do not intervene, ISIS will cause you harm," he told PRESS TV.
"They launched their first terror attack against us just a few days back in Chechnya," he said.
Gunmen attacked a police post and stormed a building on Thursday in Grozny, capital of Russia's southern province of Chechnya, killing 10 policemen in clashes in which 10 of the attackers were also killed.
The bloodiest fighting in Chechnya for months erupted a few hours before President Vladimir Putin said in a speech in Moscow he would defend Russia against what he called attempts to dismember it.
UN observers in the Golan Heights meticulously detailed instances of contact between IDF soldiers and rebels, including Syrians being sent into Israel for medical treatment, and the transfer of items and containers, according to records maintained by the UN disengagement force in the Golan demilitarized zone.Jews from Arab countries are the key to peace
The reports were first detailed by Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday.
Most of the dispatches report on cross-border incidents, though several also detail numbers of people sent from Syrian fighting into Israel for medical treatment.
“During periods of heavy engagement with Syrian forces, [rebel groups] transferred 89 wounded persons across the ceasefire line to the IDF,” a May 2014 dispatch reads, adding later that “the IDF handed 19 treated and two deceased individuals” back to the insurgents.
On another occasion, also dated May 2014, UN monitors observed IDF troops “handing over two boxes to armed members of the opposition” on the Syrian side.
This is not however only a Jewish or Israeli concern. The history of Jews in Arab countries, and its final painful episode in the middle of the 20th century, should interest anyone who has even the slightest stake in the current Arab-Israeli conflict.PM slams Abbas’s ‘impossible fantasies’ on ‘return’ of 6 million refugees
As long as the Arab Palestinians consider themselves to be the ultimate victims of an egregious injustice, they will never be able to reconcile with the Jews. As long as they are oblivious to the fact that Middle Eastern indigenous Jews were discriminated against under Muslim rule and finally expelled, they will never understand why Jews have the right to have their own sovereign state in the Middle East. And as long as the Arab world sees the Jews as some kind of a foreign Western outpost in the region, similar to the Crusaders, then peace has no chance.
So it is not only a matter for Israelis or Jews. Anyone who is interested in promoting peace in the Middle East should raise awareness of the history of these forgotten communities.
Israel’s prime minister responded bitterly Monday to comments by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that six million Palestinian refugees, himself included, were waiting to “return” to Israel and that “we need to find creative solutions because we cannot close the door to those who wish to return.”Netanyahu Says Palestinian Incitement Makes ‘Your Hair Stand on End’
A spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of promoting “impossible fantasies” and taking “maximalist positions.” Israel has a population of just over 8 million, more than a fifth of whom are Arabs. Israeli governments have consistently rejected Palestinian demands for a “right of return” for millions of descendants of former Arab residents of what is today Israel, saying that the demand amounts to a bid to destroy Israel by demographic means and that a Palestinian state would have to absorb them in the same way that Israel absorbed Jewish refugees who were forced to leave countries across the Middle East and North Africa when Israel was founded.
“The Palestinian leadership does the Palestinian people no service when they cultivate impossible fantasies,” Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev told The Times of Israel on Monday. “It’s high time the Palestinian leadership abandon these sort of maximalist positions which make reaching a peace agreement more difficult.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday said the Palestinian leadership is not ready to confront extremism in the way that is necessary for a peace deal with Israel to be secured, and criticized Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israel as making “your hair stand on end.”2014: Arabs Built 550 Illegal Structures in Area C Alone
His comments were made in a pre-recorded video played at the annual Saban Forum hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.
“Unfortunately, the Palestinian leadership is simply not prepared, and I hope this changes, but it’s not yet prepared to truly confront violence and fanaticism within Palestinian society, within their own ranks,” Netanyahu said.
He added, “Regrettably, the Palestinian leadership not only refuses to confront that extremism, at times, it even fuels it. It engages in incitement day in and day out. Just look at their webpages. Look at their websites – it’ll make your hair stand on end. And I think it’s important to confront this. I don’t think sticking our head in the sand promotes real peace and I don’t believe that false hopes promote real peace. I think they just push peace further away.”
The Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hosted on Sunday the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Yoav Mordechai, for a discussion of illegal construction in Judea and Samaria.Moderate Arab leaders want peace with Israel, Kerry says
According to information presented to the committee, about 550 illegal structures were built by Arabs in Areas C in the course of 2014, as opposed to 150 illegal structures built by Jews. Bearing in mind that the Arab population in Areas C is smaller than the Jewish one – about 90,000 Arabs compared with about 400,000 Jews – the rate of illegal construction in the Arab sector is 16 times that in the Jewish sector.
Subcommittee Chairman MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) demanded that the security authorities carry out demolition orders against illegal structures and present a timetable for the relocation of Bedouins from the Abu Dis and northern Jericho area. In addition, he demanded that international organizations encouraging illegal building be reined in.
Moderate leaders in Arab states across the Middle East have expressed a willingness to promote peace with Israel and to stand up against extremist factions in the region, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday, adding that Arab countries were eager to cooperate with Israel on a wide array of economic and agricultural issues.A Pyrrhic Palestinian Victory in France
Kerry also said progress had been made in peace talks last year between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but lamented that conditions were not yet ripe for new peace negotiations, particularly due to heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians that have led to an unprecedented amount of frustration.
Kerry said Arab leaders had told him they were ready to make peace with Israel and to join together to fight terror.
The constitutional angle is clear enough. As Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, observed a few days before the vote, "the policy of France," including its foreign policy and the recognition of foreign States, "is determined and conducted by the Government" under the Fifth Republic Constitution of 1958, article 20. Moreover, according to a constitutional custom tracing back to General Charles de Gaulle, the Fifth Republic's first president from 1959 to 1969, it is the president's exclusive prerogative to make decisions in matters of defense and international relations.Intifada Violence Threatens Jewish Residents in Ma’ale Zeitim
The French executive — President François Hollande as well as Prime Minister Manuel Valls and diplomacy chief Fabius — has definitely made up its mind about the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. It sticks to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as defined by the 1993 Oslo accords and subsequent agreements. Accordingly, it opposes the recognition of the state of Palestine under the present circumstances, since such a move would wreck the Oslo accords for good. However, in order to revive and accelerate the peace process, France is prepared to hold a peace conference in Paris with Israel, the Palestinians, and the powers or international organizations that may have been involved at one point or another (the United States, Russia, the EU, the UN, etc).
Given that context, a French National Assembly resolution calling for the recognition of the state of Palestine carries no more weight than a United Nations General Assembly resolution. It has no binding power whatsoever.
Intifada violence left a Jerusalem neighborhood littered with spent fireworks on Sunday, while a Nazareth road was littered with rocks.Eight Arab-Israeli Teens Arrested over Bomb-Making Charges
Arabs attacked Jewish homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ma’ale Zeitim near the Mount of Olives, also known as Ras el-Amud on Sunday. They shot fireworks and hurled firebombs (Molotov cocktails) at the houses.
No one was physically injured in the attacks, and no property damage was reported.
In Nazareth, a bus came under a hail of stones as it traveled through the area. The windshield was smashed but the driver managed to keep the vehicle moving until he reached safety.
Eight teenagers from the northern Israeli town of Fureidis were recently arrested on suspicion of involvement in manufacturing pipe bombs and throwing a pipe bomb at a police car, it was cleared for publication Sunday, during violent Arab rioting on November 9.NGO Offers Legal Help to Gaza Op Soldiers Under Investigation
The eight were arrested as part of a joint operation of the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) and the Israel Police Coastal District. Four of the arrested have been interrogated by the ISA and four by the ISA.
Investigation revealed that three of the minors conspired to harm police officers that night and threw two of them at police officers for 'nationalistic reasons' (i.e. terrorism) near Route 4, which is close to Fureidis.
The legal aid NGO Honenu, which assists Jews who are suspected of nationalist crimes, as well as IDF soldiers who face legal action for defending themselves in the line of duty, condemned on Sunday the decision by the Military Prosecution, to launch investigations against soldiers who were involved in five incidents during Operation Protective Edge, in which about 50 Gazans were killed.IDF BLOG: Hamas Was Prepared, but So Were We
Honenu urged any members of the security forces who needs legal aid to contact it and receive a lawyer's assistance.
"Our fears have unfortunately proven true, and the Military Prosecution is indeed launching investigations against combatants,” said Shmuel Meidad, Director of Honenu. “We are constantly in touch with soldiers who become embroiled in legal problems, and the feeling is that the system does not back them up, but rather treats them with ingratitude.”
"We must remember that these are our best sons, who risked their lives to safeguard the security of Israel,” Meidad said. “Presenting them as lowly criminals now, is shameful and unacceptable.”
Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were prepared for Operation Protective Edge. With the help of weapon smuggling and tunnels, Hamas armed itself and prepared for the arrival of the IDF’s soldiers. But we were also prepared.Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian internal strife sparks rumors about Abbas's health
The weapons in the photo below were all aimed at IDF soldiers by terrorists during the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge. “We did not confiscate civilian equipment,” said Col. (Res.) Moti Zabarsky, the commander of the unit responsible for clearing the weapons found in Gaza. “All of these weapons were used by terrorist organizations in attempt to harm IDF soldiers, but we were able to neutralize them in the field.”
Internal bickering among the top brass of the Palestinian Authority has sparked a wave of rumors that reached their peak over the weekend with reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had suffered a stroke.Abbas announces broad probe into Palestinian NGOs
The rumor concerning Abbas’s health was so widespread that the he was forced to make a rare public appearance at a gourmet supermarket in Ramallah, accompanied by a crew from Palestine TV.
Abbas’s advisers decided to send him to do some shopping and chat with surprised passersby, in an effort to dispel rumors on social media that he was lying unconscious in hospital.
The reports about the sudden illness of the 80-year-old Abbas surfaced shortly after Ramallah was hit by rumors that Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had tendered his resignation.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ordered an investigation into the legal status of 2,800 non-government organizations and associations in the Palestinian territories, in a professed attempt to boost Palestinian nation-building efforts internationally.Israel to permit European reconstruction bank to operate in Palestinian territories
“We would like to make all state institutions transparent and accountable, because if transparency and accountability prevail, we will have the respectable state we are worthy of,” Abbas told a gathering in Ramallah on Sunday marking international anti-corruption day.
The Palestinian legislature passed an anti-graft law in 2005, renamed the anti-corruption law in 2010. It stipulated the creation of a governmental anti-corruption commission as well as an anti-corruption court.
Israel has agreed for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to operate in Palestinian territories for the first time, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.Iranian Leader Tweets: “We Strengthened Our Brothers’ Fists in Gaza”
Israel is one of 66 shareholder countries in the EBRD, a development bank founded in 1991 to help rebuild post-soviet economies through commercial investments.
In order to take on new target countries, all shareholders must agree on it. Israel was the only country expected to block its expansion into Palestinian territories, so its go ahead signals their likely inclusion in the future.
“It’s very good to hear that the Israeli government is open to this, but it’s ultimately a shareholder decision. My best guess is that most countries will be very supportive. They all want to use economic instruments to help bring stability in the region,” Chakrabarti said following meetings with President Reuven Rivlin and Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug.
In a tweet Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared, “we strengthened our brothers’ fists in Gaza; West Bank will be armed.”PreOccupied Territory: Lebanon Officially Renamed Refugistan (satire)
The quote was from a speech Khamenei delivered (embedded below) on November 25, to the International Congress on Takfirism.
In July, a report from the United Nations documented Iranian arms smuggling to Hamas, which, in addition to supporting terror, is also in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747, prohibiting Iran from exporting arms. In March, the Klos-C was intercepted in international waters as it made its way towards Gaza with a shipment of arms from Iran, including the types of rockets that Hamas used to target Israel during Operation Protective Edge.
The latest influx of people fleeing the ongoing civil war in Syria has tipped the balance of Lebanon’s population, rendering Lebanese citizens a minority in their country and prompting the government to formally rename the country to reflect its new status as composed primarily of those who have fled other places.Islamic State group support grows in Jordan town
A country of just over four million, Lebanon has been inundated with refugees from Syria since the conflict began there more than four years ago amid the Arab Spring. A brutal war has given way to a brutal stalemate, and the millions of refugees created by the conflict see no indication that they can return home – or that they would remain unmolested if they did so. While Lebanon has received fewer refugees than, for example, Jordan, its limited size, population, and resources translate into a larger demographic impact.
In addition to the Syrians, Lebanon hosts nearly half a million Palestinians, mostly descendants of refugees who fled the war over the creation of Israel in 1948. Like their brethren throughout most of the Arab world, the Palestinian refugees are denied citizenship and most civil rights. Instead of participating in the civic life of the host country, the Palestinians are cared for by a special UN agency that perpetuates their dependence and prevents them from starting over in the manner that all other refugees are encouraged and enabled to do. Some of the refugees entering from Syria are themselves Palestinians with UN refugee status, and are therefore provided services that other Syrian refugees must do without.
Local authorities quickly stripped away public signs of support for the Islamic State group in this desert town. Black flags have been removed from rooftops. Graffiti proclaiming the extremists’ imminent victory have been whitewashed.Canada joins UK in closing Cairo embassy to public over 'security'
But supporters of the Middle East’s most radical extremist group are only laying low after their surprise show of strength in protests last summer. Despite government efforts, support for the Islamic State group is growing in Maan and elsewhere in Jordan, one of the West’s key allies in the region, say Islamic State activists, members of rival groups and experts on political Islam.
One of the leading Islamic State group activists in Maan said he and others are still working to build their base.
The move comes amid increasing attacks by Islamist militants in Egypt and calls from the extremist Islamic State group for attacks on Western targets.UN Attempt to Save Jewish Sites from ISIS - Too Little Too Late?
The Canadian embassy said in a statement that it would be closed "due to security reasons" on Monday, with a separate email to Canadian citizens in Egypt saying this would be the case "until further notice".
The British embassy also remained closed after shutting its public services on Sunday.
British Ambassador John Casson said the decision had been taken "to ensure the security of the embassy and our staff".
"We are working to restore full services as quickly as possible," he said.
Both countries have previously issued warnings to their citizens against travel to restive areas of Egypt including parts of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis militant group has pledged allegiance to IS.
Like most UN agencies, UNESCO has blown hot and cold towards Israel and the Jewish people. On the one hand it has admitted Palestine as a member and backed Palestinian claims to Jewish holy sites like Rachel's tomb. On the other it has named Tel Aviv "creative city for media arts". On the one hand, it hosted an exhibition on "the Holy Land." On the other had it insisted that the word Israel not appear in the title and that "politically incorrect" aspects of the Jewish state, like wars and Jewish refugees from Arab lands, were left out.David Singer: Pope Calls On World To End Islamic State Barbarism.
But this time, UNESCO had made a point of including the Jews in its conference. The UNESCO director-general, Irina Bokova, has condemned the destruction in May 2014 of the Jobar synagogue near Damascus, which, legend has it, goes back to the time of Elijah the Prophet.
When a JJAC delegation, accompanied by CRIF, the body representing French Jews, submitted a list of 100 endangered Jewish sites to Mrs Bokova in June, she lent a sympathetic ear. And when Professor Shmuel Moreh, who has worked long and hard for the preservation of ancient Jewish sites in Iraq made his case, Mrs Bokova - or her aides - were listening. Professor Moreh was flown over from Israel to be a special guest at the conference, along with representatives of Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmen and Yazidis.
Pope Francis has considerably upped the ante in enlisting spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I – to sign a joint Common Declaration demanding an end to international indifference regarding Islamic State barbarism being perpetrated against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.Pope says Christians ‘being driven from Mideast’
The Common Declaration constitutes an impassioned plea on behalf of 1.2 billion Catholics and 300 million Orthodox Christians world-wide for concerted international action to eradicate Islamic State.
Whilst two seemingly indifferent Permanent UN Security Council members – Russia and China – and another 129 member States of the UN stand on the sidelines, an American-led coalition comprising the remaining 62 UN member states has been doing the heavy lifting confronting Islamic State outside United Nations’ authorisation, prompting the Pope and Bartholomew to declare:
Pope Francis said Christians are being “driven from the Middle East,” in a message to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by Islamic State group jihadists.
“It would seem that they (the extremists) do not want there to be any Christians, but you bear witness to Christ,” he said in a video address timed to coincide with a visit Saturday by French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin to the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil.
“I think of the wounds, of the pain of women with their children, the elderly and the displaced, the wounds of those who are victims of every type of violence,” Francis said according to a transcript.
