Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization continues to openly embrace violence and terror even as Abbas insists that he only supports "non-violent resistance."
This weekend, the Abdul-Qader al-Husseini Brigades of Fatah held a joint military exercise with the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on Friday evening, in Rafah, Gaza.
A similar exercise between another Fatah armed group, the Nabil Massoud Brigades of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the DFLP was held last weekend.
The exercises included practice for shooting rockets at Jewish communities.
The DFLP National Resistance Brigades openly supports terror attacks against civilians.
I have yet to see a reporter ask Mahmoud Abbas about his support for Fatah terror groups.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Pet project: The £8million palace built by Palestine, which has received £72million of foreign aid (Daily Mail)
The Daily Mail has finally noticed that UK and EU taxpayer money helps support Palestinian terrorists and corruption. Excerpts:
The scandal of how Britain fritters away billions in foreign aid – including paying salaries to convicted terrorists who have murdered hundreds of innocent people – is exposed today by a major MoS investigation.
The shocking revelation that thousands of Palestinian terrorists, including men who have masterminded suicide bombings and murdered children, are given cash handouts from aid money will cause anger and disbelief, particularly in the wake of the Brussels massacres.
Our probe exposed how huge amounts of taxpayers’ cash, that critics say should be spent in Britain, is being ‘squandered’ on wasteful schemes elsewhere by the Department For International Development (DFID) and Foreign Office.
We dug beneath the headline figures on DFID’s websites to reveal waste and misguided largesse which seemed to extend to virtually every corner of the globe and which will shock readers. In the West Bank and Gaza, despite promises by the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the practice of paying aid money to convicted terrorists, our investigation revealed that they had simply duped the West by allowing the Palestine Liberation Organisation to hand out the cash instead.
Britain gives £72 million a year to Palestine, more than one-third of which goes straight to the PA. It openly admits supporting terrorists whom it hails as heroes for fighting illegal occupation, awarding lifetime payments that rise depending on time spent in jail and the seriousness of crimes.
One Hamas master bomber has reportedly been given more than £100,000. Other ‘salaries’ go to the families of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel.
DFID and the European Union are still effectively supporting these payments to thousands of terrorists – despite claims to have ended such links two years ago. This was confirmed to the MoS by former prisoners and families receiving the cash, and in official statements by the PA.
We also visited a lavish £8 million palace that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is having built on the West Bank.
Ahmad Musa sits beside me, a convicted double murderer sentenced to life in prison. As we talk, I ask him if he did indeed kill the two men. ‘Yes, I shot them dead,’ he replies.
Yet we do not meet in a jail cell. Musa is free, released after just five years. For he is a Palestinian terrorist and he was liberated under a peace deal.
Like thousands more Palestinian prisoners, including jihadi bombers and killers of children, Musa enjoys his freedom after being awarded a ‘salary’ for life.
He gets £605 every month, others get far more. If they die, the cash goes to their family. These men are seen as terrorists, certainly by Israel, and many in the West
But, astonishingly, the money behind these payments – described by some as ‘rewards for murder’ – flows from British and European taxpayers.
The UK cash comes from the Department for International Development, which will give up to £25.5million this year to the ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of a £72million aid package. Our investigation discovered that the PA passes millions on to the infamous Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) – which in turn gives it to convicted terrorists locked up in Israeli prisons and their families.
Amjad Awad (pictured) and his cousin Hakim Awad killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children in their West Bank home in 2011. They have been getting foreign aid since they were convicted for life (Dailu Mail)
Among them are Amjad and Hakim Awad, cousins who killed Ehud and Ruth Fogel and their three children in their West Bank home in 2011. It is estimated that Amjad alone may have been paid up to £16,000 from the fund so far.
Also on the payroll is Abdallah Barghouti, the Hamas bomb-maker who was sentenced to life after attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is thought he has received payments totaling £106,000.
Dfid confirms that the PLO makes such payments, calling them ‘social welfare’ provisions for prisoners’ families.
It denies, however, that any British cash reaches terrorists, with the PLO taking over such payments two years ago from the PA after an international outcry.
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Britain funded the PLO until last year and that the PA openly boasts of still funding salaries of convicted terrorists, even in its own official statements.
Former prisoners and the families of terrorists we have spoken to also confirmed receiving cash from both the PA and the PLO.
British aid money is supposed to be rebuilding and developing the Palestinian territories. However a devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists.
Some Hamas terrorist masterminds have reportedly been given more than £100,000.
Other ‘salaries’ go to relatives of suicide bombers and even teenagers involved in the latest upsurge of deadly attacks on Israel. Several ex-prisoners confirmed to me that they were paid monthly stipends that started in jail.
One said they also received a ‘bonus’ on leaving prison and lucrative civil service job offers, the most senior posts going to those serving more than 15 years behind bars, even though they are not qualified.
PA officials openly defend such stipends. Amr Nasser, adviser to the minister of social affairs, said: ‘It is not a crime to be fighting occupation. These people are heroes.
‘We could be giving them much more money and it would not be enough.’ Nasser added that, if Palestine won independence, the government would seek reparations from Britain for its historic role in encouraging Zionism, saying ‘You should pay us more money.’
Tory MP Andrew Percy said last night: ‘How can we justify foreign aid as a noble endeavour when taxpayers money goes to pay terrorists? The government has got to get a grip.’
The four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza receive the highest aid support per head in the world.
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said: ‘This serves as a huge financial incentive to carry out acts of terror against Jews.
‘Is it imaginable for a Western government to contemplate subsidising acts of mass murder and terror in this fashion? Yet that is effectively what is happening.’
Among those paid is Abdallah Bargouti, a Hamas leader given 67 life sentences for lethal attacks in 2001 and 2002, including a restaurant bombing that killed 15 diners. He is thought to have earned more than £100,000 since conviction, handed to his family.
The cash-strapped PA relies on foreign aid for nearly half its budget. Yet it gives £79 million a year to prisoners locked up in Israeli jails, former prisoners and their families.
Although DFID says the salaries are ‘social welfare’ provisions, they go to people convicted of ‘acts of resistance’.
The department also insists payments come from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which was handed responsibility for prisoner welfare two years ago after concerns over aiding terrorism were raised in Westminster and Brussels.
Yet the father of two brothers jailed for gun attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers told me he received monthly payments of £428 from the PA as well as £285 from the PLO.
Britain has provided aid in the past to the PLO, although this ceased last year.
The Palestinian Media Watch report suggests that Western donors have been misled by detailing documents and official statements exposing how the PA still funds the salaries of convicted terrorists.
Evidence includes the Ministry of Finance saying in an official statement last year it transfers almost half its budget to Gaza, adding this includes ‘the salaries of prisoners, the released and the families of the Martyrs and wounded.’
The report also reveals the PA transferred an extra 444m shekels to the PLO in 2015 - significantly, only marginally more than the 442m shekel budget given to its own Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs the previous year before it transferred responsibility.
Itamar Marcus, the report’s author, said: ‘There is wilful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation.’
The group also claims to have discovered two cases of individuals who carried out attacks for cash.
In one, Khalad Rajoub, a father of seven arrested for attempted murder two years ago, told police he had big debts and planned to die during an attack.
He is reported to have said: ‘My family would get money and live comfortably… my children would get a monthly allowance.’
A DFID spokesman denied funding terrorism and defended aid support to the PA. ‘This helps build Palestinian institutions and promotes economic growth.’
The sprawling building sits high on a hill, a presidential palace looking down imperiously on thousands of beleaguered West Bank residents crammed in below.
When I visited the impressive mansion on six acres of land, builders were putting finishing touches to its fine limestone walls and water displays. ‘This is like a five-star hotel,’ one security guard told me. ‘It has two helipads, two swimming pools, a Jacuzzi, restaurant… all the latest technology.’
This £9 million palace in Sudra, just weeks away from opening, was designed for Mahmoud Abbas – a president whose domain is so dependent on aid that last year his Palestinian Authority had to pass an emergency budget when some was held up by Israel.
In Gaza – a place where there is rampant poverty – I witnessed bizarre scenes: long queues of people at bank cashpoints.
It was pay day for thousands of civil servants whose salaries are supported by Western aid, even though they have had no jobs since 2007.
Mahmoud, an accountant, said he was given more than £1,000 a month. ‘I just sit at home, spending time with my family. Sometimes I travel abroad to visit relatives,’ he said.
Others admitted to second jobs as shopkeepers and taxi drivers. One ex-teacher, who still draws his £6,000-a-year salary, confessed to running a dairy, completing a master’s degree in Britain and working as a journalist.
‘Getting paid from Britain while living here means you can have a good life,’ he said, although he added that his home was devastated in Israeli air strikes two years ago.
The salary payments are a legacy of the Palestinian divisions since Hamas took control of Gaza from Fatah, the rival faction recognised by the international community.
At least 60,000 officials were told to stop working by Fatah yet are still being paid. Many of them have been replaced by Hamas officials.
Mohammad Aboshair, 37, a police officer, said: ‘We hoped it would not last long. It is really wrong to stay in our homes and get paid without jobs. I wanted to serve my country, not become a burden – this is crazy.’ Three years ago auditors urged the EU to stop the salaries. Critics condemned ‘blatant misuse of taxpayers’ money’ that undermined the credibility of Brussels when millions of Europeans were jobless. Dfid sources said the cash went only to civil servants on an approved EU list and insisted they took precautions to ensure British aid did not support Hamas.
Of course, by paying for the PA salaries in Gaza, the UK and EU are effectively supporting Hamas indirectly.
We've been talking about this for years - my first post on this was in 2005 - and Palestinian Media Watch has been reporting on specifics for quite a while, but it is nice to see that Western media is finally picking up on this.
(h/t Yoel)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
If yarmulke sales are any indication of voter attitudes, Donald Trump was the clear winner at AIPAC on Monday night.
Marc Daniels, a vendor selling campaign logo kippas outside the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday evening, said the “Donald Trump 2016” cap was his most popular item by far.
Daniels said he was “inundated” with requests for the Trump yarmulkes from conference-goers and sold out almost immediately.
“I totally underestimated the degree of support that Jewish people who are attending this event have for Trump,” said Daniels, who runs an online yarmulke shop called Marc’s Garden Jubilee. “I probably had about 50 inquiries for Trump yarmulkes that I could not fulfill.”
Daniels said he sold two or three Ted Cruz yarmulkes and three or four for John Kasich. By 8 p.m. on Monday, the vendor said he only had Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders caps left over, and was finding those tougher to unload.
So, this is probably not scientific, but the yarmulke market has spoken: the Orthodox Jewish vote is committed to Trump. Because, unlike a button or a sticker, a yarmulke requires a special dedication, which means that, as Daniels put it, “If someone is going to buy a yarmulke, you have to assume they support the candidate.”
But there is something that everyone is missing.
Last week was Purim!
A Donald Trump kippah is a perfect thing to wear on Purim, when people look for the funniest costumes and accessories. It is far funnier than a Ted Cruz or even Bernie Sanders yarmulka would be. (I saw someone with a Donald Trump wig on Purim.)
To say that this is proof of Orthodox support for Trump is not to know how to read a calendar.
It is true that American Haredi Jews seem to like Trump, but they are not the type that would ever wear a red kippah (except, again, on Purim) and very few would go to AIPAC. Among modern Orthodox Jews who are likely AIPAC attendees, a Trump kippah would be a perfect, relatively inexpensive last-minute Purim costume.
To give an idea of how outrageous Purim costumes could be, there was brief panic in a Paris synagogue during Purim when someone dressed as a jihadist with a fake Kalashnikov entered and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" The congregants then realized that they know the man and laughed, but it was probably not the smartest idea.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
When the Israeli Ministry of Exterior invited me to visit Israel as part of a delegation of European-based Arab journalists and media representatives, I accepted without hesitation. The goal of the invitation was to provide us with an opportunity to freely explore the different dimensions to life inside the state of Israel. Located in the heart of the Middle East and one of the region's central and enduring conflicts, Israel receives a large amount of attention from neighboring peoples curious about the state itself and its management. Although major developments in international communication and accessibility of knowledge have transformed the world into a connected community that now sometimes resembles a small village, Arab media coverage of Israel continues to be characterized by a lack of clarity and misrepresentation, making it difficult for Arab citizens to truly understand the country. The persistent and recurring problems in the West Bank and Gaza are of major concern to many Arabs, but media sources often conflate the State's controversial foreign policy with life inside the the country itself and produce dystopian visions of life inside its borders. While not an article or analysis, the following is an honest testimony of what I saw during my visit, without influence by any person or institution. I hope to present an alternative perspective from other Arab media outlets that I have found to exaggerate and mischaracterize the realities of Israeli life.
Israel has been placed 24th in a new global terrorism index which ranks 162 of the world’s nations from most affected to least affected by terror.
Based on a 5-year average, the index takes into account such criteria as the number of terrorist incidents endured by a country, how many fatalities were suffered in those attacks, how many injuries were caused and the level of damage to property. It also weights the scores for each nation according to the long-term psychological damage of the attacks.
The list is compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, using information from a global terrorism database at Maryland University, which includes more than 125,000 terrorist incidents.
Israel received an overall score of 6.03 out of 10. Its “GTI indicators” for 2015 included 260 attacks, 20 fatalities, 115 injuries and 290 instances of damage to property. The United Kingdom ranked at 28th, and the US at 35th.
Following the ISIS strikes in Brussels, both Israeli and American security experts spoke bitterly of the ineptitude of Belgian security services. It is not that the forces themselves are incompetent. Rather, the experts said, their political leadership refuses to allow them to take the actions necessary to protect their country. The Belgians, like their European brethren generally, refuse to deal with jihad. Rather than acknowledge and deal forthrightly with the phenomenon, they seek every possible excuse to ignore it.
According to senior government officials, the Belgians are among the most vociferous foes of Israel in the EU. Europe’s obsessive castigation of Israel is a central aspect of their jihad avoidance strategy. If Israel is to blame for everything, then they can save themselves by pouring billions of euros on the PA and by funding Israeli anti-Zionist subversives.
This position is of course irrational. In clinging to it, the Europeans have enabled the jihadist forces arrayed against them to gather and grow. Consider the July 7, 2005, attacks in London. Shortly after they occurred, British investigators discovered that Muhammad Sidique Khan, who led the British al-Qaida cell that carried out the attacks, was connected to the British jihadists who carried out the 2003 suicide bombing at Mike’s Place pub in Tel Aviv, adjacent to the US Embassy. The Mike’s Place bombers were also connected with the radical Left, having toured Israel and Gaza with an International Solidarity Movement group before carrying out their attack. Yet, just as British authorities ignored the significance of the participation of British jihadists in the jihad against Israel 13 years ago, and disregarded the significance of the post-7/7 revelations 11 years ago, so in the intervening years, as jihadist forces grew and spread throughout the continent, rather than shed their hostility toward Israel and stop blaming it for the jihadist Islam, the Europeans expanded their onslaught against the Jewish state.
While the anti-Israel activists are busy protesting against Israel on Western campuses, Palestinian students and professors are persecuted by their own Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas governments. Let us redefine "pro-Palestinian." Instead of bashing Israel, real pro-Palestinians will demand democracy for those they champion, and scream for public freedoms for Palestinians under the PA and Hamas regimes, which have always smashed dissent with an iron fist. PA security forces systematically target students and academics under various pretexts. Hundreds of students have been rounded up. Many remain in detention without the possibility of seeing a lawyer or a family member.
Palestinians on campuses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have once again been reminded that they remain as far as ever from achieving a state that would look any different from the other Arab dictatorships in the region. The campus incidents, which have hardly caught the attention of the international media and anti-Israel activists in the West, also expose the media double standard about human rights violations.
In the first case of its kind under the PA, Kadoori University in Tulkarem suspended a student who hugged his fiancée in public.
Under the circumstances, one can expect the use of force and violence to become commonplace in the region—and since, so it seems, the use of chemical weapons in the war in Syria is no longer considered taboo, one can expect greater and greater use of non-conventional weapons. It goes without saying that the effort to acquire nuclear weapons, or at least nuclear capability, will also continue to expand from Iran to other players in the region. The obvious result of all this is that the Middle East will become a permanently unstable region, subject to frequent convulsions and pervaded with violence and terrorism. It will become a hothouse for radical Islamic ideas and groups that will attract support among the population both within and outside the region.
The shock waves from the crisis in the Middle East have not stopped at the region’s geographical boundaries. Waves of refugees, which will only increase, are knocking on Europe’s gates, while radical Islamic ideology is seeping deeply into Muslim communities all over the world, especially in Europe, and even in the United States. As state frameworks disintegrated and chaos came to prevail in the region, the tide of migration found encouragement and rose sharply, and there is no basis for assuming that it will not continue to rise in the future.
Ironically, America’s withdrawal from playing a role in the Middle East did not save it from being criticized, both within and outside the region, as the main culprit responsible for the present crisis. This stems from the fact that the United States is perceived as the clearest manifestation of the West, and the West is perceived as being guilty of the original sins of imperialism and colonialism, and is therefore seen as the source of the region’s ills. It can be assumed that as the distress and crisis in the region intensify, the resentment of the West and the United States will increase. This being so, the United States is destined to discover what Israel discovered in Lebanon and Gaza: that it is possible to disengage from the Middle East, but the Middle East will not disengage from you.
Indian People in Solidarity with Palestine, an Indian BDS forum, held a two-day convention in New Delhi on August 22-23, 2015. Among the speakers at the convention was Nasser Barakat, a Palestinian-Indian activist and former spokesmen of the General Union of Palestinian Students in India. He said that Israel was created as a pretext, just like the "fabricated" 9/11 attacks. Barakat added that he was not fooled by the Iranian nuclear project, because he knows that Iran is Israel’s biggest ally, and that the Jews are not enemies because they are the Muslims' "key to Heaven." The video was posted on the YouTube account of the Indian People in Solidarity with Palestine.
Following are excerpts:
Nasser Barakat: Why have the (Western powers) really created Israel in Palestine? There's a very simple reason - because they want an excuse. Like they fabricated 9/11 - there is still no proof. There's no proof that Al-Qaeda did that. That building - they are saying that 3,000 people died. Nobody... It was all fabricated.They wanted... George W. Bush wanted to demolish (former Russian PM) Primakov's plan.
[…]
The trio-triangle unity of China, India, and Russia - this disturbed America. It had become a nightmare for her. So America... The Caspian Sea is very rich in oil. Afghanistan is in the heart of this triangle. So they had to fabricate something. They wanted to attack, to justify their actions.
[…]
In 2007, I was sitting with some people in Ashok Hotel. There was a place, a Lebanese restaurant, and one Iranian professor - she is here in India, I guess, but I don't have any contact with her... I told her: This fake issue of your nuclear thing - you can make anybody believe this, but not me. You are the biggest ally of Israel. I have no little doubt. You guys should know one thing: In Iran, we have 1.5 million Sunnis, but we don't have any mosques. In Iran... In the Zionist military, which is so-called Israel, there are 200,000... There are 200,000 Jews, and they are all high authorized leaders, major generals, and all. In Iran, there are only 30,000 Jews, and they have 200 temples, and they practice their ceremonies very freely. Iran is a big fake that America created.
You know that in America, they put any policy in the drawers for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. When the time comes, the whole scenario is already known to them. So now what they are doing in Syria and in Iraq is all fake. It is just because they know that there is big enmity between Sunnis and Shias, and that these two parts will fight each other, and the fight will go on for no end. Anyway, Palestinians...
Finally, I will end with something very strange. As a Palestinian, I have many Jews - not Israeli - Jews as friends. One of them tells me: "We are enemies, so how are you my friend?" I told him: "You are mistaken. You have never been my enemy." Allah informed me, I am called murabiteen. Because you occupied my land,I am a murabiteen. Murabitun are those who are forcibly living there. Those murabiteen are killed by you, and we will go to the higher grade in Heaven. Had Palestine been free, we would not have been murabiteen. So you are the key to Heaven for me. You have never been my enemy.
If Israel's creation is a myth like 9/11, then there is no reason to destroy Israel any more! A huge BDS victory!
Will BDS leaders in the EU and US demand that Barakat apologize for this bizarre rant that insults the families of thousands of those killed?
Of course not. They have no more regard for the truth than Barakat does. They just lie differently in different countries to target their audiences.
As long as a seething hate for Israel is the main animating motive, anyone is welcome in the tent of BDS liars and charlatans.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Excerpts from the candidates' speeches on the Middle East at AIPAC.
John Kasich:
Yes, we will rededicate ourselves to reaching the bipartisan national security policy that President Reagan and the Democrats achieved. And you can be assured that my strategic program will include and incorporate Israel as the bedrock partner for our mutual security in the Middle East. Together we will combat violence incited in Israel itself and, of course, its eternal capital, Jerusalem.
Donald Trump:
We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem – and we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.
Ted Cruz:
On my very first day in office I will begin the process of moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel.
Both Hillary Clinton's speech at AIPAC and Bernie Sanders' speech on his Middle East policy in Utah did not mention the word Jerusalem once.
(h/t Ghilmeini)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
How hard is it to understand that radical Islamist jihadis have declared war on the West? In simple English this means: they will find you and kill you wherever and whenever they can.
Time and again, many of us concerned Muslims have highlighted the dangers of political Islam/Islamism, which stems from one of three sources: the Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabi/Salafism or Khomeinism. The West has been asleep at the wheel, waffling about how to address the issue with "sensitivity." Calling out the truth should never be subject to political correctness.
The world needs to take the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to task and challenge it about what it is doing to stem the tide of violence emanating from the Muslim world. The world needs to understand that ISIS is not trying to set up a Caliphate. OIC is the Caliphate.
Security forces on Friday afternoon thwarted a stabbing attack by a teenage girl in East Jerusalem, a spokesperson for Israel Police said. The incident occurred at the entrance to the neighborhood of Isawiya, the police said. The would-be attacker was overpowered and arrested at the scene.
The police said that the girl, coming from the direction of Isawiyah, approached a unit of Border Police officers next to a gas station in the French Hill neighborhood, which abuts Isawiyah. She then pulled out a knife and began to slash at the security forces. The troops overpowered the girl and detained her. There were no injuries. The incident comes hours after a Palestinian woman was arrested in Hebron on Friday morning when she approached Israeli security forces at a checkpoint near the city’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood carrying a knife.
An IDF soldier caught on camera as he shot dead an apparently disarmed Palestinian assailant in the West Bank appeared in Jaffa Military Court on Friday, where it emerged that he is now the suspect in a Military Police murder investigation. The soldier was arrested Thursday. He was filmed in Hebron shooting the Palestinian shortly after the latter had stabbed another soldier. When the suspect shot him, the Palestinian was already lying on the ground wounded, as a result of troop gunfire during the stabbing. The Palestinian was one of two stabbers who attacked troops near the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron, wounding one of them. The soldier, from the Kfir Brigade, confirmed to the court Friday that he had carried out the shooting, and repeated his earlier statement that he believed the Palestinian had been wearing an explosive vest and therefore posed an ongoing danger, Army Radio said. He arrived in court after a night of questioning.
The soldier’s lawyer, Eyal Beserglick, also said that his client had acted out of the belief that the Palestinian had an explosive device.
“The investigation revealed that the shooting apparently took place when there were already at least several bullets in the attacker’s body,” Beserglick said. “When there was a real danger of an explosion at the scene, after a stabbing incident, what is expected of an outstanding soldier who sees his friends shy away from the same attacker? Who has a genuine fear for his friends’ lives and only then his own?”
Judging by the initial IDF response to the ghastly shooting of a Palestinian knife terrorist who had already been shot and was lying on his back, no longer posing a tangible threat to anyone, the soldier responsible for this grave breach of the rules of engagement will meet severe punishment in the military justice system. The attacker, who together with a second terrorist repeatedly stabbed a soldier in Hebron on Thursday, had already been shot once – justifiably and in line with regulations – preventing him from continuing his mission to kill IDF personnel.
Then a soldier from the Kfir Brigade, standing a few meters away, as seen in a video released by B’Tselem, cocked his firearm and fired a single shot – without justification – at the downed attacker, in violation of IDF rules. The disturbing images will doubtlessly circulate quickly on social media.
Well before the IDF received the video, the soldier’s commanders took swift and firm action. They held their own investigation, suspended the soldier on the spot, and delivered him to the Military Police, where he will be questioned. Military sources stressed that no one in the IDF “waited for this video to emerge,” adding that regional battalion and brigade commanders concluded that a grave breach occurred, and acted.
Remember when Palestinian attacks on civilians were considered terrorism by the entire civilized world?
There is not much difference between the attacks in Brussels this week and a similar one carried out by Palestinian terrorists in 1979 - except that Israeli security prevented a much larger catastrophe in 1979.
Israeli security agents on hand for the arrival of an El Al flight with 160 passengers opened fire on four Palestinian terrorists here today and prevented what could have been a major bloodbath.
The Israelis shot, then seized one heavily armed terrorist and captured a second. Belgian police joined the shootout but were unable to find another man and woman said to be among the attackers.
The terrorists, armed with fragmentation grenades and Soviet-made submachine gun, hurled two light hand grenades into the crowded terminal from a balcony, wounding what officials said was "about a dozen persons." none seriously. The victims, all Belgians, were taken to hospitals in Brussels, 10 miles from the airport.
Belgian police joined the attack on the terrorists but Defense Minister Paul vanden Boeynants-who rushed to the airport as soon as he heard of the attack-said. "The first shots at the terrorists were fired by El Al security agents who happened to be there."
While police said one or two other terrorists were believed to have escaped, most eyewitnesses mentioned two, one of them a woman.
Authorities said the captured terrorists carried bogus Lebanese passports, and said the El Al plane was their target. They reportedly declared they were from a new group of the Palestine Liberation Organization called "Black March"-for the month when the Egyptian-Israeli treaty was signed.
Belgian state radio said the terrorists belonged to the Marxist radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group that broke away from the PLO in 1974.
In Beirut, the PLO disclaimed any knowledge of the attack.
Last month the PLO spoke of reviving the Black September terrorist group to punish Egypt and Israel for signing the peace treaty. The Black September group carried out the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Airport authorities said the usual El Al security precaution of parking its planes a good distance from the terminal foiled the apparent intent to seize the aircraft. El Al planes are considered a choice target by Palestinian terrorists.
Police closed the roads leading to the airport for three hours, stranding hundreds of persons on Easter Monday, a holiday in Belgium.
Police then raided the Brussels residences of well-known PLO sympathizers, informed sources said.
JTA added some color that also could have been written this year:
In Washington, the State Department condemned the terrorist attack but refrained from condemning the PLO.
Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, sent a telegram to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance saying: “It is ironic and instructive that at a time when a State Department visa has been granted to Shafik AI-Hout, PLO representative in Lebanon, to lecture at U.S. universities, and PLO supporters are stressing the ‘moderate’ role of this murderous group, PLO assassins attack innocent passengers in the Brussels airport lounge. We respectfully request reconsideration of your position on AI-Hout.”
The PLO representative in Brussels Naim Khader, said on a Belgian radio interview last night that his organization had nothing to do with the attack. “We had everything to lose and nothing to gain from this senseless attack against Belgian citizens,” Khader said. He charged that the attack was “an Israeli provocation.”
(h/t Naftali)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
A drone launched by Hezbollah over Israel was able to safely return to its base without being damaged, according to foreign reports.
The UAV was launched this past Wednesday night, hovered for about 14 hours over Israel through Thursday morning "and successfully completed the mission," according to reports.
Jihadist sources say Hezbollah is expected to soon provide more details about its success.
If this report is true (which is a very big if,) it would be a very worrying development.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Recently Kayan Publishing published the seventh (sic) edition of the novel “The Daughter of Zion”, by the author Sha’aban Sharif, after the enormous success of the novel after its first edition. The new edition is found in the bookshops of the publishing house.
From the novel:
“When the evening came, they called a Jewish barber named Suleiman. He was a thin-bodied man, and he had a light beard that showed the veins under his skin. They ordered him to slaughter the (Christian) priest. He took out a shaving razor from his suitcase/bag and began to sharpen it so it would be sharp and he would be able to slaughter him (i.e. the priest) easily, but he (i.e. Suleiman) looked at him (at the priest), who was tied and weakened from all the beatings and torture, and he (i.e. Suleiman) hesitated a little, and the razor trembled in his hand. Daoud screamed in his (Suleiman’s) face: “He is a gentile, his blood is halal (permitted) for us” and he took a sharp knife and fell upon him (i.e. upon the priest) with all his brutality everywhere, he cut off his limbs and pierced his torso. All the priest’s screams and pleas fell on deaf ears. Then his brother Haroun Harari came and completed the slaughter. Then they collected his blood in a large and transparent vial and hurried to take it to Rabbi Basha Yaaqub Al-‘Antabi – who gave them the order to slaughter (the priest) -in the Jews' temple.
(Rabbi Basha Yaaqub Al-‘Antabi) was sitting in a dark room on a large wooden chair that had a soft/smooth cushion, and a large Star of David engraved on it. (Rabbi Basha Yaaqub Al-‘Antabi) wore a large black turban, embroidered with Arab ornaments and a wide and black robe, embroidered with golden fiber thread, and a red silk belt. His long white beard hung down to the middle of his chest. He was sitting and impatiently waiting for the two of them (Daoud and Haroun) with his sunken eyes, because of his need for the blood of the sacrificial victim in order to prepare the fatira of the Purim festival from gentile blood.”
Fatira almost always refers to matzoh, so this author is even more ignorant than usual by saying it is eaten on Purim.
This is the beginning of the book itself. For seven pages it describes in detail the supposed blood libel story of Damascus in 1840. The rest of the book is a political novel that starts in Israel in 2003. It is unclear what this section has to do with the rest of the novel.
Oh, who am I kidding? We all know why this is part of the novel - because the author needs to first set the stage of how evil Jews are.
The author works at the Egyptian Department of Antiquities.
Here is a promotional photo of another edition of the book.
(h/t Shawarma News and Ibn Boutros)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The BDS crowd was taken by surprise by how fast McGraw-Hill acted after I reported that one of their textbooks included the famous Map That Lies. McGraw-Hill properly withdrew the book from circulation and said it would destroy all copies of the textbook, offering refunds.
Now they are trying to pressure McGraw-Hill executives to change their minds. The Israel-haters set up a page to automatically write letters to McGraw-Hill executives and to tweet what they've done.
The chances of McGraw Hill changing their minds is essentially zero, but supporting them in their decision can create positive dividends in the future. And it won't take too many "thank yous" to counter the dozens of insulting anti-Israel letters they are receiving. People like to hear compliments, after all, and McGraw-Hill acted like a company that cares about the truth in their textbooks - a very admirable trait indeed.
So take the three minutes to write the letter and thank them. The BDSers set the page up, the least you can do to thank them would be to use it.
The BDSers have a lot of other letter writing campaigns as well, especially to state legislators who are considering bills to condemn or outlaw boycotts of Israel. Those same tools can be used to counter their lies and tell the legislators the truth. So click away!
(h/t YMedad)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday voted in favor of creating a “blacklist” of companies operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a motion that passed with no countries voting against.
The resolution required UN human rights officials to produce a database of “all business enterprises” that have enabled or profited from the growth of Israeli settlements, Haaretz reported. The proposal, put forward by the Palestinian Authority and Arab states, included a condemnation of settlements and called on companies not to do business with Israeli settlements.
Its most contested clause was that calling for the formation of the database. While European Union nations opposed the creation of the list, they did not vote against the resolution, electing merely to abstain. It passed with 32 nations votes in favor and 15 abstentions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the outcome of the vote Thursday evening, saying the international body “has turned into an anti-Israel circus, which attacks the only democracy in the Middle East and ignores the blatant violations of Iran, Syria and North Korea.”
The prime minister accused the council of ignoring more urgent issues such as terrorism in order to rebuke the Jewish state.
France’s claim to be a fair broker which can move Israelis and Palestinians peace is now being called into question by the actions of its UN envoy in selecting a prominent anti-Israeli activist to investigate “Israel’s violations” for the next six years, a critical post.
A 5-member UN committee, on which the French delegate in Geneva serves by virtue of being named by the Western group, recommended Canadian academic Michael Lynk as one of two candidates that it found to be impartial and objective — this despite his leadership role in pro-Palestinian lobby groups, and his long record of inflammatory statements against Israel. That a representative of France would join others on an Egyptian-led committee to select such a manifestly partisan candidate — someone who three days after 9/11 blamed the West for provoking the attacks on the World Trade Center — constitutes a travesty of justice and a breach of the world body’s own rules. Someone who accuses Israel of “Apartheid” and openly seeks to dismantle the Jewish state is neither impartial nor objective.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon sent a letter to the UN Security Council on Wednesday demanding that they condemn the latest threats by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah threatened on Monday that if a future war breaks out with Israel, his Shi'ite Lebanese terrorist group will strike all targets in the Jewish state "without any limits." "If the Israeli army escalates its aggression against Lebanon, Hezbollah will strike all the strategic targets in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the nuclear facilities," Hezbollah-linked TV station Al Manar quoted Nasrallah as saying in a televised interview on Al Mayadeen.
"Hezbollah possesses all the details about the positions of the petrochemical, biological and nuclear facilities across Palestine,” he added. In his letter to the Security Council, Ambassador Danon made clear Israel will not accept any violation of its sovereignty, and will take all necessary measures to protect its citizens.
Obama 'Not Hopeful' on Peace: We Can't Force Israel and Palestinians U.S. president says peace was 'not something I was able to get done,' says one-state solution not realistic in light of mistrust.
...Despite his skepticism about progress anytime soon, Obama reinforced his commitment to that prospect.
"There's been talk about a one-state solution or sort of a divided government. It's hard for me to envision that being stable, there's such deep distrust between the two peoples right now," he said. "And the neighborhood is in such a mess that I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way. Now, over time that could evolve."
From his words, his preference is two states at this time because the two sides cannot live together peacefully, not because there is any inherent value in having a state for the Jewish people.
I found the entire context of the remarks. A high schooler who identifies as an Arab-Israeli asked if there wasn't some value in having a bi-national state with, say, and Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian president or vice versa.
Obama says that both sides have their narratives and both sides have a hard time listening to the valid points of the other. This is typical "let's call them equal because it sounds better" thinking. The Israeli media gives plenty of coverage to the Palestinian side of the story, but there is nearly no reciprocation (although some Palestinian newspapers will publish selected Hebrew op-eds translated into Arabic.)
Obama then goes into the demographic issue, with the J-Street talking points. What no one seems to mention is that there is a great deal of daylight between a demographic threat and the Green Line. Israel can remain a democracy, maintain a Jewish majority and annex all of Area C. Maybe they should and tell Obama - hey, you keep talking to us about how terrible the demographic threat is to us and how we cannot remain a democracy (despite the fact that the US has plenty of territory where residents cannot vote in national elections.)
If Area C was Israel's starting point in negotiations, the Palestinians would have a lot more incentive to compromise than when President Obama says that he agrees that the Green Line is the basis for negotiations. Now there is no incentive because the US and EU have declared that the Oslo process to determine borders is really to determine land swaps on either side of the Green Line. (And Israeli politicians haven't helped the cause, either.)
Now the Palestinians don't even have incentive to stop terror attacks, and their polls show that most of them think that terror is the best way to get a state, rather than compromise - which really would get them a state.
But it appears that Obama thinks of even the idea of separate Jewish and Arab states as a temporary measure until the kumbaya moment of both sides realizing that they must live together in peace, where the Jews can peacefully resume their dhimmi status in the Arab world and wait patiently for the next pogrom.
One other part: Obama wants to be the next Jimmy Carter. He ends off saying that after he is no longer president he hopes to continue to impose his naive view of Middle East peace on Israel (he says he will "continue to promote that peaceful dialogue.")
Judging from his words, we know that he will be much more publicly anti-Israel as soon as he leaves office.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
So there was a bloody terrorist attack – two bloody terrorist attacks – in Brussels on Tuesday. Dozens murdered, more injured seriously. The Islamic State took responsibility, and threatened more attacks.
The overwhelming feeling one gets is a combination of depression and boredom. Oh no, not again. Since 9/11, terrorism has been followed immediately by outrage, sometimes even by military action that may or may not be targeted accurately. After a while things go back to normal. But the enemy is never named. And nothing changes. The jihadists regroup and return.
Is anything different today? Will anything be different for the European leadership, now that the foolishly-named ‘capital of Europe’ has been struck? “Europe is at war” said the headline on Wednesday’s newspaper. But I doubt that they think so.
I’m sure that security will be beefed up. They will arrest IS sympathizers and activists. Maybe they will support air attacks against the IS in Syria. But as an EU statement issued after the attacks indicates, a change in the suicidal worldview that has led to more and more terrorism is not in the offing:
… This latest attack only strengthens our resolve to defend the European values and tolerance from the attacks of the intolerant. We will be united and firm in the fight against hatred, violent extremism and terrorism.
It isn’t “European values and tolerance” that is under attack, and the attacker isn’t “the intolerant.” Europe does not need to declare war on “hatred, violent extremism and terrorism.”
The truth is that whether they know it or not, all of the non-Muslim world is at war, a war being fought by unconventional means, but a war nevertheless. The enemy is a loose confederation of Muslim groups, from militias to nations, that agree on little other than that the entire world should be ruled by Islam, and that jihad is the way to bring this about. It is entirely correct to call it a war of Islamic conquest.
It has nothing to do with intolerance. It has everything to do with jihadist Muslims wanting to rule over non-Muslims and to take their property (incidentally including humans as property). The goal of Muslim domination is spelled out in the Qur’an and other Islamic texts. The jihadists are trying to implement these prescriptions.
There is a seam, an interface between Islam and not-Islam, which runs through the world. It is found in China, the Philippines and much of southeast Asia, India-Pakistan, the Caucasus, much of Africa, of course Israel, and now Europe. Everywhere along this seam there are regular flare-ups of violence. Of course there is also intra-Muslim strife, but – as Iranian support for Hamas shows – there is often cooperation between disparate groups when there is a common non-Muslim enemy.
Israel is very much on the front line of this war. Her location is highly strategic; she is considered a Western outpost in a region that by rights should be Muslim. She has become symbolic of the struggle since the Crusades. Many Muslims live in the territory Israel controls – that Jews control – a situation that is intolerable for them.
This is a tough war for our side to fight, because it takes different forms in different places, and the enemy does not follow the traditional rules or have a centralized command structure.But in general there are two strategic principles that we must apply: one is disproportionate pushback against violent attempts to extend Muslim sovereignty and the other is cutting the heads off snakes. Let me explain.
Disproportionate pushback means preventing successes that whet the appetites of the jihadists for more. Because their objective is domination, it isn’t possible to defuse their violence by appeasement. This something that Israel has (I hope) learned through her experience with the ‘Palestinian’ incarnation of the jihad. This is why I advocate building in the territories as a response to terrorism, as well as collective punishments for collective crimes. We need to teach the lesson that if you hurt us, expect to be hurt worse.
Cutting the heads off snakes (an expression used by a previous king of Saudi Arabia to refer to Iran) is the idea that there are foci of Islamic jihad – individuals, groups and even nations – that initiate, develop, promote, support, arm and fund the multiplicitous hands of jihad, and that they should be extirpated. So targeted assassinations of individuals like bin Laden or Mugniyeh, the elimination of jihadist organizations like Hezbollah, and the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capability and promotion of regime change there, are all indicated.
Some of these techniques have been used by Israel, the US, and even Russia with varying degrees of consistency and success. The US has never defined the enemy and has inconsistently mixed military action together with appeasement. Europe, though, has almost always taken the path of appeasement.
Both Europe and some circles in the US have been prepared to sacrifice Israel to the jihadists, on the remarkably stupid assumption that that they can protect themselves by doing so. A combination of this tendency to appeasement with the antisemitism that has characterized Europe for millennia has resulted in Europe actually cooperating with Israel’s enemies by financing subversive activities in Israel, supporting BDS by requiring labeling of products from across the Green Line, and trying to force Israel to withdraw to non-defensibleboundaries.
The EU Foreign Minister, Federica Mogherini, who was visiting Jordan when the Brussels attacks happened, burst into tears at a press conference with her Jordanian counterpart. “It’s also a very sad day for Europe, as Europe and its capital are suffering the same pain that this region has known and knows every single day, be it in Syria, be it elsewhere,” she said. Does she understand that her pain is caused by exactly the same elements that she criticizes Israel for opposing? Those, like Mogherini, who believe that the greatest evil in the world is “intolerance” also believe that Israel is attacked by terrorists because it is not sufficiently tolerant of Palestinian Arabs, some of whom are the terrorists that attack us. She thinks we deserve what we get.
After the Brussels attacks, will the Europeans begin to take strong measures against terrorism, like profiling at airports and railway stations, controlling their borders, or setting up checkpoints near known terrorist neighborhoods?
Probably not. That would make them intolerant like us. We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
The Pope's Genocide Cowardice
-
Pope Francis recently implied that Israel was committing “genocide” in its
campaign against Hamas. While the pope was eager to apply the term to
Muslims...
A Friend Indeed
-
[image: Dry Bones cartoon, Trump, MAGA, President, Jerusalem, Embassy,
America, Huckabee,]
Welcome Ambassador Huckabee!
* * * And *IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO MAK...
An open letter to the police and CPS
-
To the police and CPS. With reference to complaints made by Gabriel
Kanter-Webber about Rupert Nathan. I understand that the matter has now
been referred...
7 Biggest Dungeons In Elder Scrolls Games
-
Please verify your email address. Labyrinthian in Skyrim is a maze of
Nordic ruins with fiends to battle and treasures to find. Sundercliff Watch
in Oblivi...
Gaza: A Brief Modern History Outline
-
Pre-1917 - Gaza part of the Ottoman Empire
1917 - Gaza conquered by British Army and subsequently becomes part of
Mandate Palestine
1948 - Gaza conquere...
One Choice: Fight to Win
-
Yesterday Israel preempted a potentially disastrous attack by Hezbollah on
the center of the country. Thirty minutes before launch time, our aircraft
destr...
Yom Hashoah 5784 – 2024
-
Israel’s Yom Hashoah began at sundown this evening with the annual ceremony
at Yad Vashem with torches lit in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of
the...
Closing Jews Down Under Website
-
With a heavyish heart I am closing down the website after ten years.
It is and it isn’t an easy decision after 10 years of constant work. The
past...
‘Test & Trace’ is a mirage
-
Lockdown II thoughts: Day 1 Opposition politicians have been banging on
about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Elder of Ziyon
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
