Tuesday, March 29, 2016
PMW letter to Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs: Fatah promotes terror
Responding to Palestinian Media Watch documentation, Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen admitted he "opposes" a Fatah official's terror glorification. However, the minister continues to view Fatah as "moderate" because the official, he believes, did not speak "on behalf of Fatah, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian government." [Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jan. 22, 2016]
This PMW report corrects the Danish minister's mistake. It documents that numerous senior Fatah leaders, Abbas' advisors, Mahmoud Abbas himself, the Fatah Central Committee headed by Mahmoud Abbas, and official Fatah media are all actively supporting and glorifying the current terror. Neither Fatah, nor any of its leaders, have condemned even one murder of an Israeli during the last 5 months of terror. To the contrary, they have glorified the terror and the terrorists.
PMW welcomes the statement by the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs indicating that were Fatah, its leaders and the PA glorifying terror, Denmark would "reassess" its categorization of Fatah as "moderate."
IsraellyCool: Kay Wilson Talks About Daily Mail Terror Funding On i24News
A few minutes ago Kay Wilson appeared on i24News talking about yesterday’s game changing Daily Mail story.
Also appearing were Ian Birrell, one of the journalists who worked on the story and regular i24News London correspondent, Jonathan Sacerdoti.
If you’re in the UK or a UK citizen abroad, sign the petition to get Parliament to talk about this.
Report: ISIS planning 'imminent' attacks on Jewish children in Turkey
Islamic State terrorists had reportedly "advanced plans" to murder Jewish children in attacks aimed at educational and youth institutions in Turkey, according to Britain's Sky News on Monday.Turkish Jews call for tightened state security against ISIS threat
The report cited information allegedly obtained by intelligence officials from arrested ISIS operatives regarding "an imminent" attack.
According to the Sky News report, six ISIS members arrested over the last week in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep revealed the alleged plans by the extremist group to target Jewish children at kindergartens, schools and youth centers.
"In light of these circumstances, extraordinary security measures are being taken above and beyond the high alert level already in place by the Turkish police, as well as vigilance within the Jewish community," Sky News quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying.
The source added that Turkey was treating the information as "a more than credible threat," adding that it was "an active plot."
The report noted a synagogue in Istanbul as the most likely target of an attack.
According to an intelligence source who spoke to Britain’s Sky News, ISIS intends to target Jewish kindergartens, schools and youth centers, with the most likely target being a synagogue in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district, which is attached to a community center and school.INSS: Dealing with Terrorism without Falling into its Trap
“We don’t know when it’s scheduled for. It could be in the next 24 hours or next few days,” the source said. “In light of these circumstances, extraordinary security measures are being taken above and beyond the high alert level already in place by the Turkish police, as well as vigilance within the Jewish community.”
The source, who declined to be named, claimed that the information was obtained from six ISIS members detained in southern Turkey last week and that “this is more than a credible threat. This is an active plot.”
The Turkish Jewish community has stayed mostly silent on the report, declining a request for comment by The Jerusalem Post and only posting a solitary tweet about the threat.
“Reading the news from Skynews concerning us, we have contacted Governmental Authorities & in any case asked for immediate higher security,” the community posted on the microblogging platform.
Playing into the Islamic State’s hands must clearly be avoided at all costs. Beyond the Islamic State’s desire to attack the West, undermine the feeling of safety among its citizens, and deter its leaders from continuing to attack the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, its initiation of terrorist attacks specifically aimed to create a provocation and cause violent clashes between the Europeans and the large Muslim communities residing in the West. This aim was reflected in the most recent speech by the self-appointed caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose approach bases building the Islamic State on the immigration (hijra) of tens and hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over the globe to the newly established caliphate. He therefore strongly opposed the movement of hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the Islamic State to Europe, and warned them against the illusion that that the West would welcome them with open arms as equals in rights and value. Statements attacking Muslims like those by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and harsh and indiscriminate reactions against Muslims in Europe as part of the measures against terrorism, are liable to serve al-Baghdadi’s aims.Michael Totten: Europe on the Brink
Another question concerns relations between Europe and Israel. For years, these relations have been under the cloud of heavy criticism by EU institutions of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, especially on the question of the settlements. Yet despite the possibility of greater understanding in Europe of Israel’s harsh measures against terrorists and their family surroundings in Israel, it cannot be assumed that such understanding will translate into greater acceptance of Israel’s policy in the territories. On the contrary, Europe will likely voice increasingly severe criticism of Israel as a means of appeasing Muslim public opinion in EU member countries. Therefore what may well emerge is increased bilateral cooperation between Israel and the EU in eliminating terrorism and growing bilateral tension caused by European support for political initiatives, e.g., France’s move to jumpstart diplomatic contacts between Israel and the Palestinians.
Success in the struggle against terrorism with Islamic ideological roots is obviously in Israel’s interest, but it is also important for Israel to avoid putting itself in the forefront of this struggle, certainly on a declarative level. Israel has proven capabilities in anti-terrorism warfare, and when asked, it should be willing to render assistance. Official statements, and certainly critical and patronizing ones, will help neither the countries that suffered terrorist attacks, nor Israel.
Europe appears to be falling apart.Watch Belgians protect Israeli flag at Brussels attacks memorial
Last week, an ISIS cell killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more in twin suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and in the Maalbeek metro station, and the following weekend, a proposed March Against Fear was cancelled due to “security concerns,” which no doubt amped up the city’s anxiety even more.
On Sunday, riot police clashed with a mob of hundreds of angry men wearing black, some with shaved heads, who stormed into the square carrying an anti-ISIS banner and screaming Nazi-like slogans.
“It was important for us to be here symbolically,” a woman named Samia Orosemane said, but “there were lots of men who were here and doing the Nazi salute, shouting 'death to Arabs,' and so we weren't able to get through.”
Adam Liston told the BBC that the atmosphere in the square was “really positive” at first. “Then a bunch of skinheads just turned up, marched into the square, and started a major confrontation with the peace protesters. They got in the face of the protesters and police. They set off flares and chanted and it was getting quite ugly.”
There were no violent Nazi-like demonstrations in the United States against Arabs or Muslims, not even on or after September 11, 2001, when ten times as many people were murdered in the most spectacular terrorist attack in world history. But as Tom Wolfe famously put it, the dark night of fascism is forever descending on the United States and landing in Europe.
Amid the display of national and international unity, a few people went out of their way to exclude Israel. In at least three incidents captured on video last week, people speaking Arabic or wearing Muslim garb destroyed, removed or covered up Israeli flags at Place de la Bourse.Belgian Jew who lost leg in Brussels attack to move to Israel
In an incident Sunday around noon, locals intervened. A crowd confronted a man who, after praying in Arabic, shouted “Palestine” and anti-Israel slogans — calling Israel a “terrorist state.” The incident was caught on video.
The white-haired man, wearing a head covering favored by North African Muslims, stepped on other flags and candles in an effort to reach an Israeli flag located near the center of the memorial site. Dozens of Belgians began booing him.
Several shouted in Flemish and French: “Shameful!” Others shouted in French: “Everyone!” in a call for others to join the booing.
When the man grabbed the Israeli flag, another man shoved him to the ground and wrestled it from his hands amid applause from onlookers. Two police officers made their way to the scene, and after a short exchange, escorted the shouting man away from the memorial. When the man again shouted in Arabic, one of the officers shoved him.
A Belgian Jew whose leg was amputated in a suicide bombing at Brussels’ main airport said he would immigrate to Israel.Far-right hooligans riot at Brussels shrine, with Nazi salutes, calls for ‘death to Arabs’
Walter Benjamin plans to make aliyah when he recovers from the injury he sustained in the March 22 attack he told Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday. The attack was part of a series of bombings in the Belgian capital that killed 35 people and wounded hundreds.
“I probably will pack my things, get on a plane and start looking for a small apartment in Israel,” he said, adding that he wants to be near his daughter, who lives, there until she enlists in the Israeli army. “That’s the most important thing in life for me.”
Benjamin said he was walking through the airport to check-in to a flight to Israel, where he planned to spend Purim with his daughter, when he heard a noise he thought was firecrackers.
Twenty seconds later, the second of two explosions at the airport blew off part of his leg. He was shielded from some of the shrapnel because he was holding a large suitcase, he said.
Belgian riot police clashed Sunday with hundreds of right-wing soccer hooligans at a temporary shrine honoring victims of the Brussels suicide bombings, as investigators launched fresh anti-terror raids, taking four more people into custody.Belgian Imams Refuse to Pray for Souls of Non-Muslim Victims of Brussels Attacks
Police used water cannon when scuffles broke out in front of the Bourse, which has become a symbolic rallying point for people to pay their respects to those who died in Tuesday’s attacks. Black-clad men carrying an anti-Islamic State group banner with an expletive on it trampled parts of the shrine, shouting Nazi slogans. Ten were arrested and two police officers injured.
“We had 340 hooligans from different football clubs who came to Brussels and we knew for sure that they would create some trouble,” Police Commissioner Christian De Coninck said. “It was a very difficult police operation because lots of families with kids were here.”
Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur expressed his disgust, with Belgium still in mourning over the suicide bombings at Brussels airport and subway, which killed at least 28 people and injured some 340.
According to the UAE-based Al-Ghad Al-Arabi TV channel, the council of Belgian imams rejected a recent initiative to pray for the souls of the victims of the Brussels terror attacks on the grounds that praying for non-Muslims ran counter to Islamic law. In the report, which aired on March 26, Sheikh Abdelhadi Sewif, Chief Imam of the Great Mosque of Brussels, said that one could get around this by avoiding the word "prayer" and calling it a show of solidarity with the families.
IsraellyCool: Hany, I Raised The Israeli Flag
Remember Hany Baransi, the Israeli Arab who owned a restaurant in Ohio – one which was visited by a Somali man with a machete and a penchant for hacking at people?IDF tells court Hebron assailant killed by soldier posed no threat
Here’s a heartwarming follow-up, thanks to Israeli’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
Yesterday, at our Embassy, I met with Hany Baransi, an Israeli Arab who was born in Haifa and who moved to the United States as a young man.
Hany owns the Nazareth Restaurant & Deli in Columbus, Ohio, where he had an Israeli flag on display. Last month, a man stormed into his restaurant wielding a machete and violently attacked diners.
After the brutal attack, Hany was asked if he would stop displaying the Israeli flag. He replied “Actually I have another flag, and I am going to get a bigger flag, and I am going to get a Star of David necklace and put it on my chest, and I am going to get a tattoo.” “Honest to God, I am not kidding. They don’t scare me. We are Israelis. We are Israelis. We are resilient, we fight back.”
A soldier arrested in the shooting death of a wounded Palestinian assailant deliberately executed the man, the military prosecutor said Tuesday at a hearing, but hinted he may not be charged with murder.Disputing IDF, medics claim Hebron assailant wasn’t checked for bomb
Speaking in a case that has become charged with political ramifications as hundreds of people demonstrated on behalf of the soldier outside, the prosecutor said the accused man shot the Palestinian stabber in the head though the assailant no longer posed a threat.
An IDF soldier was moderately wounded in the attack, in Hebron on Thursday, during the course of which another Palestinian assailant was shot and killed.
The soldier, whose name is being withheld from publication, was filmed Thursday shooting a wounded and nearly motionless Palestinian assailant in the head shortly following the stabbing attack in Hebron.
The Magen David Adom emergency medical service has offered an account of last Thursday’s shooting of a disarmed Palestinian assailant by an IDF soldier that conflicts with the account publicized by the army.Body language expert: Soldier was right in shooting terrorist
The central discrepancy between the two organizations is over whether the assailant, Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, had been inspected by soldiers for an explosive vest or other type of weapon, which could have been used to harm first responders.
Responding to criticism over the fact that medics had not treated the two Palestinian assailants at the scene, MDA director Eli Bin called for an investigation into the incident to determine if the medics had acted appropriately. On Monday night, the ambulance service published its findings, declaring the medical teams had acted “without flaw.”
The delay in treatment was due solely to safety concerns, the MDA report said.
An expert on body language, Dr. Amir Helmer, has published an examination into the video of an IDF soldier shooting a neutralized terrorist in Hevron.Palestinian fabricated 'Jewish terror attack', now faces charges
By analyzing it second by second, he found that the soldier's explanation is accurate and that the terrorist did pose an immediate threat during the seconds before the soldier fired.
During an interview with Arutz Sheva, Dr. Helmer spoke about the clip and what led him to his conclusions. "It interested me to examine the video because the soldier said that he saw the terrorist move. I was interested to know if that was correct. The politicians said that it was wrong and that he acted excessively. I took the clip and I saw that, before he arrived, people were yelling not to touch the terrorist because he may have an explosive.
"It was this situation into which the soldier entered. We see him talk to an officer or soldier, then turn his attention to the fact that the terrorist moved. This means that the soldier's comments were correct and accurate."
"That officer or soldier took something from him, so it would be easier for the soldier who shot to use his weapon. He moved people away from the firing line, they moved and then he fired a single shot. Not a burst and not excessively, but rather a single bullet," Dr. Helmer continued.
A Palestinian man who reported a "Jewish terror attack" near the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem now faces charges, after it was revealed he fabricated the entire incident.Netanyahu said to halt return of Palestinian attackers’ bodies
On March 13, an Arab resident of a village near Neve Daniel in Judea lodged a complaint with Israeli security forces, claiming that "settlers" had set fire to his home, in an alleged incident similar to the deadly Duma arson further north in Samaria.
He claimed he identified the attackers as "settlers" by their tzitzit (fringed garments worn by religious Jews), and said they quickly fled the scene. He further alleged his father had discovered "Death to the Arabs" graffiti some 150 meters from his house, and that five "settlers" had cursed and pelted him with stones.
The complaint prompted the police's Nationalistic Crimes Division to open an investigation - at which point the complainant's story quickly unraveled.
Using advanced investigative technology, investigators' suspicions soon began to mount that no such incident ever occurred. Police subsequently opened an investigation into the complainants themselves, during which they discovered numerous contradictions between testimonies provided by the alleged victims and other witnesses.
Moreover, the key complainant failed a polygraph test, and forensics teams said they found no traces whatsoever of any flammable substances at the scene of the alleged incident.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly ordered to stop the practice of returning to their families the bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis.IsraellyCool: Isn’t It Time To Defund The UN Yet?
In a conversation held Sunday night with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, the prime minister said the freeze will remain in place pending an overarching policy decision on the matter, according Channel 2.
Israel’s Defense Ministry has permitted the return of bodies of terrorists killed at the scene by Israeli security forces on the condition that they are buried in a low-key funeral, to avoid a further inflammation of violence.
Twenty-nine Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence since October. Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.
Last Thursday, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution reminiscent of Nazi-era laws, which calls on the UN Human Rights Chief to set up a database of companies that operate, not only in the West Bank, but in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. As usual, this session of the UNHRC produced more resolutions condemning Israel that it produced on the rest of the world combined, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and North Korea. Obsession with Israel, however, is hardly the UN’s only problem.UN Scrambles to Pass Anti-Israel Resolution at Security Council Before Obama Term Ends
Earlier this month, a long-time UN staffer blew the whistle on the “colossal mismanagement” at the UN.
If you locked a team of evil geniuses in a laboratory, they could not design a bureaucracy so maddeningly complex, requiring so much effort but in the end incapable of delivering the intended result. The system is a black hole into which disappear countless tax dollars and human aspirations, never to be seen again.
Former Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury cited the examples of Haiti, Mali, and the Central African Republic as illustrative of the UN’s profound inability to act as a peacekeeping force. He also discussed the UN failures in effectively fighting last year’s ebola outbreak.
The prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, while anything but a sure bet, has set U.N. diplomats on a race to conclude a set of deals from migration to the Middle East peace process before U.S. President Barack Obama steps down in January 2017.Netanyahu to Indonesian journalists: Time to establish formal ties
The push to secure diplomatic pacts in the waning months of the Obama presidency reflects mounting uncertainty about the prospects for international cooperation at the United Nations if Trump’s presidential bid succeeds. While many U.N. diplomats are rooting for Hillary Clinton to win the election in November, Trump’s improbable rise to the front of the Republican pack has made many doubt their own ability to handicap what has developed into one of the most unpredictable of American presidential races.
European governments, in particular, see the adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements or sketching a political road map for a Palestinian state as the major prize. They are also seeking U.S. support at a summit on migration that will be held at U.N. headquarters in September.
“Everything that we can do in 2016 we should do in 2016 because we know what we’re dealing with,” said a senior U.N. diplomat who favors Security Council action in the coming months on an Israel-Palestine resolution. “In the Obama administration, we have … the most pro-U.N. administration that any of us can remember.”
It’s time for Israel and Indonesia to establish full diplomatic ties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of five senior Indonesian journalists on Monday.Khaled Abu Toameh: Reconciliation talks for Fatah, Hamas stall once again
Netanyahu told the delegation, here for a week as guests of the Foreign Ministry, that the two countries have many areas in which they can cooperate, such as in the fields of water and technology.
“The relations between Israel and Indonesia need to change,” he said. “I have not a few Indonesian friends on facebook. The time has come to change the relations, and the reasons that prevented that in the past are no longer relevant.”
Netanyahu said he hoped that the journalists’ visit will pave the way to establishing ties with the world’s most populous Muslim country.
Another round of “reconciliation” talks between Hamas and Fatah ended in Qatar on Monday without agreement on the formation of a Palestinian unity government and other points of differences between the two sides.Watch: Islamic Jihad vows to avenge the blood of Palestinians 'executed' by Israel
The only agreement the two sides reached was to refrain from talking to the media about the negotiations.
Last month, representatives of the two rival Palestinian parties met in Qatar in yet another bid to end their dispute.
However, the talks failed to achieve any results.
Ziad al-Thatha, a senior Hamas official, said that the talks with Fatah would continue in the future to discuss a number of “thorny” issues.
Islamic Jihad's military wing, al-Quds Brigades, released a video on Tuesday documenting the preparations conducted by its tunnel fighters to avenge the blood of Palestinians "executed" by the IDF.The Druze of the Golan Heights Are Reconciling Themselves with Israel
The two-minute long video, titled "Blood readiness," starts by showing an IDF soldier that while inspecting Palestinian cars at a West Bank checkpoint, orders a suspicious young Palestinian to step out of his family's car in order to question him.
Shortly afterward, the Israeli soldier violently pulls the Palestinian out of the car and shoots him, even though the latter raises his hand in a gesture of surrender.
After he is killed, drops of blood falling from the young Palestinian are seen slowly leaking underneath the road he is laid on, finally landing on a Quds Brigades fighter who is busy digging tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border. When he notices the blood drops falling on him, the fighter accelerates his digging pace to rapidly avenge the Palestinian blood.
Those visiting the Golan Heights these days will find [that the] Syrian flags are gone and Israeli flags are beginning to appear. Some 30 percent of the Druze residents of Majdal Shams have taken out Israeli citizenship, and the rest of the Druze villages seem to be following suit.Lawmakers Push Back Against White House Effort to Open U.S. Markets to Iran
After many years of living in anticipation of the Golan Heights being turned over by Israel to Syria, the Golan Druze are settling down to the reality of staying in Israel. Watching from afar the bloodbath taking place in Syria these past four years, and anxious for the fate of their Druze brethren there, many consider themselves to be fortunate to be part of Israel. . . . An Israeli Golan Heights is beginning to be recognized as a permanent fixture of the Middle East.
Inevitably our thoughts turn back to the period sixteen years ago when Ehud Barak was a hair’s breadth—or more precisely a few meters—away from reaching an agreement with Hafez al-Assad that would have turned the Golan Heights over to Syria. And a few years earlier it was Yitzḥak Rabin who was prepared to make such a deal. . . . There may still be a few stubborn Israelis who think that would have been a good deal for Israel, but they are by now few and far between.
They also argued that by granting this final measure of sanctions relief, the administration would be throwing away the last bit of leverage it has over Iran. During the debate over the nuclear deal, the administration emphasized that it would prevent Iran from accessing the American financial system precisely because it needed the leverage in case Iran would violate the deal. Dubowitz and Schanzer asked, “Why throw away that leverage in exchange for no new concessions?”Iran: Nothing will stop our missile program
Dubowitz and Schanzer concluded by calling on Congress to “oppose Iran’s access to the U.S. financial system” until it “can get the intelligence community to verify that Iranian banks have stopped financing terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas—not to mention money laundering and other financial crimes.”
The administration previously agreed to extend waivers to travelers who had recently been in Iran, contravening the visa waiver program previously passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama, after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complained that the law violated American commitments to Iran as part of the nuclear deal.
Iran still intends to pursue its ballistic missile program, despite a United Nations resolution and a US blacklist against companies involved, Reuters reports.Iranian Supreme Court Sentences Man to Have Eye Gouged out, Under Sharia ‘Retribution Laws’
"Even if they build a wall around Iran, our missile program will not stop," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Iran's Tasnim news. "They are trying to frighten our officials with sanctions and invasion. This fear is our biggest threat." General Hajizadeh is in charge of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace branch.
While the project does not violate last year's nuclear deal, UN Security Council Resolution 2231 forbids the Islamic Republic from "any activity" connected with ballistic missiles that could be used for nuclear weapons.
The US Treasury Department has also been trying to discourage Iran from developing new missiles by sanctioning Iranian companies involved in the program. It blocked 11 companies in response to a missile test last October and another two following this month's launches.
The Iranian Supreme Court has sentenced a man to have his eye gouged out after blinding another man in a street fight.Yemen conflict: Al-Qaeda ‘used surface-to-air missile’ to bring down Emirati fighter jet
The 28-year-old, identified only as Saman, was convicted under Iran’s strict retribution laws after fighting in the street with his then 25-year-old victim when he was 23.
According to Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO, Saman claimed he had unintentionally blinded the man with a metal rod.
Al-Qaeda has acquired sophisticated surface-to-air missiles, The Independent has learned, which were used to shoot down an Emirati fighter jet in a dangerous escalation of the civil war raging in Yemen.Egypt plane drama ends with hijacker arrested, passengers freed
A French-made Mirage jet, flying in the air force of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), crashed into a mountain side just outside the southern port city of Aden on 14 March. Authorities claimed that the crash was “the result of a technical malfunction”, but sources dispute this, claiming that the jet was shot down with Russian munitions. The incident raises the spectre of other jihadist branches accessing sophisticated surface-to-air missiles in Syria, Iraq and further afield.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition that has carried out a year-long war against Shia Houthi rebels, primarily from the air. Also involved in the war is al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). With the bombing war dragging on, AQAP has worked assiduously and quietly to consolidate its hold in south Yemen.
An Egyptian man who hijacked an EgyptAir plane during a routine domestic flight to Cairo and forced it to land on the island of Cyprus on Tuesday surrendered and was taken into custody after he released all the passengers and crew.Sir, You Didn’t Select A No-Hijacking Seat On Your Flight (satire)
His surrender ended an hours-long drama and standoff at the Larnaca airport in southern Cyprus. The hijacker had earlier freed most of the passengers but kept seven people — four crew members and three passengers — with him.
Just minutes before the arrest, local TV footage from the airport showed several people disembarking from the aircraft and a man who appeared to be a crew member climbing out of the cockpit window and sliding down the side of the plane.
Alexandros Zenon, the permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry in Cyprus, confirmed the hijacker’s surrender and subsequent arrest, saying the situation was “over.”
By Fatima Saidi, EgyptAir Customer Service RepresentativeSisi's face appears on Israeli currency amid 'Egyptian shekel scandal'
Good morning, sir. How can I be of service today?
Yes, I understand. Have you reviewed our refund policy? Good, good. Then let me file your request for a- oh, wait. This might not be a valid request. Sir, you didn’t select a no-hijacking seat on your flight. That means you consented to being taken to Cyprus instead of your destination, and are not eligible for a refund.
Yes, I see that. I heard – that could not have been pleasant. But when you booked your flight, did you specifically request not to be in a section of the cabin that gets hijacked by a disgruntled or resentful man? According to our system’s records, you didn’t. So I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline this request for a refund.
Sir, sir, there wouldn’t be a point to submitting it; the people who review these applications at headquarters would simply reject it out of hand once they saw that the ‘no hijacking’ option had not been selected when the customer or agent made the reservation. Did you use a travel agent, or did you make the reservation independently, online? Ah. Well, if you’d gone through an agent you could file a grievance against them, perhaps for negligence, but the online ticket sellers all have a series of check boxes where you’re supposed to note any special requests, such as a vegetarian in-flight meal, a specific need for a bulkhead seat, that sort of thing. But you didn’t do that.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi faced stinging criticism from his opponents over the weekend over his alleged normalization of ties with the Jewish State.
It all started when Sisi made a speech in which he asked each Egyptian to donate one lira to the state every morning in order to help it get out of its economic woes. The Sisi appeal garnered widespread support on social media but his opposition attacked him and called him a "beggar and not a leader."
The attack on Sisi came days after another scandal in Egypt in which a major Egyptian Bank, Banque Misr, publicized the Israeli shekel exchange rate with Egypt's lira. For millions of Egyptians, this act, by a state owned bank, was viewed as another unacceptable marker of the normalization of relations with Israel.
At the beginning of the month, an Egyptian Member of Parliament was ousted from his position after meeting with the Israeli ambassador to Egypt.
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