Turkey seeks 18,000 years in prison for Israeli military commanders over flotilla deaths

Days before the second anniversary of the Mavi Marmara raid, indictment cites ‘inciting to kill monstrously, torturing’

 

 

A Turkish court has formally pressed charges against members of Israel’s military for the killing of nine people aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara that tried to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010. The move comes just days ahead of the second anniversary of the May 31, 2010, raid.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency says the court in Istanbul voted unanimously Monday to approve an indictment against Israel’s former chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, along with former Israeli Navy head Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom, former Israel Air Force intelligence chief Avishai Levy and former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin. 

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Facebook reaches rabbinical court

Woman convinces rabbinical court that Facebook correspondence is infidelity

 

A woman who presented the rabbinical court with extremely suggestive correspondence between her husband and other women on Facebook convinced judges that his actions constitute infidelity.

Damning evidence Photo: Reuters

Damning evidence - Photo: Reuters

The court subsequently ruled that the husband must pay damages of NIS 150,000 shekels (roughly $40,000.)

The man and woman, who are both in their 30s, met on a dating website. After some months they decided to turn a new leaf in their lives, get married and raise together their children from previous marriages.

Yet six months after the marriage, the woman discovered that the husband continued to correspond with other women on the dating websites and on Facebook and decided to divorce him. Continue Reading »

New computer virus hits Iran, West Bank in unprecedented cyberattack

Internet security firm Kaspersky calls ‘Flame’ bug the ‘most sophisticated cyber-weapon yet unleashed,’ hints it may have been created by makers of Stuxnet worm.

Internet security company Kaspersky Lab announced on Monday that it had uncovered a ‘cyber-espionage worm’ designed to collect and delete sensitive information, primarily in Middle Eastern countries.

 

A man walks by computer network servers in California.

A man walks by computer network servers in California. - Photo by Bloomberg

Kaspersky called the malware, named “Flame,” the “most sophisticated cyber-weapon yet unleashed.” It said the bug had infected computers in Iran, the West Bank, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Kaspersky Lab

A map of countries affected by Flame bug.

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IDF Fires on Smugglers, Infiltrators Wounded

Three Chinese infiltrators hurt in exchange of fire between Arabs trying to smuggle them in and the IDF.

 

Three infiltrators from China were lightly wounded in an exchange of fire on the Egypt-Israeli border Monday.

A force from Givati Brigade’s Rimon unit identified about ten infiltrators, escorted by four gunmen, crossing the border in the Netafim area. After the group crossed the border, the soldiers called out to them to halt and fired in the air. The infiltrators did not stop advancing and the force fired at them.

Israeli-Egyptian Border

Israeli-Egyptian Border - Reuters

The armed men who were in the group of infiltrators fired back at the IDF soldiers. Continue Reading »

MK Shai: Cancel Turkish Tenders Over Indictment

Lawmaker says Israel must not remain indifferent over a Turkish indictment of four top IDF commanders

MK Dr. Nachman Shai (Kadima) on Monday demanded the government not remain indifferent in the face of a Turkish indictment for “murder” naming four senior IDF commanders.

Specifically, Shai called on Minister of Water and Energy Uzi Landau (Yisrael Bateynu) to suspend a Turkish company’s tender for work on an Israeli gas pipeline over the indictment.

“Israel cannot remain indifferent to the extremely provocative Turkish move, which carries serious implications for Israel’s relations,” Shai said.

“Turkey, which is attacking the IDF’s senior personnel, despite our soldiers suffering injury when boarding the Turkish flotilla-ship,” he added. Continue Reading »

Algeria’s Kabylie craves friendship with Israel

Kabylie, a geographic sliver of Algeria’s northern coast, wants secession; Diplomat: Freedom for Kabylie, eternity for Israel.

 

For Ferhat Mehenni, Israel is an ideal partner and friend for Kabylie, a geographic sliver of Algeria’s northern coast whose people wish to secede from the large North African nation’s control.

“We are in a hostile environment,” Mehenni told The Jerusalem Post during an interview on Thursday. “Both countries share kind of the same path, but Israel already exists – that’s the only difference.”

Mehenni founded the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie and has served as president of the Provisional Government of Kabylie from exile in France since Algeria’s “Black Spring” period in 2001, during which the Kabylian people challenged the Algerian government’s ban on their culture and language.

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More Israeli women choose to freeze their eggs

New regulations allow women to freeze eggs without medical justification; demand for procedure is rising in spite of doctors’ hesitation

 

 

The fertility revolution has reached Israel: Hundreds of Israeli women wishing to preserve their chances of having children later in life have chosen to freeze their eggs over the past year, and demand for the procedure is growing rapidly.

Fertility Treatments Photo: Shutterstock

Fertility Treatments - Photo: Shutterstock

The Ministry of Health approved a policy in September of 2010 that permits women to freeze their eggs for reasons other than medical ones. Previously, the process was only allowed in cases involving illness, for example cancer, which requires aggressive treatment. Continue Reading »

Palestinian Airlines back in the air after 7 years

Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights and a borrowed hub in Egypt.

 

Palestinian Airlines is back in the skies after being grounded for seven years by the deepening enmities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once hailed as a symbol of Palestinian statehood dreams, the carrier is a tiny operation, with just two 48-seat turboprop planes, two weekly flights and a borrowed hub in Egypt.

But Palestinians say just being on the map again is what matters. “My hands were shaking when I bought the ticket… and it said the name of the carrier is Palestinian Airlines,” said recent passenger Zuhair Mohammed, a 38 year-old teacher from Gaza. Continue Reading »

The Enemy within: Media Ignores Second Arson Video

Israeli mainstream media showed video of Yitzhar event shot by Arabs but ignores video shot and published by the Jews.

 

Mainstream Israeli media sources provided further evidence Monday that they are unable or unwilling to report objectively on events in Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron), as news outlets appear determined to ignore new evidence of Arab wrongdoing in a confrontation near Yitzhar Saturday.

Arab video of the incident has been featured prominently, but video shot by Jews (below) and disseminated for publication Monday morning has been largely ignored in the hours since its release. The Jews say that it shows Arabs setting fire to their own fields, for propaganda purposes. Continue Reading »

Is the U.N. making the Palestinian ‘refugee’ problem worse?

U.N. history experts say that the definition wasn’t changed until 1965, when over the objections of the U.S., UNRWA extended “refugees” to include children & grandchildren of those displaced between 1946 – 1949.

Until recently, few Americans ever heard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). But then Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) got interested in what the agency, supposedly neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was up to. As Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reminds us:

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is trying to get a handle on the real number of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East — a move that could result in a change of status for millions of Palestinians.

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PA’s Shechem Governor to UN: Please Intervene

Jabareen AlBakri says international forces can stop confrontations between Jews and Arabs.

The District Governor of the Shechem (Nablus) District in the Palestinian Authority called upon the international community Sunday to intervene quickly and provide the Palestinian Authority with protection from Jews.

AlBakri warned that “The ongoing aggressiveness of the settlers will lead to violence in the entire region, the results of which cannot be predicted. The continued violence by settlers requires international intervention, he argued.

He said that the Jews are interested in “widening” the cycle of violence in the summertime, in order to cause Arab farmers financial losses.

“The escalation in attacks by settlers would not have occurred were it not for the diplomatic support that the Israeli government enjoys,” he added. Continue Reading »

IDF documents Palestinian using human shield

Censored video shows terrorist use woman as human shield while planting explosives. Soldiers irked by ‘censorship’; IDF says not all footage taken by military is published

 

The IDF imposed an embargo on a video allegedly documenting a Palestinian terrorist using a Palestinian woman as a human shield, Ynet discovered Sunday.

Footage taken by IDF cameras in the area clearly shows the terrorist holding the woman hostage, carrying her as a barrier between himself and IDF forces.

The video documents an incident that took place two weeks ago, near the Gaza border: Seven Palestinians planting explosive devices north of Beit Lahia were intercepted by IDF soldiers. Continue Reading »

Half the Story: Analysis of Amnesty’s 2012 World Report

 

JERUSALEM – In response to Amnesty International’s 2012 World Report, NGO Monitor released the following statement:

·         As in many previous reports, Amnesty continues to level unsupported allegations of violations of international law against Israel, including “collective punishment.” In contrast, the organization expressed uncertainty regarding the legal significance of the murder of more than 8,000 Syrians by Bashar al-Assad, claiming that these deaths “may have constituted crimes against humanity”. Israel is mentioned 137 times in the report as opposed to 74 mentions for the Syrian regime.
·         In the 2012 report, Amnesty accuses Israel of “collective punishment” (pg 48) of the Palestinian population, in the form of a blockade against Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
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Arabs Set Fire near Yitzhar, One Arab Shot

Another Sabbath, another provocation at Yitzhar. Security man shoots an Arab who pulled out a knife.

 

Arabs set fire to fields outside the Samaria (Shomron) community of Yitzhar on Saturday. Fire crews that arrived at the spot were pelted with rocks. One of the Arabs pulled out a knife and was shot in the stomach by a member of Yitzhar’s emergency readiness squad.

Arson near Yitzhar (file)

Arson near Yitzhar (file)

The IDF fired tear gas to disperse the violent Arab crowd.

Arabs and the pro-Arab group B’tselem claim that the Arabs were in fact trying to put out the fires, which had been set by Jews from Yitzhar. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu: Iran, Syria are part of atrocities in Syria

After Houla massacre, prime minister expresses revulsion over Assad’s forces ongoing violence against civilians

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed disgust Sunday over Friday’s Houla massacre and said that Iran and Hezbollah are part of the atrocities in Syria.

 

Dead bodies following the assault on Houla, Syria on Friday. The UN estimates some 100 people died, including 32 children. (photo credit: AP/Shaam News Network. AP cannot independently verify this photo)
Dead bodies following the assault on Houla, Syria on Friday. The UN estimates some 100 people died, including 32 children – Photo: AP/Shaam News Network.

 

He accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces of perpetrating ongoing violence against innocent civilians.

“Iran and Hezbollah are an inseparable part of the Syrian atrocities and the world needs to act against them,” Netanyahu added. Continue Reading »