Sunday, November 22, 2015
Three American Citizens Killed By Muslim Terrorists In Israel In Last Six Weeks; Obama Says Nothing
Barack Obama and his administration do not care about Jews.Days later, US condemns Ezra Schwartz's murder
It doesn’t matter whether the Jews are European or Israeli or American. Jews can be conveniently excised from the category “Westerner,” Obama has found – and he’s been eagerly putting that newfound knowledge to use.
The latest victim of the Obama administration’s egregious Jew-hatred is 18-year-old American citizen Ezra Schwartz. Schwartz, from Sharon, Massachusetts, was visiting Israel; while there, he was delivering care packages to Israeli troops when his car got caught in a traffic jam. That’s when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire with an automatic weapon before ramming another car with his own. Schwartz was killed.
The Obama State Department has yet to issue a statement specifically on Schwartz’s death. Instead, they issued their general statement essentially condemning both sides. “We condemn these terrorist attacks against innocent civilians in the strongest possible terms,” said State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez. “As we’ve made clear, we remain deeply concerned about the situation, and continue to urge all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and prevent actions that would further escalate tensions.”
The Obama administration’s unwillingness to mention Schwartz’s citizenship follows hard on the heels of the Obama administration’s complete silence on the terrorist murder of dual Israeli-American citizen Richard Lakin, a peace activist from Newton, Massachusetts. He was shot in the head, stabbed in the face, and then stabbed in the head by two Muslims aboard a bus. He died in late October.
On October 6, the State Department confirmed that Palestinian Hamas terrorists murdered American citizen Eitam Henkin, along with his wife, in front of their children. This merited no special attention from the Obama administration.
US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and the US State Department condemned the murder of 18-year-old American citizen Ezra Schwartz late Friday night, more than 24 hours after he was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Gush Etzion.The Best Way to Remember the Holocaust is by Bringing Muslims to Kill American Jews
"As Shabbat begins, we mourn with the family and friends of Ezra Schwartz z"l, an American citizen murdered yesterday in a terrorist attack," Shapiro posted, at 4:35 pm Friday local time. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and with the families of the other victims of yesterday's attacks. May God bring them comfort."
The US State Department, too, released a late condemnation seven hours later - tweeting footage of spokesman John Kirby speaking on US Secretary of State John Kerry's behalf.
The dumbest "refugees" meme the left has rolled out to date are the comparisons between the Holocaust refugee policies of FDR that kept out Jews and political leaders today who want to take genuine Christian and Yazidi refugees instead of fake economic Muslim migrants who pose serious terrorism threats.
Living in New York City, I've lost count of the number of Muslim terror plots against synagogues since 9/11. The previous Paris attack by Muslims targeted a Jewish supermarket. (Or as Obama put it, "random folks in a deli.")
Sure it's #NotAllMuslims. It's just enough of them that this behavior repeats itself time and time again. Until you end up with European cities like Malmo where there are so many Muslims that the Jews have to flee.
Because Muslims don't like non-Muslims and really don't like Jews.
Theologically, Islam is violently anti-Semitic. Mohammed's final command was the ethnic cleansing of Jews. The shout Allahu Akbar originated from one of his massacres of Jews.
It's that simple. Muslims hate Jews. Bringing more Muslims to America makes the country more anti-Semitic. It promotes violence against Jews and harassment of Jews.
PreOccupiedTerritory: ‘Islamophobia Airlines’ To Compete With El Al On Security (satire)
Heightened tensions in recent weeks over Islamic terrorism has air travelers opting for carriers with greater security wherever possible, making Israel’s flag carrier El Al poised to take advantage of the climate, as it enjoys a reputation as the world’s safest airline. However, a new upstart company aims to go El Al one better by playing specifically on the fear of Islamic terrorism, hoping to capitalize on increased American and European unease over sharing a flight with people of Middle Eastern appearance. Islamophobia Airlines is scheduled to offer its first flights at the end of the month, offering trips between New York and Paris, New York and London, and New York and Brussels.
While aviation security experts have long touted El Al’s multi-layer approach to security, which includes extensive passenger profiling, Islamophobia Airlines plans to adopt an even stricter standard, and will not grant boarding privileges to anyone with an Arabic-sounding last name, swarthy looks, or citizenship in any country between Morocco and Indonesia, other than Israel. It will also exclude anyone in traditional Islamic dress, or anything easily mistaken for it. In so doing, Islamophobia Airlines will compete with El Al for transatlantic passengers, though not on flights that go directly to or from Tel Aviv.
If all goes well, says Islamophobia Airlines CEO Getta Gripp, the carrier will expand service to destinations within the continental US by next summer. “We know that the Transportation Security Administration here in the US goes to great lengths to help protect airline passengers,” she said, “but it remains clear that many people would prefer some extra security, and we provide that by eliminating a priori an entire demographic that has proved especially problematic in terms of air travel safety in the last 45-50 years. No offense to the creators and users of technology – and of course we will avail ourselves of the most advanced equipment – but the human factor is the most important one in protecting our passengers, and that is where we will have an advantage.”
Israeli woman killed in West Bank stabbing attack
An Israeli woman was killed in a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, near the West Bank settlements of Efrat and Alon Shvut, on Sunday afternoon.Former Samaria council head runs over terror suspect to thwart stabbing in West Bank
The woman was administered emergency treatment at the scene before ambulances evacuated her to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in nearby Jerusalem, where she was declared dead.
The woman was later named as Hadar Buchris, 21, of Safed.
The stabber was shot and killed by security forces at the scene. The Shin Bet security service later named him as Wissam Tawabte, 34, from Beit Fajjar, a nearby Palestinian village. He did not have previous links to terror activity, the Shin Bet said.
Davidi Pearl, the head of the Etzion Regional Council, said the IDF must restrict Palestinians’ freedom of movement and close off villages in order to prevent terror attacks in the future.
“We need to close down surrounding villages for a week or two,” Pearl told The Times of Israel, pointing to Palestinian cars driving around the Etzion Junction.
Citizens and security forces killed a female Palestinian terrorist who attempted to knife Israelis as they waited by a bus stop and a hitch-hiking post, near the Hawara checkpoint just outside the city of Nablus in the West Bank on Sunday.Hamas, Fatah threaten ex-settler leader who thwarted attack
Among them was former Samaria Council head Gershon Mesika, who ran over the terrorist with his car.
He had stopped at the bus stop to pick up hitch-hikers.
“I heard someone yelling, "terrorist, terrorist!” he later explained.
“I looked up. I saw someone large running after a young woman. I didn’t think twice, I turned the steering wheel to the right, I pressed my foot onto the gas, and ran her over,” he said.
“She fell over and then security forces shot her,” he said.
His car, Mesika said, dropped slightly into a nearby ditch, but it was after he had already halted. He was not injured, he added.
Hours after a former local politician thwarted a terror attack in the northern West Bank Sunday morning, the official Twitter account run by the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas posted an image appearing to threaten him.Taxi driver tries to run over, stab Israelis in West Bank
Gershon Mesika, formerly the head of the Samaria Regional Council, rammed his car into a Palestinian teenager after seeing her attempt to stab Israeli civilians at a bus stop near the West Bank city of Nablus. The would-be attacker, identified as a 16-year-old girl, was subsequently shot dead by Israeli security forces patrolling the nearby Hawara checkpoint.
The photo posted by Fatah’s Twitter account branded Mesika a “child killer” and depicted him next to a blood spatter with a large target over his face. The image was captioned, “The criminal Gershon Mesika who ran over a Palestinian girl at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus.”
Hamas also responded to Sunday morning’s incident, vowing revenge for the Palestinian teen’s death, which the terror organization called a “war crime.”
“These crimes only encourage us to continue the intifada and defend ourselves in any way possible,” the group’s Twitter page read on Sunday.
A Palestinian man in a taxi attempted to run over and stab a group of Israelis in the West Bank east of Jerusalem Sunday morning.Suspect in Kiryat Gat stabbing named as Hebron-area teen
One man, 51, was very lightly injured with bruises to his arms, the Magen David Adom rescue service said.
The attack took place at Kfar Adumim junction, and came closely on the heels of another attempted stabbing attack in the northern West Bank.
According to Israel Police and other initial reports, the terrorist, driving a Palestinian taxi, tried to ram his car into a group of Israeli pedestrians.
A Palestinian taxi at the scene of an attempted car-ramming and stabbing attack near Kfar Adumim, on After failing to hit anybody, he got out of the car and attacked them with a knife.
The stabber was shot and killed by a civilian, police said.
The suspected terrorist who stabbed four people, including a 13-year-old girl, in an attack in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat on Saturday evening, was identified on Sunday morning as Muhammad Tarada, 18.13-year-old terror victim: 'I stopped the blood with my scarf'
Tarada was caught by police late Saturday after a five-hour manhunt, following a stabbing spree in which he stabbed four people, including a 13-year-old girl, officials said.
According to the Shin Bet security service, he is from the Palestinian village of Tapuah, west of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
He had no arrest history and was not known to Israeli security officials, authorities said.
Tarada was working in Israel illegally when he carried out that attack Saturday night. Police said he was caught hiding in the yard outside a private residence in the city with the weapon in his possession.
He was said to have been injured when he was hit by a car while fleeing.
Liel Yotko, the 13-year-old girl injured in the terror stabbing in Kiryat Gat on Saturday night, recounted to Channel 2 on Sunday the harrowing moments of the attack.Judea leader: time for Defensive Shield II
Four people, including Yotko, were injured when a Palestinian terrorist stabbed them outside a soccer stadium in the southern city. They are being treated at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
Yotko had been walking with a friend on Saturday evening when they noticed a suspicious-looking man behind them. "He had his hand in his pocket. He looked suspicious to me so we began to walk faster. He started chasing after us so we began to run."
She and her friend were not able to shake the knife-wielding terrorist and he succeeded in stabbing Yotko twice in the back and once more in the stomach.
"I told my friend to run away," Yotko recounted. "I sat on the ground and tied my [wounds] with a scarf in order to prevent the bleeding. I called the police and my mother."
Following the stabbing of a young woman Sunday afternoon, The Head of the Etzion Bloc Regional Council, Davidi Perl, issued an angry plea to the government to launch a large scale counter-terror operation in Judea and Samaria, similar to Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.US Christians help protect Jerusalem against terror
"Again we have experienced a terror attack by a Palestinian… who passed through an IDF checkpoint and reached the hitchhiking stop," he said, after the fatal stabbing at the Gush Etzion Intersection.
"I regret to say that for the Israeli government and the security establishment, the penny has not yet dropped," he said. "We have to enter the villages and defeat terror just as they did in the Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.
"Otherwise, this will not end," he declared. "Another arrest or fence is a drop in the ocean. We need to decide that we are going to fight terror, enter all the villages and leave no house unvisited and no stone unturned. The fabric of joint life with the Palestinians is exploding in our faces. There is no alternative but a complete separation from the Palestinians and an ongoing fight against terror."
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship), led by President Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Jerusalem, Border Police, and local social-service groups counter the ongoing terror wave against Israel.Hundreds turn out to pay last tribute to slain US teen
The $600,000 funded from Christians across North America will be used to purchase security equipment and other means of support for those fighting in the front line against terror.
Days after the latest terror wave began, The Fellowship became the first organization to offer financial aid to terror victims, providing about NIS 4,000 (about $1,040) to help victim's pay for medical care and overcome lost wages.
Over 60 people wounded in terrorist stabbings and car attacks have so far received 240,000 NIS ($64,000) from The Fellowship.
The organization is also providing a $375,000, state-of-the-art mobile-command vehicle to the Jerusalem municipality to help security forces confront threats and other emergencies in real time.
Several hundred people were on hand at the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv to say goodbye to Ezra Schwartz, 18, before his body was loaded on to a plane to be flown back to his native Sharon, Massachusetts on Saturday night. Schwartz was one of three people killed Thursday when a Palestinian man opened fire at vehicles outside the settlement of Alon Shvut, just south of Jerusalem.At funeral, slain teacher remembered for warmth, dedication to students
Among the mourners, who prayed and sang the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikva,” at the airport were dozens of his fellow students at Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh, where Schwartz was spending his post-high school gap year.
He and a group of students were delivering food parcels to Israeli soldiers in the area when the terrorist opened fire. The attacker also killed Ya’akov Don, 51, a teacher from nearby Alon Svhut and Shadi Arfah, a 24-year-old Palestinian from Hebron, before he ran out of ammunition and was arrested.
During the ceremony, a letter was read from Schwartz’s father, Ari.
“I cannot help but be happy for Ezra,” he wrote. “We know that he is okay right now and that gives us peace.”
Palestinian terror victim Yaakov Don, 49, was laid to rest on Friday morning, with mourners recalling the long-time Jewish educator’s dedication to his students — and his unwavering optimism.Kerry to meet Israeli, Palestinian leaders on ending violence
The resident of the settlement of Alon Shvut was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen on Thursday night in the Gush Etzion bloc in the West Bank, along with 18-year-old US national Ezra Schwartz and Hebron resident Shaadi Arfa.
Thousands of Israelis flocked to the Kfar Etzion cemetery on Friday to pay their final respects.
“You always told me ‘what did I do to deserve you as a wife?’ but I am the one who was blessed,” Don’s wife, Sara said at the funeral, according to the Ynet news website. “I was blessed with a loving, attentive husband, you had so much feeling and warmth — toward me, your children, and your parents.You were a simple man in the greatest sense of the word — you never wanted anything.”
“I thank God for the 22 happy years we had together,” she continued. “From heaven, please pray to God to give us strength.”
Meetings will not focus on renewed effort to broker peace accord, but rather a bid to move things in a "more positive direction" and prevent collapse of Palestinian Authority, State Department says • Kerry to also visit UAE to discuss the Syria conflict.Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas and Hezbollah leaders meet in Beirut to discuss Palestinian 'intifada'
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet this week with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the region to try to stop ongoing violence, although senior U.S. official insisted it was not a renewed effort to broker a peace accord.
The State Department said Kerry will travel to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah on a trip that will also include a stop in the United Arab Emirates to discuss the Syria conflict.
Kerry last met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin in October.
With the latest visit, Kerry hopes to move things in a "more positive direction" and prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, the official said. The talks will explore a "variety of ideas" on how to ease tensions, the official said without elaborating.
Hamas and Hezbollah officials met in Beirut on Sunday and discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian and Lebanese arenas.IsraellyCool: NIF’s Daniel Sokatch: It Was “Palestinian Activists” Who Murdered Israelis
Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, received the Hamas delegation, headed by Musa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas, and Osama Hamdan, who is in charge of external affairs in the Islamist movement.
The meeting was also attended by the Hamas envoy to Lebanon, Ali Barakeh, and Hassan Haballah, who is in charge of the Palestinian “portfolio” in Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah officials thanked the Hamas leaders for offering their condolences over the recent terror attacks in the southern suburb of Beirut in which more than 40 people were killed. The attack has been claimed by Islamic State.
The two sides discussed ways of coordinating their moves against Islamic State, sources close to Hezbollah said.
In a statement on Facebook, Daniel Sokatch, the CEO of the BDS supporting New Israel Fund, NIF, firmly and squarely blames Israel and the Jews for yesterday’s attacks that killed five of us.Israeli Arabs protest ban on Islamic Movement
Instead of an attempt to address the roots of the current violence, we hear cynical claims that almost fifty years of occupation and settlement enterprise are irrelevant to the current nightmare, that the Palestinians hate us and have always hated us, that they were responsible for the Holocaust, that there’s no difference between Palestinian activists and ISIS murderers.
And it was “Palestinian activists” who killed four Jews (and an innocent Arab) yesterday. One of these “Palestinian activists” specifically got a work permit to enter Israel, came to Tel Aviv to work in a restaurant and went off with one of the knives to stab some Jews while they were praying.
Activism.
Joint List MK Jamal Zahalka said Saturday the government decision to ban the northern branch of the Islamic Movement could push Arabs to join more extremist groups.Turkish fans pelt Israeli hoops team with objects
“This is a stupid move because it harms the mainstream Islamic Movement, which will strengthen extremists, and pushes people into the arms of Islamic State,” the Balad party head told The Jerusalem Post Saturday night.
“We condemn the ban of the Islamic Movement,” he said, adding, “The decision will harm everyone.”
Israeli-Arabs protested the ban in various Arab localities over the weekend.
Turkish fans threw objects at members of the Israeli women’s national basketball team Saturday at the start of a game in the qualifying round for the 2017 EuroBasket tournament.Compare and contrast: BBC News personalisation of victims of terror
In a video, members of the Israeli team can be seen standing and singing along as Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” is played in the background at the start of the game. All of a sudden, Turkish fans begin throwing objects at the Israelis, who quickly move out of the way to dodge them.
Security personnel quickly responded, and no one was hurt. Some fans also booed the Israelis, while others applauded the fans who threw the objects.
In another incident at the beginning of the game, fans waving Palestinian flags were ejected by security.
Whilst stuck in early morning traffic on the way to Manchester airport last Monday I found myself listening to BBC Radio 5 live’s morning broadcast. The programme understandably focused mostly on the weekend’s terror attacks in Paris and one feature particularly notable to Israeli ears was the effort made to personalise and humanise the victims.Which ‘Times’ Should You Read?
Listeners were given a range of information which typically included names, ages, occupations, family statuses, places of birth and education and in some cases also heard of the reactions of loved ones. Such information of course enables the listener to get beyond mere casualty figures and goes some way towards helping audiences appreciate the individual personal tragedies of victims and their families.
A week on from the attacks, that trend continues to be a feature of BBC content, with an article titled “Paris attacks: Who were the victims?” appearing on the homepage and World page of the BBC News website on November 20th and the BBC News Twitter account promoting a Facebook post devoted to tributes to the victims.
By way of contrast, the BBC’s descriptions of five victims of terror murdered in two separate attacks on November 19th in Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion are notable for the paucity of personal details.
Last week, two young Americans were murdered in terrorist attacks, one in Israel and the other in France.Reuters: Palestinians 'Died on the Scene' of Attacks
Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old from Sharon, Mass., was spending his gap year as a yeshiva student and volunteer in Bet Shemesh. He was killed near Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, where he had just finished delivering food parcels to soldiers and visiting a memorial to three Israeli children who were kidnapped and murdered nearby last summer. In an article (November 20) devoted to five murders by Palestinian “assailants,” New York Times reporter Isabel Kershner devoted one paragraph (with fewer than 100 words) to the American Jewish victim.
Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old California college student who was spending a semester at a design school in Paris, was the only American to die in the recent ISIS terrorist assault that claimed 129 lives. She was described in the Times (November 20) by reporter Dan Bilefsky as “emblematic of dozens of other victims: Young. Ambitious. Chasing dreams. And eager to absorb the sophisticated swagger of a city rich in history and culture.”
In recent weeks, Reuters has demonstrated great ingenuity in downplaying Palestinian violence, including stabbing, shooting and ramming attacks against Israelis. First, there was the "knife man" killed by Israelis, then there were Palestinians "confronting" Israelis, followed later by Palestinians killed in "street violence."Watch: Eagles of Death Metal speak after Paris attacks
Most recently, Reuters portrays Palestinian murderers and attempted murderers as innocent bystanders:
Police say 49 of the 80 Palestinians killed in recent weeks died at the scene of attacks on Israelis and most of the rest died in violent protests in the occupied West Bank and near the Gaza border. (Emphasis added.)
Palestinians "died at the scene of attacks on Israelis," as if they were innocent bystanders caught in the wrong place in the wrong time, as opposed to the perpetrators of the said attacks.
Reuters gains itself another entry into the growing list of "bad writing."
Eagles of Death Metal has spoken out for the first time since Islamist gunmen opened fire during their performance at the Bataclan concert hall as part of six coordinated terror attacks in Paris.
A total of 129 people were killed in the attacks in the French capital on November 13 - 89 of them in the concert hall massacre.
In an interview with Vice magazine, singer Jesse Hughes and drummer Josh Homme recounted how several people had hid in the band's dressing room during the attack. Only one survived.
"Several people hid in our dressing room, and the killers were able to get in and kill every one of them, except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket," Hughes said through tears, according to a snippet of the interview released online.
"People were playing dead, and they were so scared," he added. "A great reason why so many were killed is because so many people wouldn't leave their friends. So many people put themselves in front of people."
In the wake of the night of terror, the band issued a statement last Wednesday offering condolences to their fans and the friends and families of victims in the brutal attacks.
Eagles Of Death Metal documentary pulled from film festival following Paris attack
A documentary about the release of the new Eagles Of Death Metal album has been pulled from a film festival following the terrorist attack on the band's gig in Paris.Iran sentences Washington Post journalist to prison
The Redemption of the Devil follows frontman Jesse Hughes as the rockers prepare for the release of their record, Zipper Down.
The documentary, made by director Alex Hoffman, was due to be shown at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Holland, but it has now been withdrawn from the schedule.
The decision was made following the horrific attacks in Paris that the band was caught up in on Nov. 13.
Iran sentenced detained Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian to an unspecified prison term following his conviction last month on charges that include espionage, Iranian state TV reported Sunday.US Official: Israel was right to hit Syrian nuclear facility
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, the spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, announced the punishment in a statement on the TV station’s website.
“In brief, it is a prison sentence,” he said. The verdict is “not finalized,” he added, referring to an expected appeal.
Rezaian’s lawyer, Leila Ahsan, told The Associated Press she had not been informed of the verdict — let alone details of the sentence.
“I have no information about details of the verdict,” she said. “We were expecting the verdict some three months ago.”
At a forum discussing the situation in Syria, a top American defense official said over the weekend that it was probably a good idea for Israel to have struck Syria's nascent nuclear facility in 2007.Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah official banned from entering Turkey
Speaking at the panel at the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work simply answered “yes” when asked by a panel member if Israel had done the proper thing regarding the Syrian nuclear plant.
Also sitting on the panel was Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, who spoke about Syria as well.
“Israel's greatest concern is that the war will end with the Shi'ites in a greater position of strength,” she said. “The non-radical states in the region that are not interested in the ideology and terror advocated by ISIS and Iran are hopeful that the free world will band to fight in the shortest time possible to bring order back to Syria. Otherwise, they fear, they will have to learn with the radicals, who themselves are seeking to overthrow those states. This is a critical battle that the entire world must join.”
Turkish authorities on Friday banned a senior Fatah official from entering the country citing security concerns.Cash-poor Hamas pays Gazans with land in former settlements
Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, member of the Fatah Central Committee and former head of the Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Force who had been invited to an event organized by the Palestinian Embassy in Turkey to mark the 11th anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, was detained for five hours at Istanbul Airport before he was deported to Jordan.
Tirawi, who also heads a Palestinian commission of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Arafat’s death, said the Turkish authorities considered him persona non-grata and refused to allow him to enter the country.
“I don’t think this has to do with security-related issues,” Tirawi said. “The only reason I can think of is my position toward the Muslim Brotherhood and my criticism of the group on TV.”
Tirawi told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper the Palestinian ambassador to Turkey tried to persuade authorities to rescind their decision, but to no avail.
The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip announced Sunday that it will distribute plots of land from former Israeli settlements to its officials as compensation for partially paid salaries. The idea quickly drew charges of corruption.Berlin department store apologizes, restocks Israeli 'settlement' wines
Some 40,000 Hamas officials are making salaries of approximately NIS 1,000 ($260) for every 50 days of work.
But the Palestinian terror group, the Strip’s de facto rulers, have struggled to pay workers, squeezed by an Israeli blockade and Egyptian efforts to block smuggling tunnels into the Sinai, moves defended in Jerusalem and Cairo as necessary to stem terror emanating from the coastal enclave.
The plots to be distributed among the officials are located in former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip which were evacuated in 2005 as part of a unilateral Israeli pullout.
Much of the land in the settlements has remained unused since the 2005 disengagement.
The German Department store KaDeWe, which on Saturday removed from its store wine produced in the Golan Heights, apologized for the move on Sunday and returned the bottles to the shelves.Netanyahu strikes out against German department store boycott
Following a great deal of criticism on social media and a protest from the Green Party's Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Bundestag, a spokesman for the department store sent him a letter of apology.
“The eight Israeli wines will be immediately returned,” the letter read. “On this issue, dealt with following recommendations of the European Commission, we acted too fast and without sensitivity. We are sorry that the mistaken action of the KaDeWe Group lead to misunderstandings, and we want to apologize for that.”
The department store then went on to say that it carries a wide array of international products, including more than 200 Israeli products.
“The KaDeWe is a symbol of cosmopolitanism and internationalism, and we reject intolerance from any side,” the letter read.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday by addressing the decision by German department store KaDeWe to remove articles from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights from its shelves.UK's Labor Party boycotts security firm with business ties to Israel
Netanyahu began by noting the store chain's dark history.
"This department store was owned by Jews; the Nazis took it," he began. "Absurdly, this department store is now marking products from Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights."
"It started marking products, and now we are informed that they have removed the products - a full-fledged boycott," Netanyahu continued. "We strongly protest this unacceptable step - one which is morally and substantively improper and invalid historically."
"And we expect the German government to condemn this labeling and treat it in a serious manner," he added.
Britain's Labor Party has voted to cut ties with a well-known security firm which has extensive business ties with Israel, media outlets in the United Kingdom reported over the weekend.Edgar Davidson: Making Frinton-on-Sea a Zionist-free zone (satire)
The party's national executive committee approved a resolution boycotting G4S, a Crawley-based multinational corporation that employs over 620,000 workers in over 120 countries.
G4S has reportedly provided security services to Labor events in recent years. The company has come under fire in recent years due to what pro-Palestinian activists say is its role in facilitating Israel's control over the Palestinian territories.
Rons’ Record Store in Frinton Close: Following news last week that this shop was selling a copy of “The Israelites” by Desmond Decker, we are mounting a 24-hour vigil to stop anybody entering the store until a) it is permanently closed down b) Ron issues a statement disassociating himself with the Zionist entity ; and c) Ron is evicted from the Old Age Home where he has been living for the past 12 years. Remember: no violence is necessary (rocks through the windows are, however, permissible).‘Unprecedented’ trove found behind wall sheds light on Budapest’s Jews
Pensioners Travel in the High Road: As you know this travel agents’ had been advertising cruises that stop at Israel-occupied Haifa. During our non-violent demonstration at the store last week in which we poured 8,000 gallons of red ink representing Palestinian blood on their floor, and burnt every brochure with the word ‘Israel’ in it, we discovered an invoice showing that Mr and Mrs Jones of Frinton Mews have booked a cruise stopping at Haifa for their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Hence see events below.
Starting Monday We will be holding a ‘lock-in’ outside the Jones's bungalow in Frinton Mews. We will peacefully stop anybody leaving or entering the bungalow until the Jones’s cancel their cruise booking and donate all of the money for the trip (plus an additional donation of £28,000) to the Palestine Foundation for Homicide Bombers.
A vast and historically valuable trove of Holocaust-era documents, long thought destroyed during World War II, has been found hidden in a wall cavity by a couple renovating their Budapest apartment.IsraellyCool: Ziggy Marley – No Matter What Anybody Says or Does I Will Continue To Support Israel
The haul of 6,300 documents are from a 1944 census that was a precursor to the intended liquidation of the Hungarian capital’s 200,000 Jews in Nazi death camps.
Brigitte Berdefy, co-owner of the apartment overlooking Hungary’s parliament, said that in August a worker detected paper after jamming a screwdriver through a crack in the wall.
“We thought we’d ruined the neighbor’s wallpaper,” Berdefy told AFP.
But then her husband Gabor peered through the crack and saw what looked like handwriting.
Carefully removing each brick, the couple eased out some 61 kilograms (135 pounds) of dusty papers, many with bits of plaster caked on, but all more or less intact.
With the ink still readable — thanks to a lack of air in the cavity and nicotine from the heavy-smoking former owner — the yellowed papers were given to the Budapest City Archives.
Ziggy Marley is already on record as being a fan of Israel and opponent of BDS (and his wife is Israeli). But his recent speech accepting the Shalom Peace Award from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) really shows the depth of his connection to Israel and support for us.
“I’ve been connected to Israel from when I was a child. Through my father, my mother, we have a strong belief in the history. If you’ve heard of my father…you’ve heard of exodus….We are strongly connected to the history of Israel and feel a very spiritual and personal connection to that land and the people of that land. So this is an honor and a blessing and we will continue to have that connection no matter what anybody says or does and continue to support Israel.”
21 Facts About Israel That Haters Will Never Admit
1 There are 130 Christian-majority countries in the world, 49 Islamic and three Hindu. Israel is the only Jewish-majority country in the world.
2 Israel is the only country in the Middle East that received a numer one rating from the Freedom House, which evaluates democracy and freedom around the world.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where all citizens are equal under the law, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. All Israelis can take part in free and fair elections, are free to speak their minds and have the right to a just and open trial. Can you spot the tiny green spot amongst all the other not-free countries?
3 Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.
4 Jews are indigenous to Israel and have maintained a continuous presence for over 3000 years according to archeological and historical evidence.
5 Jerusalem is mentioned 667 times in the Jewish Bible. Jerusalem is not even mentioned once in the Quran.
