Thursday, November 02, 2017
What goes on under the surface of UNRWA schools is not the problem
UNRWA does indeed condemn Hamas activity underneath UNRWA schools.
Yet UNRWA says nothing about Hamas activity inside the UNRWA schools.
Hamas, defined as a terror group by the US, the UN, the EU, the UK, Canada and Australia, has won successive elections since 1999, to lead both the UNRWA workers union and the UNRWA teachers union.
Hamas influences generations of descendants of the 1948 war to engage in the 'right of return' through jihad - holy war - to take back Arab villages that existed before 1948.
New school books used by UNRWA teach that the Jewish presence in Palestine is “temporary.”
Since 2016, the name "Israel" has disappeared in all UNRWA texts, replaced by the expression "Zionist occupation."
UNRWA school books list thirty inflammatory accusations against Jews starting with its usurpation of Palestine and the expulsion of the original inhabitants, through massacres, murder of Palestinian children, assassination of Palestinian leaders, aggression against neighboring Arab states, destruction of Palestinian cities and villages, desecration of Muslim and Christian holy places, mass arrests, attempts at the elimination of Palestinian identity and cultural heritage, besieging the Palestinians by the separation fence, damaging Palestinian economy and harming Palestinian society, and ending in perpetuating the state of ignorance among Palestinians and responsibility for intra-family violence and drug abuse in Palestinian society.
Times of Israel Hacked by Turks
The Times of Israel has been hacked by a Turkish Islamist group calling itself ‘Gazzeye’ or ‘Akincilar’, on Thursday afternoon.
Visitors to the TOI home page found the Turkish flag and a symbol with the name Akincilar, which is also the name of a town and a district of Sivas Province of Turkey.
The Jewish Week online edition, a New York based newspaper, which merged into the Times of Israel site last year, was also hacked in the process.
Cyber-security expert Paul Goldenberg has previously told The New York Jewish Week, “the Jewish community is highly susceptible to these attacks; the threat cannot be underestimated.”
In 2015, Russel Neiss, a technology consultant, told The New York Jewish Week, “This sort of attack should be easily avoidable with only a small amount of prevention by a staff member of the organization with a moderate amount of technological knowledge or an attentive contractor.”
Sruli Shaffren, the sysadmin for JewishPress.com offered a different perspective, “Any site can be hacked. Any server can have hundreds if not thousands of holes. The system administrators and programmers try to close them all, but a hacker has to only find one in order to succeed. That said, there are steps that can be taken, and people should do whatever they can to keep their sites secure.”
Switzerland admits drone test bungle in Golan Heights
Switzerland's Defense Ministry has admitted sending staff to test reconnaissance drones in contested land held by Israel – an embarrassing blow for the neutral European country's status as an honest broker in the Middle East.
Swiss officials visited an airfield in the Golan Heights region on three occasions in 2012, 2013 and 2015 to monitor tests of the Israeli-built Hermes 900 aircraft that they are buying for $265 million.
The Hermes 900, produced by defense contractor Elbit Systems, is a medium-altitude, multi-payload, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, designed for tactical missions. It has an endurance of over 30 hours and can fly at a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet, with a primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and communications relay.
The officials' visits, which lasted several days, took place in an area that Switzerland does not recognize as being part of Israel, as it was seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Following an internal review this year, the Swiss found the presence of their personnel at the airfield contradicted the Swiss position on the Middle East conflict, the ministry said.
The visits took place without the knowledge of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. No further visits have taken place since the affair came to light, it said in a statement.
Radical leftists nearly lynched by Arab mob
Two women from the radical leftist group Machsom Watch, which regularly badgers IDF soldiers serving at checkpoints, were in for an unpleasant surprise, after they were nearly lynched by Arabs in a Samarian village.Calling for Violent Jihad in Australia
0404 reported that the incident unfolded when the two arrived at the Samarian village of Azzun to show their support for local Arabs. As one of the women extended her hand to give an item to some of the Arabs, another Arab at the scene snatched a bracelet from her wrist and started to run.
The two women chased after him in their car until they came to the neighboring village, where Arabs proceeded to attack them, pelting the vehicle with large rocks.
The women managed to escape the premises and, in the meantime, an IDF force rushed to the scene, fearing the worst.
An army official told 0404: “The foolishness of the radical left brings them every time to similar situations, and they don’t understand the constant danger to their lives.”
“Because of their foolishness, an IDF force had to halt operational activity and rush to the scene.”
There is not a Bible, Jewish or Christian, containing such incendiary commentary as populates page after page of 'The Noble Qur’an', which for four years has preached to the faithful in Canberra Airport's prayer room. The ideology it promotes is violent jihad. It is a book to start a warA Short history of Ramming Attacks
What should Australians make of the fact that the Saudis have been presenting an open and unashamed apology for violent jihad, even commending the practice of enslaving enemies, in our own backyard for years, not to show Islam in a poor light, but to glorify it?
The fact that The Noble Qur’an is in the Canberra airport musallah is no accident. This edition of the Koran and the teachings it promotes can be found in Islamic bookshops, public libraries, prayer rooms and Sunni mosques all over the English-speaking world.
The British historian Tom Holland recently produced a documentary on ISIS called The Origins of Violence. A scathing review by the English journalist Peter Oborne was published in the Middle East Eye. Oborne excoriated Holland for suggesting that the problem with ISIS lies with Islam. Oborne found it repugnant to suggest that there is anything about Islam that might be considered a “threat”, and he railed against Holland’s suggestion that there could be anything in the example and teaching of Muhammad (whom Oborne respectfully calls “The Prophet”) which could have guided the actions of the Islamic State.
Such ignorance is the fruit of religious illiteracy. Or might fear be the issue? Has Muhammad, praised in the pages of the Koran for being “victorious by awe”, now extended his reign of fear, not just for the distance of one month’s journey as Muhammad declared he had achieved in seventh-century Arabia, but across fourteen centuries to Australia and the rest of the world?
Of course many Australian Muslims would, like Ahmed Farouk Musa, find the messages promoted through the footnotes and glosses of The Noble Qur’an utterly repugnant. It is disappointing that these well-meaning Muslims have not been able to determine which version of their own scriptures is to be placed in a public prayer room designated for their use. They could have lobbied Canberra airport to have this version of the Koran replaced by another, but if they have done so, their attempts must have failed.
The message contained in The Noble Qur’an and its widespread public distribution are matters Australians have every right to be concerned about. Its message has been promoted in public for years with hardly a whisper of objection coming from those who should know better.
It would be inappropriate, and indeed irrelevant if our leaders were to respond to the message of The Noble Qur’an with statements like “True Islam does not promote terrorism” or “No true religion supports violence”. For Australian officials to dare to instruct the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia or the Guardian of the Two Holy Mosques on what is true Islam would be ludicrous and offensive. But the leaders of our nation, against whose non-Muslim citizens The Noble Qur’an incites such undisguised enmity, have every right to say, “Not in our backyard!”
You wouldn’t know it from consuming American media, for whom any mention of the Jewish state as anything but an aggressor is an inconvenience, but the sort of ramming attack we’ve witnessed yesterday afternoon in lower Manhattan was first used against Israelis by Palestinian terrorists.NY Truck Attacker Said "He Felt Good" about Rampage
The very first such attack, according to most available records, occurred on Feburary 18, 1987, when an IDF force was patrolling the Askar refugee camp, just east of Nablus. At around 9:30 a.m., as the soldiers were approaching a school, a Mercedes driven by a Palestinian named Samir Ibrahim Harisha took a sharp turn, plowing into the group. One soldier, Nir Bitan, was tossed in the air and sustained a severe injury. He lay unconscious in his hospital bed for more than a year before succumbing. Another soldier was wounded in the attack.
Less than two years later, on November 30, 1989, Avigdor Dahari, a father of six who operated a food stand just outside of the Gaza Strip, was closing up shop for a day. A hungry soldier approached him and asked for a quick sandwich, and Dahari was glad to abide. As he was preparing the food, however, a car driven by a Palestinian terrorist came careening down the road, hitting Dahari in the head and killing him on the spot.
Ramming attacks remained popular with Palestinian terrorists throughout the last two decades, with perpetrators opting for larger vehicles, like trucks or buses, to maximize casualties. A 2001 attack left eight Israelis dead and 21 wounded, and another in 2008 killed three and wounded 36.
The suspect in the deadly New York City truck rampage was inspired by the Islamic State group's online videos and plotted his attack for two months, renting a truck ahead of time to practice turning it, federal authorities said in bringing terrorism charges against the Uzbek immigrant.NYC terrorist drove yeshiva students home to Lakewood
President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Sayfullo Saipov "SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!"
Saipov chose Halloween for the attack because he figured there would be more people on the streets, according to the criminal complaint. And after his trail of terror was halted by a police bullet, he asked to display the Islamic State flag in his hospital room, saying "he felt good about what he had done," authorities said.
Brought to court in a wheelchair, Saipov was held without bail on charges that could bring the death penalty. Separately, the FBI was questioning people who might have information about his actions before the attack, including a second Uzbek man.
The charges against Saipov, 29, came just a day after the attack near the World Trade Center killed eight people. Investigators in multiple states raced to retrace Saipov's steps and understand his motivations, which they said were illuminated by a note he left by the truck: "Islamic Supplication. It will endure." The phrase "it will endure" commonly refers to the Islamic State group, and Saipov had a cellphone loaded with the group's propaganda, an FBI agent said in the criminal complaint.
A pair of haredi yeshiva students were shocked to discover recently that the terrorist responsible for Tuesday's deadly vehicular attack in New York City was the Lyft driver who had driven them to Lakewood a week before.UK’s May: Criticism of Israel Being Used as New Form of Anti-Semitism
According to a report in the New York Daily News, terrorist Sayfullo Saipov had driven yeshiva students Eli and Avrumi Grynhaus to Lakewood from New Jersey's Newark Airport after they returned from a vacation in Miami Beach on October 19.
The brothers were stunned to find out that they had shared a ride with a terrorist. “I freaked out,” Eli Grynhaus said. “I was actually in a Lyft with this guy? The fact that he killed eight people yesterday is just a frightening thought.”
Gyrnhaus told the New York Daily News that they made small talk during the drive and that Saipov revealed that he drove for both ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft. While the driver was friendly, Grynhaus admitted to getting scared when Saipov got lost.
"When we got to Lakewood, he took us down a back street,” Grynhaus said. “I asked him why he was going down there. I was starting to get nervous. It was a bad area. He said he made a mistake.”
“I didn’t get the warmest feel from him. I could see there was hate,” Grynhaus added.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will warn that criticism of Israel should never be used as an excuse to hate Jews, when she speaks in London to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.Netanyahu tells May: If you don’t nix Iran deal, you must fix it
Mrs. May is currently hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the capital. The two will join hundreds of others at a gala celebration Thursday night marking 100 years since Britain formally declared its support for a Jewish national home in Palestine through the signing of the Balfour Declaration.
That document was the first international recognition by a world power of the right of the Jewish people to a national home in their ancestral land and formed the basis of Britain’s Mandate for Palestine in 1920.
An excerpt from Mrs. May’s speech made available to the British media reads, in part:
Today [there prevails] a new and pernicious form of anti-Semitism which uses criticism of the actions of the Israeli government as a despicable justification for questioning the very right of Israel to exist.
This is abhorrent and we will not stand for it.
Criticizing the government of Israel is never – and can never be – an excuse for hatred against the Jewish people – any more than criticizing the British government would be an excuse for hatred against the British people.
Put simply, there can be no excuses for any kind of hatred towards the Jewish people. There never have been – and there never will be.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu softened his long standing opposition to the Iran deal on Thursday, explaining that his most immediate goal is to fix rather than nix the document.Australian prime minister wraps up Israel visit at Holocaust memorial
He spoke about the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear power during a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London, her official residence. Six world powers, including Great Britain and the United States, are signatories to the document.
“The goal that I have in mind is not keeping or eliminating the deal. It’s improving the deal and correcting its main flaws," Netanyahu said.
May and Netanyahu are at odds on the deal, with the British premier holding that it prevents a nuclear Iran, while Netanyahu believes the agreement ensures that Tehran will have nuclear weapons in the future.
At the start of their meeting, May told Netanyahu that she remained committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA).
Netanyahu told May that if she wants to hold onto the deal, than she must act to fix it to ensure that Iran won’t become a nuclear power.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrapped up his trip to Israel at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum on Wednesday, where he laid a wreath.Nikki Haley tells United Nations: You're not the boss of U.S.
Earlier in the day, Turnbull met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem, where he spoke of Australia's heroism in the World War I cavalry charge 100 years ago that enabled, he said, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Rivlin welcomed Turnbull, saying, "On behalf of the Israeli public, I can say that we are so pleased that you are here and we welcome you from the bottom of our hearts."
Turnbull replied, "Mr. President, thank you and the welcome has been so warm, we thank you for it. We share so much history but, above all, we share the same values and the values of freedom and democracy were those for which the Australian light horse fought and won 100 years ago and that enabled, as we discussed in Beersheba yesterday, the creation of the State of Israel, it was a step along the road and we are proud to have played a part."
Ambassador Nikki Haley blasted the United Nations Wednesday in a defiant speech to the 193-member General Assembly before it adopted a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.Kushner, Greenblatt visit PA official recovering from surgery
Haley called the long-standing debate “political theater.”
“Let’s be honest about what we really see going on here,” Haley said. “This assembly does not have the power to end the U.S. embargo. It is based in U.S. law, which only the United States Congress can change.”
The United States voted Wednesday against the U.N. resolution condemning the American trade embargo against Cuba after abstaining last year, during the administration of Barack Obama, for the first time in 25 years.
The vote served as just the latest sign of a renewed chill between Washington and Havana since a string of bizarre sonic attacks against American diplomats in Cuba. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s administration kicked nearly two-thirds of Cuba’s embassy personnel out of the United States after pulling many U.S. diplomats from the American embassy in Havana out of concern for their health and safety.
Two senior Trump administration officials leading a US push for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians paid a visit this week to a senior PA official recovering from surgery.Muslims to soon beat out Jews in U.S. population
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and Jason Greenblatt, the president’s special representative for international negotiations, visited top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat after he underwent a significant lung transplant operation at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, last month.
The operation was successful and Erekat is responding well, said PLO envoy to the US Husam Zomlot, who also was in attendance.
A White House official confirmed their visit after the PLO posted a photo on Twitter.
“They went to visit him to see how he was feeling after surgery and to show support to Saeb, his wife and his son,” the official said.
There are about 3.35 million Muslims in the United States right now, according to recent Pew Research Center’s Factank figures.Threat of retaliation by Islamic Jihad over tunnel blast 'is not over yet'
But by 2050, that particular population is projected to grow — from about 1 percent of the U.S. population to about 2.1 percent. If it does, that means America will be home to more Muslims than Jews.
Just something to think about, post New York City terror attack — a terror attack that we now know was committed by a radicalized Muslim who professed allegiance to ISIS.
President Donald Trump, in a tweet, wrote: “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!”
And of course, all sane Americans are with him on that point.
But truth is: How do we reel back the radicalization of those Muslims in America now — of those who are yet to come?
The threat of retaliation by Islamic Jihad is not over yet, a senior commander in the IDF Southern Command said on Wednesday, two days after the IDF blew up a tunnel that ran from the Gaza Strip to Israel, an operation in which nine terrorists were killed and five are said to be missing.Several tunnel terrorists still missing, may be in Israel
“I believe that it will be hard for them to hold back, and there is a possibility that they already decided what their answer will look like,” he said.
“They are now in a dilemma. They have restraints coming from Hamas, which wishes to advance the reconciliation [with Fatah], but on the other hand they have their own agenda, and they receive directions from Iran.
“I do not rule out a possibility in which the Iranians, who influence Islamic Jihad, will take advantage of the retaliation option in order to harm the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,” the commander said.
Two of the terrorists who were killed in the tunnel were senior commanders in the al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, according to media reports. Soldiers from Hamas’s navy commandos were also among those who were killed. It is believed that they were killed at the Palestinian side of the tunnel a short time after the explosion, while they were inside trying to rescue others who were trapped.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) suffered a major blow Monday, when a tunnel carrying its operatives—including senior commanders—was detonated by the IDF, killing nine terrorists with five still considered missing.IAF strikes Syrian munitions factory, Syria retaliates
The IDF considers the incident to still be ongoing, with the Gaza Division remaining on high alert in fear of PIJ retaliatory measures following the tunnel's detonation, with the army saying it was merely 200 – 300 meters from one of its outposts in the Kissufim sector. A shaft exiting into Israeli territory was not yet excavated, the army added.
Two of the causalities in the detonation were senior Islamic Jihad figures—a brigade commander and his deputy—active in the second largest terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip, and five Jihad terrorists are still missing, possibly within Israeli territory. while Hamas operatives, part of the organization's naval commandos, went down into the tunnel to extract their wounded compatriots and were also killed.
A senior IDF Southern Command officer spoke to reporters Wednesday, saying, "We're still in the midst of this incident. We're careful to not become complacent despite the momentous achievement. We're looking at the (Hamas-Fatah) reconciliation with wariness because Hamas is trying to have its cake and eat it too, partnering with both Fatah and Iran. The reconciliation does not necessarily bode well for us, but it is an expression of the pressures Hamas is under."
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) attacked a munitions factory near the city of Homs in Syria on Wednesday night, according to Lebanese reports, prompting the Assad regime to fire an anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile at the aircraft in retaliation.Ex-IDF Intel Chief: Latest Reported Strike in Syria Sent ‘Resounding Message’ to Regional Players That Israel Will Enforce Its Red Lines Against Iran and Hezbollah
The Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV network noted there were "unconfirmed reports Israel had attacked a facility in an industrial area in the suburbs of Homs, and that the Syrian anti-aircraft systems responded" to the Israeli attack.
Al Mayadeen also reported the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the IAF aircraft from the base of the Syrian army's 72nd Brigade, but missed, with the Israeli fighter jets returning home safely.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that reports on the war, said the air strike had targeted a military installation.
The Observatory cited sources who suggested the facility was a rocket depot, adding it was unknown whether these rockets belong to the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah or the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The reported Israeli air strike on a weapons facility near the western Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday sent a “resounding message” to regional players, according to a former IDF Military Intelligence chief.Israeli Arabs involved in 59% of arsons, 57% of murders
The attack was proof that Israel was “insisting on red lines against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria,” Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin — who as an IAF pilot participated in the 1981 destruction of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor and is now the director of the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Insitute for National Security Studies — tweeted on Thursday.
The incident, Yadlin pointed out, took place around the same time Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting Tehran and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was meeting with a top Hamas official, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut.
Referencing the ongoing tension on the Gaza border following the detonation by the IDF of an Islamic Jihad tunnel earlier this week, Yadlin said, “While Israel is acting against the strengthening of its enemies in the north and south, at the same time, it must ensure it has the ability to control the escalation on both the fronts.”
Israeli Arabs are "significantly" involved in violent offenses, Israel Hayom reported.IsraellyCool: Arab Media’s Latest Attempt To Demonize Israel Backfires
In a statistical report presented Sunday by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh to the Israeli government, figures show that Israeli Arabs commit 57% of all murder cases, 55% of attempted murders, 59% of all arsons, 45% of all robberies, 36% of property offenses, and 26% of drug trafficking offenses.
Israeli Arabs constitute 21% of Israel's population.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) blamed Arab MKs for the failure of law enforcement to affect Israeli Arabs and the Arab sector in general.
"The truth of the matter is that the ones who need to need to do some soul-searching about the lack of law enforcement and the number of murders in Arab society - are you."
However, Alsheikh told Israel Hayom that that "it is impossible that the number of Israelis has grown but the number of cases has dropped." Other police sources suggested the possibility that the Arab public has lost faith in Israel Police and therefore report less crimes.
When you read this report, what should stand out is the fact the palestinian boy is being treated in an Israeli hospital! And not just any palestinian boy, but the son of a terrorist serving a life sentence for murdering an Israeli.Controversial Nakba film festival funded in part by Culture Ministry
That’s right. Daddy dearest Rajab Tahhan, was sentenced to life for the murder of David Catorza, a Jew on his way to the synagogue, as well as unlawful transfer of weapons and conspiring to commit a crime. He was released in the Shalit swap deal, but rearrested because he was in contact with Hamas terrorists and receiving funds from the organization.
Yet Israel’s compassion for the teenage son suffering from cancer has trumped all of this, and he has been receiving treatment in Israel. That is the real takeaway from this story.
I should also note that Al Jazeera is the worst of the lot in reporting this. For a start, they contradict the other sources by reporting he was only given 10 minutes with his son (not 30).
The Culture and Sport Ministry and the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality are partially funding the controversial 48mm Film Festival from Nakba to Return 2017 which is scheduled to run at Jaffa's Al-Saraya Theater from Dec. 1 to Dec. 3.The Operational Coordination between Hizbullah and Hamas
This festival takes place annually around the anniversary of the November 1947 U.N. resolution to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, which paved the way for Zionist leaders to declare the State of Israel's independence six months later.
The film festival is organized by Zochrot, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that works to promote awareness of the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe," referring to the displacement of Palestinian refugees during Israel's War of Independence). Zochrot advocates implementation of a right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The Al-Saraya Theater works out of the Arab-Hebrew Theater building in Jaffa. The decision to host the film festival makes it possible to invoke the Nakba Law, which says public funding can be withheld from institutions that commemorate Independence Day as a day of mourning.
Shai Glick, head of the NGO Bezalmo, which campaigns for human rights and against anti-Jewish discrimination, said that the film festival was not an isolated or unique incident for Al-Saraya Theater.
The Hizbullah leader has become Iran’s point man as it builds up Hamas’ military power in the Gaza Strip.Hamas leader talks ‘resistance’ with Hezbollah chief in Beirut
Hizbullah and Hamas are not even trying to hide the cooperation between them. Hizbullah’s media outlets issued a picture of the meeting between Hizbullah’s secretary-general, Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, and the new deputy chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Salah al-Aruri.
Al-Aruri, who is in charge of Hamas’ military activity in the West Bank, was forced to leave Turkey and then Qatar under Israeli and U.S. pressure. About four months ago he settled in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut, which is considered Hizbullah’s stronghold, along with a few dozen Hamas operatives.
According to senior Israeli security sources, al-Aruri is setting up a branch of Hamas in Lebanon that will be attached to Hizbullah’s headquarters.
In addition to coordinating Hamas’ activity in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, it appears that al-Aruri will be directing the activity of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip along with Hizbullah, which takes direct orders from Iran.
Hamas’s deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday held a rare public meeting with Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, the leader of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, during which the two discussed Israel’s recent destruction of an attack tunnel dug from Gaza into Israel and the Palestinian reconciliation process, Hamas media reported.Hezbollah, World’s ‘Most Powerful’ Terrorist Organization, Poised for Next War With Israel, Military Experts Conclude in New Report
The IDF on Monday said it “neutralized a terror tunnel” that was discovered inside Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip and is believed to have been dug after 2014. The tunnel was being built by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group.
The blast killed at least five members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing, including a senior commander and his deputy, and two members of Hamas’s military wing died in rescue efforts. At least 12 others were injured, Gaza’s health ministry said.
According to a report by the Hamas media affiliate PalInfo, Nasrallah sent his condolences to the “martyrs,” and “stressed cohesion and solidarity in the face of Zionist attacks.”
Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, the Shia terrorist movement Hezbollah, has become the “most powerful non-state armed force on the planet,” a report by a group of former senior military officials and diplomats, many of them from NATO member states, concluded this week.Lawmakers: U.S. Illegally Arming, Paying Iranian Militants in Iraq
The report from the independent High-Level Military Group (HLMG) — whose members include Iraq war veteran Lt.-Gen. Michael D. Barbero of the US, Gen. Klaus Dieter Neumann, former commander of the German armed forces, Lord Richard Dannatt, former commander of the British armed forces, and Lt. Gen. Kamal Davar, the former head of India’s Defense Intelligence Agency — asserted that Hezbollah now represents “a threat that few countries, much less sub-state organizations, on the globe can mount.”
A renewed war with Israel was “inevitable,” the report warned, that is certain to be “more violent and destructive” than previous conflicts. Hezbollah has reportedly been withdrawing its forces from Syria in recent weeks, transferring them toward Israel’s borders on the Golan Heights.
Since the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah has undergone a major boost in terms of missile development and intelligence-gathering activities. “Israeli intelligence estimates put the number of projectiles in Hezbollah’s possession today at well over 100,000,” the report, titled “Hezbollah’s Terror Army: How To Prevent A Third Lebanon War,” said. “The majority of these are short-range rockets, but thousands have a much larger range, up to 150 miles and more.”
The United States has been illegally training, arming, and funding Iranian-controlled militant forces in Iraq, according to a delegation of lawmakers who accused the Trump administration on Wednesday of violating a law barring such activity.Khamenei: Iran, Russia should cooperate to isolate US
Information provided to lawmakers and viewed by the Free Beacon appears to show Iranian-controlled militants in Iraq using American-provided weaponry, including M1 Abrams tanks, which would require specific training from U.S. forces.
Lawmakers provided additional photographs of what they claim are Iranian-backed fighters cashing in on U.S. military training programs in Iraq during a press conference organized by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) outside of the Capitol.
The lawmakers cited this as a direct violation of the Leahy Law, which bars U.S. military assistance to foreign forces that violate human rights, and called on the Trump administration to immediately take steps to halt these programs.
Each of the lawmakers, experts, and military veterans in attendance at the press conference urged the Trump administration to cease aiding these Iranian militias and take greater steps to arm and support Kurdish forces in Iraq, who have long served as an ally of the U.S. in the region.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Tehran and Moscow must step up cooperation to isolate the United States and help stabilise the Middle East, state TV reported.Newly Released Bin Laden Papers Confirm Iran, Al Qaeda Allied as Enemies of America
Iran and Russia are the main allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the United States, Turkey and most Arab states support rebel groups fighting to overthrow him.
Putin met Iranian political leaders in an effort to nurture a warming relationship strengthened since US President Donald Trump threatened recently to abandon the international nuclear deal with Iran reached in 2015.
"Our cooperation can isolate America ... The failure of US-backed terrorists in Syria cannot be denied but Americans continue their plots," Khamenei told Putin, according to Iranian state television.
Since Russia's military intervention in Syria's war in 2015, and with stepped-up Iranian military assistance, Assad has taken back large amounts of territory from rebels as well as swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State militants.
Moscow is now trying to build on that success with a new diplomatic initiative, including a congress of Syria's rival parties it plans in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 18, though a major opposition bloc has refused to take part.
The CIA has released thousands of documents and other files recovered from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, when the terrorist leader was killed, providing “invaluable insights” into the terror group’s operations, and confirming previous reporting on its ties to Iran, Thomas Joscelyn and Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal reported Wednesday.Lawyer says it’s a ‘duty to rape’ women wearing ripped jeans
While the authors acknowledge that it will take years for “experts and researchers to comb through this treasure trove of information,” they offered some “preliminary observations” of the material they have reviewed.
“The group has failed to execute another 9/11-style attack inside the US, despite bin Laden’s continued desire to bring mass terror to America’s shores,” Joscelyn and Roggio observed in the introduction to their report, “but al Qaeda has adapted and in some ways grown, spreading its insurgency footprint in countries where it had little to no capacity for operations in 2001.”
Though ties between al-Qaeda, the Sunni terrorist organization, and Iran, the Shiite nation that has been designated by the United States State Department as “foremost state sponsor of terrorism,” have been reported for a while now, they have often been discounted due to their diverging religious philosophies. The latest revelations mentioned by Joscelyn and Roggio confirm that the two collaborated – despite their philosophical differences – motivated by a shared enmity for the U.S.
An Egyptian lawyer has sparked outrage after saying women who wear ripped jeans deserve to be sexually harassed and raped.
Nabih al-Wahsh, a prominent conservative in Egypt, said raping women who wear ripped jeans is a man’s “national duty”, adding that girls who show parts of their body by wearing such clothes are inviting men to harass them.
His disgusting comments were made during a TV talk show called “Infrad” on satellite channel Al-Assema.
The panel were debating a draft law on prostitution and “inciting debauchery” when Wahsh made the jaw-dropping comments.
During the heated debate, Wahsh said: “Are you happy when you see a girl walking down the street with half of her behind showing?”
He added: “I say that when a girl walks about like that, it is a patriotic duty to sexually harass her and a national duty to rape her.”
His controversial remarks prompted fury across the country and Egypt’s National Council for Women announced it plans to file a complaint to the attorney general against Wahsh and the TV channel.
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