Pages

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

10/06 Links: Hamas cell that killed Naama and Eitam Henkin Arrested; Israel is Not Palmyra!

From Ian:

IDF Blog: Security Forces Arrest Terrorists who Murdered 2 Israeli Civilians
The ISA, IDF and Israel Police have arrested members of the cell that perpetrated the shooting attack that killed 2 Israeli civilians on October 1. Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife Naama Henkin were murdered in front of their 4 children, the oldest of whom being 9 years old. The detainees have been transferred for investigation by the ISA and have admitted their involvement in the murder of the Henkins.
The cell – affiliated with Hamas in Nablus – numbered five terrorists, each of which had a defined role. One terrorist checked the route. Three terrorists were in the attacking vehicle – a driver and two attackers. The cell commander was not in the vehicle. Several additional suspects have been arrested on suspicion of aiding the cell.
The cell commander was Raeb Ahmed Muhammad Alivi, born in 1978, and active in Hamas’s military wing. He recruited the members of the cell, instructed them and provided them with weapons.
Hamas cell that killed Naama and Eitam Henkin nabbed
The video below shows the arrest of one of the suspects at a hospital in Nablus, Channel 2 television said Monday night. The TV report said the attack was likely curtailed when one of the five was accidentally shot by another cell member and the gunmen sped away in order to seek medical assistance for him. That may be why the four Henkin children — aged 9, 7, 4 and 4 months — were not harmed.
The Shin Bet named the cell leader as Ragheb Ahmad Muhammad Aliwi, a previously jailed Hamas fighter from Nablus, who recruited the other four terrorists, instructed them how to carry out attacks and provided them with their weapons.
The other four were named as Yahia Muhammad Naif Abdullah Hajj Hamad, who carried out the shooting itself; Samir Zahir Ibrahim Kusah, the driver of the car who is linked to previous terror attacks; Karem Lufti Fatahi Razek, the gunman who was wounded by gunfire from one of his fellow cell members during the attack; and Zir Ziad Jamal Amar, who cleared the way for the car to carry out the attack.
All four are Hamas activists from Nablus.
Razek was arrested in a hospital in Nablus by an undercover police unit. The other suspects were arrested at their homes and other locations. (h/t Bob Knot)
Hamas: Members’ arrests in Henkin murders ‘honorable’ for us
Hamas welcomed on Monday the Israeli announcement that five members of its organization were arrested for murdering Naama and Eitam Henkin in the West Bank on Thursday — and again praised the terror attack, vowing there would be more.
In a statement issued Monday night after the Shin Bet security service revealed the arrest of a five-member Hamas cell in Nablus, the terror group did not explicitly take responsibility for the attack that left the couple dead in front of their young children, but promised that “this cell is not the first and will not be the last.”
“The occupation’s announcement of the arrest of the Nablus cell is an honorable announcement for our people and their resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
UN Watch: State Dept. left dumbstruck when confronted over criticism of Israel in light of Afghan hospital shelling
U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner appeared dumbstruck yesterday when AP reporter Matt Lee, following up on our tweet from Saturday, asked him why the State Department said last year that it was “appalled” by Israel’s “disgraceful” shelling, after it accidentally hit a school in Gaza, yet took an altogether different approach this weekend when the U.S. accidentally shelled an Afghan hospital.
Following the U.S. bombing on Saturday in Kunduz that killed 19, I compared it with last year’s bizarre statement by the Obama Administration, which was more akin to a typically-prejudiced UN reaction:
Our spotlight on this hypocrisy got picked up quickly and was sent to AP correspondent Matt Lee.
At the next day’s daily State Department briefing in Washington, Lee pointedly asked it if were still Administration policy that, as they told Israel last year, “the suspicion that militants are operating nearby a site like this … does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of innocent civilians.”
Evidently startled by the question, deputy spokesperson Mark Toner –looking down and stumbling over his words, as you can see in this video — struggled desperately for several minutes yet failed to explain in any way the glaring inconsistency exposed by recent events. (h/t Yenta Press)
After Blasting Israel, State Department Doesn’t Immediately Condemn Afghan Hospital Bombing




Michael Lumish: Jihad and the Destruction of History
In the mean time, our navel-gazing Nero in the Oval Office plays his fiddle as the world burns and as Putin's Russia raises its head, acting on possibilities for strengthening the Bear's position at the expense of the Eagle in that part of the world.
The United States ran the Soviet Union out of the Middle East during the Cold War, but for ideological reasons the Obama administration has, essentially, invited them back in and Putin is more than happy to accommodate.
At the end of the day, Barack Obama is trying to humble the United States. For reasons having to do with post-colonial ideology, Obama believes that Europe and the United States have raped much of the rest of the world and that if we are to have normal diplomatic relations with non-western countries then the US and Europe must stand down.
Western Europe, however, has not stood down. On the contrary. Western Europe is entirely supine and apparently ready to take whatever it gets.
However, it must be understood that these assaults on antiquities are actually an assault on history, itself, in the cause of Islamic Supremacism.
They want to destroy the evidence of non-Muslim presence anywhere they can in order to eradicate any non-Muslim claims to lands that Islamic forces advanced upon during its history of imperial expansion.
The loss of Palmyra is not just a crime against humanity, but an attempt to erase the lives of the people who lived there for millennia before contemporary Islamists showed up with their bombs, their dynamite, and their racist ideology of death.
'We Are the Reason Israel is Not Palmyra!'
"Unfortunately a lot of this goes back to the incitement from Hamas, from the Palestinian Authority, from Islamists who live within Israel itself, which have spread a lot, saying that Israel wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, Israel wants to hurt holy sites of Islam - we're the guarantors of the sacred sites of Islam!" he continued.
"We're the reason why the sacred sites of Islam, the sites of Christianity, the sites of Judaism, do not look like Palmyra!" he fired back, referring to the ancient Syrian city conquered and sacked by ISIS.
"Israel is acting firmly, responsibly, against terrorists, against zealots, who murder innocent people," he concluded. "We're doing what any country would do under such circumstances."
Responding to critics, PM says army given full support to quell terror
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday responded to calls from the right flank of his party, including several of his ministers, urging him to toughen measures against Palestinian violence, saying he has given the army full support to crack down on terror.
The comments by Netanyahu came a day after thousands of people rallied outside his official residence and criticized the government’s handling of a recent surge in Palestinian terror attacks. Among the attendees were a number of politicians who are part of Netanyahu’s coalition, including some cabinet members.
“We will break this wave of terror as we have broken previous waves of terror,” he said during a tour in the West Bank to visit the site of a fatal shooting last Thursday in which Eitam Henkin and his wife Naama were shot dead in front of their children by Palestinian terrorists. “There is no doubt here about giving the army wide support and everyone knows that, including those who claim the opposite.”
Netanyahu noted that security plans would see cameras installed along highways throughout the West Bank, backed up by aerial surveillance monitored by command centers.
He told reporters the country’s top security echelon had decided to “significantly increase active protection” on Israel’s streets.
Arabs Who Spat At, Kicked Terror Victim to be Prosecuted
Thanks to near-complete video camera coverage in Jerusalem's Old City, the identities of Arabs who mocked, kicked, and hit Adelle Banita-Bennett as she staggered through the streets of Jerusalem's Old City are known, and they will be prosecuted, Israeli officials said.
A Channel 2 report Monday night said the identities of the Arabs who thought that Banita-Bennett's life-threatening injuries were “funny” will be brought to trial for incitement, failing to offer assistance, and acting as accomplices in an attempted murder.
On Sunday afternoon, the Adelle Banita-Bennett, widow of Aharon Banita-Bennett, who herself was seriously injured in the stabbing attack Saturday night in the stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem, awakened from the sedation she had been placed under in order to enable doctors to treat her.
Among the first people she spoke to was Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau, whom she told in detail about the attack.
The widow told Rabbi Lau how she attempted to escape from the terrorist after the stabbing began. “I ran for dozens of meters with a knife in my shoulder, bleeding. Arabs in the area who saw this horrible scene clapped and laughed, and told that they hoped for my quick death. I felt I was about to faint,” she said.
“I tried to hold on to someone who passed by, and they just shook me off and kicked me, and said 'die.'”
Palestinians Attack Ambulance Carrying Arab Stabbed By Palestinian Who Thought He Was Jewish
In the midst of a wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank on Saturday night, Palestinians attacked an Israeli ambulance carrying an Israeli Arab to the hospital after he was attacked by Palestinians because they thought he was Jewish.
An injured Israeli Arab man came to Kiryat Arba, outside Hebron in the West Bank, saying that he needed medical assistance after being mistakenly attacked by Palestinians, The Times of Israel reported. The ambulance taking him to the hospital was pelted with rocks by Palestinians along the road. An army vehicle that chased the rock throwers away from the ambulance was hit by a Molotov cocktail and set ablaze. No further injuries were reported.
 Abbas tells PA forces to urgently quell West Bank protests
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security chiefs to do their utmost to urgently quell surging West Bank protests Saturday night.
Abbas issued the orders to his security apparatus after days of escalating violence which saw four Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists since Thursday and three Palestinians killed during clashes with the IDF on Sunday and Monday.
The PA leader intervened as Israel’s security cabinet convened in Jerusalem to discuss new measures to halt the violence. Abbas said his forces needed to act more firmly in order to deny Israel the pretext for a West Bank crackdown, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been communicating in the past 24 hours in an attempt to calm the escalating violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a senior PA official told The Times of Israel earlier on Monday night.
Documents reveal Palestinian Authority paying convicted Hamas terrorists
Newly-revealed documents on Tuesday showed that the Palestinian Authority has been paying Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails hundreds of thousands of shekels over the past several years.
According to the documents obtained by Israel Radio, most of those receiving PA money are members of Hamas who were behind some of the bloodiest terror attacks in Israeli history, from the second intifada.
Those receiving these PA "salaries" are all serving time in maximum-security prisons for the crimes they committed.
One of the documents showed that Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas bomb maker serving 67 life sentences, has so far received more than NIS 250,000 (almost $66,000).
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Hamad, who served as the head of Hamas's military wing in the West Bank and is currently serving 54 life sentences, was shown in the documents to have already received NIS 200,000 (almost $53,000).
Both Bargouti and Hamad were involved in some of the worst suicide bombings of the second intifada, including the bombings at a cafeteria at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on July 31, 2002, the Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem on August 9, 2001 and a nightclub bombing in Rishon Lezion on May 7, 2002.
IDF razes East Jerusalem homes of 2014 attackers
Israeli security forces demolished the family homes of two Palestinian men from East Jerusalem who carried out terror attacks against Israelis over the past year, the IDF said Tuesday morning, as Israel’s government vowed to crack down on a wave of terror.
A room in the home of a third terrorist was also sealed off in possible preparation for demolition.
All three men were killed during or after the attacks they carried out last year, which left a total of six people dead.
“Overnight, and in accordance with the directive of the minister of defense, Moshe Ya’alon, security personnel demolished the residences of Ghassan Abu Jamal and Muhammed Naif El- Jaabis and sealed off a room in the residence of Mu’taz Ibrahim Halil Hijazi in Jerusalem,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
 Prosor: UN Security Council Remains Silent on Palestinian Terror
In the wake of the horrific stream of Palestinian terrorist murders, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told the UN Security Council that while these horrific killings and the recent escalation of attacks against Israelis were condemned by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “the Security Council remains silent, as always."
"Palestinian terrorists are trying to turn the holiday season into a season of grief," Prosor's statement continued. "Instead of calming tensions, the Palestinian leadership has used this holiday season to increase its inflammatory rhetoric and dangerous incitement.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear, most recently at his address last week to the General Assembly, that ‘Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo’ at the Temple Mount. Despite these clear and unequivocal statements, Abbas continues to deliberately spread false allegations with the sole purpose of sparking violence amongst the Palestinian People. In this he joins in league with extremists groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad."
Ambassador Prosor called on the UN Secretary General to put an end to the Palestinian incitement.
Politically Correct: US Condemns ‘Tragic Stabbings in Jerusalem’
The U.S. State Dept. once again has condemned the murders of Jews by Jerusalem and Palestinian Authority Arabs without using the politically incorrect word “terror.”
A statement from Washington declared:
The United States strongly condemns all acts of violence, including the ‎tragic stabbing in the Old City of Jerusalem today that left two victims dead and two injured.
We call for all perpetrators of violence to be swiftly brought to justice.
We are very concerned about mounting tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including the Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount, and call on all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and avoid escalating the situation.
John Kerry: Temple Mount Must Remain 'In the Hands of Jordan'
US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to demonstrate calm after violent clashes in the Old City of Jerusalem, and to "avoid further escalation."
Kerry was speaking at an event at Chile's Congress in Valparaiso after Israel banned Palestinians from Jerusalem, as part of measures to ensure the security of residents and visitors during the Simchat Torah festival, following a series of deadly Arab terrorist attacks
"Regarding Jerusalem, it absolutely is unacceptable on either side to have to have violence resorted to as a solution," Kerry said.
"And I would caution everybody to be calm, not to escalate the situation and to deal with this in a way that can find quick way back to the full restoration of the status quo where the chief administration is in the hands of the government of Jordan and King Abdullah, who is the custodian," he said, referring to the Temple Mount.
"And it is very important to maintain a sense of calm that will minimize the instinct for escalation."
 Arab MK Portrays Jerusalem Stabber as Victim
MK Ahmed Tibi (Joint List) was called out for incitement on Tuesday, after he portrayed one of the Palestinian Arab terrorists behind Saturday night's stabbing attacks as a "victim" being "chased by settlers."
Tibi posted a photo Monday night expressing support for terrorist Fadi Alwan. The picture contains a watermark saying "I acknowledge apartheid exists" and is accompanied by text reading, "My name is Fadi, I'm 19 Years Old. I was being pursued by Israeli settlers, so I rushed to the Israeli police for help. They shot me dead."
Palestinian and Israeli Arabs rushed to make the photo viral. Meanwhile, Israelis fumed over the gall that an MK serving in the Knesset could express such views for a cold-blooded murderer without being arrested for incitement.
Defending terror. Fadi Aloon
A 15 year old Israeli boy is in stable condition with wounds to his chest and back after a terror-motivated knife attack. East Jerusalem resident Fadi Aloon (Fadi Alwan) fled the scene and was overtaken and shot by police.
Anti-Israel activists on social media immediately rose to the defense of Aloon, who had previously expressed his desire for martyrdom.
Abbas Hamideh, Cleveland based co-founder of the extremist Al-Awda group claimed Aloon was heading to work.
Other anti-Israel activists didn't get the memo, and claimed he was dragged out of his home and killed
For stabbing a 15 year old in the back, Aloon was labeled a "hero"
The Al Qassam brigade proudly proclaimed him a martyr.
And again, not a single Palestinian leader has stepped forward to call for calm, or to express sympathy with the families of the Jewish victims.
 Northern Israel: Israeli Arabs Hold 'Third Intifada' Rallies
Israeli Arabs protested across Israel on Monday, in a show of support for Palestinian Arab terrorists in the wake of several shooting and stabbing attacks on Israeli Jews last week.
On Monday evening, dozens of people demonstrated near the Ba'ana Intersection near Carmiel and the Beit Rimon junction near Kafr Kana, waving Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags under the banner "The Third Intifada [terror war - ed.] Has Begun."
Several other demonstrations were held in other Israeli Arab strongholds in the north, including in Nazareth and Haifa. All were organized under the auspices of the terror group the Islamic Movement in Israel, according to Walla! News.
In a separate but similar demonstration, roughly 100 people gathered in Shfar'am in yet another show of support for Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Why is this Palestinian rioter wearing a Miri Regev t-shirt?
Hard-line Likud Minister Miri Regev appears to have won the support of an unexpected admirer.
Regev has been among those leading the fight for harsher penalties for Palestinian youths guilty of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces in east Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent weeks.
So when a Palestinian rioter was photographed in the midst of clashes with the IDF near Ramallah on Sunday wearing a t-shirt supporting the Likud minister, the ironic image quickly went viral.
A photograph taken by AFP's Abbas Momani outside of the Beit El settlement, where Palestinians were clashing with Israeli soldiers, depicts a masked Palestinian youth helping to tie a red scarf around another youth's face to obscure his identity. The second youth pictured is wearing a t-shirt that appears to be a free give-away from Regev's Likud primary run which reads, "We love you Miri Regev."
The same youth is seen in another AFP photograph sending a burning tire careening toward Israeli soldiers, an act that, it can be safely assumed, Regev would not support.
IsraelyCool: New Israel Fund’s Amiram Goldblum Knows Who The Real Terrorists Are
Meet Amiram Goldblum.
Amiram is a member of the international council of the New Israel Fund.
The New Israel Fund is currently on a major fundraising campaign.
Here is what Amiram wrote on his Facebook page as a response to the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Heinkin.
“Would someone brave propose a law that forbids raising children in settlements? All settlements are acts of terror, all adult settlers are soldiers of this terrorism, and the heart aches because children are being raised into this world of terrorism, with intent and bloodlust.
…Jewish religion destroys us all – just like it helped Hitler to destroy the Jews of Europe”.
Iran warns of ‘repercussions’ as West Bank heats up
Iran’s foreign ministry warned Israel on Tuesday of unspecified “repercussions” over the deaths of Palestinian protesters amid bouts of violence in the West Bank.
Ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham condemned what she called “inhumane” Israeli actions in the West Bank after three Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers within 24 hours.
According to Iranian media, Afkham also “strongly warned about the repercussions of the Zionist regime’s desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Quds (Jerusalem),” referring to the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.
Islamic Jihad threatens return to suicide bombings
The Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad threatened a return to the use of suicide bombers in attacks against Israelis — attacks that devastatingly typified the Second Intifada in 2000-2005.
In a video newly published on Palestinian social media, entitled “Letter #1,” a supposed Islamic Jihad member can be seen preparing for a suicide attack inside Israel dressed as an Israeli soldier, as a montage of recent images of violence on the Temple Mount, across Jerusalem, and in the West Bank flash onscreen.
Footage of the making of an explosive belt — which suicide bombers used during the Second Intifada — can also be seen in the video.
The would-be terrorist can then be seen in the frame smiling while filming his “shaheed [martyr] video” (usually released after a given attack showing the bomber delivering his last message before embarking on the mass killings). Then he is shown dressed in IDF uniform walking up to a bus stop where other “soldiers” are waiting. A bus pulls up and the screen fades to black.
Times of London ‘covers’ Palestinian terror attack by highlighting the Israeli response
That’s right. Editors published two stories on the terror attack (with quite similar opening sentences), both stressing Israel’s temporary security measures in response to the attack, not the deadly terror attack itself, the motivation of the perpetrator or the cruelty and indifference of Palestinian bystanders.
The journalistic focus of Carlstrom, Rankin and Times of London editors again confirms the analysis of former AP Jerusalem correspondent Matti Friedman, who argued that, within most of the Western media, Palestinians are simply not taken seriously as agents of their own fate and exist within the Israeli-Palestinian story merely as passive victims of Israeli actions.
'Wounded' Palestinian Reporter Appears on Camera After 'Israeli Attack'
Seems fishy… More Pallywood?
Horrible violence broke out over the weekend in Jerusalem. Two Palestinian teenagers carried out separate knife attacks that targeted Israelis. In one incident, an Israeli teenager was wounded. But in another, two Israelis were stabbed to death and a woman and toddler, who were surrounded and taunted by Arabs, escaped with less serious wounds.
These events led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops as the homes of suspects were being searched. Israeli police were using "riot dispersal means," according to a police spokeswoman, on those gathered and warned that "whoever is present with law-breaking rioters risks getting injured."
Ignoring those warnings was Lebanese reporter Hana Mahameed who works for Al-Mayadeen TV -- a network known to have close ties with Hezbollah -- and was reporting on location. As sound grenades were being launched down the street to disperse the rioters, Mahameed was apparently hit by the blast of one of the grenades.
The reporter isn't visible in the frame when the grenade goes off, though she is heard screaming in pain. As the camera turns towards her, she is immediately attended to by several men who begin loosening her flack jacket labeled "press" and unwrapping some sort of bandage from around her neck. A small bit of blood is seen on her upper lip, as well as a black smudge on one side of her face, as she continues wailing. It did not appear that she suffered any severe wounds as she was quickly escorted away from the camera.
However, Mahameed appeared a short time later with a healthy portion of bandages taped around the left side of her face and neck as she continued reporting, albeit from a new, safer location, away from the fighting.
BBC Admits Headline on Attack Was Wrong, Won't Apologize
The BBC on Sunday admitted that its initial headline on Saturday’s stabbing attack in Jerusalem was wrong, but refused to apologize for using it.
Following the attack, the network posted a headline reading, "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two".
The headline shocked and angered many readers who took to social media to vent their outrage.
The channel later changed its headline to the more accurate "Jerusalem: Palestinian kills two Israelis in Old City".
But in a statement Sunday to the website of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the BBC refused to apologize for the initial headline despite acknowledging it was erroneous.
"We identified the headline as one that does not accurately reflect both the events and the details reported on our website, so we changed it willingly," the network’s spokesman told Yedioth Ahronoth.
The head of Israel's Government Press Office issued a warning to the BBC following its eyebrow-raising headline.
Famous Moments in Modern History, as Told by the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau (satire)
The North Atlantic, 1912: Iceberg suffers severe structural damage following encounter with large boat. Something bad happened to the people on the boat as well.
Sarajevo, 1914: Austro-Hungarian police severely manhandle Serbian man following tragic death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife while driving.
New Jersey, 1938: Several tons of expensive hydrogen gas lost as the Airship Hindenburg explodes. Some people died too.
Pearl Harbor, 1941: Americans fire upon Japanese pilots, killing dozens. And the USS Arizona sinks along with its crew during current cycle of violence.
Dallas, 1963: Texas Book Depository suffers a break-in. Yada, yada, yada, President Kennedy dies.
Tehran, 1979: In serious breach of diplomatic protocol, United States Embassy personnel rudely reject Persian hospitality.
Beijing, 1989: Anti-government extremist disrupts traffic following altercation in Tiananmen Square. Rumor has it that some students died there too.
Los Angeles 1994: Popular football player OJ Simpson’s gloves are completely ruined. Also his ex-wife and her boyfriend are dead.
Washington, 1998: Intern performs sex act in the White House, damages new blue dress and premium cigar. President Clinton deeply and personally affected by incident.
Pakistan, 2011: During late-night home invasion, Americans with assault rifles kill visiting Saudi philosopher who was quiet and kept to himself.
Israeli planes hit Gaza after rocket fired at south
Israeli jets bombed a target in the Gaza Strip early Monday morning after a Palestinian terror group launched a rocket into southern Israel.
Palestinian media in Gaza reported Israeli strikes shortly after 2:30 a.m., a matter of hours after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Sunday night landed in open territory in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel, causing neither injury or damage.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The IDF said in a statement that Israeli aircraft struck “a Hamas terror site in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Hamas’s Al Aqsa news said Israeli airstrikes targeted Qassam Brigades sites across the Palestinian enclave.
Earlier on, air raid sirens warning of incoming rocket fire were heard in Nahal Oz and Alumim.
Smart Fences Completed Around Gaza Belt Communities
The Defense Ministry has finally finished building "smart fences" around 12 Gaza Belt communities, it announced on Tuesday, over one year after Operation Protective Edge ended.
The 30 million shekel ($7,751,539) project includes tens of meters of "smart fence" reinforced with security cameras and coverage for three years' worth of maintenance.
Communities now protected including Holot, Nir Yitzhak, Sufa, Nirim, Nir-Oz, Ein HaShlosha, Kissufim, Kibbutz Alumim, Sa'ad, Kfar Aza, Miflasim, and Nir-Am. All of them are mere kilometers from the Gaza border.
Karmiya and Yad Mordechai will also receive smart fences over the next several months.
Work on the fence system appears to have been accelerated, following a senior officer's expose that the Finance Ministry had been postponing the project for months.
Jordan jails vet for plot to blow up Israeli embassy
A court in Jordan on Monday sentenced a veterinary surgeon to three years’ hard labor for plotting a suicide car bombing outside the Israeli embassy in Amman.
The verdict was handed down by the state security court.
The 54-year-old was arrested in September 2014 after his car exploded in the garage of his house in Irbid province north of the capital.
The charges said that the vet, who had been experimenting with explosives, was planning the attack as a response to Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip in July and August last year.
Earlier this year, Jordan handed down jail sentences against seven of its citizens and one Syrian for planning attacks on the Israeli embassy and US soldiers in the country.
Palestinian activist aims to ‘start an intifada against Israel in the US’
On his current tour of the US, from September 7 to October 19, Tamimi has more than 25 stops scheduled, with an itinerary that includes major American cities such as San Francisco and Chicago, and small college towns, like South Bend, Indiana, and Ithaca, New York. The tour is organized by three controversial pro-Palestinian organizations: Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends of Sabeel and Interfaith Peace-Builders.
These groups have been cited by pro-Israel watchdogs like the Anti-Defamation League and NGO Monitor for systematic attempts to steer public support from Israel.
At every Tamimi gathering, a representative of Interfaith Peace-Builders is present to speak with attendees after the talks about participating in one of their organized trips to the West Bank. The group sends three to four delegations to the region every year and, according to the organization, these trips are “intended to introduce delegation participants to a variety of opinions, debates, and analyses on Israel and Palestine.”
The trips have been criticized by NGO Monitor as “highly one-sided” presentations of the conflict “based solely on the Palestinian narrative.” Other watchdogs have also castigated the trips as aiming to demonize Israel, citing their affiliation with groups hostile to Israel such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends of Sabeel, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Facebook to launch Israeli satellite to bring Internet to Africa
European satellite operator Eutelsat Communications and social media giant Facebook said Monday they are working jointly to deliver satellite broadband Internet to connectivity-hungry sub-Saharan Africa using an Israeli satellite.
The firms revealed they have reached a multi-year agreement with satellite communication firm Spacecom to use the entire broadband payload of the AMOS-6 satellite due to come on stream in the second half of next year and provide coverage for large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa, after identifying “pent-up demand for connectivity.”
The multi-million dollar AMOS-6 satellite, built by the Israel Aerospace Industries, will be ready for launch in 2016, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Hey BDSHoles, There’s Always MySpace
Which means if the BDSHoles want to be true to their (insidious) cause, they need to boycott Facebook.
Feel free to remind them of this, by commenting on the Facebook pages of the BDS movement and those advocating BDS.
Amazons of the desert
Female IDF soldiers, their heads laden with brush and branches, dash across the screen.
“The empty deserts of southern Israel — but suddenly, the desert blooms!” the narrator exclaims, as the soldiers crouch down to crawl.
“Hats are more than half the secret,” the announcer reveals. “Military millinery — a sprig here, a tuft there, hat fashion for feminine fighters.”
And as the camera focuses on one exemplary hat, he concludes: “The enemy are bound to surrender!”


Israel builds a desert railway
In this newsreel dated 1959, workers lay track and cranes lower rails into place as Israel builds a railway from the Gulf of Aqaba, through Beersheba, to the Mediterranean.
According to the announcer, Israel had already built an oil pipeline over a similar route. The nation hoped the pipeline and railway would achieve a double bypass of the Suez Canal.
“In addition, the railway will help to develop and populate the Negev Desert,” the narrator adds. “At present, the desert is mostly populated by Bedouin tribesmen and their camels.”
“Some camels never learn!” he exclaims, as a camel saunters across the rails.