Monday, November 02, 2015
Abbas says all of Israel is “occupation”
Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas disclosed his opinion about Israel, speaking last week to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Abbas made it clear that he rejects Israel's right to exist in any borders as he denounced what he called the Israeli "occupation" of "67 years" - that is, since Israel's creation in 1948. The PA routinely teaches its children that it sees all of Israel as an "occupation" that will end some day, as Palestinian Media Watch has shown. It is rare that Abbas himself says this in an international forum. Abbas said: "How long will this protracted Israeli occupation of our land last?" - implying that he sees all of Israel as "an occupation" that rightfully should not "last."Abbas rejects Israel’s legitimacy in any borders: All of Israel is an “occupation”
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, haven't you wondered: For how long will this protracted Israeli occupation of our land last? After 67 years (i.e., Israel's creation), how long? Do you think it can last, and that it benefits the Palestinian people?"
[UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, official PA TV, Oct. 28, 2015]
Later on in the speech, Abbas repeated that he considers Israel an "occupation" since its creation. He also demonized Israel:
"[The] holy sites which have been desecrated every other second again and again for seven decades now, under an occupation that does not quit killing, torturing, looting and imprisoning..."
It should be noted that Abbas' first statement that he views Israel as an "occupation" since its creation "67 years" ago - did not appear in the transcript of his speech that the official PA news agency WAFA publicized in both English and Arabic. WAFA publicized Abbas' rejection of the "occupation," but the next sentence specifying "67 years... Do you think it can last?" did not appear in WAFA's transcript.
Fatah: Israel murders Palestinians and plants knives next to bodies
The above cartoon was tweeted by Abbas’ Fatah movement yesterday. It repeats the Palestinian libel documented by Palestinian Media Watch that Israel is fabricating stabbing attacks, as a pretext for killing Palestinians. The cartoon shows 6 Palestinians lying dead in pools of blood and an Israeli soldier walking by with a basket full of knives, planting a knife by each dead body. Text states in Arabic and English: “Shoot... add a knife... take a photo.” [Fatah Twitter account, Nov. 1, 2015]IDF Blog: Who Inspires You?
Since October 1st, 2015 over 64 terror attacks have struck Israeli civilians. This terror doesn't exist in a vacuum. Watch and see for yourself.
A Palestinian Student Said He Was Tortured And Is Seeking $1 Million In Damages
Palestinian accounting student Ahmad al-Deek, 22, had been beaten on and off for five days and could barely walk. But the only men who would help him out of his jail cell were those who had carried out the beatings — intelligence officers for the Palestinian Authority.
“There were five [interrogators]. They took turns beating me,” al-Deek said. “At first, I thought one of them was a good guy. He said he knew my brother, and that he wanted to help me. He turned out to be the worst.”
Al-Deek’s torture did not come at the hands of Israel, whose ongoing military occupation of the West Bank includes the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians each year, or at the hands of Hamas, the Islamic militant movement that rules the Gaza Strip with an iron fist. Al-Deek is one of hundreds of Palestinians arrested and allegedly tortured each year by the Palestinian Authority (PA), a government held up as moderate, whose Western-backed leadership is tasked with operating in the Palestinian-controlled territories of the West Bank.
While many cases of torture go unreported, al-Deek has filed a lawsuit against the PA and is seeking $1 million in damages. His case, the first to be brought before the PA on such charges, is bringing unprecedented attention to the brutality Palestinians are facing at the hands of their own government. (h/t Ronin0948)
Terror victim 'saved his children' in struggle with assailants
Thousands of friends, neighbors and family members attended a traditional 30-day memorial ceremony for terror victims Eitam and Naama Henkin in Jerusalem on Sunday, where Eitam was remembered as a hero for saving the couple's young children.New Rules of Engagement Result in Safer Security Forces, High Arab Casualties
The Henkins were murdered in front of their four children -- Itamar, 6 months, Neta, 4, Nitzan, 7, and Matan, 9 -- when Palestinian gunmen attacked them while they were driving on a Samaria road at the beginning of October. Their children now live with their maternal grandparents, Hanan and Hila Armoni, in the community of Peduel.
Hila Armoni spoke of the challenges in raising the four newly orphaned children and said, "They were saved by their courageous father's heroic actions."
Police investigations revealed that after the first round of gunfire stopped the car, the gunmen came up on both sides of the vehicle to ensure they had killed the family. Eitam Henkin got out of the car and began to fight one of the terrorists. The second gunman tried to shoot Eitam, but instead accidentally hit his partner, injuring his arm.
The two terrorists then fled. The wounded terrorist's gun was found at the scene, and finding it enabled police to catch the attackers.
On September 24, the Israeli government opened a new chapter in its relationship with security forces in the field. The rules of engagement for Israeli police and border guards were changed. It was a process, it involved a steady rise in Arab stone throwing and stabbing attempts, as well as sporadic shots at Israeli drivers passing through Judea and Samaria, but after a little less than a month, the rules of engagement were finally changed.80-year-old woman among 3 stabbed in Rishon Lezion terror attack
On a Thursday night, the Netanyahu Security Cabinet approved unanimously a series of decisions to assist in the fight against stone, Molotov cocktail and fireworks throwers in eastern Jerusalem and elsewhere. The Cabinet decided, among other things, that police officers would be “allowed to open fire when faced with a threat to the life of any individual.” In addition, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan accepted the police argument that it is impossible to tell if the stone throwers are minors or adults, and insisted on removing the clause stating that the rules of engagement apply only to adults. It meant that police were given a green light to shoot minors who throw stones or Molotov cocktails.
The change was major not only because of the obvious understanding the cabinet was showing, of the difficulties being faced by its security men and women on the ground. It also, shortly thereafter, delivered the message to the same officer on the ground that the Netanyahu government is finally ready to protect them against the Attorney General apparatus which in the past was inclined to limit their range of responses when carrying out their assignments against violent Arab mobs.
Three people were wounded Monday afternoon in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian in the central city of Rishon Lezion, a southern suburb of Tel Aviv.Police find makeshift bomb in Palestinian car near Jerusalem
Two people — a man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s — were in serious condition, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. The third victim, 26, was lightly hurt.
The attacker, identified by authorities as a 19-year-old Palestinian man from Hebron, stabbed the 40-year-old man from behind on a bus on Tarmab Street, got off the bus and ran to the adjacent Herzl Street, where he stabbed the elderly woman and the young man.
As he ran down Herzl, locals realized what was happening and surrounded the man. He entered a beauty products store and stabbed one of the victims inside, then was locked in when a woman fled from the store and closed the door behind her.
Bystanders converged on the store just as police motorcycle units arrived. Police said they prevented the crowd from hurting or even killing the terrorist.
An improvised explosive device was discovered by police in a Palestinian car Monday morning near a checkpoint at the West Bank village of al-Azariya, police say.Jerusalem tour guide assaulted with bottle outside Jaffa Gate
Based on prior intelligence, police were stationed in the area in anticipation of an attempted attack. On searching the car police found the homemade pipe bomb, which was then removed and detonated by a bomb disposal robot.
Police suspect the bomb was intended to be used in a Fatah attack on Israelis in the Hebron area.
Five Hebron residents who were in the car were arrested.
Police released footage of the bomb disposal robot at the site.
Jerusalem police said Monday that they arrested a Palestinian man, 22, who injured a tour guide when he assaulted her with a bottle outside Jaffa Gate in the Old City.IDF: Investigation shows no criminal wrongdoing in death of Hadeel al-Hashlamun
Border Police conducted an investigation following the attack and arrested a suspect shortly afterward.
The victim in the incident was reportedly in light condition and was evacuated to Hadassah University Medical Center with a head injury.
In an incident reported earlier in the day, National Fire and Rescue Service personnel were called to the Jerusalem District Courthouse to contain a blaze after a Palestinian youth threw a Molotov cocktail at a guard post located in the courtyard.
The bottle exploded outside the guard post and only caused minimal damage to the structure.
An IDF investigation absolved its soldiers of any criminal wrong doing in the shooting death of Hadeel al-Hashlamun, 18, who threatened soldiers with a knife at the Policeman’s Checkpoint in Hebron on September 22nd.IDF uses revolutionary treatment to save life of Palestinian stabber
The death of the young woman who was clad in a black burqa has been a subject of contention between Israelis and Palestinians who claim that she posed no threat to the soldiers at the checkpoint and has simply misunderstood their instructions.
The story itself went viral on social media after photographs showed IDF soldiers with their guns drawn, as she stood there holding a school bag with no knife in visible sight.
An IDF investigation, however, determined that she did have a knife and that the soldiers “acted with restraint, telling her “to lower her knife repeatedly for several minutes, and refraining at first from using any force.
It concluded on Sunday that “the soldiers were right to open fire after the woman failed to lower her weapon.”
Israeli army medics spared no effort or expense in order to save the life of one of two Palestinians who stabbed a Border Police officer at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank on Friday, a medical officer who was on the scene said Sunday.Abbas Permits Hamas Flags in Hebron Terrorists’ Funeral, Announces Pay to Families
While one of the attackers had already died by the time his team arrived, one of Lt. Moshe Cohen’s paramedics used an expensive, cutting-edge plasma treatment to keep the second man alive when he was on his “last breaths,” Cohen said.
Cohen, 23, from Beersheba in southern Israel, completed his medical degree at Ben Gurion University in emergency medicine before enlisting in the IDF. He now serves as a regional medical officer in the Samaria Brigade, which is responsible for the city of Nablus and the surrounding area.
Thousands of Arab mourners on Sunday filled the streets of the Sair and Surif villages near Hebron, in Judea, for the funerals of two terrorists who were killed by Israeli forces in October, after stabbing attempts. The Israeli authorities delivered the bodies of Raed Jaradat, 22, and Mahmoud Ghneimat, 20, to the Palestinian liaison department early Sunday morning, and the remains were transferred to the Hebron public hospital before they were taken to their hometowns for burial.Dead ‘martyrs’ betrothed at Hebron funeral
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in a radical deviation from protocol, ordered to conduct military funerals for both terrorists. Abbas also ordered that the families of the terrorists receive financial grants.
In another diversion from protocol, the PA Chairman permitted flying the yellow Hamas flags at the funerals, even though in Hebron, whose Arabs are strongly affiliated with the rival organization, there is a ban on raising Hamas flags.
A surreal engagement ceremony took place during the funeral for a slain Palestinian militant in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday.At Palestinian Stabber's Funeral, Father Marries Off Son to Another "Martyred" Stabber in Paradise
Raed Jaradat, 22, who was shot while carrying out a stabbing attack against Israeli soldiers near Hebron last week, and Daania Arshid, killed as she tried to stab soldiers at the Tomb of the Patriachs on the same day, were posthumously betrothed to each other as “martyrs” to be married beyond the grave.
As the father of Jaradat prepared to bury his son, he turned to the crowd and requested from Arshid’s father to allow his daughter to become his son’s bride. Arshid’s father broke into tears and approved the engagement. Then the two fathers were hoisted into the air and came together in an emotional embrace.
The crowd broke into song and dance as the announcer declared, “Blessed be Raed, blessed be Daania, God is great.”
Gaza Soccer Commentator Likens Goal to Stabbing: Netanyahu, Son of Hebron Coming to Finish You Off
ISIS issues second Hebrew-speaking video threatening Israel
For the second time in the span of a month, the Islamic State group issued a video on Sunday featuring a threatening message in Hebrew, directed at Israel.The return of the classic anti-Semitic leitmotiv
In the video, an Islamic State member is seen with his face blurred and flanked by two masked men. He waves a knife and says in fluent Hebrew, "We will get you soon, grandchildren of monkeys and pigs. We are coming for you from all over the world to butcher you with a knife like sheep."
A little over a week ago, the group issued a video featuring a masked man holding a weapon and speaking Hebrew, warning Israelis: "The true war hasn't yet started. What you've experienced until now is a child's war compared to what will happen soon. We promise you that not a single Jew will be left in the entire country."
During the Second Intifada, Amnesty International charged Israel of "war crimes" in Jenin (later revealed as a completely false accusation).Terror attack survivor Kay Wilson on the current wave of stabbings
In 2006, during the war in Lebanon in which the Jewish State defended itself from the attack by Hezbollah, Amnesty produced more documents against Israel than on the genocide in Darfur then in murderous progress.
In the documents of Amnesty, Israel's barrier against suicide bombers has become an "apartheid" fence.
And during the last war in Gaza against Hamas, Amnesty asked Obama's administration to "immediately suspend the military aid to Israel."
But it is during this Third Intifada that the Nobel Prize for Peace Laureate, the flagship of Western humanitarianism, has perhaps reached the peak of the absurd.
Amnesty just condemned Israel for killing Palestinian Arab terrorists who attempted on the life of Israeli civilians, calling these "extrajudicial executions". Amnesty even charges Israel of deliberately putting the knives in the hands of Palestinian terrorists, citing anonymous "witnesses."
Jordanian cleric: Unprovoked killing of Jews in Palestine, even soldiers, is forbidden
In the clip, which MEMRI said was first posted on the internet in February, Amman-based cleric Abdullah el-Alawneh is asked whether killing Jews in Palestine is always permitted. “Someone who provides you with protection, electricity and water, who transfers you money. And you work for him, taking his money. And then you kill him?!” he responds in horror. “Even if he is a Jew!”
Killing a Jew “is permissible during a declared war,” el-Alawneh elaborates, “but if you both pledge for the safety of one another, you are not allowed to betray and kill him.”
The cleric cites shari’a law agreements “that protect people’s rights and lives,” to underpin his ruling, and acknowledges, “The emotional perspective is one thing and the scholarly perspective is another.”
His questioner then wonders, even if killing civilians is not allowed, “what about soldiers who walk down the streets with guns?”
“The answer is the same,” el-Alawneh responds. “Let me ask you a question: Does this man who walks down the street with a gun kill every Muslim he sees?” The question is rhetorical. He spreads his arms.
Abbas's civil war? Fatah vs PA in Shechem
In a sign of growing internal discord, violent clashes broke out Sunday between men from Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and members of his PA Security Forces in Shechem (Nablus), Samaria.Hamas: The intifada has killed the Balfour Declaration
The violence between the groups both led by Abbas stems from anger among Fatah activists over the arrest of their fellow activists in Shechem's old city.
As a protest against the PA over the arrests, Fatah activists used burning tires and improvised roadblocks to block traffic on the central road of the city.
It was also reported that a day earlier on Saturday, the activists blocked off the entrance to Shechem's old city, announced a general strike, and overnight fired shots into the air with automatic weapons.
The PA Security Forces have standing orders to control the armed Fatah activists in the eastern part of Shechem, and as a result from time to time such clashes have broken out, although the newest instance may signify a spiraling trend into larger clashes.
The Hamas paper has given new significance to the Israeli government's concession Saturday, when it returned the bodies of five terrorists in breach of a Security Cabinet decision, and thereby let the Palestinian Authority (PA) hold a massive funeral for them in Hevron.Absurdity of BBC’s ‘international law’ mantra exposed by Yolande Knell
Faiz Abu Shamalah wrote in the Hamas-run Palestine Paper, analyzing the meaning of the funeral that was attended by thousands, and which led to violent attacks on IDF soldiers.
"The city of Hevron has become the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian nation expressing the will of the Palestinian nation, which spoke in its masses and with rage," wrote Abu Shamalah.
His comment indicates the strong support for Hamas in the city in Judea, a stronghold for the Islamist terrorist group and where local elections for seven spots in the municipal government reportedly saw all seven go to Hamas members.
That "will" according to the Hamas writer was expressed in "a call against the Oslo Accords, against the continuation of the (PA) security cooperation (with Israel), against the initiative of (US Secretary of State) John Kerry and against every Palestinian working against the intifada."
Under the terms of that agreement, Israel would administer the area defined as H-2 and the PA the area defined as H-1, with both Israelis and Palestinians continuing to live in the city of Hebron.Sorry Bill, It’s Not Up to Israel
However, the BBC’s Yolande Knell has apparently not heard of that agreement willingly signed by the internationally recognised representatives of the Palestinian people.
After a hiatus of almost a week in its reporting on the current wave of terrorism in Israel, on October 30th the BBC News website’s Middle East page published a filmed report produced by Knell for BBC television news programmes under the title “Tensions rise in Hebron between Israelis and Palestinians“.
No attempt is made to inform audiences of the historic background to Jewish settlement in Hebron. After a brief interview with someone described on screen as a “settler leader”, Knell tells BBC audiences:
“The presence of Jewish settlers here is seen as illegal under international law, but Israel disagrees.”
So too, apparently, does the PLO because it agreed to their “presence” in Hebron back in 1997.
He should have known better. Bill Clinton spent the years after he left the White House loudly and bitterly lamenting the fact that Yasir Arafat cost him a Nobel Peace Prize. Clinton hosted a peace summit at Camp David in the summer of 2000 at which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians an independent state including almost all of the West Bank, a share of Jerusalem and Gaza in exchange for peace. Arafat said no and months later launched a terrorist war of attrition. But in spite of this, Clinton told a huge crowd in Tel Aviv last night that “it is up to you” in order to make peace in the Middle East. Clinton was an honored guest at a peace rally/commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s murder. President Obama also sent taped remarks along similar lines that were played at the event.NGO: America 'disrespected' Rabin's legacy
It is all well and good to praise the search for peace. It is quite another to tell them that it is up to them to decide whether there will be peace. Because if there is anything that the last 22 years have taught us it is that it clearly not up to the Israeli people.
The Mattot Arim NGO on Saturday night sent a letter to the American Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, telling him that Washington had shown “disrespect” for former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.Diplomats to learn to defend ‘legality of settlements’
In the letter, sent as Israel marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination, the NGO pointed out to Shapiro that the late prime minister had been opposed to a Palestinian state as well as to a halt in construction in Judea and Samaria.
“On the advent of the 20th anniversary of the Rabin assassination we urge you to apprise U.S. President Obama that his Administration has twice shown an unfortunate disrespect for the legacy of Israel’s slain leader Yitzhak Rabin,” wrote Mattot Arim.
“First, the Obama Administration recently interfered in the Israeli democratic process by insisting that Israel’s duly elected prime minister recant on a legitimate campaign promise to the Israeli public that no Palestinian terrorist state would come into existence just a bike-ride away from Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Ben-Gurion airport,” it continued. “This is particularly unfortunate since opposition to a Palestinian state is no pet project of Prime Minister Netanyahu; it is central to the legacy of Israel’s slain leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Yitzhak Rabin.”
The letter noted that Rabin had made clear over and over again that he was opposed to a Palestinian state. One example cited by Mattot Arim is that a report in the New York Times which quoted Rabin as having emphasized that "We do not accept the Palestinian goal of an independent Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan. We believe there is a separate Palestinian entity short of a state."
Foreign Ministry cadets will tour West Bank settlements and learn how to defend their legality, as well as hear lectures on Judaism and tour the City of David archaeological site in East Jerusalem, officials said Sunday, in a rightward shift for the country’s diplomatic corps.Jerusalem Challenges US with Building Freeze on Arabs as Well as Jews
The new additions to the cadet course are a joint effort of Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovel and Foreign Ministry director Dore Gold, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The foreign minister post is held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both ministry officials believe the modified cadet course will help fledgling diplomats “honestly represent the positions of the Israeli government,” Army Radio quoted unnamed Foreign Ministry sources as saying.
Among the new classes added to the cadet course are a lecture on the legality of Jewish settlements in the West Bank based on the claim that the West Bank is not occupied territory; a tour of the City of David in the Silwan neighborhood near the Old City guided by David Be’eri, an official of the right-wing NGO Elad, which administers the site; a tour of the settlements guided by settler leader Benny Katzover; and a tour of the Jordan Valley devoted to the subject of Israel’s borders. This last talk will be given by Uzi Dayan, a former IDF general.
A Jerusalem municipal committee has temporarily frozen all building construction permits in eastern Jerusalem, not only for Jews but also for Arabs, Army Radio reported Monday afternoon.State Dept. says 'PA has no right to join the ICC'
The office of the Prime Minister insists that it had nothing to do with the Jerusalem City Building and Planning Committee’s decision to freeze construction.
The halt in construction comes just before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is to visit President Barack Obama to try to mend fences. It also comes shortly after the Obama administration denounced a near-final bureaucratic advancement in plans for building 900 new residential units in the Hareidi Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, adjacent to the Arab Shuafat area.
A source in the municipality said the decision to freeze all building construction permits was made so there will be no question of discrimination.
The freeze puts Washington in a bit of a bind.
US State Department spokesperson John Kirby criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's unilateral step late Friday, in which he held his first meeting with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in an attempt to sue Israel for "war crimes."For the first time since 1948, Egypt votes for Israel at UN
After officially being admitted to the ICC on April 1 in a unilateral move breaching the 1994 Oslo Accords that formed the PA, Abbas's meeting Friday was his first with ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and he used it to submit documents accusing Israel of "ethnic cleansing."
Kirby responded by saying the US isn't pleased with the one-sided moves by the PA.
"We don't believe that the Palestinians have the legal right to be part of the Rome Convention and to join the International Criminal Court," said Kirby, noting that the PA is not a state. "We oppose the activities against Israel at the court in the Hague, and are waiting for the Palestinians to explain what this meeting was announced for."
Egypt’s representative at United Nations voted on Friday in support of Israel’s bid for membership of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Israeli media reported.IDF warns soldiers against CIA recruitment efforts
Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and its acceptance to membership of the UN, Egypt had never voted in its favour at the UN before last Friday.
One hundred and seventeen countries voted in favour of Israel, 21 abstained, while only Namibia voted against the decision. Countries that abstained include: Qatar, Tunisia, Syria, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq and Algeria.
Israeli sources said that they were accepted to this UN committee after "intensive diplomatic efforts" exerted at different levels.
Prior to the vote, spokesman for the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs Ahmed Abu Zeid refused to comment on the matter. However, in the face of fierce domestic criticism, he said that voting for Israel was necessary in order to secure the membership of a number of Arab countries to the committee.
Military Intelligence has issued a letter warning all soldiers and officers in the Israel Defense Forces against attempts by the American Central Intelligence Agency to recruit Israeli soldiers.How immediate is the threat posed by Islamic State to Israel?
“Be alert and report any unusual incidents,” the letter urged, according to a report by Channel 2 Sunday.
In the letter, Military Intelligence described a case that took place in 2012 when Israelis who served in sensitive and confidential roles were grilled for hours when they traveled to the United States.
According to a report on the case published in the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth, American interrogators, presumably CIA operatives, tried to convince the Israelis to join the ranks of the spy agency.
A senior defense official told Channel 2 that “any security institution fears the transfer of information one way or the other to another security institution and this is why this was published.”
Until lately, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, ISIL or IS) didn’t show much interest in the Palestinian issue.As Syria crumbles, Golan Druze seek Israeli citizenship
The current wave of Palestinian terrorism has inspired ISIS operatives and media in Iraq, Syria and other countries to disseminate through Twitter and YouTube strong anti-Semitic themes and encourage the Palestinians to kill Jews. On August 25, 2015, IS launched a new media platform called the Al-Masra Institution, which focuses on the Palestinian issue.
The Palestinians are the campaign’s main target, but its messages are intended also for audiences in the Middle East and in Muslim communities around the globe.
The group has no recognized presence in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Only a few small groups of salafists/ jihadists in Gaza are inspired by the group’s extremist ideology, seeing Hamas rulers as too soft. Hamas authorities take care not let these groups stage serious attacks against Israel lest it provoke strong retribution against Hamas itself.
The fifth year of Syria’s brutal civil war has marked a sharp increase in the number of Druze residents on the Golan Heights seeking Israeli citizenship.Egypt Floods Hamas Terror and Smuggling Tunnels with Seawater
In contrast to the only two requests filed in 2010, the number of Golan Druze seeking citizenship rose to 80 so far in 2015, Channel 1 reported on Thursday.
Citing government statistics, the television report said that some 151 Druze have become naturalized Israeli citizens since the bloody war broke out in Syria in 2011.
According to the report, the majority of the applications have been filed by Druze youths, whose connection to Syria has likely been marred by the violence there.
If Israel were to flood Hamas terror and smuggling tunnels, the world would have condemned Israel the next day. When Egypt does it, no one outside Gaza says “boo,” and Israel can breathe a bit easierBriton Sentenced To Flogging In Saudi Arabia To Be Released
The al-Sisi regime has flooded underground tunnels in six different areas in southern Gaza for the second time in two weeks, according to the Turkish-based Anadolu agency.
Smugglers use the tunnels to transport terrorists, ammunition, weapons and goods and merchandise that are heavily taxed by Hamas.
Wiping out the system severely hampers Hamas’ ability to rake in heavy taxes on smuggle goods and to maintain a hammerlock on supplies of goods and merchandise.
Terrorists have infiltrated into the Sinai Peninsula from Gaza and to carry out murderous attacks on Egypt police and soldiers carrying out al-Sisi’s orders to re-assert Egyptian authority in an area where anarchy has allowed Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist groups to carve out fiefdoms of power.
A British citizen arrested for producing and possessing wine in Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is illegal, is likely to be released and returned to Britain by next week, Britain’s Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday.Alleged assault victim asked: 'Do you think you were dressed appropriately?'
Karl Andree, 74, faced 350 lashes after being caught, a punishment his family said could kill him.
“I’m pleased to be able to say that the public prosecutor is now in the final stages of completing the necessary processes that will lead to Mr. Andree’s release and return to the UK, we think in the next week,” Hammond said in a joint news conference with his Saudi counterpart in the capital Riyadh.
Andree was jailed for 12 months in August last year but remains in prison awaiting further punishment for breaking strict Saudi laws prohibiting alcohol after police found the wine in his car, his family said.
The case underlines diplomatic tensions over human rights in Saudi Arabia, which is considered one of Britain’s closest military allies in the Middle East.
Thousands of Egyptians are turning on the TV host who said a victim of alleged sexual assault wore "revealing clothes" - and the programme at the centre of the case has now been temporarily suspended.Clashes, Fraud Rumors as Erdogan's Ruling Party Takes Turkish Election
The story began when a violent confrontation was captured on closed-circuit television. A man and a woman walk into the frame and seem to be arguing in the middle of the shopping mall when suddenly the man reaches out and slaps the woman, before he's restrained by mall security and onlookers. The woman in the footage complained to the police that the man was sexually harassing her.
But the local police didn't arrest him, so she took her case to the court of public opinion, posting the video on Facebook, where it has been viewed nearly half a million times. She has also made several TV appearances. alleging the police didn't arrest her alleged attacker because he's well known in the area.
But none of this was what really got Egyptians talking.
Instead, what has now gone viral was what happened when the woman, who we are not naming given the online abuse now being directed at her, gave an interview to provocative TV presenter Reham Saeed. In the course of that discussion, Saeed challenged the woman, suggesting that it was what she was wearing that provoked the harassment.
With 95 percent of the vote in, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appear to have solidified their control of the nation’s Parliament, with significant losses for Kurd-friendly leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).Hamas: Erdogan's victory is a victory for Palestine
Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports that the AKP received nearly 50 percent of the vote, while the CHP stayed steady at 25 percent and the HDP fell to 10.4 percent. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will also remain present in Parliament with 12.05 percent of the vote, rounding out the total number of parties in the legislature. Hurriyet warns that Turkey’s largest cities have yet to complete their counts, and “results could still change significantly.”
Anadolu Agency, a state-run media outlet, reports similar numbers.
Parties need at least 10 percent of the vote to win representation in Parliament. Last June, the HDP reached that threshold for the first time, receiving 12 percent of the vote and being largely blamed for the AKP’s inability to win a majority of the votes, forcing it to choose between building a coalition government with another party or staging another election. After failing to build a coalition government with the MHP, the AKP scheduled an election for November 1.
Hamas in Gaza congratulated Turkey's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) after sweeping to an unexpected victory in elections on Sunday, returning the country to a single-party rule in an outcome that will boost the power of President Tayyip Erdogan.Turkish president Erdogan: I can't condemn the Islamic State for shooting down the Russian airplane as it is the natural outcome of Putin's support for Assad
"We in Hamas consider that these results before it being a victory for Turkey, it is a victory to Palestine because we trust that Turkey places results in favor of the service of the Palestinian cause, Jerusalem cause and for the Palestinian people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri in Gaza city.
According to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has raised eyebrows around the world capitals by justifying ISIS terrorists who [claim they] brought down a Russian passenger plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula early saturday, killing all 224 people aboard.
"The Russian airplanes are targeting Mujahidin in Syria and partisans fighting to topple Syrian dictator Assad. In Syria, Moscow seeks to tip the balance on the ground against our brethren. Consequently, there should be no surprise if Islamic State take revenge," Dubai TV cited the Turkish official as saying.
Having been isolated internationally for his obstinate support for hard-line Islamist rebels in Syria, the 61-year-old President Erdoğan expressed his refusal to condemn Ansar Bait al-Maqdis—infamous Sinai-based jihadist group whose members swore allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — for targeting Kogalymavia Flight 9268, killing 217 passengers including 17 children.
"How can I condemn the Islamic State for shooting down a Russian plane as its passengers were returning from a happy vacation in a time when our co-religionists in Syria are bombed by Putin's fighter jets? …it is the natural outcome of Moscow's actions in Syria and the support for Assad," said Erdoğan, adding, Turkey will continue to advocate the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and ousted ex-President Morsi in Egypt.
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