14 Hezbollah soldiers killed by rebels in past 2 days in battles over control of villages on Lebanese border

Blog from Istanbul: Turkey & Israel Should Work Together

Turkey was the 1st country to send planes to help with the terrible Carmel forest fire in Israel, which once again proved its friendship after the dreadful ‘Marmara earthquake’. Other ‘friendly countries’ recommended help, but Turkey sent it.

By Aylin Kocaman

Turkey has sheltered Jews since Ottoman times. The Turkish people have a particular culture and conception of religion; Turkish people may go hungry, but they will make sure their neighbors have food. They will watch over them more than themselves. Their Jewish neighbors have always been very important for the Turkish people.

4flag-turkey-israel-sky

I grew up in this culture. I saw this behavior from the people around me. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Israel Turkey

Intelsat Removes Iran’s Channel PressTV from U.S. & Canada

Iran’s national Press TV has a history of notoriously promoting Holocaust denial & giving air-time to neo-Nazi propaganda.

By Gil Ronen

Pro-Israel media activist group HonestReporting Canada welcomed news on Saturday that global satellite communication provider Intelsat had removed Iran’s state-funded propaganda mouthpiece PressTV from its broadcast platform in Canada and the United States.

PressTV The NGO expressed its concern, however, that PressTV is still accessible over Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 platform.

HonestReporting Canada Executive Director Mike Fegelman issued the following statement:

“Intelsat’s move falls directly in line with other important domestic and international efforts to sanction, isolate, and impede the Iranian regime’s efforts in procuring nuclear weaponry. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Honest Reporting, Iran, Propaganda

Iranians mourn their slain Revolutionary Guard General

Iranian clergyman compares slain Iranian General to Hezbollah’s slain commander, Imad Mughniyeh

Syrian Free Army accuses Israel of Shateri’s death by a reported bombing in Syria 2 weeks ago.

By The Associated Press, Daniel Siryoti & Israel Hayom Staff

Prominent Iranian politicians and clerics led mourners at a funeral Thursday for a senior commander of the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards who was killed this week while traveling from Syria to Lebanon, local media reported.

The exact details surrounding Iranian General Hassan Shateri’s death are still unclear. – Photo: AP

The semiofficial Fars news agency identified the slain commander as Gen.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Iran Syria, Iran's Revolutionary Guard

Hundreds protest the Iran-Argentina pact

Philosopher, poet & Argentinian writer Santiago Kovadloff mocked his gov’t for the int’l criticism the pact has drawn. “But our gov’t is not alone,” he said. “Our gov’t is with Iran!”

By JTA

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Some 300 people attended a protest rally against Argentine-Iranian cooperation in investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.

Suicide bomber Among the protestors on Feb. 14 in the Argentine capital were relatives of the survivors of the bombing of the AMIA center. Israeli and Argentinean justice authorities blame Iran for the attack.

“We ask Argentine society’s forgiveness for wasting a great privilege that democracy gave us,” Sergio Bergman, a lawmaker and Reform rabbi, said in a speech at the rally. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Argentina, Hezbollah terrorism, Iran

Nasrallah warns Israel to think twice before attacking

Nasrallah: “They know their power plants, airports are under threat,” and that Hezbollah doesn’t need weapons from Syria.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday rejected claims made by the Lebanese opposition that the Shi’ite group’s implication in July’s Burgas, Bulgaria terror attack would prompt an Israeli attack on Lebanon.

Hezbollah head Nasrallah speaks at Beirut protest – Photo: REUTERS

The speech came after Bulgaria released its findings of a probe into the attack last week, finding that Hezbollah’s military wing was behind the bombing. Five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the terror attack.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah

7 hurt Syrians treated in Israeli Hospital

IDF confirms 7 Syrians hurt on Syrian Golan in battles between Syrian army & rebels, were taken to Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

Ynet reporters

Seven Syrians hurt in battles between Syrian army forces and rebels were taken to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed Saturday. One of the men is in critical condition.

Fighting in Syria The seven made their own way to the border area in the northern Golan Heights.

“An IDF force administered medical care to the wounded men near the border fence and they were taken for further treatment,” a statement said.

Ziv Medical Center director Dr. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: IDF, Israel Syria, Syrian unrest, Ziv Medical Center

U.S. sanctions just wiped out Iran-Turkey gold trade

Turkey, Iran’s biggest natural gas importer, has been paying for its gas-imports with Turkish lira, because US sanctions prevented them from paying in foreign currency ($ or €).

By Reuters

Tighter U.S. sanctions are killing off Turkey’s gold-for-gas trade with Iran and have stopped state-owned lender Halkbank from processing other nations’ energy payments to the OPEC oil producer, bankers said on Friday.

Fahmideh gas refinery and storage facility is seen outside the central city of Qom, Iran – Photo: AP

U.S. officials have sought to prevent Turkish gold exports, which indirectly pay Iran for its natural gas, from providing a financial lifeline to Tehran, largely frozen out of the global banking system by Western sanctions over its nuclear program. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Iran sanctions, Turkey Iran

TV2 Report: Israel & Hamas Holding Secret Negotiations via Egypt

Within the framework of secret talks with Hamas through the Egyptians, Israel may soon agree that Egypt’s border with Gaza be opened.

By Elad Benari, Canada

Israel has been holding secret negotiations with the Hamas terror movement since the end of its Operation Pillar of Defense, Channel 2 News reported on Friday.

According to the report, the Egyptian-mediated talks are being held as part of the ceasefire reached between the sides at the end of counterterrorism operation in November and which said that both sides will refrain from attacking one another and the sides will work to reach understandings.

Channel 2 News indicated that an Israeli delegation that arrived in Cairo on Thursday came to Egypt for the purpose of holding talks with Hamas, through Egyptian mediators. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: hamas, Israel Egypt, Operation Pillar of Defense, Rafiah

There’s a Superior role for women in the Qur’an

In the same way that hatred, suicide bombings, aggression, & enmity toward Jews & Christians have nothing to do with Islam, neither does this incorrect image of women that the world has accepted from the radicals.

By Aylin Kocaman

A man in a shabby robe with a furrowed brow and long beard was walking along the road, followed two steps behind by women bent forward and completely covered up. This picture has to date been portrayed as an image of Islam.

Muslim wife following husband Because of this image, no value has been attached to some oppressed Islamic countries – nobody will attach any worth to a society that regards women as worthless. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Chauvenism, Islam

Palestinians demonstrate violently for imprisoned hunger strikers

About 200 Palestinians throw stones at IDF & Police during West Bank demonstration in support of prisoners on hunger strikes.

Security forces respond with tear gas. MK Tibi: Region will burn if any hunger-striking prisoner die.

By Elior Levy

Protesters at a Palestinian demonstration in support of prisoners on a hunger strike clashed on Friday with Israeli troops and Border Guard officers.

Stone-throwing Palistanians The IDF said that during the protest, held at the Bituniya crossing near Ofer Prison, about 200 Palestinians threw rocks at the soldiers who responded with tear gas during the rally in the West Bank.

One soldier was lightly wounded by stones hurled in his direction. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian unrest, ‘Palestinian’ incitement

Photo of 2 dead Gaza children from Israeli Gaza-strike wins World Press Photo prize

Paul Hansen, a Swedish photographer wins top photojournalism award for haunting picture captured during Palestinian children’s funeral.

Explicit images of violence in the Middle East was a dominant theme in the competition.

By The Associated Press

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

Paul Hansen’s winning photo depicts funeral of two Gaza children killed in Israeli strike. – Photo: AP

The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Gaza, hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense, Palestinian propaganda

Polish call to Ashton: Make Efforts to Acknowledge Hizbullah as Terror Group

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski has called on EU’s Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization and stop their operations in EU member states as bases for money-laundering & fundraising.

By Elad Benari

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski on Thursday called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization after last week’s Bulgarian’s report that the Lebanese group was behind the terror attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas in July 2012.

Hezbollah rocket launcher, used to kill Israeli civilians, in violation to the Geneva Conventions

The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported that in a written question to Ashton, ahead of Monday’s meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers where the issue is likely to come under discussion, Kaminski asked why the EU remains “reluctant to call Hizbulllah by its proper name”, after Ashton’s official response to the Burgas findings expressed “the need for a reflection over the outcome of the investigation.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Burgas Bulgaria, Catherine Ashton, EU, Hizbullah, Poland

Bulgaria Police deport Hamas delegation, ‘persona non gratae’

The Police raid on the residences of visiting Hamas delegation was allegedly prompted by Israeli, British & US political pressure.

A Bulgarian gov’t spokesperson denies reports of meeting with Hamas representatives, reporting that the Palestinians were in Sofia on “private visitation.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Bulgarian security forces on Friday raided the temporary residences of a visiting Hamas delegation in Sofia, and then expelled the officials from the country, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

Bulgarian Police Ma’an quoted a statement released by Hamas’ Change and Reform parliamentary list as saying the that the Bulgarian move was at least in part prompted by Israeli, US and British pressure.On

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Bulgaria, hamas

israelandstuffcom | February 14, 2013