Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza: Egypt Responsible For Weapons Shortage
President Sisi has now decided to combat Hamas's smuggling tunnels also through legal means. This week, he signed a new law, according to which anyone who digs a tunnel along Egypt's borders would face life imprisonment.HRW 'Lies' About Abuse of Palestinian Minors at Jewish Farms
The new law came amid reports that some anti-government jihadists from Sinai had received medical treatment in hospitals inside the Gaza Strip. The reports confirm fears of Egyptian government officials that the jihadists in Sinai are working together with Hamas to undermine security and stability in Egypt.
The new law followed another bloody day, when five people were killed and some 30 injured in bomb blasts outside a security installation, in the Sinai town of El Arish. Earlier, another terrorist attack on security forces left seven soldiers killed near Sheikh Zuweid, a town in northern Sinai near the Gaza Strip border.
Sisi has shown real guts and determination in his war to drain the swamps of terrorists. The tough measures he has taken along the border with the Gaza Strip have proven to be even more effective than Israel's military operations against the smuggling tunnels.
That the Gaza Strip is facing a weapons shortage is good news not only for Israel and Egypt, but also for the Palestinians living there.
It is hard to see how Hamas will rush into another military confrontation with Israel -- where Palestinians would once again pay a heavy price -- at a time when Sisi's army is working around the clock to destroy smuggling tunnels, and the prices of rifles and bullets in the Gaza Strip are skyrocketing.
The Jordan Valley regional committee head rejected reports on Monday by the leftist NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which claimed that Palestinian Arab children were being abused working on Jewish farms in the Jordan Valley.Fatah is the Problem
HRW alleged that "hundreds of children," some as young as 11, work for low wages and in "hazardous" conditions in Jewish farms.
"Israel's settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children," HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson claimed. "Children from communities impoverished by Israel's discrimination and settlement policies are dropping out of school and taking on dangerous work because they feel they have no alternatives, while Israel turns a blind eye."
The report is based on the statements of 38 Palestinian Arab children and 12 adults who said they worked on Jewish farms, with it claimed that minors worked over 60 hours a week at times.
Jordan Valley head David Elhayani, himself a former farmer, thoroughly debunked the claims while speaking with AFP.
"They've made up lies. The entire goal of this organization (HRW) is to sully Israel's image. If they'd show me a farmer employing a child, I'd report it to police immediately," said Elhayani.
Hamas is Fatah without the act, without the sheep's clothing. Fatah is Hamas with political spin. Hamas is the stick, Fatah is the carrot. The goal is only Jihad, not the betterment of their people. The conquest of all land West of the River Jordan, without real concern over what happens to the people after their benefactors in Israel are gone.
But the people know. There have been reports of a dual sentiment among individuals who were interviewed. They want the PA to take over, yet they also want to be a part of Israel. Why is that contradictory phenomenon occurring?
Innocent Palestinians Arabs in the territories want the PA to be successful ,but mainly for sentimental reasons. Like someone voting for a person of their race who runs for political office, even if they do not like their policies. The media does not report there is palpable fear in Arabs of the territories in their daily existence under Fatah rule and also over what happens the day after a potential Israeli withdrawal. On such a day, when the only government that truly is concerned for their social welfare, Israel, is no longer part of the picture.
Palestinian Arabs are keeping their heads low and trying to stay out of the way of the Palestinian Authority. They turn to their local leaders and hope they need not rely on the corrupt and vindictive national leadership of Fatah's Palestinian Authority.
What Will Happen If the Palestinians Really End Security Cooperation?
It is not a coincidence that the Palestinian leadership, including Abbas, keeps linking security cooperation to the overall existence of the PA. “The end of security cooperation,” the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt recently observed, “equals the collapse of the PA.” He is almost certainly right. It might even be the plan.Spurred by Obama, PM sets out terms for ‘better’ Iran deal
As self-defeating—if not suicidal—as this might seem, it is now a realistic possibility given the rhetoric emanating from Ramallah. The constant refrain heard from Palestinian officials over the past year has been that the “paradigm of Oslo” has come to an end; that the twenty-year experiment in autonomous self-rule and U.S.-brokered peace talks has to evolve into something—anything—else. Along the way, an intermediate step might very well entail ending security cooperation—the most positive element of the Oslo “paradigm.”
Oslo’s death has been predicted on countless occasions; yet out of the limelight, both before and after the second intifada, security coordination soldiered on. The new political dynamics at play now seriously threaten what have been perhaps the most durable aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. Those who take pleasure in lambasting the “Oslo paradigm” and burying it prematurely may soon find themselves longing for one of its lasting legacies.
Apparently responding directly to a claim Saturday by President Barack Obama that he has not offered an alternative to the US-backed deal with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for a better deal and set out what he said were two central alternative components.The Danger of What Hasn't Been Said
“The prime minister of Israel is deeply opposed to it, I think he’s made that very clear,” Obama had said of the framework for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program reached in Lausanne earlier this month. Speaking at a news conference at the Americas summit in Panama City, Obama continued: “I have repeatedly asked — what is the alternative that you present that you think makes it less likely for Iran to get a nuclear weapon? And I have yet to obtain a good answer on that.”
In a short video statement, Netanyahu appeared to take the bait.
“Let me reiterate again the two main components of the alternative to this bad deal: First, instead of allowing Iran to preserve and develop its nuclear capabilities, a better deal would significantly roll back these capabilities – for example, by shutting down the illicit underground facilities that Iran concealed for years from the international community.
“Second, instead of lifting the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear facilities and program at a fixed date, a better deal would link the lifting of these restrictions to an end of Iran’s aggression in the region, its worldwide terrorism and its threats to annihilate Israel,” he said.
Remember April Glaspie? In 1990, she was President George H. W. Bush’s ambassador to Iraq. During her first meeting with Saddam Hussein, rather than using blunt language to tell the Iraqi dictator that the U.S. was opposed to any act of military aggression by his nation against Kuwait, she opted instead to employ far more opaque phrasing, saying, “we have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts.” In doing so, Glaspie may well have inadvertently led Saddam Hussein to believe that he would receive little more than a verbal condemnation for invading Kuwait, thereby setting the stage for two American wars and thousands of casualties. War was not Glaspie’s intention on that July day, but Iraq’s strongman misinterpreted her words.Why Khamenei prefers sanctions over an agreement
In 1950, a similar lack of diplomatic clarity by then Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who implied that South Korea lay outside of the U.S.’s “defense perimeter,” helped incite North Korea to invade the South. The North mistakenly believed that the U.S. government would not intervene to defend South Korea. Today the Obama Administration may be inadvertently leading us toward a similar tragedy. Only this time, the dictator in question is Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei and the likely casualties will be the Israelis.
Last week while the terms of the Iranian nuclear deal were being written in Lausanne, Iran issued a statement saying that the destruction of Israel was non-negotiable. The Obama Administration chose not to address this comment. By ignoring Iran’s statement, our diplomats may have been unwittingly sending a signal that the annihilation of the Jewish state is permissible. Of course, the Obama Administration does not want Iran to attack Israel. But Ambassador Glaspie did not intend for Saddam to attack Kuwait either, nor did Secretary Acheson wish for North Korea to cross the 38th parallel and strike at the South.
Khamenei is not interested in an agreement which will serve Rouhani, who is already striving to secure his second term as president thanks to the agreement. The target audience of the ruler and president focuses on the ayatollahs, the religious centers of power, and the Revolutionary Guards commanders, who preserve the regime and do its dirty work in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.Israel alarmed at news Russia to supply Iran advanced air defense system
With or without an agreement, the economic race has already kicked off. Take note of the most courted minister in Tehran, Bijan Namdar, who is in charge of the oil fields. The keys are in his hands, the decisions are in Khamenei's bureau. Travel agencies are reporting that there are no available seats on flights from Dubai to Tehran. Businesspeople and owners of large companies in Europe are looking for contacts in the Gulf emirates to get them into the Iranian market before the great onrush. Whoever succeeds in infiltrating the market will make billions.
Because of the sanctions, oil exports fell to 700,000 barrels a day, and Iran is indicating to the oil companies that it is capable of producing 3 million barrels. Because of the sanctions, they need electrical appliances, cars and trucks, and spare parts for planes. They just need investors to come in and revive tourism: Roads, new hotels, restaurants and travel agencies.
Obama himself admits that it will be difficult to maintain the sanctions even if an agreement is not reached. In my not so wild imagination, I even see Israeli businesspeople packing their bags. They don't have to get in. They just need someone to get a foot in the opening door for them.
President Vladimir Putin on Monday lifted a ban on supplying Iran with sophisticated S-300 air defense missile systems, the Kremlin said, after Tehran struck a deal with the West over its nuclear program.Iran Nuclear Deal Will Lead Directly to More Terrorism
Israeli officials responded with dismay to the report, saying the supply, if it goes ahead, would change the balance of power in the region.
Israeli officials said supply of the system to Iran could prevent any military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Channel 2 news reported. The TV report also cited unnamed American officials responding with concern to the news.
A decree signed by Putin removes a ban on “the shipment from Russia to Iran” of the S-300 missiles, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russia signed a 2007 contract to sell Tehran the S-300 system, but the weaponry was never delivered amid strong objections by the United States and Israel.
Promised relief from crippling economic sanctions will soon place Iran in a far better position to finance its extensive list of clients and activate them to subvert, destabilize, and spread conflict and mayhem across the region.US: Iran Trying to Smuggle Surface-to-Air Missiles to Houthis
They include the Shi’ite Lebanese organization Hezbollah – the most highly armed terrorist entity in the world, active in the Syrian civil war – the Shi’ite Houthi forces currently seizing and destabilizing Yemen, a plethora of militant Shi’ite militias in Iraq, the Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza and the West Bank, and Hamas, with which Iran has recently mended relations. Iran has begun sending Hamas, which rules over Gaza, tens of millions of dollars for its combat tunnel reconstruction and rocket manufacturing programs. The Iranian investment in Gaza’s Islamist war capabilities will only rise after sanctions are lifted.
Iran will also be able to use the money to boost its partners, who are increasingly reliant on its aid, and which are subject to Iranian directives. Iranian regional partners include the Assad regime in Syria, which has killed enormous numbers of innocent civilians in the country’s civil war, and the Shi’ite Iraqi government, dependent on Iranian support in the war against the Islamic State.
Once international sanctions are lifted, Iran stands to secure over $100 billion in unfrozen funds in foreign exchange assets around the world. Soon afterwards, international companies are expected to rush into Iran to invest, and oil sales will resume, generating huge new revenue sources.
US officials revealed that Iran is trying to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the Shi'ite Houthi militia in Yemen, to aid its attempts to conquer the country and stave off a Saudi-led airstrike campaign.Nuclear Iran's "Spillover Effects"
One of the senior US defense officials quoted in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday said of Iran's efforts to supply surface-to-air missiles: "we are looking. We know they are trying to do it."
The acquisition of such weapons by the Houthis is seen as a major concern, given that it would provide them leverage in challenging the Saudi-led airstrikes and allow them to more easily spread their control.
"They (Iran - ed.) don’t have an easy route in from the air. They don’t have an easy route in from the sea," one senior US military source told the paper. "There’s lots of intelligence focused on what they’re doing - from loading to potential delivery."
As President Obama tries to sell the world his mysterious nuclear "framework agreement," India's defense establishment is just not buying it. The U.S. and Western commentators might be expecting "peace dividends" from Iran, but India cannot afford to harbor such illusions.On Iran Nukes, US Sells Israel Down the River
The Iranians have already announced that they plan to sell "enriched uranium" in the international marketplace, and will be "hopefully making some money" from it. To whom will they sell?
A nuclear Iran would be able to hold the world hostage by blocking one-third of the world's oil supply at the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian proxies have also been trying to seize control of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the maritime choke point of the Suez Canal.
The only question is whether the West would rather have an adversary such as Iran before it has nuclear weapons or after.
Somewhere in the depths of hell, the devil is comforting Saddam Hussein as he laments that he never thought to create a nuclear enrichment program like the Iranian program—one that could have been negotiated into legitimacy while maintaining an infrastructure that could produce nuclear weapons.Military strike against Iran with minimal fallout for Israel possible, US senator says
While the Obama Administration is rejoicing over “blocking” Iran’s pathway to a nuclear weapon, when Iran was confronted with Iraq’s nuclear threat, the Iranians pursued a dramatically different approach.
On September 30, 1980, two F-4 Phantoms belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran bombed the Iraq nuclear facility at Osirak but not the reactor or cooling tower.
Subsequently, the Iranian air force took pictures of the damage and sent them to counterparts in Israel.
On April 4, 1981, the Iranian air force flew a long-range mission knocking out Iraq’s airpower near the border with Jordan and Israel, degrading Iraq’s retaliatory capabilities against Israel.
The Republican US senator behind a letter to the Iranian leadership warning that future presidents may not honor any deal that President Barack Obama signs with Tehran said Monday that he believes pinpoint strikes against Iran could be carried out without leading to a long war for the US or regional fallout against Israel.Deal or not, many US states will keep sanctions grip on Iran
Speaking in an interview with Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned however, that if a nuclear deal was signed with Iran, and the Islamic Republic was allowed to become a nuclear-armed state, then the likely outcome would be nuclear war with Iran.
He referenced previous statements made by former prime minister Ehud Barak that "it would just take one night" to launch an effective strike to set back Iran's nuclear program.
Cotton gained international recognition when he initiated a letter in March signed by 47 Republican senators warning the Islamic Republic that any nuclear deal not approved by Congress "is a mere executive agreement” that may not be honored after Obama leaves the White House in January 2017.
As the United States and Iran come closer to a historic nuclear deal, many US states are likely to stick with their own sanctions on Iran that could complicate any warming of relations between the long-time foes.Should the U.S. Take Iran’s Human Rights Problem More Seriously?
In a little known aspect of Iran's international isolation, around two dozen states have enacted measures punishing companies operating in certain sectors of its economy, directing public pension funds with billions of dollars in assets to divest from the firms and sometimes barring them from public contracts.
In more than half those states, the restrictions expire only if Iran is no longer designated to be supporting terrorism or if all U.S. federal sanctions against Iran are lifted - unlikely outcomes even in the case of a final nuclear accord. Two states, Kansas and Mississippi, are even considering new sanctions targeting the country.
The prospect of unwavering sanctions at the state level, or new ones, just as the federal government reaches a landmark agreement with Iran risks widening a divide between states and the federal government on a crucial foreign policy issue.
Over the past few years, the UN has gotten more and more serious about tackling Iran’s human rights abuses. But at the same time, under the Obama administration the United States has only grown closer to the Islamic Republic. Why?Jeb Bush: Obama Meets Castro But Snubs Netanyahu?
It seems, then, that ownership of weapons of mass destruction does not make authoritarian and totalitarian regimes improve their behavior. Nor does it make them more amenable to international incentives to do so, especially when it comes to the most important issue—their human rights records. To the contrary, as North Korea demonstrates, it makes them far less inclined to compromise, and boosts their confidence in the use of violence to suppress domestic opponents. Moreover, since Pyongyang has accused Marzuki Darusman, the UN’s independent expert on human rights violations in that country, of misusing “human right issues as a means to dismantle or overthrow the country’s system,” it is reasonable to conclude that an initiative like an ICC prosecution would be regarded by the Kim regime as precisely that “sparkle of fire” that could trigger nuclear war.
All of which sets a gravely negative precedent for the cause of human rights not just in North Korea, probably the world’s most heinous offender, but in other countries too. Countries whose belligerent rulers are, quite correctly, taking strategic advantage of an international climate profoundly impacted by the current U.S. administration’s belief that a chastened approach to the rulers of the Islamic world is the best way of avoiding another mass deployment of American troops in the Middle East. First and foremost, countries like Iran.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a possible Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential election, expressed his discontent on Sunday over the fact that President Barack Obama had held a meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro.Potential Presidential Candidate Scott Walker Expects to Meet With Netanyahu
In a post on Twitter, Bush wondered why Obama had met with Castro while snubbing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when he recently visited Washington.
“Obama meets with Castro but refused to meet w/ @netanyahu. Why legitimize a cruel dictator of a repressive regime?” wrote Bush.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said he “absolutely” expects to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits Israel next month.Majority of Israelis back Jewish prayer rights at Temple Mount
The possible Republican presidential hopeful said that while the meeting has not yet been confirmed, it is his “hope and expectation” that the meeting will happen, the Associated Press reported.
The visit to Israel in May is part of an effort by Walker to increase his foreign policy credentials. The governor left for a visit to Germany, France, and Spain on April 10, prior to traveling to Israel in May in order to gain a better understanding of the issues facing Israel and the Middle East.
Walker was recently called out by President Barack Obama, who said that Walker needs to “bone up” on foreign policy in the wake of Walker’s comments that he would revoke any nuclear agreement with Iran if he is elected president.
A new poll released on Sunday by the Yesodot Center for Torah and Democracy shows a majority of Israeli Jews favor prayer rights for Jews on the Temple Mount, something currently forbidden by police restrictions.Old City: Man Hurt in Arab Rock Attack
The Supreme Court has upheld the theoretical right for Jews to pray there, although it has stated that security considerations should be taken into account when deciding whether or not to allow non-Muslim prayers.
Access for Jews and other non-Muslims is strictly controlled at the site, and police prohibit non-Muslim prayer as well as any outward demonstrations of non-Muslim worship in accordance with the demands of the Jordanian Islamic trust, or Wakf, which administers the area.
According to the poll conducted by the Yifat Gat research institute this month on a sample of 500 adults, 37 percent of those interviewed agreed that the government should allow free access to adherents of all religions who wished to pray at the Temple Mount.
Another 36% said that specific prayer hours should be established for different religious groups, as is the case at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, while 20% said the government did not need to establish free access for all religions.
A man, 62, was hurt in the head Monday when Arabs hurled rocks at the bus he was traveling in, near the Old City of Jerusalem.Youth Tells of 'Miraculous' Rescue from Arab 'Lynch'
The attack took place at Maaleh Shalom, near the Dung Gate.
Magen David Adom paramedics who were alerted to the site gave the man medical attention and evacuated him to Hadasah Ein Karem Hospital.
He was reportedly suffering from a head injury but listed in light condition.
A week ago, a Jewish youth aged 17 was lightly hurt during a fight with several Armenian residents at Or Haim Street in the Old City.
He was taken to Shaarey Tzedek Hospital with injuries to the head and hand.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Maale Adumim resident Yonatan Athlan told of how he and his friends were nearly “lynched” - waylaid by Arabs who attempted to kill them. The incident occurred not in Judea and Samaria, but in northern Israel, part of pre-1948 “smaller Israel.”Jordan: Israeli Airport Near Eilat is Too Close to Aqaba
“It happened after we had traveled for two and a half hours on our way to a concert up north, and we stopped off at a gas station outside an Arab village, near the town of Hoshaya,” located in the heart of the Galilee, on Route 77 between Hamovil Interchange and Golani Interchange. “An Arab youth came over to us and asked us what we were doing there, and other questions. One of my friends had gone to the restroom, and as he returned, the Arab attacked him – we can't say why.
“We managed to get control of the situation, but we saw that other vehicles began arriving, full of Arabs,” said Atlan. “We decided to call the police.”
Meanwhile, he said, the occupants of the vehicles were getting out of their cars, and many of them were carrying metal rods, bricks, and other weapons. “We decided that it was time to go, so we started driving and prepared to leave the station and make a U-turn.”
Jordan on Sunday expressed concerns over air traffic safety as it restated its opposition to the construction of an Israeli international airport near the coastal city of Aqaba, AFP reports.Israeli Official Says Hamas Will Fire Massive Volleys of Rockets in Next War
Ali Odaibat, a spokesman for the Jordanian Transport ministry, told the official Petra news agency Jordan had notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) about its concerns over the Israeli project and to "stress Jordan's keenness to protect its airspace."
Jordanian officials have repeatedly raised issue with the Timna airport, which is under construction just 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Red Sea Jordanian resort town of Aqaba and King Hussein airport.
Officials in the Kingdom have said the Israeli airport is too close and will affect takeoffs and landings at Aqaba's airport.
The official made the comments last week via the Israeli website 0404 News, informing that the Gaza-based militant group’s volleys will be targeting population centers, public facilities, military targets, and factories.Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: Abbas is preventing our reconciliation with Fatah, he should step down
The military noted that due to Hamas’s failure to catch the country by surprise in past wars, citing the success of the Iron Dome system, therefore they will attempt to overwhelm the air defense system in the next round of fighting by launching large torrents of projectiles. “Hamas believes that this is the only way it can actually harm Israel. We are getting ready and preparing ourselves for this possibility and how to properly deal with it,” the official said.
The military official noted that, outwardly, Hamas is attempting to make it seem it is solely interested in hitting Israeli military targets, but, in truth, its primary goal is to hit civilian population centers and power plants, “in order to maximize the effect of the attack,” he said.
Hamas renewed on Sunday its call to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to “quit the political scene,” saying he remains an obstacle to achieving national unity.International donors fail to deliver promised aid to Gaza
Salah Bardaweel, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, accused Abbas of acting like a dictator “who lives in a state of personal intransigence and total refusal to share powers.”
Bardaweel called on Abbas to step down and accused him of dominating legislative, executive and judicial powers. He also accused Abbas of “hijacking” Fatah and the representation of the Palestinian people, as well as refusing any attempt to end the dispute between Fatah and Hamas.
Bardaweel told the Hamas-affiliated Al-Resalah website that he is not hopeful about the prospects of Abbas changing his stance toward the Gaza Strip and the “resistance” groups there.
According to a new report, only a quarter of the promised $3.5bn pledged to help rebuild Gaza after last summer's war between Hamas and Israel has been delivered.Haaretz, Abbas, Israel and Yarmouk Refugees
A report released Monday by The Association of International Development Agencies stated that only 26.8 percent ($945m) of the promised aid pledged by donors at a conference in Cairo six months ago had reached the coastal enclave, and the reconstruction effort to help rebuild the battered strip has barely just begun.
"The promising speeches at the donor conference have turned into empty words," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam and one of report's signatories, according to al-Jazeera.
"There has been little rebuilding, no permanent ceasefire agreement and no plan to end the blockade. The international community is walking with eyes wide open into the next avoidable conflict, by upholding the status quo they themselves said must change."
Newsflash to Haaretz: Over a year ago, it was the Palestinian leader, Abbas, who refused to put politics aside and agree to Israel's conditional acceptance of 150,000 Palestinians refugees from Syria into West Bank and Gaza so long as they gave up the "right of return" to Israel. As the Associated Press reported on Jan. 28, 2013:Waiting for an Aid Flotilla to Yarmouk
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria's civil war to their homeland. Last week, he said that Israel agreed to allow 150,000 Palestinians refugees from Syrian into the West Bank and Gaza as long as they relinquished the right of return to what is now Israel. Abbas said he refused.
AP's Mohammed Daraghmeh reported on Jan. 10, 2013:
Abbas said Ban was told Israel "agreed to the return of those refugees to Gaza and the West Bank, but on condition that each refugee ... sign a statement that he doesn't have the right of return (to Israel)."
"So we rejected that and said it's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return," Abbas told the group. Some of his comments were published Thursday by the Palestinian news website Sama.
Does Haaretz have any words to spare on Abbas' death wish for his own people, whose entrance into the West Bank and Gaza he has rejected? Or was all of its righteous indignation about the welfare of the Yarmouk refugees spent on exhorting Israel to put aside politics to try to help the refugees, meanwhile ignoring that Israel had tried to do just that? Far from "creating secure escape routes from the camp," Abbas has blocked them.
I call on the ISM to get your act in gear and send your activists to Yarmouk. The “Palestinians” of Yarmouk need you as human shields to protect them from ISIS and Assad’s troops.Obama Wrecked U.S.-Egypt Ties
This is your opportunity to prove to the world that you are more than just antisemites and Israel haters, and are truly concerned about the welfare of “Palestinians”.
Among the most basic activist program I expect to see from you other studnt “Pro-Palestinian” groups is a mass US Campus sit-in and protest for Yarmouk. Perhaps even a Yarmouk Week. You can lie on the floor and pretend your throats were cut.
I am eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Yarmouk Aid Flotilla, which will bravely break the siege in and around the neighborhood, to provide the Yarmouk “Palestinians” with much needed bags of long-expired medicines and empty boxes.
I will be putting up a sign-up sheet for all the Leftwing activists to volunteer to go and walk the Yarmouk children to and from school every day.
To properly understand the Obama administration’s new policy, it is worth emphasizing one simple fact: administration officials had been urging the president to make a decision on the future of military aid to Egypt since November. Indeed, despite the fact that Egypt is a longtime U.S. ally and is fighting jihadis to its west in Libya and to the east in Sinai, it still took President Obama over four months to decide whether he would send the weapons to Cairo.Egypt to sentence Gaza smugglers to life in prison
The president’s indecisiveness reflects his administration’s profound and often paralyzing ambivalence on Egypt. Simply put, the administration cannot decide whether Egypt is a strategic partner that should be generously supported, or a brutal autocracy that should be denied aid until it pursues a more democratic path. And so from October 2013 through March 2015—seventeen whole months—the administration effectively treated Egypt as both.
Thus, to protest the deadly crackdown that followed the July 2013 toppling of Egypt’s first elected president, the Obama administration withheld “certain large-scale military systems and cash assistance to the [Egyptian] government pending credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections.” But at the same time, it continued to provide assistance “to help secure Egypt’s borders, counter terrorism and proliferation, and ensure security in the Sinai.”
The amendment, one of several passed by presidential decree, seeks to curtail the problem of tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which have been used to smuggle contraband crucial for the Hamas rule in the Palestinian territory, as well as weapons and terror activists.Egypt sentences Muslim Brotherhood leader, 13 others to death
Under the new amendment, the Egyptian government has the authority to confiscate buildings above the tunnels or any equipment used in their construction.
Anyone with knowledge of cross-border tunnels who does not report them could be liable to the same life term as those who build and use them.
Egypt declared a state of emergency in the border region in 2014 after 33 Egyptian soldiers were killed in Sinai that year.
An Egyptian court sentenced Mohamed Badie, the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and 13 other senior members of the group to death for inciting chaos and violence, a judge said in a televised session on Saturday.Egypt charges 379 with murder over 2013 Cairo unrest
The court also sentenced US-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Soltan to life in jail for supporting the group and transmitting false news. He is the son of Brotherhood preacher Salah Soltan, who was among those sentenced to death on Saturday.
The sentences can be appealed before Egypt's highest civilian court in a process that could take years to reach a final verdict. The men were among thousands detained after the ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egypt's mass trials of Brotherhood supporters have drawn international criticism of the country's judicial system.
Egyptian prosecutors pressed murder charges against 379 people on Wednesday over the deaths of policemen and civilians during the bloody dispersal of Islamist protest camps in the capital in 2013.Erdogan: Egypt must free Morsi before it can restore ties with Turkey
It was not immediately clear how many of the defendants were in custody but it was the latest in a string of controversial mass trials to be announced over the violence that followed the army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July that year.
Prosecutors charge that the defendants took part in an “armed sit-in” at the capital’s Nahda Square in August 2013, and in “armed marches that attacked civilians” in several parts of Cairo.
“Their action resulted in casualties among policemen and civilians,” a prosecution statement said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Egypt should free ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi from jail and lift death sentences against his supporters before Ankara could consider an improvement in relations with Cairo.Turkey journalists face 4.5 years jail over Charlie Hebdo cartoon
Ties between the two former allies have been strained since then Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled elected President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Egyptian security forces then mounted one of the fiercest crackdowns against the Islamist movement, killings hundreds of supporters at a Cairo protest camp, arresting thousands and putting Morsi and other leaders on trial.
"Mr Morsi is a president elected by 52 percent of the votes. They should give him his freedom," Erdogan was quoted by Turkish newspapers as telling reporters traveling on his plane as he returned from an official visit to Iran.
Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday called for two prominent journalists who featured Charlie Hebdo's cover with the image of the Prophet Mohammed in their columns to be jailed for four and a half years.
Istanbul's chief public prosecutor has charged Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya with "inciting public hatred" and "insulting religious values" by illustrating their columns with the cartoon, the Hurriyet daily reported.
The cartoon was a smaller version of the controversial front cover depicting the Prophet Mohammed that French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo printed in its first edition after the attack on its offices by Islamist gunmen in January that killed 12 people.
The cartoon angered Muslims all over the world and most media in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey refrained from publishing it.
Turkish daily Cumhuriyet on January 14 had published a four-page Charlie Hebdo pull-out translated into Turkish marking the French satirical weekly's first issue since the attack.