Mid-East News

Ban Ki-moon: Backsteps, Now saying no discrimination against Israel at UN

Now in New York, the Secretary-general denies saying this to students in Israel: “Unfortunately because of the conflict, Israel has been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias – sometimes even discrimination,”

Not very Diplomatic.

By MAYA SHWAYDER

NEW YORK – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denied on Monday there is any bias in the UN against Israel.

Ban (center) with the students in Jerusalem – Photo: Reuters

At a press “encounter” at the UN Headquarters in New York, a reporter for Israel Radio pressed Ban about his comments last Friday while meeting with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: anti-Israel Propaganda, Ban Ki-moon, UN

israelandstuffcom | August 19, 2013

Mubarak to be released as Egypt’s army on high alert in Sinai, Gaza border crossing closed

Report: State of emergency in Sinai after at least 24 Egyptian policemen were killed in ambush by militants.

Egyptian prosecutor expects Egypt’s former President Mubarak to be released from jail this week.

By REUTERS

Egyptian authorities on Monday were on high alert after suspected Islamist militants killed at least 24 Egyptian policemen in the Sinai peninsula, where attacks on security forces have multiplied since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

Trucks carrying Egyptian army tanks arriving in Rafah city [file]. – Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Egyptian daily Al-Ahram quoted security officials as saying that military and police have declared a state of emergency in northern Sinai, deploying roadblocks in the area in an effort to combat terrorists.The

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Egyptian border, Egyptian unrest, Hosni Mubarak, Sinai Terrorism

israelandstuffcom | August 19, 2013

Former Minister Beilin: The Egyptian Army Rigged Last Election

Former Israeli minister reveals that the Egyptian Generals, fearing violent protests from the Muslim Brotherhood as are happening now, rigged the results of Egypt’s last elections to maintain the peace.

By Elad Benari

Former minister Yossi Beilin revealed in a column published in the Israel Hayom daily on Sunday that the Egyptian army rigged the results of last year’s presidential elections, in which Islamist Mohammed Morsi was declared the winner.

“An Egyptian official told me in person that the army rigged the presidential elections in June 2012, fearing widespread riots should the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, lose the race,” wrote Beilin. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Egyptian unrest, Muslim Brotherhood

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei blames Israel & US for turmoil in Egypt, Syria & Lebanon

Iranian supreme leader Tweets that former ousted president Hosni Mubarak is a “servant to the Zionists.”

In earlier tweet he posted that the “Zionist regime” is behind the turmoil in all of the Arab countries. “Muslims must beware,”

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placing the blame for Egypt’s political turmoil on Jerusalem and Washington.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Photo: Ho New / Reuters

The Shi’ite religious leader took to his official Twitter account on Saturday, to attack Egypt’s former leader Hosni Mubarak and his relations with Israel and the US.“Mubarak’s

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: anti-Israel Propaganda, Iran

Past Lebanese PM: Hezbollah pulling us into ‘Syrian fire’

Lebanese Sunni leader and ex-PM Saad al-Hariri, responds to Nasrallah’s statement that Hezbollah would escalate its military support for Assad’s regime.

By Reuters

Lebanon’s leading Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri accused Hezbollah on Saturday of dragging the country deeper into Syria’s civil war after the Shi’ite militant group’s leader said he was ready to go to Syria himself to fight.

Hezbollah supporters cheer Nasrallah as he broadcasts his speech from a hidden underground bunker that protects him from Arab assassins & Israel. – Photo: AP

Hariri, a former prime minister, was responding to a speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah who said that a car bomb in Shi’ite southern Beirut would only redouble the group’s military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri, Sunni

Egypt’s Tamarod party calls on gov’t to cancel Israel peace treaty & stop US aid

The Tamarod movement played a major role in the ousting of President Morsi, is now demanding a referendum on banning US aid, canceling the peace agreement with Israel, & rewording security-related treaties to allow Egypt to “revive its national sovereignty”.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

The Tamarod (“Rebellion”) movement in Egypt has joined a campaign calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported on Saturday.

Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat at Camp David in 1978. – Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The campaign is in response to “unacceptable” US interference in Egyptian political affairs, after US President Barack Obama decided to cancel a joint drill with the Egyptian military in response to the outbreak of violence in the country earlier this week. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Egypt, Egyptian unrest, Israel, Israel Egypt, Middle East, Military Aid, US

NYT Report: Israel promised General al-Sisi US military aid would continue

The New York Times reported Western diplomats saying Israel & Egyptian defense ministers are maintaining constant communication even as blood flows in streets of Egypt.

According to sources, Israel doesn’t give any weight to the US threat to cut Egyptian aid.

By Yitzhak Benhorin

The White House was unprepared for what is happening in Egypt, The New York Times reported on Saturday, quoting diplomatic sources that said that Israel and Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have been in close contact. These same diplomats say that Israel assured Egypt it did not have to worry about the US threat to cut its enormous aid package to that country. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Egyptian unrest, Israel Egypt, Military Aid

israelandstuffcom | August 17, 2013

Nasrallah: I’m Prepared to Go to Syria & Fight Myself

Hezbollah leader reported that Thursday’s car bombing in Beirut will not prevent fighters from his Shiite organization from fighting in Syria.

By Elad Benari, Canada

A day after a car bomb blast in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut killed at least 20 people, the terrorist group’s leader said he was willing to go fight in Syria himself.

Hezbollah’s Nasrallah delivering a speech from his underground bunker – Photo: AFP

Hezbollah terrorists have been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops against rebels.

“I will go myself to Syria if it is so necessary in the battle against the takfiris (radical Sunni Muslims), Hezbollah and I will go to Syria” to fight rebels trying to oust the Damascus regime, Hassan Nasrallah declared in a speech broadcast on television in Lebanon. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah, Lebanon, Sunni, Syria, Syrian unrest

WATCH: Peace Negotiations must be based on legal rights, not political agendas

Regardless of the visiting UN Director-General and his anti-Israel bias, the U.S. sponsored peace talks must be based on the fact that Israel has int’l legitimacy, & is prepared to compromise on its legal rights.

By Ryan Jones

As Israel and the Palestinian Arabs once again return to land-for-peace negotiations, it is vital that these talks be based on legitimate historical fact and international law for there to be any hope of success.

Peace talks must be based on fact, not fiction

For decades, Israel’s antagonists have argued that the very existence of the Jewish state is illegitimate, and that Israel has no actual right to any of the land, neither historically nor legally. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: peace talks

Sunni Group Warns ‘Pig Nasrallah’ He’ll Pay for Being Agent of Israel

A Sunni group takes responsibility for 2nd bomb attack in a Hezbollah stronghold, issuing stern warning to the terrorist group’s chief.

Warnings & claims of responsibility ignored as Lebanese Shiites prefer blaming Israel.

By Elad Benari

A Sunni Islamist group took credit on Thursday for the car bombing in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut which killed at least 20 people.

Scene of explosion in Beirut – Reuters

Shortly after news of the attack broke, an online video surfaced showing three masked men, two of them holding rifles, in front of a white flag inscribed with the Islamic profession of faith, reported AFP. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah, Lebanon, Shiite, Sunni

Outside of Israel, Christians Are Endangered Species in Ancestral Land

According to the Vicar of St George’s Church in Baghdad, Israel is the single bright spot for Christians in the Middle East, a true bastion for religious minorities.

By Noah Beck

Egypt’s Christians are being targeted and scapegoated for the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood. An Egyptian human rights activist tweeted that the Virgin Mary in Minya, one of the oldest churches in Egypt, built in the 4th century, was destroyed by fire yesterday. There have also been media reports about attacks on churches in the city of Suez and other villages. Jason Isaacson, Director of Government and International Affairs for the American Jewish Committee condemned these acts: “Organized violence against Egypt’s Copts, the murder of innocents and destruction of churches, is outrageous and unforgivable.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Coptic Christian, Egyptian Coptic Christians

Palestinian survey: 20,000 Palestinians working in settlements

Palestinian Survey also finds the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip was 27.9% compared with 16.8% in the West Bank.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Unemployment in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remains relatively high, according to a survey published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Palestinian construction worker – Photo: REUTERS

The survey also showed an increase in the number of Palestinians working in Israel and settlements.

The survey showed that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip was 27.9 percent compared with 16.8% in the West Bank in the second quarter of 2013.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Gaza, statistics, unemployment, West Bank