Archive for August 10, 2013

Amnesty Int’l: Hamas must cancel post-Eid executions planned for Gazans

 

Islamist group Hamas’ Attorney General announced that several convicted ‘criminals’ will be executed in public as a ‘lesson’ to others.

By Ynet News Staff

The Hamas authorities in Gaza must halt several executions they say they plan to carry out after this week’s Muslim religious festival of Eid al-Fitr, Amnesty International has urged.

Execution in Gaza (Archive photo: Reuters)

Execution in Gaza – Archive photo: Reuters

Hamas’ attorney general said last week that several convicted “criminals” are set to be executed in public as a “lesson” to others.

On 14 July this year, the Court of Cassation missed a final opportunity to protect H.M.A.’s rights when it upheld the death sentence in both cases. Continue Reading »

Sinai Terrorists say their group was target of Israeli drone strike

Sinai Al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, says 4 of its members were killed while preparing to fire rocket into Israel (cities).

Egyptian army reports no drone attack ever occurred.

 

 

An Al-Qaida-linked group active in the Sinai Peninsula said Saturday that its fighters were the target of a reported Israeli drone strike into Egyptian territory, a rare operation that could indicate increased Egyptian-Israeli security cooperation against militants in the lawless border zone.

Archive photo of Israeli Heron TP drone, also known locally as the Eitan.

Archive photo of Israeli Heron TP drone, also known locally as the Eitan. – Photo: AP

Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, in a statement posted on a militant website, said that a Israel Defense Forces drone that crossed into Egyptian airspace killed four fighters as they were preparing a cross-border rocket strike into Israel. Continue Reading »

Egypt:There Was NO Israeli Airstrike in Sinai

Spokesman for the Egyptian army: ‘There is no truth whatsoever that Israel attacked in the Sinai.’

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

Egypt denied on Friday evening that Israel had carried out an airstrike in the Sinai.

At least five Egyptian terrorists were reportedly killed as they prepared to launch a rocket into Israel.

Some sources spoke of an Israeli air strike conducted from Israeli air space, but the Egyptian military denied this.

 

“There is no truth whatsoever to any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory and the claims that there is Egyptian and Israeli coordination on the matter is utterly baseless,” military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement quoted by AFP. Continue Reading »

Why has Egyptian Blockade of Gaza Produced No Flotillas?

 

Hamas has finally admitted that it is the Egyptians, and not Israel, who have turned the Gaza Strip into a “big prison.”

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, January 2009. – Photo Source: International Transport Workers’ Federation

 

Ghazi Hamad, a senior official with the Hamas-controlled foreign ministry, was quoted this week as saying that the Gaza Strip has been turned into a “big prison as a result of the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing by the Egyptian authorities since June 30.” Continue Reading »

Chancellor Merkel: The Federal Republic of Germany will never be neutral on Israel

 

Germany’s chancellor criticizes Israeli settlements, but says the German crime of the Holocaust will always be present, ensuring special relationship between Berlin & Jerusalem.

By JTA

 

 

 

Germany will never be neutral when it comes to Israel, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Jewish newspaper.

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel – Photo: REUTERS

“The heinous crime committed by Germany against the Jews, the betrayal of all civilized values that was the Shoah, will always be present and we can shape the future of the resulting special relationship between Germany and Israel in awareness of that,” Merkel said in an interview published in the most recent issue of Jewish Voice from Germany.

Continue Reading »

Haifa cleric calls on muezzins to remain silent during Jewish High Holidays

 

 

 

A local Muslim cleric instructs mosque criers in Israel’s northern coastal city to avoid calls to prayer on loudspeakers during the upcoming Jewish High Holidays. ‘There are things we can do without for the benefit of our neighbors,’ he says.

By Lior El-Chai

A Muslim cleric from Haifa has instructed muezzins in the city to refrain from calls to prayer during the High Holidays, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

No calls to prayer in September – Photo: Avishai Zigman and Hagai Dekel

Amir Mahmoud Sharif, head of Israel’s Ahmadi Islamic movement, gave the directive during a tour of Haifa’s mosques for Eid al-Fitr held by Mayor Yona Yahav. Continue Reading »

Kerry tells US Jewish leaders: Palestinian-Israeli peace a ‘strategic imperative’


U.S. Sec of St. Kerry asks American Jews to endorse negotiations between Israel & the Palestinians.

By

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice briefed Jewish leaders on resumed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

Kerry and Indyk.

Kerry and Indyk at the State Department in Washington. – Photo: Reuters

The meeting Thursday evening in the White House lasted 90 minutes, participants said, and was characterized mostly by Kerry’s enthusiasm for the resumed talks, and the serious commitment he said saw from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Kerry appeared bullish about talks he has worked assiduously to revive since becoming secretary of state in February, but also nervous about the potential for failure, warning of circumstances – for instance, pressures on Netanyahu – that could undermine the talks. Continue Reading »

Lebanese Daily: IDF ‘Blundered into Hizbullah Ambush’

Lebanese newspaper with connections to Hizbullah boasts “Only Hizbullah can make bombs that blow up Israelis.”

By Arutz Sheva

 

Two blasts that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon were in fact an “ambush” set by Hizbullah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.

IDF Training – Photo courtesy: IDF Spokesperson’s Office

The explosions hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops crossed the border into southern Lebanon, parts of which are controlled by the Shiite movement.

“The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Lebanon, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set,” said the newspaper, which has links to Hizbullah. Continue Reading »

IDF Orders Eilat Airport Closed Due to Terror Concerns

A security assessment in Southern Israel led the IDF to immediately shutdown Eilat  airport.

By Gil Ronen

 

The IDF ordered the immediate shutdown of the airport at Eilat Thursday to all arriving and departing flights, following an unspecified security assessment.

The assessment is most likely linked to terrorist activity in the Sinai desert, which borders on the southern port city.

Takeoffs of flights headed north were initially allowed to take place but were also stopped later in the evening.

The IDF will open the airfield at Uvda as an alternate landing spot for flights diverted from Eilat.

The Egyptian military has been conducting a large scale offensive against terror cells that operate in Sinai, in the last few weeks. Continue Reading »

The Forgotten Refugees of 1948: Jews Exiled From Muslim Lands

 

 

The int’l community as well as mainstream media gushes over refugees, except when those refugees happen to be Jewish.

By Noah Beck

 

 

June 20 was World Refugee Day, dedicated to nearly 60 million people worldwide who were forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution. One group of refugees rarely acknowledged is the Jews who were indigenous to Muslim lands but compelled to flee around the time when the State of Israel was established.

Jewish Refugees – Israel Today

 

A Google search for “1948 refugees” produces about 6 million results. All but a few (at least through page six) are about the Palestinian Arab refugees, as if they were the only refugees of 1948. Continue Reading »

Israeli Minister: Iran’s nuclear program can be destroyed with a few hours of airstrikes

 

Satellite imagery identify new missiles test-site being constructed north of Semnan province.

Minister Steinitz: President Rouhani is cunning, & he’ll smile all the way to the bomb.

By News Agencies, Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Iran’s new president Hasan Rouhani is “charming, he is cunning, and he will smile all the way to the bomb,” Minister for International, Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz said in an interview with The Washington Post, published on Thursday. Israel believes the United States and others in the West are being misled by the moderate cleric’s recent election to the presidency. Steinitz told the Post that rather than negotiating with Tehran, the U.S.

Continue Reading »

Israel Won’t Sign EU Agreements With Bias Settlement Conditions

Jerusalem says that until there’s a clarification in the wording of the EU’s guidelines excluding any part of post-’67 borders, Israel will refuse to sign any agreements.

 

 

JERUSALEM — Israel reportedly will not sign any new agreements with the European Union that fall under the body’s new guidelines concerning the ‘occupied territories’, without changes in the wording.

High Representative of the European Union Catherine Ashton – Photo AP

High Representative of the European Union Catherine Ashton – Photo: AP

The decision to ask the EU to reword, or “clarify,” the guidelines was made Thursday at a meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv called by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attended by government ministers, Haaretz reported.

Continue Reading »

PA to US official: PA books not perfect, but working on teaching mutual respect

 

Democratic Whip says the US will not want to fund Palestinian schools after PLO representative admits there’s unfair portrayal of Jews in PA curriculum.

 

 

 

No group on earth has been subjected to more discrimination and hate than the Jews, and the US will not fund curriculum in the Palestinian Authority that does not teach tolerance and mutual respect, US Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said on Wednesday.

East Jerusalem Classroom

East Jerusalem Classroom – Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Hoyer, leading a massive delegation of 36 Democratic US congressman, said this issue was the first one he broached during a meeting Wednesday in Ramallah with PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Continue Reading »

Haredi gets punched in face for asking woman to move to back of bus

 

 

A male secular youth, becomes outraged and hits Ultra-Orthodox man who asked woman to move to back of Jerusalem bus.

Police are searching for assailant who is still unknown and are considering interrogating the haredi ‘victim’ for ‘women exclusion’.

By Noam (Dabul) Dvir

A secular man hit a haredi who asked a woman to move to the back of a bus traveling in Jerusalem on Thursday.

(Illustration) Photo - EPA

(Illustration) Photo – EPA

According to suspicions, the secular youth punched the man in the face and pulled his beard before fleeing the scene. A complaint has been filed with the police, and a search for the suspect is ongoing. Continue Reading »

Kosher cheeseburger produced in lab

The world’s first lab-grown burger, at a cost of $325,000, could one day offer new possibilities for the kosher palate.

By

 

When the world’s first lab-grown burger was introduced and taste-tested on Monday, the event seemed full of promise for environmentalists, animal lovers and vegetarians.

Another group that had good reason to be excited: kosher consumers.

Cheeseburger and French fries

The world’s first lab-grown burger could be parve and thus paired with dairy products. – Photo: Dreamstime

The burger was created by harvesting stem cells from a portion of cow shoulder muscle that were multiplied in petri dishes to form tiny strips of muscle fiber. Continue Reading »