[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 11/15 Links Pt1: Israel - Helpless in the Homeland, The PA's Double Standards on Prisoners

From Ian:

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Helpless in the Homeland: Israel Has Effectively Surrendered

An IDF soldier is murdered by his Arab coworker, and his body is dumped in a village well. Another soldier is shot dead by a sniper in Hebron. A young girl is shot in her backyard in Judea and Samaria. A husband is murdered by a pair of Arab assailants, and the man turns out to be a family friend of Netanyahu himself. Yet another soldier is stabbed to death while sleeping on a bus. Hundreds of bloodstained Arab terrorists are released as a goodwill gesture to stimulate "peace" talks.
These are the recent headlines from Israel, and they all point to the same problem: Israel is being dismantled piecemeal by its enemies, who recognize that Israel has lost the will to defend itself on a day-to-day basis. Lives are being brutally snuffed out on a weekly schedule, with little to nothing being done about it.

Israel files UN complaint over Palestinian Authority incitement

"Terrorists do not start off by stabbing soldiers on buses or attacking people in their homes," he said, referring to the murders of Atias and Ofer. "This is the result of education that teaches people to hate. Prejudice and intolerance begin in kindergarten and school and continue on television and in the mosques. The most recent murder [Atias'] is further proof of the destructive results of the PA's goring incitement."
Prosor urged the Security Council to condemn the PA, saying these attacks had taken place while Israel and the Palestinians were trying to negotiate a peace deal.

Jihadist murder of soldier: spot the difference

There was one important non-Israeli reaction to the story. The Palestinian Press celebrated the murder and the Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhoom announced on his Facebook page "Congratulations to the Palestinian West Bank hero who killed an Israeli soldier in Afula this morning". Can you imagine what the reaction would have been in the UK - and the rest of the world - if the Muslim Council of Britain had congratulated Lee Rigby's murderer for his heroism?

Teen Terrorist: I Intended to Stab a Soldier

The terrorist, according to the report, said that he was fully aware of his actions. "Yes, I know I killed the soldier. I boarded the bus with the intention of stabbing someone. I saw that everyone had gone off the bus while he stayed on, so I chose him. I stabbed him twice and even a third time," he declared.

Israel Focuses on Palestinian Incitement After Murder of IDF Soldier

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon said Israel "will respond aggressively toward organizations that aim to launch institutionalized terrorist attacks against us."
"We must remember that the terror of individuals unaffiliated with an organization mostly derives from the hard incitement of the Palestinian Authority, which even now, as we sit alongside their representatives at the negotiating table, continues to educate the young generation to look up to terrorist murderers of Jews, preaching hatred, and unwilling to recognize our right to exist within any boundaries," Ya'alon said.

Suspects admit to killing IDF colonel 'as a gift to the Palestinian people'

Two weeks before the attack, the murder suspects arrived at Ofer's home in the vacation resort of Barush to surveillance the area ahead of a violent robbery they were planning, according to their testimony.
"After learning that a senior army officer lived there, who might be armed, they decided to carry out a murder 'as a gift to the Palestinian people and to Hamas prisoners for the festival of sacrifice [Id al- Adha],'" the suspects said during questioning, according to the Shin Bet.

Col. Ofer's Widow: 'These Low-Lives Only Understand Force'

Monique Ofer, whose husband, Col. (res.) Sraya ("Ya-Ya") Ofer was brutally murdered by Muslim Arab terrorists in October, was not the least bit surprised by the news that the attackers were motivated by religion and nationalism.
"Of course it was nationalistically motivated," she told reporters from the hospital bed where she has been recovering from injuries she sustained while fleeing the terrorists. "Of course these people came to murder Jews. Of course their intention was to kill a man with a very respectable past, which for them is a matter of great pride. 'Look, we killed a former IDF colonel.' It's shocking and it's terrible.

'My Brother Said: I Want Gilad Schalit #2'

Abd el-Salaam Amar, the accused killer's brother, instructed him in late 2012 to abduct a soldier. He believed that by doing so, he could bring about the release of a third brother, Nur a-Din, who is serving a 29-year sentence.
"I want Gilad Schalit #2," Nur a-Din said. "I want you to abduct a soldier." He told him to hide the victim in a cave. "A live soldier is preferable," he added, "but it doesn't matter… If need be, murder him, as long as I go free."

Khaled Abu Toameh Palestinian Authority's Double Standards on Prisoners

The daily Al-Quds al-Arabi recently revealed that dozens of Palestinians have been held in Kuwaiti prisons since 1991. The families of these prisoners do not know anything about their conditions. The Palestinian Authority ambassador to Kuwait, Rami Tahboub, refused to comment on the plight of the prisoners there. Reached by phone, the ambassador first said he was busy with a meeting. He later stopped answering the phone.
As far as the Palestinian Authority leadership is concerned, the only "heroes" are those prisoners who are held in Israel. For the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians who are being tortured and killed in Arab prisons are not worth even a statement.

IDF destroys two rocket launchers in North Gaza

The Israeli Air Force destroyed two hidden rocket launchers in northern Gaza Thursday in response to high trajectory fire aimed at IDF soldiers earlier in the day.
"Launching rockets against Israel and its civilians is a breach of our sovereignty. We maintain the right to operate against those who are involved in terror," Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement.

Police arrest 70 Palestinians illegally residing in Israel

Sixty-seven of those held will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, Maariv reported Friday morning, and the rest will be brought before a judge for a remand extension.
The operation came two days after an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death while he was asleep on a bus in Afula Wednesday morning by a 16-year-old Palestinian youth illegally residing in Israel, according to reports. Eden Atias, 18, was buried Wednesday night in Nazareth Ilit.

Jerusalem Bomber Gets Life + 60 Years

Kawasme was the terrorist who initiated and planned a murderous attack that was executed on March 23, 2011, in Jerusalem. An explosive charge was detonated near Binyanei Hauma, the International Convention Center, near the western entrance to the city. The explosion killed Mary Jean Gardner, a British tourist. Another 67 people were injured.
The terrorist was convicted of a slew of other offenses, which he admitted to. After the Binyanei Hauma attack, he planned a suicide attack in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem, for which an explosive device was brought to Jerusalem. The attack never took place because of the arrest of two of the members of the cell that was to carry it out.

Sewage swamps Gaza streets as Egypt tunnel closures cut off power

Egypt's months-long crackdown on cross-border smuggling tunnels that used to bring fuel in cheaply has already forced Gaza's only power plant to stop, meaning two weeks of daily 12-hour blackouts for the territory's 1.8 million residents.
"This is the start of a catastrophe and unless the world listens to our cries, a real disaster may hit Gaza and its people," Gaza municipality's Sa'ad El-Deen Al-Tbash said.

Iranian consensus does not necessarily mean a good deal for the West

In high-profile speeches, Khamenei has been laying the groundwork to walk away from any deal by warning that the West is untrustworthy and will not deliver on its promises — the same reasons he gave for walking away from the earlier nuclear deals. Israel has good reason to worry that the economic sanctions will be eased, reducing the pressure on Iran such that whatever the West presents as the first temporary step is never followed by another step, meaning that Tehran never accepts more limits on its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia has equally solid grounds to worry that, in return for a nuclear deal, Iran would get a free hand to pursue its hegemonic agenda in the region and consolidate its influence in Syria and Iraq. And Iranian democrats are right to fear that any accord with the West would herald renewed vigor for the Islamic Republic. After all, Rouhani has done little to improve human rights, as evidenced by the increased pace of executions since he took office.

PM: Iran already has wherewithal to build nuclear weapons

Responding to an International Atomic Energy Agency report claiming that Iran had substantially cut uranium enrichment since the election of President Hassan Rouhani last June, Netanyahu said he was "not impressed," and that Iran still strives to acquire nuclear weapons.
"Iran is not expanding its nuclear program because it already has the foundations needed for nuclear weapons," the prime minister said. "The question is not whether they are expanding the program, but how to stop the Iranian military nuclear program."

Kerry: Any Iran nuclear deal will be 'failsafe'

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that any deal negotiated with Iran will be "failsafe" and will guarantee that Tehran will not have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons.
Trying to reassure skeptical lawmakers and US allies, Kerry told MSNBC that the Obama administration wants time to negotiate a deal with Iran that would protect Israel, US interests and the region and "guarantee failsafe that Iran will not be able to have a nuclear weapon."

Iranian FM: Talks doomed if Iran 'nuclear rights' not recognized

Mohammad Javad Zarif said in comments carried by the semi-official Fars news agency on Friday that there is no chance for the upcoming round of talks to succeed if the West ignores Iran's demand for formal recognition of its right to enrich uranium.

Obama: Military strike could lead Iran to 'pursue nukes more vigorously'

US President Barack Obama said Thursday that no matter how powerful the American military, a strike against nuclear facilities in Iran could lead the Islamic Republic to "pursue even more vigorously nuclear weapons in the future."
"No matter how good our military is, military options are always messy," Obama said. "Any armed conflict has cost to it."

Senator Cruz tells 'Post': Obama is degrading the US-Israel relationship

The Obama administration is giving away its leverage with Iran through a bad deal in negotiations in Geneva, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) told a group of congressmen on Thursday afternoon.
This is the time for more sanctions, he said, claiming US President Barack Obama is degrading the US-Israel relationship by grasping for "any deal" it can achieve.

TV Ad Warns: 'Obama's March to War'

Emergency Committee for Israel to run new US TV ad highlighting reasons to doubt Obama's promises to stop a nuclear Iran.

Al-Qaeda-linked rebels apologise after cutting off head of wrong person

Militant Islamist rebels in Syria linked to al-Qaeda have asked for "understanding and forgiveness" for cutting off and putting on display the wrong man's head.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/15/2013 12:00:00 PM