Archive for May 31, 2014

Palestinian Authority: BDS Activists Are Troublemakers, Criminals

In the 1st case of its kind, 4 prominent BDS activists this week went on trial before a Palestinian Authority court for “provoking riots & breach of public tranquility.”

A PA official in Ramallah explained that BDS and its followers make the Palestinians appear as if they are all radicals who are only interested in boycotting & delegitimizing Israel.

by Khaled Abu Toameh

 

At university campuses in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, they are hailed as heroes campaigning for Palestinian rights. But in Ramallah, ironically, activists belonging to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement are seen by the Palestinian Authority [PA] as trouble-makers and law-breakers. Continue Reading »

Israel’s Desalination Plants Makes it the Best-Hydrated Mideast Country

 

Israel has 4 operating desalination plants, with a 5th set to go online later in 2014. Over 1/3 of Israel’s drinking-quality water comes from desalination, with the number expected to exceed 40% by 2015 and hit 70% in 2050.

By Associated Press

 

Continue Reading »

Newsweek: Israel wiretapped Clinton’s phone during Camp David peace talks

 

Newsweek reports Israel’s intelligence services eavesdropped on diplomatic phone calls when then-US President Clinton conducted private conversations with Syria’s Assad, as well as calls regarding the Camp David peace talks with Arafat.

By Ynent news

 

Newsweek strikes again: A new report by Newsweek claims Israeli military’s intelligence unit 8200 eavesdropped on calls conducted by then US president Bill Clinton during a round of peace talks conducted between Israel and Syria, and the Camp David talks with the Palestinians in 2000.

Barak with Clinton (Photo: AP)

Barak with Clinton – Photo: AP

The report is based on a forthcoming book written by an Israeli expat and political scientist Ahron Bregman, and sites verbatim transcripts of the allegedly tapped phone calls given to him by unnamed “private sources”. Continue Reading »

Jewish graves vandalized in Greece’s 2nd largest city


A dozen graves defaced in Thessaloniki, home to Greece’s largest Jewish community until it was nearly wiped out during the Holocaust.

 

 

Greek authorities say vandals have attacked the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki, whose Jewish population was nearly wiped out during World War II.

Greek nationalists.

Greek nationalists shout slogans during a demonstration in Thessaloniki, Greece, Wednesday, May 28, 2014. – Photo: AP

Police said Friday marble ornaments were smashed off 12 graves, while vandals also tried to remove the tombs’ heavy marble covers.

Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos promised that police would do “whatever is humanly possible” to arrest the vandals.

Continue Reading »

Iran Again Threatens to Annihilate Israel

In response to U.S. President Barack Obama reiteration on Wednesday, that Washington reserves “all options” against Iran, a senior Iranian commander says that any U.S. attack will result in “the annihilation of the Israeli regime”.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

A senior Iranian commander threatened on Friday that any American attack on Iran will result in “the annihilation of the Israeli regime”.

Iranian Armed Forces march in Tehran

Iranian Armed Forces march in Tehran – Photo: Reuters

“They know that aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran would mean annihilation of Tel Aviv and spread of war into the United States,” the commander, Massoud Jazayeri, was quoted by the Fars news agency as having said. Continue Reading »

John Kerry: Israel’s response to Fatah-Hamas unity deal ‘appropriate’

 

US Sec. of State says Israel’s wait-&-see approach to formation of Palestinian reconciliation gov’t is “appropriate.”

By JTA
 

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel’s wait-and-see approach to Fatah-Hamas unity talks was “appropriate.”

John Kerry

John Kerry – Photo: REUTERS

He made the remarks in an interview Thursday night on PBS, adding that he was “disappointed that the [peace] process, what is in place, that that didn’t produce the next step.”

Asked about the negotiations on unity between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, Kerry said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “and Israel are waiting to see what happens with the Hamas reconciliation, with the announcement of a new government, with the question of what that new government may or may not choose to do. Continue Reading »

Palestinian Religious Affairs Minister slams Hamas’ incitement

 

Religious Affairs Minister for the Palestinian Authority, Al-Habbash says Fatah’s nonviolence resistance is moving Palestinian state forward, claims unity gov’t will be ‘under ideology of PLO, not Hamas’

By The Media Line

 

A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian leadership rejects any efforts to teach Palestinian children a culture of violence. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs was responding to a report on Israel’s Channel 2 on a Hamas rally in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Abbas meets with Hamas delegation (Photo: AFP)

Abbas meets with Hamas delegation – Photo: AFP

In the video, Palestinian boys, some of them wearing black ski masks, carried toy guns and waved the Islamist group’s green and white flag. Continue Reading »

PHOTO ALBUM: IDF Female combat soldiers mark end of training with 20k march

The IDF’s Caracal Battalion is a combat infantry battalion charged with patrolling the Israeli-Egyptian border and composed of both Jewish & Arab, male & female soldiers.

Israeli soldiers of the Caracal battalion carry their comrade on a stretcher. (Reuters)

 

Israeli soldiers of the Caracal battalion carry their comrade on a stretcher. (Reuters)

Israeli soldiers of the Caracal battalion help their comrade. (Reuters)

 

Israeli soldiers of the Caracal battalion carry their comrade on a stretcher. (Reuters)

 

An Israeli soldier of the Caracal battalion rests after finishing a 20k march. (Reuters)

Israeli soldiers of the Caracal battalion rest after finishing a 20k march.

Continue Reading »

Israel Security Forces Prevent Suicide Bombing in Samaria

Another in a series of Palestinian attempts to massacre Jews as an Arab terrorist wearing a bomb belt is apprehended near Ariel before he could attack.

By Ari Yashar

 

Security forces apprehended an Arab terrorist wearing a bomb belt at Tapuach Junction in Samaria, near the city of Ariel, on Friday morning.

The terrorist raised suspicions by wearing a large coat in the hot summer weather. After security forces called on him to take off his coat and be checked, the man refused and proceeded to lay on the floor, reports Channel 10.

When he finally removed his coat, he was found to be wearing a belt of explosives. Continue Reading »

U.S. Asst. Sec. of State Deliberately Misleads Congress About Terrorists’ Salaries

The United States Assistant Secretary of State, Amb. Anne W. Patterson, disregarded documented evidence that money goes into Palestinian terrorists’ pockets, and not just to their families as mentioned in her testimony to Congress.

By Itamar Marcus, Nan J Zilberdik

 

In testimony to Congress, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, defended the Palestinian Authority (PA) practice of paying salaries to terrorists in prison saying “they have to provide for the families.”

Assistant secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson

Assistant secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson – Reuters

However, Palestinian Media Watch has documented repeatedly that this is not correct. Continue Reading »

Baltic states up number of Christian ‘Israel ally’ caucuses to 30

 

Israel MK Yuri Shtern established the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus in 2004.

 

 
Latvia and Estonia will become the 29th and 30th countries with Israel Allies Caucuses in their parliaments this week at events attended by MKs in the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus.

Christians Love Israel – Photo: .the peoples voice

The MKs will join together with World Jewish Congress and International Christian Embassy Jerusalem representatives to meet with Christian and political leaders in the two Baltic states to mobilize support for Israel.

There will be meetings with senior leaders from a spectrum of Christian denominations, with hopes of garnering further support for Israel, concentrating on shared Judeo-Christian values.

Continue Reading »

IDF: Only rubber bullets were fired in Beitunia – Pallywood clip surfaces

 

Following a Haaretz report detailing the suspension of an Israel Defense Forces soldier in relation to the May 15 clashes in the West Bank town of Beitunia in which two Palestinian youths were killed, IDF officials said on Wednesday that the soldier in question was firing rubber bullets, not live bullets, and was not aiming at rioters, but at a nearby wall.

An image from the video that purportedly shows the shooting deaths of two Palestinians in Beitunia on May 15 – Photo: Defense for Children International Palestine website

No apparent evidence links the suspended soldier, reportedly belonging to a communications unit, to either fatality. Continue Reading »

Hamas operative details terrorist activities on Temple Mount

 

Israel’s Shin Bet security services reveal how Hamas paid young men monthly salaries to prevent a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount.

By i24news

 

The Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) announced Thursday that a senior Hamas operative arrested at the Allenby bridge last month revealed during interrogation that Hamas uses the Islamic Movement in Israel as a front to promote its activities within Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Policemen guard the Esplanade of the Mosques in jerusalem on May 26, 2014 – Photo: Thomas Coex / AFP

The operative, Mahmoud Toama, a member of the main economic council of Hamas as well as Hamas’ General Shura Council, provided the security agency with information on Hamas activities in Jerusalem as well as the organization’s funding sources and international relationships. Continue Reading »

Sudan tells Saudis it declined Iranian air defense offer after alleged Israeli air-strike

 

In fear of bring alienated from Saudi Arabia, Sudan distances itself from Iran while denying any support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

By Reuters

 

Sudan turned down an Iranian offer to set up air defenses on its Red Sea coast after a 2012 air strike Khartoum blamed on Israel, fearing they would upset Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, Sudan seen in a satellite image made on October 12 2012, after the alleged attack. -  Photo: AP/DigitalGlobe via Satellite Sentinel Project

The Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, Sudan seen in a satellite image made on October 12 2012, after the alleged attack. – Photo: AP/DigitalGlobe via Satellite Sentinel Project

In an interview with the Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper that seemed aimed at improving frosty ties with Riyadh, Ali Karti played down Khartoum’s links to Iran and to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Saudi Arabia. Continue Reading »

Archaeologists in Jordan uncover Roman inscription about Bar Kochba Revolt

Roman Fort found in southern Jordan housed garrison to vanquish the Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE), in the Judea Province.

 

Four years after starting to dig up an ancient Roman outpost in southern Jordan, a team of archaeologists from Tennessee found a unique, and well-preserved, inscription on a rock – revealing that the site is the previously unknown base of a Roman infantry unit involved in crushing the Bar-Kochba rebellion.

The 'Ayn Gharandal inscription (Robert Darby)

The Ayn Gharandal inscription, above the collapsed gate to the Roman fort. – Photo: Robert Darby

The outpost, ‘Ayn Gharandal, lies beneath the dunes around 70 km north of present-day Aqaba, the Jordanian resort city on the Red Sea, and 40 km southwest of the ancient Nabataean city of Petra.

Continue Reading »