Friday, October 16, 2015
Caroline Glick: Kerry, Israeli Arabs and the separation delusion
Israel’s political leaders have rightly expressed anger at the US State Department’s hostile characterizations of the Palestinian terrorist onslaught. Secretary of State John Kerry’s claims, parroted by his spokesmen, that Israel is either entirely to blame for Palestinian terrorism or shares the blame equally with the Palestinians, are baseless lies.PA Tries to Claim Western Wall at UNESCO
Kerry and his spokesmen have alleged that the current Palestinian convulsion of murderous violence is a product of “a massive increase in settlements.” Yet as Haaretz reported this week, Israel has built fewer homes for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since 2009, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (and President Barack Obama) entered office, than it had since 1995. The steep increase in the Jewish population in the areas is almost entirely the result of Jewish women having babies.
The other accusations the State Department has leveled against Israel – that it incites violence and engages in terrorism – are so obscene that there is no point in trying to set the record straight. Quite simply, an administration comfortable with libeling Israel in this way doesn’t want to know the truth.
While at this point it is abundantly clear that Kerry like the administration he serves has an unpleasant, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, it’s hard to shake the conclusion that there is more going on here than simply opposition to Israel.
For instance his claim this week that “Unless we get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from everybody,” is more an assault on reality generally than on Israel in particular.
In an attempt to gain international legitimacy for its rewriting of history, the Palestinian Authority (PA) will submit a resolution to UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) next week claiming the Kotel (Western Wall) as its own.The Obama Intifada
The proposal calls to have the Kotel in Jerusalem - which is an outer wall of the Temple Mount that is the holiest site in Judaism - recognized as part of Al-Aqsa Mosque located on the Mount, reports Yedioth Aharonoth on Friday.
The PA is not a member of the UNESCO Executive Council, and therefore the proposal will be submitted for a vote next week on its behalf by the six Arab member states of Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Senior Israeli sources revealed that the PA is working in parallel to have the proposal submitted at the UNESCO plenum, where the PA is recognized as a state.
In response, Israel is working behind the scenes to rally opposition to the proposal, although there is an automatic Muslim majority making its adoption all but certain.
How coddling Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas led to terrorism in IsraelState Dept. Deletes Tweet Calling Israel Attacks ‘Tragic, Outrageous’
Obama won’t hold the Palestinians accountable because that might jeopardize his policy of daylight between America and Israel. A policy that was intended to improve U.S. credibility in the Muslim world and thereby denuclearize Iran, disarm and remove Bashar al-Assad, and establish a peaceful Palestinian state. A policy that has instead destabilized the region, formalized the Russian-Iranian-Syrian axis, enriched and empowered the Shiite theocracy, rattled our allies, and done nothing to curtail Palestinian intransigence.
Even the carrot Obama offered Israel as part of the Iran deal—interdiction of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah—has been exposed as an illusion. Russia has a no-fly zone in Syria and is arming Syrian regulars and presumably Hezbollah, too. How else to explain Netanyahu’s sudden visit to Moscow last month? Hezbollah with a nuclear umbrella was something the Iran deal was supposed to prevent. Now Hassan Nasrallah benefits from the Russian nuclear umbrella, in addition to the Iranian one that will be unfurled a decade hence. Great job Obama.
So here we are: Palestinians no closer to statehood, Israel terrorized, Jewish and Arab lives being lost, and an atmosphere so rife with revisionism and paranoia that the New York Times is questioning the history of Jews on the Temple Mount. All because President Obama forgot that daylight ends in darkness.
The State Department on Thursday was caught deleting a tweet that had referred to the recent spate of terror attacks against Israel as “tragic” and “outrageous.”
The tweet was then replaced with a more subdued statement referring to the attacks on Jewish people as “recent.”
Secretary of State John Kerry “addresses the tragic, outrageous attacks on civilians in Israel and West Bank,” the State Department tweeted from its official account.”
That tweet was quickly deleted and replaced with a new tweet omitting references to the attacks as “tragic” and “outrageous.”
The first tweet says Kerry addressed the “tragic, outrageous” attacks on Israel. It was promptly deleted and replaced. The second tweet just calls the attacks “recent.”
Kerry warns Abbas against inciting violence
Since the recent spate of violence began the United States has repeatedly urged both sides to show restraint, but Kerry’s remarks were the first aimed explicitly at Abbas.The bloody Palestinian war on reality
“There’s no excuse for the violence,” Kerry told NPR News, which released extracts of a radio interview due to air Friday as the US diplomatic chief flies to Europe.
“No amount of frustration is appropriate to license any violence anywhere at any time. No violence should occur. And the Palestinians need to understand,” he argued.
“President Abbas has been committed to non-violence. He needs to be condemning this, loudly and clearly,” Kerry said. “And he needs to not engage in some of the incitement that his voice has sometimes been heard to encourage. So that has to stop.”
If only someone could highlight Netanyahu’s vow, from every podium, that Israel has no plans to change the status quo. Or mention that to lower the temperature he’d banned all Israeli politicians, Jews and Arabs, from visiting the contentious site. Or his offer Thursday to meet Abbas to restore calm.Incitement: Bassem Tamimi spreads claim Israel arrests Palestinian children to harvest organs
Enter State Department spokesman John Kirby, who said Wednesday, “certainly, the status quo has not been observed, which has led to a lot of the violence.”
Come again? That factually-challenged statement followed Secretary of State John Kerry, who has his own “narrative”: Israeli settlement expansion is responsible for the violence. (State later walked back Kerry’s statement.)
And after pressure from Israeli and Jordanian officials, Kirby also retracted, tweeting, “Clarification from today’s briefing: I did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif has been broken. We welcome both Israel’s & Jordan’s commitment to continued maintenance of status quo at Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.”
But why’d State embrace a contention that’s so easily refutable to begin with? Alas, if narratives trump facts, Washington can pick and choose its reality, and further inflame an already tense situation.
A storm of controversy erupted during Tamimi’s tour when the Ithaca, NY, chapter of JVP brought Tamimi to a third grade class. Tamimi concluded the event by calling for the third graders to become “freedom fighters” for Palestine.IDF Soldier Stabbed by Terrorist Disguised as News Photographer, Hours After Joseph’s Tomb Set on Fire
The Superintendent of the Ithaca school district, after an investigation, denounced the visit, finding that Tamimi was not invited by the school and the event was “not developmentally appropriate for third graders, nor aligned with the New York State standards. The statements were politically skewed, inflammatory, and not endorsed by the Ithaca City School District.”
Nonetheless, JVP stood by Tamimi. JVP defended the third grade event and launched a campaign claiming that the Superintendent’s criticism of the third grade event was proof that pro-Palestinian voices were being “silenced and threatened.”
It always has been highly questionable that Tamimi was the non-violent peace activist he presents himself to be. The Tamimi clan continues to be involved in inciting violence via social media.
But this Facebook entry by Tamimi, in which he spreads the claim that Israel arrests Palestinian children in order to harvest their organs, takes the incitement to a new level:
An Israeli soldier is in moderate-to-serious condition, after being stabbed Friday afternoon by a Palestinian disguised as a news photographer, according to the IDF spokesman’s office.
The attack was carried out on a West Bank highway, near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, outside of Hebron.
The soldier, approximately 20 years old, was rushed by Magen David Adom paramedics to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he is being treated for stab wounds to his back.
Israeli news outlets are reporting that the terrorist – who was wearing a vest bearing the sign “PRESS” — was shot and killed by Israeli security forces, seconds after the stabbing.
According to Israeli site nrg, the subduing of the terrorist was documented by Al-Quds TV, a Hamas-affiliated station, licensed in London, with offices in Gaza, the West Bank, Beirut and Damascus. [So much for "uncoordinated attacks" claim]
Foreign press group condemns stabbing attack by Palestinian posing as reporter
An organization representing foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Friday condemned the attack by a Palestinian assailant who stabbed an IDF soldier in Hebron while posing as a reporter.Terror attack thwarted after police dog finds pipe bomb in east Jerusalem
The stabbing incident occurred at Zayit Junction, in the Kiryat Arba area. The terrorist was shot dead at the scene, while the soldier was moderately wounded.
During the incident, the terrorist approached the soldier wearing a "press" flak jacket and carrying a camera.
A Border Police canine unit on Friday foiled a possible terror attack seemingly intended to target the security forces after detecting an explosive device at a checkpoint next to east Jerusalem's Issawiya neighborhood.Arab Terrorists Plant Live Grenade at Tourist Site
During operational sweeps of the area near the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, a Border Police bomb-sniffing dog and handler located the suspicious object that encased a pipe bomb.
Police sappers called to the scene confirmed that the object was an explosive, closed the premises and neutralized the device.
Authorities said the explosive could have caused deaths among security forces at the checkpoint or among civilians if it had been transferred to the western side of the city.
Around noon, on Friday, an IDF patrol spotted a suspicious object under a bench at the Meir Spring near Neve Tsuf in the Binyamin region, according to a TPS report.Palestinian rioters set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus
On closer inspection they discovered that it was a live grenade with the safety pin removed, connected to a trip wire.
It was placed at the base of a park bench near the spring, which is popular among Jewish hikers on Fridays.
The spring has been closed off, and an IDF sapper is on the way to neutralize the grenade.
A large group of Palestinians set fire to the compound containing Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus.Minister Demands: Return Israeli Control to Joseph's Tomb
Channel 2 television said Palestinian Authority security forces dispersed the hundred-strong crowd and managed to douse the fire at the tomb, believed to contain the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the scene once the confrontation was over and the fire was out, the television station reported.
The Walla website also reported that PA security forces had brought the fire under control and dispersed the rioters. The blaze caused major damage to the women’s section at the site, the website said.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) on Friday morning called to return Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) to Israeli control, after about 150 Palestinian Arabs on Thursday night arrived at the compound and tried to burn it down.Abbas condemns ‘irresponsible’ torching of Joseph’s Tomb
Reportedly Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces dispersed the rioters by firing in the air, and then Palestinian firefighters put out the fire. Initial reports indicated that damage was inflicted to the women's prayer area.
"The arson of one of the holiest sites to the Jewish nation is an additional low, and the result of Palestinian incitement," said Ariel.
"Even as the Palestinians shamelessly lie about (Israel) harming the status quo on the Temple Mount, they themselves are burning and desecrating the holy sites of Israel, and this cannot be forgiven."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned on Friday the torching of the compound housing Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus overnight Thursday-Friday by Palestinian rioters throwing Molotov cocktails.PreOccupiedTerritory: To Prevent Al Aqsa Desecration, Palestinian To Torch It As Well (satire)
In a statement published on the Wafa news agency, Abbas called the act “irresponsible”and said a committee was being formed to investigate.
The PA president “decided to immediately form an investigative commission to probe this irresponsible act committed this morning, and [to] repair the damage to the site caused by these deplorable actions,” according to AFP.
The site sustained some damage early Friday morning, after some 100 Palestinians attacked the shrine.
Religious leaders at Al Aqsa Mosque are planning to burn down the shrine to prevent Jews from desecrating the site with what Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called their “filthy feet.” The move comes after Palestinian rioters set alight Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus (Shechem) last night, a site claimed as sacred by both Jews and Muslims.IDF Patrol Comes Under Fire on Gaza Border
For months, tensions at Al Aqsa and its environs, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, have remained high. Despite repeated Israeli assurances that they do not intend to change the decades-old arrangement on the Mount that forbids non-Muslim prayer, there have been almost daily, often violent, disturbances amid accusations that Israel intends to alter the status quo and to replace the Islamic buildings on the site with the Third Temple. Attacks on Jews by knife-wielding Palestinians have occurred almost every day in the last two weeks, with Al Aqsa featured prominently in Palestinian media and incitement, which exhorts them to defend the place from Jewish “desecration” and “settlers” who “storm” Al Aqsa, referring to groups of tourists who walk around certain parts of the Temple Mount.
The site known as Joseph’s Tomb in Palestinian-controlled Nablus has also been the site of clashes, but access to Jews there is even further restricted, with one approved visit under IDF escort once a month, in the middle of the night. The visits are usually greeted by Palestinian riots, but the violence is not confined to the presence of Jews. On several occasions local rioters have broken into and vandalized the site, which Palestinians claim is not the burial place of the Biblical patriarch Joseph, but of a medieval sheikh by that name. If burning down the tomb works to keep out the unwanted Jews, reasoned the Al Aqsa custodians, then a similar approach at the Jerusalem mosque – the third-holiest site in Islam – should yield the desired results.
IDF soldiers patrolling the border fence with Gaza came under terrorist gunfire on Friday afternoon, in an attack that took place at the border in the central area of Gaza.Police to Restrict Muslim Entry to Temple Mount on 'Day of Rage'
No one was wounded in the gunfire, which took place across the border from the Bureij "refugee camp," not far from the Israeli town of Kissufim.
Bullet damage was located on the windshield of an IDF bulldozer that was stationed over the border for engineering work, indicating an apparent Gaza sniper attack.
The attack comes the same Friday that both Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction declared as a "Day of Rage."
The Commander of the Jerusalem District of the Police, Moshe Edri, on Thursday evening held a security assessment, following which he announced that police would restrict the entry of Muslim worshipers into the Temple Mount on Friday.PA arrests 19 Hamas members, suspects planning stabbing attacks
According to Edri’s instructions, Muslim men aged 40 and over and women of all ages will be allowed into the compound.
The Jerusalem Police will continue to employ reinforcements around the capital, especially around the Old City and traffic routes used by worshipers at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.
The announcement was made hours after Hamas and other Palestinian Arab terrorist group announced a “day of rage” on Friday.
Palestinian Authority security forces arrested more than 19 Hamas members in the West Bank over the past few days, according to Palestinian sources.Israel to cut off PA payments to imprisoned terrorists
In addition, claimed the sources, the PA forces — after monitoring social media sites for “potential suspects” — arrested several people suspected of planning to carry out stabbing attacks.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have confirmed that Palestinian security forces are making a massive effort to calm tensions in the West Bank and have, so far, succeeded in limiting confrontations in the territory.
In fact, over the past few days, there’s been a significant drop in the participation of Palestinians at protests in the West Bank. On Thursday, for example, only 40 demonstrators took part in a protest near Beit El, north of Ramallah, and about 1,000 participated in protests across the West Bank.
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet decided Thursday to actively counter Palestinian Authority policies by which terrorists imprisoned in Israel are eligible for monthly wages. In 2012, Ramallah's payments to terrorists exceeded 75 million shekels ($19 million).Terrorist teen ‘executed by Israel’ said to confess to attack
The ministers have instructed Israeli intelligence agencies to gather information about the nature of such transactions, so that Israel may prevent the funds from reaching their destination, either by intercepting wire transfers or by seizing the funds from the terrorists and their families.
Palestinian Authority payments are usually done by wire transfer to either the terrorist's bank account or that of a family member. In some cases, funds are physically delivered to terrorists' homes, and Israel has knowledge of instances when funds were even delivered to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
The Ramallah-based government, it appears, determines terrorists' wages according to the length of their prison sentence, and the longer the sentence, the higher the wages.
Ahmed Manasra, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly took part in a stabbing spree in which an Israeli his age was critically wounded Monday, and who PA President Mahmoud Abbas claimed was killed in cold blood by Israeli police, reportedly admitted Thursday to carrying out the attack in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.Report: Family of Teen Terrorist — Touted as ‘Killed in Cold Blood’ — Tried to Prevent Israel from Filming Him Alive (VIDEO)
“I went there to stab Jews,” he told investigators at the Hadassah Hospital where doctors have been treating him for wounds he sustained during the incident, police said.
Manasra said he was motivated to carry out the attack by the Palestinian claim that Israel has been trying to change the status quo on the volatile Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Israel has repeatedly rejected such allegations.
The Manasra family, whose young son was wounded after stabbing a Jewish Israeli teen his age, was working with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to fabricate their son’s death at the hands of Israeli security forces, sources close to the Israeli health minister, Yaakov Litzman, told Israeli news outlet nrg on Thursday.‘Doctors for Human Rights’ Protest Picture of Teen Terrorist Who Wasn’t ‘Executed’
The report came after Litzman apparently intervened to allow cameramen to snap photographs of 13-year-old Ahmed — who is being treated at the Ein Karem branch of Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem — after Abbas blamed Israel for his “execution.” According to nrg, the Manasra family had refused to permit reporters to document the boy, who is alive and well.
The Doctors for Human Rights organization on Thursday protested the publication of a picture showing the 13-year-old boy Ahmed Manasra in his bed at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, after the stabbing attack he had launched in Jerusalem.The Media’s Shameful, Shameless Bias against Israel
The organization said that the publication of a photograph of a minor without the permission of his parents is a breach of his legal right to privacy, and of medical ethics. The organization also stated it was disturbed by the fact that the picture had been distributed by a Government Press Office. Manasra was seriously injured after he was hit by a car when passersby began chasing him and his partner in terror after the stabbing.
On Sunday, October 11, the Los Angeles Times ran the headline “6 Palestinian Teens Die Amid Mideast Unrest.” It was, technically, true. But it left out a few key details.MSNBC: Can Israel Find 'Middle Ground' With Knife-Wielding Terrorists?
Try the opening sentence, instead: “Two Palestinian teenagers were shot to death Saturday in Jerusalem, officials said, after they carried out separate stabbing attacks on an ultra-Orthodox Jew and two Israeli police officers.” Among Palestinians, stabbing Israelis is in vogue at present — as are shooting them, ramming them with vehicles, and bludgeoning them with meat cleavers, all of which have also taken place in the “unrest” of the past few weeks. Seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in attacks since Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration, ended on September 15. The purported reason for the renewed violence is the rumor, despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s assurances to the contrary, that the Israeli government plans to reopen the Temple Mount to Jews. But the rash of violence is better explained by a century-long virus of hatred.
Western media outlets, as this latest flare-up reminds us, suffer their own mild case of this virus, manifested in their headlines. NBC News recently published a story entitled, “Dispute Over Viral Video of Shot Ahmed Manasrah Sums Up Israel-Palestinian Conflict.” What it summarizes is nothing; what it omits — that the wounded 13-year-old Palestinian and his 15-year-old cousin were shot after stabbing and seriously wounding two Israelis — is quite a bit. At the New York Times, there was, “Israeli Police Officers Kill Two Palestinian Men.” (Guess why). On its website, CNN blared, “Palestinian Youth: ‘Now We’ll Fight,’” with the subtitle, “Israeli-Palestinian Tensions Escalate with Four Violent Attacks.” Yahoo News got in on the action with, “Israeli Police Shoot Dead Palestinian at Entrance to Jerusalem’s Walled Old City,” which is both biased and grammatically ambiguous. And while no one expects Al Jazeera to be fair and balanced on this subject, its Twitter tease for a (less egregious) article on a stabbing that killed two Israelis in early October was nothing short of extraordinary: “Palestinian Shot Dead after Fatal Stabbing in Jerusalem; 2 Israeli Victims Also Killed.”
MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin Corrected On-Air After Suggesting Dead Palestinian Terrorist Wasn’t Armed
NBC News reporter Ayman Mohyeldin was corrected on-air yesterday after a live report that implied a Palestinian terrorist who charged at officers brandishing a knife didn’t have a weapon on him.Msnbclies [Mohyeldin's humiliation at 1:30, furious backpedaling follows]
Amid a disturbing series of stabbing attacks this month, there was another attempted stabbing near the Damascus Gate yesterday. The man charged at police officers with a knife and they fatally shot him.
Mohyeldin reported live on MSNBC Wednesday morning that he and the NBC News team had a good vantage point and they did not see anyone getting stabbed “at the time of this incident.” He said the man who approached the police was shot after ignoring multiple warnings.
He himself did not confirm that the attacker had a knife on him, telling Jose Diaz-Balart that when he was lying on the ground “both of his hands were open and both of his hands did not have a knife.”
Diaz-Balart jumped in to bring up a still image NBC News obtained in which “we can clearly see the man… with what appears to be, at least in his right hand, a knife.” (h/t Predictor92)
Coverage Of Attacks In Israel: Does NBC News Have An Ayman Mohyeldin Problem?
Here's how CBC is making Palestinians look like victims, not terrorists
Israeli authorities called Abbas' claims that a 13 year old Palestinian boy had been executed a lie -- in fact he is receiving treatment in an Israeli hospital, as seen in the video report, above.
During all this, taxpayer-funded CBC continues to minimize the recent terror attacks, through their biased choice of words and images that depict Palestinians as victims rather than perpetrators.
Unlike The Rebel, CBC also hasn't aired any of the widely available footage of Israelis being randomly attacked by knife-wielding Muslim terrorists.
I look at different examples of bias, especially reports by CBC journalist Margaret Evans. Her reports on the scene in Israel have been singled out for criticism in a new investigation by Honest Reporting Canada.
Middle East news: CBC's anti-Israel reporting challenged
John Bolton: Behind The Growing Escalating Violence In Israel
JPost Editorial: Kerry and free will
Do human beings have control over their actions or is their behavior simply the product of external stimuli? If you ask US Secretary of State John Kerry, humans, or at least Palestinians, simply react. Their responses – in this case stabbing, stoning and shooting innocent men, women and children – are conditioned by factors considered by Kerry to be beyond their control – namely the Jewish settlement project in Judea and Samaria.Netanyahu Slams State Dept on Excessive Force Allegations
Speaking at Harvard University this week, Kerry presented this radically behaviorist approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reflecting an opinion often heard here in Israel, particularly by Palestinians and members of the Israeli Left.
“There’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years,” Kerry said during a question- and-answer session, “and there’s an increase in the violence because there’s this frustration that’s growing.”
According to Kerry, the building of housing in Judea and Samaria inexorably leads human beings with full control of their cognitive abilities to take to the streets of Jerusalem and Ra’anana and Itamar to hack to death people like Rabbi Yishayahu Krishevsky, 59, a God-fearing hassid of the Pinsk-Karlin dynasty, or to shoot and stab to death 78-yearold Haviv Haim.
Jewish Rep Demands Obama Fire State Dept Spokesman for Accusing Israel of TerrorismIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the U.S. State Department’s allegations that Israel is using excessive force to fight terrorism Thursday, saying that the allegations are unfair, false, and justify Palestinian terrorism.“This allegation is totally false. It’s also utterly unfair, because it’s so obviously, patently false,” he said.
When asked whether Israel was worried about losing the support of its allies because of the State Department’s concerns, Netanyahu said that Israel is using the amount of legitimate force necessary to protect its citizens against the threat of terrorism.
“Israel is using exactly the kind and the amount of legitimate force that any one of those governments would use if they had people wielding knives, meat cleavers, axes, trying to kill people on their streets,” he said.
Netanyahu said that if America, or any other country were facing the threat of terrorism, they would protect their citizens just as Israel is.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.) demanded that President Obama replace State Department Spokesman John Kirby for accusing Israel of terrorism amid increased terror attacks at the hands of Palestinians there.Ted Cruz Demands Kerry Resign Over Israel Criticism
“It is absolutely disgusting and shameful that the Obama administration not only refuses to stand strong with our ally in Israel, but actually has the audacity to claim that the Israelis are guilty of terrorism,” Zeldin said in a statement Thursday.
Kirby on Wednesday said that Israelis are guilty of “acts of terrorism” when discussing the heightened violence in Israel, a move that Zeldin said “warrants his immediate removal.” Dozens of Israelis have been wounded and at least three murdered in attacks by Palestinians and Arab-Israeli terrorists in recent days.
“Individuals on both sides of this divide are–have proven capable of, and in our view, are guilty of acts of terrorism,” Kirby told reporters Wednesday.
Zeldin, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, called the Obama administration’s accusation an embarrassment and an untrue statement that will only distance the United States from its “important and strategic ally.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is calling on Secretary of State John Kerry to resign over recent comments by senior Obama administration officials accusing Israel of committing “terrorism” amid a spate of violent attacks by Palestinians against Jews.Trump: How Can Israel Be Happy with the US?
Palestinian terrorists have murdered at least eight Israelis and wounded dozens more over the last few weeks, with Palestinian leaders calling on citizens to commit more violence.
However, the State Department has attempted to blame Israel for fostering these attacks. Kerry blamed so-called Israeli “settlement” growth for the violence, while State Department spokesman John Kirby accused Israel of committing “terrorism.”
The comments sparked outrage among pro-Israel observers and prompted Cruz to demand that Kerry accept responsibility for the remarks and resign.
“Once again Sec. Kerry and his staff have proven themselves utterly unfit for the positions they hold,” Cruz told the Washington Free Beacon. “Mr. Kirby should immediately retract his offensive assertion that Israel is ‘guilty of acts of terror’ or resign, and Secretary Kerry should immediately disavow these remarks or resign.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed the US State Department on Thursday over it's criticism of Israel for using "excessive force" in defending its civilians from Arab terrorists.Rubio: Obama Admin Must Stop Blaming Israel for Palestinian Terror Attacks
Speaking to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, the real estate guru condemned State Department spokesperson John Kirby's talk of "credible reports" regarding "excessive force" made Wednesday. Trump's statements can be seen five minutes into the video below.
"Israel’s being hit from all sides, and, you know, if you look at this new deal, this horrible, one of the worst contracts ever negotiated, the Iran nuclear deal, I mean, how can Israel be happy with the United States?," posed Trump.
"They’re getting hit on in so many different ways. So, I don’t blame him (Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu) for being unhappy with our president, or the United States. We’re not taking care of them. We’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing."
Directly addressing Kirby's remarks, Trump said, "what’s excessive force? They’re being hit from all sides, and they’re being hit very unfairly, and they have to do what they have to do.”
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the Obama administration needs to stop finding Israel at fault for the massive wave of Palestinian terror attacks in the Jewish state.PreOccupiedTerritory: I Can’t Believe The Hypocrisy I Have To Defend Here At State - By John Kirby, State Department Spokesman (satire)
The Florida senator wrote in a blog post that the Obama administration is “spreading malicious falsehoods” about the terror attacks. He criticized the administration’s spokespeople for continuously blaming “both sides” for the violence in Israel and portraying Israeli victims as somehow culpable. He also accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of lying during his address at Harvard University on Tuesday, when he linked the wave of terrorism in Israel to an increase in Israeli settlements.
“By lying about the true causes of the violence and falsely blaming the Israelis, Kerry brings dishonor on the United States,” Rubio wrote. “By providing a Palestinian leadership with cover for its support for terrorism, he rewards incitement.”
Then this week I had to handle Secretary Kerry’s statement that the status quo on the Temple Mount had changed, and that was the source of the current wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence. Of course Israel hasn’t changed anything, and the claim is just an excuse to rile up the Palestinians and get them to riot, but I work for Mr. Kerry. As you can imagine, it was a tense few hours before we were able to come up with an almost-passable retraction. It’s been rough.The Five: Administration Stands By Accusations Of Israeli Terror
I do hope nobody starts bringing up the Iran deal again, because that thing is a bitch to defend. It’s got more holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese at a firing range. And Iran won’t abide by it anyway. But I’m supposed to talk it up like it’s the answer to the world’s prayers, and no, of course it won’t lead to exactly the kinds of developments in Syria and Yemen that we’ve claimed to be trying to avoid for years now. Oops.
And don’t get me started on Vladimir Putin. The guy’s been riding shirtless circles around us forever, but whose job is it to explain how things are going exactly as we planned? That’s right. Yours truly.
I should go back to the navy. Better to risk drowning than to have to defend this level of hypocrisy.
Israel's prime minister warns the world not to confuse his country's victims with their attackers.
UN Security Council to meet on Israeli-Palestinian violence
The United Nations Security Council will hold a special meeting on Friday to discuss the recent spate of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in which 39 people have been killed over the past two weeks.MK Zoabi: Enough Lone Attacks, Time for Mass Intifada
The meeting, which diplomats said was called at the request of council member Jordan, will include a briefing from the UN secretariat on the situation on the ground and will take place at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), the United Nations said on Thursday.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no resolution was planned at the moment but there might be an attempt to get the council to issue a statement aimed at urging the two sides to curb the violence.
"All options are on the table," a diplomat told Reuters.
Radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi of the Joint List accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of giving orders to "execute" Arab terrorists conducting attacks, who she claimed were actually innocent despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary.Baha Aliyan: They aren't making peace activists like they used to
The MK, who has vocally supported Hamas in the past, said in a statement Wednesday night that "the occupation regime reasons that by killing Palestinians on the streets they will succeed in placing fear upon them and preventing the breakout of the revolution against the occupier."
Zoabi's claim echoes false claims by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which alleged that an "innocent" Arab 13-year-old who carried out the Pisgat Ze'ev double stabbing earlier this week was "executed," when he in fact is currently receiving medical treatment in Israel. Netanyahu slammed this "new big lie" in a press conference on Thursday.
They aren't making peace activists like they used to.Israeli-Arab, Palestinian Youth Express Support for Terror, Killing of Jews
Mazin Qumsiyeh, darling of Sabeel has just described Baha Aliyan, the man who terrorized a bus full of civilians as a "peace activist." What kind of depravity and moral inversion would lead anyone to describe the cold-blooded murderer of 2 innocent civilians as a peace activist?
Several days ago "peace activist" Baha Aliyan, 22, and Bilal Ranem, 23 boarded an Egged bus on in East Talpiot, armed with a gun and a knife.
In man-on-the-street interviews conducted by Israel’s Channel 2 News, Israeli-Arab and Palestinian youth expressed support for the recent terror wave and resulting murder of Jews.Dutch cafe owner: Time to ‘smite down’ Israeli tourists
In one such interview, a smiling Israeli-Arab teenager said he “becomes happy” when he hears of a stabbing attack against Israelis.
When pressed by the reporter, who asks him in Arabic: “It makes you happy? It puts you in a good mood?,” the boy responds in the affirmative.
When asked why he took pleasure in the violence, the grinning youth says, “Because someone from my people, from Palestine, went and stabbed a Jew. It means we taught the Jews a lesson.”
When the reporter reveals that he himself is Jewish, the boy is shocked. “You’re a Jew?” he says in disbelief, while beginning to walk away.
Dutch Jewry’s watchdog on anti-Semitism filed a complaint with police for incitement to violence on Thursday against Youness Ouaali, 30, over text he posted on Facebook two days earlier about a picture of a blood-covered boy titled “Palestinian child shot by Israel’s illegal occupation clutching on to his last breath.”Richard Millett: Israel supporters and Israel haters square off in London
Ouaali, who owns the Bon Appetit cafe in the city of Bussum near Amsterdam, wrote: “Maybe it’s a good idea, starting today, to totally smite down Israeli tourists (not children)?”
He added: “Those who won’t listen need to feel. Enough is enough!!! Time to give a clear signal, I think. 14 years old and cold-bloodily shot down and sworn at till his last breath!!! May Allah reward him with djenna,” Arabic for heaven.
Ouaali appears to be referring to a 13-year-old Palestinian boy whom Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this week said had been “executed” by Israel, but who is in fact alive and being treated in a Jerusalem hospital. The boy is recovering from wounds he sustained when he was hit by a car after stabbing an Israeli of the same age riding a bicycle.
Yesterday afternoon about 40 Israel supporters heeded the call of the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies to protest the incitement by the Palestinian leaders to murder Israeli citizens. For once the protest was outside the Palestinian mission in London.Hundreds rally in New York City: Israel we are with you
Protesters waved Israeli flags and held placards of some specific statements that have driven Palestinians to murder numerous Israelis over the last month or so. As a result Palestinians have also died but then, as we know, Palestinian leaders have little concern for their own people.
There should be permanent protests outside all Palestinian missions as they are at the heart of the current bloodshed being representatives from Fatah and of Mahmoud Abbas himself.
That said any protests are likely to fall on deaf ears. Manuel Hassassian, the head of the London mission, enjoys his jibes about Jews.
The ZF’s Arieh Miller gave an excellent speech calling for the Palestinian leaders to stop the incitement.
But, unsurprisingly, the PSC’s supporters were intent on heightening the tensions with their call for the destruction of the Jewish state.
About two hundred people gathered in a show of support and solidarity with Israel after a spate of recent, deadly attacks on Jews.1,000 College Students Unite in Show of Solidarity with Israel
The rally was held across the street from the Consulate General of Israel in New York on Thursday (October 15).
The large crowd chanted, "We stand with Israel", waved Israeli flags and held signs reading "Israel we are with you."
"Jews are being murdered because they are Jews in Israel. And this is the time to cry out and say enough is enough is enough. And those who are silent like our own government that is much too silent, the governments of the world, silence is complicity," said Rabbi Avi Weiss who organized the rally on behalf of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-AMCHA.
Talia Friedman said, "For me it's about showing solidarity with Israel and the people who are under terrorist attacks, to show solidarity. Especially in New York where we understand what it's like to be a victim of terror. We are here to say we are sorry for what you are going through and we hope there is a peaceful resolution."
Thirty-two Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in the past two weeks of bloodshed. The Palestinian dead include 10 knife-wielding assailants, police said, as well as children and protesters shot in violent demonstrations.
Many people in the group denounced what they called biased reporting about the violence in Israel.
Over 1,000 students from more than 200 college campuses joined a conference call Monday night arranged by Chabad on Campus International, to unite in prayer for Israel and learn how they can advocate for Israel on their campus.Volunteers Paint the Country Blue and White
Rabbi Yossy Gordon, Executive Vice President, Chabad on Campus International opened the call. "Right now, our brothers and sisters in Israel are being attacked from within their very own borders. Those on the ground, in Israel, need to do what they have to do.
"We, the Jewish people, and especially on campus, where the battle of ideas is being relentlessly waged every day. We need to stand up and engage, each person using our own unique skills and our own unique opportunities."
Rabbi Yossi Witkes, director of IsraeLinks, Chabad on Campus's premier educational trip to Israel, conceived the event late Sunday night in response to the wave of terror in Jerusalem where he lives with his family. 230 Chabad on Campus centers quickly got the word out through social media. The event was announced at 9 a.m. on Monday, and by the time it began at 7 pm, 1000 students participated.
Dozens of members of the Zionist Council in Israel stood at 30 intersections across the country on Thursday and Friday, distributing blue and white ribbons and bumper stickers with the phrase, "together we will win."Stand With Us: A Message From Israelis About Recent Terror Attacks
"We stand with the security forces and IDF soldiers on guard throughout the country, who are working day and night to keep us safe," Head of the World Zionist Organization's (WZO) Department for Activities in Israel and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism Yakov Hagoel stated Friday.
"I call upon Arab leaders to stop the murderous witch hunt and condemn all terrorist actions or other harm to innocent civilians," he added.
