Khaled Abu Toameh: Who Is Blocking Palestinian Elections?
Today, it has become unavoidably clear that Fatah and Hamas, and not Israel, are responsible for the ongoing plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The two parties are unlikely to resolve their differences in the near future, further exacerbating the misery of their people. Each party cares only about its own interests, while at the same time lying to the world that it is all Israel's fault. Hamas is not willing to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip, certainly not to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, who were expelled from there in 2007. As for Abbas, he does not seem to be interested in regaining control over a problematic area such as the Gaza Strip, where most of the population lives under the poverty line and in refugee camps.PA President Abbas to Run for Second Infinite-Year Term (satire)
Yet instead of being honest with their people and admitting their failure to improve their people's living conditions, Hamas and Fatah continue to wage smear campaigns against each other and, at the same time, also against Israel.
The campaigns that Hamas and Fatah are waging against Israel, particularly in the international community, are designed to divert attention from their failure to provide their people with basic services or any kind of hope.
While ignoring the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority leaders were prepared to invest huge efforts and resources in trying to have Israel suspended from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). It is as if the Palestinians had solved all their major problems and all that they needed to do now was to stop Israeli soccer players from playing in international matches.
Hamas, for its part, continues to invest enormous resources in digging new tunnels, in preparation for another war with Israel. The money that is being invested in the tunnels and the purchase and smuggling of weapons could benefit many families who lost their homes during the last war. But Hamas, like the Palestinian Authority, does not care about the misery of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They want to fight Israel to the last Palestinian. And this is all being done with the help of anti-Israel governments around the world, and groups such the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose only goal is to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews rather than to help the Palestinians.
In a press conference held in Ramallah Monday, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority now in the 11th year of a four-year term, announced that he will seek re-election when his current term ends in infinity years.PMW: Abbas awards terrorist with "Star of Honor"
“The last 11 years have been a time of tremendous economic growth and prosperity for the Palestinian people. Well, at least for one Palestinian person,” he said, pointing to himself. “I am looking forward to serving out the rest of my never-ending term and hope the Palestinian people will reward me with another never-ending term.”
Abbas said he was eager to tackle a new set of challenges in his second term, including global warming, the rise and eventual fall of China and the potential fallout of the Y3K crisis. He added that he was excited to work with President Hillary Clinton, President Chelsea Clinton and, eventually, President Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky on sporadic and fruitless negotiations towards a two-state solution.
Palestinians throughout the West Bank were thrilled by Abbas’ announcement.
Last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas awarded terrorist Fatima Barnawi with the "Military Star of Honor." Barnawi placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 in an attempt to murder civilians. The bomb was discovered and Barnawi spent 10 years in Israeli prison.
Official PA TV News reported on the ceremony at which Abbas himself presented terrorist Barnawi with the honor. Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Secretary General of the Presidency, read aloud the Abbas' Presidential Decree in honor of the terrorist:
"Decree for 2015. The President of the State of Palestine and acting Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee; by the authority vested in us, and for the public good; we decree the following:
Paragraph 1: Fighter Fatima Barnawi - the first female prisoner of the revolution of modern Palestine - is granted the Award of Military Star of Honor.
Paragraph 2: In appreciation for her pioneering role in the struggle,her sacrifice for her homeland and her people, and its revolution, and her willingness to give from the beginning until now..."[Official PA TV, May 28, 2015]
Terrorist about her failed bomb attack: "It is not a failure because it generated fear"
PA TV host: "That is certainly not a failure. It is a success for the Palestinian resistance that went into the heart of the Israeli occupation, into the cinema and created a state of panic, because [since then] they’ve taken extra precautions when each person enters a cinema or any public place. " [Official PA TV, May 9, 2015]
Fatima Barnawi placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 in an attempt to blow it up. The bomb failed to explode. She was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 1977 after serving 10 years. In 2015, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas honored Barnawi with the Military Star of Honor.
Orange announces it will sever link with Israeli subsidiary
French mobile communications giant Orange officially announced Thursday that it would sever its ties with its Israeli subsidiary Partner, a day after the company’s CEO provoked a firestorm by saying he would like to pull out of the country but feared penalties.Israeli cell operator’s employees protest against Orange
The company denied that the move was politically motivated, despite claims in Israel that the company’s CEO was looking to join a boycott of Israel.
A statement from the company said that it doesn’t want to maintain its brand presence “in countries in which it is not, or is no longer, an operator.”
It clarified that it “does not engage in any kind of political debate under any circumstance.”
The announcement came a day after Orange CEO Stephane Richard said his company intended to withdraw the company brand from Israel as soon as possible, but that the move would take time.
He said that he would like to end cooperation with Partner “tomorrow,” but that to do so would incur a “huge risk” of penalties.
“Our intention is to withdraw from Israel. It will take time” but “for sure we will do it,” he said. “I am ready to do this tomorrow morning… but without exposing Orange to huge risks.”
“I know that it is a sensitive issue here in Egypt, but not only in Egypt … We want to be one of the trustful partners of all Arab countries.”
Orange does not operate in Israel but licenses its name to Partner Communications. On Wednesday, outgoing Partner head Haim Romano said the firms had recently renewed its agreement for another 10 years.
Close to 400 employees of Israel’s Partner mobile service provider demonstrated Thursday against French mobile giant Orange, whose CEO said Wednesday that his company would like to drop its association with Partner in protest over Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.Israeli cellular operator Partner mulls suing Orange
The workers at Partner, which pays to use the Orange name, gathered in Rosh Haayin outside the company’s local offices.
A number of employees covered the Orange logo atop the company building with a large Israeli flag.
Meanwhile, the Israeli embassy in Paris sought “immediate clarification” from French authorities over Orange CEO Stephane Richard’s remarks, Israeli Ambassador to France Yossi Gal said. Foreign Ministry workers were set to “express the severity” of the remarks to French news outlets and government offices, Gal said.
Chaim Romano, the head of Israel’s Partner mobile service provider, fired back at the French mobile giant Orange, whose CEO Wednesday said that his company would like to drop its association with Partner, which pays to use the Orange name, in protest over Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.Israel to France: Renounce Orange CEO's comments supporting boycott
Romano threatened legal action against the Orange CEO, Stephane Richard, in interviews Thursday, saying that his company decried Richard’s statement, which he said could hurt his company’s bottom line and raise the ire of Israeli subscribers.
“We are an Israeli company that provides service to everyone,” Romano told the Walla news site. “We are confident that the Israeli public will know how to tell the difference between us and there will be no harm to Orange Israel, which is a separate company.”
Romano explained that Partner is a publicly owned Israeli company and that it only receives joint brand rights from Orange. “If Richard wants to leave, he will pay a lot of money,” he added.
Israel's Ambassador to France called on the Elysee Palace on Thursday to renounce comments made by Orange CEO Stephane Richard expressing his wish to end ties with Israel over its policies in the Palestinian territories.Partner CEO: Let Orange Pay 'Hundreds of Millions' to Dump Us
French telecom operator Orange, which has an affiliate agreement with the Israeli firm Partner, is one of Israel’s largest cellular service providers. The chief executive of the major European cell phone company said on Wednesday he would gladly sever ties with Israel "tomorrow" if it wasn’t so financially prohibitive.
Israeli Ambassador to France Yossi Gal spoke with the Foreign and Finance Ministries in Paris to try and persuade the French government to distance themselves from the boycott remarks, Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Gal said that Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely had instructed him to lodge the complaint with Paris. "The Israeli Embassy in Paris is acting intensely to express the graveness with which Israel sees the comments made by the Orange CEO in Cairo and our expectation is that there be immediate clarification."
The French government owns 25% of Orange and it is under pressure to pull out of its Israeli activities because Partner operates in the West Bank.
Richard asserted during a press conference in Cairo on Wednesday that he would end the company's franchise contract with Israel's Partner Communications “tomorrow” if he could get away with it.White House steps carefully around Obama’s reported ‘closest thing to a Jew’ comment
In a letter to employees Thursday, Partner CEO Haim Romano said that “if Orange's owner France Telecom wishes to end its association with us, we will be happy to do so in return for the hundreds of millions of euros we have invested in the brand name Orange over the years. We will use this money to invest in our customers, and citizens, and our country."
Orange has been targeted by a BDS campaign in Egypt and several European countries. The company raised the ire of BDS groups who allege that the Israel operation provided free phone calls to IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza during last summer's Operation Protective Edge.
In the past several weeks, large numbers of Egyptians have switched companies, putting a dent into the company's business there. Richard was in Cairo, among other reasons, to plead with customers not to leave the company.
Earnest was responding to inquiries during a press briefing about remarks made by Axelrod to Channel 2.Joel Pollak: Sorry, Obama--James Madison Was 'Closest Thing to a Jew' to Be President
“You know, honestly, he said, ‘I think that I am the closest thing to a Jew who’s ever sat in this office. All my values, the people who shape me, and, you know, for people to suggest that somehow I would be anti-Israel or, worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts’,” Axelrod recalled Obama saying in comments which aired on Monday, a day ahead of an extensive interview with Obama broadcast by the station on Tuesday.
Earnest said that “I think anybody who listened to the speech that the President delivered at Adas Israel (synagogue) just a week or so ago heard pretty clearly from the president the kinds of common bonds and common values that are embodied in his administration that are advocated by the Jewish community.”
The White House spokesman said “the president does feel that kind of kinship” with the Jewish people thanks to the US’s close ties with the Jewish state and foundation on Judeo-Christian values.
In sum, Obama’s “Jewishness,” such as it is, is of a liberal political nature. He does not understand the Jewish connection to Israel: the story he told the Jewish congregation about his youthful admiration for Israel’s socialist pioneers is likely a fabrication, having no basis in either of the memoirs that he wrote about himself or the biographies written about him. And his own thin religious convictions provide no real basis for connecting to the rich spiritual legacy of traditional Judaism.Former Diplomat: I Wouldn't Buy a Used Car from Obama
Obama is able to convince himself that is “the closest thing to a Jew” to be president because, as Ben Shapiro has noted, he sees himself, and his virtue, reflected in everything. This is a man, after all, who said: “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” More Jewish than the Jews, too.
He is also a man with little interest in history. Indeed, an ignorance of, and impatience with, the facts and lessons of history seems to be the consistent character flaw running throughout his administration, which is determined to pursue failed left-wing policies as if they have never been tried before, here or elsewhere. In this case, Obama seems totally oblivious to the fact that there were several presidents more “Jewish” than he, in ways more authentic than solidarity with the Jewish left.
As John Podhoretz (via Kevin Williamson) noted last time Obama made a similar claim:
James Madison and John Adams, who both read Hebrew, certainly knew more about Judaism than does Barack Obama. In fact, most educated Americans in the early days of our country probably knew more about Judaism….President Wilson, a nasty but well-educated man, appreciated as much when he spoke of the Hebrew commonwealth as a model for the American commonwealth.
Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli diplomat who was stationed in Washington for many years, said that US President Barack Obama's interview on Channel Two earlier this week was a showcase for his complete lack of understanding on the situation in the Middle East.Tony Blair to Head Council Fighting Anti-Semitism
“After all, this is the president who claimed that the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere would lead to democracy in the Arab world,” he told Arutz Sheva.
“This is the president who, in his famous speech in Cairo five years ago, proclaimed that 'Islam has always been part of American history,' when of course any grade school student knows that this is not the case,” Ettinger asserted.
“This is the president who put a knife in the back of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and embraced the Muslim Brotherhood – and even now, when the Egyptian people have rejected the Brotherhood and embraced the military dictatorship that now runs the country, Obama is still a lobbyist for the Islamists.”
“I wouldn't buy a used car from this man,” Ettinger stressed.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair is to take on a new role fighting anti-Semitism after stepping down as a Middle East peace envoy, he announced on Thursday.US: Iran may still be developing tech for nuclear arms
According to AFP, Blair will serve as chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, which campaigns to stop discrimination against Jews as well as for Holocaust denial to become a criminal offense.
Blair and Russian-born Jewish businessman Moshe Kantor announced the appointment in a joint article in newspaper The Times in which they warned of reports of rising anti-Semitism.
"Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, but one infecting the whole of society and needs to be tackled for the sake of us all," Blair and Kantor penned.
"States, international organizations and other actors must join together to tackle hate and intolerance. If we wait for our armies to act, it will be too late."
As recently as last week, the US Department of Defense assessed that Iran was still developing technologies that can be used in order to produce nuclear weapons, despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has been engaged in negotiations with world powers aimed at curbing its atomic program, Bloomberg reported Thursday.Obama Still Doesn’t Understand the Palestinians or Iran
Quoting an unclassified summary from a Pentagon document on Iran’s military capabilities, the report said that Tehran has been conducting research that “could be applicable to nuclear weapons,” but has nevertheless “fulfilled its obligations” to the P5+1 world powers and “paused progress” in parts of its nuclear program.
The summary was part of a report that will include other classified details regarding Iran’s nuclear program. The Pentagon report was submitted to congressional defense committees last week.
According to Bloomberg, the report further stated that aside from the alarming activity possibly linked to its nuclear program, Iran’s “covert activities [in the region] appear to be continuing unabated,” and the Islamic Republic still aims to spread its influence across the Middle East, “particularly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Yemen.”
Obama’s focus on Israel’s lack of enthusiasm for more territorial withdrawals must be considered to border on an obsession. The Palestinians have shown no interest in negotiating with Israel on any terms and still won’t recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. As Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah reiterated in an interview this past weekend in the Washington Post, the PA is solely interested in making an end-run around U.S.-led negotiations and getting the international community to recognize Palestinian independence without requiring them to make peace with Israel first.Iran Sentences 18 Christians to Prison as Human Rights Worsen under Rouhani
After repeated Palestinian rejections of peace offers that included statehood and control of almost all of the West Bank, Gaza, and a share of Jerusalem, and more terrorism, support for the peace process among the Israeli people evaporated. Though most would back a two-state solution if it led to real peace, they understand that the PA leadership in the West Bank can’t make peace even if it wanted to and the Hamas rulers of Gaza only want war to the death.
Under the circumstances, quibbling about what Prime Minister Netanyahu says about two states is irrelevant to the problems of a region rightly more about the threat from an Iran that is being boosted by Obama than Israel’s failure to make another futile peace offer. Yet, Obama continues to have hardly a word of criticism for a Palestinian political culture promoted by the PA that glorifies death and terrorism while claiming to be disappointed in an Israel that isn’t living up to his expectations. In the interview, he continued to implicitly compare the Palestinian struggle to wipe Israel off the map to the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Contrary to Obama’s specious charge, Israel hasn’t succumbed to “the politics of fear” but has instead embraced the politics of realism. Thus, the point isn’t so much that Obama’s view of the conflict continues to tilt in the direction of the Palestinians as he is completely disconnected from the reality on the ground that Israelis must confront.
Such a stance isn’t merely unhelpful, but also continues to give the Palestinians the impression that the world will tolerate their rejectionism. If Israelis must again spend part of their summer in bomb shelters as Hamas launches yet another terror offensive, we should think back on the signal that Obama sent the Palestinians about Israel’s isolation and understand that he set the stage for more violence rather than peace.
An Iranian court sentenced 18 Christians to prison for practicing their faith, Ben Weinthal, a research fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported Tuesday for Fox News.Congressional Hearing on Jailed Americans Highlights “Serial Hostage Taking” by Iran
Iran’s revolutionary court imposed harsh prison sentences last week on 18 Christian converts for charges including evangelism, propaganda against the regime, and creating house churches to practice their faith, according to sources with knowledge of the Islamic Republic’s secretive judicial system. …
“The cruelty of Iran’s dictatorial leaders knows no limits,” Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin, told FoxNews.com.
The Christians, many of whom were arrested in 2013, were sentenced in accordance with Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, a vague law used as a catch-all criminal statute to penalize threats to Iran’s clerical rulers. According to the law, “Anyone who engages in any type of propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran or in support of opposition groups and associations, shall be sentenced to three months to one year of imprisonment.”
Relatives of Americans jailed by Iran testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday about the ordeals of their loved ones.Iranian Nukes, the Arab Gulf, and Obama's Seductive Summitry
As The New York Times reported:
It was the first time that the relatives of all four Americans — Amir Hekmati, 31, Saeed Abedini, 34, Jason Rezaian, 39, and Robert A. Levinson, 67 — appeared together, in the hearing room of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to publicly share their anguish and frustration over what they described as Iran’s illegal seizure of their loved ones. They said their family members had committed no crimes and were essentially political prisoners and hostages. …
While the fates of the three Americans imprisoned now and of the fourth, who is missing, are not part of the nuclear negotiations, lawmakers have increasingly framed these cases as barometers of Iran’s trustworthiness in honoring its international pledges. “If top Iranian officials cannot be counted on to assist these wrongfully jailed Americans, can they be counted on to honor the commitments they make at the negotiating table?” asked Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California and chairman of the committee. …
At least some of the council leaders thought their side did well at the summit too. GCC Assistant Secretary-General Abdel Aziz Abu Hamad Aluwaisheg told a press conference May 15 that the Camp David summit "exceeded the expectations of most of us" by reassuring GCC states of an "unequivocal" commitment to their security. They were impressed when Mr. Obama described his commitment to their security in expansive language: "First, I am reaffirming our ironclad commitment to the security of our Gulf partners."Iran’s Holocaust cartoon contest “suspended”
Perhaps they did not look too closely at what the president actually promised, because the specific terms of the commitment he made, in fact, fell far short of the security guarantee the GCC partners were seeking and may have thought they received. The joint communique limits Mr. Obama's security guarantee to "an external threat to any GCC state's territorial integrity that is inconsistent with the U.N. Charter."
These carefully chosen words limit the U.S. commitment to a scenario in which the Iranian armed forces invade the sovereign territory of a GCC member. This formulation is actually a retreat from the more inclusive commitment Mr. Obama made two years earlier in his 2013 address to the U.N. General Assembly, in which he pledged to "confront external aggression against our allies and partners."
Marching its armies across borders is not the typical pattern of Iran's aggression in the region, nor is it the main threat worrying Saudi Arabia and its GCC partners. The more common pattern of Iranian aggression against the Sunni Arab heartlands is to foment militancy and extremism among Shia minorities within the Arab states (and among the Shia majority in Bahrain), financing the opposition, and sometimes supplying military training and weapons to oppose the Sunni regimes. It is a model that does not match up neatly with the U.N. Charter, even though it has been a common paradigm for aggression against neighbors worldwide since 1945.
At the end of an AFP report on an Iranian-sponsored anti-Islamic State cartoon competition comes this intriguing bit of news:IAF strikes Gaza after rocket fire on Israel
[Masoud Shojai] Tabatabai [the contest organizer] is also the organiser of a competition of cartoons on the Holocaust, launched in late January in response to the publication by Charlie Hebdo of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
That competition, which was criticised by some in the international community who expressed fears of anti-Semitism, has been suspended until further notice because of “budget” problems, he said.
This comes after more than 800 entries were submitted from around the world. Imagine the disappointment.
I don’t pretend to know the real reason behind the “suspension.” I doubt it reflects any softening of the Iranian regime’s attitude toward Israel and the Jews. Perhaps Iran’s financial difficulties (brought on by sanctions, collapsed oil prices and general corruption) really are bad enough to allow for only one cartoon competition annually.
As I noted last December, the regime was so desperate for money that it was allowing young men to buy their way out of an obligatory two years of military service.
Israel Air Force jets struck three targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday, following rocket strikes on southern Israel late Wednesday night.Police arrest 3 at protest against Jerualem festival
The IDF said it hit targets affiliated to Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip singlehandedly since seizing power in 2007.
"The IDF views the incident gravely," said the military in a statement. "The Hamas terrorist organization is the address and the one on whom the responsibility falls."
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon echoed this message Thursday morning. "Even if last night's shooting at Israel was by errant global jihadist groups who wish to challenge Hamas by firing at us, we consider Hamas responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and we will not tolerate attempts to harm our citizens," he said.
"We will not compromise on the security of Israeli citizens and we will not tolerate a return to the reality of a drizzle of rocket fire."
A radical Islamist Salafist group posted a statement on Twitter claiming responsibility for firing the rockets. Calling itself the Omar Brigades, the group said it was retaliating for Hamas' killing of an Islamic State supporter in a Gaza shootout on Tuesday.
Three Palestinian residents of Jerusalem were arrested Wednesday night as hundreds protested against the annual Light Festival in the capital’s Old City.Christian Arab arrested in Shavuot stabbing in Jerusalem
The protesters allegedly hurled rocks and bottles toward police at the Damascus Gate, where part of the art installations were set up. They also attempted to sabotage electronics in a bid to prevent the opening of the festival, according to online news site Ynet.
Israeli security personnel responded with riot control measures, and arrested three men, who were held for questioning.
The Jerusalem Light Festival, currently in its seventh year, allows visitors to walk through illuminated trails along the Old City and view art installations and videos projected on ancient buildings.
According to the event’s website, the festival drew about 250,000 visitors in previous years.
The Shin Bet security service in conjunction with Jerusalem police arrested a suspect in the stabbing of two Israeli teens near the city’s Damascus Gate last week, the Shin Bet announced Thursday.Weapons seized, 16 arrested, in overnight security raids
The attack came on the Jewish festival of Shavuot, when many observant Jews stay up all night studying religious texts.
According to the Shin Bet, John Kakish, 19, a Christian resident of Israel living in Jerusalem’s Old City, admitted during his interrogation that he had been motivated to commit the attack out of a desire to “take revenge on Jews.”
The Shin Bet added that Kakish was arrested in the past for other assaults on Jews.
After the May 24 attack, Magen David Adom paramedics treated the two 17-year-olds at the scene of the incident on Sultan Suleiman Street in East Jerusalem, outside the Old City.
Security forces launched raids in the Palestinian village of Kalil, south of Nablus, and in Salem, east of Nablus, overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, targeting illegal firearms.IDF source: We’d evacuate a million Lebanese if war breaks out with Hezbollah
In the joint operation, carried out by the IDF's Samara territorial division, the Israel Police, and the IDF Civil Administration, two homemade M4-type assault rifles were seized, a grenade, 40 ammunition clips, sights, and ceramic vests.
The IDF, Judea and Samaria Police, and Border Police also arrested 16 security suspects in overnight West Bank raids.
Twelve men are suspected of taking part in unorganized violence and rioting, and four are Hamas members.
In the event of a new conflict with Hezbollah, the IDF would seek to evacuate more than a million civilians in south Lebanon within 24 hours before proceeding to strike thousands of Hezbollah targets in some 240 villages and built-up regions, a senior military source said on Wednesday.Court Overrules Order Allowing Glick to Visit Temple Mount
Large-scale Hezbollah rocket and missile fire would be met with civilian evacuations, massive Israeli aerial strikes, followed by a ground offensive, he said.
Discussing a new strategy for dealing with Hezbollah’s battle doctrine of using civilian built-up areas as military bases to rain death and destruction upon Israel, the source spoke as the IDF approached the conclusion of a weeklong drill simulating conflict on multiple fronts, including the Israel Air Force practicing striking of large numbers of targets and simulating conflict in northern combat arenas.
Although the Home Front Command’s role in that drill, which focused on civilian defenses, dominated media coverage of the exercise, the source stressed that the IDF had spent recent days quietly rehearsing large-scale offensive capabilities.
Jerusalem District Court Judge Carmi Mosek accepted a prosecutorial appeal against allowing Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick to ascend to the Temple Mount once a month.Again: Jew Attacked for Drinking Water on Temple Mount
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court in May lifted a restraining order against Glick ascending to Judaism's holiest site, with Judge Miriam Kalasi granting him permission to visit once a month, as long as he did not carry a smartphone or camera.
The restraining order was put into effect in September, after a Muslim woman accused Glick of pushing her on the Mount, resulting in a broken arm. Glick denies the allegation.
After listening to arguments Mosek sided with the prosecution, who appealed Kalasi's lifting of the ban, over Glick, who wished all suspensions against him to be removed.
Jewish men were once against mobbed and attacked on the Temple Mount on Wednesday - this time, by Arab women loitering at Judaism's holy site who pounced on them for daring to drink from the water fountain.2,700-year old tomb of Hebrew prophet in danger from ISIS
Footage shows the Mourabitoun, Muslim women who serve as guards over the Mount by harassing and occasionally assaulting Jews who visit, surrounding the two visitors, shouting "Allahu Akhbar."
Gilad Hadari, the Temple Mount activist who was present, said he was attacked by one of the activists and filed a complaint with the police about it.
He noted that in recent months the situation has worsened on the Temple Mount.
"The situation is deteriorating every day," he stated to Arutz Sheva Wednesday afternoon. "There is no law and no judge on the Temple Mount and they are allowed by police to yell, threaten, attack police and break privacy."
Nahum the Prophet warned the world about the impending end of the Assyrian empire and the destruction of its capital, Nineveh. More than 2,600 years later, his tomb, inside an ancient synagogue in the Iraqi city of Al Qosh, may face the same fate, courtesy of ISIS.President Erdoğan accuses NYT, BBC and CNN of trying to weaken, divide Turkey
Smooth domes topped with crucifixes rise slightly above the beige stone houses in Al Qosh, the modern town built on the ancient Nineveh plain. The town is a treasure trove of history from the Assyrian empire and the beginnings of Christianity. Less well known is the town’s Hebrew heritage, emblemized by the Prophet Nahum.
The crumbling stone walls of one of Iraq’s last synagogues remain mostly standing, nestled in the center of the small town, against the backdrop of the Bayhidhra Mountains. Inside purportedly lies the tomb of "Nahum the Elkoshite" – meaning, of the town of Al Qosh – the Hebrew prophet who vividly predicted the fall of Nineveh in the 7th century BCE.
Asir Salaam Shajaa, an Assyrian Christian born and raised in Al Qosh, dusts off the green cloth that lies over the ancient tomb in the center of the run-down synagogue. He is adamant that resting under the heavy stones are really the remains of Prophet Nahum.
Like his father and his grandfather before him, Shajaa takes care of the site dutifully, fulfilling a promise made more than 60 years ago to the fleeing Jewish residents of the town.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused prominent international media institutions like the New York Times, CNN and the BBC of trying to weaken the country and then disintegrate it in line with instructions issued to them by what he called “the superior mind.”Journalists, Armenians, gays are ‘representatives of sedition,’ Erdoğan says
“Think about this; this newspaper [the NYT] did the same thing against [Ottoman] Sultan Abdülhamit in 1896. It fulfills a duty imposed by a certain power. It serves this power in line with the assignment. This is what it’s doing now. It fulfilled its duty during the Gezi incidents [in 2013] as well, as you know. Just like the BBC and CNN,” Erdoğan told private broadcaster Show TV late June 2.
Erdoğan’s reaction against the New York Times came after an editorial in the newspaper strongly criticized his recent activities as restricting the freedom of media in Turkey and warned NATO and the United States to urge Erdoğan “to turn away from the destructive path.”
Erdoğan harshly reacted against the newspaper and accused the NYT of conspiring against former Turkish leaders like Adnan Menderes and Turgut Özal in the past.
“Do you know what their aim is? To weaken Turkey, to divide it and to disintegrate it and then to swallow it. But they failed to do so. We will not allow this,” Erdoğan said, criticizing all these international media outlets for serving the interests of the “superior mind.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued his salvoes against a number of his critics including journalists, Armenians and members of the LGBTI community ahead of the June 7 general elections, accusing them of supporting the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
“Their biggest ally is Doğan Media. The Armenian lobby, homosexuals and those who believe in ‘Alevism without Ali’ – all these representatives of sedition are [the HDP’s] benefactors,” Erdoğan said during an address to citizens in the eastern province of Bingöl on June 3.
Speculation over whether the HDP, which focuses on the Kurdish issue, will be able to pass the 10 percent national election threshold is the key question that will determine how many seats the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wins in parliament.
On June 3, the Turkish president also repeated his ever-toughening rhetoric against international media. “They also received the support of some foreign media outlets, which see Turkey as their colony,” he said.
Without mentioning the name of the AKP, which he co-founded, Erdoğan said that “everyone should go and vote for the party he or she likes.”