Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Israeli security forces find cell phone bomb in Joseph's Tomb
Israeli security forces removed a bomb on Monday from Joseph's Tomb in Nablus in the West Bank, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.MEMRI: Palestinian Authority Honors Two Prisoners Serving Life Sentences For Kidnapping, Murder Of Israeli Soldier; Representative For PA President 'Abbas: 'The Two Prisoners Are A National Example'
The bomb, found in a cell phone during a security scan to secure the tomb for about 1,000 worshipers, was removed from the tomb and detonated by security forces. Protestors threw stones at security forces upon their entry to and departure from the site, damaging their bus but resulting in no casualties.
Nablus, built on the site of the ancient Biblical city of Shehem, is located in Area A of the West Bank, which is exclusively administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The Jewish holy site has been targeted by Palestinians in the past. In October of 2015, hundreds of rioters set the tomb ablaze before being dispersed by Palestinian Authority police. The religious site suffered severe damage, but again, no one was wounded.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the arson, stressing "his rejection of these actions and all actions that violate law and order, and which distort our culture, our morals and our religion.”
On January 14, 2018, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Prisoners Affairs Authority, in conjunction with the governor of the Ramallah district and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, held an event in Ramallah to mark the 36th year of imprisonment of two Israeli-Arab terrorists – Kareem Younis, aka "The Eldest of Prisoners," and his cousin Maher Younis – serving life sentences in Israel for the 1980 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg. During the event, senior Fatah officials heaped praise on the two, describing them as "national examples of steadfastness" and "one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle."Melanie Phillips: Abbas tears off the mask
Fatah deputy chairman and Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul, who spoke at the event as the representative of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said: "The two prisoners are a national example of steadfastness for the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation. They are a symbol from among the symbols of the Palestinian struggle, along with thousands of prisoners who have paid and are still paying a high price for the liberation of their people."
The head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority, Issa Qaraqe, also spoke, saying: "The Israel jailor cannot break the willpower of the prisoners Kareem and Maher Younis, no matter how long their incarceration continues. Their struggle against the prisons of the occupation is a source of pride to all Palestinians."
Ramallah District Governor Dr. Laila Ghannam said: "The prisoners gave their lives for Palestine, and so it is our obligation to stand by them and support their families until they are released from prison."
Palestinian Prisoners Club head Qadura Fares said: "This event is in recognition of their sacrifice. They were and still remain a national school [sic] for the ongoing struggle against the occupation and its arrogance."
This outrageous speech was almost certainly prompted by the fact that Abbas and co realise that with Trump the game is now up. The US will no longer promote the interests of these Palestinian Arabs who have been given a free pass for their murderous lies all these years.
But Britain and the EU did not go along with Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. They continue to misrepresent international law and blame Israel falsely for preventing a peaceful solution to the Middle East impasse while persistently excusing, justifying and thus conniving at Palestinian Arab rejectionism.
In short, Britain and the EU continue to support, validate and this connive at an agenda aimed at the extermination of Israel promoted by hallucinatory lies and libels about the Jewish people along with gross Holocaust denial.
Abbas’s speech should be sent to every member of the British parliament, and the Prime Minister, Theresa May, should be asked how Britain can continue to give any money at all to such open antisemites and Holocaust deniers. She should be asked how the British government can continue to support giving such people a state of their own. She should be asked why the British government has ignored this horrifying reality, and the constant mortal danger it poses for the Israelis, for so long.
But then, many British people will be unaware of the appalling nature of Abbas’s speech since the BBC chose to bowdlerise it, as BBC Watch observes here.
Abbas clearly felt he had nothing to lose by making this speech. America has made clear it will no longer give the time of day to such an unconscionable agenda. Only Britain and the EU continue to keep it alive, to their undying shame.
Germany hunts for Iranian agents who reportedly spied on Israeli, Jewish targets
German authorities said Tuesday they were conducting searches countrywide in connection with 10 suspected Iranian spies, with one report saying that the suspects were members of an elite military force that had been watching Israeli and Jewish targets.CIA report reveals budding Tehran-PLO relationship in 1979
The weekly German-language magazine FOCUS reported that arrest warrants for the suspects listed them as being members of the al-Quds force, which is part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.
The alleged spies had been monitoring Israeli and Jewish targets, the report said.
Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, said Israel had “bolstered security” at the embassy and that Israelis were “warned” about the incident.
Authorities searched premises linked to the suspected Iranian spies following an extensive investigation by the country’s domestic intelligence agency, prosecutors said.
A CIA report released in 2010, yet not reported on until now, suggests there was a budding relationship between Iran and Yasser Arafat's Fatah party in the Islamic Republic's early days, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as "one of Iran's closest allies" in 1980 and Ayatollah Khomeni as one of Arafat's earliest backers. Fearing a significant Palestinian role in Iran's internal affairs, however, the regime worked to limit the PLO's presence in the country.Senior Abbas adviser denies Israel's accusations of slay-for-pay terror
The report confirms a February 19, 1979 story in The Washington Post that claimed Arafat was the first foreign leader to visit Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Citing Iranian media reports, the story reported that Iran broke diplomatic relations with Israel just hours after Arafat met with Iran's new cabinet.
"An obviously overjoyed Yasser Arafat wound up two days of meetings with leaders of Iran's revolution here today and said the overthrow of the [pro-West] shah by a militantly Moslem movement offered a 'new dawn and a new era' to the Middle East struggle," the Post wrote.
According to the CIA report, the PLO's military presence in post-revolution Iran was reflective of the organization's overall role in the country: It began strong and eventually tapered off as Arafat began to embrace Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who had hostile relations with Iran.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has a lot working against him: He’s 82 years old; is serving the 10th year of a four-year term; and struggles under severe economic distress and an approval rating that is barely visible. On Sunday evening, President Abbas delivered a two-hour invective in which he attacked Israeli leaders, President Trump and other American officials, while offering a revisionist history that left jaws dropping.JCPA: With his Ramallah Rant, Mahmoud Abbas Declares Intention to Proclaim a Palestinian Entity
With each day, the discussion of who will succeed Abbas becomes increasingly urgent. The Media Line spoke with one of those whose name is frequently mentioned for that position. Ahmed Majdalani is a leading Palestinian politician, former minister and professor of political economics. This exclusive interview was conducted by Felice Friedson for The Media Line prior to the Abbas speech:
TML: With the drive-by killing of a Jewish Israeli last week, the debate over the American Taylor Force act has been re-ignited. [A bill that has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate that bans US aid if the PA pays stipends to prisoners and those who committed violent acts. - Ed.] If the United States funding is cut-off because the PA pays stipends to those caught or killed while performing violent acts, can the PA absorb the loss?
Majdalani: First, let's go back to the roots of the problem. The base is the occupation, what is most important, and before we ask who killed the settler, let's ask what is the settler doing in the occupied West Bank? Second, the settler was killed in Area “C” [Portion of the West Bank designated by the 1993 Oslo Accords for both Israeli administrative and security control. – Ed.] If what is required from the PA is to protect settlers, well, that is not part of its duties. Taylor also was killed in Israel, not in the West Bank. His death was a result of the Israeli violence in the area. The PA can't hire a security-person for each Palestinian to control their way of thinking and actions. Therefore, the American procedure is a punishment and that is unacceptable, it’s a form of political black-mailing. In addition, we pay expenses for the families of martyrs. In the past ten years, Israel initiated three attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza strip, thousands were killed, and we [PA] take the social responsibility for the families of these martyrs. All of these who were killed in Gaza are terrorists? All of these who are killed by the IDF are terrorists? I believe the concept is reversed. I will speak very clearly: the principle of political blackmailing is unacceptable, even if the US stops all aid. By the way, the American aid comes through the USAID agency, and half of the aid goes back to the US, to their [Americans] directors, experts from abroad and consultant agencies. They spend the money on themselves.
Mahmoud Abbas’ speech to the meeting of the PLO Central Council in Ramallah proclaimed the launching of a political campaign, in tandem with a violent struggle, to achieve Palestinian independence and sovereignty in the 1967 territories without giving up what the Palestinians call the “right of return.”David Horovitz: Abbas couldn’t make peace with the Jews; he believes his own lies about us
On January 14, 2018, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), leader of the PLO, Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, and “president of the state of Palestine,” gave an important political speech to a meeting of the PLO Central Council. In it, he proclaimed in effect the launching of an independent Palestinian entity.
The Palestinian strategy that Abbas outlined includes the following elements:
A Change in the Rules of the Game
Abbas rejected exclusive American sponsorship of the diplomatic process because of “the crime it committed against the city of Al-Quds [Jerusalem]” in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He also rejected what he called American “dictates” in the effort to reach a “deal” to resolve the conflict. The sole path to negotiations, Abbas asserted, is via an international conference or the framework of a group of states, as in the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program involving the P5+1 group of countries.
Abbas also called upon the PLO Central Council to “reexamine the signed agreements between the PLO and the government of Israel” and see whether they comport with the resolutions of international institutions on the status of the state of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people. This behest implies a threat to withdraw from the agreements with Israel and a demand to update them, in light of resolutions of the United Nations and its institutions.
Cognizant that the Palestinians are not going anywhere, and desperate for an accord that might liberate us from the choice of living by the sword or perishing, Israelis have shown a willingness — most dramatically represented by Olmert’s offer — for far-reaching territorial compromise. They have ousted prime ministers — notably Benjamin Netanyahu in 1999 — who they thought were missing opportunities for peace.MEMRI: Transcript of Abbas' Jan. 14 Speech to the PLO
The Palestinians, by contrast, have refused to acknowledge Jewish legitimacy, and convinced themselves that Israel is a transient, shallow presence that can ultimately be ousted. This, despite the spectacular evidence of our strong, resilient, thriving nation.
A century ago, it was axiomatic in Islam that there were Jewish temples atop the Temple Mount; that’s why the Muslims subsequently placed mosques there. What Abbas’s speech so dismally underlined is that the false narrative of Jewish history that has taken hold in more recent decades is not only cynically disseminated by Palestinian leaders to their people, but also thoroughly accepted by the leaders themselves.
The UN can vote itself blue in the face against Israel. Foolish nations can unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood — to the detriment of the Palestinians, since such “support” merely deepens their obduracy. But the only route to Palestinian independence runs via a negotiated settlement with Israel.
The Olmert offer of a decade ago showed how far Israel was prepared to go to partner the Palestinians to statehood. The despicable, tragic, self-defeating Abbas speech of Sunday night showed that so long as the Palestinians blind themselves to the fact of Israel’s legitimacy, no Israeli offer is going to be good enough.
Ben-Dror Yemini: The moderate Palestinian leader’s lies
He’s the most moderate leader the Palestinians could choose, and that’s their tragedy.IsraellyCool: Guest Post: Trading ‘67 for ‘48: Why Abu Mazen’s Tantrum Matters
On Sunday, the famous moderate said he wouldn’t repeat 1948 and 1967, because those mistakes led to the Palestinian tragedy, the Nakba. But he is repeating the exact same mistakes. More hallucinations. More illusions. More rejectionism.
In Israel, there is dispute over whether the source of the problem is 1948 or 1967. Abbas has made it clear that the problem is 1917. In other words, the Balfour Declaration, which supported the Jews’ right to a national home.
There is an argument over the existence of a line separating between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Abbas made it clear that there is no such line. Both ideologies are based on lies.
It’s slightly embarrassing to refute the nonsense uttered by the moderate leader from the Muqata'a, but there appears to be no escape, because every lie that is repeated 1,000 times in the first act reaches textbooks and campuses in the third act. The legitimization based on the claim that it’s a “Palestinian narrative.”
There were many lies in Sunday’s speech, but at least three of them should be refuted.
First of all, according to Abbas, the Balfour Declaration is a colonialist project. Quite the opposite. The Balfour Declaration was issued as part of a growing recognition of the right to self-determination, which was the result of an anti-imperialist battle that led to the empires’ dissolution and to the establishment of nation states. The Jews, who lived under many empires, received the right to self-determination along with other people.
So Zionism is an anti-imperialist liberation movement. Zionist didn’t aim to banish anyone, and the Nakba itself is the result of Arab rejectionism. And anyway, tens of millions of people experienced uprooting and expulsion and population exchanges as part of the establishment of nation states, including Arabs and Jews.
In the best-selling book “Catch 67,” Michah Goodman frames the two-state solution as a trade of 1967 (Israeli relinquishes control of the Judah and Samaria) in exchange for 1948 (Palestine relinquishes the right of return).Danon to UN Secretary-General: Condemn Abbas’s ‘hateful’ and ‘racist’ speech
Goodman argues that the Palestinians are “trapped” because the trauma of 1948 is greater in the Palestinian psyche than the military loss in 1967, and, moreover, Islamic law prevents them from agreeing to permanent recognition of a foreign power in once-Islamic ruled territory.
Perhaps that is why Abbas never even responded to Olmert’s detailed peace maps in 2008.
By reasserting that Jews are occupiers in the region, not just in the territory conquered in 1967 (False), Abbas sows the belief that the colonialists will go back to where they came from (Where exactly? Morocco and Tunisia?), and Palestinians will one day return to Jaffa and Haifa. Moreover, he proves Goodman’s thesis that Abbas can never trade 1967 for 1948.
It is, therefore, no wonder that both the Israeli right and left are so concerned with Abbas’s recent comments.
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon demanded on Monday that Secretary General António Guterres condemn an inflammatory speech delivered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the previous day.Abbas speech condemned across political spectrum
In a letter sent to Guterres’s office, Danon claimed that the PA leader had disparaged the State of Israel with “hateful” and “racist” language as he questioned the country’s right to exist.
“Among the many vile fabrications in his address, Chairman Abbas repeated the lie that the reestablishment of the nation-state of the Jewish people in our historic homeland is "a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism," Danon wrote in the letter.
"Chairman Abbas also accused European powers of ‘moving Jews from Europe to the Middle East’ as part of a plan to further their economic interests. These statements sadly remind us of the racist words of the worst regimes of the previous century."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was condemned by Israeli politicians across the political spectrum on Monday for his speech on Sunday in which he denied the Jewish connection to Israel, rejected any negotiations as long as Donald Trump is US president and called for destroying Trump’s “house.”Palestinian Central Council assigns PLO to suspend recognition of Israel
Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett said the time had come for Israel to prepare for the post-Abbas era and decide what is good for the country, which he said was applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
“Abbas is drifting away from the world, along with the idea of a Palestinian state,” Bennett said. “His behavior indicates that he has lost power and his connection to reality.”
Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon said Abbas confirmed in his speech the suspicions that his goal was not territorial compromise but renouncing the right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel.
Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi wrote on Twitter that Abbas’s speech was “laced with vile antisemitic conspiracy theories and was unbecoming of a leader.” Hanegbi said Abbas’s incitement against Israel and the US was extremely dangerous and should be condemned by anyone interested in peaceful coexistence.
Former minister Gideon Sa’ar said: “Abbas’s speech of attacks and delusions proves he has lost his marbles. His attempt to isolate Israel and seek achievements in the international arena with unilateral moves has been blocked in the Trump era in the White House.”
Deputy Minister Michael Oren (Kulanu) asked new European Union Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret to have the EU publicly condemn the antisemitic and anti-European overtones in Abbas’s speech.
The Palestinian Central Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s second highest decision-making body, decided to entrust the PLO Executive Committee with suspending recognition of Israel, according to a declaration issued at the conclusion of a Central Council meeting on Monday.Do the Palestinians Really Want Their Own State?
The PLO recognized Israel in 1993 before signing a number of agreements with Israel, which established the Palestinian Authority.
“[The Central Council] decided to assign the PLO Executive Committee with suspending recognition of Israel until Israel recognizes the State of Palestine along 1967 borders, annuls its annexation of east Jerusalem and halts settlement building,” the declaration said.
The declaration did not lay out a timetable for the PLO Executive Committee, an 18-member body made up of leaders of several Palestinian factions, to suspend the PLO’s recognition of Israel.
The Central Council also decided to renew a decision it made at a past meeting to end security cooperation with Israel “in all its forms.”
The last time the Central Council met in March 2015, it voted to suspend security coordination between the PA security forces and Israel.
Last December, Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel. Yet nobody seemed to notice that he did not hand over all of Jerusalem to Israel, insisting: "We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem." That was "up to the parties involved." So, go for it and start talking, he signaled to the Palestinian Authority.Palestinian Leader Abbas’ Attack on Zionism Cites Late Egyptian Intellectual’s Denial of Jewish Peoplehood
Predictably, the Palestinians revived their classic game, which has failed them regularly in the past. Their message read: "We will not deal directly with Israel; we want the world to force the Zionists to hand us our state on a silver platter." Palestinian leaders are going for the international option once more.
This seasoned negotiator knows a state can only be had from Israel, and it must embody a painful, dream-destroying compromise thrashed out by the two antagonists. A harsh conclusion follows: If one party says no for 80 years, it isn't interested. It is all or nothing, and "all" implies not only Hebron, but also Haifa.
During the UN partition vote in 1947, the Arab world acted as one. Yet today, Israel is a key player in a realigned regional system. Israel has peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt that have held during its wars against the PLO and Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Jerusalem enjoys a tacit alliance with Riyadh and the "Gulfies." Putin's Russia coordinates with the IDF in Syria. China and India will not trade high-tech Herzliya for the backwater of Ramallah.
Angling for hegemony, Iran is now the deadly enemy of the Sunni Arabs and Israel-Palestine has receded toward the wings. The conflict is a nuisance, and the key Arab players will not soon sacrifice their Israeli ties on the altar of Palestinian self-deception.
The Palestinians will have to do better than in Gaza. This author went to Gaza with Yassir Arafat in 1994 and assumed that the coastal strip would gestate into a Palestinian proto-state, blessed with democracy and the rule of law. Today, Gaza is a corrupt Hamas fiefdom, a threat to itself and the neighborhood - a failed state.
Would that the post-Abbas leadership might exchange self-deception for sobriety. Alas, the mismeasure of reality has been the hallmark of Palestinian policy for 80 years.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s angry speech on Sunday castigating the US and Israel drew on the work of an Egyptian academic who dedicated his career to denying the existence of an independent Jewish people with political rights.Media Whitewashes Abbas’ Revisionism and Rejectionism
In his speech, Abbas described the late Egyptian academic Dr. Abdel Wahab Elmessiri as “one of the most important people that spoke about the Zionist and Jewish movement.”
On Israel, Abbas said, Elmessiri “described this entity with these words: ‘The significance of Israel’s functional character is that colonialism created it in order to fill a specific role; it is a colonialist project that is not connected to Judaism, but made use of the Jews so they would serve as pawns, and they were, under the motto ‘the Promised Land’ and ‘the Beloved Land,’ and they brought them here.'”
Abbas’ comments drew furious condemnation from Israeli leaders. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin accused the Palestinian leader of saying “exactly the things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the speech was a reminder that the “root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their steadfast refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders whatsoever.” Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, declared that the “hateful words of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, which seem to question the very right of a United Nations member-state to exist, are completely unacceptable and must be unequivocally condemned.”
The CoverageThe New York Times Won’t Let Mahmoud Abbas Have His YOLO Moment
Too many media reports whitewashed Abbas’ coverage. Perhaps editors didn’t attach enough importance to the speech to give their correspondents a longer word count, which might account for the short, sanitized reports by Reuters, BBC News, CNN and Sky News.
Other news services touched on Abbas’ rant, but didn’t delve into the significance, such as AFP, The Independent, Irish Times and the Financial Times.
While the New York Times gave a sense of the PA chairman’s verbosity, the paper unfortunately didn’t fact-check Abbas, giving a pass to the false quote.
Testing his audience’s attention, Mr. Abbas also gave a lengthy history lecture reaching back to the 17th century, saying that Oliver Cromwell had first proposed shipping European Jews to the Holy Land, before tracing the beginning of Zionism to what he called the 19th-century journalist and activist Theodor Herzl’s efforts to “wipe out Palestinians from Palestine.”
“This is a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness,” Mr. Abbas said. “The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the promised land — call it whatever you want. Everything has been made up.”
Indeed, Abbas has made everything up.
Can you imagine the headlines if an Israeli head of state denied the existence of the Palestinian people? Or fabricated quotes?
While I didn’t see any news coverage of the speech in The Guardian, an Ian Black commentary fretted over how the speech would play into the hands of right-wing Israelis. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d say the Irish Independent took Associated Press reports one and two and scrubbed them.
You're the president of the Palestinian Authority, a darling of the western left and western media, but largely powerless in your own back yard. You're 82 years old, in the 12th year of a four-year term, and many people are no longer taking you very seriously because your great patron and promoter, Barack Obama, is no longer President of the United States.BBC censors parts of Mahmoud Abbas speech once again
You know it's over, everyone knows it's over. Why bother keeping up appearances? Not that you tried very hard in the past. Back then, you made sly references to your belief, for example, that Jewish history in Israel and Jerusalem are fabrications of Zionism. But now you feel liberated to say what you really believe.
So you call a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization. You have a list of things to get off your chest. You have 400 years of alternative history to expound. The media is there to report everything you say. You held it all in for a decade, and you had to, because Obama couldn't stop talking about how you're a great man of peace and how much he loathes the Israelis. You were being a friend by not pointing out that the Jews were poisoning the drinking water in Palestine and getting young Palestinians hooked on drugs.
But now you can get into all that. It's time to go YOLO, Palestine style. And still, the New York Times won't tell the world what you have to say.
Abbas, the Times reports, "stopped well short of embracing an alternative to a two-state solution." "Mr. Abbas said nothing about abandoning it," the reporter, David Halbfinger, adds editorially. Not only was Abbas promoting peace, "he also shied away from urging the kind of provocative acts," like ending security cooperation with Israel, that would "shake officials in Jerusalem and Washington." In fact, Abbas "reaffirmed his commitment to nonviolence and stopping terrorism, [and] seemed to hold out hope of a return to negotiations." The Times did allow a discordant note into its report, quoting Abbas saying that Zionism "is a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness."
There is of course nothing new about Abbas’ denial of Jewish history and his attempts to portray Israel as a European colonialist implant: such propaganda has been spread by the Palestinian Authority for years.Lebanese Parliament speaker urges boycott of White House
Unfortunately, there is also nothing novel about a BBC report on a speech made by the Palestinian president in which the parts of his remarks that do not fit the corporation’s chosen narrative are erased from audience view: only last month the BBC News website did the exact same when reporting on an address delivered by Abbas in Turkey.
Just as BBC audiences are never told about the ‘moderate’ Palestinian president’s personal role in the PA’s incitement to violence and glorification of terrorism or his refusal to recognise the Jewish state, they likewise do not hear anything about his longstanding denial of Jewish history and distortion of the origins of modern Israel.
The speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday called for a boycott of Donald Trump’s administration as well as the closure of all Israeli embassies in Arab and Islamic States until the US president reverses his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.PreOccupiedTerritory: Jordanians Demand Envoy Be Recalled From Israel, Bring Water (satire)
“I call on all Islamic embassies to move locations from Washington and to boycott Trump’s administration until he revokes his position regarding Jerusalem,” said Berri, who was speaking at the Conference of Islamic Parliaments in Tehran, according to a report by the Lebanese daily An-Nahar.
In his December 6 announcement, Trump said his decision merely recognized the reality that Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital and wasn’t meant to prejudge the final borders of the city. He also called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites. However, the US leader later said he had taken Jerusalem “off the table.”
Trump’s move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum, while enraging Palestinians and prompting condemnations worldwide.
Popular discontent at a longstanding peace agreement with Israel has residents of the Hashemite kingdom calling for the country’s ambassador to be withdrawn from the Jewish State, hopefully carrying some drinkable water when he makes the trip.
Solidarity with Palestinians and a strong Islamist streak among Jordanians has contributed to growing disfavor with the 1994 treaty establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, to the point that Jordan, a majority of whose population is ethnically Palestinian, faces constant internal demand that the treaty be abrogated, perhaps in a fashion that addresses the perpetual drought facing Jordan and the fact that Israel provides a significant portion of the country’s potable water.
Hundreds rallied in a downtown square of the capital city Monday to make their demands known. “What is our envoy doing in the wicked Zionist entity?” demanded a speaker. “Bring him back at once, and make sure he has enough water for the rest of us. Our crops will suffer otherwise.”
“We must boycott the Jews,” insisted an attendee who gave his name as Muhammad. “No good can come from their tourism or produce, or from selling them our goods. Trade with them only betrays Palestine! And while we’re at it, let us make sure the joint Israel-Jordan project to replenish the Dead Sea from the Gulf of Aqaba is completed, the employment of thousands of Jordanians in Israeli farms in the Arava Valley and Eilat continues, and that we continue to get all the fresh water Israel has committed to providing each year to help relieve our agricultural distress.”
Hamas isn't building just any tunnel pic.twitter.com/pXgvCyTt1B— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) January 15, 2018
State to accept fewer Hamas medical requests after Goldin family petition
A petition by Hadar Goldin’s family to the High Court of Justice has led the state to take a tougher stance regarding requests by Hamas operatives and their relatives to enter Israel for medical needs.Jewish Voice for Peace Defends Lying Convicted Terrorist
The major policy change, announced by the state in a legal brief filed with the High Court on Monday, means a blanket prohibition on Hamas operatives and their relatives entering Israel for medical treatment other than in immediate life-threatening situations.
Goldin, an IDF soldier, was killed during the 2014 fighting in the Gaza Strip, after which Hamas took his remains. His family has been pressing the government to force Hamas to return his remains, including a petition to the High Court to demand that the state comply with its own decisions committing it to take action.
Monday’s decision means the state is penalizing Hamas regarding certain humanitarian issues until it honors the generally accepted obligation of returning an enemy soldier’s remains.
Terrorist Israa Jaabis, the palestinian woman whose attempted terror attack went horribly wrong (for her) when the makeshift gas cylinder bomb went kaboom ahead of time, is currently the subject of an anti-Israel campaign. And Jewish Voice for Peace is one of those promoting her lies, recently posting the following video and caption:Palestinian Man Reportedly Killed in Clash With Israeli Troops in West Bank
Israa was severely burned when fire broke out in her car due to a faulty gas cylinder near an Israeli checkpoint. She was arrested and sentenced to 11 years, but that’s not the worst part of it. Israa is in dire need of medical care and Israeli authorities are denying her that care. Her family is hoping that by raising awareness, Israel can be pressured into doing the humane act of helping her.
Note how they unequivocally accept the “faulty gas cylinder” excuse, even though this is clearly a lie – given she cried out “Allahu Akhbar” beforehand and the inability of her supporters to keep their story straight. Not to mention the handwritten notes in her possession that contained messages of support for “martyrs.”
Having said that, it is not surprising the terrorist-lovers of JVP would support her.
Israeli troops shot dead a 24-year-old Palestinian man in clashes that broke out in the West Bank on Monday, Palestinian health officials said.In Gaza, another invisible "Fell Short" wrecks a Palestinian Arab home
The Israeli military said it was checking reports of a Palestinian killed in a village near the West Bank city of Qalqilya, where it said scores of Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers who responded with riot dispersal means and live fire.
Tensions in the region have risen since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6. Over the past month, there have been frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the West Bank and along the Israel-Gaza Strip border.
A total of 18 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed in the flare-up since Trump’s announcement, though analysts say neither Israel nor the Palestinians are interested in a major escalation.
This happened on Monday according to a report published late Monday night:Palestinian Girl Reunited With Mother in Gaza After Being Abandoned in Jerusalem by Father Following Medical Treatment at Israeli Hospital
A rocket fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip struck a Palestinian home in Deir al-Balah by mistake, Arab media reported Monday. Located in the central Gaza Strip, two residents of Deir al-Balah were badly wounded and a third lightly wounded. ["Rocket from Gaza Strip accidentally strikes Palestinian home", Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2018]
Another "Fell Short". We only know about them from open sources but have reported on nearly a hundred of them in the past few years. Nearly a hundred rockets fired in the general direction of Israel with the intent of doing any sort of damage to any target that is Israeli - humans, buildings, vehicles, hardly matters what - that failed to cross the Gaza/Israel border. They fell short.
The ghastly aspects of this are not merely in the cold-blooded, blind Palestinian Arab pursuit of damage and injury to anything Israeli, which there certainly is. But where are the media reports about this? And about those that preceded? These rockets might just as well have been invisible for all the attention they get.
A seven-year-old Palestinian girl from the Gaza Strip has been reunited with her mother after she was abandoned by her father in Jerusalem on Sunday after receiving medical treatment in an Israeli hospital, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Monday.
According to the shuttle diver who was transporting the two back to the Erez border crossing, the father had asked for the vehicle to pull over so his daughter could relieve herself. However, after the vehicle stopped, the father opened the door and took off running, leaving his daughter behind.
The young girl was brought to police station, where she was taken care while Israeli authorities arranged her return home to Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The father was found later in the day in central Israel and arrested.
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