Canadian newspaper: Burgas terrorists are related

The ‘National Post’ reports that the culprits of the Burgas terror bombing that killed 5 Israeli tourists & a local bus driver, are related & that one grew up in Vancouver.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

Two of the three suspected Hezbollah operatives accused by Bulgaria’s government of killing five Israelis and a Bulgarian national have familial ties. The Canadian daily National Post reported on Tuesday that a Canadian, who is believed to have participated in the bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, “is a relative of the unidentified terrorist who died while planting the explosives.”
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Iranian General killed in Lebanon

Iranian news website reports the death of a General of the Revolutionary Guard, by ‘mercenaries of the Zionist regime’

By the Associated Press

 

An Iranian independent news website is reporting that a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Lebanon.

Revolutionary GuardsThe website, mashreghnews.ir, says General Hassan Shateri was killed by “mercenaries of the Zionist regime,” but provided no details about his death.

Shateri led Guard forces in Lebanon and oversaw Iranian-financed reconstruction projects there.

Iran is a close ally of Syria and the militant group called Hezbollah, which is a powerful player in Lebanon. Tehran provides political and military support to both. Continue Reading »

Human Rights Watch: Israel committed war crimes during offensive on Gaza

New HRW report says Israel mounted multiple airstrikes on civilian targets & used disproportionate force during Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza’s rocket attacks, which claimed the lives of over 40 non-combatant Gazans.

 

A U.S.-based rights group said Israel violated laws of war in a series of airstrikes it conducted during an eight-day military operation last November against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian girl stands next to a relative's house after it was destroyed

A Palestinian girl stands next to a relative’s house after it was destroyed in what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov.

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Lapid and Bennett Become a Package Deal

Bennett & Lapid have a 31-seat bloc, & reportedly agreed to join the coalition together, or be left out together.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have created a pact between their two parties, agreeing that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have either both of their parties in his coalition or neither, political sources have told Arutz Sheva.

Together, the two have 31 seats. Netanyahu’s chances of putting together a coalition without either party are not considered good.

Bennett and Lapid banded together due to a shared interest in preventing Netanyahu from creating a coalition that excluded one of them in favor of hareidi-religious or left-wing parties. Continue Reading »

Morsi floods Gaza’s smuggling tunnels, hurting Hamas’ profits

Since the Muslim Brotherhood took control of Egypt, up to 200 smuggling tunnels have been closed, curtailing Hamas’ clandestine and nefarious projects.

By REUTERS

 

Egyptian forces have flooded smuggling tunnels under the border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip in a campaign to shut them down, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said.

Smuggler in tunnelReuters reporters saw one tunnel being used to bring in cement and gravel suddenly fill with water on Sunday, sending workers rushing for safety. Locals said two other tunnels were likewise flooded, with Egyptians deliberately pumping in water.”The Egyptians have opened the water to drown the tunnels,” said Abu Ghassan, who supervises the work of 30 men at one tunnel some 200 meters (yards) from the border fence.

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Egyptian security forces deny Hamas an office in Cairo

Iraqi paper reports the Muslim Brotherhood’s request on Hamas’ behalf was rejected due to fears it could spark further disturbances during a time of nationwide unrest.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

 

Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo Photo: Mohamed Abd el-Ghany/Reuters
Egyptian security forces have rejected a Muslim Brotherhood request to establish a Hamas office in Cairo after leaving its headquarters in Damascus, according to Egyptian security sources quoted by the Iraqi paper Azzaman on Tuesday. The security sources were quoted as saying that they put national security considerations first, especially now when Egypt is in the middle of unrest and the new office could lead to further disturbances.
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Gov’t initiative to annex Judea & Samaria then give Arabs citizenship

Women in Green advance initiative. Time to Wake Up from ‘Peace Delusion’. The Annexation Plan is moving forward. The ‘Sky won’t fall’ if Israel annexes Judea & Samaria, Geula Cohen, former Likud MK says.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and MK Yair Lapid, the leaders of Israel’s two biggest parties, have both said in recent days that Israel must resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority with the goal of the creation of a new Arab state in Judea and Samaria. However, there is also a second diplomatic plan moving forward in recent weeks: an initiative to annex Judea and Samaria and give Arab residents citizenship. Continue Reading »

Female Arab Muslim: Keep it real, Jews don’t rape us, Arab men do.

We are talking about the rape of Arab women in Egypt and other Arab states, and you still try to make a connection to Israel? Jewish men do not rape Arab women and girls!

By Israel Today Staff

 

An Arab Muslim mother from northern Israel who is aspiring to a life in politics called out fellow Arab women on Tuesday for failing to differentiate between the Jews and Arabs with whom they are in conflict.

traveling on the light railCommenting on a Facebook event page protesting the sexual harassment and torture of female activists in Egypt, Anet Haskia (who was interviewed in the latest issue of Israel Today) said Palestinian women should take a close look and realize how humane their Jewish “enemies” really are. Continue Reading »

NASA reports catastrophic water loss for Middle East

Freshwater reserves in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria & along the Tigris & Euphrates river basins have lost an incredible 117 million acre feet (144 km³) of total underground freshwater, the 2nd fastest loss of groundwater storage loss after India.

By The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

 

An amount of freshwater almost amounting to the volume of the Dead Sea has been lost in parts of the Middle East due to poor management, increased demands for groundwater and the effects of a 2007 drought, according to a NASA study.

An Iraqi woman checks her dried land. Turkey controls the Tigris and Euphrates headwaters, which dictates how much water flows downstream into Syria and Iraq.

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Holocaust survivors protest for 3rd year against Allianz golf tournament

The Germany-based insurance group had Nazi connections during World War II, insuring Nazi facilities such as death camps like Auschwitz, the survivors say.

By JTA

 

NEW YORK  — Holocaust survivors for a third straight year protested outside a golf tournament in Florida sponsored by Allianz because of what they deem the insurance firm’s restitution failures.

David Schaecter, David Mermelstein & Joe SachsThe survivors gathered outside the Allianz Golf Championship in Boca Raton over the weekend demanding that Allianz pay some $2 billion that the survivors say is owed to Nazi victims in unpaid claims, the Sun Sentinel reported.

“Not only haven’t I seen any money, this is already 70 years,” said David Schaecter, 83, a Holocaust survivor from Miami who is the president of Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA. Continue Reading »

Pat Boone sells Galilee land to American Evangelicals

At a ceremony at Yad Vashem, the 1950’s American singer/songwriter presented the original lyrics to “This Land Is Mine” made famous by ‘Exodus’ film. (Clip included)

 

American singer, actor and evangelical Christian Pat Boone is in Israel to present Yad Vashem with the Christmas card on which he scribbled the lyrics to “This Land Is Mine” – the popular song that he wrote to accompany a tune from the movie Exodus.
PAT BOONE holds up the framed Christmas card on which he wrote the lyrics to his song.

PAT BOONE holds up the framed Christmas card on which he wrote the lyrics to his song. – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The J’lem Post

One of the biggest chart-toppers of the late 1950s, Boone – who recently announced a new venture to sell small plots of land in the Galilee to Christian Zionists in the United States – is here as part of a delegation led by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

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WATCH: Obama says ‘We will stand steadfast with Israel’

Barack Obama’s State of Union address was dominated by domestic issues, but he also commented on his upcoming visit to Israel & the Middle East, expressing support for the Jewish State & promising to ‘do what is necessary to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon’

By Yitzhak Benhorin, AP

 

WASHINGTON – The economic crisis and the serious political disputed on Capitol Hill were at the focus of US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress’ two chambers on Tuesday, yet he did address the situation in the Middle East as well, stating that his country “We will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace.” Continue Reading »

Gag Order Removed by Court on Mossad Australian ‘Prisoner X’

Israeli Judge cancels gag order on investigation into ‘Prisoner X’, an Australian who allegedly was a Mossad agent who committed suicide in prison in 2010.

By Arutz Sheva staff

 

The District Court in Lod removed the gag order on an investigation into Israel’s mysterious Prisoner X, an Australian citizen named Ben Zygier who allegedly committed suicide in an Israeli prison in 2010.

Ben Zygier

The story of so-called Prisoner X first surfaced in May 2010 when Israel’s Ynet news website ran a story in which it alleged that a prisoner was being held in top-secret conditions, whose identity and crime were not known even to his jailers. Continue Reading »

Lapid: I’ll Advocate Civil Marriages & Reform Judaism

Yesh Atid’s chief, Yair Lapid says his platform includes dialog with Abbas, civil marriage & bringing reform Judaism to Israel.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, spoke Tuesday at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, held at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem. Lapid declared that his political agenda includes making the Reform and Conservative movements – both popular in the United States – equal to orthodox Judaism in terms of state support.

Yair Lapid“I want to do everything in my power to ensure the equality between all movements of Judaism in the state of Israel, Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform,” he declared. Continue Reading »

MKs blow off censored event in Knesset

In Knesset assembly, MK Tibi asks: Is it true an Australian citizen under a different identity committed suicide in an Israeli prison?

Justice minister replies that he doesn’t know if foreign reports are accurate & the incident should be investigated.

 

The citizens of Israel will eventually learn information on a sensitive security case that was censored by the government, MKs told Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman.

MK Ahmed Tibi“An article was published that an Australian prisoner committed suicide under a different identity. Do you know about the situation? Do you confirm that it occurred?” MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) asked, in reference to a report by Australia’s ABC news. Continue Reading »