Friday, November 16, 2018

From Ian:

Dr. Martin Sherman: Israel’s stark option: Arabs in Gaza or Jews in Negev
If the Israel leadership persists with its perception of the Palestinian-Arabs in general, and the Gazan's in particular, as potential partners in some future peace arrangement rather than perceiving them as they perceive themselves – as implacable enemies, whose enmity towards the Jewish state is not rooted in what it does but what it is—it will never be able to formulate a policy capable of effectively dealing [with]... the continuing, and continually intensifying, threat emanating from the Gaza Strip.

Fatal failure of conventional wisdom

The dramatic escalation in violence on Monday—the very day after Israel permitted the transfer of millions of Qatari dollars into the Hamas- ruled- enclave, allegedly to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis there—underscored the futility of adhering to the dictates of conventional wisdom—i.e. that increasing humanitarian aid will work to quell the violence along and across the border with Israel, or to significantly reduce it. Indeed, recent events have only highlighted just how baseless prevailing dogmas that dominate the discourse have proved to be.

Time and again over the course of the conflict, it has been shown, clearly and convincingly, that the penury and privation are not the reason for Arab enmity toward Israel. Quite the reverse! It is Arab enmity towards Israel that is reason for the prevailing penury and privation.

Almost inevitably, the dismaying recurrence of violence along Israel’s source border brings to mind the pithy dictum attributed to Albert Einstein, who reportedly observed: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

After all, the problems of Gaza are the undeniable outcome of the ill-conceived attempt to foist self-governance on Gaza and the Gazans. As such it is aproblem that cannot be resolved by persevering with the same mode of thinking that created it. Accordingly, the failed formula of self-rule for Gaza must be set aside—since any obstinate insistence on it will only continue to exacerbate the current situation and extend the misery it precipitates—for Arab and Jew alike.

Elite officer who died heroically in Gaza may receive army's top medal
Days after a covert IDF operation inside Gaza went awry, and Lt. Col. M. was killed under heroic circumstances, officials say there are grounds to grant him and another officer the military's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, for their actions in battle.

Due to the sensitive nature of their work in the military, the names of the two officers have not been released for publication. According to information approved by the military censor, the covert squad entered Gaza in disguise on an intelligence-gathering mission and was discovered at a checkpoint near Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, where the soldiers engaged in a firefight with Hamas operatives.

Lt. Col. M. was reportedly killed while drawing fire away from his comrades and allowing them to escape.

The other officer made a charge toward M.'s position to try to save him, and after managing to kill three terrorists, reached M.'s vehicle but was badly wounded in the process.

According to various reports and statements from senior officials, Lt. Col. M. sacrificed his life to save his comrades.

Israel's highest decoration, the Medal of Valor, was last given 43 years ago. Only 40 soldiers have received the honor for "performing a supreme act of valor while facing the enemy and risking their life."
David Horovitz: The path of a piece of shrapnel: A minor story that made no headlines
Late on Monday evening, at the height of the latest round of indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel by Hamas and other Islamist terror groups in neighboring Gaza, one rocket got through Israel’s remarkable Iron Dome missile defense system and landed directly on a house in the southern working-class town of Netivot.

As documented by reporter Moshe Nussbaum and his camera crew from Hadashot TV news, the rocket caused astounding damage.

It brought down the ceiling in one of the bedrooms, it smashed a large hole in an outside wall, it devastated the living room, it destroyed furniture, it injured the family dog, whose blood was still on the floor when the TV crew entered.

The story played prominently on Israeli TV news late Monday (Hebrew video below), though it made little international impact, unsurprisingly, since mercifully nobody was killed.

Though Netivot is barely 15 miles from central Gaza, and thus a prime target for Hamas rocket fire, this neighborhood in the town, Nussbaum reported, does not have municipal bomb shelters. And these particular homes were constructed before it became mandatory to include a reinforced “sealed room” in residential buildings, where Israelis rush in the seconds after the sirens wail, to take refuge from rocket attacks.

For the Netivot family whose home was destroyed in this strike, and many more like them, therefore, the only option when the sirens ring out is to “lie down on the floor, put their hands over their heads, and pray and hope for a miracle,” Nussbaum reported. “That’s what happened here today: A miracle.” Their home was destroyed, but the family, apart from their dog, emerged unscathed.



Was the Cease-Fire in Gaza Imprudent? No
Many Israelis have expressed dissatisfaction over their government’s decision to agree to a quick cease-fire with Hamas after the terrorist group fired hundreds of rockets in a short span of time. To protest this move, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman resigned, taking his Yisrael Beiteinu party out of the governing coalition and likely precipitating elections. Yet Zev Chafets believes the government acted wisely:

The political din breaking out in Jerusalem threatens to drown out Benjamin Netanyahu’s uncharacteristic decision to make an accommodation with Hamas. . . . The prime minister calculated, correctly, that doing so would free Israel up to deal with the more ominous threat to the north, from the troika of Hizballah, Syria, and Iran. The decision also suggests he has finally acknowledged that Hamas’s control of Gaza is a political reality that cannot be wished—or bombed—away. . .

In previous confrontations, Netanyahu has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to seal off Gaza and pound it into submission. This time, his response was more restrained: the air force bombed the Hamas television studio, a couple of evacuated Hamas installations, and a few empty high-rise buildings. No Israeli ground forces were deployed, and the Gaza fatality count was seven. . . .

Netanyahu must now persuade Israelis that he has not gone soft on Hamas. . . . His argument will be that he is simply being realistic. Hamas’s control of Gaza is a fact of life; defeating it with an invasion would be costly and ultimately counterproductive, since it would leave Israel with an even more hostile Arab population. Others have been making this argument for years, but Netanyahu never spelled it out explicitly until his press conference in Paris [on Sunday]. . . .
Was the Cease-Fire in Gaza Imprudent? Yes
After Hamas launched hundreds of rockets into Israel, the IDF responded by destroying a few buildings in the Gaza Strip, including the one that housed the Hamas television station, and then agreed to a cease-fire. Ron Ben-Yishai argues that Jerusalem was too quick to do so:

The Israeli acceptance of a cease-fire the minute Hamas offered it erodes what is left of Israel’s deterrence, opening the door for further and more severe rounds of fighting in the not-too-distant future. . . . Moreover, both the truce efforts and the surprise rocket attack launched against Israel on Monday were Hamas’s doing. Israel barely responded, serving as the pawn of an organization that is waging a war of attrition against the residents of its southern region. . . .

One should be skeptical about the chances of the current cease-fire agreement leading to long-term quiet [for] two reasons: firstly, the arrogance demonstrated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who have been repeatedly declaring over the past 24 hours that they “taught Israel a lesson.” Moreover, . . . it’s doubtful [Hamas is] suffering much from the damage Israel inflicted on its military assets. [From the terrorist group’s perspective], that’s a reasonable price to pay for the psychological blow inflicted on Israel. . . .

Showing restraint meant something so long as Hamas was not stepping over the line while provoking Israel, and so long as Israeli deterrence was maintained vis-à-vis Gaza’s terror organizations. This week’s events have created a strategic turning point for Hamas, [that will dangerously embolden its leaders]. The Israeli leadership failed to notice this turning point, [and it’s likely] the Gaza border communities’ residents will pay the highest price.
Southern Front: Was this the last straw for the ‘resilient’ South?
Resilience” is a word that pops up over and over again every time residents of Gaza border communities are forced to grin and bear a new onslaught of missiles slamming their communities, as they huddle in their safe rooms for days on end until they get the green light from the Home Front Command to resume normal life.

But southern residents are fed up with their “normal” – putting on a brave face going back to their routines but many living with trauma and all shrouded in uncertainty about when the next round of violence will start up again.

This time, upon hearing the news of another fragile ceasefire with Hamas – the latest in a long series of such ceasefires – southern residents swiftly rallied to express their anger and frustration. They are no longer prepared to be frayerim (suckers). They blocked roads and burned tires on Tuesday night, and they continued to do so on Wednesday and Thursday, joined by school students who went on strike. On Thursday evening, they planned to take the strike to Tel Aviv, intending to raise awareness by blocking roads in front of Azrieli.

On Tuesday, as media began reporting about an impending ceasefire, high school teacher and Nirim resident Adele Raemer posted a video message to the Facebook group she manages, “Life on the border with Gaza – things people may not know (but should).” In it, she explained how she and her neighbors were feeling about the reports.

“I have to say I’m kind of ambivalent,” she said, letting out a sigh. “I want there to be a ceasefire because I want my life back, I want a ceasefire because I want our kids to be able to walk outside and feel safe.
Gaza border residents protest Israel-Hamas ceasefire for third-straight day
Hundreds of people from Gaza border communities demonstrated in front of the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, shouting “The residents of the South are saying: ‘enough!’”

This marks the third consecutive day that residents of the South have been protesting against the ceasefire with Hamas, which they see as being as fragile and temporary as all previous truces with the terrorist organization.

The protests on Tuesday and Wednesday in communities in the South included burning tires, obstructing roads and blocking supply trucks seeking to enter the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Many high school students in the South declared a school strike to join the demonstrations.

On Thursday, the protesters took their demonstration to Tel Aviv, where they blocked several major roads in a bid to garner media coverage.

The event organizers are calling for a long-term solution to the rain of rockets and mortars from Gaza “because our children deserve to grow up in peace.”

Their protest came after a fierce barrage of nearly 500 rockets on Monday and Tuesday fired by Hamas and other terrorist groups toward Israel.


MEMRI: Columnist For Jordanian Government Daily Praises Gaza Rocket Attacks On Israel, Says: Every Muslim, Arab And Free Person In The World Yearns To Be Martyred In Gaza
On November 14, 2018, following the latest round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza, during which over 450 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel, Jordanian journalist 'Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali glorified these rocket attacks in his column in the government daily Al-Rai. In his column he expressed a burning wish to come to Gaza bearing a rifle, and added that millions of young people wish they could join the fight in Gaza and be martyred there.

It should be noted that this is not the first time Al-Majali has praised terror against Israel and glorified its perpetrators. In May 2018 he wrote a column expressing admiration and love for Palestinian terrorist Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road attack on an Israeli bus, and said that he yearned to roll in the dust of her grave.[1] In February 2018 he wrote in praise of terrorist Ahmad Nasr Jarrar, who had killed an Israeli civilian in several weeks earlier,[2] and in October 2015, during the wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis, he addressed the late PA president Yasser Arafat and said to him that his revolution was bearing fruit, since the Palestinian youths were leading the "knife revolution" and burying their blades in the heads of Israelis.[3]

The following are excerpts from 'Abd Al-Hadi Raji Al-Majali's recent column:
"I want to go to Gaza, where I shall be called Abu Ikrama the Gazan. They will find me a job there, perhaps as a fisherman in the Gaza sea, as a fighter in [Hamas's military wing, the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam] Brigades, or as a host in [Hamas's] Al-Aqsa television channel... In Gaza there are young people who anticipate death and accept it as a divine decree so that Gaza may live.
Islamic Jihad publishes picture of new rocket allegedly fired on Ashkelon
Islamic Jihad released pictures on Thursday of the new rocket with a heavy warhead, which they announced had been fired toward Ashkelon during the escalation of violence earlier this week.

The IDF has been concerned about heavy mortars which could carry 150-200 kilogram warheads, and which would inflict heavy damage on the Israeli home front. On Thursday, the group released images showing at least 12 small, locally produced improvised rockets made from a large metal canister.

Due to its oversize warhead, the small, local rocket has greater destructive capabilities – although, compared to other rockets in Islamic Jihad’s arsenal, it has less accuracy and range.

According to Tal Inbar, an expert in rocketry at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies think tank, it is the first use of such a rocket by a terror group in the Gaza Strip against Israel.

“The amount of explosives is several times heavier than in standard rockets which have the same diameter, such as the Grads,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, adding that while “range is affected it causes more damage.”

While one image released by Islamic Jihad showed the rocket fired from its stand during the day, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have carried out tests on their rocket arsenal on an almost regular basis since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge, firing rockets toward the sea in an attempt to increase their range and destructive power.


Israel braces for return of violent Gaza protests
Israel is bracing for the possible return of violent border protests on Friday, just days after the latest escalation with Gaza raised fears of yet another war.

The IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj.-Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon warned Gazans on Thursday through an Arabic-language video posted to his Facebook page that Israel will respond severely to those who take part in the violent border protests.

According to Rokon, Israel is “well aware that these actions are not spontaneous” and that the protests are “masterminded, managed and led” by Hamas.

Rokon warned that the IDF “will not show restraint” against anyone who approaches within 100 meters of the security fence, anyone who tries or succeeds to damage it, anyone who tries to infiltrate into Israel, anyone who throws improvised explosive devices or Molotov cocktails toward troops, or anyone who launches explosive balloons into southern Israel.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Islamist groups at Bar-Ilan University, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that while Hamas is “preoccupied by Liberman’s resignation which is a major success for them... you cannot overrule the possibility that Gazans will come to the fence.”
IDF general warns Gazans not to riot on border: ‘Our patience has run out’
Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians on Thursday threatened Gazans that Israel’s “patience has run out and we will respond severely” to those who take part in clashes along the border the next day.

In an Arabic-language video, posted to his Facebook page, Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun — known formally as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — told Palestinians that Israel was adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward border violence.

This week saw a massive, two-day battle between Israel and the Gaza-ruling Hamas, apparently prompting Abu Rukun’s video warning.

A ceasefire, which was announced by Hamas on Tuesday evening but not officially confirmed by Israel, appeared to largely be holding as of Thursday night. Nevertheless, the Israeli military kept reinforcements in place and ordered troops to remain on high alert.

In the video, the general warns Palestinians, “Our patience has run out, and we will respond severely. We will show no restraint and will not go lightly against anyone who violates the following rules:”

“Anyone who approaches within 100 meters of the fence, will put himself at risk.

Anyone who destroys the fence or tries to damage it, will put himself at risk.

Anyone who tries to cross the security fence into Israel, will put himself at risk.
Gazans plan border protests Friday to ‘thank the resistance’ for rocket fire
Palestinian organizers of the weekly clashes in the Gaza Strip along the Israeli border said they will hold another protest on Friday — in a key test of this week’s ceasefire between Israel and Gaza terror groups.

In their announcement, protest organizers in Gaza urged Palestinians to demonstrate Friday “to thank the resistance” for battling Israel.

But in statements on Facebook, organizers also urged demonstrators to stay away from the border fence.

Army Radio said on Thursday evening that Israel intercepted a truckload of balloons at the goods crossing into Gaza that it believed were intended to be used to carry incendiary devices, launched by Gazans into Israel to burn fields.

Tuesday’s ceasefire ended the heaviest fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers since the 2014 war.
IsraellyCool: Gaza’s Self-Proclaimed “Modern Anne Frank” Messes Up & Admits IDF Tries to Avoid Civilian Casualties
Farah Baker, the antisemitic Gazan tweeter who has referred to herself as the Anne Frank of Gaza-Palestine, just loves to paint Israel in a bad light.

But even an accomplished liar like herself slips up from time-to-time. We saw it a few years ago when she tweeted out some photos of Gaza that show anything but the “concentration camp/open air prison” claimed by so many. And we now saw it again a few days ago when the IDF was hitting Hamas targets following the hundreds of rockets the terrorists fired at Israeli population areas. This is what the young propagandist tweeted at the time:

A “warning missile,” typically known as a “knock on the roof,” is designed to let the building’s occupants know that an impending strike is incoming in order to give them time to escape.

So while I am sure she meant for this tweet to somehow show Israel’s barbarity, it confirms the exact opposite, illustrating how Israel 1. specifically targets Hamas sites and 2. warns Gazan civilians to get out of potential harms way, allowing time for those who heed the warnings to do so.

Actually it shows something else too – that we even warn some Hamas-holes of an impending strike when the location has been targeted due to its use, rather than the Hamas-holes themselves being targeted. In the case of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV, this was certainly the case.
A Journalist notices Israel's restraint in Gaza
On Twitter, Raf Sanchez, Middle East correspondent for the Telegraph, wrote:

Israel's painstaking efforts to avoid civilian casualties have been well documented

In the 2014 report 2014 Gaza War Assessment: The New Face of Conflict, Israel's IDF was praised for its restraint and its effort to limit civilian casualties:

The IDF executed a number of extraordinary and innovative methods to mitigate civilian risk. These measures included: maximizing the use of precision-guided munitions; selecting the lowest acceptable yield explosives; warning civilians with leaflets, text messages, telephone calls and radio transmissions to leave a defined area of operations or to seek shelter; assisting with the evacuation of civilians; firing smoke and illumination rounds prior to the use of explosive munitions in order to encourage civilian evacuation; and most notably, dropping a small, non-lethal explosive at an unoccupied corner of a structure to provide a “knock on the roof” warning of an impending strike. The IDF implemented unprecedented precautionary measures with full knowledge that they often would degrade the efficacy of an attack by allowing evacuation of military personnel, equipment or munitions.
Small Steps: Improved NY Times Language on Target of Hamas Rockets
Earlier this week, we pointed out how a New York Times article about fighting between Israel and Hamas neglected to inform readers that Palestinian rockets were fired indiscriminately toward civilians in Israeli towns and cities.

This was part of how the newspaper created a false equivalence between Hamas's rocket attacks against civilians, each one a war crime, and Israel's counterstrikes against Hamas assets in Gaza. Instead of being clear about where those rockets were aimed, the report said only that they were fired "into Israel" or "across much of southern Israel." It even suggested Israel's civilians were unintended targets: "On both sides of the Gaza border,” wrote David Halbfinger, the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau chief, “civilians caught up in the fighting said they felt terrorized by it.” Israel's civilians weren't "caught up" in the fighting. They were targeted in the fighting.

With an article published today, entitled "With Small Steps, Palestinians and Israelis Try to Tackle Gaza’s Ills," the same author took a… small step in the right direction. This article makes clear, at least, that the fighting involved "hundreds of rockets raining down on Israeli cities." It might not sahre that Hamas is viewed internationally as a terror organization, or that indiscriminately firing into cities is a violation of international law. But rockets raining on cities is certainly more informative than rockets fired into Israel.
BBC WS ‘OS’ presents an inverted portrayal of Gaza rocket attacks
As we saw in a previous post, the lead item in the November 13th edition of the BBC World Service radio programme OS – formerly ‘Outside Source’ – was described in its synopsis thus:

“It’s the heaviest exchange of aerial fire between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants since the full-blown conflict in 2014. The violence follows an Israeli special forces operation inside Gaza which went wrong late on Sunday, causing the deaths of Palestinian militants and an Israeli soldier. We hear from local people living in Gaza.”

After listeners had been given some bizarre and entirely one-sided ‘context’ to that story (with no mention whatsoever of the fact that Hamas has been attacking Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars for 17 years), presenter Ben James introduced (from 04:35 here) his first inadequately identified interviewee in what he had previously described as “your guide to the important stuff happening now”.
AFP Infographic Ignores Over 400 Rockets Fired at Israel
Below is an AFP map, posted on Nov. 13, 2018, purporting to depict the rocket strikes that hit Israel and the Gaza Strip:
This infographic was produced by Sophie Ramis for AFP. To fully understand the extent of the misinformation it conveys, here is a quote from the accompanying AFP article:
“Since Monday, the Israeli army recorded about 460 rocket and mortar shells [fired into Israel], of which a hundred were intercepted by its missile defense system, and said that, in turn, it struck back at 160 military positions of Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad.”

Yet according to the map, Israel was struck in just two locations but targeted the entire territory of the Gaza Strip (to the point that the map’s title refers only to the Gaza Strip).
Reports: Early Israel Elections Likely, Following Netanyahu-Bennett Meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take over the defense portfolio in his government after his defense minister resigned this week, a spokesman for his Likud party said on Friday, fueling speculation of an early election.

Earlier Netanyahu met with key coalition partner Naftali Bennett of the HaBayit HaYehudi party, who had sought the post for himself, but the two men emerged without an agreement.

Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government was rocked by Avigdor Lieberman’s resignation on Wednesday in protest at a ceasefire reached between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party has quit the coalition and its five MPs have withdrawn support for the government.

After Bennett and Netanyahu’s meeting, a Likud spokesman said that for now Netanyahu would handle the defense portfolio himself.
Israel heads toward elections as Jewish Home says it will leave coalition
The Jewish Home will leave the coalition, bringing down the government and forcing new elections, senior sources in the Orthodox-nationalist told The Times of Israel Friday.

The Jewish Home party’s decision came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett’s demand to be made defense minister in a Friday afternoon meeting between the two.

The sources said a date for elections had not been agreed upon. Elections are formally set for November 2019, but it is now expected they will be held between March and May, with Netanyahu pushing for a later date and other parties seeking an earlier one.

Netanyahu said in a statement, however, that he would continue to try to preserve the right-wing coalition. He also made a series of telephone calls to coalition chiefs telling them there was no reason to dismantle the coalition at this stage.
Liberman: Government has given ‘immunity’ to terrorist leaders in Gaza
In a final shot as defense minister, Avigdor Liberman on Friday lambasted his former colleagues in the security cabinet, saying they’d “effectively” given the leaders of the Hamas terror group “immunity” during this week’s intensive round of violence.

“It simply makes no sense that after Hamas launches some 500 rockets at Israeli communities outside Gaza, at the south of the country, the heads of Hamas effectively get immunity from the Israeli security cabinet,” he said during a farewell visit to the south.

Liberman, who tendered his resignation on Wednesday, also warned that Israel’s policies toward Gaza were threatening to allow the Hamas terror group — considered by the Israel Defense Forces to be a comparatively minor strategic threat in terms of raw military power — to become akin to Lebanon’s mighty Hezbollah terrorist army, which is seen as the Jewish state’s main rival in the region with an arsenal of over 100,000 mortar shells, rockets and missiles.

“We are currently feeding a monster, which if we don’t stop its rearmament and force-building — in a year we will get a twin to Hezbollah — with all that entails,” he said.
Palestinian shunned for selling land to Jews to be buried in Jewish cemetery
A chief rabbi of Jerusalem allowed a Palestinian man to be buried in a Jewish cemetery following his body’s exclusion by imams over his sale of real estate to Jews.

Aryeh Stern, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel’s capital, this week ruled that Alah Kirsh may be buried at a Jewish cemetery as an exception because he was a “righteous gentile,” the Ynet new site reported Friday.

Kirsh was killed along with five other people in a traffic accident on November 4. His family sought to bury his body at a Muslim cemetery in East Jerusalem but the imams there turned them away because he had been accused of selling real estate in that part of the capital to Jews several years ago. Family members were not allowed to bring Kirsh’s body to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and were forbidden to pitch a mourner’s tent and receive guests there, as is the Muslim custom.

Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, cited a 1935 fatwa, or religious Muslim edict, issued by his predecessor, Amin al-Husseini.

A publicly anti-Semitic leader of Arab Israelis and ally of Nazi Germany, al-Husseini wrote that year that “anyone who sells a home or land to Jews will not receive a Muslim burial.” Basing a new fatwa on the old one, Sabri wrote: “Whoever sells to the Jews in Jerusalem is not a member of the Muslim nation. We will not accept his repentance and he will not be buried in the Muslim cemetery.”
Mother, brother of Barkan terrorist charged for failing to prevent fatal attack
Military prosecutors have indicted the mother and brother of a Palestinian terrorist for failing to prevent an attack in which he shot to death two Israelis in the West Bank last month.

Ashraf Na’alowa, 23, killed his coworkers Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi on October 7 at a factory in the Barkan Industrial Zone. A third Israeli was injured in the attack.

Na’alowa, from the West Bank village of Shuweika, has been on the run since then and Israeli security forces have detained or arrested a number of his relatives and alleged accomplices as they try to track him down.

The indictment filed at the Samaria Military Court on Thursday and publicized Friday morning, alleges Na’alowa’s mother was aware he owned a gun and was training with it and that he told her two weeks before the shooting he wished to carry out an attack and die as a “martyr.”
Palestinian indicted for planning attacks on right-wing activists
Military prosecutors have charged a resident of the West Bank city of Qalqilya with conspiring to murder two right-wing Israeli activists, the IDF said Friday.

According to the statement released by the military, Amid Ayoub Fawzi Zamari contacted a Gaza resident in July and sent him identifying details about Daniella Weiss and Moshe Zar in order for him to carry out a terror attack against the two.

Zamari is alleged to have watched and photographed Zar’s home, and the entrance to the settlement in which Weiss lives.

Zamari is also accused of carrying out reconnaissance activities at a Jewish religious site in the West Bank, with the aim of planting an explosive charge, but was unable to carry out his plans due to his detention by security forces.
Moshe Zar, Ramat Gilad in the West Bank. Dec 14, 2011 (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

Military prosecutors have requested that Zamari be detained until the end of proceedings.

Weiss praised the security forces who discovered the plot.
JCPA: Muslim Brotherhood Religious Authority Resigns
Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, known as the “Sheikh of the terrorists” and the “head of the snake” of Islamic terror, announced his retirement from the world of religious preaching and leader of the International Union of Muslim Scholars due to his advanced age. He is over 90 years old.

At a conference in Turkey on November 9, 2018, Sheikh Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who fled from Egypt when President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came into power in 2014, announced his retirement while showering his praises upon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The history of the Islamic faith began in Istanbul, according to some historians,” Qaradawi claimed. “President Erdogan flew the flag of Islam, even though he had no money or men,” he stressed.

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi founded the International Union of Muslim Scholars in the Irish capital, Dublin, in 2004. He set up its headquarters in Doha, Qatar, as the supreme authority giving religious approval to the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Four Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are boycotting the organization, which they have designated as a “terrorist entity.”
Turkey Says Will Not Link Fate of US-Based Cleric to Khashoggi
Turkey has ruled out any deal with the United States to scale down its investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi if the US expels a Muslim cleric who Ankara says was behind a failed coup two years ago.

NBC News reported on Thursday that the Trump administration was exploring ways to remove cleric Fethullah Gulen and persuade President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ease pressure on Saudi Arabia over the killing. The White House said the story was “not accurate.”

A senior Turkish official said the issues of Gulen’s extradition, which Turkey has long sought, and the investigation into who was behind Khashoggi’s killing at Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate last month, were separate issues.

“At no point did Turkey offer to hold back on the Khashoggi investigation in return for Fethullah Gulen’s extradition,” the official said. “We have no intention to intervene in the Khashoggi investigation in return for any political or legal favor.”

Erdogan has said the order for Khashoggi’s killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi leadership. Washington on Thursday announced sanctions over the killings, targeting 17 Saudi officials but not the Riyadh government — an important US security and economic ally.
2 arrested in Argentina for suspected ties to Hezbollah, possession of weapons
Two Argentine citizens with suspected ties to the Hezbollah terrorist group were arrested Thursday, the security minister said in a statement.

Police said that in the course of the investigation, they had discovered evidence of foreign travel “along with credentials in Arabic and an image of the Hezbollah flag,” the Reuters news agency reported. No further details were given on the credentials or travel.

The two men, aged 23 and 25, were arrested at a Buenos Aires residence, and were also found to be in possession of a “small arsenal” including a rifle, a shotgun and a number of handguns.

US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders are expected to attend the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Nov. 30-Dec 1.

A G20 summit coordinator, Hernan Lombardi, said Thursday that security for the gathering was at maximum alert.

A Hezbollah suicide bomber carried out the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. The attack, orchestrated by Iran, killed 85.




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