israelandstuffcom

Obama & Co. condemn Israel’s approval of West Bank Jewish home construction

The Obama administration issued a firm rebuke over additional Jewish housing in Samaria, condemning Jerusalem’s retroactive approval for existing homes and warning that Israel risked undermining “the prospects for a 2-state solution.”

By David Rosenberg

Hours after Israel’s Civil Administration gave approval to 463 housing units in Samaria, the Obama administration issued a firm rebuke, condemning the move and warning that Israel risked undermining “the prospects for a two-state solution”.

Ariel University Center of Samaria – Photo AP

Speaking to reporters Wednesday evening, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest expressed the administration’s “concern” for the Israeli government’s green-lighting of the housing projects, saying they posed a “growing threat” to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Barack Obama, Jewish construction, new construction

Watch: Hamas highlights Gaza’s wealthy neighborhoods, shopping malls, pristine beaches

Hamas, no longer claiming Gaza is destitute thanks to Israel, is now flaunting the enclave’s prosperity, and the good life of it’s citizens.

By Israel Today Staff

The “Gaza siege” is a favorite buzzword of the international media and the pro-Palestinian propagandists who feed it. The picture they have so successfully painted in the minds of most Westerners is that the entire population of Gaza is destitute, living in the most pitiable conditions known to man thanks to a heartless Israeli embargo.

And Gaza’s Hamas overlords encourage that perception, when it suits their agenda.

At other times, such as now, with Palestinian municipal elections looming, Hamas is looking to portray Gaza in a much different light. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Gaza, hamas, Palestinian propaganda

Israel Security closes another Palestinian radio station for incitement to violence

Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet and Israel Police detain five employees of ‘Alsanabel’ station for publicly inciting listeners to violence, after closing the radio station and seizing its technical equipment.

By i24news

Israeli security forces carried out an overnight operation to shut down a Palestinians radio station near the city of Hebron for broadcasting incitement against Israel, Israeli media reports said Wednesday.

IDF soldiers remove broadcasting equipment as they close the al-Sabanel radio station in Dura for incitement to violence on August 31, 2016. – Photo courtesy: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

Armed with an order from Central Command, the IDF, Israel Police, and members of the Shin Bet raided the offices of the “Alsanabel” station, based out of the small town of Dora, just southwest of Hebron. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: IDF, incitement to violence, Israel Police, Palestinian radio station, Shin Bet, ‘Palestinian’ incitement

#BDSfail: Brussels Airlines returns Israeli snack to menu after public protests

After thousands took to social media to expressed their outrage over the carrier’s capitulation to BDS pressure to remove the Achva halva snack, the Belgian Airline’s CEO pledged to keep Israeli products on its menus.

By Ilan Gattegno

Brussels Airlines announced Monday that it will reintroduce a popular Israeli snack to its menu. The item was removed from the Belgian carrier’s in-flight dessert options in July following pressure by a Palestinian group associated with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Brussels Airlines no longer boycotting Israeli made halva

The airline had allegedly decided to take the Achva brand halva, an Israeli sesame snack, produced in a factory located in the Barkan Industrial Park in Judea and Samaria, off its menu following pressure from the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a group that often encourages the boycott of Israeli products. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: BDS, Brussels Airlines, halva, Israel Foreign Ministry, Judea and Samaria boycott, Palestinian Solidarity Movement

#BDSfail: California state Assembly passed anti-BDS bill

In a major move to stop singling out just Israel, the California Combating BDS Act of 2016 was “overwhelmingly passed” in the state Assembly by the unanimous vote of 60-0.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

The State of California dealt another blow to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement Wednesday following the passage of a bill aimed at hampering businesses from participating in “discriminatory boycotts” against Israel, according to weekly publication The Jewish Journal.

California state legislature ‏- Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The California Combating BDS Act of 2016, also known as Assembly Bill 2844, was “overwhelmingly passed” by a vote of 60-0 in the state Assembly, which is now expected to be signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in the coming weeks. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: #BDSfail, anti-Israel bias, BDS, boycott, Israel California

New Czech atlases replace Jerusalem with Tel Aviv as Israel’s Capital

After Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic complained, Prague ordered all governmental atlases to identify Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital instead of Jerusalem.

By Rachel Kaplan

Jerusalem is no longer the capital of Israel, according to atlases being distributed to primary and secondary schools of the Czech Republic.

Old Mideast map – Photo: Thinkstock

The Czech education ministry announced the intended change on August 23, after receiving complaints from the Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Prague, led by ambassador Khaled Alattrash.

“The ministry will resolutely demand a change of the given data,” the Czech education ministry wrote in response to the complaint. Continue Reading »

Category: The Diaspora | Tags: Israel Czech Republic, Jerusalem

WATCH: IDF’s ‘Drakonit’ system allows soldier’s firing without exiting APC, tank

IDF’s newly integrated Drakonit system will permit its soldiers to fire at targets up to 1.5 kilometers away without having to exit, or expose themselves on their armored vehicles, providing the soldiers with optimum protection.

By Yoav Zitun

The IDF Ground Forces’ Technological Brigade have begun installing in recent months the “Drakonit” computerized firing network in “Achzarit” APCs, which are used in regular and reserve infantry brigades, and on the Combat Engineering Corps’s older “Puma” armored vehicles.

The Drakonit, manufactured by Elbit, allows the operation of a heavy machine gun on the roof of armored vehicles directly from the fighter’s box without the soldier needing to extend their body outside and thus endanger themselves. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Video's worth Viewing | Tags: Achzarit, Drakonit, Elbit, IDF

IDF Preparing for Highly Likely ISIS Sinai Attack

Knowing ISIS has amassed a considerable terrorist force in Egypt’s Sinai, Israel’s defense establishment is certain it will inevitably attack the Jewish state, so the IDF has taken steps to neutralize any such surprises.

By Israel Today Staff

Recent violence in the Sinai Peninsula is raising a lot of questions in Israel’s defense establishment. Most notably, there is growing concern that the thousands of ISIS terrorists currently operating there against the Egyptian army could attack southern Israel.

Attacks on southern Israel from the Sinai are not unprecedented. Just five years ago, Sinai-based terrorists launched a multi-pronged attack on the main highway leading to the southern resort town of Eilat. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ISIS, Sinai, Sinai Terrorism

NGO Watchdog says Norway funds groups that finance BDS activities

NGO Monitor reports Norway has been funding groups that contributed millions to Palestinian NGOs that support anti-Israel activity and maintain relationships with recognized illegal terrorist organization.

By i24news

Norway’s government has donating to an organization that gives millions to groups supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports, citing NGO Monitor.

BDS supporters, London 2009 – Photo: CLAUDIA GABRIELA MARQUES VIEIRA/ WIKIPEDIA

Norway allocated more than $600,000 to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat for the second half of 2016, according to the report.

The Secretariat has over the past four years contributed $5.78 million to NGOs that support BDS – over half of its operating budget. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: anti-Israel bias, BDS, NGO, NGO Monitor

Israel condemn UN Mideast envoy for ‘distorting history’ & backing Judenrein

“Claiming Jewish construction in Jerusalem is illegal is as absurd as claiming American construction in Washington is illegal,” PMO rebuked, continuing, “The Palestinian demand for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a future Palestinian state is appalling and the U.N. should condemn it… not embrace it.”

By News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

The Prime Minister’s Office on Monday lambasted the U.N.’s Middle East envoy after he leveled harsh criticism at the government’s Judea and Samaria settlement construction policies.

Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov – Photo: UN website

Briefing the U.N. Security Council via video conference, Nikolay Mladenov urged Israel to end settlement construction and called for joint efforts to restore hope for the two-state solution.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Danny Danon, Judenrein, PMO, UN bias, UN Security Council

UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Bashes Israel at UNSC

At the Security Council briefing, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said all Jewish construction is illegal.

By DANIELLE ZIRI

NEW YORK – The UN Security Council will hold a meeting on October 14 to address Israeli settlement building.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov at the Security Council – Screenshot

News of the upcoming meeting emerged after UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov appeared in front of the Security Council on Monday and slammed Israel for continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: UN bias, UN Security Council

Human Rights Watch: Both Palestinian gov’ts abuse journalists, bloggers

According to NGO Human Rights Watch, Hamas authorities in Gaza and even Abbas’ Palestinian Authority police are silencing dissent and abusing journalists who go against the party line in both Gaza and the West Bank by torture Palestinian journalists in their prisons.

By The Associated Press

Palestinian authorities are silencing dissent by cracking down on free speech and abusing local journalists and activists critical of their policies, a leading international human rights group said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said both the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and its rival, the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, are “arresting, abusing, and criminally charging journalists and activists who express peaceful criticism of the authorities.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: arrested, Hamas corruption, journalists, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian corruption

israelandstuffcom | August 28, 2016

Israeli Knesset Member Takes Sweden to Task for Distorted Moral Attitude

MK Lapid: “We are standing here in Wallenberg Square, in memory of the Swedish diplomat who during the Holocaust saved my father…Your gov’t and, in particular, your Foreign Minister, are now on the wrong side morality. However, Wallenberg’s legacy, the legacy of moral courage, still exists in Sweden.”

By Yoel Domb

The head of the “Yesh Atid” party, MK Yair Lapid, attended a pro-Israel rally today (Sunday) in Stockholm, Sweden, together with hundreds of supporters of Israel, members of the Swedish Parliament, students and representatives of the Jewish community in Stockholm.

The rally took place in the wake of a surge in anti-Semitic statements over the past few months in Europe in general and specifically in Sweden, and in the wake of the delegitimization campaign recently orchestrated by BDS. Continue Reading »

Category: The Diaspora | Tags: Israel Sweden, Yair Lapid

israelandstuffcom | August 28, 2016