[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 12/25 Links Pt1: Livni: Abbas Sabotaged Peace Process; US aid to PA should not reward terrorists

From Ian:

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Tzipi Livni: Abbas Sabotaged Peace Process

In an interview with Roger Cohen of the NY Times, Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, detailed the events which led to the failure of the most recent talks. Despite the fact that Livni is not a supporter of Prime Minister Netanyahu and felt he was difficult to deal with during the negotiations, she placed the failure of the talks firmly at the feed of Palestinian President Abbas.
According to Livni, the U.S. presented its own framework for a peace plan, Netanyahu agreed to work with it despite his objections but Abbas never gave the U.S. an answer. Things went downhill from there.
On March 17, in a meeting in Washington, President Obama presented Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, with a long-awaited American framework for an agreement that set out the administration's views on major issues, including borders, security, settlements, Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.
Livni considered it a fair framework, and Netanyahu had indicated willingness to proceed on the basis of it while saying he had reservations. But Abbas declined to give an answer in what his senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, later described as a "difficult" meeting with Obama. Abbas remained evasive on the framework, which was never made public.
This, in Livni's view, amounted to an important opportunity missed by the Palestinians, not least because to get Netanyahu's acceptance of a negotiation on the basis of the 1967 borders with agreed-upon swaps — an idea Obama embraced in 2011 — would have indicated a major shift.

Elliott Abrams: US aid to PA should not reward terrorists

The omnibus appropriations bill recently passed by Congress contains an interesting ‎provision regarding the support for terrorists and their families by the Palestinian Authority:‎
"The Secretary of State shall reduce the amount of assistance made available by this Act ‎under the heading 'Economic Support Fund' for the West Bank and Gaza by an amount the ‎Secretary determines is equivalent to that expended by the Palestinian Authority in ‎payments to individuals and the families of such individuals that are imprisoned for acts of ‎terrorism or who died committing such acts during the previous calendar year.‎"
The intent is clear: Congress was aware of the PA's practice of rewarding individuals who ‎had committed acts of terrorism with direct financial support or financial support for their ‎families while they remain in prison. And Congress wants to be sure that aid from the ‎United States isn't paying for this, so for every dollar the PA spends we will reduce aid to the ‎PA by the same amount.‎
Good idea, long overdue -- but the language quoted above won't achieve that goal. First of ‎all, why only acts committed "during the previous calendar year?" Does that mean that ‎payments to someone who committed an act of terrorism two or five or 10 years ago is ‎exempt? Does that clause about "the previous calendar year" modify "imprisoned for acts of ‎terrorism," or "who died committing such acts," or both? Or does it modify all "payments," ‎which would be the logical meaning: The amount of U.S. aid is to be reduced by the amount ‎of all payments made in the prior year? Sloppy, last minute drafting of this provision is the ‎culprit.‎

The UNRWA Shill Game and State Department Compliance

"The goal of U.S. support to UNRWA," according to the State Department Report, "is to ensure that Palestinian refugees live in dignity with an enhanced human development potential until a comprehensive and just solution is secured." In reality, however, UNRWA has assured that the children, grandchildren and all future descendants of Palestinian refugees will remain degraded and humiliated victims of its policy, which has no equivalent for any other refugees in the world – including more than three million Syrians from President Assad's current reign of terror.
The stated goal of State Department largesse toward UNRWA is to "promote the human development of Palestinian refugees by improving living conditions, economic potential, livelihoods, access, and human rights." It pledges to do so "until a just solution is achieved and UNRWA's mandate ends." American taxpayers should not hold their breath. A sixty-five year-old policy of unmonitored generosity to a certified rip-off organization that invents and inflates refugee numbers to justify its shnorring is unlikely to abate in the foreseeable future.
Indeed, as Romirowsky and Joffe indicate, UNRWA in Gaza has become little more than a surrogate for Hamas. During its summer rocket assault against Israel UNRWA schools were storehouses for Hamas rockets while UNRWA employees cheered the murder of Israelis. Belatedly mindful of this travesty, the new State Department Framework states, rather preposterously in light of recent events, that "the United States and UNRWA share concerns about the threat of terrorism." Tunnels beneath and rockets above Israel's borders are not mentioned.
On paper at least, according to impressionable State Department drafters, UNRWA is "committed to taking all possible measures to ensure that funding provided by the United States to support UNRWA is not used to provide assistance to, or otherwise support, terrorists or terrorist organizations." The State Department notes "with appreciation efforts taken by UNRWA during the course of 2014 to strengthen the Agency's neutrality compliance." Gaza is ignored. Romirowsky and Joffe wonder, as anyone might, how the Facebook celebration by UNRWA teachers following the recent murder of four Jerusalem rabbis at prayer in their synagogue meets the standard of "neutrality compliance."

Report: Israeli delegation arrives in Egypt to search for bodies of 22 missing soldiers

An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo early Thursday morning in an attempt to find the remains of 22 soldiers who went missing during Israel's wars in Egypt, sources quoted by the Egyptian media said.
Of the 22 soldiers, 16 went missing during the Yom Kippur War, two during the War of Attrition and four during the Six Day War.
The sources said that the delegation arrived in a Jordanian plane from Amman. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
The visit is the first of its kind since the ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The last such visit took place in February 2010 and the current delegation is expected to renew its search for the soldiers' place of burial in a few separate areas of Egypt.

JPost Editorial: Palestinian elections

It has been seven months since Hamas and Fatah formed a unity government made up of technocrats. This purportedly conciliatory move, coming seven years after Hamas ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip in a bloody revolt and Palestinian leadership was split between Gaza and the West Bank, was supposed to set the stage for, among other things, presidential and legislative elections in the Palestinian Authority.
But while Israel is in the midst of election season, Hamas and Fatah have failed to settle their differences and embark on the democratic process of choosing a political leadership.
The presidential elections that brought Mahmoud Abbas to power took place in 2005. Abbas's four-year term ended in 2009. He has been serving ever since without a democratic mandate from the Palestinian people.
The parliamentary elections, which were won by Hamas, took place in 2006. This was also for a four-year mandate.
In short, parliamentary and presidential elections are long overdue. Failure to hold elections undermines Palestinians' faith in their political leadership. For Israel, PA elections are important because without them any agreement signed with the PA lacks legitimacy.

The LEGAL Israeli Settlements

The inclusion of Jerusalem in the United Nations attacks on Israel is telling. Greater Jerusalem and Greater Bethlehem were planned to be an international "Holy Basin" according to the UN 1947 Partition Plan – neither Arab nor Israeli. After Jordan attacked Israel and seized the eastern half of Jerusalem and annexed it, the United Nations remained silent. The UN issued no declaration against the Jordanian invasion and land grab for the entire period it held the territory through 1967. However, when Israel took control of Jerusalem and annexed it in 1980, the United Nations went on tirades about the illegal nature of Israel's authority. The UN's motions are absurd and duplicitous in granting tacit approval to the Jordanian Arab illegal annexation of Jerusalem and condemning Israel for its annexation. If Jordan's offensive war to take a planned international city was viewed as permissible, how can Israel's defensive war be viewed any less so?
The ongoing dynamic in Jerusalem is also different than the rest of EGL/West Bank since the eastern part of the city was annexed by Israel and all of the residents were offered citizenship (almost all of the Arabs declined and took residency papers instead). As such, clauses in international law about offering citizenship to people are not applicable to the eastern half of Jerusalem (while still relevant in the remainder of EGL/West Bank).
As reviewed above, Israel abides by the global rules of international law relating to Jews living in EGL. However, the United Nations reinterpretation of law solely as it relates to Israel – whether for national movements like Zionism, or for allowing Jews to move and live freely like other peoples in lands they lived in for thousands of years – is not law, but anti-Semitism.

Palestinians ammend UN proposal to include future capital in East Jerusalem

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced that eight amendments were made to the Palestinian proposal which will be submitted to the UN Security Council and calls to set a timetable to end the "Israeli occupation."
One of the central amendments made to the proposal was to emphasize that the future capital of the Palestinian state is to be located in East Jerusalem.

Speculation Growing Over India's Potential Pro-Israel Shift at UN

Speculation that India may end a half-century long pattern of voting against Israel at UN bodies is reaching a feverish pitch, following reports this week that the Palestinians can no longer automatically count on New Delhi's support.
In what The Hindu newspaper described as a potential "tectonic shift in the country's foreign policy," the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the head of the Hindu nationalist BJP party which triumphed in India's election last May, is deliberating over whether to take a more even-handed stance towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Modi visited Israel in 2006 and enjoys a warm relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the change, which will be a fundamental departure from India's support to the cause of a Palestinian state, was under consideration.
"Like other foreign policy issues, the Modi government is looking at India's voting record at the United Nations on the Palestinian issue," a government source told The Hindu. The change only needs an administrative nod, the second source said.

IDF Soldier Wounded From Hamas Sniper Fire in Gaza, Army Responds

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier from the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion was injured Wednesday as Israeli troops on the border with Gaza came under sniper fire from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
"The #IDF soldier suffered a severe chest injury from #Gaza sniper fire, he was evacuated to hospital for further treatment," IDF spokesman Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner tweeted.
"[The] #Hamas sniper attack is an outrageous act of aggression. #IDF will continue to protect its forces & the border area," Lerner added.
The IDF returned fire, killing a terrorist Hamas sources identified as Tayseer Asmairi.

IDF will respond firmly to threats, Gantz vows after Gaza attack

Speaking at a conference organized by the Calcalist financial publication, Gantz said the IDF was continuously assessing the situation and formulating new strategies in order to counter the numerous threats posed to Israel's security.
"The instability in the region regularly characterizes the life of IDF soldiers," the IDF head said at the conference. "We have no intention of allowing these challenges to pass without a response, we responded and will respond strongly if ever required."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later echoed Gantz's statements, vowing to respond firmly to any threat to Israeli civilians.
"Our policy is clear, a strong and determined response against any attempt to breach the peace in the south," the prime minister said in a statement. We will react forcefully whenever there is an attempt to break the quiet which had been reached in the south following Operation Protective Edge."

Hamas Hold Terrorist Pow-Wow over 'Zionist Violations' of Cease-Fire

Gaza's various terrorist factions are meeting in Gaza on Thursday morning, at the bequest of senior Hamas officials, to discuss "Israeli violations of the cease-fire" since the end of this past summer's war, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The meeting follows Wednesday's clash when a Gazan sniper seriously wounded an IDF soldier and the IDF responded with artillery and machine-gun fire. Hamas claimed one of its commanders at a lookout post was killed.
The injured IDF soldier's condition, which was serious, has improved.
Hamas denied that the sniper was "one of theirs" and that the elimination of the Hamas commander is a "dangerous violation of the cease-fire and crosses a red line."

After flare-up, Gaza bolsters security presence along border

Gaza's Hamas rulers bolstered the security presence along the enclave's border Wednesday night, in an effort to keep Palestinians from crossing into Israel, hours after sniper fire from Gaza left an IDF soldier seriously wounded and IDF return fire left a Hamas commander dead.
Gaza Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Buzm said the measure was an effort to prevent Israel from recruiting "collaborators" — Palestinian informants who work with Israeli security agencies, according to the Ma'an Palestinian news agency.
He did not mention the flare-up in the decision, except to say that the situation in the Strip was stable despite difficult circumstances.

IDF troops find arms cache in northern West Bank

IDF soldiers arrested seven suspected terror operatives and uncovered a major arms cache in the northern West Bank early Thursday.
In a joint operation by the Paratroopers and Kfir brigades, joined by special forces, in the Nablus area, soldiers found two handguns, an M-16 assault rifle, an Uzi submachine gun, a Kalashnikov rifle, an improvised firearm and eight pipe bombs.
A significant amount of cash belonging to terror organizations was also confiscated in the operation, the army said.
Three other Palestinian suspects were arrested elsewhere in the West Bank overnight Wednesday.
Two were arrested in Jilazoun, a village north of Ramallah, while the third, a reported Hamas operative, was arrested in Hebron.

Committee approves 243 new housing units across Green Line

The local Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee approved construction permits for 243 housing units in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot. This marked the final procedural step before construction will begin.
The committee also approved requests submitted by developers for construction easements for 270 housing units in Ramot and Har Homa. The purpose of the easements was to increase planning flexibility for projects that were already approved, the Jerusalem Municipality said.
In response to the customary criticism of construction across the Green Line (the pre-1967 armistice line with Jordan), the Jerusalem Municipality said, "There is no change in the policy of the municipality in recent years and we will continue to build in all neighborhoods of the city, for Jews and Arabs alike, according to the master plan. In the coming years, it is expected tens of thousands of housing units will be built in all sectors of the city. New construction in Jerusalem is essential for the city's development and for allowing young people and students to live here and buy an apartment."

Medal of Courage for Lt. Eitan, Hero of Protective Edge

A special committee reviewing the long list of heroic acts by IDF soldiers during Operation Protective Edge has decided to award the Medal of Courage - the second most prestigious award - to Givati Brigade Deputy Commander "Eitan," who entered a Hamas terror tunnel in August in pursuit of the abductors of Lt. Hadar Goldin, hy"d.
According to Channel 2, the Medal of Courage is awarded to a "feat by a combat soldier at the risk of his or her life."
The committee is also due to dole out four other prestigious medals, 12 citations from the Chief of Staff, and 27 medals from Southern Command Chief Sami Turgeman. Twelve medals will also be given to entire combat units.
IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gants will review the recommendations, and if and when he approves them he will personally award the honorees before retiring from office in 2015.
Eitan may not be so keen on accepting the medal, however.
"I don't want a medal; I'm no hero," Lt. Eitan stated in a Yediot Aharonot interview in August. "If not me, someone else would have done it."
"This is not some kind of heroic feat," he continued. "This is the essence of being a combat soldier, of being a commander."

Michael Oren, Israel's Former Envoy to US, Joins New Israeli Political Party

Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States from 2009-13 as well as a noted historian and author, has joined the new Kulanu political party led by former Israeli communications minister Moshe Kahlon.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv, Kahlon said that the American-born Oren is the right man to fix both Israel's image problem abroad and its frayed relationship with key allies like the U.S.
"Unfortunately, allies of Israel are distancing themselves and our relations aren't what they were in the past," Kahlon said, The Jerusalem Post reported. "Michael Oren is the right person to handle this responsibility. He proved that even when there are disagreements, he can maintain close ties. Michael is the best in his field."
Oren is the author of several best-selling books, including Power, Faith, and Fantasy and Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.
"Israel is at a critical junction," Oren said. "I couldn't look from the side and do nothing when Israel is under diplomatic attack."

Zoabi files police complaint over animated Danon campaign video

Balad MK Haneen Zoabi issued a complaint to Northern District Police on Thursday, accusing Likud MK Danny Danon of incitement for an animated campaign video in which he is depicted as an Old West sheriff locking up the criminal Zoabi.
In the YouTube clip for Danon, who is running against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the December 31 Likud primary election, Zoabi is called a supporter of Israeli killers and mocked for sailing on the Mavi Marmara - all to the tune of the 19th century American minstrel song, "Oh Susanna," which becomes "Oh Zoabi" in the video.
Danon kicks Zoabi on to the ground through the doors of a saloon and is portrayed as "the real right-wing" who will "bring the old Likud back."
Danon said in response to Zoabi's incitement complaint with the police: "A person who serves as the Hamas representative in the Israeli Knesset should be sitting in jail and not preaching on the subject of incitement and freedom of expression."

Israelites Sue GPS Provider For Faulty Wilderness Directions (satire)

Kadesh Barnea, Sinai Wilderness, December 25 – The twelve tribes of Israel have filed a lawsuit in district court over what they claim is negligent behavior on the part of their Global Positioning System provider, accusing the company of causing them to wander aimlessly in the desert for decades.
Israelite Nation v. Moreh Derech, Ltd. names the company and its senior management figures individually, charging that they knowingly and carelessly provided mapping and guidance that failed to offer a clear or navigable route to the land of Canaan. Instead of taking slightly less than two weeks to traverse the area between Mt. Horeb and the southernmost extent of the Promised Land, as promised, the Israelites claim they were forced to spend nearly thirty-eight years camped in one spot before proceeding, and even then they were taken on a circuitous route around the eastern edge of the land.
The plaintiffs seek an unspecified amount in damages and compensation for emotional distress, plus the dismissal of the executives named in the lawsuit and a court order barring the company from conducting activities in the realm of guidance or mapping systems.
"The initial detour around the land of the Philistines was understandable, and in fact travel into the Sinai Desert led the plaintiffs to direct revelation from the Almighty," notes a friend-of-the-court brief filed by Joshua Nunson, Esq. "However, subsequent portions of the journey were characterized largely by confusion, thanks primarily to the ambiguous or discouraging portrayal of the route." Though it does not call for criminal charges, the suit also claims that Israelite casualties inflicted by Canaanite forces at Horma would never have occurred had the GPS guided them around those enemy positions.

Bodies of Har Nof terrorists returned to families, buried in West Bank

The Israeli government on Thursday returned the corpses of the two terrorists who carried out November's Har Nof massacre, resulting in the brutal murders of five men.
A court order denied cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal of Jabel Mukaber burial rights in Jerusalem, and only 40 people were permitted to attend their West Bank funerals in the village of Arab a-Saharra, Palestinian media reported.
The five fatalities included Har Nof residents Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 68, Rabbi Kalman Ze'ev Levine, 55, Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, and Druse Border Police officer Zidan Saif, 30, of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee.
Two days after the attack, a video posted by an Arab news organization showed the mother of Uday Abu Jamal praising her son and his cousin for the murders, Israel media reported.
Following the massacre, the wife and three children of Ghassan Muhammad Abu Jamal were stripped of their state-sponsored health-care benefits after the Israeli government announced it would deport the killer's family and demolish their home.

Abbas congratulates Chile's 'Palestino' soccer team

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Chilean soccer club "Palestino" for qualifying for the regional South American Cup this week.
"On behalf of all Palestinians worldwide, I want to thank you for this joy that you gave us in this special moment when we are in a diplomatic struggle to finally achieving freedom, justice and peace like other peoples in the world," wrote Abbas in a letter that the club received on Monday.
The Palestinian community in Chile is believed to be the largest outside of the Middle East. At least 300,000 Chileans are of Palestinian descent, according to reports.
The club from Chile secured a place in the "Libertadores de America" Cup after beating Wonderes 6-1 last Sunday. The team will face Uruguayan team Nacional in its first match of the regional tournament in 2015.

Russia approves draft deal to build nuclear plant in Jordan

Jordan announced a tender for the construction of its first nuclear-powered electricity plant in January 2011. In October 2013, Russia's Rosatom was named as a contender of choice for the construction of a nuclear plant of two energy units with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts each.
One unit is expected to be operational by 2024, and the second one by 2026.
The state-owned company will form a joint venture with the Jordanian government, in which the Russian company will have 49.9 percent of the shares and Jordan will own 50.1%. The agreement will be financed by investments from both parties.

ISIS Publishes Punitive Rules Christians Must Follow in Return For Their Lives Under Caliphate

The rules given are arbitrary and oppressive, and in most cases should be followed on pain of death. Any form of public worship and even prayers within earshot of a Muslim are banned: it is not allowed for Christians to "raise their voices when praying or in other acts of worship". Although what churches remain can continue to be used, building new ones or repairing those damaged over the course of the conflict is forbidden.
Translated, the rules equate to:
- No public worship
- No treachery against ISIS
- No church construction or repairs
- Do not display crosses in Muslim areas or markets
- Praying must be done quietly and should never be heard by Muslims
- No mockery of Muslims or Islam
- Do not prevent others from converting to Islam
The Times newspaper today reports an impending "wipeout" of Christianity in the Middle East, as tens of thousands are murdered, converted, or flee abroad from persecution. 130,000 Christians have fled Mosul, the second city of Iraq, an area where churches have been demolished and Christian property and people confiscated.

PKK hopes to leave terror lists with fight against Islamic State

A senior official from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said that he hopes his group's participation in the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition would result in it being removed from countries' terrorist lists.
Cemil Bayik, co-founder of the PKK, told The Guardian in a report published on Wednesday that the terrorist label was a "great injustice" and that its fight against Islamic State demonstrates that it was mistaken.
The PKK, which the US and other Western countries designate as a terrorist organization, is fighting on their side against Islamic State.
"The international coalition's dealings with the PKK have been conducted through intermediaries and have remained secret," Bayik said.

Jordan vows 'all efforts' to save pilot from Islamic State

Jordan vowed Thursday to make every effort to save a pilot captured by the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria as Washington denied claims the jihadists shot his warplane out of the sky.
Maaz al-Kassasbeh, a 26-year-old first lieutenant in the Jordanian air force, was captured by IS on Wednesday after his F-16 jet crashed while on a mission against the jihadists over northern Syria.
It was the first warplane lost and the first capture of a serviceman since the coalition launched strikes against IS in Syria in September.
It was also a major propaganda victory for the Sunni extremist group, which released several photographs parading the captured pilot.

US rejects claim Islamic State shot down Jordanian jet

The United States dismissed Wednesday a claim by the Islamic State jihadist group that it had shot down a Jordanian F-16 fighter flying with US-led coalition forces, which crashed in eastern Syria.
"Evidence clearly indicates that [the Islamic State] did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming," said US Central Command, the body overseeing the coalition air war over Iraq and Syria.
The statement did not give a cause for the "crash," and confirmed the lost jet's Jordanian pilot had been taken captive by IS guerrillas.
"We strongly condemn the actions of [the Islamic State], which has taken captive the downed pilot," said CentCom commander General Lloyd Austin.

Iran touts 'drug addict radar'

An Iranian scientist claimed this week that he had invented a radar system which can detect drug addicts from nearly a mile away, and measure the level of narcotics flooding their system.
According to the Iranian Mehr news agency, the system was designed to identify explosives and bodies buried under rubble, as well as alcohol and drugs.
Scientist Seyed Ali Hosseini told the news agency on Tuesday that the technology can locate drug addicts from 1,500 meters (0.9 miles away). He said the "radar tracker was designed and built to detect drugs, explosives, bodies alive and dead under the rubble, addictive drugs and alcoholic beverages."
The system "can be applied by the police, border guards, security agents and during unexpected accidents and disasters," he added.

Turkish teen arrested for 'insulting' the president

A 16-year-old high school student has been arrested in central Turkey for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by accusing him and his ruling party of corruption, local media reported on Thursday.
The young boy, identified by his initials MEA, was believed to be a member of a leftist organization, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
He was delivering a speech on Wednesday in the central Anatolian city of Konya, a bastion of Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), in memory of a young secular teacher killed by Islamists in 1930, according to the newspaper.
The boy is now facing up to four years in prison if convicted on the charge.

More Than 180 Migrant Workers In Qatar Killed In Past Year While Building World Cup Stadiums

Nepalese migrant workers charged with building venues for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar died at a rate of one every two days this year, according to a report in The Guardian:
"Human rights organisations have accused Qatar of dragging its feet on the modest [workplace safety] reforms [it has promised], saying not enough is being done to investigate the effect of working long hours in temperatures that regularly top 50C.
The Nepalese foreign employment promotion board said 157 of its workers in Qatar had died between January and mid-November this year – 67 of sudden cardiac arrest and eight of heart attacks. Thirty-four deaths were recorded as workplace accidents.
Figures sourced separately by the Guardian from Nepalese authorities suggest the total during that period could be as high as 188. In 2013, the figure from January to mid-November was 168."
The Guardian's report only focused on migrants from Nepal, "raising fears that if fatalities among all migrants were taken into account the toll would almost certainly be more than one a day."

Mordechai Kedar: The Genie, the Bottle and Those Who Took Charge

The former Emir of Qatar was just like Aladdin. He found a gas well in the Persian Gulf that made the Emirate of Qatar rich and turned it into a world class financial power. But finance did not satisfy the power-hungry Emir, who wanted influence and control as well, finding it by way of the al Jazeera Media Network he established in 1996, a broadcasting outlet that granted him the ability to control the rulers of Arab countries through information about them – both true and false – that he spread via the media. The embarrassing revelations about these rulers made al Jazeera the most watched network in the world.
That, too, was not enough for the Emir. He wanted to overthrow Arab regimes, and after being instruted by Sheikh Dr. Yusef Al Karadawi, his goal became to advance the Muslim Brotherhood to a position of control. The Brotherhood is not a social welfare organization, it is an ideological hothouse for violence, terror and Jihad, and has spawned all the Sunni terror organizations including Hamas, Egyptian and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Jabhat al Nusra, Anṣār Bayt al-Maqdis, al Qaeda and Islamic State. Arab rulers have known for years that Qatar encourages and finances anti-establishment organizations that have a political-religious cast, those that intend to take over the regimes in every one of the Arab states.
As long as Qatar's efforts to undermine Arab rulers did not bear fruit, the regimes allowed the Emirate to act from within their countries, figuring that their bark is worse than their bite. But ever since the bloodbath known as the "Arab Spring" began, it has slowly entered their collective consciousness that the cause of this whole "Spring" – more aptly named "Hell" – was Qatar, its Emir, its money and the al Jazeera network. More and more people began openly blaming Qatar for creating the present situation by encouraging terror in the media and by the massive sums with which it funded the struggles against rulers supported by the West. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/25/2014 12:00:00 PM