Shin Bet, police foil ‘pregnant’ suicide bomber plot in Tel Aviv
A Palestinian terror cell planning a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and other attacks was thwarted over the last several months, the Shin Bet security service said Monday.HOSTAGE TAKING ENDS AS SYDNEY POLICE STORM CAFE AMID GUNFIRE
Five suspects hailing from Jenin and the village Attil in the Tulkarem area of the West Bank planned to infiltrate into Israel by acquiring a permit for the female member of their group to receive medical care in Israel.
She was then to dress as a pregnant Jewish woman and detonate an explosive belt in Tel Aviv, the Shin Bet said in a statement.
The cell members admitted under Shin Bet interrogation to planning to carry out shooting attacks, detonate a mine next to a bus carrying soldiers, and kidnap a soldier as well, according to the internal security agency.
The five were arrested between October and November by IDF forces working with the Shin Bet and police, but the information was only cleared for release Monday.
Police toting automatic weapons and lobbing flash grenades stormed a Sydney cafe early Tuesday, bringing to a dramatic end a 16-hour standoff in which a jihadist and murder suspect held an unknown number of hostages in a scene much of the world watched on television.
A series of explosions, believed to be gunshots and flash grenades, came just before 2:30 a.m. local time as several more hostages fled Lindt Chocolat Cafe, where a man identified as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian also known for sending hate mail to the families of fallen soldiers, was holed up with an unknown number of captives. The drama, which began early Monday, appeared to be coming to a dramatic resolution, as frenzied activity enveloped the scene that Australians had been watching on television for hours.
"Police and paramedics have stormed the building," the Sydney Morning Herald reported. "Dozens of continuous bangs and possibly gun shots have lit up the sky."
Several people were taken from the building on stretchers as an alarm rang and police in riot gear moved in and out of the shop, in the heart of Australia's largest city's business district. A bomb disposal robot was seen being deployed in the shop, though police said the standoff was over. It was not clear if anyone was killed or what had happened to the suspect. The handful of hostages seen fleeing as the explosions echoed through the predawn air followed escapes hours earlier by five captives.
Four of the hostages were seen being taken from the cafe on stretchers, while one received CPR at the scene, Sky News reports.
Police hold talks with gunman after 5 hostages flee Sydney cafe
At least five people ran out of a Sydney coffee shop where at least one gunman took an unknown number of people hostage at the height of Monday morning rush hour, as police maintained a vigil and officials said they were negotiating to end the crisis peacefully.Sydney siege: Gunman identified as self-styled sheik Man Haron Monis, on bail for accessory to murder
Two people inside the cafe have been seen holding up a flag believed to contain an Islamic declaration of faith on a rotating basis, with some 15 hostages taking turns at the window, according to Australian media reports.
The gunman has used hostages to call media to make demands, which Australian police have asked not be published. References to the demands earlier included in this report have been removed.
Videos of hostages reciting demands in front of a Islamic flag were also posted online, but police asked media to not disseminate the clips. The videos seemed to indicate the demands were not being met.
As night fell, the lights in the cafe went out and hostages were huddled in one area, Australian media reported.
As the drama dragged into its 10th hour, police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said negotiators were talking with the gunman. Officials had no information to suggest anyone had been harmed.
SELF-styled sheik and Islamic State preacher Man Haron Monis, who was on bail for accessory to murder, is the gunman who was last night holding 15 terrified hostages in Sydney’s Lindt cafe.Terror in Sydney!
The fate of those people was still hanging in the balance after a day of unprecedented horror in Sydney’s heart, with the first extremist attack on NSW soil.
The 49-year-old, originally from Iran who now lives in southwest Sydney, had previously sent offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers, calling them murderers, and earlier this year was charged with sexual assault.
Armed with a shotgun and a flag linked to extremist groups, the radical Islamic preacher burst into the cafe at 9.45am, taking up to 20 hostages. Just five had escaped by midnight.
As workers in nearby buildings were evacuated or ordered away from windows and heavily armed police moved into Martin Place, the hostages were used as human shields for Monis, forced to stand at the window and hold the Islamic flag bearing the words: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”.
Monis, who arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996, has been charged with being an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of his ex-wife, allegedly stabbed and set alight in a stairwell of her Sydney apartment complex last year.
His current partner was charged with murder. The couple was given bail in Penrith Local Court, with Magistrate Darryl Pearce saying the Crown’s case was weak. Then in March this year Monis was charged with sexually and indecently assaulting a young woman for “spiritual healing” in 2002.
One theory being investigated yesterday was the Lindt cafe was not his primary target and he rushed in there after being spooked by members of the public who alerted police to his behaviour.
In Sydney, many Muslim leaders have united to condemn the actions of the person responsible for today. It is just a shame they did not show such vocal condemnation when some people of their faith chose to launch terror wars against Israel.Jewish community ‘in lockdown’ following Sydney attack
Benjamin Netanyahu warned the world in September that the fight against Islamic terrorism is not solely Israel’s. “It’s not just our fight, it’s your fight,” he said. “Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries may be forced to fight tomorrow. “
Well, tomorrow has arrived.
Jewish institutions across the country were “in lockdown” Monday, canceling excursions and maintaining strict security measures, according to the Australian officials.Pre-Hanukkah Miracle for Israeli in Sydney Siege [video]
A secretary from one of Sydney’s largest Jewish day schools told The Times of Israel that pupils were discharged home for the afternoon as a precautionary measure. She spoke on condition of anonymity as she was not authorized to comment and asked to keep the name of the school under wraps as well over security fears.
Likewise in Melbourne, Jewish schools sent their students home, tightening security measures while leaving small cadres of teachers and staff on school grounds.
Israeli religious singers Benny Elbaz and his son Gad left Sydney’s Lindt’s Café now under siege only moments before it was under siege by one or more Islamic fanatics, COL Live reported.Police round up East Jerusalemites for online incitement
“Several minutes before the kidnapping…, all of our friends left after sitting there and hour and 15 minutes,” Elbaz wrote on Facebook.
“After several moments, it happened! A miracle, a miracle, a miracle of Hanukkah. There are no other words.”
The Elbaz father-and-son team is on tour in Australia and performed Sunday night. They were drinking coffee in the Lindt Café before preparing to fly to New York, via Singapore, for a performance.
“While thankful, my father and I are praying and hoping for a quick release of all the hostages safely and without harm,” Gad Elbaz told COLlive in a phone conversation. “We hope the light of Chanukah will shine their glow on the nation of Israel and the rest of the world,” he said.
Jerusalem District Police, alongside Border Police and police anti-terror forces, rounded up the suspects, some of whom are affiliated with Hamas and Fatah in an overnight sweep, police said in a statement.Jewish couple names son after Druze cop killed in terror attack
The eight are suspected of circulating pictures and videos on Facebook praising terrorists and calling for terror attacks against Jews and security forces. Some of the images the suspects shared showed them holding pistols and M-16 rifles.
The images garnered thousands of “likes” and supportive comments, police said.
Police said they confiscated personal computers, mobile phones, storage devices, and an improvised grenade.
Zidan isn’t a name usually heard at a Jewish circumcision, but a New York couple gave their newborn son the moniker to honor a Druze policeman killed while responding to a terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue last month.Irish back down in face of anger over decision not to mention Israel at Holocaust ceremony
Alexander Chester, a corporate real estate attorney, told The Times of Israel that he and his wife, Jennifer, a medical resident at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, wanted to make sure that Zidan Saif’s name would be perpetuated within the Jewish community, naming their son Yaakov Zidan.
“The four rabbis who were killed left behind many children, so it can be assumed that their names will live on through their grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” said Chester.
“We wanted to have [Zidan’s] name called among the Jewish people for all time." (h/t Phil)
An Irish Holocaust memorial organization has reaffirmed that Israel will be mentioned during a January commemoration ceremony in Dublin, following widespread outrage over the revelation of guidelines proscribing the event’s master of ceremonies from referring to the Jewish state.Has Ireland backed down from their shameful decision to hold a Zionistfrei Holocaust event?
In an October 7 letter that was subsequently obtained and published by the Israellycool website, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland (HETI) board chairman Peter Cassells stated that “it was decided in future, the MC of Holocaust Memorial Day will not refer to the Jewish state or the State of Israel during any part of the ceremony.”
Yanky Fachler, the longtime host of the event, to whom the letter was addressed, was recently informed that he was being terminated and that a new MC was to be retained.
Speaking with The Jewish Chronicle, Fachler stated that he had been given similar instructions prior to this year’s ceremony as well.
Such a decision “plays directly into the hands of everyone who doesn’t like Jews or Israel, and I find it very sad that apparently the two Jewish members of the board did this,” he said.
However, it still doesn’t appear as if they’ve retracted the original letter to Fachler, and it is unclear if the new MC (whose name is yet to be announced) will be permitted to mention Israel.Ramallah to push UN bid Wednesday, will maintain security ties
The Israel Ambassador to Ireland still says he will attend the HMD event next month, though how he can attend while the status of the HETI ban on the MC mentioning ‘Israel’ is still unclear remains a mystery.
HETI’s disgraceful policy is yet another example of attempts in Europe to sever the link between Jews and the State of Israel, seen for example when the trustees of the Tricycle Theater said they would not show films at the Jewish Film Festival that were partly financed by public money from Israel.
Tricycle eventually backed down.
HETI must surely do the same, and we believe that the Chair of the Trustees Peter Cassells should resign.
We’ll keep you posted if any new information becomes available.
The Palestinians are to present a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council Wednesday that would set a two-year deadline for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, an official said.Seemingly mixed moves show Palestinians playing long game
The Palestinian leadership also decided to continue the security coordination with Israel for the time being, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported, backtracking on earlier threats to dissolve security ties in the wake of the death of a senior PA official last week.
It is likely that the ill-timed death of Abu Ein, on the eve of the anniversary of the founding of Hamas, was also a contributing factor in the decision by Fatah to refrain from organizing large demonstrations at friction points with Israel. No one in the PA or Fatah wanted a third intifada to break out during the rival faction’s festival.PM to tell Kerry: Don't remove US veto at UN
The media in Israel and around the world naturally focused mostly on the first half of the decision by the Palestinian leadership — the plan to appeal to the Security Council on Wednesday — and less on the other part.
But the conclusion by the PA to maintain all-important security cooperation shows that while Ramallah may be interested in a diplomatic confrontation with Israel, it is definitely not aiming for a violent clash.
This is a constant refrain from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: Yes to a popular and diplomatic resistance, but no to violence.
Preserving the security cooperation with Israel is likely to help uphold the relative quiet in the West Bank.
It was expected that Netanyahu would ask Kerry to ignore the request of Arab League nations that the U.S. not use its U.N. Security Council veto to thwart Palestinian initiatives to set a two-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state and an "end to the occupation."Ahead of Kerry meet, PM vows UN will not coerce Israel
On Sunday night, Israeli officials said Netanyahu would tell Kerry "no to unilateral Palestinian initiatives, no to time-limited negotiations, and no to a peace plan being forced on Israel."
At the start of Sunday morning's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, "Israel, to a large degree, stands as a solitary island against the waves of Islamic extremism that are washing over the entire Middle East. Until now we have successfully withstood and repelled these attacks and now we also stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, an attempt to compel us -- by means of U.N. decisions -- to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years. This will lead Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem. We will not allow this. We will strongly and responsibly rebuff this. Let there be no doubt, this will be rejected."
Israel Radio’s Gal Berger tweeted that Kerry’s team canceled the photo-op with Netanyahu planned for the beginning of the meeting.Danon: The PA is 'Playing with Fire'
The resolution calls for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank within two years. Netanyahu decried the Palestinian move to cajole Israel into actions against its interest.
“In a reality in which Islamic terror is spreading its branches to every corner of the globe, we will rebuff every effort that will bring this terror into our own home, into the State of Israel, and these things I say in the clearest possible way,” Netanyahu said. “Even if they are dictated we will stand firm against them.”
Saying the Palestinian attempts were “incompatible with genuine peace,” he added that Israel would not “not accept attempts to dictate to us unilateral moves on a limited timetable.”
MK Danny Danon warned on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is “playing with fire”, as the PA announced that on Wednesday it will submit the draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for Israel to “end its occupation” in Judea and Samaria.PM: Europeans boosting Palestinian statehood should heed Hamas
"Abbas and the Palestinian Authority decided to play with fire with the State of Israel," declared Danon, who added that Israel will respond to any unilateral moves by the PA.
"Any unilateral recognition of an imaginary country will lead to serious turbulence in the Middle East. Abbas and his friends in the Palestinian Authority must know that any unilateral move will be answered with a unilateral move by the State of Israel,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged the European states set on passing resolutions to recognize a Palestinian state to think twice after listening to rhetoric directed at Israel by the Palestinian Hamas terror group.New York Times Op-Ed: European Moral Equivalence at its Worst
Speaking at a conference in Nazareth, the prime minister cautioned that Hamas is seeking to control the West Bank and to form a “second Hamastan” in the region, pointing to fiery speeches from the group’s leaders over the weekend.
“To all the parliamentarians who are rushing to recognize a Palestinian state, let them listen to the Hamas leaders’ statements, just in the past few days, in Gaza,” the prime minister said. “They said that they will control Judea and Samaria, that they will establish there a second Hamastan as the basis of destroying the state of Israel.”
An op-ed in the New York Times by Vincent Fean, Britain’s consul-general in Jerusalem from 2010 to 2014 exposes some of the glaring moral deficiencies in how the European diplomatic corp views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Egypt's Foreign Minister Warns of Third Intifada
Fean encourages European parliaments to recognize “Palestine” as a reward for “the nonviolence policy of the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas.” This despite Abbas’s incitement that has contributed to recent terrorism against Israelis.
But why should this concern Fean who treats Palestinian terror as the moral equivalent of Israeli actions?
While Hamas intentionally targets Israeli civilians with rockets, Israel harbors no such malevolent intent towards UN buildings in Gaza. Yet, in Fean’s opinion, both Palestinian terror and Israeli efforts to defend its citizens are “crimes against humanity.”
And yet more moral equivalence:
"Life is sacred, irrespective of nationality — that of a three-month-old child in Jerusalem, or a 55-year-old minister in the West Bank."
How can the death of a three-month-old Israeli baby deliberately killed by a Palestinian terrorist who drove his vehicle into a crowd of Israelis at a light rail station be compared to that of a Palestinian with the blood of Israelis on his hands who suffered a heart attack while confronting Israeli soldiers?
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned on Sunday of a possible third intifada by Palestinian Arabs.JCPA: Iran’s Growing Influence in Hamas
Speaking to a British delegation, Shoukry warned that an intifada could break out due to “provocations”, according to Daily News Egypt.
The most recent of these so-called “provocations”, according to Shoukry, was the incident leading to the death of Palestinian Authority Minister Ziad Abu Ein. He also cited what he termed the “continuation of Israeli settlement expansion activity”.
Sources in Hamas have disclosed that Iran is renewing its substantial influence on the movement after a visit by a Hamas delegation headed by Hamas Political Bureau member Mohammed Nasr to Tehran at the beginning of this month.
Hamas attributed great importance to the meeting. The delegation, dubbed “high-level,” included three additional members of the movement’s Political Bureau – Osama Hamdan, Maher Obeid, and Jamal Issa. The group was joined by Hamas’ representative in Iran, Khalid al-Kaddumi.
The talks with senior Iranian officials were described as “warm,” and included a meeting between Hamas members and Ali Larijani, chairman of Iran’s Shura Council.
Discussions focused reportedly on the situation in Jerusalem, the ongoing blockade of Gaza, the repercussions of Operation Protective Edge, and the rehabilitation of Gaza.
In a speech at a rally in Gaza on December 14, 2014 to mark the twenty-seventh anniversary of Hamas’ founding, “Abu Obeida,” spokesman of the movement’s military wing, made a point of thanking Iran for “its support for the Palestinian organizations with weapons and money” and only after that thanked Qatar and Turkey for “their support for the Palestinian problem.”
Hamas Unveils New Rocket, Apologizes For Breach Of Modesty (satire)
“The Hamas fighters showed extreme physical modesty during this summer’s hostilities with Israel,” noted social scholar Haiyed Aweiy. “They were so reluctant to show any part of themselves or to attract individual attention, preferring to let civilians stand in front of them and occupy the limelight. Some of them spent weeks at a time literally underground, unwilling to let their bodies be seen by the harsh naked air.”Israel’s New Chief of Staff Has Tough Stance on Hezbollah
Expert agree the episode is unlikely to have long-term consequences. “Hamas’s Islamist bona fides are pretty well established, and it would take more than a flash of exposed missile skin to undermine that,” says commentator Denaya Libido. “But if such removals of veils become more commonplace in Gaza, the organization will have to contend with more radical groups vying for the title of Most Dedicated to Islam – and those organizations from even deeper demonstrations of stringent observance.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they go so far as to mandate the use only of full metal jacket projectiles,” he added.
General Gadi Eisenkot, appointed Sunday by the Israeli government as the next armed forces chief of staff, has warned in the past that Israel will not hesitate in the next round of fighting with Hezbollah to use “disproportionate force” against any Lebanese village from which rocket fire is directed at Israel.Historian Says War with Hezbollah is Imminent
Virtually all Israeli media reporting on Eisenkot’s appointment has cited an interview he gave the newspaper Yediot Achronot in 2008 in which he spelled out Israel’s policy in any coming confrontation. Instead of trying to determine from which plots within Lebanon’s 160 Shiite villages rockets were being fired, he said, a village will be considered to be a military base if any rockets at all are fired and the entire village will be subject to indiscriminate air or artillery attack.
Eisenkot referred to the Israeli Air Force’s leveling of the Hezbollah-controlled neighborhood of Dahariya in Beirut in the opening hours of the 2006 war with Hezbollah. “This will be the fate of every village from which Israel is fired on,” he said. “This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.” Eisenkot said that warnings would be issued to villages that are targeted—presumably by leaflet and local radio wave lengths—to permit the villagers time to escape.
In the 2006 war, which lasted a month, 4,000 rockets were fired into Israel. Some 1,200 Lebanese—civilians and guerillas—were killed in the fighting as well as 165 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
There are warning signs of an impending conflict that the Israeli public is blind to, he insisted: “The situation on the ground is a boiling lava of hatred and enmity toward the Jews and Israel, and any spark can lead to a much greater eruption.” The recent death of convicted terrorist turned Palestinian Authority (PA) minister Ziad Abu Ein marks a high point in this tension, and it could go higher.Jordan’s King Blames Israel for ISIS?!
Hezbollah, he adds, “has warned that it is preparing for action against Israel and presented a plan for conquering the Galilee with tunnels, inflicting civilian casualties and killing of hundreds of people. They are preparing for this and talking about a mega-terror attack. They have a creative mind and they will do it in the winter, on a particularly rainy week, in order to neutralize as much as possible the response of the air force, which is limited in its activity when there is intense cloudiness.”
The latest IAF strike in Syria also portends ill, he opined. All six strikes that preceded this one took place at night, but this one was carried out in the daytime. “That indicates something very important,” he explained. The fact that Russia also protested against the attack shows that “there was a tie-breaking weapon there.”
In an interview with Charlie Rose on 5 December 2014, Jordan’s king made the following statement:”[There is] A necessity to move the Israeli-Palestinian issue forward, especially with all of us now are dealing with a much bigger problem; the international fight against the international jihadists…the world has moved on but if we don’t unravel this and solve this problem between Israelis and Palestinians we are going to fight this fight with one arm behind our back.”.Jordanian Preacher: Jewish "Apes and Pigs," Shiite "Dogs and Donkeys" Seek to Take over Saudi Arabia
While this statement might sound well intended, it actually subliminally dictates an alarming rhetoric: the king is openly saying the war on global Jihadist terror–in this case he was talking about the war on ISIS– could be ineffective because of the situation in Israel. And an ineffective war means terrorists could win and kill more Americans. This is what the king told millions of American and Western viewers.
Still, the above could have passed as an exaggeration or a misjudgment, was it not for the things the king said next.
When Charlie Rose asked the king whether there was a chance for a peace deal during the remaining period of Obama’s term, he responded:”It has to be because what happens if it is not. This is the critical factor that both sides have to understand, we are now moving into something much bigger, the global fight, the generational fight, if this thing is still cooking and not resolved how are we going to succeed on this larger problem?” The king is telling millions of Americans that their country’s war on terror would not succeed– and thus ISIS might grow and even win– unless Israel and the Palestinians sign another peace agreement during president Obama’s term.
French police dismantle network sending jihadis to Syria
French police launched raids across the country early on Monday, dismantling a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria, a police source told AFP.How Iraq Became a Proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Elite and anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy, the source said on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested.
In recent months France, which has Europe’s largest Muslim population, has been facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on their homeland.
Needless to say, the proliferation of Shia militias in Iraq, with Iranian proxies as the strongest players, has important implications.In Nuke Talks, Obama Still Iran’s Best Asset
Due to the security situation in Iraq, the Shia militias will be necessary for the foreseeable future in the fight against the Islamic State. It is also highly unlikely that these militias will simply disband even if told to do so. Thus, it is worth assessing the implications of their rise to prominence and power.
First, it demonstrates the extent to which Iran considers the government of Iraq a client or proxy regime; one that Tehran will not allow to develop its own powerful, independent institutions and military. The government in Baghdad, like the regime in Damascus, is to be saved from those who would destroy it, but only in such a way that its future is to be an instrument of Iran's will. The Iranians' innovative use of sectarian militia power and the cultivation of a variety of paramilitary clients ensures that, if they get their way, no Iraqi government will be in a position to disobey them.
Moreover, Iran's role in Iraq is clearly part of its desire—tracing back to the regime's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini—to spread its ideology throughout the Shia population of the Middle East. What this means is that, while the new sectarian military formation being developed by the Iranians in Iraq is likely to prove sufficient to stem the advance of the overstretched I.S. forces, they are also part of Tehran's larger regional strategy to produce a contiguous line of pro-Iran states between the Iran-Iraq border and the Mediterranean Sea.
But the Iranians know whom they are dealing with. As has become increasingly clear in the last year in which the talks went into two overtime periods despite administration promises that the talks would be finite in length, President Obama’s goal is not so much to fulfill his campaign promise about the nuclear threat as it is to launch a new détente with the Iran. This is a crucial point since it not only makes him more reluctant to stick to Western demands about nuclear issues but makes it impossible for him to contemplate abandoning the negotiations. That means that the Iranians know the president isn’t even thinking, as he should be, of ratcheting up the economic pressure with tougher sanctions, or of making the Islamists fear the possibility that the U.S. would ever use force to ensure the threat is eliminated.Turkey and EU: The Kodak-Moment
Under these conditions the chances of the U.S. negotiating a deal that could actually stop Iran from ever getting a bomb are slim and none. Instead, the only question remains how far the Iranians are willing to press the president to bend to their will in order to let him declare a victory and welcome this terrorist-sponsoring regime moving closer to regional hegemony as well as a nuclear weapon.
Rather than the renewed diplomacy being a signal for congressional critics from both parties of the president’s policy to pipe down, the new talks should encourage them to work harder to pass the sanctions the president claims he doesn’t need. Unless they act, the path to appeasement of Iran seems to be clear.
The truth is, Turkey's longer-than-half a-century journey to full EU membership offers volumes of thick picture books full of similar smiling faces, most of them no longer alive. But both the club and the applicant know that Turkey has been dragged planets away from the EU in terms of culture and socio-politics. Turkey is sometimes even hostile to Europe.Ethnic Cleansing of Jews in Turkey
While the Europeans wasted their time in self-deception – that Turkey's Islamists were in fact pro-EU, post-Islamist reformers – Turkey was implementing a plan to turn into, not a member of, but a Muslim challenge to what its leaders privately view as a hostile "Christendom."
Turkey, under Islamist rule, has keenly pretended that it wants EU membership, while in reality deeply disliking "Christian" culture; and the EU leaders have pretended that Turkey would one day join the club, while knowing that it would not.
The real question is: Now that the ethnic-cleansing campaign of the Turkish regime has been "successfully" completed, and there are only two Jews left in Edirne, why is the governor of the city still so angry?
The sweet little secret in both Turkey and Europe is that anti-Semites do not need the existence of a Jewish state to attack or threaten Jews. Hatred of Jews did not start with the re-establishment of the state of Israel.
The truth is that those who carried out ethnic cleansing of Jews are the last persons who should whine about the non-existent Israeli "occupation." Israelis are not occupiers in Israel. Israel is the home of the Jews; you cannot be an occupier in your own home. Israel has the legal, moral and historical right to exist as a sovereign state.