Archive for Mid-East News

After viewing social media posts, UN official condemns Hamas brutality

Video posts to social media exposed the Hamas terror organization’s security personnel brutally beating Gazans with clubs and detaining dozens, including journalists and local human rights observers monitoring the riots.

By Reuters

 

A UN envoy condemned Gaza’s ruling Hamas group on Sunday for what he called its campaign of arrests and violence in confronting street protests over the past few days against high prices.

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets across the enclave in “We want to live” demonstrations. Human rights officials said dozens of people have been detained or hurt.

Gazans rioting against Hamas led gov’t and protesting the high cost of living.

Continue Reading »

Israeli intel firm provides satellite photos of new missile factory in Syria

Satellite photographs analyzed by Israel’s intelligence firm ISI appear to indicate that Tehran is once again constructing a new advanced missiles factory in Syria, based on patterns similar to missile sites in Iran.

By Itai Blumenthal

 

Satellite images taken by Israeli intelligence firm ISI on Tuesday seem to confirm suspicions that a missile factory is being constructed in the Syrian town of Safita, east of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast.

The images show a secured site surrounded by a fence, vehicles, three hangars and a newly built water tower. “The building components and patterns of activity in and around the compound strengthen the probability that this is a missile manufacturing plant,” ISI’s intelligence report said. Continue Reading »

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt reject clause ending normalization with Israel

REPORT: Led by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt yesterday rejected a closing statement by the Union of Arab Parliaments that included a call demanding an end to normalization with Israel.

By Israel Today Staff

 

AMMAN, JORDAN – Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates earlier this month reportedly shot down an effort to curb Arab normalization with Israel.

During a gathering of the Union of Arab Parliaments in Amman, Jordan, the speaker of Kuwait’s National Assembly, and the oil-rich state’s de facto ruler, Marzouq Al-Ghanim, proposed a closing resolution that called on the Arab world to walk back recent moves toward the Jewish state. Continue Reading »

Greenblatt tells UN: PA inventing crisis over Israel’s withholding taxes

Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s Mideast envoy, tells U.N. Security Council: PA’s political decision to blame Israel by rejecting $150 million in tax revenues, only hurts Palestinians in useless gesture.
• Kuwait tells UNSC: Many here believe Palestinians “have the right … to do whatever they want with their money.”

By Associated Press & Israel Hayom Staff

 

An “overwhelming” number of U.N. Security Council members oppose Israel’s decision to deduct money that Palestinians transfer to the families of terrorists who carried out attacks on Israel from their monthly tax revenue, Kuwait’s U.N. ambassador said Friday.

Mansour Al-Otaibi told reporters after a closed-door council meeting that Israel’s action was “in violation of existing bilateral agreements.” Continue Reading »

Lebanon warns UN, EU against joining in Israel’s EastMed gas pipeline

In formal letter of protest to the UN Secretary General, EU foreign policy chief, Cyprus, Italy and Greece, Lebanon’s foreign minister, Gebran Bassil asks for them to honor Lebanon’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), emphasizing to the Greek FM that Beirut will not permit its sovereignty to be violated.

By Reuters

 

Lebanon on Thursday warned its Mediterranean neighbours that a planned EastMed gas pipeline from Israel to the European Union must not be allowed to violate its maritime borders.

Beirut has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel – which it regards as an enemy country – over a sea area of about 860 sq km (330 square miles) extending along the edge of three of Lebanon’s southern energy blocks. Continue Reading »

President Sisi: We’ll build Synagogues, should Jews return to Egypt

The Egyptian President promised a US delegation that Egypt has committed itself to clean up the ancient Bassatine Cemetery in Cairo, that dates back to the 9th century and believed to be the 2nd-oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. In December, Sisi also announced a multimillion-dollar project to restore Jewish heritage sites in Egypt.

By HERB KEINON

 

If Jews are interested in establishing a Jewish community in Egypt, the government will build synagogues and other communal institutions, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told a US delegation during a two-hour meeting last week.

The delegation was made up of the Anwar Sadat Congressional Gold Medal Commission that advocated the granting of the US Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to the slain Egyptian president who made peace with Israel. Continue Reading »

Hamas rallies thousands of Palestinians in Gaza demanding Abbas resignation

Autocrat Abbas, 84, whose term officially ended in 2009, has over the course of recent months substantially reduced salaries in Gaza, reduced fuel for electricity, and initiated further financial cuts on the already impoverished terrorist enclave.
– Abbas accused Gaza’s kleptocratic rulers of sharing values with Israel.

By i24NEWS, AFP

 

Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip protested on Sunday. calling for the resignation of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas following the Ramallah-based leader’s attempts to pressure his rival Hamas with financial cuts in the impoverished enclave.

“Leave!” yelled crowds made up mainly of supporters of Hamas and Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas rival expelled from the president’s Fatah party and who now lives in exile. Continue Reading »

Palestinians kill Israeli plan for railway link to Arab Gulf States

“Israel offered us the chance to participate in a railway scheme linking Haifa to Jenin to a number of Arab capitals,” the Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Minister said on Twitter. “But we rejected the offer,” al-Sheikh said. “We won’t normalize relations with Israel.”

By i24NEWS

 

Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh rejected an Israeli offer to establish a railway link between Israel and several Arab states that would go through the West Bank on Friday.

“Israel offered us the chance to participate in a railway scheme linking Haifa to Jenin to a number of Arab capitals,” the Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Minister said on Twitter. Continue Reading »

Unafraid of impotent Obama, Assad regime perpetrated 300+ chemical attacks

Report: During the ongoing 7 year old Syrian war, the international report counts 336 chemical attacks with 98% of the attacks being executed by the Assad regime.
• According to the GPPI report, most of the chemical attacks took place after Obama declared the use of chemical weapons as crossing a “red line” for the U.S. administration.

By Neta Bar

 

The Syrian regime under President Bashar Assad has perpetrated over 300 discrete attacks using chemical weapons during the seven-year Syrian war, according to a new report by the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute published on Sunday.

The report, titled “Nowhere to Hide: the Logic of Chemical Weapons use in Syria,” states that GPPI researchers had found clear evidence of “336 chemical weapons attacks over the course of the Syrian civil war – significantly more than has commonly been known.” Continue Reading »

REPORT: Israeli tank struck Syrian observation post in Quneitra

According to the Syrian state news agency SANA on Monday morning, an Israeli tank fired “with a number of shells,” on a hospital and observation post in Quneitra, near the Golan Heights border with Israel.

BY JERUSALEM POST STAFF

 

An Israeli tank struck Syrian territory in Quneitra, near the Golan Heights border, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Monday, without providing refuter details.

The media outlet cited its own reporter, who said the strikes caused “material damage” and nothing further.

IDF Merkava tank and crew stationed on the Golan Heights. – Photo: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT

The state-run outlet said the tank targeted a hospital and observation post “with a number of shells.” Continue Reading »

Hamas turns to Bitcoin to hide terror funding

In its latest maneuver to evade Israeli intelligence from intercepting the funding for their terror operations, Hamas has turned to using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and are appealing to their supporters to exploit the benefits of anonymous funding.

By Elior Levy

 

The security establishment is expressing concern after the military wing of Hamas made a decision to alter its financial strategy and use the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Ever since its founding, Hamas has played a cat and mouse game with Israeli intelligence agencies in an effort to conceal the complex channels that fund its operations, using various banks and currency exchangers. Continue Reading »

Europe devised trade mechanism to circumvent US sanctions on Iran

Despite Iranian ballistic missile tests and exposed assassination plots on European soil, Germany, France and Britain will focus primarily with small transactions of food & medicine as a political message to the United States to show Europe defends its interests despite US sanctions.

By Reuters

 

PARIS/BERLIN – Germany, France and Britain have officially set up a European mechanism to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent US sanctions, two diplomats said on Thursday.

The EU has been preparing the system, in effect a clearing house that avoids monetary transfers in dollars between the EU and Iran, for months although it is unlikely to become operational for several months due to technical details. Continue Reading »

U.S. security aid to Palestinians terminates this week

Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority reluctantly declines the $60 million US security aid out of fear that accepting the money would open the PA up to an avalanche of lawsuits under the 2018 Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act.

By Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

 

U.S. security aid for the Palestinian Authority was set to dry up on Thursday after the PA declined the money over concerns it could increase its exposure to U.S. anti-terrorism lawsuits.

The loss of the nearly $60 million in annual funding marks another tear in ties between the Trump administration and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and potentially undermines his security cooperation with Israel in Judea and Samaria. Continue Reading »

Palestinians say their right to UN statehood was ratified in 1947

Palestinian envoy to U.N. Riyad Mansour - YouTube screenshot

Having rejected the UN’s partition plan for statehood in 1947 and losing everything when the Arabs opted to declare war on Israel, now backtracking on that decision Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour declares, “We believe that our statehood, and our admission, is an innate right… It is not open for negotiation with anyone – nor will we ask for permission from anyone.”

By Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that the day will come when “obstacles” in the Security Council to full U.N. membership will be removed “but that day is not today.” Continue Reading »

REPORT: Barack Obama lied to Saudi Arabia, set mid-East back 20 years

Previous Saudi envoy to the U.S., in an interview with Independent Arabia, said Obama “would promise something and do the opposite,” then quoted Saudi King Abdullah as saying, “I did not expect that [after] this long life, I would see [the day] when an American president lies to me.”

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

 

Former US president Barack Obama lied to Saudi Arabia when violating the redlines he famously declared regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons and then not acting when they were used, a former senior Saudi official said in an interview with Independent Arabia.

Bandar bin Sultan served for years as head of Saudi intelligence as well as the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Continue Reading »