Archive for February 16, 2013

Intelsat Removes Iran’s Channel PressTV from U.S. & Canada

Iran’s national Press TV has a history of notoriously promoting Holocaust denial & giving air-time to neo-Nazi propaganda.

By Gil Ronen

 

Pro-Israel media activist group HonestReporting Canada welcomed news on Saturday that global satellite communication provider Intelsat had removed Iran’s state-funded propaganda mouthpiece PressTV from its broadcast platform in Canada and the United States.

PressTVThe NGO expressed its concern, however, that PressTV is still accessible over Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 platform.

HonestReporting Canada Executive Director Mike Fegelman issued the following statement:

“Intelsat’s move falls directly in line with other important domestic and international efforts to sanction, isolate, and impede the Iranian regime’s efforts in procuring nuclear weaponry. Continue Reading »

Iranians mourn their slain Revolutionary Guard General

 

Iranian clergyman compares slain Iranian General to Hezbollah’s slain commander, Imad Mughniyeh

Syrian Free Army accuses Israel of Shateri’s death by a reported bombing in Syria 2 weeks ago.

By The Associated Press, Daniel Siryoti & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Prominent Iranian politicians and clerics led mourners at a funeral Thursday for a senior commander of the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards who was killed this week while traveling from Syria to Lebanon, local media reported.

The exact details surrounding Iranian General Hassan Shateri’s death are still unclear. – Photo: AP

The semiofficial Fars news agency identified the slain commander as Gen.

Continue Reading »

Hundreds protest the Iran-Argentina pact

Philosopher, poet & Argentinian writer Santiago Kovadloff mocked his gov’t for the int’l criticism the pact has drawn.  “But our gov’t is not alone,” he said. “Our gov’t is with Iran!”

By JTA

 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Some 300 people attended a protest rally against Argentine-Iranian cooperation in investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.

Suicide bomberAmong the protestors on Feb. 14 in the Argentine capital were relatives of the survivors of the bombing of the AMIA center. Israeli and Argentinean justice authorities blame Iran for the attack.

“We ask Argentine society’s forgiveness for wasting a great privilege that democracy gave us,” Sergio Bergman, a lawmaker and Reform rabbi, said in a speech at the rally. Continue Reading »

Nasrallah warns Israel to think twice before attacking

Nasrallah: “They know their power plants, airports are under threat,” and that Hezbollah doesn’t need weapons from Syria.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

 

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday rejected claims made by the Lebanese opposition that the Shi’ite group’s implication in July’s Burgas, Bulgaria terror attack would prompt an Israeli attack on Lebanon.

Hezbollah head Nasrallah speaks at Beirut protest

Hezbollah head Nasrallah speaks at Beirut protest – Photo: REUTERS

The speech came after Bulgaria released its findings of a probe into the attack last week, finding that Hezbollah’s military wing was behind the bombing. Five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the terror attack.

Continue Reading »

7 hurt Syrians treated in Israeli Hospital

IDF confirms 7 Syrians hurt on Syrian Golan in battles between Syrian army & rebels, were taken to Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

Ynet reporters

 

Seven Syrians hurt in battles between Syrian army forces and rebels were taken to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed Saturday. One of the men is in critical condition.

Fighting in SyriaThe seven made their own way to the border area in the northern Golan Heights.

“An IDF force administered medical care to the wounded men near the border fence and they were taken for further treatment,” a statement said.

Ziv Medical Center director Dr. Continue Reading »

U.S. sanctions just wiped out Iran-Turkey gold trade

Turkey, Iran’s biggest natural gas importer, has been paying for its gas-imports with Turkish lira, because US sanctions prevented them from paying in foreign currency ($ or €).

By Reuters

 

Tighter U.S. sanctions are killing off Turkey’s gold-for-gas trade with Iran and have stopped state-owned lender Halkbank from processing other nations’ energy payments to the OPEC oil producer, bankers said on Friday.

Fahmideh gas refinery and storage facility is seen outside the central city of Qom, Iran

Fahmideh gas refinery and storage facility is seen outside the central city of Qom, Iran – Photo: AP

U.S. officials have sought to prevent Turkish gold exports, which indirectly pay Iran for its natural gas, from providing a financial lifeline to Tehran, largely frozen out of the global banking system by Western sanctions over its nuclear program. Continue Reading »

TV2 Report: Israel & Hamas Holding Secret Negotiations via Egypt

Within the framework of secret talks with Hamas through the Egyptians, Israel may soon agree that Egypt’s border with Gaza be opened.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

Israel has been holding secret negotiations with the Hamas terror movement since the end of its Operation Pillar of Defense, Channel 2 News reported on Friday.

According to the report, the Egyptian-mediated talks are being held as part of the ceasefire reached between the sides at the end of counterterrorism operation in November and which said that both sides will refrain from attacking one another and the sides will work to reach understandings.

Channel 2 News indicated that an Israeli delegation that arrived in Cairo on Thursday came to Egypt for the purpose of holding talks with Hamas, through Egyptian mediators. Continue Reading »

The deceptiveness of Israel’s ‘The Gatekeepers’

The film presents a ‘simplistic political message,’ erroneously implying that Israel’s ‘occupation of the West Bank’ stands between terror & coexistence.

By ROZ ROTHSTEIN & ROBERTA SEID

 

Dror Moreh’s documentary, The Gatekeepers, could have been a profound film.

Instead, Moreh uses his interviews with six former directors of Israel’s top security services to send a simplistic and deeply partisan political message: If Israel withdraws from the West Bank, terrorism will subside and peace will break out.

Yaakov Perry

Yaakov Perry – Photo: Reuters

To promote this message, the documentary engages in intellectual dishonesty and omits critical context. While most Israelis know the wider context, the average viewer probably does not, and therefore is vulnerable to the filmmaker’s biased version of the facts.
Continue Reading »

There’s a Superior role for women in the Qur’an

In the same way that hatred, suicide bombings, aggression, & enmity toward Jews & Christians have nothing to do with Islam, neither does this incorrect image of women that the world has accepted from the radicals.

 

 

By Aylin Kocaman

A man in a shabby robe with a furrowed brow and long beard was walking along the road, followed two steps behind by women bent forward and completely covered up. This picture has to date been portrayed as an image of Islam.

Muslim wife following husbandBecause of this image, no value has been attached to some oppressed Islamic countries – nobody will attach any worth to a society that regards women as worthless. Continue Reading »

Analysis: – A Case of Negligence & Tragedy

 

How does a ‘Prisoner X’ go from being an idealistic Zionist Jew to ending his life by suicide in Block 15 at Ayalon Prison?

By OR HELLER

 

Two words immediately come to mind in connection with the Ben Zygier-Alon-Allen affair: Tragedy and negligence.

Ben Zygier at his wedding, captured from an image broadcast by ABC News.

Ben Zygier at his wedding, captured from an image broadcast by ABC News. Photo: ABC Screenshot

Why tragedy? Because at the end of the day, we’re talking about a young, idealistic Australian Zionist Jew who left a comfortable life in a quiet Melbourne suburb and made aliya at the age of 19, joined the IDF, and then later the Mossad.

Continue Reading »

Palestinians demonstrate violently for imprisoned hunger strikers

About  200 Palestinians throw stones at IDF &  Police during West Bank demonstration in support of prisoners on hunger strikes.

Security forces respond with tear gas. MK Tibi: Region will burn if any hunger-striking prisoner die.

By Elior Levy

 

Protesters at a Palestinian demonstration in support of prisoners on a hunger strike clashed on Friday with Israeli troops and Border Guard officers.

Stone-throwing PalistaniansThe IDF said that during the protest, held at the Bituniya crossing near Ofer Prison, about 200 Palestinians threw rocks at the soldiers who responded with tear gas during the rally in the West Bank.

One soldier was lightly wounded by stones hurled in his direction. Continue Reading »

Photo of 2 dead Gaza children from Israeli Gaza-strike wins World Press Photo prize

Paul Hansen, a Swedish photographer  wins top photojournalism award for haunting picture captured during Palestinian children’s funeral.

Explicit images of violence in the Middle East was a dominant theme in the competition.

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

World Press Photo Paul Hansen Gaza

Paul Hansen’s winning photo depicts funeral of two Gaza children killed in Israeli strike. – Photo: AP

The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. Continue Reading »

Polish call to Ashton: Make Efforts to Acknowledge Hizbullah as Terror Group

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski has called on EU’s Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization and stop their operations in EU member states as bases for money-laundering & fundraising.

By Elad Benari

 

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski on Thursday called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization after last week’s Bulgarian’s report that the Lebanese group was behind the terror attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas in July 2012.

Hezbollah rocket launcher

Hezbollah rocket launcher, used to kill Israeli civilians, in violation to the Geneva Conventions

The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported that in a written question to Ashton, ahead of Monday’s meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers where the issue is likely to come under discussion, Kaminski asked why the EU remains “reluctant to call Hizbulllah by its proper name”, after Ashton’s official response to the Burgas findings expressed “the need for a reflection over the outcome of the investigation.” Continue Reading »

Israel also faces existential economic threat, but from within

The threat:  Today, Ultra-Orthodox & Arab populations largely do not contribute to the mainstream workforce or pay taxes. 

By Israel Today Staff

 

Outgoing Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer this week stated that Israel has one of the strongest and most resilient economies in the world.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer says he is more optimistic about the Israeli economy than he was two months ago. – Photo: Dudi Vaaknin

 

However, Israel is facing a very serious existential threat… well, many existential threats, really, but one of those threats is the economy itself.

Israel is a fully welfare state, and there are two large sectors – the ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Arabs – which largely do not contribute to the mainstream workforce or pay taxes. Continue Reading »

Israel’s ever-challenging diplomatic conundrum

Having the U.S. to impose a solution will be completely self-defeating as it hardens the Palestinian readiness to come to the negotiating table, since Israel will be delivered on a silver platter anyway, and makes any real diplomatic progress more difficult than ever.

By Dore Gold

In light of developments over the last few years, there has been a growing realization in Israel that the chances of reaching a complete final status agreement with the Palestinians are presently extremely small. This is not just an ideological position coming out of certain quarters in Israel, but it is also the professional view of practitioners who have been involved in the political process itself.

Continue Reading »