Friday, June 05, 2015
Caroline Glick: The new government’s war on BDS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government is less than a month old, but it’s already apparent that it is different from its predecessors. And if it continues on its current diplomatic trajectory, it may do something that its six predecessors failed to accomplish. Netanyahu’s new government may improve Israel’s position internationally.Sarah Honig: The great equalizer of all Jews
The stakes are high. Over the years, Israel has largely concentrated its efforts on developing the tools to contend with its military challenges. But as we have seen over the past decade and a half, Israel’s capacity to fight and defeat its enemies is not limited principally by the IDF’s war-fighting capabilities.
Israel’s ability to defend itself and its citizens is constrained first and foremost by its shrinking capacity to defend itself diplomatically. Its enemies in the diplomatic arena have met with great success in their use of diplomatic condemnation and intimidation to force Israel to limit its military operations to the point where it is incapable of defeating its enemies outright.
The flagship of the diplomatic war against Israel is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Participants in the movement propagate and disseminate the libelous claim that Israel’s use of force in self-defense is inherently immoral and illegal. Over the years BDS activists’ assaults on Israel’s right to exist have become ever more shrill and radical. So, too, whereas just a few years ago their operations tended to be concentrated around military confrontations, today they are everyday occurrences. And their demands become greater and more openly anti-Semitic from week to week and day to day.
Consider the events of the past seven days alone.
Last summer a café in a suburb of the Belgian city of Liege exposed the current face of anti-Semitism in one compact store-front display.In very rare public meet, Israeli, Saudi officials name Iran as common foe
The window was festooned with the Palestinian flag, decorated with Fatah keffiahs and featured an Israeli flag crossed-out with a big red “X.” But if just-landed Martians failed to get the message, there was written bilingual elucidation as well.
The French version, for the benefit of the natives, boldly announced: “Entry is permitted to dogs but not to Zionists under any circumstances!”
Nonetheless, politically correct constraints in French clearly don’t cramp Turkish styles. Lest any perplexed Turk encounter difficulties in determining who’s a Zionist, the Turkish sign spelled things out explicitly – without synthetic attempts at European niceties. It let the proverbial cat out of the bag for dog-lovers and haters- of-Zion alike: “Entry is permitted to dogs but not to Jews under any circumstances!”
The bit about Zionists was exclusively for European consumption. Ever since the end of WWII, undisguised anti-Jewish harangues have lost their erstwhile luster in much of the continent. Anti-Israel and anti-Zionist discourse, however, provides socially acceptable alternatives. Nowadays, in fact, these substitutes have become the obligatory fad for the fashion-conscious.
Careless about prevalent conventions, though, the Turkish café-owners clearly illustrated that the terminology can be used interchangeably. If anything, anti-Zionist and anti-Jew are synonyms, despite expedient denials by disingenuous Europeans and Arab propagandists.
An extremely unusual public meeting of high-ranking Israeli and Saudi officials took place in Washington on Thursday, when the incoming director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry shared a stage — and shook hands — with a retired Saudi general who is a former top adviser to the Saudi government.
In their back-to-back addresses to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Dore Gold and Anwar Eshki both espoused Israeli-Saudi peace and identified Iran as the chief threat to regional stability.
Eshki spoke at length of Iran’s hostile and aggressive actions in the region and signaled that peace with Israel, based on the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative, was a top priority. He also spoke of the need for a joint Arab military force to increase regional stability.
Gold, the current head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank, is expected to be confirmed as the Foreign Ministry chief in the coming days. He too spoke of the challenge posed to the Middle East by Iran, and warned of a weak nuclear accord with Tehran which would leave the Islamic republic as a nuclear threshold state.
Bloomberg News reported that the two countries, longtime foes with no diplomatic relations, have held five clandestine meetings over the past 17 months on the threat posed by Iran. Long-rumored back-channel talks between Jerusalem and Riyadh have never been officially confirmed. (h/t Phil)
NGO Monitor: European-Funded NGOs Behind the Orange BDS Campaign
The BDS campaign against the Orange mobile phone network in Israel (hereafter Partner Communications, the official name of the Israeli firm; Orange is the France-based company) is another example of NGO political warfare targeting the Jewish state.Beyond the politics, the business and the misunderstandings at Orange, a question of terror
The attacks on Partner Communications began in earnest at the beginning of May, when a coalition of French NGOs, along with the Palestinian NGO Al Haq, published “Orange’s Dangerous Liaisons in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” a 51-page report. This publication was accompanied by intensive lobbying of the French government, the French company Orange, and the Palestinian Authority.
The NGOs “were pleased that on 26 May 2015, they were finally able to meet with Orange. They noted the fact that Orange recognises that having business relations with Partner poses risks to the company’s reputation. The representative of Orange recalled that an amendment was made in March 2015 to the brand-licensing agreement that would allow it to terminate the agreement in ten years. The civil society groups did not feel that this response was satisfactory. Nonetheless, the authors of the report asked Orange to publicly and explicitly state its decision to disengage and to denounce the human rights violations that Partner is involved in in Israeli settlements in the OPT.” In other words, the statements made by the France-based company are a wholesale adoption of the NGOs’ BDS agenda (which is illegal in France).
They also enlisted the Palestinian Authority in the campaign: “Following the publication of the report, Saeb Erekat, lead negotiator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), wrote to France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, to denounce the link between Orange and Partner.”
NGOs including Who Profits, Al Haq, Catholic Committee Against Hunger and for Development-Terre Solidaire (CCFD), FIDH, and Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) have been involved in the campaign against Orange and Partner Communications:
So how much does Orange, or its CEO, or France Telecom or the government of France love Israel? The truth: it hardly matters. International relations, like international business dealings, have little to do with love, and much more to do with self-interest and good sense.Orange Telecom’s Troubled Egyptian History
So now allow us to share a note about some dealings we have had recently with Orange, ourselves.
Starting on December 22, 2014, and then again several times in the weeks after that, we sent a letter to Orange senior management in Paris, and to its corporate public relations people in France and the UK. It concerned a disturbing matter we discovered at the Arab world's most important school for training graduate journalists.
On the website of Jordan Media Institute, there is a page entitled "Partners and Donors" [here]. One of the supporting organizations listed there is Orange. There is a link to Jordan Telecom Group (JTG) website along with the well-known Orange logo which connotes an affiliation with France Telecom Group, the owner of the Orange logo.
Out of a concern that you may not already be aware of what I am about to describe, I am writing to alert you to a scandalous and personally very painful situation that I discovered at the Jordan Media Institute via its websites, and the steps being taken to ameliorate the damage it has caused...
[I]n August 2001, my fifteen-year-old daughter Malki was murdered here in Jerusalem. She was one of fifteen people whose lives were stolen in an especially vicious Hamas attack which targeted children, much as the Pakistani Taliban did in that sad country last week.
The woman who engineered my daughter's death is directly relevant to Jordan Media Institute, and therefore to the organizations identified as JMI's "Partners and Donors".
I know from examining public documents and non-controversial records that the chief engineer of that Hamas attack, and the massacre that resulted, is known. She did more than merely confess to the planning and execution of the attack on Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria. She actually claimed credit for it. She expressed pride in her 'achievement'. She urged others to do the same as she did, She justified the murderous focus on children and Orthodox Jews. She is widely seen on YouTube beaming with pleasure when told by her interviewer how many children she killed. It was a larger number than she had known until that moment.
She is an unrepentant murdering terrorist who has become a celebrity throughout the Arabic-speaking world for this reason. She is at the very center of an ongoing terrorist industry controlled by Hamas. She is an icon of hatred.
I discovered to my horror some ten days ago that this woman was very publicly honoured as the "Success Model" of the journalists at Jordan Media Institute in early December.
As CEO of French multinational telecommunications corporation Orange S.A. Stephane Richard was telling journalists in Cairo on Wednesday how happy he would be to cut ties with Israel, few outside Cairo were aware of the painful legacy of the mobile providers in Egypt and Orange in particular.Orange confirms it plans to cut ties with Israeli firm, but says move not political
Back in 2011, when the Egyptian government under President Hosni Mubarak was cracking down on protesters in the big cities, suddenly the most effective means of communication activists had been using to coordinate action across the country—most prominently Facebook and Twitter—were unplugged.
As the Wall Street Journal reported four years ago, attempts to connect to websites belonging to Egyptian ISPs—EgyptWeb, TeData and Purenet—failed.
France Telecom, Orange’s original owner, confirmed that Egyptian authorities had taken “measures to block mobile phone services,” and apologized to the customers of Mobinil, the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services, of which Orange S.A. owns 98.92%.
Considering that Mobinil had an estimated 34 million Egyptian subscribers, it is clear why the name Orange was interchangeable with the idea of mobile phone service in Egypt, and why the betrayal, just when its services were needed the most, has left such deep-seated anger among Egyptians.
According to a Vodafone statement, mobile operators in Egypt were told “to suspend services in parts of Egypt. Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it.”
French telecoms operator Orange said on Thursday it plans to end its brand licensing deal with the Israeli mobile operator Partner Communications, a day after Orange CEO Stephane Richard made comments in Cairo that were perceived in Israel as support for a boycott of the Jewish state.French Move Illustrates Israel Boycott BDS Peril
The company said Thursday that it indeed wishes to end its brand licensing agreement with Partner, but that the move is a matter of policy, not politics, in an apparent attempt to separate itself from Richard's comments. Richard said Wednesday he wanted to end the agreement, even though there was a huge risk of financial penalties from doing so, and that the decision was in part due to the firm's relations with Arab countries. 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.
"The Orange Group is a telecoms operator and as such its primary concern is to defend and promote the value of its brand in markets in which it is present. The Group does not engage in any kind of political debate under any circumstance," a statement on the company's website read Thursday following Richard's comments.
One of the sidebars to the debate about the trade bill currently before Congress is over the language inserted into the legislation that will seek to discourage boycotts of Israel by America’s trading partners. That provision is being opposed by left-wingers such as the J Street lobby because it might interfere with their attempts to support efforts to boycott products made in settlements. But as the controversy over the decision by France’s Orange telecom company to cease doing business in Israel in order to mollify partners and consumers in the Arab and Muslim worlds, such fine distinctions are lost on Israel’s foes. Orange’s decision makes clear that the Israel boycott BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) campaign isn’t a legitimate protest movement, but a nothing less than an effort to revive an Arab boycott that friends of Israel thought they had defeated years ago. That makes it all the more necessary that Congress leaves the anti-BDS language in the trade bill and ought to encourage states to continue passing their own bills in order to further marginalize this economic war on the Jewish state.Israeli media mogul Haim Saban: Orange 'succumbs to pressure from anti-Semitic' groups
The Orange company might have gotten away with abandoning Israel or at least escaped a lot of the criticism it’s getting today had its CEO not given an interview in which he vowed to get out of Israel and said that doing so was part of his desire for Orange to be “trustful partners in all of the Arab countries.” He then complained that it would take time because complying with the demands of his Arab partners might expose Orange to a “huge risk of penalties” that can be assessed against firms that comply with boycotts of Israel. That interview provoked a firestorm in Israel where Orange didn’t do business directly but licensed its name to a local firm called Partner Communications. But the following day, Orange announced it wasn’t going to wait and said it was ready to sever ties with its Israeli partner despite the fact that their license had recently been renewed for ten years.
Despite claims that its decision wasn’t political, Orange should pay a high price for its willingness to join efforts to isolate Israel. This contretemps should also inform the debate in the United States about whether firms and nations that participate in such boycotts should be allowed to do business in or trade with the United States.
Haim Saban, the controlling shareholder of the Israeli firm Partner Communications, lambasted French telecoms giant Orange on Thursday for "succumbing to all kinds of pressure from anti-Semitic organizations" amid a kerfuffle surrounding the mobile network operator.Netanyahu to France: Renounce the miserable actions of Orange
The Israeli-American media mogul's comments to Channel 2 followed Orange's announcement that it plans to end its brand licensing deal with Partner, the Israeli mobile carrier that pays Orange to use its popular brand name.
The company said Thursday that its desire to end the agreement was a matter of policy and not politics as rumored following remarks made Wednesday by Orange CEO Stephane Richard were perceived in Israel as supporting a boycott against the Jewish state.
Richard said Wednesday he wanted to end the agreement, even though there was a huge risk of financial penalties from doing so, and that the decision was in part due to the firm's relations with Arab countries.
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.
Echoing remarks by top Israeli officials, the Hollywood billionaire told Channel 2 that he was also disappointed with the French government for not yet issuing a response stating that Paris distances itself from Richard's statements made in Cairo. Saban also called for Richard's resignation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Élysée Palace on Thursday to renounce comments made by France-based Orange SA CEO Stéphane Richard expressing his desire to sever his company’s ties with Israel.Minister Regev Urges Orange Telecom to Sack Anti-Israel CEO
“I call on the French government to publicly repudiate the miserable statement and miserable action by a company that is under its partial ownership,” Netanyahu said at a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv for the victims of the 1948 Altalena sinking.
Richard had made his remarks to an audience in Cairo on Wednesday, to whom he also declared, “We want to be one of the trustful partners of all Arab countries.”
Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev is calling on the board of the international telecommunications giant Orange Group to sack the firm’s CEO, Stephane Richard. Regev issued her appeal Thursday, following the appearance of a statement on the Orange website in France explaining its intent to cut ties with Israel as soon as legally feasible.Hotovely: We Expect the French Government to Condemn Orange
This time, there was no mention of “occupation.” The statement on the company’s website announced its wish to terminate its brand presence in “countries where the Group is not or is no longer an operator.”
“The Orange Group is a telecoms operator and as such its primary concern is to defend and promote the value of its brand in markets in which it is present,” the statement began. “The Group does not engage in any kind of political debate under any circumstance.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Thursday evening called on the French government to condemn the French-based cellular phone provider Orange's decision to cut ties with Israel.US Congressman Demands France Denounce Orange 'Outrage'
"I have instructed ministry officials in France to clarify that Israeli government officials expect them to forcefully condemn the move of Orange, especially given the fact that the French government owns shares in the company," she said.
"We expect all European countries to speak out against boycotts of any kind and not to lend a hand to those distributing hate and lies,” added Hotovely.
The calls of Israeli politicians demanding on Thursday that the French government condemn French cellular phone company Orange's move to "dump" Israel, given that the government partially owns the company, were joined by those of a US Congressman.Orange CEO Plays Dumb After Boycott Controversy
Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, strongly denounced Orange's stated decision to cut ties with the Israeli company Partner which franchises Orange's brand name in Israel.
He wrote a letter to French President Francois Hollande urging him to make a firm stand against the move, which was made after months of pressure from the BDS movement urging a boycott against Israel.
"This outrageous move by Orange unfortunately represents a broader, insidious campaign within Europe and beyond to delegitimize and economically isolate Israel," Roskam wrote in a statement seen by Arutz Sheva.
Stephane Richard, Orange France's CEO, insisted to Yediot Aharonot Friday that his words calling to "dump" Israel over providing service to customers in Judea and Samaria after months of intense pressure from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement were "misunderstood."France says it’s ‘firmly opposed’ to Israel boycott
Despite having recently signed a 10-year extension deal with Partner, Richard claimed that his statements were due to "business considerations," not his political views.
"It has nothing to do with Israel, we love Israel, we are working and investing money to Israel, we are friends of Israel," he touted. Richard also claimed he was unaware of the global BDS movement against Israel, despite it making headlines on nearly a monthly basis for the past five to ten years - and it being a major source of tension between the European Union (EU) and Israel.
"I never said that Orange wants to break away from Israel, I was not aware of the global campaign for a boycott against you, and I'm sorry about that."
Benveniste vehemently opposed Richard's claims.
"I do think your statements are political statements, I do think a statement against the State of Israel and Partner are due to pro-Palestinian pressure trying to sabotage Israel's relations with the world," he fired.
France’s foreign minister on Friday said Paris was “firmly opposed” to any boycott of Israel, as a row raged over telecom group Orange’s decision to withdraw its brand from the Jewish state.French official said to pan ‘excessive’ Israeli response to Orange bid
“Although it is for the president of the Orange group to determine the commercial strategy of the company, France is firmly opposed to a boycott of Israel,” Laurent Fabius said in a statement.
“Also, France and the European Union have a consistent policy on settlement-building that is known to all,” added Fabius.
Israeli leaders had urged Paris on Thursday to condemn the pullout, as some 13 percent of the company’s stocks are held by the French government.
Meanwhile, French telecom firm Orange said Friday that its move to withdraw its brand from the Israeli market was a purely business decision, with its chairman insisting: “We love Israel.”
A senior French official on Friday criticized Israeli denunciations of the Orange telecom company’s decision to sever ties with its Israeli subsidiary as “excessive.”ADL: Orange Boycott 'Cowardly'
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely praised the French foreign minister for publicly opposing boycotts against the Jewish state.
According to Israel Radio, an unnamed French official said the diplomatic pressure from Jerusalem in the wake of the Orange CEO’s announcement was “excessive.” He maintained that the French government does not instruct its companies not to operate in the West Bank.
As part of Israel’s diplomatic efforts, National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen spoke on the phone with his French counterpart, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to speak with President François Hollande on Sunday, the radio report said.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Friday strongly objected to the decision by French telecom company Orange S.A. to eventually end its business relationship with an Israeli company, calling the move a “cowardly” and “completely unjustified” caving-in to anti-Israel boycott demands.Back in 2012, Orange CEO called Israel 'a nation of vision'
“Orange took a cowardly decision to cave into demands by the international campaign to boycott Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “Orange has subsidiaries which operate in disputed territories elsewhere in the world, so this decision is not about the West Bank, but about Israel and the campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state.”
In a letter to Gerard Araud, the French Ambassador in Washington, D.C., the ADL urged the French government, a significant shareholder of Orange S.A. with representation on the company’s board of directors, to make clear that complying with demands to boycott Israel are illegal under French law and contrary to the country’s national interests and moral values.
Not long ago, Orange CEO Stephane Richard, who on Wednesday sparked an uproar by expressing his desire to boycott Israel, was singing a different tune.Israeli DM Ya’alon: We Have “Hard Evidence” Of Iran’s Nuclear Weaponization Work
In 2012, Richard attended the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, and told the audience enthusiastically that it was his first visit to Israel.
"They told me that Israel was a warm country in every sense of the word, as well as a nation of innovation and vision ... very dynamic and energetic," Richard said, to enthusiastic applause.
"I have to tell you that I was very excited to find that to be true."
Smiling, the Orange director added that "this might be my first visit, but I'm so intrigued by what I see here in my industry, of course, but also in all the people I've met."
Israel has “hard evidence” that Iran conducted weaponization work as part of their nuclear research, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth in a wide-ranging interview published on Tuesday.Iran Will Walk
Ya’alon made this revelation while discussing Iran’s refusal to allow inspections of military sites as part of any nuclear deal. He also explained the dangers of offering Iran sanctions relief.
It is not just Parchin. They say very clearly, “We’re not going to allow inspections of military facilities.” Parchin is a military facility, and we have hard evidence that it was used for weaponization after 2003.
We understand that the Security Council sanctions are going to be relieved at the very beginning of the implementation of the deal. And that the E.U. bilateral sanctions will be relieved in parallel to the Security Council sanctions. The only part that they’re not sure about is the U.S. sanctions, which is under the Congress. That’s what they want — to have sanctions relief in order to rehabilitate the economy and to spend more money on rogue activities.
While we witnessed the negotiations about the number of centrifuges in the deal, the Iranians took over Yemen by proxy — by the Houthis — and they tried to open a new front of terror against us in the Golan Heights.
From Washington to Riyadh, not to mention Jerusalem, statesmen are gritting their teeth at the possibility of a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal that seems overly generous to the theocratic-terror state of the Islamic Republic.Iran Deal Deadline May Be Pushed Back
Most intelligence analysts and journalists assume that because Iran's leadership endorsed the negotiations and has been the beneficiary of several key concessions by the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany), that an agreement is imminent. Forecasters have been predicting what the likely consequences of such a deal would be: negative.
But what if the Iranians walk?
Sanctions never hurt the regime's ruling class; lifting them only helped the regime to solidify its power over its people.
A nuclear deal combined with an improvement in the commercial and business relations with the West would be inimical to IRGC interests.
Western powers involved in nuclear talks with Iran may delay the deadline for a final agreement beyond June 30, it was revealed Friday, in order to prevent Iranian stalling from benefiting the Islamic Republic.Senator Reveals Obama Hiding Iran Nuclear Deal Document
“The Iranians are using delay tactics. It seems they want to come close to the deadline without an agreement,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud), who has been given responsibility for the Iran issue, stated to Politico. "There will be no time to close all the loopholes and clarify all the details. And this will serve the Iranians.”
The sides signed a framework deal on April 2, but are under pressure to formalize a final deal by the end of this month.
However, significant gaps remain and any progress has been incremental, political analysts and sources involved in talks stated - including when and how economic sanctions will be lifted, whether they will be rolled back, and when and how nuclear inspectors will visit Iranian facilities.
US President Barack Obama's administration is scrambling to quell concerns ahead of a Congressional review of the impending Iran nuclear deal that is approaching a June 30 deadline, but one US Senator reports Obama is refusing to reveal a document detailing the full scope of the deal.Saudi Arabia's Religious Affairs Minister Abdul Aziz Al-Ammar: 'Pakistan's Atomic Bomb Belongs To The World Of Islam'
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he and other Senators are trying to obtain a document with the exact details of what the administration has already agreed to - but their requests are being refused.
"There is a document that explains what Iran is able to do per the agreement after the 10-year period," Corker told CNN on Wednesday. "I have asked the State Department for the document. They have not given it to me. I have asked the Energy Department for the document. They have not given it to me. I’ve asked the White House for the document. They have not given it to me."
"The only thing I can imagine...is that they think that it would shed (a) bad light on what they have agreed to," reasoned the Senator. "Most of us want to make sure that if we’re going to enter into an agreement, it is an agreement that will keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon over a long term."
On a visit of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs and Dawah Abdul Aziz Al-Ammar has said that Pakistan's nuclear bomb is not of Pakistan alone but belongs to the entire Islamic world. The Saudi minister's statement came in the wake of a resolution adopted by the Pakistani parliament that called for a neutral Pakistani stance on the Yemen conflict.ISIS Group Promises More Rocket Attacks on Israel, Israel Hits Back
Al-Ammar, who is visiting Pakistan to clarify the Saudi standpoint on the Yemen conflict, stated at a meeting in Karachi that "Pakistan is our friend-country. We hope that at this stage cooperation will be done with us [in Yemen]. He said that Pakistan's atom [bomb] is not of Pakistan alone but is of the world of Islam. The entire world of Islam is proud of it…"
"We are proud of Pakistan's atomic program," said the Saudi minister, according to an April 17 report – titled "Pakistan's atomic bomb belongs to the world of Islam: Saudi minister" and published by an Urdu-language website.
Speaking about the Iranian role in Yemen, Al-Ammar said: "We have verified evidence that Iran is providing all support to the [Houthi] rebels, and Iran is behind the rebellion. We will not permit anyone to interfere in the Arabian Peninsula." He added: "We have the proof that the Houthi rebels have acted with Iranian support and Iranian weapons."
Israel National News reports that the Islamist group that fired rockets at southern Israel Wednesday night said it would continue its “way of Jihad” and “attack the Jews” whether or not Hamas approved.Hamas Blames Israel for Defending Itself From Rockets
The rockets aimed at the city of Ashkelon and town of Netivot were the second such attacks in the past week, breaking a hiatus in cross-border fire since a 50-day Israeli war with Hamas ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce in August.
The “Sheikh Amar Hadid Brigades,” which also took responsibility for the firing of a rocket at the port city of Ashdod last week, the deepest strike at Israel since the 2014 war, said that the rockets were fired in revenge for “the death of an Islamic State member in Gaza by Hamas members." Their statement also noted:
We have repeated that we will continue in the way of Jihad against the Jews, the enemies of Allah. No one will stop us from fulfilling our obligation and attacking the Jews.
The group has since presented Hamas with an ultimatum demanding that it be allowed to attack Israel from Gaza and on Thursday said it would conduct another attack on the Jewish state within 12 hours.
The IAF airstrikes in response to Wednesday's rocket attack from Gaza that targeted Israeli cities is being denounced by the Hamas terrorist organization, which blames Israel of "aggressiveness" in defending itself.Hamas to Israel: ISIS-linked rebels trying to spark conflict between us
Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan said Hamas had turned to Egypt and other international sources demanding that they force Israel to maintain the ceasefire agreement sealed after last summer's Hamas terror war, which Gaza has already breached in several rocket attacks such as the one that prompted Wednesday's response.
Radwan blamed Israel completely for last summer's escalation, even though Operation Protective Edge was launched after Hamas cranked up its steady trickle of rocket fire to a torrent of hundreds of missiles within days necessitating the operation.
Wednesday's attack was claimed by an Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate Salafist group in Gaza, which said it had fired the rockets that led to an Israeli counter strike as an act of revenge for the death of a Salafist leader affiliated with ISIS, who on Tuesday was shot dead by Hamas forces in Gaza City as they tried to arrest him and he allegedly opened fire on them.
Israel's defense establishment knows that the recent "trickles" of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel must be stopped before it becomes a routine occurrence. But while Israel has officially placed the responsibility for Wednesday night's rocket fire on Gaza's leadership, Hamas is having a hard time reining in Salafi and jihadist groups in the Strip.Cyprus extends remand of Lebanese bomb suspect
Minutes after Wednesday night's rocket fire, Hamas operatives rushed from their headquarters to find shelter, fearing Israeli retaliation strikes, which came early Thursday morning with as three militant training camps were targeted.
A senior Hamas official sent a message to Israel through Egypt, claiming that an ISIS-affiliated group, which it is currently at odds with, fired the rocket and was using Israel's blaming of Hamas for all attacks coming from Gaza in an attempt to spark an escalation between the two sides.
Later on, a radical Islamist group sympathetic to Islamic state claimed responsibility for the attacks on Israel. Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on the two camps belonging to Hamas Islamists and the Islamic Jihad group caused some damage but no casualties.
A Lebanese-Canadian man was detained for a further eight days in Cyprus on Friday after five tons of potential bomb-making equipment was found in his home, police said.Druze Demand Syrian Airstrikes from Israel, US
The suspect appeared in court under heavy police guard in a hearing held behind closed doors for “national security reasons,” according to police sources.
He faces possible charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and illegal possession and transfer of explosive materials, police said.
Authorities are also looking into whether the 26-year-old Lebanese-Canadian has possible links with the military wing of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The Druze community in Israel has reached out to the US this week, begging Washington to protect Druze across the border in Syria.Arabs Torch Graves in Ancient Jerusalem Cemetery
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro met with Druze community leaders Thursday, according to Channel 2, during which community leaders begged Shapiro to get the US more involved in the fighting between rebel forces and the regime army of President Bashar Al-Assad.
The most threatened area for the Druze is now Jabal al-Arab, a mountainous region in southern Syria where five Druze were killed in clashes with Islamic State (ISIS) several days ago. Druze leaders argue that their friends across the border have no means of self-protection after Assad's army moved into the area.
In addition, Israel's Druze community is seeking military aid on a larger scale from Washington, requesting air strikes to prevent terrorists from approaching Druze population centers.
Druze leaders have reportedly made similar requests to Israeli security sources.
Rock and firebomb terror attacks against the Mount of Olives Cemetery in eastern Jerusalem continue unabated, with the Arab assailants just recently destroying a massive number of gravestones and even torching a portion of them as the ongoing vandalism spins out of control.Hamas member killed in tunnel collapse near Israeli border
The Ministry for Religious Affairs expressed its shock at how security forces have abandoned the site to Arab vandals, with sources in the ministry telling Arutz Sheva that Jews wishing to visit the graves of their dear ones are afraid for their own safety.
Responsibility for securing the cemetery is supposed to rest with the police, the sources said, noting "we welcomed how two years ago a police checkpoint was opened at the site, but it has become clear that that still hasn't helped."
Making the lapse in security all the more serious is the fact that the Mount of Olives Cemetery is said to be the oldest cemetery still in use in the entire world, adding greater impetus to the desire to preserve it.
A member of the armed wing of the Palestinian terror group Hamas died Friday when a tunnel collapsed in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border, Hamas and medical sources said.Fatah to Renew Ties with Syria After 32 Years
The sources did not say why the tunnel, located in eastern Shejaiya in northern Gaza, collapsed.
A statement from izz ad-Dine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of de facto Gaza rulers Hamas, said a member was killed in the collapse of “a resistance tunnel.”
Hamas has created a network of underground tunnels that enable the movement of arms and fighters throughout the coastal Palestinian enclave. Some extend into Israel, and were used to carry out attacks during the July-August 2014 war with the Jewish state.
The Fatah movement plans to re-establish official relations with the Syrian regime after 32 years, Fatah official Abbas Zaki said Thursday, according to the Ma’an news agency.Exposé: Turkey Smuggled Jihadist Fighters into Syria
Zaki, a Fatah central committee member, told the news agency that a recent visit by a Fatah delegation to Syria was "successful," adding that Fatah offices will be opened in Syria soon.
He further said the visit to Syria was part of improving bilateral relations between the movement and the regime.
Palestinian Arab officials visited Syria last month to discuss efforts to protect the Yarmouk neighborhood of Damascus and its residents from the conflict.
A delegation led by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Zakaria al-Agha met with Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad and social affairs minister Kinda Shamat.
A Turkish daily on Friday published images it said showed the Turkish spy agency helping to smuggle jihadists into Syria, the latest allegations by the newspaper accusing the authorities of aiding extremist groups across the border.‘Moron’ jihadist’s selfie leads US to HQ
The government had last week lambasted the Cumhuriyet daily for publishing video footage the paper said showed the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) helping send weapons to Syria early last year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said its editor Can Dundar would pay a "heavy price" and promptly filed a criminal complaint demanding he serves multiple life sentences.
But Friday's story showed the staunchly secular Cumhuriyet is not giving any ground in an increasingly tense standoff with Erdogan's Islamist government ahead of Sunday's legislative elections.
Cumhuriyet said that a group of jihadists were first brought to the Turkish border town of Reyhanli on January 9, 2014 from Atme refugee camp in Syria in a clandestine operation.
From there, they were smuggled into Tal Abyad, a border town used by the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) as a gateway from Turkey, on two buses rented by the MIT, Cumhuriyet claimed.
A selfie uploaded by an Islamic State member this week gave the US Air Force the intel it needed to locate and bomb a command center in Syria in less than 24 hours.
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, described the jihadist behind the social media post as a “moron.”
“The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command,” Carlisle was quoted by reports as saying Monday during a speech in Arlington, Virginia. “And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da’esh, ISIL. And these guys go ‘ah, we got an in.'”
Through the “incredible work” of the intelligence team, the site in Syria was bombed shortly after, he said.
“So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours.”
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