Thursday, February 05, 2015
PA TV sermon: Jews are "apes and pigs"
In Friday's sermon on official Palestinian Authority TV, the cleric demonized Jews as "apes and pigs."PA cleric: Jews are "apes and pigs and slaves of deities"
"Many Muslims are being harmed these days by a group whose hearts were sealed by Allah. 'He made of them [Jews] apes and pigs and slaves of deities' (Quran, 5:60). They are harming the livelihood of the believers [Muslims]... They withhold their [the Palestinians'] money and collect interest on it."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 30, 2015]
A few months ago, a Palestinian youth recited a poem on official PA TV, also demonizing Jews as apes and pigs, as Palestinian Media Watch reported:
"You have been condemned to humiliation and hardship
O Sons of Zion, O most evil among creations
O barbaric apes, O wretched pigs"
[Official PA TV, Sept. 12, 2014]
Amb. Alan Baker: UN Commission of Inquiry Violates International Norms on Fact-Finding Missions
The recent resignation of Canadian Prof. William Schabas as Chair of the UN Gaza inquiry has raised some interesting issues in the general context of UN fact-finding procedures. Shabas’ glaring anti-Israel bias was demonstrated in statements made by him over the years and now confirmed by the revelation of the clear conflict of interest arising from his consultancy work for the PLO and concealed by him from the UN and from its Human Rights Council.Anne Bayefsky: William Schabas’ appointment was testament to the corruption at the UN Human Rights Council
The UN fact finding procedures have developed over the years through a number of declarations and studies by prominent international organizations and legal authorities, and ostensibly should have guided the UN in determining the mandate for any such commission of inquiry and in choosing the Chair of any fact-finding mission or inquiry.
However, it appears that the UN knowingly chose to ignore these well-established procedures in appointing William Schabas to chair the Gaza inquiry, and as such, the UN itself, in addition to William Schabas, have prejudiced any findings and outcome of the Commission of Inquiry and created grave doubts as to any credibility of such findings or outcome.
The following documents set out the various rules and norms for fact finding commissions, each one stressing the importance and centrality of impartiality – both of the mandate, as well as by the head and members of the commission:
As he tells the Council in his resignation letter, he imagined his “legal opinion” to the PLO on how to capitalize on the International Criminal Court “was a tiny part” of his “enormous body of scholarly work.” (Non-lawyers and the less erudite might call this being a tiny bit pregnant.) He rants, further : “when I was asked if I would accept nomination to the Commission of Inquiry, I was not requested to provide any details of my past statements and other activities concerning Palestine and Israel.”
In a final stunning display of hubris, Schabas claims that none of this should affect the legitimacy of the inquiry’s forthcoming report, to be presented to the Council in March and then being sent to the ICC. According to Schabas, the research and evidence-gathering phase he had conducted, managed and directed for five months – which will form the basis of the entire report – was “largely completed.” Indeed, “the work on the drafting of the report is beginning.”
Obviously, the credibility of the final product is irrevocably discredited — to all but the Human Rights Council, which is simply reassigning the job of Chair to one of the two remaining inquiry members (both also chosen on the basis of their prior displays of anti-Israel bias).
It is no accident that a Council notorious for applying double-standards to Israel embraced Schabas, or that a lawyer like Schabas embraced the Council. But there is no excuse for the the free world not to shun both of them and renounce their legal pogrom.
Probe chief’s PLO ties show U.N.’s anti-Israel bias
Adlai Stevenson once said that government should never be “the shelter of the corrupt.” This week’s resignation of the head of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s “investigation” into Israeli “war crimes” after it emerged that he had recently been on the PLO’s payroll reaffirms that when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the U.N. does not merely shelter the corrupt. It hires them.JPost Editorial: Egypt and Hamas
When the U.N. chose William Schabas to judge whether Israel should be blamed for attempting to defend itself from 4,500 rockets fired at it by Hamas last summer, the appointment seemed to reflect perfectly that body’s unembarrassed anti-Israel animus. Defying ethical rules requiring judges to be both unbiased and free of the reasonable appearance of bias, the U.N. went ahead and appointed someone who had repeatedly made his bias entirely clear.
In the run-up to his selection as chair of the “fact-finding” exercise, Schabas had recommended “going after” Israel’s president, Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, and had declared that “my favorite would be [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in the dock of the International Criminal Court.” He had asserted that “Those who are to blame are Israel and its friends.” He had given the keynote speech at a Tehran conference tied to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has vowed to destroy Israel.
The tip-off, for anyone who needed one, might have been that the U.N.’s choice of Schabas was praised by Hamas. “Forming an investigative committee headed by Schabas,” noted Israeli diplomat Ron Pronsor, “is like inviting ISIS to organize Religious Tolerance Week at the U.N.”
Hillel Neuer, head of United Nations Watch, put it succinctly. “You can’t spend several years calling for the prosecution of someone,” he pointed out, “and then suddenly act as his judge.” But this was no inadvertent ethical lapse; it was a deliberate disregard of ethics by a body whose treatment of Israel is one part “Alice in Wonderland,” one part Pinocchio. As Schabas himself said in his resignation letter, his record of anti-Israelism was well-known to the U.N.
As the rest of the world grows unthinkably tolerant of Hamas, its military wing, Izzadin Kassam, has been officially branded a terrorist organization by Egypt. This is a milestone decision and not only because it marks the first time an Arab country dares come out against a “Palestinian resistance” setup dedicated to combat Israel. Hitherto such forthrightness was heresy.Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Hell on Earth
Under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah a-Sisi, Egypt has courageously departed from the predictable pretense of its sister Arab nations that pro forma vindicate Hamas while, behind the supportive façade, fear and deplore it.
Ironically, the Egyptian move comes soon after the European Union began mulling moves to remove Hamas from its list of terrorist outfits (on the bizarre technical pretext that the evidence used to place Hamas there “did not meet European standards”).
In its way, Cairo has underscored Europe’s insincerity and proclivity for appeasement.
This Egyptian stance was by no means adopted for the love of Israel. Egypt has its own compelling grievances against Hamas for collaborating actively with – indeed enabling – the terrorism rife in Sinai.
King Abdullah the Second gave a short speech to his citizens in which he vowed to avenge the blood of the pilot in the war against Islamic State. The king did not divulge details of the war he is planning against those who burned the pilot, but the impression is that Jordan will increase the level of its attacks on ISIS.Netanyahu: ISIS burns people alive, Iran hangs them in city squares
On the one hand, there is the possibility of increased participation in the coalition's activities, but it is also possible that we will soon observe Jordanian forces engaging in ground operations against Islamic State.
The king must go out to war against Islamic State or he will suffer strong criticism from the Bedouin tribles for whom avenging the blood of their brother pilot is a holy mission. The message that went out to the Bedouin and the empathy with their pain were tangible in the red Bedouin keffiyah that the king wore on his head while giving his speech.
On the other hand, the king must also give a clear signal to those Jordanians who identify with Islamic State – and there are more than a few of those – that his long arm will catch up with them and deal with them harshly. If there is an escalation of hostilities between Jordan and ISIS, the Jordanian police will probably arrest a significant number of citizens suspected of ISIS sympathies, especially those living in the southern city of Maan and the Syrian refugees in the Alzatri camp in northern Jordan.
Israel must follow the war between Jordan and ISIS closely, because its results will determine who stands opposite her on the other side of the Jordan River - a sovereign country with which we have a peace agreement or a terror organization par excellence, totally devoid of ethical limitations. Israel and Jordan are in the same pit today in the war against an organization that wants to bring the fires of Hell to the Middle East so as to destroy whatever is not in line with their world view.
Israel’s leaders sent condolences to Jordan on Wednesday following Islamic State’s brutal murder of captive Jordanian pilot Lt. Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drawing parallels between Islamic State and Iran.Khaled Abu Toameh: Islamic State Joins Hamas, PA in Threatening Palestinian Journalists
Netanyahu, during a visit to the Hermon Brigade base on the Golan Heights with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, said he wanted to send his condolences to King Abdullah II and the Jordanian people for the “grisly murder” of the pilot.
“In the Islamic State of ISIS, they burn people alive; in the Islamic State of Tehran, they hang them from cranes in the public squares,” he said. “Both are motivated by an extreme ideology of militant Islamic terrorism that has a cruelty that is unbounded.”
But, the prime minister added, “the greatest danger to the future and the security of the world is that this extremism will be backed up by nuclear weapons. This is something everyone must oppose.”
The Islamic State terror group appears to have joined the Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas in their campaign to silence Palestinian journalists.Report: 'ISIS' group temporarily kidnapped Gazan journalist working for Dutch
Over the past few days, several Palestinian journalists have received death threats from the "Gaza branch" of Islamic State. The group accused the journalists of publishing "lies" about Islamic State in particular, and Islam in general.
The threats were sent to the journalists through social media and messages to their mobile phones.
"Islamic State warns the journalist and media people against their continued and constant attacks on us," read one of the messages sent to the journalists. "We in Islamic State affirm that we will execute the rule of the sharia [Islamic religious law] against these apostates, who are sowing discord among Muslims."
The last threats have created panic among many Palestinian journalists, who are already being targeted by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the PA in the West Bank.
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza was kidnapped and beaten by men claiming to belong to ISIS and released hours later, said a relative, according to an AFP report.V15: We Were Not Sent By 'Foreign Agents' to Unseat Netanyahu
Mohammed al-Maghayer, who also works as an adviser to Dutch diplomats, was "kidnapped and beaten" Tuesday morning, he told the AFP without any other comments.
An anonymous relative of Maghayer told AFP that "his abductors told him they belonged to the Islamic State. They put metal handcuffs on him and drove him to an undisclosed location where they held him for about eight hours, asking information about himself and his work with the Dutch."
According to the report, a medic at Gaza City's Shifa hospital treated the adviser to the Dutch for "wounds to his legs" and was discharged Wednesday.
Additionally, Hamas, who control the Gaza Strip, said its "security forces have launched an investigation to find who is behind this attack," the report said.
Last Friday, the Likud filed a court motion against the V15 campaign, claiming it was acting as a vehicle for foreign political actors to directly influence the outcome of March elections, in contravention of Israeli law.Hundreds of Israelis file IRS tax complaints against OneVoice
"The obvious purpose of the law is to prevent interference in the Knesset elections campaign using foreign money that could be funneled into campaign propaganda and by limiting the amount of individual donations," claimed Dr. David Shomron, who submitted the petition.
"It is obvious that the injection of so much money without accounting and without supervision is likely to enable extremist foreign actors to influence the elections.
But V15 said that the allegations were false. “There is no coordination; not directly nor indirectly, not even for the purpose of preparing this response to the petition, between the group and any one of the parties or personalities within any of the parties,” the group said in its response.
The Likud youth activists posted on their Facebook page instructions on how to file a complaint with the IRS against OneVoice, whose activity, they assert, is in violation with U.S. tax law. They called on citizens who care about the elections to "follow the directions and file a complaint that could lead to an investigation into the NGO in the U.S."Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi to testify for PA in landmark US terror financing case
This week, Israel Hayom revealed that the American nongovernmental organization signed a document affirming that it was not engaged in any political activity in favor or against any candidate for public office. The V15 campaign, meanwhile, is very clearly campaigning against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, trying to convince Israeli voters not to vote for his party, Likud.
According to early assessments, hundreds of Internet users have already filled out the IRS complaint form, as they were urged to do by the Likud activists. The Facebook page, titled "Only Bibi" (a reference to Netanyahu's nickname), includes a link to the form and detailed instructions on how to fill it and where to send it.
The IRS has imposed heavy fines and even jail sentences on many U.S. organizations caught illicitly engaging in political activity both domestically and abroad.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi will testify in the very near future on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in a landmark US terrorism-financing case against it.Judge with Jewish ties takes over Nisman probe of Kirchner
Also, because Ashrawi was announced late in the game as a witness in the case, the plaintiffs will get to depose her in an unusually scheduled weekend deposition on Saturday.
According to Shurat Hadin, which represents the plaintiffs suing the PA, New York federal Judge George B. Daniels decided late Tuesday to allow Ashrawi to testify over their objection, a decision that until now has not been reported.
The plaintiffs had opposed allowing Ashrawi to testify, arguing that she had no personal knowledge regarding the case’s allegations against specific PA employees for involvement in a series of terrorist attacks from 2002 to 2004 against Americans who were in Israel at the time. (h/t Yenta Press)
Daniel Rafecas, who has a relationship with the Jewish community, was chosen by lottery on Wednesday to investigate allegations that Kirchner covered up Iran’s involvement in the 1994 attack against the Jewish center that left 85 dead and hundreds injured. Nisman also accused Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who is Jewish, of participating in the cover-up.Former spy to testify on death of Argentinian prosecutor
Following the end of January’s judicial recess, Federal Judge Ariel Lijo declined to take up the case. Lijo is investigating another aspect of the AMIA case — a lawsuit accusing former President Carlos Menem of covering up Syrian involvement.
Rafecas, who is invited often to speak about the Holocaust, is well known in Argentina for applying the country’s anti-discrimination law in a case centering on skinheads, ordering them to visit the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires as part of their probation.
In July 2011, Rafecas was the main speaker at the 17th anniversary of the AMIA attack.
A former spy was due to give evidence on Thursday in the investigation into the sudden death of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was about to testify against the country’s president amid allegations of a cover-up of Iranian involvement in a terror attack on a Jewish center.UN Security Council condemnation of Spanish peacekeeper death, fails to condemn Hezbollah
Investigators summoned Antonio Stiusso, a senior agent who was recently fired, and who had helped Nisman with his research into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 and left hundreds injured.
Stiusso was scheduled to give his testimony at 9 a.m. in the Argentinian capital, the report said, citing the News agency DyN. Viviana Fein, lead investigator into the death, called for Stiusso to testify after checking Nisman’s phone records.
The UN Security Council "condemned in the strongest terms" the killing of a Spanish UN peacekeeper who was killed last week on the Israeli-Lebanese border.'Israeli Blood is Cheap' in UN Security Council
Before Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo was killed, Hezbollah fired a half dozen anti-tank missiles at two IDF vehicles, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others.
The Spanish peacekeeper was killed as Israel responded to the attack of the militant Shi'ite group with air strikes and artillery fire, a UN spokesman and Spanish officials said then.
The Security Council offered no condemnation of the Hezbollah attack that killed the two Israeli soldiers which set off the Israeli response.
In a written statement, the Security Council expressed its deepest sympathy to the family of the fallen United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeper and to the Government of Spain.
The Council said it, "looked forward to the immediate completion of UNIFIL’s full and comprehensive investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of the incident."
The UN Security Council released on Wednesday night a statement condemning the death of a Spanish peacekeeper for UNIFIL who had been killed in last week's antitank attack by Hezbollah - but did not mention, once, the deaths of two IDF soldiers.Israeli Arrested on Temple Mount for Answering Islamic Hecklers
Hezbollah fired no fewer than six antitank missiles, unprovoked, onto Israeli soil during the attack - which also killed Major Yochai Kalangel and Sgt. Dor Nini.
The absence of a direct condemnation of Hezbollah is due to the concerns of some Security Council members, including Western countries such as France, of creating a political crisis in Lebanon due to criticism of the Shi'ite organization, according to Walla! News.
Israel reacted strongly to the Council's refusal to address attacks on Israeli soldiers and said that doing so is 'surrendering to terror.'
Israel had appealed to the Council immediately after the incident, demanding to condemn the conduct of Hezbollah, but the considerations and political interests of the Council led them to ignore the request.
Israel's UN Ambassador Ron Prosor, commented late Wednesday night that "Hezbollah has representatives in the Security Council" and that "Israeli blood is cheap."
According to activists, Islamist operatives associated with the Marabtat organization "pressed up against Prof. Elitzur, who ascends to the Mount on the sixteenth of every Jewish month, and called to him in Arabic 'Allahu Akbar.'"IDF's Tavor Battalion prepares for rise in West Bank violence
In response, Prof. Elitzur called out in Hebrew "Hashem Hu Ha-Elokim [Hashem - He is God]." He was subsequently arrested by police.
Yehuda Glick, a friend of Elitzur and a well-known Temple Mount rights activist, condemned the arrest on his Facebook page in the aftermath and criticized the hypocrisy of the police.
"Well done by the police who are only now being strict on sexual harassment against women," Glick said sarcastically, referring to recent allegations that have rocked the police force.
Violence across the West Bank is on the rise, and the Home Front Command’s Tavor Battalion, which took over security in the Binyamin sector last month, is responding by preparing for the worst scenarios.For 2nd month in a row, Jerusalem holds up tax transfer to PA
Battalion commander Lt.- Col. Hai Rokah told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the battalion practiced responses to a terrorist infiltration of Israeli communities in the area. In the simulation, Palestinian gunmen go on a killing spree in a settlement, and the battalion must respond quickly and effectively to limit the loss of life.
“This was a big effort to practice our defense of the sector,” he said. “These scenarios can happen any day.
Jerusalem on Wednesday decided for the second month in a row to withhold the transfer of tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority because of the PA's decision to join the International Criminal Court and initiate action against Israel.Palestinians urge EU to force Israel to release taxes
One senior government official, explaining the decision to withhold the funds, said that monthly transfers will be held up until Israel “finishes formulating its response to the Palestinian Authority's unilateral move to the ICC, a step that runs contrary to all previous agreements.”
The careful phrasing of the announcement indicated that Israel was weighing other options as well.
In January, after Israel froze the transfer of that month's revenues, Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat hinted that in response the Palestinians might dissolve the PA and call on Israel to fully assume responsibility for the West bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met with a representative from the European Union on Thursday to ask for EU pressure in convincing Israel to release $200 million worth of withheld tax revenues, the Hebrew media Ynet website reported.'Abbas may halt security cooperation with Israel unless Palestine is created'
Hamdallah’s plea came after last month the United Nations also called on Israel to release the monies that were withheld after the PA decided to join the International Criminal Court in December 2014.
A senior UN official told the Security Council that the freeze, imposed on January 3, was in violation of the Oslo peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We call on Israel to immediately resume the transfer of tax revenues,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen.
An unnamed international diplomat well-versed in the vicissitudes of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations of recent years told Israel Radio on Thursday that “it is not inconceivable to envisage a scenario in which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would put a halt to security cooperation with Israel in the West Bank.”UAE funnels funds to Gaza through Abbas rival, miffing PA
Israel Radio quotes the official as saying that if the Palestinian leader feels he has exhausted all other options in his quest to establish an independent state on the West Bank, he would in effect abdicate the provisional government’s responsibility – as per the terms of the Oslo Accords – to combat rejectionist violence from organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The official predicted that the United States would move to renew the peace process shortly following Israel’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
According to Israel Radio, the official believes that Washington would block unilateral Palestinian efforts to win statehood through UN Security Council resolutions by applying various levers of pressure.
Mohammed Dahlan, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud’s Abbas’s main political rival, has been working together with Hamas to funnel funds from the United Arab Emirates to the families of Palestinians hurt or killed during the war in Gaza last summer, The Times of Israel has learned.Heaviest skirmish in years as PA forces battle gunmen near Nablus
This photo above, snapped in the UAE recently and obtained by the Times of Israel, shows Dahlan and two fellow Fatah members, decades-old arch-enemies of Hamas who were deported from Gaza, standing alongside senior members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Beside them is a UAE prince, Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed.
Among those present are Hamas leaders Salah Bardawil, Jamal Abu Hashem, Ruhi Mushtaha, the Islamic Jihad’s Khaled al-Batsh, as well Majid Abu Shimala and Ashraf Juma, both close acquaintances of Dahlan from Fatah.
This picture is not coincidental. For months, Dahlan’s men have been working alongside members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, transferring aid to needy families and, as a result of the summer conflict, also to the families of those wounded and killed. Naturally, that includes Hamas members as well.
Palestinian gunmen fired on PA policemen in a refugee camp outside the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, in what eyewitnesses described as the heaviest shootout between PA security forces and armed Palestinian groups in recent years.Israel Invests in Border Crossings with Gaza
Unconfirmed reports said there were casualties in the shootout, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many or on which side. The fighting lasted several hours, according to local news.
Palestinian news site Palinfo.com said local police urged Nablus residents to stay off the streets for their own safety.
The gunfight began before sunup, following a multi-day operation in the Balata refugee camp by Palestinian Authority security forces.
Israel has begun increasing its activity with Palestinians in Gaza, particularly with new investments and renovations to border crossings, Walla! News reported Thursday morning.Zahar calls for Hamas branches in Lebanon, Syria refugee camps to attack Israel
The Defense Ministry's Director General, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel recently authorized the transfer of 20 million shekels ($5 million) to the Border Crossings Authority headed by Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun.
The funds will be used to expand operations at the Kerem Shalom Crossing for the transfer of goods and merchandise and the Erez Crossing for pedestrian use.
Since the end of Operation Protective Edge, and the Gaza restoration project, efforts have been made to increase the number of goods-loaded trucks driven from Israel into Gaza. These trucks carry building materials, food, and clothing.
As of now, there is a daily average of 400 trucks passing through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, bringing in 1,200 tons of cement to Palestinians living in Gaza. Israel's goal is to double that number to approximately 800 trucks per day carrying 4,000 tons of cement.
By the end of the project, they estimate the number to grow to 1,100 trucks daily.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar called for the formation of mililant groups in Syrian and Lebanese Palestinian refugee camps, according to AFP, encouraging that attacks against Israel be carried out from those countries.On Muslim Brotherhood TV, Threats of Terror Attacks against Foreign Nationals, Interests in Egypt
Zahar turned to the Gazan press Wednesday, calling on Lebanese and Syrian members of the Izaddin Kassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, to launch attacks that would "help liberate Palestine."
Zahar said that "our guns are always trained on the enemy," referring to Israel.
Hamas fell out with Hezbollah and the Syrian regime at the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011 after the group failed to voice support for embattled Syrian President Basher Assad.
However, after an airstrike attributed to Israel struck a Hezbollah convoy in Syria last week, Hamas reportedly told the Lebanese Shi'ite group that they should collaborate to fight Israel together.
Jordan launches fresh airstrikes on Islamic State
Jordanian fighter jets carried out new air strikes Thursday, a day after the country’s king vowed to wage a “harsh” war against Islamic State terrorists who control parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq.Amnesty International Condemns Jordan for Executing Terrorists
A statement from the army did not say which country was targeted. Jordan is part of a US-led military coalition that has bombed IS targets in both countries since last fall, but until now Jordanian warplanes are only known to have carried out raids in Syria.
King Abdullah II pledged to step up the fight against the IS group after the militants burned a captive Jordanian pilot in a cage and released a video of the killing earlier this week. The images have sent waves of revulsion across the region.
Amnesty International has condemned Jordan for executing Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in "revenge" for the group burning Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh alive on camera.Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Leader Hamza Mansour Refuses to Acknowledge that ISIS Are Terrorists
“The Jordanian authorities are rightly horrified by this utterly reprehensible killing but the response should never be to resort to the death penalty, which itself is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," Philip Luther, director of AI's Middle East and North Africa Program, stated Wednesday.
"The death penalty should also not be used as a tool for revenge. The ISIS’s gruesome tactics must not be allowed to fuel a bloody cycle of reprisal executions.”
US: UAE Withdrew From War on ISIS After Jordanian Pilot Captured
The United Arab Emirates withdrew from air strike missions against the Islamic State group in Syria after the capture of a Jordanian pilot, who has since been murdered by the jihadists, US officials said Wednesday.Kuwaiti Professor Abdallah Nafisi: If I Was in Iraq, I Would Pledge Allegiance to the Islamic State
The UAE pulled out of the flights soon after the pilot fell into ISIS hands in December, a US official told AFP.
"I can confirm that UAE suspended air strikes shortly after the Jordanian pilot's plane went down," the official said. "But let me be clear that UAE continues to be an important and valuable partner that is contributing to the coalition," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The UAE provides access to important air bases for American aircraft and provides other support for the coalition effort, the official said.
ISIS Defeats in North Iraq Reveal Evidence of Atrocities
The recently discovered site is not unique, and more evidence of ISIS atrocities will likely emerge as areas retaken from the jihadists by Kurdish forces are searched, a task made more difficult by explosives they left behind.Russia Pushes UN to Cut Off Islamic State Funds
"Three mass graves have been confirmed - two in the Hardan area and the other in Sinuni," said Myaser Haji Saleh, the local official responsible for the Sinjar district in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, where the sites are located.
"But we believe that the biggest graves are in the center of the Sinjar district and areas that are now under (ISIS) control," Saleh said.
The two graves in Hardan have yet to be excavated, but Saleh said the site near Sinuni contained the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi religious minority.
Russia is making a push at the United Nations for a new resolution to choke off funding from oil sales, the antiquities trade and ransom payments to the Islamic State group, diplomats told AFP Wednesday.Iran Is Trying to Shield Assad From Chemical Weapons Condemnation
The resolution could come before the Security Council this week and follows strong condemnation by the 15-member council of the gruesome murder of a Jordanian pilot by ISIS terrorists.
"We are preparing it and we hope it'll be adopted by the UN Security Council in the coming days," said spokesman Alexey Zaytsev of the Russian mission to the United Nations.
A report by the United Nation's Al-Qaeda monitoring team recommended in November that the council take aim at oil revenues by seizing all oil tanker trucks leaving Islamist-controlled territory.
Tehran has spent decades urging the world to bar the use of chemical weapons, citing the thousands it lost when Saddam Hussein gassed Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq War. When it comes to Syria, however, Tehran is doing all it can to protect Bashar al-Assad from Western attempts to punish him for using the deadly weapons against his own people.Nuclear Dreams: Iran Now Controls Four Arab Capitals, Plus Washington, D.C.
The latest sign of Tehran’s willingness to shield an ally came Tuesday, when Iran tried to block a move by the United States and Russia to present a mildly worded statement to the executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCM) that would have merely expressed “serious concern” about the likely use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria. The measure would also have provided the chemical watchdog’s chief with a green light to report to the U.N. Security Council on his agency’s investigation into the use of chlorine on the Syrian battlefield — something he has so far refused to do.
Syria and its allies have long sought to prevent the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions and authorize the use of military action against a U.N. member state, from meddling in its internal affairs. On Friday, and again on Wednesday, Tehran’s delegation at the OPCW headquarters in The Hague objected to the U.S. and Russian statement, which had the support of the OPCW’s executive council’s other 39 members.
Obama may dream of a U.S.-Iran partnership and going skiing in the mountains above Tehran. But what does Obama’s grand vision look like these days from the Iranian side? From Iran’s perspective, then, it controls not only four Arab capitals, but it also holds Washington captive. If Obama pushes back, the Iranians walk away from the table, confounding the U.S. president’s dreams of achieving a historic reconciliation—and maybe worse, leaving him vulnerable to Republican majorities in the House and Senate ready to pounce on an epochal diplomatic failure.9/11 conspirator Moussaoui says Saudi royals backed al-Qaida
But why does Obama’s vision have to fail? First of all, it’s not clear how Iran can accept any permanent agreement with the White House about the nuclear program, or anything else, for that matter. From Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ perspective, a deal might empower President Hassan Rouhani at their expense. From Rouhani’s perspective, a deal might make him, a so-called moderate, superfluous as someone who’s already played his role. Most important, there is the point of view of Khamenei, which partakes of the historic rationale of the Islamic Republic. Its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini promised one thing—not to raise the standard of living or educate women, nor even to hasten the return of the Mahdi, but rather that the life of a genuine Muslim rested on the pillar of resistance against the godless, the arrogant West, especially America. Signing an accord with the Great Satan would undermine the fundamental legitimacy of the regime.
The answer is not that we need to look out for the world’s interests, but that we need to continue protecting our own. A nuclear weapon in the hands of an expansionist regime doesn’t get the United States out of the Middle East. It puts Iran on our doorstep, by turning the clerical regime into an aggressive global nuclear-armed power. There can’t be much question by now about what Iran has in mind for the Middle East, or for other countries that it enlists in its schemes, like Argentina. What Iran wants makes the world a more dangerous place for Americans. The question is not whether there’s a deal to be had with Iran, but if it’s too late to crash the comprehensive agreement the White House has already struck with our new regional partner—whose sickening consequences are plain to see.
A former al-Qaida operative imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has told lawyers for victims of the attacks that members of the Saudi royal family supported the Islamic militant group.
Zacarias Moussaoui made the statements in testimony filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by lawyers for attack victims who accuse Saudi Arabia in a suit of providing material support to al-Qaida.
He said a list of donors from the late 1990s that he drafted during al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's tenure included some "extremely famous" Saudi officials, including Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, a former Saudi intelligence chief and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
"Sheikh Osama wanted to keep a record who give money because ... who is to be listened to or who contribute to -- to the jihad," said Moussaoui, a 46-year-old French native who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in 2005.
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