Thursday, April 02, 2015
Colonel Richard Kemp Defends Israel’s Military Response
Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, explains the concept of proportionality in war and how the term is being misused to criticize Israel.Colonel Richard Kemp debunks "Disproportional Response"
A common criticism made against Israel is that during last year’s war against Hamas in a battle known as Operation Protective Edge, the Israeli military used “disproportionate response.”. During the war, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at civilian targets mainly in Israel. Despite their best efforts to kill and maim innocent civilians, Israeli casualties were minimal. In response, and in accordance with international law, Israel fired at military targets in Gaza, killing a large number of terrorists. It is important to note that Israel took extraordinary measures to protect innocent lives in Gaza by dropping leaflets, phoning residents and sending warnings to civilians before attacking a Hamas target.
Hamas committed a double war crime: they fired from behind innocent Palestinian civilians while firing indiscriminately at innocent Israeli civilians. By doing so, they were directly responsible for the deaths of innocent Gazan and Israeli civilians. Because of Hamas’ war crimes, numerous innocent Palestinians were killed. Many human rights activists and governments pointed to the number of killed on each side and came to the mistaken and wrongful conclusion that the higher number of deaths on the Palestinian side meant Israel was using disproportionate force in Gaza. In fact, this is not true at all. And according to Colonel Kemp, this is not how one measures disproportionate response.
Caroline Glick: Annex Judea and Samaria Now
Journalist and writer Caroline Glick, author of the book "The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East", says Israel should annex Judea and Samaria now, in response to President Barack Obama’s statements that the United States will “re-evaluate” its support for Israel at the United Nations.Caroline Glick: Annex Judea and Samaria Now - in Wake of US Policy
Seeing as Obama is planning to change American policy and “force Israel into completely indefensible borders”, Glick told Arutz Sheva, “the time has come for Israel to come out with an alternative policy, and the alternative policy that we have to put out is applying Israeli law and sovereignty to Judea and Samaria”.
“The question couldn’t be more urgent,” said Glick, whose book deals with this very issue and of which a Hebrew edition was recently published.
“The government has got to put forward a new policy regarding the Palestinians,” she continued. “The two states failed, we all know it, [and] we can’t resurrect it because it wasn’t we that made it fail.”
“The world doesn’t like us now,” Glick pointed out when asked about the world’s reaction if Israel does indeed annex Judea and Samaria. “We’re in a situation now where all the things they said will happen to us if we do X, Y, or Z are happening to us now when we’re saying, ‘No, no, no, we’ll support the establishment of a Palestinian state in Israel’s heartland.”
An-Najah Poll: 73.5%:18.4% Palestinians support armed intifada, 46.2% of Gazans want to emigrate
Submit a petition to the UN to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967
borders.
Yes 72.2 No 22.1 DK 5.2
Start nonviolent and unarmed popular resistance
Yes 38.8 No 54.3 DK 6.9
Call for a one-state solution – a state for both Israelis and Palestinians
Yes 56.6 No 35.8 DK 7.6
Dissolve the PA.
Yes 22.7 No 71.0 DK 6.3
Recourse to the International Criminal Court
Yes 32.2 No 59.3 DK 8.5
Start a new armed intifada (uprising) and confrontations with the Israelis.
Yes 73.5 No 18.4 DK 8.2 (h/t Bob Knot)
Isi Leibler: Uniting to resist Obama's unprecedented hostility
It is ironic that as we prepare to celebrate Passover, the festival of freedom, we are facing vicious efforts by the vindictive leader of the United States, our greatest ally, who is abandoning us – the only democratic state in a region suffused with barbarism.Mordechai Kedar: In Our Neck of the Woods, Actions Speak Louder than Words
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obliged to respond diplomatically to the outrageous provocations directed against him by President Barack Obama. But we Israeli citizens must rise above political correctness and come to terms with an unpleasant reality.
The president of the United States, the leader of the free world and of Western civilization, is not merely venting his personal frustration against Netanyahu or having tantrums over the decision of Israelis to reelect him. Obama himself stresses that he is motivated by ideological reasons that can be traced back to the Cairo speech he delivered after his first election.
He has escalated his hostility to Israel while simultaneously endearing himself and even groveling to Iran.
Israel, too, is in possession of many promises on crucial issues from various American presidents. These include stopping the Iranian nuclear project, support for Israel's suggestion to retain settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, and for its opposition to the recognition of a Palestinian state in the Security Council. All these were simply words. What is happening to the assurances and all the words Israel has received? Iran continues its nuclear project - and will be doing so after signing any agreement - and America is establishing a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria even though no one in Washington can be sure or can promise that it won't turn into a Hamas state.Jewish Leaders Are Turning Against Obama on Israel
Israel must draw a clear and sharp conclusion: stop talking and start doing what should be done. It must put an end to the Palestinian Authority before it turns into another Hamas state and establish eight Emirates on its ruins: the one in Gaza has been in existence for eight years,but another seven must be established in Arab cities in Judea and Samaria - in Jenin, Shechem, Tulkarem, Kalkilya, Ramallah, Jericho, Arab areas of Hevron - ruled by local hamoulot (powerful, extended families), while Israel remains a force in the countryside with all its Jewish "settlements" intact.
Israel has to learn from Sisi, the man who succeeded in forcing the correct course of action on America, Europe and all those who opposed him. Only actions have an effect on reality in the Middle East, and for everyone who has a short memory: Israel, too, was established when the Jewish People got sick and tired of words and began to act.
In our neighborhood, we don't talk. We act. Those who talk usually don't do anything and have no desire to do anything, hoping that their words will cover up for their lack of action. Israel's new government must work together on a practical plan, not one that is all verbiage and "agreements" - and start acting to put facts on the ground. In the long run, the world accepts Middle East reality, even unpleasant reality, because that is how this region operates.
American Jewish leaders who supported the Oslo Accords or have criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are now strongly challenging the Obama Administration’s policy toward Israel. It’s the latest sign of a growing consensus in the Jewish community that the President’s vindictive approach toward Israel is unfair and overreaching.Foreign Ministry: PA's ICC Bid 'Hypocritical'
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, head of the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue and the Ramaz Day School in Manhattan, was an early supporter of the left-leaning Israeli party Meimad, and its American equivalent, Shvil Hazahav, which supported the Oslo Accords.
But last week, in an email to his Upper East Side congregants, Lookstein criticized President Obama’s plan for “reassessing the Israel/United States relationship.” Rabbi Lookstein then strongly endorsed an article by syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, who wrote that “there is zero chance” that a peaceful Palestinian state could be established “now or even soon.” Krauthammer derided “the crushing disappointment of the Obama administration and its media poodles at the spectacular success of the foreign leader they loathe more than any other on the planet. The consequent seething and sputtering are understandable, if unseemly. Blaming Netanyahu for banishing peace, however, is mindless.”
Rabbi Lookstein wrote that the Krauthammer column “presents with utmost clarity an assessment of the reassessment. It deserves the attention of all of us.”
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, was outspoken in his criticism of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to address Congress. But this week, Foxman said he was “even more troubled” by the “statements now coming out of the White House calling for a reassessment of policy toward Israel.” While disagreeing with some of the prime minister’s statements and actions, Foxman emphasized that “none of this, however, justifies what we are hearing from the Obama Administration. Their reactions raise deeper questions about their intentions and perspectives.”
Israel denounced as "hypocritical" Wednesday the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the purpose of seeking to prosecute officials from the Jewish state.Abbas: We Will Take Case to ICC if Israel Deducts from Tax Funds
"The Palestinian decision to join the ICC to initiate judicial proceedings against Israel is political, cynical and hypocritical," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Unilateral Palestinian actions such as joining the ICC are "violations of the principles established between the two parties with the support of the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," it added.
If Israel plans to give the Palestinian Authority the tax money it is owed, then it must be under the conditions the PA sets.Killer Allocations
But, if Israel insists on transferring the funds under the conditions of its own government, it can keep the money, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said.
Speaking at a meeting of the Central Council of the Fatah party, Abbas said that Israel had agreed to release the funds that it froze four months ago, after the PA applied to join the International Criminal Court, but was planning to deduct money the PA owes Israeli suppliers of electricity, water, and other utilities and products.
Abbas made the claim based on news reports that said Israel was planning to make such deductions.
“Israel intends to make these deductions without Palestinian supervision, even though it is Palestinian money. This is unacceptable, and we will refuse to accept the money under these circumstances.”
The PA will fight to get its money, if necessary taking the case to the ICC, which the PA became a member of this week, Abbas added.
Over the past week, the Israeli prime minister authorized the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels to the PA. This budget was allocated to fund activities by the PA, to pay salaries, to pay off debt to suppliers, and to pay ongoing miscellaneous expenses.Palestinian debate: Should Jews be called descendants of apes and pigs?
This same budget is also used for monthly payments to those who have been tried and convicted in the act of murder or attempted murder.
According to previously released data, every month, the Palestinian Authority transfers 17 million shekels to those ho have been convicted of first degree murder or attempted murder who now serve their sentences in jail. Allocations are also made to the families of killers, with special grants for families of killers who die while committing an act of murder. According to the PA distribution formula, the more severe the attack conducted by the killer and the longer the resulting prison sentence, the more the stipend is increased proportionately.
Ziad Awad, who murdered Baruch Mizrachi on Passover Eve last year has received stipends from the PA totaling about 20,000 shekels. These stipends followed those he received for his previous imprisonment before he was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, when he received about 300,000 shekels.
A recent statement by a Fatah official may be the basis for cautious optimism regarding Palestinian ongoing demonization of Jews. For years, PA religious leaders, officials and even poems recited by children have presented Jews as "descendants of apes and pigs." However, after Fatah Revolutionary Council member Muwaffaq Matar, who is a Christian, was insulted by Hamas, who called him "a descendant of apes and pigs," he rejected the use of this religious hate speech that is normally directed at Jews, saying "it is not part of our values":
"They [Hamas] said: 'It seems that Muwaffaq Matar is a descendant of apes and pigs, physically and mentally.' This is racism... Naturally, they use this expression about the Jews. This is unfortunate. We also reject these expressions, because they are not part of our values, absolutely not." [Fatah-run Awdah TV, Feb. 23, 2015]
This is a clear challenge to what has been a long-term PA policy. Palestinian Media Watch documented that the PA TV sermon broadcast just three weeks before Matar's statement included this Antisemitic statement, quoting the Quran:
"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)." [Official PA TV, Jan. 30, 2015]
Similarly, Palestinian education seems to promote this view, as youth and children recite poems describing Jews as descendants of apes and pigs on PA TV.
Marathon talks with Iran continue toward an unclear endgame
Continuing a bout of diplomacy unprecedented in the modern era, US Secretary of State John Kerry is now personally engaged in the eighth consecutive day of talks with Iran over its nuclear program still unclear on the path forward.No deal by day’s end, only a ‘formal statement,’ Zarif says
Kerry hopes to convince Iran to provide more than just a press statement from nearly two years of talks over its nuclear work. But success remained far from clear midday on Thursday, as journalists and delegates alike grew restless in the Beau Rivage Palace here on the shores of Lake Geneva.
After negotiating through the night until 6:00 am, two days after blowing straight through a deadline set by the US and its allies, diplomats presented little to the press to show for their efforts.
Zarif made clear on Thursday afternoon that “no agreement will be signed today,” telling reporters in Lausanne that only a statement may be released later in the day, the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency reported.Iranian Foreign Minister ‘All Smiles’
“If everything goes well, there will be a formal, public statement by midnight,” he reportedly said.
He further told reporters that the negotiating sides have said “right from the beginning” that no agreement would be signed by the end of Thursday. “We have always stated that there could be only one agreement which could go into effect at the end of the talks on July 1 if everything goes well,” Zarif added.
Iranian Defense Minister: We're Ready for War with America
When asked by a reporter whether he was feeling less optimistic following tension in the negotiating room, Zarif responded, “I am all smiles.”
Zarif also demanded that negotiators stop pressuring him and the Iranian side lest the talks stall without an agreement.
“Any agreement and pressure will not go together,” Zarif said. “They are mutually exclusive. So our friends need to decide whether they want to be with Iran based on respect or that they want to continue based on pressure. They have tested the other one. It’s high time to test this one.”
Iran is stepping up its aggressive invective against the US, even after negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program held in Lausanne, Switzerland, inconclusively passed a March 31 deadline and continued with no outline of a deal in sight.Iran extensions underscore Obama’s dilemma in talks
Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehqan responded sharply after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that if a deal isn't reached regarding Iran's nuclear program, “the military option certainly will remain on the table."
The comment was an "empty statement," according to Dehqan, who said the US has repeatedly made such threats out of a feeling of weakness over its ineffective attempts to steer the nuclear talks and limit Iran's nuclear aspirations.
Dehqan claimed Carter's statements reinforce the Iranian lack of trust in America, and do not in the slightest influence Iran's positions in the talks about its controversial nuclear program.
President Barack Obama’s willingness to extend Iranian nuclear talks at least twice this week has laid bare the dilemma he faces as he pursues a high-stakes accord.US and Iran said to have played chicken with deal deadline
Walking away from negotiations would strip Obama of a legacy-shaping deal, deeply complicate international efforts to stop Iran’s suspected pursuit of a bomb, and perhaps raise the specter of U.S. military action against Tehran’s nuclear installations. But by blowing through self-imposed deadlines, Obama risks further antagonizing lawmakers in both parties who are poised to take their own action to upend a deal if they feel the president has been too conciliatory to Tehran.
The initial response to the extensions from Republicans suggested they had already come to that conclusion.
“The longer the Obama administration stays at the negotiating table with Iran, the more concessions it makes,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
Republican Sen. Steve Daines said the desire for successful negotiations “should not blind the Obama administration from the reality that only Iran is benefiting from the current approach.”
US negotiators were instructed by President Barack Obama to ignore Tuesday’s midnight deadline for reaching a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, in order to indicate to Tehran that the US was prepared to leave all sanctions in place and walk away from the table if an agreement was not achieved, The New York Times reported Thursday.Andrea Mitchell on Iran Talks: ‘The Iranians Are Running Circles Around the Americans Here’
Obama hoped his initiative would pressure Tehran to accept US positions on its nuclear program, leading to a change in the dynamic at the negotiations taking place in the Swiss resort town of Lausanne, the report said.
During a conversation with the president Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry, who is representing the US in the talks, stated that it would be impossible to reach a deal by the designated deadline, the report said. “They were turning our own deadline against us to see if we would give ground,” a senior US official was quoted as saying of the Iranian delegation to the talks.
Two days after the deadline to reach a Iran nuclear deal, Andrea Mitchell reported that some sort of compromise for the framework would be met by the end of Thursday.Friends of Iran in the United States
Mitchell also reported from Switzerland that the deal might be less than what many Americans hoped for, and that Iran is the speaking substantively while the United States is not speaking at all.
“The Iranians are running circles around the Americans here in terms of public diplomacy,” Mitchell said. “They are setting the expectations.”
On February 19, 2015, a full-page ad was published in the New York Times by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) opposing the invitation given to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress. It asked the question: “Will Congress side with our President or a Foreign Leader?”As nuclear talks resume, Israel threatens military option
The ad did not disclose that the founder and president of the organization, Trita Parsi, was an Iranian-Swedish citizen who holds a Green Card and has had links with Iranian authorities, especially the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif.
Those links were held to be extremely close by a critic, Hassan Daioleslam, an Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist who left Iran in 1981 and lives in Arizona. He wrote that NIAC, and its leader Parsi, are an organization engaged in lobbying Congress on behalf of a foreign government – namely, that of Iran.
The invitation to Netanyahu and his speech to Congress became the occasion for dramatic political theater by Team Obama and its supporters, who disliked the Israeli’s criticism of the Obama administration’s attitude toward Iran. Nothing was said by that team or in the mainstream media on the question of whether the NIAC had lobbied or tried to lobby Congress or had any impact on the current policy of the Obama administration in negotiating with Iran.
Speaking to Israel Radio as crunch talks on Iran’s nuclear program continued in Switzerland, Steinitz said Israel would seek to counter any threat through diplomacy and intelligence but “if we have no choice we have no choice… the military option is on the table.”Bernard Lewis explains why MAD doesn't work with Iranian Leadership
Asked about possible US objections to Israeli military action, Steinitz pointed to Israel’s unilateral attack against the Osirak nuclear reactor in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1981.
“That operation was not carried out in agreement with the United States,” he said.
Steinitz, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Israeli leader had left no doubt as to the country’s response to nuclear-armed Iran.
“The prime minister has said clearly that Israel will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power,” Steinitz said.
A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another's hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours."Federal Judge Holds Iran Liable For USS Cole Bombing, Awards $75M In Damages
In this context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead -- hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement.
How then can one confront such an enemy, with such a view of life and death? Some immediate precautions are obviously possible and necessary. In the long term, it would seem that the best, perhaps the only hope is to appeal to those Muslims, Iranians, Arabs and others who do not share these apocalyptic perceptions and aspirations, and feel as much threatened, indeed even more threatened, than we are. There must be many such, probably even a majority in the lands of Islam. Now is the time for them to save their countries, their societies and their religion from the madness of MAD.
A federal judge in Washington held the Iranian government liable for the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in 2000, along with the government of Sudan. The judge awarded $75 million in damages to the family of Kevin Shawn Rux, one of the 17 sailors who was killed in the attack.IDF soldier suffers stab wounds near West Bank checkpoint
The tab for the Cole attack is piling up for Sudan, according to the Washington Post: “Other federal judges – in Norfolk two weeks ago and in Washington in 2012 – have ordered Sudan to pay $48 million and $315 million, respectively, to victims of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack or their survivors. But Tuesday’s ruling is the first to find Iran partly responsible for the incident, in which an explosive-laden boat struck the guided-missile destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden.”
This particular case, said to be one of the last claims brought against the perpetrators of the Cole bombing, has been in progress since 2010. Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote a 50-page opinion citing a variety of evidence, including U.S. intelligence reports, to conclude that Iran helped establish al-Qaeda’s network in Yemen, using Hezbollah in Lebanon as its “primary facilitator,” and had been conspiring against America and Israel since 1991.
An Israeli soldier suffered light stab wounds at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank on Thursday.IDF soldier suspected of spying for Syria
The attack took place near the West Bank settlement of Oranit. The assailant, most likely a Palestinian, was apprehended.
Israeli security forces are on their way to the scene of the incident.
Magen David Adom paramedics treated the soldier, 22, at the scene of the incident. They said that the soldier was stabbed in his head and limbs.
Corporal Halal Halabi, a resident of the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel, was detained in February. He is accused of passing information to a Golan Heights man, Sidqi al-Maqt, who was indicted on charges that he spied for the Syrian government.Top IDF Commander: Hamas Again Digging Tunnels into Israel
Maqt, 48, of the Druze town of Majdal Shams, was accused of handing over photographs and written reports of IDF positions to Syrian intelligence officials, including a government official named Midhat Saleh, the Ynet news site reported.
According to Channel 2, the prosecution stated that Maqt approached an IDF guard post in a northern army base where Halabi was stationed, and requested that the soldier assist him in gathering information for an article he intended to publish on IDF activity on the Syrian-Israeli border. Maqt told Halabi that his publication would aid the Druze residents of Syria, and the two exchanged phone numbers.
A day later, Maqt called Halabi, who provided him with information on the IDF’s activity in the area. Halabi urged Maqt to observe the activities and guided him on how to respond to soldiers should they try to remove him from the area.
Maqt was arraigned in the Nazareth District Courthouse on counts of espionage, aiding the enemy during wartime, supporting a terrorist organization, and contact with a foreign agent.
In a weekend interview with Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, IDF Southern Command head General Sami Turgeman said that Hamas is back at it – attempting to dig tunnels into Israel.Hamas arrests Gaza merchants for refusing to sell lumber for tunnels
While the IDF destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels Hamas had dug into Israel in previous years during Operation Protective Edge, it appeared that the terror group was using the resources that are now pouring into Gaza to rebuild homes and businesses to instead rebuild its terror network, said Turgeman.
“We are keeping a close eye on Hamas,” Turgeman said. “It is clear that they have gone back to digging tunnels, and they apparently hope to reach at least the numbers they had before the war last summer.”
Although the destruction of the tunnel network was a major blow to Hamas, because it had poured so much money and energy into building it, the tunnels had proven themselves an effective weapon against Israel from terror group's point of view, Turgeman said, so it was decided that the network be rebuilt regardless of the cost – in money or, as is likely to happen, in further damage to Gaza when Israel is forced to once again bomb Gaza in order to prevent tunnel attacks.
Despite Hamas's continued enthusiasm attempts to destroy Israel, Operation Protective Edge was a success, Turgeman said.
Hamas security forces recently arrested a group of lumber dealers in a Gaza refugee camp after they refused to sell the group wooden beams out of concern they’d be used in the reconstruction of the group’s attack tunnels.Syria rebels take last border crossing with Jordan
Concerned they’d be accused of collaborating with the terror organization, the retailers refused the sale, resulting in their arrest by Hamas forces.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the arrests took place.
The Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, recently banned the entry of certain types of wood into Gaza after officials said it was being used to reinforce terror tunnels.
Al-Qaeda-backed Syrian rebels took control of the last border crossing with Jordan still controlled by Syria’s Assad regime, according to new reports.IDF arrests female Palestinian lawmaker for alleged involvement in terrorism
The Nasib crossing in Syria’s Daraa province was the last holdout of Syrian military forces on the border with Jordan, and its fall marks a psychological victory for anti-regime rebels. Jordanian authorities reportedly closed the crossing before the battle.
The offensive for the crossing began Tuesday, and was joined by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front on Wednesday.
According to a pro-Assad source quoted in the British daily The Telegraph, the “Syrian army withdrew from the Nasib border crossing.”
The IDF on Thursday arrested a female Palestinian legislator for violating a military edict forbidding her from leaving the West Bank town of Jericho, according to Israel Radio.40 Percent of Palestinians Believe ISIS Will Come to Palestinian Territories
The lawmaker, Khalida Jarrar, is a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist-Leninist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Jarrar was arrested in the Palestinian town of Al-Bireh, not far from Ramallah.
According to Israel Radio, Jarrar is being accused of violating a military decree handed down by the GOC Central Command confining her to the municipal boundaries of Jericho.
40 percent of Palestinians believe that the Islamic State terror group will reach the Palestinian territories, according to a new poll conducted by An-Najah University.Palestinians Repel ISIS in Syrian Refugee Camp
According to the poll, these respondents voiced their fears that ISIS would mainly aim for taking over territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, namely the West Bank.
The poll also revealed that 77 percent of the respondents felt that the presence of ISIS would be detrimental to the Palestinian cause, and very negative effects would develop in its wake, Israel’s NRG reported.
The poll also queried Palestinians on other issues, revealing that 60 percent would like to see security cooperation with Israel halted, and that similar numbers thought that this security cooperation was the root of the tensions between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.
Palestinian fighters and Syrian rebels retook control Thursday of large parts of a refugee camp in Damascus that had been seized by Islamic State terrorists, a monitoring group said, according to AFP.The most powerful passports in the world revealed (and the ones that barely let you travel anywhere)
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a number of armed groups in the Yarmouk camp in south Damascus "were able to regain control over all of the areas that ISIS had taken over."
The terrorists overran the camp on Wednesday, raising fears for thousands of civilians inside and giving ISIS a potential beachhead inside Syria's capital.
But armed Palestinian groups, backed by local rebels, launched a fightback later in the day.
The score was calculated based on visa regulations of all countries and territories in the world, and the number of other countries that their citizens can travel to without having to obtain a visa.
Taking the lowest spots were Afghanistan (ranked at 94 and able to visit 28 countries visa-free), Iraq, (able to visit 31 countries), Pakistan and Somalia (able to visit 32 countries) and the Palestinian Territory (able to visit 35).
This was juxtaposed by Finland, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US, in first position, who are able to access 174 countries visa-free. [Israel was ranked 20th score 147]
