Archive for Mid-East News

Israel appoints 1st female envoy to Arab country

Einat Schlein of the foreign ministry was  promoted to post of Ambassador to Jordan along with 11 other appointments made by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

By Attila Somfalvi

 

Israel announced its first female ambassador to an Arab country Sunday among a list of 12 new appointments to positions that all required government approval.

 Israeli Ministry of FA

Einat Schlein, an employee at the Foreign Ministry for the last 22 years, was named on the list as Israel’s new ambassador to neighboring Jordan, with whom the US and possibly Israel are closely working against the threat of ISIS militants from Iraq and Syria.

Schlein currently serves as head of a division within the Center for Political Research, an intelligence and analysis based branch of the foreign ministry. Continue Reading »

PA Chairman Abbas Will Ask France to Recognize ‘State of Palestine’

Ma’an news agency says Mahmoud Abbas wants European countries to recognize ‘Palestine’ before he heads to the UN.

By Gil Ronen

 

According to Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an, Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas will ask French president Francois Hollande to recognize the “state of Palestine” when Abbas meets Hollande in France Friday. According to the report, Abbas will then ask additional European countries to recognize “Palestine” even before he heads for the annual United Nations General Assembly.

PA foreign minister Riad Al Maliki told Ma’an that “the international situation now is much better than in the past, and there is a better chance that the Palestinian people’s demands will be met.” Continue Reading »

Palestinians concerned int’l attention on IS will harm its cause

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat claims the current extremism in the Middle East was triggered by the Israeli occupation & the suffering of the Palestinian people.

By Ynetnews

 

Palestinian officials in Ramallah are concerned about the decline in the world media’s coverage of the Palestinian cause, in light of the shift in international focus towards the establishment of a global coalition against Islamic State terrorist group, Israel Radio reported.

Speaking to the Fatah television channel, Saeb Erekat said on Sunday that the reason behind the extremism in the Middle East was the continued Israeli occupation, the suffering of the Palestinian people and the “terror acts” committed by Israel and the settlers, the report further added. Continue Reading »

Abbas withholding Hamas’ salaries puts Gaza peace at risk

 

Abbas withheld 40,000 Hamas employees paychecks saying : “If Hamas won’t accept a Palestinian state with one gov’t, one law & one gun, then there won’t be any partnership between us.”

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Tensions between Fatah and Hamas are close to breaking point over the payment of salaries to Gaza’s public sector workers, raising the risk of a return to conflict in the territory, officials say.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and then-Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani meet in Qatar in October 2012

Hamas, whose 40,000 employees have not been paid for months and have grown restive, has hoped the new truce would result in a mechanism that would allow the Palestinian Authority to pay their salaries.

Continue Reading »

During Gaza Operation Hamas militants threatened UNRWA personnel at gun-point

 

Exclusive: ‘Jerusalem Post’ reveals new information of how Hamas personal terrorized UN workers at gun-point & commandeered humanitarian goods during Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’.

By NOAM ROTENBERG

 

The Jerusalem Post obtained new information from informed sources this week that Hamas used violence and threats against UN personnel in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas Operative

Hamas militant. – Photo:REUTERS

It was discovered that during the operation Hamas was hiding weapons in facilities run by the UN aid agency UNRWA and firing rockets from nearby proximity to UNRWA schools. The Post has now learned that UNRWA workers were subject to Hamas threats at gun-point during the operation.
Continue Reading »

Al-Jazeera reporter televises Islamic Jihad’s new Gaza tunnels

MEMRI exposes an Al-Jazeera program where their reporter gains access to newly dug underground Gaza tunnels, showing the Islamist group’s preparations for its next war against Israel.

By i24news

 

 

The Islamic Jihad claims it has begun rebuilding its system of underground tunnels in Gaza, according to an Al-Jazeera report in a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Un tunnel supposément creusé par des Palestiniens sous la frontière entre la bande de Gaza et Israël, mis à jour par les troupes israéliennes, le 13 octobre 2013

Palestinian dug terror tunnel in Gaza- Photo: David Buimovitch/AFP/Archives

In the video, (shown below) which was broadcast last week, an Al-Jazeera reporter was blindfolded and given access to a tunnel reportedly under construction.

“What is remarkable about this tunnel is that it is has been dug recently,” he says. Continue Reading »

Syrian kids traveled by donkey to receive medical aid from Israel

After a 12-year-old boy lost his vision & sustained serious wounds to his arms & legs during fighting near Damascus, his older brother placed him on a donkey and took him to an IDF post on Syria’s border.

By Ahiya Raved,

 

A 12-year-old Syrian boy was brought to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed for medical treatment over the weekend after he was severely wounded near Damascus. This was not the first time a wounded Syrian arrived in an Israel hospital for treatment – but no patient has ever crossed the border in this fashion.

The wounded Syrian boy. Arrived at an IDF post near Israel-Syria border riding a donkey (Photo: Courtesy of Ziv Hospital)

The boy told the hospital staff that he had been taken by his brother to the Israeli border near the Syrian slopes of the Hermon, on the back of a donkey.”

Continue Reading »

Criminal Suit Filed Against Hamas’ Khaled Mashal at the ICC for War Crimes

Israel Law Center charges Hamas’ chief  with war crimes at the Hague court for executing 38 Palestinian civilians without trial for allegedly being Israeli collaborators in Gaza. 

By Aviel Magnezi

 

The Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center has filed a criminal suit with the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashal for the execution of some 38 Palestinians during the Gaza conflict.

Hamas' executions

Hamas’ executions

The suit was made possible due to Mashal’s Jordanian citizenship. Jordan is a member of the court.

The organizations chairwoman, lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner explained that “the (ICC) is required to exercise its authority in any case in which a citizens of a member nation has allegedly committed a war crime.” Continue Reading »

Watch: With Flawed Logic PA Charges Israel of ‘Same Terror’ as Al Qaeda’s 9/11

Devoid of logic and common sense, the PA TV runs an anti-Israel Propaganda ad juxtaposing IDF strike on Gaza terror building and Al Qaeda’s terrorism in New York.

By Ari Yashar

 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) official TV channel has launched a particularly factually indefensible ad campaign against the IDF, accusing it in Operation Protective Edge of committing “terror” comparable to the September 11, 2011 (9/11) World Trade Center attack.

screenshot 2

The ad was aired several times on PA TV News during the past week according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which translated it. In the ad, a split screen shows the Al Qaeda terrorists ramming a plane into the iconic New York buildings, alongside the IDF airstrike last Monday on a 12-story Gaza building used by Hamas terrorists. Continue Reading »

Jordan informs NATO that ISIS terrorists have infiltrated its borders

• UK ambassador: We’ll assist Jordan against foreseeable ISIS threats.
• Australia airlifts weapons to Kurdish fighters in Iraqi army.

By Eli Leon and Yoni Hirsch

After breaking the siege against the Iraqi Yazidi people atop Mount Sinjar, the Iraqi army and the U.S. air force have set off on a new mission — hitting Sunni militants who have besieged the Shiite Turkmen at the town of Amirli for two months.

Shiite militiamen patrol in Amirli, 105 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014 – Photo: AP

Iraqi forces already made an incursion into the 12,000-person town on Sunday, backed by precise U.S.

Continue Reading »

Palestinian Poll: 77% of Gazans say Israel ‘painfully beaten’ by Hamas

 

 

The survey of Gazans also showed that over 70% of the Palestinians polled are worried of another, future military confrontation with Israel.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians (77%) believes that Israel has been “painfully beaten” by Hamas, a public opinion poll published on Monday in the West Bank showed.

Gaza City

Hamas supporters celebrate with people what they said was a victory over Israel in Gaza City, August 27. – Photo: REUTERS

The poll, conducted by the Beit-Sahour Palestinian Center for Public Opinion in mid-August, also showed that more than 70% of the Palestinians are worried about the possibility of another military confrontation with Israel. Continue Reading »

Egypt: Condition for Rafah crossing opened if Abbas’ Palestinian Authority troops guard it

Hamas has not dismissed the proposal outright, which indicates a willingness to consider Egypt’s demand.

Jerusalem has no objection to Cairo’s condition.

 

Egypt is conditioning an easing of transit restrictions at the Rafah checkpoint on the presence of a force from the Palestinian Authority’s Presidential Guard being stationed on the Gaza side of the crossing.

Rafah crossing.

Gazans wait, hoping to be given the permission to cross into Egypt, at the Rafah crossing, August 27, 2014.- Photo: AFP

Egypt has made this requirement clear to both Hamas and Israel in recent days. During the last weeks of the fighting, Hamas had indicated a willingness to consider the idea, but it hasn’t given a final answer. Continue Reading »

Palestinians Opinion of the Holocaust: ‘Respect to Hitler’

Canadian documentary-maker reveals most Palestinians in Ramallah have no true idea of what happened during the Holocaust except Hitler didn’t kill enough Jews.

By Ari Soffer

 

What do Palestinians think about the Holocaust?

It’s a question filmmaker Corey Gil-Shuster asked to random people in Ramallah, the political capital of the Palestinian Authority.

hol

The results were not encouraging.

Respondents typically gave one of three answers. Some did not actually know what it was, or had only a vague idea. The majority, however, either voiced the claim – popular in Arab countries – that the Nazi genocide was exaggerated by Jews for political purposes so that they could do the same to Arabs, or simply said they supported what Hitler had done because, as one smiling woman shared, “Jews are evil”. Continue Reading »

Al-Jazeera Reports: Syrian UNDOF peacekeepers flee to Israel

 

Al-Jazeera TV reported UNDOF soldiers in southern Syria abandoning their posts to flee to the Israeli side. Meanwhile a Phillipine official reported that Syrian rebels who seized the 43 Fijian UN peacekeepers, attacked Filipino troops on the Syrian Golan Heights.

By Roi Kais and AFP

The Al-Jazeera network reported Saturday that members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force stationed in Daraa in southern Syria are abandoning their posts and fleeing to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.

Armored UN vehicle at Qunitera border crossing, Saturday morning (Photo: AFP)

Armored UN vehicle at Qunitera border crossing, Saturday morning – Photo: AFP

In another report published simultaneously, Philippine officials said Syrian rebels holding dozens of Fijian UN peacekeepers hostage attacked Filipino troops in the Golan Heights on Saturday. Continue Reading »

Was Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh poisoned by Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal?

 

Senior Hamas official said Haniyeh’s hospitalization was due to his living underground for so long, but others said Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, furious at Haniyeh for accepting the Egyptian brokered cease-fire proposal, wanted him ‘gone’.

By Daniel Siryoti

Rumors spread in the Gaza Strip on Thursday that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been poisoned after he was hospitalized on Wednesday night with “chest pain” shortly after finishing his speech declaring Hamas’ victory in the last round of fighting with Israel.

Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal (left) and Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh, 2012 – Photo: AP

Was Ismail Haniyeh poisoned?

Continue Reading »