Archive for Mid-East News

| November 6, 2013
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Russians said absolutely not – Swiss say Arafat poisoned with polonium

Swiss team claims they found levels of polonium at least 18 times higher than normal.

Suha Arafat: This is proof of ‘political assassination’.

Israel dismisses report, says even Swiss admit findings ‘not conclusive.

By Reuters

 

 

A Swiss forensic team has found that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium.

Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat

A team of experts, including from Lausanne University Hospital’s Institute of Radiation Physics, opened Arafat’s grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, and took samples from his body to seek evidence of alleged poisoning.

According to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, the Swiss team discovered levels of polonium at least 18 times higher than normal in Arafat’s ribs, pelvis and in the soil that absorbed his remains. Continue Reading »

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| November 6, 2013
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Kerry meets Natanyahu in J’lem, told of concerns over lack of progress

 

U.S. Sec of State Kerry promises the Arabs an additional $75 million in aid to create Palestinian jobs.

Prime Minister says Abbas ‘continues to run away from the historic decisions needed to make a genuine peace.’

By , , Reuters and

 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday peace talks with the Palestinians had failed to make real progress and he hoped U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry‘s visit could get them back on track.

Kerry and Netanyahu

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Nov.

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| November 6, 2013
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New Russian law requires terrorists’ relatives pay for damages

Under the new law just signed by Putin, all damages – including moral damage – should be compensated “at the expense of the means of the person committing the terrorist act and also at the expense of the means of his [or her] family, relatives and close people.”

By RT

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that forces relatives of terrorists to pay for damages caused by their attacks. It also boosts penalties for launching, participating, or financing militant or terrorist groups.

A handout photo provided on October 21, 2013 by the Russian Emergencies Ministry shows a bus damaged by explosion in the city of Volgograd (RIA Novosti-Press-service of Russian Emergen)

A handout photo provided on October 21, 2013 by the Russian Emergencies Ministry shows a bus damaged by explosion in the city of Volgograd (RIA Novosti-Press-service of Russian Emergen)

 

Under the law, all damages – including moral damage – should be compensated “at the expense of the means of the person committing the terrorist act and also at the expense of the means of his [or her] family, relatives and close people.” Continue Reading »

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| November 4, 2013
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Hamas schoolbooks: Torah is ‘fabricated’

 

In a NYT report,  Hamas introduced its own textbooks into Gaza schools as part of their effort to spread its ideology. The schoolbooks don’t recognize Israel and describe Palestine as encompassing everything between the Jordan River & the Mediterranean Sea.

By Israel Hayom Staff

 

Hamas has introduced its own textbooks into schools in the Gaza Strip this fall, as part of an effort to spread its militant ideology among Palestinian youth, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

A Palestinian schoolgirl in the Gaza Strip – Photo: AP

According to the report, the books do not recognize modern Israel, or mention the Oslo Accords that Israel signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the early 1990s.

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| November 4, 2013
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Hagel: US sanctions & Israeli threats brought Iran to nuclear talks

 

U.S. Secretary of Defense says he does not think Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to sabotage nuclear talks.

Rouhani agrees with Ayatollah Khamenei, saying he isn’t optimistic about the results of nuclear talks with West.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s threats of military action against Iranian nuclear sites, combined with the pressure of harsh Western sanctions that crippled the Iranian economy, might have helped bring the Islamic Republic to the negotiating table, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday.

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at a press conference.- Photo: REUTER/SYuri Gripas

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at a press conference.- Photo: REUTER/SYuri Gripas

“It’s true that sanctions – not just US sanctions but UN sanctions, multilateral sanctions – have done tremendous economic damage,” Hagel told Jeffrey Goldberg last week.

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| November 4, 2013
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First Syrian baby born Israel

 

Israeli soldiers evacuates a 20 yr-old pregnant Syrian woman to Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

 

 

 
A pregnant Syrian woman gave birth at Safed’s Ziv Medical Center on Sunday morning.

Her son is the first baby from a mother fleeing Syria’s civil war to be born in Israel.

When the mother realized there was no one in Syria who could deliver her, she asked to be taken to the border, where she hoped Israeli soldiers would pick her up and send her to an Israeli medical center, she said.

“I was very afraid to go, but I was even more worried about giving birth at home by myself,” she added.

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Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| November 3, 2013
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U.S. negotiator on Iran: No sanctions lifted – Israel’s security is a priority

Chief U.S. negotiator for Iran, Wendy Sherman, says White House is committed to stopping Iran from advancing its nuclear program.

By

 

 

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who is also chief U.S. negotiator for Iran‘s nuclear program, assured Israel that the U.S. has not offered Iran any sanctions relief and that Israeli security is a priority.

Wendy Sherman

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 3. – Photo: AP

“Israel’s security is bedrock. There is no closer security relationship than what we have with each other.”

In an interview with Channel 10’s Tamar Ish Shalom Sunday, Sherman said the Obama administration is committed to stopping Iran’s nuclear program from advancing as a first step, “while we negotiate and offer limited, temporary reversible sanctions relief, but keep in place the fundamental architecture of oil and banking sanctions.” Continue Reading »

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| November 3, 2013
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Iran’s Khamenei: Zionist regime is illegitimate bastard regime

 

Iran’s supreme leader not optimistic about nuclear talks with world powers, criticizing the US for its close ties with Israel.

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

“The Zionist regime is an illegitimate and bastard regime,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said of Israel, whose existence Tehran does not recognize.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at NAM Summit.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at NAM Summit. – Photo: REUTERS

Khamenei also criticized the United States for its close relations with Israel.

“The Americans have the highest indulgence towards the Zionists and they have to. But we do not share such indulgence,” AFP quoted Khamenei as saying.

Khamenei also reiterated his view that he is not optimistic about the outcome of nuclear talks but said he saw no downside to holding the negotiations.

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| November 3, 2013
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Turkey After Israeli Natural gas, but Politics in the Way

 

Proposed future natural gas pipeline project between Israel-Turkey has estimated value at $3.5 billion.

By Reuters

 

 

Turkey’s Zorlu Energy is in talks with Israeli firms over the potential for a pipeline to carry Israeli natural gas to Turkey, industry sources say, but the political rift between the two former allies is holding up progress.

leviathan - Albatross - May 30 2011

The drilling rig at the Leviathan offshore natural gas field. – Photo: Albatross

Israel could become a gas exporter by the end of the decade after the discovery of two major offshore fields off its Mediterranean coast – Leviathan and Tamar.

Turkey, dependent on imports for almost all of its energy, is looking to diversify away from expensive Russian gas and could become a customer as well as providing a transit route to other markets, particularly Europe. Continue Reading »

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| November 2, 2013
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ITF suspends Tunisia from Davis Cup for refusing to play Israeli

Tunisian Malek Jaziri withdrew from the Tashkent Challenger tournament just prior to a match against Amir Weintraub from Israel.

Jaziri’s brother reported he had been ordered to default the match.

By Reuters

 

 

Tunisia has been suspended from the 2014 Davis Cup competition after the country’s tennis federation ordered its number one player not to play against an Israeli.

Malek Jaziri

Malek Jaziri, the Tunisian tennis player who pulled out of a tennis tournament rather than face Amir Weintraub. – Photo by Wikimedia Commons / Dacoucou

Malek Jaziri withdrew from the second tier Tashkent Challenger tournament last month before his match against Israel’s Amir Weintraub. Continue Reading »

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| November 2, 2013
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Dutch Advisory Council advised building ties with Hamas

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, responded to a letter in which he was asked to disband a body that advised building ties with Hamas, saying that the gov’t has no control over Anti-Israel Report.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

The Dutch Prime Minister has responded to a letter by the Simon Wiesenthal Center last month, in which he was asked to disband a statutory government body that has called on the Netherlands to develop closer ties to the terrorist organization Hamas at the expense of Israel.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned a report by the Advisory Council on International Affairs, which calls for the Netherlands to distance itself from Israel and develop closer ties with Hamas. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| November 2, 2013
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Photo album of Gaza wedding: Happy groom 15, bride 14 yrs-old

Reuters photographer scurries to take pictures, as Palestinian teenager poses with his newly-wed bride.  

Reuters

 

 

I got a phone call from a friend asking if I wanted to photograph a wedding in Gaza. I told him I wasn’t interested but when he told me the groom was 15 years old and the bride was one year younger than him, I rushed to the location immediately.

Happy young couple - Photo: Reuters

Happy young couple – Photo: Reuters

After arriving I saw people celebrating in the street not far from the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip. Among them was a young Palestinian boy being carried on the shoulders of relatives and friends. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| November 1, 2013
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Gaza’s only power plant closes due to fuel shortage

Inability of producing electricity, which serves almost 1/2 of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents, means the Gazans could suffer 12 hours of daily blackouts.

By Reuters

 

 

Gaza‘s lone power plant shut its generators on Friday due to a fuel shortage, a move that will likely increase already long blackout hours in the impoverished coastal territory run by the Islamist Hamas group.

Palestinian workers walk inside Gaza's main power plant January 20, 2008.

Gaza’s main power plant – Photo: Reuters

Chairman of the Gaza Energy Authority Fathy Asheik-Khalil said the plant, which serves almost half of Gaza’s 1.8 million people, went offline after fuel became too scarce.

Gaza residents have endured around eight hours of daily blackouts in recent years because of fuel shortages. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| November 1, 2013
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Firefight on Gaza border: 1 Terrorist killed, 1 terrorist injured

 

According to Palestinian sources from Gaza, mortars fired from Strip on IDF forces. Hamas terrorist killed & another injured from IDF tank fire.

By Elior Levy

Palestinian sources reported Thursday evening that mortars were fired from Gaza in response to the limited entry of IDF forces into the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, near the security fence. According to the sources, an IDF anti-tank shell was fired toward an are located east of the city of Khan Younis in north Gaza.

IDF tank unit watches border.- Photo courtesy IDF Spokesperson’s Office

The Palestinians further reported that during exchanges of fire between terrorists and IDF forces near the city of Abasan in south Gaza, a Palestinian terrorist was killed and another was wounded, apparently from IDF tank fire. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| October 31, 2013
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White House fingers Israel on attacked near Latakia

 

After Jerusalem chooses not to comment on a reported IDF attack on air defense base near Latakia, Obama administration official says Israeli warplanes targeted Hezbollah-bound missiles.

Al-Arabiya says IDF also attacked in Damascus.

By Roi Kais

 

An Obama administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday night that Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian city of Latakia.

Anti-aircraft missile batteries in base near Latakia

Anti-aircraft missile batteries in base near Latakia

The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. Continue Reading »

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